Alaskan Volca7ioes 219 



As we steamed along in the sunlight, and espe- 

 cially when looking at the superb Aleutian pano- 

 rama, Captain Jarvis frequently remarked, "This 

 is rare. I have been along this coast many times 

 in the past dozen years, but I never saw the air as 

 clear as it is now." Others who had come that way 

 before had never seen the snowy volcanoes at all. 

 "Too much rain, not enough sunlight," is the 

 answer to my agricultural enthusiasm. I recalled 

 those Sahara-like great plains of the Columbia, too 

 arid even for sage-brush, but fertile under irriga- 

 tion, and thought that if we could discover some 

 way of averaging the two, we should make homes 

 for another fifty millions. The vast evaporating 

 surface of the Pacific, especially of the north tropic, 

 loads the air with water, which is carried northward 

 on its upper currents and precipitated here and 

 farther north. The North Pole is the tent-pole of 

 the earth. The rain and snow poured upon the 

 white canvas of the arctic are sufficient to fill that 

 great sea-river upon which icebergs are floated 

 down the Atlantic coast. They have carried 

 enough of rocks and detritus from the arctic shores 

 to fill the sea and create the wide shallows of New- 

 foundland, and will in time pile the banks as high 

 as bergs can float. 



I asked an Aleut what was the word in his lan- 

 guage for his child, a little girl, "Gedawter. " I 

 made him say it over, putting my ear near his mouth 

 to catch the exact articulation. I asked if he had 



