56 I. C. Russell — Expedition to Mount St. Ellas. 



As if to compensate for the lack of refuge on either end, there 

 is in the center of this great stretch of rock-bound coast, over 300 

 miles in extent, a magnificent inlet known as Yakutat bay, in 

 which a thousand ships could find safe anchorage. On some 

 old maps this bay is designated as " Bale de Monti," "Admiralty 

 bay " and " Bering bay," as will be seen when its discovery and 

 history are discussed on another page. 



The southern shore of Alaska, for a distance of 200 miles along 

 the bases of the Fairweather and St. Elias ranges, is formed of a 

 low table-land intervening between the mountains and the sea. 

 Yakutat bay is the only bight in this plateau sufficiently deep 

 to reach the mountain to the northward. This bay has a broad 

 opening to the sea ; the distance between its ocean capes is twenty 

 miles, and its extension inland is about the same. Its eastern 

 shore is fringed with low, wooded islands, among which are 

 sheltered harbors, safe from every wind that blows. The most 

 accessible of these is Port Mulgrave, near its entrance on the 

 eastern side. 



The shores of Yakutat bay, on both the east and the west, are 

 low and densely wooded for a distance of twenty -five miles from 

 the ocean, where the foot-hills of the mountains begin. At the 

 head of the bay the land rises in steep bluffs and forms pictur- 

 esque mountains, snow-capped the year round. These high- 

 lands, although truly mountainous in their proportions, are but 

 the foot-hills of still nobler uplifts immediately northward. The 

 bay extends through an opening in the first range to the base of 

 the white peaks beyond. This opening was examined a century 

 ago by explorers in search of the delusive " Northwest passage," 

 in the hope that it would lead to the long-sought " Strait of 

 Annan " — the dream of many voyagers. It was surveyed by the 

 expedition in command of Malaspina in 1792, and on account 

 of his frustrated hopes was named " Puerto del Desengano," or 

 " Disenchantment bay," as it has been rendered by English 

 writers. 



The waters of Yakutat and Disenchantment bays are deep, 

 and broken only by islands and reefs along their eastern shores. 

 A few soundings made in Disenchantment bay within half a 

 mile of the land showed a depth of from 40 to 120 fathoms. The 

 swell of the ocean is felt up to the very head of the inlet, indi- 

 cating, as was remarked to me by Captain C. L. Hooper, that 

 there are no bars or reefs to break the force of the incoming 

 swells. 



