Creator

John Muir

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Circa Date

circa 1887

Transcription

98

Projecting as if the object of wh [which] seems to be [fret] the was to so toss & tease & elbow the stream as to make it white & churn [stream] it into [mag] foam to fit it for its grand display & with what deep enthusiasm it goes to its [fate]

The lateral dashing on side angles, the surging against round bossy knobs, the swirling & surging & churning in potholes upglancing in shallow curved basins & down the grand & [launching] over the [brink] & down the grand descent [now in] [their] water glowing like a [sun-beaten] cloud make altogether the wildest combinations of water movements I have ever seen.

No other stream is so elaborately prepared for its [falling] fall as Nevada. No wonder it is the whitest

The most exciting view of all however is gained from the point of an overhanging rock [on the same side. This point] wh [which] projects beyond the brow of the fall [& enables one to look], while the eager surging flood rushes past [to]. Here we can look straight down into the middle of its intensely [snow] white glowing bosom where it is displayed by glancing upon a smooth shelving apron. At the foot it cannot be approached on account of the heavy [drenching] spray. [But] In autumn when the water is low we may go close up to it Then the fall is charmingly beautiful [ ] [all its thunder] hushed & soothed all its wild outbounding thundering waters [calm only] to a sweet whispering tinkling web of lace-like embroidery outspread fold [over] fold as if on show, [broad]

99

[sheet of lace] ever changing, so beautiful few would hesitate to say that it was more interesting than in the white [triumphant] passion [passionate flood fall] of spring.

(Omit) The feldspar veins intersecting the Liberty cap rock explains the many rock avalanches that fall from it. Also explains the existence of the Canon between it & the precipice [of] over which the fall pours.

Apart from the fall

The view down the canon valley from its head [the head of the fall] is one of the most wonderful in the valley [always very remarkable]. The river with [strength] [renewed] rushing in wild exultations down to Emerald Pool over bare granite folds. The majestic walls on either [sides] side & the sublime [solid] mass of Glacier Point ridge blocking it abruptly in front making a basin shaped like an immense triangular hopper 3000 feet deep filled with the roar of the waters & the winds as if it were some Grand grinding mill of the gods [the mountains to dust.]

Today the basin is full of clouds some of them like smoke & spray now hiding now revealing one point after another of the mighty rocks, going hither thither rushing about as if on urgent business. Some rushing down with wing like arms outspread & held steadily like those

Date Occurred

1872-1874

Resource Identifier

MuirReel32 Notebook01 Img052.Jpeg

Contributing Institution

Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library

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