EE

Approaching Sitka by the usual steamer route from the north at a
distance of six miles the site of Old Sitka is passed. It lies to the
left of the steamer track, in a small bay, and is marked by a native
house which is visible from the ship. From near this place, looking to
the westward, the first sight of Mount Edgecumbe is to be had between
the islands. On approaching the town the ship goes through a narrow
channel between Japonski Island at the right and the townsite at the
left. Near the middle of the channel a rock is marked by a buoy and
along the shore is the native village, or "Ranche," with a sloping beach
upon which in former days the canoes were drawn up. The paths by which
they were brought from the water may be seen, marked by the rocks being
thrown to each side from the track.

[Illustration: Sitka--East on Lincoln Street--the Governor's Walk of the
Russians.]

On Japonski Island is the U. S. Naval Coaling Station and the U. S.
wireless telegraph. The magnetic observatory of the Russians was
situated there. The name means Japan Island and is given because Resanof
designated it as the place to keep captive Japanese whom he expected to
capture through his expedition against the lower Kuril Islands in 1806.

The dock at which the ship lands is in the same location as the one used
by the Russians, but it has been extended to deeper water. The timbers
of the old hulk once used by the Russians as a landing stage may still
be seen in the water at low tide. On the dock was the landing warehouse
of the Russians, a log structure with a passage through the center. It
was burned in 1916. Leaving the wharf and going eastward along Lincoln
Street, at the side are the booths or tents of the native merchants,
kept by the women from the village, a veritable arcade of little
markets, and each of the vendors is as interested as though she occupied
a seat on the famous Rialto Bridge to sell the wares of ancient Venice.
The picturesque, dark-skinned Thlingit women sit at the doors of their
little tents hour after hour, offering the strangely carved totems, the
beautiful baskets of spruce roots woven in mystic designs, the beaded
moccasins, etc., products of their industry during the long winter when
the tourist boats do not call at the Sitka wharves. Passing up the
street to the east from the landing--at the right is the U. S. cable
office, occupying the site of the old Russian fur warehouse. Next is the
three-story