The Scotsman - Tuesday, 12th January 1915, page 6

THE LATE JOHN MUIR A FAMOUS NATURALIST .

OdELE. SHEPASil WTites in ite " Boston Trcaiscnvi cA December 30:—When John Muir, naturalist, philosopher, , and patriot, died in Los Angeles on the day before Christmas,, America lost one of the last of her pioneers. His methods and ideals , indeed, -were widel y different from those Of fitffi heroio predecessors. He did not search for arable lands to bo the homes of future settlers , but rather shunned all settlements. He did not prospect -for gold, . but S661ils ' {o Lave teen greatly concerned " with devices for remaining poor and getting along without money. Ho did not . attempt to subdue tho wilderness, but,-; on tho contrary, did as mue ' i as any man of his time to preserve some corners of our country in their pristine condition, , , , Nothing soems to set ; Johji Muir apart from his ri.vie more than his liking- for solitude .'Mingled .with perfect sanity, ' kindliness ' and. love of his kind. It was said of him that he cared less for a man tham ho eld for a tree, but the rnnhy friends that he made all over-the world, from United States Presidents and railroad magnates to sheep-herders and ranchers, 1 ' argue strongly against the assumption that there was? in him any anti-social tendency. He was known and liked everywhere in t2ie Sierras , 3y men who would scarcely have been able to read his books if they had ever.heard of their existence. . . , Muir' s ¦ early life was calculated to strengthen in him those native traits of self-reliance and resourcefulness, which Ma TYfiolo caronr illus. es so remarkably,. He was born near the Firtfl of lorth in 1838.- His father, a stern unpom promising Scottish Presbyterian,:fed the boy's mind almost. exclusively upon theology and the Bible. Muir used tosay that at one tim<?h .(? h»d" SBOWH the entire New Testament word for word. The influence of fee King James version upon his writing is unmistakable; Ho managed somehow to gam a knowledge of French, and ho knew Bunyan and Milton, Carlyle, and Burns very -well. Thus m spite of fteir narrowness, tho oariy influence T lp °?oir, ls -^ o . u?hfc and writing were almost ideal, ill 1849 -Muir's father brought the family to America and settled in Wisconsin. There for eight or nine years, life was a hard struggle ' -and the story of John Muir's trials in get^ng W edUCft 1 tion reac^ like a chapter out of Samuel Smiles. When Muir Was well past twenty ho entered Wisconsul University, having learned that one could support himself there upon a dollar.a week While m college he oontrt^ his Tvhole attention upon the acMMices ^ and accordingly he ' was ¦ given no degree. Wisconsin later conferred upon him the -honorary degree of Master of Arts, and Harvard University that of Doctor of Laws. As he found tho means, he travelled for and Wl'dfJ, DO 't to S00 tho trrfiat cities, pf vrhioh ite seems to havo had! .a whimsfoai sort of fear, but to find " "something- that ^vas wi)<i" Many of his journeys wore undertalten lor scientific 3rgainsations,. and his reports upon these form a considerable portjpn of his published work. He would-go . any-distance and through any hardships to find a place that was wild and mountainous and had big trees. The quest led him through Manchuria-and Switzerland , the AUeghanje<j and India, Mexico and Alaska, Egypt and Australia. But he had found his home in California, the home to which he always gladly returnee!. A little cabin which he built in a tree over a rushing stream inthe Yosemite was his shelter -during? many summers of study and otservaUon. In all these years of seolusion Muir did less literary work of a defmitire 'sort than was to bo desired. , - He was indifferent to fame, and in his later years he did not need to write for ' money. The narr.e' of John Muir would live even if }ie had written no book3,. for he gave his naxne to the largest glacier of Alaska , and the redwood forest near San Francisco will be known as long as it staeds as the Muir Woods. He has the credit of saving the giani sequoias ot «i« General¦'6rraxit's National Park, ton miles from Miramonip, and the Yosemite was made a national reserve in 1890 by tho passing of a Bill drawn largely on lines laid down by) him. This is the more tangible part of his ' public , service, but it is by no means the whole. In making-the grandeur and beauty and freedom of the West better known to the country and the world at large, in making; it clear that California has something to offer other than immense crops , oiland~ metal, he has performed a service that cannot be adequately measured in a single generation . . ' - ¦ ' -