Preview
Circa Date
circa 1887
Transcription
10
stream that feeds them. Where does all that [chanting] [snowy] water come from. This is easily learned by going & seeing (spending a few weeks of study) in its basin.)
Let us suppose that we set out from Yo. [Yosemite] Valley to trace the stream to its sources. If you are strong & in a great hurry you may reach its highest fountains back of Mount Hoffman & return to the valley in a single day, but nature will not be likely to disclose (any of) her secrets to those who are in [possessed of the demons of vulgar commercial] haste. We must labour & wait & watch, loiter & saunter & be obedient to every attraction she (has to) offer in season & out of season.
The material preparation required is not much a few pounds of meal or crackers & a pinch of tea rolled up in a light pair of blankets, though the blankets may in most cases be left
(There is) no danger need (to) be feared, most of the great dangers (besetting ones path) are confined to the lowlands though on account of the novelty of life in the alpine wildernesses much that is gentle at first seems savage & [harming/harmony] (much pure fountain love seems diabolical) infernal chaos.
11
Snakes & bears so much (universally) dreaded by those who know least about them are very rare in this basin, or are at least seldom to be seen & almost out of the question
Leaving the valley by way of Indian Canon & passing around by the head of the fall we soon come in sight of the stream flowing leisurely between two rows of granite waves & domes almost bare, but with a tuft of rock fern, spiraea, oak chaparral & a pine or two that have found footholds in joints & fissures of the granite masonry. The tranquil air with which the stream is flowing would lead us to fancy that it was unconscious of the mighty leap it was about to make from all the trees and flowers it knew to another climate & a new world, but it is no novice in falling or singing as we have already seen, having already made a descent of 3500 [2500] ere it reaches the brink of its last leap.
Ascending the stream (keeping close) along its margin (where this is possible) about a mile back from the edge of the valley we come to (some) level sandy flats (on both sides of the stream) covered with shrubby Eriogonum profusely flowered & gilias in countless millions
Date Occurred
1872-1874
Resource Identifier
MuirReel32 Notebook01 Img008.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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