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Copied from a letter by Mrs. R. L. Waterston dated Yosemite Valley, Cal., July 4th, 1870. We found fair accommodations
at Leidig's, the first house you reach in the Valley. Mr. Bacon s party and ourselves are the only travellers in the house.
(There are three hotels in the Valley. We walked through a pleasant path last evening, the little moon looked over the great
Yosemite cliffs very much as she does at Quincy. This A.M. I took a walk of four miles with our Guide to the Yosemite Fall
a scramble, but the scenery worth it. We stopped at a sawmill where I had a pleasant talk with a handsome young Scotchman.*
His love of nature and the study of Botany is very great and after receiving an education at one of the colleges (I was going
to say Western colleges, but in California I must say Eastern) he came to California and supports himself by working as he
goes, camping out alone, or rather living with Nature. He is a remarkable man has read and studied Botany well. His love of
Nature, who is his mother and divine casts out all fear. He told me of valleys lying far beyond this, hidden away among mountains,
exquisite in their beauty, filled with lovely flowers and trees and all untrodden by man only God is there , he said. He told
me that those desolate plains we passed over between Stockton and Mariposa blossomed like the Garden of the Lord in the spring,
worlds of beauty and flowers. I was keeping sheep all winter there, and in April it was more beautiful than words can tell
. Indeed Mr. Muir was so eloquent, so unexpected, and so charming that he seemed well in harmony with the Valley. He is at
present running a saw-mill for his daily bread and living in a little hut beside which a stream flows and flowers bloom. This
description of the plains made me quite wish for a winter there, but think I am not well fitted for a shepherdess. Aunt Anna
says in this note. Mr. John Muir, since well known as a writer on the subject of the Yosemite, and other scenes in California.
(See letter of Mr. Ruthven Deane, June 9, 1914)