THE WRITINGS OF JOHN MUIR 
 
 &ierra <dition 
 VOLUME VII
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MUIR 
 
 42808 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 1918
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION . . * . . . . ix 
 
 I. UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS . . . 3 
 
 II. AMONG THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA . 19 
 
 III. SIBERIAN ADVENTURES . . . . 32 
 
 IV. IN PERIL FROM THE PACK .... 47 
 V. A CHUKCHI ORATOR 56 
 
 VI. ESKIMOS AND WALRUS . . . . . 67 
 
 VII. AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL . . 78 
 
 VIII. RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY ... 93 
 
 IX. VILLAGES OF THE DEAD . ... , . . 109 
 
 X. GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA . . . 123 
 
 XI. CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR . . .138 
 
 XII. ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK . . 151 
 
 XIII. FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND . . 163 
 
 XIV. APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND . .172 
 XV. THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR . . 184 
 
 XVI. TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET . . 200 
 
 XVII. MEETING THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 214 
 
 XVIII. A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD . . . 223 
 
 XIX. TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE . . 236 
 
 XX. HOMEWARD-BOUND 244 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I. THE GLACIATION OF THE ARCTIC AND SUB 
 ARCTIC REGIONS VISITED DURING THE 
 
 CRUISE 255 
 
 II. BOTANICAL NOTES 281 
 
 INDEX . 297
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE CORWIN . . . . . . . . Frontispiece 
 
 The small steamer in the service of the United 
 States Treasury Department in which Mr. Muir 
 made his memorable cruise in 1881. 
 From a painting by G. F. Denny 
 
 A CHUKCHI VILLAGE AT PLOVER BAY, SIBERIA . . 32 
 
 From a photograph by E. S. Curtis 
 WEST DIOMEDE VILLAGE ... . . . . .38 
 
 AN ARCTIC MORNING . . ... . .48 
 
 From a photograph taken off Cape Serdzekamen, Sibe 
 ria, by Dr. William J. Hamilton 
 
 KING ISLAND 132 
 
 From a photograph by Dr. William J. Hamilton 
 HERALD ISLAND . . t . . .-..<. . 164 
 FIRST LANDING ON WRANGELL LAND .... 186 
 
 THE AMERICAN FLAG ON WRANGELL LAND, NEAR 
 EAST CAPE .... . . . . . . 190 
 
 MAP OF WRANGELL LAND, AS SURVEYED BY THE 
 OFFICERS OF THE U.S.S. RODGERS, LIEUT. R. M. 
 BERRY, COMMANDING, SEPTEMBER, 1881 . . 194 
 From the Report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1881 
 
 ESKIMO VILLAGE OF KOKMULIT, POINT BARROW . 206 
 
 A CHUKCHI SUMMER HOUSE ...... 228 
 
 From a photograph by E. S. Curtis 
 
 ONE OF THE MOUTHS OF THE FAIRWEATHER ICE- 
 SHEET IN GLACIER BAY . . . 258
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 KING ISLAND 262 
 
 GEANITE ROCKS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF ST. 
 LAWRENCE ISLAND, SHOWING EFFECTS OF OVER- 
 SWEEPING ACTION OF ICE-SHEET .... 262 
 
 VOLCANIC CONES ON ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND . . 268 
 
 BED OF SMALL RESIDUAL GLACIER ON ST. LAW 
 RENCE ISLAND 268 
 
 HERALD ISLAND 268 
 
 WEST DIOMEDE ISLAND (FROM THE NORTH) . . 270 
 EAST CAPE (FROM THE SOUTH) 270 
 
 OVERSWEPT GLACIAL VALLEYS AND RIDGES ON 
 ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND 272 
 
 BED OF LOCAL GLACIER, ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND . 272 
 
 NEAR THE SOUTHWEST EXTREMITY OF ST. LAW 
 RENCE ISLAND, ILLUSTRATING EFFECTS OF ICE- 
 SHEET 276 
 
 OVERSWEPT MOUNTAINS, WITH PARALLEL VALLEYS 
 AND RIDGES, FROM TWENTY MILES NORTHWEST 
 OF EAST CAPE 276 
 
 Except as otherwise indicated the illustrations 
 are from sketches by Mr. Muir, the last twelve be 
 ing reproduced from the cuts in Captain Hooper's 
 official Report of the expedition.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ONE of the poignant tragedies of north polar 
 exploration, that of the Jeannette, still lingers 
 in the memory of persons now living, though a 
 generation has since passed away. John Muir, 
 who joined the first search expedition dis 
 patched from San Francisco, had already 
 achieved distinction by his glacial studies in 
 the Sierra Nevada and in Alaska. The Corwin 
 expedition afforded him a coveted opportunity 
 to cruise among the islands of Bering Sea and 
 the Arctic Ocean, and to visit the frost-bitten 
 shores of northeastern Siberia and northwest 
 ern Alaska. So enticing was the lure of this 
 new adventure, so eager was he to study the 
 evidence of glaciation in the Far North, that 
 he said a reluctant good-bye to his young wife 
 and fared forth upon the deep. "You remem 
 ber," he wrote to her from the Siberian coast, 
 "that I told you long ago how eager I was to 
 get upon those islands in the middle of the 
 Bering Sea and Strait to read the ice record 
 there." 
 
 The events which led up to this memorable 
 cruise of the Corwin in 1881 had their origin 
 
 ix
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 in the widespread interest which north polar 
 exploration was exciting at this time all over 
 the world. In 1877 Lieutenant George W. De 
 Long, an American naval officer, was search 
 ing among the northern ports of England for a 
 whaling vessel adapted to the requirements of 
 Arctic exploration. De Long had commanded 
 the Juniata which was sent out for the relief 
 of the Polaris, and through this experience 
 had grown enthusiastic over his own plans for 
 reaching the North Pole. 
 
 The whaling industry was at that time a 
 very profitable one, and few owners of whalers 
 and sealers were willing to part with their ves 
 sels. Though Sir Allen Young's steam yacht 
 Pandora, which De Long finally selected, had 
 already made two Arctic voyages, she appears 
 to have been chosen more because she was 
 available than because of her superior fitness 
 for ice navigation. In any case she was pur 
 chased by James Gordon Bennett, patron of 
 the proposed expedition, was fitted out at 
 Deptford, England, and re-named the Jean- 
 nette. Though the new name evaded the sug 
 gestion of a box of evils, she proved to be one 
 for those who sailed in her. Commander De 
 Long himself brought her around Cape Horn 
 to San Francisco. In the month of July, 1879, 
 she sailed from that port for Bering Strait and
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the Arctic Ocean never to return. Crushed 
 in the ice, she sank, June 12, 1881, in the Arctic 
 Ocean, one hundred and fifty miles north of 
 the New Siberian Islands. 
 
 The retreat southward across the ice-floes 
 was one of great peril. Only thirteen out of 
 thirty-four men ultimately reached civilization 
 and safety. De Long himself, and ten of the 
 men with him, died of starvation and exposure 
 on the delta of the Lena River, where two of 
 the Jeannette's storm-beaten cutters landed in 
 the middle of September, 1881. One of them, 
 commanded by Chief Engineer Melville, 
 reached a Russian village on one of the east 
 ern mouths of the Lena River. He promptly 
 organized a search party, recovering the ship's 
 records in November, 1881, and the bodies of 
 his unfortunate shipmates the following spring. 
 
 When the North Pacific whaling fleet re 
 turned from Arctic waters in the autumn of 
 1879, two ships, the Mount Wollaston and the 
 Vigilant, were reported missing. They had 
 been last seen in October in the same general 
 region, near Herald Island, where the Jeannette 
 had entered the polar ice. The Mount Wollas 
 ton was commanded by Captain Nye, of New 
 Bedford, Massachusetts, one of the keenest and 
 bravest men that ever sailed the frigid seas. 
 He it was who at a conference of whaling cap- 

 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 tains, called by De Long in San Francisco 
 before the departure of his expedition, hesitated 
 to give an opinion on the practicability of De 
 Long's plans. But when urged for an expression 
 of his views, he said, "Put her [the Jeannette] 
 into the ice and let her drift, and you may get 
 through, or you may go to the devil, and the 
 chances are about equal." 
 
 In the service of the United States Treasury 
 Department there was at this time a stanch 
 little steamer called the Corwin. Built at 
 Abina, Oregon, she was constructed through 
 out of the finest Oregon fir, fastened with cop 
 per, galvanized iron, and locust-tree nails. She 
 had a draught of nearly eleven feet, twenty- 
 four feet beam, and was one hundred and 
 thirty-seven feet long between perpendiculars. 
 The ordinary duties of the captain of such a 
 revenue steamer involved primarily the en 
 forcement of federal laws for the protection of 
 governmental interests on the Fur Seal Islands 
 and the sea-otter hunting grounds of Alaska. 
 But the supposed plight of the Jeannette and 
 the unknown fate of two whalers caught in the 
 ice were soon to increase the Corwin's duties, 
 and call her into regions where her sturdy 
 sailing qualities were to prove of the utmost 
 importance. 
 
 In the spring of 1880 the Corwin, in com-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 mand of Captain Calvin L. Hooper, was 
 ordered into North Alaskan waters in pur 
 suance of her regular duties. But Captain 
 Hooper had also been directed to make all 
 possible inquiries for the missing whalers and 
 the Jeannette. He returned with no tidings of 
 the lost, but with reports of starvation and 
 death among the Eskimos of St. Lawrence 
 Island on account of an uncommonly severe 
 and stormy winter in the Arctic regions. He 
 entertained no hope for the lost whalers, but 
 thought De Long and his party might be safe. 
 A general demand for relief expeditions now 
 arose. Petitions poured into Congress, and the 
 American Geographical Society addressed a 
 forcible appeal to President Garfield. When 
 the Corwin was sent to Alaskan waters again 
 in 1881 it was with the following specific 
 instructions to Captain Hooper : 
 
 No information having been received concerning 
 the whalers Mount Wollaston and Vigilant, you will 
 bear in mind the instructions for your cruise of last 
 year, and it is hoped you may bring back some tid 
 ings of the missing vessels. You will also make care 
 ful inquiries in the Arctic regarding the progress and 
 whereabouts of the steamer Jeannette, engaged in 
 making explorations under command of Lieutenant- 
 Commander De Long, U.S.N., and will, if practi 
 cable, communicate with and extend any needed 
 assistance to that vessel. . . . You will in your sea-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 son's cruise touch at such places as may be practi 
 cable on the mainland or islands where there are 
 settlements of natives, and examine into and report 
 upon their condition. 
 
 A letter written to his mother from Dutch 
 Harbor, Unalaska, gives Muir's own account 
 of his purpose in joining the expedition. 
 
 I wrote you from San Francisco [he says] that I 
 had suddenly made up my mind to avail myself of 
 the opportunity offered to visit the Arctic region on 
 the steamer Thomas Corwin sent to seek the Jean- 
 nette and the missing whalers that were lost in the 
 ice two years ago off Point Barrow. . . . 
 
 I have been interested for a long time in the glaci- 
 ation of the Pacific Coast, and I felt that I must 
 make a trip of this sort to the Far North some time, 
 and no better chance could in any probability offer. 
 I am acquainted with our captain, and have every 
 comfort the ship can afford, and every facility to 
 pursue my studies. 
 
 We mean to proceed from here past the seal 
 islands St. Paul and St. George, then northward 
 along the Siberian coast to about Cape Serdze, 
 where a sledge party with dogs will be sent out to 
 search the North Siberian coast, while the steamer 
 the meanwhile will cross to the American shore and 
 call at St. Michael, Kotzebue Sound, and other 
 places, [where we shall have the opportunity of] 
 making short journeys inland. Then, as the ice 
 melts and breaks up, we will probably push east 
 ward around Point Barrow, then return to the 
 Siberian side to pick up our land party, then en- 

 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 deavor to push through the ice to the mysterious 
 unexplored Wrangell Land. We hope to return to 
 San Francisco by October or November, but may 
 possibly be compelled to winter in the Arctic some 
 where. 
 
 De Long, in a letter to his wife, had written 
 that his plan was to proceed north by the eastern 
 coast of Wrangell Land, touching first at Herald 
 Island to build a cairn and leave news of the 
 Jeannette's progress. Believing that Wrangell 
 Land extended northward toward the Pole, 
 he proposed to leave similar records along 
 its eastern coast, under cairns, at intervals of 
 twenty-five miles. These known intentions of 
 De Long show why it was one of the fore 
 most objects of the Corwin expedition to reach 
 what Muir called "the mysterious unex 
 plored Wrangell Land." 
 
 How keenly Muir appreciated the possibili 
 ties of science and adventure in the exploration 
 of this unknown Arctic land may be seen in 
 the fourteenth chapter of this volume. Up to 
 this time nothing was actually known about 
 Wrangell Land except its existence. The first 
 European who reported its discovery was 
 Captain Kellett of H.M.S. Herald. He saw it 
 in 1849 when he discovered Herald Island, 
 which was named after his vessel. By right 
 of discovery Kellett's name should have been 
 
 XV
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 given to Wrangell Land, and upon British 
 Admiralty charts it was very properly indicated 
 as"KellettLand." 
 
 The name Wrangell Land, it seems, became 
 associated with the island through a report of 
 Captain Thomas Long, of the whaling bark 
 Nile. In 1867 he reported that he had 
 
 sailed to the eastward along the land during the 
 fifteenth and part of the sixteenth [of August], and 
 in some places approached it as near as fifteen miles. 
 I have named this northern land Wrangell Land [he 
 says] as an appropriate tribute to the memory of a 
 man who spent three consecutive years north of 
 latitude 68, and demonstrated the problem of this 
 open polar sea forty-five years ago, although others 
 of much later date have endeavored to claim the 
 merit of this discovery. The west cape of this land 
 I have named Cape Thomas, after the man who 
 first reported the land from the masthead of my 
 ship, and the southeastern cape I have named after 
 the largest island in this group [Hawaii]. 1 
 
 Captain Long apparently was unaware of 
 the fact that the island already bore the name 
 of Kellett by right of discovery eighteen years 
 earlier. But since Baron Wrangell had made 
 such a brave and determined search for this 
 "problematical land of the North," as he re- 
 
 1 Quoted from a letter by Captain Long published in the 
 Honolulu Commercial Advertiser, November, 1867. The same 
 paper contains a letter from Captain George W. Raynor, of 
 the ship Reindeer, giving additional geographic details. 
 
 xvi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ferred to it in his final report, there is a certain 
 poetic justice in applying his name to what he 
 only sought, but never found. 
 
 While Captain Hooper, in his report of 1880, 
 had expressed the conviction that Wrangell 
 Land was an island, the first demonstration of 
 its insularity was made by Commander De 
 Long, who had practically staked the success 
 of his expedition on the belief that it was a 
 country of large extent northward, and suit 
 able for winter quarters. But before his vessel 
 was crushed hi the ice it drifted, within sight 
 of Wrangell Land, directly across the merid 
 ians between which it lies. This fatal drift of 
 the Jeannette not only furnished conclusive 
 disproof of the theory that Wrangell Land 
 might be part of a continent stretching across 
 the north polar regions, but proved it to be an 
 island of limited extent. It is an inaccuracy, 
 therefore, when the United States Hydrog- 
 rapher's report for 1882 sets the establishment 
 of this fact down to the credit of the Rodgers 
 expedition. 
 
 So far as known, the first human beings that 
 ever stood upon the shores of this island were 
 in Captain Hooper's landing party, August 12, 
 1881, and John Muir was of the number. The 
 earliest news of the event, and of the fact that 
 De Long had not succeeded in touching either 
 
 xvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Herald Island or Wrangell Land, reached the 
 world at large in a letter from Muir published 
 in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Sep 
 tember 29, 1881. But the complete record of 
 Muir's observations, together with some of the 
 sketches contained in his journals, is now given 
 to the public for the first time. 
 
 A second Jeannette relief expedition, already 
 mentioned as that of the Rodgers, was sent 
 out under the direction of the Secretary of 
 the Navy. It succeeded in reaching Wrangell 
 Land two weeks after the Corwin. In order to 
 make our geographical and scientific knowl 
 edge of this remote island as complete in this 
 volume as possible, we deem it desirable to 
 include a brief account of what was achieved 
 during the cruise of the Rodgers. 
 
 This vessel, a stout and comparatively new 
 whaler, known before its re-baptism as the 
 Mary and Helen, was placed in command of 
 Lieutenant, now Rear Admiral, Robert M. 
 Berry. He discovered on the southern shore of 
 Wrangell Land a snug little harbor where he 
 kept the Rodgers at anchor for nineteen days 
 while two search parties, in whaleboats, going 
 in opposite directions, explored the coast for 
 possible survivors of the missing whalers and 
 for cairns left by the crew of the Jeannette. 
 These search parties nearly circumnavigated 
 
 xviii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the island without finding anything except 
 Captain Hooper's cairn, and Commander 
 Berry, in his report to the Secretary of the 
 Navy, said, "I believe it impossible that any 
 of the missing parties ever landed here." 
 
 The principal gain of this exploration was a 
 running survey of the coast and a general deter 
 mination of the size of the island. In other 
 respects the harvest of scientific facts gathered 
 on Wrangell Land by the Rodgers was meager, 
 if one may judge by W. H. Gilder's Ice Pack 
 and Tundra. Unfortunately, the act which 
 carried the appropriation for the expedition 
 provided that the vessel selected "be wholly 
 manned by volunteers from the Navy." This 
 fact seems to have prevented the taking of men 
 trained hi the natural sciences, like John Muir 
 or E. W. Nelson. Nineteen days on Wrangell 
 Land would have enabled them to obtain a 
 large amount of interesting information about 
 its flora, fauna, avifauna, and geology. 
 
 Commander Berry, taking charge of an 
 exploring party, penetrated twenty miles into 
 the interior of the island and ascended a con 
 spicuous mountain whose height, by baromet 
 ric measurement, was found to be twenty-five 
 hundred feet. He reported that he "could see 
 from its summit the sea in all directions, except 
 between S.S.W. by W. per compass. The day
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 was very clear, and no land except Herald 
 Island was visible from this height. There was 
 no ice in sight to the southward." A letter of 
 inquiry addressed to Rear Admiral Berry by 
 the editor brought a courteous reply, stating 
 that he did not know of any photographs or 
 sketches, made by members of the Rodgers 
 expedition, which would show the coast or 
 interior topography of the island; that "the 
 vegetation was scant, consisting of a few 
 Arctic plants, a little moss, etc."; that "polar 
 bears, walrus, and seal were quite common 
 upon or near the island," and that the provi 
 sional map which accompanied his report to 
 the Secretary of the Navy in 1881 is the only 
 one available. 
 
 From our reproduction of this map, and 
 from the report of the Rodgers, it will be seen 
 that practically the whole interior of the island 
 still awaits exploration. Estimates of its size 
 vary between twenty-eight and forty miles as 
 to width, and between sixty-five and seventy- 
 five as to length. Striking an average, one 
 might say that it contains about twenty-five 
 hundred square miles of territory. The dis 
 tance across Long Strait from the nearest 
 point on the Siberian coast is about eighty-five 
 or ninety miles, and Herald Island lies about 
 thirty miles east of Wrangell Land.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In 1914 the Karluk, Steffansson's flagship of 
 the Canadian Arctic Expedition, was crushed 
 in the ice, and sank not far from the place 
 where the Jeannette was lost. Under fohe able 
 leadership of Captain Robert A. Bartlett the 
 members of the expedition made their way to 
 Wrangell Land, where they remained encamped 
 while Captain Bartlett, with an Eskimo, 
 crossed Long's Strait to Siberia over the ice. 
 Thence he made his way to St. Michael, 
 Alaska, and enlisted aid for the Karluk sur 
 vivors. Their rescue was effected successfully, 
 and, so far as we are able to discover, these 
 members of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 
 are the only human beings that have been on 
 Wrangell Land since the visit of the Corwin 
 and the Rodgers in 1881. 
 
 We venture to mention, in this connection, 
 a few facts which call for consideration in the 
 interest of a historical and consistent geo 
 graphical nomenclature. The United States 
 Geographic Board has done much to bring 
 order out of the chaos of Alaskan names, and 
 its decisions are available in Baker's Geographic 
 Dictionary of Alaska, which has been followed 
 in the editing of this volume. There is a 
 "Wrangell Island" in southeastern Alaska, 
 well known to readers of Muir's Travels in 
 Alaska, hence it Occasions needless confusion
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 to call Wrangell Land by the same name, as 
 even recent Hydrographic Office charts con 
 tinue to do, besides misspelling the name. The 
 retention of the term "land" for an island is 
 supported by abundant precedent, especially 
 in the Arctic regions. 
 
 The altitude of the mountain ascended by 
 Commander Berry had already been deter 
 mined with remarkable accuracy by Captain 
 Long in 1867. He described it as having "the 
 appearance of an extinct volcano," and it is 
 shown on his sketch of Wrangell Land, re 
 produced on the map accompanying Nourse's 
 American Explorations in the Ice Zones. Cap 
 tain Hooper, hi his report of the cruise of the 
 Corwin, declares that the peak had been appro 
 priately named for Long, and adds, "Singular 
 as it may appear, this name to which Captain 
 Long was justly entitled has, notwithstanding 
 our pretended custom of adhering to original 
 names, been set aside on a recent issue of 
 American charts." It is some compensation, 
 however, that the wide stretch of water be 
 tween the North Siberian coast and Wrangell 
 Land is now known as Long Strait. 
 
 Captain Hooper and his party, being the 
 
 first to set foot upon Wrangell Land, exercised 
 
 the privilege of taking possession of it in the 
 
 name of the United States. In order to avoid 
 
 xxii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the confusion of the two names, Kellett and 
 Wrangell, which it already bore, Captain 
 Hooper named it New Columbia. This name, 
 which was set aside by the Hydrographic 
 Office, he says 
 
 was suggested by the name which had been given to 
 the islands farther west, New Siberia. It is probable 
 that the name Wrangell Land will continue in use 
 upon American charts, but its justice, in view of all 
 the facts, is not so apparent. In my opinion the 
 adoption by us of trie name Kellett Land given by 
 the English would be appropriate, and avoid the 
 confusion which is sure to follow in consequence of 
 its having two names. 
 
 Headlands and other geographical features of the 
 island were named by us, but as the names which 
 were applied to features actually discovered by the 
 Corwin and heretofore unnamed have been ignored, 
 it is possible that a desire to do honor to the memory 
 of Wrangell is not the only consideration. To avoid 
 the complications which would result from dupli 
 cating geographical names, I have dropped all be 
 stowed by the Corwin and adopted the more recent 
 ones applied by the Hydrographic Office. I have also 
 adopted the plan of the island [from surveys of the 
 Rodgers] as shown on the small chart accompanying 
 Hydrographic Notice No. 84, although the trend of 
 the coast and the geographical position of the mouth 
 of the river where we first planted the flag do not 
 agree with the result of the observations and tri- 
 angulations made by the Corwin. 
 
 Now that Captain Hooper and nearly all the 
 
 xxiii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 men who had a share in these explorations of 
 the early eighties have passed on, it is proper 
 that the basic facts as well as conflicting 
 judgments should be set down here for the 
 just consideration of geographers. Both from 
 Muir's vivid narrative of the Corwin's pene 
 tration to the shores of Wrangell Land, and 
 from Captain Hooper's admirable report pub 
 lished in 1884 as Senate Executive Document 
 No. 204, the reader will conclude that the 
 Captain of the Corwin had a better right to be 
 remembered in connection with the geographi 
 cal features of the island than most of the per 
 sons whose names have been attached to them 
 by the Hydrographic Office. 
 
 Whether Wrangell Land became United 
 States territory when Hooper formally raised 
 our flag over it is a question. The editor is 
 unable to discover any treaty between Russia 
 and the United States which would debar 
 possession by the latter. But questions involv 
 ing rights of territorial discovery have not, so 
 far as we know, been raised between the two 
 governments. 
 
 Muir's opportunity to join the Corwin appar 
 ently arose out of his acquaintanceship with 
 Captain Hooper, and when the invitation 
 came he had little time to prepare for the 
 cruise. A letter to his wife affords a glimpse of 
 
 xxiv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 his surroundings and plans when the Corwin 
 was approaching Unalaska. 
 
 All goes well on our little ship [he writes! and not 
 all the tossing of the waves, and the snow and hail 
 on the deck, and being out of sight of land so long, 
 can make me surely feel that I am not now with 
 you all as ever, so sudden was my departure, and so 
 long have I been accustomed in the old lonely life to 
 feel the influence of loved ones as if present in the 
 flesh, while yet far. . . . There are but three of us in 
 the cabin, the Captain, the Surgeon, and myself, 
 and only the same three at table, so that there is no 
 crowding. . . . 
 
 Should we be successful in reaching Wrangell 
 Land we would very likely be compelled to winter 
 on it, exploring while the weather permitted. In 
 case we are unsuccessful in reaching Wrangell Land, 
 we may get caught farther west and be able to 
 reach it by dog-sledges in winter while the pack is 
 frozen. Or we may have to winter on the Siberian 
 coast, etc., etc., according to the many variable 
 known and unknown circumstances of the case. Of 
 course if De Long is found we will return at once. 
 If not, a persistent effort will be made to force a 
 way to that mysterious ice-girt Wrangell Land, 
 since it was to it that De Long was directing his 
 efforts when last heard from. We will be cautious, 
 however, and we hope to be back to our homes this 
 fall. Do not allow this outline of Captain Hooper's 
 plan to get into print at present. 
 
 From another letter written the following 
 day we quote this breezy bit of description : 
 
 XXV
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 How cold it is this morning! How it blows and 
 snows ! It is not ' ' the wolf's long howl on Unalaska's 
 shore," as Campbell has it, but the wind's long howl. 
 A more sustained, prolonged, screeching, raving 
 howl I never before heard. But the little Corwin 
 rides on through it in calm strength, rising and 
 falling amid the foam-streaked waves like a loon. 
 The cabin boy, Henry, told me this morning [May 
 16] early that land was in sight. So I got up at six 
 o'clock nine of your time and went up into 
 the pilot-house to see it. Two jagged black masses 
 were visible, with hints of snow mountains back of 
 them, but mostly hidden beneath a snow-storm. 
 
 After breakfast we were within two miles of the 
 shore. Huge snow-peaks, grandly ice-sculptured, 
 loomed far into the stormy sky for a few moments in 
 tolerably clear relief; then the onrush of snowflakes, 
 sweeping out into the dark levels of the sea, would 
 hide it all and fill our eyes, while we puckered our 
 brows and tried to gaze into the face of it all. 
 
 We have to proceed in the dimness and confusion 
 of the storm with great caution, stopping frequently 
 to take soundings, so it will probably be one or two 
 o'clock before we reach the harbor of Unalaska on 
 the other side of the island. I tried an hour ago to 
 make a sketch of the mountains along the shore for 
 you, to be sent with this letter, but my fingers got 
 too cold to hold the pencil, and the snow filled my 
 eyes, and so dimmed the outlines of the rocks that I 
 could not trace them. 
 
 Down here in the cabin it is warm and summer- 
 ish, and when the Captain and Doctor are on deck 
 .1 have it all to myself. ... I am glad you thought 
 to send my glasses and barometer and coat. We
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 will procure furs as we proceed north, so as to be 
 ready in case we should be compelled to winter in 
 the Arctic regions. It is remarkably cold even here, 
 and dark and blue and forbidding every way, 
 though it is fine weather for health. 
 
 I was just thinking this morning of our warm 
 sunny home . . . and of the red cherries down the 
 hill, and the hundreds of blunt-billed finches, every 
 one of them with red bills soaked in cherry juice. 
 Not much fruit juice beneath this sky! 
 
 During the cruise Muir kept a daily record 
 of his experiences and observations. He also 
 wrote a series of letters to the San Francisco 
 Evening Bulletin in which he turned to account 
 the contents of his journal. Comparison of the 
 letters with the journal shows that his note 
 books contain a large amount of interesting 
 literary and scientific material which has not 
 been utilized in the Bulletin letters. To publish 
 both would involve too much duplication. It 
 has seemed best, therefore, to make the letters 
 the foundation of the volume and to insert the 
 additional matter from the journal wherever 
 it belongs chronologically in the epistolary 
 record. Most of the' letters have thus grown 
 far beyond their original size. 
 
 The performance of this task has often been 
 trying and time-consuming, especially when it 
 became the editor's duty to avoid repetition, 
 or overlapping, by selecting what seemed to 
 
 xxvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 be the more comprehensive, the more finished, 
 or the more vivid form of statement. But this 
 method of solving the difficulty has the advan 
 tage, for the reader, of unifying in the present 
 volume practically the whole of Muir's literary 
 and scientific work during the cruise of the 
 Corwin. Sometimes, as in chapters eleven and 
 twelve, all the material is new and has been 
 derived exclusively from the journal. The 
 style of the latter may generally be recognized 
 by its telegraphic conciseness. 
 
 During his studies in the Sierra Nevada Muir 
 had acquired skill, speed, and accuracy in 
 sketching the features of a landscape. This 
 ability he turned to good account during the 
 cruise of the Corwin, for one of his journals is 
 filled with a variety of sketches which prove 
 to be remarkably faithful pictures in cases 
 where it has been possible to compare them 
 with photographs. In judging the pictorial 
 value of these sketches it should be remem 
 bered that Muir employed them chiefly as an 
 auxiliary descriptive means of recording his ob 
 servations for future use. One of the sketches, 
 for instance, is an extensive panoramic view 
 of the southern coast of Wrangell Land, evi 
 dently done as the Corwin cruised along the 
 coast. Since his numerous sketches of Wrangell 
 Land are apparently the only ones in existence,
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 they are of unique importance in connection 
 with his account of the Corwin's landing on 
 the island. The same considerations apply in 
 a measure to Herald Island whose precipitous 
 cliffs he was the first to scale as well as to sketch. 
 
 Since Muir's primary object in joining the 
 Corwin expedition was to look for evidence of 
 glaciation in the Arctic and subarctic regions, 
 we have deemed it desirable to include in this 
 volume the article in which he gathered up 
 the results of his glacial studies and discoveries. 
 It was published in 1884, with Captain C. L. 
 Hooper's report, as Senate Executive Docu 
 ment No. 204 of the Forty-eighth Congress. 
 
 Both the Hooper report and the article on 
 glaciation were elaborately illustrated from 
 Muir's pencil sketches, though the fact that 
 they were Muir's is nowhere stated. "The 
 'Glacier Article' arrived on the sixth," wrote 
 Captain Hooper to Muir under date of Febru 
 ary 7, 1884, "'and was sent on its way rejoicing 
 the same day. The Honorable Secretary [of 
 the Treasury] assures me that he will see that 
 the whole is printed without delay. Please 
 accept my thanks for the article, which is very 
 interesting. The sketches are very fine and will 
 prove a valuable addition to the report. That 
 of the large glacier from Mount Fairweather is 
 particularly fine." 
 
 xxix
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The article on glaciation should have been 
 published a year earlier, in the same volume 
 with the "Botanical Notes." But for some 
 reason Muir was misinformed, and an apolo 
 getic letter to him from Major E. W. Clark, 
 then Chief of the United States Revenue 
 Marine, hints at a petty intrigue as the cause. 
 "I regret very much," he writes, "that I had 
 not myself corresponded with you regarding 
 your contribution to the Arctic report. Your 
 article on glaciation would have been exactly 
 the thing and would have admitted of very 
 effective illustration. I feel well assured that 
 you were purposely misinformed regarding the 
 report, and could readily explain the reason to 
 you in a personal interview. There has been 
 much anxious inquiry for your notes on glacia 
 tion." It was the writer of this letter after 
 whom Captain Hooper named the river at 
 whose mouth the Corwin anchored on Wrangell 
 Land. This fact has been recorded by Pro 
 fessor Joseph Everett Nourse, U.S.N., in his 
 work American Explorations in the Ice Zones. 
 He states that through the courtesy of Major 
 Clark he had access to the unpublished official 
 report of the cruise of the Corwin. Since the 
 river in question appears without a name 
 upon the chart of Wrangell Land, we must sup 
 pose it to be one of the names which Cap- 
 
 XXX
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 tain Hooper complains the Hydrographic Office 
 ignored. Besides the illustrative drawings 
 which accompany Muir's article on glaciation 
 in the Far North, his note-books contain nu 
 merous interesting sketches of geological and 
 topographical features of Arctic landscapes. 
 They show with what tireless industry and 
 pains he worked at his task. This is the first 
 publication of the general conclusions of his 
 Arctic studies, supported in detail by the rec 
 ords of his journal, and by his sketches. In its 
 present form the article follows a revised copy 
 found among Muir's papers. 
 
 Muir's report on the flora of Herald Island 
 and Wrangell Land still remains, after thirty- 
 six years, the only one ever made on the vege 
 tation of these remote Arctic regions. It has 
 seemed best, therefore, to include also his ar 
 ticle entitled "Botanical Notes" as an appen 
 dix to this volume. It was first published in 
 1883 as a part of Treasury Department Docu 
 ment No. 429. Strangely enough, the letter of 
 transmittal from the Secretary of the Treasury 
 refers to it as "the observations on glaciation 
 in the Arctic Ocean and the Alaska region 
 made by John Muir." 
 
 The author never saw printer's proof after 
 he sent the manuscript, and the number of 
 typographical errors made in the technical 
 
 xxxi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 parts of his article must have established a 
 new record, for they mount into hundreds. 
 Knowing that Muir had sent a duplicate set of 
 his Arctic plant collection to Dr. Asa Gray 
 for final scientific determination, the editor 
 went to the Gray Herbarium of Harvard 
 University, in order to make the necessary 
 corrections and verifications. Fortunately the 
 writer found there not only the original plants, 
 but also Muir's letters to Asa Gray. " I re 
 turned a week ago," wrote Muir under date 
 of October 31, 1881, "from the polar region 
 around Wrangell Land and Herald Island, and 
 brought a few plants from there which I wish 
 you would name as soon as convenient, as I 
 have to write a report on the flora for the expe 
 dition. I had a fine icy time, and gathered a 
 lot of exceedingly interesting facts concerning 
 the formation of Bering Sea and the Arctic 
 Ocean, and the configuration of the shores of 
 Siberia and Alaska. Also concerning the forests 
 that used to grow there, etc., which I hope 
 some day to discuss with you." 
 
 The editor has made no attempt to reduce 
 the genus and species names to modern syn 
 onymy. As in the case of Muir's A Thousand- 
 Mile Walk to the Gulf, it has seemed best to 
 offer the original determinations, making the 
 necessary corrections by reference to the Index
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Kewensis, and, in the case of the ferns, to 
 Christensen's Index Filicum. Since Muir's lists 
 did not follow any particular order of classifi 
 cation we have adopted the order of families 
 laid down in the last edition of Gray's Manual 
 of Botany. 
 
 Special interest attaches to the fact that 
 Muir found on the Arctic shore of Alaska, near 
 Cape Thompson, a species of Erigeron new to 
 science. It is an asteraceous plant with showy, 
 daisy-like flowers In reporting this find to 
 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
 Asa Gray described it as "the most interesting 
 and apparently the only new species of an 
 extensive and truly valuable collection made 
 by Mr. Muir in a recent searching cruise which 
 he accompanied, and which extended to 
 Wrangell Island [Wrangell Land]. The plant 
 seems to have been abundant, for it occurs in 
 the collection under three numbers." 
 
 Gray promptly named it Erigeron Muirii in 
 honor of its finder, thus redeeming for the 
 second time a promise made ten years earlier 
 when he wrote to Muir, "Pray, find a new 
 genus, or at least a new species, that I may 
 have the satisfaction of embalming your name, 
 not in glacier ice, but in spicy wild perfume." 
 
 . WILLIAM FREDERIC BADE. 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, 
 June, 1917.
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 Unalaska, May 18, 1881. 
 
 THE Storm King of the North is abroad to 
 day, working with a fine, hearty enthusiasm, 
 rolling a multitude of white combing waves 
 through the rocky, jagged straits between this 
 marvelous chain of islands, circling them about 
 with beaten foam, and heaping a lavish abun 
 dance of snow on their lofty, cloud-wrapped 
 mountains. The deep bass of the gale, sound 
 ing on through the rugged, ice-sculptured peaks 
 and gorges, is delightful music to our ears, now 
 that we are safely sheltered in a land-locked 
 harbor. 
 
 The steamer Thomas Corwin safely arrived 
 here about noon to-day, after a prosperous run 
 of thirteen days from San Francisco, intending 
 to take on coal and additional supplies of every 
 kind for her long cruise in the Arctic in search 
 of the Jeannette and the missing whalers. 
 Nothing especially noteworthy occurred on the 
 voyage. The weather was remarkably cold for 
 3
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 this season of the year, the average tempera 
 ture for the first day or two being about 55 F., 
 falling gradually to 35 as we approached Una- 
 laska, accompanied by blustering squalls of 
 snow and hail, suggestive of much higher lati 
 tudes than this. 
 
 On the morning of the fifteenth we met a 
 gale from the northeast, against which the 
 Corwin forced her way with easy strength, ris 
 ing and falling on the foam-streaked waves as 
 lightly as a duck. We first sighted land on the 
 morning of the seventeenth, near the southeast 
 extremity of Unalaska Island. Two black out 
 standing masses of jagged lava were visible, 
 with the bases of snowy peaks back of them, 
 while all the highlands were buried beneath 
 storm-clouds. After we had approached 
 within three or four miles of the shore, a ragged 
 opening in the clouds disclosed a closely packed 
 cluster of peaks, laden with snow, looming far 
 into the stormy sky for a few moments in 
 tolerably clear relief, then fading again hi the 
 gloom of the clouds and fresh squalls of blind 
 ing snow and hail. The fall of the snowflakes 
 among the dark, heaving waves and curling 
 breakers was a most impressive sight. 
 
 Groping cautiously along the coast, we at 
 length entered the Akutan Pass. A heavy flood 
 tide was setting through it against the north- 
 4
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 east gale, which raised a heavy sea. The waves 
 reared as if about to fall backward, while the 
 wind tore off their white curling tops and car 
 ried them away in the form of gray scud. Never 
 before have I seen the sea in so hearty and 
 exhilarating a motion. It was all one white, 
 howling, rampant, runaway mass of foam from 
 side to side. We feared getting our decks 
 swept. Caught, therefore, as we were between 
 the tide and the gale, we turned to seek shelter 
 and wait better tunes. 
 
 We found good anchorage in the lee of a red 
 lava bluff near Cook's Harbor, a few miles to the 
 westward of the mouth of the Pass. The sailors 
 got out their cod-lines, and in a few minutes a 
 dozen fine cod were napping on the deck. They 
 proved to be excellent fish, eaten fresh. But 
 whether they are as good as the renowned New 
 foundland article I cannot judge, as I never 
 have tasted fresh cod. The storm sounding on 
 over the mountains made fine music while we 
 lay safely at anchor, and we enjoyed it all the 
 more because we were in a wild, nameless place 
 that we had ourselves discovered. 
 
 The next morning, the gale having abated 
 somewhat, we entered the strait. Wind and 
 tide were flowing in company, but they were 
 against us, and so strong was the latter that we 
 could not stem it, and were compelled to fall 
 
 5
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 back until it was near the turn. The Aleutian 
 chain extends across from continent to con 
 tinent like an imperfect dam between the Pa 
 cific and Bering Sea, and through the gaps 
 between the islands the tide rushes with tre 
 mendous speed and uproar. When the tide 
 was favorable, we weighed anchor and passed 
 through the strait and around Kalekta Point 
 into this magnificent harbor 1 without further 
 difficulty. 
 
 The harbor of Unalaska is excellent, land 
 locked, and has a good holding bottom. By 
 virtue of its geographical position it is likely to 
 remain for a long tune the business center of 
 western Alaska. The town 2 is situated on a 
 washed and outspread terminal moraine at the 
 mouth of one of the main glaciers that united 
 here to excavate the harbor. Just above the 
 village there is a glacial lake only a few feet 
 above tide, and a considerable area of level 
 ground about it where the cattle belonging to 
 the town find abundance of fine grass. 
 
 1 Dutch Harbor, on the eastern side of Amaknak Island in 
 Unalaska Bay. 
 
 2 The chief town of Unalaska Island, the most important 
 of the eastern Aleutians, is Iliuliuk. It was founded by 
 Solovief during the decade between 1760 and 1770, and itg 
 Aleut name, according to one interpretation, means "har 
 mony," according to another, " the curved beach." The 
 name Unalaska is often applied loosely to the town as well as 
 the island. 
 
 6
 
 TJNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 Early in the forenoon the clouds had lifted 
 and the sun had come out, revealing a host of 
 noble mountains, grandly sculptured and com 
 posed, and robed in spotless white, some of the 
 highest adorned with streamers of mealy snow 
 wavering in the wind a truly glorious spec 
 tacle. To me the features of greatest interest 
 in this imposing show were the glacial adver 
 tisements everywhere displayed in clear, telling 
 characters the trends of the numerous inlets 
 and canons pointing back into the ancient ice- 
 fountains among the peaks, the sculpture of 
 the peaks themselves and their general out 
 lines, and the shorn faces of the cliffs fronting 
 the sea. No clearer and more unmistakable 
 glacial inscriptions are to be found upon any 
 portion of the mountain ranges of the Pacific 
 Coast. 
 
 It seems to be guessed in a general way by 
 most observers who have made brief visits to 
 this region that all the islands of the Aleutian 
 chain are clearly volcanic upheavals, scarce at 
 all changed since the period of their emergence 
 from the sea. This is an impression made, no 
 doubt, by the volcanic character of the rocks 
 of which they are composed, and by the numer 
 ous extinct and active volcanoes occurring here 
 and there along the summits of the highest 
 masses. But it is plain that the amount of 
 7
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWTN 
 
 glacial denudation which these ancient lavas 
 have undergone is very great; so great that 
 now every feature presented, with the excep 
 tion of the few recent craters, is glacial. 
 
 The glaciers, that a short tune ago covered 
 all the islands, have sculptured the compara 
 tively featureless rock masses into separate 
 mountain peaks, and perhaps into separate 
 islands. Certainly they have done this in some 
 cases. All the inlets or fiords, also, that I have 
 seen are simply the channels of the larger of 
 those old ice rivers that flowed into the sea 
 and eroded their beds beneath its level. The size 
 and the trend of every one of these fiords corre 
 spond invariably with the size and the trend 
 of the glacier basin at its head, while not a 
 single fiord or canon may be found that does 
 not conduct back to mountain fountains 
 whence the eroding glacier drew its sources. 
 The Alaska Peninsula, before the coming on 
 of the glacial period, may have comprehended 
 the whole of the Aleutian chain, its present 
 condition being mostly due to the down-grind 
 ing action of ice. Frost and fire have worked 
 hand in hand to produce the grand effects pre 
 sented in this majestic crescent of islands.
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 Unalaska, May SI, 1881. 
 
 The Aleutian chain of islands is one of the 
 most remarkable and interesting to be found 
 on the globe. It sweeps in a regular curve a 
 thousand miles long from the end of the Alaska 
 Peninsula towards Kamchatka and nearly 
 unites the American and Asiatic continents. 
 A very short geological time ago, just before 
 .the coming on of the glacial period, this con 
 nection of the continents was probably com 
 plete, inasmuch as the entire chain is simply a 
 degraded portion of the North American coast 
 mountains, with its foothills and connecting 
 ridges between the summit peaks a few feet 
 under water. These submerged ridges form the 
 passes between the islands as they exist to-day, 
 while it is evident that this segregating degra 
 dation has been effected by the majestic down- 
 grinding glaciers that lately loaded all the chain. 
 Only a few wasting remnants of these glaciers 
 are now in existence, lingering in the highest, 
 snowiest fountains on the largest of the islands. 
 
 The mountains are from three thousand to 
 nine thousand feet high, many of them capped 
 with perpetual snow, and rendered yet more 
 imposing by volcanoes emitting smoke and 
 ashes the feeble manifestations of upbuild 
 ing volcanic force that was active long before 
 the beginning of the great ice winter. To the 
 
 9
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 traveler from the south, approaching any por 
 tion of the chain during the winter or spring 
 months, the view presented is exceedingly 
 desolate and forbidding. The snow comes down 
 to the water's edge, the solid winter-white 
 being interrupted only by black outstanding 
 bluffs with faces too sheer for snow to lie upon, 
 and by the backs of clustering rocks and long 
 rugged reefs beaten and overswept by heavy 
 breakers rolling in from the Pacific Ocean or 
 Bering Sea, while for ten or eleven months in 
 the year all the mountains are wrapped in 
 gloomy, ragged storm-clouds. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is no lack of warm, eager 
 life even here. The stormy shores swarm with 
 fishes cod, halibut, herring, salmon trout, 
 etc. ; also with whales, seals, and many species 
 of water birds, while the sea-otter, the most 
 valuable of the fur-bearing animals, finds its 
 favorite home about the outlying wave-washed 
 reefs. The only land animals occurring in con 
 siderable numbers are, as far as I have been 
 able to learn, three or four species of foxes, 
 which are distributed from one end of the chain 
 to the other, with the Arctic grouse, the raven, 
 snowbirds, wrens, and a few finches. There 
 are no deer, wild sheep, goats, bears, or wolves, 
 though all of these are abundant on the main 
 land in the same latitude. 
 10
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 In two short excursions fchat I made to the 
 top of a mountain, about two thousand feet 
 high, back of the settlement here, and to a 
 grassy island in the harbor, I found the snow in 
 some places well tracked by foxes and grouse, 
 and saw six species of birds, mostly solitary or 
 in twos and threes. The vegetation near the 
 level of the sea and on bare windswept ridges, 
 up to a height of a thousand feet or more, is 
 remarkably close and luxuriant, covering every 
 foot of the ground. 
 
 First there is a dense plush of mosses and 
 lichens from six inches to a foot in depth. Out 
 of the moss mantle and over it there grow five 
 or six species of good nutritious grasses, the 
 tallest shoulder-high; also three species of 
 vaccinium, cranberry, empetrum, the delight 
 ful linnsea in extensive patches, the beauti 
 ful purple-flowered bryanthus, a pyrola, two 
 species of dwarf willow, three of lycopodium, 
 two saxifrages, a lupine, wild pea, archangelica, 
 geranium, anemone, draba, bearberry, and the 
 little gold-thread coptis, besides two ferns 
 and a few withered specimens that I could 
 not make out. 
 
 The anemone, draba, and bearberry are 
 
 already in bloom; the willows are beginning to 
 
 show the ends of then* silky catkins, and a 
 
 good many green leaves are springing up in 
 
 11
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 sheltered places near the level of the sea. At a 
 height of four or five hundred feet, however, 
 winter still holds sway, with scarce a memory 
 of the rich and beautiful bloom of the summer 
 time. How beautiful these mountains must be 
 when all are in bloom, with the bland summer 
 sunshine on them, the butterflies and bees 
 among them, and the deep glacial fiords calm 
 and full of reflections! The tall grasses, with 
 their showy purple panicles in flower, waving 
 in the wind over all the lower mountain slopes, 
 with a growth heavy enough for the scythe, 
 must then be a beautiful sight, and so must the 
 broad patches of heathworts with their multi 
 tude of pink bells, and the tall lupines and ferns 
 along the banks of the streams. 
 
 There is not a tree of any kind on the islands 
 excepting a few spruces brought from Sitka 
 and planted by the Russians some fifty years 
 ago. They are still alive, but have made very 
 little growth a circumstance no doubt due 
 to the climate. But in what respect it differs 
 from the climate of southeastern Alaska, lying 
 both north and south of this latitude, where 
 forests flourish exuberantly in all kinds of ex 
 posures, on rich alluvium or on bare rocks, 
 I am unable to say. The only wood I noticed, 
 and all that is said to exist on any of the islands, 
 is small patches of willow, with stems an inch 
 12
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 thick, and of several species of woody-stemmed 
 heathworts; this the native Aleuts gather for 
 fuel, together with small quantities of drift 
 wood cast on the shores by the winds and cur 
 rents. 
 
 Grass of good quality for stock is abundant 
 on all the larger islands, and cattle thrive and 
 grow fat during the summer wherever they 
 have been tried. But the wetness of the sum 
 mer months will always prevent hay from being 
 made in any considerable quantity and make 
 stock-raising on anything like a large scale 
 impossible. 
 
 The agricultural possibilities of the islands 
 are also very limited. Oats and barley head 
 out but never fully mature, and if they did, it 
 would be very difficult to get them dry enough 
 for the granary. Potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, 
 turnips, beets, etc., do well in spots that are 
 well drained and have a southern exposure. 
 
 According to the census taken last year, the 
 
 inhabitants of these islands number 2451. Of 
 
 this population 82 are whites, 479 Creoles, and 
 
 1890 Aleuts. The Aleuts are far more civilized 
 
 and Christianized than any other tribe of 
 
 Alaska Indians. From a third to one half of 
 
 the men and women read and write. Their 
 
 occupation is the hunting of the sea-otter for 
 
 the Alaska Commercial Company. 
 
 13
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 A good hunter makes from four hundred to 
 eight hundred dollars per annum. In this pur 
 suit they go hundreds of miles in their frail 
 skin-covered canoes, which are so light that 
 they may easily be carried under one's arm. 
 Earning so much money, they are able to sup 
 port themselves with many comforts beyond 
 the reach of most of the laboring classes of 
 Europe. Nevertheless, with all their advan- 
 ta'ges, they are fading away like other Indians. 
 The deaths exceed the births in nearly every 
 one of their villages, and it is only a question 
 of time when they will vanish from the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 On the way back to the ship I sauntered 
 through the town. It contains about one hun 
 dred buildings, half of them frame, built by 
 the Alaska Commercial and Western Fur and 
 Trading Companies. Aleutian huts are called 
 "barabaras." They are built of turf on a frame 
 of wood; some of them have floors, arid are di 
 vided into many rooms, very small ones. The 
 smells are horrible to clean nostrils, and the 
 air is foul and dead beyond endurance. Some 
 of the bedrooms are not much larger than 
 coffins. The floors are below the surface of the 
 ground two or three feet, and the doors are at 
 the end away from the direction of the pre 
 vailing wind. There are one or two small win- 
 14
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 dows of glass or bladder, and a small pipe sur 
 mounts a very small Russian stove in which 
 the stems of empetrum are burned. 
 
 In most of the huts that I entered I found 
 a Yankee clock, a few pictures, and ordinary 
 cheap crockery and furniture; accordions, also, 
 as they are very fond of music. All such bits 
 of furniture and finery of foreign manufacture 
 contrast meanly with their own old-fashioned 
 kind. Altogether, in dress and home gear, they 
 are so meanly mixed, savage and civilized, that 
 they make a most pathetic impression. The 
 moisture rained down upon them every other 
 day keeps the walls and the roof green, even 
 flowery, and as perfectly fresh as the sod before 
 it was built into a hut. Goats, once introduced 
 by the Russians, make these hut tops their 
 favorite play and pasture grounds, much to 
 the annoyance of their occupants. In one of 
 these huts I saw for the first tune arrowheads 
 manufactured out of bottle glass. The edges 
 are chipped by hard pressure with a bit of 
 deer horn. 
 
 As the Tlingit Indians of the Alexander 
 Archipelago make then- own whiskey, so these 
 Aleuts make their own beer, an intoxicating 
 drink, which, if possible, is more abominable 
 and destructive than hootchenoo. It is called 
 "kvass," and was introduced by the Russians, 
 15
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 though the Aleutian kvass is only a coarse imi 
 tation of the Russian article, as the Indian 
 hootchenoo is of whiskey. In its manufacture 
 they put a quantity of sugar and flour, or 
 molasses and flour, with a few dried apples, 
 in a cask, fill it up with water, and leave it to 
 ferment. Then they make haste to drink it 
 while it is yet thick and acrid, and capable of 
 making them howling drunk. It also creates 
 a fiery thirst for alcohol, which is supplied by 
 traders whenever they get a chance. This 
 renders the misery of the Aleuts complete. 
 
