Page:The Caribou Eskimos.djvu/77

HARVAQTÔRMIUT

Household	Men	Women	Boys	Girls
I	1	2	0	0
II	1	1	0	0
III	1	1	1	2
IV	1	1	3	0
V	1	1	1	2
VI	1	1	4	0
VII	1	1	1	0
VIII	1	2	1	2
IX	1	1	2	1
X	1	1	2	0
XI	1	1	0	1[B 1]
XII	1	1	3	4
XIII	1	1	1	0
XIV	1	1	0	1
XV	1	2	1	0
XVI	1	2	1	0
XVII	1	2	3	2
Total	17	21	23	150
Grand total: 76.

We have some figures as to population from former years, and these are interesting to compare with those above. Based upon Capt. Comer's counts, Boas puts the Qaernermiut at 146 in 1898, whilst in 1902 the Hauneqtôrmiut numbered no less than 178.^[1] From the journeys of the Tyrrell brothers there are no actual counts, but between Ennadai Lake and Hikoligjuaq alone they passed 16 camps with 44 tents — eloquent evidence of a fairly numerous population, which were estimated at five to six hundred in all.^[2] It is clear that the population not so many years ago was a good deal bigger than now.^[3] One of the principal causes of its decline is the terrible periods of famine which have ravaged the country. One of the worst is said to have been the winter of 1919; people were then living between Hikoligjuaq and Eskimo Point, but this stretch is now almost deserted. It was this Pâdlimiut band which bore the special name of Tahiuharmiut, of which there are now only three families left. The Hudson's Bay Company employees believe that at least 100 people perished that winter; but every winter some people here or there seem to die of hunger and, unless vigorous measures are taken from the outside, the day is not far distant when the Caribou Eskimos will have to be entered on the sad list of extinct tribes.

Density of population. At the most 500 people, spread over an area as large as that we are now dealing with, gives an exceedingly thin population. Of course it is impracticable to exactly

1. Boas 1907; 7, 377 seq. Cf. Low 1906; 35.
2. J. B. Tyrrell 1898; 144 seqq., 150 seqq., 191 seq.
3. Cf. also Turquetil's figures, p. 66 note 1 in this work.