GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



301 



William Land and Adelaide Peninsula are cor- 

 rected and completed, and long stretches of 

 new territory were traveled. The fate of the 

 Franklin Expedition can only be read by the one 

 rescued document and the graves of its mem- 

 bers. Weakened by scurvy and lumbered with 

 boats and stores, their march southward, com- 

 menced April 26, 1848, was slow and painful. 

 Sickness carried them off rapidly, and hunger 

 added its ravages. They were succored for a 

 time and then abandoned by Esquimaux at 

 Washington Bay. A detachment, probably led 

 by Irving, seerns to have thought of returning to 

 the ships, either to bring provisions, or to take 

 their chances for safety on board. A larger 

 division continued the march to the south. A 

 part of the enfeebled band seem to have tried 

 to cross Simpson Strait in a boat, and to have 

 been cast ashore again near Pfelfer River. 

 They had readied the south shore too late to 

 cross on the ice; but the following winter the 

 handful who survived crossed the strait to lie 

 down and die at Starvation Cove. Perhaps 

 the diseased and famine-stricken crews had 

 been fallen upon and numbers of them mas- 

 sacred by Esquimaux who coveted their wea- 

 pons or feared the destruction of their game. 



The Arctic cruise of Captain Hooper in the 

 United States revenue-cutter Cor win had for 

 its objects the discovery of the fate of missing 

 whaling-vessels, and of tidings of the explor- 

 ing steamer Jeannette ; a visit to St. Lawrence 

 Island at the entrance of Behring Strait, where 

 many of the natives have perished of starva- 

 tion; and the suppression of the traffic in whis- 

 ky and firearms with the Indians of Alaska. 

 The Corwin sailed from San Francisco, May 

 22d, and returned to that port, October 12th. 

 Five different attempts to reach high latitudes 

 east of Wrangel Land were made by the Cor- 

 win. She came within twenty-five miles of 

 Wrangel Land, September llth, and within 

 three miles of Herald Island, August 3d. No 

 news of the Jeannette or of the whalers was 

 obtained. The first push for the north was 

 made before the summer had well begun, after 

 visiting the Island of St. Lawrence. Several 

 hundred Indians had starved to death, owing to 

 an unusually severe season, and improvidence 

 induced by their newly acquired habit of drink- 

 ing rum. They were stopped in about latitude 

 69 by packed ice, July 2d. Herald Island was 

 surrounded by ice supposed to be at least two 

 years old. This is said to rarely break up be- 

 tween this island and Wrangel Land. W T hen 

 Wrangel Land was sighted, the highest hills, 

 which seem to be more distant, were entirely 

 covered with snow, other lower ones were par- 

 tially covered, and others still lower were bare. 

 Three peaks were observed which were about 

 3,000 feet apparently in height, the central 

 peak conical and the others round-topped. 

 North of these was a range of rounded hills, 

 the summits of which appeared to be about 

 2,000 feet high. At a point farther north the 

 land seemed to end. Captain Hooper doubts 



whether Wrangel Land is ever free from ice. 

 He considers it an island, possibly one of a 

 chain passing through the polar regions to 

 Greenland. The Corwin coasted the northern 

 shoreof Alaska a far asPoint Barrow, the north- 

 ernmost extremity of United States territory. 

 The Indians who came down to St. Michaels 

 with fur-traders, some of whom are located 

 2,000 miles from the coast, are described as su- 

 perior in physique to the coast Indians. They 

 are tall, erect, and muscular, with piercing 

 black eyes, courageous, and not as yet addicted 

 to drink. They attack the fierce black bears 

 with knives, deeming it cowardly to shoot 

 them. The canoes, or kyaclcs, used by the Indi- 

 ans of the coast, are remarkably fleet and hand- 

 some. The nomadic inhabitants of Point Hope 

 have larger boats, called oomialcs, in which 

 they travel. They are made of walrus-hide 

 or seal-skin, drawn over a wooden frame, which 

 is fastened with thongs with slip joints to al- 

 low of its giving in a seaway. They are flat- 

 bottomed, about thirty feet long, six wide, and 

 two and a half deep. The men use paddles and 

 the women oars. The dogs follow along the 

 beach, and are sometimes harnessed to the boat 

 in a head wind. The Esquimaux of Alaska 

 are very different in appearance from those of 

 Labrador, being a remarkably tall and muscular 

 people. This is due, in the opinion of Cap- 

 tain Hooper, to intermarriage with the athletic 

 Indians of the interior. They have low, nar- 

 row foreheads, high cheek-bones, and large 

 mouths with very thick lips. Their coarse 

 black hair is cropped short on the top of the 

 head. The men wear in holes bored in the 

 lower lip on each side of the mouth pieces of 

 polished stone, glass, or ivory, round, square, 

 or oblong in shape, three quarters of an inch 

 to two inches in diameter and one eighth to 

 one half inch thick. The women do most of the 

 work. Their infants are carried under their seal- 

 skin tunics on their backs. The parents care 

 for their children tenderly. Their marriages 

 are not prolific. When a wife is barren tho 

 husband often brings a second one into the 

 house. They are a good-natured people, al- 

 ways laughing. They call themselves Inuits. 

 The seal is their main support. The flesh and 

 fat of this animal is their chief food ; its skin 

 is the material of their clothing, their tents, 

 and their boats ; they also light and warm 

 themselves in winter with its oil, and make fish 

 and bird nets of thongs cut from its hide. 

 They catch salmon and other fish in seines and 

 gill-nets, and hunt the white whale, driving it 

 into shoal water in their swift canoes, where it 

 is speedily dispatched with flint spears. They 

 also hunt the bowhead whale. They throw 

 into the whale spears about six feet long with 

 heads of flint or ivory tipped with iron. To 

 these are fastened by thongs inflated seal-skin 

 bags which prevent the whale from escaping 

 by diving. They stalk the seal with the rifle 

 in the spring and fall, and show great skill and 

 patience in hunting the wary animal. They 



