New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-25
JOHN MUIR DEAD
FROM PNEUMONIA
Famed Naturalist Passes
Away in Los Angeles
at Age of rs.
BORN IN SCOTLAND;
BROUGHT HERE AT II
Emerson Called Great Scientist
and Writer More Wonder.
full than Thoreau.

Los Angeles, Dec. 24.-John Muir, the
naturalist, died in hospital here to-
day from pneumonia. lie was seventy
six years old.
Mr.. Muir was visiting his daughter, /
Mrs. Helen Muir Funk, at Daggett, a
town in the desert Of San Bernardino
County, and was stricken with his fatal
illness only last week. Physicians from
Los Angeles were called into consulta- f.
ton Tuesday, and it was determined to
bring him TO this city for treatment. /
Ills condition was critical when he ar
rived here last night. ard he sank rap
IDLY, dying at 10 o'clock this morning.
His daughter was with him.
John Muir, naturalist geologist and
dlscoverer Of the glacier in Alaska that
bears his name, was almost as much a
part Of the beautiful Yosemite Valley
as the giant sequoia trees he loved so
well. Striking out in his youth for the
wild, untamed forests of the world, he
went to California. There the Sierras
woye their spell about him, and he set /
tied down to study their mysteries.
Bringing a keen, inquiring intellect
70 bear on mountain AMI valley, and
taking nothing for granted IN nature,
Muir began the classification of the
wonders which he found and revolu-
tionized the theories of glaciers. So
fused was his work with his own per-
sonality and so penetrated by individual
feeling that II was accepted as much as
literature as science. Because of this
his name was frequently coupled with
that Of his friend, John Burroughs, /
while Emerson called him a more won
dertul man than Thoreau.
Most of his life was lived in the |
open. Notebooks, a tin cup, an axe,
tea, cheese and bread sutficed him. /
Though far away by himself on the I.
mountains, he never carried firearms. .
Blankets and tents he would have none
OF. but was content 20 sleep In a pine
thicket beside fire. He declared that
men who lived in houses were the only !
ones to catch cold.
Mr. Muir was born in Dunbar, Scot /
lard, on April 81, 1888, and came to /.
this country when he was eleven years |
old, his father plunging into the Wis /
consin wilderness and taking up the /
lite OF pioneer. The boy gave mani /.
festations of the rarest mechanical .
genius at an early age. He devised
amazing c0ntrlvances for putting a
sleeper out of bed at a scheduled hour
for watering horses, shutting windows, I.
etc. With a knife for his chief tool, .
he made clock which not only told /
the time, but had attachments to light /.
fires and lamps. These, as well as a /
barometer, an automatic sawmill, I
bathing machine and many others .
showed his bent.
lie entered the University of Wis
consn and studied until one Of his /.
eyes was injured in an accident. When /.
he recovered he gave up mechanics, T.
and, as he expressed il, determined 10
get away into a flowery wilderness TO /
enjoy and lay in as large a stock as .
possible of Gods wild. beauty before .
the coming on Of the time Of dark I
ness"
With the New Testament, Burns's .
poems and Millions paradise LOST IN .
his bag, he started on his first long .
tramp. sleeping in the open air at
night and gathering botanical speci-
mems by day. lie walked through F.
kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and .
Florida. Here California was suggest
cd to him, and, after a tramp across
the Isthmus of Panama, he sailed up
the Coast, and landed pennlless m San
Francisco in 1868. The city did not
attract him, and he started az once Tor
the mountains Through the valley OF
San JOAQUIN by the PachecO Pass he
finally reached the Serras, the big
trees of MaripOsa and the GLORIOUS
Yosemite" There he found his life
work laid out before him, and the re-
suits have appeared in many books
and numerous magazine articles.
In 1876 he Joined the United states
Geodetic Survey and pursued his gla-
cier studies across Utah and Nevada
for three wears. trip to Alaska fol-
lowed. where his explorations led him
to Glacier BAY and the ice river, with
the nine trunks that bears ms name.
In 1881 he went with the Arctic relief
expedition i'm search OF De Long ana the
Jeanette. Il was eight years later that
he took Robert Underwood Johnson,
then editor Of "The Century Maya
line" through the Yosemite Valley
and MANNED the series Of articles
which led to national legislation Great
inc a forest reserve of the tract.
In 1902 Mr.. Muir took trip 70 study
the forests of Russia. Siberia, India,
the Philippines, Australia and New
Zealand. while a Journey two years ago
was made to South America.
His books include The Mountains OF
California" 1894; Our National .
Parks" 1901; "Stickeen, the Story Of, a
Doc" 1909: "My First Summer IN the
Sierras." 1911; "The Yosemite 1912,
a. j STORY of Ny Boyhood and Youth"
1913.
Mr.. Muir received many offers 20
teach in Eastern universities, but re-
fused to desert the Sierras. lie was
bonored with the A. w. degree by Har-
ward; IL. D.. by Wisconsin and Cali
fornia. and Lit. D., by Yale. He was q
member Of the American Academy OF
Arts and Letters, the Washington
Academy of Sciences, the Slerras Club,
the American Alpine Club and fell
Nv of the American Association for
the Advancement Of Science. lie was
married in 1880 TO Louise Strentzel,
daughter of a Polish refugee.
VALUED AT S527,094