THE DISCOVERY OF GLACIER BAY, ALASKA 
143 
iind made the circuit of its shores. Having found these glaciers, 
he l)i’OUght them to the knowledge of the world in the series of 
letters from Alaska published in the San Francisco Evening 
Bulletin, and described them in lectures illustrated by blackboard 
sketches of these remarkable “ Fairweather glaciers.” 
In July, 1880, Captain Beardslee brought the steamer Favorite 
into the ba}%up to that time unknown to the Russian pilot who 
accompanied him. They proceeded a little beyond the island 
then named for the trader, Willoughby, who was with them, and 
then turned back, fleeing from storm-clouds and fog that greatly 
alarmed the owners of the chartered steamer, who feared the loss 
of their insurance in the event. of any disaster befalling them in 
those uncharted and dangerous waters. While Captain Beardslee 
held parle}^ with the Indians in Berg bay. Ensign Hanus made a 
ruijning surve}’’ of the lower end of the ba}’’, the lines of its north- 
ern extension and indentations being drawn in roughly from the 
descriptions of the native seal-hunters. The Indians at the same 
time told of the two white men who had come the preceding- 
year, and Captain Beardslee easily recognized Mr Muir from this 
description, the glacial prospector being well known on the coast. 
Mr Muir returned to the bay in September, 1880, and spent some 
weeks exploring the ice-fields. On his return that winter to San 
Franci.sco, he again wrote and lectured about the “ Fairweather 
glaciers,” the onl}” designation he gave to these ice-streams. 
Captain Beardslee described his visit in an official report 
(Forty-sixth Congress, Second Session, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 145), 
accompanied l»y his map of the bay, and also ])ublished an 
account in letters to Forest and Stream. B}^ his own ))ersonal 
insistence and a determined stand made at the Coast Survey 
office, (.’a|)tain Beardslee had his very apt name of Glacier ba}' 
retained on official charts, instead of giving to it the name of 
some inconsequent and now forgotten statesman whom it seemed 
oflicially desirable to flatter at the time. All ^Alaska tourists owe 
it to Captain Beardslee that this reserve of such uni)aralleled 
scenic grandeur is not vulgarized by some great misnomer. 
Captain Beardslee gave a tracing of this chart and notes to 
Captain James Carroll, and Mr Muir assured that navigator that 
there was clear navigation beyond the Beardslee islands, and 
tliat if be followed tlie eastern shores he would find anchorage 
in a broad inlet into which one of the largest glaciers l)roke away. 
Captain Carroll took the steamsliip Idaho into the bay in .luly, 
1884, found the inlet and glacier as descril>ed, and named them 
