OUR JOURNEY THROUGH PICTURESQUE REGIONS OF THE NORTHWEST.
[Illustration: HIGH SIERRAS AND SUSIE LAKE, AN ARM OF LAKE TAHOE.]
Winter had been spent in the vernal climate of New Mexico, Arizona and
California, and we had so nicely calculated our work that when April
arrived we were ready for explorations in northern fields. Accordingly,
early in that month, we took our departure from San Francisco, over the
California and Oregon Railroad (property of the Southern Pacific), to
photograph the natural wonders of the extreme northwest. The road which
we had thus selected is one of the most charmingly picturesque in
America, abounding as it does with an infinite variety of beautiful
valleys, leaping cascades, roaring waterfalls, snow-capped mountains,
and abysmal cañons that are wrapped in eternal darkness.
After leaving Sacramento, the route follows the Sacramento Valley,
through a marvelously fertile district, cleft by an exquisite stream
that bellows, gushes, gurgles and rambles in a devious way from
summerless peaks, through blossoming vales, and down mellow meadows,
until it drops into the arms of the sea.
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[Illustration:
UPPER CASCADE OF CHILNUALNU FALLS, YOSEMITE.—It has been said by a
distinguished writer that “either the domes or the waterfalls of
Yosemite, or any single one of them, would be sufficient in any
European country to attract travelers from far and wide. Waterfalls
in the vicinity of Yosemite, surpassing in beauty many of the best
known and most visited in Europe, are actually left unnoticed by
travelers, because there are so many other objects to be visited
that it is impossible to find time for them all.” This will
doubtless explain why the beautiful cascade photographed on this
page is so little known that it is not even described in the leading
guide-books. It is one of the most attractive waterfalls in
Yosemite, but it has so many neighbors equally beautiful and grander
that it is passed by almost unnoticed.
]
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[Illustration:
NAJAQUI FALLS, GAVIOTA PASS, CAL.—Gaviota Pass is located in Santa
Barbara County, and possesses some of the finest scenery to be found
anywhere in the State. The photograph on this page will afford a
good idea of the delightful visions to be seen in this region. The
falls are neither grand nor majestic, but they are exceedingly
beautiful, and the secluded retreat, fringed with ferns and mosses,
where but few sounds are heard except the gentle splashing of the
constantly falling water, is a place to be sought and loved on a
warm summer day.
]
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[Illustration: INTERIOR OF SNOW SHED, SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS.]
Beyond Chico, northward, the scenery becomes rapidly more rugged, until
we plunge into the Siskiyou range, and apparently become tangled up, so
tortuous is the way. Time and again the road overlaps itself in winding
up the steeps, leaps across yawning chasms on lofty steel bridges, and
dashes into tunnels that for a while appear to lead directly to the
center of the under-world. But on every side, where daylight reveals the
turbulent landscape, there is much to excite wonder and to lend
surprise. A hundred miles before we come abreast of Mount Shasta, the
sunlighted head of that mammoth peak glints and glistens with a weirdly
grand effect upon the admiring eyes of approaching travelers. There it
stands, apparently shifting from one side of the track to the other as
we wind around among the gorges and creep up the slopes, but always a
chief among mountains and commander among the clouds. Sissons is the
nearest station to the giant peak, and here we stopped to make some
photographs and gather information. The base of Shasta is exceedingly
broad, covering as it does a circumference of seventy-five miles, and
its hoary head is lifted up 11,000 feet above the surface, and 14,450
above the sea. The greatest wonder, however, is not in the mountain’s
height or size, but in the fact that it is an extinct volcano, whose
crater is nearly one mile in diameter and 1,500 feet deep. On one side
there is a rift, resembling a broken piece from the rim of a bowl,
through which the sea of lava that boiled and seethed in this devil’s
caldron many centuries ago, evidently broke and poured a burning flood
into the valley, and overflowed a large district of country. This may
have been done in one of its expiring throes, for certainly there are no
evidences that the volcano has been in activity within the past five
hundred years.
“There is a cold gray light upon this mountain in winter mornings, that
even to look upon, sends a chill to the very marrow, especially if the
snow-banner be flying; yet perhaps at evening tide, when twilight
shadows have darkened the valley below, this vast pyramid of hoar frost
and storm-swept ridges is transformed into a great beacon light of
glory, where the warm mellow light loves to linger; where the richest
halos of gold and crimson encircle it with their loving bands; where the
last and best treasures of the declining sun are poured out in a
wondrous profusion, until it is driven by the night lavenders and grays
beyond the horizon; then, the tranquil light of the stars sends shining
avenues of silver down its furrowed, hoary slopes; soon there comes out
from behind the night, first a faint flash of radiant silver that gleams
across the sky and dims the light of the stars, the higher peaks are
aflame with St. Elmo fire, and slowly from spire to spire, and from
ridge to ridge, this incandescent flood sweeps on until the whole
mountain glows and gleams with a light supernatural.”
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[Illustration:
VIEW OF MOUNT SHASTA FROM SISSONS, CAL.—This view from Sissons is said
to be the best obtainable of Mount Shasta. From this point it
presents the appearance of a broad triple mountain, the central
summit being flanked on the west by a large crater, whose rim is
12,000 feet high. The highest point in the centre is 14,442 feet.
Shasta, as a whole, is the cone of an immense extinct volcano,
rising with a single sweep from the base to a height of 11,000 feet.
It is 338 miles north of San Francisco, and is visible for more than
one hundred miles.
]
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[Illustration: SACRAMENTO CAÑON, CALIFORNIA.]
Another particularly wonderful natural attraction on the line of this
road are the Chalybeate Soda Springs, which furnish an unfailing supply
of mineral water, equal to the best that is bottled for the bar and
picnic trade. When taken fresh from the spring, it has the appearance of
champagne, which, indeed, it resembles in taste; and so strongly charged
is the water with carbonic acid gas, that it will hold its flavor as
long as any extra-dry wine.
Near these remarkable springs are the Mossbrae Falls, which come sliding
over the lofty banks of the Sacramento in sheets of limpid water that
look like glass, and have a spread of nearly half a mile. The fall
varies in height from fifty to one hundred feet, but is surprisingly
beautiful at every point.
After crossing Siskiyou Mountains, the road descends by a spiral way
until it strikes Rogue Valley, thence through Grant’s Pass and gains the
Willamette Valley, which is a level expanse of exceedingly great
fertility. The ride to Portland over the rest of the way is interesting,
not so much for the diversity of scenery, as for the scenes of thrift
and prosperity which lie on both sides, for the country is a very Eden
of productiveness.
