The 1899 Journal and Letters of
Charles Palache
to His Fiancé Helen Markham
With the addition of a few
letters to his family in Berkeley, California
Transcribed by Judith Gregory
(Return
to Charles Palache: 1869 - 1954)
New York to Seattle
Canada and Southeast Alaska
Glacier Bay
Sitka
Prince William Sound
Kodiak
Chicagof Bay Camp
Homeward Bound
Letters to the Palache Family
Notes on the Typescript
Charles Palache’s punctuation and spelling are inconsistent
in these letters. He tends to divide words when writing, for example,
“good night” or “drift wood,” and it's difficult
to tell whether he means to write one word or two. Many of the names,
especially Indian names, are hard to read and are not all on my map,
so they may be misspelled. Palache used the older spelling “Kadiak;”
for this document I’ve changed it to “Kodiak.” I have
occasionally added periods and commas, but only when it was essential
to the sense of the document. The parentheses ( ) are Charles Palache’s,
the [ ] brackets are mine.
For a brief explanation of
the origin of the expedition, see Palache’s first letter to his
family in Berkeley. I have added a few of these to the letters he wrote
my grandmother, Helen Markham. Others to his family are much like the
letters to her, and they are not many in any case.
Judith Gregory
October 1997
Berkeley California
New
York to Seattle
New York
May 22nd 1899
My dear Helen -
I left myself just exactly enough time last night to do the necessary
things before starting. Mr. Daly appeared and went to the car with me
but he was so tired and sleepy that I refused to let him go in town
with me. So we parted in Cambridge and I sleepily went my lonely way,
trying to convince myself that I was not coming back by the next car.
I found my berth h all right and was abed before we started. I slept
but little and looked out several times, once as we came into New London,
to see the lights along the waters of the sound and this morning to
find a glorious clear off.
So now having had breakfast and a little smoke I am scribbling you this
line to say that I have nothing to say except that I love you and want
to go back to you at Cambridge rather than forward to far-away Alaska.
I am going up to Mr. Bishop's very soon and this evening will I hope
have something of interest to tell and to send you.
Till then, good morning,
Lovingly Charlie
P.S. If you object to either paper or envelopes
please protest immediately for unless you do these will continue to
be used!!!
Charlie
My dear Helen -
Just a line this afternoon to tell you that all goes fairly with me.
I had a long confab with Dr. Lilley this morning and he seemed well
pleased with my work. The discussion is to continue this evening over
dinner with Mr. Kunz. By bed time I will be so sick of jade that I shall
never want to hear of it again and yet I must keep up the interest apparently
at least for the lucre there is in it.
Mr. Lilley paid me $150.00 on account!! this
morning. I am going to take $75.00 of this sum with me and tomorrow,
when I can get it arranged, will send you the check for the other half.
Meanwhile I send you my personal check for $75.00 not to be cashed before
the 2nd of June as explained to you before I left. Thus you will have
the sum of $150.00 to draw on as you may need it this summer.
I must be off and will write you again tomorrow
before we start.
Lovingly Charlie
[Hotel Stationery]
Hotel Manhattan
Tuesday Morning, May 23
Dear Helen:The morning has slipped away without
my having accomplished any of the many things I had planned in the line
of letter writing. And instead of having time for a long chat with you
this morning I must be content with a hurried scrawl.
I wanted to tell you of the lovely walk I had in the Park yesterday
on my way to Mr. Bishop's - I had never seen Central Park in its full
spring dress before and it was lovely beyond all expectation. Then I
wanted to tell of the wonderful display of rare and costly gems which
I saw at Tiffany's in the afternoon while waiting for Mr. Kunz. He poured
a handful of glorious sapphires out for me to dabble in a new sensation
- and I saw the closing up of the huge establishment sharp at 6. The
dinner at the St. Denis was delicious and well sauced by Mr. Kunz's
account of his recent trip to Europe including Russia.
Then we spent the evening at Kunz's house where we went over the everlasting
jade article again and I was glad to get away at 11:30. Mr. Kunz is
more than pleased with my performance as are Lilley and bishop and there
is certainly another hundred coming from it, which you may count on
as yours.
I have to go down town again before 11 and then the time will be short
till we start on our westward journey. I will continue and close this
then. For now a loving adieu.
I have written Daly to take to you any personal letters which may come
during my journey. Open them and if there is anything worth while send
it with some one of your letters.
12 N.
You see I have completed my arrangements and enclose your sewing machine!
I have been in a rush and must go get my lunch and seek our train. At
last I really feel sure I am going away and am not to see you soon again.
Do you think me cold and thoughtless that I write you so short and hurried
notes? Forgive me but the only way to forget the separation and make
it possible for me to go at all is to do things - Expect fully letters
when I have more to tell and less to do. I kiss you again good morning
and adieu. Yes! I love you.
Charlie
I might have had a letter here from you if
I had only thought!!
Dear Helen -
We are off in 10 minutes and I only write to say that our train consists
of 5 cars all of which are said to be filled. I am berthed with Prof.
Emerson in a luxurious compartment.
There are ladies aboard but whether they are all going along I do not
yet know. It makes me mad to think that is the case and that still you
are not here. Once more adieu and may you be as happy as may be.
Yours lovingly
Charlie
We stop in Chicago nearly 12 hours. From
there by Union Pacific and Oregon Short Line which I dare say is greek
to you but I will send maps of the route.
Tuesday Evening
My dear -
The evening is well along - dinner is over - I have smoked one of Mr.
Harriman's cigars and then your pipe and now have retreated from the
comfortable smoking room to have a chat with you. We are tearing along
at a great rate - proved as you see by the irregularity of these characters.
Let me tell you what I have learned so far of our party. First the train.
Smoking car - dining car, two vestibule compartment sleepers and Mr.
H's private car make it up. Mr. H. has his whole family along - wife
and 6 (?) children of whom 3 are nearly grown up. They may however not
all be his family - I have met none of them as yet. He himself is a
quiet charming gentleman, very social in manner and a model host. There
are no ladies outside his family! Several friends are with him who are
going for the hunting. Dr. Morris a young physician who promises to
be very pleasant - Mr. Devereaux a mining engineer with whom I have
already struck up acuaintance and others as yet unknown in person or
in number.
22 scientists are aboard most of whom I have met already. Emerson is
charming. We sat together all the way up the lovely Hudson river and
he kept up a string of pleasant stories and experiences. Our table at
dinner was in a constant roar. Mr. Dahl is quiet but very comeatable
and I have already had some intersting talk with him. I cannot give
the whole list of names as yet. There is an artist Swain Gifford - a
parson Mr. Nelson - a stenographer whom I would like to have typewrite
this letter for me - only that I know you would not read it if I did!!
etc.
Dinner was fine but no wines or liquors were served though one can get
and pay for them one's self which is I think a wise and favorable provision.
Altogether there is a spirit of friendliness and good-fellowship which
promises well for the expedition. There is all the feeling of a house
party - every guest at liberty to speak to every other is he wishes
or to remain silent if he choose. We are coming into a station and as
it is already late and as writing under the present conditions is something
trying I will close and mail this now and tell you more another time.
Love to Jeanette and much more of a different kind and with many kisses
for yourself from your devoted
Charlie
We are in Syracuse and I go for a two minute
walk while we stop. Good night
Ohio, just past Toledo
May 24
My dear -
Good morning! I hope you are as well and contented with life as I am
this morning. Such perfection of traveling I have never enjoyed before.
Weather just right - clear but not hot - no dust - a train that rolls
along with perfect (?) smoothness - and good company if one wants it.
We are running this morning thro' the level green fields interspersed
with forests of northern Ohio having just left Lake Erie behind. There
are almost no flowers in the fields only oceans of green. Yesterday
the scenery was far more interesting. I never saw the Hudson to such
good advantage. The hills and bluffs covered with a hundred tones of
green, amid which here and there a dogwood in full blossom stood out
like a huge bouquet. Then the purple Catskill Mts. rising high across
the river - lastly as we sat at dinner the gentle rolling hills and
fertile meadows of the Mohawk Valley to rest and delight the eye at
every new turn.
You have no idea of the babel of noise behind me as I write in the smoking
room. Above the roar of the train comes the click of a typewriter and
the confused voices of twenty men shouting at one another - not exactly
the best conditions you will agree with me for writing a letter of any
sort especially one where love should be the theme.
I started out with a piece of absentmindedness which will I hope turn
out all right in the end. Mr. Lilley gave me the little bag of gold
of which he wrote and I put it in the safe of the hotel over night.
When we were well up the Hudson I was talking to Emerson about jade
and Bishop and then with a shock I remembered that I had left the money
behind me! I have written back to have it telegraphed to me at Seattle
and see no reason why it should not come to me all right but I cannot
forgive my self for the carelessness of the act. You see I need someone
to look after my money affairs for me.
Our steamer is the G.W. Elder, a boat that has been on the Alaska line
since it was first established. She has been refitted and is said to
be very comfortable
We reach Chicago about 2:30 P.M. today and remain there till midnight
so we shall have time to run around there quite a bit. I hope to go
out to the Chicago University during the afternoon.
Noon, Elkhart, Indiana
The states roll away behind us as we speed
along. I have just turned my watch back an hour noting at the moment
with regret that lunch time which I had thought at hand was still that
much off. Doing nothing is frightfully hard work and develops an enormous
appetite.
I have found a copy of Vancouver's Voyages on board and have spent most
of the morning delving in it. It is fascinating to me to read of the
early explorers of any region and he tells there of the discovery of
Puget Sound where he scattered with a liberal hand the names of all
his officers and friends on bays channels and mountains. Mts Ranier,
Baker, St Helens, Puget Sound, St George's Channel etc. are names thus
given and still familiar, besides a host of others.
Emerson sits opposite me writing like myself and has just remarked how
fortunate it was that there seemed to be not a single "cad"
in the party - in so large a crowd not less more less remarkable (it
is less I mean after all) than pleasant. There are some young "digs"
of the Greenman type who are far from interesting but they are unobtrusive
and most of the men are pleasant companionable fellows.
Emerson has just regaled me with a cheerful account of how he was smashed
up in a railway train of this line at a point we passed this morning.
It was in 93 [?]. Leg, arm and ribs broken, head cut etc. etc. For all
that he is alive and cheerful now. He is only 55 years old instead of
the 70 he looks and I thought him.
For breakfast I had most appetizing narratives from Prof. Brewer of
various methods of execution of which he had been witness, hanging guillotine
etc. and of how the chief actors in them obtained the quietus. Still
I did justice to my strawberries and mackerel and am now as hungry as
"seven lions" as Emerson says.
Lunch is over - Chicago at hand and I must close this and send it off
before we start off for the afternoon. We most of us go out to the Field
Columbian Museum and at 7 dine with Mr. Harriman at the Auditorium.
I sat at lunch with Mrs. Harriman who had heard about me and our affairs
thusly. A friend of Miss Ruck's [Rock's?] who was going to the wedding
told Mrs. H. that her party was interfering sadly with the ceremony
having carried off the best man who in turn had postponed his wedding
in order to go!! So, she said, we ladies consider it our duty to be
specially kind to you in your bereavement!
Do not however be afraid - the ladies except the married ones are much
too young to be dangerous!
Good-day and many greetings from your devoted
Charlie
Chicago, Car Utopia
May 24th 12 Midnight
Dear Helen -
Just a line before I turn in to tell how the afternoon and evening passed.
Our whole crowd wandered down to the Field Museum, the only building
from the Fair which still remains. Emerson and I went off together there
and saw the minerals, spending about two hours looking over the collections.
Then we walked over to the Chicago University, admiring the large buildings
all of gray stone in the same style. After a brief call on Prof. Iddings
[?], Mrs. Parker's friend (?) we came back to dinner at the Auditorium
Annex where nearly the whole party assembled. I sat next the older Harriman
daughter who proved quite pleasant company despite her youth she not
yet being old enough to come out. Then I joined some of the younger
fellows to see the Runaway Girl which proved rather a stupid farce tho'
the March Hear the Band was amusing and lively. We have taken some more
swells aboard, particularly Mr. Burt the President of the Union Pacific
and our party is now complete except for the three Californians who
join at Seattle.
I found out more about mail probilities [sic] today. We shall probably
receive no mail after leaving Seattle until our return there as there
is no certainty that we will call at Sitka returning and so might miss
mail sent there. So address any letters you may write to Seattle, General
Delivery, care Harriman Alaska Expedition and please tell Daly to do
the same. I find we shall be back there before August 1st - perhaps
by July 26th so send nothing after July 20th. That means I will be with
you again by Aug. 1st almost to a certainty which delights my heart
as every day counts much at that time. We can send mail more often than
we receive it and should be able to let you hear four or five times
I hope.
My money was forwarded all right as I heard today much to my relief.
Tomorrow sometime we reach Omaha and Seattle Saturday or Sunday I believe.
I must send a line home before we leave Chicago and as it is already
late will stop this here.
Love and many kisses to my love from your devoted
Charlie
Omaha, May 25th
My dear -
We have been and are traveling much too fast to make letter writing
a pleasure. 55 to 65 miles an hour is high speed even on the best of
tracks and the cars swing around at a great rate. I have just been aroused
from a nap with the announcement that ---
A few moments remain before we start on again and I must at least send
my greetings. We have been here 2 hours during which we took an electric
car ride out to the old Fair Grounds.
We are [illegible word] off Goodby - good night love and many kisses
from your devoted
Charlie
6 P.M.
Friday Morn. May 25
near Cheyenne
My dear -
I am very much ashamed that yesterday passed without my getting off
a letter to you. The trouble was that I did not start early and therefore
did not get to it at all.
Now I am up early - six o'clock with us - 9 with you - for a chat before
the smoking room fills up with the crowd. We are climbing the Rockies
- still going fast however as witness this writing which is better than
it would be in ink. So please forgive the pencil on that score. Yesterday
was not particularly eventful being chiefly marked by my visits to the
private car which is decidedly nice. The car is last on the train and
the last third of it is an observation room with big plate windows from
floor to roof on end and sides. Comfortable chairs - electric fans -
maps conveniently hung - flowers, books - candy, and all the other "comforts
of home" including the company of the four girls who are jolly
and simple and not in the least spoiled by the luxury of their surroundings.
We talked and read there nearly all the morning. After lunch I was very
sleepy and lay down for a nap to be awakened as told in my abbreviated
note of Omaha. We all finally got out to the Fair Buildings which are
now empty but produce an effect well worth seeing. Returned to the train
we were soon off again at a terrific rate across the Nebraska plains
and up the North Platte Valley. There was a grand sunset with high piled
masses of silver lined dark clouds and fleecy gold veils and after that
was over the girls took some of us back to the observation car for some
"singing" (God save the mark!). I also sang as you will be
distressed to learn but they all stood it nobly and indeed there were
some no better than myself. We all enjoyed it anyway and I was thinking
of you all the time and so I know was Miss Mary Harriman for the girls
are of an age to take a romantic interest in anything like our separation.
Altogether both the young ladies and Mrs. H. are very nice and show
their millions absolutely not at all which is delightful.
I had a grand sleep last night and wake up ready for an interesting
day in the mountains. We are in the great grazing country of Wyoming
- endless rolling fields of yellowish-green short grass - no bush or
tree to break its carpet and rarely a flower. I had always before seen
the plains brown, dusty and forlorn and this spring dress gives me an
entirely different notion of the country.
We have been organized into a regular scientific body with all sorts
of officers committees etc. I hope they will succeed withal in making
it possible to accomplish much good work. We have all registered in
a big "log book" and appointed John Burroughs as Historian
so we shall have the trip well written up anyhow.
We have just brought the first mts. into view - the Laramie Hills and
here is Cheyenne where this letter must be mailed. I wish it were a
better messenger to carry to you my loving thoughts. Believe me you
are ever in my thoughts and shall be till we meet again.
Farewell with much love from your devoted
Charlie
Ogden - Cheyenne - Omaha
514 miles - 516 miles
This is what I read as I look out the window
at the station.
9 P.M.
May 26
Dear Helen -
This has been a fine day in many respects and for me at least contained
one novel experience. We crossed the summit of the line in the early
morning and all day long every new turn brought into view some new vista
of distant snow clad mountain or rocky cliff. Each stop we all scramble
off to pick some tiny flower or some rock from the road side.
