The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-06

outside his own loca,ity-has not written a
letter since he went there, and never had
more than three come to him. 1t seemed
ice IL the remote parts of Alaska a man
VINO could quote Homer's Had IN the ORIG
nal VINO delighted in Aristippus, who knew
the works OF Schopenhauer kant Rousseau
and the most subtle PHILOSOPHERS " IN tamil
rarity, and yet who did not know. until I
tod him, that Emperor William l. of Ger
many was dead, and that the ImDeri,I grard
son was on the throne. He asked me II P51a
Leo, Bismarck and Won MOltke were 81 /
living. That endsd his interest in the affairs
OF the great throbb!ng, beating world. W en-
toLd MIN about the telephone. the phono-
graph, and the wonders of the new tee
scopes he simply remarked that he supposed
mere were many inventions that would in
United States again.
We We're indebted to this unique man.
ourlea IN the heart Of widest and most desc
late Alaska, fer much information about tie
new region We We're going into. although Fe
SAID he himself had never been five niles
INTO the interior OF the region. From the
philosopher-trader's post at Unalakik we
pushed straight northward. The mercury
was down to 80 degrees be.ow zero. but wa
mad little wind to travel against.
Finally We came up a settlement of about
800 Innuit Indians. They are quite the bright
est savages 1 found in that part OF Alaska
They are very hardy race. and the most
wonderful fact about them it that they battle.
l know no ether natives of ALASKA who uso
water so freely as they. The Indians dlOckpd
about me and my Indian companions. and
many OF them asked permission to go along
with US on our journey of SEQ miles further
to hotZebue sound. l found good material
here for the establishment OF a missica some
day.
Five days more travelling through bar-
rem region and in temperature varying SI1n
70 to 30 degrees below zero and we reached
the steppes or high mesa lands that divide
the waters that flow, in the summer season
INTO Norton sound and Kotzebuc sound re-
spectlYeIy. More than 800 Innuits live in
tiny hamlets Of fifty and sixty each in tlll7
region. They are race of hunters. Taey
nunt with primitive weapons and are lnlst
oexterous with bow and arrow They tran
Arctlc mares and a species of wolf aim Il
oally. Several times a year all the males
IN the KOyukuk hamets 90 out across tba
p!ains over 100 miles to the east and in tina
vicinity or the Hogatiakaket river to hunt
deer, moose and caribou for weeks at q rim,
lhat they nave been successful the antiers
horns and bones that lie strewn about the
settlements through years Of Accommodation
are ample evidence.
The Selwick river country is q paradise
for naturalists and palaeoatologists I saw
more remains of extinct mastodons up there
than may be packed in dozen freight cars
l made no effort to find these bones WHY
there must be vast quantities of such remains
IN that region. The natives use the enormous
mastodon tuSks-seven feet l1ng-for home
decoration. They plant the heavy ends OF
the bones in the earth SO that the curvIng
ends Will meet in arch over the doorway
to a hut. 1 have seen mastodon teeth tIssd
by boys and girls there as seats. The vertebraa
make convenient ChOpping blocks In one sDOt
we found several acres of mastodon ribs laws
legs vertebrate and other bcnes lying in beans
Of gravel and sand. The post trader at the
coast afterward told me that tons Of the
3onesLworn hard and smooth by the weather
through thousands Of ycars-have been sold
to the whalers and by them have been sold
in San Francisco for ivory
we went down TO the coast by land from
the upper Selwik river country. 1t was July
then. The weather was cool and frosty at
night, but delightful by day. At Atom ashland
IN kotzebue sound, near the mouth of the
Selwik. we heard that a whaler was soon
expected and that it would go southwark 10
Cape Prince of Wales Immediately after fin
ishing trading with the Indians We waited
two weeks, and then, with my Indian compnn-
ions and dogs. we sailed on the whaler."