MOUNT ST. ELIAS AND PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 177 



miles by loose stones and moraines, which in turn 

 were densely overgrown by shrubs and fir-trees offer- 

 ing an exceedingly difficult obstacle to progression. 

 The following day the Indians returned, and the day 

 after brought up the rest of the party. 



On the 22nd the whole of us resumed the march 

 together. Curious sounds emanated from the glaciers, 

 crackings which appeared to travel for great dis- 

 tances around us, mingled with the distant rumblings 

 of avalanches. Hitherto we had been moving through 

 the forests and along the margin of the great river 

 in the beaten track of bruin, for the brown bear 

 is the road-maker of Alaska ; a sense of his presence 

 continually oppressed us ; we were always expecting 

 to meet him on his own narrow pathway which he 

 had made for himself. When I first beheld him our 

 rifles had been left behind, he was browsing upon the 

 luscious skunk-cabbage and resembled an animated 

 rick. I suppose he was of the species known to 

 traders by the colour of the skin as a St. Elias grizzly, 

 of a greyish white, and said by the Indian hunters to 

 be exceedingly dangerous when wounded. All his 

 life is spent among snows and glaciers, hence his 

 polar characteristics. Bears as a rule are difficult to 

 find owing to their powers of scent, though it must 

 be allowed that it would not be necessary that their 

 sense of smell should be very keen in order to 

 "wind" an average Indian in his blanket. When 

 they are caught sight of on the Alaskan mountains 

 they are usually going or coming like a locomotive, as 



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