CHAPTER XIV.

CAPE BLOSSOM-LOCATION AND AREA-VEGETATION -CHARACTER OF THE SOIL-A DElightful PLACE THE FRIENDS' MISSION WANING TRIBES OF THE REGION-GENERAL DESCRIPTION -NATIVE HOUSES-OBSERVATIONS OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES DECLINE OF THE FUR TRADE-DESTITUTE CONDITION OF THE NATIVES.

CAPE BLOSSOM is a narrow neck of land lying between the 66th and 67th parallels of north latitude and 161st and 163rd meridians of west longitude, separating Hotham Inlet from Kotzebue Sound. Its length is about one degree, or sixty miles, and its mean width not over five miles. The land is rolling, from one to four hundred feet above the level of the sea, dotted with many small lakes. Not a solitary tree grows on the cape. Clusters of Arctic willows, which grow to the height of five or six feet, are scattered here and there over the surface. Sixty-seven different varieties of wild flowers were found here, many of which were remarkable for their beauty. Bunch grass grows luxuriantly. measured in July reached to the heighth of 63 inches. The soil is alluvial, and by proper cultivation could be made to yield good crops

Eskimo Hair Seal Boots Some of the blades

of many kinds of vegetables and cereals. I made an excavation of four feet on the 2nd day of July and failed to find evidence of any frost.

Cape Blossom is a delightful place during the brief summer season. Here the sun shines brilliantly at 12 o'clock at night; the birds sing sweetly at the midnight hour among the low weeping willows; fishes leap merrily over the waters; white whales gambol in the bay; game birds hover around the small lakes, and the aurora borealis displays its celestial powers with unusual force and magnificence.

Stationed on the northern extremity of Cape Blossom is an ecclesiastical school and mission supported by the Society of Friends of California. Robert Samms, a layman from Los Angeles, Cal., is in charge. He is assisted in his work by his wife.

It is here at the mission where the waning tribes of the Noatak, Selawik and Kowak natives repair during the months of July and August to carry on ostensibly their long accustomed traffic in peltries. When they leave their winter quarters in the interior for their summer rendezvous on the beach they take with them everything which they possess in this world's goods. This usually consists of two or three klipmucks (dogs), one kel-e-rit (sled), two or three to-to (deer) pelts, one nar-puck-tuck

(small tent), a co-bo-rock (sein) for catching salmon, and a meager outfit of cooking utensils. The more fortunate ones who have been successful in the chase during the hunting season take with them for traffic the few peltries which they perchance may have at the time.

When they are ready to move the oo-me-ak (skin canoe) is launched. Their scanty possessions, including the dogs, are now put in the canoe, and the men, women and children follow. Every occupant of the canoe above the age of six years is furnished with a paddle (they seldom, if ever, use oars), and when all are ready tar-tung-ah (father) gives the word and they shoot out from the shore with a marvelous burst of speed, and with glad hearts and smiling faces pull away for the Sound.

Upon arriving at Kotzebue Sound each tribe has its own distinct camping grounds. These are generally from one to two miles apart. Immediately upon landing, the contents of the skin canoes are thrown out upon the beach and the canoes quickly hauled up to dry. Their small tents, some made of duck and some of skins, are then pitched, sometimes in single and sometimes in double rows along the beach, and while the petty uh-ma-liks (chiefs) and men subjects loiter about, the women bend their backs to servitude for their lords. The women do all the drudgery of the camp. They pitch the tents, draw the wood and water, prepare the sparing meals and catch, split and dry the salmon which is their principal sustenance both in summer and winter. I saw, while at the mission, a small woman with a two-year-old baby on her back, carry a sack of flour for a distance of two miles, while her lusty husband followed close at her heels with nothing but a small tin cup in his hand.

It would be a misconception, however, to infer that the women are slaves to the men, as we understand the term, for they are not. As a rule the men are kind and considerate to the women, but it is the custom of the tribe handed down for ages for the women to do this portion of the work while the men build canoes and hunt the

larger game in the

mountains.

Some

one has well said

that in studying the customs and beliefs of any particular race we should acquaint ourselves with the surrounding and influencing conditions before we proceed to pass judgment.

These nomadic tribes remain at the Sound during the summer months, leaving for the interior about the first of October. In addition to their household belongings they have now large quantities of salmon to transport to their winter quarters, the same having been caught and dried by the women during the season of the salmon run which usually commences about the 18th of July. A few, possibly, will have a little flour, sugar and molasses which they have secured from the trading schooners in exchange for pelts. Ascending the different rivers they stop at favorable

places along the banks from one to four hundred miles from the coast, and construct their winter dugouts or huts, close to the water's edge. They generally change their place of abode from year to year, thus requiring the construction of new winter quarters every fall.

The mop-te-rucks are the palatial residences of the more favored ones of the tribe. They are built of spruce logs, six to ten inches in diameter, the chinks filled and the roofs thatched with the ever present

Arctic moss. They are generally fourteen feet in length by six feet in width, and six feet high. An opening of two feet square for the admission of light is made in one of the side walls, glazed sometimes. with a transparent entrail taken from the walrus, and sometimes with a sheet of mica secured from the trading ships. A low narrow door, hung on wooden or skin hinges, faces the west. Small sheet iron stoves are frequently found in these cabins, with small pipe running up through a hole in the roof. There is only