Then it's all aboard again and on we go to the next stop. We have been
in the Rocky Mts all day but it is mostly a high plateau country, the
lofty ranges all lying 50 or 60 miles to the north or south. The highest
point on the line is almost 8000 ft. at Sherman. It was high enough
to give the air a fine bracing quality anyway and as it was cool as
well it was a joy to be outdoors. Most of the morning for the time I
was smoking I was on the back platform amusing the ladies and enjoying
the view. After the midday meal I was for a long time with Mr. Burroughs
trying to explain to him some of the geology of the remarkable scenery
thro' which we were passing which was so wholly new to him. He seemed
very interested in what I told him and I enjoyed the conversation. About
six P.M. we reached and crossed the Green River quite a good sized stream
in fine scenery and a little later came to Granger the point where we
left the regular overland Union Pacific line for the Portland line which
goes to the north through Idaho.
Here came the experience - a fellow named Trudeaux and I took a twenty
five mile ride on the cowcatcher of our engine. It was fine and as the
pace was slow absolutely free from danger. It was up the valley of quite
a stream which was over its banks. The meadows were green and hemmed
on both sides by brown rocky hills. Numbers of birds rose on each side
and two were killed by the engine. There was considerable excitement
in the rushing along thus on the very front of the train but the wind
was fierce and at first we were well chilled but that passed soon. I
do not think I care to repeat the ride but am bound to get into the
cab for a trip before we come to the end of our journey. This is one
of the privileges of being with railway magnates on a special train.
It has grown by the way to seven cars.
We are off for a great trip tomorrow - a thirty mile ride to the great
Shoshone Falls of the Snake river and back. I am wondering what will
be left of me after 30 miles on an Indian pony - we only need to ride
one way as coaches go along and we change off. We start at 6 A.M. and
expect to get back by dark. So tomorrow you need not expect to hear
from me. Good night - "Yes I do!" very much - your devoted
Charlie
Boise City Idaho
Sunday, May 28th
My dear -
It is about 6 o'clock - 9, your time - and I am up for a talk with you
before breakfast. It is quite incredible that only one week has passed
since I was with you last - It seems ages ago - yesterday alone was
so full a day that it made Cambridge seem more than ever far away. I
wonder what you are doing today - on what excursion bent? Or are you
writing letters and going to church? I trust none of my poor letters
have gone astray, they have been few enough at best. How I did long
for you time and again yesterday to enjoy with me the full life and
grand scenery of the day. It was one of the days of my life that will
not soon be forgotten. Let me tell you of it as well as I can.
We came into the station of Shoshone during the night and at five A.M.
all hands were waked and after a hurried breakfast at 5:30 were ready
for the start. Trunks had been overhauled the night before and all sorts
of riding and hunting costume made its appearance. If you wish to know
mine think of me in my golf clothes as on our last Sunday walk. For
the twenty-seven mile trip to the Falls mixed conveyances were provided
and it taxed the resources of the little place to get our 35 people
over the road. First there was the big Concord coach holding about 12-15
people with six horses - a 2 seated, 2 horse wagon for 6 passengers,
Mr. Harriman's 2 horse buggy and ten saddle horses. We got off at 6:30
in good style the freshness of the morning and the prospects of a very
fine day putting all in the best of spirits.
____________________
I began writing before we had quite reached
Boise. Now we are here and I have left the train and taken my seat on
a pile of lumber near the station where I can breathe the fresh morning
air hear the joyous songs of the robins and rest my aching bones.
To go on with my story. --
The saddle horses were a rather good lot
of Indian ponies or "cayuses" as the day's work proved tho'
many of them were sorry looking brutes. One of the Harriman girls was
mounted and rode like a bird - and I too was among the cavalry, having
little fancy for a dusty stage ride where horses were available. And
I never remember any ride at all comparable to the one we had. We were
in a region of gently rolling plains stretching away to the far-off
bases of snow clad mountains which cloud the horizon. To the East was
the Saw Tooth Range and its beauty as the newly risen sun flooded its
snowy slopes with light was indescribable. The plain on which we rode
was an ancient lava field still but thinly clad with soil and very dry,
hence supporting little vegetation but the sage brush whose miniature
trees were thickly scattered over its whole surface and lent the whole
an olive green tint very restful to the eye. But in among the sage were
many lovely dainty blossoms of strange flowers and for the first five
miles I was constantly off my horse picking some new flower. Lupine,
forget-me-not, gillias, lovely white evening primrose and bright sunflowers
were some of many I noted. A fine fresh wind came in our faces as we
rode south and the ride was simply exhilarating - no other word suggests
the sensation so well.
On and on we rode, finally crossing a low
divide and bringing into view the long descent of our plain to the Snake
river twenty miles away. The river was however invisible and the same
gray green sloped up again beyond to the foot of the further purple
mountains.
After three hours riding I turned over my
horse to another, not because I was tired but wished to give some one
else the pleasure and in another half hour we were at the river. With
a suddenness that almost takes away the breath you find yourself on
the brink of a vast chasm 1000 ft. deep; the walls are vertical, of
black basaltic lava and in the flat bottom about 1/4 mile wide flows
the muddy river. At our very feet as we stand on the brink of the chasm
is the fall where the river makes a plunge of over 200 feet, first breaking
over several terraces into fine cascades. From the pool below where
the dashing water is churned into foam rises a great cloud of spray
which waves and shifts about in the gusty wind currents of the place.
If you have seen Niagara you know what it
is like. But here the surroundings are so much more picturesque: the
lava crags tower above like frowning fortifications. Islands with green
shrubbery divide the current at the brink of the fall and on the summit
on one of these crags a fish hawk has piled its huge nest in safety.
The wagon road descends to the river but
we get out and walk down, are ferried to the further side above the
falls and hasten down for a nearer view of their beauties. Points of
vantage are numerous and we seek the outermost ones above and near the
dashing waters. We are drenched with the spray and the sun behind us
casts a great rainbow arch across the gulf at our feet. This bank, kept
wet by the perpetual rain from the spray, is a garden of wild flowers
of varied beauty, many of them familiar California friends.
There is a little Hotel above the fall and
we eat our lunch there and then hurry away to clamber by a steep path
down to the base of the falls. Here we get quite another aspect of the
fall and see the heights above it, framing it as it were, at their best.
Up again and again out on the cliffs to study the magic beauty of the
foamy seething waters as they lean toward the depths - to feast the
eye on the majesty of proportion of the whole gigantic scene and with
the geologist's eye to study the splendid section of the lava fields
thus offered and to collect specimens of the rocks. With regret we turn
back, climb out of the canon, take a farewell look from the upper vantage
point and so at 2 P.M. start on the return. All the saddle horses were
taken for the first stretch but I started off on foot ahead of the stage
and covered 3 or 4 miles before overtaken and picked up.
But before we are half way back someone gets
tired riding and I take his place with pleasure, which is increased
by finding the horse even easier and better than the one I had before.
By 6:30 P.M. we are back to the train, have washed the dust out of our
throats with a magnificent glass of cask beer from the saloon (By the
way I discovered the merits of this beer - so superior to the bottled
article on the train - and made it known to certain favored ones on
board) and the dust from our bodies with a towel bath, and at 7:30 sit
down to a game and fish dinner with the appetites of wolves and satisfaction
beaming from every face. A cigar is soon smoked and I turn in by 9:30
to dream of you and waterfalls and aching limbs and to wake at day light
this morning with a chorus of birds singing outside as we stand still
at a station.
Thus we visited the Shoshone Falls of the
Snake River. If I have not made you feel as you read my account that
it was a rare experience - a perfect day - my pen has sadly failed to
do its duty and my interest.
Noon, May 28th
Boise City.
Since last writing I have had a pleasant
morning's wandering and now before we start there are still a few minutes
left to tell you what was to do. This town is a charming spot - at the
base of the mountains with abundant water so that its gardens and orchards
flourish luxuriantly, it offers the pleasantest contrast to the weary
miles of sage brush desert through which we have fared. After breakfast
we all took an electric car out about a mile to a huge swimming tank
and natatorium where they utilize the waters of powerful hot mineral
springs to make a delightful warm bath. I had a tub bath which quite
took away the soreness resulting from yesterday's ride and then after
a lounge on the grass, a bit of free lunch and some drinks and a smoke
I went out to the neighboring hill to collect the local rock and see
the hot springs. On returning to the natatorium I found most of the
party gone to church where our chaplain was to hold service. One of
the hospitable inhabitants of the town picked up two or three of us
in his buggy and brought us back to the station after conducting us
to the U.S. Assay Office where we saw a respectable number of real gold
bricks. Now while waiting for lunch and departure I write in the train.
Our trip becomes each day more and more promising
and pleasant. We are a huge happy family on a delightful tour in the
course of which each can follow unhindered his own bent. This breaking
up of the trip across the continent with so many halts has given me
a chance of getting an idea of this western country such as twenty rides
thro' on the train would not furnish. And in addition it removes the
tedium of constant travel making the journey a pleasure instead of a
trial. We shall stop again (tomorrow?) at Portland Oregon and will probably
get to Seattle about the 30th so as to sail on June 1st. I grow anxious
to get to the end to get letters from you which (I hope) are awaiting
me there. We are about to be off so I must close for now. Love to Jeanette
and to your self all the massages of affection that a letter can carry
from your lover
Charlie
The Dalles, Oregon
Tuesday May 30
My dear:
We have been lying here the most of the night, waiting to go down the
great gorge of the Columbia River by daylight. It is not yet seven o'clock
and I am hastening to write a little before we start as I expect to
ride down in the cab of the engine and wish to be prepared. Yesterday
was another of our full days - a day full of unexpected pleasures of
varied sorts. Instead of going straight on to Portland we made a great
detour to the north, east and south which brought us to Lewiston on
the Snake river from which point we descended 150 miles in a steamer
to its junction with the Columbia. But I must tell the doings in detail.
Sunday after leaving Boise City we rolled along through the valley first
of the Boise then of the Snake with here and there great fields of blue
and gold - lupines and sunflowers. At Huntingdon we entered Oregon,
left the Snake and climbed out onto the upland through a tortuous canyon.
As the sun set we ran swiftly downward through a glorious broad valley
bounded on both sides by lofty mountains whose tops, newly whitened
by snow, were partly involved in dark cloud masses. The level floored
Potter valley was 5 or 6 miles broad - a field of green. The mountains
called the Blue Range rose 5000 feet above us and were dark and mysterious.
As I sat at ease after dinner smoking a good cigar, reclining in a big
easy chair and gazing out at the splendid panorama I said to Prof. Emerson
I was fulfilling one of my wildest youthful dreams. It was the counterpart
in many ways of the valley of the Inn which traverses the Tyrol Alps
as I have seen it several times.
When it grew dark and my cigar was finished
I joined the ladies and a number of men in the observation car and the
twenty of us sang hymns for at least an hour. They are all Episcopalians
and the "sky pilot" as Dr. Morris calls him was there to help.
The singing was very bad but recalled pleasant memories of elsewhere.
In any case it was the first time I ever took part in even an approximation
to a service in a railway car. Meanwhile it began to rain and did so
all night as we climbed mountain after mountain through the night. We
passed through Walla Walla going northward, woke up at Colfax, eat breakfast
as we passed Pullman and at Moscow we were again in Idaho. Here we changed
from our luxurious train to a short one of another company for the run
down to Lewiston. It is a fine country for wheat growing on the upper
plateau but the rivers run in great wild gorges and so travel is apt
to be picturesque. We went down the Potlatch river a clear rushing stream,
through the reservation of the Nez Perce Indians many of whom we saw
in their bright colored blankets. By good fortune we found an obstruction
in our way in this canyon - a freight car off the track - and the hour's
delay allowed us to scramble up the banks and gather armfuls of gorgeous
wild flowers which were in their perfect spring beauty and refreshed
by the still falling rain. Others watched the wrecking train do its
work and soon we were on again down to the Clearwater River which in
turn we followed till at 1:30 P.M. we reached its junction with the
Snake at Lewiston and took our steamer. The Spokane was a new and rapid
stern wheeler, and with the help of the five mile current we went down
stream at a rate of nearly 25 miles an hour. The clouds broke away as
we went aboard and a fresh wind blew upstream. It is a grand rushing
river winding in long sweeping curves through its gigantic gorge. The
cliffs of basalt, black, brownish or grey are beautifully sculptured
into innumerable fantastic forms. But chiefly they rise in a series
of great steps or benches receding as they rise and clothed with verdant
grass so that despite the steepness many cattle and horses graze on
them. Up to 2000 feet the walls rise and the little tributary streams
carve out great arcades or recesses with a tiny brook in the bottom.
Here and there is a strip of good land on the shore of the Snake and
orchards luxuriate on such producing famous fruit. It was a feast and
field day for the geologists -
We had lunch and again rushed out to enjoy
the ever changing picture till the fierce afternoon wind drove us in
again. At 6 P.M. we reached a landing place - Riparia - whither the
train had returned and part of the party returned to it. One or two
of us scaled the cliffs while the steamer took coal, botanizing and
enjoying the vast view. Or I might as well say that I was the only one
to get to the top although modesty ought to forbid. On again - supper
- another long promenade on the upper deck watching the sunset, and
examining the railroad building on the left bank in which Mr. Harriman
is interested and which he came especially to see. Night fell and as
I retreated to the cabin and got out my paper to write to you I was
greeted by a call for a game of cards which I could not refuse and we
had a jolly game of "Rounce" at which I was conspicuously
unsuccessful and which I shall some day teach you.
At ten our boat ran up to the bank of the
river at Wallula, just before it empties into the Columbia and we landed,
climbing up to the tracks on the bridge above where we were soon joined
by the train and started on again on our way. An ideal day's excursion
perfectly carried. That's what comes of travellling with railroad presidents
who with the greatest ease imaginable arrange things seemingly most
impossible.
I have a different address to give you at
Seattle.
Care E.S. Curtis
709 2nd Avenue
Seattle.
This instead of the General Delivery. It
will still be well to mention the Expedition on the address. But it
is certain that we will receive no mail till our return from Alaska.
We reach Seattle tomorrow - the 31st and sail the same day.
We have had a lovely run down the Columbia
- I rode 20 miles thro' the finest gorge in the engine cab with much
pleasure and we made frequent short stops at the fish wheels and lovely
cascades that lie along the road. The flowers were in perfection and
the botanists made the most of every moment and secured a rich haul.
We are drawing into Portland and as we are
to have a busy day or rather afternoon there I will close and send this
off. I have just remembered that it is Decoration Day - are you having
your promised picnic? I trust so and that you are well and happy. Give
my regards to any friends you may see and love to Jeannette and for
yourself affectionate greetings from your lover
Charlie.
[Hotel stationery]
The Portland
Portland, Oregon
May 30th 1899
Just a scribbled line to explain the enclosures.
The letters were brought to me here today by Mr. Keeler of Berkeley
who is of our party. I send them as they contain certain items of interest
to you. The clipping from the Portland paper gives an accurate and full
account of our membership and if you keep it to consult later my references
to various ones may be more intelligible. I am looking forward to tomorrow
as almost certainly bringing me a letter from you - the last I shall
receive for 2 months. It will be a weary waiting and I trust I shall
not be compelled to keep you uninformed of my doings so long. We have
had dinner here at the Hotel and start in a few moments for the steamer
that takes us to our train again some way down the Columbia River. I
will write again from Seattle - for now farewell with much love from
your devoted
Charlie
| |
[Telegram]
Seattle Wn May 31-99 |
Miss Helen H. Markham 2
Buckingham Place, Cambridge
Sail today well thanks for letters love good bye. |
| |
Charlie |
Seattle
On board G. W. Elder
May 31st 1899 - 3 P.M.
My dear -
Your two letters were welcome indeed this morning, overflowing as they
were with love and affection. This is the hardest part of going off
so far - that I am to hear from you so rarely or not at all. Your message
about Eben Barker came just in time. Half an hour after receiving your
letter I read in the paper that the 'Perry' was to sail this morning
and as soon as I could I went down to see if she was still in the harbor.
I found she was to sail north at 11:30 so went out - found the young
man who gave me a very pleasant reception and spent ten minutes talking
with him and his brother officers. They were all in the confusion of
departure so we soon took ours, hoping to meet them again northward
as they are bound our way. Tell Mrs. Barker that her son looks splendidly
and that I was sorry not to have a longer visit with him.
I hope you have had my letters and that they
have told you the truth that tho' I have indeed had much to occupy and
interest me I have not for a moment forgotten or ceased to miss you.
