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diff --git a/34615-h/34615-h.htm b/34615-h/34615-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e99f06b --- /dev/null +++ b/34615-h/34615-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,19689 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Alaska, by Ella Higginson. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .tocnum {position: absolute; top: auto; right: 15%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .sig {margin-left: 30em} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alaska, by Ella Higginson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alaska + The Great Country + +Author: Ella Higginson + +Release Date: December 10, 2010 [EBook #34615] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALASKA *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Bergquist, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="475" height="640" alt="Cover" title="" /> + +</div> + +<h1>ALASKA</h1> + +<h2>THE GREAT COUNTRY</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 160px;"> +<img src="images/illo_003.jpg" width="160" height="67" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO<br /> +ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO<br /> +<br /> +MACMILLAN & CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br /> +<br /> +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA<br /> +MELBOURNE<br /> +<br /> +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br /> +TORONTO<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Front" id="Front"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 456px;"> +<img src="images/illo_005.jpg" width="456" height="640" alt="Photo by E. W. Merrill, Sitka + +Courtesy of G. Kostrometinoff + +Alexander Baranoff" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Photo by E. W. Merrill, Sitka<br /> + +Courtesy of G. Kostrometinoff<br /> + +Alexander Baranoff</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>ALASKA</h1> + +<h2>THE GREAT COUNTRY</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>ELLA HIGGINSON</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "MARIELLA, OF OUT-WEST," "WHEN THE BIRDS GO NORTH AGAIN," +"FROM THE LAND OF THE SNOW-PEARLS," ETC.</h4> + +<p class="center"> +<i>New York</i><br /> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +1910<br /> +<br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1908,<br /> +By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.<br /> +<br /> +Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1908. Reprinted<br /> +February, 1909; March, 1910.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Norwood Press</i><br /> +J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.<br /> +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>To<br /> +MR. AND MRS. HENRY ELLIOTT HOLMES<br /></b> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p>When the Russians first came to the island of Unalaska, they were told +that a vast country lay to the eastward and that its name was +Al-ay-ek-sa. Their own island the Aleuts called Nagun-Alayeksa, meaning +"the land lying near Alayeksa."</p> + +<p>The Russians in time came to call the country itself Alashka; the +peninsula, Aliaska; and the island, Unalashka. Alaska is an English +corruption of the original name.</p> + +<p>A great Russian moved under inspiration when he sent Vitus Behring out +to discover and explore the continent lying to the eastward; two great +Americans—Seward and Sumner—were inspired when, nearly a century and a +half later, they saved for us, in the face of the bitterest opposition, +scorn, and ridicule, the country that Behring discovered and which is +now coming to be recognized as the most glorious possession of any +people; but, first of all, were the gentle, dark-eyed Aleuts inspired +when they bestowed upon this same country—with the simplicity and +dignified repression for which their character is noted—the beautiful +and poetic name which means "the great country."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Alexander Baranoff</span> <span class="tocnum"><i><a href="#Front">Frontispiece</a></i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="tocnum">FACING PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Alaska</span> (<i>colored map</i>) <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copper Smelter in Southeastern Alaska</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_2'>2</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Kasa-an</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Howkan</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Distant View of Davidson Glacier</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Davidson Glacier</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Phantom Ship</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Road through Cut-off Canyon</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Scene on the White Pass</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_53'>53</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Steel Cantilever Bridge, near Summit of White Pass</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Old Russian Building, Sitka</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Greek-Russian Church at Sitka</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Eskimo in Walrus-skin Kamelayka</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Eskimo in Bidarka</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Railroad Construction, Eyak Lake</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Eyak Lake, near Cordova</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Indian Houses, Cordova</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Valdez</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">An Alaskan Road House</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Kow-Ear-Nuk and his Drying Salmon</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Steamer "Resolute"</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_165'>165</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">"Obleuk," an Eskimo Girl in Parka</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Northern Madonna</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_185'>185</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Eskimo Lad in Parka and Mukluks</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_192'>192</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span><span class="smcap">Scales and Summit of Chilkoot Pass in 1898</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_197'>197</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Summit of Chilkoot Pass in 1898</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_212'>212</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Pine Falls, Atlin</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_229'>229</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Lake Bennett in 1898</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_244'>244</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">White Horse, Yukon Territory</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_249'>249</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Grand Canyon of the Yukon</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_256'>256</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">White Horse Rapids</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_261'>261</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">White Horse Rapids in Winter</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_276'>276</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Steamer "White Horse" in Five-Finger Rapids</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_293'>293</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Yukon Snow Scene near White Horse</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_308'>308</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Home in the Yukon</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_325'>325</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">One and a Half Millions of Klondike Gold</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_340'>340</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Famous Team of Huskies</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_357'>357</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Cloud Effect on the Yukon</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_372'>372</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Wolf</span>" <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_389'>389</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Dog-team Express, Nome</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_404'>404</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Four Beauties of Cape Prince of Wales with Sled Reindeer of the American Missionary Herd</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_421'>421</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Council City and Solomon River Railroad—A Characteristic Landscape of Seward Peninsula</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_436'>436</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Teller</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_453'>453</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Family of King's Island Eskimos living under Skin Boat, Nome</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_468'>468</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Wreck of "Jessie," Nome Beach</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_485'>485</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Sunrise on Behring Sea</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_500'>500</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Surf at Nome</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_505'>505</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Moonlight on Behring Sea</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_512'>512</a></span><br /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>ALASKA</h2> + +<h3>THE GREAT COUNTRY</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/map.jpg" width="700" height="714" alt="WILLIAMS ENGRAVING CO., N.Y. + +Alaska" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WILLIAMS ENGRAVING CO., N.Y.<br /> + +Alaska</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ALASKA: THE GREAT COUNTRY</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>Every year, from June to September, thousands of people "go to Alaska." +This means that they take passage at Seattle on the most luxurious +steamers that run up the famed "inside passage" to Juneau, Sitka, +Wrangell, and Skaguay. Formerly this voyage included a visit to Muir +Glacier; but because of the ruin wrought by a recent earthquake, this +once beautiful and marvellous thing is no longer included in the tourist +trip.</p> + +<p>This ten-day voyage is unquestionably a delightful one; every imaginable +comfort is provided, and the excursion rate is reasonable. However, the +person who contents himself with this will know as little about Alaska +as a foreigner who landed in New York, went straight to Niagara Falls +and returned at once to his own country, would know about America.</p> + +<p>Enchanting though this brief cruise may be when the weather is +favorable, the real splendor, the marvellous beauty, the poetic and +haunting charm of Alaska, lie west of Sitka. "To Westward" is called +this dream-voyage past a thousand miles of snow-mountains rising +straight from the purple sea and wrapped in coloring that makes it seem +as though all the roses, lilies, and violets of heaven had been pounded +to a fine dust and sifted over them; past green islands and safe +harbors; past the Malaspina and the Columbia glaciers; past Yakutat, +Kyak, Cordova, Valdez, Seward, and Cook Inlet; and then, still on "to +Westward"—past Kodiak Island, where the Russians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> made their first +permanent settlement in America in 1784 and whose sylvan and idyllic +charm won the heart of the great naturalist, John Burroughs; past the +Aliaska Peninsula, with its smoking Mount Pavloff; past Unimak Island, +one of whose active volcanoes, Shishaldin, is the most perfect and +symmetrical cone on the Pacific Coast, not even excepting Hood—and on +and in among the divinely pale green Aleutian Islands to Unalaska, where +enchantment broods in a mist of rose and lavender and where one may +scarcely step without crushing violets and bluebells.</p> + +<p>The spell of Alaska falls upon every lover of beauty who has voyaged +along those far northern snow-pearled shores with the violet waves of +the North Pacific Ocean breaking splendidly upon them; or who has +drifted down the mighty rivers of the interior which flow, bell-toned +and lonely, to the sea.</p> + +<p>I know not how the spell is wrought; nor have I ever met one who could +put the miracle of its working into words. No writer has ever described +Alaska; no one writer ever will; but each must do his share, according +to the spell that the country casts upon him.</p> + +<p>Some parts of Alaska lull the senses drowsily by their languorous charm; +under their influence one sinks to a passive delight and drifts +unresistingly on through a maze of tender loveliness. Nothing irritates. +All is soft, velvety, soothing. Wordless lullabies are played by +different shades of blue, rose, amber, and green; by the curl of the +satin waves and the musical kiss of their cool and faltering lips; by +the mists, light as thistle-down and delicately tinted as wild-rose +petals, into which the steamer pushes leisurely; by the dreamy poise of +sea-birds on white or lavender wings high in the golden atmosphere; by +the undulating flight of purple Shadow, tiptoe, through the dim fiords; +by the lap of waves on shingle, the song of birds along the wooded +shore, the pressure of soft winds on the temples and hair, the sparkle +of the sea weighing the eyelids down. The magic of it all gets into the +blood.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 628px;"> +<img src="images/illo_022.jpg" width="628" height="388" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Copper Smelter in Southeastern Alaska" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Copper Smelter in Southeastern Alaska</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>The steamer slides through green and echoing reaches; past groups of +totems standing like ghosts of the past among the dark spruce or cedar +trees; through stone-walled canyons where the waters move dark and +still; into open, sunlit seas.</p> + +<p>But it is not until one sails on "to Westward" that the spell of Alaska +falls upon one; sails out into the wild and splendid North Pacific +Ocean. Here are the majesty, the sublimity, that enthrall; here are the +noble spaces, the Titanic forces, the untrodden heights, that thrill and +inspire.</p> + +<p>The marvels here are not the marvels of men. They are wrought of fire +and stone and snow by the tireless hand that has worked through +centuries unnumbered and unknown.</p> + +<p>He that would fall under the spell of Alaska, will sail on "to +Westward," on to Unalaska; or he will go Northward and drift down the +Yukon—that splendid, lonely river that has its birth within a few miles +of the sea, yet flows twenty-three hundred miles to find it.</p> + +<p>Alaskan steamers usually sail between eight o'clock in the evening and +midnight, and throngs of people congregate upon the piers of Seattle to +watch their departure. The rosy purples and violets of sunset mix with +the mists and settle upon the city, climbing white over its hills; as +hours go by, its lights sparkle brilliantly through them, yet still the +crowds sway upon the piers and wait for the first still motion of the +ship as it slides into the night and heads for the far, enchanted +land—the land whose sweet, insistent calling never ceases for the one +who has once heard it.</p> + +<p>Passengers who stay on deck late will be rewarded by the witchery of +night on Puget Sound—the soft fragrance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> of the air, the scarlet, blue, +and green lights wavering across the water, the glistening wake of the +ship, the city glimmering faintly as it is left behind, the dim shores +of islands, and the dark shadows of bays.</p> + +<p>One by one the lighthouses at West Point on the starboard side, and at +Point-No-Point, Marrowstone, and Point Wilson, on the port, flash their +golden messages through the dusk. One by one rise, linger, and fade the +dark outlines of Magnolia Bluff, Skagit Head, Double Bluff, and Liplip +Point. If the sailing be early in the evening, midnight is saluted by +the lights of Port Townsend, than which no city on the Pacific Coast has +a bolder or more beautiful situation.</p> + +<p>The splendid water avenue—the burning "Opal-Way"—that leads the ocean +into these inland seas was named in 1788 by John Meares, a retired +lieutenant of the British navy, for Juan de Fuca (whose real name was +Apostolos Valerianos), a Greek pilot who, in 1592, was sent out in a +small "caravela" by the Viceroy of Mexico in search of the fabled +"Strait of Anian," or "Northwest Passage"—supposed to lead from the +Pacific to the Atlantic north of forty degrees of latitude.</p> + +<p>As early as the year 1500 this strait was supposed to have been +discovered by a Portuguese navigator named Cortereal, and to have been +named by him for one of his brothers who accompanied him.</p> + +<p>The names of certain other early navigators are mentioned in connection +with the "Strait of Anian." Cabot is reported vaguely as having located +it "neere the 318 meridian, between 61 and 64 degrees in the eleuation, +continuing the same bredth about 10 degrees West, where it openeth +Southerly more and more, until it come under the tropicke of Cancer, and +so runneth into Mar del Zur, at least 18 degrees more in bredth there +than where it began;" Frobisher; Urdaneta, "a Fryer of Mexico, who came +out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> Mar del Zur this way into Germanie;" and several others whose +stories of having sailed the dream-strait that was then supposed to lead +from ocean to ocean are not now considered seriously until we come to +Juan de Fuca, who claimed that in his "caravela" he followed the coast +"vntill hee came to the latitude of fortie seuen degrees, and that there +finding that the land trended North and Northeast, with a broad Inlet of +Sea between 47 and 48 degrees of Latitude, hee entered thereinto, +sayling therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending +still sometime Northwest and Northeast and North, and also East and +Southeastward, and very much broader sea then was at said entrance, and +that hee passed by diuers Ilands in that sayling. And that at the +entrance of this said Strait, there is on the Northwest coast thereof, a +great Hedland or Iland, with an exceeding high pinacle or spired Rocke, +like a pillar, thereupon."</p> + +<p>He landed and saw people clothed in the skins of beasts; and he reported +the land fruitful, and rich in gold, silver, and pearl.</p> + +<p>Bancroft and some other historians consider the story of Juan de Fuca's +entrance to Puget Sound the purest fiction, claiming that his +descriptions are inaccurate and that no pinnacled or spired rock is to +be found in the vicinity mentioned.</p> + +<p>Meares, however, and many people of intelligence gave it credence; and +when we consider the differences in the descriptions of other places by +early navigators, it is not difficult to believe that Juan de Fuca +really sailed into the strait that now bears his name. Schwatka speaks +of him as, "An explorer—if such he may be called—who never entered +this beautiful sheet of water, and who owes his immortality to an +audacious guess, which came so near the truth as to deceive the +scientific world for many a century."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Strait of Juan de Fuca is more than eighty miles long and from ten +to twelve wide, with a depth of about six hundred feet. At the eastern +end it widens into an open sea or sound where beauty blooms like a rose, +and from which forest-bordered water-ways wind slenderly in every +direction.</p> + +<p>From this vicinity, on clear days, may be seen the Olympic Mountains +floating in the west; Mount Rainier, in the south; the lower peaks of +the Crown Mountains in the north; and Mount Baker—or Kulshan, as the +Indians named it—in the east.</p> + +<p>The Island of San Juan, lying east of the southern end of Vancouver +Island, is perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most historic, on +the Pacific Coast. It is the island that barely escaped causing a +declaration of war between Great Britain and the United States, over the +international boundary, in the late fifties. For so small an island,—it +is not more than fifteen miles long, by from six to eight wide,—it has +figured importantly in large affairs.</p> + +<p>The earliest trouble over the boundary between Vancouver Island and +Washington arose in 1854. Both countries claimed ownership of San Juan +and other islands near by, the Oregon Treaty of 1846 having failed to +make it clear whether the boundary was through the Canal de Haro or the +Strait of Rosario.</p> + +<p>I. N. Ebey, American Collector of Customs, learning that several +thousand head of sheep, cattle, and hogs had been shipped to San Juan +without compliance with customs regulations, visited the island and was +promptly insulted by a British justice of the peace. The <i>Otter</i> made +her appearance in the harbor, bearing James Douglas, governor of +Vancouver Island and vice-admiral of the British navy; but nothing +daunted, Mr. Ebey stationed Inspector Webber upon the island, declaring +that he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> continue to discharge his official duties. The final +trouble arose, however, in 1859, when an American resident shot a +British pig; and serious trouble was precipitated as swiftly as when a +United States warship was blown up in Havana Harbor. General Harney +hastily established military quarters on one end of the island, known as +the American Camp, Captain Pickett transferring his company from Fort +Bellingham for this purpose. English Camp was established on the +northern end. Warships kept guard in the harbors. Joint occupation was +agreed upon, and until 1871 the two camps were maintained, the +friendliest social relations existing between them. In that year the +Emperor of Germany was chosen as arbitrator, and decided in favor of the +United States, the British withdrawing the following year.</p> + +<p>Until 1895 the British captain's house still stood upon its beautiful +bluff, a thousand feet above the winding blue bay, the shore descending +in steep, splendid terraces to the water, stairwayed in stone, and grown +with old and noble trees. Macadam roads led several miles across the +island; the old block-house of pioneer days remained at the water's +edge; and clustered around the old parade ground—now, alas! a meadow of +hay—were the quarters of the officers, overgrown with English ivy. The +captain's house, which has now been destroyed by fire, was a low, +eight-roomed house with an immense fireplace in each room; the old +claret- and ivory-striped wall-paper—which had been brought "around the +Horn" at immense cost—was still on the walls. Gay were the scenes and +royal the hospitalities of this house in the good days of the sixties. +Its site, commanding the straits, is one of the most effective on the +Pacific Coast; and at the present writing it is extremely probable that +a captain's house may again rise among the old trees on the terraced +bluff—but not for the occupancy of a British captain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>Every land may occasionally have a beautiful sunset, and many lands have +gorgeous and brilliant ones; but nowhere have they such softly burning, +milky-rose, opaline effects as on this inland sea.</p> + +<p>Their enchanting beauty is doubtless due to the many wooded islands +which lift dark green forestated hills around open sweeps of water, +whereon settle delicate mists. When the fires of sunrise or of sunset +sink through these mists, the splendor of coloring is marvellous and not +equalled anywhere. It is as though the whole sound were one great opal, +which had broken apart and flung its escaping fires of rose, amethyst, +amber, and green up through the maze of trembling pearl above it. The +unusual beauty of its sunsets long ago gave Puget Sound the poetic name +of Opal-Sea or Sea of Opal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 625px;"> +<img src="images/illo_031.jpg" width="625" height="432" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Kasa-an" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Kasa-an</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>After passing the lighthouse on the eastern end of Vancouver Island, +Alaskan steamers continue on a northerly course and enter the Gulf of +Georgia through Active Pass, between Mayne and Galiana islands. This +pass is guarded by a light on Mayne Island, to the steamer's starboard, +going north.</p> + +<p>The Gulf of Georgia is a bold and sweeping body of water. It is usually +of a deep violet or a warm purplish gray in tone. At its widest, it is +fully sixty miles—although its average width is from twenty to thirty +miles—and it rolls between the mainland and Vancouver Island for more +than one hundred miles.</p> + +<p>The real sea lover will find an indescribable charm in this gulf, and +will not miss an hour of it. It has the boldness and the sweep of the +ocean, but the setting, the coloring, and the fragrance of the +forest-bordered, snow-peaked sea. A few miles above the boundary, the +Fraser River pours its turbulent waters into the gulf, upon whose dark +surface they wind and float for many miles, at sunrise and at sunset +resembling broad ribbons of palest old rose crinkled over waves of +silvery amber silk. At times these narrow streaks widen into still pools +of color that seem to float suspended over the heavier waters of the +gulf. Other times they draw lines of different color everywhere, or +drift solid banks of smoky pink out to meet others of clear blue, with +only the faintest thread of pearl to separate them. These islands of +color constitute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> one of the charms of this part of the voyage to +Alaska; along with the velvety pressure of the winds; the picturesque +shores, high and wooded in places, and in others sloping down into the +cool shadowy bays where the shingle is splashed by spent waves; and the +snow-peaks linked above the clouds on either side of the steamer.</p> + +<p>Splendid phosphorescent displays are sometimes witnessed in the gulf, +but are more likely to occur farther north, in Grenville, or one of the +other narrow channels, where their brilliancy is remarkable.</p> + +<p>Tourists to whom a whale is a novelty will be gratified, without fail, +in this vicinity. They are always seen sporting about the +ships,—sometimes in deadly conflict with one another,—and now and then +uncomfortably near.</p> + +<p>In December, 1907, an exciting battle between a whale and a large buck +was witnessed by the passengers and crew of the steamer <i>Cassiar</i>, in +one of the bays north of Vancouver, on the vessel's regular run from +that city to northern ports.</p> + +<p>When the <i>Cassiar</i> appeared upon the scene, the whale was making furious +and frequent attacks upon the buck. Racing through the water, which was +lashed into foam on all sides by its efforts, it would approach close to +its steadily swimming prey and then disappear, only to come to the +surface almost under the deer. This was repeated a number of times, +strangely enough without apparent injury to the deer. Again, the whale +would make its appearance at the side of the deer and repeatedly +endeavor to strike it with its enormous tail; but the deer was +sufficiently wise to keep so close to the whale that this could not be +accomplished, notwithstanding the crushing blows dealt by the monster.</p> + +<p>The humane passengers entreated the captain to go to the rescue of the +exhausted buck and save it from inevitable death. The captain ordered +full speed ahead, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> at the approach of the steamer the whale curved +up out of the water and dived gracefully into the sea, as though making +a farewell, apologetic bow on its final disappearance.</p> + +<p>Whereupon the humane passengers shot the helpless and worn-out buck at +the side of the steamer, and he was hauled aboard.</p> + +<p>It may not be out of place to devote a few pages to the average tourist. +To the one who loves Alaska and the divinely blue, wooded, and +snow-pearled ways that lead to its final and sublime beauty, it is an +enduring mystery why certain persons—usually women—should make this +voyage. Their minds and their desires never rise above a whale or an +Indian basket; and unless the one is to be seen and the other to be +priced, they spend their time in the cabin, reading, playing cards, or +telling one another what they have at home.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said one of these women, yawning into the full glory of a +sunset, "we have sailed this whole day past Vancouver Island. Not a +thing to be seen but it and this water you call the Gulf of Georgia! I +even missed the whales, because I went to sleep, and I'd rather have +seen them than anything. If they don't hurry up some towns and +totem-poles, I'll be wishing I'd stayed at home. Do you play five +hundred?"</p> + +<p>The full length of the <i>Jefferson</i> was not enough to put between this +woman and the woman who had enjoyed every one of those purple +water-miles; every pearly cloud that had drifted across the pale blue +sky; every bay and fiord indenting the shore of the largest island on +the Pacific Coast; every humming-bird that had throbbed about us, +seeking a rose at sea; every thrilling scent that had blown down the +northern water-ways, bearing the far, sweet call of Alaska to senses +awake and trembling to receive it; who had felt her pulses beating full +to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> throb of the steamer that was bearing her on to the land of her +dreams—to the land of Far Delight.</p> + +<p>If only the players of bridge and the drinkers of pink tea would stay at +home, and leave this enchanted voyage for those who understand! There be +enough of the elect in the world who possess the usual five senses, as +well as that sixth sense which is of the soul, to fill every steamer +that sails for Alaska.</p> + +<p>Or, the steamship companies might divide their excursions into +classes—some for those who love beauty, and some for those who love +bridge.</p> + +<p>For the sea lover, it is enough only to stand in the bow of a steamer +headed for Alaska and hear the kiss and the rippling murmur of the waves +as they break apart when the sharp cut-water pierces them, and then +their long, musical rush along the steamer's sides, ere they reunite in +one broad wake of bowing silver that leads across the purple toward +home.</p> + +<p>The mere vibration of a ship in these still inland seas is a physical +pleasure by day and a sensuous lullaby at night; while, in summer, the +winds are so soft that their touches seem like caresses.</p> + +<p>The inlets and fiords extending for many miles into the mainland in this +vicinity are of great beauty and grandeur, many winding for forty or +fifty miles through walls of forestation and snow that rise sheer to a +height of eight or ten thousand feet. These inlets are very narrow, +sometimes mere clefts, through which the waters slip, clear, still, and +of deepest green. They are of unknown depth; the mountains are covered +with forests, over which rise peaks of snow. Cascades are numerous, and +their musical fall is increased in these narrow fastnesses to a roar +that may be heard for miles.</p> + +<p>Passing Burrard Inlet, on which the city of Vancouver is situated, the +more important inlets are Howe, Jervis,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> from which Sechelt Arm leads +southward and is distinguished by the wild thunder of its rapids; Homery +Channel, Price Channel, which, with Lewis Channel on the west, forms +Redonda Island; Bute Inlet, which is the most beautiful and the most +important; Knight, Seymour, Kingcome, and Belize inlets.</p> + +<p>The wild and picturesque beauty of these inlets has been praised by +tourists for many years. The Marquis of Lorne was charmed by the scenery +along Bute Inlet, which he extolled. It is about fifty miles in length +and narrows in places to a width of a half-mile. The shores rise in +sheer mountain walls, heavily forestated, to a height of seven and eight +thousand feet, their snowy crests overhanging the clear, green-black +waters of the narrow fiord. Many glaciers stream down from these peaks.</p> + +<p>The Gulf of Georgia continues for a distance of one hundred miles in a +northwesterly direction between the mainland and Vancouver Island. +Texada, Redonda, and Valdes are the more important islands in the gulf. +Texada appears on the starboard, opposite Comox; the narrow strait +separating it from the mainland is named Malaspina, for the Italian +explorer. The largest glacier in the world, streaming into the sea from +Mount St. Elias, more than a thousand miles to the northwestward from +this strait, bears the same name.</p> + +<p>Texada Island is twenty-eight miles long, with an average width of three +miles. It is wooded and mountainous, the leading peak—Mount +Shepard—rising to a height of three thousand feet. The lighthouse on +its shore is known as "Three Sisters Light."</p> + +<p>Along the shores of Vancouver Island and the mainland are many ranches +owned and occupied by "remittance men." In these beautiful, lonely +solitudes they dwell with all the comforts of "old England," forming new +ties, but holding fast to old memories.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is said that the woman who should have one day been the Queen of +England, lived near the city of Vancouver a few years ago. Before the +death of his elder brother, the present Prince of Wales passionately +loved the young and beautiful daughter of Admiral Seymour. His +infatuation was returned, and so desperately did the young couple plead +with the present King and the Admiral, that at last the prince was +permitted to contract a morganatic marriage.</p> + +<p>The understanding and agreement were that, should the prince ever become +the heir to the throne of England, neither he nor his wife would oppose +the annulment of the marriage.</p> + +<p>There was only one brief year of happiness, when the elder brother of +the prince died, and the latter's marriage to the Princess May was +demanded.</p> + +<p>No murmur of complaint was ever heard from the unhappy morganatic wife, +nor from the royal husband; and when the latter's marriage was +solemnized, it was boldly announced that no bar to the union existed.</p> + +<p>Here, in the western solitude, lived for several years—the veriest +remittance woman—the girl who should now, by the right of love and +honor, be the Princess of Wales; and whose infant daughter should have +been the heir to the throne.</p> + +<p>To Vancouver, a few years ago, came, with his princess, the Prince of +Wales. The city was gay with flags and flowers, throbbing with music, +and filled with joyous and welcoming people. Somewhere, hidden among +those swaying throngs, did a pale young woman holding a child by the +hand, gaze for the last time upon the man she loved and upon the woman +who had taken her place? And did her long-tortured heart in that hour +finally break? It is said that she died within a twelvemonth.</p> + +<p>Passing Cape Mudge lighthouse, Discovery Passage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> sometimes called +Valdes Narrows, is entered. It is a narrow pass, twenty-four miles long, +between Vancouver and Valdes islands. Halfway through it is Seymour +Narrows, one of the most famous features of the "inside route," or +passage, to Alaska. Passengers are awakened, if they desire, that they +may be on deck while passing through these difficult narrows.</p> + +<p>The Indian name of this pass is Yaculta.</p> + +<p>"Yaculta is a wicked spirit," said the pilot, pacing the bridge at four +o'clock of a primrose dawn. "She lives down in the clear depths of these +waters and is supposed to entice guileless sailors to their doom. +Yaculta sleeps only at slack-tide, and then boats, or ships, may slip +through in safety, provided they do not make sufficient noise to awaken +her. If they try to go through at any other stage of the tide, Yaculta +stirs the whole pass into action, trying to get hold of them. Many's the +time I've had to back out and wait for Yaculta to quiet down."</p> + +<p>If the steamer attempts the pass at an unfavorable hour, fearful seas +are found racing through at a fourteen-knot speed; the steamer is flung +from side to side of the rocky pass or sucked down into the boiling +whirlpools by Yaculta. The brown, shining strands of kelp floating upon +Ripple Reef, which carries a sharp edge down the centre of the pass, are +the wild locks of Yaculta's luxuriant hair.</p> + +<p>Pilots figure, upon leaving Seattle, to reach the narrows during the +quarter-hour before or after slack-tide, when the water is found as +still and smooth as satin stretched from shore to shore, and not even +Yaculta's breathing disturbs her liquid coverlet.</p> + +<p>Many vessels were wrecked here before the dangers of the narrows had +become fully known: the steamer <i>Saranac</i>, in 1875, without loss of +life; the <i>Wachusett</i>, in 1875; the <i>Grappler</i>, in 1883, which burned in +the narrows with a very large loss of life, including that of the +captain; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> several less appalling disasters have occurred in these +deceptive waters.</p> + +<p>Three miles below Cape Mudge the tides from Juan de Fuca meet those from +Queen Charlotte Sound, and force a fourteen-knot current through the +narrows. The most powerful steamers are frequently overcome and carried +back by this current.</p> + +<p>Discovery Passage merges at Chatham Point into Johnstone Strait. Here +the first Indian village, Alert Bay, is seen to starboard on the +southern side of Cormorant Island. These are the Kwakiutl Indians, who +did not at first respond to the advances of civilization so readily as +most northern tribes. They came from their original village at the mouth +of the Nimpkish River, to work in the canneries on the bay, but did not +take kindly to the ways of the white man. A white child, said to have +been stolen from Vancouver, was taken from these Indians a few years +ago.</p> + +<p>Some fine totem-poles have been erected here, and the graveyard has +houses built over the graves. From the steamer the little village +presents an attractive appearance, situated on a curving beach, with +wooded slopes rising behind it.</p> + +<p>Gorgeous potlatches are held here; and until the spring of 1908 these +orgies were rendered more repulsive by the sale of young girls.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 623px;"> +<img src="images/illo_040.jpg" width="623" height="386" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Howkan" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Howkan</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dr. Franz Boas, in his "Kwakiutl Texts," describes a game formerly +played with stone disks by the Kwakiutls. They also had a myth that a +game was played with these disks between the birds of the upper world +and the myth-people, that is, "all the animals and all the birds." The +four disks were called the "mist-covered gambling stone," the "rainbow +gambling stone," the "cloud-covered gambling stone," and the "carrier of +the world." The woodpecker and the other myth-birds played on one side; +the Thunder-bird and the birds of the upper air on the other. The +contestants were ranged in two rows; the gambling stones were thrown +along the middle between them, and they speared them with their beaks. +The Thunder-bird and the birds of the upper air were beaten. This myth +is given as an explanation of the reason for playing the game with the +gambling stones, which are called lælæ.</p> + +<p>The Kwakiutls still play many of their ancient and picturesque gambling +games at their potlatches.</p> + +<p>Johnstone Strait is fifty-five miles long, and is continued by Broughton +Strait, fifteen miles long, which enters Queen Charlotte Sound.</p> + +<p>Here is a second, and smaller, Galiana Island, and on its western end is +a spired rock which, some historians assert, may be "the great headland +or island with an exceeding high pinnacle or spired rock thereon," which +Juan de Fuca claimed to discover, and which won for him the charge of +being an "audacious guesser" and an "unscrupulous liar." His believers, +however, affirm that, having sailed for twenty days in the inland sea, +he discovered this pinnacle at the entrance to what he supposed to be +the Atlantic Ocean; and so sailed back the course he had come, believing +himself to have been successful in discovering the famed strait of +Anian. Why Vancouver's mistakes, failures, and faults should all be +condoned, and Juan de Fuca's most uncompromisingly condemned, is +difficult to understand.</p> + +<p>Fort Rupert, on the northern end of Vancouver Island, beyond Broughton +Strait, is an old Hudson's Bay post, situated on Beaver Harbor. The fort +was built in 1849, and was strongly defended, troubles frequently +arising from the attacks of Kwakiutl and Haidah Indians. Great +potlatches were held there, and the chief's lodge was as notable as was +the "Old-Man House" of Chief Seattle. It was one hundred feet long and +eighty feet wide, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> rested on carved corner posts. There was an +immense wooden potlatch dish that held food for one hundred people.</p> + +<p>Queen Charlotte Sound is a splendid sweep of purple water; but tourists +do not, usually, spend much time enjoying its beauty. Their berths +possess charms that endure until shelter of the islands is once more +assured, after the forty miles of open exposure to the swell of the +ocean which is not always mild, notwithstanding its name. Those who miss +it, miss one of the most beautiful features of the inland voyage. The +warm breath of the Kuro Siwo, penetrating all these inland seas and +passages, is converted by the great white peaks of the horizon into +pearl-like mist that drifts in clouds and fragments upon the blue +waters. Nowhere are these mists more frequent, nor more elusive, than in +Queen Charlotte Sound. They roll upon the sparkling surface like +thistle-down along a country lane—here one instant, vanished the next. +At sunrise they take on the delicate tones of the primrose or the +pinkish star-flower; at sunset, all the royal rose and purple blendings; +all the warm flushes of amber, orange, and gold. Through a maze of pale +yellow, whose fine cool needles sting one's face and set one's hair with +seed-pearls, one passes into a little open water-world where a blue sky +sparkles above a bluer sea, and the air is like clear, washed gold. But +a mile ahead a solid wall of amethyst closes in this brilliant sea; and +presently the steamer glides into it, shattering it into particles that +set the hair with amethysts, instead of pearls. Sometimes these clear +spaces resemble rooms walled in different colors, but ceiled and floored +in blue. Other times, the whole sound is clear, blue, shining; while +exquisite gossamers of changeful tints wrap and cling about the islands, +wind scarfs around the green hills, or set upon the brows of majestic +snow-monarchs crowns as jewelled and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> evanescent as those worn by the +real kings of the earth. Now and then a lofty fir or cedar may be seen +draped with slender mist-veils as a maiden might wind a scarf of +cobwebby lace about her form and head and arms—so lightly and so +gracefully, and with such art, do the delicate folds trail in and out +among the emerald-green branches of the tree.</p> + +<p>It is this warm and excessive moisture—this daily mist-shower—that +bequeaths to British Columbia and Alaska their marvellous and luxuriant +growth of vegetation, their spiced sweetness of atmosphere, their +fairness and freshness of complexion—blending and constituting that +indescribable charm which inspires one, standing on the deck of a +steamer at early dawn, to give thanks to God that he is alive and +sailing the blue water-ways of this sublime country.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what it is that keeps pulling me back to this country," +said a man in the garb of a laborer, one day. He stood down in the bow +of the steamer, his hands were in his pockets, his throat was bared to +the wind; his blue eyes—sunken, but burning with that fire which never +dies in the eyes of one who loves nature—were gazing up the pale-green +narrow avenue named Grenville Channel. "It's something that you can't +exactly put into words. You don't know that it's got hold of you while +you're up here, but before you've been 'outside' a month, all at once +you find it pulling at you—and after it begins, it never lets up. You +try to think what it is up here that you want so; what it is keeps +begging at you to come back. Maybe there ain't a darn soul up here you +care particular about! Maybe you ain't got an interest in a claim worth +hens' teeth! Maybe you're broke and know you'll have to work like a +go-devil when you get here! It don't make any difference. It's just +Alaska. It calls you and calls you and calls you. Maybe you can't come,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +so you keep pretending you don't hear—but Lord, you do hear! Maybe +somebody shakes hands as if he liked you—and there's Alaska up and +calling right through you, till you feel your heart shake! Maybe a +phonograph sets up a tune they used to deal out at Magnuson's roadhouse +on the trail—and you hear that blame lonesome waterfall up in Keystone +Canyon calling you as plain as you hear the phonograph! Maybe you smell +something like the sun shining on snow, all mixed up with tundra and +salt air—and there's double quick action on your eyes and a lump in +your throat that won't be swallowed down! Maybe you see a white +mountain, or a green valley, or a big river, or a blue strait, or a +waterfall—and like a flash your heart opens, and shuts in an ache for +Alaska that stays!... No, I don't know <i>what</i> it is, but I do know <i>how</i> +it is; and so does every other poor devil that ever heard that something +calling him that's just Alaska. It wakes you up in the middle of the +night, just as plain as if somebody had said your name out loud, and you +just lay there the rest of the night aching to go. I tell you what, if +ever a country had a spirit, it's Alaska; and when it once gets hold of +you and gets to calling you to come, you might just as well get up and +start, for it calls you and follows you, and haunts you till you do."</p> + +<p>It is the pleading of the mountains and the pleading of the sea woven +into one call and sent floating down laden with the sweetness of the +splendid spaces. No mountaineer can say why he goes back to the +mountains; no sailor why he cannot leave the sea. No one has yet seen +the spirit that dwells in the waterfall, but all have heard it calling +and have known its spell.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 625px;"> +<img src="images/illo_047.jpg" width="625" height="386" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Distant View of Davidson Glacier" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Distant View of Davidson Glacier</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If you love the sea, you've got to follow it," said a sea-rover, "and +that's all there is to it. A man can get along without the woman he +loves best on earth if he has to, but he can't get along without the sea +if he once gets to loving it. It gets so it seems like a thing alive to +him, and it makes up for everything else that he don't have. And it's +just like that with Alaska. When a man has made two-three trips to +Alaska, you can't get him off on a southern run again, as long as he can +help himself."</p> + +<p>It is an unimaginative person who can wind through these intricate and +difficult sounds, channels, and passes without a strange, quickened +feeling, as of the presence of those dauntless navigators who discovered +and charted these waters centuries ago. From Juan de Fuca northward they +seem to be sailing with us, those grim, brave spectres of the +past—Perez, Meares, Cuadra, Valdes, Malaspina, Duncan, Vancouver, +Whidbey—and all the others who came and went through these beautiful +ways, leaving their names, or the names of their monarchs, friends, or +sweethearts, to endure in blue stretches of water or glistening domes of +snow.</p> + +<p>We sail in safety, ease, luxury, over courses along which they felt +their perilous way, never knowing whether Life or Death waited at the +turn of the prow. Nearly a century and a quarter ago Vancouver, working +his way cautiously into Queen Charlotte Sound, soon came to disaster, +both the <i>Discovery</i> and her consort, the <i>Chatham</i>, striking upon the +rocks that border the entrance. Fortunately the return of the tide in a +few hours released them from their perilous positions, before they had +sustained any serious damage.</p> + +<p>But what days of mingled indecision, hope, and despair—what nights of +anxious watching and waiting—must have been spent in these places +through which we glide so easily now; and the silent spirits of the +grim-peopled past take hold of our heedless hands and lead us on. Does a +pilot sail these seas who has never on wild nights felt beside him on +the bridge the presence of those early ones who, staring ever ahead +under stern brows, drove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> their vessels on, not knowing what perils lay +beyond? Who, asked, "What shall we do when hope be gone?" made answer, +"Why, sail on, and on, and on."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From Queen Charlotte Sound the steamer passes into Fitzhugh Sound around +Cape Calvert, on Calvert Island. Off the southern point of this island +are two dangerous clusters of rocks, to which, in 1776, by Mr. James +Hanna, were given the interesting names of "Virgin" and "Pearl." In this +poetic vicinage, and nearer the island than either, is another cluster +of rocks, upon which some bold and sacrilegious navigator has bestowed +the name of "Devil."</p> + +<p>"It don't sound so pretty and ladylike," said the pilot who pointed them +out, "but it's a whole lot more appropriate. Rocks <i>are</i> devils—and +that's no joke; and what anybody should go and name them 'virgins' and +'pearls' for, is more than a man can see, when he's standing at a wheel, +hell-bent on putting as many leagues between him and them as he can. It +does seem as if some men didn't have any sense at all about naming +things. Now, if I were going to name anything 'virgin'"—his blue eyes +narrowed as they stared into the distance ahead—"it would be a mountain +that's always white; or a bay that gets the first sunshine in the +morning; or one of those little islands down in Puget Sound that's just +<i>covered</i> with flowers."</p> + +<p>Just inside Fitzhugh Sound, on the island, is Safety Cove, or Oatsoalis, +which was named by Mr. Duncan in 1788, and which has ever since been +known as a safe anchorage and refuge for ships in storm. Vancouver, +anchoring there in 1792, found the shores to be bold and steep, the +water from twenty-three to thirty fathoms, with a soft, muddy bottom. +Their ships were steadied with hawsers to the trees. They found a small +beach, near which was a stream of excellent water and an abundance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> of +wood. Vessels lie here at anchor when storms or fogs render the passage +across Queen Charlotte Sound too perilous to be undertaken.</p> + +<p>Fitzhugh Sound is but a slender, serene water-way running directly +northward thirty miles. On its west, lying parallel with the mainland, +are the islands of Calvert, Hecate, Nalau, and Hunter, separated by the +passages of Kwakshua, Hakai, and Nalau, which connect Fitzhugh with the +wide sweep of Hecate Strait.</p> + +<p>Burke Channel, the second link in the exquisite water chain that winds +and loops in a northwesterly course between the islands of the Columbian +and the Alexander archipelagoes and the mainland of British Columbia and +Alaska, is scarcely entered by the Alaskan steamer ere it turns again +into Fisher Channel, and from this, westward, into the short, very +narrow, but most beautiful Lama Pass.</p> + +<p>From Burke Channel several ribbonlike passages form King Island.</p> + +<p>Lama Pass is more luxuriantly wooded than many of the others, and is so +still and narrow that the reflections of the trees, growing to the +water's edge, are especially attractive. Very effective is the graveyard +of the Bella Bella Indians, in its dark forest setting, many totems and +curious architectures of the dead showing plainly from the steamer when +an obliging captain passes under slow bell. Near by, on Campbell Island, +is the village of the Bella Bellas, who, with the Tsimpsians and the +Alert Bay Indians, were formerly regarded as the most treacherous and +murderous Indians of the Northwest Coast. Now, however, they are +gathered into a model village, whose houses, church, school, and stores +shine white and peaceful against a dark background.</p> + +<p>Lama Pass is one of the most poetic of Alaskan water-ways.</p> + +<p>Seaforth Channel is the dangerous reach leading into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> Millbank Sound. It +is broken by rocks and reefs, on one of which, Rejetta Reef, the +<i>Willapa</i> was stranded ten years ago. Running off Seaforth and Millbank +are some of the finest fiords of the inland passage—Spiller, Johnston, +Dean, Ellerslie, and Portlock channels, Cousins and Cascades inlets, and +many others. Dean and Cascades channels are noted for many waterfalls of +wonderful beauty. The former is ten miles long and half a mile wide. +Cascades Inlet extends for the same distance in a northeasterly +direction, opening into Dean. Innumerable cataracts fall sheer and +foaming down their great precipices; the narrow canyons are filled with +their musical, liquid thunder, and the prevailing color seems to be +palest green, reflected from the color of the water underneath the +beaded foam. Vancouver visited these canals and named them in 1793, and +although, seemingly, but seldom moved by beauty, was deeply impressed by +it here. He considered the cascades "extremely grand, and by much the +largest and most tremendous we had ever beheld, their impetuosity +sending currents of air across the canal."</p> + +<p>These fiords are walled to a great height, and are of magnificent +beauty. Some are so narrow and so deep that the sunlight penetrates only +for a few hours each day, and eternal mist and twilight fill the spaces. +In others, not disturbed by cascades, the waters are as clear and smooth +as glass, and the stillness is so profound that one can hear a cone fall +upon the water at a distance of many yards. Covered with constant +moisture, the vegetation is of almost tropic luxuriance. In the shade, +the huge leaves of the devil's-club seem to float, suspended, upon the +air, drooping slightly at the edges when touched by the sun. Raspberries +and salmon-berries grow to enormous size, but are so fragile and +evanescent that they are gone at a breath, and the most delicate care +must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> exercised in securing them. They tremble for an instant between +the tongue and the palate, and are gone, leaving a sensation as of +dewdrops flavored with wine; a memory as haunting and elusive as an +exquisite desire known once and never known again.</p> + +<p>In Dean Canal, Vancouver found the water almost fresh at low tide, on +account of the streams and cascades pouring into it.</p> + +<p>There he found, also, a remarkable Indian habitation; a square, large +platform built in a clearing, thirty feet above the ground. It was +supported by several uprights and had no covering, but a fire was +burning upon one end of it.</p> + +<p>In Cascade Canal he visited an Indian village, and found the +construction of the houses there very curious. They apparently backed +straight into a high, perpendicular rock cliff, which supported their +rears; while the fronts and sides were sustained by slender poles about +eighteen feet in height.</p> + +<p>Vancouver leaves the method of reaching the entrances to these houses to +the reader's imagination.</p> + +<p>It was in this vicinity that Vancouver first encountered "split-lipped" +ladies. Although he had grown accustomed to distortions and mutilations +among the various tribes he had visited, he was quite unprepared for the +repulsive style which now confronted him.</p> + +<p>A horizontal incision was made about three-tenths of an inch below the +upper part of the lower lip, extending from one corner of the mouth to +the other, entirely through the flesh; this orifice was then by degrees +stretched sufficiently to admit an ornament made of wood, which was +confined close to the gums of the lower jaws, and whose external surface +projected horizontally.</p> + +<p>These wooden ornaments were oval, and resembled a small platter, or +dish, made concave on both sides; they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> were of various lengths, the +smallest about two inches and a half; the largest more than three inches +long, and an inch and a half broad.</p> + +<p>They were about one-fifth of an inch thick, and had a groove along the +middle of the outside edge to receive the lip.</p> + +<p>These hideous things were made of fir, and were highly polished. Ladies +of the greatest distinction wore the largest labrets. The size also +increased with age. They have been described by Vancouver, Cook, +Lisiansky, La Pérouse, Dall, Schwatka, Emmans, and too many others to +name here; but no description can quite picture them to the liveliest +imagination. When the "wooden trough" was removed, the incision gave the +appearance of two mouths.</p> + +<p>All chroniclers unite as to the hideousness and repulsiveness of the +practice.</p> + +<p>Of the Indians in the vicinity of Fisher Channel, Vancouver remarks, +without a glimmer of humor himself, that the vivacity of their +countenance indicated a lively genius; and that, from their frequent +bursts of laughter, it would appear that they were great humorists, for +their mirth was not confined to their own people, but was frequently at +the expense of his party. They seemed a happy, cheerful people. This is +an inimitable English touch; a thing that no American would have +written, save with a laugh at himself.</p> + +<p>Poison Cove in Mussel Canal, or Portlock Canal, was so named by +Vancouver, whose men ate roasted mussels there. Several were soon seized +with numbness of the faces and extremities. In spite of all that was +done to relieve their sufferings, one—John Carter—died and was buried +in a quiet bay which was named for him.</p> + +<p>Millbank Sound, named by Mr. Duncan before Vancouver's arrival, is open +to the ocean, but there is only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> an hour's run before the shelter of the +islands is regained; so that, even when the weather is rough, but slight +discomfort is experienced by the most susceptible passengers. The finest +scenery on the regular steamer route, until the great snow fields and +glaciers are reached, is considered by many well acquainted with the +route, to lie from Millbank on to Dixon Entrance. The days are not long +enough now for all the beauty that weighs upon the senses like caresses. +At evening, the sunset, blooming like a rose upon these splendid +reaches, seems to drop perfumed petals of color, until the still air is +pink with them, and the steamer pushes them aside as it glides through +with faint throbbings that one feels rather than hears.</p> + +<p>Through Finlayson Channel, Heikish Narrows, Graham, Fraser, and McKay +reaches, Grenville Channel,—through all these enchanting water avenues +one drifts for two hundred miles, passing from one reach to another +without suspecting the change, unless familiar with the route, and so +close to the wooded shores that one is tormented with the desire to +reach out one's hand and strip the cool green spruce and cedar needles +from the drooping branches.</p> + +<p>Each water-way has its own distinctive features. In Finlayson Channel +the forestation is a solid mountain of green on each side, growing down +to the water and extending over it in feathery, flat sprays. Here the +reflections are so brilliant and so true on clear days, that the +dividing line is not perceptible to the vision. The mountains rise sheer +from the water to a great height, with snow upon their crests and +occasional cataracts foaming musically down their fissures. Helmet +Mountain stands on the port side of the channel, at the entrance.</p> + +<p>There's something about "Sarah" Island! I don't know what it is, and +none of the mariners with whom I discussed this famous island seems to +know; but the fact remains that they are all attached to "Sarah."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>Down in Lama Pass, or possibly in Fitzhugh Sound, one hears casual +mention of "Sarah" in the pilot-house or chart-room. Questioned, they do +not seem to be able to name any particular feature that sets her apart +from the other islands of this run.</p> + +<p>"Well, there she is!" exclaimed the captain, at last. "Now, you'll see +for yourself what there is about Sarah."</p> + +<p>It is a long, narrow island, lying in the northern end of Finlayson +Channel. Tolmie Channel lies between it and Princess Royal Island; +Heikish Narrows—a quarter of a mile wide—between it and Roderick +Island. Through Heikish the steamer passes into the increasing beauty of +Graham Reach.</p> + +<p>"Now, there!" said the captain. "If you can tell me what there is about +that island, you can do more than any skipper <i>I</i> know can do; but just +the same, there isn't one of us that doesn't look forward to passing +Sarah, that doesn't give her particular attention while we are passing, +and look back at her after we're in Graham Reach. She isn't so little +... nor so big.... The Lord knows she isn't so pretty!" He was silent +for a moment. Then he burst out suddenly: "I'm blamed if <i>I</i> know what +it is! But it's just so with some women. There's something about a +woman, now and then, and a man can't tell, to save his soul, what it is; +only, he doesn't forget her. You see, a captain meets hundreds of women; +and he has to be nice to every one. If he is smart, he can make every +woman think she is just running the ship—but Lord! he wouldn't know one +of them if he met her next week on the street ... only now and then ... +in years and years ... <i>one!</i> And that one he can't forget. He doesn't +know what there is about her, any more than he knows what there is about +'Sarah.' Maybe he doesn't know the color of her eyes nor the color of +her hair. Maybe she's married, and maybe she's single—for that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> isn't +it. He isn't in love with her—at least I guess he isn't. It's just that +she has a way of coming back to him. Say he sees the Northern Lights +along about midnight—and that woman comes like a flash and stands there +with him. After a while it gets to be a habit with him when he gets into +a port, to kind of look over the crowds for some one. For a minute or +two he feels almost as if he <i>expected</i> some one to meet him; then he +knows he's disappointed about somebody not being there. He asks himself +right out who it is. And all at once he remembers. Then he calls himself +an ass. If she was the kind of woman that runs to docks to see boats +come in, he'd laugh and gas with her—but he wouldn't be thinking of her +till she pushed herself on him again."</p> + +<p>The captain sighed unconsciously, and taking down a chart from the +ceiling, spread it out upon a shelf and bent over it. I looked at Sarah, +with her two lacy cascades falling like veils from her crown of snow. +Already she was fading in the distance—yet how distinguished was she! +How set apart from all others!</p> + +<p>Then I fell to thinking of the women. What kind are they—<i>the ones that +stay!</i> The one that comes at midnight and stands silent beside a man +when he sees the Northern Lights, even though he is not in love with +her—what kind of woman is she?</p> + +<p>"Captain," I said, a little later, "I want to add something to Sarah's +name."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" said he, scowling over the chart.</p> + +<p>"I want to name her '<i>Sarah, the Remembered</i>.'"</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"All right," said he, promptly. "I'll write that on the chart."</p> + +<p>And what an epitaph that would be for a woman—"The Remembered!" If one +only knew upon whose bit of marble to grave it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>Fraser and McKay reaches follow Graham, and then is entered Wright +Sound, a body of water of great, and practically unknown, depth. This +small sound feeds six channels leading in different directions, one of +which—Verney Pass—leads through Boxer Reach into the famed +magnificence and splendor of Gardner Canal, whose waters push for fifty +miles through dark and towering walls. An immense, glaciered mountain +extends across the end of the canal.</p> + +<p>Gardner Canal—named by Vancouver for Admiral Sir Alan Gardner, to whose +friendship and recommendation he was indebted for the command of the +expedition to Nootka and the Northwest Coast—is doubtless the grandest +of British Columbian inlets or fiords. At last, the favorite two +adjectives of the Vancouver expedition—"tremendous" and +"stupendous"—seem to have been most appropriately applied. Lieutenant +Whidbey, exploring it in the summer of 1793, found that it "presented to +the eye one rude mass of almost naked rocks, rising into rugged +mountains, more lofty than he had before seen, whose towering summits, +seeming to overhang their bases, gave them a <i>tremendous</i> appearance. +The whole was covered with perpetual ice and snow that reached, in the +gullies formed between the mountains, close down to the high-water mark; +and many waterfalls of various dimensions were seen to descend in every +direction."</p> + +<p>This description is quoted in full because it is an excellent example of +the descriptions given out by Vancouver and his associates, who, if they +ever felt a quickening of the pulses in contemplation of these majestic +scenes, were certainly successful in concealing such human emotions from +the world. True, they did occasionally chronicle a "pleasant" breeze, a +"pleasing" landscape which "reminded them of England;" and even, in the +vicinity of Port Townsend, they were moved to enthusiasm over a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +"landscape almost as enchantingly beautiful as the most elegantly +finished pleasure-grounds in Europe," which called to their remembrance +"certain delightful and beloved situations in Old England."</p> + +<p>But apparently, having been familiar only with pleasing pastoral scenes, +they were not able to rise to an appreciation of the sublime in nature. +"Elegant" is the mincing and amusing adjective applied frequently to +snow mountains by Vancouver; he mentions, also, "spacious meadows, +elegantly adorned with trees;" but when they arrive at the noble beauty +which arouses in most beholders a feeling of exaltation and an +appreciation of the marvellous handiwork of God, Vancouver and his +associates, having never seen anything of the kind in England, find it +only "tremendous," or "stupendous," or a "rude mass." They would have +probably described the chaste, exquisite cone of Shishaldin on Unimak +Island—as peerless and apart in its delicate beauty among mountains as +Venice is among cities—as "a mountain covered with snow to the very sea +and having a most elegant point."</p> + +<p>There are many mountains more than twice the height of Shishaldin, but +there is nowhere one so beautiful.</p> + +<p>Great though our veneration must be for those brave mariners of early +years, their apparent lack of appreciation of the scenery of Alaska is +to be deplored. It has fastened upon the land an undeserved reputation +for being "rugged" and "gloomy"—two more of their adjectives; of being +"ice-locked, ice-bound, and ice-bounded." We may pardon them much, but +scarcely the adjective "grotesque," as applied to snow mountains.</p> + +<p>Grenville Channel is a narrow, lovely reach, extending in a +northwestward direction from Wright Sound for forty-five miles, when it +merges into Arthur Passage. In its slender course it curves neither to +the right nor to the left.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this reach, at one o'clock one June day, the thrilling cry of "man +overboard" ran over the decks of the <i>Santa Ana</i>. There were more than +two hundred passengers aboard, and instantly an excited and dangerous +stampede to starboard and stern occurred; but the captain, cool and +stern on the bridge, was equal to the perilous situation. A life-boat +was ordered lowered, and the steerage passengers were quietly forced to +their quarters forward. Life-buoys, life-preservers, chairs, ropes, and +other articles were flung overboard, until the water resembled a +junk-shop. Through them all, the man's dark, closely shaven head could +be seen, his face turned from the steamer, as he swam fiercely toward +the shore against a strong current. The channel was too narrow for the +steamer to turn, but a boat was soon in hot pursuit of the man who was +struggling fearfully for the shore, and who was supposed to be too +bewildered to realize that he was headed in the wrong direction. What +was our amazement, when the boat finally reached him, to discover, by +the aid of glasses, that he was resisting his rescuers. There was a long +struggle in the water before he was overcome and dragged into the boat.</p> + +<p>He was a pitiable sight when the boat came level with the hurricane +deck; wild-eyed, gray-faced, shuddering like a dog; his shirt torn open +at the throat and exposing its tragic emaciation; his glance flashing +wildly from one face to another, as though in search of one to be +trusted—he was an object to command the pity of the coldest heart. In +his hand was still gripped his soft hat which he had taken from his head +before jumping overboard.</p> + +<p>"What is it, my man?" asked the captain, kindly, approaching him.</p> + +<p>The man's wild gaze steadied upon the captain and seemed to recognize +him as one in authority.</p> + +<p>"They've been trying to kill me, sir, all the way up."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>The poor fellow shuddered hard.</p> + +<p>"They," he said. "They're on the boat. I had to watch them night and +day. I didn't dast go to sleep. It got too much; I couldn't stand it. I +had to get ashore. I'd been waiting for this channel because it was so +narrow. I thought the current 'u'd help me get away. I'm a good +swimmer."</p> + +<p>"A better one never breasted a wave! Take him below. Give him dry +clothes and some whiskey, and set a watch over him."</p> + +<p>The poor wretch was led away; the crowd drifted after him. Pale and +quiet, the captain went back to the chart-room and resumed his slow +pacing forth and back.</p> + +<p>"I wish tragedies of body and soul would not occur in such beautiful +lengths of water," he said at last. "I can never sail through Grenville +Channel again without seeing that poor fellow's haggard face and wild, +appealing eyes. And after Gardner Canal, there is not another on the +route more beautiful than this!"</p> + +<p>Two inlets open into Grenville Channel on the starboard going north, +Lowe and Klewnuggit,—both affording safe anchorage to vessels in +trouble. Pitt Island forms almost the entire western shore—a +beautifully wooded one—of the channel. There is a salmon cannery in +Lowe Inlet, beside a clear stream which leaps down from a lake in the +mountains. The waters and shores of Grenville have a clear, washed +green, which is springlike. In many of the other narrow ways the waters +are blue, or purple, or a pale blue-gray; but here they suddenly lead +you along the palest of green, shimmering avenues, while mountains of +many-shaded green rise steeply on both sides, glimmering away into +drifts of snow, which drop threads of silver down the sheer heights.</p> + +<p>This shaded green of the mountains is a feature of Alas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>kan landscapes. +Great landslides and windfalls cleave their way from summit to sea, +mowing down the forests in their path. In time the new growth springs up +and streaks the mountain side with lighter green.</p> + +<p>Probably one-half of the trees in southeastern Alaska are the Menzies +spruce, or Sitka pine. Their needles are sharp and of a bluish green.</p> + +<p>The Menzies spruce was named for the Scotch botanist who accompanied +Vancouver.</p> + +<p>The Alaska cedar is yellowish and lacy in appearance, with a graceful +droop to the branches. It grows to an average height of one hundred and +fifty feet. Its wood is very valuable.</p> + +<p>Arbor-vitæ grows about the glaciers and in cool, dim fiords. Birch, +alder, maple, cottonwood, broom, and hemlock-spruce are plentiful, but +are of small value, save in the cause of beauty.</p> + +<p>The Menzies spruce attains its largest growth in the Alexander +Archipelago, but ranges as far south as California. The Douglas fir is +not so abundant as it is farther south, nor does it grow to such great +size.</p> + +<p>The Alaska cedar is the most prized of all the cedars. It is in great +demand for ship-building, interior finishing, cabinet-making, and other +fine work, because of its close texture, durable quality, and aromatic +odor, which somewhat resembles that of sandalwood. In early years it was +shipped to Japan, where it was made into fancy boxes and fans, which +were sold under guise of that scented Oriental wood. Its lasting +qualities are remarkable—sills having been found in perfect +preservation after sixty years' use in a wet climate. Its pleasant odor +is as enduring as the wood. The long, slender, pendulous fruits which +hang from the branches in season, give the tree a peculiarly graceful +and appealing appearance.</p> + +<p>The western white pine is used for interior work. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> is a magnificent +tree, as seen in the forest, having bluish green fronds and cones a foot +long.</p> + +<p>The giant arbor-vitæ attains its greatest size close to the coast. The +wood splits easily and makes durable shingles. It takes a brilliant +polish and is popular for interior finishing. Its beauty of growth is +well known.</p> + +<p>Wherever there is sufficient rainfall, the fine-fronded hemlock may be +found tracing its lacelike outlines upon the atmosphere. There is no +evergreen so delicately lovely as the hemlock. It stands apart, with a +little air of its own, as a fastidious small maid might draw her skirts +about her when common ones pass by.</p> + +<p>The spruces, firs, and cedars grow so closely together that at a +distance they appear as a solid wall of shaded green, varying from the +lightest beryl tints, on through bluish grays to the most vivid and +dazzling emerald tones. At a distance canyons and vast gulches are +filled so softly and so solidly that they can scarcely be detected, the +trees on the crests of the nearer hills blending into those above, and +concealing the deep spaces that sink between.</p> + +<p>These forests have no tap-roots. Their roots spread widely upon a thin +layer of soil covering solid stone in many cases, and more likely than +not this soil is created in the first place by the accumulation of +parent needles. Trees spring up in crevices of stone where a bit of sand +has sifted, grow, fruit, and shed their needles, and thrive upon them. +The undergrowth is so solid that one must cut one's way through it, and +the progress of surveyors or prospectors is necessarily slow and +difficult.</p> + +<p>These forests are constantly drenched in the warm mists precipitated by +the Kuro Siwo striking upon the snow, and in this quickening moisture +they reach a brilliancy of coloring that is remarkable. At sunset, +threading these narrow channels, one may see mountain upon mountain +climbing up to crests of snow, their lower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> wooded slopes covered with +mists in palest blue and old rose tones, through which the tips of the +trees, crowded close together, shine out in brilliant, many-shaded +greens.</p> + +<p>After Arthur Passage is that of Malacca, which is dotted by several +islands. "Lawyer's," to starboard, bears a red light; "Lucy," to port, +farther north, a fixed white light. Directly opposite "Lucy"—who does +not rival "Sarah," or who in the pilot's words "has nothing about +her"—is old Metlakahtla.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;"> +<img src="images/illo_064.jpg" width="630" height="419" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Davidson Glacier" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Davidson Glacier</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<p>The famous ukase of 1821 was issued by the Russian Emperor on the +expiration of the twenty-year charter of the Russian-American Company. +It prohibited "to all foreign vessels not only to land on the coasts and +islands belonging to Russia, as stated above" (including the whole of +the northwest coast of America, beginning from Behring Strait to the +fifty-first degree of northern latitude, also from the Aleutian Islands +to the eastern coast of Siberia, as well as along the Kurile Islands +from Behring Strait to the south cape of the Island of Urup) "but also +to approach them within less than one hundred miles."</p> + +<p>After the Nootka Convention in 1790, the Northwest Coast was open to +free settlement and trade by the people of any country. It was claimed +by the Russians to the Columbia, afterward to the northern end of +Vancouver Island; by the British, from the Columbia to the fifty-fifth +degree; and by the United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the +Pacific, between Forty-two and Fifty-four, Forty. By the treaty of 1819, +by which Florida was ceded to us by Spain, the United States acquired +all of Spanish rights and claims on the coast north of the forty-second +degree. By its trading posts and regular trading vessels, the United +States was actually in possession.</p> + +<p>By treaty with the United States in 1824, and with Great Britain in +1825, Russia, realizing her mistake in issuing the ukase of 1821, agreed +to Fifty-four, Forty as the limit of her possessions to southward. Of +the interior<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> regions, Russia claimed the Yukon region; England, that of +the Mackenzie and the country between Hudson Bay and the Rocky +Mountains; the United States, all west of the Rockies, north of +Forty-two.</p> + +<p>The year previous to the one in which the United States acquired Florida +and all Spanish rights on the Pacific Coast north of Forty-two, the +United States and England had agreed to a joint occupation of the +region. In 1828 this was indefinitely extended, but with the emigration +to Oregon in the early forties, this country demanded a settlement of +the boundary question.</p> + +<p>President Tyler, in his message to Congress in 1843, declared that "the +United States rights appertain to all between forty-two degrees and +fifty-four degrees and forty minutes."</p> + +<p>The leading Democrats of the South were at that time advocating the +annexation of Texas. Mr. Calhoun was an ardent champion of the cause, +and was endeavoring to effect a settlement with the British minister, +offering the forty-ninth parallel as a compromise on the boundary +dispute, in his eagerness to acquire Texas without danger of +interference.</p> + +<p>The compromise was declined by the British minister.</p> + +<p>In 1844 slave interests defeated Mr. Van Buren in his aspirations to the +presidency. Mr. Clay was nominated instead. The latter opposed the +annexation of Texas and advised caution and compromise in the Oregon +question; but the Democrats nominated Polk and under the war-cry of +"Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight," bore him on to victory. The convention +which nominated him advocated the reannexation of Texas and the +reoccupation of Oregon; the two significant words being used to make it +clear that Texas had belonged to us before, through the Louisiana +purchase; and Oregon, before the treaty of joint occupation with Great +Britain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>President Polk, in his message, declared that, "beyond all question, the +protection of our laws and our jurisdiction, civil and criminal, ought +to be immediately extended over our citizens in Oregon."</p> + +<p>He quoted from the convention which had nominated him that "our title to +the country of Oregon as far as Fifty-four, Forty, is clear and +unquestionable;" and he boldly declared "for all of Oregon or none."</p> + +<p>John Quincy Adams eloquently supported our title to the country to the +line of Fifty-four, Forty in a powerful speech in the House of +Representatives.</p> + +<p>Yet it soon became apparent that both the Texas policy and the Oregon +question could not be successfully carried out during the +administration. "Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight" as a watchword in a +presidential campaign was one thing, but as a challenge to fight flung +in the face of Great Britain, it was quite another.</p> + +<p>In February, 1846, the House declared in favor of giving notice to Great +Britain that the joint occupancy of the Oregon country must cease. The +Senate, realizing that this resolution was practically a declaration of +war, declined to adopt it, after a very bitter and fiery controversy.</p> + +<p>Those who retreated from their first position on the question were hotly +denounced by Senator Hannegan, the Democratic senator from Indiana. He +boldly attacked the motives which led to their retreat, and angrily +exclaimed:—</p> + +<p>"If Oregon were good for the production of sugar and cotton, it would +not have encountered this opposition."</p> + +<p>The resolution was almost unanimously opposed by the Whig senators. Mr. +Webster, while avoiding the point of our actual rights in the matter, +urged that a settlement on the line of the forty-ninth parallel be +recommended, as permitting both countries to compromise with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> dignity +and honor. The resolution that was finally passed by the Senate and +afterward by the House, authorized the president to give notice at his +discretion to Great Britain that the treaty should be terminated, "in +order that the attention of the governments of both countries may be the +more earnestly directed to the adoption of all proper measures for a +speedy and amicable adjustment of the differences and disputes in regard +to said territory."</p> + +<p>Forever to their honor be it remembered that a few of the Southern +Democrats refused to retreat from their first position—among them, +Stephen A. Douglas. Senator Hannegan reproached his party for breaking +the pledges on which it had marched to victory.</p> + +<p>The passage of the milk-and-water resolution restored to the timid of +the country a feeling of relief and security; but to the others, and to +the generations to come after them, helpless anger and undying shame.</p> + +<p>The country yielded was ours. We gave it up solely because to retain it +we must fight, and we were not in a position at that time to fight Great +Britain.</p> + +<p>When the Oregon Treaty, as it was called, was concluded by Secretary +Buchanan and Minister Pakenham, we lost the splendid country now known +as British Columbia, which, after our purchase of Alaska from Russia, +would have given us an unbroken frontage on the Pacific Ocean from +Southern California to Behring Strait, and almost to the mouth of the +Mackenzie River on the Frozen Ocean.</p> + +<p>Many reasons have been assigned by historians for the retreat of the +Southern Democrats from their former bold and flaunting position; but in +the end the simple truth will be admitted—that they might brag, but +were not in a position to fight. They were like Lieutenant Whidbey, whom +Vancouver sent out to explore Lynn Canal in a small boat. Mr. Whidbey +was ever ready and eager, when he deemed it necessary, to fire upon a +small party of Indians; but when they met him, full front, in formidable +numbers and with couched spears, he instantly fell into a panic and +deemed it more "humane" to avoid a conflict with those poor, ignorant +people.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;"> +<img src="images/illo_071.jpg" width="436" height="580" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +A Phantom Ship" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +A Phantom Ship</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Southern Democrats who betrayed their country in 1846 were the +Whidbeys of the United States. For no better reason than that of +"humanity," they gave nearly four hundred thousand square miles of +magnificent country to Great Britain.</p> + +<p>Another problem in this famous boundary settlement question has +interested American historians for sixty years: Why England yielded so +much valuable territory to the United States, after protecting what she +claimed as her rights so boldly and so unflinchingly for so many years.</p> + +<p>Professor Schafer, the head of the Department of American History at the +University of Oregon, claims to have recently found indisputable proof +in the records of the British Foreign Office and those of the old +Hudson's Bay Company, in London, that the abandonment of the British +claim was influenced by the presence of American pioneers who had pushed +across the continent and settled in the disputed territory, bringing +their families and founding homes in the wilderness.</p> + +<p>England knew, in her heart, that the whole disputed territory was ours; +and as our claims were strengthened by settlement, she was sufficiently +far-sighted to be glad to compromise at that time. If the Oregon Treaty +had been delayed for a few years, British Columbia would now be ours. +Proofs which strengthen our claim were found in the winter of 1907-1908 +in the archives of Sitka.</p> + +<p>There would be more justice in our laying claim to British Columbia now, +than there was in the claims of Great Britain in the famous <i>lisière</i> +matter which was settled in 1903.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>By the treaties of 1824, between Russia and the United States, and of +1825, between Russia and Great Britain, the limits of Russian +possessions are thus defined, and upon our purchase of Alaska from +Russia, were repeated in the Treaty of Washington in 1867:—</p> + +<p>"Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of +Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of fifty-four degrees and +forty minutes north latitude, and between the one hundred and +thirty-first and the one hundred and thirty-third degree of west +longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the +North along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of +the continent where it strikes the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; +from this last mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow the +summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the +point of intersection of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west +longitude (of the same meridian); and finally, from the said point of +intersection, the said meridian line of the one hundred and forty-first +degree, in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the +limit between the Russian and British possessions on the Continent of +America to the northwest.</p> + +<p>"With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the preceding +article, it is understood:—</p> + +<p>"First, That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong +wholly to Russia.</p> + +<p>"Second, That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend parallel +to the coast from the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude to the point +of intersection of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west +longitude shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine +leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and +the line of coast which is to belong to Russia as above mentioned shall +be formed by a line<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> parallel to the windings of the coast, and which +shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom.</p> + +<p>"The western limit within which the territories and dominion conveyed +are contained, passes through a point in Behring Strait on the parallel +of sixty-five degrees, thirty minutes, north latitude, at its +intersection by the meridian which passes midway between the islands of +Krusenstern, or Ignalook, and the island of Ratmanoff, or Noonarbook, +and proceeds due north, without limitation, into the same Frozen Ocean. +The same western limit, beginning at the same initial point, proceeds +thence in a course nearly southwest, through Behring Strait and Behring +Sea, so as to pass midway between the northwest point of the island of +St. Lawrence and the southeast point of Cape Choukotski, to the meridian +of one hundred and seventy-two west longitude; thence, from the +intersection of that meridian in a southwesterly direction, so as to +pass midway between the island of Attou and the Copper Island of the +Kormandorski couplet or group in the North Pacific Ocean, to the +meridian of one hundred and ninety-three degrees west longitude, so as +to include in the territory conveyed the whole of the Aleutian Islands +east of that meridian."</p> + +<p>In the cession was included the right of property in all public lots and +squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, +barracks, and other edifices, which were not private individual +property. It was, however, understood and agreed that the churches which +had been built in the ceded territory by the Russian government should +remain the property of such members of the Greek Oriental Church +resident in the territory as might choose to worship therein. All +government archives, papers, and documents relative to the territory and +dominion aforesaid which were existing there at the time of transfer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +were left in possession of the agent of the United States; with the +understanding that the Russian government or any Russian subject may at +any time secure an authenticated copy thereof.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of the territory were given their choice of returning to +Russia within three years, or remaining in the territory and being +admitted to the enjoyment of all rights, advantages, and immunities of +citizens of the United States, protected in the free enjoyment of their +liberty, property, and religion.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed with chagrin that very few Russians availed +themselves of this opportunity to free themselves from the supposed +oppression of their government, to unite with the vaunted glories of +ours.</p> + +<p>Before 1825, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, and the United States had +no rights of occupation and assertion on the Northwest Coast. Different +nations had "planted bottles" and "taken possession" wherever their +explorers had chanced to land, frequently ignoring the same ceremony on +the part of previous explorers; but these formalities did not weigh +against the rights of discovery and actual occupation by Russia—else +Spain's rights would have been prior to Great Britain's.</p> + +<p>Between the years of 1542 and 1774 Spanish explorers had examined and +traced the western coast of America as far north as fifty-four degrees +and forty minutes, Perez having reached that latitude in 1774, +discovering Queen Charlotte Islands on the 16th of June, and Nootka +Sound on the 9th of August.</p> + +<p>Although he did not land, he had friendly relations with the natives, +who surrounded his ship, singing and scattering white feathers as a +beautiful token of peace. They traded dried fish, furs, and ornaments of +their own making for knives and old iron; and two, at least, boarded the +ship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perez named the northernmost point of Queen Charlotte Islands Point +Santa Margarita.</p> + +<p>Proceeding south, he made a landfall and anchored in a roadstead in +forty-nine degrees and thirty minutes, which he called San +Lorenzo—afterward the famous Nootka of Vancouver Island. He also +discovered the beautiful white mountain which dignifies the entrance to +Puget Sound, and named it Santa Rosalia. It was renamed Mount Olympus +fourteen years later by John Meares.</p> + +<p>This was the first discovery of the Northwest Coast, and when Cook and +Vancouver came, it was to find that the Spanish had preceded them.</p> + +<p>Not content with occupying the splendid possessions of the United States +through the not famous, but infamous, Oregon Treaty, Canada, upon the +discovery of gold in the Cassiar district of British Columbia, brought +up the question of the <i>lisière</i>, or thirty-mile strip. This was the +strip of land, "not exceeding ten marine leagues in width," which +bordered the coast from the southern limit of Russian territory at +Portland Canal (now the southern boundary of Alaska) to the vicinity of +Mount St. Elias. The purpose of this strip was stated by the Russian +negotiations to be "the establishment of a barrier at which would be +stopped, once for all, to the North as to the West of the coast allotted +to our American Company, the encroachments of the English agents of the +Amalgamated Hudson Bay and Northwest English Company."</p> + +<p>In 1824, upon the proposal of Sir Charles Bagot to assign to Russia a +strip with the uniform width of ten marine leagues from the shore, +limited on the south by a line between thirty and forty miles north from +the northern end of the Portland Canal, the Russian Plenipotentiaries +replied:—</p> + +<p>"The motive which caused the adoption of the principle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> of mutual +expediency to be proposed, and the most important advantage of this +principle, is to prevent the respective establishments on the Northwest +Coast from injuring each other and entering into collision.</p> + +<p>"The English establishments of the Hudson Bay and Northwest companies +have a tendency to advance westward along the fifty-third and +fifty-fourth degrees of north latitude.</p> + +<p>"The Russian establishments of the American Company have a tendency to +descend southward toward the fifty-fifth parallel and beyond; for it +should be noted that, if the American Company has not yet made permanent +establishments on the mathematical line of the fifty-fifth degree, it is +nevertheless true that by virtue of its privilege of 1799, against which +privilege no power has ever protested, it is exploiting the hunting and +the fishing in these regions, and that it regularly occupies the islands +and the neighboring coasts during the season, which allows it to send +its hunters and fishermen there.</p> + +<p>"It was, then, to the mutual advantage of the two Empires to assign just +limits to this advance on both sides, which, in time, could not fail to +cause most unfortunate complications.</p> + +<p>"It was also to their mutual advantage to fix their limits according to +natural partitions, which always constitute the most distinct and +certain frontiers.</p> + +<p>"For these reasons the Plenipotentiaries of Russia have proposed as +limits upon the coast of the continent, to the South, Portland Channel, +the head of which lies about (par) the fifty-sixth degree of north +latitude, and to the East, the chain of mountains which follows at a +very short distance the sinuosities of the coast."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles Bagot urged the line proposed by himself and offered, on the +part of Great Britain, to include the Prince of Wales Island within the +Russian line.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>Russia, however, insisted upon having her <i>lisière</i> run to the Portland +Canal, declaring that the possession of Wales Island, without a slice +(portion) of territory upon the coast situated in front of that island, +could be of no utility whatever to Russia; that any establishment formed +upon said island, or upon the surrounding islands, would find itself, as +it were, flanked by the English establishments on the mainland, and +completely at the mercy of these latter.</p> + +<p>England finally yielded to the Russian demand that the <i>lisière</i> should +extend to the Portland Canal.</p> + +<p>The claim that the Canadian government put forth, after the discovery of +gold had made it important that Canada should secure a short line of +traffic between the northern interior and the ocean, was that the +wording of certain parts of the treaty of 1825 had been wrongly +interpreted. The Canadians insisted that it was not the meaning nor the +intention of the Convention of 1825 that there should remain in the +exclusive possession of Russia a continuous fringe, or strip—the +<i>lisière</i>—of coast, separating the British possessions from the bays, +ports, inlets, havens, and waters of the ocean.</p> + +<p>Or, if it should be decided that this was the meaning of the treaty, +they maintained that the width of the <i>lisière</i> was to be measured from +the line of the general direction of the mainland coast, and not from +the heads of the many inlets.</p> + +<p>They claimed, also, that the broad and beautiful "Portland's Canal" of +Vancouver and the "Portland Channel" of the Convention of 1825, were the +Pearse Channel or Inlet of more recent times. This contention, if +sustained, would give them our Wales and Pearse islands.</p> + +<p>It was early suspected, however, that this claim was only made that they +might have something to yield when, as they hoped, their later claim to +Pyramid Harbor and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> the valley of the Chilkaht River should be made and +upheld. This would give them a clear route into the Klondike territory.</p> + +<p>In 1898 a Joint High Commission was appointed for the consideration of +Pelagic Fur Sealing, Commercial Reciprocity, and the Alaska Boundary. +The Commission met in Quebec. The discussion upon the boundary continued +for several months, the members being unable to agree upon the meaning +of the wording of the treaty of 1825.</p> + +<p>The British and Canadian members, thereupon, unblushingly proposed that +the United States should cede to Canada Pyramid Harbor and a strip of +land through the entire width of the <i>lisière</i>.</p> + +<p>To Americans who know that part of our country, this proposal came as a +shock. Pyramid Harbor is the best harbor in that vicinity; and its +cession, accompanied by a highway through the <i>lisière</i> to British +possessions, would have given Canada the most desirable route at that +time to the Yukon and the Klondike—the rivers upon which the eyes of +all nations were at that time set. Many routes into that rich and +picturesque region had been tested, but no other had proved so +satisfactory.</p> + +<p>It has since developed that the Skaguay route is the real prize. Had +Canada foreseen this, she would not have hesitated to demand it.</p> + +<p>From the disagreement of the Joint High Commission of 1898 arose the +modus vivendi of the following year. There has been a very general +opinion that the temporary boundary points around the heads of the +inlets at the northern end of Lynn Canal, laid down in that year, were +fixed for all time—although it seems impossible that this opinion could +be held by any one knowing the definition of the term "modus vivendi."</p> + +<p>By the modus vivendi Canada was given temporary possession of valuable +Chilkaht territory, and her new maps were made accordingly.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 620px;"> +<img src="images/illo_080.jpg" width="620" height="403" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Road through Cut-off Canyon" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Road through Cut-off Canyon</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1903 a tribunal composed of three American members and three +representing Great Britain, two of whom were Canadians, met in Great +Britain, to settle certain questions relating to the <i>lisière</i>.</p> + +<p>The seven large volumes covering the arguments and decisions of this +tribunal, as published by the United States government, make intensely +interesting and valuable reading to one who cares for Alaska.</p> + +<p>The majority of the tribunal, that is to say, Lord Alverstone and the +three members from the United States, decided that the Canadians have no +rights to the waters of any of the inlets, and that it was the meaning +of the Convention of 1825 that the <i>lisière</i> should for all time +separate the British possessions from the bays, ports, inlets, and +waters of the ocean north of British Columbia; and that, furthermore, +the width of the <i>lisière</i> was not to be measured from the line of the +general direction of the mainland coast, leaping the bays and inlets, +but from a line running around the heads of such indentations.</p> + +<p>The tribunal, however, awarded Pearse and Wales islands, which belonged +to us, to Canada; it also narrowed the <i>lisière</i> in several important +points, notably on the Stikine and Taku rivers.</p> + +<p>The fifth question, however, was the vital one; and it was answered in +our favor, the two Canadian members dissenting. The boundary lines have +now been changed on both United States and Canadian maps, in conformity +with the decisions of the tribunal.</p> + +<p>Blaine, Bancroft, and Davidson have made the clearest statements of the +boundary troubles.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<p>The first landing made by United States boats after leaving Seattle is +at Ketchikan. This is a comparatively new town. It is seven hundred +miles from Seattle, and is reached early on the third morning out. It is +the first town in Alaska, and glistens white and new on its gentle hills +soon after crossing the boundary line in Dixon Entrance—which is always +saluted by the lifting of hats and the waving of handkerchiefs on the +part of patriotic Americans.</p> + +<p>Ketchikan has a population of fifteen hundred people. It is the +distributing point for the mines and fisheries of this section of +southeastern Alaska. It is the present port of entry, and the Customs +Office adds to the dignity of the town. There is a good court-house, a +saw-mill with a capacity of twenty-five thousand feet daily, a shingle +mill, salmon canneries, machine shops, a good water system, a cold +storage plant, two excellent hotels, good schools and churches, a +progressive newspaper, several large wharves, modern and well-stocked +stores and shops, and a sufficient number of saloons. The town is +lighted by electricity and many of the buildings are heated by steam. A +creditable chamber of commerce is maintained.</p> + +<p>There are seven salmon canneries in operation which are tributary to +Ketchikan. The most important one "mild-cures" fish for the German +market.</p> + +<p>Among the "shipping" mines, which are within a radius of fifty miles, +and which receive mails and supplies from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Ketchikan, are the Mount +Andrews, the Stevenston, the Mamies, the Russian Brown, the Hydah, the +Niblack, and the Sulzer. From fifteen to twenty prospects are under +development.</p> + +<p>There are smelters in operation at Hadley and Copper Mountain, on Prince +of Wales Island. From Ketchikan to all points in the mining and fishing +districts safe and commodious steamers are regularly operated. The chief +mining industries are silver, copper, and gold.</p> + +<p>The residences are for the most part small, but, climbing by green +terraces over the hill and surrounded by flowers and neat lawns, they +impart an air of picturesqueness to the town. There are several +totem-poles; the handsomest was erected to the memory of Chief "Captain +John," by his nephew, at the entrance to the house now occupied by the +latter. The nephew asserts that he paid $2060 for the carving and making +of the totem. Owing to its freshly painted and gaudy appearance, it is +as lacking in interest as the one which stands in Pioneer Square, +Seattle, and which was raped from a northern Indian village.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Four times had I landed at Ketchikan on my way to far beautiful places; +with many people had I talked concerning the place; folders of steamship +companies and pamphlets of boards of trade had I read; yet never from +any person nor from any printed page had I received the faintest glimmer +that this busy, commercially described northwestern town held, almost in +its heart, one of the enduring and priceless jewels of Alaska. To the +beauty-loving, Norwegian captain of the steamship <i>Jefferson</i> was I at +last indebted for one of the real delights of my life.</p> + +<p>It was near the middle of a July night, and raining heavily, when the +captain said to us:—</p> + +<p>"Be ready on the stroke of seven in the morning, and I'll show you one +of the beautiful things of Alaska."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But—at Ketchikan, captain!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, at Ketchikan."</p> + +<p>I thought of all the vaunted attractions of Ketchikan which had ever +been brought to my observation; and I felt that at seven o'clock in the +morning, in a pouring rain, I could live without every one of them. +Then—the charm of a warm berth in a gray hour, the cup of hot coffee, +the last dream to the drowsy throb of the steamer—</p> + +<p>"It will be raining, captain," one said, feebly.</p> + +<p>The look of disgust that went across his expressive face!</p> + +<p>"What if it is! You won't know it's raining as soon as you get your eyes +filled with what I want to show you. But if you're one of <i>that</i> kind—"</p> + +<p>He made a gesture of dismissal with his hands, palms outward, and turned +away.</p> + +<p>"Captain, I shall be ready at seven. I'm not one of that kind," we all +cried together.</p> + +<p>"All right; but I won't wait five minutes. There'll be two hundred +passengers waiting to go."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 621px;"> +<img src="images/illo_087.jpg" width="621" height="434" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Scene on the White Pass" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Scene on the White Pass</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You know that letter that Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote to Professor +Morse," spoke up a lady from Boston, who had overheard. "You know +Professor Morse wrote a hand that couldn't be deciphered, and among +other things, Mr. Aldrich wrote: 'There's a singular and perpetual charm +in a letter of yours; it never grows old; it never loses its novelty. +One can say to one's self every day: "There's that letter of Morse's. I +have not read it yet. I think I shall take another shy at it." Other +letters are read and thrown away and forgotten; but yours are kept +forever—unread!' Now, that letter, somehow, in the vaguest kind of way, +suggests itself when one considers this getting up anywhere from three +to six in the morning to see things in Alaska. There's <i>always</i> +something to be seen during these unearthly hours. Every night we are +convinced that we will be on deck early, to see something, and we leave +an order to be wakened; but when the dreaded knocking comes upon the +door, and a hoarse voice announces 'Wrangell Narrows,' or 'Lama Pass,' +our berths suddenly take on curves and attractions they possess at no +other time. The side-rails into which we have been bumping seem to be +cushioned with down, the space between berths to grow wider, the air in +the room sweeter and more drowsily delicious. We say, 'Oh, we'll get up +to-morrow morning and see something,' and we pull the berth-curtain down +past our faces and go to sleep. After a while, it grows to be one of the +perpetual charms of a trip to Alaska—this always going to get up in the +morning and this never getting up. It never grows old; it never loses +its novelty. One can say to one's self every morning: 'There's that +little matter to decide now about getting up. Shall I, or shall I not?' +I have been to Alaska three times, but I've never seen Ketchikan. Other +places are seen and admired and forgotten; but it remains +forever—unseen.... Now, I'll go and give an order to be called at +half-past six, to see this wonderful thing at Ketchikan!"</p> + +<p>I looked around for her as I went down the slushy deck the next morning +on the stroke of seven; but she was not in sight. It was raining heavily +and steadily—a cold, thick rain; the wind was so strong and so +changeful that an umbrella could scarcely be held.</p> + +<p>Alas for the captain! Out of his boasted two hundred passengers, there +came forth, dripping and suspicious-eyed, openly scenting a joke, only +four women and one man. But the captain was undaunted. He would listen +to no remonstrances.</p> + +<p>"Come on, now," he cried, cheerfully, leading the way. "You told me you +came to Alaska to see things, and as long as you travel with me, you are +going to see all that is worth seeing. Let the others sleep. Anybody +can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> sleep. You can sleep at home; but you can't see what I am going to +show you now anywhere but in Alaska. Do you suppose I would get up at +this hour and waste my time on you, if I didn't know you'd thank me for +it all the rest of your life?"</p> + +<p>So on and on we went; up one street and down another; around sharp +corners; past totem-poles, saloons, stylish shops, windows piled with +Indian baskets and carvings; up steps and down terraces; along gravelled +roads; and at last, across a little bridge, around a wooded curve,—and +then—</p> + +<p>Something met us face to face. I shall always believe that it was the +very spirit of the woods that went past us, laughing and saluting, +suddenly startled from her morning bath in the clear, amber-brown stream +that came foaming musically down over smooth stones from the mountains.</p> + +<p>It was so sudden, so unexpected. One moment, we were in the little +northern fishing- and mining-town, which sits by the sea, trumpeting its +commercial glories to the world; the next, we were in the forest, and +under the spell of this wild, sweet thing that fled past us, returned, +and lured us on.</p> + +<p>For three miles we followed the mocking call of the spirit of the brown +stream. Her breath was as sweet as the breath of wild roses covered with +dew. Never in the woods have I been so impressed, so startled, with the +feeling that a living thing was calling me.</p> + +<p>We could find no words to express our delight as we climbed the path +beside the brown stream, whose waters came laughingly down through a +deep, dim gorge. They fell sheer in sparkling cataracts; they widened +into thin, singing shallows of palest amber, clinking against the +stones; narrow and foaming, they wound in and out among the trees; they +disappeared completely under wide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> sprays of ferns and the flat, +spreading branches of trees, only to "make a sudden sally" farther down.</p> + +<p>At first we were level with them, walked beside them, and paused to +watch the golden gleams in their clear depths; but gradually we climbed, +until we were hundreds of feet above them.</p> + +<p>Down in those purple shadows they went romping on to the sea; sometimes +only a flash told us where they curved; other times, they pushed out +into open spaces, and made pause in deep pools, where they whirled and +eddied for a moment before drawing together and hurrying on. But always +and everywhere the music of their wild, sweet, childish laughter floated +up to us.</p> + +<p>In the dim light of early morning the fine mist of the rain sinking +through the gorge took on tones of lavender and purple. The tall trees +climbing through it seemed even more beautiful than they really were, by +the touch of mystery lent by the rain.</p> + +<p>I wish that Max Nonnenbruch, who painted the adorable, compelling "Bride +of the Wind," might paint the elfish sprite that dwells in the gorge at +Ketchikan. He, and he alone, could paint her so that one could hear her +impish laughter, and her mocking, fluting call.</p> + +<p>The name of the stream I shall never tell. Only an unimaginative modern +Vancouver or Cook could have bestowed upon it the name that burdens it +to-day. Let it be the "brown stream" at Ketchikan.</p> + +<p>If the people of the town be wise, they will gather this gorge to +themselves while they may; treasure it, cherish it, and keep it +"unspotted from the world"—yet <i>for</i> the world.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Metlakahtla means "the channel open at both ends." It was here that Mr. +William Duncan came in 1857, from England, as a lay worker for the +Church Mission Society.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> It had been represented that existing +conditions among the natives sorely demanded high-minded missionary +work. The savages at Fort Simpson were considered the worst on the coast +at that time, and he was urged not to locate there. Undaunted, however, +Mr. Duncan, who was then a very young man, filled with the fire and zeal +of one who has not known failure, chose this very spot in which to begin +his work—among Indians so low in the scale of human intelligence that +they had even been accused of cannibalism.</p> + +<p>Port Simpson was then an important trading-post of the Hudson Bay +Company. It had been established in the early thirties about forty miles +up Nass River, but a few years later was removed to a point on the +Tsimpsian Peninsula. In 1841 Sir George Simpson found about fourteen +thousand Indians, of various tribes, living there. He found them +"peculiarly comely, strong, and well-grown ... remarkably clever and +ingenious."</p> + +<p>They carved neatly in stone, wood, and ivory. Sir George Simpson relates +with horror that the savages frequently ate the dead bodies of their +relatives, some of whom had died of smallpox, even after they had become +putrid. They were horribly diseased in other ways; and many had lost +their eyes through the ravages of smallpox or other disease. They fought +fiercely and turbulently with other tribes.</p> + +<p>Such were the Indians among whom Mr. Duncan chose to work. He was +peculiarly fitted for this work, being possessed of certain unusual +qualities and attributes of character which make for success.</p> + +<p>The unselfishness and integrity of his nature made themselves visible in +his handsome face, and particularly in the direct gaze of his large and +intensely earnest blue eyes; his manners were simple, and his air was +one of quiet command; he had unfailing cheerfulness, faith, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> that +quality which struggles on under the heaviest discouragement with no +thought of giving up.</p> + +<p>His word was as good as his bond; his energy and enthusiasm were +untiring, and he never attempted to work his Indians harder than he +himself worked. The entire absence of that trait which seeks self-praise +or self-glory,—in fact, his absolute self-effacement, his devotion of +self and self-interest to others, and to hard and humble work for +others,—all these high and noble parts of an unusual and lovable +character, added to a most winning and attractive personality, gradually +won for young William Duncan the almost Utopian success which many +others in various parts of the world have so far worked for in vain.</p> + +<p>The Indians grew to trust his word, to believe in his sincerity and +single-heartedness, to accept his teachings, to love him, and finally, +and most reluctantly of all, to work for him.</p> + +<p>At first only fifty of the Tsimsheans, or Tsimpsians, accompanied him to +the site of his first community settlement. Here the land was cleared +and cultivated; neat two-story cottages, a church, a schoolhouse, stores +on the coöperative plan, a saw-mill, and a cannery, were erected by Mr. +Duncan and the Indians. At first a corps of able assistants worked with +Mr. Duncan, instructing the Indians in various industries and arts, +until the young men were themselves able to carry along the different +branches of work,—such as carpentry, shoemaking, cabinet building, +tanning, rope-making, and boat building. The village band was instructed +by a German, until one among them was qualified to become their +band-master. The women were taught to cook, to sew, to keep house, to +weave, and to care for the sick.</p> + +<p>Here was a model village, an Utopian community, an ideal life,—founded +and carried on by the genius of one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> young, simple-hearted, high-minded, +earnest, and self-devoted English gentleman.</p> + +<p>But William Duncan's way, although strewn with the full sweet roses of +success, was not without its bitter, stinging thorns. Mr. Duncan was not +an ordained minister, and in 1881 it was decided by the Church of +England authorities who had sent Mr. Duncan out, that his field should +be formed into a separate diocese, and as this decision necessitated the +residence of a bishop, Bishop Ridley was sent to the field—a man whose +name will ever stand as a dark blot upon the otherwise clean page +whereon is written the story which all men honor and all men praise—the +story of the exalted life-work of William Duncan.</p> + +<p>Mr. Duncan, being a layman, had conducted services of the simplest +nature, and had not considered it advisable to hold communion services +which would be embarrassing of explanation to people so recently won +from the customs of cannibalism. Bigoted and opinionated, and failing +utterly to understand the Indians, to win their confidence, or to +exercise patience with them, Bishop Ridley declined to be under the +direction of a man who was not ordained, and criticised the form of +service held by Mr. Duncan. The latter, having been in sole charge of +his work for more than thirty years, and being conscious of its full and +unusual results, chafed under the Bishop's supervision and +superintendence.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, seven other missions had been established at various +stations in southeastern Alaska. The Bishop undertook to inaugurate +communion services. This was strongly opposed by Mr. Duncan, and he was +supported by the Indians, who were sincerely attached to him, the +Society in England sympathizing with the Bishop. Friction between the +two was ceaseless and bitter, and continued until 1887. This has been +given out as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> cause of the withdrawal of Mr. Duncan to New +Metlakahtla; but his own people—graduates of Eastern +universities—claim that it is not the true reason. He and his Indians +had for some time desired to be under the laws of the United States, and +in 1887 Mr. Duncan went to Washington City to negotiate with the United +States for Annette Island. The Bishop established himself in residence, +but failed ignominiously to win the respect of the Indians. He +quarrelled with them in the commonest way, struck them, went among them +armed, and finally appealed to a man-of-war for protection from people +whom he considered bloodthirsty savages.</p> + +<p>Mr. Duncan, having been successful in his mission to Washington, his +faithful followers, during his absence, removed to Annette Island, and +here he found on his return all but one hundred out of the original +eight hundred which had composed his village on the Bishop's +arrival—the few having been persuaded to remain with the latter at Old +Metlakahtla. Those who went to the new location on Annette were allowed +by the Canadian government to take nothing but their personal property; +all their houses, public buildings, and community interests being +sacrificed to their devotion to William Duncan—and this is, perhaps, +the highest, even though a wordless, tribute that this great man will, +living or dead, ever receive.</p> + +<p>This story, brief and incomplete, of which we gather up the threads as +best we may—for William Duncan dwells in this world to work, and not to +talk about his work—is one of the most pathetic in history. When one +considers the low degree of savagery from which they had struggled up in +thirty years of hardest, and at times most discouraging, labor, to a +degree of civilization which, in one respect, at least, is reached by +few white people in centuries, if ever; when one considers how they had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +grown to a new faith and to a new form of religious services, to +confidence in the possession of homes and other community property, and +to believe their title to them to be enduring; when one considers the +tenacity of an Indian's attachment to his home and belongings, and his +sorrowful and heart-breaking reluctance to part with them—this shadowy, +silent migration through northern waters to a new home on an uncleared +island, taking almost nothing with them but their religion and their +love for Mr. Duncan, becomes one of the sublime tragedies of the +century.</p> + +<p>On Annette Island, then, twenty years ago, Mr. Duncan's work was taken +up anew. Homes were built; a saw-mill, schools, wharf, cannery, store, +town hall, a neat cottage for Mr. Duncan, and finally, in 1895, the +large and handsome church, rose in rapid succession out of the +wilderness. Roads were built, and sidewalks. A trading schooner soon +plied the near-by waters. All was the work of the Indians under the +direct supervision of Mr. Duncan, who, in 1870, had journeyed to England +for the purpose of learning several simple trades which he might, in +turn, teach to the Indians whom he fondly calls his "people." Thus +personally equipped, and with such implements and machinery as were +required, he had returned to his work.</p> + +<p>To-day, at the end of twenty years, the voyager approaching Annette +Island, beholds rising before his reverent eyes the new Metlakahtla—the +old having sunken to ruin, where it lies, a vanishing stain on the fair +fame of the Church of England of the past; for the church of to-day is +too broad and too enlightened to approve of the action of its Mission +Society in regard to its most earnest and successful worker, William +Duncan.</p> + +<p>The new town shines white against a dark hill. The steamer lands at a +good wharf, which is largely occupied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> by salmon canneries. Sidewalks +and neat gravelled paths lead to all parts of the village. The buildings +are attractive in their originality, for Mr. Duncan has his own ideas of +architecture. The church, adorned with two large square towers, has a +commanding situation, and is a modern, steam-heated building, large +enough to seat a thousand people, or the entire village. It is of +handsome interior finish in natural woods. Above the altar are the +following passages: <i>The angel said unto them: Fear not, for behold, I +bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.... +Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their +sins.</i></p> + +<p>The cottages are one and two stories in height, and are surrounded by +vegetable and flower gardens, of which the women seem to be specially +proud. They and the smiling children stand at their gates and on corners +and offer for sale baskets and other articles of their own making. These +baskets are, without exception, crudely and inartistically made; yet +they have a value to collectors by having been woven at Metlakahtla by +Mr. Duncan's Indian women, and no tourist fails to purchase at least +one, while many return to the steamer laden with them.</p> + +<p>There is a girls' school and a boys' school; a hotel, a town hall, +several stores, a saw-mill, a system of water-works, a cannery capable +of packing twenty thousand cases of salmon in a season, a wharf, and +good warehouses and steam-vessels.</p> + +<p>The community is governed by a council of thirty members, having a +president. There is a police force of twenty members. Taxes are levied +for public improvements, and for the maintenance of public institutions. +The land belongs to the community, from which it may be obtained by +individuals for the purpose of building homes. The cannery and the +saw-mill, which is operated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> by water, belong to companies in which +stock is held by Indians who receive dividends. The employees receive +regular wages.</p> + +<p>The people seem happy and contented. They are deeply attached to Mr. +Duncan, and very proud of their model town. They have an excellent band +of twenty-one pieces, at the mere mention of which their dark faces take +on an expression of pride and pleasure, and their black eyes shine into +their questioner's eyes with intense interest; in fact, if one desires +to steady the gaze and hold the attention of a Metlakahtla Indian, he +can most readily accomplish his purpose by introducing the subject of +the village band.</p> + +<p>It is a surprise that these Indians do not, generally, speak English +more fluently; but this is coming with the younger generations. Some of +these young men and young women have been graduated from Eastern +colleges, and have returned to take up missionary work in various parts +of Alaska. Meeting one of these young men on a steamer, I asked him if +he knew Mr. Duncan. The smile of affection and pride that went across +his face! "<i>I am one of his boys</i>," he replied, simply. This was the +Reverend Edward Marsden, who, returning from an Eastern college in 1898, +began missionary work at Saxman, near Juneau, where he has been very +successful.</p> + +<p>Mr. Duncan is exceedingly modest and unassuming in manner and bearing, +seeming to shrink from personal attention, and to desire that his work +shall speak for itself. He is frequently called "Father," which is +exceedingly distasteful to him. Visitors seeking information are welcome +to spend a week or two at the guest-house and learn by observation and +by conversation with the people what has been accomplished in this ideal +community; but, save on rare occasions, he cannot be persuaded to dwell +upon his own work, and after he has given his reasons for this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +attitude, only a person lost to all sense of decency and delicacy would +urge him to break his rule of silence.</p> + +<p>"I am here to work, and not to talk or write about my work," he says, +kindly and cordially. "If I took the time to answer one-tenth of the +questions I am asked, verbally and by letter, I would have no time left +for my work, and my time for work is growing short. I am an old +man,"—his beautiful, intensely blue eyes smiled as he said this, and he +at once shook his white-crowned head,—"that is what they are saying of +me, but it is not true. I am young, I <i>feel</i> young, and have many more +years of work ahead of me. Still, I must confess that I do not work so +easily, and my cares are multiplying. Some to whom I make this +explanation will not respect my wishes or understand my silence. They +press me by letter, or personally, to answer only this question or only +that. They are inconsiderate and hamper me in my work."