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ANOTHER SUMMER THE YELLOWSTONE PARK AND ALASKA
ANOTHER SUMMER THE YELLOWSTONE PARK AND ALASKA
BY CHARLES J. GILLIS Printed for Private Distribution Copyright, 1893, by CHARLES J. GILLIS. Press of J. J. Little & Co. Astor Place, New York The more I think of it, the more I find this conclusion impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way.— Ruskin. With the Compliments of the Author....
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
In the spring of 1892, a party was made up for a trip to Alaska. The different members thereof were to cross the continent by such routes as they pleased, and meet at Portland, Oregon, on the second of July. This plan was followed, and all the party boarded the steamer Queen at Tacoma, prepared for the journey of a thousand miles up the coast of Alaska. Some account of this, and also of an excursion to the Yellowstone Park, made on the way westward, is given in the following pages....
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CHAPTER I THE START FOR ALASKA.
CHAPTER I THE START FOR ALASKA.
O UR long trip to Alaska and return, nine thousand miles in all, commenced on June 17, 1892, at the Grand Central Station, New York. Arriving at Chicago the next afternoon, we obtained a good view of the great exposition buildings from our car windows as we passed along the lake front. Shortly afterward we were dumped down at the wretched sheds of the Michigan Central Railroad. It rained very heavily, and ourselves and hand baggage were somewhat wet passing a short distance to a carriage. We soo
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CHAPTER II ON THE WAY TO THE YELLOWSTONE.
CHAPTER II ON THE WAY TO THE YELLOWSTONE.
Livingston, Montana, June 22, 1892. W E left the city of St. Paul at 4.25 p.m. on the 20th, by the Northern Pacific Railroad, and arrived here at 8 a.m. this morning. A section on the sleeping-car had been previously engaged, and we found it and the dining-room car attached to the train all that could be desired, so that we thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip. Passing through the Bad Lands was a wonderful experience. Great mountains of clay or stone, in all sorts of grotesque shapes and of many c
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CHAPTER III YELLOWSTONE PARK.
CHAPTER III YELLOWSTONE PARK.
Mammoth Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, June 23, 1892. L EAVING Livingston at 9 a.m. , we travelled by rail forty-two miles to Cinnabar, the entrance to the National Park. We passed along the valley of the Yellowstone River, now a much swollen, turbulent, and rushing stream, hemmed in by mountains reaching their lofty heads thousands of feet high. In one place there had been a land-slide some hundreds of feet long, which had carried down all the earth and trees into the valley, leaving
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CHAPTER IV THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT.
CHAPTER IV THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT.
Fountain Hotel, Yellowstone Park, June 23, 1892. T HIS morning at eight o’clock we left the Mammoth Spring, in a strongly built and comfortable wagon drawn by four horses, with eight passengers and a careful driver, and soon commenced to see the wonders of this remarkable park. The road ran near three lakes, each measuring a hundred acres or more—one green in color, one blue, and one yellow—the like of which cannot, I think, be seen anywhere else on earth. On examination, I found that the water
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CHAPTER V THE UPPER GEYSER BASIN.
CHAPTER V THE UPPER GEYSER BASIN.
June 24, 1892. A FTER a good night’s sleep, we left the hotel at half-past eight this morning for an excursion to the Upper Geyser Basin, forty miles distant. The roads were in bad order, very dusty, and the mosquitoes thick. Geysers and boiling springs were to the right and left, everywhere. At one place we got out of the wagon, and crossed a bridge over a small stream to what is called the Devil’s Half Acre. There were really a dozen or more acres, containing great volumes of steam and hot wat
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CHAPTER VI THE GRAND CANYON, AND THE FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.
CHAPTER VI THE GRAND CANYON, AND THE FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.
Grand Canyon Hotel, June 26, 1892. W E left the Upper Geyser Basin at half-past eight yesterday morning, stopped for lunch at Norris’s at noon, and, branching off, arrived here at 3.30 p.m. The road was on the banks of or near the Gibbon River for many miles, and was very rough. Twice we forded the river, and once the passengers were obliged to leave the wagon and remove a fallen tree from the way. At another place, a tree a foot in diameter had fallen across the road; the party all got out, and
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CHAPTER VII DOWN THE COLUMBIA RIVER TO PORTLAND.
