USA > Alaska > Our Arctic province, Alaska and the Seal islands > Part 47
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The Death-stroke. [Mahlemoots Morse-hunting in the summer.]
centric tides thereof, will preserve the species indefinitely. Forty years ago, wlien the North Pacific was a rendezvous of the greatest whaling-fleet that ever floated, those vessels could not, nor can they now, approach nearer than sixty or even eighty miles of many muddy shoals, sands, and bars upon which the walrus rest in Bris- tol Bay, scattered in herds of a dozen or so to bodies of thousands, living in lethargic peace and almost unmolested, except in several small districts which are carefully hunted over by the natives of Oogashik for oil and ivory. I have been credibly informed that they also breed in Bristol Bay, and along its coast as far north as Cape Avinova, during seasons of exceptional rigor in the Arctic.
460
OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
The Innuits of St. Lawrence, and all of their race living above them, hunt the walrus without any excitement other than that of securing such quarry. They never speak of real danger. When they do not shoot them as these beasts drift in sleepy herds on ice- floes, then they surprise them on the beaches or reefs and destroy a herd by spearing and lancing. When harpooned or speared, a head of the weapon is so made as to detach itself from its shank, and by thus sticking in the carcass a line of walrus-hide is made fast to the plethoric body of Rosmarus. When this brute has expended its surplus vitality by towing the natives a few miles in a mad, fren- zied burst of swimming, their bidarrah is quietly drawn up to its puffing form close enough to permit of a coup by an ivory-headed lance ; it is then towed to a beach at high water. When the ebb is well out, the huge carcass is skinned by its dusky butchers, who cut it up into large square chunks of flesh and blubber, which are deposited in queer little "Dutch-oven " caches of each family that are made especially for its reception.
Dressing walrus-hides is the only serious hard labor which the Alaskan Innuit subjects himself to. He cannot lay it entirely upon the women, as the Sioux do when they spread buffalo bodies all over the plains. It is too much for female strength alone, and so the men bear a hand right lustily in this business. It takes from four to six stout natives, when a green walrus-hide is removed, to carry it to a sweating-hole, where it is speedily unhaired. Then, stretched alternately upon air-frames and pinned over the earth, it is gradually scraped down to a requisite thinness for use in cover- ing the bidarrah skeletons, etc.
There are probably six or seven thousand human beings in Alaska who live largely by virtue of the existence of Rosmarus, and every year, when the season opens, they gather together by settle- ments, as they are contiguous, and discuss the walrus chances for a coming year as earnestly and as wisely as our farmers who con- fer over their prospects for corn and potatoes. But an Eskimo hunter is a sadly improvident mortal, though he is not wasteful of morse life, while we are provident, and yet wasteful of our resources.
If the North Pole is ever reached by our people, they will do so only when they can eat walrus-meat and get plenty of it-at least that is my belief-and, knowing now what the diet is, I think the journey to that hyperborean ultima is a long one, though there is plenty of meat and many men who want to try it.
PINNACLE ISLET An Active Volcanic Nodule near St. Matthew's Island : (bearing W. N. W. 2m.)
461
MORSE AND MAHLEMOÖT.
Unless we spend a winter in the Arctic Ocean above Bering Straits we will not be able to see a polar bear ; but there is one place, and one place only, in Alaska where in midsummer we can land, and there behold on its swelling, green, and flowery uplands hun- dreds of these huge ursine brutes. That place is the island of St. Matthew, and it is right in our path as we leave St. Lawrence and head for Oonimak Pass and home.
St. Matthew Island is an odd, jagged, straggling reach of bluffs and headlands, connected by bars and lowland spits. The former, seen at a little distance out at sea, resemble half a dozen distinct is-
HEIliHt
del 04 -2
Mahlemoöts Landing a Walrus.
[An Innuit " double purchase." St. Lawrence Island.]
ands. The extreme length is twenty-two miles, and it is exceedingly narrow in proportion. Hall Island is a small one that lies west from it, separated from it by a strait (Sarichev) less than three miles in width, while the only other outlying land is a sharp, jagged pinna- cle-rock, rearing itself over a thousand feet abruptly from the sea, standing five miles south of Sugar-loaf Cone on the main island. From a cleft and blackened fissure, near the summit of this ser- rated pinnacle-rock, volcanic fire and puffs of black smoke have been recorded as issuing when first discovered, and they have issued ever since.
