INNUITS OF OUR AECTIC COAST. 133 



found tliat the harbmir on Marble island afforded an opportunity for wintering whaling 

 ships, with two months longer of fishing and a winter's trading with the Eskimo, it was not 

 difficiilt to predict the speedy destruction of the whale, walrus and seal. The whale especially 

 had little chance of escape, as the homh-lance fired from a swivel gun deprived him of even 

 the little chance he had against the ordinary harpoon and coiled line, and killed him from a 

 distance with scarcely a chance for his usual final flurry. The valualile whales of the bay 

 were thus destroyed or driven northwards to channels so ice-blocked that ships could not 

 piirsue them, the walrus and the seal were hunted till they too almost disappeared, forcing 

 the Eskimo northward in pursuit of the remnant and rendering their domestication and 

 civilization within reachable distances of Moose and Churchill mission stations almost an 

 impossibility. 



What has been done in Hudson's Bay is now being done at the mouth of the great 

 Mackenzie River. The sealing and whaling fleet which annually entered the arctic haunts 

 of these valuable contributors to the whalebone, spermaceti and oil of commerce found the 

 season too short to eftect their purpose, and that the best fishing grounds were oft'the mouths 

 of the great rivers farthest away from the straits, where the spring floods of southern waters 

 had pushed back or melted the permanent arctic ice, and so when it was discovered a few 

 years ago that Herchel Island afforded near the best fishing grounds, even a better harbour 

 than that of Marble Island in Huilson's Bay, American whalers annually took up their winter 

 quarters and though the field is wider the same destruction is going on. 



Years ago, that devoted missionary, Bishop Dr. Bompas, had sought out in their houses 

 and tents on the arctic coasts the Eskimo of the Mackenzie River region and rejoiced to 

 think that he might be able, before they came much in contact with the whites, to embrace 

 them in his regular mission work. The hope was a vain one, for when his successor in this 

 far-oft' arctic and sub-arctic diocese, Dr. Reeve, with commendable energy sent a missionary 

 to them he found their coast occupied by four wintering whalers, whose evasions of the 

 revenue laws of Canada give good grounds for the truthfulness of the reports of the supjjly 

 by them to the Eskimo of spirits, arms and fixed ammunition in direct violation of those 

 wise enactments of the Dominion legislature which have tended so much to the peace and 

 prosperity of the Canadian Indians of the northwest. 



Many years ago the good Bishop of Moosinee wrote : " A whale fishery (the small 

 " white variety) when the whales are numerous, is a very exciting sight. The Eskimo give 

 " much cause for encouragement ; no matter what they were about when summoned to 

 " school or service their work was dropped instantly, their little books taken up, ami oft' 

 " they went, singing, listening, praying, they showed that they were thoroughly in earnest." 

 Similar but later accounts have come to us from the northwestern Canadian arctic coast, 

 but all the eftbrts of the missionaries, all the prayers of those who send them, will be needed 

 to oftset the taste for liquor, the debauchery and crime which will be the legacy of the foreign 

 whaling occupation of our western arctic sea-coast. 



And now, what of their future ? Contact with the whites has already brought to many 

 of them enfeebled frames, many new wants and no real increase in their comfort or happiness 

 in any way. 'No Eui-opean fabric has taken or can take the place of the dress which is so 

 fitted to their needs ; they may, it is true, kill their game from a greater distance with the 

 arms and gunpowder of the stranger, but in doing this they lose the skill which has made 

 them the most expert single boatmen of the world, and the seal alwavs, and their other game 