Portland, which lies near the junction of the Columbia with the
Willamette River, is one of the handsomest cities on earth, situated in
one of the most attractive regions that the eye of the traveler ever
gazed upon. From a high point in the western suburbs, gained by a cable-
road, a view may be had greater than that which Quarantaria offers. To
the west broadens the united waters of the two rivers, floating the
commerce of this vigorous city to and from the sea. And in the clear
atmosphere to the east rise like giants out of a plain the lofty peaks
of Hood, St. Helen’s, Adam’s and Ranier, upon whose brows eternal snows
beat with fury, and where clouds often settle to rest themselves for a
fresh flight. Still beyond are the whitened crests of the Cascade range,
reveling in a mad confusion of effort to gain the skies; and wandering
through a maze of forest, mountain and gorge, are the Columbia and
Willamette, like two long ribbons of burnished silver flung down by the
gods to mark a way to wealth.
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[Illustration:
MOSSBRAE FALLS ALONG THE SACRAMENTO.—These falls are in the Sacramento
River, not far from Upper Soda Springs in northern California. They
vary in height from fifty to one hundred feet, and have a spread of
nearly half a mile up and down the river. The water is so clear and
limpid that it resembles great sheets of glass as it pours over the
banks, producing a scene of indescribable beauty. The river at this
point is very small, as shown by the photograph, but the scenery is
of the most delightful character.
]
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[Illustration: SODA SPRINGS, SACRAMENTO CAÑON.]
The Willamette River is particularly beautiful in its upper course,
where the scenery is almost a counterpart of that along the Rhine,
whereas the Columbia becomes charmingly interesting almost from its
mouth, and increases in grandeur as the ascent is made. Indeed, it may
with truth be declared that scenically considered, the Columbia is the
most delightful river that is known to modern geographers. The shores
are mountainous, at times shooting up perpendicularly to amazing
heights, and composing miles of solid walls; then again dropping away in
level stretches covered with forests of pine, spruce and fir-trees; or
revealing cañons down which plunge turbulent tributaries, and giddy
waterfalls dancing out of the sky and falling in fleecy sheets so far as
to dissolve its vapor. Some of the shore walls are of basalt, of
fantastic shapes and brilliant with coloring; and not infrequently
solitary columns of very great height are seen standing like sentinels
along the water edge, such as Castle Rock, Rooster Rock, and the
columnar cliffs of Cape Horn.
The Dalles of the Columbia are as famous as the palisades of the Hudson,
while in fact they are much more wonderful, and well worth a trip of
thousands of miles to see. They occupy about fifteen miles of the river
between Celilo and Dalles Station, and are only 130 feet wide, whereas
above and below, the bed of the stream is from 2,000 to 2,500 feet wide.
As the river is swollen to extraordinary proportions by rain freshets
and the melting of snow in the spring-time, it is not a remarkable thing
that during such flood periods the water rises suddenly in this narrow
cleft as much as sixty, and even seventy feet. The river itself very
commonly rises as much as twenty-five feet, even at its widest places,
and hence we may imagine what a raging torrent it becomes; but at low-
water the Dalles are a succession of cascades of the most beautiful
proportions, rolling in sheets of clearest water, over terraces of stone
as regular as though they had been laid by the hand of a mason.
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[Illustration: STRAWNAHAN’S FALLS, ON SIDE OF MOUNT HOOD.]
[Illustration: MULTINOMAH FALLS, OREGON.]
The region of Oregon near Portland, and along the Columbia, is rich in
scenery of the most beautiful and picturesque character. Far in the
distance loom snowy peaks, and the clouds, trees and mountains are
reflected in the clear water as in a mirror. Among the most picturesque
of all the scenes of this locality are Multinomah Falls, near the
railway station of the same name. The water plunges down the astonishing
distance of 700 feet, breaking into a ribbon of glittering spray as it
falls. A little to the right of the main falls, as seen in the
photograph, is another tiny little one, so modest as scarcely to be
observed, but loved and admired by tourists equally with its larger
sister.
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[Illustration: WILLAMETTE FALLS, OREGON.]
From the Dalles down, the river plows its way through the Cascade
Mountains, which on either side appear like towered battlements, while
waterfall after waterfall pour their tribute down the mountain sides to
swell the on-flowing stream. Twelve miles below is Memaloose Island,
which is the ancient burial place of the Chinook Indians, who held it as
a sacred spot, guarded, as they maintained, by spirits of the river. The
gorge proper begins twenty miles below the Dalles, and thirty miles
further are the cascades, but between these there is an incomparable
panorama of grandeur and beauty, for the river is broken by many giant
bowlders, around which the swift-rushing water is lashed into fury.
Still further below, and around the next interval of six miles, where
portage by rail is necessary, the scenery becomes even more exquisite,
with islands that are so wind-swept as to be entirely devoid of
vegetation, while scores of lovely falls line the river, such as Horse-
Tail, a clearly defined stream that pours down a height of 200 feet, and
Multinomah, a strip, or veil, of spray, that falls 850 feet
perpendicularly. There are, besides these, others almost equally
surprising and beautiful, such as Bridal Veil and Oneonta, both of which
dash down over cliffs brilliantly green with mosses, and are reflected
in their full length in the crystalline river into which they fall,
while the soft coloring of bluest sky and blending tints of emerald
pines give to the scene an intimation of fairy-land. Just below these,
in stately procession, are Castle Rock, that shoots up 1,000 feet;
Rooster Rock, a dizzy pinnacle of stone amid-stream; Cape Horn, frowning
from shore, and lifting its brow 500 feet above the river, while the
Pillars of Hercules, twin shafts of basalt, grand, massive and sublime,
act as guardians before this watery realm of wonderland.
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[Illustration:
DALLES OF THE COLUMBIA, AND MOUNT HOOD IN THE DISTANCE.—The scenery
between Portland and Dalles City, along the Columbia, is grand and
beautiful in the extreme. Here the river passes through the heart of
the Cascade Mountains, and the turbulent waves roar through the
narrow channel, confined on either side by cliff-like walls of rock,
often rising to the height of 1200 feet or more. At Cascade Locks
there are fierce and whirling rapids, with a fall of forty feet, the
entire river dashing down twenty feet at a single bound. For a
distance of five miles the river is a seething caldron of foam, too
dangerous for any kind of navigation to be attempted. The photograph
gives a splendid bird’s-eye view of a portion of the Dalles.
]
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[Illustration: NATURAL PILLARS, COLUMBIA RIVER.]
