USA > Alaska > Alaska, the great country > Part 17
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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 re- moved, the lower lip fell down upon the chin, and this second picture was more hideous than the first.
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 pre- vailed 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 beau-
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Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau
Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle
PINE FALLS, ATLIN
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tifully contrasted with the white of her neck; her eyes were black and sparkling; her eyebrows of the same color and most beautifully arched; her forehead so re- markably 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 lie applied to the labret were " singular " and " curious."
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.
Tebenkof located two immense glaciers in the bay of Lituya, one in each arm, describing them briefly : -
"The icebergs fall from the mountains and float over the waters of the bay throughout the year. Nothing disturbs the deep silence of this terribly grand gorge of the mountains but the thunder of the falling icebergs.".
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.
Mr. Muir describes La Pérouse Glacier as presenting grand ice bluffs to the open ocean, into which it occa- sionally discharged bergs.
All agree that the appearance and surroundings of the bay are extraordinary.
Yakutat Bay is two hundred and fifteen miles from Sitka. It was called Behring Bay by Cook and Van- couver, 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 Perouse. The In- dian name is the only one which has been preserved.
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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 Dis- enchantment Bay.
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.
" 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 atmos- phere. Build the houses along the streets, but at some dis- tance from each other, in order to increase the extent of the town. The roofs should be of equal height, and the archi- tecture 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."
In the same letter poor Baranoff was reproached for
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exchanging visits with captains of foreign vessels, and warned that he might be carried off to California or some other " desolate " place.
The colony of convicts had been intended as an " agri- cultural " 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 for- tifications 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.
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.
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.
In 1794 Puget sailed the Chatham 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 re- turning tide. Passage to Mulgrave was found easy, however, by a channel farther to the westward and southward.
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
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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.
An Indian chief stole Mr. Puget's gold watch chain and seals from his cabin; but it was discovered by Portoff and returned.
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.
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 al- most reaches the ocean.
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.
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 fast- nesses imaginable, surrounded by glaciers and many of the most majestic mountain peaks of the world.
Cascades spring, foaming, down from misty heights, and flowers bloom, large and brilliant, from the water to the line of snow.
Malaspina, an Italian in the service of Spain, named Disenchantment Bay. Turner Glacier and the vast Hub- bard Glacier discharge into this bay; and from the re- ports of the Italian, Tabenkoff, and Vancouver, it has been considered possible that the two glaciers may have
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reached, more than a hundred years ago, across the nar- rowest bend at the head of Yakutat Bay.
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.
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 de- cline with vigor.
One who would penetrate into this exquisitely beauti- ful, 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!
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 ava- lanche 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.
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,
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each in its own light, its own glory - caused by its own peculiar shape and its position among the others.
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.
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.
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.
The sea is now restoring the black sand, and a second Nome may one day spring up on these hills in a single night.
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 com- mercial value.
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.
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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.
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 instinets of centuries.
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.
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 clueking over the gullibility of the inno- cent white people; when the last strain from the phono- graph in the big store on the hill has died across the violet water widening between the shore and the with- drawing 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.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
But by moonlight to see the glacier streaming down from the mountains and out into the ocean, into the mid- night -silent, opaline, majestic - is worth ten years of dull, ordinary living.
It is as if the very face of God shone through the silence and the sublimity of the night.
CHAPTER XXI
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 light- ered ashore.
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, ex- hausted. Then they arose, staggered, threw up their heads and ran as I have never seen horses run - with such wild- ness, such gladness, such utterance of the joy of freedom in the fling of their legs, in the streaming of mane and tail.
They had been penned in a narrow stall under the for- ward 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.
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.
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We put down the powerful glasses with which we had painfully watched every yard of their progress toward the land.
I looked at the pilot. There was a moisture in his eyes, which was not entirely a reflection of that in my own.
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."
Just before reaching Kayak, Cape Suckling is passed.
The point of this cape is low. It runs up into a con- siderable hill, which, in turn, sinking to very low land has the appearance of an island. It was named by Cook.
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.
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 fre- quently 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 shriek- ing over it and a powerful surf is breaking upon its base. At all times it is a striking landmark.
I have been to Kayak four times. Landings have always been made by passengers in dories or in tiny launches
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which come out from the settlement, and which bob up and down like corks.
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 sway- ing 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.
If she chances to jump just at the right moment ; if one sailor catches her just right and another catches him 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 descend- ing a rope-ladder when she has an opportunity. The hair- crinkling moments in an ordinary life are few enough, heaven knows.
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.
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For a number of years Kayak was the base of opera- tion 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.
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.
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.
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 Com- pany'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.
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.
For many years these two products of Alaska were con- sidered of inferior quality ; but it has recently been dis- covered that they rival the finest of Pennsylvania.
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 govern-
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ment 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.
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.
During the fall and early winter of 1907, Katalla suf- fered a serious menace to its prosperity, owing to its total lack of a harbor.
The bay is but a mere indentation, and an open road- stead sends its surf to eurl upon the unprotected beach. The storms in winter are ceaseless and terrific. Steamers cannot land and anchors will not hold.
As Nome, similarly situated, is cut off from the world for several months by ice, so is Katalla cut off by storms.
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.
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.
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.
In the meantime, other events were shaping themselves in such wise as to render the situation extremely interesting.
A few miles northwest of Katalla, the town of Cordova R
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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 fas- tidious Shelikoff -was energetically begun.
Early in 1907 the Copper River Railway sold its in- terests 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.
Mr. Heney retired from the new company and spent the summer voyaging down the Yukon.
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.
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