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 Algorithms Illuminated
Part 3: Greedy Algorithms and Dynamic
Programming

Tim Roughgarden
c 2019 by Tim Roughgarden

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form
without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U. S. copyright
law.

First Edition

Cover image: Untitled, by Johanna Dickson

ISBN: 978-0-9992829-4-6 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-9992829-5-3 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017914282

Soundlikeyourself Publishing, LLC

New York, NY
[email protected]
www.algorithmsilluminated.org
In memory of
Stephen H. Schneider
 Contents

Preface vii

13 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms 1

13.1 The Greedy Algorithm Design Paradigm 1
13.2 A Scheduling Problem 4
13.3 Developing a Greedy Algorithm 6
13.4 Proof of Correctness 12
Problems 21

14 Huffman Codes 23
14.1 Codes 23
14.2 Codes as Trees 28
14.3 Huffman’s Greedy Algorithm 32
*14.4 Proof of Correctness 41
Problems 49

15 Minimum Spanning Trees 52

15.1 Problem Definition 52
15.2 Prim’s Algorithm 57
*15.3 Speeding Up Prim’s Algorithm via Heaps 62
*15.4 Prim’s Algorithm: Proof of Correctness 69
15.5 Kruskal’s Algorithm 76
*15.6 Speeding Up Kruskal’s Algorithm via Union-Find 81
*15.7 Kruskal’s Algorithm: Proof of Correctness 91
15.8 Application: Single-Link Clustering 94
Problems 99

16 Introduction to Dynamic Programming 103

16.1 The Weighted Independent Set Problem 104
16.2 A Linear-Time Algorithm for WIS in Paths 108

v
vi Contents

16.3 A Reconstruction Algorithm 116

16.4 The Principles of Dynamic Programming 118
16.5 The Knapsack Problem 123
Problems 133

17 Advanced Dynamic Programming 137

17.1 Sequence Alignment 137
*17.2 Optimal Binary Search Trees 148
Problems 163

18 Shortest Paths Revisited 167

18.1 Shortest Paths with Negative Edge Lengths 167
18.2 The Bellman-Ford Algorithm 172
18.3 The All-Pairs Shortest Path Problem 185
18.4 The Floyd-Warshall Algorithm 187
Problems 198

Epilogue: A Field Guide to Algorithm Design 201

Hints and Solutions to Selected Problems 203

Index 211
 Preface

This book is the third of a four-part series based on my online algo-

rithms courses that have been running regularly since 2012, which in
turn are based on an undergraduate course that I taught many times
at Stanford University. The first two parts of the series are not strict
prerequisites for this one, though portions of this book do assume
at least a vague recollection of big-O notation (covered in Chapter 2
of Part 1 or Appendix C of Part 2), divide-and-conquer algorithms
(Chapter 3 of Part 1), and graphs (Chapter 7 of Part 2).

What We’ll Cover

Algorithms Illuminated, Part 3 provides an introduction to and nu-

merous case studies of two fundamental algorithm design paradigms.

Greedy algorithms and applications. Greedy algorithms solve

problems by making a sequence of myopic and irrevocable decisions.
For many problems, they are easy to devise and often blazingly
fast. Most greedy algorithms are not guaranteed to be correct, but
we’ll cover several killer applications that are exceptions to this rule.
Examples include scheduling problems, optimal compression, and
minimum spanning trees of graphs.

Dynamic programming and applications. Few benefits of a se-

rious study of algorithms rival the empowerment that comes from
mastering dynamic programming. This design paradigm takes a lot of
practice to perfect, but it has countless applications to problems that
appear unsolvable using any simpler method. Our dynamic program-
ming boot camp will double as a tour of some of the paradigm’s killer
applications, including the knapsack problem, the Needleman-Wunsch
genome sequence alignment algorithm, Knuth’s algorithm for opti-

vii
viii Preface

mal binary search trees, and the Bellman-Ford and Floyd-Warshall

shortest-path algorithms.
For a more detailed look into the book’s contents, check out the
“Upshot” sections that conclude each chapter and highlight the most
important points. The “Field Guide to Algorithm Design” on page 201
provides a bird’s-eye view of how greedy algorithms and dynamic
programming fit into the bigger algorithmic picture.
The starred sections of the book are the most advanced ones. The
time-constrained reader can skip these sections on a first reading
without any loss of continuity.
Topics covered in the other three parts. Algorithms Illumi-
nated, Part 1 covers asymptotic notation (big-O notation and its
close cousins), divide-and-conquer algorithms and the master method,
randomized QuickSort and its analysis, and linear-time selection algo-
rithms. Part 2 covers data structures (heaps, balanced search trees,
hash tables, bloom filters), graph primitives (breadth- and depth-first
search, connectivity, shortest paths), and their applications (ranging
from deduplication to social network analysis). Part 4 is all about N P -
completeness, what it means for the algorithm designer, and strategies
for coping with computationally intractable problems, including the
analysis of heuristics and local search.

Skills You’ll Learn

Mastering algorithms takes time and effort. Why bother?
Become a better programmer. You’ll learn several blazingly
fast subroutines for processing data as well as several useful data
structures for organizing data that you can deploy directly in your own
programs. Implementing and using these algorithms will stretch and
improve your programming skills. You’ll also learn general algorithm
design paradigms that are relevant to many different problems across
different domains, as well as tools for predicting the performance of
such algorithms. These “algorithmic design patterns” can help you
come up with new algorithms for problems that arise in your own
work.
Sharpen your analytical skills. You’ll get lots of practice describ-
ing and reasoning about algorithms. Through mathematical analysis,
Preface ix

you’ll gain a deep understanding of the specific algorithms and data

structures that these books cover. You’ll acquire facility with sev-
eral mathematical techniques that are broadly useful for analyzing
algorithms.

Think algorithmically. After you learn about algorithms, you’ll

start seeing them everywhere, whether you’re riding an elevator,
watching a flock of birds, managing your investment portfolio, or even
watching an infant learn. Algorithmic thinking is increasingly useful
and prevalent in disciplines outside of computer science, including
biology, statistics, and economics.

Literacy with computer science’s greatest hits. Studying al-

gorithms can feel like watching a highlight reel of many of the greatest
hits from the last sixty years of computer science. No longer will you
feel excluded at that computer science cocktail party when someone
cracks a joke about Dijkstra’s algorithm. After reading these books,
you’ll know exactly what they mean.

Ace your technical interviews. Over the years, countless stu-

dents have regaled me with stories about how mastering the concepts
in these books enabled them to ace every technical interview question
they were ever asked.

How These Books Are Different

This series of books has only one goal: to teach the basics of algorithms
in the most accessible way possible. Think of them as a transcript
of what an expert algorithms tutor would say to you over a series of
one-on-one lessons.
There are a number of excellent more traditional and encyclopedic
textbooks about algorithms, any of which usefully complement this
book series with additional details, problems, and topics. I encourage
you to explore and find your own favorites. There are also several
books that, unlike these books, cater to programmers looking for
ready-made algorithm implementations in a specific programming
language. Many such implementations are freely available on the Web
as well.
x Preface

Who Are You?

The whole point of these books and the online courses upon which
they are based is to be as widely and easily accessible as possible.
People of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life are well represented
in my online courses, and there are large numbers of students (high-
school, college, etc.), software engineers (both current and aspiring),
scientists, and professionals hailing from all corners of the world.
This book is not an introduction to programming, and ideally
you’ve acquired basic programming skills in a standard language (like
Java, Python, C, Scala, Haskell, etc.). If you need to beef up your
programming skills, there are several outstanding free online courses
that teach basic programming.
We also use mathematical analysis as needed to understand how
and why algorithms really work. The freely available book Mathe-
matics for Computer Science, by Eric Lehman, F. Thomson Leighton,
and Albert R. Meyer, is anP excellent and entertaining refresher on
mathematical notation (like and 8), the basics of proofs (induction,
contradiction, etc.), discrete probability, and much more.

Additional Resources
These books are based on online courses that are currently running
on the Coursera and Stanford Lagunita platforms. I’ve made several
resources available to help you replicate as much of the online course
experience as you like.
Videos. If you’re more in the mood to watch and listen than
to read, check out the YouTube video playlists available from
www.algorithmsilluminated.org. These videos cover all the topics
in this book series, as well as additional advanced topics. I hope they
exude a contagious enthusiasm for algorithms that, alas, is impossible
to replicate fully on the printed page.
Quizzes. How can you know if you’re truly absorbing the concepts
in this book? Quizzes with solutions and explanations are scattered
throughout the text; when you encounter one, I encourage you to
pause and think about the answer before reading on.
End-of-chapter problems. At the end of each chapter you’ll find
several relatively straightforward questions for testing your under-
Preface xi

standing, followed by harder and more open-ended challenge problems.

Hints or solutions to all of these problems (as indicated by an “(H)” or
“(S),” respectively) are included at the end of the book. Readers can
interact with me and each other about the end-of-chapter problems
through the book’s discussion forum (see below).
Programming problems. Each of the chapters concludes with a
suggested programming project whose goal is to help you develop a
detailed understanding of an algorithm by creating your own working
implementation of it. Data sets, along with test cases and their
solutions, can be found at www.algorithmsilluminated.org.
Discussion forums. A big reason for the success of online courses
is the opportunities they provide for participants to help each other
understand the course material and debug programs through discus-
sion forums. Readers of these books have the same opportunity, via
the forums available at www.algorithmsilluminated.org.

Acknowledgments
These books would not exist without the passion and hunger supplied
by the hundreds of thousands of participants in my algorithms courses
over the years. I am particularly grateful to those who supplied
detailed feedback on an earlier draft of this book: Tonya Blust, Yuan
Cao, Carlos Guia, Jim Humelsine, Vladimir Kokshenev, Bayram
Kuliyev, and Daniel Zingaro.
I always appreciate suggestions and corrections from readers.
These are best communicated through the discussion forums men-
tioned above.

Tim Roughgarden
New York, NY
April 2019
 Chapter 13

Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

Much of the beauty in the design and analysis of algorithms stems

from the interplay between general algorithm design principles and
the instantiation of these principles to solve concrete computational
problems. There’s no silver bullet in algorithm design—no universal
technique that can solve every computational problem you’ll encounter.
But there are several general design paradigms that can help you
solve problems from many different application domains. Teaching
you these paradigms and their most famous instantiations is one of
the major goals of this book series.

13.1 The Greedy Algorithm Design Paradigm

13.1.1 Algorithm Paradigms

What’s an “algorithm design paradigm?” Readers of Part 1 have
already seen a canonical example, the divide-and-conquer paradigm.
That paradigm went like this:

The Divide-and-Conquer Paradigm

1. Divide the input into smaller subproblems.

2. Conquer the subproblems recursively.

3. Combine the solutions for the subproblems into a

solution for the original problem.

In Part 1 we saw numerous instantiations of this paradigm: the

MergeSort and QuickSort algorithms, Karatsuba’s O(n1.59 )-time al-
gorithm for multiplying two n-digit integers, Strassen’s O(n2.71 )-time
algorithm for multiplying two n ⇥ n matrices, and more.

