THE FAIRWEATHER RANGE II5 



pleasant situation, and life there must have many attrac- 

 tions. The experiment of growing silver-black foxes had 

 been tried, but did not succeed. The animals were so 

 wild, and proved to be such dainty feeders that the under- 

 taking was abandoned. They required live game for food. 

 On leaving Kadiak we again ran into Cook Inlet and 

 put ashore two parties. But there was a sudden change 

 of plan, the parties were recalled and we were soon again 

 at sea, homeward bound. 



ST. ELIAS AND THE FAIRWEATHER RANGE. 



On the 23d we had such a view of St. Elias and all that 

 grand range as is seldom granted to voyagers. One of our 

 artists, Mr. Gilford, was up at two o'clock in the morning, 

 and rinding the summit just smitten with the rising sun, 

 painted till his hands were too cold to hold the brush. 



We again ran into Yakutat Bay, but all I have to record 

 is our feast of Yakutat strawberries. The Indians brought 

 them to us in baskets. They looked pale and uninviting, 

 but their flavor was really excellent. They grow in great 

 abundance in the sand on the beach. On the 24th we 

 steamed all day off the Fairweather Range, which lay 

 there before us without a cloud or film to dim its naked 

 majesty. We were two or three hours in passing the 

 great peak itself. Piled with snow and beaten upon by a 

 cloudless sun its reflected light shone in my stateroom like 

 that of an enormous full moon. This was a day in blue and 

 white — blue of the sea and sky and white of the moun- 

 tains — long to be remembered but not to be described. 

 The peak of St. Elias, standing above a band of cloud, kept 

 us in its eye till we were 150 miles down the coast. 



On the 25th we were at Juneau again, taking coal and 

 water. The only toad I saw in Alaska I saw this day 

 fumbling along in the weeds by the roadside, just out of 

 Juneau. Here also I gathered my first salmon berries — 



