92 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



to my view, and I am fairly rendered voiceless as I try to speak in 

 definition of the spectacle. In the first place, this slope from Sea Lion 

 Neck to the summit of Hutchinson's Hill is a long mile, smooth and 

 gradual from the sea to the hilltop; the pai-ade ground l3iug between 

 is also nearly three-fourths of a mile in width, sheer and unbroken. 

 Now, upon that area before my eyes, this day and date of which I have 

 spoken, were the forms of not less than three-fourths of a million 

 seals — pause a moment — think of the number — thr^e-fourthsof a mil- 

 lion seals moving in one solid mass from sleep to frolicsome gambols. 



NORTH EAST POINT 



Scale: 



backward, forward, over, around, changing and interchanging their 

 hea%'y squadrons, until the whole mind is so confused and charmed by 

 the vastness of mighty hosts that it refuses to analyze any further. 

 Then, too, I remember that the day was one of exceeding beauty for 

 that region; it was a swift alternation over head of those characteris- 

 tic rain fogs, between the succession of which the sun breaks out with 

 transcendent brilliancy through the mist}^ halos about it; this parade 

 field reflected the light like a mirror, and the seals, when thej" bi-oke 

 apart here and there for a moment, just enough to show its surface, 

 seemed as though they walked upon the water. What a scene to put 



