Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-11-04
NO. 265.
miseellaneous.
STRANGE ARCTIC REGION.

| When the ice closed in upon the Vega,
and left the stout ship enslaved in those
northern solitudes, Prof. Nordenskjold
wrote letter to DIR. Oscar Dickson, the
main contributor toward the fitting out Of
the expedition, describing the scenes
along the coast. The letter, despatched
on the 20th of February, has at last reached
its destination, and is now published in
the London Standard. The letter calls at
tention, i'm the first place to a 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 new place. The
ground there is strewn with wonderful
fossils. Whole hills there are are strewn
with the bones of the mammoth, rhinoc-
eros, horses. 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 Indian elephant, and importat facts
with regard to the vertebrates which exis-
ted at the time of mans first appearance
upon earth. How came horses and sheep
in a region now locked in the fetters OF an
eternal winter, uniahabited by man, not
now supporting life in any form, and al
most impossible of access? Prof. Nerdensk-
| iold was unable to solve the question him.
self, and he suggests that it is OF the ut
most 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 persistent and in
trepid attempts to reach Behring strait
from the river Lena, by lonely death.
with his whole company of men in hut
on the snow-clad shore. Upon rounding
this cape Nordenskjold met the first ma
tives seen along that whole coast. They
spoke tongue utterly unknown. Not
comprehensive sentence could they utter
in any European language. They lived
in tents pitched on the sand banks sepa-
rating the lagoons peculiar to this coast
from the sea. A hardy, jovial. handsome
race, fur-clad, keen at 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
rubles and silver coins they live an active
and healthy life, use stone and bone inn
plements, and are without trace OF relig-
ion in their customs. Their tents are
double, one within the other. The chill
dren are totally naked within the inner
tent. and were often seen outside, running
about on the frozen ground with the tenn
perature down below 32 degrees The
women wear nothing when within the
tents except a girdle, and the men have
shaven heads. A remarkable similarity
was noticed between the implements,
dresses and customs of these people and
those of the Esquimaux and North Ameri-
can Indians. These people are the Tschu-
ktschers. Though armed with stone and
bone weapons and. though wild and timer
ant. they evidently have a 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 weapans are still
to be found almost everywhere on the
coast Lieut.. Nordqvist devoted himself
to learning their language. These Indians
are on the original highway between the
cradle of the human race and the home of
the aborigines OF the northern part of
North America, and it is not thought that
the resemblance between them and the
Greenlanders is accidental. The arrival
of the Vega on the Tschulitscher coast was
an event like the landing of Columbus in
the new world. 1t was an unprecedented
occurrence and made sensation through
out the region.
East of the Lena, Prof Nordenskjold
found on shore no scattered blocks OF
stone such as are distributed over conti-
nent by glaciers and such as are found
elsewhere in Siberia. This fact was held
to point to the absence of land out to sea
north of that coast, and it excites anticipa-
tions as to the possible discoveries which
are to be made by the Jeanette. Not the
least of the peculiarities of this strange
region is the fact that the coast appears to
be rising slowly out of the sea. The in
habitants have to shift their villages at
times nerrer to the edge of the water,
which is gradually receding from them.
Prof. Nordenskiold's letter is full of facts
like these. and the scientific world will
wait with impotence the further publica-
ton of the results of his discoveries
Correspondence NeU York Tribune.