Creator
[John Muir]
Recipient
[Jeanne C.] Carr
Transcription
1419 Taylor St May 4th 1875
Dear Mrs Carr -
Here I am safe in the arms of Daddy S[illegible]ett – home again from Icy Shasta & richer than ever in dead river gravel & in snow storms & snow. The upper end of the main Sacramento Valley is entirely covered with ancient river drift & I wandered over many square miles of it. In every peeblec I could hear the sounds of running water. The whole deposit is a poem whose many books & chapters form the geological Vedas of our glorious state I discovered a new species of hail on the summit of Shasta & experienced one of the most beautiful & most violent snow storms imaginable.
[Page 2]
I would have been with you ere this to tell you about it & to give you some lilies & pine tassels that I brought for you & Mrs McChesney & Ina Coolbrith but alack! I am battered & scarred like a log that has come down the Tuolumne in flood-time & I am also lame with frost nipping. Nothing serious however & I will be well & better than before in a few days. I was caught in a violent snow storm & held upon the summit of the mountain all night in my shirt sleeves. The intense cold, & the want of food & sleep made the fire of life smoulder & burn low. Nevertheless in company with another [deleted: tough] strong mountaineer I broke through six miles of frosty snow down into the timber & reached fire & food & sleep, & am better than ever with all the valuable experiences. Altogether I have had a very instructive & delightful trip.
[in margin: The bryanthus you wanted was snow buried & I was too lame to dig it out for you but I will probably be back ere long. Ill be over in a few days or so]
Location
[San Francisco]
Date Original
1875 May 4
Source
Original letter dimensions: 31 x 21.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from [John Muir] to [Jeanne C.] Carr, 1875 May 4." (1875). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 316.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/316
Resource Identifier
muir03_0302-md-1.pdf
File Identifier
Reel 03, Image 0301
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The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust.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, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
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
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
