DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA, 127 



REPORT ON FOOD SUPPLY OF ARCTIC ALASKA. 

 By Messrs. Thornton and Lopp. 



( '\ pe Prince of Wales, Alaska, July 25, 1891. 



Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiries as to the food supply at this 

 point, we have to make the following statement of facts: 



During the last year there have been several periods when the natives 

 could not go hunting on account of unfavorable winds. When the wind 

 blows off shore, the floating ice is carried away. At such times the 

 hunters can't go out, because if they did they would be carried off on 

 the floating ice to a miserable death from cold and starvation in the icy 

 wilds of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. 



Within the last ten years 10 men, forced to tempt fate by the grim 

 spectre of approaching starvation, have perished in this manner. Dur- 

 ing the past year 10 hunters were carried off in the same way; some 

 were saved by a fortunate change in the wind, and the others happened 

 to be seen by a party who dragged an umiak over the ice and rescued 

 them. 



During the periods we refer to, many of the natives were forced to 

 sustain life by chewing pieces of old walrus hide, a substance about 

 as palatable and nutritious as sole leather. 



We consider it not at all improbable that an unusually long period 

 of unfavorable weather would bring about great suffering and very 

 probably numerous deaths from starvation. 



Such a condition of affairs would place the lives and property of the 

 missionaries, miners, and traders in this section of Alaska in imminent 

 jeopardy. 



Seals, whales, walrus, and flsh constitute the main dependence of 

 these Eskimo for food; and we have good reason to believe that all 

 four are fast diminishing in numbers. 



The canneries in southern Alaska have gone far toward destroying 

 the salmon of these waters, as is very generally known. This dimin- 

 ishes the food supply of the seals and consequently their number. 

 Many whaling vessels destroy considerable numbers of them; and, 

 from what the natives tell us we are inclined to thiuk they are being 

 gradually driven away from these shores by the use of firearms. 



It is a well-known fact that the number of whales in these waters 

 has been very much diminished by the energetic pursuit of American 

 whalers, and that those which remain have become more wary, and 

 are every year going off further and further from the haunts of men. 

 The natives tell us that the whale was one of their chief sources of 



