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12 out, You [ ] it as new, its head ab[sorbed] in crimson, lvs [leaves] gradually tapered thru the head, Pods of [hosackia], potentilla & the ferns even spores may be seen.
The novelty fresh & exciting as if new world. The sparks of my fire on tonight echoed clear & sharp quite near bye, producing a quite remarkable effect like the popping of muskets let off irregularly by practicing recruits.
The fragrance with wh [which] one is feasted in the woods is like the music, derived from a thousand untraceable sources [which we cannot trace]
In music there is bird, main wind tones, the frogs, flutter of lvs [leaves] like clapping of small hands, squirrels, waterfalls & rush & trill of rivers & small brooks but the whole air vibrates with myriad voices blended that we cannot analyze. So also we breath[e] fragrant [violets] the [rosiny] pine & [spicy] fir The rich invigorating aroma of plushy bogs in wh [which] a [thousand] herbs are soaked etc. but the air is laden with a multitude of scents
13 gathered from ocean wave tops [stolen] from pine forests gardens [&] [ ] making a combination so marvellously poised we scarce notice it on account of its excellence Yet it varies every moment this [vast] scent flood & not the same in two portions of current as when the central plain is in bloom or withered within the [lower] woods through wh [which] it wind sifts is putting out young lves [leaves] or [some] making balsam etc
Water also ever varies & is marvellously compounded miles of drip distilled from [fern] moss minerals No two streams alike I fancy I could discriminate between Merced water and all others. Merced water is one thing Tuolomne another Kings River another while town water deadened & [lost] is nothing not water at all.
Observe one walking the woods [attuned] to nature with all [foreign] influences [fairly] out of his [head] [how] sympathetically [ ]
Date Original
1875
Source
Original journal dimensions: 20 x 15 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel24Journal10P066-067.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
