Letter from John Muir to [Joseph] Le Conte, 1872 Apr 27.

[letterhead:] Pen Sentinel Hotel, A. C. BLACK, Proprietor. Yo Semite Valley, _______________, 187is followed by flowers & grasses, & the deer that feed on them. In like manner in the glacial Springtime, the ice line moved steadily upward followed by Arctic plants as closely as climate &...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Muir, John
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Scholarly Commons 1872
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/12647
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmcl/article/37581/type/native/viewcontent/fullsize.jpg
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Summary:[letterhead:] Pen Sentinel Hotel, A. C. BLACK, Proprietor. Yo Semite Valley, _______________, 187is followed by flowers & grasses, & the deer that feed on them. In like manner in the glacial Springtime, the ice line moved steadily upward followed by Arctic plants as closely as climate & food would allow, just as deer follow the snow line, & furthermore as deer often times linger in small herds about favorite meadows & shelters while the main deer zone goes unhalting to the summits, so have small herds of Arctic plants lingered in sheltering bogs of grateful shade supplied by special climate conditions of small range But as plants of the sun year are not simultaneously diffused over all the mtns from foothills to summits, but are compelled to move upward in a bell between two fires of frost & glazing drouth, So these ascending arctic plant nations of cori[illegible], Kalmias, Ledums, Gentians, peat-mosses, dwarf willows etc, have been driven to their present position in a narrow zones between similar f[illegible] instead of being allowed simultaneous-universal empire. Between the [semitropical?] grasses & woody compositions of the foothills & the brown-spiked frostloving sedges that bloom at the foot of the glaciers, there is no unoccupied space, - not even a line of separation to mark off this complex flora into distinct chapters. The different floral zones are spliced & welded - they blend as do zones of color in https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/37581/thumbnail.jpg