July-August 1879, Alaska Trip Image 29

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1879
• Subjects: John Muir; journals; drawings; writings; travel; journaling; naturalist; Great Glacier; Indian; glacier; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/1409; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmj-all/article/2408/type/native/viewcontent/fullsize.jpg

Alaska weather is about half rain or at least rainy during summer. The last 3 days have been remarkably fine, warm, balmy, sunny, but not bright. The sun rises apparently clear without the slightest trace of garishness; so tempered by the damp moisture-filled air through which its level beams sift that it may be gazed at without hurting the eyes. At sunset it has been still more subdued looking, like a red rayless ball gilding the wooded hill and the water. Even at high noon there is no blazing whiteness. The mountains then look black, the water grey, the whole landscape hazy like Indian summer. { Sketch : Great Glacier 60 miles NW Fort Wrangell } [Note by sketch: as a general thing resembling dirty masses of lodged snow on account of the bends caused by man tributaries and the coast ridges which run nearly parallel to the coast and across the glaciers, thus veiling their lower and more remarkable portions. It is only the skilled observer that will see them truly and feel their beauty. Every true and healthy lover of Nature, however, will be impressed with the vast show taken altogether, rocks, clouds, snow, ice, forest; and if a near approach be made, then the glaciers with their huge forward-thrust snouts shining in the light, and their broad currents sweeping on in smooth fluent lines through the woods with a thousand water streams on their backs, and mills, crevasses, pits, wells, etc. {cont}.] https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/2408/thumbnail.jpg