Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
47
Gl [Glacier] Period
In all destruction there is creation.
The Glacier Period was a winter to the ground but a summer to the sky, for when did clouds bloom so profusely
Earthquakes
Earthquake undulations are in themselves beautiful & the descent of the [rock] avalanches to which they give rise rushing through the air in [streamers] streams of fire is an indescribably sublime picture.
Glaciers & Volcanoes Mono
The larger island about 2½ ms. [miles] l. [long]. [240 ft high] composed of hard lava & loose ashes, the smaller ½ m. [mile] l. [long] with cone 240 ft [feet] h. [high] hard black rough lava quite recent. Boiling springs & hot jets of gas etc, some of the springs boil up from the lake bottom near shore
Beautiful tender flowers grow upon the lava lips of the Mono Craters, pines ascend their ashy slopes, & it is just where the glaciers have crushed heaviest that the greatest quantity of beautiful life appears.
Island, Lake Mono, Autumn 1873
We wanted to go to the islands
The clumsy waterlogged boat was overloaded but the weather was so calm we ventured
Autumn 1873
A Storm on Lake Mono
Mono
[The morning was calm,] the lake [like] a big mirror & [also] heavy looking as if it never had any motion, truly [dead] a dead salt sea
We paddled gently admiring the reflections of mtn [mountain] [shore] careful not to overbalance the clumsy craft wh [which] seemed anxious to turn turtle in the lake.
In 2 hrs [hours] we gained the larger island 240 ft h. [high] 2½ ms [miles] long, hard basalt & ashes & wandered about looking at the vegetation, lavas etc hot springs rowing from island to island
At noon a breeze fell from the mountains which soon roused the [sleeping] waters into [curling] white crested waves
Then we made haste to get back to the mainland a dist. [distance] of about 7 miles from the island. After rowing hard & making about a third of the distance
48
Mono Lake
the waves ran so high & broke over the boat [so fast we could not] pouring in water faster than we could bale it out & fearing she would sink we were [driven back] turned to the island glad to get ashore anywhere. The waves broke unwearedly [unweariedly] on the [smooth] sloping beach waking memories of my boyhood on the seashore of Scotland.
A few white & blue gulls are slowly winnowing the air on their way to their homes. While here & there the swift wing of a swallow is seen.
About twenty miles of summits are visible from this [shore] [main] island patches of snow in the shadows, a grand [combination] landscape of sheer peaks, crests, mural precipices, [flowing] & smooth moraine slopes [& spiry peaks] drawn out on the gray sage plains along the base of the range with [a 1000] silvery streams descending in bright cheery song, to vanish in the dry desert air
Clouds [at head of Rush Creek] are settling low on the dark cluster of peaks about Mt [Mount] Ritter & at the head of Rush Creek allowing [their] the hacked summits to appear free above them. [Mt] Mount Dana has a round gray cloud-cap which first lightly touched, then gently clasped its snowy head. Heavy cumuli are gathering & growing to the N.E. ward [northeastward] toward Aurora & shadows are creeping across the gray levels [plain] about the lake.
about midnight we again [ventured] to leave the island got off, the waves were still dangerously high. I advised [wished to] camping but lack of wood & food made the others unwilling etc
Date Occurred
1871-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel31 Notebook11 Img027.jpg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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