John Muir, the geologist with the Corwin Arctic Expedition, describes,
as follows, the characteristics of Herald Island, hitherto known only
as an inaccessible rock seen by a few venturesome whalers and
explorers:
After so many futile efforts had been made to reach this little ice
bound island, everybody seemed wildly eager to run ashore and climb to
the summit of its sheer granite cliffs. At first a party of eight
jumped from the bowsprit chains and ran across the narrow belt of
margin ice and madly began to climb up an excessively steep gully,
which came to an end in an inaccessible slope a few hundred feet above
the water. Those ahead loosened and sent down a train of granite
bowlders, which shot over the heads of those below in a far more
dangerous manner than any of the party seemed to appreciate.
Fortunately nobody was hurt, and all made out to get down in safety.
While this remarkable piece of mountaineering and Arctic exploration
was in progress, a light skin-covered boat was dragged over the ice
and launched on a strip of water that stretched in front of an
accessible ravine, the bed of an ancient glacier, which I felt assured
would conduce by an easy grade to the summit of the island. The slope
of this ravine for the first hundred feet or so was very steep, but
inasmuch as it was full of firm, icy snow, it was easily ascended by
cutting steps in the face of it with an ax that I had brought from the
ship for the purpose. Beyond this there was not the slightest
difficulty in our way, the glacier having graded a fine, broad road.