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Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la derniire image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Meps, plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent dtre film6s A des taux de rMuction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre raproduit en un seul cliche, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite. et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la methods. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 1 6 SUMMER IN ALASKA. A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE TRAVELS OF AN ALASKA EXPLORING EX. PEDITION ALONG THE GREAT YUKON RIVER, FROM ITS SOURCE TO ITS MOUTH, IN THE BRITISH NORTH-WEST TERRI- TORY, AND IN THE TERRITORY OF ALASKA. BV FREDERICK SCHWATKA, Laureate oi the Paris Geographical Society and ot the Imprrial Geographical Society of Russia, Honorary Member Bremen Gecsnrhical Society, etc., etc, Commanaer of the Expedition. ST. LOUIS, MO.: J. W. HENRY. X8Q3. -»mwg>.i«.m«aa»»aiw.»'o.|H.»i.i. CoprmiOHT, 1891, Bt W. J. BROOKS. PREFACE. These pages narrate the travels, in a popular sense, of the latest Alaska exploring expedition. In April the expedition was organized with seven members at Vancouver Barracks, Washington Territory, and left Portland, Oregon, in May, ascending the inland passage to Alaska as far as the Chilkat country ; there the party employed over three score of the Chilkat Indians to pack its effects across the glacier-clad pass of the Alaskan coast range of mountains to the head-waters of the Yukon. Here a large raft was constructed, and on this primitive craft, sailing through nearly a hundred and fifty miles of lakes, and shooting a number of rapids, the party floated along the great stream f'^)r over thirteen hundred miles, the longest raft journey ever made, in the interest of geographical science. The entire river, over two thousand miles, was traversed, the party return- ing home by way of Bering's Sea, and touching at the Aleutian Island a. 33566 CONTENTS. I. Introductory, . . , .9 n. The Inland Passage to Alaska, • 12 in. In the Chilkat Country, , ,36 IV. Over the Mountain Pass, . , 63 V, Along the Lakes, , , ,90 VL A Chapter about Rafting, , 131 VII. The Grand CaSon of the Yukon, . 154 VIII. Down the River to Sei.kirk, , 175 IX. Through the Upper Ramparts, . 207 X. Through the Yukon Flat-lands, , 264 XL Through the Lower Ramparts and end OP THE Raft Journey, , , 289 Xn. Down the River and Home, . 313 XIIL Discovery and History, . . 346 XIV, The People and their Industries, . 364 XV. GEOGBAPfflCAL FEATURES, , , . 391 Appendix^ •••••• 405 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. TAKEN FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY MR. IIOMAN. Paga Dayay Valley, Noursb River 78 Dayay Valley, ynoM Camp 4 77 Lake Lindeman 93 Lake Bennett 101 Lake Marsh 121 Grand Canon 163 The Cascades 169 LoRiNG Bluff 193 KiT'L-AH-aoN Indian Village ....... 197 Ingersoll Islands 201 Mouth of Pelly River 209 Looking up Yukon from Selkirk 213 Ayan Grave at Selkirk 217 Ayan Indians in Canoes 221 Konit'l, Ayan Chief 230 Klat-ol-klin Village 253 Steamer "Yukon" 276 Nuklakayet 307 The Raft, at end of its Journey 312 oonalaska . , 344 Map 1, Map of Alaska Exploring Expedition ... 65 FKOM SKETCHES BY SERGEANT GLOSTER. Crater Lake, British North-west Territory, the source of Alaska's Great River . . , Frontispiece. Canoeing up the Dayay . . gS Ascending the Perrier Pass 85 In a Storm on the Lakes 90 Lake Bove . 116 "Stick" Indians 127 Among the " Sweepers " 134 Prying the Raft off a Bar 145 Graylxng .154 LIST OF ILLUSinATIONS. I ' In the Rink Rapids 176 Clay Bluffs on the Yukon 176 Outlet of Lake Kluktassi 184 The Rink Rapids 101 The Ruins of Selkirk . 206 In the Uppek Ramparts 207 Moose-Skin Mountain 248 Roqulitte Rock 260 Boundary Butte 261 Lower Ramparts Rapids 296 Moutu of Tanana "0?. Falling Banks of Yukon 319 Anvik 330 FltOM DIAGRAM AND PLANS BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHERS. The Inland Passage 12 Scenes in the Inland rASSAOB 19 Sitka, Alaska 29 Ciiilkat Bracelet 36 Pyramid Harbor, Chilkat Inlet 43 Chilkat Indian 1 'acker 63 Methods of Tracking a Canoe up a Rapid ... 64 SAiiMON Spears 76 Walking a Log 80 Chasing a Mountain Goat 82 Snow Shoes 87 Pins for Fastening Marmot Snares 112 "Snubbing" the Raft 131 Banks op the Yukon , .135 Scraping along a Bank 140 Course of Raft and Axis of Stream 152 Whirlpool vt Lower End of Island .... 153 Alaska Brown Bear Fighting Mosquitoes . . , .174 Ayan and Chilkat Gambling Tools .... 227 Plan of Ayan Summer House 229 Ayan Moose Arrow 231 Ayan Winter Tent 233 A Gravel Bank 236 Fishing Nets . . .288 Salmon Killing Club 259 A Moose Head 264 Moss on Yukon River 267 Indian "Cache" ........ 289 Indian Out-door Gun Covering 313 A SUMMER IN ALASKA. CHAPTER T. I Ti T il O D IJ C T O It Y . HIS Alaskan exi)loring ex])edition was com- posed of the following nu'mbers: Lieut. Schwatka, U. S. A,, commanding; Dr. iieorge F. Wilson, U. S. A., Surgeon ; Topographical Assistant Charles A, Homan, U.S. Engineers, Topographer and Photographer ; Sergeant Charles A. Gloster, U. S, A., Artist ; Corporal Shircliff, U.S.A., in charge of stores; Private Roth, assistant, and Citizen J. B. Mclntosli, a miner, who liad lived in Alaska and was well acquainted with its methods of travel, Indians and others were added and discharged from time to time as hereafter noted. The main object of the expedition was to acquire such information of the country traversed and its wild inhabitants as would be valuable to the military- authorities in the future, and as a map would be need- ful to illustrate such information well, the party's efforts were rewarded with making the expedition successful in a geographical sense. I had hoped to be able, through qualified subordinates, to extend our scientific knowledge of the country explored, espec- ially in regard to its botany, geology, natural liistory, etc.; and, although these subjects would not in any 10 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. i , event have been adequately discussed in a popular treatise like the present, it must be admitted that little was accomplished in these branches. The explanation of this is as follows : When authority was asked from Congress for a sum of money to make such explorations under military supervision and the request was dis- approved by the General of the Army and Secretary of War. This disapproval, combined with the active oppo- sition of government departments which were assigned to work of the same general character and coupled with the reluctance of Congress to make any appropriations whatever that year, was sufficient to kill such an under- taking. When the military were withdrawn from Alaska by the President, about the year 1878, a paragraph ap- peared at the end of the President's order stating that no further control would be exercised by the army in Alaska ; and this proviso was variously interpreted by the friends of the army and its enemies, as a humiliation either to the army or to the President, according to the private belief of the commentator. It was therefore seriously debated whether any military expedition or party sent into that country for any purpose whatever would not be a direct violation of the President's pro- scriptive order, and when it was decided to waive that consideration, and send in a party, it was considered too much of a responsibility to add any specialists in science, with the disapijroval of the General and tlie Secretary hardly dry on the paper. The expedition was therefore, to avoid being recalled, kept as secret as possible and when, on May 22d, it departed from Portland, Oregon, upon the Victoria, a vessel which had been specially put on the Alaska route, only a two or three line notice had J. I I INTRODUCTORY. U gotten into the Oregon papers announcing the fact ; a notice that in spreading was referred to in print by one government official as "ti junketing party," by another as a "prospecting" party, while another bitterly acknowledged that had he received another day's intimation lie cruld have had the party recalled by the authorities at Washington. Thus the little ex- pedition which gave the first complete survey to the third * river of our country stole away like a thief in the night and with far less money in its hands to conduct it through its long journey than was afterward appro- priated by Congress to publish its report. Leaving Portland at midnight on the 22d, the Victo- ria arrived at Astoria at the mouth of tlie Columbia the forenoon of the 23d, the remaining hours of daylight being employed in loading with supplies for a number of salmon canneries in Alaska, the large amount of freight for which had necessitated this extra steamer. That night we crossed the Columbia River bar and next morning entered the Strait of Juande Fuca, the southern entrance from the Pacific Ocean which lea;^s to the in- land passage to Alaska. * The largest river on the North American continent so far as this miglity stream flows within our boundaries. . . . The people of the United States will not be quick to take to the idea that the vol- ume of water in an Alaskan rive" is greater than that discharged by the mighty Mississippi ; but it is entirely within the bounds of honest statement to say that the Yukon river . . . discharges every hour one-third more water than the " Father of Waters."— Petroff's Government Report on Alaska. CHAPTER II. i THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. LAND PASSAGE " to Alaska is the fjord -like i channel, resembling a great river, which extends from the northwestern part of Washington Territory, through British Columbia, into southeastern Alaska. Along this coast line for about a thousand miles, stretches a vast archipelago closely h igging the mainland of the Territories named above, the southernmost important island being Van- couver, almost a diminutive continent in itself, while to the north Tchichagofif Island limits it on the seaboard. From the little town of Olympia at the head of Puget Sound, in Washington Territory, to Chilkat, Alaska, at the head of Lynn Channel, or Canal, one sails as if on a grand river, and it is really hard to comprehend that it is a portion of the ocean unless one can imagine some deep fjord in Norway or Greenland, so deep that he can sail on its waters for a fortnight, for the fjord-like character is very prominent in these channels to which the name of " Inland Passage " is usually given. These channels between the islands and mainland are strikingly uniform in width, and therefore river-like in l]j THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. 13 appearance as one steams or sails through them. At occasional points they connect with the Pacific Ocean, and if there be a storm on the latter, a few rolling swells may enter at these places and disturb the equilibrium of sensitive stomachs for a brief hour, but at all other places the channel is as quiet as any broad river, what- ever the weather. On the south we have the Strait of Juan de Fuca and to the north Cross Sound as the limit- ing channels, while between the two are found Dixon Entrance, whicL separates Alaska frori British Colum- bia, Queen Charlotte Sound, and other less important outlets. On the morning of the 24th of May we entered the Strait of Juan de Fiica, named after an explorer — if such he may be called — who never entered this beautiful sheet of water, and who owes his immortality to an audacious guess, which came so near the truth as to deceive the scientific world for many a century. To the left, as we enter, i.e., northward, is the beautiful British island of Vancouver, the name of which commemorates one of the world's most famous explorers. Its high rolling hills are covered with shaggy firs, broken near the beach into little prairies of brighter green, which are dotted here and there with pretty little white cottages, the humblest abodes we see among the industrious, British or American, who live in the far west. The American side, to the southward, gives us the same picture backed by the high range of the Olympian Mountains, whose tops are covered witli perpetual snow, and upon whose cold sides drifting clouds are con- densed. Through British Columbia the sides of thic passage are 14 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. I covered with firs and spruce to the very tops of the steep mountains forming them, but as Northing is gained and Alaska is reached the summits are covered with snow and ice at all months of the year, and by the time we cast anchor in Chilkat Inlet, which is about the north- ernmost point of this great inland salt-water river, we find in many places these crowns of ice debouching in the shape of glaciers to the very water's level, and the tourist beholds, on a regular line of steamboat travel, glaciers and icebergs, and many of the wonders of arctic regions, although upon a reduced scale. Alongside the very banks and edges of these colossal rivers of ice one can gather the most beautiful of Alpine flowers and wade up to his waist in grasses that equal in luxuriance the famed fields of the pampas ; while the singing of the birds from the woods and glens and the fragrance of the foliage make one easily imagine that the Arctic circle and equator have been linked together at this point. Entering Juan de Fuca Strait a few hours were spent in the pretty little anchorage of Neah Bay, the first shelter for ships after rounding Cape Flattery, and here some merchandise was unloaded in the huge Indictn canoes that came alongside, each one holding at least a ton. Victoria, the metropolis of British Columbia, was reached the same day, and as it was the Queen's birth- day we saw the town in all its bravery of beer, bunting and banners. Our vessel tooted itself hoarse outside the harbor to get a pilot over the bar, but none was to be had till late in the day, when a pilot came out to us showing plainly by his condition that he knew every bar in and about Victoria. With the bar pilot on the bridge, 'i : it THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. 15 tj. as to save insurance should an accident occur, we entered the picturesque little harbor in safety, despite the discoveries of our guide that since his last visit all the buoys had been woefully misplaced, and even the granite channel had changed its course. But Vic- toria has many embellishments more durable than bunt- ing and banners, and most conspicuous among them are her well arranged and well constructed roads, in which she has no equal on the Pacific coast of North America, and but few rivals in any other part of the world. On the 26th we crossed over to Port Townsend, the port of entry for Puget sound, and on the 27th we headed for Alaska by way of the Inland Passage. For purposes of description this course should have been designated the "inland passages," in the plural, for its branches are almost innumerable, running in all directions like the streets of an irregular city, although now and then they are reduced to a single channel or fjord which the steamer is obliged to take or put out to sea. At one point in Discovery Passage leading from the Gulf of Georgia toward Queen Charlotte Sound, the inland passage is so narrow that our long vessel had to steam under a slow bell to avoid accidents, and at this place, called Seymour Narrows, there was much talk of bridging the narrow way in the grand sclieme of a Can- adian Pacific Railway, which should have its western terminus at Victoria. Through this contracted way the water fairly boils when at its greatest velocity, equaling ten miles an hour in spring tides, and at such times the passage is hazardous even to steamers, while all other craft avoid it until slack water. Jutting rocks increase the danger, and on one of these the United States man- 16 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. of -war Saranac was lost just eight years before we passed through. At the northern end of this pictur- esque Discovery Passage you see the inland passage trending away to the eastward, with quite a bay on the left around Chatham Point, and while you are wondering in that half soliloquizing way of a traveler in new lands what you will see after you have turned to the right, the great ship swings suddenly to the left, and you find that what you took for a bay is after all the inland pas- sage itself, which stretches once more before you like the Hudson looking upward from West Point, or the Delaware at the Water Gap. For all such little surprises must the tourist be prepared on this singular voyage. The new bend now becomes Johnstone Strait and so continues to Queen Charlotte Sound, with which it con- nects by one strait, two passages and a channel, all alike, except in name, and none much over ten miles long. At nearly every point where a new channel diverges both arms take on a new name, and they change as rapidly as the names of a Lisbon street, which seldom holds the same over a few blocks. The south side of Johnstone Strait is particularly high, rising abruptly from the water fully 5,000 feet, and in grandeur not nnlike the Yellowstone Canon. These summits were still covered with snow and probably on northern slopes snow remains the summer through. One noticeable valley was on the Vancouver Island side, with a con- spicuous conical hill in its bosom that may have been over a thousand feet in height. These cone-like hills are so common in flat valleys in northwestern America that I thought it worth while to mention the fact in this place. I shall have occasion to do so again at a later -t, THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. 17 point in my narrative. Occasionally windrows occur through the dense coniferous forests of the inlard pas- sage, where the trees have been swept or leveled in a remarkable manner. Such as were cut vertically had been caused by an avalanche, and in these instances the work of clearing had been done as faithfully as if by the hands of man. Sometimes the bright green moss or grass had grown up in these narrow ways, and when there was more than one of about the same age there was quite a picturesque efifect of stripings of two shades of green, executed en a most colossal plan. These windrows of fallen trees sometimes stretched along horizontally in varying widths, an effect undoubtedly produced by heavy gales rushing through the contracted " passage." One's notice is attracted by a species of natural beacon which materially assists the navigator. Over almost all the shoals and submerged rocks hang fields of kelp, a growth with which the whole "passage " abounds, thus affording a timely warning badly needed where the channel has been imperfectly charted. As one might surmise the water is very bold, and these submerged and ragged rocks are in general most to be feared. Leaving Johnstone Strait we enter Queen Charlotte Sound, a channel v/hich was named, lacking only three years, a century ago. It widens into capacious waters at once and we again felt the "throbbing of old Neptune's pulse," and those with sensitive stomachs perceived a sort of flickering of their own. One who is acquainted merely in a general way with the history and geography of this confusing country finds many more Spanish names than he anticipates, and to his surprise, a conscientious investigation shows that 18 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. even as it is the vigorous old Castilian explorers have not received all the credit to which they are entitled, for many of their discoveries in changing hands changed names as well : the Queen Charlotte Islands, a good day's run to the northwestward of us, were named in 1787 by an Englishman, who gave the group the name of his vessel, an appellation which they still retain, although as Florida Blanca they had known the banner of Castile and Leon thirteen years before. Mount Edge- cumbe, so prominent in the beautiful harbor of Sitka, was once Monte San Jacinto, and a list of the same tenor might be given that would jirove mc i'e voluminous than interesting. American changes in ike great northwest have not been so radical. Boca de Quadra Inlet has somehow become Bouquet Inlet to those knowing it best. La Creole has degenerated into Rickreall, and so on : the foreign names have been mangled but not annihilated. We sail across Queen Charlotte Sound as if we were going to bump right into the high land ahead of us, but a little indentation over the bow becomes a valley, then a bay, and in ample time to prevent accidents widens into another salt-water river, about two miles wide and twenty times as long, called Fitzhugli Sound. Near the head of the sound wo turn abruptly westward into the Lama Passage, and on its western shores we see nearly the first sign of civilization in the inland passage, the Indian village of Bella Bella, holding probably a dozen native houses and a fair looking church, while a few cattle grazing near the place had a still more civilized air. As we steamed through Seaforth Channel, a most tortuous affair, Indians were seen paddling in their huge? .1^ IH i ill lii,... SCENES IX THE INLAND PASSAGE. * THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. 21 canoes from one island to another or along the high, rocky shores, a cheering sign of habitation not previously noticed. The great fault of the inland passage as a resort for tourists is i:i the constant dread of fogs that may at any time during certain months of the year completely obscure the grand scenery that tempted the travelers thither. The waters of the Pacific Ocean on the sea- board of Alaska are but a deflected continuation of the warm equatorial current called the Kuro Siwo of the Japanese ; from these waters the air is laden with moisture, which being thrown by the variable winds against the snow-clad and glacier-covered summits of the higher mountains, is precipitated as fog and light rain, and oftentimes every thing is wrapped for weeks in these most annoying mists. July, with June and August, are by far the most favorable months for the traveler. The winter month" are execrable, with storms of rain, snow and sleet constantly occurring, the former along the Pacific frontage, and the latter near the channels of the mainland. Milbank Sound gave us another taste of the ocean swells which spoiled the flavor of our food completely, for although we were only exposed for less than an hour that hour happened to come just about dinner time ; after which we entered Finlayson Passage, some twenty- five miles long. This is a particularly picturesque and bold channel of water, its shores covered with shaggy conifers as high as the eye can reach, and the mountains, with their crowns of snow and ice, furnishing supplies of spray for innumerable beautiful waterfalls. At many places in the inland passage from here on, come down the ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT liTVER. I !(• If steep timbered niountuiiiH th«A most beauti fill waterfalls fed from tlie glaciers hidden in the fog. At every few miles we pass the mouths of inlets and channels, leading away into the mountainous country no one knows whither. There are no diarts which show more than the mouths of these inlets. Out of or into tliese an occasional canoe speeds its .silent way perchance in quest of salmon that here abound, but the secrets of their hidden paths are lock«Hl in the savage mind. How tempting tliey must be for exploration, and how strange that, although so easy of ac(?ess, they still remain unknown. After twisting around through a few "reaches," channels and passages, we enter the straightest of them all, (frenville Channel, so straight that it almost seems to have been mapped by an Indian. As you steam through its forty or fifty miles of mathematically rectilinear exactness you 'hink the sleepy pilot might tie his wheel, put his heels up in the spokes, draw his hat over his eyes and take a quiet nap. In one place it seems to be not over two or three hundred yards wide, but probably is double that, the high tower- ing banks giving a deceptive impression. The windrows through the timber of former avalanches of snow or land- slides, now become thicker and their effects occasionally picturesque in the very devastation created. Beyond Grenville Channel the next important stretch of salt water is Chatham Sound, which is less like a river than any yet named. Its connection with Grenville Channel is by the usual number of three or four irregular water- ways dodging around fair sized islands, which had at one time, however, a certain importance because it was thought that the Canadian Pacific R.nilway might make Skeena Inlet off to our right its western terminus. THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. 23 On the 29tli of May, very «'arly in the morning, we croHsed Dixon Kntiance, and were once more on Ameri- can soil, that i>s, in a conim<>r('ial sense, the United States having drawn a elieck for its valno of $7,2()0,O()(), and the check luiving been honored ; but in regard to govern- ment tlie country maybe called no man's land, none existing in tlu; territory. Dixon Entrance bore on I r make and very iine workmanship, an old uioneer of these regions wlio had owned it for many years having refused sixty dollars for it from some curiosity collectors only the year before. From Wrangell we debouched westward by Sumner Strait, the wide salt-water river that continues the nar- row fresh-water river of Stickeen to the Pacific Ocean. Bstwean five and six in the afternoon we ji,re rounding Cape Ornm.iney, where our i)ilot tells us it storms eight days in tl\e week. It certainly gave us double rations of wind that day, and many retired early. Even the old Spanish navigators who first laid eyes upon it must have borne it a grudge to have called it Funta Oeste de la Eiitrada del Principe; all its geographical character- istics nd relations being shouldered on it for a name. Early next morning we were in the harbor of Sitka, or Nbw Arcliangel, as the Russians called it when they had it for their capital of this province. The strong, bold bluffs of the interior j^assages now give way to gentler elevations along the Pacific seaboard, but the country gradually rises from the coast until but a few miles back the same old cloud-capped, snow-covered peaks recur, and as we stand well out to sea they look as abrupt as ever. Sitka is a picturesque place when viewed from any point except from within the town limits. From the south-west, looking north-east. Mount Edgecumbe (of Cook) affords a beautiful background against tlie west- ern sky, and when that is full of low white clouds the abrupt manner in which the point of the mountain is cut off gives it the appearance of being buried in tlie clouds, thus seeming several times higher than it really is. II w O CO S •s I THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. 31 The harbor of Sitka is so full of small islands that looking at it from a height it seems as if it could only be maj)ped with a i)epper-box, and one wonders how any vessel can get to her wharf. Once alongside, the water seems as clear as the atmosphere above, and the smallest objects can be easily identified at the bottom, though there must have been fully thirty or forty feet of water where we made our observations. On one of the large islands in Sitka harbor, called Japanese Island, an old Niplion junk was cast, early in the present century, and her small crew of Japanese were rescued by the Russians. Sitka has been so often described that it is unnecessary to do more than refer the reader to other accounts of the place. Ten o'clock in the forenoon of the 31st saw us under way steaming northward, still keeping to the inland passage, and en route to deliver wrecking machinery at a point in Peril Straits where the Ewrelia^ a small steamer of the same line to which our ship belonged, had formerly run on a submerged rock in the channel, which did not appear upon the charts. The unfortunate boat had just time to reach the shore and beach herself before she filled with water. The Eureka's wreck was reached by two in the afternoon, and as our boat might be de- tained for some time in assisting the disabled vessel, many of us embraced the opportunity to go ashore in the wilds of the Alexander Archipelago. The walking along the beach between high and low tide was toler- able, and even agreeable for whole stretches, especially after our long confinement on the ship, where the facili- ties for promenading were poor. To turn inland from the shore was at once to commence the ascent of a slope 32 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. 1 that might vary frcm forty to eighty degrees, the climb- ing of which almost beggars description. The compact mass of evergreen timber had looked dense enough from the ship, but at its feet grew a denser mass of tangled undergrowth of bushes and vines, and at their roots again was a solid carpeting of moss, lichens, and ferns that often ran up the trees and underbrush for heights greater than a man's reach, and all of it moist as a sponge, the whole being absolutely tropical in luxuri- ance. This thick carpet of moss extends from the shore line to the edges of the glaciers on the mountain sum- mits, and the constant melting of the ice through the warm summer supplies it with water which it absorbs like a sponge. The air is saturated with moisture from the warm ocean current, and every thing you see and touch is like Mr. Mantalini's proposed body, "dem'd moist and unpleasant." It is almost impossible to con- ceive how heavily laden with tropical moisture the atmos- phere is in this supposed sub-Arctic colony of oii»'s. It oozes up around your feet as you walk, and drips from overhead like an April mist, and nothing is exempt from it. Even the Indians' tall, dead " totem -i)oles " of hemlock or spruce, which would make fine kindling wood any where else, bear huge clumps of dripping moss and foliage on their tops, at heights varying from ten to thirty feet above the ground. An occasional stray seed of a Sitka spruce may get caught in this elevated tangle, and make its home there just as well as if it were on the ground. It sprouts, and as its branches run up in the air, the roots crawl down the "totem-pole " until the ground is reached, when they bury themselves in it, and send up fresh sustenance to the trunk and limbs, THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. d3 which until then have been living a parasitic sort of life off the decayed moss. This is shown in illustration on page 19, being a view at Kaigan Village. Imagine a city boy tossing a walnut from a fourth story window, and its lodging on top of a telegraph pole, there sprout- ing next spring, and in the course of a couple of years extending its roots down the pole, insinuating them- selves in the crevices and splitting it open, then piercing the pavement ; the tree continuing to grow for years until the boy, as a man, can reach out from his window and pick walnuts every fall, and the idea seems in- credible ; and yet the equivalent occurs quite often in the south-eastern portions of our distant colony. Nor is all this marshy softness confined to the levels or to almost level sloi)es, as one would imagine from one's ex- perience at home, but it extends up the steepest places, where the climbing would be hard enough without this added obstacle. In precii^itous slopes where the foot tears out a great swath of moist moss, it may reveal un- derneath a slippery shingle or shale where nothing but a bird could lind a footing in its present condition. There is wonderful preservative power in all these conditions, for nothing seems to rot in the ground, and the accumulated timber of ages, standing and fallen, stumps, limbs, and trunks, "criss-cross and tumble- tangled," as the children say, forms a bewildering mass which, covered and intertwined as it is with a compact entanglement of underbrush and moss, makes the ascent of the steep hillsides a formidable undertaking. A fallen trunk of a tree is only indicated by a ridge of moss, and should the traveler on this narrow path deviate a little too far to the right or left, he may sink 34 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER up to his arm-pits in a soft mossy trap from whicli he can scramble as best he may, according to his a(;tivity in the craft of " backwoodsmnnshi])." Having once reached tlie tops of the lower hills — the higher ones are covered with snow and glacier ice the year round — a few small openings m:y be seen, which, if any thing, are more boggy and treacherous to the feet than the hillsides themselves, lagoon-like morasses, covered with pond lilies and aquatic plant life, being connected by a network of sluggish canals with three or four inches of amber colored water and as many feet of soft black oozy mud, with here and there a clumj) of willow brake or " pussy- tails" springing above the waste of sedge and flags. In these bayou openings a hunter may now and then run across a stray deer, bear, or mountain goat, but, in general, inland hunting in south-eastern Alaska is a complete failure, owing to the scarcity of game and the labor of hunting. The worst part of Peril Strait being ahead of us, we backed out with our long unwieldy vessel and turned westward, passing out late in the evening through Salisbury Strait to the Pacific Ocean, ours being, according to the pilot, the first steam vessel to essay the passa^^e. A last night on the Pacific's rolling water, and early next morning we rounded Cape Ommaney, and entered the inland passage of Chatham Strait, our prow once more pointed northward, the sheet of water lying as quiet as a mill pond. About 4 p. m. we reached Killisnoo, a pretty little port in the Strait. Cod-fish abounding here in unusual numbers, a regular fishery has been established by a company for the pur- pose of catching and preserving the cod for the markets THE INLAND PASSAGE TO ALASKA. of the Pacific coast. Here I saw many of the Kootznahoo Indians of tlie place, who do the principal fishing for the white men. Their already ugly faces were plastered over with black, for which, according to the superintend- ent, there were two causes. A few of the Indians were clad in mourning, to which this artificial blackness is an adjunct, while the remainder followed the custom in order to protect their faces and especially their eyes from the intense glare of the sun on the water while fish- ing. Chatham Strait at its northern end subdivides into Icy Straits and Lynn Canal, the latter being taken as our course. At its northern end it again branches into the Chilkat and Chilkoot Inlets, the former being taken ; and at its head, the highest northing we can reach in this great inland salt-water river, our voyage on the Victoria terminated. Icy Straits lead oflF to the west- ward and unite with the Pacific, by way of Cross Sound, the most northern of these connecting passages, which marks the point where the archipelago, and with it the inland passage, ceases, for from here northward to St. Elias and beyond a bold bad coast faces the stormy Pacific, and along its frowning cliffs of rock and ice even the amphibious Indian seldom ventures. f ^ CHAPTER III. IN THE CIIILKAT COUNTRY. CHILKAT BRACR- LKT MADK rKOM BILVIR COIN. IIILKAT country was reached on the morn- ing of the 2d of June and we dropped anchor in a most picturesque little i)ort called Pyra- mid Harl)or, its name being derived from a conspicuous conical island that the Chilkats call Schlay-hotch, and the few whites, Pyra- mid Island, shown on page 43. There were two salmon canneries just conjpleted, one on each side of the inlet, awaiting the "run" or coming of salmon, which occurred about two weeks later. Each cannery was manned by about a half dozen white men as directors arid workmen in the trades departments, the Chilkats doing the rougher work, as well as furnishing the fish. They differed in no material resj^ectfrom the salmon can- neries of the great Columbia River, so often described. Just above them comes in the Chilkat river, with abroad shallow mouth, which, at low water (sixteen feet below high water) looks like a large sand Hat forming part of the shores of the harbor. On these bars the Indians spear the salmon when the water is just deep enough to allow them to wade around readily. Up this Chilkat river are the different villages of the Chilkat Indians, one of fifteen or twenty houses being in sight, on the east bank, the largest, however, which con- tains four or five times as many houses, called Kluk-wan, IN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY. S7 being quite a distjuice up tlie rivf r. Tlu'se Chilkata are subdivided into a niiinber of Hinaller clans, named after tile various animals, birds and ilshes. At about the time of my arrival the chijjf of the (^ow clan liad died, and as lie was a very important person, a most sumptiious fu- neral was expected to last about a week or ten days. These funerals are nothing but a series of feasts, pro- tracted according to the importance of the deceased, and as they are furnisluHi at the exjjense of the administra- tors or executors of tiie dead num's estate, every Indian from far and wide, full of veneration for the dead and a desire for victuals, congregates at the pleasant ceremo- nies, and gorges to his utmost, being worthless for work for another week afterward. As I urgently needed some three or four score of these Indians to carry my effects on their backs across the Alaskan coast range of mount- ains to the head waters of the Yukon river, this pro- longed funeral threatened seriously to prevent my getting away in good time. Hanking me as a chief, I was invited to the obsequies and promised a very conspicuous posi- tion therein, especially on the last day when the body was to be burned on a huge funeral pyre of dry resinous woods. Cremation is the usual method of dis- posing of the dead among these people, the priests or medicine men being the only ones exempt. The latter claim a sort of infallibility and all of their predictions, acts, and influences capable of survival, live after them so long as their bodies exist, but should these be lost by drowning, devouring, or cremation, this infallibility ceases. Therefore these defunct doctors of savage witch- craft inhabit the greatest portion of the few graveyards that one sees scattered here and there over the shores of Il 88 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. the channels and inlets that penetrate the country. Cre • mation is not always resorted to, however, with the laity, for whenever convenience dictates otherwise, they too may be buried in boxes, and this practice, I understand, is becoming more common. Cremation is a savage honor, nevertheless, and slaves were not entitled to the rite. All the Indians were extremely anxious that I should attend the obsequies of their dear departed friend, for if I did they saw that they might also be present and yet feel sure of employment on my expedition over the mountains. I declined the invitation, however, and by being a little bit determined managed to persuade enough strong sturdy fellows away to do my proposed packing in two trips over the pass, which had the effect of inducing the others to come forward in suf- ficient numbers to accomplish the work m a single jour- ney, and preparations were comment -^i accordingly. These preparations consisted mostly in assorting our effects with reference to every thing that we could possibly leave behind, taking as little as we could make our way through with, and putting that little into convenient bags, boxes, and bundles of about one liund- red pounds each, that being the maximum load the In- dians could well carry over such Alpine trails. Some boys, eight or ten, even came forward to solicit a share in the arduous labor, and one little urchin of not over fourteen, a son of the Chilkat chief, Shot-rich, manfully assumed the responsibility of a sixty-eight pound box, the distance he had to carry it being about thirty miles, but thirty miles equal to any one hundred and thirty on the good roads of a civilized country. There were a few slaves among my numerous Indian packers, slavery — ^^ IN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY. 39 having once flourished extensively among the Chilkats, but having diniinisljed botli in vigor and extent, in direct ratio to their contact with the whites. Formerly, slaves were treated in the many barbarous ways common to savage countries, sacrificed at festivals and religious ceremonies, and kept at the severest tasks. They were often tied in huge leathern sacks stretched at full length on the hard stony ground and trodden to death. The murderers, great muscular men, would jump up and dowxi on their bodies, singing a wild death chant, with their fists clinched across their breasts, every cracking of a rib or bone being followed by loud shouts of derisive laughter. Sometimes the slave was bound to huge bowlders at the water's edge at low tide, and as the returning waves came rolling in and slowly drowned the wretch, his cries were deafened by the hicieous shouts from the spectators on the land. Of course, as with all slave-holders, an eye was kept open toward mercenary views, and the sacrifices were nearly always of the aged, infirm, or decrepit ; those who had ceased to be useful as interpreted by their own savage ideas of usefulness. Entering a Chilkat house nowadays, one can hardly distinguish a slave from the master, unless one is acquainted with the insignificant variations in dress which characterize them, and while the slaves are supposed to lo all the work the enforcement of the rule appears to be very lax. Still it is interesting to know that the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution is not held inviolable in all parts of that vast country. As among nearly all savages, the women are brutalized, but they appear to have one prerogative of the most singular character, that is well worth relat- 40 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. i ing. Nearly every thing descends on the mother's side, yet a chattel may be owned, or at least controlled, by the men, although a traveler will notice many bargains wherein the woman's consent is iirst obtained. The royal succession is most oddly managed with reference to women's rights. The hei' .it^ , >iit to the throne is not the oldest or any other child or the king and queen, but is the queen's nearest blood relative of the male per- sr vsion, although the relationship may be no closer, per- haps, than that of cousin. As this curiously chosen king may marry any woman of the tribe, it is easy to see that any one may in this indirect way become the sov- ereign of the savages, and with the help of luck alone, may acquire royal honors. One rich Indian woman of Sitka who toolc a fancy to a slave, purchased him for the purpose of converting him into a husbantl. at a cost of nearly a thousand dollars in goods and .hi it ."els, and if he was not very expensive thereafter it -. ; have been cheaper than the usual run of such bia*^..ui-. When a couple of Cliilkats tie the nuptial knot, they ^ ' once, if possible, adopt a boy and a girl, although these can hardly be said to stand in the jilace of adopted children, when it is understood that they are really a conjugal reserve corps for the bride and bridegroom in case of deatli. Should the man die the boy becomes the widow's husband without furtli : » ^-emony. ;!ud rdce versa. Of course such conjugal mixtures preyt^ ? V,£ :i\ost incon- gruous aspects in the matter of age, bat happily these examples are infre;; jent. This Chij^at con;:,, is most thoroughly Alpine in character, and in the quiet, still evenings, far up 0,1 the steep hillsides, where the dense spruce timber is broken IN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY. 41 up by natural clearings, one could often see a brown or black bear come out and nose around tc' get at some of the many roots and berries that there abound, and more than once I was a spectator of a bear hunt, for as soon as Bruin put in an appearance there was always some Indian hunter ambitious enough to toil up the steep mountain sides after him. I have spoken of their extreme fear of the great brown or cinnamon bear, whi^h they seldom attack. So great indeed is the Chilkats' respect for him that the most aristocratic clan is called the Cinnamon Bears. Another higli class clan is the Crows, the plebeiar divisions being the Wolves and Whales, and the division line is so strong that it leads to feuds between the dans that, in respect of slaughter, are almost entitled to the name of wars, while between the high and low caste intermarriage is almost unknown. As the Brown Bears, or Cinnamon Bears as they are gen- erally called, are the highest clan, so copper is their most highly prized metal. With copper the Chilkats have always been familiar, gold and silver coming with the whites ; and therefore a brown bear's head carved in copper is their most venerated charm. In regard to ei^gravin'^' and sculpture it is not too much to say that the Chilkats stand well in the front rank of savnge -^irtists. When civilization first came in contact with these people they were in the paleolithic stone age of that material, and their carvings were marvels of design and execution, although subserving the simplest wants of a simple- people. Of metals they possessed only copper, and that in such small quantities as to be practically out of the account. With the wliites came gold and silver, and the latter from its comparative cheapness became \ 42 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. their favorite metal. Coins were hammered out into long slender bars, bent into bracelets, and then beau- tifully engraved, some of their designs having been borrowed from civilization and copied faithfully in detail, although the old savage ideas of workmanship are for obvious reason f; preferred by most purchasers. Some of their women wear a dozen or more bracelets on each arm, covering them up to the elbows and beyond, but this seems to be only a means of i^reserving them until the arrival of white customers, when they are sold at from one to five or six dollars a pair according to their width. The initial piece of this diapter is sketched from one in the possession of the author and made by one of his hired Indians. Ear-rings, finger-rings, beads and ornamental combs for the hair are made of silver and gold, mostly of silver ; and the Chilkats seem to be as imitative in respect to ideas and designs as the Mongolians, whose talents are so much better known. It is ii) wood and horn, however, that their best examples of this art have been displayed, and so unique and intricate are they that language is inade- quate to describe them. Of wood carvings their ' ' totem ' ' poles show the cleverest workmanship and variety of design. The exact significance of these totem poles remains still undetermined, and the natives themselves seem averse to throwing much light on the subject. This fact alone would appear to indie ..ie a superstitious origin. Some say the totem poles represent family genealogies, life histories, and tribal accounts, all of which conjectures may be well founded. They are simi)ly logs of wood standing on end in front of the houses, and facing the water. This face is covered from IN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY. 43 'I top to bottom, for a height of from five to thirty feet, with the most curious carvings, as shoAvn to a limited extent on page 19. The "totem" or tribal symbol, which may be a wolf, a bear, a raven, or a fish, often predominates, while representations of crouching human PYKAMID HARBOR, CHILKAT INLET. (Chilkat Indiua Caiioc in tho foreground.) figures are favorite designs. The making of totem poles has ceased among the Indians, although they carefully preserve those that still exist. Still many of them fall into the clutches of white men in comjiensation for a few dollars, and hardly a museum ol note in the coun- I> I 44 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. I ■I 11: try but displays a Tlinkit totem pole or two, while some possess extensive collections. The best carving is shown in the isolated poles standing in front of the houses, bui. frequently the houses themselves are fantastically carved in conspicuous places to suit the owner's fancy. Some of these houses are quite respectable for savage housemaking, the great thick puncheon planks of the floor being often quite well polished, or at any rate neatly covered with white sand. Attempts at civilization are made in the larger and more aristocratic abodes by partitioning the huge hovel into looms by means of dra- peries of cloth or canvas. In some the door is made as high as it can be cut in the wall and is reached by steps from the outside, while a similar flight inside gives access to the floor. The f7re occupies the center of the room, enough of the floor being removed to allow it to be kindled directly on the ground, the smoke escaping by a huge hole in the roof. The vast majority of the houses are giualid beyond measure, and the dense resin- ous smoke of the spruce and pine blackens the walls with a funereal tinge, and fills the house with an odor which, when mingled with that of decayed salmon, makes one feel like leaving his card at the door and passing on. It takes no stretch of the imagination to conceive that such architecture provides the maximum of ventilation when least needed, and it is a fact that the winter hours of the Chilkats are cold and cheerless in the extreme. They sit crouched around the fire with their blankets closely foldad about them and even drawn over their heads, the house serving indeed as a protection from the fierce wind and deep snow drifts, but no more. They look on all this foolishness, however, with IN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY. 4S a sort of Spartan fortitude as necessary to toughen them and inure them to the rough climate, and at times, impelled by this belief, they will deliberately expose themselves with that object in view. When the rivers and lakes ava frozen over the men and boys break great holes in the ice and plunge in for a limited swim, then come out, and if a bank of soft snow is convenient roll around in it like so many polar bears ; and when they got so cold that they can't tell the truth they wander leisurely back to the houses and remark that they have had a nice time, and believe they have done something toward making themselves robust Chilkat citizens able to endure every thing. There is no wonder that such people adopt cremation ; and in fact one interpretation of its religious significance is based on the idea of future personal warmth in the haj)py hunting grounds, which they regard as a large island, whose shores are unattain- able except by those whose bodies have been duly con- sumed by fire. Unless the rite of cremation has been performed the unhappy shade shivers perpetually in outer frost. It is the impossibility of cremation which makes death by drowning so terrible to a Chilkat. The reason that the sJinmans, or medicine men (whose bodies are not cremated) have no such dread, is that their souls do not pass to the celestial island, but are trans- lated into the bodies of infants, and in this way the crop of medicine men never diminishes, whatever may be the status of the rest of the population. Dreams and divinations, or various marks of the child's hair or face, are relied upon to determine into which infant the supreme and mysterious power of the defunct doctor of Tlinkit divinity has entered. To enumerate all of these 46 ALONG ALASiCA'S GREAT RIVER. II signs would consume more of my space tlian the subject is worth. When a Chilkat dies tlie body is burned at sunrise, having lirst been dressed for the ceremony in a costume more eJaborate tlian any whicli it ever wore in life. The corpse must not be carried out at the door, which is deemed sacred, a superstition very common among savage races. A few boards may be taken from tlie rear or side of the hovel, or the body may be hoisted through the capacious chimney in the roof ; but when tlie Chilkat in his last illness sought his house to lie down and die in it he passed over its threshold for tlie last time. Demons and dark spirits hover around like vul- tures, and are only kept out of doors by the dreaded incantations of the medicine men, and these may seize the corpse as it passes out. So fiendishly eager are they to secure and stab their prey that all that is needed is to lead out a dog from the house, which has been brought into it at night, when the witches fall upon it and exhaust their strength in attacking it before they discover their mistake. The cremation is seldom perfect, and the charred bones and remnants are collected and put into a small box standing on four posts in the nearest graveyard. In the burial of medicine men, or before cremation with others, the bodies are bent into half their length, the knees drawn up to the breast and secured by thongs and lashings. A walk into, the woods around Chilkat shows the traveling to be somewhat better than in equally mount- ainous country near the coast, and where paths had been cut through the dense timber to the charcoal pits formed and maintained by the canneries, the walking was ex- ceedingly agreeable and pleasant, especially by way of IN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY. if contrast. As one recedes from the coast and gets beyond the influence of the warm Japanese current with its ceaseless fogs, rains and precipitation generally, the woods and marshes become more and more susceptible of travel, and by the time the Alaska coast range of mountains is crossed and the interior reached, one finds it but little worse than the tangle- woods and swamps of lower latitudes. The waters swarm with life, which is warmed l)y this heat-bearing current, and I think I do not exaggerate in saying that Alaska and its numerous outlying islands will alone, in the course of a short time, repay us annually more than the original cost of the great territory. By means of these industries the wedge has begun to enter, and we may hope it will be driven home by means of a wise administration of government, a boon whi(?h has been denied to Alaska since the Eussians left the territory. The principal fisheries will always be those of salmon and cod, since these fish are most readily prepared for export, while halibut, Arctic smelt or candle-fish, brook trout, flounders and other species will give ample variety for local use. The salmon has long been the staple fish food of the Chilkats, but this is slowly giving way to the products of civiliz,ation which they acquire in return for services at the canneries and for loading and unload- ing the vessels which visit the port. The salmon season is ushered in with considerable ceremony by the Chil- kats, numerous festivals mark its success and its close is celebrated by other feasts. A Chilkat village during the salmon fishing season is a busy place. Near the water, loaded with the fish, their pink sides cut open ready for drying, are tke scaffoldings, which are built just high 48 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. enough to prevent the dogs from investigating too closely ; while out in the shallow water of the shoals or rapids, which often determine the site of a village, may- be seen lish-weirs looking like stranded baskets that had served their purpose elsewhere and been thrown away up the stream, and which had lodged here as tliey floated down. Many of the salmon are converted into fish-oil, which Is used by the Chilkats as food, and resembles a cross between our butter and the blubber of the Eskimo. Taking a canoe that is worn out, yet not so badly dan. aged as not to be completely water-tight, it is filled some six to eight inches deep with salmon, over which water is poured until the fish are well rovered. This being done on the beach there are always plenty of stones around, and a number of these are heated to as liigli a tempera- ture as possible in an open fire alongside of the canoe, aiivi are then rapidly thrown into the water, bringing it to a boiling heat, and cooking the mass. As the oil of the fat fisli rises to the surface it is skimmed off with spoons, and after all has been procured that it is possible to obtain by this means, the gelatinous mass is pressed so as to get whatever remains, and all is preserved for win- ter food. The salmon to be dried are split open along the back until they are as flat as possible, and then the flesh is split to the skin in horizontal and vertical slices about an inch to an inch and a half apart, which facilitates the drying process. Each little square contracts in drying and makes a convenient mouthful for them as they scrape it from the skin with their upper canine teeth like a beaver peeling the bark from a cottonwood tree. In packing over the Alaska coast range of mountains, a task which keeps the Indians absent from three to five days. Q to .^ ^ .'.^ ,JU(J1UU,-J»»H I -' I M Il- ll " ' IN Tilt: CIIJLKAT COUNTRY. 