The John Muir Newsletter, Summer 1999
NEW Reconstructing John Muir's First Public Lecture, Sacramento, 1876 by Steve Pauly, Pleasant Hill, California (Editor's Note: This is the third section of Steve Mauley's article which began with the Winter issue.) rock about two miles west of Lake Tenaya has a train of boulders deri...
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Scholarly Commons
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| Summary: | NEW Reconstructing John Muir's First Public Lecture, Sacramento, 1876 by Steve Pauly, Pleasant Hill, California (Editor's Note: This is the third section of Steve Mauley's article which began with the Winter issue.) rock about two miles west of Lake Tenaya has a train of boulders derived from it. The boulders are scattered along a level ridge, where they have not ben disturbed in any appreciable degree since they came to rest toward the close of a glacial period. An examination of the rock proves conclusively that not only were they - rnany of which are twelve feet in diameter - derived from it, but that they were torn off its side by the direct mechanical action of the glacier that swept over and past it. For had they simply fallen upon the surface of the glacier from above, then the rock would present a crumbling, ruinous condition - which it does not - and a talus of similar blocks would have accumulated at its base after there was no glacier to remove them as they fell; but no such talus exists, the rock remaining compact, as if it had scarcely felt the touch of a single storm. Yet, what countless seasons of weathering, combined with earthquake violence, Ibuld not accomplish, was done by the Tenaya Glacier, as it swept past on its way to Yosemite. . The far-famed El Capitan rock presents a sheer cleaved front, over three thousand feet high, and is scarcely less impressive than the great dome. We have collected jine specimens of this clearly defined rock form from all lie principal Yosemites of the region. Nevertheless, it also las been considered exceptional. Their origin is easily explained. They are simply split ends of ridges which have :iee« broken through by glaciers. For their perfect develop- ilent the granite must be strong, and have some of its vertical cleavage planes well developed, nearly to the exclusion of all the others, especially of those belonging to the diagonal and horizontal series. A powerful trunk glacier Must sweep past in front nearly in the direction of its cutting planes, with small glaciers, tributary to the first, one on each side of the ridge out of which the Capitan is to be made. Current Glaciers of California Looking. .across the San Joaquin Valley, after the atmosphere has been washed with winter rains, the Sierra is beheld stretching along the plain in simple grandeur, like some immense wall, two and a half miles high, and colored almost as bright as a rainbow, in horizontal bands - the lowest rose purple, the next higher dark purple, the next blue, and the topmost pearly white - all beautifully inter- blended, and varying in tone with the time of day and the advance of the seasons. The rose purple band, rising out of the yellow plain, is the foot-hill region, sparsely planted with oak and pine*, the color in great measure depending upon argillaceous soils exposed in extensive openings among the trees; the dark purple is the region of the yellow and sugar pines; the blue is the cool middle region of the silver-firs; and the pearly band of summits is the Sierra Alps, composed of a vast wilderness of peaks, variously grouped, and segregated by stupendous canons and swept with torrents and avalanches. Here are the homes of all the glaciers left alive in the Sierra Nevada. During the last five years I have discovered no less than sixty-five in that portion of the range embraced between latitudes 36°30' and 39°. They occur scattered throughout this vast region singly or in small groups, on the north sides of the loftiest peaks, sheltered beneath broad, frosty shadows. Over two-thirds of the entire number are contained between latitudes 37° and 38°, and from the highest fountains of the San Joaquin, Tuolumne, and Owens rivers. William Keith has painted the subject of the Headwaters of the Merced. .Lofty alps laden with ice and snow; massive rocks rounded and burnished by ancient glaciers; deep shadowy canons, groves, meadows, streams, have been steadily growing and blending, and are now making rapid progress toward perfect development in one glorious picture. The foreground lies at an elevation of 7,500 feet above the level of the sea, and is composed chiefly of one of those immense dams of glacier polished (continued on page 3 ) UNIVERSITY OR page 1 R /K C I R I C News & Notes HISTORIC DEMONSTRATION IN YOSEMITE January 17, a great group of concerned Yosemite lovers joined together to talk, laugh, cry, chant and march along the El Portal Road. Members of the Sierra Club, Friends of Yosemite Valley, International Rivers Network, MERG (Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth), Yosemite Area Audubon and the Green Party of California, joined by renowned environmentalist, David Brower, spoke out against the El Portal Road widening which is destroying the north bank of the Merced Wild and Scenic River Canyon. In a forceful speech, Brower called the project, "vandalism." He presented an open letter to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt asking him to stop tearing the canyon apart and stop this destruction. Another speaker at the rally