IX 



PREFACE. 



The following account of the life of the Labrador Eskimo 

 is the result of a trip undertaken in the season of 1914 to the 

 coasts of Labrador, for the Geological Survey of Canada. As 

 the author had already an intimate knowledge of the general 

 culture of the Eskimo from a three years' residence among them 

 in Alaska, an attempt was made to cover as much territory as 

 possible, so as to get a comprehensive view of the culture of the 

 Eskimo of the entire coast of the Labrador peninsula, and to note 

 its variations from other sections. With this end in view, the 

 early part of the summer was spent in Sandwich bay and Hamil- 

 ton inlet, in an endeavour to ascertain the southern limit of 

 the Labrador Eskimo, and the remainder of the summer and 

 autumn in company with the Carnegie Magnetic Expedition 1 

 which continued up the coast as far as Cape Chidley, and then 

 visited both sides of Hudson strait, and the east coast of Hudson 

 bay as far south as Cape Dufferin. This completed the circuit 

 of the Labrador peninsula. The west coast of Hudson bay, 

 between Port Churchill and Chesterfield inlet, was also visited, 

 as well as several islands in the bay. A considerable ethnological 

 and archaeological collection was obtained from these districts. 



This paper does not attempt to offer a complete ethnology 

 of the Labrador Eskimo, but to bring out the main facts of their 

 life, and particularly those differences which mark them off 

 as a separate division of the Eskimo world. After all, the 

 ethnological divisions of the Eskimo are geographical rather 

 than cultural. The author has drawn on his own experience 

 for comparisons with the western Eskimo and on standard 

 authors for other sections. 



The ethnological literature on the Labrador Eskimo is 

 scanty and devoted to sections of Labrador rather than to the 

 Eskimo of the Labrador peninsula as a whole. Turner's inter- 

 esting account is limited to Ungava; the Moravian writers have 

 given us some descriptions of Eskimo life on the east coast, 



'Thanks are due to Captain Peters, leader of the expedition, for many courtesies. 



