Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. As I have retraced my own steps along the coast of Alaska in this narrative, I have sought to introduce the accounts of the first acquaintance of white men with it, have drawn freely upon the great explorers and naviga tors who determined and described the limits of the North American continent, and opened the shores of the frozen ocean to the knowledge of mankind.