178 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 



delight, the sails flapped loosely in the wind, then in a 

 moment were refilled by the strong breeze and the boat 

 swept in toward us. 



The appearance of a sail-boat in Chesterfield Inlet, 

 and especially at this late season of the year, puzzled us 

 much, and as it drew nearer we watched it intently. It 

 had the appearance of being a large whale-boat, and was 

 evidently well manned, but by whom we could not tell. 

 Whoever they might be, perhaps they could be hired to 

 take us down the coast of the Bay to Churchill, and if 

 so we might be saved weeks of hard travel on a very 

 exposed and dangerous coast. We sincerely hoped that 

 the strange mariners, or at least their boat, might be 

 available for the voyage. When they had approached 

 sufficiently near we could see that there were Eskimos 

 on board, and a moment later their anchor was cast out, 

 and several of them, making a sort of raft out of three 

 kyacks they had in tow, paddled in to the rocky shore 

 where we stood. In vain did we look for the face of a 

 white man. They were all natives, and as we gazed at 

 each other in mutual amazement, I broke the silence 

 with the question, " Kudloonah petehungetoo ? " (Is 

 there no white man ?) " Petehungetoo " (There is none), 

 was the reply, so the whole party, which consisted of 

 several families, men, women and children, were Eski- 

 mos, and with them in their boat they had their dogs 

 and other necessary hunting and camping equipments. 

 They informed us they were moving up into the interior 

 from the coast to spend the winter, and so it was not 

 surprising that nothing we could offer would induce 

 them to consider the question of taking us down to 

 Churchill or of selling their boat to us. W T e offered 



