John Muir's Last Journey: South To The Amazon And East To Africa: Unpublished Journals And Selected Correspondence

391 Pages·2001·6.04 MB·English

by  John Muir

a s h e a r wa t e r b o o k
J M L J
OHN UIR’S AST OURNEY

John Muir
J M
OH N UI R’S
L J
AST OURNEY
South to the Amazon
and East to Africa
Unpublished Journals and Selected Correspondence
Edited by Michael P. Branch
Foreword by Robert Michael Pyle
  / Shearwater Books
Washington,D.C./ Covelo,California
A Shearwater Book
Published by Island Press
Copyright © 2001by Island Press
John Muir Papers,Holt-Atherton Special Collections,
University of the Pacific Libraries,
Copyright © 1984Muir-Hanna Trust.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions.No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form or by any means without permission in writing from the
publisher:Island Press,1718Connecticut Avenue,N.W.,Suite 300,
Washington,DC 20009
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
John Muir’s last journey :south to the Amazon and east to Africa :
unpublished journals and selected correspondence /
edited by Michael P.Branch
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
isbn 1-55963-640-8(cloth :alk.paper)
1.Muir,John,1838-1914—Journeys—South America. 2.Muir,John,
1838-1914—Journeys—Africa. 3.Natural history—South America.
4.Natural history—Africa. I.Branch,Michael P.
qh31.m78 a3 2001
508.8'092—dc21
[b] 2001001808
British Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed on recycled,acid-free paper
Contents
List ofMaps and Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Foreword by Robert Michael Pyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
chapter 1
Preparing for the Last Journey:
California,New York,and Boston
(26 January 1911 – 12 August 1911) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
chapter 2
Southbound and up the Great Amazon
(12 August 1911 – 25 September 1911) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
chapter 3
Coastal Brazil and up the Iguacu River
into the Araucaria braziliensisForests
(26 September 1911 – 8 November 1911) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
chapter 4
Southern Brazil,Uruguay,Argentina,Chile,
and into the Araucaria imbricataForests of the Andes
(9 November 1911 – 10 December 1911) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
viii Contents
chapter 5
At Sea,South Africa,the Zambezi River,
and to the Baobab Trees
(11 December 1911 – 6 February 1912). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
chapter 6
East Africa,Lake Victoria,the Headwaters of the Nile,
and Homeward Bound
(7 February 1912 – 27 March 1912) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
chapter 7
Home to America,California,and Writing:
The Fate of John Muir and His South America
and Africa Journals
(28 March 1912 – 29 December 1912) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
appendices
Appendix A:Timeline/Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Appendix B:Editorial Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Appendix C:John Muir’s Reading and Botanical Notes . . . . . . . . 251
Appendix D:South America and Africa Books Owned by Muir . . . 267
Appendix E:Annotated List ofSelected Archival Materials . . . . . . 269
Appendix F:Table ofEmendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Notes to Editor’s Introductions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Textual Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
List of Maps and Illustrations
Maps
The route of John Muir’s last journey,August 1911–March 1912 . . xii
The route of Muir’s travels in South America,
August 1911–December 1911 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The route of Muir’s travels in Africa,
December 1911–March 1912 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Illustrations
John Muir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (frontispiece)
Carleton E.Watkins photograph of Muir in San Francisco,
circa 1875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxviii
A page from Muir’s 1911journal,showing field sketches of
Araucaria braziliensis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xliii
Muir,late in his life,in the “scribble den”of his home in
Martinez,California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lii
Muir beneath the palm tree at his Martinez home. . . . . . . . . 15
Muir dressed to receive an honorary degree from Yale,June 1911. . 25
Muir’s farewell letter,written just prior to departing for the
Amazon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cable issued on behalf of President Taft to aid Muir abroad. . . . 45
Muir with daughters Helen and Wanda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Sketches of Araucaria braziliensis,including Muir’s leaf calculations 87
x List of Illustrations
Sketch of Araucaria braziliensis,with a cross section of the
tree’s bole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Sketch of Araucaria imbricataforest on an Andean ridge . . . . . 105
Montagu Pass,in the Andes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Journal sketches showing multiple perspectives of
Araucaria imbricata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Photograph of Araucaria imbricata,the monkey puzzle tree . . . . 122
Photograph of the forest near Victoria Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Sketch of Adansonia digitata,the baobab tree . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Photograph of Victoria Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Sketch of a glacially carved dome near Beira,Africa . . . . . . . . 152
Photograph of a baobab tree in an African village . . . . . . . . . 156
Photograph of an African village. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Sketch of the hills near Lake Victoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Photograph of baobab trees along the railroad tracks . . . . . . . 173
Sketch of a glacially carved valley near ’Adan . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Typescript journal page with Muir’s editorial notes . . . . . . . . 191
John Muir and John Burroughs,April 3,1912 . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Muir,playing with his grandchildren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218