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
Two of these were visited by Lieut. Ray in his exploring trips in 1882
and 1883. The first, Kua´ru, is reached after traveling about 50 miles
from Point Barrow in a southerly direction. It has been traced only
for a small part of its course, and there is reason to believe, from
what the natives say, that it is a tributary of the second named
river. Lieut. Ray visited the upper part of the second river, Kulugrua
(named by him “Meade River”), in March, 1882, when he went out to join
the native deer hunters encamped on its banks, just on the edge of the
hilly country. On his return he visited what the natives assured him
was the mouth of this river, and obtained observations for its
geographical position. Early in April, 1883, he again visited the
upper portion of the stream, and traced it back some distance into the
hilly country. The intermediate portion has never been surveyed. At
the time of each of his visits the river was, of course, frozen and
the ground covered with snow, but he was able to see that the river
was of considerable size, upwards of 200 yards wide where he first
reached it, about 60 miles from its mouth, and showing evidences of a
large volume of water in the spring. It receives several tributaries.
(See maps, Pls. I and II.)
[Footnote N8: Op. cit., p. 235.]
The third river is known only by hearsay from the natives. It is
called Ĭ´kpĭkpûñ (Great Cliff), and is about 40 miles (estimated from
day’s journeys) east of Kulu´grua. It is described as being a larger
and more rapid stream than the other two, and so deep that it does not
freeze down to the bottom on the shallow bars, as they say Kulu´grua
does. Not far from its mouth it is said to receive a tributary from
the east flowing out of a great lake of fresh water, called Tă´syûkpûñ
(Great Lake.) This lake is separated from the sea by a comparatively
narrow strip of land, and is so large that a man standing on the
northern shore can not see the “very high” land on the southern. It
takes an umiak a day to travel the length of the lake under sail with
a fair wind, and when the Nunatañmiun coming from the south first saw
the lake they said “Taxaio!” (the sea).
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