less are also sometimes killed at their own request. A prominent man in a tribe not long since tried to hire men to kill his aunt, who was insane and dependent on him. Failing to have her killed, he deliberately froze her to death. The cruelty of heathenism is almost beyond belief. The dead are wrapped up in reindeer or seal skins and drawn on a sled back of the village, where they are placed upon elevated scaffolds, out of the reach of animals, or upon the ground - and covered over with driftwood, or, as among some of the tribes, left upon the ground, to be soon torn in pieces and devoured by the dogs of the village.

GOVERNMENT.

The Eskimos have no tribal organization and are without chiefs. The most successful trader among them becomes the wealthiest man and is called Umailik. By virtue of the influence that riches exert he is considered the leader in business transactions. In special exigencies, affecting a whole village, the old men assemble and determine upon a plan of action. The Shamans also have great influence among the people. It often happens that the Umailik and Shaman are the same person.

FOOD SUPPLY.

From time immemorial they have lived upon the whale, the walrus, and the seal of their coasts, the fish and aquatic birds of their rivers, and the caribou or wild reindeer of their vast inland plains.

The supply of these in years past was abundant and furnished ample food for all the people. But fifty years ago American whalers, having largely exhausted the whale in other waters, found their way into the North Pacific Ocean. Then commenced for that section the slaughter and destruction of whales that went steadily forward at the rate of hundreds and thousands annually, until they were destroyed and driven out of the Pacific Ocean. They were then followed into Bering Sea, and the slaughter went on. The whales took refuge among the ice fields of the Arctic Ocean, and thither the whalers followed. In this relentless hunt the remnant have been driven still farther into the inaccessible regions around the north pole, and are no longer within reach of the natives.

As the great herds of buffalo that once roamed the western prairies have been exterminated for their pelts, so the whales have been sacrificed for the fat that encased their bodies and the bone that hung in their mouths. With the destruction of the whale one large source of food supply for the natives has been cut off.

Another large supply was derived from the walrus, which once swarmed in great numbers in those northern seas. But commerce wanted more ivory, and the whalers turned their attention to the walrus, destroying thousands annually for the sake of their tusks. Where a few years ago they were so numerous that their bellowings were heard above the roar of the waves and grinding and crashing of the ice fields, this year I cruised for weeks without seeing or hearing one. The walrus as a source of food supply is already practically extinct.

The seal and sea lion, once so common in Bering Sea, are now becoming so scarce that it is with difficulty that the natives procure a sufficient number of skins to cover their boats, and their flesh, on account of its rarity, has become a luxury.

In the past the natives, with tireless industry, caught and cured for use in their long winters great quantities of fish, but American canneries have already come to one of their streams (Nushagak) and will soon be found on all of them, both carrying the food out of the country and by their wasteful methods destroying the future supply. Five million cans of salmon annually shipped away from Alaska-and the business still in its infancy-means starvation to the native races in the near future.

With the advent of improved breech-loading firearms the wild reindeer are both being killed off and frightened away to the remote and more inaccessible regions of the interior and another source of food supply is diminishing. Thus the support of the people is largely gone and the process of slow starvation and extermination has commenced along the whole Arctic coast of Alaska. Villages that once numbered thousands have been reduced to hundreds; of some tribes but two or three families remain. At Point Barrow, in 1828, Capt. Beechey's expedition found Nuwuk a village of 1,000 people; in 1863 there were

309; now there are not over 100. In 1826 Capt. Beechey speaks of finding a large population at Cape Franklin; to-day it is without an inhabitant. He also mentions a large village of 1,000 to 2,000 people on Schismareff Inlet; it has now but three houses.

According to Mr. John W. Kelly, who has written a monograph upon the Arctic Eskimo of Alaska, Point Hope, at the commencement of the century, had a population of 2,000; now it has about 350. Mr. Kelly further says: The Kavea county is almost depopulated owing to the scarcity of game, which has been killed or driven away. * * * The coast tribes between Point Hope and Point Barrow have been cut down in population so as to be almost obliterated. The Kookpovoros of Point Lay have only three huts left; the Ootookas of Icy Cape one hut; the Koogmute has three settlements of from one to four families; Sezaro has about 80 people."

* * *

Mr. Henry D. Woolfe, who has spent many years in the Arctic region, writes: "Along the seacoast from Wainright Inlet to Point Lay numerous remains of houses testify to the former number of the people. From Cape Seppings to Cape Krusenstern and inland to Nounatok River there still remain about 40 people, the remnant of a tribe called Key-wah-ling-nach-ah-mutes. They will in a few years entirely disappear as a distinctive tribe."

