EXPEDITION TO POINT BAllUOW, ALASKA. 45 



brother Who had two (who were sisters) gave him one. Their effort .s lo get husbands for the uidows 

 of dead relatives were often very amusing. Mfi'fiialii, a hunter employed nl the station, uas Mip- 

 porting his \\ido\veil mother, who was a great scold; lie brought to his iglu several candidate., for 

 her hand, who had been induced to take the step by .MiVfiialii oii'ering to make them present s j 

 vided they would take her, but a lew days or weeks was about all the most patient could bear; 

 alter several trials and failures among the men of Nuwfik and I" glaamie, he liually gave it up, bat 

 on one of his trips to the eastward he brought back with him a Nunatan menu from Colvillc; 

 as lie was <|iiite deaf and could not understand the I'-laamie language very well Jier shrewishness 

 had no effect upon him, and Muni was happy; ho would laugh immoderately when talking about 

 it : but never, through it all, was he disloyal to his mother ; she always had a place in his iglu. plenty 

 to cat, and was always treated with the, greatest respect. 



In the treatment of their aged and infirm parents, the example set by these people could well 

 be followed by many of the more civili/ed nations to their advantage: they never forget the 

 tender care they received in their childhood, and as their parents grow e.ld and are unable to 

 maintain themselves the children display the greatest devotion. The lirst fruits of the chase is 

 freely given up to them, and uo project undertaken without their approval; and in all things the 

 son remains obedient to the father .so long as he lives, and speaks of him with the great c.-t res] 

 after his death. In their summer journeyings, should they wish to remain at home they (it them 

 up a tent (tnpek) in some pleasant locality, and leave them an abundant supply of provisions, but 

 more often accompany them in their wanderings, being comfortably transported by sled or boat; 

 but the old people are rarely idle, for while the father busies himself making new seal spears and 

 nets the mother assists in providing clothing and boots and dressing skins. We olti-n had our 

 day's journey brought to a sudden termination by some old woman in the party announcing that 

 it was time to go into camp because she was tired or cold, and nothing we could say would over- 

 rule her decision. 



Owing to the exposure and hardships they are obliged to ist- 



oiice they very rarely attain a very great a;;e. and the majority by far die under the age of 

 forty years, and a man at sixty becomes very decrepit. They have no means of keeping a record 

 of their age, and it is generally calculated fro; a some event connected with their hi-- 'he 



ome ship, or a time of fumine or pestilence. Tin. . e man at l/glaam .ml 



11. M. S. Plover. Captain Maguirc, in IS;"),'! and 1S,~H, who. Captain Hull (who was master under 

 Maguire) informs me, was about thirty years of age when the l'if>ve; :er wind : at 



the time of our visit he was very decrepit, ::cail\ i!< .:'.'.. and ciawled ratherthan v..<iked, 



with :v staff in each hand; his shriveled skin. gums, and shrunken limi .im the 



app' but he could have seen but little more than sixty years, if that. 1 



several who said they were children in Maguire's time, and they had every appe. 

 forty-live or lifty. 



That the race is vapidly decreasing is shown by the fact that duri: 



on the coast, in the village of Uglaamic, alone, there were eighteen deaths and only two birtlis in a, 

 population of one hundred and thirt\ 'impson states that in 1S.VJ- the village had 



a population of over two hundred, lie also reports forty iglus. while we found only twenty 

 At Nuwfik, he reports forty eight igbis, and two hundred and . ;>!<. We found this 



village had dwindled to thirty iglus. and less than one hundred and lifty people : and the freshly- 

 cached bodies and numerous half-ruined iglus bore silent testimony to the fan that famine and 

 disease had quite recently been at work. This is undoubtedly owing to the fact th. d- 



supply is rapidly growing less, and that the great number of whales taken oil' the coa>t by the 

 American whaling licet during the last twenty years has nearly exterminated that valuable animal. 

 That they are decreasing in numbers is well known among the a. and the fact that Mr. 



Simpson reports that during the time the Plover was at Point Mai row there were t\\ < 

 taken by the natives, while only two were taken during our stay, one of \\ , 

 to prove, that, they will soon be classed among the extinct mammals, and with them will soon p. 

 awav many of the people inhabiting this shore ; they are slow to take up with an innovation, and 

 they do not really adapt themselves to the new condition of affairs which the losv ,,; thi< -.eat tood- 

 Biipply has brought about. The seal are not numerous, and often leave this C i sea- 



