a friend of the writer who owns mines at cook’s inlet thus describes his voyage north along the coast to unalaska:
we were now aboard the excelsior. about noon the next day we put out to sea and saw no more island passages such as we had seen while aboard the queen.
our first stop was at yakutat, an indian village on the yakutat bay. this bay is only an indentation of the coast, curving inward for about twenty miles. the whole force of the pacific sweeps into it. landing is both difficult and dangerous. in the bay are always many icebergs from the glaciers at its head.
great excitement prevailed here in 1880 when gold was discovered in the black sand beaches. the rotary hand amalgamators were used and as much as forty dollars per day to the man was often realized. the miners, however, had reckoned without their host; the[117] yakutat chief, who suddenly developed financial ability worthy of his white brother, exacted licenses and royalties from the miners.
this black sand mine was not yet exhausted when a tidal wave heaped the coast with fish. these decayed in the hot sun and the oil soaked down into the sand. the mercury would not work and the miners moved to a new beach, but again a tidal wave ruined the mines by washing all the black sand out to sea. yakutat was then deserted by the miners. the indian women of this village are the finest basket weavers in alaska.
soon after leaving yakutat we sighted mt. st. elias and the malispania glacier. the indians call it bolshoi shopka—great one. this snow-clad mountain, nearly four miles high, beautiful as valaskjalf, the silver roofed mansion of odin, is a most magnificent sight. such grandeur, such solidity, such poetry of color,—the white peak kisses the blue heaven,—such solitude. like the golden few of earth’s great ones, it stands alone, isolated by its very greatness.
the malispania glacier which flows down from a great névé field in the mountains, is said to be the largest glacier in the world. it is[118] nearly one hundred miles long and thirty-five miles wide where it pours into the sea, and rises four hundred and fifty feet above tide water.
orca, on the shore of prince william’s sound, lies snuggled up under the rugged cliffs, which rise sheer thousands of feet high. from the woods beyond a noisy river goes leaping down the rocks to the sea, where its power is chained to run the machinery of a cannery. that other orca was a powerful sea dragon, especially fond of a seal diet, but this orca preys only on the salmon.
our next stop was at valdes, where two years ago two thousand miners started for copper river, to prospect for gold, but they were doomed to disappointment, as yet no gold has been discovered on this river. many and sad are the tales of hardships endured by these miners. some worked their way up the copper river and down tanana river to the yukon, but by far the greater number returned to valdes destitute. many of the miners lost their lives on the valdes’ glacier. in going to copper river they had to travel eighteen miles across this treacherous glacier. nine men lost their lives here last winter.
at valdes is located a government expedition under the command of captain ambercrombie. the object of this expedition is to study the topography of the country and to make surveys. the government is doing much to aid stranded miners to reach seattle. for thirty days’ work they are paid five dollars and given a free passage to that city.
prince william sound is a fine body of water. it is almost surrounded by land. abrupt mountains rise seemingly out of the sea. it is deeply indented by fiords and inlets running back from ten to twenty-five miles. on the south it is protected by mountainous islands. in coming out of this sound we passed around mummy point, into the ocean. presently we came to the seal rocks. they were alive with seals. when the engineer blew the whistle they went plunging into the sea, making a great splash. whales and porpoises bob their noses up through the brine—descendants, no doubt, of that gallant crew of tyrrhenian mariners changed by angry bacchus to dolphins in that dusky old time when the gods held sway over nature’s forces.
from here to cook’s inlet we had rough sailing.[120] neptune was out on a lark. we realized fully that he was king of the sea and that we were his timid subjects.
the crowning glory of alaska’s natural attractions is cook’s inlet. sheltered by a great mountain wall on the west, its shores enjoy delightful summer weather. only the pen of a milton or the matchless brush of a turner could paint this fair empire of earth, sea and air. glacier after glacier, frozen to the cold breast of the mountains, lay glistening in the sunshine. the finest waterfalls in alaska leap from rugged cliffs and go singing to the sea.