 There are about two thousand of them scat 
 tered along the chain of islands, living in small 
 villages. Nearly all the men are hunters of the 
 fur seal, the most expert making five hundred 
 dollars or more per season. After paying old 
 debts contracted with the Companies, they 
 invest the remainder in trinkets, in cloth 
 ing not so good as then 1 own furs, and in beer, 
 and go at once into hoggish dissipation, hair- 
 pulling, wife-beating, etc. In a few years then* 
 health, becomes impaired, they become less 
 successful in hunting, their children are neg 
 lected and die, and they go to ruin generally. 
 When they toss in their kayaks among surf- 
 beaten rocks where then* prey dwells, their 
 business requires steady .nerve. But all the 
 proceeds are spent for what is worse than use- 
 
 16
 
 UNALASKA AND THE ALEUTS 
 
 less. The best hunters have been furnished 
 with frame cottages by the Companies. These 
 cottages have a neat appearance outside, but 
 are very foul inside. Rare exceptions are those 
 in which one finds scrubbed floors or flowers 
 in pots on window-sills and mantels. 
 
 We called at the house of the priest of the 
 Greek Church, and were received with fine 
 civility, ushered into a room which for fine 
 ness of taste in furniture and fixtures might 
 well challenge the very best in San Francisco 
 or New York. The wall-paper, the ceiling, the 
 floor, the pictures of Yosemite and the Czar 
 on the walls, the flowers in the window, the 
 books on the tables, the window-curtains white 
 and gauzy, tied with pink ribbon, the rugs, 
 and odds and ends, all proclaimed exquisite 
 taste of a kind that could not possibly originate 
 anywhere except in the man himself or his wife. 
 This room would have made a keen impression 
 upon me wherever found, and is, I am sure, 
 not dependent upon the squalor of most other 
 homes here, nor upon the wildness and remote 
 ness of Unalaska, for the interest it excites. 
 He spoke only Russian, so that I had but little' 
 conversation with him, as I had to speak 
 through omr interpreter. We smoked and 
 smiled and gestured and looked at his beautiful 
 home. 
 
 17
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 Bishop Nestor, who has charge of the Alas 
 kan diocese, is said to be a charming and most 
 venerable man. He now resides in San Fran 
 cisco, but is having a house built in Unalaska. 
 He is empowered to build and support, at the 
 expense of the home church, a certain number 
 of parish churches. Two out of seven of these 
 are located among the Aleuts at Unalaska 
 and Belkofski. The other Aleutian villages 
 which have churches, and nearly all have, 
 build and support them at their own expense. 
 The Russian Church claims about eleven thou 
 sand members in all Alaska. About one half 
 of these are Aleuts, one thousand Creoles, and 
 the rest Indians of Nushagak, Yukon, and 
 Kenai missions, over which the Church exer 
 cises but a feeble control. Shamanism with 
 slight variations extends over all Siberia and 
 Alaska and, indeed, all America.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 AMONG THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 St. Paul, Alaska, May 23, 1881. 
 
 ABOUT four o'clock yesterday morning the 
 Corwin left Unalaska, and arrived at*St. Paul 
 shortly after noon to-day, the distance being 
 about one hundred and ninety miles. This is 
 the metropolis of the Fur Seal Islands, situ 
 ated on the island of St. Paul a handsome 
 village of sixty-four neat frame cottages, with 
 a large church, schoolhouse, and priest's resi 
 dence, and a population of nearly three hun 
 dred Aleuts, and from twelve to twenty whites. 
 
 It is interesting to find here an isolated 
 group of Alaskan natives wholly under white 
 influence and control, and who have hi great 
 part abandoned their own pursuits, clothing, 
 and mode of life in general, and adopted that 
 of the whites. They are all employed by the 
 Alaska Commercial Company as butchers, to 
 kill and flay the hundred thousand seals that 
 they take annually here and at the neighboring 
 island of St. George. Their bloody work lasts 
 about two months, and they earn in this time 
 from three hundred to six hundred dollars 
 apiece, being paid forty cents per skin. 
 19
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 The Company supplies them with a school, 
 medical attendance, and comfortable dwellings, 
 and looks after their welfare in general, its own 
 interest being involved. They even have a 
 bank, and are encouraged to save their money, 
 which many of them do, having accounts of 
 from two hundred to three thousand dollars. 
 Fortunately, the Aleuts of St. Paul and St. 
 George are pretty effectively guarded against 
 whiskey, and to some extent against kvass also. 
 Only limited quantities of sugar and other 
 kvass material are sold to them. Nevertheless 
 one of their number told one of our officers 
 to-day that he had a bank account of eight 
 hundred dollars and would give it all for five 
 bottles of whiskey ; and an agent of the Company 
 gave it as his opinion that there were not six per 
 fectly sober Aleuts on the whole island to-day. 
 
 The number of fur seals that resort to these 
 two islands, St. Paul and St. George, during 
 the breeding season, is estimated at from three 
 to four million, and there seems to be no fall 
 ing off in numbers since the Alaska Commercial 
 Company began operations here. Only young 
 males are killed by the Company, but many of 
 both sexes are taken far from here among 
 the Aleutian Islands and around the shores of 
 Vancouver Island and the outermost of the 
 Alexander Archipelago. 
 20
 
 THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 No one knows certainly whence they come or 
 whither they go. But inasmuch as they make 
 their appearance every year about the shores 
 of the Aleutian Islands shortly after their dis 
 appearance from St. Paul and St. George, and 
 then later to the southward, toward the coast 
 of British Columbia, it is supposed that they 
 are the same animals, and that they thus 
 make journeys every year of a thousand miles 
 or more, and return to their birthplaces like 
 shoals of salmon. They begin to appear on the 
 breeding-grounds about the first of June. 
 These are old males, who at once take up their 
 stations on high ground a short distance from 
 the shore, and keep possession of their places 
 while they await the coming of the pregnant , 
 females who arrive about a month later, accom 
 panied by the younger members of the com 
 munity. At the height of the season the 
 ground is closely covered with them, and they 
 seldom go back into the water or take any food 
 until the young are well grown and all are 
 ready to leave the islands in the fall. 
 
 In addition to the one hundred thousand 
 taken here, the Company obtains about forty 
 thousand by purchase from the Russians at 
 Bering and Copper Islands, and from Indians 
 and traders at different points south as far as 
 Oregon. These skins are said to be worth fif- 
 21
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 teen dollars apiece in the London market, to 
 which they are all sent. The government reve 
 nue derived from the one hundred thousand 
 killed each year is $317,000. Next in impor 
 tance among the fur animals of Alaska, is the 
 sea-otter, of which about six thousand a year 
 are taken, worth from eighty dollars to one 
 hundred dollars apiece. 
 
 The Aleuts obtain from thirty to fifty dollars 
 in goods or money, an alternative not due to 
 the fact that the goods are sold for their 
 money value, but to the fact that the traders 
 sooner or later receive back whatever money 
 they pay out instead of goods. Unlimited com 
 petition would, of course, run the price much 
 higher, as, for example, it has done in south 
 eastern Alaska. Here the only competition lies 
 between the Western Fur and Trading Com 
 pany and the Alaska Commercial Company. 
 The latter gets most of them. Each company 
 seeks the good-will of the best hunters by 
 every means in its power, by taking them to 
 and from the hunting grounds in schooners, 
 by advancing provisions and all sorts. of sup 
 plies, by building cottages for them, and sup 
 plying them with the services of a physician 
 and medicine free. Only Indians are allowed 
 by law to take furs, and whites married to 
 Indian women. This law has induced some 
 
 22
 
 THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 fifteen white men to marry Indians for the 
 privilege of taking sea-otter. They have set 
 tled at Unga Island, one of the Shumagin 
 group, where there is a village of some hun 
 dred and eighty-five Indians. 
 
 Seen from the sea, all the Pribilof Islands 
 St. Paul, St. George, and Otter Island ap 
 pear as mere rocks, naked and desolate frag 
 ments of lava, wasted into bluffs where they 
 touch the sea, and shorn off on top by the ice- 
 sheet. The gray surfaces are roughened here 
 and there by what, at a distance, seem to be 
 degraded volcanic cones. Nevertheless, they 
 are exceedingly interesting, not only because 
 of the marvelous abundance of life about them 
 seals, water birds, and fishes but because 
 they tell so grand a story concerning the ice- 
 sheet that swept over them all from the north. 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 Tapkan, Siberia, May 31, 1881. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of this month, a bleak, 
 snowy day, we enjoyed our first view of the 
 northern ocean ice at a distance of only a few 
 hours from the Pribilof Islands in latitude 58. 
 This is not far from its southern limit, though 
 strong north winds no doubt carry wasting 
 fragments somewhat farther. It always reaches 
 lower on the American side. Norton Sound is 
 23
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 seldom clear before the middle or end of June. 
 Here the ice occurs in ragged, berglike masses 
 from a foot to a hundred feet in breadth, and 
 with the highest point not more than ten 
 or twelve feet above the water. Its color is 
 bluish-white, looking much like coarse, gran 
 ular snow, with pale blue stratified bases under 
 water. 
 
 We ran past one flat cake on which lay a 
 small white seal which kept its place, though 
 we were within fifteen or twenty feet of it. 
 Guns were then brought into the pilot-house 
 and loaded. In a few minutes another seal was 
 discovered riding leisurely on its ice raft and 
 shot. The engine was stopped, the boat low 
 ered, and a sailor stepped on the ice and threw 
 the heedless fellow into the boat. It seemed to 
 pay scarce any attention to the steamer, and, 
 when wounded by the first ball that was fired, 
 it did not even then seek to escape, which sur 
 prised me since those among the fiords north 
 of Wrangell and Sitka are so shy that my 
 Indians, as we glided toward them in a canoe, 
 seldom were successful in getting a shot. The 
 seal was nearly white a smooth oval bullet 
 without an angle anywhere, large, prominent, 
 humanlike eyes, and long whiskers. It seemed 
 cruel to kill it, and most wonderful to us, as 
 we shivered in our overcoats, that it could live 
 
 24
 
 THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 happily enough to grow fat and keep full of 
 warm red blood with water at 32 F. for its 
 pasture field, and wet sludge for its bed. 
 
 In half an hour we descried another, a large 
 one, which we also shot as it lay at ease on a 
 large cake against which the waves were beat 
 ing. Like the other two, it waited until we 
 were within easy range, and allowed itself to 
 be shot without the slightest effort to escape. 
 This one proved to be a fine specimen of the 
 saddle-back species, Histriophoca fasciata, still 
 somewhat rare in collections, and eagerly 
 sought for. It derives its name from the saddle- 
 like bands of brown across the back. This 
 specimen weighed about two hundred pounds. 
 The skins of both were saved, and the next 
 morning we had some of the flesh of the small 
 one for breakfast. The meat proved to be 
 excellent, dark-red, and very tender, with a 
 taste like that of good venison. 
 
 We were steering direct for St. Matthew 
 Island, noted for the great numbers of polar 
 bears that haunt its shores. But as we pro 
 ceeded, the ice became more and more abun 
 dant, and at length it was seen ahead in a 
 solid pack. Then we had to abandon our plan 
 of landing on the island, and steered eastward 
 around the curving edge of the pack across the 
 mouth of Anadir Gulf. 
 25
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 On the twenty-seventh we sighted the Sibe 
 rian coast to the north of the Gulf, snow-clad 
 mountains appearing in clear outline at a dis 
 tance of about seventy miles. Even thus far 
 the traces of glacial action were easily recog 
 nized in the peculiar sculpture of the peaks, 
 which here is as unmistakably marked as it is 
 on the summits of the Sierra. Strange that this 
 has not before attracted the attention of ob 
 servers. The highest of the peaks seems to be 
 perhaps four thousand feet above the sea. 
 I hope I may yet have the chance to ascend 
 them. 
 
 On the morning of the twenty-eighth we 
 came to anchor near an Eskimo village at the 
 northwest end of St. Lawrence Island. It was 
 blowing and snowing at the time, and the poor 
 storm-beaten row of huts seemed inexpressibly 
 dreary through the drift. Nevertheless, out of 
 them came a crowd of jolly, well-fed people, 
 dragging their skin canoes, which they shoved 
 over the rim of stranded ice that extended 
 along the shore, and soon they were alongside 
 the steamer, offering ivory, furs', sealskin 
 boots, etc., for tobacco and ammunition. 
 
 There was much inquiry for beads, molasses, 
 
 and most of all for rum and rifles, though they 
 
 willingly parted with anything they had for 
 
 tobacco and calico. After they had procured 
 
 26
 
 THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 a certain quantity of these articles, however, 
 nothing but rifles, cartridges, and rum would 
 induce them to trade. But according to 
 American law, these are not permitted to be 
 sold. There seems to be no good reason why 
 common rifles 1 should be prohibited, inasmuch 
 as they would more surely and easily gam a 
 living by their use, while they are peaceable 
 and can hardly be induced to fight without 
 very great provocation. 
 
 As to the alcohol, no restriction can possibly 
 be too stringent. To the Eskimo it is misery 
 and oftentimes quick death. Two years ago the 
 inhabitants of several villages on this island 
 died of starvation caused by abundance of 
 rum, which rendered them careless about the 
 laying up of ordinary supplies of food for the 
 winter. Then an unusually severe season fol 
 lowed, bringing famine, and, after eating -their 
 dogs, they lay down and died in their huts. 
 Last year Captain Hooper found them where 
 they had died, hardly changed. Probably they 
 are still lying in their rags. They numbered 
 several hundreds. 
 
 When the people from this village came 
 
 1 By a "common rifle" Muir probably meant a single-shot 
 or muzzle-loading rifle. He changed his mind on this subject 
 when he became aware of the excessive slaughter of caribou, 
 or wild reindeer, committed by the natives with repeating 
 rifles. (See p. 140.) 
 
 27
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 aboard to-day they said ours was the first ship 
 of the season, and they were greatly delighted, 
 running over the ship like children. We gave 
 them lead, powder and caps, tobacco, et cetera, 
 for ivory, Arctic shoes, and reindeer parkas, in 
 case we should need them for a winter in the 
 ice, ordinary boots and woolen clothing being 
 wholly inadequate. These are the first Eskimos 
 that I have seen. They impress me as being 
 taller and less distinct as a race than I had been 
 led to suppose. They do not greatly differ 
 from the Tlingits of southeastern Alaska; have 
 Mongolian features well marked, seem to have 
 less brain than the Tlingits, longer faces, and 
 are more simple and childlike in behavior and 
 disposition. They never quarrel much among 
 themselves or with their neighbors, contrast 
 ing greatly in this respect with the Tlingits or 
 Koluschans. 
 
 It was interesting to see how keenly and 
 quickly they felt a joke, and winced when 
 exposed to ridicule. Some of the women are 
 nearly white. They show much taste in the 
 manufacture of then 1 clothing, and make every 
 thing durable. With their reindeer trousers, 
 sack, shirt, and sealskin shoes they bid defiance 
 to the most extreme cold. Their sack, made 
 from the intestine of the sea-lion, while exceed 
 ingly light, is waterproof. Some of their parkas 
 
 28
 
 THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 are made of the breast skins of ducks, but in 
 no case do they wear blankets. When they can 
 procure calico or drilling they wear overshirts 
 of this material, which gives them a very 
 shabby and dirty look. Why they should want 
 such flimsy and useless material I cannot guess. 
 Dressed in their roomy furs, tied at the waist, 
 they seem better-dressed than any other In 
 dians I have seen. The trousers of the men are 
 made of sealskin, with the fur outside. Those 
 of the women are of deerskin and are extremely 
 baggy. The legs, where gathered and tied 
 below the knee, measure about two feet in 
 diameter. 
 
 The chief of this village is a large man, five 
 feet ten inches or six feet tall, with a very long 
 flat face and abruptly tapering forehead, small, 
 bright, cunningeyes, and childishly good-natured 
 and wide-awake to everything curious. Always 
 searching for something to laugh at, they are 
 ready to stop short in the middle of most im 
 portant bargainings to get hold of some bit of 
 fun. Then then- big faces would fall calm with 
 ludicrous suddenness, either from being empty 
 or from some business requiring attention. 
 There was less apparent squalor and misery 
 among them than among any other Indians I 
 have seen. 
 
 It is a curious fact that they cut off their hair 
 
 29
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 close to the scalp, all save a narrow rim around 
 the base, much like the Chinese without the 
 queue. The hair in color and coarseness is 
 exactly like that of the Chinese; in a general 
 way they resemble them also in their clothes. 
 Their heads seem insensible to cold, for they 
 bare them to the storms, and seem to enjoy 
 it when the snow falls on their skulls. There is 
 a hood, however, attached to most parkas, 
 which is drawn up over the head in very severe 
 weather. 
 
 Their mode of smoking is peculiar. The pipe 
 is made of brass or copper, often curiously in 
 laid with lead, and the bowl is very small, not 
 over a quarter of an inch in diameter inside, 
 and with a flaring cuplike rim to prevent loss 
 when it is being filled. Only a small pinch of 
 finely pulverized tobacco is required to fill it. 
 Then the Eskimo smoker lights it with a 
 match, or flint and steel, and without remov 
 ing the pipe from his mouth, sucks in the 
 smoke and inhales it, inflating his lungs to the 
 utmost and holding it a second or two, expels 
 it, coughs, and puts his pipe and little bag of 
 tobacco away, the whole smoke not lasting one 
 minute. From the time he commences he holds 
 his breath until it is finished. The more acrid 
 and pungent the tobacco the better. If it does 
 not compel them to cough and gasp it is not 
 
 30
 
 THE ISLANDS OF BERING SEA 
 
 considered good. In buying any considerable 
 quantity they try it before completing the 
 bargain. This method of smoking is said to be 
 practiced among all the Eskimos and also the 
 Chukchis of Siberia. 
 
 In buying whiskey or rum from the traders 
 it is said that they select one of their number 
 to test its strength. The trader gives nearly 
 pure alcohol, so that the lucky tester becomes 
 drunk at once, which satisfies them. Then the 
 keg that is purchased is found to be well 
 watered and intoxication goes on slowly and 
 feebly, much to their disgust and surprise.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 SIBEKIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 [Steamer Corwin, 
 Tapkan, Siberia, May 31, 1881.] 
 
 AFTER inquiring about the movements of 
 the ice and the whaling fleet, we weighed anchor 
 and steered for Plover Bay on the coast of- 
 Siberia, taking several of the natives with us. 
 They had a few poles for the frame of a boat 
 and skins to cover it, and for food a piece of 
 walrus flesh which they ate raw. This, with a 
 gun and a few odds and ends, was all their 
 property, yet they seemed more confident of 
 their ability to earn a living than most whites 
 on then- farms. 
 
 The afternoon was clear and the mountains 
 about Plover Bay showed themselves in bold 
 relief, quite imposing and Yosemitic in sculp 
 ture and composition. There was so much ice 
 at the mouth of the bay, which is a glacial 
 fiord, that we could not enter. In the edge of 
 the pack we spoke the whaler Rainbow, and 
 delivered the Arctic mail. Then we proceeded 
 a short distance northward, put into Marcus 
 Bay, and anchored in front of a small Chukchi 
 settlement. A boatful of natives came aboard 
 
 32
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 and told a story "important if true," concern 
 ing the destruction of the lost whaler Vigilant 
 and the death of her crew. Three Chukchi seal 
 hunters, they said, while out on the ice last 
 November, near Cape Serdzekamen, discov 
 ered the ship in the pack, her masts broken off 
 by the ice, and the crew dead on the deck and 
 in the cabin. They had brought off a bag of . 
 money and such articles as they could carry 
 away, some of which had been shown to other 
 natives, and the story had traveled from one 
 settlement to another thus far down the coast. 
 
 All this was told with an air of perfect good 
 faith, and they seemed themselves to believe 
 what they were telling. We had heard sub 
 stantially the same story at St. Lawrence 
 Island. But knowing the ability of these peo 
 ple for manufacturing tales of this sort, we 
 listened with many grains of allowance, though 
 of course determined to investigate further. 
 
 Here we began to inquire for dogs, and were 
 successful in hiring a team of six, and then* 
 owner to drive them. The owner is called 
 "Chukchi Joe," and since he can speak a little 
 English he is also to act in the capacity of 
 interpreter, his language being the same as 
 that spoken by the natives of the north 
 Siberian coast. While we were trying to hire 
 him, one of his companions kept reiterating 
 
 33
 
 that there was no use in sending out people to 
 look for the crews of those ships, for they were 
 all dead. Joe also said that it was no use going, 
 and that he was afraid to venture so far for 
 fear he would never get back. The snow, he 
 objected, was too soft at this time of year, and 
 many rivers hard to cross were hi the way, and 
 he did not like to leave his family. But after 
 we had promised to pay him well, whether our 
 lost friends were found or not, he consented 
 to go, and when he went ashore to get ready 
 we went with him. 
 
 The settlement consisted of only two habita 
 tions with twenty-five or thirty persons, lo 
 cated back three quarters of a mile from the 
 coast. On reaching home Joe quickly vanished. 
 His hut was about twenty-five feet in diame 
 ter, and was made of poles bent down at the 
 top, where they all met to form a hemisphere. 
 This frame was covered with skins of seal, sea- 
 lion, and walrus, chiefly the latter. . . . Since 
 much of the flesh on which the Chukchis 
 subsist is eaten raw, only very small fires are 
 made, and the huts are cold. The ground inside 
 of this one was wet and muddy as a Calif ornia 
 corral in the rainy season, and seemed almost 
 as large. But around the sides of this cold, 
 squalid shell, little more than a wind-break 
 and partial shelter from rain and snow, there 
 34
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 were a number of very snug, clean, luxurious 
 bedrooms, whose sides, ceiling, and floor were 
 made of fur; they were lighted by means of a 
 pan of whale-oil with a bit of moss for a wick. 
 After being out all day hunting in the stormy 
 weather, or on ice-packs or frozen tundras, 
 the Chukchi withdraws into this furry sanctum, 
 takes off all his clothing, and spreads his 
 wearied limbs in luxurious ease, sleeping per 
 fectly nude in the severest weather. 
 
 After introducing ourselves and shaking 
 hands with a few of the most dignified of the 
 old men, we looked about the strange domicile. 
 Dogs, children, men, women, and utensils; 
 spears, guns, whale-lances, etc., were stuck 
 about the rafters and hanging on the support 
 ing posts. We looked into one of the fur bed 
 rooms, about six by seven, and found Joe 
 enjoying a bath ere putting on his fine clothes 
 to set out with us. Soon he emerged clad in a 
 blue cloth army coat with brass buttons and 
 shoulder straps and army cap! I scarcely knew 
 him. 
 
 In the mean tune Captain H[ooper] was off 
 taking a drive over the snow with a dog-team 
 and sled. When he returned Joe was having a 
 farewell talk with his wife, who seemed very 
 anxious about his safety and long absence. 
 His little boy, too, about a year and a half old, 
 35
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 had been told that his father was going away 
 and he seemed to understand somewhat, as he 
 kept holding him by the legs and trying to 
 talk to him while looking up in his face. When 
 we started away from the house he kissed his 
 boy and bade him good-bye. The little fellow 
 in his funny bags of fur toddled after him until 
 caught and carried back by some of the 
 women who were looking on. Joe's wife came 
 aboard for a final farewell. After taking him 
 aside and talking with him, the tears running 
 down her cheeks, she left the vessel and went 
 back with some others who had come to trade 
 deerskins, while we sailed away. One touch of 
 nature makes all the world kin, and here were 
 many touches among the wild Chukchis. 
 
 We next proceeded to St. Lawrence Bay in 
 search of furs and more dogs, and came to 
 anchor at the mouth of the bay, opposite a 
 small Chukchi settlement of two huts, at half- 
 past one in the afternoon, May 29. This bay, 
 like all I have seen along this coast, is of glacial 
 formation, conducting back into glacial foun 
 tains in a range of peaks of moderate height. 
 The wind was blowing hard from the south 
 and snow was falling. The natives, however, 
 came off at once to trade. Here we met the 
 voluble Jaroochah, who sat gravely on the 
 sloppy deck in the sludge, and told the story 
 
 36
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 of the wrecked Vigilant in a loud, vehement, 
 growling, roaring voice and with frantic ges 
 tures. He assured us over and over again that 
 there was no use in going to seek any of the 
 crew, for they were all dead and the ship with 
 her broken masts had drifted away again to 
 the north with the ice-pack. When told that 
 we would certainly seek them whether dead or 
 alive, he explained that the snow and ice were 
 too soft for sleds at this tune of year. Seeing 
 that we were still unconvinced, he doubtless 
 regarded us as foolish and incorrigible white 
 trash. 
 
 We went ashore to fetch some dogs they 
 offered to sell, but they changed their minds 
 and refused to sell at any price, nor were they 
 willing to barter deerskins that we needed for 
 the trip and for winter clothing in case we 
 should be caught in the ice and compelled to 
 pass a winter in the Arctic. We presented them 
 with a bucket of hardtack which no one of the 
 party touched until the old orator gave orders 
 to his son to divide it. This he did by counting 
 it out on the deck, laying down one biscuit for 
 each person and then adding one to e.ach until 
 all was exhausted, piling them on each other 
 like a money-changer counting out coins. The 
 mannerly reserve and unhasting dignity of all 
 these natives when food is set before them is 
 37 
 
 42808
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 very striking as compared with the ravenous, 
 snatching haste of the hungry poor among the 
 whites. Even the children look wistfully at 
 the heap of bread, without touching it until 
 invited, and then eat very slowly as if not hun 
 gry at all. Nor do they ever need to be told to 
 wait. Even when a year of famine occurs from 
 any cause, they endure it with fortitude such 
 as would be sought for in vain among the civi 
 lized, and after braving the most intense cold 
 of these dreary ice-bound coasts in search of 
 food, if unsuccessful, they wrap themselves in 
 their furs and die quietly as if only going to 
 sleep. This they did by hundreds two years 
 ago on St. Lawrence Island. 
 
 Finding that we could not buy anything that 
 we wanted here, savage eloquence being the 
 only article offered, we sailed for the Diomedes. 
 Here we found the natives eager to trade away 
 everything they had. We bought a lot of furs 
 and nineteen dogs, paying a sack of flour for 
 each dog. This Arctic cattle market was in 
 every way lively and picturesque, and ended 
 satisfactorily to all the parties concerned. The 
 scene of barter as each Eskimo, pitching along 
 side in his skin boat, hoisted the howling wolves 
 aboard, and thence to the upper deck in front 
 of the pilot-house, was a rare one. 
 
 The villages are perched on the steep rocky 
 38
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 slopes of mountains which drop at once sheer 
 into deep water, one mountain per island. 1 No 
 margin is left for a village along the shore, so, 
 like the seabirds that breed here and fly about 
 in countless multitudes darkening the water, 
 the rocks, and the ah 1 , the natives had to perch 
 their huts on the cliffs, dragging boats and 
 everything up and down very steep trails. The 
 huts are mostly built of stone with skin roofs. 
 They look like mere stone-heaps, black dots on 
 the snow at a distance, with .whalebone posts 
 set up and framed at the top to lay their canoes 
 beyond the dogs that would otherwise eat them. 
 The dreariest towns I ever beheld the tops 
 of the islands in gloomy storm-clouds; snow to 
 the water's edge, and blocks of rugged ice for 
 a fringe; then the black water dashing against 
 the ice; the gray sleety sky, the screaming 
 water birds, the howling wind, and the blue 
 gathering sludge! 
 
 We now pushed on through the strait and 
 into the Arctic Ocean without encountering 
 any ice, and passed Cape Serdzekamen this 
 afternoon [May 31]. The weather has been 
 calm and tolerably clear for the last twenty- 
 four hours, enabling us to see the coast now 
 
 1 Muir noted in his journal that " Fairway Rock near the 
 East Diomede is a similar smaller island, on which the gran 
 ite rock is glaciated." 
 
 39
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 and then. It showed hills of moderate height, 
 rising here and there to mountains. 
 
 About twelve miles northwest from Cape 
 Serdzekamen we observed a marked bluff 
 where the shore ice seemed narrower than else 
 where, and we approached, intending to exam 
 ine it with reference to landing the party here. 
 When we were within a mile of it we saw a 
 group of natives signaling us to land by wav 
 ing something over their heads. The Captain, 
 Joe, and myself got on the ice from the boat, 
 and began to scramble over it toward the bluff, 
 but found the ice very rough and made slow 
 progress. The pack is made up of a crushed 
 mass of blocks and pinnacles tilted at every 
 angle up to a height of from ten to thirty feet, 
 and it seemed to become rougher and more 
 impassable as we advanced. 
 
 Fortunately we discovered a group of natives 
 a quarter of a mile or so to the westward, com 
 ing toward the ship, when we returned to our 
 boat that was lying at the edge of the ice, and 
 went around to meet them. After shaking 
 hands with the -most imposing of the group of 
 eight, we directed Joe to tell them the object 
 we had in coming, and to inquire whether two 
 of their number would go with our sledge party 
 to assist in driving the teams. One of them, a 
 strapping fellow over six feet tall, said that he 
 
 40
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 had a wife and four boys and two girls to hunt 
 seals for, and therefore could not go. As Joe 
 interpreted him in whaler English, he was 
 "already hungry like hell." Another said that 
 the journey was too long for him, that our 
 friends were not along the coast, else he would 
 certainly have heard about them, and therefore 
 the journey would be vain. We urged that we 
 were going to seek them whether they were to 
 be found or not, and that if they would go with 
 us we would leave more food for their families 
 than they could get for them by hunting. 
 
 Two of the number at length consented to 
 go, after being assured that we would pay them 
 well, whether the journey proved successful or 
 otherwise. Then we intimated that we would 
 like to visit their village, which seemed to 
 please them; for they started at once to guide 
 us over the hummocky ice to where they had 
 left their dog-teams and sleds. It was a rough 
 scramble at best, and even the natives slipped 
 at tunes and hesitated cautiously in choosing 
 a way, while we, encumbered with overcoats 
 and not so well shod, kept sinking with awk 
 ward glints and slumps into hopper-shaped 
 hollows and chasms filled with snow. One of 
 them kindly gave me his balancing-stick. 
 
 Beyond the roughest portion of the hum 
 mock region we found the dogs, nearly a hun- 
 41
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 dred of them, with eleven sleds, making, as 
 they lay at their ease, an imposing picture 
 among the white ice. Three of the teams were 
 straightened out and one of them given in 
 charge of Joe, who is an adept at driving, while 
 the Captain and I were taken on behind the 
 drivers of the other two; and away we sped 
 over the frozen ceiling of the sea, two rows of 
 tails ahead. 
 
 The distance to the village, called "Tapkan" 
 by the natives, was about three miles, the first 
 mile very rough and apparently hopelessly in 
 accessible to sleds. But the wolfish dogs and 
 drivers seemed to regard it all as a regular 
 turnpike, and jogged merrily on, up one side of 
 a tilted block or slab and down the other with 
 a sudden pitch and plunge, swishing round side 
 ways on squinted cakes, and through pools of 
 water and sludge in blue, craggy hollows, on 
 and on, this way and that, with never a halt, 
 the dogs keeping up a steady jog trot, and the 
 leader simply looking over his shoulder occa 
 sionally for directions in the worst places. The 
 driver admonished them with loud calls of 
 "Hoora! Hoora! Shedack! Shedack! Knock! 
 Knock!" but seldom struck them. He had to 
 hold himself in constant readiness to jump off 
 and hold the sled while guiding it around sharp 
 angles and across the high cutting ridges. My 
 
 42
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 sled was not upset at all, and the Captain's 
 only twice. 
 
 Part of our way was across the mouth of a 
 bay on smooth ice that had not been subjected 
 to the mashing, upheaving strain of the ocean 
 ice, and over this we glided rapidly. My 
 Chukchi driver, now that he had no oare about 
 the upsetting of the sled, frequently turned with 
 a smile and did his best to entertain me, though 
 he did not understand a word of English. It 
 was a rare, strange ride for us, yet accomplished 
 with such everyday commonplace confidence, 
 that it seemed at the time as if this might be 
 the only mode of land travel in the world. 
 
 Some teams were just arriving from the vil 
 lage as we were going to it. When we met, the 
 dogs passed each other to right or left as they 
 were told by their drivers, who kept flourishing 
 a whip and jingling some iron rings that were 
 tied loosely to one end of a short stick that 
 had an iron goad in the other, and of which 
 the dogs knew the use all too well. They are 
 as steady as oxen, each keeping its trace-line 
 tight, and showing no inclination to shirk 
 utterly unlike the illustrations I had seen, in 
 which all are represented as running at a wild 
 gallop with mouths wide open. 
 
 The village is built on a sand-bar pushed up 
 by the ice on the west side of a narrow bay. I 
 43
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 counted twenty huts in all. When we drove 
 up, the women and children, and a few old men 
 who had not been tempted to make the jour 
 ney to the ship, came out to meet us. Captain 
 Hooper went to the house belonging to his 
 driver, I to the one belonging to mine; after 
 wards we joined and visited in company. We 
 were kindly received and shown to good seats 
 on reindeer skins. All of them smiled good- 
 naturedly when we shook hands with them, 
 and tried to repeat our salutations. When we 
 discussed our proposed land journey the wo 
 men eagerly joined and the children listened 
 attentively. 
 
 We inquired about the Vega, knowing that 
 she had wintered hereabouts. At first they 
 said they knew nothing about her; that no ship 
 had wintered here two years ago. Then, as if 
 suddenly remembering, one of them said a 
 three-masted ship, a steamer like the Corwin, 
 had stopped one season in the ice at a point 
 a few miles east of the village, and had gone 
 away when it melted in the summer. A woman, 
 who had been listening, then went to a box, and 
 after turning it over, showed us a spoon, fork, 
 and pocket compass of Russian manufacture, 
 which she said the captain had given them. 
 
 The huts here are like those already de 
 scribed, only they are dry because of the porous 
 44
 
 SIBERIAN ADVENTURES 
 
 character of the ground. Three or four families 
 live in one each having a private polog of deer 
 skins, of which there are several thicknesses on 
 the floor. We were shown into one the snug 
 gest storm nest imaginable, and perfectly clean. 
 The common hut is far otherwise; dogs mingle 
 with the food, hair is everywhere, and strangely 
 persistent smells that defy even the Arctic 
 frosts. The children seemed in fair ratio with 
 the adults. When a child is to be nursed the 
 mother merely pulls out one of her arms from 
 the roomy sleeve of her parka and pushes it 
 down until the breast is exposed. The breasts 
 are pendulous and cylindrical, like those of the 
 Tlingits. 
 
 The dishes used in domestic affairs are of 
 wood, and in the smallest of these the puppies, 
 after licking them, were often noticed to lie 
 down. They seemed made specially for them, 
 so well did they fit. Dogs were eagerly licking 
 the large kettles, also, in which seal meat had 
 been boiled. They seemed to be favored in 
 these establishments like the pigs in Irish huts. 
 Spears, lances, guns, and nets were fastened 
 about the timbers of the roof and sides, but 
 little food of any kind was visible. A pot was 
 swinging over a small fire of driftwood when we 
 entered one of the huts, and an old dame was 
 stirring it occasionally, and roasting seal liver 
 
 45
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 on the coals beneath it. On leaving we were 
 each presented with a pair of fur mittens. 
 
 At the last moment, when we were ready to 
 return to the ship, one of the men we had en 
 gaged to go with the land party changed his 
 mind and concluded to stay at home. The 
 other stuck to his engagement, though evi 
 dently feeling sore about leaving his family. 
 His little boy cried bitterly when he learned 
 that his father was going away, and refused 
 all the offers made by the women to comfort 
 him. After we had sped away over the ice, 
 half a mile from the village, we could still hear 
 his screams. Just as the ship was about to 
 weigh anchor, the second man again offered 
 to go with us, but Joe said to the Captain, 
 "More better not take that fellow, he too 
 much talk." 
 
 The group of lookers-on congregated on the 
 edge of the ice was very picturesque seen from 
 the vessel as we moved away. The Chukchis 
 are taller and more resolute-looking people than 
 the Eskimos of the opposite coast, but both are 
 Mongols and nearly alike in dress and mode 
 of life, as well as in religion. 
 
 The weather is promising this evening. 
 No portion of the polar pack is in sight, and 
 we mean to push on westward as far as we 
 can with safety.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IN PEKIL FKOM THE PACK 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 
 Near the edge of the shore ice, 
 
 opposite Koliuchin Island, 
 
 6 P.M., June 2, 1881. 
 
 AFTER leaving Tapkan, twelve miles north 
 west of Cape Serdzekamen, on the evening of 
 the last day of May, we steamed along the coast 
 to the westward, tracing the edge of the shore- 
 ice, which seemed to be from three to six miles 
 wide. The weather was tranquil, though rather 
 thick at times, and the water was like glass and 
 as smooth as a mill-pond. About half-past five 
 yesterday afternoon we reached the end of the 
 open lead that w r e had been following, one 
 hundred and thirty miles west of Cape Serd 
 zekamen, latitude 68 28' N., longitude 175 
 10' W., having thus early in the season gained 
 a point farther west than the Corwin was able 
 to reach at any time last year. 
 
 At this point the firm coast ice united with 
 the great polar pack, and, as there was danger 
 of its drifting south at, any time and cutting 
 us off, we made haste to the eastward, keeping 
 as far offshore as possible, that we might be 
 able to watch the movements of the pack. 
 
 47
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 About seven o'clock last evening, the weather 
 becoming thick, the engine was stopped and 
 the vessel was allowed to proceed slowly under 
 sail. 
 
 Shortly after one o'clock this morning I 
 was awakened by unusual sounds on deck, and 
 after listening for a few minutes, concluded 
 that we must be entangled in the edge of the 
 pack and were unshipping the rudder for fear 
 it might be carried away. Going on deck, I 
 was surprised to see the broken rudder being 
 hoisted, for I had not been awakened by the 
 blow. The oak shaft was broken completely 
 off, and also all three of the pintles. It seems 
 that about midnight, owing to the fog and 
 snow, we got into a field of heavy masses of 
 ice on the edge of the main pack, which, on 
 account of a north wind that had commenced 
 to blow, was now moving slowly southward, 
 and while backing out of it, a moderate bump 
 that chanced to take the rudder at the greatest 
 disadvantage broke it off without any appre 
 ciable strain. 
 
 The situation was sufficiently grave and ex 
 citing dark weather, the wind from the 
 north and freshening every minute, and the 
 vast polar pack pushing steadily shoreward. 
 It was a cold, bleak, stormy morning, with a 
 close, sweeping fall of snow, that encumbered 
 
 48
 
 IN PERIL FROM THE PACK 
 
 the deck and ropes and nearly blinded one 
 when compelled to look to windward. Our 
 twenty-five dogs made an effective addition to 
 the general uproar, howling as only Eskimo 
 dogs can. They were in the way, of course, 
 and were heartily kicked hither and thither. 
 The necessary orders, however, were being 
 promptly given and obeyed. As soon as the 
 broken rudder was secured on deck, four long 
 spars were nailed and lashed firmly together, 
 fastened astern and weighted to keep them in 
 place at the right depth in the water. This 
 made a capital jury-rudder. It was worked by 
 ropes attached on either side and to the steam 
 windlass. The whole was brought into com 
 plete working order in a few hours, nearly 
 everybody rendering service, notwithstand 
 ing the blinding storm and peril, as if jury- 
 rudder making under just these circumstances 
 were an everyday employment. Then, finding 
 everything worked well, we made our escape 
 from the closing ice and set out for Plover Bay 
 to repair the damage. 
 
 About four in the afternoon, as the clouds 
 lifted, we sighted Koliuchin Island, which our 
 two Chukchi natives hailed with joyful, beam 
 ing eyes. They evidently were uneasy because 
 of the accident, and on account of being so long 
 out of sight of land a state of mind easily 
 49
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 explained by the dangers attending their mode 
 of life among the ice. In front of the island 
 the ice seemed to be two or three miles wide 
 and lavishly roughened with jammed, angular 
 hummocks. Captain Hooper was now very 
 anxious to get his sledge party landed. Every 
 thing was ready to be put on shore as soon as 
 a safe landing-place should be discovered. The 
 two Chukchis were in the pilot-house gazing 
 wistfully at the gloomy snow-covered island as 
 it loomed up in the gray, stormy sky with its 
 jagged reach of ice in the foreground beaten 
 by the waves. 
 
 The Captain directed Chukchi Joe, the in 
 terpreter, to ask his companion, the dog- 
 driver, who was familiar with the condition of 
 the ice on this part of the coast, whether this 
 was a good point on which to land. His an 
 swer, as interpreted by Joe, was: "He says it's 
 good; it's pretty good, he says." "Then get 
 ready, Mr. Herring, for your journey," ordered 
 the Captain. "Here, Quartermaster, get the 
 provisions on deck. " " Lower the boats there. ' ' 
 "Joe, harness the dogs." 
 
 In a few minutes all was in readiness and 
 in the boats. The party is composed of First 
 Lieutenant Herring, in charge; Third Lieuten 
 ant Reynolds, a sailor 1 and the two Chukchis. 
 
 1 Coxswain Gessler. 
 50
 
 IN PERIL FROM THE PACK 
 
 They have twenty-five dogs, four sleds, a light 
 skin boat to cross rivers and any open water 
 they may find in their way, and two months' 
 provisions. They were directed to search the 
 coast as far to the westward as possible for the 
 crew of the Jeannette or any tidings concern 
 ing the fate of the expedition; to interview the 
 natives they met; to explore the prominent 
 portions of the coast for cairns and signals of 
 any kind, and to return to Tapkan, where we 
 would meet them, while in the mean time we 
 propose to cruise wherever, under existing con 
 ditions, we can best carry out the objects of 
 the expedition. 
 
 The party and all their equipments were 
 carried from the vessel to the ice in three boats, 
 roped together at intervals of twenty-five or 
 thirty feet, the life-boat leading with the party, 
 clothing, provisions, etc. Then came the din- 
 ghey, loaded nearly to the water's edge with 
 the dogs, and one man to thrash them and 
 keep some sort of order while they worried 
 each other and raised an outrageous noise, 
 on account of their uncomfortable, tumbled- 
 together condition. And last, the skin boat, 
 flying-light, with only the sleds aboard and 
 one man to steer, the whole making a very 
 extraordinary show. 
 
 Soon after the boats had left, while we were 
 
 51
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 still watching the tossing fleet from the pilot 
 house and scanning the shore with reference to 
 a landing-place, we noticed three dark objects 
 on top of a hummock near the edge of the ice, 
 and just back of them and to one side on a flat 
 portion of the ice, a group of black dots. These 
 proved to be three natives with their dog 
 teams. They were out hunting seals, and had 
 descried the ship with their sharp eyes and now 
 came forward to gaze. This was a glad discov 
 ery to us, and no doubt still more so to the 
 party leaving the ship, as they were now sure 
 of the passable state of the ice, and would have 
 guides with local knowledge to conduct them 
 to the land. When the dogs got upon the ice, 
 their native heath, they rolled and raced about 
 in exuberant sport. The rough pack was home, 
 sweet home to them, though a more forbidding 
 combination of sky, rough water, ice, and driv 
 ing snow could hardly be imagined by the 
 sunny civilized south. 
 
 After all were safely landed and our boats 
 had returned, we went on our way, while the 
 land party, busied about their sled-packing and 
 dogs, gradually faded in the snowy gloom. All 
 seems well this evening; no ice is in sight to the 
 northward, and the jury-rudder is working ex 
 tremely well. 
 
 52
 
 IN PERIL FROM THE PACK 
 
 [Steamer Corwin, 
 En route southward, to Plover Bay.] 
 
 June 8. Snowing nearly all day. Cleared 
 towards four in the afternoon. Spoke the 
 Helen Mar; had taken five whales; another 
 had already nine. Seven other whalers in sight, 
 all of them save two smoking like steamers. 
 They are trying out their abundant blubber; 
 in danger of being blubber-logged. Saw an In 
 dian l canoe leaving the Helen Mar as we ap 
 proached; probably had been trading, the sea 
 being smooth. 
 
 Had a good view of the two Diomedes; the 
 western one is very distinctly glaciated, nearly 
 all of the summit being comprehended in one 
 beautiful ice-fountain, giving it a craterlike 
 form. The residual glacial action, however, 
 has been light, comparatively, here. No deep 
 canons putting back into the mountains, most 
 of which are low. It is interesting, however, to 
 see undoubted traces both of general and local 
 glaciation thus far north, where the ground is 
 in general rather low. Came up to the ice-pack 
 about ten in the evening, so turned back and 
 lay to. 
 
 June 4- Calm, bland, foggy water, glassy 
 and still as a mill-pond. Cleared so that one 
 
 1 Mr. Muir often applies this term to the Bering Sea 
 natives in general, whether Innuitg or Chukchis. 
 
 53
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 could see a mile ahead at ten o'clock, and we 
 got under way. Sun nearly clear for the first 
 day since coming into the Arctic. Mild, too, 
 for it is 45 F. at noon; even seemed hot. The 
 clouds lifted from the mountains, showing 
 their bases and slopes up to a thousand feet; 
 summits capped. East Cape in fine view; high 
 headland still streaked with snow nearly to 
 the base; summit white at close range. All 
 the coast for at least two hundred miles west 
 of East Cape shows distinct glaciation, both 
 general and local. Many glacier fountains well 
 characterized. Indian village off here. Were 
 boarded by three canoe loads of Indian seal 
 hunters from East Cape village. They traded 
 ivory and shoes, called "susy" by then- inter 
 preter. We were anxious to tell them about our 
 sledge party and inquired of one who spoke 
 a few words of English whether any of their 
 number could speak good English. He seemed 
 to think us very unreasonable, and said, "Me 
 speak good." Got a female eider duck; very 
 fat. In one of the canoes there was a very large 
 seal, weighing perhaps four hundred pounds. 
 
 This has been by far the most beautiful and 
 gentle of our Arctic days, the water perfectly 
 glassy and with no swell, mirroring the sky, 
 which shows a few blue cloudless spots, white 
 as satin near the horizon, of beautiful luster, 
 
 54
 
 IN PERIL FROM THE PACK 
 
 trying to the eyes. More whalers in sight. 
 Gulls skimming the glassy level. Innumerable 
 multitudes of eider ducks, the snowy shore, 
 and all the highest mountains cloud-capped 
 a rare picture and perfectly tranquil and peace 
 ful! God's love is manifest in the landscape as 
 in a face. How unlike yesterday! In the eve 
 ning a long approach to sunset, a red sky min 
 gling with brown and white of the ice-blink. 
 Growing colder towards midnight. There is no 
 night at all now; only a partial gloaming; 
 never, even in cloudy midnights, too dark to 
 read. So for more than a week. Ice in sight, 
 but hope to pass it by running a few miles 
 to shore. Are now, at half-past eleven in the 
 evening, beyond St. Lawrence Bay. Hope to 
 get into Plover Bay to-morrow morning at 
 six o'clock.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A CHUKCHI ORATOR 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, June 6, 1881. 
 
 YESTERDAY morning at half-past one o'clock, 
 when we were within twenty-five miles of 
 Plover Bay, where we hoped to be able to re 
 pair our rudder, we found that the ice-pack 
 was crowding us closer and closer inshore, and 
 that in our partly disabled condition it would 
 not be safe to proceed farther. Accordingly we 
 turned back and put into St. Lawrence Bay, to 
 await some favorable -movement in the ice. 
 
 We dropped anchor at half-past seven in the 
 morning opposite a small Chukchi settlement. 
 In a few hours the wind began to blow fresh 
 from the north, steadily increasing in force, 
 until at eight in the evening it was blowing a 
 gale, and we were glad that we were in a good 
 harbor instead of being out at sea, slashing and 
 tumbling about with a broken rudder among 
 the wind-driven ice. It also rained and snowed 
 most of the afternoon, the blue and gray sleet 
 mingling in grand uproar with the white scud 
 swept from the crests of the waves, making 
 about as stormy and gloomy an atmosphere 
 
 56
 
 A CHUKCHI ORATOR 
 
 as I ever had the fortune to breathe. Now and 
 then the clouds broke and lifted their ragged 
 edges high enough to allow the mountains along 
 the sides and around the head of the bay to be 
 dimly seen, not so dimly, however, as to hide 
 the traces of the heavy glaciation to which they 
 have been subjected. This long bay, as shown 
 by its trends, its relation to the ice-fountains at 
 its head and the sculpture of its walls, is a gla 
 cial fiord that only a short time ago was the 
 channel of a glacier that poured a deep and 
 broad flood into Bering Sea, in company with 
 a thousand others north and south along the 
 Siberian coast. The more I see of this region 
 the more I am inclined to believe that all of 
 Bering Sea and Strait is a glacial excavation. 
 
 In a party of natives that came aboard soon 
 after we had dropped anchor, we discovered 
 the remarkable Chukchi orator, Jaroochah, 
 whose acquaintance we made at the settlement 
 on the other side of the bay, during our first 
 visit, and who had so vividly depicted the con 
 dition of the lost whaler Vigilant. To-day, after 
 taking up a favorable position in the pilot 
 house, he far surpassed his previous efforts, 
 pouring forth Chukchi in overwhelming tor 
 rents, utterly oblivious of the presence of his 
 rival, the howling gale. 
 
 During a sudden pause in the midst of his 
 
 57
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 volcanic eloquence he inquired whether we had 
 rum to trade for walrus ivory, whereupon we 
 explained, in total abstinence phrase, that rum 
 was very bad stuff for Chukchis, and by way 
 of illustration related its sad effects upon the 
 Eskimo natives of St. Lawrence Island. Nearly 
 all the natives we have thus far met admitted 
 very readily that whiskey was not good for 
 them. But Jaroochah was not to be so easily 
 silenced, for he at once began an anti-temper 
 ance argument in saloon-and-moderate-drinker 
 style, explaining with vehement gestures that 
 some whiskey was good, some bad; that he 
 sometimes drank five cupfuls of the. good arti 
 cle in quick succession, the effect of which was 
 greatly to augment his happiness, while out of 
 a small bottle of the bad one, a small glass 
 made him sick. And as for whiskey or rum 
 causing people to die, he knew, he said, that 
 that was a lie, for he had drunk much himself, 
 and he had a brother who had enjoyed a great 
 deal of whiskey on board of whalers for many 
 years, and that though now a gray old man he 
 was still alive and happy. 
 
 This speech was warmly applauded by his 
 listening companions, indicating a public opin 
 ion that offers but little hope of success for 
 the efforts of temperance societies among the 
 Chukchis. Captain Hooper, the surgeon, and 
 
 58
 
 A CHUKCHI ORATOR 
 
 myself undertook to sketch the orator, who, 
 when he had gravely examined our efforts, 
 laughed boisterously at one of them, which, in 
 truth, was a slanderous caricature of even his 
 countenance, villainous as it was. 
 
 In trading his ivory for supplies of some sort, 
 other than alcohol, he tried to extract some 
 trifling article above what had been agreed on, 
 when the trader threatened to have nothing 
 further to do with him on account of the trou 
 ble he was making. This set the old chief on 
 his dignity, and he made haste to declare that 
 he was a good and honorable man, and that in 
 case the trade was stopped he would give back 
 all he had received and go home, leaving his 
 ivory on the deck heedless of what became of 
 it. The woman of the party, perhaps eighteen 
 years of age, merry and good-looking, went 
 among the sailors and danced, sang, and joked 
 with them. 
 
 The gale increased in violence up to noon 
 to-day, when it began to abate slightly, and 
 this evening it is still blowing hard. The Cor- 
 win commenced to drag her anchor shortly 
 after midnight, when another that was kept in 
 readiness was let go with plenty of chain, 
 which held, so that we rode out the gale in 
 safety. The whalers Francis Palmer and Hi 
 dalgo came into the bay last evening from 
 59
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 Bering Strait and anchored near us. This morn 
 ing the Hidalgo had vanished, having probably 
 parted her cable. 
 
 Last evening a second party of natives came 
 aboard, having made then- way around the 
 head of the bay or over the ice. Both parties 
 remained on board all night as they were un 
 able to reach the shore in their light skin boats 
 against the wind. Being curious to see how 
 they were enduring the cold, I went on deck 
 early. They seemed scarcely to feel it at all, 
 for I found most of them lying on the deck 
 amid the sludge and sleeping soundly in the 
 clothes they wore during the day. Three of 
 them were sleeping on the broken rudder, 
 swept by the icy wind and sprinkled with 
 snow and fragments of ice that were falling 
 from the rigging, their heads and necks being 
 nearly bare. 
 
