IN GREEN ALASKA 



the west. The former rises over twelve thousand feet 

 from the sea and, bathed in sunshine, was an impres- 

 sive spectacle. It was wrapped in a mantle of snow, 

 but it evidently was warm at heart, for we could see 

 steam issuing from two points near its summit. 



Our stay in Cook Inlet was brief. Our hunters had 

 hoped to kill some big game here, but after inter- 

 viewing an experienced hunter who had a camp on 

 shore, they concluded that on our return in July the 

 prospects would be better. On the afternoon of June 

 30, therefore, we left the inlet and were off for the 

 island of Kadiak, a hundred miles to the southwest. 



KADIAK 



We were now about to turn over a new leaf, or 

 indeed to open a new book, and to enter upon an 

 entirely different type of scenery, — the treeless type. 

 Up to this point, or for nearly two thousand mUes, 

 we had seen the mountains and valleys covered with 

 unbroken spruce forests. Now we were to have two 

 thousand miles without a tree, the valleys and moun- 

 tains green as a lawn, and to the eye as smooth, — 

 all of volcanic origin ; many of the cones ideally per- 

 fect; the valleys deepened and carved by the old gla- 

 ciers, and heights and lowlands alike covered with a 

 carpet of grass, ferns, and flowers. 



The forests begin to fail at the mouth of Cook 

 Inlet. As we came out, my eye was drawn to rolling 

 heights, where were groups and Unes of trees amid 

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