— 41 — 



It is too soon to speak of the final result yet, but the 

 existing population gives little hope of attaining a steady 

 or persevering generation. The pure species of the funda- 

 mental group, — the Aleuts has already entirely disappea- 

 red and it is doubtful, whether it even existed at the time 

 the adjacent Islands were discovered, as it had without 

 doubt an admixture of Japanese blood from those Japanese, 

 that were (expelled by historians), belong to the Mongo- 

 lian inhabitants of North-America of very numerous tribes, 

 but who have general autropological features (habits) and 

 the same basis of language (agglutinatives). By fragments 

 of poetry, narratives and the foundation of the language, 

 one can sketch in general lines, the way the Aleutian 

 stratum was peopled, whereby the new-comers sup- 

 planted those, who had settled earlier to the very end of 

 the Aleutian Islands. A further transmigration was put 

 a stop to, by a broad strait (300 miles) separating the 

 Commander Islands from the adjacent Aleutian Islands. 

 Although there are some existing proofs, that the Com- 

 mander Islands were visited before their discovery by 

 Behring, yet it is difficult to say by whom, as there is 

 nothing to go by, except the discovery of a few arrow 

 points (decidedly of Aleutian origin). 



Though from the time of their emigration from Ame- 

 rica (Alaska) the Aleuts, or as they call themselves 

 Ounangakh (man) were already acquainted with the use 

 of flint stone arms and the treatment of furs for seal skin 

 cances and their construction (the construction of the 

 skeleton they have most likely borrowed), but the summit 

 of their civilization was not great, they mere on that low 

 step, which one might call a zoological state. The Aleuts 

 had nothing more than a dart and a most primitive stone- 

 hatchet with needles of fish-bone, an angle composed of 

 wood and bone. They did not know the bow, which was 

 brought much later. 



They spent their life in looking for food, constantly 

 fighting to get it, the animosity was a general feature 



