108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



means " no good." I went over to the igloo and found that the 

 youngster had, after weeks of starvation, eaten enough for two or 

 three boys ; he died a few minutes after I arrived. No one seemed 

 to care ; another boy took the body on his back, carried it back 

 about a quarter of a mile, put it down and covered it up with 

 stones. 



Towards the end of May, at a distance of about two miles from my 

 house, was a snow igloo in which resided an old man and his wife, a 

 son and his wife, a sister and three children. This was the poorest 

 family I ever knew ; their worldly possessions consisted of the 

 clothes they wore, a rusty gun — half the bam-el had been cut off — 

 only a few charges of powder and shot, two tin-pails, one of which 

 had a hole in it, and a few dirty deer-skins for bedding. They literally 

 had nothing to eat. On May 1 9th the young man and his wife were 

 out on some rocks on a shoal about three miles out in the Straits, 

 gathering sea-weed, which they often eat when food is scai-ce ; it was 

 low water at the time, and a large block of ice which had been left 

 high and dry by the tide fell on them. The woman was crushed to 

 pieces and the man fearfully bruised. I heard of the accident, and 

 with one of my men and some of the women from the neighborhood, 

 went to the scene of the disaster ; the man was moaning piteously, 

 and lying just where he had been thrown down. The tide was rising, 

 and now partially covered the remains of the woman. Some women 

 and children were sitting about wondering, I presume, what ought to 

 be done, but doing nothing. I put the invalid on a sleigh and told 

 some of the girls to pull him to his igloo while I went home for some 

 bandages. Off they started in one direction, I in another, old women 

 accompanying me. When about a quarter of a mile apart I heard 

 the girls calling, and leaving the sleigh on which the man was lying 

 moaning in agony, they came leisurely towards us ; it turned out 

 they wanted a pinch of snuff from one of the older women, who had 

 a good supply. This showed me how devoid these people are of all 

 sense of feeling for the misfortunes and suffering of their neighbors. 



Sixteen deaths occurred among our neighbors during the spring, 

 and I believe that fully thirteen were caused by starvation. 



By the second week in June we had fully 150 natives living within 

 half a mile of the house ; they bothered us very much ; they insisted 

 on peering in at the windows ; it was very annoying having half a 

 dozen dusky faces at each window. We had long since been short of 



