80 
THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
“ A study of the above data, combined with an actual experience, compels 
the writer to admit that the summer weather of Southeastern Alaska is the 
most delightful that can be enjoyed throughout the length and breadth of this 
vast territory, and throws in the shade all the boasted claims of many, if not most, 
of the famous summer resorts in the ‘ States.’ There were only two days during 
the long, pleasant summer, that were rendered disagreeable by that feeling of 
oppressiveness caused by heat. The nights were cool and pleasant ; the days 
always warm enough for open windows, through which the invigorating breezes 
from the snow-capped mountains or the broad Pacific, would blow at will ; the 
long, bright days, when the sun disappeared only for a few hours, when twilight, 
after sunset, seemed to mingle with the rays of early dawn ; the nights beauti¬ 
fied by the dancing beams of the aurora borealis , and the myriad stars that 
seemed as if hung on invisible threads in the deep blue firmament. * * 
In regard to the summer weather, I reiterate that no one could possibly choose 
a more delightful place in which to spend a portion of the heated term than in 
making a trip through this portion of the Territory.” 
“In Alaska, in midsummer,” according to a late letter, “the almost con¬ 
tinuous light of day shines upon bright green slopes, shaded here and there 
with dark timber belts, rising up from the deep blue waters. An endless variety 
of bright-hued flowers, the hum of insects, and melodious song of birds, 
* * * • would cause a stranger, suddenly translated there, to think 
himself in any country but Alaska .”—Chicago Herald , 1885. 
When we are some five or six miles back on our northward way to Peril 
Straits, a pretty little bay, on Baronoff Island, is pointed out to us, on our star¬ 
board (by this time all the passengers are able seamen) side, called Old Harbor, 
or Starri-Gaven, in Russian. It was there that Baronoff built his first fort, called 
the Archangel Gabriel, in 1799, which, after a number of rapidly recurring 
vicissitudes, was annihilated, and its garrison massacred, by the Sitka Indians, 
three years later. Baronoff re-established his power at the present site of Sitka, 
calling the new place Archangel Michael,—Archangel Gabriel having failed in 
his duty as a protector ; and from this name it was called New Archangel, 
which changed to Sitka with the change of flags in 1867, although American 
maps had dubbed it Sitka before this. 
Once more in Chatham Strait, with the ship’s head pointed northward, we 
are on our way to the northernmost recesses of the inland passage, and with 
the greatest wonders of our wonderland ahead of us. At its northern end, 
Chatham Strait divides into two narrow waterways, Icy Strait leading off to the 
west, to the land and waters of glaciers and icebergs, while Lynn Canal con¬ 
tinues broad Chatham to the north. Lynn Canal is a double-headed inlet, the 
western arm at its head being called the Chilkat Inlet, and the eastern arm 
the Chilkoot Inlet, after two tribes of T’linkit Indians living on 
these respective channels. It is a beautiful sheet of water, more Alpine in 
character than any yet entered. Glaciers of blue and emerald ice can be seen 
almost everywhere, peeping from underneath the snow-capped mountains and 
