Letter from John Muir to [Charles Sprague] Sargent, 1899 Aug 18.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1880
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Low Inlet; Kodiak; Yakutat; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2428; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/3427/viewcontent/muir10_0899_let.pdf

Martinez. Aug. 18. 1899.My dear Prof. Sargent.I got home from the big north trip on the 3d but had to go to the Sierra Calaberas Big Tree Grove almost before I settled hearing that it was to be sold & made into [lumber?]. My Sperry I found who owns both the Calaberas & South Grove & the Sugar pine region about them had offered $100,000 for 2000 acres, but had refused the offer. So the trees there are safe as yet. & he promised to let me know before accepting any offer that would include the Sequoia Groves.The Harriman trip was a grand success the South & North ends of the Excursion in S.E. Alaska & Behring Sea I had seen under more favorable auspices before, but the Coast & inlets from Cross Sound to Yakutat Bay, Prince Williams Sound Cook Inlet & Kodiak Island, Shumagin Island. & the Alaska Peninsula to Unalaska I had not seen & though we stopped only a few days at a time here & there I picked up a good many bits of knowledge & enjoyed the trip in grand style. Here are a few 2tree notes that will be sure to interest you. At a landing we made on the N. end of Vancouver told we found Douglas Spruce in all its glory & of course the big Thuya, Western Hemlock, & Mountain Hemlock also A. Amabilis. At Low Inlet on Princess Royal told the Douglas was not to be found. but A. Amabilis was abundant & of course Sitka Spruce Western Hemlock & at the top of timberline Paton Hemlock. Or Mertensiana as you now call it. & red Cedar (Thuya) & Alaska Cedar etc. All the way along the coast to the limit of tree growth on the middle of Kodiak Isld & the mainland opposite on the Alaska Peninsula the forest is unbroken, consisting mostly of the indamitable P. Sitchensis & Western Hemlock, but the hemlock vanishes on the Alaska Penn. near the mouth of Cook Inlet leaving the Sika Spruce to do all the forest work to the westward. I was much interested in watching the west limit of the forest. Not a tree is seen to the west of the middle of Kodiak Isld, tho a ...