209 
basis and to improve the supply of merchandise for the factories, this company started 
expeditions which, while carrying on hydrographic and other work, collected also ethno- 
graphical information.*’ (P. 166.) 
“ . . . All these expeditions to the peoples inhabiting the northern parts of the Pacific 
brought back much new ethnographic matter. 
.... Lisianski gave a description of the Eskimo on Kadyak Island, among whom 
he spent a year, of the Kenais and also of the Aleuts on Unalaska Island. He also col- 
lected lexicographical material. Langsdorff described the Kadyaks and Tlingits, visited 
the Ainu on Yezo Island and the Californians, and has left a very valuable sketch on dog- 
breeding amongst the Kamchadals. Moreover, he was the fij*st to give us comparative 
lexicographical material on the various Ainu dialects. The detailed description, which 
Khvostov and Davydov gave of the various sides of Konyag life, deserves special notice. 
These two men also collected considerable lexicographical material on the language of the 
Koonyags and Koloshes (Tlingits). Another skilled observer was Lutke. To him we 
owe a detailed de.scription of the Tlingits, for which he used, besides his personal observa- 
tions, the notes of Khlebnikov, an old resident among this tribe. Starting from the affini- 
ties of the Aleut language with that of the Eskimo and from the affinity of the languages 
of the so-called Namolls and Kadyaks with that of the Eskimo as a whole, he tried to solve 
the question which is at present agitating the Americanists, whether the inhabitants of 
the polar zone came from Asia into America or vice versa. (P. 167.) 
“Two men must be mentioned here, who took no part in any of the expeditions, but 
to w'hora etlinography of the north Pacific owes much. They were lieutenant Zagoskin 
and the zoologist Voznesenski. Both visited these territories in the forties of the last 
century at about the same time, Zagoskin, who was chiefly occupied with topographical 
work, collected valuable material on the statistics and ethnography of the Norton Sound 
Eskimo, of the tribes living along the Yukon and Kuskokvim rivers, as well as of the 
Athapaskans. He also brought home a valuable collection of ethnographical objects. 
He differed from former travellers, who merely investigated the sea-coast, in that he pene- 
trated into the interior of the country. He could thus give us a true notion, possessing 
much historical value, of the geographical distribution of the tribes he had visited. His 
observations are distinguished by great accuracy and love of detail. His description 
of the remarkable “potlatch” institution, wliich he was the first to give, deserves special 
mention. He indicates one exceedingly important detail which sheds light on the meaning 
of this custom and which has not yet found its proper place in science, viz., the exceptional 
importance attached to the namesake of the deceased, in whose honour the “potlatch” 
is celebrated. 
Voznesenski was a true hero of science. In spite of the scanty means at his disposal 
and notwithstanding his being charged by the Academy with numerous commissions in 
practically all branches of natural science, he found time to collect ethnographical material 
among a vast number of tribes — Chukchee, Koryaks, Asiatic and American Eskimo, 
Aleuts, Athapaskans, Tlingits, and even Canadian and Californian Indians. The collec- 
tions, which he brought home, exhibited in the Museum of Antliropology and Ethnography 
of the Academy of Sciences, are now almost unique and of the greatest scientific value. 
Even on the background of such a brilliant galaxy of investigators the figure of the 
missionary I. Veniaminov — afterwards Innocent, Metropolitan of iVIoscow — stands 
prominently forth both in view of his personality and his scientific merits. His methods 
of working were quite different from those of his predecessors and contemporaries, who 
came into contact with the natives but for a short time and talked with them through 
interpreters, so that the linguistic result of their visits usually amounted but to short lists of 
words. Veniaminov, on the other hand, residing for many years among the people whom 
he describes, and speaking their language perfectly, adopted the “stationary” method of 
investigation. 
He spent altogether sixteen years among the natives of the North Pacific, ten among 
the Aleuts, and six among the Tlingits. His missionaries’ duties gave him ample opportun- 
ity to become acquainted with all sides of their material and spiritual culture. Besides 
being a gifted and shrewd observer, he was also a man of great education and, what is 
especially important for an ethnographer, he knew how to gain the confidence and sym- 
pathy of the natives. (Pp. 168-169.) 
8462S-15 
