The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-21
ALASKA AND ITS SEALS.

From the end of the seal killing season in
July or August until the opening of the next
season the following June, the islands of Alaska
and their inhabitants are left in blissful ignor-
ance of all that takes place beyond the shore
line of their own small kingdom: and during
winter the northern ice drifts down and drives
off the few water fowl that have fingered after
the seals all moved south. Though this ice
brings an occasional polar bear to the islands
vet this visitant scarcely affects the additionaliso-
lation brought about by the belt of ice around the
shores. The blue foxes. which live in great
numbers among the rocky lodges of the islands,
are almost the only living thing which face the
winter months there, where millions Of seals
and waterfowl change the island into places
of the greatest activity and life during
summer. But to return to our vessel. For the
next week or more we were at the mercy of the
light, battling winds and the currents which set
along the eastern shore Of Behring sea. AS we
slowly made our northing and drew near the
straits the nights grew shorter, until at length
it never became darker than a pale twilight, and
at midnight the heavens were lighted
up by a warm sunsetlike glow in
the north, and for hours a series of the most beau
tiful cloud-colors blazed across the sky. and were
reflected in all their splendor from the smooth
sea. During one of these nights we were in the
ice, being driven along by a stiff breeze, while
the current carried the loose ice in an opposite
direction. The sky was filed with scattered
masses of clouds, all glowing with colors, and
these, reflected from the greens and blues of the
sea and ice, in combination with the crashing of
he ice as it ground about among itself or along
she sides of the vessel, made a scene never to be
forgotten. The next evening found us becalmed
of the mouth of the Yukon river, in about four
fathoms of water-no land in sight, and a
ground-swell on so severe that it was almost inn
possible to get from one part of the vessel to
another, and it seemed Ii as though the maSts must
be broken or jerked out of her as the swell threw
the vessel from side to side and brought her
back each time with a sudden jerk.
Fragments of d%riftwood, green grass and other
floating fragments trailed slowly by, and marked
the proximity of the river.
The next day a favoring breeze took us north
again, and we at length anchored in a small bay
off the fur-trading post of 81. Michaels. This is the
site of the old Russian fort, and since thepurchase
of the territory it has formed the central depot for
supplying the fur trade of the Yukon region
with goods for the natives, and thence are
shipped all the furs gathered in northern Alas
IA each year. The fort consists Of a group of
eight or ten frame and log buildings, arranged
in a square on a rocky point fronting a small
bay, and is the most northern American settle
ment on the west coast of the continent. 1t is
about sixty miles north of the Yukon mouth,
and about $50 miles from Behring straits.
About a dozen fur traders and as many thousand
Indians and Eskimos are tributary to this
station. The permanent residents of this
far-away burg consist of the fur
company's agent and his aids, numbering some
three or four persons.
The agent is married, and his wife. a charm
ing lady from Name, has lived here for several
years, mostly with no society of her sex. al
though for one or two seasons an agent of an
opposition company lived three miles from them
with his wife. The Signal Service has had an
observer station at this point for the past ten
years or over, and his quarters have been fur
nished by the company occupying the old fort.
When the writer first landed there in June the
country was green with the grasses and plants
which spring up so quickly in the north duringa
few warm days, and great numbers OF beautiful
flowers were in blossom everywhere. Just back
of the house great lunches of the familiar blue
flag were in blossom, and a sheltered bank near
by was covered with blue bells.
Mosquitoes were so plentiful that ones excur-
sfons were usually nipped in the bud by the at
taeks of these pests the moment ones foot
touches the marshy ground, which forms all the
land except the stony ridges thereabouts.
The desire for excursions was less marked,
also, from the fact that all about the fort were
camped a gathering of the clans from all parts
Of the region about the fort: extending fifteen
hyndred miles or more up the Yukon.
There were representatives OF nearly all Cne
Indian tribes found on the lower fifteen hundred
miles of the Yukon, and of Eskimos from the
lower Yukon and Kuskoquim rivers, and from
the coast north of the Yukon delta to Kotzebue
sound in the Arctic ocean. Each tribe. marked
by Its style of clothing and ornamentation as
well as by its peculiar dialect, rendered the scene
extremely picturesque, and was of o-verpOwerlng
interest to the new conner. The Indians and Es-
kimos, hereditary enemies of the most invet-
crate kind, kept aloof from one another. The
Indians being the furthest from home, andin the
enemy's country, placed their tents close
up to the houses and did not stray far aield.
On the contrary, with the Eskimos, they hunted,
ished, visited the adjacent villages of other ES-
kimos. and made themselves thoroughly at home.
The Indians passed night after night dancing
70 a rude chant or in wrestling, and the Eskimos
played ball on a bare hilltop back of the fort, or
passed the time in gossipinR, trading and eating.
This part of the territory along the coast from
the Aleutian islands north to the northern ex-
treme of the shore is mainly low and marshy
country, broken by occasional rocky capes
and rolling hills, but is all barren
of trees, except one point just north of the Yu-
kon mouth, and is covered with a growth of
MOSES and other arctic plants except on the ex-
posed hillsides.
Much of this country is underlaid by perma-
nently frozen ground, and the surface soil thaws
only a couple of feet in favorable situations and
but a few inches in other places
Below this, to an unknown depth, extends the
layer of frozen earth.
In Siberia this frozen substratum has been ex,
plored to a depth of about four hundred feet,
without reaching its lower limit, and the Alaskan
frozen layer is probably equally deep:
In spite of this underlying mass of ice, the few
inches or feet of soil on the surface, which Is
under the suns influence, bears a dense growth
of small plants and grasses over most of its sur
face, and sheltered hillsides are dotted with
clumps and sometimes quite extensive areas of
low alder bushes, from two feet to five feet high.
Dwarf willows occur almost everywhere. North
of Kotzebue sound, on the shore of the Arctic
ocean, vegetation is very much less abundant
than south of Behring straits, and the country
becomes more and more barren and repelling in
its appearance.
The interior of northern Alaska, even well
north of the arctic circle, is well wooded with a
growth of spruces, white birch, alders and
willows along the courses of the streams and