The record-union., 1895-07-19

fioated within a thousand feet, perhaps,
directly in front of that strange, weird
wall, section OF hundreds of feet in
! length and breadth slid down with the
roar of artillery into the water, dashing
/ the spray far up on the wall Of ice and
| causing the breakers to roll up on the dis
! tant beach.
All the afternoon we were treated to
such display OF falling ice as is seldom
seen even here. 1t seemed as if the old
| glacier was giving US our Fourth of July
| on the lst. We were landed on the shore,
and went on and over this strange, treach-
erous wonder. One climbs over steep
| hills covered with rock, sand and pebbles,
| but dig into it an inch or so and you find
| only Ice underneath.
On and on, with ever those sharp deto-
nations. clear as the ring OF a rit1e-shot,
only a hundred-fold greater! A roar, a
rush of water, then huge form shoots
! high in the air, and we know another ice
! berg Is born. The bergs are not so beau
! tiful as at Taku, more dirt rock and de-
| bri5 being in the Ice.
But the wonderful wall! Snow hite,
| save where the new ice shows fresh after
| the falling Dergs. and then the Intense
| Dlue-the tlnts that range through all th 9
green's and blues of the painters palette!
| The glory OF turret, dome and tower; the
! strange, scuiptured forms; the vaS;ness,
the terror OF 1t all, especially on board
the snip, with that terrible wall of ice
seeming so near! y section larger than
usual an uprising OF ice from those terri
bic depths-utter destruction OF all would
be the result
1 have elm bed Nesuvius, AMI from the
craters rim looked down on tossed
anu tumuituous How OF congeaied lava;
nave seen Italy'S S Old ruins a0u fair Cam
pagna from The dome of St. Peters; have
drunk in The beauty Of the Swiss mount
airs aid their baby glaciers; have en-
Joyed most that WAS wonderful in the
OLD world ana III our own cOuntry-our
Osenite and uuriyaied mountain
splendOr. the delights of tour OF ell
lowstone Park and Canyon-bat nothing
l have seen has been beyond this in
grandeur. The utter desolatiOn - the
vast, solemn, moving thing The inn
mensI!y OF It, one fears its treacherous
creVasses and hidden dangers. | felt like
Moses on the Mount of Nebo. with all
this beautiful country outspread before
me, and viii! no power to enter it.
SAID L would rather be Muir than a
Napoleon.
Aud go, with face turned longingly. as
we sped away. | breathed a prayer OF
thank hiulness that | had been permitted
TO gaze upon this, one of the most in
spring sights of the universe
1t was essentially human that after a
nights rest some OF US were up at D
the next morning on our arrival at
kootznahOo fishing banks, as Interested
III llsnlng as II there were no glaciers in
existence. My record was a halibut
weighing fifty pounds and Il red snapper,
| SerNed by special order of the Captain at
our table. 1t was 30 large that after thir-
teen OF US had eaten il scarcely show ed
mutllation. l might say, III parentho osis,
the largest ha!ibut caught weighed
| elgniy-hve pounds.
Stopping a short time at Kilisnoo, a
| paradise for hunters, we sailed directly to
Sltka. arriving there on the Sd OF July.
| we visited the Indian mission and were
| pleased with the work cf the mission
aries. The natives are clean, neat, well
educated and more Intelligent than any
yet seen, save MIR. Duncan's people We
| saw at the museum some terrible instru-
ments of torture. A branch of shrub
covered with poisonous thOrns was
shown us. They used to beat their
witches TO death with these. l after
wards secured a small branch. 1t WAS
more to NE than 1ndiin baskets or
curios, for it tells of horror and ignO-
rance, of unutterable agony and torture,
and always the face OF some poor old
woman looms up from the benighl ed
past. and the pitful fear of it makes me
dear missionaries and their work."
Sitka is called tho Naples of America.
I could see no great resemblance The
channels are full Of pretty islands;
Mt. Edgecomb, in the near distance, has
its extinct crater, filled with snow; the
writer's are transparent, and far down in
the depths we can see starfish and sea
anemones. But we miss that wonder
! ful blue of the Mediterranean. Its great
charm ia that n tho ~ ~,
region stretching TO the westward.
Sitka has the charm of age and mys-
| terry. 1t is clean and neat, the walks are
beautiful the days were perfect, aud on
the evening of the Sd we stood with an
officer at the marine station who sig
nailed the lowering of the flag at sunset
| 90 P. NJ
The next day, when patriotic hands
and hearts were busy with flag and bunt-
| ing, the usual Fourth of July races and
games, though mostly by Indians, 1t did
not seem so far away from home. And,
when at p. NJ, we foated away, with
the cannon's roar and a huZza by the
Stanford Glee Club, we felt we were
among the commonplace things of civil
| ZatiOn once more.
And so, in the golden glory of the day,
| through the most witching scenery OF
| Peril Straits, day after day, there seemed
no night.
On. as if in some glorious dream, amid
all the grandeur Of mountains, of islands,
drifted snow, peak and berg. we find our
selves at Tacoma. Thanking Captain
Carol and Messrs. Rogers and Allison
of the ship for making the trip so pleas
ant for US. good-by to friends, and then
on to California. with q cheer when the
| State line is reached.
We vote that when it comes to good
solid ground, California earth is good
enough for us.