266 BIG GAME SHOOTING IX ALASKA chap. 



if she just did it now with all her sails set and steam up." 

 If ever there was a coast to tempt the skippers on to rocks, 

 the western coast of Alaska is the place best suited for it. 

 Even the most recent charts, as supplied to me by the 

 Washington Geographical Survey Department, are hope- 

 lessly inaccurate as regards many of the bays along the coast. 

 The waters abound with swarms of dangerous rocks, sharp 

 pointed and jagged, the best-adapted things for sending a 

 ship to the bottom that I have ever seen, only excepting a 

 Whitehead torpedo. The rise and fall of the tide being 

 enormous, many of these rocks which are safe at high tide 

 stand many feet out of water when the tide is out, and as a 

 skipper never knows when he may have to run into some 

 bay for shelter, unless he or his pilot is well acquainted with 

 that particular spot, he is always taking chances of suddenly 

 finding some rock not yet shown on the chart. Until a 

 person has actually sailed many hundreds of miles in a small 

 vessel along these shores as we did, it is impossible to 

 imagine the dangers encountered, and how utterly dependent 

 you are on the nerve, caution, and knowledge of the man 

 who handles the craft. In winter, during fogs and snow- 

 storms, when passing through many hundreds of miles of 

 narrows, with rocks close on either side, the captain's only 

 means of ascertaining his whereabouts is to keep the whistle 

 blowing, and judge by the echo how near he is to land on 

 one side or the other. The exposure to the elements which 

 the man on the bridge has to face in cold weather is no 

 child's play, and although dressed in heavy furs, the task of 

 ships' officers and pilots in the cold weather on the Alaskan 

 shores is not a job to be envied. Hence the hardy 

 Scandinavians are found in great numbers as officers and 

 men on board most of the coasting steamers. 



