FAR AND NEAR 



sailors the men are taking down totem poles and 

 towing them to the ship with the naphtha launches. 

 As I write there are many birds in the trees and 

 bushes near me, — the rufous hummer, the rufous- 

 backed chickadee, the golden-crowned kinglet, the 

 pine siskin. Back in the woods I hear the russet- 

 backed thrush and Steller's jay. With my lunch I 

 have some salmon-berries gathered near by." 



" July 28. Woke up this morning hearing the 

 birds sing through my open window. I looked out 

 into the dusky wooded side of a mountain nearly 

 within a stone's throw. We were in Grenville Chan- 

 nel, the skies clear, the sun shining full upon the op- 

 posite shore. Presently we were passing one of those 

 bewitching alcoves or recesses in the shore where the 

 mountains form a loop miles deep around an inlet 

 of blue sea, with snow-crowned peaks above great 

 curves of naked rock at the head of it. Then we cut 

 one of those curious tide-lines, where two currents 

 of water of diflFerent colors meet. The dividing line 

 is sharp and clear for a long distance." 



The next day, which was still bright and warm, 

 there was a film of smoke in the air in the morning, 

 which increased as we went south. We were nearing 

 the region of forest fires. When we reached Seattle 

 on July 30, this smoke had so increased that all the 

 great mountains were hidden by it as efiEectually as 

 they had been by the clouds when we entered upon 

 the voyage. 



128 



