THE ESQUIMOS 
Twenty years ago, when I first met them, not 
one used tobacco or craved it. To-day every 
member of the tribe has had experience with 
tobacco, craves it, and will give most every- 
thing, except his gun, to get it. Even little 
toddlers, three and four years old, will eat to- 
bacco and, strange to say, it has no bad effect. 
They get tobacco from the Danish missionaries 
and from the sailors on board the whaUng, 
seal, and walrus-ships. Whisky has not yet 
gotten in its demoralizing work. 
It is my conviction that the life of this little 
tribe is doomed, and that extinction is nearly 
due. It will be caused partly by themselves, 
and partly by the misguided endeavors of 
civilized people. Every year their number 
diminishes; in 1894, Hugh J. Lee took the 
census of the tribe, and it numbered two hun- 
dred and fifty-three; in 1906, Professor Mar- 
vin found them to have dwindled to two hun- 
dred and seven. At this writing I dare say 
their number is still further reduced, for the 
latest news I have had from the Whale Sound 
region informs me that quite a number of 
deaths have occurred, and the birth-rate is not 
high. It is sad to think of the fate of my 
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