32 Sketches of an Excursion to Southern Alaska. 



The children born on the island are baptized ; and there are churches, priests, 

 schools and teachers. Thither the two Mennonite brethren went, after trying 

 Sitka for a little while, and X could gain no tidings ot them. Westward of 

 Sitka, there is no mail communication, no line of ships or other vessels ; in 

 short, no regular communication excepting the annual voyage ot a revenue cutter. 

 Very few ships ever navigate Alaskan waters. These facts illustrate some of 

 the difficulties of any missionary efforts beyond the region occupied by the 

 Tlinkets. 



THE ALEUTES. 



Following the great bend westward, we have on the right, the great penin- 

 sula, and beyond it the Aleutian Islands. On the way, lying under the shad- 

 ow of the peninsula, is the Island ot Ounga, described to me by traders who 

 have lived there, as a very delightlul spot, having cultivated fields and gardens, 

 the hyas tyhee himself being a priest of the Russo-Greek church, the children 

 trained in schools, and the entire community well ordered and prosperous. 



The people who occupy the Aleutian Islands, called the Aleutes, are the 

 same as the few scattered inhabitants found on the great penin.sula. A few on- 

 ly of these islands are inhabited, many of them are barren rocks, some sub- 

 merged at high tide. Probably in some distant geologic age these were a con- 

 tinuation of the great peninsula running like a bridge far away toward Asia, 

 now detached like dilapidated abutments. 



The Aleutes, insular and continental, were numbered by the highest Russian 

 estimate at ten thousand, by the lowest, four thousand. They also are adhe- 

 rents of the Greek church. Pleasc inspect the map again. The .\leutes scat- 

 tered along the northern shore of the great peninsula do not pass Bristol Bay 

 on the north. You perceive then that the country occupied by them is well 

 defined : but how difficult to concentrate these people upon any gixen point ! 

 Take a survey horn Bristol Bay to Kotzcbue Sound, looking eastward. It is 

 reported that plong this great extent of coast there are detachments of the 

 Koniagas, or Kenaians, already mentioned. 



The great valley of the river Yukon, is the most striking geographical fea- 

 ture of this vast region — almost a terra incognita. I find it impossible to fix 

 upon a single point for the introduction of missions. The Greek church has 

 been established, as in other parts of the late Russian America, for a long time 

 among the people of this region, and churches and priests are found there. 

 The priests are for the most part natives, ignorant and unworthy. 



ESQUIMEAUX AND TINNEH. 



From the neighborhood of Kotzebue Sound eastward along the coast of the 

 Arctic Ocean and southward toward the valley of the Y'ukon River, Eskimo 

 types prevail among the scattered population. Then a variety called Tinneh 

 prevails down to the great coast line which we have been considering. 



GEOGRAPHICAL AREA. 



It is difficult to realize the vast extent of the country under our survey. 

 Roughly estimated, the continent measures across more than four thousand 



