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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est filmA d p3rtir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Las diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 A '& V^/. SHORES AND ALPS OF. ALASKA. BAI.LANTVNB, HANSON AND CO. KUINBURUH ANU I.ONUON i f t1 If i i li o a .8 •J o CI CS U a i c s o r o a 1^ S d a .2 ef u a a o ). ■f HORi;S AND ALPS OF A L A S K A H W. SETON KAKH, F.R.G.S. '' ETC. ■ 'vWitb 3UajtraUoii6 aio Cwo /Bbaps? LONDON: :0N' LOW, MARSTQN, SEARLE, & RIVIXGTON, CROWN BU1U.ING.S, m FLEET SFREET, E.G. 1SS7 I I SHORES AND ALPS 0f ALASKA I It BY H. W. SETON KARR, F.R.G.S. ETC. TKlitb illustrations anj) ;rwo Aaps 75 LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, i88 FLEET STREET, E.C, 1887 [All rights resened] 155128 C — ^ To / ) ^/<^) ^/- 1^ + ll. PREFACE. The clearest and simplest manner of deseribing a journey of exploraf ic a, of sport, or of adventure? is often in the form of the original diary-penned 'm situ from day to day in the tent, the forest, or the canoe, on the shore, the glacier, or the mountain side. Such a book does this profess to be, having the merits, if it has the defects, of an instantaneous word-photograph, rather than of a carefully elabo- rated work of art. When, as the New York Times Expedition to Alaska, and as the first explorers who had ever landed on that stern coast, we made our attempt upon Mount St. Elias, our combined aljnnism was insignificant. Our experience had been gleaned from divers places. Lieutenant Schwatka had tra- velled in the Arctic, Professor Libbey in Colorado, and the writer had mountaineered in the Alps. An expedition comprisir.g Swiss guides, or consisting of experienced climbers, would be more successful." m PREFACE. The interior of the mysterious Kenai Peninsula, and the regions between the Yukon River and Cook's Inlet, are as yet unknown and unexplored, with the exception of the Tannanah, which was descended by Lieutenant Allen. As the first explorer in the footsteps of Cook to make the circuit of the coast northwards from Cape Spencer, or the canoe journey from Kaiak to Prince William Sound, the writer has attempted to de- scribe a country which will soon become better known. la, Qcl id, as to pe ce e- er CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC BY THE NEW RAILWAY ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. "Wimnpe^'-Medicine Ilat-TIie liiiflalo extinct-Calgary and Fort Mucleod— The Cattle-rancliing Industry— An Excur- sion to the Canadian National Park— Tlie Hot Springs- Alone at Devil's Lake— The Peaks near the Kicking Horse —Golden City-The Big Bend-Peaks of tlie Selkirks- Rogers Pass— The Loops-Second Crossing of the Cohunhia —Western Notices-Over tlie Eagle- We travel on a Hand- car— Forest Fires— ShiiswapLake-Tlie Farming Country— Kandoops Lake— Canons of the Thompson and the Fraser— Off for Alaska— TJie Neio York Times Expedition— Game and Aspects of Vancouver Island— The Early Navigators— Nanaimo — Esquimault — The Indians -The Chinese — Climate of Victoria— Elk, Blacktail, Salmon-trout, and Mountain Goats CHAPTER L Northwards from Victoria-The Great Sea-River, or the Inland Passage— Nanaimo— Tongass—Metlakathi -The Skeena River— Cape Fox— Loring-Wrangel— Tlie Taku Inlet— Juneau— Chilcat and Chilcoot— Glacier Bay— Muir's Glacier —Sitka or NeNv Archangel-A Fishing and Shooting Ex- cursion— The Fourth of July at Sitka CHAPTER IL From Sitka to the Alaskan Alps-The U.S.S. P/n^a -Mount Fairweather— Arrival at Yakata^-The Mount St. Elias range— Tlie Yakatat Indians— Ti.e Swedish Traders — Indian Cnriositics-The Man-o'-War at the Village— Iiitor- views with the Chief .... 25 45 PiBI! mm CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. We leave Yakatat for Icy Bay— Landing in the Surf— Tlie Rase Camp— Strawberries and Boar-Trails — The Start for Mount St. Elias— Fording a Glacial Torrent— A Mighty Stream — The Quicksands — A Mountainous Moraine Overgrown with Forest — An Icc-bi^ried River ... ... 62 CHAPTER IV. Waiting by the Ice —The Indians Return for more Provisions — A vast Moraine overgrown with Trees and Resting upon Moving Ice — Parted from the Guides — Stopped by a Lake of Bergs — We Separate to find a Way — A Dammed-up Torrent Breaks out afresh — Gradual Burial of a Forest Island — Loss of tlie Professor — Fire, Ice, and Water — We Start again — More Ghicial . akes and the Great Tyudall Glacier — The Fifth Camp reached — I'reparations for the Final Ascent 83 CHAPTER V. The Ascent of Mount St. Elias — Dang3rous Crevasses— We are Roped — The Ascent — I reach 6800 Feet over Snow-line- A Bear close to Camp — A Description of the Mountain — The Return to Icy Bay— Quicksands — Three Bears Killed— An Attempt to Launch our Whaleboat through the Surf — We Swamp at Midnight loi CHAPTER VI. A Fresh Attempt to Pass the Surf of Icy Bay — Abandonment of our Possessions — Skirting the Shore — Crossing Yakatat Bay — We camp by the Indian Village— Haggling with the Natives, or "Chin-music" — Our Life at Yakatat — An Attempt to Recover the Abandoned Property — The Kaiak Traders arrive in their Schooner — Poisoning of the Indians with Arsenic— Murder of George Holt — The Chief Medicine- Man — I leave Yakatat— The Neiv York Timen Expedition waits for the Man-o'-War — Becalmed— Shooting Seals — A Sea-otter Hunt— Cape Yagtag— A Wild Stern Coast-line- Another enormous Glacier — Life on the Schooner — Cape Suckling — Cape Martin — Kaiak Island .... 119 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER VII. ^™i*\** ^^^''■V'^ ^'''=«"'« "■ Naval Oflicer-Hauling in Dog. FisJi-The Hunter's Home and tlie Indian Villacre-Tlie Tame Bear-T .yo Nonvegians on Cape Suckling-How the Bear came for thcm-The Habits of the Sea-Otter-Visiting the Indian Hovels-I become an Admiral, and the Chief is presented to me-The Weather chan-'es 144 CHAPTER VIII. We are forced to stop at Martin Point-Raw Salmons' Noses- A Bear shot-A Drunken Indian Village- Sliding over the Mud of the Copper River Delta-The Squaw kills a Salmon -C^mp on an Island-Estuary of the Copper River-Camp on Hawkins Islands-The Indians Washing-Caught in i Gale-Salmon-fishing Extraordinary -Descriptiovi of an Alaskan Scene-Captain Cook in Prince Williar. Sound- \V c arrive at Nuchuk 162 CHAPTER IX. Our Life at Nuchuk-A Native Ball-The Natives start on a Sea-Otter Hunt in Bidarkies-Dcscription of a Bidarkv- Clin.bing after Grouse-Millions of Salmon-Spearing and Hooking them-Salmon-Drying-Our Russian Bath- A Description of Nuchuk and the Game and Food of Prince William Sound-How the Natives Live, and how the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco Trades with theni- The Natives as Captain Cook found them 182 CHAPTER X. Life with the Indians on the Copper River . 200 CHAPTER XI. Waiting at Nuchuk in Prince William Sound-The Indians refuse to move- We prepare to Winter there- The First Snow-Sport at Nuchuk-The Ducks, Grouse, and Geese- Ihe Schooner arrives at last-Chenega and tiie Coast of the Kenai Peninsula-A Gale-We reach Kodiak-Fearful Murder at our Supper-table-A Terrible Passage to San Francisco— Homewaids again .... 222 wmmm ^ CONTENTS. APPENDIX. The Fur Trade of Alaska-Fur-seals-irair-seals-Sca-Lions- Sea-otters-Prospects of tlio Fur Trade a Century a-o as estimated by Cook-Tlie Varieties of Foxes-Black and Brown Bears-TheirPursuit-TheLynx, Polar Bear, Marten, Cariboo, Moose, Sheep, and Goat-Prince William Sound and Its Indians-A Description of Cook's Inlet and its Shores-The Fur-trading Stores-The Volcanoes- Cape Douglas -A Description of the Alaskan Peninsula, its bettlements, Game, and Mountains-Unexplored Alaska- Future Sporting Expeditions-A Chugamute Vocabulary . 234 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I. 34 Mount St. Elias, nearly 20,000 feet in l,ei-l.t ; from Yakatit n-,v ^li^tant over fifty miles (F;.o«r CALCJARY TO THE NATIONAL PARK. 3 Bow river as it issues from the portals of the range, to its source near the summit of the Kickin.r Horse Pass. Jagged and scarred as are the liigh m.^untains on either side of the valley of the Bow, yet they give the impression of liaving been turned out of Dame Nature's workshop only just long enough to allow the pines to grow upon their steep slopes. Never were strata left contorted with such regular irregularity, or mountains formed which gave evidence of such terrifying convulsions, for they stand in regular rows of cliffs and pinnacles. It was the Queen's birthday. We swept along at a rate of thirty miles an hour through wild rocky scenery, stationed upon a kind of open " Observation car," together with the brass band, which played selections as we proceeded. As seen from Calgary the range seems broken into the most fantastic shapes, from The Devil's Head in the north (which resembles the Matter- liorn with the top broken off) to Mount Head in the south. It was said that when the summit of The Devil's Head should fall (which has occurred), the country would pass from the possession of the Stony Indians into that of the white man. The people of this tribe are described as reliable mmm 6 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. and honest ; they have their villages at Morley, and are expert as hunters and mountaineers. They had just departed for their summer's hunting trip, or we should have taken a couple of them with us. Almost within sight of Calgary lies the Gap, as the gateway into the mountain valley of the Bow is named. The bold and eccentric contours of the The Devil's Lake. mountain walls on either hand increase as one advances nearer to the summit of the Pass. At Banff I remained till joined by L. and F., camping some miles off at The Devil's Lake for four days entirely alone. The Rocky JNIountains do not on the whole offer good trout-fishing. The Bow river from June till August is charged with muddy snow-water. How- THE DEVIL'S LAKE. - 7 ever, as every one agreed that at Tlie Devil's Lake the water would be clear, and that it was sur- rounded by high mountains rarely visited and never ascended, I decided to visit it, and got a man and a pack-horse to deposit me there after a dangerous crossing of the swollen Devil's Creek. No ripple either of breeze or moving fin * broke the glassy surface of The Devil's Lake, which reflected the mountains round in water of such a deep nzure blue, as to be almost sufficiently un- canny to account for its name, without taking into consideration the gloomy precipices which "over- hang its sides. In front of my tent by the edge of the lake stood, or rather tottered, a withered tree which might have been the veritable Upas Tree, for not a living thing was discernible around. Only the curious cries of a few wild-fowl lu'oke the silence of the nights, sounding almost human, like preconcerted signals of Indians to attack the camp of the solitary white man. Once or twice a humming-bird hovered and poised itself overhead, and then darted away, startling me with the sudden noise of its wings. From a summit five thousand feet above the lake * Later in tlie season a 27 lb. trout was cau-ht !91»! wmam I SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. an extensive panorama was visible of the Rocky Mountains, two of the pe.iks being counterparts of the Schreckhorn and Finsteraarhorn. Castlo Mountain and Tho Canadian National Park. Bears are unusually numerous this season, and have been seen lately near both of the hot springs in the Park ; and on one occasion by some ladies ^le, of two sets of warm springs and of some falls or rapids of the Bow river. The more elevated of tlie springs command a wide view, while the lower ones are more curious in character. The largest is entirely sul.terranean, in a dome-shaped cavern which one enters by means of a ladder from the summit. On the floor is a pool with a sandy bottom through which the warm waters bubble up. When one's eyes get accustomed to the gloom it can be seen that the water makes its exit as mysteriously as it entered. At first I was alone ; but afterwards a rough- looking man made his appearance, and offered to take charge of my rifle while I descended. It was thought well to decline. In full view from Banff on the south side lies Castle Mountain, or Cascade Peak; castellated terraces of rock encircle its summit like impassable walls. Higher yet lie jMounts Lefroy, Stephen and Hector, and Goat Peak ; and on the north a curious rocky fortress guards the summit of the Pass- Cathedral Mountain. •■^- ^tt j IIW L-. mm^ssmm lO SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. After The Devil's Lake our next camping-place was to be Golden City, where we were to find the small steamer which }ias been started on the Columbia by an enterprising ex-naval officer. At the top of the Pass the scenery is of the most Cathedral Mountain. rugged description, and the sensational character of the engineering increases as one commences the rapid descent towards the Columbia River. Grand pines and thick undergrowth, rushing mountain torrents, and extensive vistas of peak and valley form an ever-varying and wild landscape. TO GOLDEN CITY. II The view of bleak and jagged crests overhead against the sky, and of steep pine-covered moun- tain slopes stretching out below, rocky and avalanche-swept, contrast with the bare expanses of r.ver-channels on the broad valley-bottoms at their foot. Grand, yet peaceful compared with the wild scenery of The Devil's Lake, is the view of the wide wooded valley of the great Columbia River as it bursts suddenly into view at Golden City, bounded on the west side by the snowy Selkirks, and on the east by the main range of the Rockies which we had just crossed. The twin sources of the Columbia are fed by the snows of the Western slopes of the Rocky Moun- tains. The main river flows northward for nearly two hundred miles, makes a loop, known as the Big Bend, round the Selkirk range, and retraces its course southwards, flowing through Oregon to the Pacific. Through its loop the Columbia drains both sides of the Selkirks, the two portions of the river being barely fifty miles apart. But only within the last three years was an accessiljle pass discovered over the range, and called the Rogers Pass after the explorer. u SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. It is a region ricli in minerals, timber, and game. Ten millions sterling- worth of "(Ad alone has been o o obtained by plaeer-mining from the Ijeds of the rivers. The timber has been lavishly used in the