By Kya.k 
By J. W 
T was early in the morning of Aug. 20, 1885, 
that the Eskimos pounded on my door to 
let me know that it was time to make*a 
start, and I crawled out of bed and began to get 
guns, ammunition, collecting basket, preserva¬ 
tives for specimens, hardtack, sugar, tea and a 
supply of tobacco and calico for trading pur¬ 
poses. With breakfast over and two good 
strong Eskimos, we pushed from the shore in 
front of Nushagak and commenced our trip 
into the interior of the country to the head¬ 
waters of Lake Illiamina. To do so it was 
necessary to go down to the seacoast some 
twenty miles or more to Bristol Bay. We took 
advantage of the tide and traveled leisurely 
along with it and reached the point on the sea 
coast about 3 P. M., where we saw thousands 
of sea birds sitting on the shore. They took 
flight as we approached them, flying out to sea. 
I saw the newly described Aleutian tern 
(Sterna aleutica). It passed over our heads as 
we traveled along, the only thing that saved it 
from finding its way into my collection basket 
being that the sea was running so high that it 
was dangerous to unloose the cord that bound 
my raincoat around the hole of the kyak, as 
the water would have quickly filled the boat 
and swamped us. The tern passed over our 
heads several times as if wondering possibly 
what species of animal we were. We were then 
offshore some three or four miles, in order to 
pass around the point. The tide returning made 
it very rough. We reached land just as it was 
growing dark, camped on the shore, and were 
lulled to sleep by the heavy surf as it broke and 
rolled on the beach. 
The next morning there was a strong wind 
followed by a light rain, the sea was rough, 
washing into the kyak now and then, but we 
kept on all day and it just happened that we 
reached the Kwichagak River (the outlet of the 
great inland lake, and emptying into Bristol Bay) 
just as the tide was out, so we waited for its 
return, as we would arrive at our stopping place 
just as soon. 
We reached Koggiung on the river about 4 
P. M., and the whole village was waiting on 
the bank to see who I was and what I wanted. 
As soon as I got ashore I paid my respects to 
the chief, or Tyhee, as he is called. His au¬ 
thority consisted of a piece of dirty paper which 
undoubtedly once had been white, as near as I 
was competent to judge. He carried this paper 
in his bosom, and when I got ashore, he came 
up to me and took out his authority. I read it. 
in Al&skdk. 
JOHNSON 
and said yes, that the paper—pointing to it as 
I spoke—stated that he was the “High Nanki 
Poo” of all the country as far as he could 
travel in a day, and that it gave me unspeak¬ 
able pleasure to meet him. He then ordered 
one of the Eskimos to bring a king salmon, 
which he presented to me. I had the fish 
cleaned and cooked. I invited him to partake 
of our frugal meal, which he did with great 
alacrity. My style of serving seemed to suit 
him, for he partook of most of the salmon, so 
much so, that I had to call on all my reserved 
powers of eating to get a limited share for my¬ 
self My men had to fill up mostly on tea that 
night. After supper the chief said that some 
reindeer were to be found just back a short 
distance from the village. We went together 
but failed to see any, and I returned and rolled 
myself up in my blanket. I was surrounded by 
the numerous Eskimo dogs that sat on every 
barabara or hut and bayed at the moon. 
The next morning we started up the Kwicha¬ 
gak River. During the forenoon we met a 
party of natives and traded a cup of tea for a 
quarter of venison. Shortly after we met some 
more natives, and they turned around and fol¬ 
lowed us all day just for something to eat, for 
a piece of tobacco, or in fact, anything they 
could get. We paddled hard all day, rain set in 
during the afternoon and we camped along the 
river, and we were wet through, all night. The 
following morning we had some ducks for 
breakfast. My Eskimos had cleaned the ducks 
and thrown the entrails one side, and just as I 
came from the river from my bath, I saw an 
old native who had been following us, sitting 
on the ground with his head thrown back, pois¬ 
ing the entrails of the ducks just cleaned, over 
his hungry mouth. He had finished before I 
could stop him. I felt like taking him down to 
the river and holding him under for a while. 
It quite took away my appetite for breakfast. 
I gave them some hardtack and sent them down 
the river and we saw them no more. 
We reached Kaskanakh, 3 small village a short 
distance this side the foot of Iliamna. Lake. 
The natives all seemed much afraid of us. We 
stopped for a short time to recuperate, as we 
were tired out pulling against the swift stream; 
in fact, part of the time one of the natives had 
to tow the kyack along the bank, so swift was 
the stream. We arrived at the lake a little 
after noon time, and were very glad that we 
were through with the Kwichakh River. At 
the entrance of the lake the water flows at a 
rate of ten or twelve miles an hour. We could 
not stem the current at all, but pulled the boat 
along the banks, pushing the underbrush aside 
as we traveled along. After reaching the 
Iliamna, we followed the shore for three or 
four miles and camped for the night. 
In the morning the wind was from the north¬ 
east and the sea was too rough to venture out 
upon it, so I took my gun and went back into 
the spruce forest to reconnoiter a little, as I 
should be obliged to pass a day or so in the im¬ 
mediate neighborhood. I found cranberries 
thicker than I ever saw them before; the ground 
under the trees was a perfect mass of red 
berries, and I found they were of a very fine 
flavor. While wandering around I discovered 
a grave of an Eskimo child between two spruce 
trees, covered with logs and stones to keep off 
the wolves and other beasts of prey. We were 
detained on “this dull unceasing shore” for four 
days, a good share of the time fighting sand 
flies and mosquitoes. 
On Aug. 30 the wind had abated considerably 
and the lake was comparatively smooth, so we 
felt better and were all ready to proceed. We 
got an early start and did not stop until noon, 
and then only to cook some fish and ducks. 
We did not stop again except to take a photo¬ 
graph of Mount Adelaide, a peculiarly formed 
conical-shaped mountain that rose abruptly 
from a comparatively smooth plateau of coun¬ 
try. We arrived just after dark at Kakhonak, a 
small Eskimo village. The next morning I 
went up on the hills and got my fill of blue¬ 
berries. The sun shone brightly all day. I gave 
the natives a few trinkets and left in the morn¬ 
ing and traveled all day, and camped at an old 
deserted village, put up the tent, found a nice 
lot of dried grass, covered the floor of the 
camp and placed my reindeer skin on it, then 
sat down and had a very fair supper and after¬ 
ward enjoyed a good smoke. As I sat watch¬ 
ing the fire burn briskly, fanned by a warm 
breeze from off the lake, away back in the 
spruce forest an occasional howl of a wolf 
would break the monotony. After contemplat¬ 
ing the past and thinking about the mor¬ 
row, I turned in to sleep. 
On Sept. 2 the morning was cloudy with but 
little wind. After traveling a few hours we 
came to a small stream that finds its way out 
from the mountain, and it is on this river that 
the five famous brothers live that Elliott speaks 
of in his book on Alaska. Their home is on a 
small and swift river that winds its way out of 
the mountains past their doorway. The stream 
abounds with the red and silver salmoni which 
can be speared from along the banks; in fact, 
one of them was spearing fish when we hove in 
sight around a bend of the stream. He keeps 
a little stock of trading goods, being supplied 
from the traders at Kadiak. As soon as we 
