DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 77 



found in temperate climates flutter among the grass and bushes, 

 bedecked in beautiful plumage and singing in joyful glee, but they are 

 here only for a brief season, perhaps coming to enjoy a trip to the 

 country, as it were, just to get a breath of fresh air. 



The only birds found here after the winter sets in are the ptarmigan, or 

 Arctic grouse, and the Arctic owl, both of which change their plumage 

 as the season advances from a dark brown to white, the former having 

 no dark" feathers except a few at the tail, and the latter being white, 

 covered with dark brown spots throughout. 



The snow drifts so badly that it is hard to give the true depth on a 

 level, but perhaps 2 or 3 inches is about right. Most of the gorges or 

 ravines, or wherever an obstacle offers a good chance for a drift, have 

 snow to a depth of from 10 to 15'feet. 



There is a peculiarity about the snow of this country that I have 

 never noticed in any other — that is, the moisture seems to freeze entirely 

 out of it. A piece when struck or thrown down emits a sort of metal- 

 lic sound that I did not suppose could come from frozen snow. 



The thickest ice found in the bay had frozen to a depth of 4 feet 4 

 inches, and from various observations made this may be said to be the 

 average thickness. 



Neither in the fall nor spring are large icebergs seen in Bering Sea, 

 but fields of ice many miles across are continually floating about from 

 the 1st of November to the middle of July. The channel between 

 Siberia and Alaska is seldom frozen over, and only very rarely is it 

 possible to cross on the ice from either side to the islands which lie 

 about midway in the channel, and are known as the Little and Big 

 Diomedes. The channel from one continent to the other is about 40 

 miles wide. 



The natives hunt seal on the ice, even in the coldest weather, and 

 nearly every year more or less of them are carried away, and nearly 

 perish from starvation before the ice field drifts so as to allow them to 

 leave it and reach the shore. 



I made the last trip made by any one between the station and the 

 cape this year, by water, before it froze up, reaching the station on my 

 return on October 21, Both in going and returning, we encountered 

 snowstorms, and it made traveling by canoe very disagreeable. From 

 the date of my return until the 1st of December, traveling by canoe was 

 prevented by ice in the sea. The first communication between the sta- 

 tion and cape by sled was on December 9. 



The effect of the sun shining on the snow in the spring is most severe 

 upon the eyes, the natives being obliged to wear shades or goggles cut 

 from wood, with a very narrow opening, through which they see. The 

 light is most glaring, and did they not take this precaution there would 

 be a good deal of suffering from sore eyes, and even this simple device 

 does not prevent many from becoming blinded, and for several days 

 they can scarcely see at all. 