40 a .single salmon and a quart of Hour are considered a suf- licrient ration jier man for even that severe trip. If they are working for wiiite men the employers are supposed to furnish the Hour and the Indians the fish. While these Tlinkits of soutii-eastern Alaska, of wliich the Ohilkats and Chilicoots are the most dreaded and war- like band, are a most jolly, mirth-making, and often- times even hilarious crowd of people, yet any tiling like a practi(.'al joke playt'd upon one of them is seldom appreciated by the recii)i('nt with the sheepish satisfac- tion so common to civilization. An army officer, Lieut. C. E. S. Wood, who spent some time among them sketching and drawing something besides his pay, relates in the Century Magazine the story of an Indian who laboriously crawled up on a band of decoy ducks that somebody had allowed to renuiin anchored out near the water's edge, and wasted several rounds of anmiunition on them before he discovered his mistake. Instead f)f sneaking back into the brush, dodging through out-of- the-way by paths to his home, and maintaining a con- spicuous silence thereafter, as we of a more civilized country would have done under like circumstances, he sought out the owner ^1 liie decoys and demanded direct and indirect damages An the injuries he had suffered and the ammunition he had wasted, and was met by laughter, which only increased his persistency until his demands were satisfied to get rid of him. At one of the two salmon canneries of which I have spoken as being in Chilkat Inlet, there was also kept a trading store, and here the Indians would bring their furs and peltries and barter for the articles that were so temptingly displayed before their eyes ; and if the skins 60 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT HI V Eli. were numerous and valuable this huffglin/^ would often continue for hours, as the Indian never counts time as worth any tiling in his bargains. While wo were there an Indian brought in a few black fox skins to barter for trading material, a prime skin of this kind being worth about forty dollars in goods fiom the store, and grading from that down to nearly one-fourth of the amount. At the time when the Chilkats learned the great value of the black fox skins, not many years back, they also learned, in some unaccountable w ay, the mt;thod of mak- ing them to order by staining common red fox or cross fox skin by the ai)plicatic oome native form of blacking, probably made from soot or charcoal. Many such were disposed of before the counterfeit was detected, and even after the cheat was well known the utmost vigilance was needed to prevent natives playing the trick in times of great business activity. The method of detection was simply to place the skin on any hard flat surface like the counter of a trader's store, and rub the clean hand vigorously and with considerable pressure backward and forward over the fur side of the skin, when, if the skin were dyed, the fact would be shown by the blackened hand. This fact had been explained to us by the trader, and the Doctor entering just as the conversation as to the price became animated, and perceiving that the palmar sur- face of his hand was well soiled and blackened, owing to his having been engaged assorting packs for our Indians, he playfully stepped uj) to the counter, ran his hand jauntily through the skin once or twice and dis- played to the two traders his blackened palm, to the surprise of the white man and absolute consternation L JN THE CHILKAT COUNTRY 01 of the Indian. Tlie former rupidly but unavailingly tried to verify the Doctor's experiment, when the latter brolce out into a lieurty hiugh, in which the trader joined. Not so with tlie Indian ; wlien he recovered his senses ho was furious at tlie imputation on his character ; and the best light ho could view it in, after all the explanations, was that it had been a con- spiracy between the two white men to got the skin at low rates, and the plot having failed, according to their own confess!" u, and he himself having received his own price to quiet him, ought to be satisfied. The Doctor remarked as he finished the story, that he did not believe there was the remotest sense of humor among the whole band of Chilkat or Chilkoot Indians. The constant lif« of the Tlinkits in their canoes when procuring food or at other occupations on the water has produced, in con- formity with the doctrine of natural selection and the survival of the fittest, a most conspicuous prepondera- ting development of the chest and upper limbs over the lower, and their gait on land, resembling that of aquatic birds, is scarcely the poetry of motion as we understand it. The Chilkats, however, are not so confined to a sea- faring life, and their long arduous trading journeys in- land have assisted to make this physical characteristic much less conspicuous among them than among other tribes of Tlinkits, although even the Chilkats can not be called a race of large men. While they may not com- pare with the Sioux or Cheyennes, or a few others that might be mentioned, yet there are scores o^' Indian tribes in the United States proper which are greatly inferior to the Chilkats both in mental, physical, and moral quali- ties. In warfare they are as brave as the average Indians Il ' 53 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. of the United States, and have managed to conduct their own affairs with considerable order, in spite of govern- mental interfference at times. I quote from a correspon- dent writing from there as late as August, 1884, to the JVew York Times of November 23d : "The Indians have a great respect for a man-of-war, with its strict (Liscip' Ine and busy steam launches that can follow theiv canoes to the remote creeks and hiding places in the islands, and naval rule has been most praiseworthy. The army did no good for the country or the natives, and its lecord is not a creditable one. The Tlinkits sneered openly at the land forces, and snapped their fingera at cliai '^nging and forbidding sentries, and paddled aAvay at their pleasure." :d i 11 i h CHAPTER rV. OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. Y the 6th of June all of our many arrangements for depart- ure were fully completed, and the next day the party got under way shortly before 10 o'clock in the forenoon. Mr. Carl Spulin, the Mannger of the North-west Trading Com- pany, which owned the west- ern cannery in the Chilkat ciiiLKAT INDIAN PACKER. Inlet, whcro my party had "been disembarked, who had been indefatigable in his efforts to assist me in procuring Indian packers, and in many other '/ays aiding the expedition, now placed at my dispop pose, espe- cially if his object be to save manual labor. Tlie mouth of the Dayay river being reached about six in the after- noon, it was found to consist of a series of low swampy mud flats and a very miry delta. Here it is necessary to ascend the swift river at least a mile to find a site that is even half suitable for a camp. During the time OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. 89 fills, the Jvith nits ling land Inch to I the when the greatest sediment is brought down by the swift muddy stream, i. e., during the spring freshets and sum- mer high water, the winds are usually from the south, and blow with considerable force, which fact accounts for the presence of soft oozy deposits of great extent so near the mouth of the stream. Through this shallow watet the canoes carried our effects. The river once reached the canoes proceeded up the stream to camp, the launch whistled us adieu, and as she faded from sight, the last link that bound us to civilization was snapped, and our explorations commenced. The distance from the Haines' Mission to the mouth of the Dayay where we disembarked was sixteen miles. At this camp No. 2, we found a small camp of wander- ing TaM-heesh Indians, or as they are locally called by the few whites of the country, the Sticks, a peaceful tribe whose home is over the Alaskan coast range of mountains and along the head-waters of the great Yukon, the very part of the very stream we desired to explore. It haf only been within the last few years that these Tahk-heesh Indians have been allowed to cross over the mountains intc .le Chilkat country for purposes of trade, the Chilkats and Chi'koots united having from time immemorial completely monopolized the profitable commerce of the interior fur trade, forbidding ingress to the whites and denying egress to the Indians of the interior. From the former they bought their trading goods and trinkets, and making them into convenient bundles or parcels of about one hundred pounds each, they carried them on their backs across the snow and glacier crowned mountains, exchanging them for furs with the tribes of the interior for many hundreds of 60 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. m I miles around. These furs were again lashed in packs and carried back over the same perilous paths to the cof- fers of the white traders, and although they realized but a small fractional portion of their value, yet prices were large in comparison with the trifling cost to the venders. When the trade was at its best many years ago, these trips were often made twice a year during the spring and summer, and so great was the commerce in those days, that no less than from eight to ten tons of trading material found its way into the interior by way of these Alpine passes, and was exchanged for its equivalent in furs. As a consequence, the Chilkat nation is the richest tribe of Indians in the great North-west. Their chief, Shot-rich, alone is worth about ten or twelve thousand dollars in blankets, their standard of wealth, and others in propor- tion, according to their energy in the trade. Shot-rich has three large native houses at Klukwan, the main Chilkat town, two of which are filled with blankets worth from two to four dollars apiece. The trail on which we were now plodding along is known among the Indians as the Chilkoot trail to the interior, and takes from two to four days, packing their goods on their backs, until the headwaters of the Yukon are reached. It was monopo- lized solely by the Chilkoots, who had even gone so far as to forbid the Chilkats, almost brothers in blood, from using it, so that the latter were forced to take a longer and far more laborious route. This route of the Chilkats led them up the Chilkat River to near its head, where a long mountain trail that gave them a journey of a week or ten days, packing on their backs, brought them to a tributary of the Yukon, by means of which the interior was gained. Once on this tributary no serious rapids or OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. 61 other impediments were in their line of travel, while the Yukon, with its shorter trail, had many such obstacles. The great Hudson Bay Company with its well-known indomitable courage, attempted as early as 1850 to tap this rich trading district monopolized by the Chilkat Indians, and Fort Selkirk was established at the junc- tion of the Yukon and Pelly, but so far away from their main base of supplies on Hudson's Bay, that it is said it took them a couple of years to reach it with trading effects. The Indians knew of but one method of compe- tition in business. They went into no intricate inventories for reducing prices of stock, nor did they put bigger advertisements or superior inducements before their cus- tomers. They simply organized a war party, rapidly descended the main Yukon for about live hundred miles, burned the buildings and appropriated the goods. As the Tahk-heesh or Sticks were allowed to come abroad so the white men were allowed and, in fact, induced to enter, for the coast Indians found ample compensation in carrying the white men's goods over the trail of about thirty miles at a rate which brought them from ten to twelve dollars per pack of a hundred pounds in weight ; and it was my intention to take advantage of this oppor- tunity to reach the head of the river, and then fight my way down it, rather than against its well known rapid current, of which I had heard so much from the accounts of explorers on its lower waters. When it was known, however, that I expected to do my explorations on a raft, the idea was laughed at by the few white men of the country, as evincing the extreme of ignorance, and the Indians seemed to be but little behind them in ridicule of the plan. The latter emphatically affirmed that a •I ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. hundred and fifty or two hundred miles of lakes stretched before us, and what, they argued, can be more helpless than a raft on a still lake 'i Eight or ten miles of boiling rapids occurred at various points in the course of the stream, and these would tear any raft into a shapeless wreck, while it would be hard to lind Indians to portage my numerous effects around them. The unwieldiness of a great raft — no small one would serve for us and our stores — in a swift curi'ent was constantly pointed out, and I must confess I felt a little discouraged myself when I summed up all these reasons. Why this or the Chilkat route was not attempted long ago by some explorer, who might thereby have traversed the entire river in a single summer, instead of combating its swift current from its mouth, seems singular in the light of the above facts, and I imagine the only explanation is that men who would place sufficient reliance in Indian reports to insert in their maps the gross inaccuracies that we after- ward detected, would rely also upon the Indian reports that from time immemorial have pronounced this part of the river to be unnavigable even for canoes, except for short stretches, and as lilled with rr.pi'^.s, canons, whirl- pools and cascades. After camping that night on the Dayay, bundles were all assorted and assigned. The packs varied from thirty- six to a hundred and thirty-seven pounds in weight, the men generally carrying a hundred pounds and the boys according to their age and strength. The " Sticks " or Tahk-heesh Indians camped near us were hunting black bear, which were said to be abundant in this locality, an assertion which seemed to be verified by the large num- ber of tracks we saw in the valley. From this band of m OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. 68 Indians we completed our number of packers, a circum- stance which irritated the otheis greatly, for the Chilkats seem to regard tlie Sticks ahiiost in the liglit of slaves. Here I also secured a stout, sturdy fellow, at half rates, merely to go along in case of sickness among my numer- ous retinue, in which event he would be pui on fall wages. His onerous dutes consisted in carrying tlie guidon, or expedition flag, weighing four or live pounds, and he improvised himself into a ferry for the white men at the numerous fords which the tortuous Dayay River jjre- sented as we ascended. A s every one gave him a nickel or dime at each ford, and the guidon ptalf was simply a most convenient alpenstock, he was the envy of all the others as he slowly but surely amassed his gains ; not so slowly either, for the river made so many windings from one side of its high walled valley to the other, that his receipts rivaled a western railroad in the matter of mile- age, out the locomotion was scarcely as comfortable as railroad travel. During the still, quiet evening we could hear many grouse hooting in the spruce woods of the hillsides, this time of day seeming to be their favorite hour for concerts. The weather on this, the first day of our trij), was splen- did, with a light southern wind that went down with the sun and gave us a few mist-like sjjrinkles of rain, serving to cool the air and make si umber after our fatigue doubly agreeable. The head of canoe navigation on the Dayay river, where it terminates abruptly in a huge boiling cas- cade, is ten miles from the mouth of the stream, although fully fifteen are traveled by the canoemen in ascending its tortuous course, which is accomplished by the usual Indian method of "tracking," with ropes and poles from ALONG ALASKA'S ORE AT RIVER. H O < the bank of the river. I observed that tliey " tracked " their canoes a^niiiiMt the current in two ways, each method requiring two men to one canoe. The diagrams given will show these methods ; in No. 1, an Indian pulls the canoe with a rope, while a conii)anion just in his rear and following in his steps keejjs the head of the canoe in the stream, with a long l)ole, at just such distance as he may desire according to the obstacles that are ])resented. If the water from the bank for some distance oUi, say twelve or fifteen feet, is clear oi .Cl obstacles, his companion will fall to the rear as far as his jiole will allow and assist the ropeman by pushing up stream, but in shallow, swift places he has all lie can do to regulate the canoe's course through the projecting stones, and the burden of the draft falls on the ropeman. In the other mode both the men use poles and all the motive power is furnished by pushing. The advan- tage over the lirst is that in " boiling" water full of stones, the bowman may steer his end clear of all of these, only to have the seething waters throw the stern against a sharp corner of a rock and tear a hole in that part, an accident which can only be avoided by placing a poleman at the stem. It is readily apparent, however, that there is much more power expended in this method of making headway »5 < •>! M H O m O 9 H U >> m o i IP CD H tt II 11 ^ »' Wt-vft*«,»«wii»»y%w/»t<>--l nww r.y.Wt'wy.y/'i'rayJ^-^ OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. 67 against the current than in the other. Some few of the Indians judiciously vary the two methods to suit the cir- cumstances. On long stretches of only moderately swift water the tired trackers would take turns in resting in the canoe, using a paddle to hold the bow out from the shore. The cuiient of the Dayay is very swift, and two days' "tracking" is often required to traverse the navigable part of the stream. Every few hundred yards or so the river needs to be crossed, wlierever the timber on the banks is dense, or where the circuitous river cuts deep into the high hillsides that form the boundaries of its narrow valley. In these crossings from fifty to a hund- red yards would often be lost. The Indians seemed to make no etfort whatever to stem the swift current in crossing, but pointed the canoe straight across for the other bank and paddled aw'ay as if dear life depended on the result. The march of the 8th to Camp 3, brought us within a half mile or a mile of the head of canoe navigation on the river, and here the Indians desired to camp, as at that particular spot there is no dry wood with uhich to cock tlieir meals ; although all tliey had to cook was the little flour that I had issued, the salmon being dried and eaten without further preparation. The Dayay Valley is well wooded in its bottom with poplar and several varieties of willow, and where these small forests did not exist were endless ridges of sand, gravel and even huge bowl- ders cutting across each other at all angles, evidently the work of water, assisted at timrs by the more powerful agency of moving or stranded ice. All day we had been crossing bear tracks of different nges, and after camping some of the white men paddled across the river (here 68 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. thirty-five or forty yards wide) to take a stroll ap the valley ; and while returning a large black bear was seen perched on a conspicuous granite ridge of the western mountain wall, probably four hundred yards away and at an angle of twenty degrees above ouri)osition in the rivei bottom. A member of the party got two shots at him, but he disappeared in the dense underbrush, evidently afraid that the sportsman might aim at something else and so hit him. Dr. Wilson and Mr. Homan fished with bait and flies for a long distance up and down the difl'er- ent channels of the river, but could not get a single ' ' rise '* or "bite," although the Indians catch mountain trout in their peculiar fish- weirs, having offered us that very day a number thus captured. Like all streams rising in glacier bearing lands of calcareous structure, its waters are very white and chalky, which may account for the apparent reluctance of the fish to rise to a fly. The pretty waterfalls on the sides of the mountains still con- tinued and the glaciers of the summits became more numerous and strongly marked, and descended nearer to the bed of the stream. I could not but observe the peculiar manifestations of surprise characteristic- of the Chilkats. Whenever one uttered a shout over some trifle, such as a comrade's slipping on a slimy stone into the water, or tumbling over the root of a log, or any mishap, comical or other- wise, every one within hearing, from two to two hundred, would immediately chime in, and such a cry would ensue as to strike us with astonishment. This may be repeated several times in a minute, and the abruptness with which it would begin and end, sc that not a single distinct voice can be heard at cither )?cginning or ending, reminds one •miiiTimiiih ,;-^fy;i ;ffr'>*"^"'iV lT|-|ii 1lnni iairiMi5ti OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. 9» somowliat of a gang of coyotes howling around a frontier can^p or the hayings of Indian dogs on moonlight sere- nades, from which one would be strongly tempted to believe they had borrowed it. Withal they are a most hai)py, merry-hearted and jovial race, laughing hilar- iously at every thing with the least shadow of comicality about it, and " guying" every trilling mishap of a com- panion in which the sufferer is expected to join, just as ftie man who chases his hat in a muddy street on a windy day must laugh with the crowd. Sucli characteristics of good nature are generally supposed to be accompanied by a generous disposition, esi)ecially as toward men of the same blood, but I was compelled to notice an almost cruel piece of seltishness which they exhibited in one point, and which told strongly against any such theory as applied to Indians, or at least this particular band of them. AVhen we got to the mouth of the Dayay river, many of the packers had no canoes in which to track their bundles or packs to the head (»f canoe navigation, and their companions who owned such craft flatly and decisively refused to take their jmcks, although, as far as I could see, it would have caused them no inconvenience wiiatever. In many cases this selflshness was the effect of caste, to which I have already alluded and which with them is carried to an extreme hardly equaled in the social distinctions of any other savage jieople. Nor was this the only conspicuous instance of sellisliness dis- l)layed. ^Vs I have already said, the Uayay is very tor- tuous, wide and swift, and therefore has very few fords, and these at inconvenient intervals for travelers carry- ing a hundred pounds apiece on their backs, yet the slight service of ferrying the jiackers and their packs 70 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. across the stream was refused by the canoemen as rigidly as the other favor, and where the river cut deep into some high projecting bank of tiie mountain flanks, these unfortunate packers would be forced to carry burdens up over some precipitous mountain spur, or at least to make a long detour in search of available fords. My readers can rest assured that I congratulated myself on having taken along a spare packer in the event of sickness among my numerous throng, for even in such a case I found them as disobliging and unaccommodating as before, utterly refusing to touch a sick man's load until he had promised them the lion's share of his wages and I had i-atified the contract. Every aiternoon or evening after getting into camp, no matter how fatiguing the march had been, as soon as their simple meal was cooked and consumed, they would gather here and there in little parties for the purpose of gambling, and oftentimes their orgies would run far into the small hours of the night. The gambling game which they called la-liell was the favorite during the trip over the Chilkoot trail, although I understand that they have others not so complicated. This game requires an even number of players, generally from four to twelve, divided into two parties Avhich face each other. These "teams" continue sitting about two or three feet ai)art, with their legs drawn up under them, a la Turque^ \\w, place selected being usually in sandy ground under the s.iade of a grove of poplar or willov>' trees. Each man l.iysa wager with the person directly opposite him, with wnom alone he gambles as far as the gain or loss of his stake is concerned, although such loss or gain is determined by the success of the team as a whole. In 1^ M ^mmit mpw ssa Br»t in resting from tlie extreme fatigue of the journey. In fact, in many phices it was a terrible scramble up and down hill, over huge trunks and bristling limbs of fallen timber too far a.part to leap from one to the other, while between was a boggy swamp that did not increase the pleasure of cuTjing a hundred pounds on one's back. Sometimes we would sink in almost to our knees, while every now and then this agony was supplemented by the recurrences of long high ridges of rough bowlders of trachyte with a splintery fract ":'e. The latter felt like hot iron under tho wet moccasins after walking on them and jumping from one to the other for awhile. Some of thesegveat ridges of bowlders on the steep hillsides must have been of quite recent origin, and from the size of the big rocks, often ten or twelve feet in diameter, I infer that the force emjjloyed must have been POSITION OF THE vKKT IN WALKING A lOG, enormous, aud I AS PRACTICED BY THE OH lUvAT INDIANS. ^^^^^^^ ^ , ^^ count for it on the theory that ice had been an im- portant agent in the res Lilt. So recent were some of the ridges that trees thirty and forty feet high were embedded in the debris, and where they were not cut off and crushed by the action of the rocks they were growing as if nothing liad happened, although half the length of their trunks in some cases was below the tops of the ridges. I hardly thought that any of the trees could be over forty or lifty years old. Where these } '-'fe tl 1 a f OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. H ridges of great bowlders wera very wide one would be oblig' 1 to follow close behind some Indian jiacker acquainted with the trail, which might easily be lost before re-entering the brush. That day I noticed that all my Indians, in crossing logs over a stream, always turned the toes of both feet in the same direction (to the right), although they kept the body square to the front, or nearly so, and each foot i)assed the other at every step, as in ordinary walking. The advantage to be gained was not obvious to the author ; as the novice, in attempting it, feels much more unsafe than in walking over the log as usual. Nearing Camp 5, we passed over two or three hundred yards of snow from three to fifteen feet deep. This day's march of the 10th of June brought us to the head of the Dayay river at a place the Indians call the "stone-houses." These stone-houses, however, are only a loose mass of huge bowlders piled over each other, projecting high above the deep snow, and into the cave-like crevices the natives craw^ for protection whenever the snow has buried all other tracts, or the cold wind from the gla- ciers is too severe to permit of sleep in the open. All around us was snow or the clear blue ice of the glacier fronts, while directly northward, and seemingly impas- sable, there loomed up for nearly four thousand feet the precipitous pass through the mountains, a blank mass of steep white, whicli we were to essay on the morrow. Shortly after camping I was told that the Indians had seen a mountain goat nearly on the sinnmitof the western mountain wall, and T was able to make out his jjresence with the aid of lield-glasses. The Indians had detected him with their unaided eyes, in sjute of his white coat 1*1 82 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. being against a background of snow. Had the goat been on the sum in it of a mountain in the moon I should not have regiiided him as any safer tlian where he was, if tlK- Indians were even half as fatigued as I felt, and CHASING A MOUMAIN GOAT IN THE .PKKUIKB I'ASS. they had carried a hundred pounds over the trail and I had not. But the identity of the goat was not fully established before an Indian, the only one who carried a gun, an old Hint-lock, smooth bore, Hudson Bay mus- ket, made preparations for the chase. He ran across the valley and soon commenced the ascent of the mount- OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. aft ; ains, in a littlo while almost disappearing on the white sides, looking like a fly crawling over the front of a house. The Indian, a "Stick," finally could be seen above the mountain goat and would have secured him, but that a little black cur dog which had started to fol- low him when he was almost at the summit, made its appearance on the scene just in time to frighten the ani- mal and started him running down the mountain side toward the pass, the "Stick" closely following in pur- suit, assisted by the dog. Just as every one expected to see the goat disappear through the pass, he wheeled directly around and started straight for the camp, i)ro- ducing great excitement. Every one grabbed the lirst gun he could get his hands on and waited for the ani- mal's approach. A shot from camp sent him Hying up the eastern mountains, which were higher than those of the west, closely followed almost to the summit by the Indefatigable " Stick," who finally lost him. I thought it showed excellent endurance for the mountain goat, but the Indian's pluck was beyond all praise, and as he I'eturned with a jovial shake of the head, as if he met Ruch disappointments every day, I felt sure tliat I would HoL have undertaken his hunt for all the goat meat in the country, even with starvation at hand. On the morning of the next day about live o'clock, we commenced the toilsome ascent of this coast range pass, called by the Indians Kotusk Mountains, and by seven o'clock all my long pack train was strung up the precip- itous pass, making one of the prettiest Alpine sights that I have ever witnessed, and as seen from a distance strangely resembling a row of bowlders ^.rojecting fiom the snow. Up banks almost perpendicular they scram- Af 84 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. bled on their hands and knees, helping themselves by every projecting rock and clump of juniper and dwarf spruce, not even refusing to use their teeth on them at tlie worst places. Along the steep snow banks and the icy fronts of glaciers steps were cut with knives, while rough alpenstocks from the valley helped them to maintain their footing. In some such places the incline was so steep that those having boxes on their backs cut scratches in the icy crust with the corners as they passed along, and oftentimes it was possible to steady one's self by the open palm of the hand resting against the snow. In some of these places a si-.gle mis-step, or the caving in of a foot-hold would have sent the unfortunate trav- eler many hundred feet headlong to certain estruc- tion. Yet not the slightest accident happened, and about ten o'clo(!k, almost exhausted, we stood on the top of the pass, enveloped in a cold drifting fog, 4,240 feet above the level of the sea (a small portion of the party havir.g found a lower crossing at 4,100 feet abov« sea-level). How these small InJiians, not apparently av^eraging over one hundred and forty jiounds in weight, could carry one hundred pounds up such a precipitous mountain of ice and snow, seems marvelous beyond measure. One man carried one hundred and thirty- seven pounds, while boys from twelve to fourteen car- ried from fifty to seventy pounda. I called this the Perrier Pass after Colonel J. Perrier of the French Geo- grapliical Society. Once on top of the Pass the tiail leads northward and the descent is very rapid for a few hundred yards to a lake of about a hundred a(!res in extent, which was yet frozen over and the ice covered with snow, although ;it (le lie ito lit ^If n •A rr OVER THE MOUNTAm PASS. 87 (li-iiinage from the slopes had iiiu'le the snow very slusliy. Over the level tracks of snow many of the Indians wore their snow-shoes, which in the ascent and steep descent had been lashed to their packs. These Indians have two kinds of snow-shoes, a very broad pair used while pack- in<,^ as with my party, and a naiTower and neater kind employed while. hunting. 'J'he two kinds are figured below. This small lake, abruptly walled in, greatly resembled an extinct crater, and such it may well have been. From this re- semblance it received its name of Crater Lake, a view of which ligures as the frontis- piece. Here there was no timber, not even brush, to be seen ; while the gull ies of the granite hills, and the valleys deeply covered with snow, gave the whole scene a decid- edly Arctic appear- ance. I noticed that my Indian jiackers, in following a trail on snow, Avhether it was up hill, on a level, or even a slight descent, always stepped in each other's tracks, and hence our large party made a trail that at first glance looked as if only five or six had passed over ; but when going down a steep descent, especially on soft snow, each one made his own trail, and they scat- tered out over many yards in width. I could not but be CniLKAT HUNTING AND PACKING SNOW- SHOES. The usual thongs are used to fnsten them to the feet, but are not fihuwa in theilhistratiou. 88 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. impressed with the idea that this was worth considering sliould it ever be necessary to estimate theh* numbers. From the little crater-like lake at the very head of the Yukon, the trail leads through a valley that converges to a gorge ; and while crossing the snow in tliis ravine we could hear the running water gui'gling under the snow bridge on which we were walking. Further down the lit- tle valley, as it opened at a point where these snow- arches were too wide to support their weight, they had tumbled into the stream, showing in many places abut- ments of deep perpendicular snow-banks often twenty to twenty-live feet in heiglit. AVhere the river banlts were of stone and perpendicular the packers were forced to pass over the i)rojecting abutments of snow, undermined by the swift stream. It was hazardous for many to attempt the passage over the frail structure at the same time. Passing by a few small picturesque lakes on our left, some still containing floating cakes of ice, we caught sight of the main lake in the afternoon, and in a few hours were upon its banks at a point where a beautiful mountain stream came tumbling in, with enough swift water to necessitate crossing on a log. Near the Crater Lake a curlew and a swallow were seen, and a small black bear cub was the only other living thing visible, although mountain goats were abundant a short distance back in the high hilly. We had gotten into camp quite late in the evening and here the contracts with our Indian packers exi)ired. Imagine my surprise, after a fatiguing march of thir- teen miles that liad required fourteen hours to accom- plish, and was fully equal to forty or fifty en any good road, at having the nuijority of my packers, men and [ ^ I OVER THE MOUNTAIN PASS. 89 boys, demand payment at onco with the view of an immediate return. Some of tliem assured me tliey would make the mouth of the Dayay before stopping, and would then only stay for a short rest. It should be remembered that we were so far north and tin- sun so near his north- ern solstice that it was light enough even at midnight, for traveling purjioses, especially on the white snow of the worst portion of the journey, Perrier Pass. I had no reason to doubt their assurances, and afterward learned that one of them went through to the mission without stopping, in spite of a furious g.ale which was raging on the Dayay and Chilkoot Inlets. ? I! CHAPTER V. ALONG THE LAKES. large lake near the head of the Yukon I named in. honor of Dr. Lindenian, of the Bremen Geographi- cal P Ciety. The country IN A 8T0UM ON TUB LAKES. thus far, includiug the lake, had already received a most thorough exjaloration at the hands of Dr. Aurel Krause and Dr. Arthur Krause, two German scientists, heretofore sent out by the above named society, but I was not aware of the fact at that time. Looking out upon Lake Lindenian a most beauti- ful Alpine-like sheet of water was presented to our view. The scene was made more picturesque by the mountain creek, of which I have spoken, and over which a green willow tree was supposed to do duty as a foot-log. My first attempt to pass over this tree caused it to sink down into the rushing waters and was much more interesting to the spectators than to me. Lake Lindeman is about ten miles long, and from one to one and a-half wide, and in appearance is not unlike a i)ortion of one of the broad inland passages of south-eastern Alaska already described. Fish were absent from these glacier-fed streams and lakes, or at least they were not to be enticed by any of the standard allurements of the fishermen's Atom THE LAKES. , ,^ u:il a few dusky grouse and wiles, but we managed to luU ^^^^^^^^ ^,,,,,,unont ="=x-/-™ -^^^^^^^ "'"* ;„ near tl-^'iv ImnKlinB »eason^ ^^^^ ^^^.^ n,uny KuUs, Ovortlie Like, on 'l"f f ' „i,\c1l 1 r..««"i'"^ '« an old co,u,...i"n ™ «'»;" f/^,. „jt timber revealed a tUe wood, next day to ««=>' ""^ ^.^ tra.to, birt ,„„,„or of bear, car.bou a^^ '^ J ^ ^,„,„i „„„k nothing eonid be ^^^^^^ ^ , ,„„, but nn,ucee»»- ot pretty l>arlequ,n ^ak ga ^^^ .^^ ^,_^.^.^, ^,,,„ fulAot. T"»'*«*'''^*'"''nts »uprli«d Uotb, o,ir many,borderedby— -;^^;^,„,,,,, cook, with a '""l'^"" 8'^'"" - Stroll, lor, as I have sa.d, ,.the reward „I ^f ^^^^ <> ''"°™ "^ '" ""~'' "' it was liglit enough at midnloi any rate with a sl>ot-gnn ^^^^^^^^^^ „i,h Wliile tire lakes were m inany p ^^^ ^^^. .wanrpy tracts, the la^d away fot^^ ^^.^^ ,,, ,a,,e sable for walkmg the gre^ o ^^^^ .^ ^,, amount ot &"«"*-*" f"V ubiquitous beyond the directions. Tl>e »-^";d o tlshoresot thelakes Kotuskrange,wasnowconflne.i ^^ .^^^ ^,^^^_ and to streams """''■Sing "o ,^ ,^ „„ desu- and while these wf- ""— '; ^;„,,aerable distance : ^:J;:!:;==om.aredwithpreviouse.perr. ence. , 7 ^,. " Stick " Indians, wlio had .^^ ^^.'^a? .^..XV IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4 Aa O /. I i :/. s la 1.0 I.I 28 |2.5 m iM 12.2 I ^ IIIIIM u . ■■uu 1.8 11^25 il.4 ii.6 ^ /a 7 '^ o;^l >? >!;^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14560 (716) 872-4503 ;V \ \'^^^ \ \ ^ ^ ^\i*. ^ s <^^^ ^\1? q\ ^ "4 o^ M ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. 1 call them canoes, indeed, was a strain upon our con- sciences. The only theory to account for their keeping afloat at all was that of the Irishman in the story, " that for every hole where the water could come in there were a half a dozen where it could run out." These canoes are made of a species of poplar, and are generally called " Cottonwood canoes ," and as the trees from which they are made are not very large, the material "runs out" so to speak, along the waist or middle of the canoe, where a greater quantity is required to roach around, and this deficiency is made up by substituting batten-like strips of thin wood tacked or sewed on as gunwales, and calking the crevices well with gum. At bow and stern some rude attempt is made to warp them into canoe lines, and in doing this many cracks are developed, all of which are smeared with spruce gum. The thin bottom is a perfect gridiron of slits, all closed with gum, and the proi)ortion of gum increases with the canon's age. These were the fragile craft that were brought to me with a tender to transport my elfects (nearly three tons besides the per- sonnel of the expedition) almost the whole hmgth of the lake, fully seven or eight miles, and the owners had the assurance to offer to do it in two days. I Had no idea how far it was to the northei-n end or outlet of Lake Lindeman, as I had spent too many years of my life among Indians to attempt to deduce; even an approxi- mate estimate frov.i the assurances of the two " Sticks " that "it was just around the point of land" to which they pointed and which may have been four or five miles distant. I gave them, however, a couple of loads of material that could be lost without serious damage, weighing three hundred to four hundred pounds, and as 5on- ) ALONG THE LAKES. 9S I did not know the length of the lake I thought I would await their return l)efore attempting further progress. Even if they could accomplish the bargain in double the time they jiroposed I was quite willing to let them pro- ceed, as I understood the outlet of the lake was a narrow river full of cascades and rocks through which, according to Indian reports, no raft of more thaa a few logs could possibly Hoat. I did not feel disposed to l)uild a couple of such cumbersome craft to traverse so short adisti-nce. A southern gale setting in shortly after their departure, with waves running on the lake a foot or two high, v/as too terrible a storm for the rickety little boats, and we did not see any thing of them or their owners until three days later, wh^n the men came creejjing back overland — the gale still raging — to explain matters which required no explanation. In the meantime, having surmised the failure of our Indian contractors, the best logs available, which were rather snuiU ones of stunted spruce and contorted ])ine, had been floated down the little stream and had been tracked up and down along the shores of the lake, and a raft made of the somewhat formid ible dimensions of fifteen by thirty feet, with an elevated deck amidships. The rope lashings used on the loads of the Irdian pack- ers were put to duty in binding the logs togeuier, Ifiit the gi'eatest reliance was placed in stojit wooden pins which united them by auger holes bored through both, the logs being cut or "saddled out" where they joined, as is done at the corners of log cabins. A deck was made on the corduroy plan of light seasoned pine poles, and high enough to prevent ordinary sized waves from wetting the effects, while a pole was rigged by mortising it into M ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. i one of the central logs at the bottom and supporting it by four guy ropes from the top, and from this was sus- pended a wall tent as a sail, the ridge pole being the yard arm, with tackling arranged to raise and lower it. A large bow and stern oar with which to do the steering completed the rude craft. On the evening of the 14th of June the raft was finished, when we found that, as a number of us had surmised, it was not of sufficient buoy- ancy to hold all our effects as well as the whole party of whites and natives. The next day only tliree whito men, Mr. Iloman, Mr. Mcintosh and Corporal Shircliff, were placed in charge. About half the slorf's were put on the deck, the raft swung by ropes into the swift current of the stream so as to float it well out into the lak.-, and as the rude sail was spread to the increasing Avind, the primitive ciaft commenced a journey that was destined to measure over thirteen hundred miles before the rough ribs of knots and bark were laid to rest on the great river, nearly half a thousand miles of whose secrets were given up to geo- graphical science through the medium of her staunch and trusty bones. As she slowly obeyed her motive power, the wind began blowing harder and harder, until the craft was pitching like a vessel laboring in an ocean storm ; but despite this the middle of the afternoon saw her rough journey across the angry lake safely com- pleted, and this without any damage to her load worth noticing. The three men had had an extremely hard time of it, and had been compelled to take down their wall tent sail, for when this was lashed down over the stores on the deck to protect them from the deluge of flying spray breaking up over the stern there was ample ALONG THE LAKES. vr it 18- I surface presented to the furious gale to drive them tdoug at a good round pace, especially when near the bold rocky shores, where all their vigilance and muscle were needed to keep them from being daslu'd to i)ieces in the rolling breakers. They had started with a half doz«'nor so good stout poles, but in using them over tlie rocks on tlie bottom one would occasionally cramp between a couple of submerged stones and be wrested violently from their hands as the raft swei)t swiftly by before it could be extricated. The renuiindcr of the personnel, white and native, scrambled over the rough precipitous mountain spurs on the eastern side of the lake, wading through bog and tangled underbrush, then up steep slippery granite rocks on to the ridge tops bristling with fallen burned timlH'r, or occasionally steadying themselves on some slight log that crossed a deep cancm, whose bed held a rushing stream where nothing less than a trout could live for a minute, the one comujou suffering every where being from the mosquitoes. The rest of the stores not taken on the raft found their way along slowly by means of the two dilapidated canoes, previously described, in tlie hands of our own Indians. As we neared Camp 7, at the outlet of Lake Linde- man, on the overland trail we occasionally met with little openings that might be de.scribed by an imaginative per- son as prnirirs, and for long stretcher, that is, two and three hundred yards, the walking v»ould really be pleas- ant. An inspection of the locality sliowed that the lake we had just passed was drained by a small liver averaging frcmi fifty to seventy-five feet in width and a little over a mile long. It was for nearly the whole length a repeti- 98 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER tion of shallow rapids, jslioals, cascades, ngly-looking bowlders, bars and iK^twork of drift-timber. At about the micUlle of its course the worst cascade was split by a huge projecting bowlder, just at a su(Ulen l)»?n«l of the stream, and either channel was barely large enough to allow the raft to i)ass if it came end on, and remained so while going through, otherwise it would be sure to jam. Through this narrow chute of water the raft was ".shot " the next day — June Kith — and although our jiredictions were verified at this cascade, a few minutes' energetic work sufficed to clear it, with the loss of a side-log or two, and all were glad to see it towed and anchored alongside the gravelly beach on the new lake, with so little damage received. Here we at once commenced enlarging its dimensions on a scale commensurate with the carrying of our entire load, both personnel an J materiel. Around this unnavigable and short river the Indian packers and traders poitage their good.s when making their way into the interior, there b*?ing a good trail on the eastern side of the stream, which, barring a few sandy stretches, connects the two lakes. I called these rapids and the noi'tage Payer Portage, after Lieutenant Payer, of the Austro-Hungarian exjjiedition of 1872-74. By the 17th of June, at midnight, it was light enough to read print, of the si/e of that before my readers, and so continued througlujut the month, except on very cloudy nights. Many bands of pretty harlequin ducks were noticed in the Payer Kapids, whicn seemed v*o be their favorite resort, the birds rarely appearing in the lakes, and always near the point at which .some swift stream entered the smoother water. Black and brown ALONG THE LAKES. M bears and caribou tracks were seen in the valley of a small stream tliat hero oanuj in from the west. This valley was a most i)i<'turesque one as viewed from the Payer Portage looking westward, and was quite typical of the little Alpine valleys of this locality. I named it after Mr. Homan, the topographer of the expedition. We were quite fortunate in linding a number of fallen logs, sound and seasoned, whicli were much larger than any in our raft, the only trouble being that they were not long enough. All of the large trees tapered rapidly, and at the height of twenty or twenty-five feet a tree was reduced to the size of the largest of its numer- ous limbs, so that it did not offer surface enough at the snuiU end to use with safety as the side-log or bottom-log of a well-constructed craft. We soon had a goodly number of them sawed in proper lengths, or, at any rate, as lo ig as we could get them, their numerous limbs hacked off, and then, with much labor, we made log-ways through the brush and network of trunks, by means of which we plunged them into the swift river when they were floated down to the raft's position. One of the delights of this raft-making was our having to stand a greater i)art of the day in ice-water just off the mountain tops, and in strange contrast with this annoy- ance, the mosquitoes would come buzzing around and making work almost impossible by their attacks upon our heads, while at the same time our feet would be freezing. When the larger logs were secured, they were built into the raft on a i)lan of lifteen by forty feet ; but, taking into account the i)rojeciions outside of the corner pins, the actual dimensions were sixteen by forty-two. These were never afterward changed. 100 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Two elevated decks were now constriK^ted, separated by a lower central space, where two cumbersome oara might be rigged, that made it possible to row the i)onder- ous craft at the rate of nearly a mile an hour, and these side-oars were afterward used quite often to reach some camping place on the beach of a lake when the wind had failed us or set in ahead. The bow and stern steering- oars were still retained, and we thus had surplus oars for either service, in case of accident, for the two services were never employed at once under any circuuistances. There was only one fault with the new (jonstruction, and that was that none of the logs extendetl the whole length of the raft, and the affair ratiier resembled a i)air of rafts, slightly dove-tailed at the point of union, than a single raft of substantial build. The new lake on which we found ourselves was named Lake Bennett, after Mr. James Gordon l>ennett, a well- known patron of American geograi)hical research. While we were here a couple of canoes of the same dilapidated kind as those we saw on Lake Lindeman came down Lake Bennett, holding twice as many Tahk-heesh Indians who begged for work, and whom we put to use in various ways. I noticed that one of them stammered considerably, the lirst Indian I ever met with an imjjedi- m;mt in his speech. Among my Chilkat i)ackers I also noticed one that was deaf and dumb, and several who were afflicted with cataract in the eye, but none were affected with the lat- ter disease to the extent I had observed among the Es- kimo, with whom I believe it is caused by repeated at- tacks of snow-blindness. On the summits of high mountains to the right, or I wm^-- s ^ O M II ALONQ THE LAKES. 108 y the (^hanging seasons, and ford its wide shallow current, passing backward and forward through Watson Valley. Unfortunately for our party neither of these crossings occurred at this time of the year, although a dejected camp of two Ta'dc- litK^'sh families not far away from ours (No. 10) had a very ancient reindeer ham luinging in front of their blush tent, which, however, we did not care to buy. The numerous tracks of the animals, some apparently as large as oxen, confirmtid the Indian stories, and as I looked at our skeleton game score and our provisions of Government bacon, I wished sincerely that June was one of tlu; montlis of the reindeers' migration, and the 21st or 2M about the period of its culmination. The very few Indians living in this part of the coun- try — the " Sticks" — subsist mostly on these animals and on mountain goats, with now and then a wandering moose, and more frequently a black bear. One would expect to find such followers of the chase the very liar- 110 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. diest of all Indians, in compliance with the rule that prevails in most countries, by which the hurter and the instant this is sprung it closes by its own flexibility. The rest is a sinew string tied to a bush near the hole if one be convenient, otherwise to a peg driven in the ground. Sometimes they employ a little of the large amount of leisure time they have on their CABVEU PINS 1"0U FASIKNINU MAU MOT SNAKES. ALONG THE LAKES. 113 Iiands in cutting tliese p^gs into fanciful and toteniic designs, although in thi.s it'.spect the Slicks, as in every thing else pertaining to the savage arts, are usually much infei'ior totheChilkatsin rhese displays, and the illustra- tions give on i)age 112 are characteristic rather of the latter trihe than of the former. Nearly all the bhiidcets of this Tahk-h<'esh tribe of Indians are made from these nuuniot skins, and they are exceedingly light considei'ing their warmth. Much of the warmth, however, is lost by the ventilated condition in which the wearers nuiintain them, as it costs labor to mei d them, but none to sit around and shiver. The few Tahk-heesh who had been cami>ed near us at Caribou Crossing suddenly disappeared the night after we camped on the little lake, and as our "gum canoe" that we towed along behind the raft and used for emer- gencies, faded from view at the same eclii)se, we wei-e forced to associate the events together and set these fellows down as subject to kleptomania. Nor should I be too severe either, for the canoe had been picked uji by us on Lake Lindeman as a vagrant, and it certainly looked the character in ever}' respect, therefore we could not show the clearest title in the world to the dilapidated craft. It was a very fortunate circumstance that we werr not worried for the use of a canoe afterward until we could jiurcliase a substitute, although we hardly thought such a thing ])0ssible at the time, so much had we used the one that ran away with our friends. The 23d of .Tune we got across the little lake (Nares), the wind dying down as we went through its short drain- ing river, having made only three miles. The next day, the 24th, the wind seemed to keep swing- Ill ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. in^ iU'oiiml in a circle, and although we made iive miles, I think we made as many landings, so often did the wind r ill us or set in ahead. This new lake I called after Lieutenant Bove of the Ital- ian navy. Here too, the mountainous shores were carved into a series of tcMTaces rising one above the other, which probably indicated the ancient beaches of the lake when its outlet was closed at a much higher level than at pr>3s.?nt, and '.vhen great bodies of ice on their surface plowed up the beach into these terraces. This new lake was nine miles long. The next day again we had the same light with a battling wind from half past six in the Uiorning until after nine at night, nearly seventeen hours, but we managed to make twelve miles, and betler than all, regain our old course pointing northwjjrd. During one of these temporary landings on the shores of Lake Bove our Indians amused themselves in wasting governm Mit matches, articles which they had never .seen in such profusion before, and in a little while they suc- Cr'eded in getting some dead and fallen spruce trees on lire, and these communicating to the living ones above them, soon sent up great billows of dense resinous smoke that must have been visible for miles, and which lasted for a number of minutes after we had left. Before camp- ing that evening we could see a very distant smoke, appar- ently six or seven miles ahead, but really ten or twenty, which our Indians told us was an answering smoke to them, the Tahk-heesh, who kindled the second fire, evi- dently thinking that they were Chilkat traders in their countiy, this being a frequent signal among them as a lui'ans of announcing tlu'ir a])proach, when engaged in trading. It was worthy of note as marking the exist- ALONG THE LAKES. 