final catastrophe, and its long delay became
almost a greater strain than I could bear. I jumped up and down and
waved my arms and shouted at the glacier to "hurry up."

Suddenly the climax came in a surprising way. The great tower of crystal
shot up into the air two hundred feet or more, impelled by the pressure
of a hundred fathoms of water, and then, toppling over, came crashing
into the water with a roar as of rending mountains. Its weight of
thousands of tons, falling from such a height, splashed great sheets of
water high into the air, and a rainbow of wondrous brilliance flashed
and vanished. A mighty wave swept majestically down the bay, rocking the
massive bergs like corks, and, breaking against my granite pillar,
tossed its spray half-way up to my lofty perch. Muir's shout of
applause and Stickeen's sharp bark came faintly to my ears when the deep
rumbling of the newly formed icebergs had subsided.

That night I waited supper long for Muir. It was a good supper--a
mulligan stew of mallard duck, with biscuits and coffee. Stickeen romped
into camp about ten o'clock and his new master soon followed.

"Ah!" sighed Muir between sips of coffee, "what a Lord's mercy it is
that we lost this glacier last fall, when we were pressed for time, to
find it again in these glorious days that have flashed out of the mists
for our special delectation. This has been a day of days. I have found
four new varieties of moss, and have learned many new and wonderful
facts about world-shaping. And then, the wonder and glory! Why, all the
values of beauty and sublimity--form, color, motion and sound--have
been present to-day at their very best. My friend, we are the richest
men in all the world to-night."

Charging down the canyon with the charging ice on our return, we kept to
the right-hand shore, on the watch for the mouth of the canyon of "some
scenery." We had not been able to discover it from the other side as we
ascended the fiord. We were almost swept past the mouth of it by the
force of the current. Paddling into an eddy, we were suddenly halted as
if by a strong hand pushed against the bow, for the current was flowing
like a cataract out of the narrow mouth of this side canyon. A rocky
shelf afforded us a landing place. We hastily unloaded the canoe and
pulled it up upon the beach out of reach of the floating ice, and there
we had to wait until the next morning before we could penetrate the
depths of this great canyon.