Still we steam northward through these wonderful channels and
mountain-locked sounds that mark this side of the continent amid such
scenery as you and I never dreamed of. This morning we woke up at Fort
Wrangell under a clear cold sky, like a Florida winter, some of them
said, mercury 44 and snow capped peaks all around the horizon. On shore
some wild flowers were blooming and weeds and shrubs had a good start.
I saw swallows and heard song sparrows, not differing much from those at
home. We have had fair weather most of the time since leaving Victoria
but cold. I have borrowed a heavy overcoat and wish I had two. I sit
at the door of my state room writing this and looking out upon the blue
sparkling sea water and the snow capped and spruce mantled mountain
ranges. Muir has just passed by, then Mr. Harriman racing with his
children. I like him. He is a small man, about the size of Ingersoll and
the same age, brown hair and moustache and round strong head. He seems
very democratic and puts on no airs. 11 A. M. We are now going up the
Wrangell narrows like the highlands of the Hudson, 25 miles long with
snow capped peaks in the back-ground and black spruce clad hills and
bends in the foreground. Ducks, geese, loons, and eagles all along.
Bang, bang, go the rifles from the deck, but nothing is hurt. It is
clear and still. How I wish for you! Last night at nine thirty we had
such a sun-set; snow white peaks seven or eight thousand feet high
riding slowly along the horizon behind dark purple walls of near
mountain ranges all aflame with the setting sun. Such depths of blue and
purple, such glory of flame and gold, such vistas of luminous bays and
sounds I had never dreamed of.
I keep well but eat better than I sleep. Only two or three times have we
felt the great throb of the Pacific through open gateways in this wall
of islands. The first time it made me miss my dinner, which is not as
bad as to lose it. In a week or two we shall have to face it for many
days; then I shall want to go home. We have seen deer and elk from the
steamer. We have reached the land of Indians and ravens. Many Indians in
every town and ravens perched in rows upon the house tops. Our crowd
is fearfully and wonderfully learned--all specialists. I am the most
ignorant and the most untravelled man among them, and the most silent.
We expect to reach Juneau to-night and I may be able to write once
more--from Sitka.
I wish I knew if you were going west and how things are at home. I
suppose you will be home before this can reach you. I wonder if you have
had rain and if the grapes are breaking. I got me a stunning pair of
shoes at Seattle--$7.50. Down in the belly of our ship are fat steers,
2 horses, a cow, a lot of sheep, hens, chickens, turkeys, etc. It looks
like a farmer's barn yard down there. But I must stop, with much love to
you and your mother. J. B.
We have just passed the Devil's Thumb, over 9,000 feet high. From the
top rises a naked shaft 1600 feet high--this is the thumb. Our first
glacier, too is here, a great mass of whitish ice settled low in the lap
of the mountains.
From Sitka, June 17th, he wrote: