ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LIII 
to health progressed, and he became a collaborator of the 
Agricultural Department attached to the Biological Survey. 
In 1893 he was so far recovered as to offer, for the first time, 
some promise of arranging his manuscript, and illustrating it 
from the collections, in a form suitable for publication; and 
during the winter of 1895-96 this plan was largely carried 
out. The descriptions of the territory, the tribes, and the 
objective collections are incorporated in the accompanying 
memoir; the linguistic collections made in connection with the 
other lines of work are not yet finally elaborated. 
The Eskimauan family or stock constitutes one of the most 
remarkable peoples of the world. They are noteworthy as 
the most northerly and most characteristically Arctic inhabit- 
ants of America and part of Eurasia; they are conspicuous 
for the vast linear extent and extreme narrowness of their 
range—a range merely skirting the coasts of Arctic water 
from Greenland to Siberia; they are remarkable for close 
similarity throughout their extensive range—in language, 
beliefs, industries, and a peculiar esthetic development—and 
equally remarkable for dissimilarity from neighboring peoples 
of other families; and most students have been puzzled by the 
apparent absence of definite social organization, and, in some 
cases, by the apparent absence of fiducial ceremonies. Several 
of these characteristics of the Eskimo receive new light through 
the intimate acquaintance enjoyed by Mr Nelson with the tribes 
about Bering strait. The memoir fully illustrates and empha- 
sizes the delicate interrelation between the Eskimo and their 
severe environment; the implements, utensils, weapons, cloth- 
ing, and habitations are of local material, and of type deter- 
mined, at least in large measure, by material and other local 
conditions; the principal elements of belief and ceremony 
reflect climatal and other local factors in a conspicuous degree; 
while the special manifestations of capacity include endurance 
of cold and wet, deftness in making and handling water craft, 
ability for forced marches through sun and storm, skill in 
improvising shelters, ete. On the whole, the Eskimo afford a 
peculiarly instructive example of adjustment to surroundings, 
and of enforced 
albeit slow—progress in making conquest of 
environment in their strife for existence. 
