140 cruise OF THE NEPTUNE 
education is spreading rapidly. A good example is found in 
the natives on the northwest coast of Hudson bay, several of 
whom have learned to read from the Big island natives on the 
Scotch Whaler, who were in turn instructed by visiting Eskimos 
from Cumberland gulf. 
The Eskimos of the east side of Hudson bay and of the 
Belcher islands annually come under the teaching of the mis- 
sionary at Great Whale river, and have to a great extent 
abandoned the practice of old customs and beliefs. The only 
custom that they cling tenaciously to is that relating to 
polygamy. 
The Eskimos of the Atlantic coast, under the control of the 
Moravians, number nearly 1,000 persons. Those at Nachvak 
and Cape Chidley do not exceed fifty. A few families occupy 
the coast of Ungava bay from Cape Chidley to the mouth of 
Koksoak river; these are engaged, during the summer, fishing 
for salmon in the mouths of George and Whale rivers, there 
being about a half-dozen families at each place. In 1893 there 
were fifty-one families scattered along the shores of Ungava bay 
from Cape Chidley to Cape Hopes Advance. Along the south 
shore of Hudson strait, from Cape Hopes Advance to Cape 
Weggs, live some thirty families, while to the westward of these, 
as far as Cape wolstenholme there are about seventy-five 
natives living on the coast, principally in the neighbourhood of 
Deception and Sugluk bays and near Cape Wolstenholme. 
About one hundred more, not included in the above, live inland 
and trade at Fort Chimo. 
The western Eskimos, who trade at Great Whale river, 
number about eighty families, including a dozen families from 
the Belcher islands, together with a few living about Fort 
George and on the islands of James bay. 
Allowing four or five as the size of the average family, the 
total Eskimo population in the Labrador peninsula amounts to 
