File:In the Alaskan wilderness (1917) (14777398145).jpg

Identifier: inalaskanwildern00gord (find matches)
Title: In the Alaskan wilderness
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors: Gordon, G. B. (George Byron), 1870-1927
Subjects: Eskimo languages Alaska -- Description and travel
Publisher: Philadelphia : The John C. Winston Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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at countryand we were approaching the tundra and facinga prospect much more desolate and dreary thanthe wild picturesqueness of the upper Kuskokwimand quite different from the high terraces withforests of spruce timber and stretches of openmossy ground that we had with us on the middlereaches of the river. The animal life was alsochanged; the ducks and geese were now rare,but that may have been partly due to theirhaving already migrated south. The eagles,both bald and golden, that we saw very frequentlyall the way from the lake to the Holiknuk, nowdisappeared; the goshawk, a very frequent visitornear our camps farther up, came no longer, andthe magpie, seen about Sikmiut, was absent also.Indeed, there was little animal life of any kindon this stretch of the river. At Sikmiut andlater at Mamtrelich we were told that in formertimes the moose and the caribou came in largenumbers to this country, but that of late yearsthey had not been seen. September ist came in calm and clear with an124
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A KUSKWOGAMIUT MAX, SHOWING LABRETS AND EARRINGS unruffled river stretching away in the brightsunshine and reflecting the banks. As we paddled along, the river spread out untilit seemed miles wide with islands and low head-lands, while the current became imperceptible.It seemed at this point as if we were on a largelake rather than a river. By our calculations we felt that we should benow near the native village of Mamtrelich andthe Bethel Mission, but we were uncertain whetherit would prove to be one days journey or two ormore. Early in the afternoon we saw a smallvillage of three huts on the left bank and paddledtowards it. We found one man at home stand-ing on the shore to meet us as we landed. Hemade the sign of welcome, but that seemed tobe all we could get out of him. By means of mysmall Innuit vocabulary and by gesture we triedto bring it home to this fellow that we wantedto know what was the name of his village, howfar it was to the next village, how far it was toMamtrelich, h

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