storms to which the littoral forest owes its extraordinary luxuriance. During the mid-summer and early autumn, however, the temperature of air and water become so nearly equable that fog and rain are the exception rather than the rule.

Crossing the invisible boundary into Alaska the steamer heads straight toward Fort Tougass, on Wales Island, once a military station of the United States, but now only a fishing place. Between this point and Fort Wrangel another abandoned military post of the United States, two or three fish canneries and trading stations are visited and the ship goes on among innumerable islands and along wide reaches of sound to Taku Inlet (which deeply indents the coast, and is likely in the near future to become an important route to the gold fields), and a few hours later Juneau City is reached.

Juneau City has been lately called the key to the Klondike regions, as it is the point of departure for the numberless gold hunters who, when the season opens again, will rush blindly over incalculably rich ledges near the coast to that remote inland El Dorado of their dreams.

Juneau has for seventeen years been supported by the gold mines of the neighboring coast. It is situated ten miles above the entrance of Gastineau Channel, and lies at the base of precipitous mountains,

its court house, hotels, churches, schools, hospital and opera house forming the nucleus for a population which in 1893 aggregated 1,500, a number very largely increased each winter by the miners who gather in from distant camps. The saloons, of which in 1871 there were already twenty-two, have increased proportionately, and there are, further, at least one weekly newspaper, one volunteer fire brigade, a militia company and a brass band in Juneau. The curio shops on Front and Seward streets are well worth visiting, and from the top of Seward Street a path leads up to the Auk village, whose people claim the flats at the mouth of Gold Creek. A curious cemetery may be seen on the high ground across the creek, ornamented with totemic carvings and hung with offerings to departed spirits which no white man dares disturb.

FROM JUNEAU TO THE GOLD FIELDS.

The few persons who formerly wished to go to the head of Lynn Canal did so mainly by canoeing, or chartered launches, but now many opportunities are offered by large steamboats. Most of the steamers that bring miners and prospectors from below do not now discharge their freight at Juneau, however, but go straight to the new port Dyea at the head of the canal. Lynn Canal is the grandest fiord on the coast, which it penetrates for seventy-five

miles. It is then divided by a long peninsula called Seduction Point, into two prongs, the western of which is called Chilkat Inlet, and the eastern Chilkoot. "It has but few indentations, and the abrupt palisades of the mainland shores present an unrivalled panorama of mountains, glaciers and forests, with wonderful cloud effects. Depths of 430 fathoms have been sounded in the canal, and the continental range on the east and the White Mountains on the west rise to average heights of 6,000 feet, with glaciers in every ravine and alcove." No Cameron boundary line, which Canada would like to establish, would cut this fiord in two, and make it useless to both countries in case of quarrel. The magnificent fan-shaped Davidson glacier, here, is only one among hundreds of grand ice rivers shedding their bergs into its waters. At various points salmon canneries have long been in operation; and the Seward City mines are only the best among several mineral locations of promise. A glance at the map will show that this "canal" forms a straight continuation of Chatham Strait, making a north and south passage nearly four hundred miles in length, which is undoubtedly the trough of a departed glacier.

Dyea, the new steamer landing and sub-port of entry, is at the head of navigation on the Chilkoot or eastern branch of this Lynn Canal, and takes its

name, in bad modern spelling, from the long-known Taiya Inlet, which is a prolongation inland for twenty miles of the head of the Chilkoot Inlet. It should continue to be spelled Tiaya. This inlet is far the better of the two for shipping, Chilkat Inlet being exposed to the prevalent and often dangerous south wind, so that it is regarded by navigators as one of the most dangerous points on the Alaskan coast. A Presbyterian mission and government school were formerly sustained at Haines, on Seduction Point, but were abandoned some years ago on account of Indian hostility.

The Passes.-Three passes over the mountains are reached from these two inlets,-Chilkat, Chilkoot and White.

Chilkat Pass is that longest known and formerly most in vogue. The Chilkat Indians had several fixed villages near the head of the inlet, and were accustomed to go back and forth over the mountains to trade with the interior Indians, whom they would not allow to come to the coast. They thus enjoyed not only the monopoly of the business of carrying supplies over to the Yukon trading posts and bringing out the furs, and more recently of assisting the miners, but made huge profits as middlemen between the Indians of the interior and the trading posts on the coast. They are a sturdy race