454 THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



America which jjursiies the young seal ; they are enabled to do this by 

 the extent of the land floe in the large bays. In the last days of 

 March some of the natives started for Sarvaq and Netchillik t(i 

 fetch their kayaks (p. 315), which they had left there the preceding 

 season. As they intended to hunt deer at the lakes farther north, 

 they were obliged to have their boats at hand at the breaking up of 

 the ice. The further the season advanced the more the settlements 

 were broken up (p. 338), and towards the end of April the first fami- 

 lies left fdi' Xi-tcliillik to join the other part of the tribe (p. 323). 

 At tliis seas. Ill tlie musk ox and the returning reindeer were fre- 

 quently hunted (pp. 352, 335, 349). In the first days of May some of 

 the natives went to Netchillik (p. 337), and another party followed a 

 month later (p. 383). They stopped on Middle Lake for a short time 

 to fish for trout (p. 384). A niimber of families remained near the 

 ship, sealing, catching salmon, and hunting the miisk ox (pp. 430, 

 441, 450, 453) until the beginning of July, when the fishing season 

 ended and they went to the inland lakes to hunt deer and fish for 

 trout in the rapids between the lakes (p. 450). In the siimmer their 

 principal fishing stations were Lindsay River and Sarvaq. 



The other part of the tribe which had lived at Lake Netchillik 

 were even more numerous than that of the coast, as 21 snow houses 

 were found which had been inhabited by them during the winter 

 (p. 389). The number of inhabitants of this village was about one 

 hundred and seventy, and, since there were a few who lived on 

 Owutta Island and yet others who may have been scattered in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, it is probable that the whole tribe num- 

 bered 350 persons. 



As they were seen only a few times by the expedition the reports 

 are rather incomplete. In the winter they lived on a plain, which was 

 called OkaVit, on the eastern shore of Lake Netchillik (p. 315). The 

 exact position cannot be learned from Ross's journal. As some men- 

 tion is made of blubber deposits at Netchillik (p. 388), it is probable 

 that they lived on stores deposited in summer. Toward the end of May 

 and in the beginning of June they were met with at Spence Bay and 

 Josephine Bay. One of their stations was on the island Inugsulik, 

 near Padliaq, the head of Spence Bay. Here their principal food 

 was codfish, which they caught in holes cut through the ice, while 

 the sealing was there a less important interest (pp. 391, 426). The 

 kayaks which were found deposited on the west shore of Boothia as 

 far as Josephine Bay proved that they resorted to this region in the 

 deer hunting season (pp. 40G, 407). The families who had been at 

 Owutta during the winter of 1829-'30 were foimd in June, 1831. in 

 Padliaq. whence they crossed the isthmus and visited Tarionitjoq 

 (p. 431). 



In 1830 no natives were seen after the usual time of their departure 

 for the interior of the country, and it was not until April, 1831, that 