construction of the rnihvav. JNIountain Creek, for example, is jrossed by a trestle bridge 176 feet high and 600 feet long, while the bridge at Stoney Creek is l)elieved to l)e the highest timber railway bridge in the world, being 296 feet in height and 450 feet in length. The game is very shy, being much hunted by the Indians. Leaving Golden City, where we camped for four days, the line passes Donald and follows alongside 'Jie river, whose curves form grand amphitheatres of rock rising thousands of feet overhead. The line soon enters Beaver Canon, which it follows almost to the summit of the pass. Avalanches are numerous in winter, and to guard against them many miles of snow-sheds are being built. On both sides of the summit rise Mount Carrol (9560 feet) and Mount Hermit (8990), named from a rock near the latter which appears like a monk. The Selkirks as well as the Rockies proper arc remarkable for the fantastic shapes of their summits. One forms a perfect pyramid, THK SELKIRK UAN(iK. 13 another resembles an old woman wearing a nightcap. The highest mountain of the Selkirk ran^e i.s 1 1,000 feet, and lies south of the pass. It was named Syn- h rs Is If Crossing the Selkirks ; the Source of the Illeeillewjiet im.l the first CihiL'iur near the summit of the Honors Pass. dicate Peak, but the Canadian Pacific Railwa}' Com- pany have named it Mount Sir Donald. The Ille- cillewaet River rises in a glacier near it, and flows I' -]l 14 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. westward from the summit of tlie pass into the Columbia. The railway as it descends follows along its banks. Close by at the mouth of the gorge from which it issues are the " loops " of the Canadian Pacific Railway, like the circular tunnels of the St. Gothard. Supported by large timber trestles, the line makes six loops and several curves one below the other, all in full view, and running for six miles, descends 600 feet, but advances meantime only two miles. Ille- cillewaet is an Indian word meanino; "roarinfj torrent," and the stream is everywhere of that character, and flows in a deep and tortuous ravine. Douglas pines are now seen for the first time. Twenty miles from the Columbia lies the Albert Canon, with a fall of 2co feet. As we approach the Columbia, Mount Begbie is seen towering over the river opposite to the settlement of Farwell, the name of which has lately been changed to Revelstoke. The Gold Range is the next to be passed. Where can one see more original inscriptions than in a western town ? " Cleanliness is next to godliness, therefore go and wash at Johnson's bath-house on the river ;" or " Nip and tuck shop ;" or ''Rooms to let" painted on a small battered THE (;OLD IIANGE. ,, tent; or a car with tl.is notice-"/ am full of James' machines, hurnj me along, farmers arc ivaitinrj all along the line." TJie Jine crosses tlie Columbia once more for the last time, and enters tlie Eagle Pass, 1996 feet above the Pacific. We had to pass the night at Farwell, and found our large amount of im^^edi^ menta a nuisance. Owing to the number of bad -'lj.>i cWaete prowling about .luring tl,o construction of the hne (many persons l,uve lately been '■ held "P by then,), we thought it right to sleep iu the waggon with our baggage, an,l went on ne.xt day m a construction train filled with workmen to the op of the pass. Here we were transferred on to a tro ly and then on to a " hand-car," which had to be burlt out with planks to give us standing i6 SHOHKS AM) A LI'S OF ALASKA. room. Tlie propelling gciir wjih worked l>y Cliiua- men, iiumberH of whom are employed on the line, who .secmeunf,'o on tlio Ciinadiuu I'licilic Itailwny, Uritish C'oluinliiii. There are a few snow-capped peaks in the Gold Eange, but they are lower than the Rockies and Selkirks, which seem as thougli just turned out from Vulcan's laboratory. The summits of the former appear to l)e more worn and rounded. In many places the forest fires have caused great devastation. Here and there notices are posted relative to the penalties incurred by those who are guilty of setting the wood on fire, but the origin of these fires is often most mysterious. The damper climate of the Pacific slopes will prevent FAUMlNd LANDS OF lUUTlSll COLUMHIA. «7 the enormous damnge wliii^h has occurred in many parts of the States. At Griffin Lake there is fair trout-fishing. The settlers informed us that there are throe kinds of fish. Reindeer were shot hist winter on open park lands above, whi(.'h are unseen as one passes through the valley below. ■ Crossing the Shuswap Lakes at Sikamous Nar- rows, we passed the night at the small hotel, the proprietor of which said he had campaigned with General Gordon in China. We hail now reached a fine farming and ranching region comparatively well settled and populated, besides being a good hunting country, dry, hilly, and open. It is as though a corner of the so-called great American Desert had been thrust into the south end of British Columbia, having its apex near Cariboo (the mail from which place has lately been "held up" and robbed). This part is dotted with yellow pine ; it can be traversed without trails, and forms the grazinir ground of British Columbia. The hired " cow-boys " on the ranches are mostly Shuswap Indians or Siwashes. We took the steamboat, first up the ^jpellu- macheen River, where we had a curious old mmmm iS SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. " coloured person " with large spectacles as steward. His eyes, he said, " were tired of the world, and didn't want to see no more of it." Passing through peaceful agricultural scenery, we crossed the lakes to Kamloops at the junction of the North and South Thompson Rivers. Yale— The Gateway to the Caflons of the Fraser. Kamloops Lake is twerty miles in length. It is here that the scenery of the Thompson River Canon commences. Good trout-fishinff can be had where the river leaves the lake. The Fraser and the Thompson River— the chief water- courses of British Columbia — meet at Lytton, and the stream now takes the name of the former. % ^*5l, THE START FOR ALasKA. ,9 Startling as was tlie ride through the Canons of the Tiiornpson, Jiigli above the wild torrent, acu-oss fissures and tlirough cliffs,, that through the Canons of the Fraser River was still more striking. The rock) sides rise for thousands of feet like solid walls. The river runs at racehorse speed, while the railway is a succession of trestle bridges and tunnels, very costly to construct. The gorge ends at the small town of Yale. The valley now widens out into ilat forest and pasture land, with distant views of the coast ranges We found the steamer at Port Hammond -a few hours from Victoria. Vancouver is to be the terminus, 2900 miles west of Montreal, but it was burnt to the ground a couple of days ago, and will have to be rebuilt. As the Ancou had just arrive.l from Portlan Russian territory, is 275 miles long and 85 miinL broad, with mountains rising to 6000 feet. The settled portions and those fit for agriculture lie round Victoria and round Nanaimo Mines, the great coaling place. Victoria was once, over thirty ye'\r^ ago, a ; i^st of the Hudson Bay Company, an^ grew iul-. n settlement during the Fraser River gold " boom." 'f lie the post lorn. Indian Tlinkit Carving's on the Pacific Coast. if 2? VICTORIA, THE ISLANDS AND THE INDIANS. The railwcay from Victoria to Nanaimo will very soon be completed. Westward of Victoria lien the splendid i.arbour of Esquimault, used as a naval station by Her Majesty's ships. Victoria Harbour itself is small but excellent. The seaward shores of Vancouver Island are very rocky and indented, and inhabited l)y a dis- solute race of Indians. The Hydahs and tlie Timp- seans were once great warriors, and use 8o-foot canoes, carved out of a single Douglas fir-tree. Wild as the Vancouver Indians are, they are not by any means so depraved as are the uncivilised Queen Charlotte Islanders further north, living in islands almost entirely unexplored and unvisiled. Many of the Vancouver Indians are employed in the Fraser River salmon-canneries, and are re- spectable sons of the Church. The Chinese have invaded British Columbia with the same determination with which they have settled in California. Most of tlie domestic ser- vants m Victoria are Chinamen. As the last view one will have for a long time of the luxuries and ultra^comforts of civilisation, one gazes regretfully at the pretty villas with' verandahs overgrown by creepers, and surrounded by gardens with luxuriant fruit and vegetables, in B liMB 84 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. this semi-tropical climate. From March to No- vember is a perpetual spring, while in winter the thermometer rarely falls below 40°. Fair sport can be had on the northern and central parts of Vancouver Island in September and October with the wapiti, or American elk, and at any time during the season with the black- tail, or Virginian deer [Cervus Columhianus), which is found on all the islands northwards. In July and August the salmon will take a bait such as spoon-bait, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, although they do not care for a fly. Trout can of course be caught with fly. On the mainland white mountain-goats can be found, and sometimes a few bears. ! I 25 CHAPTER I. N orthwards from Victoria-The Great Sea-River, or the I.land Passage-Nanain.o-Tongas.s_Metlakatla-The Skeena River -Cape Fox-Lori„g_Wra,>gel-T]ie Taku Inlet-Juneau- Clnlcat ami Chilcoot-GIacier Bay-.Muir's Glacier-Sitka or ^ew Archangel-A Fishing an.l Shooting Excursion-The J^ourth of July at Sitka. Sitka, Alaska, July 8th, 1886. The province of British Columbia is no longer an unknown or uncared-for part of the British Empire. A new pathway, by the completion of the Canadian Railway, has brought her within a fortnight's jour- ney of the mother country. Her gold and silver, her cattle and timber, fisheries and agriculture' and treasures of undeveloped wealth are teaching the nation that she is a land of giant future post sibilities. America's recent purchase, Alaska, will perhaps feel the benefit and will become a po^.-ssion of increasing value. The Pacific Coast Company's steamers make fortnightly trips during the summer up to Sitka w 26 SIIOIIKS AND ALPS OF ALASKA. I H by the inland passage. The least remarkable portions of the journey northwai-ds are during the first five days. Chic is reminded of the tour usu- ally made along the coasts of Nor- way. But the (channels and arm- lets of British Co- lumbia are nar- rower, more pro- tected, dark, and intricate. The forests are quite unbroken, and the mountains liighei- and more continu- ous. Queen Char- lotte Sound and part of Dixon Entrance are the only portions of the passage north- wards not entirely protected from the heaviest swell from the Pacific Ocean or the strongest gales of wind. A more hilly, and at the same time a more densely wooded, v:i.*;,-5rA --. stopping to Coal at Nanaimo, Vancouver's Island. An Indian Totem Pole at Fort W'ningel. NORTH WARDS. country it would I.e l.ard to i,„„j,i„e, cont,.ininJ !""■'% ono l„.re pioeu of (l„t Kmund, or groun.l of any kiml not .•ovcrcl l,y spruce or ,„hr. After leaving Victoria we stuye.l to eoal „t Nanaimo. Laving tin.e to visit tl,e mines I,y rail and then steamed .lireet for Fort Tongass on' Amenean soil, just over tl,e boundary line of Alaska, leaving all British posts, forts, mines, and hslieries for Britisli vessels. Opposite to Fort Tongass on the British side les Fort Simpson, and near it Mr. Duncan's Indian Mi.,sion of Metlakatla, which boasts the organisation almost of a city, with Indian police- men and even a brass band. Good wild mountain-goat hunting can be got from here by ascending the Skeena River, whither some English sportsmen have lately gone re- turning in three weeks with eleven. Indeed the neighbourhood of Cape Fo.x is a great game country, principally for bears -nd goats. We ne..t steamed across Dixon iiutrance. where we liad expected to feel the ocean swell, but were agreeably disappointed. So light are the summer n.ghts in these high latitudes, that there is no stoppmg on the part of the steamer notwithstand- 'ng that there are no lighthouses, and that the 30 .SlIOUKS AND ALrS OK ALASKA. (•Imniu'l.s aic luurvolloiisly involvcMl mid intiicatc. To see wimt: Nuturo ciui do in this rospcct one .should jilaiico on the cliait at Koii I.shiiid. Ivini; west of Fort Wraii<^ol, to th(^ .shape of \vlii(;li the (Joust Survey Coniiui.ssion eouhl find no more appropriate resembhince than a mass of entrails thrown upon the jijround. And it is an apt comparison. After stopping for an liour at TiOrin<:(, on the i.sland of llevilla Gigedo, separated from the main- land by the narrow h)ng channel called Behms Canal, we passed up the Duke of Clar Straits in cloudy weather. Fort Wrangel was our next point of call near the estuary of the Stikeen River, which was discolouring the sea for miles with nuiddy snow-water of a low temperature, the line of junction between the IJue and the brown being ver}' marked. A mail is carried from Fort AVrangel b}' canoe to the j\lission on Prince of Wales Island at Ilowkan. Fort Wrangel appetirs, in this wild wide land, as a comparativel}' large village. Indian carved Totem armorial poles can be seen and Indian curiosities and wares bought. After quitting this settlement the narrow Wrangel Straits were passed by night and another cloudy IS m lei y At Howkan. sss ^SV( fc ■^ I THE FIRST GLACIERS. 33 morning wliicli followed prevented our seeing some glaciers, the first which lie close to the route. But in the afternoon the mountains cleared as we steamed up Stephens Passage between Admiralty Island and the mainland. Some of tlie larger Taku Inlet. Sootliern Alaskan snoAv fields and glaciers came into view for the first time as we passed the 'i'aku Inlet with hold rocky aiguilles^ prominent at its head. AVhite mountain-goats can l»e found on the summits near here, but they are much hunted by the Indians. SESS^SS ^*M SKSe! 34 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. The two young Frenchmen alluded to later on — Visconte de la R. and M. de la S. — afterwards went bear-hunting here. One writes to me as follows : — "Nous avons fait a Taku Inlet un st^jour tres amusant et, malgrd les conseils de B. et de tous les naturels du pays, j'ai chasse lours avec mon petit Winchester, ce qui ne m'a pas mal reussi, puisque j'en ai tud deux, dont un pesait 600 livres ; The Gold Mine on Douglas Island, je crois qu'on nous a trouves uu peu fous dans le pays." Close ahead we arrive at Ilarrisburg, alias Juneau City, a large mining settlement. On Douglas Island, immediately opposite, and facing the town, lies the largest mine in Alaska, the Paris or Treadwell quartz-mills, where gold literally flows like water. The gold-bearing ledge is like a quarry 500 feet in width. The ore is not rich, THE GOLD MINE. 35 averaging from 9 to 50 dollars per ton ; but the decomposed quartz is easily pulverised, and the supply inexhaustible. The amount of profit from the working of it is kept " dark," and is unknown ; but it depends largely upon the employment of Chilcat Indians as labourers, who cost less than white men. Three small creeks opposite lead to basins be- ;.