Travels in Alaska 



born, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hol- 

 lowed for lakes; that moraine soil is being ground and 

 outspread for coming plants, coarse boulders and 

 gravel for forests, finer soil for grasses and flowers, 

 while the finest part of the grist, seen hastening 

 out to sea in the draining streams, is being stored 

 away in darkness and builded particle on particle, 

 cementing and crystallizing, to make the mountains 

 and valleys and plains of other predestined land- 

 scapes, to be followed by still others in endless rhythm 

 and beauty. 



Gladly would we have camped out on this grand old 

 landscape mill to study its ways and works; but we 

 had no bread and the captain was keeping the Cas- 

 siar whistle screaming for our return. Therefore, in 

 mean haste, we threaded our way back through the 

 crevasses and down the blue cliffs, snatched a few 

 flowers from a warm spot on the edge of the ice, 

 plashed across the moraine streams, and were paddled 

 aboard, rejoicing in the possession of so blessed a day, 

 and feeling that in very foundational truth we had 

 been in one of God's own temples and had seen Him 

 and heard Him working and preaching like a man. 



Steaming solemnly out of the fiord and down the 

 coast, the islands and mountains were again passed 

 .in review; the clouds that so often hide the mountain- 

 tops even in good weather were now floating high 

 above them, and the transparent shadows they cast 

 were scarce perceptible on the white glacier fountains. 

 So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a 

 pure wilderness that unless you are pursuing special 



[68] 



