USA > Alaska > The new Eldorado: a summer journey to Alaska > Part 7
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SAN JUAN.
times the passage, perhaps not more than a mile in width, is lined on either side with mountains of granite, whose dizzy heights are capped with snow, up whose precipitous sides spruce and pine trees struggle for a foothold, and clinging there thrive strangely upon food afforded by stones and atmospheric air. Occasionally we pass some deep, dark fjord, which pierces the mountains far inland, presenting mysterious and unexplored vis- tas. We come upon the island of San Juan, not long after leaving Victoria, which was for a con- siderable period a source of serious contention between England and America, the ownership being finally settled by arbitration, and awarded to us by the late Emperor of Germany. San Juan is remarkable for producing limestone in suffi- cient quantity to keep scores of lime-kilns occu- pied for a hundred years. The island was only important to us by its position, and as establish- ing certain boundary lines.
Now and again smoke is seen winding up- wards from some rude but comfortable cabin on the shore, where a white settler and his Indian wife live in semi-civilized style. A rude garden patch adjoins the cabin, carpeted with thriving root crops, bordered by currant and gooseberry bushes, while numerous wooden frames are reared close by on which to dry salmon, cod, and hali- but for winter use. Three or four half-breed children, with a marvelous wealth of hair, and clothed in a single garment reaching to the knees, watch us with open eyes and mouths as
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we glide along the smooth water-way. At last the father's attention is called to us by the excla- mations of the papooses, and he waves us a sa- lute with his slouchy fur cap. It is only a little spot on the lonely shore, but it is all the world to the squatter and his brood. One pauses mentally for an instant to contrast this type of lonely ex- istence with the fierce and furious tide of life which exists in populous cities. Steamers, sailing craft, or native canoes have no storms to encoun- ter here; the course is almost wholly sheltered, while coal or wood can be procured at nearly any place where the steamer chooses to stop. The fierce swell of the Pacific, so very near at hand, is completely warded off by the broad and beauti- ful islands of Vancouver, Queen Charlotte, Prince of Wales, Baranoff, and Chichagoff, which form a matchless panorama as they slowly pass, day after day, clad in thrifty verdure, before the eyes of the delighted voyager. Throughout so many hours of close observation one never wearies of the charming scene.
The trip between Victoria and Pyramid Har- bor, in many of its features, recalls the voyage from Tromsöe, on the coast of Norway, to the North Cape, where the traveler beholds the grand phenomenon of the midnight sun, - passing over deep, still waters, winding through groups of lovely islands, covered with primeval forests and veined with minerals, amidst the grandest of Alpine scenery, where the nearer mountain peaks are clad in misty purple and those far away
1
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THE INLAND SEA.
are wrapped in snow shrouds, where signs of hu- man life are seldom seen, and the deep silence of the passage is broken only by the shrill cry of some wandering sea-bird. In both of these north- ern regions, situated in opposite hemispheres, grand mountains, volcanic peaks, and mammoth glaciers form the guiding landmarks. The gla- ciers of Alaska are not only many times as large as anything of the sort in Switzerland, but they have the added charm of the ever-changing beau- ties of the sea, thus altogether forming scenery of peculiar and incomparable grandeur. One of- ten finds examples of the Scotch and Italian lake's repeated again and again on this inland voyage, where the delightful tranquillity of the waters so adds to the appearance of profound depth. It re- quires but little stretch of the imagination to be- lieve one's self upon the Lake of Como or Lake Maggiore.
The enjoyment afforded to the intelligent tour- ist on this delightful route of travel is being more and more appreciated annually, as clearly evinced by the fact that over two thousand excursionists participated in the trips of steamers from Puget Sound to Sitka last year, by way of Glacier Bay and Pyramid Harbor, representing nearly every State in the Union, and also embracing many European travelers. "I thought it would be as cold as Greenland," said one of these tourists to us ; " but after leaving Port Townsend I hardly once had occasion to wear my overcoat, night or day, during the whole of the fourteen days' sum-
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THE NEW ELDORADO.
mer voyage through Alaska's Inland Sea. The thermometer ranged between 68° and 78° during the whole trip, while the pleasant daylight never quite faded out of the sky."