1
2 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

The first half of this book is about the greedy algorithm design
paradigm. What is a greedy algorithm, exactly? Much blood and ink
have been spilled over this question, so we’ll content ourselves with
an informal definition.1

The Greedy Paradigm

Construct a solution iteratively, via a sequence of myopic
decisions, and hope that everything works out in the end.

The best way to get a feel for greedy algorithms is through exam-
ples. We’ll see several over the next few chapters.2

13.1.2 Themes of the Greedy Paradigm

Here are a few themes to watch for in our examples. (You might want
to re-read this section after going through one or more examples, so
that it’s less abstract.) First, for many problems, it’s surprisingly
easy to come up with one or even multiple greedy algorithms that
might plausibly work. This is both a bug and a feature—greedy
algorithms can be a great cure for writer’s block when you’re stuck
on a problem, but it can be hard to assess which greedy approach
is the most promising. Second, the running time analysis is often a
one-liner. For example, many greedy algorithms boil down to sorting
plus a linear amount of extra processing, in which case the running
time of a good implementation would be O(n log n), where n is the
number of objects to be sorted.3 (Big-O notation suppresses constant
1
To investigate formal definitions of greedy algorithms, start with the paper
“(Incremental) Priority Algorithms,” by Allan Borodin, Morten N. Nielsen, and
Charles Rackoff (Algorithmica, 2003).
2
Readers of Part 2 have already seen a greedy algorithm, namely Dijkstra’s
shortest-path algorithm. That algorithm iteratively computes the shortest-path
distances from a starting vertex s to every other vertex of a graph. In each
iteration, the algorithm irrevocably and myopically commits to an estimate of the
shortest-path distance to one additional vertex, never revisiting the decision. In
graphs with only nonnegative edge lengths, everything works out in the end and
all the shortest-path distance estimates are correct.
3
For example, two O(n log n)-time sorting algorithms are MergeSort (see
Chapter 1 in Part 1) and HeapSort (see Chapter 10 in Part 2). Alternatively,
randomized QuickSort (see Chapter 5 of Part 1) has an average running time of
O(n log n).
13.1 The Greedy Algorithm Design Paradigm 3

factors and different logarithmic functions differ by a constant factor,

so there is no need to specify the base of the logarithm.) Finally,
it’s often difficult to figure out whether a proposed greedy algorithm
actually returns the correct output for every possible input. The fear
is that one of the algorithm’s irrevocable myopic decisions will come
back to haunt you and, with full hindsight, be revealed as a terrible
idea. And even when a greedy algorithm is correct, proving it can be
difficult.4

Features and Bugs of the Greedy Paradigm

1. Easy to come up with one or more greedy algorithms.

2. Easy to analyze the running time.

3. Hard to establish correctness.

One of the reasons why it can be hard to prove the correctness

of greedy algorithms is that most such algorithms are not correct,
meaning there exist inputs for which the algorithm fails to produce
the desired output. If you remember only one thing about greedy
algorithms, it should be this.

Warning
Most greedy algorithms are not always correct.

This point is especially difficult to accept for clever greedy algorithms

that you invented yourself. You might believe, in your heart of hearts,
that your natural greedy algorithm must always solve the problem
correctly. More often than not, this belief is unfounded.5
4
Veterans of Part 1 know that all three themes are a big contrast to the divide-
and-conquer paradigm. It’s often tricky to come up with a good divide-and-conquer
algorithm for a problem, and when you do, there’s usually a “Eureka!” moment
when you know that you’ve cracked the problem. Analyzing the running times of
divide-and-conquer algorithms can be difficult, due to the tug-of-war between the
forces of proliferating subproblems and shrinking work-per-subproblem. (All of
Chapter 4 of Part 1 is devoted to this topic.) Finally, proofs of correctness for
divide-and-conquer algorithms are usually straightforward inductions.
5
A not-always-correct greedy algorithm can still serve as a super-fast heuristic
for a problem, a point we’ll return to in Part 4.
4 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

Now that my conscience is clear, let’s look at some cherry-picked

examples of problems that can be solved correctly with a judiciously
designed greedy algorithm.

13.2 A Scheduling Problem

Our first case study concerns scheduling, in which the goal is to sched-
ule tasks on one or more shared resources to optimize some objective.
For example, a resource could represent a computer processor (with
tasks corresponding to jobs), a classroom (with tasks corresponding
to lectures), or your calendar for the day (with tasks corresponding
to meetings).

13.2.1 The Setup

In scheduling, the tasks to be completed are usually called jobs, and
jobs can have different characteristics. Suppose that each job j has a
known length `j , which is the amount of time required to process the
job (for example, the length of a lecture or meeting). Also, each job
has a weight wj , with higher weights corresponding to higher-priority
jobs.

13.2.2 Completion Times

A schedule specifies an order in which to process the jobs. In a problem
instance with n jobs, there are n! = n · (n 1) · (n 2) · · · 2 · 1 different
schedules. That’s a lot of schedules! Which one should we prefer?
Next, we need to define an objective function that assigns a nu-
merical score to every schedule and quantifies what we want. First, a
preliminary definition:

Completion Times

The completion time Cj ( ) of a job j in a schedule is the

sum of the lengths of the jobs preceding j in , plus the
length of j itself.

In other words, a job’s completion time in a schedule is the total time

that elapses before the job has been fully processed.
13.2 A Scheduling Problem 5

Quiz 13.1
Consider a problem instance that has three jobs with `1 = 1,
`2 = 2, and `3 = 3, and suppose they are scheduled in this
order (with job 1 first). What are the completion times
of the three jobs in this schedule? (The job weights are
irrelevant for this question, so we have not specified them.)

a) 1, 2, and 3

b) 3, 5, and 6

c) 1, 3, and 6

d) 1, 4, and 6

(See Section 13.2.4 for the solution and discussion.)

13.2.3 Objective Function

What makes for a good schedule? We’d like jobs’ completion times to
be small, but trade-offs between jobs are inevitable—in any schedule,
jobs scheduled early will have short completion times while those
scheduled toward the end will have long completion times.
One way to make trade-offs between the jobs is to minimize the
sum of weighted completion times. In math, this objective function
translates to
Xn
min wj Cj ( ), (13.1)
j=1

where the minimization is over all n! possible schedules , and Cj ( )

denotes job j’s completion time in the schedule . This is equivalent
to minimizing the weighted average of the jobs’ completion times,
with the averaging weights proportional to the wj ’s.
For example, consider the three jobs in Quiz 13.1 and suppose
their weights are w1 = 3, w2 = 2, and w3 = 1. If we schedule the first
job first, the second job second, and the third job third, the sum of
the weighted completion times is

3 · 1 + |{z}
|{z} 2 · 3 + |{z}
1 · 6 = 15.
job #1 job #2 job #3
6 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

By checking all 3! = 6 possible schedules, you can verify that this is

the schedule that minimizes the sum of weighted completion times.
How can we solve this problem in general, given as input an arbitrary
set of job lengths and weights?

Problem: Minimizing the Sum of Weighted

Completion Times
Input: A set of n jobs with positive lengths `1 , `2 , . . . , `n
and positive weights w1 , w2 , . . . , wn .

Output: A job sequence that minimizes the sum of

weighted completion times (13.1).

With n! different schedules, computing the best one by exhaustive

search is out of the question for all but the tiniest instances. We need
a smarter algorithm.6

13.2.4 Solution to Quiz 13.1

Correct answer: (c). We can visualize a schedule by stacking the
jobs on top of one another, with time increasing from bottom to top
(Figure 13.1). The completion time of a job is the time corresponding
to its topmost edge. For the first job, its completion time is just
its length, which is 1. The second job must wait for the first job to
complete, so its completion time is the sum of the lengths of the first
two jobs, which is 3. The third job doesn’t even start until time 3,
and then it takes 3 more time units to complete, so its completion
time is 6.

13.3 Developing a Greedy Algorithm

Greedy algorithms seem like a good fit for the problem of scheduling
jobs to minimize the weighted sum of completion times. The output
has an iterative structure, with jobs processed one by one. Why not
6
For example, n! is bigger than 3.6 million when n = 10, bigger than 2.4
quintillion when n = 20, and bigger than the estimated number of atoms in the
known universe when n 60. Thus no conceivable improvement in computer
technology would transmute exhaustive search into a useful algorithm.
13.3 Developing a Greedy Algorithm 7

job #3

time
3
job #2
1
job #1
0

Figure 13.1: The completion times of the three jobs are 1, 3, and 6.

use a greedy algorithm that iteratively decides which job should go

next?
The first step of our plan is to solve two special cases of the
general problem. Our solutions to these will suggest what a greedy
algorithm might look like in the general case. We’ll then narrow the
field to a single candidate algorithm and prove that this candidate
correctly solves the problem. The process by which we arrive at this
algorithm is more important to remember than the algorithm itself;
it’s a repeatable process that you can use in your own applications.

13.3.1 Two Special Cases

Let’s think positive and posit that there actually is a correct greedy
algorithm for the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of comple-
tion times. What would it look like? For starters, what if you knew
that all the jobs had the same length (but possibly different weights)?
What if they all had the same weight (but possibly different lengths)?

Quiz 13.2

(1) If all job lengths are identical, should we schedule

smaller- or larger-weight jobs earlier?

(2) If all job weights are identical, should we schedule

shorter or longer jobs earlier?
8 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

a) larger/shorter

b) smaller/shorter

c) larger/longer

d) smaller/longer

(See Section 13.3.3 for the solution and discussion.)

13.3.2 Dueling Greedy Algorithms

In the general case, jobs can have different weights and different
lengths. Whenever our two rules-of-thumb—to prefer shorter jobs
and higher-weight jobs—luckily coincide for a pair of jobs, we know
which one to schedule first (the shorter, higher-weight one). But what
if the two rules give conflicting advice? What should we do with one
short low-weight job and one long high-weight job?
What’s the simplest greedy algorithm that might work? Each
job has two parameters, and the algorithm must look at both. The
best-case scenario would be to come up with a formula that compiles
each job’s length and weight into a single score, so that scheduling
jobs from highest to lowest score is guaranteed to minimize the sum of
weighted completion times. If such a formula exists, our two special
cases imply that it must have two properties: (i) holding the length
fixed, it should be increasing in the job’s weight; and (ii) holding the
weight fixed, it should be decreasing in the job’s length. (Remember,
higher scores are better.) Take a minute to brainstorm some formulas
that have both of these properties.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Perhaps the simplest function that is increasing in weight and

decreasing in length is the difference between the two:

proposal #1 for score of job j: wj `j .

This score might be negative, but that poses no obstacle to sequencing

the jobs from highest to lowest score.
13.3 Developing a Greedy Algorithm 9

There are plenty of other options. For example, the ratio of the
two parameters is another candidate:
wj
proposal #2 for score of job j: .
`j
These two scoring functions lead to two different greedy algo-
rithms.
GreedyDiff
Schedule the jobs in decreasing order of wj `j
(breaking ties arbitrarily).

