28 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



This was not intended as a warning to other ships 

 that pass in the fog, for the waters hereabouts are 

 not busy, and the times and likely positions of the few 

 ships that ply over them can be arrived at more or 

 less by a little calculation beforehand. The fog-horn 

 wakens the echoes, and the echoes call back the degree 

 of danger the ship is running into. If it is desperate 

 the news is given from such close quarters that the 

 helmsman guesses immediately whether port or star- 

 board means the road to safety. The whole journey 

 is crammed with amazing sensations, and one cannot 

 help speculating very often on the slightness of the 

 barrier that at times appears to be the only block to 

 a swift eternity. 



One day we had to anchor for a whole twelve hours, 

 owing to some defect in the steering gear, and we 

 four annexed a boat and hied us ashore forthwith, 

 penetrating the woods of Vancouver Island". Landing 

 was easy, for the prettiest of little shingly beaches, 

 covered with baulks of timber, washed white by the 

 waves, were inset into the frowning rock and moss- 

 grown ramparts of the isle. 



The silence of the bush was very impressive. Birds 

 there were, but they had no singing voices, the tap- 

 tap-tapping of the woodpecker alone breaking the 

 stillness. I penetrated far into the thick cover, the 

 forest was a dream of beauty in its new spring green. 

 Many black-tailed deer took the fallen boulders in 

 lithe, swinging bounds, in small bunches of twos and 

 threes they crossed the path frequently. The large 

 bird that does duty in Canada for the robin, brown- 



