Travels in Alaska 



almost be looked in the face, and the islands and 

 mountains, with their wealth of woods and snow and 

 varied beauty of architecture, seem comparatively 

 sleepy and uncommunicative. 



As the day advances toward high noon, the sun- 

 flood streaming through the damp atmosphere lights 

 the water levels and the sky to glowing silver. 

 Brightly play the ripples about the bushy edges of the 

 islands and on the plume-shaped streaks between 

 them, ruffled by gentle passing wind-currents. The 

 warm air throbs and makes itself felt as a life-giving, 

 energizing ocean, embracing all the landscape, quick- 

 ening the imagination, and bringing to mind the life 

 and motion about us the tides, the rivers, the 

 flood of light streaming through the satiny sky; the 

 marvelous abundance of fishes feeding in the lower 

 ocean; the misty flocks of insects in the air; wild 

 sheep and goats on a thousand grassy ridges; beaver 

 and mink far back on many a rushing stream; Indians 

 floating and basking along the shores; leaves and 

 crystals drinking the sunbeams; and glaciers on the 

 mountains, making valleys and basins for new rivers 

 and lakes and fertile beds of soil. 



Through the afternoon, all the way down to the 

 sunset, the day grows in beauty. The light seems to 

 thicken and become yet more generously fruitful 

 without losing its soft mellow brightness. Every- 

 thing seems to settle into conscious repose. The winds 

 breathe gently or are wholly at rest. The few clouds 

 visible are downy and luminous and combed out fine 

 on the edges. Gulls here and there, winnowing the 



[ 38] 



