"The Return to Fort Wrangell 



manners. He was very sorry, he said, that his people 

 had been drinking in his absence and had used us so 

 ill; he would like to hear us talk and would call his 

 people together if we would return to the village. 

 This offer we had to decline. We gave him good words 

 and tobacco and bade him good-bye. 



The scenery all through the channel is magnificent, 

 something like Yosemite Valley in its lofty avalanche- 

 swept wall cliffs, especially on the mainland side, which 

 are so steep few trees can find footing. The lower 

 island side walls are mostly forested. The trees are 

 heavily draped with lichens, giving the woods a 

 remarkably gray, ancient look. I noticed a good many 

 two-leafed pines in boggy spots. The water was 

 smooth, and the reflections of the lofty walls striped 

 with cascades were charmingly distinct. 



It was not easy to keep my crew full of wild flesh. 

 We called at an Indian summer camp on the main- 

 land about noon, where there were three very squalid 

 huts crowded and jammed full of flesh of many colors 

 and smells, among which we discovered a lot of bright 

 fresh trout, lovely creatures about fifteen inches long, 

 their sides adorned with vivid red spots. We pur- 

 chased five of them and a couple of salmon for a box of 

 gun-caps and a little tobacco. About the middle of 

 the afternoon we passed through a fleet of icebergs, 

 their number increasing as we neared the mouth of 

 the Taku Fiord, where we camped, hoping to explore 

 the fiord and see the glaciers where the bergs, the first 

 we had seen since leaving Icy Bay, are derived. 



We left camp at six o'clock, nearly an hour before 



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