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1、【英文读物】AThousand-Mile Walk to the GulfIntroduction“John Muir; Earth-planet, Universe.” These words are written on the inside cover of thenotebook from which the contents of this volume have been taken. They reflect the mood inwhich the late author and explorer undertook his thousand-mile walk to the
2、Gulf of Mexico ahalf-century ago. No less does this refreshingly cosmopolitan address, which might have startledany finder of the book, reveal the temper and the comprehensiveness of Mr. Muir s mind. Henever was and never could be a parochial student of nature. Even at the early age of twenty-ninehi
3、s eager interest in every aspect of the natural world had made him a citizen of the universe.While this was by far the longest botanical excursion which Mr. Muir made in his earlier years, itwas by no means the only one. He had botanized around the Great Lakes, in Ontario, and throughparts of Wiscon
4、sin, Indiana, and Illinois. On these expeditions he had disciplined himself toendure hardship, for his notebooks disclose the fact that he often went hungry and slept in thewoods, or on the open prairies, with no cover except the clothes he wore.“Oftentimes, he writes in some unpublished biographica
5、l notes, “I had to sleep out withoutblankets, and also without supper or breakfast. But usually I had no great difficulty in finding aloaf of bread in the widely scattered clearings of the farmers. With one of these big backwoodsloaves I was able to wander many a long, wild mile, free as the winds i
6、n the glorious forests andbogs, gathering plants and feeding on God, s abounding, inexhaustible spiritual beauty bread.Only once in my long Canada wanderings was the deep peace of the wilderness savagely broken.It happened in the maple woods about midnight, when I was cold and my fire was low. I was
7、awakened by the awfully dismal howling of the wolves, and got up in haste to replenish the fire. ”It was not, therefore, a new species of adventure upon which Mr. Muir embarked when hestarted on his Southern foot-tour. It was only a new response to the lure of those favorite studieswhich he had alre
8、ady pursued over uncounted miles of virgin Western forests and prairies.Indeed, had it not been for the accidental injury to his right eye in the month of March, 1867, heprobably would have started somewhat earlier than he did. In a letter written to Indianapolisfriends on the day after the accident
9、, he refers mournfully to the interruption of a long-cherishedplan. For weeks,” he writes, “I have daily consulted maps in locating a route through theSouthern States, the West Indies, South America, and Europe一a botanical journey studied foryears. And so my mind has long been in a glow with visions
10、 of the glories of a tropical flora; but,alas, I am half blind. My right eye, trained to minute analysis, is lost and I have scarce heart toopen the other. Had this journey been accomplished, the stock of varied beauty acquired wouldhave made me willing to shrink into any corner of the world, howeve
11、r obscure and howeverremote.”The injury to his eye proved to be less serious than he had at first supposed. In June he waswriting to a friend: I have been reading and botanizing for some weeks, and find that for suchwork I am not very much disabled. I leave this city Indianapolis for home to-morrow,
12、accompanied by Merrill Moores, a little friend of mine. We will go to Decatur, Illinois, thencenorthward through the wide prairies, botanizing a few weeks by the way. . I hope to go Southtowards the end of the summer, and as this will be a journey that I know very little about, I hopeback my bag, an
13、d returned down the hill, saying that he had forgotten something.I found splendid growths of shining-leaved Ericace? (heathworts) for which the AlleghanyMountains are noted. Also ferns of which Osmunda cinnamomea Cinnamon Fern is the largestand perhaps the most abundant. Osmunda regal is Flowering F
14、ern is also common here, but notlarge. In Wood sl and Gray s Botany Osmunda cinnamomea is said to be a much larger fernthan Osmunda claytoniana. This I found to be true in Tennessee and southward, but in Indiana,part of Illinois, and Wisconsin the opposite is true. Found here the beautiful, sensitiv
15、e Schrankia,or sensitive brier. It is a long, prickly, leguminous vine, with dense heads of small, yellow fragrantflowers.1 Alphonso Wood, Class-book of Botany, with a Flora of The United States and Canada. The copyof this work, carried by Mr. Muir on his wanderings, is still extant. The edition is
16、that of 1862.Vines growing on roadsides receive many a tormenting blow, simply because they give evidenceof feeling. Sensitive people are served in the same way. But the roadside vine soon becomes lesssensitive, like people getting used to teasingNature, in this instance, making for the comfort offlower creatures the same benevolent arrangement as for man. Thus I foun
