"Travels in Alaska 



revealing the shining needles, the brown, sturdy trunk 

 grasping an outswelling mossy bank, and a fringe of 

 illuminated bushes within a few feet of the tree with 

 the firelight on the tips of the sprays. 



Next morning, soon after we left our harbor, we 

 were caught in a violent gust of wind and dragged 

 over the seething water in a passionate hurry, though 

 our sail was close-reefed, flying past the gray head- 

 lands In most exhilarating style, until fear of being 

 capsized made us drop our sail and run into the first 

 little nook we came to for shelter. Captain Toyatte 

 remarked that in this kind of wind no Indian would 

 dream of traveling, but since Mr. Young and I were 

 with him he was willing to go on, because he was sure 

 that the Lord loved us and would not allow us to 

 perish. 



We were now within a day or two of Chilcat. We 

 had only to hold a direct course up the beautiful Lynn 

 Canal to reach the large Davidson and other glaciers 

 at Its head in the canons of the Chilcat and Chllcoot 

 Rivers. But rumors of trouble among the Indians 

 there now reached us. We found a party taking shel- 

 ter from the stormy wind In a little cove, who con- 

 firmed the bad news that the Chllcats were drinking 

 and fighting, that Kadachan's father had been shot, 

 and that It would be far from safe to venture among 

 them until blood-money had been paid and the quar- 

 rels settled. I decided, therefore, In the mean time, to 

 turn westward and go in search of the wonderful "Ice- 

 mountains" that Sitka Charley had been telling us 

 about. Charley, the youngest of my crew, noticing 



[134 I 