You are in my thoughts always and when I think how much you, too, would
enjoy this trip could you have been here, I wish again almost that I
were not going rather than go thus alone. And yet it is a wonderful
opportunity which it offers not only to travel in comfort and see the
country but to meet on equal terms a most interesting body of men of
science and affairs such as are not often thrown thus together.
Our quarters on the steamer are only less
comfortable than were those on the train which we have left. Each man
has a stateroom to himself which I am very glad of as it gives me a
privacy and independence I had hardly hoped for. The steamer is newly
refitted, quite large enough to hold our party in entire comfort and
well equipped in every way. Two launches will enable us to make frequent
and easy landings. The table as shown by our lunch today will be well
served - and I see no reason why we should not be exceedingly comfortable
in every way imaginable. I know no more of the details of our plans
than I did when I left N.Y.; indeed I doubt if they are fully formed
but will develop as we proceed. This does not worry me - I am simply
prepared to do all I can in every sort of way that opportunity affords
and to be satisfied with that without worrying about the future nor
repining about the unaccomplished. Certainly our experience thus far
gives assurance that all will be done that can be for our comfort and
convenience as well as our interest and pleasure.
I got my money all right though my carelessness
cost me five dollars - and I completed my outfit this morning. I purchased
a suit of what is called Makinaw - a sickly yellow sort of woolen garment
said to be dry and warm and much used by lumbermen and such. I hope
it will do. Otherwise I had nothing to get but odds and ends - a supply
of tobacco and a hair-cut all of which are now accomplished. We arrived
here in the night and woke to find a dreary rainy morning overhead -
so much gloomy weather on the coast forebodes a wet trip which in its
turn will disappoint our photographic hopes. But all may yet go well
and at least I will hope for good luck in this regard as in others.
The boat is filled with lovely roses sent
to the Harrimans. If there is anything they have not which they can
want or think of I do not know what it is. A big gramophone - a piano
and one of these machines which play upon the piano, two violins and
several pianists and vocalists promise much music for better or worse.
I am feeling very well indeed. The lame back
that resulted from my long ride of Saturday has quite vanished and I
feel like a fighting cock - so much for the promise of the voyage.
I am more in hopes that I may receive at
least one mail while we are away so do please continue to send me letters
at intervals, imagining if need be that they are all coming straight
to me without delay in Seattle. If a mail should reach the steamer and
nothing in it from you I should be sad indeed. The last address given
is all right. Curtis will forward if there is any opportunity. On my
part I promise you I will write every day and send whenever I possibly
can which will I hope be at least three or four times.
I am sorry you are not certain of having
a good visit with Alice but feel sure she will come after all. Give
her my love when you write her again. Do not work too hard over the
"Room" and leave some of the money for me to help spend!!
I must send this so for now good-bye. A thousand kisses such as letters
can bear - would they were real ones! - a thousand times "I love
you" and believe and know that I miss you always and think of you
constantly. Love to Jeanette and to yourself.
Lovingly
Charlie
Victoria B.C. June 1st '99
My dear -
I have had a charming morning stroll and a good breakfast and now while
smoking will tell you what I saw. We came in here in the middle of the
night after a quiet and uneventful run from Seattle. The clouds hung
low and refused to reveal the mountain scenery for which Puget Sound
is famous but we did get a poor glimpse of Mt. Baker before darkness
fell. The evening passed with cards and tramping the deck, chiefly with
Keeler who is good company. I woke this morning to find the boat tied
up to the dock in a tidy little harbor surrounded by forest covered
hills. The town lies out of sight over one of them and we are soon going
to visit it.
I found no one else out at 6:30 when I got
on deck and strolled off alone. It was softly raining and the trees
and meadows were heavy with raindrops but none the less beautiful. Strange
to say I was armed with rubbers and mackintosh so I did not care. The
forests were of Douglass spruce - the great tree of this region and
there were but few flowers - sweet-scented wild roses and English daisies
studding the meadow grass were the chief ones. But the woods were full
of a chorus of birds among them a thrush whose song is close kin to
our Hermit of fond memory so I had double reason to think of you as
I listened to the trill and tinkle of their voices.
When I reached the boat after my stroll I
found breakfast already served - 7 to 8:30 and reveled in the delicious
strawberries and fresh smelts.
Now I am smoking a very sweet corn cob pipe
I got yesterday. Your pipe is nice and I have smoked it most of the
time. It begins to color but I have scratched the bowl and I fear it
will never be very fine. It is too delicate for traveling. The bunch
of flowers I brought in pleased the girls and furnished topics of conversation
for the meal.
We are going to town to see the Museum and
I to do some final shopping for this is the last town we shall see for
two months in which we can get anything of account. Here come the ladies
and the crowd so I must close for now.
We have only a short time to stay here so
I will close now that I am by the P.O. and have a chance to mail. Good
bye with many loving greetings.
Charlie -
Yes I love you!
[On a separate piece of paper, otherwise
unmarked]
Now at last it is really good-bye - Be good to yourself and do not be
lonely nor forget your devoted lover
Charlie.
On board G.W. Elder
June 1st
My dear -
Now we can consider our voyage really begun - Victoria is some hours
behind us and we are off for a run of two days and a half before again
halting. As I write it is near six o'clock - the sun has come out brilliantly
and sea and shore are a marvel of coloring. It is a type of scenery
that is quite new to me and one of peculiar beauty. We sail in quiet
inland seas from which rise mountains on all sides to varying heights.
Not long since we ran thro' a channel not over half a mile wide - Active
Pass it is called - connecting two broader reaches of the Georgia Gulf.
The land on either hand was not very high but was clothed from the water's
edge with a dense forest of the deep green pines you love. Here before
me and miles away rises a range of jagged snow capped mountains, their
higher summits partly lost in white cloud masses. The lower hills before
them are deep blue-purple in the level light and the very bases melt
into the sea thro' a light haze. Lines of driftwood, gulls, (a whale's
spout has even now been sighted), and many steamers dot and enliven
the sea. Just now we are passing a full rigged ship towed by a puffing
tug on one side and a steamer is coming up on the other.
I am seated on the topmost promenade deck
near the bridge from which the captain and his officers navigate the
ship. the girls are all learning to "box the compass" or with
the men are spying thro' glasses at everything in sight. I for my part
am basking in the warm soft air, enjoying the beauty of the scene and
wishing for you to be here to share it all.
Everyone has some special interest. Saunders
has been mounting and pressing some of the seaweeds he collected this
morning at Victoria. the hunters and fishers are getting their guns
and tackle ready; we geologists have as yet little to do but study the
forms of the land - our turn comes later. So we pass the time each as
he best pleases.
I spent an hour after lunch putting my little
room in order. I took out the lower bunk and put my big trunk underneath
in very handy fashion. I shall now have to sleep in the upper berth
which is on the whole preferable and can get at any of the things I
want with comparative ease.
June 3rd - Saturday
I did not get to my journal yesterday for
reasons which will presently appear. But I will go on as if I had. Thursday
evening we had a most glorious sunset. The sun went down behind a line
of level clouds hanging above some picturesque islands. Off on either
side the higher distant mountains were a glorious purple-blue which
with the blue water gave a splendid setting for the golden glory of
the sun himself and his broad path across the waters towards us. The
glow had faded out by 8:20 and we were all summoned to the "Science
Hall" to listen to a lecture by Dr. Dall on the History and Geography
of Alaska - the first session of the Alaska Institute. Although from
my reading I knew most of what he told still it was well given and I
only went to sleep two or three times. When the discussion was over
it was easily bedtime.
Friday morning I woke and got up at 4 o'clock
in time to enjoy the most magnificent sunrise within my experience.
The sun was coming up behind a splendid range of jagged peaks which
were deep blue in the morning shadow while the sky was suffused with
golden misty light. We had been lying by for two hours waiting for the
tide to rise to its flood so that we might pass one of the most narrow
and intricate parts of our inland way - Seymour Narrows. We came into
[it] at 5 o'clock and it was indeed narrow and very beautiful. Since
then the whole way (with an exception to be noted) has been in narrow
waterways not over a mile wide with the mountains rising steeply on
both hands 500 to a thousand feet, thickly clothed with forest except
at the summit where the snow still lies in heavy masses. I staid around
on deck till the finest scenery was past and there was still time for
me to go back and get an hour's snooze before breakfast. Afterwards
I read "David Harum" with such complete satisfaction that
both time and scenery were neglected till I suddenly heard that we were
to make a landing and that I could go so off I rushed to get my hammer
and heavy boots on. We put into a lovely little cove - Beaver Cove it
was called - on the east side of Vancouver Island, at the head of which
quite a river ran into the straights. The whale boat was lowered and
fifteen of us got in and were rowed to shore.
Then there was a scattering. I hammered away
at the rocks on the shore and found some good ones, enough to keep me
busy during our short stay - the botanists went for the plants and trees,
Ritter dug at his shore animals, the hunters tried their guns to get
the sights in order, Morris tried the stream for trout without success,
the bird men followed their quarry through the dense thickets. It was
good to get on shore again and get some exercise and I was sorry when
we started back for the ship. We did not get aboard till nearly three
o'clock and were glad enough to get our lunch. By the time I got my
stuff packed up and stowed away I was tired and sleepy. I read David
Harum again till I snoozed away and when I woke up we were out in open
water where there was quite a swell and it was supper time - 7 o'clock.
This was one of the two points where in a stretch of 1300 miles the
inland passage fails for a short distance and we are exposed to the
swell of the open ocean. I am rather ashamed to say that I was one of
the few who felt the effect of the swell and I had to dispose of my
lunch before I could eat a little supper. I took to my cabin afterward,
went to sleep to wake only at 10:30 and then turned in to sleep away
the rest of the night with great comfort and content.
This morning the breakfast gong waked me,
refreshed and ready for what proved a very busy day. We found ourselves
in a superb region. The snow line comes lower as we go north and the
peaks that lined our "canal" on both sides were nearly all
snow capped. The forest extends to the very edge of the water and to
the summit of the mountains except where bare granite cliffs or domes
break its even mass. And at short intervals cascades of silvery water
come tumbling down from the melting snow. It was a combination of the
grand and the minutely beautiful that was as delightful as it was rare.
Just as I had started to write some more of this scribble to you the
word was passed that we were to go ashore to examine a wild gorge close
[at] hand and I packed off to join the expedition. The party was smaller
than that of the previous day - about 10 of us. The landing was on some
rocks that rose abruptly from the water, the thick mass of forest trees
coming down to within a dozen feet of the water's edge.
It is hard to describe the delight with which
I made my way into this untrodden wilderness. The forest was such as
one reads of - towering trees mostly spruce, cypress and hemlock shadowed
the whole ground whose surface was strewn with fallen trunks, all deeply
covered with lovely masses of utmost luxuriance. (If I ramble very much
you must excuse me on the ground that I am writing while I listen to
a lecture by the "sky pilot" Dr. Nelson on the Indian Mission
we visit tomorrow.) Back of the first ridge down which our cascade tumbled
was a little meadow in which I found a few spring flowers - such as
come first with you at home, violets, star grass, skunk cabbage - and
others strange but lovely. We have indeed overtaken the spring in our
northward journey especially as it is said to be a very late spring
in all this western coast. Everything was wet as a sponge - the moss
the meadow and the bushes - from the recently fallen rain. I collected
my granite specimens and some flowers and returned along the bank of
the rushing stream with new delight at every turn. On returning I had
the comfort of a cold salt water bath which with dry clothes put me
in fighting trim.
This and arranging my specimens took the
time to lunch. We made a second landing at three o'clock, in a lovely
cove called Lowe Inlet on the mainland. Here was a salmon cannery and
a wharf up to which we drew. Dr. Fernow and I started out up the hill
to reach a summit near at hand. It was a repetition of the morning's
experience to a great extent except that we had a longer time and could
get farther up the mountain. Still the steepness of the slopes and the
many obstructions of trees and fallen logs made progress slow and we
failed to reach the summit we aimed for. Still it was a glorious walk
and gave me much-needed exercise and a new and deep impression [of]
the country we are passing through.
I am hastening to finish this letter tonight
as in the morning we have a chance of sending back a mail - from Mary
Island - the first custom house on American soil after we cross the
Alaska boundary. I wish we were to receive a mail there too!
The trip is so far better in every way than
I hoped for and is a grand success. We are a jolly company, all work
together and are all bound to do and see all there is in view. The most
interesting part of the journey is of course yet to come. Within a week
we shall be among the glaciers of Alaska and if we go on as we have
so far making frequent stops for collection all will be well. We are
going further west and north too than was first planned and may even
visit the seal islands way up in the Behring sea.
Well I must write home and it is late so
I must say good night. How I wish it were in person and we might have
one of our long unwilling good nights and kisses. But for such joys
I must wait. Every flower I pick I think how you would enjoy it were
you here and regret your absence. Some day we shall have our trip together.
Good night -
Charlie
On board G.W. Elder
in Clarence Strait,
Alaska
Sunday June 4th 1899
My dear -
What a contrast dos my Sunday make to yours in Cambridge in every detail!
And yet there is one point in common. For each of us a church service
was a possibility. Did you unlike me make use of your opportunity? Do
you, now my evil influence is removed, again resume your well ordered
life of church going? But imagine comparing the service in Christ Church
with that at the Indian Mission we were visiting today.
But let me tell you how I happened not to
go to church. We came into the cove on the western side of Annette Island
where the village of Mettakahtta [? Metlakatla on the 1997 map] is situated
soon after eight o'clock this morning, drew up to the wharf and were
soon all ashore. The greatest uncertainty prevailed as to the length
of our stay and consequently when I started off alone for my walk I
only knew that we might start at eleven o'clock. Had I known we were
to stay till 1:30 I would have had a more interesting tale to tell.
It was a morning of cloud and sunshine but the latter finally got the
advantage and once more proved the unreliability of the couplet
"Rainbow in the morning
Sailors take warning,"
for a splendid bow spanned our waterway as we came to the harbor.
I went off toward some bold hills a couple
of miles away down whose front spilled a fine cascade but found the
way a slow one over a boggy flat. Its surface was covered with a deep
mass of sphagnum moss - a perfect sponge full of water into which the
foot sank deeply at each step. But there were interesting flowers growing
by the roadside and my shoes were good so I did not mind. Finally I
got clear of the bog and down to the sea side where I gained ground
much faster. By the time I reached the cliff my time was more than half
gone and I had reluctantly to turn back without seeing the lake above
or the broad view which the summit of the cliff would have afforded.
But I had my bag full of rocks and flowers by the time I again reached
the ship, and the return was more interesting being along the shore.
Reaching the ship and depositing my load
I found there were still two hours before sailing as the party wished
to attend service in the church, beginning at the usual hour of 11.
I went up with the rest to the huge formless pile of the church and
watched the Indians filing in with much interest. Indeed I even went
in but it was damp and cold and I had not removed my clothing after
my brisk walk so I took warning by my premonitory chill and went back
to the ship, changed clothes, had a warming drink of that which cheers
and may inebriate and then a smoke and a nap which lasted till the party
returned and the ship started. But you will be wondering I am sure what
is this Mission I have spoken of but not described. I will give you
a brief abstract of what Dr. Nelson told us last night and I heard with
half an ear while still writing to you.
Forty years ago a Mr. Duncan made up his
mind to devote his life to missionary work among the Northwest Coast
Indians and selected as his field a tribe known as the Metlakahtlans
- a most degraded set, cannibals, improvident, inhabiting hovels and
altogether beasts. He went and lived with them, learned their language,
taught them gradually a certain self-respect, made them give up their
bestial religious feasts and become outwardly at least Christians. He
showed them how to build decent houses, helped them make saw mills and
can salmon so that they became self supporting. In short he made men
of them and by carefully keeping out the liquor traders built up their
characters and resources.
His practical common sense was what made
all this possible and he became a sort of prophet to his little people
of 400. He was independent of all churches and tho' himself a layman
made up a service to suit himself. Amongst other things he administered
communion but, knowing that the merest taste of liquor would start his
Indians on the down track he gave them only the bread and no wine. He
was in British territory and hence under the administration of a meddling
bishop of the church who was highly shocked at this frightful desecration
of the service and declared it must be changed. After a long discussion
Duncan at last, led by advice of friends moved across the Alaskan line
to Annette Island where he was out of the Bishop's jurisdiction followed
by nearly all of his flock. They took their houses to pieces and moved
them; the school-house, built half by outside contributing, half by
their own labor they literally sawed in two, taking their half to the
new home and so they moved over to flourish under the stars and stripes.
