Preview
Transcription
[down] [impress] with them [marvelous] [beauty] great [caves] 30 or [40] ft high occur among them. The roof of [caves] hung with [comets] like [stalactites] walled with sides of [comets] & floored with tails. All wonderfully worked & woven & united by [fairy] quartz & [lace]. The central portion of this fall is the most [variedly] and apparently beautiful because [lower] the [various] [forms] into wh [which] [the] water is wrought is more & more unwater-like. More darkly veiled, & higher the water forms are more condensed, undeveloped, [there] is more of [ ] & flowing & plash & dash, as ordinary actions of water. When we reach a point on the column about 200 ft from top, we find a great change for here the water strikes heavily upon a [bench] & rebounds changed at once in size & [ ] It is here that the [comets] [originate].
shooting at once in glorious [forms] with a gracefulness & energy [that is] & an air of divine assurance that is wholly indescribable. This rush of the column to the top is less interesting. it is one wavy white [close] veiled [down] [gush] of half water half [air] Now [place] the fall again to the wall & set it a living & singing [voice] that [ ] have some idea of its texture & forms. Suppose the time 3 or 4 oclock PM. Sunny [side] & we [startined] upon a rock platform wh [which] is on E side the fall 400 ft above base. [Here] although within a few yds of this marvelleous down rush of vocal waters we are safe & [ ] from blinding spray that prohibits all approach at this base. Look up see how the comets leap confidently into the sunny bosom of the sky in close companies, now they arch downward many spend themselves but do not appear baffled they die on the air calmly as sun absorbed
Date Original
1873
Source
Original journal dimensions: 10 x 16.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel23Journal12P06-07.tif
Publisher
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
To view additional information on copyright and related rights of this item, such as to purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish them, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
Keywords
John Muir, journals, drawings, writings, travel, journaling, naturalist