115 enre of this priinifivo method of si^iiJilin^, so (•onuiioii ain()ii<^ Hojue of th(? Indian tribes of tht) plains, ani()n<; these far-olf savages, but I was unable to ascertain whether tliey carried it to sucli a degree of intri- cacy with respect to tiie dilTerent meanings of compound sinolies eitlier as to number or relative intervals of time or space. It is very doubtful if tiiey do, as the necessity for such comj)lex signals can luirdly arise. This new lake on which we liad taken up our northward course, and whicrh is about eighteen miles long, is called by the Indians of tlie country Tahk-o (each lake and connecting length of river hasa different name with them), and, I understand, receives a river coming in from tlui south, which, followed up to one of its sources, gives a mountain pass to anothei- river emptying into the inland estuaries of the Pacific Ocean. It is said by the Indians to be smaller than the on ve had just come over, and therefore we might consider that we were on tlie Yukon proi)er thus far. Lake Taldv-o and Lake Bove are almost a single slieet, separated only by a narrow strait formed by a point of remarkable length (Point Perthes, afttn* Justus Perthes of Gotha), whi(!h juts nearly across to tlu^ opposite shore. It is almost covered with limestones, some of them almost true marbh^ in their whiteness, a circumstance wliicdi gives a decided hue to the cape even when seen at a distance. Leaving the raft alongside the beach of Lake Tahk-o at our only camping i)la('(^ on it (Camj) No. Ill), a short stroll along its shores revealed a great number of long, well- trimmed logs that strongly resembled t<^legrai)h poles, and would have sold for those necessary nuisances in a 116 ALOSa ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. rivllized country. They \v«'n! liiially made out to be tlie lo^s used by tlif iMdiansiii rafting down the stream, and well-trimiMcd by constant attrition on the rough rocky beaches while hehl there by the storms. Most of these were observed on the northern shores of the lakes, to whicli the current tiirough them, sliglit as it was, coupled witli tiie prevailing south wind, naturally drifts them. I afterward ascertained that rafting was LOOKING ACUOSS LAKE IIOVK FROM PKRTHES I'OINT. Fii'ld Peak In the far distance. (Niiiiu'd for lion. Davlil Dudley Field.) quite a usual tiling along the head waters of the Yukon, and that we were not i)ioneers in this rude art by any means, although we had thought so from the direful prognostications they were continually making as to our jirobable success with our own. The " Cottonwood" canoes already referred to are very scarce, there prob- ably' not existing over ten or twelve along the whole length of the upper river as far as oM Port Selkirk. Many of their journeys up the swift stream are performed / 1 i ALONG THK LAKES. IIT ( I by the natives on foot. niiri'vni<; their limited necossities on their backs. I'pon (heir leiuni a .siuali lal't (tf from two to six oi' ei;^ht lojjs is male, and tiu'y lloat down with the current in the streams, and polr^ and sail across the lakes. Hy comparing these lo^s with tele- graph poles one has a good idea of the usual size of the timber of these districts. The scarcity of good wooden canoes is also parMally ex])lained by this smallness of the logs ; while birch bark canoes are unknown on the Yukon until the neighborhood of old Fort Selkirk is reached. This same Ljdie Tahk-o, or probably some lake very near it, had been reached by an intrepid miner, a Mr. Byrnes, then in the employ of the Western Union Tele- graph Company. Many of my readers are i)robably not acquainted with the fact that this corporation, at about the close of our civil war, conceived the grand idea of uniting civilization in the eastern and western conti- nents by a telegraph line running by way of Bering's Straits, and that a great deal of the preliminaiy sur- veys and even a vast amount of the actual work had been completed when the success of the Atlantic cable put a stop to the project. The Yukon River had been carefully examined from its mouth as far as old Fort Yukon (then a tiourishing Hudson Bay Company post), some one thousand miles from the mouth, and e\en roughly beyond, in their interest, although it had previ- ously been more or less known to the Russian-American and Hudson Bay trading companies. Mr. Byrnes, a practical miner from the Caribou mines of British Columbia, crossed the Tahk-o Pass, already cited, got on one ot the sources of the Yukon, and as near as can be made out, descended it to the vicinity of the lake 118 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Il"' of which I am writing. Here it appears he was recalled by a courier sent on his trail and dispatclied by the telegraph company, who were now mournfully assist- ing in the jubilee of the Atlantic cable's success, and he retraced his stejis over the river and lakes, and returned to his former occui)ation of mining. Whether he ever furnished a map and a descrix)tion of his journey, so that it could be called an exploration, I do not know, but from the books which purport to give a description of the country as deduced from hi.« travels, I should say not, considering their great inac- curacy. One book, noticing his travels, and purporting to be a faithful record of the telegraph explorers on the American side, said that had Mr. Byrnes continued his trip only a day and a half further in the light birch- bark canoes of the country, he would have reached old Fort Selkirk, and thus completed the exploration of the Yukon. Had he reached the site of old Fort Selkirk, he certainly would have had the credit, had he recorded it, however rough his notes may have been, but he would never have done so in the light birch-bark canoes of the country, for the conclusive reason that they do not exist, as already stated ; and as to doing it in a day and a half, our measurements from Lake Talik-o to Fort Selkirk shov> nearly four hundred and fifty mil s, and obser\ ations proved that the Indians seldom exceed a journey of six hours in their cramped wooden craft, so that his i)rogress would necessarily have demanded a speed of nearly fifty miles an hour. Ar this rate of canoeing along the whole river, across Bering Sea and up the A moor River, the telegraph com- Ijaiiy need not have completed their line along this part, ALONG THE LAKES. 119 but might simply have turned their dispatch over to these rapid couriers, and they would have only been a few hours bel.'ind the telegraph dispatch if it liad been worked as slowly as it is now in the interest of the public. We passed out of Lake Tahko a little after two o' clock in the afternoon of the 2Gth of June, imd entered the first considerable stretch of river thi't we Lad yet met with on the trip, about nine miles long. We quitted the riv"^?' at five o'clock, which was quite an improvement on our lake traveling even at its best. The first part of this short river stretch is full of dangerous rocks and bowlders, as is also the lower portion of Tahko Lake. On the right bank of the river, about four miles from the entrance, we saw a tolerably well-built "Stick" Indian house. Near it in the water was a swamped Indian canoe which one of our natives bailed out in a manner as novel as it was effectual. Grasping it on one side, and about the center, a rocking motion, fore and aft, was kept up, the bailer waiting until the recurrent wave was just striking the depressed end of the boat, and as this was repeated the canoe was slowly lifted until it stood at his waist with not enough water in it to sink an oyster can. This occupied a si)ace of time not much givater than it has taken to relate it. This house was deserted, but evidently only for a while, as a great deal of its owner's material of the chase and the fishery was still to be seen hanging inside on the rafters. Among these were a great number of dried salmon, one of the staple articles of food that now brgin to appear or this part oi the great river, nearly two thousand miles from its moutli. This salmon, when dried before putrefaction 120 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. 1^1 sets in, is tolerable, ranking somewhere between Lim- burger cheese and walrus hide. Collecting some of it occasionally from Indian fishermen as we floated by, we would use it as a lunch in homeoi)athic quantities until some of us got so far as to imagine that we really liked it. If smoked, this sahnon is quite good, but by far the larger amount is dried in the open air, and, Indian like, the best is first served and soon disappears. Floating down the river, and coming near any of the low marshy points, we were at once visited by myriads of small black gnats which formed a very imsolicited addition to the nillions of mosquitoes, the number of which did not diminish in the least as we descended the river. The only protection from them was in being well out from land, with a good wind blowing, or when forced to camjo on shore a heavy resinous smoke would often disperse a large part of them. When Ave camped that evening on the new lake the signal smoke of the Tahk-heesh Indians — if it was one — was still burning, at least some six or seven miles ahead of us, which showed how much we had been mistaken in estimating its distance the day before. A tree has some- thing definite in its size, nnd even a butte or mountain peak has something tangible on which a person can base a calculation for distance, but when one comes down to a distant smoke I think the greatest indefiniteness has been reached, especially when one wants to estimate its distance. I had often observed this before, when on the plains, where it is still worse than in a hilly country, where one can -^ t least perceive that the smoke is beyond the hill, back of which it rises, but when often looking down an open river valley no such indicatious are to be ft h h J« im ' i* yk n - i ALONG THE LAKES. 121 had. I remember Avlien traveling through the sand hills of western Nebraska that a smoke which was variously estimated to be from eight to twelve or possibly lifteen miles away took us two days' long trav'Ing in an army ambulance, making thirty-li^ e or forty miles a day, as the winding road ran, to reach its site. The shores of the new lake — which I named Lake Marsh, after Professor O. C. Marsh, a well-known scientist of our counti'y — was composed of all sizes of LOOKixo somnvAun mo.M camp 14 ox lakk jfAitsii On the left ii» tlie Taliko PasH, on the right the Yukon Push in tlic moiintiiins, dirertly over the point of laml. He ween this point and the Ynkoii Pass can tie seen the Yukon River coming into the lake. clay stones jumbled together in confusion, and where the water had reached and beat upon them it had reduced them to a sticky clay of the consistency of thick mortar, not at all easy to walk through. Tills mire, accompanied by a vast quantity of mud brought down by the streams that emanated from grinding glacners, and vhich could be distinguished by the whiter color and im})alpable character of its ingredients, nearly iilled the new lake, at least for wide strips along the shores where it had been driven by the storms. Although drawing a, Uttlo 122 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. 'A I y less than two feet of water, the raft struck several times at distances from the shore of from iifty to a hundred yards, and the only alternative was to wade ashore in our rubber boots (the soft mud being deeper than tlie water itself) and tie the raft by a long line whenever we wanted to camp. One night, while on this lake, a strong inshore breeze coming up, our raft while unloaded, was gradually lifted by the ireoming high waves, and brought a few inches further at a time, until a number of yards had been made. The next morning when loaded and sunk deep into the mud, the work we had to pry it off is more ■ easily imap 'i^d than described, but it taught us a lesson that we took to heart, and thereafter a friendly prod or two with a bar was generally given at the ends of the cumbersome craft to pry it gradually into deeper water as the load slowly weighed it down. When the wind was blowing vigorously from some quarter — and it was only when it was blowing that we could set sail and make any progress — ^these shallow mud banks would tinge the water over them with a dirty white color that was in strong contra st with the clear blue water over the deeper poi'tion, and by closely watching this well-defined line of demarcation when under sail, we could make out the most favorable points at which to reach the bank, or approach it as nearly as possible. This clear-cut outline between the whitened water within its exterior edges and the deep blue water beyond, showed in many places an extension of the deposits oi' from four hundred to five hundred yards from the beach. It is probable that the areas of water may vary in Lake Marsh at different seasons sufiiciently to lay bare these mud banks, or cover ALONG THE LAKES. 188 them so as to be navigable for small boats ; but at the time of our visit there seemed to be a most wonderful uniformity in the depth of the water over them in every part of the lake, it being about eighteen inches. Camping on the lakes was generally quite an easy affair. There was always i)lenty of wood, and, of course, water everywhere, the clear, cold mountain springs occurring every few hundred yards if the lake water was too muddy ; so that about all that we needed was a dry place large enough to pitch a couple of tents for the white people and a tent Hy for the Indians, but simple as the latter seemed, it was very often quite difficult to obtain. It was seldom that we found jjlaces where tent pins could be driven in the ground, and when rocks large enough to do luty :is pins, or falk-n timber or brush for the same jjiirpose could not be had, we gener- ally put the tent under us, spread our l)lankets upon it, crawled in and went to sleep. The greatest comfort in pitching our tent was in keeping out the mosquitoes, for then we could spread our mosquito bars with some show of success, although the constantly recurring liglit rains made us often regret that we had made a bivouac, not particularly on account of the slight wettings we got, but because of our constant fear that the rain was going to be much worse in reality than it ever proved to be. I defy any one to sleep in the open air with only a blanket or two over him and have a great black cloud sprinkle a dozen drops of rain or so in his face and not imagine the deluge was coming next. I have tried it off md on for nearly twenty years, and have not got over the feeling yet. If, after camping, a storm threatened, a couple of stout skids were placed fore and aft under m ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. tlie logs of the raft nearest the shore to prevent their breaking off as they bumped on the beach in the waves of the surf, a monotonous music that lulled us to sleep on many a stormy night. The baggage on the raft, like that in an army wagon or upon a pack train of mules, in a few days so assorted itself that the part necessary for the night's camping was always the handiest, and but a few minutes were required after landing until the even- ing meal was ready. So imi3ortant was it to make the entire length of the river (over 2000 miles) within the short interval between the date of our starting and the probable date of depart- ure of the last vessel from St. Michaels, near the mouth of the river, that but little time was left for rambles through the country, and much as I desired to take a hunt inland, and ctill more to make an examination of the country at various points along the great river, I constantly feared that by so doing I might be comi)ro- mising our chances of getting out of the country before winter should effectually forbid it. Therefore, from the very start it was one constant fight against time to avoid such an unwished for contingency, and thus we could avail ourselves of but few opportunities for exploring the interior. On the 28th of June a fair breeze on Lake ^fars; con- tinuing pJist sunset (an unusual occurrence), we kept on our way until well after midnight before the wind died out. At midnight it was light enough to read common print and I spent some time about then in working out certain asti'onomical observations. Venus was the only star that was dimly visible in the unclouded sky. Lake Marsh was the first water that we could trust in which to ALONG THE LAKES. 128 take a bath, and even there — and for that matter it was the same along the entire river — bathing was only possi- ble on still, warm, sunny days. Below old Fort Selkirk on the Yukon, at the mouth of the White River (so-called on account of its white muddy water), bathing is almost undesirable on account of the large amount of sediment contained in the water ; its swift current allowing it to hold much more than any river of the western sloj^e known co me, while its muddy banks furnish a ready base of supplies. Its temperature also seldom reaches the point that will allow one to plunge in all over with any degree of comfort. One an- noyance in bathing in Lake Marsh during the warmer hours of the day was the presence of a large fly, some- what resembling the "horse-fly," but much larger and inflicting a bite that was proportionately more severe. These flies made it necessary to keep constantly swinging a towel in the air, and a momentary cessation of this exertion might be punished by having a piece bitten out of one that a few days later would look like an incipi- ent boil. One of the party so bitten was completely disabled for a week, and at the moment of infliction it Avas hard to believe that one was not disabled for life. With these "horse" flies, gnats and mosquitoes in such dense profusion, the Yukon Valley is not held up as a paradise to future tourists. The southern winds which had been blowing almost continuously since we first spread our sail on Lake Lin- deman, and which had been our salvation while on the lakes, must prevail chiefly in this region, as witness the manner in which the spruce and pine trees invariably lean to the northward, especially where their isolated m ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. condition and exposure on iiat level tracts give the winds full play, to intiuence their position. Near Lake Lin- deman a dwarfed, contorted pine was notice!, the til>ers of which were not only twisted around its heart two or three times, in a height of lif teen or twenty feet, but the lieart itself was twisted in a spiral like a cork-screw that made two or three turns in its length, after which, us if to add confusion to disorder, it was bent in a graceful sweep to the north to conform to the gf?neral leaning of all the trees similarly exposed to the action of the winds. There was a general brash condition of all the wood which was very apparent when we started to make pins for binding the raft, while it was seldom that a log was found large enough for cutting timber. Tlie little cove into which we put on the 19th of June, when chased by a gale, by a singular freak of good fortune had just the logs we needed, both as to length and size, to rej»air our raft, and I do not think we saw a good chance again on the upper waters of the Yukon. Further down, every is- land — and the Yukon has i)rob;il)lv as manv islands as any half-dozen rivers of the same size in the world put together — has its upper end covered with enough timber to build all the rafts a lively jiarty could con- struct in a summer. Lake Marsh also had a few terraces visible on the east- ern hillsides, but they were nearer together and not so well marked as those we observed on some of tlie lakes further back. Along these, however, were pretty open prairies, covered with the dried, yellow gra.ss of last year, this summer's growth having evidently not yet forced its way thi'ough the dense mass, ^fore than one of us compared these prairies, irregular as thej seemed. ALONG THE LAKES. 127 ra >r le lit lif il with the stubble fields of wheat or oats in more civilized climes. I liave no doubt that they furnish good grazing to mountain goats, caribou and moose, and would be sufficient for cattle if they could keep on friendly tenns with the mosquitoes. According to the general terms of the survival of the fittest and the growth of muscles the most used to the detriment of others, a band of cattle inhabiting this district in the far future would be all ST \ C KS AT L/VKL TYPICAL TAHK-HEESH OR " STICK " INDIANS. From sketches by Sergeant G!o8ter. tail and no body unless the mosquitoes should experience a change of numbers. At Marsh a few miserable "Stick " Indians put in an appearance, but not a single thing could be obtained from them by our curiosity hunters. A rough-looking pair of shell ear-rings in a small boy's possession he in- stantly refused to exchange for the great consideration of a jack-knife offered by a member of the party, who sup- 128 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. % ii ^ i m posed the ornainents to be purely local in character and of savage inanufacture. Another trinket was added to the jack-knife and still refused, and additions were made to the original offer, until just to see if there was any limit to the acquisitiveness of these people, a final offer was made, I believe, of a double-barreled shot-gun with a thousand rounds of ammunition, a gold watch, two sacks of fiour and a camp stove, and in refusing this the boy generously added the information that its value to him was based on the fact that it had been received from the Chilkats, Avho, in turn, had obtained it from the white traders. A few scraggy half-starved dogs accompanied the party. An unconquerable pugnacity was the princijial characteristic of these animals, two of them fighting until they were so exhausted that they had to lean up against each other to rest. A dirty group of chil- dren of assorted sizes completed the picture of one of the most dejected races of people on the face of the earth. They visited their fish lines at uhe n?outh of the incom- ing river at the head of Lake Marsh, and caught enough fish to keep body and soul togetlier after a fashion. This method of fishing is quite common in this part of the country, and at the mouth of a number of streams, or where the main stream debouches into a lake, long willow poles driven far enough into the mud to prevent their washing awaj^ are often seen projecting upward and swayed back and forth by the force of the current. On closer examination they reveal a sinew string tied to them at about the water-line or a little above. They occasionally did us good service as buoys, indicating the mud fiats, which we could thereby avoid, but the num- ■•ww"^^'^R'e^'W5?«ww»*M9Me ALONG THE LAKES. 129 ber of fish wo ever siiw taken off tliein was not alamiiiig. The majority of those cauglit are se<'ured by means of the donble-pronged fish-spears, whicli were cleseribed on page 70. I never observed any nets in the possession of the Tahk-heesh or "Sticks," but my investigations in this respect were so slight that I niiglit easily have over- looked them. Among my trading material to be used for hiring native help, lish-hooks were eagerly sought by all of the Indians, until after White River was i)assed, at which point the Yukon becomes too muddy for any kind of tishing with hook and line. Lines they were not so eager to obtain, the common ones of sinew sufficiently serving the purj^ose. No good bows or arrows were seen among them, their only weapons being the stereotyi)ed Hudson Bay O^mpany flintlock smooth-bore musket, the only kind of gun, I believe, throwing a ball that this great trading company has ever issued since its founda- tion. They also sell a cheap variety of double-barreled percussion-capped shotgun, which the natives buy, and loading them with ball — being about No. 12 or 14 guage — lind them superior to the muskets. Singular as it may appear, these Indians, like the Eskimo I found around the northern part of Hudson's Bay, prefer the flintlock to the percussion-cap gun, probably for the reason that the latter depends on three articles of trade — caps, pow- der and lead — while the former dejiends on but two of these, and the chances of running short of ammunition when perhaps at a distance of many weeks' journey fi'om these supplies, are thereby lessened. These old muskets are tolerably good at sixty to seventy yards, and even reasonably dangerous at twice that distance. In all their huntings these Indians contrive by that tact pecu- 180 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. liar to savii;,'t'H to get witliin this distanc(> of moose, black bear and caribou, and thus to earn a pretty fair subsist- ence the year round, having for sununer adiet of salmon with a few berries and roots. The 28th we had on Lake Marsh a brisk min and thunder sliower, lasting from 12.45 P. m. to 2.15 P. M.. directly overhead, which was, I believe, the first thun- derstorm recorded on the Yukon, thunder being un- known on the lower river, according to all accounts. Our Camp 15 was on a soft, boggy shore covered with reeds, wliere a tent could not be pitched and blankets could not be spread. The raft lay far out in the lake, a hundred yards from the shore, across soft white mud, through wliich one might sink in the water to one's middle. When to this predicament the inevitable mos- quitnos and a few rain showers are added, I judge that our plight was about as disagreeable as could well be imririned. Such features of the exi)lorer'slife, however, are .seldom dwelt upon. The northern shores of the lake are unusually fiat and boggy. Our primitive mode of navigation suffered also from the large banks of "glacier mud" as we approached the lake's outlet. Most of this mud was probably deposited by a large river, the McOIintock (in honor of Vice-Admiral Sir I^eopold McClintock, R, N.), that here comes in from the north- easts — a river so large that we were in some doubt as to its being tiie outlet, until its current settled the matter by carrying us into the i)roper channel. A vei'y con- spicuous hill, bearing north-east from Lake ]\rarsh, was named Michie Mountain after Professor Michie of West . Point. CHAPTER VI. A CHAPTKU ABOUT UAFTINO. AKE Marsh gave ns four (lays of variable sailing on its waters, when, on tlie 29tli of June, we emerged from it and once more felt the exhilaration of a rapid course on a swift river, an exhlhi- "8NCBBINO" THE iiAPT. ratlou that was not allowed to die rapidly away, by reason of the great amount of exercise we had to go through in managing the raft in its many eccentric i)hases of navigation. On the lakes, whether in storm or still weather, one man stationed at the stern oar of the raft had been suflicient, as long as lie kept awake, nor was any great harm done if he fell asleep in a quiet breeze, but once on the river an additional oarsmnn at the bow sweep was impeia- tively needed, for at short turns »!;; siulden bends, or when nearing half-sunken bowlders or tangled masses of driftwood, or bars of sand, nuul or gravel, or while steering clear of eddies and slack water, it was often necessary to do some very lively work at both ends of the raft in swinging the ponderous contrivance around to 1 132 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. avcid these obstacles, and in the worst cases twoorthiee other men assisted the oarsmen in their difficult tasli. Just how much strength a couple of strong men could put on a steering sweep was a delicate matter to gauge, and too often in the most trying places our experiments in testing the questions were failures, and with a sharp snap the oar would part, a man or two would sit down violently without stopping to pick out the most luxur- ious places, and the craft like a wild animal unshackled would go plowing through the fallen timber that lined the banks, or bring up on the bar or bowlder we had been working hard to avoid. We slowly became practi- cal oar makers, however, and toward the latter part of the journey had some crude but effective implements that defied annihilation. As we leisurely and lazily crept along the la^.es some- body would be driving away ennui by dressing down pins with a hatchet, boring holes with an auger and driving pins with an ax, until by the time the lakes were all passed I believe that no two logs crossed each other in the raft that were not securely pinnecl at the ix)int of juncture with at least one pin, and if tne logs were large ones with two or three. In this manner our vessel was as solid as it was possible to make such a craft, and would bring up against a bowlder with a shock and swing dizzily around in a six or seven mile current with no more concern than if it were a slab in a mill race. I believe I have made the remark in a previous chap- ter that managing a raft — at least our metlt-xl of manag- ing a raft — on a hike was a toienibly simple affair, especially with a favorable wind, and to tell the truth, one can not manage it at all except with a favorable Z. CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 133 il wind. It was certainly the height of simplicity ^^hen (iompared with its navigation upon a river, although at first sight one might perhaps think the reverse ; at least £ had thought so, and from the conversation of the whites and Indians of south-eastern Alaska, 1 knew that their oi)inions coincided with mine ; but I was at length com- pelled to hold differently from them in this matter, as in many others. Especially was this navigation difficult onas-v'ift riv^r like the Yidvon, and I know of none that can maintain a flow of more even rapidity from source to mouth than this great stream. It is not very hard to keep a raft or any floating object in the center of the current of a stream, even if left alone at times, but the number of things which present tiiemselves from time to time to drag it out of this channel seems nuir^el- ous. Old watermen and rafting lumbermen know that while a river is rising it is hard to keep the channel, even the driftwood created by the rise clinging to the shores of the stream. Accordingly they are anxious for the moment when this driftwood begins to float along the main current and out in the middle of the stream, for then they know the water is subsiding, and from that lioint it requires very little effort to keep in the swiftest current. Sh nild this drift matter be equally distributed over the running water it is inferred that the river is at "a stand-still," as they say. An adept can closely judge of the variations and stage of water by this means. In a river with soft or earthy banks (and in going the whole length of th< Yukon, over two thousand mil(\s. we saw several varieties of shores), the swift current, in 184 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. which one desires to keep when the current is the motive power, nears the shores only at points or curves, where it digs out the ground into steep perpendicular banks, which if at all high make it imijossibic t'., lind a camp- ing place for the night, and out of • ' > current the raft had to be rowed to secure a camp at evening, while breaking camp next morning we had to work it back into the ' urrent again. Nothing could be more aggra- AMONG THE SWEEPERS. vating than after leaving this swift current to find a camp, as evening fell, to see no possible chance for such a place on the side we had chos'^'> and to ; r* cra^^•ling along in slack water while t^ . - and biu -i -s swe])t rapidly past borne on the swift waters we had ^ i.^k.!. If the banks of a river are wooded — and no stream ran show much dens^^r growth oi\ it.s shores than the Yukon— tlie tiees that arecon itantly '>j\ r\t: iingin from those places that are being undermined, and yet hanging on by tlieir roots, form a series of cliCTcnix cfefrise or ahatin^ to wh icli is given the backwoods cognomen of " sweepers," and a A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 185 i'lG. 1. man on the upper side of a raft plunging through tliera in a swift current almost wishes himself a beaver or a muskrat so that he can dive out and escape * Not only is the Yukon equally Wv^odec on its banks with the average rivers o the world, but this fringe of fallen timber is much greater in quantity and more formidable in aspect than any found in the temperate zones. I think I can explain this fact to the satisfaction of my readers. Taking fig. 1 on this page as representing a cross-section i)erpendicular to the tiend of a bank of a river in our own oliinate, the stumps ss representing trees which if undermined by the water as far as c will generally fall in along the line cd, and carry av;ay a few trees, two or three at most, then, as tlie roots of no more than one such tree are capable of hold- ing it so as to form an aba/ is along the bank, trees so held will lean obliquely down strtr>m r.nd any floating object will merely ])rush along on their tips without receiving serious damage. 2, above, repre- sents a similar sketch of a cross- section on the banks of the Yukon, e s p c - fig. 3. ially along its numerous islands, these banks, as we saw them, being generally from six to eight feet above the level of the water. This is also about the depth to FIG, 2. igure 136 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. which the moist marshy ground freezes solid during the intense cold of the Alaskan winter in the interior dis- tricts, and the banks therefore have the tenacity of ice to support them ; and it is not until the water has exca- vated as far as c (live or six limes as far as in Figure 1), that the overhanging mass csd becomes heavy enough to break off the projecting bank along cd. This as a solid frozen body falls downward around the axis c, being too heavy for the water to sweep away, it remains until thawed out by the river water already but little above freezing, by reason of the constant influx of glacier streams and from running between frozen banks. I have roughly attemiJted to show this process in Fig. 3. I think any one will acknowledge that the raft R, carried by a swift current sweeping toward c is not in a very desirable position. Such a position is bad enough on any river which has but a sin ?le line of trees along its scarp and trending down stream, but on the Yukon it is unfortunately worse, with every branch and twig fero- ciously standing at "charge bayonets," to resist any thing that floats that way. In Fig. 3, the maximum is depicted just as the bank falls or shortly after ; and it requires but a few days, possibly a week or a fortnight, for all the outer and most dangerous looking trees to be more or less thoroughly swept aAvay by the swift current, and a less bristling aspect presented, the great half frozen mass acting somewhat as a breakwater to further undermining of the bank for a long while. In many [)laces along the river, these excavations had gone so far Miat the bank seemed full of deej) gloomy caves ; and as we drifted close by, we could see, and, on (piiet days hear, the dripjjing from the thawing surface, c s (flg. 2). A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 137 In other places the half polished surface of the ice in the frozen ground could be seen in recent fractures as late as July, or even August. Often when camped in some desolate spot or floating lazily along, having seen no inhabitants for days, we would be startled by the sound of a distant gun-shot on the banks, which would excite our curiosity to see the savage sportsman ; but we soon came to trace these re- ports to the right cause, that of falling banks, although not until after we had several timea been deceived. Once or twice we actually saw these tremendous cavings in of the banks quite near us, and more frequently than we wanted we floated almost underneath some that were not far from the crisis of their fate, a fate which we thought might be precipitated by some accidental collis- ion of our making. By far the most critical moment was when both the current and a sti ong wind set in against one of these banks. On such occasions we were often compelled to tie up to the bank and wait for better times, or if the danger was confined to a short stretch we would fight it out until either the whole party was exhausted or our object was attained. Whenever an island was made out ahead and it appeared to be near the course of our drifting, the conflicting guess- es we indulged in as to which shore of the island we should skirt would indicate the difficulty of making a correct estimate. It takes a peculiarly well practiced eye to 1k)11ow with certainty the line of the current of the stream fvom the bow of the raft beyond any obstruction in sight a fair distance ahead, and on more than one occasion our hardest work with the '^ars and poles was rewarded by finding ourselves on the very bar or flat we It 138 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. had been striving to avoid. Tlie position of the sun, both vertical and horizontal, its brightness and tlie char- acter of the clouds, the clearness and swiftness of the water, the nature and strengtli of the wind, however lightly it might be blowing, and a dozen other circum- stances had to be taken into account in order to solve this apparently simple problem. If we could determine at what x^oint in the upper end of the island the current was parted upon either side (and at any great distance this was often quite as difficult a problem as the other), one could often nudie a correct guess by projecting a tree directly beyond and over this point against the distant hills. If the tree crept along these hills to the right, the raft might pass to the left of the island, and vice versa ; this would certainly happen if the current was not de- flected by some bar or shoal between the raft and the island. And such shoals and bars of gravel, sand and mud are very frequent obstructions in front of an island — at least it was so on the Yukon — indeed the coinci- dence was too frequent to be without significance. These bars and shoals were not merely prolongations from the upper point of the island, but submerged islands, so to speak, just in front of them, and between the two a steamboat could probal)ly pass. Using tall trees as guides to indicate on which side of the island the raft might i)ass was, as I have said, not so easy as appears at first sight, for unless the tree could be made out directly over the dividing point of the current, all surmises were of little value. The tall spruce trees on the rignt and left ilanks of the island in siglit were always the most con- spicuous, being fewer in number, and more i^rominent in their isolation, than the dense growth of the center of the A CHAPTER ABOUT liAFTIXG. 1S9 island, us it was seen "end on" from above. People were very pi'one to use these convenient reference marks in malvingtlieir calculations, and one can readily perceive when the trees were near and the island fairly wide, both of the outer trees would appear to diverge in approaching, and according as one selected the right or the left of the two trees, one would infer that our course was to the left or right of the island. As one stood on the bow — as we always called the down-stream end of the raft, althongh it was shaped no difftirently from the stern — and looked forward on the water ilowing along, the imagination easily conceives that one can follow np from that position to almost any thing ahead and see the direction of the current leading straight for it. Eddies and slack cur- rents, into wliicli a raft is very liable to swing as it rounds a point with an abrupt turn in the axis of the current, are all great nuisances, for though one may not get into the very heart of any of them, yet the sum total of delay in a day's drift is often considerable, and by a little careful management in steering the raft these troubles may nearly always be avoided. Of course, one is often called upon to choose between these and other impediments, more or less aggravating, so that one's attention is constantly Active as the raft drif^s along. In a canal-like stream of uniform width, which gives little chance for eddies or slack water — and the upper Yukon has many long stretches that answer to this description — every thing goes along smoothly enough until along toward evening, when the party wishes to go into camp while the river is tearing along at four or five miles an hour. I defy any one who has never been similarly situated, to have any adequate conception of f 140 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. 11 the way in which a ponderous vessel like our raft, con- structed of large logs and loaded with four or live tons of cargo and crew, will bring up against any obstacle while going at this rate. If there are no eddies into which it can be rowed or steered and its pn)gress thereby stopped or at least slackened, it in very hard work indeed to go into camp, for should the raft strike end on, a side log or two may be torn out and the vessel transformed by the shock into a lozenge-shai>ed affair. Usually, under these circumstances, we would bring the raft close in shore, and with the bow oar hold its head well out into the stream, while with the steering oar the stern end would be thrown agaihst the bank and there held, 8crai)ing along as firmly as two or three men could do it (see diagram above), and this frictional brake would be kept up steadily until we slowed down a little, when one or two, or even half-a-dozen persons would jump ashore at a favorable si)ot, and with a rope complete the blackening until it would warrimt our twisting the rope around a tree on the bank and a cross log on the raft, when from both places flse long rope would be slowly A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 141 allowed to pay out under strong and increasing friction, or "snubbing" as logmen call it, and this would bring the craft to a standstill in water so swift as to boil up over the stern logs, whereupon it would receive a series of snug lashings. If the position was not favorable for camping we would slowly "drop" the craft down stream by means of the roi)e to some better site, never allowing her to proceed at a rate of speed that we could not readily control. If, however, we were unsuccessful in making our chosen camjjing ground and had drifted below it, there was not sufficient power in our party, nor even in the strongest rope we had, ever to get the craft up stream in the average current, whether by tracking or any other means, to the intended spot. Good camping places were not to be had in every stretch of the river, and worse than all, they had to be selected a long way ahead in order to be able to make them, with our slow means of navigation, from the middle of the broad river where we usually were. Oftentimes a most acceptable place would be seen just abreast of it, having until then been concealed by some heavily wooded spur or point, and then of course it would be too late to reach it with our slow craft, while to saunter along near shore, so as to take immediate advantage of such a possible spot, was to sacrifice a good deal of our rapid progress. To run from swift into slacker water could readily be accomplished by simply pointing the craft in the direction one wanted to go, but th3 reverse process was not so easy, at least by the same method. I s.ippose the proper way to manage so clumsy a concern as a raft, would be by means of side oars and rowing it end on (and this we did on the lakes in 142 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. nuiking ;i canip or in gaining the shore when a head -.vind set in), but as our two oars at bow and stern were the most convenient for the greater part of the work, we used them entirely, always rowing our bundle oC logs broadside on to the point desired, provided that no bars or other obstacles interfered. We generally kept the bow end inclined to the sliore that we were trying to reach, a ])lan that was of service, as I have shown, in passing from swift to slack water, and in a three-mile current by using our oars rowing broadside on we could keep at an angle of about thirty degrees from the axis of the stream as we made sluneward in this jwsition. The knowledge of this fact enabled us to make a rough calculation as to the point at which we should touch the bank. The greater or less swiftness of the current woidd of course vary this angle and our calculations accord- ingly. Our bundles of effects on the two corduroy decks made quite high piles fore and aft, and when a good strong wind was blowing — and Alaska in the summer is the land of wind — we had by way of sail power a spread of broadside area that was incapable of being lowered. More frequently than was pleasant ths breeze carried us along under " sweepers " or dragged us over bars or drove us down unwelcome channels of slack water. In violent gales we were often actually held against the bank, all movement in advance being effectually checked. A mild wind was always welcome, for in the absenc^e of a breeze when approaching the shore the musquitoes made exist- ence burdensome. During hot days on the wide open river — singular as it may seem so near the Arctic Circle — the sun would A CIIAl'TKlt ABOUT liAFTING. 148 I strike down fi'oni ovci'hend witli a blislfriii^i; cfiV'ct {ind a bron/iii^' rlVt'cl from its n-flcc'tion in the (liincing wat«>rH that made one I'ecl as tliougli he wei'e lloatinyon the Nile, Congo or Amazon, or any wliere except in th<; very sluidow of tlie Arctic Circle. Koughly imi)rovised tent Hies and Haps lu^lped ns to screen oui'selves to a limited extent from tlie tropical torment, bat if liuiig too high, the stern oarsman, who had charge of \\\{\ "slilp," could see notliing ahead on his course, and the curtain-would have to come down. No annoyance; could seem more sin- gular in the Arctic and sub-Arctic zones than a blister- ing sun or a swarm of mosquitoes, and yet I believe my greatest discomforts in those regions came from these same causes, certaiidy from the latt(>r. Sevei'al times our thei'mometer regist»>red but little below 100° Fahr- enheit in the sluide, and the weather se(>mod much warmer ev?n than that, owing to the bright reflections that gleamed from the water ui)on our faces. " Cut otfs" through channels that led straight across Were often most deceptive affairs, the swifter currents tiearly always swingiiii; "r>und the gi-eat bends of the river. Especially bad was a peculiarly seductive "cut- ofT" with a tempting by swift current as you entered it, caused by its flowing over a shallow bar, whereupon the current would rapidly and almost immediately deepen and would consequently slow down to a rate that was provoking beyoiul measure, especially as one saw one's self overtaken by pi(?ce after piece of diift-timber that by keeping to the main channel had " taken the longest w\iy around as the shortest way home, '' and beaten us by long odds in the race. And worse thiuj all it was not always possible to avoid getting in these side "sloughs i i lU ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER of despond," even when wo had learned their temi^ting little tricks of offering us a swifter current at the en- trance, for this very swiftness produced a sort of suction on the surface water that drew in every thing that passed within a distance of the width of its entrance. Of submerged obstructions, snugs were of little account, for the great ponderous craft wo^ld go plowing through and casting aside some o^ the most formidable of them. I doubt very much if 's did us as miu^h harm as benefit, for as they ai>...^js indicated shoal wa,ter, and were easily visible, especially with glasses, they often served us as beacons, I saw very few of the huge snags which have received the appellation of "saw- yers" on the Mississippi and Missouri, and are so much dreaded by the navigators of those waters. ♦ Sand, mud and gravel bars were by far the worst obstruction we had to contend with, and I think 1 have given them in the order of their general pesrversity in raft navigation, sand being certainly the worst and gravel the slightest. Sand bars and spits were particularly aggravating, and when the great gridiron of logs ran up on one of them in a swift current there was "fun ahead," to use a western expression of negation. Sometimes the mere jumping overboard of all the crew would lighten the craft so that she would float forward a few yards, and in lucky instan- ces might clear the obstruction ; but this was not often the case, and those who made preparations for hard work were seldom disappointed. In a swift current the run- ning water would sweep out the sand around the logs of the raft until its buoyancy would prevent its sinking any deeper, and out of this rut the great bulky thing would 5 3 W >• O a > A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 147 have to be lifted before it would budge an inch in a lateral direction, and when this was accomplished, and, completely fagged out, we would stop to take a breath or two, we would often be gratified by seeing our noble craft sink down again, necessitating a repetition of the process. The simplest way to get off a sand bar was to find (by sounding Avitli a stick or simply wading around), the i:)oint nearest to a deep navigable channel and then to swing tiie raft, end for end, up stream, even ligainst the swiftest current that might come boiling over the ui:)i)er logs, until that channel was reached. There was no more happy moment in a day's history than Avlien, after an hour or so had been spent in prying the \essel inch by inch against the current, Ave could finally see the cirrert catch it on the same side ui)on which we were working and perform the Inst half of our task in a few seconds, where perhaps we had spent as many hours upon our portion of the work. At one bad placo, on the upper end of an island, we had to swing our forty-two foot corvette around four times. Our longest detention by a sand bar was ; ; tree hours and fifty minutes, ^fud bars ,. ere not nearly so bad, unless tiie material was of a claj'ey consistency, when a little adhesiveness would be added to the other impediments, and again, as we always endeavored to keep in the swift water we sel- dom encountered a mud bar. But wlien one occurred near to a camping place, it materially interfered with our wading ashore with our heavy camping efl'ects on our backs, and Avould reduce our rubber boots to a deplora- ble looking condition. Elsewhere, it Mas possible to pry the raft riglit through a mud bank, by dint of muscle and patience, and tlien we could sit down on the outer li' '■' 148 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. logs of the deck and wash our boots in the water at lei- sure as we floated along. Our raft drew from twenty to twenty-two inches of water, and of course it cf ild not ground in any thing deeper, so that good rubber boots coming up over the thighs kept our feet con'paratively dry when overboard : but there were times when we wore compelled to get in almost to our middle ; and when the water was so swift that it boiled uj) over their tops and filled them they were about as useless an article as can be imagined, so that we went into all such places barefooted. The best of all the bars were those of gravel, and the larger and coarser the pebbles the better. When the pebbles were well cemented into a firm bed by a binding of clay almost as solid and unyielding .ts rock, we could ask nothing better, and in such cases we always went to work with cheerful prt)spects of a speedy release. Ey simply lifting the raft with j)ries thesAvift current tlirows it forward, and since it docs not settle as in sand, every exertion tells. By turning the raft broadside to the cur- rent and prying or "biting " at each er.J of the ''boat " alternately, with our whole force of pries, ienving the swift water to throw her forward, we passed over gravel bars on which I do not think the water was over ten or eleven inches deep, although the raft drew twice as much. One of the gravel bars over which we passed in this man- ner was fully thirty or forty yards in length. In aggravated cases of whatever nature the load would have to be taken olT, carried on our backs through the water and placed on the shor(>, and when the raft was cleared or freed from theobstnu^tlon it would be brought alongside the bank at the very first favorable spot for "^ A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 149 [o reloading. Such cases occurred fully a score of times during our voyage. When the raft stranded on a L.ir wi<^h the water on each side so deep that we could not wade ashore, the canoe was used for ' ' lightering the load," an extremely slow process which, fortunately, we were obliged to employ only once on the whole raft journey, although several times in wading the water came up to our waists before we could get to shore. In fact, with a heavy load on one's back or shoulders, it is evidently much easier to wade through water of that depth and proportional current than through very swift water over shallow bars. Lookiu"- back, it seems almost miraculous that a raft could muivt ;i, voyage of over thirteen hundred miles, the most difficult i)art of which was unknown, starting at the very head whei < the stream was so narrow that the raft would have been biouglit at .1 stand.still if it swung out of a straight course end on (as if did in the Payer Rapids), and covering neaily two mouths of daily encounters with snags and bo vlders, sticking on bars and shooting rapids, and yet get through almost unscathed. AVhen I started to build this ono n Lake Lindeman I had anticipated constructing i >r three of these primi- tive craft before I could exchange to good and sufficient native or civilized transportation. The raft is undoubtedly the oldest form of navigation extant, and undoubtedly the worst ; it is interesting to know just how useful the raft can be as an auxiliary to geographical exploration, and certainly my raft journey was long enough to test it in this i-espect. The raft, of course, can move in one direction only, viz. : with the current, and therefore its use must be 160 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. restricted to streams whose upper waters can be reached by the explorer. Tlie traveler must be able to escape by the mouth of the stream or by some divergent trail lower down, unless his explorations prove the river to be nav- igable for such craft is he tinds on its lower waters, when he may use these for returning. The building of a raft requires the presence of good, fair-sized timber along the stream. The river too, must offer no falls of any great size. My journey, however, has demonstrated that a well constructed raft can go any where, subject to the above restrictions, that a boat can, at least such a boat as is usually employed ])y explorers. I know of nothing that can give an explorer a better opportunity to delineate th'> topography of the surround- ing country with such instruments as are commonly used in assisting dead reckoning, than is afforded by float- ing down a river. I believe the steady movement with the current makes "dead reckoning" much more exact tlian with a boat, where the rate of progress is vari- able, where one hour is spent in drifting as a raft, another in rowing, and a third in sailing with a changeable wind, and where each mode of progress is so abruptly exchanged for another. Any steady pace, such as tlip walking of a man or a horse, or the floating of a raft carefidly kept in the axis of the current, makes dead reckoning so exact, if long practiced, as often to astonish tlie surveyor him- self, but every thing depends upon this steadiness of motion. The errors in dead reckoning of j\[r. Iloman, my topographer, in running from Pyramid Harbor in Chil kat Inlet to Fort Yukon, both carefully determined by astronomical observations and over a thousand milas apart, was less than one per cent. , a fact which proves A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 161 that rafting as a means of surveying may be ranked with any method that requii'es walking or riding, and far exceeds any method in use by ex[)lorers ascending a stream, as witness any map of the Yulvt)n lliver that attempts to show the position of Fort Yulvon, before it was astronomically deteri.iined by Captain liaymond. Meridian observations of the sun for latitude are hard to obtain, for the reader already knows what a task ii is to get a raft into camp. This difficulty of course will vary with the size of the raft, for one as large as ours would not always be needed and a small one can be more readily handled in expl rition. While rafting, field pliotograi)hy, now so much used by explorers, is very difficult, as it can only be achieved at camping places unless the apparatus is carried ashore in a canoe, if the raftsmen have one ; and the ease with which separated persons can lose each other along a river full of islands makes this kind of work a little uncertain, and the serv- ices of a good artist more valuable. This summary covers nearly all the main points that are strictly connected with geographical exploration, in the meaning ordinarily accepted ; but on expeditions where this exploration is the main object there are often other matters of a scientific nature to be taken into account, such as the geology, botany, and zoology of the districts traversed, to which the question of geograph- ical distribution is important, and for all these objects researches by means of a raft are at considerable disad- vantage. Also in rafting there is a slight tendency to over-esti- mate the length of the stream, although the map may be perfectly accurate. In the ligure on page l/iS, the axis 152 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. AxV is undoubtedly the accepted line on which to esti- mate and measure the length of the stream between those two points, and it is equally evident to one familiar with the currents of a river that some such line as RR' would represent the course of a floating raft, and the excess of RR' over A A', both being developed, would be the error mentioned. In this ligure the relative curves are exag- gerated to show the principle more clearly. Again, every island and shoal would materially affect this somewhat mathematical i)lan, but I think even these would tend to produce an over- estimate. Drifting close along the shores of an island, and nearing its lower termina- tion, we occasionally were delayed in a singular man- ner, unless prompt to avoid it. A long, nar- row island, with tapering ends, and lying directly in the course of the cur- rent, gave us no trouble ; but oftentimes these lower ends were very blunt, and the currents at the two sides came at all angles with respect to the island and each other, and this was especially true of large groupings of islands situated in abrupt bends of the river. To take about the worst case of this nature that we met, imagine a blunted island with the current at either side coming in at an angle of about forty-live A CHAPTER ABOUT RAFTING. 