296 The American Geologist. May, isos 
I had spent the best part of the season exploring the cafion 
of the Stikeen river, and a little of the interior region on the di- 
vide of some of the southerly tributaries of the Yukon and 
Mackenzie. It was getting rather late for new undertakings when 
I returned to Wrangel, but eagerness to see some of the glaciers 
to the northward, however imperfectly, drove me on. Assisted 
by Mr. Young, the enthusiastic Alaska missionary, I succeeded 
in procuring a canoe and a crew of four Indians — Toyette, Kade- 
chan, Stikeen John, and Sitka Charley. Mr. Young who was anx- 
ious to learn something of the numbers and condition of the In- 
dian tribes that might be seen on the way, agreed to go with me. 
Hastily gathering the necessary supplies, we set forth October 
14th. While we were on the west shore of Admiralty island, in- 
tending to make a direct course up Lynn canal, we learned that 
the Chilcat Indians were drinking and fighting, and that it would 
be unsafe to go among them until their quarrels were settled. I 
decided therefore to turn westward through Icy strait and go in 
search of Sitka Charley's wonderful " ice mountains. " Charley, 
who was the youngest of my crew, having noticed my interest in 
glaciers, told me that when he was a boy he had gone with his 
father to hunt seals in a large bay full of ice, and he thought that 
he could find it. 
On the 24th, as we approached an island in the middle of Icy 
strait, Charlie said that we must procure a supply of wood there 
to carry with us, because beyond this the countrj'^ was bare of 
trees. Hitherto we had picked our way by Vancouver's chart, 
but now it failed us. Guided by Charlie, who alone knew any- 
thing of the region, we arrived late in what is now called " Bart- 
lett bay," near the mouth of Glacier bay, where we made a cold 
camp in rain and snow and dai'kness. At daylight on the 25th 
we noticed a smoke, where we found a party of Hoonah seal-hunt- 
ers huddled together in a small bark hut. Here Sitka Charlie 
seemed lost. He declared the place had changed so much he 
hardly recognized it, but I succeeded in hiring one of the hunters 
to go on with us up the main Glacier bay, or " Sita-da-ka, " as the 
Indians called it. The weather was stormy, cold rain fell fast, 
and low, dull clouds muflled the mountains, making the strange, 
treeless land all the more dreary and forbidding. About noon 
we passed the first of the low descending glaciers on the west 
side, and found a landing-place a few miles beyond it. While 
