SEVEXTH ANNUAL REPORT. 189 



caribou on the mainland of Labrador, and on Salisbury Islands, 

 lying on the liaffin Land side of Hudson Straits. He writes me 

 as follows : 



" The tides are so swift, and their rise and fall so consider- 

 able, that the ice does not afford a practicable road. This view 

 is supported by the further fact that there is, and has been, 

 no communication between the Baffin Land and south shore 

 Esquimaux. Moreover, where the land bridge is least broken, 

 the shores are very bold, and consequently clear of permanent 

 ice by reason of the most severe tide rips. The natural move- 

 ment would be from the south, northward, as at the time of the 

 spring migration the ice conditions would be most favorable after 

 the winter's freezing; yet fewer caribou are reported on the 

 islands off the south shore than oft' the islands on the Baffin 

 Land coast. 



" Salisbury Island is a large island, and is somewhat free 

 from the strongest set of the Straits currents along its northern 

 shore. The existence of Esquimaux on this island proves that 

 it must be accessible from Baffin Land shore ; yet even here, 

 on the nearest and most accessible large island, communication 

 has been so uncertain and difficult that from evidence drawn 

 from the Salisbury natives I should judge that many years had 

 elapsed since their arrival, as I could gather from them no knowl- 

 edge of Baffin Land or any inhabited land in any definite lo- 

 cation. 



'* Resolution Island, which is in sight of both Baffin Land 

 and Xorth Labrador, is never visited by Esquimaux, on account 

 of the dangerous ice, and I imagine that few caribou ever travel 

 to it, as men who have landed there say nothing of caribou, and 

 I should expect to find such an island stocked with caribou that 

 had migrated there from the more disturbed land inhabited by 

 Esquimaux. In the latter case the hunters would soon follow, 

 as the Esquimaux always follow migrating deer, and often they 

 can go where the caribou cannot travel ; consequently the absence 

 of hunters on the south coast islands, even the larger land masses, 

 would argue against the migration of caribou to these districts. 

 The only argument in favor of migration across the Straits is 

 the presence of caribou on Salisbury Island, which, as we have 

 seen, is situated close to the Baffin Land coast." 



