Creator

[John Muir]

Recipient

[Louie Strentzel Muir]

Preview

image preview

Transcription

[4]After going back about ten miles we discovered a good anchorage in 15 fathom water in the ice of a great bluff of lava about 2000 ft high & here we ride in comfort while the blast drives past overhead. If we do not get off tomorrow I will go ashore & see what I can learn. Have learned already since the snow ceased falling that all the region hereabouts has been glaciated just like that 1000 miles to the Eastward. All the sculpture shows this clearly. How pleasant it seems to be able to walk once more without holding on & to heave your plate lie still on the table. It is clearing up. The mountains are seen in groups rising back of one another All pure white The sailors are catching codfish.[in margin: in circle 11][1][1881] Monday May 16, 4.P.M.Dear Louie, Since writing this forenoon we reached the mouth of the Strait that seperates Oonalaska Island from the next to the Eastward against a strong headwind & through rough snow squalls, when the Captain told me that he thought he would not venture through the Strait today because the swift flood tide setting through the Strait against the wind was surely raising a dangerously rough sea but rather leek an anchorage somewhere in the lee of the bluffs, & wait the fall of the wind. As he approached the mouth of the Strait however he changed his mind & determined to try it. When the vessel began to pitch heavily & the hatches & skylights were [in margin: there are two waterfalls opposite our harbor Goodnight to all & oh if I could touch my baby & [illegible]]

Location

[Alaska]

Date Original

1881 May 16

Source

Original letter dimensions: 20 x 25 cm.

Resource Identifier

muir04_0548-let.tif

File Identifier

Reel 04, Image 0548

Copyright Statement

The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html

Owning Institution

University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.

Copyright Holder

Muir-Hanna Trust

Copyright Date

1984

Page Number

Page 1

Keywords

John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle

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