 I inquired why their reindeer parkas were 
 made without hoods, while those of the Eski 
 mos of St. Lawrence Island had them; observ 
 ing that they seemed far more comfortable in 
 stormy weather, because they kept the head 
 and neck warm and dry. They replied that 
 they had to hunt hard and look quick all 
 about them for a living, therefore it was nec 
 essary to keep their heads free; while the St. 
 Lawrence Eskimos were lazy, and could indulge 
 
 60
 
 A CHUKCHI ORATOR 
 
 in effeminate habits. They gave the same 
 reason for cutting off most of the hair close to 
 the scalps, while the women wear the hair long. 
 
 One of their number was very dirty, and 
 Captain Hooper, who is becoming interested 
 in glacial studies, declared that he had dis 
 covered two terminal moraines in his ears. 
 When asked why he did not wash himself, our 
 interpreter replied, " Because he is an old fel 
 low, and it is too much work to wash." This 
 was given with an air of having explained the 
 matter beyond further question. Considering 
 the necessities of the lives they lead, most of 
 these people seem remarkably clean and well- 
 dressed and well-behaved. 
 
 The old orator poured forth his noisy elo 
 quence late and early, like a perennial moun 
 tain spring, some of his deep chest tones sound 
 ing in the storm like the roar of a lion. He 
 rolled his wolfish eyes and tossed his brown 
 skinny limbs in a frantic storm of gestures, 
 now suddenly foreshortening himself to less 
 than half his height, then shooting aloft with 
 jack-in-the-box rapidity, while his people 
 looked on and listened, apparently half in fear, 
 half in admiration. We directed the interpreter 
 to tell him that we thought him a good man, 
 and were, therefore, concerned lest some acci 
 dent might befall him from so much hard 
 61
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 speaking. The Chukchis, as well as the Eski 
 mos we have seen, are keenly sensitive to ridi 
 cule, and this suggestion disconcerted him for 
 a moment and made a sudden pause. However, 
 he quickly recovered and got under way again, 
 like a wave withdrawing on a shelving shore, 
 only to advance and break again with gathered 
 force. 
 
 The chief man of the second party from the 
 other side of the bay is owner of a herd of rein 
 deer, which he said were now feeding among 
 the mountains at a distance of one sleep a 
 day's journey from the head of a bay to the 
 south of here. He readily indicated the posi 
 tion on a map that we spread before him, and 
 offered to take us to see them on a sled drawn 
 by reindeer, and to sell us as many skins and 
 as much meat as we cared to buy. When we 
 asked how many reindeer he had, all who 
 heard the question laughed at the idea of 
 counting so many. "They cover a big moun 
 tain," he said proudly, "and nobody can count 
 them." He brought a lot of ivory to trade for 
 tobacco, but said nothing about it until the 
 afternoon. Then he signified his readiness for 
 business after awakening from a sound sleep 
 on the wet icy deck. 
 
 Shortly after we had breakfasted, the rein 
 deer chief having intimated that he and his 
 
 62
 
 A CHUKCHI ORATOR 
 
 friends were hungry, the Captain ordered a 
 large pot of tea, with hardtack, sugar and 
 molasses, to be served to them in the pilot 
 house. They ate with dignified deliberation, 
 showing no unseemly haste, but eating rather 
 like people accustomed to abundance. Jaroo- 
 chah, who could hardly stem his eloquence 
 even while eating, was particular about having 
 his son invited in to share the meal; also, two 
 boys about eight years old, giving as a reason, 
 "they are little ones." We also called in a 
 young woman, perhaps about eighteen years 
 old, but none of the men present seemed to 
 care whether she shared with them or not, 
 and when we inquired the cause of this neglect, 
 telling them that white men always served 
 the ladies first, Jaroochah said that while girls 
 were "little fellows" their parents looked after 
 them, but when they grew big they went away 
 from their parents with "some other fellow," 
 and were of no more use to them and could 
 look out for themselves. 
 
 Those who were not invited to this meal did 
 not seem to mind it much, for they had brought 
 with them plenty of what the whalers call 
 "black skin" the skin of the right whale 
 which is about an inch thick, and usually has 
 from half an inch to an inch of blubber at 
 tached. This I saw them eating raw with 
 63
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 hearty relish, snow and sludge the only sauce, 
 cutting off angular blocks of it with butcher- 
 knives, while one end of the tough black 
 rubber-like mass was being held in the left 
 hand, the other between their teeth. Long prac 
 tice enables them to cut off mouthfuls in this 
 way without cutting their lips, although they 
 saw their long knives back and forth, close to 
 then- faces, as if playing the violin. They 
 get the whale skin from the whalers, except 
 ing the little they procure themselves. They 
 hunt the whale now with lances and gear of 
 every kind bought from the whalers, and some 
 times succeed in killing a good many. They 
 eat the carcass, and save the bone to trade to 
 the whalers, who are eager to get it. 
 
 After the old orator left the steamer, the 
 reindeer man accused him of being "a bad 
 fellow, like a dog." He evidently was afraid 
 that we were being fooled by his overwhelm 
 ing eloquence into believing that he was a 
 great man, while the precious truth to be im 
 pressed upon us was, that he, the reindeer 
 man, whose herd covers a big mountain, was 
 the true chief. I asked his son, who speaks a 
 little English, why he did not make a trip to 
 San Francisco, to see the white man's big town. 
 He replied, as many a civilized man does under 
 similar circumstances, that he had a little boy, 
 64
 
 A CHUKCHI ORATOR 
 
 too little to be left, and too little to leave home, 
 but that soon he would be a big fellow, so high, 
 indicating the hoped-for stature with his hand, 
 then he would go to San Francisco on some 
 whale-ship, to see where all the big ships and 
 good whiskey came from. 
 
 These [Chukchis] also had heard the story 
 of the Vigilant. The reindeer man's son is go 
 ing with us to Plover Bay to look after some of 
 his father's debtors. He has been supplying 
 them with tobacco and other goods on credit, 
 and he thought it time they were paying up. 
 His little boy, he told us, was sick had a 
 hot, sore head that throbbed, showing with his 
 hand how it beat in aching pulses, and asked 
 for medicine, which the surgeon gave him with 
 necessary directions, greatly to his relief of 
 mind, it seemed. 
 
 Around the shore opposite our anchorage 
 the ground is rather low, where the ancient 
 glacier that filled the bay swept over in smooth 
 curves, breaking off near the shore [at] an 
 abrupt wall from seventy to a hundred feet 
 high. Against this wall the prevailing north 
 winds have piled heavy drifts of snow that 
 curve over the bluff at the top and slope out 
 over the fixed ice along the shore from the 
 base. The gale has been loosening and driving 
 out past the vessel, without doing us any harm, 
 
 65
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 large masses of the ice, capped with the edge 
 of the drift. One large piece drifted close past 
 the steamer and immediately in front of a large 
 skin canoe capable of carrying thirty men. The 
 canoe, which was tied to the stern of the ship, 
 we thought was doomed to be carried away. 
 The owners looked wistfully over the stern, 
 watching her fate, while the sailors seemed glad 
 of the bit of excitement caused by the hope 
 of an accident that would cost them nothing. 
 Greatly to our surprise, however, when the 
 berg, rough and craggy, ten or twelve feet 
 high, struck her bow, she climbed up over the 
 top of it, and, dipping on the other side, glided 
 down with a graceful, launching swoop into 
 the water, like a living thing, wholly uninjured. 
 The sealskin buffer, fixed in front and inflated 
 like a bladder, no doubt greatly facilitated her 
 rise. She was tied by a line of walrus hide. 
 
 Now that the wind is abating, we hope to 
 get away from here to-morrow morning, and 
 expect to find most of the ice that stopped our 
 progress yesterday broken up and driven 
 southward far enough to enable us to reach 
 Plover Bay without further difficulty.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 Plover Bay, June 15, 1881. 
 
 WE left our anchorage in St. Lawrence Bay 
 at four in the morning, June 7, and steered 
 once more for Plover Bay. The norther that 
 had been blowing so long gave place to a light 
 southerly breeze, and a gentle dusting of snow 
 was falling. In the afternoon the sea became 
 smooth and glassy as a mountain lake, and the 
 clouds lifted, gradually unveiling the Siberian 
 coast up to the tops of the mountains. First 
 the black bluffs, standing close to the water, 
 came in sight; then the white slopes, and then 
 one summit after another until a continuous 
 range forty or fifty miles long could be seen 
 from one point of view, forming a very beauti 
 ful landscape. Smooth, dull, dark water in the 
 foreground; next, a broad belt of ice mostly 
 white like snow, with numerous masses of blue 
 and black shade among its jagged, uplifted 
 blocks. Then a strip of comparatively low 
 shore, black and gray; and back of that the 
 pure white mountains, with only here and there 
 dark spots, where the rock faces are too steep 
 67
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 for snow to lie upon. Sharp peaks were seen, 
 fluted by avalanches; glacier wombs, delicate 
 in curve and outline as shells; rounded, over- 
 swept brows and domes, and long, withdraw 
 ing valleys leading back into the highest alpine 
 groups, whence flowed noble glaciers in im 
 posing ranks into what is now Bering Sea. 
 
 We had hoped the gale had broken and 
 driven away the floe that barred our way on 
 the fifth [of June], but while yet thirty miles 
 from the entrance of the bay we were again 
 stopped by an immense field of heavy ice that 
 stretched from the shore southeastward as far 
 as the eye could reach. We pushed slowly into 
 the edge of it a few miles, looking for some 
 opening, but the man in the; crow's nest re 
 ported it all solid ahead and no water in sight. 
 We thereupon steamed out and steered across 
 to St. Lawrence Island to bide our time. 
 
 While sailing amid the loose blocks of ice 
 that form the edge of the pack, we saw a wal 
 rus, and soon afterward a second one with 
 its young. The Captain shot and killed the 
 mother from the pilot-house, and the dinghey 
 was lowered to tow it alongside. The eyes of 
 our Indian passengers sparkled with delight 
 in expectation of good meat after enduring 
 poor fare aboard the ship. After floating for 
 eight or ten minutes she sank to the bottom 
 
 68
 
 ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 
 
 and was lost a sad fate and a luckless 
 deed. 
 
 It was pitiful to see the young one swim 
 ming around its dying mother, heeding neither 
 the ship nor the boat. They are said to be 
 very affectionate and bold in the defense of one 
 another against every enemy whatever. We 
 have as yet seen but few, though in some places 
 they are found in countless thousands. Many 
 vessels are exclusively employed in killing 
 them on the eastern Greenland coast, and along 
 some portions of the coast of Asia. Here also, 
 the whalers, when they have poor success in 
 whaling, devote themselves to walrus hunting, 
 both for the oil they yield and for the valuable 
 ivory. The latter is worth from forty to sev 
 enty cents per pound in San Francisco, and 
 a pair of large tusks weighs from eight to ten 
 pounds. v 
 
 Along all the coasts, both of Asia and of 
 America, the natives hunt and kill this ani 
 mal, which to them is hardly less important 
 for food and other uses than the seals. A 
 large walrus is said to weigh from one to two 
 tons. Its tough hide is used for cordage, and to 
 cover canoes. The flesh is excellent, while the 
 ivory formerly was employed for spear heads 
 and other uses, and is now an important article 
 of trade for guns, ammunition, calico, bread, 
 69
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 flour, molasses, etc. The natives now kill a 
 good many whales, having obtained lances 
 and harpoons from the whites. Bone, in good 
 years, is more important than the ivory, and 
 furs are traded, also, in considerable quantity. 
 By all these means they obtain more of the 
 white man's goods than is well used. They 
 probably were better off before they were pos 
 sessed of a single civilized "blessing so many 
 are the evils accompanying them! 
 
 Our Chukchi passenger does not appear to 
 entertain a very good opinion of the St. Law 
 rence natives. He advised the Captain to keep 
 a close watch of those he allowed to come 
 aboard. We asked him to-day the Chukchi 
 name of ice, which he gave as "eigleegle." 
 When we said that another of his people called 
 it "tingting," he replied that that was the 
 way poor common people spoke the word, but 
 that rich people, the upper aristocratic class 
 to which he belonged, called it "eigleegle." 
 His father, being a rich man, had three wives; 
 most of his tribe, he said, have only one. 
 
 At nine o'clock in the evening we were still 
 more than an hour's run from St. Lawrence 
 Island, though according to reckoning we 
 should have reached the northeast end of the 
 island at eight o'clock. We had been carried 
 north about sixteen miles, since leaving St. 
 70
 
 ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 
 
 Lawrence Bay, by the current setting through 
 the Strait. The water, having been driven 
 south by the north gale, was pouring north 
 with greater velocity than ordinary. The sky 
 was a mass of dark, grainless cloud, banded 
 slightly near the northwest horizon; one band, 
 a degree in breadth above the sun, was deep 
 indigo, with a few short streaks of orange and 
 red. We have not seen a star since leaving San 
 Francisco, and have seen the sun perfectly 
 cloudless only once! We came to anchor near 
 the northwest end of the island about mid 
 night. 
 
 The next day, the eighth of June, was calm 
 and mild. A canoe with ten men and women 
 came alongside this morning, just arrived from 
 Plover Bay, on their way home. They made 
 signs of weariness, having pulled hard against 
 this heavy current. The distance is fifty miles. 
 It is not easy to understand how they manage 
 to find their way in thick weather, when it is 
 difficult enough for seamen with charts and 
 compass. 
 
 In trying to account for the observed sim 
 ilarity between the peoples of the opposite 
 shores of Asia and America, and the faunas 
 and floras, scientists have long been combating 
 a difficulty that does not exist save in their own 
 minds. They have suggested that canoes and 
 71
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN < 
 
 ships from both shores either were wrecked 
 and drifted from one to the other, or that 
 natives crossed on the ice which every year 
 fills Bering Strait. As to-day, so from time im 
 memorial canoes have crossed for trade or 
 mere pleasure, steering by the swell of the sea 
 when out of sight of land. As to crossing on the 
 ice, the natives tell me that they frequently 
 go with their dog-sleds from the Siberian side 
 to the Diomedes, those half-way houses along 
 the route, but seldom or never from the Dio 
 medes to the American side, on account of 
 the movements of the ice. But, though both 
 means of communication, assumed to account 
 for distribution as it is found to exist to-day, 
 were left out, land communication in any case 
 undoubtedly existed, just previous to the gla 
 cial period, as far south as the Aleutian Islands, 
 and northward beyond the mouth of the Strait. 
 
 While groping in the dense fogs that hang 
 over this region, sailors find their way at times 
 by the flight of the innumerable sea-birds that 
 come and go from the sea to the shore. The 
 direction, at least, of the land is indicated, 
 which is very important in the case of small 
 islands. How the birds find their way is a 
 mystery. 
 
 This canoe alongside was "two sleeps" in 
 making the passage. Time, I suppose, is reck- 
 
 72
 
 ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 
 
 oned by sleeps during summer, as there is no 
 night and only one day. They at once began to 
 trade eagerly, seeming to fear that they would 
 be left unvisited, now that the whalers have 
 all gone to the Arctic. In the forenoon, after 
 the natives had left, we took advantage of the 
 calm weather to go in search of the wrecked 
 Lolita, which went ashore last fall a few miles 
 to the north of here. On the way we passed 
 through a good deal of ice in flat cakes that 
 had been formed in a deep still bay, sheltered 
 from floating ice which jams and packs it. This 
 ice did not seem to be more than two or three 
 feet thick, possibly the depth to which it froze 
 last winter less the amount melted and evapo 
 rated since spring commenced. 
 
 Walruses, in groups numbering from two to 
 fifty, were lying on cakes of ice. They were too 
 shy, however, to be approached within shoot 
 ing range, though many attempts were made. 
 Some of the animals were as bulky, apparently, 
 as oxen. They would awaken at the sound of 
 the vessel crunching through the loose ice, lift 
 their heads and rear as high as possible, then 
 drop or plunge into the water. The ponderous 
 fellows took headers in large groups; twenty 
 pairs of flippers sometimes were in the air at 
 once. They can stay under water five or six 
 minutes, then come up to blow. If they are 
 73
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 near the ship they dive again instantly, going 
 down like porpoises, always exposing a large 
 curving mass of their body while dropping their 
 heads, and, lastly, their flippers are stretched 
 aloft for an instant. Sometimes they show 
 fight, make combined attacks on boats, and 
 defend one another bravely. The cakes on 
 which they congregate are of course very dirty, 
 and show to a great distance. Since they soon 
 sink when killed in the water, they are hunted 
 mostly on the ice, and, when it is rough and 
 hummocky, are easily approached. 
 
 We were not successful in finding the Lolita, 
 so we steamed back to our anchorage in the lee 
 of a high bluff near the Eskimo village. Soon 
 three or four canoes came alongside, loaded 
 with furs, ivory, and whalebone. Molasses, 
 which they carry away in bladders and seal 
 skins, is with them a favorite article of trade. 
 Mixed with flour and blocks of "black skin," it 
 is esteemed, by Eskimo palates, a dish fit for 
 the gods. A group of listeners laughed heartily 
 when I described a mixture that I thought 
 would be to their taste. They smacked their 
 lips, and shouted "yes! yes!" One brought as 
 a present to our Chukchi, the reindeer man's 
 son, a chunk of "black skin" that, in color and 
 odor, seemed to be more than a year old. He 
 no doubt judged that our Chukchi, if not 
 74
 
 ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 
 
 starving, was at least faring poorly on civilized 
 trash. 
 
 A study of the different Eskimo faces, while 
 important trades were pending, was very inter 
 esting. They are better behaved than white 
 men, not half so greedy, shameless, or dishon 
 est. I made a few sketches of marked faces. 
 One, who received a fathom of calico more 
 than was agreed upon, seemed extravagantly 
 delighted and grateful. He was lost in admi 
 ration of the Captain, whose hand he shook 
 heartily. 
 
 We continued at anchor here the following 
 day, June 9. It was snowing and the decks 
 were sloppy. Several canoe loads of Eskimos 
 came aboard, and there was a brisk, trade in 
 furs, mostly reindeer hides and parkas for win 
 ter use; also fox [skins] and some whalebone 
 and walrus ivory. Flour and molasses were the 
 articles most in demand. Some of the women, 
 heedless of the weather, brought their boys, 
 girls, and babies. One little thing, that the 
 proud mother held up for our admiration, 
 smiled delightfully, exposing her two precious 
 new teeth. No happier baby could be found 
 in warm parlors, where loving attendants 
 anticipate every want and the looms of the 
 world afford their best in the way of soft 
 fabrics. She looked gayly out at the strange 
 75
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 colors about her from her bit of a fur bag, and 
 when she fell asleep, her mother laid her upon 
 three oars that were set side by side across the 
 canoe. The snowflakes fell on her face, yet 
 she slept soundly for hours while I watched 
 her, and she never cried. All the youngsters 
 had to be furnished with a little bread which 
 both fathers and mothers begged for them, 
 saying, "He little fellow, little fellow." 
 
 Four walrus heads were brought aboard and 
 the ivory sold, while the natives, men and 
 women, sat down to dine on them with 
 butcher-knives. They cut off the flesh and ate 
 it raw, apparently with good relish. As usual, 
 each mouthful was cut off while held between 
 the teeth. To our surprise they never cut 
 themselves. They seemed to enjoy selecting 
 tidbits from different parts of the head, turn 
 ing it over frequently and examining pieces here 
 and there, like a family leisurely finishing the 
 wrecked hull of a last day's dinner turkey. 
 
 These people interest me greatly, and it is 
 worth coming far to know them, however 
 slightly. The smile, or, rather, broad grin of 
 that Eskimo baby went directly to my heart, 
 and I shall remember it as long as I live. When 
 its features had subsided into perfect repose, 
 the laugh gone from its dark eyes, and the lips 
 closed over its two teeth, I could make its 
 76
 
 ESKIMOS AND WALRUS 
 
 sweet smile bloom out again as often as I 
 nodded and chirruped to it. Heaven bless it! 
 Some of the boys, too, lads from eight to twelve 
 years of age, were well-behaved, bashful, and 
 usually laughed and turned away their faces 
 when looked at. But there was a response in 
 their eyes which made you feel that they are 
 your very brothers.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 [Steamer Corwin, 
 Plover Bay, June 15, 1881.] 
 
 A LITTLE before four o'clock the next morn 
 ing, June 10, I was awakened by the officer of 
 the deck coming into the cabin and reporting 
 that the weather was densely foggy, and that 
 ice in large masses was crowding down upon us, 
 which meant "The Philistines be upon thee, 
 Samson!" Shortly afterward, the first mass 
 struck the ship and made her tremble in every 
 joint; then another and another, in quick suc 
 cession, while the anchor was being hurriedly 
 raised. The situation in which we suddenly 
 found ourselves was quite serious. The ice, had 
 it been like that about the ship of the Ancient 
 Mariner, "here and there and all around," 
 would have raised but little apprehension. 
 But it was only on one side of us, while a rocky 
 beach was close by on the other, and against 
 this beach in our disabled condition the ice 
 was steadily driving us. Whether backing or 
 going ahead in so crowded a bit of water, the 
 result for some time was only so many shoves 
 toward shore. 
 
 78
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 At length a block of small size, twenty or 
 thirty feet in diameter, drifted in between the 
 Corwin and the shore, and by steaming against 
 it and striking it on the landward bow she 
 glinted around, head to the pack, and an open 
 ing allowed her to enter a little distance. This 
 was gradually increased by stopping and start 
 ing until we were safe in the middle of it. 
 Watching the compass and constantly taking 
 soundings, we traced the edge of the pack, and 
 in an hour or two made our escape into open 
 water. 
 
 After the fog lifted we went again in search 
 of the Lolita, and discovered her five or six 
 miles below the Eskimo village. Dropping an 
 chor at the edge of a sheet of firm shore-ice, we 
 went across it to the wreck to see whether we 
 could not get some pintles from it for our rud 
 der. We found her rudder had been carried 
 away, but procured some useful iron, blocks, 
 tackle, spars, etc. ; also, two barrels of oil which 
 the natives had not yet appropriated. The 
 transportation of these stores to the ship over 
 ice, covered with sludge and full of dangerous 
 holes, made a busy day for the sailors. 
 
 Back a hundred yards from the beach I 
 
 found a few hints of the coming spring, though 
 
 most of the ground is still covered with snow. 
 
 The dwarf willow is beginning to put out its 
 
 79
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 catkins, and a few buds of saxifrages, erigerons, 
 and heathworts are beginning to swell. The 
 bulk of the vegetation is composed of mosses 
 and lichens. Half a mile from the wreck 
 there is a deserted Eskimo village. All its 
 inhabitants are said to have died of famine 
 two winters ago. The traces of both local and 
 general glaciation are particularly clear and 
 telling on this island. 
 
 In the afternoon, the weather being calm and 
 mild, we succeeded in mending and shipping 
 the rudder, and the next morning we set out yet 
 again for Plover Bay, where we now are, having 
 arrived about midnight on the eleventh. The 
 men have been busy sawing and blasting a sort 
 of slip in the ice for the ship that she may be 
 secure from drift ice and well situated for load 
 ing the coal that is piled on the shore opposite 
 here. The coal belongs to the Russians. In 
 loading, the coal was first stowed well forward 
 in order to lift the stern high enough out of 
 water to enable us to make the additional re 
 pairs required on the rudder, since we cannot 
 find access to a beach smooth enough to lay 
 her on. 
 
 The Indians here are very poor. They have 
 offered nothing to trade. With a group of men 
 and women that came to the ship a few morn 
 ings ago there was a half-breed girl about two 
 
 80
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 years old. She had light-brown hair, regular 
 European features, and was very fair and hand 
 some. Her mother, a Chukchi, died in child 
 birth, and the natives killed her father. She 
 is plump, red-cheeked, and in every way a pic 
 ture of health. That in a Chukchi hut, nursed 
 by a Chukchi mother-in-law, and on Chukchi 
 food, a half-European girl can be so beauti 
 ful, well-behaved, happy, and healthy is very 
 notable. 
 
 On the twelfth of June we had snow, rain 
 and sleet nearly all day. The view up the inlet 
 was very striking lofty mountains on both 
 sides rising from the level of the water, and 
 proclaiming in telling characters the story of 
 the inlet's creation by glaciers that have but 
 lately vanished. Most of the slopes and prec 
 ipices seemed particularly dreary, not only on 
 account of the absence of trees, but of vegeta 
 tion of any kind in any appreciable amount. 
 No bits of shelf gardens were to be seen, though 
 not wholly wanting when we came to climb, 
 for I discovered some lovely garden spots with 
 a tellima and anemone in full bloom. [The 
 vegetation was] very dwarfed, and sparse, and 
 scattered. No green meadow-hollows. The 
 rock was fast disintegrating, and all the moun 
 tains appeared in general views like piles of 
 loose stones dumped from the clouds. Plover 
 81
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 Bay l takes its name from H.M.S. Plover, which 
 passed the winter of 1848-49 here while on a 
 cruise in search of Franklin. It is a glacial fiord, 
 which in the height of its walls is more Yosemite- 
 like than any I have yet seen in Siberia. 
 
 In the afternoon Dr. Rosse and I set out 
 across the ice to the cliffs. We found a great 
 many seal holes and cracks of a dangerous 
 kind, and a good deal of water on top of the ice 
 that made the walking very sloppy. There were 
 dog-sled tracks trending up and down the inlet. 
 The ice is broken along the shore by the rise 
 and fall of the tides, but we made out to cross 
 on some large cakes wedged together. Just be 
 fore we reached the edge of rocks, in scanning 
 the ruinous, crumbling face of the cliffs that 
 here are between two and three thousand feet 
 high, I noticed an outstanding buttress harder 
 and more compact in cleavage than the rest, 
 and very obviously grooved, polished, and 
 scratched by the main vanished glacier that 
 once filled all the fiord. Up to this point we 
 climbed, and found several other spots of the 
 old glacial surface not yet weathered off. This 
 is the first I have seen of this kind of glacial 
 traces. 
 
 On the thirteenth the whaler Thomas Pope 2 
 
 1 Called Providence Bay on recent maps. 
 
 2 Captain M. V. B. Millard. 
 
 82
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 arrived here and anchored to the ice near us. 
 Getting everything in trim for the return voy 
 age, having already taken all the [whale]-oil 
 she can carry. All the fleet are doing well this 
 year, or, as the natives express it, they are get 
 ting a "big grease." 
 
 [According to brief entries in Muir's journal 
 the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of June 
 were spent aboard the Corwin, writing personal 
 letters and several communications to the "San 
 Francisco Bulletin." From Captain Hooper's 
 report of the cruise of the Corwin, the follow 
 ing interesting record of events during the in 
 terval is extracted : 
 
 On the fourteenth we worked all day, drawing 
 coal on the sleds, assisted by the natives and two 
 sleds with three dogs each, but the rapidly melting 
 ice made it very tedious. On the fifteenth we con 
 tinued work, although the softness of the ice com 
 pelled us to reduce the loads to one-half their 
 former size. About four in the afternoon a slight roll 
 of the vessel was perceptible, indicating a swell 
 coming in from the outside. At the same time a 
 slight undulating motion of the ice was observed. 
 This was followed by cracks in the ice running in 
 every direction, and we had barely time to take in 
 our ice anchors, call our men on board, and take 
 the Thomas Pope in tow before the ice was all 
 broken and in motion and rapidly drifting toward 
 the mouth of the bay. At first it looked as if we 
 might have to go to sea to avoid it. The wind by 
 83
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 this time was blowing fresh from the northeast with 
 a thick snow-storm, and, judging from the roll com 
 ing into the bay, a heavy sea must be running. 
 Added to this was the fact of the sea being filled 
 with large fields of heavy drift ice, making the pros 
 pect anything but a pleasing one. After lying off 
 outside the ice for an hour or two and just when it 
 seemed as if our only hope was in putting to sea, 
 Captain Millard reported from the masthead that 
 the whole body of ice had started offshore, and that 
 if we could get in through it we could find good 
 anchorage in clear water. Although the ice was 
 pitching and rolling badly, it was well broken up, 
 and we determined to make the attempt, and suc 
 ceeded better than I had anticipated, and about 
 midnight we came out into clear water, and an 
 chored near the shore in twelve fathoms, the 
 Thomas Pope coming to just outside of us in 
 twenty fathoms. 
 
 Muir's journal continues with the following 
 record under date of June 17:] 
 
 Half -clear in the morning, foggy in the after 
 noon. Left Plover Bay at six in the morning 
 with Thomas Pope * in tow. Left her at the 
 mouth of the bay. It was barred with rather 
 heavy ice, which was heaving in curious com 
 motion from a heavy swell. We gave and re 
 ceived three cheers in parting. Have had a very 
 
 1 The San Francisco Bulktin, in its issue of July 13, 1881, 
 noted the arrival in port of the whaling bark Thomas Pope 
 with a series of letters from John Muir. 
 
 84
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 pleasant time with Captains Millard and Kelly. 
 Very telling views of the sculpture of the moun 
 tains along the Bay, at its head, and at the 
 mouth, where the land-ice flowed into the one 
 grand glacier that filled Bering Strait and Sea. 
 The fronting cliffs of the sea glacier seem to be 
 hardly more weathered than those of Plover 
 Bay and adjacent fiords. 
 
 St. Michael, Alaska, June %Q, 1881. 
 
 Sunshine now in the Far North, sunshine all 
 the long nightless days! ripe and mellow and 
 hazy, like that which feeds the fruits and vines! 
 We came into it two days ago when we were 
 approaching this old-fashioned Russian trad 
 ing post near the mouth of the Yukon River. 
 How sweet and kindly and reviving it is after 
 so long a burial beneath dark, sleety storm 
 clouds! For a whole month before the begin 
 ning of this bright time, it snowed every day 
 more or less, perhaps only for an hour or two, 
 or all the twenty-four hours; not one day on 
 which snow did not fall either in wet, sleety 
 blasts, making sludge on the deck and rigging 
 and afterward freezing fast, or in dry crystals, 
 blowing away as fast as it fell. I have never 
 before seen so cloudy a month, weather so 
 strangely bewildering and depressing. It was 
 all one stormy day, broken here and there by 
 85
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 dim gleams of sunlight, but never so dark at 
 midnight that we could not read ordinary 
 print. 
 
 The general effect of this confusing inter- 
 blending of the hours of day and night, of the 
 quick succession of howling gales that we en 
 countered, and of dull black clouds dragging 
 their ragged, drooping edges over the waves, 
 was very depressing, and when, at length, we 
 found ourselves free beneath a broad, high sky 
 full of exhilarating light, we seemed to have 
 emerged from some gloomy, icy cave. How 
 garish and blinding the light seemed to us then, 
 and how bright the lily-spangles that flashed 
 on the glassy water! With what rapture we 
 gazed into the crimson and gold of the mid 
 night sunsets! 
 
 While we were yet fifty miles from land a 
 small gray finch came aboard and flew about 
 the rigging while we watched its movements" 
 and listened to its suggestive notes as if we had 
 never seen a finch since the days of our merry 
 truant rambles along the hedgerows. A few 
 hours later a burly, dozing bumblebee came 
 droning around the pilot-house, seeming to 
 bring with him all the warm, summery gardens 
 we had ever seen. 
 
 The fourth of June was the most beautiful of 
 the days we spent in the Arctic Ocean. The 
 86
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 water was smooth, reflecting a tranquil, pearl- 
 gray sky with spots of pure azure near the 
 zenith and a belt of white around the horizon 
 that shone with a bright, satiny luster, trying 
 to the eyes like clear sunshine. Some seven 
 whale-ships were in sight, becalmed with their 
 canvas spread. Chukchi hunters in pursuit of 
 seals were gliding about in light skin-covered 
 canoes, and gulls, auks, eider ducks, and other 
 water birds in countless multitudes skimmed 
 the glassy level, while in the background of 
 this Arctic picture the Siberian coast, white as 
 snow could make it, was seen sweeping back 
 in fine, fluent, undulating lines to a chain of 
 mountains, the tops of which were veiled in the 
 shining sky. A few snow crystals were shaken 
 down from a black cloud towards midnight, 
 but most of the day was one of deep peace, in 
 which God's love was manifest as in a coun 
 tenance. 
 
 The average temperature for most of the 
 month commencing May twentieth has been 
 but little above the freezing point, the maxi 
 mum about 45 F. To-day the temperature in 
 the shade at noon is 65, the highest since leav 
 ing San Francisco. The temperature of the 
 water in Bering Sea and Strait, and as far as we 
 have gone in the Arctic, has been about from 
 29 to 35. But as soon as we approached 
 87
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 within fifty miles of the mouths of the Yukon, 
 the temperature changed suddenly to 42. 
 
 The mirage effects we have witnessed on the 
 cruise thus far are as striking as any I ever saw 
 on the hot American desert. Islands and head 
 lands seemed to float in the air, distorted into 
 the most unreal, fantastic forms imaginable, 
 while the individual mountains of a chain along 
 the coast appeared to dance at times up and 
 down with a rhythmic motion, in the tremu 
 lous refracting atmosphere. On the northeast 
 side of Norton Sound I saw two peaks, each 
 with a flat, black table on top, looming sud 
 denly up and sinking again alternately, like 
 boys playing see-saw on a plank. 
 
 The trading post of St. Michael was estab 
 lished by the Russians in 1833. It is built of 
 drift timber derived from the Yukon, and sit 
 uated on a low bluff of lava on the island of St. 
 Michael, about sixty-five miles northeast of the 
 northmost of the Yukon mouths. The fort is 
 composed of a square of log buildings and pali 
 sades, with outlying bastions pierced for small 
 cannon and musketry, while outside the fort 
 there are a few small buildings and a Greek 
 church, reinforced during the early part of the 
 summer with groups of tents belonging to the 
 Indians and the traders. The fort is now oc 
 cupied by the employees of the Alaska Com-
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 mercial Company. This is the headquarters 
 of the fur traders of northern and central 
 Alaska. 
 
 The W.estern Fur and Trading Company has 
 a main station on the side of the bay about three 
 miles from here, and the two companies, being 
 in close competition, have brought on a condi 
 tion of the fur business that is bitterly bewailed 
 by the sub-traders located along the Yukon and 
 its numerous tributaries. Not only have the 
 splendid profits of the good old times dimin 
 ished nearly to zero, say they, but the big prices 
 paid for skins have spoiled the Indians, making 
 them insolent, lazy, and dangerous, without 
 conferring any substantial benefit upon them. 
 Since they can now procure all the traders' sup 
 plies they need for fewer skins than formerly, 
 they hunt less, and spend their idle hours in 
 gambling and quarreling. 
 
 The furs and skins of every kind derived 
 annually from the Yukon and Kuskoquim re 
 gions, and shipped from here, are said to be 
 worth from eighty thousand to one hundred 
 thousand dollars. The trade goods are brought 
 to this point from San Francisco by the rival 
 companies in June, and delivered to their 
 agents, by whom they are distributed to their 
 traders and taken up the rivers to the different 
 stations in the interior in boats towed most of 
 89
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 the way by small stern-wheel steamers. Then, 
 during the winter, the furs are collected and 
 brought to this point and carried to San Fran 
 cisco by the vessels that bring the goods for the 
 next season's trade. 
 
 On the nineteenth instant the steamer be 
 longing to the Western Fur and Trading Com 
 pany arrived from a station fifteen hundred 
 miles up the river, towing three large boats 
 laden with Indians and traders, together with 
 the last year's collection of furs. After they had 
 begun to set up their tents and unload the furs, 
 we went over to the storerooms of the Com 
 pany to look at the busy throng. They formed 
 a strange, wild picture on the rocky beach; the 
 squaws pitching the tents and cutting armfuls 
 of dry grass to lay on the ground as a lining 
 for fur carpets ; the children with wild, staring 
 eyes gazing at us, or, heedless of all the stir, 
 playing with the dogs; groups of dandy war 
 riors, arrayed in all the colors of the rainbow, 
 grim, and cruel, and coldly dignified; and a 
 busy train coming and going between the ware 
 house and the boats, storing the big bundles 
 of shaggy bearskins, black and brown, marten, 
 mink, fox, beaver, otter, lynx, moose, wolf, and 
 wolverine, many of them with claws spread 
 and hair on end, as if still fighting for life. They 
 were vividly suggestive of the far wilderness 
 90
 
 AT PLOVER BAY AND ST. MICHAEL 
 
 whence they came its mountains and val 
 leys, its broad grassy plains and far-reaching 
 rivers, its forests and its bogs. 
 
 The Indians seemed to me the wildest ani 
 mals of all. The traders were not at all wild, 
 save in dress, but rather gentle and subdued 
 in manners and aspect, like half-paid village 
 ministers. They held us in a long interesting 
 conversation, and gave us many valuable facts 
 concerning the heart of the Yukon country. 
 Some Indians on the beach were basking in the 
 yellow, mellow sun. Herring and salmon were 
 hanging upon frames or lying on the rocks 
 a lazy abundance of food that discouraged 
 thought of the future. 
 
 The shores here are crowded with immense 
 shoals of herring, and the Indians are lazily 
 catching just enough to eat. Those we had for 
 dinner are not nearly so good as those I ate 
 last year at Cross Sound. The Yukon salmon, 
 however, are now in excellent condition, and 
 are the largest by far that I have seen. Yet the 
 Yukon Indians suffer severely at times from 
 famine, though they might dry enough in less 
 than a week to last a year. 
 
 We are making a short stay here to take on 
 
 provisions, and intend to go northward again 
 
 to-morrow to meet the search party that we 
 
 landed near Koliuchin Island. Another de- 
 
 91
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 lightful sun-day nearly cloudless and with 
 lily-spangles on the bay. The temperature was 
 65 F. in the shade at noon. The birds are 
 nesting and the plants are rapidly coming into 
 bloom.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 
 Near the mouth of Metchigme Bay, 
 
 On the west side of Bering Strait, 
 
 June 27, 1881. 
 
 AFTER leaving St. Michael, on the evening 
 of the twenty-first, we crossed Bering Sea to 
 Plover Bay to fill our coal-bunkers from a 
 pile belonging to His Majesty, the Czar of 
 Russia. 
 
 On the twenty-third we were sailing along 
 the north side of St. Lawrence Island against 
 a heavy wind. There was a rough sea and a 
 clear sky, save on the island. I had a tolerably 
 clear view of the most prominent portion of the 
 island near the middle. It is here composed of 
 lava, reddish in color and dotted with craters 
 and cones, most of which seem recent, though 
 a slight amount of glaciation of a local kind is 
 visible. About three hi the afternoon we came 
 to anchor off the northwest end of the island 
 opposite the village. A few natives came aboard 
 at eight o'clock. 
 
 The next day we got under way at four in 
 the morning, going east along the south side 
 of St. Lawrence Island. The norther again was 
 
 93
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 blowing as hard as ever. We discovered an 
 Eskimo village, but the natives were mostly 
 dead. Coming to anchor there at six in the 
 evening, we went ashore and met a few Eski 
 mos who, though less demonstrative, seemed 
 quite as glad to see us as those on the north 
 west end of the island. The village, as we ex 
 amined it through our glasses, seemed so still 
 and desolate, we began to fear that, like some 
 of the villages on the north side of the island, 
 not a soul was left alive in it, until here and 
 there a native was discovered on the brow of 
 the hill where the summer houses are. 
 
 After we had landed from the life-boat, two 
 men and a boy came running down to meet us 
 and took us up to the two inhabited houses. 
 They all gathered about us from scattered 
 points of observation, and when we asked 
 where all the people were to whom the other 
 houses belonged, they smiled and said, "All 
 mucky." "All gone." " Dead?" "Yes, dead!" 
 We then inquired where the dead people were. 
 They pointed back of the houses and led us 
 to eight corpses lying on the rocky ground. 
 They smiled at the ghastly spectacle of the 
 grinning skulls and bleached bones appearing 
 through the brown, shrunken skin. 
 
 Being detained on the twenty-fifth by the 
 norther which was still blowing, we went 
 94
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 ashore after breakfast, and had a long walk 
 through graves, back to noble views of the is 
 land, telling the grandeur of its glaciation by 
 the northern ice-sheets. Weighed anchor and 
 steered for Plover Bay shortly after nine in the 
 evening, and arrived there early on the morn 
 ing of the twenty-sixth. While the ship was 
 being coaled, I climbed the east wall of the 
 fiord three or four miles above the mouth, 
 where it is about twenty-two hundred feet 
 above the level of the sea, and, as the day was 
 clear, I obtained capital views of the moun 
 tains on both sides and around the head of the 
 fiord among the numerous ice-fountains which, 
 during the glacial winter, poured their tribute 
 through this magnificent channel into Bering 
 Sea. 
 
 When the glacier that formed what is now 
 called Plover Bay, was in its prime, it was 
 about thirty miles long and from five to six 
 miles in width at the widest portion of the 
 trunk, and about two thousand feet deep. It 
 then had at least five main tributaries, which, 
 as the trunk melted towards the close of the 
 ice period, became independent glaciers, and 
 these again were melted into perhaps seventy- 
 five or more small residual glaciers from less 
 than a mile to several miles in length, all of 
 which, as far as I could see, have at length 
 
 95
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 vanished, though some wasting remnants may 
 still linger in the highest and best-protected 
 fountains above the head of the fiord. I had 
 a fine glissade down the valley of a tributary 
 glacier whose terminal moraines show the same 
 gradual death as those of the Sierra. The 
 mountains hereabouts, in the forms of the 
 peaks, ridges, lake-basins, bits of meadow, and 
 in sculpture and aspects in general, are like 
 those of the high Sierra of California where the 
 rock is least resisting. 
 
 Snow still lingers in drift patches and streaks 
 and avalanche heaps down to the sea-level, 
 while there is but little depth of solid snow on 
 the highest peaks and ridges, so that, there 
 being no warm, sunny base of gentle slopes and 
 foothills, no varying belts of climate, this re 
 gion as a whole seems to consist of only the 
 storm-beaten tops of mountains shorn off 
 from their warm, well-planted bases. Still there 
 are spots here and there, where the snow is 
 melted, that are already cheered with about 
 ten species of plants in full bloom : anemones, 
 buttercups, primulas, several species of draba, 
 purple heathworts, phlox and potentilla, mak 
 ing charming alpine gardens, but too small and 
 thinly planted to show at a distance of more 
 than a few yards, while trees are wholly wanting. 
 
 On our way north to-day we stopped a few 
 
 96
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 minutes opposite a small native settlement, 
 six or eight miles to the northeast of the mouth 
 of Metchigme Bay, in search of Omniscot, the 
 rich reindeer owner, whom we had met further 
 up the coast two weeks ago, and who had then 
 promised to have a lot of deerskins ready for 
 us if we would call at his village. 
 
 Some of the natives, coming off to the 
 steamer to trade, informed us that Omniscot 
 lived some distance up the bay that we had 
 just passed, and one of them, who speaks a 
 little English, inquired why we had not brought 
 back Omniscot's son. He told us that, he was 
 his cousin and that his mother was crying 
 about him last night, fearing that he would 
 never come back. 
 
 We informed him that his cousin was crazy 
 and had tried to kill himself, but that he was 
 now at Plover Bay with one of his friends and 
 would probably be home soon. This young 
 Omniscot, whom we had taken aboard at St. 
 Lawrence Bay, thinking that he might be use 
 ful as an interpreter, is a son of the reindeer 
 man and belongs to the Chukchi tribe. We 
 soon came to see that we had a troublesome 
 passenger, for the expression of his eyes, and 
 the nervous dread he manifested of all the na 
 tives wherever we chanced to stop, indicated 
 some form of insanity. He would come to the 
 97
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 door of the cabin to warn the Captain against 
 the people of every village that we were ap 
 proaching as likely to kill us, and then he 
 would hide himself below deck or climb for 
 greater safety into the rigging. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth, when we were lying at 
 anchor off St. Lawrence Island, he offered his 
 rifle, which he greatly prized, to one of the 
 officers, saying that inasmuch as he would soon 
 die he would not need it. He also sent word to 
 the Captain that he would soon be "mucky," 
 but came to the cabin door shortly afterward, 
 with nothing unusual apparent in his face or 
 behavior, and began a discussion concerning 
 the region back of St. Michael as a location for 
 a flock of reindeer. He thought they would 
 do well there, he said, and that his father 
 would give him some young ones to make a 
 beginning, which he could take over in some 
 schooner, and that they would get plenty of 
 good moss to eat on the tundra, and multiply 
 fast until they became a big herd like his 
 father's, so big that nobody could count them. 
 
 In three or four hours after this he threw 
 himself overboard, but was picked up and 
 brought on deck. Some of the sailors stripped 
 off his wet furs, and then the discovery was 
 made that before throwing himself into the sea 
 the poor fellow had stabbed himself in the left 
 98
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 lung. The surgeon dressed his wound and gave 
 as his opinion that it would prove fatal. He 
 was doing well, however, when we left him, 
 and is likely to recover. The Plover Bay na 
 tives, in commenting on the affair, remarked 
 that the St. Lawrence people were a bad, quar 
 relsome set, and always kept themselves in 
 some sort of trouble. 
 
 Having procured a guide from among the 
 natives that came aboard here, we attempted 
 to reach Omniscot's village, but found the bay 
 full of ice, and were compelled to go on without 
 our winter supply of deerskins, hoping, how 
 ever, to be able to get them on the east coast. 
 
 There is quite a large Chukchi settlement 
 near the mouth of the bay, on the north side. 
 Seven large canoe-loads of the population came 
 aboard, making quite a stir on our little ship. 
 They are the worst-looking lot of Siberian na 
 tives that I have yet seen, though there are 
 some fine, tall, manly fellows amongst them. 
 Mr. Nelson, a naturalist, and zealous collector 
 for the Smithsonian Institution, who joined us 
 at St. Michael, photographed a group of the 
 most villainous of the men, and two of the 
 women whose arms were elaborately tattooed 
 up to the shoulders. Their faces were a curi 
 ous study while they were trying to keep still 
 under circumstances so extraordinary. 
 
 99
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 The glaciation of the coast here is recorded 
 in very telling characters, the movement of the 
 ice having been in a nearly south-southwest 
 direction. There is also a considerable deposit 
 of irregularly stratified sand and gravel along 
 this part of the coast. For fifteen or twenty 
 miles it rises in crumbling bluffs fifty feet high, 
 and makes a flat, gently sloping margin, from 
 one hundred yards to several miles in width; 
 in front of the mountains. The bay, moreover, 
 is nearly closed by a bar, probably of the same 
 material. The weather is delightful, clear sun 
 shine, only a few fleecy wisps of cloud in the 
 west, and the water still as a mill-pond. 
 
 June 28. Anchored an hour or two this fore 
 noon at the west Diomede, and landed a party 
 to make observations on the currents and 
 temperature of the water that sets through 
 Bering Strait. Then proceeded on our way 
 direct to Tapkan to seek our search party. The 
 fine weather that we have enjoyed since the 
 day before our arrival at St. Michael ended in 
 the old, dark, gloomy clouds and drizzling fog 
 on reaching the Diomedes, though the coast 
 above East Cape has until now been in sight 
 most of the time up to a height of about a 
 thousand feet. 
 
 The glaciation, after the melting of the ice- 
 100
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 sheet, has been light, sculpturing the moun 
 tains into shallow, short valleys and round 
 ridges, mostly broad-backed. The valleys, for 
 the most part, are not cut down to the sea. 
 The shore seems to have been cut off by the 
 glacier sheet that occupied the sea, after it was 
 too shallow to flow over the angle of land 
 formed by East Cape. This overflow is well- 
 marked, fifteen to twenty-five miles northwest 
 of the Cape, in the trends of the ridges and val 
 leys as far back as I could see, that is, about 
 twenty-five miles from the shore. The north 
 wind is, and has been, blowing for twenty-four 
 hours, and we fear that we will soon meet with 
 the drifting ice from the main polar pack. 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 
 Off the Chukchi village of Tapkan, 
 
 Near Cape Serdzekamen, Siberia, 
 
 June 29, 1881. 
 
 We arrived here about eight this morning 
 to meet the search party that we landed about 
 a month ago, near Koliuchin Island. They had 
 been waiting for us nearly two weeks. We were 
 unable to land on account of the stormy 
 weather, but after waiting about two hours we 
 saw them making their way out to the edge of 
 the drift ice, which extended about three miles 
 from shore, and after a good deal of difficulty 
 they reached the steamer in safety. The air 
 101
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 was gray with falling snow, and the north wind 
 was blowing hard, dashing heavy swells, with 
 wild, tumultuous uproar, against jagged, tum 
 bling ice blocks that formed the edge of the 
 pack. The life-boat was lowered and pulled to 
 the edge of the pack and a line was thrown from 
 it to the most advanced of the party, who was 
 balancing himself among the heaving bergs. 
 This line was made fast to a light skin boat that 
 the party had pushed out over the ice from the 
 shore, and, getting into it, they soon managed 
 to get themselves fairly launched and free from 
 the tossing, wave-dashed ice which momen 
 tarily threatened to engulf them. 
 
 Mr. Herring, the officer in charge, reported 
 that they had proceeded along the coast as far 
 as Cape Wankarem and had been so fortunate 
 as to accomplish the main objects of their mis 
 sion, namely, to determine the value of the 
 stories prevalent among the natives to the 
 southward of here concerning the lost whalers 
 Vigilant and Mount Wollaston; to ascertain 
 whether any of the crews of the missing ves 
 sels had landed on the Siberian coast to the 
 southeastward of Cape Yaka"n; and in case any 
 party should land there in the future, to be 
 speak in their behalf the aid and good-will of 
 the natives. 
 
 At the Chukchi village at Cape Onman they 
 102
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 were told that at the village of Oncarima, near 
 Cape Wankarem, they would find three men 
 who could tell them all about the broken ship, 
 for they had seen the wreck and been aboard 
 of her, and had brought off many things that 
 they had found on the deck and in the cabin. 
 This news caused them to hurry on, and when 
 they arrived at the village, and had bestowed 
 the customary presents of tobacco and coffee, 
 Mr. Herring stated the object of his visit. 
 
 Three natives then came forward and stated 
 through the interpreter that last year, when 
 they were out hunting seals on the ice, about 
 five miles from the land, near the little island 
 which they call Konkarpo, at the time of year 
 when the new ice begins to grow in the sea, and 
 when the sun does not rise, they saw a big ship 
 without masts in the ice-pack, which they 
 reached without difficulty and climbed on deck. 
 The masts, they said, had been chopped down, 
 and there was a pair of horns on the end of the 
 jib-boom, indicating the position of them on 
 a sketch of a ship. The hold, they said, was 
 full of water so that they could not go down 
 into it to see anything, but they broke a way 
 into the cabin and found four dead men, who 
 had been dead a long time. Three of them were 
 lying in bunks, and one on the floor. They also 
 got into the galley and found a number of arti- 
 
 103
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 cles which they brought away; also, some from 
 the cabin and other parts of the ship. 
 
 While they were busy looking for things 
 which they fancied, and considered worth car 
 rying away, one of the three called out to his 
 companions that the wind was blowing off 
 shore, and that they must make haste for the 
 land as the ice was beginning to move, which 
 caused them to hurry from the wreck with 
 what articles they could conveniently carry 
 without being delayed. Next day they went as 
 far out towards the spot where they had left the 
 vessel as the state of the ice would allow, hop 
 ing to procure something else. But they found 
 that she had drifted out of sight, and as the 
 wind had been blowing from the southwest, 
 they supposed that she had drifted in a north 
 easterly direction. They had looked for this 
 ship many times after her first disappearance, 
 but never saw her again. 
 
