HISTORY OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLES, OR ALEUTIA. 199 



on the diversity of their languages, gave to the Aleuts a divided descent, in part 

 from the Esquimaux of America, and the Mongoloids of northeastern Asia. 



The Russian explorers and fur-hunters of importance in the discovery of the 

 various islands were : 



Bering in 1728 



Bering and Tcherihoff in 1741 



Nevodsikoff in 1745 



Serebranikoff 1753 to 1756 



Trapesnikoff 1758 to 1760 



Bethshevin .... reached Alexsu, furthest island east. 



Tolslyh 1760 to 1764 



These navigators, with few exceptions, treated the natives with great barbarity. 

 Many of their expeditions were failures and their vessels wrecked ; several of them 

 were burned by the natives. All of them suffered great hardships. Of their 

 vessels, says Coxe, page — , "Most of them which are equipped for these expe- 

 ditions, are two masted; they are commonly built without iron, and in general 

 so badly constructed that it is wonderful how they can weather so stormy a sea. 

 They are called in Russian Skitiki, sewed vessels, because the planks are sewed 

 together with thongs of leather. Some few are built in the river Kamschatka, but 

 they are for the most part constructed in the haven of Ochotsk. The largest are 

 manned with seventy men, the smaller with forty men." 



Hence the Aleuts, as naval constructors, with their elegantly and artistically 

 built bidarkas and baydars far excelled in skill their abusive invaders. But these 

 latter had guns. In their warfare they displayed much military invention. To 

 avoid the guns they constructed large double screens made of seal skins, stuffed 

 between with dried fibre of grass, and advanced toward the vessel, pouring upon 

 its deck their missiles from behind, and finally setting fire to it with sulphur found 

 in their island craters. 



Inside of the war faculty, and touching the home and domestic idea, wild 

 to our appreciation as it may be, we are taught by the elaborate and exhaustive 

 report of Mr. Dall on the mummies from our "Four Crater" cave, that their 

 art work by their women, whether the result of nearly lost hereditary culture, or 

 of native original industry, patience and invention, was high in its excellence. 

 (See report of Case 17478 in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, page 11 

 of Ball's Report, cited). This ethnological description is rich in its suggestive 

 text. How did the Aleuts learn to make these extra fine fabrics, with nothing 

 but Aleutian raw material ? Our present chief is silent but he left head enough 

 to explain it all. 



In brief, from all this we can derive enough to feel sure that this ancient folk, 

 after their own way of thinking, education, and old civilization, possessed a high 

 sense of religion, believed in a future life, as proved by their devoted funeral 

 ceremonies, worshipped a divine creator; appreciated the love of home, were 

 profoundly impressed with the devotion due to the family bond. Still further 

 may we trace the illustration, for if cranial capacity and form can be regarded as 



