My Sled-Trip on the Muir Glacier 



gives an Indian-summerish effect. Now the blue 

 evening shadows are creeping out over the icy plain, 

 some ten miles long, with sunny yellow belts between 

 them. Boulders fall now and again with dull, blunt 

 booming, and the gravel pebbles rattle. 



July ig. Nearly blind. The light is intolerable and 

 I fear I may be long unfitted for work. I have 

 been lying on my back all day with a snow poultice 

 bound over my eyes. Every object I try to look 

 at seems double; even the distant mountain-ranges 

 are doubled, the upper an exact copy of the lower, 

 though somewhat faint. This is the first time in Alaska 

 that I have had too much sunshine. About four 

 o'clock this afternoon, when I was waiting for the 

 evening shadows to enable me to get nearer the main 

 camp, where I could be more easily found in case my 

 eyes should become still more inflamed and I should 

 be unable to travel, thin clouds cast a grateful shade 

 over all the glowing landscape. I gladly took ad- 

 vantage of these kindly clouds to make an effort to 

 cross the few miles of the glacier that lay between me 

 and the shore of the inlet. I made a pair of goggles 

 but am afraid to wear them. Fortunately the ice here 

 is but little broken, therefore I pulled my cap well 

 down and set off about five o'clock. I got on pretty 

 well and camped on the glacier in sight of the main 

 camp, which from here in a straight line is only five or 

 six miles away. I went ashore on Granite Island and 

 gleaned a little fossil wood with which I made tea on 

 the ice. 



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