108 H. P. STEENSBY. 
liarity, or a custom, which otherwise is only heard of from the western 
Eskimo consisted in the men eating together in a snow house to which 
no women were allowed admittance. 
During later years, as already mentioned, there has been some more 
intercourse with the whalers. It is Captain CoMERr’s opinion that the 
southernmost Eskimo tribe on the west side of Hudson Bay is called 
Sauniktumiut, and lives to the south and west of Chesterfield Inlet. 
This tribe ‘depends almost wholly on the caribou for food and clothing, 
while sea-mammals are hardly used at all. They also hunt musk oxen.” 
As regards the Kinipetu Eskimo at Chesterfield Inlet, Comer says that they, 
also, make little use of sea-mammals, but subsist principally on caribou 
and musk ox. During autumn and winter salmon are caught in the lakes 
with fishing-harpoons, which are handled through holes made in the ice. 
The Eskimo around Netchillik :. 
The region which is here designated Netchillik is in the main identical 
with the islands and coasts which are situated in and around the estuary 
of the Back River and its continuation in Ross Strait between Boothia 
and King William Land, and Simpson Strait between the latter and the 
Adelaide Peninsula. The word Netchillik means a land where the Ringed 
Seal lives, and is used especially regarding a locality on the Boothia Isthmus, 
where, among the Eskimo, the word indicates not only the land, but also 
a sea and a river, and where one of the most numerous Eskimo groups 
of the region has its favourite place of residence. To Netchillik, in its 
widest sense, must in addition be reckoned the east coast of Boothia 
Isthmus. that district belonging to the Netchillik-Eskimo’s hunting grounds. 
The first European to visit the region in question was Joux Ross, who, in 
his ship “Victory” passed the winter on the east coast of Boothia Isthmus, 
and during spring and summer in 1830 and 1831 was frequently visited by 
the Eskimo. In 1833 Back came from the south along the river which now 
bears his name, and turned back at Point Ogle (95° W. long. and 68° N. lat.). 
The year after, the same point was reached by sea, from the west, by 
SIMPSON. In the summer of 1847 the east coast of Boothia Isthmus was 
visited by JoHN RAE, who had wintered at Fort Hope in Repulse Bay. In 
September 1846 the ships belonging to the unfortunate Franklin Expedition 
were beset in Victoria Strait in about 70° М. lat., and in April 1848 they 
were abandoned a few more minutes to the south. The officers and crew, 
105 souls in all, tried along the west coast of King William Land and 
across Simpson Strait to reach Back River, in order to make their way 
along this to inhabited districts, but on the way and before reaching 
1 AMUNDSEN; Back; Boas, II and VIII; Gitper; Hatı, I; Kine; KLUTSCHAK; 
Mc. CLintTock; С. Petersen; RAE, [; J. Ross, I; Sımpson. Cf. StEENSBy, I, 
рр. 89—99. 