read from the Park Service's own document about the road which stated, "The purpose of park roads remains in sharp contrast to that of the federal and state highway systems. Park roads are not intended to provide fast and convenient transportation." Widening and speeding up a road does not make it safer. SIERRA CLUB LAWSUIT CHALLENGES CONSTRUCTION IN YOSEMITE WILD AND SCENIC RIVER CANYON The Sierra Club filed suit February 19, 1999, in Federal District Court to stop a National Park Service/ Federal Highway Administration project which is severely damaging the Merced River Canyon in Yosemite National Park. It argues that the massive construction project, to widen 7*/2 miles of the El Portal Road, is reconfiguring and destroying Canyon slopes which run above and below the road and down to the River. MUIR EXHIBITION FOR EDINBURGH FESTIVAL July 31-October 2, 1999 During the Edinburgh International Festival, from July 31 to October 2, 1999, a major exhibition on the life of John Muir - entitled 'An Infinite Storm of Beauty' - will be held. Further details on the exhibit will be printed here as they become available. Book Review Sacred Summits: John Muir's Greatest Climbs Introduced and edited by Graham White Edinburgh: Cannongate Books, Ltd., 1999, $13.95 Reviewed by Richard F. Fleck, Dean, Community College of Denver Graham White has edited a fine Scottish edition of Muir's mountaineering essays along with appreciative essays on Muir as mountaineer by Arthur W. Ewart, Francis P. Farquhar, Ken Crocket, Samuel Hall Young and Aubrey L. Haines. This edition serves the needs of readers in the British Isles since my own edition of Muir's Mountaineering Essays was not readily available on the other side of the Atlantic. In his introduction, White explains that "it is equally clear that in the boldness of all Muir's solitary ascents, it was not the mountain which was conquered, but the limitations of the self which were transcended." White expresses grave concern about the trashing of mountains by countless hordes of people in the late twentieth century whose sole purpose is to "bag another peak." He admonishes us with a forceful statement: "If we are to sustain the world's fragile mountain environments through another century of recreation and tourism development, the challenge is for the climbing, and hill-walking commu- (continued on page 5) NEWSLETTER Volume 9, Number 3 Summer 1999 Published quarterly by The John Muir Center for Regional Studies University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 ♦ Staff ♦ Editor Sally M. Miller Production Assistants . . Marilyn Norton, Pearl Piper All photographic reproductions are courtesy of the John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. page 2 John Muir's First Public Lecture, by Steve Pauley (continued.) granite so often found stretching across the high Sierra canons. Its surface is planted with picturesque brown- barked junipers, mats and fringes of chaparral, and minute garden-like patches of the various flowers characteristic of the region. The middle and backgrounds are the main upper Merced Canon, and a cluster of snowy alps, flushed and inspired with pure mountain light. From its lofty fountains the young Merced is seen foaming down between its grandly sculptured canon rocks, curving gracefully through meadow and grove, and finally entering a dark narrow gorge leading on down to Yosemite Valley. The painted rocks are so truly rocky, we would expect to hear them clank and ring to the blows of a hammer; and notwithstanding they are so full of plain truth in form, sculpture, and combination, as to be fit for scientific illustrations, the whole picture glows with the very genius and poetry of the Sierra. I believe the canvas [of the epic version of this scene] is said to be ten feet long; but paint, pictures, art, and artist are alike forgotten when we gaze into this glorious landscape. There are living alps, blue shadows on the snow; rocks, meadows, groves, and the crystal river, radiating beauty that absorbs and carries us away. Keith is patiently following the leadings of his own genius, painting better than he knows, observing a devout truthfulness to nature, yet removing veils of detail, and laying bare the very hearts and souls of the landscapes; and the truth of this is attested more and more fully by every picture that he paints. The Mt. McClure Glacier is about one-half of a mile in length, and the same in width at the broadest place. It is crevassed on the southeast corner. The crevasse runs about southwest and northeast, and is several hundred yards in length. It is nowhere more than one foot in width. The Mt. Lyell Glacier, separated from that of McClure by a narrow crest, is about a mile in width by a mile in length. The Whitney Glacier, discovered by Clarence King, is situated on the north side of Mount Shasta, and descends to 9,500 feet above the sea, which is the lowest point reached by any glacier within the limits of California. Mount Shasta, however, is an isolated volcanic cone, and cannot in any sense be regarded as a portion of the Sierra. Mount Whitney, situated near the southern extremity of the Sierra, although the highest mountain in the range (nearly 15,000 feet), does not give birth to a single glacier. Small patches of perpetual snow and ice occur on its northern slopes, but they are shallow, and give no evidence of glacial motion. Its sides, however, are still brilliantly polished by vanished glaciers that once descended into the main trunk glacier of Kern