July-August 1879, Alaska Trip Image 55

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1879
• Subjects: John Muir; journals; drawings; writings; travel; journaling; naturalist; glaciers; Ice Sheet; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/1435; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmj-all/article/2434/type/native/viewcontent/fullsize.jpg

between the cause and effect is greater. That these so-called channels, straits, reaches, inlets, bays, sounds, etc. were eroded from the solid by glacial action I have no more doubt than that the small hollows and canons in the mountains at the head of which the glaciers are still seen at work were so eroded. They were eroded by the ice-sheet which came from the north at the period of its great extension. Their general Mirage effects on the still waters of the fiords among the islands are not rare. They are similar to those observed by me in the Great Desert; a pulling up of peaks and rocks and piling on of horizontal stratified black bars that appear half solid, half aerial, mist-like. The ends also of islands and headlands are pulled up and feathered away as above; no counterfeit of water, but of land, fairy enchantment. {Sketches: Mirage effects observed 30 miles from Wrangell towards Sitka; gap through which we sailed.} https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/2434/thumbnail.jpg