on the older languages of Europe in the line of
their words and grammar, and it is also probable that their tradition
of the earliest state of man may have led to the fable of the sea
nymph.

The Seward Peninsula continued rising until at last it entirely emerged
above the water, disclosing those wonderful deposits of gold that of
late years have made Nome famous throughout the world. The rising land
formed a barrier against the warming influence of the Japan current.
Then the Arctic winters set in with their utmost severity, continuing
until at last Nature came to the relief of this ice-bound region. A
portion of the land nearest Asia sank, forming what is now known as the
Behring Straits, again admitting the Japan current to exert its
ameliorating influence on the Arctic sections. Our seasons then assumed
pretty much the same conditions they have now. Tradition states that in
the past there have been severe earthquakes in this section and it may
be due to such a cause that the land subsided.

As the seasons grew more and more severe, Nature, according to
tradition, took care of the seal and the wolf, by changing the fat of
the former to the blubber of to-day, and by causing the thin, short
hair of the latter to grow into the thick, warm fur of the present.
Man, with his superior intellect, was left to solve his own problem.
Those people who had remained behind soon found that their cave-dwellings
were not a sufficient protection against the cold, which was recurring
with greater severity each succeeding winter, and undoubtedly many
perished. The polar bear had solved the problem of sheltering herself
by building a home, according to circumstances, either on the land, or
on the ocean ice, and it was the latter that suggested to man how to
construct his first mound house, called iglo.

The female bear, in making the winter home in which her cub is born,
selects a site where the ocean ice extends up against a cliff, and
where the snow has drifted the deepest; with her massive paws she digs
into the drift, throwing the snow behind her. The entrance becomes
filled, while the drifting snow soon obliterates any external sign of
her presence. A good-sized room is formed and a small hole in the roof,
made by the warmth inside, acts as a ventilator. The escaping steam is
the sign which shows the hunter where a bear is to be procured. She
makes a hole in the ice, at one end of the room, through which she can
dive to procure a