Creator
John Muir
Recipient
Dan[iel Muir Jr.]
Transcription
[1870] (1869?)
Tuolumne river - Two miles below La Grange, Sep 22th
Dear Doctor Dan
Your notes of June 25 & Aug 28 have just reached me For the last four months I have been away from post offices at the summit of the great Sierra Nevada mountains among the stored up treasures of everlasting [snow?] As to your proper fraternal feeling in regard to a more frequent interchange of [illegible] thoughts I would state that I will always be glad to scribble you some sort of a pow wow in response to any of yours be they of a [illegible] handle, medical, theological or scientific character As to that 60 dollars you may keep it untill you emerge a burning & a shining light from Ann Arbor "wise men & bones" Her Doctor are a few feelings & facts from my experiences which may be of use to you in your Esculapism researches. I was very hungry in Georgia having eaten only about one meal [15?] or so hours. My mind was unclouded, memory clear, appetite good, the forest trees seemed to be running round in a circle [illegible] & all of the streams by the roadside seemed to be running up hill. - One time this summer in the mountains we got out of flour, & all we had to eat was mutton & molasses candy. A staff of life composed of this material is to say the least Doctor
[in margin: Goodnight Dan the MD or DM. May you be very successful in counting rickety pulses & [illegible] old sores. Dr. Carr of Madison Wis. is now Prof in Cal State University. I saw Prof Butler last Aug in the Yo Semite Valley. [illegible] just read in letter from [illegible] telling that he has sailed for the [illegible] islands. I have enjoyed a month [illegible] among the glorious sublimities of God's mountains. May you live to enjoy the ["like?"] from your [illegible] bro John]
a very poor stick. But in speaking to a medical man I ought to be more particular & so I will quote direct from my diary "July2d, - [Tea?] & mutton! - to this little measure has shrunk all the timber of our staff of life. Crystal streams sing in all the mazes of these cool mountains & so our" water is [sure?]" but our bread I fear will not be given us for many a day. The tea we drink is very strong & makes us dizzy like whiskey & when poured in quarts & pints upon solid pounds of unmixed masticated mutton it causes a series of loud premonitory rumblings like those that preceded the great earthquake last year at San Francisco. The tea, Doctor, trys to go down among the mutton & the mutton tries to come up among the tea but if both are kept in place until one mountain is climbed all is safe "5th" Tea & mutton becoming [more?] & more combative & so we have been compelled to vary our diet to mutton & molasses candy - There seems to be a bread sheep in that grand centre of man the stomach which no other food of a civilized kind can s[illegible]py" "6th Feel weak, sick[illegible], & sour" - There is a cluster of conic splintered granite peak near the summit opposite "castle peak" & "Mount [illegible]" where the highest sources of the Tuolumne Merced & Joaquin rivers are small sparkling singing streams, One of these peaks is exactly like an old Cathedral & is called "cathedral peak". I rolled a loaf of bread in an pair of blankets & started to explore these mts'. I reached the top most spires of the grand old church about noon of the first day & sat down to rest & to eat & now Doctor here is a strange thing, I was seated on the brink of a [illegible] about 7000 ft in depth, & in eating when ever I looked up I was hungry, but hen I looked down I was full my stomach consented to take block after block of the bread which perisheth. While I kept looking at the sky like an old ashologer but the moment I looked down I felt that I was not "fit for the calf" I have had charge of 2500 sheep, & have enjoyed a most glorious piece of life among mountain flowers, mountain grandeur, [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] & grizzly bears. Bears as [illegible] [illegible] killed a good many of our sheep I have been engaged with botany geology & drawing. Have about 50 sketches, I mean to leave Cal in 3 months for some other portion of the Lords lovely creation, perhaps South America.
[in margin: Please send your half & the other half & give her my kindest wishes. My adress is Hopeton Mercer Co as before. I have a thousand things to tell you when we meet]
Location
Tuolumne River--Two miles below La Grange
Circa Date
[1869] Sep 24
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to Dan[iel Muir Jr.] , [1869?] Sep 24." (1869). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1310.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1310
Resource Identifier
muir02_0135-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0135
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
The Huntington Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Copyright Date
1984
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
