Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/100

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94
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Reindeer Chukchee Young Man. Eskimo Girl.
Maritime Chukchee Woman. Reindeer Chukchee Woman.

subdued, the Russians having withdrawn in 1764, leaving the inhabitants to settle their affairs according to their own customs. Commerce has in part accomplished what force failed to do, though the bulk of the territory remains exempt from any trace of Russianization.

The Chukchee number only about 12,000, of whom about one quarter are maritime and three quarters are reindeer people, while there are about 1.200 Eskimo on the coast. It is not settled as to whether the Chukchee and Eskimo belong to the same stock. Types of Mongolian faces are not uncommon, and at present there is a good deal of admixture. The domestication of reindeer is characteristic of the tribes inhabiting the Asiatic side of Bering Sea, and their economic condition resembles that of the more southerly cattle-breeding tribes. The large size of some of their herds is shown in the illustration. The Chukchee depend on reindeer for clothing and for food; for the