Valley on the west and to the Owens River on the east. Mount Ritter, about 13,300 feet in height, still nourishes five glaciers, which, though small, are exceedingly well characterized, and differ in no particular from those of Switzerland, excepting in degree. The finest of the five is on the north side, and flows at first in a northerly direction, then curves toward the west, and descends into a small blue glacier lake, whose banks around more than half its circumference are buried beneath perpetual snow. The outcropping edges of "the blue veins" are presented on the lower portion of this glacier, sweeping across the snout in fine concentric curves, scarcely marred by the rocky debris with which the glacier is laden. This beautiful glacier forms one of the highest sources of the North Fork of the San Joaquin. Another of the Ritter glaciers, situated on the northeastern slopes of the mountain, is drained by a branch of Rush Creek, which flows into Mono Lake on the east side of the range. Each of the sixty-five Sierra glaciers that I have observed is a survival of the best fed and most favorably situated. The Sierra granite is admirably fitted for the reception and preservation of glacial records, and from these it is plain that the Sierra ice once covered the whole range continuously as one sheet, which gradually broke up into individual glaciers arranged with reference to shadows. These last were very numerous; several thousand existed on the western flank alone, differing in no way from those that still linger in the highest and coolest fountains. All the glaciers of California occur upon the north sides of mountains, and flow northward; or if they flow in an easterly or westerly direction, they are contained between protecting ridges trending in the same direction. Furthermore, because the main axis of the Sierra extends in a north-northwesterly direction, the east side of the range is longer in shadow, and the greater number of the glaciers that occur along the immediate axis are on the east side. The transformation of snow into glacier ice varies as to place and rapidity with the climate and with the form of the basin in which the fountain snow is collected, in the Sierra there is no definite snow-line, and therefore no fields of fountain snow extending to determinate elevations above the glaciers for the true glacier ice gradually to merge into. The change, therefore, of snow to flowing ice is more abrupt in the Sierra Nevada than in the Alps or in any mountain range possessed of perpetual snow not dependent upon shadows. The whole number of active glaciers in the Alps is, according to the Schlagintweit brothers, 1,100, of which one hundred may be regarded as primary. The total surface of snow, neve, and ice is estimated at 1,177 square miles, or an average area of about one square mile per glacier. Some of the Sierra glaciers are as large; as, for example, the Lyell, North Ritter, and several that are nameless on the head of the South and Middle forks of the San Joaquin. Ancient Glaciers of California We can easily understand that an ice-sheet hundreds or thousands of feet in thickness, slipping heavily down the flanks of a mountain chain will wear its surface unequally, according to the varying hardness and compactness of its rocks; but these are not the only elements productive of inequalities. Glaciers do not only wear and grind rocks by slipping over them, as a tool wears the stone upon which it is whetted; they also crush and break, page 3 John Muir's First Public Lecture, by Steve Pauley (continued.) carrying away vast quantities of rock, not only in the form of mud and sand, but of splinters and blocks, from a few inches to forty or fifty feet in diameter. That these residual glaciers are wearing the rocks on which they flow is shown by the fact that all the streams rushing out from beneath them are turbid with finely ground rock mud. The all present solid ice snouts creeping out from beneath their fountain snows, and all are carrying down stones that have fallen upon them to be at length deposited in moraines. I have been ploddingly making observations about the [Yosemite] Valley and the high mountain region to the east of it, drifting broodingly about and taking in every natural lesson that I was fitted to absorb/In particular the great Valley has always kept a place in my mind. How did the Lord make it? What tools did He use? How did He apply them and when? I considered the sky above it and all of its opening canons and studied the forces that came in by every door that I saw standing open, but I could get no light. Then I said, "You are attempting what is not possible for you to accomplish. Yosemite is the end of a grand chapter. If you would learn to read it go commence at the beginning." Then I went above to the alphabet valleys of the summits, comparing canon with canon with all their varieties of rock structure and cleavage, and the comparative size and slope of the glaciers and waters which they contained. Also the grand congregation of rock creations were present to me, and I studied their forms and sculpture. I soon had a key to every Yosemite rock and perpendicular and sloping wall. I described each glacier with its tributaries separately, then described the rocks and hills and mountains over which they have flowed or past which they have flowed, endeavoring to prove that all of the various forms which those rocks now have is the necessary result of the ice action in connection with their structure and cleavage, etc. - also