88 
THROUGH WONDERLAND . 
the ease with which the whole field may be surveyed in this the most wonderful 
bay on a line of steamboat travel. 
S Our same correspondent speaks of an unknown passage down which they 
traveled in a way that will delight the heart of a Nimrod ; but he should have 
added that almost half the inland passage is of that character so far as the 
general world is wiser concerning it, and half of this, again, may be wholly 
unknown, offering one of the finest fields for short explorations without any of 
the dangers and difficulties which so often beset greater undertakings, and rob 
them of all pleasure while they are being prosecuted, and only compensating 
the explorer in the results attained. Here is what hg has to say : 
“ For the twenty miles that we had come down the beautiful inlet, the coast 
survey charts showed an unbroken stretch of dry land. To the sportsman 
that unknown inlet is the dreamed-of paradise. When we went out in the 
small boats, salmon and flounders could be seen darting in schools through the 
water ; and, as we approached the mouth of a creek, the freshening current was 
alive with the fish. The stewards who went to the shore with the tank-boats 
for fresh water, startled seven deer as they pushed their way to the foot of a 
cascade, and the young men caught thirteen great salmon with their own inex¬ 
perienced spearing. The captain of the ship took his rifle, and was rowed away 
to shallow waters, where he shot a salmon, waded in, and threw it ashore. 
While wandering along after some huge bear tracks, he saw an eagle at work 
on his salmon, and another fine shot laid the bird of freedom low. When the 
captain returned to the ship he threw the eagle and salmon on deck, and, at the 
size of the former, every one marveled. The outspread wings measured the 
traditional six feet from tip to tip, and the beak, the claws, and the huge, stiff 
feathers were rapidly seized upon as trophies and souvenirs of the day. A 
broad double rainbow arched over us as we left the lovely niche between the 
mountains, and then we swept back to Icy Straits, and started out to the open 
ocean.” 
But we will not confine ourselves to the description of one person in consid¬ 
ering this the most fascinating and curious scene presented to the Alaskan 
Tourists. Grand, even to the extent of being almost appalling, as are the 
Alaskan fjords, they are but the Yosemite or Colorado Parks, with navigable 
valleys, as they would appear greatly enlarged; much as we are awe¬ 
struck at the feet of Mount St. Elias, it is but Tacoma or Shasta in grander 
proportions, and so on through the list of scenes we view : but in the glaciers 
we have no counterpart that can 'be viewed from a steamer’s deck, unless the 
polar zones themselves be invaded ; and here, in fact, we view the grandest 
sight to be seen in that dreary zone, without any of its many dangers. Says Pro¬ 
fessor Denman, of San Francisco, who has devoted much of his attention to 
glaciers, and especially these of Alaska, compared with which he pro¬ 
nounces those to be seen in Switzerland and other parts of Europe to be 
‘‘babies 
“ Muir Glacier is a spectacle whose grandeur can not be described,—a vast 