Mount St. Elias, inexpressibly grand in its pro- portions, is probably the highest mountain in Alaska, and, indeed, is one of the half dozen lofti- est peaks on the globe, reaching the remarkable height of nearly twenty thousand feet, according to the United States Coast Survey. It may fall short of, or it may exceed, this measurement by a few hundred feet. Owing to the low point to which the line of perpetual snow descends in this latitude, St. Elias is believed to present the great- est snow climb of all known mountains. Another notable peculiarity of this grand elevation is, like that of Tacoma, in its springing at once from the level of the Pacific Ocean, whereas most moun- tains, like those of Colorado, Norway, and Switz- erland, say of twelve or fourteen thousand feet in height, rise from a plain already two or three thousand feet above sea level, detracting just so much from their effectiveness upon the eye, and from their apparent elevation. Vitus Behring, a Dane by birth and the discoverer of the strait which bears his name, first sighted this mountain on St. Elias' day, and so gave it the name which it bears. When the American whalemen on the coast saw the summit of Mount Fairweather from the sea, they felt sure that some days of fair weather would follow, hence we have the expres- sive name which is bestowed upon it. Mount St.
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MOUNT FAIRWEATHER.
Elias, with its snow and ice mantle reaching nearly down to sea level, is higher than any elevation in Norway or Switzerland, rising from its base in pyramid form, straight, regular, and massive, to three times the height of our New England giant in the White Mountain range of New Hampshire, namely, Mount Washington. Only the Hima- layas and the Andes exceed it in altitude. Eleven glaciers are known to come down from the south side of St. Elias, one of which, named Agassiz Glacier, is estimated to be twenty miles in width and fifty in length, covering an area of a thou- sand square miles !
Fairweather is situated about two hundred miles southeast of Mount St. Elias, its hoary head being often visible a hundred miles and more at sea ; rising above the fogs and clouds, its summit is recognizable while all other land is far below the horizon. We were told that when the earth- quake occurred at Sitka in 1847, this mountain emitted huge volumes of smoke and vapor. The force of volcanic action in Alaska is, however, evidently diminishing, though occasional slight shocks of earthquakes are experienced, especially on the outlying islands of the Aleutian group and near the mouth of Cook's Inlet.
Besides these loftiest mountains named, - " Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,"- Mount Cook, Mount Crillon, and Mount Wrangel should not be forgotten. Lieutenant H. T. Allen, U. S. A., makes the height of the latter exceed that of Mount St. Elias, but
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THE NEW ELDORADO.
we think it very questionable. This officer's state- ment that Mount Wrangel is the birthplace of some of the largest glaciers known to exist seems much more likely to be correct. In this region, therefore, this far northwest territory of the United States, we find the highest elevations on the North American continent. The mountain ranges of California and Montana unite with the Rocky Mountains, and turning to the south and west form the Alaska Peninsula, finally disappear- ing in the North Pacific, except where a high peak appears now and then, raising its rocky crest above the sea, like a giant standing breast-high in the ocean, and thus they form the Aleutian chain of treeless islands, which stretch away west- ward towards the opposite continent. That these . islands are all connected beneath the sea, from Attoo, the most distant, to where they join the Alaska Peninsula, is made manifest by the exhibi- tion of volcanic sympathy. When one of the lofty summits emits smoke or fiery débris the others are similarly affected, or at least experience slight shocks of earthquake. So the several islands which form the Hawaiian group are believed to be joined below the ocean depths, and several, if not all, of the islands of the West Indies are con- sidered to be similiarly connected.
This has been in some period, long ago, a very active volcanic region, as the lofty peaks, both among the Aleutian Islands and on the mainland, which emit more or less smoke and ashes, clearly testify ; not only suggestive of the past, but sig-
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TEXADA.
nificant of possible contingencies in the future. There are, in fact, according to the best authori- ties, sixty-one volcanic peaks in Alaska. One of the extinct volcanoes near Sitka, Mount Edge- combe, according to the Coast Pilot, has a dimen- sion at the ancient crater of two thousand feet across, and an elevation of over three thousand feet above the sea. The depth of the crater is said to be three hundred feet. From the top, radiating downwards in singular regularity, are the deep red gorges scored by the burning lava in its fiery course, as thrown out of the crater less than a hundred years ago.
