Beta Book

This inlet was named for
the renowned voyager, who hoped that it would furnish a water passage
for him to Hudson's Bay.
The trees stop at Cook Inlet, there being only a few on the western
shore. To the south the wooded line intersects the Kadiak group of
islands, and we find the northeastern part of Kadiak, as well as the
whole of Wood and Afognak, except the central portion of the last, well
covered with spruce.
The absence of forests makes it often possible to see for miles over the
country, and explains why the Barren Grounds of Alaska offer such
wonderful opportunities for bear hunting. There are bears all along the
southern coast of the peninsula, but in the timber there, as elsewhere,
the bears have all the best of it.
On leaving Cook Inlet, we kept a southerly course through the gloomy
Barren Islands which mark the eastern boundary of the much-dreaded
Shelikoff Straits, and early one morning passed Afognak, and made Wood
Island landing, where we were most hospitably received by the North
American Fur Company's people.


Pages:
230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254