The Chemawa American, January 01, 1914, Page 12, Image 12

10
THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
OCTOBER IN ALASKA
B Y MISS DORA L E C R O N E , Unga, A laska
AVE you ever seen an untouched land, a land quite un­
disturbed and primeval? Such is Alaska. Here sight­
seeing auto, so dear to the heart of the tourist, and its
glib-tongued companion, the megaphone, are un­
known, but the hand-writing is everywhere and he
who can may read and interpret. It may not appear,
however, to the eager, anxious throng who are attract­
ed by the convention and complexity of the busy city, but those who long
for life strong and simple, for freshness and freedom, for distance and
mystery, will be more than content in the wilds of Alaska.
Unga, the island on which we are located, isoneof the Shumagin Group,
lying seven hundred miles west of Seward. It is about twenty miles
wide. The eastern coast is broken by a shallow bay which extends
nearly three miles inland. Steep, rugged rocks, projecting, form a gate­
way to this bay. At this portal, nestling snugly between the hills sur­
rounding it, lies the town of Unga. At the head of the bay is our sub­
urb, Apollo Gold Mine, familiarly known as “ The Camp.”
Apprehending that summer was growing old, and that stern winter
would soon be upon us, we took advantage of October’s sunny blue to
go forth exploring our island home. Accordingly on the first day of the
month with Agate Beach as our destination, we climbed a half-mile across
the hill, stopping short at a deep rocky ledge, perhaps one hundred feet
high. To make the hazardous descent required grim effort, but when
it had been accomplished and we found ourselves on a beautiful sequest­
ered beach, cobbled with wave-worn pebbles and enclosed bv great walls
of wind and wave-beaten rock, we knew that our expedition had been
worth while. Legions of bright, transparent agates, reflecting in their
hearts the images of their life-long companions, the seas, clouds, and
mountains, were scattered along the beach, so that we felt almost as
though we were walking a street in' the New Jerusalem. Then we
found a delicate, diaphanous, irridescent object, six or eight inches in
diameter, and we knew that for the first time our eyes were beholding
a jelly fish. High upon the beach, near the rocks, is a quantity of
pumice which came from Katmai volcano, two hundred miles away, at
the time of its eruption more than a year ago.
We wanted some agates to take home with us, and those we coveted
most were shining in the wet path of the ebbing and flowing waves. So
we played a wild game with the chasing breakers, and how gleefully
they chuckled uhen they slipped up on us unawares and almost sue-