The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-14
ExILEs OF TRADE AND RELIGION.

EXILES OF TRADE AND RELIGION.
 White Men Along Cumberland Sound Where News is Two Years Old.
 Probably the last white man to hear
 of the death of Pope Leo will be the
 Rev. ames Peck, an Anglican nissiona-
 " laboring among the Esquihaus in Cumberland Sound, an inlet on the vast
 unexplored area north of Hudson Bay. He did not learn of the death of Queen 1 Victoria for eighteen months after its
 occurrence, when storm tossed WhaleT
 entered the region and imparted to him
 the news in July, 1902. This devoted cleric has established himself in that far off country in order to bring to the
 pagan Esquinaus the blessings of the ] Christian faith; but the extremes to
 which men will go in the pursuit of
 wealth are illustrated by the fact that there are two whaling stations in the
 same region, the principals of winch, a
 German and a Scotchman, have been thirty and twenty-seven years there, re-
 spectively, without once leaving.
 Cumberland Sound is two hundred
 and fifty miles north of Hudson Strait,
 and is one of the most desolate, cheer
 less regions in the world. Two whaling
 stations are established there, at Kek- kerton and Blacklead, and the fishing l is done by the Esquimaus. These, | through intercourse with civilized men and the use of civilized weapons, have ! quite lost their native art of killing the leviathans with the primitive harpoons
 of bone and flint which their ancestors
 hurled with stout arms from sealskin
 kayaks, tiring out the great creatures l by inflated skin buoys attached to ropes l of walrus hide.
 Instead, the Esquimaus of to-day plr- sue the hunt after the civilized fashion 1 in stout wooden boats, with steel har- poons and lines of flemp-and the indus- try pays chiefly because such labor is
 so cheap, being paid for in goods and lnecessaries of life As has been the ex- perience with aboriginal races else
 where, the Esquimau can no longer re-
 turn to its primitive condition of exist ence. He would certainly starve if he
 did, and therefore he must rely on the white man, to whom he becomes a de- pendent--a slave, indeed, in all but the
 name,
 At Kekkerton the factor is a Mir. Mulch, a Scotchman. who for twenty seven years has remained welded to his solitary existence. The Blackhead station is controlled by MT. Sheridan, a
 German, who has been thirty years there Both have amassed considerable ff,
 turn to the outer world, with all the marvels of science and art which have marked the advancement of the last generation. Every two years whaling steamer from Scotland visits them,
 bringing supplies for them and their Esquimau followers and removinb the stocks Of whale oil, whalebone, hides, ivory and other articles of trade accu- mu1ated in the meantime.
 With these self-exfIed settlers money has no meaning. Everything is done by barter; every service paid for with a fragment of iron or a pound of biscuit. The pofits of the venture go to the cred- it of their accounts in Aberdeen, where the products are marketed, and, possi- bly, when beyond their labor, these two recluses may make their way back to civilization to mourn the lost advanta- ges they are now too old to enjoy.
 They live in frame houses, the only ones besides the clergyman's in that northern land. They fare on canned goods, eke out with venison from the musk OK of the interior or steak from the whales captured, a by no means un- appetizing dish. But they are not averse to the raw seal, bear and wal rus which the Esquimaus affect, for no man can maintain his strength more than season or two in that latitude without consuming large quantities of. raw fat meat.
 The missionary, MT. Peek, has his sta- ton between the two whaling posts, and is gradually civilizing the three hun- dred Esquimaus who comprise the pop ulation. The children are being taught English and can speak English, but the status of existence is very low. The natives are a jolly, happy, inoffensive lot, but are slowly dying out from the whitening contact with civilization and the spread of disease pertaining thereto. As they become infirm they are practi- calIy pensioned by the whaling factors, and as their requirements are but small it is not a serious matter to i'm sure them against want and distress in this world.
 It is remarkable what a fascination the frozen and remote north has for those who come into contact with it. The factors of the Hudson Bay Compa- ny have all spent ten to thirty years in the wilds, and prefer to remain there longer rather than to dwell among cit ies afterward. It is the same way with explorers. Never man ventures with in the polar zone but is consumed with a desire to return there, although the desire to achieve scientific conquests i'm the icy wastes relieves them from the charge of the more sordid considerations which apply to those whose lengthy so- journs in the northlands are dictated by an effort to amass some of this worlds goods.--Montreal Star.