An Expedition to Mount St. Elias, AlaskaRussell, Israel C. (Cook)
History
An Expedition to Mount St. Elias, Alaska
Russell, Israel C. (Cook)
Alaska -- Description and travel; Saint Elias, Mount (Alaska and Yukon)
The day after leaving Glacier bay we arrived at Sitka, and as soon as
practicable called on Lieutenant-Commander O. F. Farenholt, of the
U. S. S. _Pinta_, who had previously received instructions from the
Secretary of the Navy to take us to Yakutak bay. We also paid our
respects to the Governor and other Alaskan officials, and made a few
final preparations for the start westward.
FROM SITKA TO YAKUTAT BAY.
All of our effects having been transferred to the _Pinta_, we put to
sea early on the morning of June 25.
Honorable Lyman E. Knapp, Governor of Alaska, taking advantage of the
sailing of the _Pinta_, accompanied us on the voyage. Mr. Henry
Boursin, census enumerator, also joined us for the purpose of
obtaining information concerning the Indians at Yakutak.
The morning we left Sitka was misty, with occasional showers; but even
these unfavorable conditions could not obscure the beauty of the wild,
densely wooded shore along which we steamed. The weather throughout
the voyage was thick and foggy and the sea rough. We anchored in De
Monti bay, the first indentation on the eastern shore of Yakutat bay,
late the following afternoon, without having obtained so much as a
glimpse of the magnificent scenery of the rugged Fairweather range.
At Yakutat we found two small Indian villages, one on Khantaak island
and the other on the mainland to the eastward (both shown on plate 8).
The village on Khantaak island is the older of the two, and consists
of six houses built along the water's edge. The houses are made of
planks, each hewn from a single {80} log, after the manner of the
Thlinkets generally. They are rectangular, and have openings in the
roofs, with wind guards, for the escape of smoke. The fires, around
which the families gather, are built in the centers of the spaces
below. The houses are entered by means of oval openings, elevated two
feet above the ground on platforms along their fronts. In the interior
of each there is a rectangular space about twenty feet square
surrounded by raised platforms, the outer portions of which are shut
off by partitions and divided into smaller chambers.
The canoes used at Yakutat are each hewn from a single spruce log, and
are good examples of the boats in use throughout southern Alaska. They
are of all sizes, from a small craft scarcely large enough to hold a
single Indian to graceful boats forty or fifty feet in length and
capable of carrying a ton of merchandise with a dozen or more men.
They have high, overreaching stems and sterns, which give them a
picturesque, gondola-like appearance.
The village on the mainland is less picturesque, if such a term may be
allowed, than the group of houses already described, but it is of the
same type. Near at hand, along the shore to the southward, there are
two log houses, one of which is used at present as a mission by
Reverend Carl J. Hendriksen and his assistant, the other being
occupied as a trading post by Sitka merchants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account