I myself saw a number of abandoned villages and crumbling houses during the summer, and wherever I visited the people I heard the same tale of destitution. On the island of Attou, once famous for the number of its sea-otter skins, the catch for the past nine years has averaged but 3 sea-otter and 25 fox skins, an annual income of about $2 for each person. The Alaska Commercial Company this past summer sent $1,300 worth of provisions to keep them from starving. At Akutan the whole catch for the past summer was 19 sea otters. This represents the entire support of 100 people for twelve months. At Unalaska both the agent of the Alaska Commercial Company and the teacher of the Government school testified that there would be great destitution among the people this winter because of the disappearance of the sea otter. At St. George Island the United States Treasury agent testified that there was not sufficient provisions on the island to last through the season, and asked that a Government vessel might be sent with a full supply. At Cape Prince of Wales, Point Hope, and Point Barrow was the same account of short supply of food. At the latter place intimations were given that the natives in their distress would break into the Government warehouse and help themselves to the supply that is in store for shipwrecked whalers. At Point Barrow, largely owing to the insufficient food supply, the death rate is reported to the birth rate as 15 to 1. It does not take long to figure out the end. They will die off more and more rapidly as the already insufficient food supply becomes less and less.

INTRODUCTION OF REINDEER.

In this crisis it is important that steps should be taken at once to afford relief. Relief can, of course, be afforded by Congress voting an appropriation to feed them, as it has done for so many of the North American Indians. But I think that every one familiar with the feeding process among the Indians will devoutly wish that it may not be necessary to extend that system to the Eskimo of Alaska. It would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and, worse than that, degrade, pauperize, and finally exterminate the people. There is a better, cheaper, more practical, and more humane way, and that is to introduce into northern Alaska the domesticated reindeer of Siberia, and train the Eskimo young men in their management, care, and propagation.

This would in a few years create as permanent and secure a food supply for the Eskimo as cattle or sheep raising in Texas or New Mexico does for the people of those sections.

It may be necessary to afford temporary relief for two or three years to the Eskimo, until the herds of domestic reindeer can be started, but after that the people will be self-supporting.

As you well know, in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Lapland and Siberia the domesticated reindeer is food, clothing, house, furniture,implements, and transportation to the people. Its milk and flesh furnish food; its marrow and tongue are considered choice delicacies; its blood, mixed with the contents of its stomach, is made into a favorite dish called in Siberia "manyalla;" its intestines are cleaned, filled with tallow, and eaten as a sausage; its skin is made into clothes, bedding, tent covers, reindeer harness, ropes, cords, and fish lines; the hard skin of the forelegs makes an excellent covering for snowshoes.

Its sinews are dried and pounded into a strong and lasting thread; its bones are soaked in seal oil and burned for fuel; its horns are made into various kinds of household implements, into weapons for hunting and war, and in the manufacture of sleds.

Indeed, I know of no other animal that in so many different ways can minister to the comfort and well-being of man in the far northern regions of the earth as the reindeer.

The reindeer form their riches; these their tents,

Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth supply;
Their wholesome fare and cheerful cups.

Under favorable circumstances a swift reindeer can traverse 150 miles in a day. A speed of 100 miles per day is easily made. As a beast of burden they can draw a load of 300 pounds. They yield a cupful of milk at a milking; this small quantity, however, is so thick and rich that it needs to be diluted with nearly a quart of water to make it drinkable. It has a strong flavor like goat's milk, and is more nutritious and nourishing, than cow's milk. The Laps manufacture from it butter and cheese. A dressed reindeer in Siberia weighs from 80 to 100 pounds. The reindeer feed upon the moss and other lichens that abound in the Arctic regions, and the farther north the larger and stronger the reindeer.

Now, in Central and Arctic Alaska are between 300,000 and 400,000 square miles (an area equal to the New England and Middle States combined, together with Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois) of moss-covered tundra and rolling plains of grass that are specially adapted by nature for the grazing of the reindeer and is practically useless for any other purpose.

If it is a sound public policy to bore artesian wells and build water-storage reservoirs, by which thousands of arid acres can be reclaimed from barrenness and made fruitful, it is equally a sound public policy to stock the plains of Alaska with herds of domesticated reindeer, and cause these vast, dreary, desolate, frozen, and storm-swept regions to minister to the wealth, happiness, comfort, and well-being of man. What stock-raising has been and is on the vast plains of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, reindeer-raising can be in northern Alaska. In the corresponding regions of Lapland, in Arctic Norway, and in Sweden and Russia are 27,000 people supporting themselves (besides paying a tax to the Government of $400,000, or $1 per head for their reindeer) and procuring their food and clothing largely from their 400,000 domesticated reindeer. Also in the corresponding regions of Siberia, with similar climate, soil, and environment (and only 49 miles distant at the straits), are thousands of Chukchees, Koraks, and other tribes fed and clothed by their tens of thousands of domesticated reindeer.