*'^;..:-; .^'': '•■■<'-•<'' f-:-;^. ■ .. „r'-'»-"li/^''.- ChiJcut, dias On ciug aris [•ally like L'ieh, hind the mountains, where rich placer-mines Iwive been worked for four seasons. The iiuution of Juneau is beautiful, but the mining population, together with the Indians camped there form a rough " hard crowd " of both sexes — " Every prospect pleases, And niau alone is vile." Commercially the most valuable timber found in the neighbourhood is the red and yellow cedar, , ^i.\m^i^mgmsmemm |i \ 36 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. the latter said to be impervious to the teredo or boring worm ; the white spruce is the common tree, growing to 1 7 5 feet in height and 6 feet in diameter. Lynn's Canal is the long narrow arm that leads northwards till it divides at the head into the two ... ./V;~J' I i*J^\i.^.'>. V,'^ -■ Ekgle Glacier. branch inlet.^ of Chilcat (the pass over the moun- tains leading to the Yukon River), and Chilcoot. The Eagle Glacier is passed on the right, and Davidson's Glacier 01: the left, besides many others of smaller size. As we rounded the curve of the inlet, the United States man-o'-war Pinta was seen lying at anchor. THE U.S. MAN-O'-WAR. 37 It was half settled that, instead of hiring a schooner, as had been intended, I should join the New York Times Alaskan Expedition, which was the bearer of a recommendation from Secretary Whitney to the captain of the U.S.S. Pinta, to take the expe- dition two hundred miles north-west from Cape Spencer along the unprotected portion of coast as far as Yakatat Bay, at the foot of the St. Elias Alps. Davidson Glacier. and lers Glacier Bay— so called from the number of glaciers which touch the sea, whither they descend from the southern verge of the frozen regions — is generally the next point of call. It is the best opportunity afforded for conveniently inspecting an Alaskan glacier. In front of Muir's Glacier, on the eastern shores, the water is deep up to the very edge of the ice, which rises like a broken wall, and from which a \ 38 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. Ml' f I I i i ! shower of icebergs of varied size is constantly falling into the ocean which laves its foot and undermines its green and glassy fissures. This glacier has recently been investigated by an American scientist. Glacier Bay is thirty miles long and eight to twelve miles wide. At the mouth is a cluster of thirty islands named Beardslee, com- posed of glacial dSbris. The width of the ice where the glacier breaks through the mountains is 10,664 ^6et, and of the water-front one mile, being as much as 400 feet high in places. Nine large and seventeen smaller branches unite to form the main ice-stream. From measurements and obser- vations, it appears that a stream of solid ice 5000 feet wide, and 700 feet deep, is entering the sea at a rate of forty feet per f'ay, in the month of August. Not a tree can be seen (and it is almost a relief after the endless forests of the archipelago) upon the steep, ice-worn, smooth rocky hills of Glacier Bay. In a westerly direction across the inlet, under the red rays of the setting sun, Mounts Crillon (15,900 feet), Fairweather (15,500 feet), and La P^rouse appear in dim outline as the mighty vedettes of that vast icy Switzerland beyond and partly bordering \i J GLACIER BAY. 3$ the sea, of the presence of which we are aware, although most of its characteristics are unknown. When we woke next morning we were passing through Peril Straits where the Eureka foundered in the " tide rip " in the narrowest part upon a rock. Sitka is prettily situated in a sound about thirty miles across, and bordered with mountains from Sitka and Mount Edgcumbe. four to six thousand feet high, covered most of the year with snow. Years since, it was the head- quarters of the Kussian Tradi'^g Company, whose ponderous wood buildings are still the largest in the settlement. The extinct volcano of Mount Edgcumbe lies across the bay, with vertical stripes of snow on its sides. Our party made it 1022 metres in height. At the arrival of each steamer the inhabitants of >l ( 40 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. Sitka agree to go mad. Indian maidens dance with miners, and night, never very dark, is turned into day. Meanwhile the squaws drive a good trade in articles of native manufacture and even in such things as young bear and blacktail deer. The Pinta had to wait a fortnight before she could take us north, for coals and for the mails. It was there- fore decided that we should make a fishino- and hunting excursion, which the Sitka paper (for a weekly journal is published) described as "a party of young gentle- men in search of the pic- turesque in Nature and the exciting in adventure. They are procuring Indian guides j and evidently mean business, though it is all for pleasure." We hired three Indians and a large war-canoe, with a smaller one for fishing. A full-sized hydah or war-canoe measures some A SITKA SALMON FISHERY 41 thirty feet in length, and can sail ten knots vviili a good breeze. We first camped some miles away from Sitka by some old Russian weirs, where every moment a salmon or a stdmon trout might bo seen darting, as one gazed, out of the briny foam into the fresh water of the lake hard by, from >vhich it is divided by some rocky channels only a few yards in length, some of which are natural and others artificial, these latter dating from the Russian occupation. A solitary white man in charge directs the operations of salting the salmon-bellies ; while each morning the hired Indians arrived from some spot in the bay known only to themselves with a large canoe-load of " silver " salmon. Large quantities of salmon refuse are thrown into the sea, where numbers of enormous cat-fish and dog- fish can be seen struggling for the morsels, giving us good sport with a salmon rod and line baited with a lump of fish, fighting as they did when once He "means business, though it is all for pleasure." i I 49 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. hooked madly for their liberty. Some salmon were caught with a spoon-bait before leaving for Mount Edgcumbe, where plenty of deer are to be found. During the next few days it rained and blew, but when camp is pitched by the shore just within the forest the enormous firs give excellent protection ; the only discomfort exists in the richness of the verdant undergrowth, the normal and constant con- dition of which is one of damp- ness. Forest fires are unknown on these islands. This dampness covers the fallen trees and the whole surface of the ground with a deep soft moss, and renders the forest scene one of tropical beauty and luxuriance. The only suc- cessful method of shooting the deer on the islands is the one we employed during the short time we remained on KruzofF Island, on which the above volcano is situated. After a ten mile tramp of the most fatiguing kind we reached the slopes of Edgcumbe, and ascended to the higher ground where they feed. Every one being carefully hidden, the Indians brought the deer within range by imitating the / m HUNTING BLACKTAIL. 43 cry of the fawns by blowing on a blade of grass. Each of us killed one within an hour, but it is an unsatisfactory sort of sport from its very certainty of success. We found ourselves back at Sitka once more, in The Final Heat. time for the 4th of July celebrations, including an " oration " by the judge, a baseball match, Indian canoe races, and one of the " balls " for which that 44 SIIOKES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. Iiospitable place is famous. And while our rooms are in Governor Swineford's house, Ah Sow's small restaurant furnishes us with meals. Eventually the Idaho has arrived with coal, passengers, and mails. The two bright boys from Chicago have The Judge practises the Chinook Language— " Siwash sik tum-tiim o-cook kuni tux," shipped their Indians and war-canoe for Glacier Bay after bears ; while my French friends M. de la S. and Visconte de la R. have embarked for the Taku Inlet. Our time at Sitka is drawing to a close. ( 45 ) CHAPTER II. Fioni Sitka to tlio Alaskan Alps-Tlie U.S.S. Pvila-yUmut Fair- weather-Anival at Yakatat-TLe iMoimt St. Elias range- Tlie Yakatat Indians— Tlie Swedish Tiwlers- Indian Curiosities -Tlie Man-o'-War at the Village— Interviews with the Cliief. Aboard the U.S. Man-o'-War I'inta, Yakatat Bav, Alaska, Jidi/ 14///, 1886. On the morning of July jotli, tlie Neiv York Times Expedition to Mount St. Elias and Icy Bay embarked on a small whaleboat I vino- al(»no-. side the wharf at Sitka. The mem])crs of the expedition had just had their photographs taken, and their provisions, tents, and instruments were on the maindeck of the U.S.S. Pinta. Was it not an auspicious commencement ? For this also was the name of the vessel which bore Columbus to the new world, and we too were bound to the westward intent on new discoveries. The Alaskan, published at Sitka, favoured us with the following paragraph : — " Lieutenant Schwatka's party for a two month's siege of the ice-guarded fortress of Mount St. Elias is now t: I 46 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. li made up and ready for the march. The party consists, besides the Lieutenant, of Professor W. Libby and Mr. H. W. Seton Karr. Also Joseph Woods, John Daltca, and Kersunk, an Indian youth." The Pinta (Commander Nicholls, U.S.N.) was built, we were told, originally as a tug-boat, and as her speed did not exceed four to fiv\i knots an hour, she was an easy object for an " instantaneous shutter " as she steamed past the old Russian wharf. But the Pinta is well suited for cruising in the csXioi fiords of the inland passage, or for punishing refractory Indians, or Tlinkits as they are called on this part of the coast, by destroying their vil- lages with her machine guns and brass howitzers, and for lying at anchor off the small but gay old Russian v'Uage of Sitka, or the new and unpleasant, though ricturesquely situated, mining- village before- mentioned of Juneau City, or Hai'isburg, — for it enjoys a double name. It was said at one time that other vessels on sighting her v/ere in the habit of flying signals of distress, because, owing to some eccentricity in her rudder, and thvj fact that she had run down several other vessels, they were fearful of suffering the same fate themselves. SITKA TO YAKATAT BAY 47 Several cLannels may be used to reach the open sea from Sitka. We might either have gone out at once across Sitka Sound, or have kept entirely to the inland passage — a longer route — as far as Cross Sound. A middle course was chosen which gave us a. few hours along one of the calm Alaskan channels before meeting the ocean swell. Sunset found us skirting the steep shores of Mount Fairwoather, rising to 15,500 feet above the North Pacific Ocean at its base. Chichagoff Island in lat. 57° 50', the weather con- tinuing beautifully fine. Mount Fairweather consented to show itself for only a short time next morning, but in the after- noon, as we steamed slowly paxt, about twenty miles from land, the whole Fairweather ranire was seen in a cloudless atmosphere, and remained in I 48 SHORES / ND ALPS OF ALASKA. ■i ■ ( I ! ; ■ ! i view till sunset, when the darkness, and the neces- sity of early rising on the morrow, drove us below. The next morning, July 1 2th, as I came on deck at an early hour we were rounding Ocean Cape and heading for the small harbour near the Indian village, charted by the U.S. Coast Survey, and named Port Mulgrave. It was the Pinta's second visit. There was no trace of vapour in the sky. The St. Elias range of Alps, or a great portion of them, l)ound the west side of this bay, which is culled Yakatat or Bering Bay. Without a doubt the scenery at Yakatat is the most wonderful of its kind in the whole world. The mountains are covered with snow and glaciers from sea-level to summit. The air of early morn- ing in latitude 60"" N. is exceedingly transparent, while the vastness of these mountains, ranging as they do from 16,000 to nearly if not quite 20,000 feet, impress the beholder under these conditions with the sensation of their being too ethereal to have any actual existence, or that they cannot be anything except some unhuly illusion that must dis- solve and disperse when the sun rises. And this is to a certain extent what happens. It seemed to be just what Doy6 might have conceived as an imagi- nary view of mountain scenery in the planet Mars. MARVELLOUS SCENERY AT YAKATAT. 