153 degrees to the shore line, or at right angles to each other, as I have tried to show in figure on this page, the arrows showing the current. At some point below the island the recurving and ex-curving waters neutralize each other in a huge whirlpool (W). Between W and the island the waters, if swift, would pour back in strong, dancing waves like tide-rips, and in some places with such force as to cut a channel (C) into the island. It is evident that with the raft at R, it is neces- x<^ sary to row to star- / boird as far as R' ^^ before W is reached, as otherwise it would be carried back against the island. We got caught in one violent whirli)ool that turned the huge raft around so rapidly that I be- lieve the tender stom- achs of those prone to sea-sickness would soon have weakened if we had not escaped by vigorous efforts. At great angles of the swift water and broad-based islands I have seen the whirlpool when nearly half a mile from the island, and they were usually visible for three or four hundred yards if worth noticing. So many conditions were required for the creation of these obstacles that they were not common. CHAPTER VII. w It! THE GRAND CASTON OF THE YUKOX. WE slowly floated out of Lake j^, Miirsh it was known to us by Indian reports that somewhere not far ahead on the course of the river would J>e found the longest and most formidable nipid on the entire length of the great stream. At these rapids the Indians confidently expected that our raft would go to I)ieces, and we were therefore extremely anxious to inspect them. By some form of improper interpretation, or in some other way, we got the idea into our heads that these rapids, " rushing," as the natives descril)ed them, ''through a dark canon," would be reached very soon, that is, within two or three miles, or four or five at the furthest. Accordingly I had the raft beached at the river's entrance, and undertook, Avith the doctor, the task of walking on ahead along the river bank to in.sj)ect them before making any further forward movement, after which one or both of us might return. After a short distance I continued the journey alone, the doctor re- turning to stai . the raft. I hoped to be at the upper GIUYLINO. THE GRAND CANON OF THE YUKON. 165 eud of the rapids by the time she came in sight so as to signal her in an pie time for her to reach the bank from the swiftest current in the center, as the river was now five or six liundred yards wide in places. It turned out afterward that the great rapids were more than fifty miles further on. I now observed that this new stretch of river much more closely resembled some of the streams in temperate climes than any we had yet encountered. Its flanking hillsides of rolling ground were covered with spruce and pine, here and there breaking into pleasant-looking grassy prairies, while its own picturesque valley was densely wooded with poplar and willows of several varieties. These latter, in fact, encroached so closely upon the water's edge, and in such impenetrable con- fusion, that camping places were hard to find, unless a friendly spur from the hills, covered with evergreens, under which a little elbow room might be had, wedged its way down to the river, so as to break the continuity of these willowy barriers to a night's good camping place. The raft's corduroy deck of pine poles often served for a rough night's lodging to some of the party. Muskrats were plentiful in this part of the river, and I could liear them ''plumping" into the water from the banks, every minute or two, as I walked along them ; and afterward, in the quiet evenings, these animals might at once be traced by the wedge-shaped ripi)les they made on the surface of the water as they swam around us. I had not walked more than two or three miles, fighting great swarms of mosquitoes all the way, when I came to a peculiar kind of creek distinctive of this por- 156 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. tion of the river, and worth describing. It was not very wide, but altogether too wide to jump, with slopes of slippery clay, and so deep that I (!0iild not see bottom nor touch it with any pole that I could find. These singular streams have a current seemingly as slow as that of a glacier, and the one that stopped me— and I suppose all the rest — had the same unvarying ounal-like width for over half a mile from its mouth. Beyond this distance I dared not prolong my rambles to iind a crossing place for fear the raft might pass me on the river, so I returned to its mouth and waited, lighting mosquitoes, for the raft to come along, when the canoe would pick me up. In, my walks along the creek I found many moose and caribou tracks, some of them looking large enough to belong to prize cattle, but all of them were old. Probably they had been made before the mosqui- toes became so numerous. The first traveler along the river was one of our old Tahk-heesh friends, who came do -n ifiO stream paddling his " Cottonwood" canoe with hi-, family, a squaw and three children, wedged in the bottom. He partially comprehended my situation, and I tried hard to make him understand by signs that I wanted simply to cross the canal -like creek in his canoe, while he, evidently remembering a number of trifles he had received from members of the party at a few camps back, thought it incumbent upon him to take me a short way down the river, by way of a quid pro quo, to which I did not object, especially after seeing several more of those wide slack-water tributaries, and as I still supposed that the rapids were but a short distance ahead, and that my Indian guide expected to camp near them. The rain THE GRAND CANON OF THE YUKON. IR? r was falling in a persistent drizzle, which, coiii)led with my cramped position in the rickety canot;, made me feel any thing but comfortable. My Indian patron, a good natured looking old fellow of about fifty, was evidently feeling worried and harassed at not meeting otlier Indians of his tribe — for he had jireviously promised me that he would have a number of them at the rapids to portage my effects around it if my raft went to i)it'ces in shooting them, as they were all confident it would, or if I determined to build another forthwith at a point below the dangerous portion of the rapids — and he ceased the not unmusical strokes of his paddle every minute or two in order to scan Avith a keen eye the river banks or the hillsides beyond, or to listen for signals in reply to the prolonged shouts he occasionally emitted from his vigorous lungs. After a voyage of three or four miles, he became discouraged, and diving down into a mass of dirty rags and strong-scented Indian bric-a biac of all sorts in the bottom of the canoe, he fished out an old brass-mounted Hudson Bay Company flintlock horse- pistol, an object occasionally found in the possession of a well-to-do Yukon River savage. He took out the bullet, which he did not desire to lose, and held it in his teeth, and pointing the unstable weapon most uncom- fortably close to my head, pulled the trigger, although from all I have seen of these weapons of destruction (to powder) I imagine the butt end of the pistol was the most dangerous. The report resounded through the hills and valleys with a thundering vibration, as if the weapon had been a small cannon, but awakened no reply of any kind, and as it was getting well along into the evening my "Stick" friend pointed his canoe for an old V 158 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. \ camping place on tlie east bank of tlie river (although tht> boat was so warped and its nose so broktm that one ml;;ht almost have tostitied to its pointing m any other direction), and with a few strokes of his paddle he was soon on shore. Thereupon I went into the simplest camp I had ever occupied, for all that was done was to pull an old pie(re of riddled canvas over a leaning pole and crawl under it and imagine that it kei)t out the rain, which it did about as effectually as if it had b'>en a huge crochet tidy. My companions, however, di'^ rtf ' seem to mind the rain very much, their only apparent objection to it being that it prevented their kindling a lire with their usual apparatus of steel and damp tinder ; and when I gave them a couple of matches they were so pro- fuse in their thanks and their gratitude seemed so genu- ine, that I gave them all I had with me, probably a couple of dozen, when they overwhelmed me with their grateful appreciation, until I was glad to change the subject to a passing muskrat and a few ducks that were swimming by. I could not help contrasting their beha- vior with that of the more arrogant Chilkats. They seemed much more like Eskimo in their rude hospitality and docility of nature, although I doubt if they equal them in personal bravery. Thare is certainly one good thing about a rain storm in Alaska, however, and that is the repulsion that exists between a moving drop of rain and a comparatively sta- tionary mosquito when the two come in contact, and which beats down the latter with a most comforting degree of pertinacity. Mosquitoes evidently know how to protect themselves from the pelting rain under the broad deciduous leaves, or under the lee of trees and THE GRAND CANON OF THE YUKON. ing brunches, for the instant it ceases they are all out, appa- rently more voracious than ever. All along this bank near the Indians' camp, the dense willow brake crawled up and leaned over the water, and I feared there was no camping place to be found for my api)roi ching jjurty, until after walking back about half v. mUv, I espied a place where a little spur of spruce-clad hillocks infringed on the shore. Here I halted the rafi and we made an uncomfortable cami). Fish of some kind kept jumping in the river, but the most seductive "Hies" were unre- warded with a single bite, although the weather wa,4 not of the kind to tempt one either to hunt or lish. The next day, the 30th of June, was but little better as far as the weather was concerned, and we got away late from our camp, having overslept ourselves. Our Tahkheesh friend, with his family, now preceded us in his canoe for the i)urpose of indicating the rapids in good season ; but of course he disappeared ahead of us around every bend and island, so as to keep us feeling more anxious alwut it. At one time, about eight o'clock in the evening — our Tahkheesh guide out of sight for the last half hour — we plainly heard a dull roaring ahead of us as we swung around a high broken clay bluff, and were clearly conscious of the fact that we were shooting forward at a more rapid pace. Thinking that discretion was the better i)art of valor, the raft was rapidly swung inshore with a bump that almost upset the whole crew, and a prospecting party were sent clown stream to walk along the bank until they found out the cause of the sound, a i)lan which very soon revealed that there were noisy, shallow rapids extending a short distance out into the bend of the river, but they were ;i 'I m' m i\\ 160 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. not serious enough to have stopi)e(] us ; at least they would have been of no consequence if wo had not landed in the first place, but, as nii.,tters stood, they were directly in front of our position on the shore, and so swift was tb<^ Current that we could not get out fast enough into the stream with our two oars to av( 'd stick' ing on the rough bar of gravel and bowlders. Shortly after the crew had Jumped oif, and just as they were pre- paring to pry the raft around into the deeper water of the stream, the most violent splashing and floundering wr.s heard on the outer side of the craft, and it was soon found that a goodly-sized and beautifully-spotted gray- ling had hooked himself to a iish-line that some one had allovveelow the cas- cades that teiiriinatcd tlie long rai)ids, >vas found a small grove of sapling spruce through which thtr lire had swept a year or two before, and the trees were thoroughly sea- soned and sound, the black burned bark peeling as freely from them as the hull of achestnut, leaving excellent light and tough poles with which we renewed our two decks, our constant walking over the old ones having converted them into somewhat unsatisfactory places for i»romenades unless one carefully watched his footsteps. Evidences of conflagration in the dense coniferous forests were everywhere frequent, the iires arising from the careless- ness of the Indian campers, and from the making of signal smokes, and even it is said, from de**ign, with the idea of clearing the district of moscpiitoes. ^Vllile wail • ing at the cascades of the rapids to rejiair our raft, our fi hing tackle was kept busy to such an extent that we hiiided between four and live hundn'd line gniyling. a fishing ground that excelled any we afterward found on the Yukon River. Our favorite fishing place was just below the cascades, where a number of the disiitegrating columns of basalt had fallen in, forming a talus along whieh we could walk oetween the water and the wall. A little Ijeyond the Wi;ll itself sloped down and ran close beside the little ripples where we were always sure of a ''rise" when the grayling would bite. This was nearly always in the cool of the mornings or evenings, or in the middle of the day when even a few light fleecy clouds floated over the sun. Yet there were times when they would cease biting as suddenly as if they were disciplined and under orders, and that without any apparent reason, returning to the H THE GRAND CANON OF THE YUKON. 160 IS ill [)t [a- lit LS, 'd [es jes re iS- )t 10 bait just as suddenly and as mysteriously. Light northern winds brought fine sunny weather, and with it a perfect deluge of light brown millei's or moths migrat- ing southward, thousands of wliieh tumbled in the waters of the river and tilled every eddy with their tloat- ing bodies. These kept the grayling busy siiapi)ing at THE CASCADES AT THE EM) OF THE GREAT KAPIDS. Head of Navigation on the Yukon, 1806 milea from A^-hoon month. them, nnd indicated to a certain degree when to go fishing, but still it was remarkable that our efforts should be so well rewarded when there were so many living, struggling bait to tempt them away from ourtiies. Strangest of all we wtH'e most successful when casting with brown flies. The millers caught by the water and drifted into eddies would not lie touched, and it was only when a solitary moth came floating along beating its wings and fluttering 1 170 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT ItlVKR. l\ 'i ' on tlio surface aroiiud the swiftest corners that a spring for it was at all certain, and even then a l)ro\vn hackle dancini^ around in the same place would monopolize every I'ise within the radius of a lish's eyesight. Our Taliklu'esh fiiends, who liad been nuule useful by us in several ways, such as carrying ell'ccts over tlie portage, heli)ing with pohis and logs, and so on, were as much suri)risri tt tliis novel mode of ilshing as tiie gi'ayling themselves, and expressed their astonishment, in guttural grunts. They regarded themselves as admitted to high favor when we gave them a few of the iiies as i)resents. They ate all the spare grayling we chose to give them, which was often nearly a dozen apiece, and, in fact, dur- ing the tlmie or four days we were together tlunr subsis- tence was almost altogether derived from this source, as we had no i)rovisions to spare them. The largest gray- ling we cauglit weighed two pounds and a quarter, but Ave had the same invariable two sizes already mentioned, with h«'re and ther(» a slight deviation in grade. These grayling were the most persistent biters I ever saw lise to a Hy, and more uncertain than these un(^ertain lish usually are in grasping for a bait, for there were times when I really l)eli(ive we got fifty or sixty rises from a single fish before he was hooked or the contest aban- doned. The i)ortage made by the Indians around the canon and rapids was over quite a high ridge just the length of the canon, and then descended abruptly with a dizzy incline into a valley which, after continuing nearly down to the cascades, again ascended a sandy hill that was very difficult to climb. The hilly part around the canon A'as pretty thoroughly covered with small jnnes and THE GRAND CANON OF THE YUKON. in spruce, and nil alon*^ the portage trail some miners who had been over it had cut th(!se down near the path and felled them across it, and had tlx'U ])arkt'd tht-m on their upper sidt'H, forming sttitionaiy skids along which tliey could drag their whip-sawed boats. Two large logs phuH'd tog(^ther on the steep de(!livity, and well trimmed of their limbs and bark, made gf)od inclines (m which the boat or boats could be loweicd into the valley below. Ueri! they had lloated their boats by towlines down to the (cascades, around which point they h. id again dragged them. It may readily be imagined that such a chapparal of felltMl brush and poles across ourpathdidnot improve the walking in the least. It was a continued case of hurdle walking the whole distance. The day wt^ walked over the trail on the eastern side of the canon and rapids was one of the hottest and most insulfeiablo I ever ex[)erienced, and every time we sat down it was only to have "a regular down-east fog'' of mosquitoes ccmie buz- zing around, and the steady swaying of arms and the constant slai)j)ing of the face was an exercise fully as vigorous as that of traveling. Our only safe i)lan was to walk along brandishing a great handful of evergreens from shoulder to shoulder. As we advanced the mos- quitoes invarhibly kei)t the same distance ahead, as if they had not the remotest idea we were coming toward them. An occasional vicious reach forward through the mass with the evergreens would have about as much effect in removing them as it would in dispersing the same amount of fog, for it seemed as if they could dodge a streak of lightning. Nothing was better than a good strong wind in one's face, and as one emerged from the brush or timber it was simply delicious to feel the cool 178 ALONO ALASKA'S ORE AT lilVEIi. ! It >\ breeze on one's peppered fiice iind to see the rnscjils (lis. appear. Our backs, however, were even then spotttnl with them, still crawling alon*^ and testing every tiiread in one's coat to see if they could not lind a thin hole where they might bore through. Once in the breeze, it was comical to turn around slowly and see their efforts to keep under the lee of one's hunting shirt, as one l)y one they lose their hold and are wafted away in the wind. If these p(»sts had been almost unbearable before, they now became simjjly iiendish while w(^ were repairing our raft ; nothing could l)e done unless a wind w:is blowing or unless we stood in a smoke from the resinous i)iiie or spruce so thick that the eyes remained in an acute state of inflammation. Mosquito netting over the hat was not an infallible remedy and was greatly in the way when at work. A fair wind one day made me think it possible to take a hunt inland, but, to my disgust, it di(>(l down after I had proceeded two or three mil(\s, and my tight back to camp with the mosquitoes I shall always reniembei- as one of the salient ])oints of my life. It seemed as if there was an npward rain of insects from the gniss that became a deluge over marshy tracts, and more than half the ground was marshy. Of course not a sign of any game was seen except a few old tracks ; and the tracks of an animal are about the only part of it that could exist liere in the mosquito season, which lasts from the tin)e the snow is half off the ground until the first severe frost, a period of some three or four months. Dui'ing that time every living creature that can leave the valleys ascends the mountains, closely following the snowline, and even there peace is not completely attainted, the exposure to THE GRAND CANON OF THE YUKON. 173 the winds being of fjir more benefit tliiin the coolness due to tlie ultitiide, while tli(^ nios([iiitoes are left undisputed musters of the valleys, except for a few straggling aninuils on their way from one range of mountains to the otlier. Had there been any game, and had I obtained a fair sliot, I honestly doubt if I <'(juld have secured it owing to these pests, not altogether on account of their ravenous attacks upon my face, and especially tlie eyes, but for the reason that they were absolutely so dense that it was imi)ossible to see clearly through the mass in taking aim. When I got back to cnmp I was thorougldy exhausted with my incessant fight and completely out of breath, which I had to regain as best I could in a stifling smoke from dry resinous pine knots. A traveler who had spent a sununer >)n the Lowei- Yukon, where I did not iind tlu> pests so bad on my journey as on the upper riv<;r, was of oi)inion that a nervous person ^vithollt a mask would soon b(» killed by nei'vous prostration, luiloss he were to take refuge? in niid-sti'eam. I know that the native dogs are killed by the mosquitoes under certain circumstances, a 1 I heard reports, Avhich T believe to be well founded, both from Indians and trustworthy white persons, that tin* great brown bear — errone- usly but commoidy called the griz/ly — of these i-egions is at times comi)elled to succumb to these insects. The statement seems almost preposterous, but the explanation is com- paratively simple. Bruin having exhausted all the roots and berries on one mountain, or iinding them scarce, thinks he will cross the valley to another range, or per- haps it is the odor of salmon washed up along the river's banks that attracts him. Covered with a heavy fur on his body, his eyes, nose and ears are the vulnerable m ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. iH V I'' ' 8' " r points for inosqiiitoes, '.nid here of course they con- gregate ill the greatest n .nnbers. At hist when he reaches a svvanii>y stretch they rise in myriads until his fore- paws are kept so busy as he strives to keep his eyes ALASKA HRO"\Vi> HEAR FIGHTING MOSQUITOKS. clear of them that he can not walk, whei'eupon he becomes enraged, and bear-like, rises on liis liaunches to fight. It is now a mere question of time until tlie bear's eyes become so swollen from innumerable bites as to render him perfectly blind, when he wanders heli)lcssiy about until he gets mired in the marsh, and so starves lo death. CHAPTER Vin. DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. NE evening about eiV'^lit o'cloc'lv, while encamped below the cascades, we could hear dull, heavy con- cussions occurring at intervals of two or three minutes. The sound did not at all resemble that of distant thunder, and moreover, the sky was cloud- less. Earthquakes were sug- iN Tiiii KINK u.vriDs. gcsted, but the theory did not seem plausibh antl we were compelled to attribute it to the cascades, which, I believe, have been known to cause earth tremblings and analogous i)henomena. I noticed that a Tahk-heesh Indian in arranging his head and breast bands foi- a. load to he carried on his back, adjusted them as follows: The breast-band was grasped in the center by the palm of the hand, and when pidled out taut if the elbow of the packer just touched the load, — box, bag or bundh?,— it was considered to be in proper condition to carry. The breast band adjusted, the head band is also pulli'd out, and between the two there must be the width of tlie packer's hand ; the head- band, whicli is not always used, being the longer. I had 176 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. hitherto noticed tliis manner of arranging the load when among my Chilkat i)ackers ; the most singular feature of it being tliat the breast band passes over the arms so as to pinion tliem to the sides, making them apparently useless when the mc/'ut noth- ing was caught, the huge craft probably frightening every thing away. The wind died down and .si)ning \\\) again sev(;ral times during tlie day, but every time it arose it was in our favor. That evening l)y the time we reached Camp 21, on the eastern shore of the lake, we had scored about thirteen miles, a very govxl reckoning for lake travel any time. The west bank of this lake is very picturesque about fourteen or fifteen miles from its southern entrance, large towers and bastion-like projections of red rock upheav- ing their huge flanks iii)on what seems to be a well- marked island, but which is in reality a i>art of the mainland, as our Indians assured lis. According to the same authorities a river comes in here at this point, hav- ing shores of the same formation, and called by them the Red River. The fn^quency of this name in Ameri- can geographical nomenclature was to me sufficient reason for abandoning it ; and I gave the name of Rich- thofen to the rocks and river (the latter, however, not having been seen by us), after Freiherr von Richthof( n of Leipsic, well known in geographical .science. The next evening was a still and beautiful one, with the lake's surface like a mirror, and the reflection of the red rocks in the quiet water made the most striking s<,'ene on our trip ; two warm pictures of rosy red in the sinking sun joined base to base by a thread of silver, at the edge of the other shore. The eastern sliorrs of the lake seem to be formed of high rounded hills of light gray limestone, :l ! ini; DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 188 id ill I'P lit m Ig picturesquely strii)ed with the foliage of the dark ever- green growing in the ravines. From the lake the con- trast was very pretty, and showed a regularity tliat scarcely seemed the work of nature. I named them the Hancock Hills after General Hancock of the army, A number of salmon-trout were caught in this lake (the first one was caught in Lake Nares), the largest of which weighed over eight pounds, that being tlie limit of t\i9i pocket s(.'ales of the doctor. Saturday the 7th gave us the most conflicting winds, and altliough we were ui)on the waters of Kluk-tas-si, for twelve hours we made but nine miles, a head wind driving us into Can^p 22. We did not allow the 8th to tempt us on the lake so readily, and the day was employed in taldng astrononn- cal observations, arranging our pliotograi)hic apparatus and sinular work, until early afternoon. At l.'M) v.m. a favorable breeze from the south sprang up, and by 2 o'clock was raging in a gale, blowing over the tent where we were eating our midday meal, filling the coffee and eatables with sand and gravel, and causing Ji general scampering and chasing after the lighter articles of our equipment, which took tiight in the furious wind. Most exasperating of all, it quickly determined us to l)reak camp, and in less than half an hour we had all of our effects stoi'ed on the vessel, and were pulling off the beach, when just as our sail was spread the wind died down to a zephyr hardly sufficient to keep away the mosquitoes. At 7 o'clock the lake was as quiet as can be imagined, and after remaining almost motionless for another hour we i^ulled into the steep bank, made our beds on the slanting declivity at a place where it was Impossible to pitch a tent, and went to sleep only to be ill I8t ALONG ALASKA'S GRKAT RIVKH. iiuakoiicd at night by fsliownrs of rniu railing upon our upturnod faces. AVo congiatulated our.selves that we were in a phice wliere the dniinagti was good. In the shallow water near the shores of Lake Klnk- tassi, especially where a little bar of pretty white sand put out into i\u\ banks of glacier mud, one could always find innumerable shoals of small graylings not over an nu OUTLET OF LAKE KLUKTASSL Tcrminnl Butte of the Hancock IlilU (on the right). inch in length, and our Indians immediately improvised a mosquito bar into a fish net, catching hundreds of the little fi'llows, which were used so su(u^essfully as bait with the larger fish of the lake that we finally thought the end justified the means. Instead of dying down as we spread sail early in the morningof theOth, the windactually freshened, upsetting all our prognostications, and sending us along at a rate that ii. DOWN TIIK IIIVF.R TO SELKIRK. 188 ur ve c- 1(1 allowed us to filter the rivei- eiirly in the forenoon, and I doubt if the besiegers of a fortress ever saw its tlag go down witii more satisfaction than \v(! saw tiie rude wall- tent sail come down forever, and left beliind us tiie most tedious and uncertain nictliod of navigation an explorer was ever called ni»on to atteniiil a clumsy raft on a motionless lake, at the si»ort of vari.dtle winds. Our joy was somewhat dampened at sticking sevei'al times on the bars, one of which tlelayed us ovei- half an hour. In all these rivei's just after emerging from the lakes the current was quite swift, and so shallow in many places as almost to deserve the name of rapids. This was particularly the case where the swift stream cut into the high banks that loomed some forty to sixty feet above us as we rushed by, a top stratum that rested upon the stiff yellow clay being full of i-ouiuled bowlders, which, when undermined, were letdown into tlie river's bed, choking it partially with most dangerous-looking obstacles. During the whole day we were passing through burned districts of heavy timber that looked dismal enough, backed, as they were, by dense clouds of black smoke rising ahead of us, showing plaiidy that the devastation was still going on. !Many of tliese sweepings of lire were quite old ; so old, in fact, that the dark rotting trunks had become mere banks of brown stretched along the ground, the blackened bark of the stumps being the only testimony as to the manner of its destruction. Others, again, were so recent that the last rain had not yet beaten the white ashes from their blackened limbs, whil« late that evening we dashed through the region of smoke and flame we had discerned earlier in the day. HI! ^•v. .Oxfc. \^ ^^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^/ ,^4^ &: -% [ 1.0 I.I us 2.0 U4 ■ iO 1.8 11-25 111.4 il.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation <-^" '•<^.,"^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M580 (716) 872-4503 6^ 186 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. It is wonderful what great wide strips of river these flames will cross, probably carried by the high winds, when light bunches of dry, resinous matter are in a blaze. We saw one instance which, however, must be a rare one, of a blazing tree that fell into the water, where it immediately found a hydrostatic equilibrium, so that its upper branches continued on fire, blazing and smok- ing away like a small steam launch. It might readily have crossed the river as it floated down, and becoming entangled in the dry driftwood of the opjiosite bank, have been the nucleus of a new conflagration, the limits of which would have been detennined by the wind and the nature of the material in its path. Of course, in such an intricate wilderness of black and brown trunks and stumps, any kind of game that approaches to black in color, such as a moose or black or brown bear ; in fact, any thing darker than a snow-white mount? in- goat, can easily avoid the most eagle-eyed hunter, by simply keeping still, since it could scarcely be distin- guished at any distance above a hundred yards. The western banks at one stretch of the river con- sisted of high precipitous banks of clay, fringed with timber at the summit. In one of the many little gul- lies that cleft the top of the bank into a series of roll- ing crescents, a member of the party perceived and drew our attention to a brown stump which seemed to have an unusual resemblance to a "grizzly bear," to use his expression. The resemblance was marked by all to such an extent that the stump was closely watched, and when, as we were from four to six hundred yards away, the stump picked up its roots and began to walk down the slope, there was a general scrambling DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 187 around for guns, giving the stump an intimation that all was not right, and with one good look from a couple of knots on its side, it disappeared among the rest of the timber before a shot at a reasonable distance could be fired. Thereafter our guns were kept in a more con- venient position for such drift timber. After we had made a good forty miles that day, we felt perfectly justified in going into camp and about seven o'clock we commenced looking for one. The river was uniformly wide, without a break that would give slack water where we could decrease our rapid pace, and that day commenced an experience such as I have treated of in th3 chapter on rafting. Not knowing the efficacy of this method at the time, we did not find a camp until 8:15, but back of us lay over forty-five miles of distance traversed, which amply compensated us for the slight annoyance. Ahead of us there still hung dense clouds of smoke which seemed as if the whole world was on fire in that direction. An hour or so after camping (No. 24) a couple of miners came into camp, ragged and hungry, the most woe-begone objects I ever saw. They belonged to a party that numbered nearly a dozen and who had started about a month ahead of us. These two had left a third at camp about a mile up the river (from which point they had seen us float by), and were return- ing to civilization in order to allow the rest of the party food sufficient to enable them to ccmtinue prospecting. The party, at starting, had intended to eke out their civilized provis'jns with large game from time to time, in order to carry them through the summer. They were well armed and had several practical hunters with them, who had often carried out this plan while prospecting in 188 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. , t! ill what seemed to be less favored localities for game. Their experience conlirined tlie Indian reports tliat the caribou and moose follow the snow-line as it retreats up the mountains in the short summer of this counti-y, in order to avoid the mosquitoes, with the exception only of a few stragglers here and there, on which no reliance c;in be jilaced. It was certainly a most formidable under- taking for these ragged, almost barefooted men to walk back through such a country as I have a heady de- scribed, with but a mere pittance of food in their haver- sacks. Possessing no reliable maps, they were obliged to follow the tortii(»us river, for fear of losing it, since it was their only guide out of the country. Large tribu- taries coming in from the west, which was the side they had chosen, often forced them to go many weary miles into the interior before they could be crossed. They hoped to find an Indian canoe by the time the lakes were reached, but fi'om the scarcity of these craft I doubt if their hopes were ever realized. I heard after- ward that they had suffered considerably on this return trip, especially in crossing through the Perrier Pass, and had to be rescued in the Dayay Valley by Indians from the Haines Mission. The country was constantly getting more open as we proceeded, and now looked like the r(>lling liill-lnnd of old England. By the word open, however, I do not mean to imply the absence of timber, for the growth of spruce and pine on the hills and of the deciduous trees in the valleys continued as dense as ever, and so re- mained nearly to the mouth of the river, varying, how- ever, in regard to size and species. Upon the 10th, the current did not abate a jot of its ~«>-waaewwww DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 189 swiftness, and altliough we started tolerably late, yet when Camp 25 was pitched, at 8:15 p.m., in a thick grove of little poplars (there being no prospect of a better camp in sight), wo had scored 59 miles along the axis of the stream, the best recoid for one day made on the river. About 10 o'clock, that morning, we again passed through forest fires that were raging on both sides of the river, which averages at this point from 300 to 400 yards in width. A commendable scarcity of mosquitoes was noticed on this part of the river. Shortly after noon we passed the mouth of a large river, from 150 to 200 yards in width, which my Chilkat Indians told me was called the Tah-heen'-a by them. The resemblance of this name to tb it of the Tahk-heen'-a made me abandon it, and I called it after M. Antoine d'Abbadie, Membre d'Institut, the French explorer. In r:-gard to Indian names on this part of the Yukon River, I found that a white man labors under one difficulty not easy to overcome. The Chilkats, who are, as it were, the self-appointed masters over the docile and degraded "Sticks," while in the country of the latter, have one set of names and the "Sticks," or Tahk-heesh, have another. Oftentimes the name of a geographical object is the same in meaning, differing only according to the language. More often the names are radically different, and what is most perplexing of all, the Sticks will give the same name as the Chilkats in the presence of the latter, thus acknowledging in the most humble and abject way their savage suzerainty. For some time before reaching the mouth of the D'Ab- badie high hills had been rising on the eastern slope, until near this tributary their character had become trulj IHH 190 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. II 'I ||r mountainous. I called them the Senionow Mountains, after Von Semenow, President of the Iniperial Geo. graphical Society of Russia. They extend from the D'Abbadie lliver on the north to the Newberry River (after Professor Newberry, of New York), on the south. Between them and the Hancock Hills is located an iso- lated and consi)icuous butte which I named after M. Charles Maunoir, of tlie Paris Geographical Society. A very similar hill between the Tahk River and the Yukon was named after Professor Ernst Haeckel, of Jena, Germany. The mouth of the D'Abbadie marks an important point on the Yukon River, as being the place at which gold begins to be found in placer dej^osits. From the D' Abbadie almost to the very mouth of the great Yukon, a panful of "dirt" taken with any discretion from almost any bar or bank, will w^hen washed give several "colors," to use a miner's jihrase. The Daly River comes in from the east some forty miles further on, measured along the stream, forming, with the New- berry and D'Abbadie, a singular trio of almost similar streams. The last-mentioned river I have named after Chief Justice Daly, o^ New York, a leading patron of my Franklin Seai'ch expedition. The frequent occur- rence of large tributaries flowing from the east showed this to be the main drainage area of the Upper Yukon, a rule to which the sole exception of the Nordenskiold River (after Baron von Nordenskiold, the celebrated Swed ish explorer of the Arctic), whicli comes in from the west, fifty miles beyond the Daly, and is the peer of any of the three just mentioned. Immediately after passing thor* rivers, the Newberry especially, the Yukon became very much di'^ker in hue, showing, as I believe, that the trib- ■-fr^'»M— ■sM»^a«pw«»ft»««««^«« DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. Idi uturies drained a considerable amount of what nii 'I IM ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. with the briglit green of the iNhiiul foliag*! ninking the dreuriness more {.'onspiciious. From Liike Kluk-tas-si jilmost to ohl Port Selkirk we observed ah)ng the steep banks of the river a most con- spiciions whit(j strii)e some two or thrive inclies in widtli. After our attention liad been attracted to this i)lienome- non for two or three days, w(! proceeded to investigate it. It averaged about two or threcj feet below the sujfaee, and seemed to separate the recent alluvial d(*posits from the older beds of clay and drift below, although occasionally it appeared to cut into both, especially the alluvium. Occasionally, although at very rare intervals, there were two stripes parallel to eachotlK^' and separated by a few inches of black earth, while oftentimes the stripe was jjlain on one side of the river and wholly wanting on the other. A close inspection showed it to be volcanic ash, sufficiently consolidated to have the consistency of stiflf earth, but nevertheless so friable that it could be reduced to powder by the thumb and fingers. It possibly repre- sents the result of some excei)tionally violent erup- tion in ancient times from one or more of the many volcanic cones, now probably extinct, with which the whole southern coast of Alaska is studded. The ashes were carried far and wide by the winds, and if the latter then, as now, blew almost persistently from the south- ward during the summei- (and I understand the reverse is the case in the winter), we could reasonably fix the eruption at that time of the year. The Yukon River as it widens also becomes very tor- tuous in many places, and oftentimes a score of r/nieci is traversed along the axis of the stream whi'e the divvT ers oa the map hardly show half a dozen between thr.- H O E S ^ '/ DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 199 same points. In the region about tlie moutli of tlie Nor- denskicild River a conHpicuous bald butte could be seen directly in front of our raft no less than seven times, on as many different stretches of the river. I called it Tan- talus Butte, and was glad enough to see it disappear from sight. The day we shot the Rink Rapids, and only a few hours afterward, we also saw our iirst moose plo\\ ing through the willow brush on the eastern bank of the stream like a hurricane in his frantic endeavors to escape, an under- taking in which he was completely successful. When first seen by one of the party on the raft, his great broad pal- mated horns rolling through the toj) of the willow brake, with an occasional glimi)se of his i)rownish black sides showing, he was mistaken for an Indian running down a path in the brake and swaying his arms in the air to attract our attention. My AVinchester express rifle was near m(% and as the ungainly animal came into full sight at a place where a little creek put into the stream, up the valley of which it started, I had a fair shot at about a hundred yards ; took good aim, pulled the trigger — and the cap snapjied, — and I saved my reputation as a marks- man by the gun's missing fire. This moose and another al'out four hundred miles further down the river were the only two we saw in the Yukon Valley, although in the winter thej'^ are quiCe numerous in some districts, when the mosquitoes have ceased their onslaughts. That same evening — the 12th, we encamped near the first Indian village we had met on the river, and even this was deserted. It is called by them Rit'-ah'-gon (mean- ing the place between high hills), and consists of one log h luse about eighteen l)y thirty feet, and a score of the r 'i I ' ■■ Li I 200 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. M brush houses usual in this country ; that is, three main poles, one much longer than the rest, and serving as a ridge pole on which to pile evergreen brush to com- plete the house. This brush is sometimes replaced by the most thoroughly ventilated reindeer or moose skin, and in rare cases by an old piece of canvas. Such are the almost constant habitations of tl se abject creatures. Wlien I first saw these rude brush houses, thrown together without regard to order or method, I thought they were scaffoldings or trellis work on which the Indians, who lived in the log house, used to dry the salmon caught by them during the summer, but my guide, Indianne, soon explained that theory away. In the spring Kit'-ah'-gon is deserted by its Indian inmates, who then ascend the river with lot ds so light tliat they may be carried on the back. By il e time winter approaches they have worked so far away, accumulating the scanty stores of salmon, moose, black bear, and caribou, on which they are to subsist, that they build a light raft from the driftwood strewn along banks of the river, and float toward home, where they live in squalor through- out the winter. These rafts are almost their sole means of navigation from the Grand Canon to old Fort Selkirk, and the triangular brush houses almost their only abodes ; and all this in a country teeming with wood fit for log-houses, and affording plenty of birch bark from which can be made the finest of canoes. Kit'-ah-gon is in a beautiful large valley, as its Indian name would imply (I named it Von Wilczek Valley, after Graf von AVilczek of Vienna), and I was surprised to si^e it drained liy so small a stream as the one, but ten or twenty feet wide, which empties itself at the valley's mouth. Its proximity i liiHi DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 203 to the Pelly, twenty miles further on, forbids its drain- ing a great area, yet its valley is much the more con- spicuous of the two. Photographs of this and adjacent scenes on the river were secured by Mr. Iloman before departing, and a rough "prospect" in the high bank near the river showed "color" enough to encourage the hope of some enthusiastic minor in regaj-d to linding something more attractive. Looking back up the Yukon a most prominent landmark is found in a bold bluff that will always be a conspicuous point on the river, and which is shown on page 193. I named this bluff after General Charles G. Loring, of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. From Yon Wilczek valley to old Fort Selkirk is but a little over twenty miles ; and the river is so full of islands in many places that for long stretches we could hardly see both banks at a time, while it was nothing unusual to have both out of sight at points where the islands were most numerous. This cluster of islands (named after Colonel Ingersoll, of Washington), is, I think, situ- ated in the bed of one of the an"ient lakes of which I have spoken, although the opinion of a professional geologist would be needed to settle such a matter. At 3 p. M. we reached the site of old Fort Selkirk. All our maps, some half a dozen in number, except one, had placed the site of Selkirk at the Junction of the Pelly and Yukon between the two, the single exception noted placing it on the north bank of the Pelly where the streams unite. Noticing this discrepancy I asked Indianne for an exi)lanatit)n, and he told me that neither was correct, but that thediimneys of the old ruins would be found on the south side of the river about rifc'TiT>liirf^"'1-;T"-r 1 s 204 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. a mile below the junction, and I found him correct, the chimneys being visible fully a mile before we reached them. Here we were on land familiar to the footstejis of white men who had made maps and charts, that rough and rude though they were, were still entitled to resi)ect, and accordingly at this point I considered that my ex- plorations had ceased, although my surveys were con- tinued to the mouth of the river ; making the distinction that the first survt^y only is an exploration, a distinc- tion which I believe is nii)id]y coming into vogue. Alto- gether on tlie Yukon River, this far, there had been taken thirty-four astronomical observations, four hundred and twenty-live with the prismatic compass, and two for vari- ation of compass. I have no doubt that these are suffi- ciently accurate at least for all practical purposes of geographical exi)loration in this countiy, until more ex- act surveys are demanded by the opening of some indus- try or commerce, should that time ever co^iie. The total length of this portion of the river just traversed from Haines Mission to Selkirk was five hund'-ed and thirty- nine miles ; the total length of the I'aft journey from its commen("ement at the camp on Lake Lindeman being- four hundred and eighty-seven miles ; while we had sailed and "tracked'' and rowed across seven lakes for a distance aggregating one hundred and thirty-four miles. I ? ? n ? s o a ■a I r c I 2 5 b OB a ^\ I !» a W B S g 3 r: & s aMM«i«»*.fc r ir< ;ni » i ii to lM WW B r i i l. * ht^ I CHAPTER IX. THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. T the site of old Fort Selkirk commences the Upper Ram- parts of the Yukon, or where that mighty stream cuts through the terminal spurs of the Rocky Mountains, a dis- tance of nearly four hundred miles, the lirst hundred of which, terminating near the mouth of the Stewart River, are almost equal to the Yosemite or Yellowstone in stupen- dous grandeur. I was very anxious to determine beyond all reasonable doubt the relative sizes of the two rivers whose waters unite just above old Fort Selkirk, as upon this determi- nation rested the important question whether the Pelly or the Lewis River of the old Hudson Bay traders, who had roughly explored the former, ought to be called the Yukon proper ; and in order to settle this point I was fully prepared and determined to make exact measure- ments, soundings, rate of current and any other data that might be necessary. This information, however, was unnecessary except in a rough form, as the preponder- ance of the old Lewis River was too evident to the most casual inspection to require any exactness to confirm it. 208 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Till! ratio of their respective width is about five to three, witli iibout the ratio of five to lour in depth ; the latter, liowever, being a very rough approximation ; the Lewis lliver l)eing siti)erior in both, and for tlii.s reason I aban- doned tlie hitter name, and it appears on tlie map as the Yukon to Ciater Lake at its head. At old Fort Selkirk nothing but the chimneys, three in number — two of them (piitc conspicuous at some dis- tance — are left standing, the blackened embers scattered around still attesting the manner of its fate. From the (^areful and substantial manner in which the rubble stone chimneys were constructed, this Hudson Bay Company l)ost was evitlently int«'n(h'd to be permanent, and from the complete destruction of all the wood work, the Chil- kat Indians, its destroyers, evidently intended that its effacement should be com[)lete. The fate of this post has been alluded to in an earlier part of the narrative. Here we remained two or three dajs, making an astronomical determination of position, the mean of our results being latitude 62° 45' 40" north, longitude 137° 22' 45" west from ffreenwich. No meteorological observations were taken thus far on the river, the party not being furnished with a complete set of instruments, and our rapid passage through a vast tract of territory making the usefulness to science highly problematical. The nearest point to the Upper Yukon at which regular observations of this character are recorded is the Chilkat salmon-cannery of the North-west Trading Company, on Chilkat Inlet. The two regions are separated by the Kotusk Mountains, a circumstance which makes meteorologi- cal inferences very unreliable. Climatology is better ! i H »f s 8 O ? n R »• C •fr ft rr ft ■ pi I S =1 TUROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 211 r<'})r(\sent«'cl, liowovor, in rojjjaid to thn subject of hotiiny. Quito .'i nuiubcr of l)()tani<'al .spcciniens were (rollectod on the Upper Yukon, and have since been placed in the abl(^ liandsof Professor Watson, curator of th(! Harvard herbaiiuni, for aniilysis. While only a l)artlal and crude colh'ction nij;d<; by an amateur, it has thrown sonu^ little light on the general character of the llora, as limited to tln^ river Iv 1, which we seldom quilted in th»? discharge of our more imi)ortant duties connected with the main oliject of the expedition. Pro- fessor W^atsoh's report on this snuiU collection will be found in tin; Appendix. Theextent of the Alaskan exi)edition of 1883 was so great thati deemed itbesttodivide the map of its route into con- venient sections ; and the three subdivisions, the second of which this chapter commences, were made wholly with reference to my own travels. It is therefore not intended in any other way as a geographical division of this great river, althougii it might not be altogetlu^r unavailable or inappropriate for such a i)urpose. Th« ^liddle Yukon, as we called it on our expedition, extends from the site of old Fort Selkirk to old Fort Yukon, at ^7ie r/rcat Arctic ho nd of the Yukon, as it is sometimes and very appropri- ately termed — a part of the stream which we know approx- imately from the rough maps of the Hudson Bay Compa- ny's traders, who formerly trafficked along these Avaters, an^ fjom information derived from pioneers of the West m Union Telegraph Company and others. This part of the river, nearly live hundred miles in length, had, therefore, plready been explored ; and to my expedition fell the lot of being the first to give it a survey, which though far from perfection, is the first !:■ 318 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Si\ m ■ ! worthy of the name, and is, I believe, like that of the Upper Yukon, sufficient to answer all purj)ose3 until such time as commerce may be established on the river subservient to the indus<:ries, either of mining or of fish- ing, that may hereafter spring u^) along its course. I have just spoken of the comparative sizes of the Pelly and Lewis Rivers, as showing the latter to be undoubtedly the Yukon proper ; and the view on page 209, taken looking into the mouth of the Pelly from an island at the junction of the two streams, as well as that on page 2153, looking back up the Yukon (old Lewis River), from the site of old Selkirk, shows the evident preponderance of the latter, although in the case of the Pelly but one of its mouths, the lower and larger of the two that encircle the island, can be seen distinctly. The bars at the mouth of the Pelly are a little richer in placer gold "color" than any for a considerable dis- tance on either side along the Yukon, creating the reasonable inference that tli(» mineral has been can-ied down the former stream, an inf(n'ence which is strengtli- ened by the reports that gold in paying quantities has been discovin'ed on the Pelly. and is now being worked successfully, although upon a somewhat limited scale. Even the high, flat plateau on which old Fo^t Seilcirk was built is a bed of fine gravel ■ hat glistens a. ith grains of gold in the miner's pan, and might possibly "pay" in more favorable climes, where the ground is not frozen the gr(»at(n' part of the year. Little did the old traders of the Hudson's Bay Company imagine that their house was built on such an auriferous soil, and possibly litlji' did they care, as in this rich fur district they possessetl O o O ►0 « O o -J o tr. n r w { — THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 21B an enterprise more valuable tlirn a gold mine, if an American can imagine such a thing. The perpendicular bluff of eruptive rock, distinctly columnar in many i)laces, and with its talus reaching from half t:> two-thirds the way to the top, as shov n in the view looking into the mouth of the Pelly, on page 209, and the view on page SOo also, extends up that stream on the north or right bank as f ai- as it was visited, some two or three miles, and so continues down the Yukon along the same (north) bank for twelve or thirteen miles, when the encroaching high mountains, forming the upper gates of the ramparts, obliterate it as a later formation. In but one place that I saw along tliis extended front of rocky parapet was there a gap sufficient to permit of one's climbing from the bottom, over the rough deb?' is, to the level grassy plateau that extended backward from Its crest ; altliough in m;iny places this plateau could be gained by alpine climbing for short distances, up the orevices in the body of the steep rock. This level plateau does not extend far back before the foot of the high rolling hills is gained. In the illustration on page 200 the constant barricades of tangled driftwood encountered everywhere on the upstream ends and promontories of the many islands of these rivers are shown, although the quantity shown in the view falls greatly below the average, the heads of the islands being often piled up w4tli stacks ten or twenty feet high, which are useful in one way, as forming a dam that serves during freshets and high water, vo protect them more or less from the eroding power of the rapid river. A grave or burial place of the Ayan (or lyan) Indians 216 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER If t'i III probably some three months old, planted on the very edge of the river bank near the site of old Fort Selkirk, was a type of the many we afterward saw at intervals from this point for about two-thii-ds of the distance to old Fort Yukon, and is represented on page 217. Before burial the body is bent with the knees up to the breast, so as to occupy as little longitudinal space as possible, and is inclosed in a very rough box of hewn boards two and three inches thick, cut out by means of rude native axes, and is then buried in the ground, the lid of the cofTin, if it can be called such, seldom being over a foot or a foot and a half below the surface of the pile. The grave's inclosure or fence is const "ucted of roughly-hewn boards, standing upright and closeiy joined edge to edge, four corner-posts being prolonged above, and somewhat neatly rounded into a bed-post design represented in the figure, from which they seldom depart. It is lashed at the top by a wattling of willow withes, tiie lower ends of the boards being driven a short way into the ground, while one or two intermediate stripes of red paint resem- ble other bands when viewed at a distance. From the grave itself is erected a long, light pole twenty or twenty- five feet in height, having usually a piece of colored cloth flaunting from its top; although in this particular instance the cloth was of a dirty white. Not far away, and always close enough to show that it is some super- stitious adjunct of the grave itself, stands another pole of about equal height, to the top of which there is fastened a poorly carved wooden figure of a fish, duck, goose, bear, or some other animal or bird, this being, I believe, a sort of savage totem designating th" family or sub-clan of the tribe to vrhicli the deceased belonged.. •-p:-^ % " if5^ :-;SV'i-' '^ AY AN GKAVE NKAK OLD TORT SELKIRK. Looking across and down the Yukon River. THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 219 This second pole may be, and very often is, a tine young spruce tree of proper heiglit and shape and convenient situation, stripped of its limbs and peeled of its bark. The little " totem " figure at the top may thus be easily placed in position before the limbs are cut off. It is some- times constructed as a weather-vane, or more probably it is easier to secure firmly in its position by a wooden pin driven vertically, and so as the green wood seasons and shrinks it becomes as it were a sei^ulcral anemoscope without having been so intended. These poles may be horizontally striped with native red paint, and the out- side pole has one or more pieces of cloth suspended from its trunk. These graves are always near the river shore, generally on the edge of a high gravel bank which is in course of excavation by the swift current, and when fresh and the boards white are visible from a distance of many miles. There is no tendencj^ as far as I could see, to group them into graveyards, beyond the fact that they are a little more numerous near their semi-permanent vil- lages than els<3\vhere, the convenience of interment being evidently the controlling cause of location. Leaving out the two high poles, there is a rough resemblance to th(j graves of civilized countries ; and no doubt much of their form and structure is due to the direct or indirect contact with civilization. My own Indians (Chilkats) told me that they formerly placed tlie bodies of their dead on pole scaffoldings in the branches of the trees near the river bank, somewhat after the manner of the Sioux and other Indian tribes of our great western plains ; and in one instance a very old, rotten and dilapidated scaffold in a tree was pointed out to me as having once served that purpose, although there were no indications to con- 220 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. i J firm the story ; but tliese mi^lit have easily been obliter- ated. They also make small scafl'oh lings or little caches in the lower branches of trees to protect their con- tents, usually provisions and clothing, from bears, wolves, and possibly from their own dogs, of which tlu^y jiossess large numbers of a black and brown mongrel breed. In the summer time these curs are eminent 1 y worthless except as scavengers for the refuse decaying salmon, but in the winter season they are used to draw the rude native sledges and to assist in trailing moose and caribou. Mr. Homan succeeded in getting a jjliotograph (page 221), of a group of Ayan or lyan Indians, with their birch-bark canoes. We found it very difficult to keep these nervous fellows still ; and, as far as fine rendering of features is concerned, the photograph was not perfect. Their birch-bark canoes are the best on any part of the long river for lightness, comjjactness, and neatness of build and design, and form a most remarkable contrast to the unwieldy dilapidated "dug- outs" of the Tahk-heesh Indians above them on the ^ Yukon. The Ayan canoe paddle, well _ "" shown in outline in the hands of one of CR()?i<-SErTION AYAN CANOE i-ADDLE. ^j^y group, Is of tlie crosS'Sectlou on this page, the ridge or rib r being always held to the rear in using it. In addition to the paddle, the canoe- man keeps with him two light poles, about as long as the paddle itself, and as heavy as its handle ; and these are employed in ascending the riv^n-, Ihe i)ole man keeping near the shallow shores, and using one in each hand on either side of the canoe, poling against the bottom. So swift is the river in these i^arts (and in fact ii;: ; 'J, 'A c > to R S3 W o cs O W en THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 223 it is extremely rapid during its entire course), that the native oanoemen use no other method in ascending it, (except for very short distances. Tlie Esl^imo metliod, in use on the hivver part of the river, of liarnessiug dogs to their craft lilie canal horses and towing them along tlie banks, I did not see in operation during my stay among the Ayans, although they possessed all the requisites for such an easy and convenient method of navigation. In descending the river the current is the main motive power, especially for long journeys, and the paddle is only sparingly used to keep the canoe in the swiftest part of the stream. When requiiod. however, they can go at a speed that few canoemen in the world, aavage or civilized, can equal. Two species of fish were caught from the banks near the site of Selkirk, the grayling being of the same kind we had caught near the rajjids just above and below the Grand Canon, and had found in varying numbers from Perthes Point in Lake Bove, to the mouth of White River, nearly a hundred miles below Selkirk, averaging a trifle over a pound in weight ; and a trout-like salmon, caught occasionally from Lake Nares to White River, sometimes with an artificial fly, but more frequently on the trout lines with baited hooks that were put out over night wherever we camped. A most disgusting and hideous species of eel-pout monopolized our trout lines whenever they were put out at this point, from which even the invincible stomachs of our Indian allies and visitors had to refrain. Small black gnats, somewhat resembling the buffalo gnats of the plains, were observed near Selkirk m considerable numbers, and our Indians hinted that they indicated the presence of large game, a story which 114 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. MY we would gladly have had corroborated, l)»it in this we were disappointed. We got away from Selkirk on July loth, shortly after noontime, having waited for a meridian culmination of the sun in order to take an observation for latitude. The country gradually be(!omes more mountainou.s as we descend, and this bold character continues with but slight exceptions for over a hundred miles further. The river view reminded me strongly of the Columbia River near the Cascades, the Hudson at West Point, or the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, differing only in the pres- ence everywhere of innumerable islands, a permanent characteristic of the Yukon, and one in which it exceeds any other stream known to me, whether from observa- tion or description. Although we had understood from the few Indians v/ho had visited us in their < rmoes, that their village was but a few miles below Fort Selkirk, we had become so accustomed to finding in significant parties of natives, here and there, that it ^va.