 After they had finished their story, Mr. Her 
 ring requested them to show him all the things 
 that they had brought from the wreck, telling 
 them that he would give them tobacco for 
 some of them that he might want to show to 
 his friends. Thereupon they brought forward 
 the following articles, which were carefully 
 examined by our party in hopes of being able 
 to identify the vessel : 
 
 104
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 A pair of marine glasses 
 
 A pair of silver-mounted spectacles in a tin case 
 
 (the lenses showing that they had belonged to an 
 
 aged person) 
 A jack-knife 
 A carving-knife 
 A butcher's chopping-knife 
 Two table-knives, the handle of one of them 
 
 marked V 
 A meat saw 
 A soup ladle 
 A stew pan 
 A tin collander 
 A hand lamp 
 
 A square tin lantern painted green 
 A draw-knife 
 An adze 
 
 Two carpenter's saws 
 A chisel 
 A file 
 
 A brace and bit 
 A tack hammer 
 A pump-handle 
 A shovel 
 A bullet-mould 
 A truss 
 
 A bottle of some sort of medicine 
 A sailor's ditty bag, with thread 
 A razor 
 
 A linen jumper 
 Two small coins 
 Two coils of Manila rope 
 Three whale spades 
 One harpoon 
 
 105
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 The harpoon and whale spades are marked 
 "B.K.," and will no doubt serve to identify 
 the owners. Not a single private name was 
 found on any of the articles; nor did the na 
 tives produce any books or papers of any sort, 
 though they said that they saw books in the 
 cabin. A number of the articles enumerated 
 above were purchased by Mr. Herring and 
 are now on board the Corwin, namely, the 
 marine glasses, spectacles, harpoon, and table- 
 knives. 
 
 The fate, then, of one of the two missing ships 
 is discovered beyond a doubt, though a portion 
 of the crew may possibly be alive. If the state 
 ment as to the deer horns on the jib-boom is 
 to be relied on, it is the Vigilant, as she is said 
 to be the only vessel in the fleet that had deer 
 horns on her jib-boom. 
 
 A party of Chukchi traders, also, were met 
 here, being on their way to East Cape with 
 reindeer skins. They stated that no vessel had 
 been seen anywhere along the coast to the 
 northwest of Wankarem as far as Cape Yakdn 
 except one, a three-masted steamer, the Vega, 
 two years ago ; that if any ships had been seen 
 they certainly should have heard about it. 
 The place where the Vega wintered, 1 fifteen or 
 twenty miles to the northwest of Cape Serdze- 
 > Pittle Keg. 
 106
 
 RETURN OF THE SEARCH PARTY 
 
 kamen, is well known to nearly all the natives 
 living within a hundred miles of it. 
 
 The Jeannette was last seen by the natives 
 off Cape Serdzekamen two years ago, prob 
 ably just before she went north into the ice. 
 A party of walrus hunters went aboard of her. 
 They described her as a three-masted steamer, 
 with plenty of coal and dogs on deck. When 
 Wrangell Land was pointed out on a chart 
 to the natives at Cape Wankarem, they shook 
 their heads and said that they knew nothing 
 of land in that direction. But one old man 
 told them that long ago he had heard some 
 thing about a party of men who had come 
 from some far unknown land to the north, 
 over the ice. 
 
 According to Lieutenant Reynolds, nine 
 Chukchi settlements were passed on the coast 
 between Tapkan and Oncarima, namely, Nas- 
 kan, Undrillan, Illwinoop, Youngilla, 1 Illoiuk, 
 Koliuchin, Unatapkan, Onman and Enelpan. 
 The largest of these is Koliuchin, with twenty- 
 seven houses and about three hundred people. 
 
 The natives, everywhere along the route 
 traveled, treated the party with great kindness, 
 giving them food for their dog-teams and an 
 swering the questions put to them with good- 
 natured patience. At Koliuchin one of the 
 
 1 lintlin. 
 107
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 chief men of the village invited them to din 
 ner and greatly surprised them by giving them 
 good tea served in handsome China cups, which 
 he said he had bought from the Russians.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 East Cape, Siberia, July 1, 1881. 
 
 AFTER getting our search party on board 
 at Tapkan, we found it impossible, under the 
 conditions of ice and water that prevailed, to 
 land our Chukchi dog-driver, who lives there, 
 and who had come off with the party to get his 
 pay. He was in excellent spirits, however, and 
 told the Captain that since he had received a 
 gun and a liberal supply of ammunition he did 
 not care where he was put ashore Cape 
 Serdzekamen, East Cape, or any point along 
 the shore or edge of the ice-pack would answer, 
 as he could kill plenty of birds and seals, and 
 get home any time. The dogs and sledges were 
 left in his care at Tapkan, to be in readiness in 
 case they should.be required next winter. 
 
 Speeding southward under steam and sail 
 we reached East Cape yesterday at seven in the 
 morning. By this time the wind was blowing 
 what seamen call a "living gale," whitening 
 the sea, and rilling up the air with blinding 
 scud. We found good anchorage, however, 
 back of the high portion of the Cape, opposite 
 
 109
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 a large settlement of Chukchis. East Cape is 
 a very bold bluff of granite about two thousand 
 feet high, which evidently has been overswept 
 from the northwest. I eagerly waited to get off 
 and to climb high enough to make sure of the 
 trends of the ridges and grooves, and to seek 
 scratches, bossed surfaces, etc. But the howl 
 ing, shrieking norther blew all day, and had 
 not abated at eleven o'clock last night. 
 
 This morning Mr. Nelson and I went ashore 
 to see what we could learn. The village here, 
 through which we passed on our way up the 
 mountain-side, consists of about fifty huts, 
 built on a small, rocky, terminal moraine, and 
 so deeply sunk in the face of the hill that the 
 entire village makes scarcely more show at a 
 distance of a few hundred yards than a group 
 of marmot burrows. The lower portion of the 
 walls is built of moraine boulders, the upper 
 portion and the curving beehive roof of drift 
 wood and the ribs of whales, framed together 
 and covered with walrus hide or dirt. 
 
 During the winter the huts are entered by a 
 low tunnel, so as to exclude the cold air as much 
 as possible. The floor is simply the natural 
 dirt mixed into a dark hairy paste, with much 
 that is not at all natural. Fires are made oc 
 casionally in the middle of the floor to cook the 
 small portion of their food that is not eaten 
 no
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 raw. Ivory-headed spears, arrows, seal nets, 
 bags of oil, rags of seal or walrus meat, and 
 strips of whale blubber and skin, lie on shelves 
 or hang confusedly from the roof, while pup 
 pies and nursing mother-dogs and children may 
 be seen scattered here and there, or curled 
 snugly in the pots and eating-troughs, after 
 they have licked them clean, making a kind 
 of squalor that is picturesque and daring be 
 yond conception. 
 
 In all of the huts, however, there are from 
 one to three or four luxurious bedrooms. The 
 walls, ceiling, and floor are of soft reindeer 
 skins, and [each polog has] a trough filled with 
 oil for heat and light. After hunting all day on 
 the ice, making long, rough, stormy journeys, 
 the Chukchi hunter, muffled and hungry, comes 
 into his burrow, eats his fill of oil and seal or 
 walrus meat, then strips himself naked and lies 
 down in his closed fur nest, his polog, in glori 
 ous ease, to smoke and sleep. 
 
 I was anxious to reach the top of the cape 
 peninsula to learn surely whether it had been 
 overswept by an ice-sheet, and if so from what 
 direction, and to study its glacial conditions 
 in general and the character of the rocks. I 
 therefore hastened to make the most of my op 
 portunity, and pushed on through the village 
 towards the lowest part of the divide between 
 in
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 the north and south sides, followed by a crowd 
 of curious boys, who good-naturedly assisted 
 me whenever I stopped to gather the flowers 
 that I found in bloom. The banks of a stream 
 coming from a high basin filled with snow was 
 quite richly flowered with anemones, butter 
 cups, potentillas, drabas, primulas and many 
 species of dwarf willows, up to a height of about 
 a thousand feet above the level of the sea; be 
 yond this, spring had hardly made any impres 
 sion, while nearly a thousand feet of the highest 
 summits were still covered with deep snow. 
 
 Mr. Nelson soon left me in pursuit of a bird, 
 and in crossing a rocky ridge to come up with 
 me again, he came upon a lot of other game, 
 which seemed to interest him still more, namely, 
 dead natives scattered about on the rough 
 stones at one of the cemeteries belonging to 
 the village. The bodies of the dead, together 
 with whatever articles belonged to them, are 
 simply laid on the surface of the ground, so that 
 a cemetery is a good field for collectors. A lot 
 of ivory spears, arrows, dishes of various kinds, 
 and a stone hammer, formed the least ghastly 
 of his spoils. Leaving Mr. Nelson alone in his 
 glory, I pushed on to the top of the divide, then 
 followed it westward to the highest summit on 
 the peninsula, whence I obtained the views 
 I was in search of. 
 
 112
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 The dividing ridge all along the high eastern 
 portion of the peninsula is rounded from nearly 
 north to south. The curves on the north begin 
 almost at the water's edge, while the south side 
 is quite precipitous along the shore. There is 
 also a telling series of parallel grooves and ridges 
 trending north and south across the peninsula. 
 The highest point is about twenty-five hundred 
 feet above the sea, and the mountainous por 
 tion has been nearly eroded from the continent 
 and made an island like the two Diomedes, the 
 wide gap of low ground connecting it with the 
 high mainland being only a few feet above 
 tide-water. In this low portion there is here 
 and there a rounded upswelling of more resist 
 ing rock, with trends, all telling the same story 
 of a vast oversweeping ice-flood from the north. 
 
 I also had a clear view of the coast mountains 
 for a hundred miles or thereabouts, all of which 
 are tellingly glaciated in harmony with the 
 above generalization. Most of the rock is gran 
 ite with cleavage planes that cause it to weather 
 rapidly into flat blocks. One conical black hill, 
 fifteen hundred feet high, is volcanic rock, close- 
 grained and dense like some kinds of iron ore. 
 I saw an Arctic owl, a big snowy fellow, fitting 
 his place; also, snow-buntings and linnets. 
 When the natives saw Mr. Nelson returning 
 without me they said that he had killed me, 
 113
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 not being aware of the fact that he understood 
 their language. 
 
 On my way down to the shore I crossed an 
 other of the village cemeteries in a very rough 
 and steep slope of weathered granite, several 
 hundred feet above the village and to the west 
 ward of it. Whole skeletons or single bones and 
 skulls lay here and there, wedged into chance 
 positions among the stones, weathering and 
 falling to pieces like the ivory-pointed spears, 
 arrows, etc., mixed with them. The mountain 
 that they were lying on is crumbling also 
 dust to dust. Some of the corpses have had 
 stones piled on them, and their goods on top 
 of all; others were laid on the rough rocks with 
 a row of big stones on the lower side to keep 
 them from rolling down. 
 
 The damp, lower portion of the wild north 
 wind, as it was deflected up and over the slopes 
 and frosty summit of the peninsula, has given 
 birth to a remarkably beautiful covering of 
 white ice crystals on the windward sides of 
 exposed boulders, and in some places on the 
 snow. The crystals resemble white feathers in 
 their aggregate forms, but are firm and icy in 
 structure, and as evenly and gracefully im 
 bricated on each other over the rough faces of 
 the rocks as are the feathers on the breast of a 
 bird. The effect is marvelously beautiful and 
 
 114
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 interesting as seen on those castellated rock- 
 piles, so frequently found on bleak summits. 
 The points of the feathers grow to windward, 
 and indicate by their curves all the varying di 
 rections pursued by the interrupted wind as it 
 glints and reverberates about the innumerable 
 angles of the rock fronts. Thus the rocks, 
 where the exposure to storms is greatest, and 
 where only ruin seems to be the object, are all 
 the more lavishly clothed upon with beauty 
 beauty that grows with and depends upon 
 the violence of the gale. In like manner do men 
 find themselves enriched by storms that seem 
 only big with ruin, both in the physical and 
 the moral worlds. 
 
 We weighed anchor and got away at two 
 o'clock in the afternoon and reached the West 
 Diomede Island village at half-past four. Here 
 we took aboard the boatswain and Mr. Nel 
 son's man, whom we had left to make obser 
 vations on the currents, tides, etc. He was to 
 have been assisted by the natives, but the 
 rough weather prevented work. About half- 
 past five we left the Diomede for Marcus Bay 
 in order to land Joe, the Chukchi. The sea is 
 smooth now, at a quarter of an hour before 
 midnight, and there is a lovely orange-and- 
 gold sunset. The gulls are still on the wing. 
 
 115
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 July 2. Clear, calm, sunful; the coast of 
 Asia is seen to excellent advantage; crowds of 
 glacial peaks, ice-fountains, and fiords far in- 
 reaching. The snow on them is melting fast. 
 About noon * twelve canoes from a large vil 
 lage twenty miles north of Marcus Bay came 
 off to trade. The schooners that came to this 
 region to trade were perhaps afraid to touch 
 here. Consequently the Corwin was the first 
 vessel with trade goods that they have seen 
 this year, and the business in bone and ivory 
 went on with hearty vigor. A hundred or more 
 Chukchis were aboard at once, making a stir 
 equal to that of a country fair. One of them 
 spoke a little whaler English, three quarters of 
 which was profanity and nearly one quarter 
 slang. He asked the Captain why he did not 
 like him, [and intimated that] if he should 
 come ashore to his house he, the Indian, would 
 show him by his treatment that he liked him 
 very much. 
 
 We are now, at five in the afternoon, ap 
 proaching Marcus Bay, where Joe lives, for the 
 purpose of taking him home. For his month's 
 work and his team of five dogs he has been 
 paid a box of hard bread, ten sacks of flour, 
 some calico, a rifle, and a considerable quantity 
 of ammunition. Although this is doubtless 
 
 1 Opposite Cape Chaplin. 
 116
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 five times more than he expected, he does not 
 show any excitement or rise of spirits, but only 
 a stoical composure, which seems so Arctic and 
 immovable that I doubt whether he would 
 move a muscle of his face if he were presented 
 with the whole ship's cargo and the ship itself 
 thrown in. 
 
 Steamer Conoin, 
 
 St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 
 
 July 3, 1881. 
 
 St. Lawrence Island, the largest in Bering 
 Sea, is situated at a distance of about one hun 
 dred and twenty miles off the mouths of the 
 Yukon, and forty-five miles from the nearest 
 point on the coast of Siberia. It is about a 
 hundred miles in length from east to west and 
 fifteen miles in average width ; a dreary, cheer 
 less-looking mass of black lava, dotted with 
 volcanoes, covered with snow, without a single 
 tree, and rigidly bound in ocean ice for more 
 than half the year. 
 
 Inasmuch as it lies broadsidewise to the way 
 pursued by the great ice-sheet that once filled 
 Bering Sea, it is traversed by numerous val 
 leys and ridges and low gaps, some of which 
 have been worn down nearly to the sea-level. 
 Had the glaciation to which it has been sub 
 jected been carried on much longer, then, in 
 stead of this one large island, we should have 
 117
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 had several smaller ones. Nearly all of the vol 
 canic cones with which the central portion of 
 the island is in great part covered, are post 
 glacial in age and present well-formed craters 
 but little weathered as yet. 
 
 All the surface of the low grounds, in the 
 glacial gaps, as well as the flat table-lands, is 
 covered with wet, spongy tundra of mosses and 
 lichens, with patches of blooming heathworts 
 and dwarf willows, and grasses and sedges, 
 diversified here and there by drier spots, 
 planted with larkspurs, saxifrages, daisies, 
 primulas, anemones, ferns, etc. These form 
 gardens with a luxuriance and brightness of 
 color little to be hoped for in so cold and dreary- 
 looking a region. 
 
 Three years ago there were about fifteen 
 hundred inhabitants on the island, chiefly 
 Eskimos, living in ten villages located around 
 the shores, and subsisting on the seals, wal 
 ruses, whales, and water birds that abound 
 here. Now there are only about five hundred 
 people, most of them in one village on the 
 northwest end of the island, nearly two thirds 
 of the population having died of starvation 
 during the winter of 1878-79. In seven of the 
 villages not a single soul was left alive. In the 
 largest village at the northwest end of the is 
 land, which suffered least, two hundred out of 
 118
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 six hundred died. In the one at the southwest 
 end only fifteen out of about two hundred sur 
 vived. There are a few survivors also at one of 
 the villages on the east end of the island. 
 
 After landing our interpreter at Marcus Bay 
 we steered for St. Michael, and in passing along 
 the north side of this island we stopped an hour 
 or so this morning at one of the smallest of the 
 dead villages. Mr. Nelson went ashore and 
 obtained a lot of skulls and specimens of one 
 sort and another for the Smithsonian Institu 
 tion. Twenty-five skeletons were seen. 
 
 A few miles farther on we anchored before a 
 larger village, situated about halfway between 
 the east and west ends of the island, which I 
 visited in company with Mr. Nelson, the Cap 
 tain, and the Surgeon. We found twelve des 
 olate huts close to the beach with about two 
 hundred skeletons in them or strewn about on 
 the rocks and rubbish heaps within a few yards 
 of the doors. The scene was indescribably 
 ghastly and desolate, though laid in a country 
 purified by frost as by fire. Gulls, plovers, and 
 ducks were swimming and flying about in 
 happy life, the pure salt sea was dashing white 
 against the shore, the blooming tundra swept 
 back to the snow-clad volcanoes, and the wide 
 azure sky bent kindly over all nature in 
 tensely fresh and sweet, the village lying hi the 
 119
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 foulest and most glaring death. The shrunken 
 bodies, with rotting furs on them, or white, 
 bleaching skeletons, picked bare by the -crows, 
 were lying mixed with kitchen-midden rubbish 
 where they had been cast out by surviving rela 
 tives while they yet had strength to carry them. 
 In the huts those who had been the last to 
 perish were found in bed, lying evenly side by 
 side, beneath their rotting deerskins. A grin 
 ning skull might be seen looking out here and 
 there, and a pile of skeletons in a corner, laid 
 there no doubt when no one was left strong 
 enough to carry them through the narrow un 
 derground passage to the door. Thirty were 
 found in one house, about half of them piled 
 like fire-wood in a corner, the other half in bed, 
 seeming as if they had met their fate with tran 
 quil apathy. Evidently these people did not 
 suffer from cold, however rigorous the winter 
 may have been, as some of the huts had in 
 them piles of deerskins that had not been in 
 use. Nor, although their survivors and neigh 
 bors all say that hunger was the sole cause of 
 their death, could they have battled with 
 famine to the bitter end, because a consider 
 able amount of walrus rawhide and skins of. 
 other animals was found in the huts. These 
 would have sustained life at least a week or 
 two longer. 
 
 120
 
 VILLAGES OF THE DEAD 
 
 The facts all tend to show that the winter of 
 1878-79 was, from whatever cause, one of 
 great scarcity, and as these people never lay 
 up any considerable supply of food from one 
 season to another, they began to perish. The 
 first to succumb were carried out of the huts 
 to the ordinary ground for the dead, about half 
 a mile from the village. Then, as the survivors 
 became weaker, they carried the dead a shorter 
 distance, and made no effort to mark their 
 positions or to lay their effects beside them, 
 as they customarily do. At length the bodies 
 were only dragged to the doors of the huts, or 
 laid in a corner, and the last survivors lay 
 down in despair without making any struggle 
 to prolong their wretched lives by eating the 
 last scraps of skin. 
 
 Mr. Nelson went into this Golgotha with 
 hearty enthusiasm, gathering the fine white 
 harvest of skulls spread before him, and throw 
 ing them in heaps like a boy gathering pump 
 kins. He brought nearly a hundred on board, 
 which will be shipped with specimens of bone 
 armor, weapons, utensils, etc., on the Alaska 
 Commercial Company's steamer St. Paul. 
 
 We also landed at the village on the south 
 west corner of the island and interviewed the 
 fifteen survivors. When we inquired where 
 the other people of the village were, one of 
 
 121
 
 the group, who speaks a few words of English, 
 answered with a happy, heedless smile, "All 
 mucky." "All gone!" "Dead?" "Yes, dead, 
 all dead!" Then he led us a few yards back 
 of his hut and pointed to twelve or fourteen 
 skeletons lying on the brown grass, repeating 
 in almost a merry tone of voice, "Dead, yes, 
 all dead, all mucky, all gone!" 
 
 About two hundred perished here, and unless 
 some aid be extended by our government which 
 claims these people, in a few years at most 
 every soul of them will have vanished from the 
 face of the earth; for, even where alcohol is 
 left out of the count, the few articles of food, 
 clothing, guns, etc., furnished by the traders, 
 exert a degrading influence, making them less 
 self-reliant, and less skillful as hunters. They 
 seem easily susceptible of civilization, and well 
 deserve the attention of our government.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 St. Michael, Alaska, July 8, 1881. 
 
 THE Corwin arrived here on the Fourth, 
 and, in honor of the day, made some noise with 
 her cannon in concert with those belonging to 
 the fort, to the steamer St. Paul, and to the 
 post of the Western Fur and Trading Company 
 across the bay. We have taken on a supply of 
 coal and provisions for nine months, in case 
 we should by any accident be caught in the ice 
 north of Bering Strait before calling here again 
 in the fall. 
 
 We hope to get away from here this evening 
 for the Arctic, intending to cruise along the 
 Alaskan coast beyond Point Barrow, spending 
 some time about Kotzebue Sound in order to 
 look after revenue interests, and to make, per 
 haps, some explorations on the lower courses of 
 the Inland 1 and Buckland Rivers, and on the 
 Colville, 2 of which nearly nothing is yet known 
 
 1 Now called Noatak River. 
 
 2 The upper reaches of the Colville and Buckland Rivers, 
 according to the Geological Survey map of 1915, are still 
 unexplored. The former empties into the Arctic Ocean, the 
 latter into Eschscholtz Bay. 
 
 123
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 to geographers. The coast will also be carefully 
 searched for traces of the Jeannette and missing 
 whalers in case any portion of their crews have 
 come over the ice last winter. Perhaps a month 
 will be spent thus, when an attempt will be 
 made to reach Wrangell Land, where the Jean 
 nette probably spent her first winter. And 
 since the Corwin has already passed Cape 
 Serdzekamen twice this season, we have san 
 guine hopes of success under so favorable a 
 condition of the ice. 
 
 Arctic explorations are exciting much in 
 terest among the natives here. Last evening 
 the shamans called up the spirits supposed to 
 be familiar with polar matters. The latter in 
 formed them that not only was the Jeannette 
 forever lost in the ice of the Far North with all 
 her crew, but also that the Corwin would never 
 more be seen after leaving St. Michael this 
 time, information which caused our interpreter 
 to leave us, nor have we as yet been able to 
 procure another in his place. The Jeannette 
 took two men from here. l 
 
 This is the busy time of the year at St. 
 Michael, when the traders come with their furs 
 from stations far up the Yukon and return with 
 
 1 These were the two native Alaskan hunters Alexey and 
 Aneguin. The former was among those who perished with 
 De Long on the delta of the Lena River. 
 
 124
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 next year's supply of goods. Those of the West 
 ern Fur and Trading Company left for the 
 upper Yukon yesterday, and those connected 
 with the Alaska Commercial Company will fol 
 low as soon as the new steamboat, which they 
 are putting together here, can be got ready. 
 
 The party of prospectors which left San 
 Francisco this spring in a schooner, to seek a 
 mountain of solid silver, reported to have been 
 seen some distance up a river that flows into 
 Golofnin Bay on the north side of Norton 
 Sound, about one hundred miles from here, has 
 arrived, and is now up the river prospecting. 
 From what I can learn, they will not find the 
 mountain to be solid silver, but some far com 
 moner mineral. Gold is said to have been dis 
 covered by Mr. Harker on the Tanana River 
 bar diggings that would pay about twelve 
 dollars per day. There will probably be a rush 
 to the new mines ere long, though news of this 
 kind is kept back as long as possible by the fur 
 companies. 
 
 The weather is delightful, temperature about 
 60 F. in the shade, and the vegetation is grow 
 ing with marvelous rapidity. The grass already 
 is about two feet high about the shores of the 
 bay, making a bright green surface, not at all 
 broken as far as can be seen from the steamer. 
 Almost any number of cattle would find excel- 
 125
 
 THE CKUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 lent pasturage here for three or four months in 
 the year. 
 
 During our last visit Dr. Rosse and I crossed 
 the tundra to a prominent hill about seven 
 miles to the southward from the redoubt. We 
 found the hill to be a well-formed volcanic cone 
 with a crater a hundred yards in diameter and 
 about twenty feet deep, from the rim of which 
 I counted upwards of forty others within a 
 distance of thirty or forty miles. This old vol 
 cano is said by the medicine men to be the en 
 trance to the spirit world for their tribe, and 
 the rumbling sounds heard occasionally are 
 supposed to be caused by the spirits when they 
 are conducting in a dead Indian. The last 
 eruption was of ashes and pumice cinders, 
 which are strewn plentifully around the rim of 
 the crater and down the sides of the cone. 
 
 Our walk was very fatiguing, as we sank deep 
 in spongy moss at every step, and staggered 
 awkwardly on the tops of tussocks of grass and 
 sedge, which bent and let our feet down be 
 tween them. It was very delightful, however, 
 and crowded with rare beauty. 
 
 We saw a great number of birds, most of 
 which were busy about their nests; there were 
 ptarmigan, snipes, curlews, sand-pipers, song 
 sparrows, titmice, loons, many species of ducks, 
 and the Emperor goose. The ptarmigan is a 
 
 126
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 
 magnificent bird, about the size of the dusky 
 
 grouse of the Sierra. They are quite abundant 
 here, flying up with a vigorous whirr of wings 
 and a loud, hearty, cackling " kek-kek-kep " 
 every few yards all the way across the tundra. 
 The cocks frequently took up a position on 
 some slight eminence to observe us. They 
 seemed happily in place out on the wide moor, 
 with abundance of berries to eat through the 
 summer, spring, and fall, and willows and alder 
 buds for winter. Then they are pure white, and 
 warmly feathered down to the ends of their 
 toes. The sandpipers had fine feeding-grounds 
 about the shallow pools. The gray moor is a 
 fine place for curlews, too, and snipe. 
 
 The plants in bloom were primula, andro- 
 meda, dicentra, mertensia, veratrum, ledum, 
 saxifrage, empetrum, cranberry, draba of sev 
 eral species, lupine, stellaria, silene, polemo- 
 nium, buckbean, bryanthus, several sedges, a 
 liliaceous plant new to me/ five species of wil 
 low, dwarf birch, alder, and a purple pedicu- 
 laris, the showiest of them all. The primula 
 and a bryanthus-like heathwort were the most 
 beautiful. 
 
 The tundra is composed of a close sponge of 
 mosses about a foot deep, with lichens growing 
 on top of the mosses, and a thin growth of 
 grasses and sedges and mcst of the flowering 
 
 127
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 plants mentioned above, with others not then 
 in bloom. The moss rests upon a stratum of 
 solid ice, and the ice on black vesicular lava, 
 ridges of which rise here and there above the 
 spongy mantle of moss, and afford ground for 
 plants that like a dry soil. There are hollows, 
 too, beneath the general level along which grow 
 tall aspidiums, grasses, sedges, larkspurs, alders, 
 and willows the alders five or six inches in 
 diameter and from eight to ten feet high, the 
 largest timber I have seen since leaving Cali 
 fornia. 
 
 Visits from Indians in kayaks. At full speed 
 they can run about seven miles an hour for a 
 short distance. The salmon, that is, the best 
 red-fleshed species, are about finishing their 
 run up the river now. A very fat one, weigh 
 ing about fifty pounds, was bought from an 
 Indian for a little hardtack. After enough had 
 been cut from it for one meal, it was lost over 
 board by dropping from its head while sus 
 pended by it. Specimens of a hundred pounds 
 or more are said to be caught at times. Mr. 
 Nelson saw dried specimens six feet long. 
 
 \Steamer Corwin, 
 En route to the Arctic Ocean.] 
 
 July 9. Left St. Michael, having on board 
 provisions for nine months, and about one 
 128
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 hundred tons of coal. Decks heavily piled. 
 A weird red sunset; land miraged into most 
 grotesque forms. Heavy smoke from the burn 
 ing tundra southwest from St. Michael. The 
 season's cruise seems now- to be just beginning. 
 
 July 10. Arrived this morning, about seven 
 o'clock, in Golofnin Bay, and dropped anchor. 
 There is a heavy sea and a stiff south wind, 
 with clouds veiling the summits down to a 
 thousand feet from sea level. I was put ashore 
 on the right side of the bay after breakfast at 
 a small Indian village of two huts made of drift 
 wood. They were full of dried herring. In 
 habitants not at home, but saw a few at an 
 other village farther up the bay. All the huts 
 are strictly conical and of driftwood. A few 
 Indians came off in canoes, very fine ones, of 
 a slightly different pattern from any others I 
 have seen. There is a round hole through the 
 front end to facilitate lifting. I had a long 
 walk and returned to the ship at three in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 The principal fact I discovered is a heavy 
 deposit of glacial drift about fifty feet high, 
 facing several miles of coast. It is coarsely 
 stratified and water-worn * the material of 
 a terminal moraine, leveled by water flowing 
 from a broad glacier, while separated from the 
 
 129
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 sea by a low, draggled flat, and then eaten into 
 bluffs by the sea waves. It is now overgrown 
 with alders, willows, and a good crop of sedges 
 and grasses, bright with flowers. 1 Found the 
 small blue violet rather common. White spiraea, 
 in flower, is abundant in damp places about 
 alder groves where the tundra mosses are not 
 too thick. The cranberries, huckleberries, and 
 rubus will soon be ripe. The purple-flowered 
 rubus is only in bloom now. 
 
 The driftwood is spruce and cottonwood. 
 The rock, containing mica, slate, and a good 
 deal of quartz, seems favorable for gold. The 
 life-boat, rigged with sails, has been sent to 
 board the prospectors' schooner anchored far 
 ther up the bay. Seven men are aboard, and 
 seven are off prospecting. They are reported 
 to have found promising galena assaying high 
 values per ton. They mean to visit the quick 
 silver mines on the Kuskoquim. The rocks on 
 the opposite side of the bay exhibit clear traces 
 of glacial sculpture. 
 
 July 1 1 . Sailed this morning from the anchor 
 age in Golofnin Bay, and reached Sledge Island 
 at nine in the evening. The natives are mostly 
 away on the mainland. The island seems to be 
 of granite and to have been overswept [by 
 * See " Botanical Notes," p. 288. . 
 130
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 glaciers]. Obtained a pretty good view of the 
 mountains at the head of Golofnin Bay. They 
 seem to be from four to five thousand feet high. 
 
 July 12. Reached King Island this morning 
 about seven o'clock, and left at half-past ten. 
 Reached Cape Prince of Wales about three in 
 the afternoon and anchored. Left at six in the 
 evening. Clear, bright day; water, pale green. 
 Had a fine view of the Diomedes, Fairway Rock, 
 King Island, Cape Prince of Wales, and the 
 lofty mountains towards the head of the river 
 that enters Golofnin Bay, all from one point of 
 view. The King Island natives were away on 
 the mainland, all save a few old or crippled 
 men, and women and children. 
 
 Their town, of all that I have seen, is the 
 most remarkably situated, on the face of a 
 steep slope, almost a cliff, and presents a very 
 strange appearance. Some fifty stone huts, 
 scarcely visible at a short distance, like those 
 of the Arizona cliff-dwellers, rise like heaps of 
 stones among heaps of stones. These are the 
 winter huts, and are entered by tunnels. The 
 summer huts, large square boxes on stilts, are 
 of skin, [stretched over] large poles of drift 
 wood. There is no way of landing save amid 
 a mass of great wave-beaten boulders. In 
 stormy times the King Islanders' excellent 
 
 131
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 canoes have to be pitched off into the sea when 
 a wave is about to recede. Two are tied to 
 gether for safety in rough weather. These pairs 
 live in any sea. A few gray-headed old pairs 
 came off with some odds and ends to trade. 
 
 Mr. Nelson and I went ashore to obtain 
 photographs and sketches and to bargain for 
 specimens of ivory carvings, etc. A busy trade 
 developed on the roof of a house, the only level 
 ground. Groups of merry boys went skipping 
 nimbly from rock to rock, and busily guided us 
 over the safest places. They showed us where 
 between the huge boulders it was best to at 
 tempt a landing, which was difficult. Though 
 the sea was nearly calm, a slight swell made a 
 heavy surf. One hut rose above another like 
 a village on Yosemite walls. The whole island 
 is precipitous, so much so that it seems acces 
 sible only to murres, etc., which flock here in 
 countless multitudes to breed. 
 
 In the afternoon, at Cape Prince of Wales, 
 we lay opposite a large village whose inhabi 
 tants have a bad character. They started a 
 fight while trading on board of a schooner. 
 Many of them were killed, and they have since 
 been distrusted not only on account of their 
 known bad character, but also because of the 
 law of blood revenge which obtains universally 
 among these natives. They are noted traders 
 
 132
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 and go far in their large skin boats which carry 
 sails. While we were here a canoe, met by our 
 search party , arrived from East Cape a party 
 of Chukchi traders, bringing deerskins from 
 Cape Yak&n. They are in every way much 
 better-looking men than the natives of this 
 side, being taller, better-formed, and more 
 cordial in manner. They at once recognized 
 our Third Lieutenant Reynolds, whom they 
 had met at Tapkan. Fog at night; going under 
 sail only. 
 
 July 13. Lovely day, nearly cloudless. Aver 
 age temperature of 50 F. At half-past five in 
 the afternoon we fell in with a trading schooner x 
 opposite an Indian village. 2 One of the boats 
 came alongside the Corwin and traded a few 
 articles. Nothing contraband was found, 
 though rifles probably had been sold during 
 the first part of her cruise. These vessels, as 
 well as whalers, carry more or less whiskey and 
 rifles in order to obtain ivory, whalebone, and 
 furs. They go from coast to coast and among 
 islands, and thus pick up valuable cargoes. 
 The natives cannot understand why the Cor 
 win interferes with trade in repeating rifles and 
 whiskey. They consider it all a matter of riv 
 alry and superior strength. No wonder, since 
 1 The O. S. Fowler. 2 Near Cape Espenberg. 
 133
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 our government does nothing for them. Com 
 mon rifles would be better for them, partly on 
 account of the difficulty of obtaining supplies 
 of cartridges, and partly because repeating 
 rifles tempt them to destroy large amounts of 
 game which they do not need. The reindeer 
 has in this manner been well-nigh exterminated 
 within the last few years. 
 
 July 14- A hot, sunny day. Came to anchor 
 this morning at the head of Kotzebue Sound 
 opposite the mouth of the Kiwalik River. Be 
 tween eight and nine o'clock this morning 
 Lieutenant Reynolds, with six seamen, took 
 Mr. Nelson and me up the river in one of the 
 boats. We reached a point about eight miles 
 from the mouth of the estuary near the head 
 of the delta. Since the bay is shoal off the 
 estuary, the ship was anchored about four 
 miles from the mouth. We, therefore, had a 
 journey of about twenty-four miles altogether. 
 We first landed at the mouth of the estuary and 
 walked a mile or two along a bar shoved up by 
 the waves and the ice. Here we found one na 
 tive hut in good repair. The inhabitants were 
 away, but the trodden grass showed that they 
 had not been gone very long. This is the time 
 of the year when the grand gathering of the 
 clans for trade takes place at Cape Blossom, 
 134
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 and they probably had gone there. The floor 
 of the hut was about ten feet in diameter, [and 
 the hut itself] was made of a frame of drift 
 wood covered with sod, and was entered by a 
 narrow tunnel two feet high and eighteen inches 
 wide. We saw traces of a great many houses, 
 showing that quite a large village was at one 
 time located here. In some only a few decay 
 ing timbers were to be seen, in others all the 
 timbers had vanished and only the excavation 
 remained. Some six miles farther up the stream 
 I noticed other ruins, indicating that many 
 natives once lived here, though now their num 
 ber has dwindled to one family. 
 
 The delta is about five miles wide and about 
 eight miles long. It is covered with a grassy, 
 flowery, sedgy vegetation, with pools, lagoons, 
 and branches of the river here and there. It 
 is a lonely place, and a favorite resort of ducks, 
 geese, and other water birds which come here 
 to breed and to moult. We saw swans 1 with 
 their young; eider ducks, also, were seen with 
 their young, and some were found on their 
 eggs, which are green and about the size of 
 hens' eggs. Their nests were among the grass 
 on the margin of a lagoon and were made with 
 a handful of down from their breasts. These 
 as well as other ducks, which had their young 
 1 Whistling swans (Olor columbianus). 
 135
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 with them, could not be made to fly, though 
 we came within three or four yards of them in 
 a narrow pool. When I threw sticks at the 
 flock they would only dive. They were very 
 graceful, and took good care of their children. 
 We could easily have killed them all. 
 
 The wild geese which we saw also had young 
 a dozen families altogether. 1 They are 
 moulting now and cannot fly. We chased a 
 large flock in the estuary. When they saw us 
 coming, they made frantic efforts to keep 
 ahead of the boat. When we overtook them, 
 they dived and scattered, coming up here and 
 there, often close to the boat, and always trying 
 to keep themselves concealed by laying their 
 necks along the water and sinking their bodies 
 and lying perfectly still; or, if they were well 
 away from the boat and fancied themselves 
 unseen, they swam in this sunken, outstretched 
 condition and were soon lost to view, if there 
 was the least wind-ripple on the water. Saw 
 three plovers, the godwit from the Siberian side, 
 and many finches and gulls. On a small islet 
 in the middle of a pond we found one nest of 
 the burgomaster gull. They tried to drive us 
 away by swooping down upon us. I noticed 
 
 1 Mr. E. W. Nelson reported the geese observed here as 
 belonging to two species, the American white-fronted goose 
 (Anser albifrons gambeli) and the white-cheeked goose 
 (Bernida canadensis leucoparid). 
 
 136
 
 GLIMPSES OF ALASKAN TUNDRA 
 
 also the robber-gull and several others. But 
 terflies were quite abundant among the bloom 
 ing meadow vegetation. I noticed six or more 
 species. The vegetation is like that of Cape 
 Prince of Wales and Norton Sound. Found 
 one red poppy, one wintergreen, allium, saxi 
 frages, primulas, lupines, pedicularis, and 
 peas, quite abundant. This region is noted for 
 its fossil ivory. Found only a fragment of a 
 tusk and a few bones. The deposit whence 
 they were derived is probably above the point 
 reached by us. The gravel is composed of 
 quartz, mica, slate, and lava. There are many 
 lava cones and ridges on both sides of the 
 estuary.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 July 15. Rainy and cold; cleared at seven in 
 the evening. Left the head of Kotzebue Sound 
 this morning at seven-thirty, for Cape Blos 
 som, where the natives assemble from near and 
 far to trade, but only one poor family was left. 
 We went ashore and found them engaged in 
 fishing for salmon with a net which was pushed 
 out from the shore by a long pole sixty feet in 
 length, made of three tied together. The In 
 dians had gone fifteen or twenty miles up the 
 coast, near Cape Krusenstern. Their tents 
 were to be seen, looking like Oakland across 
 the bay from San Francisco, so numerous they 
 seemed. A small schooner, the Fowler, was at 
 anchor there trading. Soon half a dozen canoes 
 came alongside of us, and offered to trade, but 
 asked big prices. The Captain obtained only 
 two wolfskins, a deerskin, and a few muskrats, 
 and bunches of sinew. [The Corwin then pro 
 ceeded to Hotham Inlet and came to anchor 
 about two miles from the native village called 
 Sheshalek, inhabited by Kobuk and Noatak 
 River Eskimos.] 
 
 138
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 July 16. A. fresh breeze from the north, but 
 the day is tolerably clear. A swell is breaking 
 into whitecaps here and there. A 'busy day 
 with the Indians, trading for a winter supply 
 of deerskins. We obtained over a hundred al 
 together at the rate of about a dollar each for 
 summer skins, and half as much for those taken 
 in winter. With what we have already picked 
 up here and there, and with the parkas we have 
 collected, this will be amply sufficient. Rein 
 deer are killed in immense numbers inland from 
 here. All are wild; no domesticated herds are 
 found on the American continent, though the 
 natives have illustrations enough of their value 
 on the opposite shores of Bering Sea. These 
 Indians prefer herds that require no care, 
 though they are not always to be found when 
 wanted. Some of the wild herds that exist up 
 the Inland River are said, by the Indians, to 
 be so large as to require more than a day in 
 passing. 
 
 The number of these animals, considering 
 the multitude of their enemies, is truly won 
 derful. The large gray wolves kill many dur 
 ing the winter, and when the snow is deep, 
 large flocks are slaughtered by the Indians, 
 whether they need them or not. They make it 
 a rule to kill every animal that comes within 
 reach, without a thought of future scarcity, 
 139
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 fearing, as some say, that, should they refuse 
 to kill as opportunity offers, though it be at a 
 time when food is no object, then the deer- 
 spirit would be offended at the refusal of his 
 gifts and would not send any deer when they 
 are in want. Probably, however, they are 
 moved simply by an instinctive love of killing 
 on which their existence depends, and these 
 wholesale slaughters are to be regarded as only 
 too much of a good thing. Formerly there 
 were large herds about St. Michael, but since 
 the introduction of repeating rifles they have 
 wholly vanished. Hundreds were surrounded 
 in passes among the hills, were killed and left 
 lying where they fell, not even the hides being 
 taken. Often a band of moose or reindeer is 
 overtaken in deep snow, when they are easily 
 killed with clubs by Indians on snowshoes, who 
 will simply cut out their tongues, and leave the 
 rest to be eaten by wolves. 
 
 The reindeer is found throughout the Arctic 
 and subarctic regions of both Asia and America, 
 and, in either the wild or the domestic state, 
 supplies to the natives an abundance of food 
 and warm clothing, thus rendering these bleak 
 and intensely cold regions inhabitable. I be 
 lieve it is only in Lapland and Siberia that the 
 reindeer is domesticated. They are never sold 
 alive by the Chukchis on account of a super- 
 
 140
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 stitious notion that to do so would surely bring 
 bad luck by incensing the spirit of the deer. 
 A hundred can be bought, after they are killed, 
 for less than one alive. Certain ceremonies 
 must also be observed before killing. 
 
 Out on the frozen tundra great care is re 
 quired, both by day and by night, to keep them 
 from being scattered and torn by wolves. A 
 reindeer weighs from three to four hundred 
 pounds. The winter skins are heavier, the hair 
 being long and tipped with white, giving them 
 a hoary appearance, especially on the back; but 
 the hair is easily broken and pulled out, a fact 
 which renders them much less durable when 
 used for bedding, tents, or clothing than those 
 taken in summer, when the hair is short, and 
 dark blue, almost black. Reindeer hides are 
 easily tanned; those tanned in Siberia are dyed 
 a rich reddish-brown on the inside with alder 
 bark. The domestic reindeer skins are con 
 sidered better than those of the wild animals. 
 Wrangell l has described the herds as affording 
 a grand sight. 
 
 At this point 2 the Indians from the interior, 
 and from many miles up and down the coast, 
 assemble once a year in July to trade with each 
 
 1 Admiral Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangell, 
 polar explorer and Russian Governor, Administrator of the 
 Russian-American colonies, 1829-36. 
 
 2 The head of Kotzebue Sound. 
 
 141
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 other, with parties of Chukchis who come from 
 Siberia in umiaks, and with the few schooners 
 that bring goods from San Francisco and from 
 the Sandwich Islands. After trading they in 
 dulge in games of wrestling, playing ball, gam 
 bling, dancing, and drinking whiskey, if they 
 can get it. Then they break up their camps and 
 go to their widely scattered homes, some a 
 month's journey or more up the Inland and 
 down the Colville Rivers. They now have 
 about one hundred and forty tents set in a row 
 along the beach, their light kayaks in front of 
 the tents in a neat row, each with paddles and 
 spears that belong to it, and in front of these a 
 row of large skin umiaks. They are a mixed, 
 jolly multitude, wearing different ornaments, 
 superb fur clothes, or shabby foreign articles; 
 one sees long hair, short hair, or closely shaven; 
 here is headgear of hats, caps, or cowls, and 
 folk who go bareheaded; labrets, too, of every 
 conceivable size, color, and material glass, 
 stone, beads, ivory, brass. They show good 
 taste and ingenuity in the manufacture of 
 pipes, weapons, knickknacks of a domestic 
 kind, utensils, ornaments, boats, etc. 
 
 Though savage and sensual, they are by no 
 means dull or apathetic like the sensual sav 
 ages of civilization, who live only to eat and 
 indulge the senses, for these Eskimos, without 
 
 142
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 newspapers or telegraphs, know all that is go 
 ing on within hundreds of miles, and are keen 
 questioners and alive to everything that goes 
 on before them. They dearly like to gossip. 
 One tried to b,uy some of the cabin boy's hair, 
 on account of its curious whiteness; another, 
 who has red hair, is followed and commented 
 on with ludicrous interest. 
 
 The shores hereabouts are comparatively 
 low, the hills, back a few miles from shore, roll 
 ing and of moderate height, and mountains are 
 to be seen beyond. 
 
 July 17. The northerly wind still prevails; 
 cloudy all day, but dry. Left the Eskimo 
 "Long Branch" at four o'clock in the morning 
 and sailed to Cape Thompson, where we mean 
 to look into the condition of the Eskimos and 
 inquire whether they have obtained whiskey, 
 from any of the traders, contrary to law. The 
 coast is rather low. Mountains are visible 
 thirty miles back; low hills between. 
 
 July 18. Numerous snow squalls. Came to 
 
 anchor at five this morning in the lee of Point 
 
 Hope. Norther blowing. Remained all day in 
 
 company with the Sea Breeze. 1 A few of the 
 
 natives came off shore good-natured fel- 
 
 1 A whaling bark. 
 
 143
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 lows. A negro, who wintered here last season, 
 was well used by them, for he was given the 
 best of what they had. He had lost an axe over 
 board, so the story goes, and deserted on ac 
 count of trouble he had over the matter with 
 the second officer of the brig Hidalgo. He was 
 taken on board again this spring. 
 
 We landed and walked through the village. 
 Found a fine gravel beach, beautifully flowered 
 beyond the reach of the waves. Most of the 
 natives seem to be away at the summer 
 gathering, perhaps. The graveyard is of great 
 extent and very conspicuous from the custom 
 of surrounding the graves with poles. 
 
 July 19. Cold, stiff, north wind; clear. Left 
 our anchorage at five o'clock this morning and 
 proceeded north, but found the gale too strong 
 to make much headway and, therefore, turned 
 back and anchored at Cape Thompson, thirty 
 miles south of Point Hope. Watering ship all 
 day; the wind is blowing hard. Going north 
 again since seven o'clock this evening. Wind 
 moderating slightly. 
 
 I went ashore this forenoon and, after pass 
 ing a few minutes interviewing a group of vaga 
 bond natives from Point Hope who were 
 camped here to gather eggs, kill murres, and 
 loaf, I pushed on up the hillside, whose sheer 
 
 144
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 scarped face forms the Cape. I found it five 
 hundred and fifty feet high, composed of cal 
 careous slates, much bent and contorted, and 
 a considerable portion was f ossiliferous. Where 
 hills of this rock have steep slopes, and so much 
 drainage and wash that soil is not allowed to 
 form, nor the usual moss mantle to grow, they 
 bleach white and present a remarkably deso 
 late aspect in the distance. Such hills are com 
 mon back of Kotzebue Sound. These barren 
 slopes, however, alternate with remarkably 
 fertile valleys, where flowers of fifty or more 
 species bloom in rich profusion, making masses 
 of white, purple, and blue. Sometimes this 
 occurs on a comparatively thin soil where the 
 leaves do not veil the rocky ground ; but at the 
 bottom of the valleys there, usually is a green 
 ground below the bloom. 
 
 The slopes over which I passed hi to-day's 
 walk are planted chiefly with sweet fern 
 Dryas with its yellowish-white flowers. A 
 purple silene is also very abundant, making 
 beautiful bosses of color. Phlox is present in 
 dwarfed masses, only the stems and leaves 
 being dwarfed, not the flowers. Anemones 
 occur in fine patches, and buttercups, and sev 
 eral species of daisies and lupines. Dodecath- 
 eon I met here for the first time this season. 
 Dwarf willows are abundant. There was one 
 
 145
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 fern and one heathwort along a streamside. 
 I saw no true tundra here, its absence, no 
 doubt, being due to the free drainage of the 
 surface. The winds from the north are violent 
 here, as evidenced by the immense snow-drifts 
 still unmelted along the shore where we landed, 
 and also back in the hollows where they feed 
 the stream at which we got water for the ship. 
 They probably will last all summer. This cir 
 cumstance, of course, leaves the hill slopes all 
 the barer and dryer. 
 
 The trends of two main ridges, of which I 
 obtained approximate measurements, probably 
 coincide with the direction of the movement of 
 the ice. There is a small wasted moraine in the 
 lower part of the stream valley, extending to 
 the shore. Partial after-glaciation has been 
 light, and on rocks of this sort has left only very 
 faint traces. 
 
 July 20. Last night we again anchored on 
 the south side of Point Hope, the norther still 
 blowing hard. About noon to-day it began 
 to abate, and we again pushed off northward. 
 Now, at eight o'clock in the evening, we are 
 approaching Cape Lisburne, a bold bluff of 
 gray stratified rocks about fifteen hundred 
 feet high. All along the coast, from the neigh 
 borhood of Cape Prince of Wales, the peculiar 
 
 146
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 gray color of the rocks, and the forms into which 
 they are weathered and glaciated, indicate one 
 continuous formation, partially described yes 
 terday. Magnificent sections are exposed be 
 tween the north side of Point Hope and Cape 
 Lisburne. The age of the formation I do not 
 as yet certainly know. The existence of coal- 
 veins here and there in connection with con 
 glomerates, and the few fossils, would tend to 
 identify it as Carboniferous, though some of the 
 sections show a wide vertical range. Probably 
 a considerable amount of the formation, is 
 older. The few fossils I have seen point to the 
 Carboniferous, or older formations. 
 
 Between eleven and twelve o'clock this fore 
 noon several white whales were seen near the 
 shore, showing their white backs above the y 
 water when they rose to breathe, so white at 
 a little distance that they might easily have 
 been mistaken for breaking waves. We saw the 
 Indians shoot and kill one, and went ashore to 
 have a good look at this Beluga. It proved to 
 be a small one, only about seven feet long, and 
 of a pale gray ashen color, probably a young 
 specimen. In general form it is like a whale, 
 but more slender. The head is narrow and 
 rather high in the forehead. The eyes are very 
 small, about five eighths of an inch in diameter. 
 The ears are hardly visible, would scarcely 
 
 147
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 admit a common lead pencil. The blow-hole, 
 as in the true whales, is about an inch in diam 
 eter. The forefeet, the only limbs, are in the 
 form of short flippers, and the tail, which is 
 large, is formed by an expansion of the thick 
 skin. They are more nearly related to the dol 
 phins than to the whales the dolphins, por 
 poises, and grampuses forming one of the divi 
 sions of the three Cetacea delphinoidea. 
 
 While we were ashore looking at this speci 
 men, a much larger one came along parallel 
 with the shore-line and not more than twenty 
 or thirty yards from it. The natives were on 
 the watch and shot it through the body when 
 it rose to blow. Instead of making out to sea 
 when wounded, it kept its course alongshore 
 and the natives followed excitedly, ready to 
 get another shot. They kept it in sight while 
 it was ten or twelve feet under water, which 
 they were enabled to do on account of its 
 whiteness. Eight or ten men jumped into a 
 canoe and followed it, one standing in the bow 
 with a spear. After swimming about half a 
 mile and receiving four or more bullets from 
 Henry and Winchester rifles, it began to struggle 
 and die. The boat came up, an Eskimo drove 
 in a spear, and the whale was taken in tow and 
 brought back to where the first was killed, the 
 crew, meanwhile, singing in triumph. Then a 
 
 148
 
 CARIBOU AND A NATIVE FAIR 
 
 rolling hitch was made, and a dozen willing 
 hands landed the animal, a female. She meas 
 ured about twelve feet in length and nine in 
 circumference. They at once began to eat the 
 tail and back fin raw, cutting off blocks of it 
 and giving it to the children, not because they 
 were hungry, but because they regarded it as so 
 very palatable. Then a fire was built of drift 
 wood. Looking back from the ship, only two 
 red spots were visible on the beach and a 
 group of fifty feasting Eskimos! Probably not 
 a bit of the Belugas, except a little of the blub 
 ber, will be left by night. 
 
