The writings of John Muir

CM

LO
LO

>-

GIFT OF
vSSl cvv

s/l'l

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN MUIR

ition
VOLUME VII

THE
CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

JOURNAL OF THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION

OF 1881 IN SEARCH OF DE LONG AND
THE JE ANNETTE

BY

JOHN MUIR

EDITED BY
WILLIAM FREDERIC BADE

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

MDCCCCXVIII

COPYRIGHT, 1917 AND 1918, BY HOUGHTON MIFKLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

EDITION LIMITED TO SEVEN
HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES
THIS IS NUMBER

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ....... ix

I. UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS ... 3

II. AMONG THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA . 19

III. SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 32

IV. IN PERIL FROM THE PACK .... 47
V. A CHUKCHI ORATOR 56

VI. ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 67

VII. AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL . . 78
VIII. RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY ... 93

IX. VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 109

X. GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA . . . 123

XI. CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR . . .138

XII. ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK . . 151

XIII. FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND . .163

XIV. APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND . .172
XV. THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR . . 184

XVI. TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET . . 200

XVII. MEETING THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 214

XVIII. A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD . . .223

XIX. TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE . . 236

XX. HOMEWARD-BOUND . . . . . . 244

APPENDIX

I. THE GLACIATION OF THE ARCTIC AND SUB
ARCTIC REGIONS VISITED DURING THE

CRUISE 255

II. BOTANICAL NOTES . . . . . . 281

INDEX . 237

388058

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE CORWIN (photogravure) .... Frontispiece
The small steamer in the service of the United
States Treasury Department in which Mr. Muir
made his memorable cruise in 1881.
From a painting by G. F. Denny

A CHUKCHI VILLAGE AT PLOVER BAY, SIBERIA
(photogravure) 32

From a photograph by E. S. Curtis

WEST DIOMEDE VILLAGE . . ... . .38

AN ARCTIC MORNING (photogravure) . . . .48
From a photograph taken off Cape Serdzekamen, Sibe
ria, by Dr. William J. Hamilton

KING ISLAND (photogravure) 132

From a photograph by Dr. William J. Hamilton

HERALD ISLAND . v 164

FIRST LANDING ON WRANGELL LAND . . .186

THE AMERICAN FLAG ON WRANGELL LAND, NEAR
EAST CAPE . . . 190

MAP OF WRANGELL LAND, AS SURVEYED BY THE
OFFICERS OF THE U.S.S. RODGERS, LIEUT. R. M.
BERRY, COMMANDING, SEPTEMBER, 1881 . .194
From the Report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1881

ESKIMO VILLAGE OF KOKMULIT, POINT BARROW . 206

A CHUKCHI SUMMER HOUSE (photogravure) . . 228
From a photograph by E. S. Curtis

ONE OF THE MOUTHS OF THE FAIRWEATHER ICE-
SHEET IN GLACIER BAY . . . . . . 258

VII

ILLUSTRATIONS

KING ISLAND 262

GRANITE ROCKS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF ST.
LAWRENCE ISLAND, SHOWING EFFECTS OF OVER-
SWEEPING ACTION OF ICE-SHEET » 262

VOLCANIC CONES ON ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND . . 268

BED OF SMALL RESIDUAL GLACIER ON ST. LAW
RENCE ISLAND 268

HERALD ISLAND 268

WEST DIOMEDE ISLAND (FROM THE NORTH) . . 270
EAST CAPE (FROM THE SOUTH) 270

OVERSWEPT GLACIAL VALLEYS AND RIDGES ON
ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND 272

BED OF LOCAL GLACIER, ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND . 272

NEAR THE SOUTHWEST EXTREMITY OF ST. LAW
RENCE ISLAND, ILLUSTRATING EFFECTS OF ICE-
SHEET 276

OVERSWEPT MOUNTAINS, WITH PARALLEL VALLEYS
AND RIDGES, FROM TWENTY MILES NORTHWEST
OF EAST CAPE . . 276

Except as otherwise indicated the illustrations
are from sketches by Mr. Muir, the last twelve be
ing reproduced from the cuts in Captain Hooper's
official Report of the expedition.

INTRODUCTION

ONE of the poignant tragedies of north polar
exploration, that of the Jeannette, still lingers
in the memory of persons now living, though a
generation has since passed away. John Muir,
who joined the first search expedition dis
patched from San Francisco, had already
achieved distinction by his glacial studies in
the Sierra Nevada and in Alaska. The Corwin
expedition afforded him a coveted opportunity
to cruise among the islands of Bering Sea and
the Arctic Ocean, and to visit the frost-bitten
shores of northeastern Siberia and northwest
ern Alaska. So enticing was the lure of this
new adventure, so eager was he to study the
evidence of glaciation in the Far North, that
he said a reluctant good-bye to his young wife
and fared forth upon the deep. "You remem
ber, " he wrote to her from the Siberian coast,
"that I told you long ago how eager I was to
get upon those islands in the middle of the
Bering Sea and Strait to read the ice record
there."

The events which led up to this memorable
cruise of the Corwin in 1881 had their origin

ix

INTRODUCTION

in the widespread interest which north polar
exploration was exciting at this time all over
the world. In 1877 Lieutenant George W. De
Long, an American naval officer, was search
ing among the northern ports of England for a
whaling vessel adapted to the requirements of
Arctic exploration. De Long had commanded
the Juniata which was sent out for the relief
of the Polaris, and through this experience
had grown enthusiastic over his own plans for
reaching the North Pole.

The whaling industry was at that time a
very profitable one, and few owners of whalers
and sealers were willing to part with then* ves
sels. Though Sir Allen Young's steam yacht
Pandora, which De Long finally selected, had
already made two Arctic voyages, she appears
to have been chosen more because she was
available than because of her superior fitness
for ice navigation. In any case she was pur
chased by James Gordon Bennett, patron of
the proposed expedition, was fitted out at
Deptford, England, and re-named the Jean-
nette. Though the new name evaded the sug
gestion of a box of evils, she proved to be one
for those who sailed in her. Commander De
Long himself brought her around Cape Horn
to San Francisco. In the month of July, 1879,
she sailed from that port for Bering Strait and

INTRODUCTION

the Arctic Ocean — never to return. Crushed
in the ice, she sank, June 12, 1881, in the Arctic
Ocean, one hundred and fifty miles north of
the New Siberian Islands.

The retreat southward across the ice-floes
was one of great peril. Only thirteen out of
thirty-four men ultimately reached civilization
and safety. De Long himself, and ten of the
men with him, died of starvation and exposure
on the delta of the Lena River, where two of
the Jeannette's storm-beaten cutters landed in
the middle of September, 1881. One of them,
commanded by Chief Engineer Melville,
reached a Russian village on one of the east
ern mouths of the Lena River. He promptly
organized a search party, recovering the ship's
records in November, 1881, and the bodies of
his unfortunate shipmates the following spring.

When the North Pacific whaling fleet re
turned from Arctic waters in the autumn of
1879, two ships, the Mount Wollaston and the
Vigilant, were reported missing. They had
been last seen in October in the same general
region, near Herald Island, where the Jeannette
had entered the polar ice. The Mount Wollas
ton was commanded by Captain Nye, of New
Bedford, Massachusetts, one of the keenest and
bravest men that ever sailed the frigid seas.
He it was who at a conference of whaling cap-

xi

INTRODUCTION

tains, called by De Long in San Francisco
before the departure of his expedition, hesitated
to give an opinion on the practicability of De
Long's plans. But when urged for an expression
of his views, he said, "Put her [the Jeannette]
into the ice and let her drift, and you may get
through, or you may go to the devil, and the
chances are about equal."

In the service of the United States Treasury
Department there was at this tune a stanch
little steamer called the Corwin. Built at
Abina, Oregon, she was constructed through
out of the finest Oregon fir, fastened with cop
per, galvanized iron, and locust-tree nails. She
had a draught of nearly eleven feet, twenty-
four feet beam, and was one hundred and
thirty-seven feet long between perpendiculars.
The ordinary duties of the captain of such a
revenue steamer involved primarily the en
forcement of federal laws for the protection of
governmental interests on the Fur Seal Islands
and the sea-otter hunting grounds of Alaska.
But the supposed plight of the Jeannette and
the unknown fate of two whalers caught in the
ice were soon to increase the Corwin's duties,
and call her into regions where her sturdy
sailing qualities were to prove of the utmost
importance.

In the spring of 1880 the Corwin, in com-

xii

INTRODUCTION

mand of Captain Calvin L. Hooper, was
ordered into North Alaskan waters in pur
suance of her regular duties. But Captain
Hooper had also been directed to make all
possible inquiries for the missing whalers and
the Jeannette. He returned with no tidings of
the lost, but with reports of starvation and
death among the Eskimos of St. Lawrence
Island on account of an uncommonly severe
and stormy winter in the Arctic regions. He
entertained no hope for the lost whalers, but
thought De Long and his party might be safe.
A general demand for relief expeditions now
arose. Petitions poured into Congress, and the
American Geographical Society addressed a
forcible appeal to President Garfield. When
the Corwin was sent to Alaskan waters again
hi 1881 it was with the following specific
instructions to Captain Hooper: —

No information having been received concerning
the whalers Mount Wollaston and Vigilant, you will
bear in mind the instructions for your cruise of last
year, and it is hoped you may bring back some tid
ings of the missing vessels. You will also make care
ful inquiries in the Arctic regarding the progress and
whereabouts of the steamer Jeannette, engaged in
making explorations under command of Lieutenant-
Commander De Long, U.S.N., and will, if practi
cable, communicate with and extend any needed
assistance to that vessel. . . . You will in your sea-
xiii

INTRODUCTION

son's cruise touch at such places as may be practi
cable on the mainland or islands where there are
settlements of natives, and examine into and report
upon their condition.

A letter written to his mother from Dutch
Harbor, Unalaska, gives Muir's own account
of his purpose in joining the expedition.

I wrote you from San Francisco [he says] that I
had suddenly made up my mind to avail myself of
the opportunity offered to visit the Arctic region on
the steamer Thomas Corwin sent to seek the Jean-
nette and the missing whalers that were lost in the
ice two years ago off Point Barrow. . . .

I have been interested for a long time in the glaci-
ation of the Pacific Coast, and I felt that I must
make a trip of this sort to the Far North some time,
and no better chance could in any probability offer.
I am acquainted with our captain, and have every
comfort the ship can afford, and every facility to
pursue my studies.

We mean to proceed from here past the seal
islands St. Paul and St. George, then northward
along the Siberian coast to about Cape Serdze,
where a sledge party with dogs will be sent out to
search the North Siberian coast, while the steamer
the meanwhile will cross to the American shore and
call at St. Michael, Kotzebue Sound, and other
places, [where we shall have the opportunity of]
making short journeys inland. Then, as the ice
melts and breaks up, we will probably push east
ward around Point Barrow, then return to the
Siberian side to pick up our land party, then en-
xiv

INTRODUCTION

deavor to push through the ice to the mysterious
unexplored Wrangell Land. We hope to return to
San Francisco by October or November, but may
possibly be compelled to winter in the Arctic some
where.

De Long, in a letter to his wife, had written
that his plan was to proceed north by the eastern
coast of Wrangell Land, touching first at Herald
Island to build a cairn and leave news of the
Jeannette's progress. Believing that Wrangell
Land extended northward toward the Pole,
he proposed to leave similar records along
its eastern coast, under cairns, at intervals of
twenty-five miles. These known intentions of
De Long show why it was one of the fore
most objects of the Corwin expedition to reach
what Muir called "the mysterious unex
plored Wrangell Land."

How keenly Muir appreciated the possibili
ties of science and adventure in the exploration
of this unknown Arctic land may be seen in
the fourteenth chapter of this volume. Up to
this time nothing was actually known about
Wrangell Land except its existence. The first
European who reported its discovery was
Captain Kellett of H.M.S. Herald. He saw it
in 1849 when he discovered Herald Island,
which was named after his vessel. By right
of discovery Kellett's name should have been

XV

INTRODUCTION

given to Wrangell Land, and upon British
Admiralty charts it was very properly indicated
as"KellettLand."

The name Wrangell Land, it seems, became
associated with the island through a report of
Captain Thomas Long, of the whaling bark
Nile. In 1867 he reported that he had

sailed to the eastward along the land during the
fifteenth and part of the sixteenth [of August], and
in some places approached it as near as fifteen miles.
I have named this northern land Wrangell Land [he
says] as an appropriate tribute to the memory of a
man who spent three consecutive years north of
latitude 68°, and demonstrated the problem of this
open polar sea forty-five years ago, although others
of much later date have endeavored to claim the
merit of this discovery. The west cape of this land
I have named Cape Thomas, after the man who
first reported the land from the masthead of my
ship, and the southeastern cape I have named after
the largest island in this group [Hawaii].1

Captain Long apparently was unaware of
the fact that the island already bore the name
of Kellett by right of discovery eighteen years
earlier. But since Baron Wrangell had made
such a brave and determined search for this
" problematical land of the North/' as he re-

1 Quoted from a letter by Captain Long published in the
Honolulu Commercial Advertiser, November, 1867. The same
paper contains a letter from Captain George W. Raynor, of
the ship Reindeer, giving additional geographic details.

xvi

INTRODUCTION

f erred to it in his final report, there is a certain
poetic justice in applying his name to what he
only sought, but never found.

While Captain Hooper, in his report of 1880,
had expressed the conviction that Wrangell
Land was an island, the first demonstration of
its insularity was made by Commander De
Long, who had practically staked the success
of his expedition on the belief that it was a
country of large extent northward, and suit
able for winter quarters. But before his vessel
was crushed in the ice it drifted, within sight
of Wrangell Land, directly across the merid
ians between which it lies. This fatal drift of
the Jeannette not only furnished conclusive
disproof of the theory that Wrangell Land
might be part of a continent stretching across
the north polar regions, but proved it to be an
island of limited extent. It is an inaccuracy,
therefore, when the United States Hydrog-
rapher's report for 1882 sets the establishment
of this fact down to the credit of the Rodgers
expedition.

So far as known, the first human beings that
ever stood upon the shores of this island were
in Captain Hooper's landing party, August 12,
1881, and John Muir was of the number. The
earliest news of the event, and of the fact that
De Long had not succeeded in touching either

xvii

INTRODUCTION

Herald Island or Wrangell Land, reached the
world at large in a letter from Muir published
in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Sep
tember 29, 1881. But the complete record of
Muir's observations, together with some of the
sketches contained in his journals, is now given
to the public for the first time.

A second Jeannette relief expedition, already
mentioned as that of the Rodgers, was sent
out under the direction of the Secretary of
the Navy. It succeeded hi reaching Wrangell
Land two weeks after the Corwin. In order to
make our geographical and scientific knowl
edge of this remote island as complete in this
volume as possible, we deem it desirable to
include a brief account of what was achieved
during the cruise of the Rodgers.

This vessel, a stout and comparatively new
whaler, known before its re-baptism as the
Mary and Helen, was placed in command of
Lieutenant, now Rear Admiral, Robert M.
Berry. He discovered on the southern shore of
Wrangell Land a snug little harbor where he
kept the Rodgers at anchor for nineteen days
while two search parties, hi whaleboats, going
in opposite directions, explored the coast for
possible survivors of the missing whalers and
for cairns left by the crew of the Jeannette.
These search parties nearly circumnavigated
xviii

INTRODUCTION

the island without finding anything except
Captain Hooper's cairn, and Commander
Berry, in his report to the Secretary of the
Navy, said, "I believe it impossible that any
of the missing parties ever landed here."

The principal gain of this exploration was a
running survey of the coast and a general deter
mination of the size of the island. In other
respects the harvest of scientific facts gathered
on Wrangell Land by the Rodgers was meager,
if one may judge by W. H. Gilder's Ice Pack
and Tundra. Unfortunately, the act which
carried the appropriation for the expedition
provided that the vessel selected "be wholly
manned by volunteers from the Navy." This
fact seems to have prevented the taking of men
trained in the natural sciences, like John Muir
or E. W. Nelson. Nineteen days on Wrangell
Land would have enabled them to obtain a
large amount of interesting information about
its flora, fauna, avifauna, and geology.

Commander Berry, taking charge of an
exploring party, penetrated twenty miles into
the interior of the island and ascended a con
spicuous mountain whose height, by baromet
ric measurement, was found to be twenty-five
hundred feet. He reported that he "could see
from its summit the sea hi all directions, except
between S.S.W. by W. per compass. The day

xix

INTRODUCTION

was very clear, and no land except Herald
Island was visible from this height. There was
no ice in sight to the southward." A letter of
inquiry addressed to Rear Admiral Berry by
the editor brought a courteous reply, stating
that he did not know of any photographs or
sketches, made by members of the Rodgers
expedition, which would show the coast or
interior topography of the island; that "the
vegetation was scant, consisting of a few
Arctic plants, a little moss, etc."; that "polar
bears, walrus, and seal were quite common
upon or near the island/' and that the provi
sional map which accompanied his report to
the Secretary of the Navy in 1881 is the only
one available.

From our reproduction of this map, and
from the report of the Rodgers, it will be seen
that practically the whole interior of the island
still awaits exploration. Estimates of its size
vary between twenty-eight and forty miles as
to width, and between sixty-five and seventy-
five as to length. Striking an average, one
might say that it contains about twenty-five
hundred square miles of territory. The dis
tance across Long Strait from the nearest
point on the Siberian coast is about eighty-five
or ninety miles, and Herald Island lies about
thirty miles east of Wrangell Land.

XX

INTRODUCTION

In 1914 the Karluk, Steff&nsson's flagship of
the Canadian Arctic Expedition, was crushed
hi the ice, and sank not far from the place
where the Jeannette was lost. Under the able
leadership of Captain Robert A. Bartlett the
members of the expedition made their way to
Wrangell Land, where they remained encamped
while Captain Bartlett, with an Eskimo,
crossed Long's Strait to Siberia over the ice.
Thence he made his way to St. Michael,
Alaska, and enlisted aid for the Karluk sur
vivors. Their rescue was effected successfully,
and, so far as we are able to discover, these
members of the Canadian Arctic Expedition
are the only human beings that have been on
Wrangell Land since the visit of the Corwin
and the Rodgers in 1881.

We venture to mention, in this connection,
a few facts which call for consideration in the
interest of a historical and consistent geo
graphical nomenclature. The United States
Geographic Board has done much to bring
order out of the chaos of Alaskan names, and
its decisions are available in Baker's Geographic
Dictionary of Alaska, which has been followed
in the editing of this volume. There is a
"Wrangell Island" in southeastern Alaska,
well known to readers of Muir's Travels in
Alaska, hence it occasions needless confusion

xxi

INTRODUCTION

to call Wrangell Land by the same name, as
even recent Hydrographic Office charts con
tinue to do, besides misspelling the name. The
retention of the term "land" for an island is
supported by abundant precedent, especially
in the Arctic regions.

The altitude of the mountain ascended by
Commander Berry had already been deter
mined with remarkable accuracy by Captain
Long in 1867. He described it as having "the
appearance of an extinct volcano," and it is
shown on his sketch of Wrangell Land, re
produced on the map accompanying Nourse's
American Explorations in the Ice Zones. Cap
tain Hooper, in his report of the cruise of the
Corwin, declares that the peak had been appro
priately named for Long, and adds, "Singular
as it may appear, this name to which Captain
Long was justly entitled has, notwithstanding
our pretended custom of adhering to original
names, been set aside on a recent issue of
American charts." It is some compensation,
however, that the wide stretch of water be
tween the North Siberian coast and Wrangell
Land is now known as Long Strait.

Captain Hooper and his party, being the

first to set foot upon Wrangell Land, exercised

the privilege of taking possession of it in the

name of the United States. In order to avoid

xxii

INTRODUCTION

the confusion of the two names, Kellett and
Wrangell, which it already bore, Captain
Hooper named it New Columbia. This name,
which was set aside by the Hydrographic
Office, he says

was suggested by the name which had been given to
the islands farther west, New Siberia. It is probable
that the name Wrangell Land will continue in use
upon American charts, but its justice, in view of all
the facts, is not so apparent. In my opinion the
adoption by us of the name Kellett Land given by
the English would be appropriate, and avoid the
confusion which is sure to follow in consequence of
its having two names.

Headlands and other geographical features of the
island were named by us, but as the names which
were applied to features actually discovered by the
Corwin and heretofore unnamed have been ignored,
it is possible that a desire to do honor to the memory
of Wrangell is not the only consideration. To avoid
the complications which would result from dupli
cating geographical names, I have dropped all be
stowed by the Corwin and adopted the more recent
ones applied by the Hydrographic Office. I have also
adopted the plan of the island [from surveys of the
Rodgers] as shown on the small chart accompanying
Hydrographic Notice No. 84, although the trend of
the coast and the geographical position of the mouth
of the river where we first planted the flag do not
agree with the result of the observations and tri-
angulations made by the Corwin.

Now that Captain Hooper and nearly all the

xxiii

INTRODUCTION

men who had a share in these explorations of
the early eighties have passed on, it is proper
that the basic facts as well as conflicting
judgments should be set down here for the
just consideration of geographers. Both from
Muir's vivid narrative of the Corwin's pene
tration to the shores of Wrangell Land, and
from Captain Hooper's admirable report pub
lished in 1884 as Senate Executive Document
No. 204, the reader will conclude that the
Captain of the Corwin had a better right to be
remembered in connection with the geographi
cal features of the island than most of the per
sons whose names have been attached to them
by the Hydrographic Office.

Whether Wrangell Land became United
States territory when Hooper formally raised
our flag over it is a question. The editor is
unable to discover any treaty between Russia
and the United States which would debar
possession by the latter. But questions involv
ing rights of territorial discovery have not, so
far as we know, been raised between the two
governments.

Muir's opportunity to join the Corwin appar
ently arose out of his acquaintanceship with
Captain Hooper, and when the invitation
came he had little time to prepare for the
cruise. A letter to his wife affords a glimpse of

xxiv

INTRODUCTION

his surroundings and plans when the Corwin
was approaching Unalaska.

All goes well on our little ship [he writes] and not
all the tossing of the waves, and the snow and hail
on the deck, and being out of sight of land so long,
can make me surely feel that I am not now with
you all as ever, so sudden was my departure, and so
long have I been accustomed in the old lonely life to
feel the influence of loved ones as if present in the
flesh, while yet far. . . . There are but three of us in
the cabin, the Captain, the Surgeon, and myself,
and only the same three at table, so that there is no
crowding. . . .

Should we be successful in reaching Wrangell
Land we would very likely be compelled to winter
on it, exploring while the weather permitted. In
case we are unsuccessful in reaching Wrangell Land,
we may get caught farther west and be able to
reach it by dog-sledges in winter while the pack is
frozen. Or we may have to winter on the Siberian
coast, etc., etc., according to the many variable
known and unknown circumstances of the case. Of
course if De Long is found we will return at once.
If not, a persistent effort will be made to force a
way to that mysterious ice-girt Wrangell Land,
since it was to it that De Long was directing his
efforts when last heard from. We will be cautious,
however, and we hope to be back to our homes this
fall. Do not allow this outline of Captain Hooper's
plan to get into print at present.

From another letter written the following
day we quote this breezy bit of description: —

XXV

INTRODUCTION

How cold it is this morning! How it blows and
snows ! It is not ' ' the wolf's long howl on Unalaska's
shore/' as Campbell has it, but the wind's long howl.
A more sustained, prolonged, screeching, raving
howl I never before heard. But the little Corwin
rides on through it in calm strength, rising and
falling amid the foam-streaked waves like a loon.
The cabin boy, Henry, told me this morning [May
16] early that land was in sight. So I got up at six
o'clock — nine of your time — and went up into
the pilot-house to see it. Two jagged black masses
were visible, with hints of snow mountains back of
them, but mostly hidden beneath a snow-storm.

After breakfast we were within two miles of the
shore. Huge snow-peaks, grandly ice-sculptured,
loomed far into the stormy sky for a few moments in
tolerably clear relief; then the onrush of snowflakes,
sweeping out into the dark levels of the sea, would
hide it all and fill our eyes, while we puckered our
brows and tried to gaze into the face of it all.

We have to proceed in the dimness and confusion
of the storm with great caution, stopping frequently
to take soundings, so it will probably be one or two
o'clock before we reach the harbor of Unalaska on
the other side of the island. I tried an hour ago to
make a sketch of the mountains along the shore for
you, to be sent with this letter, but my fingers got
too cold to hold the pencil, and the snow filled my
eyes, and so dimmed the outlines of the rocks that I
could not trace them.

Down here in the cabin it is warm and summer-
ish, and when the Captain and Doctor are on deck
I have it all to myself. ... I am glad you thought
to send my glasses and barometer and coat. We

XXVI

INTRODUCTION

will procure furs as we proceed north, so as to be
ready in case we should be compelled to winter in
the Arctic regions. It is remarkably cold even here,
and dark and blue and forbidding every way,
though it is fine weather for health.

I was just thinking this morning of our warm
sunny home . . . and of the red cherries down the
hill, and the hundreds of blunt-billed finches, every
one of them with red bills soaked in cherry juice.
Not much fruit juice beneath this sky!

During the cruise Muir kept a daily record
of his experiences and observations. He also
wrote a series of letters to the San Francisco
Evening Bulletin in which he turned to account
the contents of his journal. Comparison of the
letters with the journal shows that his note
books contain a large amount of interesting
literary and scientific material which has not
been utilized in the Bulletin letters. To publish
both would involve too much duplication. It
has seemed best, therefore, to make the letters
the foundation of the volume and to insert the
additional matter from the journal wherever
it belongs chronologically in the epistolary
record. Most of the letters have thus grown
far beyond their original size.

The performance of this task has often been
trying and time-consuming, especially when it
became the editor's duty to avoid repetition,
or overlapping, by selecting what seemed to

xxvii

INTRODUCTION

be the more comprehensive, the more finished,
or the more vivid form of statement. But this
method of solving the difficulty has the advan
tage, for the reader, of unifying in the present
volume practically the whole of Muir's literary
and scientific work during the cruise of the
Corwin. Sometimes, as in chapters eleven and
twelve, all the material is new and has been
derived exclusively from the journal. The
style of the latter may generally be recognized
by its telegraphic conciseness.

During his studies hi the Sierra Nevada Muir
had acquired skill, speed, and accuracy in
sketching the features of a landscape. This
ability he turned to good account during the
cruise of the Corwin, for one of his journals is
filled with a variety of sketches which prove
to be remarkably faithful pictures in cases
where it has been possible to compare them
with photographs. In judging the pictorial
value of these sketches it should be remem
bered that Muir employed them chiefly as an
auxiliary descriptive means of recording his ob
servations for future use. One of the sketches,
for instance, is an extensive panoramic view
of the southern coast of Wrangell Land, evi
dently done as the Corwin cruised along the
coast. Since his numerous sketches of Wrangell
Land are apparently the only ones in existence,

xxviii

INTRODUCTION

they are of unique importance in connection
with his account of the Corwin's landing on
the island. The same considerations apply in
a measure to Herald Island whose precipitous
cliffs he was the first to scale as well as to sketch.

Since Muir's primary object in joining the
Corwin expedition was to look for evidence of
glaciation in the Arctic and subarctic regions,
we have deemed it desirable to include in this
volume the article in which he gathered up
the results of his glacial studies and discoveries.
It was published in 1884, with Captain C. L.
Hooper's report, as Senate Executive Docu
ment No. 204 of the Forty-eighth Congress.

Both the Hooper report and the article on
glaciation were elaborately illustrated from
Muir's pencil sketches, though the fact that
they were Muir's is nowhere stated. "The
' Glacier Article' arrived on the sixth," wrote
Captain Hooper to Muir under date of Febru
ary 7, 1884, "and was sent on its way rejoicing
the same day. The Honorable Secretary [of
the Treasury] assures me that he will see that
the whole is printed without delay. Please
accept my thanks for the article, which is very
interesting. The sketches are very fine and will
prove a valuable addition to the report. That
of the large glacier from Mount Fairweather is
particularly fine."

xxix

INTRODUCTION

The article on glaciation should have been
published a year earlier, in the same volume
with the " Botanical Notes." But for some
reason Muir was misinformed, and an apolo
getic letter to him from Major E. W. Clark,
then Chief of the United States Revenue
Marine, hints at a petty intrigue as the cause.
"I regret very much," he writes, "that I had
not myself corresponded with you regarding
your contribution to the Arctic report. Your
article on glaciation would have been exactly
the thing and would have admitted of very
effective illustration. I feel well assured that
you were purposely misinformed regarding the
report, and could readily explain the reason to
you in a personal interview. There has been
much anxious inquiry for your notes on glacia
tion." It was the writer of this letter after
whom Captain Hooper named the river at
whose mouth the Corwin anchored on Wrangell
Land. This fact has been recorded by Pro
fessor Joseph Everett Nourse, U.S.N., in his
work American Explorations in the Ice Zones.
He states that through the courtesy of Major
Clark he had access to the unpublished official
report of the cruise of the Corwin. Since the
river in question appears without a name
upon the chart of Wrangell Land, we must sup
pose it to be one of the names which Cap-

XXX

INTRODUCTION

tain Hooper complains the Hydrographic Office
ignored. Besides the illustrative drawings
which accompany Muir's article on glaciation
in the Far North, his note-books contain nu
merous interesting sketches of geological and
topographical features of Arctic landscapes.
They show with what tireless industry and
pains he worked at his task. This is the first
publication of the general conclusions of his
Arctic studies, supported in detail by the rec
ords of his journal, and by his sketches. In its
present form the article follows a revised copy
found among Muir's papers.

Muir's report on the flora of Herald Island
and Wrangell Land still remains, after thirty-
six years, the only one ever made on the vege
tation of these remote Arctic regions. It has
seemed best, therefore, to include also his ar
ticle entitled " Botanical Notes" as an appen
dix to this volume. It was first published in
1883 as a part of Treasury Department Docu
ment No. 429. Strangely enough, the letter of
transmittal from the Secretary of the Treasury
refers to it as "the observations on glaciation
in the Arctic Ocean and the Alaska region
made by John Muir."

The author never saw printer's proof after
he sent the manuscript, and the number of
typographical errors made hi the technical

xxxi

INTRODUCTION

parts of his article must have established a
new record, for they mount into hundreds.
Knowing that Muir had sent a duplicate set of
his Arctic plant collection to Dr. Asa Gray
for final scientific determination, the editor
went to the Gray Herbarium of Harvard
University, in order to make the necessary
corrections and verifications. Fortunately the
writer found there not only the original plants,
but also Muir's letters to Asa Gray. " I re
turned a week ago," wrote Muir under date
of October 31, 1881, "from the polar region
around Wrangell Land and Herald Island, and
brought a few plants from there which I wish
you would name as soon as convenient, as I
have to write a report on the flora for the expe
dition. I had a fine icy time, and gathered a
lot of exceedingly interesting facts concerning
the formation of Bering Sea and the Arctic
Ocean, and the configuration of the shores of
Siberia and Alaska. Also concerning the forests
that used to grow there, etc., which I hope
some day to discuss with you."

The editor has made no attempt to reduce
the genus and species names to modern syn
onymy. As in the case of Muir's A Thousand-
Mile Walk to the Gulf, it has seemed best to
offer the original determinations, making the
necessary corrections by reference to the Index

xxxii

INTRODUCTION

Kewensis, and, in the case of the ferns, to
Christensen's Index Filicum. Since Muir's lists
did not follow any particular order of classifi
cation we have adopted the order of families
laid down in the last edition of Gray's Manual
of Botany.

Special interest attaches to the fact that
Muir found on the Arctic shore of Alaska, near
Cape Thompson, a species of Erigeron new to
science. It is an asteraceous plant with showy,
daisy-like flowers In reporting this find to
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Asa Gray described it as "the most interesting
and apparently the only new species of an
extensive and truly valuable collection made
by Mr. Muir in a recent searching cruise which
he accompanied, and which extended to
Wrangell Island [Wrangell Land]. The plant
seems to have been abundant, for it occurs in
the collection under three numbers."

Gray promptly named it Erigeron Muirii in
honor of its finder, thus redeeming for the
second time a promise made ten years earlier
when he wrote to Muir, "Pray, find a new
genus, or at least a new species, that I may
have the satisfaction of embalming your name,
not in glacier ice, but in spicy wild perfume."

WILLIAM FREDERIC BADE.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY,
June, 1917.

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

CHAPTER I

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

Unalaska, May 18, 1881.

THE Storm King of the North is abroad to
day, working with a fine, hearty enthusiasm,
rolling a multitude of white combing waves
through the rocky, jagged straits between this
marvelous chain of islands, circling them about
with beaten foam, and heaping a lavish abun
dance of snow on their lofty, cloud-wrapped
mountains. The deep bass of the gale, sound
ing on through the rugged, ice-sculptured peaks
and gorges, is delightful music to our ears, now
that we are safely sheltered in a land-locked
harbor.

The steamer Thomas Corwin safely arrived
here about noon to-day, after a prosperous run
of thirteen days from San Francisco, intending
to take on coal and additional supplies of every
kind for her long cruise in the Arctic in search
of the Jeannette and the missing whalers.
Nothing especially noteworthy occurred on the
voyage. The weather was remarkably cold for
3

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

this season of the year, the average tempera
ture for the first day or two being about 55° F.,
falling gradually to 35° as we approached Una-
laska, accompanied by blustering squalls of
snow and hail, suggestive of much higher lati
tudes than this.

On the morning of the fifteenth we met a
gale from the northeast, against which the
Corwin forced her way with easy strength, ris
ing and falling on the foam-streaked waves as
lightly as a duck. We first sighted land on the
morning of the seventeenth, near the southeast
extremity of Unalaska Island. Two black out
standing masses of jagged lava were visible,
with the bases of snowy peaks back of them,
while all the highlands were buried beneath
storm-clouds. After we had approached
within three or four miles of the shore, a ragged
opening in the clouds disclosed a closely packed
cluster of peaks, laden with snow, looming far
into the stormy sky for a few moments in
tolerably clear relief, then fading again in the
gloom of the clouds and fresh squalls of blind
ing snow and hail. The fall of the snowflakes
among the dark, heaving waves and curling
breakers was a most impressive sight.

Groping cautiously along the coast, we at
length entered the Akutan Pass. A heavy flood
tide was setting through it against the north-
4

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

east gale, which raised a heavy sea. The waves
reared as if about to fall backward, while the
wind tore off their white curling tops and car
ried them away in the form of gray scud. Never
before have I seen the sea in so hearty and
exhilarating a motion. It was all one white,
howling, rampant, runaway mass of foam from
side to side. We feared getting our decks
swept. Caught, therefore, as we were between
the tide and the gale, we turned to seek shelter
and wait better times.

We found good anchorage in the lee of a red
lava bluff near Cook's Harbor, a few miles to the
westward of the mouth of the Pass. The sailors
got out their cod-lines, and in a few minutes a
dozen fine cod were flapping on the deck. They
proved to be excellent fish, eaten fresh. But
whether they are as good as the renowned New
foundland article I cannot judge, as I never
have tasted fresh cod. The storm sounding on
over the mountains made fine music while we
lay safely at anchor, and we enjoyed it all the
more because we were in a wild, nameless place
that we had ourselves discovered.

The next morning, the gale having abated
somewhat, we entered the strait. Wind and
tide were flowing hi company, but they were
against us, and so strong was the latter that we
could not stem it, and were compelled to fall
5

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

back until it was near the turn. The Aleutian
chain extends across from continent to con
tinent like an imperfect dam between the Pa
cific and Bering Sea, and through the gaps
between the islands the tide rushes with tre
mendous speed and uproar. When the tide
was favorable, we weighed anchor and passed
through the strait and around Kalekta Point
into this magnificent harbor 1 without further
difficulty.

The harbor of Unalaska is excellent, land
locked, and has a good holding bottom. By
virtue of its geographical position it is likely to
remain for a long time the business center of
western Alaska. The town 2 is situated on a
washed and outspread terminal moraine at the
mouth of one of the main glaciers that united
here to excavate the harbor. Just above the
village there is a glacial lake only a few feet
above tide, and a considerable area of level
ground about it where the cattle belonging to
the town find abundance of fine grass.

1 Dutch Harbor, on the eastern side of Amaknak Island in
Unalaska Bay.

2 The chief town of Unalaska Island, the most important
of the eastern Aleutians, is IHuliuk. It was founded by
Solovief during the decade between 1760 and 1770, and its
Aleut name, according to one interpretation, means "har
mony," according to another, "the curved beach." The
name Unalaska is often applied loosely to the town as well as
the island.

6

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

Early in the forenoon the clouds had lifted
and the sun had come out, revealing a host of
noble mountains, grandly sculptured and com
posed, and robed in spotless white, some of the
highest adorned with streamers of mealy snow
wavering in the wind — a truly glorious spec
tacle. To me the features of greatest interest
in this imposing show were the glacial adver
tisements everywhere displayed in clear, telling
characters — the trends of the numerous inlets
and canons pointing back into the ancient ice-
fountains among the peaks, the sculpture of
the peaks themselves and their general out
lines, and the shorn faces of the cliffs fronting
the sea. No clearer and more unmistakable
glacial inscriptions are to be found upon any
portion of the mountain ranges of the Pacific
Coast.

It seems to be guessed in a general way by
most observers who have made brief visits to
this region that all the islands of the Aleutian
chain are clearly volcanic upheavals, scarce at
all changed since the period of their emergence
from the sea. This is an impression made, no
doubt, by the volcanic character of the rocks
of which they are composed, and by the numer
ous extinct and active volcanoes occurring here
and there along the summits of the highest
masses. But it is plain that the amount of
7

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWTN

glacial denudation which these ancient lavas
have undergone is very great; so great that
now every feature presented, with the excep
tion of the few recent craters, is glacial.

The glaciers, that a short tune ago covered
all the islands, have sculptured the compara
tively featureless rock masses into separate
mountain peaks, and perhaps into separate
islands. Certainly they have done this in some
cases. All the inlets or fiords, also, that I have
seen are simply the channels of the larger of
those old ice rivers that flowed into the sea
and eroded their beds beneath its level. The size
and the trend of every one of these fiords corre
spond invariably with the size and the trend
of the glacier basin at its head, while not a
single fiord or canon may be found that does
not conduct back to mountain fountains
whence the eroding glacier drew its sources.
The Alaska Peninsula, before the coming on
of the glacial period, may have comprehended
the whole of the Aleutian chain, its present
condition being mostly due to the down-grind
ing action of ice. Frost and fire have worked
hand in hand to produce the grand effects pre
sented in this majestic crescent of islands.

TJNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

Unalaska, May 21, 1881.

The Aleutian chain of islands is one of the
most remarkable and interesting to be found
on the globe. It sweeps in a regular curve a
thousand miles long from the end of the Alaska
Peninsula towards Kamchatka and nearly
unites the American and Asiatic continents.
A very short geological time ago, just before
the coming on of the glacial period, this con
nection of the continents was probably com
plete, inasmuch as the entire chain is simply a
degraded portion of the North American coast
mountains, with its foothills and connecting
ridges between the summit peaks a few feet
under water. These submerged ridges form the
passes between the islands as they exist to-day,
while it is evident that this segregating degra
dation has been effected by the majestic down-
grinding glaciers that lately loaded all the chain.
Only a few wasting remnants of these glaciers
are now in existence, lingering in the highest,
snowiest fountains on the largest of the islands.

The mountains are from three thousand to
nine thousand feet high, many of them capped
with perpetual snow, and rendered yet more
imposing by volcanoes emitting smoke and
ashes — the feeble manifestations of upbuild
ing volcanic force that was active long before
the beginning of the great ice winter. To the

9

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

traveler from the south, approaching any por
tion of the chain during the winter or spring
months, the view presented is exceedingly
desolate and forbidding. The snow comes down
to the water's edge, the solid winter-white
being interrupted only by black outstanding
bluffs with faces too sheer for snow to lie upon,
and by the backs of clustering rocks and long
rugged reefs beaten and overswept by heavy
breakers rolling in from the Pacific Ocean or
Bering Sea, while for ten or eleven months in
the year all the mountains are wrapped in
gloomy, ragged storm-clouds.

Nevertheless, there is no lack of warm, eager
life even here. The stormy shores swarm with
fishes — cod, halibut, herring, salmon trout,
etc.; also with whales, seals, and many species
of water birds, while the sea-otter, the most
valuable of the fur-bearing animals, finds its
favorite home about the outlying wave-washed
reefs. The only land animals occurring in con
siderable numbers are, as far as I have been
able to learn, three or four species of foxes,
which are distributed from one end of the chain
to the other, with the Arctic grouse, the raven,
snowbirds, wrens, and a few finches. There
are no deer, wild sheep, goats, bears, or wolves,
though all of these are abundant on the main
land in the same latitude.
10

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

In two short excursions that I made to the
top of a mountain, about two thousand feet
high, back of the settlement here, and to a
grassy island in the harbor, I found the snow in
some places well tracked by foxes and grouse,
and saw six species of birds, mostly solitary or
in twos and threes. The vegetation near the
level of the sea and on bare windswept ridges,
up to a height of a thousand feet or more, is
remarkably close and luxuriant, covering every
foot of the ground.

First there is a dense plush of mosses and
lichens from six inches to a foot in depth. Out
of the moss mantle and over it there grow five
or six species of good nutritious grasses, the
tallest shoulder-high; also three species of
vaccinium, cranberry, empetrum, the delight
ful linnsea in extensive patches, the beauti
ful purple-flowered bryanthus, a pyrola, two
species of dwarf willow, three of lycopodium,
two saxifrages, a lupine, wild pea, archangelica,
geranium, anemone, draba,. bearberry, and the
little gold-thread coptis, besides two ferns
and a few withered specimens that I could
not make out.

The anemone, draba, and bearberry are

already in bloom; the willows are beginning to

show the ends of their silky catkins, and a

good many green leaves are springing up in

ll

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

sheltered places near the level of the sea. At a
height of four or five hundred feet, however,
winter still holds sway, with scarce a memory
of the rich and beautiful bloom of the summer
time. How beautiful these mountains must be
when all are in bloom, with the bland summer
sunshine on them, the butterflies and bees
among them, and the deep glacial fiords calm
and full of reflections! The tall grasses, with
their showy purple panicles in flower, waving
in the wind over all the lower mountain slopes,
with a growth heavy enough for the scythe,
must then be a beautiful sight, and so must the
broad patches of heathworts with their multi
tude of pink bells, and the tall lupines and ferns
along the banks of the streams.

There is not a tree of any kind on the islands
excepting a few spruces brought from Sitka
and planted by the Russians some fifty years
ago. They are still alive, but have made very
little growth — a circumstance no doubt due
to the climate. But in what respect it differs
from the climate of southeastern Alaska, lying
both north and south of this latitude, where
forests flourish exuberantly in all kinds of ex
posures, on rich alluvium or on bare rocks,
I am unable to say. The only wood I noticed,
and all that is said to exist on any of the islands,
is small patches of willow, with stems an inch

12

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

thick, and of several species of woody-stemmed
heath worts; this the native Aleuts gather for
fuel, together with small quantities of drift
wood cast on the shores by the winds and cur
rents.

Grass of good quality for stock is abundant
on all the larger islands, and cattle thrive and
grow fat during the summer wherever they
have been tried. But the wetness of the sum
mer months will always prevent hay from being
made in any considerable quantity and make
stock-raising on anything like a large scale
impossible.

The agricultural possibilities of the islands
are also very limited. Oats and barley head
out but never fully mature, and if they did, it
would be very difficult to get them dry enough
for the granary. Potatoes, lettuce, cabbage,
turnips, beets, etc., do well in spots that are
well drained and have a southern exposure.

According to the census taken last year, the
inhabitants of these islands number 2451. Of
this population 82 are whites, 479 Creoles, and
1890 Aleuts. The Aleuts are far more civilized
and Christianized than any other tribe of
Alaska Indians. From a third to one half of
the men and women read and write. Their
occupation is the hunting of the sea-otter for
the Alaska Commercial Company.

13

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

A good hunter makes from four hundred to
eight hundred dollars per annum. In this pur
suit they go hundreds of miles in their frail
skin-covered canoes, which are so light that
the$ may easily be carried under one's arm.
Earning so much money, they are able to sup
port themselves with many comforts beyond
the reach of most of the laboring classes of
Europe. Nevertheless, with all their advan
tages, they are fading away like other Indians.
The deaths exceed the births in nearly every
one of their villages, and it is only a question
of time when they will vanish from the face of
the earth.

On the way back to the ship I sauntered
through the town. It contains about one hun
dred buildings, half of them frame, built by
the Alaska Commercial and Western Fur and
Trading Companies. Aleutian huts are called
"bardbaras." They are built of turf on a frame
of wood; some of them have floors, and are di
vided into many rooms, very small ones. The
smells are horrible to clean nostrils, and the
ah" is foul and dead beyond endurance. Some
of the bedrooms are not much larger than
coffins. The floors are below the surface of the
ground two or three feet, and the doors are at
the end away from the direction of the pre
vailing wind. There are one or two small win-
14

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

dows of glass or bladder, and a small pipe sur
mounts a very small Russian stove in which
the stems of empetrum are burned.

In most of the huts that I entered I found
a Yankee clock, a few pictures, and ordinary
cheap crockery and furniture; accordions, also,
as they are very fond of music. All such bits
of furniture and finery of foreign manufacture
contrast meanly with their own old-fashioned
kind. Altogether, in dress and home gear, they
are so meanly mixed, savage and civilized, that
they make a most pathetic impression. The
moisture rained down upon them every other
day keeps the walls and the roof green, even
flowery, and as perfectly fresh as the sod before
it was built into a hut. Goats, once introduced
by the Russians, make these hut tops their
favorite play and pasture grounds, much to
the annoyance of their occupants. In one of
these huts I saw for the first time arrowheads
manufactured out of bottle glass. The edges
are chipped by hard pressure with a bit of
deer horn.