Twenty-five miles from the palisades, and reached by means of
comfortable stages over a good road, is Mount Hood, one of the loftiest,
as well as the most impressive, dead volcanoes to be found anywhere in
the world, of which it has been written: “The view from the summit of
Hood is one of unsurpassed grandeur, and probably includes in its range
a greater number of high peaks and vast mountain chains, grand forests
and mighty rivers, than any other mountain in North America. Looking
across the Columbia, the ghostly pyramids of Adams and St. Helens, with
their connecting ridges of eternal snow, first catch the eye; then comes
the silent, lofty Ranier, with the blue waters of Puget Sound and the
rugged Olympia Mountains for a background; and away to the extreme north
(nearly to H. B. M.’s dominions), veiled in earth mists and scarcely
discernible from the towering cumuli that inswathe it, lies Mount Baker.
Looking south over Oregon, the view embraces the Three Sisters (all at
one time), Jefferson, Diamond Peak, Scott, Pit, and, if it be a
favorable day, and you have a good glass, you may see Shasta, 250 miles
away. The westward view is down over the lower coast range, the Umpqua,
Calapooya, and Rogue River Mountains, with their sunny upland valleys,
and away out over the restless ocean. In the opposite direction, across
the illimitable plains of Eastern Oregon, to the Azure Blue Mountains;
down, almost to the foot of this mountain, ‘rolls the Columbia,’ through
the narrow, rugged gorge of ‘The Dalles,’ 250 miles of its winding
course being visible. The entire length of the great Willamette Valley,
with its pleasant, prosperous towns and gently-flowing river, its broad,
fertile farms, like rich mosaics, with borders of dark-green woodlands,
is spread out in great beauty under the western slope of Mount Hood.”
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[Illustration: THE CRATER OF MOUNT HOOD.]
[Illustration: ON THE ROUTE TO CRATER LAKE.]
Tourists need not cross the ocean and travel to Switzerland to see wild
and grand and splendid mountain scenery, because it can be found in a
thousand places in America on a much grander scale than anywhere in the
Alps. An evidence of this is seen in the photograph of the crater of
Mount Hood, on this page; and all along the Cascade, Rocky and other
mountain ranges of our country, similar, and even grander, views can be
observed by the thousands. We also present on this page an interesting
portrait of our “mountain helper,” in obtaining views for GLIMPSES OF
AMERICA.
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[Illustration: ONEONTA GORGE, COLUMBIA RIVER.]
The Columbia is not only famed for its peerless scenery, and as being a
main artery in Pacific coast commerce, but it is equally noted as
affording the most profitable salmon fishing in the world. Hundreds of
people are engaged in this industry, and vast wealth has been amassed by
some of the large companies who run immense canneries in connection with
the fisheries. At certain seasons the fish appear in such prodigious
numbers, on their way up stream to the spawning grounds, that they
almost crowd each other out of the water. The most successful way of
taking the fish at such times is by the use of wheels attached to the
end of a scow, which, being set in motion, scoop them up and deposit
them in the boat, and so rapidly that thousands are thus taken in an
hour. The fish continue their run up-stream as far as the water will
allow, and so determined are they that they perform many amazing feats
to gain the headwaters, crossing shoals, darting through the swiftest
cascades, and even leaping up and over falls of considerable height. The
Indians, familiar with the instincts of the salmon, in the season take
great numbers by means of spears, which they cast with astonishing
accuracy. A chief fishing place is Salmon Falls, where the river is a
mile wide and plunges over a wall fully twenty feet high, extending from
shore to shore. Notwithstanding this height, the salmon gather in the
whirlpool below and suddenly dart up the falls like a flash of light,
their tails waving with such rapidity that they are carried up and over
the falls. It is while making these leaps that the Indians spear the
fish, killing immense numbers, not only for food, but through sheer
wantonness, at times fairly filling the river with the dead beauties.
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[Illustration:
ROOSTER ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER.—This grotesque rock, occupying a
prominent point in one of the bends of the Columbia River, received
its rather inappropriate name from a fancied resemblance to a male
chicken. It requires a considerable stretch of the imagination to
see where the resemblance comes in, and it is to be hoped the time
may come when a more appropriate and picturesque title will be
bestowed upon this celebrated curiosity of nature’s creation. Why
not call it the Castle of the Columbia? for it certainly looks more
like a castle than a rooster.
]
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[Illustration: CASCADES OF THE COLUMBIA.]
A SIDE-TRIP TO CRATER LAKE.
Before leaving San Francisco, one of our photographers expressed a very
great desire to visit Crater Lake, one of the most remarkable bodies of
water on the face of the earth, and so urgent were his pleadings, that
it was decided he should make the trip, while the rest of the party
continued on to Portland, to perform the work of photographing points of
interest thereabouts, and on the Columbia River. In pursuance of this
arrangement, he left us at a station called Medford, on the Southern
Pacific Railroad, and from that place rode over to Jacksonville, capital
of Jackson county, Oregon, a distance of five miles, to make his
preparations for a journey to the lake. Jacksonville is a town of about
1,000 inhabitants, off the railroad, but on the military road that leads
to Crater Lake, some seventy miles distant northeast, and thence to Fort
Klamath. It was not difficult to procure necessary conveyance, but for
safety it was deemed advisable to pack the cameras on a donkey, probably
the surest-footed and most reliable animal that ever submitted back to a
burden. Three men accompanied our photographer, with one road-wagon and
a light buggy, hauling the necessary camping outfit, and being well
prepared, the party started from Jacksonville on the 15th of April,
1891. The road follows Rogue River the entire distance, along which is
some very beautiful scenery, and not a few wild gorges, which were
photographed. There are a number of post-offices on the way, Deskins
being the most northern, beyond which, and for nearly thirty miles, to
the lake, there is a wilderness of mountain and cañon, unrelieved by any
signs of human habitation. Crater Lake is in the western part of Klamath
county, and is in the Klamath Indian reservation, a region that is
distinctively volcanic, diversified by lakes, marshes and mountains,
with the soil so mixed with scoriæ that it is harsh and unproductive. It
was not until noon of the second day that the vicinity of the lake was
reached, approach to it being indicated by a bank of clouds that hung
over one spot, like a fog gradually lifting, beneath which was
manifestly a large body of water. A suitable camping place was soon
found, and the tent being set up and dinner disposed of, the work of
exploring and photographing the lake was energetically begun.
Fortunately, the weather was propitious and the season favorable, for
otherwise clambering over so rough a region with the precious burden of
delicate cameras would have been next to impossible. The snow falls to
very great depths on the high ridge which surrounds the lake, and spring
rains are at times so heavy here that the precipitous sides are gashed
deeply by the cataracts thus produced.
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[Illustration:
VIEW OF CRATER LAKE AND WIZARD ISLAND.—This stupendous and marvelous
curiosity is located in Klamath County, Ore., and may now be reached
by stage from Medford Station on the Oregon branch of the Southern
Pacific Railway, a distance of about eighty miles. But when it was
visited by the author of GLIMPSES OF AMERICA and his photographing
party there were no public conveyances, and they were forced to rely
upon their own resources. Crater Lake is probably the greatest
natural curiosity in the world, as every one will doubtless admit
after reading the descriptions in these pages.
