The boat party had a similar experience, without the pocket-picking. Reaching Point Barrow they landed to make observations and look about for traces of the visit of the Blossom's boat, which they did not find. Their interpreter did not understand the tribe, and recourse was had to the universal language of signs. "We made a rude model of a vessel," says Lieutenant Hooper, "and performed sundry antics to signify what we were in search of, but could elicit no information, and so set to work at obtaining observations. We concluded that these people must have been entirely misunderstood. Far from evidencing any disposition to assail or molest us, they were most docile and well-behaved, agreeably disappointing us in their conduct. When we arrived on the hillock, all, big and little, sat down around us, and I amused myself by filling their pipes, becoming a great favourite immediately in consequence. They had among them a great many knives, which we feared would influence the magnet. Mr. Pullen therefore kindly drew off the crowd to a distance, distributing among them tobacco, beads, snuff, etc., and much to their credit be it said, there was neither confusion nor contention, each taking his allotted portion, and seeming delighted with his good fortune. They took care not to come near the instruments, finding that we did not like their approach; one or two indeed came towards us, but retired instantly when laughingly motioned back, and this should be considered as a display of great forbearance, inasmuch as their curiosity must have been highly excited. When the observations were concluded they were allowed to inspect the objects of their wonder; then fast and thickly to utterance flew their expressions of astonishment at the—to them—novel and splendid instruments. The trough of quicksilver, liquid and restless, especially attracted them, pleasure and wonder were evident at the simple view, but when one or two had permission to take some from the dish, and found it ever elude the grasp, their astonishment knew no bounds."
THE FROZEN YUKON
From Wainwright Inlet, which is between Icy Cape and Point Barrow, the Herald sailed along the pack to the westward, reaching her highest north, 72° 51´, in 163° 48´, and, on the 17th of August, Kellett landed on and named Herald Island in 71° 17´ 45˝, a mass of granite towering nine hundred feet above the sea, under five miles long and three broad, inhabited mainly by black and white divers and yielding the collector only four flowering plants. Further to the west he sighted Wrangell Island, sailed past and named by the American whaling captain, Thomas Long, in August, 1867.
In 1881 Wrangell Island was thoroughly explored by another search expedition, that of Captain Berry in the American ship Rodgers, who was in these parts looking out for traces of the Jeannette. He found it to be, not a continent as some had supposed, but an island forty miles broad and sixty-six miles long, about thirty miles from Herald Island and eighty from the Siberian coast; and on it, as on all these Siberian islands and the coast of Alaska, remains of the mammoth were found. Examining the ice to the northward, he reached 73° 44´ in 171° 30´, being fifty-three miles further north than Kellett and twenty-four miles further than Collinson in 1850. Returning from the north to winter quarters he achieved another Arctic record in his ship being destroyed by fire in St. Lawrence Bay on the Asiatic side of Bering Strait.
Opposite this, on the American side, from Cape York downwards the land trends away to the south-east to Norton Sound, in which are the mouths of the Yukon, one of the mightiest rivers of the world, its volume being as great as, or according to some writers greater than, the Mississippi. In a course of two thousand miles it runs northwards to the Arctic Circle at the now abandoned trading post of Fort Yukon, where its waters are reinforced by its tributary, the Rat or Porcupine, coming in from the north-east, and given their seaward direction to the south-west. Up this vast waterway in 1866 went Frederick Whymper and William H. Dall.
Beginning with a sledge journey of a hundred and seventy miles from Unalachleet, they struck the Yukon on the 10th of November, gliding down a high steep bank on to it. Hardly a patch of clear ice was to be seen, the snow covering the whole extent. Accumulations of hummocks had in many places been forced on the surface before the river had become thoroughly frozen, and the water was still open, running swiftly in a few isolated streaks. From bank to bank was not less than a mile, the stream flowing among several islands. As they sledged up the river the dreary expanse of snow made them almost forget they were on a sheet of ice; and, as it winds considerably, their course was often from bank to bank to cut off corners and bends. Many cliffs abutted on the stream, and islands of sombre green forest studded it in all directions.
ASCENDING THE YUKON
On the 15th they reached Nulato, six hundred miles from the mouth, where they spent the winter. Here they found a curious method of fishing practised all through the season. Early in the winter large piles or stakes had been driven down into the bed of the river, and to these were affixed wickerwork traps like eel-pots on a large scale, oblong holes being kept open over them by frequently breaking the ice. This was cold work, for the temperature ran low. "In November and December," says Whymper, "I succeeded in making sketches of the fort and neighbourhood when the temperature was as low as thirty degrees below zero. It was done, it need not be said, with difficulty, and often by instalments. Between every five strokes of the pencil, I ran about to exercise myself or went into our quarters for warmth. The use of water-colours was of course impracticable—except when I could keep a pot of warm water on a small fire by my side—a thing done by me on two or three occasions, when engaged at a distance from the post. Even inside the house the spaces near the windows, as well as the floor, were often below freezing point. Once, forgetful of the fact, I mixed some colours up with water that had just stood near the oven, and wetting a small brush commenced to apply it to my drawing block. Before it reached the paper it was covered with a skin of ice, and simply scratched the surface, and I had to give up for the time being."