As the Tlingit Indians of the Alexander
Archipelago make their own whiskey, so these
Aleuts make their own beer, an intoxicating
drink, which, if possible, is more abominable
and destructive than hootchenoo. It is called
"kyass," and was introduced by the Russians,
15

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

though the Aleutian kvass is only a coarse imi
tation of the Russian article, as the Indian
hootchenoo is of whiskey. In its manufacture
they put a quantity of sugar and flour, or
molasses and flour, with a few dried apples,
in a cask, fill it up with water, and leave it to
ferment. Then they make haste to drink it
while it is yet thick and acrid, and capable of
making them howling drunk. It also creates
a fiery thirst for alcohol, which is supplied by
traders whenever they get a chance. This
renders the misery of the Aleuts complete.

There are about two thousand of them scat
tered along the chain of islands, living in small
villages. Nearly all the men are hunters of the
fur seal, the most expert making five hundred
dollars or more per season. After paying old
debts contracted with the Companies, they
invest the remainder in trinkets, in cloth
ing not so good as then- own furs, and in beer,
and go at once into hoggish dissipation, hair-
pulling, wife-beating, etc. In a few years their
health becomes impaired, they become less
successful in hunting, their children are neg
lected and die, and they go to ruin generally.
When they toss in their kayaks among surf-
beaten rocks where their prey dwells, their
business requires steady nerve. But all the
proceeds are spent for what is worse than use-
16

UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS

less. The best hunters have been furnished
with frame cottages by the Companies. These
cottages have a neat appearance outside, but
are very foul inside. Rare exceptions are those
in which one finds scrubbed floors or flowers
in pots on window-sills and mantels.

We called at the house of the priest of the
Greek Church, and were received with fine
civility, ushered into a room which for fine
ness of taste in furniture and fixtures might
well challenge the very best in San Francisco
or New York. The wall-paper, the ceiling, the
floor, the pictures of Yosemite and the Czar
on the walls, the flowers in the window, the
books on the tables, the window-curtains white
and gauzy, tied with pink ribbon, the rugs,
and odds and ends, all proclaimed exquisite
taste of a kind that could not possibly originate
anywhere except in the man himself or his wife.
This room would have made a keen impression
upon me wherever found, and is, I am sure,
not dependent upon the squalor of most other
homes here, nor upon the wildness and remote
ness of Unalaska, for the interest it excites.
He spoke only Russian, so that I had but little
conversation with him, as I had to speak
through our interpreter. We smoked and
smiled and gestured and looked at his beautiful
home.

17

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

Bishop Nestor, who has charge of the Alas
kan diocese, is said to be a charming and most
venerable man. He now resides in San Fran
cisco, but is having a house built in Unalaska.
He is empowered to build and support, at the
expense of the home church, a certain number
of parish churches. Two out of seven of these
are located among the Aleuts — at Unalaska
and Belkofski. The other Aleutian villages
which have churches, and nearly all have,
build and support them at their own expense.
The Russian Church claims about eleven thou
sand members in all Alaska. About one half
of these are Aleuts, one thousand Creoles, and
the rest Indians of Nushagak, Yukon, and
Kenai missions, over which the Church exer
cises but a feeble control. Shamanism with
slight variations extends over all Siberia and
Alaska and, indeed, all America.

CHAPTER II

AMONG THE ISLANDS OF SEEING SEA

St. Paul, Alaska, May 23, 1881.

ABOUT four o'clock yesterday morning the
Corwin left Unalaska, and arrived at St. Paul
shortly after noon to-day, the distance being
about one hundred and ninety miles. This is
the metropolis of the Fur Seal Islands, situ
ated on the island of St. Paul — a handsome
village of sixty-four neat frame cottages, with
a large church, schoolhouse, and priest's resi
dence, and a population of nearly three hun
dred Aleuts, and from twelve to twenty whites.

It is interesting to find here an isolated
group of Alaskan natives wholly under white
influence and control, and who have in great
part abandoned their own pursuits, clothing,
and mode of life in general, and adopted that
of the whites. They are all employed by the
Alaska Commercial Company as butchers, to
kill and flay the hundred thousand seals that
they take annually here and at the neighboring
island of St. George. Their bloody work lasts
about two months, and they earn in this time
from three hundred to six hundred dollars
apiece, being paid forty cents per skin.

19

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

The Company supplies them with a school,
medical attendance, and comfortable dwellings,
and looks after their welfare in general, its own
interest being involved. They even have a
bank, and are encouraged to save their money,
which many of them do, having accounts of
from two hundred to three thousand dollars.
Fortunately, the Aleuts of St. Paul and St.
George are pretty effectively guarded against
whiskey, and to some extent against kvass also.
Only limited quantities of sugar and other
kvass material are sold to them. Nevertheless
one of their number told one of our officers
to-day that he had a bank account of eight
hundred dollars and would give it all for five
bottles of whiskey ; and an agent of the Company
gave it as his opinion that there were not six per
fectly sober Aleuts on the whole island to-day.

The number of fur seals that resort to these
two islands, St. Paul and St. George, during
the breeding season, is estimated at from three
to four million, and there seems to be no fall
ing off in numbers since the Alaska Commercial
Company began operations here. Only young
males are killed by the Company, but many of
both sexes are taken far from here among
the Aleutian Islands and around the shores of
Vancouver Island and the outermost of the
Alexander Archipelago.

20

THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA

No one knows certainly whence they come or
whither they go. But inasmuch as they make
their appearance every year about the shores
of the Aleutian Islands shortly after their dis
appearance from St. Paul and St. George, and
then later to the southward, toward the coast
of British Columbia, it is supposed that they
are the same animals, and that they thus
make journeys every year of a thousand miles
or more, and return to their birthplaces like
shoals of salmon. They begin to appear on the
breeding-grounds about the first of June.
These are old males, who at once take up their
stations on high ground a short distance from
the shore, and keep possession of their places
while they await the coming of the pregnant
females who arrive about a month later, accom
panied by the younger members of the com
munity. At the height of the season the
ground is closely covered with them, and they
seldom go back into the water or take any food
until the young are well grown and all are
ready to leave the islands in the fall.

In addition to the one hundred thousand
taken here, the Company obtains about forty
thousand by purchase from the Russians at
Bering and Copper Islands, and from Indians
and traders at different points south as far as
Oregon. These skins are said to be worth fif-
21

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

teen dollars apiece in the London market, to
which they are all sent. The government reve
nue derived from the one hundred thousand
killed each year is $317,000. Next in impor
tance among the fur animals of Alaska, is the
sea-otter, of which about six thousand a year
are taken, worth from eighty dollars to one
hundred dollars apiece.

The Aleuts obtain from thirty to fifty dollars
in goods or money, an alternative not due to
the fact that the goods are sold for their
money value, but to the fact that the traders
sooner or later receive back whatever money
they pay out instead of goods. Unlimited com
petition would, of course, run the price much
higher, as, for example, it has done in south
eastern Alaska. Here the only competition lies
between the Western Fur and Trading Com
pany and the Alaska Commercial Company.
The latter gets most of them. Each company
seeks the good-will of the best hunters by
every means in its power, by taking them to
and from the hunting grounds in schooners,
by advancing provisions and all sorts of sup
plies, by building cottages for them, and sup
plying them with the services of a physician
and medicine free. Only Indians are allowed
by law to take furs, and whites married to
Indian women. This law has induced some

22

THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA

fifteen white men to marry Indians for the
privilege of taking sea-otter. They have set
tled at Unga Island, one of the Shumagin
group, where there is a village of some hun
dred and eighty-five Indians.

Seen from the sea, all the Pribilof Islands —
St. Paul, St. George, and Otter Island — ap
pear as mere rocks, naked and desolate frag
ments of lava, wasted into bluffs where they
touch the sea, and shorn off on top by the ice-
sheet. The gray surfaces are roughened here
and there by what, at a distance, seem to be
degraded volcanic cones. Nevertheless, they
are exceedingly interesting, not only because
of the marvelous abundance of life about them
— seals, water birds, and fishes — but because
they tell so grand a story concerning the ice-
sheet that swept over them all from the north.

Steamer Corwin,
Tapkan, Siberia, May 31, 1881.

On the twenty-fourth of this month, a bleak,
snowy day, we enjoyed our first view of the
northern ocean ice at a distance of only a few
hours from the Pribilof Islands in latitude 58°.
This is not far from its southern limit, though
strong north winds no doubt carry wasting
fragments somewhat farther. It always reaches
lower on the American side. Norton Sound is

23

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

seldom clear before the middle or end of June.
Here the ice occurs in ragged, berglike masses
from a foot to a hundred feet in breadth, and
with the highest point not more than ten
or twelve feet above the water. Its color is
bluish-white, looking much like coarse, gran
ular snow, with pale blue stratified bases under
water.

We ran past one flat cake on which lay a
small white seal which kept its place, though
we were within fifteen or twenty feet of it.
Guns were then brought into the pilot-house
and loaded. In a few minutes another seal was
discovered riding leisurely on its ice raft and
shot. The engine was stopped, the boat low
ered, and a sailor stepped on the ice and threw
the heedless fellow into the boat. It seemed to
pay scarce any attention to the steamer, and,
when wounded by the first ball that was fired,
it did not even then seek to escape, which sur
prised me since those among the fiords north
of Wrangell and Sitka are so shy that my
Indians, as we glided toward them in a canoe,
seldom were successful in getting a shot. The
seal was nearly white — a smooth oval bullet
without an angle anywhere, large, prominent,
humanlike eyes, and long whiskers. It seemed
cruel to kill it, and most wonderful to us, as
we shivered in our overcoats, that it could live

24

THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA

happily enough to grow fat and keep full of
warm red blood with water at 32° F. for its
pasture field, and wet sludge for its bed.

In half an hour we descried another, a large
one, which we also shot as it lay at ease on a
large cake against which the waves were beat
ing. Like the other two, it waited until we
were within easy range, and allowed itself to
be shot without the slightest effort to escape.
This one proved to be a fine specimen of the
saddle-back species, Histriophoca fasciata, still
somewhat rare in collections, and eagerly
sought for. It derives its name from the saddle-
like bands of brown across the back. This
specimen weighed about two hundred pounds.
The skins of both were saved, and the next
morning we had some of the flesh of the small
one for breakfast. The meat proved to be
excellent, dark-red, and very tender, with a
taste like that of good venison.

We were steering direct for St. Matthew
Island, noted for the great numbers of polar
bears that haunt its shores. But as we pro
ceeded, the ice became more and more abun
dant, and at length it was seen ahead in a
solid pack. Then we had to abandon our plan
of landing on the island, and steered eastward
around the curving edge of the pack across the
mouth of Anadir Gulf.

25

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

On the twenty-seventh we sighted the Sibe
rian coast to the north of the Gulf, snow-clad
mountains appearing in clear outline at a dis
tance of about seventy miles. Even thus far
the traces of glacial action were easily recog
nized in the peculiar sculpture of the peaks,
which here is as unmistakably marked as it is
on the summits of the Sierra. Strange that this
has not before attracted the attention of ob
servers. The highest of the peaks seems to be
perhaps four thousand feet above the sea.
I hope I may yet have the chance to ascend
them.

On the morning of the twenty-eighth we
came to anchor near an Eskimo village at the
northwest end of St. Lawrence Island. It was
blowing and snowing at the time, and the poor
storm-beaten row of huts seemed inexpressibly
dreary through the drift. Nevertheless, out of
them came a crowd of jolly, well-fed people,
dragging their skin canoes, which they shoved
over the rim of stranded ice that extended
along the shore, and soon they were alongside
the steamer, offering ivory, furs, sealskin
boots, etc., for tobacco and ammunition.

There was much inquiry for beads, molasses,
and most of all for rum and rifles, though they
willingly parted with anything they had for
tobacco and calico. After they had procured

26

THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA

a certain quantity of these articles, however,
nothing but rifles, cartridges, and rum would
induce them to trade. But according to
American law, these are not permitted to be
sold. There seems to be no good reason why
common rifles1 should be prohibited, inasmuch
as they would more surely and easily gain a
living by their use, while they are peaceable
and can hardly be induced to fight without
very great provocation.

As to the alcohol, no restriction can possibly
be too stringent. To the Eskimo it is misery
and oftentimes quick death. Two years ago the
inhabitants of several villages on this island
died of starvation caused by abundance of
rum, which rendered them careless about the
laying up of ordinary supplies of food for the
winter. Then an unusually severe season fol
lowed, bringing famine, and, after eating their
dogs, they lay down and died in their huts.
Last year Captain Hooper found them where
they had died, hardly changed. Probably they
are still lying in their rags. They numbered
several hundreds.

When the people from this village came

1 By a " common rifle" Muir probably meant a single-shot
or muzzle-loading rifle. He changed his mind on this subject
when he became aware of the excessive slaughter of caribou,
or wild reindeer, committed by the natives with repeating
rifles. (See p. 140.)

27

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

aboard to-day they said ours was the first ship
of the season, and they were greatly delighted,
running over the ship like children. We gave
them lead, powder and caps, tobacco, et cetera,
for ivory, Arctic shoes, and reindeer parkas, in
case we should need them for a winter in the
ice, ordinary boots and woolen clothing being
wholly inadequate. These are the first Eskimos
that I have seen. They impress me as being
taller and less distinct as a race than I had been
led to suppose. They do not greatly differ
from the Tlingits of southeastern Alaska; have
Mongolian features well marked, seem to have
less brain than the Tlingits, longer faces, and
are more simple and childlike in behavior and
disposition. They never quarrel much among
themselves or with their neighbors, contrast
ing greatly in this respect with the Tlingits or
Koluschans.

It was interesting to see how keenly and
quickly they felt a joke, and winced when
exposed to ridicule. Some of the women are
nearly white. They show much taste in the
manufacture of their clothing, and make every
thing durable. With their reindeer trousers,
sack, shirt, and sealskin shoes they bid defiance
to the most extreme cold. Their sack, made
from the intestine of the sea-lion, while exceed
ingly light, is waterproof. Some of their parkas

28

THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA

are made of the breast skins of ducks, but in
no case do they wear blankets. When they can
procure calico or drilling they wear overshirts
of this material, which gives them a very
shabby and dirty look. Why they should want
such flimsy and useless material I cannot guess.
Dressed in their roomy furs, tied at the waist,
they seem better-dressed than any other In
dians I have seen. The trousers of the men are
made of sealskin, with the fur outside. Those
of the women are of deerskin and are extremely
baggy. The legs, where gathered and tied
below the knee, measure about two feet in
diameter.

The chief of this village is a large man, five
feet ten inches or six feet tall, with a very long
flat face and abruptly tapering forehead, small,
bright, cunning eyes, and childishly good-natured
and wide-awake to everything curious. Always
searching for something to laugh at, they are
ready to stop short in the middle of most im
portant bargainings to get hold of some bit of
fun. Then their big faces would fall calm with
ludicrous suddenness, either from being empty
or from some business requiring attention.
There was less apparent squalor and misery
among them than among any other Indians I
have seen.

It is a curious fact that they cut off their hair
29

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

close to the scalp, all save a narrow rim around
the base, much like the Chinese without the
queue. The hair in color and coarseness is
exactly like that of the Chinese; in a general
way they resemble them also in their clothes.
Their heads seem insensible to cold, for they
bare them to the storms, and seem to enjoy
it when the snow falls on their skulls. There is
a hood, however, attached to most parkas,
which is drawn up over the head in very severe
weather.

Their mode of smoking is peculiar. The pipe
is made of brass or copper, often curiously in
laid with lead, and the bowl is very small, not
over a quarter of an inch in diameter inside,
and with a flaring cuplike rim to prevent loss
when it is being filled. Only a small pinch of
finely pulverized tobacco is required to fill it.
Then the Eskimo smoker lights it with a
match, or flint and steel, and without remov
ing the pipe from his mouth, sucks in the
smoke and inhales it, inflating his lungs to the
utmost and holding it a second or two, expels
it, coughs, and puts his pipe and little bag of
tobacco away, the whole smoke not lasting one
minute. From the time he commences he holds
his breath until it is finished. The more acrid
and pungent the tobacco the better. If it does
not compel them to cough and gasp it is not
30

THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA

considered good. In buying any considerable
quantity they try it before completing the
bargain. This method of smoking is said to be
practiced among all the Eskimos and also the
Chukchis of Siberia.

In buying whiskey or rum from the traders
it is said that they select one of their number
to test its strength. The trader gives nearly
pure alcohol, so that the lucky tester becomes
drunk at once, which satisfies them. Then the
keg that is purchased is found to be well
watered and intoxication goes on slowly and
feebly, much to their disgust and surprise.

CHAPTER III

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

[Steamer Corwin,
Tapkan, Siberia, May 81, 1881. ]

AFTER inquiring about the movements of
the ice and the whaling fleet, we weighed anchor
and steered for Plover Bay on the coast of
Siberia, taking several of the natives with us.
They had a few poles for the frame of a boat
and skins to cover it, and for food a piece of
walrus flesh which they ate raw. This, with a
gun and a few odds and ends, was all their
property, yet they seemed more confident of
their ability to earn a living than most whites
on their farms.

The afternoon was clear and the mountains
about Plover Bay showed themselves in bold
relief, quite imposing and Yosemitic in sculp
ture and composition. There was so much ice
at the mouth of the bay, which is a glacial
fiord, that we could not enter. In the edge of
the pack we spoke the whaler Rainbow, and
delivered the Arctic mail. Then we proceeded
a short distance northward, put into Marcus
Bay, and anchored in front of a small Chukchi
settlement. A boatful of natives came aboard

32

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

and told a story " important if true," concern
ing the destruction of the lost whaler Vigilant
and the death of her crew. Three Chukchi seal
hunters, they said, while out on the ice last
November, near Cape Serdzekamen, discov
ered the ship in the pack, her masts broken off
by the ice, and the crew dead on the deck and
in the cabin. They had brought off a bag of
money and such articles as they could carry
away, some of which had been shown to other
natives, and the story had traveled from one
settlement to another thus far down the coast.

All this was told with an air of perfect good
faith, and they seemed themselves to believe
what they were telling. We had heard sub
stantially the same story at St. Lawrence
Island. But knowing the ability of these peo
ple for manufacturing tales of this sort, we
listened with many grains of allowance, though
of course determined to investigate further.

Here we began to inquire for dogs, and were
successful in hiring a team of six, and their
owner to drive them. The owner is called
"Chukchi Joe," and since he can speak a little
English he is also to act in the capacity of
interpreter, his language being the same as
that spoken by the natives of the north
Siberian coast. While we were trying to hire
him, one of his companions kept reiterating
33

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

that there was no use in sending out people to
look for the crews of those ships, for they were
all dead. Joe also said that it was no use going,
and that he was afraid to venture so far for
fear he would never get back. The snow, he
objected, was too soft at this time of year, and
many rivers hard to cross were hi the way, and
he did not like to leave his family. But after
we had promised to pay him well, whether our
lost friends were found or not, he consented
to go, and when he went ashore to get ready
we went with him.

The settlement consisted of only two habita
tions with twenty-five or thirty persons, lo
cated back three quarters of a mile from the
coast. On reaching home Joe quickly vanished.
His hut was about twenty-five feet in diame
ter, and was made of poles bent down at the
top, where they all met to form a hemisphere.
This frame was covered with skins of seal, sea-
lion, and walrus, chiefly the latter. . . . Since
much of the flesh on which the Chukchis
subsist is eaten raw, only very small fires are
made, and the huts are cold. The ground inside
of this one was wet and muddy as a Calif ornia
corral hi the rainy season, and seemed almost
as large. But around the sides of this cold,
squalid shell, little more than a wind-break
and partial shelter from rain and snow, there
34

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

were a number of very snug, clean, luxurious
bedrooms, whose sides, ceiling, and floor were
made of fur; they were lighted by means of a
pan of whale-oil with a bit of moss for a wick.
After being out all day hunting hi the stormy
weather, or on ice-packs or frozen tundras,
the Chukchi withdraws into this furry sanctum,
takes off all his clothing, and spreads his
wearied limbs in luxurious ease, sleeping per
fectly nude in the severest weather.

After introducing ourselves and shaking
hands with a few of the most dignified of the
old men, we looked about the strange domicile.
Dogs, children, men, women, and utensils;
spears, guns, whale-lances, etc., were stuck
about the rafters and hanging on the support
ing posts. We looked into one of the fur bed
rooms, about six by seven, and found Joe
enjoying a bath ere putting on his fine clothes
to set out with us. Soon he emerged clad in a
blue cloth army coat with brass buttons and
shoulder straps and army cap! I scarcely knew
him.

In the mean tune Captain H[ooper] was off
taking a drive over the snow with a dog-team
and sled. When he returned Joe was having a
farewell talk with his wife, who seemed very
anxious about his safety and long absence.
His little boy, too, about a year and a half old,

35

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

had been told that his father was going away
and he seemed to understand somewhat, as he
kept holding him by the legs and trying to
talk to him while looking up in his face. When
we started away from the house he kissed his
boy and bade him good-bye. The little fellow
in his funny bags of fur toddled after him until
caught and carried back by some of the
women who were looking on. Joe's wife came
aboard for a final farewell. After taking him
aside and talking with him, the tears running
down her cheeks, she left the vessel and went
back with some others who had come to trade
deerskins, while we sailed away. One touch of
nature makes all the world kin, and here were
many touches among the wild Chukchis.

We next proceeded to St. Lawrence Bay in
search of furs and more dogs, and came to
anchor at the mouth of the bay, opposite a
small Chukchi settlement of two huts, at half-
past one in the afternoon, May 29. This bay,
like all I have seen along this coast, is of glacial
formation, conducting back into glacial foun
tains in a range of peaks of moderate height.
The wind was blowing hard from the south
and snow was falling. The natives, however,
came off at once to trade. Here we met the
voluble Jaroochah, who sat gravely on the
sloppy deck in the sludge, and told the story
36

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

of the wrecked Vigilant in a loud, vehement,
growling, roaring voice and with frantic ges
tures. He assured us over and over again that
there was no use hi going to seek any of the
crew, for they were all dead and the ship with
her broken masts had drifted away again to
the north with the ice-pack. When told that
we would certainly seek them whether dead or
alive, he explained that the snow and ice were
too soft for sleds at this tune of year. Seeing
that we were still unconvinced, he doubtless
regarded us as foolish and incorrigible white
trash.

We went ashore to fetch some dogs they
offered to sell, but they changed then- minds
and refused to sell at any price, nor were they
willing to barter deerskins that we needed for
the trip and for winter clothing in case we
should be caught in the ice and compelled to
pass a winter in the Arctic. We presented them
with a bucket of hardtack which no one of the
party touched until the old orator gave orders
to his son to divide it. This he did by counting
it out on the deck, laying down one biscuit for
each person and then adding one to each until
all was exhausted, piling them on each other
like a money-changer counting out coins. The
mannerly reserve and unhasting dignity of all
these natives when food is set before them is
37

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

very striking as compared with the ravenous,
snatching haste of the hungry poor among the
whites. Even the children look wistfully at
the heap of bread, without touching it until
invited, and then eat very slowly as if not hun
gry at all. Nor do they ever need to be told to
wait. Even when a year of famine occurs from
any cause, they endure it with fortitude such
as would be sought for in vain among the civi
lized, and after braving the most intense cold
of these dreary ice-bound coasts in search of
food, if unsuccessful, they wrap themselves in
their furs and die quietly as if only going to
sleep. This they did by hundreds two years
ago on St. Lawrence Island.

Finding that we could not buy anything that
we wanted here, savage eloquence being the
only article offered, we sailed for the Diomedes.
Here we found the natives eager to trade away
everything they had. We bought a lot of furs
and nineteen dogs, paying a sack of flour for
each dog. This Arctic cattle market was in
every way lively and picturesque, and ended
satisfactorily to all the parties concerned. The
scene of barter as each Eskimo, pitching along
side in his skin boat, hoisted the howling wolves
aboard, and thence to the upper deck in front
of the pilot-house, was a rare one.

The villages are perched on the steep rocky

38

-

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

slopes of mountains which drop at once sheer
into deep water, one mountain per island. l No
margin is left for a village along the shore, so,
like the seabirds that breed here and fly about
in countless multitudes darkening the water,
the rocks, and the ah-, the natives had to perch
their huts on the cliffs, dragging boats and
everything up and down very steep trails. The
huts are mostly built of stone with skin roofs.
They look like mere stone-heaps, black dots on
the snow at a distance, with whalebone posts
set up and framed at the top to lay their canoes
beyond the dogs that would otherwise eat them.
The dreariest towns I ever beheld — the tops
of the islands in gloomy storm-clouds; snow to
the water's edge, and blocks of rugged ice for
a fringe; then the black water dashing against
the ice; the gray sleety sky, the screaming
water birds, the howling wind, and the blue
gathering sludge!

We now pushed on through the strait and
into the Arctic Ocean without encountering
any ice, and passed Cape Serdzekamen this
afternoon [May 31]. The weather has been
calm and tolerably clear for the last twenty-
four hours, enabling us to see the coast now

1 Muir noted in his journal that " Fairway Rock near the
East Diomede is a similar smaller island, on which the gran
ite rock is glaciated."

39

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

and then. It showed hills of moderate height,
rising here and there to mountains.

About twelve miles northwest from Cape
Serdzekamen we observed a marked bluff
where the shore ice seemed narrower than else
where, and we approached, intending to exam
ine it with reference to landing the party here.
When we were within a mile of it we saw a
group of natives signaling us to land by wav
ing something over their heads. The Captain,
Joe, and myself got on the ice from the boat,
and began to scramble over it toward the bluff,
but found the ice very rough and made slow
progress. The pack is made up of a crushed
mass of blocks and pinnacles tilted at every
angle up to a height of from ten to thirty feet,
and it seemed to become rougher and more
impassable as we advanced.

Fortunately we discovered a group of natives
a quarter of a mile or so to the westward, com
ing toward the ship, when we returned to our
boat that was lying at the edge of the ice, and
went around to meet them. After shaking
hands with the most imposing of the group of
eight, we directed Joe to tell them the object
we had in coming, and to inquire whether two
of their number would go with our sledge party
to assist in driving the teams. One of them, a
strapping fellow over six feet tall, said that he

40

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

had a wife and four boys and two girls to hunt
seals for, and therefore could not go. As Joe
interpreted him hi whaler English, he was
"already hungry like hell." Another said that
the journey was too long for him, that our
friends were not along the coast, else he would
certainly have heard about them, and therefore
the journey would be vain. We urged that we
were going to seek them whether they were to
be found or not, and that if they would go with
us we would leave more food for their families
than they could get for them by hunting.

Two of the number at length consented to
go, after being assured that we would pay them
well, whether the journey proved successful or
otherwise. Then we intimated that we would
like to visit their village, which seemed to
please them; for they started at once to guide
us over the hummocky ice to where they had
left their dog-teams and sleds. It was a rough
scramble at best, and even the natives slipped
at times and hesitated cautiously in choosing
a way, while we, encumbered with overcoats
and not so well shod, kept sinking with awk
ward glints and slumps into hopper-shaped
hollows and chasms filled with snow. One of
them kindly gave me his balancing-stick.

Beyond the roughest portion of the hum
mock region we found the dogs, nearly a hun-

41

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

dred of them, with eleven sleds, making, as
they lay at their ease, an imposing picture
among the white ice. Three of the teams were
straightened out and one of them given in
charge of Joe, who is an adept at driving, while
the Captain and I were taken on behind the
drivers of the other two; and away we sped
over the frozen ceiling of the sea, two rows of
tails ahead.

The distance to the village, called "Tapkan"
by the natives, was about three miles, the first
mile very rough and apparently hopelessly in
accessible to sleds. But the wolfish dogs and
drivers seemed to regard it all as a regular
turnpike, and jogged merrily on, up one side of
a tilted block or slab and down the other with
a sudden pitch and plunge, swishing round side
ways on squinted cakes, and through pools of
water and sludge in blue, craggy hollows, on
and on, this way and that, with never a halt,
the dogs keeping up a steady jog trot, and the
leader simply looking over his shoulder occa
sionally for directions in the worst places. The
driver admonished them with loud calls of
"Hoora! Hoora! Shedack! Shedack! Knock!
Knock!" but seldom struck them. He had to
hold himself in constant readiness to jump off
and hold the sled while guiding it around sharp
angles and across the high cutting ridges. My
42

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

sled was not upset at all, and the Captain's
only twice.

Part of our way was across the mouth of a
bay on smooth ice that had not been subjected
to the mashing, upheaving strain of the ocean
ice, and over this we glided rapidly. My
Chukchi driver, now that he had no oare about
the upsetting of the sled, frequently turned with
a smile and did his best to entertain me, though
he did not understand a word of English. It
was a rare, strange ride for us, yet accomplished
with such everyday commonplace confidence,
that it seemed at the time as if this might be
the only mode of land travel in the world.

Some teams were just arriving from the vil
lage as we were going to it. When we met, the
dogs passed each other to right or left as they
were told by their drivers, who kept flourishing
a whip and jingling some iron rings that were
tied loosely to one end of a short stick that
had an iron goad in the other, and of which
the dogs knew the use all too well. They are
as steady as oxen, each keeping its trace-line
tight, and showing no inclination to shirk —
utterly unlike the illustrations I had seen, in
which all are represented as running at a wild
gallop with mouths wide open.

The village is built on a sand-bar pushed up
by the ice on the west side of a narrow bay. I
43

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

counted twenty huts in all. When we drove
up, the women and children, and a few old men
who had not been tempted to make the jour
ney to the ship, came out to meet us. Captain
Hooper went to the house belonging to his
driver, I to the one belonging to mine; after
wards we joined and visited in company. We
were kindly received and shown to good seats
on reindeer skins. All of them smiled good-
naturedly when we shook hands with them,
and tried to repeat our salutations. When we
discussed our proposed land journey the wo
men eagerly joined and the children listened
attentively.

We inquired about the Vega, knowing that
she had wintered hereabouts. At first they
said they knew nothing about her; that no ship
had wintered here two years ago. Then, as if
suddenly remembering, one of them said a
three-masted ship, a steamer like the Corwin,
had stopped one season in the ice at a point
a few miles east of the village, and had gone
away when it melted in the summer. A woman,
who had been listening, then went to a box, and
after turning it over, showed us a spoon, fork,
and pocket compass oT Russian manufacture,
which she said the captain had given them.

The huts here are like those already de
scribed, only they are dry because of the porous
44

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES

character of the ground. Three or four families
live in one each having a private polog of deer
skins, of which there are several thicknesses on
the floor. We were shown into one — the snug
gest storm nest imaginable, and perfectly clean.
The common hut is far otherwise; dogs mingle
with the food, hair is everywhere, and strangely
persistent smells that defy even the Arctic
frosts. The children seemed in fair ratio with
the adults. When a child is to be nursed the
mother merely pulls out one of her arms from
the roomy sleeve of her parka and pushes it
down until the breast is exposed. The breasts
are pendulous and cylindrical, like those of the
Tlingits.

The dishes used in domestic affairs are of
wood, and in the smallest of these the puppies,
after licking them, were often noticed to lie
down. They seemed made specially for them,
so well did they fit. Dogs were eagerly licking
the large kettles, also, in which seal meat had
been boiled. They seemed to be favored in
these establishments like the pigs in Irish huts.
Spears, lances, guns, and nets were fastened
about the timbers of the roof and sides, but
little food of any kind was visible. A pot was
swinging over a small fire of driftwood when we
entered one of the huts, and an old dame was
stirring it occasionally, and roasting seal liver

45

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

on the coals beneath it. On leaving we were
each presented with a pair of fur mittens.

At the last moment, when we were ready to
return to the ship, one of the men we had en
gaged to go with the land party changed his
mind and concluded to stay at home. The
other stuck to his engagement, though evi
dently feeling sore about leaving his family.
His little boy cried bitterly when he learned
that his father was going away, and refused
all the offers made by the women to comfort
him. After we had sped away over the ice,
half a mile from the village, we could still hear
his screams. Just as the ship was about to
weigh anchor, the second man again offered
to go with us, but Joe said to the Captain,
"More better not take that fellow, he too
much talk."

The group of lookers-on congregated on the
edge of the ice was very picturesque seen from
the vessel as we moved away. The Chukchis
are taller and more resolute-looking people than
the Eskimos of the opposite coast, but both are
Mongols and nearly alike in dress and mode
of life, as well as in religion.

The weather is promising this evening.
No portion of the polar pack is in sight, and
we mean to push on westward as far as we
can with safety.

CHAPTER IV

IN PERIL FROM THE PACK

Steamer Corwin,

Near the edge of the shore ice,

opposite Koliuchin Island,

6 P.M., June 2, 1881.

AFTER leaving Tapkan, twelve miles north
west of Cape Serdzekamen, on the evening of
the last day of May, we steamed along the coast
to the -westward, tracing the edge of the shore-
ice, which seemed to be from three to six miles
wide. The weather was tranquil, though rather
thick at times, and the water was like glass and
as smooth as a mill-pond. About half -past five
yesterday afternoon we reached the end of the
open lead that we had been following, one
hundred and thirty miles west of Cape Serd
zekamen, latitude 68° 28' N., longitude 175°
10' W., having thus early in the season gained
a point farther west than the Corwin was able
to reach at any time last year.

At this point the firm coast ice united with
the great polar pack, and, as there was danger
of its drifting south at any time and cutting
us off, we made haste to the eastward, keeping
as far offshore as possible, that we might be
able to watch the movements of the pack.
47

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

About seven o'clock last evening, the weather
becoming thick, the engine was stopped and
the vessel was allowed to proceed slowly under
sail.

Shortly after one o'clock this morning I
was awakened by unusual sounds on deck, and
after listening for a few minutes, concluded
that we must be entangled in the edge of the
pack and were unshipping the rudder for fear
it might be carried away. Going on deck, I
was surprised to see the broken rudder being
hoisted, for I had not been awakened by the
blow. The oak shaft was broken completely
off, and also all three of the pintles. It seems
that about midnight, owing to the fog and
snow, we got into a field of heavy masses of
ice on the edge of the main pack, which, on
account of a north wind that had commenced
to blow, was now moving slowly southward,
and while backing out of it, a moderate bump
that chanced to take the rudder at the greatest
disadvantage broke it off without any appre
ciable strain.

The situation was sufficiently grave and ex
citing — dark weather, the wind from the
north and freshening every minute, and the
vast polar pack pushing steadily shoreward.
It was a cold, bleak, stormy morning, with a
close, sweeping fall of snow, that encumbered
48

IN PERIL FROM THE PACK

the deck and ropes and nearly blinded one
when compelled to look to windward. Our
twenty-five dogs made an effective addition to
the general uproar, howling as only Eskimo
dogs can. They were in the way, of c'ourse,
and were heartily kicked hither and thither.
The necessary orders, however, were being
promptly given and obeyed. As soon as the
broken rudder was secured on deck, four long
spars were nailed and lashed firmly together,
fastened astern and weighted to keep them in
place at the right depth in the water. This
made a capital jury-rudder. It was worked by
ropes attached on either side and to the steam
windlass. The whole was brought into com
plete working order in a few hours, nearly
everybody rendering service, notwithstand
ing the blinding storm and peril, as if jury-
rudder making under just these circumstances
were an everyday employment. Then, finding
everything worked well, we made our escape
from the closing ice and set out for Plover Bay
to repair the damage.

About four in the afternoon, as the clouds
lifted, we sighted Koliuchin Island, which our
two Chukchi natives hailed with joyful, beam
ing eyes. They evidently were uneasy because
of the accident, and on account of being so long
out of sight of land — a state of mind easily
49

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

explained by the dangers attending their mode
of life among the ice. In front of the island
the ice seemed to be two or three miles wide
and lavishly roughened with jammed, angular
hummocks. Captain Hooper was now very
anxious to get his sledge party landed. Every
thing was ready to be put on shore as soon as
a safe landing-place should be discovered. The
two Chukchis were in the pilot-house gazing
wistfully at the gloomy snow-covered island as
it loomed up in the gray, stormy sky with its
jagged reach of ice in the foreground beaten
by the waves.

The Captain directed Chukchi Joe, the in
terpreter, to ask his companion, the dog-
driver, who was familiar with the condition of
the ice on this part of the coast, whether this
was a good point on which to land. His an
swer, as interpreted by Joe, was: "He says it's
good; it's pretty good, he says." "Then get
ready, Mr. Herring, for your journey," ordered
the Captain. "Here, Quartermaster, get the
provisions on deck. " " Lower the boats there. ' '
"Joe, harness the dogs."

In a few minutes all was in readiness and
in the boats. The party is composed of First
Lieutenant Herring, in charge; Third Lieuten
ant Reynolds, a sailor1 and the two Chukchis.

1 Coxswain Gessler.
50

IN PERIL FROM THE PACK

They have twenty-five dogs, four sleds, a light
skin boat to cross rivers and any open water
they may find in their way, and two months'
provisions. They were directed to search the
coast as far to the westward as possible for the
crew of the Jeannette or any tidings concern
ing the fate of the expedition; to interview the
natives they met; to explore the prominent
portions of the coast foi\ cairns and signals of
any kind, and to return to Tapkan, where we
would meet them, while in the mean time we
propose to cruise wherever, under existing con
ditions, we can best carry out the objects of
the expedition.

The party and all their equipments were
carried from the vessel to the ice in three boats,
roped together at intervals of twenty-five or
thirty feet, the life-boat leading with the party,
clothing, provisions, etc. Then came the din-
ghey, loaded nearly to the water's edge with
the dogs, and one man to thrash them and
keep some sort of order while they worried
each other and raised an outrageous noise,
on account of their uncomfortable, tumbled-
together condition. And last, the skin boat,
flying-light, with only the sleds aboard and
one man to steer, the whole making a very
extraordinary show.

Soon after the boats had left, while we were

51

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

still watching the tossing fleet from the pilot
house and scanning the shore with reference to
a landing-place, we noticed three dark objects
on top of a hummock near the edge of the ice,
and just back of them and to one side on a flat
portion of the ice, a group of black dots. These
proved to be three natives with their dog
teams. They were out hunting seals, and had
descried the ship with their sharp eyes and now
came forward to gaze. This was a glad discov
ery to us, and no doubt still more so to the
party leaving the ship, as they were now sure
of the passable state of the ice, and would have
guides with local knowledge to conduct them
to the land. When the dogs got upon the ice,
their native heath, they rolled and raced about
in exuberant sport. The rough pack was home,
sweet home to them, though a more forbidding
combination of sky, rough water, ice, and driv
ing snow could hardly be imagined by the
sunny civilized south.

After all were safely landed and our boats
had returned, we went on our way, while the
land party, busied about their sled-packing and
dogs, gradually faded in the snowy gloom. All
seems well this evening; no ice is in sight to the
northward, and the jury-rudder is working ex
tremely well.

52

IN PERIL FROM THE PACK

[Steamer Corwin,
En route southward, to Plover Bay.]

June 3. Snowing nearly all day. Cleared
towards four in the afternoon. Spoke the
Helen Mar; had taken five whales; another
had already nine. Seven other whalers in sight,
all of them save two smoking like steamers.
They are trying out their abundant blubber;
in danger of being blubber-logged. Saw an In
dian 1 canoe leaving the Helen Mar as we ap
proached; probably had been trading, the sea
being smooth.

Had a good view of the two Diomedes; the
western one is very distinctly glaciated, nearly
all of the summit being comprehended in one
beautiful ice-fountain, giving it a craterlike
form. The residual glacial action, however,
has been light, comparatively, here. No deep
canons putting back into the mountains, most
of which are low. It is interesting, however, to
see undoubted traces both of general and local
glaciation thus far north, where the ground is
in general rather low. Came up to the ice-pack
about ten in the evening, so turned back and
lay to.

June 4. Calm, bland, foggy water, glassy
and still as a mill-pond. Cleared so that one

1 Mr. Muir often applies this term to the Bering Sea
natives in general, whether Innuits or Chukchis.
53

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

could see a mile ahead at ten o'clock, and we
got under way. Sun nearly clear for the first
day since coming into the Arctic. Mild, too,
for it is 45° F. at noon; even seemed hot. The
clouds lifted from the mountains, showing
their bases and slopes up to a thousand feet;
summits capped. East Cape in fine view; high
headland still streaked with snow nearly to
the base; summit white at close range. All
the coast for at least two hundred miles west
of East Cape shows distinct glaciation, both
general and local. Many glacier fountains well
characterized. Indian village off here. Were
boarded by three canoe loads of Indian seal
hunters from East Cape village. They traded
ivory and shoes, called "susy" by their inter
preter. We were anxious to tell them about our
sledge party and inquired of one who spoke
a few words of English whether any of their
number could speak good English. He seemed
to think us very unreasonable, and said, "Me
speak good." Got a female eider duck; very
fat. In one of the canoes there was a very large
seal, weighing perhaps four hundred pounds.

This has been by far the most beautiful and
gentle of our Arctic days, the water perfectly
glassy and with no swell, mirroring the sky,
which shows a few blue cloudless spots, white
as satin near the horizon, of beautiful luster,
54

IN PERIL FROM THE PACK

trying to the eyes. More whalers in sight.
Gulls skimming the glassy level. Innumerable
multitudes of eider ducks, the snowy shore,
and all the highest mountains cloud-capped —
a rare picture and perfectly tranquil and peace
ful! God's love is manifest in the landscape as
in a face. How unlike yesterday! In the eve
ning a long approach to sunset, a red sky min
gling with brown and white of the ice-blink.
Growing colder towards midnight. There is no
night at all now; only a partial gloaming;
never, even in cloudy midnights, too dark to
read. So for more than a week. Ice in sight,
but hope to pass it by running a few miles
to shore. Are now, at half-past eleven in the
evening, beyond St. Lawrence Bay. Hope to
get into Plover Bay to-morrow morning at
six o'clock.

CHAPTER V

A CHUKCHI ORATOR

Steamer Corwin,
St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, June 6, 1881.

YESTERDAY morning at half -past one o'clock,
when we were within twenty-five miles of
Plover Bay, where we hoped to be able to re
pair our rudder, we found that the ice-pack
was crowding us closer and closer inshore, and
that in our partly disabled condition it would
not be safe to proceed farther. Accordingly we
turned back and put into St. Lawrence Bay, to
await some favorable movement in the ice.

We dropped anchor at half -past seven in the
morning opposite a small Chukchi settlement.
In a few hours the wind began to blow fresh
from the north, steadily increasing in force,
until at eight in the evening it was blowing a
gale, and we were glad that we were in a good
harbor instead of being out at sea, slashing and
tumbling about with a broken rudder among
the wind-driven ice. It also rained and snowed
most of the afternoon, the blue and gray sleet
mingling in grand uproar with the white scud
swept from the crests of the waves, making
about as stormy and gloomy an atmosphere
56

A CHUKCHI ORATOR

as I ever had the fortune to breathe. Now and
then the clouds broke and lifted their ragged
edges high enough to allow the mountains along
the sides and around the head of the bay to be
dimly seen, not so dimly, however, as to hide
the traces of the heavy glaciation to which they
have been subjected. This long bay, as shown
by its trends, its relation to the ice-fountains at
its head and the sculpture of its walls, is a gla
cial fiord that only a short time ago was the
channel of a glacier that poured a deep and
broad flood into Bering Sea, in company with
a thousand others north and south along the
Siberian coast. The more I see of this region
the more I am inclined to believe that all of
Bering Sea and Strait is a glacial excavation.

In a party of natives that came aboard soon
after we had dropped anchor, we discovered
the remarkable Chukchi orator, Jaroochah,
whose acquaintance we made at the settlement
on the other side of the bay, during our first
visit, and who had so vividly depicted the con
dition of the lost whaler Vigilant. To-day, after
taking up a favorable position in the pilot
house, he far surpassed his previous efforts,
pouring forth Chukchi in overwhelming tor
rents, utterly oblivious of the presence of his
rival, the howling gale.

During a sudden pause in the midst of his
57

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

volcanic eloquence he inquired whether we had
rum to trade for walrus ivory, whereupon we
explained, in total abstinence phrase, that rum
was very bad stuff for Chukchis, and by way
of illustration related its sad effects upon the
, Eskimo natives of St. Lawrence Island. Nearly
all the natives we have thus far met admitted
very readily that whiskey was not good for
them. But Jaroochah was not to be so easily
silenced, for he at once began an anti-temper
ance argument in saloon-and-moderate-drinker
style, explaining with vehement gestures that
some whiskey was good, some bad; that he
sometimes drank five cupfuls of the good arti
cle hi quick succession, the effect of which was
greatly to augment his happiness, while out of
a small bottle of the bad one, a small glass
made him sick. And as for whiskey or rum
causing people to die, he knew, he said, that
that was a lie, for he had drunk much himself,
and he had a brother who had enjoyed a great
deal of whiskey on board of whalers for many
years, and that though now a gray old man he
was still alive and happy.

This speech was warmly applauded by his
listening companions, indicating a public opin
ion that offers but little hope of success for
the efforts of temperance societies among the
Chukchis. Captain Hooper, the surgeon, and
58

A CHUKCHI ORATOR

myself undertook to sketch the orator, who,
when he had gravely examined our efforts,
laughed boisterously at one of them, which, in
truth, was a slanderous caricature of even his
countenance, villainous as it was.

In trading his ivory for supplies of some sort,
other than alcohol, he tried to extract some
trifling article above what had been agreed on,
when the trader threatened to have nothing
further to do with him on account of the trou
ble he was making. This set the old chief on
his dignity, and he made haste to declare that
he was a good and honorable man, and that in
case the trade was stopped he would give back
all he had received and go home, leaving his
ivory on the deck heedless of what became of
it. The woman of the party, perhaps eighteen
years of age, merry and good-looking, went
among the sailors and danced, sang, and joked
with them.

