Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1910-01-20
IN POLAR CAVES.
herring Sen People who Live in Gins
High over the Water.

High over the Water.
Five hundred feet above the troubled |
surface OF Boring sea. which dashes it.
self to spray on the bare rock wall far
below them, lives a race Of real cliff |
dwellers writes the Nome correspondent |
OF the Seattle observation-disclosures. How
long these strange people have been |
nestled IN the caverns Of KINGS island |
TO one pretends to know. But they are |
there to-day living in much the same |
way as an,hropololgiste our anccs- |
tors lived some time In tho long ago
after they had given up. roosting in trees.
Kings island, like the Diomedes and
other islands in Bering and Boring
strait. is OF limestone formation, with
what the geologist calls granite intru-
sions. This peculiar formation Is fav
orable TO the formation OF caves. and
Kings island Is honeycombed with caves
and grootos. One great cave is more
than go feet in height.
The Eskimos who inhabited these
caves and whose descendants still clam
Der up and down the preciptous lodges
have added TO the ancient cliff dwellings,
of a more remote period Il newer type
of dwelling. In winter they creep
back into the rock chambers, that are
greasy with the memory of much
blubber and many big feasts in the
days that were. But in summer the
| Kings islander abandons his ancestral
home and fixes up a home that Is
thousand times more puzzling to the
| traveller than IL the simple abode OF
real cave man. Great poles are fixed
| in the rocks and on these Is built
boxlike affair. which is then covered
with walrus skin. These walrus skin
cabins look for all the world like
coffins suspended on poles, but when
| the summer tourist approaches them
he finds that every one is full of~very
lively Eskmos. with sundry pups and
venerable dogs scramblinR out to give
voice to strange greeting.
Kings island Is the fat top OF some
sunken mountain. Its sides rise quite
perpendicularly from the water to a
height of over a thousand feet All
around its four miles OF shore line
there is not square yard OF beach,
and only a few feet away the water
is fifty fathoms deep owing to the
81 fact that tho region bout i3erlr "
strait Is almost always stormy. 1t Is
nearly always quite impossible for
white men to land on this island
The native. by long practice. has
! learned how to land his big SKIN
: "oomiak" and to launch II even when
the bravest white man would fear &c
: approach the rocky shore. In launch
ing their big canoes several men get
in and then canoe and all are thrown
2 upon the surf as wave IL ebbing.
, Although Kings island is a barrer
rock, with practically no vegetation
' the hundred or 50 natives who live
2 there do not starve. In fact. II Ia Jus
9 possible that the average white fam
a llv is not much better off In the way
! of eating. when taste is left out o
] the question. than are these belate'
s cliff jewellers on Kings island. rh
sea around them abounds in walruses
n and when the Ice pack. begins NOV
T. Ing through Boring strait great herd
t of walruses may be heard through
d the long sunlit night believing Xix
h wild cattle t. ar Eskimo n warus
l. just plain meat, and from the tim
3 that the first sonorous roar OF tn
= great sea monsters comes over tn
ice until the last ton OF hlubber
< stored in the great cave no one sleep
d on Kings island. Sometimes sixt
y walruses have been killed out OF on
t. herd by these daring sea hunters. TIL
+ ivory from these or" lures runs int
e many hundreds Of dollars.
= These cave peopi" who live jus
" below the Arctic circle are also gres
whaIers. and there is seldom a yea
o goes by that some Of these leviathar
lie Of the deep do not feel the savag
thrust of the cliff dwe,lers' harpoon
~ With walrus ard "'''lo ''o~
and hundreds of seals and Thousand
% Of Pering sea tomcod. the Kings Is
)e andcr ,,,"naro~ - N'-c '"'"'
Probably the finest ivory crhhap
ID hoard in the world come from KIM
'y island. Not only is the carving
s these crhhagc boards remarkably
OF well done, but the drawings Of near
III the surfaces are exquisitoly done n!
n make the boards very attractive