to wait a month for the next steamer, and though I
would have liked to go again to Nature, the mountains
were locked for the winter and canoe excursions no
longer safe.

So I shut myself up in a good garret alone to wait
and work. I was invited to live with Mr. Young but
concluded to prepare my own food and enjoy quiet
work. How grandly long the nights were and short
the days! At noon the sun seemed to be about an
hour high, the clouds colored like sunset. The
weather was rather stormy. North winds prevailed
for a week at a time, sending down the temperature
to near zero and chilling the vapor of the bay into
white reek, presenting a curious appearance as it
streamed forward on the wind, like combed wool.
At Sitka the minimum was eight degrees plus; at
Wrangell, near the storm-throat of the Stickeen, zero.
This is said to be the coldest weather ever experienced
in southeastern Alaska.

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