This move was made in 1887. Since then the colony has grown to over
1000 and they have a most prosperous looking community.
Dinner and the sunset have intervened - and
such a sunset has never delighted my eyes before. How I wish my pen
could describe a tithe of its beauty. As we swung around a wooded point
a great range of snowy peaks came one by one into view until a whole
glorious panorama was before us and then just as the whole range came
into view it was lighted up by the alpine glow which seemed to fairly
set the snowfields on fire so brilliant was it. This is the first really
high range we have seen on the coast - Peaks of 6 to 9000 feet with
glaciers upon them - which reach the sea. As I write we are making a
landing at the wharf of Fort Wrangell where this letter will be mailed
in the morning. It is ten o'clock and still light enough to read outside
and the sharp pinnacles of the uppermost crags of the mountains which
reach above the snow stand out against the sky in sharp relief. We lie
over here tonight, have a chance to see the town in the morning and
leave at 8 A.M. and as I must be up at 5 I must go to bed now though
I could write on indefinitely if I chose. Good night my dear!!
Monday - 5 P.M.
I found at Wrangell that this letter would
go as soon if mailed tomorrow at Juneau so I kept it to continue till
then. This has been one of the finest days of the trip in many ways.
Weather perfect - too warm for comfort almost when out of the light
wind and the grandest mountains always before, behind or all around
us to ever delight the eye with vistas new and changing at every new
turn. I was up betimes and had a lovely ramble to the summit of a little
knoll back of the town. I am rapidly learning to respect the hills of
Alaska - a short ramble up one of them is equivalent to a day's work
in any other country of my experience. It is the fallen timber that
makes the greatest difficulty - great tree trunks piled up upon one
another 3 or 4 thick in all possible directions. You jump from the log
on which you have been walking onto what seems a mossy rock - and plump
you are up to your mid leg in rotten wood and are swearing at the prickles
which you have driven into your hand from the "Devil's Club"
you have grasped to break our fall - a plant marvelously well named
for it has a long thick stem closely armed with prickles, bearing at
its end a bunch of fine large leaves.
My point of view was well chosen and the
early morning light on the distant mountains very beautiful. but the
trees made it difficult to get clear views or to photograph. Behold
me then "shinning" with mighty labor up a broken tree trunk
on whose top, 15 feet from the ground I perched unsteadily while taking
a time picture of a fine mountain group. And behold me also exposing
the same "film" again five minutes later for a still longer
exposure at another point. Was I mad? By the time I got back to the
village most of the party were astir, all seeking the many huge and
curious Totem Poles which record the genealogy of the vanished Indian
chiefs. Great tree trunks planted upright, carved and painted into most
fantastic forms of men and animals - the symbolic forms of different
tribes. Sharp at eight the boat started but not before I had obtained
a first rate souvenir of the place - a huge wooden fish hook which the
Indian willingly took from his line when we showed him our money.
By ten we were threading the intricate Wrangell
Narrows with superb scenery ahead and astern which kept the cameras
busy while the hunters kept up a fusillade, practicing on the sea-fowl
and eagles that were within range on either side the ship.
Just as soon as lunch was over we made a
halt at Farragut Bay and two boat loads went ashore, bristling with
firearms like a boarding party but all the game they brought back was
one tiny wren. We found deer's bones and signs of deer and bear in the
woods and I was admiring the virgin wilderness of the uninhabited shore
when I stumbled upon the hoofs of an ox shod with iron! a relic of some
lumberman's outfit. The rocks were uninteresting so I turned botanist
and captured some fine flowers which the others did not see.
Tomorrow we reach Juneau and a small party
of us will leave the ship for a few days while she goes up the Lynn
Canal to Skagway, the starting point for Klondike. I am more interested
in seeing thoroughly the great gold mine near Juneau and so I suggested
that some of us take a launch and wait for the return of the steamer
which is in any case necessary. Seven men will do so - mostly botanists
and zoologists and I shall have a chance to "do" the town
and mine thoroughly. It will be a sudden change from the luxurious table
we have on board to a miner's boarding house in Juneau but I do not
know but a simpler bill-of-fare will be better for some of us. I am
so far very well - a little cold the last few days but nothing serious
and my appetite is simply enormous. My collections so far have not been
remarkable in any way but they are as much as I expected up to this
time and indeed even more.
Juneau, Tuesday eve.
June 6th
Two weeks ago New York and now Juneau - the
largest town in Alaska - what a contrast! Behold me at the Occidental
Hotel, writing at the card table after a busy day. It is 9 o'clock and
still very light outside. Just now the whole town is down on the wharf
watching the arrival of the weekly steamer which left Seattle the same
day we did so that I have no hope of any mail from you being on her.
We reached here early this morning and I have been over at the Treadwell
Mine all day. The Mine is in Douglas City just across the narrow straights
from Juneau, and the steamer, after merely touching here ran across
to the Mine wharf and the whole party went to see the sights. The huge
size of the excavations and the mills in which they work the ore is
the chief feature to strike one but there was an additional geological
interest to me in seeing the rocks. So after the party had returned
and the steamer gone I went back alone to the mine and pounded rocks
all day very busily. I go over again tomorrow morning to go underground.
Last evening I had a novel sort of an excursion.
It was nearly eleven o’clock and the light was growing faint when
our ship dropped anchor at the end of a little Bay called Taku where
the zoologists wished to land to set traps for small animals. I thought
I might as well join the party not being particularly sleepy and did
so. It was about a mile to shore and a pleasant ride on the whole. It
was already dark when we reached the shore but the traps were set and
the rest of us wandered about the ruins of an Indian Village without
finding anything of interest. On returning to the ship I took an oar
and it is no fun to wield one of those 16 foot instruments. I am afraid
I made but poor work of it but so did the others so I was satisfied
not to have been knocked out of the boat by it. It was midnight when
we again got on board.
Juneau is an uninteresting town of the typical
frontier type - board shanties, pretentious stores, bad streets, innumerable
dogs, lots of loafing citizens and now and then a picturesque Indian.
The hotel is better than I expected. We have a lovely little naphtha
launch to carry us around the harbor and had our supper on board last
night, provisions being abundant.
I must bring this letter to a close and mail
it by today's steamer. I can send again from Sitka in about a week and
after that I do not know when.
Good night my dear. I think of you often
as you last said good night to me with a smile on your dear face. Good
night.
Lovingly
Charlie
Juneau, June 7th 6 P.M.
My dear -
You see I am still here and might have kept my other letter till now
for I do not think the mail steamer has yet come in and this will go
with the first.
We have been having our first real experience
of Alaska weather - pouring soaking rain all day long with hardly a
break. I am in for the day and as I write in my room the strains of
a music box playing Swanee River come floating harshly up to me, mingling
with the drip and beat of the falling rain. I have [had] an easy and
interesting day in the mine. The launch landed me at the mine wharf
about 9 and the supt. Mr. Corbus met me and put me in charge of the
foreman who showed me the underground workings. We went down in the
"cage" and then 100 feet of vertical ladders and I collected
specimens and information to my heart's content. It was noon by the
time I had my stuff packed and then all dirty as I was I went to the
supt.'s house to lunch. His wife was very cordial and gave us a fine
meal and altogether they treated me in a very "white" fashion.
I came over here on the Ferry afterwards
and found at the hotel a former Harvard man a Mr. Lewis who knew this
country and wanted to know the Harvard news.
Now it is dinner time and as I must go I
will close this now so that it will surely go in this mail. I enclose
a clipping from the Seattle "P-I" as it is called everywhere
about here giving some biographical details of some of our party that
may interest you.
Good-night and may your dreams be none or
only pleasant ones.
Devotedly
Charlie
On
board G.W. Elder
Glacier Bay, June 10th 1899
My dear:
The days are slipping away very fast, especially now that we are in
a locality so interesting as is this. Yesterday was indeed a full day
and I got no chance for writing and the day before I was under the weather
and not equal to the effort of composing my ideas. Let me see - I left
off before in Juneau after my day in the mine. That evening we had quite
an experience. After dinner a number of Juneau's leading citizens came
and introduced themselves and told us about the resources of the island
and town and finally asked us to join a "stag social" given
by the Order of Elks - a Social Order widely distributed through the
west. We accepted, not knowing what sort of a thing it would prove to
be but tolerably sure of something novel and possibly of some fun. It
was held in "Slim Jim's" Opera House whose hall space we found
filled with long rough board tables on which we found clay pipes and
smoking tobacco laid out while kegs of beer and piles of sandwiches
showed the character of the refreshments. The chairman took the stage
and we soon saw where the fun came in. He had full power and none might
refuse obedience. Most of his acts of power consisted in the levying
of fines on the members for doing or for not doing things of all sorts,
for saying or thinking or for not doing so, all sorts of things or for
not carrying out with sufficient dispatch the orders of the chair. Two
burly policemen hustled culprits to the bar to be fined and a refreshment
committee kept the beer circulating. At intervals there was a song or
dance or story either by members or by some theatrical variety people
who happened to be in town. Among other things the head of our party,
Prof. Ritter from Berkeley was summoned to tell what new animals he
had found in Alaska and after a very decent speech he escaped by telling
them that they might find out if they would all come to the Elder at
four the next morning when she would be at the dock. We escaped at midnight
when the stories were beginning to get unpleasantly coarse and turned
in only to be awakened at 2:30 to get aboard the ship which had returned
for us. I had to look up some laundry that had been left for us and
by the time I got it it was nearly five A.M. so that by the time I had
taken a cold bath and got to bed it was already 6: I was up at 8 with
a fine headache and general Katzenjammer as a memorial of the previous
night's entertainment and was not good for much all day. The steamer
headed for this point and along toward noon we began to sight small
icebergs, whose sources, the glaciers that empty into Glacier Bay soon
came into view.
We were up in front of the great Muir Glacier
by 4 P.M. and soon had the anchor out and two parties went ashore to
explore - one to hunt for big game which was said to abound in a valley
20 miles to the eastward and intending to stay out four or five days.
This consisted of Mr. Harriman and the hunters. The others simply knocked
about on the shore till dark. I staid on board and went to bed early
after a little game of cribbage with Mrs. Harriman and the Captain of
the ship.
I wish I could give any sort of an idea of
the glacier. It is the coloring which is utterly indescribable. It comes
down to the water with a front of some two miles blocking up the whole
channel. It is broken up into gigantic blocks which tower 200 feet above
the water and of course runs down to the bottom of the channel which
is here 600-800 feet deep. The solid ice is the deepest, darkest blue
you can imagine - blue vitriol is the color if you know what that looks
like - and as the bergs break off from beneath the water and come up
to the surface they present great masses of this glorious blue. Where
the sun has acted on the ice it becomes paler and finally quite white
and snowy so that all gradations exist between the deep blue and white.
The surface of the ice is a great sea of pinnacles and chasms between
- the most chaotic and wild place imaginable. From time to time great
masses of ice break or slide off with thundering crash and fall into
the sea with a magnificent splash causing a wave which rocks our ship
as we lie at anchor a mile away. The ice plunges beneath the water and
then surges up again to half its former height before it finally gets
its balance in the water. The water about us was full of bergs large
and small some towering higher than the ship and quantities of small
ice in between. In the morning (yesterday) it was raining hard and the
cold was arctic. Several parties started ashore - ours a small one to
go to the west side of the glacier; but we found the ice drift so thick
and dangerous that we could not risk forcing the launch thro' it and
we turned back to land with the others on the east side. I stuck to
Emerson and Gilbert and first we climbed the mountain 600 or 700 feet
up to get a general view over the ice field before we went upon it.
We were just on the shoulder of the mountain which towered above us
two or three thousand feet and hid its snow covered head in the heavy
clouds. Here we photographed and hammered at the rocks. I found my first
gold "prospect" - not I fear destined to make our fortunes
- and then I had an odd find. Walking over the rocks I suddenly saw
at my feet, sitting on her moss nest, a ptarmigan - a sort of grouse
- looking at me unalarmed. I lifted her off and I am rather ashamed
to say killed her and took her eggs, six in number. It seemed cruel
but she was a prize for the bird men and science excused the deed.
We eat our lunch on the mountain side, then
descended and left some of our traps in an ice cave and started for
a ten mile tramp on the glacier to a rocky mass rising like an island
above the ice - technically called a nunatok [?].
The surface of the ice we walked on was very
smooth and even. It was nearly covered with a thin coating of mud with
here and there bands of rocky moraine material. You could almost have
ridden a bicycle for miles over the even surface except that the sharp
ice points would soon have cut the tires. We crossed one place full
of crevasses where we had to pick our way between deep cracks but the
major part was clear sailing. We reached our goal, climbed its summit
and had a broad view over the vast expanse of snow and ice that feeds
the glacier. Mountains rose behind these fields again but all was shrouded
in mist and the view was far from complete. We returned by a longer
route of the same character and got back to the ship about 8 P.M. well
tired out but delighted with the day's experiences. I forgot to say
that soon after lunch we met the hunting party returning footsore, cold
and weary - they had found deep soft snow on the summit and had been
forced to turn back.
Mr. Muir talked in the evening about glaciers
and told some good stories but I was too sleepy to hear much of it and
turned in for a solid sleep at 10.
This morning the ship has run down the bay
twenty miles to land two parties, one to camp for a couple of days and
collect birds and plants and animals; the others for the day to dredge
and collect. If all goes well I shall be one of a small boat party to
start this afternoon and explore the glaciers along twenty miles of
the bay, camping for a couple of days. Gilbert and Muir and 3 helpers
make up the party. I am not yet packed for it and must go now and make
my preparations. For now good morning.
- June
14th -
Sitka Harbor
My dear:
Good morning once more. Another and I think in many ways the most interesting
period of our excursion is over and as I could not write during the
busy days while I was away from the ship I must try to tell of our doings
now. I see that I stopped writing just before we left the ship. Our
party was made up as I described and we left the Elder at 4 P.M. at
a point as far up the Bay as the ice would allow the steamer to proceed.
It was a straight-away row of 12 miles to our first stopping place.
Mr. Muir took the steering oar, and the three packers rowed, Gilbert
and I taking the fourth oar by turns, the man not rowing sitting in
the bow of the boat with a boat-hook to ward off ice-cakes from the
path. This was our order through the whole three days of the outing
and I never rowed so much before nor do I like it any better than I
did before after the experience. Our camp was in a pleasant sandy cove
and while the men put up a tent and got supper we wandered off to see
the glaciers of that inlet, the Charpentier and the Hugh Miller which
have retreated far back from the point which they occupied twenty years
ago when Muir first visited them. This comparison of the present position
of the glaciers with their former extent was the chief aim of our trip.
It was nearly midnight and still light when we turned in after a fine
supper. We had luxurious beds - air mattresses - inflated with a pump
like a bicycle tire - which made us independent of the rocky treeless
shore on which we were camped. We all scorned the tent and slept under
the open sky - a fine sensation which I have not enjoyed for many a
day. It was not altogether pleasant to turn out at 3:30 but the glorious
sunshine of a perfect morning summoned us and we were up - had breakfast
and had packed up our multifarious traps by 6:00 o'clock. The boat was
all loaded and we were ready to start when we discovered that the rapidly
receding tide had left us on the rocks and we had to unload and by great
effort drag her down to deeper water. This kept us an hour. We spent
the morning in the bay studying the rocks and glaciers and then coasted
along the rockbound shore to the next cove 10 miles further. Thence
we tried to cross to the further shore but found the ice packed hard
and had to turn back to the cove we had last left where we made early
camp - 4 P.M. I was thinking of you particularly all day, wondering
what you were doing and thinking. I sat on the bow of the boat, poking
at ice cakes and in the intervals where the water was clear indulged
in day dreams with you as the central figure. The day was a most glorious
one. The clouds which had concealed all the mountain-tops since we had
come into the bay all rolled away and the sun shone with a vigor hard
to bring into consonance with the ice cakes floating about us and the
vast fields of snow which clothed the rocks and peaks above. Here we
are indeed in a region of real mountains. Mt. Fairweather, 15,000 feet
and over, and Mt. Crillon nearly as high dominate the sea of peaks that
circle about the bay. Right by our camp near the shore was a delightful
mossy bank where quite a variety of dainty plants were growing - prettiest
of all the arctic willows which trail along the ground and perfume the
air with their wealth of blossoms and a big bumble bee made a homelike
humming. But outside this narrow circle little else was to be seen but
bare rocks and loose gravel.
