grounding on the bottom and pushing the sand in a ridge before them, until the ridge rises above the ocean. Between these parallel ridges is a lake extending nearly the entire length of the peninsula. Formerly the cape extended still farther into the ocean, but one year the ice pack came along with such force as to cut the end off, sweeping away with it a number of underground houses.

For three days we lay at anchor riding out a southern gale. Ten days later (July 28), at the same place, in a similar storm, the Thomas Pope, having not yet finished discharging her freight was driven into the breakers and wrecked, and her crew was received on board the revenue cutter by Capt. Healy. On Monday, July 21, the storm having abated, the ship was moved nearer the village and I went ashore to inspect the school building, which was in process of erection by Capt. Haviside and the volunteering carpenters who had preceded us from Cape Prince of Wales, where Capt. Healy had remained to finish up the work on that school building. Capt. Healy sent his carpenter and a number of sailors on shore to assist in the work. By night the building was finished and ready for occupancy. This is the second of our new schools in the Arctic. It is a contract school under the supervision of the Mission Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The teacher is John B. Driggs, M. D. The advisability of the establishment of a school at this point was represented to me last fall by Lieut. Commander Charles H. Stockton, U. S. Navy, who had just returned from a cruise on this coast. Bringing the matter to the attention of Hon. W. T. Harris, LL. D., United States Commissioner of Education, and through him to the honorable Secretary of the Interior, I had the privilege of securing the establishment of schools for the Arctic Eskimo at that place.

While at Point Hope I visited the native village, but few of the people being home. I also visited the cemetery; the dead, tied up in deer and walrus skin blankets, are laid on platforms above the reach of dogs and wild beasts. The present population is about 300. But in the year 1800, when this was the leading tribe on the Arctic coast, the village is supposed to have had a population of about 2,000. In that year their power was broken by a great land and sea fight near Cape Seppings, between them and the Nooatoks of the interior. In this disastrous battle their leading hunters being killed, a famine set in which carried away half of the remaining inhabitants. During the day a number of natives came on board. Among them were three from Cape Prince of Wales. Last winter while out on the ice after seals, the ice broke loose from the shore and floated out to sea, carrying them with it. They were on the ice drifting helplessly about in the Arctic Ocean for a month or six weeks, when the floe finally went ashore at Cape Thompson, 150 miles north of where they started from. The party of five were reduced to the greatest straits for food, even eating up their boots. One died on the ice, and a second soon after landing, leaving three to be returned on the cutter to their friends and homes. Last winter two men on the ice hunting were drifted away from this place and have never been heard from.

Four ships have been wrecked here in late years. The Louisa and the bark John Howland in 1883; the Thomas Pope in 1890, and the Little Ohio in 1888. In connection with the latter wreck, the officers and 30 men were drowned. Among those that were saved was a sailor, who took a position at the whaling station. Last winter while en route from Cape Lisburne coal mines to Point Hope, he froze his feet so badly that mortification set in. Upon the arrival of the Bear he was received on board for medical attendance, and his toes were amputated by the surgeon.

In 1887 a San Francisco firm established a whaling station several miles from the village, the influence of which has been demoralizing. The natives are now recruiting their numbers by purchasing children from the interior tribes, which children, as they grow up, become a part of the tribe. The market price for a child is a seal skin bag of oil, or a suit of old clothes.

Having attended to everything that was necessary at Point Hope, and paid off the natives who assisted in the erection of the schoolhouse, our mail was sent over to the Thomus Pope, which was soon to sail for San Francisco, and at 10 o'clock a. m. on the 22d of July we sailed north with a fair wind, passing Cape Lisburne at 1:35 p. m. From Cape Lisburne the coast turns to the eastward at almost a right angle, the general trend being to the northeast until Point Barrow, the most northern limit of the continent, is reached. Cape Lisburne, 849 feet high, is a bold bluff of flint and limestone, abounding with fossil shells and marine animals. It is also in its season a noted rookery for birds. The immediate vicinity is said to be the flower garden of the Arctic (KoogMoote) on account of the number and variety of the wild flowers. From Cape Lisburne there is a uniform descent and breaking down of the hills for 50 miles

to Cape Beaufort. At Cape Beaufort is the last point where the hills reach the coast. Soon after leaving the cape, the ice has pushed up the sand, forming a shingle or outer coast, running parallel with the real coast. This outer coast is a strip of sand with a varying width of 900 to 1,000 feet, about 6 feet above the level of the sea, and extending 120 miles north. The body of water inclosed between the two coasts is from 2 to 6 miles wide. From Cape Lisburne to Cape Beaufort are extensive coal mines, at which some of the steam whalers replenish their exhausted supplies. This season over 500 tons have been mined by the whalers. At Cape Beaufort the geological formation is sandstone, inclosing petrified wood and rushes, with veins of coal. Drift coal was found on the beach almost

up to Point Barrow. During the night the wind gradually grew stronger until towards morning, when we encountered a heavy southwest gale, causing the ship to roll until it was almost impossible to keep in bed.

