314 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



I told the head of the family with 

 whom I was boarding that if he would 

 give me a candle I would go back to 

 the schoolhouse and make arrange- 

 ments for lighting the fire at eight 

 o'clock, without my having to be pres- 

 ent until time to open the school at 

 nine. He said. 'Oh ! young man, you 

 have some curious things in the school- 

 room, but I don't think you can 

 do that.' I said, 'Oh, yes! It's easy, 

 and in hardly more than an hour the 

 simple job was completed. I had only 

 to place a teaspoonful of powdered 

 chlorate of potash and sugar on the 

 stove-hearth near a few shavings and 

 kindling, and at the required time make 

 the clock, through a simple arrange- 

 ment, touch the inflammable mixture 

 with a drop of sulphuric acid. Every 

 evening after school was dismissed, I 

 shoveled out what was left of the fire 

 into the snow, put in a little kindling, 

 filled up the big box stove with heavy 

 oak wood, placed the lighting arrange- 

 ment on the hearth, and set the clock to 

 drop the acid at the hour of eight ; all 

 this requiring only a few minutes. 



"The first morning after I had made 

 this simple arrangement I invited the 

 doubting farmer to watch the old squat 

 schoolhouse from a window that over- 

 looked it, to see if a good smoke did 

 not rise from the stovepipe. Sure 

 enough, on the minute, he saw a tall 

 column curling gracefully up through 

 the frosty air, but instead of congratu- 

 lating me on my success he solemnly 

 shook his head and said in a hollow, 

 lugubrious voice, 'Young man, you will 

 be setting: fire to the schoolhouse.' All 

 winter lone that faithful clock fire never 

 failed, and bv the time I got to the 

 schoolhouse the stove was usually red- 

 hot." 



the soul of the hills spoke to his soul, 

 and there was a wonderful fellowship be- 

 tween them. John Muir belonged to a 

 type very often praised, very rarely real- 

 ized : he was a natural man. He lived on 

 the most intimate terms with nature, but 

 not after the savage fashion. On the 

 contrary, his intelligence was of the keen- 

 est and his training had been of the best. 

 So he became not only an explorer and 

 lover of the hills, hut their defender and 

 champion. 



He was always the adventurer at 

 large ; one of the most striking figures of 

 our time ; a typical American in his sim- 

 plicity, courage, love of nature, and 

 insatiable curiosity to understand the 

 world in w hich he lived. — The Outlook. 



Those who fear that life has lost its 

 col *t in these bustling times of practical 

 \<-nr ] ' will do well to rend the life of Tohn 

 Muir, who died at Los Angeles the dav 

 before Christmas, at the ripe age of 

 seventy-six. 



Although of a daring genius, as all 

 great adventurers must be, he was a man 

 of scientific habits of mind, careful obser- 

 vation, thorough reflection, and had an 

 eve for a fact, whether it was written in 

 a hook or in stones. All this time he was 

 not only a naturalist, but an artist ; for 



John Muir talked even better than he 

 wrote. His greatest influence was al- 

 ways upon those who were brought into 

 personal contact with him. But he wrote 

 well, and while his books have not the 

 peculiar charm that a very, very few 

 other writers on similar subjects have 

 had, they will nevertheless last long. 

 Our generation owes much to John Muir. 

 -Theodore Roosevelt in "The Outlook. ' 



Is The Date Palm Originally 

 American? 



In the American Journal of Science 

 for May, 1914, Edward W. Berry or 

 Johns Hopkins University announces 

 the discovery of a fossil date palm in 

 eastern Texas. The tree nas oeen 

 known since prehistoric times as a na- 

 tive of central and northern Africa and 

 of southwestern Asia. Fossil palms 

 are also known from various places in 

 Western Europe ; but this is its first 

 and only known occurrence in the 

 Western Hemisphere except where it 

 has been introduced from the East. 



This ancient date had much more 

 seed and much less fruit than the mod- 

 ern form, and its flesh was apparently 

 stringy and tough compared with the 

 modern date. The ancient tree was 

 probably not necessarily a desert form 

 as the modern is. 



Associate reverently and as much as 

 you can with your loftiest thoughts. 

 Each thought that is welcomed and re- 

 corded is a nest-egg by the side of which 

 more will be laid. — Thoreau 



