the john muir exhibit -writings -travels_in_alaska - chapter 10
Travels in Alaska
by John Muir
Chapter X
The Discovery of Glacier Bay
From here, on October 24, we set sail for Guide Charley's ice-mountains.The handle of our heaviest axe was cracked, and as Charley declaredthat there was no firewood to be had in the big ice-mountain bay,we would have to load the canoe with a store for cooking at anisland out in the Strait a few miles from the village. We weretherefore anxious to buy or trade for a good sound axe in exchangefor our broken one. Good axes are rare in rocky Alaska. Soon orlate an unlucky stroke on a stone concealed in moss spoils theedge. Finally one in almost perfect condition was offered by ayoung Hoona for our broken-handled one and a half-dollarto boot; but when the broken axe and money were given he promptlydemanded an additional twenty-five cents' worth of tobacco.The tobacco was given him, then he required a half-dollar'sworth more of tobacco, which was also given; but when he stilldemanded something more, Charley's patience gave way and we sailedin the same condition as to axes as when we arrived. This wasthe only contemptible commercial affair we encountered among theseAlaskan Indians.
We reached the wooded island about one o'clock, made coffee, tookon a store of wood, and set sail direct for the icy country, findingit very hard indeedto believe the woodless part of Charley'sdescription of the Icy Bay, so heavily and uniformly are all theshores forested wherever we had been. In this view we were joinedby John, Kadachan, and Toyatte, none of them on all their lifelongcanoe travels having ever seen a woodless country.
We held a northwesterly course until long after dark, when wereached a small inlet that sets in near the mouth of Glacier Bay,on the west side. Here we made a cold camp on a desolate snow-coveredbeach in stormy sleet and darkness. At daybreak I looked eagerlyin every direction to learn what kind of place we were in; butgloomy rain-clouds covered the mountains, and I could seenothing that would give me a clue, while Vancouver's chart, hithertoa faithful guide, here failed us altogether. Nevertheless, wemade haste to be off; and fortunately, for just as we were leavingthe shore, a faint smoke was seen across the inlet, toward whichCharley, who now seemed lost, gladly steered. Our sudden appearanceso early that gray morning had evidently alarmed our neighbors,for as soon as we were within hailing distance an Indian withhis face blackened fired a shot over our heads, and in a blunt,bellowing voice roared, "Who are you?"
Our interpreter shouted, "Friends and the Fort Wrangell missionary."
Then men, women, and children swarmed out of the hut, and awaitedour approach on the beach. One of the hunters having brought hisgun with him, Kadachan sternly rebuked him, asking with superbindignation whether he was not ashamed to meet a missionarywith a gun in his hands. Friendly relations, however, were speedilyestablished, and as a cold rain was falling, they invited us toenter their hut. It seemed very small and was jammed full of oilyboxes and bundles; nevertheless, twenty-one persons man agedto find shelter in it about a smoky fire. Our hosts proved tobe Hoona seal-hunters laying in their winter stores of meatand skins. The packed hut was passably well ventilated, but itsheavy, meaty smells were not the same to our noses as those wewere accustomed to in the sprucy nooks of the evergreen woods.The circle of black eyes peering at us through a fog of reek andsmoke made a novel picture. We were glad, however, to get withinreach of information, and of course asked many questions concerningthe ice-mountains and the strange bay, to most of which ourinquisitive Hoona friends replied with counter questions as toour object in coming to such a place, especially so late in theyear. They had heard of Mr. Young and his work at Fort Wrangell,but could not understand what a missionary could be doing in sucha place as this. Was he going to preach to the seals and gulls,they asked, or to the ice-mountains? And could they takehis word? Then John explained that only the friend of the missionarywas seeking ice mountains, that Mr. Young had already preachedmany good words in the villages we had visited, their own amongthe others, that our hearts were good and every Indian was ourfriend. Then we gave them a little rice, sugar, tea, and tobacco,after which theybegan to gain confidence and to speak freely.They told us that the big bay was called by them Sit-a-da-kay,or Ice Bay; that there were many large ice-mountains in it, butno gold-mines; and that the ice-mountain they knew bestwas at the head of the bay, where most of the seals were found.
