Exploration in the Great Tuolumne Canon.

Authors

John Muir

Files

Kimes Entry Number

022

Original Date

8-1-1873

William and Maymie Kimes Annotation

""Both flanks of the Sierra have been sculptured by the direct physical actions of the glaciers .... "" In Muir�s investigation of the glacial formation of the Tuolumne and Merced River Canyons, he explains his ""method of study"" saying, ""I drifted about from rock to rock, from stream to stream, from grove to grove. Where night found me, there I camped .... I asked the bowlders I met, whence they came and whither they were going.� He relates his challenging exploration of the Tuolumne Canyon, describing the dangers he met and the rewards he reaped. It is in this essay that he reflects, ""The last days of this glacial winter are not yet past, so young is our world. I used to envy the father of our race dwelling as he did in contact with the new-made fields and plants of Eden; but I do so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in 'creation's dawn. After his strenuous climbing, he comments: ""No healthy man who delivers himself into the hands of Nature can possibly doubt the doubleness of his life .... The life of a mountaineer is favorable to the development of soul-life as well as limb-life, each receiving abundance of exercise and abundance of food.""

Publication

The Overland Monthly, v. 11, no. 2

Page/Column

pp. 139-147

See also Kimes Entry Number

See also: no. 21A; no. 22A; no. 182, pp. 663-667; no. 365; no. 379, pp. 68-79; no. 477

Recommended Citation

Muir, John, "Exploration in the Great Tuolumne Canon." (1873). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes (Muir articles 1866-1986). 79.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/79