the different kinds of canons and lake basins and meadows which they have made. Then, armed with these data, I came down to Yosemite, where all of my ice has come, and proved that each dome and brow and wall, and every grace and spire and brother is the necessary result of the delicately balanced blows of well directed and combined glaciers against the parent rocks which contained them, only thinly carved and moulded in some instances by the subsequent action of water. The grandeur of these forces and their glorious results overpower me, and inhabit my whole being. Waking or sleeping I have no rest. In dreams I read blurred sheets of glacial writing or follow lines of cleavage or struggle with the difficulties of some extraordinary rock form. I went alone, my outfit consisting of a pair of blankets and a quantity of bread and coffee. There is a weird charm in carrying out such a free and pathless plan as I had projected; passing through untrodden forests, from canon to canon, from mountain to mountain; constantly coming upon new beauties and new truths. . .As I drifted over the dome-paved basin of Yosemite Creek. .sunset-found me only three miles back from the brow of El Capitan, near the head of a round smooth gap - the deepest groove in the El Capitan ridge. Here I lay down and thought of the time when the groove in which I rested was being ground away at the bottom of a vast icesheet that flowed over all the Sierra like a slow wind. .My huge camp fire glowed like a sun. . .A happy brook sang confidingly, and by its side I made my bed of rich, spicy boughs, elastic and warm. Upon so luxurious a couch, in such a forest, and by such a fire and brook, sleep is gentle and pure. Wildwood sleep is always refreshing; and to those who receive the mountains into their souls, as well as into their sight - living with them clean and free - sleep is a beautiful death, from which we arise every dawn into a new-created world, to begin a new life in a new body. Five immense glaciers from five to fifteen hundred feet in depth poured their icy floods into Yosemite, uniting to form one huge trunk, moved down through the valley with irresistible and never-ceasing energy, crushing and breaking up its strongest rocks, and scattering them in moraines far and near. Many, while admitting the possibility of ice having been the great agent in the production of Yosemite valley, conjecture that earthquake fissures, or cracks from cooling or upheaval of the earth's crust, were required to enable the glaciers to make a beginning and to guide them in the work. We have already seen that cleavage planes and joints exist in a latent or developed condition in all the granite of the region, and that these exert immense influence on its glacial erodibility. During five years' observation in the Sierra, I have failed to discover a single fissure of any kind, although extensive areas of clean-swept glacial pavements afford ample opportunity for their detection, did they exist. L Deep slots, with regular walls, appearing as if sawed, or mortised, frequently occur. These are formed by the disintegration of soft seams a few inches or feet in thickness, contained between walls of stronger granite. # Such is the character of the so-called fissure said to exist in a hard portion of the south wall of Yosemite, opposite the Three Brothers, so frequently quoted in speculations upon the valley's origin. . Yosemite, the noblest of Sierra temples, has been regarded as "an exceptional creation," or rather exceptional destruction accomplished by vio-lent and mysterious forces. The argument advanced to support this view is substantially as follows: It is too wide for a water-eroded valley, too irregular for a fissure valley, and too angular and local for a primary valley originating in a fold of the mountain surface during the process of upheaval; therefore, a portion of the mountain bottom must have suddenly fallen out, letting the super-incumbent domes and peaks fall rumbling into the abyss, like coal into the bunker of a ship. This violent hypothesis, which furnishes a kind of Tophet for the reception of bad mountains, commends itself to the favor of many, by seeming to account for the remarkable sheerness and angularity of the walls, and by its marvelous- ness and obscurity, calling for no investigation, but rather discouraging it. Because we cannot observe the bed-rock to ascertain whether or not it is fractured, this engulfment hypotheses seems to rest safely under cover of darkness, yet a film of lake gravel and a meadow blanket are its only concealments, and, by comparison with exposed sections in other Yosemites where the sheer walls unite with the solid, page 4 unfissured bot-tom, even these are in effect removed. It becomes mani-fest, by a slight attention to facts, that the hypothetical subsidence must have been limited to the valley proper, because both at the head and foot we find the solid bed-rock. The breaking down of only one small portion of the mountain floor, leaving all adjacent to it undisturbed, would necessarily give rise to a very strongly marked line of demarcation, but no such line appears. If, in accordance with the hypotheses, Yosemite is the only valley furnished with an abyss for the reception of debris, then we might expect to find all abyssless- valleys choked up with the great quantity assumed to have fallen; but, on the contrary, we find their debris in the same condition as in Yosemite and not more abundant. Where the granite of Yosemite walls is intersected