</p> + +<p>Possibly this is the key-note to Mr. Duncan's success. "Here is my work; +let it speak for itself." He has devoted his whole life to his work, +with no thought for the fame it may bring him. For the latter, he cares +nothing.</p> + +<p>This is the reason that pilgrims voyage to Metlakahtla as reverently as +to a shrine. It is the noble and unselfish life-work of a man who has +not only accomplished a great purpose, but who is great in himself. When +he passes on, let him be buried simply among the Indians he has loved +and to whom he has given his whole life, and write upon his headstone: +"Let his work speak."</p> + +<p>The settlement on Annette Island was provided for in the act of +Congress, 1891, as follows:—</p> + +<p>"That, until otherwise provided for by law, the body of lands known as +Annette Islands, situated in Alexander Archipelago in southeastern +Alaska, on the north side of Dixon Entrance, be, and the same is hereby, +set apart as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> a reservation for the Metlakahtla Indians, and those +people known as Metlakahtlans, who have recently emigrated from British +Columbia to Alaska, and such other Alaskan natives as may join them, to +be held and used by them in common, under such rules and regulations, +and subject to such restrictions, as may be prescribed from time to time +by the Secretary of the Interior."</p> + +<p>The Indians of the Community are required to sign, and to fulfil the +terms of, the following Declaration:—</p> + +<p>"We, the people of Metlakahtla, Alaska, in order to secure to ourselves +and our posterity the blessings of a Christian home, do severally +subscribe to the following rules for the regulation of our conduct and +town affairs:—</p> + +<p>"To reverence the Sabbath and to refrain from all unnecessary secular +work on that day; to attend divine worship; to take the Bible for our +rule of faith; to regard all true Christians as our brethren; and to be +truthful, honest, and industrious.</p> + +<p>"To be faithful and loyal to the Government and laws of the United +States.</p> + +<p>"To render our votes when called upon for the election of the Town +Council, and to promptly obey the by-laws and orders imposed by the said +Council.</p> + +<p>"To attend to the education of our children and keep them at school as +regularly as possible.</p> + +<p>"To totally abstain from all intoxicants and gambling, and never attend +heathen festivities or countenance heathenish customs in surrounding +villages.</p> + +<p>"To strictly carry out all sanitary regulations necessary for the health +of the town.</p> + +<p>"To identify ourselves with the progress of the settlement, and to +utilize the land we hold.</p> + +<p>"Never to alienate, give away, or sell our land, or any portion thereof, +to any person or persons who have not subscribed to these rules."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<p>Dixon Entrance belongs to British Columbia, but the boundary crosses its +northern waters about three miles above Whitby Point on Dundas Island, +and the steamer approaches Revilla-Gigedo Island. It is twenty-five by +fifty miles, and was named by Vancouver in honor of the Viceroy of New +Spain, who sent out several of the most successful expeditions. It is +pooled by many bits of turquoise water which can scarcely be dignified +by the name of lakes.</p> + +<p>Carroll Inlet cleaves it half in twain. The exquisite gorges and +mountains of this island are coming to their own very slowly, as +compared with its attractions from a commercial point of view.</p> + +<p>The island is in the centre of a rich salmon district, and during the +"running" season the clear blue waters flash underneath with the +glistening silver of the struggling fish. In some of the fresh-water +streams where the hump-backed salmon spawn, the fortunate tourist may +literally make true the frequent Western assertion that at certain times +"one can walk across on the solid silver bridge made by the salmon"—so +tightly are they wedged together in their desperate and pathetic +struggles to reach the spawning-ground.</p> + +<p>Vancouver found these "hunch-backs," as he called them, not to his +liking,—probably on account of finding them at the spawning season.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + +<p>Leaving Ketchikan, Revilla and Point Higgins are passed to +starboard—Higgins being another of Vancouver's choice namings for the +president of Chile.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see such a cluttering up of a landscape with odds and ends +of names?" said the pilot one day. "And all the ugliest by Vancouver. +Give <i>me</i> an Indian name every time. It always means something. Take +this Revilly-Gig Island; the Indians called it 'Na-a,' meaning 'the far +lakes,' for all the little lakes scattered around. I don't know as we're +doing much better in our own day, though," he added, staring ahead with +a twinkle in his eyes. "They've just named a couple of mountains <i>Mount +Thomas Whitten</i> and <i>Mount Shoup</i>! Now those names are all right for +men—even congressmen—but they're not worth shucks for mountains. Why, +the Russians could do better! Take Mount St. Elias—named by Behring +because he discovered it on St. Elias' day. I actually tremble every +time I pass that mountain, for fear I'll look up and see a sign tacked +on it, stating that the name has been changed to Baker or Bacon or +Mudge, so that Vancouver's bones will rest more easily in the grave. Now +look at that point! It's pretty enough in itself; but—<i>Higgins!</i>"</p> + +<p>The next feature of interest, however, proved to be blessed with a name +sweet enough to take away the bitterness of many others—Clover Pass. It +was not named for this most fragrant and dear of all flowers, but for +Lieutenant, now Rear-Admiral, Clover, of the United States Navy.</p> + +<p>Beyond Clover Pass, at the entrance to Naha Bay, is Loring, a large and +important cannery settlement of the Alaska Packers' Association. There +is only one salmon-canning establishment in Alaska, or even on the +Northwest Coast, more picturesquely situated than this, and it is nearly +two thousand miles "to Westward," at the mouth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> of the famed Karluk +River, where the same company maintains large canneries and successful +hatcheries. It will be described in another chapter.</p> + +<p>A trail leads from Loring through the woods to Dorr Waterfall, in a +lovely glen. In Naha Bay thousands of fish are taken at every dip of the +seine in the narrowest cove, which is connected with a chain of small +lakes linked by the tiniest of streams. In summer these waters seem to +be of living silver, so thickly are they swarmed with darting and +curving salmon.</p> + +<p>Not far from Naha Bay is Traitor's Cove, where Vancouver and his men +were attacked in boats by savages in the masks of animals, headed by an +old hag who commanded and urged them to bloodthirsty deeds.</p> + +<p>This vixen seemed to be a personage of prestige and influence, judging +both by the immense size of her lip ornament and her air of command. She +seized the lead line from Vancouver's boat and made it fast to her own +canoe, while another stole a musket.</p> + +<p>Vancouver, advancing to parley with the chief, made the mistake of +carrying his musket; whereupon about fifty savages leaped at him, armed +with spears and daggers.</p> + +<p>The chief gave him to understand by signs that they would lay down their +arms if he would set the example; but the terrible old woman, scenting +peace and scorning it, violently and turbulently harangued the tribe and +urged it to attack.</p> + +<p>The brandishing of spears and the flourishing of daggers became so +uncomfortably close and insistent, that Vancouver finally overcame his +"humanity," and fired into the canoes.</p> + +<p>The effect was electrical. The Indians in the small canoes instantly +leaped into the water and swam for the shore; those in the larger ones +tipped the canoes to one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> side, so that the higher side shielded them +while they made the best of their way to the shore.</p> + +<p>There they ascended the rocky cliffs and stoned the boats. Several of +Vancouver's men were severely wounded, one having been speared +completely through the thigh.</p> + +<p>The point at the northern entrance to Naha Bay, where they landed to +dress wounds and take account of stock not stolen, was named Escape +Point; a name which it still retains.</p> + +<p>Kasa-an Bay is an inlet pushing fifteen miles into the eastern coast of +Prince of Wales Island, which is two hundred miles in length and +averages forty in width. Cholmondeley Sound penetrates almost as far, +and Moira Sound, Niblack Anchorage on North Arm, Twelve Mile Arm, and +Skowl Arm, are all storied and lovely inlets. Skowl was an old chief of +the Eagle Clan, whose sway was questioned by none. He was the greatest +chief of his time, and ruled his people as autocratically as the lordly, +but blustering, Baranoff ruled his at Sitka. Skowl repulsed the advances +of missionaries and scorned all attempts at Christianizing himself and +his tribe. His was a powerful personality which is still mentioned with +a respect not unmixed with awe. To say that a chief is as fearless as +Skowl is a fine compliment, indeed, and one not often bestowed.</p> + +<p>Although not on the regular run of steamers, Howkan, now a Presbyterian +missionary village on Cordova Bay, on the southwestern part of Prince of +Wales Island, must not be entirely neglected. In early days the village +was a forest of totems, and the graves were almost as interesting as the +totems. Both are rapidly vanishing and losing their most picturesque +features before the march of civilization and Christianity; but Howkan +is still one of the show-places of Alaska. The tourist who is able to +make this side trip on one of the small steamers that run past there, is +the envy of the unfortunate ones who are compelled to forego that +pleasure.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 629px;"> +<img src="images/illo_104.jpg" width="629" height="390" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Steel Cantilever Bridge, near Summit of White Pass" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Steel Cantilever Bridge, near Summit of White Pass</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>Totemism is the poetry of the Indian—or would be if it possessed any +religious significance.</p> + +<p>I once asked an educated Tsimpsian Indian what the Metlakahtla people +believed,—meaning the belief that Mr. Duncan had taught them. He put +the tips of his fingers together, and with an expression of great +earnestness, replied:—</p> + +<p>"They believed in a great Spirit, to whom they prayed and whom they +worshipped everywhere, believing that this beautiful Spirit was +everywhere and could hear. They worshipped it in the forest, in the +trees, in the flowers, in the sun and wind, in the blades of +grass,—alone and far from every one,—in the running water and the +still lakes."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how beautiful!" I said, in all sincerity. "It must be the same as +my own belief; only I never heard it put into words before. And that is +what Mr. Duncan has taught them?"</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at me squarely and steadily. It was a look of +weariness, of disgust.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," he replied, coldly; "that was what they believed before they +knew better; before they were taught the truth; before Christianity was +explained to them. That is what they believed <i>while they were +savages</i>!"</p> + +<p>We were in the library of the <i>Jefferson</i>. The room is always warm, and +at that moment it was warmer than I had ever known it to be. Under the +steady gaze of those shining dark eyes it presently became too warm to +be endured. With my curiosity quite satisfied, I withdrew to the +hurricane deck, where there is always air.</p> + +<p>Of the Indians in the territory of Alaska there are two stocks—the +Thlinkits, or Coast Indians, and the Tinneh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> or those inhabiting the +vast regions of the interior. The Thlinkits comprise the Tsimpsians, or +Chimsyans, the Kygáni, or Haidahs, the true Thlinkits, or Koloshes, and +the Yakutats.</p> + +<p>The Kygáni, or Haidah, Indians inhabit the Queen Charlotte Archipelago, +which, although belonging to British Columbia, must be taken into +consideration in any description of the Indians of Alaska. They were +formerly a warlike, powerful, and treacherous race, making frequent +attacks upon neighboring tribes, even as far south as Puget Sound. They +are noted, not only for these savage qualities, but also for the grace +and beauty of their canoes and for their delicate and artistic carvings. +Their small totems, pipes, and other articles carved out of a dark gray, +highly polished slate stone obtained on their own islands, sometimes +inlaid with particles of shell, are well known and command fancy prices. +Haidah basketry and hats are of unusual beauty and workmanship. The +peculiar ornamentation is painted upon the hats and not woven in. The +designs which are most frequently seen are the head, wings, tail, and +feet of a duck,—certain details somewhat resembling a large +oyster-shell, or a human ear,—painted in black and rich reds. The hats +are usually in the plain twined weaving, and of such fine, even +workmanship that they are entirely waterproof. The Haidahs formerly wore +the nose- and ear-rings, or other ornaments, and the labret in the lower +lip.</p> + +<p>The Thlinkits,—or Koloshians, as the Russians and Aleuts called them, +from their habit of wearing the labret,—are divided into two tribes, +the Stikines and the Sitkans; the former inhabiting the mainland in the +vicinity of the Stikine River, straggling north and south for some +distance along the coast.</p> + +<p>The Sitkans dwell in the neighborhood of Sitka and on the near-by +islands. They are among the tribes of Indians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> who gave Baranoff much +trouble. They formerly painted with vermilion or lamp-black mixed with +oil, traced on their faces in startling patterns. At the present time +they dress almost like white people, except for the everlasting blanket +on the older ones. Some of the younger women are very handsome—clean, +light-brown of skin, red-cheeked, of good figure, and having large, dark +eyes, at once soft and bright. They also have good, white teeth, and are +decidedly attractive in their coquettish and saucy airs and graces. The +young Indian women at Sitka, Yakutat, and Dundas are the prettiest and +the most attractive in Alaska; nor have I seen any in the Klondike, or +along the Yukon, to equal them in appearance. Also, one can barter with +them for their fascinating wares without praying to heaven to be +deprived of the sense of smell for a sufficient number of hours.</p> + +<p>Among the Thlinkits, as well as among many of the Innuit, or Eskimo +tribes, the strange and cruel custom prevails of isolating young girls +approaching puberty in a hut set aside for this purpose. The period of +isolation varies from a month to a year, during which they are +considered unclean and are allowed only liquid food, which soon reduces +them to a state of painful emaciation. No one is permitted to minister +to their needs but a mother or a female slave, and they cannot hold +conversation with any one.</p> + +<p>When a maiden finally emerges from her confinement there is great +rejoicing, if she be of good family, and feasting. A charm of peculiar +design is hung around her neck, called a "Virgin Charm," or "Virtue +Charm," which silently announces that she is "clean" and of marriageable +age. Formerly, according to Dall and other authorities, the lower lip +was pierced and a silver pin shaped like a nail inserted. This made the +same announcement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>The chief diet of the Thlinkit is fish, fresh or smoked. Unlike the +Aleutians, they do not eat whale blubber, as the whale figures in their +totems, but are fond of the porpoise and seal. The women are fond of +dress, and a voyager who will take a gay last year's useless hat along +in her steamer trunk, will be sure to "swap" it for a handsome Indian +basket. In many places they still employ their early methods of +fishing—raking herring and salmon out of the streams, during a run, +with long poles into which nails are driven, like a rake.</p> + +<p>They are fond of game of all kinds. They weave blankets out of the wool +of the mountain sheep. Large spoons, whose handles are carved in the +form and designs of totems, are made out of the horns of sheep and +goats.</p> + +<p>The Thlinkits are divided into four totems—the whale, the eagle, the +raven, and the wolf. The raven, which by the Tinnehs is considered an +evil bird, is held in the highest respect by the Thlinkits, who believe +it to be a good spirit.</p> + +<p>Totemism is defined as the system of dividing a tribe into clans +according to their totems. It comprises a class of objects which the +savage holds in superstitious awe and respect, believing that it holds +some relation to, and protection over, himself. There is the clan totem, +common to a whole clan; the sex totem, common to the males or females of +a clan; and the individual totem, belonging solely to one person and not +descending to any member of the next generation. It is generally +believed that the totem has some special religious significance; but +this is not true, if we are to believe that the younger and educated +Indians of to-day know what totemism means. Some totems are veritable +family trees. The clan totem is reverenced by a whole clan, the members +of which are known by the name of their totem, and believe themselves to +be descended from a common animal ancestor, and bound together by ties +closer and more sacred than those of blood.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 627px;"> +<img src="images/illo_111.jpg" width="627" height="409" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Old Russian Building, Sitka" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Old Russian Building, Sitka</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<p>The system of totemism is old; but the word itself, according to J. G. +Frazer, first appeared in literature in the nineteenth century, being +introduced from an Ojibway word by J. Long, an interpreter. The same +authority claims that it had a religious aspect; but this is denied, so +far, at least, as the Thlinkits are concerned.</p> + +<p>The Eagle clan believe themselves to be descended from an eagle, which +they, accordingly, reverence and protect from harm or death, believing +that it is a beneficent spirit that watches over them.</p> + +<p>Persons of the same totem may neither marry nor have sexual intercourse +with each other. In Australia the usual penalty for the breaking of this +law was death. With the Thlinkits, a man might marry a woman of any save +his own totem clan. The raven represented woman, and the wolf, man. A +young man selected his individual totem from the animal which appeared +most frequently and significantly in his dreams during his lonely fast +and vigil in the heart of the forest for some time before reaching the +state of puberty. The animals representing a man's different +totems—clan, family, sex, and individual—were carved and painted on +his tall totem-pole, his house, his paddles, and other objects; they +were also woven into hats, basketry, and blankets, and embroidered upon +moccasins with beads. Some of the Haidah canoes have most beautifully +carven and painted prows, with the totem design appearing. These canoes +are far superior to those of Puget Sound. The very sweep of the prow, +strong and graceful, as it cleaves the golden air above the water, +proclaims its northern home. Their well-known outlines, the erect, rigid +figures of the warriors kneeling in them, and the strong, swift, sure +dip of the paddles, sent dread to the hearts of the Puget Sound Indians +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> the few white settlers in the early part of the last century. The +cry of "Northern Indians!" never failed to create a panic. They made +many marauding expeditions to the south in their large and splendid +canoes. The inferior tribes of the sound held them in the greatest fear +and awe.</p> + +<p>A child usually adopts the mother's totem, and at birth receives a name +significant of her family. Later on he receives one from his father's +family, and this event is always attended with much solemnity and +ceremony.</p> + +<p>A man takes wives in proportion to his wealth. If he be the possessor of +many blankets, he takes trouble unto himself by the dozen. There are no +spring bonnets, however, to buy. They do not indulge themselves with so +many wives as formerly; nor do they place such implicit faith in the +totem, now that they are becoming "Christianized."</p> + +<p>Dall gives the following interesting description of a Thlinkit wedding +ceremony thirty years ago: A lover sends to his mistress's relations, +asking for her as a wife. If he receives a favorable reply, he sends as +many presents as he can get together to her father. On the appointed day +he goes to the house where she lives, and sits down with his back to the +door.</p> + +<p>The father has invited all the relations, who now raise a song, to +allure the coy bride out of the corner where she has been sitting. When +the song is done, furs or pieces of new calico are laid on the floor, +and she walks over them and sits down by the side of the groom. All this +time she must keep her head bowed down. Then all the guests dance and +sing, diversifying the entertainment, when tired, by eating. The pair do +not join in any of the ceremonies. That their future life may be happy, +they fast for two days more. Four weeks afterward they come together, +and are then recognized as husband and wife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>The bridegroom is free to live with his father-in-law, or return to his +own home. If he chooses the latter the bride receives a <i>trousseau</i> +equal in value to the gifts received by her parents from her husband. If +the husband becomes dissatisfied with his wife, he can send her back +with her dowry, but loses his own gifts. If a wife is unfaithful he may +send her back with nothing, and demand his own again. They may separate +by mutual consent without returning any property. When the marriage +festival is over, the silver pin is removed from the lower lip of the +bride and replaced by a plug, shaped like a spool, but not over +three-quarters of an inch long, and this plug is afterward replaced by a +larger one of wood, bone, or stone, so that an old woman may have an +ornament of this kind two inches in diameter. These large ones are of an +oval shape, but scooped out above, below, and around the edge, like a +pulley-wheel. When very large, a mere strip of flesh goes around the +<i>kalúshka</i>, or "little trough." From the name which the Aleuts gave the +appendage when they first visited Sitka, the nickname "Kolosh" has +arisen, and has been applied to this and allied tribes.</p> + +<p>Many years ago, when a man died, his brother or his sister's son was +compelled to marry the widow.</p> + +<p>That seems worth while. Naturally, the man would not desire the woman, +and the woman would not desire the man; therefore, the result of the +forced union might prove full of delightful surprises. If such a law +could have been passed in England, there would have been no occasion for +the prolonged agitation over the "Deceased wife's sister" bill, which +dragged its weary way through the courts and the papers. Nobody would +desire to marry his deceased wife's sister; or, if he did, she would +decline the honor.</p> + +<p>An ancient Thlinkit superstition is, that once a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>—a Thlinkit, of +course—had a young wife whom he so idolized that he would not permit +her to work. This is certainly the most convincing proof that an Indian +could give of his devotion. From morning to night she dwelt in sweet +idleness, guarded by eight little redbirds, that flew about her when she +walked, or hovered over her when she reclined upon her furs or +preciously woven blankets.</p> + +<p>These little birds were good spirits, of course, but alas! they +resembled somewhat women who are so good that out of their very goodness +evil is wrought. In the town in which I dwell there is a good woman, a +member of a church, devout, and scorning sin, who keeps "roomers." On +two or three occasions this good woman has found letters which belonged +to her roomers, and she has done what an honorable woman would not do. +She has read letters that she had no right to read, and she has found +therein secrets that would wreck families and bow down heads in sorrow +to their graves; and yet, out of her goodness, she has felt it to be her +duty "to tell," and she has told.</p> + +<p>Since knowing the story of the eight little Thlinkit redbirds, I have +never seen this woman without a red mist seeming to float round her; her +mouth becomes a twittering beak, her feet are claws that carry her +noiselessly into secret places, her eyes are little black beads that +flash from side to side in search of other people's sins, and her +shoulders are folded wings. For what did the little good redbirds do but +go and tell the Thlinkit man that his young and pretty and idolized wife +had spoken to another man. He took her out into the forest and shut her +up in a box. Then he killed all his sister's children because they knew +his secret. His sister went in lamentations to the beach, where she was +seen by her totem whale, who, when her cause of grief was made known to +him, bade her be of good cheer.</p> + +<p>"Swallow a small stone," said the whale, "which you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> must pick up from +the beach, drinking some sea-water at the same time."</p> + +<p>The woman did as the whale directed. In a few months she gave birth to a +son, whom she was compelled to hide from her brother. This child was +Yehl (the raven), the beneficent spirit of the Thlinkits, maker of +forests, mountains, rivers, and seas; the one who guides the sun, moon, +and stars, and controls the winds and floods. His abiding-place is at +the head waters of the Nass River, whence the Thlinkits came to their +present home. When he grew up he became so expert in the use of the bow +and arrow that it is told of his mother that she went clad in the rose, +green, and lavender glory of the breasts of humming-birds which he had +killed in such numbers that she was able to fashion her entire raiment +of their most exquisite parts,—as befitted the mother of the good +spirit of men.</p> + +<p>Yehl performed many noble and miraculous deeds, the most dazzling of +which was the giving of light to the world. He had heard that a rich old +chief kept the sun, moon, and stars in boxes, carefully locked and +guarded. This chief had an only daughter whom he worshipped. He would +allow no one to make love to her, so Yehl, perceiving that only a +descendant of the old man could secure access to the boxes, and knowing +that the chief examined all his daughter's food before she ate it, and +that it would therefore avail him nothing to turn himself into ordinary +food, conceived the idea of converting himself into a fragrant grass and +by springing up persistently in the maiden's path, he was one day eaten +and swallowed. A grandson was then born to the old chief, who wrought +upon his affections—as grandsons have a way of doing—to such an extent +that he could deny him nothing.</p> + +<p>One day the young Yehl, who seems to have been appropriately named, set +up a lamentation for the boxes he desired and continued it until one was +in his possession.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> He took it out-doors and opened it. Millions of +little milk-white, opaline birds instantly flew up and settled in the +sky. They were followed by a large, silvery bird, which was so heavy and +uncertain in her flight to the sky that, although she finally reached +it, she never appeared twice the same thereafter, and on some nights +could not be seen at all. The old chief was very angry, and it was not +until Yehl had wept and fasted himself to death's very door that he +obtained the sun; whereupon, he changed himself back into a raven, and +flying away from the reach of his stunned and temporary grandfather, who +had commanded him not to open the box, he straightway lifted the +lid—and the world was flooded with light.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting of the Thlinkit myths is the one of the +spirits that guard and obey the shamans. The most important are those +dwelling in the North. They were warriors; hence, an unusual display of +the northern lights was considered an omen of approaching war. The other +spirits are of people who died a commonplace death; and the greatest +care must be exercised by relatives in mourning for these, or they will +have difficulty in reaching their new abode. Too many tears are as bad +as none at all; the former mistake mires and gutters the path, the +latter leaves it too deep in dust. A decent and comfortable quantity +makes it hard and even and pleasant.</p> + +<p>Their deluge myth is startling in its resemblance to ours. When their +flood came upon them, a few were saved in a great canoe which was made +of cedar. This wood splits rather easily, parallel to its grain, under +stress of storm, and the one in which the people embarked split after +much buffeting. The Thlinkits clung to one part, and all other peoples +to the other part, creating a difference in language. Chet'l, the eagle, +was separated from his sister, to whom he said, "You may never see me +again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> but you shall hear my voice forever." He changed himself into a +bird of tremendous size and flew away southward. The sister climbed +Mount Edgecumbe, which opened and swallowed her, leaving a hole that has +remained ever since. Earthquakes are caused by her struggles with bad +spirits which seek to drive her away, and by her invariable triumph over +them she sustains the poise of the world.</p> + +<p>Chet'l returned to Mount Edgecumbe, where he still lives. When he comes +forth, which is but seldom, the flapping of his great wings produces the +sound which is called thunder. He is, therefore, known everywhere as the +Thunder-bird. The glance of his brilliant eyes is the lightning.</p> + +<p>Concerning the totem-pole which was taken from an Indian village on +Tongas Island, near Ketchikan, by members of the <i>Post-Intelligencer</i> +business men's excursion to Alaska in 1899—and for which the city of +Seattle was legally compelled to pay handsomely afterward—the following +letter from a member of the family originally owning the totem is of +quaint interest:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have received your letter, and I am going to tell you the +story of the totem-pole. Now, the top one is a crow himself, +and the next one from the pole top is a man. That crow have +told him a story. Crow have told him a good-looking woman +want to married some man. So he did marry her. She was a +frog. And the fourth one is a mink. One time, the story +says, that one time it was a high tide for some time, and so +crow got marry to mink, so crow he eats any kind of fishes +from the water. After some time crow got tired of mink, and +he leave her, and he get married to that whale-killer, and +then crow he have all he want to eat. That last one on the +totem-pole is the father of the crow. The story says that +one time it got<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> dark for a long while. The darkness was all +over the world, and only crow's father was the only one can +give light to the world. He simply got a key. He keeps the +sun and moon in a chest, that one time crow have ask his +father if he play with the sun and moon in the house but, +was not allowed, so he start crying for many days until he +was sick. So his father let him play with it and he have it +for many days. And one day he let the moon in the sky by +mistake, but he keep the sun, and he which take time before +he could get his chances to go outside of the house. As soon +as he was out he let sun back to the sky again, and it was +light all over the world again. (End of story.)</p> + +<p class="sig"> +"Yours respectfully,<br /> +<br /> +"David E. Kinninnook.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"P.S. The Indians have a long story, and one of the chiefs +of a village or of a tribe only a chief can put up so many +carvings on our totem-pole, and he have to fully know the +story of what totem he is made. I may give you the whole +story of it sometimes. Crow on top have a quart moon in his +mouth, because he have ask his father for a light.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +"D. E. K.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"If you can put this story on the <i>Post-Intelligencer</i>, of +Seattle, Wash., and I think the people will be glad to know +some of it."</p></div> + +<p>The Thlinkits burned their dead, with the exception of the shamans, but +carefully preserved the ashes and all charred bones from the funeral +pyre. These were carefully folded in new blankets and buried in the +backs of totems. One totem, when taken down to send to the Lewis and +Clark Exposition, was found to contain the remains of a child in the +butt-end of the pole which was in the ground; the portion containing the +child being sawed off and reinterred.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 462px;"> +<img src="images/illo_120.jpg" width="462" height="608" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Greek-Russian Church at Sitka" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Greek-Russian Church at Sitka</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>A totem-pole donated to the exposition by Yannate, a very old Thlinkit, +was made by his own hands in honor of his mother. His mother belonged to +the Raven Clan, and a large raven is at the crest of the pole; under it +is the brown bear—the totem of the Kokwonton Tribe, to which the +woman's husband belonged; underneath the bear is an Indian with a cane, +representing the woman's brother, who was a noted shaman or sorcerer +many years ago; at the bottom are two faces, or masks, representing the +shaman's favorite slaves.</p> + +<p>The Haidahs did not burn their dead, but buried them, usually in the +butts of great cedars. Frequently, however, they were buried at the base +of totem-poles, and when in recent years poles have been removed, +remains have been found and reinterred.</p> + +<p>On the backs of some of the old totem-poles at Wrangell and other +places, may be seen the openings that were made to receive the ashes of +the dead, the portion that had been sawed out being afterward replaced.</p> + +<p>The wealth of a Thlinkit is estimated according to his number of +blankets; his honor and importance by the number of potlatches he has +given. Every member of his totem is called upon to contribute to the +potlatch of the chief, working to that end, and "skimping" himself in +his own indulgences for that object, for many years, if necessary. The +potlatch is given at the full of the moon; the chief's clan and totem +decline all gifts; it is not in good form for any member thereof to +accept the slightest gift. Guests are seated and treated according to +their rights, and the resentment of a slight is not postponed until the +banquet is over and the blood has cooled. An immediate fight to the +bitter end is the result; so that the greatest care is exercised in this +nice matter—which has proven a pitfall to many a white hostess in the +most civilized lands; so seldom does a guest have the right and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +honor to feel that where he sits is the head of the table. At these +potlatches a "frenzied" hospitality prevails; everything is bestowed +with a lavish and reckless hand upon the visitors, from food and drink +to the host's most precious possession, blankets. His wives are given +freely, and without the pang which must go with every blanket. Visitors +come and remain for days, or until the host is absolutely beggared and +has nothing more to give.</p> + +<p>But since every one accepting his potlatch is not only expected, but +actually bound by tribal laws as fixed as the stars, to return it, the +beggared chief gradually "stocks up" again; and in a few years is able +to launch forth brilliantly once more. This is the same system of give +and take that prevails in polite society in the matter of party-giving. +With neither, may the custom be considered as real hospitality, but +simply a giving with the expectation of a sure return. Chiefs have +frequently, however, given away fortunes of many thousands of dollars +within a few days. These were chiefs who aspired to rise high above +their contemporaries in glory; and, therefore, would be disappointed to +have their generosity equally returned.</p> + +<p>A shaman is a medicine-man who is popularly supposed to be possessed of +supernatural powers. A certain mystery, or mysticism, is connected with +him. He spends much time in the solitudes of the mountains, working +himself into a highly emotional mental state. The shaman has his special +masks, carved ivory diagnosis-sticks, and other paraphernalia. The hair +of the shaman was never cut; at his death, his body was not burned, but +was invariably placed in a box on four high posts. It first reposed for +one whole night in each of the four corners of the house in which he +died. On the fifth day it was laid to rest by the sea-shore; and every +time a Thlinkit passed it, he tossed a small offering into the water, +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> secure the favor of the dead shaman, who, even in death, was +believed to exercise an influence over the living, for good or ill.</p> + +<p>Slavery was common, as—until the coming of the Russians—was +cannibalism. The slaves were captives from other tribes. They were +forced to perform the most disagreeable duties, and were subjected to +cruel treatment, punished for trivial faults, and frequently tortured, +or offered in sacrifice. A few very old slaves are said to be in +existence at the present time; but they are now treated kindly, and have +almost forgotten that their condition is inferior to that of the +remainder of the tribe.</p> + +<p>The most famous slaves on the Northwest Coast were John Jewitt and John +Thompson, sole survivors of the crew of the <i>Boston</i>, which was captured +in 1802 by the Indians of Nootka Sound, on the western coast of +Vancouver Island. The officers and all the other men were most foully +murdered, and the ship was burned.</p> + +<p>Jewitt and Thompson were spared because one was an armorer and the other +a sailmaker. They were held as slaves for nearly three years, when they +made their escape.</p> + +<p>Jewitt published a book, in which he simply and effectively described +many of the curious, cruel, and amusing customs of the people. The two +men finally made their escape upon a boat which had appeared +unexpectedly in the harbor.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Yakutats belong to the Thlinkit stock, but have never worn the +"little trough," the distinguishing mark of the true Thlinkit. They +inhabit the country between Mount Fairweather and Mount St. Elias, and +were the cause of much trouble and disaster to Baranoff, Lisiansky, and +other early Russians. They have never adopted the totem; and may, +therefore, eat the flesh and blubber of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> the whale, which the Thlinkits +respect, because it figures on their totems. The graveyards of the +Yakutats are very picturesque and interesting.</p> + +<p>The tribes of the Tinneh, or interior Indians, will be considered in +another chapter.</p> + +<p>Behm Canal is narrow, abruptly shored, and offers many charming vistas +that unfold unexpectedly before the tourist's eyes. Alaskan steamers do +not enter it and, therefore, New Eddystone Rock is missed by many. This +is a rocky pillar that rises straight from the water, with a +circumference of about one hundred feet at the base and a height of from +two to three hundred feet. It is draped gracefully with mosses, ferns, +and vines. Vancouver breakfasted here, and named it for the famous +Eddystone Light of England. Unuk River empties its foaming, glacial +waters into Behm Canal.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + +<p>Leaving Ketchikan, Clarence Strait is entered. This was named by +Vancouver for the Duke of Clarence, and extends in a northwesterly +direction for a hundred miles. The celebrated Stikine River empties into +it. On Wrangell Island, near the mouth of the Stikine, is Fort Wrangell, +where the steamer makes a stop of several hours.</p> + +<p>Fort Wrangell was the first settlement made in southeastern Alaska, +after Sitka. It was established in 1834, by Lieutenant Zarembo, who +acted under the orders of Baron Wrangell, Governor of the Colonies at +that time.</p> + +<p>A grave situation had arisen over a dispute between the Russian American +Company and the equally powerful Hudson Bay Company, the latter having +pressed its operations over the Northwest and seriously undermined the +trade of the former. In 1825, the Hudson Bay Company had taken advantage +of the clause in the Anglo-Russian treaty of that year,—which provided +for the free navigation of streams crossing Russian territory in their +course from the British possessions to the sea,—and had pushed its +trading operations to the upper waters of the Stikine, and in 1833 had +outfitted the brig <i>Dryad</i> with colonists, cattle, and arms for the +establishing of trading posts on the Stikine.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Zarembo, with two armed vessels, the <i>Chichagoff</i> and the +<i>Chilkaht</i>, established a fort on a small peninsula, on the site of an +Indian village, and named it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> Redoubt St. Dionysius. All unaware of +these significant movements, the <i>Dryad</i>, approaching the mouth of the +Stikine, was received by shots from the shore, as well as from a vessel +in the harbor. She at once put back until out of range, and anchored. +Lieutenant Zarembo went out in a boat, and, in the name of the Governor +and the Emperor, forbade the entrance of a British vessel into the +river. Representations from the agents of the Hudson Bay Company were +unavailing; they were warned to at once remove themselves and their +vessel from the vicinity—which they accordingly did.</p> + +<p>This affair was the cause of serious trouble between the two nations, +which was not settled until 1839, when a commission met in London and +solved the difficulties by deciding that Russia should pay an indemnity +of twenty thousand pounds, and lease to the Hudson Bay Company the now +celebrated <i>lisière</i>, or thirty-mile strip from Dixon Entrance to +Yakutat.</p> + +<p>In 1840 the Hudson Bay Company raised the British flag and changed the +name from Redoubt St. Dionysius to Fort Stikine. Sir George Simpson's +men are said to have passed several years of most exciting and +adventurous life there, owing to the attacks and besiegements of the +neighboring Indians. An attempt to scale the stockade resulted in +failure and defeat. The following year the fort's supply of water was +cut off and the fort was besieged; but the Britishers saved themselves +by luckily seizing a chief as hostage.</p> + +<p>A year later occurred another attack, in which the fort would have +fallen had it not been for the happy arrival of two armed vessels in +charge of Sir George Simpson, who tells the story in this brief and +simple fashion:—</p> + +<p>"By daybreak on Monday, the 25th of April (1842), we were in Wrangell's +Straits, and toward evening, as we approached Stikine, my apprehensions +were awakened by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> observing the two national flags, the Russian and the +English, hoisted half-mast high, while, on landing about seven, my worst +fears were realized by hearing of the tragical end of Mr. John +McLoughlin, Jr., the gentleman recently in charge. On the night of the +twentieth a dispute had arisen in the fort, while some of the men, as I +was grieved to hear, were in a state of intoxication; and several shots +were fired, by one of which Mr. McLoughlin fell. My arrival at this +critical juncture was most opportune, for otherwise the fort might have +fallen a sacrifice to the savages, who were assembled round to the +number of two thousand, justly thinking that the place could make but a +feeble resistance, deprived as it was of its head, and garrisoned by men +in a state of complete insubordination."</p> + +<p>In 1867 a United States military post was established on a new site. A +large stockade was erected and garrisoned by two companies of the +Twenty-first Infantry. This post was abandoned in 1870, the buildings +being sold for six hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>In the early eighties Lieutenant Schwatka found Wrangell "the most +tumble-down-looking company of cabins I ever saw." He found its +"Chinatown" housed in an old Stikine River steamboat on the beach, which +had descended to its low estate as gradually and almost as imperceptibly +as Becky Sharpe descended to the "soiled white petticoat" condition of +life. As Queen of the Stikine, the old steamer had earned several +fortunes for her owners in that river's heyday times; then she was +beached and used as a store; then, as a hotel; and, last of all, as a +Chinese mess- and lodging-house.</p> + +<p>In 1838 another attempt had been made by the Hudson Bay Company to +establish a trading post at Dease Lake, about sixty miles from Stikine +River and a hundred and fifty from the sea. This attempt also was a +failure. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> tortures of fear and starvation were vividly described by +Mr. Robert Campbell, who had charge of the party making the attempt, +which consisted of four men.</p> + +<p>"We passed a winter of constant dread from the savage Russian Indians, +and of much suffering from starvation. We were dependent for subsistence +on what animals we could catch, and, failing that, on <i>tripe de roche</i> +(moss). We were at one time reduced to such dire straits that we were +obliged to eat our parchment windows, and our last meal before +abandoning Dease Lake, on the eighth of May, 1839, consisted of the +lacings of our snow-shoes."</p> + +<p>Had it not been for the kindness and the hospitality of the female chief +of the Nahany tribe of Indians, who inhabited the region, the party +would have perished.</p> + +<p>The Indians of the coast in early days made long trading excursions into +the interior, to obtain furs.</p> + +<p>The discovery of the Cassiar mines, at the head of the Stikine, was +responsible for the revival of excitement and lawlessness in Fort +Wrangell, as it had been named at the time of its first military +occupation, and a company of the Fourth Artillery was placed in charge +until 1877, the date of the removal of troops from all posts in Alaska.</p> + +<p>The first post and the ground upon which it stood were sold to W. K. +Lear. The next company occupied it at a very small rental, contrary to +the wishes of the owner. In 1884 the Treasury Department took +possession, claiming that the first sale was illegal. A deputy collector +was placed in charge. The case was taken into the courts, but it was not +until 1890 that a decision was rendered in the Sitka court that, as the +first sale was unconstitutional, Mr. Lear was entitled to his six +hundred dollars with interest compounding for twenty years.</p> + +<p>Wrangell gradually fell into a storied and picturesque decay. The +burnished halo of early romance has always clung to her. At the time of +the gold excitement and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the rush to the Klondike, the town revived +suddenly with the reopening of navigation on the Stikine. This was, at +first, a favorite route to the Klondike. At White Horse may to-day be +seen steamers which were built on the Stikine in 1898, floated by +piecemeal up that river and across Lake Teslin, and down the Hootalinqua +River to the Yukon, having been packed by horses the many intervening +miles between rivers and lakes, at fifty cents a pound. Reaching their +destination at White Horse, they were put together, and started on the +Dawson run.</p> + +<p>Looking at these historic steamers, now lying idle at White Horse, the +passenger and freight rates do not seem so exorbitant as they do before +one comes to understand the tremendous difficulties of securing any +transportation at all in these unknown and largely unexplored regions in +so short a time. Even a person who owns no stock in steamship or railway +corporations, if he be sensible and reasonable, must be able to see the +point of view of the men who dauntlessly face such hardships and perils +to furnish transportation in these wild and inaccessible places. They +take such desperate chances neither for their health nor for sweet +charity's sake.</p> + +<p>Three years ago Wrangell was largely destroyed by fire. It is partially +rebuilt, but the visitor to-day is doomed to disappointment at first +sight of the modern frontier buildings. Ruins of the old fort, however, +remain, and several ancient totems are in the direction of the old +burial ground. One, standing in front of a modern cottage which has been +erected on the site of the old lodge, is all sprouted out in green. +Mosses, grasses, and ferns spring in April freshness out of the eyes of +children, the beaks of eagles, and the open mouths of frogs; while the +very crest of the totem is crowned a foot or more high with a green +growth. The effect is at once ludicrous and pathetic,—marking, as it +does, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> vanishing of a picturesque and interesting race, its customs +and its superstitions.</p> + +<p>The famous chief of the Stikine region was Shakes, a fierce, fighting, +bloodthirsty old autocrat, dreaded by all other tribes, and insulted +with impunity by none. He was at the height of his power in the forties, +but lived for many years afterward, resisting the advances of +missionaries and scorning their religion to the day of his death. In +many respects he was like the equally famous Skowl of Kasa-an, who went +to the trouble and the expense of erecting a totem-pole for the sole +purpose of perpetuating his scorn and derision of Christian advances to +his people. The totem is said to have been covered with the images of +priests, angels, and books.</p> + +<p>Shakes was given one of the most brilliant funerals ever held in Alaska; +but whether as an expression of irreconcilable grief or of +uncontrollable joy in the escape of his people from his tyrannic and +overbearing sway, is not known. He belonged to the bear totem, and a +stuffed bear figured in the pageant and was left to guard his grave.</p> + +<p>The climate of Wrangell is charming, owing to the high mountains on the +islands to the westward which shelter the town from the severity of the +ocean storms. The growing of vegetables and berries is a profitable +investment, both reaching enormous size, the latter being of specially +delicate flavor. Flowers bloom luxuriantly.</p> + +<p>The Wrangell shops at present contain some very fine specimens of +basketry, and the prices were very reasonable, although most of the +tourists from our steamer were speechless when they heard them. Some +real Attu and Atka baskets were found here at prices ranging from one +hundred dollars up. At Wrangell, therefore, the tourist begins to part +with his money, and does not cease until he has reached Skaguay to the +northward, or Sitka and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Yakutat to the westward; and if he should +journey out into the Aleutian Isles, he may borrow money to get home. +The weave displayed is mostly twined, but some fine specimens of coiled +and coiled imbricated were offered us in the dull, fascinating colors +used by the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia, having probably +been obtained in trade. These latter are treasures, and always worth +buying, especially as Indian baskets are increasing in value with every +year that passes. Baskets that I purchased easily for three dollars or +three and a half in 1905 were held stubbornly at seven and a half or +eight in 1907; while the difference in prices of the more expensive ones +was even greater.</p> + +<p>Squaws sit picturesquely about the streets, clad in gay colors, with +their wares spread out on the sidewalk in front of them. They invariably +sit with their backs against buildings or fences, seeming to have an +aversion to permitting any one to stand or pass behind them. They have +grown very clever at bargaining; and the little trick, which has been +practised by tourists for years, of waiting until the gangway is being +hauled in and then making an offer for a coveted basket, has apparently +been worn threadbare, and is received with jeers and derision,—which is +rather discomfiting to the person making the offer if he chances to be +upon a crowded steamer. The squaws point their fingers at him, to shame +him, and chuckle and tee-hee among themselves, with many guttural +cluckings and side-glances so good-naturedly contemptuous and derisive +as to be embarrassing beyond words,—particularly as some greatly +desired basket disappears into a filthy bag and is borne proudly away on +a scornful dark shoulder.</p> + +<p>Baskets are growing scarcer and more valuable, and the tourist who sees +one that he desires, will be wise to pay the price demanded for it, as +the conditions of trading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> with the Alaskan Indians are rapidly +changing. The younger Indians frequently speak and understand English +perfectly; while the older ones are adepts in reading a human face; +making a combination not easily imposed upon. Even the officers of the +ship, who, being acquainted with "Mollie" or "Sallie," "Mrs. Sam" or +"Pete's Wife," volunteer to buy a basket at a reduction for some +enthusiastic but thin-pursed passenger, do not at present meet with any +exhilarating success.</p> + +<p>"S'pose she pay my price," "Mrs. Sam" replies, with smiling but stubborn +indifference, as she sets the basket away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<p>Indian basketry is poetry, music, art, and life itself woven exquisitely +together out of dreams, and sent out into a thoughtless world in +appealing messages which will one day be farewells, when the poor lonely +dark women who wove them are no more.</p> + +<p>At its best, the basketry of the islands of Atka and Attu in the +Aleutian chain is the most beautiful in the world. Most of the basketry +now sold as Attu is woven by the women of Atka, we were told at +Unalaska, which is the nearest market for these baskets. Only one old +woman remains on Attu who understands this delicate and priceless work; +and she is so poorly paid that she was recently reported to be in a +starving condition, although the velvety creations of her old hands and +brain bring fabulous prices to some one. The saying that an Attu basket +increases a dollar for every mile as it travels toward civilization, is +not such an exaggeration as it seems. I saw a trader from the little +steamer <i>Dora</i>—the only one regularly plying those far waters—buy a +small basket, no larger than a pint bowl, for five dollars in Unalaska; +and a month later, on another steamer, between Valdez and Seattle, an +enthusiastic young man from New York brought the same basket out of his +stateroom and proudly displayed it.</p> + +<p>"I got this one at a great bargain," he bragged, with shining eyes. "I +bought it in Valdez for twenty-five dollars, just what it cost at +Unalaska. The man needed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> the money worse than the basket. I don't know +how it is, but I'm always stumbling on bargains like that!" he +concluded, beginning to strut.</p> + +<p>Then I was heartless enough to laugh, and to keep on laughing. I had +greatly desired that basket myself!</p> + +<p>He had the satisfaction of knowing, however, that his little twined +bowl, with the coloring of a Behring Sea sunset woven into it, would be +worth fifty dollars by the time he reached Seattle, and at least a +hundred in New York; and it was so soft and flexible that he could fold +it up meantime and carry it in his pocket, if he chose,—to say nothing +of the fact that Elizabeth Propokoffono, the young and famed dark-eyed +weaver of Atka, may have woven it herself. Like the renowned +"Sally-bags," made by Sally, a Wasco squaw, the baskets woven by +Elizabeth have a special and sentimental value. If she would weave her +initials into them, she might ask, and receive, any price she fancied. +Sally, of the Wascos, on the other hand, is very old; no one weaves her +special bag, and they are becoming rare and valuable. They are of plain, +twined weaving, and are very coarse. A small one in the writer's +possession is adorned with twelve fishes, six eagles, three dogs, and +two and a half men. Sally is apparently a woman-suffragist of the old +school, and did not consider that men counted for much in the scheme of +Indian baskets; yet, being a philosopher, as well as a suffragist, +concluded that half a man was better than none at all.</p> + +<p>At Yakutat "Mrs. Pete" is the best-known basket weaver. Young, handsome, +dark-eyed, and clean, with a chubby baby in her arms, she willingly, and +with great gravity, posed against the pilot-house of the old <i>Santa Ana</i> +for her picture. Asked for an address to which I might send one of the +pictures, she proudly replied, "Just Mrs. Pete, Yakutat." Her courtesy +was in marked contrast to the exceeding rudeness with which the Sitkan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +women treat even the most considerate and deferential photographers; +glaring at them, turning their backs, covering their heads, hissing, and +even spitting at them.</p> + +<p>However, the Yakutats do not often see tourists, who, heaven knows, are +not one of the novelties of the Sitkans' lives.</p> + +<p>According to Lieutenant G. T. Emmons, who is the highest authority on +Thlinkit Indians, not only so far as their basketry is concerned, but +their history, habits, and customs, as well, nine-tenths of all their +basketwork is of the open, cylindrical type which throws the chief wear +and strain upon the borders. These are, therefore, of greater variety +than those of any other Indians, except possibly the Haidahs.</p> + +<p>As I have elsewhere stated, nearly all Thlinkit baskets are of the +twined weave, which is clearly described by Otis Tufton Mason in his +precious and exquisite work, "Aboriginal American Basketry"; a work +which every student of basketry should own. If anything could be as +fascinating as the basketry itself, it would be this charmingly written +and charmingly illustrated book.</p> + +<p>Basketry is either hand-woven or sewed. Hand-woven work is divided into +checker work, twilled work, wicker work, wrapped work, and twined work. +Sewed work is called coiled basketry.</p> + +<p>Twined work is found on the Pacific Coast from Attu to Chile, and is the +most delicate and difficult of all woven work. It has a set of warp +rods, and the weft elements are worked in by two-strand or three-strand +methods. Passing from warp to warp, these weft elements are twisted in +half-turns on each other, so as to form a two-strand or three-strand +twine or braid, and usually with a deftness that keeps the glossy side +of the weft outward.</p> + +<p>"The Thlinkit, weaving," says Lieutenant Emmons, "sits with knees +updrawn to the chin, feet close to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> body, bent-shouldered, with the +arms around the knees, the work held in front. Sometimes the knees fall +slightly apart, the work held between them, the weft frequently held in +the mouth, the feet easily crossed. The basket is held bottom down. In +all kinds of weave, the strands are constantly dampened by dipping the +fingers in water." The finest work of Attu and Atka is woven entirely +under water. A rude awl, a bear's claw or tooth, are the only implements +used. The Attu weaver has her basket inverted and suspended by a string, +working from the bottom down toward the top.</p> + +<p>Almost every part of plants is used—roots, stems, bark, leaves, fruit, +and seeds. The following are the plants chiefly used by the Thlinkits: +The black shining stems of the maidenhair fern, which are easily +distinguished and which add a rich touch; the split stems of the +brome-grass as an overlaying material for the white patterns of +spruce-root baskets; for the same purpose, the split stem of bluejoint; +the stem of wood reed-grass; the stem of tufted hair-grass; the stem of +beech-rye; the root of horsetail, which works in a rich purple; wolf +moss, boiled for canary-yellow dye; manna-grass; root of the Sitka +spruce tree; juice of the blueberry for a purple dye.</p> + +<p>The Attu weaver uses the stems and leaves of grass, having no trees and +few plants. When she wants the grass white, it is cut in November and +hung, points down, out-doors to dry; if yellow be desired, as it usually +is, it is cut in July and the two youngest full-grown blades are cut out +and split into three pieces, the middle one being rejected and the +others hung up to dry out-doors; if green is wanted, the grass is +prepared as for yellow, except that the first two weeks of curing is +carried on in the heavy shade of thick grasses, then it is taken into +the house and dried. Curing requires about a month, during which time +the sun is never permitted to touch the grass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ornamentation by means of color is wrought by the use of materials which +are naturally of a different color; by the use of dyed materials; by +overlaying the weft and warp with strips of attractive material before +weaving; by embroidering on the texture during the process of +manufacture, this being termed "false" embroidery; by covering the +texture with plaiting, called imbrication; by the addition of feathers, +beads, shells, and objects of like nature.</p> + +<p>Some otherwise fine specimens of Atkan basketry are rendered valueless, +in my judgment, by the present custom of introducing flecks of gaily +dyed wool, the matchless beauty of these baskets lying in their +delicate, even weaving, and in their exquisite natural coloring—the +faintest old rose, lavender, green, yellow and purple being woven +together in one ravishing mist of elusive splendor. So enchanting to the +real lover of basketry are the creations of those far lonely women's +hands and brains, that they seem fairly to breathe out their loveliness +upon the air, as a rose.</p> + +<p>This basketry was first introduced to the world in 1874, by William H. +Dall, to whom Alaska and those who love Alaska owe so much. Warp and +weft are both of beach grass or wild rye. One who has never seen a fine +specimen of these baskets has missed one of the joys of this world.</p> + +<p>The Aleuts perpetuate no story or myth in their ornamentation. With them +it is art for art's sake; and this is, doubtless, one reason why their +work draws the beholder spellbound.</p> + +<p>The symbolism of the Thlinkit is charming. It is found not alone in +their basketry, but in their carvings in stone, horn, and wood, and in +Chilkaht blankets. The favorite designs are: shadow of a tree, water +drops, salmon berry cut in half, the Arctic tern's tail, flaking of the +flesh of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> a fish, shark's tooth, leaves of the fireweed, an eye, raven's +tail, and the crossing. It must be confessed that only a wild +imagination could find the faintest resemblance of the symbols woven +into the baskets to the objects they represent. The symbol called +"shadow of a tree" really resembles sunlight in moving water.</p> + +<p>With the Haidah hats and Chilkaht blankets, it is very different. The +head, feet, wings, and tail of the raven, for instance, are easily +traced. In more recent basketry the swastika is a familiar design. Many +Thlinkit baskets have "rattly" covers. Seeds found in the crops of quail +are woven into these covers. They are "good spirits" which can never +escape; and will insure good fortune to the owner. Woe be to him, +however, should he permit his curiosity to tempt him to investigate; +they will then escape and work him evil instead of good, all the days of +his life.</p> + +<p>In Central Alaska, the basketry is usually of the coiled variety, +coarsely and very indifferently executed. Both spruce and willow are +used. From Dawson to St. Michael, in the summer of 1907, stopping at +every trading post and Indian village, I did not see a single piece of +basketry that I would carry home. Coarse, unclean, and of slovenly +workmanship, one could but turn away in pity and disgust for the wasted +effort.</p> + +<p>The Innuit in the Behring Sea vicinity make both coiled and twined +basketry from dried grasses; but it is even worse than the Yukon +basketry, being carelessly done,—the Innuit infinitely preferring the +carving and decorating of walrus ivory to basket weaving. It is +delicious to find an Innuit who never saw a glacier decorating a +paper-knife with something that looks like a pond lily, and labelling it +Taku Glacier, which is three thousand miles to the southeastward. I saw +no attempt on the Yukon, nor on Behring Sea, at what Mr. Mason calls +imbrication,—the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> beautiful ornamentation which the Indians of +Columbia, Frazer, and Thompson rivers and of many Salish tribes of +Northwestern Washington use to distinguish their coiled work. It +resembles knife-plaiting before it is pressed flat. This imbrication is +frequently of an exquisite, dull, reddish brown over an old soft yellow. +Baskets adorned with it often have handles and flat covers; but papoose +baskets and covered long baskets, almost as large as trunks, are common.</p> + +<p>There was once a tide in my affairs which, not being taken at the flood, +led on to everlasting regret.</p> + +<p>One August evening several years ago I landed on an island in Puget +Sound where some Indians were camped for the fishing season. It was +Sunday; the men were playing the fascinating gambling game of slahal, +the children were shouting at play, the women were gathered in front of +their tents, gossiping.</p> + +<p>In one of the tents I found a coiled, imbricated Thompson River basket +in old red-browns and yellows. It was three and a half feet long, two +and a half feet high, and two and a half wide, with a thick, +close-fitting cover. It was offered to me for ten dollars, and—that I +should live to chronicle it!—not knowing the worth of such a basket, I +closed my eyes to its appealing and unforgettable beauty, and passed it +by.</p> + +<p>But it had, it has, and it always will have its silent revenge. It is as +bright in my memory to-day as it was in my vision that August Sunday ten +years ago, and more enchanting. My longing to see it again, to possess +it, increases as the years go by. Never have I seen its equal, never +shall I. Yet am I ever looking for that basket, in every Indian tent or +hovel I may stumble upon—in villages, in camps, in out-of-the-way +places. Sure am I that I should know it from all other baskets, at but a +glance.</p> + +<p>I knew nothing of the value of baskets, and I fancied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> the woman was +taking advantage of my ignorance. While I hesitated, the steamer +whistled. It was all over in a moment; my chance was gone. I did not +even dream how greatly I desired that basket until I stood in the bow of +the steamer and saw the little white camp fade from view across the +sunset sea.</p> + +<p>The original chaste designs and symbols of Thlinkit, Haidah, and +Aleutian basketry are gradually yielding, before the coarse taste of +traders and tourists, to the more modern and conventional designs. I +have lived to see a cannery etched upon an exquisitely carved +paper-knife; while the things produced at infinite labor and care and +called cribbage-boards are in such bad taste that tourists buying them +become curios themselves.</p> + +<p>The serpent has no place in Alaskan basketry for the very good reason +that there is not a snake in all Alaska, and the Indians and Innuit +probably never saw one. A woman may wade through the swampiest place or +the tallest grass without one shivery glance at her pathway for that +little sinuous ripple which sends terror to most women's hearts in +warmer climes. Indeed, it is claimed that no poisonous thing exists in +Alaska.</p> + +<p>The tourist must not expect to buy baskets farther north than Skaguay, +where fine ones may be obtained at very reasonable prices. Having +visited several times every place where basketry is sold, I would name +first Dundas, then Yakutat, and then Sitka as the most desirable places +for "shopping," so far as southeastern Alaska is concerned; out "to +Westward," first Unalaska and Dutch Harbor, then Kodiak and Seldovia.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 458px;"> +<img src="images/illo_143.jpg" width="458" height="607" alt="Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle + +Eskimo in Walrus-skin Kamelayka" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle<br /> + +Eskimo in Walrus-skin Kamelayka</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the tourists who make the far, beautiful voyage out among the +Aleutians to Unalaska might almost be counted annually upon one's +fingers—so unexploited are the attractions of that region; therefore, I +will add that fine specimens of the Attu and Atka work may be found at +Wrangell, Juneau, Skaguay, and Sitka, without much choice, either in +workmanship or price. But fortunate may the tourist consider himself who +travels this route on a steamer that gathers the salmon catch in August +or September, and is taken through Icy Strait to the Dundas cannery. +There, while a cargo of canned salmon is being taken aboard, the +passengers have time to barter with the good-looking and intelligent +Indians for the superb baskets laid out in the immense warehouse. +Nowhere in Alaska have I seen baskets of such beautiful workmanship, +design, shape, and coloring as at Dundas—excepting always, of course, +the Attu and Atka; nowhere have I seen them in such numbers, variety, +and at such low prices.</p> + +<p>My own visit to Dundas was almost pathetic. It was on my return from a +summer's voyage along the coast of Alaska, as far westward as Unalaska. +I had touched at every port between Dixon's Entrance and Unalaska, and +at many places that were not ports; had been lightered ashore, +rope-laddered and doried ashore, had waded ashore, and been carried +ashore on sailors' backs; and then, with my top berth filled to the +ceiling with baskets and things, with all my money spent and all my +clothes worn out, I stood in the warehouse at Dundas and saw those +dozens of beautiful baskets, and had them offered to me at but half the +prices I had paid for inferior baskets. It was here that the summer hats +and the red kimonos and the pretty collars were brought out, and were +eagerly seized by the dark and really handsome Indian girls. A +ten-dollar hat—at the end of the season!—went for a fifteen-dollar +basket; a long, red woollen kimono,—whose warmth had not been required +on this ideal trip, anyhow,—secured another of the same price; and may +heaven forgive me, but I swapped one twenty-two-inch gold-embroidered +belt for a three-dollar basket, even while I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> knew in my sinful heart +that there was not a waist in that warehouse that measured less than +thirty-five inches; and from that to fifty!</p> + +<p>However, in sheer human kindness, I taught the girl to whom I swapped it +how it might be worn as a garter, and her delight was so great and so +unexpected that it caused me some apprehension as to the results. My +very proper Scotch friend and travelling companion was so aghast at my +suggestion that she took the girl aside and advised her to wear the belt +for collars, cut in half, or as a gay decoration up the front plait of +her shirt-waist, or as armlets; so that, with it all, I was at last able +to retire to my stateroom and enjoy my bargains with a clear conscience, +feeling that after some fashion the girl would get her basket's worth +out of the belt.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + +<p>Leaving Wrangell, the steamer soon passes, on the port side and at the +entrance to Sumner Strait, Zarembo Island, named for that Lieutenant +Zarembo who so successfully prevented the Britishers from entering +Stikine River. Baron Wrangell bestowed the name, desiring in his +gratitude and appreciation to perpetuate the name and fame of the +intrepid young officer.</p> + +<p>From Sumner Strait the famed and perilously beautiful Wrangell Narrows +is entered. This ribbonlike water-way is less than twenty miles long, +and in many places so narrow that a stone may be tossed from shore to +shore. It winds between Mitkoff and Kupreanoff islands, and may be +navigated only at certain stages of the tide. Deep-draught vessels do +not attempt Wrangell Narrows, but turn around Cape Decision and proceed +by way of Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound—a course which adds at +least eighty miles to the voyage.</p> + +<p>The interested voyager will not miss one moment of the run through the +narrows, either for sleep or hunger. Better a sleepless night or a +dinnerless day than one minute lost of this matchless scenic attraction.</p> + +<p>The steamer pushes, under slow bell, along a channel which, in places, +is not wider than the steamer itself. Its sides are frequently touched +by the long strands of kelp that cover the sharp and dangerous reefs, +which may be plainly seen in the clear water.</p> + +<p>The timid passenger, sailing these narrows, holds his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> breath a good +part of the time, and casts anxious glances at the bridge, whereon the +captain and his pilots stand silent, stern, with steady, level gaze set +upon the course. One moment's carelessness, ten seconds of inattention, +might mean the loss of a vessel in this dangerous strait.</p> + +<p>Intense silence prevails, broken only by the heavy, slow throb of the +steamer and the swirl of the brown water in whirlpools over the rocks; +and these sounds echo far.</p> + +<p>The channel is marked by many buoys and other signals. The island shores +on both sides are heavily wooded to the water, the branches spraying out +over the water in bright, lacy green. The tree trunks are covered with +pale green moss, and long moss-fringes hang from the branches, from the +tips of the trees to the water's edge. The effect is the same as that of +festal decoration.</p> + +<p>Eagles may always be seen perched motionless upon the tall tree-tops or +upon buoys.</p> + +<p>The steamship <i>Colorado</i> went upon the rocks between Spruce and Anchor +points in 1900, where her storm-beaten hull still lies as a silent, but +eloquent, warning of the perils of this narrow channel.</p> + +<p>The tides roaring in from the ocean through Frederick Sound on the north +and Sumner Strait on the south meet near Finger Point in the narrows.</p> + +<p>Sunrise and sunset effects in this narrow channel are justly famed. I +once saw a mist blown ahead of my steamer at sunset that, in the vivid +brilliancy of its mingled scarlets, greens, and purples, rivalled the +coloring of a humming-bird.</p> + +<p>At dawn, long rays of delicate pink, beryl, and pearl play through this +green avenue, deepening in color, fading, and withdrawing like Northern +Lights. When the scene is silvered and softened by moonlight, one looks +for elves and fairies in the shadows of the moss-dripping spruce trees.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>The silence is so intense and the channel so narrow, that frequently at +dawn wild birds on the shores are heard saluting the sun with song; and +never, under any other circumstances, has bird song seemed so nearly +divine, so golden with magic and message, as when thrilled through the +fragrant, green stillness of Wrangell Narrows at such an hour.</p> + +<p>I was once a passenger on a steamer that lay at anchor all night in +Sumner Strait, not daring to attempt the Narrows on account of storm and +tide. A stormy sunset burned about our ship. The sea was like a great, +scarlet poppy, whose every wave petal circled upward at the edges to +hold a fleck of gold. Island upon island stood out through that riot of +color in vivid, living green, and splendid peaks shone burnished against +the sky.</p> + +<p>There was no sleep that night. Music and the dance held sway in the +cabins for those who cared for them, and for the others there was the +beauty of the night. In our chairs, sheltered by the great smoke-stacks +of the hurricane-deck, we watched the hours go by—each hour a different +color from the others—until the burned-out red of night had paled into +the new sweet primrose of dawn. The wind died, leaving the full tide +"that, moving, seems asleep"; and no night was ever warmer and sweeter +in any tropic sea than that.</p> + +<p>Wrangell Narrows leads into Frederick Sound—so named by Whidbey and +Johnstone, who met there, in 1794, on the birthday of Frederick, Duke of +York.</p> + +<p>Vancouver's expedition actually ended here, and the search for the +"Strait of Anian" was finally abandoned.</p> + +<p>Several glaciers are in this vicinity: Small, Patterson, Summit, and Le +Conte. The Devil's Thumb, a spire-shaped peak on the mainland, rises +more than two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and stands +guard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> over Wrangell Narrows and the islands and glaciers of the +vicinity.</p> + +<p>On Soukhoi Island fox ranches were established about five years ago; +they are said to be successful.</p> + +<p>The Thunder Bay Glacier is the first on the coast that discharges bergs. +The thunder-like roars with which the vast bulks of beautiful blue-white +ice broke from the glacier's front caused the Indians to believe this +bay to be the home of the thunder-bird, who always produces thunder by +the flapping of his mighty wings.</p> + +<p>Baird Glacier is in Thomas Bay, noted for its scenic charms,—glaciers, +forestation, waterfalls, and sheer heights combining to give it a +deservedly wide reputation among tourists. Elephant's Head, Portage Bay, +Farragut Bay, and Cape Fanshaw are important features of the vicinity. +The latter is a noted landmark and storm-point. It fronts the southwest, +and the full fury of the fiercest storms beats mercilessly upon it. +Light craft frequently try for days to make this point, when a wild gale +is blowing from the Pacific.</p> + +<p>Of the scenery to the south of Cape Fanshaw, Whidbey reported to +Vancouver, on his final trip of exploration in August, 1794, that "the +mountains rose abruptly to a prodigious height ... to the South, a part +of them presented an uncommonly awful appearance, rising with an +inclination towards the water to a vast height, loaded with an immense +quantity of ice and snow, and overhanging their base, which seemed to be +insufficient to bear the ponderous fabric it sustained, and rendered the +view of the passage beneath it horribly magnificent."</p> + +<p>At the Cape he encountered such severe gales that a whole day and night +were consumed in making a distance of sixteen miles.</p> + +<p>There are more fox ranches on "The Brothers" Islands, and soon after +passing them Frederick Sound narrows into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> Stephens' Passage. Here, to +starboard, on the mainland, is Mount Windham, twenty-five hundred feet +in height, in Windham Bay.</p> + +<p>Gold was discovered in this region in the early seventies, and mines +were worked for a number of years before the Juneau and Treadwell +excitement. The mountains abound in game.</p> + +<p>Sumdum is a mining town in Sumdum, or Holkham, Bay. The fine, live +glacier in this arm is more perfectly named than any other in +Alaska—Sumdum, as the Indians pronounce it, more clearly describing the +deep roar of breaking and falling ice, with echo, than any other +syllables.</p> + +<p>Large steamers do not enter this bay; but small craft, at slack-tide, +may make their way among the rocks and icebergs. It is well worth the +extra expense and trouble of a visit.</p> + +<p>To the southwest of Cape Fanshaw, in Frederick Sound, is Turnabout +Island, whose suggestive name is as forlorn as Turnagain Arm, in Cook +Inlet, where Cook was forced to "turn again" on what proved to be his +last voyage.</p> + +<p>Stephens' Passage is between the mainland and Admiralty Island. This +island barely escapes becoming three or four islands. Seymour Canal, in +the eastern part, almost cuts off a large portion, which is called Glass +Peninsula, the connecting strip of land being merely a portage; +Kootznahoo Inlet cuts more than halfway across from west to east, a +little south of the centre of the island; and at the northern end had +Hawk Inlet pierced but a little farther, another island would have been +formed. The scenery along these inlets, particularly Kootznahoo, where +the lower wooded hills rise from sparkling blue waters to glistening +snow peaks, is magnificent. Whidbey reported that although this island +appeared to be composed of a rocky substance covered with but little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +soil, and that chiefly consisting of vegetables in an imperfect state of +dissolution, yet it produced timber which he considered superior to any +he had before observed on the western coast of America.</p> + +<p>It is a pity that some steamship company does not run at least one or +two excursions during the summer to the little-known and unexploited +inlets of southeastern Alaska—to the abandoned Indian villages, +graveyards, and totems; the glaciers, cascades, and virgin spruce +glades; the roaring narrows and dim, sweet fiords, where the regular +passenger and "tourist" steamers do not touch. A month might easily be +spent on such a trip, and enough nature-loving, interested, and +interesting people could be found to take every berth—without the +bugaboo, the increasing nightmare of the typical tourist, to rob one of +his pleasure.</p> + +<p>At present an excursion steamer sails from Seattle, and from the hour of +its sailing the steamer throbs through the most beautiful archipelago in +the world, the least known, and the one most richly repaying study, +making only five or six landings, and visiting two glaciers at most. It +is quite true that every moment of this "tourist" trip of ten days is, +nevertheless, a delight, if the weather be favorable; that the steamer +rate is remarkably cheap, and that no one can possibly regret having +made this trip if he cannot afford a longer one in Alaska. But this does +not alter the fact that there are hundreds of people who would gladly +make the longer voyage each summer, if transportation were afforded. +Local transportation in Alaska is so expensive that few can afford to go +from place to place, waiting for steamers, and paying for boats and +guides for every side trip they desire to make.</p> + +<p>Admiralty Island is rich in gold, silver, and other minerals. There are +whaling grounds in the vicinity, and a whaling station was recently +established on the southwestern end of the Island, near Surprise Harbor +and Murder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Cove. Directly across Chatham Strait from this station, on +Baranoff Island, only twenty-five miles from Sitka, are the famous +Sulphur Hot Springs.</p> + +<p>There are fine marble districts on the western shores of Admiralty +Island.</p> + +<p>On the southern end are Woewodski Harbor and Pybas Bay.</p> + +<p>Halfway through Stephens' Passage are the Midway Islands, and but a +short distance farther, on the mainland, is Port Snettisham, a mining +settlement on an arm whose northern end is formed by Cascades Glacier, +and from whose southern arm musically and exquisitely leaps a cascade +which is the only rival of Sarah Island in the affections of +mariners—<i>Sweetheart Falls</i>.</p> + +<p>Who so tenderly named this cascade, and for whom, I have not been able +to learn; but those pale green, foam-crested waters shall yet give up +their secret. Never would Vancouver be suspected of such naming. Had he +so prettily and sentimentally named it, the very waters would have +turned to stone in their fall, petrified by sheer amazement.</p> + +<p>The scenery of Snettisham Inlet is the finest in this vicinity of fine +scenic effects, with the single exception of Taku Glacier.</p> + +<p>In Taku Harbor is an Indian village, called Taku, where may be found +safe anchorage, which is frequently required in winter, on account of +what are called "Taku winds." Passing Grand Island, which rises to a +wooded peak, the steamer crosses the entrance to Taku Inlet and enters +Gastineau Channel.</p> + +<p>There are many fine peaks in this vicinity, from two to ten thousand +feet in height.</p> + +<p>The stretch of water where Stephens' Passage, Taku Inlet, Gastineau +Channel, and the southeastern arm of Lynn Canal meet is in winter +dreaded by pilots. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> squall is liable to come tearing down Taku Inlet +at any moment and meet one from some other direction, to the peril of +navigation.</p> + +<p>At times a kind of fine frozen mist is driven across by the violent +gales, making it difficult to see a ship's length ahead. At such times +the expressive faces on the bridge of a steamer are psychological +studies.</p> + +<p>In summer, however, no open stretch of water could be more inviting. +Clear, faintly rippled, deep sapphire, flecked with the first glistening +bergs floating out of the inlet, it leads the way to the glorious +presence that lies beyond.</p> + +<p>I had meant to take the reader first up lovely Gastineau Channel to +Juneau; but now that I have unintentionally drifted into Taku Inlet, the +glacier lures me on. It is only an hour's run, and the way is one of +ever increasing beauty, until the steamer has pushed its prow through +the hundreds of sparkling icebergs, under slow bell, and at last lies +motionless. One feels as though in the presence of some living, majestic +being, clouded in mystery. The splendid front drops down sheer to the +water, from a height of probably three hundred feet. A sapphire mist +drifts over it, without obscuring the exquisite tintings of rose, azure, +purple, and green that flash out from the glistening spires and columns. +The crumpled mass pushing down from the mountains strains against the +front, and sends towered bulks plunging headlong into the sea, with a +roar that echoes from peak to peak in a kind of "linked sweetness long +drawn out" and ever diminishing.</p> + +<p>There is no air so indescribably, thrillingly sweet as the air of a +glacier on a fair day. It seems to palpitate with a fragrance that +ravishes the senses. I saw a great, recently captured bear, chained on +the hurricane deck of a steamer, stand with his nose stretched out +toward the glacier, his nostrils quivering and a look of almost human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +longing and rebellion in his small eyes. The feeling of pain and pity +with which a humane person always beholds a chained wild animal is +accented in these wide and noble spaces swimming from snow mountain to +snow mountain, where the very watchword of the silence seems to be +"Freedom." The chained bear recognized the scent of the glacier and +remembered that he had once been free.</p> + +<p>In front of the glacier stretched miles of sapphire, sunlit sea, set +with sparkling, opaline-tinted icebergs. Now and then one broke and fell +apart before our eyes, sending up a funnel-shaped spray of color,—rose, +pale green, or azure.</p> + +<p>At every blast of the steamer's whistle great masses of ice came +thundering headlong into the sea—to emerge presently, icebergs. +Canoeists approach glaciers closely at their peril, never knowing when +an iceberg may shoot to the surface and wreck their boat. Even larger +craft are by no means safe, and tourists desiring a close approach +should voyage with intrepid captains who sail safely through everything.</p> + +<p>The wide, ceaseless sweep of a live glacier down the side of a great +mountain and out into the sea holds a more compelling suggestion of +power than any other action of nature. I have never felt the appeal of a +mountain glacier—of a stream of ice and snow that, so far as the eye +can discover, never reaches anywhere, although it keeps going forever. +The feeling of forlornness with which, after years of anticipation, I +finally beheld the renowned glacier of the Selkirks, will never be +forgotten. It was the forlornness of a child who has been robbed of her +Santa Claus, or who has found that her doll is stuffed with sawdust.</p> + +<p>But to behold the splendid, perpendicular front of a live glacier rising +out of a sea which breaks everlastingly upon it; to see it under the +rose and lavender of sunset<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> or the dull gold of noon; to see and hear +tower, minaret, dome, go thundering down into the clear depths and pound +them into foam—this alone is worth the price of a trip to Alaska.</p> + +<p>We were told that the opaline coloring of the glacier was unusual, and +that its prevailing color is an intense blue, more beautiful and +constant than that of other glaciers; and that even the bergs floating +out from it were of a more pronounced blue than other bergs.</p> + +<p>But I do not believe it. I have seen the blue of the Columbia Glacier in +Prince William Sound; and I have sailed for a whole afternoon among the +intensely blue ice shallops that go drifting in an endless fleet from +Glacier Bay out through Icy Straits to the ocean. If there be a more +exquisite blue this side of heaven than I have seen in Icy Straits and +in the palisades of the Columbia Glacier, I must see it to believe it.</p> + +<p>There are three glaciers in Taku Inlet: two—Windham and Twin—which are +at present "dead"; and Taku, the Beautiful, which is very much alive. +The latter was named Foster, for the former Secretary of the Treasury; +but the Indian name has clung to it, which is one more cause for +thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>The Inlet is eighteen miles long and about seven hundred feet wide. Taku +River flows into it from the northeast, spreading out in blue ribbons +over the brown flats; at high tide it may be navigated, with caution, by +small row-boats and canoes. It was explored in early days by the Hudson +Bay Company, also by surveyors of the Western Union Telegraph Company.</p> + +<p>Whidbey, entering the Inlet in 1794, sustained his reputation for +absolute blindness to beauty. He found "a compact body of ice extending +some distance nearly all around." He found "frozen mountains," "rock +sides," "dwarf pine trees," and "undissolving frost and snow."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> He +lamented the lack of a suitable landing-place for boats; and reported +the aspect in general to be "as dreary and inhospitable as the +imagination can possibly suggest."</p> + +<p>Alas for the poor chilly Englishman! He, doubtless, expected +silvery-gowned ice maidens to come sliding out from under the glacier in +pearly boats, singing and kissing their hands, to bear him back into +their deep blue grottos and dells of ice, and refresh him with Russian +tea from old brass samovars; he expected these maidens to be girdled and +crowned with carnations and poppies, and to pluck winy grapes—with +<i>dust</i> clinging to their bloomy roundness—from living vines for him to +eat; and most of all, he expected to find in some remote corner of the +clear and sparkling cavern a big fireplace, "which would remind him +pleasantly of England;" and a brilliant fire on a well-swept hearth, +with the smoke and sparks going up through a melted hole in the glacier.</p> + +<p>About fifteen miles up Taku River, Wright Glacier streams down from the +southeast and fronts upon the low and marshy lands for a distance of +nearly three miles.</p> + +<p>The mountains surrounding Taku Inlet rise to a height of four thousand +feet, jutting out abruptly, in places, over the water.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>Gastineau Channel is more than a mile wide at the entrance, and eight +miles long; it narrows gradually as it separates Douglas Island from the +mainland, and, still narrowing, goes glimmering on past Juneau, like a +silver-blue ribbon. Down this channel at sunset burns the most beautiful +coloring, which slides over the milky waters, producing an opaline +effect. At such an hour this scene—with Treadwell glittering on one +side, and Juneau on the other, with Mount Juneau rising in one swelling +sweep directly behind the town—is one of the fairest in this country of +fair scenes.</p> + +<p>The unique situation of Juneau appeals powerfully to the lover of +beauty. There is an unforgettable charm in its narrow, crooked streets +and winding, mossed stairways; its picturesque shops,—some with +gorgeous totem-poles for signs,—where a small fortune may be spent on a +single Attu or Atka basket; the glitter and the music of its streets and +its "places," the latter open all night; its people standing in doorways +and upon corners, eager to talk to strangers and bid them welcome; and +its gayly clad squaws, surrounded by fine baskets and other work of +their brown hands.</p> + +<p>The streets are terraced down to the water, and many of the pretty, +vine-draped cottages seem to be literally hung upon the side of the +mountain. One must have good, strong legs to climb daily the flights of +stairs that steeply lead to some of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the heart of the town is an old Presbyterian Mission church, built of +logs, with an artistic square tower, also of logs, at one corner. This +church is now used as a brewery and soda-bottling establishment!</p> + +<p>The lawns are well cared for, and the homes are furnished with refined +taste, giving evidences of genuine comfort, as well as luxury.</p> + +<p>My first sight of Juneau was at three o'clock of a dark and rainy autumn +night in 1905. We had drifted slowly past the mile or more of brilliant +electric lights which is Treadwell and Douglas; and turning our eyes to +the north, discovered, across the narrow channel, the lights of Juneau +climbing out of the darkness up the mountain from the water's edge. +Houses and buildings we could not see; only those radiant lights, +leading us on, like will-o'-the-wisps.</p> + +<p>When we landed it seemed as though half the people of the town, if not +the entire population, must be upon the wharf. It was then that we +learned that it is always daytime in Alaskan towns when a steamer +lands—even though it be three o'clock of a black night.</p> + +<p>The business streets were brilliant. Everything was open for business, +except the banks; a blare of music burst through the open door of every +saloon and dance-hall; blond-haired "ladies" went up and down the +streets in the rain and mud, bare-headed, clad in gauze and other airy +materials, in silk stockings and satin slippers. They laughed and talked +with men on the streets in groups; they were heard singing; they were +seen dancing and inviting the young waiters and cabin-boys of our +steamer into their dance halls.</p> + +<p>"How'd you like Juneau?" asked my cabin-boy the next day, teetering in +the doorway with a plate of oranges in his hand, and a towel over his +arm.</p> + +<p>"It seemed very lively," I replied, "for three o'clock in the morning."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, hours don't cut any ice in Alaska," said he. "People in Alaska keep +their clo's hung up at the head of their beds, like the harness over a +fire horse. When the boat whistles, it loosens the clo's from the hook; +the people spring out of bed right under 'em; the clo's fall onto +'em—an' there they are on the wharf, all dressed, by the time the boat +docks. They're all right here, but say! they can't hold a candle to the +people of Valdez for gettin' to the dock. They just cork you at Valdez."</p> + +<p>At Juneau I went through the most brilliant business transaction of my +life. I was in the post-office when I discovered that I had left my +pocket-book on the steamer. I desired a curling-iron; so I borrowed a +big silver dollar of a friend, and hastened away to the largest +dry-goods shop.</p> + +<p>A sleepy clerk waited upon me. The curling-iron was thirty cents. I gave +him the dollar, and he placed the change in my open hand. Without +counting it, I went back to the post-office, purchased twenty-five +cents' worth of stamps, and gave the balance to the friend from whom I +had borrowed the dollar.</p> + +<p>"Count it," said I, "and see how much I owe you."</p> + +<p>She counted it.</p> + +<p>"How much did you spend?" she asked presently.</p> + +<p>"Fifty-five cents."</p> + +<p>She began to laugh wildly.</p> + +<p>"You have a thirty-cent curling-iron, twenty-five cents' worth of +stamps, and you've given me back a dollar and sixty-five cents—all out +of one silver dollar!"</p> + +<p>I counted the money. It was too true.</p> + +<p>With a burning face I took the change and went back to the store. My +friend insisted upon going with me, although I would have preferred to +see her lost on the Taku Glacier. I cannot endure people who laugh like +children at everything.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 632px;"> +<img src="images/illo_160.jpg" width="632" height="401" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Eskimo in Bidarka" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Eskimo in Bidarka</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>The captain and several passengers were in the store. They heard my +explanation; and they all gathered around to assist the polite but +sleepy clerk.</p> + +<p>One would say that it would be the simplest thing in the world to +straighten out that change; but the postage stamps added complications. +Everybody figured, explained, suggested, criticised, and objected. +Several times we were quite sure we had it. Then, some one would +titter—and the whole thing would go glimmering out of sight.</p> + +<p>However, at the end of twenty minutes it was arranged to the clerk's and +my own satisfaction. Several hours later, when we were well on our way +up Lynn Canal, a calmer figuring up proved that I had not paid one cent +for my curling-iron.</p> + +<p>From the harbor Mount Juneau has the appearance of rising directly out +of the town—so sheer and bold is its upward sweep to a height of three +thousand feet. Down its many pale green mossy fissures falls the liquid +silver of cascades.</p> + +<p>It is heavily wooded in some places; in others, the bare stone shines +through its mossy covering, giving a soft rose-colored effect, most +pleasing to the eye.</p> + +<p>Society in Juneau, as in every Alaskan town, is gay. Its watchword is +hospitality. In summer, there are many excursions to glaciers and the +famed inlets which lie almost at their door, and to see which other +people travel thousands of miles. In winter, there is a brilliant whirl +of dances, card parties, and receptions. "Smokers" to which ladies are +invited are common—although they are somewhat like the pioneer dish of +"potatoes-and-point."</p> + +<p>When the pioneers were too poor to buy sufficient bacon for the family +dinner, they hung a small piece on the wall; the family ate their +solitary dish of potatoes and pointed at the piece of bacon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<p>So, at these smokers, the ladies must be content to see the men smoke, +but they might, at least, be allowed to point.</p> + +<p>Most of the people are wealthy. Money is plentiful, and misers are +unknown. The expenditure of money for the purchase of pleasure is +considered the best investment that an Alaskan can make.</p> + +<p>Fabulous prices are paid for luxuries in food and dress.</p> + +<p>"I have lived in Dawson since 1897," said a lady last summer, "and have +never been ill for a day. I attribute my good health to the fact that I +have never flinched at the price of anything my appetite craved. Many a +time I have paid a dollar for a small cucumber; but I have never paid a +dollar for a drug. I have always had fruit, regardless of the price, and +fresh vegetables. No amount of time or money is considered wasted on +flowers. Women of Alaska invariably dress well and present a smart +appearance. Many wear imported gowns and hats—and I do not mean +imported from 'the states,' either—and costly jewels and furs are more +common than in any other section of America. We entertain lavishly, and +our hospitality is genuine."</p> + +<p>Every traveller in Alaska will testify to the truth of these assertions. +If a man looks twice at a dollar before spending it, he is soon "jolted" +out of the pernicious habit.</p> + +<p>The worst feature of Alaskan social life is the "coming out" of many of +the women in winter, leaving their husbands to spend the long, dreary +winter months as they may. To this selfishness on the part of the women +is due much of the intoxication and immorality of Alaska—few men being +of sufficiently strong character to withstand the distilled temptations +of the country.</p> + +<p>That so many women go "out" in winter, is largely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> due to the proverbial +kindness and indulgence of American husbands, who are loath to have +their wives subjected to the rigors and the hardships of an Alaskan +winter.</p> + +<p>However, the winter exodus may scarcely be considered a feature of the +society of Juneau, or other towns of southeastern Alaska. The climate +resembles that of Puget Sound; there is a frequent and excellent +steamship service to and from Seattle; and the reasons for the exodus +that exist in cold and shut-in regions have no apparent existence here.</p> + +<p>Every business—and almost every industry—is represented in Juneau. The +town has excellent schools and churches, a library, women's clubs, +hospitals, a chamber of commerce, two influential newspapers, a militia +company, a brass band—and a good brass band is a feature of real +importance in this land of little music—an opera-house, and, of course, +electric lights and a good water system.</p> + +<p>Juneau has for several years been the capital of Alaska; but not until +the appointment of Governor Wilford B. Hoggatt, in 1906, to succeed +Governor J. G. Brady, were the Executive Office and Governor's residence +established here. So confident have the people of Juneau always been +that it would eventually become the capital of Alaska, that an eminence +between the town and the Auk village has for twenty years been called +Capitol Hill. During all these years there has been a fierce and bitter +rivalry between Juneau and Sitka.</p> + +<p>Juneau was named for Joseph Juneau, a miner who came, "grub-staked," to +this region in 1880. It was the fifth name bestowed upon the place, +which grew from a single camp to the modern and independent town it is +to-day—and the capital of one of the greatest countries in the world.</p> + +<p>In its early days Juneau passed through many exciting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> and charming +vicissitudes. Anything but monotony is welcomed by a town in Alaska; and +existence in Juneau in the eighties was certainly not monotonous.</p> + +<p>The town started with a grand stampede and rush, which rivalled that of +the Klondike seventeen years later; the Treadwell discovery and +attendant excitement came during the second year of its existence, and a +guard of marines was necessary to preserve order, until, upon its +withdrawal, a vigilance committee took matters into its own hands, with +immediate beneficial results.</p> + +<p>The population of Juneau is about two thousand, which—like that of all +other northern towns—is largely increased each fall by the miners who +come in from the hills and inlets to "winter."</p> + +<p>In the middle eighties there were Chinese riots. The little yellow men +were all driven out of town, and their quarters were demolished by a +mob.</p> + +<p>A recent attempt to introduce Hindu labor in the Treadwell mines +resulted as disastrously.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 619px;"> +<img src="images/illo_167.jpg" width="619" height="386" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Railroad Construction, Eyak Lake" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Railroad Construction, Eyak Lake</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + + +<p>Treadwell! Could any mine employing stamps have a more inspiring name, +unless it be Stampwell? It fairly forces confidence and success.</p> + +<p>Douglas Island, lying across the narrow channel from Juneau, is +twenty-five miles long and from four to nine miles wide. On this island +are the four famous Treadwell mines, owned by four separate companies, +but having the same general managership.</p> + +<p>Gold was first discovered on this island in 1881. Sorely against his +will, John Treadwell was forced to take some of the original claims, +having loaned a small amount upon them, which the borrower was unable to +repay.</p> + +<p>Having become possessed of these claims, a gambler's "hunch" impelled +him to buy an adjoining claim from "French Pete" for four hundred +dollars. On this claim is now located the famed "Glory Hole."</p> + +<p>This is so deep that to one looking down into it the men working at the +bottom and along the sides appear scarcely larger than flies. Steep +stairways lead, winding, to the bottom of this huge quartz bowl; but +visitors to the dizzy regions below are not encouraged, on account of +frequent blasting and danger of accidents.</p> + +<p>It is claimed that Treadwell is the largest quartz mine in the world, +and that it employs the largest number of stamps—nine hundred. The ore +is low grade, not yielding an average of more than two dollars to the +ton; but it is so easily mined and so economically handled that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +mines rank with the Calumet and Hecla, of Michigan; the Comstock Lode +mines, of Nevada; the Homestake, of South Dakota; and the Portland, of +Colorado.</p> + +<p>The Treadwell is the pride of Alaska. Its poetic situation, romantic +history, and admirable methods should make it the pride of America.</p> + +<p>Its management has always been just and liberal. It has had fewer labor +troubles than any other mine in America.</p> + +<p>There are two towns on the island—Treadwell and Douglas. The latter is +the commercial and residential portion of the community—for the towns +meet and mingle together.</p> + +<p>The entire population, exclusive of natives, is three thousand people—a +population that is constantly increasing, as is the demand for laborers, +at prices ranging from two dollars and sixty cents per day up to five +dollars for skilled labor.</p> + +<p>The island is so brilliantly lighted by electricity that to one +approaching on a dark night it presents the appearance of a city six +times its size.</p> + +<p>The nine hundred stamps drop ceaselessly, day and night, with only two +holidays in a year—Christmas and the Fourth of July. The noise is +ferocious. In the stamp-mill one could not distinguish the boom of a +cannon, if it were fired within a distance of twenty feet, from the deep +and continuous thunder of the machinery.</p> + +<p>In 1881 the first mill, containing five stamps, was built and commenced +crushing ore that came from a streak twenty feet wide. This ore milled +from eight to ten dollars a ton, proving to be of a grade sufficiently +high to pay for developing and milling, and leave a good surplus.</p> + +<p>It was soon recognized that the great bulk of the ore was extremely low +grade, and that, consequently, a large milling capacity would be +required to make the enterprise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> a success. A +one-hundred-and-twenty-stamp-mill was erected and began crushing ore in +June, 1885. At the end of three years the stamps were doubled. In +another year three hundred additional stamps were dropping. Gradually +the three other mines were opened up and the stamps were increased until +nine hundred were dropping.</p> + +<p>The shafts are from seven to nine hundred feet below sea level, and one +is beneath the channel; yet very little water is encountered in sinking +them. Most of the water in the mines comes from the surface and is +caught up and pumped out, from the first level.</p> + +<p>The net profits of these mines to their owners are said to be six +thousand dollars a day; and mountains of ore are still in sight.</p> + +<p>Our captain obtained permission to take us down into the mine. This was +not so difficult as it was to elude the other passengers. At last, +however, we found ourselves shut into a small room, lined with jumpers, +slickers, and caps.</p> + +<p>Shades of the things we put on to go under Niagara Falls!</p> + +<p>"Get into this!" commanded the captain, holding a sticky and unclean +slicker for me. "And make haste! There's no time to waste for you to +examine it. Finicky ladies don't get two invitations into the Treadwell. +Put in your arm."</p> + +<p>My arm went in. When an Alaskan sea captain speaks, it is to obey. Who +last wore that slicker, far be it from me to discover. Chinaman, leper, +Jap, or Auk—it mattered not. I was in it, then, and curiosity was +sternly stifled.</p> + +<p>"Now put on this cap." Then beheld mine eyes a cap that would make a +Koloshian ill.</p> + +<p>"Must I put <i>that</i> on?"</p> + +<p>I whispered it, so the manager would not hear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You must put this on. Take off your hat."</p> + +<p>My hat came off, and the cap went on. It was pushed down well over my +hair; down to my eyebrows in the front and down to the nape of my neck +in the back.</p> + +<p>"There!" said the captain, cheerfully. "You needn't be afraid of +anything down in the mine now."</p> + +<p>Alas! there was nothing in any mine, in any world, that I dreaded as I +did what might be in that cap.</p> + +<p>There were four of us, with the manager, and there was barely room on +the rather dirty "lift" for us.</p> + +<p>We stood very close together. It was as dark as a dungeon.</p> + +<p>"Now—look out!" said the manager.</p> + +<p>As we started, I clutched somebody—it did not matter whom. I also drew +one wild and amazed breath; before I could possibly let go of that +one—to say nothing of drawing another—there was a bump, and we were in +a level one thousand and eighty feet below the surface of the earth.</p> + +<p>We stepped out into a brilliantly lighted station, with a high, +glittering quartz ceiling. The swift descent had so affected my hearing +that I could not understand a word that was spoken for fully five +minutes. None of my companions, however, complained of the same trouble.</p> + +<p>It has been the custom to open a level at every hundred and ten feet; +but hereafter the distance between levels in the Treadwell mine will be +one hundred and fifty feet.</p> + +<p>At each level a station, or chamber, is cut out, as wide as the shaft, +from forty to sixty feet in length, and having an average height of +eight feet. A drift is run from the shaft for a distance of twenty-five +feet, varying in height from fifteen feet in front to seven at the back. +The main crosscut is then started at right angles to the station drift.</p> + +<p>From east and west the "drifts" run into this crosscut, like little +creeks into a larger stream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>No one has ever accused me of being shy in the matter of asking +questions. It was the first time I had been down in one of the famous +gold mines of the world, and I asked as many questions as a woman trying +to rent a forty-dollar house for twenty dollars. Between shafts, +stations, ore bins, crosscuts, stopes, drifts, levels, and <i>winzes</i>, it +was less than fifteen minutes before I felt the cold moisture of despair +breaking out upon my brow. Winzes proved to be the last straw. I could +get a glimmering of what the other things were; but <i>winzes</i>!</p> + +<p>The manager had been polite in a forced, friend-of-the-captain kind of +way. He was evidently willing to answer every question once, but +whenever I forgot and asked the same question twice, he balked +instantly. Exerting every particle of intelligence I possessed, I could +not make out the difference between a stope and a station, except that a +stope had the higher ceiling.</p> + +<p>"I have told you the difference <i>three times</i> already," cried the +manager, irritably.</p> + +<p>The captain, back in the shadow, grinned sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"Nor'-nor'-west, nor'-by-west, a-quarter-nor'," said he, sighing. +"She'll learn your gold mine sooner than she'll learn my compass."</p> + +<p>Then they both laughed. They laughed quite a while, and my disagreeable +friend laughed with them. For myself, I could not see anything funny +anywhere.</p> + +<p>I finally learned, however, that a station is a place cut out for a +stable or for the passage of cars, or other things requiring space; +while a stope is a room carried to the level of the top of the main +crosscut. It is called a stope because the ore is "stoped" out of it.</p> + +<p>But winzes! What winzes are is still a secret of the +ten-hundred-and-eighty-foot level of the Treadwell mine.</p> + +<p>Tram-cars filled with ore, each drawn by a single horse,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> passed us in +every drift—or was it in crosscuts and levels? One horse had been in +the mine seven years without once seeing sunlight or fields of green +grass; without once sipping cool water from a mountain creek with +quivering, sensitive lips; without once stretching his aching limbs upon +the soft sod of a meadow, or racing with his fellows upon a hard road.</p> + +<p>But every man passing one of these horses gave him an affectionate pat, +which was returned by a low, pathetic whinny of recognition and +pleasure.</p> + +<p>"One old fellow is a regular fool about these horses," said the manager, +observing our interest. "He's always carrying them down armfuls of green +grass, apples, sugar, and everything a horse will eat. You'd ought to +hear them nicker at sight of him. If they pass him in a drift, when he +hasn't got a thing for them, they'll nicker and nicker, and keep turning +their heads to look after him. Sometimes it makes me feel queer in my +throat."</p> + +<p>No one can by any chance know what noise is until he has stood at the +head of a drift and heard three Ingersoll-Sergeant drills beating with +lightning-like rapidity into the walls of solid quartz for the purpose +of blasting.</p> + +<p>Standing between these drills and within three feet of them, one +suddenly is possessed of the feeling that his sense of hearing has +broken loose and is floating around in his head in waves. This feeling +is followed by one of suffocation. Shock succeeds shock until one's very +mind seems to go vibrating away.</p> + +<p>At a sign from the manager the silence is so sudden and so intense that +it hurts almost as much as the noise.</p> + +<p>There is a fascination in walking through these high-ceiled, brilliantly +lighted stopes, and these low-ceiled, shadowy drifts. Walls and ceilings +are gray quartz, glittering with gold. One is constantly compelled to +turn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> aside for cars of ore on their way to the dumping-places, where +their burdens go thundering to the levels below.</p> + +<p>At last the manager paused.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said he, sighing, "you wouldn't care to see the—"</p> + +<p>I did not catch the last word, and had no notion what it was, but I +instantly assured him that I would rather see it than anything in the +whole mine.</p> + +<p>His face fell.</p> + +<p>"Really—" he began.</p> + +<p>"Of course we'll see it," said the captain; "we want to see everything."</p> + +<p>The manager's face fell lower.</p> + +<p>"All right," said he, briefly, "come on!"</p> + +<p>We had gone about twenty steps when I, who was close behind him, +suddenly missed him. He was gone.</p> + +<p>Had he fallen into a dump hole? Had he gone to atoms in a blast? I +blinked into the shadows, standing motionless, but could see no sign of +him.</p> + +<p>Then his voice shouted from above me—"Come on!"</p> + +<p>I looked up. In front of me a narrow iron ladder led upward as straight +as any flag-pole, and almost as high. Where it went, and why it went, +mattered not. The only thing that impressed me was that the manager, +halfway up this ladder, had commanded me to "come on."</p> + +<p><i>I?</i> to "come on!" up that perpendicular ladder whose upper end was not +in sight!</p> + +<p>But whatever might be at the top of that ladder, I had assured him that +I would rather see it than anything in the whole mine. It was not for me +to quail. I took firm hold of the cold and unclean rungs, and started.</p> + +<p>When we had slowly and painfully climbed to the top, we worked our way +through a small, square hole and emerged into another stope, or level, +and in a very dark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> part of it. Each man worked by the light of a single +candle. They were stoping out ore and making it ready to be dumped into +lower levels—from which it would finally be hoisted out of the mine in +skips.</p> + +<p>The ceiling was so low that we could walk only in a stooping position. +The laborers worked in the same position; and what with this discomfort +and the insufficient light, it would seem that their condition was +unenviable. Yet their countenances denoted neither dissatisfaction nor +ill-humor.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the manager, presently, "you can have it to say that you +have been under the bay, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"<i>Under the</i>—"</p> + +<p>"Yes; under Gastineau Channel. That's straight. It is directly over us."</p> + +<p>We immediately decided that we had seen enough of the great mine, and +cheerfully agreed to the captain's suggestion that we return to the +ship. We were compelled to descend by the perpendicular ladder; and the +descent was far worse than the ascent had been.</p> + +<p>On our way to the "lift" by which we had made our advent into the mine, +we met another small party. It was headed by a tall and handsome man, +whose air of delicate breeding would attract attention in any gathering +in the world. His distinction and military bearing shone through his +greasy slicker and greasier cap—which he instinctively fumbled, in a +futile attempt to lift it, as we passed.</p> + +<p>It was that brave and gallant explorer, Brigadier-General Greely, on his +way to the Yukon. He was on his last tour of inspection before +retirement. It was his farewell to the Northern country which he has +served so faithfully and so well.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 632px;"> +<img src="images/illo_176.jpg" width="632" height="394" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Eyak Lake, near Cordova" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Eyak Lake, near Cordova</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>One stumbles at almost every turn in Alaska upon some world-famous +person who has answered Beauty's far, insistent call. The modest, +low-voiced gentleman at one's side at the captain's table is more likely +than not a celebrated explorer or geologist, writer or artist; or, at +the very least, an earl.</p> + +<p>"After we've seen our passengers eat their first meal," said the chief +steward, "we know how to seat them. You can pick out a lady or a +gentleman at the table without fail. A boor can fool you every place +except at the table. We never assign seats until after the first meal; +and oftener than you would suppose we seat them according to their +manners at the first meal."</p> + +<p>I smiled and smiled, then, remembering the first meal on our steamer. It +was breakfast. We had been down to the dining room for something and, +returning, found ourselves in a mob at the head of the stairs.</p> + +<p>There were one hundred and sixty-five passengers on the boat, and fully +one hundred and sixty of them were squeezed like compressed hops around +that stairway. In two seconds I was a cluster of hops myself, simply +that and nothing more. I do not know how the compressing of hops is +usually accomplished; but in my particular case it was done between two +immensely big and disagreeable men. They ignored me as calmly as though +I were a little boy, and talked cheerfully over my head, although it +soon developed that they were not in the least acquainted.</p> + +<p>A little black-ringleted, middle-aged woman who seemed to be mounted on +wires, suddenly squeezed her head in under their arms, simpering.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Doctor!" twittered she, coquettishly. "You are talking to <i>my +husband</i>."</p> + +<p>"The deuce!" ejaculated the Doctor, but whether with evil intent or not, +I could not determine from his face.</p> + +<p>"Yes, truly. Doctor Metcalf, let me introduce my husband, Mr. Wildey."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>They shook hands on my shoulder—but I didn't mind a little thing like +that.</p> + +<p>"On your honeymoon, eh?" chuckled the Doctor, amiably. The other big man +grew red to his hair, and the lady's black ringlets danced up and down.</p> + +<p>"Now, now, Doctor," chided she, shaking a finger at him,—she was at +least fifty,—"no teasing. No steamer serenades, you know. I was on an +Alaskan steamer once, and they pinned red satin hearts all over a +bride's stateroom door. Just fancy getting up some morning and finding +my stateroom door covered with red satin hearts!"</p> + +<p>"I can smell mackerel," said a shrill tenor behind me; and alas! so +could I. If there be anything that I like the smell of less than a +mackerel, it is an Esquimau hut only.</p> + +<p>Somebody sniffed delightedly.</p> + +<p>"Fried, too," said a happy voice. "Can't you squeeze down closer to the +stairway?"</p> + +<p>Almost at once the big man behind me was tipped forward into the big man +in front of me—and, as a mere incident in passing, of course, into me +as well. We all went tipping and bobbing and clutching toward the +stairway.</p> + +<p>Life does not hold many half-hours so rich and so full as the one that +followed. As a revelation of the baser side of human nature, it was +precious.</p> + +<p>My friend was tall; and once, far down the saloon, I caught a glimpse of +her handsome, well-carried head as the mob parted for an instant. The +expression on her face was like that on the face of the Princess de +Lamballe when Lorado Taft has finished with her.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I began to move forward. Rather, I was borne forward without +effort on my part. A great wave seemed to pick me up and carry me to the +head of the stairway. I fairly floated down into the dining room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> I +fell into the first chair at the first table I came to; but the mob +flowed by, looking for something better. Every woman was on a mad hunt +for the captain's table. My table remained unpeopled until my friend +came in and found me. Gradually and reluctantly the chairs were filled +and we devoted ourselves to the mackerel.</p> + +<p>In a far corner at the other end of the room, there was a table with +flowers on it. With a sigh of relief I saw black ringlets dancing +thereat.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven!" I said. "The bride is at the captain's table."</p> + +<p>"Ho, no, ma'am," said the gentle voice of the waiter in my ear. "You're +hat hit yourself, ma'am. You're hin the captain's hown seat, ma'am. 'E +don't come down to the first meal, though, ma'am," he added hastily, +seeing my look of horror. For the first, last, and, I trust, only, time +in my life I had innocently seated myself at a captain's table, without +an invitation.</p> + +<p>After breakfast we hastened on deck and went through deep-breathing +exercises for an hour, trying to work ourselves back to our usual +proportions.</p> + +<p>I should like to see a chief steward seat that mob.</p> + +<p>I was greatly amused, by the way, at a young waiter's description of an +earl.</p> + +<p>"We have lots of earls goin' up," said he, easily. "Oh, yes; they go up +to Cook Inlet and Kodiak to hunt big game. I always know an earl the +first meal. He makes me pull his corks, and he gives me a quarter or a +half for every cork I pull. Sometimes I make six bits or a dollar at a +meal, just pulling one earl's corks. I'd rather wait on earls than +anybody—except ladies, of course," he added, with a positive jerk of +remembrance; whereupon we both smiled.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + + +<p>Gastineau Channel northwest of Juneau is not navigable for craft drawing +more than three feet of water, at high tide.</p> + +<p>Coming out of the channel the steamer turns around the southern end of +Douglas Island and heads north into Lynn Canal, with Admiralty Island on +the port side and Douglas on the starboard.</p> + +<p>Directly north of the latter island is Mendenhall Glacier, formerly +known as the Auk. The Indians of this vicinity bear the same name, and +have a village north of Juneau. They were a warlike offshoot of the +Hoonahs, and bore a bad reputation for treachery and unreliability. Only +a few now remain.</p> + +<p>In the neighborhood of this glacier—at which the steamer does not call +but which may be plainly seen streaming down—are several snow +mountains, from five thousand to seven thousand feet in height. They +seem hardly worthy of the name of mountain in Alaska; but they float so +whitely and so beautifully above the deep blue waters of Lynn Canal that +the voyager cannot mistake their mission.</p> + +<p>Shelter Island, west of Mendenhall Glacier, forms two channels—Saginaw +and Favorite. The latter, as indicated by its name, is the one followed +by steamers going to Skaguay. Saginaw is taken by steamers going down +Chatham Straits, or Icy Straits, to Sitka.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 632px;"> +<img src="images/illo_183.jpg" width="632" height="391" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Indian Houses, Cordova" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Indian Houses, Cordova</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sailing up Favorite Channel, Eagle Glacier is passed on the starboard +side. It is topped by a great crag which so closely resembles in outline +our national emblem that it was so named by Admiral Beardslee, in 1879. +The glacier itself is not of great importance.</p> + +<p>On Benjamin Island, a fair anchorage may be secured for vessels bound +north which have unfortunately been caught in a strong northwest gale.</p> + +<p>After the dangerous Vanderbilt Reef is passed, Point Bridget and Point +St. Mary's are seen at the entrance to Berner's Bay, where is situated +the rich gold mine belonging to Governor Hoggatt.</p> + +<p>A light was established in 1905 on Point Sherman; also, on Eldred Rock, +where the <i>Clara Nevada</i> went down, in 1898, with the loss of every soul +on board. For ten years repeated attempts to locate this wreck have been +made, on account of the rich treasure which the ship was supposed to +carry; but not until 1908 was it discovered—when, upon the occurrence +of a phenomenally low tide, it was seen gleaming in clear green depths +for a few hours by the keeper of the lighthouse. There was a large loss +of life.</p> + +<p>There is a mining and mill settlement at Seward, in this vicinity.