CHAPTER I.

Arrival in Norton Sound. - Circumstances of previous visit.

News of the death of Robert Kennicott. — Change of plans. — Receive my appointment as Director of the Scientific Corps, and determine to remain in the country. Landing, organization, and departure of the vessels. - Departure of the Wilder for Unalaklik. — Russian peechka. - St. Michael's Redoubt and Island. - Russian traders. - Ste

panoff. Natives and their houses.

- Journey to Unalaklik.

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- Skin boats. — Departure from the Redoubt. Detention at Kegiktowruk.-Seal-hunting. - Innuit graves. Bath as enjoyed by the Innuit. Character of the coast. - Departure from Kegiktowruk. — Topanika. — Arrival off the mouth of the river. - Icecakes. - Arrival at Unalaklik. - Cockroaches. Native clothing. Description of the post and village. - Deficiency of medical supplies. — Departure for Nulato via Ulukuk. - Iktigalik and its inhabitants. - Telegraph stew. - Escape of dogs and return to Unalaklik. — Russian baths. - Disagreeable trip to Iktigalik. All gone on my arrival. - Second return to Unalaklik. — Impromptu theatricals. - Departure for Ulukuk. - Deserted village. Arrival at Ulukuk. — Springs. — Transportation of goods. — Arrival of Mike with the brigade from Nulato. -Departure for Nulato. - Parhelia. Mysterious caterpillar. - First view of the Yu

N the 24th of September, 1866, the clipper ship Nightingale came to anchor half a mile southeast of Egg Island, Norton Sound.

A driving storm from the north and northeast obscured the atmosphere, and covered the deck with an inch or two of halfmelted snow and hail. The waves were yellow with sediment, churned up by their own violence, and the very white-caps had a sullied look which spoke of shallow water. We were drawing nineteen feet, with a rise and fall of the waves of at least twelve feet more, and the breeze was freshening. This did not leave a very large margin under the keel, and the well-known rapidity with which a north wind will diminish the depth of water in the Sound, sometimes making a difference of a fathom in the course of a few hours, added to the anxiety of our ship's officers. Our indefatigable commander, Captain Scammon, was seriously ill. Altogether, the circumstances attending our arrival in the vicinity of Redoubt St. Michael's were not propitious.

A little more than a year before, we had visited this point in the bark Golden Gate. We left a party to make the preliminary explorations, previous to deciding on the line on which it was proposed to build the international telegraph. This party was under the command of the Director of the Scientific Corps, Robert Kennicott, whose previous experience in the Hudson Bay Territory to the westward had fitted him above all others to fill the arduous post of commander of the explorations in Russian America. Several members of the Scientific Corps were of his party, and to their combined labors we looked hopefully for a solution of the problem of the identity of the Yukon River with the so-called Kwikhpák of the Russians. This identity was stoutly upheld by Mr. Kennicott, though persistently denied by many, who looked upon the so-called Colvile River, flowing into the Arctic Ocean, as the true mouth of the Yukon, while they considered the Kwikhpák as a distinct river. The question was regarded as uncertain by all. Information received from the Russians, however, soon put the matter beyond a doubt, and we looked to Mr. Kennicott and his party as the favored few who were to pass the terra incognita between the limit of Russian. explorations and the Hudson Bay Territory, and thus complete the exploration of the Lower Yukon.

Though their equipment was not such as we could have wished, and though grave doubts prevailed as to the value of a miniature steamer, of which much had been expected, still we left all of them in the highest spirits, and with the heartiest wishes for their success, as we sailed slowly away from Stuart Island, September 17, 1865.

During the year which had passed many changes had taken place in the organization of the Expedition. No word had been received from the party even through the Russian mail, which is carried overland from St. Michael's every winter to Nushergák and thence by sea to Sitka.

Various detentions kept the vessels of the fleet lying in San Francisco Bay long after they should have reached the shores of Bering Sea, and it was only in the month of July that the Expedition finally set sail. We had been lying in Plover Bay several weeks, during which time a rumor had reached us that an exploring party had been at Grantley Harbor during the winter, and that

one member of the party had been badly frost-bitten. supposed to be alive and well.

All were

Now that we had again come within reach of our friends and companions, our anxiety may be imagined. The state of the weather and our distance from St. Michael's, almost twelve miles, prevented our landing in a body. A boat with two officers was despatched late in the afternoon, but the distance and the still increasing storm forbade us to expect their return that night.

My own impatience was so great that I soon abandoned the attempt to sleep, and accompanied the officer of the deck in his inclement night-watch, pacing up and down in the rain and sleet; and I almost fancied that there was something derisive in the whistle of the wind through the rigging and insulting in the masses of slush which the swaying cordage occasionally threw in our faces.

The next morning the storm continued with little abatement. About noon we saw the steamer George S. Wright, which we knew had arrived with the commander of the expedition a day or two before, getting up steam behind the point of Stuart Island. About four o'clock in the afternoon she came out and anchored under the lee of Egg Island near us, and we soon saw a boat put off from her. Every glass was pointed at her, and every eye was strained for a glimpse of some familiar face; but the long hair and beards, the unfamiliar deer-skin dresses and hoods defied recognition.

Pressing forward to the gangway, as the first man came over the side, my first question was, "Where is Kennicott?" and the answer, "Dead, poor fellow, last May," stunned me with its sudden. anguish. I stayed to hear no more, but went to my cabin as one walks in a dream.

So he was gone, that noble, impetuous, but tender-hearted man, who had been to me and many others as more than a brother! During the past two years many had had bitter controversies with him, but all felt and expressed their grief at his untimely death. He was one who made enemies as well as friends, but even enemies could not but respect the purity of motive, the open-handed generosity, the consideration, almost too great, for his subordinates, and the untiring energy and lively spirits which were the prominent characteristics of the man.

The details of his explorations and death will be found elsewhere. His body had been tenderly cared for, brought down the Yukon from the point where he died, placed in a vault at the Redoubt, and was to be taken home in charge of Mr. Charles Pease, who had been his friend from boyhood, and Mr. H. M. Bannister, both members of the Scientific Corps. This would leave the Corps without a single representative in the whole of Russian America north of Sitka.

My own plan had been, to explain the operations of the Corps during the past year to Mr. Kennicott, and if approved by him to cross to the Siberian side and obtain such information and collections as opportunity might offer, and especially to determine by the barometer the height of the different volcanoes for which Kamchatka is renowned.

Under the circumstances, however, and considering the information in regard to North American natural history and geology more important than that relating to the other continent, I resolved to remain at St. Michael's or in the valley of the Yukon during the ensuing season. I determined to use my best energies to complete the scientific exploration of the northwest extremity of the continent, as it had been planned by Mr. Kennicott, and which comprised the exploration of,

First, the region between Fort Yukon, at the junction of the Yukon and the Porcupine, and Nuláto, the most eastern Russian post on the former river;

Second, the region between Nuláto and the sea, westward across the portage, and south by way of the Yukon to the sea; and, Lastly, the whole region bordering on Norton Sound and the sea to the north and south of it.

Toward this considerable collections and many observations had been made at St. Michael's, but little had been done in other parts of the country.

Captain Charles S. Bulkley, U. S. A., Engineer-in-chief of the Expedition, having signified his desire that I should succeed Mr. Kennicott as Director of the Scientific Corps, and learning that I desired to remain in the country, ordered me to act as Surgeon in general charge of the district between Bering Strait and the Yukon. I submitted my plans for the scientific operations of the coming year to him, and they met with his entire. approval.