Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-01-23
A Strange Arctic Region.

w ACA VIC oCn CAOo0u III upOu UuO
Vega, and left the stout ship en-
shaved in those porthern solitude,
Prof. Nordensliold wrote a letter to
DR.. Oscar Dickson, the main con-
tributor to the fitting out of the ex-
petition, describing the scenes along
The coast. The letter. dispatched
Oh 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 new place.
The ground there is strewn with
wonderful fossils. Whole hills are
covered with the bones OF the nam.
moth, rhinoceros, horses, uri, bison,
oxen, sheep, etc. The sea washes up
ivory upon the shores. In this
group is possible to be found the so.
luton of the question of the ances-
try Of the IndiaR elephant, and i'm
portant facts with regard to, the ver-
tebrates which existed at the time
of mans first appearance upon earth.
How came horses and sheep IN a re-
gion now locked in the fetters Of an
eternal winter, uninbabitsd ~ man !,
not now supporting animal lie III
any form, and almost impossible OF
access ? Prof. Nordeksjold was un-
able to solve the question himself,
and he suggests that it is of the ut
most Importance to science to send
a light draught steel steamer to those
islands for thorough exploration.
At Cape Schelagskoff the Vega
passed the point where the Siberian
merchant Schalawrof ended his per-
sistent and intrepid attempt to reach
Behring Strait from the river Lena,
by lonely death, with his whole
company of men in a hut ON the
snow-clad shore. Upon rounding
this cape, Nordenskjold met his first
natives seen along that whole coast.
Not comprehensive sentence could
they utter in any European 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 at barter, ignorant of the
value of money, and preferring a rcd
flannel shirt, few brass buttons
and the piece of tin-foil on cake of
soap to golden rubies and silver
coins. they live an active and heal
thy life, use stone and bone imple.
ments, aud are without trace Of
religion in their customs. The tents
are double, one within the other
The children are totally naked with.
in the inner tent, and were often
seen outside running about on the
frozen ground with the temperature
down below 32 deg. The women
wear nothing when within the tents
except a girdle, and the men have
shaven heads. A remarkable simil-
arity was noticed between the i'm
plements, dresses and customs of
these people and those of the Esuui-
maux and the North American In
dians. These people are the Tschuk.
tschers. Though armed with stone
and bone weapons, and, though
wild and itinerant, they evidently
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 every-
where on the coast. Lieut.. Nord-
quist devoted himself to learning
their language. These Indians are
on the original highway between the
cradle of the human race and the
aborignees 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 Eega on the Tschuk-
fischer coast was an event like the
landing of Columbus in the new
world. 1t was an unprecedented
occurrence and made 9 sensation
throughout the region.
East of the Lena. Prof. Nordensk.