That a statement lately made was no refinement, may be proved from the third chapter of Baer's work, where he determines the character of the Esquimaux trade, and gives it as a measure of the intercourse between Asia and America. It seems referable to two centres, viz., the parts about Behring's Straits, and the parts about Cook's Inlet. For the first, the market extends from Icy Cape to the Promontory of Aliaska, and has for its stations the islands of Behring's Straits. The second district comprises the Aleutian islands, Cadiack, and the line of the sea-coast as far south as Queen Charlotte's Island. Now, whatever may be the amount of Russian civilization, in determining some of the characteristics of the Western Esquimaux, it is certain that the tribes of that race now inhabiting Asia, were occupants of their present localities, anterior to the Russian Conquest of Kamshatka.
A second deviation from the Esquimaux type, we find in the island Cadiack, and the coast of the continent opposite. The early Russian discoverers speak of a continual warfare between opposing tribes of the same stock; whilst another tribe, the Inkalite, is said to uphold itself bravely against the more numerous nation of the Kuskokwims. As a general rule, warfare, except as a defence against tribes of a different race, is as foreign to the typical Esquimaux of Greenland as to the Laplander of Europe.
Measured by another test, and that of the psychological sort (viz., the capacity for religious instruction), the Western Esquimaux coincides with the Esquimaux of Greenland. With the exception, perhaps, of the Negro, the race, in general, is the most docile in respect to the influences of Christianity. The religious history of extreme points of the Aleutian Islands and Greenland verifies this statement.
The extent to which a mixed breed has been propagated under the government of Russia, may be collected from the following tables. In New Archangel the population is as follows:—
| Europeans, | 406 |
| Creoles or half-breeds, | 307 |
| Aleutians, | 134 |
In the remaining part of the territory it is as follows:—
| Europeans, | 246 |
| Half-breeds, | 684 |
| Natives, | 8882 |
Of places of trust in New Archangel, a very large proportion is held by Half-breeds. We find them as overseers, police-officers, clerks, watchmakers, medical students.
Such seem the most remarkable points connected with the Russian Esquimaux in general. They are few in number, because it is the plan of the writer not so much to exhibit the whole details of the race to which they belong, as to put forward prominently such characteristics as are differential to them and the Esquimaux of Greenland and Labrador.
It is now proper to give a brief notice of the more important tribes, these being mentioned separately.