efore the ice age--what was going on here then?'

"Oh, God knows," said Mr. Muir, but vouchsafed no further explanation.

(Illustration of John Burroughs and John Muir in the Yosemite. From a
photograph by F. P. Clatworthy)

"With my itch for geology," said Mr. Burroughs, "I want it scratched
all the time, and Muir doesn't want to scratch it." So he dropped his
questions, which elicited only bantering answers from the mountaineer,
and gave himself up to sheer admiration of the glories and beauties of
the region, declaring that of all the elemental scenes he had beheld,
Yosemite beat them all--"The perpetual thunder peal of the waters
dashing like mad over gigantic cliffs, the elemental granite rocks--it
is a veritable 'wreck of matter and crush of worlds' that we see here."

Mr. Burroughs urged Mr. Muir again and again to reclaim his early
studies in the Sierra which were printed in the "Overland Monthly" years
ago, and give them to the public now with the digested information which
he alone can supply, and which is as yet inaccessible in his voluminous
notes and sketches of the region. At Mr. Muir's home we saw literally
barrels of these notes. He admitted that he had always been dilatory
about writing, but not about studying or note-taking; often making
notes at night when fatigued from climbing and from two and three days'
fasting; but the putting of them into literature is irksome to him. Yet,
much as he dislikes the labor of writing, he will shut himself away
from the air and sunshine for weeks at a time, if need arises, and write
vigorously in behalf of the preservation of our forests. He did this
back in the late seventies, and in more recent years has been tireless
in his efforts to secure protection to our noble forests when danger has
threatened them.

Mr. Muir's knowledge of the physiognomy and botany of most of the
countries of the globe is extensive, and he has recently added South
America and South Africa to his list; there is probably no man living,
and but few who have lived, so thoroughly conversant with the effects of
glaciation as is he; yet, unless he puts his observations into writing,
much of his intimate knowledge of these things must be lost when he
passes on. And, as Mr. Burroughs says, "The world wants this knowledge
seasoned with John Muir, not his mere facts. He could accumulate enough
notes to fill Yosemite, yet that would be worth little. He has spent
years studying and sketching th