 The attitudes of the riflemen, legs spread, 
 rifle to shoulder, and eyes vividly on the alert, . 
 as they watched the animal's appearance above 
 water, were very striking. These animals are 
 quite abundant hereabouts, and used to be 
 killed with spears that had heads made of stone 
 or ivory. Whales were killed in the same man 
 ner. A much larger number of right whales is 
 killed by the natives about the shores of Bering 
 Sea and along the polar shores than is supposed. 
 Almost every village gets from one to five every 
 season. Then comes a joyful time. The bone 
 belongs to the boat's crew that strikes the 
 whale, the carcass to all the village. 
 
 A mountain slope just to the northeast of 
 Cape Lisburne is so covered at the top with 
 
 149
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 slender, spirey columns of rock, that I at first 
 glance took them for trees. A slight dusting 
 of snow has lately whitened the peaks. To the 
 south of the Cape twelve or fifteen miles two 
 small valleys, cut nearly to the level of the sea, 
 exhibit terminal and lateral moraines. After- 
 glaciation has been light. The higher moun 
 tains do not approach the coast nearly. No 
 deep fiords like those of the west coast.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK 
 
 July 21. Rainy this forenoon, clear at night. 
 Wind blowing hard from the southeast and 
 raising a heavy swell. Reached Icy Cape about 
 noon and found to our disappointment that, 
 notwithstanding the openness of the season, 
 further advance northeastward was barred by 
 the ice. After the sky began to clear somewhat, 
 and the rain to cease falling, we observed an 
 ice-blink stretching all around the northern 
 horizon for several hours before we sighted the 
 ice, a peculiar brown and yellow band within 
 a few degrees of the horizon. There was a dark 
 belt beneath it, which indicated water beyond 
 the ice. 
 
 We then turned westward, tracing the loose- 
 drift edge of the pack until eight in the eve 
 ning, when we turned to the east again, intend 
 ing to await the further movements of the ice 
 for a few days, and especially a change of wind 
 to blow it offshore. There is a coal-vein be 
 tween here and Cape Lisburne which we will 
 visit and mine as much coal as possible, in case 
 the weather permits. But as there is no shelter 
 
 151
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 thereabouts, we may not be able to obtain any 
 and in that case will be compelled to go to 
 Plover Bay for our next supply. 
 
 About fifteen miles southwest of Icy Cape 
 there is quite a large settlement l of Eskimos 
 on the low, sandy, storm-swept shore. Cool 
 and breezy must be their lives, and they can 
 have but little inducement to look up, or time 
 to spend in contemplation. Theirs is one con 
 stant struggle for food, interrupted by sleep 
 and by a few common quarrels. In winter they 
 hibernate in noisome underground dens. In 
 summer they come out to take breath in small 
 conical tents, made of white drill, when they 
 can get it. They waved a piece of cloth on the 
 end of a pole as we passed, inviting us to stop 
 and trade with them. From Cape Lisburne up 
 the coast to Point Barrow there is usually a 
 two-knot current, but the wind and the ice 
 have completely stopped the flow at present. 
 The sun is above the horizon at midnight. 
 
 July 22. A dull, leaden day; dark fog and 
 rain until about four in the afternoon; rained 
 but a small fraction of an inch. About noon 
 we once more sighted the ice-pack. The heavy 
 swell of the sea is rapidly subsiding and the 
 wind is veering to the northeast. We hope it 
 
 1 Ututok? 
 152
 
 ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK 
 
 will move the ice offshore and allow us to round 
 Point Barrow. The pack is close and impene 
 trable, though made up of far smaller blocks 
 than usual, owing, no doubt, to the mildness 
 of last winter, and to the chafing and pounding 
 of a succession of gales that have been driving 
 over it at intervals all the spring. We pushed 
 into it through the loose outer fringe, but soon 
 turned back when we found that it stretched 
 all around from the shore. By retreating we 
 avoided the danger of getting fixed in it and 
 carried away. Nearly all the vessels that have 
 been lost in the Arctic have been caught 
 hereabouts. 
 
 The approach to the ice was signalized by 
 the appearance of walruses, seals, and ducks. 
 The walrus is very abundant here, and when 
 whales are scarce the whalers hunt and kill 
 great numbers of them for their ivory and oil. 
 They are found on cakes of ice in hundreds, 
 and if a party of riflemen can get near, by 
 creeping up behind some hummock, and kill 
 the one on guard, the rest seem to be heedless 
 of noise after the first shot, and wait until 
 nearly all are killed. But if the first be only 
 wounded, and plunges into the water, the whole 
 "pod" is likely to follow. Came to anchor at 
 half-past ten this evening, a little to the south 
 of Icy Cape. 
 
 153 .
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 July 23. Clear and calm. Weighed anchor 
 at eight in the morning and ran close inshore, 
 anchored, and landed with instruments to 
 make exact measurements for latitude and 
 longitude, and to observe the dip. I also went 
 ashore to see the vegetation, and Nelson to 
 seek birds and look for Eskimo specimens. 
 Found only four plants in bloom saxifrage, 
 willow, artemisia, and draba. This is the bleak 
 est and barest spot of all. Well named Icy 
 Cape. A low bar of sand and shingle shoved 
 up by the ice that is crowded against the shore 
 every year. Inside this bar, which is only a 
 hundred yards wide, there is a stretch of water 
 several miles wide; then, low gravelly coast. 
 Sedges and grasses, dwarfed and frost-bitten, 
 constitute the bulk of the flora. 
 
 We noticed traces of Eskimo enca'mpments. 
 There was blubber in abundance from a dead 
 whale that had been cast up on the shore. 
 They had plenty of food when they left. But 
 before this they must have been hungry, for 
 we found remains of dogs that they had been 
 eating; also, white foxes' bones, picked clean. 
 Found a dead walrus on the beach beyond the 
 wreck of the whale. 
 
 At one in the afternoon we weighed anchor 
 and turned north, crossing inside of Blossom 
 Shoals, which are successive ridges pushed up 
 
 154
 
 ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK 
 
 by the ice, and extending ten or twelve miles 
 offshore. In a few hours we reached the limit 
 of open water. The ice extended out from the 
 shore, leaving no way. Turned again to the 
 south. Sighted the bark Northern Light l and 
 made up to her. She showed grandly with her 
 white canvas on the dark water, now nearly 
 calm. Ice just ahead as we accompanied her 
 northward while the Captain visited her. The 
 sun is low in the northwest at nine o'clock. A 
 lovely evening, bracing, cool, with a light breeze 
 blowing over the polar pack. The ice is mar- 
 velously distorted and miraged; thousands of 
 blocks seem suspended in the air; some even 
 poised on slender black poles and pinnacles; 
 a bridge of ice with innumerable piers, the ice 
 and water wavering with quick, glancing mo 
 tion. At midnight the sun is still above the 
 horizon about two diameters; purple to west 
 and east, gradually fading to dark slate color 
 in the south with a few banks of cloud. A bar 
 of gold in the path of the sun lay on the water 
 and across the pack, the large blocks in the line 
 [of vision] burning like huge coals of fire. 
 
 A little schooner 2 has a boat out in the edge 
 of the pack killing walruses, while she is lying 
 a little to east of the sun. A puff of smoke now 
 and then, a dull report, and a huge animal rears 
 
 1 A whaler. 2 The R. B. Handy, Captain Winants. 
 155
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 and falls another, and another, as they lie 
 on the ice without showing any alarm, waiting 
 to be killed, like cattle lying in a barnyard! 
 Nearer, we hear the roar, lion-like, mixed with 
 hoarse grunts, from hundreds like black bundles 
 on the white ice. A small red flag is planted 
 near the pile of slain. Then the three men puff 
 off to their schooner, as it is now midnight and 
 time for the other watch to go to work. 
 
 These magnificent animals are killed often 
 times for their tusks alone, like buffaloes for 
 their tongues, ostriches for their feathers, or for 
 mere sport and exercise. In nothing does man, 
 with his grand notions of heaven and charity, 
 show forth his innate, low-bred, wild animal 
 ism more clearly than in his treatment of his 
 brother beasts. From the shepherd with his 
 lambs to the red-handed hunter, it is the same; 
 no recognition of rights only murder in one 
 form or another. 
 
 July 24.. A lovely morning, sunful, calm, 
 clear; a broad swath of silver spangles in the 
 path of the sun; ice-blink to the north; a pale 
 sky to the . east and around to the south and 
 west; blue above, not deep blue; several ships 
 in sight. Sabbath bells are all that is required 
 to make a Sabbath of the day. 
 
 Ran inshore opposite the Eskimo village; 
 
 156
 
 ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK 
 
 about a hundred came off. Good-natured as 
 usual. A few biscuits and a little coaxing from 
 the sailors made them sing and dance. The 
 Eskimo women laughed as heartily at the curi 
 ous and extravagant gestures of the men as any 
 of the sailors did. They were anxious to know 
 what was the real object of the Corwin's cruise, 
 and when the steam whaler Belvedere hove in 
 sight they inquired whether she had big guns 
 and was the same kind of ship. Our interpreter 
 explained as well as he could. 
 
 In the afternoon we had the Sea Breeze, the 
 Sappho, the Northern Light, and the schooner 
 about us. The steam whaler had only six 
 whales. He had struck ten, taken four, and 
 found two dead. Last year he took twenty- 
 seven. The whales were in windrows then; at 
 one time twenty-five were so near that no gaps 
 between them were so wide but that a man 
 could strike on either side. They were more 
 abundant last year on the American coast; 
 this year, on the Asiatic. They are always 
 more abundant in spring and fall than during 
 the summer. 
 
 Had a graphic account, from Captain Owen, 
 of the loss of the thirty-three ships of the whal 
 ing fleet near Point Barrow in 1874. Caution 
 inculcated by such experiences. Anchored this 
 evening near the Belvedere and four other ves- 
 157
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWEST 
 
 sels. The schooner people complain that this is 
 a bad year for "walrusing"; ice too thin; after 
 killing a few the hot blood so weakens the ice 
 that in their struggles they break it and then 
 fall in and sink. 
 
 July 25. Steamed northward again, intend 
 ing, after reaching the ice, to make an effort 
 to go to Point Barrow with the steam launch, 
 and the lifeboat in tow, to seek the Daniel 
 Webster, and offer aid if necessary. [This 
 whaler is] now shut in about Point Belcher. 
 We found, however, that the ice was shoved 
 close inshore south of Icy Cape, and extended 
 in a dense pack from there to the southwest, 
 leaving no boat channel even. This plan was 
 therefore abandoned with great reluctance, and 
 we again moved southward, intending to coal, 
 if the weather allowed, near Cape Lisburne. 
 Calm, lovely night; slight breeze; going slowly 
 under sail alone. 
 
 July 26. Lovely day; gentle breeze. Eight 
 vessels in sight this morning. The Belvedere 
 got under sail and is proceeding southward 
 with us. Mirages in wonderful variety; ships 
 pulled up and to either side, out of all recogni 
 tion; the coast, with snow-patches as gaps, 
 pulled up and stratified; the snow looking like 
 
 158
 
 ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK 
 
 arched openings in a dark bridge above the 
 waters. About nine-thirty we noticed a rare 
 effect just beneath the sun a faint, black, 
 indefinite, cloudlike bar extended along the 
 horizon, and immediately beyond this dark bar 
 there was a strip of bright, keenly defined colors 
 like a showy spectrum, containing nearly all 
 the colors of the rainbow. 
 
 July 27. A lovely day, bright and calm and 
 warm. Coaling ship from a vein in a sandstone 
 cliff twenty miles northeast of Cape Lisburne. 
 In company with the Belvedere. Seeking fos 
 sils. Discovered only two species of plants. 
 Coal abundant. Mined, took out, and brought 
 on board fifteen tons to-day. The Belvedere 
 also is coaling and taking on water. Three 
 Eskimo canoes came from the south this eve 
 ning and camped at the stream which flows into 
 the sea on the north side of the coal bluff. The 
 dogs followed the canoes alongshore. After 
 camping they came alongside, but not before 
 their repeated signs of peace, consisting of 
 throwing up hands and shouting "Tima," were 
 answered by the officer of the deck. This cus 
 tom seems to be dying out, also that of em 
 bracing and nose-rubbing. 
 
 July 28. Lovely, tranquil day, all sunshine. 
 
 159
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 Taking coal until half-past four in the afternoon. 
 Then sailed toward Herald Island. I spent the 
 forenoon along the face of the shore cliffs, seek 
 ing fossils. Discovered only four, all plants. 
 Went three miles westward. Heavy snowbank, 
 leaning back in the shadow most of the dis 
 tance, almost changing to ice; very deep and 
 of several years' formation not less than 
 forty feet in many places. The cliffs or bluffs 
 are from two hundred to nearly four hundred 
 feet high, composed of sandstone, coal, and 
 conglomerate, the latter predominating. Great 
 thickness of sediments; a mile or more visible 
 on upturned edges, which give a furrowed sur 
 face by unequal weathering. Some good bi 
 tuminous coal; burns well. Veins forty feet 
 thick, more or less interrupted by clayey or 
 sandy strata. Fossils not abundant. 
 
 While I was scratching the rocks for some 
 light on the history of their formation, eight 
 canoe loads of Eskimos with all their goods, 
 tents, children, etc., passed close along the 
 shore, going toward Icy Cape; all except one 
 were drawn by dogs from three to five to 
 each canoe attached by a long string of wal 
 rus hide, and driven by a woman, or half -grown 
 girl, or boy. "Ooch, ooch, ooch," they said, 
 while urging them along. They dragged the 
 canoe with perhaps two tons altogether at two 
 
 160
 
 ZIGZAGS AMONG THE POLAR PACK 
 
 and one half miles per hour. When they came 
 to a sheer bluff the dogs swam and the driv 
 ers got into the canoe until the beach again 
 admitted of tracking. The canoe that had no 
 dogs was paddled and rowed by both men and 
 women. One woman, pulling an oar on the 
 starboard bow, was naked to the waist. They 
 came from Point Hope, and arrived last 
 evening at a camping-ground on the edge of a 
 stream opposite the Corwin's anchorage. This 
 morning they had eight tents and all the food, 
 canoes, arms, dogs, babies, and rubbish that 
 belong to a village. The encampment looked 
 like a settled village that had grown up by en 
 chantment. Only one was left after ten in the 
 morning, the occupants busying themselves 
 caching blubber of walrus. In the sunshine 
 some of the children enjoyed the luxury of run 
 ning about naked. 
 
 Eleven-thirty; a calm evening. The sun has 
 just set, its disk curiously distorted by refrac 
 tion and light diminished by vaporous haze, 
 so that it could be looked at, a glorious orb of 
 crimson and gold with a crisp surface. . . . 
 Horizontal layers of color, piled on each other 
 evenly, made the whole look like cheese of dif 
 ferent sizes laid neatly one on top of the other. 
 Sketched the various phases. It set as a flat 
 crimson cake of dull red. No- cloud; only 
 
 161
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 haze, dark at the horizon, purple higher, and 
 then yellow. 
 
 July 29. Calm, lovely, sunny day. Ther 
 mometer standing at 50 F, in the shade; warm 
 in the sun; the water smooth with streaks; 
 ruffled, like an alpine lake; mostly glassy, 
 stirred with irregular breaths of air. Ice visi 
 ble about noon, near "Post-Office Point." l 
 Fine-grained, hazy, luminous mist about the 
 horizon. A few gulls and ducks. Sun barely 
 dipped beneath the horizon. Curiously mod 
 eled by refraction; bars dividing in sections 
 always horizontal. Ducks flying at midnight. 
 
 July 80. Another glassy, calm day, all sun 
 shine from midnight to midnight. Kotzebue's 
 gull, the kittiwake, about the ship ; no seals or 
 walrus. Herald Island came in sight about one 
 o'clock. At a distance of eight to ten miles we 
 reached the ice, but made our way through it, 
 as it was mostly light and had openings here 
 and there. But we suffered some hard bumps; 
 pushed slowly and got close alongside, much to 
 the satisfaction of the crew. 
 
 1 Said to be a point north of Bering Strait in the Arctic 
 Ocean where, for some reason, the drift of oceanic currents 
 is not strong. Whalers and other vessels customarily went 
 there to exchange mail and news.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 FIEST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 
 Off Herald Island, Arctic Ocean, 
 
 July 81, 1881. 
 
 WE left Herald Island this morning at three 
 o'clock, after landing upon it and exploring it 
 pretty thoroughly from end to end. On the 
 morning of the twenty-fifth we were steaming 
 along the coast a few miles to the south of Icy 
 Cape, intending to make an effort to reach 
 Point Barrow in order to give aid to the whale- 
 ship Daniel Webster, which we learned was 
 beset in the ice thereabouts and was in great 
 danger of being lost. 
 
 We found, however, that the pack extended 
 solidly from Icy Cape to the southward and 
 pressed so hard against the shore that we saw 
 it would be impossible to proceed even with 
 the steam launch. We therefore turned back 
 with great reluctance and came to anchor near 
 Cape Lisburne, where we mined and took on 
 about thirty tons of coal. About half-past four 
 in the afternoon, July twenty-eighth, we hoisted 
 anchor and sailed toward Herald Island, in 
 tending to make a general survey of the edge of 
 
 163
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 the great polar ice-pack about Wrangell Land, 
 hardly hoping to be able to effect a landing so 
 early in the season. 
 
 On the evening of the thirtieth we reached 
 Herald Island, having been favored with de 
 lightful weather all the way, the ocean being 
 calm and glassy as a mountain lake, the surface 
 stirred gently here and there with irregular 
 breaths of air that could hardly be called winds, 
 and the whole of this day from midnight to 
 midnight was all sunshine, contrasting mar- 
 velously with the dark, icy storm-days we had 
 experienced so short a time ago. 
 
 Herald Island came in sight at one o'clock 
 in the afternoon, and when we reached the edge 
 of the pack it was still about ten miles distant. 
 We made our way through it, however, with 
 out great difficulty, as the ice was mostly light 
 and had openings of clear water here and there, 
 though in some close-packed fields the Cor- 
 win was pretty roughly bumped, and had to 
 steam her best to force a passage. At ten 
 o'clock in the evening we came to anchor in the 
 midst of huge cakes and blocks about sixty-five 
 feet thick within two or three hundred yards 
 of the shore. 
 
 After so many futile efforts had been made 
 last year to reach this little ice-bound island, 
 everybody seemed wildly eager to run ashore 
 
 164
 
 rtg* 
 
 J&$!r / 
 
 <&%**&& ^ 
 <&?% ^"5? ^^
 
 FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND 
 
 and climb to the summit of its sheer granite 
 cliffs. At first a party of eight jumped from the 
 bowsprit chains and ran across the narrow belt 
 of margin ice and madly began to climb up an 
 excessively steep gully, which came to an end 
 in an inaccessible slope a few hundred feet 
 above the water. Those ahead loosened and 
 sent down a train of granite boulders, which 
 shot over the heads of those below in a far 
 more dangerous manner than any of the party 
 seemed to appreciate. Fortunately, nobody was 
 hurt, and all made out to get down in safety. 1 
 
 1 Captain Hooper's report of the incident and of Muir's 
 skillful ascent of the island adds some interesting details: 
 
 " Muir, who is an experienced mountaineer, came over 
 the ice with an axe in his hand, and, reaching the island a few 
 hundred feet farther north, opposite a bank of frozen snow 
 and ice a hundred feet high, standing at an angle of 50, he 
 deliberately commenced cutting steps and ascending the ice 
 cliff, the top of which he soon reached without apparent dif 
 ficulty, and from there the top of the island was reached by 
 a gradual ascent neither difficult nor dangerous. 
 
 " While approaching the island, by a careful examination 
 with the glass, Muir's practiced eye had easily selected the 
 most suitable place for making the ascent. The place selected 
 by the others, or rather the place upon which they stumbled, 
 for the attempt to ascend was made on the first point 
 reached, was a small, steep ravine about two hundred feet 
 deep. The jagged nature of its steep sides made climbing 
 possible, and from the sea-level the top of this ravine ap 
 peared to these ambitious but inexperienced mountain- 
 climbers to be the top of the island. After several narrow 
 escapes from falling rocks they succeeded in gaining the top 
 of the ravine, when they discovered that the ascent was 
 hardly begun. Above them was a plain surface of nearly a 
 thousand feet in height, and so steep that the loose, disin- 
 
 165
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 While this remarkable piece of mountain 
 eering and Arctic exploration was in progress, 
 a light skin-covered boat was dragged over the 
 ice and launched on a strip of water that 
 stretched in front of an accessible ravine, the 
 bed of an ancient glacier, which I felt assured 
 would conduct by an easy grade to the sum 
 mit of the island. The slope of this ravine for 
 the first hundred feet or so was very steep, but 
 inasmuch as it was full of firm, icy snow, it was 
 easily ascended by cutting steps in the face 
 of it with an axe that I had brought from the 
 ship for the purpose. Beyond this there was 
 not the slightest difficulty in our way, the 
 glacier having graded a fine, broad road. 
 
 Kellett, who discovered this island in 1849, 
 and landed on it under unfavorable circum- 
 
 tegrating rock with which it was covered gave way on the 
 slightest touch and came thundering to the bottom. Some 
 of the more ambitious were still anxious to keep on, notwith 
 standing the difficulty and danger, and I found it necessary 
 to interpose my authority to prevent this useless risk of life 
 and limb. A retreat was ordered, and with a good deal of 
 difficulty accomplished. The descent had to be made one 
 at a time, the upper ones remaining quiet until those below 
 were out of danger. Fortunately, all succeeded in reaching 
 the bottom in safety. In the mean time Muir and several 
 others had reached the top of the island and were already 
 searching for cairns or other signs of white men. Although 
 the search was kept up until half-past two in the morning, 
 nothing was found." (C. L. Hooper's Report of the Cruise of 
 the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin in the Arctic Ocean, 
 1881, p. 52.) 
 
 166
 
 FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND 
 
 stances, described it as "an inaccessible rock." 
 In general the sides are, indeed, extremely 
 sheer and precipitous all around, though skilled 
 mountaineers would find many gullies and 
 slopes by which they might reach the summit. 
 I first pushed on to the head of the glacier val 
 ley, and thence along the blackbone of the is 
 land to the highest point, which I found to be 
 about twelve hundred feet above the level of 
 the sea. This point is about a mile and a half 
 from the northwest end, and four and a half 
 from the northeast end, thus making the is 
 land about six miles in length. It has been cut 
 nearly in two by the glacial action it has under 
 gone, the width at the lowest portion being 
 about half a mile, and the average width about 
 two miles. 
 
 The entire island is a mass of granite, with 
 the exception of a patch of metamorphic slate 
 near the center, and no doubt owes its ex 
 istence, with so considerable a height, to the 
 superior resistance this granite offered to the 
 degrading action of the northern ice-sheet, 
 traces of which are here plainly shown, as well 
 as on the shores of Siberia and Alaska and down 
 through Bering Strait southward beyond Van 
 couver Island. Traces of the subsequent par 
 tial glaciation to which it has been subjected 
 are also manifested in glacial valleys of con- 
 167
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 siderable depth as compared with the size of 
 the island. I noticed four of these, besides many 
 marginal glacial grooves around the sides. One 
 small remnant [of a glacier] with feeble action 
 still exists near the middle of the island. I also 
 noted several scored and polished patches on 
 the hardest and most enduring of the outswell- 
 ing rock-bosses. This little island, standing as 
 it does alone out in the Polar Sea, is a fine gla 
 cial monument. 
 
 The midnight hour I spent alone on the 
 highest summit one of the most impressive 
 hours of my life. The deepest silence seemed 
 to press down on all the vast, immeasurable, 
 virgin landscape. The sun near the horizon 
 reddened the edges of belted cloud-bars near 
 the base of the sky, and the jagged ice-boulders 
 crowded together over the frozen ocean stretch 
 ing indefinitely northward, while perhaps a 
 hundred miles of that mysterious Wrangell 
 Land was seen blue in the northwest a waver 
 ing line of hill and dale over the white and blue 
 ice-prairie! Pale gray mountains loomed be 
 yond, well calculated to fix the eye of a moun 
 taineer. But it was to the far north that I ever 
 found myself turning, to where the ice met the 
 sky. I would fain have watched here all the 
 strange night, but was compelled to remember 
 the charge given me by the Captain, to make 
 168
 
 FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND 
 
 haste and return to the ship as soon as I should 
 find it possible, as there was ten miles of shift 
 ing, drifting ice between us and the open sea. 
 
 I therefore began the return journey about 
 one o'clock this morning, after taking the com 
 pass bearings of the principal points within 
 sight on Wrangell Land, and making a hasty 
 collection of the flowering plants on my way. 
 I found one species of poppy quite showy, and 
 making considerable masses of color on the 
 sloping uplands, three or four species of saxi 
 frage, one silene, a draba, dwarf willow, stel- 
 laria, two golden composite, two sedges, one 
 grass, and a veronica, together with a consider 
 able number of mosses and lichens, some of 
 them quite showy and so abundant as to fur 
 nish most of the color over the gray granite. 
 
 Innumerable gulls and murres breed on the 
 steep cliffs, the latter most abundant. They 
 kept up a constant din of domestic notes. Some 
 of 'them are sitting on their eggs, others have 
 young, and it seems astonishing that either 
 eggs or the young can find a resting-place on 
 cliffs so severely precipitous. The nurseries 
 formed a lively picture the parents coming 
 and going with food or to seek it, thousands in 
 rows standing on narrow ledges like bottles 
 on a grocer's shelves, the feeding of the little 
 ones, the multitude of wings, etc. 
 169
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 Foxes were seen by Mr. Nelson l near the 
 top of the northeast end of the island, and after 
 we had all returned to the ship and were get 
 ting under way, the Captain discovered a polar 
 bear swimming deliberately toward the ship 
 between some floating blocks within a few 
 yards of us. After he had approached within 
 about a dozen yards the Captain shot at him, 
 when he turned and made haste to get away, 
 not diving, however, but swimming fast, and 
 keeping his head turned to watch the ship, 
 
 1 In a recent article on " The Larger North American 
 Mammals" Mr. E. W. Nelson has given the following ac 
 count of this incident: 
 
 "The summer of 1881, when we landed from the Corwin 
 on Herald Island, northwest of Bering Straits, we found 
 many white foxes living in burrows under large scattered 
 rocks on the plateau summit. They had never seen men be 
 fore and our presence excited their most intense interest and 
 curiosity. One and sometimes two of them followed closely 
 at my heels wherever I went, and when I stopped to make 
 notes or look about, sat down and watched me with absurd 
 gravity. Now and then one at a distance would mount a 
 rock to get a better view of the stranger. 
 
 " On returning to the ship, I remembered that my note 
 book had been left on a large rock over a fox den, on the 
 island, and at once went back for it. I had been gone only a 
 short time, but no trace of the book could be found on or 
 about the rock, and it was evident that the owner of the den 
 had confiscated it. Several other foxes sat about viewing my 
 search with interest and when I left followed me to the edge 
 of the island. A nearly grown young one kept on the Corwin 
 was extraordinarily intelligent, inquisitive, and mischievous, 
 and afforded all of us much amusement and occasional ex 
 asperation." (National Geographic Magazine, November, 
 1916, p. 425.) 
 
 170
 
 FIRST ASCENT OF HERALD ISLAND 
 
 until at length he received a ball in the neck 
 and stained the blue water with his blood. He 
 was a noble-looking animal and of enormous 
 strength, living bravely and warm amid 
 eternal ice. 
 
 We looked carefully everywhere for traces of 
 the crew of the Jeannette along the shore, as 
 well as on the prominent headlands and cliffs 
 about the summit, without discovering the 
 faintest sign of their ever having touched the 
 island. 
 
 We have been steaming along the edge of 
 the pack all day after reaching open water, 
 with Wrangell Land constantly in sight; but 
 we find that the ice has been sheering us off 
 farther and farther from it toward the west and 
 south. The margin of the main pack has a 
 jagged saw-tooth outline, the teeth being from 
 two to ten miles or more in length, and their 
 points reaching about forty miles from the 
 shore of Wrangell Land. Our chances, how 
 ever, of reaching this mysterious country some 
 time this year seem good at present, as the ice 
 is melting fast and is much lighter than usual, 
 and its wind and current movements, after it 
 breaks up, will be closely watched for an avail 
 able opening.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 Off Point Barrow, August 16, 1881. 
 
 WE left Herald Island at three o'clock in the 
 morning of July 31. The clear water seen by 
 me from the top of the island is called "the 
 Hole" by whalers. I am told that it is remark 
 ably constant in its appearance and position 
 from year to year. What combination of cur 
 rents, coast-lines, winds, etc., is the cause of 
 it is not yet known. Neither is the Post-Office 
 Point of ice understood. 
 
 On the day after leaving Herald Island the 
 fine weather we had been enjoying for a week 
 began to vanish, heavy cloud-piles grew about 
 the horizon, and reeking fogs over the ice. We 
 kept on around the serrated edge of the pack, 
 and were glad to find a wide opening trending 
 to the northwest, that is, toward the south- 
 most point of Wrangell Land. Up we steamed, 
 excited with bright hopes of effecting a land 
 ing and searching the shores for traces of the 
 Jeannette. In the afternoon, while yet our way 
 was tolerably clear, and after the land had been 
 long in sight, we were enveloped in fog, and 
 172
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 hove to, instead of attempting to grope a 
 course through the drift ice and running the 
 danger of getting the ship embayed. A few 
 seals, gulls, and walruses were observed. 
 
 Next day, August 2, the fog lifted early in 
 the morning, when we got under way and 
 pushed hopefully onward once more, with the 
 mountains and blue foothills of the long-lost 
 land in full view, until noon, making our way 
 easily through the drift ice, dodging to right 
 and left past the large masses, some of which 
 were a mile or more in length. Then the fog 
 began to settle again over all the wild land 
 scape; the barometer was falling, and the wind 
 began to blow with indications of a stiff breeze 
 that would probably press the ice toward the 
 shore. Under these conditions we dared not 
 venture farther, but loath to turn back we 
 made fast to an ice-floe and waited develop 
 ments. The fog partially cleared again, which 
 induced us to make another short push ahead, 
 but our hopes were again and again baffled by 
 darkness and close-packed ice, and we were at 
 length compelled to seek the open water once 
 more, and await a general calm and clearance. 
 
 A piece of wood twenty-seven inches long, 
 
 cut with a sharp axe, was picked up in the 
 
 morning within, perhaps, twenty-five miles 
 
 of Wrangell Land. It was evident, by its 
 
 173
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 length and by the way it was split and cut, 
 that it was intended for firewood. It seemed 
 clearly to be the work of white men, possibly 
 of some of the Jeannette's crew. But the grand 
 excitement of the day, apart from the untrod 
 den shore we were seeking, was caused by three 
 polar bears, magnificent fellows, fat and hearty, 
 rejoicing in their strength out here in the bosom 
 of the icy wilderness. 
 
 When discovered they were regarding us 
 attentively from a large cake of ice, each on 
 a hummock commanding a good view of the 
 ship, an object they no doubt saw for the first 
 time in their lives. One of them was perched 
 on top of a pile of blocks, the topmost of which 
 was a pedestal square and level as if built up 
 for an outlook. He sat erect and, as he was 
 nearly the color of the ice, was not noticed 
 until, we were quite near. They watched, mo 
 tionless, for some time, throwing forward then* 
 long necks and black-tipped noses as if trying 
 to catch and pass judgment on the scent of the 
 big, smoking, black monster that was approach 
 ing them. 
 
 When we were within about fifty yards of 
 them, they started, walked a step or two, and 
 turned to gaze again as the strange object 
 came nearer. Then they showed fear and be 
 gan to lumber along over and across the wave- 
 174
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 like rough hills and dales of the ice, afraid, per 
 haps, for the 'first time in their lives. For polar 
 bears are the master existences of these frozen 
 regions, the walruses being no match for them. 
 First they broke into a lumbering trot; then, 
 into a panicky, walloppy gallop, with fewer 
 and fewer halts to look back, until they reached 
 the far side of the ice-field and plunged into the 
 water with a splash that sent the spray ten 
 feet into the air. Then they swam, making all 
 haste toward a larger floe. If they could have 
 gained it they would have made good their re 
 treat. But the steamer gave chase at the rate 
 of seven knots an hour, headed them off, and 
 all were shot without the least chance of escape, 
 and without their being able to offer the slight 
 est resistance. 
 
 The first one overtaken was killed instantly 
 at the second shot, which passed through 
 the brain. The other two were fired at by 
 five fun-, fur-, and fame-seekers, with heavy 
 breech-loading rifles, about forty tunes ere 
 they were killed. From four to six bullets 
 passed through their necks and shoulders be 
 fore the last through the brain put an end to 
 their agony. The brain is small and not easily 
 penetrated, except from the side of the head, 
 while their bodies may be shot through and 
 through a score of times, apparently, without 
 
 175
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 disabling them for fighting or swimming. When 
 a bullet went through the neck, they would 
 simply shake their heads without making any 
 sort of outcry, the effect being simply to hasten 
 their flight. The same was true of most other 
 wounds. But occasionally, when struck in the 
 spine, or shoulder, the pain would make them 
 roar, and groan, and turn to examine the spot, 
 or to snap at the wound as if seeking an enemy. 
 They would dive occasionally, and swim under 
 water a few yards. But, being out of breath, 
 they were always compelled to come up in a 
 minute or so. They had no chance whatever 
 for their lives, and the whole affair was as safe 
 and easy a butchery as shooting cows in a barn 
 yard from the roof of the barn. It was pro 
 longed, bloody agony, as clumsily and heart 
 lessly inflicted as it could well be, except in the 
 case of the first, which never knew what hurt 
 him. 
 
 The Eskimos hunt and kill them for food, 
 going out to meet them on the ice with spears 
 and dogs. This is merely one savage living on 
 another. But how civilized people, seeking for 
 heavens and angels and millenniums, and the 
 reign of universal peace and love, can enjoy 
 this red, brutal amusement, is not so easily 
 accounted for. Such soft, fuzzy, sentimental 
 aspirations, and the frame of mind that can 
 
 176
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 reap giggling, jolly pleasure from the blood 
 and agony and death of these fine annuals, 
 with their humanlike groans, are too devilish 
 for anything but hell. Of all the animals man 
 is at once the worst and the best. 
 
 Two of the bears were hoisted on board, the 
 other was neglected until it could not be found. 
 Then came the vulgar business of skinning and 
 throwing the mangled carcasses back into the 
 clean blue water among the ice. The skins 
 were stretched on frames to be dried and taken 
 home to show angelic sweethearts the evidence 
 of pluck and daring. 
 
 The Indians sometimes adorn their belts 
 with the claws of bears and place their skulls 
 about the graves of the men who killed them. 
 I have seen as many as eighteen set about the 
 skeleton of an Eskimo hunter, making for his 
 bones an oval enclosure like a frame of shells 
 set around a grave. The strength of the polar 
 bear is in proportion to the massiveness of his 
 limbs. The view of their limb muscles, swell 
 ing in braided bosses, could not fail to awaken 
 admiration as they lay exposed on the deck. 
 Such is the strength of the large bears, which 
 are nine to ten feet long, that they can stand 
 on the edge of an ice-floe and drag up out 
 of the water a walrus weighing more than a 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 177
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 The feet of the larger one measured nine and 
 a half inches across behind the toes. They 
 have long hair on the soles and around the 
 sides of the feet for warmth in the dreary soli 
 tudes which they inhabit. When standing, the 
 claws are not visible; the whole foot seems to 
 be a large mop of hair spreading all around. 
 The expression of the eye is rather mild and dog- 
 like in the shape of the muzzle and the droop 
 of the lips, and only the -teeth would suggest 
 his character as a killer. 
 
 The third of August was spent in groping 
 anxiously landward again through fog and ice 
 until about six in the evening, when we reached 
 the heavy, unbroken edge of the coast ice, at 
 a distance of about twenty-five miles from the 
 nearest point of land, and all hope of advanc 
 ing farther was now at an end. We, therefore, 
 turned away, determined to bide our tune, 
 hoping that warm winds and waves would at 
 length melt and smash the heavy fields along 
 shore some time before the setting-in of winter. 
 Nor were we altogether without hope of find 
 ing open water leading around the west shore 
 of Wrangell Land. We soon found, however, 
 that the pack stretched continuously across 
 to Cape North on the Siberian coast, thus 
 promptly forbidding all efforts in that direc 
 tion. 
 
 178
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 The bottom of the ocean in that region is 
 very level. Soundings made every hour for 
 three days l varied scarcely more than five 
 fathoms, and for half a day not one fathom. 
 We saw several small fishes among the ice at 
 our nearest point to lee; also seals, both sad 
 dleback and hair. Just as we were turning we 
 discovered a bear observing us from a large 
 field of ice. He kept coming nearer a few steps 
 and then halting to catch the smell of the ship. 
 We did not attempt to kill him, however, as the 
 advantage we had was not great enough. We 
 could not chase him here with the steamer. 
 
 On the morning of the fourth we discovered 
 a ship's foreyard with bits of rope still attached 
 to it in such a way as to show that it had been 
 carried away while the sail was bent. It seemed 
 to have been ground in the ice for a winter or 
 two, and probably belonged to one of the miss 
 ing whalers. 
 
 After cruising along the Siberian coast for a 
 
 few days, and calling at the Cape Wankarem 
 
 village to procure as many as possible of the 
 
 articles taken by the natives from the wreck 
 
 of one of the lost whalers, we found ourselves 
 
 once more on the edge of Wrangell ice, and 
 
 again in dense fog on the morning of the ninth 
 
 of August. A huge white bear came swimming 
 
 1 In an average depth of twenty-one fathoms. 
 
 179
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 through the drizzle and gloom and black heav 
 ing waves toward the ship as we lay at anchor, 
 guided doubtless by scent. He was greeted by 
 a volley of rifle balls, no one of which injured 
 him, however, and fortunately he could not be 
 pursued. 
 
 The fog lasted in dismal thickness until one 
 o'clock on the morning of the eleventh, when 
 we once more saw the hills and dales of Wran- 
 gell Land hopefully near. We discovered a lead 
 that enabled us to approach within perhaps 
 fifteen miles of the nearest portion of the 
 coast. At times we thought ourselves much 
 nearer, when the light, falling favorably, would 
 bring out many of the smaller features, such 
 as the subordinate ridges on the faces of the 
 mountains and hills, the small dimpling hol 
 lows with their different shades of color, fur 
 rows that seemed the channels of small 
 streams, and the peculiar rounded outlines due 
 to glacial action. Then pushing eagerly through 
 the huge drifting masses toward the nearest 
 cape, judging by the distinctness of its fea 
 tures, it would suddenly seem to retreat again 
 into the blue distance, and some other point 
 catching the sunlight would be seen rising 
 grandly across the jagged, hummocky ice- 
 plain, relieved against the blue shadowy por 
 tions to right and left as a background. 
 
 180
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 It was not long, however, after tracing one 
 lead after another, and coming always to a 
 standstill with the ship's prow against ice of 
 enormous thickness, before we were forced to 
 the conclusion that all efforts made hereabouts 
 would now be vain. The ice did not seem to 
 have been broken or moved in any way for 
 years. We turned, therefore, and made our 
 way back to open water with difficulty and 
 steamed along the edge of the pack to the north 
 eastward. After a few hours' run we found the ice 
 more promising, for it showed traces of having 
 been well crushed and pounded, enabling us 
 to bear gradually in toward the land through a 
 wedge-shaped lead about twenty miles in length. 
 
 At half -past five in the afternoon we were 
 again brought to a standstill against heavy ice, 
 but this time within about five miles of the 
 shore. We now felt pretty sure that we would 
 be able to make a landing, and the questions 
 that we wanted to put to this land of mystery 
 came thronging to mind. This being, perhaps, 
 the most likely place to find traces of the Jean- 
 nette expedition, in case any portion of this 
 island was reached, would we find such traces? 
 Has the country any human inhabitants? 
 Would we find reindeer or musk oxen? What 
 birds shall we find? What plants, rocks, 
 streams, etc.? 
 
 181
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 We intended to walk the five miles of ice, 
 dragging a light skin-covered boat with us to 
 cross any open spot that we might come to ; but 
 ere we could set off, the fog began to settle 
 gloomily down over the land and we deter 
 mined to wait until the next morning, and in 
 the meantime steam back out of the narrow, 
 ice-jammed throat of the lead a few miles to 
 a safer position, in case the ice should close 
 upon us. Just as we turned from our nearest 
 point of approach, we fired a cannon to stir 
 the echoes among the hills and give notice of 
 our presence in case anybody was near to 
 listen. 
 
 The next morning, steaming ahead once 
 more to the end of our water-lane, we were 
 rejoiced to find that though there were now 
 about eight or ten miles of ice separating us 
 from the shore, it was less firmly packed, and 
 our little vessel made a way through it with 
 out difficulty, until we were within two miles 
 of the shore, when we found the craggy blocks 
 extremely hard and wedged closely. But a 
 patch of open water near the beach, now 
 plainly in sight, tempted us to continue the 
 struggle, and with the throttle wide open the 
 barrier was forced. By ten o'clock in the morn 
 ing the Corwin was riding at anchor less than 
 a cable's length from a dry, gravel bar, stretch- 
 
 182
 
 APPROACHING A MYSTERIOUS LAND 
 
 ing in front of the mouth of a river. The long 
 battle we had fought with the ice was now 
 fairly won, and neither the engine nor the hull 
 of the ship seemed to have suffered any appre 
 ciable damage from the terrible shocks and 
 strains they had undergone.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 [Steamer Corwin, 
 Wrangell Land, August 12, 1881.] 
 
 A NOTABLE addition was made to the na 
 tional domain when Captain Calvin L. Hooper 
 landed on Wrangell Land, 1 and took formal 
 possession of it in the name of the United 
 States. We landed near the southeast cape, 
 at the mouth of a river, in latitude 71 4 X , longi 
 tude 177 40' 30" W. The extent of the new 
 territory thus acquired is not definitely known, 
 nor is it likely to be for many a century, or until 
 some considerable change has taken place in 
 the polar climate, rendering the new land more 
 attractive and more accessible. For at present 
 even its southmost portion is almost constantly 
 beset with ice of a kind that renders it all but 
 inaccessible during both the winter and sum 
 mer, while to the northward it extends far into 
 the frozen ocean. 
 
 Going inland, along the left bank of the river, 
 we found it much larger than it at first ap 
 peared to be. There was no snow left on the 
 lowlands or any of the hills or mountains in 
 
 1 The landing was made August 12, 1881. 
 184
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 sight, excepting the remnants of heavy drifts; 
 nevertheless, it was still about seventy-five 
 yards wide, twelve feet deep, and was flowing 
 on with a clear, stately current, at a speed of 
 about three miles an hour. While the snow is 
 melting it must be at least two hundred yards 
 wide and twenty feet deep, and its sources must 
 lie well back in the interior of the island. 
 
 Not the slightest trace, however, could we 
 find along the river, along the shore, or on the 
 bluff to the northeastward, of the Jeannette 
 party, or of any human inhabitant. A land 
 more severely solitary could hardly be found 
 anywhere on the face of the globe. 
 
 The beach was well tracked by polar bears, 
 but none of the party could discover any sign 
 of reindeer or musk oxen, though the country 
 seems to abound in the kind of food they re 
 quire. A single fox track was observed, and 
 some burrows of a species of spermophile; 1 
 also a number of birds, 2 and about twenty 
 
 1 E. W. Nelson, in Mammals of Northern Alaska (1886), 
 identified this spermophile as Spermophilus empeira empetra 
 (Pallas), and remarks, "upon the hill where we planted our 
 flag on Wrangell Island were many of their burrows." 
 
 2 The following birds were observed by Mr. Nelson on 
 Wrangell Land and Herald Island: Snow Bunting, Snowy 
 Owl, Pacific Golden Plover, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red Phala- 
 rope, some kind of wild goose (perhaps Black Brant), King 
 Eider Duck, Red-faced Cormorant, Ivory Gull, Pacific 
 Kittiwake, Glaucous Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Ross's 
 Gull, Sabine's Gull, Pomarine Jaeger, Long-tailed Jaeger, 
 
 185
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 species of plants, * most of them in bloom. The 
 rock is clay slate, which weathers smoothly, 
 and is covered with a sparse growth of mosses, 
 lichens, and flowering plants, not unlike that 
 of the adjacent coasts of Siberia and Alaska. 
 
 Some small fragments of knowledge concern 
 ing this mysterious country have been in exist 
 ence for nearly a century, mostly, however, of 
 so vague and foggy a character as to be scarce 
 at all available as geography, while up to the 
 time of Captain Hooper's visit no explorer so 
 far as known had set foot on it. In the year 
 1820 Lieutenant Wrangell was ordered by Alex 
 ander, Emperor of Russia, to proceed from the 
 mouth of the Kolyma as far as Cape Schelag- 
 skoj, and from thence in a northerly direction 
 over the ice with sledges drawn by dogs, to as 
 certain whether an inhabited country existed in 
 that quarter, as asserted by the Chukchis and 
 others. 
 
 But the land in question was far from being 
 generally known even by tradition among the 
 Chukchis inhabiting the Siberian coast nearest 
 to it. Wrangell seems to have found only one 
 
 Rodgers's Fulmar, Horned Puffin, Crested Auk, Black Guil 
 lemot, Pigeon Guillemot, Thick-billed Guillemot, and a dead 
 specimen of the Crested Shrike. This list is made from 
 E. W. Nelson's Birds of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, 
 published with Muir's botanical observations in Treasury 
 Department Document No. 429 (1883). 
 1 See "Botanical Notes," p. 295. 
 
 186
 
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 sA 
 
 1 "il N 
 
 I
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 person during his long search for this land that 
 had heard or could tell him anything concern 
 ing it. This man, an intelligent chief or head of 
 a family, drew with charcoal a correct sketch 
 of Cape Schelagskoj, Aratuan Island, and an 
 other to the east of the Cape, and then as 
 sured Wrangell in the most positive manner 
 that there was no other island along the coast. 
 When asked whether there was any other land 
 to the north beyond the visible horizon, he 
 seemed to reflect a little, and then said that 
 between Cape Schelagskoj and Cape North, 
 there was a part of the coast where, from some 
 cliffs near the mouth of a river, one might on a 
 clear summer day descry snow-covered moun 
 tains at a great distance to the north, but 
 that in winter it was impossible to see so far. 
 He said also that formerly herds of reindeer 
 sometimes came across the ice, probably from 
 thence, but that they had been frightened back 
 by hunters and wolves. He claimed to have 
 himself once seen a herd returning to the north 
 in this way in April, and followed them in a 
 sledge drawn by two deer for a whole day until 
 the roughness of the ice forced him to turn back. 
 His opinion was that these distant mountains 
 he had seen were not on an island, but on an 
 extensive land similar to his own country. 
 He had been told by his father that a Chuk- 
 187
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 chi elder had once gone there with a few fol 
 lowers in large boats, but what they found 
 there, or whether they ever returned, he did 
 not know. Still he maintained that the distant 
 land was inhabited, and adduced as proof of it 
 that some years ago a dead whale was found 
 at Aratuan Island pierced by spears pointed 
 with slate; and as his people did not use such 
 weapons he supposed that the whale must have 
 been killed by the people of the northland. 
 
 After spending three winters Baron Wrangell 
 wrote concerning this country: "Our return to 
 Nishne Kolymsk closed the series of attempts 
 made by us to discover a northern land, which 
 though not seen by us, may nevertheless exist, 
 and be attainable under a combination of very 
 favorable circumstances, the principal of which 
 would be a long, cold, and stormless winter, 
 and a late spring. If another attempt should 
 be made, it would be advisable to leave the 
 coast about Cape Yakdn, which all the native 
 accounts concur in representing as the nearest 
 point to the supposed northern region." 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 
 Off Point Barrow, Alaska, 
 
 August 17, 1881. 
 
 The Corwin made a very short stay at Wran 
 gell Land, partly because of the condition of 
 
 188
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 the ice, which threatened to shut us in; and 
 partly because it seemed improbable that a 
 prolonged search in the region about our land 
 ing-point could in any way advance the main 
 objects of the expedition. A considerable stretch 
 of the bluff coast where we landed was scanned 
 closely as we approached. Captain Hooper, 
 Mr. Nelson, and myself examined a mile or 
 two of the left bank- of the river, a gently 
 sloping hillside back from the river, and a 
 stretch of smooth beach at its mouth. Mean 
 while a party of officers, after erecting a. cairn, 
 depositing records in it, and setting the flag on 
 the edge of the bluff fronting the ocean, went 
 northeastward along the brow of the shore- 
 bluff to a prominent headland, a distance of 
 three or four miles, searching carefully for 
 traces of the Jeannette explorers, and of any 
 native inhabitants that might chance to be 
 in the country; then all were hurriedly re 
 called, and we forced our way back through 
 ten miles of heavy drifting ice to open water. 
 On the shore we found the skeleton of a 
 large bowhead whale, an oak barrel stave, a 
 piece of a boat mast about seven feet long and 
 four inches in diameter, a double kayak paddle 
 with both blades broken, and a small quantity 
 of driftwood. Every bit of flotsam was much 
 scoured and abraded, showing that the articles 
 
 189
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 had long been exposed to the action of waves 
 and ice. 
 
 Back on the hills and along the river-bank the 
 tracks of geese, marmots, foxes, and bears were 
 seen, but no trace whatever of human beings, 
 though the mouth of a river would above all 
 others be the place to find them if the country 
 were inhabited or had been visited by Euro 
 peans within a decade or two. Not a stick* of 
 the driftwood seemed to have been turned over 
 or stirred in any way, though, from the steep 
 ness of the slate bluffs for miles along the coast, 
 and the heavy snowbanks drifted over them, 
 this low, open portion of the shore is about the 
 only place in the neighborhood where drift 
 wood could come to rest on a beach and be 
 easily accessible to natives or others while 
 traveling along the coast either on the ice or on 
 land, and where they would also find a good 
 camp-ground and water. 
 
 A few yards back from high- water mark there 
 is a low pile of broken slate, with level ground 
 about it, where any traveler passing this way 
 would naturally choose to camp. But the sur 
 face of the slate is covered with gray, brown, 
 and yellow rock-lichens of slow growth, show 
 ing that not one of these stones had been moved 
 for many a year. Again, neither the low nor the 
 high ground in this vicinity is at all mantled 
 
 190

 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 with spongy tundra mosses and lichens like 
 most of the Arctic shores over which a man 
 might walk without leaving a footprint. On the 
 contrary, it is mostly bare, presenting a soft 
 clay soil, derived from the disintegration of 
 slates, the scanty dwarf vegetation saxi 
 frages, drabas, potentillas, carices, etc. oc 
 curring in small tufts at intervals of a yard or 
 so, with bare ground between them, smooth and 
 mellow and plastic, with gentle drainage, ad 
 mirably adapted for the reception and preserva 
 tion of footprints. Had any person walked on 
 this ground any time in summer when the snow 
 was gone, and where the drainage slopes are 
 not too steep, his track would remain legible to 
 the dullest observer for years. 
 
 We concluded, therefore, that this part of 
 the country is not inhabited. Nor should the 
 absence of inhabitants be wondered at not 
 withstanding they might be derived from the 
 Siberian coast at long intervals in accordance 
 with the traditions bearing on the question 
 among the Chukchis, or even from the coast of 
 Alaska about Point Barrow or Cape Lisburne. 
 For, though small parties of Eskimos or Chuk 
 chis might reach the land on floes detached 
 from the pack while they chanced to be out 
 hunting seals, or in boats driven by storm-winds 
 or otherwise, such parties would probably seek 
 
 191
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 to get back to their old homes again, or would 
 die of famine. The seal and walrus, the two ani 
 mals on which the natives of the Arctic shores 
 chiefly depend for subsistence, are not to any 
 great extent available, inasmuch as the ice 
 seldom or never leaves the south Wrangell 
 shores, and journeys twenty or thirty miles 
 long would have to be made over rough ice 
 to reach them. 
 
