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20th Rest, washing, preparing for flight to lowlands & hundred [details], life’s chores.
Water ousel reported from all the streams visited by the various parties into wh [which] the outing is div [divided] but fewer than when I travd [travelled/traversed] these streams 30 or 20 yrs ago
Naturalists have made sad havoc in the rank of these dear lovable birds so gentle confiding & easily found. Perhaps other [ ] of wh [which] I know nothing. [Some, game] heavy hunter burying the streams, or disease tho [though] seemingly as free from disease as snowflakes.
At the campfire this was lady’s night and a merry night they made of it in every conceivable mood glad mad sad amid the incense cedars & pines wh [which] might well have groaned aghast at some of the wild black orgies, & witch dances & chants. While others suggested [forms] of [Ardin] & fine things as well as Macbeth & Alloway Kirk witches. All these wild boisterous things were in some degree natural, not some salt of [saneness]. Other things like Nat Hist [Natural History] class were simply irreverent & silly.
Somewhat cldy [cloudy], a few thunder claps & v. [very] light rain sprinkle
The light on the cliffs here is a constant delight, especially as displayed on the great outspread mtn [mountain] mass forming the E. wall of this Funston camp |o|[between] 2 side canons [canyons], 2 ms [miles] wide fine in its lines drawn by snow [avas?] [avalanches]. Many of them, & all subordinate & harmonious & “Oh spread thy guardian wings around
[Sketch: symmetrical mountain peak]
21st Another sauntery dawdly day of squirmy loitering ease preparatory to flight to lowland homes & office dens The beauties of this Yo [Yosemite] camp grow clearer more telling every day. The morning & evening light on leaf & rock The flrs [flowers] & trees on the tangled floor among 2 [lnd] pines & towers of Yel [yellow] pines [enlivened] with the crooked cottonwoods, snow-crusted when young, tall & stately in old age, with wonderfully carved bark unlike any other. The sounds the ceaseless ah-ing roar of the river most awfully solemn & fateful at night with its peaceful undertones of a thousand small voices making the deepest silence of Nature. The cheery birds nesting, the Doug. [sup] Tamias, lizards, butterflies ants & other flying creeping happy people – juncos, thrushes, Lousiana tanager, Bullock, Oriole Robin, wood-peckers fly catchers etc.
Cones tell of squirrels & bears, lilies ab [abundant], a few Gentians, Frasera St. Johns wort, lupines dogwood willow etc. ferns. But few see aught beside what they are directed to look at, a mtn [mountain] lake mead [meadow] etc. Some walked thro [through] a Sequoia grove without looking at it They were told to follow the trail to Fish Creek & saw nothing by the way – had only dim memory of seeing some brown trees
Date Original
1907
Source
Original journal dimensions: 10.5 x 17 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel30Journal04P16-17.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