Notwithstanding the rain, I was anxious to push on and grope ourway beneath the clouds as best we could, in case worse weathershould come; but Charley was ill at ease, and wanted one of theseal-hunters to go with us, for the place was much changed.I promised to pay well for a guide, and in order to lighten thecanoe proposed to leave most of our heavy stores in the hut untilour return. After a long consultation one of them consented togo. His wife got ready his blanket and a piece of cedar mattingfor his bed, and some provisions--mostly dried salmon, and sealsausage made of strips of lean meat plaited around a core of fat.She followed us to the beach, and just as we were pushing offsaid with a pretty smile, "It is my husband that you aretaking away. See that you bring him back."We got under way about 10 The wind was in our favor, buta cold rain pelted us, and we could see but little of the dreary,treeless wilderness which we had now fairly entered. The bitterblast, however, gave us good speed; our bedraggled canoe roseand fell on the waves as solemnly as a big ship. Our course wasnorthwestward, up the southwest side of the bay, near the shoreof what seemed to be the mainland, smooth marble islands beingon our right. Aboutnoon we discovered the first of thegreat glaciers, the one I afterward named for James Geikie, thenoted Scotch geologist. Its lofty blue cliffs, looming throughthe draggled skirts of the clouds, gave a tremendous impressionof savage power, while the roar of the newborn icebergs thickenedand emphasized the general roar of the storm. An hour and a halfbeyond the Geikie Glacier we ran into a slight harbor where theshore is low, dragged the canoe beyond the reach of drifting icebergs,and, much against my desire to push ahead, encamped, the guideinsisting that the big ice-mountain at the head of the baycould not be reached before dark, that the landing there was dangerouseven in daylight, and that this was the only safe harbor on theway to it. While camp was being made. I strolled along the shoreto examine the rocks and the fossil timber that abounds here.All the rocks are freshly glaciated, even below the sea-level,nor have the waves as yet worn off the surface polish, much lessthe heavy scratches and grooves and lines of glacial contour.
The next day being Sunday, the minister wished to stay in camp;and so, on account of the weather, did the Indians. I thereforeset out on an excursion, and spent the day alone on the mountain-slopesabove the camp, and northward, to see what I might learn. Pushingon through rain and mud and sludgy snow, crossing many brown,boulder-choked torrents, wading, jumping, and wallowing insnow up to my shoulders was mountaineering of the most tryingkind. After crouching cramped and benumbed in the canoe,poulticed in wet or damp clothing night and day, my limbs hadbeen asleep. This day they were awakened and in the hour of trialproved that they had not lost the cunning learned on many a mountainpeak of the High Sierra. I reached a height of fifteen hundredfeet, on the ridge that bounds the second of the great glaciers.All the landscape was smothered in clouds and I began to fearthat as far as wide views were concerned I had climbed in vain.But at length the clouds lifted a little, and beneath their grayfringes I saw the berg-filled expanse of the bay, and thefeet of the mountains that stand about it, and the imposing frontsof five huge glaciers, the nearest being immediately beneath me.This was my first general view of Glacier Bay, a solitude of iceand snow and newborn rocks, dim, dreary, mysterious. I held theground I had so dearly won for an hour or two, sheltering myselffrom the blast as best I could, while with benumbed fingers Isketched what I could see of the landscape, and wrote a few linesin my notebook. Then, breasting the snow again, crossing the shiftingavalanche slopes and torrents, I reached camp about dark, wetand weary and glad.
