Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442 — John Shaqi
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442Murdoch, John
History
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442
Murdoch, John
Eskimos -- Alaska -- Barrow, Point, Region
Rising from the beach beyond the mouth of this lagoon is a slight
elevation, 12 feet above the sea level, which was anciently the site
of a small village, called by the same name as the lagoon. On this
elevation was situated the United States signal station of Ooglaamie.
Beyond this the land is level with the top of the beach, which is
broad and nearly flat, raised into a slight ridge on the outer edge.
About half a mile from the station, just at the edge of the beach, is
the small lagoon Imérnyɐ, about 200 yards in diameter, and nearly
filled up with marsh. From this point the land slopes down to Elson
Bay, a shallow body of water inclosed by the sandspit which forms
Point Barrow. This is a continuation of the line of the beach, varying
in breadth from 200 to 600 yards and running northeast for 5 miles,
then turning sharply to the east-southeast and running out in a narrow
gravel spit, 2 miles long, which is continued eastward by a chain of
narrow, low, sandy islands, which extend as far as Point Tangent. At
the angle of the point the land is slightly elevated into irregular
turf-covered knolls, on which the village of Nuwŭk is situated. At
various points along the beach are heaps of gravel, sometimes 5 or 6
feet in height, which are raised by the ice. Masses of old ice,
bearing large quantities of gravel, are pushed up on the beach during
severe storms and melt rapidly in the summer, depositing their load of
gravel and pebbles in a heap. These masses are often pushed up out of
reach of the waves, so that the heaps of gravel are left thenceforth
undisturbed.
Between Imernyɐ and Elson Bay (Tă´syûk) is a series of large shallow
lagoons, nearly circular and close to the beach, which rises in a
regular sea-wall. All have low steep banks on the land side, bordered
with a narrow beach. The first of these, I´kpĭlĭñ (“that which has
high banks”), breaks out in the spring through a narrow channel in the
beach in the manner already described, and is salt or brackish. The
next is fresh and connected with I´kpĭlĭñ by a small stream running
along behind the beach. It is called Sĭ´n-nyû, and receives a rivulet
from a small fresh-water lake 3 or 4 miles inland. The third, Imê´kpûñ
(“great water”), is also fresh, and has neither tributary nor outlet.
The fourth, Imêkpû´niglu, is brackish, and empties into Elson Bay by a
small stream. Between this stream and the beach is a little
fresh-water pond close to the bend of Elson Bay, which is called
Kĭkyûktă´ktoro, from one or two little islands (kĭkyû´ktɐ) near one
end of it.
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