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"W 'TTV-^Pf^T'S'*- :jg1?J*^ "1 nmm^ umim -»e'-ii(.txsm»«iMvwww- _J1UJ.I I u««mP«WiJJ_™l_|,A«W,Jllv»- 'A 1 .. mitma n I 'l ltlglllUl l ill ■ <\ O \ . ■f • ■.. ■>f^>. \ \{ ■r>Srmitit-' ,^' N;^< ./' mii^ ^■^"^'-^ L..J^ »"*»i'ii, ,«»*' u^ i?\' lyiirttf \^ %--^; »»« tB \ 'h «««a6«« WiW From wastes that slumber In ^teraaJ m-m, An<1 waft acroM the waves' t«»!«tto*r>*» s»e? (■'X' ■, rj f< s iot^ howl/mm i}tim&.\ m%- „•,.,■'#»•«■ ** BY TSABEI. vS. SHEFAtB THE iimtm^rf ^>Mr >W -'TVif-," w W M H -* ["^ 1^% *t .■* '"11 ' ?7 ^ t— I 00 o W N »— < Pi Pi ^ w w PS n ■^.1' ■■■'••r»*„«"f ',••■* TB9 CRUISE OF THE U. S. STEAMER ZN BKHRING SBA SX7MMBR OP 1889 " Lo I to the wlntty winds the pilot yleldfl S^ bark careering o'er unfitthomed fleldSi Odd on hia midnight watdx the breezes blow From wastes that slumber in eternal snow, And waft across the waves' tumultuous ;oar The wolf's tome howl from OunaUuha's shorg," Caupbelv—" Pleasttxes of Biope." BT ISABBh a SHBPARB SAN FBANOISOO THE BANCROFT COMPANY 1889 ii'l: r^r^wmfj^'S^m Entered.according to Act of Congress in the year 1889, by ISABEL S. SHEPARD In the Office ot the Librarian of Congress, at. Washington ^ij ^|^((p^j),»^^p^lJyJ,wwJ^»^,».wf,!;f;'|»»!if'|(»'■.'^^ DBOICATION THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY RELATIVES AND FRIENDS, FOR WHOM IT IS ESPECIALLY WRITTEN. 31562 |ifiisi.^..4nj.w4'.yj»' Jtl ' l.li" I giH!.W'SWi ! HV !i fl. ^^•iI^--T^yiw,yn-^ "WV^JIl ^f^"®^'% "^ (\k " ■' ■ '-^■^'Ta-"' IREFACE I beg the charity of the public, for this my first and only book. It is with fear and trembling I launch it on the stormy sea of criticism. Several relatives and friends requested me to keep a diary of the trip to Oonalaska, whither I was allowed by the Treasury Department at Washington to accompany m^ husband, on his annual cruise in those waters, in command of the U. S. Steamer Rush. I did so, and it grew to such proportions as to become a book. On my return to San Fran- cisco, I was urged to publish it, as containing matter perhaps of interest to all, pertaining, as it does, to a strange and unknown part of our country. I make no claim to being '* literary," therefore if the style be somewhat crude I will be exonerated from posing before the world as an author. I have simply tried to tell in a readable form the occur- rences and incidents of a trip of four and a half months in Alaskan waters. Isabel S. Shepard. NoTB.— The speUing of the Russiau names adopted in i^hlii book is after Ivan Petroif, in his •' Report of the Resources, Population, etc., of Alaslca." m- eeNTENTS CHAPTB I. It The 8TAini* .... »A0> 9 n. OUMOA ..... . 16 in. Squaw Habbob and Sako Poiin' 22 IV. Goal Habbob and Belkovbky . 28 V. Bblkovsky— Continued 84 VI. Kino's Gove And East Anohob Habbob . . 45 vn. OONALASKA .... 63 VIU. " Thetis "—" Kbaysab "—" Bbab » . 60 IX. OONALASKA HaPPBNINOS 67 X. OoNALASKA HAPPENINGS— Continaed . 75 XI. ThbAlbutes .... 82 XII. The Albutes— Continued . 90 xrii. GOVEBNME^ OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 99 XIV. The Foubth of July at Oonalaska . 106 XV. The Fibst Seizube and Othbb Mattxbs 112 XVI. MoBE " Sealebs," and othbb Incidents . . 124 xvn. A Tbamp oveb the Hills 130 xvm. 8bal, OB Pbibylof, Islands— St. Gbobob . 138 XIX. Seal Islands, Continued— St. Paul . 148 XX. GhASINO THE " SeaLEBS " . . . . 154 XXI. Betubn TO Oonalaska . 160 XXII. Items IN Bbief .... . 167 XXIII. The Gave . . , 172 XXIV. Last Days AT Oonalaska . . 179 XXV. News fbom the Nobth . 186 XXVI. OuB Bbpabtube and Tbip Eabtwabd . 191 XXVTl. Kadiak ..... 199 XXVTII. MOBE ABOUT KaDIAK . 206 XX tx. Sitka ..... 213 XXX. Yakutat ..... . 219 XXXI. Indians OF Yakutat 226 xxTfn. Sitka Again .... . 284 xxxm. HoMEWABD Bound 240 XXXIV. PuGBT Sound .... . 246 XXXV. Seattle and Home Again ( vii ) 264 mg^W ■' ■'«?fs^<,*'rf ^ ' ^.^iT^^^ipr I 1 '^jmv^im^ 4^ CRUISE OF THE U. S. STEAMER ''RUSH" IN BKHRING SEA SUMMER 1889 CHAPTER I. THE START. JUt;WAS my good fortune, as one of those ^1 who like novelty in any fc j, to be permitted by the Treasury Department at Washington to accompany my husband, the Commander of the U. S. Steamer Rushj on his yearly cruise among the seal islands of Behring Sea, his object being to protect the seal fisheries. At present the subject is much discussed by our American Press, as to our rights to claim the whole of Behring Sea as our private property, and thus including all the fur-bearing animals found within it. Naturally, the threats on the British side to resist the claim of the Americans, and the evident sanction given to sealers to start on their yearly depredations in that sea notwithstanding the proc- lamation of President Harrison to the effect that (9) mfmmmmmm ■^^iliiiiPiP IW! iWP mmmmim ;. 10 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" any vessels found in the Behring Sea killing seal, or other fur-bearing animals, without an authorized right to do so, shall be captured and confiscated, etc., etc., added a little piquancy to the trip by the antici- pation of perhaps a few harmless shots, and more menacing between the Revenue Gutters and Sealers, and it might be between the American and British Men-of-War, which were expected in Behring Sea during the summer. We sailed Saturday, June 1st, at about 2 p. m., from San Francisco; out through our renowned ''Golden Gate," through the almost inevitable mist or fog at that season of the year, towards the great Pacific. Day after day we sailed far out of the sight of land on this almost boundless expanse of water. Our little vessel was loaded heavily with one hundred tons of coal and five months' supply of provisions. We even rejoiced in livestock to the extent of four sheep and a little goat. The latter became quite a pet with my two little boys, though not for long, for a month later he came to an untimely end, to their great grief and that of the sailors as well. There was nothing that goat hesitated to eat, although well fed, too well fed, for he ate, the men said, twi'je his own size in hay every day. He tried burnt matches, cigarette stumps, pieces of rope yarn and everything else he could get hold of, till finally one day he ate an extra large quantity of waste cotton from the engine-room — ^this was too much, nature would no more, and the goat departed this life. It L ft i MMU ii . ifaiia ii iiw rillWlilim '•ItirtilJNfil THE START 11 kg seal, borized ediOto., antici- d more 3ealerst British ng Sea (., from Golden fog at Pacific, of land . Our mdred isions. )f four quite r long, 3nd, to well, hough , twi^e burnt n and ly one sotton lature e. It was only after the post mortem examination by the men that the secret was discovered. Soon after his demise two infant gulls were caught and carried aboard by the men, in lieu of any other pets. They grew with surprising rapidity; their voracity equaled if not exceeded that of the lamented goat's. They were all bill and legs and were insatiable. To our great amusement the Dutch sailors aboard alluded to them as " chickens mit de swvim feets.'' My digressions must be pardoned , I like to put things down when I think of them for fear of their escaping my memory entirely. To return to our sheep. These animals were to rusticate on a little barren island in the harbor of Oonalaska, for the summer, at our command yielding themselves for mutton. Twenty tons of coal weighed down the after part of the main deck, and was allowed to remain there, ''to keep her down by the stern,'* as I heard reiiiarked, for the Rush has an uncomfortable habit of •* kicking up," her propeller being lifted high and dry in the air, on the least pretext. Our quar- ters were " aft," and therefore I was glad of any- thing that would have a quieting effect on that end of the assel, though it was rather inconvenient climbing over bags of coal, whenever it was neces- sary to go down into the cabin, or come up on deck. I awaited my doom calmly and resignedly — it was not my first sea trip. I knew it would come — first, that horrible giddiness, then worse, that inex- 12 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" pressibly horrible sensation — nausea, ma/-ody of the male is entirely black, that of the female differs only in its white breast. On the head are two small, erect, cream colored tufts, while the legs are of a bright red. There are a few birds natives of these islands not found anywhere else. One of these is the "rosy finch,*' a very pretty small bird with pink or rose- colored feathers about its breast and under the wings. Th*^ rest of the body is a light brown. The only song-bird is the songster sparrow, which utters a few soft sweet notes. It is quite common. The " rock ptarmigan " or grouse, is also found, of a par- ticular variety not common elsewhere. The latter change their plumage from brown to white in winter, as do so many of the birds near the Arctic. There are numbers of other varieties of birds found about the coast and on the islands farther north, several of which of different kinds are occa- sionally found in the vicinity of Oonalaska, two of which I will mention. The loon or diver is a mag- nificent bird found about St. Matthew's Island. Its plumage is beautiful, about the neck it is shaded green like the throat of a humming bird, the rest of the body is black and white. The " snowy owl," like the ptarmigan, dons a winter robe of purest white and is a very handsome bird and very ornamental COAL HARBOR AND BELKOVSKY 31 when stuffed and well mounted. Myriads of ducks of many kinds fly around the shores of these islands ; most of them are migratory birds and are only found in these northern waters cluring the short summer. The lesser awk and muir or gillemot are the most plentiful of any bird. The Arctic turn is a beauti- ful bird found at St. Michael's, its plumage is a pale gray with deeper shades of the same color, and its dis- tinguishing feature are be long feathers of the tail, which make it an exceedingly graceful bird. Dr. C , at Oonalaska, had quite a collection which he had gathered and which he kindly showed me. It was from this source I received the most of my information concerning them. In the vicinity of Oonalaska Island abound eagles — the bald eagle, and ravens or large bl&ck crows. Of the latter there are quantities about Sitka. I have also seen the eagle there. In speaking of birds I am reminded of our canary aboard the ship, I say " our canary," though in reality it belonged to Mr. D , our Chief Engineer, but on board ship any pet seems to be common property. Every once in a while he sang out so cheerily and sweetly we, by closing our oj^es, almost felt transported back to our own dear homes. The song of a canary is so essentially a sweet, homelike sound, it also conveys to one the idea of a happy home. On our way to Belkovsky we passed between the high mountain ridges of Illiasik Pass. To our right wmm 32 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH was the volcano of Pavloff, one of the most noted on the Aleutian Islands. Not extinct, but still smok- ing, though it was my misfortune not to see the top owing to a cloud which completely enveloped it. ^n fact almost all the highest peaks were thus cut off from view. Pavloff is about six thousand feet high. Not far from it is a village called Nikolaievsky. We did not stop there but kept on towards Belkovsky. In this wide pass, which is about ten miles across, we saw a number of ** killers" as they are called by the sailors, or the grampus. They eat the seal. We could see their sharp-pointed fins projecting from the tops of their backs as they sported around in the water. Dr. P got his gun and tried to get a shot at them, but they did not stay above the water long enough to give Mm time to aim at them. Belkovsky — the quaintest little place in the world, or so it looked to me as I viewed it through the glasses from the deck of the ship when we stopped. It was not so much so when we were fairly in it. I could not but think as I looked at it through the glass, of the children's little toy villages or Noah's Ark, which as every one remembers always has a number of stiff gayly painted little houses, probably for Noah and his family to live in after they landed on Mt. Ararat. The houses at Belkovsky appeared just such. The most prominent were painted blue with red roofs. There were some white with green roofs and yellow frames and so forth. Over the one store was hoisted, in honor of our arrival, a large a) acks water. Dr. P jirot They eat the seal. We ■M tins projecting Irom •y spf>rted around in the g '1. u!id tried to get a id not stay above the !0a Um^- to Aim at them, iitlie place in the world, I \fi t ^ hvo In after they landed oti Mt. Ararat Tha houi»«?r^ ut Belkovsky appeared just such. rhr of our arrival, a large m < < tn U W < X u 1/2 I o W mm npp ""^"^rn'm COAL HARBOR AND BELKOVSKY S3 United States flag. It seemed to be equally of a size with some of the houses near it, as it spread out to the breeze. We " lay to/' as it is called in nautical language, without dropping our anchor, for there is no good anchorage there. A boat was lowered and the doctor l^ientenant W., my husband and I went ashore. The Rush had stopped quite a distance out to be on the safe side, for the year previous my husband had experienced a severe blow while at Belkovsky. A *' woolly '* or a sharp gust of wind came up very suddenly and with such violence that the vessel was nearly lifted bodily out of the water and overturned. Tlie wind shoots down the mountain sides and into the water, and at such times it is best to be out as far as possible from the land. 1 1 was a long pull for the men, and the wind blew very fresh, causing quite a little sea, which we feared might make it difficult to land. H(" ( ver, it did not prove as bad as we had apprehended. The boat was pulled up as far as possible on the beach and one of the men coolly shouldered me — which proceeding by that time had become a matter of course — and set me down on dry land. There is not the demonstrativeneas and curiosity exhibited by the Aleutes that you find nearly every- where else among Indians, and though the whole town knew of our advent there was scarcely a soul in sight. We walked up a beaten path to the afore- said store, the center of the village. CRDI8B or TRB "RO8H." 8 ^ '""" .1 Mi^^s^^i^^s^flBBHSS CHAPTER V. BELKOVSKY — CONTINUED. IIeLKOVSKY is situated at the base of a "J^ very high and steep hill or mountain and ^ ^ town itself seems to rest upon an incline of fo five degrees. Our whole course was upwards. They are much more pretentious at Belkovsky than at Ounga, it is a larger place to be sure, but there is an air of thrift and neatness entirely lacking in the lat- ter place. This neatness, however, applied only to the store and its surroundings, and was due to the skillful management of Mr. C . There was a flight of steps leading up the steepest part of the bank, and as we neared the store a very kindly but stupid looking Aleute, quite neatly dressed in our style of costume, or rather the dress of our frontiersman, came slowly towards us and said, " Me chief ! " We shook hands and said we were glad to see him and began making some iiAquiries of him. But *-me chief" was about as far as he could get with his English. Near by was his neat little wooden house, on one side of which was the first of the skin boats we had seen. It rested upon two wooden props and was evidently quite new. These boats, which are in general use among the Aleutes and Eskimos, are (84) ''^J'Pf/K' BELKOV!iKY— Continued called bydarkas. They differ from all other Indian boats as well as those of other Alaskan tribes. The boats of the latter are open and hewn out of trunks of trees. Necessarily, as there is no large timber found on the islands, the Aleutes had to adopt another style. A light frame is made of driftwood, with the skin of the hair seal st' otched tightly over it, and over the top as well. According to the length and general size of the bydarka there are one or two and sometimes three openings left for the owners to occupy. Around these holes is fastened an open bag of skin with a drawstring around the top. They dexterously step inio this mere eggshell and draw- ing the drawstring up tightly around their bodies, are by this means completely water tight and are thus also guarded against shipping any seas. Sometimes they carry an extra passenger or two who are stowed away " between decks," us it were. The boat is rarely any deeper than two feet in the middle. A friend made the discovery in this way: A bmaii bydarka came alongside the ship he was on, containing to all outward appearances but one occu- pant, who, leaving his boat, climbed aboard. Hap- pening to glance over a few minutes afterward my friend saw a second figure wriggling itself through the hole and slowly emerging head first, at length attain- ing full size it sprang out. Shortly a second head appeared and after many contortions the body it belonged to succeeded in drawing itself to a more jiutural posture. My friend was actually alarmed 86 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" ll for fear there might be several more to follow, but was relieved on that score by the three soon taking their departure as they came, without further developments. In such air-tight compartments it is hard to see how they could live long. I have been, told a man in a single boat will deliberately turn completely < ' er and, in the words of the well-known song, '' bob up serenely " on the other side. They paddle long distances in these bydarkas going from one island to another, often as many as forty or fifty miles. The paddle is short with a blade at each end, which they use alternately on either side and with it also balance themselves. The larger and more pretentious bydarkas are used for hunt- ing and are furnished with spears and extra paddles, which are slid under strings drawn tightly over the top. The Aleutes are very skillful in handling the spear and use it in hunting the seal and sea-otter. For further protection the men wear skin coats. These are made of the lining of bears' entrails and of the sea-lion intestines and are perfectly imper- vious to water. They are very light and comforta- ble ant* are called kamlicas. They cost about five dollars, and are so expensive from the great care and time it takes to make them. Thus equipped the Aleute is ready for much danger and exposure dur- ing fishing and hunting the seal and sea-otter. They are driven on these expeditions only by hun- ger, for like most Indians they are lazy. The seal is their main standby, they put it to a thousand I BELKOVSKY— Continued 97 1 I uses. It is their food and was formerly their cloth- ing, li furnishes them also with oil for greasing, as a light and as fuel in winter. There is another kind of skin boat formerly used bv tiie natives more, Few are found now ; these are called " bydaras." They are much larger and open, more like the ordinary boat in shape. They are large enough to contain eight or ten men. In these members of different tribes went about visit- ing one another, in gala array, the latter being v/hole suits of the fine skins of which their kamli- cas are made, trimmed in feathers. The Indians make fac-similes of these boats and their inmates in imi- tation of that custom. One of these was kindly presented to us bj^ Col. B , of Oonalaska. Were it not for these miniature boats all knowledge of this custom would have sunk into oblivion. After this long digression I return to our old chief, who followed meek! r in our wake, as we pro- ceeded farther. Near b's store Mr. C , who was the happy possessor of this, the center of every- thing of the village, met us and greeted us very cor lially, saying pointedly to the doctor, " I am very glad to see you," immediately telling us his little daughter was ill. They have no physician at Bel- kovsky at all, and but a year previous Mr. C had, for want of medical assistance, lost a little infant eight months old. He carried the doctor off with him, after inviting US all to his house. We did not accept immedi- 38 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" ately; but went to the store and looked around there, while my husband delivered mail, made vari- ous inquiries and transacted other business. Lieutenant W , who had made several trips to these regions before, and was unmarried, and knew of a nice young Russian lady who lived in Belkov- sky, asked me to accompany him to call on her. Her name, as do most of the Russian names, ended in "off," but her first name was Mattie, a combination very pleasing, but odd, for Mattie is a familiar name to me in my own family. I discovered it was the custom to address the Russian young ladies at once by their first names, without prefixing the *• Miss," and that among the gentlemen as well as ladies. We were directed to her house — literally hers, as I will explain farther on — by a bright looking girl, as we supposed, but who, we discovered later, was a bride of three weeks, and who talked very good English, having lived a great deal in San Francisco, and who was a cousin of Mattie. The latter was not at home at that moment, but as the distances were not extraordinary, even from one end of the village to the other,^ ihe was sent for. The cousin ushered us into a neat little parlor, resembling, for all the world, some of our family sitting-rooms, only very primly arranged, as b^ t befitted such an imposing room as the parlor. The windows were neatly curtained with white muslin ; the furniture was covered with the conventional unbleached linen covers, bound with red braid. On VELKOVSKY— Continued 39 the cover of one of the chairs was a great rent, in apologizing for which afterwards, Mattie said occurred the night of her cousin's wedding, and was allowed to remain there in remembrance of the happy .occasion. Human nature is the same the world over, whether Russian, Aleute or American blood runs in one's veins. There was on the table a little dish with wild flowers in it. a cabinet photograph or two beside it resting upon small brackets. One of them I recog- nized, a young Russian, with a very sweet tenor voice, I met a year ago in Sitka an'l who, I found, was Mattie's cousin. the walls were hung crayon portraits of the family, oe pere, la mere, et In fiUe. There had been a piano, on which Mattio was quite a proficient performer, but which now stood in the hall all boxed and ready to be sent to Sar Fran- cisco, as it had to be retuned and repairt 1 throughout. These details we took in while waiting for madem- oiselle to appear. The cousin told us Matti's father had built the Greek church, which was d i .:tly oppo- site the house. The father was born in Sitka and was a Russian priest, and bad in one way and another amassed a considerable fortune, one method being the follow- ing, as published in the San Francisco papers : He pretended to have made the discovery of a new saint, an image of whom he caused to be placed in the church. He then commanded the people that many and rich offerings be brought to its shrine. 40 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" These offerings the shrewd father appropriated him- self. He was not miserly, however, and disposed of his money as freely as he got it. It was also told that his wife succeeded in taking, unbeknown to him, a little at a time and carefully stowing away in a trunk the sum of five thousand dollars, though he found it before his death and disposed of it, sum- marily, on his various trips to San Francisco. With the exception of the one at St. Paul thia church at Belkovsky was the largest and most pre- tentious edifice in Al-tjutian Alaska. Mattie was now an orphan, her Aleute mother being also dead. She inherited all the property left, the house and a number of cows. She was the " belle" of Aleutian Alaska, I gathered, her popularity arising from three causes : she could dance, could speak good English and was quite intelligent, which, with the exception of dancing, could by no means be said of all. Mattie being detained we had time to visit the church, whose exterior was not so artistic as that of the church at Sitka, lacking the dome and steeple. The roof was painted green, as is usual with the roofs of the Greek churches. On tht top and center of the slanting roof was perched a small cupola with two ball-like protuberances on either end. The body of the church was painted white, with yellow window frames. What style of architecture it was I was unable to determine. The entrance was cov- ered with a portico, above which hung a chime of bells. The interior was painted a dark blue, relieved BELKOVSKY— CoH^mwer/ 41 with trimmings of white, very new and fresh. In its general outlines it was almost a fac-simile of the main part of the Greek church at Sitka, and judg- ing from the three or four I visited, but following out a plan after which all Greek churches are built. At the end opposite the door there is a platform, raised slightly above the level of the floor, across which is a partition extending from one side of the church to the other, dividing the platform into two parts. The inner part, or '' Holy of Holies," no female is allowed to enter. There a^e three doors opening into this inner place, but the middle doors are always closed, and only open when the priest is officiating. He stands a little back and within them during the greater part of the service, with his back to the congregation, and dressed in his gorgeous robes of silk, brocaded in gold and silver. On these doors is expended the most lavish ornamentation. At Sitka the doors are of real bronze and very beautiful. At Belkovsky they were covered with gilt fretwork, within which were set six oil paint- ings, the heads of their favorite saints. There were other paintings on either side of the doors, such as of Christ baptized by John the Baptist, the Lord's Supper, etc., altogether presenting quite a gallery. Two velvet banners heavily embroidered in gold, were, I think, tho most valuable things the church contained. There were a few silver candelabra and censers, perhaps imitation, placed here and there. There are many points of resemblance between 42 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" the Greek and Catholic churches, and especially in the outward ceremonies. The former do not believe in the Pope, however. The deacon, or he who displayed the church to us, proved to be brother to my Sitka friend of the tenor voice. At last, in less time than it has taken me to tell this, we returned to the house where Mattie herself was waiting to receive us. She recognized Lieut. W at once, and having met my husband and eldest little boy a year ago, greeted me as one familiar to her. She was small, dressed neatly in a calico dress with a silk handkerchief folded diagonally across her breast, and a white apron. She talked in an easy, unembarrassed way and was very natural in her manners. But in a few moments we had to excuse ourselves. We were to leave Belkovsky and go some distance that evening to a safe anchorage. It is impossible with the poor charts and inefficient surveying made among these islands to run at night. We therefore said good-bye, but Mattie said she would go with us, and suiting the action to the word, she threw a small shawl over her head and accompanied us, saying, '' Mrs. C hopes you will come and call on her and her little sick girl before you leave." We went to Mrs. C 's accordingly and found her in the neatest and largest house in the village. We were requested to walk upstairs to the bedroom where the little invalid lay. It was a -EELKOYSKY—ConUnued 43 cheery, comfortable room ; matting on the floor, a stove, a neat-looking dressiug-case in a corner, and bright paper on the walls. The little girl was sit- ting up in the midst of blankets and pillows. Mrs. C was a large woman with a bright, fresh com- plexion, and a sweet, low voice ; as she spoke with a foreign accent it was particularly pleasing. Mr. and Mrs. C are Swedes. Mr. C came out to Alaska unmarried to seek his fortune, returning in time to Sweden for his bride, whom he brought immediately back with him. There they had lived for six years, away from home and friends. A dreary home enough, or so it appeared to me on the cold, bleak day I saw it. Belkovsky, it is true, com- manded a magnificent stretch of sea and mountains to cheer the eye, but so lonely it could not cheer the heart. The doctor had pronounced the little girl's ail- ment to be quinsy sore throat. We remained there talking till summoned by my husband, at the termi- nation of the doctor's visits among the ailing, of whom there were at least a dozen. Before leaving, however, Mr. C showed us some very large sea-otter skins. They are such a lovely rich fur, the white-tipped hairs adding much to their beauty. Mr. C and two men pulled off to the ship for the necessary medicines, after which we sailed away, feeling we had had a very pleasant time indeed. 44 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH' At Belkovsky the condition of the Aleutes is ter- rible, owing to that frightful disease, scrofula, being so prevalent. Dr. Jackson, of Sitka, speaking of his visit there, said '* He had not the face to ask to have missionaries sent there." In his estimation, as far as morality and sickness were concerned, they appeared to be worse off there than any other place he visited on the islands. As I mentioned before, there is no doctor in Belkovsky, neither is there a schoolmaster, nor missionary. A filthy looking monk with long hair was the arbiter of their fates. He went to Oonalaska later, on his way back to Russia, and a good riddance he was. CHAPTER VI. king's cove and east anchor harbor. 'HS'e arrived at our anchorage at ^p about ten o'clock p. m., at which time it still remained light, the nights, then the middle of June, being only two or three hours long. We expected to start again for Oonalaska at two A. M., and I went to bed in the firm belief that when I awoke we should be quite a distance on our way. But Uhomme 'propose et Dieu dispose, and on awakening at six a. m., discovered the Rush laying as quietly as ever, fast at her anchorage. Dressing quickly, I rushed on deck to demand an explanation. To my amazement, my husband replied the barome- ter was lower than he had ever seen it before, and we were to await further developments in a safe place. Still there were compensations for our forced delay. I had not tired of the wild grandeur of the snow-covered hills, in their multifarious forms, and they were almost enough to absorb my whole atten- tion. At breakfast, Captain S said, " I'm going out in one of the boats to take some soundings about the harbor." This was King's Harbor, a small inden- tation on the westernmost point of the mainland of Alaska, projecting into Behring Sea. There was (46) 46 CRUISE OF THE " RUSH " u unanimous choruy of " Me too, me too," from myself and children. As my husband does not like to refuse us anything reasonable, we were allowed to go. The cutter, one of the small boats, had already gone out, commanded by our gigantic but good- natured " bo'sun " (boatswain), and a crew of men, currying with them the seine to make a " haul " of salmon if they could get them. Soon we were under way. My husband commanded, " Heave your lead !" and soundings were made. " Quarter less five ! — mark five ! — deep six ! — mark seven !-^ten fathoms and no bottom, sir ! " sung out the man at the lead, showing the harbor to be deep enough for good anchorage till within a short distance of the shore. We rowed around in a semicircle, and finally came upon the cutter, where the men were hauling the seine. The net was sixty-five fathoms long. The men rowed out, and stretched it in the form of a semicircle, open towards the shore. At the lines, at either end, pulled five or six men. They had just made a haul as we came up, but had not been suc- cessful. In several attempts they had caught only about a dozen fish — lovely salmon trout, green and silver. On the coast of Texas, where I had accompanied my husband on similar expeditions, the men, in hauling the seine, made tremendous catches of fish of every conceivable kind, once or twice thus capturing a small shark, which created a terrible KINO'S COVE AND KAST ANCHOR HARBOR 47 excitement among both fish and men, therefore I was disappointed in this poor result, especially as I had been told the wonderful Alaska fish stories, such as there being so many in the streams as to crowd each other out on the banks, etc. It was too earlv, the wiseacres said, for salmon. We walked around the pebbly beach for a dis- tance, and picked up and examined the iow shells and sea mosses strewn about. These were neither unusual nor uncommon. There is nothing of con- sequence in that department of zoology found about the Aleutian Islands. When tired of that, we noticed that in a little ravine near by, the snow came down very low and quite within reach We thought it would be amus- ing to make a snowball or two in the middle of June. Therefore at my husband's orders we were rowed over near it, across a little "bayou," as they would call it in the Gulf of Mexico, where the water was as clear as crystal and of a beautiful green color, through which we could see the bottom, all stones, moss and shells, gleaming. white below. We readily climbed to the snow and my boys — and I admit it I also — had great fun with it. The snow was frozen hard and being a steep incline made a delightful coasting place. Having no sleds we stood on our feet and by bending forward a little slid swiftly down that way, at a most exhilarating speed. . Underneath ran a stream of clear cold water, over which the snow was arched. Where here and there #^ 48 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" it had broken through we could look down and see it rushing and plunging on its way to the sea. Far above we could see where it fell over the rocks in a beautiful cataract, and I longed to reach it, but it was too far and steep a climb to undertake just then. All this time it had been raining incessantly, but not hard. Enveloped in " oilskins " and " sou'west- ers," we did not mind it. Oiie gets used to rain among the Aleutian Islands and near Sitka. I found the " sou'wester," though a rather masculine head- gear, was the best for all purposes in rainy weather, and on occasions such as those I did not care much as to personal appearance. A quarter of a mile or so from the stream was a good sized '•' barabara " or underground house, built by a Mr. King, from whose vicinity the harbor derived its name of " King's Cove." But Mr. K had evidently long deserted his two-roomed dwell- ing and gone to seek his fortunes elsewhere. We were now ready enough for lunch, and jump- ing into our boat, hoisted sail, and hastened merrily back to our brave little craft, where we arrived in due time, cold, wet and hungry, but thoroughly convinced " it was lots of fun." The evening of the same day we left our moorings to test the weather outside. After steaming about ten miles and encountering very strong winds and a high sea, with a prospect of much worse beyond, we ran into a safe little harbor called East Anchor Harbor, near Cape Paukoff, where we were completely KING'S COVK AND EAST ANCHOR HARBOR 40 sheltered from the gale. The barometer fluctuated but little, coiitinuing very low. That night the wind blew a perfect hurricane and we were glad to be so safe, though even there the extra anchor had to be " let go." The following morning the weather continued about the same, and there was little to be done all day but wait patiently till the blow was over. The men were ordered to don their best blue clothes and were then drilled by Lieut. W in the first small arm tactics. The " green hands" were too amusing, looking so awkward and, to use an expressive phrase, " sheepish." I read most of the day. Capt. S , the doctor, and one or two others went ashore to prospect. They found some sponges on the shore, which the doctor said came in very nicely for any unlooked- for surgical operation he might have to perform, as his stock was small. They also found several varieties of wild-flowers new to me, though they were not then nearly so plentiful as later in the summer. The walking over the hills is quite difficult in this part of the world, as the ground is covered with old growths of grass, perhaps a foot or two deep, into which the feet sink so far walking grows very tiresome. The second day dawned and still the wind had not perceptibly abated. It was far better to remain in a good snug harbor than to brave the storm outside^ CBmsB OF THX " Rush." 4 50 CRUISE OF THE «'RUSH" particularly as Iho wind was " dead ahead " on our course towards Oonalaska. I begged permission to go ashore ; my request was granted; a boat lowered and the family started, accompanied by our doctor, who vis something of a " Nimrod," and who wanted to try his luck with gun and rod. Therp was little to shoot, but a trout stream was not far away. It was difficult landing, for the cide was out, and the rocks, now above the surface of the water, were covered with the slimy seaweed, so that walking on them without slipping was almost an impossibility. The boat grounded at least ten yards from the beach and we had a difficult time in making our way to dry land. As we were in no hurry we haii ample time to study the beautiful viev/ spread out before us. The point of land sheltering us from the gale was an abrupt hill cutting