INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ALBATROSS. 229 
and came to near the establishment of the Nushagak Canning Company. 
A reconnaissance of the lower river was commenced by the officers, and 
the naturalists explored the surrounding regions. Taking Mr. Alexan- 
der, the fishery expert, with me, I visited the four packing establish- 
ments, all of which seemed in good working order, waiting for the first 
run of salmon. A detailed account of these works and their methods 
will be found in the report of the fishery expert. 
I inspected the site of the proposed trap on Wood River in company 
with Messrs. P. H. Johnson and J. W. Clark, the projectors of the enter- 
prise. It is located about 40 miles from the Nushagak cannery and 
20 above the mouth of Wood River, at which point the latter is a 
swift-running stream of clear cold water, between 700 and 800 feet in 
width and 10 to 14 feet deep. Nothing had been done yet to indicate 
the extent and character of the proposed work. Ten slender piles, 
driven about 300 feet from shore, were all that could be seen, but the 
contemplated plans were detailed by the projectors as follows: An 
open channel in midstream 100 feet in width; two traps 40 feet square, 
one on each side of the open channel, with wings extending to the shores. 
This arrangement they considered to be clearly within the limits of 
the law. 
The west bank of Wood River is covered with forests of spruce, the 
larger trees having been cut for domestic purposes. It was from this 
region that the Russians procured logs for house-building. There was 
no wood on the east bank as far as we could see, the land on that side 
being very low and marshy. The timber line is seen on the west side 
of the Nushagak, 5 or 6 miles below the mouth of Wood River, and is 
a notable feature in the landscape. The forest gradually thins out, 
trees diminish in size until at the margin they are dwarfed to mere 
shrubs, beyond which there is nothing but alder bushes, a few stunted 
birches, willows, ete. There is no visible cause for this phenomenon, 
but the line is distinctly drawn. Driftwood along the shores of Bris- 
tol Bay, brought down the rivers by floods, indicates the existence of 
great forests in the interior and constitutes the sole fuel supply of the 
natives on the peninsula and at other places in Bering Sea. 
Mr. Ivan Petroff, United States census agent for the Territory of 
Alaska, came on board on the morning of the 5th, having with him 2 
kaiaks and 3 Eskimo boatmen, and reported an unsuccessful attempt 
to reach the Kuskokwim River via the inland route up the Nushagak 
and over the portage. After working laboriously up the river sev- 
eral days against strong currents, until in fact they were approaching 
the portage, his crew mutinied, refusing positively to go any further, 
thus forcing him to return. It was of vital importance, he said, that 
he should reach the former river without delay, and, as there was no 
other means of transportation, he earnestly requested to be landed any- 
where in the vicinity of Cape Newenham, from which point he could 
reach the native settlements. I knew the importance of his work, as 