The gale increased in violence up to noon
to-day, when it began to abate slightly, and
this evening it is still blowing hard. The Cor-
win commenced to drag her anchor shortly
after midnight, when another that was kept in
readiness was let go with plenty of chain,
which held, so that we rode out the gale in
safety. The whalers Francis Palmer and Hi
dalgo came into the bay last evening from
59

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

Bering Strait and anchored near us. This morn
ing the Hidalgo had vanished, having probably
parted her cable.

Last evening a second party of natives came
aboard, having made their way around the
head of the bay or over the ice. Both parties
remained on board all night as they were un
able to reach the shore in their light skin boats
against the wind. Being curious to see how
they were enduring the cold, I went on deck
early. They seemed scarcely to feel it at all,
for I found most of them lying on the deck
amid the sludge and sleeping soundly in the
clothes they wore during the day. Three of
them were sleeping on the broken rudder,
swept by the icy wind and sprinkled with
snow and fragments of ice that were falling
from the rigging, their heads and necks being
nearly bare.

I inquired why their reindeer parkas were
made without hoods, while those of the Eski
mos of St. Lawrence Island had them; observ
ing that they seemed far more comfortable in
stormy weather, because they kept the head
and neck warm and dry. They replied that
they had to hunt hard and look quick all
about them for a living, therefore it was nec
essary to keep their heads free; while the St.
Lawrence Eskimos were lazy, and could indulge
60

A CHUKCHI ORATOR

in effeminate habits. They gave the same
reason for cutting off most of the hah1 close to
the scalps, while the women wear the hair long.

One of their number was very dirty, and
Captain Hooper, who is becoming interested
in glacial studies, declared that he had dis
covered two terminal moraines in his ears.
When asked why he did not wash himself, our
interpreter replied, " Because he is an old fel
low, and it is too much work to wash." This
was given with an air of having explained the
matter beyond further question. Considering
the necessities of the lives they lead, most of
these people seem remarkably clean and well-
dressed and well-behaved.

The old orator poured forth his noisy elo
quence late and early, like a perennial moun
tain spring, some of his deep chest tones sound
ing in the storm like the roar of a lion. He
rolled his wolfish eyes and tossed his brown
skinny limbs in a frantic storm of gestures,
now suddenly foreshortening himself to less
than half his height, then shooting aloft with
jack-in-the-box rapidity, while his people
looked on and listened, apparently half in fear,
half in admiration. We directed the interpreter
to tell him that we thought him a good man,
and were, therefore, concerned lest some acci
dent might befall him from so much hard
61

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

speaking. The Chukchis, as well as the Eski
mos we have seen, are keenly sensitive to ridi
cule, and this suggestion disconcerted him for
a moment and made a sudden pause. However,
he quickly recovered and got under way again,
like a wave withdrawing on a shelving shore,
only to advance and break again with gathered
force.

The chief man of the second party from the
other side of the bay is owner of a herd of rein
deer, which he said were now feeding among
the mountains at a distance of one sleep — a
day's journey — from the head of a bay to the
south of here. He readily indicated the posi
tion on a map that we spread before him, and
offered to take us to see them on a sled drawn
by reindeer, and to sell us as many skins and
as much meat as we cared to buy. When we
asked how many reindeer he had, all who
heard the question laughed at the idea of
counting so many. "They cover a big moun
tain," he said proudly, "and nobody can count
them." He brought a lot of ivory to trade for
tobacco, but said nothing about it until the
afternoon. Then he signified his readiness for
business after awakening from a sound sleep
on the wet icy deck.

Shortly after we had breakfasted, the rein
deer chief having intimated that he and his
62

A CHUKCHI ORATOR

friends were hungry, the Captain ordered a
large pot of tea, with hardtack, sugar and
molasses, to be served to them in the pilot
house. They ate with dignified deliberation,
showing no unseemly haste, but eating rather
like people accustomed to abundance. Jaroo-
chah, who could hardly stem his eloquence
even while eating, was particular about having
his son invited in to share the meal; also, two
boys about eight years old, giving as a reason,
"they are little ones.'7 We also called in a
young woman, perhaps about eighteen years
old, but none of the men present seemed to
care whether she shared with them or not,
and when we inquired the cause of this neglect,
telling them that white men always served
the ladies first, Jaroochah said that while girls
were "little fellows" their parents looked after
them, but when they grew big they went away
from their parents with "some other fellow,"
and were of no more use to them and could
look out for themselves.

Those who were not invited to this meal did
not seem to mind it much, for they had brought
with them plenty of what the whalers call
"black skin" — the skin of the right whale —
which is about an inch thick, and usually has
from half an inch to an inch of blubber at
tached. This I saw them eating raw with
63

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

hearty relish, snow and sludge the only sauce,
cutting off angular blocks of it with butcher-
knives, while one end of the tough black
rubber-like mass was being held in the left
hand, the other between their teeth. Long prac
tice enables them to cut off mouthfuls in this
way without cutting their lips, although they
saw their long knives back and forth, close to
their faces, as if playing the violin. They
get the whale skin from the whalers, except
ing the little they procure themselves. They
hunt the whale now with lances and gear of
every kind bought from the whalers, and some-
tunes succeed in killing a good many. They
eat the carcass, and save the bone to trade to
the whalers, who are eager to get it.

After the old orator left the steamer, the
reindeer man accused him of being "a bad
fellow, like a dog.'7 He evidently was afraid
that we were being fooled by his overwhelm
ing eloquence into believing that he was a
great man, while the precious truth to be im
pressed upon us was, that he, the reindeer
man, whose herd covers a big mountain, was
the true chief. I asked his son, who speaks a
little English, why he did not make a trip to
San Francisco, to see the white man's big town.
He replied, as many a civilized man does under
similar circumstances, that he had a little boy,
64

A CHUKCHI ORATOR

too little to be left, and too little to leave home,
but that soon he would be a big fellow, so high,
indicating the hoped-for stature with his hand,
then he would go to San Francisco on some
whale-ship, to see where all the big ships and
good whiskey came from.

These [Chukchis] also had heard the story
of the Vigilant. The reindeer man's son is go
ing with us to Plover Bay to look after some of
his father's debtors. He has been supplying
them with tobacco and other goods on credit,
and he thought it time they were paying up.
His little boy, he told us, -was sick — had a
hot, sore head that throbbed, showing with his
hand how it beat in aching pulses, and asked
for medicine, which the surgeon gave him with
necessary directions, greatly to his relief of
mind, it seemed.

Around the shore opposite our anchorage
the ground is rather low, where the ancient
glacier that filled the bay swept over in smooth
curves, breaking off near the shore [at] an
abrupt wall from seventy to a hundred feet
high. Against this wall the prevailing north
winds have piled heavy drifts of snow that
curve over the bluff at the top and slope out
over the fixed ice along the shore from the
base. The gale has been loosening and driving
out past the vessel, without doing us any harm,

65

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

large masses of the ice, capped with the edge
of the drift. One large piece drifted close past
the steamer and immediately in front of a large
skin canoe capable of carrying thirty men. The
canoe, which was tied to the stern of the ship,
we thought was doomed to be carried away.
The owners looked wistfully over the stern,
watching her fate, while the sailors seemed glad
of the bit of. excitement caused by the hope
of an accident that would cost them nothing.
Greatly to our surprise, however, when the
berg, rough and craggy, ten or twelve feet
high, struck her bow, she climbed up over the
top of it, and, dipping on the other side, glided
down with a graceful, launching swoop into
the water, like a living thing, wholly uninjured.
The sealskin buffer, fixed in front and inflated
like a bladder, no doubt greatly facilitated her
rise. She was tied by a line of walrus hide.

Now that the wind is abating, we hope to
get away from here to-morrow morning, and
expect to find most of the ice that stopped our
progress yesterday broken up and driven
southward far enough to enable us to reach
Plover Bay without further difficulty.

CHAPTER VI

ESKIMOS AND WALRUS

Steamer Corwin,
Plover Bay, June 16, 1881.

WE left our anchorage in St. Lawrence Bay
at four in the morning, June 7, and steered
once more for Plover Bay. The norther that
had been blowing so long gave place to a light
southerly breeze, and a gentle dusting of snow
was falling. In the afternoon the sea became
smooth and glassy as a mountain lake, and the
clouds lifted, gradually unveiling the Siberian
coast up to the tops of the mountains. First
the black bluffs, standing close to the water,
came in sight; then the white slopes, and then
one summit after another until a continuous
range forty or fifty miles long could be seen
from one point of view, forming a very beauti
ful landscape. Smooth, dull, dark water in the
foreground; next, a broad belt of ice mostly
white like snow, with numerous masses of blue
and black shade among its jagged, uplifted
blocks. Then a strip of comparatively low
shore, black and gray; and back of that the
pure white mountains, with only here and there
dark spots, where the rock faces are too steep
67

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

for snow to lie upon. Sharp peaks were seen,
fluted by avalanches; glacier wombs, delicate
in curve and outline as shells; rounded, over-
swept brows and domes, and long, withdraw
ing valleys leading back into the highest alpine
groups, whence flowed noble glaciers in im
posing ranks into what is now Bering Sea.

We had hoped the gale had broken and
driven away the floe that barred our way on
the fifth [of June], but while yet thirty miles
from the entrance of the bay we were again
stopped by an immense field of heavy ice that
stretched from the shore southeastward as far
as the eye could reach. We pushed slowly into
the edge of it a few miles, looking for some
opening, but the man in the crow's nest re
ported it all solid ahead and no water in sight.
We thereupon steamed out and steered across
to St. Lawrence Island to bide our time.

While sailing amid the loose blocks of ice
that form the edge of the pack, we saw a wal
rus, and soon afterward a second one with
its young. The Captain shot and killed the
mother from the pilot-house, and the dinghey
was lowered to tow it alongside. The eyes of
our Indian passengers sparkled with delight
in expectation of good meat after enduring
poor fare aboard the ship. After floating for
eight or ten minutes she sank to the bottom

68

ESKIMOS AND WALRUS

and was lost — a sad fate and a luckless
deed.

It was pitiful to see the young one swim
ming around its dying mother, heeding neither
the ship nor the boat. They are said to be
very affectionate and bold in the defense of one
another against every enemy whatever. We
have as yet seen but few, though in some places
they are found in countless thousands. Many
vessels are exclusively employed in killing
them on the eastern Greenland coast, and along
some portions of the coast of Asia. Here also,
the whalers, when they have poor success in
whaling, devote themselves to walrus hunting,
both for the oil they yield and for the valuable
ivory. The latter is worth from forty to sev
enty cents per pound in San Francisco, and
a pair of large tusks weighs from eight to ten
pounds.

Along all the coasts, both of Asia and of
America, the natives hunt and kill this ani
mal, which to them is hardly less important
for food and other uses than the seals. A
large walrus is said to weigh from one to two
tons. Its tough hide is used for cordage, and to
cover canoes. The flesh is excellent, while the
ivory formerly was employed for spear heads
and other uses, and is now an important article
of trade for guns, ammunition, calico, bread,
69

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

flour, molasses, etc. The natives now kill a
good many whales, having obtained lances
and harpoons from the whites. Bone, in good
years, is more important than the ivory, and
furs are traded, also, in considerable quantity.
By all these means they obtain more of the
white man's goods than is well used. They
probably were better off before they were pos
sessed of a single civilized blessing — so many
are the evils accompanying them!

Our Chukchi passenger does not appear to
entertain a very good opinion of the St. Law
rence natives. He advised the Captain to keep
a close watch of those he allowed to come
aboard. We asked him to-day the Chukchi
name of ice, which he gave as "eigleegle."
When we said that another of his people called
it "tingting," he replied that that was the
way poor common people spoke the word, but
that rich people, the upper aristocratic class
to which he belonged, called it "eigleegle."
His father, being a rich man, had three wives;
most of his tribe, he said, have only one.

At nine o'clock in the evening we were still
more than an hour's run from St. Lawrence
Island, though according to reckoning we
should have reached the northeast end of the
island at eight o'clock. We had been carried
north about sixteen miles, since leaving St.
70

ESKIMOS AND WALRUS

Lawrence Bay, by the current setting through
the Strait. The water, having been driven
south by the north gale, was pouring north
with greater velocity than ordinary. The sky
was a mass of dark, grainless cloud, banded
slightly near the northwest horizon; one band,
a degree in breadth above the sun, was deep
indigo, with a few short streaks of orange and
red. We have not seen a star since leaving San
Francisco, and have seen the sun perfectly
cloudless only once! We came to anchor near
the northwest end of the island about mid
night.

The next day, the eighth of June, was calm
and mild. A canoe with ten men and women
came alongside this morning, just arrived from
Plover Bay, on their way home. They made
signs of weariness, having pulled hard against
this heavy current. The distance is fifty miles.
It is not easy to understand how they manage
to find their way in thick weather, when it is
difficult enough for seamen with charts and
compass.

In trying to account for the observed sim
ilarity between the peoples of the opposite
shores of Asia and America, and the faunas
and floras, scientists have long been combating
a difficulty that does not exist save hi their own
minds. They have suggested that canoes and
71

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

ships from both shores either were wrecked
and drifted from one to the other, or that
natives crossed on the ice which every year
fills Bering Strait. As to-day, so from time im
memorial canoes have crossed for trade or
mere pleasure, steering by the swell of the sea
when out of sight of land. As to crossing on the
ice, the natives tell me that they frequently
go with their dog-sleds from the Siberian side
to the Diomedes, those half-way houses along
the route, but seldom or never from the Dio
medes to the American side, on account of
the movements of the ice. But, though both
means of communication, assumed to account
for distribution as it is found to exist to-day,
were left out, land communication in any case
undoubtedly existed, just previous to the gla
cial period, as far south as the Aleutian Islands,
and northward beyond the mouth of the Strait.

While groping in the dense fogs that hang
over this region, sailors find their way at times
by the flight of the innumerable sea-birds that
come and go from the sea to the shore. The
direction, at least, of the land is indicated,
which is very important in the case of small
islands. How the birds find their way is a
mystery.

This canoe alongside was "two sleeps " in
making the passage. Time, I suppose, is reck-

72

ESKIMOS AND WALRUS

oned by sleeps during summer, as there is no
night and only one day. They at once began to
trade eagerly, seeming to fear that they would
be left unvisited, now that the whalers have
all gone to the Arctic. In the forenoon, after
the natives had left, we took advantage of the
calm weather to go hi search of the wrecked
Lolita, which went ashore last fall a few miles
to the north of here. On the way we passed
through a good deal of ice in flat cakes that
had been formed in a deep still bay, sheltered
from floating ice which jams and packs it. This
ice did not seem to be more than two or three
feet thick, possibly the depth to which it froze
last winter less the amount melted and evapo
rated since spring commenced.

Walruses, in groups numbering from two to
fifty, were lying on cakes of ice. They were too
shy, however, to be approached within shoot
ing range, though many attempts were made.
Some of the animals were as bulky, apparently,
as oxen. They would awaken at the sound of
the vessel crunching through the loose ice, lift
their heads and rear as high as possible, then
drop or plunge into the water. The ponderous
fellows took headers in large groups; twenty
pairs of flippers sometimes were in the air at
once. They can stay under water five or six
minutes, then come up to blow. If they are
73

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

near the ship they dive again instantly, going
down like porpoises, always exposing a large
curving mass of their body while dropping their
heads, and, lastly, their flippers are stretched
aloft for an instant. Sometimes they show
fight, make combined attacks on boats, and
defend one another bravely. The cakes on
which they congregate are of course very dirty,
and show to a great distance. Since they soon
sink when killed in the water, they are hunted
mostly on the ice, and, when it is rough and
hummocky, are easily approached.

We were not successful in finding the Lolita,
so we steamed back to our anchorage in the lee
of a high bluff near the Eskimo village. Soon
three or four canoes came alongside, loaded
with furs, ivory, and whalebone. Molasses,
which they carry away in bladders and seal
skins, is with them a favorite article of trade.
Mixed with flour and blocks of " black skin," it
is esteemed, by Eskimo palates, a dish fit for
the gods. A group of listeners laughed heartily
when I described a mixture that I thought
would be to their taste. They smacked their
lips, and shouted " yes! yes!" One brought as
a present to our Chukchi, the reindeer man's
son, a chunk of " black skin" that, in color and
odor, seemed to be more than a year old. He
no doubt judged that our Chukchi, if not
74

ESKIMOS AND WALRUS

starving, was at least faring poorly on civilized
trash.

A study of the different Eskimo faces, while
important trades were pending, was very inter
esting. They are better behaved than white
men, not half so greedy, shameless, or dishon
est. I made a few sketches of marked faces.
One, who received a fathom of calico more
than was agreed upon, seemed extravagantly
delighted and grateful. He was lost in admi
ration of the Captain, whose hand he shook
heartily.

We continued at anchor here the following
day, June 9. It was snowing and the decks
were sloppy. Several canoe loads of Eskimos
came aboard, and there was a brisk trade in
furs, mostly reindeer hides and parkas for win
ter use; also fox [skins] and some whalebone
and walrus ivory. Flour and molasses were the
articles most in demand. Some of the women,
heedless of the weather, brought their boys,
girls, and babies. One little thing, that the
proud mother held up for our admiration,
smiled delightfully, exposing her two precious
new teeth. No happier baby could be found
in warm parlors, where loving attendants
anticipate every want and the looms of the
world afford their best in the way of soft
fabrics. She looked gayly out at the strange
75

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

colors about her from her bit of a fur bag, and
when she fell asleep, her mother laid her upon
three oars that were set side by side across the
canoe. The snowflakes fell on her face, yet
she slept soundly for hours while I watched
her, and she never cried. All the youngsters
had to be furnished with a little bread which
both fathers and mothers begged for them,
saying, "He little fellow, little fellow."

Four walrus heads were brought aboard and
the ivory sold, while the natives, men and
women, sat down to dine on them with
butcher-knives. They cut off the flesh and ate
it raw, apparently with good relish. As usual,
each mouthful was cut off while held between
the teeth. To our surprise they never cut
themselves. They seemed to enjoy selecting
tidbits from different parts of the head, turn
ing it over frequently and examining pieces here
and there, like a family leisurely finishing the
wrecked hull of a last day's dinner turkey.

These people interest me greatly, and it is
worth coming far to know them, however
slightly. The smile, or, rather, broad grin of
that Eskimo baby went directly to my heart,
and I shall remember it as long as I live. When
its features had subsided into perfect repose,
the laugh gone from its dark eyes, and the lips
closed over its two teeth, I could make its
76

ESKIMOS AND WALRUS

sweet smile bloom out again as often as I
nodded and chirruped to it. Heaven bless it!
Some of the boys, too, lads from eight to twelve
years of age, were well-behaved, bashful, and
usually laughed and turned away their faces
when looked at. But there was a response in
their eyes which made you feel that they are
your very brothers.

CHAPTER VII

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

[Steamer C&rwin,
Plover Bay, June 15, 1881.}

A LITTLE before four o'clock the next morn
ing, June 10, I was awakened by the officer of
the deck coming into the cabin and reporting
that the weather was densely foggy, and that
ice in large masses was crowding down upon us,
which meant "The Philistines be upon thee,
Samson!" Shortly afterward, the first mass
struck the ship and made her tremble in every
joint; then another and another, in quick suc
cession, while the anchor was being hurriedly
raised. The situation in which we suddenly
found ourselves was quite serious. The ice, had
it been like that about the ship of the Ancient
Mariner, "here and there and all around,"
would have raised but little apprehension.
But it was only on one side of us, while a rocky
beach was close by on the other, and against
this beach in our disabled condition the ice
was steadily driving us. Whether backing or
going ahead in so crowded a bit of water, the
result for some time was only so many shoves
toward shore.

78

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

At length a block of small size, twenty or
thirty feet in diameter, drifted in between the
Corwin and the shore, and by steaming against
it and striking it on the landward bow she
glinted around, head to the pack, and an open
ing allowed her to enter a little distance. This
was gradually increased by stopping and start
ing until we were safe in the middle of it.
Watching the compass and constantly taking
soundings, we traced the edge of the pack, and
in an hour or two made our escape into open
water.

After the fog lifted we went again in search
of the Lolita, and discovered her five or six
miles below the Eskimo village. Dropping an
chor at the edge of a sheet of firm shore-ice, we
went across it to the wreck to see whether we
could not get some pintles from it for our rud
der. We found her rudder had been carried
away, but procured some useful iron, blocks,
tackle, spars, etc. ; also, two barrels of oil which
the natives had not yet appropriated. The
transportation of these stores to the ship over
ice, covered with sludge and full of dangerous
holes, made a busy day for the sailors.

Back a hundred yards from the beach I

found a few hints of the coming spring, though

most of the ground is still covered with snow.

The dwarf willow is beginning to put out its

79

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

catkins, and a few buds of saxifrages, erigerons,
and heathworts are beginning to swell. The
bulk of the vegetation is composed of mosses
and lichens. Half a mile from the wreck
there is a deserted Eskimo village. All its
inhabitants are said to have died of famine
two winters ago. The traces of both local and
general glaciation are particularly clear and
telling on this island.

In the afternoon, the weather being calm and
mild, we succeeded in mending and shipping
the rudder, and the next morning we set out yet
again for Plover Bay, where we now are, having
arrived about midnight on the eleventh. The
men have been busy sawing and blasting a sort
of slip in the ice for the ship that she may be
secure from drift ice and well situated for load
ing the coal that is piled on the shore opposite
here. The coal belongs to the Russians. In
loading, the coal was first stowed well forward
hi order to lift the stern high enough out of
water to enable us to make the additional re
pairs required on the rudder, since we cannot
find access to a beach smooth enough to lay
her on.

The Indians here are very poor. They have
offered nothing to trade. With a group of men
and women that came to the ship a few morn
ings ago there was a half-breed girl about two
80

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

years old. She had light-brown hair, regular
European features, and was very fair and hand
some. Her mother, a Chukchi, died in child
birth, and the natives killed her father. She
is plump, red-cheeked, and in every way a pic
ture of health. That in a Chukchi hut, nursed
by a Chukchi mother-in-law, and on Chukchi
food, a half-European girl can be so beauti
ful, well-behaved, happy, and healthy is very-
notable.

On the twelfth of June we had snow, rain
and sleet nearly all day. The view up the inlet
was very striking — lofty mountains on both
sides rising from the level of the water, and
proclaiming in telling characters the story of
the inlet's creation by glaciers that have but
lately vanished. Most of the slopes and prec
ipices seemed particularly dreary, not only on
account of the absence of trees, but of vegeta
tion of any kind in any appreciable amount.
No bits of shelf gardens were to be seen, though
not wholly wanting when we came to climb,
for I discovered some lovely garden spots with
a tellima and anemone in full bloom. [The
vegetation was] very dwarfed, and sparse, and
scattered. No green meadow-hollows. The
rock was fast disintegrating, and all the moun
tains appeared hi general views like piles of
loose stones dumped from the clouds. Plover
81

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

Bay l takes its name from H.M.S. Plover, which
passed the winter of 1848-49 here while on a
cruise in search of Franklin. It is a glacial fiord,
which in the height of its walls is more Yosemite-
like than any I have yet seen in Siberia.

In the afternoon Dr. Rosse and I set out
across the ice to the cliffs. We found a great
many seal holes and cracks of a dangerous
kind, and a good deal of Water on top of the ice
that made the walking very sloppy. There were
dog-sled tracks trending up and down the inlet.
The ice is broken along the shore by the rise
and fall of the tides, but we made out to cross
on some large cakes wedged together. Just be
fore we reached the edge of rocks, in scanning
the ruinous, crumbling face of the cliffs that
here are between two and three thousand feet
high, I noticed an outstanding buttress harder
and more compact in cleavage than the rest,
and very obviously grooved, polished, and
scratched by the main vanished glacier that
once filled all the fiord. Up to this point we
climbed, and found several other spots of the
old glacial surface not yet weathered off. This
is the first I have seen of this kind of glacial
traces.

On the thirteenth the whaler Thomas Pope 2

1 Called Providence Bay on recent maps.
* Captain M. V. B. Millard.

82

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

arrived here and anchored to the ice near us.
Getting everything in trim for the return voy
age, having already taken all the [whale]-oil
she can carry. All the fleet are doing well this
year, or, as the natives express it, they are get
ting a "big grease."

[According to brief entries in Muir's journal
the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of June
were spent aboard the Corwin, writing personal
letters and several communications to the "San
Francisco Bulletin." From Captain Hooper's
report of the cruise of the Corwin, the follow
ing interesting record of events during the in
terval is extracted : —

On the fourteenth we worked all day, drawing
coal on the sleds, assisted by the natives and two
sleds with three dogs each, but the rapidly melting
ice made it very tedious. On the fifteenth we con
tinued work, although the softness of the ice com
pelled us to reduce the loads to one-half their
former size. About four in the afternoon a slight roll
of the vessel was perceptible, indicating a swell
coming in from the outside. At the same time a
slight undulating motion of the ice was observed.
This was followed by cracks in the ice running in
every direction, and we had barely time to take in
our ice anchors, call our men on board, and take
the Thomas Pope in tow before the ice was all
broken and in motion and rapidly drifting toward
the mouth of the bay. At first it looked as if we
might have to go to sea to avoid it. The wind by
83

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

this time was blowing fresh from the northeast with
a thick snow-storm, and, judging from the roll com
ing into the bay, a heavy sea must be running.
Added to this was the fact of the sea being filled
with large fields of heavy drift ice, making the pros
pect anything but a pleasing one. After lying off
outside the ice for an hour or two and just when it
seemed as if our only hope was in putting to sea,
Captain Millard reported from the masthead that
the whole body of ice had started offshore, and that
if we could get in through it we could find good
anchorage in clear water. Although the ice was
pitching and rolling badly, it was well broken up,
and we determined to make the attempt, and suc
ceeded better than I had anticipated, and about
midnight we came out into clear water, and an
chored near the shore in twelve fathoms, the
Thomas Pope coming to just outside of us in
twenty fathoms.

Muir's journal continues with the following
record under date of June 17:]

Half-clear in the morning, foggy in the after
noon. Left Plover Bay at six in the morning
with Thomas Pope l in tow. Left her at the
mouth of the bay. It was barred with rather
heavy ice, which was heaving in curious com
motion from a heavy swell. We gave and re
ceived three cheers in parting. Have had a very

1 The San Francisco Bulletin, in its issue of July 13, 1881,
noted the arrival in port of the whaling bark Thomas Pope
with a series of letters from John Muir.

84

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

pleasant time with Captains Millard and Kelly.
Very telling views of the sculpture of the moun
tains along the Bay, at its head, and at the
mouth, where the land-ice flowed into the one
grand glacier that filled Bering Strait and Sea.
The fronting cliffs of the sea glacier seem to be
hardly more weathered than those of Plover
Bay and adjacent fiords.

St. Michael, Alaska, June 20, 1881.

Sunshine now in the Far North, sunshine all
the long nightless days! ripe and mellow and
hazy, like that which feeds the fruits and vines!
We came into it two days ago when we were
approaching this old-fashioned Russian trad
ing post near the mouth of the Yukon River.
How sweet and kindly and reviving it is after
so long a burial beneath dark, sleety storm
clouds! For a whole month before the begin
ning of this bright time, it snowed every day
more or less, perhaps only for an hour or two,
or all the twenty-four hours; not one day on
which snow did not fall either in wet, sleety
blasts, making sludge on the deck and rigging
and afterward freezing fast, or in dry crystals,
blowing away as fast as it fell. I have never
before seen so cloudy a month, weather so
strangely bewildering and depressing. It was
all one stormy day, broken here and there by

85

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

dim gleams of sunlight, but never so dark at
midnight that we could not read ordinary
print.

The general effect of this confusing inter-
blending of the hours of day and night, of the
quick succession of howling gales that we en
countered, and of dull black clouds dragging
their ragged, drooping edges over the waves,
was very depressing, and when, at length, we
found ourselves free beneath a broad, high sky
full of exhilarating light, we seemed to have
emerged from some gloomy, icy cave. How
garish and blinding the light seemed to us then,
and how bright the lily-spangles that flashed
on the glassy water! With what rapture we
gazed into the crimson and gold of the mid
night sunsets!

While we were yet fifty miles from land a
small gray finch came aboard and flew about
the rigging while we watched its movements
and listened to its suggestive notes as if we had
never seen a finch since the days of our merry
truant rambles along the hedgerows. A few
hours later a burly, dozing bumblebee came
droning around the pilot-house, seeming to
bring with him all the warm, summery gardens
we had ever seen.

The fourth of June was the most beautiful of
the days we spent hi the Arctic Ocean. The

86

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

water was smooth, reflecting a tranquil, pearl-
gray sky with spots of pure azure near the
zenith and a belt of white around the horizon
that shone with a bright, satiny luster, trying
to the eyes like clear sunshine. Some seven
whale-ships were in sight, becalmed with their
canvas spread. Chukchi hunters in pursuit of
seals were gliding about in light skin-covered
canoes, and gulls, auks, eider ducks, and other
water birds in countless multitudes skimmed
the glassy level, while in the background of
this Arctic picture the Siberian coast, white as
snow could make it, was seen sweeping back
in fine, fluent, undulating lines to a chain of
mountains, the tops of which were veiled in the
shining sky. A few snow crystals were shaken
down from a black cloud towards midnight,
but most of the day was one of deep peace, in
which God's love was manifest as in a coun
tenance.

The average temperature for most of the
month commencing May twentieth has been
but little above the freezing point, the maxi
mum about 45° F. To-day the temperature in
the shade at noon is 65°, the highest since leav
ing San Francisco. The temperature of the
water in Bering Sea and Strait, and as far as we
have gone hi the Arctic, has been about from
29° to 35°. But as soon as we approached

87

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

within fifty miles of the mouths of the Yukon,
the temperature changed suddenly to 42°.

The mirage effects we have witnessed on the
cruise thus far are as striking as any I ever saw
on the hot American desert. Islands and head
lands seemed to float in the air, distorted into
the most unreal, fantastic forms imaginable,
while the individual mountains of a chain along
the coast appeared to dance at tunes up and
down with a rhythmic motion, in the tremu
lous refracting atmosphere. On the northeast
side of Norton Sound I saw two peaks, each
with a flat, black table on top, looming sud
denly up and smking again alternately, like
boys playing see-saw on a plank.

The trading post of St. Michael was estab
lished by the Russians in 1833. It is built of
drift timber derived from the Yukon, and sit
uated on a low bluff of lava on the island of St.
Michael, about sixty-five miles northeast of the
northmost of the Yukon mouths. The fort is
composed of a square of log buildings and pali
sades, with outlying bastions pierced for small
cannon and musketry, while outside the fort
there are a few small buildings and a Greek
church, reinforced during the early part of the
summer with groups of tents belonging to the
Indians and the traders. The fort is now oc
cupied by the employees of the Alaska Com-
88

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

mercial Company. This is the headquarters
of the fur traders of northern and central
Alaska.

The Western Fur and Trading Company has
a main station on the side of the bay about three
miles from here, and the two companies, being
in close competition, have brought on a condi
tion of the fur business that is bitterly bewailed
by the sub-traders located along the Yukon and
its numerous tributaries. Not only have the
splendid profits of the good old times dimin
ished nearly to zero, say they, but the big prices
paid for skins have spoiled the Indians, making
them insolent, lazy, and dangerous, without
conferring any substantial benefit upon them.
Since they can now procure all the traders' sup
plies they need for fewer skins than formerly,
they hunt less, and spend their idle hours in
gambling and quarreling.

The furs and skins of every kind derived
annually from the Yukon and Kuskoquim re
gions, and shipped from here, are said to be
worth from eighty thousand to one hundred
thousand dollars. The trade goods are brought
to this point from San Francisco by the rival
companies in June, and delivered to their
agents, by whom they are distributed to their
traders and taken up the rivers to the different
stations in the interior in boats towed most of
89

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

the way by small stern-wheel steamers. Then,
during the winter, the furs are collected and
brought to this point and carried to San Fran
cisco by the vessels that bring the goods for the
next season's trade.

On the nineteenth instant the steamer be
longing to the Western Fur and Trading Com
pany arrived from a station fifteen hundred
miles up the river, towing three large boats
laden with Indians and traders, together with
the last year's collection of furs. After they had
begun to set up their tents and unload the furs,
we went over to the storerooms of the Com
pany to look at the busy throng. They formed
a strange, wild picture on the rocky beach; the
squaws pitching the tents and cutting armfuls
of dry grass to lay on the ground as a lining
for fur carpets ; the children with wild, staring
eyes gazing at us, or, heedless of all the stir,
playing with the dogs; groups of dandy war
riors, arrayed in all the colors of the rainbow,
grim, and cruel, and coldly dignified; and a
busy train coming and going between the ware
house and the boats, storing the big bundles
of shaggy bearskins, black and brown, marten,
mink, fox, beaver, otter, lynx, moose, wolf, and
wolverine, many of them with claws spread
and hair on end, as if still fighting for life. They
were vividly suggestive of the far wilderness

90

AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL

whence they came — its mountains and val
leys, its broad grassy plains and far-reaching
rivers, its forests and its bogs.

The Indians seemed to me the wildest ani
mals of ail. The traders were not at all wild,
save in dress, but rather gentle and subdued
in manners and aspect, like half-paid village
ministers. They held us in a long interesting
conversation, and gave us many valuable facts
concerning the heart of the Yukon country.
Some Indians on the beach were basking in the
yellow, mellow sun. Herring and salmon were
hanging upon frames or lying on the rocks —
a lazy abundance of food that discouraged
thought of the future.

The shores here are crowded with immense
shoals of herring, and the Indians are lazily
catching just enough to eat. Those we had for
dinner are not nearly so good as those I ate
last year at Cross Sound. The Yukon salmon,
however, are now in excellent condition, and
are the largest by far that I have seen. Yet the
Yukon Indians suffer severely at times from
famine, though they might dry enough in less
than a week to last a year.

We are making a short stay here to take on

provisions, and intend to go northward again

to-morrow to meet the search party that we

landed near Koliuchin Island. Another de-

91

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

lightful sun-day — nearly cloudless and with
lily-spangles on the bay. The temperature was
65° F. in the shade at noon. The birds are
nesting and the plants are rapidly coming into
bloom.

CHAPTER VIII

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

Steamer Corwin,

Near the mouth of Metchigme Bay,

On the west side of Bering -Strait,

June 27, 1881.

AFTER leaving St. Michael, on the evening
of the twenty-first, we crossed Bering Sea to
Plover Bay to fill our coal-bunkers from a
pile belonging to His Majesty, the Czar of
Russia.

On the twenty-third we were sailing along
the north side of St. Lawrence Island against
a heavy wind. There was a rough sea and a
clear sky, save on the island. I had a tolerably
clear view of the most prominent portion of the
island near the middle. It is here composed of
lava, reddish in color and dotted with craters
and cones, most of which seem recent, though
a slight amount of glaciation of a local kind is
visible. About three in the afternoon we came
to anchor off the northwest end of the island
opposite the village. A few natives came aboard
at eight o'clock.

The next day we got under way at four hi
the morning, going east along the south side
of St. Lawrence Island. The norther again was

93

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

blowing as hard as ever. We discovered an
Eskimo village, but the natives were mostly
dead. Coming to anchor there at six in the
evening, we went ashore and met a few Eski
mos who, though less demonstrative, seemed
quite as glad to see us as those on the north
west end of the island. The village, as we ex
amined it through our glasses, seemed so still
and desolate, we began to fear that, like some
of the villages on the north side of the island,
not a soul was left alive in it, until here and
there a native was discovered on the brow of
the hill where the summer houses are.

After we had landed from the life-boat, two
men and a boy came running down to meet us
and took us up to the two inhabited houses.
They all gathered about us from scattered
points of observation, and when we asked
where all the people were to whom the other
houses belonged, they smiled and said, "All
mucky." "All gone." " Dead? " " Yes, dead!"
We then inquired where the dead people were.
They pointed back of the houses and led us
to eight corpses lying on the rocky ground.
They smiled at the ghastly spectacle of the
grinning skulls and bleached bones appearing
through the brown, shrunken skin.

Being detained on the twenty-fifth by the
norther which was still blowing, we went
94

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

ashore after breakfast, and had a long walk
through graves, back to noble views of the is
land, telling the grandeur of its glaciation by
the northern ice-sheets. Weighed anchor and
steered for Plover Bay shortly after nine in the
evening, and arrived there early on the morn
ing of the twenty-sixth. While the ship was
being coaled, I climbed the east wall of the
fiord three or four miles above the mouth,
where it is about twenty-two hundred feet
above the level of the sea, and, as the day was
clear, I obtained capital views of the moun
tains on both sides and around the head of the
fiord among the numerous ice-fountains which,
during the glacial winter, poured their tribute
through this magnificent channel into Bering
Sea.

When the glacier that formed what is now
called Plover Bay, was in its prime, it was
about thirty miles long and from five to six
miles in width at the widest portion of the
trunk, and about two thousand feet deep. It
then had at least five main tributaries, which,
as the trunk melted towards the close of the
ice period, became independent glaciers, and
these again were melted into perhaps seventy-
five or more small residual glaciers from less
than a mile to several miles in length, all of
which, as far as I could see, have at length
95

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

vanished, though some wasting remnants may
still linger in the highest and best-protected
fountains above the head of the fiord. I had
a fine glissade down the valley of a tributary
glacier whose terminal moraines show the same
gradual death as those of the Sierra. The
mountains hereabouts, in the forms of the
peaks, ridges, lake-basins, bits of meadow, and
in sculpture and aspects in general, are like
those of the high Sierra of California where the
rock is least resisting.

Snow still lingers in drift patches and streaks
and avalanche heaps down to the sea-level,
while there is but little depth of solid snow on
the highest peaks and ridges, so that, there
being no warm, sunny base of gentle slopes and
foothills, no varying belts of climate, this re
gion as a whole seems to consist of only the
storm-beaten tops of mountains shorn off
from their warm, well-planted bases. Still there
are spots here and there, where the snow is
melted, that are already cheered with about
ten species of plants in full bloom : anemones,
buttercups, primulas, several species of draba,
purple heathworts, phlox and potentilla, mak
ing charming alpine gardens, but too small and
thinly planted to show at a distance of more
than a few yards, while trees are wholly wanting.

On our way north to-day we stopped a few

96

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

minutes opposite a small native settlement,
six or eight miles to the northeast of the mouth
of Metchigme Bay, in search of Omniscot, the
rich reindeer owner, whom we had met further
up the coast two weeks ago, and who had then
promised to have a lot of deerskins ready for
us if we would call at his village.

Some of the natives, coming off to the
steamer to trade, informed us that Omniscot
lived some distance up the bay that we had
just passed, and one of them, who speaks a
little English, inquired why we had not brought
back Omniscot's son. He told us that he was
his cousin and that his mother was crying
about him last night, fearing that he would
never come back.

We informed him that his cousin was crazy
and had tried to kill himself, but that he was
now at Plover Bay with one of his friends and
would probably be home soon. This young
Omniscot, whom we had taken aboard at St.
Lawrence Bay, thinking that he might be use
ful as an interpreter, is a son of the reindeer
man and belongs to the Chukchi tribe. We
soon came to see that we had a troublesome
passenger, for the expression of his eyes, and
the nervous dread he manifested of all the na
tives wherever we chanced to stop, indicated
some form of insanity. He would come to the
97

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

door of the cabin to warn the Captain against
the people of every village that we were ap
proaching as likely to kill us, and then he
would hide himself below deck or climb for
greater safety into the rigging.

On the twenty-fifth, when we were lying at
anchor off St. Lawrence Island, he offered his
rifle, which he greatly prized, to one of the
officers, saying that inasmuch as he would soon
die he would not need it. He also sent word to
the Captain that he would soon be " mucky,"
but came to the cabin door shortly afterward,
with nothing unusual apparent in his face or
behavior, and began a discussion concerning
the region back of St. Michael as a location for
a flock of reindeer. He thought they would
do well there, he said, and that his father
would give him some young ones to make a
beginning, which he could take over in some
schooner, and that they would get plenty of
good moss to eat on the tundra, and multiply
fast until they became a big herd like his
father's, so big that nobody could count them.

In three or four hours after this he threw
himself overboard, but was picked up and
brought on deck. Some of the sailors stripped
off his wet furs, and then the discovery was
made that before throwing himself into the sea
the poor fellow had stabbed himself hi the left
98

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

lung. The surgeon dressed his wound and gave
as his opinion that it would prove fatal. He
was doing well, however, when we left him,
and is likely to recover. The Plover Bay na
tives, in commenting on the affair, remarked
that the St. Lawrence people were a bad, quar
relsome set, and always kept themselves in
some sort of trouble.

Having procured a guide from among the
natives that came aboard here, we attempted
to reach Omniscot's village, but found the bay
full of ice, and were compelled to go on without
our winter supply of deerskins, hoping, how
ever, to be able to get them on the east coast.

There is quite a large Chukchi settlement
near the mouth of the bay, on the north side.
Seven large canoe-loads of the population came
aboard, making quite a stir on our little ship.
They are the worst-looking lot of Siberian na
tives that I have yet seen, though there are
some fine, tall, manly fellows amongst them.
Mr. Nelson, a naturalist, and zealous collector
for the Smithsonian Institution, who joined us
at St. Michael, photographed a group of the
most villainous of the men, and two of the
women whose arms were elaborately tattooed
up to the shoulders. Their faces were a curi
ous study while they were trying to keep still
under circumstances so extraordinary.

99

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

The glaciation of the coast here is recorded
in very telling characters, the movement of the
ice having been in a nearly south-southwest
direction. There is also a considerable deposit
of irregularly stratified sand and gravel along
this part of the coast. For fifteen or twenty
miles it rises in crumbling bluffs fifty feet high,
and makes a flat, gently sloping margin, from
one hundred yards to several miles in width,
in front of the mountains. The bay, moreover,
is nearly closed by a bar, probably of the same
material. The weather is delightful, clear sun
shine, only a few fleecy wisps of cloud in the
west, and the water still as a mill-pond.

June 28. Anchored an hour or two this fore
noon at the west Diomede, and landed a party
to make observations on the currents and
temperature of the water that sets through
Bering Strait. Then proceeded on our way
direct to Tapkan to seek our search party. The
fine weather that we have enjoyed since the
day before our arrival at St. Michael ended in
the old, dark, gloomy clouds and drizzling fog
on reaching the Diomedes, though the coast
above East Cape has until now been in sight
most of the time up to a height of about a
thousand feet.

The glaciation, after the melting of the ice-

100

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

sheet, has been light, sculpturing the moun
tains into shallow, short valleys and round
ridges, mostly broad-backed. The valleys, for
the most part, are not cut down to the sea.
The shore seems to have been cut off by the
glacier sheet that occupied the sea, after it was
too shallow to flow over the angle of land
formed by East Cape. This overflow is well-
marked, fifteen to twenty-five miles northwest
of the Cape, in the trends of the ridges and val
leys as far back as I could see, that is, about
twenty-five miles from the shore. The north
wind is, and has been, blowing for twenty-four
hours, and we fear that we will soon meet with
the drifting ice from the main polar pack.

Steamer Corwin,

Off the Chukchi village of Tapkan,

Near Cape Serdzekamen, Siberia,

June 29, 1881.

We arrived here about eight this morning
to meet the search party that we landed about
a month ago, near Koliuchin Island. They had
been waiting for us nearly two weeks. We were
unable to land on account of the stormy
weather, but after waiting about two hours we
saw them making their way out to the edge of
the drift ice, which extended about three miles
from shore, and after a good deal of difficulty
they reached the steamer in safety. The air
101

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

was gray with falling snow, and the north wind
was blowing hard, dashing heavy swells, with
wild, tumultuous uproar, against jagged, tum
bling ice blocks that formed the edge of the
pack. The life-boat was lowered and pulled to
the edge of the pack and a line was thrown from
it to the most advanced of the party, who was
balancing himself among the heaving bergs.
This line was made fast to a light skin boat that
the party had pushed out over the ice from the
shore, and, getting into it, they soon managed
to get themselves fairly launched and free from
the tossing, wave-dashed ice which momen
tarily threatened to engulf them.

Mr. Herring, the officer in charge, reported
that they had proceeded along the coast as far
as Cape Wankarem and had been so fortunate
as to accomplish the main objects of their mis
sion, namely, to determine the value of the
stories prevalent among the natives to the
southward of here concerning the lost whalers
Vigilant and Mount Wollaston; to ascertain
whether any of the crews of the missing ves
sels had landed on the Siberian coast to the
southeastward of Cape Yakdn; and in case any
party should land there in the future, to be
speak in their behalf the aid and good-will of
the natives.

At the Chukchi village at Cape Onman they

102

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

were told that at the village of Oncarima, near
Cape Wankarem, they would find three men
who could tell them all about the broken ship,
for they had seen the wreck and been aboard
of her, and had brought off many things that
they had found on the deck and in the cabin.
This news caused them to hurry on, and when
they arrived at the village, and had bestowed
the customary presents of tobacco and coffee,
Mr. Herring stated the object of his visit.

Three natives then came forward and stated
through the interpreter that last year, when
they were out hunting seals on the ice, about
five miles from the land, near the little island
which they call Konkarpo, at the time of year
when the new ice begins to grow in the sea, and
when the sun does not rise, they saw a big ship
without masts in the ice-pack, which they
reached without difficulty and climbed on deck.
The masts, they said, had been chopped down,
and there was a pair of horns on the end of the
jib-boom, indicating the position of them on
a sketch of a ship. The hold, they said, was
full of water so that they could not go down
into it to see anything, but they broke a way
into the cabin and found four dead men, who
had been dead a long time. Three of them were
lying in bunks, and one on the floor. They also
got into the galley and found a number of arti-
103

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

cles which they brought away; also, some from
the cabin and other parts of the ship.

