December 19, 1884. 



SCIENCE 



543 



THE NETSCHILLUK INNUITS. 



The Netschilluk Innuit, or Eskimo, have 

 been variously spoken of as Neitschilluk, Net- 

 scbillee, Nachillee,. and Nachilluk, by various 

 writers. The name comes from Netshuk, or 

 Neitschuk, meaning the small seal of the' Arc- 

 tic, and is no doubt due to their being depend- 

 ent upon the seal as their staple article of 

 food. So important a factor is the stomach of 

 the Eskimo, in his economy, that his diet often 

 determines his tribal name ; but the significance 

 of the name has in man}' cases vanished, either 

 on account of tribal migration, or the extinc- 

 tion of the animals upon which the}' were de- 

 pendent. 



I found the Netschilluks, in 1879, living on the 

 mainland opposite King William's Land, and 

 along the islands in the vicinity of Simpson's 

 Strait. The}* were most numerous along the 

 northern shores of Adelaide Peninsula, their 

 villages being scattered every few miles along 

 this coast from the Montreal Islands to Smith's 

 Point. Farther east were the Pelly Bay Eski- 

 mo, with whom the Netschilluks get along 

 well enough, and through whose country some 

 have migrated to Hudson's Bay. To the south- 

 east were the Oogueesik Salik Innuit, a nearly 

 extinct tiibe, the few remaining members living 

 at the Dangerous Rapids of Back's River, -and 

 Salmon Rapids of Hayes River. Between 

 them and the Netschilluk, there exists the 

 deepest distrust. From Smith's Point to 

 Maclaughlin Bay, along the western shore 

 of Adelaide Peninsula and in King-mik-took 

 (Dogs' Inlet), there live the Ookjoolik, or 

 Oojooklik, with whom the Netschilluks are in- 

 timately associated. Still farther west are the 

 Kidnelik (copper Eskimo) ; and between them 

 and all the other tribes I have mentioned, there 

 exists open hostility, — the only case I know 

 among the .whole family of Eskimo. This 

 hostility, however, takes more the form of 

 strenuous efforts to avoid each other, than to 

 bring on collisions, though occasionally such 

 do occur. 



The Netschilluks, in weight and stature, are 

 above the Caucasian race. The Eskimo of 

 Greenland have been so often described, and are 

 generally so undersized, that this characteristic 

 has unwittingly been attributed to the whole 

 race. Among the Eskimo of North Hudson's 

 Bay I occasionally found a man of even con- 

 spicuous size. One of these was the only fully 

 grown Netschilluk on the shore of the bay ; 

 and I determined to have him in my sledging- 

 party for King William's Land, as he would be 

 a letter of introduction. He was named Ik- 



gueesik, stood about six feet high, and weighed 

 perhaps from two hundred and twenty to two 

 hundred and thirty pounds, every ounce appar- 

 ently serviceable muscle. He proved to be 

 a by no means exceptional specimen of his 

 race, one whom I met standing over six feet 

 six inches. Those of shorter stature were of 

 exceedingly heavy build, with stout frames and 

 broad shoulders. A cadaverous-looking speci- 

 men (fig. 1) , whom we met for the first time as 



Fig. l. 



we were leaving his country in November, could 

 hardly be called an exception, when his story 

 is told. As soon as the ice in the fresh-water 

 lakes is melted in July, this tribe leaves the 

 coast to hunt reindeer. Our friend, having 

 chosen a very unfrequented sheet of water for 

 his summer reindeer-hunt, was left one day 

 upon an island with his kiak wrecked, and, 

 when rescued many days after, was at the point 

 of death from starvation. He was brought to 

 the coast in the fall, and when we saw him, 

 although unable to walk alone, had overcome 

 this difficulty by harnessing a strong dog, and 

 tying the trace around his w r aist, and, with a 

 long cane or staff, could make good headway 

 as a pedestrian. 



The Netschilluks know nothing of fire-arms. 

 Their bows are made of spliced pieces of musk- 

 ox horn or driftwood, and cannot compare 

 with those of the American Indians. Their 

 method of hunting reindeer is to build a line of 

 stone monuments (^fig. 2) of about a man's size, 

 from fifty to a hundred yards apart, on some 

 ridge often two or three miles in length, which 

 runs obliquely (fig. 3) toward some large lake 

 or wide river. If a herd of reindeer is seen 

 between the line of cairns and the water, the 

 natives deploy into a skirmish line across from 

 the last cairn to the river, and walk slowly 

 toward the reindeer, their weapons and their 

 kiaks being concealed near the water's edge. 



