Alaskan Volcanoes 217 



Even the violets have their peculiarly delicate per- 

 fume in richer measure than those farther south. 

 The day following our arrival was one of sunshine 

 in its perfection. The low mountains all around us 

 were flecked with snow. The air was cool but 

 inspiring, and of perfect clearness. The soil is as 

 deep as the best in Dakota — three feet of rich, black 

 loam. This is covered with a blanket of mosses 

 and grasses, compact as the fur on a reindeer's 

 back. Lie down upon it and you sink into the soft- 

 est of beds. There were about a dozen quite fat 

 porkers wallowing in a slough. I noticed one 

 which was more fastidious in his taste, rooting out 

 for himself a cool, moist bed, and stretching him- 

 self in it with a comfortable sigh. This, mind you, 

 on one of the "barren, bleak, inhospitable Aleutian 

 Islands" on June 6th. "Of course these islands 

 will be populated," said Dr. Jackson. And of 

 course they will be. And he is the pathfinder for 

 a happy people — made their existence inevitable 

 when he turned loose here his first cargo of rein- 

 deer. There is too much fury for trade and gold 

 for attention to the resources in subsistence, just 

 now, but they are here. Just beyond the sand- 

 dyke, yonder, you can go and pull out a cutter-load 

 of codfish and halibut, weighing up to twenty 

 pounds, the meat white, tender, and about equal to 

 the Lake Superior whitefish. The bottom appears 

 to be paved with sole-fish. This soil would, I 

 should think, yield potatoes and all the root crops. 