While they were busy looking for things
which they fancied, and considered worth car
rying away, one of the three called out to his
companions that the wind was blowing off
shore, and that they must make haste for the
land as the ice was beginning to move, which
caused them to hurry from the wreck with
what articles they could conveniently carry
without being delayed. Next day they went as
far out towards the spot where they had left the
vessel as the state of the ice would allow, hop
ing to procure something else. But they found
that she had drifted out of sight, and as the
wind had been blowing from the southwest,
they supposed that she had drifted in a north
easterly direction. They had looked for this
ship many times after her first disappearance,
but never saw her again.

After they had finished their story, Mr. Her
ring requested them to show him all the things
that they had brought from the wreck, telling
them that he would give them tobacco for
some of them that he might want to show to
his friends. Thereupon they brought forward
the following articles, which were carefully
examined by our party in hopes of being able
to identify the vessel : —
104

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

A pair of marine glasses

A pair of silver-mounted spectacles in a tin case

(the lenses showing that they had belonged to an

aged person)
A jack-knife
A carving-knife
A butcher's chopping-knife
Two table-knives, the handle of one of them

marked V
A meat saw
A soup ladle
A stew pan
A tin collander
A hand lamp

A square tin lantern painted green
A draw-knife
An adze

Two carpenter's saws
A chisel
A file

A brace and bit
A tack hammer
A pump-handle
A shovel
A bullet-mould
A truss

A bottle of some sort of medicine
A sailor's ditty bag, with thread
A razor

A linen jumper
Two small coins
Two coils of Manila rope
Three whale spades
One harpoon

105

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

The harpoon and whale spades are marked
"B.K.," and will no doubt serve to identify
the owners. Not a single private name was
found on any of the articles; nor did the na
tives produce any books or papers of any sort,
though they said that they saw books in the
cabin. A number of the articles enumerated
above were purchased by Mr. Herring and
are now on board the Corwin, namely, the
marine glasses, spectacles, harpoon, and table-
knives.

The fate, then, of one of the two missing ships
is discovered beyond a doubt, though a portion
of the crew may possibly be alive. If the state
ment as to the deer horns on the jib-boom is
to be relied on, it is the Vigilant, as she is said
to be the only vessel in the fleet that had deer
horns on her jib-boom.

A party of Chukchi traders, also, were met
here, being on their way to East Cape with
reindeer skins. They stated that no vessel had
been seen anywhere along the coast to the
northwest of Wankarem as far as Cape Yak&n
except one, a three-masted steamer, the Vega,
two years ago ; that if any ships had been seen
they certainly should have heard about it.
The place where the Vega wintered,1 fifteen or
twenty miles to the northwest of Cape Serdze-
1 Pittle Keg.
106

RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY

kamen, is well known to nearly all the natives
living within a hundred miles of it.

The Jeannette was last seen by the natives
off Cape Serdzekamen two years ago, prob
ably just before she went north into the ice.
A party of walrus hunters went aboard of her.
They described her as a three-masted steamer,
with plenty of coal and dogs on deck. When
Wrangell Land was pointed out on a chart
to the natives at Cape Wankarem, they shook
their heads and said that they knew nothing
of land in that direction. But one old man
told them that long ago he had heard some
thing about a party of men who had come
from some far unknown land to the north,
over the ice.

According to Lieutenant Reynolds, nine
Chukchi settlements were passed on the coast
between Tapkan and Oncarima, namely, Nas-
kan, Undrillan, Illwinoop, Youngilla,1 Illoiuk,
Koliuchin, Unatapkan, Onman and Enelpan.
The largest of these is Koliuchin, with twenty-
seven houses and about three hundred people.

The natives, everywhere along the route
traveled, treated the party with great kindness,
giving them food for their dog-teams and an
swering the questions put to them with good-
natured patience. At Koliuchin one of the

1 lintlin.
107

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

chief men of the village invited them to din
ner and greatly surprised them by giving them
good tea served in handsome China cups, which
he said he had bought from the Russians.

CHAPTER IX

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

Steamer Corwin,
East Cape, Siberia, July 1, 1881.

AFTER getting our search party on board
at Tapkan, we found it impossible, under the
conditions of ice and water that prevailed, to
land our Chukchi dog-driver, who lives there,
and who had come off with the party to get his
pay. He was in excellent spirits, however, and
told the Captain that since he had received a
gun and a liberal supply of ammunition he did
not care where he was put ashore — Cape
Serdzekamen, East Cape, or any point along
the shore or edge of the ice-pack would answer,
as he could kill plenty of birds and seals, and
get home any time. The dogs and sledges were
left in his care at Tapkan, to be in readiness in
case they should be required next winter.

Speeding southward under steam and sail
we reached East Cape yesterday at seven in the
morning. By this time the wind was blowing
what seamen call a " living gale," whitening
the sea, and filling up the air with blinding
scud. We found good anchorage, however,
back of the high portion of the Cape, opposite

109

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

a large settlement of Chukchis. East Cape is
a very bold bluff of granite about two thousand
feet high, which evidently has been overswept
from the northwest. I eagerly waited to get off
and to climb high enough to make sure of the
trends of the ridges and grooves, and to seek
scratches, bossed surfaces, etc. But the howl
ing, shrieking norther blew all day, and had
not abated at eleven o'clock last night.

This morning Mr. Nelson and I went ashore
to see what we could learn. The village here,
through which we passed on our way up the
mountain-side, consists of about fifty huts,
built on a small, rocky, terminal moraine, and
so deeply sunk in the face of the hill that the
entire village makes scarcely more show at a
distance of a few hundred yards than a group
of marmot burrows. The lower portion of the
walls is built of moraine boulders, the upper
portion and the curving beehive roof of drift
wood and the ribs of whales, framed together
and covered with walrus hide or dirt.

During the winter the huts are entered by a
low tunnel, so as to exclude the cold air as much
as possible. The floor is simply the natural
dirt mixed into a dark hairy paste, with much
that is not at all natural. Fires are made oc
casionally in the middle of the floor to cook the
small portion of their food that is not eaten
no

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

raw. Ivory-headed spears, arrows, seal nets,
bags of oil, rags of seal or walrus meat, and
strips of whale blubber and skin, lie on shelves
or hang confusedly from the roof, while pup
pies and nursing mother-dogs and children may
be seen scattered here and there, or curled
snugly in the pots and eating-troughs, after
they have licked them clean, making a kind
of squalor that is picturesque and daring be
yond conception.

In all of the huts, however, there are from
one to three or four luxurious bedrooms. The
walls, ceiling, and floor are of soft reindeer
skins, and [each polog has] a trough filled with
oil for heat and light. After hunting all day on
the ice, making long, rough, stormy journeys,
the Chukchi hunter, muffled and hungry, comes
into his burrow, eats his fill of oil and seal or
walrus meat, then strips himself naked and lies
down in his closed fur nest, his polog, in glori
ous ease, to smoke and sleep.

I was anxious to reach the top of the cape
peninsula to learn surely whether it had been
overswept by an ice-sheet, and if so from what
direction, and to study its glacial conditions
hi general and the character of the rocks. I
therefore hastened to make the most of my op
portunity, and pushed on through the village
towards the lowest part of the divide between
ill

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

the north and south sides, followed by a crowd
of curious boys, who good-naturedly assisted
me whenever I stopped to gather the flowers
that I found in bloom. The banks of a stream
coming from a high basin filled with snow was
quite richly flowered with anemones, butter
cups, potentillas, drabas, primulas and many
species of dwarf willows, up to a height of about
a thousand feet above the level of the sea; be
yond this, spring had hardly made any impres
sion, while nearly a thousand feet of the highest
summits were still covered with deep snow.

Mr. Nelson soon left me in pursuit of a bird,
and in crossing a rocky ridge to come up with
me again, he came upon a lot of other game,
which seemed to interest him still more, namely,
dead natives scattered about on the rough
stones at one of the cemeteries belonging to
the village. The bodies of the dead, together
with whatever articles belonged to them, are
simply laid on the surface of the ground, so that
a cemetery is a good field for collectors. A lot
of ivory spears, arrows, dishes of various kinds,
and a stone hammer, formed the least ghastly
of his spoils. Leaving Mr. Nelson alone in his
glory, I pushed on to the top of the divide, then
followed it westward to the highest summit on
the peninsula, whence I obtained the views
I was in search of.

112

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

The dividing ridge all along the high eastern
portion of the peninsula is rounded from nearly
north to south. The curves on the north begin
almost at the water's edge, while the south side
is quite precipitous along the shore. There is
also a telling series of parallel grooves and ridges
trending north and south across the peninsula.
The highest point is about twenty-five hundred
feet above the sea, and the mountainous por
tion has been nearly eroded from the continent
and made an island like the two Diomedes, the
wide gap of low ground connecting it with the
high mainland being only a few feet above
tide-water. In this low portion there is here
and there a rounded upswelling of more resist
ing rock, with trends, all telling the same story
of a vast oversweeping ice-flood from the north.

I also had a clear view of the coast mountains
for a hundred miles or thereabouts, all of which
are tellingly glaciated in harmony with the
above generalization. Most of the rock is gran
ite with cleavage planes that cause it to weather
rapidly into flat blocks. One conical black hill,
fifteen hundred feet high, is volcanic rock, close-
grained and dense like some kinds of iron ore.
I saw an Arctic owl, a big snowy fellow, fitting
his place; also, snow-buntings and linnets.
When the natives saw Mr. Nelson returning
without me they said that he had killed me,
113

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

not being aware of the fact that he understood
their language.

On my way down to the shore I crossed an
other of the village cemeteries in a very rough
and steep slope of weathered granite, several
hundred feet above the village and to the west
ward of it. Whole skeletons or single bones and
skulls lay here and there, wedged into chance
positions among the stones, weathering and
falling to pieces like the ivory-pointed spears,
arrows, etc., mixed with them. The mountain
that they were lying on is crumbling also -
dust to dust. Some of the corpses have had
stones piled on them, and their goods on top
of all; others were laid on the rough rocks with
a row of big stones on the lower side to keep
them from rolling down.

The damp, lower portion of the wild north
wind, as it was deflected up and over the slopes
and frosty summit of the peninsula, has given
birth to a remarkably beautiful covering of
white ice crystals on the windward sides of
exposed boulders, and in some places on the
snow. The crystals resemble white feathers in
their aggregate forms, but are firm and icy in
structure, and as evenly and gracefully im
bricated on each other over the rough faces of
the rocks as are the feathers on the breast of a
bird. The effect is marvelously beautiful and

114

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

interesting as seen on those castellated rock-
piles, so frequently found on bleak summits.
The points of the feathers grow to windward,
and indicate by their curves all the varying di
rections pursued by the interrupted wind as it
glints and reverberates about the innumerable
angles of the rock fronts. Thus the rocks,
where the exposure to storms is greatest, and
where only ruin seems to be the object, are all
the more lavishly clothed upon with beauty
- beauty that grows with and depends upon
the violence of the gale. In like manner do men
find themselves enriched by storms that seem
only big with ruin, both in the physical and
the moral worlds.

We weighed anchor and got away at two
o'clock in the afternoon and reached the West
Diomede Island village at half-past four. Here
we took aboard the boatswain and Mr. Nel
son's man, whom we had left to make obser
vations on the currents, tides, etc. He was to
have been assisted by the natives, but the
rough weather prevented work. About half-
past five we left the Diomede for Marcus Bay
in order to land Joe, the Chukchi. The sea is
smooth now, at a quarter of an hour before
midnight, and there is a lovely orange-and-
gold sunset. The gulls are still on the wing.

115

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

July 2. Clear, calm, sunful; the coast of
Asia is seen to excellent advantage; crowds of
glacial peaks, ice-fountains, and fiords far in-
reaching. The snow on them is melting fast.
About noon 1 twelve canoes from a large vil
lage twenty miles north of Marcus Bay came
off to trade. The schooners that came to this
region to trade were perhaps afraid to touch
here. Consequently the Corwin was the first
vessel with trade goods that they have seen
this year, and the business in bone and ivory
went on with hearty vigor. A hundred or more
Chukchis were aboard at once, making a stir
equal to that of a country fair. One of them
spoke a little whaler English, three quarters of
which was profanity and nearly one quarter
slang. He asked the Captain why he did not
like him, [and intimated that] if he should
come ashore to his house he, the Indian, would
show him by his treatment that he liked him
very much.

We are now, at five in the afternoon, ap
proaching Marcus Bay, where Joe lives, for the
purpose of taking him home. For his month's
work and his team of five dogs he has been
paid a box of hard bread, ten sacks of flour,
some calico, a rifle, and a considerable quantity
of ammunition. Although this is doubtless

1 Opposite Cape Chaplin.
116

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

five times more than he expected, he does not
show any excitement or rise of spirits, but only
a stoical composure, which seems so Arctic and
immovable that I doubt whether he would
move a muscle of his face if he were presented
with the whole ship's cargo and the ship itself
thrown in.

Steamer Corwin,

St. Laurrence Island, Alaska,

July 3, 1881.

St. Lawrence Island, the largest in Bering
Sea, is situated at a distance of about one hun
dred and twenty miles off the mouths of the
Yukon, and forty-five miles from the nearest
point on the coast of Siberia. It is about a
hundred miles in length from east to west and
fifteen miles in average width; a dreary, cheer
less-looking mass of black lava, dotted with
volcanoes, covered with snow, without a single
tree, and rigidly bound in ocean ice for more
than half the year.

Inasmuch as it lies broadsidewise to the way
pursued by the great ice-sheet that once filled
Bering Sea, it is traversed by numerous val
leys and ridges and low gaps, some of which
have been worn down nearly to the sea-level.
Had the glaciation to which it has been sub
jected been carried on much longer, then, in
stead of this one large island, we should have

117

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

had several smaller ones. Nearly all of the vol
canic cones with which the central portion of
the island is in great part covered, are post
glacial in age and present well-formed craters
but little weathered as yet.

All the surface of the low grounds, in the
glacial gaps, as well as the flat table-lands, is
covered with wet, spongy tundra of mosses and
lichens, with patches of blooming heathworts
and dwarf willows, and grasses and sedges,
diversified here and there by drier spots,
planted with larkspurs, saxifrages, daisies,
primulas, anemones, ferns, etc. These form
gardens with a luxuriance and brightness of
color little to be hoped for in so cold and dreary-
looking a region.

Three years ago there were about fifteen
hundred inhabitants on the island, chiefly
Eskimos, living in ten villages located around
the shores, and subsisting on the seals, wal
ruses, whales, and water birds that abound
here. Now there are only about five hundred
people, most of them in one village on the
northwest end of the island, nearly two thirds
of the population having died of starvation
during the winter of 1878-79. In seven of the
villages not a single soul was left alive. In the
largest village at the northwest end of the is
land, which suffered least, two hundred out of
118

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

six hundred died. In the one at the southwest
end only fifteen out of about two hundred sur
vived. There are a few survivors also at one of
the villages on the east end of the island.

After landing our interpreter at Marcus Bay
we steered for St. Michael, and in passing along
the north side of this island we stopped an hour
or so this morning at one of the smallest of the
dead villages. Mr. Nelson went ashore and
obtained a lot of skulls and specimens of one
sort and another for the Smithsonian Institu
tion. Twenty-five skeletons were seen.

A few miles farther on we anchored before a
larger village, situated about halfway between
the east and west ends of the island, which I
visited in company with Mr. Nelson, the Cap
tain, and the Surgeon. We found twelve des
olate huts close to the beach with about two
hundred skeletons in them or strewn about on
the rocks and rubbish heaps within a few yards
of the doors. The scene was indescribably
ghastly and desolate, though laid in a country
purified by frost as by fire. Gulls, plovers, and
ducks were swimming and flying about in
happy life, the pure salt sea was dashing white
against the shore, the blooming tundra swept
back to the snow-clad volcanoes, and the wide
azure sky bent kindly over all — nature in
tensely fresh and sweet, the village lying in the
119

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

foulest and most glaring death. The shrunken
bodies, with rotting furs on them, or white,
bleaching skeletons, picked bare by the crows,
were lying mixed with kitchen-midden rubbish
where they had been cast out by surviving rela
tives while they yet had strength to carry them.
In the huts those who had been the last to
perish were found in bed, lying evenly side by
side, beneath their rotting deerskins. A grin
ning skull might be seen looking out here and
there, and a pile of skeletons in a corner, laid
there no doubt when no one was left strong
enough to carry them through the narrow un
derground passage to the door. Thirty were
found in one house, about half of them piled
like fire-wood in a corner, the other half in bed,
seeming as if they had met their fate with tran
quil apathy. Evidently these people did not
suffer from cold, however rigorous the winter
may have been, as some of the huts had in
them piles of deerskins that had not been in
use. Nor, although their survivors and neigh
bors all say that hunger was the sole cause of
their death, could they have battled with
famine to the bitter end, because a consider
able amount of walrus rawhide and skins of
other animals was found in the huts. These
would have sustained life at least a week or
two longer.

120

VILLAGES OF THE DEAD

The facts all tend to show that the winter of
1878-79 was, from whatever cause, one of
great scarcity, and as these people never lay
up any considerable supply of food from one
season to another, they began to perish. The
first to succumb were carried out of the huts
to the ordinary ground for the dead, about half
a mile from the village. Then, as the survivors
became weaker, they carried the dead a shorter
distance, and made no effort to mark their
positions or to lay their effects beside them,
as they customarily do. At length the bodies
were only dragged to the doors of the huts, or
laid in a corner, and the last survivors lay
down in despair without making any struggle
to prolong their wretched lives by eating the
last scraps of skin.

Mr. Nelson went into this Golgotha with
hearty enthusiasm, gathering the fine white
harvest of skulls spread before him, and throw
ing them in heaps like a boy gathering pump
kins. He brought nearly a hundred on board,
which will be shipped with specimens of bone
armor, weapons, utensils, etc., on the Alaska
Commercial Company's steamer St. Paul.

We also landed at the village on the south
west corner of the island and interviewed the
fifteen survivors. When we inquired where
the other people of the village were, one of

121

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

the group, who speaks a few words of English,
answered with a happy, heedless smile, "All
mucky." "All gone!" "Dead?" "Yes, dead,
all dead!" Then he led us a few yards back
of his hut and pointed to twelve or fourteen
skeletons lying on the brown grass, repeating
in almost a merry tone of voice, "Dead, yes,
all dead, all mucky, all gone!"

About two hundred perished here, and unless
some aid be extended by our government which
claims these people, in a few years at most
every soul of them will have vanished from the
face of the earth; for, even where alcohol is
left out of the count, the few articles of food,
clothing, guns, etc., furnished by the traders,
exert a degrading influence, making them less
self-reliant, and less skillful as hunters. They
seem easily susceptible of civilization, and well
deserve the attention of our government.

CHAPTER X

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

St. Michael, Alaska, July 8, 1881.

THE Corwin arrived here on the Fourth,
and, in honor of the day, made some noise with
her cannon in concert with those belonging to
the fort, to the steamer St. Paul, and to the
post of the Western Fur and Trading Company
across the bay. We have taken on a supply of
coal and provisions for nine months, in case
we should by any accident be caught in the ice
north of Bering Strait before calling here again
in the fall.

We hope to get away from here this evening
for the Arctic, intending to cruise along the
Alaskan coast beyond Point Barrow, spending
some time about Kotzebue Sound in order to
look after revenue interests, and to make, per
haps, some explorations on the lower courses of
the Inland 1 and Buckland Rivers, and on the
Colville,2 of which nearly nothing is yet known

1 Now called Noatak River.

2 The upper reaches of the Colville and Buckland Rivers,
according to the Geological Survey map of 1915, are still
unexplored. The former empties into the Arctic Ocean, the
latter into Eschscholtz Bay.

123

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

to geographers. The coast will also be carefully
searched for traces of the Jeannette and missing
whalers in case any portion of their crews have
come over the ice last winter. Perhaps a month
will be spent thus, when an attempt will be
made to reach Wrangell Land, where the Jean
nette probably spent her first winter. And
since the Corwin has already passed Cape
Serdzekamen twice this season, we have san
guine hopes of success under so favorable a
condition of the ice.

Arctic explorations are exciting much in
terest among the natives here. Last evening
the shamans called up the spirits supposed to
be familiar with polar matters. The latter in
formed them that not only was the Jeannette
forever lost in the ice of the Far North with all
her crew, but also that the Corwin would never
more be seen after leaving St. Michael this
time, information which caused our interpreter
to leave us, nor have we as yet been able to
procure another in his place. The Jeannette
took two men from here. l

This is the busy time of the year at St.
Michael, when the traders come with their furs
from stations far up the Yukon and return with

1 These were the two native Alaskan hunters Alexey and
Aneguin. The former was among those who perished with
De Long on the delta of the Lena River.

124

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

next year's supply of goods. Those of the West
ern Fur and Trading Company left for the
upper Yukon yesterday, and those connected
with the Alaska Commercial Company will fol
low as soon as the new steamboat, which they
are putting together here, can be got ready.

The party of prospectors which left San
Francisco this spring in a schooner, to seek a
mountain of solid silver, reported to have been
seen some distance up a river that flows into
Golofnin Bay on the north side of Norton
Sound, about one hundred miles from here, has
arrived, and is now up the river prospecting.
From what I can learn, they will not find the
mountain to be solid silver, but some far com
moner mineral. Gold is said to have been dis
covered by Mr. Harker on the Tanana River
— bar diggings that would pay about twelve
dollars per day. There will probably be a rush
to the new mines ere long, though news of this
kind is kept back as long as possible by the fur
companies.

The weather is delightful, temperature about
60° F. in the shade, and the vegetation is grow
ing with marvelous rapidity. The grass already
is about two feet high about the shores of the
bay, making a bright green surface, not at all
broken as far as can be seen from the steamer.
Almost any number of cattle would find excel-

125

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

lent pasturage here for three or four months in
the year.

During our last visit Dr. Rosse and I crossed
the tundra to a prominent hill about seven
miles to the southward from the redoubt. We
found the hill to be a well-formed volcanic cone
with a crater a hundred yards in diameter and
about twenty feet deep, from the rim of which
I counted upwards of forty others within a
distance of thirty or forty miles. This old vol
cano is said by the medicine men to be the en
trance to the spirit world for their tribe, and
the rumbling sounds heard occasionally are
supposed to be caused by the spirits when they
are conducting in a dead Indian. The last
eruption was of ashes and pumice cinders,
which are strewn plentifully around the rim of
the crater and down the sides of the cone.

Our walk was very fatiguing, as we sank deep
hi spongy moss at every step, and staggered
awkwardly on the tops of tussocks of grass and
sedge, which bent and let our feet down be
tween them. It was very delightful, however,
and crowded with rare beauty.

We saw a great number of birds, most of
which were busy about their nests; there were
ptarmigan, snipes, curlews, sand-pipers, song
sparrows, titmice, loons, many species of ducks,
and the Emperor goose. The ptarmigan is a

126

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

magnificent bird, about the size of the dusky
grouse of the Sierra. They are quite abundant
here, flying up with a vigorous whirr of wings
and a loud, hearty, cackling " kek-kek-kep "
every few yards all the way across the tundra.
The cocks frequently took up a position on
some slight eminence to observe us. They
seemed happily in place out on the wide moor,
with abundance of berries to eat through the
summer, spring, and fall, and willows and alder
buds for winter. Then they are pure white, and
warmly feathered down to the ends of their
toes. The sandpipers had fine feeding-grounds
about the shallow pools. The gray moor is a
fine place for curlews, too, and snipe.

The plants in bloom were primula, andro-
meda, dicentra, mertensia, veratrum, ledum,
saxifrage, empetrum, cranberry, draba of sev
eral species, lupine, stellaria, silene, polemo-
nium, buckbean, bryanthus, several sedges, a
liliaceous plant new to me, five species of wil
low, dwarf birch, alder, and a purple pedicu-
laris, the showiest of them all. The primula
and a bryanthus-like heathwort were the most
beautiful.

The tundra is composed of a close sponge of
mosses about a foot deep, with lichens growing
on top of the mosses, and a thin growth of
grasses and sedges and most of the flowering

127

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

plants mentioned above, with others not then
in bloom. The moss rests upon a stratum of
solid ice, and the ice on black vesicular lava,
ridges of which rise here and there above the
spongy mantle of moss, and afford ground for
plants that like a dry soil. There are hollows,
too, beneath the general level along which grow
tall aspidiums, grasses, sedges, larkspurs, alders,
and willows — the alders five or six inches in
diameter and from eight to ten feet high, the
largest timber I have seen since leaving Cali
fornia.

Visits from Indians in kayaks. At full speed
they can run about seven miles an hour for a
short distance. The salmon, that is, the best
red-fleshed species, are about finishing their
run up the river now. A very fat one, weigh
ing about fifty pounds, was bought from an
Indian for a little hardtack. After enough had
been cut from it for one meal, it was lost over
board by dropping from its head while sus
pended by it. Specimens of a hundred pounds
or more are said to be caught at times. Mr.
Nelson saw dried specimens six feet long.

[Steamer Corwin,
En route to the Arctic Ocean.]

July 9. Left St. Michael, having on board
provisions for nine months, and about one
128

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

hundred tons of coal. Decks heavily piled.
A weird red sunset; land miraged into most
grotesque forms. Heavy smoke from the burn
ing tundra southwest from St. Michael. The
season's cruise seems now to be just beginning.

July 10. Arrived this morning, about seven
o'clock, in Golofnin Bay, and dropped anchor.
There is a heavy sea and a stiff south wind,
with clouds veiling the summits down to a
thousand feet from sea level. I was put ashore
on the right side of the bay after breakfast at
a small Indian village of two huts made of drift
wood. They were full of dried herring. In
habitants not at home, but saw a few at an
other village farther up the bay. All the huts
are strictly conical and of driftwood. A few
Indians came off in canoes, very fine ones, of
a slightly different pattern from any others I
have seen. There is a round hole through the
front end to facilitate lifting. I had a long
walk and returned to the ship at three in the
afternoon.

The principal fact I discovered is a heavy
deposit of glacial drift about fifty feet high,
facing several miles of coast. It is coarsely
stratified and water-worn — the material of
a terminal moraine, leveled by water flowing
from a broad glacier, while separated from the

129

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

sea by a low, draggled flat, and then eaten into
bluffs by the sea waves. It is now overgrown
with alders, willows, and a good crop of sedges
and grasses, bright with flowers.1 Found the
small blue violet rather common. White spiraea,
in flower, is abundant in damp places about
alder groves where the tundra mosses are not
too thick. The cranberries, huckleberries, and
rubus will soon be ripe. The purple-flowered
rubus is only in bloom now.

The driftwood is spruce and cottonwood.
The rock, containing mica, slate, and a good
deal of quartz, seems favorable for gold. The
life-boat, rigged with sails, has been sent to
board the prospectors' schooner anchored far
ther up the bay. Seven men are aboard, and
seven are off prospecting. They are reported
to have found promising galena assaying high
values per ton. They mean to visit the quick
silver mines on the Kuskoquim. The rocks on
the opposite side of the bay exhibit clear traces
of glacial sculpture.

July 1 1 . Sailed this morning from the anchor
age in Golof nin Bay, and reached Sledge Island
at nine in the evening. The natives are mostly
away on the mainland. The island seems to be
of granite and to have been overswept [by
1 See "Botanical Notes," p. 288,
130

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

glaciers]. Obtained a pretty good view of the
mountains at the head of Golofnin Bay. They
seem to be from four to five thousand feet high.

July 12. Reached King Island this morning
about seven o'clock, and left at half-past ten.
Reached Cape Prince of Wales about three in
the afternoon and anchored. Left at six in the
evening. Clear, bright day; water, pale green.
Had a fine view of the Diomedes, Fairway Rock,
King Island, Cape Prince of Wales, and the
lofty mountains towards the head of the river
that enters Golofnin Bay, all from one point of
view. The King Island natives were away on
the mainland, all save a few old or crippled
men, and women and children.

Their town, of all that I have seen, is the
most remarkably situated, on the face of a
steep slope, almost a cliff, and presents a very
strange appearance. Some fifty stone huts,
scarcely visible at a short distance, like those
of the Arizona cliff-dwellers, rise like heaps of
stones among heaps of stones. These are the
winter huts, and are entered by tunnels. The
summer huts, large square boxes on stilts, are
of skin, [stretched over] large poles of drift
wood. There is no way of landing save amid
a mass of great wave-beaten boulders. In
stormy times the King Islanders' excellent

131

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

canoes have to be pitched off into the sea when
a wave is about to recede. Two are tied to
gether for safety in rough weather. These pairs
live in any sea. A few gray-headed old pairs
came off with some odds and ends to trade.

Mr. Nelson and I went ashore to obtain
photographs and sketches and to bargain for
specimens of ivory carvings, etc. A busy trade
developed on the roof of a house, the only level
ground. Groups of merry boys went skipping
nimbly from rock to rock, and busily guided us
over the safest places. They showed us where
between the huge boulders it was best to at
tempt a landing, which was difficult. Though
the sea was nearly calm, a slight swell made a
heavy surf. One hut rose above another like
a village on Yosemite walls. The whole island
is precipitous, so much so that it seems acces
sible only to murres, etc., which flock here in
countless multitudes to breed.

In the afternoon, at Cape Prince of Wales,
we lay opposite a large village whose inhabi
tants have a bad character. They started a
fight while trading on board of a schooner.
Many of them were killed, and they have since
been distrusted not only on account of their
known bad character, but also because of the
law of blood revenge which obtains universally
among these natives. They are noted traders

132

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

and go far in their large skin boats which carry
sails. While we were here a canoe, met by our
search party, arrived from East Cape — a party
of Chukchi traders, bringing deerskins from
Cape Yaka"n. They are in every way much
better-looking men than the natives of this
side, being taller, better-formed, and more
cordial in manner. They at once recognized
our Third Lieutenant Reynolds, whom they
had met at Tapkan. Fog at night; going under
sail only.

July 13. Lovely day, nearly cloudless. Aver
age temperature of 50° F. At half-past five in
the afternoon we fell in with a trading schooner l
opposite an Indian village.2 One of the boats
came alongside the Corwin and traded a few
articles. Nothing contraband was found,
though rifles probably had been sold during
the first part of her cruise. These vessels, as
well as whalers, carry more or less. whiskey and
rifles in order to obtain ivory, whalebone, and
furs. They go from coast to coast and among
islands, and thus pick up valuable cargoes.
The natives cannot understand why the Cor
win interferes with trade in repeating rifles and
whiskey. They consider it all a matter of riv
alry and superior strength. No wonder, since

1 The O. S. Fowler. 2 Near Cape Espenberg.
133

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

our government does nothing for them. Com
mon rifles would be better for them, partly on
account of the difficulty of obtaining supplies
of cartridges, and partly because repeating
rifles tempt them to destroy large amounts of
game which they do not need. The reindeer
has in this manner been well-nigh exterminated
within the last few years.

July 14- A hot, sunny day. Came to anchor
this morning at the head of Kotzebue Sound
opposite the mouth of the Kiwalik River. Be
tween eight and nine o'clock this morning
Lieutenant Reynolds, with six seamen, took
Mr. Nelson and me up the river in one of the
boats. We reached a point about eight miles
from the mouth of the estuary near the head
of the delta. Since the bay is shoal off the
estuary, the ship was anchored about four
miles from the mouth. We, therefore, had a
journey of about twenty-four miles altogether.
We first landed at the mouth of the estuary and
walked a mile or two along a bar shoved up by
the waves and the ice. Here we found one na
tive hut in good repair. The inhabitants were
away, but the trodden grass showed that they
had not been gone very long. This is the time
of the year when the grand gathering of the
clans for trade takes place at Cape Blossom,

134

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

and they probably had gone there. The floor
of the hut was about ten feet in diameter, [and
the hut itself] was made of a frame of drift
wood covered with sod, and was entered by a
narrow tunnel two feet high and eighteen inches
wide. We saw traces of a great many houses,
showing that quite a large village was at one
time located here. In some only a few decay
ing timbers were to be seen, in others all the
timbers had vanished and only the excavation
remained. Some six miles farther up the stream
I noticed other ruins, indicating that many
natives once lived here, though now then1 num
ber has dwindled to one family.

The delta is about five miles wide and about
eight miles long. It is covered with a grassy,
flowery, sedgy vegetation, with pools, lagoons,
and branches of the river here and there. It
is a lonely place, and a favorite resort of ducks,
geese, and other water birds which come here
to breed and to moult. We saw swans1 with
their young; eider ducks, also, were seen with
their young, and some were found on their
eggs, which are green and about the size of
hens' eggs. Their nests were among the grass
on the margin of a lagoon and were made with
a handful of down from their breasts. These
as well as other ducks, which had their young
1 Whistling swans (Olor columbianus).
135

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

with them, could not be made to fly, though
we came within three or four yards of them in
a narrow pool. When I threw sticks at the
flock they would only dive. They were very
graceful, and took good care of their children.
We could easily have killed them all.

The wild geese which we saw also had young
-a dozen families altogether.1 They are
moulting now and cannot fly. We chased a
large flock in the estuary. When they saw us
coming, they made frantic efforts to keep
ahead of the boat. When we overtook them,
they dived and scattered, coming up here and
there, often close to the boat, and always trying
to keep themselves concealed by laying their
necks along the water and sinking their bodies
and lying perfectly still; or, if they were well
away from the boat and fancied themselves
unseen, they swam in this sunken, outstretched
condition and were soon lost to view, if there
was the least wind-ripple on the water. Saw
three plovers, the godwit from the Siberian side,
and many finches and gulls. On a small islet
in the middle of a pond we found one nest of
the burgomaster gull. They tried to drive us
away by swooping down upon us. I noticed

1 Mr. E. W. Nelson reported the geese observed here as
belonging to two species, the American white-fronted goose
(Anser albifrona gambeli) and the white-cheeked goose
(Bernida canadensis leucoparia) .

136

GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA

also the robber-gull and several others. But
terflies were quite abundant among the bloom
ing meadow vegetation. I noticed six or more
species. The vegetation is like that of Cape
Prince of Wales and Norton Sound. Found
one red poppy, one wintergreen, allium, saxi
frages, primulas, lupines, pedicularis, and
peas, quite abundant. This region is noted for
its fossil ivory. Found only a fragment of a
tusk and a few bones. The deposit whence
they were derived is probably above the point
reached by us. The gravel is composed of
quartz, mica, slate, and lava. There are many
lava cones and ridges on both sides of the
estuary.

CHAPTER XI

CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

July 15. Rainy and cold; cleared at seven in
the evening. Left the head of Kotzebue Sound
this morning at seven-thirty, for Cape Blos
som, where the natives assemble from near and
far to trade, but only one poor family was left.
We went ashore and found them engaged in
fishing for salmon with a net which was pushed
out from the shore by a long pole sixty feet in
length, made of three tied together. The In
dians had gone fifteen or twenty miles up the
coast, near Cape Krusenstern. Their tents
were to be seen, looking like Oakland across
the bay from San Francisco, so numerous they
seemed. A small schooner, the Fowler, was at
anchor there trading. Soon half a dozen canoes
came alongside of us, and offered to trade, but
asked big prices. The Captain obtained only
two wolfskins, a deerskin, and a few muskrats,
and bunches of sinew. [The Corwin then pro
ceeded to Hotham Inlet and came to anchor
about two miles from the native village called
Sheshalek, inhabited by Kobuk and Noatak
River Eskimos.]

138

CAEIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

July 16. A fresh breeze from the north, but
the day is tolerably clear. A swell is breaking
into whitecaps here and there. A busy day
with the Indians, trading for a winter supply
of deerskins. We obtained over a hundred al
together at the rate of about a dollar each for
summer skins, and half as much for those taken
in winter. With what we have already picked
up here and there, and with the parkas we have
collected, this will be amply sufficient. Rein
deer are killed in immense numbers inland from
here. All are wild; no domesticated herds are
found on the American continent, though the
natives have illustrations enough of their value
on the opposite shores of Bering Sea. These
Indians prefer herds that require no care,
though they are not always to be found when
wanted. Some of the wild herds that exist up
the Inland River are said, by the Indians, to
be so large as to require more than a day in
passing.

The number of these animals, considering
the multitude of their enemies, is truly won
derful. The large gray wolves kill many dur
ing the winter, and when the snow is deep,
large flocks are slaughtered by the Indians,
whether they need them or not. They make it
a rule to kill every animal that comes within
reach, without a thought of future scarcity,

139

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

fearing, as some say, that, should they refuse
to kill as opportunity offers, though it be at a
time when food is no object, then the deer-
spirit would be offended at the refusal of his
gifts and would not send any deer when they
are in want. Probably, however, they are
moved simply by an instinctive love of killing
on which their existence depends, and these
wholesale slaughters are to be regarded as only
too much of a good thing. Formerly there
were large herds about St. Michael, but since
the introduction of repeating rifles they have
wholly vanished. Hundreds were surrounded
in passes among the hills, were killed and left
lying where they fell, not even the hides being
taken. Often a band of moose or reindeer is
overtaken in deep snow, when they are easily
killed with clubs by Indians on snowshoes, who
will simply cut out their tongues, and leave the
rest to be eaten by wolves.

The reindeer is found throughout the Arctic
and subarctic regions of both Asia and America,
and, in either the wild or the domestic state,
supplies to the natives an abundance of food
and warm clothing, thus rendering these bleak
and intensely cold regions inhabitable. I be
lieve it is only in Lapland and Siberia that the
reindeer is domesticated. They are never sold
alive by the Chukchis on account of a super-

140

CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

stitious notion that to do so would surely bring
bad luck by incensing the spirit of the deer.
A hundred can be bought, after they are killed,
for less than one alive. Certain ceremonies
must also be observed before killing.

Out on the frozen tundra great care is re
quired, both by day and by night, to keep them
from being scattered and torn by wolves. A
reindeer weighs from three to four hundred
pounds. The winter skins are heavier, the hair
being long and tipped with white, giving them
a hoary appearance, especially on the back; but
the hair is easily broken and pulled out, a fact
which renders them much less durable when
used for bedding, tents, or clothing than those
taken in summer, when the hair is short, and
dark blue, almost black. Reindeer hides are
easily tanned; those tanned in Siberia are dyed
a rich reddish-brown on the inside with alder
bark. The domestic reindeer skins are con
sidered better than those of the wild animals.
Wrangell 1 has described the herds as affording
a grand sight.

At this point 2 the Indians from the interior,
and from many miles up and down the coast,
assemble once a year in July to trade with each

1 Admiral Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangell,
polar explorer and Russian Governor, Administrator of the
Russian-American colonies, 1829-36.

8 The head of Kotzebue Sound.
141

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

other, with parties of Chukchis who come from
Siberia in umiaks, and with the few schooners
that bring goods from San Francisco and from
the Sandwich Islands. After trading they in
dulge in games of wrestling, playing ball, gam
bling, dancing, and drinking whiskey, if they
can get it. Then they break up their camps and
go to their widely scattered homes, some a
month's journey or more up the Inland and
down the Colville Rivers. They now have
about one hundred and forty tents set in a row
along the beach, their light kayaks in front of
the tents in a neat row, each with paddles and
spears that belong to it, and in front of these a
row of large skin umiaks. They are a mixed,
jolly multitude, wearing different ornaments,
superb fur clothes, or shabby foreign articles;
one sees long hair, short hair, or closely shaven;
here is headgear of hats, caps, or cowls, and
folk who go bareheaded; labrets, too, of every
conceivable size, color, and material — glass,
stone, beads, ivory, brass. They show good
taste and ingenuity in the manufacture of
pipes, weapons, knickknacks of a domestic
kind, utensils, ornaments, boats, etc.

Though savage and sensual, they are by no
means dull or apathetic like the sensual sav
ages of civilization, who live only to eat and
indulge the senses, for these Eskimos, without

142

CAKIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

newspapers or telegraphs, know all that is go
ing on within hundreds of miles, and are keen
questioners and alive to everything that goes
on before them. They dearly like to gossip.
One tried to buy some of the cabin boy's hair,
on account of its curious whiteness; another,
who has red hair, is followed and commented
on with ludicrous interest.

The shores hereabouts are comparatively
low, the hills, back a few miles from shore, roll
ing and of moderate height, and mountains are
to be seen beyond.

July 17. The northerly wind still prevails;
cloudy all day, but dry. Left the Eskimo
"Long Branch" at four o'clock in the morning
and sailed to Cape Thompson, where we mean
to look into the condition of the Eskimos and
inquire whether they have obtained whiskey,
from any of the traders, contrary to law. The
coast is rather low. Mountains are visible
thirty miles back; low hills between.

July 18. Numerous snow squalls. Came to
anchor at five this morning in the lee of Point
Hope. Norther blowing. Remained all day in
company with the Sea Breeze.1 A few of the
natives came off shore — good-natured fel-

1 A whaling bark.
143

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

lows. A negro, who wintered here last season,
was well used by them, for he was given the
best of what they had. He had lost an axe over
board, so the story goes, and deserted on ac
count of trouble he had over the matter with
the second officer of the brig Hidalgo. He was
taken on board again this spring.

We landed and walked through the village.
Found a fine gravel beach, beautifully flowered
beyond the reach of the waves. Most of the
natives seem to be away — at the summer
gathering, perhaps. The graveyard is of great
extent and very conspicuous from the custom
of surrounding the graves with poles.

July 19. Cold, stiff, north wind; clear. Left
our anchorage at five o'clock this morning and
proceeded north, but found the gale too strong
to make much headway and, therefore, turned
back and anchored at Cape Thompson, thirty
miles south of Point Hope. Watering ship all
day; the wind is blowing hard. Going north
again since seven o'clock this evening. Wind
moderating slightly.

I went ashore this forenoon and, after pass
ing a few minutes interviewing a group of vaga
bond natives from Point Hope who were
camped here to gather eggs, kill murres, and
loaf, I pushed on up the hillside, whose sheer

144

CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

scarped face forms the Cape. I found it five
hundred and fifty feet high, composed of cal
careous slates, much bent and contorted, and
a considerable portion was fossiliferous. Where
hills of this rock have steep slopes, and so much
drainage and wash that soil is not allowed to
form, nor the usual moss mantle to grow, they
bleach white and present a remarkably deso
late aspect in the distance. Such hills are com
mon back of Kotzebue Sound. These barren
slopes, however, alternate with remarkably
fertile valleys, where flowers of fifty or more
species bloom in rich profusion, making masses
of white, purple, and blue. Sometimes this
occurs on a comparatively thin soil where the
leaves do not veil the rocky ground; but at the
bottom of the valleys there usually is a green
ground below the bloom.

The slopes over which I passed in to-day's
walk are planted chiefly with sweet fern —
Dryas — with its yellowish-white flowers. A
purple silene is also very abundant, making
beautiful bosses of color. Phlox is present hi
dwarfed masses, only the stems and leaves
being dwarfed, not the flowers. Anemones
occur in fine patches, and buttercups, and sev
eral species of daisies and lupines. Dodecath-
eon I met here for the first time this season.
Dwarf willows are abundant. There was one

145

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

fern and one heathwort along a streamside.
I saw no true tundra here, its absence, no
doubt, being due to the free drainage of the
surface. The winds from the north are violent
here, as evidenced by the immense snow-drifts
still unmelted along the shore where we landed,
and also back in the hollows where they feed
the stream at which we got water for the ship.
They probably will last all summer. This cir
cumstance, of course, leaves the hill slopes all
the barer and dryer.

The trends of two main ridges, of which I
ob takied approximate measurements, probably
coincide with the direction of the movement of
the ice. There is a small wasted moraine hi the
lower part of the stream valley, extending to
the shore. Partial after-glaciation has been
light, and on rocks of this sort has left only very
faint traces.

July 20. Last night we again anchored on
the south side of Point Hope, the norther still
blowing hard. About noon to-day it began
to abate, and we again pushed off northward.
Now, at eight o'clock in the evening, we are
approaching Cape Lisburne, a bold bluff of
gray stratified rocks about fifteen hundred
feet high. All along the coast, from the neigh
borhood of Cape Prince of Wales, the peculiar

146

CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

gray color of the rocks, and the forms into which
they are weathered and glaciated, indicate one
continuous formation, partially described yes
terday. Magnificent sections are exposed be
tween the north side of Point Hope and Cape
Lisburne. The age of the formation I do not
as yet certainly know. The existence of coal-
veins here and there in connection with con
glomerates, and the few fossils, would tend to
identify it as Carboniferous, though some of the
sections show a wide vertical range. Probably
a considerable amount of the formation is
older. The few fossils I have seen point to the
Carboniferous, or older formations.

Between eleven and twelve o'clock this fore
noon several white whales were seen near the
shore, showing their white backs above the
water when they rose to breathe, so white at
a little distance that they might easily have
been mistaken for breaking waves. We saw the
Indians shoot and kill one, and went ashore to
have a good look at this Beluga. It proved to
be a small one, only about seven feet long, and
of a pale gray ashen color, probably a young
specimen. In general form it is like a whale,
but more slender. The head is narrow and
rather high in the forehead. The eyes are very
small, about five eighths of an inch in diameter.
The ears are hardly visible, would scarcely

147

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

admit a common lead pencil. The blow-hole,
as in the true whales, is about an inch in diam
eter. The forefeet, the only limbs, are in the
form of short flippers, and the tail, which is
large, is formed by an expansion of the thick
skin. They are more nearly related to the dol
phins than to the whales — the dolphins, por
poises, and grampuses forming one of the divi
sions of the three Cetacea delphinoidea.

