Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
16
[of the divide] almost as soon as they are born. A more tuneful set of streams surely nowhere exists or more sparkling crystal pure[& sparkling] now gliding with tinkling whispers, now with merry dimpling rush in & out through sunshine & shade, shimmering in [glassy] pools, uniting their currents, bouncing dancing from form to form over cliff & inclines [but beautiful always] ever more beautiful the farther they go until they pour into the glacial main rivers [grand trunk born in a snowy sierra of the far summits lofty sierra] X Trans to pg 8 as far as pg 18 inclusive Crane Flat we climbed a thousand feet or more in a distance of about 2 miles the forest growing more dense & the silvery abies magnifica [amabilis fir] forming still greater portion of the whole. Crane Flat is a meadow with a wide sandy border lying [exactly] on the top of the divide [& it] It is often visited by blue cranes to rest & feed [while] on their long journeys [across the range] hence the name. It is about half a mile long, draining mostly into the Merced sedgy in the middle [then] with a margin bright with lilies, columbines, larkspurs, lupines, castilleias [castillejas], etc than an outer zone [margin] of dry, gently sloping ground starred with
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a multitude of small flowers Eunanus [houstonias] spragnea etc with here & there a tuft of several species of eriogonum & the brilliant Zauschneria, then comes the noble forest wall made up of [the] two silver firs , yellow pine, & sugar pine, which here seem[s] to reach its highest [pitch of] beauty & grandeur [in fine harmonious yet massive proportions] for the elevation 6000 or a little more is not too great for the sugar [pine] & yellow pines, or too low for the Abies magnifica [Picea Amabilis], while the A. Concolor [P. Grandis] seems to find[s] this elevation the best possible. [in this latitude & soil. A glorious congregation of conifers surpassing all that have yet been seen in all the world, while & at the distance] of about a mile from the north end of the flat there is a grove of Sequoia gigantea the king of all the conifers [& still another grove to the southwest a few miles on a tributary of the Merced. &] Furthermore the Douglass spruce pseudotsuga douglasii [A. Douglasssii] & Libocedrus decurrens & a few [ ] [ ] [ ] occur here & there forming a small part of the forest. 3 [2] pines, 2 silver firs one Douglass spruce one Sequoia, all of them
Date Occurred
1869
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook07 Img011.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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