Muir
mur, John (1838-), an American naturalist and traveler. He was born at Dunbar, Scotland, April 21, 1838. His father emigrated to America in 1849 and settled near Fox River, Wisconsin. Young John helped clear up the farm. He was an inventive sort of a chap. While a boy at home he made a rough thermometer by taking the end rod of his father's wagon box and fastening it to the side of the house, so that the expansion and contraction of the rod turned the finger on a large dial. He tinkered all the clocks in the neighborhood and built a wooden one for the family. He worked out a plan for an automatic bedstead that might be set to throw the sleeper out on his feet at any desired hour in the morning. In addition to tinkering with mechanical toys, he was fond of reading. His father had a good, old-fashioned Scotch notion that the Bible, Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, Milton, and Burns' poems are good for a boy, but Scott's novels were forbidden.
In 1860 the neighbors, who regarded John as a genius, induced him to exhibit his various contrivances at the state fair in Madison. John did so. He mingled modestly with the crowd and was much pleased by the interest which his exhibit aroused. His attention was directed to the state university in that city. He attended four years but left without a diploma. Both Wisconsin and Harvard later granted him honorary degrees.
After leaving college, he earned money in various ways,--by teaching school, working on the farm, and by making rake and pitchfork handles. He entered a carriage factory at Indianapolis. While here he accidentally injured the sight of one eye. He was already much interested in botany and geology, much given to long rambles, lasting sometimes for weeks. Fearing that he might become blind before he had seen much of the world, Muir resolved to devote himself to exploration. In 1867, with a plant press, the New Testament, Burns' poems, and Milton's Paradise Lost in a bag on his back, he started from Louisville for Florida. He tramped over 1,000 miles in Florida and Cuba, collecting plants, sleeping out of doors, and living on berries and game, or accepting the hospitality of those he met.
The details of his excursions are beyond the limits of this article. He tramped in Panama and in California; he took a trip to Alaska, where he discovered Glacier Bay and Muir Glacier; he traveled in the valleys of the Yukon and the Mackenzie; he visited Switzerland; and in 1880 he went with De Long on an arctic expedition. He lived for ten years in the Yosemite valley, studying the mountain formation and the big trees. He wrote many articles for American periodicals. The government reservations known as Sequoia and Yosemite parks were due to interest aroused by him. He is the world's greatest living authority on glaciers and on the giant trees of California. His writings have a fascination of their own. Muir was married in 1879 to the daughter of a California physician. He established a home in the California hills, near a little station about thirty miles east of San Francisco. The following quotation is characteristic:
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.