-i a great surprise to ns when we suddenly rounded the lower end of an island about four o'clo(!k that afternoon, and saw from a hundred and seventy-five to two hundred wild savages drawn up ready to receive us on the narrow beach in front of their brush village on the south side of the river. Our coming had evidently been heralded by couriers, and all of the natives were apparently half-frantic with excitement for fear we might drift by without visiting them. They ran up and down the bank wildly swaying their arms in the air, and shouting and screaming to the great fleet of canoes that surrounded us, until I feared they might have un- friendly designs, and in fact, their numbers appeared THROUOH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 225 ( so overwhelming wlum coinpared with our little band that I gave the necessary orders in rcsix'ct to arms so as to give the Indians as little advantage as possible in case of an encounter at such clos(» (quarters. A line was car- ried ashore by m<'ans of tlicse canoes, and every man, woman .nd child in the crowd made an attempt to g(4 hold of it, the foremost of them running out into the ice-cold water up to the very arm-pits in order to seize it, and the great gridiron of logs went cutting through the water like a steam-launch, and brought up against the shore in a way that nearly took us off our feet. Immediately after our raft was securely moored, the crowd of Indians who lined the narrow beach commenced singing and dancing— men and boys on the (their) left, and women and girls on the right. The song was low and monotonous, but not melodious, bearing a resemblance to savage music in general. Their outspread hands were placed on their hips, their arms a/c/mbo, and they swayed from side to side as far as their lithe bodies would jier- mit, keeping time to the rude tune in alternate oscilla- tions to the right and left, all moving synchronously and in the same direction, their long black mosses of hair floating wildly to and fro, and serving the practical pur- pose of keeping off the gnats and mosquitoes which other- wise might have made any out-door enjoyments impossi- ble. During all this time the medicine men went through the most hideous gymnastics possible along the front of the line, one who had a blue-black blanket with a St. George's cross of flaming red in its center being especi- ally conspicuous. He excelled in striking theatrical atti- tudes of the most sensational order, in which the showy blanket was made to do its part, and he was forthwith 226 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. dubbed Hamlet by the men of the party, by way of a sub- stitute for liis almost unpronounceable name. Even after the performance, this pompous individual strutted along the banks as if he owned the whole British North-west territory ; a>prat8nsion that was contradicted by his per- sistent begging for every trilling obje'^.^^ that attracted his eye, as though he had never owned any thing of value in his life. After the singing and dancing were over, a few trifling presents were given to most of the Indians as a reward for their entertainment. A photograph was at- tempted by Mr. Homan of this dancing group, but the day was so unfavorable, with its black lowering clouds, the amateur ajjparatus so incomplete, and the right moment so hard to seize, that the elfect was a complete failure. Once or twice we got the long line in position in their best attitudes, " Hamlet " looking his most ferocious, and re- sembling a spread eagle with the feathers pulled out, but just as the photographer was ready to pull the cap off the camera., some impatient young fellow, inspired by the crowd and the attitude of dancing, would begin to hum their low song of Yi-yi-yi-yi's and it was as impos- sible to keop the others f i-om taking up the cadence and swaying themselves as it was to arrest the earth's revolution. From a book written by a previous traveler on the lower river, who pretended to a knowledge of the tribes upon its upper part also, I had been deluded into the idea that useful articles — such as knives, saws, ar'l files, — were the best for trading pui'poses with these Indians, or for the hire of nativv-^ help; but I was not long in find- ing out that this was most gratuitous misinformation; for the constant burden of their solicitations was a request I THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 227 forteaimd tobacco, small quantities of which thej^ get by barter with intermediate riparian tribes. These wants I found to extend among the natives throughout the whole length of the river in varying degrees, and, as the former article is very light, I would especially recom- mend it to those about to enter the country for purposes of scientific research, for which it is such a grand held. Noxt to tea and tobacco, which we could only spare in small quantities, fish-hooks ^eemed to be in good demand among this particular tribe ; and the very few articles thay had to spare, mostly horn spoons, and birch-bark ladles and buckets were eagerly exchanged. Below White River, fishing on the Yvdion with hook and liLe ceases, and fish-hooks are worthless as articles of ex- change. Another article freely brought us was the pair of small bone gambling-tools (shown on this page) so cliaracteristic of the whole north-west country. They have been described when speaking of the Chilkat Indians and I saw no material difference in their i/se by this particular tribe. These Indians call themselves the A-yans — with an occasional leaning of the i)ronunciati()ii toward I-yan ; and this village, so they said, continued the majority of the tribe, aitliough from their u..;lerstanding of the (piestion they may have meant that it was the largest village of the tribe. Their country, as they claim it, extends up the Pelly — the Indian najue of which is Af/cm — to the lakes, up the \ idvon from this point to the village of Kit'-ah-gon, and down that stream to near the mouth of the AVhite and Stewart Kivers, where they are succeeded by a tribe called the NetcJi-on'-dees r3 D AYAN AND Cnil.KAT GAMBLING TOOLS. Scale %. M 2i8 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. or Na-chon' -des — the Indian name of the Stewart River being Na-chon'-de. They are a t>trictly riparian race of people and deiine their country only as it extends along the principal streams. From the river as a home or base, however, they make frequent hunting excur- sions to the interior in the winter time for moose and caribou. This village, which they called Kafi-tunfj, seemed to be of a scmi-permanont character ; the houses or huts made of spruce brush, over the top of which there was an occasional piece of well-worn cloth or dirty canvas, but more often a moose or caribou skin. These brush houses were squalid affairs, and especially so compared with the bright intelligent features of the makers, and with some of their other handicraft, such as their canoes an^ native wearing apparel. The little civilized clothing iliey possess is obtained by barter with neighboring tribes, and has generally been worn out by the latter before they exchange, hence it is tattered and filthy beyond measure, and in no wise so well adapted to their purpose as the native clothing of buckskin. One 'could hardly stand up in these brush houses, they were built so low, and any attem})t to do so was frustrated by the quantities of odoriferous salmon hanging down from the squat roofs, undergoing a process of smoking in the dense clouds that emanated from spruce-knot iires 'U the floor. These ornaments, coupled with the tiiick carpeting of live dogs upon the floor, made the outside of the house the most pleasant i)art of it. TJi." ?:ouses were generally double, facing each other, vviih a u:" "mv aisle a foot or two wide between, each one cont!;ining a single family, and being about the area of a common or government A tent. The ridge-poled were coirmon to THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. the two houses, and as both leaned forward considerably this gave them strength to resist violent winds. The diagram on this }jage gives a ground plan of an Ayan double brush-liouse. The village ol' Kah-tuhg contained about twenty of these squulid huts, huddled near .. 'ffV the river bank, and alto- / gether was the largest In- I dian village we saw on the "^ whole length of the Yukon 0\ I < m V ^foT" J PLAN OP A VAN — JCJ — J ' MM Ft HOUSE OF BBU8B. River. There was a most decided Hebrew cast of countenance among many of the Ayans ; more pronounced, in fact, than I have ever seen among savages, and so much so as to make it a subject of constant renuirk. Their houseliold implements were of the most primitive type, — such as spoons of the horn of the mountain goat, very similar to those of the Tlinkits, but by no means so well carved ; and a few buckets, pans, and trays of birch- bark, ingeniously constructed of jne piece so as not to leak, and neatly seued with loii'^ withes of trailing roots. (The liner thread-like spruce roots, well-boiled, are, I be- lieve, generally used by them in sewing their birch-bark canoes and utensils.) Their present village was, as I have said, evidently only of a semi-permanent character, used in the summer during the time that salmon were ascending the river to spawn ; the bright red sides of this iisli, as they were hanging around, split open, forming a not inartistic con- •^rast with the dark green spruce lioughs of the houses and surrounding forests; the artistic effect, however, was best appreciated when holding one's nose. Scattered t; ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. around in every direction was a horde of dogs that defied computat' r. and it must be an immense drain on their commissarx.i jep these animals alive let alone in good condition. 1: .imount of active exercise they took, however, would not suffice to reduce them in flesii, for their principal occupation seemed to be unlimited sleep. kon-it'l, chief of the ayans. Although we were not successful in getting a photograph of the long group of dancers, we were more fortunate with a group of the cliiefs and medicine-man " Hamlet," from which the portrait on this page, of Kon-it'l, their chief, is taken. It was impossible to get them to face the THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 231 camera at such short ninge until one of the members of tlie exploring party took his position with them, while Mr, Homan secured the i)hotograph. The Ayan mothers, instead of carrying their bahes on their backs with their faces to the front, as is usually done by savage women, unless when using a cradle, turn them around so as to have them back to back, and carry them so low as to fit as it were into the "small of the back." Most of the Ayan men, and especially the younger members, were armed with bows and arrows, but there was quite a considerable sprinkling of old Hint-lock Hudson Bay Comi)any muskets among them, which they AYAN MOOSE ARROW. had procured by trade many j-ears ago when Fort Sel- kirk flourished, or })y intertribal barter, and their cost to these poor savages was almost fabulous. Tlic Comjiany's manner of selling a gun was to set it upright on tlu' floor of the trader's store, and then to pile up furs alongside of it until they reached the muzzle, when the exchange was made, many of the skins being those of the black and silver-gray lox, and their aggregate value being probably three to four hundred dollars. Tlieirbows and arrows were of the stere^ityped Indian make, with no dis- tinguishing ornament or peculiai'ity of construction worthy of notice. The moose arrows used by this tribe, shown in illus- tration on this page, have at the point the usual double 2^2 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. l!-iti barb of common arrows, while one side is prolonged for two or three inches into a series of barbs ; these latter they claim have the effect of working inward with the motions of the muscles of the animal if it be only wounded. Once wounded in tliis manner these sleuth- hounds of savages will remain on the trail of a moose for days if need be, until this dreadful weapon has reached a vital point, or so disabled the animal that it easily suc- cumbs to its pursuers. In hunting moose in the summer time, while these animals are swinmiing across the lakes or broad streams, I was told by one of my interpreters who had often traded among them, and was well ac- quainted with vheir habits and customs, that these Ayans (ami in fact several tribes below them on the river); do not hesitate to jump on the animals' back in the lake or river, leaving the canoe to look after itself, and dispatch the brute with a hand knife, cutting its throat or stab- bing it in the neck as illustrated on pago 261. Of course, a companion in another canoe is needed to assist in get- ting the carcass ashore, and secure the hunter's canoe. Tliey often attack the moose in their canoes while swim- ming as described by previous exi)l()rers on the lower river, but say that if by any unskillful movement they should only wound the animal it may turn and wreck their vessel, which is too great a loss for them to risk. A flying moose will not turn in the water unless irritated by wounds. The knives they use in hunting are great double-edged ones, with flaring ornamental handles, v/eli illustrated in the u])per left hand corner of the picture mentioned. They tell me these knives are of native manufacture, the handles being wrapped with moose leather so as to give the hand a good griii. Alto- THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 233 go*-her, they are most villainous and piratical looking things. Only one or two log-cabins were seen anywhere in the Ayan country, and these had the dilapidated air of complete and permanent abandonment, although this whole district of the river is teeming with timber appro- priate for such use. Probably the nomadic and restless character of the inhabitants makes it irksome for them to dwell in such permanent abodes, in spite of the great comfort to be derived in their almost xirctic winters from CROSS-SECTIOX THROUGH AYAN WINTER TENT. such buildings, if well constructed. The severity of the winter is shown by the moist banks of the river, the appearance of which indicates that they have been frozen some six or eight feet in depth. In winter the Ayans live mostly in tents, but by an ingenious arrangement these ordinarily cold habitations are made reasonably comfortal)le. This winter tent is shown in cross-section above, I being the interior, and P P the tent poles well covered with moose or caribou skins. A second set of poles, p p, are given a wider spread, inclosing an air space, A S, a foot or two across. These, too, are cov- 234 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. ered with animal skins, and a thick banking of snow, ss, two or three feet deep is thrown over the outside ten< during the coldest weather of winter, making a sort of hybrid between the Eskimo iffloo, or snow hou?e, and the Indian skin lodge. Many of the Ayans were persistent beggars, and next morning, the IGth of July, we got an early start before many of them were about, for as a tribe they did not seem to be very early risers. Nearly directly opposite the Kah-tung village the per^ pendicular basaltic bluffs shown in the view at the mouth of the Pelly cease ; and from this point on, the hills oif both sides of the river were higher and even mountain^ ous in character; "the upper gates of the upper ram- parts." From this point on down through the ramparts small black gnats became annoyingly numerous and pugna- cious, while the plague of mosquitoes seemed to abate a little. The mosquito-bars, which were some protection from the latter, were of no use against the former, the little imps sailing right between the meshes without even stopping to crawl through. Veils with the very finest meshes would be needed to repulse their onslaughts, and with these we were not provided. Tliit day, the IGth, we drifted forty-seven miles, through a most picturesque section of country, our jour- ney being marred only by a number of recurring and disagreeable thunder showers that wet us to the skin. Ever^ ivhere in conspicuous positions near the edge of the river banks we saw straggling and isolated Ayan graves, resembling, in general, the one photographed at Selkirk, and not unlike pretty little white cott t es, when THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 235 seen from the distance projected against the somber green of the deep spruce forests. About thirty-four miles beyond old Selkirk a small but conspicuous mountain stream came in from the south, which I named after Professor Selwyn, of Ottawa, Canada. The river was still full of islands, however, many of which are covered with tall spruce, and look very pic- turesque in the almost canon- like river-bottom, the steep mountain sides being nearly devoid of heavy forests. In one of the many open spaces far up the mountain side, we saw a huge black bear, evidently hunting his daily meal among the roots and berries that there abound. Although we passed within half a mile of him, he took no more notice of us than if our raft had been a floating chip, and we did not disturb his search with any long-range shots. A little further down, and on the same side of the river, the northern, we saw three white mountain goats on the very highest ridges of the hills. Timid as they are, the only notice they deigned to give us was that such as were asleep roused themselves and stood gazing at us until we had drifted well past, when they began grazing leisurely along the ridge. About this time our attention was quite forcibly called to a singular phenomenon while riding on the raft, which was especially noticeable on quiet sunny days. It was a very pronounced crackling sound, not unlike that of a strong fire running through dry cedar brush, or that of the first rain drops of a thunder storm falling on the roof of a tent. Some of the men attributed it to the rattling on the logs of the raft of a shower of pebbles brought up by ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. ^11 'I «1 the swift current from underneath, which would hare been a good enougli theory as far as tlie sound was concerned ; but soundings in such places invariably failed to touch bottom with a sixteen-fr-ot pole, and, moreover, when we were in shallower and swifter waters, where the bottom was pebbly, the sounds were not observed. As the noise always occurred in deep water of a boiling character, figuratively speaking, —or in that agitated condition so common in deep water immediately after a shoal, a condition with which our experience in prying the raft off shoals had rendered us familiar — i attempted to account for it upon tlie theory explained by the figure just below. The raft a?, drifting with the arrow, passes from a shallow to a deep stretch of water. The Yukon River is a very swift stream for its size (we drifted that day, July 16, forty-seven and a half geo- graphical miles in eleven hours and fifty minutes, and even this rate cannot represent the swiftest current), and the pebbles, carried forward over the shallows and reaching the crest a, are borne along by their own inertia and the superficial current, and literally dropped on a gravel-bank at some point forward, such as ?>, and, water being so excellent a conductor of sound, an observer on a low floating craft, during quiet days, might distinctly hear this falling, whereas it would not be heard if the pebbles were simply rolling along the bottom in swifter and noisier water. The suddenness with which this crack] 'ng commenced and the gradual manner in which it died out, seem to confirm this idea. A series of THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 237 soundings before and after tlie occurrence of these singu- lar noises would have settled this theory ; but tlie sound recurred so seldom (say twice, or perhaps tliree times, a day in this part of the river), that it was impossible to predict it in time to put the theoi-y to tlie test, unless one kept constantly sounding while upon the river. It was observed on the lower river in a much less degree, ad probably might there have passed unnoticed if previous experience had not recalled it to our attention. Tluit evening we camped at 8 o'clock, after tiying to conduct our cumbersome vessel to a i)retty little spot for the purpose, but our well-used " snubbing" line parted at the critical moment and we drifted down into a most miserable position among the high, rank willow shoots, laden with water from the recent rains. Towing or "tracking" our craft back against the swift current with our small force was plainly out of the question, and as the ri^ er bank seemed of the same character, as far as we could see, some two or tliree miles, we made the best of it and camped, for we were getting used to such experiences by this time. Next morning, about 7 o'clock, when we were nearly ready to start, we found four Ayan Indians, each in his birch-bark canoe, visiting our camp. They came from the Kah-tung village above, having left it, as they said, shortly after our departure on the preceding day, and had camped for the night on the river just above us. They expressed great surprise at the distance we had made by simple drifting, having until this morning felt certain that they had passed us the day before around someone of the many islands in the broad river. They were going down the river some two or three hundred miles to a white I I; ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. trader's store of which they spoke, and we kept passing each other for the next three or four daj'S. They had spoken at the Kah-tung village of this trading sta- tion (which we took to be Fort Yukon), which they said they could reach in three days; kindly adding that we might make the distance witli our craft in a week or so. They now changed their minds and thought we might only be a day or two behind them. I found that the progress of the raft, wlien care was taken to keep in the swiftest current, for twelve or fourteen or perhaps sixteen hours a day, with no unusual detentions, fully equaled the average day's journey of the Indian canoes, which remained in the water not more than six or seven hours a day ; their occupants stopping to hunt every animal that might be seen, as well as to cook a midday lunch at their leisure. In fact my own Indians, who had traded among them, more than hinted that they were hurrying considerably in order to go along with us and to reach the white trader's store as a portion of our party. These same four fellows, when they met us on the morn- ing of the 17th, had with them the carcass of a black bear, which they ofiFered for sale or barter ; and on our buying one hindquarter, which was about all that we thought we could use before spoiling, they offered us the rest as a gift. We accepted the offer to the extent of taking the other hindquarter, for which we gave them a trifle, whereupon the rest of the carcass was left behind or thrown away on the beach, a circumstance which was explained to us by the fact that all four of these Indians were medicine-men, and as such were forbidden by some superstitious custom from eating bears' flesh. They told THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 239 US that the animal was the same bhick bear we had seen on the northern hillsides of the river the day before. The morning of the 17th and certain other periods of the day were characterized by a heavy fog-banic, wliich did not quite reach the river bottcmi, but cut the liill- sides at an altitude of from three hundred to live hundred feet above the level of the stream. The fog gave a dismal and monotonous aspect to the lands ape, but proved much better for our physical comfort than the previous day, with its alternating rain and blistering heat. We found these fogs to be very common on this part of the river, being almost inseparable from the southern winds that prevail at this time of the year. I suppose these fogs proceed from the rnoisture-laden air over the warm Pacific which is borne on the southern winds across the snow-clad and glacier-crowned mountains of the Alaskan coast range, becoming chilled and condensed in its progress, and reaching this part of the Yukon valley is precipitated as rain or fog. The reason that we had escaped the fogs on the lakes was that the wind came across tracts of land to the south, and the hygrometric conditions were different. A little further down the Yukon, but within the upper ramparts, we suffered from almost constant rains that beat with the southern winds upon our backs. Shortly after one o'clock in the afternoon we floated by the mouth of the White River flowing from the south- west, which has the local name of Yii-ko-kon Ileena, or Yu-ko-kon River, a much prettier name than the old one of the Hudson Bay traders. The Chilkats call it the Sand River, from the innumerable bars and banks of sand along its course ; and many years ago they ascended it by a trail, wliich when continued leads to their own n 240 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. country, but is now abandoned. Somo forty to fifty miles up its valley the Indian trading trail which leads from the headwaters of tli*^ Tanaiia io old Fort Selkirk crosses its ciarse at right angles : and since the destruc- tion of Fort Selkirk in 1801, the Tanana Indians, who then made consider Me use of the trail to reach the fort for trading purposes, employ it but little ; and only then as far as the White Eiver, whose valley they descend to reach the Yukon. This stream rojf mbles a river of liquid mud of an almost white }iue, from which characteristic it is said to have derived its name from the old Hudson Bay traders — and no better illustration of its extreme muddiness can be given ch.M' the following : One of our ^^arty mistook a mass of timbor that had lodged on the up-stream side of a low, flat mud-bar, for floatirr^ wood, and regarded it as evidence of a freshet, a theory which seemed cor- roborated by the muddy condition of the water, until the actual character of the object was established by closer observation as we drifted nearer. The mud-bar and adjacent waters were so entirely of the same color that the line of demairc ation was not readily apparent, and had it not been for the drift rubbish around the former it might have escaped our scrutiny even at our short distance from it. The Indians say that the Wliite River r.. ^es in glacier-bearing lands, and that it is very swift, and full of rax)ids along its whole course. So swift is it at its moutli, that as it pours its muddy waters into the rapid Yukon it cnnies them nearly acrc^ss that clear blue stream ; the waters of the two rivers mingling almost at once, and not running distinct for miles side by side, as is stated in one book on Alaska. From the urn THROUGH THE UPPER R iMPARTS. 241 mouth of thp White or Yu'ko-kor to Bering Sea, nearly 1,500 miles, the Yukon is so muddy as to be noticeable even when its water is taken up in the palm of the hand ; and all fishing with hook and line ceases. About four in the afternoon the mouth of the Stewart River was passed, and, being covered with islands, might not have boen noticed except for its valley, which is very noticeable — a broad valley fenced in by high hills. A visit to the shore in our ca?ioe showed its mouth to be deltoid in character, three months being observed, and others probably existing. Islands were very numerous in this i^ortion of the Yukon, much more so than in any part of the river we had yet visited, and as the raft had drifted on while I went ashore in the canoe, I had a very hard task to find it again and came within a scratch of losing it, having i)assed beyond the camp, and being compelled to return. It was about nine o'clock in the evening and the low north-western sun shone squarely in our faces as we descended the river, eagerly looking for the ascending s rioke of the camp-fire, which had been agreed upon, before separation, as ihe signal to be kept going until we returned. The s<;iting sun throwing iis slanting rays upon each point of woods that ran from tiie hillsides down to the water's edge, illumined the top of th' m with a whitish light until eacii one exactly resembled a cami^-fire on the river bank with the feathery smoke floating off along the tree tops. Even my Indian canoeman was deceived at first, until half a dozen ap- pearing together in sight convinced him of iiis error. All these islands were densely covered with spruce and poplar, and the swift current cutting into their alluvial banks, though the latter were frozen six or eight feet i I 242 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. thick, kept their edges bristling with freshly-fallen tim- ber ; and it was almost courting destruction to get under this abatis of trees with the raft, in the powerful cur- rent, to avoid which some of our hardest work was nec- essary. The preservative power of this constantly frozen ground must be very great, as in many jjlaces Ave saw protruding from the high banks great accumulations of driftwood and logs over which there was soil two and three feet thick, which had been formerly carried by the river, and from which sprung forests of spruce timber, as high as any in sight, at whose feet were rotting trunks that must have been saplings centuries ago. Yet wherever this ancient driftwood had been undermined and washed of its dirt and thrown upon the beach along with the tree but just fallen, the difference between the two was only that the latter still retained its green bark, and its broken limbs were not so abraded and worn ; but there seemed to be no essential dijfference in the fiber of the timber. The evening of the 17th, having scored forty geo- graphical miles, we camped on a low gravel bar, and bivouacked in the open air so clear and still was the night, although by morning huge drops of rain were fall- ing on our upturned faces. On the 18th, shortly after noon, we passed a num- ber of Talhk-ong Indians, stretched upon the green sward of the right bank leisurely enjoying themselves ; their birch-bark canoes, sixteen in all, being pulled up on the gravel beach in front of them. It was proba])ly a trading or hunting party, there being one person for each canoe, none of whom were women. Already we ob served an increase in the size and a greater cumbrousnes| THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 243 in the build of the birch-bark canoes, when compared with the fuiry-like craft of the Ayans, a characteristic that slowly increased as wo descended the river until the klak, or sealskin canoe of the Eskimo is encountered along the lower waters of the great river. Of course this chan'j,e of build reflects no discredit iii)on the skill of the m ikers, as a heavier craft is required to navigate MOOSE-SKIN VOUNTAIN, AXD CAMP 33 AT THE MOUTH OF DEEB RIVER. the rougher water, as the broad stream is stirred up by the persistent souihern winds of the Yukon basin. About 8.80 p. M. we passed an Indian camp on the left bank, whicli, from the seeming gt)od (pialifj'of their canvas tents as viewed from the river, we judged might prove to be a mining party of whites. From them we learned that there was a deserted white man's store but 244 ALONG ALASK-A'S GREAT RIVER. m I a few miles beyond, but that the trader himself, had quitted the place several months before, going down to salt-water, as they exi)ressed it. This was evidently the same trader the Ayans expected to meet at a little semi- permanent station of the Alaska Commercial Comi)any dubbed Fort Reliance ; and they seemed quite discom- fited at his departure, although he had left the preced- ing autumn, and as we afterward ascertained more from fear of the Indians in his neighborhood than any other reason. We camped that night at the mouth of a noticeable but small stream coming in from the east, \\hi('h we afterward learned was called Deer Creek by the traders, from the large number of caribou or woodland reindeer seen in its valley at certain times of their migrations. At this point of its course the Yukon River is extremely narrow in comparison with the distance from its head — about 700 miles, — and considering its previous mean width, being here only two himdred or two hundred and fifty yards across. It certainly must have great depth to be able to carry the immense volume of water of so swift and wide a river as it is above, for the current does not seem to increase appreciably in this narrow channel. Directly northward in plain sight is a i>rominent land- mark on this part of the river, viz., a hiL'h hill called by the Indians "the moose-skin mountain. " Two ravines that converge from its top again divei'i^c when about to meet about half way down the mountain slope, and along these two arm.s of an hyperbola there has been a great landslide, laying bare the dull red ocherous soil beneath, whicli contrasts almost vividly with the bright green of the grass and foliage of the mountain flank, and THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 2-lS 1 r in shape and color resembles a gigantic moose-skin stretched out to dry. That day's drift gave us forty- seven and a half miles, and all our scores were good while passing the ramparts, the delays from sand, mud and gravel bars being very small. Believing that I was now in close proximity to the British boundary, as shown by our dead reckoning— kei)t by Mr. Homan, — I reluctantly determined on giving a day (the 19th of July) to astronomical observations, — reluctantly because every day was of vital importance in reaching St. Michael's, near the mouth of the river, in time to reach any outgoing vessels for the United -states ; for if too late to catch them, we should have to spend a dismal and profitless year at that place. That day, how- ever, proved so tempestuous, and the prospect so unin- viting, that after getting a couple of poor "sights" for longitude, I ordered camp broken, and we got away shortly after eleven o'clock. A few miniites before one o'clock we passed the abandoned trading station on the right bank of the river, which Ave surmised from certain maps and from subsequent information to be the one named Fort Reliance. It was a most dilapidated-looking frontier pile of shanties, consisting of one main house, probably the store, above ground, and three or four cellar-like houses, the ruined roofs of which were the only vestiges remaining above ground. The Inclians said that Mr. McQuestion, the trader, had left on account of severe sickness, but his own story, when we met him afterward on the lower river, was that he was sick of the Indians, the main tribe of which were peaceful enough, but con- tained several ugly tempered communistic medicine-men 246 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. 1 i I' .! i m ^! who had threatened liis life in order to get rid of his competition in the drug business, which resulted greatly to their iinancial detriment. Nearly opposite Fort Reliance was the Indian village of Noo klak-6, or Nuclaco, numbering about one hund- red and fifty people. Our approach was welcomed by a protracted salute of from fifty to seventy-five dis- charges of their old rusty muskets, to which we replied with a far less number. Despite the groat value of pow- der and other ammunition to these poor isolated savages, who are often obliged to make journeys of many hund- reds of miles in order to procure them, and must often- times be in sore need of them for hunting purjioses, they do not hesitate in exciting times — and every visit of a stranger cauf-t s excitement — to waste their ammunition in foolish hangings and silly salutes that suggest the vicinity of a powder magazine. I suppose the expendi- ture on our visit, if judiciously emjiloyed in hunting, would have supplied their village with meat for probably a month ; and yet we drifted by with hardly a response. This method of saluting is very common along the river from this point on, and is, I believe, an old llussian cus- tom which has found its way thus far uj) the stream, which is much beyond where they had ever traded. It is a custom often mentioned in descriptions of travel fur- ther down the river. The permanent number of inhab- itants, according to Mr. McQuestion, Avas about seventy- five or eightv : and therefore there must have been a great number of visitors among them at the time of our passing. They seemed very much disappointed that we did not visit their village, and the many who crowded around the drifting raft in their little fleet of canoes '4L THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 247 spoKe only of tea unci tobacco, for which they seemed ready to barter their very souls. Their principal diet in summer and early fall is furnished by the salmon ot the Yukon, while during winter and spring, until the ice disappears, they feed on the liesh of moose and caribou. A trader on the upper river told me that the ice of the stream is remov 858 ALONO ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. no means as sub.stantially l)uilt as it iniglit have been with the material at liaiid. It was pctchtMl up on a high Hat banlt on tlie western sid o w '?■ o o fii ►a w o !^ W I THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 255 ( tire is built on the dirt-floor, in the center of the hab- itation, and the smoke left to get out the best way it can. As the occupants are generally sitting flat on the floor, or stretched out at full length on their backs or stom- achs in the dirt, they are in a stratum of air compara- tively clear; or, at least, endurable to Indian lungs. The ascending smoke finds ample air-holes among the upper cracks of the walls, wliile that dense mass of it which 13 retained under the skins of the roof, making it almost impossible to stand ux)right, is utiliz' d for smok- ing the salmon which are hung up in this space. The Indian name of the village is Klat-ol-klin', but it is gen- erally knotvvn on the Middle River as Johnny's Village, after the cliief's Americanized name. That dignitary was absent on a journey of several days down the river, at the time of our arrival. A number of long leaning poles, braced on their do^vn- hill ends by cross uprights, were noticed on the gravel beach in front of the village ; these serve as scaffoldings upon which to dry salmon in the sun, and to keep them from the many dogs while undergoing this process. While taking a photograph of the town, two or three salmon fell from the poles ; and in a twinkling fully sixty or seventy dogs were huddled together about them in a writhing mass, each one trying to get his share, — and that of several others. The camera was sighted toward them, a hurried guess made as to the proper focus, and an instantaneous view attempted^ but the negative looked more like a representation of an approaching thunder shower, and I never afterward print(Ml from it. Occasion- ally in these rushes a row of stviffolding will be knocked down, and if it happens to be loaded with salmon the mmmmmmm 256 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAj. RIVER. f! hi consequent feast will be of a more extensive nature. Tliese dogs were of a smaller breed, and noticeably of a darker color, than the Eskimo dogs of the lower river. They are employed by these Indians for the same pur- poses, but to a more limited extent. It was at this village that what to me was the most wonderful and striking performance given by any natives we encountered on the whole trip was displayed. I refer to their method of fishing for salmon. I have already spoken of the extreme muddiness of the Yukon below the mouth of the White River ; and this spot, of course, is no exception. I believe I do not exaggerate in the least when I say, that, if an ordinary pint tin-cup were hlled with it, nothing could be seen at the bottom until the sed- iment had settled. The water is about nine or ten feet deep on the fishing banks in front of the houses, where they fish with their nets ; or at least that is about the length of the poles to which the nets are attached. The salmon I saw them take were caught about two hundred or two hundred and fifty yards directly out from the shore in front of the houses. Standing in front of this row of cabins, some person, generallj^ an old man, squaw or child, possibly on duty for that purpose, would an- nounce, in a loud voice, that a salmon was coming up the river, perhai)S from a quarter to a third of a mile away. This news would "^tir up some young man from the cabins, who from his elevated position in front of them would identify the salmon's position, and then run down to the beach, pick up his canoe, paddle and net, launch the former and start rapidly out into the river ; the net lying on the canoe's birch deck in front of him, his movements being guided by his own sight and that of a ! .1 THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 257 half dozen others on the high bank, all shouting advice to him at the same time. Evidently, in the canoe he could not judge well of the fish's position, especially at a dis- tance ; for he seemed to rely on the advice from the shore to direct his movements until the fish was near him, when with two or three dexterous and iwwerful strokes with both hands, he shot the little canoe to a point near the position he wished to take up, regulating its finer movements by the paddle used as a sculling oar in his left hand, while with his right he grasped the net at the end of its handle and plunged it into the water the whole length of its pole to the bot- tom of the river (some nine or ten feet) ; often lean- ing far over and thrusting the arm deep into the water, so as to adjust the mouth of the net, covering about two square feet, directly over the course of the salmon so as to entrap him. Of seven attempts, at intervals covering three hours, tAvo were successful (and in two others salmon were caught but escaped Avhile the nets were being raised), salmon being taken that weighed from fifteen to twenty pounds. How these Indians can see at this distance the coming of a single salmon along the bottom of a river eight or ten feet deep, and deter- mine their course or position near enough to catch them in the narrow mouth of a small net, when immediately under the eye a vessel holding that number of inches of water from the muddy river completely obscures an ob- ject at its bottom, is a problem that T will not attempt to solve. Their success depends of course in some way on the motion of the fish. In vain they attempted to show members of my party the coming fish. I feel perfectly satistied that none of the white men could see the slight- % 11 1 m^ h^ "' 258 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. est trace of the movements to whidi tlieir attention was called. Under the skin roofs of their log-cabins and on the scaffoldings upon the gravel beach were many hund- red salmon that had been caught in this curious way. The only plausible theory which I could evolve within the limits of the non-marvelous, was, that the salmon came along near the top of the water, so as to show or indicate the dorsal fin, and that as it approached the canoe, the hight of it, or more likely some slight noise, made with that intention, drove the fish to the bottom without any considerable lateral deviation, whereupon they were inclosed by the net. But my interi^reters told me (and I think their interpretation was correct in this case, roundabout as it was), that this superficial swim- ming did not take place, but that the motion of the fish was communicated fi-om the deep water to the surface, often when the fish was quite at the bottom. The nets used have already been partially described. The mouth is held open by a light wooden frame of a reniform sliape, as shown in the figure on this page, and as one may readily see, this is of great advantage in securing the handle firmly by side braces to the rim of the net's mouth as shown, that l)eing undoubtedly the object souf,ht. Further down the river (thav is, in the "lower ram- parts"), the reniform rim becomes circular; thus of course increasing the chances of catching the fish ; all the other dimensions, too, are greatly increased. Wlien the salmon is netted, a turn is immediately given to tho KI.AT-OL-KMN riSlIINtl NETS. Scale, 1-30. THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 259 SALMOM-KILXI^a Cl.UU. handle, thus effectual] y trapping the fish below the mouth of the net, and upon the dexterity thus displayed no little of the fisherman's success depends. Two sal- mon were lost upon this occasion after they had actuallj^ passed into the net, owing to lack of agility in this opera- tion. AV^hen fully entrapped and brought alongside, a fish- club, as shown, is used to kill the salmon immediately by a hard blow over the head, for the struggles of so large a fish might easily upset a frail canoe. Up to this time the birch-bark canoes on the river had been so fragile and " cranky" that my Chilkat Indians, who were used to the heavy wooden canoes of their coun- try, felt unsafe in employing them for all purposes, but these were so much larger and stronger in build, and our old Tahk-hecoh "dug-out" so thoroughly worthless, that we ft It safe in buying one at this village, but for a number of days "Billy" and "Indianne" paddled very gingerly when making excursions in it. A few Hudson Bay toboggan sledges were seen on scaffolds at and near the village ; they seem to be the principal sledges of this part of the country. The snow shoes of tliis tribe differed from those of the Chilkatsby trifling modifications only, being a sort of comi)romise between the hunting and packing snow shoes of the latter. About a mile or a mile and a quarter below Klat-ol- klin', and on the same side of the river, is a fairly con- structed white man's log cabin, which had once been used as a tradiug store, but Avas now deserted. We afterward learned that this trading station was called Belle Isle, :.-i i;' m Mi If l> if''. m fim liil K! ^ ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. and had only been built two years before, having teen abandoned the preceding year as not paying. The In- dians evidently must have surmised that the trader would return, as they respected the condition in w^hich he left the building, in a manner most creditable to their honesty, no one having entered or disturbed it since he left. They evidently care very 'little for beads as orna- ments, fc I saw none of them wearing that much cov- eted Indian adornment, while great quantities were scattered around by the trader's store, having been trampled into the ground. At no place on the river did I find such an eagerness for beads as characterizes the American Indians of milder cliines, but nowhere did I see such total disregard for them as was shown here. Near Belle Isle is a prominent hill called by the In- dians Ta-tot'-lee, its conspicuousness heightened by the comparative flatness of the country which lies between two entering rivers and a great bend of the Yukon. As our survey showed it to be just within Alaska, bordering on the boundary between it and the British Northwest Terri- tory, I gave it the additional name of Boundary Butte, The country was now noticeably more open, and it was evident that we had already passed the most mountainous portion of the chain, the intersection of which by the river forms the upper ramparts. The next day we made thirty-six miles, and as the whole day had been a most disagreeable one wlien at six o'clock we got drawn into an eddy, near wliich was a fair place to camp, I ordered the raft made fast and the tents pitched. That day — the 22d — while under way, we saw a large dead king-salmon, floating belly upwards with the cur- THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 261 h ir le rent, and we kept near it for some time. Tliis spectacle became more familiar as we descended, while everywhere we met with the rough coarse dog-salmon strewn upon the beach, frequently in such numbers, and tainting the air so strongly with the odor of their decay, that an otherwise good camp would be spoiled by their presence. MOUNT TA-TOT -LEE, OP. HOUNDARY BUTl'E. (Alio showing Middle Yukon Kivcr Indiun:i mctnods of killing Hwiaiming moose.^ The river rose ten inches that night — a fact easily accounted for by the protracted and often heavy rains. The forenoon of the 28d was very gloomy, but shortly after noon the weather surprised us by clearing up. 262 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. At 3:30 that day we came upon another Indian town called Charley's Village ; but the current was so swift that we could not get the raft up to the bank so as to camp alongside, but we were successful in making a sand-bar about half a mile below. Charley's Village was an exact counterpart of Johnny's, even as to the number of houses — six — and the side of the river — the western ; and considering this and the trouble to reach it, I did not attempt to photograph it. When attempting to reach it with the raft, so anxious were the Indians for our success, that as many as could do so put the bows of their canoes on the outer log of the raft, and paddled forward with as much vehemence as if their very lives depended upon the result. In three or four minutes they had worked themselves into a streaming perspiration, and had probably shoved the huge raft as many inches toward tlie bank. We found a inadian voyageur among them of the name of Jo. Ladue, who, as a partner of one of the traders on the lower river, had drifted here in prospecting the stream for precious mineral. " Jo," as he is familiarly known, speaks of the natives of both these vi]]uges as Tadoosh, and says they are the best-natured Ind';'in5. from here till the Eskimo are met with. Ladue had a fairly- made, scow over twentv feet long, about hall a dozen wide, and three deep. v\'hich he wanted to hii'e us, but as it would not hold all the party and effects we had to decline the tender, despite his emphatic assurances that we could not safely go much further Avith our raft. It was with Ladue that I first noticed particularly the pro- nunciation of the name of the great river, on whose waters we were drifting, a pronunciation which is universal among the few whites along its borders, and that sounded I THROUGH THE UPPER RAMPARTS. 