Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
21
glide & glint in channels of ice & vanish in yawning crevasses with loud rumble & roar
Here & there long trains of boulders black grey & red are seen in curving lines reaching away from the summits of Dana & Lyell & Hoffmann & rose tinted granite in larger [masses] block boulders from the quarries of Mt [Mount] Clark.
Later as the long icy centuries circle away the first of the valley rocks is seen bare & bright on the north wall. It is the highest of the Three Brothers. Next the massive brow of El Capitan appears glowing like burnished silver. Then the crest of Clouds Rest & the great Half Dome seeming to rise higher & higher as the ice mantle is [broken] divided into separate glaciers & melt shallower & shallower until all the wall rocks of the glorious temple come to the light fashioned & finished (taking their places in the glorious landscape).
Winters & summers come & go with their storms & clouds & balmy sundays like those of the present time, & the main Yosemite glacier shrinks slowly until its wasting snout reaches no farther than the base of El Capitan where it lingers long enough to build a terminal moraine across the valley from [wall to]
22
[wall] the foot of El Capitan to the Cathedral Rocks, while from [all] the main side canons separating the headlands [glorious cascades of ice] ice falls & cascades pour in as tributaries to the main valley trunk gl [glacier]. These shorten & vanish in succession [to be] & are followed by waterfalls & cascades [of water]. First those of the north wall. Then those of the south which [have] lingered centuries in the shadows after the disappearance of the sun beaten northern tributaries. The main trunk gradually receding leaves a lake in its place into which the shortened & shallowed glacier discharges [many a blue crystal] icebergs, which [drifts] drift to & fro beneath the [grand shining] lofty walls. At length [all] the ice-work is done & the valley lies open to the day. A lake [of unrivaled beauty & grandeur] extending from the [terminal] mor [moraine] to the head of val [valley] stretches from wall to wall reflecting the beauty of the new [rock], which endures for centuries until filled by [roaring] avalanche[s] detritus & the slow & steady work of the inflowing streams descending from a thousand fountains & a sedgy meadow takes the place of the lake, [inwashing] gravel & sand gradually covers the margins of the mead [meadow] until [it is] at length dried [&] the valley floor becomes dry & [is] planted with all the summer beauty we find today.
Meanwhile the summit peaks rose higher & higher casting blue spikey shadows over the ice & [neve]. dome after dome emerged from the prairie of ice until in the fullness of time the glaciers retiring into their upper strongholds of shadowy peaks left all the lower landscapes smiling in the sunshine.
Date Occurred
1871-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook11 Img014.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
To view additional information on copyright and related rights of this item, such as to purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish them, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
