The Lost Years: John Muir in Canada, 1864-66

by Ken Haigh
The year is 1864.  It is late May or early June and we are standing in the midst of a vast tamarack and cedar swamp somewhere in southern Ontario, possibly on the southern edge of Simcoe County or the Holland Marsh.  Any moment now a young man will emerge from the tangled forest and wade through the bog towards us.  He has been travelling all day, following a rough compass course; he is hungry, caked with mud, and tired. Now as the sun begins to set he contemplates the possibility that he may have to spend the night in this morass and wonders if he might construct a sort of nest i...