16 



found from Hopes Advance to the Hudson's Bay Company 

 post at Cape Wolstenholme. 



The west coast of the Labrador peninsula or the east coast 

 of Hudson bay presents a complete contrast to the Ungava 

 and Atlantic seaboard. The bold precipitous coasts give way 

 to low-lying shores of limestone. Deep inlets, abounding in 

 waterfowl, are replaced by shoal and barren waters, where 

 numerous groups of infinitesimal islands, nicknamed the "Sleep- 

 ers," render navigation difficult. Good harbours are few and 

 far between. The only inlets on this coast are Richmond 

 gulf and Mosquito bay. Here a few Eskimo are found scattered 

 along the desolate shore. The main body of the population 

 is between Cape Smith and Cape Wolstenholme. In summer 

 the Eskimo fish in the rivers, or visit the large islands off the 

 coast, where game, being only hunted at irregular perious, 

 abounds. 1 



Remains of old villages and hunting camps, found on 

 Mansel, Nottingham, Coats, and Southampton islands, form 

 convincing evidence of a former population of considerable 

 size; but the Eskimo are extinct now, and the islands rarely 

 visited, except for hunting purposes. The Belcher islands, at 

 the foot of the bay, are still inhabited by a wild tribe who visit 

 the Hudson's Bay Company post at Great Whale river annually. 

 They are said to retain the bird-skin clothing and stone imple- 

 ments of the early Labrador Eskimo. 2 



ANCIENT DISTRIBUTION OF ESKIMO. 



When first discovered by the French, the Eskimo inhabited 

 the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far west as Mingan. 

 They were driven from this locality at the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century by the Montagnais Indians, who had been 



1 In the summer of 1914, when the author landed on Coats island, near an old Eskimo 

 camp, the game was so tame that it refused to move until shot at. Two polar bears were 

 sleeping on opposite hills within a quarter of a mile of the village, and a herd of caribou was 

 feeding peacefully nearby. 



The Hudson's Bay Company put a party of Eskimo on Nottingham island last autumn 

 and a whaling captain placed another party on Southampton island to take advantage of this 

 unusual game supply. 



2 C. H. and A. T. Leith, A summer and winter in Hudson bay, Madison, 1912. 



