580 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



name. This mail route is iu oijeration from the 1st oi April uutil the 

 31st of October of each year. During the winter months Sitka is the 

 limit of mail communication. Threading her way westward among 

 the green islets the trim little Bora soon left the smooth, landlocked 

 waters and encountered the unchecked sweej) of the Pacific Ocean. 

 From Sitka westward the character of the scenery changes. The 

 narrow water-lanes hemmed in by the thickly wooded islands of the 

 Alexander Archipelago give place to the untrammeled ocean beating 

 against the bases of the barren cliffs and mountain ranges of " conti- 

 nental Alaska." 



The morning of May 3 found us in Yakutat Bay. Here, near the 

 base of Mount St. Elias, is a mission stfation of the Swedish Evangeli- 

 cal Church, with the Rev. and Mrs. Albin Johnson, Eev. K. J. Ilen- 

 drickson, and Miss Selma Peterson as teachers. Mrs. Johnson came 

 from Jankaping, Sweden, making a journey of 9,000 miles to join Mr. 

 Johnson. Landing through the surf, we picked our way along the 

 beach to the mission buildings. In the winter of 1892-93 one of the 

 large and substantial boarding houses was burned. The undaunted 

 missionaries commenced rebuilding it, and at the time of our visit it 

 was nearly completed. The other building is a model of neatness, and 

 there is an air of unassuming sincerity and thoroughness about the 

 whole place. 



In 1880 gold was discovered in the black sand of the beaches sur- 

 rounding Yakutat Bay, and from that time until 1888, when a tidal wave 

 washed most of the sand away, numerous mining camps dotted its 

 shores. The black sand is accumulating once more, and prospectors 

 have also returned. It is said that good coal has been found about 2 

 miles inland, but as Yakutat Bay is only a slight indentation of the 

 coast into which the unbroken force of the North Pacific sweeps, load- 

 ing ships with coal iu that bay would be an undertaking of great dif- 

 ficulty. 



The Yakutats are the northernmost branch of theThlinget race, which 

 inhabits southeast Alaska. Like the rest of the Thlingets, and also the 

 Aleuts, they are expert basket weavers ; in some of the houses we saw 

 magnificent robes made of down from the breast of the eagle. 



During the afternoon the clouds lifted, revealing the St. Elias Alps, 

 and during the remaining hours of daylight we skirted the 60-mile 

 front of the Malaspina glacier, with the sea dashing against its ice 

 cliffs. The unbroken sweep of mountain scenery from the St. Elias 

 range to the Aleutian chain is unsurpassed in gloomy grandeur. At 

 the little trading post of Kayak we took on board a man who had just 

 spent seven months as keeper of a fox ranch on one of the neighboring 

 islands. For that length of time he had not seen a human face, his sole 

 company being the foxes. 



On evening of May 4 we entered the land-locked harbor of Niichek, 

 or Port Etches, at the entrance of Prince William Sound. At Snug 



