Transcription:
2 01014 When we were still 50 miles from here a linnet came to meet us flew about the rigging then a heavy burly bumblebee
as if to tell us about the sunlight guide us to it in safety. On the day of our arrival from Plover? Bay? a little steamer
came into the harbor from the upper Yukon towing three large boats loaded with traders Indians furs All the furs they had
gathered during the winter. We went across to the store room of the company to see them, a queer lot they were whites Indians
as they unloaded their furs. It was worth while to look at the furs too Big bundles of bear skins brown black, wolf, fox,
beaver, marten, ermine, moose wolverine wild cats many of them with claws spread hair on end as if still alive fighting for
their lives. Some of the Indian chiefs the wildest animals of all, the more notable of the traders not at all wild sane in
dress but rather gentle refined in in margin: 1000 miles on this? steamer? whenever I like, his wife a nice lady sends you
an invitation to come make your home here while I am away until far down between the rocking tussocks This covering is composed
of a plush of mosses chiefly sphagnum about 8 inches on a foot deep resting on ice that never melts, with about half of the
surface of the moss is covered with white yellow red gray lichens the other half is planted more or less with grasses sedges
heathwarts creeping willows a flowering plant here there such as prinula purple spiked pedicularis. Out in this grand solitude,-solitary
as far as man is concerned we met a great many of the arctic grouse, ptarmigan cackling screaming at our approach like old
laying hens, also plovers snipes curlews sand pipers loons in ponds, ducks geese finches wrens about the crater rocks at its
base; We leave here for another cruise in the Arctic this evening hoping to return to this point in time to send letters by
the Alaska Com Co. steamer St Paul which will leave about July 12. But in case we should be delayed by the ice I thought I
would write now leave it here in charge of Mr Laurence the Co s agent. He has given me an invitation to go up the Yukon
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