RESULTS OF EXPLORATION 53 



like the ancient Siberian tribes, possessed cutting tools of 

 copper ;^°° further a hollow ball of hard-burned clay, about two 

 inches in diameter, containing a pebble i^*! which I regarded as a 

 toy for small children; and finally a paddle and the tail of a 

 blackish gray fox. 



These, then, are all our achievements and observations, and 

 these not even from the mainland, on which none of us set foot, 

 but only from an island which seemed to be three miles long and 

 a half mile wide^^^ and the nearest to the mainland (which here 

 forms a large bay studded with many islands) and separated from 

 it by a channel less than half a mile wide. The only reason why 

 we did not attempt to land on the mainland is a sluggish obsti- 

 nacy and a dull fear of being attacked by a handful of unarmed 

 and still more timid savages, from whom there was no reason 

 to expect either friendship or hostility, and a cowardly home- 

 sickness which they probably thought might be excused, espe- 

 cially if those high in authority would pay no more attention to 

 the testimony of the malcontents than did the commanding 

 officers themselves. The time here spent in investigation bears 



implement. It is, however, possible that the whetstone originally con- 

 tained pyrite or chalcopyrite, which Steller mistook for native copper. 

 Some native copper was obtained by the coast natives by trade with the 

 interior natives. This copper came from two locahties, one at the head 

 of the White River and the other in the Chitina basin, tributary to the 

 Copper River. In 1899 I met a party of natives searching for native 

 copper nuggets on Kletsandek Creek, tributary to the upper White River. 

 They used caribou horns for digging in the gravel banks of the streams. 

 (B) 



100 The reference to the whetstone is in the MS here amphfied as fol- 

 lows: "from which I concluded that their instruments, hke those of the 

 Kalmuks and the Asiatic Tatars of Siberia in former times, must be of 

 copper, because the smelting of an iron ore so rich in copper requires more 

 intelHgence and experience than one could expect these people to have, 

 apt as it is to ruin the best smelting ovens." 



101 The MS has in addition: "making a noise when the ball was 

 shaken." 



102 German miles are meant. For the true dimensions and locational 

 relationships see Fig. 4. 



