"MY FIRST SUMMER IN THE SIERRA" John Muir

"Our way is still along the Merced and Tuolmune divide, the streams on our right going to swell the songful Yosemite River, those on our left to the songful Tuolumne, slipping through sunny carex and lily meadows, and breaking into song down a thousand ravines almost as soon as they are born. A more tuneful set of streams surely nowhere exists, or more sparkling crystal pure, now gliding with tinkling whisper, now with merry dimpling rush, in and out through sunshine and shade, shimmering in pools, uniting their currents, bouncing, dancing from form to form over cliffs and inclines, ever more beautiful the farther they go until they pour into the main glacial rivers."

John Muir, in his book My First Summer in the Sierra shares his naturalist's spirit through his journal entries of his first acquaintance with the Sierra mountains in California. The descriptive adjectives he uses to express his wonderment, awe, and love for this place should be used as a textbook for students. If one had never visited the Sierra's before, this book could certainly be used for a science study, a study in creative writing, and a map for maneuvering through the temples that nature so maticulously and precisely created. The scientific entries of this Scotland native resides in his studies of chemistry, geology, and botany at the University of Wisconsin. His skills of observance will put anyone to shame and in my estimation, even succeeds the scientific studies and entries of Lewis and Clark. This book includes detailed descriptions of plants, flowers, and trees. Bird species are named and described, each individually to the point that the reader can almost picture them outside their front window. Weather and geological studies abound, allowing the reader to assume the knowledge gained from this read would suffice for any formal classroom study. Not only do the science studies add to the reader's knowledge, but Muir's ability to see the correlation between nature and lessons of life challenges the audience to do the same, even among the life outside one's backyard. Every lesson discovered, all the existing beauty in both minute and grandiose experiences, stem from a deep spiritual understanding of the person of God.

"No Sierra landscape tht I have seen holds anything truly dead or dull, or any trace of what in manufactories is called rubbish or waste; everything is perfectly clean and pure and full of divine lessons. This quick, inevitable interest attaching to everything seems marvelous until the hand of God becomes visible; then it seems reasonable that what interests Him may well interest us. When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. Once fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell, and we feel like stopping to speak ot the plants and animals as friendly fellow mountaineers. Nature becomes a poet, an enthusiastic workingman, becomes more and more visible the father and higher we go; for the mountains are fountains - beginning places, however related to sources beyond mortal ken."

If for no other reason than to learn from John Muir, the art of writing and to sit under his scientific descriptions that carry a personal element, this book should be on every person's shelf, who enjoys descriptive reading. By the end of the book, the reader does begin to find that the descriptions of every detail does become a bit monotonous, however, one cannot refrain from holding in awe the knowledge, the beauty, and the lessons that flow abundantly from these pages. Happy journey to a place that finds me yearning to now visit - the Sierras.