216 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
vick discovered, two hunters had got adrift on the 
ice and had not come back; we were now requested 
to tell whether we had seen any signs of them. 
They establish their arangas when possible near a 
river, where they can fish for salmon and trout and 
get ice to melt for water, instead of using snow, a 
large quantity of which is needed for such a pur¬ 
pose. I found a number of men and women along 
the coast who were between fifty and sixty years 
of age, but they looked and acted older; they seem 
to be pretty generally affected with turberculosis, 
more or less developed, and do not take the right 
care of themselves. When they get too old and 
feeble to support themselves and have become a 
burden to others, they destroy themselves. I do 
not think they make any graves,—at least I saw 
none; apparently their bodies are left for the birds 
and animals to eat. 
I did not, of course, acquire all my information 
about the natives from the first ones I met, though 
to be sure they were a typical group and exempli¬ 
fied, the more I studied them, all the customs of 
the country, especially that of continual feasting of 
the stranger within their gates. 
About eleven o’clock that night we all lay down 
together on the bed-platform,—men, women and 
children; the youngsters had all remained outside 
the curtain until that time. The air was hot and 
