Dear Friends,
On the 181st Birthday of John Muir (1838-1914), I am again prompted to send along some of Muir’s glorious writings celebrating the Earth’s wild places and creatures.
The excerpt below, which I found in once again exploring Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) [See the Bibliographic Note], is Muir's description of his encounter with a bear, a fly and a grasshopper in the upper reaches of the Tuolumne River what is now Yosemite National Park, I thought you might enjoy his exuberant descriptions of his fellow creatures.
Richard
Cellarius
Portland, Oregon
July 21. [1869] --Sketching on the Dome, --no rain; clouds at noon about quarter filled the sky, casting shadows with fine effect on the white mountains at the heads of the streams, and a soothing cover over the gardens during the warm hours.
Saw a common house fly and a grasshopper and a brown bear. The fly and grasshopper paid me a merry visit on the top of the Dome, and I paid a visit to the bear in the middle of a small garden meadow between the Dome and the camp where he was standing alert among the flowers as if willing to be seen to advantage. I had not gone more than half a mile from camp this morning, when Carlo, who was trotting on a few yards ahead of me, came to a sudden, cautious standstill. Down went tail and ears, and forward went his knowing nose, while he seemed to be saying "Ha, what's this? A bear, I guess," Then a cautious advance of a few steps, setting his feet down softly like a hunting cat, and questioning the air as to the scent he had caught until all doubt vanished. Then he came back to me, looked me in the face, and with his speaking eyes reported a bear near by; then led on softly, careful, like an experienced hunter, not to make the slightest noise, and frequently looking back as if whispering "Yes, it's a bear, come and I'll show you." Presently we came to where the sunbeams were streaming through between the purple shafts of the firs, which showed that we were nearing an open spot, and here Carlo came behind me, evidently sure that the bear was very near. So I crept to a low ridge of moraine boulders on the edge of a narrow garden meadow, and in this meadow I felt pretty sure the bear must be. I was anxious to get a good look at the sturdy mountaineer without alarming him; so drawing myself up noiselessly back of one of the largest of the trees I peered past its bulging buttresses, exposing only a part of my head, and there stood neighbor Bruin within a stone's throw, his hips covered by tall grass and flowers, and his front feet on the trunk of a fir that had fallen out into the meadow, which raised his head so high that he seemed to be standing erect. He had not yet seen me, but was looking and listening attentively, showing that in some way he was aware of our approach. I watched his gestures and tried to make the most of my opportunity to learn what I could about him, fearing he would catch sight of me and run away. For I had been told that this sort of bear, the cinnamon, always ran from his bad brother man, never showing fight unless wounded or in defense of young. He made a telling picture standing alert in the sunny forest garden. How well he played his part, harmonizing in bulk and color and shaggy hair with the trunks of the trees and lush vegetation, as natural a feature as any other in the landscape. After examining at leisure, noting the sharp muzzle thrust inquiringly forward, the long shaggy hair on his broad chest, the stiff erect ears nearly buried in hair, and the slow heavy way he moved his head, I thought I should like to see his gait in running, so I made a sudden rush at him, shouting and swinging my hat to frighten him, expecting to see him make haste to get away. But to my dismay he did not run or show any sign of running. On the contrary, he stood his ground ready to fight and defend himself, lowered his head, thrust it forward, and looked sharply and fiercely at me. Then I suddenly began to fear that upon me would fall the work of running; but I was afraid to run, and therefore, like the bear, held my ground. We stood staring at each other in solemn silence within a dozen yards or thereabouts, while I fervently hoped that the power of the human eye over wild beasts would prove as great as it is said to be. How long our awfully strenuous interview lasted, I don't know; but at length in the slow fullness of time he pulled his huge paws down off the log, and with magnificent deliberation turned and walked leisurely up the meadow, stopping frequently to look back over his shoulder to see whether I was pursuing him, then moving on again, evidently neither fearing me very much nor trusting me. He was probably about five hundred pounds in weight, a broad rusty bundle of ungovernable wildness, a happy fellow whose lines have fallen in pleasant places. The flowery glade in which I saw him so well, framed like a picture, is one of the best of all I have yet discovered, a conservatory of Nature's precious plant people. Tall lilies were swinging their bells over that bear's back, with geraniums, larkspurs, columbines, and daisies brushing against his sides. A place for angels, one would say, instead of bears.
