MOUNT ST. ELIAS 



55 



till at last the veil was completely rent, and there, in the 

 depths of clear air and sunshine, the vast mass soared to 

 heaven. 



There is sublimity in the sight of a summer thunder- 

 head with its great white and dun convolutions rising up 

 for miles against the sky, but there is more in the vision 

 of a jagged mountain crest piercing the blue at even a 

 lesser height. This is partly because it is a much rarer 

 spectacle, but mainly because it is a display of power 

 that takes 

 greater hold 

 of the imagi- 

 nation. That 

 lift heaven- 

 ward of the 

 solid crust of 

 the earth, that 

 aspiration of 

 the insensate 

 rocks, that 

 effort of the 

 whole range, 

 as it were, to 

 carry one peak 

 into heights 

 where all may 

 not go — every 

 lower summit 

 s e eming to 



second it and shoulder it forward till it stands there in a 

 kind of serene astronomic solitude and remoteness — is a 

 vision that always shakes the heart of the beholder. 



Later in the day we continued our course up the Bay 

 through much drift ice and were soon in sight of two 

 large glaciers, the Turner and the Hubbard. Both pre- 



MAP OF YAKUTAT BAY, ALASKA. 



