88 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 55. 



of tlie Alent people consisted in the sea- 

 otter hunting and the fnr-sealfishery. Much 

 of their subsistence was and is obtained 

 fi'om the natural products of the region — 

 fish, wild fowl, and the flesh of marine 

 mammals. The custom of preparing cloth- 

 ing from the skins of birds and animals has 

 long been abandoned. The Aleut and his 

 family now dress in clothing of wool or cot- 

 ton, burn kerosene in an American lamp, 

 and cook their food on an iron stove. The 

 barabora or native hut, built of sod and 

 stones, has been generally replaced by a 

 frame cottage, and the means for supplying 

 these artificial wants has been obtained 

 from the income derived from the seal and 

 sea otter. Now that these animals are ap- 

 proaching extinction, at least from a com- 

 mercial standpoint, the question how to 

 provide even the modest income needed for 

 these people is a serious one. While it is 

 not yet settled that the half-starved Eskimo 

 of the northern coast will adopt the new 

 mode of life necessitated by the care and 

 maintenance of large herds of tame rein- 

 deer, and the success of that experiment is 

 still questionable, there is no doubt in my 

 mind that the introduction of the deer into 

 the Aleutian chain is not only perfectly 

 practicable, but that it offers the only solu- 

 tion of the problem of providing for the 

 Aleuts which seems to possess the elements 

 necessary for success. There are no preda- 

 cious animals to molest the deer, like the 

 wolves of the mainland; there is an abund- 

 ant supply of forage, and the climate and 

 conditions are those that the animal is 

 known to thrive in. A herd introduced a 

 few years ago into Bering island, on the 

 Russian coast, and simply let alone and 

 protected from dogs, has increased very 

 much in number and will soon afford skins 

 and tallow for export. There is no obvious 

 reason why on most of the Aleutian Islands 

 equally good results should not be obtained. 

 Some few deer were introduced upon the 



island of Amaknak, in the bay of Una- 

 lashka, a few j^ears since, but they were the 

 property of whites, not natives, were not 

 protected from the numerous dogs of an 

 adjacent settlement, and have not thriven. 



When the time comes, and it seems not 

 far away, when the natives realize that they 

 must depend on the deer to replace the van- 

 ishing fur animals as a source of income, 

 and when they can acquire property in deer, 

 I believe the result will be all that could be 

 wished. 



In closing this summary of early condi- 

 tions in the Territory and of the events 

 which enabled them to be observed, it may 

 not be out of place to summarize also the 

 results of the scientific work of those years. 

 Of course, only the more important points 

 can be alluded to. As the Western Union 

 Telegraph Expedition ended bj' a with- 

 drawal from the country, and was the occa- 

 sion of a large expenditure of money with 

 no return to its promoters, no general report 

 was ever officially prepared, and the work 

 of the scientific corps was made known 

 piecemeal in various technical journals. 

 The published results were associated in 

 the minds of students with the individual 

 authors rather than with the expedition as 

 a whole. The subsequent work under the 

 auspices of the Coast Survej^, which in fact 

 grew out of the work done or attempted in 

 the earlier exploration, has been, so far as 

 it was geographical, regarded very natur- 

 ally as incidental to the usual work of that 

 bureau, and so far as it has been of other 

 sorts has not been connected in the public 

 mind with any organization in particular. 

 The fact that the Eevenue Marine, the 

 Army and Navy, the Signal Service and 

 several unofficial organizations or individ- 

 uals have carried out praiseworthy exploita- 

 tions with most excellent results has led to 

 the further obscuration of the earlier work 

 as a connected whole. I believe no one of 

 those engaged in it has j^et attempted to 



