OH, SHOOT! 



dogs, for they became separated from Joe 

 while in chase of a fretful porcupine, and could 

 not find their way back to the boat. When 

 we reached Cordova we gave them to a man 

 whom we did not like, first exacting from him a 

 solemn promise that he would give them a bad 

 home and treat them unkindly. 



In the brief time we had been camped on 

 the island the railroad had stretched itself 

 onward to the lower crossing of the Copper 

 River, so we loaded a skiff upon one of Mr. 

 Heney's flat cars and saw it safely into the 

 muddy waters of the stream. 



The Alaskan glacial region, for which we 

 were bound, is very extensive; in fact, the 

 entire coast from Wrangel on the east, which 

 lies close up against the Canadian border, to 

 Cook Inlet, a thousand miles west, is ice-bur- 

 dened. The north Pacific thrashes against 

 the base of a saw-toothed range which sweeps 

 in a great curve, forming the Gulf of Alaska, 

 and it is this towering, jumbled confusion of 

 peaks which mothers the ice fields. The, 

 heights in places are saddled with prodigious 

 areas of ice, the spurs of which creep down 

 through rents and gaps to lower altitudes, or 

 grind their tortuous courses outward to the 



76 



