Letter from John Muir to Louie [Muir], 1899 Jul 3.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1899
• Subjects: John Muir; correspondence; letters; author; writing; naturalist; California; correspondent; mail; message; post; exchange of letters; missive; notes; epistle; Indian; Ribes; Seal Islands; Dwarf birch
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/2300; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmcl/article/27233/type/native/viewcontent/fullsize.jpg

2the spruce as far as I have seen all the rest of the ground is embossed with plushy grass & ferns (4 kinds) & heathwarts (Cassiope, Vaccimums, Empetrum, Kalmia, rhododendron, Loisleuria etc), primula, geranium rose Tofieldia dwarf willows, dwarf birch, Alder, daisy, fritillaria cypripedium a magnificent purple orchis blue bell, sedums, saxifrages, potentilla, [gemm?], buttercups, rubus, ribes, anemome, etc etc etc scare a square inch of surface up to a height of 1500 or 2000 feet above the sea is bare It is all one rich furred carpet or bossy plushy mantle embroidered with purple & golden flowers. The rhododendron is purple, only a few inches high, large flowers It is just coming into bloom & the extensive beds must make glorious shows when it is in prime a week or two later. The spruce ends about the middle of the island & thence Westward 1500 miles there are no forest trees of any sort. but endless wealth of grass ferns & flowers. Tomorrow or next day we will return to pick up the parties we left on the peninsula & island & thence we mean to go to Unalaska stopping at several islands by the way, Thence to the seal islands, Thence to Indian Point on the Siberian Coast & St Mathews Island in Behring Sea thence home perhaps.02598 https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/27233/thumbnail.jpg