| Summary: | Muir accompanied Presbyterian missionaries on a chartered steamer to visit the Chilcat Indian country; however, mechanical difficulty forced their slow, early return. When deck hands went ashore for fresh water, Muir seized the opportunity to pursue his study of the plants and trees. After exploring the forest, Muir writes: "" . as the twilight began to fall I sat down on the mossy instep of a spruce. Not a bush or a tree was moving, every leaf seemed hushed in brooding repose. One bird, a thrush, sang, lancing the silence with his cheery notes . How strange seem these untamed woods. Nevertheless, they are found necessarily and eternally familiar. Go where we will, all over the world, we seem to have been there before.""
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