 Reindeer and musk oxen may exist in some 
 other portions of the country, but if they occur 
 in such numbers as would be required for the 
 support of any considerable population the 
 tracks of at least some few stragglers should 
 have been seen hereabouts. Migratory water 
 birds are no doubt abundant during the breed 
 ing and moulting season, producing sufficient 
 food to last through a few of the summer 
 months, and there are plenty of white bears, 
 huge animals weighing from ten to twenty hun 
 dred pounds. Most of them, however, roam 
 far out from land on the rugged edge of the ice 
 pack among the seals and walruses, and even 
 under the most advantageous circumstances 
 polar bears are poor cattle to depend on for a 
 living. They certainly do not seem to have 
 been fed upon lately to any marked extent, for 
 we found them everywhere in abundance along 
 the edge of the ice, and they appeared to be very 
 
 192
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 fat and prosperous, and very much at home, 
 as if the country had belonged to them always. 
 They are the unrivaled master-existences of 
 this ice-bound solitude, and Wrangell Land 
 may well be called the Land of the White 
 Bear. 
 
 Commander De Long, in a letter to his wife, 
 written at sea, August 17, 1879, said that he 
 proposed to proceed north by the way of the 
 east coast of Wrangell Land, touching at Her 
 ald Island, where he would build a cairn and 
 leave records; that if he reached Wrangell 
 Land from there he would leave records on the 
 east coast under a series of cairns twenty-five 
 miles apart. In a previous letter, dated July 17, 
 1879, he said: 
 
 In the event of disaster to the ship, we shall re 
 treat upon the Siberian settlements, or to those of 
 the natives around East Cape, and wait for a chance 
 to get back to our depot at St. Michael. If a ship 
 comes up merely for tidings of us, let her look for 
 them on the east side of Wrangell Land and on 
 Herald Island. If I find that we are being carried 
 east against our efforts to get north, I shall try to 
 push through into the Atlantic by way of the east 
 coast of Greenland, if we are far enough north; and 
 if we are far south, then by way of Melville Bay and 
 Lancaster Sound. 
 
 While evidently pursuing this plan, he was 
 seen by the whaler Sea Breeze on the second 
 
 193
 
 of September, 1879, about fifty miles south of 
 Herald Island, entering a lead in heavy ice, 
 which probably closed in upon his vessel and 
 carried him past Herald Island. The search we 
 made over Herald Island shows pretty clearly 
 that he did not succeed in landing there, for if 
 a cairn had been built on any conspicuous 
 point we could not have failed to see it, as we 
 traveled over it all in good bright weather. 
 Nor would the failure of this part of his plan 
 be unlikely when it is considered that he was 
 fifty miles from the island so late in the season 
 as September, and when heavy ice a hundred 
 feet thick was already about him, and packed 
 around the island. Neither does it seem at all 
 probable from what we have seen this summer 
 that he could have been successful in reach 
 ing Wrangell Land so late in the season under 
 so many adverse circumstances of weather 
 and ice. 
 
 That he did not build a cairn or leave any 
 trace of his presence within a few miles of our 
 landing point does not prove by any means that 
 he did not reach Wrangell Land at all, or that 
 cairns with records may not exist elsewhere 
 to the northward or westward. But the point 
 where we landed being the easternmost point 
 of the lower portion of Wrangell Land, it would 
 seem from his plans as well as from known 
 
 194
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 conditions of the ice to be of all others the like 
 liest place to find traces of the expedition. 
 
 In the case of the loss of his vessel and his 
 reaching land farther up the coast, he would be 
 likely, in following his plan of retreat, to travel 
 southward past this east point where the ice 
 is more broken and extends a shorter distance 
 offshore than elsewhere conditions that seem 
 applicable to the last two years at least, judging 
 by what we have observed. Even should he not 
 have built a cairn on so prominent and com 
 paratively accessible a point, likely to be dis 
 covered by relief vessels, he could hardly have 
 been able to pass without leaving some sign on 
 the bank of the river, whether he made efforts 
 to mark his presence or not. In case the explor 
 ers passed their first winter on Wrangell Land, 
 they might either try to cross over the ice to 
 Siberia toward spring from some point to the 
 westward of our landing, or in case they reached 
 the easternmost cape, near the south extreme 
 of the land, about midsummer, they would 
 probably find it the most favorable point of 
 departure in making their way to the Siberian 
 coast with sleds over the shore pack, and thence 
 in boats. But as no trace of the explorers ap 
 pears here, and no tidings have been obtained 
 concerning them from the Chukchis, this, with 
 all the evidence discovered thus far, goes to 
 195
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 show that the Jeannette expedition either did 
 not reach Wrangell Land at all, or did not make 
 any extended stay upon it. 
 
 Notwithstanding the improbability of find 
 ing the expedition, the Corwin would gladly 
 have been fast to a stranded berg, for a few 
 days at least, during the fine August weather 
 we were enjoying at the time, in order to send 
 out exploring and search parties along the coast 
 fifty or sixty miles in opposite directions, and 
 back into the mountains, to learn something 
 about the topography, geology, and natural 
 history of the country, and to determine as 
 surely as possible whether the missing explorers 
 had touched this portion of the coast. But in so 
 doing we should have risked being shut in, los 
 ing the vessel, and thus making still another 
 party to be searched for. Besides, we might 
 then be prevented from making other landings 
 farther north in case the ice should leave the 
 shores in that direction, and from extending 
 relief to other vessels that might stand in need 
 of it among the ice of this dangerous sea. 
 
 The floe outside of our anchorage was drift 
 ing along shore to the northeast with a power 
 ful current at a speed of fifty miles a day, the 
 majestic movement being made strikingly 
 manifest by large bergs that were aground in 
 water sixty feet deep, standing like islands, 
 
 196
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 while the main mass of the pack went grating 
 past them. With so much motion in the ice, 
 the open lane and the strip of loose blocks and 
 cakes through which we had forced our way 
 in coming in was liable to close at any time, 
 making escape impossible, at least until some 
 chance change in the winds and currents might 
 result in setting us free. 
 
 As it was, we escaped with difficulty after 
 both engine and hull had been severely tested, 
 the lane by which we entered having almost 
 vanished, and the point where we reached 
 open water was several miles to the northward 
 of our ingoing track. Had our retreat been 
 cut off, we would not, perhaps, have suffered 
 greatly for a year or thereabouts, inasmuch as 
 we had nine months' provisions aboard, which, 
 with what game we might chance to kill in the 
 nature of seals, bears, and walruses, could eas 
 ily have been made to last considerably longer. 
 We also had plenty of reindeer clothing and 
 pologs, bought with a view to spending a win 
 ter in the Arctic, in case it should be necessary' 
 to do so. Everything could have been landed 
 under favorable auspices, and preparations 
 could have been made in the way of building 
 shelters and storehouses. Then we would have 
 had a fine long opportunity to explore this 
 grand wilderness in its untouched freshness 
 197
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 during the remaining months of summer and all 
 the winter, while the vessel might possibly have 
 escaped being smashed if laid up at the mouth 
 of the river, and by a hairbreadth chance have 
 been gotten out next summer. 
 
 Perhaps the ice does not leave the shore free 
 more than once in ten years. The small quan 
 tity of driftwood on the beach would seem to 
 indicate open water at times, but it might have 
 been brought in by shifting, tumbling ice, after 
 being held fast and gradually worked inshore 
 after years of change in its position among the 
 shifting floes, without the occurrence of any 
 perfectly free channel of communication with 
 the open part of the ocean. Our plan of retreat 
 would have been similar to that proposed by 
 Commander De Long, that is, to the coast of 
 Siberia. The loss of the vessel, however, and 
 any work and hardship that might follow would 
 not have been allowed to weigh against any 
 reasonable hope of finding the lost explorers 
 and carrying relief to them. But it was decided 
 that more could be done, in all probability, 
 towards carrying out the objects of the expedi 
 tion by keeping the Corwin free. Only about 
 half of the workdays of the summer were spent 
 as yet, the weather was mild, the ice melting, 
 and we had good hopes of finding open water 
 reaching well inshore farther north, through 
 
 198
 
 THE LAND OF THE WHITE BEAR 
 
 which some other portion of the coast might 
 be found accessible where the danger of being 
 permanently beset would be less, and from 
 whence extended land journeys might be made. 
 Our efforts, however, to get northward along 
 the eastern shore of Wrangell Land have, thus 
 far, been unavailing.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 Off Point Barrow, August 18, 1881. 
 
 FINDING it impossible to get northward 
 through the ice anywhere near the east side 
 of Wrangell Land, it was decided that we 
 should cross to the American coast to make 
 another effort to reach Point Barrow in order 
 to learn the fate of the whale-ship Daniel Web 
 ster, which, as I have stated in a former letter, 
 was beset in the ice there, and to offer assist 
 ance in case it should be required. 
 
 On the fifteenth, near Icy Cape, we spoke 
 one of the whalers from whom we learned that 
 the Daniel Webster was crushed and sunk, 
 that about half the crew had made their way 
 down the coast to near Icy Cape, where they 
 found the Coral and were taken on board, 
 and that the others were still at Point Barrow 
 or scattered along the shore, unless picked up 
 by some of the fleet that were going north in 
 search of them as fast as the state of the ice 
 would allow. 
 
 Captain Owen of the bark Belvedere had 
 sent a letter to them by one of the natives, di- 
 
 200
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 recting them to build large driftwood fires on 
 the beach to indicate their positions, and as 
 suring them that relief was near. We had hoped 
 that, though beset in the heavy, drifting pack 
 and carried northward helpless and rigid as a 
 fly in amber, some change in the wind and cur 
 rent might set them free. But in discussing the 
 question with an experienced whaler who had 
 lost the first ship that he was master of at the 
 same place and in the same way, he said that 
 he had given her up for lost as soon as she was 
 known to be embayed. 
 
 On receiving this news we started for Point 
 Barrow and found the way clear, the pack hav 
 ing been blown offshore a few miles, and a heavy 
 current was sweeping to the northward. Tues 
 day, the sixteenth, was calm and foggy at times; 
 large masses of beautiful ice, blue and green 
 and white, of every conceivable form, like the 
 bergs derived from glaciers, were drifting with 
 the riverlike current or lying aground the 
 remnants of the grand pack that so lately held 
 possession of all the sea hereabouts. 
 
 When we were passing Point Belcher and 
 Sunarnara l we learned from the natives that 
 the ice was offshore as far as Point Barrow and 
 beyond, that several whale-ships were already 
 there, and that all the men from the broken 
 
 1 Sinaru? 
 201
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 ship had been taken on board. For some time 
 the fog was so dense and the huge bergs so 
 abundant we were compelled to lie to and drift 
 with the current; but shortly after noon the sun 
 came out, making a dazzling show among the 
 ice and silvery water. Then the conical huts of 
 the Eskimo village on Point Barrow came in 
 sight, and rounding the Point we found our 
 selves in the midst of quite a fleet of whalers, 
 from whom we received the good news that, 
 as we had been told by the natives, all the 
 missing members of the wrecked crew had at 
 length been picked up and were now distrib 
 uted among the different vessels. A few of 
 them have been permanently added to the 
 crews of the rescuing ships lying here, and 
 nine have been received on board of the 
 Corwin. 
 
 The strip of water sometimes found between 
 Icy Cape and Point Barrow is perhaps the most 
 dangerous whaling ground yet discovered. The 
 ice is of tremendous thickness, a hundred feet 
 or more, and its movements are extremely va 
 riable from season to season, and almost from 
 day to day. It seldom leaves this part of the 
 coast very far, some years not at all, and it is 
 always liable to be driven close inshore by a few 
 hours or days of strong wind blowing from any 
 point of the compass around from north to 
 202
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 southwest. When, as frequently happens, there 
 is a margin of fixed ice along the shore the posi 
 tion of ships is most dangerous, for when the 
 pack comes in and catches vessels in this ice 
 bound lane while trying to beat southward 
 against wind and current, it closes upon them 
 and crushes them as between huge crunching 
 jaws. Should there be no fixed ice, then vessels 
 may simply be shoved ashore. 
 
 It is not long since the first whale-ship passed 
 Bering Strait, and yet no less than forty-seven 
 have been crushed hereabouts, or pushed 
 ashore, or embayed and swept away north 
 ward to nobody knows where, while many 
 others have had narrow escapes. 
 
 Thirty-three were caught and lost in this 
 way here at one time, thirteen the following 
 season, and one last July, while two others 
 barely made their escape the same day just as 
 the fatal ice-jaws closed behind them. This last 
 victim, the Daniel Webster, left New Bed 
 ford in November, 1880, passed through Bering 
 Strait on the tenth of June, and was caught in 
 the pack July 3. It seems from the account fur 
 nished us by the first mate that she was follow 
 ing up a lead of open water about five miles 
 wide, between the main ocean pack and a strip 
 of shore-ice, fancying that two other ships that 
 she had been following the day previous were 
 
 203
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 still ahead, and on whose movements the Cap 
 tain, who had no experience here, this being 
 his first voyage, was to some extent depending. 
 These two leaders, however, had turned and 
 fled during the night without being observed, 
 while the Daniel Webster kept on northward, 
 until within sight of the end of the water-lane, 
 when she turned and attempted to beat her 
 way back. But wind and current were against 
 her, the huge ice-walls came steadily nearer, 
 and at length closed on the doomed vessel, 
 carrying her away as if she were a mere bit 
 of drift timber. About an hour later she was 
 crushed, and sank to her upper deck in about 
 twenty minutes. Then she fell over on her 
 beam-ends against the ice and soon vanished 
 in the icy wilderness. 
 
 The Point Barrow Eskimos, keenly familiar 
 with the actions of the winds and currents on 
 the movements of the ice, watched the strug 
 gling ship, and came aboard before the ice had 
 yet closed upon her, like wolves scenting then* 
 prey from afar. Many a wreck had they en 
 joyed here, and now, sure of yet another, they 
 ran about the ship examining every movable 
 article, and narrowly scanning the rigging and 
 sails with reference to carrying away as much 
 as possible of the best of everything, such as 
 the sails, lead pipe for bullets, hard bread, 
 
 204
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 sugar, tobacco, etc., in case they should have 
 but a short time to work. 
 
 She filled so quickly after being crushed that 
 the crew saved but little more than the clothes 
 they were wearing. Some hard bread, beef and 
 other stores were hastily thrown over upon the 
 ice, and one boat was secured. As soon as she 
 was given up, the Eskimos climbed into the 
 rigging, and dexterously cut away and secured 
 all the sails, which they value highly for making 
 sails for their large traveling canoes and for 
 covers for their summer huts. Then they se 
 cured as much lead as possible and anything 
 they could lay hands on, acting promptly and 
 showing the completeness of the apprentice 
 ship they had served. 
 
 The ship was then about five miles from the 
 Eskimo village, and the natives were allowed 
 to assist in carrying everything that had been 
 saved. Under the circumstances, in getting over 
 the five miles of ice with such riches, they, like 
 white men, reasoned themselves into the belief 
 that everything belonged to them, even the 
 chronometers and sextants. Accordingly, at 
 the village a general division was made in so 
 masterly a manner that by the time the officers 
 and crew reached the place their goods had 
 vanished into a hundred-odd dens and holes; 
 and when, hungry, they asked for some of 
 
 205
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 their own biscuits, the natives complacently 
 offered to sell them at the rate of so much to 
 bacco apiece. Even the chronometers had been 
 divided, it is said, after being taken apart, the 
 wheels and bits of shining metal being regarded 
 as fine jewelry for the young women and chil 
 dren to wear. A keg of rum, that the officers 
 feared might fall into the Eskimos' hands and 
 cause trouble by making them drunk, was 
 thrown heavily over on the ice with the inten 
 tion of smashing it, but it was not broken by 
 the fall. One of the Eskimos picked up the 
 prize, to him more precious than its weight in 
 gold, and sped away over the slippery crags 
 and hollows of the ice with admirable speed, 
 vainly pursued by the first mate, and at the 
 village it disappeared as far beyond recovery 
 as if it had been poured into a hot sand bank. 
 As wreckers, traders, and drinkers these sturdy 
 Eskimos are making rapid progress, notwith 
 standing the fortunate disadvantages they 
 labor under, as compared with their white 
 brethren, dwelling in so severe a climate on the 
 confines of the frozen sea. 
 
 The entire crew numbered twenty-eight men. 
 All except the second mate and two of the sail- 
 qrs started down the coast afoot, after waiting 
 some time for the ice to drift offshore far 
 enough to allow some of the other ships to come 
 
 206
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 to their relief, or at least far enough to leave a 
 passage for their boat. At the river Cogrua x 
 ten of the party turned back, weary and hungry 
 and discouraged, to Cape Smyth, to pick up a 
 living of oil and seal meat until relieved, rather 
 than face the danger of fording the river and 
 enduring yet greater hardships. The others 
 pushed forward. Directed by one of the na 
 tives, they went up the bank of the river about 
 twenty miles from its mouth, to where it is 
 much narrower. Here they forded without 
 danger, carrying their clothes on their heads 
 to keep them dry. 
 
 Both parties seem to have suffered con 
 siderably from hunger as well as from cold and 
 fatigue. The seal and oil meals, which the 
 natives of the different villages they passed 
 good-naturedly allowed them to share, but ill- 
 supplied the place of their old-fashioned, rough 
 and regular rations. They speak of having been 
 reduced to the strait of eating roots and leaves 
 of the few dwarf plants found along their way. 
 At Point Belcher they were so fortunate as to 
 find a traveling party of natives, who, after 
 their shaman had duly consulted the spirits, 
 supposed to be influential and wise concerning 
 
 1 Kugrua, a river tributary to the Arctic Ocean at the 
 Seahorse Islands, a little east of Pt. Belcher. According to 
 John Murdoch, Kug'ru is the Eskimo name of the Whistling 
 Swan. 
 
 207
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 the affairs of this rough region, and reported 
 favorably, agreed to take the party in their 
 canoe southward to seek the whaling fleet, the 
 pack having by this time commenced to leave 
 the shore. By this means the wanderers reached 
 the bark Coral in four days, at a cost of two 
 rifles and some tobacco. 
 
 The others were kindly received by the Cape 
 Smyth people and entertained until the ice left 
 the shore. One of the three left at Point Bar 
 row, it seems, wandered southward* alone and 
 lost himself with fright and hunger. He was 
 without food for five days, save what he could 
 pick up from the sparse sedgy vegetation, and 
 was nearly dead when discovered by a relief 
 party from one of the ships. The natives, he 
 said, refused to allow him to enter their huts, 
 because his eyes were wild and he would 
 soon be crazy. Fortunately, all are now cared 
 for. 
 
 Newly discovered whaling grounds, like gold 
 mines, are soon overcrowded and worked out, 
 the whales being either killed or driven away. 
 But whales worth four or five thousand dollars 
 apiece are so intensely attractive and interest 
 ing that the grand game has been hunted in 
 the face of a thousand dangers over nearly all 
 the seas and oceans on the face of the globe. Ac 
 cording to Alexander Starbuck, in his history of 
 
 208
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 the American whale fishery, there belonged, 
 in the year 1846, to the various ports of the 
 United States six hundred and seventy-eight 
 ships and barks, thirty-five brigs, and twenty- 
 two schooners that were hunting whales. In 
 1843 the first bowhead whales taken in the 
 North Pacific were captured on the coast of 
 Kamchatka, and in 1848 the first whale-ship 
 passed Bering Strait. This was the bark Su 
 perior, Captain Royce. A full cargo was easily 
 obtained, because of the abundance and tame- 
 ness of the whales. 
 
 The news, like a gold discovery, spread 
 rapidly, and within the next three years two 
 hundred and fifty ships had obtained cargoes 
 of oil and bone here. This is, therefore, a com 
 paratively new hunting ground. Nevertheless 
 it is being rapidly exhausted. The precious 
 bowheads are no longer seen in "long winrows," 
 as described by an old whaleman familiar with 
 the region. This year only twenty vessels are 
 engaged in the business. 
 
 In 1871 thirty-three vessels were caught in 
 one flock off Point Belcher and crushed or 
 shoved ashore. One of them is said to have 
 been " crushed to atoms," the officers and 
 crews escaping over the ice, saving scarcely 
 anything but their lives. In a few days after 
 the sixth of August most of the fleet was north 
 
 209
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 of Blossom Shoals, and worked to the north 
 east as far as Wainwright Inlet. Here the ships 
 either anchored or made fast to the ice, which 
 was very heavy and densely packed. On the 
 eleventh of August a sudden change of wind 
 drove the ice inshore, catching a large number 
 of boats that were out in pursuit of whales, 
 and forcing the ships to work inshore in the 
 lee of the ground ice. 
 
 On the thirteenth of August the incoming 
 pack grounded, leaving only a narrow strip of 
 water, in which the fleet was imprisoned more 
 and more narrowly until the twenty-fifth, 
 when a strong northeast gale drove the ice a 
 few miles offshore, and whale-catching went 
 on briskly without fear of another imprison 
 ment. But on the twenty-ninth a southwest 
 wind again drove the ice inshore, and once 
 more shut-in the doomed fleet. The thirty- 
 three vessels were scattered along the coast 
 for twenty miles, more and more rigidly beset 
 until the fourteenth of September, when they 
 were abandoned that is, those not already 
 crushed. 
 
 The following protest, throwing a vivid 
 light upon the subject, was written on the 
 twelfth of September, and signed by all the cap 
 tains before abandoning their vessels : 
 
 210
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 Point Belcher, Arctic Ocean. 
 ^ September 12, 1871. 
 
 Know all men by these presents, that we, the 
 undersigned, masters of whale-ships now lying at 
 Point Belcher, after holding a meeting concerning 
 our dreadful situation, have all come to the con 
 clusion that our ships cannot be got out this year, 
 and there being no harbors that we can get our ves 
 sels into, and not having provisions enough to feed 
 our crews to exceed three months, and being in a 
 barren country, where there is neither food nor fuel 
 to be obtained, we feel ourselves under the painful 
 necessity of abandoning our vessels, and trying to 
 work our way south with our boats, and, if possible, 
 get on board of ships that are south of the ice. We 
 do not think it would be prudent to leave a single 
 soul to look after our vessels, as the first westerly 
 gale will crowd the ice ashore, and either crush the 
 ships or drive them high upon the beach. Three of 
 the fleet have already been crushed, and two are 
 now lying hove out, which have been crushed by 
 the ice and are leaking badly. We have now five 
 wrecked crews distributed among us, we have 
 barely room to swing at anchor between the ice 
 pack and the beach, and we are lying in three 
 fathoms of water. Should we be cast on the beach 
 it would be at least eleven months before we could 
 look for assistance, and in all probability nine out 
 of ten would die of starvation or scurvy before the 
 opening of spring. 
 
 All the officers and crews twelve hundred 
 and nineteen souls reached the seven relief 
 vessels that lay waiting their arrival outside 
 211
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 t 
 
 the ice, and were distributed among them, these 
 seven being the remnant of the fleet that passed 
 through Bering Strait in the spring. The next 
 summer only five of the thirty-three were seen, 
 one of them comparatively uninjured. All the 
 rest had been smashed, sunk, burned, or car 
 ried away in the pack. 
 
 Five years later, in 1876, the fleet consisted of 
 twenty ships and barks, and of this number 
 thirteen were embayed in the pack, twenty or 
 thirty miles off Point Barrow. After waiting 
 and hoping for the coming of a liberating gale 
 as long as they dared, the masters decided that 
 it was necessary to abandon their vessels. Out 
 of three hundred and fifty-three persons, fifty- 
 three remained with the ships, hoping to get 
 them free in the spring ; but not one of the ships 
 or of those who stayed on them, was ever seen 
 again. The three hundred who left their vessels 
 after enduring great hardships, succeeded in 
 making good their escape to the rest of the fleet 
 waiting outside the pack all save three or 
 four who perished by the way. 
 
 There are now twelve whale-ships about 
 Point Barrow in sight from the Corwin, and all 
 that would be necessary to shut them in is a gale 
 from the southwest. Still the great love of ac 
 tion, and the great love of money, compel the 
 risk here and elsewhere over and over again. 
 
 212
 
 TRAGEDIES OF THE WHALING FLEET 
 
 The Corwin is now about to go southward to 
 coal, at the mine twenty miles east of Cape 
 Lisburne; or, in case the weather should be too 
 rough to land at the mine, which is on a bare, 
 exposed portion of the coast, to Plover Bay. 
 Then we will return to the Arctic prepared to 
 make other efforts to get on the south and east 
 shores of Wrangell Land.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 MEETING THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 
 
 Steamer Conuin, 
 Plover Bay, Siberia, August 25, 1881. 
 
 WE left icy, gloomy Point Barrow on the 
 afternoon of the eighteenth, with fine Arctic 
 weather, which held out good hopes that we 
 would be able to lie two days at the mine 
 twenty miles east of Cape Lisburne, in order to 
 take out and get on board a sufficient quan 
 tity of coal to last the Corwin the remainder of 
 the season in the Arctic. But by the time we 
 got down the coast near the mine the weather 
 was rough, with a heavy sea sending stormy 
 breakers against the exposed coal bluff, render 
 ing it impossible to land and work. And as there 
 is no shelter whatever for a vessel anywhere 
 in the vicinity, and no likelihood from any in 
 dications that the weather would improve, it 
 was decided that we should proceed at once to 
 Plover Bay, our next nearest coaling point. 
 
 This Arctic mine, the nearest to the North 
 Pole, as far as I know, of any yet discovered 
 on the American continent, produces coal of 
 excellent quality in great abundance and easily 
 worked. There are five principal veins, from 
 
 214
 
 THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 
 
 two to ten feet thick, fully exposed on the face 
 of a bluff about two hundred feet high, except 
 ing some of the lower sections that are covered 
 with icy snowbanks. The latter are derived 
 from drift that comes from the wind-swept hills, 
 and does not melt till late in the summer, or 
 not at all. The lower exposed portions of all the 
 veins are beaten and worn by the sea waves. 
 There can scarcely be any doubt, from what 
 I have seen of the formation in which it occurs, 
 that this is a true carboniferous coal, and su 
 perior to the great bulk of the tertiary and 
 cretaceous coal found on this side the continent 
 farther south. The Corwin coaled here twice 
 last summer, and again this summer, July 27 
 and 28. So also did the steam whale-ship 
 Belvedere. During calm weather the crew of 
 the Corwin can dig out and put in sacks, and 
 bring off in boats, about thirty tons per day. 
 
 On the twenty-first we passed through Ber 
 ing Strait in a dense fog without sighting either 
 of the Diomede Islands, which even in weather 
 clear elsewhere are almost constantly enveloped 
 in fog, causing no little anxiety to the navigator, 
 inasmuch as they stand directly in the middle 
 of the narrow part of the strait. A third islet 
 called Fairway Rock, together with the uncer 
 tain flow of the currents hereabouts, renders the 
 danger all the greater. The larger Diomede 
 
 215
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 is about six miles long, the other half as large, 
 and Fairway Rock still smaller. All three are 
 simply residual masses of granite brought into 
 relief by glacial action before the strait was in 
 existence. These rocks rise above the general 
 level because of their superior strength con 
 sidered with reference to the resistance they 
 offered to glacial degradation. 
 
 Approaching the islands in thick weather, 
 the first intimation the navigator has of his 
 being near them, and of the direction in which 
 they bear, is either from the winds which gurgle 
 and reverberate in passing over them, or from 
 the birds auks, murres, and gulls which 
 dwell on the rocks in myriads, and come and 
 go several miles into the adjacent waters to 
 feed. To persons acquainted with their habits 
 it is not difficult to determine whether their 
 flight is directed homewards or away from 
 home. Thus the natives who dwell on these 
 gloomy, dripping rocks and visit the shores of 
 the adjacent continents in their frail skin- 
 covered canoes, are directed. But how the 
 birds themselves find their way, flying in 
 arrowlike courses to their nests, when every 
 direction seems to us the same, is truly mar 
 velous. 
 
 On cloudy nights it is dark now at midnight. 
 The sun sets before eight o'clock, but because it 
 
 216
 
 THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 
 
 sinks only a few degrees below the horizon, the 
 twilight lasts nearly all night. In a week or two, 
 however, we shall have seven or eight hours of 
 real night, for, of course, the transition from 
 constant day to day and night is very rapid 
 in these high latitudes. This new order of 
 things will be delightful. A few days ago we 
 saw two stars in the twilight, which to us was 
 an exceedingly interesting event after two 
 months of starless day. The glories of the mid 
 night sun in this mysterious polar world are 
 truly enchanting, but not nearly so much so as 
 the glories of the midday sun in lower latitudes, 
 succeeded by the glories of the night, the deep 
 sky of stars and the grateful change and repose 
 they bring. 
 
 After passing through the Strait we had two 
 gray, howling days, with head winds and rain, 
 and thick fog, through which the Corwin beat 
 her way, or was held lying to, heaving and 
 rolling somewhere between St. Lawrence Island 
 and Indian Point, as near as could be made out 
 at the time by dead reckoning, and guessing 
 the speed of the northerly current. Lying to 
 in a gale, enveloped in old fogs, 1 and with little 
 sea-room, and variable currents, is anything 
 but pleasant, to say nothing of the tedious dis- 
 
 1 Fogs that have lasted a long time and prevented the tak 
 ing of observations for the position of the ship. 
 
 217
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 comforts caused by the movements of the ves 
 sel, the unceasing see-saw, creaking, pitching, 
 and complaining. At such times only the gulls, 
 those light-winged rovers of the sea, appear to 
 be patient and comfortable as they gracefully 
 drift and glide over the wild-tossing waves, or 
 circle on easy wing about the ship, veering 
 deftly from side to side, and wavering up and 
 down through the gray, sleety gloom. 
 
 On the morning of the twenty-fourth, when 
 the fog lifted, we found ourselves far north of 
 our supposed position; the flow of the current 
 to the northward during the two preceding 
 days having been nearly eighty miles. We ar 
 rived here at five in the afternoon. 
 
 Entering the harbor, we discovered the 
 schooner Golden Fleece lying at anchor, and 
 shortly afterward a party from her came 
 aboard the Corwin, which proved to be Lieu 
 tenant Ray, 1 and his company of Signal Service 
 officers on their way to establish a station at 
 Point Barrow ten persons in all. 2 Mr. Ray 
 seems to be the right man for the place. He 
 
 1 P. H. Ray. 
 
 2 This was the International Polar Expedition to Point 
 Barrow, Alaska. The report of the valuable series of scien 
 tific observations and explorations made from 1881 to 1883 
 at the Point Barrow Station was published as House Exec 
 utive Document, No. 44, of the Forty-eighth Congress. 
 Among the members of the party were John Murdoch and 
 Middleton Smith. 
 
 218
 
 THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 
 
 hopes to be able to get his buildings up and 
 everything put in order before the coming on of 
 winter, making a home in that stern wilderness 
 for three years. 
 
 Point Barrow is a low, barren spit putting 
 out into the icy ocean, and, before the discov 
 ery of Wrangell Land, the northernmost point 
 of the territory of the United States. For many 
 years it was believed to be the northern ex 
 tremity of the American continent. But the 
 extreme point of the peninsula of Boothia 
 proves to be a few miles farther north than 
 this. At first sight it would seem a gloomy 
 time to look forward to three years in so 
 remote and so severely desolate and forbid 
 ding a region, generally regarded as the top 
 most frost-killed end of creation! 
 
 But, amid all the disadvantages of position, 
 these men have much in their lot for which they 
 might well be envied by people dwelling in 
 softer climates. There is the freshness of their 
 field of research in natural history, the im 
 mense number of summer birds that visit this 
 region to molt and rear their young; the fine 
 opportunities they will have to study the habits 
 of the reindeer on the tundras, and the mag 
 nificent polar bear among the ice the master 
 animal of the north. Then there is the chance 
 to study the little-known western Eskimos, 
 
 219
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 who have a village l on the point, numbering 
 about two hundred persons. 2 
 
 Advantage, too, I am told, will be taken of 
 the opportunity offered to explore the Colville 
 and Inland Rivers, both of them large streams, 
 the one flowing into the [Arctic] Ocean about 
 one hundred and thirty miles to the east of 
 Point Barrow, the other into Bering Sea 
 through Hotham Inlet and Kotzebue Sound. 
 They are almost entirely unexplored. Some 
 of their upper branches must approach each 
 other, as the Eskimos ascend the Colville and, 
 making a portage, descend the Inland River 
 to Hotham Inlet every year to trade, or at 
 the portage meet natives from the other river 
 and trade there. The exploration of these 
 rivers is a very interesting piece of work, and 
 Mr. Ray tells me that he intends to make an 
 effort to accomplish it at the earliest oppor 
 tunity. Furthermore, he is ambitious to achieve 
 something in the way of new discoveries out in 
 the Polar Ocean to the northward of his sta 
 tion. 
 
 From the fact that a current sets northward 
 past Herald Island, and keeps a long lane reach- 
 
 1 Nuwuk. 
 
 2 An admirable study of these Eskimos was, indeed, made 
 by John Murdoch, a member of the party, and published in 
 House Executive Document, No. 44 (1885), and in the Ninth 
 Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1892). 
 
 220
 
 THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION 
 
 ing far beyond Herald Island open every sum 
 mer, while the ice remains jammed only a few 
 miles off Point Barrow and Cape Yakan, Si 
 beria, and some years does not leave the shores 
 at all, it would seem that there is a land lying 
 to the east of Wrangell Land, making a strait 
 up which the northerly current flows, while the 
 unknown land prevents any great movement 
 in the ice immediately to the north of the 
 American continent, as Wrangell Land [stays] 
 the ice opposite Cape Yakan and the coast in 
 its vicinity. Again, migratory birds in large 
 flocks have been seen flying north from Point 
 Barrow in the spring, and returning in the fall. 
 Besides, certain vague reports, which may 
 have their foundation in fact, have been in 
 circulation to the effect that land in this direc 
 tion has been actually seen by a whaler, who 
 was well offshore to the northeastward from 
 Point Barrow, in an exceptionally open season. 
 With the experience that he will gain among 
 the ice at Point Barrow, and the resources at 
 command in the way of good assistants, skilled 
 native travelers, with good dogs and sleds, etc., 
 Mr. Ray may possibly be able to cross over the 
 ice to this land, if land there be. In any case, 
 whatever journeys may be made, over the ice 
 or over the land, in summer or in winter, some 
 new facts will surely be gained well worth the 
 221
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 pains, for no portion of the world is so barren 
 as not to yield a rich and precious harvest of 
 divine truth. 
 
 Nor will these men be likely to suffer greatly. 
 The winter cold, when skillfully met in soft hair 
 and fur, is not hard to bear, while in summer it 
 is so warm that the Eskimo children run about 
 naked. The piling up of the ice on the shore 
 in winter and spring must make a magnificent 
 border for a home; and the auroral curtains and 
 the deep starry nights, lasting for weeks, must 
 be glorious. 
 
 The Corwin towed the Golden Fleece to sea 
 this morning, and we hope to finish coaling, 
 etc., in a day or two, and set out once more to 
 the shores of Wrangell Land.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 Steamer Corwin, 
 Plover Bay, Siberia, August 26, 1881. 
 
 THIS morning a party from the ship went to 
 the head of the bay under the guidance of a 
 pair of Chukchis to see a herd of reindeer that 
 they told us was there. The distance, we found, 
 is about eighteen miles from the lower harbor, 
 where the Corwin is at anchor. The day was 
 fine and we enjoyed the sail very much, skim 
 ming rapidly along in the steam launch over 
 smooth water, past the huge ice-sculptured 
 headlands and mountains that formed the walls, 
 and the deep canons and valleys between them 
 that swept back to clusters of glacial fountains. 
 The naturalist made desperate efforts now and 
 then to obtain specimens of rare auks, petrels, 
 ducks, etc., which were flying and swimming 
 about us in great abundance, making lively 
 pictures of happy, exuberant life. 
 
 The rocks bounding the bay, though beauti 
 ful in their combinations and collocations of 
 curves and peaks, inflowing and touching deli 
 cately, and rising in bold, picturesque groups, 
 are, nevertheless, intensely desolate-looking 
 
 223
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 for want of trees, shrubs, or vegetation dense 
 enough to give color in telling quantities visible 
 at a distance. Even the valleys opening back 
 from the water here and there are mostly bare 
 as seen at the distance of a mile or two, and 
 have only faint tinges of green derived from 
 dwarf willows, sedges, and heathworts that 
 creep low among the stones. Yet here, or in 
 the larger valleys adjacent, where the main 
 tributary glaciers came into the Plover Bay 
 trunk, and in other valleys to the northeast 
 ward, large herds of reindeer, wild as well as 
 tame, find sustenance, together with a few wild 
 sheep and bears. 
 
 On the terminal moraine of the ancient gla 
 cier that formed the first main tributary of the 
 Plover Bay Glacier, some four miles from the 
 extreme head of the bay, we noticed two small 
 skin-covered huts, which our guides informed 
 us belonged to the reindeer people we were seek 
 ing, and that we should certainly find them at 
 home, because their herd was only a little one 
 and found plenty of weeds and moss to eat in 
 the valleys behind their huts without going far 
 away, as the people had to do who owned big 
 herds. At two days' distance, they said, where 
 the valleys are wide and green, with plenty to 
 eat, there is a big herd belonging to one of their 
 friends, so big that they cover all the ground 
 
 224
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 thereabouts; but the herd we were to see was 
 only a little one, and the owner was not a rich 
 man. 
 
 As we approached the shore, a hundred yards 
 or so from the huts, a young man came running 
 to meet us, bounding over the moraine bould 
 ers, with easy strength as if his limbs had been 
 trained on the mountains for many a year, 
 until running had become a pleasant indul 
 gence. He was presently joined by three others, 
 who gazed and smiled curiously at the steam 
 launch and at our party, wondering suspi 
 ciously, when the interpreter had told our ob 
 ject, why we should come so far and seem so 
 eager to see their deer. Our guides, who, of 
 course, understood their prejudices and super 
 stitions, told them that we wanted a big, fat 
 deer to eat, and that we would pay them well 
 for it tobacco, lead, powder, caps, shot, 
 calico, knives, etc., told off in tempting order. 
 But they said they had none to sell, and it 
 required half an hour of cautious negotiations 
 to get them over their suspicious alarms, and 
 [to induce them to] consent to sell the carcass 
 of one, provided we would leave the skin, which 
 they said they wanted to keep for winter gar 
 ments. 
 
 Then two young men, fine, strapping, elastic 
 fellows, threw off their upper parkas, tied their 
 
 225
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 handsomely embroidered moccasins firmly 
 across the instep and around the ankle, poised 
 their long Russian spears, which they said they 
 always carried in case they should meet a bear 
 or wolf, and away they sped after the herd up 
 a long, wide glacier valley along the bank of a 
 stream, bounding lightly from rock to rock in 
 easy poise, and across soft bits of tundra and 
 rough sedgy meadows with long, heaving, un 
 dulating strides. Their gait, as far as we could 
 see, was steadily maintained and was admirably 
 lithe and strong and graceful. Their small feet 
 and ankles and round tapered shanks showed to 
 fine advantage in their tight-fitting leggings 
 and moccasins as they went speeding over the 
 ground like trained racers glorying in their 
 strength. We watched them through field- 
 glasses until they were about three miles away, 
 during which time they did not appear to 
 slacken their pace a single moment. They were 
 gone about three hours, so that the herd must 
 have been at least six or seven miles from the 
 huts. 
 
 In the meantime we ate luncheon and strolled 
 about the neighborhood looking at the plants, 
 at the views down the bay, and at the interior 
 of the huts, etc. We chatted with the Chukchis 
 about their herd, about the wild sheep on the 
 mountains, the wild reindeer, bears, and wolves. 
 
 226
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 We found that the family consisted of father, 
 mother, a grown daughter, and the boys that 
 were after the deer. The old folks were evi 
 dently contented and happy in their safe re 
 treat among the hills, with a sure support from 
 their precious herd. And they were proud of 
 their red-cheeked girl and two strapping boys, 
 as well they might be; for they seemed as 
 healthy and rosy and robust a group of children 
 as ever gladdened the heart of Chukchi par 
 ents. The boys appeared to be part owners of 
 everything about the house, as well as of the 
 deer, for in looking through the huts we saw a 
 few curious odds and ends that we offered to 
 purchase, but were told, in most cases, that 
 they could not sell them until the boys came 
 back. 
 
 Their huts are like all we have seen belong 
 ing to the Chukchis as far north and west as we 
 have been a balloon frame of long poles 
 hewn on two sides so that they might be bent 
 outward, the points coming together not in the 
 middle, but a little to one side away from the 
 direction of the prevailing wind, which gives 
 them a curious humpbacked appearance. This 
 frame is covered with skin of the walrus, if it 
 can be had; if not, then with sealskin or deer 
 skin. No great pains are taken to keep them 
 rain-proof, so that in wet weather they are 
 
 227
 
 THE CRUISE OP THE CORWIN 
 
 oftentimes damp or muddy. But there is not 
 much rain in the Arctic regions, and the deer 
 skin pologs, or drawing rooms inside, are kept 
 perfectly dry and snug, whatever the state of 
 the main outer tent may chance to be. 
 
 The two huts of this place are smaller and 
 more leaky and dilapidated than is common. 
 The covering is composed of different kinds 
 of skin, perhaps a thousand pieces sewed to 
 gether, some of them with the hair on, the 
 whole appearing as one colossal patchwork, as 
 if made up of small scraps. The head of the 
 family seemed to be a little ashamed of them, 
 for he explained with the air of a man making 
 an apology, that he did not construct them; 
 they formerly belonged to some one else, and 
 that soon after he came to take possession one 
 of them was torn open by a hungry bear that 
 went in and frightened his wife and daughter 
 and stole some grease. 
 
 The Chukchis seem to be a good-natured, 
 lively, chatty, brave and polite people, fond of 
 a joke, and, as far as I have seen, fair in their 
 dealings as any people, savage or civilized. 
 They are not savage by any means, however, 
 but steady, industrious workers, looking well 
 ahead, providing for the future, and conse 
 quently seldom in want, save when at long 
 intervals disease or other calamities overtake 
 
 228
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 their herds, or exceptionally severe seasons 
 prevent their obtaining the ordinary supplies 
 of seals, fish, whales, walruses, bears, etc., on 
 which the sedentary Chukchis chiefly depend. 
 The sedentary and reindeer Chukchis are the 
 same people, and are said to differ in a marked 
 degree, both in physical characteristics and in 
 language, from the neighboring tribes, as they 
 certainly do from the Eskimos. Many of them 
 have light complexions, hooked or aquiline 
 noses, tall, sinewy, well-knit frames, small 
 feet and hands, and are not, especially the 
 men, so thick-set, short-necked or flat-faced 
 as the Eskimos. 
 
 After we had watched impatiently for some 
 time, the reindeer came in sight, about a hun 
 dred and fifty of them, driven gently without 
 any of that noisy shouting and worrying that 
 are heard in driving the domestic animals in 
 civilized countries. We left the huts and went 
 up the stream bank about three quarters of a 
 mile to meet them, led by the owner and his 
 wife and daughter, who carried a knife and 
 tin cup and vessels to save the blood and 
 entrails which stirred a train of grim asso 
 ciations that greatly marred the beauty of the 
 picture. 
 
 I was afraid from what I knew of the habits 
 of sheep, cattle, and horses that a sight of 
 
 229
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 strangers would stampede the herd when we 
 met. But of this, as it proved, there was not the 
 slightest danger; for of all the familiar, tame 
 animals man has gathered about him, the rein 
 deer is the tamest. They can hardly be said 
 to be domesticated, since they are not shut in 
 around the huts, or put under shelter either 
 winter or summer. On they came, while we 
 gazed eagerly at the novel sight a thicket 
 of antlers, big and little, old and young, led 
 by the strongest, holding their heads low most 
 of the time, as if conscious of the fact that they 
 were carrying very big, branching horns. A 
 straggler fell behind now and then to cull a 
 choice mouthful of willow or dainty, gray 
 lichen, then made haste to join the herd again. 
 They waded across the creek and came 
 straight toward us, up the sloping bank where 
 we were waiting, nearer, nearer, until we could 
 see their eyes, their smooth, round limbs, the 
 velvet on their horns, until within five or six 
 yards of us, the drivers saying scarce a word, 
 and the owner in front looking at them as they 
 came up without making any call or movement 
 to attract them. After giving us the benefit of 
 their magnificent eyes and sweet breath they 
 began to feed off, back Up the valley. There 
 upon the boys, who had been loitering on the 
 stream-side to catch a salmon trout or two, 
 
 230
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 went round them and drove them back to us. 
 Then the deer stopped feeding and began to 
 chew the cud and to lie down, with eyes partly 
 closed and dreamy-looking, as if profoundly 
 comfortable, we strangers causing them not 
 the slightest alarm though standing nearly 
 within touching distance of them. Cows in a 
 barnyard, milked and petted every day, are 
 not so gentle. Yet these beautiful animals are 
 allowed to feed at will, without herding to any 
 great extent. They seem as smooth and clean 
 and glossy as if they were wild. Taming does 
 not seem to have injured them in any way. I 
 saw no mark of man upon them. 
 
 They are not so large as I have been led to 
 suppose, nor so rough and bony and angular. 
 The largest would not much exceed three or 
 four hundred pounds in weight. They are, at 
 this time of year, smooth, trim, delicately 
 molded animals, very fat, and apparently 
 short-winded, for they were breathing hard 
 when they came up, like oxen that had been 
 working on a hot day. The horns of the largest 
 males are about four feet long, rising with a 
 backward curve, and then forward, and dividing 
 into three or four points, and with a number of 
 short palmated branches putting forward and 
 downward from the base over the animal's fore 
 head. Those of the female are very slender and 
 231
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 elegant in curve, more so than any horns I have 
 seen. This species of deer is said to be the only 
 one in which the female has horns. The fawns, 
 also, have horns already, six inches to a foot 
 long, with a few blunt, knobby branches begin 
 ning to sprout. All are. now in the velvet, some 
 of which is beginning to peel off and hang in 
 loose shreds about the heads of some of them, 
 producing a very singular appearance, as if 
 they had been fighting a rag-bag. 
 
 The so-called velvet is a close, soft, downy 
 fur, black in color, and very fine and silky, 
 about three eighths or half an inch long, with 
 a few hairs nearly an inch in length rising 
 stiffly here and there over the general plushy 
 surface. All the branches of their horns are 
 covered, giving an exceedingly rich and beau 
 tiful effect. The eyes are large, and in expres 
 sion confiding and gentle. The head, contrary 
 to my preconceived notions derived from en 
 gravings, is, on the whole, delicately formed, 
 the muzzle long and straight, blunt and cowlike. 
 The neck is thin, tapering but little, rather 
 deep, and held, while standing at ease, sloping 
 down a little, and the large males have long 
 hair on the under side. The body is round, 
 almost cylindrical the belly not at all bloated 
 or bent out like that of a cow. The legs are 
 stout, but not clumsy, and taper finely into the 
 
 232
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 muscles of the shoulders and hips. The feet 
 are very broad and spreading, making a track 
 about as large as a cow's. This enables the ani 
 mal to walk over boggy tundras in summer and 
 over snow in winter. 
 
 In color they vary almost as much in some 
 specimens as do cattle and horses, showing 
 white, brown, black, and gray at the same time. 
 The prevailing color is nearly black in summer, 
 brownish-white in winter. The colors of the 
 tame animals are not so constant as those of the 
 wild. The hair is, when full grown, very heavy, 
 with fine wool at the bottom-; thus making a 
 warm covering sufficient to enable the animal 
 to resist the keenest frosts of the Arctic winter 
 without any shelter beyond the lee side of a 
 rock or hill. 
 
 After walking through the midst of the herd, 
 the boys selected a rather small specimen to 
 be killed. One caught it by the hind leg, just 
 as sheep are caught, and dragged it backward 
 out of the herd; then the other boy took it by 
 the horns and led it away a few yards from the 
 herd, no notice being taken of its struggles by 
 its companions, nor was any tendency to take 
 fright observed, such as would, under the cir 
 cumstances, have been shown by any of the 
 common domestic animals. The mother alone 
 looked after it eagerly, and further manifested 
 233
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 her concern and affection by uttering a low, 
 grunting sound, and by trying to follow it. 
 
 After it was slain they laid it on its side. One 
 of the women brought forward a branch of wil 
 low about a foot long, with the green leaves on 
 it, and put it under the animal's head. Then 
 she threw four or five handfuls of the blood, 
 from the knife-wound back of the shoulder, 
 out over the ground to the southward, making 
 me get out of the way, as if this direction were 
 the only proper one. Next she took a cupful 
 of water and poured a little on its mouth and 
 tail and on the wound. While this ceremony 
 was being performed all the family looked 
 serious, but as soon as it was over they began 
 to laugh and chat as before. The herd, during 
 the time of the killing and dressing, were tran 
 quilly chewing their cud, not noticing even 
 the smell of the blood, which makes cattle so 
 frantic. 
 
 One of our party was anxious to procure a 
 young one alive to take home with him, but 
 they would not sell one alive at any price. 
 When we inquired the reason they said that if 
 they should part with one, all the rest of the 
 herd would die, and the same thing would hap 
 pen if they were to part with the head of one. 
 This they excitedly declared was true, for they 
 had seen it proved many times though white 
 
 234
 
 A SIBERIAN REINDEER HERD 
 
 men did not understand it and always laughed 
 about it. When we indicated a very large buck 
 and inquired why they did not kill that big 
 one, and let the little ones grow, they replied 
 that that big fellow was strong, and knew how 
 to pull a sled, and could run fast over the snow 
 that would come by-and-by, and they needed 
 him too much to kill him. 
 
 I have never before seen half so interesting 
 a company of tame animals. In some parts of 
 Siberia reindeer herds numbering many thou 
 sands may be seen together. In these frozen re 
 gions they supply every want of their owners 
 as no other animal could possibly do food, 
 warm clothing, coverings for their tents, bed 
 ding, rapid transportation and, to some extent, 
 fuel. They are not nearly so numerous in the 
 immediate vicinity of the bay as they once 
 were, a fact attributed to the sale of several 
 live specimens to whalers.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE 
 
 Steamer Corwin, Arctic Ocean, 
 
 Between Herald Shoals and Point Hope, 
 
 September 3, 1881. 
 
 ON the morning of August 27, having taken 
 on board a full supply of coal and water, and 
 put the ship in as good condition as possible, we 
 left Plover Bay and turned once more toward 
 Wrangell Land. 
 
 In passing Marcus Bay, a short distance up 
 the coast from Plover Bay, the Captain wished 
 to make a landing to give some instructions to 
 our Chukchi interpreter and dog-driver, who 
 lives here, concerning the dogs and sleds that 
 were taken at Tapkan. The weather was too 
 thick, however, to allow this, and the ship was 
 put on her course for the western Diomede 
 Island, where we arrived, against a stiff head 
 wind and through thick fog, shortly after noon 
 on the twenty-eighth. We lay at anchor for a 
 few hours, while the wind from the Arctic came 
 dashing and swirling over the island in squally 
 gusts. 
 
 In the meantime, while waiting to see 
 whether the wind would moderate before we 
 
 236
 
 TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE 
 
 proceeded through the strait, we went ashore 
 and greatly enjoyed a stroll through the streets 
 and houses of the curious village here. It is 
 built on the bald, rugged side of the island, 
 where the slope is almost cliff-like in steepness 
 and rockiness. The winter houses are wood- 
 lined burrows underground, entered by a tun 
 nel, and warm and snug like the nest of a field- 
 mouse beneath a sod, though terribly thick and 
 rancid as to the air contained in them. The 
 summer houses are square skin boxes above 
 ground, and set on long stilt poles. Neither the 
 one nor the other look in the least like houses 
 or huts of any sort. But those made of skin are 
 the queerest human nests conceivable. They 
 are simply light, square frames made of drift 
 poles gathered on the beach, and covered with 
 walrus hide that has been carefully dressed 
 and stretched tightly on the frame like the 
 head of a drum. The skin is of a yellow color, 
 and quite translucent, so that when in one feels 
 as if one were inside a huge blown bladder, the 
 light sifting in through the skin at the top and 
 all around, yellow as a sunset. The entire es 
 tablishment is window, one pane for the roof, 
 which is also the ceiling, and one for each of 
 the four sides, without cross sash-bars to mar 
 the brave simplicity of it all. 
 Most of the inhabitants, of whom there are 
 
 237
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 perhaps a hundred, had just returned from a 
 long voyage in their canoes to Cape Prince of 
 Wales, Kotzebue Sound, and other points on 
 the American coast, for purposes of trade, 
 bringing back ivory and furs to sell to the Chuk- 
 chis of Siberia, who in turn will carry these 
 articles by a roundabout way nearly a thousand 
 miles to the Russian trading post, and return 
 with goods to trade back to the Diomede mer 
 chants, through whose hands they will pass to 
 the Cape Prince of Wales natives, and from 
 these to several others up the Inland River, 
 down the Colville, to Point Barrow and east 
 ward as far as the mouth of the Mackenzie 
 River. 
 