the sea sharply like a wedge. This was Cape Pankoff. Running back, the land formed almost three-fourths of a circle, bounded by the soft outline of the hills, which here were loss high and rugged than the greater part of the land we had seen. It had stopped raining a little, and only a soft mist spread veil-like over the landscape. Far back we could see through its transparent curtain bolder, loftier peaks, covered with snow. Our little vessel, as she lay in the har- bor, looked lonely in that vast, silent nature, so for- bidding, so chilling in aspect. She seemed a pleasing refuge in my eyes ; the idea of living about here 1 KING'S COVE AND EAST ANCHOR HARBOR 51 made me shudder ; it seemed a vast tomb, over which I could not exult as Bryant does in his " Thanator>sis : " "The hills, rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, etc., Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man." Arriving at the stream I determined to try my luck also at trout-fishing. We each sought what we considered the most likely little hollow the trout would select, and quietly bent all our attention to fishing. Luck was with me at first, but after having caught five very small trout both luck and patience left me, and, surrendering hook and line to one of my little boys, I betook myself to the hills to hunt for wild- flowers. To my selfish satisfaction the doctor also caught only five, which, on our arrival at the ship, he gallantly presented to me. They proved an accept- able addition to our menu at lunch. Near the stream we found two or three '' baraba- ras," which' we exai ined closely. The door or entrance to them is always low, -he floor below the surface of the ground two or more feet. One has to stoop to enter. They are very warm, but without means of ventilation. In these we were told some hunters spent part of t)ieir time when hunt- ing deer, a few being found among the hills, on the peninsula. The barabaras inside resemble an ordi- nary hut, floor, walls and ceiling being of wood, '^he most pretentious have a window or two set in NMWMIhMMiHWii 52 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" the front of them. They are usually dug out of the side of a hill. Those that are not, when nearing them from any other side but the front, look simply like mounds of earth, being entirely covered with it. This is usually grown over with grass, inter- spersed with wild-flowers, as is the surrounding earth. Those built on level ground are more deeply excavated, and one has to descend sometimes sev- eral feet below the surface of the ground on enter- ing. They are often so low inside that it is impossible to stand erect. The time at Oonalaska is three hours later than at San Francisco, and six hours later than at New York city, making San Francisco the centor of the United States, Alaska being part, properly speaking. This is a new idea, for few realize the real geograph- ical position of Alaska. In that latitude the daylight in midbummer lasts till nearly midnight; light comes again at about two. In midwinter lights have to be lit at four o'clock p. m. and darkness lasts till eight or nine a. m. CHAPTER VII. OONALASKA. Ck T DAYBREAK, Sunday morning, the weather ^1^ having become better and the barometer risen a little, we weighed anchor and started towards Oonalaska, or Iliuliuk, as the Russians call it. Fortunately for us the sea was not as rough as we had anticipated, yet the wind was ahead and the ship pitched and tossed in all directions as we breasted the seas, giving to the vessel a most uncom- fortable and disagreeable motion. But we were bound, at last, to this the ** metropolis" of the Aleu- tian Islands, Oonalaska, and therefore submitted cheerfully. Soon we were in Oonimak Pass, which connects the Pacific Ocean with the Behring Sea. It is about ten miles broad, so there was not much certainty of smooth water, as in other and narrower passes. Very much to my regret the^nagnificent volcano, " SLishal- din," on the island of Oonimak, was completely enveloped in fog. This volcano is the most impos- ing and highest of the mountains on the Aleutian Islands and is over nine thousand feet high. We were rewarded to some extent by the view of several very pretty waterfalls, caused by the melting snow, coursing down the sides of the hills, at one moment (53) mmm M CUmSE OP THE "RUSH" a thin line of silver, then, as the wind caught it, shaking it out into a silvery veil of spray. With the sun shining the scenery must be surpassingly beau- tiful. We neared Akutan Island, on which the volcano of Akutan is situated. I could have indulged in a few tears when, as we came opposite an opening through which the volcano on a clear day is plainly visible, we beheld a solid curtain of fog shutting out every vestige of the mountain. But the hope still lingered within me of seeing it on our homeward journey. It is not often that these mountains are free from fog. Nature seems jealous of their grandeur. Flocks of muir or gillemot, the first we had seen, floated on the waves, till approaching them too near, they simultaneously rose and flew in a horizontal line over the wa^er far ahead, and then alighted again, preceding us thus a great distance, displaying in their flight their snow-white breasts, in strong con- trast to the velvety blackness of their rapidly flutter- ing wings. These birds are very numerous about the islands, and lay quite a large and very pretty egg. These are of diflFerent colors, some white, others light green, dark green, and light brown, all spotted in a curious way with black and dark brown spots, so as to appear artificially done. They are a pretty pear shape. At six o'clock p. M. we still had thirty-four miles to go to reach Oonalaska. It would therefore be near eleven before we arrived. At that time it OONALASKA 66 would be about dark so we could see nothing. Reflecting that there were two whole months before me I expected to spend in Oonalaska, and having overcome the wild impatience of extreme youth, I betook myself to bed, " to sleep, perchance to dream" till next morning, when there would be leisure to view the surroundings. However, when we came to anchor, the sudden cessation of all motion caused me to awak?n. I restrained my natural impulse to go on deck, and dosed off, to be re-awakened at three a. m. bv little Emma, who, childlike, wanted to " see" as soon as possible. A few minutes more and I was thoroughly aroused by the news that the United States naval steamer Thetis, directly from Sitka, had come in shortly after the Rush and anchored near us. At this time it was already broad daylight. The clock crept slowly along, pointing an unconscionably long time at four, five and six — too early for civilized and ancient people like myself to think of arising. Half- past six, and my little boys began to stir. At last I might without impropriety get up, dress and go on deck. It was the work of but a few moments. Such a pretty, peaceful scene met my view. Was this quiet, land-locked, cosy little harbor really so far away from 1.11 outward communication with the civilized world? Although it was June, the hills were bare, and but jusc turning green — with a background of snow-covered peaks — and Oonalaska itself was but a little village, yet there were several vessels in VMiffiipi 66 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" port, and the Thetis was alongside of us, as she had been not long before in San Francisco. All was life and bustle. The flags were unfurling themselves to the wind, and every one was talking and laughing in animated tones. Oonalaska was that day awaking from its long winter night of sleep and inactivity. A pleasant sight, truly, and one that will long remain in my mind. The water was so calm it mirrored in its depths the green hills and snowy mountains, causing the harbor to look less large than its actual size and giv- ing it the appearance of a basin, it was so round, deepest in the middle. The harbor is an excellent one, affording shelter to the largest ships, notwith- standing its diminutive size. Moored at a buoy a short distance from shore lay a whale-ship, owned in New Bedford, Mass., but just returned from a disastrous voyage in the Arctic, in quest of whales. She had been crushed by the ice, and only by a miracle preserved long enough to be brought to Oonalaska. There was some uncer- tainty as to what course to pursue in regard to her ; whether to attempt to repair her for another cruise or abandon her altogether. Moored at the dock were the St. Paul and Dorat the Alaska Commercial company's steamers, which carry freight from San Francisco to all ports on the islands in which the company is interested. They are laid up all winter in Oakland Creek, California, running only during the summer months. ^^ ■PWP OONALASKA 57 A bark, which we had seen the previous evening, was on her way, laden with coal, and was expected in every minute. The revenue steamer Bear, which was to have followed us in a few days from San Francisco, was also expected, and the sieaiaeT Bertha. No wonder Oonalaska was in an unusual state of excitement. It was not often so many vessels arrived in this port at once. As soon as practicable the Rush was moored along- side the St. Paul, and nearer the wharf to be at hand for coaling the next day. Oonalaska is the chief and only coaling station on the islands. Steam- ers cruising in the Behring Sea, and those on their way to and from the Arctic, procure their coal there. From the wharf to the company's house there was a good plank walk, an extravagant luxury unknown on most of the islands. It was at this house I was promised, through the kindness of the Alaska Com- mercial Company, a pleasant resting-place for the two months my husband would be cruising in the sea. Naturally I looked quizzically at it, its outward appearance suggested neatness and comfort inside, and I was not disappointed. The company's house, called in Russian the ''bull showy dome," according to the pronunciation, or ** big house," was the nucleus of the village, about which centered all the interest of the place, at least in the estimation of all visitors. A tall flag-pole was reared in front, and at its base, pointing seaward, stood five little old Russian guns. An inclosed 68 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" space near by was proclaimed a croquet ground, to the left and nearest the wharf was a cunning little house, a billiard parlor ; on the right, the store of the village. On either side beyond these were rows of small four-roomed dwellings, built by the company and occupied by natives. They looked neat and comfortable from the outside. They were painted dark red, with now and then u white one. The most of them were divided so as to accommodate two families. Besides these there were three or four more large and elaborate houses, belonging to as many Russian or Creole families. Creole is a name by which those of mixed Russian and Aleute blood are called. The Russian priest and his fam- ily, and the widow and d nghter of the late priest,, formed the elite. The little Greek church, more insignificant^and smaller than the one we visited at Belkpvsky, stands among the houses and barabaras, of the latter of which there are a few still left. The church has a blue cupola, a green roof and yellow walls, an odd feature in the landscape, yet not so shockingly homely as one might imagine from the description. Near the wharf, and grouped around it, are the warehouses belonging to the Alaska Commercial Company, and one to the Government, in which was stored the coal for the use of the men-of-war and revenue cutters. But my eye had simply taken in these details at OONALASKA 59 a cursory glance. I was to learn more minutely all about Oonalaska later. Soon after breakfast Mr. N came aboard and greeted us very cordially. I had met him a year before in Oakland. He invited us ashore and we accepted his invitation without delay. Mr. N had delightful rooms on the first floor of the " big house." Several paintings by great masters hung on the walls ; one by Vereshagin, *' Blessing the Neva," a water color, was exquisite, and in this far-away once offspring of Russia seemed appropriate. I understood the table was all that could be desired, allowing for the fact we were over two thousand miles from a market. If we had not fresh vegeta- bles we had a good substitute, in my opinion, plenty of milk and cream, and, of course, deliciously fresh butter, for there were a number of cows, and almost more milk than could be used. CHAPTER VIII. " THETIS » -"kraysar"- -" BEAR." I WO OR THREE DAYS ,>assed quietly, but ^ pleasantly, while we waited for the Bear to arrive, in calling and receiving calls from the different officers and captains of the ships in port, at which times I was more than entertained with accounts of their world-wide experiences. Captain S , of the Thetis, related some of his adventures on the islands of the south Pacific. He also told some amusing incidents connected with the selection of the navy-yard site on Puget Sound, a duty to which he was detailed previous to his coming north, which, related very humorously in his easy and happy style, were very entertaining. Seattle, Tacoma and Port Townsend were clamorous for the distinction, without taking into considera- tion the first requisite pertaining to a naval station. The recommendations by the different towns as to their particular suitability were especially funny. One of our engineers, Mr. B , and Captain S met in Oonalaska, that far-northern port, after an interval of twenty years, having, when they last saw each other, been together aboard a man-of-war stationed at Honolulu, on the Sandwich Islands. They recognized one another immediately, and after- (60) "THETIS "— " KRAYSAR *'— " BEAR " 61 wards recalled together many an incident which then happened. One evening Mr. N invited my husband and myself to his rooms, where were assembled Captain S and a number of the officers of the Thetis besides one or two other gentlemen. It was a novel position for me, one lady among so many of the opposite sex. I was flattered so much by their kind attentions that I felt that for once in my life I had experienced what it was to be a " belle." I would not allow myself to reflect that it was because I was the only lady present. We were entertained by the sweet strains of a zither, handled in a masterly manner by Paymaster L , of the Thetis. Mr. N played an exten- sive repertoire from Beethoven's Sonatas to Skid- more Guards, on the " organette,7 which instrument is an improvement on a hurdjj^urdy, but requires not much more art in playing, though really ren- dered well by Mr. N 's taste in using the stops for crescendo and diminuendo, forte and piano, in their proper places. Songs of every description were sung — choice ones, such as " McCarty," " Mush Mush," " Give Us Some Time to Blow the Men Down," the latter a * shanty" peculiar to shipboard and really very effective with windlass accompani- ment, as Captain S described it to me. Usually singing by the men is not allowed on board a man- of-war, only on merchant ships, yet occasionally, to cheer the men in some difficult duty, permission is CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" mi given ; often they ask for it. These songs were ren- dered with great spirit, accompanied by the zither ; the chorus was conducted by Mr. N , with his cane as a baton, with the handle of which ho brought any inattentive ones to order by hooking it around their necks. We retired early from the evening's festivities, realizing it was not merely in the society of San Francisco we could have a good time. Finally my husband became impatient at the non- arrival of the Bear, and determined to start north to the Seal Islands immediately. We had already been in port a week, lacking oiie day. She was due the 20th of June. He set Saturday, seven a. m., for sailing day. Saturday dawned, and almost with the first gleams of light a sail appeared in the distance. As it neared us we discovered it was a small schooner ; but on arriving within hailing distance she reported a la^ge steamer nearing port. Naturally we supposed her the long expected Bear, and my husband put off his time of starting, being also deterred by the accounts the captain of the schooner brought of rough weather and a heavy sea outside. Shortly afterward the vessel steamed in, not the Bear, but a Russian man-of-war, the Kray^sar, quite unexpectedly appeared. The Russians, as soon as their national flag was made out, evinced quite a state of excitement, for they expected the bishop was aboard, as news of his coming had reached them *M " THETIS "— " KRAY8AR "— " BEAR " some time before. They ran in and out of their houses not knowing exactly what to do first. As soon as possible a boat put off from the Rush and one from the Thetis, containing each an officer in full uniform, to make their official calls, and on their return brought the news that the bishop was not aboard, which soon spread among the popula- tion, bringing relief to the agitated heart of the priest, for the present bishop was not a favorite, and his coming much dreaded. It seems ho had lost all his property by a fire in the Greek church at San Francisco ; his robes of office, and such things, rob- bed of which the bishop could not officiate with fitting solemnity in the pompous ceremonies as father of the church, conducted always by him when on his pastoral visits. He had therefore given up his trip. The Russiam steamer belonging to the Asiatic squadron was making a cruise in the sea, apparently with no especial object, and was bound for the Com- mander Islands, and had come to Oonalaska to procure coal. Her captain reported the fact that H. M. S. Siviftsure and perhaps the Icarus would be in the Behring Sea during the summer, having just left them at Victoria, B. C. We wondered if with hos- tile intentions, what would become of the little Rush, which, as one of our officers remarked, 'the Swift- sure could hoist aboard for a steam launch with ease." Three lit!le insignificant sealing-schooners lay hauled up on the beach not far away, trophies mmmmm 64 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH [^:iM of seizures made a year or two previous, and was it the3^ and such as they, that created all this corre- spondence between two such great nations as Eng- land and the United States ? The rumor was, that the English ships were coming into the sea to protect their sealers. A Russian officer soon after called aboard the Rush io return our officer's call. To our dismay he spoke not a word of English. We were not linguists aboard the ship. He spoke French and German ; Germ. an was as familiar to my husband and I as Sanscrit ; and French, what person taught French by an American teacher when young, for a year or two, after an interval of ten or more years of abso- lutely no practice, can speak it ? Such was our case. After having launched bravely off with my one avail- able phrase, " Je le comprends un pen, mais je ne le parlo pas," learned by heart out of my first French book,! was so overcome by the relief expressed on his countenance, and the immediate torrent of French he deluged me with, I remained open mouthed and dumb. I smiled a sickly smile, and appealed to my husband in despair ; but he answered not a word, for he spoke " little German and less French," and sat stonily staring at us both. But at length a bright idea occurring to him, he said, "Excuse me," and after disappearing a moment, soon returned, followed by one of our quartermasters, a German, who spoko good English. He acted rs interpreter. ]' ■"iwPFP'Wf' "THETIS "— " KRAYSAR "— " BEAR " 65 and we were soon able to obtain some news my hus- band desired to learn ^rom him. At about seven that evening we heard the cry of " Steamer !" " steamer ! !" from the natives, and sure enough, away out on the horizon, at the entrance to the harbor, was a small speck, from which issued soft wreaths of smoke, and which gradually grew in size as it approached. That surely was the Bear. An hour after, she lay at anchor, and we had boarded her and received what mail she brought — half-a- dozen letters, not one of which was for me, but a number of papers containing news of the dreadful disaster at Johnstown, Penn., wherein so many thousands lost their lives. It was appalling, coming to us, as it did, all at once. Besides that, teh large fire at Seattle ; and the floods so general in the East: at Elmira, N. Y., and in Washington City, where Pennsylvania Avenue was vhree feet under water. It seemed so much had happened during the three weeks we had not heard a word of what was tran- spiring in our own dear native land. For we appeared to be in a foreign land while in Oonalaska, where only Russian and Aleute were spoken, except by those that visit it in ships now and then, and the four or five white men who live there perma- nently. Captain H of the Bear reported a very rough passage. It was especially so for the Bear, laden as she was, with a load, the most of which being on deck made her roll very deeply ; at times shipping Cruise OF THK "Rush." 5 66 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" great seas, that poured down into the wardroom, or officers' quarters, making things uncomfortable for them generally. The Bear was bound for Point Barrow, the most northerly point of Alaska. She had on board the materials with which to construct a house, to be put up there as a refuge for shipwrecked sailors. These were so put together in sections, after a prearranged plan, as to obviate the necessitj'' for an architect, other than one of the officers, who was to superin- tend its erection. The Thetis having received her necessary instruc- tions from Washington, brought by the Bear, and for which she had been waiting, prepared to sail Monday, June 23d, at seven o'clock a. m. The Rush also left at the same hour for the Seal Islands, and the two ships sailed out of the harbor almost abreast. The Thetis was bound in the same direction on her way north to the Arctic, where she was to assist the Bear in the rescuing of and protecting the " whalers," touch- ing first at St. Paul, then at St. Michael's, and so on at other ports, en route to Port Clarence, this side of Behring Straits, where she expected to await the Bear, whicL was to follow her in a few days. Here, too, was to meet her a collier from San Francisco with an extra supply of coal. l\ CHAPTER IX. OONALASKA HAPPENINGS. /tlN SUNDAY MORNING, as the bells chimed ^^ out the hour for services at the little Greek church, passing under my room windows appeared several Russian officers in full uniform, with about fifty sailors, walking in procession, bound to church. "A most respectable practice and worthy to be fol- lowed by officers and men in our navy," I remarked severely to my husband, for no such sight ever met my eye among our own naval vessels. The sailors wore wide sailor collars of pale blue cambric, I thought it. Some one told me that in Russia, on their best suits, they are made of silk. Their caps, like those of the officers, had white crowns. They did not, however, present so neat an appearance as our sailors. The little church must have been full to overflow- ing with such an addition to the usual congregation, though more could crowd in than in our Protestant churches, owing to the fact that there are no seats. Th^ body of the charch is entirely empty. The con- gregation stands all through the service, except at cer- tain parts, when they are required to kneel, bending clear over and touching their heads on the floor. As the congregation do not ail do it simultaneously 68 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" III it is very amusing to see the extraordinary bobbing up and down of so many heads, old and young, men, women and children. The men all stand on one side of the church and the women on tho other, Quaker meeting style. I have omitted to say that the Friday before the departure of the Rush I had taken up my quarters ashore at the " big house." My room commanded a fine view of the entrance to the harbor, where I could see each ship as it first appeared on the hori- zon. Adjoining my bedroom was a little apartment called the " Library," and really deserving the name. Here were kept about three hundred books, standard works, such as all of Dickens, Thackeray, Hawthorne, Irving, Cooper, Prescott, Motley, etc., besides a quantity of miscellaneous literature. These all belonged to the Alaska Commercial Company,, I felt there was no need of my being lonely with so many old friends near. The library made a pleasant sitting-room, where I spent many a quiet, peaceful hour reading, now and then recalled to my surroundings by lifting my eyes to the " eternal hills" about me, on every side, no unlike the environment of my liomo. In the library was an organ, and though I cor- dially detest them, as a general thing, it was much better than no musical instrument at all. The first real bright, sunny day after our arrival, inviting my small son and his playmate, little Emma, to accompany me, I wended my way to the OONALASKA HAPPENINGS 69 ■» hills, the nearest of access, from which I hoped to get a good view of Oonalaska and surroundings. Our way lay along a narrow strip of pebbly beach for some distance, then across a piece of low land, where a herd of some fourteen cows was grazing, and beyond that, towards the little Russian and Aleute graveyard, on a slight elevation. There, among the abodes of the dead, burrow numbers of squirrels, introduced on the island by some one, and which are multiplying so as to prove a great nuisance. The graves were designated, as usual, by the wooden cross, and palings around them. I am reminded here of a custom the Aleutes and Russians are said to have : About once a month, on a certain day, they burn candles twenty-four hours on the grave of their dead. The low hills were green and covered with flow- ers. As we crossed the pasture land it was almost impossible to so pick our way as to avoid crushing the myriads of purple violets springing up every- where, and which here grow larger and more pc loct than I have eveii seen them elsewhere. Thcv, ot course, lack the sweet fragrance which makes the English violet so highly prized. The most showy and common flower is called the *' anemone." There are two varieties, one white, and a purple, different from the ordinarj"^ anemone. An orchid is also found very common, consisting of a cone-shaped cluster of Solferino flowers growing on a short stem, and dark brownish-green leaves, mottled JJILIJ Ji llllli 70 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" with round black spots. There are many other varieties odd and very pretty. Purple and yellow are the prevailing colors. The " monk's-hood, " from which aconite is obtained, is common. The buttercup, dandelion and a species of daisy grow there also. Those, besides the violet and flag, were the only home flowers I found. The variety of flowers which constantly sprang up on the hills, as the season advanced, was aston- ishing. Every few days I discovered a new one, often several in a day, and returned laden with large bouquets of them, with which I adorned my room. They were larger and more vaunting in their beauty than the wild-flowers of California and other States, barring the " escholtzia." My interest being centered so wholly upon the flowers, and having my back turned to the general and larger view of Oonalaska, it was almost with sur- prise I suddenly turned, and beheld the landscape, as it spread out before my gaze. *' How grand it is ! " was my first thought. The mountains covered with snow stretched as far as the eye could reach in almost every direction, being more prominent from my then elevated position, than when on the level of the beach. The water of the harbor was as calm as a mountain lake, and appeared from where I vioweu it, like an enormous river. I could see the entrance to the harbor, where the sea ran betv/een two lines of hills for some miles ; finally, after a sharp turn. OONALASKA HAPPENINGS 71 spreading into a round lake or the harbor, again contracting into a smaller channel, and disappear- ing at last behind the near hills. But this really was the salt sea, and all these hills but branches or arms of Oonalaska Island, for it is shaped like an octopus, with arms spreading in every direction, and a very small body. The low hills around the water's edge were as green as emeralds and set off the grim and snowy heights beyond, in their lofty grandeur, stern, yet protecting, as they overlook the quiot little town. Directly in front of me an extinct volcano reared its crater, into whose depths I had a wild desire to look, being resolved if any opportunity offered itself to embrace it by all means. Back of Oona- laska, and making a decided peninsula of the land on which the town was situated (it was commonly called "the spit") , ran a very respectable sized stream, clear and shallow, and which about two miles from its mouth formed a beautiful fresh-water lake. This stream, of course, provides Oonalaska with a con- stant supply of fresh water for all purposes. The Alaska Commercial Company have laid pipes, con- ducting it to the " big house'' and on down to the wharf, with which more conveniently to supply the vessels. After feasting my eyes on the lovely scene, I returned with the children, a little late for dinner, and had to tender my excuses to my kind host, Mr. N , for delaying them so long. For Mr. N if n I I i^\ 72 CRUISE OF THE *'RUSH" Es-; I I is. the very soul of politeness. He treated me with the most unfailing courtesy and kindness all the time I was in Oonalaska. He had been first at St. Michael's, then at Oonalaska for over sixteen years, spending only the summer season there, howeveri and the winter in KSan Francisco. He has led a varied life and has traveled extensively over the world, beginning in his youth with adventures in New Zealand. Mr. N is a Bavarian, and speaks many languages, and is especially fluent in Russian. To him I owe my sincerest thanks, as well as to Col. B and Dr. C , for a most delightful visit to Oonalaska. The company's warehouses, five or six in number, were, as I have mentioned, at the head of the wharf. In them were kept all the supplies for their various branch stations, and a fine stock of furs. Together with scwii-e otHcers from the Thetis we were shown through them a few days after our arrival in Oona- laska. The fur-house was the most interesting and the first one we visited. This was divided like the rest into two stories. At the entrance the lllst tiling that met my eye was a scale, and jumping on, I dis- covered I had gained six pounds already, in fouf weeks' time, and felt alarmed for the future. All that go up to those regions share the same fate. But to more interesting matters. On our left as we entered was a great heap of the strangest looking Btufif, piles of what looked like huge feathers, eight or ten feet long, the (juill, however: being more OONALASKA HAPPENINGS 73 prominent than the feathery part, and these lashed together into great bundles. It was whalebone. This, as every one knows, is found only in the mouth of the whale, and the feathery or laminated part is used in the capacity of a sieve by the mon- ster, through which he strains his food, ejecting the water and retaining the small fish which form his sustenance. There are in a full grown whale about three hundred of these. This large quantity, almost enough to fill a cart, was from only one whale, and was worth over three dollars a pound, altogether about five thousand dollars. I began to realize the immense profit in a good catch. On our right were piled to the ceiling hundreds of hair-seal skins, from some of which the hair had been shaved, the rest still retaining it. These skins after they are shaved are used by the natives to cover their bydarkas, or skin boats, which I have already described. Uj)stairs, suspended from the ceiling and com- -pletely hiding it; hung over a thousand skins, blue, silver gray, white and red fox, mink and marten. And in several boxes were more packed away. In a corner were some magnificent large silver-tipped wna-otter. It was a sight to make a furrier's h ^art glad. I threatened a raid on the premises some dark nigbl. The most curious thing we saw was a segment of tusk of a mastodon of enormous size, unearthed in Alaska, near St. Michael's. It must have been two yards long, and at the base several 74 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" inches in diameter. The size of an animal able to wield two tusks of such extraordinary size is almost inconceivable to our finite minds. The largest elephant would dwindle into insignificance. The other houses contained, one groceries, another dry goods, and so forth, but none so nearly to my liking as the fur-house. ! CHAPTER X. OONALASKA HAPPENINGS — CONTINUED. QlL this time the town swarmed with Rus- ^1" sian officers and sailors, of whom there were sixteen of the former and one hundred and eighty of the latter. The officers promenaded up and down the length of the plank walk, apparently for exer- cise, while two or three, more energetic, climbed the hills in quest of ganit?. They were all more or less blond in complexion, exhibiting all shades of light hair and whiskers, except the first lieutenant, who was a decided bru- nette, and a giant in stature ; their dress the prosaic European costume. Why is the world discarding all the picturesque for the useful and more convenient ? All the great nations seem fusing into one, in cus- toin'=', dress and manners, and those the English. Oh ! tLat I had lived in the time of knee-breeches ano povvdered wigs, lace ruffles and silver buckles, in the time of the " immortal George." On board the Kraysar was a Russian Prince. His title did not necessarily imply him to be con- nected with the royal family, but he belonged to one of the princely houses. He was but a sub-lieutenant and treated as the rest by his brother officers. Rank and birth make no difference aboard a inan-of-war, a IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^■tf- 4^ ^ 1.0 I.I 11.25 150 ^^^* ^M^H £ ya IIP •a u lyuu liil 6" > / /A ''W '/ Photographic Sdfflices Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STMCT WfSSTIR.N.Y. 145M (716) •71-4503 ^ ^v 76 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" nor did he assume any superior airs. He called on me and was as talkative and affable as could be, in his imperfect English. His manners were very French. Captain B , of the Kraysar, with Mr. N , also called, and the former invited me to visit his ship the following day. At ten, the next day, and at the appointed time, Captain B came after Mr. N and myself, conducting us to the wharf, where, at the boat-landing, we found an immense rowboat, manned by twelve men. The boat was cushioned and carpeted, as was the gangway leading aboard. On arriving at the ship's side — she waa anchored but about one hundred yards from the wharf — I was ushered aboard with as much defer- ence as if I had been a princess — attentions so grateful to any woman's heart. The manners of these Russian gentlemen much resembled those of the French in all their little gallantries, flattering attentions and extravagant compliments. We were shown all over the ship, which was very complete in all her appointments. She had four enormous Russian-made guns, six-inch bore, four smaller Hotchkiss guns, several Gatlings and a torpedo ; the latter bei: ^ y, the first I had seen, interested me greatly. It was fired by means of compressed air. The ship was lighted throughout by the Edison light. Lunch was served in true Russian style, I there first tasted the " black bread " of which we so often . OONALASKA EAPPENISGS— Continued. 77 il read, besides several peculiar dishes unknown to me and essentially Russian. On board the Kraysar was a piano, which I thor- oughly enjoyed both listening to and playing on, with one of the officers, who was an excellent musi- cian. Our duet playing was very amusing ; being unable to understand each other we conveyed our ideas in pantomime. When counting he used the Russian and I the English. The nodding of our heads and keeping time that way was more intelli- gible to both. He treated me to several national airs, which were particularly pleasing, they were such joyous, tripping measures ; some also from Glinka's "Life of the Czar," and the grand Russian national hymn, stirring as the "Marseillaise," though I fear me the downtrodden peasantry rarely exult in it. Was it the playful trick of a giant, when the huge first lieutenant of the Kraysar, on one of the sailors bungling over some part of a great gun he was exhibiting, slapped him right and left over the head with his enormous hands ? " Theirs not to make reply, Theirst but to do and die." I was impressed with the really paternal feeling, however, the captain displayed for his officers, and men also, though it might have been affected. They seemed to look on him with real aflFection. Once in the small boat, when rowing back to shore, he leaned over and impulsively grasped the chin of lone of the men who was rowing near him, in his 78 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" hand, in a caressing way, as one would that of a child to look in his face. None but a foreigner could have done it in so natural a way. Did any one ever see an English or American captain of a man-of-war condescend to an action of that kind ? The sailor smiled as he did it. By accident the flag-pole on the rowboat was caught under a rope by which a vessel we had to pass was moored, and it broke short off. As it sank into the water the captain, clasping his hands, exclaimed, quickly, " Ah ! the Russian flag !" seeing in it at once an evil omen. To my surprise he did not reprimand the " cox-an," by whose carelessness it happened, as he was steering, and besides it, giving also the com- mands to the sailors. The same day the Kraysar left, and it was with regret I watched them sailing past my window, waving their hats in adieu, for they had been very kind to me. Captain H also entertained me aboard the BeaVy showing me all over the ship, and revealing to me, for the first time, her storage capacity. I was astounded at the quantities of barrels she contained, filled with a number of different commodities, such as flour, corned beef, molasses, etc., one hundred and fifty of one, a hundred of another, and so on, supplies for a year for the house to be erected at Point Barrow, already referred to. Besides the house and provisions there was an immense amount of coal aboard. — — — .1^ mm OONALASKA HAPPENINGS-Con&ntted. 