Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1934, Side 42

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Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags íslendinga
October 15th (Thursday):—Thermo-
meter 48 in Steerage, 32-33 on Deck.
(In the Evening before, snow fell but
the Deck did not become covered)----
Clear weather and a beautiful Autumn
morning. Very light breeze. At 1214
we left in the life steamer and went on
shore. At exactly 2 o’clock we went to
Mr. Wilson (the only American resident
of the place), who came down to the
shore to his house, and Mr. Crosby (the
officer sent with us) told him about our
destination and intention to look at the
country. Mr. Wilson followed us to the
cld Russian (?) the Chief of the Natives
(married to a native woman) and there
procured for us a guide at the price of
$1.00 per day. The guide was a native
(of the place). We are to start tomor-
row morning early. Wilson told us that
it was difficult to go now up into the
mountains—that the journey would
probably take us 14 days, or more if
using canoes.—We got a house belong-
ing to the Government (Wilson has
charge of the Government houses and
buildings) which was used as packing
and store-house. There we had no
stove, no chairs, nor anything but our
blankets and some bear skins. We saw
the Russian, he told us, as Wilson had
before, that all land between the
Coast and the mountains was swampy
(spaghnem?): that they call it 40 miles
to the mountains, but “I believe it
is at least 60 miles”—there (near the
mountains, he said, there was plenty of
grass, as high as up to the elbow. That
gold is found there in the mountains—
the lake is called Skjilla. The river
coming from the lake down to Fort
Nicholas is named Dacho River. This
man invited us to come to his house in
the evening and there we saw a Swed-
ish Finlander and a young woman (his
wife)? There is little or nearly no
game around Fort Nicholas, only up in
the mountains. Plenty of salmon in the
river from April up to the end of
August, 50 lbs. each.—He and the
Swede intend to go up in the mountains
this Winter and see if the mines would
pay working. The Swede left San
Francisco in May this year. The Rus-
sian told us, there was a settlement,
“Nudschickab” 40 miles south from
here. There he said, there was better
soil. There they raise rye. We slept
in the house over night and it was very
cold.
October 16th (Friday):—At 6V2
o’clock a.m. There was 26° in our
house, but only 18° outdoors. We
started at 7 o’clock and came to the
native village and started from there at
7% a.m. We did not take any blankets
with us.—We went over a hilly country
through dense forest. The trees are
very high, some of them 36-40 Danish
elles (Alin) and some 2 yards around
which gives a diameter of 2 ft. But the
ground in the forest is covered with
“lyng” and “mosi” “Sortulyng”, etc.
We found some berries, red like “hrCta-
ber” little bigger, they were frozen
and sour,—taste not agreeable. Found
aiso some other kinds, one size like the
former but darker and taste more bit-
ter: a third kind oval, light red and
white (which probably was due to the
frost). After about 4 or 5 miles walk,
we came to a swamp. There was but
little grass, but water not deep. The
swamps, I-IV2 “Qvartel” deep. We
went about 2 miles out in the swamps,
and at about IIV2 o’clock, we returned
(and about 10 o’clock we had breakfast,
in an “ambuscade” in the swamp) and
went to the forests. I believe it would
be practicable to dig out the swamps,
and then they would become an excel-
lent grazing land. The trees in the
forest are birch, spruce, willow and cot-
ton tree. The best land is along the
coast and as they all say, up near the
mountains, when one comes across the
swamp. Going back we went farther to
the right and through the woods for a
longer way. We made halt and had
dinner. There the woods were very
thick and there was more underbrush.
I measured one fallen down—12 fath-
oms. There was less moss as we went
farther from the swamps. The vegeta-