The Cruise of the Corwin (The John Muir Library)
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ISBN: 0871565234 / Publisher: Sierra Club Books, March 1989
An account of John Muir's 1881 voyage to Arctic waters off the coast of Alaska aboard the steamer Thomas Corwin
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The Cruise of the Corwin is the story of a voyage John Muir took in 1881 on the steamer Thomas Corwin, which set sail from San Francisco for arctic waters off the coast of Alaska in search of the Jeannette, a ship tragically lost two years before. The Jeannette was never found, but Muir's account of his voyage conveys the excitement of far and little-known horizons. Here we find Muir sketching glaciers and examining rare flora; discovering Wrangell Island off the coast of Siberia and claiming it for the United States; observing seal, walrus, whale, and reindeer; exploring the wind-swept islands of the Bering sea; and investigating a "village of the dead," where whole clans perished of starvation in the unforgiving landscape. Pieced together by Muir's literary executor, William F. Badè, from newspaper correspondence, published scientific articles, and unpublished journals after Muir's death in 1914, The Cruise of the Corwin is a vivid account of the last stretches of the American frontier.
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