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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef70331 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54046 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54046) diff --git a/old/54046-0.txt b/old/54046-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index fe1f963..0000000 --- a/old/54046-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9894 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, by Clarence King - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada - -Author: Clarence King - -Release Date: January 24, 2017 [EBook #54046] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - MOUNTAINEERING IN THE - SIERRA NEVADA - - - - - MOUNTAINEERING IN THE - SIERRA NEVADA - - BY - - CLARENCE KING - - “Altiora petimus” - - NEW YORK - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - 1902 - - COPYRIGHT, 1871, BY - JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. - - COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - - TROW DIRECTORY - PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY - NEW YORK - - - - - To - - JOSIAH DWIGHT WHITNEY - - AND HIS STAFF - - MY COMRADES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CALIFORNIA - - THESE MOUNTAINEERING NOTES - - ARE CORDIALLY INSCRIBED - - - - -NOTE - - -This book, originally published in 1871, has long been out of print, -though in constant demand. Its publication was discontinued owing to the -desire of the author to make certain emendations in the text, a work -that the arduous activities of a professional scientific life left him -no leisure to perform. A few changes, indicated by him, have been made. -Otherwise the text of the present edition is that of the last, the -revised and enlarged edition of 1874. Only the fastidiousness to which -the extraordinary literary quality of the book is itself due, could -suggest further modification of what is here republished with the motive -of restoring to print and circulation a work too perfect in form and of -too rare a quality to be allowed to lapse. It is accordingly with the -view of renewing the accessibility of a genuine classic of American -literature that the present edition is presented. - - - - -FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION - - -Mountaineers will realize, from these descriptions of Sierra climbs, how -few dangers we encountered which might not have been avoided by time and -caution. Since the uncertain perils of glacier work and snow copings do -not exist in California, except on the northeast flank of Mount Shasta, -our climbs proved safe and easy in comparison with the more serious -Alpine ascents. And now that the topography of the higher Sierra has -been all explored by the Geological Survey, nearly every peak is found -to have an accessible side. Our difficulties and our joys were those of -the pioneer. - -My own share in the great work of exploring the Sierra under Professor -Whitney has been small indeed beside that of the senior assistants of -the Survey, Professors Brewer and Hoffmann. Theirs were the long, hard -years of patient labor, theirs the real conquest of a great terra -incognita; and if in these chapters I have not borne repeated witness to -their skill and courage, it is not because I have failed in warm -appreciation, but simply because my own mountaineering has always been -held by me as of slight value, and not likely to be weighed against -their long-continued service. - -There are turning-points in all men’s lives which must give them both -pause and retrospect. In long Sierra journeys the mountaineer looks -forward eagerly, gladly, till pass or ridge-crest is gained, and then, -turning with a fonder interest, surveys the scene of his march; letting -the eye wander over each crag and valley, every blue hollow of pine-land -or sunlit gem of alpine meadow; discerning perchance some gentle -reminder of himself in yon thin blue curl of smoke floating dimly upward -from the smouldering embers of his last camp-fire. With a lingering look -he starts forward, and the closing pass-gate with its granite walls -shuts away the retrospect, yet the delightful picture forever after -hangs on the gallery wall of his memory. It is thus with me about -mountaineering; the pass which divides youth from manhood is traversed, -and the serious service of science must hereafter claim me. But as the -cherished memories of Sierra climbs go ever with me, I may not lack the -inspiring presence of sunlit snow nor the calming influence of those -broad noble views. It is the mountaineer’s privilege to carry through -life this wealth of unfading treasure. At his summons the white peaks -loom above him as of old; the camp-fire burns once more for him, his -study walls recede in twilight revery, and around him are gathered again -stately columns of pine. If the few chapters I have gathered from these -agreeable memories to make this little book are found to possess an -interest, if along the peaks I have sought to describe there is -reflected, however faintly, a ray of that pure, splendid light which -thrills along the great Sierra, I shall not have amused myself with my -old note-books in vain. - -NEW YORK, March, 1874. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - I. THE RANGE 1 - - II. THROUGH THE FOREST. 1864 30 - - III. THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL. 1864 60 - - IV. THE DESCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL. 1864 94 - - V. THE NEWTYS OF PIKE. 1864 117 - - VI. KAWEAH’S RUN. 1864 139 - - VII. AROUND YOSEMITE WALLS. 1864 165 - -VIII. A SIERRA STORM. 1864 191 - - IX. MERCED RAMBLINGS. 1866 219 - - X. CUT-OFF COPPLES’S. 1870 254 - - XI. SHASTA. 1870 275 - - XII. SHASTA FLANKS. 1870 303 - -XIII. MOUNT WHITNEY. 1871-1873 324 - - XIV. THE PEOPLE 366 - - - - -MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA NEVADA - - - - -I - -THE RANGE - - -The western margin of this continent is built of a succession of -mountain chains folded in broad corrugations, like waves of stone upon -whose seaward base beat the mild, small breakers of the Pacific. - -By far the grandest of all these ranges is the Sierra Nevada, a long and -massive uplift lying between the arid deserts of the Great Basin and the -Californian exuberance of grain-field and orchard; its eastern slope, a -defiant wall of rock plunging abruptly down to the plain; the western, a -long, grand sweep, well watered and overgrown with cool, stately -forests; its crest a line of sharp, snowy peaks springing into the sky -and catching the _alpenglow_ long after the sun has set for all the rest -of America. - -The Sierras have a structure and a physical character which are -individual and unique. To Professor Whitney and his corps of the -Geological Survey of California is due the honor of first gaining a -scientific knowledge of the form, plan, and physical conditions of the -Sierras. How many thousands of miles, how many toilsome climbs, we made, -and what measure of patience came to be expended, cannot be told; but -the general harvest is gathered in, and already a volume of great -interest (the forerunner of others) has been published. - -The ancient history of the Sierras goes back to a period when the -Atlantic and Pacific were one ocean, in whose depths great accumulations -of sand and powdered stone were gathering and being spread out in level -strata. - -It is not easy to assign the age in which these submarine strata were -begun, nor exactly the boundaries of the embryo continents from whose -shores the primeval breakers ground away sand and gravel enough to form -such incredibly thick deposits. - -It appears most likely that the Sierra region was submerged from the -earliest Palæozoic, or perhaps even the Azoic, age. Slowly the deep -ocean valley filled up, until, in the late Triassic period, the -uppermost tables were in water shallow enough to drift the sands and -clays into wave and ripple ridges. With what immeasurable patience, what -infinite deliberation, has nature amassed the materials for these -mountains! Age succeeded age; form after form of animal and plant life -perished in the unfolding of the great plan of development, while the -suspended sands of that primeval sea sank slowly down and were stretched -in level plains upon the floor of stone. - -Early in the Jurassic period an impressive and far-reaching movement of -the earth’s crust took place, during which the bed of the ocean rose in -crumpled waves towering high in the air and forming the mountain -framework of the Western United States. This system of upheavals reached -as far east as Middle Wyoming and stretched from Mexico probably into -Alaska. Its numerous ridges and chains, having a general northwest -trend, were crowded together in one broad zone whose western and most -lofty member is the Sierra Nevada. During all of the Cretaceous period, -and a part of the Tertiary, the Pacific beat upon its seaward -foot-hills, tearing to pieces the rocks, crumbling and grinding the -shores, and, drifting the powdered stone and pebbles beneath its waves, -scattered them again in layers. This submarine table-land fringed the -whole base of the range and extended westward an unknown distance under -the sea. To this perpetual sea-wearing of the Sierra Nevada base was -added the detritus made by the cutting out of cañons, which in great -volumes continually poured into the Pacific, and was arranged upon its -bottom by currents. - -In the late Tertiary period a chapter of very remarkable events -occurred. For a second time the evenly laid beds of the sea-bottom were -crumpled by the shrinking of the earth. The ocean flowed back into -deeper and narrower limits, and, fronting the Sierra Nevada, appeared -the present system of Coast Ranges. The intermediate depression, or -sea-trough as I like to call it, is the valley of California, and is -therefore a more recent continental feature than the Sierra Nevada. At -once then from the folded rocks of the Coast Ranges, from the Sierra -summits and the inland plateaus, and from numberless vents caused by the -fierce dynamical action, there poured out a general deluge of melted -rock. From the bottom of the sea sprang up those fountains of lava whose -cooled material forms many of the islands of the Pacific, and all along -the coast of America, like a system of answering beacons, blazed up -volcanic chimneys. The rent mountains glowed with outpourings of molten -stone. Sheets of lava poured down the slopes of the Sierra, covering an -immense proportion of its surface, only the high granite and metamorphic -peaks reaching above the deluge. Rivers and lakes floated up in a cloud -of steam and were gone forever. The misty sky of these volcanic days -glowed with innumerable lurid reflections, and at intervals along the -crest of the range great cones arose, blackening the sky with their -plumes of mineral smoke. At length, having exhausted themselves, the -volcanoes burned lower and lower, and at last by far the greater number -went out altogether. With a tendency to extremes which “development” -geologists would hesitate to admit, nature passed under the dominion of -ice and snow. - -The vast amount of ocean water which had been vaporized floated over the -land, condensed upon hill-tops, chilled the lavas, and finally buried -beneath an icy covering all the higher parts of the mountain system. -According to well-known laws, the overburdened summits unloaded -themselves by a system of glaciers. The whole Sierra crest was one pile -of snow, from whose base crawled out the ice-rivers, wearing their -bodies into the rock, sculpturing as they went the forms of valleys, and -brightening the surface of their tracks by the friction of stones and -sand which were bedded, armor-like, in their nether surface. Having made -their way down the slope of the Sierra, they met a lowland temperature -of sufficient warmth to arrest and waste them. At last, from causes -which are too intricate to be discussed at present, they shrank slowly -back into the higher summit fastnesses, and there gradually perished, -leaving only a crest of snow. The ice melted, and upon the whole -plateau, little by little, a thin layer of soil accumulated, and, -replacing the snow, there sprang up a forest of pines, whose shadows -fall pleasantly to-day over rocks which were once torrents of lava and -across the burnished pathways of ice. Rivers, pure and sparkling, thread -the bottom of these gigantic glacier valleys. The volcanoes are extinct, -and the whole theatre of this impressive geological drama is now the -most glorious and beautiful region of America. - -As the characters of the _Zauberflöte_ passed safely through the trial -of fire and the desperate ordeal of water, so, through the terror of -volcanic fires and the chilling empire of ice, has the great Sierra come -into the present age of tranquil grandeur. - -Five distinct periods divide the history of the range. First, the slow -gathering of marine sediment within the early ocean during which -incalculable ages were consumed. Second, in the early Jurassic period -this level sea-floor came suddenly to be lifted into the air and -crumpled in folds, through whose yawning fissures and ruptured axes -outpoured wide zones of granite. Third, the volcanic age of fire and -steam. Fourth, the glacial period, when the Sierras were one broad field -of snow, with huge dragons of ice crawling down its slopes, and wearing -their armor into the rocks. Fifth, the present condition, which the -following chapters will describe, albeit in a desultory and inadequate -manner. - -From latitude 35° to latitude 39° 30´ the Sierra lifts a continuous -chain, the profile culminating in several groups of peaks separated by -deeply depressed curves or sharp notches, the summits varying from eight -to fifteen thousand feet, seven to twelve thousand being the common -range of passes. Near its southern extremity, in San Bernardino County, -the range is cleft to the base with magnificent gateways opening through -into the desert. From Walker’s Pass for two hundred miles northward the -sky line is more uniformly elevated; the passes averaging nine thousand -feet high, the actual summit a chain of peaks from thirteen to fifteen -thousand feet. This serrated snow and granite outline of the Sierra -Nevada, projected against the cold, clear blue, is the blade of white -teeth which suggested its Spanish name. - -Northward still the range gradually sinks; high peaks covered with -perpetual snow are rarer and rarer. Its summit rolls on in broken, -forest-covered ridges, now and then overlooked by a solitary pile of -metamorphic or irruptive rock. At length, in Northern California, where -it breaks down in a compressed medley of ridges, and open, level -expanses of plain, the axis is maintained by a line of extinct volcanoes -standing above the lowland in isolated positions. The most lofty of -these, Mount Shasta, is a cone of lava fourteen thousand four hundred -and forty feet high, its broad base girdled with noble forests, which -give way at eight thousand feet to a cap of glaciers and snow. - -Beyond this to the northward the extension of the range is quite -difficult to definitely assign, for, geologically speaking, the Sierra -Nevada system occupies a broad area in Oregon, consisting of several -prominent mountain groups, while in a physical sense the chain ceases -with Shasta; the Cascades, which are the apparent topographical -continuation, being a tertiary structure formed chiefly of lavas which -have been outpoured long subsequent to the main upheaval of the Sierra. - -It is not easy to point out the actual southern limit either, because -where the mountain mass descends into the Colorado desert it comes in -contact with a number of lesser groups of hills, which ramify in many -directions, all losing themselves beneath the tertiary and quartenary -beds of the desert. - -For four hundred miles the Sierras are a definite ridge, broad and high, -and having the form of a sea-wave. Buttresses of sombre-hued rock, -jutting at intervals from a steep wall, form the abrupt eastern slopes; -irregular forests, in scattered growth, huddle together near the snow. -The lower declivities are barren spurs, sinking into the sterile flats -of the Great Basin. - -Long ridges of comparatively gentle outline characterize the western -side, but this sloping table is scored from summit to base by a system -of parallel transverse cañons, distant from one another often less than -twenty-five miles. They are ordinarily two or three thousand feet deep, -falling at times in sheer, smooth-fronted cliffs, again in sweeping -curves like the hull of a ship, again in rugged, V-shaped gorges, or -with irregular, hilly flanks opening at last through gateways of low, -rounded foot-hills out upon the horizontal plain of the San Joaquin and -Sacramento. - -Every cañon carries a river, derived from constant melting of the -perpetual snow, which threads its way down the mountain--a feeble type -of those vast ice-streams and torrents that formerly discharged the -summit accumulation of ice and snow while carving the cañons out from -solid rock. Nowhere on the continent of America is there more positive -evidence of the cutting power of rapid streams than in these very -cañons. Although much is due to this cause, the most impressive passages -of the Sierra valleys are actual ruptures of the rock; either the -engulfment of masses of great size, as Professor Whitney supposes in -explanation of the peculiar form of the Yosemite, or a splitting asunder -in yawning cracks. From the summits down half the distance to the -plains, the cañons are also carved out in broad, round curves by glacial -action. The summit-gorges themselves are altogether the result of frost -and ice. Here, even yet, may be studied the mode of blocking out -mountain peaks; the cracks riven by unequal contraction and expansion of -the rock; the slow leverage of ice, the storm, the avalanche. - -The western descent, facing a moisture-laden, aërial current from the -Pacific, condenses on its higher portions a great amount of water, which -has piled upon the summits in the form of snow, and is absorbed upon the -upper plateau by an exuberant growth of forest. This prevalent wind, -which during most undisturbed periods blows continuously from the ocean, -strikes first upon the western slope of the Coast Range, and there -discharges, both as fog and rain, a very great sum of moisture; but, -being ever reinforced, it blows over their crest, and, hurrying -eastward, strikes the Sierras at about four thousand feet above -sea-level. Below this line the foothills are oppressed by an habitual -dryness, which produces a rusty olive tone throughout nearly all the -large conspicuous vegetation, scorches the red soil, and, during the -long summer, overlays the whole region with a cloud of dust. - -Dull and monotonous in color, there are, however, certain elements of -picturesqueness in this lower zone. Its oak-clad hills wander out into -the great, plain-like coast promontories, enclosing yellow or, in -spring-time, green bays of prairie. The hill-forms are rounded, or -stretch in long, longitudinal ridges, broken across by the river cañons. -Above this zone of red earth, softly modelled undulations, and dull, -grayish groves, with a chain of mining towns, dotted ranches and -vineyards, rise the swelling middle heights of the Sierras, a broad, -billowy plateau cut by sharp, sudden cañons, and sweeping up, with its -dark, superb growth of coniferous forest to the feet of the -summit-peaks. - -For a breadth of forty miles, all along the chain, is spread this -continuous belt of pines. From Walker’s Pass to Sitka one may ride -through an unbroken forest, and will find its character and aspect vary -constantly in strict accordance with the laws of altitude and moisture, -each of the several species of coniferous trees taking its position with -an almost mathematical precision. Where low gaps in the Coast Range give -free access to the western wind, there the forest sweeps downward and -encamps upon the foot-hills, and, continuing northward, it advances -toward the coast, securing for itself over this whole distance about the -same physical conditions; so that a tree which finds itself at home on -the shore of Puget’s Sound, in the latitude of Middle California has -climbed the Sierras to a height of six thousand feet, finding there its -normal requirements of damp, cool air. As if to economize the whole -surface of the Sierra, the forest is mainly made up of twelve species of -coniferæ, each having its own definitely circumscribed limits of -temperature, and yet being able successively to occupy the whole middle -Sierra up to the foot of the perpetual snow. The average range in -altitude of each species is about twenty-five hundred feet, so that you -pass imperceptibly from the zone of one species into that of the next. -Frequently three or four are commingled, their varied habit, -characteristic foliage, and richly colored trunks uniting to make the -most stately of forests. - -In the centre of the coniferous belt is assembled the most remarkable -family of trees. Those which approach the perpetual snow are imperfect, -gnarled, storm-bent; full of character and suggestion, but lacking the -symmetry, the rich, living green, and the great size of their lower -neighbors. In the other extreme of the pine-belt, growing side by side -with foothill oaks, is an equally imperfect species, which, although -attaining a very great size, still has the air of an abnormal tree. The -conditions of drought on the one hand, and rigorous storms on the other, -injure and blast alike, while the more verdant centre, furnishing the -finest conditions, produces a forest whose profusion and grandeur fill -the traveller with the liveliest admiration. - -Toward the south the growth of the forest is more open and grove-like, -the individual trees becoming proportionally larger and reaching their -highest development. Northward its density increases, to the injury of -individual pines, until the branches finally interlock, and at last on -the shores of British Columbia the trunks are so densely assembled that -a dead tree is held in its upright position by the arms of its fellows. - -At the one extremity are magnificent purple shafts ornamented with an -exquisitely delicate drapery of pale golden and dark blue green; at the -other the slender spars stand crowded together like the fringe of masts -girdling a prosperous port. The one is a great, continuous grove, on -whose sunny openings are innumerable brilliant parterres; the other is a -dismal thicket, a sort of gigantic canebrake, void of beauty, dark, -impenetrable, save by the avenues of streams, where one may float for -days between sombre walls of forest. From one to the other of these -extremes is an imperceptible transition; only in the passage of hundreds -of miles does the forest seem to thicken northward, or the majesty of -the single trees appear to be impaired by their struggle for room. - -Near the centre is the perfection of forest. At the south are the finest -specimen trees, at the north the densest accumulations of timber. In -riding throughout this whole region and watching the same species from -the glorious ideal life of the south gradually dwarfed toward the -north, until it becomes a mere wand; or in climbing from the scattered, -drought-scourged pines of the foot-hills up through the zone of finest -vegetation to those summit crags, where, struggling against the power of -tempest and frost, only a few of the bravest trees succeed in clinging -to the rocks and to life,--one sees with novel effect the inexorable -sway which climatic conditions hold over the kingdom of trees. - -Looking down from the summit, the forest is a closely woven vesture, -which has fallen over the body of the range, clinging closely to its -form, sinking into the deep cañons, covering the hill-tops with even -velvety folds, and only lost here and there where a bold mass of rock -gives it no foothold, or where around the margin of the mountain lakes -bits of alpine meadow lie open to the sun. - -Along its upper limit the forest zone grows thin and irregular; black -shafts of alpine pines and firs clustering on sheltered slopes, or -climbing in disordered processions up broken and rocky faces. Higher, -the last gnarled forms are passed, and beyond stretches the rank of -silent, white peaks, a region of rock and ice lifted above the limit of -life. - -In the north, domes and cones of volcanic formation are the summit, but -for about three hundred miles in the south it is a succession of sharp -granite aiguilles and crags. Prevalent among the granitic forms are -singularly perfect conoidal domes, whose symmetrical figures, were it -not for their immense size, would impress one as having an artificial -finish. - -The alpine gorges are usually wide and open, leading into amphitheatres, -whose walls are either rock or drifts of never-melting snow. The -sculpture of the summit is very evidently glacial. Beside the ordinary -phenomena of polished rocks and moraines, the larger general forms are -clearly the work of frost and ice; and, although this ice-period is only -feebly represented to-day, yet the frequent avalanches of winter and -freshly scored mountain flanks are constant suggestions of the past. - -Strikingly contrasted are the two countries bordering the Sierra on -either side. Along the western base is the plain of California, an -elliptical basin four hundred and fifty miles long by sixty-five broad; -level, fertile, well watered, half tropically warmed; checkered with -farms of grain, ranches of cattle, orchard and vineyard, and homes of -commonplace opulence, towns of bustling thrift. Rivers flow over it, -bordered by lines of oaks which seem characterless or gone to sleep, -when compared with the vitality, the spring, and attitude of the same -species higher up on the foot-hills. It is a region of great industrial -future within a narrow range, but quite without charms for the student -of science. It has a certain impressive breadth when seen from some -overlooking eminence, or when in early spring its brilliant carpet of -flowers lies as a foreground over which the dark pine-land and white -crest of the Sierra loom indistinctly. - -From the Mexican frontier up into Oregon, a strip of actual desert lies -under the east slope of the great chain, and stretches eastward -sometimes as far as five hundred miles, varied by successions of bare, -white ground, effervescing under the hot sun with alkaline salts, plains -covered by the low, ashy-hued sage-plant, high, barren, rocky ranges, -which are folds of metamorphic rocks, and piled-up lavas of bright red -or yellow colors; all over-arched by a sky which is at one time of a -hot, metallic brilliancy, and again the tenderest of evanescent purple -or pearl. - -Utterly opposed are the two aspects of the Sierras from these east and -west approaches. I remember how stern and strong the chain looked to me -when I first saw it from the Colorado desert. - -It was in early May, 1866. My companion, Mr. James Terry Gardiner, and I -got into the saddle on the bank of the Colorado River, and headed -westward over the road from La Paz to San Bernardino. My mount was a -tough, magnanimous sort of mule, who at all times did his very best; -that of my friend, an animal still hardier, but altogether wanting in -moral attributes. He developed a singular antipathy for my mule, and -utterly refused to march within a quarter of a mile of me; so that over -a wearying route of three hundred miles we were obliged to travel just -beyond the reach of a shout. Hour after hour, plodding along at a -dog-trot, we pursued our solitary way without the spice of -companionship, and altogether deprived of the melodramatic satisfaction -of loneliness. - -Far ahead of us a white line traced across the barren plain marked our -road. It seemed to lead to nowhere, except onward over more and more -arid reaches of desert. Rolling hills of crude color and low, gloomy -contour rose above the general level. Here and there the eye was -arrested by a towering crag, or an elevated, rocky mountain group, whose -naked sides sank down into the desert, unrelieved by the shade of a -solitary tree. The whole aspect of nature was dull in color, and gloomy -with an all-pervading silence of death. Although the summer had not -fairly opened, a torrid sun beat down with cruel severity, blinding the -eye with its brilliance, and inducing a painful slow fever. The very -plants, scorched to a crisp, were ready, at the first blast of a -sirocco, to be whirled away and ground to dust. Certain bare zones lay -swept clean of the last dry stems across our path, marking the track of -whirlwinds. Water was only found at intervals of sixty or seventy miles, -and, when reached, was more of an aggravation than a pleasure,--bitter, -turbid, and scarce; we rode for it all day, and berated it all night, -only to leave it at sunrise with a secret fear that we might fare worse -next time. - -About noon on the third day of our march, having reached the borders of -the Chabazon Valley, we emerged from a rough, rocky gateway in the -mountains, and I paused while my companion made up his quarter of a -mile, that we might hold council and determine our course, for the water -question was becoming serious; springs which looked cool and seductive -on our maps proving to be dried up and obsolete upon the ground. - -A fresh mule and a lively man get along, to be sure, well enough; but -after all it is at best with perfunctory tolerance on both sides, a sort -of diplomatic interchange of argument, the man suggesting with bridle, -or mildly admonishing with spurs; but when the high contracting parties -get tired, the _entente cordiale_ goes to pieces, and actual hostilities -open, in which I never knew a man to come out the better. - -I had noticed a shambling uncertainty during the last half-hour’s trot, -and those invariable indicators, “John’s” long, furry ears, either -lopped diagonally down on one side, or lay back with ill omen upon his -neck. - -Gardiner reached me in a few minutes, and we dismounted to rest the -tired mules, and to scan the landscape before us. We were on the margin -of a great basin whose gently shelving rim sank from our feet to a -perfectly level plain, which stretched southward as far as the eye could -reach, bounded by a dim, level horizon, like the sea, but walled in to -the west, at a distance of about forty miles, by the high, frowning wall -of the Sierras. This plain was a level floor, as white as marble, and -into it the rocky spurs from our own mountain range descended like -promontories into the sea. Wide, deeply indented white bays wound in and -out among the foot-hills, and, traced upon the barren slopes of this -rocky coast, was marked, at a considerable elevation above the plain, -the shore-line of an ancient sea,--a white stain defining its former -margin as clearly as if the water had but just receded. On the dim, -distant base of the Sierras the same primeval beach could be seen. This -water-mark, the level, white valley, and the utter absence upon its -surface of any vegetation, gave a strange and weird aspect to the -country, as if a vast tide had but just ebbed, and the brilliant, -scorching sun had hurriedly dried up its last traces of moisture. - -In the indistinct glare of the southern horizon, it needed but slight -aid from the imagination to see a lifting and tumbling of billows, as if -the old tide were coming; but they were only shudderings of heat. As we -sat there surveying this unusual scene, the white expanse became -suddenly transformed into a placid blue sea, along whose rippling shores -were the white blocks of roofs, groups of spire-crowned villages, and -cool stretches of green grove. A soft, vapory atmosphere hung over this -sea; shadows, purple and blue, floated slowly across it, producing the -most enchanting effect of light and color. The dreamy richness of the -tropics, the serene sapphire sky of the desert, and the cool, purple -distance of mountains, were grouped as by miracle. It was as if Nature -were about to repay us an hundred-fold for the lie she had given the -topographers and their maps. - -In a moment the illusion vanished. It was gone, leaving the white desert -unrelieved by a shadow; a blaze of white light falling full on the -plain; the sun-struck air reeling in whirlwind columns, white with the -dust of the desert, up, up, and vanishing into the sky. Waves of heat -rolled like billows across the valley, the old shores became indistinct, -the whole lowland unreal. Shades of misty blue crossed over it and -disappeared. Lakes with ragged shores gleamed out, reflecting the sky, -and in a moment disappeared. - -The bewildering effect of this natural magic, and perhaps the feverish -thirst, produced the impression of a dream, which might have taken fatal -possession of us but for the importunate braying of Gardiner’s mule, -whose piteous discords (for he made three noises at once) banished all -hallucination, and brought us gently back from the mysterious spectacle -to the practical question of water. We had but one canteen of that -precious elixir left; the elixir in this case being composed of one part -pure water, one part sand, one part alum, one part saleratus, with -liberal traces of Colorado mud, representing a very disgusting taste, -and very great range of geological formations. - -To search for the mountain springs laid down upon our maps was probably -to find them dry, and afforded us little more inducement than to chase -the mirages. The only well-known water was at an oasis somewhere on the -margin of the Chabazon, and should, if the information was correct, have -been in sight from our resting-place. - -We eagerly scanned the distance, but were unable, among the phantom -lakes and the ever-changing illusions of the desert, to fix upon any -probable point. Indian trails led out in all directions, and our only -clew to the right path was far in the northwest, where, looming against -the sky, stood two conspicuous mountain piles lifted above the general -wall of the Sierra, their bases rooted in the desert, and their -precipitous fronts rising boldly on each side of an open gateway. The -two summits, high above the magical stratum of desert air, were sharply -defined and singularly distinct in all the details of rock-form