The few Aleuts in Unalaska at this time show physiognomies akin to the brachycephalic Indian, and not the Eskimo type.
August 31-September 1. A new gale, with drizzles. Luckily we are at a dock, but I can do little. They are cleaning the boilers and coaling. Evening of 1st have a good dinner—captain and the rest of us from the Bear's cabin—at a friendly local trader, Louis Strauss, and after that give lecture on "Man's Origin, etc." Introduction by Capt. Van Buskirk, local commodore of the Revenue Cutter Service. Lecture well received, make numerous friends, get good information. Strauss's supper was the first I could eat with some taste and hunger. But the lecture did me good.
September 2. Coaling and overhauling of boilers finished. Gale stopped. Ship leaves 1 p. m. Day fairly sunny. Everyone sees us off. Harbor and hills look fine, though sky again clouded. Outside quite a swell after the gales. Pass the Haida, practicing with her cannon. The Algonkin was here too, with the story of their visit to the Punuk Islands. The fresh green steep mountains toward the entrance of the harbor are refreshing to the eye.
Pass through Akitan. Pass picturesque, especially the outstanding isolated rocks near the islands.
Toward evening, far to the left (east), see under the clouds a glorious icy cone, the "Pogrovemoi," and later a lower but still great mountain a little farther and to the right an old but not so very old volcano. Other volcanoes there are, the captain tells me, now hidden by the low clouds.
Have a new passenger, Mr. Charles Brower, the trader of Barrow. Came from the Brower, ship of his own company, a little larger and faster than the Bear, and going also to San Francisco, but with poorer accommodations. Brings with him a box of archeological specimens from the Barter Island, in the north. Examine them, but find little of special interest.
It takes us a little less than 10 days of a fairly good journey to reach San Francisco. Dock at Oakland late in the evening. The next morning, after breakfast, the boxes and barrels with collections are taken on the dock—a big pile. Then the Santa Fe officials kindly run a flat freight car to the pile, the boxes, etc., are loaded on, the main part taken to the freight depot, the most valuable ones to express, shipped, and shortly after what remains of the expedition is on the Santa Fe Limited for Chicago. It only needs to be added that, notwithstanding the variety of receptacles and the difficulties of packing, the collections reached the Institution without damage to a single specimen. Thanks once more for the help received in making all safe to the captain and officers of the Bear, to Mr. Berg, the best of boatswains, to the carpenter, and to all those of the crew who assisted.