102. THE FROZEN YUKON.
At noon on the 11th of November, a fortnight after starting, they caught in the distance a glimpse of a faint bluish streak, varying the white monotony of the scene. This they knew marked the course of the great river towards which they were tending. Pushing eagerly on, at sunset they broke out of the woods, shot down a steep bank, and stood on an immense plain of snow-covered ice. It was the Yukon, frozen solidly over as far as the eye could reach, except that here and there was a faint streak of open water. From bank to bank the distance was more than a mile, and this they afterwards found was the normal breadth of the river for seven hundred miles below, and a thousand miles above. Not unfrequently it spread out into broad lagoons four or five miles wide. The Yukon is one of the great rivers of the globe. In length and volume of water it is exceeded only by the Amazon, the Mississippi, and perhaps the Plata. It exceeds the Nile, the Ganges, the Volga, the Amoor, and has affluents to which the Rhine and Rhone are but brooks. It rises far within the British Possessions, and its head-waters almost interlock with those of the Mackenzie, which empties into the Arctic Ocean. A portage of only eighty miles intervenes between these rivers at points where each is navigable for boats forty feet long, and drawing two feet of water. Over this portage the Hudson’s Bay Company transport upon men’s backs the goods for trading with the Indians on the Upper Yukon. Mr. Whymper thinks that a flat-bottomed stern-wheel steamer, like those used on the Upper Mississippi, could ascend the Yukon for eighteen hundred miles, and tap the whole fur-bearing region. But as the river is frozen solid for eight months out of the twelve, the steamer could hardly make more than one trip a year.
103. UNDER-GROUND HOUSE.
The travellers stopped two days at the Indian winter village of Coltog. The houses were built mainly under-ground. First, a little shanty is put up, under which a hole like a well is dug; thence a branch like a sewer runs some yards, along which one must crawl on hands and knees to reach the proper dwelling, which is a square hole in the earth, over which is raised a low dome-shaped roof, with a hole in the top to let out the smoke of the fire, which is built directly underneath. When the fire gets low the smoke-hole is covered with a skin, which keeps in not only the heat but the manifold scents engendered by the crowded occupancy. The slight heat from below makes the roof a favorite trysting-place for the dogs, and every now and then one comes tumbling down through the smoke-hole upon the fire below, adding the odor of singed hair to those arising from stale fish, old skin garments, and other unnamable abominations. Coltog is a rather favorable sample of an Indian winter village in Alaska.
From Coltog the travellers proceeded up the river two days’ journey to Nulato, the most northern and most inland of the Russian Company’s fur-posts. It stands in latitude 65°, and longitude 158°, upon a level slip of land bounded on two sides by the great river and one of its main branches. Notwithstanding the high latitude, trees of considerable size grow there, and during the brief summer the grass is luxuriant, and berries abound. The post is a little fortress, surrounded by a picket, which is closed at night to exclude the Indians, who camp around in large numbers. The house appropriated to the travellers was built of logs, forming one side of the little square. The windows were of seal-gut instead of glass; and as there is during the winter only two or three hours of daylight, the light was never any of the best. By caulking the floor with moss, and carpeting it with skins, the main room was kept comfortably warm, except near the floor. If one hung a damp garment from the rafters it would steam at the top, while frozen stiff at the bottom. The temperature at the roof was sometimes 65°, while near the floor it was 4°. Water for daily use was hauled on a sledge from the river. To get at it, they were obliged to break through solid ice four feet thick. Nevertheless, the Indians contrive to catch immense quantities of fish by constructing a weir of wicket-work, and keeping holes open in the ice.
104. FISH-TRAPS ON THE YUKON.
Winter fairly set in soon after the party had taken up their abode at Nulato. On the 2d of November the thermometer indicated the moderate temperature of 2° above zero. It suddenly fell to 20° below zero, and kept on steadily falling until the 5th of December, when it sunk to 58° below zero, that is, ninety degrees below the freezing-point of water. This was the coldest day, but there were during December and January eleven days when the thermometer sunk below the freezing-point of mercury. It is to be noted that after a certain point the human system seems to take little additional note of the temperature as indicated by the thermometer. When the mercury froze, 72° below the freezing-point of water, it did not seem very cold, provided there was no wind; while one day when the thermometer was 44° higher, we find this note: “A north wind blew, and made us feel the cold very decidedly. It is wonderful how searching the wind is in this northern climate; each little seam, slit, or tear in your fur or woollen clothing makes you aware of its existence, and one’s nose, ears, and angles generally are the special sufferers.” One day when the thermometer stood at 10°, an expedition started off for the coast: and once when it was at 32°, a half-clad Indian came to the post with his child, no better clad, bringing some game; he did not seem to think the day remarkably cold. The shortest day of the winter was December 21, when the sun was an hour and fifty minutes above the horizon.
