IN GREEN ALASKA 



Wrangell, where we spent a few hours on shore 

 looking at totem poles and viewing the shabby old 

 town, while we kept an eye open to the botany and 

 natural history of the place. Our collectors brought 

 in a Steller's jay, a russet-back'od thrush, an Ore- 

 gon junco, a gray fox sparrow, a lutescent warbler, 

 a rufous-backed chickadee with nest and eggs, and 

 a Harris's woodpecker. 



At eight o'clock we were off again toward Wrangell 

 Narrows, across the superb Wrangell Bay. At noon 

 we saw Devil's Thumb on our right, a naked shaft 

 over sixteen hundred feet high, rising from a moun- 

 tain which is over seven thousand feet. It is a thumb 

 of goodly dimensions. 



The next day we saw our first glacier, the Patter- 

 son, a small affair compared with those we were soon 

 to behold ; indeed about the smallest lamb of the flock 

 of Muir's mountain sheep, but interesting to novice 

 eyes. It lies there low in the lap or apron of the 

 mountain, and suggests the fragment of an arrested 

 or congealed river. All the afternoon we sailed 

 under cloudless skies along Frederick Sound, feasting 

 our eyes upon the vast panorama of the encircling 

 mountains. When we tired of this there were the low 

 curving shores and nearer-by heights and the numer- 

 ous tree-capped islands that seemed floating upon the 

 blue expanse of water. Many whales were seen blow- 

 ing, their glistening backs emerging from the water, 

 turning slowly like the periphery of a huge wheel. 



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