, 1886-07-23
VOYAGE 70 QUA ARCTIC LAND.
on for A~Iaska-Among tho Islands of a
Northern sea-Scenes of Weird beauty.

ON for Alaska-Among tho Islands of a
Northern sca-scenes of Weird Beauty.
This is slow and easy s~ailing-a sort of
jog-trot over the smoothest possible sea,
with the paddles audibly working every
foot Of the way. We run down among
the San Juan islands, where the passages
are so narrow INT SO intricate they make
n kin of watery monogram among the
tr-lined shores. A dense smoke still OBJ
scures the sun-a rich haze that softens
the distance n lends n pi-cturesqueness
hat is perhaps not wholly natural to the
locality, though the San nj islands are
unquestionably beautiful. The Gulf of
Georgia, the Straits of Fuca and Queen
Charlotte sound are the words upon the
lips OF everybody. Shades of my school
boy daysi How much sweeter they taste
here than in the old geography class. Be
fore us a wilderness of wild islands,
mostly ~uninhabited, stretches even into
the sunless winter and the shadowless
summer of Behring sea.
There are delightful people on board
many of m not a few others, but
bear in mind there are bevies of girls-al
young, all pretty, and all, or nearly all,
bubbling over with hearty and wholesome
laughter. Now, inasmuch as every thing
is new to us, we can easily content our
selves for hours by lounging in the easy
chairs and looking off upon the placid sea
and at the perennial verdure that springs
put of 1t and NANTES q Nyely bnt ,-nviy
land-
Only hin of it for a moment. Here
on the northwest coast there are islands
sown so thickly that many of the sea pass
ages, though deep enough for n three
decker to swim in are so narrow that one
might easily skim his hat across them.
Mo- orn tl.At.aata1o nj thaCn tQ1urIQ-
yea, tens OF thousands don't know just
how many, and perhaps no man does.
They are all shapes and sizes, and the ma
jority of them are handsomely wooded.
The somber green of the woods, stretching
between the somber blue-green OF the
water and the opaline sheen OF the sky,
forms n picture-a momentary picture
the chief features of which change almost
as suddenly and quite as completely as
the transformations in n kaleidoscope.
We are forever turning corners, n no
sooner ARE we safely around one corner
thar three others elbow us just ahead;
now, toward which Of the three are we
bound, and will our ship run to 1arboard
or starboardS This is a turn one might
bet on all day long-and lose nearly every
time.
What n bewildering cruisei Vastly
finer than river sailing Is this Alaskan ex-
petition. Here is n whole tangle of rivers
full of strange tides, mysterious currents
and sweet surprises. Moreover, we can
get lost If we want to-no one can get lost
in n river. We can rush in where pilots
fear to tread, strike sunken rocks, toss
among dismi1 eddies or plunge into whirl-
pools. We can rake ~overhanging boughs
with our yardarms If we want to, but we
don't n to. In 1875 the United States
steamer Saranac went down in Seymour
narrows and her fate was sudden death.
The United States steamer Suwanee met
with n like misfortune at the entrance to
Queen Charlotte sound. 1t is rather jolly
to think of these things, and to realize
that we are in more or less danger, though
the shores are as silent as the grave, the
sea sleeps like n mill pond, and the sun
sets with n great dignity and precision,
nightly bathing the lonely north in sensu-
GUS splendor. Charles Warren Stoddard
Aboard an Alaska Steamer.