79 Captain H has been in command of the Bear three years. Last year ho rendered great assistance to shipwrecked whalers, carrying back to San Fran- cisco, on board of his vessel, one hundred and ten men, whom he rescued from several whale-ships wrecked in a dreadful storm off Point Barrow. From that disaster the necessity of some place of refuge for shipwrecked whalers in the Arctic was plainly proved, and the house and a year's supply of pro- visions for it the result. Twenty years ago Capt. H made his first trip to these regions. His knowledge of the Behring Sea and Arctic Ocean rbout the coast line of Alaska is perfect. Not long after the Bear had sailed there arrived a party of twenty gentlemen from San Francisco on the company's steamer Bertha, having aboard, also, a welcome bag of mail. These gentlemen were commissioners bound to St. Michael's, at the mouth of the Yukon River. Their object was to determine the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions. St. Michael's was the st&i ing point from where they were to navigate the river as far as possible to the boundary ; arriving there the party was to divide, one-half going north the other south. These gentlemen were all Americana. Last year (1888) a party of Canadians came up on a similar journey and determined the boundary in their own way. The Americans now came up to see 80 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" if it was properly done, and in time it is to be decided by joint commission. There were three vessels alongside the dock, on the arrival of the Bertha^ for various purposes. They were all the Alaska Commercial Company's vessels. The SL Paul, bound soon to St. Michael's, and having aboard, beside other freight, a large boiler for a new vessel to be built there. This was for navigating the Yukon and made the fifth vessel built there for that purpose. Two cows and two calves were passengers aboard the St. Paul. The Dora, also bound for St. Michaels with the commissioners aboard, accompanied by Mr. N on a three weeks' trip. Mr. N visits all of ihese places every summer in the interests of the company. The Estelle, a bark laden with coal for the Alaska Commercial Company. The Bertha was going to Kadiak with supplies, and thence to San Fran- cisco direct. The Bertha ordinarily ran between San Francisco and Kadiak only, but had come to Oonalaska on some special purpose. The whale-ship mentioned by me as having been nearly wrecked in the Arctic, had been repaired by the carpenter of the Bear and was towed out by the latter when she started. The poor crew of the whaler were very much averse to starting again on another necessarily hard cruise after whales, and at first refused to work at the repairs, till brought into a more tractable frame of mind, by being kept in irons two or three days, at the end of which time OONALASKA HAPPENINGS- Con^inwcd 81 they preferred work to imprisonment. Poor crea- tures ! I did not blame them, they were much to be pitied I thought. Who would wish to start again on a whaling expedition after such hardships as they had endured, with the miserable pay they receive, which is a small proportion of the profits of the catch, hardly repaying them for their months of hard labor when the catch is greatest, and often los- ing all when unfortunate enough to secure nothing. The life of a sailor in the " fo'castle " (forecastle) of most whale-ships is a dog's life. Their quarters little better than a kennel, into which they often have to creep almost on hand-: and knees, and when inside c8.nnot stand erect. This hole is their only refuge from the weather, and here they often are compelled to sleep, cold and wet, with onlj' coarse, unnutritious food ; called up at all hours of the day and night, and subject to inhuman treatment from the notoriously brutal *• mate." Yet strange to say these men will ship year after year ; they seem to be driven to it by some mysterious fate. It may be a spirit of fas- cination in the adventures and perils encountered. Cruise op tbb " Rush." 6 CHAPTER XI. THE ALEUTES W USSIA TOOK POSSESSION of Alaska and ^1^ these islands through right of discovery. This occurred in 1741. The islands were discovered by Behring, a Russian adventurer, after whom the sea was named. Alaska remained in the possession of the Russians till the year 1867, when it was bought by the United States. Previous to that time the natives of these islands were in a state of slavery and cruelly treated by their masters. They were all Christianized by the Greek Church mis- sionaries. They had been idolaters before their subjugation, and the missionaries found numbers of grotesque idols formed of bone and ivory, rudely carved, which they took good care to destroy, much to the distress of many an antiquarian. The origin of the Aleutes is unknown. Dr. Jack- son of Sitka, who has made the Indians of Alaska and natives of Aleutian Islands somewhat of a study, thinks the Aleutes — ^like the Thlinkets — the tribe inhabiting all the coast from Yakutat to Dixon's entrance — are of' Asiatic origin, though diflPering as a Frenchman does from an Englishman. Such is the opinion of most of those who have lived among (82) flii THE ALEUTES. 88 them. They more nearly resemble the Japanese than any other nation now in existence. The Aleutes and Koniagas, the latter inhabiting the Island of Kadiak and the peninsula of Alaska, are very much alike and together resemble in cus- toms and habits the Eskimos, rather than the other tribes of Indians living on the mainland, the inte- rior and more southern part of Alaska. The Aleutes really do not consider themselves Indians, though the difference is so slight it is hard to know where to draw the line between the '* Siwash " at Sitka and the native of Oonalaska, except that the former as a rule are much heavier set. The tradition in regard to the father of the race of Aleutes is, that he fell from heaven in the shape of a dog. The fathers of the Eskimo tribes seem to have been a bird and a dog. In Mr. Bancroft's *• History of the Native Races of the Pacific States" may be found a historv of the tribes of Alaska, their traditions and customs, etc., at the time of their subjugation by the Russians. It is about their present condition I am writing. The language of the two tribes, Koniagas and Aleutes, is much the same ; a slight difference of dialect is all. In both these dialects there is no dis- tinction of gender. Verbs are conjugated by means of terminals. The chief difference between the dialects is in the formation of the plural of nouns. The Aleutes of the more eastern islands enunciate rapidly, at Oonalaska they drawl. It is from Mr. Ban- •nkPWi^ 84 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" croft's history I have quoted the last few facts con- cerning the language, not having been long enough among them to make any study of it myself. Most of the Aleutes speak a barbarous Russian, besides their own language. Very few even of the Creole fam- ilies speak pure Russian. This I was told by those who were conversant with that language. The physical condition of most of the Aleutes is dreadful. There are a great many feeble men and women among them. They are bent and crippled with rheumatism ; many die of pneumonia, and consumption is very general. There are few that seem strong and hearty, and well built. The con- stant dampness and their carelessness in regard to their health must be the cause. Little children go about, winter as well as summer, barefoot and half- clothed. Nature cannot be disregarded in this way, and will assert herself in time. The lives of these poor people must be one long misery. If they fall ill they are left to die alone and uncared for, at least in places where there is no white physician. They do not seem to fear death and, when ill, make no effort to get well. The Aleutes do not now have a ** medicine man," though I believe they did in former years. I have mentioned the fact that vessels coal at ^onalaska. When there are not sufficient men in the town — many go away in the summer to hunt and fish — the women lend a hand at coaling the Bhios. It looked oddly enough to see a long line of wm^m THE ALEUTES. 85 them with their wheelbarrows, hard at work convey- ing the coal back and forth. Some carried it in baskets, which they rested on their hips. Both men and women smoke cigarettes and drink an intoxicating liquor of their own concoction called " quass." It is made from yeast, produced from potatoes. This is allowed to ferment, forming a kind of beer, to which is added fruits of whatever kind can be had, principally berries. Currants and raisins are also used when they can be obtained. This " quass,*' I was told, if made in a cleanly man- ner, is a very palatable drink. It is made in barrels. At the Seal Islands is made a liquor from sugar, therefore the latter is never allowed the natives, except on rare occasions, and then in small quanti- ties. They often save this till enough is procured to make the liquor, when they have a grand carousal. Both kinds are very intoxicating. These Indians, like most others, are extraordinarily fond of liquor of any sort. They will give all they possess for a bot- tle of whisky. One man offered to pay two twenty- dollar gold pieces for one drink. But liquor is not sold on the islands at all. Sitka is governed by the same law, though there it has not been enforced. The native customs are fast dying out. When by themselves the Aleutes fall back into their primitive habits, especially when under the influence of liquor. Their dances are very wild and absurd. In their antics they resemble monkeys more than human beings. They often personate animals of different 86 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" kinds. Birds are represented by attaching wings to their bodies. Thus attired they jump and spring about to weird music, produced by one of the audience, who plays on a lude instrument somewhat resembling a tambourine, made of a piece of skin drawn tightly over a frame. This is beaten in a rythmic way with a stick. The women sometimes join in the dance, the men circling around them, while they keep up a peculiar motion by balancing backward and forward on their toes. Such dances are observable among the Alas- kan tribes generally. They are now almost obsolete among the Aleutes. Last year some rescued Indian hunters were being conveyed on board the Rush from Sitka to Victoria, on which occasion they were requested by the otficers and men to give a war-dance. Diving under the " fo'castle," they appeared a few moments afterward streaked with paint, arrayed in wings and various other adorn- ments. The dance was the most repulsive sight he ever witnessed, my husband said. These Indians were of the Nit-Nat and Clayquot tribes of Vancou- ver Island. The weapons used by the Aleutes are the bow and arrow, and spear. The latter are tipped with bone. Attached to a string fastened on the handle of the spear is a small piece of ivory, obtained, Pii:vlly, from walrus tusks, about two or three inches 'ong, with several sharp teeth on one side like a '^aw. These are inserted in the end of the spf {:r when I ^1% THE ALEUIES. •? about to bo thrown. They penetrate the skin of the seal and remain fastened to the body when the spear is drawn back. The seal, diving immediately, car- ries the tip of bono wiili him, but with the string fastened to the spear, and hy which the hunter has already secured him. he is pulled again within reach. The men used to wear knives, the blades of which were of stone, sharpened to a very thin edge. Not long since the Aleutes embalmed their dead. Mummies are occasionally still found in caves. Dr. C , at Oonalaska. told me he himself had once found parts of several, but not in a sufficiently complete state of preservation to be kept. Their method of embalming mummies was very simple, being merely to stuff them with grass. They were then put into caves in an upright or sitting posture. Another form of burial was to elevate the bodies on poles above the ground, as the Eskimos dispose of their dead. The dress of the Aleute women and men is not especially characteristic. The women wear calico dresses made in the plainest possible style and with- out much regard to fit, usually rather short, their nether garments — rags, rarely changed. Over their heads, in work-day costume, they wear little shawls, folded diagonally, and fastened under the chin. Their gala array consists of a calico, often a woolen, dress of a bright color, a shawl about their shoulders, folded diagonally, and a silk handkerchief on their 88 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" I heads, secured also under the chin. They seem to revel in the latter, the more brilliant the color the more it is prized. When grouped together, as one sees them at church, the array of color is truly bewildering. One will have a solferino colored dress, a red plaid shawl, and a grass-green handkerchief on her head. Thus arrayed she is the admiration and envy of all the rest. Like most Indians they admire anything orna- mented with beads. Many wear nets over their hair, on which are strung beads of bright colors. The men attire themselves in the ordinary Ameri- can dress, covered when hunting with the kamlica or skin-coat, I have described elsewhere. On rare occasions they wear a garment called a " parka" — usually pronounced parky — made of the skins of birds, which are nicely tanned, and deftly sewn together. These are also made of the skins .of small animals, such as squirrels and the muskrat. The natives of Attoo and Atkha still wear these bird-skin and muskrat parkas to some extent. Both men and women often wear a boot made of skin, extending to the knee. The sole is made of the flipper of the sea-lion, and the top of the boot of the lining of its entrails, so much used by them. They are called " mazinkas." The Eskimos wear a similar boot, called " trabasars," the leg of which is made of fur. The men still wear at times immense hats, some 4- THE ALEUTES. 89 of which are of wood, but most of them made of skin stretched over a frame. The peculiarity of these is the very wide and pointed brim at the front, extending far out over the eyes. It is made thus, as a protection from the light of the. sun, when it shines, for there is so much gloom the greater part of the year the sunlight appears to blind them. Twenty years ago the Aleutes dressed and lived more as the Eskimos do now, farther north. Their contact with European life among the Russians has necessarily greatly modified and changed both their dress and customs. The Aleutes do not have dogs among them as do all the other Alaskan tribes. The Indian dogs are a feature of every Indian village from Point Barrow to the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. They sleep and eat with their masters, and are of as much impor- tance as the very children themselves. I can imagine no cause why this is so. The Eskimos utilize their dogs, but among the Thlinkets they are not even ornamental. On the Seal Islands no dogs of any kind are allowed, because they scare away the seals. CHAPTER XIT. ■■■■■I THE ALEUTES — CONTINUED. tilE FONDNESS THE ALEUTES have for raw fish is ineradicable. They are not an intelli- gent race and the quantity they eat of this article disproves the theory that "fish make brains." The flesh and blubber of the seal, sea-otter and parts of whales are bread and meat to them. They are epicures, preferring the flesh when " gamey." They also eat the sea-urchin and other shell-fish as we do raw oysters. The octopus or devil-fish, is consid- ered a great delicacy ; certain parts only are eaten. Jelly-fish are in demand, perhaps for dessert. The Aleutes are fond of fat of any kind and greedily devour candles. Our chief-engineer told me he knew an Indian to drink the lard-oil used about the machinery in the engine-room. This fondness for fat is universal among the tribes of Alaska, including the Eskimos. Even after living some time among white people, they will return to their old habits. The following incident was told me by a lady, who lived on one of the Aleutian Islands for several months: A white man had a native wife, who became a very good cook under his instructions, for he was a man of cultivated taste, having known plenty. She would (90) / THE ALEVTES—Contimied 91 cook his meals and set the table nicely with cloth and dishes of various kinds. However, she could not be induced to sit at table and eat with him, but would wait till he was through and had gone away, then calling in her friends they would seat them- selves on the floor, rejecting the well-cooked viands, and munch raw salmon with the greatest satisfac- tion. They retain these tastes all through life. Eating raw fish is a custom of other more southern islands of the Pacific. A similar incident was related to me of a woman who was a native of the Sandwich Islands. The Aleutes are not a fierce and savage race, but seem quiet and docile. This, however, is said to be the effect of their long subjection and oppression by the Russians, for their original nature was war- like. They are very sullen at times, and will sit for hours gazing out on the water, motionless, as if carved from stone. This stolidity, as is generally known, is a peculiar trait of all aboriginal American races. Mention has been made before of " Touchy Ann," Mrs. B 's assistant at Squaw Harbor. She was of a very sullen disposition. After living a whole winter with her, the woman was as unapproachable as in the beginning. Mrs. B had at fir^t tried to make friends with her, being the only woman within six or seven miles, but she would not speak when addressed, though seeming to understand. She uttered nothing beyond monosyllables but half- 92 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" 1 -*< a-dozen times in as many months. Once when working for a white man at Ounga, he was so incensed at her, after repeated efforts to make her answer him, he said, 'Til kill you if you don't speak." Then she said, " You can kill me and I won't." Yet, generally speaking, the Aleutes, among whom I lived at Oonalaska for two months, appeared to me to be bright and lively in disposition. To be sure, there is such a mixture of Russian blood among them, it is difficult to select a genuine Aleute. The shyness being worn off, seeing me as they did daily, for any passing nod or word of greeting I gave them, they answered me with a bright smile, appear- ing to appreciate it. It was amusing to hear the younger children, in imitation of my two boys, address me as " Mamma." They evidently thought it my name. During the rule of the Russians the natives were utterly cowed and subdued. They scarce dared look into their masters' faces when addressed, the lash was kept in such constant use. On the trans- fer of Alaska to the Americans, tJie Indians, little understanding their happy release, continued for some time to deport themselves in the old way to cheir new masters. Mr. D told me that twenty years ago on visiting any of the islands he was received with more deference and servility than if he had been an admiral. Emulating the example of Sir Walter Raleigh, they would spread their gar- 1 THE ALEUTES— Continued 93 ments, or whatever was at hand, over the mud, that he might walk over it dry shod. Or again, he would be lifted on their shoulders, and in this triumphant manner be carried long distances. It was not many years, however, before they realized their independ- ence. Now the motto is with them, as everywhere else throughout our broad land, " Liberty, equality, fraternity." Old " Rufe," the former chief of the Oonalaska tribe, is quite a character. He is by birth a Sibe- rian, from the vicinity of Behring Straits. A pomp- ous, stout old fellow, who wore drawn over his other habiliments a huge yellowish woolen shirty which doubled his already generous proportions. With, besides that, high top boots, a cap, and a pipe in his mouth he presented a most remarkable appear- ance. He has acquired European manners, and never failed to make me a profound bow, at the same time lifting his cap. His personal appearance and manners were so at variance the contrast was ludi- crous. Bufe was a bete noir to the small fry of the village, who vanished at his approach. The old chief is a pensioner of the company, and in remembrance of his past services they are all very kind to him. The old fellow often speaks of the good times now, as compared with the " Rus- sian time," as he calls it, and shakes his head as if wishing to cast out some unpleasant remembrance of days gone by. He seldom becomes confidential except when under the influence of a goodly allow- 94 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" ance of " qiiass," when he will tell how one of the agents of the olden time used to hold him account- able for the good conduct of the other employes of the company, and would take him to the "big house" and whip him when any of them neglected their work. The event of his life, however, was a visit to San Francisco. On his return he described the cable cars as being propelled by horses underneath the ground. He was ever after of much more impor- tance in the eyes of his tribe. I will relate here an anecdote of an Indian from the Thlinket tribe. Another Indian killed a white man, for which he was taken to Sitka, tried, found guilty and sent to San Quentin — a Staters prison near San Francisco — for two years. On his return he expatiated, for the benefit of his brother Indians, on the wonders he had seen. Whereupon one of the Indians, seeking similar fame and wanting to see the world, attempted to kill another white man. He was prevented, however, and on inquiring of him what he wanted to kill him for, he replied **He wanted to go to San Quentin, too." The ceremonies pertaining to the Greek church are strictly observed by all, both Aleutes and Russians. At Christmas time they go about from house to house singing carols, if so they may be called. This is kept up for several nights. Near that time they have a grand carnival, or something resembling one. Assuming various grotesque costumes and disguises m ^ -Vy-WfiWIP "^WlPrTT THE ALEVTE8— Continued 96 they are ready for excess of every kind. The "quass" flows freely. One style of costume is a suit made of coal-sacks sewn together. They also put on the skins of wild animals. Immediately preceding Lent they walk in proces- sion with lighted candles and burning incense, con- ducted by the priest, who sprinkles holy water on every door and on everybody he encounters. At Easter they wander to and fro kissing one another promiscuously, with three kisses, one on each cheek and another on the mouth. The doctor at Oonalaska relates that one Easter the priest came to him for some ointment to put on his lips, saying he had a great deal of kissing to do, and wanted to prevent any danger of contracting any lip disease they might have. A. Greek marriage ceremony is very quaint. The bride and groom hold lighted candles in their hands, and on their heads wear tinsel crowns. These are always of such an enormous size, unless the heads of the happy pair are unusually large, they are apt to slip over the ears down on the neck. They stand each with one foot on a red handker- chief, which afterward h claimed by the priest's assistant. The priest intones a long and monoto- nous service in the Russian language ; at intervals thtf bride and groom say ' da" (yes), while at every few sentences from the priest the choir of men chant a few words. Musical instruments are never used in the Greek church. Among these Russians no * 4 'i ■ p^p 96 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" female singers are said to be allowed. But at Sitka, while attending services there, I distinctly saw some two or three half-grown girls, barely hidden by the screen, behind which the choir is placed. The sing- ing at the latter place is very good indeed, they have a really musical leader, which may account for it. At Oonalaska, while I was there, the leader was away, which was a fortunate circumstance. Doctor C told me, as the singing was worse when he was present. It was fairly excruciating as it was. When baptized the infants are made to swallow a teaspoonful of the holy water. During this inter- esting operation the assistant holds the baby's head while the priest administers the dose. For every death that occurs at Oonalaska a coffin has to be made, none being kept on hand. While I was there a poor woman lay dying of con- sumption. Anticipating her death, her husband began her coffin several days before she died. The funeral procession passed the " big house," and I caught a glimpse of a gaudily trimmed coffin, on which was festooned pale blue cambric, caught up with bows of ribbon. Over the body was thrown a colored cloth. Four Indians, the husband being one supported the coffin, while behind followed a few stragglers. Thus wended the sad procession to the burial-ground, a mile or so distant. They chanted funeral dirges all the way to the grave. The moral condition of the Aleutes is very low. Most of them seem to have very little idea what THE ALEVTES— Continued 97 morality means. The Greek church does not sanc- tion immorality exactly, but it does not interfere to any great extent, for it is a fact that it exists ; and the church exists, and notwithstanding the mriny religious observances kept up, immorality does not decrease. On the islands farther to the westward, such as Atkha and Attoo, are found a species of grass which the natives deftly weave into very pretty baskets. These they ornament in cross-stitch with different colors of wool or yarn. They are entirely different from the basket-work done by the tribes of Alaska proper. They use no dyes of any sort. This grass does not grow all over the islands, and the basket- makers are thus confined to very few of them. In his report of " Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska," Ivan Petrof speaks of a bas- ket made by an old woman of Atkha, on which she worked six years. It was a marvel of patient industry and beauty. The grass used in the finest work is often not much thicker than a thread. Exquisite cigarette cases are made thus, but these are very rare, because of the great length of time and labor necessarily taken to make them. Aside from that there is no market for them. The natives are generally very ingenious at mak- ing fancy articles, of the silky skin obtained from the intestines of the sea-lion. We were shown by a gentleman the pericardium of a bear's heart, so care- fully skinned it was intact. I never imagined a Crttibb of the "Rush." 7 98 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH' m: bear's heart to be so large, inflated it was almost as large as a good-sized football. With this thin skin they make tobacco pouches, needlework cases, and other fancy articles, ornament- ing many of them with colored silk thread in a chain stitch embroidery, and fastening on them the finest of fleecy white feathers, obtained from the breast of the sea-gull and other birds, which they put on like a fringe. This is a favorite trimming with them, and gives a very light and pretty effect. I was kindly presented by a gentleman Mr. B , living at Oonalaska, and in the employ of the Alaska Commercial Company, with two beautiful cigarette cases made by the Indians of Atkha. One was of straw exquisitely braided, each strand being scarce thicker than a thread. It takes the maker an entire winter to finish one of them, so much time and care is required. They are for that reason very rare. The other case was ingeniously woven of colored embroi- dery silks in stripes of different colors. The warp was of the straw, the woof of the silk. Aside from the above-mentioned articles very little else is now made on the Aleutian Islands in the line of curios, and these are becoming more scarce every year, there being no demand there for them, as at Sitka. t ;, mmmmmmmm. F CHAPTER XIII. GOVERNMENT OP THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. |HE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS is the name only ^ properly applied to the western half of that group of islands extending from the peninsula of Alaska to nearly the Asiatic coast, and dividing the Pacific Ocean from Behring Sea. The eastern half of the islands, not including Kadiak, are called the Shumagin group. They are commonly referred to, however, as the Aleutian Islands. The first group comprises Attoo, Atkha, Oonalaska and Akutan ; the second group are Ounga, Nagai, Popoff, Seminofif and Senahk. The ones I have mentioned are the largest and most important. Being part of Alaska the Aleutian Islands are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Alaska, who lives at Sitka, its capital. But separate Govern- ment officials are appointed at Oonalaska and Kadiak. At Oonalaska there is a deputy collector of cus- toms appointed by th e collector of customs at Sitka, a deputy marshal, appointed by the marshal at Sitka, and a justice of the peace, perhaps more properly speaking a United States Commissioner. The latter is empowered to try civil suits when less than $250 is at stake. Any more serious cases are referred to (99) ■Hi 100 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" Sitka. In the case of the murderer at Sand Point who shot at Mr. O'B , and also shot at and killed an old man, Mr. Dingley, on the same occasion, which circumstance I have already related, the murderer was taken to San Francisco, and before a United States Commissioner. The evidence being sufficient to warrant it on the statements of several witnesses, he was held for trial and taken from there to Sitka. As there is no direct means of communi- cation between Oonalaska and Sitka, several months often elapse before anything can be done, the only recourse being to send the criminals to San Fran- cisco, and from there to Sitka. No vessels run between San Francisco and Oonalaska during the winter, and only one once in every six or eight weeks during the summer months. Therefore jus- tice is very dilatory. At the Island of Kadiak there is appointed another deputy collector of customs. He is the only Government official at that place. There is no physician at Kadiak, or rather St. Paul's, on Kadiak Island, though the town is more often referred to as Kadiak. It is strange that in a place of its importance, as compared with other towns in Alaska, there is no resident physician there. The Government appoints a school-teacher at St. Paul's, and the school is very good. There are no Protestant mii^sionaries, but there is a Russian priest. ♦ The Alaska Commercial Company have at the I ^immf ^mmmfm' GOVERNMENT OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 101 different stations on the islands their own employes, who in a measure exercise an influence over the Indians. At all these places the company own a number of houses, and have therefore the right and can assume enough authority to compel them to keep their habitations clean. The company at their own expense support a doctor at Oonalaska, and also one on each of the islands of St. Paul and St. George. At Ounga and Belkovsky, not to mention a number of smaller places, there are no physicians at all. The Seal, or Pribylof, Islands are in charge of a special Treasury agent and three assistants. These four live on the islands during the summer, but in winter only one agent remains on each island. The Alaska Commercial Company have a superinten- dent, formerly Dr. McI , from Vermont, who for twenty years has held that position, but who lately resigned on account of ill health. Ho spent his summers at the Seal Islands and winters at home, ill Vermont. Under him were several assistants, who besides performing other duties helped kill the seals. An agent appointed by the Alaska Commercial Comj>any resides at Oonalaska. This is Mr. N , who b in charge of, and looks after, the company's interests at every station in that district, compris- ing the following places : Oonalaska, Ounga, Belkov- sky and St. MicuaePs These are the principal ones, the rest are of less importance. There are stations as far away as Atkha and Attoo, ■ ■" « "■ iMHnan^nsaHnBip i ! 102 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" f i '[, f f i .... ■ i i f(l but they are visited only once a year. At each of these places are stores, the supplies for which are furnished by the Alaska Commercial Company. To these stations are brought the furs, gathered by the hunters of each island. Mr. N makes a yearly trip to each of the principal stations, gathering up all the furs secured during the year, which are conveyed to Oonalaska, and from there to San Francisco on the company's steamers, the only direct means of communication between there and the Aleutian Islands. At Kadiak there is a similar agent and special communication with San Francisco by one of the company's steamers, running between these places only. At this center are gathered in all the furs from Kadiak Island, Cook's Inlet and other points in that vicinity, where foxes of dififerent kinds and other animals are plentiful. At Oonalaska the schoolmaster is supported by the Alaska Commercial Company, as are also those at St. Paul and St. George islands. At Belkovsky the schoolmaster is supported by the Greek Church. At Ounga by the United States Government. It is probably too poor to support one elsewhere. Within the past few months the Methodist Mis- sionary Society has sent a gentleman and his wife to Oonalaska. The gentleman is to be the schoolmaster, and his wife the missionary. The building to be erected is to cost $2,000. Let u.