 The Diomede merchants are true middlemen, 
 and their village a half-way house of commerce 
 between northeastern Asia and America. The 
 extent of the dealings of these people, usually 
 regarded as savages, is truly surprising. And 
 that they can keep warm and make a living 
 on this bleak, fog-smothered, storm-beaten 
 rock, and have time to beget, feed, and train 
 children, and give them a good Eskimo educa 
 tion; that they teach them to shoot the bow, 
 to make and throw the bird spears, to make and 
 use those marvelous kayaks, to kill seals, bears, 
 and walrus, to hunt the whale, capture the 
 different kind of fishes, manufacture different 
 
 238
 
 TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE 
 
 sorts of leather, dress skins and make them 
 into clothing, besides teaching them to carry on 
 trade, to make fire by rubbing two pieces of 
 wood together, and to build the strange houses 
 that they can do all this, and still have time 
 to be sociable, to dance, sing, gossip, and dis 
 cuss ghosts, spirits, and all the nerve-racking 
 marvels of the shaman world, shows how truly 
 wild, and brave, and capable a people these 
 island Eskimos are. 
 
 The wind having moderated, we got away 
 from the box-and-burrow village and through 
 the Strait before dark; then we steered for 
 the south end of Wrangell Land, and after a 
 speedy and uneventful voyage came in sight 
 of the highest of the coast mountains, on the 
 thirtieth at noon. Thus far we had not seen the 
 ice, and, inasmuch as nineteen summer days 
 had passed over it since our last visit, we hoped 
 that it might have been melted considerably 
 and broken up by the winds, so as to admit of 
 a way being forced through it at some point up 
 to the land, or so near it that we might get 
 ashore by crossing over the coast ice, dragging 
 our light skin boat after us in case we should 
 come to lanes of open water. 
 
 In this, however, we were disappointed; for 
 when three and a half hours later we came up 
 to the edge of the pack it was found to all ap- 
 
 239
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 pearances unchanged. It still extended about 
 twenty miles offshore; it trended as far as we 
 could see in the same direction as was observed 
 before, and it seemed as heavy and unbroken 
 as ever, offering no encouragement for efforts 
 in this direction. We therefore sailed along the 
 edge of the pack to the eastward to see what 
 might be accomplished towards our first land 
 ing place. We gazed at the long stretch of 
 wilderness which spread invitingly before us, 
 and which we were so eager to explore the 
 rounded, glaciated bosses and foothills, the 
 mountains, with ice-sculptured features of hol 
 lows and ridges and long withdrawing valleys, 
 which in former visits we had sketched, and 
 scanned so attentively through field-glasses, 
 and which now began to wear a familiar look. 
 The sky was overcast, the land seemed almost 
 black in the glqomy light, and a heavy swell be 
 gan to be felt coming in from the northeast. 
 Towards night, when we were not far from our 
 old landing near the easternmost extremity of 
 the land, the Corwin was hove to, waiting for 
 the morning before attempting to seek a way 
 in. But the next day, August 31, was stormy. 
 The wind from the northeast blew hard inshore, 
 therefore it was not considered safe to approach 
 too near. 
 At eight o'clock we were in sight of the ice 
 
 240
 
 TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE 
 
 opposite the northeast cape, and it seemed to 
 be farther off the land than at our first visit, 
 and no opening appeared, though the weather 
 was so dim and rough that nothing could be 
 definitely determined. Generally, however, the 
 ice was now drifting against the east side of 
 Wrangell Land, and coming southward to so 
 great an extent that our chances of effecting 
 another landing began to be less promising. 
 
 When we were within twenty miles of Herald 
 Island, we hove to, waiting better weather be 
 fore entering narrow lanes and bays in the pack 
 when so heavy a sea was running. The sky was 
 dismal all the afternoon toward night, dull, 
 lurid purple and the wind was blowing a gale. 
 The ice-breaker, made of heavy boiler iron, was 
 broken by the pounding of the waves, and had 
 to be cut away, which is unfortunate at this 
 particular time. 
 
 September 1 was a howling storm-day, 
 through which we lay to, swashing and rolling 
 wildly among white waves, and drifting south 
 eastward twenty or thirty miles a day. The 
 next day there was no "abatement hi the force 
 of the gale up to two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 A heavy sea, streaked with foam, was running 
 parallel to the direction of the winci, while the 
 air was filled with snow, adding to the wintry 
 aspect of the day. While we were still holding 
 
 241
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 on, hoping the storm would subside from hour 
 to hour, one of the rudder chains parted. 
 
 This made Captain Hooper decide that in 
 view of the condition of the ship, and the ice, 
 and the weather, the risk attending further 
 efforts this year to search the shores of Wrangell 
 Land should not be incurred, more especially 
 since the position and drift of the ice held out 
 but little promise of allowing another landing 
 to be made, or of a sufficiently near approach 
 to enable us to add appreciably to the knowl 
 edge already acquired. Accordingly, after the 
 rudder was mended as securely as possible, the 
 good Corwin, excused from further ice duty, 
 was turned away from the war and headed for 
 the American coast at Point Hope. 
 
 Had the ship been in good condition, the 
 battle would probably have been waged a few 
 more weeks along the edge of the ice barrier, 
 watching the appearance of any vulnerable 
 point of attack, whatever the result might have 
 been. Now it seems we are homeward bound. 
 We intend to stop at Kotzebue Sound, St. 
 Michael, St. Paul, and Unalaska to make nec 
 essary repairs, take on coal, etc., and we may 
 reach San Francisco by the middle of October. 
 
 We have hot met the Rodgers. We learned 
 from the natives at Plover Bay that she had 
 called there and left seven days before our 
 
 242
 
 TURNED BACK BY STORMS AND ICE 
 
 arrival. That was August 17. We suppose she 
 went to St. Michael from there to coal and take 
 on provisions, which would probably require 
 a week. If so, we may have passed the Strait 
 ahead of her. But in case she had already been 
 at St. Michael, then, in following out her in 
 structions, she could trace the Siberian coast 
 for some distance, making inquiries among the 
 Chukchis, where she may possibly be at present. 
 Or, it this part of the work of the expedition 
 had been completed before the coming on of 
 the gale, she may be sheltering about Herald 
 Island or some point on the coast of Wrangell 
 Land. 1 
 
 1 Mr. Muir's supposition proved to be correct. The U.S.S. 
 Rodgers, Lieutenant R. M. Berry commanding, reached 
 Wrangell Land, August 25, and found shelter the next day 
 in a snug little harbor on the southeastern coast of the 
 island. There the Rodgers remained until September 13, 
 while two search parties explored the shores of the island for 
 traces of the Jeannette expedition.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 HOMEWARD-BOUND 
 
 Steamer Carwin, 
 Unalaska, October 4, 1881. 
 
 ON the home voyage, all the hard Arctic 
 work done, the Corwin stopped a week at the 
 head of Kotzebue Sound, near Chamisso Island, 
 to seek a fresh supply of water and make some 
 needful repairs and observations, during which 
 time I had a capital opportunity to examine 
 the curious and interesting ice formations of 
 the shores of Eschscholtz Bay. I found ice in 
 some form or other, exposed at intervals of 
 from a mile to a few yards, on the tide-washed 
 front of the shore bluffs on both sides of the 
 bay, a distance of about fifty miles. But it 
 is only the most conspicuous mass, forming a 
 bluff, at Elephant Point, on the south side of 
 the bay, that seems to have been observed 
 hitherto, or attracted much attention. 
 
 This Elephant Point, so called from the fossil 
 elephant tusks found here, is a bluff of solid 
 ice, one hundred and forty feet high, covered 
 on the top with a foot or two of ordinary 
 tundra vegetation, and with tall grass on the 
 terraces and shelving portions of the front, 
 244
 
 HOMEWARD-BOUND 
 
 wherever the slope is sufficiently gentle for soil 
 to find rest. It is a rigid fossil fragment of a 
 glacier leaning back against the north side of 
 a hill, mostly in shadow, and covered lightly 
 with glacial detritus from the hill slope above 
 it, over which the tundra vegetation has 
 gradually been extended, and which eventually 
 formed a thick feltlike protection against waste 
 during the summer. Thus it has lasted until 
 now, wasting only on the exposed face front 
 ing the bay, which is being constantly under 
 mined, the soil and vegetation on top being 
 precipitated over the raw, melting ice front 
 and washed away by the tide. Were it not 
 that its base is swept by tide currents, the 
 accumulation of tundra moss and peat would 
 finally re-bury the front and check further 
 waste. As it is, the formation will not last 
 much longer probably not more than a 
 thousand or fifteen hundred years. Its present 
 age is perhaps more than this. 
 
 When one walks along the base of the forma 
 tion which is about a mile or so in length 
 making one's, way over piles of rotten humus 
 and through sloppy bog mud of the consistence 
 of watery porridge, mixed with bones of ele 
 phants, buffaloes, musk oxen, etc., the ice so 
 closely resembles the wasting snout of a glacier, 
 with its jagged projecting ridges, ledges, and 
 
 245
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 small, dripping, tinkling rills, that it is not easy 
 to realize that it is not one in ordinary action. 
 
 Mingled with the true glacier ice we notice 
 masses of dirty stratified ice, made up of clean 
 layers alternating with layers of mud and sand, 
 and mingled with bits of humus and sphagnum, 
 and of leaves and stems of the various plants 
 that grow on the tundra above. This dirty ice 
 of peculiar stratification never blends into the 
 glacier ice, but is simply frozen upon it, filling 
 cavities or spreading over slopes here and there. 
 It is formed by the freezing of films of clear and 
 dirty water from the broken edge of the tun 
 dra, a process going on every spring and au 
 tumn, when frosts and thaws succeed each 
 other night and morning, cloudy days and 
 sunny days. This, of course, is of compara 
 tively recent age, even the oldest of it. 
 
 A striking result of the shaking up and airing 
 and draining of the tundra soil is seen on the 
 face of the ice slopes and terraces. When the 
 undermined tundra material rolls down upon 
 those portions of the ice front where it can come 
 to rest, it is well buffeted and shaken, and fre 
 quently lies upside down as if turned with a 
 plow. Here it is well drained through resting 
 on melting ice, and though not more than a 
 foot or two in thickness, it produces a remark 
 ably close and tall growth of grass, four to six 
 
 246
 
 HOMEWARD-BOUND 
 
 feet high, and as lush and broad-leaved as may 
 be found in any farmer's field. Cut for hay it 
 would make about four or five tons per acre. 
 
 Only a few other plants that would be called 
 weeds are found growing among the grass, 
 mostly senecio and artemisia, both tall and 
 exuberant, showing the effects of this curious 
 system of cultivation on this strange soil. The 
 vegetation on top of the bluff is the most beau 
 tiful that I have yet seen, not rank and culti 
 vated looking, like that on the face slopes, 
 but showing the finest and most delicate beauty 
 of wildness, in forms, combinations, and colors 
 of leaf, stalk, and fruit. There were red and 
 yellow dwarf birch, arbutus, willow, and pur 
 ple huckleberry, with lovely grays of sedges 
 and lichens. The neutral tints of the lichens 
 are intensely beautiful. 
 
 I found the shore-bluff towards the mouth 
 of the Buckland River from forty to sixty feet 
 high, with a regular slope of about thirty de 
 grees. It was covered with willows and alders, 
 some of them five or six feet high, and long 
 grass; also patches of ice here and there, but 
 no large masses. The soil is a fine blue clay at 
 bottom, with water-worn quartz, pebbles and 
 sand above it, like that of the opposite side of 
 the estuary, and evidently brought down by 
 the river floods when the ice of the glaciers 
 
 247
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 that occupied this river basin and that of the 
 Kuuk x was melting. 
 
 The ice that I found here and on the opposite 
 side of the bay, especially where the tundra is 
 low and flat, let us say forty or fifty feet above 
 the sea, and covered with pools and strips of 
 water, is not glacier ice, but ice derived from 
 water freezing in pools and veins and hollows, 
 overgrown with mosses, lichens, etc., and after 
 wards exposed as fossil ice on the shore face 
 of the tundra where it is being wasted by the 
 action of the sea. The tundra has been cracked 
 in every direction, and in looking over its sur 
 face, slight depressions, or some difference in 
 the vegetation, indicate the location and extent 
 of the fissures. When these are traced forward 
 to the edge of the shore-bluff, a cross-section of 
 ice is seen from two to four or five feet wide. 
 The larger sections are simply the exposed sides 
 of those ice veins that chance to trend in a di 
 rection parallel to the face of the bluff. Be 
 sides these I found several other kinds of ice, 
 differing in origin from the foregoing, but which 
 can hardly be described in a mere letter, how 
 ever interesting to the geologist. 
 
 At St. Michael we found a party of wrecked 
 
 1 A river tributary to Eschscholtz Bay from the east, 
 It was called Kuuk on British Admiralty charts of the early 
 eighties, but is now known as the Mungoark River. 
 
 248
 
 HOMEWARD-BOUND 
 
 prospectors from Golofnin Bay, who were 
 anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Corwin, 
 as she would be the last vessel leaving for Cali 
 fornia this year. This proved to be the Oakland 
 party mentioned in a previous letter. With 
 genuine Yankee enterprise [these men] had 
 pushed their way into the far wilderness be 
 yond the Yukon to seek for silver. Specimens 
 of bright, exciting ore, assaying a hundred and 
 fifty dollars to the ton, had been exhibited in 
 Oakland, brought from a mine said to be lo 
 cated near tide water at Golofnin Bay, Alaska, 
 and so easily worked that large ships could be 
 loaded with the precious ore about as readily 
 as with common ballast. Thereupon a com 
 pany, called the Alaska Mining Company, was 
 organized, the schooner W. F. March char 
 tered, and with the necessary supplies a party 
 of ten sailed from San Francisco May 5, 1881, 
 for Golofnin Bay, to explore this mine in par 
 ticular, and the region in general, and then to 
 return, this fall, with a cargo of ore. 
 
 They arrived in Golofnin Bay June 18, lost 
 their vessel in a gale on the north side of the 
 bay August 15, and arrived in twenty-one days 
 at St. Michael in canoes and a boat that was 
 saved from the wreck. They found the mine 
 as rich as represented, but far less accessible. 
 It is said to be about thirty miles from tide 
 
 249
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 water. All feel confident that they have a val 
 uable mine. Two or three of the party were 
 away at the time of the disaster, prospecting 
 for cinnabar on the Kuskoquim, and are left 
 behind to pass the winter as best they may at 
 some of the trading stations. 
 
 Our two weeks' stay at Unalaska has been 
 pleasant and restful after the long cruise 
 about fourteen thousand miles altogether up 
 to this point. The hill slopes and mountains 
 look richly green and foodful, and the views 
 about the harbor, at the close and beginning 
 of storms, when clouds are wreathing the al 
 pine summits, are very beautiful. 
 
 The huts of the Aleuts here are very pictur 
 esque at this time of the year. The grass grows 
 tall over the sides and the roof, waving in the 
 wind, and making a fine fringe about the win 
 dows and the door. When the church bell rings 
 on Sunday and the good calico-covered people 
 plod sedately forth to worship, and the cows 
 on the hillside moo blandly, and the sun shines 
 over the green slopes, then the scene is like a 
 bit of New England or old Scotland. But, later 
 in the day, when the fiery kvass is drunk, and 
 the accordions and concertinas and cheap music 
 boxes are in full blast, then the noise and un 
 seemly clang attending drunkenness is not at 
 all like a Scotch sabbath. 
 
 250
 
 HOMEWARD-BOUND 
 
 Most of the Aleuts have an admixture of 
 Russian blood. Many of them dance well. 
 Three balls were given 'during our stay here, 
 that is to say, American balls with native 
 women. The Aleuts have their own dances in 
 their small huts. 
 
 A few days ago I made an excursion to the 
 top of a well-formed volcanic cone at the mouth 
 of a picturesque glacial fiord, about eight miles 
 from here. This mountain, about two thousand 
 feet high, commands a magnificent view of the 
 mountains of Unalaska, Akutan, and adjacent 
 islands. Akutan : still emits black smoke and 
 cinders at times, and thunders loud enough to 
 be heard at Unalaska. 
 
 The noblest of them all was Makushin, 2 about 
 nine thousand feet high and laden with glaciers, 
 a grand sight, far surpassing what I had been 
 led to expect. There is a spot on its summit 
 which is said to smoke, probably mostly steam 
 and vapor from the infiltration of water into 
 the heated cavities of the old volcano. The 
 extreme summit of Makushin was wrapped in 
 white clouds, and from beneath these the gla 
 ciers were seen descending impressively into 
 the sunshine to within a thousand or fifteen 
 
 1 The highest mountain of Akutan Island. The United 
 States Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart No. 8860 gives its 
 altitude as forty-one hundred feet. 
 
 2 See footnote p. 253. 
 
 251
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORWIN 
 
 hundred feet of sea-level. This fine mountain, 
 glittering in its showy mail of snow and ice, to 
 gether with a hundred 'other peaks dipping into 
 the blue sky, and every one of them telling the 
 work of ice or fire in their forms and sculpture 
 these, and the sparkling sea, and long in- 
 reaching fiords, are a noble picture to add to 
 the thousand others which have enriched our 
 lives this summer in the great Northland. 
 
 THE END
 
 APPENDIX
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE GLACIATION OF THE ARCTIC AND SUB 
 ARCTIC REGIONS VISITED DURING 
 THE CRUISE 
 
 THE monuments of the glaciation of the regions 
 about Bering Sea and the northern shores of Sibe 
 ria and Alaska are in general much broken and 
 obscured on account of the intensity of the action of 
 the agents of destruction in these low, moist regions, 
 together with the perishable character of the rocks 
 of which most of the monuments consist. Lofty 
 headlands, once covered with clear glacial inscrip 
 tions, have been undermined and cast down in loose, 
 draggled taluses, while others, in a dim, ruinous con 
 dition, with most of their surface records effaced, 
 are rapidly giving way to the weather. The mo 
 raines, also, and the grooved, scratched, and pol 
 ished surfaces are much blurred and wasted, while 
 glaciated areas of great extent are not open to ob 
 servation at all, being covered by the shallow 
 waters of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and 
 buried beneath sediments and coarse detritus which 
 has been weathered from the higher grounds, or 
 deposited by the ice itself when it was being 
 melted and withdrawn towards the close of the 
 main glacial period. But amid this general waste 
 and obscurity a few legible fragments, favorably 
 255
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 situated here and there, have escaped destruction 
 patches of polished and striated surfaces in a 
 fair state of preservation, with moraines of local 
 glaciers that have not been exposed to the heavier 
 forms of water or avalanche action. And had 
 these fading vestiges perished altogether, yet would 
 not the observer be left without a sure guide, 
 for there are other monuments of ice action in all 
 glaciated regions that are almost indestructible, 
 enduring for tens of thousands of years after those 
 simpler traces that we have been considering have 
 vanished. These are the material of moraines, 
 though scattered, washed, crumbled, and re-formed 
 over and over again; and the sculpture and config 
 uration of the landscape in general, canons, valleys, 
 mountains, ridges, roches moutonnees with forms 
 and correlations specifically glacial. These, also, it 
 is true, suffer incessant waste, being constantly 
 written upon by other agents; yet, because the 
 glacial characters are formed on so colossal a scale 
 of magnitude, they continue to stand out free and 
 clear through every after inscription whether of the 
 torrent, the avalanche, or universal eroding atmos 
 phere; opening grand and comprehensive yiews of 
 the vanished ice, and the geographical and topo 
 graphical changes effected by its action in the form 
 of local and distinct glaciers. River-like, they flowed 
 from the mountains to the sea, and, as a broad, un 
 dulating mantle, crawled over all the landscape 
 through unnumbered centuries; crushed and ground 
 and spread soil-beds; fashioned the features of 
 mountain and plain; extended the domain of the 
 sea; separated continents; dotted new coasts with 
 islands, fringed them with deep inreaching fiords, 
 256
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 and impressed their peculiar style of sculpture on 
 all the regions over which they passed. 
 
 A general exploration of the mountain ranges of 
 the Pacific Coast shows that there are about sixty- 
 five small residual glaciers on the Sierra Nevada of 
 California, between latitude 36 30' and 39, distrib 
 uted singly or in small groups on the north sides of 
 the highest peaks at an elevation of about eleven 
 to twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
 representatives of the grand glaciers that once 
 covered all the range. More than two thirds of 
 these lie between latitude 37 and 38, and form 
 the highest sources of the San Joaquin, Tuolumne, 
 Merced, and Owens Rivers. 
 
 Mount Shasta, near the northern boundary of 
 California, has a few shrinking glacier remnants, 
 the largest about three miles in length. We find that, 
 to the north of California, groups of active glaciers 
 still exist on all the highest mountains Mounts 
 Jefferson, Adams, Saint Helens, Hood, Rainier, 
 Baker, and others. Of these Mount Rainier is the 
 highest and iciest. Its summit is fairly capped with 
 ice, and eight glaciers, from seven to fifteen miles 
 long, radiate from it as a center and form the sources 
 of the principal streams. The lowest descends to 
 about thirty-five hundred feet above sea level, pour 
 ing a stream opaque with glacial mud into the head 
 of Puget Sound. 
 
 On through British Columbia and southeastern 
 Alaska the broad sustained mountain chain extend 
 ing along the coast is generally glacier-bearing. The 
 upper branches of nearly every one of the main 
 canons are occupied by glaciers, which gradually 
 increase in size and descend lower until the lofty 
 257
 
 region between Mount Fairweather and Mount St. 
 Elias is reached, where a considerable number dis 
 charge into the waters of the ocean. 
 
 This is the region of greatest glacial abundance 
 on the continent. To the northward from here the 
 glaciers gradually diminish in size and depth and 
 melt at higher levels until the latitude of about 
 62 is reached, beyond which few, if any, glaciers 
 remain in existence, the ground being comparatively 
 low and the annual snowfall light. 
 
 Between latitude 56 and 60 there are prob 
 ably more than five thousand glaciers, great and 
 small, hundreds of the largest size, descending 
 through the forests nearly to the level of the sea, 
 though, as far as I know after a pretty thorough 
 exploration of the region, not more than twenty-five 
 discharge into the sea. 
 
 All the long, high-walled fiords into which these 
 great glaciers of the first class flow are of course 
 crowded with icebergs of every conceivable form, 
 which are detached at intervals of a few minutes. 
 But these are small as compared with those of 
 Greenland, and only a few escape from the intricate 
 labyrinth of channels, with which this portion of 
 the coast is fringed, into the open sea. Nearly all 
 of them are washed and drifted back and forth in 
 the fiords by wind and tide until finally melted by 
 sunshine and the copious warm rains of summer. 
 
 The southmost of the glaciers that reach the sea 
 occupies a narrow fiord about twenty miles to the 
 northwest of the mouth of the Stikine River, in lati 
 tude 56 50'. It. is called "Hutli" x by the natives, 
 
 1 Now known as Le Conte Glacier; also the Bay into which it dis 
 charges. Both were so named in 1887 by Lieutenant-Commander Charles 
 
 258
 
 Q 
 
 W 
 
 at 
 M 
 
 o 
 u 
 
 <
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 from the noise made by the icebergs in rising and 
 falling from the inflowing glacier. About one de 
 gree farther north there are four of these complete 
 glaciers at the heads of branches of Holkham Bay, 
 at the head of Taku Inlet one, and at the head and 
 around the sides of a bay 1 trending in a general 
 northerly direction from Cross Sound, first explored 
 by myself in 1879, there are no less than five of these 
 complete glaciers reaching tide-water, the largest 
 of which, the Muir, is of colossal size, having up 
 wards of two hundred tributaries and a width of 
 trunk below the confluence of the main tributaries 
 of three to twenty-five miles. Between the west side 
 of this icy bay and the ocean all the ground, high and 
 low, with the exception of the summits of the moun 
 tain peaks, is covered by a mantle of ice from one 
 to three thousand feet thick, which discharges to 
 the eastward and westward through many distinct 
 mouths. 
 
 This ice-sheet, together with the multitude of dis 
 tinct glaciers that load the lofty mountains of the 
 coast, evidently once formed part of one grand, con 
 tinuous ice-sheet that flowed over all the region here 
 abouts, extending southward as far as the Straits 
 of Juan de Fuca, for all the islands of the Alexander 
 Archipelago, great and small, as well as the head 
 lands and promontories of the mainland, are seen 
 to have forms of greatest strength with reference 
 to the action of a vast press of oversweeping ice, and 
 their surfaces have a smooth, rounded, over-rubbed 
 
 M. Thomas, U.S.N., presumably in honor of Joseph Le Conte, the well- 
 known California geologist. "Hutli" is the Tlingit Indian name for the 
 mythical bird which produces thunder by the flapping of its wings. The 
 word, therefore, means " The Thunderer." 
 1 Now known as Glacier Bay. 
 
 259
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 appearance, generally free from angles. The canals, 
 channels, straits, passages, sounds, etc., between the 
 islands a marvelous labyrinth manifest in their 
 forms and trends and general characteristics the 
 same subordination to the grinding action of a con 
 tinuous ice-sheet, and they differ from the islands, 
 as to their origin, only in being portions of the 
 general pre-glacial margin of the continent, more 
 deeply eroded, and, therefore, covered with the 
 ocean waters which flowed into them as the ice 
 was melted out of them. 
 
 That the dominion of the sea is being extended 
 over the land by the wearing away of its shores is 
 well known. But in these northern regions the coast 
 rocks have been so short a time exposed to wave- 
 action that they are but little wasted as yet, the 
 extension of the sea affected by its own action in 
 post-glacial time in this region being probably less 
 than the millionth part of that affected by glacial 
 action during the last glacial period. 
 
 Traces of the ancient glaciers made during the 
 period of greater extension abound on the California 
 Sierra as far south as latitude 36. Even the most 
 evanescent of them, the polished surfaces, are still 
 found, in a marvelously perfect state of preserva 
 tion, on the upper half of the middle portion of 
 the range. They occur in irregular patches, some 
 of which are several acres in extent, and, though 
 they have been subjected to the weather with all 
 its storms for thousands of years, their mechanical 
 excellence is such that they reflect the sunbeams 
 like glass, and attract the attention of every ob 
 server. 
 
 The most perfect of these shining pavements lie 
 260
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 at an elevation of about seven to eight thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea, where the rock is 
 close-grained, siliceous granite. Small fading patches 
 may be found at from three to five thousand feet 
 elevation on the driest and most enduring portions 
 of vertical walls, where there is protection from the 
 drip and friction of water; also, on compact swell 
 ing bosses partially protected by a covering of 
 boulders. 
 
 On the north half of the Sierra the striated and 
 polished surfaces are rarely found, not only because 
 this portion of the chain is lower, but on account 
 of the surface rocks being chiefly porous lavas sub 
 ject to rapid waste. The moraines, also, though well 
 preserved on the south half of the range, seem to be 
 nearly wanting over a considerable portion of the 
 north half, but the material of which they were com 
 posed is found in abundance, scattered and disin 
 tegrated, until its glacial origin is not obvious to 
 the unskilled observer. 
 
 A similar blurred condition of the superficial rec 
 ords obtains throughout most of Oregon, Washing 
 ton, British Columbia, and Alaska, due in great 
 part to the action of excessive moisture. Even in 
 southeastern Alaska, where the most extensive 
 glaciers still exist, the more evanescent of the traces 
 of their former greater extension, though compara 
 tively recent, are more obscure than those of the 
 ancient glaciers of California, where the climate is 
 drier and the rocks more resisting. We are prepared, 
 therefore, to find the finer lines of the glacial record 
 dim or obliterated altogether in the Arctic regions, 
 where the ground is mostly low and the action of 
 frost and moisture specially destructive. 
 261
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The Aleutian chain of islands sweeps westward 
 in a regular curve, about a thousand miles long, 
 from the Alaska Peninsula toward Kamchatka, 
 nearly uniting the American and Asiatic continents. 
 A very -short geological time ago, just before the 
 coming on of the glacial winter, the union of the 
 two continents was probably complete. The entire 
 chain appears to be simply a degraded portion of 
 the North Pacific pre-glacial coast mountains, with 
 its foothills and lowest portions of the connecting 
 ridges between the peaks a few feet under water, the 
 submerged ridges forming the passes between the 
 islands as they exist to-day, while the broad plain 
 to the north of the chain is now covered by the 
 shallow waters of Bering Sea. 
 
 Now the evidence seems everywhere complete 
 that this segregating degradation has been effected 
 almost wholly by glacial action. Yet, strange to say, 
 it is held by most observers who have made brief 
 visits to different portions of the chain that each 
 island is a distinct volcanic upheaval, but little 
 changed since the period of emergence from the sea, 
 an impression made no doubt by the volcanic char 
 acter of most of the rocks, ancient and recent, of 
 which they are composed, and by the many extinct, 
 or feebly active volcanoes occurring here and there 
 along the summits of the highest masses. But, on 
 the contrary, all the evidence we have seen goes to 
 show that the amount of glacial denudation these 
 rocks have undergone is very great, so great that, 
 with the exception of the recent craters, almost every 
 existing feature is distinctly glacial. The compara 
 tively featureless pre-glacial rocks have been heav 
 ily sculptured and fashioned into the endless va- 
 262
 
 KING ISLAND 
 
 GRANITE ROCKS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF SAINT LAWRENCE 
 
 ISLAND, SHOWING EFFECTS OF OVERSWEEPING ACTION 
 
 OF ICE-SHEET
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 riety they now present of peak and ridge, valley and 
 fiord and clustering islets, harmoniously correlated 
 in accordance with glacial law. 
 
 On Mount Makushin, 1 whose summit reaches an 
 elevation of about nine thousand feet above the sea, 
 several small glaciers still exist, while others yet 
 smaller may be hidden in the basins of other moun 
 tains not yet explored. The summit of Makushin, at 
 the time my observations were made, was capped 
 with heavy clouds, and from beneath these the gla 
 ciers were seen descending imposingly into the open 
 sunshine to within a thousand or fifteen hundred feet 
 of the sea level, the largest perhaps about six miles in 
 length. After the clouds cleared away the summit 
 was seen to be heavily capped with ice, leaving only 
 the crumbling edges of the dividing ridges and sub 
 ordinate peaks free. The lower slopes of the moun 
 tain and the wide valleys proceeding from the gla 
 ciers present testimony of every kind to show that 
 these glaciers now lingering on the summit once 
 flowed directly into the sea. The adjacent moun 
 tains, though now mostly free from ice, are covered 
 with glacial markings, extending over all the low 
 grounds about their bases and the shores of the 
 fiords, and over many of the rocks now under water. 
 But besides this evidence of recent local glacial 
 abundance, we find traces of far grander glacial con 
 ditions on the heavily abraded rocks along the shores 
 of the passes separating the islands, and also in the 
 low wide valleys extending in a direction parallel 
 with the passes across the islands, indicating the 
 
 1 Muir probably adopted current estimates of the altitude of this 
 volcano. Gannett's Altitudes in Alaska (1900) gives the elevation as 5474 
 feet, and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Map, No. 8860 
 U916), as 5691 feet. 
 
 263
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 movement of a vast ice-sheet from the north over 
 the ground now covered by Bering Sea. 
 
 The amount of degradation this island region has 
 undergone is only partially manifested by the crum 
 bling, sharpened condition of the ridges and peaks, 
 the abraded surfaces that have been overswept, 
 and by the extent of the valleys and fiords, and the 
 gaps between the mountains and islands. 
 
 That these valleys, fiords, forges, and gaps, great 
 and small, like those of the Sierra, are not a result of 
 local subsidences and upheavals, but of the removal 
 of the material that once filled them, is shown by the 
 broken condition and the similarity of the physical 
 structure and composition of their contiguous sides, 
 just as the correspondence between the tiers of ma 
 sonry on either side of a broken gap in a wall shows 
 that the missing blocks required to fill it up have 
 been removed. 
 
 The chief agents of erosion and transportation 
 are water and ice, each being regarded as the more 
 influential by different observers, though the phe 
 nomena to which they give rise are widely different. 
 All geologists recognize the fact that glaciers wear 
 away the rocks over which they move, but great 
 vagueness prevails as to the size of the fragments of 
 erosion, and the way they are detached and re 
 moved; and if possible still greater vagueness pre 
 vails as to the forms and characteristics in general 
 of the mountains, hills, rocks, valleys, etc., resulting 
 from this erosion. 
 
 Towards the end of summer, when the snow is 
 
 melted from the lower portions of the glaciers, 
 
 particles of dust and sand may be seen scattered 
 
 over their surfaces, together with angular masses of 
 
 264
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 rocks, derived from the shattered storm-beaten 
 cliffs above their fountains. The separation of these 
 masses, which vary greatly in size, is due only in 
 part to the action of the glacier, though they are 
 all transported on its surface like floating drift on 
 a river, and deposited together in moraines. The 
 winds supply a portion of the sand and dust, some 
 of the larger fragments are set free by the action of 
 frost, rains, and general weathering agents, consid 
 erable quantities are swept down in avalanches of 
 snow where the inclination of the slopes is favorable 
 to their action, and shaken down by earthquake 
 shocks, while the glacier itself plays an important 
 part in the production of these superficial effects 
 by undermining the cliffs from whence the frag 
 ments fall. 
 
 But in all moraines boulders and small dust par 
 ticles may be recognized that have not been thus 
 derived from the weathered cliffs and dividing ridges 
 projecting above the glaciers, but from the rocks 
 past which and over which the glaciers flow. The 
 streams which drain glaciers are always turbid with 
 finely ground mud particles worn off the bed-rocks 
 by a sliding motion, accompanied by great pressure, 
 giving rise to polished surfaces, and keeping up a 
 waste that never for a moment ceases while the gla 
 cier exists; and besides these small particles boulders 
 are found that may be traced to their origin in the 
 bottoms or sides of the channels. Accordingly, an 
 abrupt transition is discovered from the polished 
 and plain portions of the channels to the more or 
 less angular and fractured portions, showing that 
 glaciers degrade the rocks over which they pass in 
 at least two different ways, by grinding them into 
 265
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 mud, and by crushing, breaking, and splitting them 
 into a coarse detritus of chips and boulders, the forms 
 and sizes of which are in great part determined by 
 the divisional planes the rocks possess, and the 
 intensity and direction of application of the force 
 brought to bear on them. The quantity of this 
 coarser material remaining in the channels along the 
 lines of dispersal, and the probable rate of move 
 ment of the glaciers that quarried and transported it, 
 form data from which some approximation to the 
 rate of this method of degradation may be reached. 
 
 The amount of influence exerted on the Aleutian 
 region by running water in its various forms, and by 
 the winds, avalanches, and the atmosphere in de 
 grading and fashioning the surface subsequent to 
 the melting of the ice, is as yet scarcely more ap 
 preciable than it is in the upper middle portion 
 of the Sierra; for, besides being much feebler in their 
 action, the time during which the region has been 
 exposed to their influence is comparatively short. 
 
 On the other hand, the quantity of material quar 
 ried and carried away by the force of the ice, in proc 
 ess of bringing the region into its present condition, 
 can hardly be overestimated; for, with the excep 
 tion of the recent volcanic cones, almost every 
 noticeable feature, great and small, has evidently 
 been ground down into the form of greatest strength 
 in relation to the stress of oversweeping floods of 
 ice. And that these present features are not the 
 pre-glacial features merely smoothed and polished 
 and otherwise superficially altered, but an entirely 
 new set sculptured from a surface comparatively 
 featureless, is manifested by the relationship exist 
 ing between the spaces that separate them and the 
 
 266
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 glacier fountains. The greater the valley or hollow 
 of any sort, the greater the snow-collecting basin 
 above it whence flowed the ice that created it, not 
 a fiord or valley being found here or on any portion 
 of the Pacific Coast that does not conduct to foun 
 tains of vanished or residual glaciers corresponding 
 with it in size and position as cause and effect. 
 
 And, furthermore, that the courses of the present 
 valleys were not determined by the streams of water 
 now occupying them, nor by pre-glacial streams, 
 but by the glaciers of the last or of some former 
 glacial period, is shown by the fact that the direc 
 tions of the trends of all these valleys, however va 
 riable, are resultants of the forces of the main trunk 
 glaciers that filled them and their inflowing tribu 
 tary glaciers, the wriggling fortuitous trends of val 
 leys formed by the action of water being essentially 
 different from those formed by ice; and therefore 
 not liable to be confounded with them. Neither 
 can we suppose pre-existing fissures or local sub 
 sidences to have exercised any primary determining 
 influence, there being no conceivable coincidence 
 between the trends of fissures and subsidences and 
 the specific trends of ice-created valleys and basins 
 in general, nor between the position and direction 
 of extension of these hypothetical fissures, sub 
 sidences, and foldings and the positions of ice- 
 fountains. 
 
 The Pribilof Islands, St. Paul, St. George, Wal 
 rus, and Otter, appear in general views from the sea 
 as mere storm-beaten remnants of a once continuous 
 land, wasted into bluffs around their shores by the 
 action of the waves, all their upper surfaces being 
 planed down by a heavy oversweeping ice-sheet, 
 267
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 slightly roughened here and there with low ridges 
 and hillocks that alternate with shallow valleys. 
 None of their features, as far as I could discover 
 without opportunity for close observation, showed 
 any trace of local glaciation or of volcanic action 
 subsequent to the period of universal glaciation. 
 
 St. Lawrence Island, the largest in Bering Sea, 
 is situated at a distance of about one hundred and 
 twenty miles off the mouths of the Yukon, and 
 . forty miles from the nearest point on the coast of 
 Siberia. It is about a hundred miles long from 
 east to west, fifteen miles in average width, and is 
 chiefly composed of various kinds of granite, slate, 
 and lava. 
 
 The highest portion along the middle is diversi 
 fied with groups of volcanic cones, some of which are 
 of considerable size and clearly post-glacial in age, 
 presenting well-defined craters and regular slopes 
 down to the base, though I saw no evidence of their 
 having poured forth extensive streams of molten 
 lava over the adjacent rocks since the close of the 
 glacial period ; for, with the exception of the ground 
 occupied by the cones, all the surface is marked 
 with glacial inscriptions of the most telling kind 
 moraines, erratic boulders, roches moutonnees, in 
 great abundance and variety as to size, and alter 
 nating ridges and valleys with wide U-shaped cross- 
 sections, and with nearly parallel trends across the 
 island in a general north to south direction, some of 
 them extending from shore to shore, and all show 
 ing subordination to the grinding, furrowing action 
 of a broad over-sweeping ice-sheet. 
 
 Some of the widest gap-like valleys have been 
 eroded nearly to the level of the sea, indicating that 
 268
 
 VOLCANIC CONES ON SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND 
 
 BED OF SMALL RESIDUAL GLACIER ON SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND 
 
 HERALD ISLAND
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 if the ice action had gone on much longer the present 
 single island would have been eroded into a group of 
 small ones; or the entire mass of the island would 
 have been degraded beneath the sea level, obliter 
 ating it from the landscape to be in part restored 
 perhaps by the antagonistic elevating volcanic ac 
 tion. The action of local glaciers has been compara 
 tively light hereabouts, not enough greatly to ob 
 scure or interrupt the overmastering effects of the 
 ice-sheet, though they have given marked charac 
 ter to the sculpture of some of the higher portions of 
 the island. 
 
 The two Diomede Islands and Fairway Rock are 
 mostly residual masses of granite brought into relief 
 and separated from one another and from the gen 
 eral mass of the continent, by the action of ice in 
 removing the missing material, while the islands 
 remain because of superior resistance offered to 
 the universal degrading force. That they are rem 
 nants of a once continuous land now separated by 
 Bering Strait is indicated by the relative condition 
 of the sides of the islands and of the contiguous 
 shoulders of the continents, East Cape and Cape 
 Prince of Wales, while the general configuration of 
 the islands shows that they have been subjected 
 to a glaciation of the most comprehensive kind, 
 leaving them as roches moutonnees on a grand scale. 
 
 I discovered traces of local glaciation on the 
 largest of the three, but the effects produced by this 
 cause are comparatively slight, while the action of 
 excessive moisture in the form of almost constant 
 fogs and rains throughout the summer months, 
 combined with frost and thaw, has effected a con 
 siderable amount of denudation, manifested by 
 269
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 groups of crumbling pinnacles occurring here and 
 there on the summits. 
 
 Sledge, King, and Herald Islands are evidently 
 of similar origin, displaying the same glacial traces, 
 and varying chiefly in the amount of post-glacial 
 waste they have suffered, and in the consequent 
 degree of clearness of the testimony they present. 
 During our visit to Herald Island an exceptionally 
 favorable opportunity offered as to the time of year, 
 state of the weather, etc., for observation. 
 
 Kellett, who first discovered this island and 
 landed en it under adverse circumstances, describes 
 it as an inaccessible rock. The sides are indeed pre 
 cipitous in the main, but mountaineers would find 
 many slopes and gullies by which the summit could 
 be easily attained. We landed on the southwest 
 side, opposite the mouth of a small valley, the bed 
 of a vanished glacier. A short gully which con 
 ducts from the water's edge to the mouth of the 
 valley proper is very steep, and at the time of our 
 visit was blocked with compacted snow, in which 
 steps had to be cut, but beyond this no difficulty 
 was encountered, the ice having graded a fine broad 
 way to the summit. Thence following the highest 
 ground nearly to the northwestern extremity, we 
 obtained views of most of the surface. The highest 
 point is about twelve hundred feet above the sea, 
 about a mile and a half from the northwest end of 
 the island, and four and a half miles from the south 
 east. This makes the island about six miles long, 
 the average width being about two miles. 
 
 Near the middle of the island there is a low gap, 
 where the width is only about half a mile, and the 
 height of the summit of this portion of the water- 
 270
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 shed between the two sides is only about two hun 
 dred and fifty feet. The entire island as far as seen 
 is a mass of granite, with the exception of a patch 
 of metamorphic slates near the middle, which no 
 doubt owes its existence, with so considerable a 
 height, to the superior resistance it offered to the 
 degrading action of ice, traces of which are presented 
 in the general moutonnee form of the island, and in 
 the smooth parallel ridges and valleys trending north 
 and south. These evidently have not been deter 
 mined as to size, form, position, or the direction of 
 their trends by subsidences, upheavals, foldings, or 
 any structural peculiarity of the rocks in which 
 they have been eroded, but simply by the mechan 
 ical force of an oversweeping ice-sheet. 
 
 The effects of local glaciers are seen in short val 
 leys of considerable depth as compared with the area 
 from which their fountain snows were derived. We 
 noticed four of these valleys that had been occu 
 pied by residual glaciers; and on the hardest and 
 most enduring of the upswelling rock bosses several 
 patches of the ancient scored and polished surface 
 were discovered, still in a good state of preservation. 
 That these local glaciers have but recently vanished 
 is indicated by the raw appearance of the surface 
 of their beds, while .one small glacier remnant oc 
 cupying a sheltered hollow and possessing a well- 
 characterized terminal moraine seems to be still 
 feebly 'active in the last stage of decadence. This 
 small granite island, standing solitary in the Polar 
 Ocean, we regard as one of the most interesting and 
 significant of the monuments of geographical change 
 effected by general glaciation. 
 
 Our stay on Wrangell Land was too short to ad- 
 271
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 mit of more than a hasty examination of a few 
 square miles of surface near the eastern extremity. 
 The rock here is a close-grained clay slate, cleaving 
 freely into thin flakes, with occasional compact met- 
 amorphic masses rising above the general surface or 
 forming cliffs along the shore. The soil about the 
 banks of a river of considerable size, that enters the 
 ocean here, has evidently been derived in the main 
 from the underlying slates, indicating a rapid weath 
 ering of the surface. A few small deposits of mo 
 raine material were discovered containing traveled 
 boulders of quartz and granite, no doubt from the 
 mountains in which the river takes its rise, while 
 the valley now occupied by the river manifests its 
 glacial origin in its form and trends, the small 
 portion in the middle eroded by the river itself 
 being clearly distinguished by its abrupt angular 
 sides, which contrast sharply with the glacial out 
 lines. 
 
 In general views obtained in sailing along its 
 southern coast the phenomena presented seemed 
 essentially the same as have been described else 
 where hills, valleys, and sculptured peaks, testi 
 fying in all their main trends and contours to the 
 action of ice. A range of mountains of moderate 
 height extends from one extremity of the island to 
 the other, a distance of about sixty-five miles, the 
 highest point as measured by Lieutenant Berry be 
 ing twenty-five hundred feet above the sea. ' 
 
 All the coast region of Siberia that came under 
 our observation, from the Gulf of Anadir to North 
 Cape, presents traces in great abundance and va 
 riety of universal as well as local glaciation. Between 
 Plover and St. Lawrence Bays, where the moun- 
 272
 
 OVERSWEPT GLACIAL VALLEYS AND RIDGES ON SAINT 
 LAWRENCE ISLAND 
 
 BED OF LOCAL GLACIER, SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 tains attain their greatest elevation and where local 
 glaciation has been heaviest, the coast is lacerated 
 with deep fiords, on the lofty granite walls of which 
 the glacial records are in many places well pre 
 served, and offer evidence that could hardly be over 
 looked by the most careless observer. 
 
 Our first general views of this region were ob 
 tained on June 7, when it was yet winter, and the 
 landscape was covered with snow down to the 
 water's edge. After several days of storm the clouds 
 lifted, exposing the heavily abraded fronts of out 
 standing cliffs; then the smooth overswept ridges 
 and slopes at the base of the mountains came in 
 sight, and one angular peak after another, until a 
 continuous range forty to fifty miles long could be 
 seen from one standpoint. Many of the peaks are 
 fluted with the narrow channels of avalanches, and 
 hollowed with neve amphitheaters of great beauty of 
 form, while long withdrawing fiords and valleys may 
 be traced back into the recesses of the highest groups, 
 once the beds of glaciers that flowed in imposing 
 ranks to the sea. 
 
 Plover Bay, which I examined in detail, may be 
 taken as a good representative of the fiords of this 
 portion of the coast. The walls rise to an average 
 height of about two thousand feet, and present a 
 severely desolate and bedraggled appearance, owing 
 to the crumbling condition of the rocks, which in 
 most places are being rapidly disintegrated, loading 
 the slopes with loose, shifting detritus whenever the 
 angle is low enough to allow it to come to rest. When 
 examined closely, however, this loose material is 
 found to be of no great depth. The solid rock comes 
 to the surface in many places, and on the most en- 
 273
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 during portions rounded glaciated surfaces are still 
 found grooved, scratched, and polished in small 
 patches from the sea level up to a height of a 
 thousand feet or more. 
 
 Large taluses with their bases under the water 
 occur on both sides of the fiord in front of the side 
 canons that partially separate the main mountain 
 masses that form the walls. These taluses are com 
 posed in great part of moraine material, brought 
 down by avalanches of snow from the terminal 
 moraines of small vanished glaciers that lay at a 
 height of from one to five thousand feet, in recesses 
 where the snow accumulated from the surrounding 
 slopes, and where sheltered from the direct action 
 of the sun the glaciers lingered longest. These re 
 cent moraines are formed of several concentric 
 masses shoved together, showing that the glaciers 
 to which they belonged melted and receded gradu 
 ally with slight fluctuations of level and rate of de 
 cadence, in accordance with conditions of snow 
 fall, temperature, etc., like those of lower latitudes. 
 
 When the main central glacier that filled this 
 fiord was in its prime as a distinct glacier it meas 
 ured about thirty miles in length and from five to 
 six miles in width, and was from two to three thou 
 sand feet in depth. It then had at least five main 
 tributaries, which, as the trunk melted, became inde 
 pendent glaciers; and, again, as the trunks of these 
 main tributaries melted, their smaller tributaries, 
 numbering about seventy-five, and from less than 
 a mile to several miles in length, became separate 
 glaciers and lingered probably for centuries in the 
 high, cool fountains. These also, as far as we have 
 seen, have vanished, though possibly some wasting 
 274
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 remnant may still exist in the highest and best- 
 protected recesses about the head of the fiord. 
 
 Along the coast, a distance of fifteen or twenty 
 miles to the eastward and southward of the mouth 
 of Metchigme Bay, interesting deposits occur of 
 roughly stratified glacial detritus in the form of sand, 
 gravel, and boulders. They rise from the shore in 
 raw, wave-washed bluffs about forty feet high and 
 extend to the base of the mountains as a gently 
 inclined plain, with a width in some places of two 
 or three miles. Similar morainal deposits were also 
 observed on the American coast at Golofnin Bay, 
 Kotzebue Sound, Cape Prince of Wales, and else 
 where. At Cape Prince of Wales the formation rises 
 in successive well-defined terraces. 
 
 The peninsula, the extremity of which forms East 
 Cape, trends nearly in an easterly direction from the 
 mainland, and consequently occupies a telling posi 
 tion with reference to ice moving from the north 
 ward. I was therefore eager to examine it to see 
 what testimony it might have to offer. We landed 
 during favorable weather on the south side at a 
 small Eskimo village built on a rough moraine, and 
 pushed on direct to the summit of the watershed, 
 from which good general views of nearly all the 
 surface of the peninsula were obtained. 
 
 The dividing ridge along the high eastern portion 
 is traversed by a telling series of parallel grooves 
 and small valleys trending north and south ap 
 proximately, the curves on the north commencing 
 nearly at the water's edge, while the south side is 
 more or less precipitous. The culminating point of 
 the elevated eastern portion of the peninsula is 
 about twenty-five hundred feet high, and has been 
 275
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 cut from the mainland and added as another island 
 to the Diomede group, the wide gap of low ground 
 connecting it with the adjacent mountainous por 
 tion of the mainland being only a few feet above 
 tide-water. Out in the midst of this low, flat region 
 smooth upswelling roches moutonnees were discov 
 ered here and there like groups of small islands, with 
 trends and contours emphatically glacial, all telling 
 the action of a universal abrading ice-sheet moving 
 southward. 
 
 Hence along the coast to Cape North, which is 
 the limit of our observations in this direction, the 
 same class of ice phenomena was discovered 
 moraine material, washed and re-formed, moutonnee 
 masses of the harder rocks standing like islands in 
 the low, mossy tundra, and traveled boulders and 
 pebbles lying stranded on the summits of rocky 
 headlands. 
 
 These enduring monuments are particularly 
 abundant and significant in the neighborhood of 
 Cape Wankarem, where the granite is more com 
 pact and resisting than is commonly found in the 
 Arctic regions we have visited, and consequently 
 has longer retained the more evanescent of the gla 
 cial markings. Cape Wankarem is a narrow, flat- 
 topped, residual mass of this enduring granite, on 
 the summit of which two patches of the original 
 polished surface were discovered that still retains 
 the fine striae and many erratic boulders of slate, 
 quartz, and various kinds of lava, which, from the 
 configuration and geographical position of the cape 
 with reference to the surrounding region, could not 
 have been brought to their present resting-places 
 by any local glacier. 
 
 276
 
 W < 
 
 3 w 
 
 PS H 
 
 PH O 
 
 H 

 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Cape Serdzekamen is another of these residual 
 island masses, brought into relief by general glacial 
 denudation, manifesting its origin in every feature, 
 and corroborating the testimony given at Cape 
 Wankarem and elsewhere in the most emphatic 
 manner. 
 
