Norwich bulletin., 1910-01-21
WHAT PEARY SAW.
The PhiIosophic Anarchists Of the North-Where the Topples and But tercups Bloom.

Commander Robert E.. Peary gives in the February number of Hanpton's Magazine his own solution to g. riddle that has puzzled explorers and scien- titists for the past few centuries. That riddle is the origin of the Eskimos-
 The commander in his second install ment of his wonderfully interesting story of the discovery of the North Pole, reveals the importance of we'll trained Eskfnos in polar travel and he incidentally gives remarkable himself employed. He says:
 The members of this little tribe habiting the western coast of Green land from Cape York to Etah are in Eskimos of Danish Greenland, or those of any other Arctic territory. There are now between two hundred and twenty and two hundred and thirty in are not savage; they are without gov ernment, but they are not lawiess; they are utterly uneducated according to our standard, yet they exhibit re- markable degree Of intelligence In temperament like children, with all a child's delight in little things, they are nevertheless enduring as the most ma tured of civilized men and women, and the best of them are faithful unto death. Without religion and having no idea of God. they will share their last meal with anyone who is hungry, while the aged and the helpless among them course. They are healthy and pure blooded; they have no vices. no intoxi- cants. no bad habits-not even gam bling. Altogether, they are people unique upon the face of the earth. A friend of mine calls them philosophic anarchists of the north
 T have been studying the Esl1imos for eighteen years. and no more effec- tive instrument for Arcticu<work could be imagined than these pIafnp bronze skinned, keen-eyed and black-r ms ned children of nature. Their very limita- tions were their most valuable endow- ments for the purposes of my work.
 There is a theory, first advanced by Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal geographical society of Lon- don. that the EskinoS are the rem nants of an ancient Siberian tribe, the OnkilOn; that the last members of this tribe were driven out on the Arctic Ocean by the fierce waves of Tartar invasion in the Middle Ages, and that they found their way to the New Si- berian Islands. thence eastward over lands yet undiscovered to GrinneIl Land and Greenland. am inclined to believe in the truth of this theory for the following reasons:
 Some of the Eskinnos are of a dis tinct MongoIian type, and they dis play many Oriental characteristics, such as a nimicry, ingenuity and pa tience in mechanical duplication. There Is a strong resemblance between their stone houses and the ruins of houses found in Siberia The Eskimo girl brought home by Mrs. Peary in 1894. was mistaked by Chinamen for one of their own people. It has been suggest ed that their invocation of the spirits of their dead may be a survival of Asiatic ancestor worship"
 Other parts of the narrative tell of the flora and fauna of the Arctic.
 Tva rIo 1xFG a 1- rnander, "in this coast in summer, the grass Is thick and long as on a New England farm. Topples bloom here with dandelions, buttercups and sSxi- frage: though to the best of my 1 knowledge the flowers are all devoid of perfume. I have seen bumblebees even north of Whale Sound; there are flies and mosquitoes. and even a few spiders. Among the fauna of this country are the deer. the Greenland caribou, the fox-both blue and white 1 the Arctic hare, the polar bear, and perhaps once in a generation a stray wolf"