Kodiak Island

“ A second part of the expedition under Tchirikof discovered land at 56° N. L. In 1788 Synd went along the Kamtchatka shore to 66° and the next year landed, it is supposed, on the American coast. Krenitzin and Levaschef discovered Fox Island in 1768. In 1781-3 Gregory Schelikof and Ivan Gollikoff, with a group of fur traders explored the American coast from the extreme western point of Alaska to Prince Williams Sound, devoting especial attention to Kodiak Island. A Russian establishment was founded at Cook's River in 1787. ”

“ There’s none bigger 81 than the big brown bear of Alaska. Some say he isn’t so fierce as the grizzly, but he is nearly twice as big, and there’s certain seasons that he’ll fight at the drop of the hat, as the sayin’ goes. I never see one so far from the coast before. He’s called a kodiak because he hangs out down on Kodiak Island and on the Alaska and Kenai peninsulas.”
“Yes,” said Skookum Joe, “he likes salmon better than a Siwash, and he set on the river bank and fish for himself all day long.” ”

“ To make the trip to Katmai, we secured the services of Mr. Albert Johnson, of Uyak, who undertook to land us at Katmai and come and take us off again when we had finished our exploration. Mr. Johnson proved himself not only trustworthy, but a first-class seaman and a man of very good judgment as well, all of which qualities are essential in one who would successfully navigate the dangerous waters of Shelikof Strait, which lies between Kodiak Island and the mainland, for it has justly acquired the reputation of being one of the most treacherous pieces of water in the world. ”

“ Kodiak contains but a scanty population, the inhabitants are scattered through eight or ten villages upon the coast, and are employed in collecting furs for the Russian American Company. These villages, in general, consist of [75] a few Indian families, who are under the charge of a Russian overseer.
No part of the island is cultivated, except a garden or two near the town, and a little barley at the village of Superscoff. ”

“ You will be at once conveyed to Kodiak Island, off the south coast of Alaska, and landed there. Once every six months you will be visited by a steamer, which will supply you with the necessaries of life, and the original penalty of death will be the immediate punishment of any one of you who attempts to return to a world of which you from this moment cease to be citizens. ”

“ The portion of the country which is at present visited by excursionists is the southeastern coast line and the archipelago of the Sitkan Islands or Alexander group. If one desires to reach the vast country and islands lying to the west and northwest, the proper way to do so is to sail direct from San Francisco for Unalaska and Kodiak. The last named island lies south of Cook’s Inlet, one of the most remarkable volcanic regions in the Territory. Sitka is five hundred and fifty miles to the eastward of Kodiak. ”

“ At this writing, in the village of Afognak, on the island of Kodiak, with a population of three hundred natives, over one hundred acres of rich land is planted in potatoes and turnips, and has yielded annually a large crop of excellent vegetables for three or four consecutive years. If it were necessary we could point to several other successful agricultural developments in islands even less favorably situated than is the Kodiak group. Nevertheless, there are plenty of writers who assert that domestic vegetables will not grow in Alaska. One has no patience with such perversion of facts. ”

“ Potatoes grow and do well, although the natives have not the slightest idea of how they should be cultivated, which goes to show they would thrive excellently if properly cared for. Cabbages, turnips, and the various garden vegetables have great success, and to judge from the soil and climate there is no reason why everything that succeeds in Scotland should not succeed at Kodiak. Pasture land is so excellent on the island, and the hay harvest so abundant, that our countrymen would here, just as in Iceland, make sheep breeding and cattle-raising their chief method of livelihood. ”

“ The heaviest annual rainfall occurs at Nutchek, with a decided drop to Fort Tongass; then, Orca, Juneau, Sitka, and Fort Liscum. Fort Wrangell, Killisnoo, and Kodiak stand next; while Tyonok, Skaguay, and Kenai record only from fifteen to twenty-five inches.
Kadiak Island is a hundred miles long by about forty in width. Its relief is comparatively low—from three to five thousand feet—and it has many broad, open valleys, gently rounded slopes, and wooded dells. ”

