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and soothed to a spirit calm, but wondrous in works, broidering the blackness in silver light. I did not go anywhere, neither sat down, time passed, unnoted, I only knew that here was the most impressive experience of my life. Sometime during the night I lay down among some bushes at the foot of a tree, conscious only on the Lord’s terrestrial beauty. When I awoke all Nature was responding joyously to the sun. Some birds had discovered me as an intruder and were making a great ado in interesting language and gestures. I heard the screaming of bald eagles and of some strange waders in the rushes, also civilizationward, I heard the hum of Savannha and the long jarring halloas of negroes. On rising I found that I had been on a place measured and staked for a grave. The deep weariness of excitement made my sleep but little less profound than that of the buried ones around and beneath me. After watching for a few hours the beautiful life of the birds and squirrels and insects who with the woods and happy flowers inhabit this paradise, I turned again to Savannah to seek for money and bread. Hearing nothing from home I returned to the tombs and built a small brush tent to shelter me from the heavy drenching dew. Its roof was made of an armful of Tallandsia moss. My whole establishment was on so small a scale that I could have taken
Date Original
July 1867
Source
Original journal dimensions: 10 x 16.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel23Journal01P058-059.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
