Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-01-26
OUR FIRST IMMIGRANTS.
PROOF THAT ABORIGINAL AM
ERICANS CAME FROM ASIA.
Last Link in The Proof as to Where
the Esquimaux Crossed to Green
Iand-The Journey Probably oecu-
pied Several Generations.

Last Link in the Proof as to Where
the Esquimaux Crossed to Green
Iand-The Journey Probably oecu-
pied Several Generations.
The fact is well established that the
EsQuimaux are descendants of hardy
wanderers from the frozen tundra of
Siberia who crossed Boring Strait
many centuries ago They were long
on their eastward journey, and by the
time Greenland was reached they had
travelled nearly half around the world
in the northern zone.
1t was not known until this year
where they crossed TO the Greenland
coast, but the last link in the chain
of evidence is now supplied by the
map of Sverdrup's travels in 1899
1902; and the light he has thrown On
the last stage of Esquimau wander
ings is more interesting and impor-
tant than the three large Islands he
found in the unknown sea north of the
Parry Archipelago.
IL OAAhS& Va W MN my NAONoNA
from Asia to Greenland was the ever
frozen sea north of our continent.
Their hating places on the way were
the inhospitable shores of the many
strewn over that sea. Their
~ is marked by the ruins of huts
apass6d from island to island;
traced fifty years ago as far
SSter Sound, whose wide
mo- A Baffin Bay, beyond
FheseV ktinguished from
pearance of gre
The camps whie OK
plorers deserted fifty "
appear to-day as fresh -
were occupied last year
cient ruins are covered with
lichens and are often so inSz
that it is difficult to recognize
as the remains of huts which shW
tered human beings before Column
bus discovered America; around them
are tell-tale heaps of the bones OF
bears, seals and birds, some of them
cut with sharp instruments; and also
ancient graves, stone fox traps or
pieces of sledges.
The journey to Greenland probably
occupied several generations. The i'm
polling motive that kept the Equimaux
moving on across the frozen straits
and along the unknown shores was the
never ceasing search for better hunt
ing and fishing grounds. Compared
with the shores and waters of Green
land, teeming with many forms of
life, the great. archipelago is an Arc
tic desert The struggle for existence
among the Arctic nomads was never
more intense than on their eastward
pilgrimage.
At last they looked out toward
Greenland over a sea too vice for
them to cross and beyond which the
land of better promise was hidden
Here Syerdrup took up the story OF
their wanderings as revealed by the
ruins along shores he was the first to
| tread
Turning north across Jones Sound
| some of the wanderers hunted along
the east shore of Ellesmere Land
| slowly moving northward till they
| came to the narrow channel or Smith
Sound; others made their way up the
west shore and assembled the deer
Bay Fiord whose head is separated
only by a narrow neck of land from
fiords leading straight to Smitl
Sound Moving along these might!
conyons they met their fellows WHIT
had taken the other route; and look
| ing forty-five miles over the ice they
saw the mountains of Greeland.
Here at last they found a resting
! place-a region where millions of edi
BILE birds nest on the cliffs; where
reindeer browse on the summer
meadows and where currents ant
drifting bergs keep pools and lanes
! of water open to which walrus, seal:
and bears resort. Along these shores
from Smith Sound to Cape York ig
loos were built by these immigrants
from Asia, the progenitors of the
Arctic Highianders of whom Peary
! has written so fully.
But there was one other stream o,
immigration, and perhaps it was the
most important of all. One band Of
travellers, moving north along the wes
/ shore of Ellesmere Land. did not turn
east up Bay Fiord to Smith Sound
| Sverdrp has traced their footsteps
| as they moved northward along the
! coast to Greedy Fiord A little to the
! northeast of this ford are the ruins
| Of native camps found by Greedy; and
/ the superstition now is that these wan
| derers crossed Grant Land to Green
| land, skirted it's northern shore and
went down the east side, where game
abounds and Esquimau ruins are
| found as far north as that coast has
been assembled.
Sverdrup's discoveries incline Eu-
ropean experts to the view that the
| 500 East Greenland natives and the
10000 of southwest Greenland are all
descended from the wanderers who
travelled around the north end of the
island. This theory seems all the
more probable because no ruins have
been found on the long stretch of
west coast between the home of the
Arctic Highlanders and that of the
Danish GTeenlanders; and there is
no tradition that they ever met
New York Sun.
Japanese Jingoism.
The prompt dismissal of the Japan-