While we were ashore looking at this speci
men, a much larger one came along parallel
with the shore-line and not more than twenty
or thirty yards from it. The natives were on
the watch and shot it through the body when
it rose to blow. Instead of making out to sea
when wounded, it kept its course alongshore
and the natives followed excitedly, ready to
get another shot. They kept it in sight while
it was ten or twelve feet under water, which
they were enabled to do on account of its
whiteness. Eight or ten men jumped into a
canoe and followed it, one standing in the bow
with a spear. After swimming about half a
mile and receiving four or more bullets from
Henry and Winchester rifles, it began to struggle
and die. The boat came up, an Eskimo drove
in a spear, and the whale was taken in tow and
brought back to where the first was killed, the
crew, meanwhile, singing in triumph. Then a

148

CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR

rolling hitch was made, and a dozen willing
hands landed the animal, a female. She meas
ured about twelve feet in length and nine in
circumference. They at once began to eat the
tail and back fin raw, cutting off blocks of it
and giving it to the children, not because they
were hungry, but because they regarded it as so
very palatable. Then a fire was built of drift
wood. Looking back from the ship, only two
red spots were visible on the beach — and a
group of fifty feasting Eskimos! Probably not
a bit of the Belugas, except a little of the blub
ber, will be left by night.

The attitudes of the riflemen, legs spread,
rifle to shoulder, and eyes vividly on the alert,
as they watched the animal's appearance above
water, were very striking. These animals are
quite abundant hereabouts, and used to be
killed with spears that had heads made of stone
or ivory. Whales were killed in the same man
ner. A much larger number of right whales is
killed by the natives about the shores of Bering
Sea and along the polar shores than is supposed.
Almost every village gets from one to five every
season. Then comes a joyful time. The bone
belongs to the boat's crew that strikes the
whale, the carcass to all the village.

A mountain slope just to the northeast of
Cape Lisburne is so covered at the top with

149

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

slender, spirey columns of rock, that I at first
glance took them for trees. A slight dusting
of snow has lately whitened the peaks. To the
south of the Cape twelve or fifteen miles two
small valleys, cut nearly to the level of the sea,
exhibit terminal and lateral moraines. After-
glaciation has been light. The higher moun
tains do not approach the coast nearly. No
deep fiords like those of the west coast.

CHAPTER XII

ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK

July 21. Rainy this forenoon, clear at night.
Wind blowing hard from the southeast and
raising a heavy swell. Reached Icy Cape about
noon and found to our disappointment that,
notwithstanding the openness of the season,
further advance northeastward was barred by
the ice. After the sky began to clear somewhat,
and the rain to cease falling, we observed an
ice-blink stretching all around the northern
horizon for several hours before we sighted the
ice, a peculiar brown and yellow band within
a few degrees of the horizon. There was a dark
belt beneath it, which indicated water beyond
the ice.

We then turned westward, tracing the loose-
drift edge of the pack until eight in the eve
ning, when we turned to the east again, intend
ing to await the further movements of the ice
for a few days, and especially a change of wind
to blow it offshore. There is a coal-vein be
tween here and Cape Lisburne which we will
visit and mine as much coal as possible, in case
the weather permits. But as there is no shelter
151

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

thereabouts, we may not be able to obtain any
and in that case will be compelled to go to
Plover Bay for our next supply.

About fifteen miles southwest of Icy Cape
there is quite a large settlement 1 of Eskimos
on the low, sandy, storm-swept shore. Cool
and breezy must be their lives, and they can
have but little inducement to look up, or time
to spend in contemplation. Theirs is one con
stant struggle for food, interrupted by sleep
and by a few common quarrels. In winter they
hibernate in noisome underground dens. In
summer they come out to take breath in small
conical tents, made of white drill, when they
can get it. They waved a piece of cloth on the
end of a pole as we passed, inviting us to stop
and trade with them. From Cape Lisburne up
the coast to Point Barrow there is usually a
two-knot current, but the wind and the ice
have completely stopped the flow at present.
The sun is above the horizon at midnight.

July 22. A dull, leaden day; dark fog and
rain until about four in the afternoon; rained
but a small fraction of an inch. About noon
we once more sighted the ice-pack. The heavy
swell of the sea is rapidly subsiding and the
wind is veering to the northeast. We hope it

1 Ututok?
152

ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK

will move the ice offshore and allow us to round
Point Barrow. The pack is close and impene
trable, though made up of far smaller blocks
than usual, owing, no doubt, to the mildness
of last winter, and to the charing and pounding
of a succession of gales that have been driving
over it at intervals all the spring. We pushed
into it through the loose outer fringe, but soon
turned back when we found that it stretched
all around from the shore. By retreating we
avoided the danger of getting fixed in it and
carried away. Nearly all the vessels that have
been lost in the Arctic have been caught
hereabouts.

The approach to the ice was signalized by
the appearance of walruses, seals, and ducks.
The walrus is very abundant here, and when
whales are scarce the whalers hunt and kill
great numbers of them for their ivory and oil.
They are found on cakes of ice in hundreds,
and if a party of riflemen can get near, by
creeping up behind some hummock, and kill
the one on guard, the rest seem to be heedless
of noise after the first shot, and wait until
nearly all are killed. But if the first be only
wounded, and plunges into the water, the whole
"pod" is likely to follow. Came to anchor at
half-past ten this evening, a little to the south
of Icy Cape.

153

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

July 23. Clear and calm. Weighed anchor
at eight in the morning and ran close inshore,
anchored, and landed with instruments to
make exact measurements for latitude and
longitude, and to observe the dip. I also went
ashore to see the vegetation, and Nelson to
seek birds and look for Eskimo specimens.
Found only four plants in bloom — saxifrage,
willow, artemisia, and draba. This is the bleak
est and barest spot of all. Well named Icy
Cape. A low bar of sand and shingle shoved
up by the ice that is crowded against the shore
every year. Inside this bar, which is only a
hundred yards wide, there is a stretch of water
several miles wide; then, low gravelly coast.
Sedges and grasses, dwarfed and frost-bitten,
constitute the bulk of the flora.

We noticed traces of Eskimo encampments.
There was blubber in abundance from a dead
whale that had been cast up on the shore.
They had plenty of food when they left. But
before this they must have been hungry, for
we found remains of dogs that they had been
eating; also, white foxes' bones, picked clean.
Found a dead walrus on the beach beyond the
wreck of the whale.

At one in the afternoon we weighed anchor
and turned north, crossing inside of Blossom
Shoals, which are successive ridges pushed up

154

ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK

by the ice, and extending ten or twelve miles
offshore. In a few hours we reached the limit
of open water. The ice extended out from the
shore, leaving no way. Turned again to the
south. Sighted the bark Northern Light l and
made up to her. She showed grandly with her
white canvas on the dark water, now nearly
calm. Ice just ahead as we accompanied her
northward while the Captain visited her. The
sun is low in the northwest at nine o'clock. A
lovely evening, bracing, cool, with a light breeze
blowing over the polar pack. The ice is mar-
velously distorted and miraged; thousands of
blocks seem suspended in the air; some even
poised on slender black poles and pinnacles;
a bridge of ice with innumerable piers, the ice
and water wavering with quick, glancing mo
tion. At midnight the sun is still above the
horizon about two diameters; purple to west
and east, gradually fading to dark slate color
in the south with a few banks of cloud. A bar
of gold in the path of the sun lay on the water
and across the pack, the large blocks in the line
[of vision] burning like huge coals of fire.

A little schooner2 has a boat out in the edge
of the pack killing walruses, while she is lying
a little to east of the sun. A puff of smoke now
and then, a dull report, and a huge animal rears

1 A whaler. 8 The R. B. Handy, Captain Winants.
155

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

and falls — another, and another, as they lie
on the ice without showing any alarm, waiting
to be killed, like cattle lying in a barnyard!
Nearer, we hear the roar, lion-like, mixed with
hoarse grunts, from hundreds like black bundles
on the white ice. A small red flag is planted
near the pile of slain. Then the three men puff
off to then- schooner, as it is now midnight and
time for the other watch to go to work.

These magnificent animals are killed often
times for their tusks alone, like buffaloes for
their tongues, ostriches for their feathers, or for
mere sport and exercise. In nothing does man,
with his grand notions of heaven and charity,
show forth his innate, low-bred, wild animal
ism more clearly than in his treatment of his
brother beasts. From the shepherd with his
lambs to the red-handed hunter, it is the same;
no recognition of rights — only murder in one
form or another.

July 24. A lovely morning, sunful, calm,
clear; a broad swath of silver spangles in the
path of the sun; ice-blink to the north; a pale
sky to the east and around to the south and
west; blue above, not deep blue; several ships
in sight. Sabbath bells are all that is required
to make a Sabbath of the day.

Ran inshore opposite the Eskimo village;
156

ZIGZAGS AMONG TIIE POLAR PACK

about a hundred came off. Good-natured as
usual. A few biscuits and a little coaxing from
the sailors made them sing and dance. The
Eskimo women laughed as heartily at the curi
ous and extravagant gestures of the men as any
of the sailors did. They were anxious to know
what was the real object of the Corwin's cruise,
and when the steam whaler Belvedere hove in
sight they inquired whether she had big guns
and was the same kind of ship. Our interpreter
explained as well as he could.

In the afternoon we had the Sea Breeze, the
Sappho, the Northern Light, and the schooner
about us. The steam whaler had only six
whales. He had struck ten, taken four, and
found two dead. Last year he took twenty-
seven. The whales were in windrows then; at
one time twenty-five were so near that no gaps
between them were so wide but that a man
could strike on either side. They were more
abundant last year on the American coast;
this year, on the Asiatic. They are always
more abundant in spring and fall than during
the summer.

Had a graphic account, from Captain Owen,
of the loss of the thirty-three ships of the whal
ing fleet near Point Barrow in 1874. Caution
inculcated by such experiences. Anchored this
evening near the Belvedere and four other ves-
157

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWTNT

sels. The schooner people complain that this is
a bad year for "walrusing"; ice too thin; after
killing a few the hot blood so weakens the ice
that in their struggles they break it and then
fall in and sink.

July 25. Steamed northward again, intend
ing, after reaching the ice, to make an effort
to go to Point Barrow with the steam launch,
and the lifeboat in tow, to seek the Daniel
Webster, and offer aid if necessary. [This
whaler is] now shut in about Point Belcher.
We found, however, that the ice was shoved
close inshore south of Icy Cape, and extended
in a dense pack from there to the southwest,
leaving no boat channel even. This plan was
therefore abandoned with great reluctance, and
we again moved southward, intending to coal,
if the weather allowed, near Cape Lisburne.
Calm, lovely night; slight breeze; going slowly
under sail alone.

July 26. Lovely day; gentle breeze. Eight
vessels in sight this morning. The Belvedere
got under sail and is proceeding southward
with us. Mirages in wonderful variety; ships
pulled up and to either side, out of all recogni
tion; the coast, with snow-patches as gaps,
pulled up and stratified; the snow looking like

158

ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK

arched openings in a dark bridge above the
waters. About nine-thirty we noticed a rare
effect just beneath the sun — a faint, black,
indefinite, cloudlike bar extended along the
horizon, and immediately beyond this dark bar
there was a strip of bright, keenly defined colors
like a showy spectrum, containing nearly all
the colors of the rainbow.

July 27. A lovely day, bright and calm and
warm. Coaling ship from a vein in a sandstone
cliff twenty miles northeast of Cape Lisburne.
In company with the Belvedere. Seeking fos
sils. Discovered only two species of plants.
Coal abundant. Mined, took out, and brought
on board fifteen tons to-day. The Belvedere
also is coaling and taking on water. Three
Eskimo canoes came from the south this eve
ning and camped at the stream which flows into
the sea on the north side of the coal bluff. The
dogs followed the canoes alongshore. After
camping they came alongside, but not before
their repeated signs of peace, consisting of
throwing up hands and shouting "Tima," were
answered by the officer of the deck. This cus
tom seems to be dying out, also that of em
bracing and nose-rubbing.

July 28. Lovely, tranquil day, all sunshine.

159

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

Taking coal until half-past four in the afternoon.
Then sailed toward Herald Island. I spent the
forenoon along the face of the shore cliffs, seek
ing fossils. Discovered only four, all plants.
Went three miles westward. Heavy snowbank,
leaning back in the shadow most of the dis
tance, almost changing to ice; very deep and
of several years' formation — not less than
forty feet in many places. The cliffs or bluffs
are from two hundred to nearly four hundred
feet high, composed of sandstone, coal, and
conglomerate, the latter predominating. Great
thickness of sediments; a mile or more visible
on upturned edges, which give a furrowed sur
face by unequal weathering. Some good bi
tuminous coal; burns well. Veins forty feet
thick, more or less interrupted by clayey or
sandy strata. Fossils not abundant.

While I was scratching the rocks for some
light on the history of their formation, eight
canoe loads of Eskimos with all their goods,
tents, children, etc., passed close along the
shore, going toward Icy Cape; all except one
were drawn by dogs — from three to five to
each canoe — attached by a long string of wal
rus hide, and driven by a woman, or half -grown
girl, or boy. "Ooch, ooch, ooch," they said,
while urging them along. They dragged the
canoe with perhaps two tons altogether at two

160

ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK

and one half miles per hour. When they came
to a sheer bluff the dogs swam and the driv
ers got into the canoe until the beach again
admitted of tracking. The canoe that had no
dogs was paddled and rowed by both men and
women. One woman, pulling an oar on the
starboard bow, was naked to the waist. They
came from Point Hope, and arrived last
evening at a camping-ground on the edge of a
stream opposite the Corwin's anchorage. This
morning they had eight tents and all the food,
canoes, arms, dogs, babies, and rubbish that
belong to a village. The encampment looked
like a settled village that had grown up by en
chantment. Only one was left after ten in the
morning, the occupants busying themselves
caching blubber of walrus. In the sunshine
some of the children enjoyed the luxury of run
ning about naked.

Eleven-thirty; a calm evening. The sun has
just set, its disk curiously distorted by refrac
tion and light diminished by vaporous haze,
so that it could be looked at, a glorious orb of
crimson and gold with a crisp surface. . . .
Horizontal layers of color, piled on each other
evenly, made the whole look like cheese of dif
ferent sizes laid neatly one on top of the other.
Sketched the various phases. It set as a flat
crimson cake of dull red. No cloud; only

161

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

haze, dark at the horizon, purple higher, and
then yellow.

July 29. Calm, lovely, sunny day. Ther
mometer standing at 50° F. in the shade; warm
in the sun; the water smooth with streaks;
ruffled, like an alpine lake; mostly glassy,
stirred with irregular breaths of air. Ice visi
ble about noon, near "Post-Office Point." 1
Fine-grained, hazy, luminous mist about the
horizon. A few gulls and ducks. Sun barely
dipped beneath the horizon. Curiously mod
eled by refraction; bars dividing in sections
always horizontal. Ducks flying at midnight.

July 80. Another glassy, calm day, all sun
shine from midnight to midnight. Kotzebue's
gull, the kittiwake, about the ship ; no seals or
walrus. Herald Island came in sight about one
o'clock. At a distance of eight to ten miles we
reached the ice, but made our way through it,
as it was mostly light and had openings here
and there. But we suffered some hard bumps;
pushed slowly and got close alongside, much to
the satisfaction of the crew.

1 Said to be a point north of Bering Strait in the Arctic
Ocean where, for some reason, the drift of oceanic currents
is not strong. Whalers and other vessels customarily went
there to exchange mail and news.

CHAPTER XIII

FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND

Steamer Corwin,

Off Herald Island, Arctic Ocean,

July 31, 1881.

WE left Herald Island this morning at three
o'clock, after landing upon it and exploring it
pretty thoroughly from end to end. On the
morning of the twenty-fifth we were steaming
along the coast a few miles to the south of Icy
Cape, intending to make an effort to reach
Point Barrow in order to give aid to the whale-
ship Daniel Webster, which we learned was
beset in the ice thereabouts and was in great
danger of being lost.

We found, however, that the pack extended
solidly from Icy Cape to the southward and
pressed so hard against the shore that we saw
it would be impossible to proceed even with
the steam launch. We therefore turned back
with great reluctance and came to anchor near
Cape Lisburne, where we mined and took on
about thirty tons of coal. About half-past four
in the afternoon, July twenty-eighth, we hoisted
anchor and sailed toward Herald Island, in
tending to make a general survey of the edge of
163

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

the great polar ice-pack about Wrangell Land,
hardly hoping to be able to effect a landing so
early in the season.

On the evening of the thirtieth we reached
Herald Island, having been favored with de
lightful weather all the way, the ocean being
calm and glassy as a mountain lake, the surface
stirred gently here and there with irregular
breaths of air that could hardly be called winds,
and the whole of this day from midnight to
midnight was all sunshine, contrasting mar-
velously with the dark, icy storm-days we had
experienced so short a time ago.

Herald Island came in sight at one o'clock
in the afternoon, and when we reached the edge
of the pack it was still about ten miles distant.
We made our way through it, however, with
out great difficulty, as the ice was mostly light
and had openings of clear water here and there,
though in some close-packed fields the Cor-
win was pretty roughly bumped, and had to
steam her best to force a passage. At ten
o'clock in the evening we came to anchor in the
midst of huge cakes and blocks about sixty-five
feet thick within two or three hundred yards
of the shore.

After so many futile efforts had been made
last year to reach this little ice-bound island,
everybody seemed wildly eager to run ashore

164

. *«• /

.if-

FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND

and climb to the summit of its sheer granite
cliffs. At first a party of eight jumped from the
bowsprit chains and ran across the narrow belt
of margin ice and madly began to climb up an
excessively steep gully, which came to an end
in an inaccessible slope a few hundred feet
above the water. Those ahead loosened and
sent down a train of granite boulders, which
shot over the heads of those below in a far
more dangerous manner than any of the party
seemed to appreciate. Fortunately, nobody was
hurt, and all made out to get down in safety.1

1 Captain Hooper's report of the incident and of Muir's
skillful ascent of the island adds some interesting details : —

" Muir, who is an experienced mountaineer, came over
the ice with an axe in his hand, and, reaching the island a few
hundred feet farther north, opposite a bank of frozen snow
and ice a hundred feet high, standing at an angle of 50°, he
deliberately commenced cutting steps and ascending the ice
cliff, the top of which he soon reached without apparent dif
ficulty, and from there the top of the island was reached by
a gradual ascent neither difficult nor dangerous.

" While approaching the island, by a careful examination
with the glass, Muir's practiced eye had easily selected the
most suitable place for making the ascent. The place selected
by the others, or rather the place upon which they stumbled,
— for the attempt to ascend was made on the first point
reached, — was a small, steep ravine about two hundred feet
deep. The jagged nature of its steep sides made climbing
possible, and from the sea-level the top of this ravine ap
peared to these ambitious but inexperienced mountain-
climbers to be the top of the island. After several narrow
escapes from falling rocks they succeeded in gaining the top
of the ravine, when they discovered that the ascent was
hardly begun. Above them was a plain surface of nearly a
thousand feet in height, and so steep that the loose, disin-

165

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

While this remarkable piece of mountain
eering and Arctic exploration was in progress,
a light skin-covered boat was dragged over the
ice and launched on a strip of water that
stretched in front of an accessible ravine, the
bed of an ancient glacier, which I felt assured
would conduct by an easy grade to the sum
mit of the island. The slope of this ravine for
the first hundred feet or so was very steep, but
inasmuch as it was full of firm, icy snow, it was
easily ascended by cutting steps in the face
of it with an axe that I had brought from the
ship for the purpose. Beyond this there was
not the slightest difficulty in our way, the
glacier having graded a fine, broad road.

Kellett, who discovered this island in 1849,
and landed on it under unfavorable circum-

tegrating rock with which it was covered gave way on the
slightest touch and came thundering to the bottom. Some
of the more ambitious were still anxious to keep on, notwith
standing the difficulty and danger, and I found it necessary
to interpose my authority to prevent this useless risk of life
and limb. A retreat was ordered, and with a good deal of
difficulty accomplished. The descent had to be made one
at a time, the upper ones remaining quiet until those below
were out of danger. Fortunately, all succeeded in reaching
the bottom in safety. In the mean time Muir and several
others had reached the top of the island and were already
searching for cairns or other signs of white men. Although
the search was kept up until half -past two in the morning,
nothing was found." (C. L. Hooper's Report of the Cruise of
the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin in the Arctic Ocean,
1881, p. 52.)

166

FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND

stances, described it as "an inaccessible rock."
In general the sides are, indeed, extremely
sheer and precipitous all around, though skilled
mountaineers would find many gullies and
slopes by which they might reach the summit.
I first pushed on to the head of the glacier val
ley, and thence along the blackbone of the is
land to the highest point, which I found to be
about twelve hundred feet above the level of
the sea. This point is about a mile and a half
from the northwest end, and four and a half
from the northeast end, thus making the is
land about six miles in length. It has been cut
nearly in two by the glacial action it has under
gone, the width at the lowest portion being
about half a mile, and the average width about
two miles.

The entire island is a mass of granite, with
the exception of a patch of metamorphic slate
near the center, and no doubt owes its ex
istence, with so considerable a height, to the
superior resistance this granite offered to the
degrading action of the northern ice-sheet,
traces of which are here plainly shown, as well
as on the shores of Siberia and Alaska and down
through Bering Strait southward beyond Van
couver Island. Traces of the subsequent par
tial glaciation to which it has been subjected
are also manifested in glacial valleys of con-

167

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

siderable depth as compared with the size of
the island. I noticed four of these, besides many
marginal glacial grooves around the sides. One
small remnant [of a glacier] with feeble action
still exists near the middle of the island. I also
noted several scored and polished patches on
the hardest and most enduring of the outswell-
ing rock-bosses. This little island, standing as
it does alone out in the Polar Sea, is a fine gla
cial monument.

The midnight hour I spent alone on the
highest summit — one of the most impressive
hours of my life. The deepest silence seemed
to press down on all the vast, immeasurable,
virgin landscape. The sun near the horizon
reddened the edges of belted cloud-bars near
the base of the sky, and the jagged ice-boulders
crowded together over the frozen ocean stretch
ing indefinitely northward, while perhaps a
hundred miles of that mysterious Wrangell
Land was seen blue in the northwest — a waver
ing line of hill and dale over the white and blue
ice-prairie! Pale gray mountains loomed be
yond, well calculated to fix the eye of a moun
taineer. But it was to the far north that I ever
found myself turning, to where the ice met the
sky. I would fain have watched here all the
strange night, but was compelled to remember
the charge given me by the Captain, to make
168

FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND

haste and return to the ship as soon as I should
find it possible, as there was ten miles of shift
ing, drifting ice between us and the open sea.

I therefore began the return journey about
one o'clock this morning, after taking the com
pass bearings of the principal points within
sight on Wrangell Land, and making a hasty
collection of the flowering plants on my way.
I found one species of poppy quite showy, and
making considerable masses of color on the
sloping uplands, three or four species of saxi
frage, one silene, a draba, dwarf willow, stel-
laria, two golden composite, two sedges, one
grass, and a veronica, together with a consider
able number of mosses and lichens, some of
them quite showy and so abundant as to fur
nish most of the color over the gray granite.

Innumerable gulls and murres breed on the
steep cliffs, the latter most abundant. They
kept up a constant din of domestic notes. Some
of them are sitting on their eggs, others have
young, and it seems astonishing that either
eggs or the young can find a resting-place on
cliffs so severely precipitous. The nurseries
formed a lively picture — the parents coming
and going with food or to seek it, thousands in
rows standing on narrow ledges like bottles
on a grocer's shelves, the feeding of the little
ones, the multitude of wings, etc.

169

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

Foxes were seen by Mr. Nelson * near the
top of the northeast end of the island, and after
we had all returned to the ship and were get
ting under way, the Captain discovered a polar
bear swimming deliberately toward the ship
between some floating blocks within a few
yards of us. After he had approached within
about a dozen yards the Captain shot at him,
when he turned and made haste to get away,
not diving, however, but swimming fast, and
keeping his head turned to watch the ship,

1 In a recent article on "The Larger North American
Mammals" Mr. E. W. Nelson has given the following ac
count of this incident: —

"The summer of 1881, when we landed from the Corwin
on Herald Island, northwest of Bering Straits, we found
many white foxes living in burrows under large scattered
rocks on the plateau summit. They had never seen men be
fore and our presence excited their most intense interest and
curiosity. One and sometimes two of them followed closely
at my heels wherever I went, and when I stopped to make
notes or look about, sat down and watched me with absurd
gravity. Now and then one at a distance would mount a
rock to get a better view of the stranger.

" On returning to the ship, I remembered that my note
book had been left on a large rock over a fox den, on the
island, and at once went back for it. I had been gone only a
short time, but no trace of the book could be found on or
about the rock, and it was evident that the owner of the den
had confiscated it. Several other foxes sat about viewing my
search with interest and when I left followed me to the edge
of the island. A nearly grown young one kept on the Corwin
was extraordinarily intelligent, inquisitive, and mischievous,
and afforded all of us much amusement and occasional ex
asperation." (National Geographic Magazine, November,
1916, p. 425.)

170

FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND

until at length he received a ball in the neck
and stained the blue water with his blood. He
was a noble-looking animal and of enormous
strength, living bravely and warm amid
eternal ice.

We looked carefully everywhere for traces of
the crew of the Jeannette along the shore, as
well as on the prominent headlands and cliffs
about the summit, without discovering the
faintest sign of their ever having touched the
island.

We have been steaming along the edge of
the pack all day after reaching open water,
with Wrangell Land constantly in sight; but
we find that the ice has been sheering us off
farther and farther from it toward the west and
south. The margin of the mam pack has a
jagged saw-tooth outline, the teeth being from
two to ten miles or more in length, and their
points reaching about forty miles from the
shore of Wrangell Land. Our chances, how
ever, of reaching this mysterious country some
time this year seem good at present, as the ice
is melting fast and is much lighter than usual,
and its wind and current movements, after it
breaks up, will be closely watched for an avail
able opening.

CHAPTER XIV

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

Steamer Corwin,
Off Paint Barrow, August 16, 1881.

WE left Herald Island at three o'clock in the
morning of July 31. The clear water seen by
me from the top of the island is called "the
Hole" by whalers. I am told that it is remark
ably constant in its appearance and position
from year to year. What combination of cur
rents, coast-lines, winds, etc., is the cause of
it is not yet known. Neither is the Post-Office
Point of ice understood.

On the day after leaving Herald Island the
fine weather we had been enjoying for a week
began to vanish, heavy cloud-piles grew about
the horizon, and reeking fogs over the ice. We
kept on around the serrated edge of the pack,
and were glad to find a wide opening trending
to the northwest, that is, toward the south-
most point of Wrangell Land. Up we steamed,
excited with bright hopes of effecting a land
ing and searching the shores for traces of the
Jeannette. In the afternoon, while yet our way
was tolerably clear, and after the land had been
long in sight, we were enveloped in fog, and

172

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

hove to, instead of attempting to grope a
course through the drift ice and running the
danger of getting the ship embayed. A few
seals, gulls, and walruses were observed.

Next day, August 2, the fog lifted early in
the morning, when we got under way and
pushed hopefully onward once more, with the
mountains and blue foothills of the long-lost
land in full view, until noon, making our way
easily through the drift ice, dodging to right
and left past the large masses, some of which
were a mile or more in length. Then the fog
began to settle again over all the wild land
scape; the barometer was falling, and the wind
began to blow with indications of a stiff breeze
that would probably press the ice toward the
shore. Under these conditions we dared not
venture farther, but loath to turn back we
made fast to an ice-floe and waited develop
ments. The fog partially cleared again, which
induced us to make another short push ahead,
but our hopes were again and again baffled by
darkness and close-packed ice, and we were at
length compelled to seek the open water once
more, and await a general calm and clearance.

A piece of wood twenty-seven inches long,
cut with a sharp axe, was picked up in the
morning within, perhaps, twenty-five miles
of Wrangell Land. It was evident, by its

173

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

length and by the way it was split and cut,
that it was intended for firewood. It seemed
clearly to be the work of white men, possibly
of some of the Jeannette's crew. But the grand
excitement of the day, apart from the untrod
den shore we were seeking, was caused by three
polar bears, magnificent fellows, fat and hearty,
rejoicing in their strength out here in the bosom
of the icy wilderness.

When discovered they were regarding us
attentively from a large cake of ice, each on
a hummock commanding a good view of the
ship, an object they no doubt saw for the first
time in their lives. One of them was perched
on top of a pile of blocks, the topmost of which
was a pedestal square and level as if built up
for an outlook. He sat erect and, as he was
nearly the color of the ice, was not noticed
until we were quite near. They watched, mo
tionless, for some time, throwing forward their
long necks and black-tipped noses as if trying
to catch and pass judgment on the scent of the
big, smoking, black monster that was approach
ing them.

When we were within about fifty yards of
them, they started, walked a step or two, and
turned to gaze again as the strange object
came nearer. Then, they showed fear and be
gan to lumber along over and across the wave-

174

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

like rough hills and dales of the ice, afraid, per
haps, for the first time in their lives. For polar
bears are the master existences of these frozen
regions, the walruses being no match for them.
First they broke into a lumbering trot; then,
into a panicky, walloppy gallop, with fewer
and fewer halts to look back, until they reached
the far side of the ice-field and plunged into the
water with a splash that sent the spray ten
feet into the air. Then they swam, making all
haste toward a larger floe. If they could have
gained it they would have made good then- re
treat. But the steamer gave chase at the rate
of seven knots an hour, headed them off, and
all were shot without the least chance of escape,
and without their being able to offer the slight
est resistance.

The first one overtaken was killed instantly
at the second shot, which passed through
the brain. The other two were fired at by
five fun-, fur-, and fame-seekers, with heavy
breech-loading rifles, about forty times ere
they were killed. From four to six bullets
passed through their necks and shoulders be
fore the last through the brain put an end to
their agony. The brain is small and not easily
penetrated, except from the side of the head,
while their bodies may be shot through and
through a score of times, apparently, without

175

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

disabling them for fighting or swimming. When
a bullet went through the neck, they would
simply shake their heads without making any
sort of outcry, the effect being simply to hasten
their flight. The same was true of most other
wounds. But occasionally, when struck in the
spine, or shoulder, the pain would make them
roar, and groan, and turn to examine the spot,
or to snap at the wound as if seeking an enemy.
They would dive occasionally, and swim under
water a few yards. But, being out of breath,
they were always compelled to come up in a
minute or so. They had no chance whatever
for their lives, and the whole affair was as safe
and easy a butchery as shooting cows in a barn
yard from the roof of the barn. It was pro
longed, bloody agony, as clumsily and heart
lessly inflicted as it could well be, except in the
case of the first, which never knew what hurt
him.

The Eskimos hunt and kill them for food,
going out to meet them on the ice with spears
and dogs. This is merely one savage living on
another. But how civilized people, seeking for
heavens and angels and millenniums, and the
reign of universal peace and love, can enjoy
this red, brutal amusement, is not so easily
accounted for. Such soft, fuzzy, sentimental
aspirations, and the frame of mind that can
176

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

reap giggling, jolly pleasure from the blood
and agony and death of these fine animals,
with their humanlike groans, are too devilish
for anything but hell. Of all the animals man
is at once the worst and the best.

Two of the bears were hoisted on board, the
other was neglected until it could not be found.
Then came the vulgar business of skinning and
throwing the mangled carcasses back into the
clean blue water among the ice. The skins
were stretched on frames to be dried and taken
home to show angelic sweethearts the evidence
of pluck and daring.

The Indians sometimes adorn their belts
with the claws of bears and place their skulls
about the graves of the men who killed them.
I have seen as many as eighteen set about the
skeleton of an Eskimo hunter, making for his
bones an oval enclosure like a frame of shells
set around a grave. The strength of the polar
bear is in proportion to the massiveness of his
limbs. The view of their limb muscles, swell
ing in braided bosses, could not fail to awaken
admiration as they lay exposed on the deck.
Such is the strength of the large bears, which
are nine to ten feet long, that they can stand
on the edge of an ice-floe and drag up out
of the water a walrus weighing more than a
thousand pounds.

177

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

The feet of the larger one measured nine and
a half inches across behind the toes. They
have long hair on the soles and around the
sides of the feet for warmth in the dreary soli
tudes which they inhabit. When standing, the
claws are not visible; the whole foot seems to
be a large mop of hair spreading all around.
The expression of the eye is rather mild and dog-
like in the shape of the muzzle and the droop
of the lips, and only the teeth would suggest
his character as a killer.

The third of August was spent in groping
anxiously landward again through fog and ice
until about six in the evening, when we reached
the heavy, unbroken edge of the coast ice, at
a distance of about twenty-five miles from the
nearest point of land, and all hope of advanc
ing farther was now at an end. We, therefore,
turned away, determined to bide our time,
hoping that warm winds and waves would at
length melt and smash the heavy fields along
shore some time before the setting-in of winter.
Nor were we altogether without hope of find
ing open water leading around the west shore
of Wrangell Land. We soon found, however,
that the pack stretched continuously across
to Cape North on the Siberian coast, thus
promptly forbidding all efforts in that direc
tion.

178

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

The bottom of the ocean in that region is
very level. Soundings made every hour for
three days l varied scarcely more than five
fathoms, and for half a day not one fathom.
We saw several small fishes among the ice at
our nearest point to lee; also seals, both sad
dleback and hair. Just as we were turning we
discovered a bear observing us from a large
field of ice. He kept coming nearer a few steps
and then halting to catch the smell of the ship.
We did not attempt to kill him, however, as the
advantage we had was not great enough. We
could not chase him here with the steamer.

On the morning of the fourth we discovered
a ship's foreyard with bits of rope still attached
to it in such a way as to show that it had been
carried away while the sail was bent. It seemed
to have been ground in the ice for a winter or
two, and probably belonged to one of the miss
ing whalers.

After cruising along the Siberian coast for a
few days, and calling at the Cape Wankarem
village to procure as many as possible of the
articles taken by the natives from the wreck
of one of the lost whalers, we found ourselves
once more on the edge of Wrangell ice, and
again in dense fog on the morning of the ninth
of August. A huge white bear came swimming

1 In an average depth of twenty-one fathoms.
179

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

through the drizzle and gloom and black heav
ing waves toward the ship as we lay at anchor,
guided doubtless by scent. He was greeted by
a volley of rifle balls, no one of which injured
him, however, and fortunately he could not be
pursued.

The fog lasted in dismal thickness until one
o'clock on the morning of the eleventh, when
we once more saw the hills and dales of Wran-
gell Land hopefully near. We discovered a lead
that enabled us to approach within perhaps
fifteen miles of the nearest portion of the
coast. At times we thought ourselves much
nearer, when the light, falling favorably, would
bring out many of the smaller features, such
as the subordinate ridges on the faces of the
mountains and hills, the small dimpling hol
lows with their different shades of color, fur
rows that seemed the channels of small
streams, and the peculiar rounded outlines due
to glacial action. Then pushing eagerly through
the huge drifting masses toward the nearest
cape, judging by the distinctness of its fea
tures, it would suddenly seem to retreat again
into the blue distance, and some other point
catching the sunlight would be seen rising
grandly across the jagged, hummocky ice-
plain, relieved against the blue shadowy por
tions to right and left as a background.

180

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

It was not long, however, after tracing one
lead after another, and coming always to a
standstill with the ship's prow against ice of
enormous thickness, before we were forced to
the conclusion that all efforts made hereabouts
would now be vain. The ice did not seem to
have been broken or moved in any way for
years. We turned, therefore, and made our
way back to open water with difficulty and
steamed along the edge of the pack to the north
eastward. After a few hours' run we found the ice
more promising, for it showed traces of having
been well crushed and pounded, enabling us
to bear gradually in toward the land through a
wedge-shaped lead about twenty miles in length.

At half -past five in the afternoon we were
again brought to a standstill against heavy ice,
but this time within about five miles of the
shore. We now felt pretty sure that we would
be able to make a landing, and the questions
that we wanted to put to this land of mystery
came thronging to mind. This being, perhaps,
the most likely place to find traces of the Jean-
nette expedition, in case any portion of this
island was reached, would we find such traces?
Has the country any human inhabitants?
Would we find reindeer or musk oxen? What
birds shall we find? What plants, rocks,
streams, etc.?

181

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN -

We intended to walk the five miles of ice,
dragging a light skin-covered boat with us to
cross any open spot that we might come to; but
ere we could set off, the fog began to settle
gloomily down over the land and we deter
mined to wait until the next morning, and in
the meantime steam back out of the narrow,
ice-jammed throat of the lead a few miles to
a safer position, in case the ice should close
upon us. Just as we turned from our nearest
point of approach, we fired a cannon to stir
the echoes among the hills and give notice of
our presence in case anybody was near to
listen.

The next morning, steaming ahead once
more to the end of our water-lane, we were
rejoiced to find that though there were now
about eight or ten miles of ice separating us
from the shore, it was less firmly packed, and
our little vessel made a way through it with
out difficulty, until we were within two miles
of the shore, when we fo*und the craggy blocks
extremely hard and wedged closely. But a
patch of open water near the beach, now
plainly in sight, tempted us to continue the
struggle, and with the throttle wide open the
barrier was forced. By ten o'clock in the morn
ing the Corwin was riding at anchor less than
a cable's length from a dry, gravel bar, stretch-
182

APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND

ing in front of the mouth of a river. The long
battle we had fought with the ice was now
fairly won, and neither the engine nor the hull
of the ship seemed to have suffered any appre
ciable damage from the terrible shocks and
strains they had undergone.

CHAPTER XV

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

[Steamer Corwin,
Wrangell Land, August 12, 1881.]

A NOTABLE addition was made to the na
tional domain when Captain Calvin L. Hooper
landed on Wrangell Land,1 and took formal
possession of it in the name of the United
States. We landed near the southeast cape,
at the mouth of a river, in latitude 71° 4', longi
tude 177° 40' 30" W. The extent of the new
territory thus acquired is not definitely known,
nor is it likely to be for many a century, or until
some considerable change has taken place in
the polar climate, rendering the new land more
attractive and more accessible. For at present
even its southmost portion is almost constantly
beset with ice of a kind that renders it all but
inaccessible during both the winter and sum
mer, while to the northward it extends far into
the frozen ocean.

Going inland, along the left bank of the river,
we found it much larger than it at first ap
peared to be. There was no snow left on the
lowlands or any of the hills or mountains in

1 The landing was made August 12, 1881.
184

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

sight, excepting the remnants of heavy drifts;
nevertheless, it was still about seventy-five
yards wide, twelve feet deep, and was flowing
on with a clear, stately current, at a speed of
about three miles an hour. While the snow is
melting it must be at least two hundred yards
wide and twenty feet deep, and its sources must
lie well back in the interior of the island.

Not the slightest trace, however, could we
find along the river, along the shore, or on the
bluff to the northeastward, of the Jeannette
party, or of any human inhabitant. A land
more severely solitary could hardly be found
anywhere on the face of the globe.

The beach was well tracked by polar bears,
but none of the party could discover any sign
of reindeer or musk oxen, though the country
seems to abound in the kind of food they re
quire. A single fox track was observed, and
some burrows of a species of sperm ophile;1
also a number of birds,2 and about twenty

1 E. W. Nelson, in Mammals of Northern Alaska (1886),
identified this spermophile as Spermophilus empetra empetra
(Pallas), and remarks, "upon the hill where we planted our
flag on Wrangell Island were many of their burrows."

2 The following birds were observed by Mr. Nelson on
Wrangell Land and Herald Island: Snow Bunting, Snowy
Owl, Pacific Golden Plover, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red Phala-
rope, some kind of wild goose (perhaps Black Brant), King
Eider Duck, Red-faced Cormorant, Ivory Gull, Pacific
Kittiwake, Glaucous Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Ross's
Gull, Sabine's Gull, Pomarine Jaeger, Long-tailed Jaeger,

185

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

species of plants, 1 most of them in bloom. The
rock is clay slate, which weathers smoothly,
and is covered with a sparse growth of mosses,
lichens, and flowering plants, not unlike that
of the adjacent coasts of Siberia and Alaska.

Some small fragments of knowledge concern
ing this mysterious country have been in exist
ence for nearly a century, mostly, however, of
so vague and foggy a character as to be scarce
at all available as geography, while up to the
time of Captain Hooper's visit no explorer so
far as known had set foot on it. In the year
1820 Lieutenant Wrangell was ordered by Alex
ander, Emperor of Russia, to proceed from the
mouth of the Kolyma as far as Cape Schelag-
skoj, and from thence in a northerly direction
over the ice with sledges drawn by dogs, to as
certain whether an inhabited country existed in
that quarter, as asserted by the Chukchis and
others.

But the land in question was far from being
generally known even by tradition among the
Chukchis inhabiting the Siberian coast nearest
to it. Wrangell seems to have found only one

Rodgers's Fulmar, Horned Puffin, Crested Auk, Black Guil
lemot, Pigeon Guillemot, Thick-billed Guillemot, and a dead
specimen of the Crested Shrike. This list is made from
E. W. Nelson's Birds of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean,
published with Muir's botanical observations in Treasury
Department Document No. 429 (1883).
1 See "Botanical Notes," p. 295.

186

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

person during his long search for this land that
had heard or could tell him anything concern
ing it. This man, an intelligent chief or head of
a family, drew with charcoal a correct sketch
of Cape Schelagskoj, Aratuan Island, and an
other to the east of the Cape, and then as
sured Wrangell in the most positive manner
that there was no other island along the coast.
When asked whether there was any other land
to the north beyond the visible horizon, he
seemed to reflect a little, and then said that
between Cape Schelagskoj and Cape North,
there was a part of the coast where, from some
cliffs near the mouth of a river, one might on a
clear summer day descry snow-covered moun
tains at a great distance to the north, but
that in winter it was impossible to see so far.
He said also that formerly herds of reindeer
sometimes came across the ice, probably from
thence, but that they had been frightened back
by hunters and wolves. He claimed to have
himself once seen a herd returning to the north
in this way in April, and followed them in a
sledge drawn by two deer for a whole day until
the roughness of the ice forced him to turn back.
His opinion was that these distant mountains
he had seen were not on an island, but on an
extensive land similar to his own country.
He had been told by his father that a Chuk-

187

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

chi elder had once gone there with a few fol
lowers in large boats, but what they found
there, or whether they ever returned, he did
not know. Still he maintained that the distant
land was inhabited, and adduced as proof of it
that some years ago a dead whale was found
at Aratuan Island pierced by spears pointed
with slate; and as his people did not use such
weapons he supposed that the whale must have
been killed by the people of the northland.

After spending three winters Baron Wrangell
wrote concerning this country: "Our return to
Nishne Kolymsk closed the series of attempts
made by us to discover a northern land, which
though not seen by us, may nevertheless exist,
and be attainable under a combination of very
favorable circumstances, the principal of which
would be a long, cold, and stormless winter,
and a late spring. If another attempt should
be made, it would be advisable to leave the
coast about Cape Yakan, which all the native
accounts concur in representing as the nearest
point to the supposed northern region."

Steamer Corwin,

Off Point Barrow, Alaska,

August 17, 1881.

The Corwin made a very short stay at Wran
gell Land, partly because of the condition of

188

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

the ice, which threatened to shut us in; and
partly because it seemed improbable that a
prolonged search in the region about our land
ing-point could in any way advance the main
objects of the expedition. A considerable stretch
of the bluff coast where we landed was scanned
closely as we approached. Captain Hooper,
Mr. Nelson, and myself examined a mile or
two of the left bank of the river, a gently
sloping hillside back from the river, and a
stretch of smooth beach at its mouth. Mean
while a party of officers, after erecting a cairn,
depositing records in it, and setting the flag on
the edge of the bluff fronting the ocean, went
northeastward along the brow of the shore-
bluff to a prominent headland, a distance of
three or four miles, searching carefully for
traces of the Jeannette explorers, and of any
native inhabitants that might chance to be
in the country; then all were hurriedly re
called, and we forced our way back through
ten miles of heavy drifting ice to open water.
On the shore we found the skeleton of a
large bowhead whale, an oak barrel stave, a
piece of a boat mast about seven feet long and
four inches in diameter, a double kayak paddle
with both blades broken, and a small quantity
of driftwood. Every bit of flotsam was much
scoured and abraded, showing that the articles

189

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

had long been exposed to the action of waves
and ice.

Back on the hills and along the river-bank the
tracks of geese, marmots, foxes, and bears were
seen, but no trace whatever of human beings,
though the mouth of a river would above all
others be the place to find them if the country-
were inhabited or had been visited by Euro
peans within a decade or two. Not a stick of
the driftwood seemed to have been turned over
or stirred in any way, though, from the steep
ness of the slate bluffs for miles along the coast,
and the heavy snowbanks drifted over them,
this low, open portion of the shore is about the
only place in the neighborhood where drift
wood could come to rest on a beach and be
easily accessible to natives or others while
traveling along the coast either on the ice or on
land, and where they would also find a good
camp-ground and water.

A few yards back from high- water mark there
is a low pile of broken slate, with level ground
about it, where any traveler passing this way
would naturally choose to camp. But the sur
face of the slate is covered with gray, brown,
and yellow rock-lichens of slow growth, show
ing that not one of these stones had been moved
for many a year. Again, neither the low nor the
high ground in this vicinity is at all mantled

190

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

with spongy tundra mosses and lichens like
most of the Arctic shores over which a man
might walk without leaving a footprint. On the
contrary, it is mostly bare, presenting a soft
clay soil, derived from the disintegration of
slates, the scanty dwarf vegetation — saxi
frages, drabas, potentillas, carices, etc. — oc
curring in small tufts at intervals of a yard or
so, with bare ground between them, smooth and
mellow and plastic, with gentle drainage, ad
mirably adapted for the reception and preserva
tion of footprints. Had any person walked on
this ground any time in summer when the snow
was gone, and where the drainage slopes are
not too steep, his track would remain legible to
the dullest observer for years.