Our first landing, early in the morning of August 5th, was at the spot under Cub Hill, near Cape Upright, the easternmost point of
462
OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
the island. The air came out from the northwest cold and chilly, and snow and ice were on the hill-sides and in the gullies. The sloping sides and summits of these hills were of a grayish, russet tinge, with deep-green swale flats running down into the lowlands, which are there more intensely green and warmer in tone. A pebble-bar formed by the sea between Cape Upright and Waterfall Head is covered with a deep stratum of glacial drift, carried down from the flanks of Polar and Cub Hills, and extending over two miles of this water-front to the westward, where it is met by a simi- lar washing from that quarter. Back, and in the centre of this neck, are several small lakes and lagoons without fish ; but empty- ing into them are a number of clear, lively brooks, in which were salmon-parr of fine quality. The little lakes undoubtedly receive them ; hence they were land-locked salmon. A luxuriant growth of thick moss and grass, interspersed, existed almost everywhere on the lowest ground ; and occasionally strange dome-like piles of peat were lifted four or five feet above marshy swales, and appeared so remarkably like abandoned barraboras that we repeatedly turned from our course to satisfy ourselves personally to the contrary.
As these lowlands ascend to the tops of higher hills, all vegeta- tion changes rapidly to a simple coat of cryptogamic gray and light russet, with a slippery slide for the foot wherever a steep flight or climbing was made. Water oozes and trickles everywhere under foot, since an exhalation of frost is in progress all the time. Some- times these swales rise and cross hill-summits to the valleys again without any interruption in their wet, swampy character. The ac- tion of ice in rounding down and grinding hills, chipping bluffs, and chiselling everywhere, carrying the soil and débris into de- pressions and valleys, is most beautifully exhibited on St. Mat- thew. The hills at the foot of Sugar-loaf Cone are bare and liter- ally polished by ice-sheets and slides of melting snow. Rocks and soil from these summits and slopes are carried down and " dumped," as it were, in numberless little heaps beneath, so that the foot of every hill and out on the plain around strongly put us in mind of those refuse-piles which are dropped over the com- mons or dumping-grounds of a city. Nowhere can the work of ice be seen to finer advantage than here, aided and abetted, as it un- doubtedly is, by the power of wind, especially with regard to that chiselling action of frost on the faces of ringing metallic porphyry cliffs.
463
MORSE AND MAHLEMOOT.
The flora here is as extensive as on the Seal Islands, two hun- (red miles to the southward ; but the species of gramma are not near so varied. Indeed, there is very little grass around about. Wherever there is soil it seems to be converted by the abundant moisture into a swale or swamp, over which we travelled as on a quaking water-bed ; but on the rounded hill-tops and ridge-sum- mits wind-driven and frost-splintered shingle makes good walking. Both of these climatic agencies evidently have a permanent iron grip on this island.
The west end of St. Matthew differs materially from the east. A fantastic weathering of the rocks at Cathedral Point, Hall Isl- and, will strike the eye of a most casual observer as his ship enters the straits going south. This eastern wall of that point looms up from the water like a row of immense cedar-tree trunks. The scaling off of basaltic porphyry and a growth of yellowish-green and red mossy lichens made the effect most real, while a vast bank of fog lying just overhead seemed to shut out from our vision the foliage and branches that should be above. This north. cape of Hall Island changes when approached, with every mile's distance, to a new and altogether different profile.
Our visit at the west end of the island of St. Matthew was, geo- logically speaking, the most interesting experience I have ever had in Alaska. A geologist who may desire to study the great- est variety of igneous forms in situ, within a short and easy radius, can do no better than make his survey here. These rocks are not only varied by mineral colors, together with a fantastic arrange- ment of basalt and porphyry, but are rich and elegant in their tint- ing by the profuse growth of lichens-brown, yellow, green, and bronze.
An old Russian record prepared us, in landing, to find bears here, but it did not cause us to be equal to the sight we saw, for we met bears-yea, hundreds of them. I was going to say that I saw bears here as I had seen seals to the south, but that, of course, will not do, unless as a mere figure of speech. During the nine days that we were busy in surveying this island, we never were one moment, while on land, out of sight of a bear or bears ; their white forms in the distance always answered to our search, though they ran from our immediate presence with a wild celerity, trav- elling in a swift, shambling gallop, or trotting off like elephants. Whether due to the fact that they were gorged with food, or that
464
OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
the warmer weather of summer subdued their temper, we never could coax one of these animals to show fight. Its first impulse and its last one, while within our influence, was flight-males, fe- males, and cubs --- all, when surprised by us, rushing with one ac- cord right, left, and in every direction, over the hills and far away.