In the great caņons Bruin reigns supreme. Happy fellow, whom no famine can reach while one of his thousand kinds of food is spared him. His bread is sure at all seasons, ranged on the mountain shelves like stores in a pantry. From one to the other, up or down he climbs, tasting and enjoying each in turn in different climates, as if he had journeyed thousands of miles to other countries north or south to enjoy their varied productions. I should like to know my hairy brothers better, --though after this particular Yosemite bear, my very neighbor, had sauntered out of sight this morning, I reluctantly went back to camp for the Don's rifle to shoot him, if necessary, in defense of the flock. Fortunately I couldn't find him, and after tracking him a mile or two towards Mt. Hoffman I bade him Godspeed and gladly returned to my work on the Yosemite dome.
The house fly also seemed at home and buzzed about me as I sat sketching, and enjoying my bear interview now it was over. I wonder what draws house flies so far up the mountains, heavy, gross feeders as they are, sensitive to cold, and fond of domestic ease. How have they been distributed from continent to continent, across seas and deserts and mountain chains, usually so influential in determining boundaries of species both of plants and animals. Beetles and butterflies are sometimes restricted to small areas. Each mountain in a range, and even the different zones of a mountain, may have its own peculiar species. But the house fly seems to be everywhere. I wonder if any island in mid-ocean is flyless. The bluebottle is abundant in these Yosemite woods, ever ready with his marvelous store of eggs to make all dead flesh fly. Bumblebees are here, and are well fed on boundless stores of nectar and pollen. The honeybee, though abundant in the foothills, has not yet got so high. It is only a few years since the first swarm was brought to California.
A
queer fellow and a jolly fellow is the grasshopper. Up the mountains he
comes
on excursions, how high I don't know, but at least as far and high as
Yosemite
tourists. I was much interested with the hearty enjoyment of the one
that
danced and sang for me on the Dome this afternoon. He seemed brimful of
glad,
hilarious energy, manifested by springing into the air to a height of
twenty or
thirty feet, then diving and springing up again and making a sharp
musical
rattle just as the lowest point in the descent was reached. Up and down
a dozen
times or so he danced and sang, then alighted to rest, then up and at
it again.
The curves he described in the air in diving and rattling resembled
those made
by cords hanging loosely and attached at the same height at the ends,
the loops
nearly covering each other. Braver, heartier, keener, care-free
enjoyment of life
I have never seen or heard in any creature, great or small. The life of
this comic
redlegs, the mountain's merriest child, seems to be made up of pure,
condensed
gayety. The Douglas squirrel is the only living creature that I can
compare him
with in exuberant, rollicking, irrepressible jollity. Wonderful that
these
sublime mountains are so loudly cheered and brightened by a creature so
queer.
Nature in him seems to be snapping her fingers in the face of all
earthy
dejection and melancholy with a boyish hip-hip-hurrah. How the sound is
made I
do not understand. When he was on the ground he made not the slightest
noise,
nor when he was simply flying from place to place, but only when diving
in
curves, the motion seeming to be required for the sound; for the more
vigorous
the diving the more energetic the corresponding outbursts of jolly
rattling. I
tried to observe him closely while he was resting in the intervals of
his
performances; but he would not allow a near approach, always getting
his jumping
legs ready to spring for immediate flight, and keeping his eyes on me.
A fine
sermon the little fellow danced for me on the Dome, a likely place to
look for
sermons in stones, but not for grasshopper sermons. A large and
imposing pulpit
for so small a preacher. No danger of weakness in the knees of the
world while
Nature can spring such a rattle as this. Even the bear did not express
for me
the mountain's wild health and strength and happiness so tellingly as
did this
comical little hopper. No cloud of care in his day, no winter of
discontent in
sight. To him every day is a holiday; and when at length his sun sets,
I fancy
he will cuddle down on the forest floor and die like the leaves and
flowers,
and like them leave no unsightly remains calling for burial.
Sundown, and I must to camp. Goodnight, friends three, --brown bear, rugged boulder of energy in groves and gardens fair as Eden; restless fussy fly with gauzy wings stirring the air around all the world; and grasshopper, crisp electric spark of joy enlivening the massy sublimity of the mountains like the laugh of a child. Thank you, thank you all three for your quickening company. Heaven guide every wing and leg. Good-night, friends three, good-night.
John Muir
Earth–Planet
Universe*
*Inscription on the first page of Muir’s journal of his Thousand-Mile
Walk to the Gulf (1867)
John
Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra,
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston (1916), Ch. 5, "The Yosemite," pp.
134-142. Also available at https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/my_first_summer_in_the_sierra/chapter_5.aspx