Alaska Coast Scenery. Sailing Among the Islands-Delightful Views. Wonderful Variety of Lovely Pictures. Effects of Glaciation-An Archipelago of Evergreen Isles. (Special Correspondence of the Bulletin.) Fort Wrangel, Alaska, Sept. 25, 1879.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1879
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Archipelago; glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/176; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1175/viewcontent/94.pdf

Daily Evening Bulletin San Francisco. Wednesday Oct. 83", 1879. nimm !iil lAfiT SCENERY, Sailing Among the Islands—Delightful Yiews. Wonderful Variety of Lovely Pictures. Effects of Glaeiatios—&.n AreMjjelag of Evsrgresat Ssles- [SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE 01 THE BULLETIN.] Fort Wrangel, Alaska. Sept. 25,1879. The trip from Victoria to Alaska among the islands, in the summer time, is perfectly delightful. Leaving scientific interests entirely out of the count, no excursion that I can think of may be roade into any other portion of our vast c. entry where so marvelous an abundance of fine scenery is so freely unfolded. Gazing from Ibe deck of the steamer one is pushed smoothly ;a;d silently over the calm blue waters, on and on tl rough the midst of islands clad with evergreens, that seem the freshest and finest on the face of the globe. The ordinary discomforts o' a scavoyage are not felt at all, because nearly the whole long way to Sitka is on inland waters that are usually about as waveless asamountain lake. It is as if a hundred Lake Tahoes were joined end to end and sown broadcast with lands, the shore-lines refined and bent in and e ut into curves still more beautiful; the forests j lanted thicker; long tapering vistas opened in every direction, and the bright sky i oftened and shaded with smooth pearly clouds. Day after day we seem to float in the very heart of true fairyland, each succeeding view seeming more asd more beautiful, the one we chance to have before us the mast surprisingly beautiful of all. I never before found myself embosomed in scenery that is so hopelessly beyond description. To sketch picturesque bits definitely bounded, is comparatively an easy matter. A lake in the woods, a glacier meadow, or cascade in its dell; or even one grand masterview of mountains beheld from eome clear outlook, after climbing from height to height, up through the veiling woods. These may be attempted, and some picture more or less telling made of them. For in them one finds definite aim—a beginning-ground, on ...