263 strangely at first ; that is with the accent on the first syllable, and not on the second, as I had so usually heard it pronounced in the United States. That night, the 2;5d, the mosquitoes were perfectly unbearable in their assaults, and if the weather had not turned bitterly cold toward morning I doubt if we could have obtained any sleep at all, for the moscxuito-bars seemed to be no pro- tection whatever. I think I established one mosquito theory of a practical bearing, on a pretty firm basis, while upon this trip "in the land of the mosquito's paradise;" and that was, if the insects are so thick that they constantly touch each other on the mosquito-l)ar when crawling over it, it will be no protection whatever, if the meshes are of the usual size, and they will come in so fast that comfort is out of the question, but otlierwise there is some chance which increases as their num])ers diminish. Even if there are two or three to the square inch of your bar of many square yards, it surprises you how few get through, but the minute they begin crawling over each other they seem to become furious, and make efforts to squeeze through the meshes which are often rewarded with suc- cess, until a sharp slap on the face sounds their death knell. The doctor, in a fit of exasperation, said he believed that two of them would hold the legs and wings of another fiat against its body, while a third shoved it through ; but I doubt the existence of co-operation among them, I think they are too mean to help one another. CHAPTER X. THROUGH THE YrK"\ FLAT-LA1SD8. AFTER passing Johnny's village in descending the stream, and more pt'rcei)tibly after leaving Charley's vil- lage, the country opens rapidly, and another day's drift of forty-two and a half geographical miles brought us to what an old trader calls the " Yukon flat-lands," an expression so appropriate that I have adopted it, although I have never heard any other authority for its use. While descending the stream on the 24th, late in the forenoon, we saw a large buck moose swim from one of the many islands to the mainland just back of us, having probably, as the hunter would say, "gotten our scent.'' I never comprehended what immense noses these animals have until I got a good profile view of this big fellow, and although over half a mile away, his nose looked as if he had been rooting the island and was trying to carry on the lower river 11 THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT LANDS. S6S away the greater part of it on the end of his snout. The great palmated horns above, the broad "throat-hitch" before, combined with the huge nose and powerful shouhlers, make one think tluit this animal might tilt forward on his head from sheer gravity, so little is there apparently at the other end to counterl)aIance these masses. When the Russians were on the lower river these moose-noses were dried by them and con- sidered great delicacies. A few wintei's ago the cold was so intense, and the snow covered the grourd for so great a depth throughout the season, that sad havoc was played with the unfortunate aninuils, and a moose is now a rare sight below the upper nimparts of the river, as 1 was informed by the traders of that district. It is cer- tainly to be hoped that the destruction has only been partial, so that this noble game may again ilourish in its home, where it will be secure from the inroads of fire- arms for many decades to come. Not long since the little river steamer that plies on this stream for trading purposes, owned by the Alaska Commercial Company, could hardly make a voyage to old Fort Yukon and back without encountering a few herds of these animals swimming across the stream, and exciting were the bouts with them, often ending in a victory for the moose with the " Yukon" run aground on a bar of sand or gra,v(»l ; but for some years not an animal has been seen by them. Formerly the meat they secured in this way, with what they procured from the Indians along the river, assured them of fresh food during the month or so they were absent from St. Michael's ; but their entire dependence for this kind of fnre has been thrown upon the salmon furnished by the natives, which is M6 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. much more difHoult to keop fresh during the short hot suiuiner of the river. Tiiis river steamer, the " Vulcon," was daily expected by "Jo" Ladue, and upon it he intended to return to Nuklakayet, liis winter station. I also li()[)ed to fall in with it during the next week, as our civilized jn'ovisicms were at a very low ebb and I wished to replenish them. During:? a great part of our drift on the :24th, we were accompanied by Jo and his three Indian allies, in their scow, who said they would keep us C()nii)any until we met the "Yukon" steamer. Wliik^ we were leisurely lloating alonank was at all gravelly, so as to give good drainage, and to allow of the river excavating it gradually, as is usual in temperate climes, this tiiick moss was so interwoven, and com- pacted that it would not l)reak or sei)arato in falling with the river banks, but remained attached to the crest, forming great blankets of moss that overhiing the shores a foot thick, as T have endeavored to represent on this page, a. h. rep?'esenting the moss. Some of these banks were from fifteen to eighteen feet in height, and this over- hanging moss would even then reach to the water, keeping the shores neatly m..s9 on yuk..n wver. sodded to the water's edge on the inclined banks, and hanging perpendicularly from those that projected over. Great jagged rents and pat(!hes were torn out of the hem of this carpet by the limbs and •v>' o of drifting logs, thus destroying its picturesque unifornuty. I suppose the reason why it was more noticeable in open spaces was that the trees and underbrush, and especially their roots, would, from the effect of undermining, carry the moss into the water with their heavy weight as they fell. u^ fA/i'i ■ iiiil; mm IP', C'.i ?> IM; ! 2C8 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. At half-prtst five o'clock ',ve sighted a, stea'ner down the river wbicli Ave thought might be the Akiska Com- mercial Comijany's " Yukon" coming up aroimd a low island of sand, but it proved to be a beached boat called the St. Michael's, lying high and dry, about ten or twelve feet above the present water level, on a long, low ishmd of sand and gravel. Some years before, a rival corjioration to the Alaska Company, called, I lielieve. The Northern Trading Com- ])any, tried to establish itself on the Yukon River, v^ nd elsewhere in Alaska, but the Yukon district only con- cerns us here), and trading houses were built in many places along the stream, mrst of them within a short distance, perhaps a mile or two, of those established by the vlnska Commercial Company. Fierce competition ensiled, and I was told that the Indians got goods at wholesale prices ^nSan Francisco, /. e., at almost infini- tesimal prices compared with those they were accus- tomed to pay. The Alask? Company was finally victori- ous, but found matters considerably changed when the struggle was over. When they attemptecl to restore the prices of the old reghne, and to ask immediate payment — for both companies had given the Indians unlimited c" edit — such a hornefs nest was stirred uj) that ulti- mately the company was obliged to abanc'on nearly a half-dozen posts, all above Nuklakayet, for fear of the tudians, who recxuired a Krupp steam-hammer to pound into their thick heads the reason Avhv a man might sell them a pound of tobacco for ten cents to-day and to-mor- row charge them ten dollars an ounce ; especially wlien they have to pay for the latter ^'rom the products of the trap, and tlie former is put dovvn in the account book in THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT-LANDS. 269 an accommodating way Tho N'ortlu.^rn Trading Com- pany also put river, as the map shoves, becomes one vast and wide n ;t work of isliuids, the whole country being as level as • ' great plains of the West, and we were fairly lauudied iie " Yukon llat-lands." As we entered this Hoor- 'ountry our Chilkat IndiiMis seemed seriously to I ; that we had arrived at the yiver s mouth and were ' V gcing out to sea ; and I can readily imagine that even a white person, .having no knowledge of the country, might well think so. TJiere was an almost iri'esistible im- pression that beyond the low ilat islands in front one must com<; in sight of the ocean. As we started out into this broad, level tract, the H m m 8M ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. ill mountains to the left, or west, still continued in a bro- ken I'ange that was thrown back at an angie from the river's general course, and projected into a sort of spur forintni of a .series of is()lat«!;d peaks, rising wpiarely out of the tlat land, and diminishing ia size until they dis- appeared toward tlie north-went in a hiw >»barj)-p<>inted hillocks Just visible over the lii !i "• • uce tj-ees of the or }/*rsiks, after islands. I called them the Ral/> , r,,;*^ Professoi' Frederick Katzel, ol Muni<'fa. This ilat (character of the country continiiJK"s for about three hundred miles further, and the river, unconlined by resisting banks, cuts numerous wide channels in flie soft alluvial shores, dividing and subdividing and sp "ead- ing, until its widtli is simply Ix'yond reasonable eslima- tion. At Fort Yukon, about a thousand miles froia the mouth, its width has been closely estimated at seven miles, and at other points above and below it is believed to be twice or thrice that width. This bn^adtlf is measured from the right bank to the left across shallow chan- nels and ilat islands, whose ratio to each other is, on the whoh?, tohu'abr,^ equal. Some of these islands are merely wide wastes, consisting of low stretches of sand and gravel, with desolate-looking ridges of whitened drift-timber, all of wliich must be under water in the spring floods, when the i-iver in this region must resem- ble a great inland sea. In no place does this wide con- geries of channels seem to al)ate its former swiftness a single jot, but the constant dividing and subdividing occasionally brought us to lanes so narrow jMid shallow that it seemed as though we could not get througli with our raft, and mori; than once we feared we should have to abandon our old companion. For nearly three weeks 1i THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT-LANDS. 271 ive were (li'iftiiii? tlirough these teiTil)ly nionotoiious flat- lands, never iuiowing at night ^vheth('r or not we were camping on llie main bank, and by far the most fre- qnently camping on some island with nothing bit ishmds in sight as far as the eye coukl see. On the 2;')th we got under way quite early, and at 8:30 A. M. passed an Indian encampment of four very ilne- looking tents, situated on an island, and here "Jo" Ladue told us he would stop and await the arrival of the Alaska Company's new steamer. I had suspicions that "Jo" did not like the pace we kept up, or rather that he did not relish being awakened whenever his scow sought the quiet of an island shore. But a few minutes afterward there was a junction of several channels of the river, and we floated out into the lake-like expanse alu^ad with a vague feeling that so nuich water could hardlj* possess any current, but never- theless we sped along at our old pace. This sheet of water was wider than the majoi'ity of the hikes at the head of the stream, and it was hard not to revert toth^m in thought, and imagine ourselves unable to move with- out a sail and a good vri id abaft. Very soon an omin- ous line of diiffc tiniiKU- ap])eared in our front, seeming to stretch frt)m shorts to shore as Ave ai)proached it, and the great channel broke up into half a do/en smaller ones that went winding through sand-spits and log- locked debris, down one of whi i Pi R ^^ii 274 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER (jver the weatlier was clear ; and exasperatiiigly enough onr greatest share of clear weather was while we were lloating between tlie upper and lower ramparts. All day on tlie 2Cth the current seemed to set to the westward, and we left island after island ui)on onr right in spite of all our eiforts, for we wanted to keep the extreme eastern channels so as to nudce old Fort Yukon, where we had learned that an Indian, acting as a trader for the Alaska Company might have some flour to sell. Our most strenuous efforts in the hot sun were rewarded by our stranding a number of times on the innumerable shoals in the shallow river, delajang us altogether neariy three hours, and allowing us to make but thirty-three miles, our course bringing us almost in proximity to the western banlc. I knew that we must be but a short dis- tance from old Fort Yukon, at which point I intended to await the river steamer s arrival so as to procure provis- ions, for I had only two days' rations left ; but this day had l)pen so unfavorable that I almost gave up all hope of making the Fort, expecting to drift by next day far out of sight of it. About eleven o'clock that niglit " Alexy," the half-breed Russian interi»reter for Ladue, came into our camp in his canoe, saying that Ladue had ffone on down to Fort Yukon that day, keeping the main I'ight-hi- ,d channel which wc liad missed, and that we were now so far to the west and so near Fort Yukon that we might pass it to-morrow among the islands without seeing it unless we kept more to the right. After receiv- ing this doleful information, which coincided so exactly with our own conclusions, we went to sleep, and "Alexy'' paddled away down stream, keeping a strong course to tlie east, but it would ha re required Great East- ?i THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT-LANDS. 275 / em's engines on board of our cunibersonie raft in order for us to make it. From the moment of our casting loose the raft, on the morning of tiie 27th, we oominenccdour stniggh^ with tlie current to gain ground, or rather, water, to the eastwnrd, often witli doubk^ and treble (X)mi)lements of men at bt)th oars. Point after point we successfully essayed, working like pirates after their prey ; and fully a half dozen of these, I believe, were so closely passed across their upper ends that a score less of strokes would have allowed us to float down the western channel. Almost at the last min- ute we got such a straight away course to the right bank that looking backward it seemed as if we had ferried our way directly across the river, and as we rounded the last island Fort Yukon's old dilapidated buildings burst into view, in the v't-ry nick of time, too, for that particular island extended well below the site of the old fort, and we passed aajund it hardly a good hop, skip and a jump from its upi^'^r point. We could not suppress a cheer as the hard. ';'arn(^d victory was won, for to verify the old adage that "it never rains but it pours" good luck, there at the bank was the river steamer "Yukon" and fiomher decks came i rattling vollej^ of shots to welcome us and to which wo replied almost gun for gun. A little more hard pulling and we landed the raft just above the build- ings and about three or four liundred yards above the steamer, which we at once prepared to visit. The "Y'u- kon" i.g quite a small affair compared with the river boats of the United States, but quite well built and well mod- eled. They spoke of it as a ten-ton boat, although T took it to be one of double or treble that capacity, its machinery being powerful enough to drive a vessel of I i I i M ; i. 276 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. five or Hix times tliat tonnage against any ordinary cur- rent, but very necessary for a boat of even the smallest size on su(^h a swift stream as the Yukon. The machin- ery took up the greater portion of her interior and were it not for the upper decks, it would have been difficult to TUE STEAMER " YUKOX," (iN A HERD OF MOOSE). (A scene in tlio Yukon Flat-lands.) find rot)m for lier large crew. The moment I cauglit sight of the crew they seemed so like old acquaintances that I was on the point of probing my memory for the circumstances of our former meeting, when a second thought convinced me that it was only my familiarity with the Eskimo face that had jiroduced the effect ui a lit es lie 1(1 ly a THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT-LANDS. 27? recognition. These Eslviinos luid been hired on the Lower Yukon, and but for their bcin^^ a little iiion; stolid and homely than those of north Hudson's Bay, I should have thought myself back anion^- the tiibes of that region. Tiiey make better and more tractable workmen than any of the Indians ahuig the rivei", and in many other ways are superior to the latter for the wiiite men's purposes, being moi'e honest, ingenious and clever in the use of tools, while treachery is an unknown element in their character. The master of the " Yukon" was Captain Petersen, and the Alaska Company's trader was Mr.'^fcQuestion, both of wiioni had been for many years in the eini)loy of that company on the river. From the former I ascertained through information which he volunteered, that he had a large ten or twelve ton river schooner at tlie trading station of Nuklakay(>t, some three liundred miles further down the river to Avhicli I was welcome when I reached that point Avith the raft. After the "Yukon " had ascended the river as far as Belle Isle, he would return and would pick us up wherever found and tow the 3chooner or beason, reduced us to find our motive power still in the f urrent. Provisions were pui'chased in sufficient quantity ^o last as far as Nuklakayet, where we could select from a much more varied stock. Our dead reckoning, as checked by the astronomical observations, showed the distance from the site of old Fort Selkiik to Foi-t Yukon to be four hundred and ninety miles, and two-tenths, (490.2) ; and the entire dis- tance of the latter place fi'om Crater Lake, at the head of the river, nine hundred and eighty-nine (989) miles ; the raft journey having been twelve miles less. In run- ning from Pyramid (Island) Harbor f»f Chilkat Inlet, the l.'ist point we had left which had been determined by as- tronomical instruments of precision, to Fort Yukon, the next such i:)oint, a distance of over a thousand miles, Mr. Roman's dead reckoning, unchecked the whole dis- tance, was in error less than ten miles ; and from Fort Selkirk, determined by sextant and chronometer — the THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT LANDS. 279 latter rej^ulatecl botweon tlie above two places — to Fort Yukon, the error was less than six iiilles. W lliis point we connected our surveys with llie excellent one given to the lower river by Ca[)(ain liayniond in IH(il) ; altliougli we continued our own as I'ar as the Aphoon, or northern, mouth of the Yukon River. When Kussian America became Alaska, or to b(3 pre- cise, in 1807, that date found the Russians established as traders only on the lower river a considerablt^ distance below the flat-lands, while iii 1848 the Hudson Bay Com- pany had established Fort Yukon within their territory, a port which they were still maintaiidng. Upon our ac* cession, it was deterndned to llx the position of Fort Yukon astronomically, and if it should prove to be on Alaskan soil — west of the 141st meridian — the Hudson Bay Company employes would be notified to vacate the premises. This was done by Captain Raymond in 1809. In the course of this occupation a good map of the Yulcon River was made from its mouth to Fort Y''ukon, which was X)ublished by tlie AVar Department, accom- panied by a report. With this it may be said that the results of tlie expedition ceased, as that department of the government does not i)ublisli and sell maps made un- ci er itt- direction, and they therefore are practically de- prived of circulation. When I asked Captain Petersen if ho used maps in navigating the river, he said that he seldom did, as there were no good ones in existence for the permanent channels of the river, while the temporary channels were so variable that his old maps were of lit- tle service. He had never heard of the Raymond map being published, and on being shown one, seemed aston- ished that so good a maj) was in existence, and asked nie ■ f ' Vt si IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4 // {./ /. ,*. ^ *\^ .V4 ^i. I had so often observed in the Arctic winter and in Arctic weather elsewhere, as to seem incongruous during such tropical heat. A heavy rain shower came up about ten o'clock at night and continued at intervals until late the next morning. " It is an ill wind that blows no one any good," and if the gnats and mosquitoes did keej) us awake all night they allowed us to start two hours earlier than usual, and in spite of a gale in the afternoon that made it very diffl- cult to steer well and to keep off the lee banks, we camped reasonal)ly early and had forty-four miles to our credit in addition. This wind was very cold and disa- greeable, with heavy black clouds overhead ; a most decided change in the weather since the day before, but for the better, as the strong wind kept down the mos- quitoes and gave us all a good night's rest. The 31st was uneventful, and in fact it was only in the casual incidents of our voyage that we found any thing to interest us while floating through this region, a flat THROUGH THE YUKON FLAT-LANDS. 287 desert clothed witli spruce trees, all of a uniform size, and monotonous in the extreme, AVe scored forty-1 ve geo- graphical miles and retired at night in a rain shower, wliich continued with such unabated fury next day that we remained in camp. A stroll that evening disclosed the distal extremity of a mastodon's femur on the gravel b»;ach near camp, Mr. Iloman finding a tooth of the same animal near by. For numy years the scattered bones of this extinct animal have been found along the Yukon, showing tliat this region was once its home. When at Fort Yukon an Indian brought the tooth of a mastodon to a mcuiber of my party, and receiving some- thing for it, probably more than he expected, told the wliite nuin that the entire skeleton was protruding from the banks of one of the islands, about a day's journey uj) the river. Our limited time ..nd transportation forbade investigating it further. In a few years, I suppose, the bank will be excavated by the undermining river, and the bones swept away and scattered over many bars and beaches, for it is in such places that the greatest numbers are found, while a complete skeleton in situ is a rarity. In sjute of slight showers and a general "bad out- look, " we started early next morning, and were very soon driven into a slough on the left (southern) bank by a strong north-west wind. Through this spot the cur- rent was so stagnant that we were over two hours in nuiking a little less than two miles. At one time the h?ad wind threatened to bring us completely to a stand- still, so slight was our motive power. Nor was this our only episode of the same character. Several times the exasperating wind jilayed us this trick, and when we cjimped for the night after twelve hours spent on the 288 ALONQ ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. water, we could only reckon twenty-six miles to our credit. The event thoroughly established the fact that the central channels of the many which penetrate this flat district contain the swiftest currents, while along the main banks there are numerous water-ways open at both ends with almost stagnant water in them. About three in the afternoon we passed a double log house on the right bank with two or three small log cacJies mounted higli in the air on the corner posts, and two graves, all of which seemed new in construction, although the place was entirely deserted. Indian signs of all kinds now began to appear as we approached the lower ramparts, although no Indians were seen. By noon the blue hills ot the ramparts were seen to our left, and by the middle of the afternoon, we could make out individual trees upon them, and at half-past seven o'clock we camped on the last island in the great group of from two to ten thousand through wliich we had been threading our way so long, with the upper gates of the lower ramparts in full sight, about a mile or two distant. CHAPTER XI. THROUGH THE LOWER RAMPARTS, AND THE END OF THE RAFT JOURNEY. INDIAN "CACHE ' ON LOWElt YCKON. •^ERYwell defined indeed are the upper gates f>f the lower ramparts, and one enters them from above with a sudden- ness tluit recalls his childish ideas of moun- tain ranges taken from juvenile geograi)hy- books, where they are represented as a closely connected series of tre- mendously steep peaks, with no outlying hills connect- ing them with the level valleys by gently rolling slopes, as nature has fortunately chosen to do ; this approach to the lower ramparts being one of the few exceptions. The lower termination is not by any means so well marked as after the rapids at Senati's village are passed ; there is a gradual lowering of the range, broken by many ab- rupt as well as gradual rises until the delta at the mouth of the river is reached, far beyond the point at which any traveler has placed their western limit. I think I agree pretty well with others in placing it about the mouth of the Tanana or Nuklakayet trading station. 290 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. This v,'oul(l give the lower ramparts a length of about one hnndreO miles along the river, or about one-fourth the length of the upiwr ramparts. On August B(l we started at 7:30 a. m., and half an hour afterward our hearts were gladdened by re-enter- ing the hilly country, for the flat and monotonous dis- tricts through which we had been drifting for many days induced a i^culiar depression difficult to describe a,H well as to suffer. Our entry was signaled by the killing of three young but almost full-grown gray geese out of a small flock which we surprised as we floated around » point of land near the northern bank. This incident, ushered in a hunting season when our shot-guns might have done great service but for our unfavorable condi- tion for Hunting, planted as we were upon a raft in the middle of a broad river. We had supposed that when we entered the ramparts and the widely-scattered waters of the river were united into a single channel, our speed would surely increase ; in fact, we had been told as much by the steamboat men. On the contrary, the current -rps distinctly slower than that of any main channel of the stream through which we had drifted since leaving the head of the river, and after floating for thirteen hours we could only reckon thirty-six geographical miles to our credit, the poorest record we had made except on days when we had stranded upon a river bar or had been forced down a side channel of slack water. About one o'clock in the afternoon we passed th^°e canoes hauled up on the right bank, their owners , ■ ^.g asleep on the warm sand of the shore, nearly naked. Their clothes were hanging out to dry. and they wer<^ THRCUOH THE LOWER RAMPARTS. 291 , evidently remaining over from tlie lieuvy rain-storm of tlie (lay before. Persistent yellini: aroused tliem, and one of tlieir number put off in is eunoe, paddling nronnd the raft, but not understanding eacli other, he returned to the shore, having ' i .ered 'jut one word that we conld compic^liend, vJiy (tea). A half-hour afltuward we passed the mouth of the t/he-taut, u fair-sized stream coming in from the north. Near this point and for some distance beyond, we saw a number of old Indian signs, such as graves, habita^^ions and caches^ but the only living representatives of the tribe were the three sleepers we liad seen a few miles back. Numbers of large wicker fish-traps were seen along the beach, none of whi(!h, however, were set ; and, in general, an air of desolation prevailed. As soon as the early cold snaps of approaching winter along the Arctic coast of Alaska send the reindeer southward on their migrations, these Nimrods of the river liasten northward to meet them, for their skins furnish most acceptable winter clothing, and their meat is a welcome change from the dried salmon of the river. About six o'clock we saw a fair-looking Indian log-house on the right bank of the river, having a harrahora (Russian name for log-cabin, half or nearly underground, the "dug-out" of the West), and cavhe attached. All of the Indian caches of the lov*ei ramparts, and even fur- ther down the river until the Eskimo are encountered, are merely diminutive log-cabins from about four by four to eight by eight, mounted on corner logs so high that one can walk underneath the floor, which is generally made of ^oles or puncheons. A steep log leans against the door- sill and \s cut into steps, to enable the owner to ascend 292 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. (see initial piece to this chapter). The owner of this particular cabin had displayed much more than the usual energy in the construction of his domicile, there actually being a fence inclosing a small yard on one side of the house, and wooden steps leading up the steep bank from the water's edge to the little plateau upon which the cabin was built. These were roughly but ingeni- ously constructed of small, short lengths of log, the upper sides being leveled with an adze or ax. We camped at 8:30 p. m. near several Indian graves, about a mile or two above the mouth of the Whym- per River, which comes in from the left, and just on the upper boundary of the conspicuous valley of that stream. There were quite a number of graves at this point, forming the first and only burying place we saw on the river that might be called a family graveyard, i. e., a spot where a number, say six or seven, were buried in a row within a single inclosure. From its posts at the coiners and sides were the usual totems and old rags flying, two of the carvings representing, I think, a duck and a bear respectively, while the others could not be made out. We had heard, in an imperfect way, on the upper river, that some disease was raging among the natives on tlie lower part, and that whole villages had been swept away and bodies left unburied, but this proved to be wholly sensational. A mild form of measles hud indeed attacked a small town, causing one or two deaths, but this was the only foundation we could find for the report. The Yukon River, how^ever, is a great thoroughfare for contagious disease, and mala- dies raging among the Chilkats have been known to travel its whole course as rapidly as we had done, and THROUGH THE LOWER RAMPARTS. from the river as a base had spi'ead right and left among the native tribes, until the cold weather of approaching winter subdued them, if they were amenable to the influ- ence of temperature. I have never heard of any return ing against tlie stream, but instances of their descending it are not infrequent. Dr. Wilson tried to get a skull out of the many we assumed were at hand, to send to the Army Museum's large craniological collection, but although several very old-looking sites were opened, the skulls were too fresh to be properly prepared in the brief time at our disposal. The most welcome change in this hilly country is the diminishing of the gnats and mosquitoes into quite endurable numbers. We found several varieties of ber- ries near this camp, one or two of which were quite pal- atable; the crisp rosebuds still continuing to appear, jiltliough perhaps they were not so large as those we found near old Fort Yukon. These lower ramparts so closely resemble the ramparts of the Upper Yukon in many particulars that the convic- tion seemed irresistible that they are one and the same chain of mountains, and if I may be excused the simile, are stretclied like a bow-string across the great arc of the Yukon, as it bends northward into the Arctic flat-lands, which latter beyond the timber line become the great Arctic tundra. The night of August 3d v.-as very cold, only a few degrees above freezing, and besides the chance it gave us for a most comfortable night's rest, it stiffened up the few mosquitoes of the evening before so completely that they had to suspend operations [iltogether. Just before starting Corporal Shircliff killed a large porcupine near 994 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. camp, an animal said to be quite numerous along the river, and so abundant in the flat-lands near Fort Yukon as to attach his name to the large tributary which joins the river at that point. It was nearly eight o'clock when we started, and after a mile's drifting we passed the mouth of the Whymper River, which we could not see until after we had got well i)ast it. Its valley, however, is quite noticeable, and one would immediately conjec- ture that a river of considerable dimensions flowed through it. A somewhat ludicrous incident took place at a short distance below this point. As we were drifting along a couple of wolves came trotting leisurely around a point of land just ahead of us, and the corporal and the cook picking up their rittt s began firing at them with the usual fatal results — to the ammunition — the wolves simply snapping at each 5liot as it was fired, but not apparently increasing their pace, though they were but S3venty-five or a hundred yards away. After fully half a dozen shots had been discharged as fast as the two could load and fire, an Indian house broke unexpectedly into view around the point from which the wolves had come, and in one breath two or three of the amused spec- tators called out to the sportsmen that they were firing at Indian dogs, as was proved by the tameness of the animals and their proximity to the house; whereupon I told the men to desist. The funny thing was that they really were wolves, and the two men had fired so rapidly and the bullets had struck the bank and torn out the gravel just beyond the animals so fast that all their attention was absorbed in that direction and thus they did not observe us, the reports of the shots and the a o o O ST :i H en THROUGH THE LOWER RAMPARTS. 297 IB I echoes of the impacts being so confusing. The moment we ceased and they heard our voices and got one look at us out on the river the rapidity with which they sought the woods, left no doubt as to their species. The Indian house and surroundings were deserted and the wolves had been smelling around and investigating some old ani- mal refuse near by. This part of the river was particularly abundant in Indian signs of a permanent character on both banks of the river, but not a living soul was seen anywhere. A most exasperating gale of wind raged all day, driv- ing us into areas of slackwater in which we could scarcely move, and keeping us alongside of steep banks in the river bends ; and when camp was made shortly after eight o'clock, after being on the water over twelve hours, we had made but twenty-six and a half miles. During the day we saw a number of places at which the red rocks crop out from the summits of the high hills, resembling those on the eastern side of Lake Lin- dem&,a, which had been named the'' Iron-Capped Mount- ains" on that account. The contrast of color was not so great, however, for on the latter range the rocks pro- jected through the snow and blue-ice of the glacier-cap, while in the lower ramparts they were surrounded by brownish-red soil and autumnal foliage. I doubt if I should have noticed them but for their great similarity to those on the headwaters of the river. Our Camp 47 was near a small stream or. the left bank and I observed that all of these little creeks passing through the wet moss and tundra-like carpet under- neath the dense timber, were highly colored with a port- wine hue, although their waters were so clear that one 2.)S ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. could often see to the bottom in jilaces three and four feet deep. Probably these streams have their sources in the iron-impregnated soil and rock of the adjacent mountains, and if llowing through land where the drain- ings have absorbed the dyes from decaying leaves and vegetation, acquire this deep red color, almofst veig- ing on purple, forming a sort of natural iidv, as it were. Wherever these streams em])ty themselves, their waters make a striking contrast with the white and muddy river, and often where there was nothing else to indicate that we were approaching a tributary, we would see ahead a dark stripe running out from the bank and curving down stream as it took \\\) the new direction of tlie river's course, and this would indicate the presence of a creek from the hillsides, long before we could reach its mouth. Two days after entering this hilly country we sip- proached the rapids of the lower ramparts, of which we had heard and read so much that we felt a little anxiety as to the danger of approaching them. We had a very good map, Raymond's, of this part of the river, and knew Just about where to expect them, and this circumstance, coupled with the instructions received on the upper river to keep well toward the left bank, reassured us somewhat ; but still we had double complements of men at both bow and stern oars to be used in case of emergency. A little bit uncertain at one point in regard to our position with respect to the rapids we made hasty inquiries at a small Indian village n, ar which we drifted, and its occupants told us that we had passed the rapids about half a mile back, the natives pointing to an insignificant reef of low white bowlders that jutted out a short distance from the right bank. They were certainly the mildest rapids '^ I THROUGH THE LOWER RAyWARTS. 299 1 had ever seen. During higlier water, when the current is swifter and tlie reef just projects from the swift water, these rapids may appear more formidable, but if this part of the river had been wholly unexplored until our arrival, I doubt seriously whether we should ever have observed them. At this point the river is only about two hundred and fifty yards wide, and although the cur- rent noticeably increases, its incn-as** can not, I think, be in any proportional to the vast volume of water the river must carry through such a narrow chann(d ; the stream must, therefore, be unusually deep. This part of the lower ramparts, which maybe assumed to be the " back- bone" or summit of the chain of high hills through which the river has cut its way, is very picturesque, and had it not been for the squally weather and the black clouds that were lowering over the crests, I should have lingered awhile so as to procure a few photographs of the scenery. Gloster's sketches served our purpose too well in such places to think of delaying very long for this object at any point of the journey, and on:? of them is shown on page 29.'). I think it would \y^ a fair estimate to say that the hill; of the upper ramparts in their highest ele- vations are nearly twice the height of the corresponding ones in the lower ramjiarts. We passed the raj)ids of the ramparts at 2:10 p.m., and the Indian village below ten minutes later. This is called Senati's (Senatee's) village upon previ 3us mai)s, and at the date of our arrival was made up of two well- worn tents and four birch-bark houses, the whole contain- ing from forty to fifty souls. Over half a dozen canoes put off from the villag;? and w.n-e soon paddling around us, whereupon a lively competition ensued for supplying 300 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. US with dried and smoked salmon. It was at this village that I first noticed the round-rimmed hand net spoken of in a former chapter as appearing on the lower river. Their handles of ten and twelve feet in length may appear to contradict my conjecture as to the unus- ual depth of the river here, or the Indians may go fur- ther down to fish, as we saw large numbers of their caches perched along the right bank some distance below. Our camp was a forced one that evening, — the 5th — as we got stuck on a sandspit at the head o^ an island where we had to make " a rubber-boot camp" as the men designated any place where we grounded in shoal water so far from the shore that rubber-boots had to be put on in order to carry the cooking and camping effects to the selected spot. Cold and stormy as the day had been the mosquitoes sent a fair representation to inform us that we had not been deserted by them. From Camp 47 to Camp 48, Mr. Homan figured the day's run of nearly twelve hours' uninterrupted drift at but twenty-seven miles, and this in the narrowest portion of the ramparts, where we had hoped the current would increase. I was much inclined to think that our prog- ress had Leen underestimated four or five miles, and that a desire to coincide with Captain Raymond's maps had marred an otherwise almost faultless reckoning. Shortly after noon on the 0th — having started at half- past eight — we passed the mouth of the Tanana, having found one more island on this stretch of the river than is mapped by Raymond. A half-dozen more islands in many parts of the wide river or even half a hundred mcie or less at any point in the fiat-lands might have escaped detection on any previous map, but here the shores are so THROUGH THE LOWER RAMPARTS. 301 bold and the islands so few and conspicuous that they can hardly escape casual observation, and an error of even one upon the map would attract notice. The Tanana River, to which I have referred, is the largest tributary of the Yukon, and is fully the peer of the parent stream, at the point of confluence. Were it not for the fact that the geographical features which must necessarily limit the drainage area of each preclude the Tanana basin from equaling that of the Yukon, a casual observer standing at the juncti >n of the two might well be puzxled to know which of the two was entitled to be regarded as the main stream. The Yukon River at this point is a little over thirteen hundred miles in length from its head, and a glance at a map will show that in its great northward bend it has inclosed the Tanana, which would have to make a great many wind- ings within this area in order to equal the Yukon in length, a case which we are not justified in assuming. There is a rough method, however, of arriving at its length, according to the story told me by an old trader on the river, upon whose word I can rely. With one white companion, and some Indians as packers, he crossed from the trading station at Belle Isle, near Johnny's village or Klat-ol-Tclin^ in a southwest direction, over the hills that divide the Yukon and. Tanana basins, ascending a tributary of the former and descending one of the latter, the journey occupying two or three weeks, after which the Indians were sent back. A boat was constructed from the hide of a moose, resembling the "bull-boat" of the western frontiersmen, and in this they drifted to the river's mouth. At the point where the two travelers first sighted the Tanana, the trader estimated it to be 802 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. lii about twelve hundred yards wide, or very nearly three- quarters of a mile, and as they were tloating fifteen or six- teen hours a day for ten days, on a current whose speed he estimated at six or seven miles an hour, it being much swifter than the Yukon at any point as high as Belle Isle, my informant computed his progress at from ninety to a hundred, miles a day ; or from nine hundred to a thousand miles along the Tanana. He estimates the whole length of the i-iver by combming the result of his observation with Indian reports, at from ten to twelve hundred miles. Fear of the Tanana Indians appears to be the motive for the rapid rate of travel through their country, and although in general a very friendly tribe to encounter away from home, they have always opposed any exploration of their country. The trader's companion had suggested and promoted the journey as a quasi scientific expedition, and he collected a few skulls of the natives and some botanical specimens, but no maps^or notes were made of the trip, and it was afterward said by the Alaska Company's employes that the explorer was an envoy of the "opposition," as the old traders called the new company, sent to obtain information regarding the country as a trading district. Allowing a fair margin for all possible error, I think the river is from eight hundred to nine hundred miles long, not a single portion of which can be said to have been mapped.* This would probably make the Tanana, if I am right in my estimate, the longest wholly unexplored river in the world, certainly the longest of the western continent. As we drifted by its mouth we could only form an approximate idea of its width, which was apparently two or three miles, including all channels and islands, which ' I have since learned that Mr. Bates made a map and took notea B S 1 W I ^ Bl O "' 1 Q H 3 2 B 1-5 ? > o • p O n a m e THROUGH THE LOWER RAMPARTS. 305 may be of the nature of a delta. It seemed to be very- swift and l)roiight down quantities of uprooted drift tim- ber of large dimensions as compared with that brought by the Yukon. Looking back it resembled a suddenly exposed inland lake on the borders of the main stieam, and its swift waters so overwlielmed those of tlu^ Yukon that a great slackening took i)la<'e in the latter near their confluence, forming a sluggish pool into which v/e helplessly drifted. All these circumstances give to the Tanana the appearance of equality with the more import- ant stream. Once in its current we went skimming along at a rapid rate that revealed the force of the new stream. At 1:40 P.M. we passed an Indian village of four tents and two birch-bark houses, containing from twenty to twenty-five souls. Among the canoemen who visited us was a half-breed Indian, very neatly and jauntily dressed, who spoke English quite well, and whom we hired to pilot ns to the trading station at Nuklakayet, the channel to which was very blind, and difficult to follow, as we had been told at old Fort Yukon. An hour later a large native village was passed on the north bank, apparently deserted ; and another hour brought us to the "opposition" store of the old Northern Trading Company, around which was grouped quite an extensive collection of Indian cabins, graves, cac7ies, and other N stiges of habitation. The old store was nearly demoli' led, while the once thriving Indian village had hardly a sign of life in it. At hal''-past four o'clock we passed two or three small Indian camps on tne upper ends of some contiguous islands, upon which they were spending the summer in fishing for salmon. At the upper ends of these islands 1 S06 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Kfsi they build oblique weirs or w icker-work wing-dams con- verging to a certain point, at which a large wicker-work net is placed, and into the latter the salmon are directed and there caught. These wicker-work nets are similar to those heretofore spoken of as having been seen scattered along the beach in front of a small house just after enter- ing the ramparts, and some of them are so large that a man might walk into their open mouths, while they are probabl}^ a score of feet in length. These, together with the native hand-nets, already spoken of, are the only appliances I saw used for catching iisli ; but they serve amply to supply the natives throughout the year, and to give their numerous dogs a salmon apiece every day. A little after six o'clock we sighted the Nuklakayet trading station, and after much lund labor succeeded in making a landing there, for the channel was most tor- tuous, and without our Tndijui i)i]ot we should lu'obably have missed the i)lace altogether, so much dodging through winding wnys and around obscure islands was necessary. Mr. Harjier, whom we found in charge, was the only white man present, althoiigh !Mr. McQucsticm, and another trader who was down the rivrr at the time (Mr. Mayo), make the station tlieir headquarters. It is the furthest inland trading post at jirescut .Tiniiitiiiued by the Alaska Commercial Company—* r any other cor- poration on the river — although then* were foi'merly others of which mention has been made, but an occasional visit of the river steamer has taken their place. Nukla- kayet v;as once on \\w ilat bottom land at the junction of the Tanana and the Yukon, and was considered a sort of neutral ground for the British traders from above and H « O H 2! H tE c on H J5 C r, > l?i H fill THROUGH THE LOWER RAMPARTS. 809 the Russians below, there being at that time summer trading camps only in existence. Here Mr. Harper had attempted a small garden, which is certainly the most northerly garden existing in the ter- ritory of the United States, if not in the western conti- nent ; it being eighty-five geographical or ninety-eight statute miles from the Arctic circle, or within a couple of days' journey of the polar regions. The garden is shown in the illustration taken from a photograph made by Mr. Homan. Its principal vegetables were turnips, the largest of which raised that year weighed a little over six pounds. They seemed particularly crisp and acceptable to our palates, most of us eating them raw, a la Sellers. I never knew before that turnips were so palatable. A few other hardy plants and veget- ables completed the contents of the garden. Gar- dening in this country, however, must be greatly im- peded by the swarms of mosquitoes, while agricul- ture on a considerable scale would be retarded by the wet and mossy character of the soil. Mr. Harper has chosen a south-eastern slope directly on the river bank, and here the immediate drainage has helped him to overcome the latter obstacle to the success of his garden. We inspected the "barPa," or decked schooner of ten or twelve tons, and I decided to take her, although fear- ing that we might find many more discomforts in her cramped quarters, than upon our old raft. Here, too, the old raft was laid away in peace, perhaps to become kindling-wood for the trader's stove. Rough and rude as it was, I had a friendliness for the uncouth vessel, which had done such faithful service, and borne ■ " " 1:1 pill III *l Mi H ill 810 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. US. safely through so many trials, surprising us with its good qualities. It had explored a larger portion of the great river than any more pretentious craft, and seemed to deserve a better fate. I*' w i* > I « a o .^ — , I s M W -1 {>'i i' I.' CHAPTER XII. DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. ^HE 7th of August we remained over pumping out the bilge-- water from the "barka" and transferring freight from the raft to the schooner, and making use of our photographic appar- atus. At Nuklakayet the Eskimo dogs begin to appear, forty or ™oN*rH2YowKu%nSo/r"B:'°' fi^ty being owned by the sta- tion, the majority of which Mr. Harper feared he should have to kill to save the expense of feeding them through the winter. As each of them ate a salmon a day, it will be seen that this cost was no small item. I remembered the trouble I had once experienced in obtaining even a smaller number of these useful creatures ; a difficulty which many another Arctic traveler has encountered, while here was a pack about to be slaughtered that would well suffice for any sledgiu^r party. The Eskimo dogs of Alaska are larger, finer-looking, and a much more distinct variety than those of North Hudson's Bay, King William Land country, and adjacent districts ; a description of any one Alaska dog answering nearly for all, while among the others I have named, there was the widest difference in size, shape and general appearance. ■HHiiiniiiii 814 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. From all I could learn, and I was careful to inquire of their capabilities, I do not think the Alaskan Eskimo dogs can compare with the others in endurance, whether as regards fatigue, exposure or fasting. For all the purposes of men who are never in fear of starvation, I think it more than probable that the Alaskan Eskimo dog would be found superior on short journeys and trips between points where food is procurable ; but for the use of explorers, or of any one who may be exposed to the danger of famine, the others are undoubtedly far superior. When I told some of the Yukon River traders, who had spent much of their lives in the native country of these dogs, of some of the feats of endurance of the Hudson Bay species, they seemed to think, judging from their countenances, that I was giving them a choice selec- tion from the Arctic edition of Munchausen. Eskimo boats, or those in which the wooden frames are covered with sealskin, are also first noticed at this place ; although the Eskimo people themselves are not found as regular inhabitants until Anvik has been passed, some twenty or thirty miles. I saw both kinds, the smaller variety, or kia7c, in native language, and the large kind, or oomlen, of the Eski no. An attempt had evidently been made to fashion the bow and stern of the latter into nautical "lines," with a result much more visible than with tliose of Hudson's Straits and Bay. On Wednesday tlie 8th of August, we got away late, and there being a slight breeze beliind us, we set the jib — the only sail with tlie boat — and were agreeably sur- prised at tlie manner in which our new acquisition cut through the water, with even this little help ; the sail assisting her probably a couple of miles an hour, and, DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. Sip better than all, making it very easy work to keep in the strongest currents. Indian villages or camps were seen occasionally on the uppe- ends of islands, with their fish-traps set above them, and from som(i of these we obtained fresh salmon. As the trading stations are approached, these Indian camps increase, the largest being generally clustered around the station itself, while a diminution both in numbers and size is jjerceptible in proportion to the dis- tance from these centers. As many of these camps are but temporary summer affairs, which are abandoned late in the fall, this clustering around the white men's stores becomes more marked at that i)eriod. That night's camping, however, plainly showed us that the '"barka" was not as good as the raft for the purpose of approach- ing the shore, it drawing aljout three feet to the raft's twenty inches, so that "rubber-boot camps" might be quite numerous in the future. Worst of all, our rubber boots were but little protection in three feet of water, and filling to the top, became more of an impediment than otherwise in carrying our effects to the shore. Most of our camping places were now selected with reference to steep banks that had at least three feet of water at their foot, yet were not so high but that a long gang-plank could reach the crest. On the 9th, we started early with a light wind in our face that within an hour had become a furious gale, with white capped waves running over the broad river and dashing over our boat. We ran into shoal water, dropped anchor, and tried to protect onrst^lves by crawling in under the leaking decks. Here we remained cooped up until four o'clock in the afternoon, when the gale abat- 816 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. ing somewhat we pulled up anchor and drifted for six or seven miles, going into camp at eight o'clock, having made eight and a-half miles for the day. After camping, the gale died down to a ca1ii\ and allowed us the full benefit of the mosquitoes. Either we were getting used to their attacks, or the season had affected the insects, for they appeared less numerous than on the upper river. The 10th was another day starting well with a favorable breeze and ending with a heavy head-wind. That day we passed the Newicargut and still saw many Indian camps where fishing for salmon was going on. The 11th was an aggravating repetition of the events of the two preceding days. That day we passed the Meloze- cargut, and camped opposite the mouth of the Yuko- cargut. *"Cargut" is the native name for river, and Sooncargut, Melozecargut, and Tosecargut, have been changed to Sunday-cargut, Monday-cargut, and Tuesday- cargut by the English speaking traders of the district. Another object now influenced our selection of camps for the night, and that was to choose a spot with few or no islands in its front, so that the descending river steamer *' Yukon" could n< t pass us while in camp by taking a channel hidden from our view. Shortly after midnight a steamer's whistling was heard far down the river, and after a great deal of anxiety for fear it was the "Yukon" that had passed us unnoticed, we heard the puffing approach nearer and nearer, and soon saw the light of an ascending river steamer. It proved to be a very diminutive but powerful little thing which Mr. Mayo was taking to Nuklakayet for the * Spelled Chargut on Mr. Homan^s map. DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 817 winter. Two brothers of the name of Scheffelin, the elder of whom is well known in frontier mining history as the discoverer of the celebrated Tombstone district of Arizona, having amassed a fortune in that territory, decided to try the mining prospects of the Yukon and its tributaries, and the prior year had chartered a vessel in San Francisco on which they put this little river steamer, and sailed for the Yukon. Here a year was spent in prospecting, and although "ounce diggings* were struck" on or near the Melozecargut, yet all the sur- roundings made " Ed " Scheffelin think it would not pay to put capital in such an undertaking, although it might remunerate the individual effort of the itinerant miner whose capital is his pick-ax, pan and shovel. Early in the spring the Scheffelins got a letter from Arizona which determined their return to the United States, and they had left the river a few weeks previously, the three traders at Nuklakayet buying their little river steamer, which the former owners had named the " New Racket." The wages of these traders had been reduced by the Alaska Company in order to contract expenses, so that the company might make a small percentage on the large capital invested, until the traders found themselves with- out sufficient means to live upon, and they had bought the boat intending to organize a small trading company of their own upon the river unless their f onner wages were restored. The Scheffelin mining expedition was an expensive one, and remarkably well "outfitted " in every necessary department. The large number of Eskimo dogs at Nuklakayet had been selected by him for the * Digfifiniafs tliat will pay an ounce of gold per man a day, or, as gold usually runs, from $10 to $20 per day. 1 ffii ' ' 318 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. purpose of sledging expeditions in winter time. He thought seriously of invading tlio prospective gold fields of Africa as his next venture, showing plainly the roving spirit which had served liini so well in the arid deserts of Arizona. No one could meet him anywhere without wishing him good luck in his wild adventures, for lie was the prince of good fellows. The " Now Racket" left us very early in the morning, having tied up alongside of camp the night before, while we started about the usual time, an hour after daylight. About 3:30 p.m. that day — the 12th — we passed a very considerable Indian village called Sakadelontin, com- posed of a number of birch-bark houses and some ten or twelve caches, and containing probably fifty or sixty people. It is one of the few large villages to be found at any great distance from a trading station. Before reaching it we oli.