100 CRUISE OF STEAMER COEWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



aud the pologs is used as a store-room and contains all articles belonging to the owner of the tent. 

 Various causes are assigned for the abandonment by the Innuits of the attempt to settle here. 

 Some believe they were driven back by the more warlike Tchuktchis, and there are traditions 

 extant among the latter of a strange people coming among them to settle, and of desperate fights, 

 in which the intruders were either killed outright or driven back, at times being pressed so hard 

 by their euemies that they were glad to escape by sea. Others believe it is because the whales, 

 which formerly came there in great numbers, are now seldom seen. It is not unlikely that these 

 causes united have discouraged the Innuits from making any further attempts. 



Richardson, aud probably Dr. Rink also, in classing the sedentary Tchuktchis with the Innuits, 

 were guided by the accounts of Baron Wrangel, and it is probable that when Wrangel made his 

 famous voyage along that coast, sixty years ago, a few Innuits still remained. Now, however, 

 they have entirely disappeared, with the exception of a few in the immediate vicinity of East 

 Cape, who have intermarried with the Tchuktchis, and perhaps four hundred on Saint Lawrence 

 Island. The latter are rapidly disappearing, being carried off by disease and famine. This island 

 lies about two degrees south of Bering Strait, aud, although forming a part of Alaska, the bound- 

 ary line separating that country from the Russian possessions passing to the westward of it, the 

 inhabitants can only reach Alaska by way of the Siberian coast, the distance between the nearest 

 points of Alaska and the island being far too great for them to travel direct. 



Like all their class, with the exception of a few who live in parts of the country that are 

 entirely barren of game at some season of the year, the inhabitants of Saint Lawrence Island are 

 improvident, and depend upon the game they can take from day to day for their subsistence. 

 And if from any cause they fail to take a supply for any considerable length of time hunger and 

 want follow, and starvation is only a question of time. They subsist almost entirely upon seals 

 aud walrus, which they' take during the winter at or near the edge of the ice aud at the holes 

 which open as the ice breaks and changes its position. When the ice remains unbroken a long 

 distance from the shore and thick, stormy weather prevails, so that the natives cannot hunt, their 

 supply of food is cut off. This seems to have been the case during the winter of 1878-'79. 

 Judging from native accounts, the ice remained in this unbroken state several mouths, resulting 

 in the loss of uot less than one thousand lives out of a population of less than fifteen hundred. 

 The percentage of deaths appeared so extraordinary that I have at times thought the island must 

 have been visited by an epidemic. But the iuvariable answer of the survivors when asked the 

 cause was, "No get eat," and no amount of cross-questioning could elicit any other. It is evident 

 that they attribute the mortality to starvation, and indeed the fact that the dogs had all been 

 eaten shows that their hunger must have been great, as they will only eat their dogs when 

 reduced to the last extremity. 



I made a personal examination of five of the six settlements on the island. At three of them 

 all were dead, not one left alive. At-a fourth about sixteen, two families, were still alive, and at 

 the time of our visit had plenty of food. At the large settlement on the northwest end of the 

 island we were informed that about two hundred had died, and that nearly four hundred yet 

 remained alive. I have since learned that at the sixth settlement, on the southeast end of the 

 island, the inhabitants had nearly all disappeared. In one house we counted thirty dead bodies 

 thrown together in a heap in the corner. In every house opened by us great ghastly piles of dead 

 bodies were exposed to view. At one deserted settlement I saw eight or nine bodies, probably an 

 entire family, dead in a summer-house, showing that they must have survived the winter, as they 

 would not put up the summer-house until the weather was warm enough to melt the snow and 

 ice, thus making the winter-houses wet and uncomfortable. It appears strange that, after sur- 

 viving the winter, and with strength enough remaining to put up and move into their summer- 

 houses, they should be unable to supply themselves with food and regain their health and 

 strength. By the time they could occupy their summer-houses the ice must have been broken so 

 as to render seal hunting possible. It is probable that this family, haviug seen so many die, made 

 no effort to save their own lives. Believing they were doomed, they submitted quietly to what to 

 them appeared inevitable, and daily growing weaker, stretched upon the ground and covering 

 themselves with furs, waited for the eud. In this position we found them lying as if asleep, their 

 guns, bows, arrows, spears, and traps lying strewn on the ground. I could not learn that any 