 All the sections of the tundra seen either on the 
 Siberian or Alaskan coast lead towards the conclu 
 sion that the ground is glacial, re-formed under the 
 action of running water derived in broad, shallow 
 currents from the melting, receding edges of the ice- 
 sheet, and also in some measure from ice left on the 
 high lands after the main ice-sheet had been with 
 drawn ; for these low, flat deposits differ in no par 
 ticular of form or composition that we have been 
 able to detect from those still in process of forma 
 tion in front of the large receding glaciers of south 
 eastern Alaska. On many of the so-called " mud 
 flats" extending from the snouts of glaciers that 
 have receded a few miles from the shore, mosses and 
 lichens and other kinds of tundra vegetation are 
 being gradually acquired, and when thus clothed 
 these patches of tundra are not to be distinguished 
 from the extensive deposits about the shores of the 
 Arctic regions. 
 
 The phenomena observed on the American coast 
 from St. Michael to Point Barrow differ in no essen 
 tial particular from those which have been described 
 on the opposite shores of Siberia. Moraines more or 
 less wasted, and re-formations of moraine material, 
 smooth overswept ridges with glacial trends and the 
 corresponding valleys, roches moutonnees, and the 
 fountain amphitheaters of local glaciers were ob 
 served almost everywhere on the mountainous 
 277
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 portions of the coast, though in general more 
 deeply weathered, owing mainly to the occurrence 
 of less resisting rocks, limestones, sandstones, por 
 ous lavas, etc. 
 
 A number of well-characterized moraines so sit 
 uated with reference to topographical conditions as 
 to have escaped destructive washing were noticed 
 near Cape Lisburne, and moraine deposits of great 
 extent at Kotzebue Sound and Golofnin Bay, of 
 which many fine sections were exposed. At the 
 latter locality, judging from the comparatively 
 fresh appearance of the rock surfaces and deposits 
 around the head of the bay, and the height and 
 extent of the ice-fountains, the glacier that dis 
 charged here was probably the last to vanish from 
 the American shore of Bering Sea. 
 
 As to the thickness attained by the ice-sheet over 
 the regions that we have been examining during 
 the period of greatest glacial development, we have 
 seen that it passed heavily over the islands of 
 Bering Sea and the adjacent mountains on either 
 side, especially at East Cape and Cape Prince of 
 Wales, at a height of twenty-five hundred feet or 
 more above the bottom of Bering Sea and Strait, 
 the average depth of water here being about a hun 
 dred and fifty feet. And though the lowest portion 
 of the land beneath the ice may have been degraded 
 to a considerable depth subsequent to the time when 
 these highest portions were left bare, on the other 
 hand the level of the ice must have been consider 
 ably higher than the summits over which it passed, 
 inasmuch as they give evidence of having been 
 heavily abraded. It appears, therefore, that the 
 thickness of the general northern ice-sheet through- 
 278
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 out a considerable portion of its history was not 
 less than twenty-five hundred feet, and probably 
 more, over the northern portion of the region 
 now covered by Bering Sea and part of the Arctic 
 Ocean. 
 
 In view of this colossal ice-flood grinding on 
 throughout the hundreds of thousands of years of 
 the glacial period, the excavation of the shallow 
 basins of Bering Sea and Strait and the Arctic Ocean 
 must be taken as only a small part of the erosion 
 effected; for so shallow are these waters, were the 
 tallest sequoias planted on the bottom where sound 
 ings have been made, their tops would rise in most 
 places a hundred feet or more above the surface. 
 The Plover Bay glacier, as we have shown, eroded 
 the granite in the formation of its channel to a depth 
 of not less than two thousand feet, and the amount 
 of erosion effected by the ice-sheet was probably 
 much greater. 
 
 It appears, therefore, in summing up the results 
 of our observations along the North Pacific and 
 Arctic coasts : 
 
 (1) That the southernmost glacier lies on the 
 Sierra near latitude 36; the northernmost, 
 with perhaps a few exceptions, near 62. 
 
 (2) That the region of greatest glaciation lies be 
 tween 56 and 61, where the mountains are 
 highest and the snowfall greatest. 
 
 (3) That an ice-sheet flowed from the Arctic re 
 gions, from beyond the end of the continent, 
 pursuing a general southerly direction, and 
 discharged into the Pacific Ocean south of 
 the Aleutian Islands. 
 
 (4) That of this continuous ice-sheet, extending 
 
 279
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 from the Arctic Ocean beyond the northern 
 extremity of the continent, the glaciers, great 
 and small, now existing are the remnants. 
 (5) That the basins of Bering Sea and Strait and 
 of the adjacent portion of the Arctic Ocean 
 are simply those portions of the bed of the ice- 
 sheet which were eroded to a moderate depth 
 beneath the level of the sea, and over which 
 the ocean waters were gradually extended as 
 the ice-sheet was withdrawn, thus separat 
 ing the continents of Asia and America, at the 
 close of the glacial period. 
 
 We are now better prepared to read the changes 
 that have taken place on the Sierra, and fortunately, 
 as we have already seen, nowhere is the glacial rec- 
 cord clearer.
 
 II 
 
 BOTANICAL NOTES 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE plants named in the following notes were 
 collected at many localities on the coasts of Alaska 
 and Siberia, and on St. Lawrence, Wrangell, and 
 Herald Islands,' between about latitude 54 and 
 71 N., longitude 161 and 178 W., in the course 
 of short excursions, some of them less than an hour 
 in length. Inasmuch as the flora of the arctic and 
 subarctic regions is nearly the same everywhere, the 
 discovery of many species new to science was not to 
 be expected. The collection, however, will no doubt 
 be valuable for comparison with the plants of other 
 regions. In general the physiognomy of the vege 
 tation of the polar regions resembles that of the 
 alpine valleys of the temperate zones; so much so 
 that the botanist on the coast of Arctic Siberia or 
 America might readily fancy himself on the Sierra 
 Nevada at a height of ten to twelve thousand feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 There is no line of perpetual snow on any portion 
 of the Arctic regions known to explorers. The snow 
 disappears every summer, not only from the low, 
 sandy shores and boggy tundras, but also from the 
 tops of the mountains, and all the upper slopes and 
 valleys with the exception of small patches of drifts 
 and avalanche-heaps hardly noticeable in general 
 views. But though nowhere excessively deep or 
 permanent, the snow-mantle is universal during 
 281
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 winter, and the plants are solidly frozen and buried 
 for nearly three fourths of the year. In this condi 
 tion they enjoy a sleep and rest about as profound 
 as death, from which they awake in the months of 
 June and July in vigorous health, and speedily reach 
 a far higher development of leaf and flower and fruit 
 than is generally supposed. On the drier banks and 
 hills about Kotzebue Sound, Cape Thompson, and 
 Cape Lisburne, many species show but little cli 
 matic repression, and during the long summer days 
 grow tall enough to wave in the wind, and unfold 
 flowers in as rich profusion and as highly colored 
 as may be found in regions lying a thousand miles 
 farther south. 
 
 UNALASKA 
 
 To the botanist approaching any portion of the 
 Aleutian chain of islands from the southward during 
 the winter or spring months, the view is severely 
 desolate and forbidding. The snow comes down to 
 the water's edge in solid white, interrupted only by 
 dark, outstanding bluffs with faces too steep for 
 snow to lie on, and by the backs of rounded rocks 
 and long, rugged reefs beaten and overswept by 
 heavy breakers rolling in from the Pacific, while 
 throughout nearly every month of the year the 
 higher mountains are wrapped in gloomy, dripping 
 storm-clouds. 
 
 Nevertheless, vegetation here is remarkably close 
 and luxuriant, and crowded with showy bloom, 
 covering almost every foot of the ground up to a 
 height of about a thousand feet above the sea 
 the harsh trachytic rocks, and even the cindery 
 bases of the craters, as well as the moraines and 
 282
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 rough soil-beds outspread on the low portions of 
 the short, narrow valleys. 
 
 On. the twentieth of May we found the showy 
 Geum gladale already in flower, also an arctostaphy- 
 los and draba, on a slope facing the south, near the 
 harbor of Unalaska. The willows, too, were then 
 beginning to put forth their catkins, while a multi 
 tude of green points were springing up in sheltered 
 spots wherever the snow had vanished. At a height 
 of four or five hundred feet, however, winter was 
 still unbroken, with scarce a memory of the rich 
 bloom of summer. 
 
 During a few short excursions along the shores 
 of Unalaska Harbor, and on two of the adjacent 
 mountains, towards the end of May and the be 
 ginning of October, we saw about fifty species of 
 flowering plants empetrum, vaccinium, bryan- 
 thus, pyrola, arctostaphylos, ledum, cassiope, lu- 
 pinus, geranium, epilobium, silene, draba, and 
 saxifraga, being the most telling and characteristic 
 of the genera represented. Empetrum nigrum, a 
 bryanthus, and three species of vaccinium make 
 a grand display when in flower, and show their 
 massed colors at a considerable distance. 
 
 Almost the entire surface of the valleys and hills 
 and lower slopes of the mountains is covered with a 
 dense, spongy plush of lichens and mosses similar to 
 that which covers the tundras of the Arctic regions, 
 making a rich green mantle on which the showy, 
 flowering plants are strikingly relieved, though 
 these grow far more luxuriantly on the banks of the 
 streams where the drainage is less interrupted. Here 
 also the ferns, of which I saw three species, are taller 
 and more abundant, some of them arching their 
 283
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 broad, delicate fronds over one's shoulders, while in 
 similar situations the tallest of the five grasses that 
 were seen reaches a height of nearly six feet, and 
 forms a growth close enough for the farmer's scythe. 
 
 Not a single tree has been seen on any of the 
 islands of the chain west of Kodiak, excepting a few 
 spruces brought from Sitka and planted at Una- 
 laska by the Russians about fifty years ago. They 
 are still alive in a dwarfed condition, having made 
 scarce any appreciable growth since they were 
 planted. These facts are the more remarkable, since 
 in southeastern Alaska, lying both to the north and 
 south of here, and on the many islands of the 
 Alexander Archipelago, as well as on the mainland, 
 forests of beautiful conifers flourish exuberantly 
 and attain noble dimensions, while the climatic con 
 ditions generally do not appear to differ greatly 
 from those that obtain on these treeless islands. 
 
 Wherever cattle have been introduced they have 
 prospered and grown fat on the abundance of rich 
 nutritious pasturage to be found almost everywhere 
 in the deep, withdrawing valleys and on the green 
 slopes of the hills and mountains, but the wetness of 
 the summer months will always prevent the making 
 of hay in any considerable quantities. 
 
 The agricultural possibilities of these islands 
 seem also to be very limited. The hardier of the 
 cereals rye, barley, and oats make a good, 
 vigorous growth, and head out, but seldom or never 
 mature, on account of insufficient sunshine and 
 overabundance of moisture in the form of long-con 
 tinued, drizzling fogs and rains. Green crops, how 
 ever, as potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beets, and most 
 other common garden vegetables, thrive wherever 
 284
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 the ground is thoroughly drained and has a south 
 erly exposure. 
 
 ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND 
 
 St. Lawrence Island, as far as our observations 
 extended, is mostly a dreary mass of granite and 
 lava of various forms and colors, roughened with 
 volcanic cones, covered with snow, and rigidly 
 bound in ocean ice for half the year. Inasmuch as it 
 lies broadsidewise to the direction pursued by the 
 great ice-sheet that recently filled Bering Sea, and 
 its rocks offered unequal resistance to the denuding 
 action of the ice, the island is traversed by numer 
 ous ridges and low, gap-like valleys all trending in 
 the same general direction. Some of the lowest of 
 these transverse valleys have been degraded nearly 
 to the level of the sea, showing that if the glacia- 
 tion to which the island has been subjected had 
 been slightly greater, we should have found several 
 islands here instead of one. 
 
 At the time of our first visit, May 28, winter still 
 had full possession, but eleven days later we found 
 the dwarf willows, drabas, erigerons, and saxi 
 frages pushing up their buds and leaves, on spots 
 bare of snow, with wonderful rapidity. This was the 
 beginning of spring at the northwest end of the 
 island. On July 4 the flora seemed to have reached 
 its highest development. The bottoms of the glacial 
 valleys were in many places covered with tall grasses 
 and carices evenly planted and forming meadows 
 of considerable size, while the drier portions and the 
 sloping grounds about them were enlivened with 
 gay, highly colored flowers from an inch to nearly 
 two feet in height, such as Aconitum Napellus, L., 
 
 285
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 var. delphini folium, Ser., Polemonium cosruleum, L., 
 Papaver nudicaule, L., Draba alpina, L., and Silene 
 acaulis, L., in large, closely flowered tufts, as well 
 as andromeda, ledum, linnsea, cassiope, and several 
 species of vaccinium and saxifraga. 
 
 ST. MICHAEL 
 
 The region about St. Michael is a magnificent 
 tundra, crowded with Arctic lichens and mosses, 
 which here develop under most favorable condi 
 tions. In the spongy plush formed by the lower 
 plants, in which one sinks almost knee-deep at 
 every step, there is a sparse growth of grasses, 
 carices, and rushes, tall enough to wave in the wind, 
 while empetrum, the dwarf birch, and the various 
 heathworts flourish here in all their beauty of bright 
 leaves and flowers. The moss mantle for the most 
 part rests on a stratum of ice that never melts to 
 any great extent, and the ice on a bed rock of black 
 vesicular lava. Ridges of the lava rise here and 
 there above the general level in rough masses, afford 
 ing ground for plants that like a drier soil. Nu 
 merous hollows and watercourses also occur on the 
 general tundra, whose well-drained banks are decked 
 with gay flowers in lavish abundance, and meadow 
 patches of grasses shoulder-high, suggestive of re 
 gions much farther south. 
 
 The following plants and a few doubtful species 
 not yet determined were collected here: 
 
 Aspidium fragrans, Sw. Betula na.no., L. 
 
 Woodsia ilvensis, (L.), R. Br. Alnus viridis, DC. 
 
 Eriophorum capitatum, Hos. Polygonum alpinum, All. 
 
 Carex vulgaris, (Fries), Willd., var. Arenaria lateriflora, L. 
 
 alpina. Stellaria longipes, Goldie. 
 Lloydia serotina, (Sweet), Reichenb. Silene acaulis, L. 
 
 Tofieldia coccinea, Richards. Anemone narcissiflora, L. 
 
 286
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Anemone parciflora, Miohx. 
 Caltha palustris, L., var. asarifolia, 
 
 Rothr. 
 
 Corydalis pauciflora. 
 Draba alpina, L. 
 
 " incana, L. 
 
 Euirema arenicola, Richards. 
 Saxifraga nivalis, L. 
 
 " hieracifolia, Waldst. & Kit. 
 Rubus Chamcemorus, L. 
 
 " arcticus, L. 
 Potentilla nivea, L. 
 Dryat octopelala, L. 
 Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray. 
 Astragalus alpinus, L. 
 
 " /rigidus, Gray, var. lit- 
 
 toralis. 
 
 Lalhyrus maritimus, Bigel. 
 Epilobium latifolium, L. 
 Cassiope tetragone, (D. Don.)> Desv. 
 Andromeda polifolia, L. 
 Loiseleuria procumbens, Desv. 
 
 Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L. 
 Arctostaphylos alpina, Spreng. 
 Ledum palustre, L. 
 Diapensia lapponica, L. 
 Armeria vulgaris, Willd. 
 Primula borealis, Duby. 
 Polemonium cceruleum, L. 
 Mertensia paniculata, Desv. 
 Pedicularis sudetica, Willd. 
 
 euphrasioides, Stev. 
 Langsdorffi, Fisch., var. 
 lanata, Gray. 
 Pinguicula villosa, L. 
 Linnaea borealis, Gronov. 
 Valeriana capitata (Pall.), Willd. 
 Saussurea alpina, DC. 
 Nardosmia frigida, Hook. 
 Senecio frigidus. Less. 
 
 palustris. Hook. 
 Arnica angustifolia, Vahl. 
 Artemisia arctica, Bess. 
 Matricaria inodora, L. 
 
 GOLOFNIN BAY 
 
 The tundra flora on the west side of Golofnin 
 Bay is remarkably close and luxuriant, covering 
 almost every foot of the ground, the hills as well as 
 the valleys, while the sandy beach and a bank of 
 coarsely stratified moraine material a few yards 
 back from the beach were blooming like a garden 
 with Lathyrus maritimus, Iris sibirica, Polemonium 
 cccruleum, etc., diversified with clumps and patches 
 of Elymus arenarius, Alnus viridis, and Abies alba. 
 
 This is one of the few points on the east side of 
 Bering Sea where trees closely approach the shore. 
 The white spruce occurs here in small groves or 
 thickets of well-developed, erect trees fifteen or 
 twenty feet high, near the level of the sea, at a dis 
 tance of about six or eight miles from the mouth of 
 the bay, and gradually becomes irregular and dwarfed 
 as it approaches the shore. Here a number of dead 
 and dying specimens were observed, indicating that 
 287
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 conditions of soil, climate, and relations to other 
 plants were becoming more unfavorable, and caus 
 ing the tree-line to recede from the coast. 
 
 The following collection was made here July 10 : 
 
 Aspidium spinulosum, Sw. Rubus arcticus, L. 
 
 Elymus arenarius, L. Epilobium latifolium, L. 
 
 Poo trivialis, L. Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L. 
 
 Carei vesicaria, L., var. alpigena, Trientalis europcea, L., var. arctica, 
 
 Fries. Ledeb. 
 
 Lloydia serotina, (Sweet), Reichenb. Gentiana glauca, Pall. 
 
 Iris sibirica, L. Polemonium cceruleum, L. 
 
 Arenaria peploides, L. Pinguicula villosa, L. 
 
 Eutrema arenicola, Hook. Chrysanthemum arcticum, L. 
 
 Spiraea betulifolia, Pall. Artemisia Tilesii, Ledeb. 
 
 KOTZEBUE SOUND 
 
 The flora of the region about the head of Kotzebue 
 Sound is hardly less luxuriant and rich in species 
 than that of other points, visited by the Corwin, 
 lying several degrees farther south. Fine nutritious 
 grasses suitable for the fattening of cattle, and from 
 two to six feet high, are not of rare occurrence on 
 meadows of considerable extent, and along stream- 
 banks wherever the stagnant waters of the tundra 
 have been drained off, while in similar localities the 
 most showy of the arctic plants bloom in all their 
 freshness and beauty, manifesting no sign of frost, 
 or unfavorable conditions of any kind whatever. 
 
 A striking result of the airing and draining of the 
 boggy tundra soil is shown on the ice-bluffs around 
 Eschscholtz Bay, where it has been undermined by 
 the melting of the ice on which it rests. In falling 
 down the face of the ice-wall it is well shaken and 
 rolled before it again comes to rest on terraced or 
 gently sloping portions of the wall. The original 
 vegetation of the tundra is thus destroyed, and tall 
 grasses spring up on the fresh, mellow ground as it 
 accumulates from time to time, growing lush and 
 288
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 rank, though in many places that we noted these 
 new soil-beds are not more than a foot in depth, and 
 lie on the solid ice. 
 
 At the time of our last visit to this interesting re 
 gion, about the middle of September, the weather 
 was still fine, suggesting the Indian summer of the 
 Western States. The tundra glowed in the mellow 
 sunshine with the colors of the ripe foliage of vac- 
 cinium, empetrum, arctostaphylos, and dwarf birch; 
 red, purple, and yellow, in pure bright tones, while 
 the berries, hardly less beautiful, were scattered 
 everywhere as if they had been sown broadcast with 
 a lavish hand, the whole blending harmoniously 
 with the neutral tints of the furred bed of lichens 
 and mosses on which the bright leaves and berries 
 were painted. 
 
 On several points about the sound the white 
 spruce occurs in small, compact groves within a few 
 miles of the shore; and pyrola, which belongs to 
 wooded regions, is abundant where no trees are now 
 in sight, tending to show that areas of considerable 
 extent, now treeless, were once forested. 
 
 The plants collected are: 
 
 Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. Arctostaphylos alpina, Spreng. 
 
 Attiwm schcenoprasum, L. Cassiope tetragone, (D. Don), Desv. 
 
 Salix polaris, Wahlenb. Ledum palustre, L. 
 
 Polygonum viviparum, L. Vaceinium Vitis-Idcea, L. 
 
 Steilaria longipes, Goldie. Vaceinium uliginosum, L., var. muc- 
 Cerastium alpinum, L., var. Behrin- ronata. Herder. 
 
 gianum, Regel. Armeria vulgaris, Willd., var. arctica, 
 
 Papaver nudicaule, L. Cham. 
 
 Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retz. Trientalis europixa, L., var. arctica, 
 
 Potentilla anserina, L., var. Ledeb. 
 
 biflora, Willd. Mertensia maritima, L. (S. F. Gray), 
 
 fruticosa, L. Desv. 
 
 Lupinus arcticus, Watson. Castilleia pallida, Kunth. 
 
 Hedysarum boreale, Nutt Pedicularis sudetica, Willd. 
 
 Empetrum nigrum, L. " verticittata, L. 
 Pyrola rotundifolia, L., var. pumila, Galium boreale, L. 
 
 Hook. Senecio palustris, Hook. 
 
 289
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 CAPE THOMPSON 
 
 The Cape Thompson flora is richer in species and 
 individuals than that of any other point on the Arctic 
 shores we have seen, owing no doubt mainly to the 
 better drainage of the ground through the fissured 
 frost-cracked limestone, which hereabouts is the 
 principal rock. 
 
 Where the hill-slopes are steepest the rock fre 
 quently occurs in loose, angular masses, and is en 
 tirely bare of soil. But between these barren slopes 
 there are valleys where the showiest of the Arctic 
 plants bloom in rich profusion and variety, forming 
 brilliant masses of color purple, yellow, and blue 
 where certain species form beds of considerable 
 size, almost to the exclusion of others. 
 
 The following list was obtained here July 19: 
 
 Cystopteris fragilis, (L.), Bernh. 
 
 Trisetum subspicatum, Beauv., 
 var. molle, Gray. 
 
 Glyceria 
 
 Festuca satita (?) [F. ovina, L.?] 
 
 Corel rariflora, Wahlenb. 
 
 1 vulgaris, Fries, var. alpina, 
 (C. rigida, Good.) 
 
 Salix polaris, Wahlenb., and two 
 other species undetermined. 
 
 Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 Rumex crispus, L. 
 
 Cerastium alpinum, L., var. Behr- 
 ingianum, Regel. 
 
 Silene acaulis, L. 
 
 Arenaria verna, L., var. rubella, 
 Hook. f. 
 
 Arcnaria arctica, Stev. 
 
 Stellaria longipes, Goldie. 
 
 Anemone narcissiflora, L. 
 " multifida, Poir. 
 " parviflora, Michx. 
 " parviflora, Michz., va 
 riety. 
 
 Ranunculus affinis, R. Br. 
 
 Caliha asarifolia, DC. 
 
 Papaver nudicaule, L. 
 
 Draba stellata, Jacq., var. nivalia, 
 
 Regel. 
 
 Draba incana, L. 
 Cardamine pratensis, L. 
 Cheiranthus pygmceus, Adams. 
 Pedicularis capitata, Adams. 
 Geum glaciale, Fisch. 
 Nardosmia corymbosa, Hook. 
 Erigeron Muirii, Gray, n. sp. 
 Parrya nudicaulis, (Boiss.), Regel, 
 
 var. aspera, Regel. 
 Boykinia Richardsoni, Gray. 
 Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retz. 
 
 cernua, L. 
 
 flagellaris, Willd. 
 
 davurica, Willd. 
 
 punctata, L. 
 
 nivalis, L. 
 Dryas octopetala, L. 
 Potentilla biflora, Willd. 
 
 ninea, L. 
 
 Hedysarum boreale, Nutt. 
 Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray. 
 Epilobium latifolium, L. 
 Cassiope tetragone, (D. Don.), Desv. 
 
 290
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Vaccinium uliginosum, L., var. Myosotia syhotica, var. alpestris, 
 
 mucronata, Herder. HoSm. 
 
 Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L. Eritrichium nanum, Schrad., var. 
 
 Dodecatheon Meadia, L., var. arctioides. 
 
 frigidum, Gray. Taraxacum palustre, DC. 
 
 Androsace chamcejasme, Willd. Senecio frigidus, Less. 
 
 Phlox sibirica, L. Artemisia glomerata, Ledeb. 
 
 Polemonium humile, Willd. tomentosa [tomentella, 
 
 " cctruleum, L. Trautv.?J 
 
 CAPE PRINCE OF WALES 
 
 At Cape Prince of Wales we obtained: 
 
 Tofiddia coccinea, Richards. Armeria arctica, (Wallr.), Stev. 
 
 Loiseleuria procumbens, Desv. Androsace chamcejasme, Willd. 
 
 Andromeda polifolia, L., forma Taraxacum palustre, DC. 
 
 arctica. 
 Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea, L. 
 
 TWENTY MILES EAST OF CAPE LISBURNE 
 
 Lychnis apetala, L. Oxytropis campestris, DC. 
 
 Anemone narcissiflora, L., var. Primula borealis, Duby. 
 
 Draba hirta, L. Androsace chamcejasme, Willd. 
 
 Saxifraga Eschscholtzii, Sternb. Phlox sibirica, L. 
 
 " flagellaris, Willd. Geum glaciale, Fisch. 
 
 Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Erigeron uniflorus, L. 
 
 Potentilla nivea, L. Artemisia glomerata, Ledeb. 
 biflora, WiUd. 
 
 CAPE WANKAREM, SIBERIA 
 
 Near Cape Wankarem, August 7 and 8, we col 
 lected: 
 
 Elymus arenarius, L. Saxifraga cernua, L. 
 
 Alopecurus alpinus, Sm. stellaris, L., var. comosa. 
 
 Poa arctica, R. Br. " rivularis, L., var. hyper- 
 
 Calamagrostis deschampsioides, Trin. borea, Hook. 
 
 Luzulu hyperborea, R. Br. Polemonium, caruleum, L. 
 
 " spicata, (DC.), Deav. Pedicularis Langsdorffi, Fisch. 
 
 Lychnis apetala, L. Nardosmia frigida. Hook. 
 
 Claytonia virginica, L. Chrysanthemum arcticum, L. 
 
 Ranunculus pygmoius, Wahlenb. Senecio frigidus. Less. 
 
 Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Artemisia vulgaris, var. Tilesii, 
 
 Ledeb. 
 
 291
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 PLOVER BAY, SIBERIA 
 
 The mountains bounding the glacial fiord called 
 Plover Bay, though beautiful in their combinations 
 of curves and peaks as they are seen touching each 
 other delicately and rising in bold, picturesque 
 groups, are nevertheless severely desolate-looking 
 from the absence of trees and large shrubs, and 
 indeed of vegetation of any kind dense enough to 
 give color in telling quantities, or to soften the 
 harsh rockiness of the steepest portions of the walls. 
 Even the valleys opening back from the water here 
 and there on either side are mostly bare as seen at 
 a distance of a mile or two, and show only a faint 
 tinge of green, derived from dwarf willows, heath- 
 worts, and sedges chiefly. 
 
 The most interesting of the plants found here are 
 Rhododendron kamtschaticum, Pall., and the hand 
 some blue-flowered Saxifraga oppositifolia, L., both 
 of which are abundant. 
 
 The following were collected July 12 and Au 
 gust 26: 
 
 Arenaria macrocarpa, Pursh. Dryaf octopetala, L. 
 Aconitum Napellua, L., var. delphini- Oxytropit podocarpa, Gray. 
 
 folium, Ser. Rhododendron kamtschaticum. Pall. 
 
 Anemone narcissiflora, L. Cassiope tetragona, (D. Don.), Desv. 
 
 Draba alpina, L. Diapensia lapponica, L. 
 
 Parrya Ermanni, Ledeb. Gentiana glauca, Pall. 
 
 Saxifraga oppositifolia, L. Geum glaciale, Fisch. 
 " punctata, L. 
 ccespitosa, L. 
 
 HERALD ISLAND 
 
 On Herald Island the common polar cryptoga- 
 mous vegetation is well represented and developed. 
 So also are the flowering plants, almost the entire 
 292
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 surface of the island, with the exception of the sheer, 
 crumbling bluffs along the shores, being quite tell 
 ingly dotted and tufted with characteristic species. 
 The following list x was obtained: 
 
 Gymnandra Stelleri, Cham. & Saxifraga sileniflora, (Hook.), 
 
 Schlecht. Sternb. 
 
 Alopecurus alpinus, Sm. Saxifraga bronchialis, L. 
 Luzula hyperbarea, R. Br. stcllaris, L., var., comosa, 
 
 Salix polaris, Wahlenb. Poir. 
 
 Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Saxifraga rivularis, L., var. hyper- 
 
 Edwardsii, T. & G. borea, Hook. 
 
 Papaver nudicaule, L. Saxifraga hieracifolia, Waldst. & 
 Draba alpina, L. Kit. 
 
 Saxifraga punctata, L. Potentitta frigida, Vill.T 
 
 terpyllifolia, Pursh. Senecio frigidus, Less. 
 
 WRANGELL LAND 
 
 Our stay on the one point of Wrangell Land that 
 we touched was far too short to admit of making 
 anything like as full a collection of the plants of 
 so interesting a region as was desirable. We found 
 the rock formation where we landed and for some 
 distance along the coast to the eastward and 
 westward to be a close-grained clay slate, cleaving 
 freely into thin flakes, with here and there a few 
 compact, metamorphic masses that rise above the 
 general surface. Where it is exposed along the shore 
 bluffs and kept bare of vegetation and soil by the 
 action of the ocean, ice, and heavy snow-drifts, the 
 rock presents a surface about as black as coal, with 
 out even a moss or lichen to enliven its somber 
 gloom. But when this dreary barrier is passed the 
 surface features of the country in general are found 
 
 1 Berthold Seemann, botanist of H.M.S. Herald in 1849, reported the 
 finding of eight plants on a width of thirty feet of shore, which, he says, 
 "was the whole extent we had to walk over." The plants were the fol 
 lowing: Artemisia borealis, Cochleria fenestrata, Saxifraga lamentiniana, 
 Poa arctica, and another undetermined grass, Hepatica, a moss, and red 
 lichen covering the rocks. [EDITOR.] 
 
 293
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 to be finely moulded and collocated, smooth valleys, 
 wide as compared with their depth, trending back 
 from the shore to a range of mountains that appear 
 blue in the distance, and round-topped hills, with 
 their side curves finely drawn, touching and blending 
 in beautiful groups, while scarce a single rock-pile 
 is seen or sheer-walled bluff to break the general 
 smoothness. 
 
 The soil has evidently been derived mostly from 
 the underlying slates, though a few fragmentary 
 wasting moraines were observed, containing trav 
 eled boulders of quartz and granite which doubt 
 less were brought from the mountains of the in 
 terior by glaciers that have recently vanished so 
 recently that the outlines and sculptured hollows 
 and grooves of the mountains have not as yet suf 
 fered sufficient post-glacial denudation to mar ap 
 preciably their glacial characters. 
 
 The banks of the river at the mouth of which we 
 landed presented a striking contrast as to vege 
 tation to that of any other stream we had seen in 
 the Arctic regions. The tundra vegetation was not 
 wholly absent, but the mosses and lichens of which 
 it is elsewhere composed are about as feebly de 
 veloped as possible, and instead of forming a con 
 tinuous covering they occur in small separate tufts, 
 leaving the ground between them raw and bare as 
 that of a newly ploughed field. The phanerogamous 
 plants, both on the lowest grounds and on the slopes 
 and hilltops as far as seen, were in the same severely 
 repressed condition, and as sparsely planted in tufts 
 an inch or two in diameter, with from one to three 
 feet of naked soil between them. Some portions 
 of the coast, however, farther south, presented a 
 294
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 greenish hue as seen from the ship at a distance of 
 eight or ten miles, owing no doubt to vegetation 
 growing under less unfavorable conditions. 
 
 From an area of about half a square mile the fol 
 lowing plants were collected : 
 
 Gymnandra Stetteri, Cham. & 
 
 Schlecht. 
 
 Poo. arctica, R. Br. 
 Aira ccespitosa, L., var. arctica. 
 Alopecurus alpinus, Sm. 
 Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. 
 Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. 
 
 Edwardsii, T. & G. 
 Cerastium alpinum, L. 
 Anemone parviflora, Michx. 
 Papaver nudicaule, L. 
 Draba alpina, L. 
 Cochlearia officinalis, L. 
 Saxifraga flagellaris, Willd. 
 
 Saxifraga stettaris, L., var. comosa, 
 Poir. 
 
 Saxifraga sileniflora, (Hook.), 
 Sternb. 
 
 Saxifraga, hieracifolia, Waldst. & 
 Kit. 
 
 Saxifraga rivularis, L., var. hyper 
 borea. Hook. 
 
 Saxifraga bronchialis, L. 
 
 " serpyllifolia, Pursh. 
 
 Potentitta nivea, L. 
 
 frigida, Vill.? 
 
 Armeria macrocarpa, Pursh. 
 vulgaris, Willd. 
 
 Artemisia borealis, (Pall.), Willd. 
 
 Nardosmia frigida, Hook. 
 
 Saussurea monticola, Richards. 
 
 1 " Potentitta emarginata, Pursh. A very dwarf form of this species from 
 Wrangell Land was inadvertently named Potentitta frigida in the list of 
 Muir's collection." (Note by Asa Gray in House Executive Document 
 No. 44 (1884-85), p. 191.) [EDITOR.]
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 Akutan, island and mountain, 
 251 and note. 
 
 Akutan Pass, 4, 5. 
 
 Alaska Commercial Company, 
 13, 14, 19^22, 88, 125. 
 
 Alaska Mining Company, 
 249. 
 
 Aleutian Islands, 5; geology 
 of, 7-9, 262-67; animal life, 
 10, 11; plant life, 11, 12; 
 trees, 12; grazing and agri 
 culture, 13; population, 
 13, 14. 
 
 Aleuts, fuel, 13, 15; civiliza 
 tion, 13; hunting, 14, 19-22; 
 death-rate, 14; huts, 14, 15, 
 250; intoxicating drink, 15, 
 16, 20; thriftlessness, 16; 
 religion, 18; drunkenness, 
 250; dancing, 251. 
 
 Alexey, 124 note. 
 
 Anadir Gulf, 25. 
 
 Aneguin, 124 note. 
 
 Asia, land communication 
 with America, 72. 
 
 Barabaras, 14, 15. 
 
 Bear, polar, 170, 171, 174- 
 
 80, 185, 192. 
 Beluga, 147-49. 
 Belvedere, the whaler, 157- 
 
 59, 200, 215. 
 Bering Sea, cruise in, 19- 
 
 39, 55-133, 215-39, 242- 
 
 49; a glacial excavation, 57, 
 
 279, 280. 
 
 Bering Strait, 39, 57, 279, 280. 
 Birds, of the Aleutian Islands, 
 
 10, 11; a small bird comes 
 
 aboard, 86; on the Arctic 
 
 Ocean, 87; at East Cape, 
 113; of the Alaskan tun 
 dra, 126, 127; at Kotzebue 
 Sound, 135-37; of Herald 
 Island, 169; of Wrangell 
 Land, 185 note, 186 note; 
 of the Diomede Islands, 216; 
 sea-birds as guides to man, 
 216; at Plover Bay, 223. 
 
 Blossom Shoals, 154. 
 
 Buckland River, 123 and 
 note, 247. 
 
 Butterflies, 137. 
 
 Canoes, skin, 66; at Golofnin 
 
 Bay, 129. 
 
 Cape Blossom, 134, 138. 
 Cape Espenberg, 133 note. 
 Cape Krusenstern, 138. 
 Cape Lisburne, 146, 149, 150, 
 
 152, 158, 159, 163. 
 Cape North, 276. 
 Cape Onman, 102. 
 Cape Prince of Wales, 131- 
 
 33, 146; glaciation, 275, 278; 
 
 flora, 291. 
 Cape Serdzekamen, 33, 39, 
 
 40; glaciation, 277. 
 Cape Thompson, 143-46; 
 
 flora, 290, 291. 
 Cape Wankarem, 102, 103, 
 
 179, 180; glaciation, 276; 
 
 flora, 291. 
 Cape Yakan, 106. 
 Caribou. See Reindeer. 
 Chamisso Island, 244. 
 Chukchi Joe, 33-36, 40-42, 
 
 46, 50, 61, llSyl?, 119. 
 Chukchis, smoking, 31; of 
 
 Marcus Bay, 32-36; story 
 
 299
 
 INDEX 
 
 of the loss of the Vigilant, 
 33, 37; huts, 34, 35, 44, 45, 
 110, 111, 227, 228; touches 
 of nature, 35, 36; of St. 
 Lawrence Bay, 36-38, 57- 
 66; trading, 37, 59, 238; 
 dignity and fortitude in 
 hunger, 37, 38; at Tapkan, 
 40-46; manners and cus 
 toms, 45, 46; dog-driver 
 aboard the Corwin, 49, 50, 
 109; temperance talk, 58; 
 dress and habits, 60, 61; 
 sensitive to ridicule, 62; 
 a reindeer-owner, 62-64, 
 97; women and children, 
 63; eating whale skin, 63, 
 64; passenger on the Cor 
 win, 65, 70, 74, 97-99; of 
 Plover Bay, 80, 223-35; 
 a half-breed girl, 80, 81; 
 about Metchigme Bay, 97- 
 99; a case of insanity, 97- 
 99; photographed, 99; at 
 Cape Wankarem, 103-08; 
 story of finding a wrecked 
 whaler, 103-06; nine set 
 tlements, 107; kindness, 
 107, 108; at East Cape, 
 109-13; cemeteries, 112, 
 114: at Cape Chaplin, 116; 
 traders from Cape Yakdn, 
 133; and Wrangell Land, 
 186-88; reindeer-herders at 
 Plover Bay, 223-735; psy 
 chology and physical char 
 acteristics, 228, 229. 
 
 Church, Russian, 17, 18. 
 
 Coal, 151, 159, 160, 163, 214, 
 215. 
 
 Cod, 5. 
 
 Colville River, 123 and note, 
 220. 
 
 Cook's Harbor, 5. 
 
 Coral, the bark, 200, 208. 
 
 Corwin, Thomas, U.S.S., 
 broken rudder, 48, 49; in 
 
 a gale, 59; loses ice-breaker, 
 241; rudder chain parts, 
 242. 
 
 Daniel Webster, the whaler, 
 
 158, 163, 200-08. 
 De Long, Commander George 
 
 W., quoted, 193. 
 Diomede Islands, 38, 39, 53, 
 
 72, 100, 115, 215, 216, 236- 
 
 39; glaciation, 269. 
 Dog-teams, 41-43; drawing 
 
 canoes, 160, 161. 
 Dogs, of the Chukchis, 41- 
 
 43, 45, 49, 51, 52. 
 Duck, eider, 55, 135, 136. 
 Dutch Harbor, 6 and note. 
 
 East Cape, 54; glaciation at, 
 100, 101, 275, 276; landing 
 at, 109-15. 
 
 Elephant Point, 244-47. 
 
 Empetrum, 15. 
 
 Eschscholtz Bay, 244-48, 288. 
 
 Eskimos, on St. Lawrence 
 Island, 26-31, 60, 74-77, 
 118, 119; trading, 26-28, 
 38, 74-76, 237, 238; and 
 rum, 26, 27, 31; appear 
 ance and manners, 28-30; 
 clothing, 28-30, 60; smok 
 ing, 30, 31; taken aboard, 
 32; on Diomede Islands, 
 38, 39, 236-39; villages 
 and huts, 38, 39, 134, 135, 
 237; babies, 75-77; eating 
 walrus heads, 76; boys, 77; 
 mortality, 94, 118-22; of 
 King Island, 131, 132; win 
 ter and summer huts on 
 King Island, 131, 132; 
 King Island canoes, 131, 
 132; at Cape Prince of 
 Wales, 132, 133; contra 
 band trade with, 133, 134; 
 at Kotzebue Sound, 134, 
 135, 138, 139, 141^3; at 
 
 300
 
 INDEX 
 
 Point Hope, 143, 144; lull 
 ing beluga, 147-49; killing 
 right whales, 149; near Icy 
 Cape, 152, 154, 156, 157; 
 near Cape Lisburne, 159- 
 61; canoes drawn by dogs, 
 160, 161; hunting polar 
 bears, 176, 177; decoration 
 of grave, 177; at Point 
 Barrow, 202, 204-06, 219, 
 220; as wreckers, 204-06; 
 at Point Belcher, 207. 
 
 Fairway Rock, 39 note, 131, 
 215, 216; glaciation, 269. 
 
 Fish, 5. 
 
 Flora, 281-95. 
 
 Flowers, of Unalaska, 11, 12, 
 282, 283; of Plover Bay, 
 96, 292; at East Cape, 112; 
 of St. Lawrence Island, 
 118, 285; of the tundra at 
 St. Michael, 127, 128, 286, 
 287; at Golofnin Bay, 130, 
 287, 288; at Kotzebue 
 Sound, 137, 288, 289; at 
 Cape Thompson, 145, 290, 
 291; at Icy Cape, 154; on 
 Herald Island, 169,292,293; 
 of Wrangell Land, 186, 294, 
 295. See also Flora. 
 
 Fossils, 137, 160, 244, 245. 
 
 Fowler, O. S., the schooner, 
 133 and note, 138. 
 
 Fox, white, 170 and note, 185. 
 
 Francis Palmer, the whaler, 
 59. 
 
 Fur trade, Aleutian Islands, 
 13, 14, 16, 17; Pribilof 
 Islands, 19-22; Yukon 
 River, 89, 90, 124, 125. 
 
 Geese, wild, 135, 136. 
 Gessler, Coxswain, 50 and 
 
 note. 
 Glaciation, on Unalaska, 6-9; 
 
 in the Pribilofs, 23, 267, 
 
 268; on the Siberian Coast, 
 26, 54, 67, 68, 85, 100, 272- 
 77; on the Diomede Is 
 lands, 53, 269; at St. Law 
 rence Bay, 57; in Bering 
 Sea and Strait, 57; on St. 
 Lawrence Island, 80, 93, 
 117, 118, 268, 269; at 
 Plover Bay, 82, 85, 95, 96, 
 224, 273, 274; at Met- 
 chigme Bay, 100; about 
 East Cape, 100, 101, 110- 
 13, 275, 276; at Golofnin 
 Bay, 129, 130, 275, 278; 
 at Sledge Island, 130, 270; 
 at Cape Thompson, 146; 
 near Cape Lisburne, 149, 
 150; on Herald Island, 166- 
 68, 270, 271; of the Arc- 
 ' tic and Sub- Arctic regions 
 visited during the cruise. 
 255-80. 
 
 Glaciers, of the Aleutian 
 Islands, 9, 251, 252, 263- 
 67; of Plover Bay, 95, 96; 
 fossil fragments, 244-47; 
 of the Sierra Nevada, 256, 
 257; of British Columbia 
 and southeastern Alaska, 
 
 257, 258; reaching the sea, 
 
 258, 259. 
 
 Gold, 125, 249, 250. 
 Golden Fleece, the schooner, 
 
 218 222 
 Golofnin Bay, 129-31, 249, 
 
 250; glaciation, 275, 278; 
 
 flora, 287, 288. 
 Gull, burgomaster, 136. 
 Gulls, 218. 
 
 Handy, R. B., the schooner, 
 155. 
 
 Helen Mar, the whaler, 53. 
 
 Herald Island, 162-72, 193, 
 194, 241; glaciation, 270, 
 271; flora, 292, 293. 
 
 Herring, 91. 
 
 301
 
 INDEX 
 
 Herring, Lieut., 50; his report 
 of search for the Vigilant, 
 102-06. 
 
 Hidalgo, the whaler, 59, 60, 
 144. 
 
 "Hole, the," 172. 
 
 Hooper, Capt. Calvin L., 27, 
 35, 40, 50, 58, 61, 63, 75, 
 119, 138, 155, 168, 170, 
 189, 242; quoted, 83, 84, 
 165 note, 166 note. 
 
 Hotham Inlet, 138. 
 
 Hutli, 258 and note. 
 
 Ice, crystals on rocks, 114, 
 115; curious formations, 
 244-48. 
 
 Ice, ocean, first view, 23. 
 
 Ice, pack, the Corwin in, 47- 
 52, 78, 79, 83, 84, 152, 153, 
 162, 164, 173, 178-83; 
 search party on, 101, 102. 
 
 Ice, shore, rough travel over, 
 40-42. 
 
 Ice-blink, 151. 
 
 Icy Cape, 151-54, 163, 200. 
 
 Iliuliuk, 6 and note, 14, 15. 
 See also Unalaska. 
 
 Indians, of the Yukon coun 
 try, 90, 91; shamans at 
 St. Michael, 124; kayaks, 
 128; at Golofnin Bay, 129; 
 canoes, 129; trading at 
 Kotzebue Sound, 141, 142. 
 
 Inland River, 123, 220. 
 
 International Polar Expedi 
 tion, 218-22. 
 
 Ivory, fossil, 137. 
 
 Jaroochah, 36, 37, 57-59, 61- 
 
 64. 
 Jeannette, U.S.S., 107, 124, 
 
 171, 185, 189. 
 Joe. See Chukchi Joe. 
 
 Kalekta Point, 6. 
 Kayaks, 128. 
 
 Kellett, Sir Henry, 270. 
 
 Kelly, Capt., 85- 
 
 King Island, 131, 132, 270. 
 
 Kittiwake, 162. 
 
 Kiwalik River, 134, 135. 
 
 Koliuchin, 107. 
 
 Koliuchin Island, 49, 50. 
 
 Konkarpo, 103. 
 
 Kotzebue Sound, 134-37, 244- 
 
 48; glaciation, 275, 278; 
 
 flora, 288, 289. 
 Kuuk River, 248 and note. 
 Kvass, 15, 16, 20. 
 
 Le Conte Glacier, 258 note. 
 Lolita, the ship, 73, 74, 79. 
 
 Makushin, volcano, 251, 252, 
 
 263 and note. 
 Marcus Bay, 32, 115, 116, 
 
 119, 236. 
 
 Metchigme Bay, 97-100. 
 Millard, Capt. M. V. B., 82 
 
 note, 84, 85. 
 Mirage, 88, 155, 158. 
 Mt. Akutan, 251 and note. 
 Mt. Makushin, 251, 252, 263 
 
 and note. 
 Mt. Rainier, 257. 
 Mt. Shasta, 257. 
 Mount Wollaston, the whaler, 
 
 102. 
 
 Muir Glacier, 259. 
 Murdoch, John, 207 note, 218 
 
 note, 220 note. 
 Murres, 169. 
 
 Nelson, Edward W., 99, 128, 
 170, 189, 223; ethnological 
 studies, 110-13, 119, 121, 
 132, 134, 135, 154; his 
 account of the foxes of 
 Herald Island, 170 note. 
 
 Nestor, Bishop, 18. 
 
 Noatak River, 123 note. 
 
 Northern Light, the bark, 
 155-57. 
 
 302
 
 INDEX 
 
 Norton Sound, 23, 24; mirage 
 in, 88. 
 
 Omniscot, Chukchi reindeer- 
 owner, 62-64, 97-99. 
 Oncarima, 103. 
 Otter, sea, 10, 13, 14, 22. 
 Otter Island, 23. 
 Owen, Capt., 157, 200. 
 Owl, an Arctic, 113. 
 
 Pittle Keg, 106 and note. 
 Plover Bay, 32, 80-85, 95, 96, 
 
 218, 242; glaciation, 273, 
 
 274; flora, 292. 
 Point Barrow, 202, 212-14, 
 
 219; International Polar 
 
 Expedition to, 218-22. 
 Point Belcher, 158, 201, 207, 
 
 209-12. 
 
 Point Hope, 143, 144, 161. 
 Pope, Thomas, the whaler, 
 
 82-84. 
 
 Post-Office Point, 162, 172. 
 Pribilof Islands, 19-23, 267, 
 
 268. 
 
 Priest, a Russian, 17. 
 Prospectors, 125, 130, 248- 
 
 50. 
 
 Providence Bay, 82 note. 
 Ptarmigan, 126, 127. 
 
 Rainbow, the whaler, 32. 
 Ray, Lieut. P. H., 218 and 
 
 note, 220, 221. 
 Reindeer, owned by Chukchis, 
 
 62, 140, 141, 223-35; wild 
 
 herds in Alaska, 139-41; 
 
 wild herds in Siberia, 224. 
 Reynolds, Lieut., 50, 133, 134. 
 Rodgers, U.S.S., 242, 243 and 
 
 note. 
 Rosse, Dr. Irving C., 82, 126. 
 
 St. George Island, 19-23. 
 St. Lawrence Bay, 36-38; at 
 anchor in, 56-66. 
 
 St. Lawrence Island, 26-31, 
 33, 38, 70-80, 93-95; de 
 scriptions, 117-19; dead 
 villages on, 118-22', glacia 
 tion, 268, 269; flora, 285. 
 
 St. Matthew Island, 25. 
 
 St. Michael, 85, 88-92, 123- 
 29, 248, 249; flora, 286, 
 287. 
 
 St. Paul, island and village of, 
 19-23. 
 
 St. Paul, the steamer, 121, 
 123 
 
 Salmon, 91, 128. 
 
 San Francisco Bulletin, 83, 
 84 note. 
 
 Sappho, the whaler, 157. 
 
 Sea Breeze, the whaling bark, 
 143, 157, 193. 
 
 Seal, a large, 54. 
 
 Seal, fur, industry, 16, 17, 19- 
 22; habits, 20, 21. 
 
 Seal, saddle-back, 25. 
 
 Seal, white, 24. 
 
 Shamanism, 18. 
 
 Sheshalek, 138. 
 
 Shumagin Islands, 23. 
 
 Siberia, first sight, 26; ex 
 ploring coast of, 32 et seq. 
 
 Sierra Nevada, glaciers, 256, 
 257. 
 
 Sinaru, 201 note. 
 
 Sledge Island, 130, 270. 
 
 Spermophile, 185 and note. 
 
 Spring, beginning of, 79. 
 
 Starbuck, Alexander, 208. 
 
 Sun, atmospheric effects, 159, 
 161; midnight, 216, 217. 
 
 Sunarnara, 201. 
 
 Tapkan, 42-46, 100-02, 109. 
 Temperature, of air and 
 
 water, 87, 88, 92. 
 Thomas Pope, the whaler, 
 
 82-84. 
 
 Trees, 284, 287. 
 Tundra, 126-28. 
 
 303
 
 INDEX 
 
 Unalaska, arrival at, 3-6; 
 animal and plant life, 10- 
 12; trees, 12; grazing and 
 agriculture, 13; population, 
 13; the priest's house, 17; 
 the Russian Church, 18; 
 stay at, on return trip, 250, 
 251; flora, 282-84. 
 
 Unga Island, 23. 
 
 Vega, the ship, 44, 106. 
 
 Vigilant, the whaler, 33, 37; 
 report of party in search of, 
 102-08. 
 
 Volcanoes and volcanic re 
 mains, in the Aleutian 
 Islands, 7, 9, 251, 252; on 
 St. Lawrence Island, 118; 
 near St. Michael, 126; at 
 Kotzebue Sound, 137. 
 
 Walrus, 68, 69, 73, 74, 76, 153, 
 
 155, 156, 158. 
 Weather, 85, 86. 
 Western Fur and Trading 
 
 Company, 14, 22; station 
 
 near St. Michael, 89, 90, 
 
 123, 125. 
 Whale, bowhead, 209. 
 
 Whale, white, 147-49. 
 
 Whalers, lost in the ice, 203- 
 12. 
 
 Whales, eaten by Chukchis, 
 63, 64; hunted by the na 
 tives, 64, 70, 149; and the 
 whalers, 157. 
 
 Whaling, 208, 209. 
 
 Wrangell, Baron Ferdinand 
 Petrovitch von, 141 note, 
 186-88. 
 
 Wrangell Land, 107; first 
 sight of, 168, 169; approach 
 ing, 171-83; landing on, 
 184; exploration, 184-86, 
 188-91; Baron Wrangell's 
 search for, 186-88; flag 
 erected on, 189; animal 
 life, 192; improbability of 
 De Long's having landed 
 upon, 193-96; reasons for 
 leaving, 196-99; failure to 
 land on second visit, 239- 
 42; the Rodgers at, 243 
 and note; geology, 271, 272, 
 293, 294; flora, 293-95. 
 
 Yukon River, fur trade of, 
 89, 90.
 
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