with feldspathic veins, as in the lowest of the Three Brothers and rocks near Cathedral Spires, large masses arc loosened, from time to time, by the action of the atmosphere, and hurled to the bottom with such violence as to shake the whole valley; but the aggregate quantity which has been thus weathered off, so far from being sufficient to fill any great abyss, forms but a small part of the debris slopes actually found on the surface, all the larger angular taluses having been formed simultaneously by severe earthquake shocks that occurred three or four hundred years ago, as shown by their forms and the trees growing upon them. The attentive observer will perceive that wherever a large talus occurs, the wall immediately above it presents a scarred and shattered surface whose area is always proportional to the size of the talus, but where there is no talus the wall is invariably moutonnee or striated, showing that it is young and has suffered little change since it came to light at the close of the glacial period. As to the important question, What part may water have played in the formation of Sierra valleys? We observe that, as far as Yosemite is concerned, the five large streams which flow through it are universally engaged in the work of filling it up. The granite of the region under consideration is but slightly susceptible of water denudation. Many, while admitting the possibility of ice having been the great agent in the production of Yosemite valleys, conjecture that earthquake fissures, or cracks from cooling or upheaval of the earth's crust, were required to enable the glaciers to make a beginning and to guide them in the work. We have already shown that cleavage planes and joints exist in a latent or developed condition in all the granite of the region, and that these exert immense influence on its glacial erodibility. During five years' observation in the Sierra, I have failed to discover a single fissure of any kind, although extensive areas of clean-swept glacial pavements afford ample opportunity for their detection, did they exist. Nature is not so poor as to possess only one of anything, nor throughout her varied realms has she ever been known to offer an exceptional creation, whether of mountain or valley. When, therefore, we explore the adjacent Sierra, we are not astonished to find that there are many Yosemite valleys identical in general characters, each pre senting on a varying scale the same species of mural precipices, level meadows, and lofty waterfalls. [Professor J.D.] Whitney says the bottom has fallen out of the rocks here - which I most devoutly disbelieve. [I repeat my opening comment that] the Master Builder chose for a tool, not the earthquake nor lightning to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent nor eroding rain, but the tender snowflowers, noiselessly falling through unnumbered seasons, the offspring of the sun and sea. In order to give the reader definite conceptions of the magnitude and aspect of these ancient ice-rivers, I will briefly outline those which were most concerned in the formation of Yosemite Valley and its canons branches. We have seen that Yosemite received the simultaneous thrust of the Yosemite Creek, Hoffmann, Tenaya, South Lyell, and Illilouette glaciers. These welded themselves together into one huge trunk, which swept down through the valley, receiving small affluents in its course from Pohono, Sentinel, and Indian canons, and those on both sides of El Capitan Rock. At this period most of the upper portions of the walls of the valley were bare; but during its earliest history, the wide mouths of these several glaciers formed an almost uninterrupted covering of ice. All the ancient glaciers of the Sierra fluctuated in depth and width, and in degree of individuality, down to the latest glacial days. It must, therefore, be distinctly borne in mind that the following sketches of these upper Merced glaciers relate only to their separate condition, and to that phase of their separate condition which they presented toward the close of the period when Yosemite and its branches were works nearly accomplished. (to be continued. . . ) Sacred Summits: John Muir's Greatest Climbs Reviewed by Richard F. Fleck ( c o n t. from page 2 ) nity to emulate John Muir's example by adopting a far deeper ecological ethos." Other essayists contribute to this notion of emulation. Arthur Ewart states "No other climber was better at finding the harmony and perfection in the mountains, blending with the rocks, and revering them as teachers of God's design." Ewart goes on to say that "Muir was swept into a dynamic interplay of physical environment and personal revelation, and he began to identify closely with the mountains and all their features." Ken Crocket's essay on climbing Cathedral Peak is interesting from the perspective of having a fellow mountaineer's impression of Muir's ascent one hundred years earlier. Samuel Hall Young's account of his being rescued on Glenora Peak by Muir, and Aubrey L. Haine's account of the Muir expedition up Mount Rainier serve as nice companion pieces to Muir's own essays on Glenora Peak and Mount Rainier. Though the essays by Ewart, Farquhar, and Crocket are somewhat duplicative, overall Graham White's new collection makes for an interesting read. page 5 •/ Book Reviews (Editor's note — The John Muir Newsletter is pleased to continue its recently inaugurated series of book reviews of older books on John Muir and/or the environment.) The Wilderness World of John