New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-11-19

| the seals violent efforts to save itself, ana &c
| meet this difficulty the barb was so contrveo
that il easily came loose from the smart.
thong fastened to the barb as well as 10 the
| handle made the latter with its inflated ap'
pendix still more useful in obsructing the mo-
tons of the seal and in bringing ii to wearl'
ness and despair THE bladder Is maze OF
sea CULTS or cormorant's gullet. inflated ana
dried 1t is fastened to the javen shaft by means
| of a piece Of bone. with hole bored through IL
for the purpose of blowing up the BLADDER
This hole is closed with a little wooden plug
The size of this floating apparatus was gradu-
ally increased. Then 1t was found That the
javelin could not be easily thrown. so the
bladder simply attached to a long line, made
from the skin Of a particular SEAL the Phoca
harbata The line itself was fastened TO the
point Of the harpoOn. but not to the smart.
The latter was made much longer and heavier.
After the seal was struck the handle nodted
away to be picked up at leisure. but the line
and the buoyant float made 1t possible to Keep
trace of the wounded al,which was sure TO
be killed at last This harpoon," says DR..
hansen, with all its ingenuity Of structure,
ranks. along with the kayak. as the highest
achievement of the Eskimo mind"
The author finds in the evolution Of the
KAYAK a striking instance Of the cleverness
with which the human animal overcomes ad-
verse circumstances. He tried to imagine the
whole course of the mute. DIES perate struggle of
the EsquimauX with nature He pictured to
himself how they pressed. stage by stage. in
their dog sledges and their wonderful skin
canoes along the barren ice-cOasts. how they
fought their way onward and little by little
perfected their ingenious implements. and at
tanned their mastery skill in the chase Hun
dreds nay, thousands, OF years passed tribe
after tribe succumbed. while other and stronger
stocks survived-and | was filled with admira-
ton for a people which had emerged victorious
from the struggle with su,h inhospitabe natural
surroundings" Such is his general view OF
Esquimau progress. But he conjectures that
the race originated in some inland region. Thus
they may have used in the first place bark
canoes. But forced. perhaps by other races. to
migrate they found neither bark wood
along the coast and so were obliged. like many
Indian tribes to use skins. But their material
was scant, and so they must make Their boats
as small as possible. Then when they tried
the breakers Of the coast, they saw that their
boats must not merely float but that they must
be Slater tight by means Of a deck, to when
their own outer clothing could be bound With
even these Inventions which seem simple
and straightforward, now that We See them per-
fected-what huge strides Of progress must they
not have meant in their day. and how much
labor and how many failures must they not
have COST
To follow Dr. hansen into all the details Of
his investigation to the past and present
life Of the Esquimaus is impossible. Enough
has been said to show that he holds a brief for
his simple minded friends OF the North. He
grants nothing. not even that the Introduction
of Christianity was a boon to the race. ON this
point he asserts that morally the Esquimau was
better in the past than he is now, and that he
is better anyhow than most Europeans; ana ne
adds that the dogmas Of Christianity remain
still as mcOmprehensible to the Esqumaus as
they were when first propounded But his
rather elaborate essay on the origin Of religion.
with all the customary verbage about shadows
and ancestor worship and fe'ichism, really
seems rather stale. As to folklore. the Doctor
is a strenuous advocate of the opinion that "A
great many Esqumau legends are loans from
more or less contaminated with
native ideas. The book Is readable and is
copously illustrated.