94 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



Among them there is no knowledge and no idea of 

 a Supreme Being, nor of a future state. One whom 

 I questioned said, ' Husky die, no more Husky.' 

 They have no account of the creation of the world, 

 and their story of the origin of the human race is 

 incoherent." 



Is it then a matter for wonderment that these wild 

 children of illimite'd barren wastes, dwellers in a 

 land of mournful solitudes, should cherish in their 

 hearts strange illusions, or weird phantasies of the 

 dread unknown ? In a land where the fickle and 

 short-lived summer gives place for long weary 

 months to the chill, fierce grip of ice and snow, 

 when nature is clothed in garbs of cruelty, and 

 seldom smiles in gentle moods; where in southern 

 regions the sighing of the wind moans through 

 dense, silent forests, or across northern wastes, icy 

 blasts rush down from snow-clad mountain tops to 

 mingle in wild cadence with tempestuous waves on 

 a storm-swept, desolate coast. 



During our brief stay in Dutch Harbour we paid 

 several visits to the adjacent picturesque little settle- 

 ment of Unalaska, and upon one of these occasions 

 we were fortunate enough to encounter a man named 

 Macdonald. He had spent many years on these 

 coasts, having been skipper of a sealing schooner in 

 the palmy days when the valuable sea-otter and fur 

 seals were still numerous along the Bering Sea 

 shores. In course of conversation with Captain 

 Clemsen, this man displayed such an intimate know- 



