Creator

[John Muir]

Recipient

Louie [Muir]

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Transcription

[4]& reliable, confidence-begetting, & here just landed opposite our ship is a pile of hundreds of bears skins black & brown from Alaska brought here by the “Otter”. A few deer skins too & wildcat & wolverine. The Hudson Bay Co men are about them showing their ownership. Ten minutes to twelve oclock. “Let go that line there” etc tells that we are about to move. Our steamer swings slowly round & heads for [Nanaimo?]. How beautiful the shores are How glacial yet how leafy. The days becomes calmer & brighter & everybody seems happy. Our fellow passengers are Major Morris & wife, whom I met last year; Judge Deady. A young Englishmen & dreamy silent old gray man like a minister. 8 P.M. We are entering [Nanaimo?] harbor2many [O?] of my last winters rambles among the icebergs. The water is ruffled with a slight breeze, scarce enough for small white caps. clearer than the waters of most harbors, though not without the ordinary drift of old bottles straw & def[illegible] domestic animals. How rotten the piles of the wharf are & how they smell even in this cool climate. They are taking hundreds of barrels of molasses aboard for what purpose to delight the Alaska younglings with lasses bread & smear their happy chubby cheeks. Or to make cookies & gingerbread? [illegible], Whisky, Indian, whisky. It will be bought by Ind 9/10ths of it & more, they will give their hard-earned money for it & their hard-caught furs for it, & take it far away along many a glacial channel & inlet, & make it into crazing poison.[illegible] too many a ton are coming aboard to boil & fry & raise a watery cry. Alone on the wharf I see a lone

Location

On board the California

Date Original

1880 Aug 4

Source

Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25.5 cm.

Resource Identifier

muir04_0273-let.tif

File Identifier

Reel 04, Image 0273

Copyright Statement

The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html

Owning Institution

University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.

Copyright Holder

Muir-Hanna Trust

Copyright Date

1984

Page Number

Page 2

Keywords

John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle

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