68 OUR AECTIC PROVINCE. 



he will but follow the joath of that wee brave bird, he will be led 

 into a veritable green and fragrant oasis, encircled all round aboiit 

 with savage icy mountains and snowy forests. 



Twenty miles south of Sitka, on the same island, in a pretty 

 little bay sheltered by a score of tiny islets, there — from the slop- 

 ing face of a verdant bank, the finest hot springs known to Alaska 

 flow up and out to the sea. Fleecy clouds of steamy moisture rise 

 over all to betray from a distance this delightful retreat ; the lux- 

 uriant vegetation, the variety of shrubs in full blossom here, when 

 all botanical life about them is as dead as cold can make it, create 

 thereon a spot in the early spring where all the senses of a traveller 

 can rest with exquisite pleasure — the waters of the bay in front 

 are covered with geese and ducks, while the rugged mountains that 

 rise as a wall behind are teeming with deer and bear and grouse, 

 secluded in the jungle. 



The Indians, from time immemorial, have resorted to these 

 hot waters of Baranov Island ; four distinct and freely flowing 

 springs take their origin in those crevices and fissures of the feld- 

 spathic granite foundation of the earth hereabouts ; the tempera- 

 ture of the largest spring, at its source, is 150° to 160° Fah.; the 

 waters are charged with sulphur to a very great extent. So jealous 

 were "the savages of any attempt among themselves which might 

 savor of a monopoly of the use of these healing, beneficent warm 

 streams, that no one tribe ever dared to bviild a village upon the 

 site ; but, by tacit consent, all were allowed to camp thereon. Some 

 Indians often came from a distance of three hundred miles away to 

 enjoy the sanitary result of bathing here, a few days or a few 

 weeks, as their troubles might warrant. 



Naturally the Russians, burdened at Sitka with all diseases 

 which flesh is heir to, turned their attention very promj)tly to this 

 sanitarium ; they erected a small hosjDital and two spacious bath- 

 houses over the springs, keeping everything in the strictest order 

 and cleanliness, without and within doors. A sad change con- 

 fronts us to-day — in so far as care of human hands ; but the savage 

 Sitkan is here, exulting in his renewed supremacy. 



The occurrence, however, of hot springs is quite frequent every- 

 where in this archipelago ; yet their extent and volume of outflow 

 is not so great as evidenced by those we have just noticed of 

 Baranov Island. Indians love to immerse their entire bodies in 

 pools and eddies of these hot rivulets, which are cooled sufii- 



