Travels in Alaska 



creeping close to the shore and taking advantage of 

 the shelter of protecting rocks, making slow, hard-won 

 progress until about the middle of the afternoon, 

 when the sky opened and the blessed sun shone out 

 over the beautiful waters and forests with rich amber 

 light; and the high, glacier-laden mountains, adorned 

 with fresh snow, slowly came to view in all their 

 grandeur, the bluish-gray clouds crawling and linger- 

 ing and dissolving until every vestige of them van- 

 ished. The sunlight made the upper snow-fields pale 

 creamy yellow, like that seen on the Chilcat moun- 

 tains the first day of our return trip. Shortly after 

 the sky cleared, the wind abated and changed around 

 to the north, so that we ventured to hoist our sail, and 

 then the weary Indians had rest. It was interesting to 

 note how speedily the heavy swell that had been roll- 

 ing for the last two or three days was subdued by the 

 comparatively light breeze from the opposite direc- 

 tion. In a few minutes the sound was smooth and no 

 trace of the storm was left, save the fresh snow and 

 the discoloration of the water. All the water of the 

 sound as far as I noticed was pale coffee-color like 

 that of the streams in boggy woods. How much of 

 this color was due to the inflow of the flooded streams 

 many times increased in size and number by the rain, 

 and how much to the beating of the waves along the 

 shore stirring up vegetable matter in shallow bays, 

 I cannot determine. The effect, however, was very 

 marked. 



About four o'clock we saw smoke on the shore and 

 ran in for news. We found a company of Taku In- 



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