CHAP. XXI.]

DRIFTING DOWN STREAM.

231

CHAPTER XXI.

DESCENT OF THE YUKON.

Drifting down the stream - Yukon salmon - Arrival at Nulato-OverAnvic

dose of arsenic and alcohol — Trip resumed · Indian music

The mission Earthquake on the water- Andreavski-The mouths of the Yukon-Smith's observations-Pastolik-St. Michael's - Progress of the telegraph - Frozen soil - Scurvy - Arrival of our barquePloyer Bay Return to San Francisco.

On the 8th July, our "baidarre" having been repaired, we took two additional birch-bark canoes, and all started down, determined to travel day and night to Nulato. Bidding adieu to our friends, who honoured us with a grand salvo of musketry, we pushed out into the stream, and soon found we should have little need to exert ourselves. The current took us at the rate of 100 miles a day (of twenty-four hours); and usually our canoes were all lashed together, with sometimes a rude awning erected over all three, under which we smoked and dozed. We slept and ate our frugal meals on board, only going ashore twice or thrice a day, to boil our tea and fry our fish. This was indeed a holiday excursion, and all the more appreciated after our experience of ascending the stream. All that was necessary was for one man to steer; and, except when we drifted out of the current, or stuck on a bar, our trip was made without trouble of any kind. I do not, of course, propose to narrate the incidents of our return journey to Nulato, as it was over the same part of the river

that we had already passed over. On the 10th we arrived at the "Rapids" above Nuclukayette, and found the island of rocks looming out of the water very distinctly, and the current much less strong than before. Early on the 11th we reached Nuclukayette; the Indians had separated, and only a few remained on the opposite side of the river, drying fish.

The Yukon salmon is by no means to be despised. One large variety is so rich that there is no necessity, when frying it, to put fat in the pan. They are taken all down the river in weirs set in shallow places, in hand-nets of circular form, and by spearing. We saw the very pretty sight of a whole fleet of birch-barks, proceeding together as regularly as a company of soldiers. At a given signal the owners of each dipped his round hand-net into the water, and if, on raising it, a big salmon came up struggling to get away, there was a general shout of derision. I saw so much harmless fun and amusement among these Indians, and they evidently find so much enjoyment in hunting and fishing, that I could only wish they might never see much of the white man, and never learn the baneful habits and customs he is sure to introduce.

There are at least two, and I think three, varieties of Yukon salmon.* The larger kind sometimes measures five feet. I have seen boots whose sides were made of the tough skin; they are, however, not common, and are confined to the Lower Yukon and coast. On the 13th we arrived at

*Two varieties of Yukon salmon (obtained through the Hudson's Bay Company), Salmo consuetus and Salmo dermatinus, are described in the 'Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald.

CHAP. XXI.]

ARRIVAL AT NULATO.

233

Nulato. Our journey had occupied but five days twenty hours for 600 miles. Here we received an indefinite communication with regard to our company; one part of it was however plain,—that every thing portable was to be brought to St. Michael's.

In our absence P-, a workman, had stolen some arsenically prepared alcohol, intended for the preservation of natural history specimens. Wishing to ingratiate himself with the Russians, and, as we charitably presumed, believing the alcohol to be pure, he gave some of them a good drink. The result can be imagined. Our poor Muscovite friends suffered severely from inward gripes and colic; had it not been for the large quantity they had taken they would have been killed. The overdose saved them.

Before leaving we obtained a larger skin boat and two extra Indians, and at half-past eleven of the evening of the 15th July we made a start down the great river, determining to travel as before without camping. Before six o'clock next morning we passed Coltog, the point where we had in our sledge journey first struck the Yukon. This, a distance of forty-five miles, was made within seven hours, a result due partly to our vigorous rowing, partly to the swift current. We passed many Indian villages, at which the Ingeletes were drying fish. Our Indians, as well as ourselves, made the hills and river-banks echo with songs; all of us feeling

66

'gay and festive," as the Americans say, and cheerfully looking forward to seeing our ships. I could not help

*It will be remembered that the same distance had taken us twentysix days ascending the stream.

remarking the air of an Indian chorus sung by our boatmen-usually in unison-which is here presented to the reader, a "song without words."

It was said to be an obsolete song, for the words were not intelligible to the present people of the Yukon.

On the 17th, at 3 A.M., we reached Yakutzkelignik, an Indian village then uninhabited, and later in the day we passed several small villages, among the principal of which was Shaglook, which is situated on the western bank, opposite the mouth of a river of the same name, and where a great "slough" of the Yukon exists. At several of the villages we obtained salmon, dried and fresh, and one white swan, which proved very tough eating. In the evening we came to rapids, of which the Russians had given us a very exaggerated account. A steep bluff abutting on the river, and no beach, makes "tracking" from the bank difficult, but the current is simply unusually strong, and we saw no falls whatever.

On the 18th a head wind impeded us, and we stopped at the village of Anvic, at the mouth of the river of the same name. It is one of the largest Indian settlements of the Lower Yukon. There we saw native pots and jars of clay, well fashioned, and used by the Indians for cooking purposes. The natives there, and generally on the lower river, were of miserable appearance and badly clothed; they see less of traders than even the upper Indians. They were very easily satisfied with our payments for fish, &c. For five needles, or less than that number, we could buy a thirty-pound

CHAP. XXI.] CLERGY OF THE GREEK CHURCH.

235

salmon, and tobacco went further than we had ever known it do before. Glazoonav, the first Russian explorer of the Yukon, reached this point from the northern mouth of the river in 1835.

On

19th.-Head wind. We passed three villages, at one of which the wooden bowls, or "contogs" used all over the country, are manufactured. The tribe inhabiting this part of the country is known as the "Primoske" people. the 20th, at half-past four in the morning, we reached the "Missie," or Mission, once exclusively what its name implies, but now both the residence of a priest of the Greek Church and the sole Russian trading post on the lower river. We met the priest, or "pope," as the Russians term him, afterwards at St. Michael's, and a very saintly and heavilybearded individual he was, but said to be by no means averse to the bottle. The inferior clergy of the Greek Church generally are, as far as my experience goes, a convivial and social set of men. At Petropaulovski, on one festive occasion, the most inebriated person present was one of these representatives of the Church. It struck us as a very curious thing to hear the foreign merchants at the above town speaking of Madame the "pope's wife," although we were well aware that the Greek clergy were allowed to marry. I had the honour of dancing, on one occasion, with the "pope's" daughter.

The Russians had centralized their forces at the Mission, and had withdrawn them from Andreavski-to be hereafter mentioned-and from the Kolmakoff Redoubt on the Koskequim River. From this place they made periodical trading excursions.

Most of the Russians were absent on their annual trip