perhaps abandoned twenty-five to fifty years 

 ago. The inhabitants of these apparentlj' en- 

 gaged in whaling to judge by the number of 

 whale vertebra? scattered about. 



THE DISCOVERY OF ESKIMO WHO HAVE NEVER 

 SEEN A WHITE MAN 



At Point Wise we found the first evidences 

 of this year's travel — pieces of wood cut in 

 two and portions carried off, as material for 

 sleds and bows, no doubt. At Cape Bexley, 

 May 12, we came upon a village of over forty 

 snow houses. These had apparently been re- 

 cently abandoned. Sled-trails led north toward 

 Victoria Land, which is visible across the strait 

 everywhere east of Point Wise. As the ex- 

 plorers of the last century never found people 

 near here, I supposed village and trail evidences 

 of visits of Victoria Land people who had come 

 across the strait to get driftwood. After an 

 hour on the trail, we saw another village and 

 people out .seahng — approximately in the mid- 

 dle of Dolphin and Union Strait. 



Through neglecting the conventional peace 

 signal of the Central Eskimo (extending the 

 arms horizontally) our messenger, who preceded 

 us by a few hundred yards, came near being 

 knifed by the man whom he approached, who 

 took his attitude (the arms down) for a chal- 

 lenge or rather a posture of attack. After the 

 first parley however, everything was most 

 friendly, and we found them the kindly, cour- 

 enerous people that I have everywhere found the less civilized E.skimo 



Four-ycar-okl Eskimo girl experienc- 

 ing the new sensation of liaving lier 

 picture taken. Slie is wearing a coat 

 of long-haired winter caril)ou skin 



teous and 

 to be. 



We were fed with all the best they had, choice parts of freshly killed seals and huge 

 musk ox horn flagons of steaming blood soup. There was no prying into our affairs 

 or into our baggage; no one entered our house unannounced, and when alone at home 

 the first visitor always approached our house singing so that we had several minutes' 

 warning of his coming. At this time they had not enough meat to give their dogs 

 more than half-rations, yet ours never wanted a full meal, and our own days were a 

 continual feast. 



There were thirty-nine individuals in this group, a small part of the A-kii-lI-.a-kat- 

 tdg-ml-ut. Neither they, nor their forefathers as far as they knew, had ever seen a 

 white man, an Indian, or an Eskimo from the west. They considered the Intlians 

 bad people as also the Eskimo to the west, but the white men {Ka-blu-n&t) they 

 considered good people. That their notion of Kablunat is vague may be seen in 

 that none of them recognized me as one, considering mc the older brother of one of 

 my Eskimo. 



The winter home of the Akuliakattagmiut is in the middle of the strait north of 

 Cape Bexley, but in summer they hunt inland south of Cai)e Bexley. The t(>rritory 

 of those people has been supposed by geograi)hers to be definitt^ly known as iminhab- 

 ited. Their isolation has been complete and largely self-imposed because of their 