Muir, edited by Edwin Way Teale. Boston: Houghton Miffin Company, 1954. Reviewed by Millie Stanley, Pardeeville, Wisconsin Scientist and explorer Edwin Way Teale admired the life and work of John Muir. He had a thorough knowledge of Muir's works and walked many a mile in his footsteps. He also talked to people who had known him. Like Muir, he kept journals of his field observations. In 1943, he received the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writings. In The Wilderness World of John Muir Teale selected excerpts from Muir's ten major books, arranging them chronologically in seven sections with background information preceding each passage. The striking black and white illustrations were done by Henry B. Kane. The book's 332 pages give a fine overview of the naturalist's lifetime adventures - the essence of the man and his career. I liked the fact that Teale used Muir's own words without paraphrasing, for no one can tell his story better than Muir himself. Readers share mileposts in Muir's life - his joy in nature; his burning desire to learn; his inventiveness; his meticulous scientific mind at work; the excitement of his discoveries; and especially his adventures on the trail. Teale began with the familiar classic The Story of My Boyhood and Youth where Muir recounted his early adventures in Dunbar, Scotland, on the North Sea where he was born and the family's migration to America in 1849. He described his formative years on two Wisconsin farms, his education, and leaving "the Wisconsin University for the University of the Wilderness." After sojourns in Canada and Indianapolis, he embarked on his one-thousand-mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico. Eventually, in March 1868, he landed at the San Francisco wharf and struck out for the Sierras. Through quotations we accompany Muir on wilderness journeys that are highlights of his career. As he first views Yosemite Valley we stand with him on the cliff above "when the far-famed valley came into view. . .the noble walls - sculptured into endless variety of domes and gables, spires and battlements and plain mural precipices - all a-tremble with the thunder tones of the falling water." We hike the mountains with him in his search for living glaciers which "are flowing like water" and where rills. . .are carrying the mountains to the plains." We understand that glaciers "are the roots of all the life of the valleys." As we travel with him we begin to understand the ecology of the region, although that term does not come into use until later years. We find that in his scientific quest Muir often stays upon the mountain till darkness falls in order to finish an observation or a measurement. He is often in personal danger as he scrambles down the mountainside to return to camp. The last section, "The Philosophy of John Muir," consists of "random thoughts," as Teale put it, "a philosophy distilled from his wilderness world, a philosophy of sanity and health." The passages are just that - miscellaneous quotations reflecting Muir's ideas inherent in all his writings. I think the author could have better connected the passages he used to clarify his own interpretation of Muir's philosophy. Fifty years ago Teale had a love for nature, but the intervening years have brought us a broader understanding of nature's interrelationships. This volume will certainly whet the reader's appetite to probe the literature more deeply, especially for one who is just beginning to pursue the life and legacy of John Muir. The Yosemite by John Muir (New York, D. Appleton Century, 1935; originally published by the Century Co., 1912) Reviewed by Lawrence C. Merriam, Jr., Professor Emeritus, College of Forestry, University of Minnesota. Resident of Yosemite Valley, 1937-41. " In The Yosemite, Muir presents a description in beautiful prose of key elements of Yosemite Valley. "No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite -" (p. 8). Features of the National Park, the geologic story and sites the visitor might best spend time in the Park are outlined. Muir subtly leads the reader to Hetch Hetchy Valley, on the Tuolumne River and the struggle to prevent the building of a dam by the city of San Francisco that would fill Hetch Hetchy Valley. He describes the western approach to the Valley, the forests above it, the first view of Bridal Veil Fall, Cathedral Rocks, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, and the beauty of the meadows of the Valley through which flows the Merced River. He describes the upstream view of the great expanse of Half (South) Dome with Glacier Point to the right and North Dome, Royal Arches, Washington Column to the left. At the end of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome divides the Merced and Tenaya Canyons. Above this is the great expanse of the Sierra Peaks (Range of Light). Each of the many falls is described by Muir in detail with vignettes of his experience exploring the ice cone of Yosemite Falls. A chapter on winter storms and spring floods is most interesting, particularly with the recent flood of 1997 still in the public mind. Muir accounts for the 1871 flood with page 6 Book Reviews (continued) descriptions that bring to my mind the flood of December 11, 1937, when my family and I made a hurried exit from our home near the Junction of Yosemite Creek and the Merced River. Snow storms and earthquakes https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1057/thumbnail.jpg |
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