A Woman Who Went—To Alaska                  69
weather during the eight hundred and fifty miles to Unalaska.
Right glad was I that we were fortunate in having a pleasant little party of eight or ten persons, and our evenings were spent in visiting, spinning yarns, and singing songs, while some hours each day were passed on the hurricane deck. Here we became familiar with the sea phrases commojily used, and watched the old salts " bracing the mast arms," "hoisting the jibs," or "tacking," and could tell when we had a " cross sea," a " beam sea," or a " sou' wester." As we neared Unalaska on the Aleutian Islands, the sea became rough, and we had more wind, but we joyfully siebted high hills or rocks to the east, and (bade good-bye to old Behring. For three and a half days he had behaved well, and never will we quietly hear him maligned.
Unalaska, sweet isle of the sea! How beautiful she looked to our eyes which had only seen water for days! Its bold and rocky cliffs, its towering peaks snow capped; its sequestered and winding valleys, and bright, sparkling waterfalls; its hillsides in all the artistic shades of red, brown, yellow, green, purple, black and white; its water in all the tints of blue and azure, reflecting sky that looked
" As though an angel in his upward flight,  his mantle floating in mid-air/'