74 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. asn. 48 



Very large portion of the hills in distance just greenish with grass 

 and lichens, not even a brush. 



9.45 a. m. Meet the Matanuska bound upward. Looked from dis- 

 tance like an ocean steamer; from near, just a lumbering, moderate- 

 sized river boat with a barge in front. But a whole lot better than 

 ours. 



The scenery has become monotonous. The gray river, although 

 only one of the " mouths," is broad, and the country is all low. 

 Nothing but bushy or grassy cut banks on the right, and mud flats, 

 " smoking " under the wind, to low banks on left. It is a little 

 warmer and the warm sun shows itself occasionally, but I still need 

 the wrapping of a double blanket. The wind luckily is with us and 

 the waves not too bad. 



Noon. Passing "Fish village"; a few huts and tents. 



No " camps " here outside the few villages ; just an endless dreary 

 waste and water. 



New Hamilton — a few native huts only now — no whites. 



Reach Old Hamilton — about a dozen houses with a warehouse, 

 a store of the Northern Commercial Co., and a nice looking but now 

 unoccupied school. 



Here the governor told me there was somewhere a skull waiting 

 for me, and the storekeeper would tell me of it. But when we arrive 

 there are only two or three natives to meet us. The storekeeper, 

 who is also postmaster, is said to be sick in bed. He is supposed to 

 have an ulcer or some other bad thing of the stomach. So we go to 

 his house and find him in bed, with a lot of medicine bottles on a table 

 next to him. Is alone ; no wife. Shows no enthusiasm in seeing me, 

 though heard of my coming. Reads letters — no attention to ,me. 

 Gets up — I ask him about his illness — answers like a man carrying a 

 chip on his shoulder. Goes to store to attend to mail, and barely 

 asks me to follow. I wait in store; he finishes mail and goes out — 

 orders the Eskimo present out gruffly, and to me says, " You may 

 stay in the store; I'll be back." But I wait and wait, and finally 

 decide the man for some reason is unwilling to help me. Asked him 

 before he went out about the Matanuska, but he told me she might 

 not be back from Holy Cross in a month, trying doubtless to dis- 

 courage me to stay. On going toward the Agnes I find him sitting 

 on a log and talking to a couple of men from a tugboat that has 

 arrived — just talk, no business, judging from their laughing. So I 

 go on the boat, write a few words to Mr. Townsend of the Bureau of 

 Fisheries, who makes this place his headquarters, and with some 

 feeling hand this to the man, telling him at the same time that 

 plainly he does not wish to assist me in any way. This, of course, 

 rouses him; he gets red and says a few lame words, ending with, 

 " Do you think I would touch any of them dam things or that 