</p> + +<p>William Henry Bay, lying across the canal from Berner's, is celebrated +as a sportsman's resort, although this recommendation has come to bear +little distinction in a country where it is so common. Enormous crabs, +rivalling those to the far "Westward," are found here. Their meat is not +coarse, as would naturally be supposed, because of their great size, but +of a fine flavor.</p> + +<p>Seduction Point, on the island bearing the same name, lies between +Chilkaht Inlet on the west and Chilkoot Inlet on the east. For once, +Vancouver rose to the occasion and bestowed a striking name, because at +this point the treacherous Indians tried to lure Whidbey and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> men up +the inlet to their village. Upon his refusal to go, they presented a +warlike front, and the sincerity of their first advances was doubted.</p> + +<p>At the entrance to Chilkaht Inlet, Davidson Glacier is seen sweeping +down magnificently from near the summit of the White Mountains. Although +this glacier does not discharge bergs, nor rise in splendid tinted +palisades straight from the water, as do Taku and Columbia, it is, +nevertheless, very imposing—especially if seen from the entrance of the +inlet at sunset of a clear day.</p> + +<p>The setting of the glaciers of Lynn Canal is superb. The canal itself, +named by Vancouver for his home in England, is the most majestic slender +water-way in Alaska. From Puget Sound, fiord after fiord leads one on in +ever increasing, ever changing splendor, until the grand climax is +reached in Lynn Canal.</p> + +<p>For fifty-five miles the sparkling blue waters of the canal push almost +northward. Its shores are practically unbroken by inlets, and rise in +noble sweeps or stately palisades, to domes and peaks of snow. Glaciers +may be seen at every turn of the steamer. Not an hour—not one mile of +this last fifty-five—should be missed.</p> + +<p>In winter the snow descends to the water's edge and this stretch is +exalted to sublimity. The waters of the canal take on deep tones of +purple at sunset; fires of purest old rose play upon the mountains and +glaciers; and the clear, washed-out atmosphere brings the peaks forward +until they seem to overhang the steamer throbbing up between them.</p> + +<p>Lynn Canal is really but a narrowing continuation of Chatham Strait. +Together they form one grand fiord, two hundred miles in length, with +scarcely a bend, extending directly north and south. From an average +width of four or five miles, they narrow, in places, to less than half a +mile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>In July, 1794, Vancouver, lying at Port Althorp, in Cross Sound, sent +Mr. Whidbey to explore the continental shore to the eastward. Mr. +Whidbey sailed through Icy Strait, seeing the glacier now known as the +Brady Glacier, and rounding Point Couverden, sailed up Lynn Canal.</p> + +<p>Here, as usual, he was simply stunned by the grandeur and magnificence +of the scenery, and resorted to his pet adjectives.</p> + +<p>"Both sides of this arm were bounded by <i>lofty, stupendous mountains, +covered with perpetual ice and snow</i>, whilst the shores in this +neighborhood appeared to be composed of cliffs of very fine slate, +interspersed with beaches of very fine paving stone.... Up this channel +the boats passed, and found the continental shore now take a direction +N. 22 W., to a point where the arm narrowed to two miles across; from +whence it extended ten miles further in a direction N. 30 W., where its +navigable extent terminated in latitude 59° 12´, longitude 224° 33´. +This station was reached in the morning of the 16th, after passing some +islands and some rocks nearly in mid-channel." (It was probably on one +of these that the <i>Clara Nevada</i> was wrecked a hundred years later.) +"Above the northernmost of these (which lies four miles below the shoal +that extends across the upper part of the arm, there about a mile in +width) the water was found to be perfectly fresh. Along the edge of this +shoal, the boats passed from side to side, in six feet water, and beyond +it, the head of the arm extended about half a league, where a small +opening in the land was seen, about the fourth of a mile wide, leading +to the northwestward, from whence a rapid stream of fresh water rushed +over the shoal" (this was Chilkaht River). "But this, to all appearance, +was bounded at no great distance by a continuation of the same lofty +ridge of snowy mountains so repeatedly mentioned, as stretching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +eastwardly from Mount Fairweather, and which, in every point of view +they had hitherto been seen, appeared to be a firm and close-connected +range of <i>stupendous mountains, forever doomed to support a burthen of +undissolving ice and snow</i>."</p> + +<p>Here, it will be observed, Whidbey was so unconsciously wrought upon by +the sublimity of the country that he was moved to fairly poetic +utterance. He seemed, however, to be himself doomed to support forever a +burthen of gloom and undissolving weariness as heavy as that borne by +the mountains.</p> + +<p>Up this river, or, as Whidbey called it, <i>brook</i>, the Indians informed +him, eight chiefs of great consequence resided in a number of villages. +He was urged to visit them. Their behavior was peaceable, civil, and +friendly; but Mr. Whidbey declined the invitation, and returning, +rounded, and named, Point Seduction, and passing into Chilkoot Inlet, +discovered more "high, stupendous mountains, loaded with perpetual ice +and snow."</p> + +<p>After exploring Chilkoot Inlet, they returned down the canal, soon +falling in with a party of friendly Indians, who made overtures of +peace. Mr. Whidbey describes their chief as a tall, thin, elderly man. +He was dressed superbly, and supported a degree of state, consequence, +and personal dignity which had been found among no other Indians. His +external robe was a very fine large garment that reached from his neck +down to his heels, made of wool from the mountain goat—the famous +Chilkaht blanket here described, for the first time, by the +unappreciative Whidbey. It was neatly variegated with several colors, +and edged and otherwise decorated with little tufts of woollen yarn, +dyed of various colors. His head-dress was made of wood, resembling a +crown, and adorned with bright copper and brass plates, whence hung a +number of tails, or streamers, composed of wool and fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> worked +together, dyed of various colors, and each terminating in a whole ermine +skin.</p> + +<p>His whole appearance, both as to dress and manner, was magnificent.</p> + +<p>Mr. Whidbey was suspicious of the good intentions of these new +acquaintances, and was therefore well prepared for the trouble that +followed.</p> + +<p>Headed by the splendid chief, the Indians attacked Whidbey's party in +boats, and, being repulsed, followed for two days.</p> + +<p>As the second night came on boisterously, Mr. Whidbey was compelled to +seek shelter. The Indians, understanding his design, hastened to shore +in advance, got possession of the only safe beach, drew up in battle +array, and stood with spears couched, ready to receive the exploring +party. (This was on the northern part of Admiralty Island.)</p> + +<p>Here appears the most delicious piece of unintentional humor in all +Vancouver's narrative.</p> + +<p>"There was now no alternative but either to force a landing by firing +upon them, or to remain at their oars all night. The latter Mr. Whidbey +considered to be not only the most humane, but the most prudent to +adopt, concluding that their habitations were not far distant, and +believing them, from the number of smokes that had been seen during the +day, to be a very numerous tribe."</p> + +<p>They probably appeared more "stupendous" than any snow-covered mountain +in poor Mr. Whidbey's startled eyes.</p> + +<p>To avoid a "dispute" with these "troublesome people," Mr. Whidbey +withdrew to the main canal and stopped "to take some rest" at a point +which received the felicitous name of Point Retreat, on the northern +part of Admiralty Island—a name which it still retains.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the following month Mr. Whidbey was compelled to rest again upon his +extremely humane spirit, to the southward in Frederick Sound.</p> + +<p>"The day being fair and pleasant," chronicles Vancouver, "Mr. Whidbey +wished to embrace this opportunity of drying their wet clothes, putting +their arms in order.... For this purpose the party landed on a +commodious beach; but before they had finished their business a large +canoe arrived, containing some women and children, and sixteen stout +Indian men, well appointed with the arms of the country.... Their +conduct afterward put on a very suspicious appearance; the children +withdrew into the woods, and the rest fixed their daggers round their +wrists, and exhibited other indications not of the most friendly nature. +To avoid the chance of anything unpleasant taking place, Mr. Whidbey +considered it most humane and prudent to withdraw"—which he did, with +all possible despatch.</p> + +<p>They were pursued by the Indians; this conduct "greatly attracting the +observation of the party."</p> + +<p>Mr. Whidbey did not scruple to fire into a fleeing canoe; nor did he +express any sorrow when "most hideous and extraordinary noises" +indicated that he had fired to good effect; but the instant the Indians +lined up in considerable numbers with "couched spears" and warlike +attitude, the situation immediately became "stupendous" and Whidbey's +ever ready "humaneness" came to his relief.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + + +<p>The Davidson Glacier was named for Professor George Davidson, who was +one of its earliest explorers. A heavy forest growth covers its terminal +moraine, and detracts from its lower beauty.</p> + +<p>Pyramid Harbor, at the head of Chilkaht Inlet, has an Alaska Packers' +cannery at the base of a mountain which rises as straight as an arrow +from the water to a height of eighteen hundred feet. This mountain was +named <i>Labouchere</i>, for the Hudson Bay Company's steamer which, in 1862, +was almost captured by the Hoonah Indians at Port Frederick in Icy +Strait.</p> + +<p>Pyramid Harbor was named for a small pyramid-shaped island which now +bears the same name, but of which the Indian name is Schlayhotch. The +island is but little more than a tiny cone, rising directly from the +water. Indians camp here, in large numbers in the summer-time, to work +in the canneries. The women sell berries, baskets, Chilkaht blankets of +deserved fame, and other curios.</p> + +<p>It was this harbor which the Canadians in the Joint High Commission of +1898 unblushingly asked the United States to cede to them, together with +Chilkaht Inlet and River, and a strip of land through the <i>lisière</i> +owned by us.</p> + +<p>The Chilkaht River flows into this inlet from the northwest. At its +mouth it widens into low tide flats, over which, at low tide, the water +flows in ribbonish loops. Here, during a "run," the salmon are taken in +countless thousands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Chilkahts and Chilkoots are the great Indians of Alaska. They +comprise the real aristocracy. They are a brave, bold, courageous race; +saucy and independent, constantly carrying a "chip on the shoulder," or +a "feather pointing forward" in the head-gear. They are looked up to and +feared by the Thlinkits of inferior tribes.</p> + +<p>Their villages are located up the Chilkaht and Chilkoot rivers; and +their frequent mountain journeyings have developed their legs, giving +them a well-proportioned, athletic physique, in marked contrast to the +bowed- and scrawny-legged canoe dwellers to the southward and westward.</p> + +<p>They are skilful in various kinds of work; but their fame will +eventually endure in the exquisite dance-blankets, known as the Chilkaht +blanket. These blankets are woven of the wool of the mountain goat, +whose winter coat is strong and coarse. At shedding time in the spring, +as the goat leaps from place to place, the wool clings to trees, rocks, +and bushes in thick festoons. These the indolent Indians gather for the +weaving of their blankets, rather than take the trouble of killing the +goats.</p> + +<p>This delicate and beautiful work is, like the Thlinkit and Chilkaht +basket, in simple twined weaving. The warp hangs loose from the rude +loom, and the wool is woven upward, as in Attu and Haidah basketry.</p> + +<p>The owner of one of the old Chilkaht blankets possesses a treasure +beyond price. The demand has cheapened the quality of those of the +present day; but those of Baranoff's time were marvels of skill and +coloring, considering that Indian women's dark hands were the only +shuttles.</p> + +<p>Black, white, yellow, and a peculiar blue are the colors most frequently +observed in these blankets; and a deep, rich red is becoming more common +than formerly. A wide black, or dark, band usually surrounds them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +border-wise, and a fringe as wide as the blanket falls magnificently +from the bottom; a narrower one from the sides.</p> + +<p>The old and rare ones were from a yard and a half to two yards long. The +modern ones are much smaller, and may be obtained as low as seventy-five +dollars. The designs greatly resemble those of the Haidah hats and +basketry.</p> + +<p>The full face, with flaring nostrils, small eyes, and ferocious display +of teeth, is the bear; the eye which appears in all places and in all +sizes is that of the thunder-bird, or, with the Haidahs, the sacred +raven.</p> + +<p>There is an Indian mission, named Klukwan, at the head of the inlet.</p> + +<p>The Chilkahts were governed by chiefs and sub-chiefs. At the time of the +transfer "Kohklux" was the great chief of the region. He was a man of +powerful will and determined character. He wielded a strong influence +over his tribes, who believed that he bore a charmed life. He was +friendly to Americans and did everything in his power to assist +Professor George Davidson, who went to the head of Lynn Canal in 1869 to +observe the solar total eclipse.</p> + +<p>The Indians apparently placed no faith in Professor Davidson's +announcement of approaching darkness in the middle of the day, however, +and when the eclipse really occurred, they fled from him, as from a +devil, and sought the safety of their mountain fastnesses.</p> + +<p>The passes through these mountains they had held from time immemorial +against all comers. The Indians of the vast interior regions and those +of the coast could trade only through the Chilkahts—the scornful +aristocrats and powerful autocrats of the country.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + + +<p>Coming out of Chilkaht Inlet and passing around Seduction Point into +Chilkoot Inlet, Katschin River is seen flowing in from the northeast. +The mouth of this river, like that of the Chilkaht, spreads into +extensive flats, making the channel very narrow at this point.</p> + +<p>Across the canal lies Haines Mission, where, in 1883, Lieutenant +Schwatka left his wife to the care of Doctor and Mrs. Willard, while he +was absent on his exploring expedition down the Yukon.</p> + +<p>The Willards were in charge of this mission, which was maintained by the +Presbyterian Board of Missions, until some trouble arose with the +Indians over the death of a child, to whom the Willards had administered +medicines.</p> + +<p>"Crossing the Mission trail," writes Lieutenant Schwatka, "we often +traversed lanes in the grass, which here was fully five feet high, +while, in whatever direction the eye might look, wild flowers were +growing in the greatest profusion. Dandelions as big as asters, +buttercups twice the usual size, and violets rivalling the products of +cultivation in lower latitudes were visible around. It produced a +singular and striking contrast to raise the eyes from this almost +tropical luxuriance, and allow them to rest on Alpine hills, covered +halfway down their shaggy sides with the snow and glacier ice, and with +cold mist condensed on their crowns.... Berries and berry blossoms grew +in a profusion and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> variety which I have never seen equalled within the +same limits in lower latitudes."</p> + +<p>This was early in June. Here the lieutenant first made the acquaintance +of the Alaska mosquito and gnat, neither of which is to be ignored, and +may be propitiated by good red blood only; also, the giant devil's-club, +which he calls devil's-sticks. He was informed that this nettle was +formerly used by the shamans, or medicine-men, as a prophylactic against +witchcraft, applied externally.</p> + +<p>The point of this story will be appreciated by all who have come in +personal contact with this plant, so tropical in appearance when its +immense green leaves are spread out flat and motionless in the dusk of +the forest.</p> + +<p>From Chilkoot Inlet the steamer glides into Taiya Inlet, which leads to +Skaguay. Off this inlet are many glaciers, the finest of which is +Ferebee.</p> + +<p>Chilkoot Inlet continues to the northwestward. Chilkoot River flows from +a lake of the same name into the inlet. There are an Indian village and +large canneries on the inlet.</p> + +<p>Taiya Inlet leads to Skaguay and Dyea. It is a narrow water-way between +high mountains which are covered nearly to their crests with a heavy +growth of cedar and spruce. They are crowned, even in summer, with snow, +which flows down their fissures and canyons in small but beautiful +glaciers, while countless cascades foam, sparkling, down to the sea, or +drop sheer from such great heights that the beholder is bewildered by +their slow, never ceasing fall.</p> + +<p>Here,—at the mouth of the Skaguay River, with mountains rising on all +sides and the green waters of the inlet pushing restlessly in front; +with its pretty cottages climbing over the foot-hills, and with +well-worn, flower-strewn paths enticing to the heights; with the +Skaguay's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> waters winding over the grassy flats like blue ribbons; with +flower gardens beyond description and boxes in every window scarlet with +bloom; with cascades making liquid and most sweet music by day and +irresistible lullabies by night, and with snow peaks seeming to float +directly over the town in the upper pearl-pink atmosphere—is Skaguay, +the romantic, the marvellous, the town which grew from a dozen tents to +a city of fifteen thousand people almost in a night, in the golden year +of ninety-eight.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I could not sleep in Skaguay for the very sweetness of the July night. A +cool lavender twilight lingered until eleven o'clock, and then the large +moon came over the mountains, first outlining their dark crests with +fire; then throbbing slowly on from peak to peak—bringing irresistibly +to mind the lines:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Like a great dove with silver wings<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stretched, quivering o'er the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The moon her glistening plumage brings<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hovers silently."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The air was sweet to enchantment with flowers; and all night long +through my wide-open window came the far, dreamy, continuous music of +the waterfalls.</p> + +<p>On all the Pacific Coast there is not a more interesting, or a more +profitable, place in which to make one's headquarters for the summer, +than Skaguay. More side trips may be made, with less expenditure of time +and money, from this point than from any other. Launches may be hired +for expeditions down Lynn Canal and up the inlets,—whose unexploited +splendors may only be seen in this way; to the Mendenhall, Davidson, +Denver, Bertha, and countless smaller glaciers; to Haines, Fort Seward, +Pyramid Harbor, and Seduction Point; while by canoe, horse, or his own +good legs, one may get to the top of Mount<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> Dewey and to Dewey Lake; up +Face Mountain; to Dyea; and many hunting grounds where mountain sheep, +bear, goat, ptarmigan, and grouse are plentiful.</p> + +<p>The famous White Pass railway—which was built in eighteen months by the +"Three H's," Heney, Hawkins, and Hislop, and which is one of the most +wonderful engineering feats of the world—may be taken for a trip which +is, in itself, worth going a thousand miles to enjoy. Every mile of the +way is historic ground—not only to those who toiled over it in +'ninety-seven and 'ninety-eight, bent almost to the ground beneath their +burdens, but to the whole world, as well. The old Brackett wagon road; +White Pass City; the "summit"; Bennett Lake; Lake Lindeman; White Horse +Rapids; Grand Canyon; Porcupine Ridge—to whom do these names not stand +for tragedy and horror and broken hearts?</p> + +<p>The town of Skaguay itself is more historic than any other point. Here +the steamers lightered or floated ashore men, horses, and freight. "You +pay your money and you take your chance," the paraphrase went in those +days. Many a man saw every dollar he had in provisions—and often it was +a grubstake, at that—sink to the bottom of the canal before his eyes. +Others saw their outfits soaked to ruin with salt water. For those who +landed safely, there were horrors yet to come.</p> + +<p>And here, between these mountains, in this wind-racked canyon, the town +of Skaguay grew; from one tent to hundreds in a day, from hundreds to +thousands in a week; from tents to shacks, from shacks to stores and +saloons. Here "Soapy" Smith and his gang of outlaws and murderers +operated along the trail; here he was killed; here is his dishonored +grave, between the mountains which will not endure longer than the tale +of his desperate crimes, and his desperate expiation.</p> + +<p>Not the handsome style of man that one would expect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> of such a bold and +daring robber was "Soapy." No flashing black eyes, heavy black hair, and +long black mustache made him "a living flame among women," as Rex Beach +would put it. Small, spare, insignificant in appearance, it has been +said that he looked more like an ill-paid frontier minister than the +head of a lawless and desperate gang of thieves.</p> + +<p>His "spotters" were scattered along the trail all the way to Dawson. +They knew what men were "going in," what ones "coming out," "heeled." +Such men were always robbed; if not on the road, then after reaching +Skaguay; when they could not safely, or easily, be robbed alive, they +were robbed dead. It made no difference to "Soapy" or his gang of men +and women. It was a reign of terror in that new, unknown, and lawless +land.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in Skaguay to-day—unless it be the sinking grave of +"Soapy" Smith, which is not found by every one—to suggest the days of +the gold rush, to the transient visitor. It is a quiet town, where law +and order prevail. It is built chiefly on level ground, with a few very +long streets—running out into the alders, balms, spruces, and +cottonwoods, growing thickly over the river's flats.</p> + +<p>In all towns in Alaska the stores are open for business on Sunday when a +steamer is in. If the door of a curio-store, which has tempting baskets +or Chilkaht blankets displayed in the window, be found locked, a dozen +small boys shout as one, "Just wait a minute, lady. Propri'tor's on the +way now. He just stepped out for breakfast. Wait a minute, lady."</p> + +<p>We arrived at Skaguay early on a Sunday morning, and were directed to +the "'bus" of the leading hotel. We rode at least a mile before reaching +it. We found it to be a wooden structure, four or five stories in +height; the large office was used as a kind of general living-room as +well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> The rooms were comfortable and the table excellent. The +proprietress grows her own vegetables and flowers, and keeps cows, +chickens, and sheep, to enrich her table.</p> + +<p>About ten o'clock in the forenoon we went to the station to have our +trunks checked to Dawson. The doors stood open. We entered and passed +from room to room. There was no one in sight. The square ticket window +was closed.</p> + +<p>We hammered upon it and upon every closed door. There was no response. +We looked up the stairway, but it had a personal air. There are +stairways which seem to draw their steps around them, as a duchess does +her furs, and to give one a look which says, "Do not take liberties with +me!"—while others seem to be crying, "Come up; come up!" to every +passer-by. I have never seen a stairway that had the duchess air to the +degree that the one in the station at Skaguay has it. If any one doubts, +let him saunter around that station until he finds the stairway and then +take a good look at it.</p> + +<p>We went outside, and I, being the questioner of the party, asked a man +if the ticket office would be open that day.</p> + +<p>He squared around, put his hands in his pockets, bent his wizened body +backward, and gave a laugh that echoed down the street.</p> + +<p>"God bless your soul, lady," said he, "<i>on Sunday!</i> Only an extry goes +out on Sundays, to take round-trip tourists to the summit and back while +the steamer waits. To-day's extry has gone."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, mildly but firmly, "but we are going to Dawson to-morrow. +Our train leaves at nine o'clock, and there will be so many to get +tickets signed and baggage checked—"</p> + +<p>He gave another laugh.</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry, lady. Take life easy, the way we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> do here. If we miss +one train, we take the next—unless we miss it, too!" He laughed again.</p> + +<p>At that moment, bowing and smiling in the window of the ticket office, +appeared a man—the nicest man!</p> + +<p>"Will you see him bow!" gasped my friend. "Is he bowing at <i>us</i>? +Why—are you <i>bowing back</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I am."</p> + +<p>"What on earth does he want?"</p> + +<p>"He wants to be nice to us," I replied; and she followed me inside.</p> + +<p>The nice face was smiling through the little square window.</p> + +<p>"I was upstairs," he said—ah, he had descended by way of the "Duchess," +"and I heard you rapping on windows and doors"—the smile deepened, "so +I came down to see if I could serve you."</p> + +<p>We related our woes; we got our tickets signed and our baggage checked; +had all our questions answered—and they were not few—and the following +morning ate our breakfast at our leisure and were greatly edified by our +fellow-travellers' wild scramble to get their bills paid and to reach +the station in time to have their baggage checked.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;"> +<img src="images/illo_200.jpg" width="630" height="463" alt="Photo by P. S. Hunt + +Valdez" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Photo by P. S. Hunt<br /> + +Valdez</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + + +<p>Sailing down Lynn Canal, Chatham Strait, and the narrow, winding Peril +Strait, the sapphire-watered and exquisitely islanded Bay of Sitka is +entered from the north. Six miles above the Sitka of to-day a large +wooden cross marks the site of the first settlement, the scene of the +great massacre.</p> + +<p>On one side are the heavily and richly wooded slopes of Baranoff Island, +crested by many snow-covered peaks which float in the higher primrose +mist around the bay; on the other, water avenues—growing to paler, +silvery blue in the distance—wind in and out among the green islands to +the far sea, glimpses of which may be had; while over all, and from all +points for many miles, the round, deeply cratered dome of Edgecumbe +shines white and glistening in the sunlight. It is the superb feature of +the landscape; the crowning glory of a scene that would charm even +without it.</p> + +<p>Mount Edgecumbe is the home of Indian myth and legend—as is Nass River +to the southeastward. In appearance, it is like no other mountain. It is +only eight thousand feet in height, but it is so round and symmetrical, +it is so white and sparkling, seen either from the ocean or from the +inner channels, and its crest is sunken so evenly into an unforgettable +crater, that it instantly impresses upon the beholder a kind of +personality among mountains.</p> + +<p>In beauty, in majesty, in sublimity, it neither approaches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> nor compares +with twenty other Alaskan mountains which I have seen; but, like the +peerless Shishaldin, to the far westward, it stands alone, distinguished +by its unique features from all its sister peaks.</p> + +<p>Not all the streams of lava that have flowed down its sides for hundreds +of years have dulled its brilliance or marred its graceful outlines.</p> + +<p>I have searched Vancouver's chronicles, expecting to fined Edgecumbe +described as "a mountain having a very elegant hole in the top,"—to +match his "elegant fork" on Mount Olympus of Puget Sound.</p> + +<p>Peril Strait is a dangerous reach leading in sweeping curves from +Chatham Strait to Salisbury Sound. It is the watery dividing line +between Chichagoff and Baranoff islands. It has two narrows, where the +rapids at certain stages of the tides are most dangerous.</p> + +<p>Upon entering the strait from the east, it is found to be wide and +peaceful. It narrows gradually until it finally reaches, in its +forty-mile windings, a width of less than a hundred yards.</p> + +<p>There are several islands in Peril Strait: Fairway and Trader's at the +entrance; Broad and Otstoi on the starboard; Pouverstoi, Elovoi, Rose, +and Kane. Between Otstoi and Pouverstoi islands is Deadman's Reach. Here +are Peril Point and Poison Cove, where Baranoff lost a hundred Aleuts by +their eating of poisonous mussels in 1799. For this reason the Russians +gave it the name, Pogibshi, which, interpreted, means "Destruction," +instead of the "Pernicious" or "Peril" of the present time.</p> + +<p>Deadman's Reach is as perilous for its reefs as for its mussels. Hoggatt +Reef, Dolph Rock, Ford Rock, Elovoi Island, and Krugloi Reef are all +dangerous obstacles to navigation, making this reach as interestingly +exciting as it is beautiful.</p> + +<p>Fierce tides race through Sergius Narrows, and steamers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> going to and +from Sitka are guided by the careful calculation of their masters, that +they may arrive at the narrows at the favorable stage of the tides. +Bores, racing several feet high, terrific whirlpools, and boiling +geysers make it impossible for vessels to approach when the tides are at +their worst. This is one of the most dangerous reaches in Alaska.</p> + +<p>Either Rose or Adams Channel may be used going to Sitka, but the latter +is the favorite.</p> + +<p>Kakul Narrows leads into Salisbury Sound; but the Sitkan steamers barely +enter this sound ere they turn to the southeastward into Neva Strait. It +was named by Portlock for the Marquis of Salisbury.</p> + +<p>Entrance Island rises between Neva Strait and St. John the Baptist Bay. +There are both coal and marble in the latter bay.</p> + +<p>Halleck Island is completely surrounded by Nakwasina Passage and Olga +Strait, joining into one grand canal of uniform width.</p> + +<p>All these narrow, tortuous, and perilous water-ways wind around the +small islands that lie between Baranoff Island on the east and Kruzoff +Island on the west. Baranoff is one hundred and thirty miles long and as +wide as thirty miles in places. Kruzoff Island is small, but its +southern extremity, lying directly west of Sitka, shelters that favored +place from the storms of the Pacific.</p> + +<p>Whitestone Narrows in the southern end of Neva Strait is extremely +narrow and dangerous, owing to sunken rocks. Deep-draught vessels cannot +enter at low tide, but must await the favorable half-hour.</p> + +<p>Sitka Sound is fourteen miles long and from five to eight wide. It is +more exquisitely islanded than any other bay in the world; and after +passing the site of Baranoff's first settlement and Old Sitka Rocks, the +steamer's course leads through a misty emerald maze. Sweeping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> slowly +around the green shore of one island, a dozen others dawn upon the +beholder's enraptured vision, frequently appearing like a solid wall of +green, which presently parts to let the steamer slide through,—when, at +once, another dazzling vista opens to the view.</p> + +<p>Before entering Sitka Sound, Halleck, Partoffs-Chigoff, and Krestoff are +the more important islands; in Sitka Sound, Crow, Apple, and Japonski. +The latter island is world-famous. It is opposite, and very near, the +town; it is about a mile long, and half as wide; its name, "Japan," was +bestowed because, in 1805, a Japanese junk was wrecked near this island, +and the crew was forced to dwell upon it for weeks. It is greenly and +gracefully draped with cedar and spruce trees, and is an object of much +interest to tourists.</p> + +<p>Around Japonski cluster more than a hundred small islands of the Harbor +group; in the whole sound there are probably a thousand, but some are +mere green or rocky dots floating upon the pale blue water.</p> + +<p>A magnetic and meteorological observatory was established on Japonski by +the Russians and was maintained until 1867.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;"> +<img src="images/illo_207.jpg" width="630" height="422" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +An Alaskan Road House" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +An Alaskan Road House</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + + +<p>The Northwest Coast of America extended from Juan de Fuca's Strait to +the sixtieth parallel of north latitude. Under the direction of the +powerful mind of Peter the Great explorations in the North Pacific were +planned. He wrote the following instructions with his own hand, and +ordered the Chief Admiral, Count Fedor Apraxin, to see that they were +carried into execution:—</p> + +<p><i>First.</i>—One or two boats, with decks, to be built at Kamchatka, or at +any other convenient place, with which</p> + +<p><i>Second.</i>—Inquiry should be made in relation to the northerly coasts, +to see whether they were not contiguous with America, since their end +was not known. And this done, they should</p> + +<p><i>Third.</i>—See whether they could not somewhere find an harbor belonging +to Europeans, or an European ship. They should likewise set apart some +men who were to inquire after the name and situation of the coasts +discovered. Of all this an exact journal should be kept, with which they +should return to St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p>Before these instructions could be carried out, Peter the Great died.</p> + +<p>His Empress, Catherine, however, faithfully carried out his plans.</p> + +<p>The first expedition set out in 1725, under the command of Vitus +Behring, a Danish captain in the Russian service, with Lieutenants +Spanberg and Chirikoff as assistants. They carried several officers of +inferior rank;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> also seamen and ship-builders. Boats were to be built at +Kamchatka, and they started overland through Siberia on February the +fifth of that year. Owing to many trials and hardships, it was not until +1728 that Behring sailed along the eastern shore of the peninsula, +passing and naming St. Lawrence Island, and on through Behring Strait. +There, finding that the coast turned westward, his natural conclusion +was that Asia and America were not united, and he returned to Kamchatka. +In 1734, under the patronage of the Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's +daughter, a second expedition made ready; but owing to insurmountable +difficulties, it was not until September, 1740, that Behring and +Chirikoff set sail in the packet-boats <i>St. Peter</i> and <i>St. +Paul</i>—Behring commanding the former—from Kamchatka. They wintered at +Avatcha on the Kamchatkan Peninsula, where a few buildings, including a +church, were hastily erected, and to which the name of Petropavlovsk was +given.</p> + +<p>On June 4, 1741, the two ships finally set sail on their eventful +voyage—how eventful to us of the United States we are only, even now, +beginning to realize. They were accompanied by Lewis de Lisle de +Croyere, professor of astronomy, and Georg Wilhelm Steller, naturalist.</p> + +<p>Müller, the historian, and Gmelin, professor of chemistry and natural +history, also volunteered in 1733 to accompany the expedition; but owing +to the long delay, and ill-health arising from arduous labors in +Kamchatka, they were compelled to permit the final expedition to depart +without them.</p> + +<p>On the morning of June 20, the two ships became separated in a gale and +never again sighted one another. Chirikoff took an easterly course, and +to him, on the fifteenth of July, fell, by chance, the honor of the +first discovery of land on the American continent, opposite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Kamchatka, +in 55° 21´. Here he lost two boatloads of seamen whom he sent ashore for +investigation, and whose tragic fate may only be guessed from the +appearance of savages later, upon the shore.</p> + +<p>That the first Russians landing upon the American continent should have +met with so horrible a fate as theirs is supposed to have been, has been +considered by the superstitious as an evil omen. The first boat sent +ashore contained ten armed sailors and was commanded by the mate, +Abraham Mikhailovich Dementief. The latter is described as a capable +young man, of distinguished family, of fine personal appearance, and of +kind heart, who, having suffered from an unfortunate love affair, had +offered himself to serve his country in this most hazardous expedition. +They were furnished with provisions and arms, including a small brass +cannon, and given a code of signals by Chirikoff, by which they might +communicate with the ship. The boat reached the shore and passed behind +a point of land. For several days signals which were supposed to +indicate that the party was alive and well, were observed rising at +intervals. At last, however, great anxiety was experienced by those on +board lest the boat should have sustained damage in some way, making it +impossible for the party to return. On the fifth day another boat was +sent ashore with six men, including a carpenter and a calker. They +effected a landing at the same place, and shortly afterward a great +smoke was observed, pushing its dark curls upward above the point of +land behind which the boats had disappeared.</p> + +<p>The following morning two boats were discovered putting off from the +shore. There was great rejoicing on the ship, for the night had been +passed in deepest anxiety, and without further attention to the boats, +preparations were hastily made for immediate sailing. Soon, however, to +the dread and horror of all, it was discovered that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> boats were +canoes filled with savages, who, at sight of the ship, gave unmistakable +signs of astonishment, and shouting "Agaï! Agaï!" turned hastily back to +the shore.</p> + +<p>Silence and consternation fell upon all. Chirikoff, humane and +kind-hearted, bitterly bewailed the fate of his men. A wind soon +arising, he was forced to make for the open sea. He remained in the +vicinity, and as soon as it was possible, returned to his anchorage; but +no signs of the unfortunate sailors were ever discovered.</p> + +<p>Without boats, and without sufficient men, no attempt at a rescue could +be made; nor was further exploration possible; and heavy-hearted and +discouraged, notwithstanding his brilliant success, Chirikoff again +weighed anchor and turned his ship homeward.</p> + +<p>He and his crew were attacked by scurvy; provisions and water became +almost exhausted; Chirikoff was confined to his berth, and many died; +some islands of the chain now known as the Aleutians were discovered; +and finally, on the 8th of October, 1741, after enduring inexpressible +hardships, great physical and mental suffering, and the loss of +twenty-one men, they arrived on the coast of Kamchatka near the point of +their departure.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, on the day following Chirikoff's discovery of land, +Commander Behring, far to the northwestward, saw, rising before his +enraptured eyes, the splendid presence of Mount St. Elias, and the +countless, and scarcely less splendid, peaks which surround it, and +which, stretching along the coast for hundreds of miles, whitely and +silently people this region with majestic beauty. Steller, in his diary, +claims to have discovered land on the fifteenth, but was ridiculed by +his associates, although it was clearly visible to all in the same place +on the following day.</p> + +<p>They effected a landing on an island, which they named St. Elias, in +honor of the day upon which it was discovered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> It is now known as Kayak +Island, but the mountain retains the original name. Having accomplished +the purpose of his expedition, Behring hastily turned the <i>St. Peter</i> +homeward.</p> + +<p>For this haste Behring has been most severely criticised. But when we +take into consideration the fact that preparations for this second +expedition had begun in 1733; that during all those years of difficult +travelling through Siberia, of boat building and the establishment of +posts and magazines for the storing of provisions, he had been hampered +and harassed almost beyond endurance by the quarrelling, immorality, and +dishonesty of his subordinates; that for all dishonesty and blunders he +was made responsible to the government; and that so many complaints of +him had been forwarded to St. Petersburg by officers whom he had +reprimanded or otherwise punished that at last, in 1739, officers had +been sent to Ohkotsk to investigate his management of the preparations; +that he had now discovered that portion of the American continent which +he had set out to discover, had lost Chirikoff, upon whose youth and +hopefulness he had been, perhaps unconsciously, relying; and—most human +of all—that he had a young and lovely wife and two sons in Russia whom +he had not seen for years (and whom he was destined never to see again); +when we take all these things into consideration, there seems to be but +little justice in these harsh criticisms.</p> + +<p>To-day, there is no portion of the Alaskan coast more unreliable, nor +more to be dreaded by mariners, than that in the vicinity of Behring's +discovery. Even in summer violent winds and heavy seas are usually +encountered. Steamers cannot land at Kayak, and passengers and freight +are lightered ashore; and when this is accomplished without disaster or +great difficulty, the trip is spoken of as an exceptional one. Yet +Behring remained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> in this dangerous anchorage five days. Several +landings were made on the two Kayak Islands, and on various smaller +ones. Some Indian huts, without occupants, were found and entered. They +were built of logs and rough bark and roofed with tough dried grasses. +There were, also, some sod cellars, in which dried salmon was found. In +one of the cabins were copper implements, a whetstone, some arrows, +ropes, and cords made of sea-weed, and rude household utensils; also +herbs which had been prepared according to Kamchatkan methods.</p> + +<p>Returning, Behring discovered and named many of the Aleutian Islands and +exchanged presents with the friendly natives. They were, however, +overtaken by storms and violent illness; they suffered of hunger and +thirst; so many died that barely enough remained to manage the ship. +Finally on November 5, in attempting to land, the <i>St. Peter</i> was +wrecked on a small island, where, on the 8th of December, in a wretched +hut, half covered with sand which sifted incessantly through the rude +boards that were his only roof, and after suffering unimaginable +agonies, the illustrious Dane, Vitus Behring, died the most miserable of +deaths. The island was named for him, and still retains the name, being +the larger of the Commander Islands.</p> + +<p>The survivors of the wreck remaining on Behring Island dragged out a +wretched existence until spring, in holes dug in the sand and roofed +with sails. Water they had; but their food consisted chiefly of the +flesh of sea-otters and seals. In May, weak, emaciated, and hopeless +though they were, and with their brave leader gone, they began building +a boat from the remnants of the <i>St. Peter</i>. It was not completed until +August; when, with many fervent prayers, they embarked, and, after nine +days of mingled dread and anxiety in a frail and leaking craft, they +arrived safely on the Kamchatkan shore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + +<p>All hope of their safety had long been abandoned, and there was great +rejoicing upon their return. Out of their own deep gratitude a memorial +was placed in the church at Petropavlovsk, which is doubtless still in +existence, as it was in a good state of preservation a few years ago.</p> + +<p>Russian historians at first seemed disposed to depreciate Behring's +achievement, and to over-exalt the Russian, Chirikoff. They made the +claim that the latter was a man of high intellectual attainments, +courageous, hopeful, and straightforward; kind-hearted, and giving +thought to and for others. He was instructor of the marines of the +guard, but after having been recommended to Peter the Great as a young +man highly qualified to accompany the expedition under Behring, he was +promoted to a lieutenancy and accompanied the latter on his first +expedition in 1725; and on the second, in 1741, he was made commander of +the <i>St. Pevril</i>, or <i>St. Paul</i>, "not by seniority but on account of +superior knowledge and worth." Despite the fact that Behring was placed +by the emperor in supreme command of both expeditions, the Russians +looked upon Chirikoff as the real hero. He was a favorite with all, and +in the accounts of quarrels and dissensions among the heads of the +various detachments of scientists and naval officers of the expedition, +the name of Chirikoff does not appear. His wife and daughter accompanied +him to Siberia.</p> + +<p>Captain Vitus Behring—or Ivan Ivanovich, as the Russians called him—is +described as a man of intelligence, honesty, and irreproachable conduct, +but rather inclined in his later years to vacillation of purpose and +indecision of character, yielding easily to an irritable and capricious +temper. Whether these facts were due to age or disease is not known; but +that they seriously affected his fitness for the command of an +exploration is not denied, even by his admirers. Even so sane and +conscientious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> an historian as Dall calls him timid, hesitating, and +indolent, and refers to his "characteristic imbecility," "utter +incapacity," and "total incompetency." It is incredible, however, that a +man of such gross faults should have been given the command of this +brilliant expedition by so wise and great a monarch as Peter. Behring +died,—old, discouraged, in indescribable anguish; suspicious of every +one, doubting even Steller, the naturalist who accompanied the +expedition and who was his faithful friend. Chirikoff returned, young, +flushed with success, popular and in favor with all, from the Empress +down to his subordinates. Favored at the outset by youth and a cheerful +spirit, his bright particular star guided him to the discovery of land a +few hours in advance of Behring. This was his good luck and his good +luck only. Vitus Behring, the Dane in the Russian service, was in +supreme command of the expedition; and to him belongs the glory. One +cannot to-day sail that magnificent sweep of purple water between Alaska +and Eastern Siberia without a thrill of thankfulness that the fame and +the name of the illustrious Dane are thus splendidly perpetuated.</p> + +<p>To-day, his name is heard in Alaska a thousand times where Chirikoff's +is heard once. The glory of the latter is fading, and Behring is coming +to his own—Russians speaking of him with a pride that approaches +veneration.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/illo_216.jpg" width="480" height="609" alt="Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle + +Kow-Ear-Nuk and his Drying Salmon" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle<br /> + +Kow-Ear-Nuk and his Drying Salmon</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>Captain Martin Petrovich Spanberg, the third in command of the +expedition, was also a Dane. He is everywhere described as an +illiterate, coarse, cruel man; grasping, selfish, and unscrupulous in +attaining ends that made for his own advancement. In his study of the +character of Spanberg, Bancroft—who has furnished the most complete and +painstaking description of these expeditions—makes comment which is, +perhaps unintentionally, humorous. After describing Spanberg as +exceedingly avaricious and cruel, and stating that his bad reputation +extended over all Siberia, and that his name appears in hundreds of +complaints and petitions from victims of his licentiousness, cruelty, +and avarice, Bancroft näively adds, "He was just the man to become +rich." Wealthy people may take such comfort as they can out of the +comment.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + + +<p>Inspired by the important discoveries of this expedition and by the hope +of a profitable fur trade with China, various Russian traders and +adventurers, known as "promyshleniki," made voyages into the newly +discovered regions, pressing eastward island by island, and year by +year; beginning that long tale of cruelty and bloodshed in the Aleutian +Islands which has not yet reached an end. Men as harmless as the +pleading, soft-eyed seals were butchered as heartlessly and as +shamelessly, that their stocks of furs might be appropriated and their +women ravished. In 1745 Alexeï Beliaief and ten men inveigled fifteen +Aleutians into a quarrel with the sole object of killing them and +carrying off their women. In 1762, the crew of the <i>Gavril</i> persuaded +twenty-five young Aleutian girls to accompany them "to pick berries and +gather roots for the ship's company." On the Kamchatkan coast several of +the crew and sixteen of these girls were landed to pick berries. Two of +the girls made their escape into the hills; one was killed by a sailor; +and the others cast themselves into the sea and were drowned. Gavril +Pushkaref, who was in command of the vessel, ordered that all the +remaining natives, with the exception of one boy and an interpreter, +should be thrown overboard and drowned.</p> + +<p>These are only two instances of the atrocious outrages perpetrated upon +these innocent and childlike people by the brutal and licentious traders +who have frequented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> these far beautiful islands from 1745 to the +present time. From year to year now dark and horrible stories float down +to us from the far northwestward, or vex our ears when we sail into +those pale blue water-ways. Nor do they concern "promyshleniki" alone. +Charges of the gravest nature have been made against men of high +position who spend much time in the Aleutian Islands. That these gentle +people have suffered deeply, silently, and shamefully, at the hands of +white men of various nationalities, has never been denied, nor +questioned. It is well known to be the simple truth. From 1760 to about +1766 the natives rebelled at their treatment and active hostilities were +carried on. Many Russians were killed, some were tortured. Solovief, +upon arriving at Unalaska and learning the fate of some of his +countrymen, resolved to avenge them. His designs were carried out with +unrelenting cruelty. By some writers, notably Berg, his crimes have been +palliated, under the plea that nothing less than extreme brutality could +have so soon reduced the natives to the state of fear and humility in +which they have ever since remained—failing to take into consideration +the atrocities perpetrated upon the natives for years before their open +revolt.</p> + +<p>In 1776 we find the first mention of Grigor Ivanovich Shelikoff; but it +was not until 1784 that he succeeded in making the first permanent +Russian settlement in America, on Kodiak Island,—forty-three dark and +strenuous years after Vitus Behring saw Mount St. Elias rising out of +the sea. Shelikoff was second only to Baranoff in the early history of +Russian America, and is known as "the founder and father of Russian +colonies in America." His wife, Natalie, accompanied him upon all his +voyages. She was a woman of very unusual character, energetic and +ambitious, and possessed of great business and executive ability. After +her husband's death, her management for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> many years of not only her own +affairs, but those of the Shelikoff Company as well, reflected great +credit upon herself.</p> + +<p>It was the far-sighted Shelikoff who suggested and carried out the idea +of a monopoly of the fur trade in Russian America under imperial +charter. As a result of his forceful presentation of this scheme and the +able—and doubtless selfish—assistance of General Jacobi, the +governor-general of Eastern Siberia, the Empress became interested. In +1788 an imperial ukase was issued, granting to the Shelikoff Company +exclusive control of the territory already occupied by them. Assistance +from the public coffers was at that time withheld; but the Empress +graciously granted to Shelikoff and his partner, Golikof, swords and +medals containing her portrait. The medals were to be worn around their +necks, and bore inscriptions explaining that they "had been conferred +for services rendered to humanity by noble and bold deeds."</p> + +<p>Although Shelikoff greatly preferred the pecuniary assistance from the +government, he nevertheless accepted with a good grace the honor +bestowed, and bided his time patiently.</p> + +<p>In accordance with commands issued by the commander at Ohkotsk and by +the Empress herself, Shelikoff adopted a policy of humanity in his +relations with the natives, although it is suspected that this was on +account of his desire to please the Empress and work out his own +designs, rather than the result of his own kindness of heart.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 626px;"> +<img src="images/illo_223.jpg" width="626" height="472" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Steamer "Resolute"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Steamer "Resolute"</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<p>With the clearness of vision which distinguished his whole career, +Shelikoff selected Alexander Baranoff as his agent in the territory +lying to the eastward of Kodiak. In Voskressenski, or Sunday, +Harbor—now Resurrection Bay, on which the town of Seward is +situated—Baranoff built in 1794 the first vessel to glide into the +waters of Northwestern America—the <i>Phœnix</i>. At the request of +Shelikoff a colony of two hundred convicts, accompanied by twenty +priests, were sent out by imperial ukase, and established at Yakutat +Bay, under Baranoff. During the years that followed many complaints were +entered by the clergy against Baranoff for cruelty, licentiousness, and +mismanagement of the company's affairs. But, whatever his faults may +have been, it is certain that no man could have done so much for the +promotion of the company's interests at that time as Baranoff; nor could +any other so efficiently have conducted its affairs.</p> + +<p>It was during his governorship that the rose of success bloomed +brilliantly for the Russian-American Company in the colonies. He was a +shrewd, tireless, practical business man. His successors were men +distinguished in army and navy circles, haughty and patrician, but +absolutely lacking in business ability, and ignorant of the unique +conditions and needs of the country.</p> + +<p>After Baranoff's resignation and death, the revenues of the company +rapidly declined, and its vast operations were conducted at a loss.</p> + +<p>It was in 1791 that Baranoff assumed command of all the establishments +on the island of the Shelikoff Company which, under imperial patronage, +had already secured a partial monopoly of the American fur trade. Owing +to competition by independent traders, the large company, after the +death of Shelikoff, united with its most influential rival, under the +name of the Shelikoff United Company. The following year this company +secured an imperial ukase which granted to it, under the name of the +Russian-American Company, "full privileges, for a period of twenty +years, on the coast of Northwestern America, beginning from latitude +fifty-five degrees North, and including the chain of islands extending +from Kamchatka northward to America and southward to Japan; the +exclusive right to all enterprises, whether hunting, trading, or +building, and to new discoveries,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> with strict prohibition from +profiting by any of these pursuits, not only to all parties who might +engage in them on their own responsibility, but also to those who +formerly had ships and establishments there, except those who have +united with the new company."</p> + +<p>In the same year a fort was established by Baranoff, on what is now +Sitka Sound. This was destroyed by natives; and in 1804 another fort was +erected by Baranoff, near the site of the former one, which he named +Fort Archangel Michael. This fort is the present Sitka. Its +establishment enabled the Russian-American Company to extend its +operations to the islands lying southward and along the continental +shore.</p> + +<p>We now come to the most fascinating portion of the history of Alaska. +Not even the wild and romantic days of gold excitement in the Klondike +can equal Baranoff's reign at Sitka for picturesqueness and mysterious +charm. The strength and personality of the man were such that to-day one +who is familiar with his life and story, entering Sitka, will +unconsciously feel his presence; and will turn, with a sigh, to gaze +upon the commanding height where once his castle stood.</p> + +<p>There were many dark and hopeless days for Baranoff during his first +years with the company, and it was while in a state of deep +discouragement and hopelessness that he received the news of his +appointment as chief manager of the newly organized Russian-American +Company. Most of his plans and undertakings had failed; many Russians +and natives had been lost on hunting voyages; English and American +traders had superseded him at every point to the eastward of Kodiak; +many of his Aleutian hunters had been killed in conflict with the savage +Thlinkits; he had lost a sloop which had been constructed at +Voskressenski Bay; and finally, he had returned to Kodiak enduring the +agonies of inflammatory rheumatism, only to be reproached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> by the +subordinates, who were suffering of actual hunger—so long had they been +without relief from supply ships.</p> + +<p>In this dark hour the ship arrived which carried not only good tidings, +but plentiful supplies as well. Baranoff's star now shone brightly, +leading him on to hope and renewed effort.</p> + +<p>In the spring of the following year, 1799, Baranoff, with two vessels +manned by twenty-two Russians, and three hundred and fifty canoes, set +sail for the eastward. Many of the natives were lost by foundering of +the canoes, and many more by slaughter at the hands of the Kolosh, but +finally they arrived at a point now known as Old Sitka, six miles north +of the present Sitka, and bartered with the chief of the natives for a +site for a settlement. Captain Cleveland, whose ship <i>Caroline</i>, of +Boston, was then lying in the harbor, describes the Indians of the +vicinity as follows: "A more hideous set of beings in the form of men +and women, I had never before seen. The fantastic manner in which many +of the faces were painted was probably intended to give them a more +ferocious appearance; and some groups looked really as if they had +escaped from the dominions of Satan himself. One had a perpendicular +line dividing the two sides of the face, one side of which was painted +red, the other black, with the hair daubed with grease and red ochre, +and filled with the down of birds. Another had the face divided with a +horizontal line in the middle, and painted black and white. The visage +of a third was painted in checkers, etc. Most of them had little +mirrors, before the acquisition of which they must have been dependent +on each other for those correct touches of the pencil which are so much +in vogue, and which daily require more time than the toilet of a +Parisian belle."</p> + +<p>These savages were known to be treacherous and dangerous,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> but they +pretended to be friendly, and fears were gradually allayed by continued +peace. The story of the great massacre and destruction of the fort is of +poignant interest, as simply and pathetically told by one of the +survivors, a hunter: "In this present year 1802, about the twenty-fourth +of June—I do not remember the exact date, but it was a holiday—about +two o'clock in the afternoon, I went to the river to look for our +calves, as I had been detailed by the commander of the fort, Vassili +Medvednikof, to take care of the cattle. On returning soon after, I +noticed at the fort a great multitude of Kolosh people, who had not only +surrounded the barracks below, but were already climbing over the +balcony and to the roof with guns and cannon; and standing upon a little +knoll in front of the out-houses, was the Sitka toyon, or chief, +Mikhail, giving orders to those who were around the barracks, and +shouting to some people in canoes not far away, to make haste and assist +in the fight. In answer to his shouts sixty-two canoes emerged from +behind the points of rocks." (One is inclined to be sceptical concerning +the exact number of canoes; the frightened hunter would scarcely pause +to count the war canoes as they rounded the point.) "Even if I had +reached the barracks, they were already closed and barricaded, and there +was no safety outside; therefore, I rushed away to the cattle yard, +where I had a gun. I only waited to tell a girl who was employed in the +yard to take her little child and fly to the woods, when, seizing my +gun, I closed up the shed. Very soon after this four Kolosh came to the +door and knocked three times. As soon as I ran out of the shed, they +seized me by the coat and took my gun from me. I was compelled to leave +both in their hands, and jumping through a window, ran past the fort and +hid in the thick underbrush of the forest, though two Kolosh ran after +me, but could not find me in the woods. Soon after, I emerged from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> the +underbrush, and approached the barracks to see if the attack had been +repulsed, but I saw that not only the barracks, but the ship recently +built, the warehouse and the sheds, the cattle sheds, bath house and +other small buildings, had been set on fire and were already in full +blaze. The sea-otter skins and other property of the company, as well as +the private property of Medvednikof and the hunters, the savages were +throwing from the balcony to the ground on the water side, while others +seized them and carried them to the canoes, which were close to the +fort.... All at once I saw two Kolosh running toward me armed with guns +and lances, and I was compelled to hide again in the woods. I threw +myself down among the underbrush on the edge of the forest, covering +myself with pieces of bark. From there I saw Nakvassin drop from the +upper balcony and run toward the woods; but when nearly across the open +space he fell to the ground, and four warriors rushed up and carried him +back to the barracks on the points of their lances and cut off his head. +Kabanof was dragged from the barracks into the street, where the Kolosh +pierced him with their lances; but how the other Russians who were there +came to their end, I do not know. The slaughter and incendiarism were +continued by the savages until the evening, but finally I stole out +among the ruins and ashes, and in my wanderings came across some of our +cows, and saw that even the poor dumb animals had not escaped the +bloodthirsty fiends, having spears stuck in their sides. Exercising all +my strength, I was barely able to pull out some of the spears, when I +was observed by two Kolosh, and compelled to leave the cows to their +fate and hide again in the woods.</p> + +<p>"I passed the night not far from the ruins of the fort. In the morning I +heard the report of a cannon and looked out of the brush, but could see +nobody, and not wishing to expose myself again to further danger, went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +higher up in the mountain through the forest. While advancing cautiously +through the woods, I met two other persons who were in the same +condition as myself,—a girl from the Chiniatz village, Kodiak, with an +infant on her breast, and a man from the Kiliuda village, who had been +left behind by the hunting party on account of sickness. I took them +both with me to the mountain, but each night I went with my companions +to the ruins of the fort and bewailed the fate of the slain. In this +miserable condition we remained for eight days, with nothing to eat and +nothing but water to drink. About noon of the last day we heard from the +mountain two cannon-shots, which raised some hopes in me, and I told my +companions to follow me at a little distance, and then went down toward +the river through the woods to hide myself near the shore and see +whether there was a ship in the bay."</p> + +<p>He discovered, to his unspeakable joy, an English ship in the bay. +Shouting to attract the attention of those on board, he was heard by six +Kolosh, who made their way toward him and had almost captured him ere he +saw them and made his escape in the woods. They forced him to the shore +at a point near the cape, where he was able to make himself heard by +those on the vessel. A boat put off at once, and he was barely able to +leap into it when the Kolosh, in hot pursuit, came in sight again. When +they saw the boat, they turned and fled.</p> + +<p>When the hunter had given an account of the massacre to the commander of +the vessel, an armed boat was sent ashore to rescue the man and girl who +were in hiding. They were easily located and, with another Russian who +was found in the vicinity, were taken aboard and supplied with food and +clothing.</p> + +<p>The commander himself then accompanied them, with armed men, to the site +of the destroyed fort, where they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> examined and buried the dead. They +found that all but Kabanof had been beheaded.</p> + +<p>Three days later the chief, Mikhail, went out to the ship, was persuaded +to go aboard, and with his nephew was held until all persons captured +during the massacre and still living had been surrendered. The prisoners +were given up reluctantly, one by one; and when it was believed that all +had been recovered, the chief and his nephew were permitted to leave the +ship.</p> + +<p>The survivors were taken to Kodiak, where the humane captain of the ship +demanded of Baranoff a compensation of fifty thousand roubles in cash. +Baranoff, learning that the captain's sole expense had been in feeding +and clothing the prisoners, refused to pay this exorbitant sum; and +after long wrangling it was settled for furs worth ten thousand roubles.</p> + +<p>Accounts of the massacre by survivors and writers of that time vary +somewhat, some claiming that the massacre was occasioned by the broken +faith and extreme cruelty of the Russians in their treatment of the +savages; others, that the Sitkans had been well treated and that Chief +Mikhail had falsely pretended to be the warm and faithful friend of +Baranoff, who had placed the fullest confidence in him.</p> + +<p>Baranoff was well-nigh broken-hearted by his new and terrible +misfortune. The massacre had been so timed that the most of the men of +the fort were away on a hunting expedition; and Baranoff himself was on +Afognak Island, which is only a few hours' sail from Kodiak. Several +Kolosh women lived at the fort with Russian men; and these women kept +their tribesmen outside informed as to the daily conditions within the +garrison. On the weakest day of the fort, a holiday, the Kolosh had, +therefore, suddenly surrounded it, armed with guns, spears, and daggers, +their faces covered with masks representing animals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>About this time Krusenstern and Lisiansky sailed from Kronstadt, in the +hope—which was fulfilled—of being the first to carry the Russian flag +around the world. Lisiansky arrived at Kodiak, after many hardships, +only to receive a written request from Baranoff to proceed at once to +Sitka and assist him in subduing the savages and avenging the officers +and men lost in the fearful massacre. On the 15th of August, 1804, he +therefore sailed to eastward, and on the twentieth of the same month +entered Sitka Sound. The day must have been gloomy and Lisiansky's mood +in keeping with the day, for he thus describes a bay which is, under +favorable conditions, one of the most idyllically beautiful imaginable: +"On our entrance into Sitka Sound to the place where we now were, there +was not to be seen on the shore the least vestige of habitation. Nothing +presented itself to our view but impenetrable woods reaching from the +water-side to the very tops of the mountains. I never saw a country so +wild and gloomy; it appeared more adapted for the residence of wild +beasts than of men."</p> + +<p>Shortly afterward Baranoff arrived in the harbor with several hundred +Aleutians and many Russians, after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage +from Yakutat, the site of the convict settlement. He learned that the +savages had taken up their position on a bluff a few miles distant, +where they had fortified themselves. This bluff was the noble height +upon which Baranoff's castle was afterward erected, and which commands +the entire bay upon which the Sitka of to-day is located. Lisiansky, in +his "Voyage around the World," describes the Indians' fort as "an +irregular polygon, its longest side facing the sea. It was protected by +a breastwork two logs in thickness, and about six feet high. Around and +above it tangled brushwood was piled. Grape-shot did little damage, even +at the distance of a cable's length. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> were two embrasures for +cannon in the side facing the sea, and two gates facing the forest. +Within were fourteen large huts, or, as they were called then, and are +called at the present time by the natives, barabaras. Judging from the +quantity of provisions and domestic implements found there, it must have +contained at least eight hundred warriors."</p> + +<p>An envoy from the Kolosh fort came out with friendly overtures, but was +informed that peace conditions could only be established through the +chiefs. He departed, but soon returned and delivered a hostage.</p> + +<p>Baranoff made plain his conditions; agreement with the chiefs in person, +the delivery of two more hostages, and permanent possession of the +fortified bluff.</p> + +<p>The chiefs did not appear, and the conditions were not accepted. Then, +on October 1, after repeated warnings, Baranoff gave the order to fire +upon the fort. Immediately afterward, Baranoff, Lieutenant Arlusof, and +a party of Russians and Aleutians landed with the intention of storming +the fort. They were repulsed, the panic-stricken Aleutians stampeded, +and Baranoff was left almost without support. In this condition, he +could do nothing but retreat to the boats,—which they were barely able +to reach before the Kolosh were upon them. They saved their +field-pieces, but lost ten men. Twenty-six were wounded, including +Baranoff himself. Had not their retreat at this point been covered by +the guns of the ship, the loss of life would have been fearful.</p> + +<p>The following day Lisiansky was placed in command. He opened a rapid +fire upon the fort, with such effect that soon after noon a peace envoy +arrived, with promise of hostages. His overtures were favorably +received, and during the following three days several hostages were +returned to the Russians. The evacuation of the fort was demanded; but, +although the chief consented, no movements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> in that direction could be +discovered from the ships. Lisiansky moved his vessel farther in toward +the fort and sent an interpreter to ascertain how soon the occupants +would be ready to abandon their fortified and commanding position. The +reply not being satisfactory, Lisiansky again fired repeatedly upon the +stronghold of the Kolosh. On the 3d of October a white flag was hoisted, +and the firing was discontinued. Then arose from the rocky height and +drifted across the water until far into the night the sound of a +mournful, wailing chant.</p> + +<p>When dawn came the sound had ceased. Absolute silence reigned; nor was +there any living object to be seen on the shore, save clouds of carrion +birds, whose dark wings beat the still air above the fort. The Kolosh +had fled; the fort was deserted by all save the dead. The bodies of +thirty Kolosh warriors were found; also those of many children and dogs, +which had been killed lest any cry from them should betray the direction +of their flight.</p> + +<p>The fort was destroyed by fire, and the construction of magazines, +barracks, and a residence for Baranoff was at once begun. A stockade +surrounded these buildings, each corner fortified with a block-house. +The garrison received the name of Novo Arkangelsk, or New Archangel. The +tribal name of the Indians in that locality was Sitkah—pronounced +Seetkah—and this short and striking name soon attached itself +permanently to the place.</p> + +<p>Immense houses were built solidly and with every consideration for +comfort and safety, and many families lived in each. They ranged in size +from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in length, and about +eighty in width, and were from one to three stories high with immense +attics. They were well finished and richly papered. The polished floors +were covered with costly rugs and carpets, and the houses were furnished +with heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> and splendid furniture, which had been brought from St. +Petersburg. The steaming brass samovar was everywhere a distinctive +feature of the hospitality and good cheer which made Sitka famous.</p> + +<p>To the gay and luxurious life, the almost prodigal entertainment of +guests by Sitkans from this time on to 1867, every traveller, from +writers and naval officers down to traders, has enthusiastically +testified. At the first signal from a ship feeling its way into the dark +harbor, a bright light flashed a welcome across the water from the high +cupola on Baranoff's castle, and fires flamed up on Signal Island to +beacon the way.</p> + +<p>The officers were received as friends, and entertained in a style of +almost princely magnificence during their entire stay—the only thing +asked in return being the capacity to eat like gluttons, revel like +roisterers, and drink until they rolled helplessly under the table; and, +in Baranoff's estimation, these were small returns, indeed, to ask of a +guest for his ungrudging and regal hospitality.</p> + +<p>Visions of those high revels and glittering banquets of a hundred years +ago come glimmering down to us of to-day. Beautiful, gracious, and +fascinating were the Russian ladies who lived there,—if we are to +believe the stories of voyagers to the Sitka of Baranoff's and +Wrangell's times. Baranoff's furniture was of specially fine workmanship +and exceeding value; his library was remarkable, containing works in +nearly all European languages, and a collection of rare paintings—the +latter having been presented to the company at the time of its +organization.</p> + +<p>Baranoff had left a wife and family in Russia. He never saw them again, +although he sent allowances to them regularly. He was not bereft of +woman's companionship, however, and we have tales of revelry by night +when Baranoff alternately sang and toasted everybody,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> from the Emperor +down to the woman upon his knee with whom he shared every sparkling +glass. He had a beautiful daughter by a native woman, and of her he was +exceedingly careful. A governess whom he surprised in the act of +drinking a glass of liquor was struck in sudden blind passion and turned +out of the house. The following day he sent for her, apologized, and +reinstalled her with an increased salary, warning her, however, that his +daughter must never see her drink a drop of liquor. When in his most +gloomy and hopeless moods, this daughter could instantly soothe and +cheer him by playing upon the piano and singing to him songs very +different from those sung at his drunken all-night orgies.</p> + +<p>That there was a very human and tender side to Baranoff's nature cannot +be doubted by those making a careful study of his tempestuous life. He +was deeply hurt and humiliated by the insolent and supercilious +treatment of naval officers who considered him of inferior position, +notwithstanding the fact that he was in supreme command of all the +Russian territory in America. From time to time the Emperor conferred +honors upon him, and he was always deeply appreciative; and it is +chronicled that when a messenger arrived with the intelligence that he +had been appointed by the Emperor to the rank of Collegiate Councillor, +Baranoff, broken by the troubles, hardships, and humiliations of his +stormy life, was suddenly and completely overcome by joy. He burst into +tears and gave thanks to God.</p> + +<p>"I am a nobleman!" he exclaimed. "I am the equal in position and the +superior in ability of these insolent naval officers."</p> + +<p>In 1812 Mr. Wilson P. Hunt, of the Pacific Fur Company, sailed from +Astoria for Sitka on the <i>Beaver</i> with supplies for the Russians. By +that time Baranoff had risen to the title and pomp of governor, and was +living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> in splendid style befitting his position and his triumph over +the petty officers, whose names are now insignificant in Russian +history.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hunt found this hyperborean veteran ensconced in a fort which +crested the whole of a high, rocky promontory. It mounted one hundred +guns, large and small, and was impregnable to Indian attack unaided by +artillery. Here the old governor lorded it over sixty Russians, who +formed the corps of the trading establishment, besides an indefinite +number of Indian hunters of the Kodiak tribe, who were continually +coming and going, or lounging and loitering about the fort like so many +hounds round a sportsman's hunting quarters. Though a loose liver among +his guests, the governor was a strict disciplinarian among his men, +keeping them in perfect subjection and having seven guards on duty night +and day.</p> + +<p>Besides those immediate serfs and dependents just mentioned, the old +Russian potentate exerted a considerable sway over a numerous and +irregular class of maritime traders, who looked to him for aid and +munitions, and through whom he may be said to have, in some degree, +extended his power along the whole Northwest Coast. These were American +captains of vessels engaged in a particular department of trade. One of +the captains would come, in a manner, empty-handed, to New Archangel. +Here his ship would be furnished with about fifty canoes and a hundred +Kodiak hunters, and fitted out with provisions and everything necessary +for hunting the sea-otter on the coast of California, where the Russians +had another establishment. The ship would ply along the California +coast, from place to place, dropping parties of otter hunters in their +canoes, furnishing them only with water, and leaving them to depend upon +their own dexterity for a maintenance. When a sufficient cargo was +collected, she would gather up her canoes and hunters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> and return with +them to Archangel, where the captain would render in the returns of his +voyage and receive one-half of the skins as his share.</p> + +<p>Over these coasting captains the old governor exerted some sort of sway, +but it was of a peculiar and characteristic kind; it was the tyranny of +the table. They were obliged to join in his "prosnics" or carousals and +his heaviest drinking-bouts. His carousals were of the wildest and +coarsest, his tempers violent, his language strong. "He is continually," +said Mr. Hunt, "giving entertainment by way of parade; and if you do not +drink raw rum, and boiling punch as strong as sulphur, he will insult +you as soon as he gets drunk, which is very shortly after sitting down +at table."</p> + +<p>A "temperance captain" who stood fast to his faith and kept his sobriety +inviolate might go elsewhere for a market; he was not a man after the +governor's heart. Rarely, however, did any captain made of such unusual +stuff darken the doors of Baranoff's high-set castle. The coasting +captains knew too well his humor and their own interests. They joined +with either real or well-affected pleasure in his roistering banquets; +they ate much and drank more; they sang themselves hoarse and drank +themselves under the table; and it is chronicled that never was Baranoff +satisfied until the last-named condition had come to pass. The more the +guests that lay sprawling under the table, upon and over one another, +the more easily were trading arrangements effected with Baranoff later +on.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hunt relates the memorable warning to all "flinchers" which occurred +shortly after his arrival. A young Russian naval officer had recently +been sent out by the Emperor to take command of one of the company's +vessels. The governor invited him to one of his "prosnics" and plied him +with fiery potations. The young officer stoutly maintained his right to +resist—which called out all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> fury of the old ruffian's temper, and +he proceeded to make the youth drink, whether he would or not. As the +guest began to feel the effect of the burning liquors, his own temper +rose to the occasion. He quarrelled violently with his almost royal +host, and expressed his young opinion of him in the plainest +language—if Russian language ever can be plain. For this abuse of what +Baranoff considered his magnificent hospitality, he was given +seventy-nine lashes when he was quite sober enough to appreciate them.</p> + +<p>With all his drinking and prodigal hospitality, Baranoff always managed +to get his own head clear enough for business before sobriety returned +to any of his guests, who were not so accustomed to these wild and +constant revels of their host's; so that he was never caught napping +when it came to bargaining or trading. His own interests were ever +uppermost in his mind, which at such times gave not the faintest +indication of any befuddlement by drink or by licentiousness of other +kinds.</p> + +<p>For more than twenty years Baranoff maintained a princely and despotic +sway over the Russian colonies. His own commands were the only ones to +receive consideration, and but scant attention was given by him to +orders from the Directory itself. Complaints of his rulings and +practices seldom reached Russia. Tyrannical, coarse, shrewd, powerful, +domineering, and of absolutely iron will, all were forced to bow to his +desires, even men who considered themselves his superiors in all save +sheer brute force of will and character. Captain Krusenstern, a +contemporary, in his account of Baranoff, says: "None but vagabonds and +adventurers ever entered the company's services as +Promishléniks;"—uneducated Russian traders, whose inferior vessels were +constructed usually of planks lashed to timbers and calked with moss; +they sailed by dead reckoning, and were men controlled only by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> animal +instincts and passions;—"it was their invariable destiny to pass a life +of wretchedness in America." "Few," adds Krusenstern, "ever had the good +fortune to touch Russian soil again."</p> + +<p>In the light of present American opinion of the advantages and joys of +life in Russia, this naïve remark has an almost grotesque humor. Like +many of the brilliantly successful, but unscrupulous, men of the world, +Baranoff seemed to have been born under a lucky star which ever led him +on. Through all his desperate battles with Indians, his perilous voyages +by sea, and the plottings of subordinates who hated him with a helpless +hate, he came unharmed.</p> + +<p>During his later years at Sitka, Baranoff, weighed down by age, disease, +and the indescribable troubles of his long and faithful service, asked +frequently to be relieved. These requests were ignored, greatly to his +disappointment.</p> + +<p>When, finally, in 1817, Hagemeister was sent out with instructions to +assume command in Baranoff's place, if he deemed it necessary, the +orders were placed before the old governor so suddenly and so +unexpectedly that he was completely prostrated. He was now failing in +mind, as well as body; and in this connection Bancroft adds another +touch of ironical humor, whether intentional or accidental it is +impossible to determine. "One of his symptoms of approaching +imbecility," writes Bancroft, "being in his sudden attachment to the +church. He kept constantly about him the priest who had established the +first church at Sitka, and, urged by his spiritual adviser, made large +donations for religious purposes."</p> + +<p>The effect of the unexpected announcement is supposed to have shortened +Baranoff's days. Lieutenant Yanovsky, of the vessel which had brought +Hagemeister, was placed in charge by the latter as his representative. +Yanovsky fell in love with Baranoff's daughter and married her. It was, +therefore, to his own son-in-law that the old governor at last gave up +the sceptre.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/illo_240.jpg" width="383" height="629" alt="Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle + +"Obleuk," an Eskimo Girl in Parka" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle<br /> + +"Obleuk," an Eskimo Girl in Parka</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>By strength of his unbreakable will alone, he arose from a bed of +illness and painfully and sorrowfully arranged all the affairs of his +office, to the smallest and most insignificant detail, preparatory to +the transfer to his successor.</p> + +<p>It was in January, 1818, that Hagemeister had made known his appointment +to the office of governor; it was not until September that Baranoff had +accomplished his difficult task and turned over the office.</p> + +<p>There was then, and there is to-day, halfway between the site of the +castle and Indian River, a gray stone about three feet high and having a +flat, table-like surface. It stands on the shore beside the hard, white +road. The lovely bay, set with a thousand isles, stretches sparkling +before it; the blue waves break musically along the curving shingle; the +wooded hills rise behind it; the winds murmur among the tall trees.</p> + +<p>The name of this stone is the "blarney" stone. It was a favorite retreat +of Baranoff's and there, when he was sunken in one of his lonely or +despondent moods, he would sit for hours, staring out over the water. +What his thoughts were at such times, only God and he knew,—for not +even his beloved daughter dared to approach him when one of his lone +moods was upon him.</p> + +<p>In the first hour that he was no longer governor of the country he had +ruled so long and so royally, he walked with bowed head along the beach +until he reached his favorite retreat. There he sat himself down and for +hours remained in silent communion with his own soul. He had longed for +relief from his arduous duties, but it had come in a way that had broken +his heart. His government had at last listened to complaints against +him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> and, ungrateful for his long and faithful service, had finally +relieved him with but scant consideration; with an abruptness and a lack +of courtesy that had sorely wounded him.</p> + +<p>Nearly thirty of his best years he had devoted to the company. He had +conquered the savages and placed the fur trade upon a highly profitable +basis; he had built many vessels and had established trading relations +with foreign countries; forts, settlements, and towns had risen at his +indomitable will. Sitka, especially, was his own; her storied splendor, +whose fame has endured through all the years, she owed entirely to him; +she was the city of his heart. He was her creator; his life-blood, his +very heart beats, were in her; and now that the time had really come to +give her up forever, he found the hour of farewell the hardest of his +hard life. No man, of whatsoever material he may be made, nor howsoever +insensible to the influence of beauty he may deem himself to be, could +dwell for twenty years in Sitka without finding, when it came to leaving +her, that the tendrils of her loveliness had twined themselves so +closely about his heart that their breaking could only be accomplished +by the breaking of the heart itself.</p> + +<p>Of his kin, only a brother remained. The offspring of his connection +with a Koloshian woman was now married and settled comfortably. A son by +the same mistress had died. He had first thought of going to his +brother, who lived in Kamchatka; but Golovnin was urging him to return +to Russia, which he had left forty years before. This he had finally +decided to do, it having been made clear to him that he could still be +of service to his country and his beloved colonies by his experience and +advice. Remain in the town he had created and ruled so tyrannically, and +which he still loved so devotedly, he could not. The mere thought of +that was unendurable.</p> + +<p>All was now in readiness for his departure, but the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> man—he was now +seventy-two—had not anticipated that the going would be so hard. The +blue waves came sparkling in from the outer sea and broke on the curving +shingle at his feet; the white and lavender wings of sea-birds floated, +widespread, upon the golden September air; vessels of the fleet he had +built under the most distressing difficulties and disadvantages lay at +anchor under the castle wherein he had banqueted every visitor of any +distinction or position for so many years, and the light from whose +proud tower had guided so many worn voyagers to safety at last; the +yellow, red-roofed buildings, the great ones built of logs, the chapel, +the significant block-houses—all arose out of the wilderness before his +sorrowful eyes, taking on lines of beauty he had never discovered +before.</p> + +<p>From this hour Baranoff failed rapidly from day to day. His time was +spent in bidding farewell to the Russians and natives—to many of whom +he was sincerely attached—and to places which had become endeared to +him by long association. He was frequently found in tears. Those who +have seen fair Sitka rising out of the blue and islanded sea before +their raptured eyes may be able to appreciate and sympathize with the +old governor's emotion as, on the 27th of November, 1818, he stood in +the stern of the <i>Kutusof</i> and watched the beloved city of his creation +fade lingeringly from his view. He was weeping, silently and hopelessly, +as the old weep, when, at last, he turned away.</p> + +<p>Baranoff never again saw Sitka. In March the <i>Kutusof</i> landed at +Batavia, where it remained more than a month. There he was very ill; and +soon after the vessel had again put to sea, he died, like Behring, a sad +and lonely death, far from friends and home. On the 16th of April, 1819, +the waters of the Indian Ocean received the body of Alexander Baranoff.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his many and serious faults, or, possibly because of +their existence in so powerful a character—combined as they were with +such brilliant talent and with so many admirable and conscientious +qualities—Baranoff remains through all the years the most fascinating +figure in the history of the Pacific Coast. None is so well worth study +and close investigation; none is so rich in surprises and delights; none +has the charm of so lone and beautiful a setting. There was no +littleness, no niggardliness, in his nature. "He never knew what avarice +was," wrote Khlebnikof, "and never hoarded riches. He did not wait until +his death to make provision for the living, but gave freely to all who +had any claim upon him."</p> + +<p>He spent money like a prince. He received ten shares of stock in the +company from Shelikoff and was later granted twenty more; but he gave +many of these to his associates who were not so well remunerated for +their faithful services. He provided generously during his life for his +family; and for the families in Russia of many who lost their lives in +the colonies, or who were unable through other misfortunes to perform +their duties in this respect.</p> + +<p>Born of humble parentage in Kargopal, Eastern Russia, in 1747, he had, +at an early age, drifted to Moscow, where he was engaged as a clerk in +retail stores until 1771, when he established himself in business.</p> + +<p>Not meeting with success, he four years later emigrated to Siberia and +undertook the management of a glass factory at Irkutsk. He also +interested himself in other industries; and on account of several +valuable communications to the Civil Economical Society on the subject +of manufacture he was in 1789 elected a member of the society.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 394px;"> +<img src="images/illo_247.jpg" width="394" height="632" alt="Copyright by Dobbs, Nome + +A Northern Madonna" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by Dobbs, Nome<br /> + +A Northern Madonna</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>His life here was a humdrum existence, of which his restless spirit soon +wearied. Acquainting himself with the needs, resources, and +possibilities of Kamchatka, he set out to the eastward with an +assortment of goods and liquors, which he sold to the savages of that +and adjoining countries.</p> + +<p>At first his operations were attended by success; but when, in 1789, two +of his caravans were captured by Chuckchi, he found himself bankrupt, +and soon yielded to Shelikoff's urgent entreaties to try his fortunes in +America.</p> + +<p>Such is the simple early history of this remarkable man. Not one known +descendant of his is living to-day. But men like Baranoff do not need +descendants to perpetuate their names.</p> + +<p>Bancroft is the highest authority on the events of this period, his +assistant being Ivan Petroff, a Russian, who was well-informed on the +history of the colonies.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Many secret reasons have been suspected for the sale of the magnificent +country of Alaska to the United States for so paltry a sum.</p> + +<p>The only revenue, however, that Russia derived from the colonies was +through the rich fur trade; and when, after Baranoff's death, this trade +declined and its future seemed hopeless, the country's vast mineral +wealth being unsuspected, Russia found herself in humor to consider any +offer that might be of immediate profit to herself. For seven millions +and two hundred thousands of dollars Russia cheerfully, because +unsuspectingly, yielded one of the most marvellously rich and beautiful +countries of the world—its valleys yellow with gold, its mountains +green with copper and thickly veined with coal, its waters alive with +fish and fur-bearing animals, its scenery sublime—to the scornful and +unappreciative United States.</p> + +<p>As early as the fifties it became rumored that Russia,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> foreseeing the +entire decline of the fur trade, considered Alaska a white elephant upon +its hands, and that an offer for its purchase would not meet with +disfavor. The matter was discussed in Washington at various times, but +it was not until 1866 that it was seriously considered. The people of +the present state of Washington were among those most desirous of its +purchase; and there was rumor of the organization of a trading company +of the Pacific Coast for the purpose of purchasing the rights of the +Russian-American Company and acquiring the lease of the <i>lisière</i> which +was to expire in 1868. The Russian-American Company was then, however, +awaiting the reply of the Hudson Bay Company concerning a renewal of the +lease; and the matter drifted on until, in the spring of 1867, the +Russian minister opened negotiations for the purchase of the country +with Mr. Seward. There was some difficulty at first over the price, but +the matter was one presenting so many mutual advantages that this was +soon satisfactorily arranged.</p> + +<p>On Friday evening, March 25, 1867, Mr. Seward was playing whist with +members of his family when the Russian minister was announced. Baron +Stoeckl stated that he had received a despatch from his government by +cable, conveying the consent of the Emperor to the cession.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," he added, "I will come to the department, and we can enter +upon the treaty."</p> + +<p>With a smile of satisfaction, Seward replied:—</p> + +<p>"Why wait till to-morrow? Let us make the treaty to-night."</p> + +<p>"But your department is closed. You have no clerks, and my secretaries +are scattered about the town."</p> + +<p>"Never mind that," said Seward; "if you can muster your legation +together before midnight, you will find me awaiting you at the +department."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>By four o'clock on the following morning the treaty was engrossed, +sealed, and ready for transmission by the President to the Senate. The +end of the session was approaching, and there was need of haste in order +to secure action upon it.</p> + +<p>Leutze painted this historic scene. Mr. Seward is seen sitting at his +table, pen in hand, listening to the Russian minister. The gaslight, +streaming down on the table, illuminates the outline of "the great +country."</p> + +<p>When, immediately afterward, the treaty was presented for consideration +in the Senate, Charles Sumner delivered his famous and splendid oration +which stands as one of the masterpieces of history, and which revealed +an enlightened knowledge and understanding of Alaska that were +remarkable at that time—and which probably surpassed those of Seward. +Among other clear and beautiful things he said:—</p> + +<p>"The present treaty is a visible step in the occupation of the whole +North American Continent. As such it will be recognized by the world and +accepted by the American people. But the treaty involves something more. +By it we dismiss one more monarch from this continent. One by one they +have retired; first France, then Spain, then France again, and now +Russia—all giving way to that absorbing unity which is declared in the +national motto: <i>E pluribus unum.</i>"</p> + +<p>There is yet one more monarch to be retired, in all kindness and +good-will, from our continent; and that event will take place when our +brother-Canadians unite with us in deed as they already have in spirit.</p> + +<p>For years the purchase was unpopular, and was ridiculed by the press and +in conversation. Alaska was declared to be a "barren, worthless, +God-forsaken region," whose only products were "icebergs and polar +bears"; vegetation was "confined to mosses"; and "Walrussia"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> was +wittily suggested as an appropriate name for our new possession—as well +as "Icebergia"; but in the face of all the opposition and ridicule, +those two great Americans, Seward and Sumner, stood firmly for the +acquisition of this splendid country. They looked through the mist of +their own day and saw the day that is ours.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + + +<p>Since Sitka first dawned upon my sight on a June day, in her setting of +vivid green and glistening white, she has been one of my dearest +memories. Four times in all have the green islands drifted apart to let +her rise from the blue sea before my enchanted eyes; and with each visit +she has grown more dear, and her memory more tormenting.</p> + +<p>Something gives Sitka a different look and atmosphere from any other +town. It may be her whiteness, glistening against the rich green +background of forest and hill, with the whiteness of the mountains +shining in the higher lights; or it may be the severely white and plain +Greek church, rising in the centre of the main street, not more than a +block from the water, that gives Sitka her chaste and immaculate +appearance.</p> + +<p>No buildings obstruct the view of the church from the water. There it +is, in the form of a Greek cross, with its green roof, steeple, and +bulbous dome.</p> + +<p>This church is generally supposed to be the one that Baranoff built at +the beginning of the century; but this is not true. Baranoff did build a +small chapel, but it was in 1848 that the foundation of the present +church was laid—almost thirty years after the death of Baranoff. It was +under the special protection of the Czar, who, with other members of the +imperial family, sent many costly furnishings and ornaments.</p> + +<p>Veniaminoff—who was later made Archpriest, and still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> later the +Archbishop of Kamchatka, and during the last years of his noble life, +the Metropolitan of Moscow—sent many of the rich vestments, paintings, +and furnishings. The chime of silvery bells was also sent from Moscow.</p> + +<p>Upon landing at Sitka, one is confronted by the old log storehouse of +the Russians. This is an immense building, barricading the wharf from +the town. A narrow, dark, gloomy passage-way, or alley, leads through +the centre of this building. It seems as long as an ordinary city square +to the bewildered stranger groping through its shadows.</p> + +<p>In front of this building, and inside both ends of the passage as far as +the light reaches, squat squaws, young and old, pretty and hideous, +starry-eyed and no-eyed, saucy and kind, arrogant and humble, taciturn +and voluble, vivacious and weary-faced. Surely no known variety of squaw +may be asked for and not found in this long line that reaches from the +wharf to the green-roofed church.</p> + +<p>There is no night so wild and tempestuous, and no hour of any night so +late, or of any morning so early, that the passenger hastening ashore is +not greeted by this long line of dark-faced women. They sit like so many +patient, noiseless statues, with their tempting wares clustered around +the flat, "toed-in" feet of each.</p> + +<p>Not only is this true of Sitka, but of every landing-place on the whole +coast where dwells an Indian or an Aleut that has something to sell. +Long before the boat lands, their gay shawls by day, or their dusky +outlines by night, are discovered from the deck of the steamer.</p> + +<p>How they manage it, no ship's officer can tell; for the whistle is +frequently not blown until the boat is within a few yards of the shore. +Yet there they are, waiting!</p> + +<p>Sometimes, at night, they appear simultaneously, fluttering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> down into +their places, swiftly and noiselessly, like a flock of birds settling +down to rest for a moment in their flight.</p> + +<p>Some of these women are dressed in skirts and waists, but the majority +are wrapped in the everlasting gay blankets. No lip or nose ornaments +are seen, even in the most aged. Two or three men are scattered down the +line, to guard the women from being cheated.</p> + +<p>These tall and lordly creatures strut noiselessly and superciliously +about, clucking out guttural advice to the squaws, as well as, to all +appearances, the frankest criticism of the persons examining their wares +with a view to purchasing.</p> + +<p>The women are very droll, and apparently have a keen sense of humor; and +one is sure to have considerable fun poked at one, going down the line.</p> + +<p>Mild-tempered people do not take umbrage at this ridicule; in fact, they +rather enjoy it. Being one of them, I lost my temper only once. A young +squaw offered me a wooden dish, explaining in broken English that it was +an old eating dish.</p> + +<p>It had a flat handle with a hole in it; and as cooking and eating +utensils are never washed, it had the horrors of ages encrusted within +it to the depth of an inch or more.</p> + +<p>This, of course, only added to its value. I paid her a dollar for it, +and had just taken it up gingerly and shudderingly with the tips of my +fingers, when, to my amazement and confusion, the girl who had sold it +to me, two older women who were squatting near, and a tall man leaning +against the wall, all burst simultaneously into jeering and +uncontrollable laughter.</p> + +<p>As I gazed at them suspiciously and with reddening face, the young woman +pointed a brown and unclean finger at me; while, as for the chorus of +chuckles and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> duckings that assailed my ears—I hope I may never hear +their like again.</p> + +<p>To add to my embarrassment, some passengers at that moment approached.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Sally," said one; "what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>Laughing too heartily to reply, she pointed at the wooden dish, which I +was vainly trying to hide. They all looked, saw, and laughed with the +Indians.</p> + +<p>For a week afterward they smiled every time they looked at me; and I do +believe that every man, woman, and child on the steamer came, smiling, +to my cabin to see my "buy." But the ridicule of my kind was as nothing +compared to that of the Indians themselves. To be "taken in" by the +descendant of a Koloshian, and then jeered at to one's very face!</p> + +<p>The only possession of an Alaskan Indian that may not be purchased is a +rosary. An attempt to buy one is met with glances of aversion.</p> + +<p>"It has been <i>blessed</i>!" one woman said, almost in a whisper.</p> + +<p>But they have most beautiful long strings of big, evenly cut, +sapphire-blue beads. They call them Russian beads, and point out certain +ones which were once used as money among the Indians.</p> + +<p>Their wares consist chiefly of baskets; but there are also immense +spoons carved artistically out of the horns of mountain sheep; richly +beaded moccasins of many different materials; carved and gayly painted +canoes and paddles of the fragrant Alaska cedar or Sitka pine; +totem-poles carved out of dark gray slate stone; lamps, carved out of +wood and inlaid with a fine pearl-like shell. These are formed like +animals, with the backs hollowed to hold oil. There are silver spoons, +rings, bracelets, and chains, all delicately traced with totemic +designs; knives, virgin charms, Chilkaht blankets, and now and then a +genuine old spear, or bow and arrow, that proves the dearest treasure of +all.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;"> +<img src="images/illo_256.jpg" width="390" height="632" alt="Copyright by Dobbs, Nome + +Eskimo Lad in Parka and Mukluks" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by Dobbs, Nome<br /> + +Eskimo Lad in Parka and Mukluks</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>Old wooden, or bone, gambling sticks, finely carved, polished to a satin +finish, and sometimes inlaid with fragments of shell, or burnt with +totemic designs, are also greatly to be desired.</p> + +<p>The main features of interest in Sitka are the Greek-Russian church and +the walk along the beach to Indian River Park.</p> + +<p>A small admission fee is charged at the church door. This goes to the +poor-fund of the parish. It is the only church in Alaska that charges a +regular fee, but in all the others there are contribution boxes. When +one has, with burning cheeks, seen his fellow-Americans drop dimes and +nickels into the boxes of these churches, which have been specially +opened at much inconvenience for their accommodation, he is glad to see +the fifty-cent fee at the door charged.</p> + +<p>There are no seats in the church. The congregation stands or kneels +during the entire service. There are three sanctuaries and as many +altars. The chief sanctuary is the one in the middle, and it is +dedicated to the Archi-Strategos Michael.</p> + +<p>The sanctuary is separated from the body of the church by a +screen—which has a "shaky" look, by the way—adorned with twelve ikons, +or images, in costly silver and gold casings, artistically chased.</p> + +<p>The middle door leading into the sanctuary is called the Royal Gates, +because through it the Holy Sacrament, or Eucharist, is carried out to +the faithful. It is most beautifully carved and decorated. Above it is a +magnificent ikon, representing the Last Supper. The heavy silver casing +is of great value. The casings alone of the twelve ikons on the screen +cost many thousands of dollars.</p> + +<p>An interesting story is attached to the one of the patron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> saint of the +church, the Archangel Michael. The ship <i>Neva</i>, on her way to Sitka, was +wrecked at the base of Mount Edgecumbe. A large and valuable cargo was +lost, but the ikon was miraculously cast upon the beach, uninjured.</p> + +<p>Many of the ikons and other adornments of the church were presented by +the survivors of wrecked vessels; others by illustrious friends in +Russia. One that had paled and grown dim was restored by Mrs. Emmons, +the wife of Lieutenant Emmons, whose work in Alaska was of great value.</p> + +<p>When the Royal Gates are opened the entire sanctuary—or Holy of Holies, +in which no woman is permitted to set foot, lest it be defiled—may be +seen.</p> + +<p>To one who does not understand the significance of the various objects, +the sanctuary proves a disappointment until the splendid old vestments +of cloth of gold and silver are brought out. These were the personal +gifts of the great Baranoff. They are exceedingly rich and sumptuous, as +is the bishop's stole, made of cloth woven of heavy silver threads.</p> + +<p>The left-hand chapel is consecrated to "Our Lady of Kazan." It is +adorned with several ikons, one of which, "The Mother of God," is at +once the most beautiful and the most valuable object in the church. An +offer of fifteen thousand dollars was refused for it. The large dark +eyes of the madonna are so filled with sorrowful tenderness and passion +that they cannot be forgotten. They follow one about the chapel; and +after he has gone out into the fresh air and the sunlight he still feels +them upon him. Those mournful eyes hold a message that haunts the one +who has once tried to read it. The appeal which the unknown Russian +artist has painted into them produces an effect that is enduring.</p> + +<p>But most precious of all to me were those objects, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> whatsoever value, +which were presented by Innocentius, the Metropolitan of Moscow, the +Noble and the Devoted. If ever a man went forth in search of the Holy +Grail, it was he; and if ever a man came near finding the Holy Grail, it +was, likewise, he.</p> + +<p>From Sitka to Unalaska, and up the Yukon so far as the Russian influence +goes, his name is still murmured with a veneration that is almost +adoration.</p> + +<p>Historians know him and praise him, without a dissenting voice, as +Father Veniaminoff; for it was under this simple and unassuming title +that the pure, earnest, and devout young Russian came to the colonies in +1823, carrying the high, white light of his faith to the wretched +natives, among whom his life work was to be, from that time on, almost +to the end.</p> + +<p>No man has ever done as much for the natives of Alaska as he, not even +Mr. Duncan. His heart being all love and his nature all tenderness, he +grew to love the gentle Aleutians and Sitkans, and so won their love and +trust in return.</p> + +<p>In the Sitka church is a very costly and splendid vessel, used for the +Eucharist, which was once stolen, but afterward returned. There are +censers of pure silver and chaste design, which tinkle musically as they +swing.</p> + +<p>A visit to the building of the Russian Orthodox Mission is also +interesting. There will be found some of the personal belongings of +Father Veniaminoff—his clock, a writing-desk which was made by his own +hands, of massive and enduring workmanship, and several articles of +furniture; also the ikon which once adorned his cell—a gift of Princess +Potemkin.</p> + +<p>Sir George Simpson describes an Easter festival at Sitka in 1842. He +found all the people decked in festal attire upon his arrival at nine +o'clock in the morning. They were also, men and women, quite "tipsy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>Upon arriving at Governor Etholin's residence, he was ushered into the +great banqueting room, where a large party was rising from breakfast. +This party was composed of the bishop and priests, the Lutheran +clergyman, the naval officers, the secretaries, business men, and +masters and mates of vessels,—numbering in all about seventy,—all +arrayed in uniforms or, at the least, in elegant dress.</p> + +<p>From morning till night Sir George was compelled to "run a gantlet of +kisses." When two persons met, one said, "Christ is risen"—and this was +a signal for prolonged kissing. "Some of them," adds Sir George, +naïvely, "were certainly pleasant enough; but many, even when the +performers were of the fair sex, were perhaps too highly flavored for +perfect comfort."</p> + +<p>He was likewise compelled to accept many hard-boiled, gilded eggs, as +souvenirs.</p> + +<p>During the whole week every bell in the chimes of the church rang +incessantly—from morning to night, from night to morning; and poor Sir +George found the jangling of "these confounded bells" harder to endure +than the eggs or the kisses.</p> + +<p>Sir George extolled the virtues of the bishop—Veniaminoff. His +appearance impressed the Governor-in-Chief with awe; his talents and +attainments seemed worthy of his already exalted station; while the +gentleness which characterized his every word and deed insensibly +moulded reverence into love.</p> + +<p>Whymper visited Sitka in 1865, and found Russian hospitality under the +administration of Matsukoff almost as lavish as during Baranoff's famous +reign.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 619px;"> +<img src="images/illo_263.jpg" width="619" height="435" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Scales and Summit of Chilkoot Pass in 1898" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Scales and Summit of Chilkoot Pass in 1898</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Russian hospitality is proverbial," remarks Whymper, "and we all +somewhat suffered therefrom. The first phrase of their language acquired +by us was 'petnatchit copla'—fifteen drops." This innocently sounding +phrase really meant a good half-tumbler of some undiluted liquor, +ranging from cognac to raw vodhka, which was pressed upon the visitors +upon every available occasion. A refusal to drink meant an insult to +their host; and they were often sorely put to it to carry gracefully the +burden of entertainment which they dared not decline.</p> + +<p>The big brass samovar was in every household, and they were compelled to +drink strong Russian tea, served by the tumblerful. Balls, banquets, and +fêtes in the gardens of the social clubs were given in their honor; +while their fleet of four vessels in the harbor was daily visited by +large numbers of Russian ladies and gentlemen from the town.</p> + +<p>At all seasons of the year the tables of the higher classes were +supplied with game, chickens, pork, vegetables, berries, and every +luxury obtainable; while the food of the common laborers was, in summer, +fresh fish, and in winter, salt fish.</p> + +<p>Sir George Simpson attended a Koloshian funeral at Sitka, or New +Archangel, in 1842. The body of the deceased, arrayed in the gayest of +apparel, lay in state for two or three days, during which time the +relatives fasted and bewailed their loss. At the end of this period, the +body was placed on a funeral pyre, round which the relatives gathered, +their faces painted black and their hair covered with eagles' down. The +pipe was passed around several times; and then, in obedience to a secret +sign, the fire was kindled in several places at once. Wailings and loud +lamentations, accompanied by ceaseless drumming, continued until the +pyre was entirely consumed. The ashes were, at last, collected into an +ornamental box, which was elevated on a scaffold. Many of these +monuments were seen on the side of a neighboring hill.</p> + +<p>A wedding witnessed at about the same time was quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> as interesting as +the funeral, presenting several unique features. A good-looking Creole +girl, named Archimanditoffra, married the mate of a vessel lying in +port.</p> + +<p>Attended by their friends and the more important residents of Sitka, the +couple proceeded at six o'clock in the evening to the church, where a +tiresome service, lasting an hour and a half, was solemnized by a +priest.</p> + +<p>The bridegroom then led his bride to the ballroom. The most startling +feature of this wedding was of Russian, rather than savage, origin. The +person compelled to bear all the expense of the wedding was chosen to +give the bride away; and no man upon whom this honor was conferred ever +declined it.</p> + +<p>This custom might be followed with beneficial results to-day, a bachelor +being always honored, until, in sheer self-defence, many a young man +would prefer to pay for his own wedding to constantly paying for the +wedding of some other man. It is more polite than the proposed tax on +bachelors.</p> + +<p>At this wedding the beauty and fashion of Sitka were assembled. The +ladies were showily attired in muslin dresses, white satin shoes, silk +stockings, and kid gloves; they wore flowers and carried white fans.</p> + +<p>The ball was opened by the bride and the highest officer present; and +quadrille followed waltz in rapid succession until daylight.</p> + +<p>The music was excellent; and the unfortunate host and paymaster of the +ceremonies carried out his part like a prince. Tea, coffee, chocolate, +and champagne were served generously, varied with delicate foods, +"petnatchit coplas" of strong liquors, and expensive cigars.</p> + +<p>According to the law of the church, the bridesmaids and bridesmen were +prohibited from marrying each other; but, owing to the limitations in +Sitka, a special dispensation had been granted, permitting such +marriages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>From the old Russian cemetery on the hill, a panoramic view is obtained +of the town, the harbor, the blue water-ways winding among the green +islands to the ocean, and the snow mountains floating above the pearly +clouds on all sides. In a quiet corner of the cemetery rests the first +Princess Matsukoff, an Englishwoman, who graced the "Castle on the Rock" +ere she died, in the middle sixties. Her successor was young, beautiful, +and gay; and her reign was as brilliant as it was brief. She it was who, +through bitter and passionate tears, dimly beheld the Russian flag +lowered from its proud place on the castle's lofty flagstaff and the +flag of the United States sweeping up in its stead. But the first proud +Princess Matsukoff slept on in her quiet resting-place beside the blue +and alien sea, and grieved not.</p> + +<p>From all parts of the harbor and the town is seen the kekoor, the "rocky +promontory," from which Baranoff and Lisiansky drove the Koloshians +after the massacre, and upon which Baranoff's castle later stood.</p> + +<p>It rises abruptly to a height of about eighty feet, and is ascended by a +long flight of wooden steps.</p> + +<p>The first castle was burned; another was erected, and was destroyed by +earthquake; was rebuilt, and was again destroyed—the second time by +fire. The eminence is now occupied by the home of Professor Georgeson, +who conducts the government agricultural experimental work in Alaska.</p> + +<p>The old log trading house which is on the right side of the street +leading to the church is wearing out at last. On some of the old +buildings patches of modern weather-boarding mingle with the massive and +ancient logs, producing an effect that is almost grotesque.</p> + +<p>In the old hotel Lady Franklin once rested with an uneasy heart, during +the famous search for her husband.</p> + +<p>The barracks and custom-house front on a vivid green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> parade ground that +slopes to the water. Slender gravelled roads lead across this well-kept +green to the quarters and to the building formerly occupied by Governor +Brady as the Executive Offices. His residence is farther on, around the +bay, in the direction of the Indian village.</p> + +<p>There are fine fur and curio stores on the main street.</p> + +<p>The homes of Sitka are neat and attractive. The window boxes and +carefully tended gardens are brilliant with bloom in summer.</p> + +<p>Passing through the town, one soon reaches the hard, white road that +leads along the curving shingle to Indian River. The road curves with +the beach and goes glimmering on ahead, until it disappears in the green +mist of the forest.</p> + +<p>Surely no place on this fair earth could less deserve the offensive name +of "park" than the strip of land bordering Indian River,—five hundred +feet wide on one bank, and two hundred and fifty feet on the other, +between the falls and the low plain where it pours into the sea,—which +in 1890 was set aside for this purpose.</p> + +<p>It has been kept undefiled. There is not a sign, nor a painted seat, nor +a little stiff flower bed in it. There is not a striped paper bag, nor a +peanut shell, nor the peel of an orange anywhere.</p> + +<p>It must be that only those people who live on beauty, instead of food, +haunt this beautiful spot.</p> + +<p>The spruce, the cedar, and the pine grow gracefully and luxuriantly, +their lacy branches spreading out flat and motionless upon the still +air, tapering from the ground to a fine point. The hard road, +velvet-napped with the spicy needles of centuries, winds through them +and under them, the branches often touching the wayfarer's bared head.</p> + +<p>The devil's-club grows tall and large; there are thickets of +salmon-berry and thimbleberry; there are banks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> velvety green, and +others blue with violets; there are hedges of wild roses, the bloom +looking in the distance like an amethyst cloud floating upon the green.</p> + +<p>The Alaskan thimbleberry is the most delicious berry that grows. Large, +scarlet, velvety, yet evanescent, it scarcely touches the tongue ere its +ravishing flavor has become a memory.</p> + +<p>The vegetation is all of tropical luxuriance, and, owing to its constant +dew and mist baths, it is of an intense and vivid green that is fairly +dazzling where the sun touches it. One of the chief charms of the wooded +reserve is its stillness—broken only by the musical rush of waters and +the lyrical notes of birds. A kind of lavender twilight abides beneath +the trees, and, with the narrow, spruce-aisled vistas that open at every +turn, gives one a sensation as of being in some dim and scented +cathedral.</p> + +<p>Enticing paths lead away from the main road to the river, where the +voices of rapids and cataracts call; but at last one comes to an open +space, so closely walled round on all sides by the forest that it may +easily be passed without being seen—and to which one makes his way with +difficulty, pushing aside branches of trees and tall ferns as he +proceeds.</p> + +<p>Here, producing an effect that is positively uncanny, are several great +totems, shining out brilliantly from their dark green setting.</p> + +<p>One experiences that solemn feeling which every one has known, as of +standing among the dead; the shades of Baranoff, Behring, Lisiansky, +Veniaminoff, Chirikoff,—all the unknown murdered ones, too,—go +drifting noiselessly, with reproachful faces, through the dim wood.</p> + +<p>It was on the beach near this grove of totems that Lisiansky's men were +murdered by Koloshians in 1804, while obtaining water for the ship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Sitka Industrial Training School was founded nearly thirty years ago +by ex-Governor Brady, who was then a missionary to the Indians of +Alaska.</p> + +<p>It was first attended by about one hundred natives, ranging from the +very young to the very old. This school was continued, with varied +success, by different people—including Captain Glass, of the +<i>Jamestown</i>—until Dr. Sheldon Jackson became interested, and, with Mr. +Brady and Mr. Austin, sought and obtained aid from the Board of Home +Missions of the Presbyterian Church.</p> + +<p>A building was erected for a Boys' Home, and this was followed, a year +later, by a Girls' Home.</p> + +<p>The girls were taught to speak the English language, cook, wash, iron, +sew, mend, and to become cleanly, cheerful, honest, honorable women.</p> + +<p>The boys were taught to speak the English language; the trades of +shoemaking, coopering, boat-building, carpentry, engineering, +rope-making, and all kinds of agricultural work. The rudiments of +bricklaying, painting, and paper-hanging are also taught.</p> + +<p>During the year 1907 a Bible Training Department was added for those +among the older boys and girls who desired to obtain knowledge along +such lines, or who aspired to take up missionary work among their +people.</p> + +<p>Twelve pupils took up the work, and six continued it throughout the +year. The work in this department is, of course, voluntary on the part +of the student.</p> + +<p>The Sitka Training School is not, at present, a government school. +During the early nineties it received aid from the government, under the +government's method of subsidizing denominational schools, where they +were already established, instead of incurring the extra expense of +establishing new government schools in the same localities.</p> + +<p>When the government ceased granting such subsidies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> the Sitka +School—as well as many other denominational schools—lost this +assistance.</p> + +<p>The property of the school has always belonged to the Presbyterian Board +of Home Missions.</p> + +<p>For many years it was customary to keep pupils at the schools from their +entrance until their education was finished.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1905 the experiment was tried of permitting a few +pupils to go to their homes during vacation. All returned in September +cheerfully and willingly; and now, each summer, more than seventy boys +and girls return to their homes to spend the time of vacation with their +families.</p> + +<p>In former years, it would have been too injurious to the child to be +subjected to the influence of its parents, who were but slightly removed +from savagery. To-day, although many of the old heathenish rites and +customs still exist, they have not so deep a hold upon the natives; and +it is hoped, and expected, that the influence of the students for good +upon their people will far exceed that of their people for ill upon +them.