Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
56
of all sorts of flesh & running the risks of guns & fires & poison should never attack men except in defense of their young. How easily & safely a bear could pick us up as we lie asleep. [erasures] Only wolves & tigers seem to have learned to hunt man for food, [& perhaps the large boa of land animals] & the sharks & crocodiles of the seas & rivers. [The] Mosquitoes & other insects would I suppose devour a helpless man in some part of the world, & so might leopards, hyenas, panthers at times if pressed by hunger, but under ordinary circumstances only the tiger among land animals can be said to be a man-eater unless we add man himself.
[Aug. 14th] Clouds as usual about .05. Another glorious Sierra day warm crisp fragrant & clear [A good good] many of the flowering plants have gone to seed, but many [a multitude of] others are unfolding their petals every day & the firs & pines are more fragrant [& balmy] than ever, their seeds are nearly ripe & will soon be flying in the merriest flocks that ever spread a wing. On the way back to our Tuolumne camp enjoyed the scenery [between Yosemite & the Tuolumne] if possible more than when
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it first came to view. Every feature already seems familiar as if I had lived here always. I never weary gazing at the wonderful Cathedral. It has more individual character than any other rock or mountain I ever saw excepting perhaps the Yosemite South or Half Dome. The forests too seem kindly familiar, & the lakes & meadows & [the] glad crystal streams, I should like to dwell with them forever here with bread & water I should be content a thousand times more. “Kings may be blest- but I would be glorious”. Even if I could not roam about but were to be tethered to a stake or tree in some meadow or grove, even then I would be content forever, bathed in such beauty, watching the [in glory the] stars [of heaven] which here have a glory that the lowlander never dreams of. Watching the marching of the seasons, how endless a pleasure this would be, listening to the songs of the waters & the winds. What glorious storms. What [glorious] cloudlands I would see, a new heavens & a new earth every day, aye & new inhabitants
Date Occurred
1869
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook 009 Img031.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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