as the terminus of the much-talked-of Northern Pacific Railway.
Several coal-veins of astonishing thickness were discovered the
winter before on the Carbon River, to the east of Tacoma, one of them
said to be no less than twenty-one feet, another twenty feet, another
fourteen, with many smaller ones, the aggregate thickness of all the
veins being upwards of a hundred feet. Large deposits of magnetic
iron ore and brown hematite, together with limestone, had been
discovered in advantageous proximity to the coal, making a bright
outlook for the Sound region in general in connection with its
railroad hopes, its unrivaled timber resources, and its far-reaching
geographical relations.

After spending a few weeks in the Puget Sound a friend from San
Francisco, we engaged passage on the little mail steamer California,
at Portland, Oregon, for Alaska. The sail down the broad lower
reaches of the Columbia and across its foamy bar, around Cape
Flattery, and up the Juan de Fuca Strait, was delightful; and after
calling again at Victoria and Port Townsend we got fairly off for
icy Alaska.



Chapter II

Alexander Archipelago and the Home I found in Alaska


To the lover of pure wildness Alaska is one of the most wonderful
countries in the world. No excursion that I know of may be made into
any other American wilderness where so marvelous an abundance of