While I was getting some coffee and hardtack, Mr. Young told methat the Indians were discouraged, and had been talking aboutturning back, fearing that I would be lost, the canoe broken,or in some other mysterious way the expedition would come to griefif I persisted in going farther. They had been asking him whatpossible motive I could have in climbing mountains when stormswere blowing; and when hereplied that I was only seekingknowledge, Toyatte said, "Muir must be a witch to seek knowledgein such a place as this and in such miserable weather."
After supper, crouching about a dull fire of fossil wood, theybecame still more doleful, and talked in tones that accorded wellwith the wind and waters and growling torrents about us, tellingsad old stories of crushed canoes, drowned Indians, and huntersfrozen in snowstorms. Even brave old Toyatte, dreading the treeless,forlorn appearance of the region, said that his heart was notstrong, and that he feared his canoe, on the safety of which ourlives depended, might be entering a skookum-house (jail)of ice, from which there might be no escape; while the Hoona guidesaid bluntly that if I was so fond of danger, and meant to goclose up to the noses of the ice-mountains, he would notconsent to go any farther; for we should all be lost, as manyof his tribe had been, by the sudden rising of bergs from thebottom. They seemed to be losing heart with every howl of thewind, and, fearing that they might fail me now that I was in themidst of so grand a congregation of glaciers, I made haste toreassure them, telling them that for ten years I had wanderedalone among mountains and storms, and good luck always followedme; that with me, therefore, they need fear nothing. The stormwould soon cease and the sun would shine to show us the way weshould go, for God cares for us and guides us as long as we aretrustful and brave, therefore all childish fear must be put away.This little speech did good. Kadachan, with some show of enthusiasm,said he liked to travel with good-luck people; anddignified old Toyatte declared that now his heart was strong again,and he would venture on with me as far as I liked for my "wawa"was "delait" (my talk was very good). The old warrioreven became a little sentimental, and said that even if the canoewas broken he would not greatly care, because on the way to theother world he would have good companions.
Next morning it was still raining and snowing, but the south windswept us bravely forward and swept the bergs from our course.In about an hour we reached the second of the big glaciers, whichI afterwards named for Hugh Miller. We rowed up its fiord andlanded to make a slight examination of its grand frontal wall.The berg-producing portion we found to be about a mile anda half wide, and broken into an imposing array of jagged spiresand pyramids, and flat-topped towers and battlements, ofmany shades of blue, from pale, shimmering, limpid tones in thecrevasses and hollows, to the most startling, chilling, almostshrieking vitriol blue on the plain mural spaces from which bergshad just been discharged. Back from the front for a few milesthe glacier rises in a series of wide steps, as if this portionof the glacier had sunk in successive sections as it reached deepwater, and the sea had found its way beneath it. Beyond this itextends indefinitely in a gently rising prairie like expanse,and branches along the slopes and cañons of the FairweatherRange.
Prom here a run of two hours brought us to the head of the bay,and to the mouth of the northwest fiord,at the head ofwhich lie the Hoona sealing-grounds, and the great glaciernow called the Pacific, and another called the Hoona. The fiordis about five miles long, and two miles wide at the mouth. Hereour Hoona guide had a store of dry wood, which we took aboard.Then, setting sail, we were driven wildly up the fiord, as ifthe storm-wind were saying, "Go, then, if you will,into my icy chamber; but you shall stay in until I am ready tolet you out." All this time sleety rain was falling on thebay, and snow on the mountains; but soon after we landed the skybegan to open. The camp was made on a rocky bench near the frontof the Pacific Glacier, and the canoe was carried beyond the reachof the bergs and berg-waves. The bergs were now crowded in a densepack against the discharging front, as if the storm-windhad determined to make the glacier take back her crystal offspringand keep them at home.
