FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE ESKIMOS 41 



It had been known to us at Fort Macpherson that be- 

 tween ten and fifteen whaling ships had wintered at 

 Herschel Island or various points east of there and would 

 now be about ready to sail west. It was believed that 

 none of them intended to winter, for they had been there 

 two or three years, most of them. Some had even tried 

 to leave the previous fall and had been caught by an 

 early freeze-up and compelled to winter. 



With the freight left behind, we at first made good 

 progress towards Herschel Island. This was later in- 

 terrupted by a head gale and we were so delayed that, 

 although we left Walker behind on August 4th and al- 

 though the distance was less than sixty miles, we did not 

 sail into the Herschel Island harbor until 12:30 (just 

 after midnight) on the morning of August 9th. 



There were a number of whaling ships in the harbor 

 and to them we brought tragic news. The terrible ca- 

 lamity of the San Francisco earthquake had occurred be- 

 fore I left Boston and I had read a good deal about it in 

 the newspapers. Never having been in San Francisco, 

 my ideas were vague as to which parts of the town had 

 been destroyed. I did not realize the deficiency of my 

 information until we told the whaling captains and officers 

 about the earthquake, when I was immediately besieged 

 with questions of details as to which streets had suffered 

 most in the fire, and the like. They were anxious for 

 just the facts I could, not give regarding the fortunes of 

 their families and friends. The season was getting late, 

 from the point of view of sailing west, and this tragic 

 uncertainty in the news made the ships all the more 

 restive. It was, therefore, only a day or two until the 

 first of them began to leave. 



