A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf (Illustrated)

John Muir (1838 – 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization.
In September 1867, Muir undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida, which he recounted in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He had no specific route chosen, except to go by the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find." When Muir arrived at Cedar Keys, he began working for Richard Hodgson at Hodgson’s sawmill. However, three days after accepting to work for Hodgson, Muir almost died of a malarial sickness. One evening in early January 1868, Muir climbed onto the Hodgson house roof to watch the sunset. Muir finally saw a ship, the Island Belle, and learned it would soon be sailing for Cuba. Muir boarded the ship, and while in Havana, he spent his hours studying shells and flowers and visiting the botanical garden in the city. Afterwards, he sailed to New York and booked passage to California.

Contents

Introduction
Chapter I. Kentucky Forests and Caves
Chapter II. Crossing the Cumberland Mountains
Chapter III. Through the River Country of Georgia
Chapter IV. Camping among the Tombs
Chapter V. Through Florida Swamps and Forests
Chapter VI. Cedar Keys
Chapter VII. A Sojourn in Cuba
Chapter VIII. By a Crooked Route to California
Chapter IX. Twenty Hill Hollow
This book published in 1916 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.