comprised nearly all that was left of the tribe which formerly occupied
the western coast of Adelaide Peninsula and King William Land. We
concluded to encamp with them, and get what information we could from
them concerning our mate and the Franklin ships. We were fortunate in
finding the old man, an interesting and important witness. "Esquimau
Joe," Ishnark, and Equeesik acted as interpreters, and through them we
learned that these people were in great distress for food. The musk-ox
we saw cached was all the meat they had in hand, or had had for a long
time. An old man of their tribe had starved to death about a month
before our arrival. We gave them some reindeer meat, of which we
fortunately had plenty on the sleds, and told them where they would
find the carcass of a reindeer that one of our party had killed the day
before and left on the field because the sleds were too far off to wait
for it. Their clothing was in a dilapidated condition, though
originally well made, and instead of reindeer gloves and shoes, they
wore articles made of musk-ox skin, which had a most extraordinary
effect. The hair of the musk-ox is several inches long, and it looked
as if they had an old-fashioned muff on each hand. They were very good
natured and friendly, however, and helped to build our igloos and make
them comfortable. We obtained from them a few trifling relics of the
'Erebus' and 'Terror', in exchange for knives and needles,
which made them happy. It seemed strange to me that they should be
hungry in a country swarming with reindeer, but our people explained to
me that in winter it is almost impossible to get near enough to
reindeer; to kill them with arrows, which are their only weapons. In
summer they kill a few reindeer from their kyacks, or skin canoes,
while crossing the big lakes on their migrations. The Netchilliks also
kill a few reindeer in this way. In the summer and fall these people
catch great quantities of salmon and cow-e-sil-lik, a species of fish
peculiar to this country, and in the neighboring hills kill a few