NELSON] FAMINE ON ST LAWRENCE ISLAND 269 



he immediately proceeded to place himself. The result was that he and 

 his family were very short of food during the following winter. 



The terrible famine and accompanying disease which caused the death 

 of over a thousand people on St Lawrence island during the winter of 

 1879 and 1880 was said to have been caused by the use of whisky. 

 The people of that island usually obtained their supply of food for the 

 winter by killing walrus from the great herds of these animals that go 

 through Bering strait on the first ice in the fall. The walrus remain 

 about the island only a few days and then go south, when the ice closes 

 about and shuts the island in till spring. 



Just before the time for the walrus to reach the island that season, 

 the Eskimo obtained a supply of whisky from some vessels and began 

 a prolonged debauch, which ended only when the supply was exhausted. 

 When this occurred the annual migration of the walrus had passed, 

 and the peoi)le were shut in for the winter by the ice. The result was 

 that over two-thirds of the population died before spring.. The follow- 

 ing spring, when the Coricin visited the islands, some of the survivors 

 came on board bringing a few articles for trade. They wished only to 

 purchase ritle cartridges and more whisky. 



During July, 1881, the Corivin made a visit to this famine stricken 

 district, where the miserable survivors were seen. Only a single dog 

 was left among them, the others having been eaten by the starving 

 people. Two of the largest villages were entirely depopulated. 



In July I landed at a i)lace on the northern shore where two houses 

 were standing, in which, wrapped in their fur blankets on the sleeping 

 platforms, lay about 25 dead bodies of adults, and upon the ground 

 and outside were a few others. Some miles to the eastward, along the 

 coast, was another village, where there were 200 dead people. In a 

 large house were found about 15 bodies x)laced one upon another like 

 cordwood at one end of the room, while as many others lay dead in 

 their blankets on the platforms. 



In the houses all the wooden and clay food vessels were found turned 

 bottom upward and put away in one corner — mute evidences of the 

 famine. Scattered about the houses on the outside were various tools 

 and implements, clay pots, wooden dishes, trays, guns, knives, axes, 

 ammunition, and emj)ty bottles; among these articles were the skulls of 

 walrus and of many dogs. The bodies of the people were found every- 

 where in the village as well as scattered along in a line toward the 

 graveyard for half a mile inland. 



The first to die had been taken farthest away, and usually placed 

 at full length beside the sled that had carried the bodies. Scattered 

 about such bodies lay the tools and implements belonging to the dead. 

 In one instance a body lay outstretched upon a sled, while behind it, 

 prone upon his face, with arms outstretched and almost touching the 

 sled runners, lay the body of a man who had died while pushing the 

 sled bearing the body of his friend or relative. 



Others were found lying in the underground passageways to the 