« hope the poor benighted beings on the other islands may I f 1 GOVERNMENT OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 103 soon have similar privileges offered them. There are no other missionaries on any of the islands, and none have ever been sent, to my knowledge, although the Aleutian Islands have been in our possession for over twenty years. Atkha under the Russian regime was the central depot of the fur trade of the Aleutian Islands and then of more importance. The islands of Atkha and Attoo are now entirely neglected. They are visited only once a year 'by one of the Alaska Commercial Company's steamers. Formerly the revenue cutter paid a yearly visit there, when stationed for the sum- mer in Behring Sea, but at present she is too fully occupied in bringing depredatory ''sealers" to justice, to devote the time necessary to do so. On these islands the people are very poor, destitute of nearly every earthly comfort, yet they cannot be persuaded to leave their homes, though they have been offered inducements to move farther east, nearer the more accessible parts of the islands. They subsist chiefly on fish. Supplies of food and clothing are taken them on the yearly trip of the company's steamer. Their number is very small, the population of both Atkha and Attoo aggregating but about two hundred souls in all. Attoo, the westernmost of the Aleutian islands, is but three hundred miles from Petropavlosky, a Rus- sian possession on the Siberian coast. In a late law, but just passed, it is required that the Governor of Alaska visit the Seal Islands once a 104 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" year. It is to be hoped he will not confine his visits to these islands alone. They are the most prosper- ous. The new Governor of Alaska impressed us all as an upright, noble Christian man, and we hope he will be enat'iSd to do much good among these poor people, interceding in their behalf with the United States Government for j greater supply of funds, that they may have both teachers and preachers sent them. After the transfer of Alaska to the United States, Government troops were stationed at the following four places : the Seal Islands, Oonaiaska, Kadiak and Sitka. The vandalism displayed by them in the destruction of the old Russian property left behind was worthy of those old Vandals, who were such famous destroyers as to have left to us, for so many ages, their nam3, as a synonym for allacts of wanton destruction and pillage. Evidences still remain of their atrocious conduct, not only in visible outward signs but in the minds of many old residents of these places. At the Seal Islands the natives have almost for- gotten the military occupation of 1869-70. Not so, Mr D , in whose mind remains vivid the picture of the lieutenant in command, "who in an awe inspir- ing manner marshaled his army of five men, with all the pomp and display of a full-fledged brigadier. But the destruction by the revenue officers," Mr D went on to say, " of several barrels of liquor found on the island about that time will always be •^ 4\ 1 1 \ GOVERNMENT OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 105 Temembered by the natives as the greatest calamity that ever befell their beloved country." Each village has its " chief" or •♦ toyon," who is exempt from labor, and is, to use a term expressive and generally understood, "the boss," as it Tere, to whom all minor difficulties are refeired. He speaks for his tribe. In this capacity served " Old Rufe" till he was deposed, in favor of a younger man. He still, however, retains some authority. The system and order kept up by the Alaska Com- mercial Company at all its stations, and the gen- eral politeness and gentlemanliness of its employees combine to make all who visit these islands hope that the company will have their lease renewed. It could not be in better hands. The population of the Aleutian Islands, with- out including Kadiak, is estimated at about 2,200 ; that is the total number of whiter, Creoles and Aleutes together. The proportion of white men is comparatively very small. The Aleutes number about 1,800. I m^fmm CHAPTER XIV. THE FOURTH OP JULY AT OONALASKA. tHE FOURTH OF JULY dawned clear and lovely, strange to aay, for it is so proverbially rainy. Put away somewhere in one of the ware- houses of the company were found several packages of cannon crackers, which were kindly presented to Emma and my boys, to fire at pleasure, and with which the festivities of the day were opened. Crowds of the native children were attracted, and great was their delight on being allowed to have some to fire also. About ten A. m. there was a drill with the guns aboard the Rushf preparatory to the salute to be fired at noon. Many of the men were novices, as they had but just shipped before leaving San Francisco. At twelve promptly, the principal gentlemen of Oona- laska having been invited aboard, a salute of twenty- one guns was fired by our four guns, ten seconds between each shot. The salute could not have been fired with more precision and absence of confusion by old men-of-war's men, and we felt a thrill of exultant pride in our country, in whose honor the guns boomed out on the still air, awakening echoes among the vast silent hills on every side, so long dumb under the tyranny and oppression of years. (106) t THE FOURTH OF JULY AT OONALASKA lor V Our salute was bravely answered by the five little Russian guns at the foot of the flag-pole. Later in the afternoon our " Gatliug gun " was put upon trial. First it was wheeled up the plank walk, mounted as it was on a carriage, in martial order by eight of our men, in command of Lieut. D , and drawn up under the American flag in front of the company's house,where amid the hurrahs of the spectators,consistingof most of the inhabitants of the town and sailors from the different vessels, a volley of five hundred shots was fired. The thun- der of the continuous rounds from the marvelous little gun was fairly deafening, as it swept in an arc from side to side over the water, tearing the rocks at which it was aimed, some thrc^ hundred yards dis- tant. I shuddered as I thought of the destruction of human life it could cause should it be aimed at the deck of a vessel or a regiment of men on a field of battle. The destruction of man by man is becom- ing an art as implements of war are becoming more and more perfect. Perhaps, after a time we may leave it to the guns themselves, since they have invented self-feeders and pit against each other the finest of mechanisms, rather than the bravest of human beings. Still later in the afternoon we were all on the qui vive at the news that three schooners were entering the harbor. There were now left in port only the Rush and a bark unloading coal from San Francisco. The schooners were unexpected arrivals and at first we 108 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" were at a loss to determine what they were, or what was their purpose in coming. They proved to be pru- dent and sagacious *' sealers,'* who, rather than brave the arm of the law, in the shape of the undaunted little Rush, preferred to come in peaceably and dis- cuss the extent of their liabilities, should they insist on venturing on prohibited ground in quest of seals. My husband sent a lieutenant to board them and distribute the printed proclamation regardir3 the " catching of the seal in the waters of Behring Sea, as punishable by fines, and confiscation, etc." Reports were brought by them of forty or more sealers at Sand Point, of whom a number were British, and many intended running the risk of being caught, and sealing where they pleased. This was not pleasant news to Captain Shepard, who pre- ferred to make no captures if possible, but who, as usual, was determined to do his duty. This he told them plainly. The sealers v\rere all American vessels. One cap- tain remarked, " He would stay a week or more at Oonalaska if he thought there was any probability of the Rush bringing back a ** Britisher," for the Rush soon sailed away again on one of her cruises. She was usually absent on her cruises to Seal Islands and vicinity about ten days or tv/o weeks. Sure enough the three, and one or two who came in later, did stay in hopes of seeing a captive Englishman brought back. The American sealers were so exasperated last - THE FOURTH OF JULY AT OONALASKA 100 year by the policy of President Cleveland, who mak- ing it understood generally that seizures would be made in Behring Sea, as in the year previous (1887), and so discouraging them from coming north, gave sealed orders to the captains of the Bear and the Rush, to be operied on arriving at Oonalaska, to the effect that no seizures were to be made. At the same time, the Canadians being in some way informed the sea would be opened till further legis- lation in the matter. Thus the latter had the Sea to themselves, and made splendid catches, while our sealers remained at home. Therefore, this year many had started north in a vindictive mood, and with the idea, perhaps, the same game might be played in '89. One day, while the Rush was away on one of her trips to the Seal Islands, Dr. C proposed we should go to "The Forest." My curiosity was aroused, as not a sign of such a thing as a tree was to be seen anywhere. It was a bright day, and with Emma, an unfailing companion, and my little boy, we started. We rowed across the harbor, landed, fastened our boat, and climbing a little ele- vation, what was my surprise to see a group of ever- greens spreading their branches over a small area, carpeted with pine needles. How delightful to the eye seemed those lonely little trees. They were gnarled and stunted, but still trees, and growing, though slowly. They were planted some fifty or sixty years ago, but they do not spread. The cone does 110 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" not arrive at perfection. We seated ourselves under their shade, though not for protection from the sun, whose mild beams were more grateful than other- wise, but for the novelty of the thing. We then spread out and ate the scanty lunch I had provided at the last minute. In these trees owls make their nests very early every spring, for they had abandoned them by the time we were there. Near the trees there was a small lake, which added to the pretty picture, inclosed, as it was, by the low, green hills. With the trees near by, it looked like a bit of home scenery. On one of the clear days we had, a day such as the Neapolitans could scarce rival, I wandered to the hills. The sea, shimmering in the golden light of the sun, was of that deep turquoise blue one reads about, but so rarely sees. The sky above was one great opal of flaming fire about the horizon, deepen- ing toward the zenith into the color of the sea. The sea was framed in by snow-covered mountains, glit- tering in their white purity, through the translucent atmosphere against the tinted background of the sky ; at their feet nestled the lower hills, " clothed in living green." The shadows thrown by them and reflected in the clear blue water below, in varying shades of purple and gray, were indescribably beau- tiful. In a warm, sheltered side of a hill overlooking the lovely harbor and surrounding hills, among THE FOURTH OF JULY AT OONALASKA 111 which the sea flowed calm and beautiful, I found a soft, dry seat on the rich, thick carpet of moss and dried grass, which covers the hills where I lay dreamily looking at the enchanting view spread out before me. I asked myself, could this be the same spot which, till within so short a time had been so cold, gloomy and wintry, so dreary and uninviting, now, by the magic of the sun's light, transformed, as if by the waving of a fairy's wand, in our childish fairy tales, to this scene of dazzling beauty ? Wild- flowers bloomed at my feet and all around me in profusion. The sun's warm beams diffused a gentle heat, which made all nature seem to expand and grow — each little flower lifting its face to greet the unwonted blessing. ^■■■i CHAPTER XV. THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS. ^ATURDAY, JULY 13th, the Rush returned ta Oonalaska from one of her cruises, and my husband informed me he had captured "a Brit- isher." This news afiforded intense satisfaction to the awaiting American sealers in port. Her name was the Black Diamond. A sailor from the Rush, called Hakinson, was put aboard, all spears and weapons of every kind were taken from the hunters on board of her, and she was sent to Sitka for law proceedings. There were seventy-eight sealskins found aboard. Twenty Indian hunters from Van- couver Island and a few white sailors made up her crew. The former were not at all pleased to have their weapons taken from them. The Black Diamond had refused at first to stop when commanded to do so, and two of the guns were ordered to be run out, on seeing which prep- arations, she surrendered at once. '* That's the way we make 'em stop, ain't it, papa?" cried our little five-year old, who accompanied his father on that cruise, and jumping up and down, clapping his hands, when on running out the guns the Black Diamond " hove to." It was doubtful if with only one man aboard to take her to Sitka, he would not ( n2 ) ' •■t » I 73 O CO ■;;; '* ■<: ^^ -^ '■ 2 ■« /-Aw ' I ^'^ ' p CHAf'TEK XV. THE FIRST • EIZUKl. « \'P OTHER MATTERS. ^.A'J /;|'.ATUHDAY, JULY *, the i^ws^ returned to ^^j^ Oonalaska from on • oi' her cruises, and my husband informed mo he had captured "a Brit- isher." This now-' affordel ii tense satisfaction to the awaiting Ain> ^ was the Black Di >. ■ called Ilakinaon, va? weapons of every kind vr.* on boord of her, an«t ' ' proceedings. Tboro wt found aboard. Tver;: couver Island and a fev lers in port. Her name V sailor from the Rushy board, all spears and - taken from the hunters • »'nt to ; .tka for law vtty-eigiit sealskins s. hunters from Van- . rs made up her crew. Tho former were niii mX aW pleased to havo their weapons tukoTi from M<'^m The Black Diamond hiv when commanded to do ^< were ordered to bf» run ci; arations, she sum arJereil • we make *em stoj , ain't five-year old, who actompanicd his father on that cruise, and jumpi ii* up and down, clapping his hands, when on rmiring out the guns the Black Diamond " hov»» to.'' it was doubtful if with only one man aboard to take her to Sitka, he would not (U2) i;^»Ml at lirst to stop .-.^d two of the guns ii seeing which prep- ?ice. '' That's tho way papa?" cried our little h \ ■i (1 to 1 my Brit- on to namo Jiashf imd miters or law ilskins 1 Vau- up her ) havo ;o stop e guns li prep- bo way ir little )ri that ng his ^ Black th only luld not ♦«. ^•' V » a: ^ S ^* i?i d Th J3 a 1 ^ CQ 1 "f* 1 ^ ^ ► "^ . O <5 ^,5 ^ C a ed « ca ^ V » O 1- « c^i5 SS Id a §«•; eS OJ y (U A cd ■M •<-" K 1 **• 2^ " po o a p(i a o «< « CO- *»' ■> '^ ASK Peat ed in t-l TS N I «tj a -S 1 ^ Cd « 1 o 1 o 1 lp_ "^ '^■/w^ '^ THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS 113 ;^i. ti ' be overpowered and taken by the captain and crew to Victoria, B. C., instead of Sitka, a very natural move on their part. Still there was nothing else for my husband to do. In various papers a great ado has been made of this act on the part of my husband, by those who, of course, imagine they know all about the situation. How could Capt. S— — have afforded to man six seal- ing-vessels with enough men from his own crew of thirty, sufficient to overpower the crews of each individual "sealer," on which the number of men on board equaled, if not exceeded, the whole num- ber of men of the crew of the Rush f Was there anything else to be done ? Two years biefore ('87) one man had sufficed and fifteen prizes awaited the arrival of the Rush in Sitka. Many imagine the Rush a man-of-war, manned with an even 500 men or so. Another English sealer had been seen and boarded the same day, but no skins found aboard of her, though she was open to suspicion, owing to her being found where she would naturally hunt for them. This was the Triumph, whose captain and crew boasted "triumphantly" on arriving at Victoria that they had been sharp enough to elude the vigil- ance of our first lieutenant, and had had several hundred skins hidden under the salt. It was a matter of no satisfaction whatever to find the skins, either to the officers or captain of the Rush. It was Cruise or the " Rush." 8 114 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" n not a personal matter and they were very glad when none were found. The captain of the Black Diamond said he had been ordered by the owners of the vessel not to sur- render unless forced to. Ho would not deliver u;> his papers ; therefore my husband had to ordt the desk in which they were to be brokeu open. Altogether their policy seeme i resistance to the end, and thus if any force had to be resorted to, the story of their abuse, etc., by the commander of the Rushf would appeal more strongly to the public in general. Why cannot England yield without contesting such a small matter of revenue to her ? By not doing so, perhaps *avolving our two great nations in a disgraceful wrangle over a few skins. The United States has paid for her rights. I overheard Capt. S talking on deck with one of the captains of the sealers then in port. He said, " If you go into the sea, you will run the risk of being captured, I can show you no favor, and my advice is to keep out." This he said to all. Thus warned it wo'ild be to their great disadvan- tage if they were captured. Several pru»'«^v ,ly decided to devote themselves simply to fishing outside the Sea. The Indians are more successful vd favoring seal than the white men. Their methoci is iin-j . They imitate the cry of the young seal, by this means attracting the older seals, who, being very curious animalsj crowd around the vessel. At a distance i.,". mJL i ■M^ J THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS 115 of ten or twenty feet they throw their spears at them. The spears of the Vancouver Indians differ from those of the Aleutes. Those of the former are very long, a'cout ten feet, and as large in circumfer- ence as a broomstick, with a prong at one end. They are sometimes tipped with bone. I could not under- stand how they used them, and had no opportunity of finding out, but supposed they stunned the seal with them by striking them on the head. They seemed too blunt to penetrate the skin. The skull of the seal is very easily crushed. The Indians lose a seal much less often than the white men, who kill them with guns. I was delighted at the capture of the sealer, because that meant we would go to Sitka from Oonalaska in the fall, pending the trials going on there, thus afford- ing me opportunity of seeing still more of that northern country. The Dora arrived ou the following Monday from St. Michael's. They hid had, Mr. N said, a pleas- ant trip, though they had encountered a great deal of ice — a very unusual occurrence at that time of the year below Behring Straits. It was in the form of icebergs, which are uncommon in the Sea, in fact unknown, at least of the size of those found in the North Atlantic, but these were formed of great pieces of ice frozen together during ihe ice jams, and because of the long duration of the cold northerly winds had reiuained unmelted. They were thought to be mi^mm 116 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" t ?■ i aground in the shallow water around the mouth of the Yukon. At the sai; ? ^'<^q the winter on the mainland in the vicinity oi ; Yukon had been the mildest on record. There had been much rain and th? river had risen to a greater height than ever before, as shown by investigating the highest tide marks. Owing to this unprecedented behavior on the part of the river a great deal of gold ore, accumulated on the banks^ which had been taken from its bed, had been washed away, and if not lost, at any rate requiring the long hard labor of months to get together again. The Dora also brought news of the wreck and loss of life on the whale-ship Little Ohio, which up to this time had remained unheard from. She waa one among the number supposed to have been lost, perhaps crushed in the ice, to whose assistance the Bear was proposed to be sent, in the fall of 1888. She was the only one not finally reported. Now at last was the fact made known, of the total loss of the vessel, and also the sad story of the death by drowning and starvation of thirty lives. This news was obtained by the Thetis. Mr. N met Captain S — — , the commander of the Thetis, in St. Michael's. Captain S had then already been up in the Arctic, where he had found at Point Hope the eight remaining survivors of the Little Ohio. Two of them came on the Dora to Oonalaska, on their way to San Francisco. The Little Ohio had struck on a rock in * t «#• *l THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS 117 a terrible gale. At the time two vessels were near her and saw the signals of her distress, but were unable to render her any assistance. A boat was put off from the wreck, containing a large number oi the crew, but had been capsized, or at least that was the supposition, as she was never seen or heard of again. The reports of the details of the terrible disaster were very meager, as they were obtained from natives, and in stray fragments, which were put together as best they could be. The captain and two mates were lost. A few days after the arrival of the Dora with this sad news the Rush returned again. We had discov- ered her at quite a distance, and besides her another vessel equally as large. Till she was within a short distance we were unable to make out what the com- panion of the Rush might be. She was too large to be a sealer, we thought. The Rush was towing her in. Our curiosity was soon satisfied ; she was a whale ship, commanded by Captain Smith, from San Fran- cisco, and had been several months on her way, cruis- ing from place to place in search of whales, though she had found only one. When the Rush came across her she was sailing about in an aimless fashion among the islands trying to find Oonalaska, where her captain hoped to get a supply of fresh water and provisions. My husband offered to show th^ captain the way, and towed her into the harbor, for which favor he seemed very grateful. ■'^W^W" i 118 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" In a conversation with Captain Smith he corrob- orated and added to the accounts of the wreck of the Little Ohio we had already received. He also told us the pitiful story of the terrible and agonizing suspense of eight months the wife of the captain of the Ohio had suffered. She was the mother of three little children, with no other means of sustenance than that provided by her husband's precarious suc- cess in whaling. She had nearly lost her mind in the awful suspense, and now the worst news that could be told would soon reach her. God pity and protect the poor widowed mother ! The chief mate on board the wLale-ship, from whom Captain S had learned these facts, lived next door to the sorrow-stricken woman. The name of this whaler was the Stamboul. Thirty years ago my husband, while So^ll a boy, saw her in the Mediterranean — after all these years again at Oonalaska. How interesting a history might be written about some of these old ships and their wanderings, trials and adventures, and different uses to which they have been put. For instance, the Harriet Lane : At first she was a revenue cutter, then a side-wheel steamer. She accompanied several naval vessels on an expedition to Paraguay to settle some difficulty there. During the civil war she was transferred to the navy. While serving in the war she was captured by the Confed- erates. At the end of the war the Harriet Lane was found abandoned at Havana, unclaimed by any one. i mim t THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS 119 A revenue cutter was sent after her by the President, and she was finally sold at auction and turned by her new owner into a sailing-vessel, In 1880 she was carrying ice and hay from Boston to Mobile, Ala., where I went aboard of her. During her career as a revenue cutter she had had the honor of carrying aboard the Prince of Wales when he visited this country in *59. She was named after Buchanan's beautiful niece, Harriet Lane. The day the Dora arrived we had for dinner some delicious wild goose eggs Mr. N brought from St. Michael's. Wild geese are found there in immense numbers. These eggs were not at all fishy » as most of the sea-birds' eggs are. Aboard the Dora was a poor Italian priest, a native of Sicily, who had spent a year on the Yukon, and had been thoroughly frozen out. His health had failed him owing to the rigor of the climate, and he had been compelled to leave. Poor fellow ' Imagine the transition from Sicily to the banks of the Yukon I At the latter place the thermometer sinks to fifty and seventy degrees below zero. The houses, of course, are rudely built, wood stoves being the only means of heating them. Think and shud- der, of slipping off" to sleep after an almost vain effort to get warm, and awakening at four or five a. m. to find the fire out, and the thermometer seventy degrees below, with no alternative but to get up and make it. No wonder the blood froze in his veins and almost ceased to nm. He showed his hard experience in *■« 120 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" T his face, which was gaunt and thin. He left afar in that lonely region several sisters (nuns), who have opened a school there. What endurance, what devo- tion these women show — they will have their reward. It may be interesting to learn that on the upper Yukon birch-bark canoes are used by the Indians or that cold clime, as formerly did the " noble red man" theirs on the Hudson's swift flowing tide. Besides birch-trees, there are to be found on the banks of the Yukon the red and yellow cedar. In their museum at the Alaska Commercial Com- pany's office in San Francisco are to be seen a wonderfully varied collection of Alaskan cuiios, com- prising many and rare pieces found among the Aleutes and Eskimos. Among them a pretty birch- bark canoe and, of course, the graceful bid arka. Also some beautiful bird-skin parkas. Another passenger on the Dora was Dr. Mc. I , from St. Paul's Island. He had been superintendent o^ the Seal Islands for twenty years, and now after this long service had resigned on account of ill health. He will be quite a loss to the company, as he was a very intelligent and able man. News was brought by the Dora of six sealers seen in the sea on her way to Oonalaska. My hus- band was evidently to have his hands full, if he proved sufficiently vigilant. Dr. C shot a magnificent eagle one day, the finest we had yet seen. Eagles might be seen every t I THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS 121 I •day Dear the lofty hilltops — how glorious their flight, •80 calm, so majestic I In one of Harper's Magazines of the spring of 1889, in an article on Russian life, is a picture of a family scene in Russia — "Around the Samovar." It reminded me '•f our table at the " big house." The samovar is universally used. Every Russian family must own a samovar, if nothing else. The " chi" (tea) is served in glasses, as is also the custom. Out- side every little house at meal-time as one passed -could be seen the samovar emitting its small wreath of smoke, in preparation for the making of the** chi." Around our samovar was gathered not one family but members of several, of different nationalities. I have mentioned Mr. N , a Bavarian, who pre- sided. Mr. B was an Englishman, Mr. W a German, Dr. C , Colonel B , and myself all Americans, though from far different States. This made up the number. Questions of every sort were discussed; among them the political and other news of the day, such as was gleaned from the few papers arriving in one way and another at Oonalaska. All these gentlemen were literary and well read. Colonel B was a lawyer and a war veteran, and an authority on the civil war, Mr. N was well versed in the best literature of France and Ger- many, as was Mr. W , tlie collector of customs. All discussed Russian politics and were conversant -with Tolstoi. Therefore meal-time was a very pleas- ant one to me, a silent but appreciative listener. 122 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" I determined to provide myself with a samovar, now so popular at afternoon teas in New York. At one of the warehouses there were a number to choose from, of different sizes and shapes. These were directly from Russia, which enhanced their value. It behooves one to know how to use them, by no means lighting one in the house, as so many do on first attempt. The samovar is set out of doors, and when the water is boiling the fire is removed, and then it is brought in and put on the table, the tea already hav- ing been made in the teapot very strong. The water in the samovar is merely used to dilute it. They are not nearly so expensive at Oonalaska as at Sitka, where the price is double. At Oonalaska the brass ones cost $1.15 a pound. They are quite ornamental, even if not put to use. One bright day the latter part of June I took my first ride in a bydarka. It is the very poetry of motion. I imagined myself in a gondola, so softly and swiftly did we glide through the water, only the swish of the paddle breaking the stillness. My escort was Dr. C , who was an expert at handling one, after an experience of five years at Oonalaska. It is strange there is not more loss of life among the natives, for the occupant is perfectly helpless, wedged in as he is while sitting in them. One has to sit with his feet stretched out perfectly straight and thrust under the top in such close quarters that it is almost impossible to move them. Getting in and out is very awkward. They are as light as birch^ THE FIRST SEIZURE AND OTHER MATTERS 123 bark canoes, and as risky to navigate in, a sudden gust of wind being almost enough to capsize them. The Indians living on these islands do not swim, the water is too cold, and thus they are powerless to help themselves if upset. Sitting up at night as I used to, writing and read- ing in the little library at Oonalaska, I could hear and see, on looking out of the window at about ten or eleven o'clock, a solemn procession of all the cows on the " spit " — as they call the little peninsula on which Oonalaska is built — passing over the plank walks, directly under my window, silently , one by one. Every night, after the natives begin to salt their fish and hang them up to dry, these cows leave their pas- ture and wander around the town in diligent search of them, attracted no doubt by the salt. The natives hang their fish out near their houses, on lines and under sheds built for the purpose. These have to be fenced about to keep the cows off. The red salmon hanging everywhere in festoons, p* dont like strings of Chinese lanterns, were more picturesque to the eye than pleasant to the smell. CHAPTER XVI. MORE " sealers/' ETC., ETC. A^N THE 15TH OF JULY the Rush bore down ^^ on the English sealer Minnie, from Victoria, and captured her. She had aboard four hundrr and eighteen sealskins. The captain said, in ^ mournful tone, " She is all I own in the world," and added he had just married him a wife, with whom he had been able to leave but $30, and now he would have to go home without anything. I thought he deserved to be allowed to keep his vessel, because of his truthfulness in regard to the sealskins he had aboard when captured. Instead of waiting till ques- tioned, he said at once, without preliminaries, he had a number of skins aboard, all caught in the Sea. The majority of captains would have concealed the fact till the last minute before giving up their cargo, forfeiting at the same time their vessels. We expected he at least would be at Sitka. A captain of one of the English '* sealers" cap- tured, on being told he had to give up his skins and that his vessel would be confiscated, remarked char- acteristically, ** But it's so d— — nably inconvenient, don't you know 1" We mentally agreed it must be. One or two others were boarded, but no skins found aboard. (124) A mmfm MORE "SEALERS, " ETC., ETC. 18ft There was a little excitement one of the four or five days the Stamboul was at Oonalaska over the escape from the ship of one of the crew. The captain had asked my husband to use his authority and forbid the landing of any of the crew of his vessel while at Oonalaska. The year previous there had been an Aleute killed in a row among the sailors who were ashore from a whale-ship. And on all occasions when the men had been allowed freely to land, a great deal of disturbance had been created. No liquor is to be obtained at Oonalaska, at least none is sold there. But in some unaccountable way the men seem to procure it, or it may be the native " quass," which answers all intents and purposes. Mr. N was most desirous not to have the whale-ships come to Oonalaska, on that account. But the water-casks from the Stamboul had to be filled, and the men necessarily had to come ashore while working, one of them thus finding an oppor- tunity of running away. On the discovery being made two parties of men from the Rush were sent out in different directions. One, in the whale-boat, to the mine a few miles away, the most likely place he would hide, while the other party went over the hills. The latter, in charge of the master-at-arms, soon saw a man in the distance, and started in pur- suit. He seemed to be trying to evade them and they followed in hot haste, to find, to their disgust, he was the mate of the Stamboul, also searching for i 126 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" the runaway. Ho thought to have a little sport by leading them on. One of our engineeio, Mr. C , had started, out of desire for a little excitement, to aid in looking for him. As he walked along leisurely, suddenly he saw the man crouching, hidden in a small cavity in the side of the hill, who on perceiving he was discovered put his hand to his breast, as if to draw a revolver and frighten Mr. C . But the latter held his ground. Again he stooped as if to draw from his boot a knife — sailors often carry them there — but still Mr. C , notwithstanding the admonitions of some of our men who had come up and were standing near did not retreat. At last seeing he had not produced the fright he intended, he let them take him, meekly enough. He was really quite harmless. His pockets were full of pro- visions, and his plan was, as he afterward admitted, to remain hidden till his ship left and then to apply at the company's office for work. Several weeks after our arrival in OonaUska, while the Rush was in port, Dr. C brought aboard with him one day all the fair Russian dam- sels of Oonalaska, Creoles, as they are called, num- bering eight or ten. He told us privately he had hard work to induce them to renounce the little shawls in favor of hats, the former of which, with all the rest of the female portion of Oonalaska, they wear commonly on their heads. Dr. C is the only one whom they seem to take into their con- I MORE "SEALERS," ETC., ETC. 127 fidence. They have not been able to withstand his social disposition, and having acquired the Russian language, so as to be able to express himself quite fluently, he had succeeded in finding his way to their heaiis. These maidens came aboard in solemn procession, and were formally introduced. They had very nice manners and bowed and smiled slightly at all remarks addressed to them, understanding English perfectly, but on no account uttering a word. Now and" then the most wide-awake would utter a feeble *' da" (yes) or "nieto" (no) in a pretty little drawl- ing way. When they call separately they usually spend the afternoon, but during this time remain perfectly mute. One is in a condition to fairly tear one's hair before their visit is ended. After being entertained in the wardroom by the officers they were ushered, at my request, into the cabin, raartialed in by th doctor, who showed him- self an expert in maneuvering his little company. It devolved on me to do the honors, of course, and I made frantic efforts to draw them into conversation wb n'with to break the solemn stillness that per- vaded the cabin, v/henever the doctor's or my ideas flagged for want of encouragement. But my efforts were of no avail ; they were sphinx like in their mute fixedness. At the proper time the doctor gave tb e word, whereupon they all rose simultaneously, made their bows and he martialed them out again. They were then shown over the ship. Afterward 128 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" I proposed a little dance. We soon found one of the quartermasters an adept on the accordion, who^ by the way, afterward petitioned to go to Sitka on one of the captured sealers, and so left us musicless. The decks were cleared and the ball began. Thes^v girls all dance very well, and like to. There were several dancers among the officers aboard, and soon they were whirling around in the mazy waltz, but in as solemn a manner as if it had been some reli- gious celebration. In an hour, it then being near dinner-time, and the doctor probably having given them the hint, they seriously and demurely came up shook hands with me and departed, escorted by their quondam partners of the dance, to their respective domiciles, where they retired into their shells, as it were, and remained from that day unseen and unheard of for several weeks. I was amused at the discovery that some of these young ladies had never seen that most common and useful animal, the horse, or even a mule, none ever having been taken to Oonalaska. There was a mule at Ounga, which at first nearly frightened the natives to death. It was used at a mine near by. After they found out it was nothing supernatural they lost some of their awe, at least enough to employ themselves hitting it, and throw- ing things at it, whereas at first they had run from it in fear and trembling. After a while the sagacious beast seemed to realize the dread it inspired and began to chase its tormentors the moment they MORE "SEALERS," ETC., ETC. 129 appeared in sight, which soon had the desired effect, and it was allowed to roam in poace. Its acuteness in distinguishing an Aleute from a white man was remarkable With his white owners he was the most docile animal in the world. CBVISK or THX " BCSH." T h- CHAPTER XVIL A TRAMP OVER THE HILLS. Ti HERE WERE NOT MANY WAYS of employ- ^ ing one's time at Oonalaska, and one morning I awoke with the desperate resolution in my mind to do something or other, I did not care what, to break the monotony of my existence. I announced my firm resolve at breakfast. At every suggestion as to expeditions by boat or by land to places of interest, I met with opposition and remonstrance, owing to the weather and general humidity of land and atmosphere I was assured that August was the proper month in which to indulge in those things, at least, for a lady. That nettled me, and determined me to persist in my resolution. After breakfast I wended my way to the Hush on a recruiting expedi- tion. I summoned the officers, laid my proposition before them, and endeavored to enlist some one or two in such a good cause. I had heard of very beautiful falls an indefinite number of miles away ; at least no two people seemed to agree as to the distance. These I pro- posed to the officers to find. Of course the first question asked was, "How far is it ?" I stated the shortest number of miles I had heard. " Well I that was rather far, and — well — he (180) T A TRAMP OVER THE HILLS 131 'I had to write up the log." Another had had the " mid-watch" the night before and thought he would " turn in and take a little sleep." Others candidly- said they never walked unless they had to. Lieu- tenant W said he would take a little walk with me ; but Mr. D , our chief engineer, spoke up bravely and said, " Though I'm the oldest man here, Mrs. S , I'll go." I could always depend on Mr. D . We took a forty-mile horseback ride in Southern California once, about a year ago, from which we have hardly yet recovered. I clinched the bargain on the spot, and would not let Lieuten- ant W back out either, after getting him to yield that much. Then hurrying them off to get ready, for my motto is, *• Strike while the iron is hot," I hastened back to the house, donned my rubber boots, shortened my skirts, and took my umbrella for a possible shower, or to use as a walk- ing-stick in case it did not rain. As is generally the case with ladies, I was ready first, and had to wait what seemed to me an inter- minable length of time for my escorts. At last they appeared, Mr. D bearing a napkin contain- ing " lunch," as he explained. They declared the latter the whole cause of the delay, which I rather doubted when at lunch-time I found a few slices of bread and bacon, and a box of sardines, unopened at that, the whole cause of the delay. However, it was enough they were there, and at last ready to start. jy 132 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH : i: I' r We walked cheerfully along for a mile or two, over a tfail already known to us, and then struck the trail we sought. After following it a short dis- tance a beautiful view met our eyes. A large valley spread out before us in the shape of a gigantic oak- leaf, the sharp spurs of the mountains making the deep indentations, and a little river forming the principal or mid vein, while numbers of other little streams running into it from off the mountain sides formed the smaller veins. Immediately before us spread out a lovely little lake, upon whose quiet bosom a few game ducks peacefully swam, uncon- scious of danger. They truly had no need to fear us, for our only firearm was a revolver, useless at that distance. We uttered exclamations of delight as our eyes roamed over the scene. On either side the mountains towered majestically, their sides cov- ered with the still remaining snow. We hurried along, eager to explore this lovely region farther. Ever and anon new wild-flowers met our eyes, dainty bluebells, pink daisies, blue flags, anemones, the moccasin plant, and so on, fairly carpeting the lower hills and low land with their bright colors, rivaling the broad " llanos" around San Antonio, Texas, in their brilliant beauty. We walked on and on ; now the hills became more rugged, deeper canyons divided them, at the bottom of each of which roared and plunged the turbulent little mountain torrents. After exploring several of them we at last came to the l\ ■P!