• "•'.' S'"*- ' . 



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PART OF THE ICE FRONT, GREAT GLACIER, STICKEEN RIVER, ALASKA. 



petual snow, is saw-tooth-like in appear- 

 ance, and with the thin, soft veiling of fleecy 

 clouds, like so many plumes of white, fluffy 

 feathers, forever hovering over and about 

 it, presents the grandest, most beautiful and 

 bewildering picture to be found anywhere 

 in the coast range. 



The Iskoot is so large as often to be mis- 

 taken for the Stickeen, by canoemen unac- 

 customed to these waters, and several such 

 parties have perished in trying to ascend it, 

 believing they were yet on the Stickeen. 



It is almost impossible to navigate the 

 Iskoot, even with Indian canoes, except at 

 most favorable stages of water. Through- 

 out its first 50 miles it winds through deep, 

 rocky gorges and canyons, cut through 

 wild mountains, with many rapids and bowl- 

 ders to endanger navigation. The source 

 of the stream is in a high, rolling plateau of 

 softly undulating hills that stretches away 

 in rear of the main coast range, Eastward 

 toward the Rockies. Moose, caribou and 

 mountain sheep, find in the regions of its 

 head waters, fields unmolested by either the 

 Indian or white hunter. Black bear are 

 found throughout its entire limits, and the 

 sitka, or big brown bear, in its lower dis- 

 tricts. Goats are numerous in the high 

 rocky districts near its mouth. 



A short distance above the mouth of the 

 Iskoot you sight the Great Glacier, until 

 recently supposed to be the largest empty- 

 ing into the Stickeen. It is often visited in 

 small steamers, chartered by parties who 

 leave the large mail steamers at Ft. 

 Wrangle, and offers a most delightful and 

 interesting excursion. 



Here the tourist may have the satisfac- 

 tion of walking and climbing over im- 

 mense fields of ice, and of making an inter- 

 esting collection of ferns, arctic mosses and 

 pieces of wood that have been thrown out 

 from underneath the glacier, where they 

 have been traveling many centuries. 



The ice cliffs composing the front of the 

 glacier rise in most places, abruptly, 500 to 

 700 feet high. There are 3 or 4 places, how- 

 ever, where the climb to the upper levels is 

 easily made. 



From the surface the scene is a grand 

 one. Looking up this great field of ice, as 

 it stretches away and disappears in the 

 bend of the mountain walls, you can 

 scarcely realize that such a monster stream 

 of ice has wound its way through the moun- 

 tain range for more than 80 miles; yet such 

 is the case. This glacier has never been 

 fully explored, nor has its motion ever been 

 recorded. 



Two Russian army officers once came 

 down from Sitka for the purpose of explor- 

 ing it, to its source; but were never heard 

 of afterward. They were supposed to have 

 been lost in one of the many crevices that 

 break the surface of the great ice field. It 

 is deeply gashed and difficult to traverse. 

 In places great granite bowlders cover the 

 surface; and at one point I found them 

 piled high, in a 'confused mass, forming a 

 ridge on the surface of the glacier more 

 than a quarter of a mile in length. 



Just in front of the ice wall, we found the 

 snarled and twisted remnants of ancient 

 tree trunks. Some of them were of im- 

 mense size, their surfaces worn smooth by 



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