The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-23


busted a thousand feet high and filed
with black water thousand feet deep.
AS we look the sun breaks it's way into
the gorge and turns the water to silver
1t paints diamonds in the snow of it's
moss green sides. Over there is a gla-
cier, a great green mass shining out
upon the ragged sides of a snowy
mountain. See the sun has struck it,
and it is now a bed of emaralds in a
setting Of frosted silver
The weather and the sky changes
every moment, and before us is an
ever varying panorama of sky and sea
and land. We sail out of the sunlight
into snow, storms and steam right out
of the snow into the sun. Now the
sky is almost blue overhead, with
heecYl white clouds scattered here and
there through it. Cloud masses here
nestle in the velvety laps of the hills,
there they wrap themselves about the
snowy peaks as though to warm them,
and there they stoop down and press
warm, tantalizing kisses upon their
icy lips. Upon the snow-dusted hills
and dark water are dashes of silver
where the sun has poked it's way
through the clouds. The varying light
makes the channel on one side of the
ship black, on the other side it is of
a beautiful yelloWish green, and be-
hind where the sun strikes it the ship
has left a path of molten silver. The
hills change even as the water under
the. sun. Now they are dark. The sun
washes them with it's rays and the ferns
and moss and trees brighten The
ragged volcanic background of the
rocks show out and, through the green
and black, falling hundreds and some
times thousands Of feet almost straight
down are sllVery cascades, some as big
as your wrist, others no larger around
be seen all along these inland channels.
They come from the glaciers and the
mountain SHOWS.
A RAINBOW SET IN SILVER.
One of the strangest atmospheric eff
fects 1 have ever seen happened on
our third day in the channel. The
mountain walled river had widened and
we were again coming to narrows,
when over our pathway in front of US
a great rainbow sprang from the snowy
summit of a low mountain in the south
to that Of another mountain almost op-
pOSite on the north of the channel,
making a great rainbow span over the
dark water. 1t was a splendid, many
colOred arch of the gods founded on
pedestals of frosted silver. AS we ap-
preached the rainbow faded the Sky
was blue overhead, but a great wall
Of f1eecy white clouds had dropped
down upon or rather risen up from
the water. When I first saw it thought
it was a field Of icebergs. It was as
white as snow and it extended upward
to what seemed a height of several
hundred feet, stretching across the
channel from mountain to mountain.
Above this wall the sky was clear, and
the only other clouds to be seen were
those lowering over the mountain
peaks. We sailed out of the light right
into this cloud wall, out of the dry
air into a mist so thick that we could
almost wash our hands in it. A half
hour later we were again under a clear
sky. At times the masts of the steam
er were in the clouds and the deck
clear and dry. Again the clouds would
form a roof over the channel and again
the lower walls Of the hills would be
hidden, and we could look over the
clouds at the green and snow above.
ICEBERGS AND GLACIERS.
1t seems strange to think of green
moss, green trees and mass of dense
green vegetation in midwinter, amid
the SHOWS and glaciers. That is what
we have here. The glaciers slide down
into the green, and the snow falls and
melts upon it all winter long. In many
places the green is clear, in others it
is snow-dusted, and in others loaded
with snow masses. On the highest
peaks only it is all snow and ice. Even
in the jungleS of India 1 have not seen
so dense & growth of trees and plants
as along the west coast of Patagonia
We had chance to go on shore every
afternoon when we anchored for the
night. Pushing our way into the coun-
try was, however, impossible. The
trees and eVergreens. generally small.
but so dense that you could walk on
their tops on snow shoes. A bed of
moss as deep as your waist covers the