Our Arctic province : $b Alaska and the Seal IslandsElliott, Henry Wood
History
Our Arctic province : $b Alaska and the Seal Islands
Elliott, Henry Wood
Alaska -- Description and travel
Thus we note those salient characteristics of Aleutians, who are
the most interesting and praiseworthy inhabitants of Alaska. There
are not a great many of them, however, when contrasted numerically
with the Indians and the Eskimo of this region; but they come
closer, far nearer to us in good fellowship and human sympathy. We
turn, therefore, from them again to resume our contemplation of the
country in which they live. The sun is burning through a gray-blue
bank of sea-swept fog, ever and anon shining down brilliantly upon
the beautiful, vividly green mountains, and glancing from the clear
waters of Oonalashka’s harbor. It tempts us to walk, to stroll, when
the trader tells us that we can easily cross over to Beaver Bay,
where Captain Cook anchored and refitted in 1778. So we go, and a
patient, good-humored native trots ahead to keep us on the road and
bring us back safely, lest the fog descend and shut all in darkness
which is now so light and bright. A narrow foot-trail that is deeply
worn by the pigeon-toed Aleutes into moss and sphagnum, or fairly
choked by rank-growing grasses and annuals in low warm spots, winds
around and over the divide between Oonalashka village and Borka. As
we reach the rippling, rocky strand of Beaver Bay, a cascade arrests
our attention on account of its exceeding beauty. Tumbling down from
the brow of a lofty bluff of brown and reddish rocks, a rivulet
falls in a line of snowy spray, which reflects prismatic colors
from the rocks and sunlight as it drops into the cold embrace of
the sea. While we, resting on the grassy margin of the beach, enjoy
this charming picture, our native turns his face to the bay, and he
points out to us the pebbly shore where Captain Cook “hove down” his
vessel, more than a century ago, and then scraped those barnacles and
sea-weed growths from that ship’s bottom. Here the English discoverer
first came in contact with the natives of Oonalashka, and there are
people over on Spirkin or “Borka” Island, just across the bay from
us, who will recite the legend of this early visit of that Englishman
with great earnestness, circumspection, and detail, so faithfully
has the story been transmitted from father to son. Their own name of
Samahgaanooda was changed voluntarily to English Bay, or “Anglieeski
Bookhta,” by which designation they themselves call the harbor to-day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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