At 11 o'clock a. m., on the 24th of July, we were in the midst of floating ice, and at noon anchored off Cape Collie. Soon the musquitoes began to swarm on board, and the captain moved his anchorage farther out to sea.

We were again in the midst of the whaling fleet, and at the edge of the ice pack which prevented farther progress to the north. The Arctic "pack" is the name given to that large body of perpetual solid ice in the Arctic Ocean extending from the coast of Alaska across to Siberia. Its southern limit is constantly

changing with the severity of the season, and the course of winds and currents. Its southern edge is also irregular, sometimes containing openings or canals extending into the pack for miles, these are called "leads." A wider and shorter opening is called a pocket."

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In August, 1778, Capt. Cook found the southern edge of the pack resting on Icy Cape, 40 miles south of our present anchorage. It was a compact wall of ice, 10 feet above the water and from 70 to 90 feet under the surface, extending west of north and east by south, from continent to continent. In 1826 Capt. Beechey did not meet it until near Cape Smyth, 120 miles farther north. August 20, 1879, the fleet reached the pack at Blossom Shoals, off Icy Cape. August 10, 1885, the pack was at our present anchorage. Cape Collie is at the north side of the entrance to Wainwright Inlet, an extensive lagoon into which empties a considerable river from the interior. After lunch I accompanied Lieut. Dimock and the interpreter ashore, on a visit to the native village of Koog-moote. On account of the shore ice making out some distance from the beach, we had great difficulty in landing and still greater danger in embarking again. Along the outer edge was a mass of detached pieces of ice that under the influence of the waves were bobbing up and down and constantly shifting their position. The greatest care had to be taken lest our small boat should be caught and crushed. And when we got upon the ice and attempted to make our way from one cake to another the peril was still greater. Although our heads and faces were covered with musquito netting, the little insects managed to get inside and make our stay ashore a torment. Arctic ptarmigan were abundant. The first party of natives we met were eating reindeer meat. Taking a large chunk in the left hand and fastening upon it with the teeth, a knife held in the right hand was passed upward close to the mouth, severing a piece as large as could be conveniently chewed. I think a beginner at this method of carving meat would slice off the end of his nose.

I counted twelve underground huts in the village, none of which were occupied. The larger portion of the people were inland hunting reindeer. The few remaining at the village were living in tents, their winter houses being partly filled with water. While on shore I walked out on the ice to the hull of the George & Susan. This bark was wrecked on the 10th of August, 1885, together with the Mabel. Three of the crew were drowned in getting ashore, and some of those that escaped were in an exceedingly critical condition for several hours after they were rescued by Capt. Healy and taken aboard of the revenue cutter Corwin, which was anchored in the neighborhood.

Early on July 25 we started in search of the "ice pack," which we found 5 miles away. After skirting the pack a short distance, the captain returned in shore and anchored off Point Belcher. At this point is another small village (She-rah-rack) of twelve winter hunts, which I visited. But three or four families remained in the place, the others being off hunting the reindeer.

On July 26 it snowed nearly all day. At 11 p. m. the captain again started out to examine the condition of the ice. After skirting the edge of the pack for some distance we returned and anchored of Cape Franklin. In the afternoon the captain changed his anchorage a few miles north, off Sea Horse Islands. While lying here at anchor Capt. Healy secured for me two nests and eggs of the eider duck.

