The Nome daily nugget., 1917-12-18
PIT. BARROW. Oct. I9, 19l7

lends enchantment to the view" Mag nificiently illuminated Auroras. inue scrlbable sunsets anu boreI phantas magorOIa cnarn the opacs in these Ut termost parts: yet that strange paradox of the Wise Man Is translated into ex- perience-"The eye Is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing" We never miss the water till the well runs dry nor the Nugget until we're without 1t.
 The lllght of our arrival here the ponds froze over. The temperature has been gradually falling until 1t Is now plus 10. Dense banks of frost smoke hang over the Arctic Ocean like the burning of many oil storage tanks Large segregated pieces of ice were observed yesterday on the western ho- rlzon. indicating that the north current had set in and is moving the pack again on it's regular annual migratory
  lands of the two continents into the Boring sea. which. methinks. hear say "Hither. shalt thou come, but no fur ther: and here shall thy proud course be stayed"
 The prevailing N. E. wind has set in. Three inches of snow covers the tundra and the lakes are frozen six inches deep. Fishing through the ice is good and the natives are bringing gunnie sacks full of the into the village. I am not familiar with the species but they are fat and excellent eating
 While in Nome we learned there was considerable speculation concerning the sudden disappearance of the ptarmigan. l asked Long John" here about the ptarmigan. He rtphcd there used to be mary but now very few I asked why? He said, last year people came from the the interior and reported having found great numbers of ptagmigan in the snow-dead, To my inquiry as to what killed them he said. Maybe him nose" Indicating thew smelled something that killed them. It IS or rather seems quite plausible that an epidemic ot some sort has so greatly reduced their numbers
 Lynx are plentiful here, and are a menace to the country, catching many squirrels, reind ger. caribou, ptarmigan and other valuable birds. l would sug- gest 1t would be well to pay a bounty for killing lynx at any and all times rather than protect its pernicious ex- istence as fur bearing animal.
 The Midnight Sun Trading Co.,. the lid Of whose life's ledger closed here with sudden snap. Mon, Oct 9th, has passed into history as far as Barrow is concerned. MT. Olaf Hanssen to who Capt, Beckland gave charge here and at Wainwright. sold the entire outfits buildings and trading goods ut both places to MT Chas Brewer ot Liebes Co.,, San Francisco. California.
 MT. Brewer has employed Mir Hans sen to take charge of Wainwright store this winter. The store here Is closed temporarily, leaving Barrow with but one active mercantile store.
 To our many Nome friends who ex- pressed concern about our securing liv. ing quarters here, we would say;
 AS soon as we landed on the beach Doctor and Mrs. spense. Presbyterian Missionaries. came forward through the crowd of hand shaking, smiling natives and. introducing themselves gave us very urgent invitation tU accompany them to the mission and remain with them until we got per. manently located, Real missionaries these Hospitable and most estimable people. We class them. among the very cream of the missionaries it has been our privilege to meet in Alaska. They are self sacrificing and absolutely unselfish, untiring in and love their work, and the Eskimo loves them.
 The Doctor makes weekly trips twelve miles one way to Pt. Barrow tc render much needed assistance at tha, Point "Nuuk" Is the Eskimo name of the village and means Poin;--hence Poin, Barrow is very appropriate name.
 Pt. Barrow will always be a village of considerable size as long as there are any Eskimos left to occupy is, ow. ing to the fact that 1t is an ideal location from which to hunt. trap and fish, The whalers here a: Barrow go up to the Point and to the eastward of 1t to do nearly all thei:' fall whaling It has been the writers privilege to ac.