R EC RE A TION. 



45 



turned back before sighting the glacier, 

 but ursus arcticus knows that the 

 gentle head wind blowing in our faces 

 is driving those bergs down the bay 

 and that the closer we get to the glacier 

 the less ice we shall find in the water ; 

 hence it is wiser to go ahead than to 

 turn back. Our captain has some of 

 the bull-dog, as well as the bear, in his 

 composition, and does not like to turn 

 back as long as there is a possibility of 

 success by holding on. This com- 

 bination of the polar bear and the bull 

 dog succeeds in the end ; for soon 

 we pass what, in the distance, looks 

 like an indefinite field of ice and 

 snow, extending far up into the moun- 

 tains, and which we are told is a 

 glacier. From the foot of which three 

 great bergs float quickly between 

 us and it, and the ice in our front 

 does decrease. A clear space gradually 

 opens ahead, our speed is increased, 

 and we go plowing rapidly forward 

 toward a great vertical wall which rises 

 from the water directly across our path. 



On the right a sandy point pro- 

 jects out into the water and a short 

 distance back from the shore appears a 

 small board cabin and from a staff 

 near by wave the Stars and Stripes. A 

 shot is fired on shore and our whistle 

 screams out a long salute to Miss S., 

 who, with two or three friends, has for 

 weeks been occupying the cabin, taking 

 observations on the Muir glacier and 

 waiting more or less patiently for us to 

 come and take them out of this wilder- 

 ness, back to civilization. We steam 

 past the little cabin and go straight for 

 the wall in front until it begins to look as 

 though we were going to run, bows on, 

 into it ; but we come to a halt only 

 when the captain could not help him- 

 self. As it was, I felt perfectly certain 

 we were not more than a few yards 

 from the ice when the engine stopped ; 

 our speed gradually lessened, and then 

 the engines being reversed, we backed 

 away from almost contact with the foot 

 of the glacier to a safer distance where 

 our anchor was dropped and we came 

 to a rest. We could now gaze at and 

 study, at our leisure, the grand Muir 

 glacier. 



How perfectly futile for one to at- 

 tempt to paint, in words, the glories of 

 the scene before us ! Yet it must be 

 done, for a glacier we came here to see, 



and this ramble would be a ramble with- 

 out any point to it, should I fail to tell 

 you of the character of this great ice 

 river. So, although I am sure to fail 

 where the brush of a skillful artist alone 

 could succeed, I must make the effort. 

 Only once before had I seen a glacier, 

 but that was at the top of a snow moun- 

 tain, where the surroundings were en- 

 tirely different, more especially as to the 

 way in which the glacier disposed of 

 itself. On the mountain glacier the 

 effects of its motion were apparent in 

 the long, straight ridges of debris it left 

 on either side, in the shape of lateral 

 moraines, while at its foot the process 

 going on was perfectly apparent and open 

 to the eye. There great blocks of solid 

 ice were lying in a confused mass half 

 covered with dirt and mud, and beyond 

 this in the valley below could be seen 

 what science calls the terminal moraine, 

 a great bank of earth and stone built 

 across the valley as if protesting against 

 any farther advance of the main glacier 

 in that direction. 



Here, so far as we can distinguish, 

 from the ship's deck, there are no lateral 

 moraines and there certainly is no ter- 

 minal moraine ; for where it ought to be 

 is the sea on which we are floating, and 

 this glacier terminates itself by dropping 

 off blocks of ice into the water. These 

 float away and gradually melt, deposit- 

 ing their mud and stone for miles down 

 along the bay ; and until "the sea gives 

 up its dead " these will never be seen by 

 mortal eye. 



The great wall, therefore, which we 

 see across the valley above, is simply the 

 face of the glacier left after the dropping 

 away of masses of ice which are carried 

 away by the sea. This wall extends in 

 an irregular line across the valley about 

 a mile or a mile and half wide, and any 

 where from two to three hundred feet 

 high. It does not look so high from 

 the deck of the steamers, but views 

 from different points convince us 

 that our estimate is not far wrong. 

 This face is constantly varying, both in 

 form and position, and they tell us that 

 it has worked its way backward, since 

 last June, from near the point of sand 

 at the cabin in its present position ; 

 and the fact that the warm weather is 

 nearly over and the recession for this 

 year almost completed is given as a 

 reason why we now so seldom see masses 



