262 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 7, igoO, 
The Harriman Alaska Expedition. 
VII -In Uyafc Bay. 
On the morning of July i five members of the party 
with four packers and a hunter, left the ship for a few 
days' examination of Uyak Bay, in Kadiak Island. They 
landed at the cannery of the Pacific Steam Whaling Com- 
pany, and were very hospitably received by Mr. Davidson, 
the superintendent of canneries for that corporation. 
About the middle of the morning, on the cannerj^'s steam 
tug, they left the wharf for the head of the bay, which 
was reached about 2 P. M. and a landing made 
just below the mouth of the creek, as far up as the tug 
could go, on account of the shoal water. 
Leaving the men to pitch camp, three of the party, with 
Mr. Davidson, went up the creek to look for bear sign. 
The stream is a large one, too deep to wade or to ford, 
and it was therefore necessary to follow along the bank. 
In many places the bluffs came down to the water in steep 
precipices, so that even along the border of the stream 
wading was impossible. At such points they were obliged 
to climb the bluffs to pass these precipices. These bluffs 
were steep and rocky, and overgrown with dense alders, 
and the footing was very unstable, so that the climbing 
was hard. Flies and mosquitoes were terribly trouble- 
some. They kept up their search for some hours, and went 
lip tlae creek two or three miles. No signs of bear were 
seen that were at all encouraging, although the old trails 
were there, worn a foot or two deep, and some of them 
had been used tliis summer. At many points were seen 
bones of salmon caught last year by the bears. 
The flowers were very beautiful. Some of the rocks 
in the bay seemed to be crowned with pale blue, so thickly 
did the forget-me-nots grow 
on them. In the open grassy 
places harebells grew every- 
where, while on the wooded 
hillsides there was a beauti- 
ful orchid {Cypripedium 
guttatmn). The walk ws* 
long and tiring, and as no 
game was seen they re- 
turned to the camp, where 
they spent the evening fight- 
ing flies. 
At no point visited were 
fjie flies so bad as in Uyak 
Bay. They flew against the 
face in great clouds, and it 
was necessary to wear head 
nets all the time. These 
were the gnats similar to 
those known in the Adiron- 
dacks and in Canada as 
black flies, and on the plains 
and in the mountains of the 
West as buffalo gnats or 
elk gnats. Their numbers 
were so great that it was 
difficult to keep them out of 
the e.yzs, nose and mouth, 
and here a common request 
of one's neighbor was, 
"Please take this fly out of 
my eye?" 
During the night the 
camp was roused by two 
shots, and in the morning 
it was learned that the firing 
had been at two strange 
animals on the beach, and 
one of the men had shot at 
each. Probably both were 
foxes, although in the dim 
light they appeared to be very large. Early in the morn- 
ing the launch was loaded to move to Feather Bay, and 
until 2 o'clock steamed steadily along. Several prospect 
holes or mines were passed which were being worked in 
a desultory fashion; they are quartz veins in the crushed 
and somewhat metamorphosed state, which formed the 
vertical shore. So far, none have proved of value — • 
present or prospective. Many birds were seen along the 
bay, among them the red-breasted merganser, black oyster- 
catcher, and eagles, at frequent intervals. At the house 
of a prospector they landed to ask about game, and 
learned that not long before some prospectors had killed 
a bear at the head of the bay. 
As they approached the head of Feather Bay the water 
grew more and more shoal, until at last the launch ran 
aground, the water for three miles below the head of 
the bay being very shallow at low tide. The launch 
backed off without difficulty, and the party landed and 
went into camp on a breezy point on the east side of the 
bay. Here, if one were out of the wind, flies were very 
bad, but in the breeze they troubled not at all. 
When the landing was made the water was so low that 
the baggage was transferred to the shore by small boats 
and then carried well up the beach by the men and left 
piled up there while camp Avas being made. Two of the 
party with Mr. Davidson then went off in one direc- 
tion, while three others walked up the beach to where a 
considerable river entered the bay through a wide, grassy 
meadow, and followed its wide valley up. Great cotton- 
wood trees grew all over the bottom, and beneath them 
were scattered willows and alders. On the way through 
this valley a great deal of bear sign was seen, among it the 
fresh tracks of several different bears. The weeds and 
grass were freshly bent down, and the indications were 
that the animals were using the place a good deal. 
The river was a wide, hurrying stream, but interrupted 
by many gravel bars, and almost everywhere fordable. 
After following it up for half a mile or more the three 
men returned to a gravel bar that offered a wide prospect 
up and down the stream, and there sat down to watch. 