*^^^ A TRAMP OVER THE HILLS 133 edge of a far deeper and sheerer precipice, and on glancing up we caught sight of the falls we were in search of. We could not be mistaken. It was now lunch-time and Mr. D proposed before we undertook to reach them we sit down and eat our luuch. Mr. D , always thoughtful, had brought a United States army rubber blanket, which we spread out on the ground to sit on, for, as we had been told, everything was wet, wet, wet. My skirts were increased in weight by several pounds, owing to the amount of water they had absorbed in trailing them through the weeds, and several times in crossing the little brooks that obstructed our path. We sat down in excellent spirits to our humble fare. Bacon is quite a delicacy to a hungry mortal, and sardines always palatable, with bread. But now arose a difficulty ; we had forgotten a drinking utensil of any kind. Lieutenant W , equal to the occasion, proposed a good, clean stone, on which the contents of the sardine-box were emptied, and then Mr. D proceeded to scrub it with the sand he found at the bottom of the stream beside which we were lunching. He soon brought it to me full of the clear, cold, sparkling water, which was very acceptable, and ihe sardine-can proved invaluable the rest of the trip. Finishing our meager repast we wended our way to the falls. We followed the bed of the stream, climbing first on one side and then on the other, as ! 184 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" we best could pick our way. After a short but hard climb we came upon it suddenly, a torrent of water pouring over a perpendicular wall of rock over a hundred feet high. At the foot the water fell into a little basin, where it foamed and boiled away, rushing madly against the rocks deep-sunken in its bed as if to hurl them from its path. We watched with quiet pleasure the little cataract, and then, our instinct for further discoveries being aroused, we scrambled up the steep side of the precipice to the top of the falls. Here we found another and smaller valley spread out before us, at a much higher eleva- tion. The tops of the mountains now seemed much more accessible. We found we had been slowly ris- ing all the while, and now were many hundred feet probably two thousand, above the level of the sea. Beyond and looking through the valley, we could see Oonalaska far towards the setting sun. Its little colored scattered houses looking more like quiet cattle grazing than human habitations. We could see the Rush, a child's toy ship at that distance, and hills and mountains piled promiscuously on every side of the little harbor. We did not wish to retrace our steps homeward, so after holding a council of war we decided to climb the nearest peak and *' view the landscape o'er." We little knew what an ardu- ous climb we then undertook, it looked so near, and yet it was so far. No sooner had we arrived at an eminence we felt sure on looking up was the top, than another appeared above that, and so on, till T i ■A A TRAMP OVER THE HILLS 185 both oiir courage and strength well nigh gave out. Still, with frequent pauses for rest, we toiled slowly on, and at length shouted, as did Balboa before us, " The sea I the sea ! " this time on directly the opposite side of the island from that we had left, and now we had the view of mountains and sea on the one hand and sea and mountains on the other. A grand panorama ! We sat watching that perfect beauty as long as we dared, for fear of contracting cold and rheumatism ; for even when viewing the sublime we have to think of our poor, ridiculous little selves. Wo then formed the resolution of keeping our high elevation, and so wend our way back rather than descend again to the valley. We were aware of the deep ravines, or canyons, we had to cross, and the snow patches which impeded our way, but we were daring enough to brave all for the sake of adventure. We climbed, and stopped to rest and lool', and climbed again incessantly up and down. At length we came to a standstill — an enormous area of snow spread out before our feet at a very steep incline. Get over that we must, or we would have to climb back again and around by another way, involving great loss of time. It was already three p. m. an^' we wanted to get back for dinner at five. Mr. D bravely plodded over it in a diagonal line, stamping a hole in the snow with each step, and so gaining a foot- ing, as he told us afterward. Lieutenant W and V 136 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" myself had sat down to rest a few moments before and had gotten behind. When we arrived at the snow we could not see him nor his tracks, and felt a little alarmed for his safety. After scanning the hillside closely we at length observed him, a little speck in the distance at the bottom of the gorge. We called to him and asked him how he got over. He shouted back, " Walked," but that seemed an almost impossible thing to do ; the snow was frozen so hard it was difficult to get a footing. However, we started, I the advance guard, Lieutenant W having some difficulty in keeping his footing, owing to the broad, flat sole of his sl^oe. After walking a short distance, and yet nol seeing the snow-line over a sudden swell in the bank, I determined to boldly sit on the snow and allow myself to slide down, as the easiest and speediest way to solve the problem ; of the latter fact there was no doubt. No sooner said than done, and I found myself, after a ghastly breathless interval of a few seconds, at the end of my descent by a sharp collision with the bare ground. I picked myself up, a wiser and a sadder woman, but unhurt. Lieutenant W now ventured his life in a similar manner. Scrambling out of his way I watched his "rapid transit" down the steep incline of snow. Could he have been photographed in the act nothing could have afforded me more amusement. The expression of his face as he came down, not knowing what fate the next minute had in store for him, was a study. It was a A TRAMP OVER THE HILLS 137 cross between fear and surprise, and a looking for- ward to probable consequences. He descended in safety and we were soon heartily laughing over our dangerous adventure, for had we been unable to stop ourselves on the steep, slippery, because frozen, ground we might have been dashed to pieces against the rocks at the bottom. It was equal to a toboggan slide in the middle of a Canadian winter, though our experience was in July. A few moments more and we were again with Mr. D , and all three went on our way rejoicing, having overcome the greatest of our difficulties. Now we began, however, to feel the effects of all our exertions, and home still seemed a long way off. But trudging along, interested as we were in our ever-varying walk, we managed at last to arrive at our starting-point, footsore and weary, but safe. 1 p CHAPTER XVIII. SEAL, OR PRIBYLOF, ISl ANDS — ST. GEORGE I HE NEXT DAY I packed my small trunk and ^ took passage on the Rush for the Seal, or Pri- bylof, Islands. As was inevitable, I was afflicted with seasickness the moment the Rush steamed out of the harbor ; however, when late in the afternoon a ''sealer" was reported, I revived sufficiently to go on deck to witness the chase and capture. But it did not prove as wildly exciting as I had expected. The Rush swooped down upon the poor little schooner like a big hawk on a little bird, which meekly gives up after a faint struggle. So the schooner, at the shout of command from my husband, '• Heave to ! I want to board you 1 " hauled her jib to windward, which I learned was the proper way to express it and define " heave to." This she did without resist- ance of any kind. A whale-boat was lowered, and two officers, armed with revolvers, accompanied by several of the men, set off to board her. They did so, but found, after searching her thoroughly, na skins. We turned on our course again and she soon was but as a bird in the distance. The same thing occurred later, about eight in the evening, and the following morning, all the sealers^ seemed sailing around the sea merely for a pastime^ (138) SEAL, OR PRIBYLOF, ISLANDS-ST. GEORGE. 130 The captain of one of the schooners boarded had been captured twice in previous seasons, '86 and *87, and, besides, had liad quite a thrilling adven- ture last year. He, with two of his men, left his schooner in a small boat to go in search of the seal. A thick fog arose and they lost their bear- ings and were thus separated from their ship. They drifted about in the little open otter-boat two weeks, during which time they kept alive on raw seal meat. At last they managed to get to Kadiak Island, where they found friends, but no news of the schooner. From Kadiak the captain was taken by a chance steamer to San Francisco, the vessel had already arrived at Port Townsend and reported his loss and that of the boat's crew. This occurrence is common in the Behring Sea, where the fog is liable to shut down, as in the twinkling of an eye, it so constantly shifts about. The same schooner had two men aboard, recently picked up, lost in the same way from a sister vessel. About 3:30 p. m., July 24th, we arrived at the Island of St. George, the smaller of the Seal Islands, as they are commonly called. We saw it first through a curtain of shifting fog or mist, which one moment shut it out completely, and then cleared just long enough to show us where we were. But a surer means, of telling our near approach to the islands were the millions upon millions of the gillemot or muir which blacken the surface of the water for miles 140 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH' I! ; around. As we reared them they flew and dove in every direction, just touching the surface of the water with their wings, beating it into foam, '^nd producing a continuous indistinct sound, hard to describe, as the whole mass of floa^'ng birds were disturbed and took to flight. It would be hard to exaggerate their numbers. Immediately along the beach on the rocks hundreds of white gulls were perched. And in many places I thought them but the foam of the breakers dashing on the shore. It was only through their immobility I was able to detect the difference. We had to anchor quite a distance from shore, owing to the heavy swells which roll in from the sea, there being no harbor. The Islands of St. Paul and St. George are both much lower in their general elevation than any of the Aleutian chain of islands we had visited. The highest elevation is but about 600 feci and is called Uogoslov, hardly deserving the name of mountain. Sc. Paul 13 the larger anu more important of the two. They are covere*'. with grass and flowers, dur- ing the summer season, but there are no bushes or trees of any kind. The flowers, to my surprise, differ on the two islands from each other, at least the most common were unlike, as well as from those growing around Oonalaska^ though not so much . I could not account for it, as the difi'erence in temperature and distance apart of the Aleutian and Pribylof islands did not seem to be sufficient to wt-rrant it. The average temperature durin/^ th 3 moath of July, SEAL, OR PRIBYLOF, ISLANDS-ST. GEORGE 141 we found on consulting our log book, was at Oona- laska about fifiy-seven degrees Farenheit, at the Seal Islandti, about fifty degrees. At the former islands, on the third of July, we registered sixty- three degrees Farenheit, and it has been known to rise as high as seventy degrees, but this is rarely the case and only at long intervals, and then only for a short time, perhaps one day during a season. Over the Seal Islands the sky is almost continu- ally overcast. The sun once ia a while looks through the mist, with pale sickly beams which soon fade away. It rains more or less all the time in summer, though it is not often much more than a fine mist, which, however, when lasting day after day, is more depressing than a good hard shower. The officers aboard the Rush generally concur in the statement, that after taking this cruise once it loses all its interest. Existence is most monoto- nous during the winter on and near the islands of Behring Sea; there is so much gloom, so little sun- shine, so little life an«' variety. For a summer visit like mine it was not very bad. No news is received at the islands for six months. They did not know who was elected President till seven or eight months afterward, and that too in a part of our own country. There is no means of com- munication between Sitka and Oonalaska. At the former place they hear from the rest of the world twice a month in winter. It is only through the ^ laska Commercial Company there is any communi- WMtanm 142 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" i s I cation at all with the Aleutian and Pribylof Islands, the revenue cutters being sent up in the summer only to protect the fisheries. The Island of St. Matthew, only a little over two hundred miles farther north, presents quite an Arctic aspect, as I was told by an officer aboard the Rush, who had been there. At St. Matthew's are found the polar bear, white owls and many other evidences of the life of the frigid zone. Formerly it was inhab- ited by Eskimos. It is now deserted. I tried to induce my husband to visit it while on my trip to the Pribylof Islands, but he answered, as usual, " That is not my businisss, it is out of my way, I am sent up to protect the seal fisheries, not on a pleasure trip." He is inflexible in carrying out his duty. Therefore I was denied the pleasure of seeing St. Matthew's, and shooting a white polar bear. But to return to St. George Island. Prom the ship's deck, with the glasses, I was able to see the chief industry of the place — the seal-killing. Squads of men, with clubs, surround the seals while on their " rookeries," and making a noise by beating on tin cans scare them, urging them in that way in large numbers far up on the beach, where they are left struggling and squirming about in the grass. They utter a sound not unlike the ** baa" of a sheep. The hair seal, judging from those on the rocks in front of the Cliff House at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, make a noise more like the bark of a dog. The fur seal are a pretty animal in repose, but very awkward SEAL, OR TRIBYLOF, ISLANDS— ST. GEOROE 143 of when in motion. Huddled close together, the poor things await their fate. About twenty are singled out of the large group at a time, driven off a short dis- tance and clubbed over the head, one blow of the lead-tipped pole crushing the skull, producing instant death, or insensibility, for I saw one breathe for some time after it was struck. The sight haunts me still. It seems so brutal to kill them, they are so harmless, and have such a human look about the eyes. In driving them from the " rookeries'' great care is taken to select them, those only being chosen that are of the proper age to kill. The full-^rown males are preserved, and all the female seal. Fifteen hundred are often killed in one day by a handful of men. One hundred thousand are killed every year on both the islands together. The company is limited to that number. Including all seals killed outside in the sea, it is supposed the whole number reaches about one hundred and thirty thousand. They are growing more scarce every year,and eventually may be driven away from these islands to other haunts. The blow on the head by one man, a s^jab 'vith a knife to bleed the animals by another, while a third leans over and skins it, in scarce five minutes, com- pletes the whole operation. It is a ghastly, sickening sight, to see the carcasses of those poor murdered animals covering the ground for a great distance, while the hungry birds flutter and quarrel over them. Then the stench is something dreadful ! I wonder any one can ever accustom himself to it. Among 144 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH' \ this squad of men who kill the seal are seen many native, or Aleute, women rushing greedily about securing the blubber, which they use for fuel in win- ter, and I was told also, eat. They are very fond of the seal meat. They carry it in quantities to their homes, where they keep it hung up out in the air, in all kinds of weather, till it becomes sufficiently " gamey" to be palatable to them, and then eat it. These women appeared like so many vultures, also reminding one of the robbers of the dead on a field of battle ; it is a horrid sight. After landing I walked nearer to look more closely at the dreadful scene, that I might describe it, and say I had seen it personally, but I am almost sorry I did. What a heartless sacrifice of so manv thou- sands of harmless animals, that women may wear sealskin coats ! We landed at St. George iu a rough sea, and had to take our chances of getting soaked, but much to our relief no casualty of that kind occurred. As our boat touched the beach we were met by Dr. N , who is employed by the company, and Capt. L , the Treasury agent of the island. We found the same characteristics, in the town, if I may so call it, as at Oonalaska. The natives live in houses built by the company. The Greek church, the store and the company's house were the principal buildings. Soon after landing, the dearest little woman, Capt. L -'s wife, ran up to me and kissed me, saying she had not seen a white woman for a year. I liked her en many ily about 3I in win- •y fond of J to their ,n the air, ufficiently Len eat it. tures, also L on a field lore closely ribe it, and Qost sorry I aany thou- 1 may wear a, and had >ut much to d. As our Dr. N- , lapt. L — -» d the same call it, as at luilt by the ,re and the lings. man,Capt. ,, saying she I liked her ■n 144 (RUI^E OF THE "RUSE" U \ I ■ MM lais squad of mon who kill the seal are seen many native., o} Aleuie-, wom.Hi rushing greedily about securing ihe hlubher, which they use for fuel in win- ter, and I was tol ] also, fat. They are very fond of the seal meat. i^Ucj carry it in quantities to their homes, v7hcre tiioy keep it hung up out in the air, in all kinds of v;e%iher, till it becomes imfiiciently " gamey" to be pahdable to them, and then eat it. These women appear' d like so many vultures, also reminding one of tl '^ vobbers of the dead on a field of battle; if. is a horrivi sight. Aftor landing I walk ' r-^arer to look more closely at th" dreadful scene. ' ' might describe it, and say I had set-n if f^ersou ^ Hut I am almost sorry I did. What a hfiii,rtless .satrnSice of so mauv thou- sands of harn.!*-- uiimnls, that women may woar sealskin coats ! **'orgo iu a rough sea, and had I'f ^retting soaked, but much to ■ o: hat kind occurred. As our *.'(* were met by Dr. N , . vompany, and Capt. L- i ;! We landed at Si, to take our chart Ci our relief no c suah boat touched the b- who is employed bv the Treasury agent of ih<^ island. Wo found the same characteristics in t^•'^ '"wn, if 1 may so call it, as at Oonalaska. The nat •> r live in houses built by the company. Tiv OreM; . church, the store and the company's hous<, wert; me principal buildings. Soon after lauding thf dearest little woman, Capt. L 's wife, ran up to me and kissed me, saying she had not seen a white woman for a year. I liked her many about, in win- fond of ,0 tbeir the air, aciently 1 eat it. res, also n a field re closely je it, iind ,st sorry I ^ny thon- na\' woar and bad much to As onr N — -, pt. L — -i I the same 11 it, as at lilt by the ) and the gs. Lan,Capt. )r .1 Isaymg sb liked h( < w CO o w w Q < c« < til {14 v« ^ ' ^•1 SEAL, OR PRIBYLOP, ISLANDS— ST. GEORGE 145 <'<•] at once, and found her a quaint and true type of a " down-easter," with, I know, the kindest of hearts, and a world-wide experience. Her husband had been a sailor all his life, and since they were married she had traveled with him. He had commanded a " fruiter," she said, and she had sailed to many a storied foreign port, of France, Spain, Italy, Sicily and those places. * • But after all they are of no account beside one's own country, and they pass out of your mind like anything else," she said, when I expressed my envy of her, and my longing to go. She told me she was fifty, and had a grown family and grandchil- dren, but she chatted and laughed so brightly, and walked so briskly along, it was hard to believe. They were to return to their own dear home, a farm near Bath, Maine, in the fall, and were looking forward to their cheerful fireside there, after the long gloomy winter on the island. I was loth to say good-bye to her and leave her again alone. As a souvenir of my visit Capt. L gave me a little trinket or two, carved out of walrus tusks, by his own nimble fingers, during the long dull winter days. He called himself " an old barnacle," and a flavor of his old sailor days still clung about him. We all took dinner ashore. I half expected to be invited to eat a piece of seal meat, as I understood they had it there most of the time for dinner as a standby. Fortunately I escaped the pain of a refusal. After the sights I had seen, nothing less than starva- tion would induce me to taste seal meat. But I came Cruisk op the " Rush." 10 r 146 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" to the conclusion, that after a short residence on the islands one would become inured to most any- thing. I was told that on the island of St. Paul, as a good joke, and with high encomiums as to its merit as a dish, that last winter a favorite mule, too old for further use, had been killed and t\ .en, and that by the white population. The mule went by the name of " Old Snooks," and it was related that at table the question was passed, "Which will you have, Mr. So-and-So, a piece of ham or Old Snooks ?" A Mr. G , with whom Old Snooks had been a great favorite, was caught eating a piece of him with great relish, at the same time silently dashing away a tear, and when asked the cause of his emotion, replied, " He was thinking of the many good times he had had behind Old Snooks." In the winter a great many blue foxes are killed on the Pribylof Islands. Often as many as a thou- sand skins are obtained. These foxes are not natives of the islands, but were taken there some years ago by the Alaska Commercial Company. They have multiplied very rapidly. They are supposed to live chiefly upon birds' eggs, which are found in such quantities on the islands, that of St. George espe- cially. In winter, when all food is scarce, they prowl around the dwellings, howling terribly, a dis- mal accompaniment to the moaning of the wind during the long, stormy winter. Those who spend their winters there are not to be envied, everything lii SEAL, OR PRIBYLOF, ISLANDS-ST. GEORGE 147 must look so bare and bleak, for the islands are so low there is no protection from the wind. A little blue fox, resembling in color very much a maltese kitten, was presented to one of my little boys by one of the natives, when on a trip to the island of St. George. We left him to winter at Oonalaska, in care of " Old Rufe," who, when the poor animal was of the proper size, was to send us his skin. r / CHAPTER XIX. SEAL ISLANDS — CONTINUED — ST. PAUL. UBOUT 11:30 A. M., JULY 26th, we arrived at ^1" the island of St. Paul. This island is larger and the place more important than either Oonalaska or St. George. They kill by far the greater number of seal there. While at St. Paul we were pleasantly entertained by Mr. and Mrs. M and the gentle- men of the place. The Greek church at St. Paul's, though not con- taining as many handsome things as that at Sitka, is said to be the wealthiest in the territory. The natives make considerable money in the employ of the Alaska Commercial Company by killing seal, a percentage of which is given to the priest. This is used by him in whatever manner he chooses. There are half the number of natives at St. Paul that there are at Oonalaska. Their houses, as at Oonalaska, are all alike, though many more, because single and built by the company, there are also some few larger occupied by Creole families. These, with the store, which is very good, together with the com- pany's house and warehouses, and I must not forget the school-house, make up the town, the most impos- ing in size we had seen. St. Paul is situated on a slight elevation overlook- (1^8) •mim SEAL ISLANDS— ConiiwMcrf-ST. PAUL 149 ing the sea, and about a quarter of a mile back from it. At the time I was there the island was very green, and fresh, bright flowers bloomed every- where. Onp in particular attracted my attention ; it was a flower much resembling the California poppy, or escholtzia, in form, though of a. paler yellow and a very vivid color, while the petals were of a more silky texture. It, however, had a very rank odor, which in a close room became absolutely sickening. I saw them nowhere else. Standing on the porch of the house occupied by Mr. and Mrs. M one obtained a fine view of the sea. Three lonely graves, in a direct lino from the house to the sea, on a little knoll, attracted my notice. On inquiry I found three men were buried 1here» lost from one of our revenue cutters while trying to effect a landing. It had happened some years pre- vious. There was something mournful about the graves, so alone and uncared for, and so far from the dear ones who would perhaps keep them wreathed in flowers. A great many more seals are to be found on St. Paul than on St. George Island ; almost all the shore line of the island is covered with them. The *' rook- eries " are particular spots chosen by the seal to breed in. At St. PauPs Island I had a fine oj^por- tunity to see all the domestic system of seal-life in its entirety. We walked about a mile to a i^oint of rocky land projecting into the water, inclining gradually from a bluff, the top of which was cov- raimmmBmmmmmm 150 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH' " li ri ii t i M ered with grass and exquisitely green moss. We approached fron?. the land side and walked carefully, so as not to frigh ten the seals, to the top of the bluff, where, climbing a single large rock, which com- manded a fine view of the entire point and on both sides of it, we saw, covering an area of at least ten 01 twelve acres, myriads of seal of ail sizes, varying from the huge male seal, often as large as an ox, to the little black baby seal, no larger thin a cat. After watching some time I began to see, as I said above, into their domestic life. I found that each Mr. Seal had his harem around him, consisting of some eight or ten wives and their numerous progeny, and forming distinct groups. Ea^h Mr. Seal and family occupied his own territory, which he guarded jealodsly, debarring all other seal of access to, and keeping all avenues of escape for, his wives blocked up. It was very '^.musing to see the general terror of the more timid females when disturbed by our sudden appearance, their struggles to get away, alto- gether checked by the irate paterfamilias, who, by flopping (no other word describes their motion) along in front of them, barred their way effectually by skillful maneuvering, and had his hands (or flip- pers) full to do so, too, with eight wives seeking to escape in all possible directions. Rather than attack tlie intruder the male seal's anxiety seems to be to keep his wives at home. Ko showed him- self a perfect tyrant, scarce allowing th. ai to move in his sight. We were told many peculiar things ki i SEAL ISLANDS— CoTjfinucd— ST. PAUL 151 in regard to them, almost too human to be true. One person related to me the following fact: Some- times there are elopements among them, and if the wronged husband be able to recapture his faithless frau he will even condescend to kiss and make up. I actually saw with my own eyes what very much resembled such a caress. But woe ! to the betrayer of his domestic happiness. It was '^guerre a la mort" between them. Another item in regard to their habits was this: Early in the breeding season the males come to the rookeries, choose their own particular habitations, if I may so call them, and keep them at the cost of many a battle. A little later the females come, then there ensues a regular game of grab ; each one helps himself to as many wives as he can and drives them before him to his chosen abode, where he keeps them closely at hme as I have already described. Mr. G , who took us to the " rookery," greatly to our amusement, although we were rather fearful for his safety, approached a family nearest to us and endeavored to secure a baby seal for us to look at closely. This family was reduced to only one wife, the other seven or eight evidently having been too much for his lordship to manage. As Mr. G— — approached them the female made frantic efforts to get away to the water. Her lord and master seemed beside himself with rage at Mr. G~ and anxiety about his wife's getting away. At last he ?m 152 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" li'U devoted his whole attention to the latter difficulty, and finally succeeded in driving her back. In the mean time the prize had been secured, and Mr. G brought it to us by the nape of the neck and put it dov/n so we might pat it. It did not seem to be either afraid or savage; it was too young. The male seal do not hesitate to attack a man, to defend themselves and their families. We watched their feuds and strifes for an hour or more and were constantly interested. The jealousy of the males was most amusing, and' the submission of the wives most laudable. The large seals or " bulls," as they are called, remain without sustenance the entire summer or breeding season, and are kept alive by their own fat. The female seal make their escape to the water in search of fish, which is their food. The reason why so much opposition is made to the promiscuous killing of seal, is that thereby great numbers of females are destroyed, in that way exterminating them much more rapidly than if the females were preserved. No seal under two, nor over five, years of age are killed, and no females. Yet one hundred thousand are secured every year. Aside from that, there is only one seal born to a mother a season, so that one can imagine the countless multitudes that inhabit the Behring Sea. They disappear in winter, and no one has been able to find out whot becomes of ihem. About the first of Mav thev return, a few at SEAL ISLANDS— Conimucrf— ST. PAUL 153 a time, to their old haunts. The greatest number is found in July. By the first or middle of August the required number of seal have all b'^en killed. About the first of December they have all disappeared. As an insight into the life of the lower order of animals it was the most interesting thing of the kind I ever saw. The noise or the cry made by the seals on the rookeries resembles the confusion of sounds heard in a barnyard among calves and sheep. Aside from the Pribylof Islands seals are found on the Commander Islands, a group belonging to Russia and near the Siberian coast. They were, in former years, to be found about the southern end of South America ; but, owing to the indiscriminate killing of them, they have been almost entirely exterminated in that portion of the world. We remained at St. Paul only a day, though Mrs. M was very desirous I should remain a week or two with her, till the return visit of the Rush. She had spent two years on the island, and most of that time had had no white lady companion. But my plans were such I could not well accept her invitation. Mr- and Mrs. M were then preparing to go back with Captain and Mrs. L , of St. George Island, to their homes in the East, to return no more forever. / I !l i=! CHAPTER XX. CHASING THE " SEALERS." E NEXT SPENT several days in the vicinity of the Pribylof Islands searching for sealers. Oa the 27th of July we had an exciting chase after what proved to^ be the Maggie Mack, from Victoria, B. C. The Englishmen seemed bound to catch all the seal they pleased in defiance of the prohibition, and were less cautious, evidently, than the Ameri- cans. No doubt they expected protection from the Siviftsure and other English men-of-war reported to be coming into Behring Sea. It was a stormy day, a high sea was running, and a stiff breeze blowing, while rain fell in a disagree- able drizzle. My husband, sweeping the horizon with his sharp eyes, discovered her, a small speck in the distance, hardly visible to the naked eye. Our course was changed, the engineer at his engine down below summoned and asked to give us '■' all ihe steam he could," and with all sails set we hurried in pur- suit. The little Rush rolled badly as ahe breasted the big seas, but there was a certain exhilaration in the war of the elements, and the increase of speed, even if it were only chasing a poor little schooner, she was at any rate legitimate prey. The Maggie Mack scudded ahead with a fair wind and under full (154) CHASING THE "SEALERS" 165 sail, but the Rush slowly gained on her. At last, when all hope of escape was over, she " hove to," anticipating the order, and waited to be boarded. Now came the "tug of war," though Greeks did not meet. The sea ran so high the two vessels, and especially the Maggie Mack, rolled over terribly, first one side and then the other, almost going under water, wholly at the mercy of the waves. There was much danger of the whale-boat being smashed to pieces by being dashed against the side of the vessel. Still it was not for us to allow the prey to escape for sucli a cause as that, and it was lowered with great care amid the hoarse shouts of command from ofl&cers and '• bo'son " (boatswain) just heard above the roar of the sea, and the wind as it whistled through the rigging. Those left aboard watched the small craft, as on her way to the schooner she dis- appeared at times in the trough of the sea, almost fearing we would never see her again. And yot politicians opposed to the retirement for Rever lo- Marine officers say they never risk their lives 1 However, in a moment she would appear riding the crest of each wave, just as it threatened to engulf her. Finally they neared the sealer and a catas- trophe of some kind soonied imminent, as they rolled and dashed, now away from, now against, each other. InstearJ, as would naturally be supposed, the English captain showed no enmity whatever, for he kindly threw a rope to assist them, and actually helped them aboard. This was effected without any i ii ill 166 CRUISE OF THE 'RUSH" accident occurring, further than the loss of one oar, and the breaking of another. The captain was very- polite, our lieutenants reported, all the time they were aboard. He said he had live hundred and sixtj'^- one sealskins, but that none had been caught in the Sea. The last caught was four days before, near Copper Islands. Leaving one lieutenant aboard the schooner, to await the decision of my husband, oar first lieutenant, Mr. T , came back and reporting what the captain said, gave his opinion it was true, as the Gkins did not look fresh. He added, the captain was on his way to Petropavlosky. He had clearance papers from San Francisco there. My husband, always giving them the benefit of the doubt, let them go, but he rather doubted the story. There had