DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 49 



two cans of powder (2), one pipe with cover on tbe bowl (3), one plug 

 of chewing tobacco (4), one set of reloading tools for rifle (5), one rifle 

 (6), one box of primers (7), two cans of coal oil (8), one can of molasses 

 (9), one comb (10), one coal-oil stove (11), and one coal-oil lamp (12). 



August 7, a strong current set in to the north and brought large 

 quantities of floating ice. This became so bad that at 1 p. m. the cap- 

 tain sent ashore to get Lieutenant Eeinburg on board. A dense fog 

 set in and the captain being compelled to constantly shift his position 

 in the ice, Lieutenant Eeinburg when he came off was unable to find 

 the ship. Finding late in the night a comparatively open space of 

 water, the ship was anchored. 



August 8, at 7.25 a. m., taking Lieutenant Eeinburg on board, the 

 ship got under way on account of the heavy running ice. On heaving 

 up anchor found a chain cable about If inch. Hooked to it, but the 

 heavy ice prevented our saving it. Vessel at half speed, working to 

 the south through the ice. 



August 10, during the afternoon we passed Blossom Shoals, and at 

 10.40 p. m. came to anchor south of Blossom Shoals. 



August 12, at 2.55 a. m. came to anchor off Corwin Coal Mine, where 

 the men watered ship. In the afternoon, seeing a brig in the distance, 

 the Bear got under way and steamed out to meet her. At 8 p. m. spoke 

 the brig W. R. Myers, of San Francisco, with a cargo of freight for the 

 whalers and the new mission at St. Lawrence Island. As the carrying 

 of the St. Lawrence mission supplies into the Arctic might jeopardize 

 and delay the establishment of the mission for a year, Captain Healy 

 very considerately transferred those supplies to the Bear to be returned 

 to the island. 



August 14, the officer of deck reported two vessels in sight, supposed 

 to be the whalers Northern Light and California. At 11 a. m. we got 

 under way and went out to meet the incoming vessels, which proved to 

 be the California and Andrew Hides. From the California we received 

 a batch of papers as late as June 23. After boarding the vessels we 

 made for Point Hope, where we dropped anchor abreast the mission at 

 10.40 p. m. 



In July and August last year Point Hope was visited by a terrible 

 epidemic of capillary bronchitis. Dr. Driggs ministered to twenty five 

 in one afternoon. Going through the village one afternoon he found 

 an old man dying out in the rain. The family had taken him out so 

 that he should not die in the house. Close by under a tent cloth was 

 a dead woman. Under an adjoining cloth, hearing a moan and lifting 

 up the cloth, found a sick child clinging to its dead mother. There were 

 five dead in that group. Three-fourths of the adult population were 

 sick and one out of every six died. There were not sufficient well per- 

 sons in the village to bury the dead, and the corpses were left outside of 

 the houses to be eaten by the dogs of the village. Their bones are still 

 S. Ex. 92 4 



