Page:The Netsilik Eskimos (1931).djvu/13

Rae Isthmus, which constitutes the narrow hinterland between Repulse Bay and Committee Bay, lies far beyond the sledge trails of white traders and was first visited by the Englishman John Rae, who discovered the country in 1846 and mapped it.

But for centuries this singular tongue of land has been a favourite and much frequented hunting ground for the Eskimos, especially before fire-arms were introduced, because the exceptional natural conditions there were very favourable for acquiring the means of subsistence. Spring and autumn enormous herds of caribou travel over this narrow land, where it is a most easy matter to hunt them as soon as they are driven along the fences of cairns down towards the many stone-built hiding places. In the abundant water-courses and small lakes there is a wealth of trout, and especially in the autumn these are taken with the leister in the streams and, later on, fished from the ice covering of the lakes with both hook and leister. And in addition there. is good sealing in Repulse Bay and the mouth of Committee Bay.

In earlier times, when the great migrations in search of food took place, Rae Isthmus has also been one of the main traffic arteries judging from the innumerable tent rings, cairns, stone fences and hunters' hides that are scattered about wherever one goes. These ancient highways of man and beast are not forgotten even now, and two young men, Taparte and Anarqâq, who with Helge Bangsted drove a few reserve sledges on this first part of our overland journey, knew every stone in the country and were never in two minds as to the mountain passes and the river courses we should follow.

In number we were as few as possible. It was the great sledge journey north about America that we had started on, and I was to be accompanied only by two Eskimos from the Thule district, Qâvigarssuaq and his female cousin Arnarulúnguaq. Our outfit, too, had been