</p> + +<p>During the past year ninety boys and seventy-four girls were +enrolled—or as many as can be accommodated at the schools. They +represent the three peoples into which the Indians of southeastern +Alaska are now roughly divided—the Thlinkits, the Haidahs, and the +Tsimpsians. They come from Katalla, Yakutat, Skagway, Klukwan, Haines, +Douglas, Juneau, Kasa-an, Howkan, Metlakahtla, Hoonah—and, indeed, from +almost every point in southeastern Alaska where a handful of Indians are +gathered together.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + + +<p>The many people who innocently believe that there are no birds in Alaska +may be surprised to learn that there are, at least, fifty different +species in the southeastern part of that country.</p> + +<p>Among these are the song sparrow, the rufous humming-bird, the western +robin, of unfailing cheeriness, the russet-backed thrush, the barn +swallow, the golden-crowned kinglet, the Oregon Junco, the winter wren, +and the bird that, in liquid clearness and poignant sweetness of note, +is second only to the western meadow-lark—the poetic hermit thrush.</p> + +<p>He that has heard the impassioned notes of this shy bird rising from the +woods of Sitka will smile at the assertion that there are no birds in +Alaska.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>On the way to Indian River is the museum, whose interesting and valuable +contents were gathered chiefly by Sheldon Jackson, and which still bears +his name.</p> + +<p>Dr. Jackson has been the general Agent of Education in Alaska since +1885, and the Superintendent of Presbyterian Missions since 1877. His +work in Alaska in early years was, undoubtedly, of great value.</p> + +<p>The museum stands in an evergreen grove, not far from the road. Here may +be found curios and relics of great value. It is to be regretted, +however, that many of the articles are labelled with the names of +collectors instead of those of the real donors—at least, this is the +information voluntarily given me by some of the donors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the collection is an interesting war bonnet, which was donated by +Chief Kath-le-an, who planned and carried out the siege of 1878.</p> + +<p>It was owned by one of Kath-le-an's ancestors. It is made of wood, +carved into a raven's head. It has been worked and polished until the +shell is more like velvet than wood, and is dyed black.</p> + +<p>It was many years ago a polite custom of the Thlinkits to paint and oil +the face of a visitor, as a matter of hospitality and an indication of +friendly feeling and respect.</p> + +<p>A visitor from another tribe to Sitka fell ill and died, shortly after +having been so oiled and honored, and his people claimed that the oil +was rancid,—or that some evil spell had been oiled into him,—and a war +arose.</p> + +<p>The Sitka tribe began the preparation of the raven war bonnet and worked +upon it all summer, while actual hostilities were delayed.</p> + +<p>As winter came on, Kath-le-an's ancestor one day addressed his young +men, telling them that the new war bonnet on his head would serve as a +talisman to carry them to a glorious victory over their enemies.</p> + +<p>Through the battle that followed, the war bonnet was everywhere to be +seen in the centre of the most furious fighting. Only once did it go +down, and then only for a moment, when the chief struggled to his feet; +and as his young men saw the symbol of victory rising from the dust, the +thrill of renewed hope that went through them impelled them forward in +one splendid, simultaneous movement that won the day.</p> + +<p>In 1804 Kath-le-an himself wore the hat when his people were besieged +for many days by the Russians.</p> + +<p>On this occasion the spell of the war bonnet was broken; and upon his +utter defeat, Kath-le-an, feeling that it had lost its charm for good +luck, buried the unfortunate symbol in the woods.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many years afterward Kath-le-an exhumed the hat and presented it to the +museum.</p> + +<p>"We will hereafter dwell in peace with the white people," he said; "so +my young men will never again need the war bonnet."</p> + +<p>Kath-le-an has to this day kept his word. He is still alive, but is +nearly ninety years old.</p> + +<p>Interesting stories and myths are connected with a large number of the +relics in the museum—to which the small admission fee of fifty cents is +asked.</p> + +<p>One of the early picturesque block-houses built by the Russians still +stands in a good state of preservation on a slight eminence above the +town, on the way to the old cemetery.</p> + +<p>The story of the lowering of the Russian flag, and the hoisting of the +American colors at Sitka, is fraught with significance to the +superstitious.</p> + +<p>The steamship <i>John L. Stevens</i>, carrying United States troops from San +Francisco, arrived in Sitka Harbor on the morning of October 9, 1867. +The gunboats <i>Jamestown</i> and <i>Resaca</i> had already arrived and were lying +at anchor. The <i>Ossipee</i> did not enter the harbor until the morning of +the eighteenth.</p> + +<p>At three o'clock of the same day the command of General Jefferson C. +Davis, about two hundred and fifty strong, in full uniform, armed and +handsomely equipped, were landed, and marched to the heights where the +famous Governor's Castle stood. Here they were met by a company of +Russian soldiers who took their place upon the left of the flagstaff.</p> + +<p>The command of General Davis formed on the right. The United States +flag, which was to float for the first time in possession of Sitka, was +in the care of a color guard—a lieutenant, a sergeant, and ten men.</p> + +<p>Besides the officers and troops, there were present the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> Prince and +Princess Matsukoff, many Russian and American residents, and some +interested Indians.</p> + +<p>It was arranged by Captain Pestchouroff and General Lovell N. Rosseau, +Commissioner for the United States, that the United States should lead +in firing the first salute, but that there should be alternate guns from +the American and Russian batteries—thus giving the flag of each nation +a double national salute.</p> + +<p>The ceremony was begun by the lowering of the Russian flag—which caused +the princess to burst into passionate weeping, while all the Russians +gazed upon their colors with the deepest sorrow and regret marked upon +their faces.</p> + +<p>As the battery of the <i>Ossipee</i> led off in the salute and the deep peals +crashed upon Mount Verstovi and reverberated across the bay, an accident +occurred which has ever been considered an omen of misfortune.</p> + +<p>The Russian flag became entangled about the ropes, owing to a high wind, +and refused to be lowered.</p> + +<p>The staff was a native pine, about ninety feet in height. Russian +soldiers, who were sailors as well, at once set out to climb the pole. +It was so far to the flag, however, that their strength failed ere they +reached it.</p> + +<p>A "boatswain's chair" was hastily rigged of rope, and another Russian +soldier was hoisted to the flag. On reaching it, he untangled it and +then made the mistake of dropping it to the ground, not understanding +Captain Pestchouroff's energetic commands to the contrary.</p> + +<p>It fell upon the bayonets of the Russian soldiers—which was considered +an ill omen for Russia.</p> + +<p>The United States flag was then slowly hoisted by George Lovell Rosseau, +and the salutes were fired as before, the Russian water battery leading +this time.</p> + +<p>The hoisting of the flag was so timed that at the exact instant of its +reaching its place, the report of the last big gun of the <i>Ossipee</i> +roared out its final salute.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>Upon the completion of the salutes, Captain Pestchouroff approached the +commissioner and said:—</p> + +<p>"General Rosseau, by authority of his Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, I +transfer to the United States the Territory of Alaska."</p> + +<p>The transfer was simply accepted, and the ceremony was at an end.</p> + +<p>No one understanding the American spirit can seriously condemn the +Americans present for the three cheers which burst spontaneously forth; +yet there are occasions upon which an exhibition of good taste, +repression, and consideration for the people of other nationalities +present is more admirable and commendable than a spread-eagle burst of +patriotism.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last trouble caused by the Sitkan Indians was in 1878. The sealing +schooner <i>San Diego</i> carried among its crew seven men of the +Kake-sat-tee clan. The schooner was wrecked and six of the Kake-sat-tees +were drowned. Chief Kath-le-an demanded of Colonel M. D. Ball, collector +of customs and, at that time, the only representative of the government +in Sitka, one thousand blankets for the life of each man drowned.</p> + +<p>Colonel Ball, appreciating the gravity of the situation, and desiring +time to prepare for the attack which he knew would be made upon the +town, promised to write to the company in San Francisco and to the +government in Washington.</p> + +<p>After a long delay a reply to his letter arrived from the company, which +refused, as he had expected, to allow the claim, and stated that no +wages, even, were due the men who were drowned.</p> + +<p>The government—which at that time had a vague idea that Alaska was a +great iceberg floating between America and Siberia—paid no attention to +the plea for assistance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Chief Kath-le-an learned that payment in blankets would not be +made, he demanded the lives of six white men. This, also, being refused, +he withdrew to prepare for battle.</p> + +<p>Then hasty preparations were made in the settlement to meet the hourly +expected attack. All the firearms were made ready for action, and a +guard kept watch day and night. The Russian women and children were +quartered in the home of Father Nicolai Metropolsky; the Americans in +the custom-house.</p> + +<p>The Indians held their war feast many miles from Sitka. On their way to +attack the village they passed the White Sulphur Hot Springs, on the +eastern shore of Baranoff Island, and murdered the man in charge.</p> + +<p>They then demanded the lives of five white men, and when their demand +was again refused, they marched stealthily upon the settlement.</p> + +<p>However, Sitka possessed a warm and faithful friend in the person of +Anna-Hoots, Chief of the Kak-wan-tans. He and his men met the hostile +party and, while attempting to turn them aside from their murderous +purpose, a general fight among the two clans was precipitated.</p> + +<p>Before the Kake-sat-tees could again advance, a mail-boat arrived, and +the war passion simmered.</p> + +<p>When the boat sailed, a petition was sent to the British authorities at +Esquimault, asking, for humanity's sake, that assistance be sent to +Sitka.</p> + +<p>Kath-le-an had retreated for reënforcement; and on the eve of his return +to make a second attack, H.M.S. <i>Osprey</i> arrived in the harbor.</p> + +<p>The appeal to another nation for aid, and the bitter newspaper criticism +of its own indifference, had at last aroused the United States +government to a realization of its responsibilities. The revenue cutter +<i>Wolcott</i> dropped anchor in the Sitka Harbor a few days after the +<i>Osprey</i>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> and from that time on Sitka was not left without protection.</p> + +<p>Along the curving road to Indian River stands the soft gray Episcopal +Church, St. Peter's-by-the-Sea. Built of rough gray stone and shingles, +it is an immediate pleasure and rest to the eye.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Its doors stand open to the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wind goes thro' at will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bears the scent of brine and blue<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the far emerald hill."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Any stranger may enter alone, and passing into any pew, may kneel in +silent communion with the God who has created few things on this earth +more beautiful than Sitka.</p> + +<p>No admission is asked. The church is free to the prince and the pauper, +the sinner and the saint; to those of every creed, and to those of no +creed at all.</p> + +<p>The church has no rector, but is presided over by P. T. Rowe, the Bishop +of All Alaska and the Beloved of All Men; him who carries over land and +sea, over ice and everlasting snow, over far tundra wastes and down the +lone and mighty Yukon in his solitary canoe or bidarka, by dog team and +on foot, to white people and dark, and to whomsoever needs—the simple, +sweet, and blessed message of Love.</p> + +<p>It was in 1895 that Reverend P. T. Rowe, Rector of St. James' Church, +Sault Sainte Marie, was confirmed as Bishop of Alaska. He went at once +to that far and unknown land; and of him and his work there no words are +ever heard save those of love and praise. He is bishop, rector, and +travelling missionary; he is doctor, apothecary, and nurse; he is the +hope and the comfort of the dying and the pall-bearer of the dead. He +travels many hundreds of miles every year, by lone and perilous ways, +over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> the ice and snow, with only an Indian guide and a team of huskies, +to carry the word of God into dark places. He is equally at ease in the +barabara and in the palace-like homes of the rich when he visits the +large cities of the world.</p> + +<p>Bishop Rowe is an exceptionally handsome man, of courtly bearing and +polished manners. The moment he enters a church his personality +impresses itself upon the people assembled to hear him speak.</p> + +<p>On a gray August Sunday in Nome—three thousand miles from Sitka—I was +surprised to see so many people on their way to midday service, Alaska +not being famed for its church-going qualities.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is the Bishop," said the hotel clerk, smiling. "Bishop Rowe," he +added, apparently as an after-thought. "Everybody goes to church when he +comes to town."</p> + +<p>I had never seen Bishop Rowe, and I had planned to spend the day alone +on the beach, for the surf was rolling high and its musical thunder +filled the town. Its lonely, melancholy spell was upon me, and its call +was loud and insistent; and my heart told me to go.</p> + +<p>But I had heard so much of Bishop Rowe and his self-devoted work in +Alaska that I finally turned my back upon temptation and joined the +narrow stream of humanity wending its way to the little church.</p> + +<p>When Bishop Rowe came bending his dark head through the low door leading +from the vestry, clad in his rich scarlet and purple and +gold-embroidered robes, I thought I had never seen so handsome a man.</p> + +<p>But his appearance was forgotten the moment he began to speak. He talked +to us; but he did not preach. And we, gathered there from so many +distant lands—each with his own hopes and sins and passions, his own +desires and selfishness—grew closer together and leaned upon the words +that were spoken there to us. They were so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> simple, and so earnest, and +so sweet; they were so seriously and so kindly uttered.</p> + +<p>And the text—it went with us, out into the sea-sweet, surf-beaten +streets of Nome; and this was it, "Love me; and tell me so." Like the +illustrious Veniaminoff, Bishop Rowe, of a different church and creed, +and working in a later, more commercial age, has yet won his hold upon +northern hearts by the sane and simple way of Love. The text of his +sermon that gray day in the surf-beaten, tundra-sweet city of Nome is +the text that he is patiently and cheerfully working out in his noble +life-work.</p> + +<p>Mr. Duncan, at Metlakahtla, has given his life to the Indians who have +gathered about him; but Bishop Rowe, of All Alaska, has given his life +to dark men and white, wherever they might be. Year after year he has +gone out by perilous ways to find them, and to scatter among them his +words of love—as softly and as gently as the Indians used to scatter +the white down from the breasts of sea-birds, as a message of peace to +all men.</p> + +<p>The White Sulphur Hot Springs, now frequently called the Sitka Hot +Springs, are situated on Hot Springs Bay on the eastern shore of +Baranoff Island, almost directly east of Sitka.</p> + +<p>The bay is sheltered by many small green islands, with lofty mountains +rising behind the sloping shores. It is an ideally beautiful and +desirable place to visit, even aside from the curative qualities of the +clear waters which bubble from pools and crevices among the rocks. These +springs have been famous since their discovery by Lisiansky in 1805. Sir +George Simpson visited them in 1842; and with every year that has passed +their praises have been more enthusiastically sung by the fortunate ones +who have voyaged to that dazzlingly green and jewelled region.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;"> +<img src="images/illo_280.jpg" width="630" height="444" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Summit of Chilkoot Pass, 1898" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Summit of Chilkoot Pass, 1898</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<p>The main spring has a temperature of one hundred and fifty-three degrees +Fahrenheit, its waters cooking eggs in eight minutes. From this spring +the baths are fed, their waters, flowing down to the sea, being soon +reduced in temperature to one hundred and thirty degrees.</p> + +<p>Filmy vapors float over the vicinity of the springs and rise in +funnel-shaped columns which may be seen at a considerable distance, and +which impart an atmosphere of mystery and unreality to the place.</p> + +<p>Vegetation is of unusual luxuriance, even for this land of tropical +growth; and in recent years experiments with melons and vegetables which +usually mature in tropic climes only, have been entirely successful in +this steamy and balmy region.</p> + +<p>There are four springs, in whose waters the Indians, from the time of +their discovery, have sought to wash away the ills to which flesh is +heir. They came hundreds of miles and lay for hours at a time in the +healing baths with only their heads visible. The bay was neutral ground +where all might come, but where none might make settlement or establish +claims.</p> + +<p>The waters near abound in fish and water-fowl, and the forests with +deer, bears, and other large game.</p> + +<p>The place is coming but slowly to the recognition of the present +generation. When the tropic beauty of its location and the curative +powers of its waters are more generally known, it will be a Mecca for +pilgrims.</p> + +<p>The main station of Government Agricultural Experimental work in Alaska +is located at Sitka. Professor C. C. Georgeson is the special agent in +charge of the work, which has been very successful. It has accomplished +more than anything else in the way of dispelling the erroneous +impressions which people have received of Alaska by reading the +descriptions of early explorers who fancied that every drift of snow was +a living glacier and every feather the war bonnet of a savage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1906, at Coldfoot, sixty miles north of the Arctic Circle, were grown +cucumbers eight inches long, nineteen-inch rhubarb, potatoes four inches +long, cabbages whose matured heads weighed eight pounds, and turnips +weighing sixteen pounds—all of excellent quality.</p> + +<p>At Bear Lake, near Seward and Cook Inlet, were grown good potatoes, +radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, +Logan berries, blackberries; also, roses, lilacs, and English ivy. In +this locality cows and chickens thrive and are profitable investments +for those who are not too indolent to take care of them.</p> + +<p>Alaskan lettuce must be eaten to be appreciated. During the hot days and +the long, light hours of the nights it grows so rapidly that its +crispness and delicacy of flavor cannot be imagined.</p> + +<p>Everything in Alaska is either the largest, the best, or most beautiful, +in the world, the people who live there maintain; and this soon grows to +be a joke to the traveller. But when the assertion that lettuce grown in +Alaska is the most delicious in the world is made, not a dissenting +voice is heard.</p> + +<p>Along the coast, sea-weed and fish guano are used as fertilizers; and +soil at the mouth of a stream where there is silt is most desirable for +vegetables.</p> + +<p>In southeastern Alaska and along the coast to Kodiak, at Fairbanks and +Copper Centre, at White Horse, Dawson, Rampart, Tanana, Council City, +Eagle, and other places on the Yukon, almost all kinds of vegetables, +berries, and flowers grow luxuriantly and bloom and bear in abundance. +One turnip, of fine flavor, has been found sufficient for several +people.</p> + +<p>In the vicinity of the various hot springs, even corn, tomatoes, and +muskmelons were successful to the highest degree.</p> + +<p>On the Yukon cabbages form fine white, solid heads;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> cauliflower is +unusually fine and white; beets grow to a good size, are tender, sweet, +and of a bright red; peas are excellent; rhubarb, parsley, and celery +were in many places successful. Onions seem to prove a failure in nearly +all sections of the country; and potatoes, turnips, and lettuce are the +prize vegetables.</p> + +<p>Grain growing is no longer attempted. The experiment made by the +government, in the coast region, proved entirely unsatisfactory. It will +usually mature, but August, September, and October are so rainy that it +is not possible to save the crop. It is, however, grown as a forage +crop, for which purpose it serves excellently.</p> + +<p>The numerous small valleys, coves, and pockets afford desirable +locations for gardens, berries, and some varieties of fruit trees.</p> + +<p>In the interior encouraging success has been obtained with grain. The +experiments at Copper Centre have not been so satisfactory as at +Rampart, three and a half degrees farther north, on the Yukon.</p> + +<p>At Copper Centre heavy frosts occur as early as August 14; while at +Rampart no "killing" frosts have been known before the grain had +ripened, in the latter part of August.</p> + +<p>Rampart is the loveliest settlement on the Yukon, with the exception of +Tanana. Across the river from Rampart, the green fields of the +Experimental Station slope down to the water. The experiments carried on +here by Superintendent Rader, under the general supervision of Professor +Georgeson—who visits the stations yearly—have been very satisfactory.</p> + +<p>Experimental work was begun at Rampart in 1900, and grain has matured +there every year, while at Copper Centre only one crop of four has +matured. In 1906, owing to dry weather, the growth was slow until the +middle of July; from that date on to the latter part of August there +were frequent rains, causing a later growth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> of grain than usual. The +result of these conditions was that when the first "killing" frost +occurred, the grain was still growing, and all plats, save those seeded +earliest, were spoiled for the finer purposes. The frosted grain was, +however, immediately cut for hay, twenty tons of which easily sold for +four thousand, one hundred and fifty-two dollars.</p> + +<p>These results prove that even where grain cannot be grown to the best +advantage, it may be profitably grown for hay. For the latter purpose +larger growing varieties would be sown, which would produce a much +heavier yield and bring larger profits. At present all the feed consumed +in the interior by the horses of pack trains and of travellers is hauled +in from tide-water,—a hundred miles, at least, and frequently two or +three times as far,—and two hundred dollars a ton for hay is a low +price. The actual cost of hauling a ton of hay from Valdez to Copper +Centre, one hundred miles, is more than two hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>Road-house keepers advertise "specially low" rates on hay at twenty +cents a pound, the ordinary retail price at that distance from +tide-water being five hundred dollars a ton.</p> + +<p>The most serious drawback to the advancement of agriculture in Alaska is +the lack of interest on the part of the inhabitants. Probably not fifty +people could be found in the territory who went there for the purpose of +making homes. Now and then a lone dreamer of dreams may be found who +lives there—or who would gladly live there, if he might—only for the +beauty of it, which can be found nowhere else; and which will soon +vanish before the brutal tread of civilization.</p> + +<p>The others go for gold. If they do not expect to dig it out of the earth +themselves, they plan and scheme to get it out of those who have so +acquired it. There is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> no scheme that has not been worked upon Alaska +and the real workers of Alaska.</p> + +<p>The schemers go there to get gold; honestly, if possible, but to get +gold; to live "from hand to mouth," while they are there, and to get +away as quickly as possible and spend their gold far from the country +which yielded it. They have neither the time nor the desire to do +anything toward the development of the country itself.</p> + +<p>Ex-Governor John G. Brady is one of the few who have devoted their lives +to the interest and the up-building of Alaska.</p> + +<p>Thirty years ago he went to Alaska and established his home at Sitka. +There he has lived all these years with his large and interesting +family; there he still lives.</p> + +<p>He has a comfortable home, gardens and orchards that leave little to be +desired, and has demonstrated beyond all doubt that the man who wishes +to establish a modern, comfortable—even luxurious—home in Alaska, can +accomplish his purpose without serious hardship to his family, however +delicate the members thereof may be.</p> + +<p>The Bradys are enthusiasts and authorities on all matters pertaining to +Alaska.</p> + +<p>Governor Brady has been called the "Rose Governor" of Alaska, because of +his genuine admiration for this flower. He can scarcely talk five +minutes on Alaska without introducing the subject of roses; and no +enthusiast has ever talked more simply and charmingly of the roses of +any land than he talks of the roses of Alaska,—the cherished ones of +the garden, and the big pink ones of Unalaska and the Yukon.</p> + +<p>As missionary and governor, Mr. Brady has devoted many years to this +splendid country; and the distressful troubles into which he has fallen +of late, through no fault of his own, can never make a grateful people +forget his unselfish work for the up-building and the civilization of +Alaska.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>To-day, Sitka is idyllic. Her charm is too poetic and too elusive to be +described in prose. A greater contrast than she presents to such +hustling, commercial towns as Juneau, Valdez, Cordova, and Katalla, +could scarcely be conceived. To drift into the harbor of Sitka is like +entering another world.</p> + +<p>The Russian influence is still there, after all these years—as it is in +Kodiak and Unalaska.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + + +<p>In rough weather, steamers bound for Sitka from the westward frequently +enter Cross Sound and proceed by way of Icy Straits and Chatham to +Peril.</p> + +<p>Icy Straits are filled, in the warmest months, with icebergs floating +down from the many glaciers to the north. Of these Muir has been the +finest, and is a world-famous glacier, owing to the charming +descriptions written of it by Mr. John Muir. For several years it was +the chief object of interest on the "tourist" trip; but early in 1900 an +earthquake shattered its beautiful front and so choked the bay with +immense bergs that the steamer <i>Spokane</i> could not approach closer than +Marble Island, thirteen miles from the front. The bergs were compact and +filled the whole bay. Since that time excursion steamers have not +attempted to enter Glacier Bay.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1907, however, a steamer entered the bay and, finding +it free of ice, approached close to the famed glacier—only to find it +resembling a great castle whose towers and turrets have fallen to ruin +with the passing of years. Where once shone its opaline palisades is now +but a field of crumpled ice.</p> + +<p>There are no less than seven glaciers discharging into Glacier Bay and +sending out beautiful bergs to drift up and down Icy Straits with the +tides and winds. Rendu, Carroll, Grand Pacific, Johns Hopkins, Hugh +Miller, and Geikie front on the bay or its narrow inlets.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + +<p>Brady Glacier has a three-mile frontage on Wimbledon, or Taylor, Bay, +which opens into Icy Straits.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When, on her mid-June voyage from Seattle in 1905, the <i>Santa Ana</i> drew +out and away from Sitka, and turning with a wide sweep, went drifting +slowly through the maze of green islands and set her prow "to Westward," +one of the dreams of my life was "come true."</p> + +<p>I was on my way to the far, lonely, and lovely Aleutian Isles,—the +green, green isles crested with fire and snow that are washed on the +north by the waves of Behring Sea.</p> + +<p>It was a violet day. There were no warm purple tones anywhere; but the +cool, sparkling violet ones that mean the nearness of mountains of snow. +One could almost feel the crisp <i>ting</i> of ice in the air, and smell the +sunlight that opalizes, without melting, the ice.</p> + +<p>Round and white, with the sunken nest of the thunder-bird on its crest, +Mount Edgecumbe rose before us; the pale green islands leaned apart to +let us through; the sea-birds, white and lavender and rose-touched, +floated with us; the throb of the steamer was like a pulse beating in +one's own blood; there were words in the violet light that lured us on, +and a wild sweet song in the waves that broke at our prow.</p> + +<p>"There can be nothing more beautiful on earth," I said; but I did not +know. An hour came soon when I stood with bared head and could not speak +for the beauty about me; when the speech of others jarred upon me like +an insult, and the throb of the steamer, which had been a sensuous +pleasure, pierced my exaltation like a blow.</p> + +<p>The long violet day of delight wore away at last, and night came on. A +wild wind blew from the southwest, and the mood of the North Pacific +Ocean changed. The ship rolled heavily; the waves broke over our decks. +We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> could see them coming—black, bowing, rimmed with white. Then came +the shock—followed by the awful shudder and struggle of the boat. The +wind was terrific. It beat the breath back into the breast.</p> + +<p>It was terrible and it was glorious. Those were big moments on the texas +of the <i>Santa Ana;</i> they were worth living, they were worth while. But +on account of the storm, darkness fell at midnight; and as the spray was +now breaking in sheets over the bridge and texas, I was assisted to my +cabin—drenched, shivering, happy.</p> + +<p>"Shut your door," said the captain, "or you will be washed out of your +berth; and wait till to-morrow."</p> + +<p>I wondered what he meant, but before I could ask him, before he could +close my cabin door, a great sea towered and poised for an instant +behind him, then bowed over him and carried him into the room. It +drenched the whole room and everything and everybody in it; then swept +out again as the ship rolled to starboard.</p> + +<p>My travelling companion in the middle berth uttered such sounds as I had +never heard before in my life, and will probably never hear again unless +it be in the North Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of Yakutat or Katalla. +She made one attempt to descend to the floor; but at sight of the +captain who was struggling to take a polite departure after his anything +but polite entrance, she uttered the most dreadful sound of all and fell +back into her berth.</p> + +<p>I have never seen any intoxicated man teeter and lurch as he did, trying +to get out of our cabin. I sat upon the stool where I had been washed +and dashed by the sea, and laughed.</p> + +<p>He made it at last. He uttered no apologies and no adieux; and never +have I seen a man so openly relieved to escape from the presence of +ladies.</p> + +<p>I closed the window. Disrobing was out of the question. I could neither +stand nor sit without holding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> tightly to something with both hands for +support; and when I had lain down, I found that I must hold to both +sides of the berth to keep myself in.</p> + +<p>"Serves you right," complained the occupant of the middle berth, "for +staying up on the texas until such an unearthly hour. I'm glad you can't +undress. Maybe you'll come in at a decent hour after this!"</p> + +<p>It is small wonder that Behring and Chirikoff disagreed and drifted +apart in the North Pacific Ocean. It is my belief that two angels would +quarrel if shut up in a stateroom in a "Yakutat blow"—than which only a +"Yakataga blow" is worse; and it comes later.</p> + +<p>I am convinced, after three summers spent in voyaging along the Alaskan +coast to Nome and down the Yukon, that quarrelling with one's room-mate +on a long voyage aids digestion. My room-mate and I have never agreed +upon any other subject; but upon this, we are as one.</p> + +<p>Neither effort nor exertion is required to begin a quarrel. It is only +necessary to ask with some querulousness, "Are you going to stand before +that mirror <i>all day?</i>" and hey, presto! we are instantly at it with +hammer and tongs.</p> + +<p>Toward daylight the storm grew too terrible for further quarrelling; too +big for all little petty human passions. A coward would have become a +man in the face of such a conflict. I have never understood how one can +commit a cowardly act during a storm at sea. One may dance a hornpipe of +terror on a public street when a man thrusts a revolver into one's face +and demands one's money. That is a little thing, and inspires to little +sensations and little actions. But when a ship goes down into a black +hollow of the sea, down, down, so low that it seems as though she must +go on to the lowest, deepest depth of all—and then lies still, +shudders, and begins to mount, higher, higher, higher, to the very crest +of a mountainous wave; if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> God put anything at all of courage and of +bravery into the soul of the human being that experiences this, it comes +to the front now, if ever.</p> + +<p>In that most needlessly cruel of all the ocean disasters of the Pacific +Coast, the wreck of the <i>Valencia</i> on Seabird Reef of the rock-ribbed +coast of Vancouver Island, more than a hundred people clung to the decks +and rigging in a freezing storm for thirty-six hours. There was a young +girl on the ship who was travelling alone. A young man, an athlete, of +Victoria, who had never met her before, assisted her into the rigging +when the decks were all awash, and protected her there. On the last day +before the ship went to pieces, two life-rafts were successfully +launched. Only a few could go, and strong men were desired to manage the +rafts. The young man in the rigging might have been saved, for the ones +who did go on the raft were the only ones rescued. But when summoned, he +made simple answer:—</p> + +<p>"No; I have some one here to care for. I will stay."</p> + +<p>Better to be that brave man's wave-battered and fish-eaten corpse, than +any living coward who sailed away and left those desperate, struggling +wretches to their awful fate.</p> + +<p>The storm died slowly with the night; and at last we could sleep.</p> + +<p>It was noon when we once more got ourselves up on deck. The sun shone +like gold upon the sea, which stretched, dimpling, away for hundreds +upon hundreds of miles, to the south and west. I stood looking across it +for some time, lost in thought, but at last something led me to the +other side of the ship.</p> + +<p>All unprepared, I lifted my eyes—and beheld before me the glory and the +marvel of God. In all the splendor of the drenched sunlight, straight +out of the violet, sparkling sea, rose the magnificent peaks of the +Fairweather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> Range and towered against the sky. No great snow mountains +rising from the land have ever affected me as did that long and noble +chain glistening out of the sea. They seemed fairly to thunder their +beauty to the sky.</p> + +<p>From Mount Edgecumbe there is no significant break in the mountain range +for more than a thousand miles; it is a stretch of sublime beauty that +has no parallel. The Fairweather Range merges into the St. Elias Alps; +the Alps are followed successively by the Chugach Alps, the Kenai and +Alaskan ranges,—the latter of which holds the loftiest of them all, the +superb Mount McKinley,—and the Aleutian Range, which extends to the end +of the Aliaska Peninsula. The volcanoes on the Aleutian and Kurile +islands complete the ring of snow and fire that circles around the +Pacific Ocean.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> + + +<p>Our ship having been delayed by the storm, it was mid-afternoon when we +reached Yakutat. A vast plateau borders the ocean from Cross Sound, +north of Baranoff and Chicagoff islands, to Yakutat; and out of this +plateau rise four great snow peaks—Mount La Pérouse, Mount Crillon, +Mount Lituya, and Mount Fairweather—ranging in height from ten thousand +to fifteen thousand nine hundred feet.</p> + +<p>In all this stretch there are but two bays of any size, Lituya and Dry, +and they have only historical importance.</p> + +<p>Lituya Bay was described minutely by La Pérouse, who spent some time +there in 1786 in his two vessels, the <i>Astrolabe</i> and <i>Boussole</i>.</p> + +<p>The entrance to this bay is exceedingly dangerous; the tide enters in a +bore, which can only be run at slack tide. La Pérouse lost two boatloads +of men in this bore, on the eve of his departure,—a loss which he +describes at length and with much feeling.</p> + +<p>Before finally departing, he caused to be erected a monument to the +memory of the lost officers and crew on a small island which he named +Cénotaphe, or Monument, Isle. A bottle containing a full account of the +disaster and the names of the twenty-one men was buried at the foot of +the monument.</p> + +<p>La Pérouse named this bay Port des Français.</p> + +<p>The chronicles of this modest French navigator seem,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> somehow, to stand +apart from those of the other early voyagers. There is an appearance of +truth and of fine feeling in them that does not appear in all.</p> + +<p>He at first attempted to enter Yakutat Bay, which he called the Bay of +Monti, in honor of the commandant of an exploring expedition which he +sent out in advance; but the sea was breaking with such violence upon +the beach that he abandoned the attempt.</p> + +<p>He described the savages of Lituya Bay as treacherous and thievish. They +surrounded the ships in canoes, offering to exchange fresh fish and +otter skins for iron, which seemed to be the only article desired, +although glass beads found some small favor in the eyes of the women.</p> + +<p>La Pérouse supposed himself to be the first discoverer of this bay. The +Russians, however, had been there years before.</p> + +<p>The savages appeared to be worshippers of the sun. La Pérouse pronounced +the bay itself to be the most extraordinary spot on the whole earth. It +is a great basin, the middle of which is unfathomable, surrounded by +snow peaks of great height. During all the time that he was there, he +never saw a puff of wind ruffle the surface of the water, nor was it +ever disturbed, save by the fall of masses of ice which were discharged +from five different glaciers with a thunderous noise which reëchoed from +the farthest recesses of the surrounding mountains. The air was so +tranquil and the silence so undisturbed that the human voice and the +cries of sea-birds lying among the rocks were heard at the distance of +half a league.</p> + +<p>The climate was found to be "infinitely milder" than that of Hudson Bay +of the same latitude. Vegetation was extremely vigorous, pines measuring +six feet in diameter and rising to a height of one hundred and forty +feet.</p> + +<p>Celery, sorrel, lupines, wild peas, yarrow, chicory,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> angelica, violets, +and many varieties of grass were found in abundance, and were used in +soups and salads, as remedies for scurvy.</p> + +<p>Strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, the elder, the willow, and the +broom were found then as they are to-day. Trout and salmon were taken in +the streams, and in the bay, halibut.</p> + +<p>It is to be feared that La Pérouse was not strong on birds; for in the +copses he heard singing "linnets, <i>nightingales</i>, blackbirds, and water +quails," whose songs were very agreeable. It was July, which he called +the "pairing-time." He found one very fine blue jay; and it is +surprising that he did not hear it sing.</p> + +<p>For the savages—especially the women—the fastidious Frenchman +entertained feelings of disgust and horror. He could discover no virtues +or traits in them to praise, conscientiously though he tried.</p> + +<p>They lived in the same kind of habitations that all the early explorers +found along the coast of Alaska: large buildings consisting of one room, +twenty-five by twenty feet, or larger. Fire was kindled in the middle of +these rooms on the earth floor. Over it was suspended fish of several +kinds to be smoked. There was always a large hole in the roof—when +there was a roof at all—to receive the smoke.</p> + +<p>About twenty persons of both sexes dwelt in each of these houses. Their +habits, customs, and relations were indescribably disgusting and +indecent.</p> + +<p>Their houses were more loathsome and vile of odor than the den of any +beast. Even at the present time in some of the native villages—notably +Belkoffski on the Aliaskan Peninsula—all the most horrible odors ever +experienced in civilization, distilled into one, could not equal the +stench with which the natives and their habitations reek. As their +customs are somewhat cleanlier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> now than they were a hundred and thirty +years ago, and as upon this one point all the early navigators forcibly +agree, we may well conclude that they did not exaggerate.</p> + +<p>The one room was used for eating, sleeping, cooking, smoking fish, +washing their clothes—in their cooking and eating wooden utensils, by +the way, which are never cleansed—and for the habitation of their dogs.</p> + +<p>The men pierced the cartilage of the nose and ears for the wearing of +ornaments of shell, iron, or other material. They filed their teeth down +even with the gums with a piece of rough stone. The men painted their +faces and other parts of their bodies in a "frightful manner" with +ochre, lamp-black, and black lead, mixed with the oil of the "sea-wolf." +Their hair was frequently greased and dressed with the down of +sea-birds; the women's, also. A plain skin covered the shoulders of the +men, while the rest of the body was left entirely naked.</p> + +<p>The women filled the Frenchman with a lively horror. The labret in the +lower lip, or ladle, as he termed it, wore unbearably upon his fine +nerves. He considered that the whole world would not afford another +custom equally revolting and disgusting. When the ornament was removed, +the lower lip fell down upon the chin, and this second picture was more +hideous than the first.</p> + +<p>The gallant Captain Dixon, on his voyage a year later, was more +favorably impressed with the women. He must have worn rose-colored +glasses. He describes their habits and habitations almost as La Pérouse +did, but uses no expression of disgust or horror. He describes the women +as being of medium size, having straight, well-shaped limbs. They +painted their faces; but he prevailed upon one woman by persuasion and +presents to wash her face and hands. Whereupon "her countenance had all +the cheerful glow of an English milkmaid's; and the healthy red which +suffused her cheeks was even beautifully contrasted with the white of +her neck; her eyes were black and sparkling; her eyebrows of the same +color <i>and most beautifully arched</i>; her forehead so remarkably clear +that the translucent veins were seen meandering even in their minutest +branches—in short, she would be considered handsome even in England." +The worst adjectives he applied to the labret were "singular" and +"curious."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;"> +<img src="images/illo_299.jpg" width="466" height="631" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Pine Falls, Atlin" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Pine Falls, Atlin</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<p>Don Maurello and other navigators found now and then a woman who might +compete with the beauties of Spain and other lands; but none shared the +transports of Dixon, who idealized their virtues and condoned their +faults.</p> + +<p>Tebenkof located two immense glaciers in the bay of Lituya, one in each +arm, describing them briefly:—</p> + +<p>"The icebergs fall from the mountains and float over the waters of the +bay throughout the year. Nothing disturbs the deep silence of this +<i>terribly grand</i> gorge of the mountains but the thunder of the falling +icebergs."</p> + +<p>La Pérouse found enormous masses of ice detaching themselves from five +different glaciers. The water was covered with icebergs, and nearness to +the shore was exceedingly dangerous. His small boat was upset half a +mile from shore by a mass of ice falling from a glacier.</p> + +<p>Mr. Muir describes La Pérouse Glacier as presenting grand ice bluffs to +the open ocean, into which it occasionally discharged bergs.</p> + +<p>All agree that the appearance and surroundings of the bay are +extraordinary.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Yakutat Bay is two hundred and fifteen miles from Sitka. It was called +Behring Bay by Cook and Vancouver, who supposed it to be the bay in +which the Dane anchored in 1741. It was named Admiralty Bay by Dixon, +and the Bay of Monti by La Pérouse. The Indian name is the only one +which has been preserved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is so peculiarly situated that although several islands lie in front +of it, the full force of the North Pacific Ocean sweeps into it. At most +seasons of the year it is full of floating ice which drifts down from +the glaciers of Disenchantment Bay.</p> + +<p>At the point on the southern side of the bay which Dixon named Mulgrave, +and where there is a fine harbor, Baranoff established a colony of +Siberian convicts about 1796. His instructions from Shelikoff for the +laying-out of a city in such a wilderness make interesting reading.</p> + +<p>"And now it only remains for us to hope that, having selected on the +mainland a suitable place, you will lay out the settlement with some +taste and with due regard for beauty of construction, in order that when +visits are made by foreign ships, as cannot fail to happen, it may +appear more like a town than a village, and that the Russians in America +may live in a neat and orderly way, and not, as in Ohkotsk, in squalor +and misery, caused by the absence of nearly everything necessary to +civilization. Use taste as well as practical judgment in locating the +settlement. Look to beauty, as well as to convenience of material and +supplies. On the plans, as well as in reality, leave room for spacious +squares for public assemblies. Make the streets not too long, but wide, +and let them radiate from the squares. If the site is wooded, let trees +enough stand to line the streets and to fill the gardens, in order to +beautify the place and preserve a healthy atmosphere. Build the houses +along the streets, but at some distance from each other, in order to +increase the extent of the town. The roofs should be of equal height, +and the architecture as uniform as possible. The gardens should be of +equal size and provided with good fences along the streets. Thanks be to +God that you will at least have no lack of timber."</p> + +<p>In the same letter poor Baranoff was reproached for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> exchanging visits +with captains of foreign vessels, and warned that he might be carried +off to California or some other "desolate" place.</p> + +<p>The colony of convicts had been intended as an "agricultural" +settlement; but the bleak location at the foot of Mount St. Elias made a +farce of the undertaking. The site had been chosen by a mistake. A post +and fortifications were erected, but it is not chronicled that +Shelikoff's instructions were carried out. There was great mortality +among the colonists and their families, and constant danger of attack by +the Kolosh. Finally, in 1805, the fort and settlement were entirely +destroyed by their cruel and revengeful enemies.</p> + +<p>The new town of Yakutat is three or four miles from the old settlement. +There is a good wharf at the foot of a commanding plateau, which is a +good site for a city. On the wharf are a saw-mill and cannery. A stiff +climb along a forest road brings one to a store, several other business +houses, and a few residences.</p> + +<p>There are good coal veins in the vicinity. The Yakutat and Southern +Railway leads several miles into the interior, and handles a great deal +of timber.</p> + +<p>In 1794 Puget sailed the <i>Chatham</i> through the narrow channel between +the mainland and the islands, leading to Port Mulgrave—where Portoff +was established in a tent with nine of his countrymen and several +hundred Kadiak natives. He found the channel narrow and dangerous; his +vessel grounded, but was successfully floated at returning tide. Passage +to Mulgrave was found easy, however, by a channel farther to the +westward and southward.</p> + +<p>In this bay, as in nearly all other localities on the Northwest Coast, +the Indians coming out to visit them paddled around the ship two or +three times singing a ceremonious song, before offering to come aboard. +They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> gladly exchanged bows, arrows, darts, spears, fish-gigs—whatever +they may be—kamelaykas, or walrus-gut coats, and needlework for white +shirts, collars, cravats, and other wearing apparel.</p> + +<p>An Indian chief stole Mr. Puget's gold watch chain and seals from his +cabin; but it was discovered by Portoff and returned.</p> + +<p>The cape extending into the ocean south of the town was the Cape Phipps +of the Russians. It has long been known, however, as Ocean Cape. Cape +Manby is on the opposite side of the bay.</p> + +<p>Sailing up Yakutat Bay, the Bay of Disenchantment is entered and +continues for sixty miles, when it merges into Russell Fiord, which +bends sharply to the south and almost reaches the ocean.</p> + +<p>Enchantment Bay would be a more appropriate name. The scenery is of +varied, magnificent, and ever increasing beauty. The climax is reached +in Russell Fiord—named for Professor Russell, who explored it in a +canoe in 1891.</p> + +<p>From Yakutat Bay to the very head of Russell Fiord supreme splendor of +scenery is encountered, surpassing the most vaunted of the Old World. +Within a few miles, one passes from luxuriant forestation to lovely +lakes, lacy cascades, bits of green valley; and then, of a sudden, all +unprepared, into the most sublime snow-mountain fastnesses imaginable, +surrounded by glaciers and many of the most majestic mountain peaks of +the world.</p> + +<p>Cascades spring, foaming, down from misty heights, and flowers bloom, +large and brilliant, from the water to the line of snow.</p> + +<p>Malaspina, an Italian in the service of Spain, named Disenchantment Bay. +Turner Glacier and the vast Hubbard Glacier discharge into this bay; and +from the reports of the Italian, Tabenkoff, and Vancouver, it has been +considered possible that the two glaciers may have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> reached, more than a +hundred years ago, across the narrowest bend at the head of Yakutat Bay.</p> + +<p>The fiord is so narrow that the tops of the high snow mountains have the +appearance of overhanging their bases; and to the canoeist floating down +the slender, translucent water-way, this effect adds to the austerity of +the scene.</p> + +<p>Captains of regular steamers are frequently offered good prices to make +a side trip up Yakutat Bay to the beginning of Disenchantment; but owing +to the dangers of its comparatively uncharted waters, they usually +decline with vigor.</p> + +<p>One who would penetrate into this exquisitely beautiful, lone, and +enchanted region must trust himself to a long canoe voyage and complete +isolation from his kind. But what recompense—what life-rememberable +joy!</p> + +<p>Each country has its spell; but none is so great as the spell of this +lone and splendid land. It is too sacred for any light word of pen or +lip. The spell of Alaska is the spell of God; and it holds all save the +basest, whether they acknowledge it or deny. Here are sphinxes and +pyramids built of century upon century's snow; the pale green thunder of +the cataract; the roar of the avalanche and the glacier's compelling +march; the flow of mighty rivers; the unbroken silences that swim from +snow mountain to snow mountain; and the rose of sunset whose petals +float and fade upon mountain and sea.</p> + +<p>As one sails past these mountains days upon days, they seem to lean +apart and withdraw in pearly aloofness, that others more beautiful and +more remote may dawn upon the enraptured beholder's sight. For hundreds +of miles up and down the coast, and for hundreds into the interior, they +rise in full view from the ocean which breaks upon the nearer ones. At +sunrise and at sunset each is wrapped in a different color from the +others,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> each in its own light, its own glory—caused by its own +peculiar shape and its position among the others.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>While the steamer lies at Yakutat passengers may, if they desire, walk +through the forest to the old village, where there is an ancient +Thlinkit settlement. There is a new one at the new town. The tents and +cabins climb picturesquely among the trees and ferns from the water up a +steep hill.</p> + +<p>In 1880 there was a great gold excitement at Yakutat. Gold was +discovered in the black-sand beaches. A number of mining camps were +there until the late 'eighties, and by the use of rotary hand +amalgamators, men were able to clean up forty dollars a day.</p> + +<p>The bay was flooded by a tidal wave which left the beach covered with +fish. The oil deposited by their decay prevented the action of the +mercury, and the camp was abandoned.</p> + +<p>The sea is now restoring the black sand, and a second Nome may one day +spring up on these hills in a single night.</p> + +<p>As I have said elsewhere, the Yakutat women are among the finest basket +weavers of the coast. A finely twined Yakutat basket, however small it +may be, is a prize; but the bottom should be woven as finely and as +carefully as the body of the basket. Some of the younger weavers make +haste by weaving the bottom coarsely, which detracts from both its +artistic and commercial value.</p> + +<p>The instant the end of the gangway touches the wharf at Yakutat, the +gayly-clad, dark-eyed squaws swarm aboard. They settle themselves +noiselessly along the promenade decks, disposing their baskets, +bracelets, carved horn spoons, totem-poles, inlaid lamps, and beaded +moccasins about them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> + +<p>If, during the hours of animated barter that follow, one or two of the +women should disappear, the wise woman-passenger will saunter around the +ship and take a look into her stateroom, to make sure that all is well; +else, when she does return to it, she may miss silver-backed mirrors, +bottles of lavender water, bits of jewellery that may have been +carelessly left in sight, pretty collars—and even waists and hats—to +say nothing of the things which she may later on find.</p> + +<p>These poor dark people were born thieves; and neither the little +education they have received, nor the treatment accorded them by the +majority of white people with whom they have been brought into contact, +has served to wean them entirely from the habits and the instincts of +centuries.</p> + +<p>At Yakutat, no matter how much good sound sense he may possess, the +traveller parts with many large silver dollars. He thinks of Christmas, +and counts his friends on one hand, then on the other; then over again, +on both.</p> + +<p>When the steamer has whistled for the sixth time to call in the +wandering passengers, and the captain is on the bridge; when the last +squaw has pigeon-toed herself up the gangway, flirting her gay shawl +around her and chuckling and clucking over the gullibility of the +innocent white people; when the last strain from the phonograph in the +big store on the hill has died across the violet water widening between +the shore and the withdrawing ship—the spendthrift passenger retires to +his cabin and finds the berths overflowing and smelling to heaven with +Indian things. Then—too late—he sits down, anywhere, and reflects.</p> + +<p>The western shore of Yakutat Bay is bounded by the largest glacier in +the world—the Malaspina. It has a sea-frontage of more than sixty miles +extending from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> bay "to Westward"; and the length of its splendid +sweep from its head to the sea at the foot of Mount St. Elias is ninety +miles.</p> + +<p>For one whole day the majestic mountain and its beautiful companion +peaks were in sight of the steamer, before the next range came into +view. The sea breaks sheer upon the ice-palisades of the glacier. +Icebergs, pale green, pale blue, and rose-colored, march out to meet +and, bowing, pass the ship.</p> + +<p>One cannot say that he knows what beauty is until he has cruised +leisurely past this glacier, with the mountains rising behind it, on a +clear day, followed by a moonlit night.</p> + +<p>On one side are miles on miles of violet ocean sweeping away into +limitless space, a fleck of sunlight flashing like a fire-fly in every +hollowed wave; on the other, miles on miles of glistening ice, crowned +by peaks of softest snow.</p> + +<p>At sunset warm purple mists drift in and settle over the glacier; above +these float banks of deepest rose; through both, and above them, glimmer +the mountains pearlily, in a remote loveliness that seems not of earth.</p> + +<p>But by moonlight to see the glacier streaming down from the mountains +and out into the ocean, into the midnight—silent, opaline, majestic—is +worth ten years of dull, ordinary living.</p> + +<p>It is as if the very face of God shone through the silence and the +sublimity of the night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + + +<p>There is an open roadstead at Yaktag, or Yakataga. The ship anchors +several miles from shore—when the fierce storms which prevail in this +vicinity will permit it to anchor at all—and passengers and freight are +lightered ashore.</p> + +<p>I have seen horses hoisted from the deck in their wooden cages and +dropped into the sea, where they were liberated. After their first +frightened, furious plunges, they headed for the shore, and started out +bravely on their long swim. The surf was running high, and for a time it +seemed that they could not escape being dashed upon the rocks; but with +unerring instinct, they struggled away from one rocky place after +another until they reached a strip of smooth sand up which they were +borne by the breaking sea, and where they fell for a few moments, +exhausted. Then they arose, staggered, threw up their heads and ran as I +have never seen horses run—with such wildness, such gladness, such +utterance of the joy of freedom in the fling of their legs, in the +streaming of mane and tail.</p> + +<p>They had been penned in a narrow stall under the forward deck for twelve +days; they had been battered by the storms and unable to lie down and +rest; they had been plunged from this condition unexpectedly into the +ocean and compelled to strike out on a long swim for their lives.</p> + +<p>The sudden knowledge of freedom; the smell of sun and air; the very +sweet of life itself—all combined to make them almost frantic in the +animal expression of their joy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + +<p>We put down the powerful glasses with which we had painfully watched +every yard of their progress toward the land.</p> + +<p>I looked at the pilot. There was a moisture in his eyes, which was not +entirely a reflection of that in my own.</p> + +<p>It is one hundred and seventy miles from Yakutat to Kayak. Off this +stretch of coast, between Lituya and Cape Suckling, the soundings are +moderate and by whalers have long been known as "Fairweather Grounds."</p> + +<p>Just before reaching Kayak, Cape Suckling is passed.</p> + +<p>The point of this cape is low. It runs up into a considerable hill, +which, in turn, sinking to very low land has the appearance of an +island. It was named by Cook.</p> + +<p>Around this cape lies Comptroller Bay—the bay which should have been +named Behring's Bay. It was on the two islands at its entrance that +Behring landed in 1741. He named one St. Elias; and to this island Cook, +in 1778, gave the name of Kaye, for the excellent reason that the +"Reverend Doctor Kaye" gave him two silver two-penny pieces of the date +of 1772, which he buried in a bottle on the island, together with the +names of his ships and the date of discovery.</p> + +<p>Unhappily this immortal island retains the name which Cook lightly +bestowed upon it, instead of the name given it by the illustrious Dane. +It is now, however, more frequently known as Wingham Island. The +settlement of Kayak is upon it. The southern extremity of the larger +island retains the name St. Elias for the splendid headland that plunges +boldly and challengingly out into the sea. It is a magnificent sight in +a storm, when sea-birds are shrieking over it and a powerful surf is +breaking upon its base. At all times it is a striking landmark.</p> + +<p>I have been to Kayak four times. Landings have always been made by +passengers in dories or in tiny launches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> which come out from the +settlement, and which bob up and down like corks.</p> + +<p>It requires a cool head to descend a rope-ladder twenty or thirty feet +from the deck to a dory that rolls away from the ship with every wave +and which may only be entered as it rolls back. There is art in the +little kick which one must give each rung against the side of the ship +to steady the ladder. At the last comes an awful moment when a woman +must hang alone on the last swaying rung and await the return of the +dory. If the sea is rough, the ship will probably roll away from the +boat. When the sailors, therefore, sing out, "Now! Jump!" she must close +her eyes, put her trust in heaven and fore-ordination, and jump.</p> + +<p>If she chances to jump just at the right moment; if one sailor catches +her just right and another catches <i>him</i> just right, she will know by +the cheer that arises from hurricane and texas that all is well and she +may open her eyes. Under other conditions, other situations arise; but +let no woman be deterred by the possibility of the latter from +descending a rope-ladder when she has an opportunity. The hair-crinkling +moments in an ordinary life are few enough, heaven knows.</p> + +<p>There are several business houses and dwellings at Kayak; and an Indian +village. The Indian graveyard is very interesting. Tiny houses are built +over the graves and surrounded by picket fences. Both are painted white. +Through the windows may be seen some of the belongings of the dead. In +dishes are different kinds of food and drink, that the deceased may not +suffer of hunger or thirst in the bourne to which he may have journeyed. +There are implements and weapons for the men; unfinished baskets for the +women, with the long strands of warp and woof left ready for the idle +hand; for the children, beads and rattles made of bear claws and shells. +The houses are on posts a few feet above the graves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + +<p>For a number of years Kayak was the base of operation for oil companies. +In 1898 the Alaska Development Company staked the country, but later +leased their lands to the Alaska Oil and Coal Company—commonly known as +the "English" company—for a long term of years, with the privilege of +taking up the lease in 1906. This company spent millions of dollars and +drilled several wells.</p> + +<p>The Alaska Petroleum and Coal Company—known as the Lippy Company—put +down two holes, one seventeen hundred feet deep. The cost of drilling is +about five thousand dollars a hole of two thousand feet; the rig, laid +down, six thousand five hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>These wells are situated at Katalla, sixteen miles from Kayak, at the +mouth of the Copper River. The oil lands extend from the coast to the +Malaspina and Behring glaciers.</p> + +<p>Since the recent upspringing of a new town at Katalla, the centre of +trade has been transferred from Kayak to this point. Katalla was founded +in 1904 by the Alaska Petroleum and Coal Company; but not until the +actual commencement of work on the Bruner Railway Company's road, in +1907, from Katalla into the heart of the coal and oil fields, did the +place rise to the importance of a northern town.</p> + +<p>It has attained a wide fame within a few months on account of the +remarkable discoveries of high-grade petroleum and coal in the vicinity.</p> + +<p>For many years these two products of Alaska were considered of inferior +quality; but it has recently been discovered that they rival the finest +of Pennsylvania.</p> + +<p>The town has grown as only a new Alaskan, or Puget Sound, town can grow. +At night, perhaps, there will be a dozen shacks and as many tents on a +town site; the next morning a steamer will anchor in the bay bearing +government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> offices, stores, hotels, saloons, dance-halls, banks, +offices for several large companies, electric light plants, gas works, +telephones—and before another day dawns, business is in full swing.</p> + +<p>For fifteen miles along the Comptroller Bay water front oil wells may be +seen, some of the largest oil seepages existing close to the shore. The +coal and oil lands of this vicinity, however, are about a hundred miles +in length and from twenty to thirty in width.</p> + +<p>During the fall and early winter of 1907, Katalla suffered a serious +menace to its prosperity, owing to its total lack of a harbor.</p> + +<p>The bay is but a mere indentation, and an open roadstead sends its surf +to curl upon the unprotected beach. The storms in winter are ceaseless +and terrific. Steamers cannot land and anchors will not hold.</p> + +<p>As Nome, similarly situated, is cut off from the world for several +months by ice, so is Katalla cut off by storms.</p> + +<p>Steamer after steamer sails into the roadstead, rolls and tosses in the +trough of the sea, lingers regretfully, and sails away, without landing +even a passenger, or mail.</p> + +<p>In October, 1907, one whole banking outfit, including everything +necessary for the opening of a bank, save the cashier,—who was already +there,—and the building,—which was waiting,—was taken up on a +steamer. Not being able to lighter it ashore, the steamer carried the +bank to Cook Inlet.</p> + +<p>Upon its return, conditions again made it impossible to enter the bay, +and the bank was carried back to Seattle. When the steamer again went +north, the bank went, too; when the steamer returned, the bank returned.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, other events were shaping themselves in such wise as to +render the situation extremely interesting.</p> + +<p>A few miles northwest of Katalla, the town of Cordova<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> was established +three years ago, with the terminus of the Copper River Railway located +there. Mr. M. J. Heney, who had built the White Pass and Yukon Railway, +received the contract for the work. The building of wharves in the +excellent harbor and the laying out of a town site capable of +accommodating twenty thousand people—and one that might have pleased +even the fastidious Shelikoff—was energetically begun.</p> + +<p>Early in 1907 the Copper River Railway sold its interests to the +Northwestern and Copper River Valley Railway, promoted by John Rosene, +and financed by the Guggenheims. It was semi-officially announced that +the new company would tear up the Cordova tracks and that Katalla would +be the terminus of the consolidated line. The announcement precipitated +the "boom" at Katalla.</p> + +<p>Mr. Heney retired from the new company and spent the summer voyaging +down the Yukon.</p> + +<p>Immediately upon his return to Seattle in September, he journeyed to New +York. In a few days, newspapers devoted columns to the sale of the +Rosene interests in the railway, also a large fleet of first-class +steamers, and wharves, to the Copper River and Northwestern Railway +Company.</p> + +<p>The contract for the immediate building of the road had been secured by +Mr. Heney, who had returned to his original surveys. The terminus at +once travelled back to Cordova; and the itinerant bank may yet thank its +guiding star which prevented it from getting itself landed at Katalla.</p> + +<p>Important "strikes" are made constantly in the Tanana country, in the +Sushitna, and in the Koyukuk, where pay is found surpassing the best of +the Klondike.</p> + +<p>The trail from Valdez to Fairbanks may yet be as thickly strewn with +eager-eyed stampeders as were the Dyea and Skagway trails a decade ago. +Never again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> however, in any part of Alaska, can the awful conditions +of that time prevail. Steamer, rail, and stage transportation have made +travelling in the North luxurious, compared to the horrors endured in +the old days.</p> + +<p>The Guggenheims have been compelled to carry on a fantastic fight for +right of way for the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad. In the +summer of 1907, they attempted to lay track at Katalla over the disputed +Bruner right of way. The Bruner Company had constructed an immense +"go-devil" of railway rails, which, operated by powerful machinery, +could be swung back and forth over the disputed point. It was operated +by armed men behind fortifications.</p> + +<p>The Bruner concern was known as the Alaska-Pacific Transportation and +Terminal Company, financed by Pittsburg capital, and proposed building a +road to the coal regions, thence to the Copper River. They sought right +of way by condemnation proceedings.</p> + +<p>The town site of Katalla is owned by the Alaska Petroleum and Coal +Company, which had deeded a right of way to the Guggenheims; also, a +large tract of land for smelter purposes. At one point it was necessary +for the latter to cross the right of way of the Bruner road.</p> + +<p>The trouble began in May, when the Bruner workmen dynamited a +pile-driver and trestle belonging to the Guggenheims, who had then +approached within one hundred feet of the Bruner right of way.</p> + +<p>On July 3 a party of Guggenheim laborers, under the protection of a fire +from detachments of armed men, succeeded in laying track over the +disputed right of way.</p> + +<p>Tony de Pascal daringly led the construction party and received the +reward of a thousand dollars offered by the Guggenheims to the man who +would successfully lead the attacking forces. Soon afterward, he was +shot dead by one of his own men who mistook him for a member<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> of the +opposing force. Ten other men were seriously injured by bullets from the +Bruner block-houses.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of the same year a party of men surveying for the Reynolds +Home Railway, from Valdez to the Yukon, met armed resistance in Keystone +Canyon from a force of men holding right of way for the Guggenheims. A +battle occurred in which one man was killed and three seriously wounded.</p> + +<p>The wildest excitement prevailed in fiery Valdez, and probably only the +proximity of a United States military post prevented the lynching of the +men who did the killing.</p> + +<p>Ever since the advent of the Russians, Copper River has been considered +one of the bonanzas of Alaska. It was discovered in 1783 by Nagaief, a +member of Potap Zaïkoff's party. He ascended it for a short distance and +traded with the natives, who called the river Atnah. Rufus +Serrebrennikof and his men attempted an exploration, but were killed. +General Miles, under Abercrombie, attempted to ascend the river in 1884, +with the intention of coming out by the Chilkaht country; but the +expedition was a failure. In the following year Lieutenant H. T. Allen +successfully ascended the river, crossed the divide to the Tanana, +sailed down that stream to the Yukon, explored the Koyukuk, and then +proceeded down the Yukon to St. Michael and returned to San Francisco by +ocean.</p> + +<p>His description of Miles Glacier was the first to be printed. This +glacier fronts for a distance of six miles in splendid palisades on +Copper River. This and Childs Glacier afford the chief obstacles to +navigation on this river, and Mr. A. H. Brooks reports their rapid +recession.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 629px;"> +<img src="images/illo_316.jpg" width="629" height="390" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Lake Bennett in 1898" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Lake Bennett in 1898</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> + +<p>The river is regarded as exceedingly dangerous for steamers, but may, +with caution, be navigated with small boats. Between the mouth of the +Chitina and the head of the broad delta of the Copper River, is the only +canyon. It is the famous Wood Canyon, several miles in length and in +many places only forty yards wide, with the water roaring through +perpendicular stone walls. The Tiekel, Tasnuna, and other streams +tributary to this part of the Copper also flow through narrow valleys +with precipitous slopes.</p> + +<p>The Copper River has its source in the mountains east of its great +plateau, whose eastern margin it traverses, and then, passing through +the Chugach Mountains, debouches across a wide delta into the North +Pacific Ocean between Katalla and Cordova. It rises close to Mount +Wrangell, flows northward for forty miles, south and southwest for fifty +more, when the Chitina joins it from the east and swells its flood for +the remaining one hundred and fifty miles to the coast.</p> + +<p>The Copper is a silt-laden, turbulent stream from its source to the sea. +Its average fall is about twelve feet to the mile. From the Chitina to +its mouth, it is steep-sided and rock-bound; for its entire length, it +is weird and impressive.</p> + +<p>By land, the distance from Katalla to Cordova is insignificant. It is a +distance, however, that cannot as yet be traversed, on account of the +delta and other impassable topographic features, which only a railroad +can overcome. The distance by water is about one hundred and fifty +miles.</p> + +<p>In the entrance to Cordova Bay is Hawkins Island, and to the southwest +of this island lies Hinchingbroke Island, whose southern extremity, at +the entrance to Prince William Sound, was named Cape Hinchingbroke by +Cook in 1778. At a point named Snug Corner Bay Cook keeled and mended +his ships.</p> + +<p>This peerless sound itself—brilliantly blue, greenly islanded, and set +round with snow peaks and glaciers, including among the latter the most +beautiful one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> Alaska, if not the most beautiful of the world, the +Columbia—was known as Chugach Gulf—a name to which I hope it may some +day return,—until Cook renamed it.</p> + +<p>A boat sent out by Cook was pursued by natives in canoes. They seemed +afraid to approach the ship; but at a distance sang, stood up in the +canoes, extending their arms and holding out white garments of peace. +One man stood up, entirely nude, with his arms stretched out like a +cross, motionless, for a quarter of an hour.</p> + +<p>The following night a few natives came out in the skin-boats of the +Eskimos. These boats are still used from this point westward and +northward to Nome and up the Yukon as far as the Eskimos have +settlements. They are of three kinds. One is a large, open, +flat-bottomed boat. It is made of a wooden frame, covered with walrus +skin or sealskin, held in place by thongs of the former. This is called +an oomiak by the Innuits or Eskimos, and a bidarra by the Russians. It +is used by women, or by large parties of men.</p> + +<p>A boat for one man is made in the same fashion, but covered completely +over, with the exception of one hole in which the occupant sits, and +around which is an upright rim. When at sea he wears a walrus-gut coat, +completely waterproof, which he ties around the outside of the rim. The +coat is securely tied around the wrists, and the hood is drawn tightly +around the face; so that no water can possibly enter the boat in the +most severe storm. This boat is called a bidarka.</p> + +<p>The third, called a kayak, differs from the bidarka only in being longer +and having two or three holes.</p> + +<p>The walrus-gut coats are called kamelinkas or kamelaykas. They may be +purchased in curio stores, and at Seldovia and other places on Cook +Inlet. They are now gayly decorated with bits of colored wool and range +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> price from ten to twenty dollars, according to the amount of work +upon them.</p> + +<p>There is a difference of opinion regarding the names of the boats. Dall +claims that the one-holed boat was called a kayak by the natives, and by +the Russians a bidarka; and that the others were simply known as two or +three holed bidarkas. The other opinion, which I have given, is that of +people living in the vicinity at present.</p> + +<p>Each of the men who came out in the bidarkas to visit Cook had a stick +about three feet long, the end of which was decorated with large tufts +of feathers. Behring's men were received in precisely the same manner at +the Shumagin Islands, far to westward, in 1741; their sticks, according +to Müller, being decorated with hawks' wings.</p> + +<p>These natives were found to be thievish and treacherous, attempting to +capture a boat under the ship's very guns and in the face of a hundred +men.</p> + +<p>Cook then sailed southward and discovered the largest island in the +sound, the Sukluk of the natives, which he named Montagu.</p> + +<p>Nutchek, or Port Etches, as it was named by Portlock, is just inside the +entrance to the sound on the western shore of the island that is now +known as Hinchingbroke, but which was formerly called Nutchek.</p> + +<p>Here Baranoff, several years later, built the ships that bore his first +expedition to Sitka. The Russian trading post was called the Redoubt +Constantine and Elena. It was a strong, stockaded fort with two +bastions.</p> + +<p>There is a salmon cannery at Nutchek, and the furs of the Copper River +country were brought here for many years for barter.</p> + +<p>Orca is situated about three miles north of Cordova, in Cordova Bay. +There is a large salmon cannery at Orca; and the number of sea-birds to +be seen in this small bay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> filling the air in snowy clouds and covering +the precipitous cliffs facing the wharf, is surpassed in only one place +on the Alaskan coast—Karluk Bay.</p> + +<p>For several years before the founding of Valdez, Orca was used as a port +by the argonauts who crossed by way of Valdez Pass to the Copper River +mining regions, and by way of the Tanana River to the Yukon.</p> + +<p>Prince William Sound is one of the most nobly beautiful bodies of water +in Alaska. Its wide blue water-sweeps, its many mountainous, wooded, and +snow-peaked islands, the magnificent glaciers which palisade its +ice-inlets, and the chain of lofty, snowy mountains that float mistily, +like linked pearls, around it through the amethystine clouds, give it a +poetic and austere beauty of its own. Every slow turn of the prow brings +forth some new delight to the eye. Never does one beautiful snow-dome +fade lingeringly from the horizon, ere another pushes into the +exquisitely colored atmosphere, in a chaste beauty that fairly thrills +the heart of the beholder.</p> + +<p>The sound, or gulf, extends winding blue arms in every direction,—into +the mainland and into the many islands. It covers an extent of more than +twenty-five hundred square miles. The entrance is about fifty miles +wide, but is sheltered by countless islands. The largest and richest are +Montagu, Hinchingbroke, La Touche, Knight's, and Hawkins. There are many +excellent harbors on the shores of the gulf and on the islands, and the +Russians built several ships here. In Chalmers Bay Vancouver discovered +a remarkable point, which bore stumps of trees cut with an axe, but far +below low-water mark at the time of his discovery. He named it Sinking +Point.</p> + +<p>There is a portage from the head of the gulf to Cook Inlet, which, the +earliest Russians learned, had long been used by the natives, who are of +the Innuit, or Eskimo, tribe, similar to those of the Inlet, and are +called Chugaches. The northern shore of Kenai and the western coast of +the Inlet are occupied by Indians of the Athabascan stock.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 627px;"> +<img src="images/illo_323.jpg" width="627" height="383" alt="Photo by Case and Draper + +White Horse, Yukon Territory" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Photo by Case and Draper<br /> + +White Horse, Yukon Territory</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Cook found the natives of the gulf of medium size, with square chests +and large heads. The complexion of the children and some of the younger +women was white; many of the latter having agreeable features and +pleasing appearance. They were vivacious, good-natured, and of engaging +frankness.</p> + +<p>These people, of all ages and both sexes, wore a close robe reaching to +the ankles—sometimes only to the knees—made of the skins of sea-otter, +seal, gray fox, raccoon, and pine-marten. These garments were worn with +the fur outside. Now and then one was seen made of the down of +sea-birds, which had been glued to some other substance. The seams were +ornamented with thongs, or tassels, of the same skins.</p> + +<p>In rain they wore kamelinkas over the fur robes. Cook's description of a +kamelinka as resembling a "gold-beater's leaf" is a very good one.</p> + +<p>His understanding of the custom of wearing the labret, however, differs +from that of other early navigators. The incision in the lip, he states, +was made even in the children at the breast; while La Pérouse and others +were of the impression that it was not made until a girl had arrived at +a marriageable age.</p> + +<p>It appears that the incision in time assumes the shape of real lips, +through which the tongue may be thrust.</p> + +<p>One of Cook's seamen, seeing for the first time a woman having the +incision from which the labret had been removed, fell into a panic of +horror and ran to his companions, crying that he "had seen a man with +two mouths,"—evidently mistaking the woman for a man. Cook reported +that both sexes wore the labret; but this was doubtless an error. When +they are clad in the fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> garments, which are called parkas, it is +difficult to distinguish one sex from the other among the younger +people.</p> + +<p>I had a rather amusing experience myself at the small native settlement +of Anvik on the Yukon. It was midnight, but broad daylight, as we were +in the Arctic Circle. The natives were all clad in parkas. Two sitting +side by side resembled each other closely. After buying some of their +curios, I asked one, indicating the other, "Is she your sister?"</p> + +<p>To my confusion, my question was received with a loud burst of laughter, +in which a dozen natives, sitting around them, hoarsely and hilariously +joined.</p> + +<p>They poked the unfortunate object of my curiosity in the ribs, pointed +at him derisively, and kept crying—"She! She!" until at last the poor +young fellow, not more embarrassed than myself, sprang to his feet and +ran away, with laughter and cries of "She! She!" following him.</p> + +<p>I have frequently recalled the scene, and feared that the innocent +dark-eyed and sweet-smiling youth may have retained the name which was +so mirthfully bestowed upon him that summer night.</p> + +<p>But since the mistake in sex may be so easily made, I am inclined to the +belief that Cook and his men were misled in this particular.</p> + +<p>A most remarkable difference of opinion existed between Cook and other +early explorers as to the cleanliness of the natives. He found their +method of eating decent and cleanly, their persons neat, without grease +or dirt, and their wooden dishes in excellent order.</p> + +<p>The white-headed eagle was found here, as well as the shag, the great +kingfisher of brilliant coloring, the humming-bird, water-fowl, grouse, +snipe, and plover. Many other species of water and land fowl have been +added to these.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + +<p>The flora of the islands is brilliant, varied, and luxuriant.</p> + +<p>In 1786 John Meares—who is dear to my heart because of his confidence +in Juan de Fuca—came to disaster in the Chugach Gulf. Overtaken by +winter, he first tried the anchorage at Snug Corner Cove, in his ship, +the <i>Nootka</i>, but later moved to a more sheltered nook closer to the +mainland, in the vicinity of the present native village of Tatitlik.</p> + +<p>The ill-provisioned vessel was covered for the winter; spruce beer was +brewed, but the men preferred the liquors, which were freely served, +and, fresh fish being scarce, scurvy became epidemic. The surgeon was +the first to die; but he was followed by many others.</p> + +<p>At first, graves were dug under the snow; but soon the survivors were +too few and too exhausted for this last service to their mates. The dead +were then dropped in fissures of the ice which surrounded their ship.</p> + +<p>At last, when the lowest depth of despair had been reached, Captains +Portlock and Dixon arrived and furnished relief and assistance.</p> + +<p>In 1787-1788 the Chugach Gulf presented a strange appearance to the +natives, not yet familiar with the presence of ships. Englishmen under +different flags, Russians and Spaniards, were sailing to all parts of +the gulf, taking possession in the names of different nations of all the +harbors and islands.</p> + +<p>In Voskressenski Harbor—now known as Resurrection Bay, where the new +railroad town of Seward is situated—the first ship ever built in Alaska +was launched by Baranoff, in 1794. It was christened the <i>Phœnix</i>, +and was followed by many others.</p> + +<p>Preparations for ship-building were begun in the winter of 1791. +Suitable buildings, storehouses, and quarters for the men were erected. +There were no large saws, and planks were hewn out of whole logs. The +iron required<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> was collected from wrecks in all parts of the colonies; +steel for axes was procured in the same way. Having no tar, Baranoff +used a mixture of spruce gum and oil.</p> + +<p>Provisions were scarce, and no time was allowed for hunting or fishing. +So severe were the hardships endured that no one but Baranoff could have +kept up his courage and that of his suffering men, and cheered them on +to final success.</p> + +<p>The <i>Phœnix</i>—which was probably named for an English ship which had +visited the Chugach Gulf in 1792—was built of spruce timber, and was +seventy-three feet long. It was provided with two decks and three masts. +The calking above the water-line was of moss. The sails were composed of +fragments of canvas gathered from all parts of the colonies.</p> + +<p>On her first voyage to Kadiak, the <i>Phœnix</i> encountered a storm which +brought disaster to her frail rigging; and instead of sailing proudly +into harbor, as Baranoff had hoped, she was ignominiously towed in.</p> + +<p>But she was the first vessel built in the colonies to enter that harbor +in any fashion, and the Russian joy was great. The event was celebrated +by solemn Mass, followed by high eating and higher drinking.</p> + +<p>The <i>Phœnix</i> was refitted and rerigged and sent out on her triumphal +voyage to Okhotsk. There she arrived safely and proudly. She was +received with volleys of artillery, the ringing of bells, the +celebration of Mass, and great and joyous feasting.</p> + +<p>A cabin and deck houses were added, the vessel was painted, and from +that time until her loss in the Alaskan Gulf, the <i>Phœnix</i> regularly +plied the waters of Behring Sea and the North Pacific Ocean between +Okhotsk and the Russian colonies in America.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + + +<p>Ellamar is a small town on Virgin Bay, Prince William Sound, at the +entrance to Puerto de Valdes, or Valdez Narrows. It is very prettily +situated on a gently rising hill.</p> + +<p>It has a population of five or six hundred, and is the home of the +Ellamar Mining Company. Here are the headquarters of a group of copper +properties known as the Gladdaugh mines.</p> + +<p>One of the mines extends under the sea, whose waves wash the buildings. +It has been a large and regular shipper for several years. In 1903 forty +thousand tons of ore were shipped to the Tacoma smelter, and shipments +have steadily increased with every year since.</p> + +<p>The mine is practically a solid mass of iron and copper pyrites. It has +a width of more than one hundred and twenty-five feet where exposed, and +extends along the strike for a known distance of more than three hundred +feet.</p> + +<p>The vast quantities of gold found in Alaska have, up to the present +time, kept the other rich mineral products of the country in the +background. Copper is, at last, coming into her own. The year of 1907 +brought forth tremendous developments in copper properties. The +Guggenheim-Morgan-Rockefeller syndicate has kept experts in every known, +or suspected, copper district of the North during the last two years. +Cordova, the sea terminus of the new railroad, is in the very heart of +one of the richest copper districts. The holdings of this syndicate are +already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> immense and cover every district. The railroad will run to the +Yukon, with branches extending into every rich region.</p> + +<p>Other heavily financed companies are preparing to rival the Guggenheims, +and individual miners will work their claims this year. Experts predict +that within a decade Alaska will become one of the greatest +copper-producing countries of the world. In the Copper River country +alone, north of Valdez, there is more copper, according to expert +reports, than Montana or Michigan ever has produced, or ever will +produce.</p> + +<p>The Ketchikan district is also remarkably rich. At Niblack Anchorage, on +Prince of Wales Island, the ore carries five per cent of copper, and the +mines are most favorably located on tide-water.</p> + +<p>Native copper, associated with gold, has been found on Turnagain Arm, in +the country tributary to the Alaska Central Railway.</p> + +<p>A half interest in the Bonanza, a copper mine on the western side of La +Touche Island, Prince William Sound, was sold last year for more than a +million dollars. This mine is not fully developed, but is considered one +of the best in Alaska. It has an elevation of two hundred feet. Several +tunnels have been driven, and the ore taken out runs high in copper, +gold, and silver. One shipment of one thousand two hundred and +thirty-five pounds gave net returns of fifty dollars to the ton, after +deducting freight to Tacoma, smelting, refining, and an allowance of +ninety-five per cent for the silver valuation. A sample taken along one +tunnel for sixty feet gave an assay of over nine per cent copper, with +one and a quarter ounces of silver.</p> + +<p>The Bonanza was purchased in 1900 by Messrs. Beatson and Robertson for +seventy-two thousand dollars. There is a good wharf and a tramway line +to the mine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>Adjoining the Bonanza on the north is a group of eleven claims owned by +Messrs. Esterly, Meenach, and Keyes, which are in course of development. +There are many other rich claims on this island, on Knight's, and on +others in the sound. Timber is abundant, the water power is excellent, +and ore is easily shipped.</p> + +<p>There is an Indian village two or three miles from Ellamar. It is the +village of Tatitlik, the only one now remaining on the sound, so rapidly +are the natives vanishing under the evil influence of civilization. Ten +years ago there were nine hundred natives in the various villages on the +shores of the sound; while now there are not more than two hundred, at +the most generous calculation.</p> + +<p>White men prospecting and fishing in the vicinity of the village supply +them with liquor. When a sufficient quantity can be purchased, the +entire village, men and women, indulges in a prolonged and horrible +debauch which frequently lasts for several weeks.</p> + +<p>The death rate at Tatitlik is very heavy,—more than a hundred natives +having died during 1907.</p> + +<p>Passengers have time to visit this village while the steamer loads ore +at Ellamar.</p> + +<p>The loading of ore, by the way, is a new experience. A steamer on which +I was travelling once landed at Ellamar during the night.</p> + +<p>We were rudely awakened from our dreams by a sound which Lieutenant +Whidbey would have called "most stupendously dreadful." We thought that +the whole bottom of the ship must have been knocked off by striking a +reef, and we reached the floor simultaneously.</p> + +<p>I have no notion how my own eyes looked, but my friend's eyes were as +large and expressive as bread-and-butter plates.</p> + +<p>"We are going down!" she exclaimed, with tragic brevity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>At that instant the dreadful sound was repeated. We were convinced that +the ship was being pounded to pieces under us upon rocks. Without speech +we began dressing with that haste that makes fingers become thumbs.</p> + +<p>But suddenly a tap came upon our door, and the watchman's voice spoke +outside.</p> + +<p>"Ladies, we are at Ellamar."</p> + +<p>"At Ellamar!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You asked to be called if it wasn't midnight when we landed."</p> + +<p>"But what is that <i>awful</i> noise, watchman?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we're loading ore," he answered cheerfully, and walked away.</p> + +<p>All that night and part of the next day tons upon tons of ore thundered +into the hold. We could not sleep, we could not talk; we could only +think; and the things we thought shall never be told, nor shall wild +horses drag them from us.</p> + +<p>We dressed, in desperation, and went up to "the store"; sat upon high +stools, ate stale peppermint candy, and listened to "Uncle Josh" telling +his parrot story through the phonograph.</p> + +<p>Somehow, between the ship and the store, we got ourselves through the +night and the early morning hours. After breakfast we found the green +and flowery slopes back of the town charming; and a walk of three miles +along the shore to the Indian village made us forget the ore for a few +hours. But to this day, when I read that an Alaskan ship has brought +down hundreds of tons of ore to the Tacoma smelter, my heart goes out +silently to the passengers who were on that ship when the ore was +loaded.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 621px;"> +<img src="images/illo_332.jpg" width="621" height="420" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Grand Canyon of the Yukon" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Grand Canyon of the Yukon</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + + +<p>When seen under favorable conditions, the Columbia Glacier is the most +beautiful thing in Alaska. I have visited it twice; once at sunset, and +again on an all-day excursion from Valdez.</p> + +<p>The point on the western side of the entrance to Puerto de Valdés, as it +was named by Fidalgo, was named Point Fremantle by Vancouver. Just west +of this point and three miles north of the Condé, or Glacier, Island is +the nearly square bay upon which the glacier fronts.</p> + +<p>Entering this bay from the Puerto de Valdés, one is instantly conscious +of the presence of something wonderful and mysterious. Long before it +can be seen, this presence is felt, like that of a living thing. Quick, +vibrant, thrilling, and inexpressibly sweet, its breath sweeps out to +salute the voyager and lure him on; and with every sense alert, he +follows, but with no conception of what he is to behold.</p> + +<p>One may have seen glaciers upon glaciers, yet not be prepared for the +splendor and the magnificence of the one that palisades the northern end +of this bay.</p> + +<p>The Fremantle Glacier was first seen by Lieutenant Whidbey, to whose +cold and unappreciative eyes so many of the most precious things of +Alaska were first revealed. He simply described it as "a solid body of +compact, elevated ice ... bounded at no great distance by a continuation +of the high ridge of snowy mountains."</p> + +<p>He heard "thunder-like" noises, and found that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> had been produced +by the breaking off and headlong plunging into the sea of great bodies +of ice.</p> + +<p>In such wise was one of the most marvellous things of the world first +seen and described.</p> + +<p>The glacier has a frontage of about four miles, and its glittering +palisades tower upward to a height of from three to four hundred feet. +There is a small island, named Heather, in the bay. Poor Whidbey felt +the earth shake at a distance of three miles from the falling ice.</p> + +<p>In ordinary light, the front of the glacier is beautifully blue. It is a +blue that is never seen in anything save a glacier or a floating +iceberg—a pale, pale blue that seems to flash out fire with every +movement. At sunset, its beauty holds one spellbound. It sweeps down +magnificently from the snow peaks which form its fit setting and pushes +out into the sea in a solid wall of spired and pinnacled opal which, +ever and anon breaking off, flings over it clouds of color which dazzle +the eyes. At times there is a display of prismatic colors. Across the +front grow, fade and grow again, the most beautiful rainbow shadings. +They come and go swiftly and noiselessly, affecting one somewhat like +Northern Lights—so still, so brilliant, so mysterious.</p> + +<p>There was silence upon our ship as it throbbed in, slowly and +cautiously, among the floating icebergs—some of which were of palest +green, others of that pale blue I have mentioned, and still others of an +enchanting rose color. Even the woman who had, during the whole voyage, +taken the finest edge off our enjoyment of every mountain by drawling +out, "Oh—how—pretty! George, will you just come here and look at this +pretty mountain? It looks good enough to eat"—even this woman was +speechless now, for which blessing we gave thanks to God, of which we +were not even conscious at the time.</p> + +<p>It was still fired as brilliantly upon our departure as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> upon our +entrance into its presence. The June sunset in Alaska draws itself out +to midnight; and ever since, I have been tormented with the longing to +lie before that glacier one whole June night; to hear its falling +columns thunder off the hours, and to watch the changing colors play +upon its brilliant front.</p> + +<p>Even in the middle of the day a peculiarly soft and rich rose color +flashes from it and over it. One who has seen the first snow sifting +upon a late rose of the garden may guess what a delicate, enchanting +rose color it is.</p> + +<p>There are many fine glaciers barricading the inlets and bays in this +vicinity; in Port Nell Juan, Applegate Arm, Port Wells, Passage +Canal—which leads to the portage to Cook Inlet—and Unakwik Bay; but +they are scarcely to be mentioned in the same breath with the Fremantle. +The latter has been known as the Columbia since the Harriman expedition +in 1899. It has had no rival since the destruction of the Muir.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Either the disagreeable features of the Alaskan climate have been +grossly exaggerated, or I have been exceedingly fortunate in the three +voyages I have made along the coast to Unalaska, and down the Yukon to +Nome. On one voyage I travelled continuously for a month by water, +experiencing only three rainy days and three cloudy ones. All the other +days were clear and golden, with a blue sky, a sparkling sea, and air +that was sweet with sunshine, flowers, and snow. I have never been in +Alaska in winter, but I have for three years carefully compared the +weather reports of different sections of that country with those of +other cold countries; and no intelligent, thoughtful person can do this +without arriving at conclusions decidedly favorable to Alaska.</p> + +<p>Were Alaska possessed of the same degree of civilization that is enjoyed +by St. Petersburg, Chicago, St. Paul,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> Minneapolis, and New York, we +would hear no more of the rigors of the Alaskan climate than we hear of +those of the cities mentioned. It is more agreeable than the climate of +Montana, Nebraska, or the Dakotas.</p> + +<p>With large cities, rich and gay cities; prosperous inhabitants clad in +costly furs; luxurious homes, well warmed and brilliantly lighted; +railway trains, sleighs, and automobiles for transportation; splendid +theatres, libraries, art galleries,—with these and the hundreds of +advantages enjoyed by the people of other cold countries, Alaska's +winters would hold no terrors.</p> + +<p>It is the present loneliness of the winter that appalls. The awful +spaces and silences; the limitless snow plains; the endless chains of +snow mountains; the silent, frozen rivers; the ice-stayed cataracts; the +bitter, moaning sea; the hastily built homes, lacking luxuries, +sometimes even comforts; the poverty of congenial companionship; the +dearth of intelligent amusements—these be the conditions that make all +but the stoutest hearts pause.</p> + +<p>But the stout heart, the heart that loves Alaska! Pity him not, though +he spend all the winters of his life in its snow-bound fastnesses. <i>He</i> +is not for pity. Joys are his of which those that pity him know not.</p> + +<p>According to a report prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Glassford, of the +United States Signal Corps Service, on February 5, 1906, the temperature +was twenty-six degrees above zero in Grand Junction, Colorado, and in +Salchia, Alaska; twenty-two degrees in Flagstaff, Arizona, Memphis, Salt +Lake, Spokane, and Summit, Alaska; fourteen degrees in Cairo, Illinois, +Cincinnati, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, and Della, Alaska; twelve degrees +in Santa Fé and in Fort Egbert and Eagle, on the Yukon; ten degrees in +Helena, Buffalo, and Workman's, Alaska; zero in Denver, Dodge, Kansas, +and Fairbanks and Chena, Alaska; five degrees below in Dubuque, Omaha, +and Copper Centre and Matanuska, Alaska; ten degrees below in Huron, +Michigan, and in Gokona, Alaska; fifteen degrees below in Bismarck, St. +Paul, and in Tanana Crossing, Alaska; twenty degrees below in Fort +Brady, Michigan, and in Ketchumstock, Alaska.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 637px;"> +<img src="images/illo_339.jpg" width="637" height="447" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +White Horse Rapids" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +White Horse Rapids</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>Statistics giving the absolute mean minimum temperature in the capital +cities of the United States prove that out of the forty-seven cities, +thirty-one were as cold or colder than Sitka, and four were colder than +Valdez.</p> + +<p>On the southern coast of Alaska there are few points where zero is +recorded, the average winter weather at Juneau, Sitka, Valdez, and +Seward being milder than in Washington, D.C. In the interior, the +weather is much colder, but it is the dry, light cold. At Fairbanks, it +is true that the thermometer has registered sixty degrees below zero; +but it has done the same in the Dakotas and other states, and is +unusual. Severely cold weather occurs in Alaska as rarely as in other +cold countries, and remains but a few days.</p> + +<p>Alaska has unfortunately had the reputation of having an unendurable +climate thrust upon her, first by such chill-blooded navigators as +Whidbey and Vancouver; and later, by the gold seekers who rushed, +frenziedly, into the unsettled wastes, with no preparation for the +intense cold which at times prevails.</p> + +<p>Almost every winter in Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, and the Dakotas, +children of the prairies and their teachers freeze to death going to or +from school, and it is accepted as a matter of course. In Alaska, where +hundreds of men traverse hundreds of miles by dog sleds and snow-shoes, +with none of the comforts of more civilized countries and with road +houses few and far, if two or three in a winter freeze to death, the +tragedy is wired to all parts of the world as another mute testimony to +the "tremendously horrible" climate of Alaska.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p> + +<p>The intense heat, of which dozens of people perish every summer in New +York and other eastern states is unknown in Alaska. Cyclones and +cloud-bursts are unchronicled. Fatal epidemics of disease among white +people have never yet occurred.</p> + +<p>As for the summer climate of Alaska, both along the coast and in the +interior, it is possessed of a charm and fascination which cannot be +described in words.</p> + +<p>"You can just <i>taste</i> the Alaska climate," said an old Klondiker, on a +White Pass and Yukon train. We were standing between cars, clinging to +the brakes—sooty-eyed, worn-out with joy as we neared White Horse, but +standing and looking still, unwilling to lose one moment of that +beautiful trip.</p> + +<p>"It tastes different every hundred miles," he went on, with that beam in +his eye which means love of Alaska in the heart. "You begun to taste it +in Grenville Channel. It tasted different in Skagway, and there's a big +change when you get to White Horse. I golly! at White Horse, you'll +think you never tasted anything like it; but it don't hold a candle +there to the way it tastes going down the Yukon. If you happen to get +into the Ar'tic Circle, say, about two in the morning, you dress +yourself and hike out on deck, an' I darn! you can taste more'n climate. +You can taste the Ar'tic Circle itself! Say, can you guess what it +tastes like?"</p> + +<p>I could not guess what the Arctic Circle tasted like, and frankly +confessed it.</p> + +<p>"Well, say, weepin' Sinew! It tastes like icicles made out of them durn +little blue flowers you call voylets. I picked some out from under the +snow once, an' eat 'em. There was moisture froze all over 'em—so I know +how they taste; and that's the way the Ar'tic Circle tastes, with—well, +maybe a little <i>rum</i> mixed in, the way they fix things up at the Butler +down in Seattle. I darn!...<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> Just you remember, when you get to the +Circle, an' say, straight goods, if Cyanide Bill ain't right."</p> + +<p>"Talkin' about climate," he resumed, as the train hesitated in passing +the Grand Canyon, "there's a well at White Horse that's got the climate +of the hull Yukon country in it. It's about two blocks toward the rapids +from White Pass Hotel. It stands on a vacant lot about fifty steps from +the sidewalk, on your right hand goin' toward the Rapids. Well, I darn! +I've traipsed over every country on this earth, an' I never tasted such +water. Not anywheres! You see, it's dug right down into solid ice an' +the sun just melts out a little water at a time, an' everything nice in +Alaska tastes in that water—ice an' snow, an' flowers an' sun—"</p> + +<p>"Do you write poetry?" I asked, smiling.</p> + +<p>His face lightened.</p> + +<p>"No; but say—there's a young fellow in White Horse that does. He's +wrote a whole book of it. His name's Robert Service. Say, I'd shoot up +anybody that said his poetry wasn't the real thing."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure it is," said I, hastily.</p> + +<p>"You bet it is. You can hear the Yukon roar, an' the ice break up an' go +down the river, standin' up on end in chunks twenty feet high, an' +carryin' everything with it; you can wade through miles an' miles of +flowers an' gether your hands full of 'em an' think there's a woman +somewhere waitin' for you to take 'em to her; you can tromp through +tundra an' over rocks till your feet bleed; you can go blind lookin' for +gold; you can get kissed by the prettiest girl in a Dawson dance hall, +an' then get jilted for some younger fellow; you can hear glaciers +grindin' up, an' avylanches tearin' down the mountains; you can starve +to death an' freeze to death; you can strike a gold mine an' go home to +your fambly a millionnaire an' have 'em like you again; you can drink +champagne an' eat sour-dough; you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> can feel the heart break up inside of +you—an' yes, I God! you can go down on your knees an' say your prayers +again like your mother showed you how! You can do every one of them damn +fool things when you're readin' that Service fellow's poetry. So that's +why I'm ready to shoot up anybody that says, or intimates, that his +poetry ain't the genuine article."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + + +<p>Port Valdez—or the Puerto de Valdés, as it was named by Vancouver after +Whidbey's exploration—is a fiord twelve miles long and of a beauty that +is simply enchanting.</p> + +<p>On a clear day it winds like a pale blue ribbon between colossal +mountains of snow, with glaciers streaming down to the water at every +turn. The peaks rise, one after another, sheer from the water, +pearl-white from summit to base.</p> + +<p>It has been my happiness and my good fortune always to sail this fiord +on a clear day. The water has been as smooth as satin, with a faint +silvery tinge, as of frost, shimmering over its blue.</p> + +<p>At the end, Port Valdez widens into a bay, and upon the bay, in the +shadow of her mountains, and shaded by her trees, is Valdez.</p> + +<p>Valdez! The mere mention of the name is sufficient to send visions of +loveliness glimmering through the memory. Through a soft blur of +rose-lavender mist shine houses, glacier, log-cabins, and the tossing +green of trees; the wild, white glacial torrents pouring down around the +town; and the pearly peaks linked upon the sky.</p> + +<p>Valdez was founded in 1898. During the early rush to the Klondike, one +of the routes taken was directly over the glacier. In 1898 about three +thousand people landed at the upper end of Port Valdez, followed the +glacier, crossed over the summit of the Chugach Mountains,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> and thence +down a fork of the Copper River. The route was dangerous, and attended +by many hardships and real suffering.</p> + +<p>At first hundreds of tents whitened the level plain at the foot of the +glacier; then, one by one, cabins were built, stocks were brought in for +trading purposes, saloons and dance halls sprang up in a night,—and +Valdez was.</p> + +<p>In this year Captain Abercrombie, of the United States Army, crossed the +glacier with his entire party of men and horses and reached the Tanana. +In the following year, surveys were made under his direction for a +military wagon trail over the Chugach Mountains from Valdez to the +Tanana, and during the following three years this trail was constructed.</p> + +<p>It has proved to be of the greatest possible benefit, not only to the +vast country tributary to Valdez, but to the various Yukon districts, +and to Nome. After many experiments, it has been chosen by the +government as the winter route for the distribution of mail to the +interior of Alaska and to Nome. Steamers make connection with a regular +line of stages and sleighs. There are frequent and comfortable road +houses, and the danger of accident is not nearly so great as it is in +travelling by railway in the eastern states.</p> + +<p>The Valdez military trail follows Lowe River and Keystone Canyon. +Through the canyon the trail is only wide enough for pack trains, and +travel is by the frozen river.</p> + +<p>The Signal Corps of the Army has constructed many hundreds of miles of +telegraph lines since the beginning of the present decade. Nome, the +Yukon, Tanana, and Copper River valleys are all connected with Valdez +and with Dawson by telegraph. Nome has outside connection by wireless, +and all the coast towns are in communication with Seattle by cable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>The climate of Valdez is delightful in summer. In winter it is ten +degrees colder than at Sitka, with good sleighing. The annual +precipitation is fifty per cent less than along the southeastern coast. +Snow falls from November to April.</p> + +<p>The long winter nights are not disagreeable. The moon and the stars are +larger and more brilliant in Alaska than can be imagined by one who has +not seen them, and, with the changeful colors of the Aurora playing upon +the snow, turn the northern world into Fairyland.</p> + +<p>Valdez has a population of about twenty-five hundred people. It is four +hundred and fifty miles north of Sitka, and eighteen hundred miles from +Seattle. It is said to be the most northern port in the world that is +open to navigation the entire year.</p> + +<p>There are two good piers to deep water, besides one at the new town +site, an electric light plant and telephone system, two newspapers, a +hospital, creditable churches of five or six denominations, a graded +school, private club-rooms, a library, a brewery, several hotels and +restaurants, public halls, a court-house, several merchandise stores +carrying stocks of from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars, a tin and +sheet metal factory, saw-mills,—and almost every business, industry, +and profession is well represented. There are saloons without end, and +dance halls; a saloon in Alaska that excludes women is not known, but +good order prevails and disturbances are rare.</p> + +<p>The homes are, for the most part, small,—building being excessively +high,—but pretty, comfortable, and frequently artistic. There are +flower-gardens everywhere. There is no log-cabin so humble that its bit +of garden-spot is not a blaze of vivid color. Every window has its box +of bloom. La France roses were in bloom in July in the garden of +ex-Governor Leedy, of Kansas, whose home is now in Valdez.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> + +<p>The civilization of the town is of the highest. The whole world might go +to Alaska and learn a lesson in genuine, simple, refined +hospitality—for its key-note is kindness of heart.</p> + +<p>The visitor soon learns that he must be chary of his admiration of one +of the curios on his host's wall, lest he be begged to accept it.</p> + +<p>The Tillicum Club is known in all parts of Alaska. It has a very +comfortable club-house, where all visitors of note to the town are +entertained. The club occasionally has what its own self calls a "dry +night," when ladies are entertained with cards and music. (The adjective +does not apply to the entertainment.)</p> + +<p>The dogs of Valdez are interesting. They are large, and of every color +known to dogdom, the malamutes predominating. They are all "heroes of +the trail," and are respected and treated as "good fellows." They lie by +twos and threes clear across the narrow board sidewalks; and unless one +understands the language of the trail, it is easier to walk around them +or to jump over them than it is to persuade them to move. A string of +oaths, followed by "<i>Mush!</i>" all delivered like the crack of a whip, +brings quick results. The dogs hasten to the pier, on a long, wolflike +lope, when the whistle of a steamer is heard, and offer the hospitality +of the town to the stranger, with waving tails and saluting tongues.</p> + +<p>It is a heavy expense to feed these dogs in Alaska, yet few men are +known to be so mean as to grudge this expense to dogs who have +faithfully served them, frequently saving their lives, on the trail.</p> + +<p>The situation of Valdez is absolutely unique. The dauntlessness of a +city that would boldly found itself upon a glacier has proved too much +for even the glacier, and it is rapidly withdrawing, as if to make room +for its intrepid rival in interest. Yet it still is so close that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> from +the water, it appears as though one might reach out and touch it. The +wide blue bay sparkles in front, and snow peaks surround it.</p> + +<p>Beautiful, oh, most beautiful, are those peaks at dawn, at sunset, at +midnight, at noon. The summer nights in Valdez are never dark; and I +have often stood at midnight and watched the amethyst lights on the +mountains darken to violet, purple, black,—while the peaks themselves +stood white and still, softly outlined against the sky.</p> + +<p>But in winter, when mountains, glacier, city, trees, lie white and +sparkling beneath the large and brilliant stars, and the sea alone is +dark—to stand then and see the great golden moon rising slowly, +vibrating, pushing, oh, so silently, so beautifully, above the clear +line of snow into the dark blue sky—that is worth ten years of living.</p> + +<p>"Why do you not go out to 'the states,' as so many other ladies do in +winter?" I asked a grave-eyed young wife on my first visit, not knowing +that she belonged to the great Alaskan order of "Stout Hearts and Strong +Hearts"—the only order in Alaska that is for women and men.</p> + +<p>She looked at me and smiled. Her eyes went to the mountains, and they +grew almost as wistful and sweet as the eyes of a young mother watching +her sleeping child. Then they came back to me, grave and kind.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said she, "how can I tell you why? You have never seen the moon +come over those mountains in winter, nor the winter stars shining above +the sea."</p> + +<p>That was all. She could not put it into words more clearly than that; +but he that runs may read.</p> + +<p>The site of Valdez is as level as a parade ground to the bases of the +near mountains, which rise in sheer, bold sweeps. A line of alders, +willows, cotton woods, and balms follows the glacial stream that flows +down to the sea on each side of the town.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> + +<p>The glacier behind the town—now called a "dead" glacier—once +discharged bergs directly into the sea. The soil upon which the town is +built is all glacial deposit. Flowers spring up and bloom in a day. +Vegetables thrive and are crisp and delicious—particularly lettuce.</p> + +<p>Society is gay in Valdez, as in most Alaskan towns. Fort Liscum is +situated across the bay, so near that the distance between is travelled +in fifteen minutes by launch. Dances, receptions, card-parties, and +dinners, at Valdez and at the fort, occur several times each week, and +the social line is drawn as rigidly here as in larger communities.</p> + +<p>There is always a dance in Valdez on "steamer night." The officers and +their wives come over from the fort; the officers of the ship are +invited, as are any passengers who may bear letters of introduction or +who may be introduced by the captain of the ship. A large and brightly +lighted ballroom, beautiful women, handsomely and fashionably gowned, +good music, and a genuine spirit of hospitality make these functions +brilliant.</p> + +<p>The women of Alaska dress more expensively than in "the states." Paris +gowns, the most costly furs, and dazzling jewels are everywhere seen in +the larger towns.</p> + +<p>All travellers in Alaska unite in enthusiastic praise of its unique and +generous hospitality. From the time of Baranoff's lavish, and frequently +embarrassing, banquets to the refined entertainments of to-day, northern +hospitality has been a proverb.</p> + +<p>"Petnatchit copla" is still the open sesame.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + + +<p>The trip over "the trail" from Valdez to the Tanana country is one of +the most fascinating in Alaska.</p> + +<p>At seven o'clock of a July morning five horses stood at our hotel door. +Two gentlemen of Valdez had volunteered to act as escort to the three +ladies in our party for a trip over the trail.</p> + +<p>I examined with suspicion the red-bay horse that had been assigned to +me.</p> + +<p>"Is he gentle?" I asked of one of the gentlemen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. You can't take any one's word about a horse in +Alaska. They call regular buckers 'gentle' up here. The only way to find +out is to try them."</p> + +<p>This was encouraging.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me," said one of the other ladies, "that you don't +know whether these horses have ever been ridden by women?"</p> + +<p>"No, I do not know."</p> + +<p>She sat down on the steps.</p> + +<p>"Then there's no trail for me. I don't know how to ride nor to manage a +horse."</p> + +<p>After many moments of persuasion, we got her upon a mild-eyed horse, +saddled with a cross-saddle. The other lady and myself had chosen +side-saddles, despite the assurance of almost every man in Valdez that +we could not get over the trail sitting a horse sidewise, without +accident.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your skirt'll catch in the brush and pull you off," said one, +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Your feet'll hit against the rocks in the canyon," said another.</p> + +<p>"You can't balance as even on a horse's back, sideways, and if you don't +balance even along the precipice in the canyon, your horse'll go over," +said a third.</p> + +<p>"Your horse is sure to roll over once or twice in the glacier streams, +and you can save yourself if you're riding astride," said a fourth.</p> + +<p>"You're certain to get into quicksand somewhere on the trip, and if all +your weight is on one side of your horse, you'll pull him down and he'll +fall on top of you," said a fifth.</p> + +<p>In the face of all these cheerful horrors, our escort said:—</p> + +<p>"Ride any way you please. If a woman can keep her head, she will pull +through everything in Alaska. Besides, we are not going along for +nothing!"</p> + +<p>So we chose side-saddles, that having been our manner of riding since +childhood.</p> + +<p>We had waited three weeks for the glacial flood at the eastern side of +the town to subside, and could wait no longer. It was roaring within ten +steps of the back door of our hotel; and in two minutes after mounting, +before our feet were fairly settled in the stirrups, we had ridden down +the sloping bank into the boiling, white waters.</p> + +<p>One of the gentlemen rode ahead as guide. I watched his big horse go +down in the flood—down, down; the water rose to its knees, to its +rider's feet, to <i>his</i> knees—</p> + +<p>He turned his head and called cheerfully, "Come on!" and we went on—one +at a time, as still as the dead, save for the splashing and snorting of +our horses. I felt the water, icy cold, rising high, higher; it almost +washed my foot from the red-slippered stirrup; then I felt it mounting +higher, my skirts floated out on the flood, and then fell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> limp, about +me. My glance kept flying from my horse's head to our guide, and back +again. He was tall, and his horse was tall.</p> + +<p>"When it reaches <i>his</i> waist," was my agonized thought, "it will be over +<i>my</i> head!"</p> + +<p>The other gentleman rode to my side.</p> + +<p>"Keep a firm hold of your bridle," said he, gravely, "and watch your +horse. If he falls—"</p> + +<p>"Falls! <i>In here!</i>"</p> + +<p>"They do sometimes; one must be prepared. If he falls—of course you can +swim?"</p> + +<p>"I never swam a stroke in my life; I never even tried!"</p> + +<p>"Is it possible?" said he, in astonishment. "Why, we would not have +advised you to come at this time if we had known that. We took it for +granted that you wouldn't think of going unless you could swim."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said I, sarcastically, "do all the women in Valdez swim?"</p> + +<p>"No," he answered, gravely, "but then, they don't go over the trail. +Well, we can only hope that he will not fall. When he breaks into a +swim—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Swim!</i> Will he do that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, he is liable to swim any minute now."</p> + +<p>"What will I do then?" I asked, quite humbly; I could hear tears in my +own voice. He must have heard them, too, his voice was so kind as he +answered.</p> + +<p>"Sit as quietly and as evenly as possible, and lean slightly forward in +the saddle; then trust to heaven and give him his head."</p> + +<p>"Does he give you any warning?"</p> + +<p>"Not the faintest—ah-h!"</p> + +<p>Well might he say "ah-h!" for my horse was swimming. Well might we all +say "ah-h!" for one wild glance ahead revealed to my glimmering vision +that all our horses were swimming.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> + +<p>I never knew before that horses swam so <i>low down</i> in the water. I +wished when I could see nothing but my horse's ears that I had not been +so stubborn about the saddle.</p> + +<p>The water itself was different from any water I had ever seen. It did +not flow like a river; it boiled, seethed, rushed, whirled; it pushed up +into an angry bulk that came down over us like a deluge. I had let go of +my reins and, leaning forward in the saddle, was clinging to my horse's +mane. The rapidly flowing water gave me the impression that we were +being swept down the stream.</p> + +<p>The roaring grew louder in my ears; I was so dizzy that I could no +longer distinguish any object; there was just a blur of brown and white +water, rising, falling, about me; the sole thought that remained was +that I was being swept out to sea with my struggling horse.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a shock which, to my tortured nerves, seemed like a +ship striking on a rock. It was some time before I realized that it had +been caused by my horse striking bottom. He was walking—staggering, +rather, and plunging; his whole neck appeared, then his shoulders; I +released his mane mechanically, as I had acted in all things since +mounting, and gathered up the reins.</p> + +<p>"That was a nasty one, wasn't it?" said my escort, joining me. "I stayed +behind to be of service if you required it. We're getting out now, but +there are, at least, ten or fifteen as bad on the trail—if not worse."</p> + +<p>As if anything <i>could</i> be worse!</p> + +<p>I chanced to lift my eyes then, and I got a clear view of the ladies +ahead of me. Their appearance was of such a nature that I at once looked +myself over—and saw myself as others saw me! It was the first and only +time that I have ever wished myself at home when I have been travelling +in Alaska.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Cheer up!" called our guide, over his broad shoulder. "The worst is yet +to come."