KEVIEWS. 487 



has become exceedingly warm, and tlie little childrea enjoyed them- 

 selves on the broad river-beach, building houses with pebbles and 

 making mud pies, much as their brothers and sisters do all over the 

 world when a vacation or a holiday releases them from restraint and 

 the mother's watchful eye. I never saw a young child punished in 

 Russian America, escept the well-grown boys of the i'.ussian bidarshik. 

 They behave quite as well as civilized children, and g 'ow up with quite 

 as much respect for their parents. An Indian baby, unless sick, never 

 cries, and why should it? It has no one to rub soap in its eyes, nnd 

 never feels the weight of the parental hand. The mother makes it a 

 doll, if a girl, out of bits of squirrel skin and fur. If a boy the father 

 builds for him a little sable trap, a miniature cache, in which to put 

 his shining pebbles and pother childish treasures, or a tiny fishtrap in 

 which the mother takes care that a choice bit of ukali, a rabbit's head, 

 or a piece of reindeer fat, shall be caught in some mysterious way. 

 As soon as they can toddle about they are instructed in the mysteries 

 of setting snares, and the pride with which the boys or girls bring 

 home their first grouse, or even by great good luck an unfortunate 

 rabbit, is fully shared by the parents. Their dresses are ornamented 

 with the choicest beads ; the sweet marrow or tongue of the fallen 

 reindeer is reserved for them by the father successful in the chase. 

 They travel hundreds of miles with the dog-sleds, and from these little 

 children I have often obtained dozens of mice or small birds, caught 

 near some solitary lodge far away among the mountains, which rumor 

 had informed them I would purchase with beads or trinkets. They 

 carried these proudly home again as their own earnings and the prize 

 of their own industry. I always paid something for such specimens, 

 even if quite worthless, to encourage them to perseverance, and in this 

 way I obtained many invaluable specimens." 



In addition to numerous inte'' "ting notes of personal observation, 

 such as those produced here, scattered through Mr. Dall's journal of 

 travels on the Yukon, and in the Yukon territory, to which the sis 

 chapters of Part I. are devoted : he takes up, in Part II. the geography, 

 history, inhabitants, and resources of Alaska, resorting for information 

 on those subjects to all available sources, of which a numerous list of 

 works, including those of Russian and other early explorers, is furnish- 

 ed in the appendix. To every one, therefore, interested in any branch 

 of the subject this volume furnishes a ready digest of nearly all availa- 

 ble information. 



