Preview
Circa Date
1887
Transcription
109
Read [their] growth from minute scale-like seed glinting [glimmering] in fall like logs [kite] from sprouts to giants in lordly poise.
“Thy sire saw the light that shone
On Mohammed’s uplifted crescent,
On many a royal gilded throne
And deed forgotten in the present.
He saw the age of sacred trees
And Druid groves & mystic larches
And saw from forest domes like these
The builder bring his Gothic arches.”
□ The Seq [sequoia] in a serious looking trio but not as serious as the juniper instead of standing silent & immovable with only its light outer spray.
“Towering to the dimensions of a cathedral Spire”
(sensitive) like the tentacles of [a] barnacle, sensitive & full of motion the seq [sequoia] waves & sings gloriously in the great winds & leads all the great forest [choir]
No other tree has seen so much. No other so full of other days. [Score of] centuries of sunshine in it. Some still standing older than the pyramids.
[omit] [Set] on in Washington & thenceforth there would be no lack of [care] for them on the part of lawmakers. Pluck even a plum from one of the, & lay it on a mantle [how] cheap it makes every other ornament look. Once I carried a course sedge the whole plant plucked up by the roots into a house & the graceful beauty of its archery channeled lvs [leaves] & drooping seed cones & [ ] spikes clustered charmed every eye. How few see beauty where it abounds. A field of Ind [Indian] corn a meadow of grass the grasses are not seen simply [because] so many, but pluck one & take into a house & all see it
110
& so one of our Sequoias in a town however thickly bristled with towers& spires wld [would] draw every eye in wandering worshipful admiration some still standing older than the pyramids.
Talus
Takes long to clothe them. Then at first they lie hot with friction & thumping grinding grunting [settling] dusty chips filling hollows at top. Gain [winged/hinged] plants gradually [leaf] [mould] at bottom of larger hollows trees like flrs [flowers] in pots. Then tall trees pines doug [douglas] sp [spruce/species] libs & Live oak.
(Bears)
Are now (autumn) fat & strong & walk along their winding trails thro the woods & brushy bowlder-choked canons with firm strides their limbs suggesting the strength of oaks fat & ready to “hole up: as warmly clad loose fitting skin soon as the deep snow falls.
(Squirrels)
Spendthrifts of energy harvesting the pine crops, all the forest trees fruit trees for [him] His life as evergreen epic. The little whiskered king of the woods. So gifted brilliant tireless flashing creature showing no more sign of weariness than the trees or the wind. Nature is kind to him
Resource Identifier
MuirReel33 Notebook01 Img057.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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