"Travels in Alaska 



tree that I saw in a long walk was more or less marked 

 by the knives and axes of the Indians, who use the 

 bark for matting, for covering house-roofs, and mak- 

 ing temporary portable huts. For this last purpose 

 sections five or six feet long and two or three wide are 

 pressed flat and secured from warping or splitting by 

 binding them with thin strips of wood at the end. 

 These they carry about with them in their canoes, and 

 in a few minutes they can be put together against 

 slim poles and made into a rainproof hut. Every pad- 

 dle that I have seen along the coast is made of the 

 light, tough, handsome yellow wood of this tree. It is 

 a tree of moderately rapid growth and usually chooses 

 ground that is rather boggy and mossy. Whether its 

 network of roots makes the bog or not, I am unable 

 as yet to say. 



Three glaciers on the opposite side of the canal were 

 in sight, descending nearly to sea-level, and many 

 smaller ones that melt a little below timber-line. 

 While I was sketching these, a canoe hove in sight, 

 coming on at a flying rate of speed before the wind. 

 The owners, eager for news, paid us a visit. They 

 proved to be Hoonas, a man, his wife, and four chil- 

 dren, on their way home from Chilcat. The man was 

 sitting in the stern steering and holding a sleeping 

 child in his arms. Another lay asleep at his feet. He 

 told us that Sitka Jack had gone up to the main 

 Chilcat village the day before he left, intending to 

 hold a grand feast and potlatch, and that whiskey up 

 there was flowing like water. The news was rather de- 

 pressing to Mr. Young and myself, for we feared the 



[ 164] 



