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22
higher ground. Nevertheless the immediate banks of the river are almost everywhere picturesquely shaded by [thickets] of alder & dogwood & [balsampop] [balsam poplar] How the ground was prepared for the groves of oak & spruce [pines] [etc]. We have seen that most extensive groves of the valley bear a direct relationship to the largest & most invariable of the shadows cast—by the [constant] [in] all of the valley. This is because the largest accumulations of rocky debris are to be found [there], & the reason that the debris is more abundant [there] [than] when [there] is no covering of shadow is that after the grand central glacier that flowed down through valley filling it from wall to wall like a wind had gradually shallowed in the [growing] & ceased [ ] to flow, & all the N [North] sunnyside of the valley walls were bare & dry small side glaciers continued to shelter
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& live [in/under] the protection of shades These worked & sawed out the deep recesses for wh [which] the South side is remarkable, gradually forming slopes of moraine matter, for the coming groves, wh [whose] moraine slopes they now occupy. When we calmly observe & compare the two sides walls N & S of Yosemite vall [Valley] we are at once struck with the dissimilarity in their sculpture, not in structure. The N [North] wall is [comparatively] plain & massive in style. Its side canons [canyons] are on a grand scale & all open down the valley in the direction of the tributary glaciers wh [which] entered the valley when it was occupied by [the] main trunk gl. [glacier] The S (South) side where the shadows dwell is deeply sculptured & the [greater] & more constant the shadow belongingto any [portion] of the wall the more deeply is that portion sculptured & the side cans [cañons] are [if any] mostly
Date Original
1873
Source
Original journal dimensions: 10 x 16.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel23Journal12P22-23.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
