n vistas that
are like glimpses of fairy land. Along the beach numerous skiffs await
those who are weary of towns; steam launches are there, and small barges
for the transportation of picnic parties to undiscovered islands in the
dim distance. Sloop yachts with the more adventurous will go forth on
voyages of exploration and discovery, two or three days in length, under
the guidance of stolid, thoroughbred Indian pilots. There may be an
occasional wreck, with narrow escapes from the watery grave--let us hope
so, for the sake of variety. There will be fishing parties galore, and
camping on foreign shores, and eagle hunts, and the delights of the
chase; with Indian retinues and Chinese cooks, and the "swell toggery"
that is the chief, if not the only, charm of that sort of thing. There
will be circulating libraries in each hotel, and grand pianos, and
private theatricals, and nightly hops that may last indefinitely, or at
least until sunrise, without shocking the most prudent; for day breaks
at 2 a. m.

There will be visits from one hotel to the other, and sea-voyages to
dear old Sitka, where the Grand Hotel will be located; and there will be
the regular weekly or semi-weekly boat to the Muir glacier, with
professional guides to the top of it, and all the necessary traps
furnished on board if desired. And this wild life can begin as early as
April and go on until the end of September without serious injury. There
will be no hay fever or prickly-heat; neither will there be sunstrokes
nor any of the horrors of the Eastern and Southern summer. It will
remain true to its promise of sweet, warm days, and deliciously cool
evenings, in which the young lover may woo his fair to the greatest
advantage; for there is no night there. Then everyone will come home
with a new experience, which is the best thing one can come home with,
and the rarest nowadays; and with a pocketful of Alaskan garnets, which
are about the worst he can come home with, being as they are utterly
valueless, and unhandsome even when they are beautifully symmetrical.

Oh, the memory of the voyage, which is perhaps the most precious of
all!--this we bring home with us forever. The memory of all that is half
civilized and wholly unique and uncommon: of sleepy and smoky wigwams,
where the ten tribes hold powwow in a confusion of gutturals, with a
plentiful mixture of saliva; for it is a moist language, a gurgle that
approaches a gargle, and in three weeks the unac