Travels in Alaska 



replied that I was only seeking knowledge, Toyatte 

 said, "Muir must be a witch to seek knowledge in 

 such a place as this and in such miserable weather." 

 After supper, crouching about a dull fire of fossil 

 wood, they became still more doleful, and talked in 

 tones that accorded well with the wind and waters 

 and growling torrents about us, telling sad old stories 

 of crushed canoes, drowned Indians, and hunters 

 frozen in snowstorms. Even brave old Toyatte, dread- 

 ing the treeless, forlorn appearance of the region, said 

 that his heart was not strong, and that he feared his 

 canoe, on the safety of which our lives depended, 

 might be entering a skookum-house (jail) of ice, from 

 which there might be no escape; while the Hoona 

 guide said bluntly that if I was so fond of danger, and 

 meant to go close up to the noses of the ice-mountains, 

 he would not consent to go any farther; for we should 

 all be lost, as many of his tribe had been, by the sud- 

 den rising of bergs from the bottom. They seemed to 

 be losing heart with every howl of the wind, and, fear- 

 ing that they might fail me now that I was in the 

 midst of so grand a congregation of glaciers, I made 

 haste to reassure them, telling them that for ten 

 years I had wandered alone among mountains and 

 storms, and good luck always followed me; that with 

 me, therefore, they need fear nothing. The storm 

 would soon cease and the sun would shine to show us 

 the way we should go, for God cares for us and guides 

 us as long as we are trustful and brave, therefore all 

 childish fear must be put away. This little speech 

 did good. Kadachan, with some show of enthusiasm, 



[ 146] 



