Arctic Orwise of the U. 8. 8. Thetis in 1889. area 
given to the Society by Mr. Russell. There were seventy-three 
tents, by actual count, pitched about St. Michaels at the time of 
our stay, the abodes of these temporary residents. 
St. Michaels is the most northerly settlement and trading post 
of the Alaska Commercial Company. It is the outlet of the 
Yukon river trade and also the source of supplies for the country 
bordering upon the Yukon and its many tributaries, reaching in 
this way a portion of the Northwest Territory of the Dominion 
of Canada, west of the Rocky Mountains. 
In the winter-time the post consists of the offices and store- 
houses of the Alaska Commercial Company, with a few residences 
for their white employees, and a small native village. 
Small, light-draught, stern-wheel steamers ascend the Yukon 
and its tributaries for a distance of 1,700 miles, reaching the mouth 
of that river in part by an inside channel and in part by sixty miles 
of outside coasting. 
After a short stay at St. Michaels we proceeded to Port 
Clarence, where a large number of the whaling fleet were met, 
consisting of seven steam-whalers, six sailing whalers, one trad- 
ing vessel, and a sailing tender. From the tender these vessels 
receive coal, provisions, and supplies, sending back to San Fran- 
cisco the oil and whale-bone of the spring catch. 
Port Clarence is the best, as it is the last, harbor on the Ameri- 
can side before reaching the Arctic, where no harbors exist worthy 
of the name, west of Herschel island. There is no native settle- 
ment of any size on the bay, but natives assemble here from the 
surrounding country and islands to trade with the whale-ships in ~ 
summer. 
Leaving Port Clarence we ran to the southward by King 
island to St. Lawrence island, in search of a sailing tender that 
was long over-due; returning, after a short stay off the village 
near Cape Prince of Wales, we again entered the Arctic ocean. 
As it was too early to go to Point Barrow we proceeded to Kotze- 
bue sound and Hotham inlet. In the vicinity of the latter place, 
every year, a summer rendezvous of natives occurs for trading 
purposes, the Eskimos from the Diomedes and Cape Prince of 
Wales bringing articles of trade from Siberia, while the Eskimos 
from Point Hope bring articles obtained from the whalers ; these 
Eskimos are met by the inland natives from the rivers that flow 
into Hotham inlet and Kotzebue sound, principally from the 
Kowak, the Noatak and Salawik rivers. The nearest available 