GreedyRatio
wj
Schedule the jobs in decreasing order of `j
(breaking ties arbitrarily).

Thus, already, our first case study illustrates the first theme of the
greedy paradigm (Section 13.1.2): It is often easy to propose multiple
competing greedy algorithms for a problem.
Which of the two algorithms, if any, is correct? A quick way to
rule out one of them is to find an instance in which the two algorithms
output different schedules, with different objective function values.
For whichever algorithm fares worse in this example, we can conclude
that it is not always optimal.
Both algorithms do the right thing in our two special cases, with
equal-weight or equal-length jobs. The simplest possible example for
ruling out one of them would be a problem instance with two jobs,
having different weights and lengths, such that the two algorithms
schedule the jobs in opposite orders. That is, we seek two jobs whose
ordering by difference is the opposite of their ordering by ratio. One
simple example is:
Job #1 Job #2
Length `1 = 5 `2 = 2
Weight w1 = 3 w2 = 1.
The first job has the larger ratio ( 35 vs. 12 ) but the smaller (more
negative) difference ( 2 vs. 1). Thus the GreedyDiff algorithm
schedules the second job first, while GreedyRatio does the opposite.
10 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

Quiz 13.3
What is the sum of weighted completion times in the sched-
ules output by the GreedyDiff and GreedyRatio algorithms,
respectively?

a) 22 and 23

b) 23 and 22

c) 17 and 17

d) 17 and 11

(See Section 13.3.3 for the solution and discussion.)

We’ve made progress by ruling out the GreedyDiff algorithm

from further consideration. However, the outcome of Quiz 13.3 does
not immediately imply that the GreedyRatio algorithm is always
optimal. For all we know, there are other cases in which the algorithm
outputs a suboptimal schedule. You should always be skeptical about
an algorithm that does not come with a proof of correctness, even
if the algorithm does the right thing in some toy examples, and
extra-skeptical of greedy algorithms.
In our case, the GreedyRatio algorithm is, in fact, guaranteed to
minimize the sum of weighted completion times.

Theorem 13.1 (Correctness of GreedyRatio) For every set of

positive job weights w1 , w2 , . . . , wn and positive job lengths
`1 , `2 , . . . , `n , the GreedyRatio algorithm outputs a schedule with the
minimum-possible sum of weighted completion times.
This assertion is not obvious and you should not trust it until I supply
you with a proof. Consistent with the third theme of the greedy
paradigm (Section 13.1.2), this proof occupies the entire next section.

On Lemmas, Theorems, and the Like

In mathematical writing, the most important tech-

nical statements are labeled theorems. A lemma is
a technical statement that assists with the proof of
13.3 Developing a Greedy Algorithm 11

a theorem (much as a subroutine assists with the

implementation of a larger program). A corollary is a
statement that follows immediately from an already-
proven result, such as a special case of a theorem.
We use the term proposition for stand-alone techni-
cal statements that are not particularly important in
their own right.

The remaining theme of the greedy paradigm is the ease of running

time analyses (Section 13.1.2). That’s certainly the case here. All the
GreedyRatio algorithm does is sort the jobs by ratio, which requires
O(n log n) time, where n is the number of jobs in the input (see
footnote 3).

13.3.3 Solutions to Quiz 13.2–13.3

Solution to Quiz 13.2

Correct answer: (a). First suppose that all n jobs have the same
length, say length 1. Then, every schedule has exactly the same
set of completion times—{1, 2, 3, . . . , n}—and the only question is
which job gets which completion time. Our semantics for job weights
certainly suggests that the higher-weight jobs should receive the
smaller completion times, and this is in fact the case. For example,
you wouldn’t want to schedule a job with weight 10 third (with
completion time 3) and one with weight 20 fifth (with completion
time 5); you’d be better off exchanging the positions of these two jobs,
which would decrease the sum of weighted completion times by 20 (as
you should check).
The second case, in which all jobs have equal weights, is a little
more subtle. Here, you want to favor shorter jobs. For example,
consider two unit-weight jobs with lengths 1 and 2. If you schedule
the shorter job first, the completion times are 1 and 3, for a total
of 4. In the opposite order, the completion times are 2 and 3, for
an inferior total of 5. In general, the job scheduled first contributes
to the completion times of all the jobs, as all jobs must wait for
the first one to finish. All else being equal, scheduling the shortest
job first minimizes this negative impact. The second job contributes
12 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

to all the completion times other than that of the first job, so the
second-shortest job should be scheduled next, and so on.

Solution to Quiz 13.3

Correct answer: (b). The GreedyDiff algorithm schedules the

second job first. The completion time of this job is C2 = `2 = 2
while that of the other job is C1 = `2 + `1 = 7. The sum of weighted
completion times is then

w1 · C1 + w2 · C2 = 3 · 7 + 1 · 2 = 23.

The GreedyRatio algorithm schedules the first job first, resulting in

completion times C1 = `1 = 5 and C2 = `1 + `2 = 7 and a sum of
weighted completion times of

3 · 5 + 1 · 7 = 22.

We conclude that the GreedyDiff algorithm fails to compute an

optimal schedule for this example and therefore is not always correct.

13.4 Proof of Correctness

Divide-and-conquer algorithms usually have formulaic correctness

proofs, consisting of a straightforward induction. Not so with greedy
algorithms, for which correctness proofs are more art than science—be
prepared to throw in the kitchen sink. To the extent that there are
recurring themes in correctness proofs of greedy algorithms, we will
emphasize them as we go along.
The proof of Theorem 13.1 includes a vivid example of one such
theme: exchange arguments. The key idea is to prove that every
feasible solution can be improved by modifying it to look more like
the output of the greedy algorithm. We’ll see two variants in this
section. In the first, we’ll proceed by contradiction and use an exchange
argument to exhibit a “too-good-to-be-true” solution. In the second,
we’ll use an exchange argument to show that every feasible solution
can be iteratively massaged into the output of the greedy algorithm,
13.4 Proof of Correctness 13

while only improving the solution along the way.7

13.4.1 The No-Ties Case: High-Level Plan

We proceed to the proof of Theorem 13.1. Fix a set of jobs, with

positive weights w1 , w2 , . . . , wn and lengths `1 , `2 . . . , `n . We must
show that the GreedyRatio algorithm produces a schedule that min-
imizes the sum of weighted completion times (13.1). We start with
two assumptions.

Two Assumptions

(1) The jobs are indexed in nonincreasing order of weight-

length ratio:
w1 w2 wn
··· . (13.2)
`1 `2 `n

wi wj
(2) There are no ties between ratios: `i 6= `j whenever
i 6= j.

The first assumption is without loss of generality, merely an agreement

among friends to minimize our notational burden. Reordering the
jobs in the input has no effect on the problem to be solved. We can
therefore always reorder and reindex the jobs so that (13.2) holds.
The second assumption imposes a non-trivial restriction on the input;
we will do some extra work to remove it in Section 13.4.4. Together,
the two assumptions imply that jobs are indexed in strictly decreasing
order of weight-length ratio.
The high-level plan is to proceed by contradiction. Recall that
in this type of proof, you assume the opposite of what you want to
prove, and then build on this assumption with a sequence of logically
correct steps that culminates in a patently false statement. Such a
7
Exchange arguments are only one way among many to prove that a greedy
algorithm is correct. For example, in Chapter 9 of Part 2, our correctness
proof for Dijkstra’s algorithm used induction rather than an exchange argument.
Both induction and exchange arguments play a role in our correctness proofs for
Huffman’s greedy coding algorithm (Chapter 14) and for Prim’s and Kruskal’s
minimum spanning tree algorithms (Chapter 15).
14 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

contradiction implies that the assumption can’t be true, which proves

the desired statement.
To begin, we assume that the GreedyRatio algorithm produces
a schedule of the given jobs that is not optimal. Thus, there is
an optimal schedule ⇤ of these jobs with a strictly smaller sum of
weighted completion times. The inspired idea is to use the differences
between and ⇤ to explicitly construct a schedule that is even better
than ⇤ ; this will contradict our assumption that ⇤ is an optimal
schedule.

13.4.2 Exchanging Jobs in a Consecutive Inversion

Suppose, for contradiction, that the GreedyRatio algorithm produces
the schedule and that there is an optimal schedule ⇤ with a strictly
smaller sum of weighted completion times. By assumption (1), the
greedy schedule schedules the jobs in order of index (with job 1
first, then job 2, all the way up to job n); see Figure 13.2.

job #n
..........

job #3
time

job #2

job #1
σ

Figure 13.2: The greedy schedule , with jobs scheduled in order of

nonincreasing weight-length ratio.

Going from bottom to top in the greedy schedule, the indices

of the jobs always go up. This is not true for any other schedule.
To make this assertion precise, define a consecutive inversion in a
13.4 Proof of Correctness 15

schedule as a pair i, j of jobs such that i > j and job i is processed

immediately before job j. For example, in Figure 13.2, if jobs 2
and 3 were processed in the opposite order they would constitute a
consecutive inversion (with i = 3 and j = 2).

Lemma 13.2 (Non-Greedy Schedules Have Inversions)

Every schedule ˆ different from the greedy schedule has at least one
consecutive inversion.
Proof: We prove the contrapositive.8 If ˆ has no consecutive inversions,
the index of each job is at least 1 larger than the job that came before
it. There are n jobs and the maximum-possible index is n, so there
cannot be any jumps of 2 or more between the indices of consecutive
jobs. This means that ˆ is the same as the schedule computed by the
greedy algorithm. QE D 9

Returning to the proof of Theorem 13.1, we are assuming that

there is an optimal schedule ⇤ of the given jobs with a strictly
smaller sum of weighted completion times than the greedy schedule .
Because ⇤ 6= , Lemma 13.2 applies to ⇤ , and there are consecutive
jobs i, j in ⇤ with i > j (Figure 13.3(a)). How can we use this fact
to exhibit another schedule 0 that is even better than ⇤ , thereby
furnishing a contradiction?
The key idea is to perform an exchange. We define a new sched-
ule 0 that is identical to ⇤ except that the jobs i and j are processed
in the opposite order, with j now processed immediately before i.
The jobs before both i and j (“stuff” in Figure 13.3) are the same in
both ⇤ and 0 (and in the same order), and likewise for the jobs that
follow both i and j (“more stuff”).

13.4.3 Cost-Benefit Analysis

What are the ramifications of the exchange illustrated below in
Figure 13.3?
8
The contrapositive of a statement “if A is true, then B is true” is the logically
equivalent statement “if B is not true, then A is not true.” For example, the
contrapositive of Lemma 13.2 is: If ˆ has no consecutive inversions, then ˆ is the
same as the greedy schedule .
9
“Q.e.d.” is an abbreviation for quod erat demonstrandum and means “that
which was to be demonstrated.” In mathematical writing, it is used at the end of
a proof to mark its completion.
16 Introduction to Greedy Algorithms

more more
stuff stuff

j i
exchange!
i j
time

time
stuff stuff

σ* σ’
(a) Before exchange (b) After exchange

Figure 13.3: Obtaining the new schedule 0 from the allegedly optimal
schedule ⇤ by exchanging the jobs in a consecutive inversion (with i > j).

