Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
98
& [appeared so] substantial looking as they the meadow & I often stepped over them taking them for [as if they were] black charred logs when I was thinking about something else.
24th) Another lovely day warm & calm soon after sunrise, clouds only about .01 faint silky wisps & pencillings & dim dots scarce visible. Slight frost Indian summerish. The mountains growing softer in outline & dreamy looking. Their rough angles melted off apparently. Sky at evening with fine dark subdued purple almost like the evening purple of the San Joaquin plains in settled weather [in winter & spring & fall.] The moon is now coming over the summit of Dana – glorious exhilarating air [weather though this region is from 9000 to 13000 feet above the sea. I wonder if in all the world there is another mountain range of equal height blessed with weather so fine & so openly kind & hospitable & approachable [the sunny plains of Italy are not so sunny as these lofty snowy mountains.]
25th) Clouds .05 Cool as usual in the morning & rather dark & dim quickly changing to the ordinary serene generous brightness. Towards evening the west wind was [blew] cool land made the campfire grateful. Of
P 99
[sketch removed] all the mountain dwellings I have entered this one is the most delightful. Than this glacier meadow none of Nature’s carpets can be finer (The licked snipped carefully rolled & weeded, watered & manured is coarse & cheap compared with it. The forest has not yet hurt any of the flowers. The goldenrods are just in their prime & few of the asters & other showy plants have yet gone to seed.[It] This meadow at a little distance looks like a purple lake so level it is & evenly colored with the grass stems & flowers [purple panicles of the grasses]. Not a single [rough] rank weed is to be found in it. Though there are three or four shrubs – dwarf willow, bryanthus, Kalmia vaccinium they are all pressed flat (& out of sight) & only thicken[ing] & enrich[ing] the sod with their handsome leaves & flowers. [The grass panicles though so delicate covers all like a purple veil or mist]. Bees & butterflies seem as abundant as ever. The birds are still here showing no signs of leaving for winter
Date Occurred
1869
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook 009 Img042.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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