Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
14
But a general view of our creek is not so easily gained Our water tree is lying down slant against the mountain side half hidden with domes & vegetation. But let us imagine it standing erect, raising it on end as a farmer raises an apple tree that has been blown slant by the wind. There clear enough it stands, [clearly] outlined on the [blue] sky (20) 15 miles high & nearly as wide branches drooping & radiating, a well proportioned tree on the whole but with the main branches turned to the eastward as if the prevailing winds had been from the opposite direction. The trunk & branches (are) shine silvery gray [white & make a grand fine show against on the dark blue of the sky.] & the lakes like glossy fruit [shine like mirrors like moons rather] & the bits of foamy falls here & there look like blooms [the whole picture framed in a rainbow, painted in the bright irised dust of its foaming beaten falls]. A few sprays on W [west] side of trunk, none on E [east] for 10 ms [miles], then the whole trunk dissolves in wide branches radiating in every direction, 2 lakes on a middle branch W [west], but the most fruitful branch is the lowest on the E [east]
After passing the lower fall in the valley it strikes on an earthquake talus of angular blocks partially spread by the stream in flood. Upon this talus the stream divides into a ragged network of crinkled streams a quarter of a mile wide but at a distance of half a mile all this torn sheet is reunited & flows tranquilly between beautiful banks through the meadow to its confluence with the Merced. (When its own grand life is at an end)
15
7th Day
(Not a cloud in the) A pale (light) blue sky without a single cld [cloud], a strong storm-wind roaring like the ocean among the deep lanes & bays of the valley. Sunnyside is protected, yet many a surging wind wave breaks among her groves shaking & worrying the live-oaks as if the winds like bulldogs had fastened upon them & would not let go while a leaf or branch remained. Such storms account for many a strange curve & kink in the grain of (a) trees so wide-topped & leafy & offering such leverage to wind dogs.
Omit
The glossy evergreen oaks rustle & sparkle with astonishing brightness in the keen white sun splendor [of the sunshine] their leaves bent & tilted at every angle making whirlpools of flashing sparks & splinters of [white sun-fire] silvery light
[Omit]
The upper fall is swayed away from the face of the cliff then (it is) suddenly clashed flat against it. Now it is being vibrated from side to side yielding many extraordinary tones of a mixed character in sympathy with the storm
[Omit]
(Ice Cone)
When I saw that the fall was [so] frequently [driven] flown westward [by the uprush of the wind through the canon on that side] I ran up to Fern Ledge [hoped by climbing to a narrow shelf 500 feet above the base of the fall] hoping to gain a view of the interior of the Ice Cone by looking straight down into the crater like mouth of it while it chanced to be left open & free from the falling water & spray
Date Occurred
1872-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel32 Notebook01 Img010.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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