14 



seal, walrus, various whales, and otlier arctic marine uiamnials. No group 

 of people have given rise to so much confusion, erratic theorizing, and 

 unfounded generalization as this small band of Innuit exiles. They have 

 been most commonly confounded with the impoverished sedentary bands 

 of the Chiikchis, if I may be permitted to use a term of Avhich Erman 

 says, "I am of opinion that the word TclnlJxhce is a corruption of the 

 word Chau-chu, which is i;sed in the language of the Koriaks (Koraks) to 

 indicate the settled branches of their ]-ace." Certainly, if I can believe the 

 words of one of their own nimiber, they are, and hold themselves, totallj^ 

 distinct in language and race from the nomadic "reindeer people" with 

 whom they trade. The language is totally distinct, and there is not a 

 single word in the A'ocabularies of the "Chiikchis" which resembles, or 

 even has a similar construction to, those of the Innuit. These two stocks 

 do not intermarry; their intercourse is purely commercial ; but as is inva- 

 riabh' the case with tribes so situated, and having distinct languages, they 

 iise, in trading, a jarg-on composed of words, or corruptions of words, 

 belonging to both. As no living white man knows either language, the 

 intercourse with the whites on the coast is also carried on in this, or partly 

 in this, jargon ; and unreliable and erroneous vocabularies have thus been 

 collected. But where the vocabularies have been obtained from the 

 nomadic people on their western boundaries where there are no Innuit, or 

 from the Innuit on points of the coast not reached by the " reindeer men ", 

 we iind no such mixture and no connecting links between the languages. 



The lai-gest village of those people is on East Cape ; but settlements 

 are dotted along wliere\er it is possible to wrest a living from the desolation 

 which surrounds them. Among those of more particular importance are 

 the villages on Kayne Island ; Seniavine Strait ; Chuklidc Island (whose 

 inhabitants assume the name I have provisionall}^ adopted for the whole 

 jieople); Indian Point ; Plover Bay; and Holy Cross Bav. 



A somewhat full account of these people will be found in Alaska and 

 its Besources, Part II, Chap. Ill, but, unfortunately, at the time of my visit 

 other duties prevented me from collecting vocabularies, of the importance 

 of which I was not at that time fully aware. Since then I have received 

 several from different loc;dities, luit, with few exceptions, they have been 



