Studies in the Sierra. No. VI. - Formation of Soils.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1874
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; The Old Man; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/86; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1085/viewcontent/982.pdf

eLj mo. }7tf K |3 D6 S3o 1 STUDIES IN THE SIERRA. [Dec S*/ V- it into the next sage, and gittin' over and down on my elbows agin, I crawled along the road after it. And so I worked on till sunrise; and at sunrise, I went to sleep, like a snake, in my own trail. I would have jined church for a drink, or half a drink, o' water; and I knowed' there was a big spring down in the middle o' the valley, about two miles away. But I knowed, jest as well, that I could never crawl there and back, over the brush; and that anyhow it would be mighty unhealthy for me around that spring, when the cattle came to water. "I was sleepin', or tryin' to sleep, when I thought I heard some one talk- in'. Not right off I didn't jump up; but with all the soonness I was boss of I. stood as nigh on one end as I could git, and listened. 'Bully for me! It's Injuns — Shoshonee squaws,' I said. Then I listened a little more, and hol lered : ' Hello-o ! Sequaw! Kim-ma! Me—one White-a-man—heap sick.' I listened agin — all silent. Jest as I was about to give a desperate howl, I heerd, 'Hoo-ee-ah!' I answered, 'Hoo-ee! Kim-ma!—me heap — h'-e-a-p sick.' Then I waited till the squaws—three of 'em—came trampin' through the brush, into the open road, each with a willow- work bottle o' water on her back. ' Water—me heap now ketch 'em—quick!' I said to the one in front, and reached out my hands, like you do for a baby. She swung the bottle down off her back, and helped to hold it for me, while I swallowed the best drink, and the biggest, that ever I tasted. " I got the squaws to go for the old man; and the old man came in a wagon for me. I laid in bed sixteen weeks, and came out with a pair o' crutches and the name o' Shacklefoot Sam." VVAv. I874-] STUDIES IN THE SIERRA. 531. During the long glacial winter, soil-material was poured from the range as from a fountain, borne outward by the mighty currents of the ice-sheet, to be deposit-j ed in its terminal moraines. The only one of these ancient ice-sheet moraines which has retained its principal ...