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Structureless storm in the sky. The rain is falling in heavy plopps [plops] & [dashes] on my page & hat & shoulders & on the lvs [leaves] of [huck] bushes & fern fronds at my feet. The wind is [sweeping] in a steady flood overhead, making a continuous [ ] [calm] storm. A-a-a-h binding the tops of the [ ] [nest] trees (100 ft) but only moving gentley low dripping branches & the bushes & [smiles] & [now] & then turning the fronds of the ferns on edge so you can see their [dotted] undersides of those nearest to me. [Over] [the] cliff [whose] the [ ] [have] [all] been carried away by the [ ] [ ] are a half day [ ] [ ] [glad]of [voice] & [strong] & [one] [torrent] [rocking] it [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] over boulders in a fresh & ever & anon A mass of [ ] in the blue crystal cliffs. [ ] with resounding clash & roar [mingling] its tone with those of wind & the torrents & [ ] making on grand [ ] such as delights the [ear] of the mtneer [mountaineer] How different from last Sunday in [Sundown] with its peace & [polar ] calm. When the sun shone on the [ ] water & the sounds of the birds & the bergs even seemed in their strength to be tranquil in deep repose. The falling berg with heavy thunder [tones] sustained one after another crowding then a [prolonged] roar & a series of reverberations chasing one another down the fiord from bastion to bastion & from dome to dome overhead, then dying [sleepily] away leaving the impression of reserved rather than spent power. Then the clash of the bergs & waves up the shore. This storm seems so complete & the ferns at my feet frail as they are & the blooming bushes all take it so kindly that it appears a sort of balanced calm of storms. A [mode] of beauty all tending to after beauty of a warm life – bestowing kind.
Date Original
1880
Source
Original journal dimensions: 10.5 x 17.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel26Journal04P05-06.tif
Publisher
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
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Keywords
John Muir, journals, drawings, writings, travel, journaling, naturalist
