Transcription:
To mrs. Muir St. Michael, July 9th, 1881. Land My dear Wife. We did not get away last evening, as we expected, on
account of the change in plans-as to taking all our winter stores on board, instead of leaving them until another visit in
September.It is barely possible we might get caught off Point Barrow or on Wrangell Land by movements in the ice-pack that
never can be anticipated.Therefore we will be more comfortable with abundance of bread about us.In the matter of coal, there
is a mine on the north coast where some can be obtained in case of need, and also plenty of driftwood. Our cruise, notwithstanding
we have already made two trips into a portion of the Arctic usually blocked most of the summer, we consider, is just really
beginning.For we have not yet made any attempt to get to the packed region about Herald Island and Wrangell Land. Perhaps
not once in twenty years would it be possible to get a ship alongside the shores of Wrangell Land, although its southern point
is about nine degrees south of points attained on the eastern side of the continent.To find the ocean ice, thirty or forty
feet thick, away from its mysterious shores seems to be about as hopeless as to find a mountain glacier out of its can on.Still,
this has been so remarkably open and mild a winter, and so many north gales have been blowing this spring gales calculated
to break up the huge packs and grind the cakes and blocks against one another, that we have sanguine hopes of accomplishing
all that we are expected to do and get home by the end of October.If I can see as much of the American Coast as I have of
the Asiatic I will be satisfied, and should the weather be as favorable I certainly shall. I will send this by the schooner
Czar, belonging to the Western Fur Trading Co., which sails for San Francisco in an hour or two (it is now 9:45 a.m.) and
will probably arrive there about the middle of August. The steamer St. Paul, belonging to the Alaska Com. Co. will sail for
San Francisco in a week or two, touching at the Seal Islands and Unalaska, and will probably arrive in San Francisco about
the 20th of August. I send two letters to you by her, and also six Bulletin letters which will give you a pretty complete
account of our cruise thus far.I also sent five Bulletin letters by the TomPope with a number for. you and mother, which you
may have received by this time. at We may, possibly, be home ere you receive any more. If not, think of me, dear, as happily
at work with no other pain than the pain of separation from you and my wee lass. I have many times been weighing chances as
to whether you have sent letters by the Mary-and-Helen, now called the Rodgers , which was to sail about the middle of JuneShe
is a slow sailor, and has to go far out of her course by Petropavlovskii, the capital of Kamchatka for dogs, and will not
be through the Strait before the end of the season nearly. Yet a letter by her is my only hope for hearing from you this season.
How warm and bland the weather is here, 60 in the shade, and how fine a crop of grass and flowers is growing up along the
shores and back on the spongy tundra.The Captain says I can have a few hours on shore this afternoon.I mean to go across the
bay three miles to a part of the tundra I have not yet seen.I shall at least find a lot of new flowers and see some of the
birds. Once more, goodbye. I send Anna's parka by the St. Paul.Give my love to Sam Williams. You must not forget him. John
muir Envelope containing this letter addressed to Mrs. John Muir, Martinez, California . Postmarked San Francisco, Cal.,
Aug. 22, 81. 21