]
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[Illustration: AMONG THE CLOUDS ON MOUNT HOOD.]
The Klamath Indians have many traditions about the lake, one of which is
to the effect that in earlier years it was the haunt of great numbers of
water-devils, who watched its shores and drew into its mysterious depths
all luckless persons who ventured near its banks. For this reason it was
not until recently that any Indian could be prevailed upon, by the
promise of however great a reward, to approach near the lake, though
they were glad to guide travelers to its vicinity.
The first sight of this marvelous body of water excites unbounded awe
and immeasurable wonder. The surface is 6,250 feet above sea level, but
notwithstanding this great elevation, it is enclosed by cliffs that rise
from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, and the greater part are vertical. At times,
viewed from the summit of the walls, both the skies and mountainous
surroundings are mirrored in the unrippled surface of the lake, until it
is really difficult to distinguish the line of separation between the
real and the reflection.
Crater Lake is egg-shaped, being seven miles in length by six in
breadth, and in the southwest portion there is an island which rises out
of the water to the amazing height of 850 feet. But this is not its only
remarkable feature, for the island is circular in shape, with a scant
vegetation on its sides, and in the center is a crater known as the
Witch’s Caldron, which is 100 feet deep and nearly 500 feet in
circumference. Here, then, we have the now smokeless chimney of what was
once an active volcano, out of which poured a fiery mass that ran down
the steeps and became congealed in the lake, for the base of the island
is of ashes and vitrified rocks, evidencing the intense heat which once
prevailed within and around it.
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[Illustration: SCENE ON COLUMBIA RIVER.]
[Illustration: CLIFFS AROUND CRATER LAKE.]
The salmon fisheries of the Columbia River constitute one of our most
important northwestern industries, and the fish-wheels used in catching
the salmon are to be seen at many points, lending a degree of life and
activity to what would otherwise, in many instances, be an uninspiring
view.—The surface of Crater Lake is 6250 feet above the level of the
sea, and yet it is enclosed by cliffs that rise from 1000 to 2000 feet
higher still. This will give some idea of the imposing grandeur of the
scene. Many of these cliffs are perpendicular from the water’s edge to
their summits, so that a stone dropping from the top will fall of its
own weight into the lake more than a thousand feet below.
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[Illustration: GROTTO IN CRATER LAKE.]
On the shore, north of Wizard Island, is a rock that juts up 2,000 feet,
and its side is so perpendicular that one standing upon its summit can
drop a stone into the lake, nearly half a mile beneath. It is not at all
surprising that this wonderful lake should be the subject of much
superstitious dread among the Klamaths, and among the traditions and
tales which these simple Indians tell is the following: A long time ago,
a band of Klamaths, while hunting deer, which have always been abundant
in this region, came suddenly upon the lake. They had often traveled
over the same district, without discovering either lake or depression,
and now, suddenly beholding so large a body of water, surrounded by
towering walls, they perceived in it the work of the Great Spirit, but
were not able to interpret its significance. All but one of the Indians
fled in terror from the place, but the bravest determined, if possible,
to ascertain the wishes of the Great Spirit, and, accordingly, he
proceeded to the very brink of the lofty walls, and there built a camp-
fire, to wait the Spirit’s call. Long he waited, until weary at last he
lay down and slept; while he was thus sleeping he had a vision and heard
mysterious voices, but he was not able to understand what was said, or
to clearly discern the shape or appearance of his unearthly visitors.
But as often as he slept he perceived, in his dreams, the indistinct
forms of what half-appeared to resemble human bodies, and plainly heard
voices, but they were strange tongues. Charmed by these visions, the
Indian remained, day after day, and week after week, upon the precipice
of the lake, leaving his camp-fire only to slay a deer for subsistence,
until at length he descended to the surface of the lake and bathed in
its crystal and mysterious waters. Instantly he felt his strength
marvelously increased, and thereafter saw that the weird visions of his
dreams were inhabitants of the lake, having human forms, but whether
they were spirits of good, or devils of evil, he knew not. Familiarity,
however, at length made him careless, and on one occasion he caught a
fish in the lake, with the intention of using its flesh for food, but no
sooner had he killed the fish than a thousand water-devils rose up out
of the depths of the lake, and, seizing the unfortunate brave carried
him through the air to the top of the cliffs. Here they cut his throat
and cast his body headlong into the water, 2,000 feet below, where it
was devoured by the angered devils.
[Illustration: PALISADES OF THE COLUMBIA.]
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[Illustration:
THE GREAT GLACIER, CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.—This fine photograph
shows the front wall of the glacier as it plows its way down the
mountain side, grinding the rocks into powder and cutting seams and
cañons that will stand for centuries as records of its resistless
powers. Those who have never seen one of these immense rivers of
ice, ever moving and never failing, can hardly appreciate the
feeling of awe that is aroused by a near approach to them. There is
no other force of nature that so distinctively manifests its
irresistible powers.
]
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[Illustration: A FISH-WHEEL ON COLUMBIA RIVER.]
The Klamath Indians believed that the water-spirits had not fully
satisfied their revenge by this one bloody act, but would similarly
destroy any Indian who had the temerity to approach the lake.
Near the base of a cliff on the south side of the lake stands a solitary
rock, probably 100 feet high by 200 in length, and nearly the same in
breadth, that, while not seen by the present generation of Indians, it
is nevertheless known to them, and is a special object of superstitious
dread. They consider it as a peculiarly ferocious monster, but are
unable to describe its characteristics. It stands in the lake, entirely
alone, and about fifty yards from shore. Standing on the cliffs, about
five miles to the west and looking across the lake, this strange rock is
plainly visible in the sunlight, its rugged peaks reaching aloft, giving
it the appearance of a full-rigged ship at anchor. Should a cloud pass
before the sun as the shadow strikes the rock it will recede from view
as effectually as though it had ceased to exist. This illusion has
prompted some one to call the rock the Phantom Ship.
Another equally interesting optical illusion is thus described by W. G.
Steel, F.A.G.S., who made an exploration of the lake with a corps of
United States surveyors: “One day while at work on the lake, my
attention was called to what seemed to be a tall, full-bearded man
standing on the southern portion of Llao Rock’s summit. One foot was
placed a little forward of the other and the knee slightly, but
naturally bent, while before him stood a gun. His hands were clasped
over the muzzle as he gazed intently to the north. Just behind him stood
a boy, apparently about fifteen years of age. They seemed entirely too
natural not to be flesh and blood, and yet persons at that distance
would not be visible to the naked eye, as we were two miles out on the
lake. Day after day, as our work progressed, their position remained the
same, and in the absence of a better excuse, we decided them to be
trees.
