As at this time seals are found in abundance everywhere, basking in the warm sunshine and enjoying the beginning of the spring, a great supply is easily secured. As the season advances food becomes more plentiful, and with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds the salmon leave the latter and descend to the sea. About this time the Eskimo establish their settlements at the head of the fjords, where salmon are easily caught in the shallow rivers. In July the snow, which has covered the land for nine months, has melted away and the natives undertake hunting trips inland, in order to obtain the precious skins of the reindeer and the meat of the fawns, which is always highly prized. With the breaking up of the ice the variety of food is further increased by the arrival of the walrus and the ground and harp seals, which leave the country during the winter. Birds are also found in abundance, and no cares afflict the natives.
Before the sea begins to freeze over again the Eskimo return from deer hunting and gather at places where there are the best chances for obtaining food in the autumn. A few weeks are spent in making short excursions near the settlements, as longer journeys would be too dangerous during this tempestuous season. The colder it grows the more the natives are confined to their huts and the more they become dependent on the seal. While in summer shrubs of various kinds are available for cooking purposes, in winter blubber affords the only fuel for cooking and for heating their huts.
At last the smaller bays are sufficiently frozen to permit a new way of pursuing the game. The hunters visit the edge of the newly formed floe in order to shoot the seals, which are secured by the harpoon.
The process of freezing goes on quickly and the floating pieces of ice begin to consolidate. Only a few holes are now found, in places where icebergs, moved by the tides or the strong currents, prevent the sea from freezing. During a short time these openings form the favorite hunting ground of the natives. Though the walrus and the ground seal migrate to the edge of the floe as soon as the ice begins to form, the common seal (Pagomys fœtidus) remains, and this is always the principal food of the natives. In the autumn the fjords and the narrow channels between the islands are its favorite haunt; later in the season it resorts to the sea, frequently appearing at the surface through breathing holes, which it scratches in the ice. As winter comes on it is hunted by the Eskimo at these holes.
The foregoing observations will serve as a preliminary to the description of the distribution of the tribes of Northeastern America. The object of this section is to treat of the immediate relations between the country and its inhabitants, and a detailed account of their habits will be found in subsequent pages.
According to Dr. H. Rink, the Inuit race may be divided into five groups: the Greenlanders; the central tribes of Smith Sound, Baffin Land, the west shore of Hudson Bay, the Back River region, and Boothia; the Labradorians, on the shores of that peninsula; the Mackenzie tribes of the central parts of the north shore of America; and the tribes of Alaska. I am somewhat in doubt whether the central tribes and those of Labrador differ enough to justify a separate classification, as the natives of both shores of Hudson Strait seem to be closely related. A decisive answer on the division of these tribes may be postponed until the publication of Lucien M. Turner’s excellent observations and collections, which were made at Fort Chimo.
[BAFFIN LAND.]
[The Sikosuilarmiut.—]
I shall begin with the enumeration of the tribes in the southwestern part of Baffin Land. This country is inhabited by the Sikosuilarmiut, i.e., the inhabitants of the shore without an ice floe. They are settled in two places: Nurata, east of King Cape, and Sikosuilaq, within the peninsula (or island?) which projects east of King Cape. The large fjords Sarbaq and Sarbausirn, which belong to their territory, are known to me only by a description which I received in Cumberland Sound. In summer they visit the upper parts of this long fjord to hunt deer on the plains which reach to the shore of Fox Basin. Probably they do not extend their migrations very far to the north or northeast; otherwise, they would reach Lakes Amaqdjuaq and Nettilling, the region about the latter being the hunting ground of the natives of Cumberland Sound.
I know of only a single meeting between the Eskimo visiting Lake Nettilling and others who are supposed to have come from Hudson Strait. It occurred in 1883 south of the lake.