a^ujstng ti^e Ctoentt^fitjst 



Dutch Harbor 



MY time had been cut into by the delays in 

 saiHng, which extended, one after an- 

 other, from May 8th to 26th. I could 

 not go on with the Bear with any certainty of 

 being able to take the most interesting part of 

 the voyage, that along the Alaskan coast. Be- 

 sides I knew that the warm ocean-current which 

 streams up along the Asian coast and meets the 

 trade-winds which come from the polar ice, 

 must make that part of the Pacific steam like a 

 boiling pot. The sailors who had been there said 

 the fog is eternal. As between the Kamchatkan 

 coast and the Alaskan, between which I had to 

 choose, the interest was largely with the latter. I 

 could not have both. The mail-boat reaches Dutch 

 Harbor once a month, and I decided to wait and 

 take passage on her. She would poke her nose 

 into every nook of the coast from Unalaska to 

 Juneau. Having the best part of a month for the 

 run she would take her time. Then I could have 

 the White Pass into the gold diggings, hundreds of 

 glaciers, including the Muir, and the famous inside 

 passage home. 



So I deserted Jackson. He said he felt like an 

 222 



