DIVISION FIVK — NAMES. 407 



Pasadena directly to the top of the mountains, and Muir made the venture 

 alone. Mrs. Conger baked three loaves of bread for him, and gave him 

 half a pound of tea, which he usually steeped by putting a little into a 

 bottle of cold water and laying the bottle on a rock in the warm sun- 

 shine. He carried no fire-arms, as he had conscientious scruples against 

 taking animal life, and hence used no meat food. With provisions and 

 blankets on his shoulder, he started, and was gone three days. When he 

 got back he was extremely hungry ; and Mrs. Conger writes : 



' ' He said that in all his mountaineering he had never found any trip so 

 laborious as that, on account of the very thick growth of underbrush ; and 

 he had never found a view so fine as that from the top of these mountains." 

 In another note Mrs. Conger adds this interesting item : " He brought me 

 some tiger lily bulbs from the mountains, and I planted them in my yard, 

 where they have blossomed every year since [19 years] ; and I have always 

 called them my 'John Muir lilies.' " 



He made his trip to the mountains by way of Eaton canyon ; and in an 

 article on "The Bee Pastures of California " published in the Century Maga- 

 zine of July, 1882, he gives some account of this mountain climb. It is the 

 first report on record of any trip or exploration from Pasadena to our imme- 

 diate mountain summits, and hence I quote a few paragraphs. He took one 

 day in getting from Pasadena to the mouth of Eaton canyon — camped there 

 over night with a native Mexican woodchopper, and in the morning walked 

 up to the Falls — then hard climbing commenced. Of this Mr. Muir writes: 



' ' From the base of the falls I followed the ridge that forms the western 

 rim of the Eaton basin to the summit of one of the principal peaks, which is 

 about 5,000 feet above the sea level.* Then, turning eastward, I crossed the 

 middle of the basin, f forcing a way over its many subordinate ridges and 

 across its eastern rim, having to contend almost everywhere with the flow- 

 eriest and most impenetrable growth of honey bushes I have ever encount- 

 ered since first my mountaineering began. Most of the Shasta chaparral is 

 leafy nearly to the ground ; here the main stems are naked for three or four 

 feet, and interspiked with dead twigs, forming a stiff chevaux de frise through 

 which even bears make their way with difficulty. I was compelled to creep 

 for miles on all fours, and in following the bear-trails often found tufts of 

 hair on the bushes where they had forced themselves through. 



" For a hundred feet or so above the fall the ascent was made possible 

 only by tough cushions of club-moss that clung to the rock. Above this, 

 the ridge weathers away to a thin knife-blade for a few hundred yards, 

 [Hence called " Muir's Knife-Blade Ridge." — Ed.] and thence to the sum- 

 mit of the range it carries a bristly mane of chaparral. Here and there 

 small openings occur in rock}' places, commanding fine views across the 

 cultivated valley to the ocean. These I found by the tracks were favorite 

 outlooks and resting-places for the wild animals — bears, wolves, foxes, wild- 

 cats, etc. — which abound here, and would have to be taken into account in the 



*rhis is the peak which ascends to a culminating summit from Pine canyon, Rubio canyon and 

 Castle canyon — and forms part of the west wall of Eaton canyon and part of the south wall of Grand 

 Basin. It is " Muir's peak." See page 369. 



fXhis is the " Grand Basin " of the Mount L,owe literature. 