We turned in in broad sunlight about 9 o'clock
and had a fine refreshing sleep so that it was not so hard so get up
when we were called to breakfast at 4. The sun came up behind a fine
group of jagged peaks into a clear sky at first but by 5:30 when we
got away the clouds had come up and the day remained overcast and cold
all the day. We found a skin of fresh ice on the bay which made the
rowing hard and where the ice cakes were numerous, cemented them into
masses thro' which we could not force our boat. We coasted the shore
for 10 or 12 miles and landed on a fine projecting knob of beautiful
white marble cut by innumerable dykes of green rock. On reaching the
top we were surprised to find just beyond a fine glacier which was unnamed
upon the map so we called it the Harriman and spent most of the day
surveying and mapping it. Our way back was a long one and when we finally
landed in a sheltered cove it was 7:30 P.M. and we had rowed over 23
miles. We found a couple of Indians already encamped - making a hearty
supper on boiled gulls' eggs, with celery and dried fish while a couple
of marmots newly shot indicated what the next meal would be. They were
there to hunt seal and when they started off next morning their boat
was draped in white cloth, white hats on their heads and a big white
cloth screen hung in front, all to make the boat look like an ice cake
so that they may draw up to the seal and spear him before he takes alarm.
It was windy and so I slept in the tent for a change and as we did not
have to get up so early we had a good sleep. The next day Tuesday we
had our longest row. We went down the coast beyond the point where we
left the steamer to see an arm of the bay we had passed by and then
on coming out we saw the steamer again passing up the bay out of hailing
distance. We had agreed to meet her up the bay but the ice was so bad
we did not think she could get in so had counted on intercepting her
at the mouth of the bay. As it was we had a ten mile stern chase before
we found one of the launches and were taken in. The boats all came in
by about 6 P.M. and we started off for Sitka where, after traveling
all night we are just arrived. As for me, after I had had a bath and
cleaned the first coat of dirt off my hands I felt fully ready for dinner
and for bed soon after and am on the whole in much better trim after
the 75 mile row and rough living than I expected to be.
Thursday P.M.
June 15th 1899
I had to drop my writing yesterday morning
to go ashore on the launch. I had a letter of introduction to a Lieut.
Emmons of Sitka whom I found and who proved a very delightful gentleman.
He has just retired from the navy and built him a house here where he
hopes to regain his health. He has been here off and on for 17 years
and knows more of the Indians and game of this archipelago than any
other man so he is interesting to talk with. To my disappointment there
were no letters for me in the packet at the P.O. but another steamer
comes in today which will take this letter back and she may bear me
longed for tidings from my dear.
It was a wet drizzly day but still we all
went to see the sights of this old Russian town which is the seat of
what little government Alaska boasts. What with looking for jade and
hunting thro' Indian huts for baskets and seeing the Russian church
the day passed quickly and not unpleasantly. In the evening the Governor,
Mr. Brady, Lieut. Emmons and one or two other gentlemen with their wives
came to dinner on the ship and the champagne fizzed and the Graphophone
sang and all was very festive. I forgot to mention that I called at
the Emmons house in the afternoon and had a very cosy cup of tea.
Today we went down the beautiful harbor of
Sitka to what is known as the Hot Springs, dropping a hunting party
by the way. I went off with Gilbert for a ramble over the boggy moor
to a good lookout point over a lonely lake and then back along the shore.
We returned for lunch and now are on the way back to Sitka having again
taken the hunters aboard, their game consisting of one deer killed by
Mary Harriman with the aid of a shot from Merriam's rifle. She is an
enthusiastic hunter and had already shot a deer in the Adirondacks.
Her ambition is to kill a bear!
By the way here is her effusion written the
other day with the aid of the other girls the writing being with her
left hand for some unknown reason. They are perpetrating these things
on all the party. Also I include the invitation just received for tomorrow
night. The Gov. went with us today as well as several other Sitkans.
Well here we are in Sitka and as this must
be mailed tonight and is already so long that I don't believe you'll
read it anyway I will stop here. Give my love to Jeanette and remember
me to Miss Búcher and any other of my friends you may see. And
for your self - good-night - with all that that sad magic word would
imply were I with you.
Devotedly
Charlie
Sitka, June 17th 1899.
My dear Helen -
For three days we have been in or near this town and now having done
it fairly thoroughly are about ready to start further north. It has
been a very pleasant stay in this sleepy quiet little town and I have
made some such pleasant friends here that I regret leaving. Lieut. Emmons
has been friendship itself and sent me away a little while ago with
several charming souvenirs of Sitka, one of them a wedding present for
you. The three days have slipped away in various excursions. The first
Wednesday was spent seeing Sitka and making small purchases from the
Indians. Thursday the steamer took us down to the Hot Springs. Friday
I made an expedition with Mr. Devereux to a mine at the head of the
beautiful Silver Bay whither we went in a launch. In the evening we
had the reception at Gov. Brady's which would have been dull but for
the excitement of having some of the Indians there in order to get a
record of their talking and singing on the big Graphophone we have on
the ship. Their songs were not bad and the record when reproduced was
fairly successful.
Today has been passed in loitering about
again thro' the town hunting for baskets and in writing up notes. Finally
in making calls at the Emmons and Bradys in acknowledgment of their
entertainment. Mrs. Emmons had invited me to dinner for Friday but it
was too late when we got back from Silver Bay for me to go. He is a
great student of Indian ways and customs and had store of interesting
photographs and relics. So an hour passed very quickly over a cup of
tea.
The mail was a blank for me and I leave all
hope behind here of hearing from you until we get back to Seattle six
weeks hence. I can only hope that the old saying is true - no news is
good news and that you are well and happy on this your last day of school.
My letters must perforce be less frequent from now on. But the plans
are still so uncertain that I can tell you little what to expect in
that line. We sail from here direct for Yakutat Bay at the base of Mt.
St. Elias where we shall spend some time. Then north to Cooke's Inlet
where the hunters have their turn of sport and then westward to Kodiak
and Unalaska with a chance for a run as far north as the Seal Islands
which would be a rare treat could we see them. Then it will be straight
away south for Seattle and Cambridge!! From now on we lose our Inland
Passage and get the swell of the wide Pacific so we may expect for a
while at least less regular attendance at meals than has been the rule
hitherto. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was not to get a letter
when others were reading theirs. I know it is the fault of the mails
and not because you did not write. But it was very hard to really believe
that there was nothing for me.
I have made up my mind that I will get nothing
in the way of jade for Mr. Bishop. It was always scarce and has all
been gathered in so that it is rarer than gold. There were a few little
pieces here which I did not buy because of exorbitant prices and I expect
to see no more.
We have just come in from the Greek Church
where the Trinity service was beginning, this, Saturday evening. The
singing was rather good but it was cold and damp and I preferred to
have a chat with you before we sailed and left this letter behind. There
was a funny sight at the Gov.'s house this afternoon. The Graphophone
was set going for the benefit of the Indians who gathered around in
crowds and their amusement was great when they heard their own song
of the night before sung out to them. The starting moment has come and
I must close. Good bye and be a good girl! I kiss you good night a hundred
times and then again good night.
Lovingly
Charlie
In Camp
Yakutat Bay, Alaska
June 21st 1899
My dear:
You see I have not forgotten that this is our day and that I was to
write to you on this date if on no other.
But certainly it would be hard to imagine
a greater contrast than that between my present surroundings and those
that would have held had I stayed at home. Behold me stretched on the
sand in front of a big driftwood fire partly for the sake of its warmth,
partly to avoid mosquitoes by keeping in its smoke. It is nearly midday
and we have been waiting idly and impatiently all the morning for the
steamer visible over the bay to come and take us off. For we have been
here two days already and have done all there is to do and would be
glad to shift our camp. I think I said good night to you last at Sitka
just before sailing away on Saturday evening. We had a game of cards
that evening that lasted till late and when we awoke on Sunday we found
the steamer still in sight of land tho' well offshore and much less
swell from the open ocean than we had expected to find. Big glaciers
were in sight and we headed for one of these - the La Perouse - coming
within a couple of miles of it when a boat party put off to land. There
was a heavy surf where they landed and all were well ducked before they
got back again so I was by no means sorry that I was not one of the
party. I laid around on the deck or in the cabin all day and read a
novel, a wretched story by Weyman which was not worth the reading save
that there was nothing else to do. The splendid range of mountains which
here skirts the coast and should have been in our full view was masked
by heavy low lying clouds and the day passed slowly and quite without
event. In the evening there was a service and sermon in the social hall
and after that I scurried around to get my things ready for an early
start on Monday on this camping trip.
The morning found us at Yakutat village where
a Swedish missionary labors among a few poor Indians now all away seal-hunting.
Here we left a party and the steamer moved up the bay to this shore
where she landed us and two hunting parties and then went on up the
Bay thro' the thick pack ice. We made our camp, seven of us, Merriam,
Coville, Fisher, Fernow, Curtis and a cook, in a shelter corner behind
some sand dunes - a lovely place but for the mosquitoes which soon swarmed
out of the swamps and woods. But on went our mosquito veils - black
affairs which hang down from our broad brim hats and keep the hungry
pests at bay. Tents were soon up and lunch ready. Meanwhile we had had
time to see the luxuriance of the flowers round about. Lovely blue violets
- quantities of large strawberries which a month later must give a bounteous
harvest of fruit, big blue lupines and many lesser known but often beautiful
flowers dotted the high grass or grew in swamps and beneath the willows
and alders.
Yakutat Bay is the only break in the coast
for 300 miles above Sitka where there is safe harborage. It is surrounded
by lofty mountains: St. Elias the master peak, but we have as yet seen
but the bases of the same and the glaciers that pour down from heights
above. In the afternoon we started off in couples, I with Mr. Fernow
and we went along the coast to spy out the lay of the land and see what
we could do the next day. It was a cold cloudy day, squalls of rain
coming now and then and we had frequently to ford streams too deep for
our boots and wading was no joke in the ice cold water. We returned
in time for supper and spent the rest of the evening and all the night
fighting off the ravenous mosquitoes. It is a comical sight to see us
all around camp with black veils over our big hats falling down to our
shoulders to keep the fiends out and when we eat we have to snatch bites
between slaps! Tuesday three of us went in the boat to the foot of the
mountain and then scrambled up an old dead glacier whose foot was covered
with a dense alder thicket although the ice was but thinly covered with
soil. We went up by an open torrent bed but returned thro' the alder
thicket which was but poor traveling.
Thursday
evening June 22
on board G.W. Elder.
I dropped my pencil yesterday and thro' sheer
laziness did not take it up again. We waited all day for the steamer
in vain and I lay around in the sand fighting mosquitoes and watching
for the mountains to come out of the clouds which they did to a certain
limited extent, tho' not so as to show anywhere near their full glory.
The ship which we had watched all day disappeared down the bay and we
realized that the ice was too thick to allow her to approach.
Toward evening I summoned energy for a walk
down the Bay and we were rewarded by finding a fine stream and on its
banks an old deserted Indian hut and canoe. I have not mentioned that
the only inhabitants of this region are bears whose tracks we were constantly
crossing so that we were always in a sort of expectation that each short
turn we made might bring us face to face with bruin who was said to
be particularly fierce in this locality. Notwithstanding, neither we
nor any of the bear hunters in the two camps got sight at the big game
and the only captures were mice and many birds by the collectors and
some salmon shot in the river. The evening was cold, rainy and miserable,
the night was mosquitoey again and I got thoroughly sick of the camp.
This morning we saw the steamer coming in and by the time we had packed
up our duds the boats were in our creek and by 1:30 P.M. we were all
aboard again. We found the steamer party in high spirits over a lovely
day in the upper part of the Bay known as Disenchantment Bay so we quite
missed the fun and got nothing in return. We landed this afternoon at
an Indian village where the seal hunters were in all the glory of their
chase - up to the eyes in filth, grease and blubber and it was a relief
to get off to the flowers and shrubs of the hillside where we sat or
scrambled a couple of hours away. Now all are on board again and we
are turned westward down the bay. We lie at Yakutat over night where
this letter will be mailed. Then we turn northward once more. We still
hope that tomorrow the clouds will lift and give us a glimpse of St.
Elias as we pas by. But it is but a poor chance and I have no great
expectation that we shall be favored.
So Yakutat Bay has been disappointing to
me all around and practically void of results. I hope for better luck
in Prince William Sound whither we are now bound.
I do not mean to give the impression however
that the camp was not a pleasant one nor that I did not enjoy the enforced
idleness of two days. Loafing always does come easy to me and once my
mind was made up that we could neither get away nor do anything I had
a first class "bum" and put in all the extra time eating -
7 meals a day our cook says. And then it gave me much extra time to
think of you and to wonder what you were doing and whether you thought
of me once in a while on June 21st. In Sitka we had papers as late as
June 9th and they told of a hot spell in New York. I suppose you too
are wearing summer things that you so love tho' it seems hard enough
to realize that it can be uncomfortably warm anywhere for here my winter
wear is none too heavy and I find plenty of use for my sweater and the
hideous but warm clothes I purchased in Seattle. The sudden transitions
from the camp to the comparative luxury and civilization are queer enough
and I must confess that camping out in such a rainy country loses much
of the charm which I had learned to associate with it from my California
experiences.
I must close in a hurry to catch the mail
that is going ashore. Good-night with love and devotion from your
Charlie
On board G.W. Elder.
Prince William Sound
June 24th
My dear:
I was especially lonely and longing for you this afternoon because it
was so beautiful and I wished you might have been here to share the
delight I found in the prospect.
All yesterday afternoon and this morning
we were sailing in a thick fog that hid from sight everything a few
yards beyond the ship. So that when the sun came out gloriously about
2 o'clock we were all doubly ready to welcome it, especially as it came
just in time to give us a fine view of the entrance to this sound and
of the grand mountains which enclose it. Yesterday we did not move just
as I expected. Instead of leaving for the north from Yakutat village
we returned up the bay to the Indian encampment where the ship lay all
the morning while the trappers look[ed] over their traps for mice and
Mr. Harriman bought some canoes from the Indians. I spent the time in
a splendid scramble with two of the girls whom I piloted across several
rushing mountain streams which they waded in their rubber boots while
I jumped as well as I could. Then we scrambled up a steep snow slope
and back thro' the bushy side hill gathering a fine bunch of columbines
(how they made me think of you and our last walk!) and other flowers
and listening to the sweet songs of the thrushes.
Prof. Emerson has just come and started telling
stories and bothering me. I sent him off by telling him that the lights
go out at midnight and that would be in ten minutes whereupon he desired
me to present his compliments!
To go on. We got back to the shore just as
the whistle called us aboard so instead of wading the streams again
we hailed some Indian canoes near at hand and paddled out in these frail
and tipsy dugouts. By the time we had finished lunch we were in the
fog as aforesaid and I spent the whole P.M. in the cabin over a register
reading with the result that I had a fine headache by supper time and
was nearly seasick from the rolling of the vessel. But I went to bed
early, dreamt of you and our wedding and woke up refreshed.
The mountains rose up as we entered the bay
in a great snowy wall ahead of us and the nearer slopes were all dark
green with forest. The swell ceased as soon as we got into the bay and
we all lay around on the upper deck basking in unwonted sunshine and
enjoying the view. The only regrets were first that you were not here,
second that the sun could not have come out one day sooner so as to
give us the coveted view of St.Elias and its glaciers.
We had a slight excitement about 4:30 in
the form of fire drill, all appearing with life preservers on the upper
deck and the boats being manned. After supper we dropped anchor at this
place, Orca, where this letter will be mailed, and most of us piled
ashore for a stroll in the twilight. I am off early in the morning to
climb the high mountain so I must make this a short note. I started
to write during the afternoon but the boat shook so and so much was
going on all around including the shifting scenery that I put my pen
away.
Good night! I wonder how you spent Class
Day and today and whether you are having any sort of a good time. I
trust so and also that you think of me once in a while - as often say
as I do of you which is at least every hour and oftener.
Good night once more and still again good
night!
Lovingly
Charlie
Camp Perfecto
June 28th 1899.
