Evening star., 1911-08-25
NEW RACE IS FOUND
Arctic Tribe Had Never Seen
White Man or Indian.
DISCOVERY IMPORTANT ONE
Explorer Stefansson Writes to Friend
of Strange Glass of People.
MAY SOLVE Mo0TED QUESTION
Fate of Franklin's Men and of Scan
dinavians Who Disappeared in
Fifteenth Century.
MAY SOLVE M00TED QUESTION

NEW YORK, August 25.-A race OF
people who had never before beheld
a white man. or an Indian has been dis
covered in the arctic regions OF British
Columbia by Nilhjmar Stefansson.
leader of the American Museums
scientific expedition. which left here In
April 1908. according to a letter re-
ceived from him In BROOKLYN today
In his letter, which is dated Mouth
of the Dease River October Is. 1910"
and is the first intelligence received from
the party within year, Stefansson says:
I'VE have discovered people in a re-
gion supposed to be uninhabited. and
have lived few months among people
who had never seen a white man or an
Indian Though they had heard of both.
and did not even know l was not an Es-
kmo-so little were they Informed on
what white men are like. We have dis
covered Eskimos lin speech and habits
who are Scandinavians in appearance.
This find is the beginning of the So
luton Of one of two problems:
what became OF some OF Franklin's
men?
What became of the 5000 Scandi-
navians who disappeared from Greenland
In the fifteenth century?
Or, If neither of these questions is to
be answered, then we have introduced
a new problem of scientific interest:
People Of Victoria Land Differ.
"Why do some of the people of Vic
toria Land differ markedly from the rest
of their race?
''Why are they SO European In type?
I'VE have discovered the non-existence
of a stream which the maps make the
size of the Hudson river-when the river
La Ronciere disappears from the map
cleaning.
I'VE have found a certain cape to he
an island. and a certain island to be
a cape; We know the source of Rae
lowest ten miles were seen by DR.. Rae.
and q few other things we have done
that are in the nature of discovery
But, of course. If We deserve any credit
1t will be more for our routine work
than for any discoveries properly 500
called.
Left to Study Tribes.
Stefansson left New York on the
present expedition in April. 1908. His
principal purpose was to study the diff
ferent tribes of Eskimos in the north-
west. and more especially an unknown
tribe living in Victoria Land.
The explorer is about thirty-three
years old, and q graduate Of Harvard
University. He is more than six feet
tall, of robust physique and has de-
voted many years to anthropological re-
search. particularly among the Eskimos
of the northwest. Several letters have
been received from him describing his
experiences and hardships. The letter
received today was addressed to Herbert
l.. Bridgman, an authority on arctic ex-
ploration.
Stefansson was accompanied hy DIR.
R. NJ Anderson of Harvard. During the
long, dreary journey to the land of the
midnight sun the party met with many
q hardship, the explorer writes. once,
when the food supplies ran out and no
relief was in sight. he says they ate the
skins from their fur clothing. In mid
winter i'm 1909 DIR. Anderson fell i'll of
pneumonia and lay for a month too i'll
to be moved.
Had Ii not been that We had sman
cache of flour. etc, at Cape Parry We
should not have been able to pun him
through" the explorer writes.