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[Illustration:
GREEK CHURCH AT JUNEAU, ALASKA.—The prevailing religion among the
natives of Alaska is a mixture of the doctrines of the Greek Church,
inculcated by missionaries from Russia, and the ancient totemism of
the aborigines. The missionaries wisely concluded that it was better
to convert the natives to Christianity, and bring them up to
civilization by a gradual process, rather than attempt a sudden
transformation; hence the singular combination of the rites of a
ludicrous superstition with the beneficent teachings of the Man of
Galilee. Mission churches exist at several points in the territory,
one of which, a very picturesque building, is finely photographed on
this page.
]
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[Illustration: SUMMIT OF MOUNT SAINT HELENS, ABOVE THE CLOUDS.]
“It is hard to comprehend what an immense affair it is. To those living
in New York City I would say, Crater Lake is large enough to have
Manhattan, Randell’s, Ward’s and Blackwell’s Islands dropped into it
side by side, without touching the walls, or Chicago or Washington City
might do the same. Our own fair city of Portland, with all her suburbs,
from City Park to Mount Tabor, and from Albina to Sellwood inclusive,
could find ample room on the bottom of the lake. On the other hand, if
it were possible to place the lake, at its present elevation, above
either of these cities, it would be over a mile up to the surface of the
water, and a mile and three-quarters to the top of Llao Rock. Of this
distance, the ascent would be through water for 2,000 feet. To those
living in New Hampshire, it might be said the surface of the water is
twenty-three feet higher than the summit of Mount Washington.”
The shore of Crater Lake has many remarkable indentations of slender
arms and beautifully formed bays, and on one side there is a grotto
running back some thirty feet and twenty feet inside, spanned by a
graceful arch about eight feet high, forming an admirable shelter as
well as a curious alcove in the rock, where the water is some twelve
feet deep. The lake itself measures a little more than 2,000 feet in
depth in places, but soundings show that there are peaks below the
surface representing cinder cones, and which once evidently stood high
above the surface. The whole lake is thus a reminder of mighty forces
and the relic of terrible convulsions. What an immense affair it must
have been ages upon ages ago, when, long before the hot breath of a
volcano soiled its hoary head, standing as a proud monarch, with its
feet upon the earth and its head in the heavens, it towered far, far
above the mountain ranges, aye, looked far down upon the snowy peaks of
Hood and Shasta, and snuffed the air beyond the reach of Everest. Then
streams of fire began to shoot forth, great seas of lava were hurled
upon the earth beneath. The elements seemed bent upon establishing hell
upon earth and fixing its throne upon this great mountain. At last its
foundation gave away and it sank forever from sight. Down, down, down
deep into the bowels of the earth, leaving a great, black, smoking
chasm, which succeeding ages filled with pure, fresh water, giving to
our day and generation one of the most beautiful lakes within the
knowledge of man.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: TOP OF MUIR GLACIER, ALASKA.]
[Illustration: CREVASSE IN MUIR GLACIER, ALASKA.]
The Muir is the most celebrated of all the glaciers in the world. It is
located in southeastern Alaska, about one hundred miles north of Sitka,
and is easily accessible by the California coast line steamers. The two
excellent photographs on this page will give a good idea of the
wonderful formation and diversified beauties of this immense ice-river,
which has been moving steadily down the mountain side for ages past, and
will doubtless continue to do so for ages to come.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It may in truth be declared that Crater Lake is one of the grandest
points of interest on earth. Here all the ingenuity of nature seems to
have been exerted to the fullest capacity to build one grand, awe-
inspiring temple within which to live and from which to gaze upon the
surrounding world and say: “Here would I dwell and live forever. Here
would I make my home from choice; the universe is my kingdom, and this
my throne.”
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL ROCK, ON COLUMBIA RIVER.]
AWAY TO THE NORTH, AND THENCE TO ALASKA.
Our trip up the Columbia, and along the Willamette as far as Willamette
Falls, was delightful beyond any one’s ability to describe; but though
wonder succeeded wonder, and kept us as under a spell of enchantment,
there were other surprises in store which were to hold our interest and
even add something to our astonishment. Returning to Portland, we might
have carried out our original resolution to take the steamer at that
point direct for Alaska, but we very wisely made a change in our plans,
by which we proceeded by rail to Vancouver, stopping en route, however,
to continue our work of photographing mountains, valleys and glaciers.
Tacoma was our first stop after leaving Portland, and a very beautiful
city it is, admirably and commercially situated at the head of
navigation in Puget’s Sound. Mount Tacoma appears to be in the very
front-yard of the city, so wonderfully clear is the air, though in fact
it is forty miles away. The Sound is astir with the white wings of
sailing vessels, and streaked with the black trails of ocean-going
steamers, while the blue waters are begirt with the dark green of heavy
forests, making a picture of almost incomparable beauty. There is
romance in the very air, a kind of dreamy vision of the long ago, when
this was the happy land of the Siwashes, who come before us again in the
pretty legends which linger still upon the lips of this almost extinct
tribe. They tell us of a Saviour who once came to them, riding in a
copper canoe, out of the bleak desolation of the icy north, and who,
first calling all the tribes together, preached to them the gospel of
unselfish service and righteousness. He taught them the beatitudes, and
was first to declare that man was possessed of an undying spirit, which
lived forever, in pleasure or pain, according to the measure of his
deserving. The Indians listened with reverent attention until this
Saviour exhorted them to live in brotherly unity, one with another, and
to avoid all strife, for he who shed human blood would feel the
vengeance of the Great Spirit. This teaching so incensed the war-like
tribes that they seized the Saviour and nailed his body to a tree, where
it remained nine days. Then behold, there came a great storm of hail,
accompanied by thunders that rent the earth and leveled the forests. In
the midst of this mighty cataclysm of natural forces the Saviour
appeared again, resurrected unto full life, and speaking to the winds
and the thunders, in an instant the storm was hushed, and a great peace
and burst of sunshine bathed the earth. After this the reincarnated
Saviour renewed his preaching and continued to teach immortality for
many weeks, until at last he ascended to the skies in a cloud.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
INDIAN BURIAL HOUSES, NEAR THE TOWN OF JUNEAU, ALASKA.—It is a
religious custom among the Indians of Alaska to build houses, more
or less pretentious according to the means of the surviving
relatives, over the graves of their deceased friends. These houses
are then suffered to fall into decay with the lapse of time, like
family cemeteries in our own land, until in many instances the
ghastly remains are exposed to view. The cemetery photographed on
this page is evidently a new one, judging by the neat appearance of
the little houses. There is really a beautiful sentiment in this
custom, notwithstanding its origin among a heathenish and
superstitious people.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: BRINK OF SNOQUALMIE FALLS, WASHINGTON.]