My dear:
I do not know that anyone else calls it by that name - nor whether when
they hear me call if so they realize all it signifies - this much however
is certain - that it is a place worthy of the original as nearly as
a camp could be. I wish you might have been here when we landed Sunday
evening to enjoy with me its peculiar beauties. Certainly you would
have appreciated it better then than you can from any description I
can give under present conditions especially for they are to say the
least not wholly favorable to letter writing. Six of us are in a tent
ten by fourteen feet in dimensions trying to keep warm and dry about
a little sheet iron stove. Again we are waiting for the steamer and
the cold rain has driven us all in to keep warm. The quarters are close
and the others are talking.
On board the steamer
June 29
You see the conditions were too much for
me. Just at the point where I stopped there was a call that the steamer
was in sight. And so, although it proved to be a false alarm, it not
being our steamer, the interruption was enough to keep me from going
on. Now we are once more aboard and with more abundant leisure and better
auspices I will try to tell where I have been and what doing the past
five days since I last wrote.
Sunday morning last dawned bright and glorious.
I was up at five and off for a lovely climb up the mountains that rise
direct from the water's edge at Orca to a height of 2000 feet. The walking
was first thro' forest and then over snow patches and lovely alpine
meadows with the earliest spring blossoms coming out - hepaticas, buttercups
and the loveliest heather bells. I reached the summit and enjoyed the
view while the morning light was still soft and delicate on the distant
mountains and experienced once more that peculiar satisfaction that
always comes in a mountain panorama. The descent was rapid and I got
aboard in time for a second breakfast and a lazy morning on deck stretched
in the hot sunshine. About noon we sailed away for another part of the
sound and about six o'clock a party of six of us left the ship for a
camping expedition and exploration of a magnificent and unknown glacier
before which the ship had come to a halt. Gilbert was our captain, Curtis
and Coville being the others of the party besides a cook and oarsman.
We soon reached Camp Perfecto in a tiny cove
a mile from the glacier on a high gravel beach with forest rising close
behind. A hasty cold supper and we were off for the summit of our island,
Heather Island we called it, over the most delicious carpet of velvety
moss and heather that ever foot trod. The top was only 400 feet high
but gave us a superb picture of the huge ice mass before us and enabled
us to plan its exploration. The sun set about 9:30 and we returned to
camp for dinner at 10:30 after which we sought our tent and beds. Monday
was what one may fairly call a long day. We rose at 2:30 had a solid
breakfast were off in the boat at high tide by 3 o'clock and rowed 3
miles thro' winding channels and amid icebergs to one angle of the glacier
front. Here we separated, Gilbert remaining to work at his map, Curtis,
Coville and I starting off to climb an island peak rising from amidst
the ice 5 or 6 miles away. Our first adventure was an odd one. I found
a family of wild geese in the grass and caught one of the goslings.
The parents ventured very near in their anxiety for the youngster and
one of them fell a victim to the skillful aim of Coville's rock so that
we had a famous goose stew for lunch next day.
The walk over the ice was an easy one and
the mountain views superb in the early moring light. We reached our
island or nunatak as it is more properly called about 7 and had a tremendously
steep climb of two thousand feet to one of its lower summits, the higher
front being inaccessible. The only inhabitant we saw was a big white
mountain goat who surveyed us a while and then calmly walked up the
cliff we dared not attempt. This is game which the so called "Big
Game Committee" would have been glad enough to have sighted but
of course we who had no guns but cameras were the ones to find it. Here
we lunched, photographed, studied the flow and sources of the glacier
and turned back about 2 P.M. The descent was rapid, largely over snow-fields,
one of them steep enough for a glorious slide of 5 or 600 feet. Then
back over the ice by a different route, past several lakes and through
lovely meadows. It was nearly six by the time we rejoined Mr. Gilbert
and then the tide had fallen and instead of our 3 mile row we had one
of six miles around the island to camp where we arrived at 9 ready enough
for dinner and bed.
Tuesday dawned overcast and rainy. We worked
around the front of this glacier and climbed a small height on its left
side towards evening getting soaked thro' by the rain, the wet bushes
thro' which we walked and the long row home in the evening. As an heroic
means of getting warm when we reached camp at 8 P.M. I took a plunge
bath in the bay among the floating ice cakes and came out shivering
enough but soon was warm and happy and quite ready for supper. The steamer
was to have taken us up that evening but she did not appear. Nor was
she there Wednesday so Gilbert and I resolved on another tramp on the
Glacier on the further side across the bay. We had a late start for
we did not get up till 9, but the day was rainy and we had quite enough
of it after a four mile tramp over the ice. Again we returned to camp,
getting in at 6 P.M. in a heavy rain and then it was, after eating supper
that I tried to begin this letter with no success.
We began to seriously consider the question
of food supply, for besides bacon, pepper and vinegar we had but two
meals left. We turned in about 10:30 and at midnight were aroused by
the steamer's whistle so out we turned in the rain and half light, packed
up our outfit and went aboard. There was a warm welcome awaiting us
however in shape of a glorious welsh rarebit which tasted mighty good
and of course I had to smoke after it and 2:30 saw me in bed. The steamer
had had various exciting experiences while we were gone. They had sailed
up an inlet known as Port Wells with innumerable glaciers cascading
down its sides, had found one whole bay with five great glacier cascades
which was wholly unknown even to our pilots - a bay 16 miles long with
grand mountains rising on either hand - Harriman Inlet it is now called
of course - and had left a party there to map it. Then they discovered
that the propeller was broken and had to return to Orca, beach the steamer
and make repairs which accounted for the delay in taking us up. There
had been a picnic party during the repairing etc. etc.
We headed back for Harriman Inlet to pick
up Gannett and Muir so that we too had a sight of the newly discovered
country in the early morning of Thursday. Then the steamer turned westward
again and in the course of the day made her way through a devious channel
out of Prince William Sound to the open ocean again. I am writing now
on Friday morning June 30th while lying at anchor off the tiny town
of Homer in Cook Inlet, our next post office. We reached here this A.M.
in lovely sunshine and are waiting to go ashore as soon as plans for
our stay in this vicinity are complete. Homer is a lovely [lonely?]
spot on the end of a long sand spit that juts out into Kachemak Bay.
The surroundings however are attractive - low wooded mountains on one
side and fine mountains with big glaciers on the other. There is interesting
geology and soon - tomorrow perhaps we shall be in the region of the
big volcanoes we saw this morning in the distance as we came in so I
am looking forward with interest to the Cook Inlet stay. So far Prince
William Sound has been the most attractive part of Alaska we have seen
and from a scenic standpoint at least the part I should care most to
revisit.
I must close this now for plans seem to be
maturing and the letter must go to the P.O. Our trip is half over and
I count the days that remain with less feeling of hopelessness that
they will never be over. I assure you that I would go home tormorrow
if I could - still do not think that I am not reaping a harvest in the
trip. Every day I am learning things of value and if all the facts are
not tangible still in the end they will be more appreciable.
Good-bye once more for the present. Probably
my next willl be from St. Paul - Kodiak Island. Love, Love to my dear
from your
Charlie
On board
steamer
Kodiak
July 4th '99
My dear:
What I wonder have you been doing this glorious fourth! I hope you have
had as lovely a day for it as have we here in this charming place. Too
charming indeed for I have spent the whole day ashore instead of writing
to you as I should have done. For this is the last you will hear of
me until we return to Seattle. It is the northern limit of the mail
steamers and we are off tonight for a long run to the west and north
and leave our communications here. Look on the map and follow us on
the following route. First to Unalaska and Dutch Harbor then to the
Seal or Prybiloff Islands where we shall see the Fur Seals in their
haunts. Then northward to St. Lawrence Island where we shall see the
Polar Bear perhaps - then still north and west to the coast of Siberia
at Indian Point almost at Behring Straits. That is the plan and then
we turn southward again and hurry back to Seattle stopping only at Cook
Inlet on the way. We keep our time and shall be in Seattle about Aug.
1st as far as we can now tell. As I write on the upper deck a crowd
is admiring the skin of a big bear and her cub shot yesterday by Mr.
Harriman on this Island much to the satisfaction of the whole party
- for this was one of the main objects of the trip. It is a huge yellowish
brown skin and a fine trophy.
I sent my last letter at Homer. We expected
to stay some time in Cook Inlet but for reasons known only to Mr. Harriman
but chiefly having to do with the hunting we turned sharp around the
same day and ran over here. The next morning found us at a place called
Uyak Bay where we left a party of bear hunters and then came on to this
port. I got up very early to see the party leave and tho' they did not
do so till after breakfast I was glad I got up for I had a most delightful
sun bath for two hours in the charming bay in which we lay.
Kodiak is a tiny town on a very narrow arm
of the sea at the base of a high range of hills which are free from
timber but clothed in a superb coating of high grass literally filled
with lovely wild flowers. We reached the wharf by 3 o'clock and I was
off on the minute for a solitary tramp up the first hilltops and along
them a couple of miles, then down and along the bay shore back. I returned
laden with lovely flowers of twenty kinds but the rocks were as in most
places uninteresting. You can hardly imagine the pleasure we all feel
to once more be in a region not all forest or bare rock and glacier.
The green fields have a wonderfully homelike air and when the fog rolled
in on me on Saturday shutting out the distant views, the feeling that
I was on the Berkeley hills, develooped by the myriad flowers and certain
elements of the landscape grew almost to conviction.
Sunday morning Mrs. H. asked me to join a
camp up the bay where the girls were to have their first taste of outdoor
life. Mr. H. and his hunters had located the camp on Saturday and then
gone off on his hunt. Several of us went up in the launch about 10 o'clock,
arriving in time for luncheon, eaten among many mosquitoes but in a
lovely place. Coville and Merriam were the other men in camp and the
four girls were very enthusiastic. We went for a walk after lunch and
the event was the discovery of an eagle's nest up to which I climbed
and killed the funny downy young one which I found there. The evening
meal was a lively one for each girl was bound to cook her own bacon
and flapjack notwithstanding the four men besides ourselves who were
at hand to serve. Then we - that is the girls and I escaped the flies
by going out in the boat, the girls rowing and I trying to tell stories.
We landed on a little island which proved to be a gem of a wild garden
and returned in the twilight for a little chat about the campfire and
a fine sleep. For strange to say every mosquito disappeared at dusk
and I slept under the stars in entire comfort.
Monday dawned hot and clear - a real summer
day for once. Coville and I went off for a tramp up a fine peak - about
3000 feet high but far enough away to make it quite a climb and interesting
from the many and varied flowers all along the way. We returned at four
to find camp broken up. We returned to the ship in the evening and later
came the bear hunters not with their booty but with the good news of
their success. This morning dawned again clear and hot, the temperature
going up to 80 during the day and for once I enjoyed light summer clothes
in Alaska.
A small cannon oponed the concert at 7 soon
followed by another one on board with a double salute for the day and
the bear. I went off with Gilbert and Emerson fossil hunting all morning
with some slight success. After lunch came our celebration on the upper
deck with an oration, poems, singing and graphophone music and then
there were some boat and canoe races which however I did not see as
I went off for a walk with Coville and some of the younger girls. Now
it is later in the evening and we soon leave so I must draw to a close.
The period of our long stops has come to
a close. From now on we travel rapidly with few short stops. I would
almost rather spend nearly all the time in Cook Inlet which seemed a
very interesting place but we have no choice and are thankful enough
for what we have been able to do.
I bought a bearskin here which I hope will
make a handsome rug for some place in the "Room". How is it
getting on by the way? and what have you been able to do for its furnishings.
What would I not give to know all you are and have been doing - to have
a letter from you with any news at all! The next three weeks will be
far the longest of all and I wish they were all over. Good night my
dear and good bye. I slip in a bit of Forget-me-not which grows here
in abundance with the finest color I have ever seen. I wish it might
reach you before it turns black and ugly. Farewell with much love from
your
Charlie
Kodiak
July 5th
My dear:
Instead of going off last night as we intended the steamer stuck in
the mud near the wharf and this morning we got up to find her decks
sloping at an angle of about 20 degrees so that locomotion was difficult
and it looked as though we were all a little the worse for the 4th.
I have just come aboard from a short stroll
after breakfast and find the ship afloat again so there is nothing to
delay her starting and I have just time to say one more good bye. It
is a calm hot morning, just like some Cambridge mornings except that
it is fresher.
I went into the big fur warehouse at the
dock again this morning and wished I was a millionaire to be able to
bring you some of the beauties I saw there. But alas it is all too little
that I have and I must not spend it too freely as you warned me before.
Well I wish I could at least continue to
write to you for that has been some consolation even tho' I could not
hear from you. At least I can write even tho' I cannot send and you
will get the letters some time.
July 5th
Left Kodiak about noon as soon as the steamer
got afloat in a hot sun and fine quiet weather. Our first course was
northerly to the mainland to pick up Ridgway, Saunders and the others
put ashore at Kukak Bay five days before. We took them aboard about
6:30 P.M. in good spirits and reporting a fine collecting trip but rather
a poor camp owing to many mosquitoes. They brought many birds and plants
and a fine lot of fossil plants from some Tertiary beds near the shore.
The sunset was very beautiful, a golden sky throwing into strong relief
the sharp peaks and volcanic cones of the peninsula.
Played 6 handed euchre in the evening after
hearing a short talk by Saunders on the results of their trip. We reached
Uyak Bay at 11:30 P.M. to pick up the hunting party left there on the
1st and they came aboard after midnight. The view down the harbor at
that hour was beautiful, a rich golden glow in the sky to the N.W. against
which were outlined the distant volcanic mountains, the nearer hills
and a big ship lying at anchor near the cannery.
Morris, Devereaux, Grinnell, Averell and
Trudeau were the hunters and they came in looking tired and disgusted,
no game, much discomfort from flies and mosquitoes, hard walking thro
alder country, poor camps and packers - generally disgruntled. Most
of the packers were here discharged. I did not mention that we met the
mail steamer Dora during the morning, boarded her and got papers up
to June 25th and a letter for Keeler telling of Wheeler's call to presidency
of U.C.
July 6th
Sailed all day on a westward course toward
the Shumagin Islands. Spent the morning reading, loafing and finally
just before lunch a lively game of tag with the girls, Harriman et al.
After lunch spent a good while packing up the fossil plants and storing
the two boxes below.
A small party planning to land at the Shumagins while steamer goes north.
Lecture in the evening by Trelease on insect fertilization of plants
and its relation to color, scent etc. Good but evidently something given
before and not spontaneous.
Splendid volcanic peaks, some glacier covered, in sight on mainland
all day. Toward evening brought up the perfect cone of Pavlof Mt. and
were sailing among the outer Shumagins.
July
7th
Turned out early and found ship at anchor
in Sand Harbor Popoff Island. Could not get ashore so went to bed again
and got up for breakfast. Understood the ship was to leave at 9 and
went ashore with some others for a few moments to collect the lavas
which we are here among for the first time. Returning find that Kelly
is to go ashore here prepared to make a hunting trip on the mainland
so with fifteen minutes to get ready I go along. Ritter, Saunders and
Kincaid are to stay at Sand Pt.; Kelly, Pilot Jordan and self to go
to mainland. Outfit the steam launch Manila, boat and canoe.
All ashore at ten o’clock and the steamer
heads out and away west and north. No regrets after first few moments
at leaving her comforts and the chances of interesting scenes to the
northward in Behring Sea.
Spend the forenoon in a stroll over the Island
with Ritter and Saunders to see the lay of the land and the prospects
for their collecting which prove to be good. Returning we find the party
installed in a big empty hotel erected for the Lord knows what when
Sand Pt. was a port of call for sealers and whalers. Fine lunch cooked
by Dickey and then Kelly, Jordan and I run down to Unga, 15 miles on
the launch to visit a big gold mine there. We are too late to see the
mine but have a pleasant call on the Supt. (Mahan [?]) and his wife
and return to Sand Pt. during the night, having a lunch on the way and
coming to anchor at midnight.
July 8th
Uncomfortable sleep on the launch and breakfast
at the hotel at eight o'clock. Waste the whole morning waiting around
for the Pilot to make his plans and get started finally about 12 for
the mainland. Weather has changed over night from the clear sunny days
we have been having to cloudy squally weather. The run across to Chicago
Bay, 30 miles or thereabout took all the afternoon with much rough water
which tossed the boat around at a lively rate. Finally landed in a little
creek at the east side of a big bay about 7 P.M. in a heavy rain squall.
