POPULATION AND CONDITIONS. 35 



The principal post-office is at Bettles, but mail is also distributed from Bergman 

 and from Coldfoot, at the mouth of Slate Creek. The judiciary of the district, con- 

 sisting of United States commissioner, probate judge, coroner, and recorder, is 

 located at Slate Creek, near the center of the mining' region. Since early in 1901 

 these offices have been held by Judge D. A. Mackenzie, a former citizen of Seattle, 

 and one of the pioneers of the Koyukuk country. 



The -placers. — The gold placers are shallow deposits, well suited for development 

 by men of moderate means, who are able and willing to work. No one, however, 

 should go to this country intending to mine without taking with him a year's supplies, 

 commonly known as a "grub stake," or its money equivalent, about $1,000. The 

 mining period is confined to about 2% months in summer. 



The placers now being worked extend over a large area, but occur chiefly on 

 the middle drainages of the Middle and North forks of Koyukuk River, where they 

 embrace a score or more creeks with their tributary gulches, some of which have 

 been discovered recently. The gold is coarse. The yield of the district to date, as 

 shown on page 102, is about $717,000. 



ON THE ARCTIC COAST. 



JVatives. — With the exception of about a dozen white persons at Cape Smyth, 

 near Point Barrow, and some at Point Hope, the bleak Arctic coast of northern 

 Alaska is inhabited only by the Eskimo. From the international boundary to Point 

 Hope, through a distance of 800 miles, the native population aggregates about 1,500 

 persons. Their settlements are far apart. The principal ones are those of Point 

 Hope, Cape Smyth, Nuwuk at Point Barrow, Nigaluk at the mouth of the Colville, and 

 Barter Island about 150 miles farther east. There is also a settlement at Herschel 

 Island, east of the international boundary, and one in the Mackenzie River delta. 

 There is yearly communication between all these points. The census of 1900 credits 

 Point Hope village with a native population of 311, and the settlement of Cape 

 Smyth, probably including Nuwuk," with a population of 623. That of Nigaluk, at 

 the mouth of the Colville, also probably amounts to about 200. There are also smaller 

 settlements or single huts at points along the coast, as at Wainwright Inlet and Icy 

 Cape, which are occupied in winter but generally vacated in summer. 



The principal food supply contributed by the sea is derived from the whale, 

 walrus, seal, polar bear, and some small fish. Salmon, herring, smelt, and other 

 small fish are found in the inlets and rivers. During the summer season there are 

 large numbers of geese and ducks. The principal land quadrupeds are Alaskan 

 wild reindeer or caribou, brown and black bear, wolverine, marten, wolf, hare, lynx, 



aXuwuk, meaning in Eskimo "the point," is the name of the native village on Point Barrow proper, while the main 

 settlement of the white people, where are the trading post, mission, and post-office Barrow, is 9 miles southwest of Point 

 Barrow, at Cape Smyth, to which the name Point Barrow is generally though somewhat incorrectly applied. 



