278 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



rocks. Fog often casts a threatening pall over the region 

 and makes navigation perilous. Three ships were 

 wrecked in these waters during the sununer of which 

 our story tells. 



Great fiords also lead from the Inside Passage far 

 into the rugged coast line, but in these the steamers 

 plying to Alaska have no business; except at the north 

 end of the course, where the town of Skagway lies at the 

 head of Lynn Canal. 



Collins had been on the vessel which landed the first 

 band of prospectors to pitch their tents on the beach and 

 found the town of Skagway, about sixteen years before. 

 It had suddenly flamed into a large lawless, shifting port. 

 But now its greatest tide of humanity had long since 

 receded, and left it with merely the moderate activities 

 of a terminus for the httle White Pass Railway. 



Let stout-hearted Mrs. Pullen stand typical of the 

 town. This woman, respected by all Alaskans, came 

 with the early rush, a widow with three children. She 

 ran pack teams over the trails towards the Klondike and 

 kept her little family from the first with her profits from 

 this business. We found her, a tall Amazon of middle 

 age, with one son a physician, the other a finished 

 engineer. During the hard struggle she had laid the 

 third in his grave. And now the frenzy of bread-winning 

 had tiirned to a placid existence as owner of the best 

 hotel in the town. 



A few hours from Skagway we drew near to Fort 

 W. H. Seward adjoining the town of Haines near the 

 head of Lynn Canal, where two companies were sta- 

 tioned. Almost the whole garrison was on the dock to 

 welcome us. "If it weren't for the diversion of ships 

 stopping here," said Colonel McClure, "we would have 

 many a homesick man." 