Tents were soon up on a sheltered gravel bar and by 9 we had some supper
and turned in. A half breed Russian, Ivan, is our guide, brought over
from Sand Pt. He is a hunter and seems to know the land and waters of
the region well.
Sunday July 9th
Awoke to find a glorious sunny morning. Kelly
and Ivan went off early to hunt and the former came in at 9 with a hare,
the only game seen. But tracks of bear and deer were seen. I found the
rocks near camp contained fossils and had a fine morning among them
along the shore to eastward. Also many many flowers - some of them,
especially the arctic poppy new to me. Lunch at 3 P.M. Afterward went
with Friedel, a Colorado ranchman and hunter for a walk inland up a
fine ridge. Saw no game but ptarmigan and a porcupine which we killed
for Merriam. Clouds came up again from northward as sun set but not
soon enough to cut off a glorious view of islands and bays and rugged
peaks. All same formation as far as I could see - Tertiary shales and
sandstone of great thickness and tilted up to high angle. Lovely flowers
and heather. Back at 8:30 P.M. to find a fine mess of trout caught by
Jordan from the stream in front of camp. The stream is alive with salmon
running up to spawn in the lake and the boys killed three in the forenoon
in a shallow. They were poor eating but the roe was fine bait for the
trout and the pilot caught them as fast as he could throw his hook till
he had 99. Great supper - stewed hare, fried trout, boiled potatoes,
stewed peaches and tea.
July 10th
Rain in the night and a gale of wind blowing
down the valley this morning. Nothing to do after breakfast but lie
around in the tent, smoke, play solitaire and generally loaf. Toward
noon I make a rich haul of fossils in the cliff near camp - the best
lot yet.
Lunch at 2 and as it has cleared off I go
with Kelly to try and find Ivan who has disappeared since yesterday
morning. He was to go with Jordan in the launch as pilot on a trip to
westward. We cross the long sand beach to the further side of the bay
and he goes on hunting while I look for fossils with some success, returning
at 8 P.M. Kelly comes in little later - no trace of Indian but fresh
bear tracks. Early bed and glorious sleep to this morning.
July 11th
Heavy rain falling this A.M. The launch went
away at high tide early in the morning. Kelly, Friedel and I left in
camp only. Late breakfast and then a bully smoke in the tent while Kelly
tells stories of his adventures as a scout in Montana in the 60 and
70'ties, among the Sioux Indians. Was with Miles after the Custer massacre.
Kelly goes off hunting at 12 and I write till now, one o’clock,
when I stop my pen being empty and nothing more to tell. Rain has stopped
but clouds still heavy.
After lunch the clouds broke and gave me
a channce for a walk up to a fine hill directly behind the camp. Wet
grass was uncomfortable but wind and fast walking soon dried me out.
Fine view of ridge to northward, some fossils and dykes rewarded me.
Back for supper and so to bed.
July 12th
Morning rainy and cold and miserable again.
We occupy ourselves after breakfast by trying to heat the tent with
a gasolene Primus stove which however will not light. So we borrow the
old rusty stove from the Indian's still vacant tent and get up at least
a good smoke if not much heat. Toward noon the sky clears again with
the usual heavy northwest wind down the valley and after an early lunch
Kelly and I start out together along the beach to westward to the next
cove. Here we separate and I follow the beach for 5 or 6 miles up a
fine big bay nearly to its head. Hard walking against the head wind.
Somewhat scared by a fresh bear track on the beach tho' it is not going
my way. At 4 P.M. I climb up the mountain and cut across country for
camp. Hard walk up four big ridges and down to the intervening valleys.
8:30 P.M. before I get into camp and relish supper heartily. It consists
chiefly of broiled hare, the only game seen by Kelly having been one
of those animals.
July 13th
Kelly and I start early to try and climb
to the summit of the main ridge, the weather promising a fair day. Lovely
but very fatiguing walk of five miles about the borders of the shallow
lake which fills much of the valley. The meadows are full of flowers
but often boggy and where not so are so deep with moss that the foot
sinks into the ankle and makes walking very hard. Just as we reach the
head of the valley and start up the slope thro' dense alders toward
our pass we strike a fresh bear trail going our way and follow it with
great expectations. No results. Kelly decides to "lay for"
the bear and I go on up the pass. Part way up I strike the fresh trail
again and Kelly comes along and together we climb up past the limit
of plants into a wild rocky gorge filled at the bottom with snow. The
bear trail disappears and a dense cold fog envelopes us so we give up
the climb whose chief purpose was to get a view to northward. Returning
we eat lunch by a tiny brook on the hillside and then descend to the
region of the bear. Kelly again stops to try and get a shot at him and
I return to camp alone not without some uncomfortable sensations at
leaving the rifle behind notwithstanding the six-shooter at my belt.
Cross a lovely meadow and then around the other shore of the lake and
back to camp by five o'clock, shooting a big 10 pound salmon on the
way.
Take a refreshing bath, slick up and loaf
around till evening when Kelly appears disgusted. He had been near enough
the bear to smell! him and found his feeding place but not him.
July 14th
Kelly off very early after the bear again.
Fredell [earlier spelled “Friedel”] and I get up later, have
a leisurely breakfast and then he goes hunting while I keep camp. Catch
a salmon in the creek full of eggs and with them catch 75 trout in a
couple of hours on the bank by the camp. Kelly returns with no luck
about one. The day is perfect but I am bound to stay in camp till he
returns. After lunch I start up the hill behind the camp to get some
photographs but the fog sweeps in just as I reach the top and my end
is defeated. I collect some flowers and rocks, find the nest of a "snowflake"
and have a fine scramble over the cliffs and back down the canon by
seven P.M. Find the Indian has come for his boat and camp, having had
a successful hunt somewhere to the westward. Fredell returns likewise
with nothing. The trout for supper are delicious, fried in corn meal.
July 15th
Cloudy morning but clears up toward noon.
A lazy day. Fool away the morning playing with the salmon and catching
some more trout. Kelly returns for his bear for the last time about
noon. After lunch, I collect some more fossils, shoot a couple of squirrels
(ground squirrels) for Merriam and skin one of them, do some washing
of clothes and am now writing toward evening. Wind still heavy but sun
shining brightly. Kelly returns late still bearless and disgusted with
the hunting.
July 16th
Clear this A.M. but a heavy wind blowing
off the mountains. Start off with Kelly about 10, he to hunt the next
valley, I to try the heights by the middle ridge despite the heavy fog
lying on them. After getting up a short way I conclude it is useless
and spend a couple of hours taking photographs of the opposite side
of the valley and of details nearby, eat my lunch in the shelter of
a big rock on the hillside, then descend, wade thro fields of flowers
and grass, then the river above the lake and back to camp by the ridge,
crossing lower down to the first creek. Spend an hour watching the salmon
playing in a big pool and trying to photograph them in the water.
Fished in the stream after getting back and
caught some beauties 12 inches long, in a pool near camp. Kelly came
in late after we had had supper, tired and unsuccessful as ever.
July 17th
Woke up late - 8:30, to find a glorious morning
and, with a S.E. wind the fog gone for once from the mountain tops.
So as soon as I can I pack some lunch and make a start up the first
ridge for Pinnacle Pk. Sun hot at my back as well as the little breeze
and the tramp up the ridge therefore far from cool. Climbed up to about
2000 feet, as far as the crumbling pinnacles would allow, then scrambled
by dangerous ledges around by the talus slopes to a snow slope that
led to a notch in the ridge. Here I had a splendid panorama, including
the waters of Port Moller an arm of Behring Sea to the NW. Also found
the wished-for key to the geological structure of the region in the
intrusive rocks filling a big area behind the peak. Lunch eaten on the
summit and some rocks collected I am off again to slide down the snow
slope and wander back over the loveliest alpine gardens clothed in gay
flower garments, starting ptarmigan from the rocks here and there and
a young eagle from his watch above the lake. Back to camp by 5 P.M.
in time for a delicious bath in the bay and then for a quiet fishing
near camp with the luck to catch a beauty 18 inches long and several
not quite so large.
July 18th
My 30th birthday. We expect the launch or
the steamer today and plan no long excursion. Clamber up the sea cliffs
near camp to spy the contents of two eagles nests but find nothing in
either. Fish the rest of the morning with some success. After lunch
Kelly goes off with his gun and I too lazy to do anything else again
take the rod and go farther up stream than usual. After I have caught
a dozen and am just turning back tired of the sport I am aroused by
a call and look up to see Merriam and Miss Mary Harriman across the
stream. Hastening back I find the tents already struck and soon everything
is in the boats. Those who have come in on the launch are fooling with
the salmon in the creek or shooting at the eagles on the cliff. Kelly
comes in just as we are about to depart without him and Camp Chicagof
is at an end.
A late supper with some of my trout broiled
as the best feature bring the day to an end except for a long discourse
to the geologists as to what I have found. The ship carried out her
program to the word, visited the Seal Islands, Plover Bay, Siberia,
the whaling fleet at Port Clarence trading with the Esquimaux, and many
other interesting points. But though I regret these pleasures I feel
entirely satisfied at having stayed behind, having accomplished a good
bit of geologic work. Dall declares my fossils to belong to a period
not before found in Alaska so I have a good thing.
July
19th
Steamer bound for Kodiak again. Spend the
morning unpacking and packing up again my rocks and fossils and flowers.
In P.M. loaf about the deck. After dinner we make a landing at Sturgeon
Bay, the N.W. corner of Kodiak Island. Heavy sea, rain and wind. Collect
some rocks in the half light and dry out at a grand driftwood fire while
waiting for a boat to take us off.
July 20th
Reach Kodiak in the early morning. Stroll
thro' the pleasant woods with Emerson and Muir, gathering great bunches
of the lovely briar roses that have bloomed since we were here. Indians
cleaning a great catch of fish on the wharf making an awful smell. Miss
Cornelia Harriman's birthday and lunch table very gay with wild roses
and 15 candles. The baby cuts the gold piece in the cake. After lunch
the launches run over to Fox Island - a fox farm where blue foxes are
raised for pelts and we enjoy the outing on the cool water for the sun
is hot. Leave Kodiak at 5 o'clock for Cook Inlet. Champagne for dinner
in further celebration of the birthday.
I talk in the evening on what I found at
Chicagof Bay and get out of it fairly well only Muir says I stopped
altogether too soon.
July 21st
Land a party at Saldovia, Cooks Inlet at
5 A.M. I am up expecting to be put ashore at Homer soon after but delay
follows delay and it is not till 10 A.M. that Gilbert, Dall, Coville
and I get off in the launch. The early morning view of the great volcanic
peaks, Uiamna and Redoubt on north side of Cook Inlet. We expect to
spend two days near Homer while ship goes up the Inlet. Spend the remainder
of the day at Halibut Cove, south shore of Kachemak Bay with interesting
geology but fearfully bad traveling in the forest. On the way back to
Homer for dinner we meet to our surprise the Elder turned back from
her trip and get aboard for dinner. Pick up the other party about midnight
and make straight away for Yakutat. Dellenbaugh talks about the [?]
Indians.
July 22nd
At sea out of sight of land all day. Mrs.
Harriman's birthday, celebrated appropriately in the evening. Another
champagne dinner, music and speeches and fancy dancing afterward, then
a welsh rarebit prepared by Dr. Morris and the young ladies in the ship's
kitchen with much hilarity. Then euchre and smoking till 12:30.
I spent the whole morning packing up my rocks
and those collected by Emerson to the north, 9 boxes altogether.
Sunday July 23rd
Approached the coast at Icy Cape about noon.
Clouds slowly lifted and we coasted along the Malaspina Glacier with
the panorama of the St. Elias Range gradually unfolding to the view,
reaching its best about 5 P.M. as we came to the village of Yakutat.
The clouds did not completely disappear from about St. Elias but Cook,
Vancouver and the many pinnacles and ridges about them were magnificent.
Many Indian boats came alongside to trade and for an hour there was
a lively scene. Later we went up the bay a ways intending to put a hunting
party ashore for a last bear hunt but they could not make a landing
on account of the high surf and as soon as they were aboard again we
steamed away southward. Spent a delightful evening on the hurricane
deck watching the sunset glow and talking with Dr. Merriam.
Monday July 24th
Sailed all day in view of the magnificent
Fairweather Range. A perfect day, clear and warm a steady wind carrying
us along and the slow steady swell of the Pacific to rock us gently
as we went. I scarcely left my post of observation in one of the ship's
boats on deck all day but sat and drank in the splendid scene. Mts.
Fairweather, Lituya, Crillion and La Perouse with many an unnamed peak
between - great glaciers cascading down their fronts to pour their floods
into the sea - densely wooded forests reaching up from sea to snowy
slope - the picture ever shifting and changing as we move along. As
the light failed toward evening we passed the last of the high peaks
- the fog came down again and we left the open water and began again
to thread the narrow channels of the Inland passage at Cross Sound.
After dinner something started us to giving
college yells and once the ball was set rollling we kept up a lively
jig the rest of the hour. A yell was immediately invented, adopted and
practiced
Who are we? Who are We?
We are! We are! H.A.E.!!!
Everyone who knew how was called upon to
dance and Ritter, Burroughs, Fuertes, Coville and Fernow followed in
succession. Then came a Virginia reel on the upper deck and we adjourned
thence to the hall to hear a fine talk by Elliot on a collecting trip
in Africa.
25th At Juneau wharf in the morning. Had
a pleasant walk in the morning up Gold Creek behind the town with Emerson
and Trudeau. Returning met Lieut. Emmons of Sitka and had a pleasant
chat. Ship moved across the bay at noon to coal at Douglas City and
I took another stroll up the hill to the Treadwell Mine. Papers here
up to the 19th July and the news of all Harvard's athletic victories.
Start southward again about evening.
26th Still glorious weather. Just as we had
finished lunch the ship cast anchor before a deserted Indian village
where the whole party landed. A lovely cove and beach - fine trees and
every appearance of a prosperous village but deserted for some years.
After much discussion it was decided to carry off a number of the huge
totem poles lined up in front of the houses and after all had been photographed
we began. Till late that night and all next morning a gang of sailors,
the packers and a number of the science people were hard at work hauling
down the big logs to the water whence the launches towed them out to
be stowed on board. Nine in all and a lot of small stuff were secured
for various museums. I have one for Harvard. The best of the poles were
removed.
In the evening cards.
27th. Worked all morning at the poles, had
lunch on the beach and again worked but not so hard. A very hot day
and the best part of it was the bath when the last pole had left the
beach for the ship. The ship lay at her anchor long after all the stuff
was on board to avoid passing the rough water of Dixon entrance during
the celebration of the evening in honor of Mr. Harriman. Speeches, songs,
etc. were the order of the day and were some of them very good.
28th Still hot but delightful as long as
the ship is moving. Packed up in the morning. In the P.M. loafed in
the shade or wrote a little. The event of the day was the Captain's
evening. The ship dropped anchor in a little cove just at sunset and
all hands repaired to the hurricane deck. The speech of the evening
was by Emerson who was quite up to his high standard. Others spoke we
sang new words to old music, the sailors gave us songs and dances and
then came beer and cheese and crackers. Altogether the most successful
and jolly evening we have had.
29th. A restless day - everybody packing
or idling about not knowing how to pass the time this last day of the
trip. Lovely sail thro' the narrow channels and hazy smoky mountains.
Am appointed a member of the Committee on Publication - 12 in number
- who are to be responsible for the volume which shall record the doings
and results of our expedition. Have a sitting of committee after dinner.
Hardest work of the day is writing something for Mrs. Harriman's album
which I at last accomplish. Glorious sunset with the redest of red suns
owing to the smoky air. A school of whales sporting about, throwing
their great bodies clear of the water to come down with a tremendous
splash. After dark some modest fireworks on the upper deck - then whist
till late - beer and crackers and again a little whist before bed at
midnight.
The lights of Victoria visible in the night.
The heaviest wind of the whole trip - right ahead - tosses the ship
around considerable crossing the Straits of Fuca.
30th Tied up to wharf at Seattle in morning
- 3 tons of coal only, left in the hold - lucky we got in when we did------letters
from home
Seattle July 30th
My dearest Helen:
You may be sure I was up early this morning when I woke to find the
ship tied up at the wharf. I rushed up town with Mr. Curtis who was
to have my mail and found -- not a single one from you tho' a large
budget from home. But your precious ones came to me later and I had
a long and delightful time reading them. I am glad you missed me - but
a thousand times glad that you had so much to do and think that you
had "no time to mourn." Evidently you have been as gay as
the hot weather would permit and from the number of times you have been
tired out I should say you had been doing altogether too much. I saw
a Boston paper way up at Kodiak with your name as attending the Smith
reception to all the Admirals so I knew from that you were still alive
at least.
