Among' the Islands 239 



the origin and course of three glaciers reaching 

 down to the brine. The rim of this basin is a ser- 

 rated picket of peaks. The largest of the three 

 glaciers which it sends out, at one place in its 

 course, goes over a sheer cliff that must be fifteen 

 hundred feet high. It beats the Muir in its tre- 

 mendous crashes by five times the fall. The 

 "cities" in Cook's Inlet are, in order beginning at 

 the south. Port Graham, Soldovia, Homer, Seward, 

 Fort Kenai, Kurtatan, Tyonik, Chuitna, Hope City, 

 and Sunrise City. These latter, as may be inferred, 

 are goldbugs. A prospector just out from one of 

 those rivers says that Cook's Inlet will astonish the 

 world before the year is out. There was a detach- 

 meni; of infantry at Soldovia, sent to try to find a 

 trail north from the source of Sushitna River to the 

 Yukon. It is not very far, but I do not believe any 

 mortal can make it. No man can carry enough 

 provisions to take him half way. It is one mass of 

 bottomless chasms and saw-teeth peaks. A mile a 

 day would be good traveling for him. The military 

 had a little, slim wheeler in which to ascend the 

 river, but there they are bound to stop. 



I made a picture of Soldovia, in Cook's Inlet. It 

 differs from any other that I saw in that there is a 

 high bluff instead of a snow-peak back of it. The 

 tents of a detachment of United States soldiery are 

 seen on the right, sent to find a way between the 

 head of the Sushitna and the Yukon, which they 

 will never find, or I miss my guess. I could not 



