e following incident. Some thirty
years ago a small trading-schooner from San Francisco dropped anchor off
the village, and was at once boarded and looted by the natives, who
killed two of her crew. The remainder of the white men escaped with
their vessel, and returned the following year under escort of a revenue
cutter. Several natives were induced to visit the latter, and when
perhaps a score had been lured on board the Government vessel, she
steamed away, intending to carry off the Kingigamoot men and punish them
for the outrage committed the preceding year. But a fight at once ensued
on the deck of the cutter, and every Eskimo was shot down and killed.
Relatives of these men are still living at Kingigamoot, and the
generally aggressive demeanour of the natives here is often ascribed to
this fact, for the vendetta practised amongst both the Tchuktchis and
Eskimo is fully as bitter and relentless as that which exists in
Corsica.]

During my rambles I came across some curious stone erections on the
summit of the Cape. They were moss-grown, much dilapidated, and
apparently of great age. The tomb-like contrivances are said to have
been constructed by the Eskimo as a protection against invaders--the
pillars of stone, laid loosely one on the other, about ten feet high, to
represent men, and thus deceive the enemy. But for the truth of this I
cannot vouch.

The ice remained so thickly piled up around the coast for four or five
days after our arrival here that no look-out was kept. No vessel would
willingly have approached this part of the coast without a special
purpose, and Cape Prince of Wales possesses few attractions, commercial
or otherwise. On a clear day the Siberian coast was visible, and the
Diomede islands appeared so close with the aid of a field-glass that
their tiny drab settlements were distinguishable against the dark masses
of rock. The big and little Diomedes are about two miles apart, and the
line of demarcation between Russia and America strikes the former off
its eastern coast. From the most westerly point of Alaska to the most
easterly point of the little Diomede (Ratmanoff) the distance is about
fifteen miles, and from the most easterly point of Siberia to the most
westerly point of the big Diomede (Krusenstern) the distance is about
twenty miles. On the southern extremity of the larger island, a small
village is situated, containing about a hundred and fifty natives
(Russian subjects), and on the sm