49 As the sun rose higher, tlie ^^hadows grew less dis- tinct, the planes of distance merged into each other, the air lost its extreme brilliancy, and the exact contours became confused. Yet we could hardly believe that the great mass of Mount St. Elias, the pointed crest of which rose high above the sea, was between fifty and sixty miles off. Imagine Mont Blanc placed close to the sea-shore with its whole height visible as measured from the sea-level; then imagine Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain, placed upon the summit of Mont Blanc, and the total height thus reached would fall short of the summit of Mount St. Elias. The latest estimate of its height by the Coast Survey has made it nearly 20,000 feet, with an error either way of a few hundred feet. St. Elias— the last and highest mountain of the range, and the nearest to the sea— stands on a broad base, from which it rises like an Egyptian pyramid, straight, regular, and massive, from an icy plateau of enormously extensive glaciers. Could a blind man be brought to Yakatat, and have his sight restored while each morsel of the panorama, commencing from the east, was separately presented to his view, he would exclaim at first that nothing could surpass its grandeur in that D m so SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. i direction ; then, as his gaze would gradually be shifted round to the west, still loftier mountain- ranges would disclose themselves, till he would think he must surely have arrived at the climax. Higher and higher yet they would rise as Mounts Cook and Vancouver were passed in review, while words would fail him to express his astonishment as last of all his eyes would rest on Mount St. Elias, the crown and summit of all possibilities or impossibilities of grandeur, seeming to rise sheer out of the Pacific Ocean with a leap. From Elias eastward, a semicircle of enormous peaks surrounds the Bay, gradually dwindling in importance and in height, even the smallest of tiiem being a noble mountain ; while far back towards the east, from which we had come. Mount Fair- weather, which is 16,000 feet in height, glistened with opalescent light above the forest trees. Entering the small land-locked harbour at six o A.M. by the narrow entrance, — with which Captain Nicholls was already acquainted, having been in command of the Pinta last year when she visited this place, we dropped anchor close to the Indian village. Not a living thing was visible except a dejected wolfish -looking dog. The natives were evidently 3 I ^W»eMVB«l THE INDIAN VILLAGE. m out sealing, and we might be delayed in our start for Icy Bay. However, after blowing a whistle for some time, canoes were seen coming from some houses on the mainland. The first contained an old half-blind Yakatat Indian of characteristic appearance, who was evidently a " shawaan " or medicine-man by his long uncut hair. By means of a half-breed boy employed in the ward-room, who spoke better English than our interpreter, he was made to Mount Vancouver, 13,100 feet, understand that we wished him to despatch a messenger to the tribe to procure for us two large canoes and six Indians. He set off on his errand with a great appearance of haste, after explaining that it would take two days, being a long journey towards tlie head of the Bay where the tribe was sealing. Nothing was left but to wait, and as Captain Nicholls had determined to see us fairly started and on the road, the Pinta waited too. Meanwhile, we were able to take the bearings of Mounts Cook, Vancouver, and Malaspina, besides *fcnHT«"*ltWAi', Jul// iSih, 1886. After our one brilliant day it rained continuously the remainder of ihe time tlie Pinta was at Yakatat, a period altogether of five days, during which the natives found other pretexts for delaying us. A man was sent to ask leave to use a large canoe said to be laid by in a lagoon — two days' journey, for the owner was out sealing. He re- turned, and the men were to have set off to fetch the canoe at three o'clock next morning, in order to catch high-tide, but did not actually start until mid-day, and then came back with the intellio-ence that she wj'^j decayed and rotten. Then the United States Navy, in the shape of Captain Nicholls, came to the rescue. He would r ', FROM YAKATAT TO ICY BAY. 63 take us to Icy Bay in the Pinta, and we were to be allowed to use one of the whale-boats until w^e were fetched away, or came down to Sitka in the fall of the year. If possible, the Pinta would return for us about the 5 th of September. On the evening of Jidy i6th, at eight o'clock, the Pinta steamed out of Yakatat, having shipped three Indians and a small "dug-out" Yakatat canoe, the property of Professor Libbey, large enough to hold two persons comfortably. After the Fourth of Jidy Oration by " the Judge," which we had been favoured w^ith at Sitka, in which he read the " Declaration of In- dependence" and protested against the crimes of " the old country," and which I had endeavoured, however, to applaud, it was considered to be a matter of surprise that I should have plucked up sufficient spirit to suggest that Mount St. Elias might be entirely, and must be one fourth, in British territory.* * Mount St. Elias, Litherto considered tlie liigliest mountain in Xoith America (tliough now, according to Licutcnjuit Allen, Mount Wrangel, a volcano at the forks (jf the Copper River, in Eastern Central Alaska, rises to over 20,000 feet), is tlie longest snow-climb in the world outside tlie Aictic or Antarctic regions, and with the additional exception of Creenland, is the birthplace of the most extensive glaciers known. Of these, there are probably 2400 sipiare miles of flat jdains of ice between the mountains and tlie sea, not taking into account suuw-lieltls or inland glaciers, and included *■■ " " ■■ ". fr ^i ' KliiW""': 64 SMORKS AND ALPS OF ALASKA. I The boundary line between British Columbia and South-East Alaska, according to the treaty, cannot be at a greater distance from the ocean than thirty miles, l^ut if the divide or summit of tlie watershed be less than that distance from the sea, then the boundary follows the summit of the watershed up to tlie 141st degree of longitude. It then runs due north, coinciding with L.io 141st meridian, until it joins the Arctic Ocean. At four o'clock next morning we were slowly coasting along the shores of Icy Bay in a dense foggy rain. Nothing could be imagined more dismal. We were cheered by the thought that we must be considerably closer to I\Iount St. Elias than we were at Yakatat, and indeed we were prepared to see it towering overhead througli some break in the clouds, if they only would break. But the Pinta's last view of Mount St. Elias was that from Yuk;.tat, for not until after her departure % entirely between Cross Sound, fit tlie extremity of the Inlaml Passas^o, and the Copper River. Vaiunjuver, who had, as he says, many opportunities for lixin<,' tlie true position of the great mountain, gives it as lat. 60^ 27'; and long. 140^ 39'. Piofe-sor Davidson gives its position as lat. 60"^ 22' 6", and long. 140"" 54'. It thus lies to the east of the 141st meridian 'jf hjngitude west from Greenwich, confirnKHl by my onn bearings, the range itself ranking as llie third highest in the world, on Avhich we had set foot for the first time. FliOM YAKAHAT TO ICY BAY. g- (licl the range break loose from its encircling clouds. Prol)ably this was the first time that a ship has ever entered ley Bay, by which name the slight angle in the coast-line is honoured, so caution was necessary. Tlie growing day disclosed a sandy sloping shore, witliout the least in iication of shelter from the ocean, stretching away straight, remorse- less, and yellow on either side as far as the eye could reach east and west, white with roaring breakers, and half obscured by fog. As the Indians asserted tliey were in the habit of running their canoes ashore here when they came sealing, the ship was brought to an anclior. The Pacific swell rolled slowly under us towards the beach, on which it was breaking with a threat- ening aspect very disturbing to landsmen. Clouds of spray and vapour drifted inland, 1)ut behind the l^each there seemed to lie lagoons which were steaming, as thougli warm, and further off still there were visible the tops of fir-trees. Tlicn the mist closed down and everything was hidden The Pacific surf is very uncertain, an.l ri>,.s or calms down without apparent cause, as the result of distant storms at sea. Still, on this part of the Alaskan shore-line, Fairweather Ground, as the G !l i ,1 i 66 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. !i whalers named ^.t, fine weather is generall}' ex- perienced in summer, with calms, which are not agreeable to sailing vessels. But how the winds blow in winter ! Shortly after we had dropped anchor, Lieutenant Dumbough was sent in one of the waistboats to examine the surf, and at midday Lieutenant- Commander Nicholls determined to do his best to put us asliore with the supplies. Lieutenant Emmons, in charge of the first boat, put off at once from the ship's side, and after w\^iting his oppor- tunity was able to beach his boat stern first, paying out an anchor rope from the bows, the anchor having been dropped fifty yards from shore to assist in putting off again through the. breakers. As soon as she grounded the sailors jumped into the water and ran her up high and dry. At times as seen from the ship the little boat had appeared quite submerged behind some big roller. Four boatloads sufficed to land the whole of the stores of supplies and instruments. Although the boats were empty on their return, yet the task of launching them again through the surf was one of more danger than the landing.""' The last boat * I think if the saif liad 1 ecu any liiglier we sLould have Leen • LANDING. gy beached being the one that was to remain with us ill defoult of our having obtained hydah-canoes at Yakatat, had no anchor laid out for hiunching, and was securely hauled up out of reach of the tide on the crest of the sand ridn like a network, giving one the idea tliat enormous numl)ers of these animals nuist inlialdt the very small piec^ of flHtat' t\U tlus side of the bn}', whi(;h is the only plecG ill the whole region, Ibt everything else seems to be sUoW itnd glacier. PACKING. 69 To-day being Sunday we remain (quietly at rest, and start early to-morrow for " the great mountain," as the Indians call it. At rest, that is, with the exception of the preparations for a fortnight's assaull on the mountain, testing the mercurial barometers and the thermometers, and making the arrangements involved in a scientific and moun- taineering expedition. Dalton, who is cook, is to stay in charge of everything here, which will Ije a sort of base of operations. However, Woods, who goes with us, cooks nearly as well. We take fifty pounds of " hard tack," twenty-five pounds of Hour, ten pounds of chocolate, l^esides tea, sugar, coffee, and various tins of canned meat ; in fact, enou* , SEALS, STRAWRERRIES, AND IlKAHS. 7, general movement. The Indians went (.iit in tlie evening, and came baek with more seals and a red fox. A seal meanwhile came np on tlie beaeh close to camp. Over fifteen hundred hair-seals are said to have been killed in three days, by a party in Yakatat Bay, with clubs, and considerino- the laro-c numbers we have seen, and the case with whi(;li the Indians seem to go out and club them, it is not difficult to believe it. The Indians hunt the seals systematically in \akatat Bay, wdiore they are consequently very shy. We saw large numl)ers in the sea on our return, Imt l)esides being contrary to the laws of the United States, it would be useless for any party of white men to hope to kill more than one or tw^o. One can pass the time very comfortably among the sand-hills, which are perfect natural strawberry beds, moving a few yards further to fresh ground as the supply on the spot becomes exhausted; meantime keeping a look-out along the edge of the forest, over the long grass, for tlie grey-coloured round back of a St. Elias cinnamon or grizzly l)ear. These animals evidently come out in large num- bers after seal (or strawberries), judging l)y the immense quantity of tracks. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 1.0 I.I ^ li^ 1 2.2 2.0 lir 1^ 1.8 i ■ |l.25 1 U 1.6 ^ 6" ► V] A V /A Photographic Sciences Corporation \ ss <> 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) S72-4503 fl!B T '/j n SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. The trails are thickest at that point on the beach where the forest approaches nearest to the sea, for the great brown bear of Alaska is a shy animal, and when he comes out in the afternoon about four o'clock, his favourite hour, to catch a seal, he likes to have his retreat handy. \ A mile or two away wide stretches of water can be seen through openings in the forest, evidently the large lake which the early navigators saw from the mastheads of their ships, and which is marked in their maps as being of considerable extent. Our Indians say plenty of fish can be got there. The side of Icy Bay, on which we are now camped, is low, flat forest, some ten miles either way, and bounded on the land side by the enor- mous glaciers which are just visible over the fir- trees. The west side of Icy Bay, as can be seen, is formed by a glacier which has projected itself for some distance into the ocean. 1 I The Second Camp, July 20th, Sunset. Yesterday we left the base camp at seven in the morning. The Professor was left behind in order to efiect simultaneous observations with the becond mercurial barometer, and will rejoin us to-morrow THE START. ^ with the Indians, who have returned for more supplies. After transporting the things in the small canoe for half a mile up the lagoon, which then came to a sudden end, the packs were adjusted, and the party followed the shore to the westward, more or less under the guidance of the Indians, who were making for the large river at the head of the Bay, intending that we should follow up the bank. The start for Mount St. Klias. Woods carried a tent, spade, pick, and pan, for gold-prospecting purposes. Schwatka carried the mercurial barometer and a rifle. I carried the ice-axes and another rifle , the remaining thincr.s were divided equally into packs among the Indians of about fifty or sixty pounds to each pack. After following the shore for two miles an ofi'- shoot of the main glacial river was reached, over which the Indians conveyed us on their backs, 74 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. although the greatest depth was but three feet. The heaviest of us, who weighed eighteen stone, was landed quite dry upon the opposite bank, while the lightest of the three was deposited half- way over in a sitting position in a foot and a half of water ; such are the uncertainties of fate ! This stream issued from the forest across flats of glacier mud, and came from the direction in which we were going as a shallow muddy stream. We wished to follow it up, but the Indians, probably on account of what they had been told at Yakatat, were disinclined to do so. It would have been better had we done so, for it was, as we suspected, an offshoot from the main river at the head of Icy Bay, and would have saved a long detonr. Had we then known of the miles of ice-cold water we should have to wade through yesterday, of the deep creeks, and of the mud and quicksands to be passed, and how wet and chilled the party was to be be- fore night, we should have disdained being carried across this stream by the Indians. After this came a fine wide sandy plain lying between the belt of timber and the ocean, covered with sweet-smelling tall purple flowers, rushes, and wild strawberries in profusion, and dotted with small fir-trees growing more ihickly towards A LARGE RIVER. 