222 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



"parky" clung to liU baro skin because of the perspiration, and so 

 held firm when drawn laterally over it. The people regarded the feat 

 as remarkable, and did not relish it when Abrahamsen exposed it. 



ESCHATOLOGIGAL TRADITIONS. 



It is believed that long ago all persons passed at death to the devil's 

 house. They were piled one on top of another as sailors are arranged 

 in the bunks of a forecastle. The bodies which were on top suffered 

 decomposition during the summer, and caused pain to the spirits that 

 possessed them. Later it was understood that anyone who would die 

 by hanging at the hands of his relatives or friends would thereby escape 

 the devil's house, and float through the air in the sk}^ These spirits 

 would frequently be killed by arrows shot upward from the bows of 

 the natives, and would then be received into God's house. Later, a 

 man would be received by God into his house straightway if he com- 

 mitted suicide by plunging a knife into his body, or l)y shooting himself 

 with a gun, or allowing his relatives or friends to kill him. I think 

 that the first part of this tradition indicates that formerly dead bodies 

 were interred at this place. The reference to the spirits becoming as 

 clouds possibly marks the change from sepulture to the present method 

 of placing dead bodies on the slope of the mountain. 



DEVELOPMENT OF COD FISHING. 



Abrahamsen, who was formerly a fisherman in the Loffoden Islands, 

 Norway, regards the codfish in the Bering Sea near St. Lawrence Is- 

 land, as the same species as that found in the waters along the coast of 

 Norway. He thought that the prevalence of fog during the summer 

 season might interfere, however, with cod fishing. Mr. Kjellmann, 

 the superintendent of the Eaton Reindeer Station, has very carefully 

 investigated the fisheries problem in the Bering Sea, and told me that 

 the prospect is brighter than that of the situation in Norway, which is 

 saying a great deal. A few years ago he was ready to act as manager 

 of a large fishing enterprise in the Bering Sea, and was diverted by 

 his appointment as superintendent of the Port Clarence Reindeer Sta- 

 tion. I am of the opinion that the cod fishing in the Bering Sea could 

 be most profitabl v developed in view of the fact that the fish would find 

 a read}^ market in Alaska among the prospectors, if not elsewhere. 



Furthermore, I ])elieve that a large num])er of the Alaskan Eskimos 

 could be grcatlv benefited if employed as fishermen. Of course, if the 

 Eskimos are to be aided in the immediate future bj'- receiving from the 

 Government herds of reindeer they would not require any further 

 assistance from our Government. If, however, onl}^ the few are to be 

 thus benefited, I think that the others could be induced to leave the 

 mainland and take up their abode on St. Lawrence Island and engage 



