Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-12-19
A Strange Corner Of the World.

It may be some time yet before the
full significance OF the daring voyage
of the Vega along the north coast OF
Asia, with reference to navigation, is
fully known. Professor Nordenskjol
has not yet reported his views upon that
point. He has merely told us few
facts. Fo: instance he says that he has
discovered that the coast of Siberia
west of the Lena is vast plain, devoid
of trees, in the navigation to which an
encounter with impenetrable ice-hoes is
generally to be feared. There are no great
islands out to sea there to prevent the
wind from driving the ice down toward
the land; and there are vast distances
where few rivers empty into the Polar
Ocean, and, by their warm current, pre-.
serve space of open water along the
shore. For several hundred miles in
the vicinity of Lena, however, great
rivers pour into the ocean, and large
islands lie off to the northward, and
there is almost no ice along the shore.
East of the Kolima toward Behring
Strait, there are no groat rivers. and al
though the climate is milder and the
woodlands creep down almost to the
seq, the frozen foes crowd closer to the
shore, and in the fall and winter they
are liable to bar the way to shipping.
They gave Nordenskjold great trouble,
and on the 9th Of September they left
him enchanted in solid ice q few miles
from the open water north of Behring
Strait, and only 100 miles from the
Strait itself. They kept him there eight
weary months. While communicating
these facts the daring Swede has not yet
published his conclusions thereupon.
If he has left US in the dark in regard
to the commercial navigation of the ST.
berian coast, however. he has at least
taken tho pains to reveal the interesting
nature of the region he has Just passed
through. When the ice closed in upon
the Vega, and left the stout ship en-.
shaved in those northern solitudes, Pro.
fessor Nordenskjold wrote letter to
Or. Oscar Dickson, the main contribu-
tor toward the fitting out of the expe-
dition, describing the scenes along the
coast. The letter, dispatched on the
Goth of February, has at last reached its
destination, and is now published in
the London Standard. The letter calls
attention, in the first place, to group
of islands which are very remarkable
from scientific point of view. These
islands, the New Siberian, open the
book of the history of the world at O
new place. The ground there is strewn
with wonderful fossils. Whole hills
are covered with the bones of the NAM
moth, rhinoceros, horse, uri, bison,
oxen, sheep, etc. The sea washes up
ivory upon the shores. In this group
is possibly to be found the solution Of
the question of the ancestry of the In
dian elephant. and important facts with
regard to the vertebrates which existed
at the time OF mans first appearance
upon earth. How came horses and
sheep in region now locked in the fet.
tiers of an eternal winter, uninhabited
by man, not now supporting animal life
in any form, and almost impossible of
access? Professor Nordenskjold was
unable to solve the question himself,
and he suggests that it is of the utmost
importance to science to send light
draught steel steamer to those islands
for thorough exploration.
AT Cape Schelagskoff, the Vega
passed the point where the Siberian
merchant Schalawroff ended his persist
ont and intrepid attempts to reach
Behring Strait from the river Lena, by
q lonely death with his whole company
of men in a hut on the snow.c clad shore
Upon rounding this cape, Nordenskjo ld
met the first natives seen along that
whole coast. They spoke tongue ut
terly unknown. Not q comprehensive
sentence could they utter in any Euro
pean language. They lived in tents
pitched on the sand-banks separating
the lagoons peculiar to this coast from
the sea. A hardy, jovial. handsome
race, fur.clad, keen ut barter, ignorant
of the value of money, and preferring
red flannel shirt, few brass buttons,
and the piece of tin-foil on cake of
soap to golden roubles and silver coins,
they live an active and healthy life,
use stone and bone implements, and
are without trace of religion in their
customs. Their tents are double, one
within the other. The children are to-.
tally naked within the inner tent, and
are often seen outside, running about
on the frozen ground, with the tempera-
ture down below 32degrees. The women
wear nothing when within the tents,
except girdle, and the women have
shaven heads. A remarkable similari-
ty was noticed between the implements,
dresses and customs of these people
and those of the Esquimaux and North
American Indians. These people are
the Tschuktschers. Though armed
with stone and bone weapons, and
though wild and itinerant, they evil
IDENTIFY have history. They drove off
the original Inhabitants of the region
200 years ago, the Onkilons, whose
houses, places of sacrifice, circles of
moss-grown bear skulls and weapons
are still to be found almost everywhere
on the coast. Lieutent Nordqvist de-
voted himself to learning their Ian
guage. These Indians are on the original
highway between the cradle of the hu-
man race and the home of the aborigines
of the northern part of North America,
aud it is not thought that the resem-
b1ance between them and the Green.
landers is accidental. The arrival OF
the Vega on the Tschuktscher coast
was an event like the landing of Co.
lumbus in the New World. 1t was an
unprecedented occurrence. and made q