75 the forest, and more sparsely scattered towards the ocean. Three miles further and our progress to the west was barred by the main stream, up the left bank of which the way now lay. We were on the edge of the forest and on the bank of a large glacial river which was spread out m the shape of a fan, and appeared to issue from between a glacier and a line of elevated land. It was a large river, but not larger than one might expect, as forming one of the many streams which drain the vast expanse of snow and ice which covers and encircles the St. Elias range. Schwatka at once named it "Jones' River," after the pro- prietor of the New York Times. Its main stream appeared to issue from the apex of its fan-shaped delta, but many smaller ones joined it, rushing out from under the ice of the opposite glacier, which we named the " Guyot Glacier," after that distinguished scientist. We had been aware that n glacier existed there, for it forms the west side of Icy Bay, and has been named Icy Cape, and described by numerous navigators, from Vancouver and Beechey to Tebenkoff and the United States Coast Survey. Across a gravelly delta six miles wide, edged in on the opposite shore by a glacier, the river lay 76 8H0RES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. spread in numberless channels, shallow, swift, ice- cold, and milk-white with a brownish tinge, and a black oily scum. It reached and swept back the ocean across a long bar marked out by angry lines of surf. Bears had recently been travelling along the margin, and had left fresh tracks. After stop- ping to sketch and rest, we followed northwards up the bank of the river. The Indians went slowly, and lagged behind. The day had turned out cloudless and the sun was hot. Wide expanses of mud were crossed. The surface was firm, tena- cious, shaking, and jelly-like — a crust, as it seemed, floating on soft and treacherous quicksands. On one of these mud-flats an especially soft place had to be crossed, and the dread of a possible breaking through the crust made it nervous work. Woods got over first and crossed a channel on to firm ground ; the Indians following dropped part of their packs to lighten themselves, sinking thigh deep as they did so. In their tracks lanes of water were left on the surface of the mud, as though squeezed from a sponge. This part seemed firmer as we followed. Whether this was the case, or our broad-soled boots saved us, we sank in less than was to be expected. The party rested, considerably exhausted, for QUICKSANDS AND MORAINES. 77 an hour on the other side, on terra Jirma, and continued the march at 2 p.m., along a wooded point wliich stretched far out into tlie wide bed of the main river, and crossing a side stream by means of a fallen tree, arrived at more mud-flats, but kept this time near the grass and rushes, which grew along the edge of the forest. It might be supposed that the forest was preferaljle to rivers and quicksands ; but the growth was so dense as to offer but very slow prospects of locomotion to men with packs on their backs. The river, like all rivers of glacial source, was now on the usual dai:y rise, and had invaded the flat lands, while the water felt icy cold to the feet, which were numbed and senseless after such prolonged wading. Bruin is the great road-maker of Alaska, and we had been following mostly in his broad beaten tracks. About 5 P.M. further progress directly north towards Mount St. Elias became barred by a huge buried glacier, overtopped by immense masses of moraine and overgrown thickly with shrubs and fir-trees, which were becoming disordered and destroyed where they grew on the edges or faces of the moraines by reason of the slow but irre- sistible movement forward of the mass urged on by he pressure of the glaciers behind. This had SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. I '• appeared from the base-camp as a low range of hills. We now saw its true nature. It was the face of a glacier, buried by immense masses of terminal moraine, which, being overgrown with trees, had seemed from a distance like ordinary hilly ground. Now and then avalanches of stones rattled down its slopes. Ice protruded in places. Torrents burst up through the stones like rivers, created full-grown without any infancy or child- hood, issuing from some mountain side. One particularly large one we named Fee Springs. Climbing some distance up to reconnoitre, it was seen that a mile further on the timber grew gradually thinner, and gave place to gravel ; we decided to camp there on a dry part of the river bed. The flat expanse of the estuary lay stretched sea- wards, fringed by the black line of timber which we had skirted, and bounded by a vast glacier named afterwards the "Great Guyot Glacier," having its face so bespattered with rocks and dirt that only here and there was the ice visible. This glacier seemed to extend from this point quite flai for ten or fifteen miles westward, and at leaso twenty miles south-west by south far out into the sea, thus forming the west side of Icy Bay, named )f e >f li y • THE SECOND CAMP. ^^ by previous explorers Icy Cape. On climbing up the moraine after bears yesterday evening I found progression so difficult that a return to camp was preferable to destroying one's clothes on the chance of a shot. For supper we had chocolate, bacon, and "hard- tack." One of the Indians slept wrapped in a sheet on the gravel, with his head on a coil of rope ; the others made a tent out of withes and a ground- sheet. Woods and Kersunk, or Fred, as he prefers to be called, put up one of the tents. Schwatka and myself should have done the same, as the mosquitoes were troublesome, but we slept in the open. This morning at 9 a.xM. the Indians started back to the base-camp to guide the Professor, and bring up another load of necessaries. A cloudless day again, which we employed in making barometrical observations. A light wind from the north-west. Meanwhile, there are two days for rest in anti- cipation of unknown hardships ahead— rest which somehow seems sweeter from the thought that to- morrow the remainder of the party will be toiling up the Jones River through cold water and quick- sands and thorny woods. But hitherto our rest has not been altogether undisturbed. Curious 8o SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. noises have emanated from the ghiciors all around, rumblings and " travelling cracks," which, as the Lieutenant remarked, seemed to go right to the top of Elias and back again. Some of the St, Elias bears are supposed to be of a peculiar grey colour from living constantly like polar bears in *' thrilling regions of thick-ribl)ed ice." The ever- lasting little avalanches of stones sounded as if they were dislodged by the paws of one of these animals, and made one look up uneasily each time at the moraine. That bears were plentiful and of no insignificant measurements was evident from their tracks upon the wet mud in every direction. One of the party pretended to have been startled from his slumbers by a ridiculous concatenation of noises. He had just composed himself to sleep after saying "good-bye," when, from the steep sides of Mount Vancouver, or of St. Elias, came the distant rumblings of an avalanche. This was followed up by such a series of noises from the Great Guyot Glacier, that it seemed as though something had gone wrong in its internal mecha- nism. Then a whole troop of St. Elias bears seemed to be flying to our camp for refuge, to judge by the falling stones from the moraine above us. Nearer came the sound and nearer, culminat- ' I ♦ A MOVIN(} FOREST. «, iiig l)y the tent door in a loud whirrinff of wiufr.s till our sleeper's heart " had leaped up into his throat and commenced danglincr/' an he declared, when there appeared— a tiny huniming-l)ird with iridescent plumage gleaming in the sun, stationary in air, with vilmiting wings. A humming-l>ird in Icy Bay ! This afternoon I made a reconnaissance with Woods, for our journey on the day after to-monow. I concluded we should have to cross the river some- how, to the other glacier, which was smoother, the ice-mountain-moraine being formed of movable and sharp boulders, and densely overgrown with brushwood and shrubs of beech, birc^h, and fir. It was an extraordinary spectacle. How far the thicket continued, or where the moraine ceased and the ice came to the surface, was impossible to guess. The highest point visible was 600 feet above the river. The top was evidently moving over the base a few feet daily, and kept rolling trees and stones, as the ice melted, on to the river plain below. A constant undermining of the base by the river was going on, and milky streams gushed out from half-way up as well as from under the base. In two hours we approached the spot where the F 82 HII0UE8 AND ALPS OF ALAMKA. river issued from an ice-caflon, penned in Ijctween walls of ice. Icebergs and stranded 1>locks of ice Qtjcwed the banks, others were floating down with the current. A few yards higher up the river issued from under the glacier. The mountain- moraine had bridged it over. The two glaciers had met together and hushed its murmur. A mighty river, as large as the Thames, had disappeared from sight as completely as if it liad never exirtted. If we can penetrate the brushwood with our packs, we can cross Jones River twenty times over without being aware of its location, as it lies buried under the ice. St. Elias was in sight, and seemed as far away as ever. The sky was clear, but a thick fog-bank hung over the sea, defining exactly the contour of the coast-line. I ( 8j ) 'een I of 3wn iver ain- lind hty om our v^er ied led ick he CHAPTER IV. Waiting hy the Ice-Tl.e Indians lu-fun f.,r ni „ nrovisionn-A vast M,.,,u„e ..verK.own with Tree, an.l H.stinK ..p,m Movi.-K Ice-l,ut..l fronUhc.(Jui.les-St..,.,,...l I.yu U:,, of HorK's-W. S..,«u,Uo t., ti„.l a Way-A Danuncl-u, orrent lUrnk. out nfre..h-0,a.h.al U.uial ..f a F„ivsi Man.l-I... „f H... ,.,„. ^Hor-Fire lec. and Wator-We St.u-t a«a,M- M.„... cJIacial LakcH and the Great Tyndall Glacier-Th. Fifth Can.|. reached —1 rei.arutiun« fur the Fiiml Ascent. Tub Second Camp, /m/^ 2 Kv/. Hunset, We closed the tents hermetically last night and were not troubled by the mosquitoes. Rose at noon to-day and breakfasted. Weather foggy, and inclined to rain. The four Indians and tie Pro- fessor arrived at I P.M., having taken a shorter way, starting at 7 a.m. He reported that the Indians reached the base-camp at 6 p.m. hist night, havin.r clubbed three seals on the way. They had heard shots fired a longdistance up the coast, and thought It was a party of Yakatats. We think they are Copper River Indians. The Indiar-s managed to avoid the quicksands this time by wading some 84 iiiiORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. channels of the river, but some of the packs got wetted. We hope to make the base of the moun- tain in three or perhaps in two days. We have determined to take the barometrical measurements of the altitudes reached over sea- level on our return journey, which is the best way, in case no altitude worth recording is reached. i m ■•,). 1 1 1; The Third Camp (on the Ice), Julj/ 22(1, Evening. A fine day. The whole party (as the baromet- rical observations are to be made on the return) left camp this morning at 6 a.m., having in our packs sufficient for eight days, and making a cache of the rest under a mackintosh slieet. Kept alongside the river for some way, having to wade waist-deep in places. The w^ater felt icy-cold, and blocks of ice were floating down the current. Then the Indians struck away through the woods over the moraine. This was a portion of the immense terminal moraine of the "Great Agassiz Glacier" as we named it, which is of enormous extent, and consists of rocks, granite, trachyte, and basalt, and stones, which have fallen, or been torn from the mountain sides, and then carried forward by the constant CROSSINC; AN OVERGROWN MORAINE. 85 movement of the ice, till they have collected during the lapse of centuries into a perfect zone of mountains superimposed upon the glacier all along its edges, eight or ten miles in breadth. Under these piles of moving stones, which are for ever being carried forward, lies the glacier ice, three or four hundred feet in thickness at the edge, and much thicker elsewhere ; while a tangled forest of spruce and birch, maple and alder, is growing along its extremity, so thickly and closely, that it becomes exceedingly difficult, especially to men with large packs on their backs, to force a way through ; as though it were not difficult enough already to walk on loose rocks of every size, varying from that of a house to that of a paving-stone. But the advancing mass, for it is advancing, is not content with having a forest over it, but it must needs have one under it also, as it gradually covers and buries the narrowing strip of timber. This belt of undergrowth turned out narrower than we expected. It was half a mile only ; beyond lay bovren moraines or enormous mounds of stones heaped together over the ice and more or less compacted together with age, stretching eastward as far as the eye could reach, and forming the most ii'r Wh m ' 86 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. unpleasant walking imaginable. Morsels of slate, granite, porphyry, felspar, trachyte, and plutonic dihris were mixed together. The underlying ice very rarely protruded. Here and there lay deep pools of clear water. In the afternoon the Indians, who were behind, twice went off at a tangent in a different direction from that we were taking, with- out giving any notice of their intention. The second time, they got separated from us by a mile, and the two parties sat on the tops of two moraine mounds making signals which, on account of the distance, we could not understand. The only thing to be done was to exercise a little patience, and soon the proud and stubborn Yakatats found it to be a case of Mahomet and the mountain, and were seen making their way across the glacier to join us, annoyed possibly because they had degenerated from guides to mere porters. Meanwhile some of the party went prospecting for the best route, as we were shut in and sur- rounded by badly crevassed portions of the glacier. We had been making for the west flank of a range of hills which seemed the only obstacle to a clear view of the base of St. Elias, which now com- menced to tower grandly overhead. This range was not over a mile distant now. The slopes looked 1 . 