Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
34
Saw track of a very large bear on the trail & said I would like to have seen him marching along follow for days without disturbing him & learn from [something] of his life the master beast of the wilderness & the Don talked of bears in general Here add from pg 94.
of the [loud resounding boisterous wild] torrent but thy sweet [still] small voice only Love is in it.
The night is coming on etc. pg 37 to foot
July 13[th] July 14 How [complete deepest] death-like is sleep in this [calm] mountain air & quick the awakening into newness of life.
[A sublime sleep last night deep as death & as restful without any of its grim bones belongings & mould into]. A calm dawn yellow & purple [glorious deathless morning] sharply cool then floods of [mountain] sun gold [making us court the campfire.] making everything [glow &] tingle & glow. In an hour or two we came to Yosemite Creek. Our course all day has been eastward [all day & upward] over the western rim of Yosemite Creek basin [then] & down about half-way to the bottom [of it] where we encamped on a sheet of glacier polished granite, a firm foundation for beds. [to the bank of the creek where we have camped for the night]. [We are now on] the stream that makes [in its wild leap into Yosemite] the greatest of all the Yosemite falls 2600 feet. It is [a stream] about 40 feet wide [here where it is crossed by] at the Mono Trail crossing & about 4 feet in average depth flowing about 3 miles an hour. The distance to the verge of the Yosemite wall where it makes its tremendous plunge is only about two miles from here. [& it flows on towards its fate without showing fear] [It is] Calm [&] beautiful & nearly silent it glides [ing on straight on] with [a] stately gestures [motion between] a dense growth [walls] of the slender two-leaved pine along
35
its banks with an inner fringe of [small] willow[s] [close to the water] & purple spiraea, [&] sedges, daisies, lilies & columbines [making very delightful banks. There are a few blue daisies among the sedges & nodding columbines & the tall orange lilies, all this for an immediate border for the clear cool calm stream] some of the sedges & willow boughs dip[ping] into the current [& making a close union] & just outside of the close ranks of trees [planted along the bank] there is a [an open] sunny flat of washed gravelly sand which seems to have been deposited by some ancient flood [made during some time long past of flood. This flat] It is covered with [countless] millions of [housatonius] erithrea [eritrea] [&] eriogonums [&] oxytheca with more flowers [petals] than leaves [&] forming an even growth roughened here & there by the rosettes of Spragnea Umbellata [& then]. Back of this flowery strip there is a wavy up sloping plain of solid granite [the rounded knobby summits of the swells polished by glacial action & polished so well that they shine &] so smoothly ice-polished in many places it glistens in the sun like glass [as if they were wet] In the hollows between [these] rock waves
Date Occurred
1869
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook07 Img020.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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