orld can
they be witnessed in such perfection. According to a talented American
authoress, "In Switzerland a glacier is a vast bed of dirty, air-holed
ice, that has fastened itself like a cold, porous plaster to the side of
an alp. Distance alone lends enchantment to the view. In Alaska a
glacier is a wonderful torrent that seems to have been suddenly frozen
when about to plunge into the sea," and the comparison, although
far-fetched, is not wholly devoid of truth.

Nearing Juneau we passed the Davidson glacier sufficiently near to
distinguish the strange and beautiful effects produced upon its white
and glittering surface by cloud and sunshine. This is the second largest
ice-field in Alaska, the finest being its immediate neighbour, the Muir
glacier, which drains an area of 800 square miles.[90] The actual ice
surface covers about 350 square miles, the mass of it, thirty-five miles
long and ten to fifteen miles wide, while surrounding it on three sides
are mountains averaging 4000 to 6000 ft. in height. Vessels dare not
approach the ice wall, about 250 ft. high, nearer than a quarter of a
mile, as masses of ice continually fall from its surface, and submarine
bergs, becoming detached from its sunken fore-foot rise to the surface
with tremendous force. The colour of the ice on the Muir glacier is as
curious as it is beautiful, varying from the lightest blue to dark
sapphire, and from a dark olive to the tenderest shades of green.
Although the feat has been often attempted no one has yet succeeded in
crossing the Muir from shore to shore.[91]

[Footnote 90: The Jostedalbrae in Norway, the largest glacier in Europe,
only covers 470 square miles.]

[Footnote 91: See "Studies of Muir Glacier, in Alaska," by Harry
Fielding Reid, _National Geographic Magazine_, March 1892.]

The captain of the _Topeka_ informed me that glaciers and canneries are
the chief attractions of this coast. I assumed that it could not be the
climate, for rain drizzled persistently from a grey and woolly sky
nearly all the way from Skagway to Port Townsend, and this was regarded
as "seasonable summer weather." With bright sunshine this journey
through a calm inland sea, gliding smoothly through fjords of
incomparable beauty, surrounded by every luxury, would be idyllic. As
it is, cold, rain and mist generally render this so-called pleasure trip
one of monotony and discomfort, where passengers are often compelled to
seek shelter throughout the day i