Another Summer Part 2

JUNEAU, July 13, 1892.

Yesterday we were moving through the straits, and looking upon the majestic scenery which distinguishes Alaska, for a thousand miles from Tacoma. We pa.s.sed the great Davidson Glacier, and during the afternoon and evening were constantly seeing immense ranges of mountains, until we reached Icy Bay at seven this morning. Here the steamer took in her supply of ice, fishing it out of the water and hoisting it on board, several tons at a time. Coming into Icy Bay, the scenery was of extraordinary grandeur, mountains many thousand feet high, the bases of which were near the water, and numerous waterfalls and glaciers.

Some of us sat up nearly all night to see the wonders, the like of which cannot be seen anywhere in the world, except, perhaps, in Greenland. After midnight the moon came up in all her glory, and the northern lights played fantastic tricks in the sky. The great glacier in this bay is a wonder, a mile wide and several hundred feet high, the ice falling off every few minutes in great ma.s.ses. Once I saw two great ice towers, looking much like those of the Church of Notre Dame in Paris, and I called the attention of a lady to them. Hardly had I made the remark, before they both crumbled down into the water with a tremendous crash, making our big ship feel the force of the waves caused by the fall. After leaving Icy Bay we touched at Treadwell at noon, where are located some famous gold mines. Most of the pa.s.sengers went ash.o.r.e and were permitted to go through the large buildings of the mining company, and see the operations of getting gold from rocks.

The blasting was going on a short distance off. The ore was transported by rail to the mill, and then pounded into powder by several hundred powerful steam hammers, which made a prodigious din.

This powdered stone was mixed with running water, and we were informed that the gold was obtained in that way, but we saw none of it. An hour was quite sufficient for Treadwell, so we steamed over to this place, nearly opposite, and went ash.o.r.e. There are several hundred houses in this town, built at the base of the mountains. Near the water there was the usual number of Indian women squatting on the ground and offering baskets and curios for sale. The stores are well supplied with skins of foxes, bears, and other wild animals, and the usual goods required in country places.

CHAPTER XV.

THE RETURN VOYAGE, AND SOME STORIES TOLD ON THE WAY.

On the evening of the 13th we left Juneau, and reached Chilcat, the most northerly place on our course, the following morning. Then commenced the return trip over much the same route which we took on the outgoing voyage, pa.s.sing the mountains, glaciers, and islands we had seen before. The pa.s.sengers amused themselves in various ways, one group in the cabin telling stories to pa.s.s away the time.

One of this party interviewed an elderly gentleman, and asked him if there was not a history connected with the great scar which extended across his face, and the gentleman very kindly told the following, which may be called--

THE CAPTAIN'S STORY.

"My name is Neilson, and I have been at sea since I was a boy. For many years I served before the mast, then as mate, and finally as captain, on many voyages in different parts of the world. Back in the fifties I was in command of a whaling ship owned in San Francisco, and we sailed from that port to the selected cruising ground in Behring Sea, between the Aleutian Islands and Behring Strait. Once we sailed through the strait into the Arctic Ocean, but the intense cold and immense ma.s.ses of floating ice drove us back in a damaged condition.

We secured a good many whales after some months' cruising about, until, one day, a violent storm came up, and we were driven ash.o.r.e on St. Lawrence Island, near North Cape. The ship was a total loss, but all the officers and crew succeeded in getting ash.o.r.e, and a pa.s.sing ship took us back to San Francisco. I stopped in the city for some weeks, and talked a good deal with an old friend, Captain Samuel, who had also been so unfortunate as to lose his ship on a whaling voyage.

We looked about and found some capitalists who purchased a ship for us, and we determined to try our luck again, searching for whales in the Behring Sea. Captain Samuel suggested that I should be captain and he would act as mate, but I told him no, that he, being the elder and more experienced, should be captain, and I the mate, and it was so arranged. The captain of a whaling craft always has a share of the results of the voyage, and the mate another, but not so large as the captain's. It was agreed between us that on this voyage we would divide the profits, if any, equally. It will be understood that at this time whaling voyages were very profitable, sperm oil often selling in the San Francisco market for two dollars and fifty cents per gallon.

