Alaska Land. John Muir Revisits the Scene of Last Year's Exploration. A Land of Abundance-A Canoe Voyage Among the Islands and Icebergs. Magnificent Scenery-The Hoona Indians-Among the Salmon. (Special Correspondence of the Bulletin.) In Camp, Near Cape Fanshaw, August 18, 1880.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1880
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Indian; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/188; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1187/viewcontent/103.pdf

DAY, SEPTEMBER 25, ALASKA-LAND, Jjjia Hull' Eevisits the Scene of Last Year's Explorations. A Land of Abundance — A Canoe Voyage Among the Islands and Icebergs. BlagjiiSceist; Scenery—The iEooaa Iidiaas— Amcmg til a Salmon. [SPECIAL COEEESrONDENCE OP THE BULLETIN.] In Camp, Near Cape Fanshaw, I August 18, 1880. f How deSgbtfal it is, and how it makes one's pulses bocnd to get back again into, the heart of this grand! old northland wilderness, with its giant mountains, glaciers-, forests, cataracts, its maze of canals and fiords glowing with sun spangles, ansE its life-giving air without dust or taint, scented only by the pitch and gum of the woods, and kelp and dulse of the sea. How truly wild it is, and how joyously one's heart responds to the- welcome it gifes. Drifting along the shores of its network of channels, we may travel thousands of mile* without seeing any mark of man, save at long intervals some little Indian village or faiDf* smoke of a camp fire in some sheltered cove. But even these are confined to- She shore. 3aek a few yards from the beach we are among: trashes, with not a leaf out of place, and on forest ear- pets of moss as trackless as the 6ky, while the mountains far above the forests, wrapt in their snow and ice and clouds;, seem never before to have been even looked at. a land of abundance. Alaska is full of food for man and beast,, body and soul, though few are seeking it as yet. Were one-tenth part of the attractions that this country has to offer made-known to the world, thousands would come every year, and not a few of them to stay and make homes. At present, however, Alaska is out of sight, though* by no means so far and inaccessible as most people seem to suppose. The California, a good, well-appointed little steamer of some 700 tons burthen, makes twelve trips a year to Fort Wrangel and Sitka, leaving Portland on the 1st of every month, the aetual sailing time between the last-named points being only about five days. GLACIAL SCENEB.3T. The magnificent glacial scenery to the north ...