An Anchor. Weathering a Gale in St. Laurence Bay-Social Intercourse with the Natives-An Esquimo Orator-A Great Reindeer Owner-Native Appetite for Strong Drink-Glacier Markings. Steamer Corwin, St. Laurence Bay, Siberia, June 6, 1881.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1881
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Plover Bay; Scud; ice pack; Siberia
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/178; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1177/viewcontent/115.pdf

Written, June 6, 1881 Pub. July 13 AN ANCHOR. 9 ? /3 s • .: / r t IVeailierins a Gale in St. Cam-ence Bay- Social lacerconrse Willi the Natives—An Ksquiino Orator—A Great Reindeer Owner - Native Appetite tor Strong Drink—Glacier ftiarifings- —- w- Steamer Corwin, 1 St. La/trekce Bat, Siberia, June 61881. | Yesterday morning at_ half-past XL? o'clock, when we were within |§j miles of Plover Bay, where we hoped to be able to repair our rudder, we found that the ice pack was crowding us closer and closer inshore, and that in our partly disabled condition it would not be safe to proceed further. Accordingly we turned back and put into St. Laurence Bay, to await some favorable movement in the ice. DROPPING ANCHOR IN ST. LApRENeEUA-T. .-• We dropped anchor at 7:30 A. Mi opposite a small Tchuehi settlement. In a few hours the wind began to blow fresh from the north*, steadily increasing in" force, until at CPjlVpit was blowing a gale, and we were glad that we were iu a aood harbor instead of being out at sea slashing and tumbling about with a broken rudder among the wind-driven ice. It also rained and snowed most of the afternoon, the blue and gray sleet mingling in grand uproar with the white scud swept from the crests of the waves, making about as stormy and gloomy an atmosphere as I ever had the fortune to breathe. Now and then the clouds broke and lifted their ragged edges high enough to allow the mountains along the sides and around the head of the bay to be dimly seen, not so dimly, however, as to hide the traces of the heavy glaciation to which they have been subjected. , This long bay, as shown by its trends, its relation to the ice fountains at its head and the sculpture of its walls, is a glacial fiord that only a short time ago was the channel of a glacier that poured a deep and broad flood into Behring Sea in company with a thousand others north and south along the Siberian coast. MEETING- AN OLD . ESQETMO ACQVAINTANCE. x In a party of natives that came aboard soon after we had dropped anchor.we discovered ...