and -snow-field. From their position we knew them to be walls of the San -Gorgonio Pass, and through this gateway lay our road. - -After brief deliberation we chose what seemed to be the most beaten road -leading in that direction, and I mounted my mule and started, leaving my -friend patiently seated in his saddle waiting for the _afflatus_ of his -mule to take effect. Thus we rode down into the desert, and hour after -hour travelled silently on, straining our eyes forward to a spot of -green which we hoped might mark our oasis. - -So incredulous had I become that I prided myself upon having penetrated -the flimsy disguise of an unusually deceptive mirage, and -philosophized, to a considerable extent, upon the superiority of my -reason over the instinct of the mule, whose quickened pace and nervous -manner showed him to be, as I thought, a dupe. - -Whenever there comes to be a clearly defined mental issue between man -and mule, the stubbornness of the latter is the expression of an -adamantine moral resolve, founded in eternal right. The man is -invariably wrong. Thus on this occasion, as at a thousand other times, I -was obliged to own up worsted, and I drummed for a while with Spanish -spurs upon the ribs of my conqueror, that being my habitual mode of -covering my retreat. - -It _was_ the oasis, and not the mirage. John lifted up his voice, now -many days hushed, and gave out spasmodic gusts of barytone, which were -as dry and harsh as if he had drunk mirages only. - -The heart of Gardiner’s mule relented. Of his own accord he galloped up -to my side, and, for the first time together, we rode forward to the -margin of the oasis. Under the palms we hastily threw off our saddles -and allowed the parched brutes to drink their fill. We lay down in the -grass, drank, bathed our faces, and played in the water like children. -We picketed our mules knee-deep in the freshest of grass, and, unpacking -our saddle-bags, sent up a smoke to heaven, and achieved that most -precious solace of the desert traveller, a pot of tea. - -By and by we plunged into the pool, which was perhaps thirty feet long, -and deep enough to give us a pleasant swim. The water being almost -blood-warm, we absorbed it in every pore, dilated like sponges, and came -out refreshed. - -It is well worth having one’s juices broiled out by a desert sun just to -experience the renewal of life from a mild parboil. That About’s “Man -with the Broken Ear,” under this same aqueous renovation, was ready to -fall in love with his granddaughter, no longer appears to me odd. Our -oasis spread out its disc of delicate green, sharply defined upon the -enamel-like desert which stretched away for leagues, simple, unbroken, -pathetic. Near the eastern edge of this garden, whose whole surface -covered hardly more than an acre, rose two palms, interlocking their -cool, dark foliage over the pool of pure water. A low, deserted cabin -with wide, overhanging, flat roof, which had long ago been thatched with -palm-leaves, stood close by the trees. - -With its isolation, its strange, warm fountain, its charming vegetation -varied with grasses, trailing water-plants, bright parterres in which -were minute flowers of turquoise blue, pale gold, mauve, and rose, and -its two graceful palms, this oasis evoked a strange sentiment. I have -never felt such a sense of absolute and remote seclusion; the hot, -trackless plain and distant groups of mountain shut it away from all the -world. Its humid and fragrant air hung over us in delicious contrast -with the oven-breath through which we had ridden. Weary little birds -alighted, panting, and drank and drank again, without showing the least -fear of us. Wild doves fluttering down bathed in the pool and fed about -among our mules. - -After straining over one hundred and fifty miles of silent desert, -hearing no sound but the shoes of our mules grating upon hot sand, after -the white glare, and that fever-thirst which comes from drinking -alkali-water, it was a deep pleasure to lie under the palms and look up -at their slow-moving green fans, and hear in those shaded recesses the -mild, sweet twittering of our traveller-friends, the birds, who stayed, -like ourselves, overcome with the languor of perfect repose. - -Declining rapidly toward the west, the sun warned us to renew our -journey. Several hours’ rest and frequent deep draughts of water, added -to the feast of succulent grass, filled out and rejuvenated our -saddle-animals. John was far less an anatomical specimen than when I -unsaddled him, and Gardiner’s mule came up to be bridled with so -mollified a demeanor that it occurred to us as just possible he might -forget his trick of lagging behind; but with the old tenacity of purpose -he planted his forefeet, and waited till I was well out on the desert. - -As I rode I watched the western prospect. Completely bounding the basin -in that direction rose the gigantic wall of the Sierra, its serrated -line sharply profiled against the evening sky. This dark barrier became -more and more shadowed, so that the old shore line and the lowland, -where mountain and plain joined, were lost. The desert melted in the -distance into the shadowed masses of the Sierra, which, looming higher -and higher, seemed to rise as the sun went down. Scattered snow-fields -shone along its crest; each peak and notch, every column of rock and -detail of outline, were black and sharp. - -On either side of the San Gorgonio stood its two guardian peaks, San -Bernardino and San Jacinto, capped with rosy snow, and the pass itself, -warm with western light, opened hopefully before us. For a moment the -sun rested upon the Sierra crest, and then, slowly sinking, suffered -eclipse by its ragged, black profile. Through the slow hours of -darkening twilight a strange, ashy gloom overspread the desert. The -forms of the distant mountain chains behind us, and the old shore line -upon the Sierra base, stared at us with a strange, weird distinctness. -At last all was gray and vague, except the black silhouette of the -Sierras cut upon a band of golden heaven. - -We at length reached their foot and, turning northward, rode parallel -with the base toward the San Gorgonio. In the moonless night huge, rocky -buttresses of the range loomed before us, their feet plunging into the -pale desert floor. High upon their fronts, perhaps five hundred feet -above us, was dimly traceable the white line of ancient shore. Over -drifted hills of sand and hard alkaline clay we rode along the bottom of -that primitive sea. Between the spurs deep mountain alcoves, stretching -back into the heart of the range, opened grand and shadowy; far at -their head, over crests of ridge and peak, loomed the planet Jupiter. - -A long, wearisome ride of forty hours brought us to the open San -Gorgonio Pass. Already scattered beds of flowers tinted the austere face -of the desert; tufts of pale grass grew about the stones, and tall stems -of yucca bore up their magnificent bunches of bluish flowers. Upon all -the heights overhanging the road gnarled, struggling cedars grasp the -rock, and stretch themselves with frantic effort to catch a breath of -the fresh Pacific vapor. It is instructive to observe the difference -between those which lean out into the vitalizing wind of the pass, and -the fated few whose position exposes them to the dry air of the desert. -Vigor, soundness, nerve to stand on the edge of sheer walls, -flexibility, sap, fulness of green foliage, are in the one; a shroud of -dull olive-leaves scantily cover the thin, straggling, bayonet-like -boughs of the others; they are rigid, shrunken, split to the heart, -pitiful. We were glad to forget them as we turned a last buttress and -ascended the gentle acclivity of the pass. - -Before us opened a broad gateway six or seven miles from wall to wall, -in which a mere swell of green land rises to divide the desert and -Pacific slopes. Flanking the pass along its northern side stands Mount -San Bernardino, its granite framework crowded up above the beds of more -recent rock about its base, bearing aloft tattered fragments of pine -forest, the summit piercing through a marbling of perpetual snow, up to -the height of ten thousand feet. Fronting it on the opposite wall rises -its compeer, San Jacinto, a dark crag of lava, whose flanks are cracked, -riven, and waterworn into innumerable ravines, each catching a share of -the drainage from the snow-cap, and glistening with a hundred small -waterfalls. - -Numerous brooks unite to form two rivers, one running down the green -slope among ranches and gardens into the blooming valley of San -Bernardino, the other pouring eastward, shrinking as it flows out upon -the hot sands, till, in a few miles, the unslakable desert has drunk it -dry. - -There are but few points in America where such extremes of physical -condition meet. What contrasts, what opposed sentiments, the two views -awakened! Spread out below us lay the desert, stark and glaring, its -rigid hill-chains lying in disordered grouping, in attitudes of the -dead. The bare hills are cut out with sharp gorges, and over their stone -skeletons scanty earth clings in folds, like shrunken flesh; they are -emaciated corses of once noble ranges now lifeless, outstretched as in a -long sleep. Ghastly colors define them from the ashen plain in which -their feet are buried. Far in the south were a procession of whirlwind -columns slowly moving across the desert in spectral dimness. A white -light beat down, dispelling the last trace of shadow, and above hung the -burnished shield of hard, pitiless sky. - -Sinking to the _west_ from our feet the gentle golden-green _glacis_ -sloped away, flanked by rolling hills covered with a fresh, vernal -carpet of grass, and relieved by scattered groves of dark oak-trees. -Upon the distant valley were checkered fields of grass and grain just -tinged with the first ripening yellow. The bounding Coast Ranges lay in -the cool shadow of a bank of mist which drifted in from the Pacific, -covering their heights. Flocks of bright clouds floated across the sky, -whose blue was palpitating with light, and seemed to rise with infinite -perspective. Tranquillity, abundance, the slow, beautiful unfolding of -plant life, dark, shadowed spots to rest our tired eyes upon, the shade -of giant oaks to lie down under, while listening to brooks, contralto -larks, and the soft, distant lowing of cattle. - -I have given the outlines of aspect along our ride across the Chabazon, -omitting many amusing incidents and some _genre_ pictures of rare -interest among the Kaweah Indians, as I wished simply to illustrate the -relations of the Sierra with the country bordering its east base,--the -barrier looming above a desert. - -In Nevada and California, farther north, this wall rises more grandly, -but its face rests upon a modified form of desert plains of less extent -than the Colorado, and usually covered with sage-plants and other brushy -_compositæ_ of equally pitiful appearance. Large lakes of complicated -saline waters are dotted under the Sierra shadow, the ancient terraces -built upon foot-hill and outlying volcanic ranges indicating their -former expansion into inland seas; and farther north still, where -plains extend east of Mount Shasta, level sheets of lava form the -country, and open, black, rocky channels, for the numerous branches of -the Sacramento and Klamath. - -Approaching the Sierras anywhere from the west, one will perceive a -totally different topographical and climatic condition. From the Coast -Range peaks especially one obtains an extended and impressive prospect. -I had fallen behind the party one May evening of our march across -Pacheco’s Pass, partly because some wind-bent oaks trailing almost -horizontally over the wild-oat surface of the hills, and marking, as a -living record, the prevalent west wind, had arrested me and called out -compass and note-book; and because there had fallen to my lot an -incorrigibly deliberate mustang to whom I had abandoned myself to be -carried along at his own pace, comforted withal that I should get in too -late to have any hand in the cooking of supper. We reached the crest, -the mustang coming to a conspicuous and unwarrantable halt; I yielded, -however, and sat still in the saddle, looking out to the east. - -Brown foot-hills, purple over their lower slopes with “fil-a-ree” -blossoms, descended steeply to the plain of California, a great, inland, -prairie sea, extending for five hundred miles, mountain-locked, between -the Sierras and coast hills, and now a broad, arabesque surface of -colors. Miles of orange-colored flowers, cloudings of green and white, -reaches of violet which looked like the shadow of a passing cloud, -wandering in natural patterns over and through each other, sunny and -intense along near our range, fading in the distance into pale, -bluish-pearl tones, and divided by long, dimly seen rivers, whose -margins were edged by belts of bright emerald green. Beyond rose three -hundred miles of Sierra half lost in light and cloud and mist, the -summit in places sharply seen against a pale, beryl sky, and again -buried in warm, rolling clouds. It was a mass of strong light, soft, -fathomless shadows, and dark regions of forest. However, the three belts -upon its front were tolerably clear. Dusky foot-hills rose over the -plain with a coppery gold tone, suggesting the line of mining towns -planted in its rusty ravines,--a suggestion I was glad to repel, and -look higher into that cool, solemn realm where the pines stand, -green-roofed, in infinite colonnade. Lifted above the bustling industry -of the plains and the melodramatic mining theatre of the foot-hills, it -has a grand, silent life of its own, refreshing to contemplate even from -a hundred miles away. - -While I looked the sun descended; shadows climbed the Sierras, casting a -gloom over foot-hill and pine, until at last only the snow summits, -reflecting the evening light, glowed like red lamps along the mountain -wall for hundreds of miles. The rest of the Sierra became invisible. The -snow burned for a moment in the violet sky, and at last went out. - - - - -II - -THROUGH THE FOREST - -1864 - - -Visalia is the name of a small town embowered in oaks upon the Tulare -Plain in Middle California, where we made our camp one May evening of -1864. - -Professor Whitney, our chief, the State Geologist, had sent us out for a -summer’s campaign in the High Sierras, under the lead of Professor -William H. Brewer, who was more sceptical than I as to the result of the -mission. - -Several times during the previous winter Mr. Hoffman and I, while on -duty at the Mariposa goldmines, had climbed to the top of Mount Bullion, -and gained, in those clear January days, a distinct view of the High -Sierra, ranging from the Mount Lyell group many miles south to a vast -pile of white peaks, which, from our estimate, should lie near the heads -of the King’s and Kaweah rivers. Of their great height I was fully -persuaded; and Professor Whitney, on the strength of these few -observations, commissioned us to explore and survey the new Alps. - -We numbered five in camp:--Professor Brewer; Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, -chief topographer; Mr. James T. Gardiner, assistant surveyor; myself, -assistant geologist; and our man-of-all-work, to whom science already -owes its debts. - -When we got together our outfit of mules and equipments of all kinds, -Brewer was going to re-engage, as general aid, a certain Dane, Jan -Hoesch, who, besides being a faultless mule-packer, was a rapid and -successful financier, having twice, when the field-purse was low and -remittances delayed, enriched us by what he called “dealing bottom -stock” in his little evening games with the honest miners. Not -ungrateful for that, I, however, detested the fellow with great -cordiality. - -“If I don’t take him, will you be responsible for packing mules and for -daily bread?” said Brewer to me, the morning of our departure from -Oakland. “I will.” “Then we’ll take your man Cotter; only, when the -pack-saddles roll under the mules’ bellies, I shall light my pipe and go -botanizing. _Sabe?_” - -So my friend, Richard Cotter, came into the service, and the -accomplished but filthy Jan opened a poker and rum shop on one of the -San Francisco wharves, where he still mixes drinks and puts up jobs of -“bottom stock.” Secretly I longed for him as we came down the Pacheco -Pass, the packs having loosened with provoking frequency. The animals of -our small exploring party were upon a footing of easy social equality -with us. All were excellent except mine. The choice of Hobson (whom I -take to have been the youngest member of some company) falling -naturally to me, I came to be possessed of the only hopeless animal in -the band. Old Slum, a dignified roan mustang of a certain age, with the -decorum of years and a conspicuous economy of force retained not a few -of the affectations of youth, such as snorting theatrically and shying, -though with absolute safety to the rider, Professor Brewer. Hoffman’s -mount was a young half-breed, full of fire and gentleness. The mare -Bess, my friend Gardiner’s pet, was a light-bay creature, as full of -spring and perception as her sex and species may be. A rare mule, Cate, -carried Cotter. Nell and Jim, two old geological mules, branded with -Mexican hieroglyphics from head to tail, were bearers of the loads. - -My Buckskin was incorrigibly bad. To begin with, his anatomy was -desultory and incoherent, the maximum of physical effort bringing about -a slow, shambling gait quite unendurable. He was further cursed with a -brain wanting the elements of logic, as evinced by such _non sequiturs_ -as shying insanely at wisps of hay, and stampeding beyond control when I -tried to tie him to a load of grain. My sole amusement with Buckskin -grew out of a psychological peculiarity of his, namely, the unusual -slowness with which waves of sensation were propelled inward toward the -brain from remote parts of his periphery. A dig of the spurs -administered in the flank passed unnoticed for a period of time varying -from twelve to thirteen seconds, till the protoplasm of the brain -received the percussive wave; then, with a suddenness which I never -wholly got over, he would dash into a trot, nearly tripping himself up -with his own astonishment. - -A stroke of good fortune completed our outfit and my happiness by -bringing to Visalia a Spaniard who was under some manner of financial -cloud. His horse was offered for sale, and quickly bought for me by -Professor Brewer. We named him Kaweah, after the river and its Indian -tribe. He was young, strong, fleet, elegant, a pattern of fine modelling -in every part of his bay body and fine black legs; every way good, only -fearfully wild, with a blaze of quick electric light in his dark eye. - -Shortly after sunrise one fresh morning we made a point of putting the -packs on very securely, and, getting into our saddles, rode out toward -the Sierras. - -The group of farms surrounding Visalia is gathered within a belt through -which several natural, and many more artificial, channels of the Kaweah -flow. Groves of large, dark-foliaged oaks follow this irrigated zone; -the roads, nearly always in shadow, are flanked by small ranch-houses, -fenced in with rank jungles of weeds and rows of decrepit pickets. - -There is about these fresh ruins, these specimens of modern decay, an -air of social decomposition not pleasant to perceive. Freshly built -houses, still untinted by time, left in rickety disorder, half-finished -windows, gates broken down or unhinged, and a kind of sullen neglect -staring everywhere. What more can I say of the people than that they -are chiefly immigrants who subsist upon pork? - -Rare exceptions of comfort and thrift shine out sometimes, with neat -dooryards, well-repaired dwellings, and civilized-looking children. In -these I never saw the mother of the family sitting cross-legged, smoking -a corncob pipe, nor the father loafing about with a fiddle or shot-gun. - -Our backs were now turned to this farm-belt, the road leading us out -upon the open plain in our first full sight of the Sierras. - -Grand and cool swelled up the forest; sharp and rugged rose the wave of -white peaks, their vast fields of snow rolling over the summit in broad, -shining masses. - -Sunshine, exuberant vegetation, brilliant plant life, occupied our -attention hour after hour until the middle of the second day. At last, -after climbing a long, weary ascent, we rode out of the dazzling light -of the foot-hills into a region of dense woodland, the road winding -through avenues of pines so tall that the late evening light only came -down to us in scattered rays. Under the deep shade of these trees we -found an air pure and gratefully cool. Passing from the glare of the -open country into the dusky forest, one seems to enter a door and ride -into a vast covered hall. The whole sensation is of being roofed and -enclosed. You are never tired of gazing down long vistas, where, in -stately groups, stand tall shafts of pine. Columns they are, each with -its own characteristic tinting and finish, yet all standing together -with the air of relationship and harmony. Feathery branches, trimmed -with living green, wave through the upper air, opening broken glimpses -of the far blue, and catching on their polished surfaces reflections of -the sun. Broad streams of light pour in, gilding purple trunks and -falling in bright pathways along an undulating floor. Here and there are -wide, open spaces, around which the trees group themselves in majestic -ranks. - -Our eyes often ranged upward, the long shafts leading the vision up to -green, lighted spires, and on to the clouds. All that is dark and cool -and grave in color, the beauty of blue umbrageous distance, all the -sudden brilliance of strong local lights tinted upon green boughs or red -and fluted shafts, surround us in ever-changing combination as we ride -along these winding roadways of the Sierra. - -We had marched a few hours over high, rolling, wooded ridges, when in -the late afternoon we reached the brow of an eminence and began to -descend. Looking over the tops of the trees beneath us, we saw a -mountain basin fifteen hundred feet deep surrounded by a rim of -pine-covered hills. An even, unbroken wood covered these sweeping slopes -down to the very bottom, and in the midst, open to the sun, lay a -circular green meadow, about a mile in diameter. - -As we descended, side wood-tracks, marked by the deep ruts of timber -wagons, joined our road on either side, and in the course of an hour we -reached the basin and saw the distant roofs of Thomas’s Saw-Mill Ranch. -We crossed the level disc of meadow, fording a clear, cold mountain -stream, flowing, as the best brooks do, over clean, white granite sand, -and near the northern margin of the valley, upon a slight eminence, in -the edge of a magnificent forest, pitched our camp. - -The hills to the westward already cast down a sombre shadow, which fell -over the eastern hills and across the meadow, dividing the basin half in -golden and half in azure green. The tall young grass was living with -purple and white flowers. This exquisite carpet sweeps up over the bases -of the hills in green undulations, and strays far into the forest in -irregular fields. A little brooklet passed close by our camp and flowed -down the smooth green _glacis_ which led from our little eminence to the -meadow. Above us towered pines two hundred and fifty feet high, their -straight, fluted trunks smooth and without a branch for a hundred feet. -Above that, and on to the very tops, the green branches stretched out -and interwove, until they spread a broad, leafy canopy from column to -column. - -Professor Brewer determined to make this camp a home for the week during -which we were to explore and study all about the neighborhood. We were -on a great granite spur, sixty miles from east to west by twenty miles -wide, which lies between the Kaweah and King’s River cañons. Rising in -bold sweeps from the plain, this ridge joins the Sierra summit in the -midst of a high group. Experience had taught us that the cañons are -impassable by animals for any great distance; so the plan of campaign -was to find a way up over the rocky crest of the spur as far as mules -could go. - -In the little excursions from this camp, which were made usually on -horseback, we became acquainted with the forest, and got a good -knowledge of the topography of a considerable region. On the heights -above King’s Cañon are some singularly fine assemblies of trees. Cotter -and I had ridden all one morning northeast from camp under the shadowy -roof of forest, catching but occasional glimpses out over the plateau, -until at last we emerged upon the bare surface of a ridge of granite, -and came to the brink of a sharp precipice. Rocky crags lifted just east -of us. The hour devoted to climbing them proved well spent. - -A single little family of alpine firs growing in a niche in the granite -surface, and partly sheltered by a rock, made the only shadow, and just -shielded us from the intense light as we lay down by their roots. North -and south, as far as the eye could reach, heaved the broad, green waves -of plateau, swelling and merging through endless modulation of slope and -form. - -Conspicuous upon the horizon, about due east of us, was a tall, -pyramidal mass of granite, trimmed with buttresses which radiated down -from its crest, each one ornamented with fantastic spires of rock. -Between the buttresses lay stripes of snow, banding the pale granite -peak from crown to base. Upon the north side it fell off, grandly -precipitous, into the deep upper cañon of King’s River. This gorge, -after uniting a number of immense rocky amphitheatres, is carved deeply -into the granite two and three thousand feet. In a slightly curved line -from the summit it cuts westward through the plateau, its walls, for the -most part, descending in sharp, bare slopes, or lines of ragged -_débris_, the resting-place of processions of pines. We ourselves were -upon the brink of the south wall; three thousand feet below us lay the -valley, a narrow, winding ribbon of green, in which, here and there, -gleamed still reaches of the river. Wherever the bottom widened to a -quarter or half a mile, green meadows and extensive groves occupied the -level region. Upon every niche and crevice of the walls, up and down -sweeping curves of easier descent, were grouped black companies of -trees. - -The behavior of the forest is observed most interestingly from these -elevated points above the general face of the table-land. All over the -gentle undulations of the more level country sweeps an unbroken covering -of trees. Reaching the edge of the cañon precipices, they stand out in -bold groups upon the brink, and climb all over the more ragged and -broken surfaces of granite. Only the most smooth and abrupt precipices -are bare. Here and there a little shelf of a foot or two in width, -cracked into the face of the bluff, gives foothold to a family of -pines, who twist their roots into its crevices and thrive. With no soil -from which the roots may drink up moisture and absorb the slowly -dissolved mineral particles, they live by breathing alone, moist vapors -from the river below and the elements of the atmosphere affording them -the substance of life. - -I believe no one can study from an elevated lookout the length and depth -of one of these great Sierra cañons without asking himself some profound -geological questions. Your eyes range along one or the other wall. The -average descent is immensely steep. Here and there side ravines break -down the rim in deep, lateral gorges. Again, the wall advances in sharp, -salient precipices, rising two or three thousand feet, sheer and naked, -with all the air of a recent fracture. At times the two walls approach -each other, standing in perpendicular gateways. Toward the summits the -cañon grows, perhaps, a little broader, and more and more prominent -lateral ravines open into it, until at last it receives the snow -drainage of the summit, which descends through broad, rounded -amphitheatres, separated from each other by sharp, castellated snow-clad -ridges. - -Looking down the course of the river, vertical precipices are seen to be -less and less frequent, the walls inclining to each other more and more -gently, until they roll out on the north and south in round, wooded -ridges. Solid, massive granite forms the material throughout its whole -length. If you study the topography upon the plateaus above one of -these cañons, you will see that the ridges upon one side are reproduced -in the other, as if the outlines of wavy table-land topography had been -determined before the great cañon was made. - -It is not easy to propose a solution for this peculiar structure. I -think, however, it is safe to say that actual rending asunder of the -mountain mass determined the main outlines. Upon no other theory can we -account for those blank walls. Where, in the upper course of the cañon, -they descend in a smooth, ship-like curve, and the rocks bear upon their -curved sides the markings and striations of glaciers, it is easy to see -that those terrible ice-engines gradually modified their form; and -toward the foot-hills the forces of aqueous erosion are clearly -indicated in the rounded forms and broad undulations of the two banks. - -Looking back from our isolated crag in the direction of our morning’s -ride, we saw the green hills break down into the basin of Thomas’s Mill, -but the disc of meadow lay too deep to be seen. Forests, dense and -unbroken, grew to the base of our cliff. The southern sunlight reflected -from its polished foliage gave to this whole sea of spiry tops a -peculiar golden green, through which we looked down among giant red and -purple trunks upon beds of bright mountain flowers. As the afternoon -lengthened, the summit rank of peaks glowed warmer and warmer under -inclined rays. The granite flushed with rosy brightness between the -fields of glittering golden snow. A mild, pearly haziness came gradually -to obscure the ordinary cold-blue sky, and, settling into cañon depths, -and among the vast, open corridors of the summit, veiled the savage -sharpness of their details. - -I lay several hours sketching the outlines of the summit, studying out -the systems of alpine drainage, and getting acquainted with the long -chain of peaks, that I might afterward know them from other points of -view. I became convinced from the great apparent elevation and the wide -fields of snow that we had not formerly deceived ourselves as to their -great height. Warned at length by the deepening shadow in the King’s -Cañon, by the heightened glow suffusing the peaks, and the deep purple -tone of the level expanse of forest, all forerunners of twilight, we -quitted our eyrie, crept carefully down over half-balanced blocks of -_débris_ to the horses, and, mounting, were soon headed homeward, in -what seemed, by contrast, to be almost a nocturnal darkness. - -Wherever the ground opened level before us we gave our horses the rein, -and went at a free gallop through the forest; the animals realized that -they were going home, and pressed forward with the greatest spirit. A -good-sized log across our route seemed to be an object of special -amusement to Kaweah, who seized the bits in his teeth, and, dancing up, -crouched, and cleared it with a mighty bound, in a manner that was -indeed inspiring, yet left one with the impression that once was enough -of that sort of thing. Fearing some manner of hostilities with him, I -did my very best to quiet Kaweah, and by the end of an hour had gotten -him down to a sensible, serious walk. I noticed that he insisted upon -following his tracks of the morning’s march, and was not contented -unless I let him go on the old side of every tree. Thus I became so -thoroughly convinced of his faculty to follow the morning’s trail that I -yielded all control of him, giving myself up to the enjoyment of the -dimly lighted wood. - -As the sun at last set, the shadow deepened into an impressive gloom; -mighty trunks, rising into that dark region of interlocking boughs, only -vaguely defined themselves against the twilight sky. We could no longer -see our tracks, and the confused rolling topography looked alike -whichever way we turned. Kaweah strode on in his confident way, and I -was at last confirmed as to his sagacity by passing one after another -the objects we had noted in the morning. Thus for a couple of hours we -rode in the darkness. At length the rising moon poured down through -broken tents of foliage its uncertain silvery light, which had the -effect of deepening all the shadows, and lighting up in the strangest -manner little local points. Here and there ahead of us the lighted trees -rose like pillars of an ancient temple. The forest, which an hour before -overpowered us with a sense of its dark enclosure, opened on in distant -avenues as far as the eye could reach. As we rode through denser or -more open passages the moon sailed into clear, violet sky, or was -obscured again by the sharply traced crests of the pines. Ravines, dark -and unfathomable, yawned before us, their flanks half in shadow, half in -weird, uncertain light. Blocks of white granite gleamed here and there -in contrast with the general depth of shade. At last, descending a hill, -there shone before us a red light; the horses plunged forward at a -gallop, and in a moment we were in camp. After this ride we supped, -relishing our mountain fare, and then lay down upon blankets before a -camp-fire for the mountaineer’s short evening. One keeps awake under -stimulus of the sparkling, frosty air for awhile, and then turns in for -the night, sleeping till daybreak with a light, sound sleep. - -The charm of this forest life, in spite of its scientific interest, and -the constant succession of exquisite, highly colored scenes, would -string one’s feelings up to a high though monotonous key, were it not -for the half-droll, half-pathetic _genre_ picturesqueness which the -Digger Indians introduce. Upon every stream and on all the finer -camp-grounds throughout the whole forest are found these families of -Indians who migrate up here during the hot weather, fishing, hunting, -gathering pine-nuts, and lying off with that peculiar, bummerish ease, -which, associated with natural mock dignity, throws