Quiz 13.4
What effect does the exchange have on the completion time
of: (i) a job other than i or j; (ii) the job i; and (iii) the
job j?

a) (i) Not enough information to answer; (ii) goes up;

(iii) goes down.

b) (i) Not enough information to answer; (ii) goes down;

(iii) goes up.

c) (i) Unaffected; (ii) goes up; (iii) goes down.

d) (i) Unaffected; (ii) goes down; (iii) goes up.

(See Section 13.4.5 for the solution and discussion.)

13.4 Proof of Correctness 17

Solving Quiz 13.4 puts us in a great position to finish the proof.

The cost of exchanging the jobs i and j in a consecutive inversion
is that i’s completion time Ci goes up by the length `j of job j,
which increases the objective function (13.1) by wi · `j . The benefit
is that j’s completion time Cj goes down by the length `i of job i,
which decreases the objective function (13.1) by wj · `i .
Summarizing,
n
X n
X
0 ⇤
wk Ck ( ) = w k Ck ( ) + wi `j wj `i . (13.3)
| {z }
k=1 k=1
| {z } | {z } effect of exchange
0 objective fn value of ⇤
objective fn value of

Now is the time to use the fact that ⇤ scheduled i and j in the “wrong
order,” with i > j. Our standing assumptions (1) and (2) imply that
jobs are indexed in strictly decreasing order of weight-length ratio, so
wi wj
< .
`i `j

After clearing denominators, this translates to

w i `j < wj `i .
|{z} |{z}
cost of exchange benefit of exchange

Because the benefit of the exchange exceeds the cost, equation (13.3)
tells us that
0 ⇤
objective function value of < objective function value of .

But this is nuts— ⇤ was supposed to be an optimal schedule, with the

smallest possible sum of weighted completion times! We’ve arrived at
the desired contradiction, which completes the proof of Theorem 13.1
for the case in which all the jobs have distinct weight-length ratios.

13.4.4 Handling Ties

With a little more work, we can prove the correctness of the
GreedyRatio algorithm (Theorem 13.1) even when there are ties
in jobs’ weight-length ratios. (We’ll keep the assumption (1) that
jobs are indexed in nonincreasing order of weight-length ratio, as it’s
without loss of generality.) The point of going through this more
Another Random Scribd Document
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—one at Chilcaht, the other on the Taku Glacier, near Juneau, and
this latter was described as having been almost white. The blue
skins are also very rare, as much as seventy-five dollars being given
for a good one. They seem to rather prefer the company of their
brown brethren, as Shorty a few days later saw three bears on the
glacier, of which one was brown and two blue; and Anthony, the
Sitka watchmaker, whom we first met at Yakutat, whither he had
come prospecting up the coast, met four near Dry Bay, some brown
and some blue, but I forget the exact proportion.
After lunch I set to work to prepare a sumptuous supper, as I
expected the others back that evening. I made a pudding by boiling
rice and dried peaches together, and even added some sugar, which
had become a rare and precious commodity, so that I did not use it
while the others were away. I then left the pot in the snow to cool,
put a goose to stew on a slow fire, and wandered up a little way
beyond camp to make a sketch of the glacier. About five o’clock the
weather improved, the clouds gradually disappearing and the sun
being pleasantly warm. The others did not return, and the pudding
was so good that about half of it was eaten at supper, but I put the
rest by for next day. After supper I went out on to the Tyndall
Glacier and had a grand view of the mountain, though there were
still some clouds about. I could see no sign of the others, but took a
lot of bearings.
Wednesday, August the 1st.—It was so cold in the night that I
woke up several times and got up pretty early. (Having the tent all to
myself and without the ground-sheet no doubt contributed to this.)
Making bread for breakfast exhausted the flour, so I started the men
off to get some more from Camp H, and went down with them as far
as the Daisy Glacier. On the way I had to pitch into Master Jimmy
pretty severely; the crevasses at the junction of the Coal and Tyndall
Glaciers gave us some little trouble from having kept too near to the
latter, and one of these was spanned by an exceedingly frail snow-
bridge. Merely glancing at it, I went some thirty yards lower down,
and, looking back as I crossed, saw, to my horror, that, though Billy
was following me all right, Jimmy, who had been a little behind, was
crossing the rotten bridge, which he traversed in safety, but two or
three strokes from my ice-axe sent it tinkling into the depths, and
why it did not give way with him is a great mystery. Jimmy looked
rather awestruck, and I pointed out to him with some vigour the
necessity of following absolutely in my tracks.
The weather was again perfect, and on arriving at the Daisy
Glacier I let them go on, while I turned on to the glacier, up which I
went for nearly three miles, when my eyes began to ache a good
deal, and, as some schrunds appeared which threatened to prove
awkward for a solitary climber, I returned. In the lower part of the
Daisy there are hardly any crevasses, and in consequence there are
some very fine moulins, while the surface was there in many parts
very swampy, if such an expression can be used, a thin crust of
snow overlying the wet glacier. As I had expected, it had a small
outflow on its south side, about half a mile from its junction with the
Tyndall; and the stream from this, augmented by another from the
latter glacier, runs into the little lake by Camp H, and so gets back to
the glacier.
I made a slight sketch of Mount St. Elias from the terminal
moraine, and got back to camp about one o’clock (estimated),
visiting on the way the big blocks on the Coal Glacier, the biggest of
which probably contained about six thousand cubic feet. I found that
the others had been over for stores and the kerosene stove, and H.
had left a note saying that I could go down and wait for them at G,
and that they would be back in four days. Among other things they
had carried off the small kettle with the remains of the rice-pudding,
and so got their share after all. They left the skins of four young
marmots to be stretched and dried. These afterwards vanished when
we were camped at Yakutat, presumably the prey of some Indian
dog. The men came back about two o’clock, and after lunch we also
went hunting marmots, which they called tsahkh; but though we got
pretty near one or two, and dug up a great deal of the hill-side, the
only results were the expenditure of a few revolver-cartridges and
the not uncommon one of smashing the stock of an ice-axe.
 CHAPTER VI
BACK TO THE SHORE

