204 RECREATION. 
While I was up the river in January it 
dropped to 55 to 60 degrees. I froze my 
fingers and feet again. When I left Cop- 
per Center February Ist, there were a num- 
ber of men sick in the hospitals and cabins. 
It took me 5 days to get to Valdez. I spent 
one night on the glacier at the fourth 
bench. The next morning I left there at 8 
o’clock in a snow storm. It was 6 when 
I arrived at Valdez. I reported to Charlie 
- Brown, the Quartermaster, the next morn: 
ing. 
I left a mule and a horse at Copper Cen- 
ter. I also left 2 pack harnesses and 2 halt- 
ers. The mule died January 16th. The 
horse came over the glacier and is now at 
Valdez. I left all the other gear at Mr. 
Fritt’s place on the Tonsena, as we were 
not able to carry it. Joe Ham, who went 
down with me, also stopped at that place. 
All the Indians whom we met down the 
river treated us most kindly. They would 
come 3 or 4 miles to meet us and invite 
us to their houses, where they would share 
their food with us. They make excellent 
tea by mixing a native leaf with English 
breakfast ‘tea. They make their tobacco by 
rolling a piece of gunny sack in wood ashes. 
They prefer this to our tobacco. When- 
ever we went to their houses, they would 
seat us Close to the fire and look us over. 
If our mittens or moccasins were torn, they 
would take them from us and repair them. 
Stewart’s moccasins, which were worn out, 
were replaced by a new pair, made of moose 
hide in half an hour by a woman, who 
would take no pay from him. She seemed 
happy, however, when I gave her a large 
safety pin, such as we use in fastening 
horse blankets. Another night, after thev 
had repaired our stockings and mittens, I 
showed one of the Klutches where Ste- 
wart’s trousers were torn. She wanted 
him to take them off so she could fix them, 
but he was bashful and would not do so. 
Before he realized it, 3 Klutches caught 
' Stewart by the arms and held him while 
one pulled off his trousers. He yelled to 
me for help, but it was such a funny sight I 
could do nothing but laugh. The Klutch 
fixed the trousers in good shape and was 
well pleased when I presented her with 3 
old red handkerchiefs. We found them 
very pleasant and sociable. We would sing 
and they would sing. 
The Indians knew such songs as John 
Brown’s Body, Marching Through Georgia, 
and A Hot Time in the Old Town. They 
had some cheap accordeons. Some of them 
had cast iron cook stoves, which they did 
not use, preferring the camp fire. The wo- 
men do all the work. No matter how often 
a buck goes out, he must have a cup of tea. 
When he returns, he eats first; then the 
women. What is left is flung to the chil- 
dren and the dogs. I saw a child about 4 
years old fighting with a dog for a piece 
of dried salmon. One of the bucks got mad 
because I took the salmon from the dog 
and gave it to the child. They think more 
of their dogs than of their children. In 
cold weather the bucks live in stone houses, 
about 8x1o, dug out and covered with logs 
and earth. You have to go in feet first, and 
once in with 10 or 12 naked Indians you 
are glad to get out. Their women sleep 
in the living room with the dogs and chil- 
dren. We always slept on top of the bench- 
es over the Klutches. The only Indian we 
found living like a white man was the one 
at Taral. All have their own chinaware 
anda box to keep it in. There are 8 or 10 
families in each shack. The Indian whose 
bench is on the right side of the camp fire 
as you enter, considers you his guest, and 
will feed you, but the one on the 
other side will not. All the bucks 
look like consumptives. The women, as 
a rule, look healthy. They wear but 
one garment, a long skirt, open at the breast 
or as far down as the waist, extending a 
little below the knees, and a pair of mocca- 
sins reaching above the knees. This is the 
dress of the women and children. The 
bucks dress in various styles, some with 
mackinaw cloths, picked out of the river, 
others with what white men give them. One 
buck had on 3 hats, one on top of the other. 
They all have 45-90 rifles and cheap 32 
caliber revolvers, but no cartridges for the 
latter. 
The uniform you sent with me was 
as good as a pass for us. All we did was 
to show it and ask for Nicolai, and they 
could not do enough for us. They wanted 
to know if McKinley was hi-yu white chief. 
Nicolai was 25 miles up the Chittyna river 
when I arrived at Taral. I gave the uni- 
form to the Indian who helped us over the 
river with the pack saddles. It was about 
4 sizes too small for him, but he managed 
to squeeze into it. The Indians at the 
mouth of Katsina river had some good 
pieces of copper, which they told me they 
got on the Katsina and Chittyna rivers. 
The country traveled through at Wood’s 
canyon was rough, but well wooded, with 
large quantities of grass in places. When 
I left Copper Center, for Valdez, the snow 
was 39 inches deep. At the lake it was 5 
feet deep, at Twelve Mile camp 15 feet, and 
at the foot of the glacier I could not reach 
bottom. It must have been 20 feet deep. 
Compared with last winter, I found little 
snow on the glacier when I crossed it. 
Coming over the-fourth bench the ice bridge 
was not covered. I broke through in one 
place between 2 ridges and found only 2 to 
3 inches of snow bridging the crevasse. I 
came out to Valdez with the same rig I had 
on at the Center, and felt the cold more 
than I did on the inside, yet they told me 
the lowest temperature at Valdez was 8 de- 
grees below zero. saries —- > 


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