1899 Jul 8 JM to Wanda, Helen,Mamma

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1899
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Lawrence Island; Seal Islands; St Lawrence Island; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/4866; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/5882/viewcontent/muir00_156_let.pdf

[Page 1] br> Oonalaska, July 8, 1899br> My dear Wanda + Helen and Mama. br> We arrived here this cloudy, rainy, foggy morning after a glorious sail from Sand Harbor on Unga Island, one of the Shumagin group, all the way along the volcano-dotted coast of the Alaska Peninsula and Unimak Island. The volcanoes are about as thick as haycocks on our alfalfa field in a wet year, and the highest of them are smoking and steaming in grand style, Shishaldin is the handsomest volcanic cone I ever saw and it looked like this last evening. [Drawing: about 9000 ft of snow and ice on its slopes Hot and bare at the top], I'll show you a better sketch in my notebook when I get home. A few miles from Shishaldin "[Page 2]br> there is a wild old rugged giant of a volcano that that blew or burst its own head off a few years ago, and covered the sea with ashes and cinders and killed fish and raised a tidal wave that lashed the shores of San Francisco and even Martinez.br> There is a ship, the Loredo, that is to sail in an hour, so I'm in a hurry, as usual. We are going to the Seal Islands and St. Lawrence Island from here, and a point or two on the Siberian Coast-then home. We are taking on coal, and will leave in three or four hours. I hope fondly that you are all well. Give my love to Maggie. I hope May's baby is well. I'll soon be back, my darlings. God bless you. Goodbye."