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been incomplete; such rapid growth in the course of 20–25 years is not very probable. On the contrary, there is reason for believing that the population has declined during the past few years, particularly as a result of the severe treatment meted out to them by the whalers; contagious diseases, especially syphilis, have undoubtedly carried many off, whilst the excessive drinking of strong liquor has reduced the power of resistance of the people. According to their own traditions, they have previously been much more numerous, which indeed seems to be confirmed by the enormous number of ruins of habitations spread over the country. Whether the population is now increasing or decreasing is difficult to say. The diseases of the whaling period are not yet wholly eradicated and, at the trading stations, there is still the possibility of infection. The birth rate is by no means high and, of children born. about half of them succumb, so that, as will be seen from the foregoing, the number of children is not great. In addition, there is the fact that periods of famine now and then set in, as in the winter of 1922–23 when 13 people died of starvation in Admiralty Inlet, a number that is severely felt in this little, scattered community.

The terms Aivilingmiut, Iglulingmiut and Tununermiut are more geographical than ethnographical. The natural boundary between the first two groups is the stretch of coast between C. Wilson and C. Jermain, which is uninhabitable as open water stretches right into the country in winter, whereas in summer the coast is often blockaded by drift-ice; for this reason sledge journeys here must proceed overland. The watershed in the interior of Cockburn Land may be taken to be the boundary between the Iglulingmiut and the Tununermiut.

However, it is by no means the case that it is always the same people who live within these three great areas. It is true that there are some who spend practically their whole lives within one of them; but even these oftenest know either one or both of the others through journeys or short sojourns there. But a movement between these areas is constantly going on, with the result that their population is constantly changing in number and composition. That a man is an Iglulingmio as a rule means nothing more than that for the present he is living in the Iglulik area; still, one hears occasionally that this or that person is an Iglulingmio because he was born in Iglulik, or even because his mother was born in Iglulik; thus this term has no fixed definition.

It is no rare occurrence that a man has lived a few years in all three areas. Ivaluartjuk, a man about 60 years old, now living at Repulse Bay, thus spent his earlier years at Iglulik, where he was