BOAsJ DISTRIBUTION OF THE TRIBES. 455 



they were found again. They had wintered at Lake Avatutiaq. on 

 the eastern shore of Boothia (p. 511), where they had lived on a hirge 

 stock of salmon caught in the fall (p. 53 ! ) and on musk oxen which 

 were hunted during the entire year in the hilly country near the 

 lakes. Others had wintered farther south, on Lake Owen (p. 524). 

 A portion of these Eskimo set out for Netchillik in April (p. 52-2), 

 while the others remained in Tom's Bay and subsisted upon cod- 

 fish, salmon, and seals (p. 540). 



In June another party hft fur Netchillik, whence some of the na- 

 tives, who had not scin tin' sliiji before, arrived at Victoria Harbor 

 in July, probably having heard of her new station at this place 

 through the returning families (p. 577). In August the last of them 

 left, going west (p. 592). 



Though these reports are rather imperfect, they enable us to get a 

 fair idea of the mode of life of this tribe. 



In the large bays on the eastern side of the isthmus the natives 

 live just as do the southern tribes of Baffin Land, pursuing the seal 

 at its breathing hole during the winter. Here, as everywhere else, 

 the settlements were broken up early in the spring. The fishing is 

 commenced remarkably early, while in the east scarcely any salmon 

 are caught before the breaking up of the lakes. West of Melville 

 Peninsula the fishing is commenced in March or even earlier. On 

 Boothia the most important means of subsistence for the natives is 

 the codfish, on which they live during the spring and probably dur- 

 ing a part of the winter. It is also an important article of food for 

 the other tribes of this region, while farther east it is of no impor- 

 tance. The salmon fisheries of Boothia are very productive, of which 

 Netchillik and Padliaq in Josephine Bay, Stanley and Lord Lind- 

 say Rivers, Qogulortuug, Angmalortuq, and Sarvaq may be consid- 

 ered the most important. Deer are hunted while swimming across 

 the numerous lakes of Boothia, and the musk ox in the granite hills 

 of its northern part. Here is also another winter resort of the tribe, 

 from which the island Tukia, north of Lake Avatutiaq, is visited 

 in summer, to collect pyrite or native iron (p. 363), which is used for 

 kindling fire. The life of the western part of the tribe, as far as 

 we are acquainted with it, was described in the foregoing paragraph. 



Neither Dease and Simpson, who visited Castor and Pollux River 

 in 1839, nor Rae, on his second voyage to Boothia, met the natives 

 themselves; the latter, however, saw their marks on the islands of 

 AclandBay (II, p. 840). 



The next traveler who fell in with the tribe was M'Clintock, who 

 visited King William Land in search of the Franklin records. In 

 February, 1859, he met several families near C.i|if Adelaide (p. 230). 

 They traveled during the spring all along the shore and had been 

 near Tasmania Islands in March and April. They were seen by him 

 on their return journey to Netchillik, near Cape Nicholas. They 



