KING ISLAND.

Returning the interpreter to Indian Point, the captain steamed away for King Island, which we reached about 5 p. m. on July 1. This is one of the most remarkable settlements in America. The island is a great mass of basalt rock, about a mile in length, rising from the sea with perpendicular sides from 700 to 1,000 feet above the water. On the south side the wall is broken down by a ravine rising at an angel of 45 degrees, and is filled with loose rock. A great, permanent snow bank filled the bottom of the ravine from the water to the top of the mountain. On the west side of the snow is the village of Ouk-i-vak, which consists of some 40 dwellings or underground houses, partly excavated in the side of the hill, and built up with stone walls. Across the top of these walls are large poles made from the driftwood that is caught floating around the island. Upon these are placed hides and grass, which are in turn covered with dirt. A low tunnel or dirt-covered hallway, 10 to 15 feet long, leads directly under the center of the dwelling. This is so low that we had to stoop and often creep in entering. At the end of the hall directly overhead is a hole about 18 inches in diameter. This is the entrance to the dwelling above.

Frequently in summer, these caves become too damp to live in. The people then erect a summer house upon top of the winter one. The summer house consists of walrus hides, stretched over a wooden frame, making a room from 10 to 15 feet square. These summer houses are guyed to rocks with rawhide ropes, to prevent them from being blown off into the sea. The entrance is an oval hole in the walrus hide, about 2 feet above the floor. Outside of the door is a narrow platform about 2 feet wide, leading back to the side of the hill. Some of these platforms are from 15 to 20 feet above the roofs of the huts below them. Across the ravine from the village, at the base of the perpendicular sides of the island is a cave, into the mouth of which the surf dashes and roars. At the back of the cave is a large bank of perpetual snow. On the side of the mountain above there is a perpendicular shaft from 80 to 100 feet deep, leading down into the cave. This cave is the storehouse for the whole village. Walrus and seal meat is dropped down the shaft, and then stored away in rooms excavated in the snow. As the temperature in the cave never rises above freezing point, meat so stored soon freezes solid and keeps indefinitely. The women gain entrance to their storehouse by letting themselves down the shaft, hand over hand, along a rawhide rope.

Capt. Healy had a census taken with the following result: Total population 200, of whom 33 were males and 45 females under 21 years of age. Here, as at the other native villages, I secured a number of articles of interest for the museum of natural history and ethnology at Sitka.

THE WHALING FLEET.

At 3:15 a. m. on the 2d of July the ship anchored at Port Clarence, in the midst of the Arctic whaling fleet. Eight steamers and eighteen sailing vessels, all flying the American flag, were an inspiring sight in this far off, uninhabited bay; almost within the Arctic Circle; and the more so, as a few months ago, in Washington, I heard a gentleman who had just returned from a trip around the world, say in a public address that in all his trip, he had seen but one vessel flying the Stars and Stripes. Many of the whalers leave San Francisco in January, and it is their custom to gather at this point about the 1st of July before entering the Arctic Ocean, to meet a steamer sent from San Francisco with a fresh supply of provisions, coal, etc.

Soon after anchoring, the captains of the whalers began arriving in order to get their mail, for the captain of the revenue steamer, among other good offices for humanity, brings up the yearly mail for the 2,000 whalers, traders, teachers, and missionaries, and whoever else may be living in the Arctic regions of the United States. For those who have had no tidings from their loved ones at home or returns from an important business transaction, the coming of the revenue steamer is an important event. Great bundles of letters and papers were piled upon the captain's table, and again and again they were carefully scanned, each captain picking out those that belonged to himself or his crew. Some of them

did this so nervously, that though they personally looked over the packet three or four different times, they still missed some, which would be detected and handed out by some one following.

A few visiting Eskimos were camped upon the beach, some of them being dressed in bird instead of deer skins.

The day before we arrived the mate of one of the vessels had died, and an officer on another vessel was very sick, dying a few weeks afterwards. In a fleet. with hundreds of sailors are some accidental cuts, bruises, etc., so that there were many calls for the professional services of the Government physician. This is another feature of the beneficent work of the revenue steamer. In Arctic Alaska in summer are 2,000 sailors on the whalers, a hundred traders and thousands of natives, covering an area of tens of thousands of square miles, and no physician except the one carried around on the annual cruise of this vessel. The value of such services can not be estimated.