A pair of eagles had recently reared their young in a 
tall Cottonwood not far away, and were very anxious 
about them, flying back and forth over the strangers, and 
utterinp- their motirnful cr}'. They were entirely tame 
find hac| evidently never been shot at. Before long their 
young, just out of the nest, appeared and made short 
flights through the timber. Here were seen a winter 
wren, and perched on the top of a taU cottonwood, a 
little pigeon falcon. For some hours the men sat on the 
gravel bar without seeing anything, and then returned 
to camp. 
Before night it appeared that a coat, a guncase and a 
gun, belonging to different members of the party, had 
been left on the beach by the careless packers, and covered 
or washed away by the tide. These things were later all 
recovered, after the tide had gone down, but were none 
the better for their immersion in the salt water. 
Near the camp were two houses of the Aleuts, called 
barabaras. They are shaped somewhat like a truncated 
pyramid, longer than wide, with a low doorway in the 
shorter side, which faces the water, and a square smoke 
hole in the top. The doorway is closed either by a door 
of boards hung on hinges, or by a flap of skin hanging 
down. The house is tightly built of hewn sticks, 4 inches 
wide, laid close together and sloping up from the ground 
inward toward the roof, which is nearly flat. Over 
roof and sides dried grass is thickly piled, and this is held 
in place by rough sticks and branches of cottonwood, from 
4 to 8 feet long, tied in place by withes of willow. At 
the further end of the oblong building — that is to say, op- 
posite the door, is a little altar, with a cross above it, and 
before the altar a stool on which the worshipper might 
kneel. The fire is built on the ground in the middle of 
the house, between long logs or poles, which form an 
oblong fireplace. A space between the fire and the door 
is a sort of entrance way, and the people sleep on beds 
of grass or straw on either side of the fire. The inside 
dimensions of the house vary somewhat, but are r2 or 14 
by t6 or 18, They are warm and comfortable shelters, 
and are never invaded bv flies. They are not kept clean, 
however, and bones of fish and game, and refuse of all 
sorts are found about them. These houses are only occu- 
pied for a short time in summer, when the natives come 
ST. PAUL VILLAGE, KADIAK ISLAND. 
Photo by E. S. Curtis. Copyright, 1899, by E. H. Harriman. 
here to catch and dry salmon. The drying scaffolds are 
nothing more than long poles over which the split fish are 
hung, supported at either end by forked sticks. The 
salmon are taken by means of a long gaff, the hook being 
attached to the handle by a short thong of hide. By means 
of a simple catch the hook is caught to the shaft in such 
a way that its point is directed forward. The gaff is 
thrust at the fish, its forward directed point pierces it, 
and the barb holds it. Its struggles free the hook from 
the catch, and the thong permits a little play as the fish 
is dragged ashore. 
A device used for catching foxes is interesting. A 
powerful spring is said to be made by twisting a cord very 
tightly. This spring operates a stick 2 feet long, in 
which are fastened three iron spikes. The stick and the 
spring are buried in the moss by the trail which the foxes 
use, and a light string set across this trail, when touched, 
releases a trigger. The stick describes half the arc of a 
circle with great violence, and breaks the animal's back. 
As an example of the force with which this stick strikes, 
Mr. Davidson stated that he had seen one of these traps, 
sprung by accident by a man walking, break his leg 
below the knee. 
Just before sunset the wind fell and the flies attacked 
with great vigor, flying at the men in great swarms, like 
so many hornets. Various preparations of grease, used 
by some memlaers of the party, did prevent the flies from 
biting, but did not keep them, from flying against the face, 
where they got caught in the oily mixture, and crawled 
about. One of the party, with a fondness for figures of 
speech, compared the face of one of his companions to "a 
large pudding with currants in it." That night was clear, 
cool and beautiful, and for a while the flies and mosquitoes 
ceased from troubling, so that in the morning every one 
talked about the delightful rest that had been enjoyed. 
After breakfast, in the skiff, with oars and with a poncho 
for sail, six of the men started for the head of the bay, 
which they reached in an hour or two. The scenery dur- 
ing the sail was beautiful. On either hand were green 
rolling hills, in part alder-clad, but with open spots of 
iaright yellowish-green grass and fern. On the hilltops 
beyond, the alders there were frequent -oatches of snow, 
while looking up the vallev a range of sharp sawteeth 
mountains were seen at its head, streaked with snow, and 
very rugged and alpine in appearance. 
The boat was taken as -far as possible, and when it was 
left aground they carried their lunches half a mile up 
through the grass to the timber, and there on a sand bar 
cooked and ate. It was evidently somewhere near here 
that the prospectors had killed their bear, for the existence 
of the carcass was still very evident to at least one sense. 
