I 
SALMON AND SALMON KIVERS OF ALASKA. 
177 
KARLUK RIVER. 
(Plates LX-LXii, Lxviii-Lxix, and lxxxi.) 
For reasons elsewhere mentioned we did not follow the entire course of this river ; 
the surveys of Mr. 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, and the relative widths of the river at its source and Karluk Lake, 
whose waters it carries off, show a very mucli 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 uorthwestei’ly direction for a short distance, and the 
general direction of the remainder of its bed is westerly. According to a mauuscrii)t 
chart prepared in 1867 by Archimandritoflf, the mouth of the Karluk is in latitude 
57° 34' 30" K., 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 deiith. It was a matter 
of great difficulty to find a place deep enough to float a bidarka. As we travehid 
farther down the river became narrower and the current more rapid, while places 
were passed in which the water was 6 feet deep. Kear 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 16J rfiiles. 
“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 
ns 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 Nicolai’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 and banks 
are composed of irregularly sized, water-worn slate bowlders, surrounded by the fine 
gravel of the same material, intermixed with sandstone and jasper. 
Bull. U. S. F. O. 89 12 
