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Occasionally a good countenance may be seen among the Mono Indians, but
these, the first specimens I had seen, were mostly ugly, and some of
them altogether hideous. The dirt on their faces was fairly stratified,
and seemed so ancient and so undisturbed it might almost possess a
geological significance. The older face... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Here for the first time I met the arctic daisies in all their
perfection of purity and spirituality,—gentle mountaineers face to face
with the stormy sky, kept safe and warm by a thousand miracles. I
leaped lightly from rock to rock, glorying in the eternal freshness and
sufficiency of Nature, and in the ineffable ten... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Like the rye-field, I found the so-called desert of Mono blooming in a
high state of natural cultivation with the wild rose, cherry, aster,
and the delicate abronia; also innumerable gilias, phloxes, poppies,
and bush-compositae. I observed their gestures and the various
expressions of their corollas, inquiring how th... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Though the eastern flank of the range is excessively steep, we find
lakes pretty regularly distributed throughout even the most precipitous
portions. They are mostly found in the upper branches of the cañons,
and in the glacial amphitheaters around the peaks.
Occasionally long, narrow specimens occur upon the steep si... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Lake Tahoe, 22 miles long by about 10 wide, and from 500 to over 1600
feet in depth, is the largest of all the Sierra lakes. It lies just
beyond the northern limit of the higher portion of the range between
the main axis and a spur that puts out on the east side from near the
head of the Carson River. Its forested sho... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: LAKE TENAYA, ONE OF THE YOSEMITE FOUNTAINS.]
The Merced River, as a whole, is remarkably like an elm-tree, and it
requires but little effort on the part of the imagination to picture it
standing upright, with all its lakes hanging upon its spreading
branches, the topmost eighty miles in height. Now add ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
So the young lake grows in beauty, becoming more and more humanly
lovable from century to century. Groves of aspen spring up, and hardy
pines, and the Hemlock Spruce, until it is richly overshadowed and
embowered. But while its shores are being enriched, the soil-beds creep
out with incessant growth, contracting its a... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The comparative influence of great and small streams as lake-fillers is
strikingly illustrated in Yosemite Valley, through which the Merced
flows. The bottom of the valley is now composed of level meadow-lands
and dry, sloping soil-beds planted with oak and pine, but it was once a
lake stretching from wall to wall and... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF A LAKE.]
A few small lakes unfortunately situated are extinguished suddenly by a
single swoop of an avalanche, carrying down immense numbers of trees,
together with the soil they were growing upon. Others are obliterated
by land-slips, earthquake taluses, etc., but these lake-deaths compare... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
I must now make haste to give some nearer views of representative
specimens lying at different elevations on the main lake-belt,
confining myself to descriptions of the features most characteristic of
each.
SHADOW LAKE
This is a fine specimen of the oldest and lowest of the existing lakes.
It lies about eight miles ab... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: SHADOW LAKE (MERCED LAKE), YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK.]
Every lover of fine wildness would delight to saunter on a summer day
through the flowery groves now occupying the filled-up portion of the
basin. The curving shore is clearly traced by a ribbon of white sand
upon which the ripples play; then comes a b... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The sunnier north wall is more varied in sculpture, but the general
tone is the same. A few headlands, flat-topped and soil-covered,
support clumps of cedar and pine; and up-curving tangles of chinquapin
and live-oak, growing on rough earthquake taluses, girdle their bases.
Small streams come cascading down between th... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
During these blessed color-days no cloud darkens the sky, the winds are
gentle, and the landscape rests, hushed everywhere, and indescribably
impressive. A few ducks are usually seen sailing on the lake,
apparently more for pleasure than anything else, and the ouzels at the
head of the rapids sing always; while robins... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
ORANGE LAKE
Besides these larger cañon lakes, fed by the main cañon streams, there
are many smaller ones lying aloft on the top of rock benches, entirely
independent of the general drainage channels, and of course drawing
their supplies from a very limited area. Notwithstanding they are
mostly small and shallow, owing... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
LAKE STARR KING
A beautiful variety of the bench-top lakes occurs just where the great
lateral moraines of the main glaciers have been shoved forward in
outswelling concentric rings by small residual tributary glaciers.