1 i ?■ I k , TYWDALl ^ ^ TK( attcm/iF en /I- S^EL/AS ALASKA Alaskan ExMLon. Icy Bay ^"^"^ o'fj'ms r. .^^ WORTH PACIFIC OCEAN •«n r • I A GLACIAL LAKE. 89 -^1 smooth, green, and grassy; the lower parts were timbered. It seemed a forbidden paradise which we were never to reach. The Indians had kept constantly exclaiming that they saw wild mountain goats on it, which was quite impossible at that distance. All day we had been following what seemed the line of junction of two glaciers, with a perceptible depression, as though a river were un- dermining it. Between us and this range lay what appeared to be a rough ice-surface strewn with seracs or small icebergs, and lying lower than the glacier-surface. The searchers came back reporting this to be a lake, and quite impassable. The ice terminated in steep cliffs. It was a lake covered with morsels broken from the glaciers. The only indications of the existence of water was the per- fectly flat arrangement of the pieces of ice, which showed they must be floating. Named it after the President of the Italian Geographical Society- Lake Castani. It was getting dark, and nothing remained except to look for a camping-place on the glacier. This we found at last on a flat piece of gravel washed down by a stream from the melting ice, like the delta of the Jones River in miniature. The Indians to-night seem ravenously hungry. w»*^ ■p 90 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. I i The Third Camp (on the Ice), July 2^d, Afternoon. The next thing to be done was to find a way oflf the glacier, or at least northward and westward. If we kept on the ice, the road to Mount St. Elias lay to the westward, round the spur or over the lower part of the low range. The Professor thought this way was barred to us on account of the crevasses in the ice, and set out with an Indian this morn- ing in an easterly direction, along the edge of the glacier, to find a way on to the land. I started out with an Indian to the westward with the same object. Both parties agreed to be back by 3 p.m. at latest. It was then 9 a.m. The crevasses, as I had expected, turned out merely deep corrugations or waves in the surface of the ice, not fissures. The Indian frequently stopped and pointed to his moccasins, which cer- tainly were worn through ; but to an Indian accus- tomed to go barefoot over rough ground what did that signify ? However, to induce him to follow, he had to be given a thick pair of woollen socks that I happened to have. To make a long story short, the Indian and I found a way out of the maze or cul-de-sac in which the party had found them- % i / AN ISLAND IN THE GLACIER. ft selves, after two hours fast walking mainly over waves of white ice sprinkled with rocks and stones, with here and there deep mud, on to a small tim- bered island of thirty acres in extent, situated upon what looked like the damp bottom of a quondam lake. It was not, strictly speaking, an island when we reached it, for the lake was, for some reason, below its usual level. This island was bordered on one side by the glacier, which was gradually advancing over it, crushing up the tall pines, rending them into matchwood, and heaping one over the other — a scene of gradual destruction by a resistless force. The onset of the glacier was over- riding and burying the patch of wood. This small island was separated from our low range of hills by a flat expanse of damp gravel, looking like the bed of some mighty torrent the waters of which had been suddenly turned aside into some other channel or dammed up altogether. Subsequently it appeared that the latter was what had taken place. Cutting off" and taking as a proof and sample some green branches, like Noah's dove, we reached camp at one p.m. once more. By three o'clock the other wliite man had not returned; but at three-thirty this afternoon the I i 92 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. Indian came back with a note from him saying that he was three hours from camp, and that he fancied a good passage existed across the river which came from the east, but that he had not yet crossed, and that it would take him another hour to do so. Before starting he had agreed to come opposite the camp and fire his rifle and burn a magnesium light, which he thought would be visible a mile away, if he succeeded in crossing. But if there had been found a road to the west- ward, the fact would be signalled to him by means of the flag we had brought. Meanwhile the Indians had been grumbling audibly. As translated by Kersunk, the boy interpreter, their mutterings signified that they would prefer going no farther, for their moccasins were worn out. If they were to desert us it might make progress into the interior of the St. Elias alpine region impossible with our heavy packs. But after a little persuasion there suddenly appeared, as if by magic, and from whence it was impossible to say, two new pairs of moc- casins. But the absent one has not returned, so the rest of the party, guided by the Indian who had accompanied me, set ofl" with the packs to the I 1 li A LOST PROFESSOR. ^j westwartl by the newly-discovered way, wliile I am waiting for liim with Schwatka. We have put up the flag-pole. Nothing breaks the silence of the frozen wilderness excepting cracks and groanings in the ice or the roll like distant thunder of an occasional avalanche of snow down the sides of St. Elias (or " ambulance," as the lieutenant called it, d la Malaprop), which woke corresponding echoes in the mountains on the west, for there was no wind stirring; or in our more immediate neighbourhood an avalanche of mud, stones, and slush breaking out of some crevice with a rush, and threatening in a miniature way to overwhelm us. Schwatka is seriously ill with a chill, which has brought on fever, ague, and pleuritic pains. Up till dark we kept examining the glacier with field-glass and telescope, and sweeping the horizon in search of the lost Professor. Then we had dinner— a quarter of a " cracker" apiece,--fireless, for there is no wood. The Fourth Camp (on an Island in the Ice), Jtily 24tk, Sunset. Before we lay down to sleep, towards ten o'clock last night, from a high point on the glacier, a ; I • I ,H i ■r'l 94 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. cheering sight was visible, in the shape of an enormous cloud of blue smoke which rose from the spot which Woods and the Indians had reached. Woods was evidently determined that no one else should be given in as " missing," for it rivalled in bulk St. Elias himself. But from the same direc- tion came an incomprehensible sound as of a roaring, rushing torrent, through the still night air. In the morning I had found no sign of such a thing in that direction, only a damp river-bed between the island and the range of hills. Woods had evidently, by the position of the smoke, camped on the island instead of on the range, as we ex- pected he would. There exists a large river in the direction the Professor has gone, namely, to the eastward, which he has been endeavouring to cross. The one that has meantime burst forth from the westward was even larger. The lake was rising, and it was evident that the two streams united together, and flowing underneath the glaciers along the line of their junction, issued in the form of Jones River at the head of Icy Bay. At 5.30 A.M. this morning we started for camp, leaving large sheets of newspaper spread out to attract attention, and a note on a stick saying that A PHENOMENON. 95 the absentee was to come on to the smoke of the fires or to wait. On arriving at this camp the bursting forth of a new torrent was confirmed. It was also clear why they had not camped on the range of hills. The new river had been dammed up at some spot above, and was now running " double tides," to make up for lost time. Just as we got into camp. Woods, who had been exploring it, reported a river " big enough to wash away the city of London into the Atlantic Ocean." I could hardly believe it, and went to see. Some alpine lake had burst its bounds. The noise I had heard through the dusk had been the roaring sound caused by rush of many waters contending in their downward course and wrestling as they fell with boulders and blocks of ice. It seemed as if the forces of nature had combined to prevent our ever reaching St. Elias before our food-supply gave out, not to mention the unfor- tunate loss of the Professor. Over the waterless channel of yesterday were now suroincr icebero-s down the stream, mixed with roots and trunks of trees. This accounted for the marks of sudden rises and falls in the river-level lower down, and made us fear lest our stores at the second camp should be washed away. Close liy, on the banks, FT U if SHORES AND AM'S OF ALASKA. ill! additional guiding-fire which Woods liad made Imd spread over the dry moss. Half a dozen largo trees were fairly alight, and sending up such n volume of smoke as must have been visible for fifty miles. The ground wherever it was sandy was covered with tracks of bears, some of which appeared as the impressions of monster paws. Close by, over the river and looming through the smoke, hung frowning cliffs of ice, the flank of the glacier-face which was burying our island ; while, as if to add an additional horror to the scene, a tree crashed down at that moment, overborne by the weight of the advancing glacier. Fire, ice, and water were contending at the same moment in their powers of destruction, and within a distance of a yard or two from each other. Meantime the four Indians were despatched as two search-parties, with orders to return if they heard two shots fired. Before they had long been gone one party fired two shots for some reason unknown, and the other party of Indians, hearing it, returned to camp, and were again sent out. At 6 p.M this evening, as the lieutenant and I were walking through the timber, a voice cried, " Hello there ! " It was the lost one, pale and tired, but safe. He had failed to make his crossing to get off THE WANDKUKU HKTruXS. 97 tlie ice, and Iiud tlicn gone on caHtwunl iway from cftmp with great determination. In tlie evening, arriving at a lake, lie tliought a way was i)<)M,siI)le by making a long detour. Shortly after, having .slightly .sprained hi.s leg, he wa.s unahle to make the detour to .sec, hut left hi.s gun and in.struments on the iec, and walked westward to cam|), hoping to meet u.s coming, and not .supposing it to he po.s.sible that we had .succeeded in finding a way to the eastward. The ch.udy pillar had been his guide, but a great many fires had been .set blazin^r and he had not yet located the one by which our camp wa.s set. The Fn-Tii Camp (neah an Ice-fall at TUB Foot of ^rouxT .St. Eliah), J till/ 25///, 10 P.M. The Indians who had been sean^hing westward reported finding a good easy way by following the glacier in that direction. This was luck} , as no other way was possible except a retreat. This morning at noon we were once more fairly on the road for St. Elias. The Professor remained behind to connect the camps by simultaneous barometrical readings, having .ne of the Indians left with him. AH carried packs. Only necessaries were taken, G 98 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. ii m i including one of the small tents, and all the pro- visions that could be mustered, rope also and axes. After the vexatious delays, the food could only last us for from four to five days longer. Keeping up the glacier, over troublesome mounds and hillocks of ice, slightly crevassed and covered several feet in depth with moraine and debris, in two hours a fiat plateau was reached where the ice gave good walking. In front w^as another immense glacier ; a third stretched away on tlie left hand side like a plain of ice as far as the eye could reach ; while our way opened out plainly by yet another glacier which had its origin from the crags of St. Elias himself. We soon turned the corner of the rancje of hills which had offered such an obstacle to us. On the right lay two lakes of muddy water of considerable extent, which were possibly the re- servoirs which had become dammed up and had then burst. For nearly two hours longer piles of loose stones were crossed, and the centre of the St. Elias south-west glacier was reached at 5.30 P.M. This we named the Great lyndall Glacier. About the centre of it my boots gave out, though I had chosen what I thought were the strongest pair for .the last few marches. Our ji AT THE BASE OF MOUNT ST. ELUS. 99 Indians seemed vastly amused to see a small l)ox of tacks aj)pcar from one of tlieir i)acks, wJiile we mended tlic refractory boots with the tongue cut out of another boot. At 8.30 P.M. we left the ice and camped on the last bare slopes anywhere visible, putting up a covey of ptarmigan from it. We were desirous of pressing on and of camping on the ice witliin a day's reach of the summit, but the Indians' moc- Mount Cook (16,000 feet) from the Tyndall Glac icior. casins were again worn completely through, while they would in any case from superstitious dread iiave refused to pro(,'eed further. If the morning turns out fine we intend to start ut three o'clock, and, to lose no time, have made up our packs, including two days' provisions and a suit of clothing to wear over the others at night ; some Esquimaux coats and hoods of reindeer .skin, thirty.five yards- of rope, two ice-axes, one alpenstock, one mercurial mountain barometer, one I I I i i #. I I 100 SHOKES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. aneroid, one liypsometer, several compasses (one prismatic), two tliermometers, and one binocular. The Indians go no fortlier, the final attack on Mount St. Elias now devolves upon the white men. > I It ( loi ) (one 3ular. ^ on vliite CHAPTER y. The Ascent of Mount St. EliaH-Dangerous Crevasso.