This is a Mount Olympus for the natives, about which many ancient myths are told by these im- aginative aborigines.
For more than twenty-four hours after sailing from Victoria the irregular, kelp-fringed shore of Vancouver, which is three hundred miles long, is seen on our left, until presently the large, iron- bearing island of Texada, with its tall summit, appears on the right of our course. The magnetic ore found here in abundance is of such purity as to render it suitable for the manufacture of the highest grade of steel, and it is shipped to the furnaces at Seattle and elsewhere for this purpose.
It is found in pursuing the voyage northward that the fierce tide-way prevailing in some of the deep, narrow channels produces such turbulent rapids that steamers are obliged to wait for a favorable condition of the waters before attempt- ing their passage, as the adverse current runs at
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THE NEW ELDORADO.
the rate of nine miles an hour. This was espe- cially the case in the Seymour Narrows, which is about nine hundred yards wide, and situated at no great distance from Nanaimo, in the Gulf of Georgia. It is a far more tumultuous water-way, · at certain stages of the tide - which has a rise and fall of thirteen feet-than the famous Mael- strom on the coast of Norway. The latter is also caused by the power of the wind and tide, though it was long held as the mystery and terror of the ocean.
The author remembers in his school geography a crude woodcut, which depicted a ship being drawn by some mysterious power into a gaping vortex of the ocean, and already half submerged. It was intended to represent the terrible perils of passing too near the Maelstrom, off the Lofoden Islands. In after years he sailed quietly across this once dreaded spot in the North Sea, without experiencing even an extra lurch of the ship. Thus do the marvels and terrors of youth melt away. Travel and experience make great havoc in the wonderland of our credulity, and yet modern discovery outdoes in reality the miracles of the past.
A powerful steamer which attempted to pass through the Seymour Narrows at an unfavorable state of the water, last season, was unable to make way against the current, and carne near being wrecked. By crowding on all steam she succeeded in holding her position until the wa- ters subsided, though she made no headway for
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NANAIMO.
two hours. It was here that the United States steamer Saranac was lost a few years since, being caught at disadvantage in the seething waters, and forced upon the mid-channel rocks. Her hull now lies seventy fathoms below the surface of the sea. Since this event took place the United States ship Suwanee struck on an unknown rock farther north, and was also totally wrecked. Per- haps after a few more national vessels are lost in these channels our government will awaken from its lethargy, and have a proper survey made and reliable charts issued of this important coast and its intricate water-ways. A single ves- sel is now engaged in this survey, but half a dozen should be employed in Alaskan waters. Nanaimo is situated on the east side of Vancou- ver Island, seventy miles from Victoria, with which it is connected by railroad. It is a thrifty little town, mainly supported by the coal interest, though there are two or three manufacturing es- tablishments. The extensive coal mines in its neighborhood are of great value, and are con- stantly worked. These coal deposits are of the bituminous sort, particularly well adapted for steamboat use, and are so situated as to facilitate the growing commerce of these islands. Many thousands of tons are shipped during the summer months to San Francisco. We are told that it cost the proprietors of these coal mines one dollar and a half a ton to place the product on board steamers, which on arriving at San Francisco fetches from twelve to fifteen dollars per ton.
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There are five mines worked here, giving employ- ment to some two thousand men, who receive two dollars and a half per day as laborers.
There is not a lighthouse upon any headland amid all of these meandering channels, though it must be admitted that navigation is rarely im- peded for want of light in summer, as one can see to read common print at midnight upon the ship's deck without artificial aid any time during the traveling or excursion season of the year.
Now and again we look ahead inquiringly as we thread the labyrinth of islands and wonder how egress is possible from the many mountainous cliffs rising, sullen and frowning, directly in the steam- er's course. The exit from this maze is quite in- visible ; but presently there is a swift turn of the wheel, the rudder promptly responds, and we gracefully round a projecting point into another lonely, far-reaching channel framed by granite peaks a thousand feet in height.