Instead of being encompassed by a narrow ring of trees like Orange
Lake, these lie embosomed in den... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Moreover, from causes that we cannot stop here to explain, the cliffs
about these middle-aged lakes are seldom of the massive Yosemite type,
but are more broken, and less sheer, and they usually stand back,
leaving the shores comparatively free; while the few precipitous rocks
that do come forward and plunge directly ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
As far as I have been able to find out, these upper lakes are
snow-buried in winter to a depth of about thirty-five or forty feet,
and those most exposed to avalanches, to a depth of even a hundred feet
or more. These last are, of course, nearly lost to the landscape. Some
remain buried for years, when the snowfall is... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The most influential of the grasses composing the sod is a delicate
calamagrostis with fine filiform leaves, and loose, airy panicles that
seem to float above the flowery lawn like a purple mist. But, write as
I may, I cannot give anything like an adequate idea of the exquisite
beauty of these mountain carpets as they... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Imagine yourself at the Tuolumne Soda Springs on the bank of the river,
a day’s journey above Yosemite Valley. You set off northward through a
forest that stretches away indefinitely before you, seemingly unbroken
by openings of any kind. As soon as you are fairly into the woods, the
gray mountain-peaks, with their sn... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Go where you may, you everywhere find the lawn divinely beautiful, as
if Nature had fingered and adjusted every plant this very day. The
floating grass panicles are scarcely felt in brushing through their
midst, so flue are they, and none of the flowers have tall or rigid
stalks. In the brightest places you find three... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The influences of pure nature seem to be so little known as yet, that
it is generally supposed that complete pleasure of this kind,
permeating one’s very flesh and bones, unfits the student for
scientific pursuits in which cool judgment and observation are
required. But the effect is just the opposite. Instead of prod... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Thus come and go the bright sun-days of autumn, not a cloud in the sky,
week after week until near December. Then comes a sudden change. Clouds
of a peculiar aspect with a slow, crawling gait gather and grow in the
azure, throwing out satiny fringes, and becoming gradually darker until
every lake-like rift and opening... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
This is a perfect meadow, and under favorable circumstances exists
without manifesting any marked changes for centuries. Nevertheless,
soon or late it must inevitably grow old and vanish. During the calm
Indian summer, scarce a sand-grain moves around its banks, but in
flood-times and storm-times, soil is washed forwa... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
In those glacier meadows that take the places of shallow lakes which
have been fed by feeble streams, glacier mud and fine vegetable humus
enter largely into the composition of the soil; and on account of the
shallowness of this soil, and the seamless, water-tight, undrained
condition of the rock-basins, they are usua... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
In rare instances we find an alpine basin the bottom of which is a
perfect meadow, and the sides nearly all the way round, rising in
gentle curves, are covered with moraine soil, which, being saturated
with melting snow from encircling fountains, gives rise to an almost
continuous girdle of down-curving meadow vegetat... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The distribution of the general forest in belts is readily perceived.
These, as we have seen, extend in regular order from one extremity of
the range to the other; and however dense and somber they may appear in
general views, neither on the rocky heights nor down in the leafiest
hollows will you find anything to remi... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Crossing the treeless plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin from the
west and reaching the Sierra foot-hills, you enter the lower fringe of
the forest, composed of small oaks and pines, growing so far apart that
not one twentieth of the surface of the ground is in shade at clear
noonday. After advancing fifteen or ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: VIEW IN THE MAIN PINE BELT OF THE SIERRA FOREST.]
It appears, therefore, that the Sierra forests in general indicate the
extent and positions of the ancient moraines as well as they do lines
of climate. For forests, properly speaking, cannot exist without soil;
and, since the moraines have been deposite... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: THE NUT PINE (_Pinus Sabiniana_)]
The generous crop of nutritious nuts which the Nut Pine yields makes it
a favorite with Indians, bears, and squirrels. The cones are most
beautiful, measuring from five to eight inches in length, and not much
less in thickness, rich chocolate-brown in color, and protect... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
No other conifer in the range is so closely restricted to special
localities. It is usually found apart, standing deep in chaparral on
sunny hill-and cañon-sides where there is but little depth of soil,
and, where found at all, it is quite plentiful; but the ordinary
traveler, following carriage-roads and trails, may ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
SUGAR PINE
(_Pinus Lambertiana_)
This is the noblest pine yet discovered, surpassing all others not
merely in size but also in kingly beauty and majesty.
