[157] The first white man to enter the Yukon and behold its immense volume was Glazoonov, a Russian post-trader of the old Company, who, with a small band of promishlyniks, managed to overcome the hostility of the natives sufficiently to get up as far as the present site of Nulato. This was in 1833. Lieutenant Zagoskin, of the Russian Navy, made a thorough engineering examination of the river up as far as the “Ramparts,” between the years 1842-45, inclusive, locating its positions and courses by astronomical and magnetic observations. After him, named in regular order of their priority in visiting the river, came the following Americans, the first in 1865, the last in 1885:—Kennicott, Pease, Adams, Ketchum, Dall, Whymper, Mercier, Raymond, Hill and Shaw (two miners, from its very source), Nelson, Petroff, then Schwatka and Everett (also from its source). All of these men have given to the world more or less elaborate accounts of the Yukon through the medium of published works, letters, and lectures. The literature on the single subject of the Kvichpak is decidedly voluminous.
[158] François Mercier, according to whom “Ingaleek” signifies “incomprehensible.”
[159] Lieutenant H. T. Allen, Engineer Corps, United States Army.
[160] An average temperature prevails in this region for the year as follows:
| January, | -.5° | April, | 22.1° | July, | 53.1° | October, | 28.0° |
| February, | -.6° | May, | 32.8° | August, | 52.1° | November, | 18.3° |
| March, | 9.5° | June, | 45.2° | September, | 43.3° | December, | 8.9° |
[161] December 5, 1842. The refreshing honesty and frankness of this explorer’s thorough work on the Yukon and Kuskokvim deserve to be better known.
[162] It is the same reply that is honestly given to any query made as to the reason of almost every one of these Innuit mummeries. Too many attempts have been made to attach serious meaning to such idle ceremonies.
CHAPTER XIV.
MORSE AND MAHLEMOÖT.
The Monotonous Desolation of the Alaskan Arctic Coast.—Dreary Expanse of Low Moorlands.—Diversified by Saddle-backed Hills of Gray and Bronze Tints.—The Coal of Cape Beaufort in the Arctic.—A Narrow Vein.—Pure Carboniferous Formation.—Doubtful if these Alaskan “Black Diamonds” can be Successfully Used.—Icy Cape, a Sand- and Gravel-spit.—Remarkable Land-locked Lagoons on the Beach.—The Arctic Innuits.—Point Barrow, Our Extreme Northern Land, a Low Gravel-spit.—The Buttercup and the Dandelion Bloom here, however, as at Home.—Back to Bering Sea.—The Interesting Island and Natives of St. Lawrence.—The Sea-horse.—Its Uncouth Form and Clumsy Life.—Its Huge Bulk and Impotency on Land.—Lives entirely by Clam-digging.—Rank Flavor of its Flesh.—The Walrus is to the Innuit just as the Cocoa-palm is to the South Sea Islander.—Hunting the Morse.—The Jagged, Straggling Island of St. Matthew.—The Polar Bears’ Carnival.—Hundreds of them here.—Their Fear of Man.—“Over the Hills and Far Away,” whenever Approached.—Completion of the Alaskan Circuit.
An Innuit village is in plain sight on the low shores of Cape Kroozenstern, which forms a northern pier-head of Kotzebue Sound, and its inhabitants greet your vessel as it passes out and up the coast with the usual dress-parade—climbing upon the summits of their winter houses, and by running in light-hearted mirth along the beach. A most dreary expanse of low moorland borders the coast as the little schooner reviews it, swiftly heeling on her course to the north. Not until the bluffs of Cape Thompson are in sight does a noteworthy landmark occur. This is an abrupt headland capped by carboniferous limestone full of fossils, shells, corals and the like, which are peculiar to that age. It is also traversed by veins of a blackish chert varying in thickness from six inches to three feet or more, causing a decided network tracery to appear very plainly on its gray-white face. Half-way down from the top, the limestone is succeeded by blue, black, and gray argillaceous shades, the colors of which alternate in layers of horizontal strata, six or eight feet in thickness, nearly down to the base; it is then composed of black carboniferous shales alone, which abound in organic remains and are occasionally interstratified by limestone much deflected. This contortion is so great as to form two regularly banded arches. Several tiny snow-water cascades tumble down its ravines and boldly plunge over the bluffs, which are about four hundred feet high in their greatest elevation.