RECREATION. 



Volume I. 



OCTOBER, 1894. 



Number i. 



ALASKA.* 



Gen. John Gibbon, U. S. A. 



I. 



[copyright, all 



A country which has Florida at one 

 end and Alaska at the other, can 

 ill afford to be rent apart, and this 

 lesson we are learning better and better 

 every day. A people possessing the pow- 

 er and right to leave the frozen regions of 

 the north in winter and go, in their 

 own territory, to enjoy the warmth and 

 sunshine, the orange groves and flowers, 

 the green hummocks and white sands 

 of Florida ; and in summer to inhale 

 the cooling breezes of the arctic re- 

 gions ; to travel for a thousand miles 

 on salt water, with never a symptom of 

 the wretched sea malady, and under a 

 warm sun to look upon fields of ice 

 which call to mind the glacial epoch ; a 

 people, I say, who can do all this, under 

 their own flag, should say in their hearts 

 every day, "What a calamity to have 

 been deprived of this privilege." 



Thousands of our people go every 

 year to Florida to escape the rigors of 

 a northern winter and to enjoy a change 

 of scene. Thousands of others go every 

 summer to Alaska, not only for the 

 change of climate, but for the experi- 

 ence, and to see sights not to be seen on 

 any other portion of the earth. All 

 through the summer months, and 

 until late in the fall, well equipped 

 steamers ply regularly between Tacoma, 

 near the head of Puget sound, and 

 Alaskan points, making the round trip 

 in from twelve days to two weeks; bring- 

 ing back their passengers stronger and 

 healthier than when they took them 

 away ; their lungs filled with fresh sea 

 air, their trunks filled with Alaskan 

 curios, both real and bogus, and their 

 pockets more empty than when they 



* From Gen. Gibbon's forthcoming book, "Rambles 

 in the Rocky Mountains." 



RIGHTS RESERVED. 



started, but delighted with the journey 

 and glad they had gone. 



There are ship captains and ship 

 captains, but the one with whom we 

 went to Alaska had the advantage, or 

 disadvantage, according as you looked 

 at him and he looked at you, of being 

 both. By some travelers, the captain of 

 the Alaskan steamer Queen, was regard- 

 ed as little less than a polar bear — curt, 

 uncouth, rough, rude and disagreeable. 

 These "some" appeared to be decidedly 

 in the majority, for those who found in 

 him any redeeming traits seemed in- 

 clined to hold their tongues, apparently 

 fearing to be charged with violating that 

 so-called American principle which 

 holds that the majority is always right. 

 That the captain had two sides to his 

 character was patent from the first (in 

 fact, who has not ?) The great problem 

 was which to take ; and the next, could 

 you take one side as a meal, with a little 

 of the other side to flavor it, as you put 

 a little bitters in a sweetened cocktail ? 



On the 6th of August, 1891, the rain 

 was pouring down in torrents, as my 

 daughter and I, at 10 o'clock in the 

 morning, stepped from the Seattle dock 

 on to the deck of the Alaskan steamer, 

 to be greeted by the rest of our party, 

 which had been made up for the trip in 

 Portland. A good deal depends, on 

 such a trip as we were starting on, upon 

 the personnel of your party, and we were 

 especially blessed. We had Mr. F. and 

 three daughters ; Mr. K., his wife, little 

 son and darling little Liebling; Mrs. 

 K's brother (Mr. S.) ; Mr. C, of Port- 

 land, and M. Von , a German gentle- 

 man making a tour of the States. The 

 steamer was packed, as they always are, 

 and the passengers ate by relays. We 



