Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-11-14
MORE ON BLONDE EsK1Mos
DR.. Anderson CorrOborates In Every
Way the story Of stefYansson.

Corroboratlng In every essential detail
the story Of the discovery Of the blonde
Eskimo tribes recently announced by
Vilhjalmcr steffansson. DR.. Rudolph
Martin Anderson of Forest city, To-. his
partner in Arctic exploration, arrived at
San Francisco November on the
whaler Bclvedere. after four and half
years in the Far North. He was accom-
panied by Professor T.. Dckovcn Lief
fingwcll of Pasadena, cal. who has
spent three and n half years making
observations in the vicinity of the
Plaxen islands and surveying and map
ping about $50 miles of the coast line.
at was over on the Cape Bexley terri
tory. on the mainland. and on Prince AL
bert sound across and to tho south Of
the Dolphin and Union straits. that Stef-
fansson first got in touch with the blonde
aborlgncs. said DR.. Anderson. "In the
spring of 1910. We lost most of our dogs
while at Cape Parry. Langton bay and
Franklin bay. where we had wlntercd
SteffanssOn and | parted company. he
leaving with two I;skimos for the East
while ! pushed on to the Mackenzie del
Ia FOR supplies. We met again at Lang
tom bay in the autumn of 1910. and he
told mo Of the queer tribe he had dis
covered.
In December We started out and were
thirty-onc days crossing 600 miles of the
worst strip of land we ever encoun-
tered. We explored the little-known Hor-
ton river and made records and COM
pass calculations. This is one of the
largest rivers flowing into the Arctic.
w ,,trI h., lpr
grounds and putting in a supply of carl
bot for cur dash for coronation bay
in the spring From Dease river to Dis
mai lake and to the Copper Mine river
and Coronation bay was our course the
last seventy-five miles over the Ice be-
for, we found these strange people
First We came on n deserted snow
village and finally an inhabited village
with n population of forty. Many Of
the men had light moustaches and
boards and light hair covered their
heads. The eyebrows of these men
were light and their eyes were light.
Some of the wom.n-not all--had fair
skin and rosy cheeks: but their hair
was dark. oily and tangled. There
were none of the tlat-nosed Eskimo s
of The true Monaghan type among this
people. Their features bore the char
actcristics Of the Caucasian race. They
do not know where they came from
and no one else knows.
They have no records. no history.
no legends and their language, a pc
culiar tribal dialect was extremely
hard to understand. AS to their origin
there can b" only a guess. They may
be survivors of the expedition of Sir
John Franklin. lost to the east of their
present locality in 1870 or Whereabouts.
or they may be descendants of the in =
habitants Of an early Icelandic colony,
Among these people there is NJ hope.
no thought worth registering, no
ideals. no particular purpose in life.
For six months OF the year they sim
ply exist, living in snow houses and
eating seal meat In the summer they
move to the mainland and subsist on
caribou meat. They have no religion
and no marriage ceremony. although
there is fidelity as a tribal characters
tic. Through other Eskimos they dc
some trading. but precious little.
''Steffansson had seen about $50 more
Of these people in his summer trip
He found conditions about the same
as have observed The people We
discovered are extremely primitive
having no modern implements Of any
kind and no modern weapons. They
hunt with crude bow and arrow ant
spear fish through holes in the lee
They cook their food. In kindling &
re they strike two crystalizcd stone.
together"