Instead Of Vanishing As Suddenly As It Had Appeared, It
Spread And Spread Until The Whole Range Down To The Level Of The
Glaciers Was Filled With The Celestial Fire.
In color it was at first
a vivid crimson, with a thick, furred appearance, as fine as the
alpenglow,
Yet indescribably rich and deep - not in the least like a
garment or mere external flush or bloom through which one might
expect to see the rocks or snow, but every mountain apparently was
glowing from the heart like molten metal fresh from a furnace.
Beneath the frosty shadows of the fiord we stood hushed and
awe-stricken, gazing at the holy vision; and had we seen the heavens
opened and God made manifest, our attention could not have been more
tremendously strained. When the highest peak began to burn, it did
not seem to be steeped in sunshine, however glorious, but rather as
if it had been thrust into the body of the sun itself. Then the
supernal fire slowly descended, with a sharp line of demarcation
separating it from the cold, shaded region beneath; peak after peak,
with their spires and ridges and cascading glaciers, caught the
heavenly glow, until all the mighty host stood transfigured, hushed,
and thoughtful, as if awaiting the coming of the Lord. The white,
rayless light of morning, seen when I was alone amid the peaks of the
California Sierra, had always seemed to me the most telling of all
the terrestrial manifestations of God. But here the mountains
themselves were made divine, and declared His glory in terms still
more impressive. How long we gazed I never knew. The glorious vision
passed away in a gradual, fading change through a thousand tones of
color to pale yellow and white, and then the work of the ice-world
went on again in everyday beauty. The green waters of the fiord were
filled with sun-spangles; the fleet of icebergs set forth on their
voyages with the upspringing breeze; and on the innumerable mirrors
and prisms of these bergs, and on those of the shattered crystal
walls of the glaciers, common white light and rainbow light began to
burn, while the mountains shone in their frosty jewelry, and loomed
again in the thin azure in serene terrestrial majesty. We turned and
sailed away, joining the outgoing bergs, while "Gloria in excelsis"
still seemed to be sounding over all the white landscape, and our
burning hearts were ready for any fate, feeling that, whatever the
future might have in store, the treasures we had gained this
glorious morning would enrich our lives forever.
When we arrived at the mouth of the fiord, and rounded the massive
granite headland that stands guard at the entrance on the north side,
another large glacier, now named the Reid, was discovered at the head
of one of the northern branches of the bay. Pushing ahead into this
new fiord, we found that it was not only packed with bergs, but that
the spaces between the bergs were crusted with new ice, compelling us
to turn back while we were yet several miles from the discharging
frontal wall. But though we were not then allowed to set foot on this
magnificent glacier, we obtained a fine view of it, and I made the
Indians cease rowing while I sketched its principal features. Thence,
after steering northeastward a few miles, we discovered still another
large glacier, now named the Carroll. But the fiord into which this
glacier flows was, like the last, utterly inaccessible on account of
ice, and we had to be content with a general view and sketch of it,
gained as we rowed slowly past at a distance of three or four miles.
The mountains back of it and on each side of its inlet are sculptured
in a singularly rich and striking style of architecture, in which
subordinate peaks and gables appear in wonderful profusion, and an
imposing conical mountain with a wide, smooth base stands out in the
main current of the glacier, a mile or two back from the discharging
ice-wall.
We now turned southward down the eastern shore of the bay, and in an
hour or two discovered a glacier of the second class, at the head of
a comparatively short fiord that winter had not yet closed. Here we
landed, and climbed across a mile or so of rough boulder-beds, and
back upon the wildly broken, receding front of the glacier, which,
though it descends to the level of the sea, no longer sends off
bergs. Many large masses, detached from the wasting front by
irregular melting, were partly buried beneath mud, sand, gravel, and
boulders of the terminal moraine. Thus protected, these fossil
icebergs remain unmelted for many years, some of them for a century
or more, as shown by the age of trees growing above them, though
there are no trees here as yet. At length melting, a pit with sloping
sides is formed by the falling in of the overlying moraine material
into the space at first occupied by the buried ice. In this way are
formed the curious depressions in drift-covered regions called
kettles or sinks. On these decaying glaciers we may also find many
interesting lessons on the formation of boulders and boulder-beds,
which in all glaciated countries exert a marked influence on scenery,
health, and fruitfulness.
Three or four miles farther down the bay, we came to another fiord,
up which we sailed in quest of more glaciers, discovering one in each
of the two branches into which the fiord divides. Neither of these
glaciers quite reaches tide-water. Notwithstanding the apparent
fruitfulness of their fountains, they are in the first stage of
decadence, the waste from melting and evaporation being greater now
than the supply of new ice from their snowy fountains. We reached the
one in the north branch, climbed over its wrinkled brow, and gained
a good view of the trunk and some of the tributaries, and also of the
sublime gray cliffs of its channel.
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