Viewing page 62 of 109

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[preprinted]] SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1866. [[/preprinted]] 
Morning.  Get dogs together.  Joe buys a lot of fish to take down to Unalakleet. Ivan goes off and sends word that he makes me a present of the snowshoes, which necessitates my giving him a big present or flinging them in his face if he won't take it.  Joe leaves with the four Indians for Iktigalik.  The old woman sends back the payment for the skin I got the other night as she wants drill, which I have not got.  In the afternoon cross the river and scout for Mike but no signs of that gentleman or the teams.  It is very stupid staying in an Indian house with nothing to do but eat, drink, and sleep and the days only 4 hours long.

[[preprinted]] MONDAY 19 [[/preprinted]] 
Morning.  Thermometer ten below zero. Breakfast about ten A.M. soon after daybreak. Do nothing, vigorously all day.  Afternoon, go out for a short walk but find it cold and windy and come back. Pay the old woman for the skin. No signs of Mike. Sleep cold. Ivan gets back from Iktiglik and kills a deer by the way. There are about four inhabited houses here and in the summer all the Indians go down to Iktigalik on account of the musquitoes. and to catch fish for winter consumption and for the dogs.

[[preprinted]] TUESDAY 20 [[/preprinted]] 
Morning 8 below zero. After breakfast fix up our beds and go out for a walk toward Iktigalik and get cones of the spruce and tamerack. Give Amilcar some caps and he goes out and kills six beautiful black grouse. The boy arrives from Unalakleet with Francis' concertina and other things. Ivan sends in some fresh deer meat and I make a telegraph stew for supper. Make arrangements in case Mike doesn't get here tomorrow to get three dogs & a sled and push a load of flour to Ivans Barrabora. Anything rather than idleness.
[[end page]]

[[start page]]
[[preprinted]] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1866. [[/preprinted]] 
Early in the morning hear the dogs howling and the Indians sing out that Mike is coming. Get the kettle on, dress, and rush out to find six sleds, two Russians and Mike, three days from Nulato. Had hard work to get through, having to break the road and on arriving at Holtog, were out of grub, but coming back all was lovely and road OK. Ketchum sends word for me to come on but for Francis to wait for another trip which is very provoking, for him. No fresh fish or meat at Nulato. The Russians go on to Unalakleet and we look over stores & grub for the trip. Get some little fish for science get snowshoes of Ivan & give him 10 balls & caps & promise knife.

[[preprinted]] THURSDAY 22 [[/preprinted]] 30 miles
Morning up early, give Francis messages for Unalakleet load the sleds, buy fish for ourselves & Francis, start away about noon for Gesolnasopka, six sleds, six Indians and Mike besides myself.  Go for about two miles through light spruce and hackmetack woods then along open rolling plains intersected by creeks to the end of the Ulukuk mountains where we strike the woods and river at Pleasant Bluff (Gesolnasopka) where we stop at six P.M. for tea and three bags packed by Ketchum on his up trip.  River and hillside woods then till we strike a small river, cache the sleds and walk a half mile to Ivan's Barrábora where we take a

[[preprinted]] FRIDAY 23 [[/preprinted]] 23 miles
good cup of tea, bacon & biscuit & molasses, about midnight thermometer 11 below zero. Sleep under Mikes rabbit skin with him, quite warm. Morning, tea, feed dogs, load sleds and off through the valley, along hillsides sparsely wooded with spruce, and alder bushes, up and down some bad hills, along the river on the ice occasionally, and about dark strike an open place about six miles long just beyond Beaver Lake, strong north wind 6 below zero and snow from the ground blowing a blinding sheet. After a hard struggle pass it and stop at an old camp of Ketchums, with

Transcription Notes:
Ambrosia: minor edits incl. addition of [[preprinted]] If an image has two pages: when you reach the bottom of the first page, write [[end page]]. Then write [[start page]] Only press complete when page is fully transcribed, otherwise just save