"Travels in Alaska 



Viewed one by one, they seem detached beauties, like 

 extracts from a poem, while, from the completeness of 

 their lines and the way that their trees are arranged, 

 each seems a finished stanza in itself. Contemplating 

 the arrangement of the trees on these small islands, a 

 distinct impression is produced of their having been 

 sorted and harmonized as to size like a well-balanced 

 bouquet. On some of the smaller tufted islets a group 

 of tapering spruces is planted in the middle, and 

 two smaller groups that evidently correspond with 

 each other are planted on the ends at about equal 

 distances from the central group; or the whole ap- 

 pears as one group with marked fringing trees that 

 match each other spreading around the sides, like 

 flowers leaning outward against the rim of a vase. 

 These harmonious tree relations are so constant that 

 they evidently are the result of design, as much so as 

 the arrangement of the feathers of birds or the scales 

 of fishes. 



Thus perfectly beautiful are these blessed ever- 

 green islands, and their beauty is the beauty of youth, 

 for though the freshness of their verdure must be as- 

 cribed to the bland moisture with which they are 

 bathed from warm ocean-currents, the very existence 

 of the islands, their features, finish, and peculiar dis- 

 tribution, are all immediately referable to ice-action 

 during the great glacial winter just now drawing to a 

 close. 



We arrived at Wrangell July 14, and after a short 

 stop of a few hours went on to Sitka and returned on 



[ 18] 



