n't she
pretty?"--referring to his Pocahontas. Now, of all the hideously ugly
creatures rated as human beings, the full-blooded Eskimo woman is easily
the prize-winner, and Mrs. Ripley, besides, was notoriously unattractive
even in her own class. It was, therefore, a very embarrassing question.
My sense of professional dignity was continually outraged, but, in the
end, I got a satisfactory affidavit, though it required nearly four
hours to round it up. _In vino veritas._ Exit Ripley.

A word as to the natives of northwestern Alaska. I presume they as
nearly approach living in a state of nature as any beings on the face of
the earth. Of undoubted Mongolian origin, their ancestors drifted over
from Siberia to an equally hard country where the sole occupation of
their descendants is a hand-to-mouth struggle for existence, in
obtaining for daily subsistence the scant provender which nature
supplies ready-made. It is a matter simply of catching fish in their
nets during the summer, and in winter trapping the ptarmigan or wild
grouse and hunting the walrus and the seal. Their boats, or "kyaks,"
made from walrus-hide and repaired with ivory, are very ingeniously
contrived and cleverly managed. They are naturally a very peaceful
people, except when, in violation of the law, the white man sells them
whisky. They are godless and have no religion whatever, nor any form of
worship, nor any imagery, nor any idea of a happy hunting-ground
hereafter. They bury their dead in airy wooden biers several feet above
the ground, together with pots and pans, food, guns and ammunition,
their theory being that the deceased has lain down for a long sleep.
Perhaps he may wake up sometime, and then he will need the means to
procure and prepare food; and from his position he can see his family
and friends when they come by, and note their prosperity as represented
by the number of children and dogs. As a race, they are few and
scattered, without attempt to live in tribal relation. The epidemics
among them in 1900 of pneumonia and measles carried away perhaps half
their number, and it is safe to predict that within a short period this
hapless race will become extinct.

Later in July there came a welcome spell of hot weather, which melted
the remaining snow upon the slopes and helped matters generally, giving
one an opportunity, among other things, to sun his blankets. It not only
did great work in thawing the ground, but it magnificently and quite