After shooting half a dozen, we destroyed no more, for we speedily found that we had made their acquaintance at the height of their shedding-season, and their snowy and highly prized winter- dress was a very different article from the dingy, saffron-colored, grayish fur that was flying like downy feathers in the wind, when ever rubbed or pulled by our hands. They never growled, or ut- tered any sound whatever, even when shot or wounded.
Here, on the highest points, where no moss ever grows, and nothing but a fine porphyritic shingle slides and rattles beneath our tread, are bear-roads leading from nest to nest, or stony lairs, which they have scooped out of frost-splintered debris on the hill-sides, and where old she-bears undoubtedly bring forth their young : but it was not plain, because we saw them only sleeping, at this season of the year, on the lower ground ; they seemed to delight in stretch- ing themselves upon, and rolling over, the rankest vegetation.
They sleep soundly, but fitfully, rolling their heavy arms and legs about as they doze. For naps they seem to prefer little grassy depressions on the sunny hill-sides and along the numerous water- courses, and their paths were broad and well beaten all over the island. We could not have observed less than two hundred and fifty or three hundred of these animals while we were there ; at one landing on Hall Island there were sixteen in full sight at one sweep of our eyes, scampering up and off from the approach of the ship's boat.
Provided with more walrus-meat than he knows what to do with, the polar bear, in my opinion, has never cared much for the Seal Islands ; the natives have seen them, however, on St. Paul, and its old men have their bear stories, which they tell to a rising genera- tion. The last "medvait" killed on St. Paul Island was shot at Bogaslov in 1848; none have ever come down since, and very few were there before, but those few evidently originated at and made St. Matthew Island their point of departure. Hence I desire to notice this hitherto unexplored spot, standing, as it does, two hundred miles to the northward of St. Paul, and which, until Lieutenant Maynard and myself, in 1874, surveyed and walked
465
MORSE AND MAHLEMOOT.
over its entire coast-line, had not been trodden by white men, or by natives, since that dismal record made by a party of five Russians and seven Aleutes who passed the winter of 1810-11 on it, and who were so stricken down with scurvy as to cause the death of all the Russians save one, while the rest barely recovered and left early the following year. We found the ruins of those huts which had been occupied by this unfortunate and discomfited party of fur-hunters ; they were landed there to secure polar bears in the depth of winter, when such shaggy coats should be the finest.
As we complete our review of St. Matthew and its ursine occu- pation, the circuit of Alaska has been made-its impression we have recorded, and the path from here home again is a bee-line to the Golden Gate over
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INDEX.
A
ADANK, island of, 183 Aggatoo, island of, 179 Agricultural features in Sitkan region, 18, 22, 24, 25, 35
in Kadiak region, 103, 106, 107
in Cook's Inlet region, 83, 84, 85, 86
in Aleutian region, 184, 185
in Seal Islands, 204
in Yukon Valley and the North, 421, 443 Agents of the United States Govern- ment, 251, 252
Akootan, island of, 151, 153 volcano of, 153
Akoon, island of, 150, 154 wolves on, 156
Alaska, its area and population, 13, 14 its discovery, 1, 2, 3, 5
its purchase by United States Govern- ment, 11, 12
Alaska Commercial Company, its his- tory, 224, 245, 247, 248, 249
Albinos and monstrosities, few among fur-seals, 306
Alexander Archipelago, its land and scenery, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 26, 271 its earliest white occupation, 28, 29, 30 all visitors necessarily go there, 14, 15 Alexandrovsk, established by Kolmakov (1834), 375, 376
Aleutes, traits, characteristics of, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174
Algæ, or sea-weeds, those of Sitkan waters, 20
those of Aleutian waters, 182
those of Pribylov waters, 214, 215
American traders, business relations of Baranov with, 28
business methods in Sitkan region, 36, 37, 38, 39
business methods in Aleutian region, ' 129, 191
business methods in Yukon and Kus- kokvim regions, 384, 414, 418, 4224 business methods in Arctic Ocean, 425 Amchitka, island of, 181, 184 Amlia, island of, 182
Animals, fur-bearing and food, in the Sitkan region, 55, 61, 62
in the Cook's Inlet region, 91
in the Aleutian region, 151, 156, 163, 178
in the Nooshagak region, 381, 382, 399 in the Kuskokvim region, 381, 382, 399 in the Yukon and Arctic region, 418, 425, 426, 440
Area and extent of Alaska, 13, 14
Arrie egg-shells, their toughness, 222
Atkha, island and natives of, 144, 180, 181, 182, 183
Attitudes and land postures of fur-seals, 280
Attoo, extreme western land of North American continent, 143, 179, 180
Auroral and nephelogical phenomena, 158, 198, 420
Autocratic powers of the old Russian American Company, 9
Avatanak, island of, 154
B
BACHELOR, or "holluschickie " fur-seals, 294, 295, 296, 297
Baird, Professor S. F., 190
Banks, codfishing, 122, 123, 124
Baranov, Alexander, character of, 6, 28
Barrabkie, a, how it is made, 135, 166, 167
Basking sharks and killer-whales, 325, 327
Bath, Innnit, vile methods, 387
Barrow, Point, 440
Battles of the fur-seals, 265, 266
Bays indenting coast of Kadiak, 115, 116 of Oonalashka, 159
Bear "Roads," 89
Beaver Bay, Oonalashka Island, 176
Bering's expedition of Alaskan discovery, 1, 2, 3
the discovery of Alaska, 2, 3
the ill-fated homeward voyage, 3, 4, 1224
the shipwreck and escape of survivors, 4, 191 Bering Straits, 428, 429, 430, 431, 441
468
INDEX.