“ Steele admitted. “Once it was the center of the Alaskan fur trade. The Russians settled in the town of Kodiak in 1784, and it wasn’t until much later that they moved their headquarters to the mainland.
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“Nowadays it’s hard to make a living on Kodiak. I think the only major occupation is salmon fishing. There’s rich farming land at the south end of the island, but the natives have always had difficulty raising sheep and cattle. Too many hungry bears around.”
Jerry squinted down the barrel of an imaginary rifle. “Well, there’ll be a few less after we get there, eh, Sandy boy?” ”

“ Beering's Foggy Island. A beautiful Bird described. Kodiak and the Schumagin Islands. A Russian Letter brought on Board by a Native. Conjectures about it. Rock Point. Halibut Island. A Volcano Mountain. Providential Escape. Arrival of the Ships at Oonalaschka. Intercourse with the Natives there. Another Russian Letter. Samganoodha Harbour described, 306
VIII. Progress Northward, after leaving Oonalashka. The Islands Oonella and Acootan. Ooneemak. Shallowness of the Water along the Coast. Bristol Bay. Round Island. Calm Point. Cape Newenham. Lieutenant Williamson lands, and his Report. ”

“ They liberally supplied us with berries and oil, bear’s flesh, and dried salmon. Soon after leaving Schutcum, we doubled a bluff head, and opened up a strait [12] that separates Kodiak from the main land; a short way beyond it passed a narrow entrance leading into a spacious bay or inlet; the pilot told us that it stretched twenty or thirty versts [13] into the [54] country, and afforded an excellent shelter for ships. We then stood over to Kodiak, which we reached in the evening; the wind W. S. W. with fine weather; we run along shore during the night. ”

“ A custom common to the Solomon Islands and the Eastern groups is that of taking a new canoe about to show it with a large party who receive presents wherever they visit. A great deal of trading is carried on between the various islands of each group; in two places the people live by commerce and manufactures. Rowa, one of the Banks' group, has but a tiny population on one of the islets of its reef. They still mainly obtain their food from Saddle Island and Vanua Lava, carrying over in exchange fish and the money that they make at home. ”

“ COCOS TO DURBAN
“You have seen people of all sorts. Makes my mouth water....” The Keeling-Cocos Islands are the perfect model of a South Seas atoll. About twenty small, low-lying islets, of coral and sand topped with palm trees, form an oval about a lagoon of some 5 by 10 miles. Only three of the islands are inhabited: Direction Island, off which we had dropped anchor, which exists solely for the purpose of operating the British Cable and Wireless establishment ”

“ Some twenty-four persons were counted through the glasses, and were described as copper-coloured, with black hair; they followed the ship as if prepared to oppose a landing. The reef was covered with trees, amongst which the coconut palm was conspicuous. Cook gave it the name of Lagoon Island; it is now known as Vahitahi, and is one of the Low Archipelago. Being now in Wallis's track, islands were sighted almost every day, and almost all appeared inhabited, but owing to the want of safe anchorage, no communication could be held with the natives. ”

“ An island, about a mile in length, lies across the entrance in a north-westerly direction, which so thoroughly protects the inner waters of the inlet from westerly storms, that I have called it Protection Island.* There is a canoe passage between it and a point of rocks projecting from the southern shore of the inlet, and a small island close to its south-west side. Three streams flow into the inlet—one at its head, called Athlow river, and two on its south side, the largest, from forty to fifty feet in width, rising in Sook Lake. ”

“ Curiously enough, there was another seal who thought that she would put off marrying till the next year, and Kotick danced the Fire-dance with her all down Lukannon Beach the night before he set off on his last exploration.
This time he went westward, because he had fallen on the trail of a great shoal of halibut, and he needed at least one hundred pounds of fish a day to keep him in good condition. He chased them till he was tired, and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of the ground-swell that sets in to Copper Island. ”

“ The approach to Kadiak from the ocean is striking, because it and the numerous islets and islands that join it closely are mountainous and hilly, with many lofty peaks that have plateaux and ravines full of eternal snow. It is not often seen clearly, however, along its full extent of wild topography, on account of clouds, fog and boisterous weather, which terrifies the navigator, driving him from its vision. It is, however, an island that affords the greatest number of safe and snug harbors, and has no rival as the most enjoyable place for the traveller to visit. ”

