Travels in Alaska

Travels in Alaska By John Muir

Characters

Fain would I describe the glories of those months in the ice-world—the beautiful and terrible network of crevasses, the clustering pinnacles, the thousand streams ringing and gurgling in azure channels cut in the living body of the glacier, the glorious radiance of the sunbeams falling on crystal da…

— John Muir, amazon.com

Ice World Crevasses Pinnacles glaciers Sunbeams

When night was drawing near, I ran down the flowery slopes exhilarated, thanking God for the gift of this great day. The setting sun fired the clouds. All the world seemed new-born. Every thing, even the commonest, was seen in new light and was looked at with new interest as if never seen before.

— John Muir, amazon.com

Night Slopes newborn

The very thought of this Alaska garden is a joyful exhilaration.…Out of all the cold darkness and glacial crushing and grinding comes this warm, abounding beauty and life to teach us that what we in our faithless ignorance and fear call destruction is creation finer and finer.

— John Muir, amazon.com

Cold Darkness Joyful Exhilaration Creation

One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made. That this is still the morning of creation. That mountains, long conceived, are now being born, brought to light by the glaciers, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes.

— John Muir, amazon.com

Creation Mountains glaciers Rivers Basins

My fire was in all its glory about midnight, and, having made a bark shed to shelter me from the rain and partially dry my clothing, I had nothing to do but look and listen and join the trees in their hymns and prayers.

— John Muir, amazon.com

Prayers Fire glory midnight

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

— John Muir, amazon.com

Universe beauty Dewdrop Globe

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.

— John Muir, amazon.com

Wilderness Alaska

Our good ship also seemed like a thing of life, its great iron heart beating on through calm and storm, a truly noble spectacle. But think of the hearts of these whales, beating warm against the sea, day and night, through dark and light, on and on for centuries; how the red blood must rush and gurg…

— John Muir, amazon.com

Storms Boating Whales Blood

Go where we will, all the world over, we seem to have been there before.

— John Muir, amazon.com

World Travel

But think of the hearts of these whales, beating warm against the sea, day and night, through dark and light, on and on for centuries; how the red blood must rush and gurgle in and out, bucketfuls, barrelfuls at a beat!

— John Muir, amazon.com

Whales Heartbeat

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