While camp affairs were being attended to, I set out to climba mountain for comprehensive views; and before I had reached aheight of a thousand feet the rain ceased, and the clouds beganto rise from the lower altitudes, slowly lifting their white skirts,and lingering in majestic, wing-shaped masses about the mountainsthat rise out of the broad, icy sea, the highest of all the whitemountains, and the greatest of all the glaciers I had yet seen.Climbing higher for a still broader outlook, I made notes andsketched, improving the precious time while sunshine streamedthrough the luminous fringes of the clouds and fell on the greenwaters of the fiord, the glittering bergs, thecrystal bluffsof the vast glacier, the intensely white, far-spreading fieldsof ice, and the ineffably chaste and spiritual heights of theFairweather Range, which were now hidden, now partly revealed,the whole making a picture of icy wildness unspeakably pure andsublime.
Looking southward, a broad ice-sheet was seen extending ina gently undulating plain from the Pacific Fiord m the foregroundto the horizon, dotted and ridged here and there with mountainswhich were as white as the snow-covered ice in which theywere half, or more than half, submerged. Several of the greatglaciers of the bay flow from this one grand fountain. It is aninstructive example of a general glacier covering the hills anddales of a country that is not yet ready to be brought to thelight of day--not only covering but creating a landscape with thefeatures it is destined to have when, in the fullness of time,the fashioning ice-sheet shall be lifted by the sun, andthe land become warm and fruitful. The view to the westward isbounded and almost filled by the glorious Fairweather Mountains,the highest among them springing aloft in sublime beauty to aheight of nearly sixteen thousand feet, while from base to summitevery peak and spire and dividing ridge of all the mighty hostwas spotless white, as if painted. It would seem that snow couldnever be made to lie on the steepest slopes and precipices unlessplastered on when wet, and then frozen. But this snow could nothave been wet. It must have been fixed by being driven and setin small particles like the storm-dust ofdrifts, which,when in this condition, is fixed not only on sheer cliffs, butin massive, overcurling cornices. Along the base of this majesticrange sweeps the Pacific Glacier, fed by innumerable cascadingtributaries, and discharging into the head of its fiord by twomouths only partly separated by the brow of an island rock aboutone thousand feet high, each nearly a mile wide.Dancing down the mountain to camp, my mind glowing like the sunbeatenglaciers, I found the Indians seated around a good fire, entirelyhappy now that the farthest point of the journey was safely reachedand the long, dark storm was cleared away. How hopefully, peacefullybright that night were the stars in the frosty sky, and how impressivewas the thunder of the icebergs, rolling, swelling, reverberatingthrough the solemn stillness! I was too happy to sleep.
About daylight next morning we crossed the fiord and landed onthe south side of the rock that divides the wall of the greatglacier. The whiskered faces of seals dotted the open spaces betweenthe bergs, and I could not prevent John and Charley and Kadachanfrom shooting at them. Fortunately, few, if any, were hurt. Leavingthe Indians in charge of the canoe, I managed to climb to thetop of the wall by a good deal of step-cutting between theice and dividing rock, and gained a good general view of the glacier.At one favorable place I descended about fifty feet below theside of the glacier, where its denuding, fashioning action wasclearly shown. Pushing backfrom here, I found the surfacecrevassed and sunken in steps, like the Hugh Miller Glacier, asif it were being undermined by the action of tide-waters.For a distance of fifteen or twenty miles the river-likeice-flood is nearly level, and when it recedes, the ocean waterwill follow it, and thus form a long extension of the fiord, withfeatures essentially the same as those now extending into thecontinent farther south, where many great glaciers once pouredinto the sea, though scarce a vestige of them now exists. Thusthe domain of the sea has been, and is being, extended in theseice-sculptured lands, and the scenery of their shores enriched.The brow of the dividing rock is about a thousand feet high, andis hard beset by the glacier. A short time ago it was at leasttwo thousand feet below the surface of the over-sweepingice; and under present climatic conditions it will soon take itsplace as a glacier-polished island in the middle of the fiord,like a thousand others in the magnificent archipelago. Emergingfrom its icy sepulchre, it gives a most telling illustration ofthe birth of a marked feature of a landscape. In this instanceit is not the mountain, but the glacier, that is in labor, andthe mountain itself is being brought forth.