During our stay at Port Clarence Capt. Healy, in the discharge of his official duty, as usual, sent officers on board of every vessel to search for liquors. The large majority of the captains of the whaling vessels are opposed to the trading of liquors to the natives for furs; but there are some who believe in it, and boldly say that if the cutter did not come and search them they would engage in it, and that they do engage in it on the Siberian coast, where the cutter has no jurisdiction. The result of the search was that 11 barrels of alcohol and 6 cases of gin were seized upon one schooner and emptied into the ocean. One captain, seeing the officer coming, emptied a barrel of liquor over the side of his vessel and threw three gallon cans after it. The cans, instead of sinking, floated by the searching officer. He, doubtless thinking them empty kerosene cans, did not take the trouble to pick them up. During the past ten years hundreds of barrels of vile liquors have been emptied into the sea as the result of the vigilance of Capt. Healy and the officers of the revenue cutter. The amount of crime, suffering, and destitution thus prevented can not be overestimated. The country and all who are interested in saving the natives of this coast from the demoralization of rum owe a large debt of gratitude to Capt. Healy, who has practically broken up the traffic on this northwest coast.

One of the captains reported a case of assault and battery with intent to kill. On the 30th of June his steward had dangerously wounded one of the sailors, cutting with a razor a gash 84 inches long and to the ribs in depth. The steward had been in irons ever since. It was a small schooner and there was no suitable place for keeping the prisoner, who had threatened to kill the mate and fire the ship when he regained his liberty. Under the circumstances the captain was very anxious to get rid of him, and wrote Capt. Healy, as the nearest Government official, an urgent letter asking him to take the man off his hands. This is another phase of the manysided work of a Government cutter in this vast land without law or courts. The steward being equally anxious to claim the protection of the Government, hẹ was brought alongside in irons. The irons were taken off and he was assigned work. The commanding officers of all the revenue vessels visiting these outlying portions of the country should be clothed with the powers of a justice of the peace, so that offenses could be investigated, testimony taken, and offenders arrested and bound over for trial at the United States district court at Sitka. As it is, the captain could not legally have taken this man against his will, and when the vessel arrives at San Francisco the man can go ashore a free man, escaping not only all punishment, but even an official investigation.

In the harbor awaiting our arrival was the schooner Oscar and Hattie, Capt. J. J. Haviside master, laden with building material and supplies for the schoolhouses at Cape Prince of Wales, Point Hope, and Point Barrow. The schooner got under way that same afternoon for Cape Prince of Wales, about 30 miles distant. Upon the following day the schooner Jennie arrived with supplies for the whalers. She had on board the four teachers, Messrs. H. R. Thornton and W. T. Lopp for Cape Prince of Wales, Dr. John B. Drigg for Point Hope, and Mr. L. M. Stevenson for Point Barrow. At midnight we witnessed one of those gorgeous sunsets for which the Pacific coast is so famous.

On the morning of the 4th of July all the vessels "dressed ship" in honor of the day. At 8 o'clock a. m. we got under way, reaching Cape Prince of Wales at 1:25 p. m. The captain very kindly sent Prof. Thornton and myself ashore at once, and we celebrated the 4th of July, 1890, by locating at this extreme western end of the western hemisphere the site and laying the foundations of the first schoolhouse and mission on the Arctic coast of Alaska. From this school is visible to the north, the Arctic Ocean; to the south, Bering Sea, and to the west, Bering Straits, the coast of Siberia, and Diomede Islands. The cape is a bold promontory crowned with groups of needle rocks. As we had a teacher on beard, we could trace the resemblance of one group to a teacher and pupils. Back of the coast the mountain peaks rise to the height of 2,596 feet. At the base of the promontory is a low sand spit, upon which is built the native village of King-e-gan. This school is one of the contract schools of the U. S. Bureau of Education and is in charge of the American Missionary Association of the

Congregational Church. The money needed for its establishment was contrib.uted by the Congregational Church of Southport, Conn., Rev. William H. Hoiman, pastor.

