A Collecting Trip to Little Diomede Island 



By Johan Koren 



ON August 21, 1910, the " Teddy Bear" again was ready to leave for the 

 Arctic, and I joined her, as I now had opportunity to get another visit 

 to the Diomede Islands. For although the egg season had long ago passed, 

 I hoped to be able to secure at least downies of the more remarkable species 

 that breed there. 



In fair weather the schooner used to make this trip in less than 20 

 hours, but a regular gale from the N. W. gave us so much trouble to fight, 

 that I did not reach my destination until the 25th of August First the 

 vessel broke her rudder and had to seek harbour in Port Clarence, where she 

 had to be unloaded and pulled upon the beach to get fixed, and this alone 

 delayed us nearly two days. Next we had to lay over for storm at Tin City, 

 Cape Prince of Wales, before entering the Strait. But at last, on August 

 25, the weather cleared, and the storm abated. The Captain said that this 

 was the first time he ever saw the Diomedes without fog. This morning 

 we could even plainly see hills of Hast Cape, and whalers across the strait, 

 about 45 nautical miles wide, before leaving Tin City, and it is certainly not 

 every day a person, while standing on American territory, can enjoy the 

 sight of the coast 'of the Asiatic continent. 



When crossing the strait a great number of Pacific Fulmars were seen, 

 birds, that, strangely enough, do not breed on any of the islands in these 

 waters. I left the schooner at the Eskimo village on Little Diomede, which 

 island it may be commonly known, belongs to the United States. (The 

 Big Diomede is Russian territory.) 



The natives of both the Diomede Islands belong to the same race of 

 Eskimos as those on the Seward Penisula, of Alaska, and they have an al- 

 together different language from that of the Tchouktchees. The United 

 States have furnished a mission or schoolhouse for the little village of about 

 150 souls on the Little Diomede, and a school-teacher, who also acts as a 

 minister. The school-teachers on this lonely place usually change every 

 two years and at the present time the Eskimos were without any, awaiting a 

 new man before the close of navigation. 



The Diomedes are certainly the most interesting and strange looking 

 islanders in the world. I shall certainly always remember the quaint im- 

 pression I received when landing at the little Eskimo village situated on the 

 rookeries of seabirds and swarmed around by clouds of small divers. The huts 

 of these natives are chiefly built of stones in the loose rocks of the steep hill- 



