NELSON] FAMINE ON ST LAWRENCE ISLAND 269 
he immediately proceeded to place himself. The result was that he and 
his family were very short of food during the following winter. 
The terrible famine and accompanying disease which caused the death 
of over a thousand people on St Lawrence island during the winter of 
1879 and 1880 was said to have been caused by the use of whisky. 
The people of that island usually obtained their supply of food for the 
winter by killmg walrus from the great herds of these animals that go 
through Bering strait on the first ice in the fall. The walrus remain 
about the island only a few days and then go south, when the ice closes 
about and shuts the island in till spring. 
Just before the time for the walrus to reach the island that season, 
the Eskimo obtained a supply of whisky from some vessels and began 
a prolonged debauch, which ended only when the supply was exhausted. 
When this occurred the annual migration of the walrus had passed, 
and the people were shut in for the winter by the ice. The result was 
that over two-thirds of the population died before spring. The follow- 
ing spring, when the Corwin visited the islands, some of the survivors 
came on board bringing a few articles for trade. ‘They wished only to 
purchase rifle cartridges and more whisky. 
During July, 1881, the Corwin made a visit to this famine stricken 
district, where the miserable survivors were seen. Only a single dog 
was left among them, the others having been eaten by the starving 
people. Two of the largest villages were entirely depopulated. 
In July I landed at a place on the northern shore where two houses 
were standing, in which, wrapped in their fur blankets on the sleeping 
platforms, lay about 25 dead bodies of adults, and upon the ground 
and outside were a few others. Some miles to the eastward, along the 
coast, was another village, where there were 200 dead people. In a 
large house were found about 15 bodies placed one upon another like 
cordwood at one end of the room, while as many others lay dead in 
their blankets on the platforms. 
In the houses all the wooden and clay food vessels were found turned 
bottom upward and put away in one corner—mute evidences of the 
famine. Scattered about the houses on the outside were various tools 
and implements, clay pots, wooden dishes, trays, guns, knives, axes, 
ammunition, and empty bottles; among these articles were the skulls of 
walrus and of many dogs. The bodies of the people were found every- 
where in the village as well as scattered along in a line toward the 
graveyard for half a mile inland. 
The first to die had been taken farthest away, and usually placed 
at full length beside the sled that had carried the bodies. Scattered 
about such bodies lay the tools and implements belonging to the dead. 
In one instance a body lay outstretched upon a sled, while behind it, 
prone upon his face, with arms outstretched and almost touching the 
sled runners, lay the body of a man who had died while pushing the 
sled bearing the body of his friend or relative. 
Others were found lying in the underground passageways to the 
