ALASKA AS IT WAS AND IS. 
131 
during the following summer, and the Yukon ascended on 
the ice to the trading post at Nulato, a distance of some three 
hundred miles. Here the party of five wintered and in 
March divided into two parts—one, under Frank Ketchum, 
taking sledges with the intention of traversing the unknown 
region on the ice and after reaching Fort Yukon to ascend 
further in canoes; the other to await the break-up of the ice 
in May and follow in the skin canoe, so as to rescue the first 
party should they have failed to carry out their plans. Both 
projects were successfully carried out and the two parties re¬ 
united at Fort Yukon on the 29th of June, 1867. They 
returned by the whole length of the river and reached Saint 
Michael’s on the 25th of July. Here astonishing news 
awaited us: The Atlantic cable was a triumphant success, 
the United States were in negotiation for the purchase of 
Russian America, our costly enterprise was abandoned, and 
all hands were to take ship for California. 
The collections and' observations had been but half com¬ 
pleted. The natural history of the Upper Yukon and the 
borders of Norton sound had been pretty well examined, 
but the vast delta of the Yukon, with its wonderful fauna 
of fishes and water birds, its almost unknown native tribes 
and geographic features, remained practically untouched. 
I immediately determined to remain and devote the follow¬ 
ing year to the unfinished work. An arrangement with 
the Russians was made and this plan carried out. In the 
autumn of 1868 I left Norton sound for California on a 
trading vessel and returned to civilization. 
At the time our explorations of the Yukon began this 
immense region was occupied by two or three thousand In¬ 
dians, many of whom had never seen a white man. The 
Russian establishments on the Yukon were only three in 
number, hundreds of miles apart, and chiefly manned by 
Creole servants of the company, not over a dozen at each 
post. An inefficient priest, with a few alleged converts, con¬ 
ducted as a mission of the Greek church the only religious 
establishment in the whole Yukon valley. The industries of 
19-Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 13. 