It towers sublimely from every ridge and cañon of the range, at an
elevation of from three to seven thousand feet above the sea, attaining
most perfect development a... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
_October_ 26, 1826. Weather dull. Cold and cloudy. When my friends in
England are made acquainted with my travels I fear they will think I
have told them nothing but my miseries…. I quitted my camp early in the
morning to survey the neighboring country, leaving my guide to take
charge of the horses until my return in ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
This grand pine discovered under such, exciting circumstances Douglas
named in honor of his friend Dr. Lambert of London.
The trunk is a smooth, round, delicately tapered shaft, mostly without
limbs, and colored rich purplish-brown, usually enlivened with tufts of
yellow lichen. At the top of this magnificent bole, l... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: SUGAR PINE ON EXPOSED RIDGE.]
The sugar, from which the common name is derived, is to my taste the
best of sweets—better than maple sugar. It exudes from the heart-wood,
where wounds have been made, either by forest fires, or the ax, in the
shape of irregular, crisp, candy-like kernels, which are crowde... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
No other pine seems to me so unfamiliar and self-contained. In
approaching it, we feel as if in the presence of a superior being, and
begin to walk with a light step, holding our breath. Then, perchance,
while we gaze awe-stricken, along comes a merry squirrel, chattering
and laughing, to break the spell, running up t... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
On the most sunny slopes the white-flowered fragrant chamoebatia is
spread like a carpet, brightened during early summer with the crimson
Sarcodes, the wild rose, and innumerable violets and gilias. Not even
in the shadiest nooks will you find any rank, untidy weeds or
unwholesome darkness. On the north sides of ridge... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Where there is plenty of free sunshine and other conditions are
favorable, it presents a striking contrast in form to the Sugar Pine,
being a symmetrical spire, formed of a straight round trunk, clad with
innumerable branches that are divided over and over again. About one
half of the trunk is commonly branchless, but... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: SILVER PINE 210 FEET HIGH. (THE FORM GROWING IN
YOSEMITE VALLEY.)]
I have oftentimes feasted on the beauty of these noble trees when they
were towering in all their winter grandeur, laden with snow—one mass of
bloom; in summer, too, when the brown, staminate clusters hang thick
among the shimmering need... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
DOUGLAS SPRUCE
(_Pseudotsuga Douglasii_)
This tree is the king of the spruces, as the Sugar Pine is king of
pines. It is by far the most majestic spruce I ever beheld in any
forest, and one of the largest and longest lived of the giants that
flourish throughout the main pine belt, often attaining a height of
nearly 20... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
INCENSE CEDAR
(_Libocedrus decurrens_)
The Incense Cedar is another of the giants quite generally distributed
throughout this portion of the forest, without exclusively occupying
any considerable area, or even making extensive groves. It ascends to
about 5000 feet on the warmer hillsides, and reaches the climate most
... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
WHITE SILVER FIR
(_Abies concolor_)
[Illustration: FOREST OF GRAND SILVER FIRS. TWO SEQUOIAS IN THE
FOREGROUND ON THE LEFT.]
We come now to the most regularly planted of all the main forest belts,
composed almost exclusively of two noble firs—_A. concolor_ and _A.
magnifica_. It extends with no marked interruption for... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Happy the man with the freedom and the love to climb one of these
superb trees in full flower and fruit. How admirable the forest-work of
Nature is then seen to be, as one makes his way up through the midst of
the broad, fronded branches, all arranged in exquisite order around the
trunk, like the whorled leaves of lil... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The fir woods are delightful sauntering-grounds at any time of year,
but most so in autumn. Then the noble trees are hushed in the hazy
light, and drip with balsam; the cones are ripe, and the seeds, with
their ample purple wings, mottle the air like flocks of butterflies;
while deer feeding in the flowery openings be... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
A dry spot a little way back from the margin of a Silver Fir lily
garden makes a glorious campground, especially where the slope is
toward the east and opens a view of the distant peaks along the summit
of the range. The tall lilies are brought forward in all their glory by
the light of your blazing camp-fire, relieve... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: SEQUOIA GIGANTEA—VIEW IN GENERAL GRANT NATIONAL PARK.]
