152 



EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



headland, to be followed twenty minutes later by another. Over 

 a dozen vessels came in, attracted by the remarkably success- 

 ful catch that had been made during the summer of '93. In 

 that year the first vessel arrived at the island on the 24th, and 

 in 1892 on the 19th, of August. On the 23rd the "Jeanie," 

 drawing over three fathoms, arrived with supplies for the ves- 

 sels that were to spend a second winter at the island. 



On the 30th da)' of August I left Herschel Island upon the 

 brig-rigged whaling steamer "Jeanette," Captain E. W. Newth. 

 We were to proceed at once to Wrangel Island, for a month's 

 whaling, before starting homeward. We cruised along the edge 

 of the ice field, to which we sometimes anchored at night if the 

 wind permitted. Nearly every day the boats were lowered for 

 whales, but without success. 



The temperature ranged from twenty-five to thirty degrees 

 during the night, when large quantities of ice formed upon the 

 rigging. We were almost continually enveloped in fog or kept 

 inside by rain and snow. On the 5th and 6th of September we 

 were pitched and tossed by a northerly gale which threatened 

 to close the ice in between us and Point Barrow. On the 7th 

 we steamed all day among favorable leads, only to find in the 

 evening that we had run into a pocket from which all haste was 

 made to escape, and we steamed all night to get back again to 

 open water. 



On the 9th we fell in with three other vessels, also pushing 

 westward. We "gammed" — visited with their captains, during 

 the day as we steamed through a quiet sea. On the morning 

 of the 10th we reached Point Barrow, the northernmost point 

 of Alaska, situated in latitude 71 ° 23' N., longitude 156 40' 

 W., west of which the sea does not close until October. The 

 inside fleet is beset at Herschel Island a month earlier. Two 

 whaling companies have stations located at Cape Smythe, the 

 nearest high ground, twelve miles southwest of the Point. 



During the summer of '94 the whalers had been unusually 

 successful and had taken twenty-one thousand pounds of whale- 

 bone. There is also a government refuge station maintained at 

 the Cape for the benefit of the whalers. 



A Mr. Brower, who had spent seven years in the country, a 

 member of one of the whaling crews, said that with his part} - of 

 natives he had killed one hundred and thirty-two caribou that 



