248 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



It will be noticed that I have stressed the route by way of Bathtirst inlet. 

 The accounts of the Bathurst inlet natives themselves, and the information 

 obtained by Captain Bernard, indicate that the Eskimos of southeast Victoria 

 island maintain closer contact with their neighbours to the west than with any 

 of the tribes to the east of them. This is indeed what we should expect from 

 their geographical position, and from the greater resources and population of 

 the region west of Kent peninsula. Kent peninsula itself, as far as we know, 

 was uninhabited until the last year or two, the Asiagmiut who visited the Bathurst 

 inlet people travelling behind it by way of Melville sound. 



Captain Bernard does not mention the Asiagmiut in his letter, probably 

 because he never fell in with any members of the tribe, who seem to range between 

 Kent peninsula and Ogden bay. Whether they are to be included among the 

 Copper Eskimos, or considered as an intermediate Hnk between them and the 

 eastern Eskimos, must remain for the present uncertain; the geographical 

 position of the tribe favours the latter course. Captain Bernard confirms 

 the reports of earlier explorers as to the location and range of the Netsilinginiut 

 and Ukkusiksaligmiut, but the third tribe of which he speaks, the Eleneremiut, 

 is new to us. It seems to coincide with Schwatka's Ugyulingmiut, who inhabited 

 Adelaide peninsula in the middle of last century, but were gradually merging 

 with the Netsilingmiut;' Probably the Eleneremiut are a surviving remnant 

 who clung to their old hunting-grounds around Sherman inlet, and Simpson 

 strait. With regard to the Ukkusiksahgmiut it is strange that they have 

 never learned the art of sealing from their neighbours. I imagine that instead 

 of seal oil they use caribou tallow in their lamps during the winter, hke the natives 

 on the upper reaches of Backs river, the Saningaiyomiut, who are probably 

 only a branch of the Ukkusiksaligmiut with a little admixture from Hudson 

 bay tribes. 



Captain Bernard has made some very important archseolqgical discoveries 

 which enable us to extend the limit of wood and sod houses to the eastern end 

 of Coronation gulf. The number of ruins that he found would indicate a con- 

 siderable population, while their great antiquity is shown by the depth at which 

 the floors were submerged below the ground, even after discounting the thickness 

 of the sod roofs that doubtless caved in on top of them. These ruins must 

 certainly be older than some at least of those that dot the coast between Cape 

 Lyon and Cape Krusenstern, and while the latter may still indicate transitory 

 settlements by parties travelling along the coast, as I have suggested in Chapter 

 IV, the former undoubtedly mark the earlier, perhaps the earUest inhabitants 

 of the region of Coronation gulf, and predate, I suspect, the influx of the Copper 

 Eskimo tribes into this area. The evidence cannot be given here, but there are 

 certain facts that seem to indicate that the Copper Eskimos were an inland 

 people until a few centuries ago, and that their culture has changed considerably 

 since their immigration to their present home. 



Note. — Captain Bernard reached Ottawa on December 22, 1920. He 

 stated that the Copper Eskimo country had undergone a profound change 

 during the last few years. Four Hudson's Bay Company trading posts had been 

 established, one at Bernard harbour, one at the mouth of the Coppermine river,, 

 a third at the mouth of Tree river and a fourth at Kent peninsula. The Eskimos 

 were leaving their winter sealing grounds about two months earlier than usual, 

 and devoting their attention to the trapping of foxes. In the winter of 1919' 

 all the inhabitants of southeast Victoria island migrated to Kent peninsula, 

 where a large supply of blubber fuel had been accumulated by the trader in 

 order that the natives might be able to give all their time to trapping. Hardly 

 a bow remained in the country, nearly every man possessing a rifle. Caribou 



'Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 456 et seg. 



