Jack the Young Canoeman: An Eastern Boy's Voyage in a Chinook Canoe

by George Bird Grinnell

"Did you ever go into a marble yard and see the people cutting the stone into blocks there? They have metal saws that go backward and forward, sawing on the marble, but if they had nothing but the metal to saw with, they would wear out their saws before they would saw the marble, so they put fine sand between the saw and the marble; and that sand, moving backward and forward, cuts through the marble pretty nearly as a knife cuts through cheese. We have seen here, and you have very likely seen in other places, how the water that comes out from under a glacier is white or gray. That is, it is full of something held in suspension in the water, and that something is the fine powder which is ground off the pebbles and rocks that are being pushed along under the glacier, and ground off the face of the mountains too. It's what you might call flour of rock. That's my idea of how the glaciers cut these deep grooves. We've seen, as we did just below here, lots of great, rounded rocks, on the shore, and we've seen in a number of places, big scratches in the rocks; and these scratches, I suppose, were made by some big chunk of rock, pushed along under the mass of the ice and scratching against the face of the mountains, gouging out quite a furrow in the rock. I don't know that I can explain it any plainer than that. Of course, it's a big subject."

"Well," said Jack, "I don't see how anything could be plainer than that; and it seems to me that I understand just exactly how the thing is done. I suppose sometime, when I go to college, I will get a chance to find out all about these things; and when I do, it will be a mighty good help to me to have seen these things here and to have had your explanation. I couldn't think how the ice, by itself, could cut out these grooves, and yet I believe I have had it all explained to me before; but never, I think, by such clear examples. That explanation of the sandpaper makes it mighty clear."

"Well," said Fannin, "we saw at the head of Bute Inlet a lot of these glaciers. Of course they were high up on the mountains, and mighty small compared with the ice that must have cut out these inlets; still, I believe if we could get up close to them we would see pretty clearly how they work, and you'd understand the whole thing a great deal better than you do now. If I were you, I'd be on the watch for things that have a bearing on this work of the ice, and if you keep the thing in your mind, it will be likely to work itself out very clearly."

"Well," said Hugh, "I think I begin to savvy this glacier business, a little, myself. Fannin has, sure, given us a pretty good explanation."

For a number of days, Jack, Hugh, and Fannin had been studying the charts with much interest, speculating about Princess Louise Inlet, a tiny branch, only four or five miles long, which puts off from the head of Jervis Inlet. On the chart, its entrance appeared a mere thread, but within it widened and seemed to be several miles in length, though not very wide, while at its head were one or two quite high mountains. This inlet they reached the next day.

It was yet early morning when, coasting along close to the shore, they saw a narrow break in the precipice under which they were passing. As they advanced, they saw that it stretched some distance inland. This, they believed, must be the entrance to Princess Louise Inlet, but no one knew. It was almost low water and a current of considerable force was drawing out of the narrow channel. The men landed, and Fannin and Hamset walked a little way up the beach to see whether the passage was practicable or not. They were soon turned back, by coming up against the vertical walls of the precipice, but the Indians declared that if they started now they could go through.

Re-embarking, the canoe was pushed up into the narrow channel, where now the water seemed to be almost still, and a few strokes of the paddle sent the vessel in between high walls, which could almost be touched by an outstretched paddle from either side of the boat. Out in the main Inlet the sun had been warm and bright, but here the water, shadowed by the tall rocks which rose on either side, was overhung by a thick, cold mist. Although passing along close under the walls of the Inlet on either side, they could only occasionally see them, and they groped along aimlessly, not knowing where they were going. The sun does not penetrate this narrow gorge until it has risen high in the heavens, and in the darkness and utter silence of their surroundings, the place seemed very solemn. The strangeness of the situation awed them all, and hardly a word was spoken, or if one ventured a remark he spoke in a low tone.

Hamset in the bow was keenly on the lookout for rocks or obstructions of any kind, but the chart had said "Deep water," for the Inlet, and they paddled on with confidence. As they advanced the mist grew thicker and the canoe's bow could not be seen from the stern. No sound was heard save the regular dip of the paddles, and each one of the crew was wrought into a high state of expectancy, not knowing what the next moment might bring forth.

An hour after their entrance into this twilight, the mist before them grew a little lighter, and in a few moments, without any warning, the dark curtain was lifted from the water and rolled away up the mountain sides. The mist rose slowly, and there appeared, first the trees on the beach, then, immediately back of them, the piled-up rocks which had fallen from the precipice; and lastly, as the clouds and vapor rose higher and higher, the black vertical cliffs and snow-clad peaks of the mountains.

In a few moments not a cloud or a trace of mist was to be seen, except in one long, narrow ravine where it still remained, shut in by high walls of granite.