about them a -singular, and not infrequently deep interest. - -I never forget certain bright June sunrises when I have seen the Indian -_paterfamilias_ gather together his little tribe and address them in the -heroic style concerning the vital importance of the grasshopper crop, -and the reverence due to the Giver of manzanita berries. You come upon -them as you travel the trails, proud-stepping “braves” leading the way, -unhampered and free, followed by troops of submissive squaws loaded down -with immense packages and baskets. Their death and burial customs, too, -have elements of weird, romantic interest. - -I remember one morning when I was awakened before dawn by wild, -unearthly shrieks ringing through the forest and coming back again in -plaintive echoes from the hills all about. Beyond description wild, -these wails of violent grief followed each other with regular cadence, -dying away in long, despairing sobs. With a marvellous regularity they -recurred, never varying the simple refrain. My curiosity was aroused so -far as to get me out of my blankets, and, after a hurried bath in an icy -stream, I joined my mountaineer acquaintance, Jerry, who was _en route_ -to the rancheria, “to see,” as he expressed it, “them _tar-heads_ howl.” -It seems my friend Buck, the Indian chief, had the night before lost his -wife, Sally the Old, and the shouts came from professional mourners -hired by her family to prepare the body and do up the necessary amount -of grief. Old widows and superannuated wives who have outlived other -forms of usefulness gladly enter this singular profession. They cut -their hair short, and, with each new death, plaster on a fresh cap of -pitch and ashes, daub the face with spots of tar, and, in general, array -themselves as funeral experts. - -The rancheria was astir when we arrived. It was a mere group of half a -dozen smoky hovels, built of pine bark propped upon cones of poles, and -arranged in a semi-circle within the edge of the forest, fronting on a -brook and meadow. Jerry and I leaned our backs against a large tree, and -watched the group. - -Buck’s shanty was deserted, the body of his wife lying outside upon a -blanket, being prepared by two of these funeral hags. Buck himself was -quietly stuffing his stomach with a breakfast of venison and acorns, -which were handed him at brief intervals by several sympathizing squaws. - -Turning to Jerry with a countenance of stolid seriousness, he -laconically remarked, “My woman she die! Very bad. To-night, sundown” -(pointing to the sun), “she burn up.” Meanwhile the tar-heads rolled -Sally the Old over and over, all the while alternately howling the same -dismal phrase. Indian relatives and friends, having the general air of -animated rag-bags, arrived occasionally, and sat down in silence at a -fire a little removed from the other Diggers, never once saluting them. - -As we walked back to our camp, I remarked on the stolid, cruel -expression of Buck’s face, but Jerry, to my surprise, bade me not judge -too hastily. He went on to explain that Indians have just as deep and -tender attachments, just as much good sense, and, to wind up with, “as -much human into ’em, as we edicated white folks.” - -His own squaw had instilled this into Jerry’s naturally sentimental and -credulous heart, so I refrained from expressing my convictions -concerning Indians, which, I own, were formerly tinged with the most -sanguinary Caucasian prejudice. - -Jerry came for me by appointment just before sunset, and we walked -leisurely across the meadow, and under lengthening pine shadows, to the -rancheria. No one was stirring. Buck and the two vicarious mourners sat -in his lodge door, uttering low, half-audible groans. In the opening -before the line of huts a low pile of dry logs had been carefully laid, -upon which, outstretched, and wrapped in a red blanket, lay the dead -form of Sally the Old, her face covered in careful folds. Upon her heart -were a grass-woven water-bowl and her last pappoose basket. - -Just as the sun sank to the horizon, one tar-head stepped out in front -of the funeral pile, lifted up both hands, and gazed steadily and -silently at the sun. She might have been five minutes in this statuesque -position, her face full of strange, half-animal intensity of expression, -her eyes glittering, the whole hard figure glowing with a deep bronze -reflection. Suddenly she sprang back with the old wild shriek, seized a -brand from one of the camp-fires, and lighted the funeral heap, when all -the Indians came out, and grouped themselves in little knots around it. -Sally the Old’s children clung about an old mummy of a squaw, who -squatted upon the ground and rocked her body to and fro, making a low -cry as of an animal in pain. All the Indians looked serious; a group, -who Jerry said were relatives, seemed stupefied with grief. Upon a few -faces falling tears glistened in the light of the fire, which now shot -up red tongues high in the air, lighting up with weird distinctness -every feature of the whole group. Flames slowly lapped over, consuming -the blanket, and caught the willow pappoose basket. When Buck saw this -the tears streamed from his eyes; he waved his hands eloquently, looking -up to heaven, and uttered heartbroken sobs. The pappoose basket crackled -for a moment, flashed into a blaze, and was gone. The two old women -yelled their sharp death-cry, dancing, posturing, gesticulating toward -the fire, and in slow, measured chorus all the Indians intoned in -pathetic measure, “Himalaya! Himalaya!” looking first at the mound of -fire and then out upon the fading sunset. - -It was all indescribably strange: monarch pines standing in solemn ranks -far back into the dusky heart of the forest, glowing and brightening -with pulsating reflections of firelight; the ring of Indians, crouching, -standing fixed like graven images, or swaying mechanically to and fro; -each tattered scarlet and white rag of their utterly squalid garments, -every expression of barbaric grief or dull stolidity, being brought -strongly out by the red, flaming fire. - -Buck watched with wet eyes that slow-consuming fire burn to ashes the -body of his wife of many years, the mother of his group of poor, -frightened children. Not a stoical savage, but a despairing husband, -stood before us. I felt him to be human. The body at last sank into a -bed of flames which shot up higher than ever with fountains of sparks, -and sucked together, hiding the remains forever from view. At this Buck -sprang to the front and threw himself at the fire; but the two old women -seized each a hand and dragged him back to his children, when he fell -into a fit of stupor. - -As we walked home Jerry was quick to ask, “Didn’t I tell you Injuns has -feelings inside of ’em?” I answered promptly that I was convinced; and -long after, as I lay awake through many night-hours listening to that -shrill death-wail, I felt as if any policy toward the Indians based upon -the assumption of their being brutes or devils was nothing short of a -blot on this Christian century. - -My sleep was light, and sunrise found me dressed, still listening, as -under a kind of spell, to the mourners, who, though evidently exhausted, -at brief intervals uttered the cry. Alone, and filled with serious -reflections, I strolled over to the rancheria, finding every one there -up and about his morning duties. - -The tar-heads, withdrawn some distance into the forest, sat leaning -against a stump, chatting and grinning together, now and then screeching -by turns. - -I asked Revenue Stamp, a good-natured, middle-aged Indian, where Buck -was. He pointed to his hut, and replied, with an affable smile, “He -whiskey drunk.” “And who,” I inquired, “is that fat girl with him?” -“Last night he take her; new squaw,” was the answer. I could hardly -believe, but it was the actual truth; and I went back to camp an -enlightened but disillusioned man. I left that day, and never had an -opportunity to “free my mind” to Jerry. Since then I guardedly avoid all -discussion of the “Indian question.” When interrogated, I dodge, or -protest ignorance; when pressed, I have been known to turn the subject; -or, if driven to the wall, I usually confess my opinion that the Quakers -will have to work a great reformation in the Indian before he is really -fit to be exterminated. - -The mill-people and Indians told us of a wonderful group of big trees -(_Sequoia gigantea_), and about one particular tree of unequalled size. -We found them easily, after a ride of a few miles in a northerly -direction from our camp, upon a wide, flat-topped spur, where they grew, -as is their habit elsewhere, in company with several other coniferous -species, all grouped socially together, heightening each other’s beauty -by contrasts of form and color. - -In a rather open glade, where the ground was for the most part green -with herbage, and conspicuously starred with upland flowers, stood the -largest shaft we observed. A fire had formerly burned off a small -segment of its base, not enough, however, to injure the symmetrical -appearance. It was a slowly tapering, regularly round column of about -forty feet in diameter at the base, and rising two hundred and -seventy-four feet, adorned with a few huge branches, which start -horizontally from the trunk, but quickly turn down and spray out. The -bark, thick but not rough, is scored up and down at considerable -intervals with deep, smooth grooves, and is of brightest cinnamon color, -mottled in purple and yellow. - -That which impresses one most after its vast bulk the grand, pillar-like -stateliness, is the thin and inconspicuous foliage, which feathers out -delicately on the boughs like a mere mist of pale apple-green. It would -seem nothing when compared with the immense volume of tree for which it -must do the ordinary respirative duty; but doubtless the bark performs a -large share of this, its papery lamination and porous structure fitting -it eminently for that purpose. - -Near this “King of the Mountains” grew three other trees; one a -sugar-pine (_Pinus Lambertiana_) of about eight feet in diameter, and -hardly less than three hundred feet high (although we did not measure -it, estimating simply by comparison of its rise above the _Sequoia_, -whose height was quite accurately determined). For a hundred and fifty -feet the pine was branchless, and as round as if turned, delicate -bluish-purple in hue, and marked with a net-work of scorings. The -branches, in nearly level poise, grew long and slenderly out from the -shaft, well covered with dark yellow-green needles. The two remaining -trees were firs (_Picea grandis_), which sprang from a common root, -dividing slightly, as they rose, a mass of feathery branches, whose load -of polished blue-green foliage, for the most part, hid the dark -wood-brown trunk. Grace, exquisite, spire-like, taper boughs, whose -plumes of green float lightly upon the air, elasticity and symmetry are -its characteristics. - -In all directions this family continue grouping themselves, always with -attractive originality. There is something memorable in the harmonious -yet positive colors of this sort of forest. First, the foliage and trunk -of each separate tree contrasts finely,--cinnamon and golden apple-green -in the _Sequoia_, dark purple and yellowish-green for the pine, deep -wood-color and bluish-green of fir. - -The sky, which at this elevation of six thousand feet is deep, pure blue -and often cloudless, is seen through the tracery of boughs and -tree-tops, which cast downward fine and filmy shadows across the glowing -trunks. Altogether, it is a wonderful setting for the _Sequoia_. The two -firs, judging by many of equal size whose age I have studied, were about -three hundred years old; the pine, still hale and vigorous, not less -than five hundred; and for the “King of the Mountains” we cannot assign -a probable age of less than two thousand years. - -A mountain, a fossil from deepest geological horizon, a ruin of human -art, carry us back into the perspective of centuries with a force that -has become, perhaps, a little conventional. No imperishableness of -mountain-peak or of fragment of human work, broken pillar or sand-worn -image half lifted over pathetic desert,--none of these link the past and -to-day with anything like the power of these monuments of living -antiquity, trees that began to grow before the Christian era, and, full -of hale vitality and green old age, still bid fair to grow broad and -high for centuries to come. Who shall predict the limits of this -unexampled life? There is nothing which indicates suffering or -degeneracy in the _Sequoia_ as a species. I find pathological hints that -several other far younger species in the same forest are gradually -giving up their struggle for existence. That singular species _Pinus -Sabiniana_ appears to me to suffer death-pains from foot-hill extremes -of temperature and dryness, and notably from ravenous parasites of the -mistletoe type. At the other extreme the _Pinus flexilis_ has about half -given up the fight against cold and storms. Its young are dwarfed or -huddled in thickets, with such mode of growth that they may never make -trees of full stature; while higher up, standing among bare rocks and -fields of ice, far above all living trees, are the stark, white -skeletons of noble dead specimens, their blanched forms rigid and -defiant, preserved from decay by a marvellous hardness of fibre, and -only wasted by the cutting of storm-driven crystals of snow. Still the -_Sequoia_ maintains perfect health. - -It is, then, the vast respiring power, the atmosphere, the bland, -regular climate, which give such long life, and not any richness or -abundance of food received from the soil. - -If one loves to gather the material for travellers’ stories, he may find -here and there a hollow fallen trunk through whose heart he may ride for -many feet without bowing the head. But if he love the tree for its own -grand nature, he may lie in silence upon the soft forest floor, in -shadow or sunny warmth, if he please, and spend many days in wonder, -gazing upon majestic shafts, following their gold and purple flutings -from broad, firmly planted base up and on through the few huge branches -and among the pale clouds of filmy green traced in open network upon the -deep blue of the sky. - -Groups of this ancient race grow along the middle heights of the Sierra -for almost two hundred miles, marking a line of groves through the -forest of lesser trees, still retaining their power of reproduction, -ripening cones with regularity, whose seed germinates, springs up, and -grows with apparently as great vital power as the descendants of younger -conifers. Nor are these their only remarkable characteristics. They -possess hardly any roots at all. Several in each grove have been blown -down, and lie slowly decomposing. They are found usually to have rested -upon the ground with a few short, pedestal-like feet penetrating the -earth for a little way. - -Too soon for my pleasure, the time came when we must turn our backs upon -these stately groves and push up toward the snow. Our route lay -eastward, between the King’s and Kaweah rivers, rising as we marched; -the vegetation, as well as the barometer, accurately measuring the -change. - -We reached our camp on the Big Meadow plateau on the 22nd of June, and -that night the thermometer fell to 20° above zero. This cold was -followed by a chilly, overcast morning, and about ten o’clock an -old-fashioned snowstorm set in. Wind howled fiercely through the trees, -coming down from the mountains in terribly powerful gusts. The green, -flower-colored meadow was soon buried under snow; and we explorers, who -had no tent, hid ourselves under piles of brush, and on the lee side of -hospitable stones. Our scant supply of blankets was a poor defence -against such inclemency; so we crawled out and made a huge camp-fire, -around which we sat for the rest of the day. During the afternoon we -were visited. A couple of hunters, with their rifles over their -shoulders, seeing the smoke of our camp-fire, followed it through the -woods and joined our circle. They were typical mountaineers,--outcasts -from society, discontented with the world, comforting themselves in the -solitude of nature by the occasional excitement of a bear-fight. One was -a half-breed Cherokee, rather over six feet high, powerfully built, and -picturesquely dressed in buckskin breeches and green jacket; a sort of -Trovatore hat completed his costume, and gave him an animated -appearance. The other was unmistakably a Pike-Countian, who had dangled -into a pair of butternut jeans. His greasy flannel shirt was pinned -together with thorns in lieu of buttons, and his hat fastened back in -the same way, having lost its stiffness by continual wetting. The -Cherokee had a long, manly stride, and the Pike a rickety sort of -shuffle. His anatomy was bad, his physical condition worse, and I think -he added to that a sort of pride in his own awkwardness. Seeming to have -a principle of suspension somewhere about his shoulders, which -maintained his head at about the right elevation above the ground, he -kept up a good rate in walking without apparently making an effort. His -body swayed with a peculiar, corkscrew motion, and his long Mississippi -rifle waved to and fro through the air. - -We all noticed the utter contrast between them as these two men -approached our fire. The hunter’s taciturnity is a well-known _rôle_, -but they had evidently lived so long an isolated life that they were too -glad of any company to play it unfailingly; so it was they who opened -the conversation. We found that they were now camped only a half-mile -from us, were hunting for deer-skins, and had already accumulated a very -large number. They offered us plenty of venison, and were greatly -interested in our proposed journeys into the high mountains. From them -we learned that they had themselves penetrated farther than any others, -and had only given up the exploration after wandering fruitlessly among -the cañons for a month. They told us that not even Indians had crossed -the Sierras to the east, and that if we did succeed in reaching this -summit we would certainly be the first. We learned from them, also, that -a mile to the northward was a great herd of cattle in charge of a party -of Mexicans. Fleeing before the continued drought of the plains, all the -cattle-men of California drove the remains of their starved herds either -to the coast or to the High Sierras, and grazed upon the summer -pastures, descending in the autumn, and living upon the dry foot-hill -grasses, until, under the influence of winter rains, the plains again -clothe themselves with pasturage. - -The following morning, having received a present of two deer from the -hunters, we packed our animals and started eastward, passing, after a -few minutes’ ride, the encampment of the Spaniards. About four thousand -cattle roamed over the plateau, and were only looked after once or twice -a week. The four Spaniards divided their time between drinking coffee -and playing cards. They were engaged in the latter amusement when we -passed them; and although we halted and tried to get some information, -they only answered us in monosyllables, and continued their game. - -To the eastward the plateau rose toward the high mountains in immense, -granite steps. We rode pleasantly through the forest over these level -tables, and climbed with difficulty the rugged, rock-strewn fronts, each -successive step bringing us nearer the mountains, and giving us a -far-reaching view. Here and there the granite rose through the forest -in broad, smooth domes; and many times we were obliged to climb these -rocky slopes at the peril of our animals’ lives. After several days of -marching and countermarching, we gave up the attempt to push farther in -a southeast direction, and turned north, toward the great cañon of -King’s River, which we hoped might lead us up to the Snow Group. - -Reaching the brink of this gorge, we observed, about half-way down the -slope, and standing at equal levels on both flanks, singular -embankments--shelves a thousand feet in width--built at a height of -fifteen hundred feet above the valley bottom, their smooth, evenly -graded summits rising higher and higher to the eastward on the -cañon-wall until they joined the snow. They were evidently the lateral -moraines of a vast, extinct glacier, and that opposite us seemed to -offer an easy ride into the heart of the mountains. With great -difficulty we descended the long slope, through chaparral and forest, -reaching, at length, the level, smooth glacier bottom. Here, threading -its way through alternate groves and meadows, was the King’s River--a -stream not over thirty feet in width, but rushing with all the force of -a torrent. Its icy temperature was very refreshing after our weary climb -down the wall. By a series of long zigzags we succeeded in leading our -animals up the flank to the top of the north moraine, and here we found -ourselves upon a forest-covered causeway, almost as smooth as a railroad -embankment. Its fluted crest enclosed three separate pathways, each a -hundred feet wide, divided from one another by roughly laid trains of -rocks, showing it evidently to be a compound moraine. As we ascended -toward the mountains, the causeway was more and more isolated from the -cliff, until the depression between them widened to half a mile, and to -at least five hundred feet deep. - -Throughout nearly a whole day we rode comfortably along at a gentle -grade, reaching at evening the region of the snow, where, among -innumerable huge granite blocks, we threaded our way in search of a -camp-ground. The mountain amphitheatre which gave rise to the King’s -River opened to the east, a broad valley, into which we at length -climbed; and, among scattered groves of alpine pines, and on patches of -meadow, rode eastward till twilight, watching the high pyramidal peak -which lay directly at the head of the gorge. By sunset we had gone as -far as we could take the animals, and, in full view of our goal, camped -for the night. - -The form of the mountain at the head of our ravine was purely Gothic. A -thousand upspringing spires and pinnacles pierce the sky in every -direction, the cliffs and mountain-ridges are everywhere ornamented with -countless needle-like turrets. Crowning the wall to the south of our -camp were series of these jagged forms standing out against the sky like -a procession of colossal statues. Whichever way we turned we were met by -some extraordinary fulness of detail. Every mass seemed to have the -highest possible ornamental finish. Along the lower flanks of the -walls, tall, straight pines, the last of the forest, were relieved -against the cliffs, and the same slender forms, although carved in -granite, surmounted every ridge and peak. - -Through this wide zone of forest we had now passed, and from its -perpetual shadow had come out among the few black groves of fir into a -brilliant alpine sunshine. The light, although surprisingly lively, was -of a purity and refinement quite different from the strong glare of the -plains. - - - - -III - -THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL - -1864 - - -Morning dawned brightly upon our bivouac among a cluster of dark firs in -the mountain corridor opened by an ancient glacier of King’s River into -the heart of the Sierras. It dawned a trifle sooner than we could have -wished, but Professor Brewer and Hoffman had breakfasted before sunrise, -and were off with barometer and theodolite upon their shoulders, -purposing to ascend our amphitheatre to its head and climb a great -pyramidal peak which swelled up against the eastern sky, closing the -view in that direction. - -We who remained in camp spent the day in overhauling campaign materials -and preparing for a grand assault upon the summits. For a couple of -hours we could descry our friends through the field-glasses, their -minute, black forms moving slowly on among piles of giant _débris_; now -and then lost, again coming to view, and at last disappearing -altogether. - -It was twilight of evening, and almost eight o’clock, when they came -back to camp, Brewer leading the way, Hoffman following; and as they -sat down by our fire without uttering a word, we read upon their faces -terrible fatigue. So we hastened to give them supper of coffee and soup, -bread and venison, which resulted, after a time, in our getting in -return the story of the day. For eight whole hours they had worked up -over granite and snow, mounting ridge after ridge, till the summit was -made about two o’clock. - -These snowy crests bounding our view at the eastward we had all along -taken to be the summits of the Sierra, and Brewer had supposed himself -to be climbing a dominant peak, from which he might look eastward over -Owen’s Valley and out upon leagues of desert. Instead of this, a vast -wall of mountains, lifted still higher than his peak, rose beyond a -tremendous cañon which lay like a trough between the two parallel ranks -of peaks. Hoffman showed us on his sketch-book the profile of this new -range, and I instantly recognized the peaks which I had seen from -Mariposa, whose great white pile had led me to believe them the highest -points of California. - -For a couple of months my friends had made me the target of plenty of -pleasant banter about my “highest land,” which they lost faith in as we -climbed from Thomas’s Mill,--I, too, becoming a trifle anxious about it; -but now that the truth had burst upon Brewer and Hoffman, they could not -find words to describe the terribleness and grandeur of the deep cañon, -or for picturing those huge crags towering in line at the east. Their -peak, as indicated by the barometer, was in the region of thirteen -thousand four hundred feet, and a level across to the farther range -showed its crests to be at least fifteen hundred feet higher. They had -spent hours upon the summit scanning the eastern horizon, and ranging -downward into the labyrinth of gulfs below, and had come at last with -reluctance to the belief that to cross this gorge and ascend the eastern -wall of peaks was utterly impossible. - -Brewer and Hoffman were old climbers, and their verdict of impossible -oppressed me as I lay awake thinking of it; but early next morning I had -made up my mind, and, taking Cotter aside, I asked him in an easy manner -whether he would like to penetrate the Terra Incognita with me at the -risk of our necks, provided Brewer should consent. In a frank, -courageous tone he answered after his usual mode, “Why not?” Stout of -limb, stronger yet in heart, of iron endurance, and a quiet, unexcited -temperament, and, better yet, deeply devoted to me, I felt that Cotter -was the one comrade I would choose to face death with, for I believed -there was in his manhood no room for fear or shirk. - -It was a trying moment for Brewer when we found him and volunteered to -attempt a campaign for the top of California, because he felt a certain -fatherly responsibility over our youth, a natural desire that we should -not deposit our triturated remains in some undiscoverable hole among the -feldspathic granites; but, like a true disciple of science, this was at -last overbalanced by his intense desire to know more of the unexplored -region. He freely confessed that he believed the plan madness, and -Hoffman, too, told us we might as well attempt to get on a cloud as to -try the peak. As Brewer gradually yielded his consent, I saw by his -conversation that there was a possibility of success; so we spent the -rest of the day in making preparations. - -Our walking-shoes were in excellent condition, the hobnails firm and -new. We laid out a barometer, a compass, a pocket-level, a set of wet -and dry thermometers, note-books, with bread, cooked beans, and venison -enough to last a week, rolled them all in blankets, making two -knapsack-shaped packs strapped firmly together, with loops for the arms, -which, by Brewer’s estimate, weighed forty pounds apiece. - -Gardiner declared he would accompany us to the summit of the first range -to look over into the gulf we were to cross, and at last Brewer and -Hoffman also concluded to go up with us. - -Quite too early for our profit we all betook ourselves to bed, vainly -hoping to get a long, refreshing sleep from which we should arise ready -for our tramp. - -Never a man welcomed those first gray streaks in the east gladder than I -did, unless it may be Cotter, who has in later years confessed that he -did not go to sleep that night. Long before sunrise we had finished our -breakfast and were under way, Hoffman kindly bearing my pack, and Brewer -Cotter’s. - -Our way led due east up the amphitheatre and toward Mount Brewer, as we -had named the great pyramidal peak. - -Awhile after leaving camp, slant sunlight streamed in among gilded -pinnacles along the slope of Mount Brewer, touching here and there, in -broad dashes of yellow, the gray walls, which rose sweeping up on either -hand like the sides of a ship. - -Our way along the valley’s middle ascended over a number of huge steps, -rounded and abrupt, at whose bases were pools of transparent snow-water, -edged with rude piles of erratic glacier blocks, scattered companies of -alpine firs, of red bark and having cypress-like darkness of foliage, -with fields of snow under sheltering cliffs, and bits of softest velvet -meadow clouded with minute blue and white flowers. - -As we climbed, the gorge grew narrow and sharp, both sides wilder; and -the spurs which projected from them, nearly overhanging the middle of -the valley, towered above us with more and more severe sculpture. We -frequently crossed deep fields of snow, and at last reached the level of -the highest pines, where long slopes of _débris_ swept down from either -cliff, meeting in the middle. Over and among these immense blocks, often -twenty and thirty feet high, we were obliged to climb, hearing far below -us the subterranean gurgle of streams. - -Interlocking spurs nearly closed the gorge behind us; our last view was -out a granite gateway formed of two nearly vertical precipices, -sharp-edged, jutting buttress-like, and plunging down into a field of -angular bowlders which fill the valley-bottom. - -The eye ranged out from this open gateway overlooking the great King’s -Cañon with its moraine-terraced walls, the domes of granite upon Big -Meadows, and the undulating stretch of forest which descends to the -plain. - -The gorge turning southward, we rounded a sort of mountain promontory, -which, closing the view behind us, shut us up in the bottom of a perfect -basin. In front lay a placid lake reflecting the intense black-blue of -the sky. Granite, stained with purple and red, sank into it upon one -side, and a broad, spotless field of snow came down to its margin upon -the other. - -From a pile of large granite blocks, forty or fifty feet above the -lake-margin, we could look down fully a hundred feet through the -transparent water to where bowlders and pebbles were strewn upon the -stone bottom. We had now reached the base of Mount Brewer, and were -skirting its southern spurs in a wide, open corridor surrounded in all -directions by lofty granite crags from two to four thousand feet high; -above the limits of vegetation, rocks, lakes of deep, heavenly blue, and -white, trackless snows were grouped closely about us. Two sounds--a -sharp, little cry of martens and occasional heavy crashes of falling -rock--saluted us. - -Climbing became exceedingly difficult, light air--for we had already -reached twelve thousand five hundred feet--beginning to tell upon our -lungs to such an extent that my friend, who had taken turns with me in -carrying my pack, was unable to do so any longer, and I adjusted it to -my own shoulders for the rest of the day. - -After four hours of slow, laborious work, we made the base of the -_débris_ slope which rose about a thousand feet to a saddle-pass in the -western mountain-wall, that range upon which Mount Brewer is so -prominent a point. We were nearly an hour in toiling up this slope, over -an uncertain footing which gave way at almost every step. At last, when -almost at the top, we paused to take breath, and then all walked out -upon the crest, laid off our packs, and sat down together upon the -summit of the ridge, and for a few moments not a word was spoken. - -The Sierras are here two parallel summit ranges. We were upon the crest -of the western ridge, and looked down into a gulf five thousand feet -deep, sinking from our feet in abrupt cliffs nearly or quite two -thousand feet, whose base plunged into a broad field of snow lying steep -and smooth for a great distance, but broken near its foot by craggy -steps often a thousand feet high. - -Vague blue haze obscured the lost depths, hiding details, giving a -bottomless distance, out of which, like the breath of wind, floated up a -faint tremble, vibrating upon the senses, yet never clearly heard. - -Rising on the other side, cliff above cliff, precipice piled upon -precipice, rock over rock, up against sky, towered the most gigantic -mountain-wall in America, culminating in a noble pile of Gothic-finished -granite and enamel-like snow. How grand and inviting looked its white -form, its untrodden, unknown crest, so high and pure in the clear, -strong blue! I looked at it as one contemplating the purpose of his -life; and for just one moment I would have rather liked to dodge that -purpose, or to have waited, or have found some excellent reason why I -might not go; but all this quickly vanished, leaving a cheerful resolve -to go ahead. - -From the two opposing mountain-walls singular, thin, knife-blade ridges -of stone jutted out, dividing the sides of the gulf into a series of -amphitheatres, each one a labyrinth of ice and rock. Piercing thick beds -of snow, sprang up knobs and straight, isolated spires of rock, mere -obelisks curiously carved by frost, their rigid, slender forms casting a -blue, sharp shadow upon the snow. Embosomed in depressions of ice, or -resting on broken ledges, were azure lakes, deeper in tone than the sky, -which at this altitude, even at midday, has a violet duskiness. - -To the south, not more than eight miles, a wall of peaks stood across -the gulf, dividing the King’s, which flowed north at our feet, from the -Kern River, that flowed down the trough in the opposite direction. - -I