The record-union., 1897-08-16

AAAlC4 ~ llIC Quasi anu " A1AC NdA4CSS VI
the navigable rivers. Several years ago
Dr.. Dawson, of the Canadian Geological
Survey, said that British America still
contained an unexplored area of 9o4.-
600 square miles. Practically all OF
Alaska, a territory as great as that part
Of the United States east Of the Missis-
sippi and north of Georgia, awaits the
enterprise of the explorer.
A very suggestive exhibit of the uten-
sils and products of the Indians of the
North Pacific Coast has been installed
for some time in the American Museum
of Natural History. But practically the
first returns from the interior Of that
region have just been received from
DR. BOas. His letter accompanying
them announces that his success has
been beyond expectation, but 1t gives
no details. The cases forwarded con-
tain photographic cylinders on which
are recorded the peculiar religious and
| folk songs of the tribes he has visited,
together with a number of their myths
as they had been induced to recite them
into the phonograph. On the return or
Dr. Boas for the Winter-his work can
only be prosecuted in the summer of
each year-the songs VIII be reduced
:
to musical notation, the myths will be
translated and sompared with the folk
lore of the Pacific Coast already coli
lected and, the specimens which are ex-
pected later viii be worked over, classi-
fed and installed in the anthropological
| division.
DR.. Boas knows the Northwest
through previous expeditions under the
I ,.fso ffar1 ffNys
the Advancement of Science, and his
methods are of the sort to elicit ma
terial. Among all savage peoples the
burial places are the most fruitful dig
ging ground for relics, either of war
like or peaceful pursuits. These he is
visiting under native guidance. He
| obtains photographs of the interesting
villages and institutions, and the In
dians have shown such docility that he
is enabled to make life masks of their
faces These are forwarded to the
museum, where, with anthropometric
measurements they form the basis for
the figures in the interesting groups
which are being assembled by the
sculptor. Caspar Mayer. The life mask
is a new idea in field work, but one
that promises well, and Mr.. Mayer has
the IroqIois reservations in Western
New York, bringing with him num-
ber of plaster Impressions of the Wis
ages of the Senecas.
SO far as the tribes of the interior
of the Northwest have been studied
they are affiliated with the coast In
dams rather than with the red men
of the United States. Their dialect re-
resembles each other, and all are ap-
parently of a different family of speech
than that spoken by him. They are
as pacific as the peoples of the coast,
but the reports of travellers make them
out as taller and more erect and pow
erful Through intermarriage with
them. as is supposed, the Innuit or
Alaskan Eskimo has fallen heir to a
greater stature than the Eskimo of the
Atlantic coast The adventurous and
remote life led by the interior tribes of
the glacial and volcanic regions, and
on those vast plains of tundras that
hourishes in the brief hot summers in
soil that beneath, frozen for hun
dreds of feet has made material diff
ferences between them and the fisher
tribes. that encamp on the coast line
from Vancouver to the AleutianS. But
the evidences that they are kindred,
are strong and from them further
confederation of a common Asiatic or
gin is expected.
The cersus of 1890 gives the total
population of Alaska as 80 ,052. OF this
number about 4,300 were white men
and 1900 Mongolians. The remainder
were Indians. and the census of 1889,
which have practically the same re-
suits. divides the latter as follows:
Aleuts, 2214; Innuits, 1880; Indians
proper. S.401. AS is seen the Western
Eskimos predOminate. Captain Hooper
has given an interesting account of
their mode of life as the result of his
voyage along their coast. The vanish
ing herds of the seal have been their
reliance It's flesh and fat furnish their
food its skin is made into their gar
ments. it's oil is converted itno light
and heat. and it's hide becomes the
meshes of their nets. Men and women
smoke alike, and in the light skiffs with
which they skirt the shores, each sex
does it's share, the men padding, the
women plying the oar.
Evidences of an Asiatic origin have
frequently presented themselves to ex-
pIorers among the Indians of the
| Northwest coast. and they may be
seen in the museum exhibit from that
| locality. embracing the valuable col
! lections of Lieutenant Emmons and DR..
Bishop They represent the arts and
customs of the tribes of Vancouver
Island. and especially of the powerful
TlinGits, who dwell along the sea near
the boundaries of Alaska
In appearance and dress there is an
| occasional resemblance to the Asiatic.
The costume of one of these tribes in
| cludes a woven straw hat and kind
of coarse tunc, leaving the legs part
ly bare and strongly suggesting the
garb of the Chinese coolie. The Kwa-
| kiutI one of the Vancouver tribes, have
the large round heads and squat bod
| les that are mentioned in every chron-
| icle of the advent of the Huns from the
| Tartar steppeS and that the researches
| of the Russian Government have noted
| in some of the Siberian tribes. In the
weapOns of war and the chase the high
est development of the savage mind IS
! shown and here there is a distinct ap-
proach to the Orient. While the South
| Alaskan type of bow is broad, fat and
straight, with narrow grip. the bow of
| the Arctic circle is narrower and short
| er. and has the bent ends of the Tartar
| weapons.
Apparently the traditions Of these
| tribes are the outgrOwth more of their
| environment than of their supposed or
| igin. Unlike most of the North Ameri-
can Indians, save the Narragansetts
and the Ojibways and their immediate
l kindred, they derive their livelihood
"a. -,