These same Indians have also a tradition of the deluge, which bears a
striking similarity to the Genetic account. They assert that many
thousands of years ago a great rain fell upon the earth, such as was
never before or since known; that such torrents of water were poured out
of the sky that the world became a universal sea, with no spot of dry
land anywhere visible. In this all-prevailing flood every human being
perished except one man who took refuge on Mount Tacoma. As the water
rose, he was driven higher and higher, until at last he reached the
summit; but still the sea advanced; it covered the loftiest point of the
mountain, then rose above his feet, his knees, and finally reached to
his waist, when, to prevent him from being swept away, the Great Spirit
turned his feet to stone, and he thus became anchored on the peak. Then
the rain ceased, and the waters were gradually assuaged, but the man
could not yet move from his position. At last the waters were again
within their beds, the fields bloomed, the forests put forth with new
life, and the world became musical with song of bird and the lullabies
of flowing streams. Then a profound sleep fell upon the man, and while
he slept the Great Spirit took a rib from his side, and from it made a
beautiful woman. When he woke his feet were no longer stone, but strong
with vigor, and at once he started down the mountain; but scarcely had
he taken the first step when he saw before him the lovely woman who was
given to him for wife. The Great Spirit now directed the couple to the
foot of Tacoma, where he had planted a garden, and in this paradise he
commanded them to abide and replenish the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
THE GREAT GLACIER, SIDE VIEW, SHOWING GRINDING OF THE FACE OF THE
MOUNTAINS.—The grinding force of a glacier, as it moves down the
side of a mountain, is strikingly illustrated in this splendid
photograph. At the point of the glacier will be observed an
accumulation of stones and débris wrenched from their places higher
up by the resistless grinding force of the immense body of ice,
moving steadily and irresistibly into the valleys below, cutting its
way like an immense plow as it goes. The numerous photographs and
printed descriptions of these wonders of the northern latitudes, in
GLIMPSES OF AMERICA, add a large degree of interest and value to
this work.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: LATOURELLE FALLS, WASHINGTON.]
It is probable that these legends are the relics of the teachings of
mission fathers who came to this region more than two hundred years ago.
From Tacoma we went to Seattle, another exquisite city of marvelous
growth and immense possibilities, which occupies a strip of land between
Puget Sound and Lake Washington; it has a very large water front, and
exhibits a harbor as active with shipping as San Francisco. From
Seattle, where we left our photograph car, we went to Port Townsend, and
thence across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, on Vancouver
Island, where we first touched the soil of British Columbia. This city
is also a very beautiful one, and from the summit of Beacon Hill a
magnificent view is obtained, commanding a very great expanse of water,
Mount Baker, and the Olympic Range, in which latter are numerous
glaciers large enough to swallow up the Alps.
[Illustration: A VIEW OF MOUNT HOOD.]
On the 2d of May we took passage at Victoria, on the Pacific Coast
Steamship Company’s vessel _Queen_, and started upon a delightful voyage
to Alaska, that opalescent gem in the frosted coronet of the far
northwest. The trip is a revelation, a day-dream of indescribable
transports, a luxury of blissful surprises. It is a strange combination
of ocean and inland water travel, and just enough of each to provide all
the pleasures of both, with none of the monotonies or discomforts of
either. The route is almost entirely land-locked through channels of
varying width, among islands which appear numberless, and as green with
prolific vegetation as the shores of Killarney’s lakes.
[Illustration: UMATILLA INDIAN CAMP, OREGON.]
At places the channel narrows and passes through walls of very great
height, and again widens to many miles, but all the while there are
emerald shores, and high-rising banks over which tumble many beautiful
waterfalls, and still above these, in the hazy backgrounds, are snow-
capped mountains. Two hundred miles north of Victoria is Nanaimo, the
last town with telegraphic connections, and six hundred miles beyond the
steamer touches at Fort Wrangel, where the first contact with Alaska
Indians is made, and interest at once centers in the curious appearance
and habits which they display. Passing thence through Wrangel Narrows
the region of ice is reached, indicated by a few straggling bergs that
have become detached from the glacier that forms in a fiord called
Thunder Bay, near the mouth of Stikeen River. Then follows a view of the
Coast Range, which is rent with icy cañons that glow and gleam with
refractions of clear sunlight, until in places they suggest the palace
of Iris. Through this maze of mighty wonders the steamer plows her way
to the town of Juneau, famous not so much for its latitude as being the
location of the largest quartz-mill in the world. Thence we proceeded
through a labyrinth of islands into Lynn Canal, which is considered to
be the “most sublimely beautiful and spacious of all the mountain-walled
channels of the Alaska route.” The Auk and Eagle Glaciers are displayed
on the right as you enter the canal, coming with grand effect from their
far-reaching fountains and down through the forests. But it is on the
west side of the canal, near the head, that the most striking feature of
the landscape is seen—the Davidson Glacier. It first appears as an
immense ridge of ice thrust forward into the channel, but when you have
gained a position directly in front, it is shown as a broad flood
issuing from a noble granite gate-way, and spreading out to right and
left in a beautiful fan-shaped mass, three or four miles in width, the
front of which is separated from the water by its terminal moraine. This
is one of the most notable of the large glaciers that are in the first
stage of decadence, reaching nearly to tide-water, but failing to enter
it, send off icebergs. Davidson Glacier is on the left shore of Chilcat
River, and very near the Indian village of Chilcat, the northernmost
point reached by the regular line of steamers. The place is of very
little interest except for its salmon canneries and other fisheries.
Cod, herring and halibut are very plentiful, but all the streams
thereabout abound with salmon. Indeed, during certain seasons they are
so numerous as to fairly choke the shallow rivers, and in places they
may be scooped up with shovels. From this point the steamer turns south
to Icy Strait, then proceeds north again by that channel into Glacier
Bay, whence beyond to Mount St. Elias is the real ice-land of Alaska.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: INDIAN RIVER, ALASKA.]
[Illustration: THE MOUNTAIN NEAR MUIR GLACIER.]
According to general opinion Alaska is a cold and forbidding region, fit
for habitation only by Esquimau Indians and fur traders. But this
opinion is very much overdrawn, for in the valleys and along the islands
of the coast, where the influence of the warm currents of the Pacific
Ocean is felt, the climate is mild, and a vegetation almost semi-
tropical is produced. This is shown to a considerable extent in the
photograph of Indian River on this page.—The companion picture, with our
photographer in the foreground, represents a front view of a portion of
Muir Glacier, where the ice accumulation of centuries has piled up until
it is mountain high.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: CAVE IN THE GREAT GLACIER, BRITISH AMERICA.]
