MefJtoch of Explwation. 23 



the crevasses, which offered great difficulties. Some experience 

 in the Alps had taught nie what means were necessary for pro- 

 gress in such places and what precautions should he taken to 

 avoid accidents. We were always roped together, and were pro- 

 vided with ice-axes which served to cut ste]3S in places where we 

 could not otherwise stand. Balancing on narrow ridges, creep- 

 ing along steep walls, or crossing crevasses on pieces of ice that 

 had fallen in and bridged them over, were the usual methods 

 of progress. Our precautions, however, rendered accident im- 

 possible. 



When at Pyramid harbor, in Lynn canal, Ave engaged William 

 York to go with us to help in camp-work. At the end of the 

 first month, finding the work too confining for him, he left us 

 with our consent and made his way back to Pyramid harbor, 

 following the stream down Main valley to Lynn canal. After 

 his departure we did all the camp-work ourselves. 



The officers of the steamships were very courteous to us. Cajj- 

 tain Carroll brought us all the material, ready cut, to make a 

 house with two windows and a door. It was put up during a 

 rain}' spell, when we could not do any work away from camp. 

 Indians, or as they are called in this region " Siwashes," had 

 sealing camps in Glacier bay, but only visited the inlet when the 

 steamers brought tourists, with whom they carried on a. lively 

 trade. 



General Geography. 



' The southeastern extremity of Alaska consists almost entirely 

 of an archipelago, which occupies a space nearly three hundred 

 and fifty miles long and a hundred miles wide. The islands, 

 large and small, are closely packed together, and the Avaterways 

 between them are deep and narrow, and often form long straight 

 canals. The islands are mountainous and precipitous, affording 

 few landing places. Their slopes are densely wooded, mostly 

 with spruce. The rough surveys of Vancouver a hundred years 

 ago, as revised later by Tebenkof and others, were until 1867 

 largely relied on as supplying the most accurate information of 

 parts of the coast. Since that year the explorations and sur- 

 veys made by the United States Coast and Geodetic survey under 

 the direction of Assistant Davidson, acting Assistant Dall, and, 

 during the period from 1881 to the present time, by naval officers 

 of the navy attached to the same survey, have resulted in the 



