746 APPENDIX 



botanist and entomologist, and many photographs of birds, mammals, 

 etc., in their natural habitat; pictures of great scientific as well as 

 artistic value. 



The western survey parties having finished their work late in May, 

 it became necessary to start early summer work at once to the eastward. 

 The Northern party had made good use of waterproof tarpaulins in 

 constructing sled-rafts to cross leads, being unable to haul canoes over 

 rough ice, but of course this made no provision for travel after the 

 break-up of the ice. Our problems were somewhat different, as in 

 Coronation Gulf the ice was comparatively smooth. We took a large 

 umiak, about 28 feet in length and 6 feet beam, covered with heavy 

 bearded-seal skins, and strengthened the stern timbers to provide for 

 the adjustment of an Evinrude detachable gasoline motor, which proved 

 to be a valuable auxiliary. The canoe could be lifted by two men and 

 placed on a low, ivory-shod boat-sled, which could be haviled in the 

 spring by four or five dogs, carrying several hundred pounds of baggage 

 inside the boat. If necessary to cross a lead, the umiak could be un- 

 shipped and launched in a few minutes, and if the ice should break, the 

 canoe would be launched automatically, already loaded. Later in the 

 season, the umiak proved its worth by carrying two or three men, three 

 dogs, and a thousand pounds or more of provisions, gasoline, and camp 

 gear, making 5 to 6 miles per hour, and weathering some pretty heavy 

 seas. It could be beached on any kind of coast in a hurry, by rolling 

 it up on inflated sealskin "pokes," a great advantage when exploring 

 a coast whose harbors are unknown, and a sudden breeze speedily raises 

 a dangerous lop, as it does in Coronation Gulf. The umiak is also a 

 very useful boat among ice floes, as it is practically unstovable and can 

 be easily and quickly hauled upon or over an ice cake, and it will also 

 stand bumping over the boulders on a river-bottom which might prove 

 disastrous to a wooden boat. The weight of a wooden boat of sufficient 

 size would also be an insuperable obstacle to transportation by sled. For 

 inland work in the Coronation Gulf region, recourse must be had to 

 "packing" in the summer, as most of the streams are too small and 

 rapid to be navigable for any distance. 



June 9, 1915, Cox and O'Neill started eastward from Bernard Har- 

 bor with the umiak on a boat-sled, taking also another large sled-load 

 of supplies. They had as assistant for the early summer Natkusiak, who 

 had been with me in the region several years before, and also as an 

 experiment, a family of Coppermine Eskimos. We had heretofore little 

 success in getting useful service from the local aborigines, who have 

 little or no idea of working for any one. It seemed necessary, how- 

 ever, to engage somebody to look after the sledge dogs, or part of them, 

 after the surveying party should have to take to boat work, and this na- 

 tive was engaged to help in the spring and look after our dogs during 

 the summer at a fishing-place on one of the rivers on the south side of 

 Coronation Gulf. Mupfa turned out to be a capable, intelligent man. 



