Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-05-28
CHARMS OF ALASKA.
Its Scenic Beauty Detailed In an Army
Officers letter.

Officer's Letter.
The following personal letter, writ
ten by Capt. w. A. Glassford Of the
signal service of the United States
army to A. ]. Browfield Of this city,
will be read with interest by the many
friends the writer formed while sta
toned In Denver. The letter Is dated
Seattle and was written from aboard
the United States cable ship Burnside
Il have recently been conducting
some cable operations in southeast
Alaska, aboard the cable ship Burn
side. The extreme beauty Of the seen
cry was so thoroughly enjoyed that 1t
has occurred to me that a description
of 1t might interest you. I will there
fore include in this letter the impress
sions that this most picturesque coun-
try made upon me. Mrs. Glassford
was aboard with me and shared my
enjoyment, and it is hoped that In
reading this you may share some OF
the pleasure with us.
Alaska, like all this northwest, is
gradually forcing attention, and
comparison of its commerce with the
United States and other noncontiguous
territory will show why this Is so. For
Alaska, during 1906, the commerce was
$47, 100000; that Of Porto Rico and
Hawaii was s42,000,000 each, while that
of the Philippines was s17,000,000. The
government cable and telegraph has
been a great factor in Alaska's devel-
opment. 1t is for this reason my work
up here has been so interesting.
"I am sure the time is near when
trip to Alaska will be recognized as
unequalled, and it is the more pleasant
because the travel is all within smooth
waters, and If taken in the summer the
long daylight hours enable one to miss
no part of the picture.
Puget Sound is the most southerly
of a series Of embayments that stretch
from the forty to the fifty
ninth meridian. or from Mount Rain
Ter to Mount Fairweather, a distance
of over 1000 miles. Starting from a
Puget Sound port, the traveller Is at
once in the presence Of the Olympic
and Cascade ranges, Mounts Rainier
and Baker almost rise out of the green
wooded islands and timber covered
shores, 80 close do they appear. The
Juan de Fuea strait Is fanked by the
high Olympics, but opposite is the
fiatter Vancouver island. on which is
located the city Of Victoria, AS one
passes Cape Flattery these scenes give
way to the misty panorama OF the Pa
cific shore.
1.-The outside, or ocean, trip Is ex-
ceptional the route usually taken be-
ing the so-called inside passage.
About two years ago the pilot Of the
Burnside ran the vessel upon Ripple
rock, at Seymour Narrows, within the
inside passage, since which this vessel
has not been allowed to go to south
east Alaska except around this track
on the outside.
"Sitka lies in a bay or sound which
has numerous small islands scattered
over it's extensive surface. Behind the
town are rounded piedmonts and then
abrupt rising mountains which reach
an altitude Of some 5000 feet. They
are always snowclad and are very i'm
pressive, because Of the contrast be-
tween their white SUBMITS and the
deep green of the timber covered is
lands and short line at their bases.
These bright gowned peaks seem to be
grouped and are personified; perhaps
because Of their apparent loneliness,
for, to associate them In company, they
are given names like The Seven Sis
ters,' The Monks etc. These bare
and often fantastic cloud shrouded
tops, whose bases are showed into the
sea, have such great contrast from
head to foot as to resemble the bare
gray heads, white shoulders and backs
of bowling priests with surplice and
soutane under a heavenly arched
dome.
Perhaps the most picturesque Of all
Is the isolated volcanic cone Of Edge
cumbe, $500 feet high, at the entrance
Of Sitka sound. 1t might have been
named Alaska's Fujiyama, so close Is
it's resemblance to Japan's sacred
mountain. 1t appears quite as high as
Fujiyama and rises right out Of the
sea- It's top Is truncated at an incli-
nation, hence a part of the crater can
be- seen. Sitka, often termed The
Beautiful is the oldest town in Alas
ka, and till recently was the capital.
The climate is extremely mild.
From Sitka our course was outside
and south to the entrance Of Chatham
strait, then almost directly north up
this long and narrow body Of water,
which, with its extension called the
Lynn canal, is about 200 miles long.
This narrow channel is a fine illustra-
tion of the characteristic glacier worn
furrow with it's deep water and pre-
cipitous sides. The mountains border
ing this strait, for it's southern half,
do not rise to such extreme attitudes as
they do about the northern portion.
On the west side of Lynn canal the
mountains rise to equal the highest
peaks Of the Rockies. Those who have
seen the scenery of Lynn canal and
standing on the Burnside's deck as the
morning sun first lit up the very high
est peaks. the contrast of deep shade
and fiery reflection from the Chilkats
and st. Elias made an illumination Of
those distant SUBMITS. AS the rising
sun continued to spread it's light to
the lower elevations the whole became
frightened until the vast smooth
snow surfaces appeared as great
white mass of sloping fields resembling
immense crystallographic surfaces, the
jagged peaks being the angular juno
tions. Below these fields the glacier
begins.
"As seen from Lynn canal the Da-
wilson, the Eagle and the Mendenhall
glaciers are the most conspicuous. The
Davidson glacier is a tongue from the
Muir glacier. One can see how high
perpetual snowfields, banked and