The men followed up the river, wading from time to 
time, and finding abundant bear sign, some of it very 
fresh. Nothing living was seen, however, except a few 
ducks in the pools. The valley was well covered with 
large cottonwood timber, and under the trees there was 
usually fairly open ground, with grass. Under the green 
grass was a thick mat of dead grass, in which were buried 
sticks, leaves and other debris, so that it was difficult to 
walk quietly since one could not see what he was stepping 
on, and the sticks were continually cracking. A few 
salmon were seen in the stream, and the run was just 
abotit to begin. Everywhere along the water's edge were 
tracks made where the bears had come down and walked 
along the sand bars, prospecting for salmon. Sometimes 
it would be a single bear, sometiipes an old one and 
two cubs. 
Late in the day, working over toward the westerly side 
of the valley, a great stream was seen falling hundreds of 
feet down over a sheer cliff. The point where the 
fall began was estimated as 800 feet above the valley. 
By a hard, steep climb through the alders, up the almost 
vertical bluff, they reached the crest whence the stream 
made its leap, and from there looked out over the valley 
and scanned the hills for bears. After sitting there for 
awhile they descended again, and separating, hunted down 
the valley toward the boat. On the way Mr. Davidson 
saw a small bear and shot at it, touching it, but it got 
away. 
The great bears of Kadiak Island are reported to be 
the largest living carnivorous mammals. From what Mr. 
Davidson said about them, it appears that they are much 
like bears everywhere. When they meet man they will 
run if they can, and fight if 
they must. A wounded bear 
is dangerous, of course; a 
she bear with cubs may be 
so. They have great vital- 
ity. Davidson tells of kill- 
ing a female, into which he 
put eight bullets, three of 
which passed through her 
heart. Fabulous stories are 
told by sailors, natives and 
others of their ferocity. 
Reaching the boat the 
hunters took to the oars and 
pulled for the camp. In the 
morning while coming up 
the bay, a point of land had 
been passed which was cov- 
ered with gulls and terns, 
and in the water near it 
were many ducks. As the 
boat approached, these last 
flew away, and the gulls and 
terns took wing, made a 
turn in the air, and flew 
over the men, and then 
settled on the beach again, 
ranging themselves in rows 
with their breasts toward 
them, standing there like so 
many soldiers. They were 
wonderfully gentle. The 
terns, as they flew over the 
men, turned their heads 
from side to side and 
uttered their curious grat- 
ing cry, and the great, 
white-winged gulls made 
their hoarse call, and at last 
all settled down again and 
did not fly until the boat 
was withm 30 feet of them, when they rose once more 
in a great cloud. 
When this point was passed on the return, the water 
then bemg high, the same congregation was present, but 
now there were two or three hundred crows with them. 
Now a better view was had of the ducks, which appeared 
to be sheldrakes. As before, these flew first, then the 
crows and last the gulls and terns. At this time the 
gulls did not wait so long as in the morning, but most 
of them took wing and flew down the bay and settled in 
the water. The last to leave were a number of little 
wedge-tailed gulls, most of them in young plumage, but a 
few with the dark head. The young ones looked Hke 
little owls as they flew. 
It was late when camp was reached, and the next day 
the party returned to the cannery, and the same night 
were picked up by the steamer, which returned. 
Shortly after the ship had reached the village of St. 
Paul, Kadiak, another camping party went out, which 
included, among others, some of the young girls of the 
party. They slept for the first time on the ground, and 
had a great deal of ftm in camp. 
From this camp Mr. Harriman, with one or two others 
of the ship's company, and guided by an old Russian 
vvho had a great reputation as a bear hunter, set out on a 
side trip to hunt. They walked far up among the hills, 
finding open country, and at last established their camp 
on the high ridges. A long round during their first day 
out showed no game, but when they returned to camp at 
night they found close to the tent the tracks of an 
enormous bear, which had visited the place since they 
left it in the morning. The next day they saw at a dis- 
tance of two miles, a large bear, but after making a 
long round to approach it, found when they got to the 
place that it had disappeared. Later^ two more bears 
were seen, and these, when aporoached, proved to be a 
female and her cub. Careful stalking brought them 
within a hundred vards of the two. and Mr. Harriman, bv 
a careful shot, killed the bear at once, breaking its neck. 
She rolled down out of sight, and for a moment it was 
uncertain, since they could not see her. whether she wa'< 
dead or running away, or returning on the charge. It 
anoeared, however, that she did not need another shot. 
The cub was then killed. It seemed, even to the most 
eager bear hunter of the ship's company, a peculiarly 
