Travels in Alaska 



noon we discovered the first of the great glaciers, the 

 one I afterward named for James Geikie, the noted 

 Scotch geologist. Its lofty blue cliffs, looming through 

 the draggled skirts of the clouds, gave a tremendous 

 impression of savage power, while the roar of the new- 

 born icebergs thickened and emphasized the general 

 roar of the storm. An hour and a half beyond the 

 Geikie Glacier we ran into a slight harbor where the 

 shore is low, dragged the canoe beyond the reach of 

 drifting icebergs, and, much against my desire to 

 push ahead, encamped, the guide insisting that the 

 big ice-mountain at the head of the bay could not be 

 reached before dark, that the landing there was dan- 

 gerous even in daylight, and that this was the only safe 

 harbor on the way to it. While camp was being made, 

 I strolled along the shore to 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 

 less the 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 therefore set out on an excursion, and 

 spent the day alone on the mountain-slopes above the 

 camp, and northward, to see what I might learn. 

 Pushing on through rain and mud and sludgy snow, 

 crossing many brown, boulder-choked torrents, wad- 

 ing, jumping, and wallowing in snow up to my shoul- 

 ders was mountaineering of the most trying kind. 

 After crouching cramped and benumbed in the canoe, 



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