FAR AND NEAR 



excellent. They grow in great abundance in the sand 

 on the beach. On the 24th we steamed all day off the 

 Fairweather Range, which lay there before us with- 

 out a cloud or film to dim its naked majesty. We 

 were two or three hours in passing the great peak 

 itself. Piled with snow and beaten upon by a cloud- 

 less sun, its reflected light shone in my stateroom 

 Kke that of an enormous full moon. This was a day 

 in blue and white, — blue of the sea and sky and 

 white of the mountains, — long to be remembered 

 but not to be described. The peak of St. Elias, 

 standing above a band of cloud, kept us in its eye 

 till we were one hundred and fifty miles down the 

 coast. 



On the 25th we were at Juneau again, taking coal 

 and water. The only toad I saw in Alaska I saw this 

 day, as it was fumbUng along in the weeds by the 

 roadside, just out of Juneau. Here also I gathered 

 my first salmon-berries, — a kind of raspberry, an 

 inch in diameter, with a slightly bitterish flavor, 

 but very good. 



The lovely weather still favored us on our return 

 trip down the inland passage. Under date of the 26th 

 I find this entry in my note-book: — 



" Bright and warm and still ; all day down the 

 inside passage. At one point in Tongass Narrows, 

 fishermen taking salmon: a large seine gathered in 

 between two rowboats, one of them bright red, and 

 men in each with forks picking the fish out of the net 

 126 



