Letter from John Muir to Louie [Strentzel Muir], [1881] May 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; Jagged; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/639; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/1638/viewcontent/muir04_0545_md_1.pdf

[4]rising in value with the latitude The wine is delicious I’m glad you thought to send my glasses & barometers & coat, We will procures furs as we proceed north so as to be ready in case we should be compelled to winter in the Arctic regions. It is remarkably cold even here, & dark & blue & forbidding every way though it is fine weather for health. I was just thinking this morning of our warm sunny home, of Annie in her soft blankets with her blunt nose & double chin, & of the red cherries down the hill, & the 100s of blunt-billed finches everyone of them with red bills soaked in cherry juice. Not much fruit juice beneath this sky. Ever your affectionatehusband John Muir[in margin: in circle 10][1][1881] 00999 16, May Monday, 10 A.M. 2 miles from shore.[in margin: Address Steamer Carwin Oonalaska care Alaska Com, Company San Francisco may now & then receive letters by passing Whalers.][Boo-oo-oo?], Louie How cold it is this morning, How it blows & snows. It is not “the Wolf’s long howl on Ooualaska’s shore” as Campbell has it, but the winds long how. A more sustained, prolonged screeching raving howl I never before heard, but the little Carwin rides on through it in calm strength rising & falling amid the foam-streaked waves like a loon. The Cabin boy Henry told me this morning early that land was in sight. So I got up at 6 o’clock (9 of your time) & went up into the pilot house to see it. 2 jagged black masses were visible, with hints of high[Page 2][2]snow mountains back of them but mostly hidden beneath a snow storm. After breakfast we were within 2 miles of the shore. huge snow peaks grandly ice-sculptured loomed far into the stormy sky for a few moments in tolerably clear relief, then the on rush of snow flakes sweeping out into the dark levels of the sea would hide it all, & fill our eyes while we puckered our brows & tried to gaze into the face of it all. We have to proceed in the dimness & confusion of the storm with great caution stopping ...