did not wonder that Brewer and Hoffman pronounced our undertaking -impossible; but when I looked at Cotter there was such complete bravery -in his eye that I asked him if he was ready to start. His old answer, -“Why not?” left the initiative with me; so I told Professor Brewer that -we would bid him good-by. Our friends helped us on with our packs in -silence, and as we shook hands there was not a dry eye in the party. -Before he let go of my hand Professor Brewer asked me for my plan, and I -had to own that I had but one, which was to reach the highest peak in -the range. - -After looking in every direction I was obliged to confess that I saw as -yet no practicable way. We bade them a “good-by,” receiving their “God -bless you” in return, and started southward along the range to look for -some possible cliff to descend. Brewer, Gardiner, and Hoffman turned -north to push upward to the summit of Mount Brewer, and complete their -observations. We saw them whenever we halted, until at last, on the very -summit, their microscopic forms were for the last time discernible. With -very great difficulty we climbed a peak which surmounted our wall just -to the south of the pass, and, looking over the eastern brink, found -that the precipice was still sheer and unbroken. In one place, where the -snow lay against it to the very top, we went to its edge and -contemplated the slide. About three thousand feet of unbroken white, at -a fearfully steep angle, lay below us. We threw a stone over and watched -it bound until it was lost in the distance; after fearful leaps we could -only detect it by the flashings of snow where it struck, and as these -were, in some instances, three hundred feet apart, we decided not to -launch our own valuable bodies, and the still more precious barometer, -after it. - -There seemed but one possible way to reach our goal: that was to make -our way along the summit of the cross ridge which projected between the -two ranges. This divide sprang out from our Mount Brewer wall, about -four miles to the south of us. To reach it we must climb up and down -over the indented edge of the Mount Brewer wall. In attempting to do -this we had a rather lively time scaling a sharp granite needle, where -we found our course completely stopped by precipices four and five -hundred feet in height. Ahead of us the summit continued to be broken -into fantastic pinnacles, leaving us no hope of making our way along it; -so we sought the most broken part of the eastern descent, and began to -climb down. The heavy knapsacks, besides wearing our shoulders gradually -into a black-and-blue state, overbalanced us terribly, and kept us in -constant danger of pitching headlong. At last, taking them off, Cotter -climbed down until he had found a resting-place upon a cleft of rock, -then I lowered them to him with our lasso, afterward descending -cautiously to his side, taking my turn in pioneering downward, receiving -the freight of knapsacks by lasso as before. In this manner we consumed -more than half the afternoon in descending a thousand feet of broken, -precipitous slope; and it was almost sunset when we found ourselves upon -the fields of level snow which lay white and thick over the whole -interior slope of the amphitheatre. - -The gorge below us seemed utterly impassable. At our backs the Mount -Brewer wall rose either in sheer cliffs or in broken, rugged stairway, -such as had offered us our descent. From this cruel dilemma the cross -divide furnished the only hope, and the sole chance of scaling that was -at its junction with the Mount Brewer wall. Toward this point we -directed our course, marching wearily over stretches of dense, frozen -snow, and regions of _débris_, reaching about sunset the last alcove of -the amphitheatre, just at the foot of the Mount Brewer wall. - -It was evidently impossible for us to attempt to climb it that evening, -and we looked about the desolate recesses for a sheltered camping-spot. -A high granite wall surrounded us upon three sides, recurring to the -southward in long, elliptical curves; no part of the summit being less -than two thousand feet above us, the higher crags not infrequently -reaching three thousand feet. A single field of snow swept around the -base of the rock, and covered the whole amphitheatre, except where a few -spikes and rounded masses of granite rose through it, and where two -frozen lakes, with their blue ice-disks, broke the monotonous surface. -Through the white snow-gate of our amphitheatre, as through a frame, we -looked eastward upon the summit group; not a tree, not a vestige of -vegetation in sight,--sky, snow, and granite the only elements in this -wild picture. - -After searching for a shelter we at last found a granite crevice near -the margin of one of the frozen lakes,--a sort of shelf just large -enough for Cotter and me,--where we hastened to make our bed, having -first filled the canteen from a small stream that trickled over the ice, -knowing that in a few moments the rapid chill would freeze it. We ate -our supper of cold venison and bread, and whittled from the sides of the -wooden barometer-case shavings enough to warm water for a cup of -miserably tepid tea, and then, packing our provisions and instruments -away at the head of the shelf, rolled ourselves in our blankets and lay -down to enjoy the view. - -After such fatiguing exercises the mind has an almost abnormal -clearness: whether this is wholly from within, or due to the intensely -vitalizing mountain air, I am not sure; probably both contribute to the -state of exaltation in which all alpine climbers find themselves. The -solid granite gave me a luxurious repose, and I lay on the edge of our -little rock niche and watched the strange yet brilliant scene. - -All the snow of our recess lay in the shadow of the high granite wall to -the west, but the Kern divide which curved around us from the southeast -was in full light; its broken sky line, battlemented and adorned with -innumerable rough-hewn spires and pinnacles, was a mass of glowing -orange intensely defined against the deep violet sky. At the open end -of our horseshoe amphitheatre, to the east, its floor of snow rounded -over in a smooth brink, overhanging precipices which sank two thousand -feet into the King’s Cañon. Across the gulf rose the whole procession of -summit peaks, their lower halves rooted in a deep, sombre shadow cast by -the western wall, the heights bathed in a warm purple haze, in which the -irregular marbling of snow burned with a pure crimson light. A few -fleecy clouds, dyed fiery orange, drifted slowly eastward across the -narrow zone of sky which stretched from summit to summit like a roof. At -times the sound of waterfalls, faint and mingled with echoes, floated up -through the still air. The snow near by lay in cold, ghastly shade, -warmed here and there in strange flashes by light reflected downward -from drifting clouds. The sombre waste about us; the deep violet vault -overhead; those far summits, glowing with reflected rose; the deep, -impenetrable gloom which filled the gorge, and slowly and with -vapor-like stealth climbed the mountain wall, extinguishing the red -light, combined to produce an effect which may not be described; nor can -I more than hint at the contrast between the brilliancy of the scene -under full light, and the cold, death-like repose which followed when -the wan cliffs and pallid snow were all overshadowed with ghostly gray. - -A sudden chill enveloped us. Stars in a moment crowded through the dark -heaven, flashing with a frosty splendor. The snow congealed, the brooks -ceased to flow, and, under the powerful sudden leverage of frost, -immense blocks were dislodged all along the mountain summits and came -thundering down the slopes, booming upon the ice, dashing wildly upon -rocks. Under the lee of our shelf we felt quite safe, but neither Cotter -nor I could help being startled, and jumping just a little, as these -missiles, weighing often many tons, struck the ledge over our heads and -whizzed down the gorge, their stroke resounding fainter and fainter, -until at last only a confused echo reached us. - -The thermometer at nine o’clock marked twenty degrees above zero. We set -the “minimum” and rolled ourselves together for the night. The longer I -lay the less I liked that shelf of granite; it grew hard in time, and -cold also, my bones seeming to approach actual contact with the chilled -rock; moreover, I found that even so vigorous a circulation as mine was -not enough to warm up the ledge to anything like a comfortable -temperature. A single thickness of blanket is a better mattress than -none, but the larger crystals of orthoclase, protruding plentifully, -punched my back and caused me to revolve on a horizontal axis with -precision and frequency. How I loved Cotter! How I hugged him and got -warm, while our backs gradually petrified, till we whirled over and -thawed them out together! The slant of that bed was diagonal and -excessive; down it we slid till the ice chilled us awake, and we crawled -back and chocked ourselves up with bits of granite inserted under my -ribs and shoulders. In this pleasant position we got dozing again, and -there stole over me a most comfortable ease. The granite softened -perceptibly. I was delightfully warm, and sank into an industrious -slumber which lasted with great soundness till four, when we rose and -ate our breakfast of frozen venison. - -The thermometer stood at two above zero; everything was frozen tight -except the canteen, which we had prudently kept between us all night. -Stars still blazed brightly, and the moon, hidden from us by western -cliffs, shone in pale reflection upon the rocky heights to the east, -which rose, dimly white, up from the impenetrable shadows of the cañon. -Silence,--cold, ghastly dimness, in which loomed huge forms,--the biting -frostiness of the air, wrought upon our feelings as we shouldered our -packs and started with slow pace to climb toward the “divide.” - -Soon, to our dismay, we found the straps had so chafed our shoulders -that the weight gave us great pain, and obliged us to pad them with our -handkerchiefs and extra socks, which remedy did not wholly relieve us -from the constant wearing pain of the heavy load. - -Directing our steps southward toward a niche in the wall which bounded -us only half a mile distant, we travelled over a continuous snow-field -frozen so densely as scarcely to yield at all to our tread, at the same -time compressing enough to make that crisp, frosty sound which we all -used to enjoy even before we knew from the books that it had something -to do with the severe name of regulation. - -As we advanced, the snow sloped more and more steeply up toward the -crags, till by and by it became quite dangerous, causing us to cut steps -with Cotter’s large bowie-knife,--a slow, tedious operation, requiring -patience of a pretty permanent kind. In this way we spent a quiet social -hour or so. The sun had not yet reached us, being shut out by the high -amphitheatre wall; but its cheerful light reflected downward from a -number of higher crags, filling the recess with the brightness of day, -and putting out of existence those shadows which so sombrely darkened -the earlier hours. To look back when we stopped to rest was to realize -our danger,--that smooth, swift slope of ice carrying the eye down a -thousand feet to the margin of a frozen mirror of ice; ribs and needles -of rock piercing up through the snow, so closely grouped that, had we -fallen, a miracle only might save us from being dashed. This led to -rather deeper steps, and greater care that our burdens should be held -more nearly over the centre of gravity, and a pleasant relief when we -got to the top of the snow and sat down on a block of granite to breathe -and look up in search of a way up the thousand-foot cliff of broken -surface, among the lines of fracture and the galleries winding along the -face. - -It would have disheartened us to gaze up the hard, sheer front of -precipices, and search among splintered projections, crevices, shelves, -and snow-patches for an inviting route, had we not been animated by a -faith that the mountains could not defy us. - -Choosing what looked like the least impossible way, we started; but, -finding it unsafe to work with packs on, resumed the yesterday’s -plan,--Cotter taking the lead, climbing about fifty feet ahead, and -hoisting up the knapsacks and barometer as I tied them to the end of the -lasso. Constantly closing up in hopeless difficulty before us, the way -opened again and again to our gymnastics, until we stood together upon a -mere shelf, not more than two feet wide, which led diagonally up the -smooth cliff. Edging along in careful steps, our backs flattened upon -the granite, we moved slowly to a broad platform, where we stopped for -breath. - -There was no foothold above us. Looking down over the course we had -come, it seemed, and I really believe it was, an impossible descent; for -one can climb upward with safety where he cannot downward. To turn back -was to give up in defeat; and we sat at least half an hour, suggesting -all possible routes to the summit, accepting none, and feeling -disheartened. About thirty feet directly over our heads was another -shelf, which, if we could reach, seemed to offer at least a temporary -way upward. On its edge were two or three spikes of granite; whether -firmly connected with the cliff, or merely blocks of _débris_, we could -not tell from below. I said to Cotter, I thought of but one possible -plan: it was to lasso one of these blocks, and to climb, -sailor-fashion, hand over hand, up the rope. In the lasso I had perfect -confidence, for I had seen more than one Spanish bull throw his whole -weight against it without parting a strand. The shelf was so narrow that -throwing the coil of rope was a very difficult undertaking. I tried -three times, and Cotter spent five minutes vainly whirling the loop up -at the granite spikes. At last I made a lucky throw, and it tightened -upon one of the smaller protuberances. I drew the noose close, and very -gradually threw my hundred and fifty pounds upon the rope; then Cotter -joined me, and for a moment we both hung our united weight upon it. -Whether the rock moved slightly, or whether the lasso stretched a -little, we were unable to decide; but the trial must be made, and I -began to climb slowly. The smooth precipice-face against which my body -swung offered no foothold, and the whole climb had therefore to be done -by the arms, an effort requiring all one’s determination. When about -half way up I was obliged to rest, and curling my feet in the rope -managed to relieve my arms for a moment. In this position I could not -resist the fascinating temptation of a survey downward. - -Straight down, nearly a thousand feet below, at the foot of the rocks, -began the snow, whose steep, roof-like slope, exaggerated into an almost -vertical angle, curved down in a long, white field, broken far away by -rocks and polished, round lakes of ice. - -Cotter looked up cheerfully, and asked how I was making it; to which I -answered that I had plenty of wind left. At that moment, when hanging -between heaven and earth, it was a deep satisfaction to look down at the -wild gulf of desolation beneath, and up to unknown dangers ahead, and -feel my nerves cool and unshaken. - -A few pulls hand over hand brought me to the edge of the shelf, when, -throwing an arm around the granite spike, I swung my body upon the -shelf, and lay down to rest, shouting to Cotter that I was all right, -and that the prospects upward were capital. After a few moments’ -breathing I looked over the brink, and directed my comrade to tie the -barometer to the lower end of the lasso, which he did, and that precious -instrument was hoisted to my station, and the lasso sent down twice for -knapsacks, after which Cotter came up the rope in his very muscular way, -without once stopping to rest. We took our loads in our hands, swinging -the barometer over my shoulder, and climbed up a shelf which led in a -zigzag direction upward and to the south, bringing us out at last upon -the thin blade of a ridge which connected a short distance above with -the summit. It was formed of huge blocks, shattered, and ready, at a -touch, to fall. - -So narrow and sharp was the upper slope that we dared not walk, but got -astride, and worked slowly along with our hands, pushing the knapsacks -in advance, now and then holding our breath when loose masses rocked -under our weight. - -Once upon the summit, a grand view burst upon us. Hastening to step upon -the crest of the divide, which was never more than ten feet wide, -frequently sharpened to a mere blade, we looked down the other side, and -were astonished to find we had ascended the gentler slope, and that the -rocks fell from our feet in almost vertical precipices for a thousand -feet or more. A glance along the summit toward the highest group showed -us that any advance in that direction was impossible, for the thin ridge -was gashed down in notches three or four hundred feet deep, forming a -procession of pillars, obelisks, and blocks piled upon each other, and -looking terribly insecure. - -We then deposited our knapsacks in a safe place, and, finding that it -was already noon, determined to rest a little while and take a lunch, at -over thirteen thousand feet above the sea. - -West of us stretched the Mount Brewer wall, with its succession of -smooth precipices and amphitheatre ridges. To the north the great gorge -of the King’s River yawned down five thousand feet. To the south the -valley of the Kern, opening in the opposite direction, was broader, less -deep, but more filled with broken masses of granite. Clustered about the -foot of the divide were a dozen alpine lakes; the higher ones blue -sheets of ice, the lowest completely melted. Still lower in the depths -of the two cañons we could see groups of forest trees; but they were so -dim and so distant as never to relieve the prevalent masses of rock and -snow. Our divide cast its shadow for a mile down King’s Cañon, in dark -blue profile upon the broad sheets of sunny snow, from whose brightness -the hard, splintered cliffs caught reflections and wore an aspect of -joy. Thousands of rills poured from the melting snow, filling the air -with a musical tinkle as of many accordant bells. The Kern Valley opened -below us with its smooth, oval outline, the work of extinct glaciers, -whose form and extent were evident from worn cliff-surface and rounded -wall; snow-fields, relics of the former _névé_, hung in white tapestries -around its ancient birthplace; and as far as we could see, the broad, -corrugated valley, for a breadth of fully ten miles, shone with -burnishings wherever its granite surface was not covered with lakelets -or thickets of alpine vegetation. - -Through a deep cut in the Mount Brewer wall we gained our first view to -the westward, and saw in the distance the wall of the South King’s -Cañon, and the granite point which Cotter and I had climbed a fortnight -before. But for the haze we might have seen the plain; for above its -farther limit were several points of the Coast Ranges, isolated like -islands in the sea. - -The view was so grand, the mountain colors so brilliant, immense -snow-fields and blue alpine lakes so charming, that we almost forgot we -were ever to move, and it was only after a swift hour of this delight -that we began to consider our future course. - -The King’s Cañon, which headed against our wall, seemed -untraversable--no human being could climb along the divide; we had, -then, but one hope of reaching the peak, and our greatest difficulty lay -at the start. If we could climb down to the Kern side of the divide, and -succeed in reaching the base of the precipices which fell from our feet, -it really looked as if we might travel without difficulty among the -_roches moutonnées_ to the other side of the Kern Valley, and make our -attempt upon the southward flank of the great peak. One look at the -sublime white giant decided us. We looked down over the precipice, and -at first could see no method of descent. Then we went back and looked at -the road we had come up, to see if that were not possibly as bad; but -the broken surface of the rocks was evidently much better -climbing-ground than anything ahead of us. Cotter, with danger, edged -his way along the wall to the east and I to the west, to see if there -might not be some favorable point; but we both returned with the belief -that the precipice in front of us was as passable as any of it. Down it -we must. - -After lying on our faces, looking over the brink, ten or twenty minutes, -I suggested that by lowering ourselves on the rope we might climb from -crevice to crevice; but we saw no shelf large enough for ourselves and -the knapsacks too. However, we were not going to give it up without a -trial; and I made the rope fast around my breast, and, looping the noose -over a firm point of rock, let myself slide gradually down to a notch -forty feet below. There was only room beside me for Cotter, so I made -him send down the knapsacks first. I then tied these together by the -straps with my silk handkerchiefs, and hung them off as far to the left -as I could reach without losing my balance, looping the handkerchiefs -over a point of rock. Cotter then slid down the rope, and, with -considerable difficulty, we whipped the noose off its resting-place -above, and cut off our connection with the upper world. - -“We’re in for it now, King,” remarked my comrade, as he looked aloft, -and then down; but our blood was up, and danger added only an -exhilarating thrill to the nerves. - -The shelf was hardly more than two feet wide, and the granite so smooth -that we could find no place to fasten the lasso for the next descent; so -I determined to try the climb with only as little aid as possible. Tying -it around my breast again, I gave the other end into Cotter’s hands, and -he, bracing his back against the cliff, found for himself as firm a -foothold as he could, and promised to give me all the help in his power. -I made up my mind to bear no weight unless it was absolutely necessary; -and for the first ten feet I found cracks and protuberances enough to -support me, making every square inch of surface do friction duty, and -hugging myself against the rocks as tightly as I could. When within -about eight feet of the next shelf, I twisted myself round upon the -face, hanging by two rough blocks of protruding feldspar, and looked -vainly for some further hand-hold; but the rock, besides being perfectly -smooth, overhung slightly, and my legs dangled in the air. I saw that -the next cleft was over three feet broad, and I thought possibly I -might, by a quick slide, reach it in safety without endangering Cotter. -I shouted to him to be very careful and let go in case I fell, loosened -my hold upon the rope and slid quickly down. My shoulder struck against -the rock and threw me out of balance; for an instant I reeled over upon -the verge, in danger of falling, but, in the excitement, I thrust out my -hand and seized a small alpine gooseberry-bush, the first piece of -vegetation we had seen. Its roots were so firmly fixed in the crevice -that it held my weight and saved me. - -I could no longer see Cotter, but I talked to him, and heard the two -knapsacks come bumping along till they slid over the eaves above me, and -swung down to my station, when I seized the lasso’s end and braced -myself as well as possible, intending, if he slipped, to haul in slack -and help him as best I might. As he came slowly down from crack to -crack, I heard his hobnailed shoes grating on the granite; presently -they appeared dangling from the eaves above my head. I had gathered in -the rope until it was taut, and then hurriedly told him to drop. He -hesitated a moment, and let go. Before he struck the rock I had him by -the shoulder, and whirled him down upon his side, thus preventing his -rolling overboard, which friendly action he took quite coolly. - -The third descent was not a difficult one, nor the fourth; but when we -had climbed down about two hundred and fifty feet, the rocks were so -glacially polished and water-worn that it seemed impossible to get any -farther. To our right was a crack penetrating the rock, perhaps a foot -deep, widening at the surface to three or four inches, which proved to -be the only possible ladder. As the chances seemed rather desperate, we -concluded to tie ourselves together, in order to share a common fate; -and with a slack of thirty feet between us, and our knapsacks upon our -backs, we climbed into the crevice, and began descending with our faces -to the cliff. This had to be done with unusual caution, for the foothold -was about as good as none, and our fingers slipped annoyingly on the -smooth stone; besides, the knapsacks and instruments kept a steady -backward pull, tending to overbalance us. But we took pains to descend -one at a time, and rest wherever the niches gave our feet a safe -support. In this way we got down about eighty feet of smooth, nearly -vertical wall, reaching the top of a rude granite stairway, which led to -the snow; and here we sat down to rest, and found to our astonishment -that we had been three hours from the summit. - -After breathing a half-minute we continued down, jumping from rock to -rock, and having, by practice, become very expert in balancing -ourselves, sprang on, never resting long enough to lose the _aplomb_; -and in this manner made a quick descent over rugged _débris_ to the -crest of a snow-field, which, for seven or eight hundred feet more, -swept down in a smooth, even slope, of very high angle, to the borders -of a frozen lake. - -Without untying the lasso which bound us together, we sprang upon the -snow with a shout, and glissaded down splendidly, turning now and then a -somersault, and shooting out like cannon-balls almost to the middle of -the frozen lake; I upon my back, and Cotter feet first, in a swimming -position. The ice cracked in all directions. It was only a thin, -transparent film, through which we could see deep into the lake. Untying -ourselves, we hurried ashore in different directions, lest our combined -weight should be too great a strain upon any point. - -With curiosity and wonder we scanned every shelf and niche of the last -descent. It seemed quite impossible we could have come down there, and -now it actually was beyond human power to get back again. But what cared -we? “Sufficient unto the day--” We were bound for that still distant, -though gradually nearing, summit; and we had come from a cold, shadowed -cliff into deliciously warm sunshine, and were jolly, shouting, singing -songs, and calling out the companionship of a hundred echoes. Six miles -away, with no grave danger, no great difficulty, between us, lay the -base of our grand mountain. Upon its skirts we saw a little grove of -pines, an ideal bivouac, and toward this we bent our course. - -After the continued climbing of the day walking was a delicious rest, -and forward we pressed with considerable speed, our hobnails giving us -firm footing on the glittering, glacial surface. Every fluting of the -great valley was in itself a considerable cañon, into which we -descended, climbing down the scored rocks, and swinging from block to -block, until we reached the level of the pines. Here, sheltered among -_roches moutonnées_, began to appear little fields of alpine grass, pale -yet sunny, soft under our feet, fragrantly jewelled with flowers of -fairy delicacy, holding up amid thickly clustered blades chalices of -turquoise and amethyst, white stars, and fiery little globes of red. -Lakelets, small but innumerable, were held in glacial basins, the striæ -and grooves of that old dragon’s track ornamenting their smooth bottoms. - -One of these, a sheet of pure beryl hue, gave us much pleasure from its -lovely transparency, and because we lay down in the necklace of grass -about it and smelled flowers, while tired muscles relaxed upon warm beds -of verdure, and the pain in our burdened shoulders went away, leaving us -delightfully comfortable. - -After the stern grandeur of granite and ice, and with the peaks and -walls still in view, it was relief to find ourselves again in the region -of life. I never felt for trees and flowers such a sense of intimate -relationship and sympathy. When we had no longer excuse for resting, I -invented the palpable subterfuge of measuring the altitude of the spot, -since the few clumps of low, wide-boughed pines near by were the highest -living trees. So we lay longer with less and less will to rise, and when -resolution called us to our feet, the getting-up was sorely like Rip Van -Winkle’s in the third act. - -The deep, glacial cañon-flutings across which our march then lay proved -to be great consumers of time: indeed, it was sunset when we reached the -eastern ascent, and began to toil up through scattered pines, and over -trains of moraine rocks, toward the great peak. Stars were already -flashing brilliantly in the sky, and the low, glowing arch in the west -had almost vanished when we came to the upper trees, and threw down our -knapsacks to camp. The forest grew on a sort of plateau-shelf with a -precipitous front to the west,--a level surface which stretched eastward -and back to the foot of our mountain, whose lower spurs reached within a -mile of camp. Within the shelter lay a huge, fallen log, like all these -alpine woods one mass of resin, which flared up when we applied a match, -illuminating the whole grove. By contrast with the darkness outside, we -seemed to be in a vast, many-pillared hall. The stream close by afforded -water for our blessed teapot; venison frizzled with mild, appetizing -sound upon the ends of pine sticks; matchless beans allowed themselves -to become seductively crisp upon our tin plates. That supper seemed to -me then the quintessence of gastronomy, and I am sure Cotter and I must -have said some very good _après-dîner_ things, though I long ago forgot -them all. Within the ring of warmth, on elastic beds of pine-needles; we -curled up, and fell swiftly into a sound sleep. - -I woke up once in the night to look at my watch, and observed that the -sky was overcast with a thin film of cirrus cloud to which the reflected -moonlight lent the appearance of a glimmering tent, stretched from -mountain to mountain over cañons filled with impenetrable darkness, only -the vaguely lighted peaks and white snow-fields distinctly seen. I -closed my eyes and slept soundly until Cotter woke me at half-past -three, when we arose, breakfasted by the light of our fire, which still -blazed brilliantly, and, leaving our knapsacks, started for the mountain -with only instruments, canteens, and luncheon. - -In the indistinct moonlight climbing was very difficult at first, for we -had to thread our way along a plain which was literally covered with -glacier bowlders, and the innumerable brooks which we crossed were -frozen solid. However, our march brought us to the base of the great -mountain, which, rising high against the east, shut out the coming -daylight, and kept us in profound shadow. From base to summit rose a -series of broken crags, lifting themselves from a general slope of -_débris_. Toward the left the angle seemed to be rather gentler, and the -surface less ragged; and we hoped, by a long _détour_ round the base, -to make an easy climb up this gentler face. So we toiled on for an hour -over the rocks, reaching at last the bottom of the north slope. Here our -work began in good earnest. The blocks were of enormous size, and in -every stage of unstable equilibrium, frequently rolling over as we -jumped upon them, making it necessary for us to take a second leap and -land where we best could. To our relief we soon surmounted the largest -blocks, reaching a smaller size, which served us as a sort of stairway. - -The advancing daylight revealed to us a very long, comparatively even -snow-slope, whose surface was pierced by many knobs and granite heads, -giving it the aspect of an ice-roofing fastened on with bolts of stone. -It stretched in far perspective to the summit, where already the rose of -sunrise reflected gloriously, kindling a fresh enthusiasm within us. - -Immense bowlders were partly embedded in the ice just above us, whose -constant melting left them trembling on the edge of a fall. It -communicated no very pleasant sensation to see above you these immense -missiles hanging by a mere band, knowing that, as soon as the sun rose, -you would be exposed to a constant cannonade. - -The east side of the peak, which we could now partially see, was too -precipitous to think of climbing. The slope toward our camp was too much -broken into pinnacles and crags to offer us any hope, or to divert us -from the single way, dead ahead, up slopes of ice and among fragments of -granite. The sun rose upon us while we were climbing the lower part of -this snow, and in less than half an hour, melting, began to liberate -huge blocks, which thundered down past us, gathering and growing into -small avalanches below. - -We did not dare climb one above another, according to our ordinary mode, -but kept about an equal level, hundred feet apart, lest, dislodging the -blocks, one should hurl them down upon the other. - -We climbed up smooth faces of granite, clinging simply by the cracks and -protruding crystals of feldspar, and then hewed steps up fearfully steep -slopes of ice, zigzagging to the right and left, to avoid the flying -bowlders. When midway up this slope we reached a place where the granite -rose in perfectly smooth bluffs on either side of a gorge,--a narrow cut -or walled way leading up to the flat summit of the cliff. This we scaled -by cutting ice steps, only to find ourselves fronted again by a still -higher wall. Ice sloped from its front at too steep an angle for us to -follow, but had melted in contact with it, leaving a space three feet -wide between the ice and the rock. We entered this crevice and climbed -along its bottom, with a wall of rock rising a hundred feet above us on -one side, and a thirty-foot face of ice on the other, through which -light of an intense cobalt-blue penetrated. - -Reaching the upper end, we had to cut our footsteps upon the ice again, -and, having braced our backs against the granite, climbed up to the -surface. We were now in a dangerous position: to fall into the crevice -upon one side was to be wedged to death between rock and ice; to make a -slip was to be shot down five hundred feet, and then hurled over the -brink of a precipice. In the friendly seat which this wedge gave me, I -stopped to take wet and dry observations with the thermometer,--this -being an absolute preventive of a scare,--and to enjoy the view. - -The wall of our mountain sank abruptly to the left, opening for the -first time an outlook to the eastward. Deep--it seemed almost -vertically--beneath us we could see the blue water of Owen’s Lake, ten -thousand feet down. The summit peaks to the north were piled in Titanic -confusion, their ridges overhanging the eastern slope with terrible -abruptness. Clustered upon the shelves and plateaus below were several -frozen lakes, and in all directions swept magnificent fields of snow. -The summit was now not over five hundred feet distant, and we started on -again with the exhilarating hope of success. But if nature had intended -to secure the summit from all assailants, she could not have planned her -defences better; for the smooth granite wall which rose above the -snow-slope continued, apparently, quite around the peak, and we looked -in great anxiety to see if there was not one place where it might be -climbed. It was all blank except in one spot; quite near us the snow -bridged across the crevice and rose in a long point to the summit of -the wall,--a great icicle-column frozen in a niche of the bluff,--its -base about ten feet wide, narrowing to two feet at the top. We climbed -to the base of this spire of ice, and, with the utmost care, began to -cut our stairway. The material was an exceedingly compacted snow, -passing into clear ice as it neared the rock. We climbed the first half -of it with comparative ease; after that it was almost vertical, and so -thin that we did not dare to cut the footsteps deep enough to make them -absolutely safe. There was a constant dread lest our ladder should break -off, and we be thrown either down the snow-slope or into the bottom of -the crevasse. At last, in order to prevent myself from falling over -backward, I was obliged to thrust my hand into the crack between the ice -and the wall, and the spire became so narrow that I could do this on -both sides, so that the climb was made as upon a tree, cutting mere -toe-holes and embracing the whole column of ice in my arms. At last I -reached the top, and, with the greatest caution, wormed my body over the -brink, and, rolling out upon the smooth surface of the granite, looked -over and watched Cotter make his climb. He came steadily up, with no -sense of nervousness, until he got to the narrow part of the ice, and -here he stopped and looked up with a forlorn face to me; but as he -climbed up over the edge the broad smile came back to his face, and he -asked me if it had occurred to me that we had, by and by, to go down -again. - -We had now an easy slope to the summit, and hurried up over rocks and -ice, reaching the crest at exactly twelve o’clock. I rang my hammer upon -the topmost rock; we grasped hands, and I reverently named the grand -peak MOUNT TYNDALL. - - - - -IV - -THE DESCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL - -1864 - - -To our surprise, upon sweeping the horizon with my level, there appeared -two peaks equal in height with us, and two rising even higher. That -which looked highest of all was a cleanly cut helmet of granite upon the -same ridge with Mount Tyndall, lying about six miles south, and fronting -the desert with a bold, square bluff which rises to the crest of the -peak, where a white fold of snow trims it gracefully. Mount Whitney, as -we afterward called it, in honor of our chief, is probably the highest -land within the United States. Its summit looked glorious, but -inaccessible. - -The general topography overlooked by us may be thus simply outlined. Two -parallel chains, enclosing an intermediate trough, face each other. -Across this deep, enclosed gulf, from wall to wall, juts the thin but -lofty and craggy ridge, or “divide,” before described, which forms an -important water-shed, sending those streams which enter the chasm north -of it into King’s River, those south forming the most important sources -of the Kern, whose straight, rapidly deepening valley stretches south, -carved profoundly in granite, while the King’s, after flowing -longitudinally in the opposite course for eight or ten miles, turns -abruptly west round the base of Mount Brewer, cuts across the western -ridge, opening a gate of its own, and carves a rock channel transversely -down the Sierra to the California plain. - -Fronting us stood the west chain, a great mural ridge watched over by -two dominant heights, Kaweah Peak and Mount Brewer, its wonderful -profile defining against the western sky a multitude of peaks and -spires. Bold buttresses jut out through fields of ice, and reach down -stone arms among snow and _débris_. North and south of us the higher, or -eastern, summit stretched on in miles and miles of snow peaks, the -farthest horizon still crowded with their white points. East the whole -range fell in sharp, hurrying abruptness to the desert, where, ten -thousand feet below, lay a vast expanse of arid plain intersected by -low, parallel ranges, traced from north to south. Upon the one side, a -thousand sculptures of stone, hard, sharp, shattered by cold into -infiniteness of fractures and rift, springing up, mutely severe, into -the dark, austere blue of heaven; scarred and marked, except where snow -or ice, spiked down by ragged granite bolts, shields with its pale armor -these rough mountain shoulders; storm-tinted at summit, and dark where, -swooping down from ragged cliff, the rocks plunge over cañon-walls into -blue, silent gulfs. - -Upon the other hand, reaching out to horizons faint and remote, lay -plains clouded with the ashen hues of death; stark, wind-swept floors -of white, and hill-ranges, rigidly formal, monotonously low, all lying -under an unfeeling brilliance of light, which, for all its strange, -unclouded clearness, has yet a vague half-darkness, a suggestion of -black and shade more truly pathetic than fading twilight. No greenness -soothes, no shadow cools the glare. Owen’s Lake, an oval of acrid water, -lies dense blue upon the brown sage-plain, looking like a plate of hot -metal. Traced in ancient beach-lines, here and there upon hill and -plain, relics of ancient lake-shore outline the memory of a cooler -past--a period of life and verdure when the stony chains were green -islands among basins of wide, watery expanse. - -The two halves of this view, both in sight at once, express the highest, -the most acute, aspects of desolation--inanimate forms out of which -something living has gone forever. From the desert have been dried up -and blown away its seas. Their shores and white, salt-strewn bottoms lie -there in the eloquence of death. Sharp, white light glances from all the -mountain-walls, where in marks and polishings has been written the -epitaph of glaciers now melted and vanished into air. Vacant cañons lie -open to the sun, bare, treeless, half shrouded with snow, cumbered with -loads of broken _débris_, still as graves, except when flights of rocks -rush down some chasm’s throat, startling the mountains with harsh, dry -rattle, their fainter echoes from below followed too quickly by dense -silence. - -The serene sky is grave with nocturnal darkness. The earth blinds you -with its light. That fair contrast we love in lower lands, between -bright heavens and dark, cool earth, here reverses itself with terrible -energy. You look up into an infinite vault, unveiled by clouds, empty -and dark, from which no brightness seems to ray, an expanse with no -graded perspective, no tremble, no vapory mobility, only the vast -yawning of hollow space. - -With an aspect of endless remoteness burns the small, white sun, yet its -light seems to pass invisibly through the sky, blazing out with -intensity upon mountain and plain, flooding rock details with painfully -bright reflections, and lighting up the burnt sand and stone of the -desert with a strange, blinding glare. There is no sentiment of beauty -in the whole scene; no suggestion, however far remote, of sheltered -landscape; not even the air of virgin hospitality that greets us -explorers in so many uninhabited spots which by their fertility and -loveliness of grove or meadow seem to offer man a home, or us nomads a -pleasant camp-ground. Silence and desolation are the themes which nature -has wrought out under this eternally serious sky. - -A faint suggestion of life clings about the middle altitudes of the -eastern slope, where black companies of pine, stunted from breathing the -hot desert air, group themselves just beneath the bottom of perpetual -snow, or grow in patches of cloudy darkness over the moraines, those -piles of wreck crowded from their pathway by glaciers long dead. -Something there is pathetic in the very emptiness of these old glacier -valleys, these imperishable tracks of unseen engines. One’s eye ranges -up their broad, open channel to the shrunken white fields surrounding -hollow amphitheatres which were once crowded with deep burdens of -snow,--the birthplace of rivers of ice now wholly melted; the dry, clear -heavens overhead blank of any promise of ever rebuilding them. I have -never seen Nature when she seemed so little “Mother Nature” as in this -place of rocks and snow, echoes and emptiness. It impresses me as the -ruins of some bygone geological period, and no part of the present -order, like a specimen of chaos which has defied the finishing hand of -Time. - -Of course I see its bearings upon climate, and could read a lesson quite -glibly as to its usefulness as a condenser, and tell you gravely how -much California has for which she may thank these heights, and how -little Nevada; but looking from this summit with all desire to see -everything, the one overmastering feeling is desolation, desolation! - -Next to this, and more pleasing to notice, is the interest and richness -of the granite forms; for the whole region, from plain to plain, is -built of this dense, solid rock, and is sculptured under chisel of cold -in shapes of great variety, yet all having a common spirit, which is -purely Gothic. - -In the much discussed origin of this order of building I never remember -to have seen, though it can hardly have escaped mention, any suggestion -of the possibility of the Gothic having been inspired by granite forms. -Yet, as I sat on Mount Tyndall, the whole mountains shaped themselves -like the ruins of cathedrals,--sharp roof-ridges, pinnacled and statued; -buttresses more spired and ornamented than Milan’s; receding doorways -with pointed arches carved into black façades of granite, doors never to -be opened, innumerable jutting points, with here and there a single -cruciform peak, its frozen roof and granite spires so strikingly Gothic -I cannot doubt that the Alps furnished the models for early cathedrals -of that order. - -I thoroughly enjoyed the silence, which, gratefully contrasting with the -surrounding tumult of form, conveyed to me a new sentiment. I have lain -and listened through the heavy calm of a tropical voyage, hour after -hour, longing for a sound; and in desert nights the dead stillness has -many a time awakened me from sleep. For moments, too, in my forest life, -the groves made absolutely no breath of movement; but there is around -these summits the soundlessness of a vacuum. The sea stillness is that -of sleep; the desert, of death--this silence is like the waveless calm -of space. - -All the while I made my instrumental observations the fascination of the -view so held me that I felt no surprise at seeing water boiling over our -little faggot blaze at a temperature of one hundred and ninety-two -degrees F., nor in observing the barometrical column stand at 17.99 -inches; and it was not till a week or so after that I realized we had -felt none of the conventional sensations of nausea, headache, and I -don’t know what all, that people are supposed to suffer at extreme -altitudes; but these things go with guides and porters, I believe, and -with coming down to one’s hotel at evening there to scold one’s -picturesque _aubergiste_ in a French which strikes upon his ear as a -foreign tongue; possibly all that will come to us with advancing time, -and what is known as “doing America.” They are already shooting our -buffaloes; it cannot be long before they will cause themselves to be -honorably dragged up and down our Sierras, with perennial yellow gaiter, -and ostentation of bath-tub. - -Having completed our observations, we packed up the instruments, glanced -once again round the whole field of view, and descended to the top of -our icicle ladder. Upon looking over, I saw to my consternation that -during the day the upper half had broken off. Scars traced down upon the -snow-field below it indicated the manner of its fall, and far below, -upon the shattered _débris_, were strewn its white relics. I saw that -nothing but the sudden gift of wings could possibly take us down to the -snow-ridge. We held council, and concluded to climb quite round the peak -in search of the best mode of descent. - -As we crept about the east face, we could look straight down upon Owen’s -Valley, and into the vast glacier gorges, and over piles of moraines and -fluted rocks, and the frozen lakes of the eastern slope. When we -reached the southwest front of the mountain we found that its general -form was that of an immense horseshoe, the great eastern ridge forming -one side, and the spur which descended to our camp the other, we having -climbed up the outer part of the toe. Within the curve of the horseshoe -was a gorge, cut almost perpendicularly down two thousand feet, its side -rough-hewn walls of rocks and snow, its narrow bottom almost a -continuous chain of deep blue lakes with loads of ice and _débris_ -piles. The stream which flowed through them joined the waters from our -home grove, a couple of miles below the camp. If we could reach the -level of the lakes, I believed we might easily climb round them and out -of the upper end of the horseshoe, and walk upon the Kern plateau round -to our bivouac. - -It required a couple of hours of very painstaking, deliberate climbing -to get down the first descent, which we did, however, without hurting -our barometer, and fortunately without the fatiguing use of the lasso; -reaching finally the uppermost lake, a granite bowlful of cobalt-blue -water, transparent and unrippled. So high and enclosing were the tall -walls about us, so narrow and shut in the cañon, so flattened seemed the -cover of sky, we felt oppressed after the expanse and freedom of our -hours on the summit. - -The snow-field we followed, descending farther, was irregularly -honeycombed in deep pits, circular or irregular in form, and melted to a -greater or less depth, holding each a large stone embedded in the -bottom. It seems they must have fallen from the overhanging heights with -sufficient force to plunge into the snow. - -Brilliant light and strong color met our eyes at every glance--the rocks -of a deep purple-red tint, the pure alpine lakes of a cheerful sapphire -blue, the snow glitteringly white. The walls on either side for half -their height were planed and polished by glaciers, and from the smoothly -glazed sides the sun was reflected as from a mirror. - -Mile after mile we walked cautiously over the snow and climbed round the -margins of lakes, and over piles of _débris_ which marked the ancient -terminal moraines. At length we reached the end of the horseshoe, where -the walls contracted to a gateway, rising on either side in immense, -vertical pillars a thousand feet high. Through this gateway we could -look down the valley of the Kern, and beyond to the gentler ridges where -a smooth growth of forest darkened the rolling plateau. Passing the last -snow, we walked through this gateway and turned westward round the spur -toward our camp. The three miles which closed our walk were alternately -through groves of _Pinus flexilis_ and upon plains of granite. - -The glacier sculpture and planing are here very beautiful, the large -crystals of orthoclase with which the granite is studded being cut down -to the common level, their rosy tint making with the white base a -beautiful, burnished porphyry. - -The sun was still an hour high when we reached camp, and with a feeling -of relaxation and repose we threw ourselves down to rest by the log, -which still continued blazing. We had accomplished our purpose. - -During the last hour or two of our tramp Cotter had complained of his -shoes, which were rapidly going to pieces. Upon examination we found to -our dismay that there was not over half a day’s wear left in them, a -calamity which gave to our difficult homeward climb a new element of -danger. The last nail had been worn from my own shoes, and the soles -were scratched to the quick, but I believed them stout enough to hold -together till we should reach the main camp. - -We planned a pair of moccasins for Cotter, and then spent a pleasant -evening by the camp-fire, rehearsing our climb to the detail, sleep -finally overtaking us and holding us fast bound until broad daylight -next morning, when we woke with a sense of having slept for a week, -quite bright and perfectly refreshed for our homeward journey. - -After a frugal breakfast, in which we limited ourselves to a few cubic -inches of venison, and a couple of stingy slices of bread, with a single -meagre cup of diluted tea, we shouldered our knapsacks, which now sat -lightly upon toughened shoulders, and marched out upon the granite -plateau. - -We had concluded that it was impossible to retrace our former way, -knowing well that the precipitous divide could not be climbed from this -side; then, too, we had gained such confidence in our climbing powers, -from constant victory, that we concluded to attempt the passage of the -great King’s Cañon, mainly because this was the only mode of reaching -camp, and since the geological section of the granite it exposed would -afford us an exceedingly instructive study. - -The broad granite plateau which forms the upper region of the Kern -Valley slopes in general inclination up to the great divide. This -remarkably pinnacled ridge, where it approaches the Mount Tyndall wall, -breaks down into a broad depression where the Kern Valley sweeps -northward, until it suddenly breaks off in precipices three thousand -feet down into the King’s Cañon. - -The morning was wholly consumed in walking up this gently inclined plane -of granite, our way leading over the glacier-polished foldings and along -graded undulations among labyrinths of alpine garden and wildernesses of -erratic bowlders, little lake-basins, and scattered clusters of dwarfed -and sombre pine. - -About noon we came suddenly upon the brink of a precipice which sank -sharply from our feet into the gulf of the King’s Cañon. Directly -opposite us rose Mount Brewer, and up out of the depths of those vast -sheets of frozen snow swept spiry buttress-ridges, dividing the upper -heights into those amphitheatres over which we had struggled on our -outward journey. Straight across from our point of view was the chamber -of rock and ice where we had camped on the first night. The wall at our -feet fell sharp and rugged, its lower two-thirds hidden from our view by -the projections of a thousand feet of crags. Here and there as we looked -down, small patches of ice, held in rough hollows, rested upon the steep -surface, but it was too abrupt for any great fields of snow. I dislodged -a bowlder upon the edge and watched it bound down the rocky precipice, -dash over eaves a thousand feet below us, and disappear, the crash of -its fall coming up to us from the unseen depths fainter and fainter, -until the air only trembled with confused echoes. - -A long look at the pass to the south of Mount Brewer, where we had -parted from our friends, animated us with courage to begin the descent, -which we did with utmost care, for the rocks, becoming more and more -glacier-smoothed, afforded us hardly any firm footholds. When down about -eight hundred feet we again rolled rocks ahead of us, and saw them -disappear over the eaves, and only heard the sound of their stroke after -many seconds, which convinced us that directly below lay a great -precipice. - -At this juncture the soles came entirely off Cotter’s shoes, and we -stopped upon a little cliff of granite to make him moccasins of our -provision bags and slips of blanket, tying them on as firmly as we could -with the extra straps and buckskin thongs. Climbing with these proved so -insecure that I made Cotter go behind me, knowing that under ordinary -circumstances I could stop him if he fell. - -Here and there in the clefts of the rocks grew stunted pine bushes, -their roots twisted so firmly into the crevices that we laid hold of -them with the utmost confidence whenever they came within our reach. In -this way we descended to within fifty feet of the brink, having as yet -no knowledge of the cliffs below, except our general memory of their -aspect from the Mount Brewer wall. - -The rock was so steep that we descended in a sitting posture, clinging -with our hands and heels. I heard Cotter say, “I think I must take off -these moccasins and try it barefooted, for I don’t believe I can make -it.” These words were instantly followed by a startled cry, and I looked -round to see him slide quickly toward me, struggling and clutching at -the smooth granite. As he slid by I made a grab for him with my right -hand, catching him by the shirt, and, throwing myself as far in the -other direction as I could, seized with my left hand a little pine tuft, -which held us. I asked Cotter to edge along a little to the left, where -he could get a brace with his feet and relieve me of his weight, which -he cautiously did. I then threw a couple of turns with the lasso round -the roots of the pine bush, and we were safe, though hardly more than -twenty feet from the brink. The pressure of curiosity to get a look over -that edge was so strong within me that I lengthened out sufficient lasso -to reach the end, and slid slowly to the edge, where, leaning over, I -looked down, getting a full view of the wall for miles. Directly -beneath, a sheer cliff of three or four hundred feet stretched down to a -pile of _débris_ which rose to unequal heights along its face, reaching -the very crest not more than a hundred feet south of us. From that point -to the bottom of the cañon, broken rocks, ridges rising through vast -sweeps of _débris_, tufts of pine and frozen bodies of ice covered the -further slope. - -I returned to Cotter, and, having loosened ourselves from the pine bush, -inch by inch we crept along the granite until we supposed ourselves to -be just over the top of the _débris_ pile, where I found a firm brace -for my feet, and lowered Cotter to the edge. He sang out, “All right!” -and climbed over on the uppermost _débris_, his head only remaining in -sight of me; when I lay down upon my back, making knapsack and body do -friction duty, and, letting myself move, followed Cotter and reached his -side. - -From that point the descent required two hours of severe, constant -labor, which was monotonous of itself, and would have proved excessively -tiresome but for the constant interest of glacial geology beneath us. -When at last we reached the bottom and found ourselves upon a velvety -green meadow, beneath the shadow of wide-armed pines, we realized the -amount of muscular force we had used up, and threw ourselves down for a -rest of half an hour, when we rose, not quite renewed, but fresh enough -to finish the day’s climb. - -In a few minutes we stood upon the rocks just above King’s River,--a -broad, white torrent fretting its way along the bottom of an impassable -gorge. Looking down the stream, we saw that our right bank was a -continued precipice, affording, so far as we could see, no possible -descent to the river’s margin, and indeed, had we gotten down, the -torrent rushed with such fury that we could not possibly have crossed -it. To the south of us, a little way up stream, the river flowed out -from a broad, oval lake, three quarters of a mile in length, which -occupied the bottom of the granite basin. Unable to cross the torrent, -we must either swim the lake or climb round its head. Upon our side the -walls of the basin curved to the head of the lake in sharp, smooth -precipices, or broken slopes of _débris_, while on the opposite side its -margin was a beautiful shore of emerald meadow, edged with a continuous -grove of coniferous trees. Once upon this other side, we should have -completed the severe part of our journey, crossed the gulf, and have -left all danger behind us; for the long slope of granite and ice which -rose upon the west side of the cañon and the Mount Brewer wall opposed -to us no trials save those of simple fatigue. - -Around the head of the lake were crags and precipices in singularly -forbidding arrangement. As we turned thither we saw no possible way of -overcoming them. At its head the lake lay in an angle of the vertical -wall, sharp and straight like the corner of a room; about three hundred -feet in height, and for two hundred and fifty feet of this a pyramidal -pile of blue ice rose from the lake, rested against the corner, and -reached within forty feet of the top. Looking into the deep blue water -of the lake, I concluded that in our exhausted state it was madness to -attempt to swim it. The only alternative was to scale that slender -pyramid of ice and find some way to climb the forty feet of smooth wall -above it; a plan we chose perforce, and started at once to put into -execution, determined that if we were unsuccessful we would fire a dead -log which lay near, warm ourselves thoroughly, and attempt the swim. At -its base the ice mass overhung the lake like a roof, under which the -water had melted its way for a distance of not less than a hundred feet, -a thin eave overhanging the water. To the very edge of this I cautiously -went, and, looking down into the lake, saw through its beryl depths the -white granite blocks strewn upon the bottom at least one hundred feet -below me. It was exceedingly transparent, and, under ordinary -circumstances, would have been a most tempting place for a dive; but at -the end of our long fatigue, and with the still unknown tasks ahead, I -shrank from a swim in such a chilly temperature. - -We found the ice-angle difficultly steep, but made our way successfully -along its edge, clambering up the crevices melted between its body and -the smooth granite to a point not far from the top, where the ice had -considerably narrowed, and rocks overhanging it encroached so closely -that we were obliged to change our course and make our way with cut -steps out upon its front. Streams of water, dropping from the -overhanging rock-eaves at many points, had worn circular shafts into the -ice, three feet in diameter and twenty feet in depth. Their edges -offered us our only foothold, and we climbed from one to another, -equally careful of slipping upon the slope itself, or falling into the -wells. Upon the top of the ice we found a narrow, level platform, upon -which we stood together, resting our backs in the granite corner, and -looked down the awful pathway of King’s Cañon, until the rest nerved us -up enough to turn our eyes upward at the forty feet of smooth granite -which lay between us and safety. Here and there were small projections -from its surface, little, protruding knobs of feldspar, and crevices -riven into its face for a few inches. - -As we tied ourselves together, I told Cotter to hold himself in -readiness to jump down into one of these in case I fell, and started to -climb up the wall, succeeding quite well for about twenty feet. About -two feet above my hands was a crack, which, if my arms had been long -enough to reach, would probably have led me to the very top; but I -judged it beyond my powers, and, with great care, descended to the side -of Cotter, who believed that his superior length of arm would enable him -to make the reach. - -I planted myself against the rock, and he started cautiously up the -wall. Looking down the glare front of ice, it was not pleasant to -consider at what velocity a slip would send me to the bottom, or at what -angle, and to what probable depth, I should be projected into the -ice-water. Indeed, the idea of such a sudden bath was so annoying that I -lifted my eyes toward my companion. He reached my farthest point without -great difficulty, and made a bold spring for the crack, reaching it -without an inch to spare, and holding on wholly by his fingers. He thus -worked himself slowly along the crack toward the top, at last getting -his arms over the brink, and gradually drawing his body up and out of -sight. It was the most splendid piece of slow gymnastics I ever -witnessed. For a moment he said nothing; but when I asked if he was all -right, cheerfully repeated, “All right.” - -It was only a moment’s work to send up the two knapsacks and barometer, -and receive again my end of the lasso. As I tied it round my breast, -Cotter said to me, in an easy, confident tone, “Don’t be afraid to bear -your weight.” I made up my mind, however, to make that climb without his -aid, and husbanded my strength as I climbed from crack to crack. I got -up without difficulty to my former point, rested there a moment, hanging -solely by my hands, gathered every pound of strength and atom of will -for the reach, then jerked myself upward with a swing, just getting the -tips of my fingers into the crack. In an instant I had grasped it with -my right hand also. I felt the sinews of my fingers relax a little, but -the picture of the slope of ice and the blue lake affected me so -strongly that I redoubled my grip, and climbed slowly along the crack -until I reached the angle and got one arm over the edge, as Cotter had -done. As I rested my body upon the edge and looked up at Cotter, I saw -that, instead of a level top, he was sitting upon a smooth, roof-like -slope, where the least pull would have dragged him over the brink. He -had no brace for his feet, nor hold for his hands, but had seated -himself calmly, with the rope tied around his breast, knowing that my -only safety lay in being able to make the climb entirely unaided; -certain that the least waver in his tone would have disheartened me, and -perhaps made it impossible. The shock I received on seeing this affected -me for a moment, but not enough to throw me off my guard, and I climbed -quickly over the edge. When we had walked back out of danger we sat down -upon the granite for a rest. - -In all my experience of mountaineering I have never known an act of such -real, profound courage as this of Cotter’s. It is one thing, in a moment -of excitement, to make a gallant leap, or hold one’s nerves in the iron -grasp of will, but to coolly seat one’s self in the door of death, and -silently listen for the fatal summons, and this all for a friend,--for -he might easily have cast loose the lasso and saved himself,--requires -as sublime a type of courage as I know. - -But a few steps back we found a thicket of pine overlooking our lake, by -which there flowed a clear rill of snow-water. Here, in the bottom of -the great gulf, we made our bivouac; for we were already in the deep -evening shadows, although the mountain-tops to the east of us still -burned in the reflected light. It was the luxury of repose which kept me -awake half an hour or so, in spite of my vain attempts at sleep. To -listen for the pulsating sound of waterfalls and arrowy rushing of the -brook by our beds was too deep a pleasure to quickly yield up. - -Under the later moonlight I rose and went out upon the open rocks, -allowing myself to be deeply impressed by the weird Dantesque -surroundings--darkness, out of which to the sky towered stern, shaggy -bodies of rock; snow, uncertainly moonlit with cold pallor; and at my -feet the basin of the lake, still, black, and gemmed with reflected -stars, like the void into which Dante looked through the bottomless gulf -of Dis. A little way off there appeared upon the brink of a projecting -granite cornice two dimly seen forms; pines I knew them to be, yet their -motionless figures seemed bent forward, gazing down the cañon; and I -allowed myself to name them Mantuan and Florentine, thinking at the same -time how grand and spacious the scenery, how powerful their attitude, -and how infinitely more profound the mystery of light and shade, than -any of those hard, theatrical conceptions with which Doré has sought to -shut in our imagination. That artist, as I believe, has reached a -conspicuous failure from an overbalancing love of solid, impenetrable -darkness. There is in all his Inferno landscape a certain sharp boundary -between the real and unreal, and never the infinite suggestiveness of -great regions of half-light, in which everything may be seen, nothing -recognized. Without waking Cotter, I crept back to my blankets, and to -sleep. - -The morning of our fifth and last day’s tramp must have dawned -cheerfully; at least, so I suppose from its aspect when we first came -back to consciousness, surprised to find the sun risen from the eastern -mountain-wall, and the whole gorge flooded with its direct light. Rising -as good as new from our mattress of pine twigs, we hastened to take -breakfast, and started up the long, broken slope of the Mount Brewer -wall. To reach the pass where we had parted from our friends required -seven hours of slow, laborious climbing, in which we took advantage of -every outcropping spine of granite and every level expanse of ice to -hasten at the top of our speed. Cotter’s feet were severely cut; his -tracks upon the snow were marked by stains of blood, yet he kept on with -undiminished spirit, never once complaining. The perfect success of our -journey so inspired us with happiness that we forgot danger and fatigue, -and chatted in liveliest strain. - -It was about two o’clock when we reached the summit, and rested a moment -to look back over our new Alps, which were hard and distinct under -direct, unpoetic light; yet with all their dense gray and white -reality, their long, sculptured ranks, and cold, still summits, we gave -them a lingering, farewell look, which was not