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Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
41
The trembling & shuddering of the trees was [was] strange enough but on reflection the movements of the mountains themselves were the most astounding phenomenon The huge [solid] granite domes & battlements types of permanence wavered & trembled like masses of jelly, & slowly settled back to rest with fainter & fainter pulsations like water on a table that has been jolted.
About a dozen shocks a day occurred for [two or] nearly three months after the first main [beginning] shocks, [usually] most of them preceded by [heavy] deep rumbling muffled thunder sounds [in the direction] from [which the shocks came viz], the N. E. [northeast].
I kept a bucket of water on my table & with this as a seismometer I could detect very slight shocks of various kinds [& many varying circumstances]
The shocks came at any time of day or night & in any kind of weather calm clear or cloudy.
About 2 months later while up the valley near Lamons [Lamon’s] winter cabin standing on a [log] fallen tree I heard a very distinct bubbling thunder & so also did a large intelligent St Bernard dog that was standing on the log beside me [heard it also] & seemed greatly astonished. The sound came from the direction of Tenaya Canon & Carlo looked in that dir [direction]
42
attentively with mouth open & a low wouf [woof], as if saying what’s that [in all the world is that strange] sound. He must have known it was not thunder though like it. The air was perfectly still not the faintest breath of wind perceptible & a fine mellow sunny hush pervaded everything [until] in [its] the midst of wh [which] came that subteranean [subterranean] thunder
Then while we gazed [in the direction of it] came the corresponding shocks, distinct as if some mighty hand had shaken the ground as a farmer shakes an apple tree. Which after the first sharp horizontal jars died away were [was] followed by a gentle rocking & undulating of the ground so distinct that Carlo looked at the log he was standing on to see who was shaking it. It was the season of flooded meadows & the pools about me calm as sheets of glass [at once] were suddenly thrown into low ruffling waves [without ruffling or blurring their transparency].
Two of the men living in valley fled in terror after the first shocks fearing engulfment I rallied them on their fears assuring them the granite walls were very strong, the very best & solidest masonry in the world & not more likely to collapse & sink than the lowlands to wh [which]
Date Occurred
1871-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook11 Img024.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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