![[Letters from Canada to Emily Pelton and Mrs. Jeanne Carr.]](https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1529/thumbnail.jpg)
[Letters from Canada to Emily Pelton and Mrs. Jeanne Carr.]
Files
Kimes Entry Number
451
Original Date
4-1-1976
Publication
Ontario Naturalist, v. 16, no. 2
Page/Column
pp. 6-7
Location
WFK
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "[Letters from Canada to Emily Pelton and Mrs. Jeanne Carr.]" (1976). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes (Muir articles 1866-1986). 530.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/530
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William and Maymie Kimes Annotation
In the article "John Muir's Ontario Valley," authors Elaine and John Theberge write of Muir's botanizing sojourn into Canada in 1865, where he remained and spent a happy year and a half. Muir's observations of the hard-working Canadians are quoted from a letter to Mrs. Jeanne Carr, no. 311, pp. 11-12. In a letter to Emily Pelton, Muir describes the surroundings of his home with the Trout family on the Big Head River southwest of Meaford, Ontario, "as a retired and romantic hollow where I work and study and dream . . . happy in being so comfortably separated from the world's noisy dust. . . .Freshness and beauty are everywhere; flowers are born every hour; living sunlight is poured over all. . . . Our world is indeed a beautiful one. I wish, Emily, that you could be near so we could take an occasional ramble to botanize and admire these glorious manifestations of Creative Skill [May 23, 1865]." Late that fall in another letter to Emily, Muir relates a ramble he took among the rocks of Owen Sound, encloses some specimens he had collected, discusses their habits of growth, and writes, "I would take pleasure in showing you my collection of ferns. The eyes are so few that can appreciate such beauties." Muir's account of this ramble is also quoted from a letter to Mrs. Carr, no. 331, pp. 2-3. In addition, the authors include the first idea of a national reserved conceived by Muir, "a national park idea in miniature," no. 366, v. 2, p. 393, and Muir's experience of first finding Calypso borealis, no. 366, v. 1, pp. 120-121. Of interest are the color illustrations of Calypso borealis and Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern), the latter said to be Muir's favorite fern.