The Hoona Glacier enters the fiord on the south side, a shortdistance below the Pacific, displaying a broad and far-reachingexpanse, over which many lofty peaks are seen; but the front wall,thrust into the fiord, is not nearly so interesting as that ofthe Pacific, and I did not observe any bergs discharged from it.
In the evening, after witnessing the unveiling of the majesticpeaks and glaciers and their baptism in the down-pouringsunbeams, it seemed inconceivable that nature could have anythingfiner to show us. Nevertheless, compared with what was to comethe next morning, all that was as nothing. The calm dawn gaveno promise of anything uncommon. Its most impressive featureswere the frosty clearness of the sky and a deep, brooding stillnessmade all the more striking by the thunder of the newborn bergs.The sunrise we did not see at all, for we were beneath the shadowsof the fiord cliffs; but in the midst of our studies, while theIndians were getting ready to sail, we were startled by the suddenappearance of a red light burning with a strange unearthly splendoron the topmost peak of the Fairweather Mountains. Instead of vanishingas suddenly as it had appeared, it spread and spread until thewhole range down to the level of the glaciers was filled withthe celestial fire. In color it was at first a vivid crimson,with a thick, furred appearance, as fine as the alpenglow, yetindescribably rich and deep--not in the least like a garment ormere external flush or bloom through which one might expect tosee the rocks or snow, but every mountain apparently was glowingfrom the heart like molten metal fresh from a furnace. Beneaththe frosty shadows of the fiord we stood hushed and awe-stricken,gazing at the holy vision; and had we seen the heavens openedand God made manifest, our attention could not have been moretremendously strained. When the highest peak began to burn, itdidnot seem to be steeped in sunshine, however glorious,but rather as if it had been thrust into the body of the sun itself.Then the supernal fire slowly descended, with a sharp line ofdemarcation separating it from the cold, shaded region beneath;peak after peak, with their spires and ridges and cascading glaciers,caught the heavenly glow, until all the mighty host stood transfigured,hushed, and thoughtful, as if awaiting the coming of the Lord.The white, rayless light of morning, seen when I was alone amidthe peaks of the California Sierra, had always seemed to me themost telling of all the terrestrial manifestations of God. Buthere the mountains themselves were made divine, and declared Hisglory in terms still more impressive. How long we gazed I neverknew. The glorious vision passed away in a gradual, fading changethrough a thousand tones of color to pale yellow and white, andthen the work of the ice-world went on again in everydaybeauty. The green waters of the fiord were filled with sun-spangles;the fleet of icebergs set forth on their voyages with the upspringingbreeze; and on the innumerable mirrors and prisms of these bergs,and on those of the shattered crystal walls of the glaciers, commonwhite light and rainbow light began to burn, while the mountainsshone in their frosty jewelry, and loomed again in the thin azurein serene terrestrial majesty. We turned and sailed away, joiningthe outgoing bergs, while "Gloria in excelsis" stillseemed to be sounding over all the white landscape, and our burninghearts were ready for any fate, feeling that, whatever the futuremighthave in store, the treasures we had gained this gloriousmorning would enrich our lives forever.When we arrived at the mouth of the fiord, and rounded the massivegranite headland that stands guard at the entrance on the northside, another large glacier, now named the Reid, was discoveredat the head of one of the northern branches of the bay. Pushingahead into this new fiord, we found that it was not only packedwith bergs, but that the spaces between the bergs were crustedwith new ice, compelling us to turn back while we were yet severalmiles from the discharging frontal wall. But though we were notthen allowed to set foot on this magnificent glacier, we obtaineda fine view of it, and I made the Indians cease rowing while Isketched its principal features. Thence, after steering northeastwarda few miles, we discovered still another large glacier, now namedthe Carroll. But the fiord into which this glacier flows was,like the last, utterly inaccessible on account of ice, and wehad to be content with a general view and sketch of it, gainedas we rowed slowly past at a distance of three or four miles.The mountains back of it and on each side of its inlet are sculpturedin a singularly rich and striking style of architecture, in whichsubordinate peaks and gables appear in wonderful profusion, andan imposing conical mountain with a wide, smooth base stands outin the main current of the glacier, a mile or two back from thedischarging ice-wall.
