34 INTRODUCTION OP DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



two Cossack officers were fouud taking the census of the village. This 

 was the first visit of Russian officials to that section of the Siberian 

 coast in many years, and the natives brought the Russian coins they 

 had received from them over to the ship to sell as curios. Here, as 

 elsewhere on the trip, the ship's surgeon went ashore to treaty the sick. 



Turning northward and coasting along the desolate, forbidding shore 

 the vessel anchored July 1 off South Head, St. Lawrence Bay. Here 

 Peter and Kimok, the leading men of that section, came on board, 

 and in the pilot house a consultation was held as to the number of deer 

 they were willing to sell this season. Forty deer were promised. The 

 herd, however, was on the opposite side of the bay and could not be 

 reached until the ice should go out a month later. Peter and Kimok 

 were kept on board to serve as agents and interpreters in the reindeer 

 trade during the season. 



Kings' Island was sighted at 2 a. m. on July 2. It is a mass of basalt, 

 about a mile lu length, rising about 1,000 feet above the sea. Upon it 

 is one of the most remarkable settlements in Alaska. Th€ rocks rise 

 perpendicularly from the ocean except on the south side, where a 

 ravine rising at an angle of 45 degrees scars the cliff; on the side of the 

 ravine is the village of about forty huts, partly excavated in the side 

 of the hill and partly built up with stone walls. Across the top of 

 these walls are large poles of driftwood, on which hides and grass are 

 placed to form a roof. These are their winter residences. In making 

 their summer homes they use the roof of the underground house as the 

 - floor and over it build a tent of walrus hide stretched over a wooden 

 frame. These summer houses are guyed to the rocks with rawhide to 

 prevent them from being blown off" into the sea. On the opposite side 

 of the ravine is a cave, into the mouth of which the sea dashes, and at 

 the back of the cave is a bank of perpetual snow. On the side of the 

 mountain above is a perpendicular shaft from 80 to 108 feet deep lead- 

 ing down to the snow in the cave, which is used as the village store- 

 house. Walrus and seal meat are dropped down the shaft and stored 

 in the snow, were it keeps indefinitely. The women gain entrance into 

 their cellar by letting themselves down hand over hand along a rawliide 



rope. 



Leaving this hermit colony astern, the Bear headed for Point Spencer, 

 at the entrance to Port Clarence, on whose shores the reindeer station 

 is located. As we neared land, huge floes of drift ice were encoun- 

 tered; the officer of the deck went to the "crow's nest," and at slow 

 speed the captain and the first officer carefully guided the vessel on 

 her course. When the larger pieces of ice were struck, she would quiver 

 for an instant from stem to stern like a thing of life. On rounding 

 Point Spencer, the whaling fleet was seen riding at anchor with flags 

 flying in honor of the arrival of the Government vessel. As the Bear 

 neared each ship, flags were dipped and steam whistles pierced the 

 quiet air. After cruising in deserted, ice-covered waters, the only craft 



