Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-08-19

THE JAPAN CURRENT PROTECTS IT
FROM EXTREMES.

FROM EXTREMES
Midsummer Days that Have no Night
Hazy Mornings. with Glorious Awak-
sning at Noon-c Glaciers that Shine Like
Silver.
In the Century there is an article
on ''The Alaska Trip" by John Muir,
the California writer and naturalist.
Mr.. Muir says:
The climate of all that portion of the
coast that is bathed by the japan our
rent, extending from the southern
boundary of the territory northward
and westward to the island of Atoo, a
distance of nearly twenty-five hun
dred miles, is remarkably bland, and
free from extremes of heat and cold
throughout the year. 1t is rainy,
however; but the rain is of good quail
ty. gentle in it's fall, filling the foun-
tains of the streams, and keeping the
whole land fresh and fruitful, while
anything more delightful than the
shining weather after the rain-the
great, round sundays of June, July
and August-can hardly be found
elsewhere. An Alaska midsummer
day is day without night. In the
extreme northern portion of the terri
tory the sun does not set for weeks,
and even as far south as Sitka and
Fort Wrangel it sinks only few de-
grees below the horizon, so that the
rosy colors of the evening blend with
those of the morning, leaving no gap
of darkness between. Nevertheless,
the full day opens slowly. At mid
night, from the middle point between
the cleaning and the dawn, low arc
of light is seen stealing along the
the horizon, with gradual increase of
height and span and intensity of tone,
accompanied usually by red clouds,
which make striking advertisement
of the suns progress long before he
appears above the mountain-tops.
For several hours after sunrise
everything in the landscape seems dull
and uncommunicative. The clouds
fade, the islands and the mountains,
with ruffs of mist about them, cast ill
defined shadows, and the whole firma-
ment changes to pale pearl-gray with
just trace of purple in it. But to-
ward noon there is glorious awaken
ing. The cool haziness of the air
vanishes, and the richer sunbeams,
pouring from on high, make all the
bays and channels shine. Brightly
now play the Handicapped ripples
about the edges of the islands, and
over many a plume shaped streak be-
tween them, where the water is stirred
by some passing breeze.
On the mountains or the mainland,
and in the high-walled fields that
fringe the coast, still finer is the work
of the sunshine. The broad white
bosoms of the glaciers glow like sill
yer, and their crystal fronts, and the
multitude of icebergs that linger about
them, drifting, swirling, turning their
myriad angles to the sun, are kindled
into perfect blaze of irised light.
The warm air throbs and waivers, and
makes itself felt as life giving, ener-
giving ozone embracing all the earth.
Filled with ozone, our pulses bound,
and we are warmed and quickened in
to sympathy with everything, taken
back into the heart of nature, whence
we came. We feel the life and motion
about us, and the universal beauty;
the tides marching back and forth
with weariless industry, LAYING the
beautiful shores, and swaying the pur-
pie dulse of the broad meadows of the
sea where the fishes are fed; the wild
streams in rows white with waterfalls,
ever in bloom and ever in song,
spreading their branches over thous-
and mountains; the vast forests feed
ing on the drenching sunbeams, every
cell in whirl of enjoyment; misty
fiocks of insects stirring all the air /;
the wild sheep and goats on the grassy
ridges above the woods, bears in the
berry-tangles, mink and beaver and
otter far back on many river and
lake; Indians and adventurers pursu-
ing their lonely ways, birds tending
their young-everywhere everywhere,
beauty and life, and glad, rejoicing
action.
Through the afternoon all the way
down to the west the air seemed to
thicken and become soft, without los
ing its fneness. The breeze dies
away, and everything settles into a
deep, conscious repose. Then comes
the sunset with its purple and gold
not narrow arch of color, but often
times filling more than half the sky.
The horizontal clouds that usually
bar the horizon are fred on the edges,
and the spaces of clear sky between
them are filed in with greenish yellow
and amber; while the focks of thin,
overlapping cloudlets are mostly
touched with crimson, like the out
leaning sprays of a maple-grove in the
beginning of Indian summer; and
little later smooth, mellow purple
Pushes the sky to the zenith, and fills
the air, fairly sleeping and transfgur-
ing the islands and mountains, and
changing all the water to wine.