22  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
course  with  them,  and  their  language  is  also  the  same,  there  seems  to  be  no 
doubt  that  these  people  are  of  American  origin.  The  eastern  part  of  St. 
Lawrence  Island,  on  which  we  then  were,  they  called  Kealegack  [Kialegak], 
and  the  western  Tschibocka  [Sevuokok].  Their  first  question  to  our  interpreter 
was,  where  we  came  from,  and  whether  our  intention  was  to  kill  them?  But  after 
we  had  given  them  some  glass-beads  and  tobacco,  they  lost  their  suspicions 
The  inconvenient  anchorage  in  which  the  Rurick  lay,  did  not  permit  us  to 
remain  long  on  shore.  We  hastened  on  board,  spread  the  sails,  and  steered  to 
the  northern  point  of  the  island.  The  small  island  [Punuk]  laid  down  on  Cook's 
chart  as  a  single  one,  consists,  as  we  perceived  in  sailing  by,  of  two,  separated 
by  a  narrow  channel.    [Kotzebue,  1821,  vol.  2,  pp.  174-176.] 
Lieutenant  Shishmareff ,  who  accompanied  Kotzebue,  surveyed  parts 
of  the  shore  Hne  of  St.  Lawrence  in  1816  and  1817.  In  1821  he  re- 
turned to  Alaska  in  command  of  the  ship  Good  Intent  and  completed 
the  survey  of  the  St.  Lawrence  coast. 
In  1848  the  first  American  whaling  ship  passed  through  Bering 
Strait  and  met  with  such  success  that  the  next  year  it  was  followed 
by  a  large  fleet  of  vessels.  With  the  whaling  industry  established  in 
the  Bering  Sea  and  western  Arctic,  St.  Lawrence  Island  was  visited 
at  frequent  intervals  but  these  unrecorded  visits,  like  those  of  the 
trading  ships  which  came  later,  provided  no  information  concerning 
the  island  or  its  people.  In  fact,  it  was  not  until  1880,  more  than  60 
years  after  Kotzebue's  voyage,  that  there  is  record  of  another  brief 
visit  to  St.  Lawrence  Island.  In  that  year  Capt.  C.  L.  Hooper,  in 
command  of  the  U.  S.  Revenue  Steamer  Corwin,  stopped  at  St. 
Lawrence  to  investigate  reports  of  the  starvation  of  large  numbers 
of  the  Eskimos  during  the  winter  of  1878-79.  Captain  Hooper  gives 
the  following  account  of  the  distressing  conditions  he  found  on  the 
island,  where  probably  1,000  people,  out  of  a  population  of  around 
1,500,  had  died  during  the  previous  year. 
We  stopped  off  the  first  village  [on  the  north  shore]  ....  about  midnight  of 
June  25,  and  found  the  village  entirely  deserted,  with  sleds,  boat-frames,  paddles, 
spears,  bows  and  arrows,  &c.,  strewn  in  every  direction.  We  saw  no  dead 
bodies ;  probably  missed  them  in  the  faint  twilight,  as  we  subsequently  learned 
at  the  west  end  of  the  island  that  they  had  all  died.  From  the  number  of  houses, 
boats,  &c.,  we  estimated  the  number  of  those  who  had  died  to  be  about  fifty. 
On  the  26th,  we  followed  along  the  north  side  of  the  island,  examining  the 
villages  as  we  came  to  them.  At  Cape  Siepermo  ....  we  found  the  village 
deserted,  not  a  sign  of  life  remaining.  I  counted  fifty-four  dead  bodies;  and, 
as  these  were  nearly  all  full-grown  males,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many 
more  died.  The  women  and  children  doubtless  died  first,  and  were  buried. 
Most  of  those  seen  were  just  outside  the  village,  with  their  sleds  beside  them, 
evidently  having  been  dragged  out  by  the  survivors,  as  they  died,  until  they, 
becoming  too  weak  for  further  exertion,  went  into  their  houses,  and,  covering 
themselves   with   skins,   laid  down  and   died.    In  many   of   the   houses  we   saw 
