SKAGWAY 



31 



of their various hostelries before we have touched the 

 dock. Boys greet us with shouts and comments, women 

 and girls, some of them in bicycle suits, push to the 

 front and gaze intently at the strangers. All seemed to 

 be expecting something, friends or news, or some sensa- 

 tional occurrences. No sooner had we touched than 

 the boys swarmed in upon us like ants and began to ex- 

 plore the ship, and were as promptly swept ashore again. 

 Skagway is barely two years old. Born of the gold fever, 

 it is still feverish and excitable. It is on a broad delta of 

 land made by the Skagway River between the mountains, 

 and, it seems to 

 me, is liable at 

 any time by a 

 great flood in the 

 river to be swept 

 into the sea. It be- 

 gan at the stump 

 and probably is 

 still the stumpiest 

 town in the coun- 

 try. Many of the 

 houses stand upon 

 stumps ; there are 

 stumps in nearly every dooryard, but the people already 

 speak of the i early times,' three years ago. 



On the steep bushy mountain side near the wharf I 

 heard the melodious note of my first dwarf hermit thrush. 

 It was sweet and pleasing, but not so prolonged and 

 powerful as our hermit. 



HEAD OF LYNN CANAL, SKAGWAY ON LEFT. 



WHITE PASS. 



The next day the officials of the Yukon and White 

 Pass Railroad took our party on an excursion to the 

 top of the famous White Pass, twenty-one miles distant. 