"We shipped a crew of ten men, and a second mate, took on provisions for a long voyage, and sailed for Behring Sea. We cruised about over three months, and had remarkable success, having harpooned and secured several large sperm whales, so we felt that we were going to have a good voyage.

"The crew was a rough one, and sometimes we heard murmurs of discontent about the labor of trying out the oil, and about the food, but we paid no attention, thinking it only the usual growling among sailors. One day the captain and I were in the cabin, when he, hearing a noise, stepped on deck, and was at once a.s.saulted by a man with a cutla.s.s, and instantly killed. Hearing the uproar, I too rushed on deck only to be in season to see the prostrate form of the murdered captain, and a sailor with a drawn cutla.s.s coming toward me. As I backed down the companion-way he hit me on the head, where the scar is, which has attracted your attention. I fell into the hold, and the mutineers, thinking I was dead, did not follow me. I found, in the hold, the second mate, unhurt, who staunched the flowing blood from my wound, and bound it up with some old canvas. At that time I was nearly forty years younger than I am now, and was as tough as men are made.

The mutineers heard us moving about, and fired at us with muskets loaded with ball, but did not hit us. For some reason, they did not venture down after us, probably because they knew there were loaded muskets within our reach, and that we would be sure to use them. We found the muskets, but they were useless, having been wet.

"As every moment's delay was dangerous, we being liable to be hunted down, killed, and thrown into the sea, to follow the body of our murdered captain, it became necessary for us to think and act quickly.

"We could hear the men, who were collected together directly over the cabin, talking loudly and excitedly. I knew where the magazine was, and getting a keg of powder, placed it directly under where the mutineers were standing, laid a train from it to the bow of the vessel, and touched a match to it. The explosion was almost instantaneous, and tremendous in its results, throwing to the right and left that part of the cabin over which the mutineers were, and killing or drowning every man except three, who, evidently thinking the ship was a wreck, hastily got into a boat and rowed away.

"We listened for some time, but hearing no noise, went on deck, and found on examination that the hull of the ship was perfectly sound, and that no damage had been done to the masts; so that with some a.s.sistance we could navigate her into port. We obtained the a.s.sistance required from a pa.s.sing vessel, and in due season arrived at San Francisco. There was a good deal of valuable sperm oil on board, which was sold, and gave the second mate and myself quite a sum of money, the owners being disposed to be liberal under the extraordinary circ.u.mstances.

"After this, I concluded to abandon the sea, and went into the business of supplying water to ships in the port of San Francisco.

"I had followed this business for twelve years, when one day, as I was furnishing water for a whaling ship, I saw among the sailors a man who, I felt quite certain, was the ring-leader of the gang of murderous mutineers who killed our captain and came so near making an end of me. I communicated my suspicions to the captain of the whaler, but he said that his ship was ready to sail, and that he would take the man, but would keep a watch on him, and find out if he talked while at sea. When this ship returned, the captain sought me out, and said: 'He is your man, for he talked during the voyage, and told about being on a ship on which an explosion took place, and he and two others were the only survivors.' I had the man arrested, but the administration of justice was very lax at that time in California, and the time which had elapsed since the commission of the crime rendered proof difficult to obtain, so the man escaped the gallows.

"This, gentlemen, is the story of how I became scarred for life, as you see."

Another tale related by one of the storytelling group ran as follows:

THE TRAVELLER'S STORY.--AN UMBRELLA.

