One of America's foremost naturalists and dean in seniority and accomplishment of the American Museum's scientific staff The American Museum Journal VOL. XII JANUARY, 1912 QUOTATIONS FROM AN EXPLORER'S LETTERS No. 1 THE MUSEUM'S ARCTIC EXPEDITION REPORTS SURVEYS OF RIVERS AND LAKES IN THE FROZEN NORTH AND THE DISCOVERY OF A “NEW PEOPLE,” AN ESKIMO TRIBE WHICH HAS NEVER SEEN A WHITE MAN Τ HE main aim of the Museum's Arctic Expedition, which left New York in 1908, was to investigate the Eskimo both west and east of the Mackenzie River, especially those to the east, little-known tribes in the region of the Coppermine River thought to be more or less uninfluenced by white men. The difficulties in the way of the work have been great, sometimes almost insurmountable; but at last success has been realized both in the work in ethnology for the American Museum and in collateral work undertaken for the Geological Survey of the Canadian Government. the words of Mr. Stefánsson: "We have covered the last mile geographically that we set out to cover, and have found what we set out to find -a 'new people,' less contaminated, more numerous than anyone thought possible. In 1906 authorities thought Victoria Land probably uninhabited. I shall be surprised to find its population less than two thousand. We have taken physical measurements, photographs and notes everywhere and have secured and brought to a place of safety a large ethnological collection." Most of the letters come from the expedition's headquarters in an area. of spruce (about ten acres) on the Barren Grounds, Upper Dease River (lat. 67° N., long. 117° 30′ W.). April 27, 1910, I started east from Cape Lyon, the most easterly point at which Eskimo houses were seen by Dr. Richardson on his Franklin Search Expedition and the most easterly point known to have been visited by the Western or Baillie Island Eskimo. I hoped to reach by sled people supposed to occupy the coast and islands of Coronation Gulf north and west of the Coppermine. Our progress was slow on account of numerous bad pressure-ridges on the sea ice and a rocky coast which made land travel impracticable. The ice was usually in motion and open water could be seen less than three miles off shore. Between Cape Lyon and Cape Bexley are traces of former occupation by Eskimo, ruined villages — The history of this expedition is found in the November JOURNAL, 1910 Extracts from the letters of Mr. Anderson, the zoologist of the expedition, will be given in a later issue, as well as further facts regarding the work of Mr. Stefánsson. The photographs were taken in March and April 1911, on Mr. Stefánsson's second trip to the Coppermine from Langton Bay this time accompanied by Mr. Anderson) The plates were exposed under extremely variable light conditions and developed in most unfavorable quarters. perhaps abandoned twenty-five to fifty years ago. The inhabitants of these apparently engaged in whaling to judge by the number of whale vertebræ scattered about. THE DISCOVERY OF ESKIMO WHO HAVE NEVER At Point Wise we found the first evidences of this year's travel-pieces of wood cut in two and portions carried off, as material for sleds and bows, no doubt. At Cape Bexley, May 12, we came upon a village of over forty snow houses. These had apparently been recently abandoned. Sled-trails led north toward Victoria Land, which is visible across the strait everywhere east of Point Wise. As the explorers of the last century never found people near here, I supposed village and trail evidences of visits of Victoria Land people who had come across the strait to get driftwood. After an hour on the trail, we saw another village and people out sealing-approximately in the middle of Dolphin and Union Strait. Through neglecting the conventional peace signal of the Central Eskimo (extending the arms horizontally) our messenger, who preceded us by a few hundred yards, came near being knifed by the man whom he approached, who took his attitude (the arms down) for a challenge or rather a posture of attack. After the first parley however, everything was most friendly, and we found them the kindly, courteous and generous people that I have everywhere found the less civilized Eskimo to be. Four-year-old Eskimo girl experiencing the new sensation of having her picture taken. She is wearing a coat of long-haired winter caribou skin We were fed with all the best they had, choice parts of freshly killed seals and huge musk ox horn flagons of steaming blood soup. There was no prying into our affairs or into our baggage; no one entered our house unannounced, and when alone at home the first visitor always approached our house singing so that we had several minutes' warning of his coming. At this time they had not enough meat to give their dogs more than half-rations, yet ours never wanted a full meal, and our own days were a continual feast. There were thirty-nine individuals in this group, a small part of the A-kū-li-a-kattág-mi-ūt. Neither they, nor their forefathers as far as they knew, had ever seen a white man, an Indian, or an Eskimo from the west. They considered the Indians bad people as also the Eskimo to the west, but the white men (Ka-blu-nát) they considered good people. That their notion of Kablunat is vague may be seen in that none of them recognized me as one, considering me the older brother of one of my Eskimo. The winter home of the Akuliakattagmiut is in the middle of the strait north of Cape Bexley, but in summer they hunt inland south of Cape Bexley. The territory of these people has been supposed by geographers to be definitely known as uninhabited. Their isolation has been complete and largely self-imposed because of their ITINERARY OF THE STEFÁNSSON ARTIC EXPEDITION FROM APRIL, 1910 TO APRIL, 1911 In late April, 1910, Mr. Stefánsson left Langton Bay and Cape Lyon, the latter the most easterly point known to be visited by the Western Eskimo, and traversed the coast of Dolphin and Union Strait to Cape Bexley encountering no Eskimo until the end of the journey when he found a tribe that had never seen a white man. This coast has been skirted by water four times, by Dr. Richardson in the twenties and again in the forties and Captain Collinson in the fifties of the last century and by Amundsen in 1905. These expeditions however, saw little of the land In May Mr. Stefánsson crossed over to Victoria Land, where he discovered a Scandinavian-like people, and then proceeded southward from Liston Island entering the mouth of the Coppermine River in early June. He spent the summer on the Coppermine and Dease Rivers and Dismal Lake. In early November he went to Langton Bay to communicate with Mr. Anderson, crossing one of the largest unexplored regions in Canada. In April, 1911, Mr. Stefánsson and Mr. Anderson returned to the Coppermine region 5 ESKIMO SNOWHOUSE WITH A TENTLIKE ROOF OF FURS All the coast of Dolphin and Union Strait has been inhabited by Eskimo in former times, but now the most westerly group is the A-ku-li-a-kat- 6 T |