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60 That wind came not down from the [snowy] mtns [mountains], it came from the sea distilling through the redwoods threading ferny gulches & flower [starred] bosses of the blue [morns] of the Coast over the golden levels of the San Joaquin plains & breaking against these mountains like an ocean on a rocky shore [gathering] with the [turns] & smells the fragrance of a thousand thousand flowers. & to every rocky brow in Yosemite to every grove & garden [to] of [my] sunnyside is granted a special portion of that precious winds in as special a manner as any prayed for blessing is breathed upon a saint (Through wh [which] were thrust long lances of moon shine sharp & stiff as icicles) (The whole descent from the beginning rills of highest [tributary] of Yo Sem Crk [Yosemite Creek] to its confluence with the Merced in Yo [Yosemite] is about 5000 ft not [scarce] one greatest length somewhere between 15 20 ms [miles] of the unnumbered silver threads that gather from 20 ms ? [miles] of the mtn [mountain] sides to form Yo Sem [Yosemite] Creek cease to sing a single moment except in a few lakes beds when the [they] sleep or murmur hushingly in meadows
61 & every branch sings like a bird gathered waters a thousand [strips] of streams welded into one. It approaches the mighty brink no novice in the art of music & poetry. [Each] In winter & early spring most of Yo Crk [Yosemite Creek] is melted snow derived direct from sun beaten [exposed] slopes but in late spring & summer only 2 or [5] of those tributaries & in some seasons only one reaches [lasting] snow & or ice but around the rim of the entire basin are moraines some of them quite extensive in these [the] a portion of the melted snows & rains are stored forming springs wh [which] last through all seasons Issuing from the base of its [these] moraine fountain the glittering thread bursts at once in song both of form & voice it threads the sedges that adorn its source darts into light bursts in ecstasy song of spangles on over boulders over dams of pine trees logs & leaves Now deep gurgling in its jagged channel now out in the bare sky
Date Original
1873
Source
Original journal dimensions: 10 x 16.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel23Journal11P060-061.tif
Publisher
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
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Keywords
John Muir, journals, drawings, writings, travel, journaling, naturalist