^'jrved a number of native coffins perched up in thy trees, the first and only ones' we saw so situated on tlw ri rer. All day on the 12th and 13th a heavy gale f roiv; the south made even drifting difficult. Upon a couple of northward-trending stretches of the river that were encountered on the 13th we set the jib, and spun along af the rate of six or seven miles an hour. At one place where we were held against the high banks by the force of the gale, we went ashore, and much to our surprise found a most prolific huckleberry patch, where we all regaled ourselves as long as the wind lasted. These berries were quite common along this part of the river, and nearly every canoe that put off from a camp or village would have one or two trays or bowls of wood or birch-bark full of them, which the natives wanted to trade for tea or tobacco. We camped in what is called o H s W o 4 t DOWIT THE RIVER AND HOME. 881 by the river steamer men the "cut-off slough," just south of the mouth of the Koyukuk River, a northern tributary of considerable dimensions, which empties into the Yukon at a point where it makes a short but bold bend to the north, the "slough" making the route about one-fifth shorter. The mouth of the tributary is marked by the Koyukuk Sopka (hill), a high eminence which is visible for many miles around. This feature is char- acteristic of this pa.t of the Yukon Valley, isolated hills and i)eaks often rising precipitously from a perfectly level country. The 14th saw us make Nulato, quite an historical place on the river. It was the furthest inland trading station of the old Russian- American Fur Company at the time of our purchase of Alaska, and had been used as such by them, under different names, for nearly a quarter of a century. It was occupied by tlie traders of the Alaska Cor 'pany until a year or two before my arrival, as well as by traders of the "opposition," when the killing of one of the latter led to trouble with the Indians, so that both comjianies withdrew. Many years ago, one cold winter night, the Russians of the station were massacred, along with a number of friendly Indians who had assembled around the station. In this disaster fell an En iisli naval officer, Lieuten- ant Barnard by name, who was looking for traces of Sir John Franklin, even in this out-of-the-way corner of the earth. A respectable head-board marks his grave, but the high grass and willows have buiied it almost out of sight. Here also lies buried a locally noted Russian charac- ter of hard reputation, Kerchinikoff by name, whose f^ 882 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAf RIVER. story was told me by more than one of the traders, who had known him and heard of his doings in his adven- turous career. It was romancingly said by way of illus- trating his prowess among the native tribes, that if th.^, skulls of his Indian victims had been heaped tog* Tie his grave they would not only fill it but enough t/oula have remained to erect a high monumei^t to his mem- ory. He died at a great age, having been from his very youth a terror to all i;he tribes on the lower river, but wholly in the interests, as he interpreted them, of the great iron monopoly to which he belonged. Many years ago the few Kussian traders of the Andreavsky station had been massacred by the Indians. Kerchini- koff asked for protection [and a sufficient force to punish the murderers, and those at Nulato transmitted his re- quest to th-^ headquarters of the Russian Fur Company at far-off Sitka, but did not receive even the courtesy of an answer. With one or two companions he put a couplo of old rusty Russian carronadesintlieprowof his trading boat, — the identical one on which we were drifting down the river, and which he himself had built— and in lieu of proper ammunition, which he was unable to get, he loaded his guns with spikes, hinges and Avliatever scraps of iron and lead he could pick up around Michaeloffski, and appearing suddenly before the Indian vTiaa^, de- manded the surrender of the murderers. '!" . natives gathered in a great crowd on the shore of the river, laughing derisively at his apparently absurd demands, having never even heard of sucli a ^;hi:ig cannon. Spears were hurled and arrows sh'^tattho ,;oat, which thereupon slowly approached, having its cannon pointed at the dense crowd. When an arrow buried itself in I DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 323 the prow, the temble report of the two carronades made answer, and about a score of Indians were stretched upon the beach, while the wounded and panic-stricken fled in great numbers to the woods for protection. From that day not a single drop of white man's blood was evei" shed by any savages upon the lower river, until Kerchin- ikoff himself, while lying on his sledge in a drunken stupor, was stabbed to death almost within a stone's throw of the graves of those whom he had avenged. We landed at Upper Nulato (the "opposition " store), and here encountered a half-breer. who spoke tolerable English, and who pointed out the places just men- tioned. "Hello, where you cornel" was his first question, to which we briefly replied, one of the members of the party remarking it was quite windy hereabouts, refer- ring to the three or four days' gale we had had. " AJlee time like that now," was his cheerful pnswer. This neatly-dressed young fellow took me down to his cache, and seemed especi xlly delighted m showing me his new "parka," or reindeer coat, for winter wear. It wjis one of the iiijrlily prized " spotted " ^arA'a.?. The spotted reindeer are bred only in Asia, and their hides — for the tribe owning them will never allow the live animals to be taken away — find their way into Alaska by way of Bering's Straits by means of intertribal barter, while numbers are brought by the Alaska Company from Rus- sian ports on that side, and are used as trading material with such tribes as wear reindeer clothing. I offered a good price for this particular "parka," but the owner would not part with it, as they are especially valuable and tolerably rare at this distance up the river, and only mmmm aM ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. :u the wealthiest Indians can afford to buy them. He told me this was the only one at Nulato at the time, but T did ii I: ■ 0' w how much faith might be put in the statement. Bat: je weather was, we got a good series of observa- tions on the sun, while at Nulato, on thj afternoon of the 14th. On the 15th the old familiar gale from ahead put in its appearance as we started in the morning, but to every body's great surprise it hauled to the rear in the middle of the afternoon, and when we camped at 8:20 p. m., hav- ing used our jib in sailing, an Indian from a village near by told us the place was called Kaltag ; so that we had made an extraordinary run under all the circumstances. Indipn villages were quite numerous during the day. About Kaltag occurs the last point on the river at which high ground comes down to the water's edge on the left side, and for the rest of the voyage, a distr nee of some five hundred miles, precipitous banks only are found on the right side, vrhile the country to the left resembles the flat-lands seen further back, bat the horizon is much more limited than that of the flat-lands, hills ax)pearing in the background, which finally become isolated peaks, or short broken ranges. The morning of the 16th ushered in a heavy gale from ahead, accompanied by a deluge of showers, and as the camp, 57, was fortunately situated at a point where all the channels were united, so that the river steamer could not pass unnoticed, I determined to remain over. It would be as tiresome to my readers as it was aggra« vating to us, to repeat in detail the old story of our start- ing with a fair wind, its change to a gale that kept us against the banks, and of our passing a few Indian towns. DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 325 This continuous drifting against a head wind taught us one singular thing, however, viz. : that our boat would drift faster against this wind when turned broadside to it and exposing the greatest surface to its action, than when facing it bow or stern on and with a minimum of exposed surface ; this fact being the very reverse of what we had supposed, indeed, we had endeavored to avoid this very position. Thereafter we kept the"barka" broadside to the head wind, a very difficult undertaking, which required hard and constant work at the steering oar ; but the mile or mile and a-half an hour gained over the vessel's drift was well worth it. I spoke of this after- ward to the river men and found they had long since anticipated me by a much easier contrivance, viz. : by tying an anchor or a large camp-kettle full of stones and suspending it from the end of the jib-boom so that it would trail in the water. This method, a number of them assured me, would have saved our work at the steering oar which we rigged at the stern. The 18th and 19th we fought our way down the river, inch by inch, against the wind. The latter night the storm culminated in a perfect hurricane, felling trees in the forest, hurling brush through the air, and raising waves four and iive feet high, from whose crests flew great white masses of foam, the wide river resembling a sheet of boiling milk in the darkness. Although we were in a well-sheltered cove, which had remained calm the evening before, even in the high wind, yet this gale sent in such huge waves that our "barka" was on the point of being wrecked, and was only saved by the severest labor of the crew. The little birch-bark canoe was swept f fom her deck and thrown high up on the beach, where it ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. resembled a mass of brown wrapping paper which the storm had beaten down upon the stones. The gale slowly died down on the 20th, but ceased too late to give us a chance to start, and we remained over night, a heavy fog and rain terminating the day. On the 21st we saw a couple of oomiens, {hidarra — Russian) or large skin-boats being hauled up stream by native dogs on the bank, somewhat after the fashion of canal-horses on a tow-path. We had baffling winds most of the day, some few of which we could take ad', antage of, but at 6 p. M. the wind had settled down to its regular ' ' dead-ahead ' ' gale. Ww camped at half -past nine o'clock at Hall's Rapids, (named by Raymond), but found them at the time of our visit to consist only of some rough water along the rocky beach, while the high land mapped by him on the south- eastern bank was wanting. As I said before, the high land on the right bank with low country upon the left is a state of things which continues until the delta is reached, when the whole country becomes level. About six or seven o'clock in the afternoon we were passing the upper ends or entrances, seven of them alto- gether, of the Shagelook slough, which here makes a great bend to the eastward and incloses an area larger than some of the New England states before it again meets the Yukon River far beyond. This Shagelook slough receives the Inn oka River in its upper portion and when the Yukon is the higher of the two it car^-ies part of its waters into the upper entrances of the slough receiving the waters of the Innoka, and both streams emptying themselves at the slough's lower end. When the Innoka is the higher its waters find an outlet into DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. m the Yukon by the upper mouths. We now began to feel anxious about the " Yukon," as she was very much over- due. From this point she could make St. Michael's in three or four days, and although we had received official assurances from Washington that the revenue cutter "Corwin" would not leave St. Michael's before the 15th of September, yet there was fear that the boat might pass us or the " Corwin " find some official emergency to call her elsewhere before this date. The night of the 21st-22d, was a bitterly cold one, verging on freezing, and we slept soundly after our loss of sleep the night before. We started quite early, how- ever,, and a little meteorological surprise in the shape of a favorable wind came to our aid after 10 a. m., and at 1:30 p. M. we landed at the mouth of the Anvic or Anvik. The picturesquely-situated trading station is about a mile or a mile and a-quarter above this point, but the shoals were so numerous, the channel so winding, that this was the nearest point we could make, especially with a foul wind. Right alongside of us was a large Indian village, where we learned to our satisfaction that the " Yukon " had not yet passed ; for one of the party at our last camp had interpreted some Indian information to mean that the boat had passed down two days before. From this place I sent a courier to St. Michael's, who was to ascend the Anvik River to the head of canoe navi- gation, and thence to make a short portage to a stream emptying near the post, the entire distance being readily covered in three days, or in two if sufficient energy is displayed. He promised to be there without fail in three days, i. rn the line ran to the sloop's yawl, in which an Indian liad been allowed to come, he tying his little skin canoo behind the yawl, thus making a queue of vessels of rapidly diminishing fiizes, quite ludicrous in apjiearance. "With the ^'-^ >.[ichael's alongside in tow, and our guards jnled with hewn logs as far as the up])(M' deck, we were a motley crowd indeed when under way. The captain explained his unusual delay on the trip by the fact '^hat the "Yukon" had blown oui a cylinder-head just after leav- ing St. Michael's Bar and while trying to make Belle Isle, 334 ALONG ALASKjL'S GREAT RIVER. for which reason their return voyage had to be made under reduced jteam in order to avoid a repetition of the accident. A serio-comic incident connected with this mishap deserves t«^ be recounted. Among their Eskimo deck- hands was a, powerful young fellow, deaf as a post, who always slept in the engine-room when off diity. with his head rest? .ig on a huge cross deck-beam as a pillow, at a point in front of the engine that had broken down. Wheneve" he was wanted, as there was no use in calling him, chey would walk up and tap him with the foot, or, as they soon learned, a stout kick on any part of the bea.n ^vould suffice ; whereupon he would sit up, give a g.-^-nt yawn, stretch his arms and be ready for work. When the cylintler-head of the engine blew out, it struck the beam directly oppciite his own head, and buried itself until the spot looked afterward as tliough a cliain- sliot had struck it; Ijut with no more effect on the deaf Eskimo than to make him rise up and yawn, and begin to sti'etch himself, when the rush of! steam from the next stroke of the engine completely enveloped him, before the engineer could interfere, and he comprehended that he was not being awakened to go to work, lie got off with a trifling scald on the l>ack of his neck ; but his escape from death seemed miraculous. All that day we stopped about every couple of hours to take on wood, which fortunately had been cut for us beforelumd in most ]»laces, so that the delays were not very long. In ascending or descending the river, the steamer finds a considerable quantity of the wood it requirefj already cut at convenient points, the natives of course being paid for their labor. . This is the case 1 DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 335 I between the river's mou.,1- nnd Niilvlalvayet, or there- abouts, but above tliis point, and even at many places below it the captain is obliged to go ashore near a ^reat pile of drift-wood, and send a dozen axni^n to do this duty. The greater part of the huge stockade of old Fort Yukon and some of its minor buildings have for several years suj)plied them with wood when in the neighborhood. We stopped the night of the Soth near a native village, and as we were to start very early in the morning, the doctor and myself, at the captain' s invita- tion, ruide our beds under the table, on the dining-room floor of the steamer, that being the first time we had slept under a roof since leaving Chilkat ; although the doctor made some irrelevant remarks about a table not being a roof, evidently wanting to extend back the period of our claim. On the 2Gth, running about twelve hours, less our time at "wooding" places, we made Andreavsky, and nearly txiB whole of the next day was spent in unloading the logs, m coring the St. Micliael's in winter quarters, and washing down decks, for it was to this point tliat the "Yukon" would retun, for the winter after making St. Michael's. The hi'ls of the right bank k. 'idly dimin^ ish in height as one approaches Andreavsls y, and in the vicinity of that place are only entitled to the name of liigb rolling ground. Near the river the trees disapi)ear and are replaced by willow-brake, although the uj)- stream ends of the numerous islands aie still covered with great masses of drift timber, containing logs of the largesi uimensions. Before Andreavsky is reached we come tn the delta of the Yukon, an interminabh^ con- course of islands and (channels never yet fully explored. ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Prom the most northerly of these mouths to the most southerly is a distance of about ninety miles, according to local computation. Late as it was when we started on the 27th, we reached a point half way to Coatlik, where wood wai^ cut by our crew for the morning's start. All semblance of rolling country had now disappeared, except in the dis- tance, and the country was as flat as the lower delta of the Mississippi. Coatlik, seven miles from the Aphoon or northernmost mouth, was reached next day at 1 p. m., and we spent the afternoon in prejiaring the boilers for the change to salt water, and in taking on another log house, which was to be transported to St. Michael's, there to be used in completing a Greek church in course of erection. Starting at early daylight on the morning of the 29th, a steam-valve blew out, and it looked as if we should be delayed two or three days for repairs, but the captain fixed up an ingenious contrivance with a jaclc-screw as a substitute, and at half-past nine in the morning we again proceeded. Soon afterward we reached the Aphoon mouth of the river, Avhere we commenced the slow and tedious threading of its shallow channels be- tween their mud banks. For untold ages this swift, muddy river has deposited its sediment upon the shallow eastern shores of Bering's Sea, until mud and sand banks have been thrown up for seventy or eighty miles beyond the delta, making it unsafe for vessels of any draft to cross them even in moderate weather. St. Michael's is the nearest port to the mouth at which vessels of any size can enter and anchor. The heavy wind still raging made it difficult to steer the boat through the winding DOWN THE EIVrSR AND HOME. 837 by channels, and this, coupled Avith the heavy load of logs that weighed lis to th(3 guards, sesit us a dozen times on the low mud flats, to escape from which gave us mu(;h trouMe. Our delay at Coatlik had also lost us some of the tide, there being about two feet of water on the bar at ebli and nearly as much more at flood tide. So shallow is the stream that the chanliel is indicated by willow canes stuck in the mud, at convenient intervals, serving th^^ purpose of buoys. Near the Aphoon iiiouth comes in the Pastolik River, and once across the bur of mud near the confluence, the channel of the latter stream is followed to deep water. This muddy se ! in II the bay, seeras much better situated in this and other respects, but when St, Michael's was selected by the Russians over a third of a century previously, the idea of defensibility was the controlling motive. The passage between the island and the mainland is a river-like channel, and was formerly used by the ri^-^r steamer until Captain Petersen became master, when he boldly put out to sea, as a preferable route to *' the slough," as it is sometimes called, there being a number of danger- ous rocks in the latter. On the evening of the 31st we again visited ihe Eskimo village, in company with most of the white men of the redoubt, in order to see the performance of a noted "medicine-man" or shaman from the Golovnin Bay district. He was to show us some savage sleight-of-hand performances, and to foretell the probability and time of the ' ' Leo' s ' ' arrival. In the latter operation he took a large blue bead and crushing it to fragments threw it out of doors into the sea, "sending it to the schooner," as he said. After a long and tiresome rigmarole, another blue bead was produced which he affirmed to be the same one, telling us that it had been to the vessel, and by returning whole testified her safety. A scmiewhat similar performance with a quarter of a silver dollar told him that the "Leo" would arrive at St. Michael's about the next new moon. There was notliing remarkable about these tricks ; and another of tying his hands behind him to a heavy plank, and then bringing them to the front of his body, and lifting the board from the floor of the medicine house, was such a palpable deception as to puzzle no one. This polar pri(?st, however, had a great reputation araonff the natives all about Norton Sound. He had DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 841 predkjted the loss of the Jeannette and the consequent death of the two Eskimo from this point. For his favorable news Mr. Neumann rewarded him with a sack of ilour ; and I suppose he would have been perfectly willing to furnish more good news for more Hour. The next day I took a genuine Russian bath in a house erected many years ago for that purpose by the Russians. It may be more cleansing, but it is less comfortable than the counterfeit Russian bath as administered in American cities. The 2d of September was the Avarmest day they had had that summer, the thermometer marking 65° Fahreu- heit. Late in the afternoon the "Yukon" setoutonher return to Andreavsky amidst a salute from ihe carron- ades and the .^creaming of the steam-whistle. On the 3d my Golovnin Bay couriers, who I supposed had started on the preceding day, and were then forty or fifty miles away on their journey, came nonchalantly to me and reported their departure. 1 bade them good-by, and told them not to delay c the idea that I wanted the "Alaska" next rear and not this, and promising me seriously to remember this, they departed. The next day — the 4th — they returned, having forgotten their sugar, an article of luxury they had not enjoyed for montlis previously, and again departed. I expected to see them return in two or three days for a string to tie it up with, but their outfit must have been complete this time, for I never saw or heard of them again ; but I could not help thinking what valuable messenger service the telegraph companies were losing in this far-away country. Sure enougli, on the 8th of tli<^ month the " Leo" bore down in a gale and was soon anchored in the bay, v/here ii ij 848 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. |i i we boarded her. Although already overcrowded for a little schooner of about two hundred tons, Lieutenant Ray kindly made room for my additional party, there being by this addition about thirty-five on board and seventeen in the little cabin. While trying to make Point Barrow, the ''Leo" liad been nipped in the ice and had her stem split and started, sustaining other injuiies the extent of which could not be ascertained. She was leaking badly, recjuiring about five or ten minutes at the pumps every hour, but it was intended to try and make San Francisco, unless the leaking increased in a gale, when she wiisto be repaired at Oonalaska, and if mat- ters came to the worst she would be condemned. A few days were speni; in chatting of our experiences, getting fresh water on board and exchanging signal observers, and on the morning of the 11th, at G a.m., under a salute of six guns, we weighed anchor and started, with a strong head wind that kept constantly increasing. This gale was from the north-west, and as we had to beat a long distance in that direction in order to clear the great mud banks off the delta of the Yukon, so little progress was made that after an all day's fight we ran back to St. Michael's in an hour's time and dropped anchor once more, to await a change in the weather. Next day we got away early and managed to beat a little on our course. The 13th gave us an almost dead calm until late in the afternoon, when we caught a fine breeze abaft and rounded the Yukon banks about midnight. This favorable breeze increased to a light gale next day and we pounded along at the rate of ten or eleven knots an hour. On the 16th the gale continued and so increased the DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 840 .M. next day that evening saw us "hove to" for fear of running into Oonalaska Ishmd during the night. This run across Bering's Sea in less than three days was stated by our master, Cajjtain Jacobsen, to be tlie best sailing record across that sheet of water. The morning of the 17th opened still and calm, with a number of the Aleutian islands looming up directly ahead of us in bold relief. A very light breeze sprang up about noon, and with its help at p.m. we entered the heads of Oonalaska harbor, and at nine o'clock we dropped anchor in the dark about half a mile from the town. Most of us visited the place that night and had a very pleasant reception by Mr. Neumann, the agent of the Alaska Company. Here we found that company's steamer the "Dora," and the revenue-cutter "Corwin," which had been lying here since leaving St. Michael's. These two vessels and everybody generally were waiting for the Alaska Company's large steamer " St. Paul "from San Francisco, upon whose arrival the "Dora," was to distribute the material received for the various trading stations on the Aleutian Islands and the mainland adja- cent ; the " Corwin " would sail for some point or other, no one ( ould find out where, and the residents would settle down for another year of monotonous life. The last day's gale on Bering Sea had left no doubt on the minds of those in charge that the " Leo " would have to be repaired, accordingly she was lightened l)y dis- charging her load, and on the morning of the 20th she was beached near by, the fall of the tide being suffi- cient to reveal her injuries, and to allow of temporary repair. We passed our time in strolling around examining the 844 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. K I Hi! I If ill lillll { ill • islands, while some of the party got out their fishing tackle and succeeded in securing a few line though small trout from the clear mountain streams. This grand chain of islands jutting out boldly into the broad Pacific receives the warm waters of the Japanese current — Kuro Siwq — a deflected continuation of a part OOXALASKA. of the Pacific equatorial current corresponding to our gulf stream. From this source it derives a warmer climate than is possessed by any body of land so near the pole, although it lies in about the same parallels as the British Islands, The cold of zero and the oppessive heat of summer are equally unknown to this region, Grasses »^ DOWN THE RIVER AND HOME. 345 f,'rovv luxuriantly every wliere, ui)on which the reindeer used to graze in numei-ouH lierds, their keen sigl't and , the absence of timber protec^ting liu-ni from tlie rutle weapons of the native hunters until the introduction of lireaims, after which they were rapidly exterminated. In a few days we lieard with pleasure that the " Leo" was ♦•eady and we soon quitted Alaska for good. The north- A^est winds sang a merry song through our sails as the meridians and parallels took on smaller numbers, and in a very few days, the twinkling twin lights of the Faral- lones greeted our eyes, and anchored safely within the Golden Gate, our journey ended. DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. The actual discovery of tlie great northwestern pen- insula of the American continent cannot be dated iur- ther back than the middle part of the eiglitoonth cen- tury. Its remoteness from tlie centres of Juiropean settlement and from the lines of trade and travel, auci its inhospitable climate made Alaska one of the latesi regions to yield to the advances of the explorer, sur- veyor and settler. At a date when tuc coK-uios on ino North Atlantic coast of America numbered millions of prosperous people, already i>reparing to take indepen- dent rank among the nations of the "world, the very existence of this enormous country was unknown. At a very early date, however, voyagers from many lands began their advances toward the far Northwest, and the story of the discovery of Alaska must naturally include a brief outline of these. As early as 1542 the Spanish adventurers Coronado and Juan Rodriguez de Cabrillo wont up the Pacific coast of Mexico, and sailed for some distance along the coast of what is now the State of California. The memory of the former has been locally lionored in Cali- fornia in the name of Coronado Beach. At this time the Spanish considered thi'mselves sole masters of the South Sea, as the Pacific was called, and of all lands bordering upon it. But their supremacy there was soon disputed by the intrepid Sir Francis Drake. He not only ravaged their South American seaports, but, in DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. 847 1579, sailed far to northward in a little scliooiior of two hundred tons, entered the Golden Gat(>, and refitted liis vessel in what ia now the harbor of Sail Francisco. Thirteen years later tlie Spaniards pressed still furtlier up the coast. Apostolos Valeriaiios, best known as Jm.n de Fuca, sailed frnni Mexico and passed tlnougli the straits that bear his name, and discovered Puget Sound. There adventure from the south made i»ause for many years, still a weary distance from the Alaskan peninsula. More than a hundred years after the voyages of Cor- onado, a different people, from a different direction, be- gan to move toward the same goal. These were the Russians, who had already taken possession of the greater part of Siberia, and who were now persistently ]»usliing on to the occupation of the whole realm between the Baltic and the Pacific. They had already gone east- ward as far as the Kolyma Iliver, and possessed the town of Nijni Kolymsk, in about 100° degrees east longitude. In 104(3 they advanced still furtlier. Isai IgnatietT, with several sinuU vessels, sailed from the Kolyma, and effected a landing on Tchaun Bay, in the country of the Tchukchees. He found the trade in walrus ivory so profitable that his example was soon followed by others. The very next year the Cossack Simeon Deslmeff, with four vessels, sailed eastward, to take possession of all the land in tiie name of the Rus- sian crown. The Anadyr River, of which reports had been heard from the natives, was iiis goal. At the same time, Michael Stadukin led an expedition overland in the same direction. But both these enterprises failed. The year 1648, however, saw Deshneff's venture re- !:■!! 848 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. m.^ peatei. Three sLips sailed for the Anadyr, commanded respectively by Simeon Dcshneff, Gerasim Ankuclinoff, and Feodor Alexi(."ff'. They reached Bel-., nig Strait, not knowing it v»as u strait, and Ankudinofl's vessel was wrecked on East Cape. Vi and Ids men were taken on the other vessels, and the expedition kept on. Desli- neff made his way around Cape Navarin and Cape Olintorski to the coast of Kamtcuatka. There his ves- sel was wrecked and he and his men made theii" wav home overland, surveying, ns they went, the Anadyr Kiver. Again in 1()')2 Deshnelt' cx])lored the Anadyr, in a boat, and the next y(>ar })lanned a trade-route, by sea, from that river to Yakutsk, on the Lena. Many other expeditions to Kamtchatka and tie west- ern part of Behring Sea were soon thereafter made. Taras Stadukin in IGol discovered the westernmost Karill Islands, and sailed round Kamt iiatka into Fen- jinsk Bay. In 1^)90, Lucas SimeonotV Moroscovicii ex- plored Kamtchatka 1 y land, and during the next year the Cossack Vladimir xitlassoff followed him thither and by force of arms made the Kamtchatdales subjects of the Czar. This > ixpiest vas marked by wholesale butcheries of the hc'pless natives, and confiscation of their goods. The conquest of the Tchukchees was at- tempted in 1701, but fiih.d, as did a second expedition against them ten years later. This latter, however, un- der Uie Cossack Peter Iliunscn Potott', in 1711, had one highly-important result. It brought back ddinitc re- ports of tlie narrowness of Behring Strait, of the loca- tion of the Diomedes Islands, and of the proximity of the Americiin continent. Then, for some years, all fur- ther advriice was stayed. DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. 340 The next movement was luulortiiken by no less a per- sonage than Peter the Great, " tiiiit Czar Who made of tribes an Kinijire." It was at the end of liis reign and life. Tv/o j^assions moved him. One was the zeal for seientilic exploration and knowledge of the workl ; the other, tlie desire to extend his dominion aerossthe Arctic borders of another continent. Accordingly in 1725 he [)lanned a great expedition, drew nj) full insti'uct' )ns witli his own hand, and delivered them to Ad:\iiral Apraxin ; then died. His widcw, who became Autocrat in his stead, ordered the plan fulfilled, and it was done promptly. On Feb- ruary oth, 1725, the chief members of the expedition set out from St. Petersl)uro:, their leader and commander being the illustrious Ca])tain "^'itusBehring. The explorers made tlu'ir way by slow stages to Okhotsk. There they built two shi])S, the " Fortuna " and the "Gabriel," and on July 2()th, 1728, set sail on their adventurous voyage. On this occasion they contented themselves with traviMving Behring Strait, and returned without seeing the American coast or even the Diom- edes Islands. A second vovaoe, in 172^>, was altooether fruitless, and in the spring of 17')0 l^ehring returned to St. Petersburg without having achieved a single work of importance or won the first fraction of his later fame. But one of the objects of his expedition was presently attained by others, accidentally. The Yakutsk Cos- sacks, under Athanasius Sliestakolf, had been for veara fighting to sul)duG the indomitable Tchukchecs, witli little success. A party of them took tlie ship " Fortuna,'' abandoned by Behring, to make a war-like cruise along ':. 850 ALO^Q ALASKA' is GREAT JilVEH. the Tcliiikcliee coast. They were soon wrecked iu Penjiiisk Bay, and were routed in battle with the Tchukeliees. But the engineer and navigator of the expedition, Michael Gvvosdetf, made a boat from the wreck of the " Fortuna," and with his surviving comrades isailed to the Anadyr lliver. Thence they sailed to Cape Serdze, expecting there to meet a Cossack expedi- tion from overland. In this they were disappointed. And presently a great storm arose from the eastward and dove them, heli)less, before it. Right across the strait they were driven, to the American coast. Upon the latter, however, they could make no landing. The shore was inhospitable and the sturm was furious. For two days they cruised along the coast, and then, the storm abating, made their way back to Asia. Despite the failure of his first expedition, Behring was received with honors and promotion at the Russian capital, and pre])aratioiis Avere i)ressed for another ven- ture under his command. For several years he was en- gaged in voyages along the Silx'rian coast, and to Japan. But in 1741 the great achievement of his life began. His pilot, Ivan Jelagln, had gone to Avatcha with two ships, the " St. Peter " and the •' St. Paul." On Xiakina Bay he had founded the town of Petropaulovsk, named for the vessels. Thither went Wilhelm Steller, the Fran- conian naturalist, and Louis de Lisle de la Croyere. Thhher, finally, vycnt Behring, and on June 4th, 1741, sailed fur America. On June 20th the two vessels were parted by a storri, and did not come together again; nor did Behring and Chirlkolf, their commanders, ever meet again in this world. Chiriki.tf, in the "St. Paul," made (quickest progress. On July loth he reached the DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. 351 American coast, and anchored in Cross Sound. His mate, Dementieff, and ten armed men, in the long boat, went ashore. They did not return, and on July 21st Sidor Saveleff with other armed men w'ent after them, in the only other boat of the " St. Paul." They did not return either. But the next day two canoes filled with savages came from the shore toward the ship, showing only too plainly what had become of the landing parties. The savages did not venture to attack the ship, but Chirikoff' had no more boats in which to eflect a landing. So on July 27th he weighed anclior anc. sailed back for Kamtchatka. He passed by numerous islands, and on October 9th re-entered the harbor of Petropaulovsk. Twenty-one of his seventy men had perished ; among them Louis de Lisle de la Croyere, the French naturalist, who died of scurvy on the day of their return. The " St. Peter," with Bohring and his comrades on board, meamvhile, was driven blindly through tempest and fog toward the Alaskan coast. On Sundav, Julv 18th, he reached the land and disembarked. He was at the foot of some low, desolate bluff which skirted the shore for a long distance, and beyond Avhich rose the savage splendors of Mt. St. Elias and the Arctic Alj)s. The spot was near what is now called Kayak Island. For six weeks Behring tan-ied in that neighborhood, refitting his storm-strained ship, laying aboard su])])lies of water and food, and making a few explorations of the coast. Tlie two capes between wliich he landed he named St. Elias and Ilermogenes. Here the naturalist Steller found many interesting traces of the natives. Gointr further nortli, into Prince William's Sound, 4 352 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Behring became confused by the number of islands and the difficulties of navigation, and abandoned the direc- tion of the vessel to Lieutenant Waxel. They kept on, past the Kenai Peninsula, past Kadiak Island, and down the coast of the slender Alaska Peninsula, to the southwest, until they reached a group of islands which they named Shumagin, for a member of the company who died and was buried there. This was on August 2C'i:h. On September 3d a terrific storm arose, before which they were driven, helpless, far out into the North Pacific, southward to latitude 48°. Scurvy broke out among them with fatal force, and the disheartened men resolved to return to Kamtchatka. Thenceforward for weeks they suffered almost in- credible liardships. Every one was suffering from scurvy. So weakened were they by disease and famine that it took three men to hold the helm. Only a few sails were used, for the men were not able to hoist and manage more. When these were torn away by the storms, the helpless craft drifted under bare poles. The weather was a chaos of wind and fog and snow. For weeks they drifted blindly, now eastward, now westward, scarcely hoping to see land again, and utterly ignorant of the part of the ocean into which they had been borne. But o» November 4th a particularly furious gale drove them ashore on an unknoAvn coast. They were in the southeastern part jf Behring Sea, on one of the Koni- mandorski group t. f islands. The vessel was completely wrecked, and the m^n built huts on the shore for winter quarters. Waxel was still in command. Behricg was a victim to natural stupidity, constitutional cowardice, and scurvy. All through the dreadful voyage from DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. 858 Prince William Sound lie had remained in liis cabin, shivering in abject terror. A few weeks after landing, on December 8th he died. In honor of him his men named the island Behring Island, and the group the Kommandorski, while Behring Strait and Behring Sea in their names give immortality to one of the least "worthy of men. Waxel, Steller, and the others re- mained on Behring Island all that Avinter, feeding on the flesh of sea-lions and the monster Arctic manatee or sea-cow, now extinct. They collected a considerable store of furs of the sea-otter, blue fox and other animals, which they took back to llussia and thus greatly stimu- lated the zeal of further conquest. In the summer of 1742 they made their way to Petropaulovsky in a boat constructed from the wreck of their ship. Waxel reached St. Petersburg with the official report of the expedition in 1740. Thenceforward the greed of gain led many Russian adventurers to the waters and shores of Behring Sea. Emilian Bassoff discovered Attoo Island, the western- most of the Aleutian chain, in 1745, and Michael No- vodtsikoir. in the same vear, discovered other islands near by, and got a rich cargo of furs. Other explorers, who followed uj) the Aleutian chain were Ribinski, in 1748; Trapcsnikotr, in 1740; Yagoff, in 17o0; and Ivan Nikituroff, who reached Uiiimak Island in 1757. Simon Krasilnikolf, Maxim Lazeroff and others kept up the work of discovering islands, getting furs, .and massacreing the natives. The Andreanoftsky Islands were discovered in 1701, and named in honor of Andrean Tolstoi, who fitted out Lazeroff's expedition. In th2 winter of 1701-2, Pushkareff and his men lived 854 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. on the shore of False Pass. They were the first to spend a winter on the mainland of Alaska. The atroci- ties committed by them excited the hostility of the natives, and they were glad to get away in August, 1762. They took with them thirty natives, mostly women, as prisoners and slaves ; but on the voyage home they wantonly murdered them all except two. War to the knife thereafter prevailed among the natives and the Russians. The latter waged it with the most ferocious energy, but were by no means always victors. A whole expedition of fifty men was destroyed on Unimak Island in 1762 ; and a similar party met *he same fate in 1763, on Ounalaska. Indeed, for years the history of Russian progress in Alaska was one of unrelieved horror, an inferno of lust, torture and death. And now the advance of the Spanish and others from the southward was resumed. Juan Perez sailed from Monterey in 1774, and discovered Queen Charlotte Island and Nootka Sound. The next year Bruno Heceta discovered the mouth of the Oregon or Columbia River. Then the famous English navigator, James Cook, came upon the scene. In 1778 he reached Nootka Sound ; saw and named Mount St. Elias ; ex- plored Cook's Inlet ; stopped for a time at Ounalaska ; sailed up Behring Sea, through Behring Strait, to Icy Cape; explored Norton Sound and the adjacent waters; touched again at Ounalaska ; and then sailed away to the Sandwich Islands, where he was killed in February, 1779. In these few months this immortal Yorkshire man and his Connecticut and Virginia comrades had done more active work of discovery and survey than i :< wi—i > i»ii 'w »>*»" * ' ig DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. 355 all the Russian pillagers who had frequented that jmrt of the 'vforld for seventy-five years before. The first permanent industrial and commercial settle- ment was effected by the Russians under Shelikoff on Kadiak Island in 1783. Three years later the ill-fated La Perouse visited the Alaskan coast and saw Mt. St. Elias. In 1787, two Russians, Lastochkin and Priby- loff, discovered two islands in the southeast part of Behring Sea, which have since become of enormous Value. They named them St. Paul and St. George, and called them together the Suboff Islands. They are now known, however, as the Pribyloff Islands, and are famous as one of the chief homes of the fur seals. The Russian Government, about 1788, form illy laid claim to all the Alaskan lands and waters, and even to the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. At the same time the Spanish and English laid conflicting claims to the region about Nootka Sound, and in 1789 came into violent conflict there. United States expeditions were also busy with explorations in that region, but the Spaniards made no objection to their presence. Captain Gray, of the " Wasliington," Captain John Kendrick, of the "Columbia," Captain Mctcalf, of the " Fair American," Captain Ingraham, of the " Hope," Captain Crowell, of the " Hancock," Captain Roberts, of the "Jefferson," and Captain Magee, of the " Margaret," were among tlie Americans conspicuous in ex})loration and trade, chiefly about Nootka Sound and tlie Straits of Juan de Fuca. Captain George Vancouver, already mentioned as a member of Cook's expedition, also s})ent nmch time in exploring the coast, from the island which bears his name northward to the Prince of Wales Islands, in the li! iilM 356 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT lilVER. British service ; and Alexander Mackenzie traveled across the continent from Canada and explored the great river which has been named for him. The sur- veys of Vancouver were the most thorough and ac- curate that had been made. To return, however, to the Russians. In 1782, Gre- gory Shelikoff, of Rylsk, Siberia, a man of great ability and energy, of remarkable brutality, and of unsurpassed unscrupulousness, entered ui)on an important campaign for the establishment of trading posts. In this he was accompanied by his wife, Natalie Shelikoff, a woman of extraordinary ability. In 1787, the Czarina Catlierine II, gave him a medal in recognition of his services ; and in 1790, by an imperial ukase, that notorious but brilliant sovereign gave to a company, of which Sheli- koff was the head, the practical monopoly of the Alaska fur trade. Uexandcr Baranoff, one of Shelikoff's sub- ordinates, w«s soon made Chief Director of Affairs in the Russo- American colonies. He, like his chief, was a man of consummate executive ability, and ut+erly destitute of humane feelings or moral sense. In the summer of 1793 he prevailed upon the Czarina to issue another ukase, authorizing the sending of missionaries to America to convert the natives to the Orthodox Greek faith, and also the sending thither of Russian convicts to teach them agriculture. Thirty convicts were thus settled by Baranoff on the Kenai peninsula, and the Archimandrite Joasapli, elder of the Augustin friars, also went thither. Many other convicts and their fan;i- lies, and monkisli missionaries, were in 1794 landed at Kadiak and Cape St. Elias. As soon as they were landed, Shelikoff" refused to support them, and th«y DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. 357 traveled >re(l tlie he sur- and ac- ^2, Gre- ability rpassed m])aigii > lie was )inan of itlieriiie ervices ; 3US but Slieli- Alaska I's sub- fairs in ief, was iit<^er]y In the 'o issue onarios Greek invicts 'e thus 1(1 tlie friars, fan;i- led at were th«y were comj)elled to woi-k f(^r their living. In conse- quence the missionaries sent bitter complaints to the Czar ; and these were accompanied by still more bitter complaints from the natives, who were being subjected to such brutalities as cannot be described in j)rint. These had little effect, however. In 17t)o, Shelikoff died, and his wife succeeded him as president of the company. At this time the population of Kadiak was more than 3,(100 adults. The next vear the first Greek church was erected there, and Father Joasaph was made Bishop. In 17*J0 the Czar Paul chartered anew the Bhelikoff company, re-organized as the Ilussian-Ameri- can Com})any, for a term of twenty years, lie gave it absolute control of all the American coast-lands and waters north of latitude oo°. The Compan}^ was re- quired to survey the region, plant settlements, promote agriculture, commerce and other industries, pro])iigate the Greek faith, and extend Russian influence and pos- sessions as widely as possible. As for the natives, they were by the same decree made the slaves of the Com- ])any. Baranoff Avas made i)ractically the su])reme head, the autocrat of the entire realm, on whose word were sus])ended the issues of life and death. Under this new ni/liiie the old })olicy of cruelty and outrage toward the natives Avns i)ursued with added in- tensity. Generally the Russians worked their will with impunity, though sometimos the natives rose against them with vengeful might, and on several occasions the Russians were glad to flee to Rritish and American ships for shelter. ]\Ieanwhile exploraticms went on. The American ship "Atahualpa" in 1802 discovered the mouth of the Stikiue River. Baranofl' explored 868 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. the lower part of the Copper lliver. In 1804 Bara^ noff took Sitka from the natives, after a hard battle ; renamed it New Aroiiangel, gave tiie island on which it stood his own name, and made it thencefortli the chief station in the colony. About this time an attempt was made to plant trees on the Aleutian islands. The Imperial Chu.iberlain, Count Nicolas Petrovich Resanoff, founded a school at Kadiak, and effected some valuable administrative reforms, especially in the colo- nial courts and in the financial system. Then he went back to Russia to get the Czar's consent to his uuuriage with the daughter of ])on Luis de Arguello, the Span- ish governor of San Francisco. As soon as he was gone, Baranotf undid all his reforms. llesanolf died on his way to Russia. His betrothed never believed he was dead, and never would marry another ; but waited patiently for his return until she became very old and died. John Jacob Astor, having formed a company for the Pacific fur trade, sent a vessel to Sitka in 1801>, imd in 1811 an agent to St. Petersburg to negotiate with the Directory of the Russian-American Company. The negotiations were successful, and in October, 1811, were approved by the Czar, Mr. Astor was to furnish pro- visions and supplies at stated prices, and to take pay therefor in furs from the Company. They were to as- sist each other against smugglers, respect each other's hunting-grounds, and not to sell intoxicating liquors to the natives. In 1817 Baranoif, having grown old and weary of his toil, resigned the Chief Directorship of the colonies, and was succeeded by Captain Leontius Hagenmeister. He resigned wivhin a year, and was Iflfti I t.'t|B*i|M i(iMf Alanka, and estimated tlft existence of about H,4(l0 mmm. (M tho«e enumeiaa-''! there were 3,922 \diite males and 107 white females ; 82 black males ; 770 " mixed " maies, and 798 "mixed " females; and 2,125 male Chinese; while the native population included 7,158 males and 6,577 females. According to the same census there were in Alaska 11 organizations of the Orthodox Greek CI urch; with 22 edifices with a seating capaelty of 2,00^' and a value of $180,000. The commuuieants numbered 13,004. The Koman Catholic Church had 6 organizations, with 6 buildings, seating 540 persons, and valued at f 0,700. There were 550 comnuuiicaiits. Xo less than 27 fire insurance companies were doing business in the Territory, and in 1889 the risks written and renewed by them aggregated $1,710,184. The people of Alaska have been spoken of as Ameri- cans, Russians, Hydahs, Tsimpseans, Thliuk(^ts, Aleuts, Iiuuiits or Eskimos and Tiniieh,or Athabascan Indians. Eight distinct languages and several dialects aro spoken, The Tsimpseans eujlmiee only the settlement at ]\retlak- ahtla,aboiitone thousand j)eople who came over from Tirit- ish Colnrnbi'i. The ITydahs have some five or six villages on the south end of Prince of Wales Island with about nine Inindred people. The 'I'hlinkets reside in from forty to fifty vilhiges in the Alexaner as far north as Cape l)eid)i<:;li. From this point to the east- ward and northeastward a line may be drawn just above the Yukon and its innnediato tributaries as the northern limit of timber of any ctmsiderable extent. There arc a great number of small water-courses rising here that find their way into the Arctic, bordered by hills and lowland ridges on which some wind-stunted timber is found, even to the shores of the Arctic Sea. In thus broadly sketching the distribution of timber over Alaska it will be observed that the area thus cl(jthed is very great ; yet when we come to consider the quality of the timber itself, and its economic value in our markets, we are obliged to adopt the standard of the lumber-mills in (Jicgon and Washington. Viewed in this light, we fuid that the best timber of Alaska is the yellow cedar, which in itself is of great intrinsic value; but this cedar is not the dominant tim- ber by any means; it is the excei)ti()n to the rule. The great bulk of Alaskan timber is that known as Sitkan spruce, or balsam lir. The lumber sawed from this 8tock is naturally not of the first quality. These trees THE PEOPLE AND TIIEIli INI)L\STi:nX ^73 t as far ]>iiigi's to tlio iiiHiila. •red to, of the :5ro\v to their greatest size in the Sitka or Alexander A.rchipelag(). An interval oecnrs from Cross (Sound until we pass over the fair-wcatiier ground at tlie foot of Mount St. Klias, n[)on the region of Prince William Sound and Cook's Inlet, where this timber again occurs, and attains very respectable proj)ortions in many sec- tions of the district, notably at Wood Island and j)or- tions of Afognak, and at the head of the Kenai j)enin- Hula and the two gulfs that environ it. The abundance of this timber and the extensive area clothed by it are readily appreciated by looking at the maj), and arc ren- dered still more impressive when we call attention to the fact that the timber extends in good size as far north as the Yukon Valley, clothing all the hills within, that extensive region and to tlie north of Cook's Inlet and Kenai peninsula, so that the amount of timber found therein is great in the aggregate. The size of this spruce timber at its base will be typified in trees on Prince of Wales Island 50 feet and over in height, with a diam- eter of at least three feet. They have not grown as fast as they would have grown in a more congenial latitude to the south, such as Puget Sound or Oregon ; hence when they are run through the saw-mill the frequent and close proximity of knots mar the quality and de- press the sale of the lumber. Spruce boards are not adapted to nice finishing work in building or in cabinet- ware, or, indeed, in anything that requires a finish and upon which paint and varnish may be permanently applied, for under the influence of slight degrees of heat it sweats, exuding minute globules of gum or rosin, which are sticky and dillicult to remove. The other timber trees in southeastern Alaska, Ka-, ^, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) // %eatonce8U})plied by his neighbors, and weylcs, und even months, arc spent in careful pre])aration of arms, canoes and imple- ments. The mode of hunting the animal has not essentially changed since the earliest times, A few privileged white men located in the district of Ounga employ fire- arms, but the great body of Aleutian hunters still retain the spear and in a few instances the bow and arrow. The sea-otter is always hunted by parties of from four to twenty bidarkas, each manned by two hunters. From their village the hunters proceed to some lonely coast near the hunting-ground, either in their canoes or by schoonei-s and sloops belonging to the trading firms, a few women generally accompanying the party to do the housework in the camp. In former times, of course, this was not the case. The tents of the party are pitched in some spot, not visible from the sea, and the hunters patiently settle down to await the first favorable day, only a smooth sea pernn'tting the hunting of sea- otter with any prospect of success. In the inhospitable climate of Alaska ^'^eeks and months sometimes pass by before the patient huntero are enabled to try their skill. A weatherwise individual, here yclept " astronorae," generally accompanies each party, giving due notice of the approach of fiivorable weather and the exact time when it is best to set out, and few Aleuts are brid 880 ALONG ALASKA'S QttEAT RIVER. enough to begin a hunt without the sanction of this in- dividuah At last the day arrives, and after a brief prayer the hunters embark fully equipped, and in the best of spirits exchange jokes and banter until the beach is left behind ; then silence reigns, the peredovchik or leader jissumes command, and at a signal from him the bidarkas start out in a semicircle from fifty to one hun- dred yards distant from each other, each hunter anx- iously scanning the surface of the water, at the same time having an eye upon the other canoes. The sea- otter comes up to the surface to breathe about once in every ten minutes, the smooth, glossy head remaining visible but a few seconds each time. As soon as the liunter spies an otter he lifts his pad- dle as a signal and then points it in the direction taken by the animal, and the scattered bidarkas at once close in a wide circle around the spot indicated by the fortu- nate discoverer. If the animal comes up within this circle the hunters simply close in, gradually beating the water with their hands to prevent the escape of the quarry ; but very often the wary animal has changed his direction after diving, and the whole fleet of canoes is obliged to change course frequently before the final circle is formed. As soon as the otter comes up within spear's throw one of the hunters exerts his skill and lodges a spear-head in the animal, which immediately dives. An inflated bladder is attached to the shaft, preventing the otter from diving very deep. It soon comes u}^ again, only to receive a number of other mis- siles, the intervals between attacks becoming shorter each time, until exhaustion forces the otter to remain Wu the surface and receive its death wound. The body TEE PEOPLE AND THEIR INDUSTRIES. 