Chilcat, say up to about the 58th degree of north latitude. The pleasure
is not so much in the stopping as in the going. One is constantly passing
through new channels, past new islands, opening up new points of interest,
until finally a surfeit of the grand and magnificent in nature is reached.

A correspondent of a western journal signing himself "Emerald" has
written a description of this Alaskan tour in September, 1888. It is so
charmingly done, so fresh, so vivid, and so full of interesting detail,
that it is given herewith entire:

ON STEAMSHIP "GEORGE W. ELDER,"

PUGET SOUND, September, 1888.

We have all thought we were fairly appreciative of the wealth and wonders
of Uncle Sam's domain. At Niagara we have gloried in the belief that all
the cataracts of other lands were tame; but we changed our mind when we
stood on the brink of Great Shoshone Falls. In Yellowstone the proudest
thought was that all the world's other similar wonders were commonplace;
and at Yosemite's Inspiration Point the unspeakable thrill of awe and
delight was richly heightened by the grand idea that there was no such
majesty or glory beyond either sea. But after all this, we now know that
it yet remains for the Alaskan trip to rightly round out one's
appreciation and admiration of the size and grandeur of our native land.

Some of our most delighted _voyageurs_ are from Portland, Maine. When
they had journeyed some 1,500 miles to Omaha they imagined themselves
at least half way across our continent. Then, when they had finished
that magnificent stretch of some 1,700 miles more from Omaha to
Portland, Oregon, in the palace cars of the Union Pacific, they were