The Mineral argus., 1884-06-26
Children in the Frigid Zone.

When Lieut.. Greeley comes home Che
must be Capt. Greeley them, he will
have a great deal to tell us that will be
interesting. Mere visitors to strange
places and peoples are not apt to find out
very much about them, and what
little they do find out is likely
to be wrong. That is the reason
why we know so little about the
Indians. 1t is necessary to live among
a people, to understand their language,
to get their good will and confidence, to
play with their children and converse
Familiarity with their elders, in order to
know them.
Lieut.. Ray, of the United States
Navy, returned a few months ago from
Point Barrow in latitude IA degrees,
where he had been stationed for two
years to observe the weather and collect
facts concerning it for the Washington
weather bureau. He was placed in that
northern region to do what Lieut..
Greeley was expected to do at a point
much farther north. His party consist
ed of ten men, q pilot, a naval surgeon,
seven sailors, and himself.
They had a wonderfully interesting
time up there in the cold. The lowest
temperature during their stay was fifty
six degrees below zero the highest, fifty
above zero; and they had a breeze one
day in January "a gentle Arctic zephyr,
the velocity of which was ascertained to
be one hundred and thirty miles an
L. T .4AT. nvoo,r o,I 1noc NOW foil w
that region, and there is no thunder and
lightning.
In their snug house, built by them
selves, of rough timber and lined with
matched boards, they found no difficulty
in keeping warm. 1t is not until you go
two hundred miles further north that
you reach the real Arctic cold, ranging
from ninety below zeroto twenty above.
With precautions, people can get along
with some comfort where the average
temperature of the year is as high as
seven above, as it was with them. In
the spring, the dandelion bloomed
abundantly about them.
Near their station were two small
tribes of Esquimaux, each consisting OF
about one hundred and forty people.
Lieut.. Ray, after closely observing
them for nearly two years, pronounces
them the b~est-governed and happiest
people in the world, particularly the
children. Though he eve saw a child
punished in any way during his resi-
dence among them, yet he found the
children always will-behaved.
At times there would be as many as
twenty-five children at the post, and
the conduct of all of them was so gentle
and correct that the Americans could
not help contrasting it with that of 9th
er children who play Under the stars
! and stripes. Nomatter how many tools
garments or dainties might be scattered
about unguarded, no boy or girl of ont
of these tribes ever 50 much as touched
one of them, nor would any child, ever
the smallest, enter tent unless invited
: The children are exceedingly beloved
by their elders. Although boys are
! valued more highly than girls, yet an.
: kind of a child is highly prized-part
l ly because children in latitude IA de
grees are a scarce article.
? Few parents are blessed with NOR
than one, or, indeed, could well main
, tain more than one; and if they are 81
: happy as to have two, they are gen
) erous enough to let n of them liv
with a couple who are childless.
Like all undeveloped andpoor tribes
they are haunted by superstitious fears
: and crave stimulants with a fierce AM
Unsuitable desire. The strongest whis
key, the strongest tobacco, even alec
! hol itself, and the scrapings of an oil
! pipe, they will consume with the keen
9 est enjoyment and without apparen
; injury.
Even these children, who have S
; many good qualities, drink and smok
! if they can procure the means of doin
= so, which, happily, they connot yer
= often. Lieut.. Ray declares that he ha
: seen a baby three months old with il
little mouth full of tobacco while it wa
L in the act of taking nourishment frol
its mother.
Before the present year comes to a
end we hope to have something as cur
is Gus to tell of Lieut.. Greeley's exper
l. ences.