At night, when all but the watch were sleep- ing, how gaunt and weird stood forth those tall, black sentinel rocks, past which we were gliding so silently, while overhead was spread the broad firmanent of space, dimly lighted by heaven's dis- tant lamps ! How suggestive the dark, myste- rious shadows ! how active the imagination ! Was the atmosphere indeed peopled with the invisible spirits of bygone ages ? Did the air-waves vibrate with the history of the long, long past, the un- known story of these silent fjords and deep water gorges ? Is it only thousands, or tens of thou-
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THE GULF OF GEORGIA.
sands, of years since the first human beings ap- peared and disappeared among these now wild, untrodden shores ?
The inlets which are found at the head of the Gulf of Georgia, northeast of Vancouver Island, are miniature Norwegian fjords, deeper and darker than the sombre Saguenay ; a hundred and eighty fathoms of line will not reach the bottom. They are from forty to sixty miles in length, with an average width of nearly two miles, being walled by abrupt mountains from four to seven thousand feet in height. A grand elevation, whose name has escaped us, stands eight thousand feet above the sea at the head of Butte Inlet, while Mount Alfred, at the head of Jarvis Inlet, is still higher. A remarkable feature of these elongated arms of the sea is their great depth, some of them meas- uring over three hundred fathoms. It is a popu- lar idea that the phosphorescence of the sea is exhibited in its strongest effect in the tropics ; but we have seen in the Gulf of Georgia, after sunset, so brilliant an illumination from this cause that it was only comparable to liquid fire, quite equal in intensity to anything the author has wit- nessed in the Indian Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. It is impossible to convey by the pen an idea of the novel splendor of the scene. A drop of this flame- like water, dipped from the sea in equatorial or Arctic waters and placed under the microscope is found to be teeming with the most curious living and active organisms. These myriads of tiny creatures are so minute that, were it not for the
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THE NEW ELDORADO.
revelations of the microscope, we should not even know of their existence. Nor are these infini- tesimal objects the smallest representatives of ani- mal life ; glasses of greater power will show still more diminutive creatures.
Persons who are accustomed to make sea-voy- ages do not forget to supply themselves with a good but inexpensive microscope, for use on ship- board. The abundant specimens of minute ani- mal and vegetable life which the sea affords, form a source of instructive amusement by which many otherwise monotonous hours are pleasantly beguiled. A little familiarity with the instru- ment enables one to profitably entertain a whole ship's company with its powers.
In the region between Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Island we cross an open reach of the sea, and while the Pacific swell tosses us about after the usual erratic fashion of its unpacific waters, we observe a few ocean sights which serve pleas- antly to vary the experience of the trip. A school of humpback whales put in an appearance, full of sport and frolic; in such extraordinary numbers that three or four are seen in the act of spouting all the while. In spots the sea is yellow, where its surface is covered for acres together with that animated food for other piscatory creatures, the jelly-fish. The shining, furry head of a sea-lion comes up to the surface now and again, gazing curiously at us with big, glassy eyes, and turning its face nimbly from side to side. A school of porpoises play about the hull of the steamer, leap-
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ON THE PACIFIC.
ing high out of the water and falling back again in graceful curves. The only shark we chanced to meet with on the entire voyage was observed in our wake just before entering Smith's Sound, south of Calvert Island. In this region the huge gona-bird was seen sailing slowly on the wing, re- calling the albatross of the low latitudes in its long, lazy sweeps, as well as by its size and grace- fulness. These bird-monarchs of the north meas- ure eight feet from tip to tip, and glide with or against the wind on their broad, outspread pin- ions without the least visible muscular exertion, a mystery of motive power which is sure to chal- lenge the observer's curiosity.
In the narrow passages the tall peaks, arched by the soft gray of the clouds and the clear blue of the sky, cast deep shadows where the water looked like pools of ink, whose blackness intensi- fied the fact of their great but unknown depth.
The American whalers have never been accus- tomed to seek their big game in these immediate waters, preferring to attack the leviathans in lesser depths, such as the waters of Behring Sea, or far- ther north in the vicinity of the strait, between the frozen ocean and the North Pacific. There, if a whale dove after being struck by the harpoon, he was sure very soon to fetch up in the muddy bottom ; but here, among the channels of the isl- ands, he might dive, and dive again, to almost any depth, and unless great care was taken he was lia- ble in his lightning-like velocity to carry down with him a whole boat's crew and all their be-
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longings. Were it not that the whaling industry has gradually declined here, as it has done in all other sections of the globe, the possession of Alaska, with its great number of safe harbors, would be an invaluable boon to those of our coun- trymen engaged in that branch of commercial en- terprise.