We now turned southward down the eastern shore of the bay, andin an hour or two discovered a glacierof the second class,at the head of a comparatively short fiord that winter had notyet closed. Here we landed, and climbed across a mile or so ofrough boulder-beds, and back upon the wildly broken, recedingfront of the glacier, which, though it descends to the level ofthe sea, no longer sends off bergs. Many large masses, detachedfrom the wasting front by irregular melting, were partly buriedbeneath mud, sand, gravel, and boulders of the terminal moraine.Thus protected, these fossil icebergs remain unmelted for manyyears, some of them for a century or more, as shown by the ageof trees growing above them, though there are no trees here asyet. At length melting, a pit with sloping sides is formed bythe falling in of the overlying moraine material into the spaceat first occupied by the buried ice. In this way are formed thecurious depressions in drift-covered regions called kettlesor sinks. On these decaying glaciers we may also find many interestinglessons on the formation of boulders and boulder-beds, whichin all glaciated countries exert a marked influence on scenery,health, and fruitfulness.
Three or four miles farther down the bay, we came to another fiord,up which we sailed in quest of more glaciers, discovering onein each of the two branches into which the fiord divides. Neitherof these glaciers quite reaches tide-water. Notwithstandingthe apparent fruitfulness of their fountains, they are in thefirst stage of decadence, the waste from melting and evaporationbeing greater now than the supply of new ice from their snowyfountains. We reached the one inthe north branch, climbedover its wrinkled brow, and gained a good view of the trunk andsome of the tributaries, and also of the sublime gray cliffs ofits channel.
Then we sailed up the south branch of the inlet, but failed toreach the glacier there, on account of a thin sheet of new ice.With the tent-poles we broke a lane for the canoe for a littledistance; but it was slow work, and we soon saw that we couldnot reach the glacier before dark. Nevertheless, we gained a fairview of it as it came sweeping down through its gigantic gatewayof massive Yosemite rocks three or four thousand feet high. Herewe lingered until sundown, gazing and sketching; then turned back,and encamped on a bed of cobblestones between the forks of thefiord.
We gathered a lot of fossil wood and after supper made a big fire,and as we sat around it the brightness of the sky brought on along talk with the Indians about the stars; and their eager, childlikeattention was refreshing to see as compared with the deathlikeapathy of weary town-dwellers, in whom natural curiosityhas been quenched in toil and care and poor shallow comfort.
After sleeping a few hours, I stole quietly out of the camp, andclimbed the mountain that stands between the two glaciers. Theground was frozen, making the climbing difficult in the steepestplaces; but the views over the icy bay, sparkling beneath thestars, were enchanting. It seemed then a sad thing that any partof so precious a night had been lost in sleep. The starlightwas so full that I distinctly saw not only the berg-filledbay, but most of the lower portions of the glaciers, lying paleand spirit-like amid the mountains. The nearest glacier inparticular was so distinct that it seemed to be glowing with lightthat came from within itself. Not even in dark nights have I everfound any difficulty in seeing large glaciers; but on this mountain-top,amid so much ice, in the heart of so clear and frosty a night,everything was more or less luminous, and I seemed to be poisedin a vast hollow between two skies of almost equal brightness.This exhilarating scramble made me glad and strong and I rejoicedthat my studies called me before the glorious night succeedingso glorious a morning had been spent!
