Various

“ On the highest peak at the source of Ikuk creek, a southerly tributary of the Pitmegea, are the ruins of a hut and smaller outhouse, the like of which has never been met with in Northwestern Alaska. Above the grass line, past perpetual beds of snow, up where wild storms sweep away ice, snow, and soil, where only a few gray lichens are to be seen, man, at some former time, has placed a habitation. ”

“ When a hurricane is moving along the equatorial limits of a trade-wind region, there is a belt of intensified trades to windward of its track: not until the barometer has fallen about six-tenths of an inch it is safe to assume that, because the trade-wind increases in force and remains steady in direction, you are on the track of the storm. By attempting too early to cross its track, running free as soon as the wind begins to freshen, you are liable to plunge directly into the vortex of the hurricane. ”

“ Sometimes a long line of heavy floe-ice from the pack grounds in the shallow water near the shore during northerly winds, pressed from behind by the force and weight of the entire northern pack. It is gradually forced up, ploughing its way through the bottom, at the same time rising gradually along the ascent of the bottom toward the land. The effect of this solid wall of cold and relentless blue ice slowly rising and advancing upon those imprisoned between the ice and the shore is one of the most sublime and terrible things that can be experienced. ”

“ The wind is always a subject of constant watchfulness and anxiety in this part of the Arctic; it virtually makes the currents and brings down the ice, or sends it off and clears a narrow lane along the shore-line. A northerly shift of wind caused a desire to push on, and passing on we sighted Return reef again and skirted along the long and narrow island which now bears the name of the Thetis. Passing the mouth of the Colville we steamed at a good rate of speed through Harrison bay and found there the wind blowing strong from the west, bringing much ice with it and accompanied by a cold fog. ”

“ The violent struggle for the mastery so disturbed the world that the anatomy of the people and the surface of the earth were both changed. Light being upon the earth, men began to catch whales in the sea and to carry the flesh and bones to their mountain-homes. One family wandering over the country recently risen from the sea came down upon Point Hope: finding vegetation springing up and whales abundant, they built a hut and made it their home. ”

“ It will be seen that the probable bearing of the center, as indicated by the direction of the wind at a single station, is the great question, so far as the navigator is concerned. There are men who want and must have a hard-and-fast rule,—an 8-point, a 10-point, or a 12-point rule—something to act on without thought, while every nerve is strained to save the ship's spars, sails, boats, engines, and cargo, from damage or destruction. ”

“ The light being indifferent, candles are welcomed as a great improvement and a marked relief to the over-taxed eyes of the men and women during the long nights of the Arctic winter.
During our stay at Point Hope we found much of interest in connection with the Eskimos living there. Their long winters give them an opportunity to keep alive their traditions in their daily meetings in the council-house, and they give an account of their early days in this wise: In the beginning the people had heads like ravens, with eyes in the upper part of their breasts. ”

“ Drift-ice was constantly passed, but fortunately so scattered as not to form any obstruction to free navigation.
On the next day we enjoyed a superb Arctic summer's day, and began to fall in with the whaling fleet on the way north to Point Barrow. Fifteen vessels were sighted and passed, most of them vessels under sail. Rounding the dangerous Blossom shoals and the Icy cape of Captain Cook, we stood to the northeast, finding generally clear water, with scattered drift-ice. Upon the floes we found great quantities of walrus, in some cases stretched at full length, sound asleep. ”

“ In the more rugged places mining camps may be met with when everything else fails.
At present these mountain valleys are the more thickly inhabited portions of the country, both because of the mines and because farming pursuits are more cheaply and conveniently followed owing to the greater abundance of small and easily controlled streams of water, which render irrigation possible even by the poorest settler. Only in the southern portions of Gallatin and Park Counties are the mountains so forbidding as to be uninhabited, and then in limited areas only. ”

“ This hurricane was one of the most severe on record off our Atlantic coast, and, though much larger than a hurricane in the tropics, similar evidence can be presented to show that the 8-point rule is seldom a safe guide for obtaining the bearing of the center; a 10-point or even a 12-point rule is generally better, although the 8-point rule is fairly correct if applied to the direction of the low clouds, rather than the wind. The long sweep of NE'ly winds along the coast, when there is a hurricane below Hatteras, is a very characteristic and important feature. ”

“ This ice-cliff is about twenty-five miles from the mouth of the Pitmegea, at a place where the hills run their spurs out to the banks of the river, closing the picturesque valley that stretches away to the sea-coast in an almost unbroken width of a mile. A glacier faces southward, and receives the full benefit of the sunlight during the short polar summer. Gales have deposited particles of soil and débris of plants, along with their seeds, upon the surface of the ice to a depth of from four inches to a foot. ”

“ In Montana the irrigation problem presents some features which are scarcely encountered in any other country.
Usually irrigation is practiced in semi-tropic and desert regions where though water is scarce, the climate is such that a great variety of agricultural products usually of the better paying varieties can be raised, in consequence of which enormous sums may be spent in irrigation works, thus imposing a heavy tax per acre on the land for their construction, and still, such is the productiveness of these regions, that the lands will yield fair profits. ”

