My Sled- "Trip on the Muir Glacier 



winds also, though in temperature they may be only 

 a degree or two above freezing- point, dissolve the ice 

 as fast, or perhaps faster, than clear sunshine. Much 

 of the water caught in tight crevasses doubtless freezes 

 during the winter and gives rise to many of the ir- 

 regular veins seen in the structure of the glacier. 

 Saturated snow also freezes at times and is incorpo- 

 rated with the ice, as only from the lower part of the 

 glacier is the snow melted during the summer. I 

 have noticed many traces of this action. One of the 

 most beautiful things to be seen on the glacier is the 

 myriads of minute and intensely brilliant radiant 

 lights burning in rows on the banks of streams and 

 pools and lakelets from the tips of crystals melting in 

 the sun, making them look as if bordered with dia- 

 monds. These gems are rayed like stars and twinkle; 

 no diamond radiates keener or more brilliant light. 

 It was perfectly glorious to think of this divine light 

 burning over all this vast crystal sea in such ineffa- 

 bly fine effulgence, and over how many other of icy 

 Alaska's glaciers where nobody sees it. To produce 

 these effects I fancy the ice must be melting rapidly, 

 as it was being melted to-day. The ice in these pools 

 does not melt with anything like an even surface, but 

 in long branches and leaves, making fairy forests of 

 points, while minute bubbles of air are constantly 

 being set free. I am camped to-night on what I call 

 Quarry Mountain from its raw, loose, plantless condi- 

 tion, seven or eight miles above the front of the glacier. 

 I found enough fossil wood for tea. Glorious is the 

 view to the eastward from this camp. The sun has 



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