But though the area occupied by the species increases so much from
north to south there is no marked increase in the size of the trees. A
height of 275 feet and a diameter near the ground of about 20 feet is
perhaps about the average size of full-g... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
So exquisitely harmonious and finely balanced are even the very
mightiest of these monarchs of the woods in all their proportions and
circumstances there never is anything overgrown or monstrous-looking
about them. On coming in sight of them for the first time, you are
likely to say, “Oh, see what beautiful, noble-loo... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The foliage of the saplings is dark bluish-green in color, while the
older trees ripen to a warm brownish-yellow tint like Libocedrus. The
bark is rich cinnamon-brown, purplish in young trees and in shady
portions of the old, while the ground is covered with brown leaves and
burs forming color-masses of extraordinary ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The Douglas squirrel is the happy harvester of most of the Sequoia
cones. Out of every hundred perhaps ninety fall to his share, and
unless cut off by his ivory sickle they shake out their seeds and
remain on the tree for many years. Watching the squirrels at their
harvest work in the Indian summer is one of the most ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
It is generally believed that this grand Sequoia was once far more
widely distributed over the Sierra; but after long and careful study I
have come to the conclusion that it never was, at least since the close
of the glacial period, because a diligent search along the margins of
the groves, and in the gaps between, fa... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
But admitting that upon those areas supposed to have been once covered
with Sequoia every tree may have fallen, and every trunk may have been
burned or buried, leaving not a remnant, many of the ditches made by
the fall of the ponderous trunks, and the bowls made by their upturning
roots, would remain patent for thous... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
In every instance like the above I have observed that the seedling
Sequoia is capable of growing on both drier and wetter soil than its
rivals, but requires more sunshine than they; the latter fact being
clearly shown wherever a Sugar Pine or fir is growing in close contact
with a Sequoia of about equal age and size, ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
When attention is called to the method of Sequoia stream-making, it
will be apprehended at once. The roots of this immense tree fill the
ground, forming a thick sponge that absorbs and holds back the rains
and melting snows, only allowing them to ooze and flow gently. Indeed,
every fallen leaf and rootlet, as well as ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The decrease in the rain- and snow-fall since the close of the glacial
period in the Sierra is much less than is commonly guessed. The highest
post-glacial watermarks are well preserved in all the upper river
channels, and they are not greatly higher than the spring floodmarks of
the present; showing conclusively that... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Finally, pursuing my investigations across the basins of the Kaweah and
Tule, I discovered that the Sequoia belt attained its greatest
development just where, owing to the topographical peculiarities of the
region, the ground had been most perfectly protected from the main
ice-rivers that continued to pour past from t... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
But however much uncertainty may attach to this branch of the question,
there are no obscuring shadows upon the grand general relationship we
have pointed out between the present distribution of Sequoia and the
ancient glaciers of the Sierra. And when we bear in mind that all the
present forests of the Sierra are youn... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
In the course of my explorations I found no fewer than five mills
located on or near the lower edge of the Sequoia belt, all of which
were cutting considerable quantities of Big Tree lumber. Most of the
Fresno group are doomed to feed the mills recently erected near them,
and a company of lumbermen are now cutting the... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
This species forms the bulk of the alpine forests, extending along the
range, above the fir zone, up to a height of from 8000 to 9500 feet
above the sea, growing in beautiful order upon moraines that are
scarcely changed as yet by post-glacial weathering. Compared with the
giants of the lower zones, this is a small tr... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The Two-leaved Pine, more than any other, is subject to destruction by
fire. The thin bark is streaked and sprinkled with resin, as though it
had been showered down upon it like rain, so that even the green trees
catch fire readily, and during strong winds whole forests are
destroyed, the flames leaping from tree to t... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Down in sheltered lake hollows, on beds of rich alluvium, it varies so
far from the common form as frequently to be taken for a distinct
species. Here it grows in dense sods, like grasses, from forty to
eighty feet high, bending all together to the breeze and whirling in
eddying gusts more lithely than any other tree ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
JUNIPER, OR RED CEDAR
(_Juniperus occidentalis_)
[Illustration: JUNIPER, OR RED CEDAR.]
