The following table, showing the dip of the magnetic needle, was prepared from observations made by Lieut. O. D. Myrick:

To commemorate our visit, a flag, placed on a pole of driftwood, was erected on a cliff, and to the staff was secured a wide-mouthed bottle and a tin cylinder, in which I enclosed information of our landing, etc. On raising the flag three cheers were given, and a salute was fired from the cutter in honor of our newly acquired territory.

These evidences of our short visit, which was soon afterward supplemented by the more extended exploration of the Rodgers, having now become matters of history, it may be remarked with pardonable pride that the acquisition of this remote island, though of no political or commercial value, will serve the higher and nobler purpose of a perpetual reminder of American enterprise, courage and maritime skill.

General Remarks on the Northern Inhabitants.

From an anthropological point of view the Eskimo coming under observation proved most interesting. The term Eskimo may be held to include all the Innuit population living on the Aleutian islands, the islands of Bering sea, and the shores both of Asia and America north of about latitude 64°. In this latitude on the American coast the ethnical points that difference the North American from the Eskimo are distinctly marked. It cannot, however, be said that the designating marks of distinction are so plain between the American Eskimo and the so-called Tchuktschi of the Asiatic coast. I have been unable to see anything more in the way of distinction than exists between Englishmen and Danes, for instance, or between Norwegians and Swedes. Indeed, it may be said that much of the confusion and absurdity of classification found in ethnographic literature may be traced to a tendency to see diversities where few or none exist. To the observant man of travel who has given the matter any attention, it seems that the most sensible classification is that of the ancient writers who divide humanity into three races, namely, white, yellow, and black. Cuvier adopted this division, and the best contemporary British authority, Dr. Latham, also makes three groups, although he varies somewhat in details from Cuvier. In accordance with the nomenclature of Latham, the Eskimo may be spoken of as Hyperborean Mongolidæ of essentially carnivorous and ichthyophagous habits, who have not yet emerged from the hunting and fishing stage.

PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES.

Their physical appearance and structure having been already described by others, it is unnecessary to mention them here, except incidentally and by way of noting a few peculiarities that seem to have been heretofore overlooked or slightly touched upon by other writers. Although as a rule they are of short build, averaging about five feet seven inches, yet occasional exceptions were met with among the natives of Kotzebue sound, many of whom are tall and of commanding appearance. At Cape Kruzenstern a man was seen who measured six feet six inches in height. This divergence from the conventional Eskimo type, as usually described in the books, may have been caused by inter-marriage with an inland tribe of larger men from the interior of Alaska, who come to the coast every summer for purposes of trade.

The complexion, rarely a true white, but rather that of a Chinaman, with a healthy blush suffusing each cheek, is often of a brownish-yellow and sometimes quite black, as I have seen in several instances at Tapkan, Siberia. Nor is the broad and flat face and small nose without exception. In the vicinity of East cape, the easternmost extremity of Asia, a few Eskimo were seen having distinctive Hebrew noses and a physiognomy of such a Jewish type as to excite the attention and comment of the sailors composing our crew; others were noticed having a Milesian cast of features and looked like Irishmen, while others resembled several old mulatto men I know in Washington. However, the Mongoloid type in these people was so pronounced that our Japanese boys on meeting Eskimo for the first time took them for Chinamen; on the other hand the Japs were objects of great and constant curiosity to the Eskimo, who doubtless took them for compatriots, a fact not to be wondered at, since there is such a similarity in the shape of the eyes, the complexion, and hair. In