a grand panorama of snowy peaks, smoking volcanoes, forested slopes, grassy glades bright with flowers and fertile valleys, lend enchantment to this wild arcadia of the north. goethe truly says: “him whom the gods true art would teach, they send out into the mighty world.”
moose graze in the open glades, mountain goat and sheep leap from cliff to rock and away. extensive level plateaus line both shores of the inlet, which will make fine grazing country some day in the near future. the grass grows luxuriantly and in many places reaches a height of six feet. we traveled up the inlet seventy[121] miles to a branch of the inlet known as the turnagain arm, which is from five to eight miles wide and enclosed by high mountains. these mountains are covered with timber at the base. tall grass covers the mountain side to the height of three thousand feet, sweet grass for all the flocks of some future pan.
we landed at sunrise, which is the largest city on the inlet. it has a population of one hundred and fifty, mostly miners. hope, twelve miles away, has a population of seventy-five miners. fine vegetables grow here. a storekeeper has a small garden. his potatoes are as fine as any grown in the states, some weighing one and one-half pounds. he has cabbages weighing seven pounds, and turnips weighing eleven pounds. beets, peas and other vegetables are as fine as grown anywhere. people who have lived here during the winters say that the temperature rarely falls twenty degrees below zero, and that the winters are dry and without blizzards.
moose, mountain goat and wild sheep furnish the towns and camps with meat, which is usually bought from the indians, who are good hunters, but very superstitious. they are afraid of a giant who, odin like, rides from mountain[122] to mountain on the wind, killing every indian whom he finds traveling alone. white men don’t count, so if you wish to employ a guide to accompany you on a hunting expedition you must also employ a brother indian to protect him, or he “no go.”
farther south along the coast a black dwarf haunts the mountains, making life miserable for lone indians. his arrows, like the magical spear of odin, never miss their mark.
in the mountains north and west of the inlet a giant floats his birch canoe on the wind, from peak to peak, seeking lone indians, whom he slays with the canoe paddles. this wonderful canoe, like that good ship of frey, always gets a fair wind, no matter for what port its oarsman is bound.
this portion of the inlet, turnagain arm, is a treacherous bit of water. the highest tides rise fifty feet. then there is the bore, which runs up just as the tide comes in, rising eighteen to twenty feet perpendicularly.
no boat can live in it. the tide usually comes in three great waves, one right after the other. the water is thick with mud, ground up by the glaciers at the head of the arm and brought down by the streams.
[123]
there will be some good placer mines in cook’s inlet when the country is properly opened, but it has hardly been prospected as yet, owing to the difficulty in sinking shafts to bed rock on account of the water coming in so rapidly. it is necessary to go through bed rock to the glacier channels below for the main deposits of gold.
by timbering the shafts the water may be kept out. the soil and gravel taken out of a shaft which has just been sunk averages only twenty-five cents per cubic yard, but the owners intend to go through the rock to the channels below, where they expect to strike a rich vein, make their fortunes and return to civilization.
there is usually a light freeze about the middle of september, after which the weather is fine until the last of november.
the king of volcanoes in this region is iliamna. steam and smoke issue from two craters at the summit of the snow-clad mountain. during an eruption this giant shakes the earth to its very center.
this wonderful estuary was discovered by captain cook, on the natal day of princess elizabeth, may 21, 1778. he took possession in the name of her majesty, and buried his[124] records in a bottle at possession point. vancouver searched for these records in vain.
tramways, stone piers and decaying buildings speak in unmistakable language of busy scenes during russian occupation.
five hundred miles west of sitka, on the shore of kadiak, one of the emerald isles of the alaskan coast, is st. paul, the first capital of alaska, and the center of the fur trade established by shelikoff and baranhoff.
the natives say that many summers ago the kadiak islands were separated from the mainland by a very narrow channel. one day a big otter attempting to swim through was caught fast. he struggled until he widened the shelikoff strait, when he swam triumphantly through. a bad indian and his dog sent adrift on a big stone turned into the largest kadiak, on the shore of which st. paul is located. the kadiakers are descended from the daughter of a great chief of the north, who, with her husband and dogs, was banished from her father’s lodge.
the forest on these islands consists of a few scattered groves. the grass, shrubs and mosses bathed in a perpetual fog are so brilliantly green as to dazzle the eye.
