Alaska Glaciers. An Ounalaska Yosemite. Glacial Theology and Sermons in Ice. The Rocks, Plants and Trees of Alaska. (Correspondence of the Bulletin.) Fort Wrangel, Alaska, September 5, 1879.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1879
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; glacier; glaciers; Alaska; Thousand Islands
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/184; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1183/viewcontent/92.pdf

Daily Evening Bulletin San Francisco. Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1879. . ALASKA GLACIERS. An Oxmalaska Yosemite. Glacial Theology and Sermons in lee. The Rotks, Plants and Trees of Alaska. [CORRESPONDENCE: OF THE BUILETIN.l Fort Wrangel, Alaeka, September 5,1879. Three Doctors of Divinity and.a merchant and their wives, a lady from Oregon, a missionary and myself, made up a party to visit the fine wild glacial country of the Chilcats, 250 miles to the northwestward of here. We chartered the small.8ternwheel steamer Gassiar, usually plying . on the Stickeen river, for this excursion; and had her all to ourselves. Under circumstances so extraordinary, everybody felt hopelul and important and rich—the poorer the richer—glaciers, mountains, a thousand islands, and officers to obey us, sailing and coming to anchor when and where we would. The legitimate object of the divines was to ascertain the spiritual wants of the warlike and conservative Chilcat Indians, with a view to the establishment of a church and a school in their principal village. The merchant and his party were bent on business and scenery, health and wealth while I was moved mostly by the glaciers that are said to come grandly down into the salt water at the head of Lynn Canal. This was towards the end of July, in the middle of a block of the very brightest and best of Alaska summer weather, when the mountains, towering sublimely in the gray pearl sky, had rest from storms, and the islands seemed to float and drowse in the glassy, sunny waters, their green shores keeping them raw and bare. Furthermore, because these channels have all been eroded out of the solid by the glacier ice, and so short a time has elapsed since the ocean water was admitted, the small waves and ripples have not had time as yet to nibble away the shore lines to any appreciable extent. The glacial grooving and winding is still plainly seen on all the harder rocks, therefore the curves of the coast lines are, generally speaking, as finely drawn and unwasted as those of a living shell, ...