Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-24
WONDERS OF ALASKA.
INTERESTING REPORT BY VISIT.
ING GERMAN SCIENTISTS.
Scenery of Almost Unknown Grand
eur-Glaciers Surrounded by
Semi-Tropical LONELINESS.

ance of what their own country contains.
For example, how much do our readers
know about Alaska? One can hardly be
blamed for ignorance, however, in view Of
the fact that the United States Govern
ment has never felt interest enough to
send an official exploring party to that
neglected Territory but private expedi-
tons and the enthusiasm of tourists are
beginning TO make it known. Its glaciers
are said to surpass those of Switzerland,
its mountain gorges display grander
scenery than rocky Norway, and its inland
waters combine the fairest features of the
Hudson, the Rhine, Lake George, Kill
larney and Switzerland. A recent ex-
plorer of Alaska says:
VISITING GERMAN SCIENTISTS.
Two German scientists, sent out by the
Geographical Society of Berlin, recently
spent year at the mouth of the Chilcat
river and along the route to the headwaters
of the Yukon river Their reports were
touched with as much enthusiasm for that
grand mountain region as it was supposed
that a German scientific body would listen
to, and they went back to cry down the
Mer de Glace as a mere toy beside the
Muir Glacier the Soundona, Takon, Eagle,
Davidson and the unnumbered glaciers of
Lynn canal and the Stickeen river An
Englishman and his wife came up on the
mail steamer this summer, and, securing a
canoe and crew of Indians a guide and a
cook, went into camp on the shores Of Gla-
cier Bay, at the foot of the Fairweather
Alps. They had been hunting the tiger
in India, and other great game in its native
haunts, and their visit to Alaska was for
the purpose of chasing the nimble mount
ain goat over the glaciers and mountain
crags They found an abundance of game,
and several fine hearskins and branching
antlers were added to their stock of
trophies.
SECLUDED MAGNITCENCE.
The inland waters behind and between
the continuous groups of islands that
fringe the continental shore furnish the
ideal region for yachting trip. a trip
on the wandering, wild, rowing steamer
that carries mail, freight and passengers
every month comes as near to yachting as
anything that can be had by purchasing
regular ticket. From Puget Sound to the
1lCdNl vi l4Nllll CdIldl, III -ildShd. there Is
an inside passage for over a thousand miles
up the coast, and it is in this sea of
mountains that the grand scenery is
found At Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island,
where the vessel Is coaled for the voyage
one parts with the last lighthouse buoy
and the last beacon, and the whir of the
telephone, the shrek of the locomotive
and the click of telegraph instruments are
not heard north of that point. The Gulf
of Georgia.
OPENS THE WONDERFUL ROUTE,
And as one goes northward the beauty of
the still, deep channels, the wooded and
PERCEPTIONS shores, and the ranks of snow
capped mountains increase This inside
passage of the Northwest Coast is said to
be the longest stretch of protected naviga-
bic waters in the world, and with mount
ain walls and peaks ranging from 5000 to
5000 feet in their sheer uplift from the
edge of the sea, the soundings of 104
tathoms in some of these channels and
iiords may well excite the imagination. In
the long summer DAYS the tourist can in
toXicate himself with scenery until nearly
midnight before the outlines and colors are
merged in the soft twilight OF the north |
and in July, at the head Of Lynn canal, |
the light was strong enough at midnight |
Tor the amateur photographers to make !
good negatives Those fairest hours Of the |
day just succeeding dawn lend
AN ADDITIONAL CHARM
To the noble scenery, and was not the !
only one to rise at 3 and o'clock. and sit |
wrapped in rugs at the bow to watch the |
steamer glide into the still mirror of mar
row fiords and sweep through green can
yons that rivaled the Yosemite in the first |
flush of the early morning. There is no !
natural division between the British CO. !
lumba and Alaska coasts beyond the |
imaginary boundary line which runs
through Dixon Entrance The character
Of the scenery is quite the same, except |
that the mountains grow sterner and /
grander as you go north, and floating ice |
indicates the waterfront glaciers that lie !
in all these inlets and tiords of the main |
land shore. Lord Duilerin declared the |
Alaska scenery the sublimest he had ever |
witnessed, and every patriotic heart thrills !
10 find that the United States can claim |
the superlatiye over Switzerland and Nor |
way.
GRAND AND LOVELY SCENERY.
Juneau and its mining interests have |
been mentioned in former letter, but for |
scenic adiuncts the place has frontage on |
long channel, half a mile in length, /
that is walled on either side by mountains !
that rise perpcndicularly 5000 feet from !
the waters EDGE. Slender, snowy cascades /
roll down from the vast snow banks on !
their SUBMITS, and fill the air with the
roar and music of waters The trails lead /
ing back to the mining camps in the ba-
sins penetrate dense, tangled forests that
fills ones ideal Of a sylvan wilderness.
There the devils clubs Ep1aor HorJlddl
waves big tropical leaves IN close thickets,
the maiden-hair fern trembles on its ebony
stems by mvraids and solid beds Of con
yolvulus monkey flower, and wild geran-
ium dye the ground with brilliant color
The large red-and-yei salmon berry, the
apotheosis al the raspberry, grows along
the water courses, and the pink thimble
berry, with fruit and creamy blossoms on
the same bush, CLEANS through the trees.
IMMENSE GLACIERS.
Steaming up Lynn canal, nineteen large
glaciers are To be seen, some running down
great ravines and disappearing behind the
deep green forests on their own moraines.
The Eagle glacier topples over the edge of
Precipice 5000 feet in air, and the grand
Davidson glacier, sweeping down from a
gorge, spreads out in fan shape for three
miles along the front of a fat moraine
clothed with tall pines At the head Of
Lynn canal are two Cannerics and trading
stations, and as many villages Of Chilcat
Indians. Kloh-kutz, the head chief. who
entertained Secretary Seward on the occa-
sion of his visit to Alaska, still lives. and
to the interested visitor bares his arm and
shows the name Seward" tattooed in
memory of mis- nlustrious guest. Glacier
bay, just west of Lynn canal is perhaps
the most wonderful of all the indentations
OF this wild shore. Ii runs inland some
forty miles, and five large glaciers slopine
down from the Fairweather Alps break Off
into lis Maters