“ Upon their return to Kadiak and their favorable report of their lone, beautiful, and sea-surrounded retreat, a vessel was despatched in search of it, but without success.
To this day it is "Lost" Island. Many have looked for it, but in vain. It is the sailor's dream, and is supposed to be rich in treasure. Its streams are yellow with gold, its mountains green with copper glance; ambergris floats on the waters surrounding it; and all the seals and sea-otters that have been frightened out of the north sun themselves, unmolested, upon its rocks and its floating strands of kelp. ”

“ The heavy forestation of the Northwest Coast ceases finally at the Kenai Peninsula. Kadiak Island is sparsely wooded in sylvan groves, with green slopes and valleys between; but the islands lying beyond are bare of trees. Sometimes a low, shrubby willow growth is seen; but for the most part the thousands of islands are covered in summer with grasses and mosses, which, drenched by frequent mists and rain, are of a brilliant and dazzling green. ”

“ Captain Cook continued to traverse these icy seas till the 29th. He then explored the coasts in Behring’s Strait both in Asia and America; and on October 2 again anchored at Oonalaska to refit; and here they had communication with some Russians, who undertook to convey charts and maps, etc., to the English Admiralty, which they faithfully fulfilled. On the 26th the ships quitted the harbor of Samganoodah, and sailed for the Sandwich Islands, Captain Cook purposing to remain there a few months, and then return to Kamtschatka. The island of Mowee was discovered on November 26 ”

“ On the 16th April, the Russian captain arrived at the Dog Island of Schouten, which he called Doubtful Island, to mark the difference in his estimate of its position and that attributed to it by earlier navigators. Kotzebue gives it S. lat. 44° 50' and W. long. 138° 47'.
During the ensuing days were discovered the desert island of Romantzoff, so named in honour of the promoter of the expedition; Spiridoff Island, with a lagoon in the centre; the Island Oura of the Pomautou group, the Vliegen chain of islets, and the no less extended group of the Kruzenstern Islands. ”

“ Fish are so plentiful here that a child can catch as many as it wants. Even a Kanaka child would eat only certain kinds, but to the Snark's crew they all tasted alike; and we ate whatever we could catch—even shark, and the tentacles of the octopus.
On one side of Cocoanut Island is a large sandy beach that is fine for surf bathing. On the other side, the large lava rocks go almost straight down, making a fine place for diving. Nearly every afternoon I would go over to the island for a swim, and usually had the whole beach to myself, except Sundays, when the island was crowded with bathers. ”

“ In the year 1816, in the ship Rurik, I discovered the chain of islands called by their inhabitants, Radack. It consists of several groups lying near each other, and these again of many small islands united by reefs and surrounding great basins of water. All these being formed by the coral insect, are very low, and still but thinly covered with soil, so that they want the luxuriance of vegetation usual in this climate; their population is scanty; and the most important island of a group commonly gives its name to the whole. ”

“ From where the sub-Arctic waters wash the shores of Cook's Inlet, Alaska, to Cooktown in the lap of the Antipodean tropics, and Mount Cook raising its glacier-seamed sides above the bleak bluffs of New Zealand, there is hardly an important island whose strand his tireless foot did not press, and scarce a lump of coral rearing its head above the restless Pacific surges that his keen eye did not [38] sweep. Nasty sailing, you think it, in these days of charts and steamers, when the lifeboats are swept from the hurricane deck off Cook's Inlet on your run to Nome ”

“ Eleven of them walked along the beach abreast of the ship, with poles or pikes in their hands which reached twice as high as themselves. As they so walked they were without clothing; but after the ship had drawn off from the island it was seen that they covered themselves with some light-coloured material. To Cook and his mariners, who for a long time had seen nothing but water and sky, except the cold hills of Tierra del Fuego, these coconut groves of Lagoon Island in tropical latitudes seemed a terrestrial paradise. ”