“ The structure is conic in shape, after the manner of a Greenlander's snow-hut. This one is about seven feet in diameter. Facing its entrance is a smaller house of similar construction, most likely used as a shelter for game. Winter storms have crumbled away the roofs of both so that they have fallen in, and the fragments of stones are partially covered with soil. The whole bears the impression of age, and no natives have been found who have ever heard of it. From the summit of this peak a splendid view is obtained of the surrounding country, the Arctic ocean, and herds of passing reindeer. ”

“ Camden bay was the last wintering place of Collinson, in the Enterprise, upon his return from his search for Sir John Franklin, and here we fell in with the track of this distinguished navigator, whose cruise is so little known and whose efforts have been so much eclipsed by his fellow voyager, McClure, who has the distinction given him of being the actual discoverer of the Northwest passage, and who was, indeed, with his little body of men in 1850-1854, the first as well as the last to pass from the Pacific to the Atlantic, north of the American continent. ”

“ There irrigation practice and laws are exceedingly crude and remain so chiefly because of the abundance of water, and the ease and facility with which it can be diverted to the land; as a consequence of this latter fact the laws were framed in the most liberal spirit, declaring right of eminent domain, acknowledging the right of priority in appropriating the waters, and further stating, that any person having a ditch leading to irrigable lands may use the waters of the territory for irrigation. ”

“ Port Clarence is the best, as it is the last, harbor on the American side before reaching the Arctic, where no harbors exist worthy of the name, west of Herschel island. There is no native settlement of any size on the bay, but natives assemble here from the surrounding country and islands to trade with the whale-ships in summer. ”

“ We found that the sailing fleet had gone to the westward, after having been shut in by the ice coming down on Point Barrow and Cape Smyth for several days, during our absence. The few whalers that remained had been watching us from their crows' nests during our imprisonment, but were unable, of course, to afford us any assistance, each ship having to work out her own salvation: companion-vessels are of great service only in case of damage or abandonment. ”

“ If the cirrus plumes that radiate from the distant storm are faint and opalescent in tint, fading gradually behind a slowly thickening haze or veil, the approaching storm is an old one of large area; if of snowy whiteness, projected against a clear blue sky, it is a young cyclone of small area but great intensity. ”

“ There are no permanent settlements here or elsewhere between the vicinity of Herschel island and Point Barrow. The country is sterile, affording but little upon which to live, the sea also having little or no animal life in its waters. The Eskimos give to this part of the Arctic ocean a native name which signifies the sea where there is always ice. ”

“ We have, however, very much geography yet to learn, as individuals and as a nation; not only of countries beyond our own but particularly of our own continent and our own domain, while commercial geography is almost an unknown and forbidden study. ”

“ The shore along the entire Arctic coast of Alaska shows evidence of former glacial action, but the only glaciers to be found are in the southeastern part of the territory.
The Arctic pack, which never melts, consists of hard blue ice, made up of fields and floes of comparatively level ice, which are surrounded and interspersed with hummocks varying from ten to forty feet in height. These hummocks are formed by the broken and telescoped ice resulting from the collision and grinding together of heavy ice-floes, the hummocks being often rounded and smoothed in outline by heavy falls of snow. ”

“ As a rule the Arctic coast Eskimos are short in stature, the average height of ten men measured at Point Hope being 5 feet 5.8 inches, and of ten women, 5 feet 2.4 inches. The legs are short in comparison to the length of the body and are always much bowed, this being due to the manner in which they are carried in infancy upon their mother's back, the legs being brought tightly around under the mother's arms. The feet and hands of the women are generally well shapen and small. ”

“ Moreover, there are certain things that tend to discourage effort on the part of junior officers, even on board naval vessels: they realize that their duty is not to originate orders but to execute them, and sooner or later they get out of the habit of reflecting upon the action taken to avoid a storm or manoeuver in one, not knowing at the time what considerations lead to the action that was taken, and not always having anything brought forcibly to their attention to indicate with certainty whether the action was well-considered or ill-advised. ”

“ If a vessel encounter a hurricane, certain conclusions can be drawn from observations of the shifts of wind, the fluctuations of the barometer, the appearance of the clouds, and the direction of the ocean swell ”

“ Most of the successful irrigation enterprises undertaken in the United States owe their prosperity to the ownership and sale of lands under their canals. In order to secure a proper remuneration to the capital which provides the water, and an efficient water service to the farmer who uses it with justice to both interests, State legislation must fully define the rights and responsibilities of appropriators, the units and methods of measuring the flow of streams, granting the right of way and appointing proper officers to see that the various laws are enforced. ”

“ Water being very abundant in the smaller mountain valleys has led to great wastefulness in its use, the irrigator after applying what water his crops needed, instead of turning it back into the stream for the use of settlers lower down, generally turns his ditch loose on the open prairie and allows the water to run to waste. Then wasteful methods of applying the water to the crops are employed, and owing to the cheap and hasty construction of a vast number of small ditches the loss by seepage is very great ”

“ It is estimated that three-fourths of the remaining 75,000,000 acres not classed above as irrigable, or say 55,000,000 acres, which is nearly two-thirds of the total area of the State, will, with the increased facilities for watering live stock and for domestic use offered by the highest state of irrigation development, become valuable as grazing land, since it is naturally covered with an abundant growth of bunch grass, and only needs better facilities for watering and for the establishment of home farms, to cause it to be entirely occupied for grazing purposes. ”