Cruise of the Corwin - John Muir

"The Cruise of the Corwin is John Muir's account of a voyage he 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 notes convey the excitement of exploring far and little-known horizons -- climbing frozen mountains, sketching glaciers, examining rare flora, discovering Wrangell Island off the coast of Siberia and claiming it for the United States, observing polar bears, seal, walrus, whale, and reindeer, describing Inuet culture, 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by Muir's literary executor, William F. Bade, from newspaper correspondence, published scientific articles, and unpublished journals after Muir's death in 1914 -- a vivid account of the last stretches of the American frontier." (Summary by Michele Fry)