We concluded, therefore, that this part of
the country is not inhabited. Nor should the
absence of inhabitants be wondered at not
withstanding they might be derived from the
Siberian coast at long intervals in accordance
with the traditions bearing on the question
among the Chukchis, or even from the coast of
Alaska about Point Barrow or Cape Lisburne.
For, though small parties of Eskimos or Chuk
chis might reach the land on floes detached
from the pack while they chanced to be out
hunting seals, or in boats driven by storm-winds
or otherwise, such parties would probably seek

191

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

to get back to their old homes again, or would
die of famine. The seal and walrus, the two ani
mals on which the natives of the Arctic shores
chiefly depend for subsistence, are not to any
great extent available, inasmuch as the ice
seldom or never leaves the south Wrangell
shores, and journeys twenty or thirty miles
long would have to be made over rough ice
to reach them.

Reindeer and musk oxen may exist in some
other portions of the country, but if they occur
in such numbers as would be required for the
support of any considerable population the
tracks of at least some few stragglers should
have been seen hereabouts. Migratory water
birds are no doubt abundant during the breed
ing and moulting season, producing sufficient
food to last through a few of the summer
months, and there are plenty of white bears,
huge animals weighing from ten to twenty hun
dred pounds. Most of them, however, roam
far out from land on the rugged edge of the ice
pack among the seals and walruses, and even
under the most advantageous circumstances
polar bears are poor cattle to depend on for a
living. They certainly do not seem to have
been fed upon lately to any marked extent, for
we found them everywhere in abundance along
the edge of the ice, and they appeared to be very

192

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

fat and prosperous, and very much at home,
as if the country had belonged to them always.
They are the unrivaled master-existences of
this ice-bound solitude, and Wrangell Land
may well be called the Land of the White
Bear.

Commander De Long, in a letter to his wife,
written at sea, August 17, 1879, said that he
proposed to proceed north by the way of the
east coast of Wrangell Land, touching at Her
ald Island, where he would build a cairn and
leave records; that if he reached Wrangell
Land from there he would leave records on the
east coast under a series of cairns twenty-five
miles apart. In a previous letter, dated July 17,
1879, he said: —

In the event of disaster to the ship, we shall re
treat upon the Siberian settlements, or to those of
the natives around East Cape, and wait for a chance
to get back to our depot at St. Michael. If a ship
comes up merely for tidings of us, let her look for
them on the east side of Wrangell Land and on
Herald Island. If I find that we are being carried
east against our efforts to get north, I shall try to
push through into the Atlantic by way of the east
coast of Greenland, if we are far enough north; and
if we are far south, then by way of Melville Bay and
Lancaster Sound.

While evidently pursuing this plan, he was
seen by the whaler Sea Breeze on the second

193

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

of September, 1879, about fifty miles south of
Herald Island, entering a lead in heavy ice,
which probably closed in upon his vessel and
carried him past Herald Island. The search we
made over Herald Island shows pretty clearly
that he did not succeed in landing there, for if
a cairn had been built on any conspicuous
point we could not have failed to see it, as we
traveled over it all in good bright weather.
Nor would the failure of this part of his plan
be unlikely when it is considered that he was
fifty miles from the island so late in the season
as September, and when heavy ice a hundred
feet thick was already about him, and packed
around the island. Neither does it seem at all
probable from what we have seen this summer
that he could have been successful in reach
ing Wrangell Land so late in the season under
so many adverse circumstances of weather
and ice.

That he did not build a cairn or leave any
trace of his presence within a few miles of our
landing point does not prove by any means that
he did not reach Wrangell Land at all, or that
cairns with records may not exist elsewhere
to the northward or westward. But the point
where we landed being the easternmost point
of the lower portion of Wrangell Land, it would
seem from his plans as well as from known

194

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

conditions of the ice to be of all others the like
liest place to find traces of the expedition.

In the case of the loss of his vessel and his
reaching land farther up the coast, he would be
likely, in following his plan of retreat, to travel
southward past this east point where the ice
is more broken and extends a shorter distance
offshore than elsewhere — conditions that seem
applicable to the last two years at least, judging
by what we have observed. Even should he not
have built a cairn on so prominent and com
paratively accessible a point, likely to be dis
covered by relief vessels, he could hardly have
been able to pass without leaving some sign on
the bank of the river, whether he made efforts
to mark his presence or not. In case the explor
ers passed their first winter on Wrangell Land,
they might either try to cross over the ice to
Siberia toward spring from some point to the
westward of our landing, or in case they reached
the easternmost cape, near the south extreme
of the land, about midsummer, they would
probably find it the most favorable point of
departure in making their way to the Siberian
coast with sleds over the shore pack, and thence
in boats. But as no trace of the explorers ap
pears here, and no tidings have been obtained
concerning them from the Chukchis, this, with
all the evidence discovered thus far, goes to
195

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

show that the Jeannette expedition either did
not reach Wrangell Land at all, or did not make
any extended stay upon it.

Notwithstanding the improbability of find
ing the expedition, the Corwin would gladly
have been fast to a stranded berg, for a few
days at least, during the fine August weather
we were enjoying at the time, in order to send
out exploring and search parties along the coast
fifty or sixty miles in opposite directions, and
back into the mountains, to learn something
about the topography, geology, and natural
history of the country, and to determine as
surely as possible whether the missing explorers
had touched this portion of the coast. But in so
doing we should have risked being shut in, los
ing the vessel, and thus making still another
party to be searched for. Besides, we might
then be prevented from making other landings
farther north in case the ice should leave the
shores in that direction, and from extending
relief to other vessels that might stand in need
of it among the ice of this dangerous sea.

The floe outside of our anchorage was drift
ing along shore to the northeast with a power
ful current at a speed of fifty miles a day, the
majestic movement being made strikingly
manifest by large bergs that were aground in
water sixty feet deep, standing like islands,
196

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

while the main mass of the pack went grating
past them. With so much motion in the ice,
the open lane and the strip of loose blocks and
cakes through which we had forced our way
in coming in was liable to close at any time,
making escape impossible, at least until some
chance change in the winds and currents might
result in setting us free.

As it was, we escaped with difficulty after
both engine and hull had been severely tested,
the lane by which we entered having almost
vanished, and the point where we reached
open water was several miles to the northward
of our ingoing track. Had our retreat been
cut off, we would not, perhaps, have suffered
greatly for a year or thereabouts, inasmuch as
we had nine months' provisions aboard, which,
with what game we might chance to kill in the
nature of seals, bears, and walruses, could eas
ily have been made to last considerably longer.
We also had plenty of reindeer clothing and
pologs, bought with a view to spending a win
ter in the Arctic, in case it should be necessary
to do so. Everything could have been landed
under favorable auspices, and preparations
could have been made in the way of building
shelters and storehouses. Then we would have
had a fine long opportunity to explore this
grand wilderness in its untouched freshness
197

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

during the remaining months of summer and all
the winter, while the vessel might possibly have
escaped being smashed if laid up at the mouth
of the river, and by a hairbreadth chance have
been gotten out next summer.

Perhaps the ice does not leave the shore free
more than once in ten years. The small quan
tity of driftwood on the beach would seem to
indicate open water at times, but it might have
been brought in by shifting, tumbling ice, after
being held fast and gradually worked inshore
after years of change in its position among the
shifting floes, without the occurrence of any
perfectly free channel of communication with
the open part of the ocean. Our plan of retreat
would have been similar to that proposed by
Commander De Long, that is, to the coast of
Siberia. The loss of the vessel, however, and
any work and hardship that might follow would
not have been allowed to weigh against any
reasonable hope of finding the lost explorers
and carrying relief to them. But it was decided
that more could be done, in all probability,
towards carrying out the objects of the expedi
tion by keeping the Corwin free. Only about
half of the workdays of the summer were spent
as yet, the weather was mild, the ice melting,
and we had good hopes of finding open water
reaching well inshore farther north, through

198

THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR

which some other portion of the coast might
be found accessible where the danger of being
permanently beset would be less, and from
whence extended land journeys might be made.
Our efforts, however, to get northward along
the eastern shore of Wrangell Land have, thus
far, been unavailing.

CHAPTER XVI

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

Steamer Corwin,
Off Point Barrow, August 18, 1881.

FINDING it impossible to get northward
through the ice anywhere near the east side
of Wrangell Land, it was decided that we
should cross to the American coast to make
another effort to reach Point Barrow in order
to learn the fate of the whale-ship Daniel Web
ster, which, as I have stated in a former letter,
was beset in the ice there, and to offer assist
ance in case it should be required.

On the fifteenth, near Icy Cape, we spoke
one of the whalers from whom we learned that
the Daniel Webster was crushed and sunk,
that about half the crew had made their way
down the coast to near Icy Cape, where they
found the Coral and were taken on 'board,
and that the others were still at Point Barrow
or scattered along the shore, unless picked up
by some of the fleet that were going north in
search of them as fast as the state of the ice
would allow.

Captain Owen of the bark Belvedere had
sent a letter to them by one of the natives, di-

200

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

reeling them to build large driftwood fires on
the beach to indicate their positions, and as
suring them that relief was near. We had hoped
that, though beset in the heavy, drifting pack
and carried northward helpless and rigid as a
fly in amber, some change in the wind and cur
rent might set them free. But in discussing the
question with an experienced whaler who had
lost the first ship that he was master of at the
same place and in the same way, he said that
he had given her up for lost as soon as she was
known to be embayed.

On receiving this news we started for Point
Barrow and found the way clear, the pack hav
ing been blown offshore a few miles, and a heavy
current was sweeping to the northward. Tues
day, the sixteenth, was calm and foggy at times;
large masses of beautiful ice, blue and green
and white, of every conceivable form, like the
bergs derived from glaciers, were drifting with
the riverlike current or lying aground — the
remnants of the grand pack that so lately held
possession of all the sea hereabouts.

When we were passing Point Belcher and
Sunarnara 1 we learned from the natives that
the ice was offshore as far as Point Barrow and
beyond, that several whale-ships were already
there, and that all the men from the broken

1 Sinaru?
201

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

ship had been taken on board. For some time
the fog was so dense and the huge bergs so
abundant we were compelled to lie to and drift
with the current; but shortly after noon the sun
came out, making a dazzling show among the
ice and silvery water. Then the conical huts of
the Eskimo village on Point Barrow came in
sight, and rounding the Point we found our
selves in the midst of quite a fleet of whalers,
from whom we received the good news that,
as we had been told by the natives, all the
missing members of the wrecked crew had at
length been picked up and were now distrib
uted among the different vessels. A few of
them have been permanently added to the
crews of the rescuing ships lying here, and
nine have been received on board of the
Corwin.

The strip of water sometimes found between
Icy Cape and Point Barrow is perhaps the most
dangerous whaling ground yet discovered. The
ice is of tremendous thickness, a hundred feet
or more, and its movements are extremely va
riable from season to season, and almost from
day to day. It seldom leaves this part of the
coast very far, some years not at all, and it is
always liable to be driven close inshore by a few
hours or days of strong wind blowing from any
point of the compass around from north to

202

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

southwest. When, as frequently happens, there
is a margin of fixed ice along the shore the posi
tion of ships is most dangerous, for when the
pack comes in and catches vessels in this ice
bound lane while trying to beat southward
against wind and current, it closes upon them
and crushes them as between huge crunching
jaws. Should there be no fixed ice, then vessels
may simply be shoved ashore.

It is not long since the first whale-ship passed
Bering Strait, and yet no less than forty-seven
have been crushed hereabouts, or pushed
ashore, or embayed and swept away north
ward to nobody knows where, while many
others have had narrow escapes.

Thirty-three were caught and lost in this
way here at one time, thirteen the following
season, and one last July, while two others
barely made their escape the same day just as
the fatal ice-jaws closed behind them. This last
victim, the Daniel Webster, left New Bed
ford in November, 1880, passed through Bering
Strait on the tenth of June, and was caught in
the pack July 3. It seems from the account fur
nished us by the first mate that she was follow
ing up a lead of open water about five miles
wide, between the main ocean pack and a strip
of shore-ice, fancying that two other ships that
she had been following the day previous were

203

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

still ahead, and on whose movements the Cap
tain, who had no experience here, this being
his first voyage, was to some extent depending.
These two leaders, however, had turned and
fled during the night without being observed,
while the Daniel Webster kept on northward,
until within sight of the end of the water-lane,
when she turned and attempted to beat her
way back. But wind and current were against
her, the huge ice-walls came steadily nearer,
and at length closed on the doomed vessel,
carrying her away as if she were a mere bit
of drift timber. About an hour later she was
crushed, and sank to her upper deck in about
twenty minutes. Then she fell over on her
beam-ends against the ice and soon vanished
in the icy wilderness.

The Point Barrow Eskimos, keenly familiar
with the actions of the winds and currents on
the movements of the ice, watched the strug
gling ship, and came aboard before the ice had
yet closed upon her, like wolves scenting their
prey from afar . Many a wreck had they en
joyed here, and now, sure of yet another, they
ran about the ship examining every movable
article, and narrowly scanning the rigging and
sails with reference to carrying away as much
as possible of the best of everything, such as
the sails, lead pipe for bullets, hard bread,

204

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

sugar, tobacco, etc., in case they should have
but a short time to work.

She filled so quickly after being crushed that
the crew saved but little more than the clothes
they were wearing. Some hard bread, beef and
other stores were hastily thrown over upon the
ice, and one boat was secured. As soon as she
was given up, the Eskimos climbed into the
rigging, and dexterously cut away and secured
all the sails, which they value highly for making
sails for their large traveling canoes and for
covers for their summer huts. Then they se
cured as much lead as possible and anything
they could lay hands on, acting promptly and
showing the completeness of the apprentice
ship they had served.

The ship was then about five miles from the
Eskimo village, and the natives were allowed
to assist in carrying everything that had been
saved. Under the circumstances, in getting over
the five miles of ice with such riches, they, like
white men, reasoned themselves into the belief
that everything belonged to them, even the
chronometers and sextants. Accordingly, at
the village a general division was made in so
masterly a manner that by the time the officers
and crew reached the place their goods had
vanished into a hundred-odd dens and holes;
and when, hungry, they asked for some of

205

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

their own biscuits, the natives complacently
offered to sell them at the rate of so much to
bacco apiece. Even the chronometers had been
divided, it is said, after being taken apart, the
wheels and bits of shining metal being regarded
as fine jewelry for the young women and chil
dren to wear. A keg of rum, that the officers
feared might fall into the Eskimos' hands and
cause trouble by making them drunk, was
thrown heavily over on the ice with the inten
tion of smashing it, but it was not broken by
the fall. One of the Eskimos picked up the
prize, to him more precious than its weight in
gold, and sped away over the slippery crags
and hollows of the ice with admirable speed,
vainly pursued by the first mate, and at the
village it disappeared as far beyond recovery
as if it had been poured into a hot sand bank.
As wreckers, traders, and drinkers these sturdy
Eskimos are making rapid progress, notwith
standing the fortunate disadvantages they
labor under, as compared with their white
brethren, dwelling in so severe a climate on the
confines of the frozen sea.

The entire crew numbered twenty-eight men.
All except the second mate and two of the sail
ors started down the coast afoot, after waiting
some time for the ice to drift offshore far
enough to allow some of the other ships to come

206

\

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

to their relief, or at least far enough to leave a
passage for their boat. At the river Cogrua l
ten of the party turned back, weary and hungry
and discouraged, to Cape Smyth, to pick up a
living of oil and seal meat until relieved, rather
than face the danger of fording the river and
enduring yet greater hardships. The others
pushed forward. Directed by one of the na
tives, they went up the bank of the river about
twenty miles from its mouth, to where it is
much narrower. Here they forded without
danger, carrying their clothes on their heads
to keep them dry.

Both parties seem to have suffered con
siderably from hunger as well as from cold and
fatigue. The seal and oil meals, which the
natives of the different villages they passed
good-naturedly allowed them to share, but ill-
supplied the place of their old-fashioned, rough
and regular rations. They speak of having been
reduced to the strait of eating roots and leaves
of the few dwarf plants found along their way.
At Point Belcher they were so fortunate as to
find a traveling party of natives, who, after
their shaman had duly consulted the spirits,
supposed to be influential and wise concerning

1 Kugrua, a river tributary to the Arctic Ocean at the
Seahorse Islands, a little east of Pt. Belcher. According to
John Murdoch, Kug'ru is the Eskimo name of the Whistling
Swan.

207

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

the affairs of this rough region, and reported
favorably, agreed to take the party in their
canoe southward to seek the whaling fleet, the
pack having by this time commenced to leave
the shore. By this means the wanderers reached
the bark Coral in four days, at a cost of two
rifles and some tobacco.

The others were kindly received by the Cape
Smyth people and entertained until the ice left
the shore. One of the three left at Point Bar
row, it seems, wandered southward alone and
lost himself with fright and hunger. He was
without food for five days, save what he could
pick up from the sparse sedgy vegetation, and
was nearly dead when discovered by a relief
party from one of the ships. The natives, he
said, refused to allow him to enter their huts,
because his eyes were wild and he would
soon be crazy. Fortunately, all are now cared
for.

Newly discovered whaling grounds, like gold
mines, are soon overcrowded and worked out,
the whales being either killed or driven away.
But whales worth four or five thousand dollars
apiece are so intensely attractive and interest
ing that the grand game has been hunted in
the face of a thousand dangers over nearly all
the seas and oceans on the face of the globe. Ac
cording to Alexander Starbuck, in his history of

208

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

the American whale fishery, there belonged,
in the year 1846, to the various ports of the
United States six hundred and seventy-eight
ships and barks, thirty-five brigs, and twenty-
two schooners that were hunting whales. In
1843 the first bowhead whales taken in the
North Pacific were captured on the coast of
Kamchatka, and in 1848 the first whale-ship
passed Bering Strait. This was the bark Su
perior, Captain Royce. A full cargo was easily
obtained, because of the abundance and tame-
ness of the whales.

The news, like a gold discovery, spread
rapidly, and within the next three years two
hundred and fifty ships had obtained cargoes
of oil and bone here. This is, therefore, a com
paratively new hunting ground. Nevertheless
it is being rapidly exhausted. The precious
bowheads are no longer seen in "long winrows,"
as described by an old whaleman familiar with
the region. This year only twenty vessels are
engaged in the business.

In 1871 thirty- three vessels were caught in
one flock off Point Belcher and crushed or
shoved ashore. One of them is said to have
been "crushed to atoms," the officers and
crews escaping over the ice, saving scarcely
anything but their lives. In a few days after
the sixth of August most of the fleet was north

209

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

of Blossom Shoals, and worked to the north
east as far as Wainwright Inlet. Here the ships
either anchored or made fast to the ice, which
was very heavy and densely packed. On the
eleventh of August a sudden change of wind
drove the ice inshore, catching a large number
of boats that were out in pursuit of whales,
and forcing the ships to work inshore in the
lee of the ground ice.

On the thirteenth of August the incoming
pack grounded, leaving only a narrow strip of
water, in which the fleet was imprisoned more
and more narrowly until the twenty-fifth,
when a strong northeast gale drove the ice a
few miles offshore, and whale-catching went
on briskly without fear of another imprison
ment. But on the twenty-ninth a southwest
wind again drove the ice inshore, and once
more shut-in the doomed fleet. The thirty-
three vessels were scattered along the coast
for twenty miles, more and more rigidly beset
until the fourteenth of September, when they
were abandoned — that is, those not already
crushed.

The following protest, throwing a vivid
light upon the subject, was written on the
twelfth of September, and signed by all the cap
tains before abandoning their vessels: —

210

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

Point Belcher, Arctic Ocean.
September 12, 1871.

Know all men by these presents, that we, the
undersigned, masters of whale-ships now lying at
Point Belcher, after holding a meeting concerning
our dreadful situation, have all come to the con
clusion that our ships cannot be got out this year,
and there being no harbors that we can get our ves
sels into, and not having provisions enough to feed
our crews to exceed three months, and being in a
barren country, where there is neither food nor fuel
to be obtained, we feel ourselves under the painful
necessity of abandoning our vessels, and trying to
work our way south with our boats, and, if possible,
get on board of ships that are south of the ice. We
do not think it would be prudent to leave a single
soul to look after our vessels, as the first westerly
gale will crowd the ice ashore, and either crush the
ships or drive them high upon the beach. Three of
the fleet have already been crushed, and two are
now lying hove out, which have been crushed by
the ice and are leaking badly. We have now five
wrecked crews distributed among us, we have
barely room to swing at anchor between the ice
pack and the beach, and we are lying in three
fathoms of water. Should we be cast on the beach
it would be at least eleven months before we could
look for assistance, and in all probability nine out
of ten would die of starvation or scurvy before the
opening of spring.

All the officers and crews — twelve hundred
and nineteen souls — reached the seven relief
vessels that lay waiting their arrival outside
211

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

the ice, and were distributed among them, these
seven being the remnant of the fleet that passed
through Bering Strait in the spring. The next
summer only five of the thirty-three were seen,
one of them comparatively uninjured. All the
rest had been smashed, sunk, burned, or car
ried away in the pack.

Five years later, in 1876, the fleet consisted of
twenty ships and barks, and of this number
thirteen were embayed in the pack, twenty or
thirty miles off Point Barrow. After waiting
and hoping for the coming of a liberating gale
as long as they dared, the masters decided that
it was necessary to abandon their vessels. Out
of three hundred and fifty-three persons, fifty-
three remained with the ships, hoping to get
them free in the spring; but not one of the ships
or of those who stayed on them, was ever seen
again. The three hundred who left their vessels
after enduring great hardships, succeeded in
making good their escape to the rest of the fleet
waiting outside the pack — all save three or
four who perished by the way.

There are now twelve whale-ships about
Point Barrow in sight from the Corwin, and all
that would be necessary to shut them in is a gale
from the southwest. Still the great love of ac
tion, and the great love of money, compel the
risk here and elsewhere over and over again.
212

TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET

The Corwin is now about to go southward to
coal, at the mine twenty miles east of Cape
Lisburne; or, in case the weather should be too
rough to land at the mine, which is on a bare,
exposed portion of the coast, to Plover Bay.
Then we will return to the Arctic prepared to
make other efforts to get on the south and east
shores of Wrangell Land.

CHAPTER XVII

MEETING THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION

Steamer Corwin,
Plover Bay, Siberia, August 25, 1881.

WE left icy, gloomy Point Barrow on the
afternoon of the eighteenth, with fine Arctic
weather, which held out good hopes that we
would be able to lie two days at the mine
twenty miles east of Cape Lisburne, in order to
take out and get on board a sufficient quan
tity of coal to last the Corwin the remainder of
the season in the Arctic. But by the time we
got down the coast near the mine the weather
was rough, with a heavy sea sending stormy
breakers against the exposed coal bluff, render
ing it impossible to land and work. And as there
is no shelter whatever for a vessel anywhere
in the vicinity, and no likelihood from any in
dications that the weather would improve, it
was decided that we should proceed at once to
Plover Bay, our next nearest coaling point.

This Arctic mine, the nearest to the North
Pole, as far as I know, of any yet discovered
on the American continent, produces coal of
excellent quality in great abundance and easily
worked. There are five principal veins, from

214

THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION

two to ten feet thick, fully exposed on the face
of a bluff about two hundred feet high, except
ing some of the lower sections that are covered
with icy snowbanks. The latter are derived
from drift that comes from the wind-swept hills,
and does not melt till late in the summer, or
not at all. The lower exposed portions of all the
veins are beaten and worn by the sea waves.
There can scarcely be any doubt, from what
I have seen of the formation in which it occurs,
that this is a true carboniferous coal, and su
perior to the great bulk of the tertiary and
cretaceous coal found on this side the continent
farther south. The Corwin coaled here twice
last summer, and again this summer, July 27
and 28. So also did the steam whale-ship
Belvedere. During calm weather the crew of
the Corwin can dig out and put in sacks, and
bring off in boats, about thirty tons per day.

On the twenty-first we passed through Ber
ing Strait in a dense fog without sighting either
of the Diomede Islands, which even in weather
clear elsewhere are almost constantly enveloped
in fog, causing no little anxiety to the navigator,
inasmuch as they stand directly in the middle
of the narrow part of the strait. A third islet
called Fairway Rock, together with the uncer
tain flow of the currents hereabouts, renders the
danger all the greater. The larger Diomede

215

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

is about six miles long, the other half as large,
and Fairway Rock still smaller. All three are
simply residual masses of granite brought into
relief by glacial action before the strait was in
existence. These rocks rise above the general
level because of their superior strength con
sidered with reference to the resistance they
offered to glacial degradation.

Approaching the islands in thick weather,
the first intimation the navigator has of his
being near them, and of the direction in which
they bear, is either from the winds which gurgle
and reverberate in passing over them, or from
the birds — auks, murres, and gulls — which
dwell on the rocks in myriads, and come and
go several miles into the adjacent waters to
feed. To persons acquainted with then- habits
it is not difficult to determine whether their
flight is directed homewards or away from
home. Thus the natives who dwell on these
gloomy, dripping rocks and visit the shores of
the adjacent continents in their frail skin-
covered canoes, are directed. But how the
birds themselves find their way, flying in
arrowlike courses to their nests, when every
direction seems to us the same, is truly mar
velous.

On cloudy nights it is dark now at midnight.
The sun sets before eight o'clock, but because it

216

THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION

sinks only a few degrees below the horizon, the
twilight lasts nearly all night. In a week or two,
however, we shall have seven or eight hours of
real night, for, of course, the transition from
constant day to day and night is very rapid
in these high latitudes. This new order of
things will be delightful. A few days ago we
saw two stars in the twilight, which to us was
an exceedingly interesting event after two
months of starless day. The glories of the mid
night sun in this mysterious polar world are
truly enchanting, but not nearly so much so as
the glories of the midday sun in lower latitudes,
succeeded by the glories of the night, the deep
sky of stars and the grateful change and repose
they bring.

After passing through the Strait we had two
gray, howling days, with head winds and ram,
and thick fog, through which the Corwin beat
her way, or was held lying to, heaving and
rolling somewhere between St. Lawrence Island
and Indian Point, as near as could be made out
at the time by dead reckoning, and guessing
the speed of the northerly current. Lying to
in a gale, enveloped in old fogs,1 and with little
sea-room, and variable currents, is anything
but pleasant, to say nothing of the tedious dis-

1 Fogs that have lasted a long time and prevented the tak
ing of observations for the position of the ship.

217

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

comforts caused by the movements of the ves
sel, the unceasing see-saw, creaking, pitching,
and complaining. At such times only the gulls,
those light-winged rovers of the sea, appear to
be patient and comfortable as they gracefully
drift and glide over the wild-tossing waves, or
circle on easy wing about the ship, veering
deftly from side to side, and wavering up and
down through the gray, sleety gloom.

On the morning of the twenty-fourth, when
the fog lifted, we found ourselves far north of
our supposed position; the flow of the current
to the northward during the two preceding
days having been nearly eighty miles. We ar
rived here at five in the afternoon.

Entering the harbor, we discovered the
schooner Golden Fleece lying at anchor, and
shortly afterward a party from her came
aboard the Corwin, which proved to be Lieu
tenant Ray,1 and his company of Signal Service
officers on their way to establish a station at
Point Barrow — ten persons in all.2 Mr. Ray
seems to be the right man for the place. He

1 P. H. Ray.

2 This was the International Polar Expedition to Point
Barrow, Alaska. The report of the valuable series of scien
tific observations and explorations made from 1881 to 1883
at the Point Barrow Station was published as House Exec
utive Document, No. 44, of the Forty-eighth Congress.
Among the members of the party were John Murdoch and
Middleton Smith.

218

THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION

hopes to be able to get his buildings up and
everything put in order before the coming on of
winter, making a home in that stern wilderness
for three years.

Point Barrow is a low, barren spit putting
out into the icy ocean, and, before the discov
ery of Wrangell Land, the northernmost point
of the territory of the United States. For many
years it was believed to be the northern ex
tremity of the American continent. But the
extreme point of the peninsula of Boothia
proves to be a few miles farther north than
this. At first sight it would seem a gloomy
time to look forward to — three years in so
remote and so severely desolate and forbid
ding a region, generally regarded as the top
most frost-killed end of creation!

But, amid all the disadvantages of position,
these men have much in their lot for which they
might well be envied by people dwelling in
softer climates. There is the freshness of their
field of research in natural history, the im
mense number of summer birds that visit this
region to molt and rear their young; the fine
opportunities they will have to study the habits
of the reindeer on the tundras, and the mag
nificent polar bear among the ice — the master
animal of the north. Then there is the chance
to study the little-known western Eskimos,

219

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

who have a village l on the point, numbering
about two hundred persons.2

Advantage, too, I am told, will be taken of
the opportunity offered to explore the Colville
and Inland Rivers, both of them large streams,
the one flowing into the [Arctic] Ocean about
one hundred and thirty miles to the east of
Point Barrow, the other into Bering Sea
through Hotham Inlet and Kotzebue Sound.
They are almost entirely unexplored. Some
of their upper branches must approach each
other, as the Eskimos ascend the Colville and,
making a portage, descend the Inland River
to Hotham Inlet every year to trade, or at
the portage meet natives from the other river
and trade there. The exploration of these
rivers is a very interesting piece of work, and
Mr. Ray tells me that he intends to make an
effort to accomplish it at the earliest oppor
tunity. Furthermore, he is ambitious to achieve
something in the way of new discoveries out in
the Polar Ocean to the northward of his sta
tion.

From the fact that a current sets northward
past Herald Island, and keeps a long lane reach-

1 Nuwuk.

2 An admirable study of these Eskimos was, indeed, made
by John Murdoch, a member of the party, and published in
House Executive Document, No. 44 (1885), and in the Ninth
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1892).

220

THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION

ing far beyond Herald Island open every sum
mer, while the ice remains jammed only a few
miles off Point Barrow and Cape Yakdn, Si
beria, and some years does not leave the shores
at all, it would seem that there is a land lying
to the east of Wrangell Land, making a strait
up which the northerly current flows, while the
unknown land prevents any great movement
in the ice immediately to the north of the
American continent, as Wrangell Land [stays]
the ice opposite Cape Yak£n and the coast in
its vicinity. Again, migratory birds in large
flocks have been seen flying north from Point
Barrow in the spring, and returning in the fall.
Besides, certain vague reports, which may
have their foundation in fact, have been in
circulation to the effect that land in this direc
tion has been actually seen by a whaler, who
was well offshore to the northeastward from
Point Barrow, in an exceptionally open season.
With the experience that he will gain among
the ice at Point Barrow, and the resources at
command in the way of good assistants, skilled
native travelers, with good dogs and sleds, etc.,
Mr. Ray may possibly be able to cross over the
ice to this land, if land there be. In any case,
whatever journeys may be made, over the ice
or over the land, in summer or in winter, some
new facts will surely be gained well worth the
221

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

pains, for no portion of the world is so barren
as not to yield a rich and precious harvest of
divine truth.

Nor will these men be likely to suffer greatly.
The winter cold, when skillfully met in soft hair
and fur, is not hard to bear, while in summer it
is so warm that the Eskimo children run about
naked. The piling up of the ice on the shore
hi winter and spring must make a magnificent
border for a home; and the auroral curtains and
the deep starry nights, lasting for weeks, must
be glorious.

The Corwin towed the Golden Fleece to sea
this morning, and we hope to finish coaling,
etc., hi a day or two, and set out once more to
the shores of Wrangell Land.

CHAPTER XVIII

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

Steamer Carwin,
Plover Bay, Siberia, August 26, 1881.

THIS morning a party from the ship went to
the head of the bay under the guidance of a
pair of Chukchis to see a herd of reindeer that
they told us was there. The distance, we found,
is about eighteen miles from the lower harbor,
where the Corwin is at anchor. The day was
fine and we enjoyed the sail very much, skim
ming rapidly along in the steam launch over
smooth water, past the huge ice-sculptured
headlands and mountains that formed the walls,
and the deep canons and valleys between them
that swept back to clusters of glacial fountains.
The naturalist made desperate efforts now and
then to obtain specimens of rare auks, petrels,
ducks, etc., which were flying and swimming
about us in great abundance, making lively
pictures of happy, exuberant life.

The rocks bounding the bay, though beauti
ful in their combinations and collocations of
curves and peaks, inflowing and touching deli
cately, and rising in bold, picturesque groups,
are, nevertheless, intensely desolate-looking

223

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

for want of trees, shrubs, or vegetation dense
enough to give color in telling quantities visible
at a distance. Even the valleys opening back
from the water here and there are mostly bare
as seen at the distance of a mile or two, and
have only faint tinges of green derived from
dwarf willows, sedges, and heathworts that
creep low among the stones. Yet here, or in
the larger valleys adjacent, where the main
tributary glaciers came into the Plover Bay
trunk, and in other valleys to the northeast
ward, large herds of reindeer, wild as well as
tame, find sustenance, together with a few wild
sheep and bears.

On the terminal moraine of the ancient gla
cier that formed the first main tributary of the
Plover Bay Glacier, some four miles from the
extreme head of the bay, we noticed two small
skin-covered huts, which our guides informed
us belonged to the reindeer people we were seek
ing, and that we should certainly find them at
home, because their herd was only a little one
and found plenty of weeds and moss to eat in
the valleys behind their huts without going far
away, as the people had to do who owned big
herds. At two days' distance, they said, where
the valleys are wide and green, with plenty to
eat, there is a big herd belonging to one of their
friends, so big that they cover all the ground

224

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

thereabouts; but the herd we were to see was
only a little one, and the owner was not a rich
man.

As we approached the shore, a hundred yards
or so from the huts, a young man came running
to meet us, bounding over the moraine bould
ers, with easy strength as if his limbs had been
trained on the mountains for many a year,
until running had become a pleasant indul
gence. He was presently joined by three others,
who gazed and smiled curiously at the steam
launch and at our party, wondering suspi
ciously, when the interpreter had told our ob
ject, why we should come so far and seem so
eager to see their deer. Our guides, who, of
course, understood their prejudices and super
stitions, told them that we wanted a big, fat
deer to eat, and that we would pay them well
for it — tobacco, lead, powder, caps, shot,
calico, knives, etc., told off in tempting order.
But they said they had none to sell, and it
required half an hour of cautious negotiations
to get them over their suspicious alarms, and
[to induce them to] consent to sell the carcass
of one, provided we would leave the skin, which
they said they wanted to keep for winter gar
ments.

Then two young men, fine, strapping, elastic
fellows, threw off their upper parkas, tied their

225

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

handsomely embroidered moccasins firmly
across the instep and around the ankle, poised
their long Russian spears, which they said they
always carried in case they should meet a bear
or wolf, and away they sped after the herd up
a long, wide glacier valley along the bank of a
stream, bounding lightly from rock to rock in
easy poise, and across soft bits of tundra and
rough sedgy meadows with long, heaving, un
dulating strides. Their gait, as far as we could
see, was steadily maintained and was admirably
lithe and strong and graceful. Their small feet
and ankles and round tapered shanks showed to
fine advantage in their tight-fitting leggings
and moccasins as they went speeding over the
ground like trained racers glorying in their
strength. We watched them through field-
glasses until they were about three miles away,
during which time they did not appear to
slacken their pace a single moment. They were
gone about three hours, so that the herd must
have been at least six or seven miles from the
huts.

In the meantime we ate luncheon and strolled
about the neighborhood looking at the plants,
at the views down the bay, and at the interior
of the huts, etc. We chatted with the Chukchis
about their herd, about the wild sheep on the
mountains, the wild reindeer, bears, and wolves.

226

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

We found that the family consisted of father,
mother, a grown daughter, and the boys that
were after the deer. The old folks were evi
dently contented and happy in their safe re
treat among the hills, with a sure support from
their precious herd. And they were proud of
their red-cheeked girl and two strapping boys,
as well they might be; for they seemed as
healthy and rosy and robust a group of children
as ever gladdened the heart of Chukchi par
ents. The boys appeared to be part owners of
everything about the house, as well as of the
deer, for in looking through the huts we saw a
few curious odds and ends that we offered to
purchase, but were told, in most cases, that
they could not sell them until the boys came
back.

Their huts are like all we have seen belong
ing to the Chukchis as far north and west as we
have been — a balloon frame of long poles
hewn on two sides so that they might be bent
outward, the points coming together not in the
middle, but a little to one side away from the
direction of the prevailing wind, which gives
them a curious humpbacked appearance. This
frame is covered with skin of the walrus, if it
can be had; if not, then with sealskin or deer
skin. No great pains are taken to keep them
rain-proof, so that in wet weather they are

227

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

oftentimes damp or muddy. But there is not
much rain in the Arctic regions, and the deer
skin pologs, or drawing rooms inside, are kept
perfectly dry and snug, whatever the state of
the main outer tent may chance to be.

The two huts of this place are smaller and
more leaky and dilapidated than is common.
The covering is composed of different kinds
of skin, perhaps a thousand pieces sewed to
gether, some of them with the hah- on, the
whole appearing as one colossal patchwork, as
if made up of small scraps. The head of the
family seemed to be a little ashamed of them,
for he explained with the air of a man making
an apology, that he did not construct them;
they formerly belonged to some one else, and
that soon after he came to take possession one
of them was torn open by a hungry bear that
went in and frightened his wife and daughter
and stole some grease.

The Chukchis seem to be a good-natured,
lively, chatty, brave and polite people, fond of
a joke, and, as far as I have seen, fair in their
dealings as any people, savage or civilized.
They are not savage by any means, however,
but steady, industrious workers, looking well
ahead, providing for the future, and conse
quently seldom in want, save when at long
intervals disease or other calamities overtake

228

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

their herds, or exceptionally severe seasons
prevent their obtaining the ordinary supplies
of seals, fish, whales, walruses, bears, etc., on
which the sedentary Chukchis chiefly depend.
The sedentary and reindeer Chukchis are the
same people, and are said to differ hi a marked
degree, both in physical characteristics and in
language, from the neighboring tribes, as they
certainly do from the Eskimos. Many of them
have light complexions, hooked or aquiline
noses, tall, sinewy, well-knit frames, small
feet and hands, and are not, especially the
men, so thick-set, short-necked or flat-faced
as the Eskimos.

After we had watched impatiently for some
time, the reindeer came in sight, about a hun
dred and fifty of them, driven gently without
any of that noisy shouting and worrying that
are heard in driving the domestic animals hi
civilized countries. We left the huts and went
up the stream bank about three quarters of a
mile to meet them, led by the owner and his
wife and daughter, who carried a knife and
tin cup and vessels to save the blood and
entrails — which stirred a train of grim asso
ciations that greatly marred the beauty of the
picture.

I was afraid from what I knew of the habits
of sheep, cattle, and horses that a sight of

229

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

strangers would stampede the herd when we
met. But of this, as it proved, there was not the
slightest danger; for of all the familiar, tame
animals man has gathered about him, the rein
deer is the tamest. They can hardly be said
to be domesticated, since they are not shut in
around the huts, or put under shelter either
winter or summer. On they came, while we
gazed eagerly at the novel sight — a thicket
of antlers, big and little, old and young, led
by the strongest, holding their heads low most
of the time, as if conscious of the fact that they
were carrying very big, branching horns. A
straggler fell behind now and then to cull a
choice mouthful of willow or dainty, gray
lichen, then made haste to join the herd again.
They waded across the creek and came
straight toward us, up the sloping bank where
we were waiting, nearer, nearer, until we could
see their eyes, their smooth, round limbs, the
velvet on their horns, until within five or six
yards of us, the drivers saying scarce a word,
and the owner in front looking at them as they
came up without making any call or movement
to attract them. After giving us the benefit of
their magnificent eyes and sweet breath they
began to feed off, back up the valley. There
upon the boys, who had been loitering on the
stream-side to catch a salmon trout or two,

230

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

went round them and drove them back to us.
Then the deer stopped feeding and began to
chew the cud and to lie down, with eyes partly
closed and dreamy-looking, as if profoundly
comfortable, we strangers causing them not
the slightest alarm though standing nearly
within touching distance of them. Cows in a
barnyard, milked and petted every day, are
not so gentle. Yet these beautiful animals are
allowed to feed at will, without herding to any
great extent. They seem as smooth and clean
and glossy as if they were wild. Taming does
not seem to have injured them in any way. I
saw no mark of man upon them.

They are not so large as I have been led to
suppose, nor so rough and bony and angular.
The largest would not much exceed three or
four hundred pounds in weight. They are, at
this time of year, smooth, trim, delicately
molded animals, very fat, and apparently
short-winded, for they were breathing hard
when they came up, like oxen that had been
working on a hot day. The horns of the largest
males are about four feet long, rising with a
backward curve, and then forward, and dividing
into three or four points, and with a number of
short palmated branches putting forward and
downward from the base over the animal's fore
head. Those of the female are very slender and

231

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

elegant in curve, more so than any horns I have
seen. This species of deer is said to be the only
one in which the female has horns. The fawns,
also, have horns already, six inches to a foot
long, with a few blunt, knobby branches begin
ning to sprout. All are now in the velvet, some
of which is beginning to peel off and hang in
loose shreds about the heads of some of them,
producing a very singular appearance, as if
they had been fighting a rag-bag.

The so-called velvet is a close, soft, downy
fur, black hi color, and very fine and silky,
about three eighths or half an inch long, with
a few hairs nearly an inch in length rising
stiffly here and there over the general plushy
surface. All the branches of their horns are
covered, giving an exceedingly rich and beau
tiful effect. The eyes are large, and in expres
sion confiding and gentle. The head, contrary
to my preconceived notions derived from en
gravings, is, on the whole, delicately formed,
the muzzle long and straight, blunt and cowlike.
The neck is thin, tapering but little, rather
deep, and held, while standing at ease, sloping
down a little, and the large males have long
hair on the under side. The body is round,
almost cylindrical — the belly not at all bloated
or bent out like that of a cow. The legs are
stout, but not clumsy, and taper finely into the

232

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

muscles of the shoulders and hips. The feet
are very broad and spreading, making a track
about as large as a cow's. This enables the ani
mal to walk over boggy tundras in summer and
over snow in winter.

In color they vary almost as much in some
specimens as do cattle and horses, showing
white, brown, black, and gray at the same time.
The prevailing color is nearly black in summer,
brownish-white in winter. The colors of the
tame animals are not so constant as those of the
wild. The hair is, when full grown, very heavy,
with fine wool at the bottom, thus making a
warm covering sufficient to enable the animal
to resist the keenest frosts of the Arctic winter
without any shelter beyond the lee side of a
rock or hill.

After walking through the midst of the herd,
the boys selected a rather small specimen to
be killed. One caught it by the hind leg, just
as sheep are caught, and dragged it backward
out of the herd; then the other boy took it by
the horns and led it away a few yards from the
herd, no notice being taken of its struggles by
its companions, nor was any tendency to take
fright observed, such as would, under the cir
cumstances, have been shown by any of the
common domestic animals. The mother alone
looked after it eagerly, and further manifested

233

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

her concern and affection by uttering a low,
grunting sound, and by trying to follow it.

After it was slain they laid it on its side. One
of the women brought forward a branch of wil
low about a foot long, with the green leaves on
it, and put it under the animal's head. Then
she threw four or five handfuls of the blood,
from the knife-wound back of the shoulder,
out over the ground to the southward, making
me get out of the way, as if this direction were
the only proper one. Next she took a cupful
of water and poured a little on its mouth and
tail and on the wound. While this ceremony
was being performed all the family looked
serious, but as soon as it was over they began
to laugh and chat as before. The herd, during
the time of the killing and dressing, were tran
quilly chewing their cud, not noticing even
the smell of the blood, which makes cattle so
frantic.

One of our party was anxious to procure a
young one alive to take home with him, but
they would not sell one alive at any price.
When we inquired the reason they said that if
they should part with one, all the rest of the
herd would die, and the same thing would hap
pen if they were to part with the head of one.
This they excitedly declared was true, for they
had seen it proved many times though white

234

A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD

men did not understand it and always laughed
about it. When we indicated a very large buck
and inquired why they did not kill that big
one, and let the little ones grow, they replied
that that big fellow was strong, and knew how
to pull a sled, and could run fast over the snow
that would come by-and-by, and they needed
him too much to kill him.

I have never before seen half so interesting
a company of tame animals. In some parts of
Siberia reindeer herds numbering many thou
sands may be seen together. In these frozen re
gions they supply every want of their owners
as no other animal could possibly do — food,
warm clothing, coverings for their tents, bed
ding, rapid transportation and, to some extent,
fuel. They are not nearly so numerous in the
immediate vicinity of the bay as they once
were, a fact attributed to the sale of several
live specimens to whalers.

CHAPTER XIX

TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE

Steamer Corwin, Arctic Ocean,

Between Herald Shoals and Point Hope,

Septembers, 1881.

ON the morning of August 27, having taken
on board a full supply of coal and water, and
put the ship in as good condition as possible, we
left Plover Bay and turned once more toward
Wrangell Land.

In passing Marcus Bay, a short distance up
the coast from Plover Bay, the Captain wished
to make a landing to give some instructions to
our Chukchi interpreter and dog-driver, who
lives here, concerning the dogs and sleds that
were taken at Tapkan. The weather was too
thick, however, to allow this, and the ship was
put on her course for the western Diomede
Island, where we arrived, against a stiff head
wind and through thick fog, shortly after noon
on the twenty-eighth. We lay at anchor for a
few hours, while the wind from the Arctic came
dashing and swirling over the island hi squally
gusts.

