CHAPTER VII.

From Sitka to Cook Inlet-Yakutah and the St. Elias Alps-Copper River-Prince William Sound-Middleton Island, St. Paul, Kadiak Island-Cook InletRich Gold Placers and Great Seams of Coal-A Land of Promise.

Now, the reader is invited to accompany the author on a cruise extending over a period of nearly five months, and covering a round distance of more than 10,000 miles along the coast and in and among the gulfs, bays, inlets and islands of Alaska, north and west of Sitka. It will be impossible to introduce him to all the native settlements, for the simple reason that they are too numerous to be embraced within a cruise limited to a single summer season.

Leaving Sitka in a staunch sea-going steamer, let us say early in the evening of any day in May the reader may be pleased to designate, a run of fifteen to twenty hours will find us off the entrance to Yakutat Bay, about 300 miles distant from the point of departure. Here we are apt to encounter schools of fin-back whales and porpoises disporting themselves in close proximity to the ship, and, if the weather is fair, as it is very apt to be at this season of the year, we get our

first glimpse of the lofty Fairweather range of mountains, designated on the maps as the St. Elias Alps. To the unpracticed eye these mountains appear to be not more than a dozen miles away, whereas they are in fact at least fifty miles distant. Looking landward from the ship, to the right we get a fair view of Mounts Fairweather, Crillon, La Perouse, and other lofty peaks, while to the left majestic, awe-inspiring St. Elias rises to a height of nearly 19,000 feet, their snow and ice clad peaks crowned with halos showing all the colors of the rainbow, and the whole constituting a scene at once sublimely grand and beautiful. The elevation of these mountains above the sea level varies from 13,500 to 19,000 feet, which last is the height of St. Elias, the highest mountain in North America, unless exceeded by Mount Wrangell, which is farther inland, and the height of which is not definitely known. Lying between the base of this range and the seashore to the southeast of Yakutat is a strip of comparatively level land, perhaps twenty miles in width, which is heavily timbered and possessed of good soil.

Mulgrave Harbor is a small indentation setting off to the right of the entrance to the bay, and on the north side is the native village of a dozen or more houses, in which live some two hundred people. There is also a trader's store

and a Swedish Lutheran mission and school, and of late years the population has been augmented by a number of white men, intent upon amassing fortunes by washing gold from the ruby sands found on the beach. These sands contain gold enough to pay good wages, but the miners are in constant dread and danger of submersion by a tidal wave or heavy sea. In the olden time there was a very considerable Russian settlement on an inlet which sets off from the east side of Yakutat Bay, where the RussianAmerican Company maintained a shipyard and built quite a number of ships, among them those in which Baranoff sailed to subdue the natives of Sitka after the massacre at that place in 1802. Except a few Creole families, nothing is now left of what was once a busy and flourishing settlement.

The natives are not unlike those of Sitka, speak the same language and live in houses similarly constructed. They maintain themselves by fishing and hunting, and are more cleanly in their persons and homes than those of most other native villages. On the lowlands lying between the mountain range and the sea there is a luxuriant growth of wild grasses, and the wild strawberry, of large size and excellent flavor, abounds in great profusion. Coal of fair quality has been

found in the near vicinity, but no effort has ever been made to exploit it.

The scenery in the neighborhood of Yakutat Bay, and indeed all along the coast as far west as Cook Inlet, is indescribably grand, far surpassing in beauty and grandeur that of the inland passages of southeastern Alaska. West of Yakutat a few miles, and seemingly forming the base upon which rests the great Mount St. Elias, the immense Malespina glacier flows down to the sea, presenting many miles of ice frontage to the unobstructed view. Yakutat Bay is itself a most lovely sheet of water, indenting the coast to a depth of perhaps fifty miles, dotted with numerous small wooded islands, its banks on either side, here and there, indented with a smaller cove or bay, while near its head an arm setting off to the eastward is very appropriately named Enchantment Bay, because of the enchanting beauty of the enclosing scenery.

Proceeding along the coast to the westward, we have for a full day at least an unobstructed view of mountain and glacial scenery, the grandeur and sublimity of which cannot be pictured in words nor truthfully portrayed on canvas. Resting for a brief moment upon the wooded lowlands, the eye strays away to where some mighty glacier is slowly but surely grinding its way down to the sea, carrying everything before

it, only to revert at last to where huge old St. Elias towers conspicuously above all his fellows in regions of perpetual frost. In the presence of nature thus arrayed in all her grandeur and sublimity, but little heed is paid to the seals and blackfish and whales which disport themselves at times on both sides of the ship, and when the long day is done and night spreads its sable curtain over land and sea we retire, blessing not "the man who invented sleep," but regretting that this is not for the time being the "Land of the Midnight Sun."

Middleton Island lies about fifty miles south of the entrance to Prince William Sound, and is a body of land about six miles long and from one to three miles wide. Its flat surface lies at an elevation of about 200 feet above the sea, the shores being almost perpendicular, with only one or two points where a landing can be effected from small boats. It is wholly treeless, but is clothed with a rich verdure, and is said to have an excellent soil with a climate quite favorable to its successful cultivation. It is uninhabited, except for a couple of months in the summer, when it is frequented by natives from the mainland in quest of the hair seals which congregate at its south end during the breeding season. Placer gold is claimed to have been found on this