14 NATUEAL niSTOEY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



This expedition thus completed a very successful recounaissauce of a regiou previously uu- 

 kuowu both as regards its geographic aud ethnographic features. A very tine series of ethnologic 

 specimens was secured from the natives over the entire route traversed. Some of their curious 

 winter festivals were witnessed aud several vocabularies secured in addition to a tolerably correct 

 sketch map of the district made from compass bearings taken each day. The winter fauna of the 

 district was noted as carefully as possible during the expedition, and I reached Saint Michaels 

 safelj' after an absence of about two months. The usual discomforts of Arctic winter travel were 

 greatly heightened during this expedition by the unusually inclement weather. 



The country in the region between the mouths of the Yukon and Kuskoquim is principally low 

 and marshj', and during two weeks of the time spent iu traversing it violent storms of snow, rain, 

 aud sleet accompanied by high winds prevailed. During this time my bedding became saturated 

 with moisture, as did also my clothing, and day after day forced marches were made over a country 

 covered with slush and water. At night a miserable shelter was improvised from our sledges or 

 found in the underground huts of the natives. These were reeking with moisture and decaying 

 filth which the warm weather had thawed out, so that the floor, forming our resting-place, was a 

 soft mass of decaying filth of all descriptions and varying in depth from an iuch or two to six inches. 

 Each night I gave my gloves and socks with some of my outer garments to various members of the 

 family present, and these, for a small present of tobacco, slept in the wet garments and partly dried 

 theni^by the heat of their bodies ere morning. These storms finally culminated in a terrific gale 

 as 1 approached the sea-coast south of Cape Vancouver, and just at sunset, by great good fortune, 

 I reached a couple of huts built on a knoll about 5 miles from the coast. The best of them 

 was flooded with water, leaving a space about 3 I'eet wide of bare ground around the sides, but 

 iu going out and in we were forced to wade through a foot of water all along the entrance jiassage. 

 Here my interpreter and myself crouched against the wall in sileut misery fur two days, wliile (ine 

 of the most violent tempestsi ever witnessed swept over the desolate tundra. This wind was accom- 

 panied by a dense fog and, after two days, when we continued our journey to the coast, we found 

 that the gale had caused an extraordinary high tide the previous day, and the rising sea, bearing a 

 massive sheet of ice, had swept over all the low coast lands to the base of the small knolls where 

 we had found shelter. Had we been delayed half an hour in reaching these knolls on the night of 

 our arrival we must inevitably have missed them aud been lost in the overwhelming mass of ice 

 that covered the low laud of all this district. 



Such floods, covering the region along the Lower Kuskoquim at intervals of three or four years, 

 usually raze some of the native villages, and in some cases people and all have been swept 

 away. The last day of this expedition found me camped at Pastolik Village, at the Yukon mouth, 

 and GO mdes from Saint ]\Iichaels. The incessant exposure of the preceding two months begau to 

 have effect, aud I found it impossible to sleep, owing to a feverish condition, which the stifling 

 atmosphere of the overcrowded room seemed to increase. About midnight I aroused my 

 interpreter and a guide I had engaged the previous evening, aud after makiug tea wo loaded up 

 and left the village at 1 a. m. We soon struck the sea ice, and at daybreak were over 30 miles 

 on our way. At 10 a. m. we stopped at Cape Eomauzofif for a meal made up of tea and dried 

 fish with a few scraps that still remained iu our bread-bag. Leaving this point we made slow 

 progress, as the dogs began to show signs of weariness, but by continual urging and some push, 

 ing on the heavily-laden sledges upon our part wo managed to reach Saint Jlichaels at 9 p. m., 

 having made the 60 miles in about twenty hours of continued exertion. 



As already noted, the results of this expedition were very valuable, but as a consequence of 

 the attendant exposure, I suffered from an attack of pneumonia, after my return, the eifects of 

 which troubled me long afterwards. This expedition extended over about 1,200 miles in a nearly 

 or quite unknown country. 



On Jlay 9, 1879, 1 started from Saint Michaels, with my workman, Alexai (who aiterwards per 

 ished with De Long iu the Lena delta), and a dog sledge, over the sea ice for the Yukon delta. This 

 expedition was for the purpose of learning the habits of the breeding water fowl in that district, 

 particularly of the Emperor Goose. After spending a few days at Kotlik, near the northern 

 border of the delta, I secured a large three-man kyak and hired a native sledge driver to take 

 us to the middle of the delta. We made camp just above high-water mark on a low island situ- 