In the meantime, while waiting to see
whether the wind would moderate before we

236

TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE

proceeded through the strait, we went ashore
and greatly enjoyed a stroll through the streets
and houses of the curious village here. It is
built on the bald, rugged side of the island,
where the slope is almost cliff-like in steepness
and rockiness. The winter houses are wood-
lined burrows underground, entered by a tun
nel, and warm and snug like the nest of a field-
mouse beneath a sod, though terribly thick and
rancid as to the air contained in them. The
summer houses are square skin boxes above
ground, and set on long stilt poles. Neither the
one nor the other look in the least like houses
or huts of any sort. But those made of skin are
the queerest human nests conceivable. They
are simply light, square frames made of drift
poles gathered on the beach, and covered with
walrus hide that has been carefully dressed
and stretched tightly on the frame like the
head of a drum. The skin is of a yellow color,
and quite translucent, so that when hi one feels
as if one were inside a huge blown bladder, the
light sifting hi through the skin at the top and
all around, yellow as a sunset. The entire es
tablishment is window, one pane for the roof,
which is also the ceiling, and one for each of
the four sides, without cross sash-bars to mar
the brave simplicity of it all.
Most of the inhabitants, of whom there are

237

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

perhaps a hundred, had just returned from a
long voyage in their canoes to Cape Prince of
Wales, Kotzebue Sound, and other points on
the American coast, for purposes of trade,
bringing back ivory and furs to sell to the Chuk-
chis of Siberia, who in turn will carry these
articles by a roundabout way nearly a thousand
miles to the Russian trading post, and return
with goods to trade back to the Diomede mer
chants, through whose hands they will pass to
the Cape Prince of Wales natives, and from
these to several others up the Inland River,
down the Colville, to Point Barrow and east
ward as far as the mouth of the Mackenzie
River.

The Diomede merchants are true middlemen,
and their village a half-way house of commerce
between northeastern Asia and America. The
extent of the dealings of these people, usually
regarded as savages, is truly surprising. And
that they can keep warm and make a living
on this bleak, fog-smothered, storm-beaten
rock, and have time to beget, feed, and tram
children, and give them a good Eskimo educa
tion; that they teach them to shoot the bow,
to make and throw the bird spears, to make and
use those marvelous kayaks, to kill seals, bears,
and walrus, to hunt the whale, capture the
different kind of fishes, manufacture different

238

TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE

sorts of leather, dress skins and make them
into clothing, besides teaching them to carry on
trade, to make fire by rubbing two pieces of
wood together, and to build the strange houses
— that they can do all this, and still have time
to be sociable, to dance, sing, gossip, and dis
cuss ghosts, spirits, and all the nerve-racking
marvels of the shaman world, shows how truly
wild, and brave, and capable a people these
island Eskimos are.

The wind having moderated, we got away
from the box-and-burrow village and through
the Strait before dark; then we steered for
the south end of Wrangell Land, and after a
speedy and uneventful voyage came in sight
of the highest of the coast mountains, on the
thirtieth at noon. Thus far we had not seen the
ice, and, inasmuch as nineteen summer days
had passed over it since our last visit, we hoped
that it might have been melted considerably
and broken up by the winds, so as to admit of
a way being forced through it at some point up
to the land, or so near it that we might get
ashore by crossing over the coast ice, dragging
our light skin boat after us in case we should
come to lanes of open water.

In this, however, we were disappointed; for
when three and a half hours later we came up
to the edge of the pack it was found to all ap-

239

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

pearances unchanged. It still extended about
twenty miles offshore; it trended as far as we
could see in the same direction as was observed
before, and it seemed as heavy and unbroken
as ever, offering no encouragement for efforts
in this direction. We therefore sailed along the
edge of the pack to the eastward to see what
might be accomplished towards our first land
ing place. We gazed at the long stretch of
wilderness which spread invitingly before us,
and which we were so eager to explore — the
rounded, glaciated bosses and foothills, the
mountains, with ice-sculptured features of hol
lows and ridges and long withdrawing valleys,
which in former visits we had sketched, and
scanned so attentively through field-glasses,
and which now began to wear a familiar look.
The sky was overcast, the land seemed almost
black in the gloomy light, and a heavy swell be
gan to be felt coming in from the northeast.
Towards night, when we were not far from our
old landing near the easternmost extremity of
the land, the Corwin was hove to, waiting for
the morning before attempting to seek a way
in. But the next day, August 31, was stormy.
The wind from the northeast blew hard inshore,
therefore it was not considered safe to approach
too near.
At eight o'clock we were in sight of the ice

240

TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE

opposite the northeast cape, and it seemed to
be farther off the land than at our first visit,
and no opening appeared, though the weather
was so dim and rough that nothing could be
definitely determined. Generally, however, the
ice was now drifting against the east side of
Wrangell Land, and coming southward to so
great an extent that our chances of effecting
another landing began to be less promising.

When we were within twenty miles of Herald
Island, we hove to, waiting better weather be
fore entering narrow lanes and bays in the pack
when so heavy a sea was running. The sky was
dismal all the afternoon — toward night, dull,
lurid purple — and the wind was blowing a gale.
The ice-breaker, made of heavy boiler iron, was
broken by the pounding of the waves, and had
to be cut away, which is unfortunate at this
particular time. •

September 1 was a howling storm-day,
through which we lay to, swashing and rolling
wildly among white waves, and drifting south
eastward twenty or thirty miles a day. The
next day there was no abatement in the force
of the gale up to two o'clock in the afternoon.
A heavy sea, streaked with foam, was running
parallel to the direction of the wind, while the
air was filled with snow, adding to the wintry
aspect of the day. While we were still holding

241

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

on, hoping the storm would subside from hour
to hour, one of the rudder chains parted.

This made Captain Hooper decide that in
view of the condition of the ship, and the ice,
and the weather, the risk attending further
efforts this year to search the shores of Wrangell
Land should not be incurred, more especially
since the position and drift of the ice held out
but little promise of allowing another landing
to be made, or of a sufficiently near approach
to enable us to add appreciably to the knowl
edge already acquired. Accordingly, after the
rudder was mended as securely as possible, the
good Corwin, excused from further ice duty,
was turned away from the war and headed for
the American coast at Point Hope.

Had the ship been in good condition, the
battle would probably have been waged a few
more weeks along the edge of the ice barrier,
watching the appearance of any vulnerable
point of attack, whatever the result might have
been. Now it seems we are homeward bound.
We intend to stop at Kotzebue Sound, St.
Michael, St. Paul, and Unalaska to make nec
essary repairs, take on coal, etc., and we may
reach San Francisco by the middle of October.

We have not met the Rodgers. We learned
from the natives at Plover Bay that she had
called there and left seven days before our

242

TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE

arrival. That was August 17. We suppose she
went to St. Michael from there to coal and take
on provisions, which would probably require
a week. If so, we may have passed the Strait
ahead of her. But in case she had already been
at St. Michael, then, in following out her in
structions, she could trace the Siberian coast
for some distance, making inquiries among the
Chukchis, where she may possibly be at present.
Or, if this part of the work of the expedition
had been completed before the coming on of
the gale, she may be sheltering about Herald
Island or some point on the coast of Wrangell
Land.1

1 Mr. Muir's supposition proved to be correct. The U.S.S.
Rodgers, Lieutenant R. M. Berry commanding, reached
Wrangell Land, August 25, and found shelter the next day
in a snug little harbor on the southeastern coast of the
island. There the Rodgers remained until September 13,
while two search parties explored the shores of the island for
traces of the Jeannette expedition.

CHAPTER XX

HOMEWARD-BOUND

Steamer Corwin,
Unalaska, October 4, 1881.

ON the home voyage, all the hard Arctic
work done, the Corwin stopped a week at the
head of Kotzebue Sound, near Chamisso Island,
to seek a fresh supply of water and make some
needful repairs and observations, during which
time I had a capital opportunity to examine
the curious and interesting ice formations of
the shores of Eschscholtz Bay. I found ice in
some form or other, exposed at intervals of
from a mile to a few yards, on the tide-washed
front of the shore bluffs on both sides of the
bay, a distance of about fifty miles. But it
is only the most conspicuous mass, forming a
bluff, at Elephant Point, on the south side of
the bay, that seems to have been observed
hitherto, or attracted much attention.

This Elephant Point, so called from the fossil
elephant tusks found here, is a bluff of solid
ice, one hundred and forty feet high, covered
on the top with a foot or two of ordinary
tundra vegetation, and with tall grass on the
terraces and shelving portions of the front,

244

HOMEWARD-BOUND

wherever the slope is sufficiently gentle for soil
to find rest. It is a rigid fossil fragment of a
glacier leaning back against the north side of
a hill, mostly in shadow, and covered lightly
with glacial detritus from the hill slope above
it, over which the tundra vegetation has
gradually been extended, and which eventually
formed a thick feltlike protection against waste
during the summer. Thus it has lasted until
now, wasting only on the exposed face front
ing the bay, which is being constantly under
mined, the soil and vegetation on top being
precipitated over the raw, melting ice front
and washed away by the tide. Were it not
that its base is swept by tide currents, the
accumulation of tundra moss and peat would
finally re-bury the front and check further
waste. As it is, the formation will not last
much longer — probably not more than a
thousand or fifteen hundred years. Its present
age is perhaps more than this.

When one walks along the base of the forma
tion — which is about a mile or so in length —
making one's way over piles of rotten humus
and through sloppy bog mud of the consistence
of watery porridge, mixed with bones of ele
phants, buffaloes, musk oxen, etc., the ice so
closely resembles the wasting snout of a glacier,
with its jagged projecting ridges, ledges, and

245

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

small, dripping, tinkling rills, that it is not easy
to realize that it is not one in ordinary action.

Mingled with the true glacier ice we notice
masses of dirty stratified ice, made up of clean
layers alternating with layers of mud and sand,
and mingled with bits of humus and sphagnum,
and of leaves and stems of the various plants
that grow on the tundra above. This dirty ice
of peculiar stratification never blends into the
glacier ice, but is simply frozen upon it, filling
cavities or spreading over slopes here and there.
It is formed by the freezing of films of clear and
dirty water from the broken edge of the tun
dra, a process going on every spring and au
tumn, when frosts and thaws succeed each
other night and morning, cloudy days and
sunny days. This, of course, is of compara
tively recent age, even the oldest of it.

A striking result of the shaking up and airing
and draining of the tundra soil is seen on the
face of the ice slopes and terraces. When the
undermined tundra material rolls down upon
those portions of the ice front where it can come
to rest, it is well buffeted and shaken, and fre
quently lies upside down as if turned with a
plow. Here it is well drained through resting
on melting ice, and though not more than a
foot or two in thickness, it produces a remark
ably close and tall growth of grass, four to six

246

HOMEWARD-BOUND

feet high, and as lush and broad-leaved as may
be found in any farmer's field. Cut for hay it
would make about four or five tons per acre.

Only a few other plants that would be called
weeds are found growing among the grass,
mostly senecio and artemisia, both tall and
exuberant, showing the effects of this curious
system of cultivation on this strange soil. The
vegetation on top of the bluff is the most beau
tiful that I have yet seen, not rank and culti
vated looking, like that on the face slopes,
but showing the finest and most delicate beauty
of wildness, in forms, combinations, and colors
of leaf, stalk, and fruit. There were red and
yellow dwarf birch, arbutus, willow, and pur
ple huckleberry, with lovely grays of sedges
and lichens. The neutral tints of the lichens
are intensely beautiful.

I found the shore-bluff towards the mouth
of the Buckland River from forty to sixty feet
high, with a regular slope of about thirty de
grees. It was covered with willows and alders,
some of them five or six feet high, and long
grass; also patches of ice here and there, but
no large masses. The soil is a fine blue clay at
bottom, with water-worn quartz, pebbles and
sand above it, like that of the opposite side of
the estuary, and evidently brought down by
the river floods when the ice of the glaciers

247

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

that occupied this river basin and that of the
Kuuk 1 was melting.

The ice that I found here and on the opposite
side of the bay, especially where the tundra is
low and flat, let us say forty or fifty feet above
the sea, and covered with pools and strips of
water, is not glacier ice, but ice derived from
water freezing in pools and veins and hollows,
overgrown with mosses, lichens, etc., and after
wards exposed as fossil ice on the shore face
of the tundra where it is being wasted by the
action of the sea. The tundra has been cracked
in every direction, and in looking over its sur
face, slight depressions, or some difference in
the vegetation, indicate the location and extent
of the fissures. When these are traced forward
to the edge of the shore-bluff, a cross-section of
ice is seen from two to four or five feet wide.
The larger sections are simply the exposed sides
of those ice veins that chance to trend in a di
rection parallel to the face of the bluff. Be
sides these I found several other kinds of ice,
differing in origin from the foregoing, but which
can hardly be described in a mere letter, how
ever interesting to the geologist.

At St. Michael we found a party of wrecked

1 A river tributary to Eschscholtz Bay from the east.
It was called Kuuk on British Admiralty charts of the early
eighties, but is now known as the Mungoark River.

248

HOMEWARD-BOUND

prospectors from Golofnin Bay, who were
anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Corwin,
as she would be the last vessel leaving for Cali
fornia this year. This proved to be the Oakland
party mentioned in a previous letter. With
genuine Yankee enterprise [these men] had
pushed their way into the far wilderness be
yond the Yukon to seek for silver. Specimens
of bright, exciting ore, assaying a hundred and
fifty dollars to the ton, had been exhibited in
Oakland, brought from a mine said to be lo
cated near tide water at Golofnin Bay, Alaska,
and so easily worked that large ships could be
loaded with the precious ore about as readily
as with common ballast. Thereupon a com
pany, called the Alaska Mining Company, was
organized, the schooner W. F. March char
tered, and with the necessary supplies a party
of ten sailed from San Francisco May 5, 1881,
for Golofnin Bay, to explore this mine in par
ticular, and the region in general, and then to
return, this fall, with a cargo of ore.

They arrived in Golofnin Bay June 18, lost
their vessel in a gale on the north side of the
bay August 15, and arrived in twenty-one days
at St. Michael in canoes and a boat that was
saved from the wreck. They found the mine
as rich as represented, but far less accessible.
It is said to be about thirty miles from tide

249

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

water. All feel confident that they have a val
uable mine. Two or three of the party were
away at the time of the disaster, prospecting
for cinnabar on the Kuskoquim, and are left
behind to pass the winter as best they may at
some of the trading stations.

Our two weeks' stay at Unalaska has been
pleasant and restful after the long cruise —
about fourteen thousand miles altogether up
to this point. The hill slopes and mountains
look richly green and foodful, and the views
about the harbor, at the close and beginning
of storms, when clouds are wreathing the al
pine summits, are very beautiful.

The huts of the Aleuts here are very pictur
esque at this time of the year. The grass grows
tall over the sides and the roof, waving in the
wind, and making a fine fringe about the win
dows and the door. When the church bell rings
on Sunday and the good calico-covered people
plod sedately forth to worship, and the cows
on the hillside moo blandly, and the sun shines
over the green slopes, then the scene is like a
bit of New England or old Scotland. But, later
in the day, when the fiery kvass is drunk, and
the accordions and concertinas and cheap music
boxes are in full blast, then the noise and un
seemly clang attending drunkenness is not at
all like a Scotch sabbath.

250

HOMEWARD-BOUND

Most of the Aleuts have an admixture of
Russian blood. Many of them dance well.
Three balls were given during our stay here,
that is to say, American balls with native
women. The Aleuts have their own dances in
their small huts.

A few days ago I made an excursion to the
top of a well-formed volcanic cone at the mouth
of a picturesque glacial fiord, about eight miles
from here. This mountain, about two thousand
feet high, commands a magnificent view of the
mountains of Unalaska, Akutan, and adjacent
islands. Akutan 1 still emits black smoke and
cinders at times, and thunders loud enough to
be heard at Unalaska.

The noblest of them all was Makushin,2 about
nine thousand feet high and laden with glaciers,
a grand sight, far surpassing what I had been
led to expect. There is a spot on its summit
which is said to smoke, probably mostly steam
and vapor from the infiltration of water into
the heated cavities of the old volcano. The
extreme summit of Makushin was wrapped in
white clouds, and from beneath these the gla
ciers were seen descending impressively into
the sunshine to within a thousand or fifteen

1 The highest mountain of Akutan Island. The United
States Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart No. 8860 gives its
altitude as forty-one hundred feet.

2 See footnote p. 263.

251

THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN

hundred feet of sea-level. This fine mountain,
glittering in its showy mail of snow and ice, to
gether with a hundred other peaks dipping into
the blue sky, and every one of them telling the
work of ice or fire in their forms and sculpture
— these, and the sparkling sea, and long in-
reaching fiords, are a noble picture to add to
the thousand others which have enriched our
lives this summer in the great Northland.

THE END

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

THE GLACIATION OF THE ARCTIC AND SUB
ARCTIC REGIONS VISITED DURING
THE CRUISE

THE monuments of the glaciation of the regions
about Bering Sea and the northern shores of Sibe
ria and Alaska are in general much broken and
obscured on account of the intensity of the action of
the agents of destruction in these low, moist regions,
together with the perishable character of the rocks
of which most of the monuments consist. Lofty
headlands, once covered with clear glacial inscrip
tions, have been undermined and cast down in loose,
draggled taluses, while others, in a dim, ruinous con
dition, with most of their surface records effaced,
are rapidly giving way to the weather. The mo
raines, also, and the grooved, scratched, and pol
ished surfaces are much blurred and wasted, while
glaciated areas of great extent are not open to ob
servation at all, being covered by the shallow
waters of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and
buried beneath sediments and coarse detritus which
has been weathered from the higher grounds, or
deposited by the ice itself when it was being
melted and withdrawn towards the close of the
main glacial period. But amid this general waste
and obscurity a few legible fragments, favorably
255

APPENDIX

situated here and there, have escaped destruction
— patches of polished and striated surfaces in a
fair state of preservation, with moraines of local
glaciers that have not been exposed to the heavier
forms of water or avalanche action. And had
these fading vestiges perished altogether, yet would
not the observer be left without a sure guide,
for there are other monuments of ice action in all
glaciated regions that are almost indestructible,
enduring for tens of thousands of years after those
simpler traces that we have been considering have
vanished. These are the material of moraines,
though scattered, washed, crumbled, and re-formed
over and over again; and the sculpture and config
uration of the landscape in general, canons, valleys,
mountains, ridges, roches moutonnees with forms
and correlations specifically glacial. These, also, it
is true, suffer incessant waste, being constantly
written upon by other agents; yet, because the
glacial characters are formed on so colossal a scale
of magnitude, they continue to stand out free and
clear through every after inscription whether of the
torrent, the avalanche, or universal eroding atmos
phere; opening grand and comprehensive views of
the vanished ice, and the geographical and topo
graphical changes effected by its action in the form
of local and distinct glaciers. River-like, they flowed
from the mountains to the sea, and, as a broad, un
dulating mantle, crawled over all the landscape
through unnumbered centuries; crushed and ground
and spread soil-beds; fashioned the features of
mountain and plain; extended the domain of the
sea; separated continents; dotted new coasts with
islands, fringed them with deep inreaching fiords,
256

APPENDIX

and impressed their peculiar style of sculpture on
all the regions over which they passed.

A general exploration of the mountain ranges of
the Pacific Coast shows that there are about sixty-
five small residual glaciers on the Sierra Nevada of
California, between latitude 36° 30' and 39°, distrib
uted singly or in small groups on the north sides of
the highest peaks at an elevation of about eleven
to twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea,
representatives of the grand glaciers that once
covered all the range. More than two thirds of
these lie between latitude 37° and 38°, and form
the highest sources of the San Joaquin, Tuolumne,
Merced, and Owens Rivers.

Mount Shasta, near the northern boundary of
California, has a few shrinking glacier remnants,
the largest about three miles in length. We find that,
to the north of California, groups of active glaciers
still exist on all the highest mountains — Mounts
Jefferson, Adams, Saint Helens, Hood, Rainier,
Baker, and others. Of these Mount Rainier is the
highest and iciest. Its summit is fairly capped with
ice, and eight glaciers, from seven to fifteen miles
long, radiate from it as a center and form the sources
of the principal streams. The lowest descends to
about thirty-five hundred feet above sea level, pour
ing a stream opaque with glacial mud into the head
of Puget Sound.

On through British Columbia and southeastern
Alaska the broad sustained mountain chain extend
ing along the coast is generally glacier-bearing. The
upper branches of nearly every one of the main
canons are occupied by glaciers, which gradually
increase in size and descend lower until the lofty
257

APPENDIX

region between Mount Fairweather and Mount St.
Elias is reached, where a considerable number dis
charge into the waters of the ocean.

This is the region of greatest glacial abundance
on the continent. To the northward from here the
glaciers gradually diminish in size and depth and
melt at higher levels until the latitude of about
62° is reached, beyond which few, if any, glaciers
remain in existence, the ground being comparatively
low and the annual snowfall light.

Between latitude 56° and 60° there are prob
ably more than five thousand glaciers, great and
small, hundreds of the largest size, descending
through the forests nearly to the level of the sea,
though, as far as I know after a pretty thorough
exploration of the region, not more than twenty-five
discharge into the sea.

All the long, high-walled fiords into which these
great glaciers of the first class flow are of course
crowded with icebergs of every conceivable form,
which are detached at intervals of a few minutes.
But these are small as compared with those of
Greenland, and only a few escape from the intricate
labyrinth of channels, with which this portion of
the coast is fringed, into the open sea. Nearly all
of them are washed and drifted back and forth in
the fiords by wind and tide until finally melted by
sunshine and the copious warm rains of summer.

The southmost of the glaciers that reach the sea
occupies a narrow fiord about twenty miles to the
northwest of the mouth of the Stikine River, in lati
tude 56° 50'. It is called "Hutli" lby the natives,

1 Now known as Le Conte Glacier; also the Bay into which it dis
charges. Both were so named in 1887 by Lieutenant-Commander Charles

258

Q
W

tt

w

i

w w

a; O

2°

II

< o

w

§8

EC <

H «

ll

U

APPENDIX

from the noise made by the icebergs in rising and
falling from the inflowing glacier. About one de
gree farther north there are four of these complete
glaciers at the heads of branches of Holkham Bay,
at the head of Taku Inlet one, and at the head and
around the sides of a bay * trending in a general
northerly direction from Cross Sound, first explored
by myself in 1879, there are no less than five of these
complete glaciers reaching tide-water, the largest
of which, the Muir, is of colossal size, having up
wards of two hundred tributaries and a width of
trunk below the confluence of the main tributaries
of three to twenty-five miles. Between the west side
of this icy bay and the ocean all the ground, high and
low, with the exception of the summits of the moun
tain peaks, is covered by a mantle of ice from one
to three thousand feet thick, which discharges to
the eastward and westward through many distinct
mouths.

This ice-sheet, together with the multitude of dis
tinct glaciers that load the lofty mountains of the
coast, evidently once formed part of one grand, con
tinuous ice-sheet that flowed over all the region here
abouts, extending southward as far as the Straits
of Juan de Fuca, for all the islands of the Alexander
Archipelago, great and small, as well as the head
lands and promontories of the mainland, are seen
to have forms of greatest strength with reference
to the action of a vast press of oversweeping ice, and
their surfaces have a smooth, rounded, over-rubbed

M. Thomas, U.S.N., presumably in honor of Joseph Le Conte, the well-
known California geologist. "Hutli" ia the Tlingit Indian name for the
mythical bird which produces thunder by the flapping of its wings. The
word, therefore, means "The Thunderer."
1 Now known as Glacier Bay.

259

APPENDIX

appearance, generally free from angles. The canals,
channels, straits, passages, sounds, etc., between the
islands — a marvelous labyrinth — manifest in their
forms and trends and general characteristics the
same subordination to the grinding action of a con
tinuous ice-sheet, and they differ from the islands,
as to their origin, only in being portions of the
general pre-glacial margin of the continent, more
deeply eroded, and, therefore, covered with the
ocean waters which flowed into them as the ice
was melted out of them.

That the dominion of the sea is being extended
over the land by the wearing away of its shores is
well known. But in these northern regions the coast
rocks have been so short a time exposed to wave-
action that they are but little wasted as yet, the
extension of the sea affected by its own action in
post-glacial time in this region being probably less
than the millionth part of that affected by glacial
action during the last glacial period.

Traces of the ancient glaciers made during the
period of greater extension abound on the California
Sierra as far south as latitude 36°. Even the most
evanescent of them, the polished surfaces, are still
found, in a marvelously perfect state of preserva
tion, on the upper half of the middle portion of
the range. They occur in irregular patches, some
of which are several acres in extent, and, though
they have been subjected to the weather with all
its storms for thousands of years, their mechanical
excellence is such that they reflect the sunbeams
like glass, and attract the attention of every ob
server.

The most perfect of these shining pavements lie
260

APPENDIX

at an elevation of about seven to eight thousand
feet above the level of the sea, where the rock is
close-grained, siliceous granite. Small fading patches
may be found at from three to five thousand feet
elevation on the driest and most enduring portions
of vertical walls, where there is protection from the
drip and friction of water; also, on compact swell
ing bosses partially protected by a covering of
boulders.

On the north half of the Sierra the striated and
polished surfaces are rarely found, not only because
this portion of the chain is lower, but on account
of the surface rocks being chiefly porous lavas sub
ject to rapid waste. The moraines, also, though well
preserved on the south half of the range, seem to be
nearly wanting over a considerable portion of the
north half, but the material of which they were com
posed is found in abundance, scattered and disin
tegrated, until its glacial origin is not obvious to
the unskilled observer.

A similar blurred condition of the superficial rec
ords obtains throughout most of Oregon, Washing
ton, British Columbia, and Alaska, due in great
part to the action of excessive moisture. Even in
southeastern Alaska, where the most extensive
glaciers still exist, the more evanescent of the traces
of their former greater extension, though compara
tively recent, are more obscure than those of the
ancient glaciers of California, where the climate is
drier and the rocks more resisting. We are prepared,
therefore, to find the finer lines of the glacial record
dim or obliterated altogether in the Arctic regions,
where the ground is mostly low and the action of
frost and moisture specially destructive.
261

APPENDIX

The Aleutian chain of islands sweeps westward
in a regular curve, about a thousand miles long,
from the Alaska Peninsula toward Kamchatka,
nearly uniting the American and Asiatic continents.
A very short geological time ago, just before the
coming on of the glacial winter, the union of the
two continents was probably complete. The entire
chain appears to be simply a degraded portion of
the North Pacific pre-glacial coast mountains, with
its .foothills and lowest portions of the connecting
ridges between the peaks a few feet under water, the
submerged ridges forming the passes between the
islands as they exist to-day, while the broad plain
to the north of the chain is now covered by the
shallow waters of Bering Sea.

Now the evidence seems everywhere complete
that this segregating degradation has been effected
almost wholly by glacial action. Yet, strange to say,
it is held by most observers who have made brief
visits to different portions of the chain that each
island is a distinct volcanic upheaval, but little
changed since the period of emergence from the sea,
an impression made no doubt by the volcanic char
acter of most of the rocks, ancient and recent, of
which they are composed, and by the many extinct,
or feebly active volcanoes occurring here and there
along the summits of the highest masses. But, on
the contrary, all the evidence we have seen goes to
show that the amount of glacial denudation these
rocks have undergone is very great, so great that,
with the exception of the recent craters, almost every
existing feature is distinctly glacial. The compara
tively featureless pre-glacial rocks have been heav
ily sculptured and fashioned into the endless va-
262

-

; ~"

1

'• , i

KING ISLAND

GRANITE ROCKS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF SAINT LAWRENCE

ISLAND, SHOWING EFFECTS OF OVERSWEEPING ACTION

OF ICE-SHEET

APPENDIX

riety they now present of peak and ridge, valley and
fiord and clustering islets, harmoniously correlated
in accordance with glacial law.

On Mount Makushin,1 whose summit reaches an
elevation of about nine thousand feet above the sea,
several small glaciers still exist, while others yet
smaller may be hidden in the basins of other moun
tains not yet explored. The summit of Makushin, at
the time my observations were made, was capped
with heavy clouds, and from beneath these the gla
ciers were seen descending imposingly into the open
sunshine to within a thousand or fifteen hundred feet
of the sea level, the largest perhaps about six miles in
length. After the clouds cleared away the summit
was seen to be heavily capped with ice, leaving only
the crumbling edges of the dividing ridges and sub
ordinate peaks free. The lower slopes of the moun
tain and the wide valleys proceeding from the gla
ciers present testimony of every kind to show that
these glaciers now lingering on the summit once
flowed directly into the sea. The adjacent moun
tains, though now mostly free from ice, are covered
with glacial markings, extending over all the low
grounds about their bases and the shores of the
fiords, and over many of the rocks now under water.
But besides this evidence of recent local glacial
abundance, we find traces of far grander glacial con
ditions on the heavily abraded rocks along the shores
of the passes separating the islands, and also in the
low wide valleys extending in a direction parallel
with the passes across the islands, indicating the

1 Muir probably adopted current estimates of the altitude of this
volcano. Gannett's Altitudes in Alaska (1900) gives the elevation as 5474
feet, and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Map, No. 8860
(1916), as 5691 feet.

263

APPENDIX

movement of a vast ice-sheet from the north over
the ground now covered by Bering Sea.

The amount of degradation this island region has
undergone is only partially manifested by the crum
bling, sharpened condition of the ridges and peaks,
the abraded surfaces that have been overswept,
and by the extent of the valleys and fiords, and the
gaps between the mountains and islands.

That these valleys, fiords, forges, and gaps, great
and small, like those of the Sierra, are not a result of
local subsidences and upheavals, but of the removal
of the material that once filled them, is shown by the
broken condition and the similarity of the physical
structure and composition of their contiguous sides,
just as the correspondence between the tiers of ma
sonry on either side of a broken gap in a wall shows
that the missing blocks required to fill it up have
been removed.

The chief agents of erosion and transportation
are water and ice, each being regarded as the more
influential by different observers, though the phe
nomena to which they give rise are widely different.
All geologists recognize the fact that glaciers wear
away the rocks over which they move, but great
vagueness prevails as to the size of the fragments of
erosion, and the way they are detached and re
moved; and if possible still greater vagueness pre
vails as to the forms and characteristics in general
of the mountains, hills, rocks, valleys, etc., resulting
from this erosion.

Towards the end of summer, when the snow is

melted from the lower portions of the glaciers,

particles of dust and sand may be seen scattered

over their surfaces, together with angular masses of

264

APPENDIX

rocks, derived from the shattered storm-beaten
cliffs above their fountains. The separation of these
masses, which vary greatly in size, is due only in
part to the action of the glacier, though they are
all transported on its surface like floating drift on
a river, and deposited together in moraines. The
winds supply a portion of the sand and dust, some
of the larger fragments are set free by the action of
frost, rains, and general weathering agents, consid
erable quantities are swept down in avalanches of
snow where the inclination of the slopes is favorable
to their action, and shaken down by earthquake
shocks, while the glacier itself plays an important
part in the production of these superficial effects
by undermining the cliffs from whence the frag
ments fall.

But in all moraines boulders and small dust par
ticles may be recognized that have not been thus
derived from the weathered cliffs and dividing ridges
projecting above the glaciers, but from the rocks
past which and over which the glaciers flow. The
streams which drain glaciers are always turbid with
finely ground mud particles worn off the bed-rocks
by a sliding motion, accompanied by great pressure,
giving rise to polished surfaces, and keeping up a
waste that never for a moment ceases while the gla
cier exists; and besides these small particles boulders
are found that may be traced to their origin in the
bottoms or sides of the channels. Accordingly, an
abrupt transition is discovered from the polished
and plain portions of the channels to the more or
less angular and fractured portions, showing that
glaciers degrade the rocks over which they pass in
at least two different ways, by grinding them into
265

APPENDIX

mud, and by crushing, breaking, and splitting them
into a coarse detritus of chips and boulders, the forms
and sizes of which are in great part determined by
the divisional planes the rocks possess, and the
intensity and direction of application of the force
brought to bear on them. The quantity of this
coarser material remaining in the channels along the
lines of dispersal, and the probable rate of move
ment of the glaciers that quarried and transported it,
form data from which some approximation to the
rate of this method of degradation may be reached.

The amount of influence exerted on the Aleutian
region by running water in its various forms, and by
the winds, avalanches, and the atmosphere in de
grading and fashioning the surface subsequent to
the melting of the ice, is as yet scarcely more ap
preciable than it is in the upper middle portion
of the Sierra; for, besides being much feebler in their
action, the time during which the region has been
exposed to their influence is comparatively short.

On the other hand, the quantity of material quar
ried and carried away by the force of the ice, in proc
ess of bringing the region into its present condition,
can hardly be overestimated; for, with the excep
tion of the recent volcanic cones, almost every
noticeable feature, great and small, has evidently
been ground down into the form of greatest strength
in relation to the stress of oversweeping floods of
ice. And that these present features are not the
pre-glacial features merely smoothed and polished
and otherwise superficially altered, but an entirely
new set sculptured from a surface comparatively
featureless, is manifested by the relationship exist
ing between the spaces that separate them and the

266

APPENDIX

glacier fountains. The greater the valley or hollow
of any sort, the greater the snow-collecting basin
above it whence flowed the ice that created it, not
a fiord or valley being found here or on any portion
of the Pacific Coast that does not conduct to foun
tains of vanished or residual glaciers corresponding
with it in size and position as cause and effect.

And, furthermore, that the courses of the present
valleys were not determined by the streams of water
now occupying them, nor by pre-glacial streams,
but by the glaciers of the last or of some former
glacial period, is shown by the fact that the direc
tions of the trends of all these valleys, however va
riable, are resultants of the forces of the main trunk
glaciers that filled them and their inflowing tribu
tary glaciers, the wriggling fortuitous trends of val
leys formed by the action of water being essentially
different from those formed by ice; and therefore
not liable to be confounded with them. Neither
can we suppose pre-existing fissures or local sub
sidences to have exercised any primary determining
influence, there being no conceivable coincidence
between the trends of fissures and subsidences and
the specific trends of ice-created valleys and basins
in general, nor between the position and direction
of extension of these hypothetical fissures, sub
sidences, and foldings and the positions of ice-
fountains.

The Pribilof Islands, St. Paul, St. George, Wal
rus, and Otter, appear in general views from the sea
as mere storm-beaten remnants of a once continuous
land, wasted into bluffs around their shores by the
action of the waves, all their upper surfaces being
planed down by a heavy oversweeping ice-sheet,
267

APPENDIX

slightly roughened here and there with low ridges
and hillocks that alternate with shallow valleys.
None of their features, as far as I could discover
without opportunity for close observation, showed
any trace of local glaciation or of volcanic action
subsequent to the period of universal glaciation.

St. Lawrence Island, the largest in Bering Sea,
is situated at a distance of about one hundred and
twenty miles off the mouths of the Yukon, and
forty miles from the nearest point on the coast of
Siberia. It is about a hundred miles long from
east to west, fifteen miles in average width, and is
chiefly composed of various kinds of granite, slate,
and lava.

The highest portion along the middle is diversi
fied with groups of volcanic cones, some of which are
of considerable size and clearly post-glacial in age,
presenting well-defined craters and regular slopes
down to the base, though I saw no evidence of their
having poured forth extensive streams of molten
lava over the adjacent rocks since the close of the
glacial period; for, with the exception of the ground
occupied by the cones, all the surface is marked
with glacial inscriptions of the most telling kind —
moraines, erratic boulders, roches moutonnees, in
great abundance and variety as to size, and alter
nating ridges and valleys with wide U-shaped cross-
sections, and with nearly parallel trends across the
island in a general north to south direction, some of
them extending from shore to shore, and all show
ing subordination to the grinding, furrowing action
of a broad over-sweeping ice-sheet.

Some of the widest gap-like valleys have been
eroded nearly to the level of the sea, indicating that
268

-^. ^7=7^' :f*"**^7"--T'.-.?-»'y-.-'. "~~ ' " r"\"rs"

VOLCANIC CONES ON SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND

BED OF SMALL RESIDUAL GLACIER ON SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND

HERALD ISLAND

APPENDIX

if the ice action had gone on much longer the present
single island would have been eroded into a group of
small ones; or the entire mass of the island would
have been degraded beneath the sea level, obliter
ating it from the landscape to be in part restored
perhaps by the antagonistic elevating volcanic ac
tion. The action of local glaciers has been compara
tively light hereabouts, not enough greatly to ob
scure or interrupt the overmastering effects of the
ice-sheet, though they have given marked charac
ter to the sculpture of some of the higher portions of
the island.

The two Diomede Islands and Fairway Rock are
mostly residual masses of granite brought into relief
and separated from one another and from the gen
eral mass of the continent, by the action of ice in
removing the missing material, while the islands
remain because of superior resistance offered to
the universal degrading force. That they are rem
nants of a once continuous land now separated by
Bering Strait is indicated by the relative condition
of the sides of the islands and of the contiguous
shoulders of the continents, East Cape and Cape
Prince of Wales, while the general configuration of
the islands shows that they have been subjected
to a glaciation of the most comprehensive kind,
leaving them as roches moutonnees on a grand scale.

I discovered traces of local glaciation on the
largest of the three, but the effects produced by this
cause are comparatively slight, while the action of
excessive moisture in the form of almost constant
fogs and rains throughout the summer months,
combined with frost and thaw, has effected a con
siderable amount of denudation, manifested by
269

APPENDIX

groups of crumbling pinnacles occurring here and
there on the summits.

Sledge, King, and Herald Islands are evidently
of similar origin, displaying the same glacial traces,
and varying chiefly in the amount of post-glacial
waste they have suffered, and in the consequent
degree of clearness of the testimony they present.
During our visit to Herald Island an exceptionally
favorable opportunity offered as to the time of year,
state of the weather, etc., for observation.

Kellett, who first discovered this island and
landed on it under adverse circumstances, describes
it as an inaccessible rock. The sides are indeed pre
cipitous in the main, but mountaineers would find
many slopes and gullies by which the summit could
be easily attained. We landed on the southwest
side, opposite the mouth of a small valley, the bed
of a vanished glacier. A short gully which con
ducts from the water's edge to the mouth of the
valley proper is very steep, and at the time of our
visit was blocked with compacted snow, in which
steps had to be cut, but beyond this no difficulty
was encountered, the ice having graded a fine broad
way to the summit. Thence following the highest
ground nearly to the northwestern extremity, we
obtained views of most of the surface. The highest
point is about twelve hundred feet above the sea,
about a mile and a half from the northwest end of
the island, and four and a half miles from the south
east. This makes the island about six miles long,
the average width being about two miles.

Near the middle of the island there is a low gap,
where the width is only about half a mile, and the
height of the summit of this portion of the water-
270

.... .

nn

APPENDIX

shed between the two sides is only about two hun
dred and fifty feet. The entire island as far as seen
is a mass of granite, with the exception of a patch
of metamorphic slates near the middle, which no
doubt owes its existence, with so considerable a
height, to the superior resistance it offered to the
degrading action of ice, traces of which are presented
in the general moutonnee form of the island, and in
the smooth parallel ridges and valleys trending north
and south. These evidently have not been deter
mined as to size, form, position, or the direction of
their trends by subsidences, upheavals, foldings, or
any structural peculiarity of the rocks in which
they have been eroded, but simply by the mechan
ical force of an oversweeping ice-sheet.

The effects of local glaciers are seen in short val
leys of considerable depth as compared with the area
from which their fountain snows were derived. We
noticed four of these valleys that had been occu
pied by residual glaciers; and on the hardest and
most enduring of the upswelling rock bosses several
patches of the ancient scored and polished surface
were discovered, still in a good state of preservation.
That these local glaciers have but recently vanished
is indicated by the raw appearance of the surface
of their beds, while one small glacier remnant oc
cupying a sheltered hollow and possessing a well-
characterized terminal moraine seems to be still
feebly active in the last stage of decadence. This
small granite island, standing solitary in the Polar
Ocean, we regard as one of the most interesting and
significant of the monuments of geographical change
effected by general glaciation.

Our stay on Wrangell Land was too short to ad-
271

APPENDIX

mit of more than a hasty examination of a few
square miles of surface near the eastern extremity.
The rock here is a close-grained clay slate, cleaving
freely into thin flakes, with occasional compact met-
amorphic masses rising above the general surface or
forming cliffs along the shore. The soil about the
banks of a river of considerable size, that enters the
ocean here, has evidently been derived in the main
from the underlying slates, indicating a rapid weath
ering of the surface. A few small deposits of mo
raine material were discovered containing traveled
boulders of quartz and granite, no doubt from the
mountains in which the river takes its rise, while
the valley now occupied by the river manifests its
glacial origin in its form and trends, the small
portion in the middle eroded by the river itself
being clearly distinguished by its abrupt angular
sides, which contrast sharply with the glacial out
lines.

In general views obtained in sailing along its
southern coast the phenomena presented seemed
essentially the same as have been described else
where — hills, valleys, and sculptured peaks, testi
fying in all their main trends and contours to the
action of ice. A range of mountains of moderate
height extends from one extremity of the island to
the other, a distance of about sixty-five miles, the
highest point as measured by Lieutenant Berry be
ing twenty-five hundred feet above the sea.

All the coast region of Siberia that came under
our observation, from the Gulf of Anadir to North
Cape, presents traces in great abundance and va
riety of universal as well as local glaciation. Between
Plover and St. Lawrence Bays, where the moun-
272

OVERSWEPT GLACIAL VALLEYS AND RIDGES ON SAINT
LAWRENCE ISLAND

BED OF LOCAL GLACIER, SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND

APPENDIX

tains attain their greatest elevation and where local
glaciation has been heaviest, the coast is lacerated
with deep fiords, on the lofty granite walls of which
the glacial records are in many places well pre
served, and offer evidence that could hardly be over
looked by the most careless observer.

Our first general views of this region were ob
tained on June 7, when it was yet winter, and the
landscape was covered with snow down to the
water's edge. After several days of storm the clouds
lifted, exposing the heavily abraded fronts of out
standing cliffs; then the smooth overswept ridges
and slopes at the base of the mountains came in
sight, and one angular peak after another, until a
continuous range forty to fifty miles long could be
seen from one standpoint. Many of the peaks are
fluted with the narrow channels of avalanches, and
hollowed with neve amphitheaters of great beauty of
form, while long withdrawing fiords and valleys may
be traced back into the recesses of the highest groups,
once the beds of glaciers that flowed in imposing
ranks to the sea.

Plover Bay, which I examined in detail, may be
taken as a good representative of the fiords of this
portion of the coast. The walls rise to an average
height of about two thousand feet, and present a
severely -desolate and bedraggled appearance, owing
to the crumbling condition of the rocks, which in
most places are being rapidly disintegrated, loading
the slopes with loose, shifting detritus whenever the
angle is low enough to allow it to come to rest. When
examined closely, however, this loose material is
found to be of no great depth. The solid rock comes
to the surface in many places, and on the most en-
273

APPENDIX

during portions rounded glaciated surfaces are still
found grooved, scratched, and polished in small
patches from the sea level up to a height of a
thousand feet or more.

Large taluses with their bases under the water
occur on both sides of the fiord in front of the side
canons that partially separate the main mountain
masses that form the walls. These taluses are com
posed in great part of moraine material, brought
down by avalanches of snow from the terminal
moraines of small vanished glaciers that lay at a
height of from one to five thousand feet, in recesses
where the snow accumulated from the surrounding
slopes, and where sheltered from the direct action
of the sun the glaciers lingered longest. These re
cent moraines are formed of several concentric
masses shoved together, showing that the glaciers
to which they belonged melted and receded gradu
ally with slight fluctuations of level and rate of de
cadence, in accordance with conditions of snow
fall, temperature, etc., like those of lower latitudes.

When the main central glacier that filled this
fiord was in its prime as a distinct glacier it meas
ured about thirty miles in length and from five to
six miles in width, and was from two to three thou
sand feet in depth. It then had at least five main
tributaries, which, as the trunk melted, became inde
pendent glaciers; and, again, as the trunks of these
main tributaries melted, their smaller tributaries,
numbering about seventy-five, and from less than
a mile to several miles in length, became separate
glaciers and lingered probably for centuries in the
high, cool fountains. These also, as far as we have
seen, have vanished, though possibly some wasting
274

APPENDIX

remnant may still exist in the highest and best-
protected recesses about the head of the fiord.

Along the coast, a distance of fifteen or twenty
miles to the eastward and southward of the mouth
of Metchigme Bay, interesting deposits occur of
roughly stratified glacial detritus in the form of sand,
gravel, and boulders. They rise from the shore in
raw, wave-washed bluffs about forty feet high and
extend to the base of the mountains as a gently
inclined plain, with a width in some places of two
or three miles. Similar morainal deposits were also
observed on the American coast at Golofnin Bay,
Kotzebue Sound, Cape Prince of Wales, and else
where. At Cape Prince of Wales the formation rises
in successive well-defined terraces.

The peninsula, the extremity of which forms East
Cape, trends nearly in an easterly direction from the
mainland, and consequently occupies a telling posi
tion with reference to ice moving from the north
ward. I was therefore eager to examine it to see
what testimony it might have to offer. We landed
during favorable weather on the south side at a
small Eskimo village built on a rough moraine, and
pushed on direct to the summit of the watershed,
from which good general views of nearly all the
surface of the peninsula were obtained.

The dividing ridge along the high eastern portion
is traversed by a telling series of parallel grooves
and small valleys trending north and south ap
proximately, the curves on the north commencing
nearly at the water's edge, while the south side is
more or less precipitous. The culminating point of
the elevated eastern portion of the peninsula is
about twenty-five hundred feet high, and has been
275

APPENDIX

cut from the mainland and added as another island
to the Diomede group, the wide gap of low ground
connecting it with the adjacent mountainous por
tion of the mainland being only a few feet above
tide-water. Out in the midst of this low, flat region
smooth upswelling roches moutonnees were discov
ered here and there like groups of small islands, with
trends and contours emphatically glacial, all telling
the action of a universal abrading ice-sheet moving
southward.

Hence along the coast to Cape North, which is
the limit of our observations in this direction, the
same class of ice phenomena was discovered —
moraine material, washed and re-formed, moutonnee
masses of the harder rocks standing like islands in
the low, mossy tundra, and traveled boulders and
pebbles lying stranded on the summits of rocky
headlands.

