394 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXIII. 
The voyage to Alaska from Puget Sound is a most attractive 
one, and during the brief summer season is yearly drawing a 
larger number of tourists. Last summer, however, the majority 
of the north-bound passengers were drawn by other attractions 
than the charms of the scenery, and our passenger list was 
made up largely of persons bound for Skaguay and Dyea, ex 
route for the Klondike. 
The route follows the channels between the numberless 
islands off the coast of British Columbia and Alaska, and at no 
time do the steamers enter the open sea. Often the channel 
is sO narrow that one could almost throw a stone ashore, and 
it is hard to realize that one is not sailing through a lake, or 
even a river, as there is no trace of the ocean swell nor heavy 
waves, except at one or two points where, for a short distance, 
there is a break in the barrier of islands protecting the inland 
channel. 
Everywhere the shores are heavily wooded to the water’s 
edge — indeed, the whole coast from Puget Sound to Sitka is 
covered with an almost unbroken forest, where the trees stand 
so close together that the dead trees are held upright by their 
living companions. These bleached skeletons, seen everywhere 
in the forest, give to it a very peculiar aspect. , 
Above the timber line the rugged tops of the mountains 
project, with here and there masses of snow, which become 
larger and more numerous as we go northward, and come down 
until they meet the forest. From the steep mountain sides 
little streams rush down in a series of cascades, which finally 
fall into the sea. 
As we proceed northward the scenery grows more and more 
striking. The mountains become higher and more rugged, 
and the summits are completely covered with perpetual snow 
and ice, and the snow-line descends farther and farther, until 
finally we reach a land of glaciers, many of which come down 
to the sea. The wonderful panorama of snow-clad, glacier- 
sculptured mountains reaches its climax on the last day of the 
voyage, passing through Lynn channel after leaving Skaguay, 
the most northerly point visited. Here the mountains rise 
abruptly from the water to a height of 8000 feet and more, 
