The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1900-05-10
A LOST TRIBE FOUND.
A Hermit Race just Discovered In Arctic
Canada.

A Hermit Race just Discovered In Arcti,
Canada.
| The federal authorities at Ottawa hav,
been notified of the discovery, on lonely
island in Hudson bay, of lost tribe O
Esquimaux, a community which has
been for centuries without intercourse
with other representatives of the human
species and whose members never saw 9
white man until few months ago. They
are still i'm the stone age. knowing nc
houses are built of the skulls of whales.
The home of this strange tribe is on
Southampton island, piece of watergirt
land nearly as big as the state of Maine,
and situated at the north end of Hudson
hay. Apparently the people have dwell
there ever since pre-COlumbian times,
and today they subsist in exactly the
same way as they must have done then.
Having been isolated for so long period,
it is natural that they should possess
many peculiarities. A collection of their
utensils, weapons of the chase and other
objects was secured by whaling vessel
that recently visited their island, but to
the regret of the Canadian authorities
they have all passed into the possession
of persons in New York.
Their houses of skulls, more properly
described as huts, are built by putting to-
gether the great jaws of whales and then
covering them over with skins. In the
middle of the primitive dwelling is an
elevated place, on Which stands the in
evitable stone lamp, employed for light
ing, heating, cooking, melting snow, dry
ing clothes, and in certain arts. The lamp
is nothing more than an open dish OF
whale or seal oil, with wick of dry moss
soaked in fat. The whale is the chief
means Of subsistence of the strange peO-
pie. They use the whalebOne in a variety
OF surprising ways, making even their
cups and buckets of it, by bending it into
round shapes and sewing OH the bot ms.
Many of their implements are of whale
bone, and from the same article they
make toboggan-like sleds. They also
manufacture sledges with walrus tusks
for runners and deer antlers for cross
pieces.
1t would be hard to find more daring
hunters than they are; the seal, the wal
rus and the wary caribou contributing to
their game bags. The tribe comprises
only fifty eight individuals, about equally
divided between the sexes. Its members
speak dialect peculiar to themselves,
and quite unlike that employed by any
other EsQuinaux. Straits thirty miles
broad separate Southampton island from
the western shore of Hudson bay, where
there is a colony Of EsGuimaux, and once
i'll a very long while the straits freeze
over. 1t is said that this happened sew
enty five years ago, and then "a few hunt
ers came over from the island to the
mainland, where they were much sur
prised to encounter other human beings
like themselves, having doubtless inlag-
ined that they were the only people in ex-
iStence. This is now tradition with the
natives of the mainland. who say that the
strangers brought two sledges with them,
but went away again and never returned,
neither before nor since, so far as can be
aScertaned, has any news come from the
lost t.ibe until recently.
On southampton island there is no
S ,apstOne, which among the Esquimaux
elsewhere is the favorable material for
pOtS and kettles. Hence the people of the
lost tribe are obliged to make such re-
ceptacles out of slabs Of limestone glued
together in rectangular shapes with a
mixture of grease and deer blood. In the
same way they manufacture their lamps,
and this fact is another evidence of the
prolonged isolation of the community,
inasmuch as other Esquimaux, when
they can obtain no sOapstone i'm their own
neighborhood, will make trips lasting
several months in search of this rare ma
terial.-New York Sun.