Letter from John Muir to [A. H., Fay, Emma and Frank Sellers], 1893 Jun 24.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1893
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Hudson; Walden; Ice Sheet; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/947; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/1946/viewcontent/muir07_1157_md_1.pdf

New YorkJune 241893.Dear friends, I'm off today on the Etruria for Liverpool. Keith went nearly three weeks ago. He is in a fussy hurry & I dont know whether I can catch him in the European wilderness or not as I am not at all familiar with the canons there. I had no intention of staying here so long, but I couldn't help it. The Century people took possession of me & made me go to dinners, clubs, famous people, places & things without number rhyme or reason. Strange to say many of the people seem to know me well - though until now I have hidden in the deepest shadows of the wilderness. I have had a good time every [way?] have been treated in royal style, & have even gained some new glacial 2gospel. Have been up the Hudson & was delighted to find fresh traces of ice-action everywhere along that historic river. It is flowing in a glacial trough & every line in its landscapes is a glacial line scarce at all modified as yet by the post glacial agents. The very first day in New York - I found all the rocks in Central park were scared by the ancient ice sheet, & in every way as glacial in form as any in Alaska. Went to Boston, Concord, Manchester Cambridge Brookline etc etc etc. Dined with Emerson's son & family in Concord. They seemed to regard me as a long lost son. Met a college mate of Thoreau. Went to Walden pond, visited Emersons & Thoreaus graves & laid flowers on them. Col. Higginson took us to the mansions of Lowell & Longfellow. unchanged as yet. Had a good time with Prof. Sargent 3at Brooklin. But ah has it not been hot & choky here the last few days, not honest California heat or even Chicago's I felt smoothered & stupefied as the following will show in good dog day doggerel. O for a lodge in some vast frigeration Some boundless contiguity or frost Some boreal prarie Icy Airy Where sultry heat from old Manhattan's shore Might never reach me more. O to escape this torred tedium Gathering Thorean's cypripedium Once more a blessed crank & tramp On ...