-J4 EXPEDITION TO POINT JJAJiKOW, ALASKA. 



observations in meteorology and the three elements of magnetism were carried on without 



interruption. To insure tlie health of the party eacl mhcr was required to take exerdso 



daily in the open air. 



In .lanuarx. !-, work was commenced on a shaft for I lie purpose of getting the temperature 

 of the earth, the results of which are given in Part V. The formation for the whole distance 

 ma sand and gravel, mingled with ;i deposit of drift-wood and marine shells, showing that each 

 stratum represented the successive lines of ancient sea-shores. The earth was saturated with 

 wilier. At a depth of thirty live feet a deposit was found of clear water, unmixed with earth, too 

 salt to he congealed at a temperature of + 12, which was the unvarying temperature of the earth 

 at this depth. At a depth of twenty feet a tunnel was run to the east a distance of ten feet, and 

 at the end of it a room ten Ity twelve was excavated out of the hard fro/en ground. In this the 

 temperature never rose above 22 : . The walls were always dry and free from moisture, and the 

 acc'imnlation of hoar frost was very light. Here we stored whatever fresh meat, in the way of 

 ducks, reindeer, walrus, or seal, that we were able to accumulate beyond our daily consumption. 

 Our main supply was eider-ducks, which, during the spring Might in .May. were easily killed. We 

 took four hundred in LSSi', and live hundred in 18S,", : we found them excellent food, and when 

 stored in the subterranean store-house they were at once fiwen solid, and would keep for any 

 length of time. 



Fresh meat is the great safeguard against scurvy in this region; I never saw a trace of it 

 among the natives, and moat is their only food. The immunity of my party from all disease or 

 sickness of any kind ! deemed was owing to the fact that through our own exertions, and with 

 some assistance from the natives, we were seldom without it. 



In March, issj. I made a trip into the interior, an account of which 1 submitted in my report 

 of last year. Some narrow leads opened in the ice to the north and west of the point on the 

 L'Oth of April, and the natives reported seeing whales passing to the northeast on the :j.">d of the 

 same month, and they were seen passing in the same direction every day from that time until 

 JuneM: that seemed to terminate their northern migration, as we saw no more of them until 

 Angus] !.".. when they were seen going to the southwest along the edge of the pack. It is at 

 this season that most of the whales are taken, as it is impossible for the vessels to follow them 

 into the ice during their northern migration. 



In the spring of 1*32 eider-ducks were first seen on the 27th of April living to the northeast, 

 far out over the ice. and a few straggling Hocks \\ere seen from time to time until May 12. when 

 they appeared in immense numbers riving low along the shore ice to the northeast. This migra- 

 tion continued until about .lime 1. and then almost entirely ceased. 



About the time the tirst (lights along shore were seen a number of male king cider were found 

 on the land, apparently exhausted from long flight and want of food. Some were caught and 

 brought in alive, but they were generally dead when found, and always in an extremely email- 

 cialed condition. All species \\ere represented in this flight, the king, Pacific, spectacled, and 

 stellers. The Canada goose was never seen: but a few brent, white-fronted, and snow or arctic 

 gee.-e came :it lliM season and stopped with us through the hatching season, bringing forth their 

 young on tin- mainland. The eider duck, with but few exceptions, continued their flight to the 

 mu-tli and east. During July and August large numbers of the males were constantly flying to the 

 westward over Perigniak. a point. about four miles to the southwest of Point Harrow. The fact that 

 they came from the breeding- groan da was shown in the naked condition of the breast of some of 

 those taken, the down having been plucked away to construct their nests. Those killed at this 

 Benson were poor and unpalatable compared to those killed in the spring. Hut t he natives take 

 great numbers of them at this point at this season of the year: one often sees half a do/en families 

 here in camp for that express purpose. Their methods of taking them will be found fully described 

 in the chapter de\ oleil to ethnology. 



l'.\ the last of .luiic the tundra was nearly free from snow, and narrow leads of water were 

 open along shore. The few hardy flowers indigenous to this high latitude were in bloom, and 

 conspicuous among them were the buttercup ami dandelion. There was also a small yellow 

 poppy, named by the natives tukalukad jaksuii," which is also the naiae given by them toa small 



