422 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



ten days the great river is entirely clear. The sea is usually cov- 

 ered by sludgy floes as early as the middle or end of every Octo- 

 ber, which remain opening and closing irregularly until next June. 

 The months of July and August are the warmest, ranging from 

 48 to 54 Fahr. during daytime.* 



From St. Michael's to the westward a low basaltic chain of hills 

 borders the coast, and, parallel to it some thirty miles inland, a 

 few peaks attain an elevation of one thousand to fifteen hundred 

 feet. Jutting out at a sharp angle from this volcanic range stands 

 that low peninsula, tipped with the granitic headland named (by 

 Cook more than a century ago) Cape Denbigh. This point forms 

 the southern wall for that snug, tightly enclosed Bay of Norton, 

 thus partitioned off from a sound of the same title. The Oona- 

 lakleet River empties into Norton's Sound, at a point about mid- 

 way between Michaelovsky and Denbigh. The debouchure of this 

 stream is marked by the richest vegetation to be found anywhere 

 in all of this entire region north of Bristol Bay. It is due to the 

 warm sand-dune flats which are located here ; and here is one of the 

 liveliest Mahlemoot villages of that north. That river is an exclu- 

 sive gateway to the Yukon during the winter season, from and to 

 Michaelovsky, and these Innuits are the chief commission mer- 

 chants of Alaska. In a village, now called Kegohtowik, near by, 

 Zagoskin received his first initiation into the wild life which he led 

 up here as an explorer, since it was the first camp f he ever made 

 among the Innuits after he had started out from Michaelovsky. 

 This young Russian was kindly received by the wondering natives, 

 who unharnessed his dogs and hung up his sleds on the cache scaf- 

 folds as a token of their hospitality. Into their kashga he was 

 taken with every demonstration of regard and curiosity. He hap- 

 pened to have arrived just as these people were preparing for and 

 celebrating a great festival of homage to an Eskimo sea-god who 

 rules the icy waters of Bering and the Arctic Ocean. He quaintly 

 records their proceeding in this language : 



* An average temperature prevails in this region for the year as follows : 

 January, .5 April, 22.1 July, 53.1 October, 28.0 



February, .6 May, 32.8 August, 52.1 November, 18.3 



March, 9.5 June, 45.2 September, 43.3 December, 8.9 



f December 5, 1842. The refreshing honesty and frankness of this ex- 

 plorer's thorough work on the Yukon and Kuskokvim deserve to be better 

 known. 