"I am an expert in umbrellas, take good care of them, and they generally serve me for many years. I have one purchased in Florence, another from the Bon Marche, Paris, and this one, which I hold in my hand, bought at the Burlington Arcade, London, has been a good and faithful servant, having been used as a cane when tramping through Italy, France, Germany, and England. It has sheltered me from the rains of j.a.pan, and the terrible sun in China, Ceylon, India, Egypt, and Turkey. It has been re-covered in Vienna, and had a new stick put in at New York, and, as you see, is now in fair condition. One day, in Constantinople, I wandered along the street called La Grande Rue de Pera, which is about a mile long, and on which are located the princ.i.p.al foreign shops; but I failed to discover anything grand about it, and one is annoyed to have to avoid stepping on great yellow dogs, who are sleeping on the sidewalks, when there are any, and in the roadway. At one end of this street are cable cars, which carry you down a sharp incline to the streets on the water. I took one of these cars down, and in a few minutes pa.s.sed over the famous bridge which connects Galata with Constantinople proper, to a wharf, where I was detained some time waiting for a steamboat to take me on the splendid and never-to-be-forgotten trip up the Bosphorus, to the entrance of the Black Sea. Many large yellow dogs were wandering about on the wharf, and one of them coming near me, I scratched his back with this umbrella, which he took for a hostile demonstration, and bit the umbrella in a most savage way, with his long, sharp teeth. I succeeded in getting it away from him, and was glad that he did not try his teeth on me. From that day I have been careful about undertaking to pet strange dogs with umbrellas, or anything else, but I forgot the Constantinople experience yesterday at Sitka, when I went ash.o.r.e, and after wandering around among the Indian women, who were sitting on the gra.s.s surrounded by their mats, bottles, and various curios, I stopped opposite one of them, and saw, lying down in front of her, a very small dog, which I supposed was a puppy, but it proved to be full grown, and a very ugly little beast. I touched him with the umbrella, and he barked in a furious manner, and making one jump, fastened his teeth into my leg above the knee. I shook him off, the Indian woman put him under her blanket, and I returned to the ship to repair damages with court-plaster, vowing that never shall this umbrella be used again to pet a strange dog."

Indian reminiscences being in order, one of our party related the following:

SARAH ARBUCKLE AND THE INDIAN CHIEF.

A STORY OF FRONTIER LIFE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

"Sarah Arbuckle came to this country, with her father and brothers, about 1740, when she was sixteen years old. They settled in the midst of a dense wilderness, where the town of Merrimac now stands, many miles from neighbors, and she was their housekeeper. It was so lonely that many times a day, she would step out-of-doors to listen for the sound of their axes, and if it ceased for any length of time, she would tremble with fear lest the Indians or wild beasts had attacked them.

"One morning she was stooping over the fireplace, making the 'stirabout' (Indian hasty pudding) for breakfast, when a shadow falling across the floor startled her, and turning hastily to the open door, she was frightened almost to death at the sight of a gigantic Indian standing at the threshold, with blood streaming down all over one side of his face. He tried to speak to her, but she could not understand him. When she was a little over her fright, she saw that there was an arrow sticking in his eye, which he wanted her to remove.

She plucked up courage, drew the arrow out, dressed the wound, gave him food, and he stayed there and was cared for a few days, and then disappeared in the woods. Some years after this occurrence, a war broke out between the Indians and settlers, and the Arbuckles were preparing to remove to the garrison house for safety, when, one evening, a band of Indians, with fearful yells, burst in the doors of their house, and the tomahawk was just descending on Sarah's head, when at a word spoken by a chief, who rushed in after them, every warrior dropped his hand, and silently, one after another, filed out into the darkness, leaving the chief with the family. He had learned enough English to tell them that he had been there before, and had been a.s.sisted by them, and that they need fear nothing. They might remain on their place, and would not be molested. They did so throughout the war, and had no further trouble. This Indian came to see them annually, for years after, always bringing them some little present."

These and other stories helped us to while away the time until we arrived at Nanaimo, at six o'clock on the morning of July 16th. Here our party left the steamer and embarked on a ferry-boat.

In two hours we landed at Vancouver, British Columbia, and found there a first-cla.s.s hotel. Ten years ago, we were informed, the place on which the city is built was a wilderness, but when the Canadian Pacific Railroad made it the western terminus of its line, there was at once a "boom," such as has been seen so often in our own Western States, and now there are banks, public buildings, fine streets, electric cars, and all the appliances to make strangers and residents happy.

CHAPTER XVI.

ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC.

GLACIER HOUSE, CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY, July 19, 1892.

