The Ketchikan miner., 1908-07-04

laNS never >SS1k stc A<NS Nk le SuN that nothing they ever saw impressed them so deeply.
 What more beautiful than our re- markshle system of naturally eonnect- e6 waterways of sounds. bays and eS- t0arieS, channels and canals, straits and narrows. ranging in lengths and idths ftom less than one to hundreds of miles.
 The amazed tourist becomes more and more enchanted as the lovely shore views unfold. where the immedi ate contours of the landscape are \ formed by tiers of comedy hills. rising ' trom tho Sater's edge, all densely clad from top to bottom in the somberness of northern eyergreens. The peren- nial verdure of the foreground con trasts staetlingly with the desolation of the great ramparts behind, and the M hole fcrms, with the frequent silver bands and threads of waterfalls de- scending from the heights to the sea, an indeserihable picture of singu- lar loveliness and commanding ma t }esty. The mountainous shore, too, open ever and anon into picturesque hill-hound inlets of varying widths and iudsscribahle lengths. wlth Souud- ings from 10 to lO0 tathoms.
 But the orowning glory and splendor of Alaska for the average tourist is when the sun shines on the frozen { waves, the enormous masses of nov ing ice, the glaciers that show their 1uread countenances in great numbers at ths head os the inlets or hang on the crowns and sides of the mountains or feel the gorges between them. \ score or more of enormous glaciers, with ice crests hundreds of feet thick and stretching back from few to a score of miles, may be plainly seen between.W n.Wrangell Narrows and Sitka, the beautiful.
 No alien land in all the world has such deep. strong charm for me as our own Alaska. and have seen them nearly all in my wanderings over sea :; no other land could so longingly and EheSeechingiy haunt you sleeping and waking. Other things have you, but u abidsS, other changes but it re- mains she same For me the wild grandeur and savage splendor of the
 mountains are more beautiful, if less varied than the Alps and not subdued by any of the softer elements. It is like Lear or Macbeth after the Midsummer Nights Dream, :" like Dante after Spenser or Michael Angelo after Raphael. But some peaks are bleak and desolate. and appeal to :he eye from their stately lonliness. They are covered with broken rocks and boUlders; the ravines that cleaye their Hanks are unrelieyed by the grace of luxuriant foliage: the sides are dark. steep and repelIant. but q charming contrast 10 their green be- sdecked brethren.
 There are scores of lovely scenes. of things of beauty, and hooks of green cry of rocks and delis and snow: of lonely creeks and rippling falls; Of lonely sunsets: of nights where you can read paper out of doors all ght long without artificial light,
 zhich the tourist of Europe will ] never see. Let him visit Alaska, and rest assured that his enterprise will be more than repaid by the stores of imagery be will gather. and the fair memories Of loyeliness, grandeur su
 olimity and grace which he will treas ure Up in his heart of hearts when 0n his homesard voyage he trips the
 'the light fantastic toe, on the pala- ;ial deck of the White Flyer Jefferson the gallant Captain Nord singing .'Waltz Me Around Again Willie.
 Such are briefly sk etched some oi the extraordinary scenic Vaccinations
 sbicb the tourists to Alaska can enjoy to the fullest measure and which are unsurpassed anywhere on earth. The time will soon arrive when the Alas 6a route @ilI he the most frequented in the world, when the fine hotels, Of which there are many in Alaska now, notably the Stedman and the Cornell in Ketchikan. will be erected in all available places: when the Alaskan coast will swarm with private yachts: when the light house tenders wIli come oftener than twice year, when beacons will be erected, not after 8 I ship strikes rock but before it. and where life will be a long, happy dream.
 ! Tn closing this article would ven- lture to commend to tire tourist never 70 travel by book: never to be content with the ordinary routes and seII-beaten paths laid down by the annual navigator to visitors. but to i look for the beauties of nature in the { less familiar corners, in her cool, se- { questered recesses, by some un.re- quented canal or deep in the heart oi grove of spruce and hemlock which { line their banks. And there, no long sr ara mbitious of throne. or high