</p> + +<p>He spoke more truthfully than even he knew. There was one stream after +another—and each seemed really worse than the one that went before. +From Valdez Glacier the ice, melted by the hot July sun, was pouring out +in a dozen streams that spread over the immense flats between the town +and the mouth of Lowe River. There were miles and miles of it. Scarcely +would we struggle out of one place that had been washed out deep—and +how deep, we never knew until we were into it—when we would be +compelled to plunge into another.</p> + +<p>At last, wet and chilled, after several narrow escapes from whirlpools +and quicksand, we reached a level road leading through a cool wood for +several miles. From this, of a sudden, we began to climb. So steep was +the ascent and so narrow the path—no wider than the horse's feet—that +my horse seemed to have a series of movable humps on him, like a camel; +and riding sidewise, I could only lie forward and cling desperately to +his mane, to avoid a shameful descent over his tail.</p> + +<p>Actually, there were steps cut in the hard soil for the horses to climb +upon! They pulled themselves up with powerful plunges. On both sides of +this narrow path the grass or "feed," as it is called, grew so tall that +we could not see one another's heads above it, as we rode; yet it had +been growing only six weeks.</p> + +<p>Mingling with young alders, fireweed, devil's-club and elderberry—the +latter sprayed out in scarlet—it formed a network across our path, +through which we could only force our way with closed eyes, blind as +Love.</p> + +<p>Bad as the ascent was, the sudden descent was worse. The horse's humps +all turned the other way, and we turned with them. It was only by +constant watchfulness that we kept ourselves from sliding over their +heads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p> + +<p>After another ascent, we emerged into the open upon the brow of a cliff. +Below us stretched the valley of the Lowe River. Thousands of feet below +wound and looped the blue reaches of the river, set here and there with +islands of glistening sand or rosy fireweed; while over all trailed the +silver mists of morning. One elderberry island was so set with scarlet +sprays of berries that from our height no foliage could be seen.</p> + +<p>After this came a scented, primeval forest, through which we rode in +silence. Its charm was too elusive for speech. Our horses' feet sank +into the moss without sound. There was no underbrush; only dim aisles +and arcades fashioned from the gray trunks of trees. The pale green +foliage floating above us completely shut out the sun. Soft gray, +mottled moss dripped from the limbs and branches of the spruce trees in +delicate, lacy festoons.</p> + +<p>Soon after emerging from this dreamlike wood we reached Camp Comfort, +where we paused for lunch.</p> + +<p>This is one of the most comfortable road houses in Alaska. It is +situated in a low, green valley; the river winds in front, and snow +mountains float around it. The air is very sweet.</p> + +<p>It is only ten miles from Valdez; but those ten miles are equal to fifty +in taxing the endurance.</p> + +<p>We found an excellent vegetable garden at Camp Comfort. Pansies and +other flowers were as large and fragrant as I have ever seen, the +coloring of the pansies being unusually rich. They told us that only two +other women had passed over the trail during the summer.</p> + +<p>While our lunch was being prepared, we stood about the immense stove in +the immense living room and tried to dry our clothing.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 622px;"> +<img src="images/illo_356.jpg" width="622" height="442" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +White Horse Rapids in Winter" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +White Horse Rapids in Winter</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p> + +<p>This room was at least thirty feet square. It had a high ceiling and a +rough board floor. In one corner was a piano, in another a phonograph. +The ceiling was hung with all kinds of trail apparel used by men, +including long boots and heavy stockings, guns and other weapons, and +other articles that added a picturesque, and even startling, touch to +the big room.</p> + +<p>In one end was a bench, buckets of water, tin cups hanging on nails, +washbowls, and a little wavy mirror swaying on the wall. The gentlemen +of our party played the phonograph while we removed the dust and mud +which we had gathered on our journey; afterward, <i>we</i> played the +phonograph.</p> + +<p>Then we all stood happily about the stove to "dry out," and listened to +our host's stories of the miners who came out from the Tanana country, +laden with gold. As many as seventy men, each bearing a fortune, have +slept at Camp Comfort on a single night. We slept there ourselves, on +our return journey, but our riches were in other things than gold, and +there was no need to guard them. Any man or woman may go to Alaska and +enrich himself or herself forever, as we did, if he or she have the +desire. Not only is there no need to guard our riches, but, on the +contrary, we are glad to give freely to whomsoever would have.</p> + +<p>Each man, we were told, had his own way of caring for his gold. One +leaned a gunnysack full of it outside the house, where it stood all +night unguarded, supposed to be a sack of old clothing, from the +carelessness with which it was left there. The owner slept calmly in the +attic, surrounded by men whose gold made their hard pillows.</p> + +<p>They told us, too, of the men who came back, dull-eyed and empty-handed, +discouraged and footsore. They slept long and heavily; there was nothing +for them to guard.</p> + +<p>Every road house has its "talking-machine," with many of the most +expensive records. No one can appreciate one of these machines until he +goes to Alaska. Its influence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> is not to be estimated in those far, +lonely places, where other music is not.</p> + +<p>In a big store "to Westward" we witnessed a scene that would touch any +heart. The room was filled with people. There were passengers and +officers from the ship, miners, Russian half-breeds, and full-blooded +Aleuts. After several records had filled the room with melody, Calvé, +herself, sang "The Old Folks At Home." As that voice of golden velvet +rose and fell, the unconscious workings of the faces about me spelled +out their life tragedies. At last, one big fellow in a blue flannel +shirt started for the door. As he reached it, another man caught his +sleeve and whispered huskily:—</p> + +<p>"Where you goin', Bill?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, anywheres," he made answer, roughly, to cover his emotion; +"anywheres, so's I can't hear that damn piece,"—and it was not one of +the least of Calvé's compliments.</p> + +<p>Music in Alaska brings the thought of home; and it is the thought of +home that plays upon the heartstrings of the North. The hunger is always +there,—hidden, repressed, but waiting,—and at the first touch of music +it leaps forth and casts its shadow upon the face. Who knows but that it +is this very heart-hunger that puts the universal human look into +Alaskan eyes?</p> + +<p>After a good lunch at Camp Comfort, we resumed our journey. There was +another bit of enchanting forest; then, of a sudden, we were in the +famed Keystone Canyon.</p> + +<p>Here, the scenery is enthralling. Solid walls of shaded gray stone rise +straight from the river to a height of from twelve to fifteen hundred +feet. Along one cliff winds the trail, in many places no wider than the +horses' feet. One feels that he must only breathe with the land side of +him, lest the mere weight of his breath on the other side should topple +him over the sheer, dizzy precipice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was amusing to see every woman lean toward the rock cliff. Not for +all the gold of the Klondike would I have willingly given one look down +into the gulf, sinking away, almost under my horse's feet. Somewhere in +those purple depths I knew that the river was roaring, white and +swollen, between its narrow stone walls.</p> + +<p>Now and then, as we turned a sharp, narrow corner, I could not help +catching a glimpse of it; for a moment, horse and rider, as we turned, +would seem to hang suspended above it with no strip of earth between. +There were times, when we were approaching a curve, that there seemed to +be nothing ahead of us but a chasm that went sinking dizzily away; no +solid place whereon the horse might set his feet. It was like a +nightmare in which one hangs half over a precipice, struggling so hard +to recover himself that his heart almost bursts with the effort.</p> + +<p>Then, while I held my breath and blindly trusted to heaven, the curve +would be turned and the path would glimmer once more before my eyes.</p> + +<p>But one false step of the horse, one tiniest rock-slide striking his +feet, one unexpected sound to startle him—the mere thought of these +possibilities made my heart stop beating.</p> + +<p>We finally reached a place where the descent was almost perpendicular +and the trail painfully narrow. The horses sank to their haunches and +slid down, taking gravel and stones down with them. I had been imploring +to be permitted to walk; but now, being far in advance of all but one, I +did not ask permission. I simply slipped off my horse and left him for +the others to bring with them. The gentleman with me was forced to do +the same.</p> + +<p>We paused for a time to rest and to enjoy the most beautiful waterfall I +saw in Alaska—Bridal Veil. It is on the opposite side of the canyon, +and has a slow, musical fall of six hundred feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + +<p>When we went on, the other members of our party had not yet come up with +us, nor had our horses appeared. In the narrowest of all narrow places I +was walking ahead, when, turning a sharp corner, we met a government +pack train, face to face.</p> + +<p>The bell-horse stood still and looked at me with big eyes, evidently as +scared at the sight of a woman as an old prospector who has not seen one +for years.</p> + +<p>I looked at him with eyes as big as his own. There was only one thing to +do. Behind us was a narrow, V-shaped cave in the stone wall, not more +than four feet high and three deep. Into this we backed, Grecian-bend +wise, and waited.</p> + +<p>We waited a very long time. The horse stood still, blowing his breath +loudly from steaming nostrils, and contemplated us. I never knew before +that a horse could express his opinion of a person so plainly. Around +the curve we could hear whips cracking and men swearing; but the horse +stood there and kept his suspicious eyes on me.</p> + +<p>"I'll stay here till dark," his eyes said, "but you don't get me past a +thing like <i>that</i>!"</p> + +<p>I didn't mind his looking, but his snorting seemed like an insult.</p> + +<p>At last a man pushed past the horse. When he saw us backed gracefully up +into the Y-shaped cave, he stood as still as the horse. Finding that +neither he nor my escort could think of anything to say to relieve the +mental and physical strain, I called out graciously:—</p> + +<p>"How do you do, sir? Would you like to get by?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like it damn well, lady," he replied, with what I felt to be his +very politest manner.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," I suggested sweetly, "if I came out and let the horse get a +good look at me—"</p> + +<p>"Don't you do it, lady. That 'u'd scare him plumb to death!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have always been convinced that he did not mean it exactly as it +sounded, but I caught the flicker of a smile on my escort's face. It was +gone in an instant.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the other horses came crowding upon the bell-horse. There was +nothing for him to do but to go past me or to go over the precipice. He +chose me as the least of the two evils.</p> + +<p>"Nice pony, nice boy," I wheedled, as he went sliding and snorting past.</p> + +<p>Then we waited for the next horse to come by; but he did not come. +Turning my head, I found him fixed in the same place and the same +attitude as the first had been; his eyes were as big and they were set +as steadily on me.</p> + +<p>Well—there were fifty horses in that government pack train. Every one +of the fifty balked at sight of a woman. There were horses of every +color—gray, white, black, bay, chestnut, sorrel, and pinto. The sorrel +were the stubbornest of all. To this day, I detest the sight of a sorrel +horse.</p> + +<p>We stood there in that position for a time that seemed like hours; we +coaxed each horse as he balked; and at the last were reduced to such +misery that we gave thanks to God that there were only fifty of them and +that they couldn't kick sidewise as they passed.</p> + +<p>I forgot about the men. There were seven men; and as each man turned the +bend in the trail, he stood as still as the stillest horse, and for +quite as long a time; and naturally I hesitated to say, "Nice boy, nice +fellow," to help him by.</p> + +<p>There were more glacier streams to cross. These were floored with huge +boulders instead of sand and quicksand. The horses stumbled and plunged +powerfully. One misstep here would have meant death; the rapids +immediately below the crossing would have beaten us to pieces upon the +rocks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then came more perpendicular climbing; but at last, at five o'clock, +with our bodies aching with fatigue, and our senses finally dulled, +through sheer surfeit, to the beauty of the journey, we reached +"Wortman's" road house.</p> + +<p>This is twenty miles from Valdez; and when we were lifted from our +horses we could not stand alone, to say nothing of attempting to walk.</p> + +<p>But "Wortman's" is the paradise of road houses. In it, and floating over +it, is an atmosphere of warmth, comfort and good cheer that is a rest +for body and heart. The beds are comfortable and the meals excellent.</p> + +<p>But it was the welcome that cheered, the spirit of genuine +kind-heartedness.</p> + +<p>The road house stands in a large clearing, with barns and other +buildings surrounding it. I never saw so many dogs as greeted us, except +in Valdez or on the Yukon. They crowded about us, barking and shrieking +a welcome. They were all big malamutes.</p> + +<p>After a good dinner we went to bed at eight o'clock. The sun was shining +brightly, but we darkened our rooms as much as possible, and instantly +fell into the sleep of utter exhaustion.</p> + +<p>At one o'clock in the morning we were eating breakfast, and half an hour +later we were in our saddles and off for the summit of Thompson Pass to +see the sun rise. This brought out the humps in the horses' backs again. +We went up into the air almost as straight as a telegraph pole. Over +heather, ice, flowers, and snow our horses plunged, unspurred.</p> + +<p>It was seven miles to the summit. There were no trees nor shrubs,—only +grass and moss that gave a velvety look to peaks and slopes that seemed +to be floating around us through the silvery mists that were wound over +them like turbans. Here and there a hollow was banked with frozen snow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<p>When we dismounted on the very summit we could hardly step without +crushing bluebells and geraniums.</p> + +<p>We set the flag of our country on the highest point beside the trail, +that every loyal-hearted traveller might salute it and take hope again, +if he chanced to be discouraged. Then we sat under its folds and watched +the mists change from silver to pearl-gray; from pearl-gray to pink, +amethyst, violet, purple,—and back to rose, gold, and flame color.</p> + +<p>One peak after another shone out for a moment, only to withdraw. +Suddenly, as if with one leap, the sun came over the mountain line; +vibrated brilliantly, dazzlingly, flashing long rays like signals to +every quickened peak. Then, while we gazed, entranced, other peaks whose +presence we had not suspected were brought to life by those searching +rays; valleys appeared, filled with purple, brooding shadows; whole +slopes blue with bluebells; and, white and hard, the narrow trail that +led on to the pitiless land of gold.</p> + +<p>We were above the mountain peaks, above the clouds, level with the sun.</p> + +<p>Absolute stillness was about us; there was not one faintest sound of +nature; no plash of water, nor sough of wind, nor call of a bird. It was +so still that it seemed like the beginning of a new world, with the +birth of mountains taking place before our reverent eyes, as one after +another dawned suddenly and goldenly upon our vision.</p> + +<p>Every time we had stopped on the trail we had heard harrowing stories of +saddle-horses or pack-horses having missed their footing and gone over +the precipice. The horses are so carefully packed, and the packs so +securely fastened on—the last cinch being thrown into the "diamond +hitch"—that the poor beasts can roll over and over to the bottom of a +canyon without disarranging a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> pack weighing two hundred pounds—a feat +which they very frequently perform.</p> + +<p>The military trail is, of necessity, poor enough; but it is infinitely +superior to all other trails in Alaska, and is a boon to the prospector. +It is a well-defined and well-travelled highway. The trees and bushes +are cut in places for a width of thirty feet, original bridges span the +creeks when it is possible to bridge them at all, and some corduroy has +been laid; but in many places the trail is a mere path, not more than +two feet wide, shovelled or blasted from the hillside.</p> + +<p>In Alaska there were practically no roads at all until the appointment +in 1905 of a road commission consisting of Major W. P. Richardson, +Captain G. B. Pillsbury, and Lieutenant L. C. Orchard. Since that year +eight hundred miles of trails, wagon and sled roads, numerous ferries, +and hundreds of bridges have been constructed. The wagon road-beds are +all sixteen feet wide, with free side strips of a hundred feet; the sled +roads are twelve feet wide; the trails, eight; and the bridges, +fourteen. In the interior, laborers on the roads are paid five dollars a +day, with board and lodging; they are given better food than any +laborers in Alaska, with the possible exception of those employed at the +Treadwell mines and on the Cordova Railroad. The average cost of road +work in Alaska is about two thousand dollars a mile; two hundred and +fifty for sled road, and one hundred for trails. These roads have +reduced freight rates one-half and have helped to develop rich regions +that had been inaccessible. Their importance in the development of the +country is second to that of railroads only.</p> + +<p>The scenery from Ptarmigan Drop down the Tsina River to Beaver Dam is +magnificent. Huge mountains, saw-toothed and covered with snow, jut +diagonally out across the valley, one after another; streams fall, +riffling,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> down the sides of the mountains; and the cloud-effects are +especially beautiful.</p> + +<p>Tsina River is a narrow, foaming torrent, confined, for the most part, +between sheer hills,—although, in places, it spreads out over low, +gravelly flats. Beaver Dam huddles into a gloomy gulch at the foot of a +vast, overhanging mountain. Its situation is what Whidbey would have +called "gloomily magnificent." In 1905 Beaver Dam was a road house which +many chose to avoid, if possible.</p> + +<p>The Tiekel road house on the Kanata River is pleasantly situated, and is +a comfortable place at which to eat and rest.</p> + +<p>For its entire length, the military trail climbs and falls and winds +through scenery of inspiring beauty. The trail leading off to the east +at Tonsina, through the Copper River, Nizina, and Chitina valleys, is +even more beautiful.</p> + +<p>Vast plains and hillsides of bloom are passed. Some mountainsides are +blue with lupine, others rosy with fireweed; acres upon acres are +covered with violets, bluebells, wild geranium, anemones, spotted +moccasin and other orchids, buttercups, and dozens of others—all large +and vivid of color. It has often been said that the flowers of Alaska +are not fragrant, but this is not true.</p> + +<p>The mountains of the vicinity are glorious. Mount Drum is twelve +thousand feet high. Sweeping up splendidly from a level plain, it is +more imposing than Mount Wrangell, which is fourteen thousand feet high, +and Mount Blackburn, which is sixteen thousand feet.</p> + +<p>The view from the summit of Sour-Dough Hill is unsurpassed in the +interior of Alaska. Glacial creeks and roaring rivers; wild and +fantastic canyons; moving glaciers; gorges of royal purple gloom; green +valleys and flowery slopes; the domed and towered Castle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> Mountains; the +lone and majestic peaks pushing up above all others, above the clouds, +cascades spraying down sheer precipices; and far to the south the linked +peaks of the Coast Range piled magnificently upon the sky, dim and +faintly blue in the great distance,—all blend into one grand panorama +of unrivalled inland grandeur.</p> + +<p>Crossing the Copper River, when it is high and swift, is +dangerous,—especially for a "chechaco" of either sex. (A chechaco is +one who has not been in Alaska a year.) Packers are often compelled to +unpack their horses, putting all their effects into large whipsawed +boats. The halters are taken off the horses and the latter are driven +into the roaring torrent, followed by the packers in the boats.</p> + +<p>The horses apparently make no effort to reach the opposite shore, but +use their strength desperately to hold their own in the swift current, +fighting against it, with their heads turned pitifully up-stream. Their +bodies being turned at a slight angle, the current, pushing violently +against them, forces them slowly, but surely, from sand bar to sand bar, +and, finally, to the shore.</p> + +<p>It frequently requires two hours to get men, horses, and outfit from +shore to shore, where they usually arrive dripping wet. Women who make +this trip, it is needless to say, suffer still more from the hardship of +the crossing than do men.</p> + +<p>In riding horses across such streams, they should be started diagonally +up-stream toward the first sand bar above. They lean far forward, +bracing themselves at every step against the current and choosing their +footing carefully. The horses of the trail know all the dangers, and +scent them afar—holes, boulders, irresistible currents, and quicksand; +they detect them before the most experienced "trailer" even suspects +them.</p> + +<p>I will not venture even to guess what the other two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> women in my party +did when they crossed dangerous streams; but for myself, I wasted no +strength in trying to turn my horse's head up-stream, or down-stream, or +in any other direction. When we went down into the foaming water, I gave +him his head, clung to his mane, leaned forward in the saddle,—and +prayed like anything. I do not believe in childishly asking the Lord to +help one so long as one can help one's self; but when one is on the back +of a half-swimming, half-floundering horse in the middle of a swollen, +treacherous flood, with holes and quicksand on all sides, one is as +helpless as he was the day he was born; and it is a good time to pray.</p> + +<p>According to the report of Major Abercrombie, who probably knows this +part of Alaska more thoroughly than any one else, there are hundreds of +thousands of acres in the Copper River Valley alone where almost all +kinds of vegetables, as well as barley and rye, will grow in abundance +and mature. Considering the travel to the many and fabulously rich mines +already discovered in this valley and adjacent ones, and the cost of +bringing in grain and supplies, it may be easily seen what splendid +opportunities await the small farmer who will select his homestead +judiciously, with a view to the accommodation of man and beast, and the +cultivation of food for both. The opportunities awaiting such a man are +so much more enticing than the inducements of the bleak Dakota prairies +or the wind-swept valleys of the Yellowstone as to be beyond comparison.</p> + +<p>Major Abercrombie believes that the valleys of the sub-drainage of the +Copper River Valley will in future years supply the demands for cereals +and vegetables, if not for meats, of the thousands of miners that will +be required to extract the vast deposits of metals from the Tonsina, +Chitina, Kotsina, Nizina, Chesna, Tanana, and other famous districts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> + +<p>The vast importance to the whole territory of Alaska, and to the United +States, as well, of the building of the Guggenheim railroad from Cordova +into this splendid inland empire may be realized after reading Major +Abercrombie's report.</p> + +<p>We have been accustomed to mineralized zones of from ten to twelve miles +in length; in the Wrangell group alone we have a circle eighty miles in +diameter, the mineralization of which is simply marvellous; yet, +valuable though these concentrates are, they are as valueless +commercially as so much sandstone, without the aid of a railroad and +reduction works.</p> + +<p>If the group of mines at Butte could deflect a great transcontinental +trunk-line like the Great Northern, what will this mighty zone, which +contains a dozen properties already discovered,—to say nothing of the +unfound, undreamed-of ones,—of far greater value as copper propositions +than the richest of Montana, do to advance the commercial interests of +the Pacific Coast?</p> + +<p>The first discovery of gold in the Nizina district was made by Daniel +Kain and Clarence Warner. These two prospectors were urged by a crippled +Indian to accompany him to inspect a vein of copper on the head waters +of a creek that is now known as Dan Creek.</p> + +<p>Not being impressed by the copper outlook, the two prospectors returned. +They noticed, however, that the gravel of Dan Creek had a look of placer +gold.</p> + +<p>They were out of provisions, and were in haste to reach their supplies, +fifty miles away; but Kain was reluctant to leave the creek unexamined. +He went to a small lake and caught sufficient fish for a few days' +subsistence; then, with a shovel for his only tool, he took out five +ounces of coarse gold in two days.</p> + +<p>In this wise was the rich Nizina district discovered. The Nizina River +is only one hundred and sixty miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> from Valdez. In Rex Gulch as much +as eight ounces of gold have been taken out by one man in a single day. +The gold is of the finest quality, assaying over eighteen dollars an +ounce.</p> + +<p>There is an abundance of timber suitable for building houses and for +firewood on all the creeks. There is water at all seasons for sluicing, +and, if desired, for hydraulic work.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + + +<p>The famous Bonanza Copper Mine is on the mountainside high above the +Kennicott Valley, and near the Kennicott Glacier—the largest glacier of +the Alaskan interior. This glacier does not entirely fill the valley, +and one travels close to its precipitous wall of ice, which dwindles +from a height of one hundred feet to a low, gravel-darkened moraine. +From the summit of Sour-Dough Hill it may be seen for its whole +forty-mile length sweeping down from Mounts Wrangell and Regal.</p> + +<p>The Bonanza Mine has an elevation of six thousand feet, and was +discovered by the merest chance.</p> + +<p>The history of this mine from the day of its discovery is one of the +most fascinating of Alaska. In the autumn of 1899 a prospecting party +was formed at Valdez, known as the "McClellan" party. The ten +individuals composing the party were experienced miners and they +contributed money, horses, and "caches," as well as experience. The +principal cache was known as the "McCarthy Cabin" cache, and was about +fifteen miles east of Copper River on the trail to the Nicolai Mine.</p> + +<p>The Nicolai had been discovered early in the summer by R. F. McClellan, +who was one of the men composing the "McClellan" party, and others. +Another important cache of three thousand pounds of provisions was the +"Amy" cache, thirty-five miles from Valdez, just over the summit of +Thompson Pass.</p> + +<p>The agreement was that the McClellan party was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> prospect in the +interior in 1900 and 1901, all property located to be for their joint +benefit.</p> + +<p>The members of the party scattered soon after the organization was +completed. Clarence Warner, John Sweeney, and Jack Smith remained in +Valdez for the winter, all the others going "out to the states."</p> + +<p>In March of 1900 Warner and Smith set out for the interior over the +snow. There was no government trail then, and the hardships to be +endured were as terrific as were those of the old Chilkoot Pass, on the +way to the Klondike. The snow was from six to ten feet deep, and their +progress was slow and painful. One went ahead on snow-shoes, the other +following; when the trail thus made was sufficiently hard, the hand +sleds, loaded with provisions and bedding, were drawn over it by ropes +around the men's shoulders. From two to three hundred pounds was a heavy +burden for each man to drag through the soft snow.</p> + +<p>Climbing the summit, and at other steep places, they were compelled to +"relay," by leaving the greater portion of their load beside the trail, +pulling only a few pounds for a short distance and returning for more. +By the most constant and exhaustive labor they were able to make only +five or six miles a day.</p> + +<p>They replenished their stores at the "Amy" cache, near the summit, and +in May reached the "McCarthy Cabin" cache. Here they found that the +Indians had broken in and stolen nearly all the supplies.</p> + +<p>When they left Valdez, it was with the expectation that McClellan, or +some other member of the party, would bring in their horses to the +McCarthy cabin, that their supplies might be packed from that point on +horseback,—the snow melting in May making it impossible to use sleds, +and no man being able to carry more than a few pounds on his back for so +long a journey as they expected to make.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p> + +<p>However, McClellan had, during the winter, entered into a contract with +the Chitina Exploration Company at San Francisco to do a large amount of +development work on the Nicolai Mine during the summer of 1900. He +returned to Valdez after Warner and Smith had left, bringing twenty +horses, a large outfit of tools and supplies, and fifteen men—among +them some of the McClellan prospecting party, who had agreed to work for +the season for the Chitina Company.</p> + +<p>When this party reached the McCarthy cabin, they found Warner and Smith +there. An endless dispute thereupon began as to the amount of provisions +the two men had when the Chitina party arrived,—Warner and Smith +claiming that they had five hundred pounds, and the Chitina Company +claiming that they were entirely "out of grub," to use miner's language.</p> + +<p>Warner and Smith demanded that McClellan should give them two horses +belonging to the McClellan prospecting party, which he had brought. This +matter was finally settled by McClellan's packing in what remained of +Smith and Warner's provisions to the Nicolai Mine, a distance of nearly +a hundred miles.</p> + +<p>McClellan, as superintendent of the Chitina Company, used, with that +company's horses, four of the McClellan party's horses during the entire +season, sending them to and from Valdez, packing supplies.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, upon reaching the Nicolai Mine, on the 1st of July, +Warner and Smith, packing supplies on their backs, set out to prospect. +The Chitina Company, in the famous and bitterly contested lawsuit which +followed, claimed that they were supplied with the Chitina Company's +"grub"; while Smith and Warner claimed that their provisions belonged to +the McClellan party.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 467px;"> +<img src="images/illo_375.jpg" width="467" height="597" alt="Copyright by J. Doody, Dawson + +Steamer "White Horse" in Five-Finger Rapids" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by J. Doody, Dawson<br /> + +Steamer "White Horse" in Five-Finger Rapids</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> + +<p>After a few days' aimless wandering, they reached a point on the east +side of Kennicott Glacier, about twenty miles west of the Nicolai Mine. +Here they camped at noon, near a small stream that came running down +from a great height.</p> + +<p>Their camp was about halfway up a mountain which was six thousand feet +high. After a miner's lunch of bacon and beans, they were packing up to +resume their wanderings, when Warner, chancing to glance upward, +discovered a green streak near the top of the mountain. It looked like +grass, and at first he gave it no thought; but presently it occurred to +him that, as they were camped above timber-line, grass would not be +growing at such a height.</p> + +<p>They at once decided to investigate the peculiar and mysterious +coloring. The mountain was steep, and it was after a slow and painful +climb that they reached the top. Jack Smith stooped and picked up a +piece of shining metal.</p> + +<p>"My God, Clarence," he said fervently, "it's copper."</p> + +<p>It was copper; the richest copper, in the greatest quantities, ever +found upon the earth. There were hundreds of thousands of tons of it. +There was a whole mountain of it. It was so bright and shining that +they, at first, thought it was Galena ore; but they soon discovered that +it was copper glance,—a copper ore bearing about seventy-five per cent +of pure copper.</p> + +<p>The Havemeyers, Guggenheims, and other eastern capitalists became +interested. Then, when the marvellous richness of the discovery of Jack +Smith and Clarence Warner became known, a lawsuit was begun—hinging +upon the grub-stake—which was so full of dramatic incidents, attempted +bribery, charges of corruption reaching to the United States Senate and +the President himself, that the facts would make a long story, vivid +with life, action, and fantastic setting—the scene reaching from Alaska +to New York, and from New York to Manila.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + +<p>The lawsuit was at last settled in favor of the discoverers.</p> + +<p>On January 14, 1908, Mr. Smith disposed of his interest in a mine which +he had located across McCarthy Creek from the Bonanza, for a hundred and +fifty thousand dollars. It will be "stocked" and named "The Bonanza Mine +Extension." It is said to be as rich as the great Bonanza itself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + + +<p>In the district which comprises the entire coast from the southern +boundary of Oregon to the northernmost point of Alaska there are but +forty-five lighthouses. Included in this district are the Strait of Juan +de Fuca, Washington Sound, the Gulf of Georgia, and all the tidal waters +tributary to the sea straits and sounds of this coast. There are also +twenty-eight fog signals, operated by steam, hot air, or oil engines; +six fog signals operated by clockwork; two gas-lighted buoys in +position; nine whistling-buoys and five bell-buoys in position; three +hundred and twenty-two other buoys in position; and four tenders, to +visit lighthouses and care for buoys.</p> + +<p>The above list does not include post lights, the Umatilla Reef Light +vessel, and unlighted day beacons.</p> + +<p>It is the far, lonely Alaskan coast that is neglected. The wild, stormy, +and immense stretch of coast reaching from Chichagoff Island to Point +Barrow in the Arctic Ocean has two light and fog signal stations on +Unimak Island and two fixed lights on Cape Stephens. A light and fog +signal station is to be built at Cape Hinchingbroke, and a light is to +be established at Point Romanoff.</p> + +<p>No navigator should be censured for disaster on this dark and dangerous +coast. The little <i>Dora</i>, running regularly from Seward and Valdez to +Unalaska, does not pass a light. Her way is wild and stormy in winter, +and the coasts she passes are largely uninhabited; yet there is not a +flash of light, unless it be from some volcano,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> to guide her into +difficult ports and around the perilous reefs with which the coast +abounds.</p> + +<p>A prayer for a lighthouse at the entrance to Resurrection Bay was +refused by the department, with the advice that the needs of commerce do +not require a light at this point, particularly as there are several +other points more in need of such aid. The department further advised +that it would require a hundred thousand dollars to establish a light +and fog signal station at the place designated, instead of the +twenty-five thousand dollars asked.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, ships are wrecked and lives and valuable cargoes are +lost,—and will be while the Alaskan coast remains unlighted.</p> + +<p>Along the intricate, winding, and exceedingly dangerous channels, +straits, and narrows of the "inside passage" of southeastern Alaska, +there are only seven light and fog signals, and ten lights; but where +the sea-coast belongs to Canada there is sufficient light and ample +buoyage protection, as all mariners admit.</p> + +<p>Is our government's rigid, and in some instances stubborn, economy in +this matter a wise one? Is it a humane one? The nervous strain of this +voyage on a conscientious and sensitive master of a ship heavily laden +with human beings is tremendous. The anxious faces and unrelaxing +vigilance of the officers on the bridge when a ship is passing through +Taku Open, Wrangell Narrows, or Peril Straits speak plainly and +unmistakably of the ceaseless burden of responsibility and anxiety which +they bear. The charting of these waters is incomplete as yet, +notwithstanding the faithful service which the Geodetic Survey has +performed for many years. Many a rock has never been discovered until a +ship went down upon it.</p> + +<p>Political influence has been known to establish lights, at immense cost, +at points where they are practically luxuries, rather than needs; +therefore the government should not be censured for cautiousness in this +matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> + +<p>But it should be, and it is, censured for not investigating carefully +the needs of the Alaskan Coast—the "Great Unlighted Way."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Seward is situated almost as beautifully as Valdez. It is only five +years old. It is the sea terminal of the Alaska Central Railway, which +is building to the Tanana, through a rich country that is now almost +unknown. It will pass within ten miles of Mount McKinley, which rises +from a level plain to an altitude of nearly twenty-one thousand feet.</p> + +<p>This mountain has been known to white men for nearly a century; yet +until very recently it did not appear upon any map, and had no official +name. More than fifty years ago the Russian fur traders knew it and +called it "Bulshaia,"—signifying "high mountain" or "great mountain." +The natives called it "Trolika," a name having the same meaning.</p> + +<p>Explorers, traders, and prospectors have seen it and commented upon its +magnificent height, yet without realizing its importance, until Mr. W. +A. Dickey saw it in 1896 and proposed for it the name of McKinley. In +1902 Mr. Alfred Hulse Brooks, of the United States Geological Survey, +with two associates and four camp men, made an expedition to the +mountain. Mr. Brooks' report of this expedition is exceedingly +interesting. He spent the summer of 1906, also, upon the mountain.</p> + +<p>The town site of Seward was purchased from the Lowells, a pioneer +family, by Major J. E. Ballaine, for four thousand dollars. It has grown +very rapidly. Stumps still stand upon the business streets, and +silver-barked log-cabins nestle modestly and picturesquely beside +imposing buildings. The bank and the railway company have erected +handsome homes. Every business and profession is represented. There are +good schools and churches, an electric-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>light plant, two newspapers, a +library and hospital, progressive clubs, and all the modern luxuries of +western towns.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Seward was asked what he considered the most important measure +of his political career, he replied, "The purchase of Alaska; but it +will take the people a generation to find it out."</p> + +<p>Since the loftiest and noblest peak of North America was doomed to be +named for a man, it should have borne the name of this dauntless, loyal, +and far-seeing friend of Alaska and of all America. Since this was not +to be, it was very fitting that a young and ambitious town on the +historic Voskressenski Harbor should bear this honored and +forever-to-be-remembered name. If Seward and Valdez would but work +together, the region extending from Prince William Sound to Cook Inlet +would soon become the best known and the most influential of Alaska, as +it is, with the addition of the St. Elias Alps, the most sublimely and +entrancingly beautiful.</p> + +<p>Voskressenski Harbor, or Resurrection Bay, pushes out in purple waves in +front of Seward, and snow peaks circle around it, the lower hills being +heavily wooded. There is a good wharf and a safe harbor; the bay extends +inland eighteen miles, is completely land-locked, and is kept free of +ice the entire year, as is the Bay of Valdez and Cook Inlet, by the +Japan current.</p> + +<p>It is estimated that the Alaska Central Railway will cost, when +completed to Fairbanks, at least twenty-five millions of dollars. +Several branches will be extended into different and important mining +regions.</p> + +<p>The road has a general maximum grade of one per cent. The Coast Range is +crossed ten miles from Seward, at an elevation of only seven hundred +feet. The road follows the shore of Lake Kenai, Turnagain Arm, and Knik +Arm on Cook Inlet; then, reaching the Sushitna River, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> follows the +sloping plains of that valley for a hundred miles, when, crossing the +Alaskan Range, it descends into the vast valley at the head of +navigation on the Tanana River, in the vicinity of Chena and Fairbanks.</p> + +<p>All of the country which this road is expected to traverse when +completed is rich in coal, copper, and quartz and placer gold.</p> + +<p>There is a large amount of timber suitable for domestic use throughout +this part of the country, spruce trees of three and four feet in +diameter being common near the coast; inland, the timber is smaller, but +of fair quality.</p> + +<p>There is much good agricultural land along the line of the road; the +soil is rich and the climatic conditions quite as favorable as those of +many producing regions of the northern United States and Europe. Grass, +known as "red-top," grows in abundance in the valleys and provides food +for horses and cattle. It is expected that, so soon as the different +railroads connect the great interior valleys with the sea, the +government's offer of three hundred and twenty acres to the homesteader +will induce many people to settle there. The Alaska Central Railroad is +completed for a distance of fifty-three miles,—more than half the +distance to the coal-fields north of Cook Inlet.</p> + +<p>Arrangements have been made for the building of a large smelter at +Seward, to cost three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in 1908.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Cook Inlet enjoys well-deserved renown for its scenery. Between it and +the Chugach Gulf is the great Kenai Peninsula, whose shores are indented +by many deep inlets and bays. The most important of these is +Resurrection Bay.</p> + +<p>Wood is plentiful along the coast of the peninsula. Cataracts, glaciers, +snow peaks, green valleys, and lovely lakes abound.</p> + +<p>The peninsula is shaped somewhat like a great pear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> Turnagain Arm and +an inlet of Prince William Sound almost meet at the north; but the +portage mentioned on another page prevents it from being an island. It +is crowned by the lofty and rugged Kenai Mountains.</p> + +<p>Off its southern coast are several clusters of islands—Pye and Chugatz +islands, Seal and Chiswell rocks.</p> + +<p>In the entrance to Cook Inlet lie Barren Islands, Amatuli Island, and +Ushugat Island.</p> + +<p>On a small island off the southern point of the peninsula is a lofty +promontory, which Cook named Cape Elizabeth because it was sighted on +the Princess Elizabeth's birthday. The lofty, two-peaked promontory on +the opposite side of the entrance he named Douglas, in honor of his +friend, the Canon of Windsor.</p> + +<p>Between the capes, the entrance is sixty-five miles wide; but it +steadily diminishes until it reaches a width of but a few miles. There +is a passage on each side of Barren Islands.</p> + +<p>The Inlet receives the waters of several rivers: the Sushitna, +Matanuska, Knik, Yentna,—which flows into the Sushitna near its +mouth,—Kaknu, and Kassitof.</p> + +<p>Lying near the western shore of the inlet, and just inside the entrance, +is an island which rises in graceful sweeps on all sides, directly from +the water to a smooth, broken-pointed, and beautiful cone. This cone +forms the entire island, and there is not the faintest break in its +symmetry until the very crest is reached. It is the volcano of St. +Augustine.</p> + +<p>A chain of active volcanoes extends along the western shore. Of these, +Iliamna, the greatest, is twelve thousand sixty-six feet in height, and +was named "Miranda, the Admirable" by Spanish navigators, who may +usually be relied upon for poetically significant, or soft-sounding, +names. It is clad in eternal snow, but smoke-turbans are wound almost +constantly about its brow. It was in eruption<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> in 1854, and running lava +has been found near the lower crater. There are many hot and sulphurous +springs on its sides.</p> + +<p>North of Iliamna is Goryalya, or "The Redoubt," which is a lesser +"smoker," eleven thousand two hundred and seventy feet high. It was in +eruption in 1867, and ashes fell on islands more than a hundred and +fifty miles away.</p> + +<p>Iliamna Lake is one of the two largest lakes in Alaska. It is from fifty +to eighty miles long and from fifteen to twenty-five wide. A pass at a +height of about eight hundred feet affords an easy route of +communication between the upper end of the lake and a bay of the same +name on Cook Inlet, near the volcano, and has long been in use by white, +as well as native, hunters and prospectors. The country surrounding the +lake is said to abound in large and small game. Lake Clark, to the +north, is connected with Lake Iliamna by the Nogheling River. It is +longer than Iliamna, but very much narrower. It lies directly west of +the Redoubt Volcano.</p> + +<p>Iliamna Lake is connected with Behring Sea by Kvichak River, which flows +into Bristol Bay. The lake is a natural hatchery of king salmon, and +immense canneries are located on Bristol Bay, which lies directly north +of the Aliaska Peninsula.</p> + +<p>It is comparatively easy for hunters to cross by the chain of lakes and +water-ways from Bristol Bay to Cook Inlet—which is known to sportsmen +of all countries, both shores offering everything in the way of game. +The big brown bear of the inlet is the same as the famous Kadiak; and +hunters come from all parts of the world when they can secure permits to +kill them. Moose, caribou, mountain sheep, mountain goat, deer, and all +kinds of smaller game are also found. There are many trout and salmon +streams on the eastern shore of the inlet, and the lagoons and marshes +are the haunts of water-fowl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p> + +<p>The voyage up Cook Inlet is one of the most fascinating that may be +taken, as a side trip, in Alaska.</p> + +<p>Large steamers touch only at Homer and Seldovia, just inside the +entrance. There is a good wharf at Homer, but at Seldovia there is +another rope-ladder descent and dory landing. There are a post-office, +several stores and houses, and a little Greek-Russian church. Scattered +over a low bluff at one side of the settlement are the native huts, half +hidden in tall reeds and grasses, and a native graveyard.</p> + +<p>Seldovia is not the place to buy baskets, as the only ones to be +obtained are of very inferior coloring and workmanship.</p> + +<p>My Scotch friend was so fearful that some one else might secure a +treasure that she seized the first basket in sight at Seldovia, paying +five dollars for it. It was not large, and as for its appearance—!</p> + +<p>But with one evil mind we all pretended to envy her and to regret that +we had not seen it first; so that, for some time, she stepped out over +the tundra with quite a proud and high step, swinging her "buy" proudly +at her right side, where all might see and admire.</p> + +<p>Presently, however, we came to a hut wherein we stumbled upon all kinds +of real treasures—old bows and arrows, kamelinkas, bidarkas, virgin +charms, and ivory spears. We all gathered these things unto +ourselves—all but my Scotch friend. She stood by, watching us, silent, +ruminative.</p> + +<p>She had spent all that she cared to spend on curios in one day on the +single treasure which she carried in her hand. We observed that +presently she carried it less proudly and that her carriage had less of +haughtiness in it, as we went across the beach to the dory.</p> + +<p>She took the basket down to the engine-room to have it steamed. I do not +know what the engineer said to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> about her purchase, but when she +came back, her face was somewhat flushed. The Scotch are not a +demonstrative race, and when she ever after referred to the chief +engineer simply as "that engineer down there," I felt that it meant +something. She never again mentioned that basket to me; but I have seen +it in six different curio stores trying to get itself sold.</p> + +<p>At Seldovia connection is made with small steamers running up the inlet +to the head of the arm. Hope and Sunrise are the inspiring names of the +chief settlements of the arm.</p> + +<p>The tides of Cook Inlet are tremendous. There are fearful tide-rips at +the entrance and again about halfway up the inlet, where they appeared +"frightful" to Cook and his men. The tide enters Turnagain Arm, at the +head of the inlet, in a huge bore, which expert canoemen are said to be +able to ride successfully, and to thus be carried with great speed and +delightful danger on their way.</p> + +<p>Cook thought that the inlet was a river, of which the arm was an eastern +branch. Therefore, at the entrance of the latter, he exclaimed in +disappointment and chagrin, "Turn again!"—and afterward bestowed this +name upon the slender water-way.</p> + +<p>He modestly left only a blank for the name of the great inlet itself; +and after his cruel death at the hands of natives in the Sandwich +Islands, Lord Sandwich directed that it be named Cook's River.</p> + +<p>The voyage of two hundred miles to the head of the arm by steamer is +slow and sufficiently romantic to satisfy the most sentimental. The +steamer is compelled to tie up frequently to await the favorable stage +of the tide, affording ample opportunity and time for the full enjoyment +of the varied attractions of the trip. The numerous waterfalls are among +the finest of Alaska.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p> + +<p>Even to-day the trip is attended by the gravest dangers and is only +attempted by experienced navigators who are familiar with its unique +perils. The very entrance is the dread of mariners. The tide-rips that +boil and roar around the naked Barren Islands subject ships to graver +danger than the fiercest storms on this wild and stormy coast.</p> + +<p>The tides of Turnagain Arm rival those of the Bay of Fundy, entering in +tremendous bores that advance faster than a horse can run and bearing +everything with resistless force before them. After the first roar of +the entering tide is heard, there is but a moment in which to make for +safety. There is a tide fall in the arm of from twenty to twenty-seven +feet.</p> + +<p>The first Russian settlement of the inlet was by the establishment of a +fort by Shelikoff, near the entrance, named Alexandrovsk. It was +followed in 1786 by the establishment of the Lebedef-Lastuchkin Company +on the Kussilof River in a settlement and fort named St. George.</p> + +<p>Fort Alexandrovsk formed a square with two bastions, and the imperial +arms shone over the entrance, which was protected by two guns. The +situation, however, was not so advantageous for trading as that of the +other company.</p> + +<p>In 1791 the Lebedef Company established another fort, the Redoubt St. +Nicholas, still farther up the inlet, just below that narrowing known as +the "Forelands," at the Kaknu, or Kenai, River. At this place the shores +jut out into three steep, cliffy points which were named by Vancouver +West, North, and East Forelands.</p> + +<p>Here Vancouver found the flood-tide running with such a violent velocity +that the best bower cable proved unable to resist it, and broke. The +buoy sank by the strength of the current, and both the anchor and the +cable were irrecoverably lost.</p> + +<p>Cook did not enter Turnagain Arm, but Vancouver learned from the +Russians that neither the arm nor the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> inlet was a river; that the arm +terminated some thirty miles from its mouth; and that from its head the +Russians walked about fifteen versts over a mountain and entered an +inlet of Prince William Sound,—thereby keeping themselves in +communication with their fellow-countrymen at Port Etches and Kaye +Island.</p> + +<p>Vancouver sent Lieutenant Whidbey and some men to explore the arm; but +having entered with the bore and finding no place where he might escape +its ebb, he was compelled to return with it, without making as complete +an examination as was desired.</p> + +<p>The country bordering upon the bays along Turnagain Arm is low, richly +wooded, and pleasant, rising with a gradual slope, until the inner point +of entrance is reached. Here the shores suddenly rise to bold and +towering eminences, perpendicular cliffs, and mountains which to poor +Whidbey, as usual, appeared "stupendous"—cleft by "awfully grand" +chasms and gullies, down which rushed immense torrents of water.</p> + +<p>The tide rises thirty feet with a roaring rush that is really terrifying +to hear and see.</p> + +<p>At a Russian settlement Whidbey found one large house, fifty by +twenty-four feet, occupied by nineteen Russians. One door afforded the +only ventilation, and it was usually closed.</p> + +<p>Whidbey and his men were hospitably received and were offered a repast +of dried fish and native cranberries; but because of the offensive odor +of the house, owing to the lack of ventilation and other unmentionable +horrors, they were unable to eat. Perceiving this, their host ordered +the cranberries taken away and beaten up with train-oil, when they were +again placed before the visitors. This last effort of hospitality proved +too much for the politeness of the Englishmen, and they rushed out into +the cool air for relief.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p> + +<p>Indeed, the Russians appeared to live quite as filthily and disgustingly +as the natives, and to have fallen into all their cooking, living, and +other customs, save those of painting their faces and wearing ornaments +in lips, noses, and ears.</p> + +<p>The name "inlet," instead of "river," was first applied to this +torrential water-way in 1794 by Vancouver, who also bestowed upon +Turnagain the designation of "arm."</p> + +<p>Vancouver, upon the invitation of the commanding officer who came out to +his ships for that purpose, paid the Redoubt St. Nicholas, near the +Forelands, a visit. He was saluted by two guns from a kind of balcony, +above which the Russian flag floated on top of a house situated upon a +cliff.</p> + +<p>Captain Dixon, the most pious navigator I have found, with the exception +of the Russians, extolled the Supreme Being for having so bountifully +provided in Cook Inlet for the needs of the wretched natives who +inhabited the region. The fresh fish and game of all kinds, so easily +procured, the rich skins with which to clothe their bodies,—inspired +him to praise and thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>For the magnificent water-way pushing northward, glaciered, cascaded, +blue-bayed, and emerald-valed, with unbroken chains of snow peaks and +volcanoes on both sides,—up which the voyager sails charmed and +fascinated to-day,—he spoke no enthusiastic word of praise. On the +contrary, he found the aspect dreary and uncomfortable. Even Whidbey, +the Chilly, could not have given way to deeper shudders than did Dixon +in Cook Inlet.</p> + +<p>The low land and green valleys close to the shore, grown with trees, +shrubbery, and tall grasses, he found "not altogether disagreeable," but +it was with shock upon shock to his delicate and outraged feelings that +he sailed between the mountains covered with eternal snow. Their +"prodigious extent and stupendous precipices ... chilled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> the blood of +the beholder." They were "awfully dreadful."</p> + +<p>Dixon, as well as Cook, mentions the wearing of the labret by men, but I +still cling to the opinion that they could not distinguish a man from a +woman, owing to the attire.</p> + +<p>Dixon also reported that the natives have a keen sense of smell, which +they quicken by the use of snakeroot. One would naturally have supposed +that they would have hunted the forests through and through for some +herb, or some dark charm of witchcraft, that would have deprived them +utterly and forever of this sense, which is so undesirable a possession +to the person living or travelling in Alaska.</p> + +<p>The climate of Cook Inlet is more agreeable than that of any other part +of Alaska. In the low valleys near the shore the soil is well adapted to +the growing of fruits, vegetables, and grain, and to the raising of +stock and chickens. Good butter and cheese are made, which, with eggs, +bring excellent prices. Roses and all but the tenderest flowers thrive, +and berries grow large and of delicious flavor, bearing abundantly.</p> + +<p>"Awfully dreadful" scenes are not to be found. It is a pleasure to +confess, however, that many features, by their beauty, splendor, and +sublimity, fill the appreciative beholder with awe and reverence.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The coal deposits of the region surrounding the inlet are now known to +be numerous and important. Coal is found in Kachemak Bay, and Port +Graham, at Tyonook, and on Matanuska River, about fifty miles inland +from the head of the inlet. It is lignitic and bituminous, but +semi-anthracite has been found in the Matanuska Valley.</p> + +<p>Lignitic coals have a very wide distribution, but have been, as yet, +mined only on Admiralty Island, at Homer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> and Coal Bay in Cook Inlet, at +Chignik and Unga, at several points on the Yukon, and on Seward +Peninsula.</p> + +<p>The new railroad now building from Cordova will open up not only vast +copper districts, but the richest and most extensive oil and coal fields +in Alaska, as well.</p> + +<p>Semi-anthracite coal exists in commercial quantities, so far as yet +discovered, only at Comptroller Bay. A fine quality of bituminous coal +also exists there, extending inland for twenty-five miles on the +northern tributaries of Behring River and about thirty-five miles east +of Copper River, covering an area of about one hundred and twenty square +miles.</p> + +<p>Southwestern Alaska includes the Cook Inlet region, Kodiak and adjacent +islands, Aliaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. Coal, mostly of a +lignitic character, is widely distributed in all these districts. It has +also been discovered in different localities in the Sushitna Basin.</p> + +<p>All coal used by the United States government's naval vessels on the +Pacific is purchased and transported there from the East at enormous +expense. Alaska has vast coal deposits of an exceedingly fine quality +lying undeveloped in the Aliaskan Peninsula, two hundred miles farther +west than Honolulu, and directly on the route of steamers plying from +this country to the Orient. (It is not generally known that the smoke of +steamers on their way from Puget Sound to Japan may be plainly seen on +clear days at Unalaska.)</p> + +<p>This coal is in the neighborhood of Portage Bay, where there is a good +harbor and a coaling station. It is reported by geological survey +experts to be as fine as Pocahontas coal, and even higher in carbon.</p> + +<p>Possibly, in time, the United States government may awaken to a +realization of the vast fortunes lying hidden in the undeveloped, +neglected, and even scorned resources of Alaska,—not to mention the +tremendous advantages of being able to coal its war vessels with Pacific +Coast coal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 631px;"> +<img src="images/illo_392.jpg" width="631" height="460" alt="Copyright by J. Doody, Dawson + +A Yukon Snow Scene near White Horse" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by J. Doody, Dawson<br /> + +A Yukon Snow Scene near White Horse</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the spring of 1908 the Alaska-coal land situation was +discouraging. A great area of rich coal-bearing land had been withdrawn +from entry, because of the amazing presumption of the interior +department that the removal of prohibitive restrictions upon entrymen +would encourage the formation of monopolies in the mining and marketing +of coal.</p> + +<p>Secretary Garfield at first inclined strongly to the opinion that the +Alaska coal lands should be held by the government for leasing purposes, +and that there should be a separate reservation for the navy; and he has +not entirely abandoned this opinion.</p> + +<p>The withdrawal of the coal lands from entry caused the Copper River and +Northwestern Railway Company to discontinue all work on the Katalla +branch of the road; nor will it resume until the question of title to +the coal lands is settled and the lands themselves admitted to entry.</p> + +<p>The fear of monopolies, which is making the interior department uneasy, +is said to have arisen from the fact that it has been absolutely +necessary for several entrymen in a coal region to associate themselves +together and combine their claims, on account of the enormous expense of +opening and operating mines in that country. The surveys alone, which, +in accordance with an act passed in 1904, must be borne by the entryman, +although this burden is not imposed upon entrymen in the states, are so +expensive, particularly in the Behring coal-fields near Katalla, that an +entryman cannot bear it alone; while the expense of getting provisions +and tools from salt-water into the interior is simply prohibitive to +most locators, unless they can combine and divide the expense.</p> + +<p>These early discoverers and locators acted in good faith. The lands were +entered as coal lands; there was no fraud and no attempt at fraud; not +one person sought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> to take up coal land as homestead, nor with scrip, +nor in any fraudulent manner.</p> + +<p>There was some carelessness in the observance of new rules and +regulations, but there was excuse for this in the fact that Alaska is +far from Congress and news travels slowly; also, it has been the belief +of Alaskans that when a man, after the infinite labor and deprivation +necessary to successful prospecting in Alaska, has found anything of +value on the public domain, he could appropriate it with the surety that +his right thereto would be recognized and respected; and that any slight +mistakes that might be made technically would be condoned, provided that +they were honest ones and not made with the intent to defraud the +government.</p> + +<p>The oldest coal mine in Alaska is located just within the entrance to +Cook Inlet, on the western shore, at Coal Harbor. There, in the early +fifties, the Russians began extensive operations, importing experienced +German miners to direct a large force of Muscovite laborers sent from +Sitka, and running their machinery by steam.</p> + +<p>Shafts were sunk, and a drift run into the vein for a distance of one +thousand seven hundred feet. During a period of three years two thousand +seven hundred tons of coal were mined, but the result was a loss to the +enterprising Russians.</p> + +<p>Its extent was practically unlimited, but the quality was found to be +too poor for the use of steamers.</p> + +<p>It is only within the past three years that the fine quality of much of +the coal found in Alaska has been made known by government experts.</p> + +<p>It was inconceivable that Congress should hesitate to enact such laws as +would help to develop Alaska; yet it was not until late in the spring +that bills were passed which greatly relieved the situation and insured +the building of the road upon which the future of this district +depends.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + + +<p>Cook Inlet is so sheltered and is favored by a climate so agreeable that +it was called "Summer-land" by the Russians.</p> + +<p>Across Kachemak Bay from Seldovia is Homer—another town of the inlet +blessed with a poetic name. When I landed at its wharf, in 1905, it was +the saddest, sweetest place in Alaska. It was but the touching phantom +of a town.</p> + +<p>We reached it at sunset of a June day.</p> + +<p>A low, green, narrow spit runs for several miles out into the waters of +the inlet, bordered by a gravelly beach. Here is a railroad running +eight miles to the Cook Inlet coal-fields, a telephone line, +roundhouses, machine-shops, engines and cars, a good wharf, some of the +best store buildings and residences in Alaska,—all painted white with +soft red roofs, and all deserted!</p> + +<p>On this low and lovely spit, fronting the divinely blue sea and the full +glory of the sunset, there was only one human being, the postmaster. +When the little <i>Dora</i> swung lightly into the wharf, this poor lonely +soul showed a pitiable and pathetic joy at this fleeting touch of +companionship. We all went ashore and shook hands with him and talked to +him. Then we returned to our cabins and carried him a share of all our +daintiest luxuries.</p> + +<p>When, after fifteen or twenty minutes, the <i>Dora</i> withdrew slowly into +the great Safrano rose of the sunset, leaving him, a lonely, gray +figure, on the wharf, the look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> on his face made us turn away, so that +we could not see one another's eyes.</p> + +<p>It was like the look of a dog who stands helpless, lonely, and cannot +follow.</p> + +<p>I have never been able to forget that man. He was so gentle, so simple, +so genuinely pleased and grateful—and so lonely!</p> + +<p>As I write, Homer is once more a town, instead of a phantom. I no longer +picture him alone in those empty, echoing, red-roofed buildings; but one +of my most vivid and tormenting memories of Alaska is of a gray figure, +with a little pathetic stoop, going up the path from the wharf, in the +splendor of that June sunset, with his dog at his side.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Act of 1902, commonly known as the Alaska Game Law, defines game, +fixes open seasons, restricts the number which may be killed, declares +certain methods of hunting unlawful, prohibits the sale of hides, skins, +or heads at any time, and prohibits export of game animals, or +birds—except for scientific purposes, for propagation, or for +trophies—under restrictions prescribed by the Department of +Agriculture. The law also authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, when +such action shall be necessary, to place further restrictions on killing +in certain regions. The importance of this provision is already +apparent. Owing to the fact that nearly all persons who go to Alaska to +kill big game visit a few easily accessible localities—notably Kadiak +Island, the Kenai Peninsula, and the vicinity of Cook Inlet—it has +become necessary to protect the game of these localities by special +regulations, in order to prevent its speedy destruction.</p> + +<p>The object of the act is to protect the game of the territory so far as +possible from the mere "killer," but without causing unnecessary +hardship. Therefore, Indians, Eskimos,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> miners, or explorers actually in +need of food, are permitted to kill game for their immediate use. The +exception in favor of natives, miners, and explorers must be construed +strictly. It must not be used merely as a pretext to kill game out of +season, for sport or for market, or to supply canneries or settlements; +and, under no circumstances, can the hides or heads of animals thus +killed be lawfully offered for sale.</p> + +<p>Every person who has travelled in Alaska knows that these laws are +violated daily. An amusing incident occurred on the <i>Dora</i>, on the first +morning "to Westward" from Seward. Far be it from me to eat anything +that is forbidden; but I had <i>seen</i> fried moose steak in Seward. It +resembles slices of pure beef tenderloin, fried.</p> + +<p>It chanced that at our first breakfast on the <i>Dora</i> I found fried beef +tenderloin on the bill of fare, and ordered it. Scarcely had I been +served when in came the gentleman from Boston, who, through his alert +and insatiable curiosity concerning all things Alaskan and his keen +desire to experience every possible Alaskan sensation,—all with the +greatest naïveté and good humor,—had endeared himself to us all on our +long journey together.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" asked he, briskly, scenting a new experience on my plate.</p> + +<p>"Moose," said I, sweetly.</p> + +<p>"Moose—<i>moose!</i>" cried he, excitedly, seizing his bill of fare. "I'll +have some. Where is it? I don't see it!"</p> + +<p>"Hush-h-h," said I, sternly. "It is not on the bill of fare. It is out +of season."</p> + +<p>"Then how shall I get it?" he cried, anxiously. "I must have some."</p> + +<p>"Tell the waiter to bring you the same that he brought me."</p> + +<p>When the dear, gentle Japanese, "Charlie," came to serve him, he +shamelessly pointed at my plate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll have some of that," said he, mysteriously.</p> + +<p>Charlie bowed, smiled like a seraph, and withdrew, to return presently +with a piece of beef tenderloin.</p> + +<p>The gentleman from Boston fairly pounced upon it. We all watched him +expectantly. His expression changed from anticipation to satisfaction, +delight, rapture.</p> + +<p>"That's the most delicious thing I ever ate," he burst forth, presently.</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" said I. "Really, I was disappointed. It tastes very +much like beefsteak to me."</p> + +<p>"Beefsteak!" said he, scornfully. "It tastes no more like beefsteak than +pie tastes like cabbage! What a pity to waste it on one who cannot +appreciate its delicate wild flavor!"</p> + +<p>Months afterward he sent me a marked copy of a Boston newspaper, in +which he had written enthusiastically of the "rare, wild flavor, +haunting as a poet's dream," of the moose which he had eaten on the +<i>Dora</i>.</p> + +<p>In addition to the animals commonly regarded as game, walrus and brown +bear are protected; but existing laws relating to the fur-seal, +sea-otter, or other fur-bearing animals are not affected. The act +creates no close season for black bear, and contains no prohibition +against the sale or shipment of their skins or heads; but those of brown +bear may be shipped only in accordance with regulations.</p> + +<p>The Act of 1908 amends the former act as follows:—</p> + +<p>It is unlawful for any person in Alaska to kill any wild game, animals, +or birds, except during the following seasons: north of latitude +sixty-two degrees, brown bear may be killed at any time; moose, caribou, +sheep, walrus and sea-lions, from August 1 to December 10, inclusive; +south of latitude sixty-two degrees, moose, caribou, and mountain sheep, +from August 20 to December 31, inclusive; brown bear, from October 1 to +July 1, inclusive;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> deer and mountain goats, from August 1 to February +1, inclusive; grouse, ptarmigan, shore birds, and water fowl, from +September 1 to March 1, inclusive.</p> + +<p>The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, whenever he may deem it +necessary for the preservation of game animals or birds, to make and +publish rules and regulations which shall modify the close seasons +established, or to provide different close seasons for different parts +of Alaska, or to place further limitations and restrictions on the +killing of such animals or birds in any given locality, or to prohibit +killing entirely for a period not exceeding two years in such locality.</p> + +<p>It is unlawful for any person at any time to kill any females or +yearlings of moose, or for any one person to kill in one year more than +the number specified of each of the following game animals: Two moose, +one walrus or sea-lion, three caribou; sheep, or large brown bear; or to +kill or have in his possession in any one day more than twenty-five +grouse or ptarmigan, or twenty-five shore birds or water fowl.</p> + +<p>The killing of caribou on the Kenai Peninsula is prohibited until August +20, 1912.</p> + +<p>It is unlawful for any non-resident of Alaska to hunt any of the +protected game animals, except deer and goats, without first obtaining a +hunting license; or to hunt on the Kenai Peninsula without a registered +guide, such license not being transferable and valid only during the +year of issue. The fee for this license is fifty dollars to citizens of +the United States, and one hundred dollars to foreigners; it is +accompanied by coupons authorizing the shipment of two moose,—if killed +north of sixty-two degrees,—four deer, three caribou, sheep, goats, +brown bear, or any part of said animals. A resident of Alaska may ship +heads or trophies by obtaining a shipping license for this purpose. A +fee of forty dollars permits the shipment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> of heads or trophies as +follows: one moose, if killed north of sixty-two degrees; four deer, two +caribou, two sheep, goats, or brown bear. A fee of ten dollars permits +the shipment of a single head or trophy of caribou or sheep; and one of +five, that of goat, deer, or brown bear. It costs just one hundred and +fifty dollars to ship any part of a moose killed south of sixty-two +degrees. Furthermore, before any trophy may be shipped from Alaska, the +person desiring to make such shipment shall first make and file with the +customs office of the port where the shipment is to be made, an +affidavit to the effect that he has not violated any of the provisions +of this act; that the trophy has been neither bought nor sold, and is +not to be shipped for sale, and that he is the owner thereof.</p> + +<p>The Governor of Alaska, in issuing a license, requires the applicant to +state whether the trophies are to be shipped through the ports of entry +of Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco, and he notifies the collector at +the given port as to the name of the license holder, and name and +address of the consignee.</p> + +<p>After reading these rigid laws, I cannot help wondering whether the +Secretary of Agriculture ever saw an Alaskan mountain sheep. If he has +seen one and should unexpectedly come across some poor wretch smuggling +the head of one out of Alaska, he would—unless his heart is as hard as +"stun-cancer," as an old lady once said—just turn his eyes in another +direction and refuse to see what was not meant for his vision.</p> + +<p>The Alaskan sheep does not resemble those of Montana and other sheep +countries. It is more delicate and far more beautiful. There is a +deerlike grace in the poise of its head, a fine and sensitive outline to +nostril and mouth, a tenderness in the great dark eyes, that is at once +startled and appealing; while the wide, graceful sweep of the horns is +unrivalled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p> + +<p>The head of the moose, as well as of the caribou, is imposing, but +coarse and ugly. The antlers of the delicate-headed deer are pretty, but +lack the power of the horns of the Alaskan sheep. The Montana sheep's +head is almost as coarse as that of the moose. The dainty ears and +soft-colored hair of the Alaskan sheep are fawnlike. From the Alaska +Central trains near Lake Kenai, the sheep may be seen feeding on the +mountain that has been named for them.</p> + +<p>Cape Douglas, at the entrance to Cook Inlet, is the admiration of all +save the careful navigator who usually at this point meets such +distressing winds and tides that he has no time to devote to the +contemplation of scenery.</p> + +<p>This noble promontory thrusts itself boldly out into the sea for a +distance of about three miles, where it sinks sheer for a thousand feet +to the pale green surf that breaks everlastingly upon it. It is far more +striking and imposing than the more famous Cape Elizabeth on the eastern +side of the entrance to the inlet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + + +<p>The heavy forestation of the Northwest Coast ceases finally at the Kenai +Peninsula. Kadiak Island is sparsely wooded in sylvan groves, with green +slopes and valleys between; but the islands lying beyond are bare of +trees. Sometimes a low, shrubby willow growth is seen; but for the most +part the thousands of islands are covered in summer with grasses and +mosses, which, drenched by frequent mists and rain, are of a brilliant +and dazzling green.</p> + +<p>The Aleutian Islands drift out, one after another, toward the coast of +Asia, like an emerald rosary on the blue breast of Behring Sea. The only +tree in the Aleutian Islands is a stunted evergreen growing at the gate +of a residence in Unalaska, on the island of the same name.</p> + +<p>The prevailing atmospheric color of Alaska is a kind of misty, rosy +lavender, enchantingly blended from different shades of violet, rose, +silver, azure, gold, and green. The water coloring changes hourly. One +passes from a narrow channel whose waters are of the most delicate green +into a wider reach of the palest blue; and from this into a gulf of +sun-flecked purple.</p> + +<p>The summer voyage out among the Aleutian Islands is lovely beyond all +description. It is a sweet, dreamlike drifting through a water world of +rose and lavender, along the pale green velvety hills of the islands. +There are no adjectives that will clearly describe this greenness to one +who has not seen it. It is at once so soft and so vivid; it flames out +like the dazzling green fire of an emerald, and pales to the lighter +green of the chrysophrase.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> + +<p>Marvellous sunset effects are frequently seen on these waters. There was +one which we saw in broad gulfs, which gathered in a point on the purple +water about nine o'clock. Every color and shade of color burned in this +point, like a superb fire opal; and from it were flung rays of different +coloring—so far, so close, so mistily brilliant, and so tremulously +ethereal, that in shape and fabric it resembled a vast thistle-down +blowing before us on the water. Often we sailed directly into it and its +fragile color needles were shattered and fell about us; but immediately +another formed farther ahead, and trembled and throbbed until it, too, +was overtaken and shattered before our eyes.</p> + +<p>At other times the sunset sank over us, about us, and upon us, like a +cloud of gold and scarlet dust that is scented with coming rain; but of +all the different sunset effects that are but memories now, the most +unusual was a great mist of brilliant, vivid green just touched with +fire, that went marching down the wide straits of Shelikoff late one +night in June.</p> + +<p>Early on the morning after leaving Cook Inlet, the "early-decker" will +find the <i>Dora</i> steaming lightly past Afognak Island through the narrow +channel separating it from Marmot Island. This was the most silvery, +divinely blue stretch of water I saw in Alaska, with the exception of +Behring Sea. The morning that we sailed into Marmot Bay was an +exceptionally suave one in June; and the color of the water may have +been due to the softness of the day.</p> + +<p>We had passed Sea Lion Rocks, where hundreds of these animals lie upon +the rocky shelves, with lifted, narrow heads, moving nervously from side +to side in serpent fashion, and whom a boat's whistle sends plunging +headlong into the sea.</p> + +<p>The southern point of Marmot Island is the Cape St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> Hermogenes of +Behring, a name that has been perpetuated to this day. The steamer +passes between it and Pillar Point, and at one o'clock of the same day +through the winding, islanded harbor of Kadiak.</p> + +<p>This settlement is on the island that won the heart of John Burroughs +when he visited it with the famous Harriman Expedition—the Island of +Kadiak.</p> + +<p>I voyaged with a pilot who had accompanied the expedition.</p> + +<p>"Those scientists, now," he said, musingly, one day as he paced the +bridge, with his hands behind him. "They were a real study for a fellow +like me. The genuine big-bugs in that party were the finest gentlemen +you ever saw; but the <i>little</i>-bugs—say, they put on more dog than a +bogus prince! They were always demanding something they couldn't get and +acting as if they was afraid somebody might think they didn't amount to +anything. An officer on a ship can always tell a gentleman in two +minutes—his wants are so few and his tastes so simple. John Burroughs? +Oh, say, every man on the ship liked Mr. Burroughs. I don't know as +you'd ought to call him a gentleman. You see, gentlemen live on earth, +and he was way up above the earth—in the clouds, you know. He'd look +right through you with the sweetest eyes, and never see you. But +<i>flowers</i>—well, Jeff Davis! Mr. Burroughs could see a flower half a +mile away! You could talk to him all day, and he wouldn't hear a word +you said to him, any more than if he was deef as a post. I thought he +was, the longest while. But Jeff Davis! just let a bird sing on shore +when we were sailing along close. His deefness wasn't particularly +noticeable then!... He'd go ashore and dawdle 'way off from everybody +else, and come back with his arms full of flowers."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Burroughs was charmed with the sylvan beauty of Kadiak Island; its +pale blue, cloud-dappled skies and deep blue, islanded seas; its narrow, +winding water-ways; its dimpled hills, silvery streams, and wooded +dells; its acres upon acres of flowers of every variety, hue and size; +its vivid green, grassy, and mossy slopes, crests, and meadows; its +delightful air and singing birds.</p> + +<p>He was equally charmed with Wood Island, which is only fifteen minutes' +row from Kadiak, and spent much time in its melodious dells, turning his +back upon both islands with reluctance, and afterward writing of them +appreciative words which their people treasure in their hearts and +proudly quote to the stranger who reaches those lovely shores.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The name Kadiak was originally Kaniag, the natives calling themselves +Kaniagists or Kaniagmuts. The island was discovered in 1763, by Stephen +Glottoff.</p> + +<p>His reception by the natives was not of a nature to warm the cockles of +his heart. They approached in their skin-boats, but his godson, Ivan +Glottoff, a young Aleut interpreter, could not make them understand him, +and they fled in apparent fear.</p> + +<p>Some days later they returned with an Aleutian boy whom they had +captured in a conflict with the natives of the Island of Sannakh, and he +served as interpreter.</p> + +<p>The natives of Kadiak differ greatly from those of the Aleutian Islands, +notwithstanding the fact that the islands drift into one another.</p> + +<p>The Kadiaks were more intelligent and ambitious, and of much finer +appearance, than the Aleutians.</p> + +<p>They were of a fiercer and more warlike nature, and refused to meet the +friendly advances of Glottoff. The latter, therefore, kept at some +distance from the shore, and a watch was set night and day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the Kadiaks made an early-morning attack, firing upon the +watches with arrows and attempting to set fire to the ship. They fled in +the wildest disorder upon the discharge of firearms, scattering in their +flight ludicrous ladders, dried moss, and other materials with which +they had expected to destroy the ship.</p> + +<p>Within four days they made another attack, provided with wooden shields +to ward off the musket-balls.</p> + +<p>They were again driven to the shore. At the end of three weeks they made +a third and last attack, protected by immense breastworks, over which +they cast spears and arrows upon the decks.</p> + +<p>As these shields appeared to be bullet-proof and the natives continued +to advance, Glottoff landed a body of men and made a fierce attack, +which had the desired effect. The savages dropped their shields and fled +from the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>When Von H. J. Holmberg was on the island, he persuaded an old native to +dictate a narrative to an interpreter, concerning the arrival of the +first ship—which was undoubtedly Glottoff's. This narrative is of +poignant interest, presenting, as it does, so simply and so eloquently, +the "other" point of view—that of the first inhabitant of the country, +which we so seldom hear. For this reason, and for the charm of its +style, I reproduce it in part:—</p> + +<p>"I was a boy of nine or ten years, for I was already set to paddle a +bidarka, when the first Russian ship, with two masts, appeared near Cape +Aleulik. Before that time we had never seen a ship. We had intercourse +with the Aglegnutes, of the Aliaska Peninsula, with the Tnaianas of the +Kenai Peninsula, and with the Koloshes, of southeastern Alaska. Some +wise men even knew something of the Californias; but of white men and +their ships we knew nothing.</p> + +<p>"The ship looked like a great whale at a distance. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> went out to sea +in our bidarkas, but we soon found that it was no whale, but another +unknown monster of which we were afraid, and the smell of which made us +sick."</p> + +<p>(In all literature and history and real life, I know of no single touch +of unintentional humor so entirely delicious as this: that any odor +could make an Alaskan native, of any locality or tribe, sick; and of all +things, an odor connected with a white person! It appears that in more +ways than one this old native's story is of value.)</p> + +<p>"The people on the ship had buttons on their clothes, and at first we +thought they must be cuttle-fish." (More unintentional, and almost as +delicious, humor!) "But when we saw them put fire into their mouths and +blow out smoke we knew that they must be <i>devils</i>."</p> + +<p>(Did any early navigator ever make a neater criticism of the natives +than these innocent ones of the first white visitors to their shores?)</p> + +<p>"The ship sailed by ... into Kaniat, or Alitak, Bay, where it anchored. +We followed, full of fear, and at the same time curious to see what +would become of the strange apparition, but we did not dare to approach +the ship.</p> + +<p>"Among our people was a brave warrior named Ishinik, who was so bold +that he feared nothing in the world; he undertook to visit the ship, and +came back with presents in his hand,—a red shirt, an Aleut hood, and +some glass beads." (Glottoff describes this visit, and the gifts +bestowed.)</p> + +<p>"He said there was nothing to fear; that they only wished to buy +sea-otter skins, and to give us glass beads and other riches for them. +We did not fully believe this statement. The old and wise people held a +council. Some thought the strangers might bring us sickness.</p> + +<p>"Our people formerly were at war with the Fox Island people. My father +once made a raid on Unalaska and brought back, among other booty, a +little girl left by her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> fleeing people. As a prisoner taken in war, she +was our slave, but my father treated her like a daughter, and brought +her up with his own children. We called her Plioo, which means ashes, +because she was taken from the ashes of her home. On the Russian ship +which came from Unalaska were many Aleuts, and among them the father of +our slave. He came to my father's house, and when he found that his +daughter was not kept like a slave, but was well cared for, he told him +confidentially, out of gratitude, that the Russians would take the +sea-otter skins without payment, if they could.</p> + +<p>"This warning saved my father. The Russians came ashore with the Aleuts, +and the latter persuaded our people to trade, saying, 'Why are you +afraid of the Russians? Look at us. We live with them, and they do us no +harm.'</p> + +<p>"Our people, dazzled by the sight of such quantities of goods, left +their weapons in the bidarkas and went to the Russians with the +sea-otter skins. While they were busy trading, the Aleuts, who carried +arms concealed about them, at a signal from the Russians, fell upon our +people, killing about thirty and taking away their sea-otter skins. A +few men had cautiously watched the result of the first intercourse from +a distance—among them my father." (The poor fellow told this proudly, +not understanding that he thus confessed a shameful and cowardly act on +his father's part.)</p> + +<p>"These attempted to escape in their bidarkas, but they were overtaken by +the Aleuts and killed. My father alone was saved by the father of his +slave, who gave him his bidarka when my father's own had been pierced by +arrows and was sinking.</p> + +<p>"In this he fled to Akhiok. My father's name was Penashigak. The time of +the arrival of this ship was August, as the whales were coming into the +bays, and the berries were ripe.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 465px;"> +<img src="images/illo_411.jpg" width="465" height="588" alt="Photo by J. Doody, Dawson + +A Home in the Yukon" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Photo by J. Doody, Dawson<br /> + +A Home in the Yukon</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The Russians remained for the winter, but could not find sufficient +food in Kaniat Bay. They were compelled to leave the ship in charge of a +few watchmen and moved into a bay opposite Aiakhtalik Island. Here was a +lake full of herrings and a kind of smelt. They lived in tents through +the winter. The brave Ishinik, who first dared to visit the ship, was +liked by the Russians, and acted as mediator. When the fish decreased in +the lake during the winter, the Russians moved about from place to +place. Whenever we saw a boat coming, at a distance, we fled to the +hills, and when we returned, no dried fish could be found in the houses.</p> + +<p>"In the lake near the Russian camp there was a poisonous kind of +starfish. We knew it very well, but said nothing about it to the +Russians. We never ate them, and even the gulls would not touch them. +Many Russians died from eating them. We injured them, also, in other +ways. They put up fox-traps, and we removed them for the sake of +obtaining the iron material. The Russians left during the following +year."</p> + +<p>This native's name was Arsenti Aminak. There are several slight +discrepancies between his narrative and Glottoff's account, especially +as to time. He does not mention the hostile attacks of his people upon +the Russians; and these differences puzzle Bancroft and make him +sceptical concerning the veracity of the native's account.</p> + +<p>It is barely possible, however, that Glottoff imagined these attacks, as +an excuse for his own merciless slaughter of the Kadiaks.</p> + +<p>As to the discrepancy in time, it must be remembered that Arsenti Aminak +was an old man when he related the events which had occurred when he was +a young lad of nine or ten. White lads of that age are not possessed of +vivid memories; and possibly the little brown lad, just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> "set to paddle +a bidarka," was not more brilliant than his white brothers.</p> + +<p>It is wiser to trust the word of the early native than that of the early +navigator—with a few illustrious exceptions.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Kadiak is the second in size of Alaskan islands,—Prince of Wales Island +in southeastern Alaska being slightly larger,—and no island, unless it +be Baranoff, is of more historic interest and charm. It was from this +island that Gregory Shelikoff and his capable wife directed the vast and +profitable enterprises of the Shelikoff Company, having finally +succeeded, in 1784, in making the first permanent Russian settlement in +America at Three Saints Bay, on the southeastern coast of this island. +Barracks, offices, counting-houses, storehouses, and shops of various +kinds were built, and the settlement was guarded against native attack +by two armed vessels.</p> + +<p>It was here that the first missionary establishment and school of the +Northwest Coast of America were located; and here was built the first +great warehouse of logs.</p> + +<p>Shelikoff's welcome from the fierce Kadiaks, in 1784, was not more +cordial than Glottoff's had been. His ships were repeatedly attacked, +and it was not until he had fired upon them, causing great loss of life +and general consternation among them, that he obtained possession of the +harbor.</p> + +<p>Shelikoff lost no time in preparing for permanent occupancy of the +island. Dwellings and fortifications were erected. His own residence was +furnished with all the comforts and luxuries of civilization, which he +collected from his ships, for the purpose of inspiring the natives with +respect for a superior mode of living. They watched the construction of +buildings with great curiosity, and at last volunteered their own +services in the work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> + +<p>Shelikoff personally conducted a school, endeavoring to teach both +children and adults the Russian language and arithmetic, as well as +religion.</p> + +<p>In 1796 Father Juvenal, a young Russian priest who had been sent to the +colonies as a missionary, wrote as follows concerning his work:—</p> + +<p>"With the help of God, a school was opened to-day at this place, the +first since the attempt of the late Mr. Shelikoff to instruct the +natives of this neighborhood. Eleven boys and several grown men were in +attendance. When I read prayers they seemed very attentive, and were +evidently deeply impressed, although they did not understand the +language.... When school was closed, I went to the river with my boys, +<i>and with the help of God</i>" (the italics are mine) "we caught one +hundred and three salmon of large size."</p> + +<p>The school prospered and was giving entire satisfaction when Baranoff +transferred Father Juvenal to Iliamna, on Cook Inlet.</p> + +<p>We now come to what has long appealed to me as the most tragic and +heart-breaking story of all Alaska—the story of Father Juvenal's +betrayal and death at Iliamna.</p> + +<p>Of his last Sabbath's work at Three Saints, Father Juvenal wrote:—</p> + +<p>"We had a very solemn and impressive service this morning. Mr. Baranoff +and officers and sailors from the ship attended, and also a large number +of natives. We had fine singing, and a congregation with great outward +appearance of devotion. I could not help but marvel at Alexander +Alexandreievitch (Baranoff), who stood there and listened, crossing +himself and giving the responses at the proper time, and joined in the +singing with the same hoarse voice with which he was shouting obscene +songs the night before, when I saw him in the midst of a drunken +carousal with a woman seated on his lap. I dispensed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> with services in +the afternoon, because the traders were drunk again, and might have +disturbed us and disgusted the natives."</p> + +<p>Father Juvenal's pupils were removed to Pavlovsk and placed under the +care of Father German, who had recently opened a school there.</p> + +<p>The priestly missionaries were treated with scant courtesy by Baranoff, +and ceaseless and bitter were the complaints they made against him. On +the voyage to Iliamna, Father Juvenal complains that he was compelled to +sleep in the hold of the brigantine <i>Catherine</i>, between bales of goods +and piles of dried fish, because the cabin was occupied by Baranoff and +his party.</p> + +<p>In his foul quarters, by the light of a dismal lantern, he wrote a +portion of his famous journal, which has become a most precious human +document, unable to sleep on account of the ribald songs and drunken +revelry of the cabin.</p> + +<p>He claims to have been constantly insulted and humiliated by Baranoff +during the brief voyage; and finally, at Pavlovsk, he was told that he +must depend upon bidarkas for the remainder of the voyage to the Gulf of +Kenai; and after that to the robbers and murderers of the Lebedef +Company.</p> + +<p>The vicissitudes, insults, and actual suffering of the voyage are +vividly set forth in his journal. It was the 16th of July when he left +Kadiak and the 3d of September when he finally reached Iliamna—having +journeyed by barkentine to Pavlovsk, by bidarka from island to island +and to Cook Inlet, and over the mountains on foot.</p> + +<p>He was hospitably received by Shakmut, the chief, who took him into his +own house and promised to build one especially for him. A boy named +Nikita, who had been a hostage with the Russians, acted as interpreter, +and was later presented to Father Juvenal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p> + +<p>This young missionary seems to have been more zealous than diplomatic. +Immediately upon discovering that the boy had never been baptized, he +performed that ceremony, to the astonishment of the natives, who +considered it some dark practice of witchcraft.</p> + +<p>Juvenal relates with great naïveté that a pretty young woman asked to +have the same ceremony performed upon her, that she, too, might live in +the same house with the young priest.</p> + +<p>The most powerful shock that he received, however, before the one that +led to his death, he relates in the following simple language, under +date of September 5, two days after his arrival:—</p> + +<p>"It will be a relief to get away from the crowded house of the chief, +where persons of all ages and sexes mingle without any regard to decency +or morals. To my utter astonishment, Shakmut asked me last night to +share the couch of one of his wives. He has three or four. I suppose +such abomination is the custom of the country, and he intended no +insult. God gave me grace to overcome my indignation, and to decline the +offer in a friendly and dignified manner. My first duty, when I have +somewhat mastered the language, shall be to preach against such wicked +practices, but I could not touch upon such subjects through a boy +interpreter."</p> + +<p>The severe young priest carried out his intentions so zealously that the +chief and his friends were offended. He commanded them to put away all +their wives but one.</p> + +<p>They had marvelled at his celibacy; but they felt, with the rigid +justice of the savage, that, if absolutely sincere, he was entitled to +their respect.</p> + +<p>However, they doubted his sincerity, and plotted to satisfy their +curiosity upon this point. A young Iliamna girl was bribed to conceal +herself in his room. Awaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> in the middle of the night and finding +himself in her arms, the young priest was unable to overcome temptation.</p> + +<p>In the morning he was overwhelmed with remorse and a sense of his +disgrace. He remembered how haughtily he had spurned Shakmut's offer of +peculiar hospitality, and how mercilessly he had criticised Baranoff for +his immoral carousals. Remembering these things, as well as the ease +with which his own downfall had been accomplished, he was overcome with +shame.</p> + +<p>"What a terrible blow this is to all my recent hopes!" he wrote, in his +pathetic account of the affair in his journal. "As soon as I regained my +senses, I drove the woman out, but I felt too guilty to be very harsh +with her. How can I hold up my head among the people, who, of course, +will hear of this affair?... God is my witness that I have set down the +truth here in the face of anything that may be said about it hereafter. +I have kept myself secluded to-day from everybody. I have not yet the +strength to face the world."</p> + +<p>When Juvenal did face the small world of Iliamna, it was to be openly +ridiculed and insulted by all. Young girls tittered when he went by; his +own boys, whom he had taught and baptized, mocked him; a girl put her +head into his room when he was engaged in fastening a heavy bar upon his +door, and laughed in his face. Shakmut came and insisted that Juvenal +should baptize his several wives the following Sunday. This he had been +steadily refusing to do, so long as they lived in daily sin; but now, +disgraced, broken in spirit, and no longer able to say, "I am holier +than thou," he wearily consented.</p> + +<p>"I shall not shrink from my duty to make him relinquish all but one +wife, however," he wrote, with a last flash of his old spirit, "when the +proper time arrives. If I wink at polygamy now, I shall be forever +unable to combat it. Perhaps it is only my imagination, but I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> think I +can discover a lack of respect in Nikita's behavior toward me since +yesterday.... My disgrace has become public already, and I am laughed at +wherever I go, especially by the women. Of course, they do not +understand the sin, but rather look upon it as a good joke. It will +require great firmness on my part to regain the respect I have lost for +myself, as well as on behalf of the Church. I have vowed to burn no fuel +in my bedroom during the entire winter, in order to chastise my body—a +mild punishment, indeed, compared to the blackness of my sin."</p> + +<p>The following day was the Sabbath. It was with a heavy heart that he +baptized Katlewah, the brother of the chief, and his family, the three +wives of the chief, seven children, and one aged couple.</p> + +<p>The same evening he called on the chief and surprised him in a wild +carousal with his wives, in which he was jeeringly invited to join.</p> + +<p>Forgetting his disgrace and his loss of the right to condemn for sins +not so black as his own, the enraged young priest vigorously denounced +them, and told the chief that he must marry one of the women according +to the rites of the Church and put away the others, or be forever +damned. The chief, equally enraged, ordered him out of the house. On his +way home he met Katlewah, who reproached him because his religious +teachings had not benefited Shakmut, who was as immoral as ever.</p> + +<p>The end was now rapidly approaching. On September 29, less than a month +after his arrival, he wrote: "The chief and his brother have both been +here this morning and abused me shamefully. Their language I could not +understand, but they spat in my face and, what was worse, upon the +sacred images on the walls. Katlewah seized my vestments and carried +them off, and I was left bleeding from a blow struck by an ivory club. +Nikita has washed and bandaged my wounds; but from his anxious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> manner I +can see that I am still in danger. The other boys have run away. My +wound pains me so that I can scarcely—"</p> + +<p>The rest is silence. Nikita, who escaped with Juvenal's journal and +papers and delivered them to the revered and beloved Veniaminoff, +relates that the young priest was here fallen upon and stabbed to death +by his enemies.</p> + +<p>Many different versions of this pathetic tragedy are given. I have +chosen Bancroft's because he seems to have gone more deeply and +painstakingly into the small details that add the touch of human +interest than any other historian.</p> + +<p>The vital interest of the story, however, lies in what no one has told, +and what, therefore, no one but the romancer can ever tell.</p> + +<p>It lies between the written lines; it lies in the imagination of this +austere young priest's remorseful suffering for his sin. There is no +sign that he realized—too late, as usual—his first sin of intolerant +criticism and condemnation of the sins of others. But neither did he +spare himself, nor shrink from the terrible results of his downfall, so +unexpected in his lofty and almost flaunting virtue. He was ready, and +eager, to chastise his flesh to atone for his sin; and probably only one +who has spent a winter in Alaska could comprehend fully the hourly +suffering that would result from a total renouncement of fuel for the +long, dark period of winter.</p> + +<p>Veniaminoff was of the opinion that the assassination was caused not so +much by his preaching against polygamy as by the fact that the chiefs, +having given him their children to educate at Kadiak, repented of their +action, and being unable to recover them, turned against him and slew +him as a deceiver, in their ignorance. During the fatal attack upon him, +it is said, Juvenal never thought of flight or self-defence, but +surrendered himself into their hands without resistance, asking only for +mercy for his companions.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + + +<p>In 1792 Baranoff having risen to the command of the Shelikoff-Golikoff +Company, decided to transfer the settlement of Three Saints to the +northern end of the island, as a more central location for the +distribution of supplies. To-day only a few crumbling ruins remain to +mark the site of the first Russian settlement in America—an event of +such vital historic interest to the United States that a monument should +be erected there by this country.</p> + +<p>The new settlement was named St. Paul, and was situated on Pavlovsk Bay, +the present site of Kadiak. The great warehouse, built of logs, and +other ancient buildings still remain.</p> + +<p>It was during the year of Father Juvenal's death—1796—that the first +Russo-Greek church was erected at St. Paul. It was about this time that +the conversion of twelve thousand natives in the colonies was reported +by Father Jossaph. This amazing statement could only have been made +after one of Baranoff's banquets—to which the astute governor, desiring +that a favorable report should be sent to St. Petersburg, doubtless bade +the half-starved priest.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For the Russian-American Company the Kadiaks and Aleuts were obliged to +hunt and work, at the will of the officers, and to sell all their furs +to the company, at prices established by the latter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p> + +<p>Baranoff, for a time after becoming Chief Director, resided in Kodiak. +All persons and affairs in the colonies were under his control; his +authority was absolute, his decision final, unless appeal was made to +the Directory at Irkutsk; and it was almost impossible for an appeal to +reach Irkutsk.</p> + +<p>To-day in Kodiak, as in Sitka, the old and the new mingle. Some of the +old sod-houses remain, and many that were built of logs; but the +majority of the dwellings are modern frame structures, painted white and +presenting a neat appearance, in striking contrast to many of the +settlements of Alaska where natives reside.</p> + +<p>The Greek-Russian church shines white and attractive against the green +background of the hill. It is surrounded by a white fence and is shaded +by trees.</p> + +<p>I called at the priest's residence and was hospitably received by his +wife, an intelligent, dark-eyed native woman. The interior of the church +is interesting, but lacks the charm and rich furnishings of the one at +Sitka. There is a chime of bells in the steeple; and both steeple and +dome are surmounted by the peculiar Greek-Russian cross which is +everywhere seen in Alaska. It has two short transverse bars, crossing +the vertical shaft, one above and one below the main transverse bar, the +lower always slanting.</p> + +<p>The natives of Kodiak are more highly civilized than in other parts of +Alaska. The offspring of Russian fathers and native mothers have +frequently married into white or half-breed families, and the strain of +dark blood in the offspring of these later marriages is difficult to +discern.</p> + +<p>I travelled on the <i>Dora</i> with a woman whose father had been a Russian +priest, married to a native woman at Belkoffski. She had been sent to +California for a number of years, and returning, a graduate of a normal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +school, had married a Russian. She had a comfortable, well-furnished +home, and her husband appeared extremely fond and proud of her. Her +children were as white as any Russian I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>A Russian priest must marry once; but if his wife dies, he cannot marry +again.</p> + +<p>This law fills my soul with an unholy delight. It persuades a man to +appreciate his wife's virtues and to condone her faults. Whatever may be +her sins in sight of him and heaven, she is the only one, so far as he +is concerned. It must be she, or nobody, to the end of his days. She may +fill his soul with rage, but he may not even relieve his feelings by +killing her.</p> + +<p>The result of this unique religious law is that Russian priests are +uncommonly kind and indulgent to their wives.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes," said one who was on the <i>Dora</i>, in answer to +a question, "I have a wife. She lives in Paris, where my daughter is +receiving her education. I am going this year to visit them. Yes, yes, +yes."</p> + +<p>However, with all the petting and indulgence which the Russian priest +lavishes upon his wife, if what I heard be true,—that he is permitted +neither to cut nor to wash his hair and beard,—God wot she is welcome +to him.</p> + +<p>The old graveyard on the hill above Kodiak tempts the visitor, and one +may loiter among the old, neglected graves with no fear of snakes in the +tall, thick grasses.</p> + +<p>At first, a woman receives the statement that there are no snakes in +Alaska with open suspicion. It has the sound of an Alaskan joke.</p> + +<p>When I first heard it, I was unimpressed. We were nearing a fine field +of red-top, already waist-high, and I waited for the gentleman from +Boston, who believed everything he heard, and imagined far more, to go +prancing innocently through the field.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p> + +<p>He went—unhesitatingly, joyously; giving praise to God for his +blessings—as, he vowed, he loved to ramble through deep grass, yet +would rather meet a hippopotamus alone in a mire than a garter-snake +five inches long. The field was the snakiest-looking place imaginable, +and when he had passed safely through, I began to have faith in the +Alaskan snake story.</p> + +<p>The climate of Kadiak Island is delightful. The island is so situated +that it is fully exposed to the equalizing influences of the Pacific. +The mean annual temperature is four degrees lower than at Sitka, and +there is twenty per cent less rainfall.</p> + +<p>The coast of Alaska is noted for its rainfall and cloudy weather. Its +precipitation is to be compared only to that of the coast of British +Columbia, Washington, and Oregon; and it will surprise many people to +learn that it is exceeded in the latter district.</p> + +<p>The heaviest annual rainfall occurs at Nutchek, with a decided drop to +Fort Tongass; then, Orca, Juneau, Sitka, and Fort Liscum. Fort Wrangell, +Killisnoo, and Kodiak stand next; while Tyonok, Skaguay, and Kenai +record only from fifteen to twenty-five inches.</p> + +<p>Kadiak Island is a hundred miles long by about forty in width. Its +relief is comparatively low—from three to five thousand feet—and it +has many broad, open valleys, gently rounded slopes, and wooded dells.</p> + +<p>Lisiansky was told that the Kadiak group of islands was once separated +from the Aliaska Peninsula by the tiniest ribbon of water. An immense +otter, in attempting to swim through this pass, was caught fast and +could not extricate itself. Its desperate struggles for freedom widened +the pass into the broad sweep of water now known as the Straits of +Shelikoff, and pushed the islands out to their present position. This +legend strengthens the general belief that the islands were once a part +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> peninsula, having been separated therefrom by one of the mighty +upheavals, with its attendant depression, which are constantly taking +place.</p> + +<p>A native myth is that the original inhabitants were descended from a +dog. Another legend is to the effect that the daughter of a great chief +north of the peninsula married a dog and was banished with her +dog-husband and whelps. The dog tried to swim back, but was drowned, his +pups then falling upon the old chief and, having torn him to pieces, +reigning in his stead.</p> + +<p>In 1791 Shelikoff reported the population of Kadiak Island to be fifty +thousand, the exaggeration being for the purpose of enhancing the value +of his operations. In 1795 the first actual census of Kadiak showed +eighteen hundred adult native males, and about the same number of +females. To-day there are probably not five hundred.</p> + +<p>I have visited Kadiak Island in June and in July. On both occasions the +weather was perfect. Clouds that were like broken columns of pearl +pushed languorously up through the misty gold of the atmosphere; the +long slopes of the hillside were vividly green in the higher lights, but +sank to the soft dark of dells and hollows; here and there shone out +acres of brilliant bloom.</p> + +<p>To one climbing the hill behind the village, island beyond island +drifted into view, with blue water-ways winding through velvety +labyrinths of green; and, beyond all, the strong, limitless sweep of the +ocean. The winds were but the softest zephyrs, touching the face and +hair like rose petals, or other delicate, visible things; and, the air +was fragrant with things that grow day and night and that fling their +splendor forth in one riotous rush of bloom. Shaken through and through +their perfume was that thrilling, indescribable sweetness which abides +in vast spaces where snow mountains glimmer and the opaline palisades of +glaciers shine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a view to quicken the blood, and to inspire an American to give +silent thanks to God that this rich and peerlessly beautiful country is +ours.</p> + +<p>After the transfer, the village of Kodiak was the headquarters of the +Alaska Commercial Company and the Western Fur and Trading Company. The +former company still maintains stores and warehouses at this point. The +house in which the manager resides occupies a commanding site above the +bay. It is historic and commodious, and large house-parties are +entertained with lavish hospitality by Mr. and Mrs. Goss, visitors +gathering there from adjacent islands and settlements.</p> + +<p>There are dances, "when the boats are in," in which the civilized native +girls join with a kind of repressed joy that reminds one of New England. +They dress well and dance gracefully. Their soft, dark glances over +their partners' shoulders haunt even a woman dreamily. A century's +silently and gently borne wrongs smoulder now and then in the deep eyes +of some beautiful, dark-skinned girl.</p> + +<p>Kodiak is clean. One can stand on the hills and breathe.</p> + +<p>For several years after the transfer a garrison of United States troops +was stationed there. Bridges were built across the streams that flow +down through the town, and culverts to drain the marshes. Many of these +improvements have been carelessly destroyed with the passing of the +years, but their early influence remains.</p> + +<p>So charming and so idyllic did this island seem to the Russians that it +was with extreme reluctance they moved their capital to Sitka when the +change was considered necessary.</p> + +<p>We were rowed by native boys across the satiny channel to Wood Island, +where Reverend C. P. Coe conducts a successful Baptist Orphanage for +native children. Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> Coe was not at home, but we were cordially +received by Mrs. Coe and three or four assistants. Wood Island, or +Woody, as it was once called, is as lovely as Kadiak; the site for the +buildings of the Orphanage being particularly attractive, surrounded as +it is by groves and dells.</p> + +<p>There was a pale green, springlike freshness folded over the gently +rolling hills and hollows that was as entrancing as the first green mist +that floats around the leafing alders on Puget Sound in March.</p> + +<p>The Orphanage was established in 1893 by the Woman's American Baptist +Home Mission Society of Boston, and the first child was entered in that +year. Mr. Coe assumed charge of the Orphanage in 1895, and about one +hundred and thirty children have been educated and cared for under his +administration. They have come from the east as far as Kayak, and from +the west as far as Unga. At present there is but one other Baptist +Mission field in Alaska—at Copper Centre.</p> + +<p>The purpose of the work is to provide a Christian home and training for +the destitute and friendless; to collect children, that they may receive +an education; and to give industrial training so far as possible.</p> + +<p>There were forty-two children in the home at the time of our visit, and +there was a full complement of helpers in the work, including a +physician.</p> + +<p>The regular industrial work consists of all kinds of housework for the +girls. Everything that a woman who keeps house should know is taught to +these girls. The boys are taught to plough and sow, to cultivate and +harvest the crops, to raise vegetables, to care for stock and poultry. +Twenty-five acres are under cultivation, and the hardier grains and +vegetables are grown with fair success.</p> + +<p>Potatoes yield two hundred and fifty bushels to the acre; and barley, +forty bushels. Cattle and poultry thrive and are of exceeding value, +fresh milk and vegetables<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> being better than medicines for the welfare +of the children. Angora goats require but little care and yield +excellent fleece each year.</p> + +<p>The most valuable features of the work are the religious training; the +furnishing of a comfortable home, warm clothing, clean and wholesome +food of sufficient quantity, to children who have been rescued from vice +and the most repulsive squalor; the atmosphere of industry, cleanliness, +kindness, and love; and the medical care furnished to those who may be +suffering because of the vices of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>This excellent work is supported by offerings from the Baptist Sunday +Schools of New England, and by contributions from the society with the +yard-long name by which it was established.</p> + +<p>We were offered most delicious ginger-cake with nuts in it and big +goblets of half milk and half cream; and we were not surprised that the +shy, dark-skinned children looked so happy and so well cared for. We saw +their schoolrooms, their play rooms, and their bedrooms, with the little +clean cots ranged along the walls.</p> + +<p>The children were shy, but made friends with us readily; and holding our +hands, led the way to the dells where the violets grew. They listened to +stories with large-eyed interest, and were, in general, bright, +well-mannered, and attractive children.</p> + +<p>It was on Wood Island that the famous and mysterious ice-houses of the +American-Russian Ice Company, whose headquarters were in San Francisco, +were located. Their ruins still stand on the shore, as well as the +deserted buildings of the North American Commercial Company, whose +headquarters were here for many years—the furs of the Copper River and +Kenai regions having been brought here to be shipped to San Francisco.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_428.jpg" width="640" height="456" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +One and a Half Millions of Klondyke Gold" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +One and a Half Millions of Klondyke Gold</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p> + +<p>The operations of the ice company were shrouded in mystery, many +claiming that not a pound of ice was ever shipped to the California +seaport from Wood Island. Other authorities, however, affirm that at one +time large quantities of ice were shipped to the southern port, and that +the agent of the company lived on Wood Island in a manner as autocratic +and princely as that of Baranoff himself. The whole island was his park +and game preserve; and one of the first roads ever built in Alaska was +constructed here, comprising the circuit of the island, a distance of +about thirteen miles.</p> + +<p>There is a Greek-Russian church and mission on the island.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Not far from Wood Island is Spruce.</p> + +<p>"Here," says Tikhmenef, "died the last member of the first clerical +mission, the monk Herman. During his lifetime Father Herman built near +his dwelling a school for the daughters of the natives, and also +cultivated potatoes."</p> + +<p>Bancroft pokes fun at this obituary. The growing of potatoes, however, +at that time in Alaska must have been of far greater value than any +ordinary missionary work. Better to cultivate potatoes than to teach a +lot of wretched beings to make the sign of the cross and dabble +themselves with holy water—and it is said that this is all the average +priest taught a hundred years ago, the poor natives not being able to +understand the Russian language.</p> + +<p>The Kadiak Archipelago consists of Kadiak, Afognak, Tugidak, Sitkinak, +Marmot, Wood, Spruce, Chirikoff (named by Vancouver for the explorer who +discovered it upon his return journey to Kamchatka), and several smaller +ones. They are all similar in appearance, but smaller and less fertile +than Kadiak. A small group northwest of Chirikoff is named the Semidi +Islands.</p> + +<p>There is a persistent legend of a "lost" island in the Pacific, to the +southward of Kadiak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the Russian missionaries first came to the colonies in America, +they found the natives living "as the seals and the otters lived." They +were absolutely without moral understanding, and simply followed their +own instincts and desires.</p> + +<p>These missionaries were sent out in 1794, by command of the Empress +Catherine the Second; and by the time of Sir George Simpson's visit in +1842, their influence had begun to show beneficial results. An Aleutian +and his daughter who had committed an unnatural crime suddenly found +themselves, because of the drawing of new moral lines, ostracized from +the society in which they had been accustomed to move unchallenged. They +stole away by night in a bidarka, and having paddled steadily to the +southward for four days and nights they sighted an island which had +never been discovered by white man or dark. They landed and dwelt upon +this island for a year.</p> + +<p>Upon their return to Kadiak and their favorable report of their lone, +beautiful, and sea-surrounded retreat, a vessel was despatched in search +of it, but without success.</p> + +<p>To this day it is "Lost" Island. Many have looked for it, but in vain. +It is the sailor's dream, and is supposed to be rich in treasure. Its +streams are yellow with gold, its mountains green with copper glance; +ambergris floats on the waters surrounding it; and all the seals and +sea-otters that have been frightened out of the north sun themselves, +unmolested, upon its rocks and its floating strands of kelp.</p> + +<p>One day it will rise out of the blue Pacific before the wondering eyes +of some fortunate wanderer—even as the Northwest Passage, for whose +sake men have sailed and suffered and failed and died for four hundred +years, at last opened an icy avenue before the amazed and unbelieving +eyes of the dauntless Amundsen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + + +<p>Leaving Kodiak, the steamer soon reaches Afognak, on the island of the +same name. There is no wharf at this settlement, and we were rowed +ashore.</p> + +<p>We were greatly interested in this place. The previous year we had made +a brief voyage to Alaska. On our steamer was an unmarried lady who was +going to Afognak as a missionary. She was to be the only white woman on +the island, and she had entertained us with stories which she had heard +of a very dreadful and wicked saloon-keeper who had lived near her +schoolhouse, and whose evil influence had been too powerful for other +missionaries to combat.</p> + +<p>"But he can't scare me off!" she declared, her eyes shining with +religious ardor. "I'll conquer him before he shall conquer me!"</p> + +<p>She was short and stout and looked anything but brave, and as we +approached the scene of conflict, we felt much curiosity as to the +outcome.</p> + +<p>She was on the beach when we landed, stouter, shorter, and more +energetic than ever in her movements. She remembered us and proudly led +the way up the bank to her schoolhouse. It was large, clean, and +attractive. The missionary lived in four adjoining rooms, which were +comfortable and homelike. We were offered fresh bread and delicious +milk.</p> + +<p>She talked rapidly and eagerly upon every subject save the one in which +we were so interested. At last, I could endure the suspense no longer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And how," asked I, "about the wicked saloon-keeper?"</p> + +<p>A dull flush mounted to her very glasses. For a full minute there was +silence. Then said she, slowly and stiffly:—</p> + +<p>"How about <i>what</i> wicked saloon-keeper?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the one you told us about last year; who had a poor abused wife +and seven children, and who scared the life out of every missionary who +came here."</p> + +<p>There was another silence.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said she then, coldly. "Well, he was rather hard to get along with +at first, but his—er—hum—wife died about three months ago, and he +has—er—hum" (the words seemed to stick in her throat) "asked +me—he—asked me, you know, to" (she giggled suddenly) "<i>marry</i> him, you +know.</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I will, though," she added, hastily, turning very red, +as we stood staring at her, absolutely speechless.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The village of Afognak is located at the southwestern end of Litnik Bay. +It is divided into two distinct settlements, the most southerly of which +has a population of about one hundred and fifty white and half-breed +people. A high, grassy bluff, named Graveyard Point, separates this part +of the village from that to the northward, which is entirely a native +settlement of probably fifty persons.</p> + +<p>The population of the Island of Afognak is composed of Kadiaks, Eskimos, +Russian half-breeds, and a few white hunters and fishermen. The social +conditions are similar to those existing on the eastern shores of Cook +Inlet.