Kalitan, Our Little Alaskan Cousin by Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
page 22 of 81 (27%)
page 22 of 81 (27%)
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"Not good to eat Boston missionary, he all skin and bone!" "Where did they get the name Alaska?" asked Ted, as they tramped over the snow toward the glacier. "Al-ay-ck-sa--great country," said Kalitan. "It certainly is," said Ted. "It's fine! I never saw anything like this at home," pointing as he spoke to the scene in front of him. A group of evergreen trees, firs and the Alaska spruce, so useful for fires and torches, fringed the edge of the ice-field, green and verdant in contrast to the gleaming snows of the mountain, which rose in a gentle slope at first, then precipitously, in a dazzling and enchanting combination of colour. It was as if some marble palace of old rose before them against the heavens, for the ice was cut and serrated into spires and gables, turrets and towers, all seeming to be ornamented with fretwork where the sun's rays struck the peaks and turned them into silver and gold. Lower down the ice looked like animals, so twisted was it into fantastic shapes; fierce sea monsters with yawning mouths seeming ready to devour; bears and wolves, whales, gigantic elephants, and snowy tigers, tropic beasts looking strangely out of place in this arctic clime. Deep crevices cut the ice-fields, and in their green-blue depths lurked death, for the least misstep would dash the traveller into an abyss which had no bottom. Beyond the glacier itself, the snow-capped mountains rose grand and serene, their glittering peaks clear against the blue sky, which hue the glacier reflected and played with in a thousand glinting |
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