103 



still further emigi-ation, and finally pooi^k'tl Greenland and the shores of 

 Northeastern Siberia ; but that these latter movements were, on the whole, 

 much more modern, and more local than the original exodus, and took 

 place after the race characteristics and language were tolerably well ma- 

 tured. It is also not improbable that the earlier Innuit built their iglu 

 always of stone, a habit probably formed in a region where intense cold 

 did not render this mode of construction undesirable. 



Mr. Markham says that the American Eskimo " never go from their 

 own hunting range for any distance to the inhospitable north "; but during 

 the voyage of the Polaris, Dr. Bessels saw, among the Arctic 1 1 ighlanders, a 

 couple of people who had made their way there from Cape Searle, Cum- 

 berland Island, a northward journey of some thirteen hundred miles. Is it 

 strange that the American Orarian shf>uld have followed where the peculi- 

 arly American musk-ox and lenmiing led the way? It is probable that 

 when our knowledge of the habits of these people shall be enlarged we 

 shall find that such journeys ai'e, even now, not rare. The point where 

 the Eskimo are accustomed to cross into Greenland, Dr. Bessels informs me 

 is at Cape Isabella. 



As to the Asiatic Innuit, Onkilon, or Tuski, which have so singularly 

 served as a starting-point for many ethnologists and theorists in their delin- 

 eations of the origin of the Innuit, I published, in 1870,* an account 

 derived from one of themselves, which may fitly find a place here. 



At Plover Bay, Eastern Siberia, I was informed by Nokum, a very 

 intelligent Tuski (Asiatic Innuit), who spoke English, that the inhabitants 

 of the country were of two kinds, " deer-men " (i. e., true Chukchis or 

 people allied to the Koraks), and " bo^^•llead-meu " (Tuski or Orarians, who 

 hunt the Ai'ctic "bowhead" whale). The "deer-men" were the original in- 

 habitants, and the " bowhead-men", to which clas.s he belonged, had come, 

 long ago, from the islands (the Diomedes) to the northeast. He said the 

 reason why they came was that there was war between them and the people 

 who wore labrets (the Okee-ogmut Innixit). The latter proved the stronger, 

 and the former were obliged to come to the country of the " deer-men". 

 The latter allowed the " bowhead-men" to settle on the barren rocky coast, 



* Alaska and its Resources, Bostou, 1»70, p. 375. 