We are now in the midst of the Arctic graveyard of ships. In the last 20 years from 75 to 80 vessels connected with the whale trade have been wrecked on the American side of the Arctic coast, and from 15 to 20 on the Asiatic side. In 1871 33 ships were caught in the ice near here and abandoned, and 1,200 sailors were cast helplessly on this sterile coast, with an insufficient supply of provisions, and for 100 miles the ice pack was solid between them and escape. There was then no refuge station at Point Barrow, but fortunately they were able to get south along the coast until they met some ships that took them off. Again, in 1876, 13 whaling vessels were caught in the ice off these same Sea Horse Islands and drifted helplessly to the north of Point Barrow, where they were abandoned. To the northward the Daniel Webster was crushed in the ice in 1881, the steamer North Star in 1882, and schooner Clara Light in 1885. A little to the south of this point the bark John Howland was stove in by the ice off Point Lay in 1883, steamer Bow Head off Point Belcher in 1884, the Mabel and George and Susan off Point Collie. A little west of this point the barks Mt. Wollaston and Vigilant were caught in the ice in 1879, and no tidings have ever come from vessels or crews. On the 8th of August, 1888, the barks Fleetwing, Young Phoenix, Mary and Susan, and schooner Jane Gray were lost in the ice off Point Barrow, 160 of their crew being rescued by Capt. Healy, who was in the vicinity. It is when a ship reaches the ice that extreme watchful

ness and care is demanded; the smallest change of wind, currents, or ice being noted and weighed, which means to the commanding officer days and nights of sleepless anxiety. It was in one of these seasons of anxiety that Capt. Healy spent 75 consecutive hours in the crow's nest at the masthead, his food being taken up to him.

On the 30th of July we were getting tired of our enforced delay. We had been a week off Point Belcher and Sea Horse Islands, waiting for the ice pack to swing off the shore and let us forward. That night, as we were upon deck watching the midnight sun, a large field of shore ice was seen drifting toward us. For a little the good ship held fast as the great cakes broke on her bow and ground against her sides; but by and by the pressure became too great and she dragged her anchor, and commenced drifting toward the shoals. Steam was at once raised, the anchor weighed, and the ship set at work bucking her way through the ice. Once under way the captain concluded to go on until again stopped by the ice. Threading his way carefully through masses of floating ice, he reached and anchored on the morning of July 31 off the village of Ootkeavie, near Point Barrow. Upon communicating with the shore it was found that the ice had left two days previous, and that the first vessels had arrived a few hours before. Masses of ice were still floating by in the current and grounded icebergs lay between the ship and the beach. Ootkeavie, next to Cape Prince of Wales, is the largest village on the Arctic coast, numbering about 300 people. In 1881, 1882, and 1883 it was occupied as one of the stations of the International Polar Expedition. The house built by Lieut. P. H. Ray for the use of the expedition has been leased to the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, and is used by them as a whaling station and trading post, the gentleman in charge being Mr. John W. Kelly, who has given the world an interesting monograph on the Arctic Eskimo, together with an Eskimo-English vocabulary. Both were published last spring by the United States Bureau of Education. This is also the location of the Government refuge station for shipwrecked whalers.

Within the past 10 years some 2,000 sailors have been wrecked on this Arctic coast. So far they have been fortunate in finding vessels within reach to carry them south to civilization, but the occasion is liable to come any season when they will be compelled to winter here. This to a large body of men means slow starvation and death. They could not subsist on the country, and there is no adequate provision within 1,500 or 2,000 miles; and when the long Arctic winter sets in no power on earth could reach them with help. To provide against any such horrible tragedy Capt. Healy early saw the necessity of having an ample supply of provisions stored at some central place in the Arctic. The plan grew and took shape in his own mind. He enlisted his friends and the men interested in the whaling industry, particularly in New Bedford and San Francisco, and finally, after many vexatious delays that would have discouraged a less persistent man, Congress voted the money for the erection of the buildings and the procuring of the provisions.

Last year Capt. Healy brought up the materials and erected the main building, which is a low one-story building, 30 by 48 feet in size. The walls, roof, and floor are made double, as a protection against the intense cold of this high northern latitude in winter. It will accommodate 50 men comfortably; it can shelter 100 if necessary. The house has provisions for 100 men 12 months, and is apmirably adapted for its purpose. This year Capt. Healy had on board the material for the construction of a storehouse, also an additional supply of provisions, clothing, and coal.

The Ootkeavie is one of the villages selected by the United States Bureau of Education for the establishment of a school, the contract for which was given by Dr. Harris to the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church. The money necessary for its establishment was generously contributed by Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, of New York. The teacher is Prof. L. M. Stevenson, of Versailles, Ohio, who reached the place on July 30, 1890. Owing to the shortness of the time and the great distance from the source of supplies, and the dangers of Arctic navigation, I was able to secure material this season for only two of the school buildings and teachers' residences to be erected in the Arctic. These were placed at Cape Prince of Wales and Point Hope. Next season I hope to erect one at Point Barrow. In the mean time, through the courtesy of Capt. Healy, representing the Treasury Department, I secured a room for the school in one of the Government buildings. This is the most northern school in America, and with but one exception in the world, being in latitude 71°23' north. At this point the trend of the continent turns to the eastward. However, on this point the ice has pushed a low ridge of sand, which exIends from 8 to 10 miles farther north. On the end of this sand spit is a small village called Nu

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wuk. On the sand spit midway between the villages is a hunting station, where the natives congregate for weeks in summer to kill ducks, as they pass to and fro from water to water over the sand spit. Thousands upon thousands are killed here every season.