The Juniper is preëminently a rock tree, occupying the baldest domes
and pavements, where there is scarcely a handful of soil, at a height
of from 7000 to 9500 feet. In such situations the trunk is frequently
over eight feet in dia... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: STORM-BEATEN JUNIPERS.]
On level rocks it dies standing, and wastes insensibly out of existence
like granite, the wind exerting about as little control over it alive
or dead as it does over a glacier boulder. Some are undoubtedly over
2000 years old. All the trees of the alpine woods suffer, more or les... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: STORM-BEATEN HEMLOCK SPRUCE, FORTY FEET HIGH.]
The staminate cones of all the coniferae are beautiful, growing in
bright clusters, yellow, and rose, and crimson. Those of the Hemlock
Spruce are the most beautiful of all, forming little conelets of blue
flowers, each on a slender stem.
Under all conditio... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Thus warmly wrapped they await the summer resurrection. The snow
becomes soft in the sunshine, and freezes at night, making the mass
hard and compact, like ice, so that during the months of April and May
you can ride a horse over the prostrate groves without catching sight
of a single leaf. At length the down-pouring ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: GROUP OF ERECT DWARF PINES.]
Pines are commonly regarded as sky-loving trees that must necessarily
aspire or die. This species forms a marked exception, creeping lowly,
in compliance with the most rigorous demands of climate, yet enduring
bravely to a more advanced age than many of its lofty relatives i... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
WHITE PINE
(_Pinus flexilis_)
This species is widely distributed throughout the Rocky Mountains, and
over all the higher of the many ranges of the Great Basin, between the
Wahsatch Mountains and the Sierra, where it is known as White Pine. In
the Sierra it is sparsely scattered along the eastern flank, from
Bloody Cañ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: OAK GROWING AMONG YELLOW PINES.]
The largest specimen I measured was a little over five feet in diameter
and ninety feet in height, but this is more than twice the ordinary
size.
This species is common throughout the Rocky Mountains and most of the
short ranges of the Great Basin, where it is called the... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
NUT PINE
(_Pinus monophylla_)
The Nut Pine covers or rather dots the eastern flank of the Sierra, to
which it is mostly restricted, in grayish, bush-like patches, from the
margin of the sage-plains to an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet.
A more contentedly fruitful and unaspiring conifer could not be
conceived. All... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The value of this species to Nevada is not easily overestimated. It
furnishes charcoal and timber for the mines, and, with the juniper,
supplies the ranches with fuel and rough fencing. In fruitful seasons
the nut crop is perhaps greater than the California wheat crop, which
exerts so much influence throughout the foo... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Of other trees growing on the Sierra, but forming a very small part of
the general forest, we may briefly notice the following:
_Chamoecyparis Lawsoniana_ is a magnificent tree in the coast ranges,
but small in the Sierra. It is found only well to the northward along
the banks of cool streams on the upper Sacramento t... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: PATE VALLEY, SHOWING THE OAKS. TUOLUMNE CAÑON, YOSEMITE
NATIONAL PARK.]
