4                                     David Flaherty

iron ore deposits on a little-known group of islands in Hudson
Bay called the Nastapokas. In 1910 the Canadian government
had decided to build a railway from the wheat fields of western
Canada to the west coast of Hudson Bay in order to provide an
outlet for the shipment of «-heat through the Bay and Hudson
Strait to Europe. Sir ^^'illiam reasoned that if wheat could be
sent that way to the great markets of the world, iron ore
could be too.

On the first of his expeditions, travelling hundreds of miles
by dog sledge \\ith Eskimo drivers, Flaherty found, after break¬
ing off and examining rock samples from the iron-bearing cliffs
of the Nastapokas, that the iron ore deposits were too lean to
be of the least economic importance.

Nevertheless, Sir William, persisting in his quest for iron ore,
sent Flaherty again to the North. In the course of his subse¬
quent expeditions Flaherty, with Eskimos as his sole companions,
made two crossings of the great Ungava peninsula, the first by
dog sled in the spring of 1912, and the return crossing—along
a more northerly route follo\\'ing the courses of lakes and rivers
—by canoe in the summer of the same year.

But the mo,st significant achievement of these northern ex¬
plorations was his re-discovery of a large group of iron-bearing
islands in Hudson Bay know n as the Belchers, which appeared
as mere dots on the maps. On these islands he spent a winter,
exploring and mapping them and in^-estigating their large de¬
posits of iron ore. To the largest island of the group the
Canadian government has given his name.

On a later expedition Flaherty, who at that time knew noth¬
ing about films, took along with him at Sir William's urging
a motion picture camera in order to make notes of his explora¬
tions. Also, he wanted to show his friends at home what fine
people the Eskimos were, upon «hose cheerful courage and
skill as guides and hunters the success of his travels depended.

His first attempt at film-making ended in disaster. While
editing the picture in Toronto, he accidentally dropped a cigar-