ALASKA, THE GEEAT ICE LAND. 



Why I wished to go there Southern Alaeka, and How to reach it 

 Winnipeg Banff and the Devil's Lake Victoria, Vancouver's Island 

 The New York Times Alaska Expedition Game of the Pacific Coast 

 The Journey Northwards Chilcat Icy Bay and Muir Glacier Sitka 

 The U. S. and Mount St. Elias The Position of Mount St. Elias Fish- 

 ing and Shooting The Voyage North in the U. S. Man-of-War 

 Appearance of Mount St. Elias Yakatat and its Indians Curiosities 

 Icy Bay. 



IN March, ] 386, I left Liverpool in one of the Allan 

 line steamers bound for Canada, with the intention of 

 visiting and exploring that chain of gigantic peaks 

 which fringes the coast of the North Pacific, lying 

 partly in the North-west Territory of Canada and in 

 British Columbia, and partly in Alaska, and, if pos- 

 sible, of visiting and ascending Mount St. Elias, 

 which is not only the highest mountain in this chain, 

 but also the loftiest peak in North America, being no 

 less than between 19,000 ft. and 20,000 ft, in height. 

 I had an additional inducement in doing this, which 

 lay in the fact that no one but the Yakatat Indians 

 had ever landed at the foot of Mount St. Elias, no 

 white man had ever visited and described the country 

 and inhabitants since the early navigators, Teben- 

 koff, Beecher, Bering, Cook, and Vancouver, had 

 sailed along the coast ; and as it rose direct from the 

 ocean at its foot to the elevation aforesaid, it pro- 

 mised to present one of the grandest sights in the 

 world ; and in this latter hope I was not disappointed. 



