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June 26. Fine, sunny day. Climbed the left (E) wall of Plover B. 2200 ft. high and had a very satisfactory view of the mountains about the bay. Left P.B. about 6 P.M. The glacier that formed and filled Plover B. was about 30 miles or so more in length and 5 to 6 in width at the widest portion of the trunk, and about 2000 feet deep, just before the period of decadence set in. It then had at least five main tributaries which became independent glaciers, and these again broke up into perhaps 75 or more small residual glaciers from 2 or 3 miles to half a mile in length, all of which, as far as I could see to-day, have at length vanished, though some wasting remnant may still exist towards the head fountains where the peaks are perhaps from 4000 to 5000 ft. h[igh]. I had a fine glissade down the valley of a tributary glacier whose ter. mor’s. show the same gradual death as those of the Sierra. The general aspect of the mountains hereabouts in sculpture and form of the peaks, ridges, valleys, lake basins and bits of meadow is like that of the high Sierra where the rock is least resisting. The snow still lingers in patches and streaks and avalanche heaps down to the sea level while yet there is but little depth of solid and foothills, no belts of climate, the mountains, as a whole seem to be only the tops of mountains shorn off from their warm, well-planted bases. Still the bare patches are already blooming with about 10 species, some of them very beautiful, though making no show at a distance.
Date Original
1881
Source
Original journal dimensions: 11.5 x 21 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel27Journal02P023A.tif
Publisher
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
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Keywords
John Muir, journals, drawings, writings, travel, journaling, naturalist