Thursday, the 2nd.—In the odds and ends sack I had found an
extra flannel shirt, and, fortified by this, was not much troubled by
the cold, though I was not too warm in spite of the thick vest, two
flannel shirts, leather waistcoat, Norfolk jacket, and macintosh, that
I put on before creeping into my blanket-bag. I had announced to
the Indians that we were going back, and their delight got them up
first for a wonder, though indeed as we returned they were generally
the first to move, in their eagerness to escape from the detested
country. At this camp they had been chanting the most doleful
ditties, and when I inquired what it was all about, they said, ‘Siwash
sick tum-tum, want go home.’ Among Indians the tummy is generally
regarded as the seat of the feelings.
To get everything into one load the packs had to be very heavy.
Billy had about a hundred pounds and Jimmy very little less, while in
addition to my own properties I had kettles, frying-pan, and tent-
poles. We left a small cache for the others, and our last goose, but
we hoped to get some more at H, and were off by about seven
o’clock. On the Daisy Glacier we found fresh bear-tracks, much
larger than those of the two who had paid us a visit, but we saw
nothing of the beast himself. Putting up lots of ptarmigan in the
hollow of the little stream by which we descended to cross the
ravine, we went on past H to the site of Schwatka’s last camp,
flushing more ptarmigan by the stream there. Altogether I fired five
pistol-shots at them, and got a young one with my last. It was well-
grown and about the size of a French partridge. We pitched camp at
the edge of the glacier, and after lunch the men went back to fetch
the things cached at H, and to try for geese, but they only got one
small one, all the rest being able to fly. Meanwhile I took my
ptarmigan on to the glacier, to avoid the flies, and tried to skin it.
This was not very easy, as the bullet had smashed both shoulders,
but I managed it in a sort of a way, and then went for a bit across
the glacier towards the Chaix Hills to get some idea of the lie of the
crevasses. We had an excellent supper, and the men displayed
marvellous appetites, eating the whole of their goose, the legs of my
bird, and two goes of rice-pudding, but I think they were then
tolerably crowded. After this I started to climb the last little hill,
which looks like an island from the opposite side of the glacier, but
coming on more ptarmigan, fired my last five cartridges and got an
old bird. I ought certainly to have had two more, but the pistol was
so foul that accuracy was impossible, while only three of the
chambers would work. Coming back, I drove two or three young
ones on to the moraine, and, shouting for Billy and Jimmy, we
pursued wildly for about half-an-hour, the men barefooted and I with
only moccasins on, so that it would have been amusing to observe
our skips and hops when we lighted on a sharper stone than usual.
At last the one we had selected was too beat to fly any more, and
Billy finally succeeded in knocking him over with a better aimed rock
than usual, most of their shots being awfully wild. Just as we were
going to turn in we heard a curious cry, something between the
bleat of a sheep and the mew of a cat. The men said, though rather
doubtfully, that it was a bear, and shouted vigorously to frighten it
away, but we heard it again afterwards, and I fancy it may have
been a lynx.
Friday, the 3rd.—I again woke several times in the night from the
cold, and could hear the ptarmigan calling quite close to the tent.
We did not get up till rather late, and got off about nine o’clock,
leaving sundry properties which I intended Mike and Matthew, who
had been luxuriating at the beach, to have the pleasure of fetching.
Thinking, from my survey of the previous day, that we could improve
on the way we had come, I struck right in nearly to the centre of the
glacier, and for a long way we had very good going with hardly any
crevasses; but as we approached the two conical mounds which
made such a land-mark on the Tyndall Glacier, we got some very bad
moraine indeed, and in one place I nearly succeeded in breaking my
leg by pulling a loosely-perched boulder on to myself. It came to an
end at last, and we got up to G about noon, where we found no sign
of the other men. After pitching the tent and examining the cache,
which, like all our others, had been left untouched by four-footed
prowlers, we lunched, and I then had a delicious bathe in the little
tarn. The men slept most of the afternoon while I skinned the
ptarmigan, a futile task, as it was found impossible to preserve the
skins by the time I got home. At supper-time the view was unusually
fine; a thin layer of cloud hid the many crevasses of the Guyot
Glacier, as a veil conceals the wrinkles of a faded beauty, while
above this the peaks to the west showed with unusual grandeur,
especially the long snow-clad mass which we had christened
Snowshoe Mountain. Later on the clouds thinned off a great deal,
and St. Elias, which had been banded with mist all day, came out
quite clear. The flowers on the hills, especially the violets, were
mostly over, but I found a fine rose-coloured lupin among the blue
ones at the edge of the lake.
Saturday, the 4th.—The day dawned brilliantly fine and hot. After
a bathe I mended my clothes, and then, putting my luncheon in my
pocket, wandered over the hills, taking a good many bearings with
the sextant. As I came leisurely back along the edge of the glacier
lake, which was very bad walking, I flushed sundry ptarmigan, one
of which, an old one, perched in the top of a dead fir-tree. Just as I
reached the end of the lake I heard shouts, and, hurrying to the
glacier, found H. and W. E. was behind with the men, and, as Shorty
had a bad ankle and the packs were very heavy, we sent the Indians
to help them. While they related their adventures I got supper ready
for them.
After leaving Camp I, they crossed the Tyndall Glacier for about
half-an-hour, and then put on the rope. The crevasses were very
bad, and covered with rotten snow, so that it was with difficulty that
they made their way to the foot of Mount St. Elias, and established a
camp on the last grassy slope that was visible. The scenery was very
grand, resembling the view up the Mer de Glace from the
Montanvert, but on a far larger scale. The double ice-fall of the
Tyndall Glacier was well seen, divided by a small island of rock;
further to the right were two very steep and narrow glaciers,
resembling frozen waterfalls. This camp had been reached at half-
past ten (three and a half hours’ going), and at twelve they sallied
forth to explore, and mounted round the camp hill, keeping it on the
right. Two hours up a rather steep ascent brought them to the top of
a snow col connecting the camp hill with one of the arêtes leading to
the rim of the crater which was then their object. The arête was of
loose shale, everything giving way directly it was touched, but, apart
from that, the climbing was not difficult, and after reaching a height
of about six thousand feet they turned back at 4.30 p.m., undecided
as to the morrow. Having left the stove and kerosene behind, they
expected to have to live on cold food, but found moss and shrubbery
enough to make a small fire.
Next morning they left at 8 a.m., with the intention of continuing
the same arête, but in half-an-hour they changed to the next one on
the left, and in two hours reached a height slightly greater than that
of the day before. The walking was terrible, over loose shale and
steep dirt giving no real foothold. They followed the edge of the
arête for the rest of the day, sending down quantities of stones.
Then came a little snow, part of which was solid ice, and H. had to
cut a hundred and fifty steps, which took the best part of an hour
and a half. At four o’clock they reached the summit of the arête, but,
though on the brink of the crater, could see nothing, owing to mist.
The height, 7,725 feet, was at all events better than Seton-Karr’s,
and they built a cairn and left the flag, hardly hoping to get any
higher. After a hasty lunch they descended, reaching camp at 10 p.m.
They could see that the Tyndall Glacier makes two long and beautiful
sweeps round the foot of St. Elias, full of tremendous crevasses, and
though, if time were no object, it might be possible to ascend it, it
could never be a practicable route to the summit.
The next day they made a day of rest, which was diversified by
Shorty and Lyons slaying in the morning with stones eight out of a
covey of ptarmigan, while in the evening they succeeded in smoking
out and killing four baby marmots.
On Wednesday they all came over to the Coal Glacier Camp in an
hour and a half, found me absent, and carried off the stove and
sundry stores, including the rice-pudding. In the evening they went
up to a bit of moraine east of, and just beneath, the snow col
connecting the camp hill with their first arête, and slept there,
leaving at 4.40 next morning, and keeping steadily up the arête till
their arrival at the top. There was no difficulty, it was only a sort of
treadmill over the loose shale and slate. They kept to the edge of
the arête the whole way, and at the point where it articulates with
the mountain they went first up loose débris, and then over a little
snow, whence they diverged to climb a nice bit of sandstone, and
reached the rim of the crater at 7.10.
After ten minutes’ halt they continued along the brink to the
summit of the arête climbed on the 30th of July, which was reached
at 7.40. They then steered north-west over the snow towards the
upper lip of the crater, having to double back considerably to avoid
some schrunds. Once above these, they ascended a little snow and
then a tedious slope of loose shale, while on their right was a steep
snow-slope, in too dangerous a condition for climbing. Near the top
of this they met with some more fine rocks of grey sandstone which
gave them their second ten minutes of real climbing, and they then
rested for lunch from 10.10 to 10.55. The aneroid gave a height of
9,500 feet, and to reach 10,000 they had to go a considerable
distance. Just above the sandstone rocks came the top of the snow-
slope alongside of which they had been climbing. It proved here to
be ice, and they had to cut up it, slanting to the right so as to reach
the top, where a sort of cornice was at its best. The last part was
dangerous, the ice being loose and granular, while the last few feet
were so steep that it was necessary to kneel in the steps. Above this
they found a snow-field stretching in waves round the brink of the
crater. The snow was very trying, being often above their knees,
while large crevasses separated the elevations from the depressions,
and wherever the grade was steep the snow changed to ice. They
kept on this till they were about due north of the crater, when they
had their second lunch at a height of 11,375 feet, as shown on
working out the boiling-point observations, and then went on to the
foot of the highest rocks that formed part of the eastern edge of the
crater. These were steep and mostly covered with snow, in which
were large crevasses. The snow mounted in sweeps and terraces to
the top of the rocks, which they estimated as about a thousand feet
above them. They would have much liked to have ascended these,
but the day was advanced, the wind rising, and the sun spoiling their
steps, so that they thought it more prudent to return.
At this point they were above the col joining Haydon Peak to
Mount St. Elias, but could not see the col itself. They could see,
however, that the final peak, which they then estimated as being
some six thousand feet above them, would be difficult and perhaps
impossible from this col. On the further side it would first be
necessary to climb east to avoid an overhanging glacier; then to
ascend over rocks, snow, and some green ice which might perhaps
be avoided by some steep rocks to the left, but all the climbing up
this first thousand feet would be very severe. Afterwards it would be
easier, up a snow-slope till above what appears as a mound from
below (1,500 to 2,000 feet above the col), then north over a
comparatively level snow-field; then up steep snow and rocks to the
edge of the true south arête which runs up for about four thousand
feet to the summit, chiefly consisting of snow and not steep. The
upper half is steeper, but there is no rock, and there would be no
difficulty there or on the south-east face, unless, as is very probable,
