Travels in Alaska 



Gliding on and on, the scenery seemed at every 

 turn to become more lavishly fruitful in forms as 

 well as more sublime in dimensions snowy falls 

 booming in splendid dress; colossal domes and battle- 

 ments and sculptured arches of a fine neutral-gray 

 tint, their bases laved by the blue fiord water; green 

 ferny dells; bits of flower-bloom on ledges; fringes of 

 willow and birch; and glaciers above all. But when 

 we approached the base of a majestic rock like the 

 Yosemite Half Dome at the head of the fiord, where 

 two short branches put out, and came in sight of 

 another glacier of the first order sending off bergs, 

 our joy was complete. I had a most glorious view of 

 it, sweeping in grand majesty from high mountain 

 fountains, swaying around one mighty bastion after 

 another, until it fell into the fiord in shattered over- 

 leaning fragments. When we had feasted awhile on 

 this unhoped-for treasure, I directed the Indians to 

 pull to the head of the left fork of the fiord, where we 

 found a large cascade with a volume of water great 

 enough to be called a river, doubtless the outlet of a 

 receding glacier not in sight from the fiord. 



This is in form and origin a typical Yosemite 

 valley, though as yet its floor is covered with ice and 

 water, ice above and beneath, a noble mansion in 

 which to spend a winter and a summer! It is about 

 ten miles long, and from three quarters of a mile to 

 one mile wide. It contains ten large falls and cas- 

 cades, the finest one on the left side near the head. 

 After coming in an admirable rush over a granite 

 brow where it is first seen at a height of nine hundred 



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