The new world of mountains and
forests roused the wildest enthusiasm among the Russians. A small boat
was lowered; but it failed to find a landing. A light wind sprang up,
and the vessel stood out under shortened sails for the night. By morning
the wind had increased, and fog had blurred out all outlines of the
new-found land. Here the ocean currents ran northward; and by morning of
the 17th, when the sun pierced the washed air and the mountains began to
appear again through jagged rifts of cloud-wraith, Chirikoff found
himself at the entrance of a great bay, girt by forested mountains to the
water's edge, beneath the high cone of what is now known as Mount
Edgecumbe, {47} in Sitka Sound. Sitka Sound is an indentation about
fifteen miles from north to south, with such depths of water that there
is no anchorage except south and southwestward of Mount Edgecumbe.
Impenetrable woods lined the mountains to the very shore. Great trunks
of uprooted trees swept past the ship continually. Even as the clouds
cleared, leaving vast forests and mountain torrents and snowy peaks
visible, a hazy film of intangible gloom seemed to settle over the
shadowy harbor.
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