72 CRUISE OF THE STEAMER CORWIN. 



me inside. Upon entering: we sat down on the soft skins covering the ground, ami lighting onr 

 pipes smoked and smiled at each otlier with great comi)hiceacy. I did not feel quite so contented, 

 however, when his wife phiced before us a dish of white whale blubber for our refreshment. I 

 chose a delicate looking morsel and put it in my mouth. It tasted like solidified codfish oil might 

 taste, and I declined any more, giving as my excuse a late and hearty dinner. Wc were followed 

 through the village by great crowds of men, women, children, and dogs, who kept np a continual 

 howling and hustled each other about in great good humor. Huge bear, wolf, and deer skins were 

 thrown on the ground for me to walk over, and when I returned to my camp the little boys ran 

 ahead and picked berries for me to eat. 



Anguxt 22, 18S4. — The excitement resulting from onr arrival had evidently died out this 

 morning, for the Indians did not attend in such largo numbers as yesterday. After breakfost I 

 took the launch, and with Wilbur, Andre, and a native who lives here, went out to the bar 

 searching for the channel across the shoals. After sailing backwards and forwards for about five 

 hours I could not discover any deeper channel than one fathom across the bar. There are many 

 small sloughs leading from the deep water inside, but all those I examined ended in shoal water 

 before reaching the sea. It is probable that the channel is subject to many changes from the 

 effects of ice and wind. Inside the bar a deep channel, with from four to eight fathoms, runs along 

 close to the beach north by west to the point of land south of the village, thence north-northwest 

 to a remarkable bluff Iieadland, forming the right side of the entrance to llotham Inlet. There 

 is no channel into Uotham Inlet on the north side. There is good water along the north side as 

 far as the mouth of the Noitoc, but here it ends, and a large shoiil ])revents boats from passing 

 through the inlet by this route. When we returned to our camj) I learned that ten large boats 

 had arrived from Cape Prince of Wales and two from Point Hope. I visited the village after 

 dinner, and found the whole place in an uproar of excitement. Tents were being pitched, boats 

 hauled out and converted into houses, skins and trade goods thrown together in large piles, and 

 above all the noise and bustle the howling of three or four hundred dogs tended to increase the 

 Babel-like confusion. When I arrived there was a momentary lull in the proceedings. Many of 

 the natives had seen me on the Corioin and recognized me now. They crowded around me, and 

 were evidently anxious to know the cause of my presence. Upon being assured that I did not 

 come with any malign intentions they welcomed me with every evidence of joy, and kept me 

 hemmed in until one or two drunken Eskimos had been hustled out of sight, and then resumed 

 their preparations for trade, allowing me to go wherever I pleased. I was followed by a mob 

 of boys, who showed the same propensity for mischief as the small white boy does on similar 

 occasions. After taking a rapid census of the population, which I estimated at about fourteen 

 hundred, I returned to our camp. 



Avgust 23, 1^81. — Soon after breakfast this morning an Indian ran across the fields and 

 informed us that the natives of the diflerent settlements were about to celebrate the arrival of 

 the Cape Prince of Wales chief by having a dance, and wanted me to be i)resent. I immediately 

 started with Andre, and in a short while the tent of the Kotzebue Sound chief was reached. After 

 partaking rather gingerly of some seal meat which he ofiered us we started together for the 

 scene of the dance. Upon a level plot of ground a short distance from the village about twelve 

 hundred natives were gathered, and the sound of the drums and the howling chant of the singers 

 announced the fact that the ball had opened. On our ap])roach the crowd around the dancers 

 fell back and allowed us to pass through to a spot favorable for observation. Within the circle 

 some half dozen Indians, dressed in fancifully-trimmed i)arkas and wearing liighly-ornanieuted 

 gloves and boots, were going through the most astonishing contortions, sometimes leaping high 

 into the air and doubling themselves n\) with head, hands, and feet all in a bunch, or standing in 

 one place, swaying to and fro, and making spasmodic gestures, with their hands clinched and 

 necks stitt'ened to a rigidity that was appalling. W^ith horrible grimaces they glared around at 

 the crowd, in every action keeping time with the musicians, who were ranged in a line behind 

 them. The musicians kept uj) a continual beating on their drums, accompanied by a chanting 

 song, the words of which were indistinguishable. I was informed tliat on such occasions tlie 

 words of the song are extemi)oraneous, generally relating to the business for which they are 

 gathered together, but that, when wrods or ideas fail them, they get along fully as well by repeat- 



