this dancing and painting and drumming was in
preparation for a war party, composed of all the men, dogs and guns in
the town. They were going on the warpath to get that bear. Greatly
relieved, I gave them my blessing and sped them on their way.

We had been rowing all night before this incident, and all the next
night we sailed up the tortuous Peril Strait, going upward with the
flood, one man steering while the other slept, to the meeting place of
the waters; then down with the receding tide through the islands, and so
on to Sitka. Here we met a warm reception from the missionaries, and
also from the captain and officers of the old man-of-war _Jamestown_,
afterwards used as a school ship for the navy in the harbor of San
Francisco.

Alaska at that time had no vestige of civil government, no means of
punishing crime, no civil officers except the customs collectors, no
magistrate or police,--everyone was a law to himself. The only sign of
authority was this cumbersome sailing vessel with its marines and
sailors. It could not move out of Sitka harbor without first sending by
the monthly mail steamer to San Francisco for a tug to come and tow it
through these intricate channels to the sea where the sails could be
spread. Of course, it was not of much use to this vast territory. The
officers of the _Jamestown_ were supposed to be doing some surveying,
but, lacking the means of travel, what they did amounted to very little.

They were interested at once in our account of the discovery of Glacier
Bay and of the other unmapped bays and inlets that we had entered. At
their request, from Muir's notes and our estimate of distances by our
rate of sailing, and of directions from observations of our little
compass, we drew a rough map of Glacier Bay. This was sent on to
Washington by these officers and published by the Navy Department. For
six or seven years it was the only sailing chart of Glacier Bay, and two
or three steamers were wrecked, groping their way in these uncharted
passages, before surveying vessels began to make accurate maps. So from
its beginning has Uncle Sam neglected this greatest and richest of all
his possessions.

Our little company separated at Sitka. Stickeen and our Indian crew were
the first to leave, embarking for a return trip to Wrangell by canoe.
Stickeen had stuck close to Muir, following him everywhere, crouching
at his feet where he sat, sleeping in his room at night. When the time
came for him