452 THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



Lakes (II, p. 938), and on the 20tli of April lie met with seventeen 

 natives on the mainland west of Augustus Island, among whom were 

 five women. In traveling farther west he fell in with a native who 

 had been hunting the musk ox. On the 17th of May he found twelve 

 natives settled in the same place and living on seal (II, p. 842). 



Hall met with this tribe twice, in 1866 and in 1869. On the 28th of 

 April, in his first attempt to reach King William Land, he found 

 the Sinimiut settled near Cape Beaufort, in Committee Bay, where 

 they were probably sealing (II, p. 255). No further account of 

 this meeting is found except the remark that these natives were on 

 their way to Repulse Bay (p. 259). Therefore it is rather doubtful 

 whether the eastern shore of Simpson Peninsula belongs to their 

 customary district. In April, 1869, on his second visit to Pelly Bay, 

 Hall found their deserted winter hiits on Cameroon Lake (p. 386). 

 In the early part of the spring they had lived on the ice south of 

 Augustus Island, the only place where seals cordd be caught, as the 

 rest of the bay was filled with heavy floes which had been carried 

 south by the northerly winds prevailing during the preceding fall. 

 The natives themselves were met with on the mainland west of 

 Augustus Island, where they were hunting the musk ox. When 

 Hall crossed the bay in the first days of June the natives had changed 

 neither their place nor their mode of subsistence. 



There is a discrepancy in Nourse's extract from Hall's joiirnal, for 

 he sometimes refers to the Pelly Bay natives as different from the 

 Sinimiut, while in other passages all the inhabitants of the bay are 

 comprised in the latter term. I think this discrepancy is occasioned 

 by the fact that a number of Aivillirmiut had settled in Pelly Bay 

 and some others were related to natives of that locality; the latter 

 Nourse calls the Pelly Bay men, the rest the Sinimiut . The place 

 Sini itself, according to a statement of Hall, is near Cape Behrens, 

 on the northwestern shore of the bay. 



As the winter huts of the Sinimiut have been found fnur times on 

 the lakes of the isthmus of Simpson Peninsula, we m;i y siipiiosc that 

 they generally spend the winter there, living on the stores <lei»>sited 

 in tlae preceding season and occasionally angling for trout and salmon 

 (Rae I, p. 110) or killing a musk ox. In March they leave for the 

 sea in order to hunt seals and to secure a fresh supply of blubber for 

 their lamps. Their chief subsistence is the musk ox; besides, salmon 

 are caught in great numbers, for they live on dried fish until spring 

 (Rae I, p. 124). 



BOOTHIA FELIX AND BACK RIVER. 



The NetcMllirmiut — Following the shore westward we find the 

 interesting tribes that inhabit Boothia Felix, King William Land, 

 and the mouth of Back River. Among them the Netchillirmiut are 

 the most important. Their favorite hunting grounds seem to have 



