Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
43
[he wanted flee for shelter & safety] many were going for safety & that in any case they would have to die & so grand a burial was not to be slighted. But they were too seriously alarmed to enjoy [such talk & fled] the [revelry]. One of them a store keeper gave me his keys & requested me to look after his store in case anything [happened] less than total chaos should occur, paying me the doubtful compliment of superior faith of foolhardiness. After remaining a few weeks at Bull Creek they returned but after being in the valley a day or two another sharp shock occurred that sent them fleeing again, this time to the San Joaquin plain to remain until the [matter of the permanency or destruction] fate of Yosemite should be definitely settled.
When at length the earthquake storm was [fully] wholly spent the result on the mountains was simply the fall of avalanches from weaker portions of the walls [of headlands] in [deep] canons [the damming up of a few streams,] formation of new rapids & lakes & pools by such dams & the destruction of trees and other plants in the paths of the falling stones. But beyond these superficial effects nothing was visible to me at first or years afterwards
44
not the faintest sign of change of any level in the mountains, nor of any fissure however slight after passing over [many] hundreds of miles of smooth clean pavements where any crack or flaw would be easily detected.
A long chasm was reported in Owens valley neat Lone Pine & Northward wh [which] I went to examine It [proved] seemed to be only a comparatively shallow crevasse in loose [dirt] soil [following] along the line separating the portion of the deposits of the valley resting on the bedrock where [the bedrock] it was within a few feet of the surface from [those] deeper deposits in an old lake bed, which settled a little by the shaking just as grain in a measure would settle in shaking, thus resulting in a crack of no great depth & soon obliterated. There must however have been a faulting drop or displacement somewhere to account for such sounds & mountain-shaking jars
Nature in this earthquake seemed to be shaking herself with much the same kind of motion that a horse or dog does [makes use of] after swimming or rolling in dust [or water.]
The crystals forming the rocks must have been influenced in no small degree, possibly essential to their health, & growth. Page 55 see
Nothing in Nature is ever absolutely still [for a single moment]. Everything is dancing & flowing.
Date Occurred
1871-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook11 Img025.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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