can't get "help"

[cycjec]

 this is the emacs that's installed on a FreeBSD system.

 I get the opening msg "Hold down Control and press h"
 but when I do that  it just eats up the msg about "this
 buffer is for blah blah blah" one character at a time,
 starting at the end.

 I can get a list of commands in an old Mandrake install
 but the cursor seems to be stuck in the scratch buffer,
 I can't scroll down the list.

 I have a book. I have been looking in it but can't 
 find what I want.

 I also can't find how to move to the top or the end
 of a buffer. 

 Any help immensely appreciated.