At Port Clarence volunteers were called for and through the courtesy of the several captains the following carpenters offered their services without pay in the erection of the schoolhouses at Cape Prince of Wales and Point Hope: Charles Johnson, of the steam bark Thrasher; James Hepburn, of the Balena; Edward E. Norton, of the Orca, and A. S. Curry, of the Grampus. Capt. Healy sent off 2 carpenters and 10 or 12 men from the Bear.

While the house was building Capt. Healy took the ship over to (Krusenstern) Little Diomede Island to take the census of Imach-leet. Upon our arrival it was storming so badly that he was compelled to continue on over to the Asiatic side for a safe anchorage. On the third day, the storm having abated, we started for Imach-leet, calling at East Cape on our way. We also passed close to Inug-leet, on Ratmanoff Island, but did not go on shore.

Bering Straits, which separate the American and Asiatic continents, are 40 miles broad. These straits were first passed by Capt. Bering in August, 1728, who demonstrated the fact that Asia was separated from America. It remained for Capt. Cook, in August, 1778, to complete Bering's discoveries and give to the world the exact relations of the continents to each other. Nearly in the center are Big and Little Diomede (Ratmanoff and Krusenstern) islands. The former belongs to Russia, and the latter to the United States. As these islands are only 2 miles apart, Russia and the United States are here close together. Imach-leet, like Inug-leet and Ouk-i-vak, is built upon the steep side of a mountain, and is the filthiest place yet visited. Being so close to the Asiatic settlements, it is the gateway of much of the liquor smuggled into this section of Alaska. A school with an efficient teacher at this place would prevent much of this illicit traffic and accomplish a great work.

As we returned to King-e-gan we sailed close to Fairway Rock, the Indian name of which is Oo-ghe-e-ak, and is said to signify, "Thanks to God," because there is room to shelter two native boats which may be overtaken in this part of the sea by a storm. Fairway Rock is a quarter of a mile in circumference and from 300 to 400 feet high. It is one of the natural danger-signal stations of Bering Sea and the Arctic, being occupied by myriads of birds, which, by their continual cries in thick and foggy weather, warn the navigator of his proximity to the rock.

At King-e-gan the captain picked up his carpenters and sailors, who had finished the school building, and on the afternoon of July 12 we started northward through Bering Straits into the Arctic Ocean. Twenty-four hours later we crossed the Arctic Circle and were in "the land of the midnight sun."

At

July 13 Capt. Healy anchored off Schishmareff Inlet to take the census. the time of Capt. Beechey's expedition in 1826 there was a large native village here. Now it is reduced to a very small number.

In visiting the camp upon shore I came across the oldest-looking native that I have seen this season. A number of the natives visited the ship. Wild ducks were so plentiful that the captain bought a couple of dozen for the table at the rate of a cent apiece. The next morning we anchored off Cape Blossom, in Kotzebue Sound. This sound was discovered on the 1st of August, 1816, by Capt. Kotzebue, in command of the Rurik, fitted out by Count Romanoff, of Russia, to discover the northwest passage. In September, 1826, it was visited by Capt. Beechey in the British ship Blossom, who was cooperating with Sir John Franklin, Franklin working from the eastern side toward the west, and Beechey from the western side eastward. The two expeditions failed to make connection. While in the sound Capt. Beechey buried a cask of flour. In July, 1850, the ships Herald, Capt. Hellett, Plover, Capt. Moore, and the Investigator, sent by the British Admiralty in search of Sir John Franklin, and the schooner yacht Nancy Dawson, under her owner, Robert Shedder, visited the sound. The flour buried nearly a quarter of a century before was found in good condition, and a dinner party given, at which were cakes and pies made from it. In Eschscholtz Sound, the southwest arm of Kotzebue Sound, are cliffs from 20 to 80 feet in height, which rise into hills between 400 and 500 feet above the sea.

At the time of Kotzebue's visit this cliff was supposed to be an immense iceberg, covered with a foot of soil and grass, but was found by Capt. Beechey to be frozen earth. The interesting feature of the cliff is that it contains a large deposit of fossil ivory, mammoth tusks, teeth, and bones. I secured portions of two mammoth tusks and two teeth.

