54 



JOHN BURROUGHS 



ally like an arm, a huge arm of the sea, very broad and 

 heavy at the shoulder, much flexed at the elbow, where 

 it breaks into the St. Elias Range, and long and slender 

 in the forearm which is thrust through the mountains till 

 it nearly reaches the sea again. Eight or ten comfortable 

 frame houses, with a store and post-office, made up the 

 Indian village known on the map as Yakutat. It sat low 



YAKUTAT VILLAGE. 



on a wooded point just to one side of the broad entrance 

 to the bay. There were upwards of a hundred people 

 there, looked after by a Swedish missionary. We soon 

 proceeded up the Bay, with the great Malaspina Glacier 

 on our left, and put off three hunting and collecting 

 parties to be absent from the ship till Thursday. The 

 event of this day was the view of Mt. St. Elias which 

 was vouchsafed us for half an hour in the afternoon. 

 The base and lower ranges had been visible for some 

 time, bathed in clear sunshine, but a heavy canopy of 

 dun-colored clouds hung above us and stretched away 

 toward the mountain, dropping down there in many cur- 

 tain-like folds, hiding the peak. But the scene-shifters 

 were at work; slowly the heavy mass of clouds that lim- 

 ited our view yielded and was spun off by the air currents 