You must have your hands more than full to
tend to the "Room" and all that involves as well as to take
care of the children whom you of course have with you by this time.
But then Alice can help you in so many ways and I know how you adore
the children. By the way - I suppose you have been told that there is
another Helen in the Palache family since I left. You've no idea how
funny it is to have two whole months of news piled into one day - it's
hard to straighten out.
Our main interest, now that the trip is all
over is how and when we are to get to our respective homes. All is uncertainty.
This much only is known - that we go from here by water still in the
Elder to Portland, Or. where we finally take leave of her. When we leave
Portland or by what route we return is not known and I do not even know
surely as yet whether I am to see Berkeley or not. But I fear not. If
I do it will not delay my return to Cambridge for I feel sure that counting
all possible delays and stops we shall be back by the 10th as I telegraphed,
probably sooner.
What will you think my dear when you receive
this short letter. Will you be quite sure that I have not thought of
you at all during the month since I was last able to send you a letter
and have written you never a word? Do not believe it for a moment. Every
day if not each hour I have had you before me and wondered what you
were doing each day; and I have tried to write each day or nearly so
at least an account of what I have been doing so that you can read it
sometime in case I forget the details. But like you I have felt that
writing to you directly when I knew that my letters could not be sent
was so hard to do and so unsatisfactory that I gave it up. You were
not discouraged but wrote in spite of your feelings on this point. I
was less true to you in this way and did not put my longings for you
on paper.
Even now this will reach you so short a time
before I meet you face to face that much writing hardly seems worth
while. My telegram which you must have read ere I pen these poor lines
will have told you my chief news - that we are safely returned from
our long journey with a rich harvest of results and experiences and
interests. I have been gloriously well throughout, and have been able
to accomplish far more scientific work than I dared to hope when I started
on the trip. And I feel sure that when I get back and can tell you about
it in the happy days we are soon to spend together in a union so much
closer than any we have ever enjoyed, you will share with me the feeling
that I did well to come and that your sacrifice was not in vain. What
that sacrifice has been I do not believe anyone can realize as well
as I. How I have longed to be with you during these days of preparation
to at least give you my sympathy where my advice was unneeded. I know
all you have done is for the best and only wish I could have shared
your labor in planning the new home and especially in the tiresome work
of the wedding invitations and lists. That I suppose must all be done
before I reach you. And I assure you now that whatever you do I shall
approve. Set the day of our wedding - send out the cards and let me
know when it is to be and I shall be there.
Believe me that if I have consented to leave
you this time it is the last as well as the first that we shall be separated,
so widely at least - henceforth we shall travel together or not at all.
How did I come to tell you not to write after
the 20th? I might have heard from you fully a week later here. Even
when you receive this I may still get a line from you if you send it
to Chicago, care Union Pacific Railroad Co. Send me a line anyway.
My plan for our wedding trip is that we go
to some quiet place in the White Mts. for two or three weeks before
going to Nova Scotia should that visit still be possible. I suppose
that we need not be back in Cambridge so soon as we had planned now
that you are getting the house in order before we leave. Perhaps the
middle of September will be soon enough?
But all my plans must be to suit you who
can judge better of the best thing to do being there and I will be only
too glad if you will change them or make entirely different ones.
I must send this so it will go in tonight's
mail. I enclose the journal. Read it if you care to and send it to Father
as I have written nothing home of this part of the trip. I hope I shall
have a telegram from you tomorrow when we reach Portland! Adieu - a
kiss for each of yours and as many more from me. Love to Alice and the
children. I do not realize that but little more than ten days - maybe
less separate us but they will be longer than all the rest put together.
Would that they were over.
Farewell
lovingly
Charlie
Cambridge,
Mass.
May 4th, 1899
My dear Ones:
If the telegram I sent you this morning did not surprise you very much
indeed then it will be my turn to be surprised. As I wrote to Prof.
Emerson on receiving his letter inviting me to go on the trip "it
was the surprise of my life." But meanwhile I forget that you know
nothing of the wherefor or how of the proposed trip. Thus it is: A wealthy
New Yorker, Mr. Harriman is taking a party of his friends to Alaska
for a summer excursion, has chartered a steamer and has invited as his
guests about a dozen scientists. Of these Prof. Emerson of Amherst is
one and being asked to take a younger man along as his assistant he
invited me. The others of whom I know so far are G.K. Gilbert and W.H.
Dall of the U.S.G.S., Merriam, Chief Gov. Zoologist, two prominent botanists,
and possibly Pres. Jordan and John Muir. So you see the party will not
lack of good company. It is the intention to go from Seattle, to which
place we go from N.Y. by private car. We sail on May 28th, I believe
although I am as yet but poorly informed as to the details of the trip.
The trip will be the regular one up the coast by the inside passage
as far north as Cooke's inlet and St. Paul. It is planned to be gone
from Seattle 60 days which should bring me back here by the second week
in August. There is no trouble in my getting away on May 20th, as the
work is over for the year on the 30th and as my lectures are finished
already practically Eakle and Dr. Wolff can easily tend to the lab.
work.
Of course the chief obstacle to my going
was my marriage which we had planned for the 21st June but as soon as
Helen heard of the chance that was opened to me she said of course we
would wait and let me avail of such a unique opportunity. Nevertheless
I did and do feel still much hesitation in breaking up our summer's
plans; but it seems too good a chance to let go by, and as I shall be
back before the vacation is more than half over and it will still be
possible to be married in August, it seemed best to accept. I have asked
several of my own and Helen's friends how it appeared to them and there
was only one opinion that I should go. I feel that I can anticipate
what your answer to my telegram will be, based as it is on such meagre
information. Of course I have no time to wait for letter exchanges but
did not wish to accept absolutely until I had heard from you at home.
My answer must be given tomorrow at latest.
Another thing that my going involves is that
I cannot be at Leslie Ransome's wedding as I had promised. That is a
pity but still as it seems to me no reason why I should not go.
I shall write again and more fully as soon
as I know more details. Meanwhile with much love to one and all I am
as ever your devoted,
Charlie.
Thanks for your telegram just received. Helen
joins me in much love.
C.P.
Sunday May 21, 1899
My dear Father and Mother:
Your loving letters of last Sunday came to me duly and I was glad to
have word from you again before leaving. I see that I counted aright
on your approval of my plans and recognized as I knew you must the impossibility
of including Helen in the trip in any way. I really begin to feel now
that I am going away - my trunk is packed and gone to the station and
tonight I take the midnight train for N.Y. Monday I shall spend with
Mr. Bishop's man, Dr. Lilley, in finishing up my work for him and on
Tuesday afternoon at 2 P.M. our special train (if you please) starts
westward. It may be of interest to you to see just what correspondence
I have had concerning the trip so I send you the letters I received
which please preserve. [These seem to have been lost.] I hear that Keeler
and Ritter are to be of the party which will be good news if true.
I go away from Cambridge with the feeling
that my year's work has been fairly well done and with the satisfaction
of knowing that my salary next year is to be $1500, the highest that
I expected. This information is not yet official but came privately
from the President through Prof Wolff so it is certain. So now I can
advance with my summer plans without the feeling of uncertainty that
until now has hung over me.
The ladies plans for summer are fairly settled.
Miss Jeanette will be in Newport as she has been for several years,
as companion to a Mrs. Bullard of Boston. Helen will stay in or near
Cambridge through July, either with her friend Miss Bûcher or
in their own house with her sister Mrs. Kavanaugh who may come for a
visit with her two children before the wedding. Helen says she will
find lots to occupy and amuse her in getting things ready for the house
such as curtains and linen and then her own dresses. There is a double
advantage in this in that prices on all sorts of goods go down in the
summer and Helen counts on much fun in shopping and bargaining!!
Father the Borrow only cost me 4.50 at the
cooperative. Your V therefore so nearly covers the two books you sent
for that you need not bother about the difference.
All our sunshine has turned to rain and the
last few days have been cold overcast and dreary. This morning is the
same, heavy showers falling at intervals. We should be glad of the sun
again. Still the moisture is needed for the spring as a whole has been
dry and crops are suffering for water. it seems a pity to leave Cambridge
just now when it is at the height of its spring verdure and beauty.
But I look forward to crossing the plains in the spring of the year
- always before I have seen them dry and bare. I do not know our route
beyond the New York Central line - I guess the Union Pacific and then
Oregon Short Line but perhaps it will be a northern route.
The Jaggars will probably give up their apartments
in Cambridge next year and go into Boston. Tom will therefore wish to
keep the Perkins room and will take the book cases etc. off my hands
so I can have new ones made to fit the places in the "Room"
as Helen calls our house that is to be.
I am cold and stiff and will break off this
rather incoherent letter to go and get some breakfast - my last meal
in Memorial by the way unless the unforseen happens. I expect you will
say to that last however that lately it has been the unforeseen that
happened with alarming regularity and to that I must give my assent.
11 P.M.
Only time to say goodnight. With much love
Charlie.
New York - May 23rd 1899.
My dear Ones:
This must be but a hurried note to say good-bye. I begin to feel at
last as if I were going to make a journey, the excitement of the last
preparations and the saying of farewells to dear friends having brought
it home at last. I left Helen Sunday night with a brave smile on her
face but I know there were tears behind in both our hearts and it was
far from easy to go. I had a short call on Mrs. Almy Sunday and she
paid Helen a well deserved tribute of praise. "There are doubtless
other girls who would have said 'go'. But I know of no others who having
said so would not indicate by word, look or deed to any living being
that she was otherwise than wholly content - or that the giving up of
her dearest plans was other than a pleasure". Such or nearly so
were her words and the truth of them was absolute.
I have had the satisfaction of finding Mr.
Lilley well content with my work on the jade; and also Mr. Kunz. The
latter had written most of the material which I rewrote and arranged
and I feared he might feel I had taken undue liberties with his material.
But he expressed instead lively satisfaction that I had produced so
much order out of his chaos. I received $150.00 on account of this work
and expect another hundred when it is all complete. This is my wedding
present to Helen and she says it will all go into things that we can
enjoy together in the house and some of which she hopes to get while
I am gone.
Kunz is the gem expert for Tiffany and Co.
and he showed me some of the glorious stones which fill their safes
yesterday P.M. Oddly enough too the head of the house came in while
I was there to whom I was introduced. The atmosphere of money about
the place was not unfitting as a preparation to my luxurious journey.
Helen said Sunday eve as I was helping her
wash up the tea things "This is a funny contrast to your special
train." Still more in contrast perhaps is the fact that last time
I went west 2nd class!! Father you should have seen Mr McGinnis eyes
pop open as I told him where and how I was going to travel and of the
men in whose company and employment I was in New York.
I dined with Lilley and Kunz in pleasant
style at the St Denis and spent the evening at the latter's house discussing
the jade article.
I must try to write no more for the present.
I rather count on finding letters from you in Seattle. My further address
so far as I now know will be Sitka, Alaska care Harriman Al. Exp. I
will advise you further when I can. For now farewell with many messages
of love to one and all from your devoted
Charlie
Seattle, July 30th 1899
My dear Ones:
As my telegram will have already told you we reached here safely early
this morning. I believe I was the first to get ashore, going with Curtis
to seek the mail that should await me at his office. And sure enough
there it was - your unfailing wekly letters father, and greetings from
Mother, Lizzie, Whit and Mary. My Cambridge packet did not reach me
till several hours later but its news was good like that from you all
and I was greatly cheered by it all. The greatest news of course is
that from Edgefield and I must send my first and warmest love to the
new Helen. But how shall I manage to answer all my two months letters
in so short a space. I must have time to get things in order and connect
them with my own existence which has been so cut off from the rest of
the world. Well the great trip is over a grand success from first to
last. The ship carried out the plan which I wrote you from Kodiak. But
I was not aboard of her most of the time she was north. I had a chance
to camp on the mainland of the Alaska Peninsula which I seized in 15
minutes notice and was in camp from the 8th to the 18th July, having
time to work out a fairly complete study of a region of rocks not before
found in Alaska so I felt that I was well repaid for the loss of the
interesting trip to the gates of the Arctic Ocean.
I cannot give you the details of the trip
now. I kept a journal which has already gone to Cambridge and shall
return to you in due course. Suffice to say that our luck and good weather
lasted all the way back - we had superb views of the St Elias and Fairweather
Mts. last Sunday and Monday, returned by the inside passage as we went
and tied up to the wharf in Seattle this morning with 3 tons of coal
left in the hold.
I wish I could tell what our plans are from
here on, or say that I was coming to Berkeley. But no one knows what
we are to do. Not till we reach Portland tomorrow can I tell for only
then will Harriman know. We may go there in the steamer and our train
will probably return over the route by which we came. But all is uncertain.
Of course you will understand that I do not feel justified in the expense
of leaving the expedition, for a visit with you would have to be limited
to 2 or 3 days at best since Helen is anxious that we be married not
later than the 15th and I am hardly less anxious. As soon as I know
positively however I shall let you know. I have telegraphed Helen I
will be in C. not later than the 10th and she is to set the date and
make final arrangements.
I have been splendidly well from start to
finish - have done much more than I hoped to be able to do and have
had a trip of a lifetime. I must send this off to catch an evening mail
so will close with warmest love to each and every one from your devoted
Charlie
Portland, Aug. 1st
My dear Mother:
In my hasty note of Sunday I did not have opportunity to answer your
birthday letter nor to send you special greetings. I wish to thank you
especially for the lovely and useful wedding gift you have chosen for
Helen. I am sure nothing could keep you more constantly and more lovingly
in our minds than such a gift which shall be in constant use and to
me especially it will ever recall our lovely days together in Dresden
should my memory ever need a reminder. When Helen's last letter to me
was written it had not yet arrived and she was in high expectations.
I hardly know what I should do amid the many
plans that present themselves to me as we approach Portland. The plan
for Whit and Mary to go on to the wedding fairly takes my breath away
and I naturally wish more than ever that I might come to you and then
make the journey with them. Even as I write I do not know what I shall
do. We are going up the Columbia and are to reach Portland at about
6 this evening. Then I hope to find out if I am to have the chance of
seeing you. I fear not for I do not feel it would be right for me to
leave the excursion and incur the large expense of the trip across.
I hope the setting of the date of the wedding will not prevent Whit
and Mary coming. As far as I know the reason for choosing that date
was the fact that the closing of the Summer School on that day would
be the signal for the departure from Cambridge of a number of those
who had before been asked to assist at the wedding and they could hardly
be asked to wait longer than was absolutely necessary to insure my being
there.
I fear I shall be able to give you but a
poor account of the money you sent me to make purchases for you. I kept
waiting in hopes of finding better opportunity to buy things and then
lost the best of them by not going north. Such baskets as I saw in Sitka
- and they are almost the only things worth buying - were ugly and expensive.
Furs I was most uncertain about. At first I resolved to get none at
all and then on second thought it seemed to me they were very characteristic
tho' my ignorance of their value made it a poor business for me to go
into. I got two bear skins - of which I send you the smaller. I hope
it is something which you can make some use of tho' I have my fears.
It is a cub Kodiak bear and I suppose you could get one as cheap or
cheaper in S.F. The other things seem hardly worth sending - the two
little berry baskets I found in Sitka - the curious bag or pocket of
the seal intestine is characteristic Aleut work but was bought in a
store - the bead covered bottle which was thrown in with something else
in bargaining is a sample of the sort of work of which the Sitkan Indians
do much, especially bead embroidery on moccasins etc. all hideous. In
the package you will find Father's book - Life of Borrow which I have
read with much interest altho' it was not so good as I as first expected.
For myself I have little more than I sent
you. Two or three curious Indian pipes - baskets similar to the ones
I send and a pair of paddles for a canoe. The one thing of value is
a pair of old carved silver earrings very curious Indian work - a present
from the Lieut. Emmons I met at Sitka. I found no jade for Mr. Bishop,
missing the only chance by not going to the Bering Sea where also all
the people purchased many curious things from the Esquimo and to Unalaska
where are found the really beautiful Indian baskets.
Portland 7 P.M.
We are here and I close in haste to send
this note tonight. The package of things is sent by Wells Fargo to Berkeley.
Good bye with much love
Charlie
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