258 



On the other hand, the stay of the whalers in the North Water 

 has always been so short, that they have never come into such 

 close contact with the Polar Eskimos as, for example, with the 

 Eskimo tribe at Ponds Inlet, who to some extent have taken 

 part in the whale-fishing. 



Fortunately, the Enghsh and Scottish whalers have never 

 adopted the methods employed by the American whalers in 

 Hudson Strait and in Hudson Bay. These latter, namely, em- 

 ploy the Eskimos to man their whaling-boats and for this pur- 

 pose carry away whole, small tribes to the fishing-grounds, to 

 exploit their powers and cleverness throughout the summer. 

 On the other hand, the English and Scotch depend wholly upon 

 their own white crew to man their boats. 



The introduction of steam-power on the whaling vessels. 

 in the fifties or sixties, gave a fresh impetus to the whale-fishery 

 and for the Polar Eskimos this meant a closer connection with 

 civilisation. Almost at the same time the whole of the fishery 

 in Baffin Bay passed over into the hands of the Scotch alone, 

 who came from a single port, namely Dundee. From there 

 about half a score of vessels went yearly in the seventies to 

 Baffin Bay, but in 1903 and 1904 only 4 vessels went out and 

 in 1909, it is said that only a single vessel visited Baffins Bay. 



The Polar Eskimos had no connection with the scientific 

 expeditions for a long period of years after their discovery. It 

 was only during the expeditions in search of Franklin that they 

 became better known. The ship "North Star" under the ship- 

 master Saunders, which was sent out in 1849 with provisions 

 for James C. Ross' Search Expedition in Barrow Strait, was 

 prevented by ice from entering Lancaster Sound and had to 

 pass the winter of 1849—50 in the small North Star Bay on 

 the south side of Wolstenholm Sound. 



In the middle of August 1850 the two large English exped- 

 itions under H. Austin and William Penny both came into 

 connection with the Polar Eskimos at Cape York. The last- 