-We arc Roped -The Ascent-I reach 6800 Feet over Snow-line-A Bear close o Camp A Description of the M.3untnin-The Return to Icy liay-Qu,ck.an. s-Three Bears Kille.l-An Attempt to Launch our A\ haleboat througli the Surf-AVe Swaiu]. at Midni.ijht. Tut Fourth Camp, Jnlu 27M, Su7isi:t. Yesterday we left the last camp at half-past four in the morning for tlie final ascent. By keeping to the centre of the glacier, which soon turns to the west and runs from thence in a north-easterly direction towards the summit, most of the larger crevasses were avoided. At six it became nec'es- «ary to rope the party together, as some of the fissures, which now ran transversely, became larger and were partially filled with snow. Joseph Woods the lightest I placed in front, and the lieutenant in the centre as being the heaviest, while I brought up the rear. At this point the boy Frederrck, who helped to carry our packs so far, was sent back, and the party consisted then of three. The clouds had hung heavily, and now com- loa SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. .^ f ;i I mencecl closing down. The glacier soon became much cut up. Progress was very slow, and it became necessary to bear away to the west. It soon appeared advisable, as this w^as the first ex- perience of the other two of any Alpine snow work or of the use of rope and ice-axe, that we should strike off towards one of the ridges on the west, from which several large glaciers descended. Up Trying to ascend Mount St. Elias, one of these we now worked in a north-westerly direction. It was in a better condition than the main ice-stream. But as it was now near midday the snow bridges over the fissures were unsafe, and some of the crevasses of great width. It wf^i especially vital to the success of the attempt that the clouds should break and clear away at once. Only three days' food remained in all, while as THE ASCENT. 10? an additional difficulty, the lieutenant was still seriously ill with fever, and I feared that a nifrht in the snow might even prove fatal to him. At three the ice was quitted for a slope of crumbling rock with large patches of snow, by wdiich a ridge rising at a steep angle was reached. Schwatka was now in such an alarming condi- tion from repeated chills, that his state made it necessary to halt for an hour ; this delay I took advantage of to make a sketch, before everything was entirely obscured by the mist. Then I re- sumed the ascent with Woods. At a height of 6800 feet I sent him back to see after Schwatka, and continued the ascent across a narrow snow- field. I'he upper part of the ridge was swathed in vapour, through which I pressed on till an altitude was reached of almost 7500 feet,* as well as could be computed at the time. Progress was stopped at 7 p.m., as the ground began to M) away to the west ; had the weather been clear, we might have picked out a possible way of ascent even yet, and might even luive seen part of the northern foce on which no white man's eye at any rate has yet rested. Compelled by all these "circumstances over * Subsequently shown to be y2oo feet over sea-level. I04 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. M i r which wc had no control," we returned to camp, which was at lenfjth reached at midnifjht. I had ascended to a greater height over the summer snow-level than is possible to accomplish in Europe, the snow-level on Mount St. Elias being 400 feet only above the sea-level owing to the heavy annual snow-fall. The day before, we had told the Indians that our stock of provisions was very small, requesting them to eat but little. We found they had left untouched the whole that remained, r jgaling them- selves on wild roots and water. As we could re- main no longer, a good meal and light packs were the order of the day ; especially for the Indians, whose capability for either fasting or repletion is very great. Before leaving, Woods, who had left the hypsometer a short distance from camp, had to return for it. As he was coming down the bed of a stream he saw a large grey-colouied bear, evidently one of the Elias grizzlies. The 50-calibre Winchester had been left in the last camp. The bear seemed to be eating the wild or "skunk" cabbage, and took no notice whatever, and pro- bably did not see Woods. I subsequently went to look at the bear. It was a large brute, and I longed for some weapon I A BEAR. 10^ i-s I of offence. Woods also killed four ptarmigan with an ice-axe. These birds evidently had broods, and were most pugnacious, following like dogs, and running round and round us with outspread wings. They were w^elcome as a supply of meat. We reached the camping-ground at seven this evenino- The Indians declared they felt the wound movino- and shaking as they lay in their " lean-to." If it was not mere imagination, the lieutenant was shivering and shaking from chills and fever with almost sufficient violence to convey the sensation of an earthquake to the acute senses of the Indians. During the intervals of clear weather there have been many opportunities of sketching and examin- ing Mount Saint Elias, both with telescope and binocular as well as with the naked eye, from our various camps and stopping-places from different points of view. A description would he of interest in view of future attempts to climb the mountain. Its height has been differently estimated by the old navigators, Cook, Vancouver, Tebenkoff, La Perouse, Bering, and Belcher, and it is the only mountain the real height of which has exceeded the first estimates made of it. jMountains gene- rally prove lower than they were originally believed to be, but the latest determination taken from io6 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. Yakatat and from the U.S. Coast Survey schooner, Yukon, gives 19,500 and possibly 20,000 feet. It certainly, from its massive shape, gives the im- pression of being less than this, notwithstanding that its whole altitude is presented to the eye, from its sharp summit down to the ocean at its foot. The nortliern ridge of the pyramid, as seen from the same spot in profile, presented the same angle of descent as the southern ridge — about forty-five degrees. Something in the shape of Elias from Yakatat reminds one of Piz Roseg as seen from the Roseg Glacier. The first features that fix the attention are the outline as seen from Icy Bay, being a reproduction on a slightly larger scale of Mc unt Fairwcather ; next that Elias forms a regular quadrilateral pyramid ; next the detached circular crater-like basin nearly half-way up the central front ; next the regularity of three of the pyramidal side ridges and the assumption that the fourth ridge must be equally regular ; and fifthly, the solitary and isolated situa- tion of the Ice King — the terminating and crowning elevation of his range, so close upon the sea — the highest peak"'^ in North America gazing out over the * Lieutenant Allen asserts that Mount Wrangel, lying at the forks of the Copper River, is even higher. NATURE OF TIIK GREAT MOUNTAIN. J 07 widest ocean of the world. But though 30 like in shape to Fairvveather, which is 15,500 feet, there exists a diflfereiice, in that the two ridges which appear like shoulders or wings on each side of the two summits, in Elias are longer, while the eastern shoulder is lower than the western. In Fairweather both are of equal height. The four aretes or ridges appear to run north, south, east, and west. The north-west face of the mountain has never been seen. The north-east fiice seemed from Yakatat to consist of steep cliffs. The east ridge descends from the summit as a snow arete with a gradually de- creasing rapidity for about 4000 feet, forming one of the before-mentioned shoulders; from which point it falls in cliffs of steep black rock with one break, a depression holdino: a small hanoino- glacier. Next comes the south-east face. The upper triangular part consists of steep slopes of rock and snow, and the lower part of perpendicular precipices. The sharp contrast between the black and the white, the rock and snow; and the well-defined line of demarcation, half Avay up, between snow-field and precipice, forms a marked feature of this face. Then the central or south ridge of the pyramid slopes at an angle of forty-five degrees from the io8 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. summit to a depression lying seven or eight thou- sand feet below it, between the mountain and the erater-basin. This crater, for such it appears, though we found no volcanic traces on the moraine, should be from four to five thousand feet in dia- meter. It lies in front of, and separate from, the main volume of the mountain, and about midway between base and summit. The encircling ridge encloses it on three sides only, leaving the interior open to view on the south-east. The inner cliffs of the crater descend too steeply to allow snow to rest on them, but enclose four hanging glaciers. On the outside of the crater are five other glaciers, and between them four ridges descending to the main glacier at the foot, which seem accessible half way up— two of them even look easy — whence the rim of the crater could be reached. From this point it appears that the main snow-fields on the south-west face might be attained. On the south-west side, from the summit of Elias, the snow and rock, very steep at first, stretches down at a gradually lessening angle to a plateau of neve, which winds down towards the crater, then turns from behind it to the westward, being much crevassed, and descends at an angle of about tw^enty degrees to the main glacier, which we named the THE WEST FACE. 109 Great Tyndall Glacier, wliioli now flows to the soutli-east along the foot of the mountain, past tlie base of the crater, where it widens and turns to the south. At this point, where neve and glacior mingle, and which may l)e called the source of the main southern Elias Glacier, some triljutary glaciers flow in and join from the westward ; wliile between this point and the crater are two fine ice-falls. In the centre of the south-west face a long regular and sharp ridge joins the main mass of Elias, and divides the above-mentioned sloping plateau of 7ieve into two. This sharp ridge has also the effect of partly hiding the western edge of the Elias pyramid, which, as I could see from the highest point reached, trended somewhat to the northward in its lower part, and promised, on the whole, a not impracticable way of ascent. Reaching the west shoulder would be identical with reaching the summit itself. While the sky in this direction appeared to us generally more free from those clouds and masses of fog which were so prevalent just at the period when their absence was so impor- tant to us, and which caused us so mu(;h trouble and annoyance. In this direction the "foot- hills " of Ehas stood like islands in the enormous 110 SIIOUEH AND Ar.rS OF ALASKA. % i 5 •■ cxpanac of oluoicr stretch iiijL? pruiric-likc as far as tlic eye could penetrate through the <'ryHtallinc air towards the country of the Atna or Copper River ; and in the same direction was seen another h)fty range standing near the sea, and completely en- shrouded and enveloped in the ice from which it rose, and on which it seemed, so to speak, to rest or float as on an ocean. But while the sky in the north-west was more favourable, a constant canopy of fog-bank hung over the sea at times, ending abruptly with the land, and thus defining the coast- line, especially Yakatat Bay. Returning now to the foot of the crater, the main glacier at this point is approximately six miles in width, and, as stated before, now flows southward to the ocean, bounded by ranges of snowy hills which contribute numerous streams of ice to swell its volume. This we named the Tyndall Glacier, and it was our pathway goin*^ to and returning from our last camjjing place. These boundary ranges to this glacier, which divide it from the vast ice -plains on the east and west of it, cease at a distance of twenty miles from Mount Elias. It then widens out and mingles with the seas of ice and moraine, which cost us three days to cross, and which form the shores of Icy and OCKAXS OF WE. Ill Yakattit Buys; wliilr an immonao ice-river, twenty miles uroml and of nnknown lenoM,, comes in fi„ni the westward (which we called the (Jreat Gnyot Glacier), nnd where, as we could see from the greatest elevation reached, were endless ice-fields. Towards Yakatat also, a plain of nrlacier stretches for fifty miles, which nnist comprise 700 scpiare miles; the seaward part consists of moraines, of course underlaid with ice. The U.S. Coast Survey named this JMalaspina, as being apparently " a plateau bare of vegetation," and a " huvicd fjlacier." It is, how- ever, not exactly - bare of vegetation," for so slow is the glacier's march, and so huge are the moun- tains of moraine that border it, that large parts arc covered with thick bush, through which it is diffi- cult to penetrate. It would probably be below the mark to give 10,000 square miles as the area of the glaciers be- tween Mount Elias and the Copper River country, and 8000 from Elias eastward, and southward to Cross Sound, making 1 8,000 square miles of glaciers, while merely those which border the shore must comprise an area of about 2500 square miles of rough but level fields of ice. T 113 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. I' :; 1^^ : r ' Table op Heights. Everest (in tlio Himalayas), 29,002 feet (snow-line from 15,500 to 18,000 feet). Aconcagua (in the Andes), 23,000 (snow-line, 12,780). Chimborazo, 21,420. A summit in the Hindu Kush, 20,593, Mount St. Elias, 19,000 to 20,000 (U.S. Coast Survey's observations). Cayembe, 19,625, Kilimanjaro, approximately, 19,000. Tolima, 18,314, Kara Korum Pass (Himalayas), 18,200. Elburz (Caucasus), 17,800. Mount Cook, 16,000. Mount Brown (Uritish Columbia), 16,000. Mount Ci'illon, 15,900. Mount Murchison (British Columbia), 15,789. ^lont Blanc, 15,784. Mount Iloolcer (British Columbia), 15,700. Mount Fairwcafher, 15,500. Monte Rosa, 15,223. !Mount Tacoma (Oregon), 14,440. Mount Adams (AV'ashington Territory), 13,258. Mount Vancouver, 13,100. The Gross Olockner (Tyrol), 12,956. The Adlcr Pass, 12,461. Mount Cook (New Zealand), 12,460. Muley Hacon (Spain), 11,664. Col du Geaiit, 11,426, Mount La Pcrouse, 11,300. ^Mount Hood (Oregon), 11,^:20. ^[ount ISfaiadetta (Pyrenees), 11,168. Ischar Dagh (Balkans), 10,000. Kuska Poyano (Carpathians), 9912. !Monte Corno (Apennines), 9523. Highest in Arabia, 8593. r I from ■eys THE RETURX FROM ST. ELIAS. ,,3 Snae Ilattan (Xorway), 8102. Kosciuskii (Australia), 6500. Alleghany Mountains (Xorth Carolina), 6476. Jicn Novis, 4406. The Catskills, 4000. Snpwdon, 3590, The Second Camp, Jnl!