I got back to camp in time for an early breakfast, and by daylightwe had everything packed and were again under way. The fiord wasfrozen nearly to its mouth, and though the ice was so thin itgave us but little trouble in breaking a way for the canoe, yetit showed us that the season for exploration in these waters waswell-nigh over. We were in danger of being imprisoned ina jam of icebergs, for the water-spaces between them freezerapidly, binding the floes into one mass. Across such floes itwould be almost impossible to drag a canoe, however industriouslywe might ply the axe, as our Hoona guide took great pains to warnus. I would have kept straight down the bay from here, but theguide had to be taken home, and the provisions we left at thebark hut had to be got on board. We therefore crossed over toourSunday storm-camp, cautiously boring a way throughthe bergs. We found the shore lavishly adorned with a fresh arrivalof assorted bergs that had been left stranded at high tide. Theywere arranged in a curving row, looking intensely clear and pureon the gray sand, and, with the sunbeams pouring through them,suggested the jewel-paved streets of the New Jerusalem.
On our way down the coast, after examining the front of the beautifulGeikie Glacier, we obtained our first broad view of the greatglacier afterwards named the Muir, the last of all the grand companyto be seen, the stormy weather having hidden it when we firstentered the bay. It was now perfectly clear, and the spacious,prairie-like glacier, with its many tributaries extendingfar back into the snowy recesses of its fountains, made a magnificentdisplay of its wealth, and I was strongly tempted to go and exploreit at all hazards. But winter had come, and the freezing of itsfiords was an insurmountable obstacle. I had, therefore, to becontent for the present with sketching and studying its main featuresat a distance.
The Muir Glacier in the
Seventies, showing Ice Cliffs
and Stranded Icebergs |
When we arrived at the Hoona hunting-camp, men, women, andchildren came swarming out to welcome us. In the neighborhoodof this camp I carefully noted the lines of demarkation betweenthe forested and deforested regions. Several mountains here areonly in part deforested, and the lines separating the bare andthe forested portions are well defined. The soil, as well as thetrees, had slid off the steep slopes, leaving the edge of thewoods raw-looking and rugged.
At the mouth of the bay a series of moraine islands show thatthe trunk glacier that occupied the bay halted here for some timeand deposited this island material as a terminal moraine; thatmore of the bay was not filled in shows that, after lingeringhere, it receded comparatively fast. All the level portions oftrunks of glaciers occupying ocean fiords, instead of meltingback gradually in times of general shrinking and recession, asinland glaciers with sloping channels do, melt almost uniformlyover all the surface until they become thin enough to float. Then,of course, with each rise and fall of the tide, the sea water,with a temperature usually considerably above the freezing-point,rushes in and out beneath them, causing rapid waste of the nethersurface, while the upper is being wasted by the weather, untilat length the fiord portions of these great glaciers become comparativelythin and weak and are broken up and vanish almost simultaneously.
Glacier Bay is undoubtedly young as yet. Vancouver's chart, madeonly a century ago, shows no trace of it, though found admirablyfaithful in general. It seems probable, therefore, that even thenthe entire bay was occupied by a glacier of which all those describedabove, great though they are, were only tributaries. Nearly asgreat a change has taken place in Sum Dum Bay since Vancouver'svisit, the main trunk glacier there having receded from eighteento twenty five miles from the line marked on his chart. Charley,who was here when a boy, said that the place had so changed thathe hardly recognized it, somany new islands had been bornin the mean time and so much ice had vanished. As we have seen,this Icy Bay is being still farther extended by the recessionof the glaciers. That this whole system of fiords and channelswas added to the domain of the sea by glacial action is to mymind certain.
We reached the island from which we had obtained our store offuel about half-past six and camped here for the night, havingspent only five days in Sitadaka, sailing round it, visiting andsketching all the six glaciers excepting the largest, though Ilanded only on three of them,--the Geikie, Hugh Miller, and GrandPacific,--the freezing of the fiords in front of the others renderingthem inaccessible at this late season.
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