Title

July 1867 - February 1868, The "thousand mile walk" from Kentucky to Florida and Cuba Image 55

Creator

John Muir

Preview

Transcription

And all that the eyes can reach is just a maze of tree stems and crooked leafless vine strings; all the flowers, all the verdure, all the glory is up in the light. The streams of Florida are still young and in many places are untraceable. I expected to find their waters a little discolored from the vegetable matter that I knew they must contain, and I knew that in so flat a country I should not find any considerable falls or long rapids. The streams of upper Georgia are almost unapproachable from luxuriant bordering vines, but the banks are nevertheless high and well defined. Florida waters are not yet possessed of banks and braes and definite channels. Their waters in deep places are black as ink, perfectly opaque, and glossy on the surface as if varnished. It is often difficult to ascertain which way they are flowing, so slowly and so widely do they circulate through the dark tangles and swamps of the forests. The flowers here are strangers to me, but not more so than the streams and lakes. Most streams appear to travel through a country with thoughts and plans for something beyond, but these streams are at home, do not appear to be traveling at all, seem to know nothing of the sea. 47th. Found a small silvery leafed magnolia to-day - a bush ten feet in height. Passed through a good many miles of open level “pine barrens,” which are as bounteously lighted as the “openings” of Wisconsin. Pines, rather small in size, are

Date Original

July 1867

Source

Original journal dimensions: 10 x 16.5 cm.

Resource Identifier

MuirReel23Journal01P101-102.tif

Publisher

Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library

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