Country of the Copper Eskimos 15 



It is fortunate for the Copper Eskimos that their land lies in the track of 

 a great caribou migration. In the first days of spring the deer that are scattered 

 all over the barren lands west of Hudson bay begin to move northward, seeking 

 their summer pastures on the shores of the Arctic sea and in the great archipelago 

 beyond. The first herds reach the coast as early as the end of April, and the 

 migration continues well into June, when the ice of the straits usually is too 

 unstable to admit>any longer of their passage. In July, August and September 

 the deer scatter out, but they muster again on the south shores of Victoria 

 island in October, and cross the straits on their journey south between 

 the end of that month and early December. By Christmas they have disap- 

 peared altogether in most places, though a few herds remain all the winter in 

 certain favoured valleys, notably in the basin of the Coppermine river. But 

 when the caribou have gone the sea is frozen solid again, and the natives can 

 track out the breathing-holes of the seals that abound in these waters. 



' Seals and caribou are the most abundant game animals. Musk-oxen are 

 found east of the Coppermine river, and in the north of Victoria island. Ground 

 squirrels are numerous in certain areas on the mainland, and foxes are fairly 

 common everywhere : wolverines and wolves, on the other hand, are comparatively 

 rare outside of the Coppermine valley, and only an occasional brown bear is 

 encountered even in the places where its natural foods, berries and roots, are 

 most abimdant. 



Many migratory game-birds, such as ducks, loons and ptarmigan, have 

 their breeding grounds in this region, but not in such numbers as to influence 

 the economic situation to any marked extent. Fish are much more important. 

 Nearly every lake teems with salmon and lake trout, and innumerable schools of 

 salmon^ migrate up the rivers and streams each year to spawn. These, with 

 the tom-cod that abound in certain bays, furnish about a third of the total food 

 supply of the natives. 



The Eskimos have names not only for different divisions of the country, 

 but also for certain subdivisions of them, and most of the creeks and many of 

 the more important lakes, headlands, and islands have also their distinctive 

 appellations. The most westerly district that is still inhabited is the country 

 known generally as Akulliakattak, which extends along the coast from about 

 Stapylton bay to Cockburn point and for an indefinite distance behind. The 

 more correct designation for this area is Akunnik, for Akulliakattak is really 

 only the name for Hope point and for a fair-sized lake behind it, ten miles long 

 perhaps and four miles wide, which is the rendezvous of the Eskimos who have 

 hunted and fished in the interior during the spring and summer. At this lake 

 they sew their new deerskin clothes in the autmnn, and make their preparations 

 for going out on the ice of the strait and beginning the winter's sealing. Leaving 

 Lake Akulliakattak, they migrate down the stream Siorak into South bay. 

 Often they stop a day or two at Cape Bexley to make their final preparations 

 before crossing the strait, whence this cape has received the name of Ineksarvik, 

 the "Place where everything is finished." One derivation for the word Akulli- 

 akattak gives it the meaning of " Short portage", \^^ich would refer to an over- 

 land route from Stapylton or South bay to the head of the Rae river, a route the 

 Eskimos often take in preference to the long journey round the coast.'' Mr. J. R. 

 Cox, one of our topographers, made this portage in the course of his surveys, 

 and the brief description he has given of the country will be found a little farther 

 on. The Eskimos say that it abounds in fish, and that caribou are fairly numer- 



'There is no true salmon along the Arctic coast, the fish that is called salmon throughout this memoir 

 being a salmon trout, belonging to the genus Salvelimis. 



'Erdmann (Eskimoiches WOrterbuch), gives the mearing in Labrador as "sin Mittelland," i.e., the 

 and between two bays or gulfs. 



