Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
20
[one might fancy that] [see not. Their flaming scarfs & other bits of gorgeous dry goods & plug-hats would harmonize in heaven as well as here.] [would make the squirrels hair stand on end & frighten the bears & make garments even the big trees groan aghast Nevertheless,] [As to our own duds & sheep-gear the less said the better. Unwashed ewes & wethers [withers] & tallowy the [grimy] camp-traps to say nothing of the stained souls would needs find some fire to make us presentable either here or there. Aye, little may we know of the maskers passing bye. May the gospel of the mountains be a blessing to us [them] all. Some of the mountain gospel must get into [them us] all.] We are now camped at Tamarac Flat within four or five miles of the lower end of sharp spirey Yosemite [Valley which] [there] is another fine meadow embosomed in [the] woods many pines P. Contorta [called] [Tamarack] by mtneers [mountaineers] around its border hence the name. [&] with a deep clear stream gliding [gently] through it[s midst], its [the] banks rounded & beveled with a thatch of dipping sedges [the trees around it are mostly two-leaved pines tall & slender, usually called [Tamarac]. [A good camp[ing] ground for all of us, man & beast.]
See pg 25 & trans here
July 11th [Mr. Delaney] The Don has gone ahead on one of the pack animals to spy out the land to the north of Yosemite [Valley] in search of [to find] the best point for a central camp. [Where a few weeks of pasturage]
21
[may be with reach] Much higher than this [the Yosemite Creek basin] we cannot now go [at the present time] for the upper pastures [meadows], said to be far better [much larger] than any hereabouts, are still buried in heavy [now covered with] winter snow. Glad I am that the camp is to be fixed [we are going to be detained] in the Yosemite region [I hope to have] for many a glorious ramble I’ll have along the top of the walls, & then what plants I shall [ will] find & landscapes & canyons & lakes & falls.
We are now about 7000 feet above the sea & the nights are so [was] cool we have [had] to pile coats & extra clothing on top of our blankets. Trans here from p 25 [The water in] Tamarac Creek is icy cold. [hurts our teeth in drinking], delicious, exhilarating champagne water. It is flowing bank full in the meadow with silent speed. [through the long grass] but only a few hundred yards below our camp the ground is bare gray granite strewn with [enormous] bowlders [boulders], large spaces being without a single tree or only a small one here & there anchored in
Date Occurred
1869
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook07 Img013.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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