Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-08-21
A Summer Trip to Alaska.
James A. Harrison in Lppincott's.

James A Harrison In Lippincott's.
We were greatly favored when we left SitSa
Starting OIL In rain, in which everything lay in
muddy eclipse, we woke up next morning and
found ourselves tracing the outside route TO the
Muir glacier In sparkling sunshine. The transition
was delightful and, though most OF the passengers
were sick from the tossing OF the ship on the long
outside ocean swell. believe they all enjoyed the
sunshine as it flashed into their cabin windows,
played on the walls and pricked and scattered the
enormous vapor masses that hung over the mount
aims on our right There We're no longer the
Tauitsd vapors OF the preceding days. the dense
counterpane OF nebulouS gray that covered the
whole Sky with its monotony. The heavy cloud
banks chung TO the mountains. leaving an exquisite
arc OF SKY. almost Italian Ia It's sunny azure
Nothing could be more superb than the deep.
DARK, velvety tints OF the crinkled and crumplcd
mountains as they shelved TO the sea and came In
contact there with an edglny OF foam from the
blue Pacific. Huge Jelly fish tapped about in the
clear water, nebuiar patches OF protoplasmic ex-
istence, capable apparently OF no other functions
than sensation, motion and self-propagation
Seine OF them were richly streAked, long-taile =,
deucately margined. with comet-like streamerS
leuy-frills and nuclei Ike wide-open sunfower
Their motion was indoently graceful that |
could not help gazing at them
Mount ST. Elias. Yes, there it was, they affirmed
on the northeastern horizon. a vapory unsubst an
tlal cone, dancing up and down in the refracting
light l looked and looked, persuading yself that
L saw The glorious vision Ia 800 feet high. Others
persuaded themselves OF the same fact, being natu-
rally ambitious OF carrying away rcmembrances OF
fancy that nobody had very strong faith IN hlS
discovery. particularly as the reputed mountain
seemed TO change its place. flit hither and thither
But yonder. What is that? Clouds Anna
rently But look again. What that small speck lust
on the edge OF The water? No. higher up-up.up
what a saght! Certainly the grandest view We
have had yet A huge white. snow-tfpped back,
like camelS hump, now doomed apparently right
Psi ., .aG mighty sange Of Mount
domeS and peaks, the highest fifteen thousand i've
hundred feet high according TO the measurement
finest mountain landscape we have ever seen not
even excepting the Alps from NeufchateL The
peaks looked enormously high they shot up be-
nlnd the Scaedge, Tar above the first stratum OF
cloud which ran along midway OF the mountain In
deep, Sate-colored belts. Now and then the yanor
thinned 10 the hnenesS OF tulle and Brousa gaUze.
behind which The mountain colorS doomed in vague
and yet radiant purity. Gradually the ardent sun
melted away the misty strIaUed belts of cloud and
the great peaks stood out calmly and glorousy ef-
fugent III the crystal August air "A scene of eX-
QulSte loneliness and sublimity AT one END a
mighty glacier ran down TO the sen. and at the
other The pigmy mountains 1.-TWO or three thousand
feet high) We had been coaSting lay like ebon car
wings against the white, ripple OF dark velvet
against ermlne.
For hours We steamed toward this splendid pic
tuTe, Which, while growing more and more distinct,
did not appear to be any nearer than when we tr,J
saw 1t. la the afternoon We turned to the right OF
tllS range into icy straits, and We're Ia the
midst or L scene more wonderful. PERHAPS than
that through which we had just passed. on the
nghtyreen water lay literally hundreds uf icebergs
or all shapes and sizes, some a deep translucent
Olue, the blue OF cobalt Others green others pure
white, Serrated caSteated, crenellated. glitteing
from the size OF tureen 10 that OF small church
We seemed on the point OF entering that ancient
paleocryStlc sea OF which the biologists speak-ice
everywhere, our ship cutting It's way through i'm
plnglng Ice. At length we cast anchor In eighty
three fathomS OF water close u the gigantic Muir
glacier, which feeds these icy straits with their
wonderful masses OF crystal. This was the acme
the eliminating point or our tour. Before us Law
the StupendouS mass OF serrated ice, from three
hundred TO live hundred feet high and several
miles VIDE, from shore TO shore bIue, wondrous,
inaccessible more ancient, perhaps, than the
mountains against which IL rested running straight
into the sea where we We're at anchor, every mo-
ment enormous fragments breaking off and rolling
down into the water with a reyerDeratfon like a
Clap or thunder. For hours lay there as If spell
bound by this magnificent remnant OF glacial ac-
uon more striking, to our thinking, than all the
other glaciers we mad passed and examined through
our lenses even than the Davidson glacier or the
wonderful mcruStation along the Stickeen.