In 1864, John Muir was wondering through the swamps of Canada, looking for flowers and trees ("botanizing") and working at various odd jobs. During this time, Muir long sought a rare orchid, the Calypso Borealis, and, according to him: "But when the sun was getting low and everything seemed most bewildering and discouraging, I found beautiful Calypso on the mossy bank of a stream, growing not in the ground but on a bed of yellow mosses in which its small white bulb had found a soft nest and from which its one leaf and one flower sprung. The flower was white and made the impression of the utmost simple purity like a snowflower. No other bloom was near it, for the bog a short distance below the surface was still frozen, and the water was ice cold. It seemed the most spiritual of all the flower i had ever met. I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy".