GLACIERS AND WOODED ISLANDS 277 



But with our passage into Cross Soiuid, between the 

 mainland and the north end of Chichagof Island, we 

 entered again the waters of the Inside Passage, which we 

 had already once navigated on our journey from Seattle 

 to Skagway. 



The Pacific coast of Canada and Alaska is fringed so 

 thickly with islands that vessels sailing from Seattle, 

 Vancouver or Victoria need scarcely be exposed to rough 

 ocean weather in making the passage to that south- 

 eastern portion of Alaska from which access is had to 

 the interior through the Yukon Basin. 



More than one thousand of them belong to United 

 States territory and many to British Coliunbia. A voy- 

 age through the Inside Passage, as this route is called, 

 is one of the most enjoyable voyages that the world 

 affords the traveler for pleasure. In some respects the 

 Norwegian fiords rival it, but not in quiet charm of land- 

 scape and hardly in grandeur. 



There is a freshness hanging over the wooded slopes 

 of these Alaskan islands; they are untouched by the axe 

 and ignorant of modern improvements. Here and there 

 a village of Indian huts is in keeping with the atmosphere; 

 a salmon cannery, or a rare town occupied by white men, 

 these are but welcome signs that relieve what would other- 

 wise be too great a loneHness. 



Narrow channels, deep carven by the sea into the 

 rock, wind among shores that call to mind the beautiful 

 lakes of Scotland; but towering above the dense growth 

 of evergreens, a ridge of bare peaks crested with snow 

 may wake the lazy dreamer to a realization that he is in 

 the rigorous North. 



The tide sucks malevolently through many of the 

 straits and many a vessel is spitted upon the abounding 