what seems to be snow is in reality ice. Lower down they could see
distinctly that this was so, and therefore abandoned all idea of
sleeping on the col.
The south-west face is a mass of hanging glaciers. The brow on
which they were is seen from below as a wall of snow fringing the
top of the crater; on the other side this snow falls away rapidly to
the glacier which winds down from the north-east to the head of the
Tyndall Glacier. From there no route to the col could be made, as the
ice is far too broken, and should any one force the Tyndall ice-fall his
best course would be to cross the glacier to a low rock arête, which
would take him to some snow-fields whence he might turn west and
gain the huge north-west arête of the mountain. By this he could
reach the west shoulder and the way would be simple. The weather
being perfect, their view was magnificent. To the north-west the
ranges were low, but the glaciers went winding out of sight. Mount
Wrangel could not be seen, but Fairweather was distinctly visible. On
their descent they found the snow and steps much worse. They left
Mrs. Haydon’s flag in a meat-tin under a pile of stones at the foot of
the sandstone rocks where they made their first lunch, as above this
there was no place of security, and got back to camp about nine
o’clock.
Next day they crossed over to Camp I, and on the Saturday
descended to G, going, at Shorty’s suggestion, all along the Tyndall
Glacier, but came to the conclusion that it was not an improvement.
As the other men had not turned up, Billy and Jimmy were informed,
to their great disgust, that they would have to go next morning and
fetch the cache left at J.
Sunday, the 5th.—W. woke us all up in the night by shouting in his
sleep, ‘Lyons, Lyons, a serac is falling on the tent!’ for which he was
unmercifully chaffed. The Indians arose at some unearthly hour and
went off to J, getting back at eight o’clock. At 6.30 a.m. W. went off
to try and turn the west end of the opposite range, which we had
christened the Ptarmigan Hills. He could persuade no one to go with
him as we all believed, first, that the hills could not be turned, owing
to the crevassed state of the Guyot Glacier, and secondly, that if he
did turn them he would only see another point beyond. We bathed
and sketched, and at about noon Ed. and Finn turned up, followed
half-an-hour later by Matthew and Gums, who had laudably
endeavoured to find a better way through the crevasses on the
Guyot Glacier, but had failed signally. Gums had come up in Mike’s
place, as the latter’s feet were very sore.
They had had rainy weather on the beach nearly the whole time.
A lot of the Yakutats had been there sea-otter hunting with
considerable success, and Jack Dalton had camped for one night. He
brought the news that the body of a white man had been found at
Point Manby, thrown up with a fishing dory. The poor fellow must
have got among the breakers at night, and he had thrown out a
drag to keep the boat head on to them, but must have swamped as
he reached the shore. From the tracks they saw that he was able to
crawl up the beach on his hands and knees into the bush, and
whether he died there from exhaustion or was killed by a bear no
one could say, but it is to be hoped he was dead before the bear got
him. No one recognised the boat or knew anything which might lead
to discovering his name. They buried what was left of him there, and
put the dory over his grave.
Our men had had a fair time among the flesh-pots on the shore,
as, though the Indians had got no more seals, they had shot several
swans and geese. The men came up in two days, making a camp as
before at the place where the river issues from the ice, but
succeeded in getting down in one day of sixteen hours. The water
was very high, and they had to make a raft before they could cross
one creek. After lunch Lyons and I went after ptarmigan with our
pistols; Shorty also started with the rifle which had been brought up
from the first cache, but his leg was too bad and he had to go back.
He looked for me to give me the rifle, but I had vanished down a
ravine. There were not very many ptarmigan, while the ground was
so broken that it was almost impossible to mark them. I only fired
two shots; Lyons was luckier, firing ten or twelve, and getting one
bird, which he nearly lost, for he fixed it in his belt by its head, and
looking down after a time found head et præterea nil. Retracing his
steps carefully he managed to find the corpse. We heard W. also
popping away vigorously on the other side of the glacier, but he
returned bredouille without having got round the end of the hills.
After supper Finn went out with the rifle and got two ptarmigan. He
hit a goose, but it escaped into the lake. We decided to make an
early start for the shore, so as to avail ourselves of the continued
fine weather and get back to Yakutat as soon as possible.
 Monday, the 6th.—Moved by the hope of speedily leaving the
regions they so thoroughly loathed, the Indians were astir early, and
by four o’clock the whole party was up. Finn fried the two ptarmigan
for breakfast, but as it was discovered that the Indians had been
greasing their boots with the fat in the frying-pan, no one seemed
inclined to partake of the dish. We got off by 5.30, and went down
to the Guyot Glacier, along which we proceeded at a great pace as
the packs were pretty light. We got through the crevasses without
much difficulty, and, though we had some rather muddy bits near
Lake Castani, we cleared the Chaix Hills at nine o’clock, abandoning
to their fate a few stores which had been left in the cache made at
the point where our trail from F struck the glacier, Ed., Matthew, and
Mike having found more than they could bring up on July 26.
Keeping about half-a-mile to the west of the depression between the
glaciers, we reached the head of the river at eleven. The water boils
out finely from under the ice, but, though it was higher than when
the men had last come up, the gravel-flat on which they had then
slept being now covered, the volume was not as great as I had
expected, being perhaps equal to that of the Visp where it joins the
Rhone.
We rested a bit on the beach, and then came on in very scattered
order to the cache, the two miles taking about two hours, as the
alder-bush on the face of the moraine was very bad, and the stream
was too high for us to get along on the flats by wading every now
and then, as the men had generally been able to do. H., who
stopped to photograph, went all wrong, away from the river towards
Camp C, and as he came back fell foul of a wasp’s nest, and got
stung in two or three places. Jimmy, who was one of the first at the
cache, earned our high approval by coming back of his own accord
to help Shorty in with his load. We were all collected by half-past
two, and rested all the afternoon. Supper was at 4.30, and we at last
got hold of the dried vegetables, which the men had always
forgotten to bring up, and made some splendid soup. Just above the
cache E. found a white willow-herb, and I collected some seed of the
red kind to try in England.
 While we were resting in the afternoon Matthew told us that the
Indians called the river Yahkhtze-tah-heen (Muddy Harbour River),
and Mount St. Elias Yahkhtze-tah-shah (Muddy Harbour Mountain).
George, the second chief of Yakutat, afterwards told us that there
used to be two villages, one on the sea and the other at the foot of
St. Elias, but that the glaciers came down and destroyed them,
according to him, in a single night. As the Alaska glaciers are all
rapidly receding, this must have been a very long time ago, for a
hundred years back, when the country was first visited, there was
far more ice than there is now, Vancouver having been unable to
enter Glacier Bay for the ice, while Icy Bay, even on modern charts,
is represented as being of a V-shape from the glaciers running out
on either side, whereas it now hardly deserves the name of a bay at
all.
Meaning to make an early start, we turned in at six o’clock, but
were driven wild by the millions of mosquitoes that invaded our tent.
By this time we were thoroughly inoculated against the effects of
their bites, but their continuous trumpeting destroyed all chance of
sleep; after a time we arose and drove out and slew as many as we
could, after which we endeavoured to close up every possible
aperture. Our success was but partial, but we managed to get a little
sleep.
Tuesday, the 7th.—We got up at 4 a.m., and were off by 5.45; an
hour’s steady going brought us down to Camp B, and we went on by
the old route to the point where Gums declared Schwatka had had a
camp. Here we turned to the left instead of keeping down the main
river. At first we had a good lot of wading, but presently reached
some flats, over which we made more satisfactory progress. At this
point some wild-geese were discovered far ahead, and Shorty set
forth to stalk them; as, however, he was unwilling to crawl over the
wet mud, his six-foot-four frightened them away while he was still
three or four hundred yards off. On these flats were a great many
small frogs, of which most of the Indians were much afraid, holding
some kind of superstition about them; but Matthew and Jimmy were
apparently sceptics, and the latter, with a sly look at us, put a frog
on the back of Billy, who, though his great friend, was perfectly
furious, and for a minute I thought we were going to have a first-
class row.
At last we approached the deep creek where the men had once
had to make a raft. Now the crossing appeared feasible, but it was
hard to be sure, as all the neighbouring land on our side was under
water. In the midst of this was a stranded log, where we rested and
took off our coats, fastening them on to our packs, which we carried
on our heads. H. planted the camera in the water, and prepared to
photograph the passage. Gums, of course, led; and at the second
attempt discovered a place where the water was hardly over his
armpits. This was all right for the taller ones of us, but E. went in
well up to his chin, as did Finn, who, losing his footing, vanished
with his pack. Great was the dismay till it was discovered that he
was only carrying the bacon. Jimmy also disappeared altogether, and
had eventually to be convoyed across by Gums and Matthew. Last of
all came W. and H., the latter bearing the camera. He chanced on a
deepish place, and nearly went under, but struggled on, quoting:
‘And nobly Father Tiber bare up his faltering chin’—which chin,
decked with a ruddy beard, had dipped beneath the icy wave before
he emerged on the other side.
Three-quarters of an hour through the trees, and then a little
wading, brought us to the mouth of the first river at eleven o’clock,
and we halted for a little lunch and a great many strawberries, which
were not yet over in shady places or long grass. We then pushed on
along the beach to camp, the packs being brought down the lagoon
in the small canoe, and arrived at 1.15, hoping to start at once for
Yakutat; but the other Indians had gone hunting, and we had to
await their return, which was not till five o’clock. After some supper
we got off at 6.20; it was perfectly calm, and we didn’t ship a drop
of water, or get wet above our knees. There was a five-gallon can of
kerosene which we said could be left on the beach; Mike, however,
wished to take it in the small canoe, but Gums, after a lively
argument, settled the question by driving an ice-axe into it. It was a
fair squeeze for twelve in the big canoe; I curled up just forward of
the bow oar, the other three were in the stern, and hardly so well
off. We rowed and paddled to Cape Sitkagi (10 p.m.), when a fresh
breeze from the west sprang up, and, towing the small canoe, we
sailed to Point Manby, which we passed at 4 a.m.
Wednesday, the 8th.—The breeze then began to die away, and
vanished at five, so we had to row again, and got to Yakutat at ten
o’clock. De Groff greeted us, and gave us four breakfast, which
included the unwonted luxuries of butter and honey; the men, who
were a little sulky after their night’s exertions, cooked theirs on his
stove. Then H. paid off Ed., Finn, and the Yakutats, and arranged to
leave our Indians in the village as before, after which we went over
to the Swedish Mission on the mainland opposite, and encamped in
the yard. Ed. came too, and Finn followed in the evening. We bathed
in the sea, which was decidedly cold; but the lake at the back was
too muddy, and also too near George’s ranche to be pleasant. De
Groff expected the ‘Alpha’ to arrive about the 10th.
 CHAPTER VII
LIFE AT YAKUTAT