Inland sea travel is the perfection of steamboat- ing, but the rapidly-changing landscape of these wild Alaskan shores, rimmed with sharp volcanic peaks, at last wearies the senses, and one is forced to seek a brief intermission by finding rest in sleep, only, however, to again renew the charm with greater zest on the morrow.
CHAPTER VIII.
Steamship Corona and her Passengers. - The New Eldorado. - The Greed for Gold. - Alaska the Synonym of Glacier Fields. - Vegetation of the Islands. - Aleutian Islands. - Attoo our most Westerly Possession. - Native Whalers. - Life on the Island of Attoo. - Unalaska - Kodiak, former Capital of Russian America. - The Greek Church. - Whence the Na- tives originally came.
OUR journey through that portion of Alaska known as the Inland Sea was made in the steam- ship Corona, Captain Carroll, a commander who has had long experience in these waters. His pleasure seemed to lie in the degree of enjoy- ment which he could afford his passengers, and the amount of information which he was enabled to impart to them. There were on board the Co- rona the members of a large excursion party con- ducted by Raymond & Whitcomb of Boston, numbering some eighty persons. We have rarely seen together a large party of ladies and gentle- men embracing so many cultured and agreeable persons. They had already occupied some weeks in a tour of Mexico and southern California. It was exceedingly pleasant to see the courtesy and consideration exercised among them towards each other, - amenities which go so far to lighten the inevitable inconveniences of travel, and to en- hance its enjoyments. Oftentimes friendships are
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formed under such circumstances which continue through every exigency to the very end of life.
Having reached latitude 54° 40' (the fifty-four forty or fight of 1862), we come to the boundary line between British Columbia and the United States, Dixon Entrance being on the left and Fort Tongas on the right. Here the far-reaching Port- land Canal, or more properly channel, penetrates the mainland for a great distance, precisely like the Norwegian fjords, presenting, with its various arms, stupendous watery cañons, whence arise mountain precipices thousands of feet high on either side of the deep narrow course, their heads shrouded in perpetual snow. This channel, or fjord, runs nearly due north, and forms a boundary line to its head between the English and United States possessions.
Opposite and just south of Fort Tongas lies Fort Simpson, on British soil, and close at hand is Metla-katla, where that self-sacrificing mission- ary, Mr. Duncan, gathered and established a vil- lage of a thousand Christian residents from the various savage tribes of the vicinity. By his indi- vidual effort, with almost miraculous success, he raised from the lowest depths of barbarous life a law-abiding, religious, industrious, and self-sup- porting community, who justly considered him their moral and physical savior. Official persecu- tion drove Mr. Duncan from Metla-katla to the nearest available American island, namely, An- netta, lying some sixty miles northward. Eight hundred of these aborigines whom he had re-
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THE METLA-KATLA INDIANS.
claimed from savage life and its terrible practices have followed him with their families, freely aban- doning all their property and improvements at Metla-katla, and are now struggling to create for themselves a new and permanent home under the United States.
The Senate committee, whose members lately visited Alaska, made a call at Annetta, and " found," as one of its members writes to the press, " the Indians living in an apparent condition of contentment, and engaged in almost all the pur- suits of the whites. Their execution of artistic designs upon silver wrought by themselves into bracelets, rings, and all kinds of jewelry is mar- velous. Baskets made in brilliant colors from stripped reeds constitute a beautiful and artistic employment of most of the women of the tribe. Their particular ambition is their anxiety to pos- sess lands in severalty, or to have certain parcels set aside for them, that they may cultivate and hold in individual right. They ask that the whole of Gravine Island be given to their tribe. They found the state of the morals of the Indian women at Annetta, or, as they call it, New Metla-katla, far above the average of Indian women of this Terri- tory. At Sitka the committee visited the habita- tions of the Indians, and learned much from per- sonal intercourse as to their habits and needs. It was found that the companionship and virtue of the women is a matter of simply dollars and cents, and not difficult to negotiate for."
" The committee were surprised to observe such
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