Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
138
that [sparkles] [flashes & glows on the [lilies] leaves of the ferns & mosses & lilies. And the little ouzel here also helping the falls to sing giving charming animation [another]- A fine picture to carry away.] [A fine picture to keep]
And how many more in the innumerable furrows of Pilot Peak Ridge with voices united chanting Nature’s [grand] love song [one grand Anthem of Natures unchangeable love]. The whole river leaning back on the ridge with [all] its outspread branches in bloom with white [falling] water – Trans a most sublime picture [&] Trans [[How striking it would be if it were raised erect like a tree the sun shining on it, the winds swaying its [bright] resplendent branches & the whole seen & heard from some commanding (stand)point as it stood against the [clear blue] sky. Striking then it would be & all the world would come to see, but more beautiful far it is as it leans today against the piney ridge among its lilies & ferns & tree shadows [fresh mossy borders].]]
139
And the Ridge [itself], [how noble a picture is that for memory]. its long withdrawing slopes reaching across a broad zone of climate its many tributary [forested] ridges gracefully [exquisitely] modelled & braided together & planted with trees [pines,] [that are] [the] Kings of their race. [How grandly] Their ranks nobly [are] marshalled to view, spire above spire, crown above crown [the sugar pines] waving [dipping deep in the azure] their long leafy arms [waving], tossing their cones like [myriads of] ringing bells; [a] blessed [multitude of] sun-fed mountaineers rejoicing in their strength small [wild] roses [blooming] at their feet [[the ground strewn with brown needles [& cones] Manzanita covered with small pink bells growing in the open[s] spaces where the sun]] light falls [free &] shady hollows [sides of dells with] hazel & buckthorn along the streams the pastures of the deer & sunbeaten brows purple with mint lilies and ferns by the mossy side of streams & humming with bees & or yellow with goldenrods [in Autumn. A] flowery rugs and carpets of Chamaebatia outspread here and there [warm mellow green]. Never was forest more lavishly furnished. Every tree a harp for the wind. [[How sublime the tones of the] [while ever and anon the wandering] winds sweeping the ridge ever in tune [& thrilling every needle], playing[ed] every pine, harps of a thousand strings, making glorious music upon it like a tuned string awful, worshipful,] fit accompaniment to the music of the falling river] [waters][all together chanting God’s unchangeable love.
Date Occurred
1869
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook05 Img074.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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