Letter from John Muir to [Louie Strentzel Muir], 1881 Aug 16.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1881
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Arctic; Plover Bay; Point Barrow; Siberia
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/670; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/1669/viewcontent/muir04_0687_md_1.pdf

01024 [letterhead] Point Barrow, Aug’ 16th, 1881. 10.45 P.M.My beloved wife. Heaven only knows my joy this night in hearing that you were well. Old as the letter is & great as the number of the days & nights that have passed since your love was written, it yet seems as if I had once more been up stairs & hold you & Wanda in my arms. Ah you little know the long icy days so strangly nightless that I have longed & longed for one word from you. The dangers great as they were while groping & grinding among the vast immeasurable ice fields about that mysterious Wrangel Land would have seemed as nothing before I knew you. But most of the special dangers are past & I have good news for you my love for we have succeeded in landing on that strange re[illegible] country & our work is nearly all done & I am coming home by the middle of October No thought of wintering now & attempting to cross the frozen ocean from Siberia. We will take no more risks. All is well with our [staunch?] little ship, she is [in margin: seems already in my arms. Not in dreams this time. From father & husband & lover John Muir. Point Barrow Aug 18th We are still here, will leave today for the southward Have written two Bulletin letters to go down by the Legal Tender. These will give you particulars of our ice battles.] [Page 2]scarce at all injured by the pounding & grinding she has undergone, & sailing home seems nothing more than crossing San Francisco bay. We have added a large territory to the domain of the United States & amassed a grand lot of knowledge of one sort & another. Now we sail from her tomorrow for Cape [Lisburne?] or if stormy to Plover Bay to cool & repair our rudder wh is a little weak. Thence we will go again around the margin of the main polar pack about Wrangel Land but not into it, & possibly discover a clear way to land upon it again & obtain more of its geography, then leave the arctic about the 10th of Sep’ call at St Michaels & at Oonalaska ...