We left Vancouver at 2.20 P.M. on the 16th, and made our acquaintance with this great transcontinental railway. I think it fully as good as any of those over which I have travelled in recent years. A good roadbed, fine and comfortable cars, polite attendants, and every thing supplied to make travelling agreeable. The road runs for many miles on the banks of the Frazier River. Great mountains tower above, covered with snow, and there are distant views of glaciers, which would have been thought immense if we had not seen those in Alaska. We were detained all day Sunday at a place called Kamloops, a telegram having been received that a freight train had been derailed eighty miles eastward. Some of us attended service at a small Methodist Church, and listened to a good sermon from a young man who had for a congregation only about twenty persons. Leaving Kamloops on the evening of the 17th, we arrived here at seven the next morning. This hotel, which was built and is kept by the railway company, is a fine one, and guests are made very comfortable by the excellent manager, Mr. Pearly. The valley through which the road pa.s.ses does not contain more than two or three hundred acres, and is surrounded by immense mountains, one of which, Sir Donald, is a mile and a half high. Small streams of melted ice and snow come rushing down from the tops of these mountains, and form a pretty little river, in some places not more than twenty-five feet wide. Our party took a two-mile walk over a rough path to a great glacier among the mountains, Mr. Pearly acting as guide. It was a hard tramp through the woods, and over small streams, but we all survived it, and in a couple of hours returned to the hotel, very much fatigued, but well pleased. Near the hotel, the railway tracks are covered with substantial snow-sheds about a mile long, made of heavy planks and timber, affording an excellent place for walking and viewing the surrounding mountains. A party of ladies and gentlemen went out on these sheds this morning, and spent some time walking back and forth, viewing the magnificent scenery. The surrounding mountains appeared colossal in their grandeur. We had a fine view of them, and of the great glacier, and the valley below. The scenery all along this railway from Vancouver impresses me as the most splendid I have ever seen anywhere, with the exception of once, when we came up from the hot plains of India, crossed the Ganges, and taking a little narrow-gauge railway, crawled up the mighty Himalayas to Darjeeling, arriving at sunset. It was a glorious sight, four mighty ranges of mountains, among them Mount Everest, twenty-nine thousand feet high. But this is a digression. From our place of observation on the snow-sheds we were looking down into the valley, when suddenly Mr. Edwin T. Townsend shouted: "There is a bear," and all eyes were turned in the direction of the little stream running through the valley below, about one-third of a mile off. On a small island in this stream, wandering about, was a big grizzly, as large as a cow. He was in sight for half an hour, and seemed to be a playful kind of a beast. He would wade out into the stream, and get something to eat, probably refuse from the hotel, then go ash.o.r.e and devour it; and once he got hold of a good-sized spruce-tree and shook it violently. Mr. Eden, of Winnipeg, went to the hotel for a gun, and, accompanied by another gentleman, tried to head off the bear and get a shot at him, but he disappeared and could not be found.

CHAPTER XVII.

BANFF SPRINGS.

BANFF SPRINGS HOTEL, CANADIAN NATIONAL PARK, July 22, 1892.

We left the Glacier Hotel on the 19th, at 1 P.M., or, as stated in the time tables of this country, at thirteen o'clock, and arrived here at 11 P.M. We spent the whole time on the observation car, viewing the mighty mountains and magnificent scenery along the banks of the Columbia and the Beaver.

Banff is an ideal place for an hotel, being situated near the Bow River Falls and the mouth of the Spray, and surrounded by great mountains, often ten thousand feet high. There are fine roads and walks everywhere. The hotel is a splendid one, built and run by the railway company, and everything about it is first-cla.s.s. Sulphur springs are located two miles up among the mountains, the water being brought down in pipes to the rear of the hotel, where there are bathing houses, and an open-air bathing tank, thirty by twenty feet and five feet deep. The water in this tank is strongly impregnated with sulphur. Young Mr. Townsend and I took a bath in this tank, and found the water so delightful, soft, and nice to swim about in, that we stopped in too long, or were not sufficiently cautious coming out, and I caught a bad cold, followed by a cough and headache, and consequently had to spend a couple of days in bed, seeking, with the aid of Doctors Diet and Quiet, to recuperate.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCLUSION.