Alaskan Volcanoes 



THE wind was dead ahead all the way for five 

 or six days, and the Bear, not built for 

 speed, pounded her way along against it, 

 bumping into the swells, making only five knots 

 per hour part of the time. But on the third there 

 was sunlight, and I was up early to see whether 

 I could recognize the sun, whether it had grown 

 old and wrinkled since I last saw it east of the 

 Rockies. There were whales sporting here and 

 there, among them two fin-backs, which were going 

 with great energy, their black spikes rising three 

 or four feet above the water. I had taken the 

 gomie gulls under my care, and counted them 

 over and over for fear I should lose some of 

 them. There were twenty-seven in all who called 

 faithfully for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I had 

 been reading up what I could find about soar- 

 ing birds, and now had an opportunity to observe 

 closely, for these great brown gulls, with long, nar- 

 row, saber-like wings, became very tame, and would 

 pass me at a distance of only fifteen or twenty feet. 

 There was one large fellow with a slight fray in his 

 right wing, by which I could distinguish him. The 

 wind blew pretty strong, but he would move against 



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