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Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
37
ground glass.
When the first shocks occurred the sky was clear & the full moon shone brightly so that one could not only distinguish the outlines of the valley walls but also the trees almost as well as by day. The great pines near me manifested strange agitation in this rare sort of storm, no swaying or waving or swirling as in windstorms but quick jerks & tremors as shaken like small trees in an orchard when fruit gatherers are trying to shake off the fruit. Also at times the branches moved as if they had all been pressed [close] down against the trunk & then suddenly let go to spring up & vibrate until they came to rest again.
The frogs in the meadow pools singing lustily were stricken dumb for a time
But before half the echoes had [settled] died away a hollow-voiced owl began to hoot in philosophic tranquillity from the edge of the avalanche as if nothing extraordinary had disturbed him, though somewhat curious to know what it was all about. His hoot too hoot too whoo might have meant “What’s a’ the steer Kimmer”
After the ground began to calm I ran across
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the meadow to the river to see in what direction it was flowing, & was glad to find that down the valley was still down. Its waters were muddy from portions of its banks having given way but it was flowing around its curves & over its ripples & shallows with ordinary gestures & songs like a lake after a wind storm
However much its bed had been jarred & tilted it had evidently settled back to the old level [like the waters of a lake after a storm of wind] & the raw slips from the steep portions of the aluvial [alluvial] banks were the only visible changes left as records of what seemed so radically destructive
[The white columns of] The Upper Yosemite Fall was finely illumined by the moonlight. It seemed to know nothing of the earthquake, & manifested no change in form or voice, but sang the same grand old harmony as far as I could see or hear
The ground continued to tremble gently, & smooth hollow rumbling sounds came from deep in the mountains in a northerly direction. These sounds were not always distinguishable from the rounded bumping explosive tones coming from the foot of the upper falls.
A second [grand] severe shock occurred about
Date Occurred
1871-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook11 Img022.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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