Trade and Intercourse 47 



by the Cape Bathurst natives. In their large skin boats these Eskimos must 

 often have travelled far out to sea, and known of the great land north of them ; 

 so in the days when their communities were still flourishing a colony hived off 

 one summer and established itself at Cape Kellett. No doubt it still kept up 

 a coimection with its home country, mainly by boat, perhaps, since to cross 

 the ice by sled directly is probably almost as difiicult as from Cape Parry to 

 Nelson head, unless, of course, the season is an exceptional one. It is not unlikely 

 that even by boat the natives usually crossed between Cape Parry and Nelson 

 head, for not only is the distance much shorter, but both these points are high 

 and conspicuous, whereas Capes Bathurst and Kellett are low and sandy. 



How long the settlement lasted and when it died out we have no knowledge, 

 but from the overgrown condition of the ruins it could hardly have been less 

 than a century ago and may have been much longer. The isolation of the place, 

 and the absence, so far as we know, of any similar ruins along the coast, seem 

 to indicate that the rest of Banks island was uninhabited at the time, or at 

 least that the two peoples had no contact with each other.^ This would explain 

 why the Victoria island natives who now seal round Nelson head have no 

 knowledge of any trade-relations with their neighbours across the strait, although 

 a Kanghiryuak native told Mr. Wilkins that he had followed a bear so far out 

 on the ice that he had seen the land on the other side. 



The Copper Eskimos had no intercourse with the Indians of Great Bear 

 lake until Mr. Stefansson brought them together in 1910; since then they have 

 regularly visited the lake each summer and traded their dogs for guns and am- 

 munition. Up to 1910 they were afraid of the Indians, and apparently never 

 reached quite as far as Bear lake, its north end at least.^ They have a tradition 

 that long ago some Indians came up from the south and massacred many of 

 the Walliak natives, after which they went away west, carrying with them the 

 jEskimos' pots. Possibly there is some reference in this to the massacre at 

 Bloody fall. Higilak told me that the Eskimos never fought with the Indians, 

 tjiough the latter would steal their copper and pots. Once when the Indians 

 were close to a party of Eskimos the latter kindled a great fire and threw the 

 ashes into the eyes of their enemies. Natives from Bathurst inlet at the present 

 day often travel overland in summer to the country between the Coppermine 

 river and McTavish bay. Much of their journey to the Coppermine can be 

 made in kayaks, since there are numerous lakes everywhere, as Franklin found 

 on his first journey. Caribou too are abundant, and every summer scores of 

 them are' herded into the lakes and speared from kayaks. I was unable to 

 learn whether the Eskimos often came into contact with Indians along this 

 route; probably not, for we found little or no evidence m their culture and tradi- 

 tions that would indicate any established relations. Mr. Chipman met some 

 Tree river Eskimos in the spring of 1916 who were heading for the upper reaches 

 of the Coppermine in order to trade with Dog Rib Indians from Fort Rae; 

 but presumably, this was a new departure in their movements, and dated back 

 no more than three or four years. The amicable relations estabhshed between 

 the two races in 1916 were still further improved in the following year, when a 

 band of 17 Indians from Fort Rae and Great Bear lake descended to the mouth 

 of the Coppermine river to visit a white trader named Klengenberg.' Thus 

 European influence, after extending slowly north for several centuries, is at last 

 making itself felt in this region, and for the first time since Hearne's day the 

 Indians have ventured to approach the Arctic coast. 



'Various considerations, too lengthy to deal with in this volume, incline me to believe that the Copper 

 Eskimos are comparatively recent immigrants into the country that they now occupy. 

 ^Cf. Simpson, Discoveries, p. 347; Stefansson, My Life with the Eskimo, p. 216. 

 ^Report of the Bathurst Inlet Patrol, p. 38. 



