The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1875-02-13
IDAHO WORLD.
THE EsKIMOs.

The EskimoS are essentially q pc
culiar people. Their character ano
their condition. the one of necessity
growing out of the other, are peculiar
First it is claimed for them that they
are the anomalous race of America
the only people Of the new world clear
" Identical with any race OF the ola
Then they are the most ittoral people
in the world. The lineal extent of their
occupancy, all of it a narrow seaboard
averaging scarce one hundred miles IN
width. is estimated at not less than
five thousand miles. Before them is a
vast, unknown icy ocean, upon which
they scarcely dare venture beyond
sight of land; behind them hostile
mountaineers, ever ready to dispute en-
croachment. Their very mother-earth,
upon whose cold bosom they have been
borne, age after age, through countless
generations, is almost impenetrable,
thawless ice. Their days and nights,
and seasons and years are not like
those of other men. Six months of day
succeed six months OF night. Three
months of sunless winter; three
months of nightless summer; six
months of glimmering twilight.
After the middle of October begins
the long night of winter. The earth
and sea put on an icy covering; beasts
and birds depart for regions sheltered
or more congenial; humanity huddles
in subterranean dens; all nature sinks
into repose. The little heat left by the
retreating sun soon radiates out into
the deep blue realms of space;
the temperature sinks rapidly to forty
or fifty degrees below freezing; the air
is hushed, the ocean calm, the sky
cloudless. An awful, painful stiffness
pervades the dreary solitude. Not a
sound is heard; the distant din of busy
man, and the noiseless hum of the viii
derness alike are wanting. Whispers
become audible at considerable dis
lance, and an insupportable sense of
loneliness Expresses the inexperienced
visitor. Occasionally the aurora bore
ais flashes out in prismatic corusca-
tons, throwing brilliant arch from
east to west-now in variegated os-
citations, graduating through the va
trious tints of blue and green, and vio-
let and crimson; darling, flashing, or
streaming in yellow columns, upwards,
downwards; now blazing steadily, now
in wavy nndulations, sometimes up to
the very zenith; momentarily lighting
up in majestic grandeur the cherries
frozen scenery, but only to fall back
with exhausted force, leaving a denser
0obscurity. Natures electric lantern
suspended for time in the frosty vault
of heaven;-munificent natures fire
works; with the polar bear ard polar
man as spectators.
- In January the brilliancy of the stars
is dimmed perceptibly at noon, in Feb
ruary golden tint rests upon the ho-
rizon at the same hour; in March the
incipient dawn broadens; in April the
doing Eskimo rubs his eyes and
crawls forth; in May, the snow begins
to melt, the impatient grass and flow.
ers arrive as it departs. In June the
summer has fairly come. Under the in
cessant rays Of the never setting sun,
the snow speedily disappears, the ice
breaks up, the glacial earth softens for
q depth of one, two, or three feet; Cir
-culation is restored to vegetation,
which, during winter had been stopped, |
If we believe Sir John Richardson,
even the largest trees freezing to the
heart. Sea and plain, and rolling
steppe lay aside seamless shroud of
white, and brilliant tint of emerald
overspreads the landscape All nature,
with one resounding cry, leaps up and
claps her hands for joy. Flocks of
birds, lured from their winter homes,
fill the air with their melody; myriads
of wild fowls send forth their shrill
cries; the moose and the reindeer flock
down from the forests; from the reso-
nant sea comes the noise of spouting
whales and barking seals; and this so
lately dismal cheerlesss region, blooms
with an exuberance Of life, equalled on.
~ by the shortness of it's duration.
And in token of just appreciation of
the Creators goodness this animated
medley-man and beasts, and birds and
fishes-rises up, divides, falls to, and
ends in eating or being eaten.