Creator
[John Muir]
Recipient
[Jeanne C. Carr]
Transcription
[A]
Pen Sentinel Hotel
A. C. BLACK, Proprietor. [Apr 2-8, 1871] Yo Semite Valley, -------------187
Sunday night I was up in the [moon?] among the lumined spray of the upper Falls, The lunar bows were glorious & the music godful as ever. You will yet mingle amid the forms & voices of this peerless fall. #28 I wanted to have you spend two or three nights up there in full moon & planned a small hut for you, but since the boisterous waving of the rocks the danger seems forbidding at least for you. We can go up there in the afternoon. Spend an hour or two & return. I had a grand ramble in the deep snow outside the valley & discovered one
[B]
beautiful truth concerning snow structure, & three concerning the forms of forest trees. These earthquakes have made me immensely rich I had long been aware of the life & gentle tenderness of the rocks & instead of walking upon them as unfeeling surfaces began to regard them as a transparent sky now they hove spoken with audible voice (&) pulsed with common motion - This very instant just as my pen reached (&) on the third line above, my cabin creaked with a sharp shock & the oil waved in my lamp We had several shocks last night. I would like to go somewhere on the west South American coast to study Earthquakes. I think I could invent some experimental
00531
I had a grand ramble in the deep snow outside the valley and discovered one beautiful truth concerning snow structure and three concerning the forma of forest trees.
These earthquakes have made me immensely rich. I had long been aware of the life and gentle tenderness of the rock and instead of walking upon them as unfeeling surfaces began to regard them as a transparent sky now they have spoken with audible voice (and) pulsed with common motion. This very instant just as my pen reached and on the third line above, my cabin creaked with a sharp shook and the oil waved in my lamp.
We had several shocks last night. I would like to go somewhere on the west South American coast to study earthquakes. I think I could inventsome experimental apparatus whereby their complicated phenomena could be separated end read but I have some years of ice on hand. Tis most enobling to find and feel that we are constructed with reference to these noble storms so as
[apr 1872?]
Letter 28.
2.
to draw unspeakable enjoyment from them. Are we not rich when our six foot column of substance sponges up heaven above and earth beneath into its pores. Aye we have chambers in us the right shape for earthquakes. Churches and the schools lisp limpingly painfully of mans capabilities, possibilities and fussy developing nostrums of duties, but if the human flocfk together with their Revs’ and double LD shepardswould go wild themselves they would discover without Euclid that the solid contents of a human sould is the whole world.
Our streams are fast obtaining their highest power. Warm nights and days are making the high Mtn. snow into snow avalanches and snow falls. Violets blue, white and yellow abound. Butterflies through the meadows and mirror shallows reveal new heavens and new earths everywhere.
Remember me to the Doctor and all the boys and to McChesney and the brotherhood.
Cordially,
J. Muir.
Location
[Yosemite]
Circa Date
[1871 Apr 3-8]
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x12.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from [John Muir] to [Jeanne C. Carr], [1871 Apr 3-8]." (1871). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1369.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1369
Resource Identifier
muir02_0415-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0415
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
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific 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
4 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