Thursday and Friday, August the 9th and 10th.—We wandered

about the two villages hunting curios, but without much result,
though I got a rather neat model of the skin bidarky. We got some
excellent clams from the Indians, and a good lot of strawberries
which W. and I hulled. We tried to arrange with Ned to take us up in
his canoe to Disenchantment Bay, but there was a ‘potlatch’ in
prospect, and he declined to make any agreement.
Saturday, the 11th.—Very fine and hot. Our Indians came over by
order, and Matthew and Mike were set to cut wood, while the others
took the boat to fetch water, an operation which involved some little
time as the nearest good water was about a mile away. Having
nothing better to do, H. undertook to make a pudding of corn-meal
and raisins for supper. While we were all sitting round watching, the
fire, as was its wont, began to collapse, and the kettle of water for
the coffee took a header into the ashes. ‘Thank goodness,’ said H.,
‘it’s not the pudding.’ Even as he spoke another log gave way and
the pudding joined the coffee-water. However it was soon re-made,
but proved better cold than hot. Just after supper great excitement
was caused by an aged crone, who was leaning on the palings,
pointing out to sea and saying ‘schooner,’ but, on bringing the
telescope to bear, it proved to be only a big iceberg drifting down
from Disenchantment Bay.
In the evening Sub-chief George came round to pay us a visit, and
said that he and nine other Indians had once seen the back of
Mount St. Elias, when after goats, and that it was a gentle snow-
slope. They landed at Cape Yaktagi, which he described as being a
better beach than Icy Bay. There used once to be a village there, the
westernmost point to which the Tlinkits ever reached, but now only
three tumble-down houses are left. They went up the right bank of
the river Kokhtasch for a day, and then for two days along moraine
at the back of Mount Snowshoe and the range north of it, which was
green and nearly clear of snow on that side; they then turned east
for half a day over ice and saw the mountain as described.
In the afternoon Murphy’s little eleven-ton schooner, the ‘Active,’
came down from Disenchantment Bay, where he, Callsen, and
Dalton had been prospecting, and had found coal in a spot where it
seemed so likely to pay that some of them went back later from
Sitka to winter there, so as to begin working it directly spring began.
Sunday, the 12th.—Very fine, with a light west wind. As we were
short of meat Lyons and I took the canoe along the shore towards
Ankau Creek, where we found several flocks of small plover, and I
shot about thirty. I had only No. 4 shot; with No. 8 or 10 the bag
would probably have been doubled. In the afternoon Murphy came
over; W. wanted to go down with him, but they were already very
full. He managed it at last by exchanging places with Finn, who was
to stay and go down with us.
Monday, the 13th.—The ‘Active’ sailed at six, and W. went over
about four o’clock. He must have left the shed door open, and some
dogs have made their entrance, for H.’s sealskin gloves were found
outside, and my model bidarky had vanished altogether; Ned
subsequently discovered it unhurt in the bushes outside. These
Siwash dogs were a horrid nuisance, and we several times rose in
the night to pursue them, but without result, as they always escaped
by the holes in the palings before we could stop them up. Once they
got into the store-tent by digging under the side, and went off with
a bit of bacon and the only piece of cheese in Yakutat.
Tuesday, the 14th.—This afternoon the potlatch began in the
second house. These potlatches generally follow a funeral or some
great misfortune; thus an Indian at Dry Bay, who possessed three
large trading canoes, had one of them wrecked and some men
drowned, on which he promptly held a potlatch and gave away the
other two canoes and all the rest of his property, with the view of
appeasing the anger of the Great Spirit. A potlatch is sometimes, but
very rarely, held for the purpose of gaining influence in the tribe in
order that the donor may some day succeed to the position of chief.
This one we attended was consequent on the exhumation and
reburial of the ashes of members of the two families.
Just before proceedings commenced Matthew summoned us, and
ushered us in in great pew-opener style. We were rather surprised at
finding blankets spread for us in the place of honour facing the door,
as we had been told they might perhaps object to our presence, so
we were pleased and said they really did know how to do things in
Yakutat. About two hundred spectators crowded in, and there was
consequently a fairish ‘froust.’ A blanket was then held up over the
small oval hole which served as a doorway, and the play began. The
‘Ravens,’ seventeen men, four women, and three boys, wondrously
painted and arrayed, came and thundered on the wall outside, after
which the old doctor, who wore a curious wooden mask representing
a raven’s head, crept under the blanket, and singing and yelling
postured slowly down the three or four steps from the door, followed
gradually by the rest, howling at the top of their voices. When they
were all in they danced, but only for a short time. Some of the head-
dresses, made of ermine-skins and abelone shells, were very quaint.
They then retired, and, after a pause during which we all went out
for some fresh air, the ‘Eagles’ entered in the same way. This time
we saw the old chief and doctor both skip into the house at the first
warning with somewhat undignified haste, and when we followed,
we found them ensconced in the place of honour, and realised that
we had been intruders before, though they had been too polite to
turn us out. We huddled into a corner, and watched the
performance, which was much the same. Gums and Jimmy were in
great form, skipping about as if they were birds, and waving their
arms wrapped in cloaks. Our George was also most resplendent,
having on his head De Groff’s big tin funnel decorated with skins and
red feathers. One blanket was then torn up and distributed, and
then came a long wait, so H., Finn, and Shorty went back with the
missionaries.
 E., Lyons, and I stayed, but this time took up a position near the
door so as to occasionally get a little fresh air. The women, drawn up
in two rows on the dais on either side, swayed and bobbed, chanting
at the pitch of their lungs. They all wore the same dark-blue and
scarlet cloak, and had red feathers and worsted in their hair, making
a decidedly striking picture. Most of them wore sharks’-teeth
earrings, to which they attach an enormous importance, the lowest
price we heard of being twelve dollars for a pair. After this a lot of
blankets and calico were cut up and given away, and we left them
hard at it about five o’clock. As the tide had risen in the meantime,
Lyons had to wade in a good way after the canoe, which had been
secured to the stump of a tree.
Wednesday, the 15th.—After breakfast I went off with Finn and
Lyons in the canoe to Ankau Creek, but the tide was running out so
strongly that we did not attempt to go up it, but landed, and Lyons
and I went up along the shore, while Finn searched for strawberries,
of which there were still a few to be found. We followed up the
creek for nearly a mile, but, saw nothing in the way of game, and as
the rocks were decidedly unpleasant to our moccasined feet we
returned to the canoe and crossed to Yakutat, where most of the
Indians were still in bed, having kept up the potlatch till five in the
morning, and distributed some three thousand yards of calico,
according to De Groff. We lunched there, and sailed home about four
o’clock. The chief’s garden was being stripped of its produce, turnip,
beet, and a few onions, with a view to the approaching feast.
Thursday, the 16th.—Grey and cloudy, with a south-east wind
which ought to bring the ‘Alpha’ now. De Groff came over to lunch
and took a photograph of us ‘in camp,’ and also of the Swedish
Mission. The Indians were potlatching again to-day; one woman
gave away twenty-one blankets and a lot of calico. Occasionally
great swells, like the chief or the doctor, got a whole blanket. These
doctors or medicine-men used to have tremendous power in the
tribe, but this has much diminished before the advance of
civilisation. Their initiation into their full M.D. degree used to consist
in a prolonged solitary fast in the forests, till, overtaken by a sort of
frenzy, they rushed back to the village, where such people as desired
to show a fine religious fervour would offer their arms for the doctor
to take bites out of. Other Indians when dead are cremated, but the
doctors are buried in a little wooden hut in some isolated spot, or on
a point of rock overlooking the sea; and of late years these huts
have been ruthlessly ravaged for curios, since the doctor’s charms
and other implements are always buried with him; but if the
sacrilegious prowler was caught it would be very awkward for him in
a wild place like Yakutat. The common American term for these
medicine-men is shaman, apparently a corruption of the Russian
shawaan, but the Tlinkits themselves use the word icht. The doctor
at Yakutat was a filthy old scoundrel, with hair about six feet long;
he had been half-blind for years, having at one time headed an
attack against a French storekeeper (named, I believe, Belœil, but
the men always spoke of him as Bellew), who had checked the
onslaught with a well-aimed dose of sulphuric acid.
During the potlatch sundry relics of the deceased made their
appearance, and were wept over with much emotion, genuine tears
being produced in abundance. Some of the old men, who had
nothing else, gave tobacco, a small pinch being put in the fire each
time for the spirits of the departed.
Friday, the 17th.—Dull and grey, and threatening rain. Yesterday
and to-day the flies were something fearful, and we had even to
walk up and down when feeding, while any liquid, such as soup or
tea, was thick with them. As the baking-powder was all but finished,
Finn, who was supposed to be rather good at the art, was deputed
to make sour-dough bread, but it was not much of a success,
resembling plain heavy buns. The leaven was presumably too new,
for afterwards it worked admirably.
The Indians began their feast about four o’clock. Each man had
his own bowl, while by the fire were large dishes full of rice, berries
cooked in seal-oil, and what looked like some preparation of fish.
After a brief invocation a little of each was put in the fire, and then
the bowls were filled and they began. I was over on the island by
myself, and H. came across in the smallest canoe to fetch me. Half-
way over we met E. in another, who, unaware that his brother had
started, was coming over with the same intention, and, instead of
being pleased at not having to go any further, seemed to consider
himself aggrieved. We often saw Siwash dogs swimming across, the
distance being quite a mile. In the morning we purchased through
Mike two salmon for ten cents, which sounds cheap, but after all the
money was wasted, as a few minutes later Billy and Matthew turned
up in a canoe with two dozen they had speared, so we took six of
the best.
Saturday, the 18th.—Raining all day, with some very heavy
showers, so we stayed in the Mission most of the time. The house
consisted of one furnished room, which Hendrickson and Lydell
inhabited, one unfurnished one, which they politely put at our
disposal, and another large one, at that time unfloored, which was
to be the school-room. We said we would sleep in the house as the
weather was so bad, but at supper-time it cleared a bit, and H.
elected to stay in the green tent. E. and I went in and rolled up in
our blankets on the floor, which was distinctly hard. In the other
room Hendrickson was reading to Lydell the story of Elisha and the
Shunammite woman, rendered apparently into easy English for
children. His accent was certainly most peculiar, and E., after
listening a bit, remarked, ‘A great many sibilants in that language,
aren’t there?’ being under the impression that Hendrickson was
sticking to his native Swedish. I roared so that I feared they would
come and ask what was the matter, but luckily they didn’t.
Sunday, the 19th.—Rain nearly all night and most of the day. E.
and I got up about six o’clock, roused by the men coming back with
clams, for which the tide suited. Last evening my watch began to go
in a feeble manner and made three hours during the night. In the
afternoon E. and I played a curious form of cricket on the beach with
a wooden net-float for a ball, an axe-handle for a bat, and two ice-
axes for wickets. Having smashed two balls, we had to desist,
though not before E. had defeated me with great slaughter.
 Monday, the 20th.—Wind still south-east, but no ‘Alpha.’ We were
getting thoroughly sick of our enforced imprisonment in this place,
where there was literally nothing to do, the village being hopelessly
surrounded by bush, and so far from the mountains that no hunting
or exploring was possible, for fear the ‘Alpha’ should arrive while we
were away. Tremendous rain all the afternoon, which cleared as
usual about six o’clock. The wind, however, seemed rather more
south-west.
Tuesday, the 21st.—Lovely morning at last, but hardly any wind.
My watch still kept going, but only very slowly between the hours of
seven and eleven, something evidently clogging the works. Ned’s
canoe, the one we had at Icy Bay, was going back to Juneau next
day, which offered a means of escape, but he was taking a cargo of
seal-oil! Shorty, however, wanted to go, but we preferred to keep
him. De Groff came to supper, and we had some whist afterwards,
keeping it up till the extraordinarily late hour of half-past ten, when
he took his departure by the light of a lovely full moon.
Wednesday, the 22nd.—Perfect weather again. Shorty had sold
the rifle he bought from W. to Sub-chief George, and Finn E.’s to
Frank, a friend of Ned’s. This breach of the law rather annoyed us,
as we naturally thought the men had purchased the rifles to keep,
but we saw no good in interfering, now that the deed was done. Our
four Indians came over about breakfast-time to take E. salmon-
spearing, and reported that Ned had not taken his departure last
night, so I said I would go with him and take Finn to look after me.
H. then proposed that I should take our Indians, who were eating
their heads off to no purpose, and Shorty suggested that we might
buy a canoe and all go down together, so we went over to Yakutat to
make inquiries. De Groff admitted that all agreement with him was
over on the 20th, and seemed to have but little hope of the ‘Alpha’s’
turning up now, but believed that the ‘Leo,’ or even the ‘Pinta,’ would
come for us. Canoes were to be bought for a hundred and twenty or
a hundred and fifty dollars, but H. was rather unwilling to go in one,
so we came back at two o’clock for E.’s opinion, but he had not
returned.
 We began boiling bacon, and started Finn on a big batch of bread.
E. came back at four with a fair lot of fish; unable to quite settle,
though against the canoe idea on the whole, he and H. went over to
Yakutat to decide and to fetch Shorty, while Finn and I went on
cooking. They returned at 7.30, having concluded not to go, and the
Siwashes refused to come in the canoe unless H. did, saying they
had not made an agreement with me but with him. As they were all
accustomed to canoes, and Matthew had done the trip twice before,
I do not think they were afraid (except perhaps of hard work), but
merely that they found themselves in very comfortable quarters at
Yakutat, drawing full pay and doing very little for it, and wished to
prolong that happy state of things as long as possible. Ned was
willing to take any number of passengers to Juneau for ten dollars
each, but after much discussion it was at last settled that I should
take Lyons, Shorty, and Finn, and try to get Ned to go to Sitka; so I
went over about ten o’clock with the two former and routed out Ned,
who agreed to take us to Sitka for eighty dollars, half down. As most
of the people in the Chief’s house were asleep, we curled up sub
Jove frigido on the stoop, and were soon asleep.
 CHAPTER VIII
YAKUTAT TO SITKA