Belcovsky, village of, 119, 120
Bidarrah, use of, how it is made, 346, 347, 453, 454
Bidarka, use of, how it is made, 133
Birth of fur-seals, 282
Bishop Innocent Veniaminov, his labors, 309
Blubber of fur-seal, sea-lion, mahklok, and beluga, 292, 345, 405
Bogaslov Islet, volcanic eruption of, re- cently, 186, 167
Borka, village of, 176, 177
Bristol Bay, 118, 398
Breeding grounds, number of fur-seals on, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 319, 320, 321
of sea-lions, 187, 310, 354, 356, 357, 358, 361
of hair-seals, 256 of sea-otters, 132 of water-fowl, 210, 211
Burials and funerals of the Sitkans or Thlinkets, 50
of the Innuits or Eskimo, 389, 410 of the Aleutes, 178
Burnt or Brulé districts, 408, 409
C
CAMPS, Innnit summer, 381, 426 Kenaitze hunting, 91
Canoes, Sitkan, 62, 63 Ingaleek, 417
Caronsals, Aleutian beer orgies, 137, 174, 175
Carving bone and ivory, skill of Innuits, 384
wood, skill of Haidahs, 49
Cape Prince of Wales, 428, 429, 431
Capture of sea-otters, 128, 191, 133 of sea-lions, 364, 365
Carcasses of slaughtered fur-seals, 350, 351, 352, 353
Cassiar Gold-diggings, 17, 18, 25
Cattle in Alaska, 86, 106, 107, 178, 184
Cereals, total failure in Alaska, 107
Chernaboor islets, 138, 141
Christianity among the Aleutes and Kadi- akers, 115, 116, 171, 172, 241, 246 among the Innuits, 410 among the Thlinkets, 40, 41, 42
Church, Greek, 40, 41, 120, 121, 137, 164, 174, 178, 241, 388 Clans, the several Sitkan tribes, 43 Climate of the Sitkan region, 24
of the Mount St. Elias region, 72, 77 of the Cook's Inlet region, 93
of the Kadiak region (see Cook's Inlet)
of the Aleutian Islands, 158, 185
of the Pribylov Islands, 194, 195, 196, 197
of the Nooshagak region, 383, 404
of the Kuskokvim region, 382, 404, 407
of Michaelovsky and the Yukon, 421, 422, 424
of Arctic coast of Alaska, 427
Coal in Cook's Inlet, 125
in the Arctic, 125, 438
in Shoomagin Group, 125 in Sitkan region, 70, 71
Coins, Russian names and values of, 8 Codfish, industry of, at Oonga, 122, 123, 124
Companies, rival trading, 191
Consumption, chief cause of death-rate among natives, 110
Cook's Inlet, characteristics of, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 country north of, 87
Copper River, its character, 76, 77
Cossacks, Russian and Siberian, 128, 159 Courage of fur-seals, 279
Creoles, what they are, 108
Crillon, Mount, 72
Cruelties inflicted by Russian traders upon natives, 6, 128, 147, 159
Curing and dressing fur-seal skins, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349
=
DANGERS of Alaskan coast navigation, 76, 83, 117. 123, 218, 219, 374, 375, 395, 440, 442
to which young fur-seals are exposed, 283, 329, 330
Death, natural, of fur-seals, 307
Deeay of the Russian American Com- pany after Baranov's removal, 11
Deer, Sitkan, 55. 622 Rein, 121, 122, 397, 418
Definition of technical terms on Seal Islands, 320, 321
Delta of the Copper River, 75, 77 of the Yukon River, 414, 415
Deschnev, Simeon, his remarkable voy- age (1648), 429
Diet of natives of the Sitkan region, 58 of the Cook's Inlet region, 95
of the Kadiak region, 136, 137
of the Aleutian region, 168
of the Seal Islands, 241, 242, 243 of the Innnits, 382, 383, 454, 455, 456
Diomedes, islands of, Bering Straits, 430, 431, 432, 441
Diseases, natives most afflicted with, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 238
Docility of fur-seals when driven, and being killed, 335
Dogs, Eskimo, 388 Sitkan, 61 none on the Aleutian Chain, 158
Dressing fur-seal skins, 348, 349
Driving fur-seals, 333, 334, 336 sea-lions, 366, 367, 368
Dwellings of the Alentes, 133, 166, 167 of the Innuits, 378, 379, 380, 381, 426 of the Cook's Inlet Kenaitze, 91, 92, 93
of the Sitkans or Thlinkets, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 60. 64 of the Seal Islanders, 232, 233 of the white fur-traders, 36, 175
469
INDEX.