been up to that time seven or eight sealers found and boarded in the Behring Sea. Only two of these had been seized. The first having fresh seal aboard, to condemn her, the second, by the confession of the captain, that he had taken all he had in the Sea. The others had all either "just come in," or were " passing through, " or some such story, and had no positive evidence of fresh catches aboard, though we strongly suspected the seal having been thrown overboard on finding the Rush after them, rather than give up their vessels. However, Captain S had to let tliem go. We had begun to disbelieve the fact the Swiftsure ever intended to appear in the Sea. If she did, then was her opportunity, for my husband was chasing CHASING THE "SEALERS 157 every schooner, English or American, he saw in the Sea. The 29th of July we' chased, overtook and seized the British schooner Pathfinder. Her captain, with- out hesitation, acknowledged having secured eight hundred and fifty sealskins in Behring Sea. These were transferred to the Rush, together with all their firearms and ammunition. One of our quarter- masters Hunter by name, asked permission to take her to Sitka, which request my husband granted. We were sorry to have him go, as he was a very good man. Yet it was better to send one willing to go than one unwilling. There were so many skins it took several hours' time to complete the transfer. The following day the American schooner, James G. Swan, was seized. One hundred and seventy- one skins were found aboard of her. She was owned by the Neah Bay Indians of Washington (State), though her captain and mate were white men. The name of the owner was Chestoqua Peterson. The way in which he hap- pened to receive that name was this : His father, the chief of the tribe, was named CJtestoqua Petfv. In making out the vessel's papers his name was put down as Chestoqua Peter's son, converted now into a Dutch name and transforming a North American Indian into a " Dutchman." The James G. Swaji was sent to Sitka as were the other prizes, however she did not appear there either,. U3= I M :ii 1 . r f i- r-- J [ iV 158 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" but ill Port Townsend, where Captain S found her on the arrival of the Rush at that place. The vessel was named after a great friend of the Indians in that part of the country, Judge James G. Swan, of Port Townsend. She was caught in the very act. It must have been awkward enough. She had two of h^r small boats out, containing her hunters, and they were unable to come up with their vessel before the Rush overtook her. The hunters were all Indians, and used their own canoes, or dugouts, as they are com- monly called, also carrying their native spears, which I have already described. The Indian hunt- ers were very wroth over giving up their weapons. The guns taken from the vessels seized were in every ease carefully marked with the individual owner's name attached to it, to be returned to them in Sitka. Thus it was to their interest to go there, if they desired to get them. The next day a good joke happened on all of the officers as well as my husband. A enliooner was reported by our sharp-eyed little sailor, " Nelson." The only gift he had was his good eyesight ; further than that he had few merits, but he could spy ^j^v. thing as readily as the rest could with a glass. The Rush started full speed, as usual, after the schooner. The whale-boat was all readv to be low- ered, and the usual excitement prevailed. When being near enough to see the letters of her name it was simultaneously discovered to be the already CHASING THE *' SEALERS" 169 captured James 0. Swan of the night before. Great was the fun and joking on the discovery. We were so near her before we made her out she had " hauled her jib to windward," supposing we had something more to communicate. Each officer had a good excuse as to why he did not recognize her sooner. What had rendered them so unsuspicious was the fact she had changed her course and not followed the one originally intended. I asked my husband how many buckets of coal he was out, but he declined to answer the impertinent question. The same day, in the morning, had been captured the J^ianita, a British sealer. She had aboard six hundred and nineteen sealskins. During the following days many other sealers were seen and boarded, some seized and some not, according to circumstances. Two years before one of the sealers captured con- tained the large number of fifteen hundred skins. The sealskin, in its raw state, the summer of 1889, was estimated at $8 a skin. Multiply by 855, the number found on the Pathfinder, and we have an approximate • loss of about seven thousand dollars, besides the vessel, to the owners. If, therefore, the Hcliooners succeeded escaping detection, the profit would bo enough to pay for the risk incurred. It is no wonder such as see no fairness iu the prohibition take the cliances. f 111 i CHAPTER XXI. RETURN TO OONALASKA. m FTER A SHORT TRIP of ten days I found ^1^ myself again facing Oonalaska. It was with a greater degree of pleasure than I had anticipated that I reflected it was to be my abiding place for still another month. There I had nothing to do but read and dream the hours away, relieved by almost daily short walks and boat rides, when the weather per- mitted. No tiresome calls, no " at home" days and other wearisome society claims on one's time. I was once again in my little library, mine for the time being, picking Dver books, running over a few songs on the organ, and thoroughl}'- glad my visit to the Seal Islands and dreaded sea trip was over, though altogether it had been very pleasant. Little Emma came aboard the Rush promptly on our arrival, freighted with all the news, social and political, that had happened during our absence. The first fact v/as startling : " the missing woman had been found." I had omitted relating in its proper place the story of a poor native woman who, a few days after our arrival at Oonalaska, had been discovered to be missing, and had never been heard Oi since. A thorough search had been made for her, but no traces could be found. Her disappearance had (ICO) ^ RETURN TO OONALASKA 161 remained an entire mystery. Conjectures had been made, and many hinted at drowning, but no evi- dences were discovered. But at length, us Emma related, the mystery had been partially cleared by her dead body being washed up on the beach, as it were, at the very doors of the "big house." The sea had given up its dead. No clue to the means of her death had been found, whether voluntary or otherwise. We inclined to the belief it was an accident. Her life had gone out as a light by day, and been as little missed, to all outward appearance. Yet in some heart of sister, brother, husband or child, perhaps, a lament was made unknown to all but One. We had several lovely, bright, sunshiny days at Oonalaska after our return. The sun was even oppressively hot, or it felt so, in our heavy clothing. It seemed more as August should be. To remain indoors was out of the question. Mr. N des- canted on the excellences of the " banana belt," as he laughingly calls Oonalaska. The sun does seem to cr-rcontrate his rays on this particular spot. The mor aiiig.j were nearlj'- always bright and sunny ; later, in tiie afternoon, it would often cloud over. My husband said the sun never seemed to shine any- where else on the islands as far as he had had expe- rience. At dinner we had fresh, delicious lettuce and sweet tender radishes from the garden. A bed of English daisies were in full bloom. I must not forget to mention the wild celery which abounds over the Cruise op thr "Rush." 11 (•! ® ® ® ® *t IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 11.25 2.5 2.2 us lU u 14.0 2.0 m U 116 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STIifT WIBSTn,N.Y. MStO (71ft)«72-4S03 mmmmmmmmmfimmmii 162 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" hills, and which the natives eat. It is not unpala- table ; one could cultivate a taste for it. For a day or two after our return my husband had his hands full, superintending the careful storing of the sealskins he had ^aken. then numbering over two thousand. These are, when freshly caught, hastily salted and piled one upon another. After a a week, or a little longer, they have all to be taken down and resalted separately, with the utmost care Any carelessness, and too great economy of the salt, might entirely ruin the skins. They had to be trans- ferred to the warehouse from the Rush, anu stacked up there to await final disposal of them. They are sold at auction, and the proceeds go to the Govern- ment. Th& vessels captured are also sold in the same way. The sealskins are not, as many imagine, particularly valuable in their natural state. It no more resembles the sealskin as one sees it made up in the coat than the glossy hide of a gray horse does. The natural color is a dark gray, very smooth and shiny. This is hair. The fur is shorter and hidden by it. The outer gray hair is removed entirely, or plucked, as it is called. When removed it leaves the fur, which is then a light tf)n or fawn color. This is now dyed into the deep rich brown tint of the seal- skin of commerce. The greatest number of sealskins are prepared in London, where they are most successfully dyed and finished. In the United States there are two or three establishments where sealskins are prepared, but not ,t, , i.W >V' RETURN TO OOXALASKA 163 with the success of the London firms. It is this, then, that makes the skins, or rather the finished furs, so valuable. The process through which they are put is a very tedious and difficult one, and this raises the price to such a disproportionate value. Again, the sealskin is not large, and many have to be used in one garment. The natives are quite ingenious in the use of the natural sealskin, of which they make a number of things, such as blankets, mats, gloves, coats and caps. To make the blanket they take strips of the sealskin from the back of the seal, where it is darkest. Underneath, at the throat, it is nearly white. These strips are about six inches broad, and three-quarters of a yard long. For a good sized blanket they take about two dozen of these, and sew them neatly together. It makes, when lined, a very nice carriage robe. The mats are made much more elaborately. They cut into diamond shape pieces, the white and dark sealskin. These they sew together as one would patchwork, in alternate light and dark pieces. Around this they put a border of the plain dark skin. These make very pretty ornamental rugs. The gloves are somewhat tou clumsy, though they are useful for Arctic wear, and during the winter time at Oonalaska, or for driving-gloves on an Eastern winter day. The entire coat is made of the sealskin lined neatly with red flannel, and frequently orna- mented with buttons formed of seal's teeth. The caps are too heavy for comfort, except in extremely ' r'- "'' i'^I.Mf„l„li)'l ■ft B H - 1 ) I ' f 164 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH cold weather, the sealskin with the hair on being much heavier than the plucked. The magnificent sea-otter is by far the most valu- able and olegant fur to be found. The poorest full- grown skin is valued at about one hundred dollars. The sea-otter is not very plentiful. The chief beauty of the skins is the silver hairs with which they are sprinkled. These are called the silver-tipped sea- otter. On only the older otter are these silver hairs found, and it is to them it owes it value. It is, in fact, a regal fur, fit, by its rarity and value, for kings and queens. An imitation is made very cleverly by fastening the white hairs into more inferior fur. About the 3d or 4th of August seven bydarkas came into the harbor abreast. These contained two or three men apiece, as the case might be. They were sea-otter hunters from Oonalaska, who had been away on their yearly hunt. Their success had not been very great this year. But to us their coming was of great interest, from the fact they brought us mail. They had crossed the path of the schooner Nicoline, from San Francisco, aboard of which had been sent mail for the Thetis, Bear and Rush. The captain, hazarding that precious freight, had con- signed it to several different bydarkas, so that it might not all be lost, if perhaps one be overturned. Mr. N said it was the first time he had had mail by those " fast ocean steamers." However, it arrived safely, and we were glad to get it. I watched the bydarkas as they came in, so RETURN TO OONALASKA 160 swiftly and silently, like huge fish in the water. One landed almost under my window. The three inmates got out, shook themselves, as well they might after the many hours spent in that cramped position, raised their light little craft out of the water, walked a few yards up on the beach with it, put it carefully on the ground, sat down and took out their pipes and calmly began to smoke. This after an absence of at least two or three months from their wives and families. There was the sto- lidity of the genuine savage ! The total absence of excitement, of enthusiasm or curiosity. Neither was there any particular excitement manifested on the part of the villagers. Imagine our feelings should we see our husbands and fathers returning from a long perilous voyage on the sea, exposed to every possible danger, and from whom in all that time we had not heard a word. A fleet of eleven more bydarkas came in a few days later. The hunters belonged to Makushin, another village on Oonalaska Island. We found the Alaska Commercial Company's schooner Pearl in Oonalaska on our return from the Seal Islands, and learned she had brought seven- teen hundred cases of canned salmon from a cannery at Thin or Tin Point, as many call it, near Cape Pankoff on the peninsula. Each case contained four dozen cans. They had had splendid success at the salmon catch this year. There are no canneries on the Aleutian Islands, but quite a number on 166 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH the mainland of Alaska. The largest one is called Karluk and is on the northwest end of Kadiak Island. It was not doing so well this year (1889) as formerly. There they put up in a good season one hundred thousand cases. Quite a market is found in London for the canned salmon. The canneries are a great source of wealth to many. The fish is found in abundance in these northern waters, along the coast of Alaska and in the Behring Sea, and are not surpassed in quality anywhere. The St. Paul, whose return from St. Michael's was soon expected, was to deliver these cases in San Francisco. By her we had another opportunity of sending mail and much letter writing was in pro- gress. The Dora was expected soon, also, from San Francisco, with, we hoped, still later news from home. The bydarkas had brought a few newspapers from San Francisco as late as July second. The only item in which we took any particular interest was that about, our, the American, exhibition at Paris. We could have done very well without this item of news. Our faces did not light up with pride as we read of it. We read of our glorious nation ; we think with pride of our inventions, our unsurpass- able conveniences and luxuries in our private lives, and we look down on the foreigner. Yet how do we actually look as compared to him at the great Paris Exposition ? With many millions in the Treasury and thousands of clear headed men in the country notwithstanding. Why is it? CHAPTER XXII. AfM m ITEMS IN BRIEF. OFTER four or five days in port the Rush ^1" again started off on her regular cruise to the islands. We bade them adieu, not expecting to see her for nine or ten days. That same evening a steamer was reported outside. It was then dusk and only the smoke was visible. A little later appeared the steamer, next, it was discovered she had a schooner in tow. The Albatross (Fish Com- mission) was expected there any time, and when the steamer was reported we immediately exclaimed: " The Albatrossl " Yet, when the schooner was sighted, we said it must be the Rush with a sealer. On she came through the fast gathering darkness, and it was not till she was sailing past the " big house" we discovered the vessel in tow to be the company's schooner, the Matthew Turner, and that part of her foremast was gone and other evidences of a disaster were visible. Several days previous she had started for the island of St. Paul with freight and several passengers aboard, but had not been able to make the trip, owing to the accident. The Rush had found her drifting helplessly about, unable to make the harbor. When first spied the Matthew Turner w&s mistaken for a sealer, and with the usual ( 167 ) 168 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH I ' promptitude the course had been changed, and they had come up with her at full speed. A fortunate cir- cumstance for her, as several days or more might have elapsed before being able to come into Oon- alaska with the sail she had left, unless the wind was exactly favorable. The carpenter from the Rush was left behind to repair damages, and at daylight the Hush again started on her cruise. Every day during August the natives were put- ting off by the boatfuU, men, women and children, to different portions of the island, to fish and pre- pare their food for the coming winter. They catch the salmon in seines, and then selecting a spot near by where they are landed on the beach, the women spend the day cleaning them and hanging them up to dry. Here, there, everywhere one might see posts standing connected by horizontal pieces on which were strung the drying salmon. The natives enjoy this fully as much as the berry-hunting a lit- tle later. The malina berry grows about Oonalaska in great numbers and is very nice indeed. It is the same as that called the "salmon berry," found at Sitka and vicinity. It is large, red and juicy, resembling a blackberry, though much larger. At Sitka yellow ones are also found, the same in flavor as the red. The natives are very fond of them. The blossom is a pretty pink bell-shaped flower about the size of a large thimble, such as men use, open at one end. Blueberries and huckleberries also grow there. ITEMS IN BRIEF 169 The berries ripen a little later in Oonalaska than in Sitka. At the latter place the first day of August the Indians term " Berry Day ; " the berries are then all ripe. It has its appropriate celebration. On the first day of August last year (1888) a friend, Mrs. E , and myself pulled over to one of the pretty little islands in the harbor of Sitka. As we roamed around, busily picking the many berries we found there, we heard a faint sound of singing resembling a chant, of a strange weird character. It was a beautiful day, the sky and air clear, the sea blue and the sky blue. All else was still, and we listened, fairly holding our breaths, as gradually the sounds approached nearer and nearer. At last out from behind the island on which we were shot a large canoe filled with Indians, and gaily trimmed with strips of white and red cloth extended over a rude frame, erected somewhat like a canopy. They were still singing their strange and monotonous song, keeping time with their paddles. We stood as if entranced, watching them as they drifted ajiray out of sight, their song growing fainter and fainter in the distance. There was something so distinctly primitive in the whole scene, we seemed to be taken back to the time when the only inhabitants of this land were the savages. It remained in my mind like a scene pictured on the page of a book, so ud like the common occurrences of our daily life did it appear — a page from Cooper's novels, or more like the dreamy picture of one's imagination. .?•«< m 1 1 ! I I ': m 17a CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" Oq the 10th of August we found the first ripe malina at Oonalaska, therefore I inferred it must he warmer earlier and longer at Sitka. One morning soon afterward I was startled by Gee (our chambermaid) coming to the door and announc- ing to me in great excitement, while I lay peace- fully dosing in my bed, " Mrs. Sheppe (Chinese for Shepard) Mrs. Sheppe, steamer St. Paul light here, * Lush ' [RusKl comin' in ! " This meant life and bustle for the next three or four days. The St. Paul was on her way to San Francisco with pas- sengers and freight from St. MichaePs and Seal Islands. Among the passengers were the two ladies, Mrs. L and Mrs. M , I met at St. George and St. Paul respectively. It was very agreeable to be able to play hostess in my turn, and make their stay at Oonalaska pleasant. The Rush had been out on one of her customary cruises^ and was just return- ing. They were both soon at anchor, the St. Paul on one side of the wharf, and the Rush right across the way on the other. After calls were exchanged, the next two or three days being beautiful, rowing and walking were the^ order of the day. It occurred to me now ;7as just the time for a little dance aboard the Rush. After a short con- versation with my husband I received permission to have one the next evening. The officers were^ also in the spirit of it, and we resolved to have it a partnership affair. Every available and congenial p|l»»?«P«»w^— < t— ( c 192 craiisf; of the ^'RUsh" to see it again, an<1, as I stood watcjiing it, my eye took in every (letaii, a? I endeavored to form an indelible mental picture of the lovely and unusual scene. p The sea v/as so calm, for a now practibod sailor as I was becoming, .seasitkiifcss was not to be thouglit of. It was ideal — not ' ^oinjj; to sea,'' but '* yacht- ing." The two expn- ; ions convey different ideas. The moon rose bright aiid boaiiiifui, with a mellow, golden radiance bar ii> surpa-^sed i.i the south, flood- ing sky and sea wi<'- i r'sot? light, with Venus, her iOse ia at her right, a path of hj>Y U' .ar bhip. Not a cloud r tb beautiful handma silver reaching fro obscured the be«. make up mV' m' i moon seemed so ii!Lk. i»-i oi interval, to whom ^. hnd ask. Only once i of the clouds abont bright smile. At hal f - pas 1 fo m r i lie n aroused mo sachb want to see Sbish!*!' Un, tb clear and you ean - Of course I d:d f Dawn was at ban- r* roe 1 iier, u light T could scarce • ualf-past ten, the seen after a long '. ind more to ,i4 *ibe peeped out I '.' uio with her Miug my husband said he, '' do you (Op of the mountain is '■ a WT* ;uh of smoke at the top V ' ifew rnouients I was on deck. ,j,nd n'lth soft masses of gray clouds draping his .>ight^\ .-hapelsaw Shishaldin in alibis majesty, rear ng bin grand proportions above them. It was a glorious !-ight ! He was not alone. Near by an extinct volcano rivaled him in loftiness, ' eye I an isual or as )agtit acht- ideas. ellow, flood- LS, lier )ath of , cloud scarce jn, the along nore to ped out ith her lusband do you ntaiu is le top V ' )ii deck, of gray laldin in ns above ot alone. loftiness. mmmm iPPNI nmmmmmmmmm OUR DEPARTURE AND TRIP EASTWARD 103 9 t but seemed bent and shriveled with age, so deep and furrowed were his sides, his crater jagged and broken. Shishaldin by him appeared trim and beautiful as the young sapling by the gnarled and stunted oak. Shishaldin is very symmetrical in shape ; for a long distance the land slowly rises from the sea at the same gentle rise on all sides, and then suddenly turns^ upward at a sharper angle, the top as regular as the pyramid of Cheops. This mountain is 0,000 feet high, rising direct from the sea his entire height. It is on the island of Oonimak. On this island there are three volcanoes, from two of which curl soft wreaths of smoke, the only signs of life within those awful depths. The third was the extinct one I have mentioned. My boys were much interested in the "chimneys," as I called them, for their benefit, explaining how they acted in that capacity. ^ Shishaldin was covered with snow, as were most of the mountains around him. On the snow about his summit we could see a deposit of soot or cinders, which appeared to be recent. The crater seemed very small in comparison with the craters of other volcanoes I had seen, the top of the moun- tain was so pointed. Puffs of smoke would, one after another, at intervals, lazily roll forth and float away in the soft air. About half past five the sun rose, and " Mom in the white wake of the morning star Came furrowing all the Orient into gold." With his powerful beams the ** King of Day " soon CBinSE OF THE "RUSH." is 194 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" dispersed the clouds gathered about the tops of the mountains, and they appeared in glittering grandeur warmed and gladdened by the young light. An hour more and the veil of cloud had hidden them from my sight, perhaps forever, but it could not so hide them from my memory. How I thank memory. The weather continued perfect for several days, sunshine all day and moonlight at night. The finest weather we had had. " We were out of the Behring Sea*' said the officers. The Behring Sea being a synonym for all that was disagreeable in their minds We passed Cape PankofF, the westernmost point of the peninsula of Alaska, and other points almost unrecognizable in their beauty as compared with their grim aspect when we first saw them. At Belkovsky I did not go ashore. The Dora happened to arrive just as we did, from an opposite direction. Mr. N there first learned from my husband the disastrous news the Bear brought down about the loss of the Arctic and most of the supplies. In consequence other plans and arrange- ments had to be made for the immediate relief of the sufferers. We were but a short time at Belkov- sky, then off again to Sand Point, where we came across the Mary Ellen, a schooner reporting to be from Kamkatcha, but owned in Victoria, bound for San Francisco, so the captain said, and by whom we sent mail. The Indians we picked up at Oona- OUR DEPARTURE AND TRIP EASTWARD 195 e r laska had told us they belonged to the Mary Ellen, so when we saw her we expected to ship them aboard of her, but she was not their vessel, as the captain said he had not lost any Indians and had had none aboard; therefore we had to keep them. Many are ignorant enough never to learn the name of their own vessel. They seemed to be perfectly content, lazily lying about on the deck, with plenty to eat and nothing to do. One talked very good English and called him- self " Joe.-' He grinned with pleasure when I aired the little " Chinook " I had picked up at Sitka the year before. The scenery was exquisite as we steamed quietly along on a sea as still as the famous " inside passage" tourists go wild over, on the coast of Alaska. The mainland, or peninsula, of Alaska was on one hand, and innumerable islands on the other, among which we threaded our way. The difference between the part of Alaska I am now describing and the inside passage being the treeless condition of the islands in the former and the more extensive Views, because of the greater expanse of water between them. Pavloff, a volcano, next loomed up, an enormous snow-covered mass. To its right a sharp, slender peak, exquisitely symmetrical in outline and covered with an unbroken mantle of snow, but unnamed on the charts, as were many we saw. A peculiar feature about Pavloff is the crater, which is very low down on one side instead of at the top. We did not rr 196 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" see it smoking, but the deposit of cinders around it seemed to indicate recent activity. We saw Pavloff two days from two different directions. On the mainland a lofty range of snow-covered mountains stretched away in the distance. We stopped at Coal Harbor to get some coal, as my husband had been ordered to do by the Depart- ment. There we saw the first trees that deserved the name, except " The Forest " at Oonalaska, since we had left home ; for when at Coal Harbor before, it was very bad weather and I was unable to go ashore or to see through the fog and rain. We spent a few hours getting the coal aboard, about five tons. Meanwhile one of the officers and myself wandered about in search of petrified wood, which was said to be plentiful on thv) beach. We found several very good specimens, the smaller of which we took aboard the ship. We aijO visited the coal vein. It was simply a bank from which the coal was loosened with a pick and wheeled down to the water's edge. It was very light in weight > and the engineers said but one remove from lignite, the lowest form of coal, and worth very little. On starting again the fires were made with it, and the heat generated was so little we made very slow progress, while the fire- men were kept busy shoveling in fresh coal and taking out ashes. Its only good quality being it did not make any smoke, but it certainly was not good coal with which to make steam. Pirate's Cove, on Popof Island, was the next point J ^ ^fmmi^m mtm OUR DEPARTURE AND TRIP EASTWARD l'J7 y at which we stopped, a short distance from Coal Harbor, and the last before reaching Kadiak. As the day was superb I went ashore with my husband to explore the coast line, which there presented remarkable formations. How grand and beautiful the world seemed, flooded as the scene was with the golden sunlight. Several fishermen live there alone, there were no women at all. Two great dogs bounded down the small wharf, barking madly, not knowing what to make of me. Doubtful of the reception I would have, my heart failed me on beginning to climb the perpendicular ladder leading from the boat to the top of the wharf, with those monsters barking above, but they proved entirely harmless. The fisher- men seemed hardly to credit their senses when they saw me. As it was not to see the fishermen nor their houses I went ashore I soon left them to talk to Captain S , and betook myself to the " Elephant," a few rods away. This was a formation of the rock so remarkably like an elephant it required no stretch of the imagination to perceive it at a glance. I found a well-beaten trail leading to it, showing that even these rough men appreciated a littio scenery in the intervals of rest from their hard labor. At a short distance the head and trunk of the elephant were especially lifelike. The trunk was separated from the rest of the body by a natural arch. Through this hole or arch one had an exquisite picture, already BW'^> S'» *'**<'^»>*w*«-tl»-*"' 198 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH' framed, of sea, islands and blue sky. Around the base of the rock great boulders of conglomerate had fallen, of which the whole mass appeared to be composed. Other boulders seemed hanging by a thread, ready to fai^ at tne first liai*d storm. The "Elephant" looked as if wading in the water up to his knees; a huge monster, such as no extinct species of mastodon could ever have hoped to rival in size. A trail led directly over another natural arch, con- necting with and just making him a part of the mainland, and not an island, on, over his back to the top of the head. There I stood and looked around about me, drinking in with my eyes the beauty of the scene. Laving his feet was the clear, pale-green sea- water, through which I could see the white bottom, with here and there patches of moss and sea-weed. At a short distance away was the Rush, a little piece of home in that lone landscape ; on either hand green islands dotted the sea ; beyond, bounding the horizon was the lofty, snowy range of mountains on the mainland ; Pavloff still grand and white in the distance ; behind me green hills with precipi- tous, uneven sides, and the diminutive village, nestled in the little sheltered spot, behind the great arm of rock, which hid it from view. It was beyond description beautiful; none but the pen of a Ruskiu could do it justice. isvfF^saiS!^ mmmm e ,d CHAPTER XXVII. bo KADIAK. ^FTER A RUN OF TWO DAYS of the most 1 perfect weather imaginable we arrived at Kadiak, or rather St. Paul, on Kadiak Island. It commonly receives the former name. The approach to Kadiak is most beautiful. We first sighted the Trinity Islands, contiguous to the main island of Kadiak. The latter is very irregular, and deeply indented with bays. The greatest length is about eighty-five miles ; the greatest width fifty miles. Around its coast are numbers of pretty islands. Including the whole group clustered together they stretch over a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, and are about twenty-five miles from the mainland or peninsula of Alaska. There is no very high land on the island of Kadiak. The highest hills had only a slight sprinkle of snow on them. We could see over them, and beyond to the mainland, where distinctly on the horizon we saw a magnificent white mountain called on the chart '•' Four Peak Mountain," wh?ch by actual measurement was eighty-five miles away. The next day we saw the same mountain one hun- dred and five miles away, showing it to be extremely high. No height was given on the charts. (199) rv 1 ! ,1 200 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" We came opposite to the westernmost end of the island of Kadiak about midnight, and sailed along the coast from that time till about 3:30 p. m. the next day. This was Sunday, September 9th, when we dropped our anchor in St. Paul harbor. St. Paul is on the ep.stern end of the isla/ d Wq noticed that as we neared Kadiak the islands became more densely wooded with evergreen trees, not so tall or so large as at Sitka, but there were some, we were told, much larger in the interior. In fact the western end seemed as bare of trees as Ihe Aleutian Islands. We were most fortunate in having such clear weather, the sunlight bringing out as it did in bold relief every beauty of the con- figuration hi the land, as well as adding to the exquisite coloring of both land and sea. We were unable to see St. Paul till right upc i it, for it is hidden by two islands, cne of whicli apparently shuts it in completely, till on sailing through the narrow passage dividing the smaller island from the large one suddenly the channel widens out into a little harbor, so calm and quiet that day, it seemed like a lake. The larpror island is called " Woody Island," a 1 used to be of some importance, for from there sever*:, years ago was shipped a great d^nl of ice to San Francisco. As we approache^I St. I'ei "il we saw first the now deserted icehouses and a few small huts where live a number of natives, these we who had not been there before took to be the ■ i1" KADIAK 201 town itself. There was a general disappointed exclamation of " Pshaw ! is chat St. Paul ! " till our supposition was corrected by our Chief Engi- neer- who had been to Kadiak various times, the first time twenty years before, and who had seen it during different phases of its existence. Mr. D had seen the icehouses when they were filled with that frozen article of commerce — ice — a,nd when St. Paul was at the height of its prosperity. On one of his visits, in '69 he told us, an artillery company was stationed there, after the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which com- pany had an old sheep, a pet, brought to St. Paul from Virginia, that had been with them since the Avar, and remained in Kadiak the two years they were stationed there, and was taken away by the company when they left. What its subsequent his- tory was he never learned. Mr. D was an encyclopedia on all parts of Alaska, and a perfect treasure house of information, good-naturedly available at any time. To him I am indebted for a number of anecdotes and details of historv here related. On Woody Island he also told us, that when he was last there, in '82, they raised quite a variety of vegetables. We found that at Kadiak they raised potatoes, celery, radishes, cauliflower, lettuce and turnips. The potatoes were peculiar to the country* of a sweetish flavor and rather moist. I did not like them. They were a very good size, a little t f 202 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH larger than an egg. The celery was delicious. The cauliflower and turnips excellent. The temperature at Kadiak is very mild — surprisingly so, when one thini i ** the latitude of the island. In the same latitude > the eastern coast of North America one would find everlasting snow and ice. 1 he thermome- ter is rarely ever at zero, and a gentleman who had spent seven winters on the island, said he had never seen it below but once or twice, and then only two or three degrees. There is a better climate there than at Sitka and less rain falls. It is in fact called *' The garden spot of Alaska.