Thursday, the 23rd.—Up at sunrise, the blankets dripping with

dew. As the morning was perfectly lovely, and the mountains quite
clear, I roused De Groff to photograph, and then we went over in the
big canoe to fetch Finn and our things, and said good-bye to the
other two and to the missionaries. We then returned to the island
and cooked our breakfast on De Groff’s stove, who was rather sad at
our departure, but brightened up before we went. We managed to
purchase a little hard tack and rice in the village, but could not get
away till after nine o’clock, as Ned, in his delight at the prospect of
such a lucrative voyage, was boozing with a few select friends on
‘hoochinoo,’ a vile decoction they distil from sugar, and was only got
away when about half-seas over. At 8.30 H. came across with a
letter for his brother Alfred, and went back just before our
departure.
We pulled to Ocean Cape, which we reached at eleven o’clock,
and then set both sails ‘wing and wing’ as the wind was dead aft
though very light. The result of Ned’s potations was that we gybed
with some frequency, and, apparently becoming aware of this, he
transferred the steering-lines to his young brother Jack, who, with
Ned’s wife and another Indian named Frank, made up the crew, and
composed himself to sleep. We sailed steadily on all day, keeping
five or six miles from the shore, which is here a low sandy beach on
which the Pacific surf continually breaks, so that it is always difficult
to land, and in bad weather becomes quite impossible, and therefore
this was the most dangerous part of our canoe journey. At sunset we
were nearly opposite the western end of Dry Bay, and as the wind
died we pulled for a bit, but a land breeze from the north then came,
and though, as it was on the beam, we were sure to make a lot of
leeway, we kept the sails up, and proceeded to arrange ourselves as
best we could for sleep. This is not very easy in a canoe even when
forty feet long, as the seats and cross-pieces prevent any extension
movements of the body, but Ned’s bedding was allotted to me, and
nicely filled the space aft of the stroke thwart. This canoe was fitted
with four oars and, mirabile dictu, a rudder with yoke-lines, the only
one I ever saw on a canoe, all the others being steered by paddles.
Wash-boards had also been put on her for this ocean cruise, and we
had had to cut holes in these for the oars.
Friday, the 24th.—Splendid weather, almost too hot. At sunrise we
had hardly cleared Dry Bay, but were some ten or twelve miles from
land. About nine o’clock the west wind came again, but it was very
light, and our progress was slow in the extreme. Swarms of little
divers kept appearing all round us, and in the afternoon, when all
were asleep but Ned and me, two small plover came on board and
stayed for some time. At three o’clock the breeze died, and then a
puff from the south-east rather alarmed us, and made us pull in for
land, then about eight miles off, but it vanished again, and we pulled
steadily on till just at sundown we reached the Indians’ regular
camping-place, about four miles north of Cape Fairweather.
Though somewhat protected, the landing is through surf, and we
had accordingly to unload the cargo, consisting of a few sea-otter
skins and rather over a ton of seal-oil in square boxes, and then to
pull up the canoe. We soon had a fire going, and cooked some soup
and salmon, the former being much appreciated by Finn, who had
been more or less sea-sick all day and got terribly chaffed by the
Indians. The night was so fine that we did not pitch the tent, but
just rolled it round us as we lay on the sand, with the roar of the
surf lulling us to sleep.
Saturday, the 25th.—Ned called us at five o’clock, and, after a
hearty breakfast of fried salmon and corn-meal mush, of which latter
we cooked a good quantity so as to be able to eat it cold in the
canoe during the day, we got off at 7.30 with some difficulty, as the
tide was ebbing, and the canoe kept sticking as we piled the stuff
into her, and having to be moved down a little further. I did not envy
Frank, who had to hold on to the stern of the canoe, which was bow
on to the shore, for about half-an-hour, sometimes up to his
shoulders in the icy surf, in order to keep her straight, and we were
all more or less wet by the time we got off. Our frying-pan, which
had long lost its handle, still had the remains of the salmon in it,
and, while Shorty was trying to wash it in the sea, it slipped from his
fingers and vanished for ever. This was a terrible blow, as all our
bread was baked in it.
As we pulled to Cape Fairweather, clearing the point at half-past
eight, I was able to do a little more to a sketch of Mount
Fairweather, begun the night before. It bears a curious resemblance
to Mount St. Elias, not only in its own shape, but also in that of the
mountains immediately adjacent, having the same black ridge on the
left, rising first into a Hump and then into a Huxley, but without the
teeth on the left of the top of the latter, while on the right is a
mountain wonderfully like Cook. A possible route from our last
night’s camp for the ascent of Mount Fairweather would be through
the bush to the glacier behind, along the course of the stream
running into the sea close to the camping-place; then up the glacier
for two easy days, or even one fair one, according to the state of the
ice, and then right up the west arête; but the snow looked bad, and
the rocks, though nowhere very steep, seemed ominously smooth.
A fine wind, increasing every moment, now sent us along at a
grand pace, the water every now and then surging through the oar-
holes, which we stopped as best we could by covering them with
paddles. About seven to ten miles north of our camp is a very large
glacier (the Grand Plateau?), of which the centre, covered with
moraine, comes almost, if not quite, to the sea, while on either side
is a stream of pure white ice. St. Elias was visible just over the point
to the north of it, but we afterwards kept too close to the land to
ever see it again, though it has been observed as far south as the
entrance to Salisbury Sound, a distance of two hundred and eighty
miles. As we got more to the south we could see that Fairweather’s
‘Hump’ was double-headed, while ‘Huxley’ looked very like the
Rothhorn as seen from the Riffel. The west arête of Fairweather now
seemed worse, there being a level jagged piece like the ‘Crête du
Coq’ on the Matterhorn just before joining the main mass of the
mountain. The upper part of the easternmost of the three southern
arêtes looked feasible enough, but the bottom was of precipitous
dark-brown rock, to all appearance very little broken. This arête
would be reached by the glacier which runs into the northern arm of
Lituya Bay.
The Indians now shouted out, ‘Schooner, schooner!’ and we were
much excited, intending, if it should prove to be the ‘Alpha,’ to get
some tinned luxuries and our mails from her, but we soon decided
that it was only a canoe. We then lost sight of it for a bit, but came
suddenly on it again, when it turned out to be only a floating spruce,
to the huge amusement of my crew.
With a real good wind we went flying along finely, and passed the
mouth of Lituya Bay at eleven o’clock. The narrow entrance was
quite smooth, and we could easily have gone in. We reached the
Great Pacific Glacier at 2.30; this has a sea-front of white ice a mile
and a half long, but, though great pieces are constantly breaking off,
there are no bergs, as the surf pounds them up directly. The wind
now began to slacken, and we did not reach Astrolabe Point, near
which are some hot springs frequented by the Indians, till half-past
six, while at sunset the breeze disappeared altogether. Ned, with
whom we, as passengers, never interfered in the management of his
vessel, seemed undecided whether to go on all night or not, but the
sunset had rather foreboded stormy weather, and he eventually
headed for land. We pulled and paddled till ten o’clock, by which
time it was quite dark, but the Indians found a little harbour known
as Murphy’s Cove in a mysterious manner, and we tumbled out over
sharp rocks to a tiny sandbeach, where we made a fire and had
some coffee. Ned pitched his tent, Frank and Jack sleeping in the
canoe, which was moored, while the rest of us lay about anywhere
in the long rough grass. By the fire we found some porcupine quills,
and there were other signs of Indians having been there recently.
 Sunday, the 26th.—I woke the others at five; the sky was grey
and threatening, and the wind seemed to be from the east. All our
stores were in a big rubber sack, the mouth of which had not been
tied up, and Jack, in getting it from the canoe, managed to drop into
the sea the bags which contained the rice and oatmeal. We promptly
made porridge with the wet portion of the latter, and put the rice
near the fire to dry; it swelled rather, but there was not much of it,
and it all got eaten before it went wrong. Ned’s big water-breaker
had apparently once contained seal-oil, and the taste consequently
imparted to the water was most loathsome, so that we were always
careful to empty it out and fill it afresh before starting. For this
purpose I went to a little stream only a yard or two wide, which ran
into the corner of the harbour, and found it perfectly choked with
salmon; in the first pool, which was about as big as a large hip-bath,
were between twenty and thirty, varying from ten to twenty-five
pounds in weight. In the stream and on the edges were so many
dead and dying ones, that the water did not look tempting, but it
was the best that could be had.
We got off at 7.30, passing out by the canoe entrance, where we
had tried to come in the night before, but had found the tide too
low. We only just cleared the bar now by those of the men who had
gum-boots on getting into the water and shoving. We pulled out
through small islets of rock, but as we got to sea a strong squally
east wind came on, and we had to take shelter at the Indians’ usual
landing-place at Cape Spencer itself, after going about five miles.
The cape is rather like a four-or five-pronged fork, long promontories
of rock running out, with very narrow bays between. We tried the
most sheltered of these, but found too little water at the entrance,
and had to go on to the next, which was a good deal more exposed.
We got ashore at half-past nine, and as it was beginning to rain,
we pitched our tent on the shingle, after which I went with Ned to
the river, which was about a quarter of a mile off and ran into the
bay that we had first tried to enter. It was a nice clear stream from
ten to twenty yards wide, and full of salmon which fled before us,
raising a great wave in the water. He speared ten in about twenty
minutes, but they were all dogs but two. A great argument is at
present raging in America as to whether these dogs, which have
white flesh, are spent salmon or not; personally, I do not think they
are, as at the mouth of this river there was a considerable fall at low
water, and I saw there the doggiest of dogs waiting for the tide to
come up so that they might ascend the river. When I returned
Shorty and Lyons were asleep, but Finn cooked me some lunch. He
told me that the Tlinkits make hoolachan oil by stacking the fish in a
canoe till they are rotten, they then add a little water to keep the
canoe from burning, and pile heated rocks on the mass, drawing off
the oil through a plug-hole at the bottom.
In the afternoon it rained off and on, and the wind rather went
down, but it would have been very bad in Cross Sound, and, though
I think we might have got over, it would have been very risky to try,
as we might so easily have been blown out to sea. We now made
the discovery that our bacon had gone rancid and was quite
uneatable, though the grease could be used for cooking. Though
nothing would induce the white men to touch it, I had found that
boiled salmon-roe, if well cleaned, was most excellent, so I prepared
a piece and laid it on a stone, but, when I turned round a few
minutes later, I saw a great raven flying off with it. I got some more
later, as Finn and the Indians went to the river and speared and shot
a lot of fish, only bringing back the good ones. They speared a
salmon-trout of five or six pounds, but they threw each fish on the
bank as they got it, to be picked up on the way down, and somehow
missed this one, so I never saw it. About four o’clock the sun came
out; we seemed to be on the edge of the bad weather, as to the
north and west it was fine and clear, but thick and grey to the south,
towards which quarter our cove faced. In the evening it turned grey
again and began to rain, so, after a supper of rice soup and boiled
fish, we turned in early.
Monday, the 27th.—There was a lot of rain in the night, and more
wind, so that the Indians had to unload and pull up the canoe, in
which Ned was sleeping. In the morning there was plenty of blue sky
to the north, but the same strong east wind kept us prisoners. At
breakfast our scanty store of sugar came to an end. This didn’t
affect me much, but the men were grieved at having to eat their
porridge plain. The Siwashes now discovered frogs in the vegetation
where they had pitched their tent. They are very superstitious about
these reptiles, whose image often appears on their totem-poles, and
accordingly moved their tent down to ours, though at the same time
they seemed to consider it rather a good joke. I borrowed Finn’s
gum-boots and went up the river with the spear, which had no barb,
so that it was not very easy to secure the fish when struck. The
Indians used to flip them out on to the bank, but my wrists were not
strong enough for that with a thick twelve-foot pole, and I had to
hold my captive down till I could shorten the spear, so sundry
escaped, but I got eight or ten, following the river up for about a
mile to where it got wider and shallower, and some Indians had at
one time constructed a barrier and trap, now very dilapidated, with
twigs and branches.
When I returned I found that Ned’s wife had washed the blacking
off her face with surprising results. I had sat at her feet for three
days in the canoe under the impression that she was a hideous
creature of about thirty, but now she appeared to be about
seventeen, and really quite good-looking, being as fair as most
Italians. Ned was himself a smart-looking fellow, and they made a
handsome pair, though, like nearly all these coast Indians, their legs
were deformed from the continual canoe life. All the women of these
parts, and a good many of the men, black their faces in summer,
partly to preserve the complexion, and partly to keep off
mosquitoes. They used to employ a mixture of soot and seal-oil, but
now that the advance of civilisation has introduced them to blacking,
they much prefer that. My watch now took to going all right again,
the fine glacier mud apparently dropping out as it dried.
At noon it began to rain steadily and kept on till five, when it
kindly left off for a little, so we turned out and had supper. In spite
of the rain, Finn had managed to bake some sour-dough bread in
our tin plates, and he persuaded it to rise by covering it with our
warm blankets. Though a good deal burnt in baking, it was quite
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