Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-07
ALONG THE ALASKAN COAST,
A PossessionEof Great Extent and
Possibilities.
AN INrEREs1lhe SEA VOYAGE.
A Trip Along the Mountainous Coasts
aud Through'the Calm Waters
orEtse North
west.
Alaska.

ana the mining ana nSnlng stations IN
the territory, making bi-monthly trips
in the summer and monthly voyages in
the winter season. When the steamer
enters the Straits of Fuca the passage
is an entirely inland one. After touch
ing at Port Townsend, Washington
Territory, and at Victoria. British Col
umbia. the course of the vessel is north
ward through the Gulf of Georgia, and
for several hundred miles of this gulf.
with the coast OF the mainland and the
lofty mountains of Nancouver's island
always in sight. AT almost all seasons
the voyage is no rougher than in q
steamboat trip down the Mississippi
river. There is no other svch "a chain
of islands off any other coast on the
face of the globe as that which stretch
es along the coast of British Columbia
and southwestern Alaska. The only
points open to the ocean between Vic
toria and Chilcat and Sitka, nearly two
thousand nautical miles, are when
Queen CharlOtte's and Milbank sounds
are reached. Occasionally heavy
gales come in from the Pacific when
crossing both sounds, but the time re-
Quired to traverse them is so short that
in the toughest weather only the pre-
monitory symptoms of seasickness are
experienced. In scores OF places, in the
many inlets between this chain Of is
lands constituting the inland passage
the mountains come s14lose to the edge
of the water that one can cast a pebble
ashore in many places. Sunken rocks
and the swiftness of the tide as it rushes
through these narrow channels make
navigation exceedingly p%erilous and de-
mand the most careful and cautious sea-
manShip.
The lofty Olympian range of noun
tains seems to begin in Washington
territory and extends across the front
of British Columbia, constantly in sight
from the deck of the ship, and consti-
tuting all of the narrow land belt of
southeastern Alaska. All of the islands
which close at the inland passage are
simply fragments of a lofty chain of
mountains which time has broken down,
leaving peaks that rise out of the sea
like giant pyramids clothed high up
with pines, ccdars, spruce, hemlock and
frs, and crowned with eternal SHOWS.
The snow and GLACIERS never leave the
faces of the highest mountains Of Brit
ish Columbia and southeastern Alaska,
and one seldom gets tired of the
variations in the wonderful mountain
picture which, is constantly presented.
When among the islands, about which
the vessel seems to pick its way. the
tourist ONE suddenly, in rounding the
bend of m of these ~inlets, upon u
range of cliffs from 1000 to 1000 feet
high. Their feet are close to the edge
of the water, and they rise almost per-
pendicularly into the air, with a mar
row ledge here and there to mark the
different steps which nature toOk.in the
slow and wonderful change made in the
geological ages gone by. 1t is scarcely
conceivable that any kind of vegetation
can cling to the faces of these lofty
cliffs, yet for two-thirds of the way up
there is a dense thicket Of pines, frs
and cedars, which hides the faces of the
dun and purple rocks. From the tree
line to the crest nothing grows but a
short, greenish moss, broken here and
there by patches of snow and ice.
After passing Charlotte's and Mil
bank sounds one encounters quite a new
feature in the landscape. There is the
same badness in the upper surface Of
the mountains which forms the shore
line, but at intervals of two and some
times six miles a current of water, only
a few feet wide aud a few inches deep,
breaks over the crest of rock. more than
a thousand feet high, and tumbles
perhaps one-third the way down, strik-
ing a ledge or resting place, and then,
taking another leap, like a wreath of
foam, clears the face OF the declivity.
until it reaches another temporary
resting place, hundreds of feet lower
down. and then with a dash and roar
into the sea. Hundreds of these cata-
racts, few Of them with a naked leap of
less than 500 feet, dash over the rocky
escarpments on the way up through the
inland passage. In quite a number OF
places they have the volume of water OF
good-sized mill-streams and dashing
from such lofty heights come down with
such a roar that they can be heard for
several miles. They are the most in
teresting features of the voyage. The
eye eventually tires of this constant
succession of fir and cedar forests cling
ing to the mountain sides for more than
Il thousand miles OF seacOast and never
out of sight. When approaching the
shore at any point we found that there
was Il dense underground of laurel
ferns and vegetation of that kind, but il
was so far ov~ershadowed by the frs
pines, and cedars hat the coastline pre-
sented no other appearance than that o
dense forest of these pines and frs.
AT intervals Of forty and fifty mile,
the British Columbia coast we found a
the foot of some deep gorge, neal thu
edge of the water, a lonely hut ant
sometimes the cottage of a sheer
rancher. whose hocks find their Quite
through the notch in the mountains
Frequently these sheep ranchers us'
that business simply as a blind fol
smuggling. The introduction of al
kinds of Intoxicating liquors into thu
district OF Alaska is prohibited by law
except according to certain prescribe,
conditions. Nearly all these so-calle'
sheep ranchers own small schooners o
smacks adapted to entering these shall
low caves among the innumerabl,
islands and lslets which parallel tn
coast. They procure their contrabanC
liquors in British Columbia and easil
evading all the marine and customs pc
lice, necessarily meagerly provised b
our federal government, they sail W
to some island nearest to a minins
camp, a fishing station, or an India
village and all these are nea
the water-md5 hide or each
their liquors J until opportunit
occurs to dispose Of them with safety
themselves. Fort Simpson, on the Car
adian side, is a fdvorite rendezvous &c
|, these whisky smugglers. Quite a nun
, Der Of these sheep ranchers are on TIL
American side, near Fort Simpson
They procure their provision supple
on the British Columbia side, and unde
cnyar ~ that convav mfrs hand 1inunr