Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/135

Rh southwest, and are decidedly warmer than from any other quarter, having been warmed in passing over the Japan current.

There are four principal tribes in Alaska, each having distinct manners and customs: 1. The Koloshians, who dwell along the south coast, and are found as far north as Cook's Inlet. They are tall and powerful men, very savage and warlike; during the Russian government they were very troublesome, and even now are the terror of the northwest coast. 2. The Aleutians, who live on the islands, are short of stature; their almond eyes and peculiar features proclaim their Mongolian origin. They are fishermen, and travel long distances in their skin bydarks or canoes. Among the many facts which prove their Tartar descent, is the remarkable one that the inhabitants of Attou, the most westerly of the Aleutian Islands, speak a language so nearly like that of the Corrile Islands on the Asiatic coast, that they need no interpreter between them. 3. The Kenaians, who live on the mainland, are tall and powerful men, nearly as white as Europeans. They are hunters, and live by trading. They are peaceful, but not cowardly, as the Alutes are, and are able to defend themselves from the Koloshians. 4. The Esquimaux are found on the north coast. Many of the Aleutians, who have been partially civilized by the Russians, live in log huts, and clothe themselves as white people do; the majority, however, dress in skins, and live in holes which they dig in the ground, and cover with a sort of hut of logs. Civilized and uncivilized, all display great ingenuity in making their houses air-tight; every crevice through which the cold wind could enter is closed, and the walls are lined with moss. In these huts, not more than ten feet long and ten wide, half a dozen people will live; day and night they keep up a large fire, until the heat and odor are more than a white man can endure. The filth of these houses is indescribable. During the Russian administration the natives were obliged to bathe once a week in the steam-bath, which was erected in every village. Uncle Sam's advent put an end to this tyranny, and now each man is free, and remains as dirty as he pleases. The food consists of fish dried in the sun, and, when they can get it, black bread and tea. The diseases of the northwest coast are modified by, and in many cases owe their origin to, the peculiar topography of the place and its climate, whether it is that of the coast or interior. In the damp, cold climate along the ocean, where the winds blow the greater portion of the time with great violence directly from the sea, disorders of the respiratory organs are the most frequent. Bronchitis is never absent; catarrh is seen at every change of weather. Sudden changes, when they are severe, often produce a catarrhal fever or influenza, with more or less bronchitis. Pneumonia often occurs, and seemed in sporadic cases to assume a typhoid type. During a few days of unusually warm weather, an epidemic of bilious pneumonia made its appearance at Kodiak, attacking about fifty of the natives. The treatment consisted in opening their doors and windows so as to admit air, attention to the police of their houses, and quinine. Rheumatism is very obstinate, and occurs very often, and generally takes the articular form. Tuberculous diseases are very common among both natives and whites, and occur most frequently among the half-breeds. Phthisis pulmonalis runs a fearfully rapid course. Skin-diseases are much more frequent than in the interior; eczema, especially, is often seen, but yields readily to treatment. Syphilis, in all its forms, seems to be found everywhere on the coast, and, most of all, in places where the whites have traded longest; it is slowly but surely killing all the natives of the northwest coast.

In the interior, rheumatism and bronchitis seem to be the prevailing diseases. On Cook's Inlet I met with a number of cases of intermittent fever: all occurred on a bluff several hundred feet above the sea, and where the houses were exposed to a strong breeze directly from the inlet. These cases were among white people, and might have been contracted elsewhere; but, happening after a sea-voyage of forty days, and in persons previously in good health, I attributed it to the locality. Scurvy also appears frequently in the interior, caused by lack of vegetables and fresh meat, and faulty hygiene. The long nights of that high latitude, the excessive cold and deep snow, and the lack of antiscorbutics, render it difficult to