Letter from [John Muir] to Louie [Muir], 1880 Aug 4.
[4]& reliable, confidence-begetting, & here just landed opposite our ship is a pile of hundreds of bears skins black & brown from Alaska brought here by the “Otter”. A few deer skins too & wildcat & wolverine. The Hudson Bay Co men are about them showing their ownership. Ten minu...
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| Language: | English |
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Scholarly Commons
1880
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| Online Access: | https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/10763 https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmcl/article/35696/type/native/viewcontent/fullsize.jpg |
| Summary: | [4]& reliable, confidence-begetting, & here just landed opposite our ship is a pile of hundreds of bears skins black & brown from Alaska brought here by the “Otter”. A few deer skins too & wildcat & wolverine. The Hudson Bay Co men are about them showing their ownership. Ten minutes to twelve oclock. “Let go that line there” etc tells that we are about to move. Our steamer swings slowly round & heads for [Nanaimo?]. How beautiful the shores are How glacial yet how leafy. The days becomes calmer & brighter & everybody seems happy. Our fellow passengers are Major Morris & wife, whom I met last year; Judge Deady. A young Englishmen & dreamy silent old gray man like a minister. 8 P.M. We are entering [Nanaimo?] harbor2many [O?] of my last winters rambles among the icebergs. The water is ruffled with a slight breeze, scarce enough for small white caps. clearer than the waters of most harbors, though not without the ordinary drift of old bottles straw & def[illegible] domestic animals. How rotten the piles of the wharf are & how they smell even in this cool climate. They are taking hundreds of barrels of molasses aboard for what purpose to delight the Alaska younglings with lasses bread & smear their happy chubby cheeks. Or to make cookies & gingerbread? [illegible], Whisky, Indian, whisky. It will be bought by Ind 9/10ths of it & more, they will give their hard-earned money for it & their hard-caught furs for it, & take it far away along many a glacial channel & inlet, & make it into crazing poison.[illegible] too many a ton are coming aboard to boil & fry & raise a watery cry. Alone on the wharf I see a lone https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/35696/thumbnail.jpg |
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