CRUISE OF THE STEAMER CURWIN. 15 



the volcano of Bogosloff. No change was noticed in the general appearance of the island 

 from that observeil by us in the early part of the season. The sea-lions, which in June swarmed 

 the island, were now consjiicvious by their absence, and but two grown and about a dozen small 

 sea-lions were all tliat remained to remind one of the thousands of their species that frequent 

 the island during their breeding season. 



After remaining several hours at Bogosloff, we weighed anchor, steamed around the north 

 end of the island, and shaped a course for Ounalaska. The volcano, as we steamed jjast it in 

 the night, presented a most beautiful spectacle. The bright sulphurous light which com- 

 pletely enveloped its summit, and burst forth from rifts in its side, shone out against the black 

 sky in the background, making a scene both romantic and beautiful. 



On our arrival at Ounalaska, on the 1.5tli, the steamer Dora was in port, and three days 

 later the scliooner Mattie Turner arrived. The Turner reported having seen, three weeks 

 previ(jus, a schooner between the seal islands and Ounalaska, and thought she might still be 

 cruising in that vicinity for the jjurpose of killing seals. 



After coaling and watering ship we left Ounalaska September 21, and stood on twelve 

 hour tacks to the eastward of St. George's, toward St. Paul's Island. Arriving off St. Paul's. 

 we remained l<nig enough to communicate with the shore, then got under way and steamed 

 to the southward, passing to the westward of St. George's, and on the morning of the 35th 

 of September made fast to the dock at Ounalaska. There I found a letter addressed to me by 

 the American Canning Company of Alaska, stating that the bark Montana had been wrecked 

 in Bristol Bay, and that her crew and passengers, numbering twenty-five persons, were ashore 

 at Meshagak. The assistance of the Corwin was then requested to take the men from Mesli- 

 agak to San Francisco. A letter had also been sent to the agents of the American Canning 

 Company in San Francisco, and from the captain of the steamer «S'/. Paul (which ari-ived at 

 Ounalaska before our departure) I learneil that a steamer had been sent from San Francisco 

 with supplies for Sitka and other places along the coast, and instructed before returning to go 

 to Meshagak and take the twenty-fi\'e men on board for passage to San Francisco. 



At Ounalaska wo coaled and watered ship and purchased a quantity of ijrovisions of the 

 Alaska Commercial Company for the use of the passengers and crew on the voyage from Ouna- 

 laska to San Francisco. 



A strong northwest gale blew steadily for three days while we were at Oimalaska, tlie wind 

 registering a velocity of nearly sixty miles i)er hour at the Signal Service station. During this 

 storm the steamer St. Paul was hove to under the lee of the Aleutian Islands, and arrived 

 in poi't after the gale had suicided. 



All our supplies having been received on boai'd, we left Ounalaska at 1 1 o'clock on the 

 morning of October 1 and started on our homeward joTirney. The first three days of our voyage 

 we encountered sti-ong head winds and sea, and experienced rough and disagreeable weather; 

 the remainder of the voyage, however, was uneventful. Shortly befoi-e noon of October 11 

 land was sighted, and at 'i o'clock of the following morning we anchored in San Francisco Bay, 

 a happy ending of the Corwins successful cruise (jf 1S85. 



THE INDIANS. 



During the cruise of the Corn^in in the Bering's Sea and Arctic Ocean, all the villages 

 ■adjacent to those waters were visited by us, some of them several times during the season. 



No evidences of liquor were observed among any of the Indians of the Alaskan coast, while 

 among the Siberian natives the presence of liquor was undeniably attested. At Cape Tchaplin 

 (Indian Point) Indians visited the ves.sel in an intoxicated condition, and the omalik (chief) 

 informed us tliat about fifty barrels of rum were concealed on shore, which had been traded foi' 

 by his people with American whaling vessels. 



A large number of whales had been taken by the natives on the Siberian coast during the 

 season, while on the Alaskan coast scarcely a whale had been seen. Thi' bont^ wa»s procured 

 and afterward traded for liquor to some of the whaling vessels that had stopped there to engage 

 in that nefarious traffic. 



All the liquor had been disposed of by the whalers before they entered the United States 