These enduring monuments are particularly
abundant and significant in the neighborhood of
Cape Wankarem, where the granite is more com
pact and resisting than is commonly found in the
Arctic regions we have visited, and consequently
has longer retained the more evanescent of the gla
cial markings. Cape Wankarem is a narrow, flat-
topped, residual mass of this enduring granite, on
the summit of which two patches of the original
polished surface were discovered that still retains
the fine striae and many erratic boulders of slate,
quartz, and various kinds of lava, which, from the
configuration and geographical position of the cape
with reference to the surrounding region, could not
have been brought to their present resting-places
by any local glacier.

276

2: <

< o

< a

APPENDIX

Cape Serdzekamen is another of these residual
island masses, brought into relief by general glacial
denudation, manifesting its origin in every feature,
and corroborating the testimony given at Cape
Wankarem and elsewhere in the most emphatic
manner.

All the sections of the tundra seen either on the
Siberian or Alaskan coast lead towards the conclu
sion that the ground is glacial, re-formed under the
action of running water derived in broad, shallow
currents from the melting, receding edges of the ice-
sheet, and also in some measure from ice left on the
high lands after the main ice-sheet had been with
drawn; for these low, flat deposits differ in no par
ticular of form or composition that we have been
able to detect from those still in process of forma
tion in front of the large receding glaciers of south
eastern Alaska. On many of the so-called " mud
flats" extending from the snouts of glaciers that
have receded a few miles from the shore, mosses and
lichens and other kinds of tundra vegetation are
being gradually acquired, and when thus clothed
these patches of tundra are not to be distinguished
from the extensive deposits about the shores of the
Arctic regions.

The phenomena observed on the American coast
from St. Michael to Point Barrow differ in no essen
tial particular from those which have been described
on the opposite shores of Siberia. Moraines more or
less wasted, and re-formations of moraine material,
smooth overswept ridges with glacial trends and the
corresponding valleys, roches moutonnees, and the
fountain amphitheaters of local glaciers were ob
served almost everywhere on the mountainous
277

APPENDIX

portions of the coast, though in general more
deeply weathered, owing mainly to the occurrence
of less resisting rocks, limestones, sandstones, por
ous lavas, etc.

A number of well-characterized moraines so sit
uated with reference to topographical conditions as
to have escaped destructive washing were noticed
near Cape Lisburne, and moraine deposits of great
extent at Kotzebue Sound and Golofnin Bay, of
which many fine sections were exposed. At the
latter locality, judging from the comparatively
fresh appearance of the rock surfaces and deposits
aroundjthe head of the bay, and the height and
extent of the ice-fountains, the glacier that dis
charged here was probably the last to vanish from
the American shore of Bering Sea.

As to the thickness attained by the ice-sheet over
the regions that we have been examining during
the period of greatest glacial development, we have
seen that it passed heavily over the islands of
Bering Sea and the adjacent mountains on either
side, especially at East Cape and Cape Prince of
Wales, at a height of twenty-five hundred feet or
more above the bottom of Bering Sea and Strait,
the average depth of water here being about a hun
dred and fifty feet. And though the lowest portion
of the land beneath the ice may have been degraded
to a considerable depth subsequent to the time when
these highest portions were left bare, on the other
hand the level of the ice must have been consider
ably higher than the summits over which it passed,
inasmuch as they give evidence of having been
heavily abraded. It appears, therefore, that the
thickness of the general northern ice-sheet through-
278

APPENDIX

out a considerable portion of its history was not
less than twenty-five hundred feet, and probably
more, over the northern portion of the region
now covered by Bering Sea and part of the Arctic
Ocean.

In view of this colossal ice-flood grinding on
throughout the hundreds of thousands of years of
the glacial period, the excavation of the shallow
basins of Bering Sea and Strait and the Arctic Ocean
must be taken as only a small part of the erosion
effected; for so shallow are these waters, were the
tallest sequoias planted on the bottom where sound
ings have been made, their tops would rise in most
places a hundred feet or more above the surface.
The Plover Bay glacier, as we have shown, eroded
the granite in the formation of its channel to a depth
of not less than two thousand feet, and the amount
of erosion effected by the ice-sheet was probably
much greater.

It appears, therefore, in summing up the results
of our observations along the North Pacific and
Arctic coasts : —

(1) That the southernmost glacier lies on the
Sierra near latitude 36°; the northernmost,
with perhaps a few exceptions, near 62°.

(2) That the region of greatest glaciation lies be
tween 56° and 61°, where the mountains are
highest and the snowfall greatest.

(3) That an ice-sheet flowed from the Arctic re
gions, from beyond the end of the continent,
pursuing a general southerly direction, and
discharged into the Pacific Ocean south of
the Aleutian Islands.

(4) That of this continuous ice-sheet, extending

279

APPENDIX

from the Arctic Ocean beyond the northern
extremity of the continent, the glaciers, great
and small, now existing are the remnants.
(5) That the basins of Bering Sea and Strait and
of the adjacent portion of the Arctic Ocean
are simply those portions of the bed of the ice-
sheet which were eroded to a moderate depth
beneath the level of the sea, and over which
the ocean waters were gradually extended as
the ice-sheet was withdrawn, thus separat
ing the continents of Asia and America, at the
close of the glacial period.

We are now better prepared to read the changes
that have taken place on the Sierra, and fortunately,
as we have already seen, nowhere is the glacial rec-
cord clearer.

II

BOTANICAL NOTES

INTRODUCTORY

THE plants named in the following notes were
collected at many localities on the coasts of Alaska
and Siberia, and on St. Lawrence, Wrangell, and
Herald Islands, between about latitude 54° and
71° N., longitude 161° and 178° W., in the course
of short excursions, some of them less than an hour
in length. Inasmuch as the flora of the arctic and
subarctic regions is nearly the same everywhere, the
discovery of many species new to science was not to
be expected. The collection, however, will no doubt
be valuable for comparison with the plants of other
regions. In general the physiognomy of the vege
tation of the polar regions resembles that of the
alpine valleys of the temperate zones; so much so
that the botanist on the coast of Arctic Siberia or
America might readily fancy himself on the Sierra
Nevada at a height of ten to twelve thousand feet
above the sea.

There is no line of perpetual snow on any portion
of the Arctic regions known to explorers. The snow
disappears every summer, not only from the low,
sandy shores and boggy tundras, but also from the
tops of the mountains, and all the upper slopes and
valleys with the exception of small patches of drifts
and avalanche-heaps hardly noticeable in general
views. But though nowhere excessively deep or
permanent, the snow-mantle is universal during
281

APPENDIX

winter, and the plants are solidly frozen and buried
for nearly three fourths of the year. In this condi
tion they enjoy a sleep and rest about as profound
as death, from which they awake in the months of
June and July in vigorous health, and speedily reach
a far higher development of leaf and flower and fruit
than is generally supposed. On the drier banks and
hills about Kotzebue Sound, Cape Thompson, and
Cape Lisburne, many species show but little cli
matic repression, and during the long summer days
grow tall enough to wave in the wind, and unfold
flowers in as rich profusion and as highly colored
as may be found in regions lying a thousand miles
farther south.

UNALASKA

To the botanist approaching any portion of the
Aleutian chain of islands from the southward during
the winter or spring months, the view is severely
desolate and forbidding. The snow comes down to
the water's edge in solid white, interrupted only by
dark, outstanding bluffs with faces too steep for
snow to lie on, and by the backs of rounded rocks
and long, rugged reefs beaten and overswept by
heavy breakers rolling in from the Pacific, while
throughout nearly every month of the year the
higher mountains are wrapped in gloomy, dripping
storm-clouds.

Nevertheless, vegetation here is remarkably close
and luxuriant, and crowded with showy bloom,
covering almost every foot of the ground up to a
height of about a thousand feet above the sea — •
the harsh trachytic rocks, and even the cindery
bases of the craters, as well as the moraines and
282

APPENDIX

rough soil-beds outspread on the low portions of
the short, narrow valleys.

On the twentieth of May we found the showy
Geum glaciate already in flower, also an arctostaphy-
los and draba, on a slope facing the south, near the
harbor of Unalaska. The willows, too, were then
beginning to put forth their catkins, while a multi
tude of green points were springing up in sheltered
spots wherever the snow had vanished. At a height
of four or five hundred feet, however, winter was
still unbroken, with scarce a memory of the rich
bloom of summer.

During a few short excursions along the shores
of Unalaska Harbor, and on two of the adjacent
mountains, towards the end of May and the be
ginning of October, we saw about fifty species of
flowering plants — empetrum, vaccinium, bryan-
thus, pyrola, arctostaphylos, ledum, cassiope, lu-
pinus, geranium, epilobium, silene, draba, and
saxifraga, being the most telling and characteristic
of the genera represented. Empetrum nigrum, a
bryanthus, and three species of vaccinium make
a grand display when in flower, and show their
massed colors at a considerable distance.

Almost the entire surface of the valleys and hills
and lower slopes of the mountains is covered with a
dense, spongy plush of lichens and mosses similar to
that which covers the tundras of the Arctic regions,
making a rich green mantle on which the showy,
flowering plants are strikingly relieved, though
these grow far more luxuriantly on the banks of the
streams where the drainage is less interrupted. Here
also the ferns, of which I saw three species, are taller
and more abundant, some of them arching their
283

APPENDIX

broad, delicate fronds over one's shoulders, while in
similar situations the tallest of the five grasses that
were seen reaches a height of nearly six feet, and
forms a growth close enough for the farmer's scythe.

Not a single tree has been seen on any of the
islands of the chain west of Kodiak, excepting a few
spruces brought from Sitka and planted at Una-
laska by the Russians about fifty years ago. They
are still alive in a dwarfed condition, having made
scarce any appreciable growth since they were
planted. These facts are the more remarkable, since
in southeastern Alaska, lying both to the north and
south of here, and on the many islands of the
Alexander Archipelago, as well as on the mainland,
forests of beautiful conifers flourish exuberantly
and attain noble dimensions, while the climatic con
ditions generally do not appear to differ greatly
from those that obtain on these treeless islands.

Wherever cattle have been introduced they have
prospered and grown fat on the abundance of rich
nutritious pasturage to be found almost everywhere
in the deep, withdrawing valleys and on the green
slopes of the hills and mountains, but the wetness of
the summer months will always prevent the making
of hay in any considerable quantities.

The agricultural possibilities of these islands
seem also to be very limited. The hardier of the
cereals — rye, barley, and oats — make a good,
vigorous growth, and head out, but seldom or never
mature, on account of insufficient sunshine and
overabundance of moisture in the form of long-con
tinued, drizzling fogs and rains. Green crops, how
ever, as potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beets, and most
other common garden vegetables, thrive wherever
284

APPENDIX

the ground is thoroughly drained and has a south
erly exposure.

ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND

St. Lawrence Island, as far as our observations
extended, is mostly a dreary mass of granite and
lava of various forms and colors, roughened with
volcanic cones, covered with snow, and rigidly
bound in ocean ice for half the year. Inasmuch as it
lies broadsidewise to the direction pursued by the
great ice-sheet that recently filled Bering Sea, and
its rocks offered unequal resistance to the denuding
action of the ice, the island is traversed by numer
ous ridges and low, gap-like valleys all trending in
the same general direction. Some of the lowest of
these transverse valleys have been degraded nearly
to the level of the sea, showing that if the glacia-
tion to which the island has been subjected had
been slightly greater, we should have found several
islands here instead of one.

At the time of our first visit, May 28, winter still
had full possession, but eleven days later we found
the dwarf willows, drabas, erigerons, and saxi
frages pushing up their buds and leaves, on spots
bare of snow, with wonderful rapidity. This was the
beginning of spring at the northwest end of the
island. On July 4 the flora seemed to have reached
its highest development. The bottoms of the glacial
valleys were in many places covered with tall grasses
and carices evenly planted and forming meadows
of considerable size, while the drier portions and the
sloping grounds about them were enlivened with
gay, highly colored flowers from an inch to nearly
two feet in height, such as Aconitum Napellus, L.,

285

APPENDIX

var. delphini folium, Ser., Polemonium coeruleum, L.,
Papaver nudicaule, L., Draba alpina, L., and Silene
acaulis, L., in large, closely flowered tufts, as well
as andromeda, ledum, linnsea, cassiope, and several
species of vaccinium and saxifraga.

ST. MICHAEL

The region about St. Michael is a magnificent
tundra, crowded with Arctic lichens and mosses,
which here develop under most favorable condi
tions. In the spongy plush formed by the lower
plants, in which one sinks almost knee-deep at
every step, there is a sparse growth of grasses,
carices, and rushes, tall enough to wave in the wind,
while empetrum, the dwarf birch, and the various
heath worts flourish here in all their beauty of bright
leaves and flowers. The moss mantle for the most
part rests on a stratum of ice that never melts to
any great extent, and the ice on a bed rock of black
vesicular lava. Ridges of the lava rise here and
there above the general level in rough masses, afford
ing ground for plants that like a drier soil. Nu
merous hollows and watercourses also occur on the
general tundra, whose well-drained banks are decked
with gay flowers in lavish abundance, and meadow
patches of grasses shoulder-high, suggestive of re
gions much farther south.

The following plants and a few doubtful species
not yet determined were collected here: —

Aspidium fragrans, Sw. Betula nana, L.

Woodsia ihensis, (L.), R. Br. Alnus viridis, DC.

Eriophorum capitatum, Hos. Polygonum alpinum, All.

Carex vulgaris, (Fries), Willd., var. Arenaria lateriflora, L.

alpina. Stellaria longipes, Goldie.

Lloydia serotina, (Sweet), Reichenb. Silene acaulis, L.

Tofieldia coccinea, Richards. Anemone nardasiflora, L.

286

APPENDIX

Anemone pitniflora, Michx. Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L.

Caliha palustris, L., var. asarifolia, Arctostaphylos alpina, Spreng.

Rothr. Ledum palustre, L.

Corydalis pauciflora. Diapensia lapponica, L.

Draba alpina, L. Armeria vulgaris, Willd.

incana, L. Primula borealis, Duby.

Eulrema arenicola, Richards. Polemonium cceruleum, L.

Saxifraga nivalis, L. Mertensia paniculata, Desv.

" JumzctfoZia.Waldst.&Kit. Pedicularis sudetica, Willd.
Rubus Chamcemorus, L. euphrasi aides, Stev.

" arcticus, L. Langsdorffi, Fisch., var.

Potentilla nivea, L. lanata, Gray.

Dryas octopetala, L. Pinguicula villosa, L.

Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray. Linncea borealis, Gronov.

Astragalus alpinus, L. Valeriana capitata (Pall.), Willd.

" frigidus, Gray, var. lit- Saussurea alpina, DC.

toralis. Nardosmia frigida, Hook.

Lathyrus maritimus, Bigel. Senecio frigidus, Less.
Epilobium latifolium, L. palustris, Hook.

Cassiope tetragone, (D. Don.), Desv. Arnica angustifolia, Vahl.

Andromeda polifolia, L. Artemisia arctica, Bess.

Loiseleuria procumbens, Desv. Matricaria inodora, L.

GOLOFNIN BAY

The tundra flora on the west side of Golofnin
Bay is remarkably close and luxuriant, covering
almost every foot of the ground, the hills as well as
the valleys, while the sandy beach and a bank of
coarsely stratified moraine material a few yards
back from the beach were blooming like a garden
with Lathyrus maritimus, Iris sibirica, Polemonium
coeruleum, etc., diversified with clumps and patches
of Elymus arenarius, Alnus viridis, and Abies alba.

This is one of the few points on the east side of
Bering Sea where trees closely approach the shore.
The white spruce occurs here in small groves or
thickets of well-developed, erect trees fifteen or
twenty feet high, near the level of the sea, at a dis
tance of about six or eight miles from the mouth of
the bay, and gradually becomes irregular and dwarfed
as it approaches the shore. Here a number of dead
and dying specimens were observed, indicating that
287

APPENDIX

conditions of soil, climate, and relations to other
plants were becoming more unfavorable, and caus
ing the tree-line to recede from the coast.

The following collection was made here July 10 : —

Aspidium spinulosum, Sw. Rubus arcticus, L.

Elymus arenarius, L. Epilobium latifolium, L.

Poa trivialis, L. Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L.

Carex vesicaria, L., var. alpigena, Trientalis europcea, L., var. arctica,

Fries. Ledeb.

Lloydia serotina, (Sweet), Reichenb. Gentiana glauca, Pall,

/ris sibirica, L. Polemonium cceruleum, L.

Arenaria peploides, L. Pinguicula villosa, L.

Eutrema arenicola, Hook. Chrysanthemum arcticum, L.

Spiraea betulifolia, Pall. Artemisia Tilesii, Ledeb.

KOTZEBUE SOUND

The flora of the region about the head of Kotzebue
Sound is hardly less luxuriant and rich in species
than that of other points, visited by the Corwin,
lying several degrees farther south. Fine nutritious
grasses suitable for the fattening of cattle, and from
two to six feet high, are not of rare occurrence on
meadows of considerable extent, and along stream-
banks wherever the stagnant waters of the tundra
have been drained off, while in similar localities the
most showy of the arctic plants bloom in all their
freshness and beauty, manifesting no sign of frost,
or unfavorable conditions of any kind whatever.

A striking result of the airing and draining of the
boggy tundra soil is shown on the ice-bluffs around
Eschscholtz Bay, where it has been undermined by
the melting of the ice on which it rests. In falling
down the face of the ice-wall it is well shaken and
rolled before it again comes to rest on terraced or
gently sloping portions of the wall. The original
vegetation of the tundra is thus destroyed, and tall
grasses spring up on the fresh, mellow ground as it
accumulates from time to time, growing lush and
288

APPENDIX

rank, though in many places that we noted these
new soil-beds are not more than a foot in depth, and
lie on the solid ice.

At the time of our last visit to this interesting re
gion, about the middle of September, the weather
was still fine, suggesting the Indian summer of the
Western States. The tundra glowed in the mellow
sunshine with the colors of the ripe foliage of vac-
cinium, empetrum, arctostaphylos, and dwarf birch ;
red, purple, and yellow, in pure bright tones, while
the berries, hardly less beautiful, were scattered
everywhere as if they had been sown broadcast with
a lavish hand, the whole blending harmoniously
with the neutral tints of the furred bed of lichens
and mosses on which the bright leaves and berries
were painted.

On several points about the sound the white
spruce occurs in small, compact groves within a few
miles of the shore; and pyrola, which belongs to
wooded regions, is abundant where no trees are now
in sight, tending to show that areas of considerable
extent, now treeless, were once forested.

The plants collected are : —

Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. Arctostaphylos alpina, Spreng.

A Ilium schcenoprasum, L. Cassiope tetragone, (D. Don), Desv.

Salix polaris, Wahlenb. Ledum palustre, L.

Polygonum viviparum, L. Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L.

Stellaria longipes, Goklie. Vaccinium uliginosum, L., var. muc-

Cerastium alpinum, L., var. Behrin- ronata, Herder.

gianum, Regel. Armeriavulgaris, Willd., var. arctica,
Papaver nudicaule, L. Cham.

Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retz. Trientalis europcea, L., var. arctica,
Potentilla anserina, L., var. Ledeb.

" biflora, Willd. Mertensia maritima, L. (S. F. Gray),
" fruticosa, L. Desv.

Lupinus arcticus, Watson. Castitteia pallida, Kunth.

Hedysarum boreale, Nutt. Pedicularis sudetica, Willd.
Empetrum nigrum, L. verticillata, L.

Pyrola rotundifolia, L., var. pumila, Galium boreale, L.

Hook. Senecio palustris, Hook.

289

APPENDIX

CAPE THOMPSON

The Cape Thompson flora is richer in species and
individuals than that of any other point on the Arctic
shores we have seen, owing no doubt mainly to the
better drainage of the ground through the fissured
frost-cracked limestone, which hereabouts is the
principal rock.

Where the hill-slopes are steepest the rock fre
quently occurs in loose, angular masses, and is en
tirely bare of soil. But between these barren slopes
there are valleys where the showiest of the Arctic
plants bloom in rich profusion and variety, forming
brilliant masses of color — purple, yellow, and blue
— where certain species form beds of considerable
size, almost to the exclusion of others.

The following list was obtained here July 19 : —

Cystopteris fragilis, (L.), Bernh. Papaver nudicaule, L.

Trisetum subspicatum, Beauv., Draba stellata, Jacq., var. nivalis,

var. molle, Gray. Regel.

Glyceria — Draba incana, L.

Festuca saliva (?) [F. ovina, L.?] Cardamine pratensis, L.

Carei rariflora, Wahlenb. Cheiranthus pygmceus, Adams.

vulgaris, Fries, var. alpina, Pedicularis capitata, Adams.

(C. rigida, Good.) Geum glaciale, Fisch.

Salix polaris, Wahlenb., and two Nardosmia corymbosa, Hook.

other species undetermined. Erigeron Muirii, Gray, n. sp.

Polygonum Bistorta, L. Parrya nudicaulis, (Boiss.), Regel,
Rumex crispus, L. var. aspera, Regel.

Cerastium alpinum, L., var. Behr- Boykinia Richardsoni, Gray.

ingianum, Regel. Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retz.
Silene acaulis, L. cernua, L.

Arenaria verna, L., var. rubella, flageUaris, Willd.

Hook. f. davurica, Willd.

Arenaria arctica, Stev. punctata, L.

Stellar ia longipes, G oldie. " nivalis, L.

Anemone narcissiflora, L. Dryas octopetala, L.

multifida, Poir. Potentilla biflora, Willd.
parviflora, Michx. " nivea, L.

parviflora, Michx., va- Hedysarum boreale, Nutt.

riety. Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray.

Ranunculus affinis, R. Br. Epilobium latifolium, L.

Caliha asarifolia, DC. Cassiope tetragone, (D. Don.), Desv.

290

APPENDIX

Vaccinium uliginosum, L., var. Myosotis sylvatica, var. alpestria,

mucronota. Herder. Hoffm.

Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L. Eritrichium nanum, Schrad., var.

Dodecatheon Meadia, L., var. arctioides.

frigidum, Gray. Taraxacum palustre, DC.

Androsace chamcejasme, Willd. Senecio frigidus, Less.

Phlox sibirica, L. Artemisia glomerata, Ledeb.

Polemonium humile, Willd. tomentosa [tomentella,

caeruleum, L. Trautv.?]

CAPE PRINCE OF WALES

At Cape Prince of Wales we obtained: —

Tofieldia coccinea, Richards. Armeria arctica, (Wallr.), Stev.

Loiseleuria procumbens, Desv. Androsace chamcejasme, Willd.

Andromeda polifolia, L., forma Taraxacum palustre, DC.

arctica.
Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L.

TWENTY MILES EAST OF CAPE LISBURNE

Lychnis apetala, L. Oxytropia campestris, DC.

Anemone narcissiflora, L., var. Primula borealis, Duby.

Draba hirta, L. Androsace chamcejasme, Willd.

Saxifraga Eschscholtzii, Sternb. Phlox sibirica, L.

flagellaris, Willd. Geum glaciale, Fisch.

Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Erigeron uniflorus, L.

Potentilla nivea, L. Artemisia glomerata, Ledeb.
" biflora, Willd.

CAPE WANKAREM, SIBERIA

Near Cape Wankarem, August 7 and 8, we col
lected : —

Elymua arenarius, L. Saxifraga cernua, L.

Alopecurus alpinus, Sm. stellaris, L., var. comosa.

Poa arctica, R. Br. rivularis, L., var. hyper-

Calamagrostis deschampsioides, Trin. borea, Hook.

Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. Polemonium, cceruleum, L.

" apicata, (DC.), Desv. Pedicularis Langsdorffi, Fisch.

Lychnis apetala, L. Nardosmia frigida, Hook.

Claytonia virginica, L. Chrysanthemum arcticum, L.

Ranunculus pygmceus, Wahlenb. Senecio frigidus, Less.

Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Artemisia vulgaris, var. Tilesii,

Ledeb.

291

APPENDIX

PLOVER BAY, SIBERIA

The mountains bounding the glacial fiord called
Plover Bay, though beautiful in their combinations
of curves and peaks as they are seen touching each
other delicately and rising in bold, picturesque
groups, are nevertheless severely desolate-looking
from the absence of trees and large shrubs, and
indeed of vegetation of any kind dense enough to
give color in telling quantities, or to soften the
harsh rockiness of the steepest portions of the walls.
Even the valleys opening back from the water here
and there on either side are mostly bare as seen at
a distance of a mile or two, and show only a faint
tinge of green, derived from dwarf willows, heath-
worts, and sedges chiefly.

The most interesting of the plants found here are
Rhododendron kamtschaticum, Pall., and the hand
some blue-flowered Saxifraga oppositi folia, L., both
of which are abundant.

The following were collected July 12 and Au
gust 26:-

Arenaria macrocarpa, Pursh. Dryas octopetala, L.
Aconitum Napellus, L., var. delphini- Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray.

folium, Ser. Rhododendron kamtschaticum, Pall.

Anemone narcissiflora, L. Cassiope tetragona, (D. Don.), Desv.

Draba alpina, L. Diapensia lapponica, L.

Parrya Ermanni, Ledeb. Gentiana glauca, Pall.

Saxifraga oppositifolia, L. Geum glaciate, Fisch.
" punctata, L.
ccespitosa, L.

HERALD ISLAND

On Herald Island the common polar cryptoga-
mous vegetation is well represented and developed.
So also are the flowering plants, almost the entire
292

APPENDIX

surface of the island, with the exception of the sheer,
crumbling bluffs along the shores, being quite tell
ingly dotted and tufted with characteristic species.
The following list * was obtained : —

Gymnandra Stelleri, Cham. & Saxifraga sileniflora, (Hook.),

Schlecht. Sternb.

Alopecurus alpinus, Sm. Saxifraga bronchialis, L.
Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. stellaris, L., var., comosa,

Salix polaris, Wahlenb. Poir.

Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Saxifraga rivularis, L., var. hyper-

Edwardsii, T. & G. borea, Hook.

Papaver nudicaule, L. Saxifraga hieracifolia, Waldst. &
Draba alpina, L. Kit.

Saxifraga punctata, L. Potentilla frigida, Vill.?

serpyllifolia, Pursh. Senecio frigidus, Less.

WRANGELL LAND

Our stay on the one point of Wrangell Land that
we touched was far too short to admit of making
anything like as full a collection of the plants of
so interesting a region as was desirable. We found
the rock formation where we landed and for some
distance along the coast to the eastward and
westward to be a close-grained clay slate, cleaving
freely into thin flakes, with here and there a few
compact, metamorphic masses that rise above the
general surface. Where it is exposed along the shore
bluffs and kept bare of vegetation and soil by the
action of the ocean, ice, and heavy snow-drifts, the
rock presents a surface about as black as coal, with
out even a moss or lichen to enliven its somber
gloom. But when this dreary barrier is passed the
surface features of the country in general are found

1 Berthold Seemann, botanist of H.M.S. Herald in 1849, reported the
finding of eight plants on a width of thirty feet of shore, which, he says,
"was the whole extent we had to walk over." The plants were the fol
lowing: Artemisia borealis, Cochleria fenestrata, Saxifraga lamentiniana,
Poa arctica, and another undetermined grass, Hepatica, a moss, and red
lichen covering the rocks. [EDITOR.]

293

APPENDIX

to be finely moulded and collocated, smooth valleys,
wide as compared with their depth, trending back
from the shore to a range of mountains that appear
blue in the distance, and round-topped hills, with
their side curves finely drawn, touching and blending
in beautiful groups, while scarce a single rock-pile
is seen or sheer-walled bluff to break the general
smoothness.

The soil has evidently been derived mostly from
the underlying slates, though a few fragmentary
wasting moraines were observed, containing trav
eled boulders of quartz and granite which doubt
less were brought from the mountains of the in
terior by glaciers that have recently vanished — so
recently that the outlines and sculptured hollows
and grooves of the mountains have not as yet suf
fered sufficient post-glacial denudation to mar ap
preciably their glacial characters.

The banks of the river at the mouth of which we
landed presented a striking contrast as to vege
tation to that of any other stream we had seen in
the Arctic regions. The tundra vegetation was not
wholly absent, but the mosses and lichens of which
it is elsewhere composed are about as feebly de
veloped as possible, and instead of forming a con
tinuous covering they occur in small separate tufts,
leaving the ground between them raw and bare as
that of a newly ploughed field. The phanerogamous
plants, both on the lowest grounds and on the slopes
and hilltops as far as seen, were in the same severely
repressed condition, and as sparsely planted in tufts
an inch or two in diameter, with from one to three
feet of naked soil between them. Some portions
of the coast, however, farther south, presented a
294

APPENDIX

greenish hue as seen from the ship at a distance of
eight or ten miles, owing no doubt to vegetation
growing under less unfavorable conditions.

From an area of about half a square mile the fol
lowing plants were collected : —

Gymnandra Stetteri, Cham. &

Schlecht.

Poa arctica, R. Br.
Aira caespitosa, L., var. arctica.
Alopecurus alpinus, Sm.
Luzula hyperborea, R. Br.
Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var.

Edwardsii, T. & G.
Cerastium alpinum, L.
Anemone parviflora, Michx.
Papaver nudicaule, L.
Draba alpina, L.
Cochlearia oflicinalis, L .
Saxifraga flagellaris, Willd.

Saxifraga steUaris, L., var. comosa,
Poir.

Saxifraga sileniflora, (Hook.),
Sternb.

Saxifraga hieracifolia, Waldst. &
Kit.

Saxifraga rivularis, L., var. hyper
borea, Hook.

Saxifraga bronchialis, L.
" serpyllifolia, Pursh.

Potentilla nivea, L.

frigida, ViU.?1

Armeria macrocarpa, Pursh.
" vulgaris, Willd.

Artemisia barealis, (Pall.), Willd.

Nardosmia frigida. Hook.

Satissurea monticola, Richards.

1 "Potentilla emarginata, Pursh. A very dwarf form of this species from
Wrangell Land was inadvertently named Potentilla frigida in the list of
Muir's collection." (Note by Asa Gray in House Executive Document
No. 44 (1884-85), p. 191.) [EDITOR.]

'

INDEX

INDEX

Akutan, island and mountain,
251 and note.

Akutan Pass, 4, 5.

Alaska Commercial Company,
13, 14, 19^-22, 88, 125.

Alaska Mining Company,
249.

Aleutian Islands, 5; geology
of, 7-9, 262-67; animal life,
10, 11; plant life, 11, 12;
trees, 12; grazing and agri
culture, 13; population,
13, 14.

Aleuts, fuel, 13, 15; civiliza
tion, 13; hunting, 14, 19-22;
death-rate, 14; huts, 14, 15,
250; intoxicating drink, 15,
16, 20; thriftlessness, 16;
religion, 18; drunkenness,
250; dancing, 251.

Alexey, 124 note.

Anadir Gulf, 25.

Aneguin, 124 note.

Asia, land communication
with America, 72.

Bardbaras, 14, 15.

Bear, polar, 170, 171, 174-

80, 185, 192.
Beluga, 147-49.
Belvedere, the whaler, 157-

59, 200, 215.
Bering Sea, cruise in, 19-

39, 55-133, 215-39, 242-

49; a glacial excavation, 57,

279, 280.

Bering Strait, 39, 57, 279, 280.
Birds, of the Aleutian Islands,

10, 11; a small bird comes

aboard, 86; on the Arctic

Ocean, 87; at East Cape,
113; of the Alaskan tun
dra, 126, 127; at Kotzebue
Sound, 135-37; of Herald
Island, 169; of Wrangell
Land, 185 note, 186 note;
of the Diomede Islands, 216;
sea-birds as guides to man,
216; at Plover Bay, 223.

Blossom Shoals, 154.

Buckland River, 123 and
note, 247.

Butterflies, 137.

Canoes, skin, 66; at Golofnin

Bay, 129.

Cape Blossom, 134, 138.
Cape Espenberg, 133 note.
Cape Krusenstern, 138.
Cape Lisburne, 146, 149, 150,

152, 158, 159, 163.
Cape North, 276.
Cape Onman, 102.
Cape Prince of Wales, 131-

33, 146; glaciation, 275, 278;

flora, 291.
Cape Serdzekamen, 33, 39,

40; glaciation, 277.
Cape Thompson, 143-46;

flora, 290, 291.
Cape Wankarem, 102, 103,

179, 180; glaciation, 276;

flora, 291.
Cape Yakan, 106.
Caribou. See Reindeer.
Chamisso Island, 244.
Chukchi Joe, 33-36, 40-42,

46, 50, 61, 115717, 119.
Chukchis, smoking, 31; of

Marcus Bay, 32-36; story

299

INDEX

of the loss of the Vigilant,
33, 37; huts, 34, 35, 44, 45,
110, 111, 227, 228; touches
of nature, 35, 36; of St.
Lawrence Bay, 36-38, 57-
66; trading, 37, 59, 238;
dignity and fortitude in
hunger, 37, 38; at Tapkan,
40-46; manners and cus
toms, 45, 46; dog-driver
aboard the Corwin, 49, 50,
109; temperance talk, 58;
dress and habits, 60, 61;
sensitive to ridicule, 62;
a reindeer-owner, 62-64,
97; women and children,
63; eating whale skin, 63,
64; passenger on the Cor
win, 65, 70, 74, 97-99; of
Plover Bay, 80, 223-35;
a half-breed girl, 80, 81;
about Metchigme Bay, 97-
99; a case of insanity, 97-
99; photographed, 99; at
Cape Wankarem, 103-08;
story of finding a wrecked
whaler, 103-06; nine set
tlements, 107; kindness,
107, 108; at East Cape,
109-13; cemeteries, 112,
114; at Cape Chaplin, 116;
traders from Cape Yakan,
133; and Wrangell Land,
186-88; reindeer-herders at
Plover Bay, 223-35; psy
chology and physical char
acteristics, 228, 229.

Church, Russian, 17, 18.

Coal, 151, 159, 160, 163, 214,
215.

Cod, 5.

Colville River, 123 and note,
220.

Cook's Harbor, 5.

Coral, the bark, 200, 208.

Corwin, Thomas, U.S.S.,
broken rudder, 48, 49; in

a gale, 59; loses ice-breaker,
241; rudder chain parts,
242.

Daniel Webster, the whaler,

158, 163, 200-08.
De Long, Commander George

W., quoted, 193.
Diomede Islands, 38, 39, 53,

72, 100, 115, 215, 216, 236-

39; glaciation, 269.
Dog-teams, 41-43; drawing

canoes, 160, 161.
Dogs, of the Chukchis, 41-

43, 45, 49, 51, 52.
Duck, eider, 55, 135, 136.
Dutch Harbor, 6 and note.

East Cape, 54; glaciation at,
100, 101, 275, 276; landing
at, 109-15.

Elephant Point, 244-47.

Empetrum, 15.

Eschscholtz Bay, 244-48, 288.

Eskimos, on St. Lawrence
Island, 26-31, 60, 74-77,
118, 119; trading, 26-28,
38, 74-76, 237, 238; and
rum, 26, 27, 31; appear
ance and manners, 28-30;
clothing, 28-30, 60; smok
ing, 30, 31; taken aboard,
32; on Diomede Islands,
38, 39, 236-39; villages
and huts, 38, 39, 134, 135,
237; babies, 75-77; eating
walrus heads, 76; boys, 77;
mortality, 94, 118-22; of
King Island, 131, 132; win
ter and summer huts on
King Island, 131, 132;
King Island canoes, 131,
132; at Cape Prince of
Wales, 132, 133; contra
band trade with, 133, 134;
at Kotzebue Sound, 134,
135, 138, 139, 141-43; at

300

INDEX

Point Hope, 143, 144; kill
ing beluga, 147-49; killing
right whales, 149; near Icy
Cape, 152, 154, 156, 157;
near Cape Lisburne, 15&-
61 ; canoes drawn by dogs,
160, 161; hunting polar
bears, 176, 177; decoration
of grave, 177; at Point
Barrow, 202, 204-06, 219,
220; as wreckers, 204-06;
at Point Belcher, 207.

Fairway Rock, 39 note, 131,
215, 216; glaciation, 269.

Fish, 5.

Flora, 281-95.

Flowers, of Unalaska, 11, 12,
282, 283; of Plover Bay,
96, 292; at East Cape, 112;
of St. Lawrence Island,
118, 285; of the tundra at
St. Michael, 127, 128, 286,
287; at Golofnin Bay, 130,
287, 288; at Kotzebue
Sound, 137, 288, 289; at
Cape Thompson, 145, 290,
291; at Icy Cape, 154; on
Herald Island, 169,292,293;
of Wrangell Land, 186, 294,
295. See also Flora.

Fossils, 137, 160, 244, 245.

Fowler, O. S., the schooner,
133 and note, 138.

Fox, white, 170 and note, 185.

Francis Palmer, the whaler,
59.

Fur trade, Aleutian Islands,
13, 14, 16, 17; Pribilof
Islands, 19-22; Yukon
River, 89, 90, 124, 125.

Geese, wild, 135,136.
Gessler, Coxswain, 50 and

note.
Glaciation, on Unalaska, 6-9;

in the Pribilofs, 23, 267,

268; on the Siberian Coast,
26, 54, 67, 68, 85, 100, 272-
77; on the Diomede Is
lands, 53, 269; at St. Law
rence Bay, 57; in Bering
Sea and Strait, 57; on St.
Lawrence Island, 80, 93,
117, 118, 268, 269; at
Plover Bay, 82, 85, 95, 96,
224, 273, 274; at Met-
chigme Bay, 100; about
East Cape, 100, 101, 110-
13, 275, 276; at Golofnin
Bay, 129, 130, 275, 278;
at Sledge Island, 130, 270;
at Cape Thompson, 146;
near Cape Lisburne, 149,
150; on Herald Island, 166-
68, 270, 271; of the Arc
tic and Sub-Arctic regions
visited during the cruise,
255-80.

Glaciers, of the Aleutian
Islands, 9, 251, 252, 263-
67; of Plover Bay, 95, 96;
fossil fragments, 244-47;
of the Sierra Nevada, 256,
257; of British Columbia
and southeastern Alaska,

257, 258; reaching the sea,

258, 259.

Gold, 125, 249, 250.

Golden Fleece, the schooner,

218, 222.
Golofnin Bay, 129-31, 249,

250; glaciation, 275, 278;

flora, 287, 288.
Gull, burgomaster, 136.
Gulls, 218.

Handy, R. B., the schooner,
155.

Helen Mar, the whaler, 53.

Herald Island, 162-72, 193,
194, 241; glaciation, 270,
271; flora, 292, 293.

Herring, 91.

301

INDEX

Herring, Lieut., 50; his report
of search for the Vigilant,
102-06.

Hidalgo, the whaler, 59, 60,
144.

"Hole, the," 172.

Hooper, Capt. Calvin L., 27,
35, 40, 50, 58, 61, 63, 75,
119, 138, 155, 168, 170,
189, 242; quoted, 83, 84,
165 note, 166 note.

Hotham Inlet, 138.

Hutli, 258 and note.

Ice, crystals on rocks, 114,
115; curious formations,
244-48.

Ice, ocean, first view, 23.

Ice, pack, the Corwin in, 47-
52, 78, 79, 83, 84, 152, 153,
162, 164, 173, 178-83;
search party on, 101, 102.

Ice, shore, rough travel over,
40-42.

Ice-blink, 151.

Icy Cape, 151-54, 163, 200.

Iliuliuk, 6 and note, 14, 15.
See also Unalaska.

Indians, of the Yukon coun
try, 90, 91; shamans at
St. Michael, 124; kayaks,
128; at Golofnin Bay, 129;
canoes, 129; trading at
Kotzebue Sound, 141, 142.

Inland River, 123, 220.

International Polar Expedi
tion, 21^22.

Ivory, fossil, 137.

Jaroochah, 36, 37, 57-59, 61-

64.
Jeannette, U.S.S., 107, 124,

171, 185, 189.
Joe. See Chukchi Joe.

Kalekta Point, 6.
Kayaks, 128.

Kellett, Sir Henry, 270.

Kelly, Capt., 85.

King Island, 131, 132, 270.

Kittiwake, 162.

Kiwalik River, 134, 135.

Koliuchin, 107.

Koliuchin Island, 49, 50.

Konkarpo, 103.

Kotzebue Sound, 134-37, 244-

48; glaciation, 275, 278;

flora, 288, 289.
Kuuk River, 248 and note.
Kvass, 15, 16, 20.

Le Conte Glacier, 258 note.
Lolita, the ship, 73, 74, 79.

Makushin, volcano, 251, 252,

263 and note.
Marcus Bay, 32, 115, 116,

119,236.

Metchigme Bay, 97-100.
Millard, Capt. M. V. B., 82

note, 84, 85.
Mirage, 88, 155, 158.
Mt. Akutan, 251 and note.
Mt. Makushin, 251, 252, 263

and note.
Mt. Rainier, 257.
Mt. Shasta, 257.
Mount Wollaston, the whaler,

102.

Muir Glacier, 259.
Murdoch, John, 207 note, 218

note, 220 note.
Murres, 169.

Nelson, Edward W., 99, 128,
170, 189, 223; ethnological
studies, 110-13, 119, 121,
132, 134, 135, 154; his
account of the foxes of
Herald Island, 170 note.

Nestor, Bishop, 18.

Noatak River, 123 note.

Northern Light, the bark,
155-57.

302

INDEX

Norton Sound, 23, 24; mirage
in, 88.

Omniscot, Chukchi reindeer-
owner, 62-64, 97-99.
Oncarima, 103.
Otter, sea, 10, 13, 14, 22.
Otter Island, 23.
Owen, Capt., 157, 200.
Owl, an Arctic, 113.

Pittle Keg, 106 and note.
Plover Bay, 32, 80-85, 95, 96,

218, 242; glaciation, 273,

274; flora, 292.
Point Barrow, 202, 212-14,

219; International Polar

Expedition to, 218-22.
Point Belcher, 158, 201, 207,

209-12.

Point Hope, 143, 144, 161.
Pope, Thomas, the whaler,

82-84.

Post-Office Point, 162, 172.
Pribilof Islands, 19-23, 267,

268.

Priest, a Russian, 17.
Prospectors, 125, 130, 248-

50.

Providence Bay, 82 note.
Ptarmigan, 126, 127.

Rainbow, the whaler, 32.
Ray, Lieut. P. H., 218 and

note, 220, 221.
Reindeer, owned by Chukchis,

62, 140, 141, 223-35; wild

herds in Alaska, 139-41;

wild herds in Siberia, 224.
Reynolds, Lieut., 50, 133, 134.
Rodgers, U.S.S., 242, 243 and

note.
Rosse, Dr. Irving C., 82, 126.

St. George Island, 19-23.
St. Lawrence Bay, 36-38; at
anchor in, 56-66.

St. Lawrence Island, 26-31,
33, 38, 70-80, 93-95; de
scriptions, 117-19; dead
villages on, 118-22', glacia
tion, 268, 269; flora, 285.

St. Matthew Island, 25.

St. Michael, 85, 88-92, 123-
29, 248, 249; flora, 286,
287.

St. Paul, island and village of,
19-23.

St. Paul, the steamer, 121,
123.

Salmon, 91, 128.

San Francisco Bulletin, 83,
84 note.

Sappho, the whaler, 157.

Sea Breeze, the whaling bark,
143, 157, 193.

Seal, a large, 54.

Seal, fur, industry, 16, 17, 19-
22; habits, 20, 21.

Seal, saddle-back, 25.

Seal, white, 24.

Shamanism, 18.

Sheshalek, 138.

Shumagin Islands, 23.

Siberia, first sight, 26; ex
ploring coast of, 32 et seq.

Sierra Nevada, glaciers, 256,
257.

Sinaru, 201 note.

Sledge Island, 130, 270.

Spermophile, 185 and note.

Spring, beginning of, 79.

Starbuck, Alexander, 208.

Sun, atmospheric effects, 159,
161; midnight, 216, 217.

Sunarnara, 201.

Tapkan, 42-46, 100-02, 109.
Temperature, of air and

water, 87, 88, 92.
Thomas Pope, the whaler,

82-84.

Trees, 284, 287.
Tundra, 126-28.

303

INDEX

Unalaska, arrival at, 3-6;
animal and plant life, 10-
12; trees, 12; grazing and
agriculture, 13; population,
13; the priest's house, 17;
the Russian Church, 18;
stay at, on return trip, 250,
251; flora, 282-84.

Unga Island, 23.

Vega, the ship, 44, 106.

Vigilant, the whaler, 33, 37;
report of party in search of,
102-08.

Volcanoes and volcanic re
mains, in the Aleutian
Islands, 7, 9, 251, 252; on
St. Lawrence Island, 118;
near St. Michael, 126; at
Kotzebue Sound, 137.

Walrus, 68, 69, 73, 74, 76, 153,

155, 156, 158.
Weather, 85, 86.
Western Fur and Trading

Company, 14, 22; station

near St. Michael, 89, 90,

123, 125.
Whale, bowhead, 209.

Whale, white, 147-49.

Whalers, lost in the ice, 203-
12.

Whales, eaten by Chukchis,
63, 64; hunted by the na
tives, 64, 70, 149; and the
whalers, 157.

Whaling, 208, 209.

Wrangell, Baron Ferdinand
Petrovitch von, 141 note,
186-88.

Wrangell Land, 107; first
sight of, 168, 169; approach
ing, 171-83; landing on,
184; exploration, 184-86,
188-91; Baron Wrangell's
search for, 186-88; flag
erected on, 189; animal
life, 192; improbability of
De Long's having landed
upon, 193-96; reasons for
leaving, 196-99; failure to
land on second visit, 239-
42; the Rodgers at, 243
and note; geology, 271, 272,
293, 294; flora, 293-95.

Yukon River, fur trade of,
89, 90.

(£be Ifttoergibe

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

^ u LD

MW2V65-10A

LD2l-lOOm-12,'46(A2012s )4i20

YC 15521

388058

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY