202 



NATURE 



{Jtdy II, 1872 



North West Greenland. I suppose these build their igloos of 

 stone because they have no wood, and prefer this kind of house 

 to a snow hut, because the walrus which they kill in great num- 

 bers, and which, according to Drs. Kane and Mayes, forms their 

 principal food, affords al)undance of fat for fuel. A stone house 

 with fire is warmer than a snow hut witliout it. 



As the I'^scpumaux, of all people I have ever met with, most 

 readily adapt themselves to circumstances at very short notice, I 

 lielieve that these Arctic Highlanders could under every difficulty 

 build kayaks for themselves, were tliey absolutely necessary, 

 otherwise how can we account for the Esquimaux in the south of 

 CireenlanJ (whom iMr. Lloworth believes to be the descendants 

 of these Arctic Highlanders) having built both kayaks and 

 oomiaks almost identical in form and construction with tliose in 

 use among the " American Esquimaux " of liehring Strait and 

 the Mackenzie, several thousand miles distant, with whom they 

 could have no direct communication ? This has always appeared 

 to me a very curious circumstance difficult of solution, except by 

 supposing that the ".Skrelings" crossed Davis' Strait at its 

 narrowest part from Cumberland Island to Greenland, a distance 

 of 200 geographical miles — a theory which I do not think so 

 probalile as the one I liave already advanced. 



"The Arctic Highlanders have become alarmed at the rapid 

 diminution of their numbers through famine and disease." 



This feeling is not peculiar to the Arctic Highlanders, for 

 Ijoth at Repulse Bay and at the Coppermine River a very 

 similar story -ivas told me. 



Between 1S47 and 1S54, the dates of my two visits to Repulse 

 B.ry, forty or fifty of my old friends in that neighbourhood —men, 

 women, and children — had died in one season, and nearly all 

 from starvation, caused, I was told, by one of those erratic 

 migrations of animals I have .already mentioned. 



Although there is every probability that the musk cattle, of 

 which skulls are found scattered along the shores of Smith Sound, 

 had been killed by the Esquimaux, the "absence of the lower 

 jaws " is no proof that they were so killed. Wolves, foxes, or 

 bears, would carry off these lowerjaws and very likely "break them 

 up," but the head itself would be rather an uncomfortable bur- 

 den for the two first-named animals, and would not afford much 

 nourishment to Bruin, and even his strong teeth would find an old 

 musk bull's skull rather a hard nut to crack if he did attempt it. 



"The American Esquimaux never go from their own hunting- 

 range for any distance to the inhospitable north. " 



It is very difficult to define what "any distance" may mean, 

 but I have known them go several hundred miles in one season 

 to look out for fresli hunting-grounds or seas, either north or 

 south, and if they find game they remain there. If the game 

 moves away, the Esquimaux will follow it, whether north or 

 south, if not stopped as trespassers by some of their own country- 

 men who have had previous occupation. 



Wlien I went to Repulse Bay in 1S53, I was surprised and 

 disappointed at finding no Esquimaux — for we wanted dogs 

 from them — wdiere a very considerable number had been in 

 1S46-7. In the spring (1S54) we found that none had wintered, 

 as far as we could learn, within 200 miles of our winter quarters. 

 The Cliippewayanlegend told by Sir John Franklin iswell known 

 to the Hudson's Bay Company's people. 



The Indians resorted in old times to the deposits of native 

 copper on the Coppermine River to obtain that useful metal, 

 with which to make spear and arrow heads, &c. ; and it was 

 probably on one of these occasions that an Indian woman may 

 have been carried off "across the sea" to Victoria on WoUaston 

 Land," some points of which are within sight of and at no great 

 distance from the Continent. Very likely, instead of being kept in 

 slavery, some good fellow made her his wife, and treated her as 

 such, much more kindly than she would have been treated 

 among her own countrymen. 



In fact, although the habits of the Esquimaux near the Cop- 

 permine have nothing of the Indian in them, the face and form 

 of several that I have seen differ widely from the true Esquimaux 

 type, thereby indicating a mixture of blood or races. 



That admirable traveller and keen oliserver, Mackenzie, "cer- 

 tainly knew the country well," but he did not know much of the 

 Esquimaux, for the simple reason (hat he had very little oppor- 

 tunity of becoming acquainted with them. As an authority on 

 anything relating to the Indians, either east or west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, no man could be more reliable. 



Mackenzie says at p. 406 of his book, "They (the Esquimaux) 

 never quit tlie coast." I think Sir Alexander Mackenzie meant 

 by this that they never went inland ; the only interpretation 



which would, I think, give his opinion any weight. If in saying 

 "they never quit tlie coast," he meant that they never crossed the 

 sea or ice to other lands or islands to the north, which he by his 

 own observation could not possibly have. known, it would be in 

 perfect contradiction to the Chippcwayan legend of the woman 

 being carried across the sea, &c., and to our present knowledge. 



It is not at all necessary for the American Esquimau.x to cross 

 Behring Strait to enable them to obtain articles of Russian manu- 

 facture from the Tchuktchi, nor for these to cross over to America 

 for this purpose. A number of Russian trading-posts have for 

 very many years Ijeen established in Russian America (now 

 Alaska), and these traders have carried on a large and direct 

 traffic ia articles of Russian manufacture with the Tchuktchi and 

 Esquimaux. 



It is that very "fragment" of so called Tchuktchi, of Tchuktchi 

 Ness, found in the extreme north-eastern part of Asia, and a few 

 of tlie Kamslcatkans, whose language, custom, or physique re- 

 semljle, to some extent, those of the Esquimaux, which I humbly 

 think give strength to my belief in the original eastward migra- 

 tion of those curious people. 



That there may have been a subsequent re-migration, so to 

 speak, of Tcliuktchi from America westward across Behring 

 Strait to Asia, is, I think, very probable. 



The Esquimaux and Tchuktchi of America, although they meet 

 to trade for mutual advantage, are by no means friends, for they 

 are (or were very recently) often at war with each other. 



I can scarcely think that the American Esquimaux have been 

 "sophisticated " by contact with the Indians. At the present time 

 they differ from the Indians in every particular. In their dress, 

 in their manners, in their mode of pitching their tents, of cooking 

 and eating, fisliing and hunting, in the form of their fish spears 

 and hooks, in sewing, in the way of treating tlieir wives, &c. 

 Indeed, even at Churchill, ^vhere they come much in contact 

 with the Indians, they seem to have acquired none of their habits 

 or custo.ns. 



Tills letter has increased in length far beyond the limits I had 

 contemplated, and I am almost ashamed to forward it to you 

 with any hope of its finding a place in the columns of N.-vture, 

 but I felt almost bound to write something : first becaus; an 

 answer of some kind was required to the several arguments so well 

 and ably used Ijy Mr. Howorth, and secondly because I wished to 

 complyjwith the li0|ie he so pleasantly expressed that I would bring 

 orward some more facts on my side. John Rae 



The Aurora of Feb. 4 



In the February number of Nature just to hand I find an 

 interesting account of this aurora. It may interest your readers 

 to know that a very fine aurora was visible at Eden, 230 miles 

 south of Sydney, at the same time. The notice sent me states 

 that the aurora was visible from i A.M. to daylight of Feb. 5 (i.e. 

 from 3 P.M. to 7 I'.M. Feb. 4, Greenwich time) ; the auroral 

 light extended from S.E. to S.W., and to an altitude of 60°. No 

 otlier particulars were sent Iiy the person who saw it ; but it 

 would appear that tlie auroral disjilay must have commenced 

 before it was observed in Europe. H. C. RusSELL 



Sydney Observatory, May 15 



THE ZOOLOGICAL STATION AT NAPLES ^ 



T ETTERS from Naples inform us that the construction 

 -'— ' of the building for the Zoological Station is now ad- 

 vancing rapidly. As the building is close to the sea, the 

 foundations had to be laid with especial care, the more 

 so as the heavy pressure of the aquarium tanks, the labor- 

 atory tanks, the library and the collections, would require 

 even on ordinary ground some precaution. 



We are glad to hear besides that Dr. Dohrn is most 

 effectively assisted in the technical parts of the construc- 

 tion by Mr. W. A. Lloyd, of the Crystal Palace Aquarium, 

 Sydenham. This gentleman, having been in friendly rela- 

 tions to Dr. Dohrn some years ago, when still in Ham- 

 burg, has obtained from the Board of the Crystal Palace 

 Aquarium permission to render all possible help to the 

 Naples station, as to an institution of a purely scientific 

 character. Whoever knows the technical difficulties of 



