86 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46 



looks out on a dilapidated tin roof — must ask for another. Finally 

 get one " front " for $3 — the other was only $2.50. Musty too, but 

 fairly large, and with a double bed with, at last again, clean covers. 



Unshaven — in the khaki worse for rain and work — with fingers 

 so sore they can not bear a touch, feverish, and head still dizzy — I go 

 to lunch. On my way stop at Coast Guard building — no one there; 

 at the Roads Commission — office empty; at the Customs — not a soul. 

 But at the courthouse they tell me where Judge Lomen sometimes 

 lunches, and so I go there. It is near by — nothing here is far dis- 

 tant — and so I soon sit at Mrs. Niebeling's, a justly famed Nome's 

 "for everybody," at a clean table and to a big civilized dinner. 

 Order reindeer roast — find it this time, in my condition, not much to 

 boast of — one could hardly tell it from similarly done beef — and 

 begin on the coffee when in comes a young man, asks me if I am the 

 doctor, and introduces himself as Mr. Alfred Lomen, the judge's 

 son; and in a minute or two in comes the judge himself, :i kindly 

 man of something over 70. It all makes me feel a lot better, though 

 still weak. Have rest of lunch together and talk, but do not get 

 very far in anything that interests me; but the judge takes me to 

 the Catholic Fathers here, who have an orphanage somewhere near 

 where I want next to go, and leaves me with Father Post. The 

 father is kindly, but himself does not know much, and so makes 

 arrangements for me to meet next day Father Lafortune, who works 

 among the Eskimo. 



Then I go once more to the Coast Guard building and meet Cap- 

 tain Ross, in charge. The Bear, I learn, has just arrived here, and 

 is soon going north. She is my godsend, evidently. So Captain 

 Ross sends me over to see Captain Cochran. The meeting is good, 

 and I have a promise to be taken to the cape and some other stations. 

 But the Bear goes first to coal at St. Michael, and then will make 

 a visit to St. Lawrence Island. So I propose to go to Teller first, 

 see what I can of the Chukchee-Eskimo " battle field " near there, 

 and be taken from there by the Bear. The priests give me some 

 hope for getting there over an inland route, but later on tell me one 

 of the boats of the orphanage which is located in that region is away 

 and the other has broken down, so that there will be no possibility 

 of making the trip through the Salt Lake and to Teller. But the 

 Victoria (the Seattle boat to come to-night) will go to Teller. Un- 

 fortunately, if weather is rough or there are no passengers she will 

 not stop at Nome, so all is again uncertain. The Silver Wave goes 

 northward next Monday, but I have a dread of her. All of which 

 is put down merely to show slightly what an explorer without a 

 boat of his own may expect in these regions. 



Nome, Saturday, July 17. Poor night again — it surely seems to 

 be the fashion in Alaska. The Victoria came at night (or what 



