287 
ALASKA. 
By JoHX MuiR, Martinez, Cal. 
The trip to Alaska from Tacoma through Paget sound and the 
thousand islands of the Alexander archipelago is perfectly en- 
chanting. Apart from scientific interests, no other excursion that 
I know of ma}' be made into the wilds of America in which so 
much fine and grand and novel scenerj' is unfolded to view. Gaz- 
ing from the deck of the steamer one is borne smoothly on over 
the calm blue waters through the midst of a multitude of lovel}^ 
islands clothed with evergreens. The ordinar}' discomforts of a sea 
vo3'age, so formidable to some travelers, are not felt; for the wa}- lies 
through a network of sheltered island channels that are about as 
free from the heaving waves that cause seasickness as rivers are. 
Never before the 5'earl879, when I made m}- first trip to Alaska, 
had I been amid scenery so hopelessl}' beyond description. It is 
a web of land and water thirtj^ or forty miles wide, and about a 
thousand miles long, outspread like embroider}' along the margin 
of the continent, made up of an infinite multitude of features, and 
all so fine and ethereal in tone the best words seem coarse and un- 
availing. Tracing the shining levels through sound and strait, 
past forests and waterfalls, between a constant succession of fair 
azure headlands, it seems as if surel}' at last 3'ou must reach the 
best paradise of the poets — the land of the blessed. 
Some of the channels through which you glide are extremely 
narrow as compared with the bight of the walls that shut them in. 
But, however sheer the walls, they are everywhere forested to the 
water's edge. And almost every individual tree may be seen as 
they rise above one another — the blue-green, sharpl}' spired, Men- 
zies spruce; the warm yellow-green Merten spruce, with finger-like 
tops all pointing in one direction, or gracefull}' drooping; and the 
air}', feathery, brownish-green Alaska cedar. In such reaches 
you seem to be tracing some majestic river. The tide currents, 
the fresh driftwood brought down by avalanches, the inflowing 
streams, and the luxuriant over-hanging foliage of the shores, 
making the likeness all the more complete. 
But the view changes with magical rapidity. Rounding some 
bossy cape the steamer turns into a passage hitherto unseen, and 
glides through into a wide expanse filled with smaller islands. 
