Off to Glacier Bay

Filmed during the Finley-Church Expedition to the Northland, 1926. This film was taken during the 1926 Finley-Church Expedition to the Northland. Church's yacht, the Westward, is seen cruising off the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, with beautiful snow-capped mountains in the background. The first sequence features grizzly bears as they fish for salmon. Footage follows of two black bear cubs, also seen in other Nature Magazine films, playing. They wrestle, play with a camera and a typewriter, and experience the heat from a fire in the fireplace. Baby mink are taken from their nest by the expedition staff, and are bottle-fed. As the Westward cruises towards Glacier Bay, the bear cubs are filmed on deck in very rough waters. Upon reaching Glacier Bay, Muir Glacier, which is 300 feet high, is featured. Its sides are shown crumbling, and the resultant debris is seen crashing into the water below. The film ends with shots of enormous chunks of floating ice.