114 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



had left Flaxman Island and nobody was there now, as the natives were 

 hunting in the mountains. Hence we did not know Avhat we should have to 

 do on arriving there, as it seemed probable that Stefansson had been frozen 

 in also. On arriving at Flaxman Island, we found the whaler "Rosie H. " 

 of San Francisco frozen in and wintering here. Captain Fritz Wolki re- 

 ported that he had passed Stefansson and Storkerson in Smith Bay with a 

 sloop anfl a whaleboat * * * *_ 



Our flour, bacon and all "civilized foods" had been exliausted by 

 August 30, the coffee very soon afterward, and from that time until we 

 reached Flaxman, October 4, we were strictly on a meat and fish diet. We 

 succeeded in pulling through without going hungry at any time, but a man 

 misses the bread after a few weeks. 



***** In sending out part of our supplies from New York, I think it 

 would be desirable and economical to send at least part of the lighter mate- 

 rials packed in substantial tin-lined chests which could be used for packing 

 and transporting specimens in the North. The three collecting chests that I 

 took out with me are filled with specimens (bird and mammal skins) and 

 cached, one at Herschel Island and two near Barter Island, and I shall try 

 to send the specimens out next summer. If I get no more chests, I shall 

 have to send out these small skins in what wooden packing boxes I can find 

 or patch together, and take chances of having them damaged by rats, mice 

 or dampness in a long whaling voyage before reaching San Francisco. 



***** If the natives know that a man wants rare or unusual specimens, 

 they often bring them in, and expect a present of some kind, or at least the 

 ordinary fur trader's prices. For example, there is a species of badger found 

 near the mountains a few miles from this coast, rather rarely, and what few 

 the natives bring in are sold for about one dollar apiece. We may or may 

 not be able to catch a specimen ourselves next spring. I have seen a native 

 fur coat made of badger skins, and the fur is much denser and softer than 

 the southern badger, which appears to reach its northern limit on the Atha- 

 basca River, around Pelican Rapids. 



It is probable that we shall pass most of the winter antl spring in 

 the neighborhood of Smith Bay, near our "grub pile," spending part of the 

 time a little farther east around the mouth of the Colville River. 



Stefansson will probably start west very soon, while I go into the moun- 

 tains near here with one of our natives, up either the Hula Hula or Kugura 

 River, and try to get some mountain sheep before the snow gets too deep. 

 This part of the Endicott Range is said to be the best mountain sheep 

 country left in Alaska, and the natives kill a good many at all seasons of the 

 year. We met one native near Barter Island in August, who had just re- 

 turned from the mountains, after killing twenty sheep. The caribou are 