*' There is cer- tainly much more available ground for cultivation about St. Paul, the hills being neither so high, so precipitous, nor so densely wooded as at Sitka, that is, in the immediate vicinity of the town. We dropped anchor a mile or so from the landing, where there is a small wharf, at which the company steamers from San Francisco load and unload. Our largest boat was lowered, for here all the officers wanted to go ashore, it being a new place, un visited before by them, except Mr. D and my husband. Those " on watch" chewed their mustaches in silent disgust. We were met on the wharf by a small army of little boys. I don't think I saw a little girl while there. There either were none, or they were kept very closely at home. These little urchins were all mouths and eyes as we neared the wharf. I was struck with their generally neat and cleanly appearance, as EADIAK 203 e pe le le le Id compared with the ragged little Aleute boys running around Oonalaska. One of the latter I remember particularly, whose costume consisted of a common merino shirt, very open about the neck, and a man's pair of pants, a mile too large, hitched up about his waist with a string. No shoes, hat or cap. In this array he rambled about with perfect unconcern, and really never appeared cold. Among the boys on the wharf there were two or three aged looking white men, with long, white beards, quite patriarchal in appearance. A Mr. Sargent met us, and was introduced by Mr. D as an old acquaintance of twenty years standing, whom he had met at Kadiak that many years ago. I was interested in his history. He had lived at Kadiak twonty-three years, and never till the year previous ('88) been away from there or back to his home in the East. He found his father, a man of ninety, still living. He also found grown nieces and nephews he had never seen. His visit to the States must have been a revelation to lim in more ways than one, twenty-three years making a great difference in this age of change. Mr. and Mrs. W , whom my husband had met two years before at Kadiak, had spent three sum- mers at St. Paul. Mr. W was general agent for the Alaska Commercial Company at that place. We found he had left on a short trip that very morning, to go in search of a small schooner for whose safety some apprehension was felt. Mrs. 204 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" W was at home, and received us with a bright smile of welcome, in her pleasant rooms at what was there, also, the " bull showy dome," or " big house," of the Alaska Commercial Company. We spent a pleasant half hour in chatting, and then wandered off to see the sights of the place. ■•^WPB mipN ■■I Is CHAPTER XXVIII. MORE ABOUT KADIAK. 'T^ADIAK IS MUCH MORE of a place than *•]" any we had visited, rivaling even Sitka in size, if minus the barracks and Government officers' houses. The houses at Kadiak, large and small were scattered over considerable space. There was a main avenue, not lined with houses, leading over a hill into the woods some distance, where Mrs. W told me she took her horseback rides, and that is more than one can do in Sitka, as I found after having given myself the trouble to take a riding-habit ; and, where I was offered, if I wished very much to ride, a superannuated old Government mule that lived on ^lams about the beach, too old and disabled to work. Suffice it to say I did not unpack my habit. There were three good horses at Kadiak and a number of cowp. We were told these animals could stay out of doors almost all winter and found enough to subsist on. Last win- ter they were out the whole time, with the exception of two weeks. There are a number of Russian or Creole families, with the natives, perhaps, numbering two hundred in all. Among them are a few Indians from the (205) 206 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" mainland, about whom Mr. D was told a story which runs in this way: "Near Wrangel, on the mainland, lived a tribe of Indians who were very savage. They had a number of other Indians, captured in war, in their power, whom they subjected to slavery. The chief's wife, on the death of her husband, according to custom, prepared to put them to death, and placing them in a row began cutting their throats, each in turn ; but some white men, a captain of a trading vessel and his crew, who happened to be witnesses to the inhuman deed, succeeded in rescuing them from the clutches of this fcxnale fiend and brought them over to Kadiak, where they have lived ever since." How true this may be I cannot say. The inevitable Greek church we did not enter. From the outside it looked rather dilapidated and sadly needed a coat of paint. We heard the chimes, which are common to every little Greek church, ringing out sweetlj'^ on the quiet evening air. Mr. W , assistant agent, urged us to stay to supper, which invitation we gratefully accepted, as it was such a long pull out to the vessel and back- Before supper Mr. W showed us through the ** fur house," in itself a very interesting building. It was a large, solid-looking house built by the Rus- sians. We were told they were seven years laying the foundation, and twenty-six years completing the whole edifice. This was obviously because of intermittent labor, neither its size nor style warrant- MORE ABOUT KADIAK 207 ing SO many years of work. But more than half of every week is taken up by feast days among the Russians, so we may safely call it perhaps twelve years. It was built of immense logs, cut from trees found on the island. The diameter of most of them, on an average, was about a foot and a half. These were closely and strongly fitted together into a building fifty or sixty feet high by one hundred and twenty long and fifty broad. It was divided into three stories. The two lower were used to keep supplies of various kinds for the station, the upper for furs. The greater part of the furs had then been sent away, but we saw a large number of magnificent sea-otter, many more than I saw at Oonalaska. There were other furs also, such as mink, marten, and foxes of different kinds, some wolverine, and the skins of several very large white swans. The sea-otter were by far the most valuable and interesting. Later Mr. W- showed us his curios, of which he had made a large collection ; most of them were obtained on the mainland. There were several whole suits of dressed elk skin, very elaborately trimmed with beads. These consisted of the parka and trabasars, both women's and men's, and were cut after a very similar pattern, except the smaller size of the women's. The fringes of colored beads were made in very tasty patterns, and must have required much tedious labor to make. There were other elaborate articles, such as pouches and cases for 208 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH knives, moccasins and other things of that kind, heavily ornamented with beads. We were also shown spears, bows and arrows, and, most interest- ing of all, a calendar, consisting of two convex pieces of wood hollowed out and fitted together like a box and cover. On the inside of one piece were bored small holes for the weeks, on the other for the days, in systematic order ; these were checked off with a little peg similar to a cribbage board. It was very ingenious. There were many other odd and valuable things, too numerous to mention. Mr. W kindly presented me with an elaborate skin bag from the mainland, ornamented with feathers and worsted in a very lavish way, as a souvenir of my visit. I was very much interested with an account of Lord Lonsdale's visit to Kadiak. Being such a public character it will be no harm to mention his name. He sent two tons of curios home by way of Winnipeg, though his servant was employed when he was preparing to leave Kadiak several hours in the transfer of the additional curios procured after that, and taken to Kadiak, and from there down to San Francisco. I myself saw at Oonalaska various articles, such as a one-hatch bydarka. a pair of snow- shoes, and other things labeled ' Lord Lonsdale ;" also to be sent to him. When at Kadiak Lord Lons- dale employed his time in writing a novel, and, he told them, he had written one or two others before. Whether the plot was laid in Alaska or on the banks of "■■VW"<«^HpPHI|PPI mmrm"'^''''"^ MORE ABOUT KADIA^ 200 the Mackenzie remains to be seen. Though no traces of his visit remain, and the Indians about Mackenize RivQr declare they never saw or heard of him he claims to have explored all that region. He made very large promises of gifts, had the half of which been sent it would have taken an extra steamer to convey to Kadiak. Among them were prizes to be awarded to the best scholars in the little school, on the non-arrival of which the children were very much grieved. Altogether his manners and promises were magnificent, as befitted a lord. A little joke at his expense, circulated in San Francisco, was as follows : In visiting a furrier's Lord Lonsdale, in his high- handed way, professed a superior knowledge of bears and undertook to determine their ages by an eiami- nation of their mouths or teeth. When arriving at a satisfactory conclusion as to the respective ages of those he saw in the store, he announced them to the amused furrier, who afterwards remarked that as they were all papier ma-' e he thought Lord Lonsdale " a most excellent judge." We were pleasantly entertained by accounts of interesting people and events till eight or nine o'clock, when we said good-bye and started back to the ship. The moon had arisen and was then full ; the scene was one of the most beautiful I ever saw. There was scarce a ripple on the water and the moon was reflected as in a mirror on its calm surface. I wished the Rush were three times the distance she was away, Cruise op thk "Rush." 14 210 CRUISE OP THE " RUSH " »,' I I that our row might be prolonged, selfishly never giving a thought to our poor men who were doing the pulling. Before leaving, Mrs. W picked me an exquisite bunch of the finest pansies I almost ever saw, which were growing in her " garden," as she called it, a small bed at one side of the house. These had been planted the year before, and had remained in the ground all the year ur injured. There were candytuft, nasturtions and nglish daisies growing there besides, all blooming profusely. Mrs. W told me the wild-flowers were exquisite, but it was too late when I was there to see them. She showed me some she had pressed very prettily, and I recognized several varieties quite common at Oonalaska. But at Kadiak the most common and most beautiful wild-flower is the real blue forget-me- not, which covers the hills with such masses of its tiny blossoms that they are literally blue with them while they last. They do not grow on the Aleutian Islands at all. The only other place I remember their growing in such quantities is in Siberia, where G. W. Kennan says whole fields are covered with them, stretching out like a blue sea, as far as the eye could reach. Mrs. W was very much amused at one of the ofl&cers remarking " the apple-trees reminded him of home." She looked rather puzzled at first — I hap- pened to be present — and then said, " Those are not apple but Cottonwood trees." It was rather a good joke on the officer, having been so long in Alaska — MORE ABOUT KADIAK 211 throe months, he had forgotten what an apple-tree looked like. We could not refrain from teasing him. There were several of the cottonwood trees growing here and there around the houses, and I admit I took them for apple myself, though no such fruit was visible on them. I was told at Kadiak the natives on the island were called Aleutes and spoke that language. They certainly resembled them much, though they appeared of a better class, generally . than those at Oonalaska. Strange to say, there is no physician at Kadiak. We had to leave so early the next day to take advan- tage of the good weather on our way to Sitka, that our doctor did not have an opportunity to amputate a leg for some poor creature who had been injured. I noticed several who had been disabled in one way or another, but the people generally looked healthy and strong. Bears are found on Kadiak Island, and a number of foxes of different kinds, but all the best furs are obtained on the mainland. I must not forget the little black bear, a pet at Kadiak, with its beautiful coat of long, silky black hair. The boys enjoyed playing with him, and teased and excited him so he would growl and run at them as if in rage, but they said he would not bite. Kadiak, or rather St. Paul, was formerly impor- tant as being the headquarters for the Governor of Russian Alaska. Later, Baranoff pushed farther 21. CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" east and established himself at Sitka, which has ever since remained the seat of government. We remained all night anchored quietly in the harbor, every one taking a good night's rest, and started at dayhght en route for Sitka, five hundred and fifty miles away. We had a remarkably smooth passage from Oona- laska to Sitka. So many days of fine weather, with so smooth a sea, were almost unparalleled in the experience of the oldest sailors in that part of the world. The ship was so still one could write with perfect ease. One day was like another, still and bright, the whole distance. The thermometer rose to eighty degrees one morn- ing. That was the 10th of September. In the middle of the day I t- as perfectly comfortable with- out a wrap of any kind. It was hard to believe »»e were not off the coast of Southern California, rather than in latitude fifty-seven degrees fifteen minutes off the coast of Alaska. The days were so clear that, when one hundred and fifty-six miles away, we saw Mounts Fairweather, Crillion and La Perouse, near Glacier Bay. Mount St. Elias was a little too distant to be seen well, but all who looked agreed they saw the outline of that most magnificent of all mountains in North America. It was then, by actual measurement on the chart, one hundred and ninety miles away from us. iHfil Si CHAPTER XXIX. SITKA. JTKA LOOKED its prettiest when we steamed in sight of it, and really qnite imposing in size. I was surprised at how much more important and larger it looked than when I first saw it last year. Our arrival was full of interest and pleasant sur- prises to us, and perhaps, I say it modestly, we were of interest to the inhabitants, who certainly received us with great cordiality. We first sighted Mount Edgecumb, associated in my mind as a prominent feature in the loveliest sunsets I ever saw, for I remember when the sun went down it was always behind Mount Edgecumb, setting forth his rounded contour with a back- ground of exquisitely brilliant tints of red and gold, while from his lav -covered sides they were reflected in hues of dee^-est crimson and purple. Mount Edgecumb is a sort of barometer to the Thlinkets of Sitka. They study his appearance at different times and so determine what the weather is to be. Soon after passing Edgecumb, which is some four- teen miles from Sitka, the little fairy islands in the harbor kept emerging one by one, green with trees and grass, and soon we saw *' The Castle" peeping at us, and then the green dome and spire of the Greek ( 213 ) mm mmrnn 214 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" church, with their g^lt crosses shining in the sun. And suddenly one of our lieutenants shouted : "There's a steamer, sir," to my husband, at which there was a general excitement, for the last thing we expected to see was a steamer, the last one having been due on the 5th and the next on the 20th of September. It was then only the 12th of September. Something unusual was the cause we surmised at once. We swung around the island directly in front of Sitka, and shutting it out almost completely from view, till quite near, when the wharf came in sight, gay with a crowd of people, the passengers from the steamer and inhabitants of the place. li was very exciting to behold such a multitude after peeing for so long only the few handfuls so sparsely scattered over the Aleutian Islands. Soon a boat came ofif to us and we heard all the news. The Ancon had sunk and was a total loss — no lives lost. All baggage and mail saved, for which we were devoutly thankful. The accident occurred on her trip down at Ivoring, where she drifted on the rocks. The George W. Elder, the steamer at Sitka when we arrived, had taken her passengers aboard and ca} ried them back to Port Townsend, in that way causing the delay in her arrival at Sitka. However, not one of the captured sealers had come to Sitka. V/e had expected at least one — the Minnie — her captain had seemed so honest. It • appeared to be a preconcerted arrangement among . SITKA 215 the 111; that if captured and sent to Sitka under the same circumstances as two years before they would return to Victoria. Two years previous the Rush had found a goodly array of fifteen prizes, both Americai. and English, awaiting her in port, on her arrival at Sitka. Experience had made them wiser. We had noticed a sailor in the uniform of the service on the wharf while passing. This was Hakinson who next appeared, and who was the " hero '' of the Black Diamond affair. From Victoria he had taken passage on the Ancon, the ill-fated vessel, and finally arrived safe and sound at Sitka. The Elder, by the way, and her captain were old friends of min It was on the Elder I had made my passage botli o ^itka and back tho year before, and Captain H \\i\.f\ Seen extremely kind to me both times, therefore, 1 was delighted to see him, and shake hands and congratulate him on the fact it was not the Elder that was sunk, to which he replied, " It may be our turn nt xt !" The mail for us came aboard soon after,Lieut T. , in command of the Marine Guard , kindly sending it off as soon as possible after uur arrival. There was the usual eager putting together of heads over the precious pile of manuscript, and exclamations of delight or disappointment as it was finally dis- tributed. Then we went ashore, only waiting to read the dearest and most important letters. We were met with curious glances from the many passengers of the Elder. Tourists consider -r 216 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" everything and every one in the light of " curios" when in an out-of-the-way place. The most impul- sive were for boarding the Rush immediately, and our shore-boat might have been swamped had it not prudently pushed off before the rush for it. A party finally succeeded in getting aboard, however, and amused themselves, ransacking every nook and cor- ner, and asking questions. I know all the masculine gender reading this will exclaim, "Just like thi women ! " but I have not said they were women. Soon I met the familiar faces, on every side, of those I had ^^ncnt my month with the year before. They seemed lil:e old friends, and their kind greet- Migs were most grateful. All was bustle and gaiety. Up and down the one street promenaded the whole population. The Indian women, displaying themselves and their wares in all their bright colors along the sidewalk, talking and laughing in their hoarse guttural lan- guage and tones. * Mrs. Tom," as usual the center of attraction, adorned with " rings on her fingers," I am not positive about the " bells on her toes," but I am about the braclets on her arms. All these sights are so familiar through the number of descrip- tions written, Miss Scidmore s especially, and the flocks of visitors of several years, that it will interest no one to read another description, therefore I refrain. Sounds of martial music fell on mj'^ ear, and I beheld a large band of Indian boys with brass ■■i SITKA 217 1- d y d instruments. I felt like shouting hurrah ! These were the Metlakatlah Indian boys, sent up by Mr Duncan from his Mission at Metlakatlah a year ago, to finish their educations at Dr. Jackson's school, and whom I remembered seeing when in Sitka before. I attended services at the Mission, and became quite familiar with their faces, especially so once at an entertainment they gave on the anniversary of the founding of the new Metlakatlah Mission, and an idea entirely their own. There were sleight-of-hand performances, minstrel songs, recitations, etc., dis- playing a good deal of ingenuity and originalit3^ A recitation of several pages, a short classic story, was very well given. For the occasion they drew a figu- rative picture, in which they signified their persecu- tion under the British lion, and their security under the American Eagle. The band played very well, at least it certainly sounded pleasantly on our ears, and added to the interest and excitement of the occasion. But our pleasure was soon cut short by the dole- ful news, that we must get under way in an hour. At first we did not know what to make of it ; we had anchored for a week or ten days' stay at least. We soon learned: a schooner, the Alpha, with fif- teen people aboard was reported lost, near Yakutat, and Governor Knapp had asked my husband to go in search of her. We were all cross ; of «ourse no one dared express himself as freely as I did, yet on reflection I was cheered by the idea of going to 218 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH " a thoroughly new place — Yakutat, where all the finest basket-work came from, and in the near vicin- ity of Mt. St. Elias. I prayed for a continuation of the fine weather that we might be able to see some- thing of the latter. In an hour both the Elder and the Rush left almost simultaneously, and Sitka must have felt deserted. There was a cheer for the Elder and a cheer for the Rush, and a waving of handkerchiefs from everybody to everybody else, with an inspiring tune from the band, and Sitka soon seemed but a vision of the night. However, we were to return in a few days, so I consoled myself. ^mmmmmm CHAPTER XXX. YAKUTAT. $E HAD INDICATIONS of rain and wind that evening, and the next morning was dismally cold and rainy ; such a contrast to the bright, lovely days we had been having for so long. The mountains on the coast were almost obscured by the clouds of mist and the rain, though occasion- ally we could see the nearer ones, covered with snow. The distance to Yakutat from Sitka was two hundred and ten miles, and was farther north than the latitude of the Seal Islands. At about 5 pm. the next day we arrived in sight of the Indian vil- lage of Yakutat. We were soon at anchor in a beautiful little bay as quiet and smooth as a lake, but all about looked cold and wintry. The day had lightened a little and we could see on the tops of several snowy mountains, a streak of gold, where, hidden from us in the clouds, the sun poured forth his bright rays upon them. It was beautiful. All around was gloom and darkness. Indistinctly through , the mist we saw the outlines of a glacier. We had seen several on the way up the coast in the deep deprf^ssions between the mountains, many pre- senting a bold jagged front to the waters edge. It was strange we saw no icebergs floating around in (219) 220 CRUISE OF THE *'RUSH' the vicinity. We were now in a latitude of eternal snow and ice, for the whole coast is lined with snow- covered mountains all the year round. Every one wanted to go ashore, late as it was, for we had all heard of the Yakutat basket-work and mountain-goat skins, and possibly a bearskin or two to be found at this place. As far as we could discover I was the first white woman that had ever been to Yakutat. We landed on the beach in front of half a dozen solidly built log cabins; constructed after the style of most of the Indian houses farther to the * soHhard." These were generally about thirty feet square. Inside was a bench resembling a counter, but lower, and extending around the four sides of the room, used to sit and lie on — a species of divan — which served as chair, sofa and bed, and from this level opened, though rarely, an extra room or two, not much larger than a closet. The architecture of the whole house greatly resembles a huge dog kennel, even to the door, which is simply a round hole large enough to comfortably admit the body. I was surprised at the size of the houses and the small number of people that occupied them, but still more surprised when I heard thai in these half dozen houses lived about three hundred Indians, then all away hunting and fishing. Imagine fifty or sixty persons of all ages and sizes living in one room. We found some good basket-work, but at high prices. These Indians seemed as shrewd as those at YAKUTAT 221 Sitka at bargaining. Several of the lieutenants found some pretty baskets at the small store just opened, three mountain-goat skins, and one of them a blanket of eagle's breast-feathers, which made the rest of us green with envy. It was the only one to be found. But I must tell of the schooner Alpha and her crew. No sooner had we anchored than there appeared two beautifully shaped light canoes, or dugouts, in which there were tour Indians, two in each, pad- dling rapidly toward us. We had aboard two men from Sitka acting as pilots, and well acquainted with that part of the country. One of them hailed the nearest Indians, whom he recognized to be from the missing schooner, and in a few words we had the satisfaction of learning of the safety of the ves- sel as well as of all hands aboard. Later we discovered it was not shipwreck but a complication of other causes that led to her delay, giving rise to the fear of her possible loss, she being known to be unfit for heavy weather. There had been a lack of provisions, which led to disputes and conflicting plans between the various parties aboard — the captain, a trader, and a photographer, Mr. H , from Taber's, of San Francisco. The affair ended thus : The Alpha was abandoned and the Rush took crew and all, including several Indians, to Sitka. We had besides, a distinguished couple and their family aboard, Yanatcho, chief of the Yakutat clan and his wife. His " Boston" name (Boston is 222 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH United States to the Indians, because one of the first vessels from the United States to visit those regions hailed from Boston), being " Billy Merry- man," named after a captain in the navy who had once been there. Yanatcho was a haughty looking man, who spoke as one having authority. He begged, or rather expressed, his desire to go to Sitka in a somewhat peremptory manner. He first asked my husband to take him down to Sitka. Captain S said, "All right." Next he asked if he could take his wife. My husband said, " Yes." Then he wanted to take a box of seal oil. Next he wished know if he could take his son. " Yes," good-natur- edly repeated my husband. It was then necessary to add another box of seal oil (which they use as a con- diment for everything). "Yes." "But he had three children he did not want to leave behind !" My husband's patience, though he has a great deal, was coming to an end, and he told him " No more !" However, at the time appointed for their embarka- tion, just before our departure, three canoes, full of men, women and children with all their goods and chattels, a most incongruous mixture, appeared. It was too late to single them out. Two canoes full were bundled aboard and off we started. The next two or three days must have been trying even to them, for the poor creatures had no shelter but such as they could get under the " fo'castle," and an awning put up to keep the rain off. For, besides the rain, we had a heavy gale on our way mmm YAKUTAT 223 i»» back to Sitka. The ship thrashed about most unmer- cifully. Mr. D played the good Samaritan and took the chief, with his wife and children, under his protection in the. engine-room, where they were at least warm. Yanatcho made his tribe believe the "gunboat" had come after him especially, so we learned from those that understood the Thlinket aboard the schooner. One of tho Indians, the second chief, was as ami- able a looking person as one could wish to see, for I saw him afar ofiF, when paddling toward the ship, with a countenance such as the moon is said to have when particularly jovial, and what a little street gamin might express as a '* gash" extending from ear to ear, exhibiting two long rows of strong white teeth. With this stereotyped expression he remained as long as I saw him, except when he drew the corners of his mouth together, and extended it at right angles with its former position, in an enor- mous yawn, looking one straight in the face, the meanwhile, in the most natural and unconcerned manner imaginable. Both Yanatcho and the second chief had letters of recommendation from one gentleman and another who had strayed to that far northern port on bu»i- ness, or for pleasure, which they presented to my husband. It was customary among the Indians to ask for these. Unable to read, but confident of their flattering contents, they presented them with a great deal of pride to the person whose favor they wished 224 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" to secure. A laughable story was told us of a chief who called himself " Me-no-lie." He desired some one who knew him to write a letter of recommenda- tion. The gentleman did so. The letter ran thu5 : *• Me-no-lie is a chief, and the greatest liar and scoundrel to be found ; do not trust him under any circumstances." With an air of conscious merit, though affecting modesty, he presented his letter to all with whom he happened to be associated. I will mention here that the Indians in the vilJ-igc spent all of the time we stayed in the harbor aboard the Rush. On more intimate acquaintance they grew bolder and would follow us into our private apart- ments in a most provoking manner. We were sur- rounded by a whole fleet of canoes, going and coming all day, after our first raid on the village, the evening before, in search of baskets. These were laden with curios of every variety known to the savage breast. But the most unexpected and amusing of all were half II dozen hair switches, which the officers hinted "just about matched my hair." I was of course indignant. Who, wo wondered, had been in this region after false hair ? !■ ef a- •it, to X < < ^ < ^ tr. o *^ u 'C < 224 CxlUISE OF IHt; ••RUSH" i to secure. A lauglmbl; story was told us of a chief who call' (1 liiiiisolf • Me-no-lie/' He desired some one who knew him i>:> wr;t»^ a letter of reeomineuda- tioii. The gentleman did :*o. The lel^* : ran thus: '• Me-no-lio is i\ • hii ' avid the greatest liar and scoundrel to be found • do i..jt trust him under any circumstances." With an v\r of conscious merit, though affecting modCv^ty, i o presented his letter to 3,11 with whom lie I app' ned to be associated. I will mention h•) our private apart- ments in a most provokiug m«w?ior. We were sur- rounded by a whob ileefe of «an.>» ; ing aiid coming alt day, after our first ratd • n tli :re, the evening before, m search of ba.-ket,. J curios of everv variety kn hh ■ Bui the most unexpected .j.d a half a dozen hair f^wiicitt!*, v> hicli "just about matt . 'd my : air indignant. V/hO;, we won i^Tri retijicin after falso hair ? ^'♦^«rv laden with :Viige breast. -nio; of all were 'n In: officers hinted ! was of course had been in this mo da- nd in)' lit, to < < < < O h O w O <3 ^ z Pi ;s X O < ►4 6 o X u H <: < w tn w H (/) H Z D O • pmiiipuin mmitwu'miwT'^^mg^lfllff^lli' . * CHAPTER XXXI. INDIANS OF YAKUTAT. ik NUMBER OF INDIAN children, mostly boy»^ ^1" were running around in the cold and wet in suniraer attire — a cotton shirt, occasionally a whole suit, but we understood it was summer with them all the time as far as a change of costume is concerned. They plunge into the breakers when it is blowing, snowing and sleeting ; this is their recreation. They slide on ti*o snow barefoot all day long and they don*t die. They often live to a good old age, notwithstanding the terrible exposure they suffer. A missionary at Yakutat told me he knew of two old Indians whom, he said, were over eighty, for they remembered the time when a party of Russian missionaries had come to Yakutat, and had all been murdered. This, he said, had occurred as many as eighty years ago. The Yakutat Indians speak Thlinket, as do those of Sitka, but the former were ori'nuv'Hv of the tribe of Copper River Indians. A number left their home in the region of Copper River and emigrated to Yakutat, where a tribe of Thlinkets already lived. The two tribes amalgamated and became one and the same, and at present the Indians of Yakutat speak the same language and are considered Thlinkets. Cruisk of thk " Rush." 15 ( 226) mmmm 226 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" Only the oldest among them remember and speak their former dialect, that of the present Copper River Indians. . For this fact I am indebted to Lieutenant E , an ofi&cer of the United States Navy, and son of the late Admiral Emmons, also of the United States Navy. Lieutenant E has spent two or three years in Sitka, traveling continuously among the Thlinkets, or, as he says, the correct spelling is Thlingits. He has made an extensive collection of rare and valuable curios. These he obtains by trav- eling far up the rivers in Indian canoes, taking with him a faithful Indian interpreter, though he him- self has acquired their language sufficiently to be able to make himself understood. He has already made one collection worth several thousand dollars, which has been placed in the Smith- sonian Institute at Washington, and is at present at work on a second collection, in which there are already several hundred pieces. In this collection are to be found some very ele- gant and expensive carved wooden dishes, inlaid fancifully with mother of pearl from shells, and used at feasts ; they are large enough to hold a good-sized roast pig, and probably used by them to contain venison, so plentiful in Alaska. There are also knives, with elaborately carved handles of bone ; there were also some with copper blades. Copper was used by them before the invasion of the whites. They knew nothing about the use of iron, however, !l! INDIANS OF YAKUTAT 227 ak he tes ee he is of av- ith m- be until after the arrival of white men among them. The most grotesque masks are made of carved wood, painted in vivid colors, such as red, green and blue, the three often on one mask ; some are made of copper. Other extraordinary looking objects are found, the use of which is unknown, but of interest because of the skill and care evidently expended on them. The Thlinkets are much more ingenious in the devising and making a variety of articles than the Aleutes, probably because they have better and more materials at hand. Though the former are gradually ceasing to make them, as they come in contact with civilization. Lieut. E has made this tribe, the Thlinkets, their customs and habits, his study for several years. He also has some valuable Russian books, almost a century old, on the discovery of Alaska and the condition of the Indians at that time. " On Kow" is their term for chief In teaching them of God He is called " On Kow" — it is the only term possible to be used in their language. " Kan- Kow" is the appellation of the evil one. The Yakutat Indians, like those at Sitka, all under- stand what " How much ?'* means, and never by any chance make a mistake and confuse two and three dollars. They dislike to change money, the greater the number of small pieces the more they imagine they have. There were no " totem poles" about the houses, though I was told inside the chiefs house there 228 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" were two or three ; but when he goes away he locks his door behind him with a padlock and takes the key, and was not at home when we called. Every nook and cranny through which we might have peeped was filled up in some way or other. Yakulat consists of an Oakland and a San Fran- cisco. On one side of the bay lives one chief and part of the clan, and on the other sido the other ; communication is entirely by water. These Indians cremate their dead. We saw sev- eral little houses like sentry-boxes, with a window on one side, in which were set, sometimes one and two, often three, elaborately ornamented leathern chests, in which we were told the ashes of the dead reposed. In one more pretentious than the rest there was a small clock ; it was not running and I could not imagine their idea in putting it there. We were told by a person who understood Thlin- ket, that when the Rush first appeared at Yakutat there was great alarm among the Indians for fear of punishment, the making of liquor being prohibited. Their consciences troubled them. Some little time before a party of Copper River Indians had come on a visit : they had made a great deal of " hoochinoo" (the native liquor) and had had a grand time. Each chief was anxious to lay the blame on the other. We rowed among the small wooded islands that there, as at Sitka, make the harbor so pretty. At a sudden turn we came upon some white men and INDIANS OF YAKUTAT 229 Indians hauling the seine in one of the channels, so surrounded by islands as to almost form a lake. The salmon, great huge fellows, were jumping out of the water in every direction, evidently much disturbed by the assault made upon them. We watched till tired of the sport and then continued our row. We landed on one of the islands, where we found evi- dences of the " good time," in the shape of several empty bottles, hidden in a hole in the trunk of an old tree. We also found a deserted log hut, a canoe, and a small square inclosure, tightly boarded over, but into which we managed to peep. In it we saw a bundle of what we thought were skins, and a large chest or leathern trunk. It was a lovely little island, round as a dollar, carpeted with rich green moss and ferns, in which the scarlet of the bunch-berries gleamed brightly. Old trunks of trees were scat- tered here and there, covered with the fern-like moss ; all was fresh, green and moist, a fairy island, had it not been so cold. All the islands and woods on the coast of Alaska present the same appearance. Beyond the moun- tains (the range which seems to be immediately on the coast) it is flat prairie-land, covered with grass and a few bushes, but no trees. At Yakutat are found the most delicious wild strawberries, of a very fair size, larger than the ordinary wild strawberry of the Eastern States. A wild cranberry is also found, smaller than our com- mon cranberry, but of a far superior flavor. The ^ 280 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH " i cranberry pie made with them is in my estimation better than any other fruit pie. I saw growing in the sn^all gardens belonging to the missionaries, of whom I will speak later, beets, turnips, and potatoes, which, with carrots, all do very well. The soil at Yakutat is very sandy, but is enriched by the quantities of decayed seaweed. If there is dry weather for two or three days it has to be irrigated, or the vegetables would be spoiled. A branch store from Sitka had been opened recently at Yakutat and was doing well. It was a god- send to the missionaries, who could now rely on the store for supplies, instead of having to send away for everything themselves. We inquired of the store- keeper if he could trust the Indians ? he said "Yes.'