387 of the animal is then taken into one of the bitlaikas and the hunt continues if the weather is favorable. On the return of the party eaeh animal killed is insi)ec'ted by the chief in the presence of all the hunters and its ownei-ship ascertained by the spear- head "^hat caused the mortal wound, each weajion being duly marked. The man who first struck the otter receives from two to ten dollars from the owner. The skins of the slain animals are at once removed, labelled and classified according to quality by the agents of the trading firms and care- fully stored for shipment. It frequently happens that a whole day passes by without a single sea-otter being eighted, but the Aleut hunters have a wonderful patience and do not leave a place once selected without killing some sea-otters, be the delay ever so long. There are instances where hunting parties have remained on barren islands for years, subsisting entirely on " algae " and mussels cast from the sea. On the principal sea- otter grounds of the present time, tliQ Island of Sannakh and the neighborhood of Belkovsky, the hunting par- ties seldom remain over four or five months without se- curing sea-otters in sufficient number to warrant their return. Single hunters have sold sea-otters to the value of eight hundred dollars as their share of such brief ex- peditions, but i)ayment is not made until the return of tlie party to their home station. As soon as the result of a day's hunt has been ascer- tained, the chief or leader reminds the hunters of their duty toward the Church, and with their unanimous con- sent some skin, generally of a small animal, is selected as a donation to the priest, all contributing to reimburse the owner. Tha schools also receive donations of this 888 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVES. kind, and the skins thus designated are labelled accord- ingly and turned over to the trading firms, who place the cash value at the disposal of the priest. Rivalry in the business of purchasing sea-otter skins has in- duced the various firms to send agents with small assort- ments of goods to all the hunti' g-grounds, as an in- ducement to the members of parties to squander some of their earnings in advance. The method of killing the sea-otter is virtually the Bame in all sections frequented by it. The killing of fur-seals is accomplished entirely on land, and has been reduced almost to a science of the greatest dispatch and system. The able-bodied Aleuts now settled upon the two islands of Saint Paul and Saint Gteorge are, by the terms of the agreement be- tween themselves and the leasees, the only individuals permitted to kill and skin the seals for the annual ship- ment as long as they are able to perform the labor efficiently within a given time. For this labor they are remunerated at the rate of forty cents per animal. Life-long practice has made them expert in using their huge clubs and sharp skinning-knives, both imple- ments being manufactured expressly for this use. These men are as a class proud of their accomplish- ments as sealers, and too proud to bemean themselves in doing any other kind of work. For all incidental labor, such as building, packing, loading and unloading vessels, etc., the lessees find it necessary to engage laborers from the Aleutian Islands, these latter indi- viduals being generally paid at the rate of one dollar per diem. The work connected with the killing of the annual TSE PEOPLE AND THEIR INDUSTRIES. 389 quota of fur-seals may be divided into two distinct features, the separation of the seals of a certain age and size from the main body and their removal to the kill- ing-ground forming the preliminary movements ; the final operation consisting of another selection among the select, and killing and skinning the same. The driving as well as the killing cannot be done in pvery kind of weather, a damp, cool, cloudy day being espe- cially desirable for the purpose. As it is the habit of the young male seals up to the age of four years to lie upon the ground back of the so- called rookeries or groups of families that line the sea- Bhore, the experienced natives manage to crawl in be- tween the families and the " bachelors," as they were named by the Russians, and gradually drive them inland in divisions of from 2,000 to 8,000. It is unsafe to drive the seals more than five or six miles during any one day, as they easily become overheated and their skins are thereby injured. When night comes on the driving ceases, and sentries r.re posted around each division, to prevent the animals from straying during the night, occasional whistling being sufficient to keep txiem together. In the morning, if the weather be favorable, the drive is continued until the killing-ground is reached, where the victims are allowed to rest over night under guard, and finally, as early as possible in the morning, the sealers apj^ear with their clubs, when again small parties of twenty to thirty seals are sep^irated from their fellows, surrounded by the sealers, and the Blaughter begins. Even at this last moment another ection is mnde, and any animal appearing to the eye of the experienced Aleut to be either below or above the 890 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. specified age is dismissed with a gentle tap of the club, and allowed to go on its way to the shore, rejoicing at its narrow escape. The men with clubs proceed from one ground to the other, immediately followed by the men with knives, who stab each stunned seal to the heart to insure its immediate death. These men are in turn followed by the skinners, who with astonishing rapidity divest the carcasses of their valuable cover- ing, leaving, ^ owever, the head and flippers intact. Only a few paces behind tne skinners come carts drawn by mules, into which the skins are rapidly thrown and carried away. The wives and daughters of the sealers linger around the rear of the death-dealing column, reaping a rich harvest of blubber which they carry away on their heads, the luscious oil dripping down their faces and over their garments. The skyis, yet warm from the body, are discharged into capacious salt-houses ana salted down for the time bemg like fish in bins. This treatment is continued for some time, and after the application of heavy pressure they are finally tied into bundles of two each, securely strapped, and then shipped. GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. According to the terms of the treaty between the United States and Russia, the boundaries of Alaska are as follows : " Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude, and between the 131° and 133° west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the con- tinent where it strikes 56° north latitude ; from this last mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude (of the same meridian) and finally from the said point of intersection the said meridian line of the 141st degree in its prolongation as far as the frozen ocean. " With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the preceding article it is understood : " Ist. That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to Russia (now by this cession to the United States). " 2d. That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast from the 56th degree of north latitude to the point of inter- section of the 141st degree of west longitude shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues 892 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. from the ocean, the limit between the Britisli possesssion and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia as above mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the posses- sions ceded by this convention), shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom." The boundry, in 182o, when this description was made, was a theoretical one based on the charts placed before the negotiators, which they doubtless assumed to be a substantially correct expression of geographical facts. The country through which the line passes was then substantially unexplored. Much survey Avork has been done in recent years, with the object of determining more accurately the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions in North America ; but the task is not yet complete. The general outlines of the country, however, arc familiar to all> and recent maps indicate its boundaries on all sides with substantial accuracy. The whole territory may be roughly divided into six parts, as follows : • 1. Tlie Arctic division, containing 125,245 square miles, and comprising all that portion of the North American continent between the one hundred and forty- first meridian in the east and Cape Prince of Wales, or Behring Strait, in the west, the Arctic Ocean in the north, and having for ns southern boundary a line indicating the watershed between the Yukon River system and the streams emptying into the Arctic and impinging upon the coast of Behring Sea just north of Port Clarence. 2. The Yukon division, containing 176,715 squar© GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 393 square miles, and comprising the valley of the Yukon River as far aa it lies within our boundaries and its tributaries from the north and south. This division is bounded by the Arctic division in the north, the one hundred forty- first meridian in the east, and Behring Sea in the west. The southern boundary lies along a line indicating the watershed between the Yukon and the Kuskokvini, Sushetno, and Copper Rivers, and runs from the above- mentioned meridian in the east to the coast of Behring Sea, in the vicinity of Hazen Bay, in the west. The island of St. Lawrence, in Behring Sea, is included in this division. 3. The Kuskokvim division, containing 114,975 square miles, bounded on the north by the Yukon divi- sion, and comprising the valleys of the Kuskokvim, the Togiak, and the Nushegak Rivers, and the intervening system of lakes. The eastern boundary of this division is a line running along the main Alaskan range of mountains from the divide between the Kuskokvim and Tennanah Rivers down to the low, narrow isthmus di- viding Moller Bay from Zakharof Bay, on the Alaska peninsula. Behring Sea washes the \diole Avest and south coasts of this division, which also includes Nuni- vak Island. 4. The Aleutian division, containing 14,610 square miles, and comprising the Alaska peninsula westward of the isthmus between Moller and Zakharof Bays and the wholt chain of islands from the Shumagin group in the east to Attoo in the west, including also the Pribylof or fur-seal islands. 6. The Kadiak division, containing 70,884 square miles, and comprising the south coast of the Aliaska zu ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. peninsula down to ^akharof Bay, with the adjacent islands, the Kadiak group of islands, the islanils and coasts of Cook's Inlet, the Kenai peninsula, and Prince William Sound, with the rivers running into them. The main Alaskan range bounds this division in the north and west. Its eastern limit is the one hundred and forty-first meridian, wliich intersects the coast-line in the vicinity of Mount St. Elias, while the south shores of the division are washed by that section of the North Pacific named the Gulf of Alaska. 6. The southeastern division, containing 28,J)8() square miles, and comprising the coast from JNIount St. Elias in the north to Portland Canal, in latitude 54° 40', in the south, together with the islands of the Alex- ander Archipelago between Cross Sound and Cape Fox. The eastern boundary of this division is the rather in- definite line established by the Anglo-Russian and Russian-American treaties of 1824 and 1825 respectively, following the summits of a chain of moun. tains supposed to run parallel with the coast at a dis- tance not greater than three marine leagues from the sea between the head of Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias. The Arctic division is situated almost entirely above the Arctic circle and is known to explorers only from observations made along the seacoast. The interior consists doubtless of frozen plains and low ranges of hills, intersected by a few shallow and sluggish streams. The only rivei-s known to emerge from this part of Alaska are the Colville, the Kok, the Inland or Noatak, the Kooak, the Selawik and the Buckland. There are many villages scattered along the coast and others are QEOQRAPHICAL FEATURES. 395 reported to exist further up on all these rivers. The coast settlements are visited every year by many vessels engaged in whaling, hunting and trading. Their in- habitants possess great commercial genius and energy, and carry on an extensive traffic with the natives of the Asian coast, their common trading-ground being at Behring Strait. The only mineral of any value that is found on this coast is coal, of which there are several ^ood veins at Cape Lisburne. The cluef attraction for the navigators who visit the coast are furs, oil and walrus ivory. The whaling industry is already beginning to decline here as it has done in every other region of the world. Many seals are found here and polar bears are numer- ous. A few reindeer are found on the coast and moose and mountain sheep are said to be numerous in the in- terior. Muskrats and squirrels abound everywhere and their skins are offered for sale in large quantities. Foxes also are plentiful, especially the white variety, and their skins are much sought for by the American and European markets. Aquatic birds of all kinds are found in countless hosts. The only fish of value is the ealmon. About thirty villages are known in this region, their total population being a little over 3,000. The Yukon division is the largest and in many re- Bpects most imjwrtant of all. As this volume is so largely devoted to a description of the great river and the country it traverses little need be said regarding it here. Numerous trading posts have been established and the waters of the river are plied by steamboats. No mineral deposits in large paying quantities have yet 896 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. been discovered, but it is believed that important gold mines will yet be found. The river abounds in fish and the foresta which border it in game. High as the lati- tude is the summers are very warm and the vegetable growths of the country are luxuriant. The coast line of this division is particularly dreary. It is inhabited by a hardy race of seal and walrus hunters, who occupy numerous small villages. At Port Clarence, just south of Cape Prince of Wales, three or four villages are clustered around a fine harbor. King's Island or Ouki- vok is a small, high island, surrounded by almost per- l)endicular cliffs of basalt. On it is a village composed of about forty houses, which are simple excavations in the *ide of the cliffs. The inhabitants live almost en- tirely by walrus and seal hunting. On the shores of Golovin Sound small deposits of lead and silver have been found. The most important point on the coast is St. Michael, where there are several trading agencies. The Island of St. Lawrence belongs properly to this di- vision. It had originally a population of al)out 1 ,000, but famine and disease have diminished it to one-half that number. The people are Asiatic Esquimaux. There are in all this division of Alaska about seventy-five known settlements, with a total population of nearly 7,000, of whom perhaps about twenty-five are white, 2,500 Athabaskan and the rest Esquimaux. The Kuskokvim division is, on the whole, poor in such natural products as wliite men desire, and it has therefore been little visited. It contains a fow mineral deposits, however, ijiclnding cinnaliar, antimony and silver. Game and fur-beariiig animals are not as numer- ous as in other parts of Alaska, but there are many aEOGUAPHICAL PEATURES. 397 seals in the .sea and river, ami minks and foxes aro quite numerous. Many salmon are also i'ound in the liver and they form a leadini;- article of food for tiie natives. There are nearly a hundrecl villages in this division with al)out t),{M)0 inhabitants, nearly all of them being Esquimaux. The Aleutian division eoiiq)rises the western ])nrt of the Alaska peninsula and the h)ng- rang<' of islands ex- tending toward the Asiatic coast. These islands apju-ar to be merely a cimtinuation of the Alaskan range of mountains. Many of them contain volcanic peaks, sonic of which are still active, and all the islands are moun- tainous. The soil is altogether treeless save for some d.varf willows, but there is u luxuriant growth of grass. On this account it was once thought tiiat cattle could be successfully raised here, but the lor.^ and stormy winters made the experiment a I'ailure. The })eople of these islands are doubtless of Es(iuimau origin, al- though distinct in language and in habits from the remainder of that race. Their twenty-live or thirty villages are inhabited by about 2,o()0 people, perhaps 100 of the number being Avhite. Their ])rincij)al in- dustry consists in fishing and taking seals, sea-otters ;ind oilier marine animals. The Kadiak division comprises the southern side of he Alaska ])eninsula, iiumerous adjacent islands and ihe coast of the mainland eastward to Mount St. Elias. Its inhabitants are of Estjuimau stock and resemble greatly those of the Kuskokvim division. The coast is frequented by great numbers of walrus, which animal provides the inhabitants with food, material for their canoes and ivory, which is used for money and as an I 898 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER, object of trade. Many whales are also taken here. On the laiul there are numerous reindeer, brown bears and foxes, otters and minks. The island of Kadiak has for a century and a quarter been one of the most important portions of this division of Alaska. It was here that some of the earliest Kussian settlements were made, and the population at tlu; present time is considerable. There are several villagcK devoted almost entirely to the building of shii)s and boats. Nortii of the Kadiak group is the great estuary known as Cook's Inlet, which was first visited by the Russian traders a hundred years ago and was the scene of many desperate conflicts between rival settlers as well as between the Russians and the natives. The natives here are almost giants in size and are strong, active and warlike. Their houses are superior to those of the Esquimaux, being constructed above ground of logs arid bark. They are expert fishermen, and the waters in this region abound in salmon and other fish, and the land in huge bears, moose, mountain sheep, wolves and numerous smaller nnimals, while geese and ducks and other wild birds are found by the million. Timber exists here in great abundance, especially in the valley of the Copper River. There are about fifty vil- lages in the Kadiak division with a population of 4,o00. The Southeastern division consists of the narrow strip of coast-land from Mount St. Elias southward to Portland Canal. It is densely wooded and exceedingly mountainous. The coast is deeply indented with bays and sheltered by islands. The principal trees are spruce and yellow cedar. On many of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago coal has been discovered. GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 899 Copper iiikI gold Imve also been louiid. The fur trade is not now nearly as valuiililo ti8 in former years, al- thougli it is Ptili large and jjrolilahlc. The waters Bwarm with salmon, halilait, herring and other lish. The climate is not nearly iis cold as might be ex])eeted in this latitude, hut the rainfall is very heavy, an average of 2')() days in the year being stormy. The fifty or more villages contain at(,ial population of nearly 8,(HH), including alxait '.M) whites. We know, says Dr. ({rewgink, the eminent Ilussian scientist, of no more extensive theatre of volcanic ac- tivity than the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska i)eninsula, and the west coast of Cook's Inlet. Here we have con- fnied within the limits of a single century all the known })henomena of this kind : the elevation of mountain chains and islands, the sinking of extensive tracts of the earth's surface, earthquakes, eruptions of lava, ashes and mud, the hot s|)rings and exhalations of steam and sulphuric gases. Not oidy does the geological forma- tion of most of the islands and a portion of the conti- nent point to volcanic origin or elevation, but we have definite information of volcanic activity on twenty-five of the Aleutian Islands. On these islands forty-eight craters have been enumerated by Veniaminof and other conscientious observers, and in addition to these we have on the A 'ska peninsula four volcanoes, two on Cook's Inlet, one on Prince William Sound, one on Copper River, and one in the vicinity of Sitka (Mount Edge- combe) ; three other peaks situated between Edgecombe and the Copper River have not been definitely ascer- tained to be volcanic. The distance from the Wrangell volcano, in the vicinity of Copper River, to the Sitkan 400 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. Island is 1,505 nautical miles. "We have every reason to believe that the Near Islands (the westernmost of the Aleutian group) are also extinct craters ; and thus we find one continuous chain of volcanoes from Wrangell to the Commander Islands (Behring and Copper), pointing to the existence of a subterranean channel of lava finding its outlet or breathing-hole through the craters of this region. The nearest volcanoes to the south of this line are Mount Baker on the American continent, in latitude 48° 48', and the craters of the Kurile chain of islands on the coast of Asia. That a subterranean connection exists between this long line of craters is indicated by the fact that whenever volcanic activity grows slack in one section of the cliain it in- creases in violence at some other point, an observation which has been confirmed by all observers. From all information on the subject at our disposal it appears that the craters of Mount Fairweather, Cryllon, and Edgecombe, and Mount Calder (Prince of Wales Island), have not been active since the middle of the last century, and as the universal law of volcanic ac- tivity seems to place the frequency of eruptions in an inverse ratio to the height of the volcanoes, we might reasonably expect that the season of rest f'»r these craters will be a prolonged one ; but ho^ ' terrible and devastating must be the awakening of the sleeping furnaces when it occurs. With regard to Mount St. Elias, we have many authentic data as to its volcanic nature. Belcher and Wrangell consider that the black ridges descending from the summits of the mountains, and the fact that the glaciers on Copper River exhibit a covering of vegetation, as proof of the volcanic char • GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 401 acter of the mountain. The first plienomena may rest entirely upon an optic clehi«ion, as it is not at all certain tliat the black streaks consist of lava or ashes, while the appearance of vegetation on the surface of glaciers on Coj^[)er River is very probably due to the fall of vol- canic ashes ; the latter phenomenon may be traced .js easily and with far more probability to the AVrangell volcano. One of the most impressive physical features of the whole Territory is the stupendous glacier at Muir Inlet. This ice-field, says a recent writer, enters the sea with a front two or three hundred feet above the water and a mile wide. Fancy a wall of blue ice, splintered into columns, spires and huge crystal masses, with grottoes, crevices and recesses higher than Bunker Ilill Monument and a mile In width ! It is a spectacle that is strangely beautiful in its variety of form and depth of color, and at the same time awful in its grandeur. And not alone is the sight awe-inspiring. The ice- mountain is almost constantly breaking to pieces with sounds that resemble the discharge of heavy guns or the reverberations of thunder. At times an almost deafening report is heard, or a succession of them, like the belching of a whole park of artillery, when no out- ward effect is seen. It is the breaking ai)art of great masses of ice within the glacier. Then some huge berg topples over with a roar and gigantic splash that may be heard several miles, the waters being thrown aloft like smoke. A great pinnacle of ice is roen bobbing about in wicked fashion, i)erchance iurning a somersault in the flood before it settles down to battle for life with the sun and the elements on its seaward cruise. The 402 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT RIVER. waves created by all this terrible commotion even rock the steamer and wash the shores miles away. There is scarcely five minutes in the whole day or night without some e-ihibition of this kind. There are mountains each side of the glacier, the one upon the right, or south shore, being the highest. High up on the bare walls are seen the scoriated and polished surfaces produced by glacial action. The present glacier is retrograding quite rapidly, as may be seen by many evidences of its former extent, as well as by the concurrent testimony of earlier visitors. On either side 's a moraine half a mile in width, furrowed and slashed by old glacial streams which have given place in turn to others liighoi up the defile as the glacier recedes. These morain( s are composed of earth and coarse gravel, with oc- casional large boulders. On the north side the ma- terial is more of a clayey sort, at least in part, and the stumps of an ancient forest have been uncovered by the action of a glacial river, or overAvhelmed by the icy flood. Some scientists claim these forests aie in reality pre-glacial, and many thousands of years old. The in- terior of the great moraines is yet frozen, and at the head of one of the little ravines formed by former glacial river discharges, a little stream still trickles forth from a diminutive ice cavern. Notwithstanding tlie contiguity of the ice itself, and the generally frigid surroundings, blue-bells and other flowers bloom on the moraine. In the centre of tlie glacier, some t a'o miles from its snout, is a rocky island, the top of some ancient j)eak the great mill of ice has not yet ground ilown. It is interesting to see how the massive stream of ice GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 40S cfuiforms itself to its shores, separating above the obstacle a 'I J reuniting below. On approaching or departing from Muir Inlet, the voyager may look back upon this literal sea of ice and follow its streams up to the snow- fields of the White Mountains, which form tho back- bone of the peninsula between Glacier Bay and Lynn Canal. The following facts relating to the Muir glacier, its measurement and movement, are derived wholly from Professor Wright's notes. Roughly speaking, the INIuir glacier may be said to occupy an amphitheatre which has the dimensions of about twenty-five miles from north to south, and thirty miles from east to west. The opening of this amphitheatre at Muir Inlet is toward the south southeast. It is two miles across from the shoulder of one mountain to the other at the outlet. Into the amphi- theatre pour nine glaciers, and the sub-branches that are visible make the affluents more than twenty in number. Four of the main branches come in from the east, but these have already spent their force on reaching the focus of the amphitheatre. The first tributary from the southwest also practically loses its force before reaching the main current. The main flow is from two branches coming from the northwest and two from the north. The motion is here much more rapid. Observations made upon three portions of the main glacier, re- spectively 300, 1,000 and 1,500 yards from the front, showed the movement to be 135 feet at the first point, 65 at the second and 75 at the third, per day. The summit of the lower point was a little over 300 feet above the water, the second 400 feet and the third con- siderably more, probably 500 feet. The motion rapidly decreased on approaching the medial moraines brought 404 ALONG ALASKA'S GREAT HIYER. down by the branches from the east. Along u line moving parallel with that of the greatest motion, and half a dozen miles east from it, the rate ob- served at two points was about 10 feet per day. Thus we get an average daily motion in the main channel of the ice flow, near its mouth, of about 40 feet across a section of one mile. The height of the ice above the water in front, at the extreme point, was found to be 226 feet. Back a few hundred feet the height is a little over 300 feet, and at a quarter of a mile 400 feet. A quarter of a mile out in front of the glacier the water is 85 fothoras, or 510 feet deep. Thus Professor Wright estimates tL. a body of ice 735 feet deep, 5,000 feet wide and 1,200 feet long passed out into the bay in the thirty days he was there, this movement and discharge taking place at the rate of 149,00 feet out of water, and was some 400 feet square. Esti- mating the general height of tha berg above the water to be 30 feet, and its total depth 250 feet, the contente of the mass would be 40,000,000 cubic feet. APPENDIX NO. I. PROFESSOR SEUENO WATSON's " NOTE ON THE FLORA OP THE UPPER YUKON," (Fro;ii the .■>'<;!?«<•<■, of Cambridge, Mass., February 29, 1884.) Lieut. Sclnviitka was able to make a small botanical collection from about the head waters of the Yukon, whi(^h is of considerable interest as an indication of the climate of the region, and as showing the range north- ward into the Yukon valley, of some species previously known scarcely beyond the British boundary. Lieut. Schwatka, ascending from the head of Chilkoot Inlet, crossed the main coast-range by the Perrier Pass, at tin altitude of 4,1(X) feet, coming at once upon the source of the Yukon River, in latitude 59° 40'. A descent of twelve miles brought him to Lake Lindemau ; and ui)on the borders of this and other lakes witliin a distance of twenty-five miles, nearly equally on both sides of the sixtieth pirallel, the larger part of the collection was made, between the 12th and loth of June. Tlie speci- mens gat'aered at even this date wei-e in full blo^m, excepting a few indicated in the following list by ])ar(Mi- theses, and the sedges and grasses, wliich were well developed. Anemone i)arviflora, Aquilegia formosa, Aconitum Napellus, var., Barban^a vulgaris, Arabis i)etraea, Cardamine hirsuta, var., Viola cucullata, Lupinus Arcticus, Rubus Chanupmorus, (Poteriiim Sitcliense ?), Arctostaphylos I'va-ursi, Bryanthus emi)etriformis, Kalmia glauca, Jjf^dum latifolium, (Moneses uniHoni), Pyrola secundn, Dodecatheon Meadia, var., Polemonium humile, Merten.ia paniculata, Polygonum vivijiarum, 405 "■3 W 'i m 406 APPENDIX. Saxifraga tricuspidata, (Betula glandulosa), Saxifraga leucanthemifolia, (Alnus viridis), Parnassia limbriata, Ribes rubrum, Epilobium spicatum, Epilobiuni latifolium, (Heracleum lanatum), Cornus Canadensis, Antennaria alpina, Arnica latifolia, (Senecio triangularis), Salix glauca, Salix Sitchensis, Habenaria dilatata, Streptopus roseus, Carex (2 sp.), Deyeuxia LangsdorflBi, Festuca ovina, Lycopodium comp' . natum, Lycopodium annotinum. Vaccinium parvifoliura. The rest of the collection was made ay opportunity offered, during the descent to Fort Selkirk, in latitude 62° 45', which point was reached on the 13th of July. It included the following species :— Anemone multifida, Galium boreale. Ranunculus Flammula, var.. Aster Sibiricus, Erysimum parvijlorum, Achillea millefolium, Cerastium arvense, Arenaria laterflora, Arenaria physodes, Montia fontana, Linum perenne, Hedysarum boreale, Rubus arcticus, Fragaria vesca (?), Potentilla fruticosa, AmelancJiier alnifolla^ Parnassia palustris, Artemisia vulgaris. Arnica alpina, Arnica Chamissonis, Pyrola rotundifolia, var., Primula Sibirica, Myosotis sylvatioa, var., Pentsemon con/ertus, Pentsemon (flaucus (?), Pedicularis flammea, Chenopodium album, Polygonum aviculare, Bupluerum ranunculoides, Zygadenus elegans. Hordeum jubatum, The species new to so northern a latitude are marked by italics. The season appears to have been as forward as I found it in 1868 in the lower mountain ranges rising from the plateau of western Nevada in lati- tude 40°. SERENO WATSON. APPENDIX NO. 2. COMPARISON OF THE MOST IMPORTANT RIVEPvS OF THE WOULD. (Prepared for " Along Alaska's Great River " by William Libbey, Jr., Professor of Physi- cal Geography in Princeton College, N. J ) Eiver, Nile Amazon Obi Yenesei Yang-tse Amoor Missouri Lena Congo Niger Mekong St. Lawrence. Hoangho La Plata Madeira \ukou Mackenzie Brahmapootra Indus Length in' miles. 3834 3750 3400 3330 3184 3088 3066 2900 2780 2609 2585 2500* 2384 2305 230C* 2200* 2044 2000* 2000* 1850 Their order in the World W. Hemis. N.Amer. U. 8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 5 6 7 8 4 5 3t Length in Drainage navigable area, sq. miles. miles. 1,425.000 3623 2.275,000 1,420,000 1,180.000 2354 1,244,000 950,000 780,000 2400 518,000 1,000,000 1,933.000 1,023,000 400.000 2300 400,000 714,000 1,242,000 345,000 2036 2>0,(i00 1750 590,000 450,000 373,000 * Estimated, but closely known. t Estimating ■whole length 2,044 miles. Taking only the amount in the TTnitcd States (1,260 miles, all of which is navigable), it is the fifth river therein, the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas and Ohio rivers being longer. Authorities consulted : Bates, Chavanne, Guyot. Havden and Selwyn, Humph- reys and Abbott. Keane, Kloeder,. Potetuian", Koyal Geograiihical Society of England (proceedings), Stanley, Wallace. 407 APPENDIX NO. ). ITINEBAET OF THE ROUTE FROM THE HAINES MISSION IN THE CHILKOOT INLET TO FORT YUKON. Statute Miles, Haines Mission to tlie mouth of the Day ay River 10.1 Head of canoe navigation on " " 9.9 Mouth of the Nourse River (west) . . . .2.3 The Perrier Pass in the Kotusk Mountains (4,100 ft.) 11.0 The Crater Lake (head of the Yukon River) . 0.6 Camp on Lake Lindeman 12.1 (Length of Lake Lindeman, 10.1) Cape Koldewey 3.7 North end of Lake Lindeman . . . . 6.8 South end of Lake Bennett over the Payer Portage 1.2 Prejevalsky Point ( mouth of Wheaton River, west) 18.1 Richard's Rock (east) 1.2 North end of Bennett Lake (Watson Valley, west) 10.0 (Length of Lake Bennett, 29.3) "West end of Lake Nares (through Cv ribou Crossing) 1.7 East " " " (or length c f the lake) . 3.2 Perthes Point (or length of Lake Bove) . . 8.8 Mouth of Tahko River 7.8 North end of Lake Tahko .... 10.3 (Length of Lake Tahko, 18.1) South end of Lake Marsh (or lengtli of connecting river) 9.1 North end of Lake Marsh (or length of that lake) 28.8 Upper end of the Grand Canon of th(5 Yukon . 60.9 (Length of the Grand Canon and Rapids, 4.6) Mouth of the Tahk-heen'-a (west) . . . 23.1 North end of Lake Kluk-tas'-si .... 17.8 Richthofen Rocks (and river) , , . . 14. -4 408 APPEI^LUl. 409 US MISSION tatute Mllea : 1(5.1 9.9 . 2.3 11.0 0.6 12.1 3.7 5.8 ;age 1.2 est) 18.1 . 1.2 !St) 10.0 sing) l.T 3.2 8.8 7.8 10.3 mg ce) 3, 4.6) 9.1 28.8 50.9 23.1 17.8 14.-4 North end of Lake Kluktassi (Length " " 30.5) Maunoir Butte (east) . . . . Red Butte (west) .... Grizzly Bear Bluffs (west) . Mouth of the Newberry River (east) (( 22.1 16.2 3.2 9.4 8.9 38.0 41.6 10.7 39.1 25.4 25.8 17.0 21.3 D'Abbadie " (east) Daly " (east) Parkman Peak (east) . . . , Nordenskiold River (west) Rink Rapids Hoot-che-koo Bluff (east) Von Wilczek Valley (east) . Fort Selkirk (west) (through Ingersoll Islands) (Total length of river explored, 480.8). (All of the above are in the 1st Part of the Map, Page 55). Mouth of the Selwyn River (south) . ... 33.6 " " White " " ... 62.1 " " Stewart " (east) ... 9.7 " " Deer " (east) . . . 65.6 Fort Reliance 6.5 Mouth of the Chandindu River . . . .12.0 " Cone Hill " (west) . . 27.5 Roquette Rock (east) 13.0 Klat-ol-klin (Johnny's) Village (west) . . 33.0 Belle Isle Station 1.1 Boundary line between Alaska and British America (141° W 20.3 (Total length of Yukon River in British North -West Territory, 783.5). (Total length of Yukon River in Alaska, 1260). Mouth of Totondu 10.0 " Tahkandik 22.4 Charley's Village (west) 29.0 St. Michael's Bar or Island . . . . 47.4 Fort Yukon 97.0 (See Part 2d Map for above). CTotal length explored and surveyed) . 977.0 410 APPENDIX. Chetaiit River (north) 190.0 Kapicls in til e Ramparts (Senati's Village) . . no.O Mouth of 'Panana River, south, (Old Nuklakayet) 28.0 Nuklakayet (north) 18.0 (Total length of raft journey on Yukon River, 1303.2). Newicargut (south) 70.0 Melozecargut (nortli) 38.0 Yukocargut (south) . . . , . . 22.0 Sakadelontin (north) 10.0 Koyukuk River (north) 37.0 Nulato (north) 22.0 Kaltag (north) 37.0 Hairs Rapids 100.0 Anvik (west) 22.0 Makagamute (west) 14.0 Ikogmute Mission (north) . . . . 77.0 Andreavsky (north) ...... 100.0 Aphoon A^illage (north) 10.0.0 Coatlik 7.0 Aphoon mouth of Yukon River . . . 5.0 (Total length of Yukon River from Aphoon mouth to Crater Lake, 2043.5). All the above are in Part 3d of tlie Map, in pocket of book, DISTANCES ox THE COAST (FROM RAYMOXD). Mouth of Aphoon Outlet to Pikmiktalik . . 40.0 Pikmiktalik to anchorage off Redoubt St. ^lichael's 27.0 Distance from Redoubt St. Michael's to P^ort Yukon 1039.0 INDEX. A^culture, 67. Ainsworth, J. C., 29. Alaska Commercial Company, 243, 265, 268, 274, 277, 278, 281, 284, 806, 317, 321, 833, 333, 339, 343. " Alaska " (ship), 338, 339, 341. Aleutian Islands, 343, Alexander Archipelago, 31 •' Alexy " (half-breed Russian in- terpreter), 274. Amazon ^River), 143, 349. Amoor River, 118, 349. Andreavsky, 322, 333, 835, 341, 352. Anvik (or Anvic), 278, 314, 327, 828, 330, 332, 352, Anvik Indians, 327, 328, 339. Anvik River, 327, 330, 331. Aphoon Mouth (of Yukon River), 163, 169, 177, 279, 336, 337, 352. Arctic (references) 14, 75, 87, 91, 142, 143, 180, 211, 233, 273, 281, 286, 291, 293, 309, 313, 814, 338. Army, The, 10. Arrows (see bows also), 231, 232, Astoria (Oregon), 11. Avalanches, 17, 22. Ayan (or I-yan) Indians, 215, 216, 217, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 237, 243, 244, 247, 249. /Lyan River (see Pellyalso), 227. B " Barka, The " (or trading schoon- er), 277, 278, 309, 313, 315, 325, 883. Barnard, Lieut. R. K, 381. "Barraboras,"2!)l. Barrow, Point, 338. Bates, Mr. (exploring Tanana), Baths and bathing, 125, 341. Bears, 24, 25, 34, 67, 91, 220, 251. Beai^s, black, 24, 25, 41, «i2, 08, 88, 99, 109, 130, 186, 200, 235, 238, 239, 248. Boars, brown, (or "grizzly" or "barren-ground"), 25, 41, 99, 173, 174. 186. 248. Bella Bella, (Indian village), 18. Bcllo Isle (trading station), 259, 260. 269, 301, 302. .'533. 351. Bennett, Lake. 100, 101, 103, 107, 108, 109, 111, 350. Boring's Soa, 118, 241, 277, 336, 337, .'543. Bering's Straits, 117. .S23. Berries, 41. 54, 130, 1^3, 235. Birch, (trees or timber), 72. Boca do Quadra Inlet, 18, 23. Boundary iJutto, 2G0, 201. Boundary, The, 245. Bove. Lake, 114, 115, 116, 223, 350. Bows and arrows, 129. 231. British Columbia, 12, 13, 14, 23, 2G, 117. British North - West Teriitory, frontispiece, 25, 226, 260, 281, 351. British, The, 306. Byrnes, Mr., 117, 118. Cable, The Atlantic, 117, 118. Canadian Pacific Railway, 15, 22. Candle-fish, (see Smelt). Canneries, Salmon, (see Salmon canneries). 411 '?W H ml i 412 INDEX, Canoes, 14, 21, 22, 24, 43, 48, 62, 63, 57, 68, 60, 62, 63, 64, 67, 69, 70, »5i, 97, 100, 106, 113, 116, 117, 118, 119, 151, 156, 167, 162, 178, 181, 188, 200, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 228, 229, 232, 237, 238, 241, 242, 243, 246, 251, 266, 267, 259, 262, 285, 290, 299. Canon, Grand, (see Orand Caiion). Caribou (woodland reindeer), 91, 99, 109, 127, 130, 166, 188, 200, 220, 22», 244, 247. Caribou Crossing, 109, 113, 860. Cattle, 18, 127, 266, 267. Cosaiar Mines, 27. Cavo Rock, 251. Codar (trees or timber), 28, 24, 57, 68. Charcoal, ::;8. Charley's (Indian) Village, 262, 264, 361. Chatham Point. 16. Chatham Bound, 22. Chatham Straits, 34, 35. Chetaut River, 291, 352. Cheyenne Indians, 51. Chilkat, Alaska, 12, 36, IP 59, 335. Chilkat Indians, 36, 37, ^f\ :i«, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 4o, -J, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 69, 60, 61, 63, 68, 103, 113, 114, 128, 158, 176, 177, 189, 208, 219, 227, 239, 259, 269, 292. Chilkat Inlet, 14, 35, 43, 49, 63, 57, 104, 208, 278. Chilkat River, 36, 60. Cbilkoot Indians, 49, 61, 54, 57, 69, 60. Oalkoot Inlet, 35, 64, 67, 89, 347. Ohilkoot Trail, 60, 62, 70, 177, 179. Clans, Indian, 87, 41. Claystones, 121. Climate, 57, 208. Coatlik (Eskimo village), 336, 837, 352 Codfish, 34, 47. Columbia (River), 11, 36, 224, 249. Oolville River, 281. done Hill River, 248, 861. Congo (River), 148, 849. Congress, 10, 11. Copper, 41. Corwin (revenue cutter), 827, 828^ 338, 343. Crater Lake, frontispiece, 87, 86, 208, 278, 360, 362. Cremation (Indian), 87, 88, 46, 46. Cross Sound, 18, 86. Curlew, 88. "Cut-off" channels, 148. D'Abbadie River, 189, 190, 851. Daly River, 190, 192, 351. Dayay Inlet, 57, 79, 89. Dayay River (and valley), 67, 68, 69, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69, 72, 73, 75, 77, 79, 89, 350. Delta of the Yukon, 289, 826, 335, 336, 342. Deer, 34. Deer Creek or River, 243, 244, 351. "Devil-sticks," 64. Dickenson "BUly," 103, 104, 107, 178, 269. Discovery Passage, 15, 16. Diseases, contagious, 292. Dixon Entrance, 13, 23. Dogs, 25, 46, 48, 173, 228, 230, 251, 252, 265, 285, 326. Dogs, Indian, 25, 69, 83, 128, 220, 256, 294, 806. Dogs, Eskimo, 223, 266, 813, 314, 317. Dora (steamer), 343. Ducks, 91, 98, 158, 269. Eagle's Nest (of the Chilkats) Peak, 192. Edgecumbe, Mount, 18, 28. Eel-pouts. 223. English, The, 105. Eskimo, The, 48, 76, 100, 129, 158, 223, 234, 243, 262, 276, 277, 291, 314, 331, 334, 839, 340, 341. Eureka (steamer), 81. T OfDEX. 418 ^/ Ferns, 32. Fiuld Peak, 116. Fingal's Cave, 165. Finlayson Passage, 21. Fir (trees or tiiul)er), 13, 14. Fishes ; js (see Salmon, Cod, Hali- but, etc.) Fish oil, 48. Fish- weirs, traps, nets, etc., 48, 68, 128, 129, 256, 257, 258, 259, 291, 300, 300, 315. Fish-spcars, 75, 76. Fitzhugh^ound, 18. "Flatlnnds" of the Yukon, 264, 269, 271, 273, 276, 279, 280, 293, 294, 300, 324. Flattery, Cape, 14. Florida Blauca, 18. Flounders, 47. Flowers, 14, 54, 110. Fly, large "horse," 125. Fogs (or mists), 21, 22, 26, 47, 64, 73, 75. 77, 79, 84. 239, 347. Fords (river), 63, 69, 70. ForestB, 17, 235, 242, " fires, 168, 185, 186, 187, 189. Foxes (skins, etc.,) 50, 231. Fredericksen, Mr., 328, 329, 830, 881. Furs, 49, 59, 60, 231, 284, 285. Gales (see Storms). Gambling, Indian, 70, 71, 227. Gardens, 54, 307, 309, Geese, 290, 831. General of the Army, 10. Glaciers, 14, 21, 22, 27, 32, 84, 64, 58, 59, 68, 72, 81, 84, 90, 108, 121, 239, 240, 297. Glacier, Baird, 73, 75. Glacier, Saussure, 77, 79. Gloster, Serg't. Chaa. A., 9, 127, 299. Gnats, 54, 120, 125, 223, 225, 234, 271 , 293. Goats, mountain, 34, 81, 82, 88, 88, 109, 127, 186, 229, 235. Gold, 27, 41, 179, 180, 190, 208, 212, 215, 317. ( Qolovnin Bay, 888, 889, 840, 841. - Srand Cafion of the Yukon, 154, 161, 103, 103, 165, 100, 167, 170, 171, 105, 200, 223, »50. Grasses, 14, 17, 64, 120, 200, 831, 844. Grasshoppers, 110. Grayling, 100, 101, 102, 108, 109, 170, 177, 184, 223. Greenland, 12. Grenville, Channel, 22. Grouse, 03, 91, 110, 111. Gulf of Georgia, 16. Gulls, 01, 195. H Haeckel Hill, 190. Haines Mission (see Mission). Halibut, 47. Hall's Rapids, 826, 852. Hancock Hills, 183, 184, 190. Hares, 191, 192. Harper, Mr., 306. 313. Harper's Ferry, 224. Hemlock, 32. Horaan, Mr. Chas. A., 9, 55, 68, 96, 99, 150, 203, 220, 236, 231, 245, 273, 278, 287, 300, 309, 310. Huckleberries, 318. Hudson's Bay, 61, 129, 277, 313, 314, 339. Hudson's Bay Company, 61, 117, 129, 207, 208, 211, 212, 231, 239, 240, 259, 279, 281. Hudson's River, 16, 224. I Ice (see also G' cicrs), 44, 80, 81, 84, 88, 108, 114, 136, 137, 191, 247, 328, 338, 342. Icebergs, 14. Icy Straits, 35. Ikogmute (mission), 328, 333, 352. Indians, 9, 18, 24, 25, 49, 58, 61, 62, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 75, 80, 81, 82, 84, 87, 92. 95, 97, 98, 110, 112, 114, 115, 123, 129, 133, 173, 234, 244, 245, 260, 268, 277, 329. Indian caches, 291. t,. 414 aiDBS, Indian carvings and engravliigs, 27, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44. Indian curiosities, 27, 127. Iiidian funerals and graves, 87, 46, 215, 217, 219, 234, 288, 291, 293, 805, 818. Indianne (Cliilkat Indian), 104, 177, 200, 203, 249, 259. Indian packers, 87, 38, 48, 53, 81, 87, 88, 95, 100. Indian villages, 18, 36, 179. 180, it>7, 199, 228, 229, 246, 251, 285, 298, 305, 315, 318, 322, 324 Indian women, 39, 40. 42, 231. IngersoU Islands, 201, 203, 351. " Inland Passage " (to Alaska), 12, 15, I'', 18, 21, 26. 31, 35, 57, 90, 103. Innoka River, 326. Interpreters, 103, 104, 105, 245, 258. Iron Capped Mountains, 101, 103, 297, Jacobsen, Oaptain, 348. Japanese, The, 31. Japanese Current, 21, 47, Si4. Japanese Island, 31. Johnny's Village (see Elat-ol- Klin). Johnstone Strait, 16, 17. Juaii de Fuca Strait, 11, 13, 14. Juniper, 84. Junk Kiphon, 31. Eah-tung (Indian village), 228, 229, 234, 237, 238. Eiaganoe Strait, 23. Kaigan Village, 33. Kaltag, 324, 352. Kelp, 17. Kerchinikoff, 321, 322, S23. Kiaks, 243, 314. Killisnoo, 34. King William Land, 31S. KitT-ah'-gon (Indian village) 197, 199, 200, 227. Elat-or-ldin, (Indian village), 25a 255, 258, 25S, 262, 264, 301, 851. Kluk-tas'-si, Lake, 178,181, 183, 184, 196, 350, 351. Kluk- wan (Indian village,) 86, 60. Koldewey, Cape, 93, 350. Kon-it'l ';Ayan Chief), 230. Kootznahoo Indians, 35. Kotnsk Mountains, 83, 91, 208, 350. Koyukuk Indians, 321. Koyukul: River, 321, 352. Koyukv.k Sopka, 321. Krause, Drs. Aurel and Arthur, 90. Kuro Si wo (see Japanese Current). Kut-lah-cook'-ah (see Nourse River>. Labarge, Lake, 178. La Creole, 18. Ladue "Jo.," 262, 266, 269, 271, 274. Lama Passage, 18. Launch, steam, " Louise," 63, 67, 58, 59. Leavitt, Mr. (signal observer), 339. " Leo " (schooner), 328, 338,339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 345. Lewis River, 207, 208, 212. Libbey, Prof. Wm., Jr., 34P. Lichens (see Moss). Limestones, 115, 182, 251 Lindeman, Lake, <10, 92, 93, 97, 100, 113. 125, 126, 149, 204, 297, 347, 350. Loring Bluflf, 193, 203. Lower Ramparts of the Yukon (see Ramparts). Lynn Channel or Canal, 12, 35. M Mackenzie River, 281, 349. Makagamute (Eskimo village), 331, 352. Maps, 55, 62, 118, 188, 196, 204, 211, 245, 249, 279, 281. 299, 300, 302. Marmoto, 112, 113. ""iHDEX. 415 ,253, , 30t , 183. 36,60. 1, 208, Artbur, ;;)urrent). Nourae , 269, 271, ,," 53, 67, erver),339. 338, 339, 212. 34?. '51 92, 93,97, 149, 204, the Yukou al, 12, 35. 349. „„. village), 3iJi, iR 196, 204, ■181.299,300, Marsh, Lake, 121, 122,124, 125, 126, 127. 128, 130, 131, 154, 181, 350. Mastodons, 287. Mathews, Miss, 54. Maunoir Butte, 190, 350. Mayo, Mr., 306, 316. McClintock River, 130. Mcintosh, J. B., Mr., 9, 96. McQuestion John, Mr., 245, 246, 277, 281, 282, 283, 284, 306. Medicine-men, Indian, 37, 45, :"' 54, 225. 238, 245, 249. Medicine-men, Eskimo, 340. Melozecargut (river), 316, 317, 352. Michaelovski (see St. Michael's). Michie Mountain, 130. Milbank Sound, 21. Military, The, 9, 10, 52, 329. Mission, Haines', 64, 59, 188, 204, 350. Missions, Fresbyterian Board of, 54. Mississippi Biver, 11, 144, 336, 3^-9. Missouri River, 144, 3.49, Mists (see For^s). Monto San Juointo, 18. Moose, 109, 127, 130, 156, 188, 188, W^, 200, 220, 228, 231, 232, 243. 247, 261, 264, 265, 276, 301. Moose-noses, 263. Moose-Skin Mountain, 243,244. Mosses and lichens, 17, 32, 33, 191, 267, 297, 309. Mosquitoes, 54, 57, 97, 99, 107. 120, 123, 125, 127, 130, 143, 155, 156, 158, 165, 168. 171, 172, 173, 174, 183, 188, 189, 199, 225, 234, 247, 263, 272, 273, 28(j, 293, 316, 332. Moths or millers, 169. Muskrats, 155, 158. N Na-chon'-dees (Indians), 228. Nares, Lake, 110, 113, 183, 223, 350. Neah Bay, 14. Nebraska, 121. Neumann Mr. (Sup't Oonalasfcrx. 343. Neumann, Mr. (Sup't St. Michaol'si, 339, 341. New Archangel (Sitka), 28. Newberry River, 190, 351. Newicargut (or Frog River), 316, 352. "New Rackett," (river steamer), 317 318 Nile (River), 143, 349. Noo-klak-6 (Indian village), 246, 247. Nordienskiold River, 190, 192, 199, 351. Northern Trading Company, 208, 269, 305. Northwest Trading Company, 53, 104, 208. Norton Sound, 338. 840. Norway, 12. Nourse River, 72, 73, 75, 79, 350. Nuklaicayet, 2(;6, 26£. 277, 278, ?89, 305, 306, 307, 312, 313 316, 317, 319, 335. 352. Nulato, 277, 278, 321, 322, 323, 324, 352. Olympia, "Washington Territory, 12. Olympian Mountains, 13. Ommaney, Cape, 28, 34. Onions, wild, 110. Oomiens, 314. 326. 328. Oonalaska, 342, 343, 344. Otter Tail (of the Tahk-heesh) Peak, 192. Pacific Coast, 15, 26, 28, 35, 47. Pacific Ocean, 11, 13, 21, 28, 34, 9',, 115, 239, 344. Parhelia, 286. Parkas, 323. Faritman Peak, 192, 351. Pastolik River, 337. Payer Portage and Rapids, 98, 99, 101, 149, .l.'iO. Pelly River, 61, 104, ISO. 203. 205 207, 209, 212, 215, 227, 234. « 416 INDEX. Peril Straits, SI, 84. Perrier Pass, 84, 86, 89, 188, 347, 350. Perthes Point, 116, 118, 223, 350. Petersen, Captain, 277, 279, 332, 333, 340. Petersen's Point, 332. PetroflE, Ivan (Special Agent Tenth Census), 11, 302. Pine (trees or timber) 44, B8, 95, 125, 120, 155, 170, 172, 173, 177, 188. Poplar (trees or timber), 67, 70, 92, 155, 189, 191, 241. Porcupine (or Eat) River, 280, 294. Porcupines, 293. Portland Inlet, 23, Portland, Oregon, 10, 11. Port Townsend, Washington Ter- ritory, 15. Potomac River, 224. Prairies, 13, 97, ;26, President, The 10, 329. Prejevalsky Point, 107, 350. Priest, The Greek, of Ikogmute, 328, 333. Puget Sound, 12, 15. Punta Oeste de la Entrada del Principe, 28, Putnam River, 180. Pyramid Harbor, 36, 43, 160, 278. Queen Charlotte Islands, 18. Queen Charlotte Sound, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18. Baft, the, 23, 61, 62, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 116, 117, 122, 124, 126, 130, 131, 132, 133, 136, 137, 139, 140, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 160, 151 , 152, 154, 15.5, 156, 157, 169, 160, 161, 162, 165, 166, 167, 168, 172, 178, 185, 192, 195, 199, 200, 225, 235, 236. 238, 241, 242, 246, 248, 262, 270, 272, 275, 277, 291, 309, 312, 315. Tain, 21. 47, 63, 105. 123, 130, 166, 158, 184, 234, 287, 239, 242, 247, 251, 260, 261, 287. Ramparts, Lower (of Yukon River), 258, 274, 280, 288, 28;, 290, 293, 295, 298, 299, 30(>, 352. Ramparts, Upper, 207, 215, ''M, 239, 245, 247, 2«0, 265, 274, 293, 299. Rapids, 60, 62, 98, 164, 169, 160, 162, 165, 167, 168, 169, 176, 177, 185, 192, 223, 240, 289, 296, 298, 350, 352. Rat River (see Porcupine River). Ratzel Range, or Peaks, 270. Ray, P. H., Lieut U. S. A., 180, 338, 342. Raymond, Capt., U. S. A., 151, 156, 157, 180, 279, 298, 300, 352. Red River (of Indians), see Richt- hofen River. Reindeer, 291, 329, 345. Reindeer, spotted, of Asia, 323. Reindeer, woodland, see Caribou. Reliance, Fort, 244, 245, 246, 249, 351. Richards' Rock, 108, 350. Richthofen Red Rocks end River, 182, 350. Rink Rapids, 175, 191, 195, 199, 351. Rockwell, Capt. Cleveland, 29. Rocky Mountains, 207. Romantzoff Mountains, 273. Romantzoff Point. 337. Rosebuds, 272, 293. Roth, Priv. John, U. S. A., 9, 294, 331. Roquette Rock, 249. ":" 351. Russia, 26, 333. liiissian American 1 a v^ompany, .321 322 Russians, The, 28, 31, 47, 105, 246, 205, 279, 280, 281, 8C3, 821, 822, 840. 341. 3 Sakadeloutin (Indian village), 818^ aca. Salisbury Stiait, 84. v.; 2 WW INDEX. 417 9, 294, ,ompany, 'r^ lage), 818, Salmon, 2?, 24, 36, 44, 47. 48, 49, 67,79, 111. 119. 120, 130, 173, 200, 223, 228, 92% 255, 250, 257, 258, 259, 261, 26t), 291, 300, 305, 306, 313, 315, 816, 331. Salmon canneries, 11, 23, 36, 46, 47, 4 , 53, 208. Saluting (Indians), 246. Sand liiver, see Wliite River. San Francisco, 268, 317, 338, 342, 343. Saranac (U. S. man-of-war), 16. Scheffelin Brothers (prospecting Yukon), 317. Scientific matters, 9, 90, 151, 204, 208, 211. 227, 347. Seaforth Ciiannel, 18. Sea-otters, 26. Seciotary of War, The, 10. Sediment, (river, lake, etc.), 59, 121,122,125,181,336. ^7. Seduction, Point, 57. Selkirk. Fort, 61, 104, . .6, 117, 118, 125, .'75, 178, 180, 196, 200, 203, 204, 20,-., 207, 208, 211, 212, 213, 216, 217, 223, 224, 231, 234, 235, 240, 247, 278, 348, 351. Selwyn River, 235. 351. Semenow Mountains, 190. Senati (Indian Chief), 280. Senati's Village, 289, 299, 353. Seymour Narrows, 15. Shagolook Indiana, 328, S29. Shagelook Slough, 326. Shamans, see Wedicine-men. Shircliff. Corp'l, U. S. A., 9, 90, 293 294 Shot-rich (Chilkat Chief), 38, 60. Silver, 36. 41, 179, 338. Sioux Indian?, 51, 219. Sitka, 18, 28, 29, 31, 40, 322. Skeena Inlet, 22. Slaves (Indiap), and slavery, 38, 39, 40. Sledges, 220, 259, 318. Smelt (flsh), 47. Smokes, signal, 114, 115, 120, 168. Snags, 144. Snow, 13, 14, 21, 44, 45, 54, 58, 59, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87, 88, 172, 188, 192, 234, 239, 266. Snow-shoes, 87, 25C. Soil. r,7. 266. 297. 309 Sooncargut (river), 316. Spanish explorers of Alaska, 17, 18, 28. Spruce (trees or timber), 14, 32, 40, 44, 58, 63, 75, 84, 95, 114, 125, 138, 155, 159, 165, 168, 171, 172, 177, 180, 188, 219, 228, 229, 234, 241, 242, 252, 270, 287. Spuhn, Mr. Cari, 53, 54. St. Elias, Mount, 23, 35. Stewart River, 207, 227, 228, 241, 249, 351. Stickeen River, 27, 28. " Stick " Indians, see Tahk-hcesh. St. Michael's Redoubt, 124, 245, 265, 278, ,'22, 327, 328, 330, 332, 333, 335, 336, 337, 339, 340. 342, 343, 352. "St. Michael's" (river steamer), 268, 269, 278, 332, 333, 335 "Stone Houses," The, 81. Stoney, Lieut., U. S. N., 180. Storms (and gales), 17, 21, 28, 89, 90, 95, 97, 105, 116, 123, 142, 286, 287, 297, 315, 316, 318, 323, 324, 325, 320, .332, 3,37, 342. St. Paul (ocean steamer), 343. Sumner Strait, 28. "Sundogs,"' see Parhelia. Swallows, 88. " Sweepers," 134, 142. Tadoosh (Indians and villages),, 262. Tah-heen'-a (river), 189. Tahk-heen'-a. or Tahk River, 177,. 189, 190, 350. Tahk-lieesh' (Stick) Indians, 59, 61,. 62, 63, 83, 91, 92. 100, 104, 105, 109, 113, 114, 110, IIS, 119, 120,. 127, 129, 156, 1.57, 159. 161, 102, 170, 175, 189. 200. 220. Tahk-e Lake, 115, 117, 118, 119; 350. Tahk-o River, 117, 350. Tahk oiig Indians, 242. Tanana' Indians, 240, 247, 302, 303. Tanana' River, 240. 247, 289. 300, 301, 302. 303, .305, .306, 352. Tantalus Butte. 199. !^ 418 INDEX. r, see Boundary Ta-tot'-lee Butte. „;i 19 Terns, 91. . .gfi. Terraces, in, i|*' ^ £ gt. law- Thousand Islauds oi reiice. 195. Thunder, 130. £6*. g^ gQ Timber, 22 2, 32^ 3M6, 3 '150, 87, 91, 97, y«, 10b, 1^^, 240^ iSr4kS293:305:334,335, tS Indians, 44,45.49,51. 52, 10'^ 104, 209. ■"•|r24t2SUr;2T4.Wr,«84, ^''•?,^'m « 111,183,223- Tundras, 191, 293, 297. upper Ea^partsof the YuUon..ee Ramparts. V Vancouverlsland 12 iS^ie-g^ Venus (visible at njdmg^^^ ^^^ ^g ^:iSSi-10.11,35. ^rwncSvaUey. 193, 197,200, 201, 203, 351. 283. W ^^^^1^68:72. ^^ yaS?Gap?DeS;-e^^-'-''' I Watson, Serene, Prof., ^1, WT, ' WaSon Valley, 108 109 f^^^^ Western UmoQ Tele, ra. pany, 117, ^^SB\,,o wHeatonRivcr 107, 3.-0- ^^ White River 125, 1^»,^* 239, 240, 241. 256, 351. ^__^ White stripe on river v Volcanic ash. Whymper River, 29i, ^*- ^ wiS:Bev.EugeneS 54 57^g^ ^Sn59t'm^'l«'^=^^''''' wSn,DrGeoF,SurgeonU^.8 Yellowstone Caflon 10, aCW. Yosemite, The; -f '• g^g. Yukocargut ("^f )'J Vhito River. Yukon River, 11' 37' 6'''ii7, 118, 88, 90, 103. 115, l^iJg 135^ 125, 126, 129, 130, 13^ ^^ ^gg^ 136, 138. S 173 176,177,180. l<^^'Sml95 196 203,204. 189, 190, 193, la^, ^ ' glB, 217, 207 208, 211, 212, 21^, -^ 240, 220:224,227,229,236 1^^260, 241, 244, 247, ^". |" ' 281, 284, 268,269,276,277,2^9^ 30,,^ Sll7,SSl:326>27,330, 34350,351:352^ 265, •'Yukon" C"^%,R 077 284,816. 366, 268, 275, 276 277 , ^^^ 327,830 832 833,3^ 239.266. Yukon Valley, 1^^. ^^ 321. 338, 347. ^tmmimmm 847, Com- , 227, k— Bee . r»7. I, 128, 7, 335, LI, 154. 835. 79. !07. 352. lito River. 151, 211, I, 273, 274. ), 287, 293, 280, 284. >9, 60, bl, , 117, 118, )4, 157, 163, 76,177,180. 36, 203, 204. 13, 215, 217, 36, 239, 240, !53 256, 260, •79, 281, 284, 102,305,306, > m, 327, 330, :eamer), 265, 277, 284, 816, 335,839,341. 199. 239. 266,