The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-30
THE GREAT ALASKA GLACIER.
A M ass of Ice Frozen Three to Ten Miles
Wide and Forty Miles Long.


Alaska Letter in st. Louis Gl, be- Democrat
When went up Glacier bay year ago the
good ship Idaho was the first to penetrate that
kingdom of the ice world, and large island at
the entrance of the bay was presented to me in
due form when sighted off the starboard beam
Il was duly entered by my name on the ships
log then, and by yesterdays log it was sighted
through misty rain one mile off the starboard
beam once more. After that glorious day at the
Takon glacier we had hardly dared hope for
more sunshine so perfectly had the weather
smiled upon us up to that day Of delight. and so
wholly had it disproved all statements about
Alaska rains. 1t was a chill misty morn
ing, though, when we started up Glacier bay,
and fog and clouds trailed over the mountains
and shut in the view more closely as we went
on Rounding the point of Muir Inlet and
stealing cautiously through the frozen ice
we came slowly toward the front of that vast
glacier which stands to all who have seen it as
the grandest of natural objects. 1t bears the
name OF Muir glacier in honorof Professor John
Muir, the geologist and great glacial expert, who
was the first white man to visit it. He went
there IN an Indian canoe in 1879, and with a
blanket and his pockets full of hard tack, spent
days in exploring it. According to Professor
Muir this glacier is three miles across at the
snout or front where it breaks off into the sea
Ten miles back it is ten miles wide and beyond
this point sixteen tributary glaciers unite to
form this one great ice sheet. He states the DIS
lance from the snout of the glacier to the far
bneSG removed source Is tOrty miles,
AS the ship crept forward the front of the
glancier seemed to grow in height until from the
incautious man who first said that it was more
than forty feet from the water, the estimates
grew to one hundred and two hundred feet. and
the best authority of all said that it was FIVE
hundred feet high or he would eat it. I'm
der the dull gray sky all dazzling effects of
prismatic light were lost, but the fretted and
fantastic front showed lines and masses of the
purest white and an infinite range Of blues
Avalanches of crumbling ice and great pieces Of
the front were continually falling with the roar
and crash of artillery revealing new caverns
and gorges of deeper blue light, while the spray
dashed high and the great waves rolled along
the icy wall, and, widening in their sweep,
washed the blocks of fioatingice upon the beaches
at either side. The ships cannon was loaded
and fired twice point blank at the front of the
glacier The report was followed by second
of silence, and then an echo came back that in
tensified the first ring many times, and was
followed by long, sharp roll as the
echo was flung from cavern to cavern in the
ice. Anchoring a quarter of q mile from
the front of the glacier. the small boats put
of and landed us at one side on a sloping sandy
beach, strewn with ice. and dotted with lines
where tiny shrimps had been washed up by the
waves. Over sand and powders and across a
roaring stream that issued from the side of the
glacier the pilgrims crept to the foot of the slope
and then up a long incline of bow lders and dirty
ice to a first level where they could look out
ON6E bLl0 lrOZ0u WdSCo anu dcfOSS Tue DrOk0I
front Deep creyasseS scanned it in every di
rection, and from the depths Of the blue grottoes
could be heard the sullen, heavy roar of the sub
terranean waters. Following up the beach
toward the ice cliff, one could get a much better
idea of the vastness and grandeur Of that mar
Vicious thing Blocks of ice on the beach thai
had looked like dice from the ship were fount
to be thirty and forty feet long and twenty fee
high. The nearer one approached the higher
the ice walls seemed, and all along the from
there were pinnacles and spires weighing severa
tons that seemed on the point of topplinl
every moment. The great buttresse
of ice that rose first from the water and touched
the moraine were as solidly white as marble
veined and streaked with rocks and mud, bu
further on. as the pressure was greater, the cool
slowly deepened to turquoise and sapphire blues
The crashes of falling Ice were magnificent al
that point, and in the face of keen wind thai
blew over the ice-feld we sat on the rocks ant
watched the wondrous scene. The gloomy sky
seemed to heighten the grandeur, and the pillows
of gray mist pouring over the mountains OF
either side intensified the sense of awe anC
mystery. The tide was running out all of the
afternoon hours that we spent there, and the
avalanches Of ice were larger and more frequent
all of the time. When the anchor was lifted the
ship took great sweep up nearer to the glaciers
front. ana as we steamed away there were two
grand crashes, and great sections of the front
fell OF with deafening roars into the water. We
steamed slowly down the inlet and out into
Glacier bay, stopping, backing and going al
half speed to avoid the floating ice all around
us, that occasionally was crunched and ground
by the paddle wheels in most terrible way.