Glancing for a moment at the results of a general exploration, we find
that there are between sixty and seventy small residual glaciers in the
California Sierras. Through Oregon and Washington, glaciers, some of
them of considerable size, still exist on the highest volcanic cones of
the Cascade Mountains—the Three Sisters, Mounts Jefferson, Hood, St.
Helens, Adams, Tacoma, Baker, and others, though none of them approach
the sea. Through British Columbia and Southeastern Alaska the broad,
sustained chain of mountains extending along the coast is generally
glacier-bearing. The upper branches of nearly every cañon are occupied
by glaciers, which gradually increase in size to the northward until the
lofty region between Glacier Bay and Mount St. Elias is reached.
The largest of the glaciers that discharge into Glacier Bay is the Muir,
and being also the most accessible is the one to which tourists are
taken and allowed to go ashore and climb about its ice-cliffs and watch
the huge blue bergs as with tremendous thundering roar and surge they
emerge and plunge from the majestic vertical ice-wall in which the
glacier terminates.
The front of the glacier is about three miles wide, but the central
berg-producing portion, that stretches across from side to side of the
inlet, like a huge jagged barrier, is only about half as wide. The
height of the ice-wall above the water is from 250 to 300 feet, but
soundings made by Captain Carroll show that about 720 feet of the wall
is below the surface, while still a third portion is buried beneath
moraine material. Therefore, were the water and rocky detritus cleared
away, a sheer wall of blue ice would be presented a mile and a half wide
and more than a thousand feet high.
[Illustration: SCUZZIE FALLS, NEAR NORTH BEND, BRITISH AMERICA.]
The number of bergs that become detached from the glacier every twelve
hours varies with tide and weather, but generally a new one is thus
fresh born every six or seven minutes, and so massive that the discharge
may be heard like thunder or cannonading two or more miles away. When
one of the fissured masses falls there is first a heavy, plunging crash,
then a deep, deliberate, long-drawn-out thundering roar, followed by
clashing, grating sounds from the agitated bergs set in motion by the
new arrival, and the swash of waves along the beach. All the very large
bergs rise from the bottom with a still grander commotion, rearing aloft
in the air nearly to the top of the wall, with tons of water pouring
down their sides, heaving and plunging again and again ere they settle
and sail away as blue crystal islands; free at last after being held
rigid as part of the slow-crawling glacier for centuries. And strange it
seems that ice formed from snow on the mountains two and three hundred
years ago, should after all its toil and travel in grinding down and
fashioning the face of the landscape still remain so lovely in color and
so pure.
The rate of motion of the glacier as has been determined by Professor
Reid is, near the front, about from five to ten feet per day. This one
glacier is made up of about 200 tributary glaciers, which drain an area
of about a thousand square miles, and contains more ice than all the
eleven hundred glaciers of the Alps combined. The distance from the
front back to the head of the farthest tributary is about fifty miles,
and the width of the trunk below the confluence of the main tributaries
is twenty miles or more.
Next to the Muir, the largest of the glaciers enters the bay at its
extreme northwestern extension. Its broad, majestic current, fed by
unnumbered tributaries, is divided at the front by an island, and from
its long, blue wall the icebergs plunge and roar in one eternal storm,
sounding on day and night, winter and summer, and from century to
century. Five or six glaciers of the first class discharge into the bay,
the number varying as the several outlets of the ice-fields are regarded
as distinct glaciers, or one. About an equal number of the second class
descend with broad, imposing currents to the level of the bay without
entering it to discharge bergs; while the tributaries of these and the
smaller glaciers are innumerable.
[Illustration: FACE OF MUIR GLACIER, ALASKA.]
Mr. John Muir, the explorer of Muir Glacier, thus describes his visit to
that wonderful ice-swept region: “The clouds cleared away on the morning
of the 27th, and we had glorious views of the ice-rivers pouring down
from their spacious fountains on either hand, and of the grand
assemblage of mountains, immaculate in their robes of new snow, and
bathed and transfigured in the most impressively lovely sunrise light I
ever beheld. Memorable, too, was the starry splendor of a night spent on
the east side of the bay, in front of two large glaciers north of the
Muir. Venus seemed half as big as the Moon, while the berg-covered bay,
glowing and sparkling with responsive light, seemed another sky of equal
glory. Shortly after three o’clock in the morning, I climbed the
dividing ridge between the two glaciers, 2,000 feet above camp, for the
sake of the night views; and how great was the enjoyment in the solemn
silence between those two radiant skies no words may tell.”
The destructive effects of glaciers and the extent of their ravages have
been made the subject of many interesting essays by distinguished
scientists, but nowhere has it been so interestingly and understandingly
treated as by Dr. Wright in the _Edinburgh Review_, on the “Ice Age of
North America.” The monograph, much abbreviated, is as follows:
“It is not more than 10,000 years ago since the whole of North America
and Northern Europe emerged from beneath a deluge of ice which seems to
have destroyed the aboriginal inhabitants as remorselessly as Noah’s
flood.
“The chipped flint implement-makers perished with their contemporaries,
the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the sabre-toothed tiger, and
left the globe to be repeopled by the polished stone-working or
Neolithic progenitors of its actual inhabitants. The gap between the two
races is conspicuous, and has not yet been archæologically bridged. A
catastrophe is indicated; and a catastrophe by water. This is the
conclusion of science; how singularly it harmonizes with the biblical
narrative is almost superfluous to point out.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
VILLAGE OF KASA-AN, ALASKA.—It will doubtless be a surprise to many
persons not familiar with the conditions of the Alaskan Indians to
observe that their houses are usually quite substantially built of
frame or wood. We generally think of Indians as living in wigwams or
huts, but in the case of the Alaskans they were for many years
previous to the purchase of that country by our government under the
influence of Russia, and are therefore partly civilized and somewhat
advanced in the modern ways of living. But they still retain their
old superstition, as shown by the totem poles in front of their
houses. These poles are carved and mounted with rude representations
of birds, beasts and reptiles, which are intended to give notice to
the public that the spirits of the deceased ancestors of the
occupants of the houses have entered into the living counterparts of
these rude carvings, and that any indignities offered to them will
be vigorously and promptly resented.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: CHRISTINE FALLS, ALICE BAY, ALASKA.]
