FROM SEATTLE TO PYRAMID HARBOR
Late in the afternoon of the following day, the 9th of March, the
travellers embarked on the "Farallon," commanded by the genial Captain
Roberts. The "Farallon" was not as graceful a vessel as the Eastern
steamers to which the boys were accustomed, but she appeared to be
stanch and seaworthy,--qualities eminently to be desired in view of the
six days' voyage of a thousand miles which lay before her.
Her decks were now thronged with hopeful Klondikers of all ages and
descriptions, the majority men, though there were a few brave women who
preferred roughing it with their husbands to staying behind in physical
comfort, but alone. On the bow temporary stalls had been built for a
score of horses intended for use in the coast towns or on the trails.
As the wharf receded David caught a glimpse of a girlish figure and a
face framed in wavy light hair, among the crowd. Flora saw him at the
same moment and waved her handkerchief. How pretty and winsome she
looked! David vowed then and there to bring her that bear-skin at all
hazards. At last, when he could see her no longer, he turned toward
the stateroom on the upper deck abaft the pilot-house, where his father
was stowing away the brown canvas bags which contained their clothing
and such small articles as they would need on the trail.
We must pass rapidly over the events of the voyage, filled though it
was with experiences quite new to the Bradfords. At Victoria, the
pleasant little capital of British Columbia, situated on the southern
point of Vancouver Island, where the steamer remained half a day, Mr.
Bradford procured two mining licenses which gave himself and David the
right to locate claims in Canadian territory, cut timber, and take game
and fish. These licenses cost ten dollars apiece, and no claim could be
legally staked without one. Poor Roly, not having reached the required
age of eighteen, could take neither license nor claim. This business
completed, they wandered through the city, David securing a picture of
the magnificent Parliament building then just finished.
Two days later, after passing up the sheltered Gulf of Georgia and
crossing the broad, blue expanse of Queen Charlotte's Sound, the
steamer entered a narrow waterway between islands on the west and
the mainland of British Columbia on the east. Here the scenery was
of the most bold and rugged description, reminding the travellers of
the Hudson where it breaks through the Catskills. On either side rose
immense mountain masses, covered below to the water's edge with a
virgin forest of spruce, cedar, and hemlock, while from the bleak,
treeless summits the snow could sometimes be seen blowing into the air
like smoke.
"What a pity," exclaimed Mr. Bradford to David and Roly, as they stood
upon the deck gazing about them in admiration, "that the grandeur and
beauty of this coast are so little known! We've been travelling for
hours through this paradise without seeing a hotel, or a cottage, or
even a log-cabin, and yet I believe it will not be long before tourists
will throng to this region. Now there," said he, pointing to a level
plateau on the top of a forest-covered ridge which rose a hundred feet
above the water,--"there is an ideal site for a hotel. It commands a
view of the strait both north and south, and of the mountains in every
direction. No doubt there is a lake in that hollow beyond it, and the
waterfall yonder is its outlet. I should like to spend a summer right
here."
That evening they emerged into Dixon's Entrance, where the open Pacific
tossed them about for several hours until they came again into the lee
of islands. Morning found them at Saxman, a village of the extreme
southern end of Alaska, where the "Farallon" stopped to take on a
passenger.
At Ketchikan, a few miles beyond, there was a good wharf and a
considerable settlement, and here the Bradfords saw for the first
time a raven, which the boys mistook for a crow. Here, too, they first
beheld an Indian totem-pole,--a great tree-trunk carved into grotesque
shapes of beast and bird, and strange caricatures of the human
countenance, all of which doubtless had a significance relating to the
tribe, family, and achievements of the deceased chieftain whose memory
it perpetuated.
David, with the enthusiasm of an amateur, attempted to photograph this
strange column, but as the day was dark and a damp snow was falling, he
failed to obtain first-rate results.
At ten in the evening the lights of Wrangel, or Fort Wrangel, as it is
often called, being a United States military post, came into view. Late
as it was, the Bradfords decided to go ashore, for this was one of the
larger Alaskan towns. The wharf was unlighted save by the steamer's
lamps, but they picked their way without much difficulty. Most of the
townspeople seemed to have retired, and only the saloons and dance
halls showed signs of life. From these places the travellers heard the
strains of a fiddle, or the worn, hard voice of some poor girl doomed
to sing to a throng of rough men amid the glare of lights and the fumes
of beer and bad tobacco.
There were many evidences that the gold excitement had brought a large
if transient population to Wrangel. New frame buildings were in process
of erection all along what appeared to be the main street, which was,
however, utterly impassable for any kind of wheeled vehicle, being a
deep ditch far below the level of the board walk which skirted it. In
this hollow what little light there was revealed logs, lumber, boats,
and mud, and it was evident that at high tide the water filled it. The
buildings were raised on piles to the level of the future highway.
The Bradfords followed the walk with the utmost caution, for some of
the boards were missing and others were broken, and in the darkness an
ankle might be sprained or a leg fractured by one false step. The boys
took turns in going ahead, the leader warning those behind of holes and
pitfalls.
After proceeding thus gingerly for nearly half a mile and passing
several elaborate totem-poles, they found themselves well out of the
business portion of the town and in the midst of a collection of tents
interspersed with cheap frame structures. Here and there on tents and
houses they could dimly distinguish flaming advertisements of museums
and various catch-penny shows, but none of them were open at that
hour. The board walk seemed to lead no farther, so the three carefully
and slowly retraced their steps to the steamer, where a lively scene
presented itself.
