Travels in Alaska 



of the narrowest fiord, while the largest tributaries of 

 the great glacier that occupied it are still in existence. 

 I counted some forty-five altogether, big and little, 

 in sight from the canoe in sailing up the middle of the 

 fiord. Three of them, drawing their sources from 

 magnificent groups of snowy mountains, came down 

 to the level of the sea and formed a glorious spectacle. 

 The middle one of the three belongs to the first class, 

 pouring its majestic flood, shattered and crevassed, 

 directly into the fiord, and crowding about twenty- 

 five square miles of it with bergs. The next below it 

 also sends off bergs occasionally, though a narrow 

 strip of glacial detritus separates it from the tide- 

 water. That forenoon a large mass fell from it, dam- 

 ming its draining stream, which at length broke the 

 dam, and the resulting flood swept forward thousands 

 of small bergs across the mud-flat into the fiord. In a 

 short time all was quiet again; the flood-waters re- 

 ceded, leaving only a large blue scar on the front of 

 the glacier and stranded bergs on the moraine flat to 

 tell the tale. 



These two glaciers are about equal in size two 

 miles wide and their fronts are only about a mile 

 and a half apart. While I sat sketching them from a 

 point among the drifting icebergs where I could see 

 far back into the heart of their distant fountains, two 

 Taku seal-hunters, father and son, came gliding 

 toward us in an extremely small canoe. Coming 

 alongside with a goodnatured "Sagh-a-ya," they in- 

 quired who we were, our objects, etc., and gave us 

 information about the river, their village, and two 



[240 ] 



