FEATURES OF THE SITKAN REGION. 27 



the mountain tops loom up darker against the blue-black sky, and 

 with unerring certainty he guides the helm. When the ship is 

 running through tide-rapids in the night, the boiling phosphores- 

 cence of the foaming waters, as they rush noisily under our keel, 

 gives a fresh zest to the novelty of the cruise, and the pilot's cries 

 of command ring out in hoarse echoes over the surging tumult 

 below ; meanwhile, the passengers anxiously and nervously watch 

 the unquiet turns of the trembling vessel then suddenly the helm 

 is put up, and the steamer fairly bounds out of still water and the 

 leeward of Coronation Island, into the rhythmic roll of the vast bil- 

 lows of the Pacific, which toss her in strange contrast to the even 

 keel that has characterized our long, land-locked sea-voyage up to 

 this moment. The wrinkled, rugged nose of Cape Ommaney looms 

 right ahead in the north, and soon we are well abreast of the moun- 

 tainous front to the west coast of Baranov Island, running swiftly 

 into Sitka Sound.* 



Cape Ommaney is a very remarkable promontory ; it is a steep, 

 bluffy cliff, with a round, high rocky islet, lying close by and under 

 it. The eastern shore of that cape takes a very sharp northerly di- 

 rection, and thus makes this southern extremity of Baranov Island 

 an exceedingly narrow point of land. An unlucky sailor, Isaac 

 Wooden, fell overboard from Vancouver's ship the Discovery, when 

 abreast of it and homeward bound, Sunday, August 24, 1794, and 

 was drowned, after having safely passed through all the perils 

 of that most remarkable voyage, extended as it was over a period 

 of four consecutive years' absence from home. The rock bears the 

 odd name "Wooden " in consequence. 



The location of New Archangel, or Sitka village, is now con- 

 ceded to be the one of the greatest natural beauty and scenic effect 

 that can be found in all Alaska. The story of its occupation by the 

 Russians is a recitation of violent deeds and unflinching courage 

 on the part of the iron-willed Baranov and his obedient servants : 

 he led the way down here from Kadiak first, of all white men, in 

 1799, after hearing the preliminary report of exploration made two 

 years previously by his lieutenant, Captain James Shields, an Eng- 

 lish adventurer and shipbuilder, who entered the service of the 

 Russian Company in the Okotsk. Baranov, though small in stature, 



* Sitka port is on the west coast of Baranov Island ; north latitude 57 3 

 02' 52"; west longitude 135 D 17' 45". 



