204 lflature'0 Afraclee* 



Chatham Strait seemed gradually to come to 

 a point on the southern horizon. Westward 

 toward the Pacific was the marvelous outline 

 of the southern portion of the St. Elias Alps. 

 The lofty peaks of Crillon, 15,900 feet high, 

 and Fair Weather, 15,500 feet high, about 

 twenty-five miles away and about the same dis- 

 tance apart, stood as sentinels over the lesser 

 peaks." 



The Muir glacier might be likened to a 

 great inland sea of ice fed by many tribu- 

 taries or ice rivers. It narrows up at the point 

 where it empties into Muir Inlet to 10,664 

 feet, or a little over two miles. An enormous 

 pressure is exerted at this point, which causes 

 the ice to flow in the central portion at the 

 rate of about seventy feet per day. There is 

 a continual booming, like the firing of a can- 

 non, going on, caused by the bursting of some 

 great iceberg either before it takes its final 

 leap into the water or at the moment of its 

 fall. At the point where these great icebergs 

 drop off into the water they stand like a solid 

 wall 300 feet above its surface. Dr. Wright 

 says: "From this point there is a constant suc- 

 cession of falls of ice into the water, accom- 

 panied by loud reports. Scarcely ten minutes, 

 either night or day, passed during the whole 

 month without our being startled with such 

 reports ; and frequently they were like thunder 

 claps or the booming of cannon at the bom- 



