Identifier: ournationalparks1909muir (find matches)
Title: Our national parks
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Muir, John, 1838-1914 author
Subjects: National parks and reserves
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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of themiddle fork of the San Joaquin, I had crossedthe range from the head of Owen River, and onemorning, passing around a frozen lake wherethe snow was perhaps ten feet deep, I was sur-prised to find the fresh track of a woodchuckplainly marked, the sun having softened the sur-face. What could the animal be thinking of,coming out so early while all the ground wassnow-buried? The steady trend of his trackshowed he had a definite aim, and fortunately itwas toward a mountain thirteen thousand feethigh that I meant to climb. So I followed tosee if I could find out what he was up to. Fromthe base of the mountain the track pointedstraight up, and I knew by the melting snowthat I was not far behind him. I lost the trackon a crumbling ridge, partly projecting throughthe snow, but soon discovered it again. Welltoward the summit of the mountain, in an openspot on the south side, nearly inclosed by disin-tegrating pinnacles among which the sun heatreverberated, making an isolated patch of warm
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A MOUNTAIN WOODCHUCK AMONG THE ANIMALS OF THE YOSEMITE 201 climate, I found a nice garden, full of rock cress,phlox, silene, draba, etc., and a few grasses; andin this garden I overtook the wanderer, enjoy-ing a fine fresh meal, perhaps the first of theseason. How did he know the way to thisone garden spot, so high and far ofP, and whattold him that it was in bloom while yet the snowwas ten feet deep over his den ? For this itwould seem he would need more botanical, topo-graphical, and climatological knowledge thanmost mountaineers are possessed of. The shy, curious mountain beaver, Haplo-don, lives on the heights, not far from thewoodchuck. He digs canals and controls theflow of small streams under the sod. And it isstartling when one is camped on the edge of asloping meadow near the homes of these indus-trious mountaineers, to be awakened in the stillnight by the sound of water rushing and gurg-ling under ones head in a newly formed canal.Pouched gophers also have a way of awakening

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