Travels in Alaska 



Sunday storm-camp, cautiously boring a way through 

 the bergs. We found the shore lavishly adorned with 

 a fresh arrival of assorted bergs that had been left 

 stranded at high tide. They were arranged in a curv- 

 ing row, looking intensely clear and pure on the 

 gray sand, and, with the sunbeams pouring through 

 them, suggested the jewel-paved streets of the New 

 Jerusalem. 



On our way down the coast, after examining the 

 front of the beautiful Geikie Glacier, we obtained our 

 first broad view of the great glacier afterwards named 

 the Muir, the last of all the grand company to be seen, 

 the stormy weather having hidden it when we first 

 entered the bay. It was now perfectly clear, and the 

 spacious, prairie-like glacier, with its many tributaries 

 extending far back into the snowy recesses of its 

 fountains, made a magnificent display of its wealth, 

 and I was strongly tempted to go and explore it at all 

 hazards. But winter had come, and the freezing of 

 its fiords was an insurmountable obstacle. I had, 

 therefore, to be content for the present with sketch- 

 ing and studying its main features at a distance. 



When we arrived at the Hoona hunting-camp, men, 

 women, and children came swarming out to welcome 

 us. In the neighborhood of this camp I carefully 

 noted the lines of demarkation between the forested 

 and deforested regions. Several mountains here are 

 only in part deforested, and the lines separating the 

 bare and the forested portions are well defined. The 

 soil, as well as the trees, had slid off the steep slopes, 

 leaving the edge of the woods raw-looking and rugged. 



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