July-August 1879, Alaska Trip Image 62

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1879
• Subjects: John Muir; journals; drawings; writings; travel; journaling; naturalist; glacier; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/1442; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmj-all/article/2441/type/native/viewcontent

This would by no means, however, show any general advance or increase in depth of the glacier. Some great avalanche shot down on its edge a little above this wasted point would of itself deepen the glacier and account for the phenomenon. Other portions of the forests fringing the glacier for miles inland showed no trace of a like destruction but rather that a gradual shallowing of the glacial current had been in progress. The same is corroborated by all the other glaciers I have seen in the region. One of the most remarkable facts presented to me here was the want of polish on the fresh surfaces of even compact granite. The sides had evidently been rasped by moraine bowlders, as different portions of it were successively brought under their action as the surface of the glacier fell to a lower and lower level. The brighter portions of these canons undoubtedly lie along the bottom. In general form and in grooved and scratched surfaces these rocks were as telling as any I ever saw but not so freshly so as I would have expected. Note: Vegetation about fall a mile back of Telegraph Creek: Red currants Goose berries Pole Geranium Echeveria Anemone B [ ] Spruce Pine Moths Grasses Mosses Willows E [ ] https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/2441/thumbnail.jpg