The Stickeen Glaciers 



and the slender end of the trunk, bent it like a bow 

 and made it very unsteady, and after testing it by 

 going out about a third of the way over, it seemed 

 likely to be carried away when bent deeper into the 

 current by my weight. Fortunately, I discovered 

 another larger tree well situated a little farther down, 

 which I felled, and though a few feet in the middle 

 was submerged, it seemed perfectly safe. 



As it was now getting late, I started back to the 

 lakeside where I had left my bundle, and in trying to 

 hold a direct course found the interlaced jungle still 

 more difficult than it was along the bank of the tor- 

 rent. For over an hour I had to creep and struggle 

 close to the rocky ground like a fly in a spider-web 

 without being able to obtain a single glimpse of any 

 guiding feature of the landscape. Finding a little 

 willow taller than the surrounding alders, I climbed 

 it, caught sight of the glacier-front, took a compass 

 bearing, and sunk again into the dripping, blinding 

 maze of brush, and at length emerged on the lake- 

 shore seven hours after leaving it, all this time as wet 

 as though I had been swimming, thus completing a 

 trying day's work. But everything was deliciously 

 fresh, and I found new and old plant friends, and 

 lessons on Nature's Alaska moraine landscape-gar- 

 dening that made everything bright and light. 



It was now near dark, and I made haste to make up 

 my flimsy little tent. The ground was desperately 

 rocky. I made out, however, to level down a strip 

 large enough to lie on, and by means of slim alder 

 stems bent over it and tied together soon had a home. 



[ 109 ] 