Besides the common Douglas Oak and the grand _Quercus Wislizeni_ of the
foot-hills, and several small ones that make dense growths of
chaparral, there are two mountain-oaks that grow with the pines up to
an elevation of about 5000 f... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
CHAPTER IX
THE DOUGLAS SQUIRREL
(_Sciurus Douglasii_)
The Douglas Squirrel is by far the most interesting and influential of
the California sciuridae, surpassing every other species in force of
character, numbers, and extent of range, and in the amount of influence
he brings to bear upon the health and distribution ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
From the nose to the root of the tail he measures about eight inches;
and his tail, which he so effectively uses in interpreting his
feelings, is about six inches in length. He wears dark bluish-gray over
the back and half-way down the sides, bright buff on the belly, with a
stripe of dark gray, nearly black, separati... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
One never tires of this bright chip of nature,—this brave little voice
crying in the wilderness,—of observing his many works and ways, and
listening to his curious language. His musical, piny gossip is as
savory to the ear as balsam to the palate; and, though he has not
exactly the gift of song, some of his notes are ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
While ascending trees all his claws come into play, but in descending
the weight of his body is sustained chiefly by those of the hind feet;
still in neither case do his movements suggest effort, though if you
are near enough you may see the bulging strength of his short,
bear-like arms, and note his sinewy fists clin... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
When thus employed, his location in the tree is betrayed by a dribble
of scales, shells, and seed-wings, and, every few minutes, by the fall
of the stripped axis of the cone. Then of course he is ready for
another, and if you are watching you may catch a glimpse of him as he
glides silently out to the end of a branch ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
He feasts on all the species long before they are ripe, but is wise
enough to wait until they are matured before he gathers them into his
barns. This is in October and November, which with him are the two
busiest months of the year. All kinds of burs, big and little, are now
cut off and showered down alike, and the gr... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The want of appreciable life remarked by so many travelers in the
Sierra forests is never felt at this time of year. Banish all the
humming insects and the birds and quadrupeds, leaving only Sir Douglas,
and the most solitary of our so-called solitudes would still throb with
ardent life. But if you should go impatient... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Though I cannot of course expect all my readers to sympathize fully in
my admiration of this little animal, few, I hope, will think this
sketch of his life too long. I cannot begin to tell here how much he
has cheered my lonely wanderings during all the years I have been
pursuing my studies in these glorious wilds; or... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Breakfast done, I whistled a tune for him before he went to work,
curious to see how he would be affected by it. He had not seen me all
this while; but the instant I began to whistle he darted up the tree
nearest to him, and came out on a small dead limb opposite me, and
composed himself to listen. I sang and whistled... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
No one who makes the acquaintance of our forester will fail to admire
him; but he is far too self-reliant and warlike ever to be taken for a
darling.
How long the life of a Douglas Squirrel may be, I don’t know. The young
seem to sprout from knot-holes, perfect from the first, and as enduring
as their own trees. It is... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: A WIND-STORM IN THE CALIFORNIA FORESTS. (AFTER A
SKETCH BY THE AUTHOR.)]
After one has seen pines six feet in diameter bending like grasses
before a mountain gale, and ever and anon some giant falling with a
crash that shakes the hills, it seems astonishing that any, save the
lowest thickset trees, coul... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
While exploring the forest zones of Mount Shasta, I discovered the path
of a hurricane strewn with thousands of pines of this species. Great
and small had been uprooted or wrenched off by sheer force, making a
clean gap, like that made by a snow avalanche. But hurricanes capable
of doing this class of work are rare in... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
It was still early morning when I found myself fairly adrift. Delicious
sunshine came pouring over the hills, lighting the tops of the pines,
and setting free a steam of summery fragrance that contrasted strangely
with the wild tones of the storm. The air was mottled with pine-tassels
and bright green plumes, that wen... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
I drifted on through the midst of this passionate music and motion,
across many a glen, from ridge to ridge; often halting in the lee of a
rock for shelter, or to gaze and listen. Even when the grand anthem had
swelled to its highest pitch, I could distinctly hear the varying tones
of individual trees,—Spruce, and Fir... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: YELLOW PINE AND LIBOCEDRUS
The two inside trees are Libocedrus, the two outside trees, Yellow
Pine.]
In its widest sweeps my tree-top described an arc of from twenty to
thirty degrees, but I felt sure of its elastic temper, having seen
others of the same species still more severely tried—bent almost to ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The varied gestures of the multitude were seen to fine advantage, so
that one could recognize the different species at a distance of several
miles by this means alone, as well as by their forms and colors, and
the way they reflected the light. All seemed strong and comfortable, as
if really enjoying the storm, while r... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Most people like to look at mountain rivers, and bear them in mind; but
few care to look at the winds, though far more beautiful and sublime,
and though they become at times about as visible as flowing water. When
the north winds in winter are making upward sweeps over the curving
summits of the High Sierra, the fact ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
When the storm began to abate, I dismounted and sauntered down through
the calming woods. The storm-tones died away, and, turning toward the
east, I beheld the countless hosts of the forests hushed and tranquil,
towering above one another on the slopes of the hills like a devout
audience. The setting sun filled them w... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
These spring rivers of the north are of course shorter than those of
the south whose tributaries extend up to the tops of the mountains.