E
EARTHQUAKES, 146, 147, 148, 161, 186, 189 Eggs, water-fowl, gastronomic value of, 211 Epidemic among seals, 324 Employés, superannuated "old colonial settlers," 85, 86
Eskimo of Alaska (see Innuits)
Experiments with fur-seals, 263, 264
Extermination of fur-seals. 231, 307, 308, 309, 324 of sea-otters, 129 of walrus, 458, 459 Extent and area of Alaska, 13, 14
Eyes of fur-seals, beanty of, 291 of fur-seals, lurid lights in, 341 of sea-lion, ferocity of, 355 of walrus, grotesqueness of, 449
F
FAIRWEATHER, Mount, 71, 72 Familiar flowering plants on the Seal Islands, 200, 201, 202, 203 on the Arctic coast of Alaska, 440
Fasting, long-protracted, of male fur- seals, 272, 273
Festivals, native Innnit, 390, 391, 392, 393, 423
First school in Alaska, 102
First mission in Alaska, 102
Fishing industries of the Sitkans, 59 of the Aleutes, 168
of the Shoomagin Islands, 122, 123, 124 '
of the Kuskokvim and Yukon, 404 of the Arctic, 434, 435
.
of Americans at Cook's Inlet, 93
of Americans at Kadiak Island, 115, 116
Flowers, wild, great abundance of, 177, 420
Forest trees of Alaska, 21, 22, 79, 85, 103, 104, 105, 157, 408, 409, 416, 424
Forests of Alaska, 21, 71, 408, 409
Foxes, blue ( Vulpes lagopus), 180, 205, 206 red, 180, 206
Four Peaks, or "Cheeticry Sopochnie," 186
Fruits indigenons to Sitkan district, 22, 23
indigenous to Alentian district, 168
indigenous to Kuskokvim district, 411 indigenous to Seal Islands, 201
Fur-seal, arrival of at breeding grounds, 292, 293-297 boldness of, 129, 331
description of adult male, 258, 259, 260, 261
description of adult female, 273, 274, 275, 276
description of " pups," 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289 odor and noise of, 265, 270, 281
Fur-seal, erroneous ideas of its skin, 347, 348
effect of warm weather on, 306 first arrival at the islands, 262 food of, 328, 329
healthiness of, 324
high order of instinct of, 258, 301
numbers of, 310-313, 324, 326
increase or diminution of, 317, 318, 328, 333
in the waters around the islands, 286, 999, 300, 302, 331, 36]
manner of killing and skinning, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342
manner of salting, dressing, and ship- ping skins of, 345-349
meat of, 344
method of land travel, 260
natural enemies of, 325, 327, 330
noise on the breeding rookeries, 270, 271
movements on land and in water, 286, 289, 298. 362
pelagic range of, in search of food, 329, 330
" podding " of its " pups, " 289
polygamous and angry males, 275, 276, 277,278
position and selection of hauling- grounds, 295, 296
power of land locomotion, 267 pre-emption of rookeries, 265, 276
prostration of, by heat or driving, 271, 272
range of vision of, 201
relative growth and weight of, 304, 305 sanguinary combats of, 265, 266
shedding of hair and fur, 285, 290, 302, 303
sleep of, 280, 281 sleep on land of, 280, 281
skill in selecting rookeries, 277
strength and courage of the male, 265, 267 tabulated result of surveys, 312
vitality of, 283, 323
voice of, 268, 269, 270
G
GAMES, festivals, etc., of the Alentes, 239, 240, 241
of the Innuits, 393, 423
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