Fort Brady, Mich.
Oct. 7th 1875.
Dear Doctor,
I enclose a letter from Dr. Mallack in the Hudson Bay Co.s’ service, + now stationed at Moose Factory, 600 miles north of this place. Through the kindness of my friend Capt. Wilson, who resides in Canada opposite Brady, the skull referred to arrived here safely – it is the crania of a full-blooded Cree Indian + in excellent condition. It is to be regretted that Dr. Mallack cd. [could] not send more. I hope yet to obtain some Esquimaux bones. Capt. Wilson who has just returned from those polar regimes, informed me that the Esqimaux in that country are in a most degraded state – incest being quite common, some even marrying their own mothers, or rather having their mothers “in loco conjugis”. The weather has been very stormy during the past month or I shd. [should] have accomplished much more. I lost nine Indian crania three weeks ago by the upsetting of a boat in a squall - + the man I had employed to secure them for me, only escaped drowning by a miracle. This was a great loss, + disheartened me for a while. However, I have many places yet to explore, + trust that I may be more successful. Never having rec’d [received] any letter from you, I fear my specimens have not that value, in yr. estimation, which I attach to them.
Yrs. very sincerely,
J.H.T. King
Surge G. A. Otis, U.S.A.
