Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/15

when I lived at Repulse Bay at the local station of the Hudson's Bay Company from 19th December to 2nd February; in my first studies of the Aivilik Eskimos there I was greatly assisted by the manager of the station, Capt. G. Cleveland, to whom I am extremely grateful for his hospitality and for his help as interpreter. From Repulse Bay I then travelled to the Eskimo settlement Itibdjeriang at Pt. Elizabeth on the east coast of Melville Peninsula, where I remained until 28th February when, together with Peter Freuchen, I started on a sledge journey northwards to the settlements Ingnertoq, Pingerqalik and Iglulik; from there I proceeded to Admiralty Inlet, with the inhabitants of which I did not get into communication on account of being occupied with cartographic work, and then back to Danish Island, which was reached on 29th May. In the middle of June I again went to Repulse Bay, principally for the purpose of excavating; but I had opportunities of seeing something of the summer life of the Eskimos, especially at Beach Point from 15th to 18th August. From there I, together with my interpreter and assistant, the Greenland cathechist Jacob Olsen, was taken over to Duke of York Bay, Southampton Island, in an Eskimo whale-boat. The object of this journey was to make excavations of old settlements, and after that it was the intention to go back to Danish Island about 1st September. Thus we were only equipped for a stay of about two weeks. The east winds, however, brought great masses of drift-ice in from Fox Basin and, after a week's persistent struggling with the ice, we had to abandon the thought of getting through and prepare ourselves for a winter stay. As we were without supplies and equipment of any kind. we had to join in with an Eskimo family, Angutimarik, with whom we moved round about the island, living Eskimo fashion, until a sledge from our headquarters in February was fortunate enough to get over Frozen Strait, which that winter was covered with ice quite exceptionally, and took us back to our comrades. If the recollections I have from my six months' stay on Southampton Island are not all pleasant ones — it was mostly a hard struggle for existence — at any rate it brought me into much more intimate touch with these people than is generally the case on the usual expedition sledge-journeys.

After a month's stay on Danish Island I started on 22nd March (1923) on my second journey to Baffin Land, during which I visited the Eskimo settlements Qajûvfik, Kingadjuaq, Pingerqalik and Iglulik, from there to the settlement of Manertoq in Steensby's Fjord. across country to Milne Inlet and Ponds Inlet, where I spent the whole summer, partly at the station of the Hudson's Bay Company. where Lieutenant G. Hérodier was a most kind host. partly in the