On the day of our arrival I spent the whole time on shore arranging for the school. That evening the wind that had been freshening up all afternoon increased to a gale. The barometer was going down, down, down; heavy masses of ice were drifting by when the captain gave orders to weigh anchor and make a lee on the northeast side of Point Barrow, whither 16 vessels of the whaling fleet has preceded us. In a similar storm last summer, shortly after the Bear left her anchorage at Ootkeavie, the ice came in and piled up 30 feet high on the very spot the vessel had left. The storm proved the severest we had encountered this season, changing the configuration of the coast line for miles. At Ootkeavie, 20 tons of coal just landed for the use of the Government school, was either swept out to sea or buried deep under the sand-no trace of it could be found.

All day long, on the 1st of August, the gale howled and shrieked through the rigging, but the Bear rode it out in safety. In the evening a new danger presented itself. It was found that the great ice pack, which was only 5 to 7 miles distant was closing in upon the shore, and soon we would be prisoners shut up in an ice trap. From this there would be no escape until the wind changed and drove the ice again off shore. This was the condition of things on August 1, 1888. A number of the whalers had shifted, for protection, their anchorage from the west side of Point Barrow to the east side. The wind that had increased to a gale suddenly veered around from the southwest to the north, causing a heavy sea to break upon the bar. At 9 o'clock that night, the schooner Jane Gray, parted her cables and drifted against an iceberg-knocking a large hole in her side. She filled rapidly and sank, the crew taking to the small boats. The next to slip her moorings, was the bark Phoenix. She struck the bar and sunk. Her crew drifted about in small boats for six hours in that terrible storm before they were picked up. Then the barks Mary and Susan, and Fleetwing went on to the bar and pounded to pieces. Several other vessels parted their cables, sustaining more or less danger.

In that fearful storm, when the waters of the Arctic were lashed into billows of foam, hurling masses of ice about like driving snow flakes, in the midst of snapping chains and crushing spars and tattered sails, when it seemed certain destruction to lower a small boat, the revenue cutter Bear rode the storm in safety, and her trained crew, under the direction of Cap. Healy, were venturing their lives and performing prodigies of valor in rescuing shipwrecked sailors. When the storm abated, 160 rescued men were on the decks of the Bear. On this occasion, fortunately for us, the storm abated before the ice reached us, and August 2 gave us a beautiful afternoon, of which I availed myself to go ashore.

The western and northern coast of America terminates at Point Barrow in latitude 71° 23′ north and longitude 156° 10' west. Beyond this the coast trends to the eastward and southward. On the east side of the point is the native village of Nuwuk, which consists of a number of underground houses. But few families were home at the time of our visit, and they were mainly living in tents outside of their winter huts. The first white man to visit this place was Master Elson, of H. M. S. Bossom (Capt Beechey's expedition), in August, 1826. One hundred and forty-six miles to the eastward in Return Reef, the westernmost point reached by Sir John Franklin in his journey to form a junction with Capt. Beechey's expedition. The next visit by white men, was that of Capt. Simpson, of the Hudson Bay Company, who, in 1837, made the journey from the Mackenzie River.

During the winters of 1852, 1853, and 1854 H. M. S. Plover wintered in Elson Bay to the east of the point. Now a United States revenue marine vessel and many whaling ships visit the place annnally.

Soon after returning to the Bear from the village, the captain was visited by Capt. Sherman, of the steam whaler William Lewis, and informed that the tender of the New Bedford whaling fleet, the bark Thomas Pope, which we had left but a few days before at anchor at Point Hope, was wrecked in the breakers at that point, on the 28th of July, and that the crew wished to be received on board the Government vessel and taken back to civilization. Consent having been obtained, the ten shipwrecked men were soon after sent on board. As the captain had on board the Bear the materials for a Government storehouse at the Point Barrow refuge station, he concluded to return at once to that place, and discharge his freight, that more comfortable quarters might be made for the shipwrecked sailors.