</p> + +<p>When Alaska was under the control of the Russian-American Company, many +men grew old and comparatively useless in its service. These employees +were too helpless to be thrown upon their own resources, and their +condition was reported to the Russian government.</p> + +<p>In 1835 an order was issued directing that such Russian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> employees as +had married native women should be located as permanent settlers when +they were no longer able to serve the company. The company was compelled +to select suitable land, build comfortable dwellings for them, supply +agricultural implements, seed, cattle, chickens, and a year's +provisions.</p> + +<p>These settlers were exempt from taxation and military duty, and the +Russians were known as colonial citizens, the half-breeds as colonial +settlers. The eastern shores of Cook Inlet, Afognak Island, and Spruce +Island were selected for them. The half-breeds now occupying these +localities are largely their descendants. They have always lived on a +higher plane of civilization than the natives, and among them may be +found many skilled craftsmen.</p> + +<p>There is no need for the inhabitants of any of these islands to suffer, +for here are all natural resources for native existence. All the hardier +vegetables thrive and may be stored for winter use; hay may be provided +for cattle; the waters are alive with salmon and cod; bear, fox, mink, +and sea-otter are still found.</p> + +<p>In summer the men may easily earn two hundred dollars working in the +adjacent canneries; while the women, assisted by the old men and +children, dry the fish, which is then known as ukala. There is a large +demand in the North for ukala, for dog food. There are two large stores +in Afognak, representing large trading companies, where two cents a +pound is paid for all the ukala that can be obtained.</p> + +<p>The white men of Afognak are nearly all Scandinavians, married to, or +living with, native women. The school-teacher I have already mentioned +was the only white woman, and she told us that we were the first white +women who had landed on the island during the year she had spent there. +Only once had she talked with white women, and that was during a visit +to Kodiak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p> + +<p>The town has a sheltered and attractive site on a level green. There is +a large Greek-Russian church, not far from the noisy saloon which is +presided over by the saloon-keeper who was once bad, but who has now +yielded to the missionary's spell.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Karluk River, on the eastern side of Kadiak Island, is the greatest +salmon stream in the world. It is sixteen miles long, less than six feet +deep, and so narrow at its mouth that a child could toss a pebble from +shore to shore. It seems absurd to enter a canoe to cross this stream, +so like a little creek is it, across which one might easily leap.</p> + +<p>Yet up this tiny water-way millions of salmon struggle every season to +the spawning-grounds in Karluk Lake. Before the coming of canners with +traps and gill-nets in 1884, it is said that a solid mass of fish might +be seen filling this stream from bank to bank, and from its mouth to the +lake in the hills.</p> + +<p>In 1890 the largest cannery in the world was located in Karluk Bay, but +now that distinction belongs to Bristol Bay, north of the Aliaska +Peninsula. (Another "largest in the world" is on Puget Sound!)</p> + +<p>Karluk Bay is very small; but several canneries are on its shores, and +when they are all in operation, the employees are sufficient in number +to make one of the largest towns in Alaska. In 1890 three millions of +salmon were packed in the several canneries operating in the bay; in +1900 more than two millions in the two canneries then operating; but, on +account of the use of traps and gill-nets, the pack has greatly +decreased since then, and during some seasons has proved a total +failure.</p> + +<p>Fifteen years ago two-thirds of the entire Alaskan salmon pack were +furnished by the ten canneries of Kadiak Island, and these secured +almost their entire supply from Karluk River. Furthermore, at that time, +the canners<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> enjoyed their vast monopoly without tax, license, or any +government interference.</p> + +<p>Immense fortunes have been made—and lost—in the fish industry during +the last twenty years.</p> + +<p>The superintendents of these canneries always live luxuriously, and +entertain like princes—or Baranoff. Their comfortable houses are +furnished with all modern luxuries,—elegant furniture, pianos, hot and +cold water, electric baths. Perfectly trained, noiseless Chinamen glide +around the table, where dinners of ten or twelve delicate courses are +served, with a different wine for each course.</p> + +<p>Champagne is a part of the hospitality of Alaska. The cheapest is seven +dollars and a half a bottle, and Alaskans seldom buy the cheapest of +anything.</p> + +<p>It was on a soft gray afternoon that the <i>Dora</i> entered Karluk Bay +between the two picturesque promontories that plunge boldly out into +Shelikoff Straits. It seemed as though all the sea-birds of the world +must be gathered there. Our entrance set them afloat from their perches +on the rocky cliffs. They filled the air, from shore to shore, like a +snow-storm. Their poetic flight and shrill, mournful plaining haunt +every memory of Karluk Bay.</p> + +<p>Now and then they settled for an instant. A cliff would shine out +suddenly—a clear, tremulous white; then, as suddenly, there would be +nothing but a sheer height of dark stone veined with green before our +bewildered gaze. It was as if a silvery, winged cloud drifted up and +down the face of the cliffs and then floated out across the bay.</p> + +<p>Several old sailing vessels, or "wind-jammers," lay at anchor. They are +used for conveying stores and employees from San Francisco. The many +buildings of the canneries give Karluk the appearance of a town—in +fact, during the summer, it is a town; while in the winter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> only a few +caretakers of the buildings and property remain.</p> + +<p>Men of almost every nationality under the sun may be found here, working +side by side.</p> + +<p>Ceaseless complaints are made of the lawless conditions existing "to +Westward." Besides the thousands of men employed in the canneries of the +Kadiak and the Aleutian islands, at least ten thousand men work in the +canneries of Bristol Bay. They come from China, Japan, the Sandwich +Islands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Porto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and +almost every country that may be named.</p> + +<p>"The prevailing color of Alaska may be 'rosy lavender,'" said a +gentleman who knows, "but let me tell you that out there you will find +conditions that are neither rosy nor lavender."</p> + +<p>There is a United States Commissioner and a Deputy United States Marshal +in the district, but they are unable to control these men, many of whom +are desperate characters. The superintendents of the canneries are there +for the purpose of putting up the season's pack as speedily as possible; +and, although they are invariably men who deplore crime, they have been +known to condone it, to avoid the taking of themselves or their crews +hundreds of miles to await the action of some future term of court.</p> + +<p>For many years the District of Alaska has been divided for judicial +purposes into three divisions: the first comprising the southeastern +Alaska district; the second, Nome and the Seward Peninsula; the third, +the vast country lying between these two.</p> + +<p>In each is organized a full United States district court. The three +judges who preside over these courts receive the salary of five thousand +dollars a year,—which, considering the high character of the services +required, and the cost of living in Alaska, is niggardly. So much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> power +is placed in the hands of these judges that they are freely called czars +by the people of Alaska.</p> + +<p>The people of the third district complained bitterly that their court +facilities were entirely inadequate. Several murders were committed, and +the accused awaited trial for many months. Witnesses were detained from +their homes and lawful pursuits. Delays were so vexatious that many +crimes remained unpunished, important witnesses rebelling against being +held in custody for a whole year before they had an opportunity to +testify—the judge of the third district being kept busy along the Yukon +and at Fairbanks.</p> + +<p>As a partial remedy for some of these abuses of government, Governor +Brady, in his report for the year 1904, suggested the creation of a +fourth judicial district, to be furnished with a sea-going vessel, which +should be under the custody of the marshal and at the command of the +court. It was recommended that this vessel be equipped with small arms, +a Gatling gun, and ammunition. All the islands which lie along the +thousands of miles of shore-line of Kenai and Aliaska peninsulas, Cook +Inlet, the Kadiak, Shumagin, and Aleutian chains, and Bristol Bay might +be visited in season, and a wholesome respect for law and order be +enforced.</p> + +<p>The burning question in Alaska has been for many years the one of home +government. As early as 1869 an impassioned plea was made in Sitka that +Alaska should be given territorial rights. Yet even the bill for one +delegate to Congress was defeated as late as the winter of +1905—whereupon fiery Valdez instantly sent its famous message of +secession.</p> + +<p>Governor Brady criticised the appointment of United States commissioners +by the judges, claiming that there is really no appeal from a +commissioner's court to a district court, for the reason that the judge +usually appoints<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> some particular protégé and feels bound to sustain his +decisions. The governor stated plainly in his report that the most +remunerative offices are filled by persons who are peculiarly related, +socially or politically, to the judges; that the attorneys and their +clients understood this and considered an appeal useless. Governor Brady +also declared the fee system, as practised in these commissioners' +courts, to be an abomination. Unless there is trouble, the officer +cannot live; and the inference is that he, therefore, welcomes trouble.</p> + +<p>Whatever of truth there may have been in these pungent criticisms, +President Roosevelt endorsed many of the governor's recommendations in +his message to Congress; and several have been adopted. During the past +two years Alaska has made rapid strides toward self-government, and +important reforms have been instituted.</p> + +<p>The territory now has a delegate to Congress. Upon the subject of home +government the people are widely and bitterly divided. Those having +large interests in Alaska are, as a rule, opposed to home government, +claiming that it is the politicians and those owning nothing upon which +taxes could be levied, who are agitating the subject. These claim that +the few who have ventured heavily to develop Alaska would be compelled +to bear the entire burden of a heavy taxation, for the benefit of the +professional politician, the carpet-bagger, and the impecunious loafer +who is "just waiting for something to turn up."</p> + +<p>On the other hand, those favoring territorial government claim that it +is opposed only by the large corporations which "have been bleeding +Alaska for years."</p> + +<p>The jurisdiction of the United States commissioners in Alaska is far +greater than is that of other court commissioners. They can sit as +committing magistrates; as justices of the peace, can try civil cases +where the amount involved is one thousand dollars or less; can try +criminal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> cases and sentence to one year's imprisonment; they are +clothed with full authority as probate judges; they may act as coroners, +notaries, and recorders of precincts.</p> + +<p>The third district, presided over by Judge Reid, whose residence is at +Fairbanks, is five hundred miles wide by nine hundred miles long. It +extends from the North Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean, and from the +international boundary on the east to the Koyukuk. The chief means of +transportation within this district are steamers along the coast and on +the Yukon, and over trails by dog teams.</p> + +<p>It is small wonder that a man hesitates long before suing for his rights +in Alaska. The expense and hardship of even reaching the nearest seat of +justice are unimaginable. One man travelled nine hundred miles to reach +Rampart to attend court. The federal court issues all licenses, +franchises, and charters, and collects all occupation taxes. Every +village or mining settlement of two or three hundred men has a +commissioner, whose sway in his small sphere is as absolute as that of +Baranoff was.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + + +<p>We found only one white woman at Karluk, the wife of the manager of the +cannery, a refined and accomplished lady.</p> + +<p>Her home was in San Francisco, but she spent the summer months with her +husband at Karluk.</p> + +<p>We were taken ashore in a boat and were most hospitably received in her +comfortable home.</p> + +<p>About two o 'clock in the afternoon we boarded a barge and were towed by +a very small, but exceedingly noisy, launch up the Karluk River to the +hatcheries, which are maintained by the Alaska Packers Association.</p> + +<p>It was one of those soft, cloudy afternoons when the coloring is all in +pearl and violet tones, and the air was sweet with rain that did not +fall. The little make-believe river is very narrow, and so shallow that +we were constantly in danger of running aground. We tacked from one side +of the stream to the other, as the great steamers do on the Yukon.</p> + +<p>On this little pearly voyage, a man who accompanied us told a story +which clings to the memory.</p> + +<p>"Talk about your big world," said he. "You think it 'u'd be easy to hide +yourself up in this God-forgotten place, don't you? Just let me tell you +a story. A man come up here a few years ago and went to work. He never +did much talkin'. If you ast him a question about hisself or where he +come from, he shut up like a steel trap with a rat in it. He was a +nice-lookin' man, too, an' he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> had an education an' kind of nice clean +ways with him. He built a little cabin, an' he didn't go 'out' in +winter, like the rest of us. He stayed here at Karluk an' looked after +things.</p> + +<p>"Well, after one-two year a good-lookin' young woman come up here—an' +jiminy-cricket! He fell in love with her like greased lightnin' an' +married her in no time. I God, but that man was happy. He acted like a +plumb fool over that woman. After while they had a baby—an' then he +acted like two plumb fools in one. I ain't got any wife an' babies +myself an' I God! it ust to make me feel queer in my throat.</p> + +<p>"Well, one summer the superintendent's wife brought up a woman to keep +house for her. She was a white, sad-faced-lookin' woman, an' when she +had a little time to rest she ust to climb up on the hill an' set there +alone, watchin' the sea-gulls. I've seen her set there two hours of a +Sunday without movin'. Maybe she'd be settin' there now if I hadn't gone +and put my foot clean in it, as usual.</p> + +<p>"I got kind of sorry for her, an' you may shoot me dead for a fool, but +one day I ast her why she didn't walk around the bay an' set a spell +with the other woman.</p> + +<p>"'I don't care much for women,' she says, never changin' countenance, +but just starin' out across the bay.</p> + +<p>"'She's got a reel nice, kind husband,' says I, tryin' to work on her +feelin's.</p> + +<p>"'I don't like husbands,' says she, as short as lard pie-crust.</p> + +<p>"'She's got an awful nice little baby,' says I, for if you keep on long +enough, you can always get a woman.</p> + +<p>"She turns then an' looks at me.</p> + +<p>"'It's a girl,' says I, 'an' Lord, the way it nestles up into your neck +an' loves you!'</p> + +<p>"Her lips opened an' shut, but she didn't say a word;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> but if you'd look +'way down into a well an' see a fire burnin' in the water, it 'u'd look +like her eyes did then.</p> + +<p>"'Its father acts like a plumb fool over it an' its mother,' says I. +'The sun raises over there, an' sets over here—but <i>he</i> thinks it +raises an' sets in that woman an' baby.'</p> + +<p>"'The woman must be pretty,' says she, suddenly, an' I never heard a +woman speak so bitter.</p> + +<p>"'She is,' says I; 'she's got—'</p> + +<p>"'Don't tell me what she's got,' snaps she, gettin' up off the ground, +kind o' stiff-like. 'I've made up my mind to go see her, an' maybe I'd +back out if you told me what she's like. Maybe you'd tell me she had red +wavy hair an' blue eyes an' a baby mouth an' smiled like an angel—an' +then devils couldn't drag me to look at her.'</p> + +<p>"Say, I nearly fell dead, then, for that just described the woman; but +I'm no loon, so I just kept still.</p> + +<p>"'What's their name?' says she, as we walked along.</p> + +<p>"'Davis,' says I; an' mercy to heaven! I didn't know I was tellin' a +lie.</p> + +<p>"All of a sudden she laughed out loud—the awfullest laugh. It sounded +as harrable mo'rnful as a sea-gull just before a storm.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Husband!</i>' she flings out, jeerin'; '<i>I</i> had a husband once. I +worshipped the ground he trod on. <i>I</i> thought the sun raised an' set in +<i>him</i>. He carried me on two chips for a while, but I didn't have any +children, an' I took to worryin' over it, an' lost my looks an' my +disposition. It goes deep with some women, an' it went deep with me. Men +don't seem to understand some things. Instid of sympathizin' with me, he +took to complainin' an' findin' fault an' finally stayin' away from +home.</p> + +<p>"'There's no use talkin' about what I suffered for a year; I never told +anybody this much before—an' it wa'n't anything to what I've suffered +ever since. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> one day I stumbled on a letter he had wrote to a woman +he called Ruth. He talked about her red wavy hair an' blue eyes an' baby +mouth an' the way she smiled like an angel. They were goin' to run away +together. He told her he'd heard of a place at the end of the earth +where a man could make a lot of money, an' he'd go there an' get settled +an' then send for her, if she was willin' to live away from everybody, +just for him. He said they'd never see a human soul that knew them.'</p> + +<p>"She stopped talkin' all at once, an' we walked along. I was scared +plumb to death. I didn't know the woman's name, for he always called her +'dearie,' but the baby's name was Ruth.</p> + +<p>"'You've got to feelin' bad now,' says I, 'an' maybe we'd best not go +on.'</p> + +<p>"'I'm goin' on,' says she.</p> + +<p>"After a while she says, in a different voice, kind of hard, 'I put that +letter back an' never said a word. I wouldn't turn my hand over to keep +a man. I never saw the woman; but I know how she looks. I've gone over +it every night of my life since. I know the shape of every feature. I +never let on, to him or anybody else. It's the only thing I've thanked +God for, since I read that letter—helpin' me to keep up an' never let +on. It's the only thing I've prayed for since that day. It wa'n't very +long—about a month. He just up an' disappeared. People talked about me +awful because I didn't cry, an' take on, an' hunt him.</p> + +<p>"'I took what little money he left me an' went away. I got the notion +that he'd gone to South America, so I set out to get as far in the other +direction as possible. I got to San Francisco, an' then the chance fell +to me to come up here. It sounded like the North Pole to me, so I come. +I'm awful glad I come. Them sea-gulls is the only pleasure I've +had—since; an' it's been four year. That's all.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, sir, when we got up close to the cabin, I got to shiverin' so's I +couldn't brace up an' go in with her. It didn't seem possible it <i>could</i> +be the same man, but then, such darn queer things do happen in Alaska! +Anyhow, I'd got cold feet. I remembered that the cannery the man worked +in was shut down, so's he'd likely be at home.</p> + +<p>"'I'll go back now,' I mumbles, 'an' leave you womenfolks to get +acquainted.'</p> + +<p>"I fooled along slow, an' when I'd got nearly to the settlement I heard +her comin'. I turned an' waited—an' I God! she won't be any ash-whiter +when she's in her coffin. She was steppin' in all directions, like a +blind woman; her arms hung down stiff at her sides; her fingers were +locked around her thumbs as if they'd never loose; an' some nights, even +now, I can't sleep for thinkin' how her eyes looked. I guess if you'd +gag a dog, so's he couldn't cry, an' then cut him up <i>slow</i>, inch by +inch, his eyes 'u'd look like her'n did then. At sight of me her face +worked, an' I thought she was goin' to cry; but all at once she burst +out into the awfullest laughin' you ever heard outside of a lunatic +asylum.</p> + +<p>"'Lord God Almighty!' she cries out—'where's his mercy at, the Bible +talks about? You'd think he might have a little mercy on an ugly woman +who never had any children, wouldn't you—especially when there's women +in the world with wavy red hair an' blue eyes—women that smile like +angels an' have little baby girls! Oh, Lord, what a joke on me!'</p> + +<p>"Well, she went on laughin' till my blood turned cold, but she never +told me one word of what happened to her. She went back to California on +the first boat that went, but it was two weeks. I saw her several times; +an' at sight of me she'd burst out into that same laughin' an' cry out, +'My Lord, what a joke! Did you ever see its beat for a joke?' but she +wouldn't answer a thing I ast her. The last time I ever see her, she was +leanin' over the ship's side. She looked like a dead woman, but when she +see me she waved her hand and burst out laughin'.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_447.jpg" width="640" height="444" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle + +A Famous Team of Huskies" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +A Famous Team of Huskies</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Do you hear them sea-gulls?' she cries out. 'All they can scream is +<i>Kar</i>-luk! <i>Kar</i>-luk! <i>Kar</i>-luk! You can hear'm say it just as plain. +<i>Kar</i>-luk! I'll hear 'em when I lay in my grave! Oh, my Lord, what a +joke!'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + + +<p>Our progress up Karluk River in the barge was so leisurely that we +seemed to be "drifting upward with the flood" between the low green +shores that sloped, covered with flowers, to the water. The clouds were +a soft gray, edged with violet, and the air was very sweet.</p> + +<p>The hatchery is picturesquely situated.</p> + +<p>A tiny rivulet, called Shasta Creek, comes tumbling noisily down from +the hills, and its waters are utilized in the various "ponds."</p> + +<p>The first and highest pond they enter is called the "settling" pond, +which receives, also, in one corner, the clear, bubbling waters of a +spring, whose upflow, never ceasing, prevents this corner of the pond +from freezing. This pond is deeper than the others, and receives the +waters of the creek so lightly that the sediment is not disturbed in the +bottom, its function being to permit the sediment carried down from the +creek to settle before the waters pass on into the wooden flume, which +carries part of the overflow into the hatching-house, or on into the +lower ponds, which are used for "ripening" the salmon.</p> + +<p>There are about a dozen of these ponds, and they are terraced down the +hill with a fall of from four to six feet between them.</p> + +<p>They are rectangular in shape and walled with large stones and cement. +The walls are overgrown with grasses and mosses; and the waters pouring +musically down over them from large wooden troughs suspended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +horizontally above them, and whose bottoms are pierced by numerous +augur-holes, produce the effect of a series of gentle and lovely +waterfalls.</p> + +<p>It is essential that the fall of the water should be as light and as +soft as possible, that the fish may not be disturbed and +excited—ripening more quickly and perfectly when kept quiet.</p> + +<p>These ponds were filled with salmon. Many of them moved slowly and +placidly through the clear waters; others struggled and fought to leap +their barriers in a seemingly passionate and supreme desire to reach the +highest spawning-ground. There is to me something divine in the +desperate struggle of a salmon to reach the natural place for the +propagation of its kind—the shallow, running upper waters of the stream +it chooses to ascend. It cannot be will-power—it can be only a +God-given instinct—that enables it to leap cascades eight feet in +height to accomplish its uncontrollable desire. Notwithstanding all +commercial reasoning and all human needs, it seems to me to be inhumanly +cruel to corral so many millions of salmon every year, to confine them +during the ripening period, and to spawn them by hand.</p> + +<p>In the natural method of spawning, the female salmon seeks the upper +waters of the stream, and works out a trough in the gravelly bed by +vigorous movements of her body as she lies on one side. In this trough +her eggs are deposited and are then fertilized by the male.</p> + +<p>The eggs are then covered with gravel to a depth of several feet, such +gravel heaps being known as "redds."</p> + +<p>To one who has studied the marvellously beautiful instincts of this most +human of fishes, their desperate struggles in the ripening ponds are +pathetic in the extreme; and I was glad to observe that even the +gentlemen of our party frequently turned away with faces full of the +pity of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p> + +<p>A salmon will struggle until it is but a purple, shapeless mass; it will +fling itself upon the rocks; the over-pouring waters will bear it back +for many yards; then it will gradually recover itself and come plunging +and fighting back to fling itself once more upon the same rocks. Each +time that it is washed away it is weaker, more bruised and discolored. +Battered, bleeding, with fins broken off and eyes beaten out, it still +returns again and again, leaping and flinging itself frenziedly upon the +stone walls.</p> + +<p>Its very rush through the water is pathetic, as one remembers it; it is +accompanied by a loud swish and the waters fly out in foam; but its +movements are so swift that only a line of silver—or, alas! frequently +one of purple—is visible through the beaded foam.</p> + +<p>Some discoloration takes place naturally when the fish has been in fresh +water for some time; but much of it is due to bruising. A salmon newly +arrived from the sea is called a "clean" salmon, because of its bright +and sparkling appearance and excellent condition.</p> + +<p>There is a tramway two or three hundred yards in length, along which one +may walk and view the various ponds. It is used chiefly to convey +stock-fish from the corrals to the upper ripening-ponds.</p> + +<p>When ripe fish are to be taken from a pond, the water is lowered to a +depth of about a foot and a half; a kind of slatting is then put into +the water at one end and slidden gently under the fish, which are +examined—the "ripe" ones being placed in a floating car and the "green" +ones freed in the pond. A stripping platform attends every pond, and +upon this the spawning takes place.</p> + +<p>The young fish, from one to two years old, before it has gone to sea, is +called by a dozen different names, chief of which are parr and +salmon-fry. At the end of ten weeks after hatching, the fry are fed +tinned salmon flesh,—"do-overs"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> furnished by the canneries,—which is +thoroughly desiccated and put through a sausage-machine.</p> + +<p>When the fry are three or four months old, they are "planted." After +being freed they work their way gradually down to salt-water, which +pushes up into the lagoon, and finally out into the bay. They return +frequently to fresh water and for at least a year work in and out with +the tides.</p> + +<p>The majority of fry cling to the fresh-water vicinity for two years +after hatching, at which time they are about eight inches long. The +second spring after hatching they sprout out suddenly in bright and +glistening scales, which conceal the dark markings along their sides +which are known as parr-marks. They are then called "smolt," and are as +adult salmon in all respects save size.</p> + +<p>In all rivers smolts pass down to the sea between March and June, +weighing only a few ounces. The same fall they return as "grilse," +weighing from three to five pounds.</p> + +<p>After their first spawning, they return during the winter to the sea; +and in the following year reascend the river as adult salmon. Males +mature sexually earlier than females.</p> + +<p>The time of year when salmon ascend from the sea varies greatly in +different rivers, and salmon rivers are denominated as "early" or +"late."</p> + +<p>The hatchery at Karluk is a model one, and is highly commended by +government experts. It was established in the spring of 1896, and +stripping was done in August of the same year. The cost of the present +plant has been about forty thousand dollars, and its annual expenditure +for maintenance, labor, and improvements, from ten to twenty thousand. +There is a superintendent and a permanent force of six or eight men, +including a cook, with additional help from the canneries when it is +required.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are many buildings connected with the hatchery, and all are kept +in perfect order. The first season, it is estimated that two millions of +salmon-fry were liberated, with a gradual increase until the present +time, when forty millions are turned out in a single season.</p> + +<p>The superintendent was taken completely by surprise by our visit, but +received us very hospitably and conducted us through all departments +with courteous explanations. The shining, white cleanliness and order +everywhere manifest would make a German housewife green of envy.</p> + +<p>At this point Karluk River widens into a lagoon, in which the corrals +are wired and netted off somewhat after the fashion of fish-traps, +covering an area of about three acres.</p> + +<p>Fish for the hatcheries are called "stock-fish." They are secured by +seiners in the lagoon opposite the hatcheries, and are then transferred +to the corrals. As soon as a salmon has the appearance of ripening, it +is removed by the use of seines to the ripening-ponds.</p> + +<p>In the hatching-house are more than sixty troughs, fourteen feet in +length, sixteen inches in width, and seven inches in depth. The wood of +which they are composed is surfaced redwood. The joints are coated with +asphaltum tar, with cotton wadding used as calking material. When the +trough is completed, it is given one coat of refined tar and two of +asphaltum varnish.</p> + +<p>In the Karluk hatchery the troughs never leak, owing to this superior +construction; and it is said that the importance of this advantage +cannot be overestimated.</p> + +<p>Leaks make it impossible for the employees to estimate the amount of +water in the troughs; repairs startle the young fry and damage the eggs; +and the damp floors cause illness among the employees. The Karluk +hatchery is noted for its dryness and cleanliness.</p> + +<p>The setting of the hatchery is charming. The hills,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> treeless, pale +green, and velvety, slope gently to the river and the lagoon. Now and +then a slight ravine is filled with a shrubby growth of a lighter green. +Flowers flame everywhere, and tiny rivulets come singing down to the +larger stream.</p> + +<p>The greenness of the hills continues around the bay, broken off abruptly +on Karluk Head, where the soft, veined gray of the stone cliff blends +with the green.</p> + +<p>The bay opens out into the wide, bold, purple sweep of Shelikoff Strait.</p> + +<p>Every body of water has its character—some feature that is peculiarly +its own, which impresses itself upon the beholder. The chief +characteristic of Shelikoff Strait is its boldness. There is something +dauntless, daring, and impassioned in its wide and splendid sweep to the +chaste line of snow peaks of the Aleutian Range on the Aliaska +Peninsula. It seems to hold a challenge.</p> + +<p>I should like to live alone, or almost alone, high on storm-swept Karluk +Head, fronting that magnificent scene that can never be twice quite the +same. What work one might do there—away from little irritating cares! +No neighbors to "drop in" with bits of delicious gossip; no theatres in +which to waste the splendid nights; no bridge-luncheons to +tempt,—nothing but sunlight glittering down on the pale green hills; +the golden atmosphere above the little bay filled with tremulous, winged +snow; and miles and miles and miles of purple sea.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + + +<p>"What kind of place is Uyak?" I asked a deck-hand who was a native of +Sweden, as we stood out in the bow of the <i>Dora</i> one day.</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at me and grinned.</p> + +<p>"It ees a hal of a blace," he replied, promptly and frankly. "It ees +yoost dat t'ing. You vill see."</p> + +<p>And I did see. I should, in fact, like to take this frank-spoken +gentleman along with me wherever I go, solely to answer people who ask +me what kind of place Uyak is—his opinion so perfectly coincides with +my own.</p> + +<p>There were canneries at Uyak, and mosquitoes, and things to be smelled; +but if there be anything there worth seeing, they must first kill the +mosquitoes, else it will never be seen.</p> + +<p>The air was black with these pests, and the instant we stepped upon the +wharf we were black with them, too. Every passenger resembled a windmill +in action, as he raced down the wharf toward the cannery, hoping to find +relief there; and as he went his nostrils were assailed by an odor that +is surpassed in only one place on earth—<i>Belkoffski!</i>—and it comes +later.</p> + +<p>The hope of relief in the canneries proved to be a vain one. The +unfortunate Chinamen and natives were covered with mosquitoes as they +worked; their faces and arms were swollen; their eyes were fierce with +suffering. They did not laugh at our frantic attempts to rid ourselves +of the winged pests—as we laughed at one another. There was nothing +funny in the situation to those poor wretches.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> It was a tragedy. They +stared at us with desperate eyes which asked:—</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go away if you are suffering? You are free to leave. What +have you to complain of? <i>We</i> must stay."</p> + +<p>We went out and tried to walk a little way along the hill; but the +mosquitoes mounted in clouds from the wild-rose thickets. At the end of +fifteen minutes we fled back to the steamer and locked ourselves in our +staterooms. There we sat down and nursed our grievances with camphor and +alcohol.</p> + +<p>We sailed up Uyak Bay to the mine of the Kodiak Gold Mining Company. +This is a free milling mine and had been a developing property for four +years. It was then installing a ten-stamp mill, and had twenty thousand +tons of ore blocked out, the ore averaging from fifteen to twenty +dollars a ton.</p> + +<p>This mine is located on the northern side of Kadiak Island, and has good +water power and excellent shipping facilities. Fifty thousand dollars +were taken out of the beaches in the vicinity in 1904 by placer mining.</p> + +<p>Here, in this lovely, lonely bay, one of the most charming women I ever +met spends her summers. She is the wife of one of the owners of the +mine, and her home is in San Francisco. She finds the summers ideal, and +longs for the novelty of a winter at the mine. She has a canoe and +spends most of her time on the water. There are no mosquitoes at the +mine; the summers are never uncomfortably hot, and it is seldom, indeed, +that the mercury falls to zero in the winter.</p> + +<p>From Kadiak Island we crossed Shelikoff Straits to Cold Bay, on the +Aliaska Peninsula, which we reached at midnight, and which is the only +port that could not tempt us ashore. When our dear, dark-eyed Japanese, +"Charlie," played a gentle air upon our cabin door with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> his fingers and +murmured apologetically, "Cold Bay," we heard the rain pouring down our +windows in sheets, and we ungratefully replied, "Go away, Charlie, and +leave us alone."</p> + +<p>No rope-ladders and dory landings for us on such a night, at a place +with such a name.</p> + +<p>The following day was clear, however, and we sailed all day along the +peninsula. To the south of us lay the Tugidak, Trinity, Chirikoff, and +Semidi islands.</p> + +<p>At six in the evening we landed at Chignik, another uninteresting +cannery place. From Chignik on "to Westward" the resemblance of the +natives to the Japanese became more remarkable. As they stood side by +side on the wharves, it was almost impossible to distinguish one from +the other. The slight figures, brown skin, softly bright, dark eyes, +narrowing at the corners, and amiable expression made the resemblance +almost startling.</p> + +<p>At Chignik we had an amusing illustration, however, of the ease with +which even a white man may grow to resemble a native.</p> + +<p>The mail agent on the <i>Dora</i> was a great admirer of his knowledge of +natives and native customs and language. <i>Cham-mi</i> is a favorite +salutation with them. Approaching a man who was sitting on a barrel, and +who certainly resembled a native in color and dress, the agent +pleasantly exclaimed, "<i>Cham-mi.</i>"</p> + +<p>There was no response; the man did not lift his head; a slouch hat +partially concealed his face.</p> + +<p>"<i>Cham-mi!</i>" repeated the agent, advancing a step nearer.</p> + +<p>There was still no response, no movement of recognition.</p> + +<p>The mail agent grew red.</p> + +<p>"He must be deaf as a post," said he. He slapped the man on the shoulder +and, stooping, fairly shouted in his ear, "<i>Cham-mi</i>, old man!"</p> + +<p>Then the man lifted his head and brought to view the unmistakable +features of a Norwegian.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p> + +<p>"T'hal with you," said he, briefly. "I'm no tamn Eskimo."</p> + +<p>The mail agent looked as though the wharf had gone out from under his +feet; and never again did we hear him give the native salutation to any +one. The Norwegian had been living for a year among the natives; and by +the twinkle in his eye as he again lowered his head it was apparent that +he appreciated the joke.</p> + +<p>At the entrance to Chignik Bay stands Castle Cape, or Tuliiumnit Point. +From the southeastern side it really resembles a castle, with turrets, +towers, and domes. It is an immense, stony pile jutting boldly out into +the sea, whose sparkling blue waves, pearled with foam, break loudly +upon its base. In color it is soft gray, richly and evenly streaked with +rose. Sea birds circled, screaming, over it and around it. Castle Cape +might be the twin sister of "Calico Bluff" on the Yukon.</p> + +<p>Popoff and Unga are the principal islands of the Shumagin group, on one +of which Behring landed and buried a sailor named Shumagin. They are the +centre of famous cod-fishing grounds which extend westward and northward +to the Arctic Ocean, eastward to Cook Inlet, and southeastward to the +Straits of Juan de Fuca.</p> + +<p>There are several settlements on the Island of Unga—Coal Harbor, Sandy +Point, Apollo, and Unga. The latter is a pretty village situated on a +curving agate beach. It is of some importance as a trading post.</p> + +<p>Finding no one to admit us to the Russo-Greek church, we admitted +ourselves easily with our stateroom key; but the tawdry cheapness of the +interior scarcely repaid us for the visit. The graveyard surrounding the +church was more interesting.</p> + +<p>There is no wharf at Unga, but there is one at Apollo, about three miles +farther up the bay. We were taken up to Apollo in a sail-boat, and it +proved to be an exciting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> sail. It is not sailing unless the rail is +awash; but it seemed as though the entire boat were awash that June +afternoon in the Bay of Unga. Scarcely had we left the ship when we were +struck by a succession of squalls which lasted until our boat reeled, +hissing, up to the wharf at Apollo.</p> + +<p>Water poured over us in sheets, drenching us. We could not stay on the +seats, as the bottom of the boat stood up in the air almost +perpendicularly. We therefore stood up with it, our feet on the lower +rail with the sea flowing over them, and our shoulders pressed against +the gunwale. Had it not been for the broad shoulders of two Englishmen, +our boat would surely have gone over.</p> + +<p>It all came upon us so suddenly that we had no time to be frightened, +and, with all the danger, it was glorious. No whale—no "right" whale, +even—could be prouder than we were of the wild splashing and spouting +that attended our tipsy race up Unga Bay.</p> + +<p>The wharf floated dizzily above us, and we were compelled to climb a +high perpendicular ladder to reach it. No woman who minds climbing +should go to Alaska. She is called upon at a moment's notice to climb +everything, from rope-ladders and perpendicular ladders to volcanoes. A +mile's walk up a tramway brought us to the Apollo.</p> + +<p>This is a well-known mine, which has been what is called a "paying +proposition" for many years. At the time of our visit it was worked out +in its main lode, and the owners had been seeking desperately for a new +one. It was discovered the following year, and the Apollo is once more a +rich producer.</p> + +<p>In a large and commodious house two of the owners of the mine lived, +their wives being with them for the summer. They were gay and charming +women, fond of society, and pining for the fleshpots of San Francisco. +The white women living between Kodiak and Dutch Harbor are so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> few that +they may be counted on one hand, and the luxurious furnishings of their +homes in these out-of-the-way places are almost startling in their +unexpectedness. We spent the afternoon at the mine, and the ladies +returned to the <i>Dora</i> with us for dinner. The squalls had taken +themselves off, and we had a prosaic return in the mine's launch.</p> + +<p>"What do we do?" said one of the ladies, in reply to my question. "Oh, +we read, walk, write letters, go out on the water, play cards, sew, and +do so much fancy work that when we get back to San Francisco we have +nothing to do but enjoy ourselves and brag about the good time we have +in Alaska. We are all packed now to go camping—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Camping!</i>" I repeated, too astonished to be polite.</p> + +<p>"Yes, camping," replied she, coloring, and speaking somewhat coldly. "We +go in the launch to the most beautiful beach about ten miles from Unga. +We stay a month. It is a sheltered beach of white sand. The waves lap on +it all day long, blue, sparkling, and warm, and we almost live in them. +The hills above the beach are simply covered with the big blueberries +that grow only in Alaska. They are somewhat like the black mountain +huckleberry, only more delicious. We can them, preserve them, and dry +them, and take them back to San Francisco with us. They are the best +things I ever ate—with thick cream on them. I had some in the house; I +wish I had thought to offer you some."</p> + +<p>She wished she had thought to offer me some!</p> + +<p>On the <i>Dora</i> we were rapidly getting down to bacon and fish,—being +about two thousand miles from Seattle, with no ice aboard in this land +of ice,—and I am not enthusiastic about either.</p> + +<p>And she wished that she had thought to offer me some Alaskan blueberries +that are more delicious than mountain huckleberries, and thick cream!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + + +<p>I have heard of steamers that have been built and sent out by missionary +or church societies to do good in far and lonely places.</p> + +<p>The little <i>Dora</i> is not one of these, nor is religion her cargo; her +hold is filled with other things. Yet blessings be on her for the good +she does! Her mission is to carry mail, food, freight, and good cheer to +the people of these green islands that go drifting out to Siberia, one +by one. She is the one link that connects them with the great world +outside; through her they obtain their sole touch of society, of which +their appreciation is pitiful.</p> + +<p>Our captain was a big, violet-eyed Norwegian, about forty years old. He +showed a kindness, a courtesy, and a patience to those lonely people +that endeared him to us.</p> + +<p>He knew them all by name and greeted them cordially as they stood, +smiling and eager, on the wharves. All kinds of commissions had been +intrusted to him on his last monthly trip. To one he brought a hat; to +another a phonograph; to another a box of fruit; dogs, cats, chairs, +flowers, books—there seemed to be nothing that he had not personally +selected for the people at the various ports. Even a little +seven-year-old half-breed girl had travelled in his care from Valdez to +join her father on one of the islands.</p> + +<p>Wherever there was a woman, native or half-breed, he took us ashore to +make her acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"Come along now," he would say, in a tone of command,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> "and be nice. +They don't get a chance to talk to many women. Haven't you got some +little womanly thing along with you that you can give them? It'll make +them happy for months."</p> + +<p>We were eager enough to talk to them, heaven knows, and to give them +what we could; but the "little womanly things" that we could spare on a +two months' voyage in Alaska were distressingly few. When we had nothing +more that we could give, the stern disapproval in the captain's eyes +went to our hearts. Box after box of bonbons, figs, salted almonds, +preserved ginger, oranges, apples, ribbons, belts, pretty bags—one +after one they went, until, like Olive Schreiner's woman, I felt that I +had given up everything save the one green leaf in my bosom; and that +the time would come when the captain would command me to give that up, +too.</p> + +<p>There seems to be something in those great lonely spaces that moves the +people to kindness, to patience and consideration—to tenderness, even. +I never before came close to such <i>humanness</i>. It shone out of people in +whom one would least expect to find it.</p> + +<p>Several times while we were at dinner the chief steward, a gay and +handsome youth not more than twenty-one years old, rushed through the +dining room, crying:—</p> + +<p>"Give me your old magazines—<i>quick</i>! There's a whaler's boat +alongside."</p> + +<p>A stampede to our cabins would follow, and a hasty upgathering of such +literature as we could lay our hands upon.</p> + +<p>The whaling and cod-fishing schooners cruise these waters for months +without a word from the outside until they come close enough to a +steamer to send out a boat. The crew of the steamer, discovering the +approach of this boat, gather up everything they can throw into it as it +flashes for a moment alongside. Frequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> the occupants of the boat +throw fresh cod aboard, and then there are smiling faces at dinner. It +is my opinion, however, that any one who would smile at cod would smile +at anything.</p> + +<p>The most marvellous voyage ever made in the beautiful and not always +peaceful Pacific Ocean was the one upon which the <i>Dora</i> started at an +instant's notice, and by no will of her master's, on the first day of +January, 1906. Blown from the coast down into the Pacific in a freezing +storm, she became disabled and drifted helplessly for more than two +months.</p> + +<p>During that time the weather was the worst ever known by seafaring men +on the coast. The steamship <i>Santa Ana</i> and the United States steamship +<i>Rush</i> were sent in search of the <i>Dora</i>, and when both had returned +without tidings, hope for her safety was abandoned.</p> + +<p>Eighty-one days from the time she had sailed from Valdez, she crawled +into the harbor of Seattle, two thousand miles off her course. She +carried a crew of seven men and three or four passengers, one of whom +was a young Aleutian lad of Unalaska. As the <i>Dora</i> was on her outward +trip when blown to sea, she was well stocked with provisions which she +was carrying to the islanders; but there was no fuel and but a scant +supply of water aboard.</p> + +<p>The physical and mental sufferings of all were ferocious; and it was but +a feeble cheer that arose from the little shipwrecked band when the +<i>Dora</i> at last crept up beside the Seattle pier. For two months they had +expected each day to be their last, and their joy was now too deep for +expression.</p> + +<p>The welcome they received when they returned to their regular run among +the Aleutian Islands is still described by the settlers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_464.jpg" width="640" height="417" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle + +Cloud Effect on the Yukon" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Cloud Effect on the Yukon</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p> + +<p>The <i>Dora</i> reached Kodiak late on a boisterous night; but her whistle +was heard, and the whole town was on the wharf when she docked, to +welcome the crew and to congratulate them on their safety. Some greeted +their old friends hilariously, and others simply pressed their hands in +emotion too deep for expression.</p> + +<p>So completely are the people of the smaller places on the route cut off +from the world, save for the monthly visits of the <i>Dora</i>, that they had +not heard of her safety. When, after supposing her to be lost for two +months, they beheld her steaming into their harbors, the superstitious +believed her to be a spectre-ship.</p> + +<p>The greatest demonstration was at Unalaska. A schooner had brought the +news of her safety to Dutch Harbor; from there a messenger was +despatched to Unalaska, two miles away, to carry the glad tidings to the +father of the little lad aboard the <i>Dora</i>.</p> + +<p>The news flashed wildly through the town. People in bed, or sitting by +their firesides, were startled by the flinging open of their door and +the shouting of a voice from the darkness outside:—</p> + +<p>"The <i>Dora's</i> safe!"—but before they could reach the door, messenger +and voice would be gone—fleeing on through the town.</p> + +<p>At last he reached the Jessie Lee Missionary Home, at the end of the +street, where a prayer-meeting was in progress. Undaunted, he flung wide +the door, burst into the room, shouting, "The <i>Dora's</i> safe!"—and was +gone. Instantly the meeting broke up, people sprang to their feet, and +prayer gave place to a glad thanksgiving service.</p> + +<p>When the <i>Dora</i> finally reached Unalaska once more, the whole town was +in holiday garb. Flags were flying, and every one that could walk was on +the wharf. Children, native and white, carried flags which they joyfully +waved. Their welcome was enthusiastic and sincere, and the men on the +boat were deeply affected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p> + +<p>The <i>Dora</i> is not a fine steamship, but she is stanch, seaworthy, and +comfortable; and the islanders are as attached to her as though she were +a thing of flesh and blood.</p> + +<p>No steamer could have a twelve-hundred-mile route more fascinating than +the one from Valdez to Unalaska. It is intensely lovely. Behind the gray +cliffs of the peninsula float the snow-peaks of the Aleutian Range. Here +and there a volcano winds its own dark, fleecy turban round its crest, +or flings out a scarlet scarf of flame. There are glaciers sweeping +everything before them; bold headlands plunging out into the sea, where +they pause with a sheer drop of thousands of feet; and flowery vales and +dells. There are countless islands—some of them mere bits of green +floating upon the blue.</p> + +<p>At times a kind of divine blueness seems to swim over everything. +Wherever one turns, the eye is rested and charmed with blue. Sea, shore, +islands, atmosphere, and sky—all are blue. A mist of it rests upon the +snow mountains and goes drifting down the straits. It is a warm, +delicate, luscious blue. It is like the blue of frost-touched grapes +when the prisoned wine shines through.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Sand Point, a trading post on Unga Island, is a wild and picturesque +place. It impressed me chiefly, however, by the enormous size of its +crabs and starfishes, which I saw in great numbers under the wharf. +Rocks, timbers, and boards were incrusted with rosy-purple starfishes, +some measuring three feet from the tip of one ray to the tip of the ray +nearly opposite. Smaller ones were wedged in between the rays of the +larger ones, so that frequently a piling from the wharf to the sandy +bottom of the bay, which we could plainly see, would seem to be solid +starfish.</p> + +<p>As for the crabs—they were so large that they were positively +startling. They were three and four feet from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> tip to tip; yet their +movements, as they floated in the clear green water, were exceedingly +graceful.</p> + +<p>Sand Point has a wild, weird, and lonely look. It is just the place for +the desperate murder that was committed in the house that stands alone +across the bay,—a dull and neglected house with open windows and +banging doors.</p> + +<p>"Does no one live there?" I asked the storekeeper's wife.</p> + +<p>"Live there!" she repeated with a quick shudder. "No one could be hired +at any price to live there."</p> + +<p>The murdered man had purchased a young Aleutian girl, twelve years old, +for ten dollars and some tobacco. When she grew older, he lived with her +and called her his wife. He abused her shamefully. A Russian half-breed +named Gerassenoff—the name fits the story—fell in love with the girl, +loved her to desperation, and tried to persuade her to run away with +him.</p> + +<p>She dared not, for fear of the brutal white wretch who owned her, body +and soul. Gerassenoff, seeing the cruelties and abuse to which she was +daily subjected, brooded upon his troubles until he became partially +insane. He entered the house when the man was asleep and murdered +him—foully, horribly, cold-bloodedly.</p> + +<p>Gerassenoff is now serving a life-sentence in the government +penitentiary on McNeil's Island; the man he murdered lies in an unmarked +grave; the girl—for the story has its touch of awful humor!—the girl +married another man within a twelvemonth.</p> + +<p>There is a persistent invitation at Sand Point to the swimmer. The +temptation to sink down, down, through those translucent depths, and +then to rise and float lazily with the jelly-fishes, is almost +irresistible. There is a seductive, languorous charm in the slow curve +of the waves, as though they reached soft arms and wet lips to caress. +There are more beautiful waters along the Alaskan coast, but none in +which the very spirit of the swimmer seems so surely to dwell.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> + + +<p>Belkoffski! There was something in the name that attracted my attention +the first time I heard it; and my interest increased with each mile that +brought it nearer. It is situated on the green and sloping shores of +Pavloff Bay, which rise gradually to hills of considerable height. +Behind it smokes the active volcano, Mount Pavloff, with whose ashes the +hills are in places gray, and whose fires frequently light the night +with scarlet beauty.</p> + +<p>The <i>Dora</i> anchored more than a mile from shore, and when the boat was +lowered we joyfully made ready to descend. We were surprised that no one +would go ashore with us. Important duties claimed the attention of +officers and passengers; yet they seemed interested in our preparations.</p> + +<p>"Won't you come ashore with us?" we asked.</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you," they all replied, as one.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever been ashore here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, thank you."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it interesting, then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, very interesting, indeed."</p> + +<p>"There is something in their manner that I do not like," I whispered to +my companion. "What do you suppose is the matter with Belkoffski."</p> + +<p>"Smallpox, perhaps," she whispered back.</p> + +<p>"I don't care; I'm going."</p> + +<p>"So am I."</p> + +<p>"What kind of place is Belkoffski?" I asked one of the sailors who rowed +us ashore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p> + +<p>He grinned until it seemed that he would never again be able to get his +mouth shut.</p> + +<p>"Jou vill see vot kind oof a blace it ees," he replied luminously.</p> + +<p>"Is it not a nice place, then?"</p> + +<p>"Jou vill see."</p> + +<p>We did see.</p> + +<p>The tide was so low and the shore so rocky that we could not get within +a hundred yards of any land. A sailor named "Nelse" volunteered to carry +us on his back; and as nothing better presented itself for our +consideration, we promptly and joyfully went pick-a-back.</p> + +<p>This was my most painful experience in Alaska. My father used to make +stirrups of his hands; but as Nelse did not offer, diffidence kept me +from requesting this added gallantry of him. It was well that I went +first; for after viewing my friend's progress shoreward, had I not +already been upon the beach, I should never have landed at Belkoffski.</p> + +<p>For many years Belkoffski was the centre of the sea-otter trade. This +small animal, which has the most valuable fur in the world, was found +only along the rock shores of the Aliaska Peninsula and the Aleutian +Islands. The Shumagins and Sannak islands were the richest grounds. +Sea-otter, furnishing the court fur of both Russia and China, were in +such demand that they have been almost entirely exterminated—as the +fur-bearing seal will soon be.</p> + +<p>The fur of the sea-otter is extremely beautiful. It is thick and +velvety, its rich brown under-fur being remarkable. The general color is +a frosted, or silvery, purplish brown.</p> + +<p>The sea-otter frequented the stormiest and most dangerous shores, where +they were found lying on the rocks, or sometimes floating, asleep, upon +fronds of an immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> kelp which was called "sea-otter's cabbage." The +hunters would patiently lie in hiding for days, awaiting a favorable +opportunity to surround their game.</p> + +<p>They were killed at first by ivory spears, which were deftly cast by +natives. In later years they were captured in nets, clubbed brutally, or +shot. They were excessively shy, and the difficulty and danger of +securing them increased as their slaughter became more pitiless. Only +natives were allowed to kill otter until 1878, when white men married to +native women were permitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to consider +themselves, and to be considered, natives, so far as hunting privileges +were concerned.</p> + +<p>The rarest and most valuable of otter are the deep-sea otter, which +never go ashore, as do the "rock-hobbers," unless driven there by +unusual storms. "Silver-tips"—deep-sea otter having a silvery tinge on +the tips of the fur—bring the most fabulous prices.</p> + +<p>The hunting of these scarce and precious animals calls for greater +bravery, hardship, perilous hazard, and actual suffering than does the +chase of any other fur-bearing animal. Pitiful, shameful, and loathsome +though the slaughter of seals be, it is not attended by the exposure and +the hourly peril which the otter hunter unflinchingly faces.</p> + +<p>Sea-otter swim and sleep upon their backs, with their paws held over +their eyes, like sleepy puppies, their bodies barely visible and their +hind flippers sticking up out of the water.</p> + +<p>The young are born sometimes at sea, but usually on kelp-beds; and the +mother swims, sleeps, and even suckles her young stretched at full +length in the water upon her back. She carries her offspring upon her +breast, held in her forearms, and has many humanly maternal ways with +it,—fondling it, tossing it into the air and catching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> it, and even +lulling it to sleep with a kind of purring lullaby.</p> + +<p>Both the male and female are fond of their young, caring for it with +every appearance of tenderness. In making difficult landings, the male +"hauls out" first and catches the young, which the mother tosses to him. +Sometimes, when a baby is left alone for a few minutes, it is attacked +by some water enemy and killed or turned over, when it invariably +drowns. The mother, returning and finding it floating, dead, takes it in +her arms and makes every attempt possible to bring it to life. Failing, +she utters a wild cry of almost human grief and slides down into the +sea, leaving it.</p> + +<p>The otter hunters used to go out to sea in their bidarkas, with bows, +arrows, and harpoons; several would go together, keeping two or three +hundred yards apart and proceeding noiselessly. When one discovered an +otter, he would hold his paddle straight up in the air, uttering a loud +shout. Then all would paddle cautiously about, keeping a close watch for +the otter, which cannot remain under water longer than fifteen or twenty +minutes. When it came up, the native nearest its breathing place yelled +and held up his paddle, startling it under the water again so suddenly +that it could not draw a fair breath. In this manner they forced the +poor thing to dive again and again, until it was exhausted and floated +helplessly upon the water, when it was easily killed. Frequently two or +three hours were required to tire an otter.</p> + +<p>This picturesque method of hunting has given place to shooting and +clubbing the otter to death as he lies asleep on the rocks. As they come +ashore during the fiercest weather, the hunter must brave the most +violent storms and perilous surfs to reach the otter's retreat in his +frail, but beautiful, bidarka. With his gut kamelinka—thin and yellow +as the "gold-beater's leaf"—tied tightly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> around his face, wrists, and +the "man-hole" in which he sits or kneels, his bidarka may turn over and +over in the sea without drowning him or shipping a drop of water—on his +lucky days. But the unlucky day comes; an accident occurs; and a +dark-eyed woman watches and waits on the green slopes of Belkoffski for +the bidarka that does not come.</p> + +<p>There were only women and children in the village of Belkoffski that +June day. The men—with the exception of two or three old ones, who are +always left, probably as male chaperons, at the village—were away, +hunting.</p> + +<p>The beach was alive, and very noisy, with little brown lads, half-bare, +bright-eyed, and with faces that revealed much intelligence, kindness, +and humor.</p> + +<p>They clung to us, begging for pennies, which, to our very real regret, +we had not thought to take with us. Candy did not go far, and dimes, +even if we had been provided with them, would have too rapidly run into +dollars.</p> + +<p>Long-stemmed violets and dozens of other varieties of wild flowers +covered the slopes. One little creek flowed down to the sea between +banks that were of the solid blue of violets.</p> + +<p>But the village itself! With one of the prettiest natural locations in +Alaska; with singing rills and flowery slopes and a volcano burning +splendidly behind it; with little clean-looking brown lads playing upon +its sands, a Greek-Russian church in its centre, and a resident priest +who ought to know that cleanliness is next to godliness—with all these +blessings, if blessings they all be, Belkoffski is surely the most +unclean place on this fair earth.</p> + +<p>The filth, ignorance, and apparent degradation of these villagers were +revolting in the extreme. Nauseous odors assailed us. They came out of +the doors and windows; they swam out of barns and empty sheds; they +oozed up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> out of the earth; they seemed, even, to sink upon us out of +the blue sky. The sweetness and the freshness of green grass and blowing +flowers, of dews and mists, of mountain and sea scented winds, are not +sufficient to cleanse Belkoffski—the Caliban among towns.</p> + +<p>An educated half-breed Aleutian woman, married to a white man, +accompanied us ashore. She was on her way to Unalaska, and had been +eager to land at Belkoffski, where she was born.</p> + +<p>Her father had been a priest of the Greek-Russian church and her mother +a native woman. She had told us much of the kind-heartedness and +generosity of the villagers. Her heart was full of love and gratitude to +them for their tenderness to her when her father, of blessed memory, had +died.</p> + +<p>"I have never had such friends since," she said. "They would do anything +on earth for those in trouble, and give their own daily food, if +necessary. I have never seen anything like it since. Education doesn't +put <i>that</i> into our hearts. Such sympathy, such tenderness, such +understanding of grief and trouble!—and the kind of help that helps +most."</p> + +<p>If this be the real nature of these people, only the right influence is +needed to lift them from their degradation. The larger children—the +brown-limbed, joyous children down on the beach—looked clean, probably +from spending much time in the healing sea.</p> + +<p>The people of the islands do not travel much, and our fellow-voyager had +not been to Belkoffski since she was a little girl. For many years she +had been living among white people, with all the comforts and +cleanliness of a white woman. I watched her narrowly as we went from +house to house, looking for baskets.</p> + +<p>We had told her we desired baskets, and she had offered to find some for +us. After we saw the houses and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> women, we would have touched a +leper as readily as we would have touched one of the baskets that were +brought out for our inspection; but politeness kept us from admitting to +her our feeling.</p> + +<p>As for her own courtesy and restraint, I have never seen them surpassed +by any one. Shock upon shock must have been hers as we passed through +that village of her childhood and affection. She went into those noisome +hovels without the faintest hesitation; she breathed their atmosphere +without complaint; she embraced the women without shrinking.</p> + +<p>She knew perfectly why we did not buy the baskets; but she received our +excuses with every appearance of believing them to be sincere, and she +offered us others with utmost dignity and with the manner of serving us, +strangers, in a strange land.</p> + +<p>If her delicacy was outraged by the scenes she witnessed, there was not +the faintest trace of it visible in her manner. She made no excuses for +the people, nor for their manner of living, nor for the village. +Belkoffski had been her childhood's home, her father's field; its people +had befriended her and had given her love and tenderness when she was in +need; therefore, both were sacred and beyond criticism.</p> + +<p>When we returned to the ship, she could not have failed to hear the +jests and frank opinions of Belkoffski which were freely expressed among +the passengers; but her grave, dark face gave no sign that she +disapproved, or even that she heard.</p> + +<p>A government cutter should be sent to Belkoffski with orders to clean it +up, and to burn such portions as are past cleansing. So far as the +Russian priest and the people in his charge are concerned, they would be +benefited by less religion and more cleanliness.</p> + +<p>Dr. Hutton, an army surgeon stationed at Fort Seward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> on Lynn Canal, and +Judge Gunnison, of Juneau, have recently made an appeal to President +Roosevelt for relief for diseased and suffering Indians of Alaska.</p> + +<p>Tuberculosis and trachoma prevail among the many tribes and are +increasing at an alarming rate, owing to the utter lack of sanitation in +the villages. Alaskans travelling in the territory are thrown in +constant contact with the Indians. They are encountered on steamers and +trains, in stores and hotels. Owing to the pure air and the general +healthfulness of the northern climate, Alaskans feel no real alarm over +the conditions prevailing as yet; but all feel that the time has arrived +when the Indians should be cared for.</p> + +<p>Everything purchased of an Indian should be at once +fumigated—especially furs, blankets, baskets, and every article that +has been handled by him or housed in one of his vile shacks.</p> + +<p>The United States Grand Jury recently recommended that medical men be +sent by the government to attend the disease-stricken creatures, and +that a system of inspection and education along sanitary lines—with +special stress laid upon domestic sanitation—should be established.</p> + +<p>This system should be extended to the last island of the Aleutian Chain, +and in the interior down the Yukon to Nome. The fur trade and the +canneries depend largely upon the labor of Indians. The former industry +could scarcely be made successful without them. The Indians are rapidly +becoming a "vanishing race" in the North, as elsewhere. For the vices +that are to-day responsible for their unfortunate condition they are +indebted to the white men who have kept them supplied with cheap whiskey +ever since the advent of the first American traders who taught them, +soon after the purchase of Alaska by the United States, to make +"hootchenoo" of molasses, flour, dried apples, or rice, and hops. This +highly intoxicating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> and degrading liquor was known also as +molasses-rum. During the latter part of the seventies, six thousand five +hundred and twenty-four gallons of molasses were delivered at Sitka and +Wrangell.</p> + +<p>The loss of their help, however, is not so serious—being merely a +commercial loss—as the danger to civilized people by coming in contact +with these dreaded diseases. An Indian in Alaska whose eyes are not +diseased is an exception, while the ravages of consumption are very +frequently visible to the most careless observer. Both diseases are +aggravated by such conditions as those existing at Belkoffski. A +physician should be stationed there for a few years at least, to teach +these poor, kind-hearted people what the Russian priest has not taught +them—the science of sanitation.</p> + +<p>Bishop Rowe reports that if there were no missionaries to protect the +Eskimo and Indians from unscrupulous white whiskey-traders, they would +survive but a short time. When they can obtain cheap liquors they go on +prolonged and licentious debauches, and are unable to provide for their +actual physical needs for the long, hard winter. Their condition then +becomes pitiable, and many die of hunger and privation. Prosecutions are +made entirely by missionaries. One Episcopal missionary post is +conducted by two young women, one of whom was formerly a society woman +of Los Angeles. The post is more than a thousand miles from Fairbanks, +the nearest city, and one hundred and twenty-five miles from the nearest +white settler. It is owing to the reports and the prosecutions of +missionaries in all parts of Alaska that the outrages formerly practised +upon Eskimo women by licentious white traders are on the decrease.</p> + +<p>Federal Commissioner of Education Brown advocates a compulsory school +law for Alaska. He favors instruction in modern methods of fishing and +of curing fish; in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> the care of all parts of walrus that are +merchantable; in the handling of wooden boats, the tanning and preparing +of skins, in coal mining and the elements of agriculture.</p> + +<p>In 1907 fifty-two native schools were maintained in Alaska, with two +thousand five hundred children enrolled. Ten new school buildings have +recently been constructed.</p> + +<p>The reindeer service has been one of Alaska's grave scandals, but it has +greatly improved during the past year.</p> + +<p>The Eskimo, or Innuit, inhabit a broad belt of the coast line bordering +on Behring Sea and the Arctic Ocean, as well as along the coast "to +Westward" from Yakutat; also the lower part of the Yukon.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Emmons, who is one of the highest authorities on the natives +of Alaska and their customs, has frequently reported the deplorable +condition of the Eskimo, and the prevalence of tuberculosis and other +dread diseases among them.</p> + +<p>In 1900 an epidemic of measles and <i>la grippe</i> devastated the +Northwestern Coast. Out of a total population of three thousand natives +about the mouth of the Kuskokwim, fully half died, without medical +attendance or nursing, within a few months.</p> + +<p>The hospitality and generous kindness of the Eskimo to those in need is +proverbial. Ever since their subjection by the early Russians—to whom, +also, they would doubtless have shown kindness had they not been afraid +of them—no shipwrecked mariner has sought their huts in vain. Often the +entire crew of an abandoned vessel has been succored, clothed, and kept +from starvation during a whole winter—the season when provisions are +scarce and the Eskimo themselves scarcely know how to find the means of +existence.</p> + +<p>Along the islands, the rivers, and lakes, nature has provided them with +food and clothing, if they were but educated to make the most of these +blessings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the vast country bordering the coast between the Kuskokwim and the +Yukon, and extending inland a hundred and fifty miles, is low and +swampy. This is the dreariest portion of Alaska. Tundra, swamps, and +sluggish rivers abound. There is no game, and the natives live on fish +and seal. The winters are severe, the climate is cold and excessively +moist. Food has often failed, and the old or helpless are called upon to +go alone out upon the storm-swept tundra and yield their hard +lives—bitter and cheerless at the best—that the young and strong may +live. As late as 1901 Lieutenant Emmons reports that this system of +unselfish and heart-breaking suicide was practised; and it is probably +still in vogue in isolated places when occasion demands.</p> + +<p>This district is so poor and unprofitable that the prospector and the +trader have so far passed it by; yet, by some means, the white man's +worst diseases have been carried in to them.</p> + +<p>These people are in dire need of schools, hospitals, medical treatment, +and often simple food and clothing.</p> + +<p>Farther north, on Seward Peninsula and along the lower Yukon, the +natives who have mingled with the miners and traders could easily be +taught to be not only self-supporting but of real value to the +communities in which they live. They are intelligent, docile, easily +directed, and eager to learn. Lieutenant Emmons found that everywhere +they asked for schools, that their children, to whom they are most +affectionately devoted, may learn to be "smart like the white man."</p> + +<p>They are more humble, dependent, and trustful than the Indians, and +could easily be influenced. But people do not go to Alaska to educate +and care for diseased and loathsome natives, unless they are paid well +for the mission. So long as the natives obey the laws of the country, no +one has authority over them. No one is interested in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> them, or has the +time to spare in teaching them. The United States government should take +care of these people. It should take measures to protect them from the +death-dealing whiskey with which they are supplied; to provide them with +schools, hospitals, medical care; it should supply them with reindeer +and teach them to care for these animals.</p> + +<p>Surely the government of the United States asks not to be informed more +than once by such authorities as Lieutenant Emmons, Bishop Rowe, Judge +Gunnison, Ex-Governor Brady, and Doctor Hutton that these most wretched +beings on the outskirts of the world are begging for education, and that +they are sorely in need of medical services.</p> + +<p>The government schools in the territory of Alaska are supported by a +portion of the license moneys levied on the various industries of the +country. Alaska has an area of six hundred thousand square miles and an +estimated native and half-breed population of twenty-five thousand; and +for these people only fifty-two schools and as many poorly paid +teachers!</p> + +<p>When I have criticised the Russian Church because it has not taught +these people cleanliness, I blush—remembering how my own government has +failed them in needs as vital. And when I reflect upon the outrages +perpetrated upon them by my own fellow-countrymen—who have deprived +them largely of their means of livelihood, robbed them, debauched them, +ravished their women, and lured away their young girls—when I reflect +upon these things, my face burns with shame that I should ever criticise +any other people or any other government than my own.</p> + +<p>The recent rapid development of Alaska, and the appropriation of the +native food-supplies by miners, traders, canners, and settlers, present +a problem that must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> solved at once. In regard to the Philippines, we +were like a child with a new toy; we could not play with them and +experiment with them enough; yet for forty years these dark, gentle, +uncomplaining people of our most northern and most splendid +possession—beautiful, glorious Alaska—have been patiently waiting for +all that we should long ago have given them: protection, interest, and +the education and training that would have converted them from diseased +and wretched beings into decent and useful people.</p> + +<p>According to Lieutenant Emmons, the condition of the Copper River +Indians is exceptionally miserable; and of all the native people, either +coastal or of the interior, they are most needy and in want of immediate +assistance. Reduced in number to barely two hundred and fifty souls, +scattered in small communities along the river valleys amidst the +loftiest mountains of the continent and under the most rigid climatic +conditions, their natural living has been taken from them by the white +man, without the establishment of any labor market for their +self-support in return.</p> + +<p>Prior to 1888 they lived in a very primitive state, and were, even then, +barely able to maintain themselves on the not over-abundant game life of +the valley, together with the salmon coming up the river for spawning +purposes. The mining excitement of that year brought several thousand +men into the Copper River Valley, on their way to the Yukon and the +Klondike.</p> + +<p>They swept the country clean of game, burnt over vast districts, and +frequently destroyed what they could not use. About the same time the +salmon canneries in Prince William Sound, having exhausted the home +streams, extended their operations to the Copper River delta, decreasing +the Indians' salmon catch, which had always provided them with food for +the bitter winters.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 617px;"> +<img src="images/illo_483.jpg" width="617" height="381" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle + +"Wolf"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +"Wolf"</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p> + +<p>These Indians are simple, kind-hearted, and have ever been friendly and +hospitable to the white man. They respect his cache, although their own +has not always been respected by him.</p> + +<p>At Copper Centre, which is connected by military wagon road with the +coast at Valdez, flour sells for twenty-four dollars a hundredweight, +and all other provisions and clothing in proportion; so it may be +readily understood that the white people of the interior cannot afford +to divide their provisions with the starving Indians, else they would +soon be in the same condition themselves. Therefore, for these Indians, +too,—fortunately few in number,—the government must provide liberally +and at once.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> + + +<p>At sunset on the day of our landing at Belkoffski we passed the active +volcanoes of Pogromni and Shishaldin, on the island of Unimak. For years +I had longed to see Shishaldin; and one of my nightly prayers during the +voyage had been for a clear and beautiful light in which to see it. Not +to pass it in the night, nor in the rain, nor in the fog; not to be too +ill to get on deck in some fashion—this had been my prayer.</p> + +<p>For days I had trembled at the thought of missing Shishaldin. To long +for a thing for years; to think of it by day and to dream of it by +night, as though it were a sweetheart; to draw near to it once, and once +only in a lifetime—and then, to pass it without one glimpse of its +coveted loveliness!—that would be too bitter a fate to be endured.</p> + +<p>In a few earnest words, soon after leaving Valdez, I had acquainted the +captain with my desire.</p> + +<p>It was his watch when I told him. He was pacing in front of the +pilot-house. A cigar was set immovably between his lips. He heard me to +the end and then, without looking at me, smiled out into the golden +distance ahead of us.</p> + +<p>"You fix the weather," said he, "and I'll fix the mountain."</p> + +<p>I, or some other, had surely "fixed" the weather.</p> + +<p>No such trip had ever been known by the oldest member of the crew. Only +one rainy night and one sweet half-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>cloudy afternoon. For the rest, blue +and golden days and nights of amethyst.</p> + +<p>But would the captain forget? The thought always made my heart pause; +yet there was something in the firm lines of his strong, brown face that +made it impossible for me to mention it to him again.</p> + +<p>But on that evening I was sitting in the dining room which, when the +tables were cleared, was a kind of general family living room, when +Charlie came to me with his angelic smile.</p> + +<p>"The captain, he say you please come on deck right away."</p> + +<p>I went up the companionway and stepped out upon the deck; and there in +the north, across the blue, mist-softened sea, in the rich splendor of +an Aleutian sunset, trembled and glowed the exquisite thing of my +desire.</p> + +<p>In the absolute perfection of its conical form, its chaste and delicate +beauty of outline, and the slender column of smoke pushing up from its +finely pointed crest, Shishaldin stands alone. Its height is not great, +only nine thousand feet; but in any company of loftier mountains it +would shine out with a peerlessness that would set it apart.</p> + +<p>The sunset trembled upon the North Pacific Ocean, changing hourly as the +evening wore on. Through scarlet and purple and gold, the mountain +shone; through lavender, pearl, and rose; growing ever more distant and +more dim, but not less beautiful. At last, it could barely be seen, in a +flood of rich violet mist, just touched with rose.</p> + +<p>So steadily I looked, and with such a longing passion of greeting, +rapture, possession, and farewell in my gaze and in my heart, that lo! +when its last outline had blurred lingeringly and sweetly into the +rose-violet mist, I found that it was painted in all its delicacy of +outline and soft splendor of coloring upon my memory. There it burns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> +to-day in all its loveliness as vividly as it burned that night, ere it +faded, line by line, across the widening sea. It is mine. I own it as +surely as I own the green hill upon which I live, the blue sea that +sparkles daily beneath my windows, the gold-brilliant constellations +that move nightly above my home, or the song that the meadow-lark sings +to his mate in the April dawn.</p> + +<p>The sea breaks into surf upon Shishaldin's base, and snow covers the +slender cone from summit to sea level, save for a month or two in summer +when it melts around the base. Owing to the mists, it is almost +impossible to obtain a sharp negative of Shishaldin from the water.</p> + +<p>They played with it constantly. They wrapped soft rose-colored scarfs +about its crest; they wound girdles of purple and gold and pearl about +its middle; they set rayed gold upon it, like a crown. Now and then, for +a few seconds at a time, they drew away completely, as if to contemplate +its loveliness; and then, as if overcome and compelled by its dazzling +brilliance, they flung themselves back upon it impetuously and crushed +it for several moments completely from our view.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Large and small, the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago number about +one hundred. They drift for nearly fifteen hundred miles from the point +of the Aliaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatkan shore; and Attu, the last +one, lies within the eastern hemisphere. This chain of islands, reaching +as far west as the Komandórski, or Commander, Islands—upon one of which +Commander Behring died and was buried—was named, in 1786, the Catherina +Archipelago, by Forster, in honor of the liberal and enlightened Empress +Catherine the Second, of Russia.</p> + +<p>The Aleutian Islands are divided into four groups. The most westerly are +Nearer, or Blizni, Islands, of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> the famed Attu is the largest; the +next group to eastward is known as Rat, or Kreesi, Islands; then, +Andreanoffski Islands, named for Andreanoff, who discovered them, and +whose largest island is Atka, where it is said the baskets known as the +Attu baskets are now woven.</p> + +<p>East of this group are the Fox, or Leesi, Islands. This is the largest +of the four Aleutian groups, and contains thirty-one islands, including +Unimak, which is the largest in the archipelago. Others of importance in +this group are Unalaska, formerly spelled Unalashka; Umnak; Akutan; +Akhun; Ukamak; and the famed volcano islands of St. John the Theologian, +or Joanna Bogoslova, and the Four Craters. Unimak Pass, the best known +and most used passage into Behring Sea, is between Unimak and Akhun +islands. Akutan Pass is between Akutan and Unalaska islands; Umnak Pass, +between Unalaska and Umnak islands. (These <i>u</i>'s are pronounced as +though spelled <i>oo</i>.)</p> + +<p>Unalaska and Dutch Harbor are situated on the Island of Unalaska. By the +little flower-bordered path leading up and down the green, velvety +hills, these two settlements are fully two miles apart; by water, they +seem scarcely two hundred yards from one another. The steamer, after +landing at Dutch Harbor, draws her prow from the wharf, turns it gently +around a green point, and lays it beside the wharf at Unalaska.</p> + +<p>The bay is so surrounded by hills that slope softly to the water, that +one can scarcely remember which blue water-way leads to the sea. There +is a curving white beach, from which the town of Unalaska received its +ancient name of Iliuliuk, meaning "the beach that curves." The +white-painted, red-roofed buildings follow this beach, and loiter +picturesquely back over the green level to the stream that flows around +the base of the hills and finds the sea at the Unalaska wharf.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p> + +<p>This is one of the safest harbors in the world. It is one great, +sparkling sapphire, set deep in solid emerald and pearl. It is entered +more beautifully than even the Bay of Sitka. It is completely surrounded +by high mountains, peak rising behind peak, and all covered with a +thick, green, velvety nap and crowned with eternal pearl.</p> + +<p>The entrance way is so winding that these peaks have the appearance of +leaning aside to let us slide through, and then drawing together behind +us, to keep out the storms; for ships of the heaviest draught find +refuge here and lie safely at anchor while tempests rage outside.</p> + +<p>Now and then, between two enchantingly green near peaks, a third shines +out white, far, glistening mistily—covered with snow from summit to +base, but with a dark scarf of its own internal passion twisted about +its outwardly serene brow.</p> + +<p>The <i>Kuro Siwo</i>, or Japan Current, breaks on the western end of the +Aleutian Chain; half flows eastward south of the islands, and carries +with it the warm, moist atmosphere which is condensed on the snow-peaks +and sinks downward in the fine and delicious mist that gives the grass +and mosses their vivid, brilliant, perpetual green. The other half +passes northward into Behring Sea and drives the ice back into the +"Frozen Ocean." Dall was told that the whalers in early spring have seen +large icebergs steadily sailing northward through the strait at a knot +and a half an hour, against a very stiff breeze from the north. In May +the first whalers follow the Kamchatkan Coast northward, as the ice +melts on that shore earlier than on ours. The first whaler to pass East +Cape secures the spring trade and the best catch of whales.</p> + +<p>The color of the <i>Kuro Siwo</i> is darker than the waters through which it +flows, and its Japanese name signifies "Black Stream." Passing on down +the coast, it carries a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> warm and vivifying moisture as far southwest as +Oregon. It gives the Aleutians their balmy climate. The average winter +temperature is about thirty degrees above zero; and the summer +temperature, from fifty to sixty degrees.</p> + +<p>The volcano Makushin is the noted "smoker" of this island, and there is +a hot spring, containing sulphur, in the vicinity, from which loud, +cannon-like reports are frequently heard. The natives believe that the +mountains fought together and that Makushin remained the victor. These +reports were probably supposed to be fired at his command, as warnings +of his fortified position to any inquisitive peak that might chance to +fire a lava interrogation-point at him.</p> + +<p>In June, and again in October, of 1778, Cook visited the vicinity, +anchoring in Samghanooda Harbor. There he was visited by the commander +of the Russian expedition in this region, Gregorovich Ismaïloff. The +usual civilities and gifts were exchanged. Cook sent the Russian some +liquid gifts which were keenly appreciated, and was in return offered a +sea-otter skin of such value that Cook courteously declined it, +accepting, instead, some dried fish and several baskets of lily root.</p> + +<p>The Russian settlement was at Iliuliuk, which was distant several miles +from Samghanooda. Several of the members of Cook's party visited the +settlement, notably Corporal Ledyard, who reported that it consisted of +a dwelling-house and two storehouses, about thirty Russians, and a +number of Kamchatkans and natives who were used as servants by the +Russians. They all lived in the same houses, but ate at three different +tables.</p> + +<p>Cook considered the natives themselves the most gentle and inoffensive +people he had ever "met with" in his travels; while as to honesty, "they +might serve as a pattern to the most civilized nation upon earth." He +was convinced, however, that this disposition had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> produced by the +severities at first practised upon them by the Russians in an effort to +subdue them.</p> + +<p>Cook described them as low of stature, but plump and well-formed, +dark-eyed, and dark-haired. The women wore a single garment, +loose-fitting, of sealskin, reaching below the knee—the parka; the men, +the same kind of garment, made of the skin of birds, with the feathers +worn against the flesh. Over this garment, the men wore another made of +gut, which I have elsewhere described under the name of kamelinka, or +kamelayka. All wore "oval-snouted" caps made of wood, dyed in colors and +decorated with glass beads.</p> + +<p>The women punctured their lips and wore bone labrets. "It is as +uncommon, at Oonalashka, to see a man with this ornament as to see a +woman without it," he adds.</p> + +<p>The chief was seen making his dinner of the raw head of a large halibut. +Two of his servants ate the gills, which were cleaned simply "by +squeezing out the slime." The chief devoured large pieces of the raw +meat with as great satisfaction as though they had been raw oysters.</p> + +<p>These natives lived in barabaras. (This word is pronounced with the +accent on the second syllable; the correct spelling cannot be vouched +for here, because no two authorities spell it in the same way.)</p> + +<p>They were usually made by forming shallow circular excavations and +erecting over them a framework of driftwood, or whale-ribs, with double +walls filled with earth and stones and covered over with sod.</p> + +<p>The roofs contained square openings in the centre for the escape of +smoke; and these low earth roofs were used by the natives as family +gathering places in pleasant weather. Here they would sit for hours, +doing nothing and gazing blankly at nothing.</p> + +<p>The entrance was through a square hole in, or near, the roof. It was +reached by a ladder, and descent into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> the interior was made in the same +way, or by means of steps cut in a post. A narrow dark tunnel led to the +inner room, which was from ten to twenty feet in diameter.</p> + +<p>These barabaras were sometimes warmed only by lamps; but usually a fire +was built in the centre, directly under the opening in the roof. Mats +and skins were placed on shelves, slightly elevated above the floor, +around the walls. Many persons of both sexes and all ages lived in these +places; frequently several dwellings were connected by tunnels and had +one common hole-entrance. The filth of these airless habitations was +nauseating.</p> + +<p>Their household furniture consisted of bowls, spoons, buckets, cans, +baskets, and one or two Russian pots; a knife and a hatchet were the +only tools they possessed.</p> + +<p>The huts were lighted by lamps made of flat stones which were hollowed +on one side to hold oil, in which dry grass was burned. Both men and +women warmed their bodies by sitting over these lamps and spreading +their garments around them.</p> + +<p>The natives used the bidarka here, as elsewhere.</p> + +<p>They buried their dead on the summits of hills, raising little hillocks +over the graves. Cook saw one grave covered with stones, to which every +one passing added a stone, after the manner fancied by Helen Hunt +Jackson a hundred years later; and he saw several stone hillocks that +had an appearance of great antiquity.</p> + +<p>In Unalaska to-day may still be seen several barabaras. They must be +very old, because the native habitations of the coast are constructed +along the lines of the white man's dwellings at the present time. They +add to the general quaint and picturesque appearance of the town, +however. Their sod roofs are overgrown with tall grasses, among which +wild flowers flame out brightly.</p> + +<p>(Unalaska is pronounced Oö-na-las'-ka, the <i>a</i>'s having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> the sound of +<i>a</i> in arm. Aleutian is pronounced in five syllables: Ä-le-oo'-shi-an, +with the same sound of <i>a</i>.)</p> + +<p>The island of Unalaska was sighted by Chirikoff on his return to +Kamchatka, on the 4th of September, 1741.</p> + +<p>The chronicles of the first expeditions of the Russian traders—or +promyshleniki, as they were called—are wrapped in mystery. But it is +believed that as early as 1744 Emilian Bassof and Andrei Serebrennikof +voyaged into the islands and were rewarded by a catch of sixteen hundred +sea-otters, two thousand fur-seals, and as many blue foxes.</p> + +<p>Stephan Glottoff was the first to trade with the natives of Unalaska, +whom he found peaceable and friendly. The next, however, Korovin, +attempted to make a settlement upon the island, but met with repulse +from the natives, and several of his party were killed.</p> + +<p>Glottoff returned to his rescue, and the latter's expedition was the +most important of the earlier ones to the islands. On his previous visit +he had found the highly prized black foxes on the island of Unalaska, +and had carried a number to Kamchatka.</p> + +<p>I have related elsewhere the story of the atrocities perpetrated upon +the natives of these islands by the early promyshleniki. During the +years between 1760 and 1770 the natives were in active revolt against +their oppressors; and it was not until the advent of Solovioff the +Butcher that they were tortured into the mild state of submission in +which they were found by Cook in 1778, and in which they have since +dwelt.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Father Veniaminoff made the most careful study of the Aleutians, +beginning about 1824. It has been claimed that this noble and devout +priest was so good that he perceived good where it did not exist; and +his statements concerning his beloved Aleutians are not borne out by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> +the promyshleniki. Considering the character of the latter, I prefer to +believe Veniaminoff.</p> + +<p>The most influential Aleuts were those who were most successful in +hunting, which seemed to be their highest ambition. The best hunters +possessed the greatest number of wives; and they were never stinted in +this luxury. Even Veniaminoff, with his rose-colored glasses on, failed +to discover virtue or the faintest moral sense among them.</p> + +<p>"They incline to sensuality," he put it, politely. "Before the teachings +of the Christian religion had enlightened them, this inclination had +full sway. The nearest consanguinity, only, puts limits to their +passions. Although polygamy was general, nevertheless there were +frequently secret orgies, in which all joined.... The bad example and +worse teachings of the early Russian settlers increased their tendency +to licentiousness."</p> + +<p>Child-murder was rare, owing to the belief that it brought misfortune +upon the whole village.</p> + +<p>Among the half-breeds, the character of the dark mother invariably came +out more strongly than that of the Russian father. They learned readily +and intelligently, and fulfilled all church duties imposed upon them +cheerfully, punctually, and with apparent pleasure.</p> + +<p>Under the teaching of Veniaminoff, the Aleuts were easily weaned from +their early Pantheism, and from their savage songs and dances, described +by the earlier voyagers. They no longer wore their painted masks and +hats, although some treasured them in secret.</p> + +<p>The successful hunter, in times of famine or scarcity of food, shared +with all who were in need. The latter met him when his boat returned, +and sat down silently on the shore. This is a sign that they ask for +aid; and the hunter supplies them, without receiving, or expecting, +either restitution or thanks. This generosity is like that of the people +of Belkoffski; it comes from the heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Aleutians were frequently intoxicated; but this condition did not +lead to quarrelling or trouble. Murder and attempts at murder were +unknown among them.</p> + +<p>If an Aleut were injured, or offended, after the introduction of +Christianity, he received and bore the insult in silence. They had no +oaths or violent epithets in their language; and they would rather +commit suicide than to receive a blow. The sting that lies in cruel +words they dreaded as keenly.</p> + +<p>Veniaminoff found that the Aleuts would steal nothing more than a few +leaves of tobacco, a few swallows of brandy, or a little food; and these +articles but rarely.</p> + +<p>The most striking trait of character displayed by the Aleut was, and +still is, his patience. He never complained, even when slowly starving +to death. He sat by the shore; and if food were not offered to him, he +would not ask. He was never known to sigh, nor to groan, nor to shed +tears.</p> + +<p>These people were found to be very sensitive, however, and capable of +deep emotion, even though it was never revealed in their faces. They +were exceedingly fond of, and tender with, their children, and readily +interpreted a look of contempt or ridicule, which invariably offended in +the highest degree.</p> + +<p>The most beautiful thing recorded of the Aleut is that when one has done +him a favor or kindness, and has afterward offended him, he does not +forget the former favor, but permits it to cancel the offence.</p> + +<p>They scorn lying, hypocrisy, and exaggeration; and they never betray a +secret. They are so hospitable that they will deny themselves to give to +the stranger that is in need. They detest a braggart, but they never +dispute—not even when they know that their own opinion is the correct +one.</p> + +<p>Veniaminoff admitted that the Aleuts who had lived among the Russians +were passionately addicted to the use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> of liquor and tobacco. But even +with their drunkenness, their uncleanness, and their immorality, the +Aleutian character seems to have possessed so many admirable, and even +unusual, traits that, if the training and everyday influences of these +people had been of a different nature from what they have been since +they lost Veniaminoff, they would have, ere this, been able to overcome +their inherited and acquired vices, and to have become useful and +desirable citizens.</p> + +<p>They were formerly of a revengeful nature, but after coming under the +influence of Veniaminoff, no instance of revenge was discovered by him.</p> + +<p>They learned readily, with but little teaching, not only mechanical +things, but those, also, which require deep thought—such as chess, at +which they became experts.</p> + +<p>One became an excellent navigator, and made charts which were followed +by other voyagers for many years. Others worked skilfully in ivory, and +the dark-eyed women wove their dreams into the most precious basketry of +the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> + + +<p>We sailed into the lovely bay of Unalaska on the fourth day of July. The +entire village, native and white, had gone on a picnic to the hills.</p> + +<p>We spent the afternoon loitering about the deserted streets and the +green and flowery hills. One could sit contentedly for a week upon the +hills,—as the natives used to sit upon the roofs of their +barabaras,—doing nothing but looking down upon the idyllic loveliness +shimmering in every direction.</p> + +<p>In the centre of the town rises the Greek-Russian church, green-roofed +and bulbous-domed, adding the final touch of mysticism and poetry to +this already enchanting scene.</p> + +<p>At sunset the mists gathered, slowly, delicately, beautifully. They +moved in softly through the same strait by which we had entered—little +rose-colored masses that drifted up to meet the violet-tinted ones from +the other end of the bay. In the centre of the water valley they met and +mixed together, and, in their new and more marvellous coloring, pushed +up about the town and the lower slopes. Out of them lifted and shone the +green roof and domes of the church; more brilliantly above them, napped +thick and soft as velvet, glowed the hills; and more lustrously against +the saffron sky flashed the pearl of the higher peaks.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There was a gay dinner party aboard the <span class="smcap">Dora</span> that night. Afterward, we +all attended a dance. There was only one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> white woman in the hall +besides my friend and myself; and we three were belles! We danced with +every man who asked us to dance, to the most wonderful music I have ever +heard. One of the musicians played a violin with his hands and a French +harp with his mouth, both at the same time—besides making quite as much +noise with one foot as he did with both of the instruments together.</p> + +<p>There were several good-looking Aleutian girls at the dance. They had +pretty, slender figures, would have been considered well dressed in any +small village in the states, and danced with exceeding grace and ease.</p> + +<p>We went to this dance not without some qualms of various kinds; but we +went for the same reason that "Cyanide Bill" told us he had journeyed +three times to the shores of the "Frozen Ocean"—"just to see."</p> + +<p>Toward midnight a pretty and stylishly gowned young woman came in with +an escort and joined in the dancing. As she whirled past us, with +diamonds flashing from her hands, ears, and neck, my inquiring Scotch +friend asked a gentleman with whom she was dancing, "Who is the pretty +dark-eyed lady? We have not seen her before."</p> + +<p>She was completely extinguished for some time by his reply, given with +the cheerful frankness of the North.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's Nelly, miss. I don't know any other name for her. We just +always call her Nelly, miss."</p> + +<p>We returned to the steamer, leaving "Nelly" to twinkle on. Our curiosity +was entirely satisfied. We went "to see," and we had seen.</p> + +<p>Captain Gray might be called "the lord of Unalaska." He is the "great +gentleman" of the place. He has for many years managed the affairs of +the Alaska Commercial Company, and he has acted as host to almost every +traveller who has voyaged to this lovely isle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span></p> + +<p>After supper, which was served on the steamer at midnight, we were +invited to his home "to finish the evening."</p> + +<p>"At one o'clock in the morning!" gasped my companion.</p> + +<p>"Hours don't count up here," said our captain. "It is broad daylight. +Besides, it is the 4th of July. I think we should accept the +invitation."</p> + +<p>We did accept it, in the same spirit in which it was given, and it was +one of the most profitable of evenings. We found a home of comfort and +refinement in the farthest outpost of civilization in the North Pacific. +The hours were spent pleasantly with good music, singing, and reading; +and delicate refreshments were served.</p> + +<p>The sun shone upon my friend's scandalized face as we returned to our +steamer. It was nearly five o'clock.</p> + +<p>"I know it was innocent enough," said she, "but think how it +<i>sounds</i>!—a dance, with only three white women present—not to mention +'Nelly'!—a midnight supper, and then an invitation to 'finish the +evening'! It sounds like one of Edith Wharton's novels."</p> + +<p>"It's Alaska," said the captain. "You want local color—and you're +getting it. But let me tell you that you have never been safer in your +life than you have been to-night."</p> + +<p>"Safe!" echoed she. "I'm not talking about the safety of it. It's the +<i>form</i> of it."</p> + +<p>"Form doesn't count, as yet, in the Aleutians," said the captain. +"'There's never a law of God or man runs north of <i>fifty-three</i>!'"</p> + +<p>"There's surely never a <i>social</i> law runs north of it," was the scornful +reply.</p> + +<p>The next morning we went to the great warehouses of the company, to look +at old Russian samovars. Captain Gray personally escorted us through +their dim, cobwebby, high-raftered spaces. There was one long counter +covered with samovars, and we began eagerly to examine and price them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_500.jpg" width="640" height="431" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle + +Dog-team Express, Nome" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Dog-team Express, Nome</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span></p> + +<p>The cheapest was twenty-five dollars; and the most expensive, more than +a hundred.</p> + +<p>"But they are all sold," added Captain Gray, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"All sold!" we exclaimed, in a breath. "What—<i>all</i>? Every one?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; every one," he answered mournfully.</p> + +<p>"Why, how very odd," said I, "for them all to be sold, and all to be +left here."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he, sighing. "The captain of a government cutter bought them +for his friends in Boston. He has gone on up into Behring Sea, and will +call for them on his return."</p> + +<p>Far be it from me to try to buy anything that is not for sale. I thanked +him politely for showing them to us; and we went on to another part of +the warehouse.</p> + +<p>We found nothing else that was already "sold." We bought several +holy-lamps, baskets, and other things.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry about the samovars," said I, as I paid Captain Gray.</p> + +<p>"So am I," said he. Then he sighed. "There's one, now," said he, after a +moment, thoughtfully. "I might—Wait a moment."</p> + +<p>He disappeared, and presently returned with a perfect treasure of a +samovar,—old, battered, green with age and use. We went into ecstasies +over it.</p> + +<p>"I'll take it," I said. "How much is it?"</p> + +<p>"It was twenty-five dollars," said he, dismally. "It is sold."</p> + +<p>"How very peculiar," said my companion, as we went away, "to keep +bringing out samovars that are sold."</p> + +<p>For two years my thoughts reverted at intervals to those "sold" samovars +at Unalaska. Last summer I went down the Yukon. At St. Michael I was +entertained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> at the famous "Cottage" for several days. One day at dinner +I asked a gentleman if he knew Captain Gray.</p> + +<p>"Of Unalaska?" exclaimed two or three at once. Then they all burst out +laughing.</p> + +<p>"We all know him," one said. "Everybody knows him."</p> + +<p>"But why do you laugh?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, because he is so 'slick' at taking in a tourist."</p> + +<p>"In what manner?" asked I, stiffly. I remembered that Captain Gray had +asked me if I were a tourist.</p> + +<p>They all laughed again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>especially</i> on samovars."</p> + +<p>My face burned suddenly.</p> + +<p>"On samovars!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You see he gets a tourist into his warehouses and shows him +samovar after samovar—fifty or sixty of them—and tells him that every +one is sold. He puts on the most mournful look.</p> + +<p>"'This one was twenty-five dollars,' he says. 'A captain on a government +cutter bought them to take to Boston.' Then the tourist gets wild. He +offers five, ten, twenty dollars more to get one of those samovars. He +always gets it; because, you see, Gray wants to sell it to him even +worse than he wants to buy it. It always works."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We walked over the hills to Dutch Harbor—once called Lincoln Harbor. +There is a stretch of blue water to cross, and we were ferried over by a +gentleman having much Fourth-of-July in his speech and upon his breath.</p> + +<p>His efforts at politeness are remembered joys, while a sober ferryman +would have been forgotten long ago. But the sober ferrymen that morning +were like the core of the little boy's apple.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was the most beautiful walk of my life. A hard, narrow, white path +climbed and wound and fell over the vivid green hills; it led around +lakes that lay in the hollows like still, liquid sapphire, set with the +pearl of clouds; it lured through banks of violets and over slopes of +trembling bluebells; it sent out tempting by-paths that ended in the +fireweed's rosy drifts; but always it led on—narrow, well-trodden, yet +oh, so lonely and so still! Birds sang and the sound of the waves came +to us—that was all. Once a little brown Aleutian lad came whistling +around the curve in the path, stood still, and gazed at us with startled +eyes as soft and dark as a gazelle's; but he was the only human being we +saw upon the hills that day.</p> + +<p>We saw acres that were deep blue with violets. They were large enough to +cover silver half-dollars, and their stems were several inches in +length. Fireweed grew low, but the blooms were large and of a deep rose +color.</p> + +<p>Standing still, we counted thirteen varieties of wild flowers within a +radius of six feet. There were the snapdragon, wild rose, columbine, +buttercup, Solomon's seal, anemone, larkspur, lupine, dandelion, iris, +geranium, monk's-hood, and too many others to name, to be found on the +hills of Unalaska. There are more than two thousand varieties of wild +flowers in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. The blossoms are large and +brilliant, and they cover whole hillsides and fill deep hollows with +beautiful color. The bluebells and violets are exquisite. The latter are +unbelievably large; of a rich blue veined with silver. They poise +delicately on stems longer than those of the hot-house flower; so that +we could gather and carry armfuls of them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The site of Dutch Harbor is green and level. Fronting the bay are the +large buildings of the North American<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> Commercial Company, with many +small frame cottages scattered around them. All are painted white, with +bright red roofs, and the town presents a clean and attractive +appearance.</p> + +<p>Dutch Harbor is the prose, and Unalaska the poetry, of the island. There +is neither a hotel nor a restaurant at either place. It was one o'clock +when we reached Dutch Harbor; we had breakfasted early, and we sought, +in vain, for some building that might resemble an "eating-house."</p> + +<p>We finally went into the big store, and meeting the manager of the +company, asked to be directed to the nearest restaurant.</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"There isn't any," he said.</p> + +<p>"Is there no place where one may get <i>something</i> to eat? Bread and milk? +We saw cows upon the hills."</p> + +<p>"You would not care to go to the native houses," he replied, still +smiling. "But come with me."</p> + +<p>He led the way along a neat board walk to a residence that would attract +attention in any town. It was large and of artistic design.</p> + +<p>"It was designed by Molly Garfield," the young man somewhat proudly +informed us. "Her husband was connected with the company for several +years, and they built and lived in this house."</p> + +<p>The house was richly papered and furnished. It was past the luncheon +hour, but we were excellently served by a perfectly trained Chinaman.</p> + +<p>For more than a hundred years the great commercial companies—beginning +with the Shelikoff Company—have dispensed the hospitality of Alaska, +and have acted as hosts to the stranger within their gates. The managers +are instructed to sell provisions at reasonable prices, and to supply +any one who may be in distress and unable to pay for food.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p> + +<p>They frequently entertain, as guests of the company they represent, +travellers to these lonely places, not because the latter are in need, +but merely as a courtesy; and their hospitality is as free and +generous—but not as embarrassing—as that of Baranoff.</p> + +<p>That night I sat late alone upon the hills, on a tundra slope that was +blue with violets. I could not put my hand down without crushing them. +The lights moving across Unalaska were as poignantly interesting as the +thoughts that come and go across a stranger's face when he does not know +that one is observing.</p> + +<p>All the lights and shadows of the vanishing Aleutian race seemed to be +moving across the hills, the village, the blue bay.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a day has passed that I have not gone back across the blue and +emerald water-ways that stretch between, to that lovely place and that +luminous hour.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, I thought, Veniaminoff may have looked down upon this exquisite +scene from this same violeted spot—Veniaminoff, the humble, devout, and +devoted missionary, whom I should rather have been than any man or woman +whose history I know; Veniaminoff, who <i>lived</i>—instead of <i>wrote</i>—a +great, a sublime, poem.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Unalaska's commercial glory has faded. It was once port of entry for all +vessels passing in or out of Behring Sea; the ships of the Arctic +whaling fleet called here for water, coal, supplies, and mail; during +the years that the <i>modus vivendi</i> was in force it was headquarters of +the United States and the British fleets patrolling Behring Sea, and +lines of captured sealers often lay here at anchor.</p> + +<p>During the early part of the present decade Unalaska saw its most +prosperous times. Thousands of people waited here for transportation to +the Klondike, via St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> Michael and the Yukon. Many ships were built +here, and one still lies rotting upon the ways.</p> + +<p>The Greek church is second in size and importance to the one at Sitka +only, and the bishop once resided here. There is a Russian parish +school, a government day-school, and a Methodist mission, the Jessie Lee +Home. The only white women on the island reside at the Home. The bay has +frequently presented the appearance of a naval parade, from the number +of government and other vessels lying at anchor.</p> + +<p>No traveller will weary soon of Unalaska. There are caves and waterfalls +to visit, and unnumbered excursions to make to beautiful places among +the hills. Especially interesting is Samghanooda, or English, Harbor, +where Cook mended his ships; while Makushin Harbor, on the western +coast, where Glottoff and his Russians first landed in 1756, is only +thirty miles away.</p> + +<p>The great volcano itself is easy of ascent, and the view from its crest +is one of the memories of a lifetime. Borka, a tiny village at +Samghanooda, is as noted for its Dutch-like cleanliness as Belkoffski is +for its filth.</p> + +<p>The other islands of the Aleutian chain drift on to westward, lonely, +unknown—almost, if not entirely, uninhabited. Now and then a small +trading settlement is found, which is visited only by Captain +Applegate,—the last remaining white deep-sea otter hunter,—and once a +year by a government cutter, or the Russian priest from Unalaska, or a +shrewd and wandering trader.</p> + +<p>These green and unknown islands are the islands of my dreams—and dreams +do "come true" sometimes. This voyage out among the Aleutians is the +most poetic and enchanting in the world to-day; and I shall never be +entirely happy until I have drifted on out to the farthest island of +Attu, lying within the eastern hemisphere, and watched those lonely, +dark women, with the souls of poets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> and artists and the patience of +angels, weaving <i>their</i> dreams into ravishing beauty and sending them +out into the world as the farewell messages of a betrayed and vanishing +people. As we treat them for their few remaining years, so let us in the +end be treated.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Alaska is to-day the centre of the world's volcanic activity, and the +mountainous appearances and disappearances that have been recorded in +the Aleutian Islands are marvellous and awesome. To these upheavals in +the North Pacific and Behring Sea Whidbey's adjectives, "stupendous," +"tremendous," and "awfully dreadful," might be appropriately applied.</p> + +<p>On July the fourth, 1907, officers of the revenue cutter <i>McCulloch</i> +discovered the new peak which they named in honor of their vessel. It +was in the vicinity of the famous volcano of Joanna Bogoslova, or Saint +John the Theologian.</p> + +<p>In 1796 the natives of Unalaska and the adjoining islands for many miles +were startled by violent reports, like continued cannonading, followed +by frightful tremblings of the earth upon which they stood.</p> + +<p>A dense volume of smoke, ashes, and gas descended upon them in a kind of +cloud, and shut everything from their view. They were thus enveloped and +cannonaded for about ten days, when the atmosphere gradually cleared and +they observed a bright light shining upon the sea from thirty to forty +miles north of Unalaska. The brave ones of the island went forth in +bidarkas and discovered that a small island had risen from the sea to a +height of one hundred feet and that it was still rising.</p> + +<p>This was the main peak of the Bogosloff group, and it continued to grow +until 1825, when it reached a height of about three hundred feet and +cooled sufficiently for Russians to land upon it for the first time. The +heat was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> still so intense, however, and the danger from running lava so +great, that they soon withdrew to their boats.</p> + +<p>In the early eighties, after similar disturbances, another peak arose +near the first and joined to it by a low isthmus, upon which stood a +rock seventy feet in height, which was named Ship-Rock. In 1891 the +isthmus sank out of sight in the sea, and a new peak arose.</p> + +<p>Since then no important changes have occurred. The peaks themselves +remained too hot and dangerous for examination; but the short voyage out +from Unalaska has been a favorite one for tourists who were able to land +upon the lower rocks and spend a day gathering specimens and studying +the sea-lions that doze in polygamous herds in the warmth, and the +shrieking murres that nest in the cliffs and cover them like a tremulous +gray-white cloud.</p> + +<p>Every inch of space on these cliffs seems to be taken by these birds for +the creation of life. On every tiniest shelf they perch upright, +black-backed and white-bellied, brooding their eggs—although these hot +and steamy cliffs are sufficient incubators to bring forth life out of +every egg deposited upon them. When the murres are suddenly disturbed, +their eggs slip from their hold and plunge down the cliffs, splattering +them with the yellow of their broken yolks.</p> + +<p>The last week in July, 1907, I passed close to the Bogosloff Islands, +which had grown to the importance of four peaks. Three days later a +violent earthquake occurred in this vicinity. Once more dense clouds of +smoke descended upon Unalaska and the adjoining islands, and ashes +poured upon the sea and land, as far north as Nome, covering the decks +of passing steamers to a depth of several inches, and affecting sailors +so powerfully that they could only stay on deck for a few moments at a +time.</p> + +<p>On September the first, the captain and men of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> whaler <i>Herman</i>, +passing the Bogosloff group, beheld a sight to observe which I would +cheerfully have yielded several years of life. They saw the +two-months-old McCulloch peak burn itself down into the sea, with vast +columns of steam ascending miles into the air above it, and the waters +boiling madly on all sides. It went down, foot by foot, and the men +stood spellbound, watching it disappear. For miles around the sea was +violently agitated and was mixed with volcanic ash, which also covered +the decks, and at intervals steam poured up unexpectedly out of the +ocean.</p> + +<p>As soon as possible the revenue cutter <i>Buffalo</i> went to the wonderful +volcanic group, and it was found that their whole appearance was +changed.</p> + +<p>There were three peaks where four had been; but whereas they had +formerly been separate and distinct islands, they were now connected and +formed one island.</p> + +<p>This island is two and a half miles long. Perry Peak, which arose in +1906, had increased in height; and there was a crater-like depression on +its south side, around which the waters were continually throwing off +vast clouds of steam and smoke. Captain Pond reported that rocks as +large as a house were constantly rolling down from Perry Peak, and that +the whole scene was one of wonderful interest. To his surprise, the +colony of sea-lions, which must have been frightened away, had returned, +and seemed to be enjoying the steamy heat on the rocks of the main and +oldest peak of the group.</p> + +<p>The disappearance of McCulloch peak was accompanied by earthquake shocks +as far to eastward as Sitka. Makushin, the great volcano of Unalaska, +and others, smoked violently, and ashes fell over the Aleutian Islands +and the mainland. At the same time uncharted rocks began to make their +appearance all along the coast, to the grave danger of navigation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2> + + +<p>In the heart of Behring Sea, about two hundred miles north of Unalaska, +lie two tiny cloud and mist haunted and wind-racked islands which are +the great slaughter-grounds of Alaska. Here, for a hundred and twenty +years, during the short seal season each year, men have literally waded +through the bloody gore of the helpless animals, which they have clubbed +to death by thousands that women may be handsomely clothed.</p> + +<p>The surviving members of Vitus Behring's ill-starred expedition carried +back with them a large number of skins of the valuable sea-otter. From +that date—1742—until about 1770 the promyshleniki engaged in such an +unresting slaughter of the otter that it was almost exterminated.</p> + +<p>In desperation, they turned, then, to the chase of the fur-seal, and for +years sought in vain for the rumored breeding-grounds of this pelagic +animal. The islands of St. Paul and St. George were finally discovered +in 1786, by Gerassim Pribyloff, who heard the seals barking and roaring +through the heavy fogs, and, sailing cautiously on, surprised them as +they lay in polygamous groups by the million upon the rocky shores.</p> + +<p>Pribyloff was the son of a sailor who had accompanied Behring on the +<i>St. Peter</i>. He modestly named his priceless discovery "Subov," for the +captain and part owner of the trading association for which he worked. +He himself was not engaged in sealing, but was simply the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> mate of +the sloop <i>St. George</i>. The Russians, however, renamed the islands for +their discoverer; and happily the name has endured.</p> + +<p>St. George Island is ten miles in length by from two to four in width. +It is higher than the larger St. Paul, which lies twenty-seven miles +farther north, and rises more abruptly from the water.</p> + +<p>The temperature of these islands is not low, rarely falling to zero; but +the wind blows at so great velocity that frequently for days at a time +the natives can only go from one place to another by crawling upon their +hands and knees.</p> + +<p>To conserve the sealing industry, after the purchase of Alaska, the +exclusive privilege of killing seals on these islands was granted to the +Alaska Commercial Company for a period of twenty years. When this lease +expired in 1890, a new one was made out for a like period to the North +American Commercial Company, which still holds possession. The company +has agents on both islands, and the government maintains an agent and +his assistant on St. Paul Island, and an assistant on St. George, to +enforce the terms of the concession.</p> + +<p>When the Russians first took possession of the Pribyloff Islands, they +brought several hundred Aleutians and established them upon the islands +in sod houses, where they were held under the usual slave-like +conditions of this abused people. They were miserably housed and fed, +received only the smallest wage,—from which they were compelled to +contribute to the support of the church,—and were held, against their +wishes, upon these dreary and inhospitable shores.</p> + +<p>With the coming of the American companies all was changed. Comfortable, +clean habitations of frame were erected for them; their pay was +increased from ten to forty cents each for the removal of pelts; schools +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> hospitals were provided, children being compelled to attend the +former; and the sale of intoxicating liquors was prohibited. There are +between a hundred and fifty and two hundred natives on the islands at +present.</p> + +<p>The houses are lined with tar paper, painted white, with red roofs, and +furnished with stoves. There are streets and large storehouses, and the +village presents an attractive appearance.</p> + +<p>As a result of good care, food, and cleanliness, the natives are able to +do twice the amount of work accomplished by the same number under the +old conditions. They are healthier, happier, and more industrious.</p> + +<p>The value of the fur-seal catch from the time of the purchase of Alaska +to the early part of the present decade was more than thirty-five +millions of dollars. In 1903 the yearly catch, however, had dwindled +from two millions at the time of discovery to twenty-two thousands.</p> + +<p>Indiscriminate and reckless slaughter, and particularly the pelagic +sealing carried on by poachers—it being impossible to distinguish the +males from the females at sea—have nearly exterminated the seals. They +will soon be as rare as the sea-otter, which vanished for the same +shameless reasons. In the government's lease it is provided that not +more than one hundred thousand seals shall be taken in a single year; +but of recent years the catch has fallen so far short of that number +that the annual rental, which was first set at sixty thousand dollars, +has had a sliding, diminishing scale until it has finally reached twelve +thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Great trouble has been experienced with pelagic sealers. Pelagic sealing +means simply following the seals on their way north and killing them in +the deep sea before they reach the breeding-grounds. There have been +American poachers, but the majority have been Canadians. The United +States government at first claimed exclusive rights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> to the seals, and +patrolled the waters of Behring Sea, as inland waters, frequently +seizing vessels belonging to other nations.</p> + +<p>The matter, after much bitter feeling on both sides, was finally +submitted to the "Paris Tribunal," which did not allow our claim to +exclusive sealing rights in Behring Sea. It, however, forbade pelagic +sealing within a zone of sixty miles of the Pribyloff islands.</p> + +<p>These waters are now patrolled by vessels of both nations; but Japanese +vessels are frequently transgressors, the Japanese claiming that they +are not bound by the regulations of the Paris Tribunal. Both British and +American sealers have been known to fly the Japanese flag when engaged +in pelagic sealing in forbidden waters. Trouble of a serious nature with +Japan may yet arise over this matter.</p> + +<p>The habits and the life of the seal are exceedingly interesting. In many +ways these graceful creatures are startlingly human-like, particularly +in their appealing, reproachful looks when a death-dealing blow is about +to be struck. Some, it is true, yield to a violent, fighting +rage,—growing more furious as their helplessness is realized,—and at +such times the eyes flame with the green and red fire of hate and +passion, and resemble the eyes of a human being possessed with rage and +terror.</p> + +<p>The bull seals have been called "beach-masters," "polygamists," and +"harem-lords."</p> + +<p>These old bulls, then, are the first to return to the breeding-grounds +in the spring. They begin to "haul out" upon the rocks during the first +week in May. Each locates upon his chosen "ground," and awaits the +arrival of the females, which does not occur until the last of June. +While awaiting their arrival, incessant and terrible fighting takes +place among the bulls, frequently to the death—so stubbornly and so +ferociously does each struggle to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> retain the place he has selected in +which to receive the females of his harem. The older the bull the more +successful is he both in love and in war; and woe betide any young and +bold bachelor who dares to pause for but an instant and cast tempting +glances at a gay and coquettish young favorite under an old bull's +protection. There is instant battle—in which the festive bachelor +invariably goes down.</p> + +<p>When the females arrive, a very orgy of fighting takes place. An old +bull swaggers down to the water, receives a graceful and beautiful +female, and beguiles her to his harem. If he but turn his back upon her +for an instant another bull seizes her and bears her bodily to his +harem; the first bull returns, and the fight is on—the female sometimes +being torn to pieces between them, because neither will give her up. The +bulls do not mind a small matter like that, however, there being so many +females; and it is never the desire for a special female that impels to +the fray, but the human-like lust to triumph over one who dares to set +himself up as a rival.</p> + +<p>The old bulls take possession of the lower rocks, and these they hold +from all comers, yet fighting, fighting, fighting, till they are +frequently but half-alive masses of torn flesh and fur.</p> + +<p>The bachelors are at last forced, foot by foot, past the harems to the +higher grounds, where they herd alone. As they are supposed to be the +only seals killed for their skin, they are forced by the drivers away +from the vicinity of the rookeries, to the higher slopes.</p> + +<p>These graceful creatures drag themselves on shore with pitiable +awkwardness and helplessness. They proceed painfully, with a kind of +rolling movement, uttering plaintive sounds that are neither barks nor +bleats. They easily become heated to exhaustion, and pause at every +opportunity to rest. When they sink down for this purpose,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> they either +separate their hind flippers, or draw them both to one side.</p> + +<p>They are driven carefully and are permitted frequent rests, as heating +ruins the fur. They usually rest and cool off, after reaching the +killing grounds, while the men are eating breakfast. By seven o'clock +the butchery begins.</p> + +<p>The seals are still brutally clubbed to death. The killers are spattered +with blood and bloody tufts of hair; and by-standers are said to have +been horribly pelted by eyeballs bursting like bullets from the sockets, +at the force of the blows. The killers aim to stun at the first blow; +but the poor things are often literally beaten to death. In either event +a sharp stabbing-knife is instantly run to its heart, to bleed it. The +crimson life-stream gushes forth, there is a violent quivering of the +great, jelly-like bulk; then, all is still. It is no longer a living, +beautiful, pleading-eyed animal, but only a portion of some dainty +gentlewoman's cloak. I have not seen it with my own eyes, but I have +heard, in ways which make me refuse to discredit it, that sometimes the +skinning is begun before the seal is dead; that sometimes the razor-like +knife is run down the belly before it is run to the heart—not in +useless cruelty, but because of the great need of haste. The tender, +beseeching eyes, touching cries, and unavailing attempts to escape, of +the seal that is being clubbed to death, are things to remember for the +rest of one's life. Strong men, unused to the horrible sight, flee from +it, sick and tortured with the pity of it; and surely no woman who has +ever beheld it could be tempted to buy sealskin.</p> + +<p>No effort is made to dispose of the dead bodies of the seals. They are +left where they are killed, and the stench arising therefrom is not +surpassed even in Belkoffski. It nauseates the white inhabitants of the +islands, and drifts out to sea for miles to meet and salute the visitor. +It is, however, caviar to the native nostril.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XL</h2> + + +<p>Authorities differ as to the proper boundaries of Bristol Bay, but it +may be said to be the vast indentation of Behring Sea lying east of a +line drawn from Unimak Island to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River; or, +possibly, from Scotch Cap to Cape Newenham would be better. The +commercial salmon fisheries of this district are on the Ugashik, Egegak, +Naknek, Kvichak, Nushagak, and Wood rivers and the sea-waters leading to +them.</p> + +<p>Nushagak Bay is about fifteen miles long and ten wide. It is exceedingly +shallow, and is obstructed by sand-bars and shoals. The +Redoubt-Alexandra was established at the mouth of the river in 1834 by +Kolmakoff.</p> + +<p>The rivers are all large and, with one exception,—Wood River,—drain +the western slope of the Aleutian Chain which, beginning on the western +shore of Cook Inlet, extends down the Aliaska Peninsula, crowning it +with fire and snow.</p> + +<p>There are several breaks in the range which afford easy portages from +Bristol Bay to the North Pacific. The rivers flowing into Bristol Bay +have lake sources and have been remarkably rich spawning-streams for +salmon.</p> + +<p>The present chain of islands known as the Aleutians is supposed to have +once belonged to the peninsula and to have been separated by volcanic +disturbances which are so common in the region.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_519.jpg" width="640" height="404" alt="Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle + +Four Beauties of Cape Prince of Wales with Sled Reindeer of the American +Missionary Herd" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle<br /> + +Four Beauties of Cape Prince of Wales with Sled Reindeer of the American +Missionary Herd</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span></p> + +<p>The interior of the Bristol Bay country has not been explored. It is +sparsely populated by Innuit, or Eskimo, who live in primitive fashion +in small settlements,—usually on high bluffs near a river. They make a +poor living by hunting and fishing. Their food is largely salmon, fresh +and dried; game, seal, and walrus are delicacies. The "higher" the food +the greater delicacy is it considered. Decayed salmon-heads and the +decaying carcass of a whale that has been cast upon the beach, by their +own abominable odors summon the natives for miles to a feast. Their food +is all cooked with rancid oil.</p> + +<p>Their dwellings are more primitive than those of the island natives, for +they have clung to the barabaras and other ancient structures that were +in use among the Aleutians when the Russians first discovered them. Near +these dwellings are the drying-frames—so familiar along the Yukon—from +which hang thousands of red-fleshed salmon drying in the sun. Little +houses are erected on rude pole scaffoldings, high out of the reach of +dogs, for the storing of this fish when it has become "ukala" and for +other provisions. These are everywhere known as "caches."</p> + +<p>The Innuit's summer home is very different from his winter home. It is +erected above ground, of small pole frames, roofed with skins and open +in front—somewhat like an Indian tepee. There is no opening in the +roof, all cooking being done in the open air in summer.</p> + +<p>These natives were once thrifty hunters and trappers of wild animals, +from the reindeer down to the beaver and marten, but the cannery life +has so debauched them that they have no strength left for this energetic +work.</p> + +<p>Formerly every Innuit settlement contained a "kashga," or town hall, +which was built after the fashion of all winter houses, only larger. +There the men gathered to talk and manage the affairs of their small +world. It was a kind of "corner grocery" or "back-room" of a village +drug store. The men usually slept there, and in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> mornings their +wives arose, cooked their breakfast, and carried it to them in the +kashga, turning their backs while their husbands ate—it being +considered exceedingly bad form for a woman to look at a man when he is +eating in public, although they think nothing of bathing together. The +habits of the people are nauseatingly filthy, and the interiors of their +dwellings must be seen to be appreciated.</p> + +<p>Near the canneries the natives obtain work during the summer, but soon +squander their wages in debauches and are left, when winter arrives, in +a starving condition.</p> + +<p>The season is very short in Bristol Bay, but the "run" of salmon is +enormous. When this district is operating thirteen canneries, it packs +each day two hundred and fifty thousand fish. In Nushagak Bay the fish +frequently run so heavily that they catch in the propellers of launches +and stop the engines.</p> + +<p>Bristol Bay has always been a dangerous locality to navigate. It is only +by the greatest vigilance and the most careful use of the lead, upon +approaching the shore, that disaster can be averted.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the canneries in this region are operated by the Alaska +Packers Association, which also operates the greater number of canneries +in Alaska.</p> + +<p>In 1907 the value of food fishes taken from Alaskan waters was nearly +ten millions of dollars; in the forty years since the purchase of that +country, one hundred millions, although up to 1885 the pack was +insignificant. At the present time it exceeds by more than half a +million cases the entire pack of British Columbia, Puget Sound, Columbia +River, and the Oregon and Washington coasts.</p> + +<p>In 1907 forty-four canneries packed salmon in Alaska, and those on +Bristol Bay were of the most importance.</p> + +<p>The Nushagak River rivals the Karluk as a salmon stream, but not in +picturesque beauty. The Nushagak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> and Wood rivers were both closed +during the past season by order of the President, to protect the salmon +industry of the future.</p> + +<p>Cod is abundant in Behring Sea, Bristol Bay, and south of the Aleutian, +Shumagin, and Kadiak islands, covering an area of thirty thousand miles. +Halibut is plentiful in all the waters of southeastern Alaska. This +stupid-looking fish is wiser than it appears, and declines to swim into +the parlor of a net. It is still caught by hook and line, is packed in +ice, and sent, by regular steamer, to Seattle—whence it goes in +refrigerator cars to the markets of the east.</p> + +<p>Herring, black cod, candle-fish, smelt, tom-cod, whitefish, black bass, +flounders, clams, crabs, mussels, shrimp, and five species of +trout—steelhead, Dolly Varden, cutthroat, rainbow, and lake—are all +found in abundance in Alaska.</p> + +<p>Cook, entering Bristol Bay in 1778, named it for the Earl of Bristol, +with difficulty avoiding its shoals. He saw the shoaled entrance to a +river which he called Bristol River, but which must have been the +Nushagak. He saw many salmon leaping, and found them in the maws of cod.</p> + +<p>The following day, seeing a high promontory, he sent Lieutenant +Williamson ashore. Possession of the country in his Majesty's name was +taken, and a bottle was left containing the names of Cook's ships and +the date of discovery. To the promontory was given the name which it +retains of Cape Newenham.</p> + +<p>Proceeding up the coast Cook met natives who were of a friendly +disposition, but who seemed unfamiliar with the sight of white men and +vessels; they were dressed somewhat like Aleutians, wearing, also, skin +hoods and wooden bonnets.</p> + +<p>The ships were caught in the shoals of Kuskokwim Bay, but Cook does not +appear to have discovered this great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> river, which is the second in size +of Alaskan rivers and whose length is nine hundred miles. In the bay the +tides have a fifty-foot rise and fall, entering in a tremendous bore. +This vicinity formerly furnished exceedingly fine black bear skins.</p> + +<p>Cook's surgeon died of consumption and was buried on an island which was +named Anderson, in his memory. Upon an island about four leagues in +circuit a rude sledge was found, and the name of Sledge Island was +bestowed upon it. He entered Norton Sound, but only "suspected" the +existence of a mighty river, completely missing the Yukon.</p> + +<p>He named the extreme western point of North America, which plunges out +into Behring Sea, almost meeting the East Cape of Siberia, Cape Prince +of Wales. In the centre of the strait are the two Diomede Islands, +between which the boundary line runs, one belonging to Russia, the other +to the United States.</p> + +<p>Cook sailed up into the Frozen Ocean and named Icy Cape, narrowly +missing disaster in the ice pack. There he saw many herds of sea-horses, +or walrus, lying upon the ice in companies numbering many hundreds. They +huddled over one another like swine, roaring and braying; so that in the +night or in a fog they gave warning of the nearness of ice. Some members +of the herd kept watch; they aroused those nearest to them and warned +them of the approach of enemies. Those, in turn, warned others, and so +the word was passed along in a kind of ripple until the entire herd was +awake. When fired upon, they tumbled one over another into the sea, in +the utmost confusion. The female defends her young to the very last, and +at the sacrifice of her own life, if necessary, fighting ferociously.</p> + +<p>The walrus does not in the least resemble a horse, and it is difficult +to understand whence the name arose. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> somewhat like a seal, only +much larger. Those found by Cook in the Arctic were from nine to twelve +feet in length and weighed about a thousand pounds. Their tusks have +always been valuable, and have greatly increased in value of recent +years, as the walrus diminish in number.</p> + +<p>Cook named Cape Denbigh and Cape Darby on either side of Norton Bay; and +Besborough Island south of Cape Denbigh.</p> + +<p>Going ashore, he encountered a family of natives which he and Captain +King describe in such wise that no one, having read the description, can +ever enter Norton Sound without recalling it. The family consisted of a +man, his wife, and a child; and a fourth person who bore the human +shape, and that was all, for he was the most horribly, the most +pitiably, deformed cripple ever seen, heard of, or imagined. The husband +was blind; and all were extremely unpleasant in appearance. The +underlips were bored.</p> + +<p>These natives would have evidently sold their souls for iron. For four +knives made out of old iron hoop, they traded four hundred pounds of +fish—and Cook must have lost his conscience overboard with his anchor +in Kuskokwim Bay. He recovered the anchor!</p> + +<p>He gave the girl-child a few beads, "whereupon the mother burst into +tears, then the father, then the cripple, and, at last, the girl +herself."</p> + +<p>Many different passages, or sentences, have been called "the most +pathetic ever written"; but, myself, I confess that I have never been so +powerfully or so lastingly moved by any sentence as I was when I first +read that one of Cook's. Almost equalling it, however, in pathos is the +simple account of Captain King's of his meeting with the same family. He +was on shore with a party obtaining wood when these people approached in +a canoe. He beckoned to them to land, and the husband and wife came +ashore. He gave the woman a knife, saying that he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> give her a +larger one for some fish. She made signs for him to follow them.</p> + +<p>"I had proceeded with them about a mile, when the man, in crossing a +stony beach, fell down and cut his foot very much. This made me stop, +upon which the woman pointed to the man's eyes, which, I observed, were +covered with a thick, white film. He afterward kept close to his wife, +who apprised him of the obstacles in his way. The woman had a little +child on her back, covered with a hood, and which I took for a bundle +until I heard it cry. At about two miles distant we came upon their open +skin-boat, which was turned on its side, the convex part toward the +wind, and served for their house. I was now made to perform a singular +operation upon the man's eyes. First, I was directed to hold my breath; +afterward, to breathe on the diseased eyes; and next, to spit on them. +The woman then took both my hands and, pressing them to his stomach, +held them there while she related some calamitous history of her family, +pointing sometimes to her husband, sometimes to a frightful cripple +belonging to the family, and sometimes to her child."</p> + +<p>Berries, birch, willow, alders, broom, and spruce were found. Beer was +brewed of the spruce.</p> + +<p>Cook now sailed past that divinely beautiful shore upon which St. +Michael's is situated, and named Stuart Island and Cape Stephens, but +did not hear the Yukon calling him. He did find shoal water, very much +discolored and muddy, and "inferred that a considerable river runs into +the sea." If he had only guessed <i>how</i> considerable! Passing south, he +named Clerk's, Gore's, and Pinnacle Islands, and returned to Unalaska.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLI</h2> + + +<p>A famous engineering feat was the building of the White Pass and Yukon +Railway from Skaguay to White Horse. Work was commenced on this road in +May, 1898, and finished in January, 1900.</p> + +<p>Its completion opened the interior of Alaska and the Klondike to the +world, and brought enduring fame to Mr. M. J. Heney, the builder, and +Mr. E. C. Hawkins, the engineer.</p> + +<p>In 1897 Mr. Heney went North to look for a pass through the Coast Range. +Up to that time travel to the Klondike had been about equally divided +between the Dyea, Skaguay, and Jack Dalton trails; the route by way of +the Stikine and Hootalinqua rivers; and the one to St. Michael's by +ocean steamers and thence up the Yukon by small and, at that time, +inferior steamers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Heney and his engineers at once grasped the possibilities of the +"Skaguay Trail." This pass was first explored and surveyed by Captain +Moore, of Mr. Ogilvie's survey of June, 1887, who named it White Pass, +for Honorable Thomas White, Canadian Minister of the Interior. It could +not have been more appropriately named, even though named for a man, as +there is never a day in the warmest weather that snow-peaks are not in +view to the traveller over this pass; while from September to June the +trains wind through sparkling and unbroken whiteness.</p> + +<p>Mr. Heney, coming out to finance the road, faced serious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> difficulties +and discouragements in America. Owing to the enormous cost of this short +piece of road, as planned, as well as the daring nature of its +conception, the boldest financiers of this country, upon investigation, +declined to entertain the proposition.</p> + +<p>Mr. Heney was a young man who, up to that time, although possessed of +great ability, had made no marked success—his opportunity not having as +yet presented itself.</p> + +<p>Recovering from his first disappointment, he undauntedly voyaged to +England, where some of the most conservative capitalists, moved and +convinced by his enthusiasm and his clear descriptions of the northern +country and its future, freely financed the railroad whose successful +building was to become one of the most brilliant achievements of the +century.</p> + +<p>They were entirely unacquainted with Mr. Heney, and after this proof of +confidence in him and his project, the word "fail" dropped out of the +English language, so far as the intrepid young builder was concerned.</p> + +<p>"After that," he said, "I <i>could not</i> fail."</p> + +<p>He returned and work was at once begun. A man big of body, mind, and +heart, he was specially fitted for the perilous and daring work. Calm, +low-voiced, compelling in repressed power and unswerving courage and +will, he was a harder worker than any of his men.</p> + +<p>Associated with him was a man equally large and equally gifted. Mr. +Hawkins is one of the most famous engineers of this country, if not of +any country.</p> + +<p>The difficult miles that these two men tramped; the long, long hours of +each day that they worked; the hardships that they endured, unflinching; +the appalling obstacles that they overcame—are a part of Alaskan +history.</p> + +<p>The first twenty miles of this road from Skaguay cost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> two millions of +dollars; the average cost to the summit was a hundred thousand dollars a +mile, and now and then a single mile cost a hundred and fifty thousand +dollars.</p> + +<p>The road is built on mountainsides so precipitous that men were +suspended from the heights above by ropes, to prevent disaster while +cutting grades. At one point a cliff a hundred and twenty feet high, +eighty feet deep, and twenty feet in width was blasted entirely away for +the road-bed.</p> + +<p>Thirty-five hundred men in all were employed in constructing the road, +but thirty of whom died, of accident and disease, during the +construction. Taking into consideration the perilous nature of the work, +the rigors of the winter climate, and the fact that work did not cease +during the worst weather, this is a remarkably small proportion.</p> + +<p>A force of finer men never built a railroad. Many were prospectors, +eager to work their way into the land of gold; others were graduates of +eastern colleges; all were self-respecting, energetic men.</p> + +<p>Skaguay is a thousand miles from Seattle; and from the latter city and +Vancouver, men, supplies, and all materials were shipped. This was not +one of the least of the hindrances to a rapid completion of the road. +Rich strikes were common occurrences at that time. In one day, after the +report of a new discovery in the Atlin country had reached headquarters, +fifteen hundred men drew their pay and stampeded for the new gold +fields.</p> + +<p>But all obstacles to the building of the road were surmounted. Within +eighteen months from the date of beginning work it was completed to +White Horse, a distance of one hundred and eleven miles, and trains were +running regularly.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A legend tells us that an old Indian chief saw the canoe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> of his son +upset in the waves lashed by the terrific winds that blow down between +the mountains. The lad was drowned before the helpless father's eyes, +and in his sorrow the old chief named the place Shkag-ua, or "Home of +the North Wind." It has been abbreviated to Skaguay; and has been even +further disfigured by a <i>w</i>, in place of the <i>u</i>.</p> + +<p>Between salt water and the foot of White Pass Trail, two miles up the +canyon, in the winter of 1897-1898, ten thousand men were camped. Some +were trying to get their outfits packed over the trail; others were +impatiently waiting for the completion of the wagon road which George A. +Brackett was building. This road was completed almost to the summit when +the railroad overtook it and bought its right of way. It is not ten +years old; yet it is always called "the <i>old</i> Brackett road."</p> + +<p>At half-past nine of a July morning our train left Skaguay for White +Horse. We traversed the entire length of the town before entering the +canyon. There are low, brown flats at the mouth of the river, which +spreads over them in shallow streams fringed with alders and +cottonwoods.</p> + +<p>Above, on both sides, rose the gray, stony cliffs. Here and there were +wooded slopes; others were rosy with fireweed that moved softly, like +clouds.</p> + +<p>We soon passed the ruined bridge of the Brackett road, the water +brawling noisily, gray-white, over the stones.</p> + +<p>Our train was a long one drawn by four engines. There were a +baggage-car, two passenger-cars, and twenty flat and freight cars loaded +with boilers, machinery, cattle, chickens, merchandise, and food-stuffs +of all kinds.</p> + +<p>After crossing Skaguay River the train turns back, climbing rapidly, and +Skaguay and Lynn Canal are seen shining in the distance.... We turn +again. The river foams between mountains of stone, hundreds of feet +below—so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> far below that the trees growing sparsely along its banks +seem as the tiniest shrubs.</p> + +<p>The Brackett road winds along the bed of the river, while the old White +Pass, or Heartbreak, Trail climbs and falls along the stone and +crumbling shale of the opposite mountain—in many places rising to an +altitude of several hundred feet, in others sinking to a level with the +river.</p> + +<p>The Brackett road ends at White Pass City, where, ten years ago, was the +largest tent-city in the world; and where now are only the crumbling +ruins of a couple of log cabins, silence, and loneliness.</p> + +<p>At White Pass City that was, the old Trail of Heartbreak leads up the +canyon of the north fork of the Skaguay, directly away from the +railroad. The latter makes a loop of many miles and returns to the +canyon hundreds of feet above its bed. The scenery is of constantly +increasing grandeur. Cascades, snow-peaks, glaciers, and overhanging +cliffs of stone make the way one of austere beauty. In two hours and a +half we climb leisurely, with frequent stops, from the level of the sea +to the summit of the pass; and although skirting peaks from five to +eight thousand feet in height, we pass through only one short tunnel.</p> + +<p>It is a thrilling experience. The rocking train clings to the leaning +wall of solid stone. A gulf of purple ether sinks sheer on the other +side—so sheer, so deep, that one dare not look too long or too intently +into its depth. Hundreds of feet below, the river roars through its +narrow banks, and in many places the train overhangs it. In others, +solid rock cliffs jut out boldly over the train.</p> + +<p>After passing through the tunnel, the train creeps across the steel +cantilever bridge which seems to have been flung, as a spider flings his +glistening threads, from cliff to cliff, two hundred and fifteen feet +above the river, foaming white over the immense boulders that here +barricade its headlong race to the sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span></p> + +<p>Beautiful and impressive though this trip is in the green time and the +bloom time of the year, it remains for the winter to make it sublime.</p> + +<p>The mountains are covered deeply with snow, which drifts to a tremendous +depth in canyons and cuts. Through these drifts the powerful rotary +snow-plough cleaves a white and glistening tunnel, along which the train +slowly makes its way. The fascinating element of momentary peril—of +snow-slides burying the train—enters into the winter trip.</p> + +<p>Near Clifton one looks down upon an immense block of stone, the size of +a house but perfectly flat, beneath which three men were buried by a +blast during the building of the road. The stone is covered with grass +and flowers and is marked with a white cross.</p> + +<p>At the summit, twenty miles from Skaguay, is a red station named White +Pass. A monument marks the boundary between the United States and Yukon +Territory. The American flag floats on one side, the Canadian on the +other. A cone of rocks on the crest of the hill leading away from the +sea marks the direction the boundary takes.</p> + +<p>The White Pass Railway has an average grade of three per cent, and it +ascends with gradual, splendid sweeps around mountainsides and +projecting cliffs.</p> + +<p>The old trail is frequently called "Dead Horse Trail." Thousands of +horses and mules were employed by the stampeders. The poor beasts were +overloaded, overworked, and, in many instances, treated with unspeakable +cruelty. It was one of the shames of the century, and no humane person +can ever remember it without horror.</p> + +<p>At one time in 1897 more than five thousand dead horses were counted on +the trail. Some had lost their footing and were dashed to death on the +rocks below; others had sunken under their cruel burdens in utter +exhaustion;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> others had been shot; and still others had been brutally +abandoned and had slowly starved to death.</p> + +<p>"What became of the horses," I asked an old stampeder, "when you reached +Lake Bennett? Did you sell them?"</p> + +<p>"Lord, no, ma'am," returned he, politely; "there wa'n't nothing left of +'em to sell. You see, they was dead."</p> + +<p>"But I mean the ones that did not die."</p> + +<p>"There wa'n't any of that kind, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," I asked, in dismay, "that they all died?—that none +survived that awful experience?"</p> + +<p>"That's about it, ma'am. When we got to Lake Bennett there wa'n't any +more use for horses. Nobody was goin' the other way—and if they had +been, the horses that reached Lake Bennett wa'n't fit to stand alone, +let alone pack. The ones that wa'n't shot, died of starvation. Yes, +ma'am, it made a man's soul sick."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Boundary lines are interesting in all parts of the world; but the one at +the summit of the White Pass is of unusual historic interest. Side by +side float the flags of America and Canada. They are about twenty yards +from the little station, and every passenger left the train and walked +to them, solely to experience a big patriotic American, or Canadian, +thrill; to strut, glow, and walk back to the train again. Myself, I gave +thanks to God, silently and alone, that those two flags were floating +side by side there on that mountain, beside the little sapphire lake, +instead of at the head of Chilkoot Inlet.</p> + +<p>There are Canadian and United States inspectors of customs at the +summit; also a railway agent. Their families live there with them, and +there is no one else and nothing else, save the little sapphire lake +lying in the bare hills.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span></p> + +<p>Its blue waves lipped the porch whereon sat the young, sweet-faced wife +of the Canadian inspector, with her baby in its carriage at her side.</p> + +<p>This bit of liquid sapphire, scarcely larger than an artificial pond in +a park, is really one of the chief sources of the Yukon—which, had +these clear waters turned toward Lynn Canal, instead of away from it, +might have never been. It seems so marvellous. The merest breath, in the +beginning, might have toppled their liquid bulk over into the canyon +through which we had so slowly and so enchantingly mounted, and in an +hour or two they might have forced their foaming, furious way to the +ocean. But some power turned the blue waters to the north and set them +singing down through the beautiful chain of lakes—Lindeman, Bennett, +Tagish, Marsh, Labarge—winding, widening, past ramparts and mountains, +through canyons and plains, to Behring Sea, twenty-three hundred miles +from this lonely spot.</p> + +<p>This beginning of the Yukon is called the Lewes River. Far away, in the +Pelly Mountains, the Pelly River rises and flows down to its confluence +with the Lewes at old Fort Selkirk, and the Yukon is born of their +union.</p> + +<p>The Lewes has many tributaries, the most important of which is the +Hootalinqua—or, as the Indians named it, Teslin—having its source in +Teslin Lake, near the source of the Stikine River.</p> + +<p>After leaving the summit the railway follows the shores of the river and +the lakes, and the way is one of loveliness rather than grandeur. The +saltish atmosphere is left behind, and the air tings with the sweetness +of mountain and lake.</p> + +<p>We had eaten an early breakfast, and we did not reach an eating station +until we arrived at the head of Lake Bennett at half after one o'clock; +and then we were given fifteen minutes in which to eat our lunch and get +back to the train.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span></p> + +<p>I do not think I have ever been so hungry in my life—and <i>fifteen +minutes</i>! The dining room was clean and attractive; two long, narrow +tables, or counters, extended the entire length of the room. They were +decorated with great bouquets of wild flowers; the sweet air from the +lake blew in through open windows and shook the white curtains out into +the room.</p> + +<p>The tables were provided with good food, all ready to be eaten. There +were ham sandwiches made of lean ham. It was not edged with fat and +embittered with mustard; it must have been baked, too, because no boiled +ham could be so sweet. There were big brown lima beans, also baked, not +boiled, and dill-pickles—no insipid pin-moneys, but good, sour, +delicious dills! There were salads, home-made bread, "salt-rising" bread +and butter, cakes and cookies and fruit—and huckleberry pie. +Blueberries, they are called in Alaska, but they are our own mountain +huckleberries.</p> + +<p>No twelve-course luncheon, with a different wine for each course, could +impress itself upon my memory as did that lunch-counter meal. We ate as +children eat; with their pure, animal enjoyment and satisfaction. For +fifteen minutes we had not a desire in the world save to gratify our +appetites with plain, wholesome food. There was no crowding, no +selfishness and rudeness,—as there had been in that wild scene on the +excursion-boat, where the struggle had been for place rather than for +food,—but a polite consideration for one another. And outside the sun +shone, the blue waves sparkled and rippled along the shore, and their +music came in through the open windows.</p> + +<p>Here, in 1897, was a city of tents. Several thousand men and women +camped here, waiting for the completion of boats and rafts to convey +themselves and their outfits down the lakes and the river to the golden +land of their dreams.</p> + +<p>Standing between cars, clinging to a rattling brake, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> made the +acquaintance of Cyanide Bill, and he told me about it.</p> + +<p>"Tents!" said he. "Did you say tents? Hunh! Why, lady, tents was as +thick here in '97 and '98 as seeds on a strawberry. They was so thick it +took a man an hour to find his own. Hunh! You tripped up every other +step on a tent-peg. I guess nobody knows anything about tents unless he +was mushin' around Lake Bennett in the summer of '97. From five to ten +thousand men and women was camped here off an' on. Fresh ones by the +hundred come strugglin', sweatin', dyin', in over the trail every day, +and every day hundreds got their rafts finished, bundled their things +and theirselves on to 'em, and went tearin' and yellin' down the lake, +gloatin' over the poor tired-out wretches that just got in. Often as not +they come sneakin' back afoot without any raft and without any outfit +and worked their way back to the states to get another. Them that went +slow, went sure, and got in ahead of the rushers.</p> + +<p>"I wisht you could of seen the tent town!—young fellows right out of +college flauntin' around as if they knew somethin'; old men, stooped and +gray-headed; gamblers, tin horns, cut-throats, and thieves; honest +women, workin' their way in with their husbands or sons, their noses +bent to the earth, with heavy packs on their backs, like men; and gay, +painted dance-hall girls, sailin' past 'em on horseback and dressed to +kill and livin' on the fat of the land. I bet more good women went to +the bad on this here layout than you could shake a stick at. It seemed +to get on to their nerves to struggle along, week after week, packin' +like animals, sufferin' like dogs, et up by mosquitoes and gnats, pushed +and crowded out by men—and then to see them gay girls go singin' by, +livin' on luxuries, men fallin' all over theirselves to wait on 'em, +champagne to drink—it sure did get on to their nerves!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_536.jpg" width="640" height="405" alt="Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle + +Council City and Solomon River Railroad—A Characteristic Landscape of +Seward Peninsula" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle<br /> + +Council City and Solomon River Railroad—A Characteristic Landscape of +Seward Peninsula</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You see, somehow, up here, in them days, things didn't seem the way +they do down below. Nature kind of gets in her work ahead of custom up +here. Wrong don't look so terrible different from right to a woman a +thousand miles from civilization. When she sees women all around her +walkin' on flowers, and her own feet blistered and bleedin' on stones +and thorns, she's pretty apt to ask herself whether bein' good and +workin' like a horse pays. And up here on the trail in '97 the minute a +woman begun to ask herself that question, it was all up with her. The +end was in plain sight, like the nose on a man's face. The dance hall on +in Dawson answered the question practical.</p> + +<p>"Of course, lots of 'em went in straight and stayed straight; and +they're the ones that made Dawson and saved Dawson. You get a handful of +good women located in a minin'-camp and you can build up a town, and you +can't do it before, mounted police or no mounted police."</p> + +<p>I had heard these hard truths of the Trail of Heartbreak before; but +having been worded more vaguely, they had not impressed me as they did +now, spoken with the plain, honest directness of the old trail days.</p> + +<p>"If you want straight facts about '97," the collector had said to me, +"I'll introduce you to Cyanide Bill, out there. He was all through here +time and again. He will tell you everything you want to know. But be +careful what you ask him; he'll answer anything—and he doesn't talk +parlor."</p> + +<p>"The hardships such women went through," continued Cyanide Bill, "the +insults and humiliations they faced and lived down, ought to of set 'em +on a pe-<i>des</i>-tal when all was said and done and decency had the upper +hand. The time come when the other'ns got their come-upin's; when they +found out whether it paid to live straight.</p> + +<p>"The world'll never see such a rush for gold again," went on Cyanide +Bill, after a pause. "I tell you it takes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> a lot to make any impress on +me, I've been toughenin' up in this country so many years; but when I +arrives and sees the orgy goin' on along this trail, my heart up and +stood still a spell. The strong ones was all a-trompin' the weak ones +down. The weak ones went down and out, and the strong ones never looked +behind. Men just went crazy. Men that had always been kind-hearted went +plumb locoed and 'u'd trample down their best friend, to get ahead of +him. They got just like brutes and didn't know their own selves. It's no +wonder the best women give up. Did you ever hear the story of Lady +Belle?"</p> + +<p>I remembered Lady Belle, probably because of the name, but I had never +heard the details of her tragic story, and I frankly confessed that I +would like to hear them—"parlor" language or "trail," it mattered not.</p> + +<p>"Well,"—he half closed his eyes and stared down the blue lake,—"she +come along this trail the first of July, the prettiest woman you ever +laid eyes on. Her husband was with her. He seemed to be kind to her at +first, but the horrors of the trail worked on him, and he went kind of +locoed. He took to abusin' her and blamin' her for everything. She +worked like a dog and he treated her about like one; but she never lost +her beauty nor her sweetness. She had the sweetest smile I ever saw on +any human bein's face; and she was the only one that thought about +others.</p> + +<p>"'Don't crowd!' she used to cry, with that smile of her'n. 'We're all +havin' a hard time together.'</p> + +<p>"Well, they lost their outfit in White Horse Rapids; her husband cursed +her and said it wouldn't of happened if she hadn't been hell-bent to +come along; he took to drinkin' and up and left her there at the rapids. +He went back to the states, sayin' he didn't ever want to see her again.</p> + +<p>"She was left there without an ounce of grub or a cent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> of money. +Yakataga Pete had been workin' along the trail with a big outfit, and +had gone on in ahead. He'd fell in love with her before he knew she was +married. He went on up into the cricks, and when he come down to Dawson +six months later, she was in a dance hall. Dawson was wild about her. +They called her Lady Belle because she was always such a lady.</p> + +<p>"Yakataga went straight to her and asked her to marry him. She burst out +into the most terrible cryin' you ever hear. 'As if I could ever marry +anybody!' she cries out; and that's all the answer he ever got. We found +out she had a little blind sister down in the states. She had to send +money to keep her in a blind school. She danced and acted cheerful; but +her face was as white as chalk, and her big dark eyes looked like a +fawn's eyes when you've shot it and not quite killed it, so's it can't +get away from you, nor die, nor anything; but she was always just as +sweet as ever.</p> + +<p>"Two months after that she—she—killed herself. Yakataga was up in the +cricks. He come down and buried her."</p> + +<p>It was told, the simple and tragic tale of Lady Belle, and presently +Cyanide Bill went away and left me.</p> + +<p>The breeze grew cooler; it crested the waves with silver. Pearly clouds +floated slowly overhead and were reflected in the depths below.</p> + +<p>The mountains surrounding Lake Bennett are of an unusual color. It is a +soft old-rose in the distance. The color is not caused by light and +shade; nor by the sun; nor by flowers. It is the color of the mountains +themselves. They are said to be almost solid mountains of iron, which +gives them their name of "Iron-Crowned," I believe; but to me they will +always be the Rose-colored Mountains. They soften and enrich the +sparkling, almost dazzling, blue atmosphere, and give the horizon a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> +look of sunset even at midday. The color reminded me of the dull +old-rose of Columbia Glacier.</p> + +<p>Lake Bennett dashes its foam-crested blue waves along the pebbly beaches +and stone terraces for a distance of twenty-seven miles. At its widest +it is not more than two miles, and it narrows in places to less than +half a mile. It winds and curves like a river.</p> + +<p>The railway runs along the eastern shore of the lake, and mountains +slope abruptly from the opposite shore to a height of five thousand +feet. The scenery is never monotonous. It charms constantly, and the air +keeps the traveller as fresh and sparkling in spirit as champagne.</p> + +<p>For many miles a solid road-bed, four or five feet above the water, is +hewn out of the base of the mountains; the terrace from the railway to +the water is a solid blaze of bloom; white sails, blown full, drift up +and down the blue water avenue; cloud-fragments move silently over the +nearer rose-colored mountains; while in the distance, in every direction +that the eye may turn, the enchanted traveller is saluted by some lonely +and beautiful peak of snow. It is an exquisitely lovely lake.</p> + +<p>We had passed Lake Lindeman—named by Lieutenant Schwatka for Dr. +Lindeman of the Breman Geographical Society—before reaching Bennett.</p> + +<p>Lake Lindeman is a clear and lovely lake seven miles long, half a mile +wide, and of a good depth for any navigation required here. A mountain +stream pours tumultuously into it, adding to its picturesque beauty.</p> + +<p>Sea birds haunt these lakes, drift on to the Yukon, and follow the +voyager until they meet their silvery fellows coming up from Behring +Sea.</p> + +<p>Between Lakes Lindeman and Bennett the river connecting link is only +three quarters of a mile long, about thirty yards wide, and only two or +three feet deep. It is filled with shoals, rapids, cascades, boulders, +and bars;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> and navigation is rendered so difficult and so dangerous that +in the old "raft" days outfits were usually portaged to Lake Bennett.</p> + +<p>During the rush to the Klondike a saw-mill was established at the head +of Lake Bennett, and lumber for boat building was sold for one hundred +dollars a thousand feet.</p> + +<p>The air in these lake valleys on a warm day is indescribably soft and +balmy. It is scented with pine, balm, cottonwood, and flowers. The lower +slopes are covered with fireweed, larkspur, dandelions, monk's-hood, +purple asters, marguerites, wild roses, dwarf goldenrod, and many other +varieties of wild flowers. The fireweed is of special beauty. Its blooms +are larger and of a richer red than along the coast. Blooms covering +acres of hillside seem to float like a rosy mist suspended in the +atmosphere. The grasses are also very beautiful, some having the rich, +changeable tints of a humming-bird.</p> + +<p>The short stream a couple of hundred yards in width connecting Lake +Bennett with the next lake—a very small, but pretty one which Schwatka +named Nares—was called by the natives "the place where the caribou +cross," and now bears the name of Caribou Crossing. At certain seasons +the caribou were supposed to cross this part of the river in vast herds +on their way to different feeding-grounds, the current being very +shallow at this point.</p> + +<p>There is a small settlement here now, and boats were waiting to carry +passengers to the Atlin mining district. The caribou have now found less +populous territories in which to range. In the winter of 1907-1908 they +ranged in droves of many thousands—some reports said hundreds of +thousands—through the hills and valleys of the Stewart, Klondike, and +Sixty-Mile rivers, in the Upper Yukon country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span></p> + +<p>Miners killed them by the hundreds, dressed them, and stored them in the +shafts and tunnels of their mines, down in the eternally frozen caverns +of the earth—thus supplying themselves with the most delicious meat for +a year. The trek of caribou from the Tanana River valley to the head of +White River consumed more than ninety days in passing the head of the +Forty-Mile valley—at least a thousand a day passing during that period. +They covered from one to five miles in width, and trod the snow down as +solidly as it is trodden in a city street. A great wolf-pack clung to +the flank of the herd. The wolves easily cut out the weak or tired-out +caribou and devoured them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Caribou Crossing is a lonely and desolate cluster of tents and cabins +huddling in the sand on the water's edge. Considerable business is +transacted here, and many passengers transfer here in summer to Atlin. +In winter they leave the train at Log-Cabin, which we passed during the +forenoon, and make the journey overland in sleighs.</p> + +<p>The voyage from Caribou Crossing to Atlin is by way of a chain of blue +lakes, pearled by snow mountains. It is a popular round-trip tourist +trip, which may be taken with but little extra expense from Skaguay.</p> + +<p>Tagish Lake, as it was named by Dr. Dawson,—the distinguished British +explorer and chief director of the natural history and geological survey +of the Dominion of Canada,—was also known as Bove Lake. Ten miles from +its head it is joined by Taku Arm—Tahk-o Lake, it was called by +Schwatka.</p> + +<p>The shores of Tagish Lake are terraced beautifully to the water, the +terraces rising evenly one above another. They were probably formed by +the regular movement of ice in other ages, when the waters in these +valleys were deeper and wider. There are some striking points of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> +limestone in this vicinity, their pearl-white shoulders gleaming +brilliantly in the sunshine, with sparkling blue waves dashing against +them.</p> + +<p>Marsh Lake, and another with a name so distasteful that I will not write +it, are further links in the brilliant sapphire water chain by which the +courageous voyagers of the Heartbreak days used to drift hopefully, yet +fearfully, down to the Klondike. The bed of a lake which was +unintentionally drained completely dry by the builders of the railroad +is passed just before reaching Grand Canyon.</p> + +<p>The train pauses at the canyon and again at White Horse Rapids, to give +passengers a glimpse of these famed and dreaded places of navigation of +a decade ago.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock in the evening of the day we left Skaguay we reached +White Horse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLII</h2> + + +<p>This is a new, clean, wooden town, the first of any importance in Yukon +Territory. It has about fifteen hundred inhabitants, is the terminus of +the railroad, and is growing rapidly. The town is on the banks of Lewes +River, or, as they call it here, the Yukon.</p> + +<p>There is an air of tidiness, order, and thrift about this town which is +never found in a frontier town in "the states." There are no old +newspapers huddled into gutters, nor blowing up and down the street. Men +do not stand on corners with their hands in their pockets, or whittling +out toothpicks, and waiting for a railroad to be built or a mine to be +discovered. They walk the streets with the manner of men who have work +to do and who feel that life is worth while, even on the outposts of +civilization.</p> + +<p>All passengers, freight, and supplies for the interior now pass through +White Horse. The river bank is lined with vast warehouses which, by the +time the river opens in June, are piled to the roofs with freight. The +shipments of heavy machinery are large. From the river one can see +little besides these warehouses, the shipyards to the south, and the +hills.</p> + +<p>Passing through the depot one is confronted by the largest hotel, the +White Pass, directly across the street. To this we walked; and from an +upstairs window had a good view of the town. The streets are wide and +level; the whole town site is as level as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> parade-ground. The +buildings are frame and log; merchandise is fair in quality and style, +and in price, high. Mounted police strut stiffly and importantly up and +down the streets to and from their picturesque log barracks. One +unconsciously holds one's chin level and one's shoulders high the +instant one enters a Yukon town. It is in the air.</p> + +<p>Excellent grounds are provided for all outdoor sports; and in the +evening every man one meets has a tennis racket or a golf stick in his +hand, and on his face that look of enthusiastic anticipation which is +seen only on a British sportsman's face. No American, however +enthusiastic or "keen" he may be on outdoor sports, ever quite gets that +look.</p> + +<p>There was no key to our door. Furthermore, the door would not even close +securely, but remained a few hair breadths ajar. There was no bell; but +on our way down to dinner, having left some valuables in our room, we +reported the matter to a porter whom we met in the hall, and asked him +to lock our door.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't lock," he replied politely. "It doesn't even latch, and the +key is lost."</p> + +<p>Observing our amazed faces, he added, smiling:—</p> + +<p>"You don't need it, ladies. You will be as safe as you would be at home. +We never lock doors in White Horse."</p> + +<p>This was my first Yukon shock, but not my last. My faith in mounted +police has always been strong, but it went down before that unlocked +door.</p> + +<p>"Possibly the people of White Horse never take what does not belong to +them," I said; "but a hundred strangers came in on that train. Might not +<i>one</i> be afflicted with kleptomania?"</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't steal here," said the boy, confidently. "Nobody ever +does."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span></p> + +<p>There seemed to be nothing more to say. We left our door ajar and, with +lingering backward glances, went down to the dining room.</p> + +<p>Never shall I forget that dinner. It was as bad as our lunch had been +good. The room was hot; the table-cloth was far from being immaculate; +the waitress was untidy and ill-bred; and there was nothing that we +could eat.</p> + +<p>Nor were we fastidious. We neither expected, nor desired, luxuries; we +asked only well-cooked, clean, wholesome food; but if this is to be +obtained in White Horse, we found it not—although we did not cease +trying while we were there.</p> + +<p>We went out and walked the clean streets and looked into restaurants, +and tried to see something good to eat, or at least a clean table-cloth; +but in the end we went hungry to bed. We had wine and graham wafers in +our bags, and they consoled; but we craved something substantial, +notwithstanding our hearty lunch. It was the air—the light, fresh, +sparkling air of mountain, river, and lake—that gave us our appetites.</p> + +<p>When we had walked until our feet could no longer support us, we +returned to the hotel. On the way, we saw a sign announcing ice-cream +soda. We went in and asked for some, but the ice-cream was "all out."</p> + +<p>"But we have plain soda," said the man, looking so wistful that we at +once decided to have some, although we both detested it.</p> + +<p>He fizzed it elaborately into two very small glasses and led us back +into a little dark room, where were chairs and tables, and he gave us +spoons with which to eat our plain soda. "Let me pay," said my friend, +airily; and she put ten cents on the table.</p> + +<p>The man looked at it and grinned. He did not smile; he grinned. Then he +went away and left it lying there.</p> + +<p>We tried to drink the soda-water; then we tried to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> coax it through +straws; finally we tried to eat it with spoons—as others about us were +doing; but we could not. It looked like soap-bubbles and it tasted like +soap-bubbles.</p> + +<p>"He didn't see his ten cents," said my friend, gathering it up. "I +suppose one pays at the counter out there. I would cheerfully pay him an +extra ten if I had not gotten the taste of the abominable stuff in my +mouth."</p> + +<p>She laid the ten cents on the counter grudgingly.</p> + +<p>The man looked at it and grinned again.</p> + +<p>"Them things don't go here," said he. "It's fifty cents."</p> + +<p>There was a silence. I found my handkerchief and laughed into it, +wishing I had taken a second glass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," said she, slowly and sweetly, as a half-dollar slid +lingering down her fingers to the counter. "For the spoons. They were +worth it."</p> + +<p>It was two o'clock before we could leave our windows that night. It was +not dark, not even dusk. A kind of blue-white light lay over the town +and valley, deepening toward the hills. In the air was that delicious +quality which charms the senses like perfumes. Only to breathe it in was +a drowsy, languorous joy. At White Horse one opens the magic, invisible +gate and passes into the enchanted land of Forgetfulness—and the gate +swings shut behind one.</p> + +<p>Home and friends seem far away. If every soul that one loves were at +death's door, one could not get home in time to say farewell—so why not +banish care and enjoy each hour as it comes?</p> + +<p>This is the same reckless spirit which, greatly intensified, possessed +desperate men when they went to the Klondike ten years ago. There was no +telegraph, then, and mails were carried in only once or twice a year. +Letters were lost. Men did not hear from their wives,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> and, discouraged +and disheartened, decided that the women had died or had forgotten; so +they went the way of the country, and it often came to pass that +Heartbreak Trail led to the Land of Heartbreak.</p> + +<p>In the morning we learned that the boat for Dawson was not yet "in," +and, even if it should arrive during the day,—which seemed to be as +uncertain as the opening of the river in spring,—would not leave until +some time during the night; so at nine o'clock we took the Skaguay train +for the Grand Canyon.</p> + +<p>One "oldest" resident of White Horse told us that it was only a mile to +the canyon; another oldest one, that it was four miles; still another, +that it was five; all agreed that we should take the train out and walk +back.</p> + +<p>"There's a tram," they told us, "an old, abandoned tram, and you can't +get lost. You've only to follow the tram. Why, a <i>goose</i> couldn't get +lost. Norman McCauley built the tram, and outfits were portaged around +the canyon and the rapids two seasons; then the railroad come in and the +tram went out of business."</p> + +<p>We took our bundles of mosquito netting and boarded the train. In summer +the travel is all "in," and we were the only passengers. When the White +Pass Railway Company was organized, stock was worth ten dollars a share; +now it is worth six hundred and fifty dollars, and it is not for sale. +Freight rates are five cents a pound, one hundred dollars a ton, or +fifty in car-load lots, from Skaguay to White Horse. Passenger rates are +supposed to be twenty cents a mile. We paid seventy-five cents to return +to the canyon which we passed the previous day. This rate should make +the distance four miles, and we barely had time to arrange our mosquito +veils, according to the instructions of the conductor, when the train +stopped.</p> + +<p>We were told that we might not see a mosquito; and again, that we might +not be able to see anything else.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span></p> + +<p>We were put off and left standing ankle-deep in sand, on the brink of a +precipice, four miles from any human being—in the wilds of Alaska. At +that moment the trainmen looked like old and dear friends.</p> + +<p>"The path down is right in front of you," the collector called, as the +train started. "Don't be afraid of the bears! They will not harm you at +this time of the year."</p> + +<p>Bears!</p> + +<p>We had considered heat, mosquitoes, losing our way, hunger, +exhaustion,—everything, it appeared, except bears. We looked at one +another.</p> + +<p>"I had not thought of bears."</p> + +<p>"Nor had I."</p> + +<p>We looked down at the bushes growing along the canyon; little heat-worms +glimmered in the still atmosphere.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is an Alaskan joke," I suggested feebly.</p> + +<p>We stood for some time trying to decide whether we should make the +descent or return to White Horse, when suddenly the matter was decided +for us. I was standing on the brink of the sandy precipice, down which a +path went, almost perpendicularly, without bend or pause, to the bank of +the river several hundred yards below.</p> + +<p>The sandy soil upon which I stood suddenly caved and went down into the +path. I went with it. I landed several yards below the brink, gave one +cry, and then—by no will of my own—was off for the canyon.</p> + +<p>The caving of the brink had started a sand and gravel slide; and I, +knee-deep in it, was going down with it—slowly, but oh, most surely. +There was no pausing, no looking back. I could hear my companion calling +to me to "stop"; to "wait"; to "be careful"—and all her entreaties were +the bitterest irony by the time they floated down to me. So long as the +slide did not stop, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> useless to tell me to do so; for I was +embedded in it halfway to my waist. We kept going, slowly and +hesitatingly; but never slowly enough for me to get out.</p> + +<p>It was eighty in the shade, and the sand was hot. I was wearing a white +waist, a dark blue cheviot skirt, and patent-leather shoes; and my +appearance, when I finally reached level ground and cool alder trees, +may be imagined. Furthermore, our trunks had been bonded to Dawson, and +I had no extra skirts or shoes with me.</p> + +<p>My companion, profiting by my misfortune, had armed herself with an +alpenstock and was "tacking" down the slope. It was half an hour before +she arrived.</p> + +<p>I have never forgiven her for the way she laughed.</p> + +<p>We soon forgot the bears in the beauty of the scene before us. We even +forgot the comedy of my unwilling descent.</p> + +<p>The Lewes River gradually narrows from a width of three or four hundred +yards to one of about fifty yards at the mouth of the Grand Canyon, +which it enters in a great bore.</p> + +<p>The walls of the canyon are perpendicular columns and palisades of +basalt. They rise without bend to a height of from one to two hundred +feet, and then, set thickly with dark and gloomy spruce trees, slope +gradually into mountains of considerable height. The canyon is +five-eighths of a mile long, and in that interval the water drops thirty +feet. Halfway through, it widens abruptly into a round water chamber, or +basin, where the waters boil and seethe in dangerous whirlpools and +eddies. Then it again narrows, and the waters rush wildly and +tumultuously through walls of dark stone, veined with gray and lavender. +The current runs fifteen miles an hour, and rafts "shooting" the rapids +are hurled violently from side to side, pushed on end, spun round in +whirlpools, buried for seconds in boiling foam, and at last are shot +through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> the final narrow avenue like spears from a catapult—only to +plunge madly on to the more dangerous White Horse Rapids.</p> + +<p>The waves dash to a height of four or five feet and break into vast +sheets of spray and foam. Their roar, flung back by the stone walls, may +be heard for a long distance; and that of the rapids drifts over the +streets of White Horse like distant, continuous thunder, when all else +is still.</p> + +<p>We found a difficult way by which, with the assistance of alpenstocks +and overhanging tree branches, we could slide down to the very water, +just above Whirlpool Basin. We stood there long, thinking of the +tragedies that had been enacted in that short and lonely stretch; of the +lost outfits, the worn and wounded bodies, the spirits sore; of the +hearts that had gone through, beating high and strong with hope, and +that had returned broken. It is almost as poignantly interesting as the +old trail; and not for two generations, at least, will the perils of +those days be forgotten.</p> + +<p>It was about noon that, remembering our long walk, we turned reluctantly +and set out for White Horse.</p> + +<p>Somewhere back of the basin we lost our way. We could not find the +"tram"; searching for it, we got into a swamp and could not make our way +back to the river; and suddenly the mosquitoes were upon us.</p> + +<p>The underbrush was so thick that our netting was torn into shreds and +left in festoons and tatters upon every bush; yet I still bear in my +memory the vision of my friend floating like a tall, blond bride—for my +dark-haired Scotch friend was not with me on the Yukon voyage—through +the shadows of that swamp before her bridal veil went to pieces.</p> + +<p>Her bridal glory was grief. In a few moments we were both as black as +negroes with mosquitoes; for, desperately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span> though we fought, we could +not drive them away. The air in the swamp was heavy and still; our +progress was unspeakably difficult—through mire and tall, lush grasses +which, in any other country on earth, would have been alive with snakes +and crawling things.</p> + +<p>The pests bit and stung our faces, necks, shoulders, and arms; they even +swarmed about our ankles; while, for our hands—they were soon swollen +to twice their original size.</p> + +<p>We wept; we prayed; we said evil things in the hearing of heaven; we +asked God to forgive us our sins, or, at the very least, to punish us +for them in some other way; but I, at least, in the heaviest of my +afflictions, did not forget to thank Him because there are no snakes in +Alaska or the Yukon. It seemed to me, even, in the fervor of my +gratitude, that it had all been planned æons ago for our special benefit +in this extreme hour.</p> + +<p>But I shall spare the reader a further description of our sufferings.</p> + +<p>I had always considered the Alaskan mosquito a joke. I did not know that +they torture men and beasts to a terrible death. They mount in a black +mist from the grass; it is impossible for one to keep one's eyes open. +Dogs, bears, and strong men have been known to die of pain and nervous +exhaustion under their attacks.</p> + +<p>After an hour of torture we forced our way through the network of +underbrush back to the river, and soon found a narrow path. There was a +slight breeze, and the mosquitoes were not so aggressive. There was +still a three-mile walk, along the shore bordering the rapids, before we +could rest; and during the last mile each step caused such agony that we +almost crawled.</p> + +<p>When we removed our shoes, we found them full of blood. Our feet were +blistered; the blisters had broken and blistered again.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_555.jpg" width="640" height="405" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle + +Teller" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau Courtesy of Webster & +Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Teller</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span></p> + +<p>But we had seen the Grand Canyon of the Yukon—which Schwatka in an evil +hour named Miles, for the distinguished army-general—and White Horse +Rapids; and seeing them was worth the blisters and the blood. And we +know how far it is from the head of the canyon to White Horse town. No +matter what the three "oldest" settlers, the railway folders, Schwatka, +and all the others say,—<i>we know</i>. It is fifteen miles! Also, among +those who scoff at Rex Beach for having the villain in his last novel +eaten up by mosquitoes on the Yukon, we are not to be included.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Numerous and valuable copper mines lie within a radius of fifteen miles +from White Horse. The more important ones are those of the Pennsylvania +syndicate, The B. N. White Company, The Arctic Chief, The Grafter, the +Anaconda, and the Best Chance. The Puebla, operated by B. N. White, lies +four miles northwest of town. It makes a rich showing of magnetite, +carrying copper values averaging four and five per cent, with a small +by-product of gold and silver.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1907 this mine had in sight two hundred and fifty +thousand tons of pay ore. The deepest development then obtained had a +hundred-foot surface showing three hundred feet in width, and stripped +along with the strike of the vein seven hundred feet, showing a solid, +unbroken mass of ore. Tunnels and crosscuts driven from the bottom of +the shaft showed the body to be the same width and the values the same +as the surface outcrop.</p> + +<p>The Arctic Chief ranks second in importance; and extensive development +work is being carried on at all the mines. The railway is building out +into the mining district.</p> + +<p>Six-horse stages are run from White Horse to Dawson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> after the river +closes. The distance is four hundred and thirty-five miles; the fare in +the early autumn and late spring is a hundred and twenty-five dollars; +in winter, when sleighing is good, sixty dollars.</p> + +<p>White Horse was first named Closeleigh by the railway company; but the +name was not popular. At one place in the rapids the waves curving over +rocks somewhat resemble a white horse, with wildly floating mane and +tail of foam. This is said to be the origin of the name.</p> + +<p>White Horse is only eight years old. The hotel accommodations, if one +does not mind a little thing like not being able to eat, are good. The +rooms are clean and comfortable and filled with sweet mountain and river +air.</p> + +<p>At eight o'clock that evening the steamer <i>Dawson</i> struggled up the +river and landed within fifty yards of the hotel. We immediately went +aboard; but it was nine o'clock the next morning before we started, so +we had another night in White Horse.</p> + +<p>The Yukon steamers are four stories high, with a place for a roof +garden. I could do nothing for some time but regard the <i>Dawson</i> in +silent wonder. It seemed to glide along on the surface of the water, +like a smooth, flat stone when it is "skipped."</p> + +<p>The lower deck is within a few inches of the water; and high above is +the pilot-house, with its lonely-looking captain and pilot; and high, +oh, very high, above them—like a charred monarch of a Puget Sound +forest—rises the black smoke-stack, from which issue such vast funnels +of smoke and such slow and tremendous breathing.</p> + +<p>This breathing is a sound that haunts every memory of the Yukon. It is +not easy to describe, it is so slow and so powerful. It is not quite +like a cough—unless one could cough <i>in</i> instead of <i>out</i>; it is more +like a sobbing, shivering in-drawing of the breath of some mighty +animal. It echoes from point to point, and may be heard for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> several +miles on a still day. Day and night it moves through the upper air, and +floats on ahead, often echoing so insistently around some point which +the steamer has not turned, that the "cheechaco" is deluded into the +belief that another steamer is approaching.</p> + +<p>The captains and pilots of the Yukon are the loneliest-looking men! +First of all, they are so far away from everybody else; and second, +passengers, particularly women, are not permitted to be in the +pilot-house, nor on the texas, nor even on the hurricane-deck, of +steamers passing through Yukon Territory.</p> + +<p>Between White Horse and Lake Lebarge the river is about two hundred +yards wide. The water is smooth and deep. It loiters along the shore, +but the current is strong and bears the steamer down with a rush, +compelling it to zigzag ceaselessly from shore to shore.</p> + +<p>Going down the Yukon for the first time, one's heart stands still nearly +half the time. The steamer heads straight for one shore, approaches it +so closely that its bow is within six inches of it, and then swings +powerfully and starts for the opposite shore—its great stern wheel +barely clearing the rocky wall.</p> + +<p>The serious vexations and real dangers of navigation in this great +river, from source to mouth, are the sand and gravel bars. One may go +down the Yukon from White Horse to St. Michael in fourteen days; and one +may be a month on the way—pausing, by no will of his own, on various +sand-bars.</p> + +<p>The treacherous current changes hourly. It is seldom found twice the +same. It washes the sand from side to side, or heaps it up in the +middle—creating new channels and new dangers. The pilot can only be +cautious, untiringly watchful—and lucky. The rest he must leave to +heaven.</p> + +<p>It is twenty-seven miles from White Horse to Lake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span> Lebarge. Midway, the +Tahkeena River flows into the Lewes, running through banks of clay.</p> + +<p>Lake Lebarge is thirty-two miles long and three and a half wide. The day +was suave. The water was silvery blue, and as smooth as satin; gray, +deeply veined cliffs were reflected in the water, whose surface was not +disturbed by a ripple or wave; the air was soft; farther down the river +were forest fires, and just sufficient haze floated back to give the +milky old-rose lights of the opal to the atmosphere. There is one small +island in the lake. It was not named; and it received the name—as +Vancouver would say—of Fireweed Isle, because it floated like a rosy +cloud on the pale blue water.</p> + +<p>The Indians called this lake Kluk-tas-si, and Schwatka favored retaining +it; but the French name has endured, and it is not bad.</p> + +<p>The Lake Lebarge grayling and whitefish are justly famed. Steamers stop +at some lone fisherman's landing and take them down to Dawson, where +they find ready sale. At Lower Lebarge there is a post-office and a +telegraph station. Our steamer paused; two men came out in a boat, +delivered a large supply of fish, received a few parcels of mail, and +went swinging back across the water.</p> + +<p>A dreary log-cabin stood on the bank, labelled "Clark's Place." A woman +in a scarlet dress, walking through the reeds beside the beach, made a +bit of vivid color. It seemed very, very lonely—with that kind of +loneliness that is unendurable.</p> + +<p>A quarter of a mile farther, around a bend in the shore, the boat landed +at the telegraph station, where the Canadian flag was flying.</p> + +<p>The different reaches of the Yukon are called locally by very confusing +names. The river rising in Summit Lake on the White Pass railway is +called both Lewes and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> Yukon; the stretch immediately below Lake Lebarge +is called Lewes, Thirty-Mile, and Yukon. When we reach the old Hudson +Bay post of Selkirk, however, our perplexities over this matter are at +an end. The Pelly River here joins the Lewes, and all agree that the +splendid river that now surges on to the sea is the Yukon.</p> + +<p>It is daylight all the time, and no one should sleep between White Horse +and Dawson. Not an hour of this beautiful voyage on the Upper Yukon +should be wasted.</p> + +<p>The banks are high and bold, for the most part springing sheer out of +the water in columns and pinnacles of solid stone. There are also +forestated slopes rising to peaks of snow; and the same kind of clay +cliffs that we saw at White Horse, white and shining in the bluish light +of morning, but more beautiful still in the mysterious rosy shadows of +midnight.</p> + +<p>There are some striking columns of red rock along Lake Lebarge, and +their reflections in the water at sunset of a still evening are said to +be entrancing: "two warm pictures of rosy red in the sinking sun, joined +base to base by a thread of silver, at the edge of the other shore."</p> + +<p>There are many high hills of soft gray limestone, veined and shaded with +the green of spruce; vast slopes, timbered heavily; low valleys and +picturesque mouths of rivers.</p> + +<p>Five-Finger, or Rink, Rapids is caused by a contraction of the river +from its usual width to one of a hundred and fifty yards. Five bulks of +stone, rising to a perpendicular height of forty or fifty feet, are +stretched across the channel. The steamer seems to touch the stone walls +as it rushes through on the boiling rapids.</p> + +<p>The Upper Ramparts of the Yukon begin at Fort Selkirk. Here the waters +cut through the lower spurs of the mountains, and for a distance of a +hundred and fifty miles, reaching to Dawson, the scenery is sublime.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Quiet Sentinel" is a rocky promontory which, seen in profile, resembles +the face and entire figure of a woman. She stands with her head slightly +bowed, as if in prayer, with loose draperies flowing in classic lines to +her feet, and with a rose held to her lips. One of the greatest singers +of the present time might have posed for the "Quiet Sentinel."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Rivers and their valleys are more famed in the northern interior than +towns. Teslin, Tahkeena, Teslintoo, Big and Little Salmon, Pelly, +Stewart, White, Forty-Mile, Indian, Sixty-Mile, Macmillan, Klotassin, +Porcupine, Chandlar, Koyukuk, Unalaklik, Tanana, Mynook,—these be names +to conjure with in the North; while those south of the Yukon and +tributary to other waters have equal fame.</p> + +<p>As for the Klondike, it is the only stream of its size, being but the +merest creek and averaging a hundred feet in width, which has given its +name to one whole country and to a portion of another country. During +the past decade it has not been unusual to hear the name Klondike +Country applied to all Alaska and that part of Canada adjacent to the +Klondike district. The tiny, gold-bearing creeks, from ten to twenty +feet wide, tributary to the Klondike, are known by name and fame in all +parts of the world to-day. They are Bonanza, Hunker, Too-Much-Gold, +Eldorado, Rock, North Fork, All-Gold, Gold-Bottom, and others of less +importance. The Bonanza flows into the Klondike at Dawson, and it is but +a half-hour's walk to the dredge at work in this stream.</p> + +<p>In 1833 Baron Wrangell directed Michael Tebenkoff to establish Fort St. +Michael's on the small island in Norton Sound to which the name of the +fort was given. Three years later it was attacked by natives, but was +successfully defended by Kurupanoff, who was in charge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1836 a Russian named Glasunoff entered the delta of the Yukon, +ascending the river as far as the mouth of the Anvik River. In 1838 +Malakoff extended the exploration as far as Nulato, where he established +a Russian post and placed Notarmi in command.</p> + +<p>When the garrison returned to St. Michael's on account of the failure of +provisions, the following winter, natives destroyed the fort and all +buildings which had been erected. It was rebuilt and again destroyed in +1839. In 1841 it once more arose under Derabin, who remained in command. +The following year Lieutenant Zagoskin reached Nulato, ascending to +Nowikakat in 1843.</p> + +<p>The Russians were therefore established on the lower Yukon several years +before the English established themselves upon the upper river.</p> + +<p>In 1840 Mr. Robert Campbell was sent by Sir George Simpson to explore +the Upper Liard River. Mr. Campbell ascended the river to its head +waters, crossed the mountains, and descended the Pelly River to the +Lewes, where, eight years later, he established Fort Selkirk.</p> + +<p>This famous trading post was short-lived. In 1851 it was attacked by a +band of savage Chilkahts and was surrendered, without resistance, by Mr. +Campbell, who had but two men with him at the time. They were not +molested by the Indians, who plundered and burned the warehouses and +forts.</p> + +<p>Only the chimneys of the fort were found by Lieutenant Schwatka in 1883. +As late as 1890 this point was considered the head of navigation on the +Yukon.</p> + +<p>In 1847 Fort Yukon was established by Mr. A. H. McMurray, of the Hudson +Bay Company. Following McMurray and Campbell, came Joseph Harper, Jack +McQuesten, and A. H. Mayo, who established a trading post on the Yukon +at Fort Reliance, six miles below the mouth of the Klondike.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1860 Robert Kennicott reached Fort Yukon, and in the following spring +descended to a point that was for several years known as "the Small +Houses"—the most attractive name in the Yukon country. In 1865 an +expedition was organized in San Francisco by the Western Union Telegraph +Company for the purpose of building a telegraph line from San Francisco +to Behring Strait—which was to be crossed by cable to meet the Russian +government line at the mouth of the Amoor River. One party, headed by +Robert Kennicott, was sent by ocean to the mouth of the Yukon; and +another, in charge of Michael Byrnes, up the inside route to the Stikine +River. Going from that river to the head waters of the Taku, they +followed the chain of lakes and the Hootalinqua River to the Lewes, +which they reached on the Tahco Arm of Lake Tagish. At that time it +became known that the Atlantic cable had proven to be a success, and the +daring and hazardous northern project was abandoned.</p> + +<p>As late as the date of this expedition it was not determined positively +whether the Kwihkpak was one of the mouths of the Yukon, or a separate +river. Upon the recall of the telegraph expedition, the only portion of +the great river that had not been explored was the short distance +between Lake Tagish and Lake Lebarge.</p> + +<p>There have been several claimants for the honor of having been the first +white man to cross the divide between Lynn Canal and the head waters of +the Yukon. The first was a mythological, nameless Scotchman employed by +the Hudson Bay Company, who is supposed to have reached Fort Selkirk in +1864, and to have proceeded alone over the old "grease-trail" of the +Chilkahts to Lynn Canal. He fell into the hands of the Indians and was +held until ransomed by the captain of the <i>Labouchere</i>. Because he had +long, flowing locks of red hair, he was supposed to be a kind of white +shaman, and his life was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> spared by the savages. This story is doubted +by many authorities.</p> + +<p>The honor was claimed, also, by George Holt, who is known to have +crossed one of the passes in 1872, and twice in later years. James Wynn, +of Juneau, went over in 1879 and returned in 1880.</p> + +<p>About this time the Indians seemed to realize that packing over the +trail might become more profitable than acting as middlemen between the +coast Indians and those of the interior. In 1881 and 1882 small parties +of miners, and even one or two travelling alone, crossed unmolested. In +1883 Lieutenant Schwatka had his outfit packed over the Dyea—Taiya, or +Dayay, it was then called—Trail; and then, dismissing his packers, +built rafts and made his perilous way down the unknown river—portaging, +"shooting" the Grand Canyon, White Horse, and Rink Rapids, sticking on +sand-bars, almost dying of mosquitoes, and, saddest of all for us who +come after him, naming every object that met his eyes with the +deplorable taste of Vancouver.</p> + +<p>Of a river, called Kut-lah-cook-ah by the Chilkahts, he complacently +remarks:—</p> + +<p>"I shortened its name and called it after Professor Nourse, of the +United States Naval Observatory."</p> + +<p>Nourse, Saussure, Perrier, Payer, Bennett, Wheaton, Prejevalsky, +Richards, Watson, Nares, Bove, Marsh, McClintock, Miles, Richthofen, +Hancock, d'Abbadie, Daly, Nordenskiold, Yon Wilczek; these be the choice +namings that he bestowed upon the beautiful objects along the Yukon. It +is, perhaps, a cause for thankfulness that he did not rename the Yukon +<i>Schwatka</i> or <i>Ridderbjelka</i>! However, many of his namings have died a +natural death.</p> + +<p>The name Yukon is said to have first been applied to the river in 1846 +by Mr. J. Bell, of the Hudson Bay Company, who went over from the +MacKenzie and descended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> the Porcupine to the great river which the +Indians called Yukon. He retained the name, although for some time it +was spelled Youkon. For this, may he ever be of blessed memory. I should +like to contribute to a monument to perpetuate his name and fame.</p> + +<p>To-day Fort Selkirk is of some importance as a trading post and because +of the successful farming of the vicinity, and all passing steamers call +there. Joseph Harper was located there at the time of George Carmack's +brilliant discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek, in August, 1896. Harper +and Joseph Ladue, who was settled as a trader at Sixty-Mile, immediately +transferred their stocks to the junction of the Yukon, Klondike, and +Bonanza, and established the town which they named Dawson, in honor of +Dr. George M. Dawson.</p> + +<p>In 1887 Mr. William Ogilvie headed a Canadian exploring party into the +Yukon. His boats were towed up to Taiya Inlet by the United States naval +vessel <i>Pinta</i>; and while waiting there for supplies, he, having asked +for, and received, authority from Commander Newell, made surveys at the +heads of the inlets. It was only through the intercession of the +commander, furthermore, that Mr. Ogilvie was permitted by the Chilkahts +to proceed over the pass. "I am strongly of the opinion," Mr. Ogilvie +says in his report, "that these Indians would have been much more +difficult to deal with if they had not known that Commander Newell +remained in the inlet to see that I got through in safety."</p> + +<p>Miners had been going over the trail for several years, but the +Chilkahts were enraged at the British because employees of the Hudson +Bay Company had killed some of their tribe.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Dr. George M. Dawson, heading another Dominion party, +was working along the Stikine River.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dr. Dawson and Mr. Ogilvie—afterward governor of Yukon territory—made +extensive surveys and explorations throughout the Yukon district; their +reports upon the country are voluminous, thorough, and of much interest. +They were both men of superior attainments, and their influence upon the +country and upon the people who rushed into the new mining district was +great. To-day the name of ex-Governor Ogilvie is heard more frequently +in the Klondike than that of any other person, even though his residence +is elsewhere. He served as governor during the reckless and picturesque +days when to be a governor meant to be a man in the highest sense of the +word.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLIII</h2> + + +<p>Dawson! It was a name to stir men's blood ten years ago,—a wild, +picturesque, lawless mining-camp, whose like had never been known and +never will be known again.</p> + +<p>All kinds and conditions of men and women were represented. Miners, +prospectors, millionnaires, adventurers, wanderers, desperadoes; +brave-hearted, earnest women, dissolute dance-hall girls, and, more +dangerous still, the quiet, seductive adventuress—they were all there, +side by side, tent by tent, cabin by cabin.</p> + +<p>Almost daily new discoveries were made and stampedes occurred. Every +little creek flowing into the Klondike was found rich in gold. The very +names that these creeks received—All-Gold, Too-Much-Gold, +Gold-Bottom—turned men's blood to fire. The whole country seemed to +have gone mad of excitement and the lust for gold. The white mountain +passes grew black with struggling human beings—fighting, falling, +rising, fighting on. It was like the blind stampeding of crazed animals +upon a plain; nothing could check them save exhaustion or death. When +the fever burned out in one and left him low, another sprang to take his +place. Dawson, like Skaguay, grew from dozens to hundreds in a day; from +hundreds to thousands; tents gave place to cabins; cabins, to +substantial frame buildings.</p> + +<p>Ah, to have been there in the old days! Who would not have suffered the +early hardships, paid the price, and paid it cheerfully, for the sake of +seeing the life and being a part of it before it was too late?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now it is forever too late. The glory of what it once was is all that +remains. To-day Dawson is so quiet, so dull, so respectable, that one +unconsciously yawns in its face.</p> + +<p>But men's eyes still kindle when their memories of old days are stirred.</p> + +<p>"They were great times," they say, looking at one another.</p> + +<p>"They could only come once. They were times of blood and gold; of dance +and song; of glitter and show—and starvation and death. We worked all +day and danced or gambled all night. Our only passions were for women +and gold. If we couldn't get the women we wanted, the men that did get +'em fought their way to 'em, inch by inch; if we couldn't dig the gold +out of the earth, we got it in some other way.</p> + +<p>"All the best buildings were occupied by saloons. Every saloon had a +dance-hall in the back of it; not that the girls had to keep to their +quarters, either—they had the run of the whole shebang. Every saloon +had its gambling rooms, too—unless the tables and games were right out +in the open. I tell you, it was tough. You can't begin to understand the +situation unless you'd been here. There wasn't a hotel nor a corner +where a man could go in and get warm except in a saloon—and with the +thermometer fooling in the neighborhood of fifty below, he didn't stand +around outside with his hands in his pockets, not to any great extent. +Most likely his pockets was naturally froze shut, anyhow, and the only +way he could get 'em thawed out was to go into a saloon. <i>That</i> thawed +'em quick enough. It not only thawed 'em out; it most gen'rally thawed +'em wide open.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, the worst element in a mining-camp is women. They follow a +man and console him when he's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> down on his luck; they follow him through +thick and thin; and they get such a hold on him that, when he wants to +get back to decent ways and decent women, he just naturally can't do it. +Young fellows don't realize it. They don't see it being done; they see +it after it is done and can't be undone.</p> + +<p>"As soon as the mounted police took holt of Dawson, with Inspector +Constantine at the head, there was a sure change. Still, even the +mounted-police doctrine does have some drawbacks. I noticed they +couldn't make the post-office clerks turn out letters unless you slipped +two-three dollars into their outstretched hands. I noticed that."</p> + +<p>To-day Dawson is a pretty, clean-streeted town built of log and frame +buildings. In the hottest summer the earth never thaws deeper than +eighteen inches, and no foundation can be obtained for brick buildings. +For the same reason plastering is not advisable, the uneven freezing and +thawing proving ruinous to both brick and plaster.</p> + +<p>The first objects to greet the visitor's eyes are the large buildings of +the great commercial and transportation companies of the North, along +the bank of the river. Passing through these one finds one's self upon a +busy, but unconventional, thoroughfare. Dawson is built solidly to the +hill, extending about a mile along the water-front; and the most +attractive part of the town is the village of picturesque log cabins +climbing over the lower slopes of the hill. They are not large, but they +are all built with the roof extending over a wide front porch. The +entire roof of each cabin is covered several inches deep with earth, and +at the time of our visit—the first week of August—these roofs were +grown with brilliant green grasses and flowers to a height of from +twelve to eighteen inches. They were literally covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> with the bloom +of a dozen or more varieties of wild flowers. Every window had its +flaming window-box; every garden, its gay beds; and there were even +boxes set on square fence posts and running the entire length of fences +themselves, from which vines drooped and trailed and flowers blew. +Standing at the river and looking toward the hill, the whole town seemed +a mass of bloom sloping up to the green, which, in turn, sloped on up to +the blue.</p> + +<p>We had heard so much about the exorbitant prices of the Klondike, that +we were simply speechless when a very jolly, sandy-haired Scotch +gentleman offered to take our two steamer trunks, three heavy suit +cases, and two shawl-straps to the hotel which we had blindly chosen, +for the sum of two dollars. We had expected to pay five; and when he +first asked two and a half, we stood as still as though turned to +stone—and all for joy. He, however, evidently mistaking our silence, +doubtless felt the prick of the stern conscience of his ancestors, for +he hastily added:—</p> + +<p>"Well, seeing you're ladies, we'll call it an even two."</p> + +<p>We agreed to the price coldly, pretending to consider it an outrage.</p> + +<p>"My name is Angus McDonald," said he, with reproach. "When a McDonald +says that his price is the lowest in the town, his word may be taken. If +you come to Dawson twenty years from now, Angus will be standing here +waiting to handle your baggage at the lowest price."</p> + +<p>We gave him our keys and he attended to all the customs details for us. +We had left Seattle on the evening of the 24th of July; had stopped for +several hours at Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakahtla, Juneau, Treadwell, +and Taku Glacier; a day and a night at Skaguay; two nights and a day at +White Horse; had made short pauses at Selkirk and Lower Lebarge—to say +nothing of hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> spent in "wooding-up," which is a picturesque and sure +feature of Yukon voyages; and at noon on the fifth day of August we were +settled at the "Kenwood"—the dearest hotel at which it has ever been my +good fortune to tarry even for a day. I do not mean the most stylish, +nor the most elegant, nor even the most comfortable; nor do I mean the +dearest in price; but the dearest to my heart. It is kept in a neat, +cheerful, and homelike style by Miss Kinney—who had almost as many +malamute puppies, by the way, as she had guests.</p> + +<p>When we gave Mr. Angus McDonald our keys, it was not quite decided as to +our hotel; but when we learned that we were sufficiently respectable in +appearance to be accepted by Miss Kinney, we telephoned for our trunks. +Then we forgot all about paying for them, and set out for a walk. When +we returned, luncheon was being served; our trunks were in our rooms, +but—Mr. Angus McDonald had gone off with our keys! We did not know then +what we know now; that Mr. Angus McDonald and his retained keys are a +Dawson joke. It seems that whenever one does not pay in advance for the +delivery of his trunks, Mr. McDonald drives away with the keys in his +pocket, whistling the merriest of Scotch tunes.</p> + +<p>The joke has its embarrassments, particularly when one has descended to +the Grand Canyon of the Yukon in a sand-slide.</p> + +<p>The traveller in Alaska who desires to retain his own self-respect and +that of his fellow-man will never criticise a price nor ask to have it +reduced. He is expected to contribute liberally to every church he +enters, every Indian band he hears play, every charitable institution +that may present its merits for his consideration, every purse that may +be made up on steamers, whatsoever its object may be. Fees are from +fifty cents to five dollars. A waiter on a Yukon steamer threw a quarter +back at a man who had innocently slipped it into his hand. Later, I saw +him in the centre of a group of angry waiters and cabin-boys to whom he +was relating his grievance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_572.jpg" width="640" height="470" alt="Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle + +Family of King's Island Eskimos living under Skin Boat, Nome" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by F. H. Nowell, Seattle<br /> + +Family of King's Island Eskimos living under Skin Boat, Nome</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span></p> + +<p>Since one is constantly changing steamers, and has a waiter, a +cabin-boy, a night-boy, and frequently a stewardess to fee on each +steamer, this must be counted as one of the regular expenses of the +trip.</p> + +<p>Other expenses we found to be greatly exaggerated on the "outside." +Aside from our amusing experience with soap-bubble soda at White Horse +and a bill for eight dollars and fifty cents for the poor pressing of +three plain dress skirts and one jacket at Nome, we found nothing to +criticise in northern prices.</p> + +<p>The best rooms at the "Kenwood" were only two dollars a day, and each +meal was one dollar—whether one ate little or whether one ate much. It +was always the latter with us; for I have never been so hungry except at +Bennett. I am convinced that the climate of the Yukon will cure every +disease and every ill. We walked miles each day, drank much cold, pure +water, and ate much wholesome, well-cooked, delicious food—including +blueberries three times a day; and our sleep was sound, sweet, and +refreshing.</p> + +<p>Dawson has about ten thousand inhabitants now; it once had twice as +many, and it will have again. Mining in the Klondike is in the +transition stage. It is passing from the individual owners to large +companies and corporations which have ample capital to install expensive +machinery and develop rich properties. It is the history of every mining +district, and its coming to the Klondike was inevitable. Its first +effect, however, is always "to ruin the camp."</p> + +<p>"Dawson's a camp no longer," said one who "went in" in 1897, sadly. +"It's all spoiled. The individual miner has let go and the monopolists +are coming in to take his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> place. The good days are things of the past. +Pretty soon they'll be giving you change when you throw down two-bits +for a lead pencil!" he concluded, with a lofty scorn—as much as to say: +"It will then be time to die."</p> + +<p>Dawson is connected with the "outside" by telegraph. It has two daily +newspapers,—which are metropolitan in style,—an electric-light plant, +and a telephone system. Its streets are graded and sidewalked, and it is +piped for water; but its lack of systematized sewerage—or what might be +more appropriately called its systematized lack of sewerage—is an +abomination. It is, however, not alone in its unsanitation in this +respect, for Nome follows its example.</p> + +<p>Both homes and public buildings are of exceeding plainness of style, +owing to the excessive cost of building in a region bounded by the +Arctic Circle. The interiors of both, however, are attractive and +luxurious in finish and furnishings; and owing to the sway of the +mounted police, the town has an air of cleanliness and orderliness that +is admirable.</p> + +<p>A creditable building holds the post-office and customs office, and +there is a public school building which cost fifty thousand dollars. The +handsome administration building, standing in a green, park-like place, +cost as much. There is a large court-house, the barracks of the mounted +police, and other public buildings. Only the ruins remain of the +executive mansion on the bank of the river, which was destroyed by fire +two years ago and has not been rebuilt. It was the pride of Dawson. It +was a large residence of pleasing architecture, lighted by electricity +and finished throughout in British Columbia fir in natural tones. It +contained the governor's private office, palatial reception rooms and +parlors, a library, a noble hall and stairway, a state dining room, a +billiard room and smoking room, and spacious chambers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span></p> + +<p>The governor's office in the administration building is large and +handsomely furnished. The commissioner of Yukon Territory is called by +courtesy governor, and the present commissioner, Governor Henderson, is +a gentleman of distinguished presence and courtly manners. He had just +returned from an automobile tour of inspection among "the creeks."</p> + +<p>Governors, elegant executive mansions and offices, and automobile +tours—where eleven years ago was nothing but the creeks and the virgin +gold which brought all that is there to-day! We did not rebel at +anything but the automobile; somehow, it jarred like an insult. An +automobile up among the storied creeks!</p> + +<p>There is a railroad, also, on which daily trains are run for a distance +of twenty miles through the mining district. Six and eight horse stages +will make the trip in one day for a party of six for fifty dollars.</p> + +<p>Thirty dollars is first asked. When that price is found to be +satisfactory, it is immediately discovered that the small stage is +engaged or out of repair; a larger one must be used, for which the price +is forty dollars. When this price is agreed upon, some infirmity is +discovered in the second stage; a third must be substituted, for whose +all-day use the price is fifty dollars. If one cares to see the +"cricks," with no assurance that he will stumble upon a clean-up, at +this price, he meekly takes his seat and is jolted up into the hills, +paying a few dollars extra for his meals.</p> + +<p>He may, however, take an hour's walk up Bonanza Creek and see the great +dredges at work and the steam-pipes thawing the frozen gravel; and if he +should voyage on down to Nome, he may take an hour's run by railway out +on the tundra and see thirty thousand dollars sluiced out any day. +Almost anything is preferable to the "graft" that is worked by the stage +companies upon the helpless cheechacos at Dawson.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span></p> + +<p>The British Yukon is an organized territory, having a commissioner, +three judges, and an executive legislature, of whose ten members five +are elected and five appointed. The governor is also appointed. He +presides over the sessions of the legislature, giving the appointed +members a majority of one.</p> + +<p>The Yukon has a delegate in parliament, a gold commissioner, a land +agent, and a superintendent of roads. Three-fourths of the population of +the territory are Americans, yet the town has a distinctly English, or +Canadian, atmosphere. In incorporated towns there is a tax levy on +property for municipal purposes.</p> + +<p>Order is preserved by the well-known organization of Northwest Mounted +Police, whose members might be recognized anywhere, even when not in +uniform, by their stern eyes, set lips, and peculiar carriage.</p> + +<p>The first station of mounted police in the Yukon was established at +Forty-Mile, or Fort Cudahy, in 1895, when the discovery of gold was +creating a mild excitement. Although so many boasts have been made by +the British of their early settlement of the Yukon, not only was Mr. +Ogilvie compelled to cross in 1887 under protection of the American +Commander Newell, but in 1895 the members of the first force of mounted +police to come into the country were forced to ascend the Yukon, by +special permission of the United States government, so difficult were +all routes through Yukon Territory.</p> + +<p>There are at the present time about sixty police stations in the +territory, as well as garrisons at Dawson and White Horse. The smaller +stations have only three men. They are scattered throughout the mining +country, wherever a handful of men are gathered together. Between Dawson +and White Horse, where travel is heavy, a weekly patrol is maintained, +and a careful register is kept of all boats and passengers going up or +down the river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> On the winter trail passengers are registered at each +road house, with date of arrival and departure, making it easy to locate +any traveller in the territory at any time. In the larger towns the +mounted police serve as police officers; they also assist the customs +officers and fill the offices of police magistrate and coroner. A police +launch to patrol the river in summer has been recommended.</p> + +<p>Dawson is laid out in rectangular shape, with streets about seventy feet +wide and appearing wider because the buildings are for the most part +low. In 1897 town lots sold for five thousand dollars, when there was +nothing but tents on the flat at the mouth of the Klondike. The +half-dollar was the smallest piece of money in circulation, as the +quarter is to-day. Saw-mills were in operation, and dressed lumber sold +for two hundred and fifty dollars a thousand feet. Fifteen dollars a +day, however, was the ordinary wage of men working in the mines; so that +such prices as fifty cents for an orange, two dollars a dozen for eggs, +and twenty-five cents a pound for potatoes did not seem exorbitant.</p> + +<p>There are rival claimants for the honor of the first discovery of gold +on the Klondike, but George Carmack is generally credited with being the +fortunate man. In August, 1896, he and the Indians "Skookum Jim" and +"Tagish Charlie,"—Mr. Carmack's brothers-in-law—were fishing one day +at the mouth of the Klondike River. (This river was formerly called +Thron-Dieuck, or Troan-Dike.) Not being successful, they concluded to go +a little way up the river to prospect. On the sixteenth day of the month +they detected signs of gold on what has since been named Bonanza Creek; +and from the first pan they washed out twelve dollars. They staked a +"discovery" claim, and one above and below it, as is the right of +discoverers.</p> + +<p>At that time the gold flurry was in the vicinity of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> Forty-Mile. The +first building ever done on the site of Dawson was that of a raft, upon +which they proceeded to Forty-Mile to file their claims. On the same day +began the great stampede to the little river which was soon to become +world-famous.</p> + +<p>The days of the bucket and windlass have passed for the Klondike. +Dredging and hydraulicking have taken their place, and the trains and +steamers are loaded with powerful machinery to be operated by vast +corporations. It is certain that there are extensive quartz deposits in +the vicinity, and when they are located the good and stirring days of +the nineties will be repeated. Ground that was panned and sluiced by the +individual miner is now being again profitably worked by modern methods. +Scarcity of water has been the chief obstacle to a rapid development of +the mines among the creeks; but experiments are constantly being made in +the way of carrying water from other sources.</p> + +<p>It was perplexing to hear people talking about "Number One Above on +Bonanza," "Number Nine Below on Hunker," "Number Twenty-six Above on +Eldorado," and others, until it was explained that claims are numbered +above and below the one originally discovered on a creek. Eldorado is +one of the smallest of creeks; yet, notwithstanding its limited water +supply, it has been one of the richest producers. One reach, of about +four miles in length, has yielded already more than thirty millions of +dollars in coarse gold.</p> + +<p>The gold of the Klondike is beautiful. It is not a fine dust. It runs +from grains like mustard seed up to large nuggets.</p> + +<p>When one goes up among the creeks, sees and hears what has actually been +done, one can but wonder that any young and strong man can stay away +from this marvellous country. Gold is still there, undiscovered; it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> +seldom the old prospector, the experienced miner, the "sour-dough," that +finds it; it is usually the ignorant, lucky "cheechaco." It is like the +game of poker, to which sits down one who never saw the game played and +holds a royal flush, or four aces, every other hand. How young men can +clerk in stores, study pharmacy, or learn politics in provincial towns, +while this glorious country waits to be found, is incomprehensible to +one with the red blood of adventure in his veins and the quick pulse of +chance. Better to dare, to risk all and lose all, if it must be, than +never to live at all; than always to be a drone in a narrow, commonplace +groove; than never to know the surge of this lonely river of mystery and +never to feel the air of these vast spaces upon one's brow.</p> + +<p>No one can even tread the deck of a Yukon steamer and be quite so small +and narrow again as he was before. The loneliness, the mystery, the +majesty of it, reveals his own soul to his shrinking eyes, and he +grows—in a day, in an hour, in the flash of a thought—out of his old +self. If only to be borne through this great country on this wide +water-way to the sea can work this change in a man's heart, what miracle +might not be wrought by a few years of life in its solitude?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The principle of "panning" out gold is simple, and any woman could +perform the work successfully without instruction, success depending +upon the delicacy of manipulation. From fifty cents to two hundred +dollars a pan are obtained by this old-fashioned but fascinating method. +Think of wandering through this splendid, gold-set country in the +matchless summers when there is not an hour of darkness; with the health +and the appetite to enjoy plain food and the spirit to welcome +adventure; to pause on the banks of unknown creeks and try one's luck, +not knowing what a pan may bring forth; to lie down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> one night a +penniless wanderer, so far as gold is concerned, and, perhaps, to sleep +the next night on banks that wash out a hundred dollars to the +pan—could one choose a more fascinating life than this?</p> + +<p>Rockers are wooden boxes which are so constructed that they gently shake +down the gold and dispose of the gravel through an opening in the +bottom. Sluicing is more interesting than any other method of extracting +gold, but this will be described as we saw the process separate the +glittering gold from the dull gravel at Nome.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLIV</h2> + + +<p>The two great commercial companies of the North to-day are the Northern +Commercial Company and the North American Transportation and Trading +Company. The Alaska Commercial Company and the North American +Transportation and Trading Company were the first to be established on +the Yukon, with headquarters at St. Michael, near the mouth of the +river. In 1898 the Alaska Exploration Company established its station +across the bay from St. Michael on the mainland; and during that year a +number of other companies were located there, only two of which, +however, proved to be of any permanency—the Empire Transportation +Company and the Seattle-Yukon Transportation Company.</p> + +<p>In 1901 the Alaska Commercial, Empire Transportation, and Alaska +Exploration companies formed a combination which operated under the +names of the Northern Commercial Company and the Northern Navigation +Company, the former being a trading and the latter a steamship company. +Owing to certain conditions, the Seattle-Yukon Transportation Company +was unable to join the combination; and its properties, consisting +principally of three steamers, together with four barges, were sold to +the newly formed company. During the first year of the consolidation the +North American Transportation and Trading Company worked in harmony with +the Northern Navigation Company, Captain I. N. Hibberd, of San +Francisco, having charge of the entire lower river fleet, with the +exception of one or two small tramp boats.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span></p> + +<p>By that time very fine combination passenger and freight boats were in +operation, having been built at Unalaska and towed to St. Michael. In +its trips up and down the river, each steamer towed one or two barges, +the combined cargo of the steamer and tow being about eight hundred +tons. It was impossible for a boat to make more than two round trips +during the summer season, the average time required being fourteen days +on the "up" trip and eight on the "down" for the better boats, and +twenty and ten days respectively for inferior ones, without barges, +which always added at least ten days to a trip.</p> + +<p>After a year the North American Transportation and Trading Company +withdrew from the combination and has since operated its own steamers.</p> + +<p>Of all these companies the Alaska Commercial is the oldest, having been +founded in 1868; it was the pioneer of American trading companies in +Alaska, and was for twenty years the lessee of the Pribyloff seal +rookeries. It had a small passenger and freight boat on the Yukon in +1869. The other companies owed their existence to the Klondike gold +discoveries.</p> + +<p>The two companies now operating on the Yukon have immense stores and +warehouses at Dawson and St. Michael, and smaller ones at almost every +post on the Yukon; while the N. C. Company, as it is commonly known, has +establishments up many of the tributary rivers.</p> + +<p>As picturesque as the Hudson Bay Company, and far more just and humane +in their treatment of the Indians, the American companies have reason to +be proud of their record in the far North. In 1886, when a large number +of miners started for the Stewart River mines, the agent of the A. C. +Company at St. Michael received advice from headquarters in San +Francisco that an extra amount of provisions had been sent to him, to +meet all possible demands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> that might be made upon him during the +winter. He was further advised that the shipment was not made for the +purpose of realizing profits beyond the regular schedule of prices +already established, but for humane purposes entirely—to avoid any +suffering that might occur, owing to the large increase in population. +He was, therefore, directed to store the extra supplies as a reserve to +meet the probable need, to dispose of the same to actual customers only +and in such quantities as would enable him to relieve the necessities of +each and every person that might apply. Excessive prices were +prohibited, and instructions to supply all persons who might be in +absolute poverty, free of charge, were plain and unmistakable.</p> + +<p>Men of the highest character and address have been placed at the head of +the various stations,—men with the business ability to successfully +conduct the company's important interests and the social qualifications +that would enable them to meet and entertain distinguished travellers +through the wilderness in a manner creditable to the company. Tourists, +by the way, who go to Alaska without providing themselves with clothes +suitable for formal social functions are frequently embarrassed by the +omission. Gentlemen may hasten to the company's store—which carries +everything that men can use, from a toothpick to a steamboat—and array +themselves in evening clothes, provided that they are not too fastidious +concerning the fit and the style; but ladies might not be so fortunate. +Nothing is too good for the people of Alaska, and when they offer +hospitality to the stranger within their gates, they prefer to have him +pay them the compliment of dressing appropriately to the occasion. If +voyagers to Alaska will consider this advice they may spare themselves +and their hosts in the Arctic Circle some unhappy moments.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yukon summers are glorious. There is not an hour of darkness. A +gentleman who came down from "the creeks" to call upon us did not reach +our hotel until eleven o'clock. He remained until midnight, and the +light in the parlor when he took his departure was as at eight o'clock +of a June evening at home. The lights were not turned on while we were +in Dawson; but it is another story in winter.</p> + +<p>Clothes are not "blued" in Dawson. The first morning after our arrival I +was summoned to a window to inspect a clothes-line.</p> + +<p>"Will you look at those clothes! Did you ever see such whiteness in +clothes before?"</p> + +<p>I never had, and I promptly asked Miss Kinney what her laundress did to +the clothes to make them look so white.</p> + +<p>"I'm the laundress," said she, brusquely. "I come out here from Chicago +to work, and I work. I was half dead, clerking in a store, when the +Klondike craze come along and swept me off my feet. I struck Dawson +broke. I went to work, and I've been at work ever since. I have cooks, +and chambermaids, and laundresses; but it often happens that I have to +be all three, besides landlady, at once. That's the way of the Klondike. +Now, I must go and feed those malamute pups; that little yellow one is +getting sassy."</p> + +<p>She had almost escaped when I caught her sleeve and detained her.</p> + +<p>"But the clothes—I asked you what makes them so white—"</p> + +<p>"Don't you suppose," interrupted she, irascibly, "that I have too much +work to do to fool around answering the questions of a cheechaco? I'm +not travelling down the Yukon for fun!"</p> + +<p>This was distinctly discouraging; but I had set out to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> learn what had +made those clothes so white. Besides, I was beginning to perceive dimly +that she was not so hard as she spoke herself to be; so I advised her +that I should not release her sleeve until she had answered my question.</p> + +<p>She burst into a kind of lawless laughter and threw her hand out at me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you! Well, there, then! I never saw your beat! There ain't a thing +in them there clothes but soap-suds, renched out, and sunshine. We don't +even have to rub clothes up here the way you have to in other places; +and we never put in a <i>pinch</i> of blueing. Two-three hours of sunshine +makes 'em like snow."</p> + +<p>"But how is it in winter?"</p> + +<p>She laughed again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's another matter. We bleach 'em out enough in summer so's +it'll do for all winter. Let go my sleeve or you won't get any +blueberries for lunch."</p> + +<p>This threat had the desired effect. Surely no woman ever worked harder +than Miss Kinney worked. At four o'clock in the mornings we heard her +ordering maids and malamute puppies about; and at midnight, or later, +her springing step might be heard as she made the final rounds, to make +sure that all was well with her family.</p> + +<p>We were greatly amused and somewhat embarrassed on the day of our +arrival. We saw at a glance that the only vacant room was too small to +receive our baggage.</p> + +<p>"I'll fix that," said she, snapping her fingers. "I just gave a big room +on the first floor to two young men. I'll make them exchange with you."</p> + +<p>It was in vain that we protested.</p> + +<p>"Now, you let me be!" she exclaimed; "I'll fix this. You're in the +Klondike now, and you'll learn how white men can be. Young men don't +take the best room and let women take the worst up here. If they come up +here with that notion, they soon get it taken out of 'em—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span> I'm just +the one to do it. Now, you let me be! They'll be tickled to death."</p> + +<p>Whatever their state of mind may have been, the exchange was made; but +when we endeavored to thank her, she snapped us up with:—</p> + +<p>"Anybody'd know you never lived in a white country, or you wouldn't make +such a fuss over such a little thing. We're used to doing things for +other people <i>up here</i>," she added, scornfully.</p> + +<p>Miss Kinney gave us many surprises during our stay, but at the last +moment she gave us the greatest surprise of all. Just as our steamer was +on the point of leaving, she came running down the gangway and straight +to us. Her hands and arms were filled with large paper bags, which she +began forcing upon us.</p> + +<p>"There!" she said. "I've come to say good-by and bring you some fruit. +I'd given you one of those malamute puppies if I could have spared him. +Well, good-by and good luck!"</p> + +<p>We were both so touched by this unexpected kindness in one who had taken +so much pains to conceal every touch of tenderness in her nature, that +we could not look at one another for some time; nor did it lessen our +appreciation to remember how ceaselessly and how drudgingly Miss Kinney +worked and the price she must have paid for those great bags of oranges, +apples, and peaches—for freight rates are a hundred and forty dollars a +ton on "perishables." It set a mist in our eyes every time we thought +about it. It was our first taste of Arctic kindness; and, somehow, its +flavor was different from that of other latitudes.</p> + +<p>Dawson is gay socially, as it has always been. In summer the people are +devoted to outdoor sports, which are enjoyed during the long evenings. +There is a good club-house for athletic sports in winter, and the +theatres are well patronized, although, in summer, plays commence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> at +ten or ten-thirty and are not concluded before one. As in all English +and Canadian towns, business is resumed at a late hour in the morning, +making the hours of rest correspond in length to ours.</p> + +<p>Two young Yale men who were travelling in our party had been longing to +see a dance-hall,—a "real Klondike dance-hall,"—but they came in one +midnight, their faces eloquent with disgust.</p> + +<p>"We found a dance-hall <i>at last</i>," said one. "They hide their light +under such bushels now that it takes a week to find one; the mounted +police don't stand any foolishness. Then—think of a dance-hall running +in broad daylight! No mystery, no glitter, no soft, rosy glamour—say, +it made me yearn for bread and butter. Do you know where Miss Kinney +keeps her bread jar and blueberries? Honestly, I don't know anything or +any place that could cultivate a taste in a young man for sane and +decent things like one of these dance-halls here. I never was so +disappointed in my life. I can go to church <i>at home</i>; I didn't come to +the Klondike for <i>that</i>. Why, the very music itself sounded about as +lively as 'Come, Ye Disconsolate!' Come on, Billy; let's go to bed."</p> + +<p>No one should visit Dawson without climbing, on a clear day, to the +summit of the hill behind the town, which is called "the Dome." The view +of the surrounding country from this point is magnificent. The course of +the winding, widening Yukon may be traced for countless miles; the +little creeks pour their tawny floods down into the Klondike before the +longing eyes of the beholder; and faraway on the horizon faintly shine +the snow-peaks that beautify almost every portion of the northern land.</p> + +<p>The wagon roads leading from Dawson to the mining districts up the +various creeks are a distinct surprise. They were built by the Dominion +government and are said to be the best roads to be found in any mining +district<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> in the world. A Dawson man will brag about the roads, while +modestly silent about the gold to which the roads lead.</p> + +<p>"You must go up into the creeks, if only to see the roads," every man to +whom one talks will presently say. "You can't beat 'em anywheres."</p> + +<p>Claim staking in the Klondike is a serious matter. The mining is +practically all placer, as yet, and a creek claim comprises an area two +hundred and fifty feet along the creek and two thousand feet wide. This +information was a shock to me. I had always supposed, vaguely, that a +mining claim was a kind of farm, of anywhere from twenty to sixty acres; +and to find it but little larger than the half of a city block was a +chill to my enthusiasm. They explained, however, that the gravel filling +a pan was but small in quantity, that it could be washed out in ten +minutes, and that if every pan turned out but ten dollars, the results +of a long day's work would not be bad.</p> + +<p>Claims lying behind and above the ones that front on the creeks are +called "hill" claims. They have the same length of frontage, but are +only a thousand feet in width. In staking a claim, a post must be placed +at each corner on the creek, with the names of the claim and owner and a +general description of any features by which it may be identified; the +locator must take out a free miner's license, costing seven dollars and +a half, and file his claim at the mining recorder's office within ten +days after staking. No one can stake more than one claim on a single +creek, but he may hold all that he cares to acquire by purchase, and he +may locate on other creeks. Development work to the amount of two +hundred dollars must be done yearly for three years, or that amount paid +to the mining recorder; this amount is increased to four hundred dollars +with the fourth year. The locator must secure a certificate to the +effect that the necessary amount of yearly work has been done, else the +claim will be cancelled.