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Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
52
fallen on his knees when he first beheld the golden gorse of England. But the golden Hemizonia I fancy is far more beautiful & far more abundant than the gorse.
Again, in the Sierra foothills there is a bush Composita [Compositae] perhaps Linosyris or Bigelowia that lets its light shine so that he who runs may read. All its flowers are on the outside. I doubt if the burning bush that Moses saw was more striking than this bush [of] burning [yellow] bright with golden flowers.
The reliability of the regular N.W. [northwest] wind makes it available as a guide to the traveler on these plains in the night. And their coolness in the summer evenings is a great blessing to the toilers [of summer]. The harvest hand leaves the field reeking & soaked with perspiration but is about as sure of a cooling from the clear unmuggy night wind as he is of his supper.
It appears therefore that all winds are not idle and that things changeable as the wind are not necessarily very changeable
So constant indeed are these California winds many of the windmills are built to face the NW [northwest] without any provision being made for turning to variations most of the trees, (oaks)
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growing on the coast ranges exposed to the wind lean heavily to the E & S.E. [east & southeast] Through most of the growing months the trade wind blows steadily from the west or N. W. [northwest] & thus the grand work of permanently swaying forests is accomplished
It is only when the weather is rainy & unsettled that winds are south easterly.
Havana. Gulf Winds
Last Feb. [February] 1868 a sailor rowed me to a prim staunch little schooner that lay at anchor in Havana harbor crammed & covered with oranges
Inquiring for the Captain I asked him when he would sail for New York. He replied tomorrow morning at daylight, if this Norther slackens a little. A heavy north wind had been blowing for several days wreathing Cubas [Cuba’s] Coral strand in snowy [dashing] foam showing no sign of abatement.
In the morning notwithstanding the wind was still boisterous our Dutch Captain resolved to face it confiding in the strength of his all-oak little vessel. Therefore making sail we [soon] sped past the Moro [Morro] Castle & like a seabird the little schooner was skimming the open [water of the] Gulf courtsying [curtsying] gracefully to
Date Occurred
1872-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel32 Notebook01 Img029.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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