100 H. P. STEENSBY. 
above have the greatest intercourse with each other reciprocally, while they 
but rarelv come into contact with their kinsmen from the north and east 
coasts of Baffin Land and from Boothia. Lyon found, that there were a 
few Eskimo only, who had not stayed at both the settlements mentioned 
above and at the third chief settlement of the tribe, Nuvuk or Wager 
River. At its winter stations at Winter Island — north of the mouth of 
Lyon Inlet — and at Iglulik the Expedition came into contact with almost 
every Eskimo between Nuvuk and Iglulik, and they were all found to be 
connected either by ties of blood or by marriage, wherefore Lyon has no 
hesitation in treating them collectively. Now and then they come into 
contact with more distant groups of Eskimo. Thus, we may mention the 
Eskimo Boas heard tell of as living in the north-eastern part of Fox 
basin, the Baffinlanders from Eclipse Sound and Ponds Inlet, whither the 
Tgluik Eskimo travelled across the country in 10 days, and whence they 
now fetch some of their European goods, the inhabitants of the Boothia 
peninsula, and the inland tribe Kinipetu, west of Chesterfield Inlet, whom, 
at any rate in more recent times, they used to meet at the whaling station 
on the Marble Island. Regarding the Eskimo on Southampton Island who 
did not trade with the whalers the Eivillik Eskimo knew very little, and 
they appeared never to have come into contact with them. To judge from 
the Eskimo maps published and mentioned by Parry and Lyon, the tribe 
in question knew of scarcely ‘anything but Fury and Hecla Strait and the 
whole of the east coast of the Melville peninsula, with its southern indenta- 
tions. Of the west coast only a part was known, as it was rarely visited, 
because, according to Eskimo report, though there certainly were Polar bears 
and seals yet there were no whales or walruses. Southwards, it is difficult 
to decide the extent of the tribe’s pristine knowledge of the country, 
because its members had long been in the habit of making trading journeys 
on the ice as far as Fort Churchill. Provided the map published by Haut, 
which was drawn by an Eskimo at Repulse Bay in 1865, can be taken as 
a standard by which to judge the tribe’s geographical knowledge, then this 
extends from Fort Churchill to Lancaster Sound. All which lies east and 
west of this coast line, with the exception of Rae Isthmus, is unknown or 
wrongly comprehended. The fact that the coast of Greenland is found on 
the map indicates however the intermixture of something recollected from 
European maps. The area within which the tribe travels about and hunts 
may be defined then as including solely the east coast of the Melville 
peninsula from Fury and Hecla Strait to Wager River, and Rae Isthmus 
as far as the south-east end of Committee Bay. 
The Melville peninsula, which mainly consists of a range of granite 
hills merging towards the east into a silurian plain, has generally a low coast, 
with the exception of the indentations under the Arctic Circle, where the 
primitive rock appears and forms higher shores. On the other hand, 
at Fury and Hecla Strait the limestone is predominant, and the island of 
Iglulik consists of a slate-like limestone, and should be regarded as “an 