CHAPTER VII DOWN THE COLUMBIA RIVER TO PORTLAND.
Portland, Oregon, July 1, 1892. A FTER spending six days in the Yellowstone Park, which would have been far more comfortable if there had been less dust, fewer mosquitoes, and better roads, we again returned to Livingston, and took the train coming from the East at 8.15 p.m. All the next day and night and the day following we were passing through mountain scenery of wonderful beauty and grandeur, until at 11 p.m. we were landed at Pasco Junction, there being a cross-country railroad from that po
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CHAPTER VIII TACOMA AND SEATTLE.
CHAPTER VIII TACOMA AND SEATTLE.
Tacoma, Washington, July 5, 1892. W E left Portland at 8 a.m. on the 2d by rail, and arrived at this fine hotel, “The Tacoma,” at 3.30 p.m. after a very agreeable and comfortable trip. The first thing to attract our special attention was a view of Mount Tacoma, as seen from the rear windows of the hotel, truly a royal and splendid sight: a great mountain, of symmetrical shape, covered with pure white snow. There are not many such mountains to be seen anywhere; none so beautiful, as I remember, e
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CHAPTER IX ON BOARD THE “QUEEN” FROM TACOMA TO VICTORIA.
CHAPTER IX ON BOARD THE “QUEEN” FROM TACOMA TO VICTORIA.
Steamer “Queen,” July 7, 1892. A T 9 p.m. on the 5th instant we went on board the steamer Queen , which, as there are no hotels in Alaska, is to be our home for two weeks. The steamer is a fine, large vessel, with ample accommodations for two hundred or more passengers. I had secured and paid for two first-class staterooms two months in advance, but found, the first night, that the ones given us were the worst on the ship, being directly over the boiler, and consequently so hot that it was impos
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CHAPTER X ALASKA.
CHAPTER X ALASKA.
July 9, 1892. T HIS morning we went ashore at Fort Wrangell, but found little there of interest. A lot of miserable Indians and dogs and old houses, a post-office and a court-house. An Indian dressed himself as a warrior in paint and feathers, and executed a war-dance in a barn for the amusement of the visitors. I saw him dancing along the walk into the barn, but did not care to see the show. At noon we left the fort, and since then have been passing through scenes of unsurpassed magnificence. T
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CHAPTER XI THE MUIR GLACIER.
CHAPTER XI THE MUIR GLACIER.
Glacier Bay, July 10, 1892. W E arrived here at nine this morning, and have the great Muir Glacier before us. It is about two miles wide, two or three hundred feet high, and several hundred miles long. Every quarter of an hour or so we hear a loud crack, followed by a noise like the discharge of a gun, then a rumbling like thunder, and a big piece of ice, as large as a house, and, sometimes, as a church, falls into the water, causing the great steamer to rock. Word was passed for us to get into
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CHAPTER XII SITKA.
CHAPTER XII SITKA.
Sitka, July 11, 1892. A T six o’clock this morning we arrived here. The weather was warm, tempered by a cool breeze. Not a cloud was in the sky. This is a small harbor, with many islands in sight. From the deck of the steamer we could see the town, and on top of a hill a large wooden edifice, where the Russian governor-general formerly resided. It is vacant now, and in a dilapidated condition. We went ashore, and saw many Indians sitting on the walks or by the side of the roads. They were dresse
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CHAPTER XIII AN ACCIDENT TO THE “QUEEN.”
CHAPTER XIII AN ACCIDENT TO THE “QUEEN.”
July 12, 1892. A T 7 p.m. last evening the steamer’s whistle sounded the last signal, all our passengers came on board, and we started. Going out of the harbor, we passed numerous small islands covered with spruce-trees. The view of the town, the harbor, and the surrounding mountains made a scene of great beauty. At half-past seven the steamer struck a rock. The bow was forced high up out of water, and the stern, where I was sitting with some ladies and gentlemen, careened over so much that we h
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CHAPTER XIV ICY BAY, TREADWELL, AND JUNEAU.
