The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-27
NEW TRIBE OF INDIANS
MYSTERY As TO THE ORIGIN OF AB-
ORIGINES IN BEHRING SEA.
They Bob Up Suddenly ON the Previous
ly Uninhabited Kings Island-Trav-
eIers Astonished with Their Remark
able Feats of Strength, Queer Tastes,
aud C,.stnu,a

eIers Astonished with Their Remark
able Feats of Strength, Queer Tastes,
and Customs.
Frederick Walker Joseph Schoman-
off, and James Aiken have just return
ed to San Francisco, via Seattle, from
cruise of adventure and discovery
among the waters Of the northern ter
of Indians whom they found inhabiting
an island near the sixty-fifth parallel
of latitude and south of Behring Strait,
called Kings Island.
The Indians seemed to belong to the
Innuit or Eskimo family, as they pre-
scented the same physical characters
tics of these people, they being large,
the men generally over six feet, with
small eyes, high cheek bones, yellow
skin. brown hair, and full brown boards
half concealing thick lips In the
corners Of the lower lips OF many Of
the men holes had been punched in
which pendent ornaments were worn.
The people appeared docile and agree
able, and when the strangers went
among them they offered them no
harm.
A surprising feature of the tribe was
the stature and strength of the women.
They were equally as tall, if not taller,
than the men, and fully as stout as
their lords They did not display the
hor or,, q m az, ,,roy, that. 70 oec
with which the men increase the
esteem in which they hold one another,
and they were much better looking
than the males.
Their strength Of body was wonder
full. One of these women, it Is related,
carried off in her birch-bark canoe an
S00-pound stone for use as an anchor
to the whalers boat. When it reached
the vessels deck is required two men
to lift 1t, and they were strong men,
too, though the woman had not found
the moving Of it beyond her powers
One woman, it is stated, lifted box
containing $50 pounds of lead and car
ried it upon her shoulders. When food
is scarce they will frequently travel
thirty or forty miles without eating,
going over the country on the main
ldlQ III SGdTCH UI Wu6TeWlCndl To SuS-
tain life Both men and women appear
to be endowed with remarkable vigor
and power. They are highly athletic
and can outrun and outjump any per-
sons of any other race pitted against
them.
This physical vigor is extraordinary
to be produced by the kind of food
they consume. They live on carrion
fish seal oil. The fish, generally the
salmon, are caught in the fall, and
buried in the ground intact, without
the entrails being removed, They are
SO kept throughout the winter, while
the thermometer ranges from 80 to 40
degrees below zero, and they are dug
UP as consumption requires. When
they are brought to the air they have
the appearance of sound fish, but their
stencil is unbearable to the civilized
nose.
The island is a great mass of black
rock, basaltic in texture, about mile
long and two-thirds Of a mile wide,
with perpendicular cliffs 1000 feet high
frowning upon the ocean on three sides.
On the south this wall has fallen and
a steep rift of a canon, filled with rocks
and snow, cuts up from the waters
edge to the top of the island. At the
lower end of this ravine, and in the
tall side of the basalt, there is a cave
worn into the rock by the restless ac-
ton of the waves. The ocean surf roars
and splashes at it's mouth, and at high
tide that mouth is nearly closed by the
sea. But in the rear of the cave there
is a great filling or bank Of perpetual
snow. How it gets there is a question,
unless there is a rift IN the rock to
connect with the snow mass in the
ravine, which is probably the case. In
this cave snow the Indians have ex-
cavated rooms in which they store their
walrus and seal meat and whale blub-
Der. There such provision quickly
freezes and Is kept so CONCEALED in
definitely or until needed for use.
Where these people have come from
is the curious problem in the estima-
ton of the three whalers, as few
years ago the island was almost en-
tirely depopulated of its inhabitants by
starvation.
Food in that region is no longer SO
abundant as to be readily obtainable
with the primitive weapons and imple-
ments used by Indians. The Ameri-
can whalers from the south have near
ly rid the waters of the white whale,
the great food of these natives, and
what fish of this variety there is now
seeks the protection Of the frozen ocean
or If the fish venture south through
the strait they are wild and timid that
is rarely possible that an Indian viii
lager can catch one Of them.
The walrus too, such an important
ANIMAL in the Eskimo's scheme Of
subsistence, has 80 nearly disappeared
that the visit Of one about the island is
now rarity. The whalers have caught
and destroyed them for the ivory of
their tusks. The carbon on the main
land are all gone, and the Indian is
now forced to subsist mainly on small
fish and sea lions. Some of the sal
mon, however, are enormously large,
being five feet long and weighing as
much as 120 pounds. Their skins are
heavy and tough, and when scaled and
tanned are used to cover barkas-the
Eskimo boat
The Indians have lately turned to
fishing for deep-water cod, the supply
of which is inconceivable, as the re-
source is yet comparatively undisturb-
ed They have to fish in about forty
fathoms of water, and, equipped with
only their small boats, and with no
pulleys upon which to reel up the lines,
it is exceedingly difficult work. They