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Kimes Entry Number
A2
Original Date
1-15-1879
Publication
The [Sacramento] Daily Record-Union
Page/Column
p. 3, col. 2
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "The Great Basin. Some Interesting Facts About It-Lecture by John Muir." (1879). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes (Muir articles 1866-1986). 615.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/615
![The Great Basin. Some Interesting Facts About It-Lecture by John Muir.](https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1614/thumbnail.jpg)
William and Maymie Kimes Annotation
Although he lectured almost two hours, Muir held the interest of his audience, illustrating his talk with diagrams and sketches on a blackboard. He described the great basin in detail, its rivers, lakes, mountains, deserts, flora, and fauna. Because the water of the basin was being used for irrigation, he thought "the capacity of Utah to support a given population had about been reached. . . . " Of the Mormons, he commented that he "never met a people so wrong-headed about religion and so right-headed about practical, especially agricultural, affairs." Concluding with the geological history of the basin, he emphasized his glacial theory and "the undeniable marks the glacier leaves behind it."