CHAPTER XIV ICY BAY, TREADWELL, AND JUNEAU.
Juneau, July 13, 1892. Y ESTERDAY we were moving through the straits, and looking upon the majestic scenery which distinguishes Alaska, for a thousand miles from Tacoma. We passed the great Davidson Glacier, and during the afternoon and evening were constantly seeing immense ranges of mountains, until we reached Icy Bay at seven this morning. Here the steamer took in her supply of ice, fishing it out of the water and hoisting it on board, several tons at a time. Coming into Icy Bay, the scenery
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THE CAPTAIN’S STORY.
THE CAPTAIN’S STORY.
“My name is Neilson, and I have been at sea since I was a boy. For many years I served before the mast, then as mate, and finally as captain, on many voyages in different parts of the world. Back in the fifties I was in command of a whaling ship owned in San Francisco, and we sailed from that port to the selected cruising ground in Behring Sea, between the Aleutian Islands and Behring Strait. Once we sailed through the strait into the Arctic Ocean, but the intense cold and immense masses of floa
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THE TRAVELLER’S STORY.—AN UMBRELLA.
THE TRAVELLER’S STORY.—AN UMBRELLA.
“I am an expert in umbrellas, take good care of them, and they generally serve me for many years. I have one purchased in Florence, another from the Bon Marché, Paris, and this one, which I hold in my hand, bought at the Burlington Arcade, London, has been a good and faithful servant, having been used as a cane when tramping through Italy, France, Germany, and England. It has sheltered me from the rains of Japan, and the terrible sun in China, Ceylon, India, Egypt, and Turkey. It has been re-cov
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SARAH ARBUCKLE AND THE INDIAN CHIEF. A STORY OF FRONTIER LIFE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
SARAH ARBUCKLE AND THE INDIAN CHIEF. A STORY OF FRONTIER LIFE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
“Sarah Arbuckle came to this country, with her father and brothers, about 1740, when she was sixteen years old. They settled in the midst of a dense wilderness, where the town of Merrimac now stands, many miles from neighbors, and she was their housekeeper. It was so lonely that many times a day, she would step out-of-doors to listen for the sound of their axes, and if it ceased for any length of time, she would tremble with fear lest the Indians or wild beasts had attacked them. “One morning sh
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CHAPTER XVI ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC.
CHAPTER XVI ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC.
Glacier House, Canadian Pacific Railway, July 19, 1892. W E left Vancouver at 2.20 p.m. on the 16th, and made our acquaintance with this great transcontinental railway. I think it fully as good as any of those over which I have travelled in recent years. A good roadbed, fine and comfortable cars, polite attendants, and every thing supplied to make travelling agreeable. The road runs for many miles on the banks of the Frazier River. Great mountains tower above, covered with snow, and there are di
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CHAPTER XVII BANFF SPRINGS.
CHAPTER XVII BANFF SPRINGS.
Banff Springs Hotel, Canadian National Park, July 22, 1892. W E left the Glacier Hotel on the 19th, at 1 p.m. , or, as stated in the time tables of this country, at thirteen o’clock, and arrived here at 11 p.m. We spent the whole time on the observation car, viewing the mighty mountains and magnificent scenery along the banks of the Columbia and the Beaver. Banff is an ideal place for an hotel, being situated near the Bow River Falls and the mouth of the Spray, and surrounded by great mountains,
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CHAPTER XVIII CONCLUSION.
CHAPTER XVIII CONCLUSION.
W E left Banff at 10.20 p.m. on the 22d, and after two days and two nights on the cars, reached Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba. At the hotel there we found the rooms for which we had telegraphed ready for us. The sulphur bath at Banff, and the subsequent exposure, proved too much for me, and I was obliged to go to bed and stay there for a week. Very often I suffered extreme pain in the head, and was only conscious of being carefully nursed by my sister and travelling companions, and attended
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