Summer Life 125 



a profitable trade with some white men at Great Bear lake, congregated at 

 the mouth of the Coppermine and travelled across by virtually the same route, 

 accompanying Mr. K. G. Chipman and a police patrol. 



Hunting carries some of the Kilusiktok natives in summer as far south 

 as Backs river, even after they have spent the spring fishing for tom-cod round 

 the Barry islands. As a rule, however, those who intend to spend the summer 

 far inland leave the coast in spring and travel a large part of the journey by 

 sled, as the Puivlirmiut do farther west. Little is known of the more northern 

 natives. Apparently the salmon do not run in their country either, so there is 

 nothing to keep them on the coast after the sealing is over. Their fishing and 

 hunting grounds are some distance inland, hence they naturally make the 

 journey by sled; such at least was the case with the two Prince Albert sound 

 famihes that I met at Lake Tahiryuak in the summer of 1915. They had 

 just finished their sealing, cached their blubber on the coast and travelled 

 south by sled. The majority of their tribe, they told me, had gone northeast 

 in the same manner to another lake named Tahiryuak, some thirty miles, 

 perhaps, from the head of the sound. . 



The first snow-fall in September and the gradual freezing over of the lakes 

 warns the wandering Eskimos that it is time to retrace their footsteps and 

 return towards their caches. There they recover their heavy tents and warm 

 clothing, and either fish again through the ice of the lakes or intercept the 

 caribou as they migrate south. In October the reappearance of ptarmigan 

 in numbers heralds the coming of the caribou, which gather along the south 

 shores of Victoria island until the ice in the straits is sofid enough for them to 

 cross. Small parties of Eskimos often wait near the coast for them, laying in a 

 stock of willow twigs for fuel and building low sod walls round their summer 

 tents. Others go back to the lakes where they have cached their sleds in the 

 spring, hoping to encounter at least a few of the caribou in the hills. The 

 natives on the mainland also gather in bands on the coast and intercept the 

 deer as they come off the ice. Some families still live in their summer tents, 

 burning driftwood or willow for fuel; others collect their caches and re-erect 

 the same heavy tents that they had used in the spring, with the stone lamps 

 burning blubber inside. There is no unanimity in their actions. Almost 

 invariably, however, they all move into snow huts as soon as the snow is deep 

 and firm enough, for a snow hut at this season of the year is far more confortable 

 than a tent that is constantly covered with frost. Hunting and fishing absorb 

 all their energies until November, by which time the caribou migration is usually 

 over, and the Eskimos must redeem all their caches and prepare for the winter's 

 sealing. Then the bands that are still inland come down to the coast and 

 join their tribesmen at the assembling-place. 



Such, in brief outline, is the fife of the Copper Eskimos on the land. As 

 no other traveller has accompanied them all through this period, and observed 

 the influence of the economic conditions on their social life, a brief diary 

 follows of the seven months, from April to November, 1915, when I lived with 

 some Puivlik natives on south-west Victoria island as a member of one of 

 the families. When I joined them, on April 13, they were living in spring 

 tents on the ice about fifteen miles northwest of the Liston and Sutton islands. 

 I found a home in the tent of Ikpakhuak and his family, which consisted of 

 his wife Higilak and two children, Kanneyuk and Haugak. Avranna, Higilak's 

 son, and his wife Milukkattak, lived in the same tent for the next two days; 

 then, as it was rather crowded, they set up one for themselves. 

 April 14 : Several of the natives went sealing. 



April 15: Kanneyuk and her cousin Kesullik freighted some blubber and my 

 dog-pemmican towards the shore in preparation for a migration the fol- 

 lowing day. One native and his wife left the settlement to join the Eskimos 

 on the mainland. Most of the men went sealing. 



