Delayed by Icebergs. 103 



melting of the ice when exposed to the air, it seems to hquefy 

 even more quickly when submerged. The changes thus pro- 

 duced finally cause the bergs to reverse their positions in the 

 water. This is done without the slightest warning, and is one of 

 the greatest dangers to be guarded against while canoeing among 

 them. The white color presented by the majority of the bergs is 

 changed to blue when they become stranded, and the surf breaks 

 over them and dissolves away their porous surfaces. A few of 

 the bergs are black in color, owing to the dirt and stones that 

 they carry on their surfaces or frozen in their mass. Quantities 

 of debris are thus floated away from the tide-water glaciers and 

 strewn over the bottoms of the adjacent inlets. 



This digression may be wearisome, but one cannot stand on 

 Haenke island without wishing to know all the secrets of the 

 great ice-streams that flow silently before him. 



Returning from our commanding station at the summit of the 

 island to where we left our canoe, we were surjorised and not a 

 little startled to find that the tide had run out and left the strand 

 between our canoe and the water completely blocked with huge 

 fragments of ice. There was no way left, for us to launch our 

 canoe except by cutting away and leveling off the ice with our 

 axe, so as to form a trail over which we could drag it to the 

 water. This we did, and then, poising the canoe on a low flat 

 berg, half of which extended beneath the water, I took my place 

 in it with paddle in hand, while Christie and Crumback, waiting 

 for the moment when a large wave rolled in, launched the canoe 

 far out in the surf. By the vigorous use of my paddle I suc- 

 ceeded in reaching smooth water and brought the canoe close 

 under the cliff forming the southern side of the cove, where the 

 men were able to drop in as a wave rolled under us. 



We slowly worked our way down the bay through blue lanes 

 in the ice-pack, against an incoming tide, and reached our tents 

 near sunset. Thus ended one of the most enjoyable and most 

 instructive clays at Yakutat bay. 



From Yakutat Bay to Blossom Island. 



Our camp on the shore of Yakutat bay was held for several 

 days after returning from Haenke island, but in the meantime 

 an advance-camp was established on the side of the Lucia 

 glacier, from which Mr. Kerr and myself made explorations 

 ahead. 



