Sketches From Oldest America 



birds and ducks seemed to be trying to overtake 

 the retreating sun as it worked its way southward, 

 the godwit continuing its flight as far as New 

 Zealand, where it yet continues to spend the winter 

 months. 



Many of the inhabitants of Alaska, in trying to 

 make their escape from the cold, apparently pre- 

 ferred to follow the sun in its western course. 

 These people had progressed far enough to know 

 the art of canoe building. The remains of three of 

 their canoes are to be seen to-day on mountains in- 

 land, where they have been well preserved by the 

 ice and snow, remaining as silent witnesses of an 

 early day and showing where the ocean used to be 

 in the remote past. Also on higher ground inland 

 can be seen the skeleton of a whale; while on the 

 Seward Peninsula, on land between four and five 

 hundred feet higher than the ocean, an acquaintance 

 found a driftwood log in a fair state of preserva- 

 tion. The people, following the chain of islands 

 which separate Behring Sea from the Pacific Ocean, 

 reached Siberia, which they probably crossed. We 

 read that there lived in Europe at a very early date, 

 a rude race of hunters and fishers, closely allied to 

 the Eskimos, who were apparently driven there 

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