26 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



In the strait between Puivlih and Noahognik lie the Liston and Sutton 

 islands. Really there are three islands, called by the Eskimos Ahungahungak 

 (Liston island), Putulik (Sutton island), and Illuvillik; all three are included m 

 the general name Ukallit. The two former islands have high dolomite cliffs on 

 their northern and southern faces, and much broken ice gathers around them in 

 winter. Seals, both rough and bearded, are very numerous, so that the Eskimos 

 from both sides of the strait have made this place their winter resort. The 

 Puivlik natives generally make their way along the coast first to Nuvuk, for from 

 there they can cross over in a single day; otherwise it would be necessary to 

 camp one night on the ice, and a gale at this time of the year (December) might 

 cause a great crack to open up and engulf them. 



The only member of the southern party of the expedition who travelled 

 along the south coast of Victoria island east of Lady Franklin point was Mr. 

 Frits Johansen, one of our biologists, who was there in March, 1916. "The Miles 

 islands," he writes, " consist of diabase with the typical formations of this region, 

 steep and high cliffs on the south and east, low and flat on the north and west. 

 Except in pockets and on gravelly slopes the vegetation was very poor. Few 

 animals occur here, but we noticed tracks of foxes, wolverines, lemmings, hares, 

 ptarmigan and ravens, as well as caribou tracks, it being the time of their spring 

 migration. Only the middle islands contained any driftwood to speak of, and 

 they only on the north and west sides; it was there also that the usual signs of 

 temporary Eskimo encampments were seen, tent-rings, wood-gatherings, and 

 the hke, showing that the Eskimos, like myself, used the islands as a pathway 

 from the mainland to Wollaston land. The ice was often very rough and 

 screwed up around the islands, especially where the coast was steep and 

 rocky, but it seemed to have been safe for passage from November on. 



" Richardson island, further east, consists solely of diabase. Facing 

 Coronation gulf, there are perpendicular cliffs several hundred feet high, 

 impossible to scale and dropping clear to the water; but facing the sound are 

 gentle slopes of smooth rock clear to the beach, covered more or less with gravel 

 and vegetation. Also the higher land in the interior of the island has good 

 vegetation right to its top and is rather easily scaled from the north side, espe- 

 cially where creeks come down. Numerous caribou were seen here in larger or 

 smaller herds climbing or grazing on the slopes on both sides of the sound. In 

 the sound itself between Richardson island and the coast of Wollaston land 

 are a number of islands. Two, at its mouth, mark the gateway coming from the 

 west, and another half-way up the sound marks the narrowest place and divides 

 it into a northern and a southern arm. The northern route is much the shorter, 

 and along it were found tent-rings of the Eskimos and their meat-caches. 



" Murray point is a rocky peninsula of diabase overlying limestone or dolo- 

 mite, which itself lies on a bed of sandstone. It is connected with Wollaston land by 

 a series of lagoons, sandbars and tundra swamps, over which the Eskimos portage. 

 It was here that I met three families of natives who were living in snow huts 

 in Wellbank bay, where they had been sealing since the autumn of 1915. 

 Some of them had visited the natives of Bathurst inlet that winter, and all had 

 fairly civilized implements, hardly anything being made of copper; there were 

 even guns and ammunition. A few days journey to the eastward, they told 

 me, lay a river named Hagavaktok, which is open till late in the fall and is the 

 only considerable stream along the whole coast to Simpson bay. This Haga- 

 vaktok apparently flows into the sea in the neighbourhood of Byron bay. 



" The coast of Wollaston land opposite Richardson island consists of steep, 

 high cliffs of diabase, which change a little further west to sandstone ridges that 

 slope gently down to the beach, but rise more quickly inland to a height of about 

 100 feet. This extends as far as Lady Franklin point. The land along here is 

 more or less covered with gravel, boulders and vegetation, and shows the usual 



