16 



OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



turn to a delighted contemplation of those snowy crests of the 

 towering coast range which, though thirty and fifty miles distant, 

 seem to fairly be in reach, just over and back of the rugged tree- 

 clad elevations of mountainous islands that rise abruptly from 

 the sea-canal in every direction. Not a gentle slope to the water 

 can be seen on either side of the vessel as you glide rapidly ahead ; 

 the passage is often so narrow that the wavelets from the steamer's 



Lodges in a Vast Wilderness. 



wheel break and echo back loudly on your ear from the various 

 strips of ringing rocky shingle at the base of bluffy intersections. 



If, by happy decree of fate, fog-banks do not shut suddenly 

 down upon your pleased vision, a rapid succession of islands and 

 myriads of islets, all springing out boldly from the cold blue-green 

 and whitish-gray waters which encircle their bases, will soon tend 

 to confuse and utterly destroy all sense of locality ; the steamer's 

 path seems to be in a circle, to lead right back to where she started 

 from, into another equally mysterious labyrinthine opening : then 



