By 1880, John Muir had spent two decades wandering in the wilderness and was turning toward settled family life, but a proposed voyage on the steamer Corwin to search for a shipwrecked whaling vessel proved irresistible for this great adventurer. The Corwin set sail from San Francisco for the frostbitten shores of Siberia and Alaska. Muir's account of this expedition -- polar seas, rare flora, awe-inspiring glaciers, even the native people, who slept in tiny, fur-lined quarters -- captures the majesty and mystery of the farthest reaches of the American frontier.