Section II, 18S1. [ 99 1 Teans. Eoy. Soc. Canada. 



VII. — On the Indians and Eskimos of the Ungava District, Labrador. 



By Lucien M. Turner, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 

 (Presented by Dr. Robert Bell, May 25, 1887.) 



I. — Native Inhabitants. 



The native inhabitants of the Ungava district belong to two peoples widely separated 

 in speech and in customs. Their characteristics will be treated of briefly, however interest- 

 ing may be the subject. They are the Indians and Eskimos ; and for the purposes of this 

 paper, the term Innuit will be employed to include those only who have hitherto been 

 denominated as " Eskimo " — an appellation based upon an erroneous conception of facts, 

 presented to those who first bestowed that name upon a race who neither recognise it 

 among themselves nor understand it when applied by others. The Innuit will be consi- 

 dered first, as they are the more numerous. They are clearly referable to four subdivi- 

 sions, and as one of them, the Kigukhtagmyut, i.e. the Innuit inhabiting the islets near 

 the eastern shore of Hudson Bay, have no direct relation with the affairs of the Ungava 

 district, the meagre information gleaned concerning them will be omitted. 



1. — The Innuit. 



The Itivimyut. — The Innuit, included in the term Itivimyul, dwell along the main- 

 laud shore of the east side of Hudson Bay, from latitude 54° to 61° — the district in which 

 they are to be found in greatest numbers lying between latitudes 58° and 60°. 



The Innuit is precise in his terms denoting locality or place, and the name of this 

 people is derived from the fact that they dwell on the other side of a portion of land, in 

 this instance, the mainland ; and the expression to denote that side, in contradistinction to 

 this side, is itivuk or itivik ; hence, the name Itivimyut, " or people of that side of the 

 mainland." 



The character of the country in which they dwell is rough and hilly in the southern 

 part, low and swampy in the centre, and hilly towards the extreme north. The central 

 part opens into an immense tract of low land, consisting of an almost boundless swamp, 

 scarcely diversified by slight eminences, but intersected by innumerable, sluggish streams, 

 which flow to the south-west and to the north-east. After the spring thaw the area may 

 be said to be navigable, so great is the depth of the water upon it. It is then a resort of 

 waterfowl, which are imapproachable because of the character of the tract. In the winter 

 it is traversable, and the ItiA'imyut travel thither to obtain the barren-ground reindeer, 

 which repair there only at that season. Their larger relatives, the woodland reindeer, 

 never visit that locality. 



