Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/19

Turquetil's little work in "Anthropos" for 1926 is only of slight importance to this work, as in the first place it mostly deals with the intellectual culture, and secondly, it does not keep the Aivilingmiut and the Qaernermiut separate. The recently published book by Leden does not give much information either.

The old trading station Fort Churchill, which was established as early as 1718, is outside the territory of the Iglulik Eskimos, it is true; but it could be reached by these when on journeys. In the middle of the 19th century whaling begun in Hudson's Bay, where Marble Island, south of Chesterfield Inlet, was the most important winter-headquarter. In 1889 the first whaler, the "Arctic", wintered in Repulse Bay, where Ship's Harbour Island during subsequent years became a regular wintering place for whaling ships. In 1903 a police station and a trading station (Hudson's Bay Company) were established at Fullerton Harbour; in 1912 the latter was removed to Chesterfield Inlet; in 1921 a Hudson Bay Company station was established in Repulse Bay and in 1924 on Southampton Island. In 1903 a trading and whaling station was started at Ponds Inlet and in 1921 it was taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company, who in 1923 opened another station at River Clyde; in 1922 a police station was established at Ponds Inlet.

Despite the fact that so many expeditions have been to the country and that civilisation, solely through the establishment of trading and police stations, has obtained a firm footing there, enormous tracts still lie quite unexplored and unmapped; this is particularly true of Cockburn Land.

Terrain. The mainland coast south of Repulse Bay is typical Barren Grounds land. A low, rugged, monotonous, rocky landscape, which at the coast rarely rises to a heigt of 100 metres; the higher portions consist of naked rock, the lower is formed of moraine material from the glacial age and marine post-glacial deposits. The coastline itself is irregular, with the two big fjords, apparently excavated by the ice: Wager and Chesterfield inlets, and a large number of smaller bays and coves; at places a number of small islands lie off the coast, here and there forming quite a protective belt. In the low, monotonous country, which is still suffering from the disturbances of the erosion of the glacial age, there are numerous large and small lakes and swamps, and the waterways are a constant alternation of lakes and rapids.

The southern half of Melville Peninsula is very similar to the country described above, of which it is in fact a continuation. Like that country, it is an old peneplain but on an average lies a little higher; heights of 150–200 are not unusual in the interior of the