Travels in Alaska 



In the evening, after witnessing the unveiling of 

 the majestic peaks and glaciers and their baptism in 

 the down-pouring sunbeams, it seemed inconceivable 

 that nature could have anything finer to show us. 

 Nevertheless, compared with what was to come the 

 next morning, all that was as nothing. The calm 

 dawn gave no promise of anything uncommon. Its 

 most impressive features were the frosty clearness of 

 the sky and a deep, brooding stillness made all the 

 more striking by the thunder of the newborn bergs. 

 The sunrise we did not see at all, for we were beneath 

 the shadows of the fiord cliffs; but in the midst of our 

 studies, while the Indians were getting ready to sail, 

 we were startled by the sudden appearance of a red 

 light burning with a strange unearthly splendor on 

 the topmost peak of the Fairweather Mountains. In- 

 stead of vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared, it 

 spread and spread until the whole range down to the 

 level of the glaciers was filled with the celestial fire. 

 In color it was at first a vivid crimson, with a thick, 

 furred appearance, as fine as the alpenglow, yet in- 

 describably rich and deep not in the least like a 

 garment or mere external flush or bloom through 

 which one might expect to see the rocks or snow, but 

 every mountain apparently was glowing from the 

 heart like molten metal fresh from a furnace. Be- 

 neath the frosty shadows of the fiord we stood hushed 

 and awe-stricken, gazing at the holy vision; and had 

 we seen the heavens opened and God made manifest, 

 our attention could not have been more tremendously 

 strained. When the highest peak began to burn, it did 



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