Three incandescent lights backed by a powerful reflector had been
rigged on board to illumine the forward deck and hold, from which
freight was being discharged upon the wharf. Captain Roberts informed
them that one hundred tons of freight were to be left at Wrangel, and a
number of the horses and dogs.
"Ah!" said Roly, "I'm glad some of the horses are to go ashore here.
They haven't had a chance to lie down since we left Seattle."
"No," said David; "and I saw two this morning so tired that they went
to sleep standing up. Their eyes were shut, and their heads kept
drooping, drooping, and then popping up again like Mr. Dobson's when he
goes to sleep in church."
Roly laughed. "I only hope," said he, "the poor brutes will have no
worse time on the trail."
Just as dawn was breaking over the town, the "Farallon" took advantage
of high tide to pass through Wrangel Narrows,--a tortuous channel
between low, wooded shores, where the scenery, though of a subdued
character, was exceedingly beautiful. A bark and a barkentine were
aground in this dangerous passage, though buoys and lighthouses were
plentiful; but the steamer emerged safely in due time into broader
waters, and the day passed without special incident until evening, when
they had passed the latitude of Sitka, the Alaskan capital, on Baranoff
Island to the west.
Not long after supper Mr. Bradford and David were reading in the
stateroom and Roly was sitting on the iron grating, through which a
pleasant warmth arose from the engine-room, when they all heard a
bumping sound and felt the steamer tremble. A second later there came
another bump. Instantly bells rang and the engine stopped, while Roly
jumped from the grating, and running to the bridge peered forward into
the darkness. He could see nothing in that direction, nor could Mr.
Bradford and David, who were quickly beside him; but the next moment
a huge block of ice and several smaller fragments grazed along the
steamer's side, and were dimly illuminated by her lights. Then they
understood what had happened.
"She's hit one o' them small icebergs out o' Glacier Bay," they heard
a man say on the deck below them. "There's many of 'em hereabouts, I'm
told, but they ain't big enough to do damage."
"Not if she hits 'em square," said another voice.
Captain Roberts, however, thought it best to be cautious, especially as
he had just broken the bell-wire and could only communicate with the
engine-room by speaking-tube. He sent a man to the bow of the vessel to
watch for ice, and ordered half-speed ahead.
In a few hours they had reached Juneau. It was so late that the
Bradfords did not leave the ship, but they could see by the lights
that Juneau was larger than Wrangel, and contained not a few wooden
buildings of very respectable size and appearance. It was a mystery
how the town could grow any more, however, except straight up in the
air like New York, for it was surrounded by water on two sides, and on
the others by huge barriers of rock two thousand feet high. Across the
strait a few straggling lights disclosed the location of Douglass City
and the famous Treadwell gold mines.
The following day was mild, but the scenery became more Arctic. The
steamer passed up the long inlet known as the Lynn Canal, on either
side of which rose bold peaks crowned with brilliant snow. Glaciers
flowed through the valleys between them,--great frozen rivers which no
summer sun could melt. Of these, one of the largest and most graceful
was the Davidson glacier on the western side of the strait. Ducks were
seen here in countless numbers. Porpoises rolled and played about the
vessel, and Roly caught sight of a seal which bobbed above the water at
intervals.
As they were now nearing the end of the voyage, Mr. Bradford and the
boys wrote letters to send back by the purser. Early in the afternoon
the course was changed slightly to the west, and the steamer entered
Pyramid Harbor, a beautiful circular sheet of water, flanked on the
south by high mountains. Near its eastern side rose a pointed mound of
pyramidal shape, to which the harbor owed its name.
On the southwest shore, under the shadow of the mountains, lay the
little settlement, prominent in which was an extensive salmon cannery.
In front of the cannery two wharves projected toward the bay,--one
high above the beach, designed for use at high tide; the other a
slender affair, longer and lower.
"There must be very high tides here," said Mr. Bradford, observing the
wharves.
"Yes," answered a tall, brown-whiskered man who stood near. "Twenty
foot, if I ain't mistaken. Reminds me o' the Bay o' Fundy, only there
they gen'rally build only one wharf an' give it two stories."
The boys recognized in the speaker the man whom they had heard
discoursing of icebergs on the previous evening.
"The cannery doesn't seem to be running," observed Mr. Bradford.
"No," replied the other; "I b'lieve they only run it in summer. There
ain't no salmon this time o' year."
Mr. Bradford told David to see that everything was ready for landing,
and to bring the clothing bags out upon the deck. The steamer had
blown her whistle as she entered the harbor, and two men could be seen
walking down toward the end of the lower wharf. Mr. Bradford turned his
field-glass upon them. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation of surprise
and handed the glass to Roly.
"Do you know either of those men?" he asked.
"Why," said Roly, after he had scrutinized them a moment, "the second
one looks like--no, it can't be. I declare, though, it does look like
him! Yes, it _is_ Uncle Will! But what a big beard he has!"
[Illustration: PYRAMID HARBOR, PYRAMID MOUNTAIN IN THE DISTANCE]
David, hearing these exclamations, came running out of the stateroom,
and joyfully verified the identification. There could be no doubt that
Uncle Will was there, but what had brought him was more than they could
conjecture.