[125]
the dug-out canoe disappears here and boats of sea lion and walrus skins stretched over frames of drift wood lightly skim the blue waters of the cold sea.
as we steam along through sunshine and fog, past glaciers, mountains and fiords, “so wide the loneliness, so lucid the air,” we are reminded that the ancient mariner sailed the blue pacific. now the sun drops into the sea, lighting it up with a luminous glow. with a tremor and a sparkle the purple waves glimmer red, now shadow to a violet hue, and now to a crimson blue.
“tries one, tries all, and will not stay
but flits from opal hue to hue.”
the volcanoes of alaska! what a grand, what a wonderful panorama, as if you had rubbed aladdin’s lamp. expectation stood in awe when this giant upheaval was in progress. enwrapped always in the mellow haze of white smoke and blue atmosphere, the cold clouds kissing their white brows, these sentinels old, like wordsworth mountain, “look familiar with forgotten years.”
the prince of them all, shishaldin, rises nine thousand feet, trailing his white robes in the blue sea.
[126]
the seventy islands of the aleutian chain lie along the coast for thousands of miles. these islands are treeless, but green with arctic grasses and mosses.
at unalaska the russians have a nicely built church. these greek churches have no pews, the congregation standing and kneeling during the service. the priest in charge of this church speaks no english. these churches all pay an annual tribute to the patriarch in moscow. this is all un-american. the mary lee home, a methodist mission, has a small school here.
the aleuts, a kind, gentle people, suffered much at the hands of their russian masters in the past. the aleuts living in sod huts are the crofters of america.
the fine flower of the fauna of alaska is found in the valley of the koyukuk river. here tusks and bones of mastodons are found imbedded in the sand banks and gravel bars.
since the discovery of gold in alaska the indians have saved many lives. born and reared amidst these wild surroundings, where winter white and hoary stands ever at the gate of the north, wagging his shaggy beard, they have partaken of the very nature of their own rugged mountains. the long arctic nights and the intense[127] cold have given these people hearts of steel and muscles of iron.
are you ill? are you starving? no mountain is too high, no snow too deep, but one of these heroes will climb the one or plunge undauntedly through the other to bring you succor.
in the chilly arctic sea there lies a mysterious island, the home of the ice goblin, who kicked it loose from, no one knows where, so the legend runs, and towed it to its present location.
its mountains are the highest, its gorges the deepest, and its fields and fiords the grandest in the world.
it was a most magnificent island before the goblin stole it and dragged it away into the great ice fields of the north. it was clothed in rich verdure. birds sang, flowers bloomed, and gay butterflies hovered over them.
this was not at all to the goblin’s taste, so he threw a sheet of ice over mountain, field and fiord. in his ice castle on the summit of the loftiest peak reigns the great ice goblin, sending out storms over sea and land, and pouring ice, snow and glaciers down over the island to his heart’s content.
in the arctic region a dark cloud called the[128] “loom of the water” overhangs where ever there is clear water.
the arctic sea! the land of the midnight sun! what a fascinating subject! what an inexhaustible field for those three happy brothers, the poet, the painter and the scientist! the land of jötums, penguins and ice packs. the land where night kisses morning. the realm of bright-haired aurora and sable-robed niobe.
returning along the self same route the mind never tires nor the eye wearies of the matchless scenery. like a moving panorama, grand, austere, majestic, sublime. here reigns vidar, the god of silence.
magnificent fiords indent the coast. the dark mountains rise to a vast height, their snow crowned peaks standing out clear and sharp against the blue sky.
glaciers like huge giants clasp the mountains in their frosty arms, while their tears course down the mountain’s weather-beaten cheek.
here and there a fleecy white cloud envelopes the summit of a mountain. a silvery thread comes creeping out over the rocks, loses itself in the pine forest on the slopes, emerges and with a boundless sweep plunges into the ocean.
all this wild scenery from base to peak stands mirrored in the sea-green water of the fiord.
