A NATURALISTS ADVENTURES 



We hoped to find reindeer and mountain goat. There 

 were three men, one woman and three boys to paddle for 

 us. We took shotguns, rifles and cooking outfit. The 

 day was fine; I found the sun uncomfortably warm in the 

 afternoon. The hills are high, usually rounded, though 

 there are some very broken and jagged edges. Valleys 

 are frequent; in them the soil is wet and there is vegetation 

 but not much grass. Flowers are abundant and very 

 pretty. Willow-wort is one of the common species. 

 Lichens on the rocks are wonderfully fine and exceedingly 

 plentiful. 



Near the head of the bay we saw some salmon — prob- 

 ably little humpback, for I know that species to be here — 

 and we tried to seine them but without success. We 

 caught, however, sculpin, sand launce, blenny, and capelin. 

 We saw a great many eiders, females and young. There 

 were geese at the head, but we could not get near enough 

 even for a rifle shot. Seal were very abundant. We 

 stopped to see a party of natives who were encamped for 

 seal and reindeer hunting. The men were well armed 

 with Henry and other good rifles. 



The boy sitting beside me had his quid of tobacco tem- 

 porarily stowed away behind the flap of his ear. Nearly 

 all of the party wore the deerskin parkas and hair seal 

 pantaloons. Some had sealskin boots. When we seined, 

 Sam stripped off everything but his pantaloons and boots 

 and waded in. Sam is a shrewd boy. He said to the 

 captain the other day: "You give me bread. You give 

 him now! Bimeby too many bummer come." 



The old man, too, the famous sealer, is very knowing. 

 He seems to understand the reindeer, bear, seal, and other 

 creatures that he meets and must have been successful. 

 His way of telling the nature of the bears particularly is 

 very funny: " Black bear, he hungry, he come man! You 

 hit him knife, he no go!" [Imitates growling and fight- 

 ing.] "White bear, he smell man, no come; hungry, he 

 come; you hit him knife once, he go, all same man! " 



I saw the north star far higher in the heavens than ever 

 before. The trip back to the ship was pleasant, the boat 

 moving smoothly under the regular and easy stroke of the 

 native boatmen. 



217 