without its deep fulness -of emotion, then turned our backs and hurried down the _débris_ slope -into the rocky amphitheatre at the foot of Mount Brewer, and by five -o’clock had reached our old camp-ground. We found here a note pinned to -a tree, informing us that the party had gone down into the lower cañon, -five miles below, that they might camp in better pasturage. - -The wind had scattered the ashes of our old camp-fire, and banished from -it the last sentiment of home. We hurried on, climbing among the rocks -which reached down to the crest of the great lateral moraine, and then -on in rapid stride along its smooth crest, riveting our eyes upon the -valley below, where we knew the party must be camped. - -At last, faintly curling above the sea of green tree-tops, a few faint -clouds of smoke wafted upward into the air. We saw them with a burst of -strong emotion, and ran down the steep flank of the moraine at the top -of our speed. Our shouts were instantly answered by the three voices of -our friends, who welcomed us to their camp-fire with tremendous hugs. - -After we had outlined for them the experience of our days, and as we lay -outstretched at our ease, warm in the blaze of the glorious camp-fire, -Brewer said to me: “King, you have relieved me of a dreadful task. For -the last three days I have been composing a letter to your family, but -somehow I did not get beyond, ‘It becomes my painful duty to inform -you.’” - - - - -V - -THE NEWTYS OF PIKE - -1864 - - -Our return from Mount Tyndall to such civilization as flourishes around -the Kaweah outposts was signalized by us chiefly as to our _cuisine_, -which offered now such bounties as the potato, and once a salad, in -which some middle-aged lettuce became the vehicle for a hollow mockery -of dressing. Two or three days, during which we dined at brief -intervals, served to completely rest us, and put in excellent trim for -further campaigning all except Professor Brewer, upon whom a constant -toothache wore painfully,--my bullet-mould failing even upon the third -trial to extract the unruly member. - -It was determined we should ride together to Visalia, seventy miles -away, and the farther we went the more impatient became my friend, till -we agreed to push ahead through day and night, and reached the village -at about sunrise in a state of reeling sleepiness quite indescribably -funny. - -At evening, when it became time to start back for our mountain-camp, my -friend at last yielded consent to my project of climbing the Kern -Sierras to attempt Mount Whitney; so I parted from him, and, remaining -at Visalia, outfitted myself with a pack-horse, two mounted men, and -provisions enough for a two weeks’ trip. - -I purposely avoid telling by what route I entered the Sierras, because -there lingers in my breast a desire to see once more that lovely region, -and failing, as I do, to confide in the people, I fear lest, if the camp -I am going to describe should be recognized, I might, upon revisiting -the scene, suffer harm, or even come to an untimely end. I refrain, -then, from telling by what road I found myself entering the region of -the pines one lovely twilight evening, two days after leaving Visalia. -Pines, growing closer and closer, from sentinels gathered to groups, -then stately groves, and at last, as the evening wore on, assembled in -regular forest, through whose open tops the stars shone cheerfully. - -I came upon an open meadow, hearing in front the rush of a large brook, -and directly reached two camp-fires, where were a number of persons. My -two hirelings caught and unloaded the pack-horse, and set about their -duties, looking to supper and the animals, while I prospected the two -camps. That just below me, on the same side of the brook, I found to be -the bivouac of a company of hunters, who, in the ten minutes of my call, -made free with me, hospitably offering a jug of whiskey, and then went -on in their old, eternal way of making bear-stories out of whole cloth. - -I left them with a belief that my protoplasm and theirs must be -different, in spite of Mr. Huxley, and passed across the brook to the -other camp. Under noble groups of pines smouldered a generous heap of -coals, the ruins of a mighty log. A little way from this lay a confused -pile of bedclothes, partly old and half-bald buffalo-robes, but in the -main, thick strata of what is known to irony as comforters, upon which, -outstretched in wretched awkwardness of position, was a family, all with -their feet to the fire, looking as if they had been blown over in one -direction, or knocked down by a single bombshell. On the extremities of -this common bed, with the air of having gotten as far from each other as -possible, the mother and father of the Pike family reclined; between -them were two small children--a girl and a boy--and a huge girl, who, -next the old man, lay flat upon her back, her mind absorbed in the -simple amusement of waving one foot (a cow-hide eleven) slowly across -the fire, squinting, with half-shut eye, first at the vast shoe and -thence at the fire, alternately hiding bright places and darting the -foot quickly in the direction of any new display of heightening flame. -The mother was a bony sister, in the yellow, shrunken, of sharp visage, -in which were prominent two cold eyes and a positively poisonous mouth; -her hair, the color of faded hay, tangled in a jungle around her head. -She rocked jerkily to and fro, removing at intervals a clay pipe from -her mouth in order to pucker her thin lips up to one side, and spit with -precision upon a certain spot in the fire, which she seemed resolved to -prevent from attaining beyond a certain faint glow. - -I have rarely felt more in difficulty for an overture to conversation, -and was long before venturing to propose, “You seem to have a pleasant -camp-spot here.” - -The old woman sharply, and in almost a tone of affront, answered, -“They’s wus, and then again they’s better.” - -“Doos well for our hogs,” inserted the old man. “We’ve a band of pork -that make out to find feed.” - -“Oh! how many have you?” I asked. - -“Nigh three thousand.” - -“Won’t you set?” asked Madame; then, turning, “You, Susan, can’t you try -for to set up, and not spread so? Hain’t you no manners, say?” - -At this the massive girl got herself somewhat together, and made room -for me, which I declined, however. - -“Prospectin’?” inquired Madame. - -“I say huntin’,” suggested the man. - -“Maybe he’s a cattle-feller,” interrupted the little girl. - -“Goin’ somewhere, ain’t yer?” was Susan’s guess. - -I gave a brief account of myself, evidently satisfying the social -requirements of all but the old woman, who at once classified me as not -up to her standard. Susan saw this, so did her father, and it became -evident to me in ten minutes’ conversation that they two were always at -one, and made it their business to be in antagonism to the mother. They -were then allies of mine from nature, and I felt at once at home. I saw, -too, that Susan, having slid back to her horizontal position when I -declined to share her rightful ground, was watching with subtle -solicitude that fated spot in the fire, opposing sympathy and squints -accurately aligned by her shoe to the dull spot in the embers, which -slowly went out into blackness before the well-directed fire of her -mother’s saliva. - -The shouts which I heard proceeding from the direction of my camp were -easily translatable into summons for supper. Mr. Newty invited me to -return later and be sociable, which I promised to do, and, going to my -camp, supped quickly and left the men with orders about picketing the -animals for the night, then, strolling slowly down to the camp of my -friends, seated myself upon a log by the side of the old gentleman. -Feeling that this somewhat formal attitude unfitted me for partaking to -the fullest degree of the social ease around me, and knowing that my -buckskin trousers were impervious to dirt, I slid down in a reclined -posture with my feet to the fire, in absolute parallelism with the -family. - -The old woman was in the exciting _dénouement_ of a coon-story, directed -to her little boy, who sat clinging to her skirt and looking in her face -with absorbed curiosity. “And when Johnnie fired,” she said, “the coon -fell and busted open.” The little boy had misplaced his sympathies with -the raccoon, and having inquired plaintively, “Did it hurt him?” was -promptly snubbed with the reply, “Of course it hurt him. What do you -suppose coons is made for?” Then turning to me she put what was plainly -enough with her a test-question, “I allow you have killed your coon in -your day?” I saw at once that I must forever sink beneath the horizon of -her standards, but, failing in real experience or accurate knowledge -concerning the coon, knew no subterfuges would work with her. Instinct -had taught her that I had never killed a coon, and she had asked me thus -ostentatiously to place me at once and forever before the family in my -true light. “No, ma’am,” I said; “now you speak of it, I realize that I -never have killed a coon.” This was something of a staggerer to Susan -and her father, yet as the mother’s pleasurable dissatisfaction with me -displayed itself by more and more accurate salivary shots at the fire, -they rose to the occasion, and began to palliate my past. “Maybe,” -ventured Mr. Newty, “that they don’t have coon round the city of York;” -and I felt that I needed no self-defence when Susan firmly and defiantly -suggested to her mother that perhaps I was in better business. - -Driven in upon herself for some time, the old woman smoked in silence, -until Susan, seeing that her mother gradually quenched a larger and -larger circle upon the fire, got up and stretched herself, and, giving -the coals a vigorous poke, swept out of sight the quenched spot, thus -readily obliterating the result of her mother’s precise and prolonged -expectoration; then, flinging a few dry boughs upon the fire, illumined -the family with the ruddy blaze, and sat down again, leaning upon her -father’s knee with a faint light of triumph in her eye. - -I ventured a few platitudes concerning pigs, not penetrating the depths -of that branch of rural science enough to betray my ignorance. Such -sentiments as “A little piece of bacon well broiled for breakfast is -very good,” and “Nothing better than cold ham for lunch,” were received -by Susan and her father in the spirit I meant,--of entire good-will -toward pork generically. I now look back in amusement at having fallen -into this weakness, for the Mosaic view of pork has been mine from -infancy, and campaigning upon government rations has, in truth, no -tendency to dim this ancient faith. - -By half-past nine the gates of conversation were fairly open, and our -part of the circle enjoyed itself socially,--taciturnity and clouds of -Virginia plug reigning supreme upon the other. The two little children -crept under comforters somewhere near the middle of the bed, and -subsided pleasantly to sleep. The old man at last stretched sleepily, -finally yawning out, “Susan, I do believe I am too tired out to go and -see if them corral bars are down. I guess you’ll have to go. I reckon -there ain’t no bears round to-night.” - -Susan rose to her feet, stretched herself with her back to the fire, and -I realized for the first time her amusing proportions. In the region of -six feet, tall, square-shouldered, of firm, iron back and heavy mould -of limb, she yet possessed that suppleness which enabled her as she rose -to throw herself into nearly all the attitudes of the Niobe children. As -her yawn deepened, she waved nearly down to the ground, and then, rising -upon tiptoe, stretched up her clinched fists to heaven with a groan of -pleasure. Turning to me, she asked, “How would you like to see the -hogs?” The old man added, as an extra encouragement, “Pootiest band of -hogs in Tulare County! There’s littler of the real scissor-bill nor -Mexican racer stock than any band I have ever seen in the State. I driv -the original outfit from Pike County to Oregon in ’51 and ’52.” By this -time I was actually interested in them, and joining Susan we passed out -into the forest. - -The full moon, now high in the heavens, looked down over the whole -landscape of clustered forest and open meadow with tranquil, silvery -light. It whitened measurably the fine, spiry tips of the trees, fell -luminous upon broad bosses of granite which here and there rose through -the soil, and glanced in trembling reflections from the rushing surface -of the brook. Far in the distance moonlit peaks towered in solemn rank -against the sky. - -We walked silently on four or five minutes through the woods, coming at -last upon a fence which margined a wide, circular opening in the wood. -The bars, as her father had feared, were down. We stepped over them, -quietly entered the enclosure, put them up behind us, and proceeded to -the middle, threading our way among sleeping swine to where a lonely -tree rose to the height of about two hundred feet. Against this we -placed our backs, and Susan waved her hand in pride over the two acres -of tranquil pork. The eye, after accustoming itself to the darkness, -took cognizance of a certain ridgyness of surface which came to be -recognized as the objects of Susan’s pride. - -Quite a pretty effect was caused by the shadow of the forest, which, -cast obliquely downward by the moon, divided the corral into halves of -light and shade. - -The air was filled with heavy breathing, interrupted by here and there a -snore, and at times by crescendos of tumult, caused by forty or fifty -pigs doing battle for some favorite bed-place. - -I was informed that Susan did not wish me to judge of them by dark, but -to see them again in the full light of day. She knew each individual pig -by its physiognomy, having, as she said, “growed with ’em.” - -As we strolled back toward the bars a dusky form disputed our way,--two -small, sharp eyes and a wild crest of bristles were visible in the -obscure light. “That’s Old Arkansas,” said Susan; “he’s eight year old -come next June, and I never could get him to like me.” I felt for my -pistol, but Susan struck a vigorous attitude, ejaculating, “S-S-oway, -Arkansas!” She made a dash in his direction; a wild scuffle ensued, in -which I heard the dull thud of Susan’s shoe, accompanied by, “Take that, -dog-on-you!”, a cloud of dust, one shrill squeal, and Arkansas retreated -into the darkness at a business-like trot. - -When quite near the bars the mighty girl launched herself into the air, -alighting with her stomach across the topmost rail, where she hung a -brief moment, made a violent muscular contraction, and alighted upon the -ground outside, communicating to it a tremor quite perceptible from -where I stood. I climbed over after her, and we sauntered under the -trees back to camp. - -The family had disappeared. A few dry boughs, however, thrown upon the -coals, blazed up, and revealed their forms in the corrugated topography -of the bed. - -I bade Susan good-night, and before I could turn my back she kicked her -number eleven shoes into the air, and with masterly rapidity turned in, -as Minerva is said to have done, in full panoply. - -I fled precipitately to my camp, and sought my blankets, lying awake in -a kind of half-reverie, in which Susan and Arkansas, the old woman and -her coons, were the prominent figures. Later I fell asleep, and lay -motionless until the distant roar of swine awoke me before sunrise next -morning. - -Seated upon my blankets, I beheld Susan’s mother drag forth the two -children, one after another, by the napes of their necks, and, shaking -the sleep out of them, propel them spitefully toward the brook; then -taking her pipe from her mouth she bent low over the sleeping form of -her huge daughter, and in a high, shrill, nasal key, screeched in her -ear, “Yew Suse!” - -No sign of life on the part of the daughter. - -“Susan, _are_ you a-going to get up?” - -Slight muscular contraction of the lower limbs. - -“Will you hear me, _Susan_?” - -“Marm,” whispered the girl, in low, sleepy tones. - -“Get up and let the _hogs_ out!” - -The idea had at length thrilled into Susan’s brain, and with a violent -suddenness she sat bolt upright, brushing her green-colored hair out of -her eyes, and rubbing those valuable but bleared organs with the -ponderous knuckles of her forefingers. - -By this time I started for the brook for my morning toilet, and the girl -and I met upon opposite banks, stooping to wash our faces in the same -pool. As I opened my dressing-case her lower jaw fell, revealing a row -of ivory teeth rounded out by two well-developed “wisdoms,” which had -all that dazzling grin one sees in the show-windows of certain dental -practitioners. It required but a moment to gather up a quart or so of -water in her broad palms, and rub it vigorously into a small circle upon -the middle of her face, the moisture working outward to a certain -high-water mark, which, along her chin and cheeks, defined the limits of -former ablution; then, baring her large, red arms to the elbow, she -washed her hands, and stood resting them upon her hips, dripping -freely, and watching me with intense curiosity. - -When I reached the towel process, she herself twisted her body after the -manner of the Belvidere torso, bent low her head, gathered up the back -breadths of her petticoat, and wiped her face vigorously upon it, which -had the effect of tracing concentric streaks irregularly over her -countenance. - -I parted my hair by the aid of a small dressing-glass, which so fired -Susan that she crossed the stream with a mighty jump, and stood in -ecstasy by my side. She borrowed the glass, and then my comb, rewashed -her face, and fell to work diligently upon her hair. - -All this did not so limit my perception as to prevent my watching the -general demeanor of the family. The old man lay back at his ease, -puffing a cloud of smoke; his wife, also emitting volumes of the vapor -of “navy plug,” squatted by the camp-fire, frying certain lumps of pork, -and communicating an occasional spiral jerk to the coffee-pot, with the -purpose, apparently, of stirring the grounds. The two children had -gotten upon the back of a contemplative ass, who stood by the upper side -of the bed quietly munching the corner of a comforter. - -My friend was in no haste. She squandered much time upon the arrangement -of her towy hair, and there was something like a blush of conscious -satisfaction when she handed me back my looking-glass and remarked -ironically, “Oh, no, I guess not,--no, sir.” - -I begged her to accept the comb and glass, which she did with maidenly -joy. - -This unusual toilet had stimulated with self-respect Susan’s every -fibre, and as she sprang back across the brook and approached her -mother’s camp-fire I could not fail to admire the magnificent turn of -her shoulders and the powerful, queenly poise of her head. Her full, -grand form and heavy strength reminded me of the statues of Ceres, yet -there was withal a very unpleasant suggestion of fighting trim, a sort -of prize-ring manner of swinging the arms, and hitching the shoulders. -She suddenly spied the children upon the jackass, and with one wide -sweep of her right arm projected them over the creature’s head, and -planted her left eleven firmly in the ribs of the donkey, who beat a -precipitate retreat in the direction of the hog-pens, leaving her -executing a pas seul,--a kind of slow, stately jig, something between -the minuet and the _juba_, accompanying herself by a low-hummed air and -a vigorous beating of time upon her slightly lifted knee. - -It required my Pike County friends but ten minutes to swallow their pork -and begin the labors of the day. - -The mountaineers’ camp was not yet astir. These children of the forest -were well chained in slumber; for, unless there is some special -programme for the day, it requires the leverage of a high sun to arouse -their faculties, dormant enough by nature, and soothed into deepest -quiet by whiskey. About eight o’clock they breakfasted, and by nine had -engaged my innocent camp-men in a game of social poker. - -I visited my horses, and had them picketed in the best possible feed, -and congratulated myself that they were recruiting finely for the -difficult ride before me. - -Susan, after a second appeal from her mother, ran over to the corral and -let out the family capital, which streamed with exultant grunt through -the forest, darkening the fair green meadow gardens, and happily passing -out of sight. - -When I had breakfasted I joined Mr. Newty in his trip to the corral, -where we stood together for hours, during which I had mastered the story -of his years since, in 1850, he left his old home in Pike of Missouri. -It was one of those histories common enough through this wide West, yet -never failing to startle me with its horrible lesson of social -disintegration, of human retrograde. - -That brave spirit of Westward Ho! which has been the pillar of fire and -cloud leading on the weary march of progress over stretches of desert, -lining the way with graves of strong men; of new-born lives; of sad, -patient mothers, whose pathetic longing for the new home died with them; -of the thousand old and young whose last agony came to them as they -marched with eyes strained on after the sunken sun, and whose shallow -barrows scarcely lift over the drifting dust of the desert; that -restless spirit which has dared to uproot the old and plant the new, -kindling the grand energy of California, laying foundations for a State -to be, that is admirable, is poetic, is to fill an immortal page in the -story of America; but when, instead of urging on to wresting from new -lands something better than old can give, it degenerates into mere -weak-minded restlessness, killing the power of growth, the ideal of -home, the faculty of repose, it results in that race of perpetual -emigrants who roam as dreary waifs over the West, losing possessions, -love of life, love of God, slowly dragging from valley to valley, till -they fall by the wayside, happy if some chance stranger performs for -them the last rites,--often less fortunate, as blanched bones and -fluttering rags upon too many hillsides plainly tell. - -The Newtys were of this dreary brotherhood. In 1850, with a small family -of that authentic strain of high-bred swine for which Pike County is -widely known, as Mr. Newty avers, they bade Missouri and their snug farm -good-by, and, having packed their household goods into a wagon, drawn by -two spotted oxen, set out with the baby Susan for Oregon, where they -came after a year’s march, tired, and cursed with a permanent -discontent. There they had taken up a rancho, a quarter-section of -public domain, which at the end of two years was “improved” to the -extent of the “neatest little worm fence this side of Pike,” a barn, and -a smoke-house. “In another year,” said my friend, “I’d have dug for a -house, but we tuck ager, and the second baby died.” One day there came a -man who “let on that he knowed” land in California much fairer and more -worthy tillage than Oregon’s best, so the poor Newtys harnessed up the -wagon and turned their backs upon a home nearly ready for comfortable -life, and swept south with pigs and plunder. Through all the years this -story had repeated itself, new homes gotten to the edge of completion, -more babies born, more graves made, more pigs, who replenished as only -the Pike County variety may, till it seemed to me the mere -multiplication of them must reach a sufficient dead weight to anchor the -family; but this was dispelled when Newty remarked, “These yer hogs is -awkward about moving, and I’ve pretty much made up my mind to put ’em -all into bacon this fall, and sell out and start for Montana.” - -Poor fellow! at Montana he will probably find a man from Texas who in -half an hour will persuade him that happiness lies there. - -As we walked back to their camp, and when Dame Newty hove in sight, my -friend ventured to say, “Don’t you mind the old woman and her coons. -She’s from Arkansas. She used to say no man could have Susan who -couldn’t show coonskins enough of his own killing to make a bed-quilt, -but she’s over that mostly.” In spite of this assurance my heart fell a -trifle when, the first moment of our return, she turned to her husband -and asked, “Do you mind what a dead-open-and-shut on coons our little -Johnnie was when he was ten years old?” I secretly wondered if the -dead-open-and-shut had anything to do with his untimely demise at -eleven, but kept silence. - -Regarding her as a sad product of the disease of chronic emigration, her -hard, thin nature, all angles and stings, became to me one of the most -depressing and pathetic spectacles, and the more when her fever-and-ague -boy, a mass of bilious lymph, came and sat by her, looking up with -great, haggard eyes, as if pleading for something, he knew not what, but -which I plainly saw only death could bestow. - -Noon brought the hour of my departure. Susan and her father talked apart -a moment, then the old man said the two would ride along with me for a -few miles, as he had to go in that direction to look for new hog-feed. - -I despatched my two men with the pack-horse, directing them to follow -the trail, then saddled my Kaweah and waited for the Newtys. The old man -saddled a shaggy little mountain pony for himself, and for Susan -strapped a sheepskin upon the back of a young and fiery mustang colt. - -While they were getting ready, I made my horse fast to a stake and -stepped over to bid good-by to Mrs. Newty. I said to her, in tones of -deference, “I have come to bid you good-by, madam, and when I get back -this way I hope you will be kind enough to tell me one or two really -first-rate coon-stories. I am quite ignorant of that animal, having -been raised in countries where they are extremely rare, and I would like -to know more of what seems to be to you a creature of such interest.” -The wet, gray eyes relaxed, as I fancied, a trifle of their asperity; a -faint kindle seemed to light them for an instant as she asked, “You -never see coons catch frogs in a spring branch?” - -“No, madam,” I answered. - -“Well, I wonder! Well, take care of yourself, and when you come back -this way stop along with us, and we’ll kill a yearlin’, and I’ll tell -you about a coon that used to live under grandfather’s barn.” She -actually offered me her hand, which I grasped and shook in a friendly -manner, chilled to the very bone with its damp coldness. - -Mr. Newty mounted, and asked me if I was ready. Susan stood holding her -prancing mustang. To put that girl on her horse after the ordinary plan -would have required the strength of Samson or the use of a step-ladder, -neither of which I possessed; so I waited for events to develop -themselves. The girl stepped to the left side of her horse, twisted one -hand in the mane, laying the other upon his haunches, and, crouching for -a jump, sailed through the air, alighting upon the sheepskin. The horse -reared, and Susan, twisting herself round, came right side up with her -knee upon the sheepskin, shouting, as she did so, “I guess you don’t get -me off, sir!” I jumped upon Kaweah, and our two horses sprang forward -together, Susan waving her hand to her father, and crying, “Come along -after, old man!” and to her mother, “Take care of yourself!” which is -the Pike County for _au revoir!_ Her mustang tugged at the bit, and -bounded wildly into the air. We reached a stream-bank at full gallop, -the horses clearing it at a bound, sweeping on over the green floor and -under the magnificent shadow of the forest. Newty, following us at an -humble trot, slopped through the creek, and when I last looked he had -nearly reached the edge of the wood. - -I could but admire the unconscious excellence of Susan’s riding, her -firm, immovable seat, and the perfect coolness with which she held the -fiery horse. This quite absorbed me for five minutes, when she at last -broke the silence by the laconic inquiry, “Does yourn buck?” To which I -added the reply that he had only occasionally been guilty of that -indiscretion. She then informed me that the first time she had mounted -the colt he had “nearly bucked her to pieces; he had jumped and jounced -till she was plum tuckered out” before he had given up. - -Gradually reining the horses down and inducing them to walk, we rode -side by side through the most magnificent forest of the Sierras, and I -determined to probe Susan to see whether there were not, even in the -most latent condition, some germs of the appreciation of nature. I -looked from base to summit of the magnificent shafts, at the green -plumes which traced themselves against the sky, the exquisite fall of -purple shadows and golden light upon trunks, at the labyrinth of glowing -flowers, at the sparkling whiteness of the mountain brook, and up to the -clear, matchless blue that vaulted over us, then turned to Susan’s -plain, honest face, and gradually introduced the subject of trees. Ideas -of lumber and utilitarian notions of fence-rails were uppermost in her -mind; but I briefly penetrated what proved to be only a superficial -stratum of the materialistic, and asked her point blank if she did not -admire their stately symmetry. A strange, new light gleamed in her eye -as I described to her the growth and distribution of forests, and the -marvellous change in their character and aspects as they approached the -tropics. The palm and the pine, as I worked them up to her, really -filled her with delight, and prompted numerous interested and -intelligent queries, showing that she thoroughly comprehended my drift. -In the pleasant hour of our chat I learned a new lesson of the presence -of undeveloped seed in the human mind. - -Mr. Newty at last came alongside, and remarked that he must stop about -here; “but,” he added, “Susan will go on with you about half a mile, and -come back and join me here after I have taken a look at the feed.” - -As he rode out into the forest a little way, he called me to him, and I -was a little puzzled at what seemed to be the first traces of -embarrassment I had seen in his manner. - -“You’ll take care of yourself, now, won’t you?” he asked. I tried to -convince him that I would. - -A slight pause. - -“You’ll take care of yourself, won’t you?” - -He might rely on it, I was going to say. - -He added, “Thet--thet--thet man what gits Susan _has half the hogs_!” - -Then turning promptly away, he spurred the pony, and his words as he -rode into the forest were, “Take good care of yourself!” - -Susan and I rode on for half a mile, until we reached the brow of a long -descent, which she gave me to understand was her limit. - -We shook hands and I bade her good-by, and as I trotted off these words -fell sweetly upon my ear, “Say, you’ll take good care of yourself, won’t -you, say?” - -I took pains not to overtake my camp-men, wishing to be alone; and as I -rode for hour after hour the picture of this family stood before me in -all its deformity of outline, all its poverty of detail, all its -darkness of future, and I believe I thought of it too gravely to enjoy -as I might the subtle light of comedy which plays about these hard, -repulsive figures. - -In conversation I had caught the clew of a better past. Newty’s father -was a New-Englander, and he spoke of him as a man of intelligence and, -as I should judge, of some education. Mrs. Newty’s father had been an -Arkansas judge, not perhaps the most enlightened of men, but still very -far in advance of herself. The conspicuous retrograde seemed to me an -example of the most hopeless phase of human life. If, as I suppose, we -may all sooner or later give in our adhesion to the Darwinian view of -development, does not the same law which permits such splendid scope for -the better open up to us also possible gulfs of degradation, and are not -these chronic emigrants whose broken-down wagons and weary faces greet -you along the dusty highways of the far West melancholy examples of -beings who have forever lost the conservatism of home and the power of -improvement? - - - - -VI - -KAWEAH’S RUN - -1864 - - -After trying hard to climb Mount Whitney without success, and having -returned to the plains, I enjoyed my two days’ rest in hot Visalia, -where were fruits and people, and where I at length thawed out the last -traces of alpine cold, and recovered from hard work and the sinful bread -of my fortnight’s campaign. I considered it happiness to spend my whole -day on the quiet hotel veranda, accustoming myself again to such -articles as chairs and newspapers, and watching with unexpected pleasure -the few village girls who flitted about during the day, and actually -found time after sunset to chat with favored fellows beneath the wide -oaks of the street-side. Especially interesting seemed the rustic sister -of whom I bought figs at a garden gate, thinking her, as I did, _comme -il faut_, though recollecting later that her gown was of forgotten mode, -and that she carried a suggestion of ancient history in the obsolete -style of her back hair. - -Everybody was of interest to me, not excepting the two Mexican -mountaineers who monopolized the agent at Wells, Fargo & Co.’s office, -causing me delay. They were transacting some little item of business, -and stood loafing by the counter, mechanically jingling huge spurs and -shrugging their shoulders as they chatted in a dull, sleepy way. At the -door they paused, keeping up quite a lively dispute, without apparently -noticing me as I drew a small bag of gold and put it in my pocket. There -was no especial reason why I should remark the stolid, brutal cast of -their countenances, as I thought them not worse than the average -Californian greaser; but it occurred to me that one might as well guess -at a geological formation as to attempt to judge the age of -mountaineers, because they get very early in life a fixed expression, -which is deepened by continual rough weathering and undisturbed -accumulations of dirt. I observed them enough to see that the elder was -a man of middle height, of wiry, light figure and thin, hawk visage; a -certain angular sharpness making itself noticeable about the shoulders -and arms, which tapered to small, almost refined hands. A mere fringe of -perfectly straight, black beard followed the curve of his chin, tangling -itself at the ear with shaggy, unkempt locks of hair. He wore an -ordinary, stiff-brimmed Spanish sombrero, and the inevitable greasy red -sash performed its rather difficult task of holding together flannel -shirt and buckskin breeches, besides half covering with folds a long, -narrow knife. - -His companion struck me as a half-breed Indian, somewhere about eighteen -years of age, his beardless face showing deep, brutal lines, and a mouth -which was a mere crease between hideously heavy lips. Blood stained the -rowels of his spurs; an old felt hat, crumpled and ragged, slouched -forward over his eyes, doing its best to hide the man. - -I thought them a hard couple, and summed up their traits as stolidity -and utter cruelty. - -I was pleased that the stable-man who saddled Kaweah was unable to -answer their inquiry where I was going, and annoyed when I heard the -hotel-keeper inform them that I started that day for Millerton. - -Leaving behind us people and village, Kaweah bore me out under the -grateful shade of oaks, among rambling settlements and fields of -harvested grain, whose pale Naples-yellow stubble and stacks contrasted -finely with the deep foliage, and served as a pretty groundwork for -stripes of vivid green which marked the course of numberless irrigating -streams. Low cottages, overarched with boughs and hemmed in with weed -jungles, margined my road. I saw at the gate many children who looked me -out of countenance with their serious, stupid stare; they were the least -self-conscious of any human beings I have seen. - -Trees and settlements and children were soon behind us, an open plain -stretching on in front without visible limit,--a plain slightly browned -with the traces of dried herbaceous plants, and unrelieved by other -object than distant processions of trees traced from some cañon gate of -the Sierras westward across to the middle valley, or occasional bands of -restless cattle marching solemnly about in search of food. It was not -pleasant to realize that I had one hundred and twenty miles of this -lonely sort of landscape ahead of me, nor that my only companion was -Kaweah; for with all his splendid powers and rare qualities of instinct -there was not the slightest evidence of response or affection in his -behavior. Friendly toleration was the highest gift he bestowed on me, -though I think he had great personal enjoyment in my habits as a rider. -The only moments when we ever seemed thoroughly _en rapport_ were when I -crowded him down to a wild run, using the spur and shouting at him -loudly, or when in our friendly races homeward toward camp, through the -forest, I put him at a leap where he even doubted his own power. At such -times I could communicate ideas to him with absolute certainty. He would -stop, or turn, or gather himself for a leap, at my will, as it seemed to -me, by some sort of magnetic communication; but I always paid dearly for -this in long, tiresome efforts to calm him. - -With the long, level road ahead of me, I dared not attack its monotony -by any unusual riding, and having settled him at our regular travelling -trot,--a gait of about six miles an hour,--I forgot all about the dreary -expanse of plain, and gave myself up to quiet reverie. About dusk we had -reached the King’s River Ferry. - -An ugly, unpainted house, perched upon the bluff, and flanked by barns -and outbuildings of disorderly aspect, overlooked the ferry. Not a sign -of green vegetation could be seen, except certain half-dried willows -standing knee-deep along the river’s margin, and that dark pine zone -lifted upon the Sierras in eastern distance. - -It is desperate punishment to stay through a summer at one of these -plain ranches, there to be beat upon by an unrelenting sun in the midst -of a scorched landscape and forced to breathe sirocco and sand; yet -there are found plenty of people who are glad to become master of one of -these ferries or stage stations, their life for the most part silent, -and as unvaried as its outlook, given over wholly to permanent and -vacant loafing. - -Supper was announced by a business-like youth, who came out upon the -veranda and vigorously rang a tavern bell, although I was the only -auditor, and likely enough the only person within twenty miles. - -I envy my horse at such times; the graminivorous have us at a -disadvantage, for one revolts at the _cuisine_, although disliking to -insult the house by quietly shying the food out of the window. I arose -hungry from the table, remembering that some eminent hygeist has avowed -that by so doing one has achieved sanitary success. - -As I walked over to see Kaweah at the corral, I glanced down the river, -and saw, perhaps a quarter of a mile below, two horsemen ride down our -bank, spur their horses into the stream, swim to the other side, and -struggle up a steep bank, disappearing among bunches of cottonwood trees -near the river. - -So dangerous and unusual a proceeding could not have been to save the -half-dollar ferriage. There was something about their seat, and the -cruel way they drove home their spurs, that, in default of better -reasons, made me think them Mexicans. - -The whole Tulare plain is the home of nomadic ranchers, who, as -pasturage changes, drive about their herds of horses and cattle from -range to range; and as the wolves prowl around for prey, so a class of -Mexican highwaymen rob and murder them from one year’s end to the other. - -I judged the swimmers were bent on some such errand, and lay down on the -ground by Kaweah, to guard him, rolling myself in my soldier’s -great-coat, and slept with my saddle for a pillow. - -Once or twice the animal waked me up by stamping restively, but I could -perceive no cause for alarm, and slept on comfortably until a little -before sunrise, when I rose, took a plunge in the river, and hurriedly -dressed myself for the day’s ride; the ferryman, who had promised to put -me across at dawn, was already at his post, and, after permitting Kaweah -to drink a deep draught, I rode him out on the ferry-boat, and was -quickly at the other side. - -The road for two or three miles ascends the right bank of the river, -approaching in places quite closely to the edge of its bluffs. I greatly -enjoyed my ride, watching the Sierra sky line high and black against a -golden circle of dawn, and seeing it mirrored faithfully in still -reaches of river, and pleasing myself with the continually changing -foreground, as group after group of tall, motionless cottonwoods was -passed. The willows, too, are pleasing in their entire harmony with the -scene, and the air they have of protecting bank and shore from torrent -and sun. The plain stretched off to my left into dusky distance, and -ahead in a bare, smooth expanse, dreary by its monotony, yet not -altogether repulsive in the pearly obscurity of the morning. In -midsummer these plains are as hot as the Sahara through the long, -blinding day; but after midnight there comes a delicious blandness upon -the air, a suggestion of freshness and upspringing life, which renews -vitality within you. - -Kaweah showed the influence of this condition in the sensitive play of -ears and toss of head, and in his free, spirited stride. I was -experimenting on his sensitiveness to sounds, and had found that his -ears turned back at the faintest whisper, when suddenly his head rose, -he looked sharply forward toward a clump of trees on the river-bank, one -hundred and fifty yards in front of us, where a quick glance revealed to -me a camp-fire and two men hurrying saddles upon their horses,--a gray -and a sorrel. - -They were Spaniards,--the same who had swum King’s River the afternoon -before, and, as it flashed on me finally, the two whom I had studied so -attentively at Visalia. Then I at once saw their purpose was to waylay -me, and made up my mind to give them a lively run. The road followed the -bank up to their camp in an easterly direction, and then, turning a -sharp right angle to the north, led out upon the open plain, leaving the -river finally. - -I decided to strike across, and threw Kaweah into a sharp trot. - -I glanced at my girth and then at the bright copper upon my pistol, and -settled myself firmly in the saddle. - -Finding that they could not saddle quickly enough to attack me mounted, -the older villain grabbed a shot-gun, and sprung out to head me off, his -comrade meantime tightening the cinches. - -I turned Kaweah farther off to the left, and tossed him a little more -rein, which he understood and sprang out into a gallop. - -The robber brought his gun to his shoulder, covered me, and yelled, in -good English, “Hold on, you ----!” At that instant his companion dashed -up, leading the other horse. In another moment they were mounted and -after me, yelling, “Hu-hla” to the mustangs, plunging in the spurs, and -shouting occasional volleys of oaths. - -By this time I had regained the road, which lay before me traced over -the blank, objectless plain in vanishing perspective. Fifteen miles lay -between me and a station; Kaweah and pistol were my only defence, yet at -that moment I felt a thrill of pleasure, a wild moment of inspiration, -almost worth the danger to experience. - -I glanced over my shoulder and found that the Spaniards were crowding -their horses to their fullest speed; their hoofs, rattling on the dry -plain, were accompanied by inarticulate noises, like the cries of -bloodhounds. Kaweah comprehended the situation. I could feel his grand -legs gather under me, and the iron muscles contract with excitement; he -tugged at the bit, shook his bridle-chains, and flung himself -impatiently into the air. - -It flashed upon me that perhaps they had confederates concealed in some -ditch far in advance of me, and that the plan was to crowd me through at -fullest speed, giving up the chase to new men and fresh horses; and I -resolved to save Kaweah to the utmost, and only allow him a speed which -should keep me out of gunshot. So I held him firmly, and reserved my -spur for the last emergency. Still we fairly flew over the plain, and I -said to myself, as the clatter of hoofs and din of my pursuers rang in -my ears now and then, as the freshening breeze hurried it forward, that, -if those brutes got me, there was nothing in blood and brains; for -Kaweah was a prince beside their mustangs, and I ought to be worth two -villains. - -For the first twenty minutes the road was hard and smooth and level; -after that gentle, shallow undulations began, and at last, at brief -intervals, were sharp, narrow arroyos (ditches eight or nine feet wide). -I reined Kaweah in, and brought him up sharply on their bottoms, giving -him the bit to spring up on the other side; but he quickly taught me -better, and, gathering, took them easily, without my feeling it in his -stride. - -The hot sun had arisen. I saw with anxiety that the tremendous speed -began to tell painfully on Kaweah. Foam tinged with blood fell from his -mouth, and sweat rolled in streams from his whole body, and now and then -he drew a deep-heaving breath. I leaned down and felt of the cinch to -see if it had slipped forward, but, as I had saddled him with great -care, it kept its true place, so I had only to fear the greasers behind, -or a new relay ahead. I was conscious of plenty of reserved speed in -Kaweah, whose powerful run was already distancing their fatigued -mustangs. - -As we bounded down a roll of the plain, a cloud of dust sprang from a -ravine directly in front of me, and two black objects lifted themselves -in the sand. I drew my pistol, cocked it, whirled Kaweah to the left, -plunging by and clearing them by about six feet; a thrill of relief came -as I saw the long, white horns of Spanish cattle gleam above the dust. - -Unconsciously I restrained Kaweah too much, and in a moment the -Spaniards were crowding down upon me at a fearful rate. On they came, -the crash of their spurs and the clatter of their horses distinctly -heard; and as I had so often compared the beats of chronometers, I -unconsciously noted that while Kaweah’s, although painful, yet came with -regular power, the mustangs’ respiration was quick, spasmodic, and -irregular. I compared the intervals of the two mustangs, and found that -one breathed better than the other, and then, upon counting the best -mustang with Kaweah, found that he breathed nine breaths to Kaweah’s -seven. In two or three minutes I tried it again, finding the relation -ten to seven; then I felt the victory, and I yelled to Kaweah. The thin -ears shot flat back upon his neck; lower and lower he lay down to his -run; I flung him a loose rein, and gave him a friendly pat on the -withers. It was a glorious burst of speed; the wind rushed by and the -plain swept under us with dizzying swiftness. I shouted again, and the -thing of nervous life under me bounded on wilder and faster, till I -could feel his spine thrill as with shocks from a battery. I managed to -look round,--a delicate matter at speed,--and saw, far behind, the -distanced villains, both dismounted, and one horse fallen. - -In an instant I drew Kaweah in to a gentle trot, looking around every -moment, lest they should come on me unawares. In a half-mile I reached -the station, and I was cautiously greeted by a man who sat by the barn -door, with a rifle across his knees. He had seen me come over the plain, -and had also seen the Spanish horse fall. Not knowing but he might be in -league with the robbers, I gave him a careful glance before dismounting, -and was completely reassured by an expression of terror which had -possession of his countenance. - -I sprang to the ground and threw off the saddle, and after a word or two -with the man, who proved to be the sole occupant of this station, we -fell to work together upon Kaweah, my cocked pistol and his rifle lying -close at hand. We sponged the creature’s mouth, and, throwing a sheet -over him, walked him regularly up and down for about three quarters of -an hour, and then taking him upon the open plain, where we could scan -the horizon in all directions, gave him a thorough grooming. I never saw -him look so magnificently as when we led him down to the creek to drink: -his skin was like satin, and the veins of his head and neck stood out -firm and round like whip-cords. - -In the excitement of taking care of Kaweah I had scarcely paid any -attention to my host, but after two hours, when the horse was quietly -munching his hay, I listened attentively to his story. - -The two Spaniards had lurked round his station during the night, guns in -hand, and had made an attempt to steal a pair of stage horses from the -stable, but, as he had watched with his rifle, they finally rode away. - -By his account I knew them to be my pursuers; they had here, however, -ridden two black mustangs, and had doubtless changed their mount for the -sole purpose of waylaying me. - -About eleven o’clock, it being my turn to watch the horizon, I saw two -horsemen making a long _détour_ round the station, disappearing finally -in the direction of Millerton. By my glass I could only make out that -they were men riding in single file on a sorrel and a gray horse; but -this, with the fact of the long _détour_, which finally brought them -back into the road again, convinced me that they were my enemies. The -uncomfortable probability of their raising a band, and returning to make -sure of my capture, filled me with disagreeable foreboding, and all day -long, whether my turn at sentinel duty or not, I did little else than -range my eye over the valley in all directions. - -Twice during the day I led Kaweah out and paced him to and fro, for fear -his tremendous exertion would cause a stiffening of the legs; but each -time he followed close to my shoulder with the same firm, proud step, -and I gloried in him. - -Shortly after dark I determined to mount and push forward to Millerton, -my friend, the station man, having given me careful directions as to its -position; and I knew from the topography of the country that, by -abandoning the road and travelling by the stars, I could not widely miss -my mark; so at about nine o’clock I saddled Kaweah, and, mounting, bade -good-by to my friend. - -The air was bland, the heavens cloudless and starlit; in the west a low -arch of light, out of which had faded the last traces of sunset color; -in the east a silver dawn shone mild and pure above the Sierras, -brightening as the light in the west faded, till at last one jetty crag -was cut upon the disk of rising moon. - -Upon the light gray tone of the plain every object might be seen, and as -I rode on the memory of danger passed away, leaving me in full enjoyment -of companionship with the hour and with my friend Kaweah, whose sturdy, -easy stride was in itself a delight. There is a charm peculiar to these -soft, dewless nights. It seems the perfection of darkness in which you -get all the rest of sleep while riding, or lying wide awake on your -blankets. Now and then an object, vague and unrecognized, loomed out of -dusky distance, arresting our attention, for Kaweah’s quick eye usually -found them first: dead carcases of starved cattle, a blanched skull, or -stump of aged oak, were the only things seen, and we gradually got -accustomed to these, passing with no more than a glance. - -At last we approached a region of low, rolling sand-hills, where -Kaweah’s tread became muffled, and the silence so oppressive as to call -out from me a whistle. That instrument proved excellent in Traviata -solos; but, when I attempted some of Chopin, failed so painfully that I -was glad to be diverted by arriving at the summit of the zone of hills, -and looking out upon the wide, shallow valley of the San Joaquin, a -plain dotted with groves, and lighted here and there by open reaches of -moonlit river. - -I looked up and down, searching for lights which should mark Millerton. -I had intended to strike the river above the settlement, and should now, -if my reckoning was correct, be within half a mile of it. - -Riding down to the river-bank, I dismounted, and allowed Kaweah to -quench his thirst. The cool mountain water, fresh from the snow, was -delicious to him. He drank, stopped to breathe, and drank again and -again. I allowed him also to feed a half-moment on the grass by the -river-bank, and then, remounting, headed down the river, and rode slowly -along under the shadow of trees, following a broad, well-beaten trail, -which led, as I believed, to the village. - -While in a grove of oaks, jingling spurs suddenly sounded ahead, and -directly I heard voices. I quickly turned Kaweah from the trail, and -tied him a few rods off, behind a thicket, then crawled back into a -bunch of buckeye bushes, disturbing some small birds, who took flight. -In a moment two horsemen, talking Spanish, neared, and as they passed I -recognized their horses, and then the men. The impulse to try a shot was -so strong that I got out my revolver, but upon second thought put it up. -As they rode on into the shadow, the younger, as I judged by his voice, -broke out into a delicious melody, one of those passionate Spanish songs -with a peculiar, throbbing cadence, which he emphasized by sharply -ringing his spurs. - -These Californian scoundrels are invariably light-hearted; crime cannot -overshadow the exhilaration of outdoor life; remorse and gloom are -banished like clouds before this perennially sunny climate. They make -amusement out of killing you, and regard a successful plundering time as -a sort of pleasantry. - -As the soft, full tones of my bandit died in distance, I went for -Kaweah, and rode rapidly westward in the opposite direction, bringing up -soon in the outskirts of Millerton, just as the last gamblers were -closing up their little games, and about the time the drunk were -conveying one another home. Kaweah being stabled, I went to the hotel, -an excellent and orderly establishment, where a colored man of mild -manners gave me supper and made me at home by gentle conversation, -promising at last to wake me early, and bidding me good-night at my room -door with the tones of an old friend. I think his soothing spirit may -partly account for the genuinely profound sleep into which I quickly -fell, and which held me fast bound, until his hand on my shoulder and -“Half-past four, sir,” called me back, and renewed the currents of -consciousness. - -After we had had our breakfast, Kaweah and I forded the San Joaquin, and -I at once left the road, determined to follow a mountain trail which led -toward Mariposa. The trail proved a good one to travel, of smooth, soft -surface, and pleasant in its diversity of ups and downs, and with -rambling curves, which led through open regions of brown hills, whose -fern and grass were ripened to a common yellow-brown; then among -park-like slopes, crowned with fine oaks, and occasional pine woods, the -ground frequently covering itself with clumps of such shrubs as -chaparral, and the never-enough-admired manzanita. Yet I think I never -saw such facilities for an ambuscade. I imagined the path went out of -its way to thread every thicket, and the very trees grouped themselves -with a view to highway robbery. - -I soon, though, got tired looking out for my Spaniards, and became -assured of having my ride to myself when I studied the trail, and found -that Kaweah’s were the first tracks of the day. - -Riding thus in the late summer along the Sierra foot-hills, one is -constantly impressed with the climatic peculiarities of the region. With -us in the East, plant life seems to continue until it is at last put out -by cold, the trees appear to grow till the first frosts; but in the -Sierra foot-hills growth and active life culminate in June and early -July, and then follow long months of warm, stormless autumn, wherein the -hills grow slowly browner, and the whole air seems to ripen into a -fascinating repose,--a rich, dreamy quiet, with distance lost behind -pearly hazes, with warm, tranquil nights, dewless and silent. This -period is wealthy in yellows and russets and browns, in great, -overhanging masses of oak, whose olive hue is warmed into umber depth, -in groves of serious pines, red of bark, and cool in the dark greenness -of their spires. Nature wears an aspect of patient waiting for a great -change; ripeness, existence beyond the accomplishment of the purpose of -life, a long, pleasant, painless waiting for death,--these are the -conditions of the vegetation; and it is vegetation more than the -peculiar appearance of the air which impresses the strange character of -the season. It is as if our August should grow rich and ripe, through -cloudless days and glorious, warm nights, on till February, and then -wake as from sleep, to break out in the bloom of May. - -I was delighted to ride thus alone, and expose myself, as one uncovers a -sensitized photographic plate, to be influenced; for this is a respite -from scientific work, when through months you hold yourself accountable -for seeing everything, for analyzing, for instituting perpetual -comparison, and, as it were, sharing in the administering of the -physical world. No tongue can tell the relief to simply withdraw -scientific observation, and let Nature impress you in the dear old way -with all her mystery and glory, with those vague, indescribable emotions -which tremble between wonder and sympathy. - -Behind me in distance stretched the sere plain where Kaweah’s run saved -me. To the west, fading out into warm, blank distance, lay the great -valley of San Joaquin, into which, descending by sinking curves, were -rounded hills, with sunny, brown slopes softened as to detail by a low, -clinging bank of milky air. Now and then out of the haze to the east -indistinct rosy peaks, with dull, silvery snow-marblings, stood dimly up -against the sky, and higher yet a few sharp summits lifted into the -clearer heights seemed hung there floating. Quite in harmony with this -was the little group of Dutch settlements I passed, where an -antique-looking man and woman sat together on a veranda sunning their -white hair, and silently smoking old porcelain pipes. - -Nor was there any element of incongruity at the rancheria where I -dismounted to rest shortly after noon. A few sleepy Indians lay on their -backs dreaming, the good-humored, stout squaws nursing pappooses, or -lying outstretched upon red blankets. The agreeable harmony was not -alone from the Indian summer in their blood, but in part as well from -the features of their dress and facial expression. Their clothes, of -Caucasian origin, quickly fade out into utter barbarism, toning down to -warm, dirty timbers, never failing to be relieved, here and there, by -ropes of blue and white beads, or head-band and girdle of scarlet cloth. - -Toward the late afternoon, trotting down a gentle forest slope, I came -in sight of a number of ranch buildings grouped about a central open -space. A small stream flowed by the outbuildings, and wound among -chaparral-covered spurs below. Considerable crops of grain had been -gathered into a corral, and a number of horses were quietly straying -about. Yet with all the evidences of considerable possessions the whole -place had an air of suspicious mock-sleepiness. Riding into the open -square, I saw that one of the buildings was a store, and to this I rode, -tying Kaweah to the piazza post. - -I thought the whole world slumbered when I beheld the sole occupant of -this country store, a red-faced man in pantaloons and shirt, who lay on -his back upon a counter fast asleep, the handle of a revolver grasped in -his right hand. It seemed to me if I were to wake him up a little too -suddenly he might misunderstand my presence and do some accidental -damage; so I stepped back and poked Kaweah, making him jump and clatter -his hoofs, and at once the proprietor sprang to the door, looking -flustered and uneasy. - -I asked him if he could accommodate me for the afternoon and night, and -take care of my horse; to which he replied, in a very leisurely manner, -that there was a bed, and something to eat, and hay, and that if I was -inclined to take the chances I might stay. - -Being in mind to take the chances, I did stay, and my host walked out -with me to the corral, and showed me where to get Kaweah’s hay and -grain. - -I loafed about for an hour or two, finding that a Chinese cook was the -only other human being in sight, and then concluded to pump the -landlord. A half-hour’s trial thoroughly disgusted me, and I gave it up -as a bad job. I did, however, learn that he was a man of Southern birth, -of considerable education, which a brutal life and depraved mind had not -been able to fully obliterate. He seemed to care very little for his -business, which indeed was small enough, for during the time I spent -there not a single customer made his appearance. The stock of goods I -observed on examination to be chiefly fire-arms, every manner of -gambling apparatus, and liquors; the few pieces of stuffs, barrels, and -boxes of groceries appeared to be disposed rather as ornaments than for -actual sale. - -From each of the man’s trousers’ pockets protruded the handle of a -derringer, and behind his counter were arranged in convenient position -two or three double-barrelled shot-guns. - -I remarked to him that he seemed to have a handily arranged arsenal, at -which he regarded me with a cool, quiet stare, polished the handle of -one of his derringers upon his trousers, examined the percussion-cap -with great deliberation, and then, with a nod of the head intended to -convey great force, said, “You don’t live in these parts,”--a fact for -which I felt not unthankful. - -The man drank brandy freely and often, and at intervals of about half an -hour called to his side a plethoric old cat named “Gospel,” stroked her -with nervous rapidity, swearing at the same time in so _distrait_ and -unconscious a manner that he seemed mechanically talking to himself. - -Whoever has travelled on the West Coast has not failed to notice the -fearful volleys of oaths which the oxen-drivers hurl at their teams, but -for ingenious flights of fancy profanity I have never met the equal of -my host. With the most perfect good-nature and in unmoved continuance he -uttered florid blasphemies, which, I think, must have taken hours to -invent. I was glad, when bedtime came, to be relieved of his presence, -and especially pleased when he took me to the little separate building -in which was a narrow, single bed. Next this building on the left was -the cook-house and dining-room, and upon the right lay his own sleeping -apartment. Directly across the square, and not more than sixty feet off, -was the gate of the corral, which creaked on its rusty hinges, when -moved, in the most dismal manner. - -As I lay upon my bed I could hear Kaweah occasionally stamp; the snoring -of the Chinaman on one side, and the low, mumbled conversation of my -host and his squaw on the other. I felt no inclination to sleep, but lay -there in half-doze, quite conscious, yet withdrawn from the present. - -I think it must have been about eleven o’clock when I heard the clatter -of a couple of horsemen, who galloped up to my host’s building and -sprang to the ground, their Spanish spurs ringing on the stone. I sat up -in bed, grasped my pistol, and listened. The peach-tree next my window -rustled. The horses moved about so restlessly that I heard but little of -the conversation, but that little I found of personal interest to -myself. - -I give as nearly as I can remember the fragments of dialogue between my -host and the man whom I recognized as the older of my two robbers. - -“When did he come?” - -“Wall, the sun might have been about four hours.” - -“Has his horse give out?” - -I failed to hear the answer, but was tempted to shout out “No!” - -“Gray coat, buckskin breeches.” (My dress.) - -“Going to Mariposa at seven in the morning.” - -“I guess I wouldn’t round here.” - -A low, muttered soliloquy in Spanish wound up with a growl. - -“No, Antone, not within a mile of the place. ‘Sta buen.’” - -Out of the compressed jumble of the final sentence I got but the one -word, “buckshot.” - -The Spaniards mounted and the sound of their spurs and horses’ hoofs -soon died away in the north, and I lay for half an hour revolving all -sorts of plans. The safest course seemed to be to slip out in the -darkness and fly on foot to the mountains, abandoning my good Kaweah; -but I thought of his noble run, and it seemed to me so wrong to turn my -back on him that I resolved to unite our fate. I rose cautiously, and, -holding my watch up to the moon, found that twelve o’clock had just -passed, then taking from my pocket a five-dollar gold piece, I laid it -upon the stand by my bed, and in my stocking feet, with my clothes in my -hand, started noiselessly for the corral. A fierce bull-dog, which had -shown no disposition to make friends with me, bounded from the open door -of the proprietor to my side. Instead of tearing me, as I had expected, -he licked my hands and fawned about my feet. - -Reaching the corral gate, I dreaded opening it at once, remembering the -rusty hinges, so I hung my clothes upon an upper bar of the fence, and, -cautiously lifting the latch, began to push back the gate, inch by inch, -an operation which required eight or ten minutes; then I walked up to -Kaweah and patted him. His manger was empty; he had picked up the last -kernel of barley. The creature’s manner was full of curiosity, as if he -had never been approached in the night before. Suppressing his ordinary -whinnying, he preserved a motionless, statue-like silence. I was in -terror lest by a neigh, or some nervous movement, he should waken the -sleeping proprietor and expose my plan. - -The corral and the open square were half covered with loose stones, and -when I thought of the clatter of Kaweah’s shoes I experienced a feeling -of trouble, and again meditated running off on foot, until the idea -struck me of muffling the iron feet. Ordinarily Kaweah would not allow -me to lift his forefeet at all. The two blacksmiths who shod him had -done so at the peril of their lives, and whenever I had attempted to -pick up his hind feet he had warned me away by dangerous stamps; so I -approached him very timidly, and was surprised to find that he allowed -me to lift all four of his feet without the slightest objection. As I -stooped down he nosed me over, and nibbled playfully at my hat. In -constant dread lest he should make some noise, I hurried to muffle his -forefeet with my trousers and shirt, and then, with rather more care, -to tie upon his hind feet my coat and drawers. - -Knowing nothing of the country ahead of me, and fearing that I might -again have to run for it, I determined at all cost to water him. Groping -about the corral and barn, and at last finding a bucket, and descending -through the darkness to the stream, I brought him a full draught, which -he swallowed eagerly, when I tied my shoes on the saddle pommel, and led -the horse slowly out of the corral gate, holding him firmly by the bit, -and feeling his nervous breath pour out upon my hand. - -When we had walked perhaps a quarter of a mile, I stopped and listened. -All was quiet, the landscape lying bright and distinct in full -moonlight. I unbound the wrappings, shook from them as much dust as -possible, dressed myself, and then, mounting, started northward on the -Mariposa trail with cocked pistol. - -In the soft dust we travelled noiselessly for a mile or so, passing from -open country into groves of oak and thickets of chaparral. - -Without warning, I suddenly came upon a smouldering fire close by the -trail, and in the shadow descried two sleeping forms, one stretched on -his back, snoring heavily, the other lying upon his face, pillowing his -head upon folded arms. - -I held my pistol aimed at one of the wretches, and rode by without -wakening them, guiding Kaweah in the thickest dust. - -It keyed me up to a high pitch. I turned around in the saddle, leaving -Kaweah to follow the trail, and kept my eyes riveted on the sleeping -forms, until they were lost in distance, and then I felt safe. - -We galloped over many miles of trail, enjoying a sunrise, and came at -last to Mariposa, where I deposited my gold, and then went to bed and -made up my lost sleep. - - - - -VII - -AROUND YOSEMITE WALLS - -1864 - - -Late in the afternoon of October 5, 1864, a party of us reached the edge -of Yosemite, and, looking down into the valley, saw that the summer haze -had been banished from the region by autumnal frosts and wind. We looked -in the gulf