United States or Hong Kong ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They have their source in swamps and small lakes, the back-lying country being low and thickly wooded.
Now knowing the course, and the wind having shifted the ice, we pushed ahead through the fog; and in the clear light of the afternoon of June 24 the unforgettable scenery of Nome presented itself, whiter on the back-lying hills and less inviting than a year ago.
The coast and back-lying country for ten or fifteen miles, is low and thickly wooded; the shores being generally rocky with sharp points and many outlying rocks, surrounded with kelp, though there are occasional short beaches of gravel and sand. There are several exposed bays but no harbors, except for small boats, after leaving BRUIN BAY, opening into the south-eastern entrance to Parry Passage.
NESTO or HIPPA ISLAND, a mile and a half or more in length, thickly wooded, mountainous, with rocky shores, except on its eastern side where there are short stretches of sandy beaches with back-lying benches, formerly occupied by Indian lodges. There is a small island situated close to Nesto on its north-western side, with a canoe passage between them.
The water, my model said, came at least once a year to the main floor of the house, some ten feet above the level of the land, and forty feet above the normal river stage; "every few years" it rose to the eaves of this story-and-a-half dwelling, when the family would embark in boats, hieing off to the back-lying hills, a mile-and-a-half away.
About two miles north of the latter, we crossed a small creek flowing into the deepest indentation of the harbor, which, being largely bare at low tide, we have named Tide Bay. From Cape Edensau, the eastern entrance to Virago Sound to MASSETT INLET, a distance of about twelve miles, the shores are low and rocky; the back-lying country flat and thickly wooded with spruce and hemlock.
Its shores are generally low and frequently sandy, and the back-lying country densely timbered and sloping gradually, except on its north-western side, where the mountains rise quite precipitous from 1,500 to over 4,000 feet above the sea. More than twenty small rivers and creeks flow into the inlet, several of which abound with a small but excellent variety of salmon.
The Snake River, a sluggish, unnavigable stream, coming from the back-lying hills and through the tundra, empties into the sea where the town tapers off at the north, and thereby forms a sand-spit. The first impressions after landing were those of confusion, waste, and filth.
Word Of The Day