Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-06-25
WONDERS OF ALASKA.
Its Scenery and Coloring are Such as the
Artist Cannot Describe
TjnDiucott'S Msrazipa

ATtist SduHOt DcScrlDe.
Lippincott's Magazine.
Besides the tranquil landscapes. the
archipelago, with its countless and multi-
form islands. the gray crag-bordered
fjords, the Pacific expanses and conferious.
forests, the show-capped fifteen-thousand-
feet mountains, with glanciers broad
enough and long enough to cover a nation
al territory, besides the icebergs. there is
another marvel In Alaska. It is color
color such as the artist can never find on
his palette in which to dabble mis- ;mpot-
ent brush. Nature here is the all-power-
full colorist, and she ravishes the behold r.
The greens, the blues, the browns, of
Alaskan waters. who can describe them,
or the shades of coloring in these same
forests, grays and greens in multitudin-
Gus varieties? A walk through one of
these forests vanished with dew reveals a
tangle of greens with bushes adorned with
vivid coral berries strung In rosaries or
massed in lunches. No tropical forest
could exceed the coloring here shown
Every gray that eye could see or the i'm
agination conceive is displayed in the beet
ling craga and cliffs, and these dusky colors
change from moment to moment, and when
the sun casts its last or its earliest rays
upon them, enveloping them in roseate
hue, you think a miracle has been wrought,
and you are transfxed by the transfgura-
ton which has taken place. The sky-the
Alaskan sky-ls a revelation Of color Let
1T be sulled with foggy grays, let it be
clear with sapphire salmness,-so clear
that mountain miles and miles away
look SO near that it would seem that your
would only have to reach out your hand to
tauch it,-let it be painted with the sun
set dolores, gorgeous in the pomp of purple
and red and gold, fading, fading in the
long lingering summer twilight, fading
into the most enhancing shades of prim-
rose sulphur and greenish yellow, and then
almost to white, which deepens until the
jeweIled stars look out and the Aurora
flashes her electric steamers in pulsating
bands OF light. which, reaching far up to-
ward the zenith, change to delicate hues
Of pink ahd weird unearthiy biues,-and
yOn say each is more remarkable that the
other, and there are no words, no adjec-
tives, left to describe it DIT all; and, drunk
en- to lntOXicatiOn with this unparal-
leled display of color, you will say, Alaska
is worth visiting.
You go to Alaska for scenery and for
coloring. You also have a pleasurable
sensation IN the qualification of your love
for adventure; but, after all, in the ordin
airy excursion, in the comfortable boat
which steams from Tacoma, Seattle, and
Port Townsend, and in your hotel during
your two or three weeks journey to the
tiny fragment of Alaskan territory which
you visit, you have feeling that you are
not much of an explorer after all, and you
look with envy on the Indian who, SQUAT
ting In his dig-out canoe and padding in
unison with his family, has started out for
Il thousand-mlle voyage in any direction
which his search for salmon or pursuit of
game may take him; and you only appease
that arouse inward consciousness which is
telling you that you are an ordinary travel
Ter, and not seeing much after all, by
promising yourself that next time you
come to Alaska you will not be of the
vulgar herd of the idle tourists going about
seeing things from a steamers deck, or
making an hour S visit at an Indian viii
lage, or investigating salmon-cannery.
No, you will come out among the Indians,
and in their canoes, with them for guides,
you will exp ,r6 the Stikine, 90 up the
1onko and Copper rivers far into the in
| terror, and perhaps push on the three or
| four thousand miles to the seal-fsheries of
Behring's Sea. You will prospect for
gold and other minerals about which you
hear fabulous stories. You will measure
the glaciers flow and PROFOUND a theory
or two of your own in regard to them and
the icebergs. You will ascend Mounts St.
Elias, Crillon, and Fairweather, and name
some n,ountain-peaks, legions of which,
lofty and snow-capped, await the honor of
your christening. You will also determine
their attitudes and confound the calcula-
ton, hasty and i'll considered, which the
few daring explorers have made. You
will hunt the bear, capture the shy noun
tainsheep in their Businesses, catch salmon
and trout, shoot plover and wild duck,
and hobnob with the eagle in his evry.
All this you will do.