* and added, " in almost every case where he had allowed them to liwe clothing with an agreement to pay when they had the money they had faithfully fullfilled their promise. I remember the second chief appearing on board with a bran new ulster, on which he had allowed to remain in a very promi- nent position the tag on which the price was marked. The days of the blanket have departec\ The women cling to that custom still to some extent, but more often use shawls instead. The customs of the Yakutat Indians are those of the Thlinkets of Sitka, about whom so much has been written that it will be unnecessary to mention them here. The missionaries I have already referred to were INDIANS OF YAKUTAT 23] n ;o [f o two Swedes, who had been in Yakutat about a year; kindly looking, noble men. From them I received most of ray information regarding the Indians and their manner of living at Yakutat. Previous to their arrival there had never been any missionaries among this tribe, except the Greek or Russian murdered by them so many years before. ! These Swedes had much trouble in establishing their mission ; there was a scarcity of lumber and their house was too small. At the time I was there they were able to accommodate only five Indian boys. The only way to do the Indians any good was, as has been proved, to keep them entirely under their supervision. There is no direct communication with Yakutat, only trading schooners coming up once in a while. The Pinta, the naval vessel sta- tioned at Sitka, runs up occasionally, that is all. I could not but admire those humble good men, so far from their native land, staking their very lives for the salvation of these poor degraded beings. I asked one of them, " Mr. H , do you feel safe among these Indians ?" " Hardly safe," he replied, "though I do not fear them. One day not long ago," he continued, *' one of them came to me and wanted to use my grindstone ; it was Sunday, so I refused him, whereupon he said he would kill me. He had an axe in one hand and a knife in the other. I told him he could kill me, I was helpless ; and he walked away. They are like dogs ; had I shown fear he would have killed CRUISE OF THE "RUSH }f me." When I visited his Mission at Metlakatlah, Mr. Duncan told me of a similar experience of his. These Indians admire courage and will seldom kill but the craven or coward, right out in the broad light of day. Their usual method is to steal upon the victim unawares and shoot from behind an ambush. Two years ago thei\ were two white men wan- tonly murdered a few miles from Yakutat. They, with two Indians, had gone out on a hunting expe- dition. Their wood gave out and the two white men went a short distance from their camp, together in a boat, to procure some, leaving their guns behind them. On returning they were met by the two Indians, who fired upon them with their own guns, killing one of them instantly, the other, still par- tially alive, was finished with the stab of a knife. One of the Indians was caught, taken to Portland, tried and hanged ; but the principal one, it is rumored, is still at large. The second chief of the Yakutat tribe (I did not learn his name), of the smiling countenance, went to Portland and testified against the murderer who was hanged. It was an event which forever afterward raised him to pre-em- inence in the eyes of the rest of the tribe. But alas ! we did not see Mt. St. Elias. It was a severe disappointment when so near, and as we thought that just behind those clouds he stood grand and still in the awful silence of nature. The missionaries told us from their own little home, on INDIANS OF YAKUTAT 233 11 id a clear day, the view was superb. It rained steadily almost all of the time we remained there, which was two nights and a day. A stifiF wind blew " dead ahead " all the way back to Sitka. We ♦' hove to" for several hours, till the worst was over, and then bad to "tack ship" for some distance. We were twenty-four hours longer making the trip back to Sitka than we were going from there to Yakutat. On arriving at Sitka we were met with cheers and other expressions of satisiaction, especially after it was paade known that the missing party were all safe and aboard the Rush. CHAPTER XXXII. SITKA AGAIN. 'SK'e remained in SITKA about ten days, ^1^ during which time nothing of importance occurred. The investigation and law proceedings in regard to the captured sealers were carried on very quietly, and there was little to be done, besides the ordinary routine of ship life, but amuse oneself, or at least it was all I had to do. Walks to the Indian River, a visit to the Ranche, and the services at the Greek church, besides the exchanging of calls took up the most of my time. Also a visit to the Mission. ' With two friends I visited the Ranche one day. This Ranche, as it is called, is where the Indians live outside the stockade. Though the latter is now but a memory, all of it but a few yards having been removed, or fallen to decay. We were in search of a set of paddles. It was Saturday, and a bright, warm day. Saturday was employed in much the same waj' as in the more civilized part of our country, namely, as cleaning day. The whole Ranche had a certain air and smell of cleanliness and soapsuds. We met Indian women with streaming locks, and a fresh, clean look about the face, betokening a recent but perhaps only the weekly wash, in readiness for (234) SITKA AGAIN 235 Sunday. Many a papQOso was receiving u thorough scrubbing in the clear light of day under the warm rays of the September sun — sixty degrees Fahren- heit. I found a handsomely painted pair of small pud- dles, just a good length to lay in my trunk, and a number of other smaller things. These curios lose their value in one's mind when one reflects they are made by the Indians simply for sale, after the most approved patterns. We paid an interesting visit to "Jeweler Jim," an Indian, who is very clever at converting gold and silver money into ornaments of various kinds. His latest effort was a set of after-dinner coffee spoons, each one made out of a half dollar, and a very pretty shape. He will make you for three dollars, in two days' time, a gold ring, with an Indian design, out of a ten dollar gold piece. He had a handsome silver napkin ring well under way when we inter- rupted him. Between " steamer days'' at Sitka it is almost impossible to buy curios from the Indians. They get such extravagant prices from the tourists it pays them to keep them till then. Mrs. Tom displayed a Chilkat blanket, made up for a dance robe, at the modest sum of only sixty dollars. It was not the real mountain-sheep's wool and native-dyed blanket either, but a wretchedly cheap imitation. I found the Mission to be in a very flourishing condition. The school was full to overflowing, and 1. rM 236 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" measures were being taken to build a new cbiipel for the especial uoe of the Indians. Quite a village of neat little houses was springing up all around the Mission, tenanted by married couples of Indian boys and girls from there. The houses were built by the boys themselves. They were all alike, more or less, and painted white, similar in appearance to the smaller cottages one sees at " Cottage Citv" on the island of Martha's Vineyard There was also among the new buildings a hospital for the boys, built sinco last year, and similar to the one erected foi the girls. The dormitories accommodate about a dozen or so borls. There are always a number of little patients afflicted with loathsome maladies — poor unfortu- nates. A generation will have to pass away before the general health of the^e degraded creatures can be materially benefited. Much is being done. A prettier site could sc<'\rce be found for a village at the foot of Vestovia, the Arrow Head Mountain back of Sitka, with the view out over the island- dotted harbor, and the pretty crescent-shape sweep of the beach, around which Sitka lies in picturesque carelessness, the green-spired Greek 'i^hurch in the midst. The missionary work at Sitka is certainly meeting with great success. The Indians take a pride in the fact, they are Christian Indians, and look down on such as have not their advantages. The Indian boys and girls are fond of singing or mugic of any kind. It was certain ly very inspiring to H:aift*ir"ntmMiii SITKA AGAIN 23: el :e listen at their Sunday morning service, to the spirit and harmony with which the Moody and Sankey or gospel hymns were rendered. They would put many a white Sunday school to shame. An Indian boy played the organ, and the services were begun by an elaborate voluntary, sung by about half a dozen of the boys and girls. It made the tears come into my eyes as I listened, thinking of those poor degraded beings, hardly, by some, allowed to have souls, singing thus, in that hearty fashion, our most sacred songs. The sermon, though in reality short, is made to a visitor somewhat long and tedious, by having to be interpreted sentence by sentence by the Indian interpreter. This is more for the benefit of the congregation of Indians who come to the serv- ices, the relatives mostly of the children at the Mis- sion, than the scholars. These relatives, generally women, appear in their gala array every Sunday; silk handkerchiefs on their heads, bright shawls on their shoulders, over perhaps, as one woman I noticed had on, a pea-green silk dress. These Ind. ians are far from being poverty stricken. The tourists are a boon to them. The Indian mother takes her papoose to church with her, and the ser- vices are varied frequently ^^y loud wailings here and there, but that is nothing to the initiated. In teaching a Sunday school class once or twice I found these Indian children read quite as well as 288 CEUIaE of the "RUSH" an average boy or girl of eight or ten, after a year's study. During a call on Dr. J and his wife and daughter, he showed us a very handsome circular piece of Alaskan cedar, about thirty inches in diameter, of exceedingly fine smooth grain, on which was elaborately carved a design which to us was meaningless till explaine'l by Dr. J to rep- resent a beaver cutting down a tree. I must ad iiii it required some imagination to understand it after we found out what it was. But the carving was beautifully done, and by one of the Mission boys. Dr. J contemplated having a table made of it. The wood itself was a good advertisement of the quality of cedar to be found in the vicinity of Sitlca. Miss J , Dr. J 's daughter, kindly showed us an exquisitely painted collection in water colors of the wild-flowers in the vicinity of Sitka. Many were similar to the flowers growing on the Aleutian Islands. Gambling is a vice of the Sitka Indians. They will keep it up for days, hardly ceasing day or night. While at it they present the wildest appearance. Often their faces are streaked with red paint, which looks like blood. By some a white cloth, frequently a red one, is tied about the head. Many are stripped to the waist, and when in the midst of a game their fierce, wild looks displayed in their intense interest in it are horrible to behold. It is a game of guess. Small sticks, which are unlike, are changed from Hii SITKA AGAIN 239 hand to hand by a member of one side, while some one on the opposite side guesses a certain one. If right, the guesser and his side win, the other loses. They sit in a double row of three or four on a side, facing each other, in a squatting posture, a rough board or two between them. There is a continuous noise kept up by the beating of sticks on this board, at the same time keeping the whole body in constant motion. Together with this a monotonous but not unmusical cry is uttered. The guessing side is always quiet, while their opposites keep up their wild antics, as if to confuse them. It is a fascinat- ing thing to watch them, and marvelous what an amount of endurance they display, and indifference to all fatigue when at this game. They gamble away the very clothes off their backs, if they are so fortu- nate as to have them. The Indians are very mercenary. They will go to the Mission and ask for medicine for a sick wife or child, and then want to know how much they v/ill be paid to take it to them. Yet, I heard a gentleman (Lieut. E ), who had lived in Sitka for several years, and who had been much among the Indians, say, that taking them as a whole, they were as good or better than so many white people of the rougher sort living in one com- munity. CHAPTER XXXIII. ui r. Ji HOMEWARD BOUND. llUT MY FAITH in the good weather of Sitka "J^ vas sadly shaken by the constant rain, almost the entire time of our stay there. For three days and nights, I solemnly affirm, it did not stop a moment, not drizzling, but pouring. We had one or two fine sunsets, not entirely clear, however. One evening from out the gloomy clouds, and back of Edgecumb, the sun shot out a few vivid rays like flames of fire for a few moments, and again " the world was left to darkness and to rain." A lady, the wife of a naval officer stationed at Sitka, after having lived there a year, said, "She felt like a jelly-fish." The evening before we left Sitka we were delighted to receive an invitation to a concert to be given for the benefit of our two pilots to Yakutat, in search of the Alpha. After the concert there was dancing. It varied the monotony of the rainy days and nights. In walking up the street we almost needed our small boat to reach the building in which it was given, but we arrived undissolved and in a fairly good con- dition, considering all things. The chief feature of the evening's entertainment was a topical song sung by Lieut. T , the senti- ment of which was composed by Sitka's pride in that f240) HOMEWARD BOUND 241 line, Mr. H , who is ready on all occasions with a poem or a rhyme exactly to the point. This song was sung to the music of Nat Goodwin's comic song, " That's All." The first verses ran after this fashion ; while being sung meaning glances were directed at my husband : The " Shepard " cawie into our bay with a Huah, That's all, that's all. He had swept Behring Sea with a revenue brush. That's all, that's all. And our Johnny Bull cousins who live in B. 0. Are shaking their fists at the flag of the free, That's all, that's all. The Black Diamond was captured, but she ran away^ That's all, that's all. Mistaking Victoria for Sitka's fair bay, That's all, that's all. And vain was the talk of the gallant prize crew» He was one against many, so what could he do ? He did what he had to— so would I, so would you. That's all, that's all. etc., etc. The next day we sallied out bravely in spite of lowering barometer and threatt >uig looking weather. We could not realize what the weather was at sea, while anchored in " Sitka's fair bay," but after passing Mount Edgecumbe, seaward, we were audaciously opposed by fierce winds in our very faces, and mountain-like seas, which the little Rush attacked bravely and climbed over with the greatest dexterity, though not entirely to our enjoyment. Such bois- terous conduct was not to be endured, and the order Cruise of the " Rush." 16 >l i 242 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" being given to " hard-a-port " we slyly stole back to our comfortable anchorage, to await a more favora- ble time. The next day, my husband being deter- mined to proceed, and thinking to run through what he thought to be perhaps only a local storm, braved the southeaster again, after taking the precaution to take ten tons more coal aboard. We had silently and in secret prayed and hoped by some combination of circumstances we might go down the inside passage, but my husband did not desire to lengthen our homeward-bound trip any more than necessary, and the pilots did not present themselves, so we put out to sea after a feeble remon- strance on my part, and a suggestion we could get a pilot from the Oorunna, one of the passenger steam- ers then in port. But I was kept thorouglily in sub- jection by the quiet reminder that I was not on a yachting party. However, I think that by the fourth day after we left, if it had not been for his pride, Capt. S would have acknowledged the inside passage preferable. We had a strong headwind most of the time, and a tremendous sea running. A moment's quiet was not to be found. Braced ns best I could be in ray steamer chair, with my feet up against the wheel in the pilot room, for the pilot house was my sanc- tum sanctorum, being unused at sea, for the steer- ing was done at the wheel aft, I clung desperately for those five days. There I even ate my meals. Eating was an acrobatic feat to be performed only HOMEWARD BOUND 243 after practice. On one occasion the waiter in my lap slid ofif, the blanc mange (made out of con- densed milk diluted, by the way) sailed across the floor. I scrambled after it, the steamer ^ chair top- pled over me, and on top of all rolled an empty bucket. The reason why the latter was at hand I'll not mention. The " debris" was picked up as soon as the opportunity offered itself. That was nothing. When on the fifth day we arrived at Port Town- send at 8 p. M. I declined to go ashore. I felt as if I had been stretched on a rack. My sleep that night was disturbed, it was so still. The day before, we landed, or rather dropped, our crew of rescued Indians we had brought from Oon- alaska. This was effected in mid-ocean, opposite to their native village of Nootka on Vancouver Island, and about ten miles distant. Their two canoes were lowered with difficulty, for the sea was rough, and they were in danger of being overturned. But in a marvelously short time and with the great- est dexterity they paddled off from the ship, and two of the Indians who had acquired civilization enough, waved their caps in farewell. They put up their small sails and bounded away over the water, skimming over the waves like sea- gulls, often hidden entirely in the trough of the sea. They, no doubt, like Yanatcho, chief of the Yakutat tribe, to whom with his extensive family we gave passage on the Rush to Sitka, impressed the fact on the rest of their tribe, that the Rush was 244 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" employed especially for the purpose of taking them from Oonalaska to their home on Vancouver Island. That night to end off with a fitting flourish in keeping with the greater part of our trip from Sitka, we had a rousing gale of wind, which nearly beached us on Vancouver Island, and on the discovery of which we had to " put about" promptly and make out to sea. The rain fell in sheets, the sea swept over the decks, and altogether we had a lively time of it. The next morning scarcely dawned at all, it was so dark and foggy, and we had lost our bearings. There were anxious peerings through the fog, and conjectures by all, as to our whereabouts, but though we were told by one of the oflPicers that he had once spent five days in that vicinity trying to find the way in ; after a few hours the clouds rolled by and we made a lighthouse, and were soon shooting through calm, still water — the straits of San Juan de Fuca — bound for Port Townsend. CHAPTER XXXrV. PUGET SOUND. ^S I SAID BEFORE, we arrived at Port ^1^ Town send at about eight p. m. This was October 2d. It was perfectly dark, but the many lights showed us our anchorage. We almost fancied we had arrived at San Francisco, the lights seemed so many and so bright to us, as they led from the water's edge up over the high bluff. There were frequent passings to and fro of tugs and small steamers. The Corunna was moored at one of the wharfs. She had arrived from her trip down the inside passage the day before. Newspapers were soon brought oflF, in one of which we discovered that we had unwittingly incurred a great danger, for the Rush was menaced with dark and secret threats of vengeance, by the baffled crews of the captured sealers, who were to commit all sorts of outrages on my unoffending husband and his command, for strictly performing his duty in Behring Sea. How little we knew what we escaped, when kind Providence intervened and decrnnd we should leave the rescued Indians at their desire, near their homo »t Nootka Sound, instead of Victoria, as at first we intended. On our way to Port Townsend and about opposite Victoria an ( 24^1 ) 240 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" English torpedo-boat passed swiftly by us (out for prnctico wo supposed), and did not sink us. We passed the English revenue cutter Douglass, but neither did she show any signs of hostility. Therefore wo enjoyed the sport of reading these threats in undisturbed security. Among the papers the following extract from one of them caught our eye : It was entitled " Purely a Matter of Gall." " A friend rushed into our office in a breathless state of excitement this afternoon to inquire if there was any truth in the report, that the Rush had seized the Siviftsure in Behring Sea. " Tut" said the editor, "they wouldn't have the gall to do that." Wouldn't have the gall ? Look here, said he, those Yankees have gall enough for any- thing." But we were particularly amused on reading the premature obituary in the daily Examiner of San Francisco on Mr. H , employed by Mr. Taber as photographer, who was " lost in wild waters," and who at the time we read the article we knew to be safe and sound in Seattle, and that he had not even been in danger of losing his life. The recital of his loss, however, made an attractive and exciting col- umn in that newsy paper, though his friends were no doubt glad to know later that he that was lost is found. After a day's x\s\t, and being entertained pleas- antly the same evening by the Key City Club, at a reception given at the opening of their new building, rUGET SOUND 247 we left next morning early, at four a.m., for Olym- pia, the capital of Washington State (Territory no longer). The day was beautiful, and a more delightful sail in contrast to our recent rough experience could not have been desired, on that beautiful body of water, Puget Sound. Mt. Tacoma (or Reyneer), Mt. Baker, and one or two other eternal snow-covered peaks shone now and then clear and white in the distance, as the various windings in the channels disclosed them to sight, now opening, now closing. At times the Sound is like a wide river. The various greens and occasional dashes of bright yellow and scarlet of the autumnal tinted foliage on the banks, reflected in the still glassy depths, made an exquisite picture. I decided that with all its beauty I pre- ferred the more civilized scenery of Puget Sound to the harbor of Oonalaska. We arrived at Olympia about 4 p. m. the same day, the distance being about ninety miles from Port Townsend. Our pilot was Mr. T , our first lieu- tenant, once stationed at Port Townsend on the Reve- nue Cutter Walcott (whose headquarters are at that place), and who was familiar with the Sound. Our object was to " beach" theRush, and clean the copper on her bottom, taking advantage of the tide, which here rises to fourteen feet at highest tide, an economi- cal piece of work, for there were no drydock bills to pay; no one had to be consulted; and no time wasted in lengthy preparations and preliminaries, as is apt IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^ 1.0 I.I 11.25 ■tt Iili2 ■2.2 6" Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STREKT WCBSTIII,N.Y. MStO (716)t72-4S03 - .4" > /*^o V - 248 CRUISE OP THE "RUSH" to be the case at a navy yard. Nature simply was util- ized. Lieutenant T had superintended the same thing before, and preparations proceeded quietly and methodically. I felt a little uneasy myself, but did not say any- thing, when I understood we were to be hauled up as close as possible in shore at high tide, and when the tide fell were to be left high and dry, with the deck in a verticle position. All this was to occur in the silent midnight watches. I went to bed with a determination to be alive to any unforeseen occur- rence, and if she listed over all at once to be ready, for I did not wish to bo unceremoniously thumped on the floor out of my bunk, in the midst of some pleasant wanderings in dreamland. However my worst fears were not realized, for we listed the other way, and so gradually that I awoke to find myself not quite on my head, but tending that way, on the ship's side. I managed to right myself, and took various naps till time to "turn out" in the morning. On arising and endeavoring to dress, I found myself in the most comical situation I ever was placed in. It was "up-hill" work dressing. In attempting to cross the cabin floor upward you slid back two steps to one you went forward. We looked as if we were making ^ le most violent and unwonted efiforts to get at something just out of reach. I realized how " Sysiphus" must have felt when he tried to roll the stone up hill. Tables, chairs, clothes and other PUGET SOUND 249 movable articles were all accumulated in a Leap on the lower side, as the debris at the bottom of a land- slide. Breakfast was served under difficulties. In the ward-room, where the table is a fixture fastened to the floor, the ordeal was moat trying. On the lower side the chairs had a tendency to keep at an immod- erate distance from what you wanted to get at; on the opposite side, they were too persistent the other way. Little casualities such as the absently loosen- ing one's hold on one's coflFee-cup, were apt to end disastrously to the great discomfort not of you but of your vis-a-vis. Our novel position afiforded a great deal of amusement and merriment to all. We could walk down the gangway over the ship's side and land on dry ground, which seemed a novel thing in its way, and much better in my estimation than landing in the water, or in an unstable small boat. After the trial of four months I came to the conclusion I preferred dry land any time. Running up from the beach were woods, where, in riotous profusion grew evergreens — ^the beautiful arbor vitae among them — maples and other trees with berry bushes, ferns and moss-covered logs in one wild, delightful tangle. Maiden-hair fern was abundant, and with knife and basket I soon had unearthed quantities, root and all, with rich green moss, for hanging-baskets. Over the top of the hill and back a little way was a large fruit orchard, where Mr. , one of our 250 CRUISE OF THE "RUSH" engineers, found an abundance of various kinds of delicious ripe plums, for almost nothing. The coun- try all about is very finely adapted to fruit-growing purposes. How we reveled in all these fresh things after our long banishment. We had to be rowed to Olympia, two miles or so distant, and found it a larger and a far prettier place than Port Townsend. A very large, hand- some hotel was going up, on a beautiful site, where from two sides of it one could have a lovely view of Puget Sound and surrounding country. The various buildings of most prominence were so sit- uated as to deceive us, on looking at Olympia from the water front, into thinking it a larger and more populous city than it really was. It may never become of great commercial importance, but it is certainly a lovely place for a quiet home. Olym- pir/s fate seems to hang on the decision as to where the future state capital be established. The scenery about Olympia is very fine. A beauti- ful stream flows back of the town, emptying into the Sound. On the way it roars and tumbles over its rocky bed, forming beautiful waterfalls in several places. One is especially beautiful, where the precip- itous banks seem to hem in its impetuous body of water, as it plunges with terrible force over great, black rocks, on which, in places unexposed to the fury of the waters, grow lovely green moss and ferns. Directly in froLt of the falls a little foot-bridge has been placed in such a way as to afford one a very •Pff^cmpiJpnM., ,,.ijp«i PUGET SOUND 251 near view. While on the bridge and directly in front of this great flow of water you feel a cold rush of air dashed with spray, while your ears are filled with the surging roar and plunge of fall- ing waters, filling you with a wild exultation. After spending two days there, resting quietly during the Sabbath that intervened, we left Olynipia and stopped at Tacoma for a few hours, on our way to Seattle, at which latter place we expected to take on coal and fresh water for our final sea voyage to San Francisco. Tacoma presented the appearance of a rapidly growing city. The Tacoma, the principal hotel, was everything that could be desired in its architectural beauty and complete appointments in every way. The city spread already over a great deal of ground. Streets were laid out broad and straight two and three miles back from the water's edge, while those parallel with the water-front were still longer. Many handsome residences were yet surrounded by primeval forests, or what not long ago were, in the form of charred remains of fallen trees and stumps, but just cleared by the busy woodcrtters. Tacoma is set upon a hill, and by no means easy of access, though a road of a gradual incline was just being completed, upon which we saw a street-car track had been laid, leading from the water's edge to the top of the bluff. It is in the same way Port Townsend is reached, though the latter place has a greater water-front of solid ground. 252 CRUISE OP THE 'RUSH" Tacoma aflPords, however, a magnificent and far- reaching view of Puget Sound, especially from the many elegant homes fairly overhanging the steep clifif, at the top of which the city lies. The greatest drawback to its speedy growth seems to be the exceeding shallowness of the water, for some distance, at the base of the hill. To be sure it was low tide, but even in our small boat, the cutter, we had difficulty in pulling up to the boathouse and landing at the foot of the cliff, right above which was situated the Tacoma Hotel. Half of the time it was dragged by main force over the slimy, muddy bottom, by the sturdy arms of our strong crew, almost breaking the oars in their exer- tions. Wharves extended in every direction besides num- bers of parallel lines of spiles, which, we were told, were where visionary people had staked out claims, sanguine that in the near future this would all be filled in, and the land valuable, being on the water- front. A steam-dummy pulls a car out the greatest length of the city and back every twenty minutes, for ten cents. A few hours from Tacoma, after a beautiful sail between the picturesque shores of the Sound, found us at Seattle. At every few miles we saw on the banks, near the water's edge, tents, sawmills and lone farm-houses. Now and then canoes full of Indians, in bright array, paddling quietly along, PUGET SOUND 259 with a background of the green, red and gold, with deep blue and brown shadows, in the transparent water a double world of color and beauty. Among the characteristic features of all the towns we visited on the Sound, Tacoma, Olympia, Seattle, and Port Townsend, were the numbers of Indians promenading the streets, perfectly at home, and meeting you at every turn, or else squatting in rows along the inside of the sidewalks, or huddled together on a doorstep; stalwart, long-haired, smooth- faced Indian men ; bare-headed and bare-footed women, with bright blankets and basket-work to sell, in the midst of the hubbub of a city. CHAPTER XXXV. SEATTLE AND HOME AGAIN. SEATTLE ! WHAT VISIONS of rain, mud, ^ slush and general discomfort the name sug- gests . beside blocks and blocks of tents and rough wooden structures, stories and half-stories of brick buildings just going up, twisted iron rods, blackened timbers, half-burnt treacherous wooden sidewalks, over which one constantly stumbled. Crowds of busy men hurrying hither and thither, whose umbrellas kept hooking onto or into everybody and everything, under the low overhanging awnings, hastily put up. Trafficking was going on as busily as ever in the canvas-tent stores ; where piled up to the top were stacks upon stacks of dry-goods, seemingly none the worse for the constant rain, rain, rain, on the almost transparent roofs. The sound of the hammer mingled loudly with the other busy sounds, such as the driving to and fro of heavy cafts, the constant whirr of the cable, and buzz, buzz, buzz of human voices, in this human hive of human bees, improving every hour, whether shiny or not. We found at Seattle various lines of cable-carSi and an electric road, the only one I had seen, which proved a success. These all ran several miles in (CM) SEAITLE AND HOME AGAIN .265 '» different directions, one connecting the city with that beautiful sheet of water, Lake Washington, on the shores of which there was some discussion as to its being a suitable place to establish the navy yard, if only connected with the Sound by a canal, its waters being deep enough to float the largest ships. However, the , scheme was abandoned, and Port Orchard recommended in its place. Queen Anne Town was reached by the electric railway. The name probably arose from the style of the pretty houses at the end of the line, built after the Queen Anne style. Seattle, with its deep water and long line of wharves and greater accessibility, seemed more cer- tain of growth and prosperity than any of the other places we visited on the Sound. Soon all signs of the mighty fire will be obliterated, and larger, finer buildings take the place of the old. Coaling ship took but a short time, the coal being shot down from above through chutes on to the deck by the carload, and busily shoveled into the the bunkers. After the water had also been taken aboard we left for Port Townsend, arriving there that evening at dark. We found the United States steamer Pinta there, en route from San Francisco to Sitka, at the latter of which places she is stationed. She had been at Mare Island Navy Yard all summer undergoing repairs. She was at Port Townsend awaiting the Patterson, whose pilot for the inside passage they «"'• ""W mm 256 CRUISE OF THE *'RUSH expected to take. The Patterson had been Going coast survey work on different parts of the inside passage, and was then also bound for San Francisco. During the day after we arrived she steamed into port. The following morning, October 10th, we took our several ways, the Pinta towards the north, the Patterson and the Rush to the " soHhard," and San Francisco. The barometer was high, and we had all the indi- tions of fine weather, besides the satisfactory reflec- tion that in October we were apt to have the finest weather of the year for a trip down the coast. We were not disappointed There was quite a heavy swell at first, all that remained to remind us of our recent stormy experience when last at sea, a few days previous, but the sky was blue and fair, with a light breeze. The breeze incrensed little by little, but added nothing to our speed till the day before we arrived in San Francisco. That day, with all sails set and a fair wind, we fairly flew (for the Rush) through the water, increasing our speed hourly, till by night we made twelve knots an hour. This was better time than we had before made during the summer, except when chasing ihe sealers. It seemed as if the good ship knew she was nearing her accustomed anchorage. Point Reyes flashed out clear and bright at about seven o'clock, at which sight we involuntarily smiled at the thought that crossed our minds of home and dear ones now so near, after ISEATTLE AND HOME AGAIN 257 our long and adventurous trip. Four hours after we dropped anchor in front of the city, on the beautiful moonlit night of October 13, '89, at least twelve hours sooner than we had anticipated the day before. It was estimated the Rush had steamed during the summer the long distance of over eleven thousand miles. San Francisco seemed to be illuminated especially for us, it looked so aglow with lights spreading far and wide over the hills. The harbor was dotted everywhere with ships, just visible in the dim light, by the twinkling of the lamps at their mast-heads. It was not yet too late to catch the last ferry-boat for Oakland, and the officers whose families lived there rushed hurriedly and excitedly away, anxious to reach home as soon as possible. I breathed a sigh of satisfaction on looking around to think my journey safely over at last, feeling the richer for all the new, strange and beautiful sights I had seen and novel experiences I had had. It was, however, with feelings of regret that the next morning I packed my trunk and bid adieu to my shipmates of four and a half months, and the free, untrammeled life I had led during that time, returning again to the conventionalities of the life of a city. Thus ended the cruise of the Rvbsh in the sum- mer of '89. FINIS.