/ 28///, 9 P.M. Made the wliole distance to-day fvom tlie fourtli camp. The water is two feet liiglicr. We knew the river wouhl rise after the sudden appearance of a torrent, where I had found notJiing but bare ground the day before. Tho.gh in peril, the cache we had left was safe ; the Professor had been using some of the provisions, and had evidently left only that morning for the base camp, after having shifted the things out of harm's way^ for the ashes of his camp fire were still warm. lev Lay. The Base Camp, Jub/ 29///, Siuiiiet. Leaving the second camp at seven this morning we abandoned everything not absolutely needecl We had to keep through thick wood away from the river for the first mile, on account of the high state of the water. The quicksands were covered wlu-re we had crossed previously ; but :n another place we v.aded breust-high in the rive,-, which had a H i I U4 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. shifting sandy bottom. Struck more quicksands on the other side. Here the lieutenant sank up to his middle, and was pulled out with the end of an alpenstock. He says he struck bed-rock. If we had only known this before, how boldly we should have allowed ourselves to sink, and with what nonchalance crossed the very worst places. The last river was also breast-hifjh. Reached this camp at 3 p.m., and found thai; Dal ton had killed three bears on the beach near by. He informed us that it had rained daily. The biggest bear had sat up and looked at him, and had crawled a hun- dred yards after being shot. The Professor struck a bad part of the river in crossing the quicksands, and his Indian dropped and lost everything that was not tied on. Icy Bay. The Base Camp, Juli/ 3o//i, Midday. All day yesterday we rested, watched the surf, listened to the roar of the ocean, and wondered how we were going to get away. Wo determined to try to get away by that night's tide. It was high water at about 11.30 r,M. We packed the things, leaving most of the remaining provisions, and other things that were not indispensable. Towards sun- down everything had been carried across the sand r i THE STRUGGLE WITH THE SUKF. ,,3 (luiies to the side of the wliale-boat. Oars aiul mast were made ready and everything prepared. Braders were filled and rollers laid, the very names conveying unpleasant reminders. The anclxor had been thrown out as far as possible by Woods wading out at five that afternoon at low water, when the Indian canoes are said to be able to make a landing. Still the length of cable we had to haul on to get tlirough the breakers looked miserably short and insufficient, and threatened that we should be imable to take quick advantage of the calm moment on account of the difficulty of raising the anchor, which, as well as the chain, sinks in a few minutes to a great depth in the sand. How deep would it sink in six hours ? The last twenty yards are of ohain, and this, as well as the anchor, was very ficavy, making it slow and hard work moving it. I aM vised not using them. The pile of mpcLienta looked f.n-midable, and were j)acke(' into tlie boat to occupy the smallest space. As midniglit ap- proached ^ -e made ready. AVe took oif our boots and coats, and stood round the boat to hold firm as the foam rushed by. It was icy cold to legs and f^'et ; and uniting our strength, we moved her down upon the underwash of each succeeding wave. 116 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. pi I EM 1 II 1:' , 1 * 1 ' 1 We had suspected that the boat was toe heavily loaded for nine men to manage, and too low to give her the necessary chance of rising over the foaming breakers, comparatively sniall though they were when contrasted with those of winter. But most of the scientific instruments were the private pro^ itv of one of the members of the party, and \\\ valuable. We weve therefore unwilling to abandon them to their fate. To make the situation more unpleasant it was nearly mid- night and the darkness was increasing. Our legs were numbed ; for the many glacial rivers and the glaciers along the shore made the water bitterly cold. The waves seemed getting larger. It was spring-tide. Soon an enormous breaker came on like a wall, and broke with a roar like thunder. The foam rushed up the beach towards us. Now was the time. We gasped for breath in the icy water, and held firm to the boat till the wave began to retreat again. " All together now " some one shouted, and exerting our full strength we rushed her down a few yards on the retiring flood. We were now nearer to danger than ever. Some water had entered the boat over the gunwales already. The sand seemed to hold her sucked down. The canoe had been tied behind with i DEFEATED. „y twenty yards of rope. We had seen it rush past us caught by the back sweep of the water, and next moment become broken into small pieces which floated uncomfortably round about, like an en- tanglement, till some one cut the rope adrift. We were watching the next opportunity-a retreating underwash followed by calm water for a moment. The Indians strained their eyes seawards. Every- thing was obscured by the darkness, for it was past midnight. We had calculated on its being lighter. Now— now was the time, and a yell arose from the whole party. Next minute we were completely enveloped in foam, as we struggled to keep a foot- ing, gasping from the cold. The rush of water was terrific. It seemed like a nightmare enacted by madmen. Wave succeeded wave till she was filled and immovable. Everything became confusion. Behind was a desert, in front the roaring sea in which our effects were at the jioint of destruction, while the surf breaking upon us chilled us through and through. We were between the devil and the deep sea, and tiie devil received the vote, for " back " was now the cry. We were defeated and cast once more upon an inhospitable shore. Four held the boat, while the rest carried package after package above the reach of the waves. mmn u8 SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. I if.* Shouib for assistance were heard as the waves got the better of the four, and " slewed her broad- side ; " till bailed out and dragged up she was made fast for the present out of reach of the tide. So ended our first attempt to leave Icy Bay. Here we are still. We have still some provisions left, and must make one last desperate effort if the surf remains moderate. The matches were dry, and a hot fire and coffee were cheering, as were also the few blankets that remained dry. The roaring of the surf kept every one awake till the sun was high in the heavens, reminding us as it did that calmer weather was the only alternative to capsizing or semi-starvation ; while the brightest star in the ment 1 atmosphere is the return of the man-of-war in a month. To-day the weather is clear and cloudless, the mirage along the shore rising and falling as the wind drifts the spray from the breaking surf inland. The beach is strewed with things laid out to dry ; luckily it is a fine warm day. ( i'9 ) CHAPTER VI. A Fresli Attempt to Pass the Surf of Icy Eay— ALanJoniueiit ..f our Possessions— Skirting the Shore— Crossing Yakatat Bay— We canip In- the Indian Village-Haggling with the Natives, or "Chin-nm..ic"-Our Life at Yakatat-An Attempt to Recover the Abandoned Property— The Kaiak Traders arrive in their Schooner— Poisoning of the Indians with Arsenic— Murder of George Holt- The Chief Medicine-Man— I leave Yakatat— The Nexo York Times Expedif iou waits for the Man-o'- War— Becalmed —Shouting Seals— A Sea-otter Hunt— Ca])e Yagtag— A Wild Stern Coast-line — Another enormous Glacier — Life on the Schooner- Cape Suckling— Cape Martin— Kaiak Island. i * Yakatat Bav, August 2d, 1886. Fresh preparations for departure were beo-uii. The anchor and chain were extracted from the sand and kid thirty yards farther out at low water, favoured by the spring-tide, by Woods and Dalton, after a violent struggle with the waves. It grew gradually calmer; our expecta- tions rose. The scientific instruments were heavy ; must the Professor leave them ? No, they must be taken in the cause of science. If we were des- tined to swamp, we should swamp without them as easily as with them. The Indians were con- in I V ill r i 1! iHll tao SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. •f f suited ; they would start at daybreak on the ebb- ing tide. It grew calmer still. If it should only keep so for eight hours longer I At all hazards we must break through the liounds of our prison- house. The surf broke in long straight lines, every portion simultaneously. The sound of it was louder, but the sea in reality calmer. Each roller was clearly defined from each succeeding one. We could pick out the moment for the last rush with certainty. It was 7 o'clock in the evening. We lay down, and each one feigned sleep, but no one slept. We were face to face with a danger, but we talked of other things. The Indians watched the sea by turns all night, and roused Dalton to prepare breakfast as the first light of morning lit the sky behind the vast ranges of alps. Almost everything was abandoned this time. The boat was therefore nearly empty. The air was thick with sea fog, but the sea was still in good condition. It grew lighter and lighter. E'^erything is ready, and away we go down the beach. Now she touches the wash. We haul in the slack of the anchor rope and bide our time. Determination is imprinted on every face. The undemonstrative Indians get really excited and THE VICTORY. „, show it. We leave it to them to give tlic word. The glaciers make the sea almost icy cold, and we shudder as each surge breaks and rushes under us. The moment arrives when we see a calm stretch. " All together ! " and she moves seaward. Now she floats. Pull on the anchor rope for life or death. "Jump in, boys ! " - Row, for God's sake, row ! " The chain is caught in the sand and refuses to come up. Some one cuts t .e rope. All is confusion. The oars are entangled and refuse to enter the rowlocks. " Row, for God's sake, row ! " At last I get one in, and a wave strikes it out again. (I found afterwards this rowlock was bent.) She surges to and fro. Nothing at this moment could take my attention from the rowlock, though it were to rain "chained thunderbolts and hdl of iron globes." I wrestle with my oar, and every- thing beside passes unheeded except the cry dinning in one's ears, " Row, for God's sake, row ! " A small wave passes under her and breaks just under the keel ; she turns broadside. Has no one got an oar out ? Ten yards more and we shall be safe. I seize another oar ; some one is sitting upon it. I try another, and the stay catches. At last one oar is got to work ; then another. Every one shouts at once. Never was seen such confusion, or heard ! I. < ,1 4 \ laa SIIOUES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. such pan«lemoiiium. Iliules must have broken loose. The importance of the next few seconds is immense. At last she moves — faster and faster — no heavy sea yet. We arc safe. No ! look out — yes, safe at last. An immense roller arrives. She rises to it, and it passes under and breaks just beyond us. The shore recedes. We are soaked through and through, but safe. We are exhausted, and can afford to rest. We bail the boat, and change into dry things which we have taken care to place in rubber bags. The fog lifts. Never did Mount St. Elias look so grand, so magnificent. Our deserted tent stands lonely on the shore. It shows white against the dark narrow belt of forest, which in its turn shows up blackly against the glittering sea of glaciers beyond. We have the best boat from the man-of-war. We can set no sail, for not a breath moves the glassy surface of the Pacific, yet we can row her at a rate of four knots. We taste the water and find it fresh. We pass along the coast, keeping well clear of the line of breakers. In a few hours we reach Point Sitkagi, the thin line of swamp and timber ends, and we skirt mile after mile of brown-looking ice-cliffs where the Great Agassiz ^ i SKIKTINC; Till.: SIIUIIK. „3 Glacier reaches the sea. Piles of moraine rubble and stones lies on its upper surface ; streams .»f water issue from its cracks ami fissures and How clown its face into the ocean. At midday we are alireast of the point called Manby l,y the coast survey ; it only remains to cross the Bay of Yakatat, a distance of twenty miles, and about sixty from the starting-point. At Point Manljy some belts of timber fringe the coast line, which continue for ten miles up the bay. when the ice-cliffs recommence. In front of the timber stretches the same long straight linu of sand, backed by a ridge of gravel and stones which allow only the tree tops to be seen beyond, and on which the Pacific surf breaks ceaselessly— clearly a shore not intended for man to land upon. A breeze springs up, and the sail is hoisted. Quantities of seal " bob up serenely " all round, as many as fifteen glistening black heads at once, and disappear again in the thick white water. They are the common hair-seals, and this . an Indian seal-hunting ground. Ocean Cape and Cape Phipps soon rise into view. Each fir-tree becomes defined, and the coast line presents a serrated edge. The Indian village comes in sight. The chief hoists his fla- '' h pi ii ( IM SHORES AND ALPS OF ALASKA. on the flng-polc, and the natives crowd on tlic roofs of the liouaes. As we draw up on tlie bench, crowds of Yakatat Indians, men, women, and naked cliildren, surround us. They have returned, since we left, from seal-hunting. Most of them have their faces painted black or red, and stare intently and silently without one of them offering to help us. We pitch camp on the sandbank, now denuded of strawberries by the newly-arrived inhabitants, fetching our second large tent and boxes from the chief's house, where they have been stored. We find the chief seated on a magnificent bear robe by the side of his wife and daughter, and wearing his uniform and the U.S.S. Pinta riband. The crowd fills the house and still pours in by the small circular opening called a door. The smoke ascends through a hole in the roof, across which are hung strings of dried salmon and salmon - trout. After much talk, we tell the chief in reply that though we have not actually reached the summit of the big mountain, we have ascended higher above the snow-line than any other living men. YAKATAT ACJAIX. MS Yakatat r.Av, Jit'/iirif 37. The chief visited us ycstcnhiy in camp at .suppor, niKl ate some pilot bread and hacon. Howh of brown naked chihhen, with Mack beady eyes, sit round four deep and watch every operation with an intense and speechless interest. The be<]ding having been left at Icy Bay, we have to use a supply of new bhmkets we stored here. This morning our Indians were pai