small communities over this area, we will divide them into two 

 parts, the Eastern and the Western, separated by Cape Bathurst, 

 at about the central point of the continental coast, between 

 Hudson's Bay and Bering's Strait. The Eastern groups would 

 comprise the Greenlanders, the Labradorians and the Central 

 tribes. The Western would include the Mackenzie River tribes, the 

 Extreme Western or Alaska tribes, and finally the Asiatic Eskimo. 

 The intercourse between these head groups is very slight, 

 being restricted to the immediate neighbours on either side, and 

 then only to certain times of the year. As regards intercourse 

 generally between the tribes or communities of each group, 

 hunting excursions , or migratory expeditions will occasinally 

 lead families or individuals to undertake relatively long voyages, 

 and in this way enable them to acquire a knowledge of other 

 inhabited parts within a distance of two hundred miles or more 

 on either side of their usual winter station. But howsoever 

 migration and removing of their settlements occasionally still 

 may be continued, the Eskimo regions may tolerably well be 

 considered as divided into territories now taken in possession 

 by their different small tribes or communities. Certainly it was 

 an exaggeration when an eminent arctic explorer asserted that 

 the Eskimo of Smith's Sound believed themselves to be the only 

 human beings that existed, but as a rule it may be maintained, 

 that within the borders of a group many of the communities 

 or small tribes know but very little about each other and as 

 good as nothing about people of the next group. 



The comparatively insignificant differences of language that 

 have been met with among so widely dispersed and isolated 

 tribes have often been mentioned. In order to more exactly 

 ascertain the bounds of this similarity of dialects , the writer 

 has compiled a comparative glossary classifying the words 

 according to the ideas or objects to which they relate. This 

 essay, in a concise form will be given in the present volume. 

 First we will call attention to that part of it which should serve 