During the summer I visited four settlements of natives on the Siberian coast, the two extremes being 700 miles apart, and saw much of the people, both of the Koraks and Chukchees. I found them a good-sized, robust, fleshy, well-fed, pagan, half-civilized, nomad people, living largely on their herds of reindeer. Families own from 1,000 to 10,000 deer. These are divided into herds of from 1,000 to 1,500. One of these latter I visited on the beach near Cape Navarin. In Arctic Siberia the natives with their reindeer have plenty; in Arctic Alaska without the reindeer they are starving.

Then instead of feeding and pauperizing them let us civilize, build up their manhood, and lift them into self-support by helping them to the reindeer. To stock Alaska with reindeer and make millions of acres of moss-covered tundra conducive to the wealth of the country, would be a great and worthy event under any circumstances.

But just now it is specially important and urgent from the fact that the destruction of the whale and walrus has brought large numbers of Eskimo face to face with starvation, and that something must be done promptly to save them.

The introduction of the reindeer would ultimately afford them a steady and permanent food supply.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

In the Tenth United States Census Report, on page 2, it is recorded: "That no trace or shadow of Christianity and its teachings has found its way to these desolate regions: the dark night of Shamanism or Sorcery still hangs over the human mind. These people share with their Eastern kin a general belief in evil

spirits and powers, against whom the Shaman alone can afford protection by sacrifices and incantations. No philanthropic missionary has ever found his way to this Arctic coast, and unless some modern Hans Egede makes his appearance among them in the near future there will be no soil left in which to plant the Christian seed."

Such was the dark but true picture in 1880, but the dawn was near at hand. The needs of the Eskimos had long been upon my mind, and various plans for reaching them had been considered. In the spring of 1888, having an opportunity of visiting Bethlehem, Pa., I secured a conference with the late Edmund de Schweinitz, D. D., a bishop of the Moravian Church, and urged upon him the establishment of a mission to the Eskimo of Alaska. A few days later the request was repeated in writing, which letter, on the 23d of August, 1883, was laid before the Moravian Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen. The request was favorably considered, and Rev. A. Hartman and Mr. Wm. H. Weinland were appointed a committee to visit Alaska and report on the advisability of commencing a mission. This tour of exploration was made in the summer of 1884, and is given in my annual report for 1885-'86. Upon their return they recommended the establishment of a mission on the Kuskokwim River, near the native village of Mumtreklagamute, 75 miles above the mouth of the stream. In the spring of 1885 Rev. and Mrs. Wm. H. Weinland, Rev. and Mrs. John H. Kilbuck, and Mr. Hans Torgersen were sent to the Kuskokwim River as the first missionaries to the Eskimo of Alaska. The present mission force consists of Rev. and Mrs. John H. Kilbuck, Rev. and Mrs. Ernst L. Webber, and Miss Lydia Lebus. In the summer of 1886 the Moravians sent out the Rev. Frank E. Wolff, who located a station and erected a mission station at the mouth of the Nushagak River. He then returned to the States for the winter. The mission was formally opened in the summer of 1887 with the arrival of Rev. and Mrs. F. E. Wolff and Miss Mary Huber. To the original number have since been added Rev. J. H. Schoechert and Miss Emma Huber. Both of these schools have been assisted by the United States Bureau of Education.

On the 1st of July, 1886, an agreement was entered into between the Commissioner of Education and the Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the establishment of a school in the great Yukon Valley. Owing to the impossibility of getting the supplies into that inaccessible region the school was maintained for 1886-87 at St. Michael, on the coast, by Rev. and Mrs. Octavius Parker.

In the summer of 1887 Rev. John H. Chapman was added to the mission and the station was removed to Anvik. The present force of teachers consists of Rev. John W. Chapman and Mr. Marcus O. Cherry.

In 1886-'87 the Roman Catholics entered the Yukon Valley, and have established missions and schools at Nulato, Kosoriffsky, and Cape Vancouver.

In 1886 the Evangelical Mission Union of Sweden established a station among the Eskimos at Unalaklik with Rev. Axel E. Karlson, missionary. He is now assisted by Mr. August Anderson, and it is proposed that next year the school will be assisted by the United States Bureau of Education.

The new stations among the Arctic Eskimos at Point Barrow, Point Hope, and Cape Prince of Wales, have already been mentioned. During the summer of 1890 I established three schools and missions in Arctic Alaska. One at Point Barrow, with Mr. Leander M. Stevenson, of Versailles, Ohio, in charge. This is, next to Upernavik, Greenland, the northernmost mission in the world. Its establishment was made possible through the liberality of Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard. Mr. Stevenson, who volunteered to go to that distant point, organize the mission and erect the necessary buildings, will return in the summer of 1892 to his family. A permanent missionary for that place is desired. He should be a young married man, and both his wife and himself should be of sound constitution and good bodily health. They should be of a cheerful disposition, "handy" with various kinds of tools and work, ready in resources, and possess good prac tical common sense. A consecrated Christian physician accustomed to evangelical work would be more useful than an ordained minister without the medical training. Applicants can address me at the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. They will not be expected to leave home until the spring of 1892. The Point Barrow Mission is under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions.

