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    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.




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.




    CONTENTS.


    CHAPTER

        I.--THE START FOR ALASKA,

       II.--ON THE WAY TO THE YELLOWSTONE,

      III.--YELLOWSTONE PARK,

       IV.--THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT,

        V.--THE UPPER GEYSER BASIN,

       VI.--THE GRAND CANYON, AND THE FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE,

      VII.--DOWN THE COLUMBIA RIVER TO PORTLAND,

     VIII.--TACOMA AND SEATTLE,

       IX.--ON BOARD THE "QUEEN" FROM TACOMA TO VICTORIA,

        X.--ALASKA,

       XI.--THE MUIR GLACIER,

      XII.--SITKA,

     XIII.--AN ACCIDENT TO THE "QUEEN,"

      XIV.--ICY BAY, TREADWELL, AND JUNEAU,

       XV.--THE RETURN VOYAGE, AND SOME STORIES TOLD ON THE WAY,

      XVI.--ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC,

     XVII.--BANFF SPRINGS,

    XVIII.--CONCLUSION,





THE YELLOWSTONE PARK AND ALASKA.




CHAPTER I.

    THE START FOR ALASKA.


Our 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 soon crossed the Chicago River to the Northwestern
Depot, boarded the train, which left at 11 P.M., and arrived at the
beautiful modern city of St. Paul at 1 P.M. the next day. The Hotel
Ryan was found to be very comfortable, and everything in and around
the city is bright and cheerful. Great business activity, and immense
and costly buildings are especially noticeable.

Running along the streets are great numbers of spacious and elegant
cars drawn by cables. We hailed a passing one, got in, and went slowly
and carefully through the crowded streets, up and down hills, with
great speed and ease, into the country for some miles, passing many
elegant private residences, as costly and fine as any to be seen in
any city in the world--notably one built and occupied by Mr. Hill,
president of the Great Northern Railroad, now about completed to the
Pacific Ocean, whose name you hear mentioned often as one of the great
railroad magnates of the West. The streets are clean, the sidewalks
wide, the front yards of the houses crowded with beautiful plants and
flowers, and in all respects we concluded that St. Paul is a most
delightful city.




CHAPTER II.

    ON THE WAY TO THE YELLOWSTONE.
    LIVINGSTON, MONTANA, June 22, 1892.


We 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 colors, constantly attracted
our attention until we reached the Yellowstone River, which was higher
than it had been for many years. Here things began to look serious, as
frequently the dirty and rushing flood came near to the track, and
the rise of a foot or so would have caused a wash-out, and have
stopped our progress; but for many miles before we reached this
station, the engineer moved the train of ten cars very carefully, and
we were only two hours behind time. There has been a bridge burned
beyond this place, and some bad wash-outs are reported by passengers
coming East, who say that they had to travel around six miles on foot,
through a country infested with rattlesnakes, leaving their baggage
behind; but we expect that all will be clear on Monday, when we shall
have been through the park, and will be ready to go on from here West.

There was the usual crowd of "all sorts and conditions" of men on the
train--young ranchmen, bright eyed, intelligent, and alert, one of
them being an English lord, but I did not know this until he left the
car at a way station. All had tales to tell of life in these parts,
one of which was that the stage running from one of the stations at
which we stopped was "held up" three times last week, and the
passengers robbed. This town is a new one, with a lot of small wooden
houses and stores, but as the hotels did not look very attractive, we
took our breakfast on the dining-car attached to a train about to
start for Cinnabar, on a branch road, and an excellent meal we had.




CHAPTER III.

    YELLOWSTONE PARK.
    MAMMOTH SPRINGS HOTEL, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, June 23, 1892.


Leaving 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 the rock bare, and presenting a very rugged
appearance. There were numerous farms and ranches on the route, with
cattle and cultivated fields. The road bed was in good order, the cars
excellent, and the trip exceedingly interesting and enjoyable. At
Cinnabar, we took a stage for eight miles to this hotel. The road is a
very good one, passing over rushing streams and along the bases of
great mountains, amidst magnificent scenery. Beautiful flowers line
the way and are in the fields, while the mountains are partly covered
with snow. We hear that the road to the lake is blocked with snow, and
impassable. This hotel is an excellent one, the food, attendance, and
rooms are good, and for a day we are resting preparatory to commencing
the tour of the park. Here are located the barracks for the United
States soldiers in charge of the reservation, these being now two
hundred mounted men, who act as police, and constantly patrol the
roads, watching for poachers, and generally keeping everything in
order. From the front of the hotel we look upon the hot springs, which
have been throwing out hot water and steam, no doubt for ages, and
have formed a large terraced hill of soda or lime-like material, the
surplus water finding its way, partly through subterranean passages,
to the river.




CHAPTER IV.

    THE GEYSERS AND PAINT POT.
    FOUNTAIN HOTEL, YELLOWSTONE PARK, June 23, 1892.


This 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 was clear, and that the
pronounced and brilliant colors came from chemical deposits on the
bottom of the lakes. We did not linger long to look at these
remarkable phenomena, but drove on, and were soon passing over a road
made of natural glass, by the side of a great mountain of the same
material. I picked up several pieces of this glass, and found that it
was green in color, and looked like any other glass, while alongside
the road and up the mountain we saw large masses of the same material.
The only conclusion we could arrive at was, that in some prehistoric
time the materials of which glass is composed must have been in
juxtaposition, and were fused into their present form by a volcanic
eruption. It is safe to say that nowhere else on earth is to be found
a roadway made of glass.

We reached this hotel at 6 P.M., and saw near by the first of the
geysers, spouting hot water fifty feet high. We made our way over a
thin crust to see this geyser, so thin that it seemed as if we might
break through and disappear forever, reminding me of a former
experience, when walking along the edge of a volcano in Japan, a place
was pointed out where two guides who had wandered from the path, broke
through the crust and were lost. We passed on to examine what I
consider the most extraordinary natural phenomenon to be seen on the
face of the earth. It is called the Paint Pot, and is a depression of
about thirty by forty feet, with walls of hardened clay three or four
feet high. In this so-called pot are half a dozen or more cones, much
like inverted flower pots, about six inches in diameter at the top,
and two or three feet high. From the centres of these there are
constantly flowing streams of hot clay, each