Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[A. H.] Sellers
Transcription
Martinez June 24, 1898
My dear Sellers
I congratulate you on the happy journey onward of your good father the so called death - of a good man in ripe age is no more to be deplored than the bright sundown end of a good day Both an [alike?] natural & ordained by God's love.
You need not lament my failure to get the flowers of the magnifica Silver Fir that trip with you, for I at last found them in all their glory. After searching the woods above Donner Lake & in the Washoe Range I went to Shasta, wallowed up through the snow nearly to the timberline. found not a single female flower & only one tree with a few immature male ones. Then went up the Scott mountains with no better results. Went home & corresponded with the botanists I had engaged to collect [illegible] elsewhere, but hearing nothing promising from them & the time of close of bloom drawing nigh I went again to Truckee where I left you & thence up the Sierra to the rest of the
2
North end of Lake Tahoe hoping that thereabouts I would find them on some sheltered tree beneath overlapping limbs spared from the killing frost of last season. & [Lo?] like a bee with a good flower nose I went straight to the one fertile tree of the ten thousand, obtained a magnificent lot in prime condition, & five hours later had them on their way to Boston by express. Then I wrote to my correspondents to cease their search but ere my letters could have reached them they all sent word of their failure. So there you see Scotch love knowledge once more rewarded. I tried to drag Keith with me for fresh air & fresh color but of course the [unspared?] paint crank hadn't seen enough to go.
If nothing [untoward?] happens Ill be east in August or September. Will make a trip southward along the Allegheny with Sargent & Canby then if you are free we will make a trip in the midst of the Indian Summer color in the lake region
We thank you for the generous invitation including all the family though I dont see how Mrs M & the children could leave home for so long.
With thanks & best wishes
Ever Yours
John Muir
Location
Martinez [Calif.]
Date Original
1898 Jun 24
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to [A. H.] Sellers, 1898 Jun 24." (1898). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 2157.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2157
Resource Identifier
muir10_0223-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 10, Image 0223
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
Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Special Collections, University of Virginia 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
