Distribution of the Population 41 



stood from them that they were Kilnermiun, i.e., Kighnirmiut, but Mr. Stefan'sspn 

 asserts that they were Ekaluktomiut.» I am rather inclined to believe, however, 

 that Hansen was right, or at least that some of them may have been Kiglinirmiut. 

 It is worth noting that on his return journey Hansen saw two of their sled trails 

 running south to De Haven point, indicating that two famihes at least intended 

 to pass the summer soinewhere on the southeast coast, not inland from Albert 

 Edward bay; the season was too late for them to be crossing the strait. The 

 two groups are certainly contiguous, and Schwatka expressly states that the 

 Netsilingmiut and the Ugyulingmiut used to meet the "Qidneliq" of Coronation 

 gulf, which indicates that the latter people were accustomed to travel eastward.^ 

 Mr. C. Leden tells me that the Eskimos on the west shore of Hudson bay apply 

 the term Kiglinirmiut to the inhabitants of-'Bathurst inlet. But until these 

 eastern natives have been actually visited and studied, it is better to leave 

 their exact numbers and group divisions undefined.' 



One region has not been mentioned, the west coast of Victoria island, where 

 two groups are now living, the Kanghuyuarmiut of Prince Albert sound and the 

 Kanghiryuatjagmiut of Minto inlet. Lieutenant Jago, who was with CoUinson 

 in 1852, met about a hundred natives in Prince Albert sound who probably 

 belonged to the former of these two groups. About fifty other natives were 

 wintering at the same time near Walker bay, in which region McClure had met 

 five families. Our chief knowledge of these groups, however, comes from Mr. 

 Stefansson, who visited the Prince Albert sound people in the spring of 1911, 

 when he estimated their number at two hundred or a little over. The northern 

 party of the Canadian, Arctic expedition had a base at Cape Kellett from 1914 

 to 1916, and in 19154^nother was established near Armstrong Point, in Prince 

 of Wales strait. From both of these places our people had many dealings with 

 the northern natives, and Mr. G. H. Wilkins, the photographer of the expedition, 

 made the same estimate of their number as Mr. Stefansson. Mr. Wilkins 

 further informs me that in the winter of 1914-15 the Kanghiryuarmiut were 

 encamped near the entrance of Prince Albert sound, while the Kanghiryuatjag- 

 miut, who comprised only about half a dozen families (Mr. Stefansson estimated 

 their number at twenty) were living outside of Minto inlet, close to the shore of 

 Banks island. In the following winter fully half of the Kanghiryuarmiut joined 

 their northern neighbours, so that the two settlements were about evenly divided. 

 Two famihes of Prince Albert sound natives whom I met in the summer of 1915 

 just north of the Puivlik district, said that the main body of their people had 

 gone to a lake called Tahiryuak close to some copper deposits a day's journey 

 northeast of the sound. They had not met the Kanghiryuatjagmiut that winter, 

 nor did they know of the presence of white men at Cape Kellett. Members of 

 the two groups then would seem to have met in the late spring or summer of 

 that year, either on the ice or somewhere inland. In the winter of 1917-18 

 again, the Rev. Mr. Girling informs me, some two hundred Kanghiryuak natives 

 were camped a little south of Holman island at the northwest corner of Prince 

 Albert sound. Where the Kanghiryuatjagmiut were at that time he could 

 not say. 



The Eskimos of Dolphin and Union strait assert that the Kanghiryuarmiut 

 were much more numerous in former times than they are now. About 1875 

 (Higilak, a woman of about 45 years of age, was said to be a baby at the time) 

 a great storm broke up the ice in Prince Albert sound early in the spring, and 

 many of the natives were drowned. Others again perished through famine. 

 The ice never left the shore one summer, and was consequently very heavy 

 and broken the following winter. The natives could find very few seal-holes 

 in the piled-up ridges, and many of them starved to death. Quite recently 



^Amundsen, Vol. II, p. 329; Stefansson, My Life with the Eskimo, p. 283 et seq. 



'Science, Vol. IV, 1884, p. 543, quoted by Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 465. 



'Further information on this region that has come to hand later will be found in the appendix. 



