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I can give a somewhat more detailed description of this tribe, among the families of which Hall passed the winters of 1860-’61 and 1861-’62 (Hall I). Unfortunately, he does not give any coherent account of their life, only meager information being furnished in the record of his journeys. Besides, generalizations cannot be made from his two years’ experience. My own observations in Cumberland Sound may serve as a complement to those of Hall. As he gives only a few native names of places, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain the exact position of the localities to which he alludes.

According to Hall and my own inquiries four places are inhabited by this tribe almost every winter: Tornait (Jones Cape of Hall), about thirty-five miles above Bear Sound, in Frobisher Bay; Operdniving and Tuarpukdjuaq, in Countess of Warwick Sound; Nugumiut, in (Cyrus W.) Field Bay; and Ukadliq, in (Cornell) Grinnell Bay. As these bays open into Davis Strait the formation of the ice is retarded and its extent diminished, and consequently some peculiarities in the arrangement of the life of the Eskimo are observed here. The only occupation of the Nugumiut and the inhabitants of Ukadliq is sealing with the harpoon on the floe of the inner parts of the bay. Near Ukadliq the tide holes east and west of Allen Island abound with seals. In winter, when the seals take to the open ice, the village of this group of families is established near Roger’s Island, where the floe of the bay forms the hunting ground of the natives.

During the autumn the Nugumiut stay in Field Bay. The women are then busy preparing the deerskins; for, on account of the requirements of their religion, the walrus hunt cannot be begun until the deerskins which were taken in summer have been worked up for use. As soon as this is done they travel across Bayard Taylor Pass (so called by Hall) to Frobisher Bay, and in the latter half of December or in the beginning of January settle on Operdniving or on Tuarpukdjuaq in company with the natives who stay here during the fall. In Cumberland Sound I learned that this changing of the habitations takes place almost regularly and that sometimes the settlement is moved to Aqbirsiarbing (Cape True) if the bay is frozen over beyond Operdniving. In traveling to Aqbirsiarbing the tide holes of Ikerassaqdjuaq (Lupton Channel) are avoided by using the pass of Chappell Inlet. Here and in Tornait the natives go sealing on the ice or walrusing at the edge of the floe, which in most cases is not very far off.

About the latter half of March part of the Eskimo begin to travel up Frobisher Bay. In the middle of April, 1862, Hall found a settlement on Qeqertuqdjuaq (Gabriel Island), from which island the floe edge was visited and young seals were caught in the narrow channels between the numerous islands. Towards the end of the month a portion of the natives went farther to the northwest in pursuit of the basking seals (I, p. 470), intending to reach the head of the bay in July. Hall found summer habitations at Ukadliq (I, p. 468); on Field Bay (p. 296); and on Frobisher Bay at Agdlinartung (p. 308), Opera Glass Point (p. 341), Waddell Bay (p. 341), and Nuvuktualung, on the southern point of Beecher Peninsula (p. 348).

A very important hunting ground of the inhabitants of Tiniqdjuarbiusirn (Frobisher Bay), of which I received some detailed accounts, is Lake Amaqdjuaq. In the foregoing remarks on the Akuliaq tribe I described the course which leads from Hudson Strait to the lake. Another route is followed in traveling from the head of Frobisher Bay to Lake Amaqdjuaq, a distance of about fifty miles. Probably the men leave Sylvia Grinnell River and ascend to Lake Amartung, from which lake a brook runs westward to Lake Amaqdjuaq (Baffin-Land, p. 68). The women take a different route and arrive at Aqbeniling after a tramp of six days, near a small bay called Metja. Here the summer huts are erected and birds and deer are killed in abundance.

The facility in reaching the lake from Hudson Strait and Frobisher Bay is a very important consideration, as the Akuliarmiut and the Nugumiut meet here, and thus an immediate intercourse between the tribes is opened. The inhabitants of Hudson Strait leave Tuniqten in spring, arrive at the head of Frobisher Bay in the fall, and after the formation of the ice reach the Nugumiut settlements by means of sledges. When Hall wintered in Field Bay a traveling party of Sikosuilarmiut which had accomplished the distance from King Cape in one year arrived there (I, p. 267).

Another route, which is practicable only for boats, connects Qaumauang with Nugumiut. It leads along the shore of Hudson Strait. The traveler sails through the dangerous passage between Tudjaqdjuaq (Resolution Island) and the mainland and crosses Frobisher Bay either at its entrance or in the shelter of the group of islands farther up the bay.

In their intercourse with the Nugumiut, the inhabitants of Cumberland Sound generally follow the long coast between Ukadliq and Naujateling, passing through the numerous sounds formed by long, narrow islands. I can describe this region from personal observations.