THE KATZEHIN RIVER IN ALASKA 175 



at the glacier, which was practically a mountain of ice, I 

 climbed up at one side, and, crossing deep crevasses 

 bridged here and there by narrow walls of ice, climbing 

 up and down the pinnacles of the irregular surface, trav- 

 elled two miles back into the ice world, which continues, 

 perhaps, a hundred miles or more behind the coast range. 

 Evidences of life were limited to a few old black bear 

 tracks seen on the bars, and a porcupine observed close 

 to a channel of the river. 



We tramped about the next day without seeing any- 

 thing but goats, and, June 19, placed our canoe in the 

 main channel of the river and raced to the mouth in an 

 hour and a half. The tide was low and we had to wait 

 until afternoon, when the small steamer came to bring us 

 back to Skagway. Soon after starting, I saw a most in- 

 teresting sight. Bald eagles and gulls were very numer- 

 ous about the flats, and as we were coasting a mile out 

 from the shore, a gull, hotly pusued by an eagle, flew 

 rapidly by the steamer. Soon a second eagle joined the 

 chase, and then a third. For half an hour we watched the 

 gull trying to escape the death pursuit, until finally it suc- 

 ceeded. One of the eagles would directly chase it, 

 the other two at the same time flying in a parallel course, 

 one on each side, twenty-five yards distant. The middle 

 eagle with long, sweeping wing-beats, would rapidly gain on 

 the gull until near enough to swoop, with talons extended 

 to seize it. But the gull would suddenly dodge by making 

 a rapid dive or a quick, perpendicular ascent, when 

 the momentum of the eagle would carry it far beyond. 

 Then one of the other eagles would quickly swing around 