One afternoon Lieut. Buhner and myself started to visit some of the native villages. After going about 15 miles we got on the shoals and were compelled

to return to the ship. While absent we landed and visited some native graves. There is a row of them extending for miles along the beach. As there is a frozen subsoil, rendering it very difficult to dig graves, the dead are wrapped up in seal skins, which are securely tied and then deposited above the ground in the forks of poles or elevated platforms so high above the earth that the wild animals can not reach them.

The whole landscape out from under the snow was covered with beautiful wild flowers, and we were covered with mosquitoes that swarmed around us in clouds. We saw very few natives on the beach, they being largely at Sheshalik, on the north side of Hotham Inlet. When the ice leaves Kotzebue Sound in the summer the beluga, or white whale, comes in, and the natives come down the rivers by hundreds from the interior to hunt him and later on to barter with the coast tribes. About the middle of July the run of the whales is over, and that of the salmon commences on the Cape Blossom side of the inlet. The population then change their tents from the north to the south side of the inlet. In the mean time the Alaskan and Siberian coast natives are arriving day by day, until in August from 1,500 to 2,500 people are gathered on the spit north of Cape Blossom, fishing and trading. This is the great international annual fair and market of Arctic Alaska.

The natives of the interior here barter their beautiful furs with the natives of the coast for seal oil, walrus hides, and seal skins, and with the natives of Siberia for reindeer skins, whisky, and breech-loading firearms, cartridges, etc. Formerly these gatherings were visited by schooners, fitted out at San Francisco and Sandwich Islands, with cargoes of liquor in bottles labeled "Florida Water," "Bay Rum," "Pain Killer,' Jamaica Ginger," etc. This traffic has largely been broken up by the visits of the revenue cutters.

A schooner was at anchor off Cape Blossom when we arrived. Seeing the cutter it weighed anchor and sailed away, but not before an officer had been sent on board to search her. Although no unusual supply of liquor was found on board, yet that afternoon a native and his wife were found drunk from liquor received from this vessel. They were brought aboard the cutter, testified where they secured the liquor, received a reprimand, and upon the promise of not drinking again, were let go.

On the north side of the sound is the entrance to Hotham Inlet into which empty two large rivers, the Kowak and the Noatak. Although the existence of these rivers was known in a vague way by reports from native sources, they were first explored and mapped in 1883, 1884, and 1885 by expeditions fitted out by Capt. Healy, commanding the Corwin. As the larger number of natives whom I wished to see had not yet arrived the captain concluded to go on and fulfill his duties farther north and return here before the people should separate, consequently, on the morning of the 16th, with a fair wind, he sailed northward. We were soon abreast of Cape Krusentern, where, in July, 1886, the John Carver was crushed in the ice. On the morning of the 17th we dropped anchor off Cape Thompson to water ship. The ship's boats were taken ashore and filled with fresh water from a creek. The boats were then rowed back to the ship and the water pumped from them into the ship's tanks. By noon the tanks were full and we had on board a month's supply of water. In the afternoon the sailors were allowed to go ashore and wash their clothes. Soon after anchoring the natives began to come on board and the deck was covered with them all day.

Cape Thompson is a bold, rocky bluff 1,200 feet high. It is a remarkable cliff geologically, showing a great fold of the earth's crust. The face of the cliff is also a great bird rookery, birds by the thousand and tens of thousands nesting in the cracks and upon the projections of the rocks. Wishing some egg shells a party of natives were hired for a few crackers to get some eggs. Taking a rope with them, they scaled the cliffs, and letting one of their number down the face of the precipice with the rope he soon gathered two bushels and a half of eggs. Leaving Cape Thompson at 5 o'clock p. m. we reached Point Hope about 11 p. m., and dropped anchor in the midst of twelve vessels, largely belonging to the New Bedford whaling fleet. The captain immediately dispatched a boat for mail to the bark Thomas Pope that had come up from San Francisco with supplies to the whalers from New Bedford. In due time the boat returned with a batch of papers as late as June 10, but no letters. It then being nearly midnight I concluded to remain up and see the midnight sun, which dipped about half way into the water and then commenced to rise again. At the setting it was partially obscured by a cloud, but the rising was cloudless and beautiful."

Point Hope is a narrow stretch of land extending out into the Arctic Ocean, some 16 miles from the general line of the coast. This gives it its native name Tig-e-rach (Finger.) It has evidently been formed by two great fields of ice