MUD TURTLE 



3995 



MUKDEN 



about hunting for the crayfish, bugs and 

 worms on which it feeds. See SALAMANDER; 

 AMPHIBIANS. 



MUD TURTLE, the name given to a dull- 

 shelled turtle, usually less than five inches in 

 length, which is found living in mud or muddy 

 water, in all parts of the United States and 

 Canada. See TURTLE. 



MUEZZIN, muez'in. See subhead, in article 

 MINARET. 



MUIR, JOHN (1838-1914), an American nat- 

 uralist who loved and studied nature, living 

 most of his life out-of-doors. He loved to 

 tramp and study all day long, and sleep, when 

 night fell, on beds of moss and leaves or 

 boughs. His equipment on these journeys 

 % consisted of a little bag of bread and tea and 

 a few simple tools. He never killed game, 

 for he looked upon wild animals as his friends. 



John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland, 

 and emigrated to America when a lad of 

 eleven. His parents moved to a farm in Wis- 

 consin, and as a boy he had to work very 

 hard; but by rising frequently at one o'clock 

 in the morning, he found time to read and 

 study. Moreover, he invented a wooden 

 clock that told not only the time of day but 

 the day of the week and the month of the 

 year. Out of the iron end-rod of an old wagon 

 he made a thermometer, the expanding and 

 contracting iron moving a finger to the de- 

 grees on a dial. Two inventions must have 

 been suggested by the character of his daily 

 life an automatic device for feeding horses, 

 and what he called a bathing machine. He 

 also invented a barometer, a pyrometer and 

 a hydrometer. 



Some friends who were interested persuaded 

 him to take some of these inventions to a fair 

 in Madison, and the final result of this was 

 that he entered the university there. After 

 four years of study he began his long and 

 resting travels. He tramped through the 

 country about the Great Lakes, then through 

 Florida and Cuba, going afterwards to Cali- 

 fornia. Ti.'i- in the land he callnl tin 

 grand side of the mountains" he cultivated a 

 large ranch and made his home with his 

 family. He explore, I the Sierra Mountains 

 and told the world about them in magazine 

 articles. He traveled in Alaska and tin n 

 discovered the great river of ice since known 

 aa the Muir Glacier. He also traveled in 

 Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, and once 

 made a trip around the world, visiting Russia, 

 Siberia, Manchuria, India, Australia and New 



Zealand. One of his most intimate friends was 

 that kindred spirit, John Burroughs (which see) , 

 America's great literary naturalist. 



It is partly through the influence of John 

 Muir that the United States government has 

 carried on the great work of creating National 

 Parks (see CONSERVATION). During the last 

 year of his life he wrote of his travels and the 

 nature secrets which he knew. Some of his 

 most important books are Our National Parks, 

 The Mountains oj California, My First Summer 

 in the Sierra and The Yosemite. 



MUIR GLACIER, gla'sher, a celebrated gla- 

 cier of Alaska, discovered by John Muir, for 

 whom it was named. It* is at the head of Gla- 

 cier Bay, rises over 200 feet above the water, 

 extends inland fifteen miles and covers an area 



MUIR GLACIER 



of 350 square miles. The extent below the sur- 

 face of the sea is estimated at 700 feet. Muir 

 Glacier is one of the great attractions to tour- 

 ists visiting Alaska, since steamers can approach 

 within a short distance of the shore. Its front 

 is an overhanging cliff which resembles bluish- 

 white rock, worn and nigged; from this front 

 icebergs are constantly breaking with a lojid 

 crash and falling into the sea. See GL\ 



MUKDEN, or MOUKDEN, mook'dcn, the 

 capital of Manchuria, China, and of Sheng- 

 king, one of its three provinces, about which 

 was fought, in February-March, 1905, one of 

 the greatest conflicts of modern In- 

 RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR). Mukden is situated in 

 a fertile region about 400 miles northeast of 

 INkinn and 110 miles northeast of New-chant. 

 its Liao River port, and is not far from the 

 stream Hun-ho. The old Chinese name was 

 Sin-yang, but the Manchus renamed it Mukden, 

 winch means flourishing capital. It is sur- 

 rounded by a wall forty feet high, and is a 

 \v< 11 -ordered city, laid out on a plan similar t<> 

 American towns. 



Owing to the improved railway facilities and 

 the development of the Soya bean, millet and 

 rice industries, Manchuria has grown in wealth 

 more rapidly than any other part of China. In 

 1905 China granted Japan the right to extend 