The destruction of the Antediluvians who lived before the Ice Age set in
was accomplished much further back; the date 6,000 B. C. represents the
end of the Ice Age, not its beginning. How it was that ice submerged the
world no one seems to be exactly able to say, but a great deal of
valuable information has been obtained by the geological research of the
present century. Before this devastating deluge of ice set in—
“Trees reigned without interruption, in north temperate and Polar
regions, throughout the vast expanse of tertiary time. Palms and cycads
then sprang up in the room of oaks and beeches in England; turtles and
crocodiles haunted English rivers and estuaries; lions, elephants, and
hyenas roamed at large over English dry land. Anthropoid apes lived in
Germany and France, fig and cinnamon trees flourished in Dantzic; in
Greenland, up to seventy degrees of latitude, magnolias bloomed, and
vines ripened their fruit; while in Spitzbergen, and even in Grinnell
Land, within little more than eight degrees of the pole, swamp-cypresses
and walnuts, cedars, limes, planes and poplars grew freely.”
For some reason or other the temperature gradually fell, and great
glaciers forming in the northern regions, the highlands of Canada and
the Arctic Circles, submerged Northern Europe and reduced Canada and
half of the United States to the present condition of Greenland. Those
who see glaciers to-day can form little idea of the enormous
possibilities of semi-fluid ice. Only in Alaska, where the Muir Glacier
empties itself into the Muir inlet at the rate of seventy feet a day,
can we form any idea of the glacier as a destructive agency. This
glacier empties two hundred million cubic feet of ice into the sea every
day; that is to say, 45,000 tons of ice fall into the water every minute
in avalanches with detonations which sound like the booming of a
cannonnade. The very earth seems to tremble, and the sea boils and foams
with the continual discharge of fresh icebergs. “From observations upon
living glaciers,” says Dr. Wright, “and from the known nature of ice, we
may learn to recognize the track of a glacier as readily and
unmistakably as we would the familiar foot-prints of an animal.” By the
effects of ice-grinding, rocks are smoothed and polished, rounded and
mammillated. They are, moreover, striated. “These may be called glacial
hieroglyphics; glacial deposits are equally distinctive. They are of
three different kinds—ground moraine, terminal moraine, and erratic
bowlders. The heights to which the ice-flood rose are frequently self-
registered on the mountains which once breasted its flow. They serve, in
Dr. Wright’s phrase, as ‘glaciometers.’ Thus it has been learned that
the ice was a mile thick in New England and a couple of thousand feet
thick in Pennsylvania. The date of the close of the Glacial Epoch in the
United States can scarcely, then, be placed earlier than 6,000 B. C. For
it was, we repeat, the withdrawal of the ice that set the chronometer of
the Falls going. The Falls of Niagara, indeed, constitute in themselves,
in Dr. Wright’s apt phrase, ‘a glacial chronometer.’”
[Illustration: TAKU GLACIER, ALASKA.]
It was this tremendous agency of glacial action that gave us Northwest
America as we have it at present. “The inexhaustible fertility of the
Far West is an endowment from vanished glaciers.”
The world to-day is very different from what it was in the old times.
The mountains stood higher and the glaciers forming on their slopes
crumpled the earth in beneath their weight. The earth-crust was not
strong enough to bear the weight of its ice-armor. About six million
square miles were covered with ice, varying in thickness of half a mile
to a mile. Taking it only at half a mile in height, the weight per
square mile was no less than two thousand million of tons. “And the
whole of this enormous mass being extracted from the ocean, its
differential effect in producing change of level was doubled. The ice-
cumbered land accordingly went down, like an overladen ship, until it
was awash with the waves, and sea-shells were deposited along coast-
fringes above the drift. Then, as the ice melted, recovery ensued.” The
whole article is full of interesting and suggestive reading, and is an
excellent example of a popular presentation of the results of scientific
research.
[Illustration: DAWSON’S GLACIER, BRITISH AMERICA.]
The return trip was made down Chatham and Peril Straits to Sitka, the
capital city of Alaska, situated on the Pacific shore of Baranoff
Island. The place has grown very much in importance in the past few
years, though it has not increased correspondingly in size. It is a
considerable harbor for whaling and sealing vessels, that touch there
for supplies, and accordingly supports a population that is largely
American. The natives, however, still continue in considerable numbers,
but contact with English-speaking people is rapidly civilizing them, and
their old-time characteristics are fast disappearing. But in one
particular they exhibit small change, viz.: religion. Long under the
domination of Russian influence and missionaries of the Greek Church, it
is not surprising that the natives should continue in the faith which
was thus first established among them. There are three Greek churches in
the city, all fairly well supported, though the communicants are content
to worship in rather humble edifices. But while adopting the Greek
faith, the native Indians generally retain their ancient mortuary
customs; and among the interior tribes particularly, witchcraft, or
Shamanism, and exorcism, still prevail. Burial of bodies is very seldom
practiced among any of the Indians, as preservation of their dead is a
universal desire. It is, therefore, a common thing to see their
cemeteries, instead of earth-mounds and tombstones, a collection of
mortuary houses, in which the dead are laid with great care, concealed
only by the skins or blankets in which they are wrapped, something after
the manner of the Sioux Indians. Thus disposed of, the dead are long
preserved in that cold climate, the houses themselves often decaying
before dissolution of the bodies is far advanced. This, however, applies
to what may be called the better class of natives. Among the interior
and poor people, it is the custom to remove the body to some secluded
spot, usually on a bluff overlooking a river, and lay it upon the
ground. A shelter is made by building over it a small conical-shaped
structure of spruce logs, and a tree near-by is stripped of its branches
and small pieces of cloth are tied to it to mark the spot. The household
utensils, sled, and some of the weapons of the deceased are left with
him, should he be the head of a family, and the place is tabooed
thenceforth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
THE POOL AT BANFF HOT SPRINGS, BRITISH AMERICA.—These celebrated
springs are in the Rocky Mountain region of British Columbia, on the
line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. They are celebrated for their
healing qualities, and have become a favorite resort for invalids
and tourists. The photograph represents the pool or principal
spring, at the foot of a great mountain. The rocks thereabout show
volcanic origin, and several of the springs flow with water of a
high temperature, and possess remedial qualities equal to those of
the hot springs of Arkansas. The scenery of that region is sublime
in the highest degree, and possesses even a greater attraction for
tourists than the springs do.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: DEVIL’S GATE, BEAVER CAÑON, BRITISH AMERICA.]
Our return journey was devoid of the surprises which made the northward
trip so delightful, yet the charm which possessed us after leaving
Victoria continued throughout, for the magnificent scenery along the
route cannot be exhausted by a single glance, but rather grows in beauty
when lingeringly watched. It was impossible to feel that the voyage was
being made on any part of the ocean, so still was the water, so green
the near-by shores, so clear the sky, dropping down all around upon
frosted peaks and island forests. And the nights were so gloriously
grand, sprinkled with jewels of light from moon and stars that made the
world as beautiful as the lawn in front of paradise, and brought to mind
the poet’s tribute to nature’s solitude:
“The waves were dead;
The tides were in their graves;
The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
The winds were withered in the stagnant air.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------