132 JOHN MUIR 



Elias and his noble compeers, then down came clouds and 

 fog, leaving only a dim little circle of water about us. 

 But just as we entered the famous Prince William Sound, 

 that I had so long hoped to see, the sky cleared, disclos- 

 ing to the westward one of the richest, most glorious 

 mountain landscapes I ever beheld — peak over peak dip- 

 ping deep in the sky, a thousand of them, icy and shining, 

 rising higher, higher, beyond and yet beyond one another, 

 burning bright in the afternoon light, purple cloud-bars 

 above them, purple shadows in the hollows, and great 

 breadths of sun-spangled, ice-dotted waters in front. The 

 nightless days circled away while we gazed and studied, 

 sailing among the islands, exploring the long fiords, 

 climbing moraines and glaciers and hills clad in blooming 

 heather — grandeur and beauty in a thousand forms await- 

 ing us at every turn in this bright and 

 spacious wonderland. But that first 

 broad, far-reaching view in celestial 

 light was the best of all. 

 The most important dis- 

 covery made here is the 

 magnificent new inlet, 

 rightly named the Harri- 

 man Fiord. It is 

 full of glaciers of 

 every description, 

 waterfalls, gardens 

 and grand old for- 

 ests — nature's best 

 and choicest alpine 



treasures purely hemlock cliff, harriman fiord. 



wild — a place after 



my own heart. Here we camped in the only pure forest 

 of mountain hemlock I ever saw, the most beautiful of 

 evergreens, growing at sea-level, some of the trees over 



