SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 15 



KARLUK RIVER. 



(Plates xv-xvn, xxm-xxiv and xxxvu.) 



For reasons elsewhere mentioned we did not follow the entire course of this river ; 

 the surveys of M.r. Booth, however, developed the fact that the lower portion of the 

 river bed is much wider than is indicated on the charts furnished us at the outset of 

 our expedition, aud the relative widths of the river at its source and Karluk Lake, 

 whose waters it carries off, show a very much greater difference than the maps repre- 

 sent. The direction of the Karluk in the first 5 miles of its length is a little west of 

 north, this portion of the river ending at the portage to the west arm of Uyak Bay. 

 From this portage it pursues a northwesterly direction for a short distance, and the 

 general direction of the remainder of its bed is westerly. According to a manuscript 

 chart prepared in 1867 by Archimandritoff, the mouth of the Karluk is in latitude 

 57o 34' 30" N., and longitude 154° 21' 20" W. 



Mr. Booth's notes on the river are as follows : 



" Karluk River leaves Karluk Lake at its northwest extremity as a shallow stream, 

 about 130 feet wide, with a depth of about 12 inches at the summer stage, and flowing 

 between low banks, from which rise on the western side the range of mountains which 

 borders the lake. It soon leaves these, however, and wanders in a sinuous course, 

 full of sloughs and lagoons, across its wide valley. In its windings it frequently 

 attains a width of 600 feet, with a correspondingly diminished depth. It was a matter 

 of great difficulty to find a place deep enough to float a bidarka. As we traveled 

 farther down the river became narrower and the current more rapid, while places 

 were passed in which the water was 6 feet deep. Near the isolated mountain shown 

 on the chart the river cuts through a bed of ferruginous clay, which it has washed 

 out so as to make an 8-foot channel alternately along the eastern and western banks. 

 This clay bed is worthy of mention as being the only one found by us on the island. 

 After passing the mountain the rate of descent measurably increases. Here we 

 judged by the barometer that the river is about 200 feet above tide water at Uyak 

 Bay. 



" The distance in a direct line from the point where Karluk River leaves the lake 

 to its mouth at Karluk we estimated at 16£ miles. 



"In the first 5 miles its slope is inappreciable except in the rapids a short distance 

 north of the lake, where in a distance of about 500 yards the river falls about 10 feet. 

 This would leave about 250 feet of descent in about 12 miles direct distance, giving 

 as the slope of the river valley about 20 feet to the mile. 



''As we did not travel along the river banks below the point where the barabara, 

 called Mcolai's, is located at the portage to Uyak Bay, we could not determine the 

 length of the river channel, nor hence its average rate of descent. From the generally 

 winding character of the river I should place it at 10 feet to the mile. 



" The Karluk appears to travel throughout the whole of its course along the bed 

 of an ancient glacial terminal river, whose successive levels of subsidence can be most 

 plainly seen on the sides of the mountains south of Karluk. Hence its bed aud banks 

 are composed of irregularly sized, water-worn slate bowlders, surrounded by the fine 

 gravel of the same material, intermixed with sandstone and jasper. 



"After leaving the lake it flows along this level valley, which varies from 1 to 3 

 miles in width, for a distance of about 6 miles. After this the valley, as far as we 



