The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-07-30
LETTERS FROM ALASKA.
Ella Sterling Cummins in the Land
of the Midnight Sun.
Travelling on the Great Inland Sea-
The ship, the Start and the
People on Board.
Especial Correspondence REcoRD-Ux1oNI

Especial Correspondence RECORD-UNION.l
The steamship Mexico lies against the
wharf at Tacoma-that beautiful and
enterprising city of the Northwest. l
gaze at it doubtfully. l have come a
thousand miles with my heart beating
high in expectation. For many years the
spell of the Alaskan totem poles has been
cast on my Imagination. I long to be-
holdsthose strange carvings of mingled
animals, standing bravely up before the
humble huts of the Indians of the North,
telling some kind of tale, mysterious
and strange. And those frozen Mag
aras" of glaciers, telling of Dame Natures
sudden chill, ages ago, breaking off into
icebergs and floating away to the ocean
that must see with mine own eyes to
comprehend.
Yes, l am going to Alaska at
last. But there is a little gloom mixed
with my felicity. I have always held
peSSimistic, not to- say anarchiStic, opin-
ions regarding ships" 1.-The dark, blue
sea" and things marine generally.
An experience when child, crossing the
Pacific and the Atlantic eastward and
then westward again, left some rather
sore memories OF "lite on the ocean
wave" This, unfortunately, has caused
tlftll Of naval architecture, from a war
ship to a yacht, with an inward reserva-
ton that made me Stolid and unmoved
spectator. Ships were necessary evils of
course, but ] synlpathiZed with that con-
servative class of travellers who intend TO
go to Europe when the bridge is built
across, and not before.
With some misglvings I crossed the
gang-plank, but sea trip to Alaska is
not like any other. Daily we watched
| the mountainous island shores upon each
! side Of us. They were heavily timbered
! below, and Snow-capped above. the days
! growing longer and longer with each
! evening panorama Of the SUMS setting
| in some new and variegated splendor,
until our watches told the hour of Il
O'Clock at night. Daily we visited the
! primitive valleys where brown-skinned
races Of hunters and fishers live their lit
tie lives, ana stolidly face the coming pro-
! cess or determination which accompanies
the civilization Of the white man. And
as the days passed by, and [ became ac-
! customed to the rhythmic slide and skip
OF the steamer up the sparkling waters of
| the great inland sea, there came a change
| over my feelings; and [ have it to say
| that from my pleasant experience of
seventeen days upon the Mexico, where
it became more like home than a mere
craft of the sea, L have learned to love a
/
thrill of pleasure.
The management of the Pacific Coast
| Steamship Company is admirable. From
| Captain Hunter and his officers down TO
the most obscure of the crew, we were
cared for more like family than a collec-
ton of strange humans from the ends Of
the earth. The result was that good
humor prevailed-even when fogs OBJ
| scured the waterfalls, which an enthusi-
astic writer said were ''springing laugh
ing from the clouds, punctured by the
mountains" upon these island shores.
No one had any excuse to be cross,
especially as the table was bountiful,
varied and excellent, and four meals a
day were spread for the benefit OF those
who desired-the last a ''sunset IunchU
at 10 P. NJ, doubtless upon the supposition
that q man is always cross when he is
| hungry and that he is hungry nearly ali
the time. The service on shipboard
down to the obscurest, was uniformly
! kind as well as civil. 1t seemed TO be the
J proper thing that strong arms were
! everywhere, helping the passengers out
1 OF the small boats when Waist-deep water
/ interviewed, in which the men stood in
! their rubber boots, and up the peaks of
] the glacier, where one could not have
! yentured alone, and that each one should
/ be humoreG on shipboard in those little
/ desires which make up the sum total of
comfort and satisfaction.
/ And the smooth and sparkling waters
/ Of the mighty river, as it sometimes ap-
! peared, We're friendly, too. There was
I not the slightest excuse for seasiclness.
1 If we had even thought of it. The hour
we passed IN Queen Charlottes Straits.
L