Letter from John Muir to [Robert Underwood] Johnson, 1891 Aug 15.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1891
• Subjects: Sphinx; Underwood; glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/101; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=muir-correspondence

San FranciscoAug. 15. 1891My Dear Mr JohnsonI sent the Kings article about 10000 words by registered mail half an hour ago (3 P.M.) & have just corrected names heights distances directions etc of the last of illustrations which I will forward with this. Robinsons elevations were nearly all greatly over estimated & none of them measured. I mad careful measurements during four visits to the valley with two good [illegible] still I do not claim exactness as that is impossible by such means. Therefore I say about so high. As to the names I am not at all satisfied with some of my own, but think most of them [illegible] better than Robinsons. Think of White Woman for a rock a mile high & two broad. No Whiter than any other mass of gray granite in the Valley. Robinson says it looks like a- 2woman when turned on edge or upside down. As to Grant Monument it is only 2000 ft instead of 3000 & is not striking enough for Grant. North Tower I think is better, anyhow it would hardly do to have two monuments so near each other. What Rob – calls Mt Hutchings is a slender point or crest rising from the general mass of the wall [& not?] a mtn. The top is remarkably sphinx-like but too small to be seen in a picture. If you care to change any of the names or prefer any of Robinsons make any changes you may think best but in such case be careful to change the M S also. I fear you will find the article terribly dry & geographical – lean scrawny etc but I assure you I have worked hard to cover the ground & keep each part in proper subordination. Some of the 3guide-bookish stuff about Mt Whitney & Mt Tyndall might well have been spared, but Mountains so important had to receive some sort of mention & I had no space for anything like description. One way & another throughout the paper I have tried to show the Valley & the forest below it & the great mass of High Sierra above it & if it has no flavor of the region I will be disappointed. As to delay I am sure you will pardon me when you recal the changes that have come over our home. I had my mountain shoes ready last October for the Kings trip to refresh my memory make measurements etc. when Dr Strentzel left us. The Alaska papers I shall work on now. The map especially the 4Kings River portion is very incorrect hope it will not much matter Even the geological survey map is very faulty. The map of the Valley I sent you is the only one that at all approximates correctness as far as I know. I am afraid Mr Robinson has been talking too much about our scheme & even publishing My mother wrote me a month ago that she had been reading what she called an article on Kings R written by R. I have not seen it. The illustration of the floor of Vall & [your?] view of walls from Manzanite Orchard I think very fine. Also of Glacier Monument (White Woman) I think you should give a picture of the [illegible] Dome from the floor. I sent you a sketch –Every cordially yours John Muir