3-074-955 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lord Lonsdale's travels in the Arctic regions of North America: a Bidarka voyage, Alaska - ready to start, 1890. 'The enterprising and courageous performance of the Earl of Lonsdale in travelling northward, from the Saskatchewan River of the Great Western Territory of Canada to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and thence crossing Alaska westward to the North Pacific...has excited much attention...Few people, except some officers of the Hudson Bay Company and of the Alaska Fur Company, have made acquaintance with those desolate regions..."On arriving at Katmai, I was anxious to send letters on to Kodiac (the Alaska trading port, on an island). To do this, it was necessary to persuade the Indians to go in two 'bidarkas,' which can be done in safety by taking the right moment. [The Illustration] shows them ready to start with my letters. It was, however, a month before I received any answer".' From "Illustrated London News", 1890.