The second school in the Arctic is at Point Hope, and is under the supervision of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The teacher is Mr. John B. Driggs, M. D. The third is at Cape Prince of Wales, Bering Straits, with Messrs. H. R. Thornton and W. T. Lopp, teachers. It is under the control of the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church.

In the harbor at Unalaska, in September, 1890, lay at anchor the revenue cutters Bear and Rush. The Bear was soon to return to the northward and cruise around the Seal Islands; the Rush to arrest two men accused of murder, and convey them to the United States district court at Sitka. As the Rush was to call in at the principal villages en route, and would afford me an opportunity of inspecting the schools at Unga, Kadiak, Afognak, and Southeastern Alaska, Capt. W. C. Coulson kindly invited me to take passage with him. Accordingly on the 6th of September, I removed my quarters from the Bear to the Rush, taking with me the boys William and George Fredericks, and M. Healy Wolff. We were to have sailed at 3 p. m., on the 7th, but a southeast gale prevailing outside, the captain concluded to remain at anchor. It was nearly a week before the storm abated and we got started. After getting outside of the harbor the fog shut down so thick that the ship ran into the harbor of Akatan. This is a small village of 87 souls, 34 of whom are children, and greatly in need of a school. They live in the barabaras, or native sod houses. The Alaska Commercial Company have a small store at the place. The people are exceedingly poor; their whole catch for the past summer was 19 sea otters. This represents the moneyed support of the whole village for 12 months. In addition to the clothing and supplies which the otter skins procure them at the store, the bay yields them fish, which is their principal food. The next day we started out, but found the fog so dense that the ship again returned to anchorage. The second attempt was more successful, and we passed from Bering Sea into the North Pacific Ocean. Turning to the eastward, we steamed past the volcano of Shishaldin, its beautiful top covered with snow and its smoking crater alike hid in the clouds. On Sabbath we were abreast of Belkofski, at one time the richest village in Alaska. With the decline of the sea-otter trade its people are much impoverished. The population is about 250. This is one of the villages where a good school should be established as soon as the annual appropriation will justify it. Our stay at this place was just long enough for the surgeon to go ashore and visit the sick. That night we dropped anchor in Coal Harbor. Monday morning found us at Pirate Cove, a cod-fishing station of Lynd & Hough, of San Francisco. It was understood that a Mr. Clark, accused of murder, was there waiting to give himself up. Not finding him at that place we passed on to Sand Point, another fishing station, and from thence to Unga, where he was found. At Unga I made a thorough inspection of the school property and school supplies. The school was not in session, but a number of the children were brought together and examined. A meeting of the parents was also called and a general conference had with regard to school matters. Monday evening, with the prisoner and two witnesses on board, we sailed for Kadiak, which we reached early Wednesday morning. In company with Mr. Roscoe, the teacher, an inspection was made of the new schoolhouse, and many educational matters discussed and considered. During the forenoon, a pilot having been secured, the captain steamed over to Afognak, in order that I might visit that school also. The school being in session, an opportunity was afforded of seeing the good work done at that village by Mr. Duff, the teacher. A comfortable school building and teacher's residence had been erected during the summer. Returning to Kadiak, the evening was spent with friends. At Kadiak a creole accused of assault with intent to kill was taken on board, to be conveyed to Sitka for trial. His victim was taken along for medical treatment and as a witness.

Mr. M. L. Washburn, superintendent of the interests of the Alaska Commercial Company, gave me for the collection of the Alaska Society of Natural History an ancient Eskimo stone lamp that had been dug up on one of the islands. The traditions of the people are that 400 years ago their fathers came from Bering Sea and settled Kadiak Island, which they found uninhabited. The Eskimo settlements of the North Pacific coast extend from Nuchek Island on the east to Mitrofania Island on the west. On the trails between two settlements are frequently found at the highest point two heaps of stones, from 50 to 70 feet apart. These heaps are from 4 to 6 feet high, and were many years in building. Their purpose is not known. Every passer-by was expected to add a stone to the heap, but the custom of late years seems to have fallen into disuse.

There is a very pleasant custom connected with the stone heaps and stone lamp. A couple engaged to be married select a stone suitable for the manufacture of a lamp. This stone, with a flint chisel, is deposited at the foot of one of the stone heaps. Parties carrying loads or traveling from one city or another naturally sit down to rest at the stone heap at the top of the hill. Spying the stone, the traveler says to himself, "My hands may as well work while my feet. rest. As some one worked my lamp, I will work for some one else." And picking up the flint, with a song, he chisels away at the stone. When he is rested,