68 



JOHN BURROUGHS 



GILBERT'S PARTY SETTING OUT FOR 

 COLUMBIA GLACIER. 



Sunday evening we were at anchor in Virgin Bay, with 

 low, partly wooded islands on the one hand, and sloping 

 open shores at the foot of tall mountains on the other. 

 Two or three small houses were seen scattered along 

 the shore on the margin of these broad natural grassy 



clearings. Copper ore had 

 been found here and there 

 near the cabins of the pros- 

 pectors. On two of the 

 islands near us were fox 

 farms. One of the farmers 

 came off to see us in his 

 boat and talked intelligently 

 about his enterprise. His 

 foxes would swim to an ad- 

 joining island a few hundred yards away, so his brother had 

 established a fox farm upon it. Blue foxes are the spe- 

 cies cultivated; their main food in winter was dried fish 

 caught during the summer out of the surrounding waters. 

 Each island contained sev- 

 eral hundred acres, mostly 

 covered with spruce. Upon 

 the subject of profits he 

 could not yet speak, as the 

 enterprise was new. We 

 here saw our first Eskimo. 

 He came paddling toward 



our ship in a double kyak and as our naphtha launch 

 circled about him he had an amused childish look. 



We put a party ashore to spend a couple of days hunt- 

 ing and collecting. After the Sunday evening service, 

 the sun was still glowing upon the distant white peaks, 

 and a dozen or more of us seized the occasion to go ashore 

 and walk in the long twilight upon the strange land. How 

 novel and bewitching it all was! The open meadow-like 



CAMP ON HEATHER ISLAND NEAR 

 COLUMBIA GLACIER. 