Fall River, an important tributary of the Pitt or Upper Sacramento, is
only about ten miles long, and is all falls, cascades, and springs from
its head to its confluence with the Pit... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
On the morning of the flood, January 19th, all the Feather and Yuba
landscapes were covered with running water, muddy torrents filled every
gulch and ravine, and the sky was thick with rain. The pines had long
been sleeping in sunshine; they were now awake, roaring and waving with
the beating storm, and the winds swee... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The glad creek rose high above its banks and wandered from its channel
out over many a briery sand-flat and meadow. Alders and willows
waist-deep were bearing up against the current with nervous trembling
gestures, as if afraid of being carried away, while supple branches
bending confidingly, dipped lightly and rose a... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The longer I gazed into the storm, the more plainly visible it became.
The drifting cloud detritus gave it a kind of visible body, which
explained many perplexing phenomena, and published its movements in
plain terms, while the texture of the falling mass of rain rounded it
out and rendered it more complete. Because r... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
Storms are fine speakers, and tell all they know, but their voices of
lightning, torrent, and rushing wind are much less numerous than the
nameless still, small voices too low for human ears; and because we are
poor listeners we fail to catch much that is fairly within reach. Our
best rains are heard mostly on roofs, ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
As for the birds and squirrels, not a wing or tail of them was to be
seen while the storm was blowing. Squirrels dislike wet weather more
than cats do; therefore they were at home rocking in their dry nests.
The birds were hiding in the dells out of the wind, some of the
strongest of them pecking at acorns and manzani... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
[Illustration: BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, YOSEMITE VALLEY.]
The most beautiful and imposing of the summer storms rise just above
the upper edge of the Silver Fir zone, and all are so beautiful that it
is not easy to choose any one for particular description. The one that
I remember best fell on the mountains near Yosemite Val... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
CHAPTER XIII
THE WATER-OUZEL
The waterfalls of the Sierra are frequented by only one bird,—the Ouzel
or Water Thrush (_Cinclus Mexicanus_, SW.). He is a singularly joyous
and lovable little fellow, about the size of a robin, clad in a plain
waterproof suit of bluish gray, with a tinge of chocolate on the head
and sh... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
During the golden days of Indian summer, after most of the snow has
been melted, and the mountain streams have become feeble,—a succession
of silent pools, linked together by shallow, transparent currents and
strips of silvery lacework,—then the song of the Ouzel is at its lowest
ebb. But as soon as the winter clouds ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
After spending an hour or two with my favorite, I made my way across
the valley, boring and wallowing through the drifts, to learn as
definitely as possible how the other birds were spending their time.
The Yosemite birds are easily found during the winter because all of
them excepting the Ouzel are restricted to the ... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
The storm was reflected in every gesture, and not one cheerful note,
not to say song, came from a single bill; their cowering, joyless
endurance offering a striking contrast to the spontaneous,
irrepressible gladness of the Ouzel, who could no more help exhaling
sweet song than a rose sweet fragrance. He _must_ sing t... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 | |
His food, as far as I have noticed, consists of all kinds of water
insects, which in summer are chiefly procured along shallow margins.
Here he wades about ducking his head under water and deftly turning
over pebbles and fallen leaves with his bill, seldom choosing to go
into deep water where he has to use his wings i... | The Mountains of California | Muir, John | 1838 | 1914 | ['en'] | 126 | {'California -- Description and travel', 'Natural history -- California', 'Natural history -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Muir, John, 1838-1914 -- Travel -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Naturalists -- United States -- Biography', 'Mountain ecology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)', 'Sierra Nevada (Calif.... | PG10012 |
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