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_591.jpg" width="640" height="402" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Wreck of "Jessie," Nome Beach + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Wreck of "Jessie," Nome Beach<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLV</h2> + + +<p>When the <i>D. R. Campbell</i> drew away from the Dawson wharf at nine +o'clock of an August morning, another of my dreams was "come true." I +was on my way down the weird and mysterious river that calls as +powerfully in its way as the North Pacific Ocean. For years the mere +sound of the word "Yukon" had affected me like the clash of a wild and +musical bell. The sweep of great waters was in it—the ring of breaking +ice and its thunderous fall; the roar of forest fires, of undermined +plunging cliffs, of falling trees, of pitiless winds; the sobs of dark +women, deserted upon its shores, with white children on their breasts; +the mournful howls of dogs and of their wild brothers, wolves; the slide +of avalanches and the long rattle of thunder—for years the word "Yukon" +had set these sounds ringing in my ears, and had swung before my eyes +the shifting pictures of canyon, rampart, and plain; of waters rushing +through rock walls and again loitering over vast lowlands to the sea; of +forestated mountains, rose thickets, bare hills, pale cliffs of clay, +and ranges of sublime snow-mountains. Yet, with all that I had read, and +all that I had heard, and all that I had imagined, I was unprepared for +the spell of the Yukon; for the spaces, the solitude, the silence. At +last I was to learn how well the name fits the river and the country, +and how feeble and how ineffectual are both description and imagination +to picture this country so that it may be understood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span></p> + +<p>Six miles below Dawson the site of old Fort Reliance is passed, and +forty-six miles farther Forty-Mile River pours its broad flood into the +Yukon. About eight miles up this river, at the lower end of a canyon, a +strong current has swept many small boats upon dangerous rocks and the +occupants have been drowned. The head of the Forty-Mile is but a short +distance from the great Tanana.</p> + +<p>The settlement of Forty-Mile is the pioneer mining-camp of the Yukon. +The Alaska Commercial Company established a station here soon after the +gold excitement of 1887; and, as the international boundary line crosses +Forty-Mile River twenty-three miles from its mouth and many of the most +important mining interests depending upon the town for supplies are on +the American side, a bonded warehouse is maintained, from which American +goods can be drawn without the payment of duties. As late as 1895 quite +a lively town was at the mouth of the river, boasting even an opera +house; but the town was depopulated upon the discovery of gold on the +Klondike. Six years ago the settlement was flooded by water banked up in +Forty-Mile River by ice, and the residents were taken from upstairs +windows in boats. The former name of this river was Che-ton-deg, or +"Green Leaf," River.</p> + +<p>Now there are a couple of dozen log cabins, a dozen or more red-roofed +houses, and store buildings. The steamer pushed up sidewise to the rocky +beach, a gang-plank was floated ashore, and a customs inspector came +aboard. On the beach were a couple of ladies, some members of the +mounted police in scarlet coats, and fifty malamute dogs, snapping, +snarling, and fighting like wolves over the food flung from the steamer.</p> + +<p>The dog is to Alaska what the horse is to more civilized countries—the +intelligent, patient, faithful beast of burden. He is of the Eskimo or +"malamute" breed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> having been bred with the wolf for endurance; or he +is a "husky" from the Mackenzie River.</p> + +<p>Eskimo dogs are driven with harness, hitched to sleds, and teams of five +or seven with a good leader can haul several hundred pounds, if blessed +with a kind driver. In summer they have nothing to do but sleep, and +find their food as best they may. Along the Yukon they haunt +steamer-landings and are always fed by the stewards—who can thus muster +a dog fight for the pleasure of heartless passengers at a moment's +notice.</p> + +<p>With the coming of winter a kind of electric strength seems to enter +into these dogs. They long for the harness and the journeys over snow +and ice; and for a time they leap and frisk like puppies and will not be +restrained. They are about the size of a St. Bernard dog, but of very +different shape; the leader is always an intelligent and superior animal +and his eyes frequently hold an almost human appeal. He is fairly +dynamic in force, and when not in harness will fling himself upon food +with a swiftness and a strength that suggest a missile hurled from a +catapult. Nothing can check his course; and he has been known to strike +his master to the earth in his headlong rush of greeting—although it +has been cruelly said of him that he has no affection for any save the +one that feeds him, and not for him after his hunger is satisfied.</p> + +<p>The Eskimo dog seldom barks, but he has a mournful, wolflike howl. His +coat is thick and somewhat like wool, and his feet are hard; he travels +for great distances without becoming footsore, and at night he digs a +deep hole in the snow, crawls into it, curls up in his own wool, and +sleeps as sweetly as a pet Spitz on a cushion of down. His chief food is +fish. If the Alaska dog is not affectionate, it is because for +generations he has had no cause for affection. No dog with such eyes—so +asking and so human-like in their expression—could fail to be +affectionate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span> and devoted to a master possessing the qualities which +inspire affection and devotion.</p> + +<p>In winter all the mails are carried by dogs, covering hundreds of miles.</p> + +<p>Half a mile below Forty-Mile the town of Cudahy was founded in 1892 by +the North American Trading and Transportation Company, as a rival +settlement.</p> + +<p>Fifty miles below Forty-Mile, at the confluence of Mission Creek with +the Yukon, is Eagle, having a population of three or four hundred +people. It has the most northerly customs office and military post, Fort +Egbert, belonging to the United States, and is the terminus of the +Valdez-Eagle mail route and telegraph line. It is also of importance as +being but a few miles from the boundary.</p> + +<p>Fort Egbert is a two-company post, and usually, as at the time of our +visit, two companies are stationed there. The winter of 1904-1905 was +the gayest in the social history of the fort. Several ladies, the wives +and the sisters of officers, were there, and these, with the wife of the +company's agent and other residents of the town, formed a brilliant and +refined social club.</p> + +<p>From November the 27th to January the 16th the sun does not appear above +the hills to the south. The two "great" days at Eagle are the 16th of +January,—"when the sun comes back,"—and the day "when the ice breaks +in the river," usually the 12th of May. On the former occasion the +people assemble, like a band of sun-worshippers, and celebrate its +return.</p> + +<p>The vegetable and flower gardens of Eagle were a revelation of what may +be expected in the agricultural and floral line in the vicinity of the +Arctic Circle. Potatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, lettuce, turnips, +radishes, and other vegetables were in a state of spendthrift luxuriance +that cannot be imagined by one who has not travelled in a country where +vegetables grow day and night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span></p> + +<p>In winter Eagle is a lonely place. The only mail it receives is the +monthly mail passing through from Dawson to Nome by dog sleds; and no +magazines, papers, or parcels are carried.</p> + +<p>It was from Eagle that the first news was sent out to the world +concerning Captain Amundsen's wonderful discovery of the Northwest +Passage; here he arrived in midwinter after a long, hard journey by dog +team from the Arctic Ocean and sent out the news which so many brave +navigators of early days would have given their lives to be able to +announce.</p> + +<p>Within five years a railroad will probably connect Eagle with the coast +at Valdez; meantime, there is a good government trail, poled by a +government telegraph line.</p> + +<p>Eagle came into existence in 1898, and the fort was established in 1899.</p> + +<p>"Woodings-up" are picturesque features of Yukon travel. When the steamer +does not land at a wood yard, mail is tied around a stick and thrown +ashore. Fancy standing, a forlorn and homesick creature, on the bank of +this great river and watching a letter from home caught by the rushing +current and borne away! Yet this frequently happens, for heart affairs +are small matters in the Arctic Circle and receive but scant +consideration.</p> + +<p>On the Upper Yukon wood is five dollars a cord; on the Lower, seven +dollars; and a cord an hour is thrust into the immense and roaring +furnaces.</p> + +<p>During "wooding-up" times passengers go ashore and enjoy the forest. +There are red and black currants, crab-apples, two varieties of +salmon-berries, five of huckleberries, and strawberries. The high-bush +cranberries are very pretty, with their red berries and delicate +foliage.</p> + +<p>Nation is a settlement of a dozen log cabins roofed with dirt and +flowers, the roofs projecting prettily over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> front porches. The wife +of the storekeeper has lived here twenty-five years, and has been +"outside" only once in twelve years. Passengers usually go ashore +especially to meet her, and are always cordially welcomed, but are never +permitted to condole with her on her isolated life. The spell of the +Yukon has her in thrall, and content shines upon her brow as a star. +Those who go ashore to pity, return with the dull ache of envy in their +worldly hearts; for there be things on the Yukon that no worldly heart +can understand.</p> + +<p>We left Eagle in the forenoon and at midnight landed at Circle City, +which received this name because it was first supposed to be located +within the Arctic Circle. We found natives building houses at that hour, +and this is my most vivid remembrance of Circle. Gold was discovered on +Birch Creek, within eight miles of the settlement, as early as 1892; and +until the Klondike excitement this was the most populous camp on the +Yukon, more than a thousand miners being quartered in the vicinity. Like +other camps, it was then depopulated; but many miners have now returned +and a brilliant discovery in this vicinity may yet startle the world. +The output of gold for 1906 was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. +About three hundred miners are operating on tributaries up Birch Creek. +The great commercial companies are established at all these settlements +on the Yukon, where they have large stores and warehouses.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Early on the following morning we were on deck to cross the Arctic +Circle. One has a feeling that a line with icicles dangling from it must +be strung overhead, under which one passes into the enchanted realm of +the real North.</p> + +<p>"Feel that?" asked the man from Iowa of a big, unsmiling Englishman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Feel—er—what?" said the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"That shock. It felt like stepping on the third rail of an electric +railway."</p> + +<p>But the Iowa humor was scorned, and the Englishman walked away.</p> + +<p>We soon landed at Fort Yukon, the only landing in the Arctic Circle and +the most northerly point on the Yukon. This post was established at the +mouth of the Porcupine in 1847 by A. H. McMurray, of the Hudson Bay +Company, and was moved in 1864 a mile lower on the Yukon, on account of +the undermining of the bank by the wash of the river. During the early +days of this post goods were brought from York Factory on Hudson Bay, +four thousand miles distant, and were two years in transit. The whole +Hudson Bay system, according to Dall, was one of exacting tyranny that +almost equalled that of the Russian Company. The white men were urged to +marry Indian, or native, women, to attach them to the country. The +provisions sent in were few and these were consumed by the commanders of +the trading posts or given to chiefs, to induce them to bring in furs. +The white men received three pounds of tea and six of sugar annually, +and no flour. This scanty supply was uncertain and often failed. Two +suits of clothes were granted to the men, but nothing else until the +furs were all purchased. If anything remained after the Indians were +satisfied, the men were permitted to purchase; but Indians are rarely +satisfied.</p> + +<p>Fort Yukon has never been of importance as a mining centre, but has long +been a great fur trading post for the Indians up the Porcupine. This +trade has waned, however, and little remains but an Indian village and +the old buildings of the post. We walked a mile into the woods to an old +graveyard in a still, dim grove, probably the only one in the Arctic +Circle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLVI</h2> + + +<p>The Yukon is a mighty and a beautiful river, and its memory becomes more +haunting and more compelling with the passage of time. From the slender +blue stream of its source, it grows, in its twenty-three hundred miles +of wandering to the sea, to a width of sixty miles at its mouth. In its +great course it widens, narrows, and widens; cuts through the foot-hills +of vast mountain systems, spreads over flats, makes many splendid +sweeping curves, and slides into hundreds of narrow channels around +spruce-covered islands.</p> + +<p>It is divided into four great districts, each of which has its own +characteristic features. The valley extending from White Horse to some +distance below Dawson is called the "upper Yukon," or "upper Ramparts," +the river having a width of half a mile and a current of four or five +miles an hour, and the valley in this district being from one to three +miles in width.</p> + +<p>Following this are the great "Flats"—of which one hears from his first +hour on the Yukon; then, the "Ramparts"; and last, the "lower Yukon" or +"lower river."</p> + +<p>The Flats are vast lowlands stretching for two hundred miles along the +river, with a width in places of a hundred miles. Their very monotony is +picturesque and fascinates by its immensity. Countless islands are +constantly forming, appearing and disappearing in the whimsical changes +of the currents. Indian, white, and half-breed pilots patrol these +reaches, guiding one steamer down and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> another up, and by constant +travel keeping themselves fairly familiar with the changing currents. +Yet even these pilots frequently fail in their calculations.</p> + +<p>At Eagle a couple of gentlemen joined our party down the river on the +<i>Campbell</i>, expecting to meet the same day and return on the famous +<i>Sarah</i>—as famous as a steamer as is the island of the same name on the +inland passage; but they went on and on and the <i>Sarah</i> came not. One +day, two days, three days, went by and they were still with us. One was +in the customs service and his time was precious. Whenever we approached +a bend in the river, they stood in the bow of the boat, eagerly staring +ahead; but not until the fourth day did the cry of "<i>Sarah</i>" ring +through our steamer. Hastening on deck, we beheld her, white and +shining, on a sand-bar, where she had been lying for several days, +notwithstanding the fact that she had an experienced pilot aboard.</p> + +<p>Throughout the Flats lies a vast network of islands, estimated as high +as ten thousand in number, threaded by countless channels, many of which +have strong currents, while others are but still, sluggish sloughs. +Mountains line the far horizon lines, but so far away that they +frequently appear as clouds of bluish pearl piled along the sky; at +other times snow-peaks are distinctly visible. Cottonwoods, birches, and +spruce trees cover the islands so heavily that, from the lower deck of a +steamer, one would believe that he was drifting down the single channel +of a narrow river, instead of down one channel of a river twenty miles +wide.</p> + +<p>It is within the Arctic Circle that the Yukon makes its sweeping bend +from its northwest course to the southwest, and here it is entered by +the Porcupine; twenty miles farther, by the Chandelar; and just above +the Ramparts, by the Dall. These are the three important rivers of this +stretch of the Yukon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many complain of the monotony of the Flats; but for me, there was not +one dull or uninteresting hour on the Yukon. In my quiet home on summer +evenings I can still see the men taking soundings from the square bow of +our steamer and hear their hoarse cries:—</p> + +<p>"Six feet starboard! Five feet port! Seven feet starboard! Five feet +port! Five feet starboard! Four feet port!" At the latter cry the silent +watchers of the pilot-house came to attention, and we proceeded under +slow bell until a greater depth was reached.</p> + +<p>On the shores, as we swept past, we caught glimpses of dark figures and +Indian villages, or, farther down the river, primitive Eskimo +settlements; and the stillness, the pure and sparkling air, the +untouched wilderness, the blue smoke of a wood-chopper's lonely fire, +the wide spaces swimming over us and on all sides of us, charmed our +senses as only the elemental forces of nature can charm. One longs to +stay awake always on this river; to pace the wide decks and be one with +the solitude and the stillness that are not of the earth, as we know it, +but of God, as we have dreamed of him.</p> + +<p>The blue hills of the Ramparts are seen long before entering them. The +valley contracts into a kind of canyon, from which the rampart-like +walls of solid stone rise abruptly from the water. The hills are not so +high as those of the Upper Ramparts, which bear marked resemblance to +the lower; and although many consider the latter more picturesque, I +must confess that I found no beauty below Dawson so majestic as that +above. Many of the hills here have a rose-colored tinge, like the hills +of Lake Bennett.</p> + +<p>In places the river does not reach a width of half a mile and is deep +and swift. The shadows between the high rock-bluffs and pinnacled cliffs +take on the mysterious purple tones of twilight; many of the hills are +covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span> with spruce, whose dark green blends agreeably with the gray +and rose color. The bends here are sharp and many; at the Rapids the +current is exceedingly rapid, and Dall reported a fall of twelve feet to +the half mile, with the water running in sheets of foam over a granite +island in the middle of the stream. This was on June 1, 1866. In August, +1883, Schwatka, after many hours of anxiety and dread of the reputed +rapids, inquired of Indians and learned that he had already passed them. +They were not formidable at the time of our voyage,—August,—and it is +only during high stages of water that they present a bar to navigation.</p> + +<p>We reached Rampart at six o'clock in the morning. After Tanana, this is +the loveliest place on the Yukon. Its sparkling, emerald beauty shone +under a silvery blue sky. There was a long street of artistic log houses +and stores on a commanding bluff, up which paths wound from the water. +Roofs covered with earth and flowers, carried out in brilliant bloom +over the porches, added the characteristic Yukon touch. Every door-yard +and window blazed with color. Narrow paths ran through tall fireweed and +grasses over and around the hill—each path terminating, like a winding +lane, in a pretty log-cabin home. There was an atmosphere of +cleanliness, tidiness, and thrift not found in other settlements along +the Yukon.</p> + +<p>Captain Mayo, who, with McQuesten, founded Rampart in 1873, still lives +here. The two commercial companies have large stores and warehouses; and +residences were comfortably, and even luxuriously, furnished.</p> + +<p>Rampart is two hundred and thirty miles below Fort Yukon, and is about +halfway between Dawson and the sea. It has a population of four or five +hundred people—when they are in from the mines!—and almost as many +fighting, hungry dogs. Its street winds, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span> buildings follow its +windings; sometimes it stops altogether, and the buildings stop with +it—then both go on again; and in front of all the public buildings are +clean rustic benches, where one may sit and "look to the rose about +him." The river here is half a mile wide, and on its opposite shore the +green fields of the government experimental station slope up from the +water.</p> + +<p>Gold was discovered on Minook Creek, half a mile from town, in 1895, and +the camp is regarded as one of the most even producers in Alaska. In +1906, despite an unusually dry season, the output of the district was +three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon of the same day we reached Tanana, which is, as I have +said, the most beautiful place on the Yukon. It has a splendid site on a +level plateau; and all the springlike greenness, the cleanliness and +order, the luxuriant vegetation, of Dawson, are outdone here. One walks +in a maze of delight along streets of tropic, instead of arctic, bloom. +The log houses are set far back from the streets, and the deep dooryards +are seas of tremulous color, through which neat paths lead to +flower-roofed homes. Cleanliness, color, and perfume are everywhere +delights, but on the lonely Yukon their unexpectedness is enchanting.</p> + +<p>In 1900 Fort Gibbon was established here, and this post has the most +attractive surroundings of any in Alaska. Tanana is situated at the +mouth of the Tanana River, seventy-five miles below Rampart, and +passengers for Fairbanks connect here with luxurious steamers for a +voyage of three hundred miles up the Tanana. It is a beautiful voyage +and it ends at the most progressive and metropolitan town of the North.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLVII</h2> + + +<p>In the autumn of 1902 Felix Pedro, an experienced miner and prospector, +crossed the divide between Birch and McManus creeks and entered the +Tanana Valley.</p> + +<p>Previous to that year many people had travelled through the valley, on +their way to the Klondike, by the Valdez route; and a few miners from +the Birch Creek and Forty-Mile diggings had wandered into the Tanana +country, without being able to do any important prospecting because of +the distance from supplies; but Pedro was the first man to discover that +gold existed in economic quantities in this region, and his coming was +an event of historical importance.</p> + +<p>One of the best tests of the importance and value of geological survey +work lies in the significant report of Mr. Alfred H. Brooks for the year +of 1898—four years before the discoveries of Mr. Pedro:—</p> + +<p>"We have seen that the little prospecting which has been done up to the +present time has been too hurried and too superficial to be regarded as +a fair test of the region. Our best information leads us to believe that +the same horizons which carry gold in the Forty-Mile and Birch Creek +districts are represented in the Tanana and White River basins.... I +should advise prospectors to carefully investigate the small tributary +streams of the lower White and of the Tanana from Mirror Creek to the +mouth."</p> + +<p>Pedro's discovery was on the creek which bears his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> name, and before +another year gold was discovered on several other creeks. In 1901 a +trading post was established by Captain E. T. Barnette, on the present +site of Fairbanks, and the development of the country progressed +rapidly. The Fairbanks Mining District was organized and named for the +present Vice-President of the United States. In the autumn of 1903 eight +hundred people were in the district, and about thirty thousand dollars +had been produced, the more important creeks at that time being Pedro, +Goldstream, Twin Creek, Cleary, Wolf, Chatham, and Fairbanks. In the +fall of 1904 nearly four thousand miners had come in, and the year's +output was three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Fairbanks and Chena +had grown to thriving camps, and a brilliant prosperity reigned in the +entire district. Roads were built to the creeks, sloughs were bridged, +and Fairbanks' "boom" was in full swing. It was the old story of a camp +growing from tents to shacks in a night, from shacks to three-story +buildings in a month. The glory of the Klondike trembled and paled in +the brilliance of that of Fairbanks. Every steamer for Valdez was +crowded with men and women bound for the new camp by way of the Valdez +trail; while thousands went by steamer, either to St. Michael and up the +Yukon, or to Skaguay and down the Yukon, to the mouth of the Tanana.</p> + +<p>Fairbanks is now a camp only in name. It has all the comforts and +luxuries of a city, and is more prosperous and progressive than any +other town in Alaska or the Yukon. It started with such a rush that it +does not seem to be able to stop. It is the headquarters of the Third +Judicial District of Alaska, which was formerly at Rampart; it has +electric light and water systems, a fire department, excellent and +modern hotels, schools, churches, hospitals, daily newspapers, a +telegraph line to the outside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> world which is operated by the +government, and a telephone system which serves not only the city, but +all the creeks as well.</p> + +<p>The Tanana Mines Railway, or Tanana Valley Railway, as it is now called, +was built in 1905 to connect Fairbanks with Chena and the richest mining +claims of the district; and two great railroads are in course of +construction from Prince William Sound.</p> + +<p>In 1906 the output of gold was more than nine millions of dollars, and +had it not been for the labor troubles in 1907, this output would have +been doubled. In the earlier days of the camp the crudest methods of +mining were employed; but with the improved transportation facilities, +modern machinery was brought in and the difficulties of the development +were greatly lessened.</p> + +<p>Upon a first trip to Fairbanks, the visitor is amazed at the size and +the metropolitan style and tone of this six-year-old camp in the +wilderness.</p> + +<p>It is situated on the banks of the Chena River, about nine miles from +its confluence with the Tanana. It has a level town site, which looks as +though it might extend to the Arctic Circle. The main portion of the +town is on the right bank of the river, the railway terminal yards, +saw-mills, manufacturing plants, and industries of a similar nature +being located on the opposite shore, on what is known as Garden Island, +the two being connected by substantial bridges. The city is incorporated +and, like other incorporated towns of Alaska, is governed by a council +of seven members, who elect a presiding officer who is, by courtesy, +known as mayor. The executive officers of the municipal government +consist of a clerk, treasurer, police magistrate, chief of police, chief +of the fire department, street commissioner, and physician.</p> + +<p>The municipal finances are derived from a share in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span> federal licenses, +from the income derived from the local court, from poll taxes, and from +local taxation of real and personal property. From all these sources the +municipal treasury was enriched during the year of 1906 by about +ninety-five thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Each of the three banks operates an assay office under the supervision +of an expert. The population of the district is from fifteen to twenty +thousand, of which five thousand belong permanently to the town. The +climate is dry and sparkling; the summers are delightful, the winters +still and not colder than those of Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas, +but without the blizzards of those states. In 1906 the coldest month was +January, the daily mean temperature being thirty-six degrees below zero, +but dry and still. Travel over the trail by dog team is continued +throughout the winter, skating and other outdoor sports being as common +as in Canada.</p> + +<p>Five saw-mills are in operation, with an aggregate daily capacity of a +hundred and ten thousand feet, the entire product being used locally. +There is an abundance of poplar, spruce, hemlock, and birch; an +unlimited water supply; a municipal steam-heating plant; two good +hospitals; two daily newspapers; graded schools,—the four-year course +of the high school admitting the student to the Washington State +University and to high educational institutions of other states; a +Chamber of Commerce and a Business Men's Association; twelve hotels, +five of which are first class; while every industry is represented +several times over.</p> + +<p>This is Fairbanks, the six-year-old mining-camp of the Tanana Valley.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_608.jpg" width="640" height="422" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Sunrise on Behring Sea" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Sunrise on Behring Sea</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII</h2> + + +<p>At Tanana our party was enlarged by a party of four gentlemen, headed by +Governor Wilford B. Hoggatt, of Juneau, who was on a tour of inspection +of the country he serves.</p> + +<p>Our steamer, too, underwent a change while we were ashore. We now +learned why its bow was square and wide. It was that it might push +barges up and down the Yukon; and it now proceeded, under our astonished +eyes, to push four, each of which was nearly as large as itself. All the +days of my life, as Mr. Pepys would say, I have never beheld such an +object floating upon the water. The barges were fastened in front of us +and on both sides of us; two were flat and uncovered, one was covered, +but open on the sides, while the fourth was a kind of boat and was +crowned with a real pilot-house, in which was a real wheel.</p> + +<p>We viewed them in open and hostile dismay, not yet recognizing them as +blessings in disguise; we then laughed till we wept, over our amazing +appearance as we went sweeping, bebarged, down to the sea. Four barges +to one steamboat! One barge would have seemed like an insult, but four +were perfectly ridiculous. The governor was told that they constituted +his escort of honor, but he would not smile. He was in haste to get to +Nome; and barges meant delay.</p> + +<p>We swept down the Yukon like a huge bird with wide wings outspread; and +those of us who did not care<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span> whether we went upon a sand-bar or not +soon became infatuated with barges. Straight in front of our steamer we +had, on one barge, a low, clean promenade a hundred feet long by fifty +wide; on the others were shady, secluded nooks, where one might lie on +rugs and cushions, reading or dreaming, ever and anon catching glimpses +of native settlements—tents and cabins; thousands of coral-red salmon +drying on frames; groups of howling dogs; dozens of silent dark people +sitting or standing motionless, staring at their whiter and more +fortunate brothers sweeping past them on the rushing river.</p> + +<p>Poor, lonely, dark people! As lonely and as mysterious, as little known +and as little understood, as the mighty river on whose shores their few +and hard days are spent. Little we know of them, and less we care for +them. The hopeless tragedy of their race is in their long, yearning +gaze; but we read it not. We look at them in idle curiosity as we flash +past them; and each year, as we return, we find them fewer, +lonelier,—more like dark sphinxes on the river's banks. As the years +pass and their numbers diminish, the mournfulness deepens in their gaze; +it becomes more questioning, more haunting. The day will come when they +will all be gone, when no longer dark figures will people those lonely +shores; and then we will look at one another in useless remorse and +cry:—</p> + +<p>"Why did they not complain? Why did they not ask us to help them? Why +did they sit and starve for everything, staring at us and making no +sign?"</p> + +<p>Alas! when that day comes, we will learn—too late!—that there is no +appeal so poignant and so haunting as that which lies in the silence and +in the asking eyes of these dark and vanishing people.</p> + +<p>Below Rampart the hills withdraw gradually until they become but blue +blurs on the horizon line during the last miles of the river's course. +It is now the lower river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span> and becomes beautifully channelled and +islanded. Across these low, wooded, and watered plains the sunset burns +like a maze of thistle-down touched with ruby fire—burns down, at last, +into the rose of dawn; and the rose into emerald, beryl, and pearl.</p> + +<p>Not far above Nulato the Koyukuk pours its tawny flood into the Yukon. +For many years the Koyukuk has given evidences of great richness in +gold, but high prices of freight and labor have retarded its progress. +During the past winter, however, discoveries have been made which +promise one of the greatest stampedes ever known. Louis Olson, after +several seasons in the district, experienced a gambler's "hunch" that +there "was pay on Nolan Creek." He and his associates started to sink, +and the first bucket they got off bedrock netted seven dollars; the +bedrock, a slate, pitched to one side of the hole, and when they had +followed it down and struck a level bedrock, they got two hundred and +sixty dollars.</p> + +<p>"Our biggest pan," said Mr. Olson, telling the story when he came out, +one of the richest men in Alaska, "was eighteen hundred dollars. You can +see the gold lying in sight."</p> + +<p>Captain E. W. Johnson, of Nome, who had grub-staked two men in the +Koyukuk, "fell into it," as miners say. They struck great richness on +bedrock, and Captain Johnson promptly celebrated the strike by opening +fifteen hundred dollars' worth of champagne to the camp.</p> + +<p>Within ten days three pans of a thousand dollars each were washed out. +Coldfoot, Bettles, Bergman, and Koyukuk are the leading settlements of +this region, the first two lying within the Arctic Circle. Interest has +revived in the Chandelar country which adjoins on the east.</p> + +<p>Really, Seward's "land of icebergs, polar bears, and walrus," his +"worthless, God-forsaken region," is doing fairly well, as countries +go.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nulato, nearly three hundred miles below Tanana, is one of the most +historic places on the Yukon, and has the most sanguinary history. It +was founded in 1838 by a Russian half-breed named Malakoff, who built a +trading post. During the following winter, owing to scarcity of +provisions, he was compelled to return to St. Michael, and the buildings +were burned by natives who were jealous of the advance of white people +up the river. The following year the post was reëstablished and was +again destroyed. In 1841 Derabin erected a fort at this point, and for +ten years the settlement flourished. In 1851, however, Lieutenant +Bernard, of the British ship <i>Enterprise</i>, arrived in search of +information as to the fate of Sir John Franklin. Unfortunately, he +remarked that he intended to "send for" the principal chief of the +Koyukuks. This was considered an insult by the haughty chief, and it led +to an assault upon the fort, which was destroyed. Derabin, Bernard and +his companions, and all other white people at the fort were brutally +murdered, as well as many resident Indians. The atrocity was never +avenged.</p> + +<p>Nulato is now one of the largest and most prosperous Indian settlements +on the river. A large herd of reindeer is quartered there. There was, as +every one interested in Alaska knows, a grave scandal connected with the +reindeer industry a few years ago. Many of the animals imported by the +government from Siberia at great expense, for the benefit of needy +natives and miners, were appropriated by missionaries without authority; +but after an investigation by a special agent of the government there +was an entire reorganization of the system. In all, Congress +appropriated more than two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, with +which twelve hundred reindeer have, at various times, been imported. +There are now about twelve thousand head in Alaska, of which the +government owns not more than twenty-five hundred. There are also +stations at Bethel, Beetles, Iliamna, Kotzebue, St. Lawrence Island, +Golovnin, Teller, Cape Prince of Wales, Point Barrow, and at several +other points. They are used for sledding purposes and for their meat and +hides, really beautiful parkas and mukluks—the latter a kind of skin +boot—being made of the hides.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/illo_615.jpg" width="640" height="407" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Surf at Nome + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Surf at Nome<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span></p> + +<p>A native woman named Mary Andrewuk has a large herd, is quite wealthy, +and is known as the "Reindeer Queen."</p> + +<p>We reached Anvik at seven in the evening. Anvik is like Uyak on Kadiak +Island, and I longed for the frank Swedish sailor who had so luminously +described Uyak. If there be anything worth seeing at Anvik—and they say +there is a graveyard!—they must first kill the mosquitoes; else, so far +as I am concerned, it will forever remain unseen. Under a rocky bluff +two dozen Eskimo, men and women, sat fighting mosquitoes and trying to +sell wares so poorly made that no one desired them. Eskimo dolls and toy +parkas were the only things that tempted us; and hastily paying for +them, we fled on board to our big, comfortable stateroom, whose window +was securely netted from the pests which made the very air black.</p> + +<p>We left Anvik at midnight. We were to arrive at Holy Cross Mission at +four o'clock the same morning. Expecting the <i>Campbell</i> to arrive later +in the day, the priest and sisters had arranged a reception for the +governor, in which the children of the mission were to take part. +Thinking of the disappointment of the children, the governor decided to +go ashore, even at that unearthly hour, and we were invited to accompany +him. We were awakened at three o'clock.</p> + +<p>The dawn was bleak and cheerless; it was raining slightly, and the +mosquitoes were as thick and as hungry as they had been at the Grand +Canyon. Of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> the passengers that had planned to go ashore, there +appeared upon the sloppy deck only four—the governor, a gentleman who +was travelling with him, my friend, and myself. We looked at one another +silently through rain and mosquitoes, and before we could muster up +smiles and exchange greetings, an officer of the boat called out:—</p> + +<p>"Governor, if it wasn't for those damn disappointed children, I'd advise +you not to go ashore."</p> + +<p>We all smiled then, for the man had put the thought of each of us into +most forcible English.</p> + +<p>We were landed upon the wet sand and we waded through the tall wet +grasses of the beach to the mission. At every step fresh swarms of +mosquitoes rose from the grass and assailed us. A gentleman had sent us +his mosquito hats. These were simply broad-brimmed felt hats, with the +netting gathered about the crowns and a kind of harness fastening around +the waist.</p> + +<p>The governor had no protection; and never, I am sure, did any governor +go forth to a reception and a "programme" in his honor in such a frame +of mind and with such an expression of torture as went that morning the +governor of "the great country." It was a silent and dismal procession +that moved up the flower-bordered walk to the mission—a procession of +waving arms and flapping handkerchiefs. At a distance it must have +resembled a procession of windmills in operation, rather than of human +beings on their way to a reception in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle.</p> + +<p>So ceaseless and so ferocious were the attacks of the mosquitoes that +before the sleeping children were aroused and ready for their programme, +my friend and I, notwithstanding the protection of the hats, yielded in +sheer exhaustion, and, without apology or farewell, left the unfortunate +governor to pay the penalty of greatness; left him to his reception and +his programme; to the earnest priests,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> the smiling, sweet-faced +sisters, and the little solemn-eyed Eskimo children.</p> + +<p>This mission is cared for by the order of Jesuits. Two priests and +several brothers and sisters reside there. Fifty or more children are +cared for yearly,—educated and guided in ways of thrift, cleanliness, +industry, and morality. They are instructed in all kinds of useful work. +About forty acres of land are in cultivation; the flowers and vegetables +which we saw would attract admiration and wonder in any climate. The +buildings were of logs, but were substantially built and attractive, +each in its setting of brilliant bloom. How these sisters, these gentle +and refined women, whose faces and manner unconsciously reveal superior +breeding and position, can endure the daily and nightly tortures of the +mosquitoes is inconceivable.</p> + +<p>"They are not worth notice now," one said, with her sweet and patient +smile. "Oh, no! You should come earlier if you would see mosquitoes."</p> + +<p>"Our religion, you know," another said gently, "helps us to bear all +things that are not pleasant. In time one does not mind."</p> + +<p>In time one does not mind! It is another of the lessons of the Yukon; +and reading, one stands ashamed. There those saintly beings spend their +lives in God's service. Nothing save a divine faith could sustain a +delicate woman to endure such ceaseless torment for three months in +every year; and yet, like the lone woman at Nation, their faces tell us +that we, rather than they, are for pity. The stars upon their brows are +the white and blessed stars of peace.</p> + +<p>The steamer lands at neither Russian Mission nor Andreaofsky; but at +both may be seen, on grassy slopes, beautiful Greek churches, with +green, pale blue, and yellow roofs, domes and bell-towers, chimes and +glittering crosses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span></p> + +<p>Down where the mouth of the Yukon attains a width of sixty miles we ran +upon a sand-bar early in the afternoon, and there we remained until +nearly midnight. It was a weird experience. Dozens of natives in +bidarkas surrounded our steamer, boarded our barges, and offered their +inferior work for sale. The brown lads in reindeer parkas were +bright-eyed and amiable. Cookies and gum sweetened the way to their +little wild hearts, and they would hold our hands, cling to our skirts, +and beg for "more."</p> + +<p>A splendid, stormy sunset burned over those miles of water-threaded +lowlands at evening. Rose and lavender mists rolled in from the sea, +parted, and drifted away into the distances stretching on all sides; +they huddled upon islands, covering them for a few moments, and then, +withdrawing, leaving them drenched in sparkling emerald beauty in the +vivid light; they coiled along the horizon, like peaks of rosy pearl; +and they went sailing, like elfin shallops, down poppy-tinted +water-ways. Everywhere overhead geese drew dark lines through the +brilliant atmosphere, their mournful cries filling the upper air with +the weird and lonely music of the great spaces. Up and down the +water-ways slid the bidarkas noiselessly; and along the shores the brown +women moved among the willows and sedges, or stood motionless, staring +out at their white sisters on the stranded boat. There were times when +every one of the millions of sedges on island and shore seemed to flash +out alone and apart, like a dazzling emerald lance quivering to strike.</p> + +<p>They are dull of soul and dull of imagination who complain of monotony +on the Yukon Flats. There is beauty for all that have eyes wherewith to +see. It is the beauty of the desert; the beauty and the lure of +wonderful distances, of marvellous lights and low skies, of dawns that +are like blown roses, and as perfumed, and sunsets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span> whose mists are as +burning dust. When there is no color anywhere, there is still the +haunting, compelling beauty that lies in distance alone. Vast spaces are +majestic and awesome; the eye goes into them as the thought goes into +the realm of eternity—only to return, wearied out with the beauty and +the immensity that forever end in the fathomless mist that lies on the +far horizon's rim. It is a mist that nothing can pierce; vision and +thought return from it upon themselves, only to go out again upon that +mute and trembling quest which ceases not until life itself ceases.</p> + +<p>The northernmost mouth of the Yukon has been called the Aphoon or +Uphoon, ever since the advent of the Russians, and is the channel +usually selected by steamers, the Kwikhpak lying next to it on the +south. By sea-coast measurement the most northerly mouth is nearly a +hundred miles from the most southerly, and five others between them +assist in carrying the Yukon's gray, dull yellow, or rose-colored floods +out into Behring Sea, whose shallow waters they make fresh for a long +distance. It is not without hazard that the flat-bottomed river boats +make the run to St. Michael; and the pilots of steamers crossing out +anxiously scan the sea and relax not in vigilance until the port is +entered.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLIX</h2> + + +<p>We were released from the sand-bar near midnight, and at eight o'clock +on the following morning we steamed around a green and lovely point and +entered Norton Sound, in whose curving blue arm lies storied St. +Michael.</p> + +<p>St. Michael is situated on the island of the same name, about sixty +miles north of the mouth of the Yukon. It was founded in 1833 by Michael +Tebenkoff, and was originally named Michaelovski Redoubt. The Russian +buildings were of spruce logs brought by sea from the Yukon and +Kuskoquim rivers, as no timber grows in the vicinity of St. Michael or +Nome. Some of the original Russian buildings yet remain,—notably, the +storehouse and the redoubt. The latter is an hexagonal building of heavy +hewn logs, with sloping roof, flagstaff, door, and port-holes. It stands +upon the shore, within a dozen steps of the famous "Cottage,"—the +residence of the managers of the Northern Commercial Company, under +whose hospitable roof every traveller of note has been entertained for +many years,—and in front of it the shore slopes green to the water. +Inside lie half a dozen rusty Russian cannons, mutely testifying to the +sanguinary past of the North.</p> + +<p>The redoubt was attacked in 1836 by the hostile Unaligmuts of the +vicinity, but it was successfully defended by Kurupanoff. The Russians +had a temporary landing-place built out to deep water to accommodate +boats drawing five feet; this was removed when ice formed in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> bay. +The tundra is rolling, with numerous pools that flame like brass at +sunset; only low willows and alders grow on the island and adjacent +shores. The island is seven miles wide and twenty-five long, and is +separated from the mainland by a tortuous channel, as narrow as fifty +feet in places. The land gradually rises to low hills of volcanic origin +near the centre of the island. These hills are called the Shaman +Mountains. The meadow upon which the main part of the town and the +buildings of the post are situated is as level as a vast parade-ground; +but the land rises gently to a slender point that plunges out into +Behring Sea, whose blue waves beat themselves to foam and music upon its +tundra-covered cliffs.</p> + +<p>On the day that I stood upon this headland the sunlight lay like gold +upon the island; the winds were low, murmurous, and soothing; flowers +spent their color riotously about me; the tundra was as soft as +deep-napped velvet; and the blue waves, set with flashes of gold, went +pushing languorously away to the shores of another continent. Scarcely a +stone's throw from me was a small mountain-island, only large enough for +a few graves, but with no graves upon it. In all the world there cannot +be another spot so noble in which to lie down and rest when "life's +fevers and life's passions—all are past." There, alone,—but never +again to be lonely!—facing that sublime sweep of sapphire summer sea, +set here and there with islands, and those miles upon miles of +glittering winter ice; with white sails drifting by in summer, and in +winter the wild and roaring march of icebergs; with summer nights of +lavender dusk, and winter nights set with the great stars and the +magnificent brilliance of Northern Lights; with the perfume of flowers, +the songs of birds, the music of lone winds and waves, out on the edge +of the world—could any clipped and cared-for plot be so noble a place +in which to lie down for the last time? Could any be so close to God?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span></p> + +<p>The entire island is a military reservation, and it is only by +concessions from the government that commercial and transportation +companies may establish themselves there. Fort St. Michael is a +two-company post, under the command of Captain Stokes, at whose +residence a reception was tendered to Governor Hoggatt. The filmy white +gowns of beautiful women, the uniforms of the officers, the music, +flowers, and delicate ices in a handsomely furnished home made it +difficult for one to realize that the function was on the shores of +Behring Sea instead of in the capital of our country.</p> + +<p>There is an excellent hotel at St. Michael, and the large stores of the +companies are well supplied with furs and Indian and Eskimo wares. +Beautiful ivory carvings, bidarkas, parkas, kamelinkas, baskets, and +many other curios may be obtained here at more reasonable prices than at +Nome. There are public bath-houses where one may float and splash in +red-brown water that is never any other color, no matter how long it may +run, but which is always pure and clean.</p> + +<p>No description of St. Michael is complete that does not include +"Lottie." No liquors are sold upon the military reservation, and Lottie +conducts a floating groggery upon a scow. It has been her custom each +fall to have her barge towed up the canal just beyond the line of the +military reservation, ten miles from the flagstaff at the barracks, thus +placing herself beyond the control of the authorities, greatly to their +chagrin. In summer she anchors her barge in one of the numerous bights +along the shore, and they are again powerless to interfere with her +brilliantly managed traffic, since it has been decided that their sway +extends over the land only.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 613px;"> +<img src="images/illo_624.jpg" width="613" height="381" alt="Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle + +Moonlight on Behring Sea" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau<br /> + +Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle<br /> + +Moonlight on Behring Sea</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is Lottie's practice to have the barge made fast in such a way that a +boat can be run to it from the shore on an endless line. One desiring a +bottle of whiskey approaches the boat and drops his money and order into +the bottom of it. The boat is then drawn out to the barge, whiskey is +substituted for the money, and the purchaser pulls the boat ashore, +where it is left for the next customer.</p> + +<p>There is no witness to the transaction and it has been impossible to +prove, the authorities claim, who put the money and the whiskey into the +boat, or took either therefrom.</p> + +<p>Lottie's barge has operated for many years. Its illicit transactions +could easily have been stopped had the civil authorities on shore taken +a firm stand and worked in conjunction with the military; but there was +the usual jealousy as to the rights of the different officials—and +Lottie has profited by these conditions. Furthermore, many people of the +vicinity entertained a friendly feeling for Lottie—not only those who +were wont to draw the little boat back and forth, but others in sheer +admiration of the ingenuity and skill with which she carried on her +business. She was careful in preserving order in her vicinity, was very +charitable, and frequently provided for natives who would have otherwise +suffered. Thus, by her diplomacy, self-control, good business sense, and +many really worthy traits of character, Lottie has been able to outwit +the officials for years. Her barge still floats upon the blue waves of +Norton Sound. However, it seems, even to a woman, that Lottie must be +blessed with "a friend at court."</p> + +<p>We had been invited to voyage from St. Michael to Nome—a distance of a +hundred and eleven miles—on the <i>Meteor</i>, a very small tug; being +warned, however, that, should the weather prove to be unfavorable, our +hardships would be almost unendurable, as there was only an open +after-deck and no cabin in which to take refuge. We boldy took our +chances, remaining three days at St. Michael.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span></p> + +<p>Never had Behring Sea, or Norton Sound, been known to be so beautiful as +it was on that fourteenth day of August. We started at nine in the +morning, and until evening the whole sea, as far as the eye could reach +in all directions, was as smooth as satin, of the palest silvery blue. +Never have I seen its like, nor do I hope ever to see it again. To think +that such seductive beauty could bloom upon a sea whereon, in winter, +one may travel for hundreds of miles on solid ice! At evening it was +still smooth, but its color burned to a silvery rose.</p> + +<p>The waters we sailed now were almost sacred to some of us. Over them the +brave and gallant Captain Cook had sailed in 1778, naming Capes Darby +and Denbigh, on either side of Norton Bay; he also named the bay and the +sound and Besborough, Stuart, and Sledge islands; and it was in this +vicinity that he met the family of cripples.</p> + +<p>But of most poignant interest was St. Lawrence Island, lying far to our +westward, discovered and named by Vitus Behring on his voyage of 1728. +If he had then sailed to the eastward for but one day!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Every one has read of the terrors of landing through the pounding surf +of the open roadstead at Nome. Large ships cannot approach within two +miles of the shore. Passengers and freight are taken off in lighters and +launches when the weather is "fair"; but fair weather at Nome is rough +weather elsewhere. When they call it rough at Nome, passengers remain on +the ships for days, waiting to land. Frequently it is necessary to +transfer passengers from the ships to dories, from the dories to tugs, +from the tugs to flat barges. The barges are floated in as far as +possible; then an open platform—miscalled a cage—is dropped from a +great arm, which looks as though it might break at any moment; the +platform is crowded with passengers and hoisted up over the boiling +surf,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span> swinging and creaking in a hair-crinkling fashion, and at last +depositing its large-eyed burden upon the wharf at Nome. I had pitied +<i>cattle</i> when I had seen them unloaded in this manner at Valdez and +other coast towns!</p> + +<p>We anchored at eleven o'clock that night in the Nome roadstead. In two +minutes a launch was alongside and a dozen gentlemen came aboard to +greet the governor. We were hastily transferred in the purple dusk to +the launch. The town, brilliantly illuminated, glittered like a string +of jewels along the low beach; bells were ringing, whistles were +blowing, bands were playing, and all Nome was on the beach shouting +itself hoarse in welcome.</p> + +<p>There was no surf, there was not a wave, there was scarce a ripple on +the sea. The launch ran smoothly upon the beach and a gangway was put +out. It did not quite reach to dry land and men ran out in the water, +picked us up unceremoniously, and carried us ashore.</p> + +<p>The most beautiful landing ever made at Nome was the one made that +night; and the people said it was all arranged for the governor.</p> + +<p>There was an enthusiastic reception at the Golden Gate Hotel, followed +by a week's brilliant functions in his honor.</p> + +<p>Three days later the <i>Meteor</i> came over from St. Michael, with a +distinguished Congressman aboard. The weather was rough, even for Nome, +and for three blessed days the <i>Meteor</i> rolled in the roadstead, and +with every roll it went clear out of sight.</p> + +<p>There were those at the hotel who differed politically from the +Congressman aboard the little tug; and, like the people of Nome when the +senatorial committee was landed under such distressful circumstances a +few years ago, their faces did not put on mourning as they watched the +<i>Meteor</i> roll.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER L</h2> + + +<p>Nome! Never in all the world has been, and never again will be, a town +so wonderfully and so picturesquely built. Imagine a couple of miles of +two and three story frame buildings set upon a low, ocean-drenched beach +and, for the most part, painted white, with the back doors of one side +of the main business street jutting out over the water; the town +widening for a considerable distance back over the tundra; all things +jumbled together—saloons, banks, dance-halls, millinery-shops, +residences, churches, hotels, life-saving stations, government +buildings, Eskimo camps, sacked coal piled a hundred feet high, +steamship offices, hospitals, schools—presenting the appearance of +having been flung up into the air and left wherever they chanced to +fall; with streets zigzagging in every conceivable and inconceivable, +way—following the beach, drifting away from it, and returning to it; +one building stepping out proudly two feet ahead of its neighbor, +another modestly retiring, another slipping in at right angles and +leaving a V-shaped space; board sidewalks, narrow for a few steps, then +wide, then narrow again, running straight, curving, jutting out sharply; +in places, steps leading up from the street, in others the streets +rising higher than the sidewalks; boards, laid upon the bare sand in the +middle of the streets for planking, wearing out and wobbling noisily +under travel; every second floor a residence or an apartment-house; +crude signs everywhere, and tipsy telephone poles; the streets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span> crowded +with men at all hours of the day and night; and a blare of music +bursting from every saloon. This is Nome at first sight; and it was with +a sore and disappointed heart that I laid my head upon my pillow that +night.</p> + +<p>But Nome grows upon one; and by the end of a week it had drawn my +heartstrings around it as no orderly, conventional town could do. From +the very centre of the business section it is but twenty steps to the +sea; and there, day and night, its surf pounds upon the beach, its +musical thunder and fine mist drifting across the town.</p> + +<p>Ten years ago there was nothing here save the golden sands, the sea that +broke upon them, and the gray-green tundra slopes; there is not a tree +for fifty miles or more. To-day there is a town of seven thousand people +in summer, and of three or four thousand in winter—a town having most +of the comforts and many of the luxuries to be obtained in cities of +older civilization. Nome sprang into existence in the summer of 1899, +and grew like Fairbanks and Dawson; but it is more wonderfully situated +than, probably, any town in the world. For eight months of the year it +is cut off from steamship service, and its front door-yard is a sea of +solid ice stretching to the shores of Siberia, while its back yard is a +gold-mine. There are many weeks when the sun rises but a little way, +glimmers faintly for three or four hours, and fades behind the palisades +of ice, leaving the people to darkness and unspeakable loneliness until +it returns to its full brilliance in spring and opens the way for the +return of the ships.</p> + +<p>Nome is picturesque by day or by night and at any season. Its streets +are constantly crowded with traffic and thronged by a cosmopolitan +population. The Eskimo encampment is on the "sand-spit" at the northern +end of the main street, where Snake River flows into the sea;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> and the +men, women, and children may be seen at all hours loitering about the +streets in reindeer parkas and mukluks. Especially in the evenings do +they haunt the streets and the hotels, offering their beautifully carved +ivories for sale.</p> + +<p>Both the Eskimos and the Indians are lovers of music, and the former +readily yield to emotion when they hear melodious strains. When a +"Buluga," or white whale, is killed, a feast is held and the natives +sing their songs and dance. The music of stringed instruments invariably +moves them to tears. At a recent Thanksgiving service in Fairbanks, some +visiting Indians were invited to sing "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful." With +evident pleasure, they sang it as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oni, tsenuan whuduguduwhuta yilh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oni, yuwhun dutlish, oni nokhlhan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oni, dodutalokhlho,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oni, dodutalokhlho,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oni, dodutalokhlho,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Lud."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At Point Barrow, three hundred miles northeast of Behring Strait, an old +Eskimo who could not speak one word of English was heard to whistle "The +Holy City," and it filled the hearer's heart with home-loneliness. A +trader had sold the old native music-lover a phonograph, receiving in +pay two white polar bear-skins, worth several hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>Some one gave an ordinary French harp to a little Eskimo lad on our +steamer; and from early morning until late at night he sat on a +companionway, alone, indifferent to all passers-by, blowing out softly +and sweetly with dark lips the prisoned beauty of his soul.</p> + +<p>All the islands of Behring Sea, as well as the coast of the Arctic +Ocean, are inhabited by Eskimos. From the largest island, St. Lawrence, +to the small Diomede on the American side, they have settlements and +schools.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> St. Lawrence is eighty miles long by fifteen in width; while +the Diomede is only two miles by one. The natives beg pitifully for +education—"to be smart, like the white man." We shrink from their filth +and their immorality, but we teach them nothing better; yet we might see +through their asking eyes down into their starved souls if we would but +look.</p> + +<p>In many ways Nome is the most interesting place in Alaska. It is at once +so pagan and so civilized; so crude and so refined. It is the golden +gateway through which thousands of people pass each summer to and from +the interior of Alaska. Treeless and harborless it began and has +continued, surmounting all obstacles that lay in its way of becoming a +city. It has a water system that supplies its household needs, with +steam pipes laid parallel to the water pipes, to thaw them in +winter—and then it has not a yard of sewerage. It has a wireless +telegraph station, a telephone service, and electric-light plant; and it +is seeking municipal steam-heating. Electric lighting is excessively +high, owing to the price of coal, and many use lamps and candles. There +are three good newspapers, which play important parts in the politics of +Alaska—the <i>Nugget</i>, the <i>Gold-Digger</i>, and the <i>News</i>; three banks, +with capital stocks ranging from one to two hundred thousand dollars, +each of which has an assay-office; two good public schools; three +churches; hospitals; and a telephone system connecting all the creeks +and camps within a radius of fifty miles with Nome. The orders of +Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Eagles, and Arctic Brotherhood +have clubs at Nome. The Arctic Brotherhood is the most popular order of +the North, and the more important entertainments are usually given under +its auspices and are held in its club-rooms; the wives of its members +form the most exclusive society of the North.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span></p> + +<p>The spirit of Nome is restless; it is the spirit of the gold-seeker, the +seafarer, the victim of wanderlust; and it soon gets into even the +visitor's blood. Millions of dollars have been taken out of the sands +whereon Nome is now built, and millions more may be waiting beneath it. +It seemed as though every man in Nome should be digging—on the beach, +in the streets, in cellars.</p> + +<p>"Why are not all these men digging?" I asked, and they laughed at me.</p> + +<p>"Because every inch of tundra for miles back is located."</p> + +<p>"Then why do not the locators dig, dig, day and night?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, for one reason or another."</p> + +<p>If I owned a claim on the tundra back of Nome, nothing save sudden death +could prevent my digging.</p> + +<p>New strikes are constantly being made, to keep the people of Nome in a +state of feverish excitement and dynamic energy. When we landed, we +found the town wild over a thirty-thousand-dollar clean-up on a claim +named "Number Eight, Cooper Gulch." Four days later an excursion was +arranged to go out on the railroad—for they have a railroad—to see +another clean-up at this mine.</p> + +<p>We started at nine o'clock, and we did not return until five; and it +rained steadily and with exceeding coldness all day. There was a +comfortable passenger-car, but despite the wind and the rain we +preferred the box-cars, roofed, but open at the sides. The country which +we traversed for six miles possessed the indescribable fascination of +desolation. Behind us rolled the sea; but on all other sides stretched +wide gray tundra levels, varied by low hills. Hills they call them here, +but they are only slopes, or mounds, with here and there a treeless +creek winding through them. The mist of the rain drove across them like +smoke.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span></p> + +<p>We were received at the mine by Captain and Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Corson, +the owners. The ladies were entertained in the Johnsons' cabin home and +the gentlemen at a near-by cabin, there being twelve ladies and twenty +gentlemen in the party. An immense bowl of champagne punch—the word +"punch" being used for courtesy—stood outside the ladies' cabin and was +not allowed to grow empty. Late in the afternoon the heap of empty +champagne bottles outside the gentlemen's cabin resembled in size one of +the numerous gravel dumps scattered over the tundra; yet not a person +showed signs of intoxication. They told us that one may drink champagne +as though it were water in that latitude; and this is one northern +"story" which I am quite willing to believe.</p> + +<p>At noon a bountiful and delicious luncheon was served at the mess-house. +It was this same fortunate Captain Johnson, by the way, who opened +fifteen hundred dollars' worth of champagne when bedrock was reached in +his Koyukuk claim.</p> + +<p>Sluicing is fascinating. A good supply of water with sufficient fall is +necessary. Some of the claims are on creeks, but the owners of others +are compelled to buy water from companies who supply it by +pumping-plants and ditches. Boxes, or flat-bottomed troughs, are formed +of planks with slats, or "riffles," fastened at intervals across the +bottom. Several boxes are arranged on a gentle slope and fitted into one +another. The boxes at "Number Eight" were twenty feet in length and +slanted from the ground to a height of twelve feet on scaffolding. A +narrow planking ran along each side of the telescoped boxes, and upon +these frail foundations we stood to view the sluicing. The gravel is +usually shovelled into the boxes, but "Number Eight" has an improved +method. The gravel is elevated into an immense hopper-like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> receptacle, +from which it sifts down into the sluice-boxes on each side, and a +stream of water is kept running steadily upon it from a large hose at +the upper end. Men with whisk brooms sweep up the gold into glistening +heaps, working out the gravel and passing it on, as a housewife works +the whey out of the yellowing butter. The gold, being heavy, is caught +and held by the riffles; if it is very fine, the bottoms of the boxes +are covered with blankets, or mercury is placed at the slats to detain +it.</p> + +<p>The clean-up that day was twenty-nine thousand dollars, and each lady of +the party was presented with a gold nugget by Mrs. Johnson. We were +taken down into the mine, where we went about like a company of +fireflies, each carrying his own candle. The ceiling was so low that we +were compelled to walk in a stooping position. On the following morning +we went to a bank and saw this clean-up melted and run into great +bricks.</p> + +<p>The lure and the fascination of virgin gold is undeniable. It catches +one and all in its glistening, mysterious web. A man may sell his potato +patch in town lots and become a millionnaire, without attracting +attention; but let him "strike pay on bedrock"—and instantly he walks +in a golden mist of glory and romance before his fellow-men. It may be +because the farmer deposits his money in the bank, while the miner "sets +up" the champagne to his less fortunate friends. Be that as it may, it +is a sluggish pulse that does not quicken when one sees cones of +beautiful coarse gold and nuggets washed and swept out of the gravel in +which it has been lying hundreds of years, waiting. If Behring had but +landed upon this golden beach, Alaska—despite all the eloquence and the +earnestness of Seward and Sumner-might not now be ours.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To the Nome district have been gradually added those of Topkuk, Solomon, +and Golovin Bay, forty-five miles to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> eastward on the shores of Norton +Sound, Cripple Creek, Bluff, Penny, and a chain of diggings extending up +the coast and into the Kotzebue country, including the rich Kougarok and +Blue Stone districts, Candle Creek, and Kowak River.</p> + +<p>When gold was discovered at Nome, prospectors scattered over the Seward +Peninsula in all directions. Some drifted west into the York district, +near Cape Prince of Wales, the extreme western point of the North +American continent. In this region they found gold in the streams, but +sluicing was so difficult, owing to a heavy gravel which they +encountered, that they abandoned their claims, not knowing that the +impediment was stream-tin. Wiser prospectors later recognized the metal +and located claims. The tin is irregularly distributed over an area of +four hundred and fifty square miles, embracing the western end of the +peninsula. The United States uses annually twenty million dollars' worth +of tin, which is obtained largely from the Straits Settlement, although +much comes from Ecuador, Bolivia, Australia, and Cornwall. Tin cannot at +present be treated successfully in this country, owing to the lack of +smelter facilities; but now that it has been discovered in so vast +quantities and of so pure quality in the Seward Peninsula, smelters in +this country will doubtless be equipped for reducing tin ores.</p> + +<p>The centre of the tin-mining industry is at Tin City, a small settlement +three miles west of Teller, Cape Prince of Wales, and is reached by +small steamers which ply from Nome. Several corporations are developing +promising properties with large stamp-mills. Both stream-tin and tin ore +in ledges are found throughout the district.</p> + +<p>The Council district is the oldest of Seward Peninsula, the first +discovery of gold having been made there in 1898, by a party headed by +Daniel P. Libby, who had been through the country with the Western +Union's Expedition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> in 1866. Hearing of the Klondike's richness, he +returned to Seward Peninsula and soon found gold on Fish River. He and +his party established the town of Council and built the first residence; +it now has a population of eight hundred. This district is forestated +with spruce of fair size and quality.</p> + +<p>The Ophir Creek Mines are of great value, having produced more than five +millions of dollars by the crudest of mining methods. The Kougarok is +the famous district of the interior of the peninsula. Mary's +Igloo—deriving its name from an Eskimo woman of some importance in +early days—is the seat of the recorder's office for this district. It +has a post-office and is an important station. May it never change its +striking and picturesque name!</p> + +<p>The entire peninsula, having an area of nearly twenty-three thousand +miles, is liable to prove to be one vast gold-mine, the extreme richness +of strikes in various localities indicating that time and money to +install modern machinery and develop the country are all that are +required to make this one of the richest producing districts of the +world.</p> + +<p>The leading towns of the peninsula are Council, Solomon, Teller, Candle, +Mary's Igloo, and Deering, on Kotzebue Sound. Solomon is on Norton +Sound, at the mouth of Solomon River; a railroad runs from this point to +Council.</p> + +<p>The early name of Seward Peninsula was Kaviak—the name of the Innuit +people inhabiting it.</p> + +<p>Gold was discovered on Anvil Creek in the hills behind Nome in +September, 1898, by Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson, +the "three lucky Swedes." In the following summer gold was discovered on +the beach, and in 1900 occurred the memorable stampede to Nome, when +fifteen thousand people struggled through the surf during one fortnight. +Then began the amazing building<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> of the mining-camp on the +northwesternmost point of the continent. Anvil Creek, Dexter, Dry and +Glacier creeks, Snow and Cooper gulches, have yielded millions of +dollars. The tundra reaching back to the hills five or six miles from +the sea is made up of a series of beach lines, all containing deposits +of gold. Five millions of dollars in dust were taken from the famous +"third" beach line in one season; and its length is estimated at thirty +or forty miles. The hills are low and round-topped, and beyond +them—thirty miles distant—are the Kigluaik Mountains, known to +prospectors by the name of Sawtooth. Among their sharp and austere peaks +is the highest of the peninsula, rising to an altitude of four thousand +seven hundred feet by geological survey.</p> + +<p>There are several railroads on the peninsula. Some are but a few miles +in length, the rails are narrow and "wavy," the trains run by starts and +plunges and stop fearsomely; but they are railroads. One can climb into +the box-cars or the one warm passenger-coach and go from Nome out among +the creeks,—to Nome River, to Anvil Creek, to Kougarok and Hot Springs, +from Solomon to the Council Country,—and Nome is only ten years old.</p> + +<p>Nome has a woman's club. It is federated and it owns its club-house, a +small but pretty building. Its name is Kegoayah Kosga, or Northern +Lights. It held an open meeting while we were in Nome. Bishop Rowe +described a journey by dog sled and canoe, Congressman Sulzer gave an +informal talk, and the ladies of the club presented an interesting +programme. The afternoon was the most profitable I have spent at a +woman's club.</p> + +<p>For two or three months in summer it is all work at Nome; but when the +snow begins to drive in across the town; when the last steamer drifts +down the roadstead and disappears before the longing eyes that follow +it; when the ice piles up, mile on mile, where the surf<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> dashed in +summer, and the wind in the chimneys plays a weird and lonely tune; then +the people turn to cards and dance and song to while away the long and +dreary months of darkness. The social life is gay; and poker parties, +whereat gambling runs high, are frequent.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to give a poker party for you," said a handsome young woman, +laughing, "but I suppose it would shock you to death."</p> + +<p>We confessed that we would not be shocked, but that, not knowing how to +play the game, we declined to be "bluffed" out of all our money.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we are easy on cheechacos," said she, lightly. "Do come. We'll play +till two o'clock, and then have a little supper; curlew, plovers, and +champagne—the 'big cold bottle and the small hot bird.'"</p> + +<p>When we still declined, she looked bored as she said politely:—</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well; let us call it a five-hundred party. Surely, that is +childlike enough for you. But the men!"</p> + +<p>I laughed at the thought of the men I had met in Nome playing the +insipid game of five-hundred.</p> + +<p>"Then," said she, dolefully, "there's nothing left but bridge—and we +just gamble our pockets inside out on bridge; it's worse than poker, and +we play like fiends."</p> + +<p>We suggested that, as General Greeley had come down the river with us +and would be over from St. Michael the next day, they should wait for +him; when the first player has led the first card, General Greeley knows +in whose hand every deuce lies, and I wickedly longed to see the inside +of Nome's composite pocket by the time General Greeley had sailed away.</p> + +<p>There was no party for us that night; but there is a wide, public porch +behind a big store by the life-saving station. It projects over the sea +and about ten feet above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> it, and upon this porch are benches whereon +one may sit alone and undisturbed until midnight, or until dawn, for +that matter, but alone—with the glitter of Nome and the golden tundra +behind one, and in front, the far, faint lights of the ships anchored in +the roadstead and the tumultuous passion of waves that have lapped the +shores of other lands.</p> + +<p>Sitting here, what thoughts come, unbidden, of the brave and shadowy +navigators of the past who have sailed these waters through hardships +and sufferings that would cause the stoutest hearts of to-day to +hesitate. Read the descriptions of the ships upon which Arctic explorers +embark at the present time—of their stores and comforts; and then turn +back and imagine how Simeon Deshneff, a Cossack chief, set sail in June, +two hundred and sixty years ago, from the mouth of the Kolyma River in +Siberia in search of fabled ivory. In company with two other "kotches," +which were lost, he sailed dauntlessly along the Arctic sea-coast and +through Behring Strait from the Frozen Ocean. His "kotch" was a +small-decked craft, rudely and frailly fashioned of wood; in September +of that year, 1648, he landed upon the shores of the Chukchi Peninsula +and saw the two Diomede Islands, between which the boundary line now +runs. He must have seen the low hills of Cape Prince of Wales, for it +plunges boldly out into the sea, within twenty miles of the Diomedes, +but probably mistook them for islands. Half a century later Popoff, +another Cossack, was sent to East Cape to persuade the rebellious +Chukchis—as the Siberian natives of that region are called—to pay +tribute; he was not successful, but he brought back a description of the +Diomede Islands and rumors of a continent said to lie to the east. The +next passage of importance through the strait was that of Behring, who, +in 1728, sailed along the Siberian coast from Okhotsk,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> rounded East +Cape, passed through the strait, and, after sailing to the northeast for +a day, returned to Okhotsk, marvellously missing the American continent. +Geographers refused to accept Behring's statement that Asia and North +America were not connected until it was verified in 1778 by Cook, who +generously named the strait for the illustrious Dane.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Less than a day's voyage from Nome is the westernmost point of our +country—Cape Prince of Wales, the "Kingegan" of the natives. It is +fifty-four miles from this cape to the East Cape of Siberia, and like +stepping-stones between lie Fairway Rock and the Diomedes. Beyond is the +Frozen Ocean. These islands are of almost solid stone. They are +snow-swept, ice-bound, and ice-bounded for eight months of every year. +But ah, the auroral magnificence that at times must stream through the +gates of frozen pearl which swing open and shut to the Arctic Sea! What +moonlights must glitter there like millions of diamonds; what sunrises +and sunsets must burn like opaline mist! How large the stars must +be—and how bright and low! And in the spring—how this whole northern +world must tremble and thrill at the mighty march of icebergs sweeping +splendidly down through the gates of pearl into Behring Sea!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> + + +<p>In the preparation of this volume the following works have been +consulted, which treat wholly, or in part, of Alaska. After the +narratives of the early voyages and discoveries, the more important +works of the list are Bancroft's "History," Dall's "Alaska and Its +Resources," Brooks' "Geography and Geology," Davidson's "Alaska +Boundary," Elliott's "Arctic Province," Mason's "Aboriginal Basketry," +Miss Scidmore's "Guide-book," and "Proceedings of the Alaska Boundary +Tribunal."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Abercrombie, Captain.</span> Government Reports.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alaska Club's</span> Almanac. 1907, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bales, L. L.</span> Habits and Haunts of the Sea-otter. Seattle +Post-Intelligencer. April 7, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bancroft, Hubert H.</span> History of the Pacific States. Volumes on Oregon, +Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and Northwest Coast. The volume on +Alaska is a conscientious and valuable study of that country, the +material for which was gathered largely by Ivan Petroff.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Beattie, W. G.</span> Alaska-Yukon Magazine. October, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Blaine, J. G.</span> Twenty Years of Congress. Two volumes. 1884.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brady, J. G.</span> Governor's Reports. 1902, 1904, 1905.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brooks, Alfred H.</span> The Geography and Geology of Alaska. 1906. Also, Coal +Resources of Alaska.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Butler, Sir William.</span> Wild Northland. 1873.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Clark, Reed P.</span> Mirror and American.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cook, James.</span> Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 1784.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Coxe, William.</span> Russian Discoveries. Containing diaries of Steller, the +naturalist, who accompanied Behring and Shelikoff, who made the first +permanent Russian settlement in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> America; also, an account of Deshneff's +passage through Behring Strait in 1648. Fourth Edition. Enlarged. 1803.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cunningham, J. T.</span> Encyclopædia Britannica.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dall, William Healy.</span> Alaska and Its Resources. An accurate and important +work. This volume and Bancroft's Alaska are the standard historical +works on Alaska.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Davidson, George.</span> The Alaska Boundary. 1903. Also, Glaciers of Alaska. +1904. Mr. Davidson's work for Alaska covers many years and is of great +value.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dixon, George.</span> Voyage Around the World. 1789.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dorsey, John.</span> Alaska-Yukon Magazine. October, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dunn, Robert.</span> Outing. February, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elliott, Henry W.</span> Our Arctic Province. 1886. This book covers the +greater part of Alaska in an entertaining style and contains a +comprehensive study of the Seal Islands.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Georgeson, C. C.</span> Report of Alaska Agricultural Experimental Work. 1903, +1904, 1905, 1906.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harriman.</span> Alaska Expedition. 1904.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harrison, E. S.</span> Nome and Seward Peninsula.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Holmes, W. H.</span> Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Irving, Washington.</span> Astoria.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jewitt, John.</span> Adventures. Edited by Robert Brown. 1896. John Jewitt was +captured and held as a slave by the Nootka Indians from 1803 until 1805.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jones, R. D.</span> Alaska-Yukon Magazine. October, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kinzie, R. A.</span> Treadwell Group of Mines. 1903.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kostrometinoff, George.</span> Letters and Papers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">La Pérouse, Jean François.</span> Voyage Around the World. 1798.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mackenzie, Alexander.</span> Voyages to the Arctic in 1789 and 1793. Two +volumes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">McLain, J. S.</span> Alaska and the Klondike. 1905.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mason, Otis T.</span> Aboriginal American Basketry. An exquisite and poetic +work.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moser, Commander.</span> Alaska Salmon Investigations.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Muir, John.</span> The Alaska Trip. Century Magazine. August, 1897.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Müller, Gerhard T.</span> Voyages from Asia to America. 1761 and 1764.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nord, Captain J. G.</span> Letters and papers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Portlock, Nathaniel.</span> Voyage Around the World. 1789.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Proceedings</span> of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal. Seven volumes. 1904.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwatka, Frederick.</span> Along Alaska's Great River. 1886. Lieutenant +Schwatka voyaged down the Yukon on rafts in 1883 and wrote an +interesting book. His namings were unfortunate, but his voyage was of +value, and many of his surmises have proven to be almost startlingly +correct.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah.</span> Guide-book to Alaska. 1893. Miss Scidmore's +style is superior to that of any other writer on Alaska.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Seattle Mail and Herald.</span> March 7, 1903.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Seattle Post-Intelligencer.</span> 1906, 1907, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Seattle Times. 1908.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Seward, Frederick W.</span> Inside History of Alaska Purchase. Seward Gateway. +March 17, 1906.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Shaw, W. T.</span> Alaska-Yukon Magazine. October, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simpson, Sir George.</span> Journey Around the World. 1847.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sumner, Charles.</span> Oration on the Cession of Russian America to the United +States. 1867.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tuttle, C. R.</span> The Golden North. 1897.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vancouver, George.</span> Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean. Three +volumes. 1798.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +A<br /> +<br /> +Abercrombie, Captain, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Admiralty Island, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Afognak, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>-345.<br /> +<br /> +Agricultural Experimental Work, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>-215.<br /> +<br /> +Alaska Central Railway, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alaskan Range, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alert Bay, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aleutian Islands, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aleutian Range, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aleuts, The, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>-401.<br /> +<br /> +Anderson Island, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Annette Island, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>-64.<br /> +<br /> +Anvik, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aphoon, The, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Apollo Mine, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aristocracy of Alaska, The, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Atlin, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Average Tourist, The, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +B<br /> +<br /> +Baird Glacier, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Baranoff, Alexander, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>-185.<br /> +<br /> +Baranoff Island, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Barren Islands, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Basketry, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>-102.<br /> +<br /> +Beaver Dam, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Behm Canal, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Behring, Vitus, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>-161.<br /> +<br /> +Belkoffski, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>-382.<br /> +<br /> +Berner's Bay, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Besborough Island, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bidarkas and Kayaks, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bishop of All Alaska, The, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>-212.<br /> +<br /> +Boas, Franz, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bogosloff Volcanoes, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>-413.<br /> +<br /> +Bonanza, The, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boundaries, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>-49.<br /> +<br /> +Brackett Road, The, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brady Glacier, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brady, Governor, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>-350.<br /> +<br /> +Bristol Bay, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>-423.<br /> +<br /> +Brooks, Alfred H., <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bruner Railway Company, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brynteson, John, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burke Channel, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +C<br /> +<br /> +Call of Alaska, The, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Campbell, Robert, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Camp Comfort, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>-278.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Darby, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Denbigh, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Douglas, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Fanshaw, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Newenham, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Prince of Wales, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape St. Elias, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape St. Hermogenes, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cape Suckling, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Caribou Crossing, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Carmack, George, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chatham Strait, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chena River, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chief Kohklux, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chief Shakes, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chief Skowl, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chignik, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chilkaht Blanket, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chilkaht Inlet, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chilkaht River, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chilkoot Inlet, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chilkoot River, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chirikoff, Alexis, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>-161.<br /> +<br /> +Chiswell Rocks, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chitina River, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cholmondeley Sound, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chugach Alps, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chugach Gulf, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span>Chugatz Islands, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Claim Staking in the Klondike, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clarence Strait, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clerk's Island, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Climate, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>-264.<br /> +<br /> +Cluster of Hops, A, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>-131.<br /> +<br /> +Coal, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>-310.<br /> +<br /> +Coal Harbor, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cold Bay, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Columbia Glacier, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>-259.<br /> +<br /> +Commercial Companies of the North, <a href='#Page_477'>477</a>-479.<br /> +<br /> +Comptroller Bay, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Convict Settlement, The, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cook, James, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>-250, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>-426.<br /> +<br /> +Cook Inlet, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>-307.<br /> +<br /> +Copper Mines, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>-255, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Copper River, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Copper River and Northwestern Railway, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>-244.<br /> +<br /> +Council, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Croyere, Lewis de Lisle de, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cudahy, Fort, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +D<br /> +<br /> +Dall, William H., <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Davidson Glacier, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dawson, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>-485.<br /> +<br /> +Dawson, George M., <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a>.<br /> +<br /> +De Fuca, Juan, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dementief, Abraham Mikhailovich, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Deshneff, Simeon, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Devil's Thumb, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diomede Islands, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Discovery Passage, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>-16.<br /> +<br /> +Disenchantment Bay, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dixon Entrance, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dixon, George, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Dora</i>, The, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>-374.<br /> +<br /> +Down in a Great Gold Mine, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>-128.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Dryad</i> Trouble, The, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Duncan, William, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>-64.<br /> +<br /> +Dundas, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>-102.<br /> +<br /> +Dutch Harbor, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>-408.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +E<br /> +<br /> +Eagle, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>-490.<br /> +<br /> +Early Oil Companies, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +East Cape, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Egbert, Fort, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Egegak, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ellamar, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>-256.<br /> +<br /> +Emmons, G. T., <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Eskimo, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>-387, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>-426, <a href='#Page_502'>502</a>, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Eskimo Dog, The, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>, <a href='#Page_487'>487</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +F<br /> +<br /> +Fairbanks, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>-500.<br /> +<br /> +Fairweather Range, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Father Juvenal, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>-332.<br /> +<br /> +Finlayson Channel, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fiords of British Columbia, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +First Russian Settlement, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fitzhugh Sound, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Five-Finger Rapids, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fording Glacial Streams, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>-287.<br /> +<br /> +Forests of Alaska, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>-36.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Rupert, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Wrangell, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>-92.<br /> +<br /> +Forty-Mile, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fraser Reach, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fraser River, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frederick Sound, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +G<br /> +<br /> +Galiana Island, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Game Laws, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>-317.<br /> +<br /> +Gardner Canal, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gastineau Channel, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gay Life at Sitka, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>-185.<br /> +<br /> +Georgia, Gulf of, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gibbon, Fort, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Glacier Bay and its Glaciers, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Glottoff, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>-326.<br /> +<br /> +Golovin Bay, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gore's Island, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goryalya Volcano, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Government of Alaska, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>-351.<br /> +<br /> +Government of the Yukon, <a href='#Page_472'>472</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Graham Reach, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grand Canyon, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>-453.<br /> +<br /> +Great Bonanza Copper Mine, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>-294.<br /> +<br /> +"Great Unlighted Way," The, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>-297.<br /> +<br /> +Greek-Russian Church at Sitka, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span>Grenville Channel, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-33.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +H<br /> +<br /> +Hagemeister, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Haidahs, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Haines Mission, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hanna, James, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hawkins Island, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Heikish Narrows, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henderson, Governor, <a href='#Page_471'>471</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Heney, M. J., <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hinchingbroke Island, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hoggatt, Governor, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Holy Cross Mission, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>, <a href='#Page_507'>507</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Homer, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hootalinqua River, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Howkan, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hubbard Glacier, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hunt, Wilson P., <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>-178.<br /> +<br /> +"Husky," The, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>, <a href='#Page_487'>487</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +I<br /> +<br /> +Icy Cape, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Icy Straits, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Iliamna Lake, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Iliamna Volcano, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Indian River, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Indians of Alaska, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>-84.<br /> +<br /> +In Keystone Canyon, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>-279.<br /> +<br /> +Inlets of British Columbia, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Innuit, The, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>-387, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>-426.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +J<br /> +<br /> +Japonski Island, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnstone Strait, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Juneau, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>-120.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +K<br /> +<br /> +Kachemak Bay, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kadiak Island, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>-342.<br /> +<br /> +Kaknu River, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kamelinka, or Kamelayka, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Karluk, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>-363.<br /> +<br /> +Karluk Hatcheries, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>-363.<br /> +<br /> +Kasa-an, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kassitoff, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Katalla, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>-245.<br /> +<br /> +Kayak, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kaye Island, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kenai Range, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kennicott Glacier, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>-292.<br /> +<br /> +Ketchikan, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>-55.<br /> +<br /> +Klondike, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>-484.<br /> +<br /> +Knight's Island, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Knik River, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kodiak, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>-338.<br /> +<br /> +Koloshians, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Koyukuk, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Krusenstern, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>-174.<br /> +<br /> +Kuskokwim River, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kvichak River, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kwakiutl Indians, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kwikhpak, The, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +L<br /> +<br /> +Labret, The, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>-26, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lake Bennett, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>-441.<br /> +<br /> +Lake Clark, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lake Lebarge, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lake Lindeman, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lama Pass, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Pérouse, Jean François, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>-229.<br /> +<br /> +Last Indian Trouble at Sitka, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>-209.<br /> +<br /> +La Touche Island, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewes River, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lindblom, Erik, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lindeberg, Jafet, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lisiansky, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>-174.<br /> +<br /> +Lisière, or "Thirty-Mile Strip," <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>-49.<br /> +<br /> +"Little Redbirds," The, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>-78.<br /> +<br /> +Lituya Bay, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>-229.<br /> +<br /> +Loring, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Lottie," <a href='#Page_512'>512</a>-513.<br /> +<br /> +Lowering of the Russian Flag, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>-208.<br /> +<br /> +Lower Yukon, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lynn Canal, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>-134.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +M<br /> +<br /> +McKay Reach, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Makushin Volcano, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Malamutes, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>-487.<br /> +<br /> +Malaspina Glacier, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marmot Island and Bay, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marsh Lake, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mason, Otis T., <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Matanuska River, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Meares, John, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span>Mendenhall Glacier, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Metlakahtla, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>-64.<br /> +<br /> +Miles Glacier, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Millbank Sound, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Modus Vivendi, The, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>-49.<br /> +<br /> +Moira Sound, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montagu Island, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Crillon, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Drum, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Edgecumbe, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mounted Police, <a href='#Page_472'>472</a>, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Fairweather, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount La Pérouse, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Lituya, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount McKinley, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Regal, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mount Wrangell, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mr. Whidbey is "humane," <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>-138.<br /> +<br /> +Muir Glacier, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Müller, Gerhard T., <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +N<br /> +<br /> +Naha Bay, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Naknek River, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Needs of the Natives, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>-389.<br /> +<br /> +Niblack Anchorage, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nizina District, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nome, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>-528.<br /> +<br /> +Norton Sound, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nulato, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Number Eight, Cooper Gulch," <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>-522.<br /> +<br /> +Nushagak Bay, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nutchek, or Port Etches, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +O<br /> +<br /> +Ogilvie, William, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Oomiak, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Orca, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Over "the Trail," <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>-294.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +P<br /> +<br /> +Pedro, Felix, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Peril Strait, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pinnacle Island, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Popoff, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Potlatch," The, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>-82.<br /> +<br /> +Pribyloff Islands, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>-420.<br /> +<br /> +Prince of Wales Island, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Prince William Sound, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>-252.<br /> +<br /> +"Promyshleniki," <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>-164.<br /> +<br /> +Purchase of Alaska, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>-188.<br /> +<br /> +Pyramid Harbor, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Q<br /> +<br /> +Queen Charlotte Sound, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +R<br /> +<br /> +Railway Wars, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ramparts, Lower, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>-496.<br /> +<br /> +Ramparts, Upper, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Reindeer, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a>-505.<br /> +<br /> +Revilla-Gigedo Island, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ridley, Bishop, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>-59.<br /> +<br /> +Rink Rapids, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rowe, Bishop, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>-212.<br /> +<br /> +Russian-American Company, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>-185.<br /> +<br /> +Russian Discoveries, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>-161.<br /> +<br /> +Russians on Cook Inlet, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>-307.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +S<br /> +<br /> +Safety Cove, or "Oatsoalis," <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sailing for Alaska, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Augustine Volcano, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Elias Alps, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Lawrence Island, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Michael's, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>-514.<br /> +<br /> +Salmon Industry, The, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>-423.<br /> +<br /> +Sand Point, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>-375.<br /> +<br /> +San Juan Island, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Sarah, The Remembered," <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>-29.<br /> +<br /> +Schafer, Professor, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Seaforth Channel, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sealing Industry, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>-419.<br /> +<br /> +Sea-otter, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>-380.<br /> +<br /> +Seldovia, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Selkirk, Fort, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Semidi Islands, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Seward, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>-299.<br /> +<br /> +Seward Peninsula, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a>-528.<br /> +<br /> +Seward, William H., <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>-188.<br /> +<br /> +Seymour Narrows, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shelikoff, Grigor Ivanovich, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>-165.<br /> +<br /> +Shishaldin Volcano, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>-392.<br /> +<br /> +Simpson, Sir George, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>-197.<br /> +<br /> +Sitka, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>-217.<br /> +<br /> +Skaguay, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>-148.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span>"Skookum Jim," <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Skowl Arm, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sledge Island, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sluicing, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a>-522.<br /> +<br /> +Snettisham Inlet, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Soapy" Smith, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>-146.<br /> +<br /> +Solomon, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spanberg, Martin Petrovich, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>-161.<br /> +<br /> +Steller, Georg Wilhelm, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stephens' Passage, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stikine River, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Strait of Anian," The, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Strait of Juan de Fuca, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stuart Island, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sumdum Glacier, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sumner, Charles, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sumner Strait, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>-105.<br /> +<br /> +Sweetheart Falls, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +T<br /> +<br /> +"Tagish Charlie," <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tagish Lake, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taku Glacier, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tanana, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thirty-Mile River, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thlinkits, The, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>-84.<br /> +<br /> +Three Saints Bay, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thunder Bay Glacier, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tin, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Topkuk, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Totemism, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>-81.<br /> +<br /> +"To Westward," <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>-224.<br /> +<br /> +"Trail of Heartbreak," <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Trails and Roads, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Treadwell, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>-128.<br /> +<br /> +Twelve-Mile Arm, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +U<br /> +<br /> +Ugashik River, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ukase of 1821, The, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Unalaska, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>-410.<br /> +<br /> +Unga, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Uphoon, The, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Uyak, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +V<br /> +<br /> +Valdez, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>-270.<br /> +<br /> +Vancouver, George, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vancouver Island, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>-17.<br /> +<br /> +Veniaminoff, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a>-401.<br /> +<br /> +Voskressenski, or "Sunday," Harbor, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +W<br /> +<br /> +Walrus Herds, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Western Union Telegraph Company, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whidbey, Lieutenant, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>-138, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.<br /> +<br /> +White Horse, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>-454.<br /> +<br /> +White Horse Rapids, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>.<br /> +<br /> +White Pass and Yukon Railway, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>-443.<br /> +<br /> +White Sulphur Springs, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>-213.<br /> +<br /> +Wingham Island, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wood Canyon, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wood Island, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>-341.<br /> +<br /> +Wood River, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wrangell Narrows, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>-104.<br /> +<br /> +Wright Sound, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Y<br /> +<br /> +Yakataga, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Yakutat Bay, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>-236.<br /> +<br /> +Yakutats, The, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Yanovsky, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>-181.<br /> +<br /> +Yehl, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>-78.<br /> +<br /> +Yukon Flats, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>-494, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Yukon, Fort, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Yukon River, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>-509.<br /> +<br /> +Yukon Soda, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Z<br /> +<br /> +Zarembo Island, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Zarembo, Lieutenant, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>-86.<br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h2>Mrs. Ella Higginson's<br /> + +Novels, Stories, and Verse</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mrs. Higginson has shown a breadth of treatment and +knowledge of the everlasting human verities that equals much +of the best work of France."—<i>The Tribune, Chicago.</i></p></div> + +<h3>FICTION <i>Each, cloth, $1.50</i></h3> + + +<p><b>Mariella, of Out-West</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The picture is clear, well balanced, and informing, and +best of all, the story is at all times the prime affair, and +... becomes more condensed, pungent, and direct, and in +every way more absorbing and vital." —<i>Boston Herald.</i></p> + +<p>"It is told with such grim fidelity that at times it fairly +clutches the heart.... The story, while touching, is never +depressing."—<i>Cleveland Leader.</i></p></div> + + +<p><b>From the Land of the Snow Pearls</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"When it is said that not one story is poor or ineffective, +the reader may get some idea of the rare quality of this new +author's talent."—<i>The Chronicle, San Francisco.</i></p></div> + + +<p><b>A Forest Orchid and Other Stories</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Her touch is firm and clear; what she sees she sees +vividly, and describes in direct, sincere English; of what +she feels she can give an equally lucid report."—<i>The +Tribune, New York.</i></p></div> + + +<h3>POEMS <i>Each, cloth, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.35</i></h3> + + +<p><b>When the Birds go North Again</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The poetry of the volume is good, and its rare setting, +amid the scenes and under the light of a sunset land, will +constitute an attractive charm to many readers."—<i>The +Boston Transcript.</i></p></div> + + +<p><b>The Voice of April-Land and Other Poems</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The Chicago Tribune</i> says that Mrs. Higginson in her verse +as in her prose "has voiced the elusive bewitchment of the +West."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies</p> + +<p><b>By JAMES OUTRAM</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>With maps and forty-six illustrations, reproduced from +photographs. Cloth, imperial 8vo, gilt top, $2.50 net</i></p></div> + +<p>"There is an unexpected freshness in the whole treatment, a vigor of +movement in the narrative, and a brilliancy of touch in the drawing that +are altogether exceptional. No one, we think, will be able to read this +work without forming a strong desire to visit the Canadian Rockies, and +the admirable photographs which have been used in the illustrations will +strengthen that desire."—<i>Church Standard.</i></p> + +<p>"An invaluable guide in laying out a trip in a section of Canada which +is bound to be overrun with tourists one of these days. The traveller +may then take the book along with him, and if he does not want to find +the way up Assiniboine, he can sit on the piazza of the Banff Hotel and +read about it; if he has not the energy to climb Lefroy or tramp to the +Valley of Ten Peaks, he can read about that also as he contemplates from +the Lake Louise chalet one of the most beautiful views on earth; if the +long Yoho Valley trip is too much for him, he can enjoy Mr. Outram's +description the while he looks out on Emerald Lake from another chalet, +and similarly he may learn about the sources of the Saskatchewan, the +Ottertail group, and Mt. Stephen without stirring from the hostelry at +Field. Mr. Outram goes thoroughly into the history of the exploration of +the Canadian Rockies, incidentally telling all about the death of young +Abbot—the one tragedy of this new haunt of the +mountain-climber."—<i>Town and Country.</i></p> + + +<p>PUBLISHED BY</p> + +<p>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</p> + +<p><b>Sixty-four and Sixty-six Fifth Avenue, New York</b></p> + +<p>MR. LUCAS'S BOOKS OF TRAVEL</p> + + +<p>A Wanderer in Holland</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lucas assures us that Holland is one of the most delightful +countries to move about in, everything that happens in it being of +interest. He fully proves his statement, and we close his book with the +conviction that we shall never find there a more agreeable guide than +he. For he is a man of taste and culture, who has apparently preserved +all the zest of youth for things beautiful, touching, quaint, or +humorous,—especially humorous,—and his own unaffected enjoyment gives +to his pages a most endearing freshness and sparkle.... In short, the +book is a charming one."—<i>New York Tribune.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>With 20 illustrations in color by Herbert Marshall and 34 +illustrations after "Dutch Old Masters." Cloth, $2.00 net</i></p></div> + + +<p>A Wanderer in London</p> + +<p>"We have met with few books of the sort so readable throughout. It is a +book that may be opened at any place and read with pleasure by readers +who have seen London, and those who have not will want to see it after +reading the book of one who knows it so well."—<i>New York Evening Sun.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>16 plates in colors and other illustrations. Cloth, $1.75 +net</i></p></div> + + +<p>NEW BOOKS OF "OLD WORLD TRAVEL"</p> + +<p>Along the Rivieras of France and Italy</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Written and illustrated in color and line by <span class="smcap">Gordon Home</span>.</p></div> + +<p>Venetia and Northern Italy</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">Cecil Headlam</span>. Illustrated in color and line by <span class="smcap">Gordon +Home</span>.</p></div> + +<p>The first volumes of a new series which aims to do for districts what +the "Mediæval Towns Series" has done for cities. No books of description +could be more welcome to the travel lover, either as a reminder of the +past or as preparation for the future. The text is worthy of the superb +illustrations.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Each has 25 plates in color, reproduced from paintings by +Gordon Home. Each is attractively bound in cloth, square +8vo, at $2.50 net</i></p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>BOOKS FOR THE TRAVEL LOVER</p> + + +<p>By Mrs. Alice Morse Earle</p> + +<p><b>Stage Coach and Tavern Days</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With over one hundred and fifty illustrations.</p></div> + + +<p>By Dr. Edward Everett Hale</p> + +<p><b>Tarry at Home Travels</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With over two hundred fine illustrations from interesting +prints, photographs etc., of his own collection.</p></div> + + +<p>By M. A. DeWolfe Howe</p> + +<p><b>Boston: The Place and the People</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With over one hundred illustrations, including many from pen +drawings executed especially for this volume.</p></div> + + +<p>By Agnes Repplier</p> + +<p><b>Philadelphia: The Place and the People</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With eighty-two illustrations from drawings by Ernest C. +Peixotto.</p></div> + + +<p>By Grace King</p> + +<p><b>New Orleans: The Place and the People</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With eighty-three illustrations from drawings by Frances E. +Jones.</p></div> + + +<p>By Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel</p> + +<p><b>Charleston: The Place and the People</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Illustrated from photographs and drawings by Vernon Howe +Bailey.</p></div> + + +<p>By Katherine Lee Bates</p> + +<p><b>Spanish Highways and Byways</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With forty illustrations from original photographs.</p></div> + + +<p>By Clifton Johnson</p> + +<p><b>Among English Hedgerows</b></p> + +<p><b>The Isle of the Shamrock</b></p> + +<p><b>The Land of Heather</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Each is illustrated by reproductions from seventy-five +original photographs by the author.</p></div> + +<p><b>Along French Byways</b></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With forty-eight full-page plates and vignettes in the text +from photographs.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Each in decorated cloth, rounded corners, $2.00 net</i></p></div> + + +<p>PUBLISHED BY</p> + +<p>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</p> + +<p><b>Sixty-four and Sixty-six Fifth Avenue, New York</b></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alaska, by Ella Higginson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALASKA *** + +***** This file should be named 34615-h.htm or 34615-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34615/ + +Produced by Greg Bergquist, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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