Viewing page 21 of 48

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

approaching storms.

The surface of the bay was scarcely rippled by the faint breezes and the sun poured its mellow light down the valley in the early forenoon and animated some sprightly song sparrows Melospiza insignis to flit about the wharf with a stop now & then on the projecting end of a pile or on the roof of the warehouses and send forth its short but loud & not unmusical notes. Ravens were curvetting and whirling about croaking drawing corls & otherwise deporting themselves in a ridiculously comical way. In the PM - I went on shore & stopped to tea with Mr. Smith & wife at ACCos place where I enjoyed some very fine large meaty Huckleberries - with excellent cream produced by the several cows whose presence on the hill slopes above the place gives a pastoral air to the vicinage. About the Doors of many of the aleut Houses strut chickens and a flock of large tame ducks were seen preening their feathers on the side of the creek - Fronting the bay & clustered about the large houses occupied by the agents of the fur companies are the numerous small cottages of the sea otter hunters - These are neat frame houses built by the fur companies & either sold outright at cost to the best hunters or else the hunters are permitted to occupy them rent free

Transcription Notes:
GG: This is a treat to read & transcribe, lovely descriptions. Some letter "e"s are written as typical cursive, some like backwards "3", whether at start or middle of word. 1. checked Genus species of the song sparrow mentioned to help with transcription spelling, confirmed Melospiza insignis in southern Alaska; 2. ACCOs likely refers to Alaska Commercial Co retailer / general merchandise since 1867 (ref: https://www.alaskacommercial.com/about-us ) I deleted formatting details (page breaks and underlining) per transcription guidelines -parrish501