The Washington herald., 1908-01-12
PASSING OF The ESKIMO
Scarcity of Game Depietes POpula-
tiOn of Ungava Bay.
Many Canadian Wards Pass Away OT
the Long Winter SensOn.

St. Johns, Newfoundland Jan. liza
ness for Canada is that of maintaining
her Eskimo wards alive In her territory
| of Ungava- A peculiarly appalling in
stance Of this has just been reported by
! the Rev. S NJ. Stewart, an Anglican
/ missionary from the diocese of New
foundland, who has been laboring among
! the heathen natives OF Ungava Bay for
the past four years. His report is that
/ last winter, owing to scarcity of deer Sc
/ we're weather, and poor hunting other
/ wise, many of the natives in the territory
/ perished of starvation and in some in
stances the survivors had to maintain
/ life by feeding on the coTpses Of the dead.
What is believed to be an evidence Of
this is embodied in the account of the
experience of a Newfoundland vessel
fishing for cod In Ungava Bay, and whose
crew while ashore one Sunday in the
past summer came upon some eighty un-
buried skeletons, with guns and other
articles lying by them.
At first il was thought that these were
fare between the Eskimos of the coast
and the Indians OF the interior, and that
such an encounter had but recently taken
place The facts becoming known, an
inquiry was ordered, which disclosed that
no such occurrence had taken place, as
the Eskimo tribes are well known as to
their locality and numbers, But the still
{
Of Eskimos had starved 10 death, and
that others had lived on the dead bodies.
the skeletons seen in this case being sup
posed to be the remains of some Of the
victims OF thesa tragedies.
Their contact with the white man in
the shape Of whaling crews has inOcu-
lated them with all the white mans
vices and some of his loatbsome diseases.
Prof. A. 2. Low, of the Canadian Explor-
ing Expedition Of 1861 in the steamer
Neptune, describes the extinction of
tribe Of EskimOs on southampton Island,
at the mouth Of Hudson Bay, In a single
winter They numbered 100 souls, and
made shift TO live with fair success with
out employing civilized implements Of
war or chase, as they were isolated from
any neighbOrs.
But In 1900 Scotch whaling firm es-
tablished a station there and manned
it with a party of EskimOs from one Of
its other posts, who could use d modern
repeating rife successfully. These reck-
lessly slaughtered the musk-oXen and the
deer OF the region for the sake OF the
hide. which they sold to whaling en-
plOyers. and as a result the whole OF the
original tribe perished of starvation dur
ing the second winter while the others.
who were morally responsible for their
death, II not legally punishable. survived
through the aid of the provisions fur
nished them by their employers.
Two years later the whaling station
was abandoned again, and now this large
island is absolutely unpeopled The same
story is told OF other whaling stations.
Canada is now sending annual expedi-
tions to the region to release the tribes
and cope with this problem as best It
may. One of the first steps to this end
which was taken by Maj. Moody, OF the
Northwest police, now governor OF Hud. !
son Bay, was to forbid the export OF
musk-ox skins, so that the natives
should not exterminate these animals for
the sake Of the hides and so destroy their |
own chief food supply Of the future.