28 DER A UDO BOON Ba Ee eae 
At the tip of the Tracy Arm, the ship came close to the side of Sawyer 
Glacier. The captain attempted to knock some ice off the glacier by blowing 
the ship’s horn. However, only a very small piece of ice was broken off this 
way. No description of the Tracy Arm can do it justice. Even the pictures 
I took do not truly show its beauty. This great natural wonder must be 
seen to be appreciated. 
After stops at Ketchikan and Juneau, Alaska, the ship reached Skag- 
way, the northern end of the Inside Passage. Most of the passengers took 
a trip on the narrow-gauge railroad that now takes passengers over White 
Pass into the Yukon Territory. This is a very exciting and interesting 
ride. Much of the roadway had to be blasted out of steep mountainsides. 
Looking out of the window of the train, one can sometimes see hundreds 
of feet almost straight down, A number of birds were seen from the train, 
but the only ones that I could identify were the Willow Ptarmigan, Violet- 
Green Swallows, and, when we came to the Yukon River, a Common Loon. 
I think mention should be made of the train trip from Chicago to 
Vancouver, since the birdwatching on this trip was excellent. Unfortunately, 
as with the train trip from Skagway, it is difficult to identify birds from 
a speeding train. You can rarely keep binoculars trained on a bird long 
enough to identify it. The power of the binoculars multiply the speed 
at which things seem to be moving by. 
The area along the Mississippi River provided a number of water- 
birds, including the Great Blue Heron and the Snowy and Common Egrets. 
As we came out of a tunnel in the Cascade Mountains in Washington, the 
train evidently surprised a Golden Eagle. It swept over the “vista-dome,” 
missing the train by a few feet and providing a spectacular, if brief, 
sighting. 
A trip on the Inside Passage to Alaska is a remarkable journey with 
both scenic and wildlife interest. With the greater publicity that is now 
being given to that part of Alaska such a trip should soon be a favorite 
for all persons interested in wildlife. 
2238 Spruce Road, Homewood, Illinois 
ie fl iS suit 
Conservation at the Capitol 
By Mrs. Nina Stutzman 
Goverxor Kerner vetoed nine conservation bills this past summer. Most 
of them had the keen support of the Illinois Audubon Society. However, 
other bills, granting some of the most desirable provisions, were passed. 
Thus our efforts were not entirely in vain. The greatest triumph for 
Illinois conservationists was the veto of the Kickapoo Park Strip Mining 
Bill, which was rejected because of the tremendous protests against it. 
Most of the conservation measures have already been discussed in previous 
issues of THE AUDUBON BULLETIN and the I. A. S. NEWSLETTER. 
Because of our vantage point in Springfield, however, we can bring out 
some interesting sidelights on the bills below: 
SB 579 — The Nature Preserves Bill — and its companion bills, SB 580 
to 583, were vetoed because they would have created an independent Com- 
mission with powers of negotiation, acquisition, and promotion of the use 
or nature preserves, although the day-to-day management of the preserves 
would have been entrusted to the Department of Conservation. Governor 