through air as clear as a vacuum, discerning small objects -upon valley-floor and cliff-front. That splendid afternoon shadow which -divides the face of El Capitan was projected far up and across the -valley, cutting it in halves,--one a mosaic of russets and yellows with -dark pine and glimpse of white river; the other a cobalt-blue zone, in -which the familiar groves and meadows were suffused with shadow-tones. - -It is hard to conceive a more pointed contrast than this same view in -October and June. Then, through a slumberous yet transparent atmosphere, -you look down upon emerald freshness of green, upon arrowy rush of -swollen river, and here and there, along pearly cliffs, as from the -clouds, tumbles white, silver dust of cataracts. The voice of full, soft -winds swells up over rustling leaves, and, pulsating, throbs like the -beating of far-off surf. All stern sublimity, all geological -terribleness, are veiled away behind magic curtains of cloud-shadow and -broken light. Misty brightness, glow of cliff and sparkle of foam, -wealth of beautiful details, the charm of pearl and emerald, cool gulfs -of violet shade stretching back in deep recesses of the walls,--these -are the features which lie under the June sky. - -Now all that has gone. The shattered fronts of walls stand out sharp and -terrible, sweeping down in broken crag and cliff to a valley whereon the -shadow of autumnal death has left its solemnity. There is no longer an -air of beauty. In this cold, naked strength, one has crowded on him the -geological record of mountain work, of granite plateau suddenly rent -asunder, of the slow, imperfect manner in which Nature has vainly -striven to smooth her rough work and bury the ruins with thousands of -years’ accumulation of soil and _débris_. - -Already late, we hurried to descend the trail, and were still following -it when darkness overtook us; but ourselves and the animals were so well -acquainted with every turn that we found no difficulty in continuing our -way to Longhurst’s house, and here we camped for the night. - -By an act of Congress the Yosemite Valley had been segregated from the -public domain, and given--“donated,” as they call it--to the State of -California, to be held inalienable for all time as a public -pleasure-ground. The Commission into whose hands this trust devolved had -sent Mr. Gardiner and myself to make a survey defining the boundaries -of the new grant. It was necessary to execute this work before the -Legislature should meet in December, and we undertook it, knowing very -well that we must use the utmost haste in order to escape a three -months’ imprisonment,--for in early winter the immense Sierra snow-falls -would close the doors of mountain trails, and we should be unable to -reach the lowlands until the following spring. - -The party consisted of my companion, Mr. Gardiner; Mr. Frederick A. -Clark, who had been detailed from the service of the Mariposa Company to -assist us; Longhurst, an _habitué_ of the valley,--a weather-beaten -round-the-worlder, whose function in the party was to tell yarns, sing -songs, and feed the inner man; Cotter and Wilmer, chainmen; and two -mules,--one which was blind, and the other which, I aver, would have -discharged his duty very much better without eyes. - -We had chosen as the head-quarters of the survey two little cabins under -the pine-trees near Black’s Hotel. They were central; they offered a -shelter; and from their doors, which opened almost upon the Merced -itself, we obtained a most delightful sunrise view of the Yosemite. - -Next morning, in spite of early outcries from Longhurst, and a warning -solo of his performed with spoon and fry-pan, we lay in our comfortable -blankets pretending to enjoy the effect of sunrise light upon the -Yosemite cliff and fall, all of us unwilling to own that we were tired -out and needed rest. Breakfast had waited an hour or more when we got a -little weary of beds and yielded to the temptation of appetite. - -A family of Indians, consisting of two huge girls and their parents, sat -silently waiting for us to commence, and, after we had begun, watched -every mouthful from the moment we got it successfully impaled upon the -camp forks, a cloud darkening their faces as it disappeared forever down -our throats. - -But we quite lost our spectators when Longhurst came upon the boards as -a flapjack-frier,--a _rôle_ to which he bent his whole intelligence, and -with entire success. Scorning such vulgar accomplishment as turning the -cake over in mid-air, he slung it boldly up, turning it three -times,--ostentatiously greasing the pan with a fine, centrifugal -movement, and catching the flapjack as it fluttered down,--and spanked -it upon the hot coals with a touch at once graceful and masterly. - -I failed to enjoy these products, feeling as if I were breakfasting in -sacrilege upon works of art. Not so our Indian friends, who wrestled -affectionately for frequent unfortunate cakes which would dodge -Longhurst and fall into the ashes. - -By night we had climbed to the top of the northern wall, camping at the -head-waters of a small brook, named by emotional Mr. Hutchings, I -believe, the Virgin’s Tears, because from time to time from under the -brow of a cliff just south of El Capitan there may be seen a feeble -water-fall. I suspect this sentimental pleasantry is intended to bear -some relation to the Bridal Veil Fall opposite. If it has any such force -at all, it is a melancholy one, given by unusual gauntness and an aged -aspect, and by the few evanescent tears which this old virgin sheds. - -A charming camp-ground was formed by bands of russet meadow wandering in -vistas through a stately forest of dark green fir-trees unusually -feathered to the base. Little, mahogany-colored pools surrounded with -sphagnum lay in the meadows, offering pleasant contrast of color. Our -camp-ground was among clumps of thick firs, which completely walled in -the fire, and made close, overhanging shelters for table and beds. - -Gardiner, Cotter, and I felt thankful to our thermometer for owning up -frankly the chill of the next morning, as we left a generous camp-fire -and marched off through fir forest and among brown meadows and bare -ridges of rock toward El Capitan. This grandest of granite precipices is -capped by a sort of forehead of stone sweeping down to level, severe -brows, which jut out a few feet over the edge. A few weather-beaten, -battle-twisted, and black pines cling in clefts, contrasting in force -with the solid white stone. - -We hung our barometer upon a stunted tree quite near the brink, and, -climbing cautiously down, stretched ourselves out upon an overhanging -block of granite, and looked over into the Yosemite Valley. - -The rock fell under us in one sheer sweep of thirty-two hundred feet; -upon its face we could trace the lines of fracture and all prominent -lithological changes. Directly beneath, outspread like a delicately -tinted chart, lay the lovely park of Yosemite, winding in and out about -the solid white feet of precipices which sank into it on either side; -its sunlit surface invaded by the shadow of the south wall; its spires -of pine, open expanses of buff and drab meadow, and families of umber -oaks rising as background for the vivid green river-margin and flaming -orange masses of frosted cottonwood foliage. - -Deep in front the Bridal Veil brook made its way through the bottom of -an open gorge, and plunged off the edge of a thousand-foot cliff, -falling in white water-dust and drifting in pale, translucent clouds out -over the tree-tops of the valley. - -Directly opposite us, and forming the other gatepost of the valley’s -entrance, rose the great mass of Cathedral Rocks,--a group quite -suggestive of the Florence Duomo. - -But our grandest view was eastward, above the deep, sheltered valley and -over the tops of those terrible granite walls, out upon rolling ridges -of stone and wonderful granite domes. Nothing in the whole list of -irruptive products, except volcanoes themselves, is so wonderful as -these domed mountains. They are of every variety of conoidal form, -having horizontal sections accurately elliptical, ovoid, or circular, -and profiles varying from such semi-circles as the cap behind the -Sentinel to the graceful, infinite curves of the North Dome. Above and -beyond these stretch back long, bare ridges connecting with sunny summit -peaks. The whole region is one solid granite mass, with here and there -shallow soil layers, and a thin, variable forest which grows in -picturesque mode, defining the leading lines of erosion as an artist -deepens here and there a line to hint at some structural peculiarity. - -A complete physical exposure of the range, from summit to base, lay -before us. At one extreme stand sharpened peaks, white in fretwork of -glistening icebank, or black where tower straight bolts of snowless -rock; at the other stretch away plains smiling with a broad, honest -brown under autumn sunlight. They are not quite lovable, even in distant -tranquillity of hue, and just escape being interesting, in spite of -their familiar rivers and associated belts of oaks. Nothing can ever -render them quite charming, for in the startling splendor of flower-clad -April you are surfeited with an embarrassment of beauty; at all other -times stunned by their poverty. Not so the summits; forever new, full of -individuality, rich in detail, and coloring themselves anew under every -cloud change or hue of heaven, they lay you under their spell. - -From them the eye comes back over granite waves and domes to the sharp -precipice-edges overhanging Yosemite. We look down those vast, hard, -granite fronts, cracked and splintered, scarred and stained, down over -gorges crammed with _débris_, or dark with files of climbing pines. -Lower the precipice-feet are wrapped in meadow and grove, and beyond, -level and sunlit, lies the floor,--that smooth, river-cut park, with -exquisite perfection of finish. - -The dome-like cap of Capitan is formed of concentric layers like the -peels of an onion, each one about two or three feet thick. Upon the -precipice itself, either from our station on an overhanging crevice, or -from any point of opposite cliff or valley bottom, this structure is -seen to be superficial, never descending more than a hundred feet. - -In returning to camp we followed a main ridge, smooth and white under -foot, but shaded by groves of alpine firs. Trees which here reach mature -stature, and in apparent health, stand rooted in white gravel, resulting -from surface decomposition. I am sure their foliage is darker than can -be accounted for by effect of white contrasting earth. Wherever, in deep -depressions, enough wash soil and vegetable mould have accumulated, -there the trees gather in thicker groups, lift themselves higher, spread -out more and finer-feathered branches; sometimes, however, richness of -soil and perfection of condition prove fatal through overcrowding. They -are wonderfully like human communities. One may trace in an hour’s walk -nearly all the laws which govern the physical life of men. - -Upon reaching camp we found Longhurst in a deep, religious calm, happy -in his mind, happy, too, in the posture of his body, which was reclining -at ease upon a comfortable blanket-pile before the fire; a verse of the -hymn “Coronation” escaped murmurously from his lips, rising at times in -shaky crescendos, accompanied by a waving and desultory movement of the -forefinger. He had found among our medicines a black bottle of brandy, -contrived to induce a mule to break it, and, just to save as much as -possible while it was leaking, drank with freedom. Anticipating any -possible displeasure of ours, Longhurst had collected his wits and -arrived at a most excellent dinner, crowning the repast with a duff, -accurately globular, neatly brecciated with abundant raisins, and -drowned with a foaming sauce, to which the last of the brandy imparted -an almost pathetic flavor. - -The evening closed with moral remark and spiritual song from Longhurst, -and the morning introduced us to our prosaic labor of running the -boundary line,--a task which consumed several weeks, and occupied nearly -all of our days. I once or twice found time to go down to the -cliff-edges again for the purpose of making my geological studies. - -An excursion which Cotter and I made to the top of the Three Brothers -proved of interest. A half-hour’s walk from camp, over rolling granite -country, brought us to a ridge which jutted boldly out from the plateau -to the edge of the Yosemite wall. Upon the southern side of this -eminence heads a broad, _débris_-filled ravine, which descends to the -valley bottom; upon the other side the ridge sends down its waters along -a steep declivity into a lovely mountain basin, where, surrounded by -forest, spreads out a level expanse of emerald meadow, with a bit of -blue lakelet in the midst. The outlet of this little valley is through a -narrow rift in the rocks leading down into the Yosemite fall. - -Along the crest of our jutting ridge we found smooth pathway, and soon -reached the summit. Here again we were upon the verge of a precipice, -this time four thousand two hundred feet high. Beneath us the whole -upper half of the valley was as clearly seen as the southern half had -been from Capitan. The sinuosities of the Merced, those narrow, silvery -gleams which indicated the channel of the Yosemite creek, the broad -expanse of meadow, and _débris_ trains which had bounded down the -Sentinel slope, were all laid out under us, though diminished by immense -depth. - -The loftiest and most magnificent parts of the walls crowded in a -semi-circle in front of us; above them the domes, lifted even higher -than ourselves, swept down to the precipice-edges. Directly to our left -we overlooked the goblet-like recess into which the Yosemite tumbles, -and could see the white torrent leap through its granite lip, -disappearing a thousand feet below, hidden from our view by projecting -crags; its roar floating up to us, now resounding loudly, and again -dying off in faint reverberations like the sounding of the sea. - -Looking up upon the falls from the valley below, one utterly fails to -realize the great depth of the semi-circular alcove into which they -descend. - -Looking back at El Capitan, its sharp, vertical front was projected -against far blue foot-hills, the creamy whiteness of sunlit granite cut -upon aërial distance, clouds and cold blue sky shutting down over white -crest and jetty pine-plumes, which gather helmet-like upon its upper -dome. Perspective effects are marvellously brought out by the stern, -powerful reality of such rock bodies as Capitan. Across their terrible, -blade-like precipice-edges you look on and down over vistas of cañon and -green hillswells, the dark color of pine and fir broken by bare spots of -harmonious red or brown, and changing with distance into purple, then -blue, which reaches on farther into the brown monotonous plains. Beyond, -where the earth’s curve defines its horizon, dim serrations of Coast -Range loom indistinctly on the hazy air. From here those remarkable -fracture results, the Royal Arches, a series of recesses carved into the -granite front, beneath the North Dome, are seen in their true -proportions. - -The concentric structure, which covers the dome with a series of plates, -penetrates to a greater depth than usual. The Arches themselves are -only fractured edges of these plates, resulting from the intersection -of a cliff-plane with the conoidal shells. - -We had seen the Merced group of snow-peaks heretofore from the west, but -now gained a more oblique view, which began to bring out the thin -obelisk-form of Mount Clark, a shape of great interest from its -marvellous thinness. Mount Starr King, too, swelled up to its commanding -height, the most elevated of the domes. - -Looking in the direction of the Half-Dome, I was constantly impressed -with the inclination of the walls, with the fact that they are never -vertical for any great depth. This is observed, too, remarkably in the -case of El Capitan, whose apparently vertical profile is very slant, the -actual base standing twelve hundred feet in advance of the brow. - -For a week the boundary survey was continued northeast and parallel to -the cliff-wall, about a mile back from its brink, following through -forests and crossing granite spurs until we reached the summit of that -high, bare chain which divides the Virgin’s Tears from Yosemite Creek, -and which, projecting southward, ends in the Three Brothers. East of -this the declivity falls so rapidly to the valley of the upper Yosemite -Creek that chaining was impossible, and we were obliged to throw our -line across the cañon, a little over a mile, by triangulation. This -completed, we resumed it on the North Dome spur, transferring our camp -to a bit of alpine meadow south of the Mono trail, and but a short -distance from the North Dome itself. - -After the line was finished here, and a system of triangles determined -by which we connected our northern points with those across the chasm of -the Yosemite, we made several geological excursions along the cliffs, -studying the granite structure, working out its lithological changes, -and devoting ourselves especially to the system of moraines and glacier -marks which indicate direction and volume of the old ice-flow. - -An excursion to the summit of the North Dome was exceedingly -interesting. From the rear of our camp we entered immediately a dense -forest of conifers, which stretched southward along the summit of the -ridge until solid granite, arresting erosion, afforded but little -foothold. As usual, among the cracks, and clinging around the bases of -bowlders, a few hardy pines manage to live, almost to thrive; but as we -walked groups became scarcer, trees less healthy, all at last giving way -to bare, solid stone. The North Dome itself, which is easily reached, -affords an impressive view up the Illilluette and across upon the -fissured front of the Half-Dome. It is also one of the most interesting -specimens of conoidal structure, since not only is its mass divided by -large, spherical shells, but each of these is subdivided by a number of -lesser, divisional planes. No lithological change is, however, -noticeable between the different shells. The granite is composed -chiefly of orthoclase, transparent vitreous quartz, and about an equal -proportion of black mica and hornblende. Here and there adularia occurs, -and, very sparingly, albite. - -With no difficulty, but some actual danger, I climbed down a smooth -granite roof-slope to where the precipice of Royal Arches makes off, and -where, lying upon a sharp, neatly fractured edge, I was able to look -down and study those purple markings which are vertically striped upon -so many of these granite cliffs. I found them to be bands of lichen -growth which follow the curves of occasional water-flow. During any -great rain-storm, and when snow upon the uplands is suddenly melted, -innumerable streams, many of them of considerable volume, find their way -to the precipice-edge, and pour down its front. Wherever this is the -case, a deep purple lichen spreads itself upon the granite, and forms -those dark cloudings which add so greatly to the variety and interest of -the cliffs. - -I found it extremest pleasure to lie there alone on the dizzy brink, -studying the fine sculpture of cliff and crag, overlooking the -arrangement of _débris_ piles, and watching that slow, grand growth of -afternoon shadows. Sunset found me there, still disinclined to stir, and -repaid my laziness by a glorious spectacle of color. At this hour there -is no more splendid contrast of light and shade than one sees upon the -western gateway itself,--dark-shadowed Capitan upon one side profiled -against the sunset sky, and the yellow mass of Cathedral Rocks rising -opposite in full light, while the valley is divided equally between -sunshine and shade. Pine groves and oaks, almost black in the shadow, -are brightened up to clear red-browns where they pass out upon the -lighted plain. The Merced, upon its mirror-like expanses, here reflects -deep blue from Capitan, and there the warm Cathedral gold. The last -sunlight reflected from some curious, smooth surfaces upon rocks east of -the Sentinel, and about a thousand feet above the valley. I at once -suspected them to be glacier marks, and booked them for further -observation. - -My next excursion was up to Mount Hoffmann, among a group of -snow-fields, whose drainage gathers at last through lakes and brooklets -to a single brook (the Yosemite), and flows twelve miles in a broad arc -to its plunge over into the valley. From the summit, which is of a -remarkably bedded, conoidal mass of granite, sharply cut down in -precipices fronting the north, is obtained a broad, commanding view of -the Sierras from afar, by the heads of several San Joaquin branches, up -to the ragged volcanic piles about Silver Mountain. - -From the top I climbed along slopes, and down by a wide _détour_ among -frozen snow-banks and many little basins of transparent blue water, amid -black shapes of stunted fir, and over the confused wreck of rock and -tree-trunk thrown rudely in piles by avalanches whose tracks were fresh -enough to be of interest. - -Upon reaching the bottom of a broad, open glacier-valley, through whose -middle flows the Yosemite Creek and its branches, I was surprised to -find the streams nearly all dry; that the snow itself, under influence -of cold, was a solid ice mass, and the Yosemite Creek, even after I had -followed it down for miles, had entirely ceased to flow. At intervals -the course of the stream was carried over slopes of glacier-worn -granite, ending almost uniformly in shallow rock basins, where were -considerable ponds of water, in one or two instances expanding to the -dignity of lakelets. - -The valley describes an arc whose convexity is in the main turned to the -west, the stream running nearly due west for about four miles, turning -gradually to the southward, and, having crossed the Mono trail, bending -again to the southeast, after which it discharges over the verge of the -cliff. An average breadth of this valley is about half a mile; its form -a shallow, elliptical trough, rendered unusually smooth by the erosive -action of old glaciers. _Roches moutonnées_ break its surface here and -there, but in general the granite has been planed down into remarkable -smoothness. All along its course a varying rubbish of angular bowlders -has been left by the retiring ice, whose material, like that of the -whole country, is of granite; but I recognized prominently black -sienitic granite from the summit of Mount Hoffmann, which, from superior -hardness, has withstood disintegration, and is perhaps the most -frequent material of glacier-blocks. The surface modelling is often of -the most finished type; especially is this the case wherever the granite -is highly silicious, its polish becoming then as brilliant as a marble -mantel. In very feldspathic portions, and particularly where orthoclase -predominates, the polished surface becomes a crust, usually about -three-quarters of an inch thick, in which the ordinary appearance of the -minerals has been somewhat changed, the rock-surface, by long pressure, -rendered extremely dense, and in a measure separated from the underlying -material. This smooth crust is constantly breaking off in broad flakes. -The polishing extended up the valley sides to a height of about seven -hundred feet. - -The average section of the old glacier was perhaps six hundred feet -thick by half a mile in width. I followed its course from Mount Hoffmann -down as far as I could ride, and then, tying my horse only a little way -from the brink of the cliff, I continued downward on foot, walking upon -the dry stream-bed. I found here and there a deep pit-hole, sometimes -twenty feet deep, carved in mid-channel, and often full of water. Just -before reaching the cliff verge the stream enters a narrow, sharp cut -about one hundred and twenty feet in depth, and probably not over thirty -feet wide. The bottom and sides of this granite lip, here and there, are -evidently glacier-polished, but the greater part of the scorings have -been worn away by the attrition of sands. A peculiar, brilliant polish, -which may be seen there to-day, is wholly the result of recent sand -friction. - -It was noon when I reached the actual lip, and crept with extreme -caution down over smooth, rounded granite, between towering walls, to -where the Yosemite Fall makes its wonderful leap. Polished rock curved -over too dangerously for me to lean out and look down over the -cliff-front itself. A stone gate dazzlingly gilded with sunlight formed -the frame through which I looked down upon that lovely valley. - -Contrast with the strength of yellow rock and severe adamantine -sculpture threw over the landscape beyond a strange unreality, a soft, -aërial depth of purple tone quite as new to me as it was beautiful -beyond description. There, twenty-six hundred feet below, lay meadow and -river, oak and pine, and a broad shadow-zone cast by the opposite wall. -Over it all, even through the dark sky overhead, there seemed to be -poured some absolute color, some purple air, hiding details, and veiling -with its soft, amethystine obscurity all that hard, broken roughness of -the Sentinel cliffs. In this strange, vacant, stone corridor, this -pathway for the great Yosemite torrent, this sounding-gallery of -thunderous tumult, it was a strange sensation to stand, looking in vain -for a drop of water, listening vainly, too, for the faintest whisper of -sound, and I found myself constantly expecting some sign of the -returning flood. - -From the lip I climbed a high point just to the east, getting a grand -view down the cliff, where a broad, purple band defined the Yosemite -spray line. There, too, I found unmistakable ice-striæ, showing that the -glacier of Mount Hoffmann had actually poured over the brink. At the -moments of such discovery, one cannot help restoring in imagination -pictures of the past. When we stand by river-bank or meadow of that fair -valley, looking up at the torrent falling bright under fulness of light, -and lovely in its graceful, wind-swayed airiness, we are apt to feel its -enchantment; but how immeasurably grander must it have been when the -great, living, moving glacier, with slow, invisible motion, crowded its -huge body over the brink, and launched blue ice-blocks down through the -foam of the cataract into that gulf of wild rocks and eddying mist! - -The one-eyed mule, Bonaparte, I found tied where I had left him; and, as -usual, I approached him upon his blind side, able thus to get -successfully into my saddle, without danger to life or limb. I could -never become attached to the creature, although he carried me faithfully -many difficult and some dangerous miles, and for the reason that he made -a pretext of his half-blindness to commit excesses, such as crowding me -against trees and refusing to follow trails. Realizing how terrible -under reinforcement of hereditary transmission the peculiarly mulish -traits would have become, one is more than thankful to Nature for -depriving this singular hybrid of the capacity of handing them down. - -Rather tired, and not a little bruised by untimely collision with trees, -I succeeded at last in navigating Bonaparte safely to camp, and turning -him over to his fellow, Pumpkinseed. - -The nights were already very cold, our beds on frozen ground none of the -most comfortable; in fact, enthusiasm had quite as much to do with our -content as the blankets or Longhurst’s culinary art, which, enclosed now -by the narrow limit of bacon, bread, and beans, failed to produce such -dainties as thrice-turned slapjacks or plum-duffs of solemnizing memory. - -One more geological trip finished my examination of this side of the -great valley. It was a two days’ ramble all over the granite ridges, -from the North Dome up to Lake Tenaya, during which I gathered ample -evidence that a broad sheet of glacier, partly derived from Mount -Hoffmann, and in part from the Mount Watkins Ridge and Cathedral Peak, -but mainly from the great Tuolumne glacier, gathered and flowed down -into the Yosemite Valley. Where it moved over the cliffs there are -well-preserved scarrings. The facts which attest this are open to -observation, and seem to me important in making up a statement of past -conditions. - -We were glad to get back at last to our two little cabins in the valley, -although our serio-comic hangers-on, the Diggers, were gone, and the -great fall was dry. - -A rest of one day proved refreshing enough for us to leave camp and -ascend by the Mariposa trail to Meadow Brook, where we made a bivouac, -from which Gardiner began his southern boundary line, and I renewed my -geological studies east of Inspiration Point. - -I always go swiftly by this famous point of view now, feeling somehow -that I don’t belong to that army of literary travellers who have here -planted themselves and burst into rhetoric. Here all who make California -books, down to the last and most sentimental specimen who so much as -meditates a letter to his or her local paper, dismount and inflate. If -those firs could recite half the droll _mots_ they have listened to, or -if I dared tell half the delicious points I treasure, it would sound -altogether too amusing among these dry-enough chapters. - -I had always felt a desire to examine Bridal Veil cañon and the -southwest Cathedral slope. Accordingly, one fine morning I set out -alone, and descended through chaparral and over rough _débris_ slopes to -the stream, which at this time, unlike the other upland brooks, flowed -freely, though with far less volume than in summer. At this altitude -only such streams as derive their volume wholly from melting snow dry up -in the cold autumnal and winter months; spring-fed brooks hold their -own, and rather increase as cold weather advances. - -It was a wild gorge down which I tramped, following the stream-bed, -often jumping from block to block, or letting myself down by the -chaparral boughs that overhung my way. Splendid walls on either side -rose steep and high, for the most part bare, but here and there on shelf -or crevice bearing clusters of fine conifers, their lower slopes one -vast wreck of bowlders and thicket of chaparral plants. - -Not without some difficulty I at length got to the brink, and sat down -to rest, looking over at the valley, whose meadows were only a thousand -feet below; a cool, stirring breeze blew up the Merced Cañon, swinging -the lace-like scarf of foam which fell from my feet, and, floating now -against the purple cliff, again blew out gracefully to the right or -left. While I looked, a gust came roaming round the Cathedral Rocks, -impinging against our cliff near the fall, and apparently got in between -it and the cliff, carrying the whole column of falling water straight -out in a streamer through the air. - -I went back to camp by way of the Cathedral Rocks, finding much of -interest in the conoidal structure, which is yet perfectly apparent, and -unobscured by erosion or the terrible splitting asunder they have -suffered. Upon a ridge connecting these rocks with the plateaus just -south there were many instructive and delightful points of view, -especially the crag just above the Cathedral Spires, from which I -overlooked a large part of valley and cliff, with the two sharp, slender -minarets of granite close beneath me. That great block forming the -plateau between the Yosemite and Illilluette cañons afforded a fine -field for studying granite, pine, and many remarkably characteristic -views of the gorge below and peaks beyond. From our camp I explored -every ravine and climbed each eminence, reaching at last, one fine -afternoon, the top of that singular, hemispherical mass, the Sentinel -Dome. From this point one sweeps the horizon in all directions. You -stand upon the crest of half a globe, whose smooth, white sides, bearing -here and there stunted pines, slope away regularly in all directions -from your feet. Below, granite masses, blackened here and there with -densely clustered forest, stretch through varied undulations toward you. -At a little distance from the foot of the Half-Dome, trees hold upon -sharp brinks, and precipices plunge off into Yosemite upon one side, and -the dark, rocky cañon of Illilluette upon the other. Eastward, soaring -into clouds, stands the thin, vertical mass of the Half-Dome. - -From this view the snowy peak of the Obelisk, flattened into broad, -dome-like outline, rises, shutting out the more distant Sierra summits. -This peak, from its peculiar position and thin, tower-like form, offers -one of the most tempting summits of the region. From that slender top -one might look into the Yosemite, and into that basin of ice and granite -between the Merced and Mount Lyell groups. I had longed for it through -the last month’s campaign, and now made up my mind, with this inspiring -view, to attempt it at all hazards. - -A little way to the east, and about a thousand feet below the brink of -the Glacier Point, the crags appeared to me particularly tempting; so -in the late afternoon I descended, walking over a rough, gritty surface -of granite, which gave me secure foothold. Upon the very edge the -immense, splintered rocks lay piled one upon another; here a mass -jutting out and overhanging upon the edge, and here a huge slab pointed -out like a barbette gun. I crawled out upon one of these projecting -blocks and rested myself, while studying the view. - -From here the one very remarkable object is the Half-Dome. You see it -now edgewise and in sharp profile, the upper half of the conoid fronting -the north with a sharp, sheer, fracture-face of about two thousand feet -vertical. From the top of this a most graceful helmet curve sweeps over -to the south, and descends almost perpendicularly into the valley of the -Little Yosemite; and here from the foot springs up the block of Mount -Broderick,--a single, rough-hewn pyramid, three thousand feet from -summit to base, trimmed upon its crest with a few pines, and spreading -out its southern base into a precipice, over which plunges the white -Nevada torrent. Observation had taught me that a glacier flowed over the -Yosemite brink. As I looked over now I could see its shallow valley and -the ever-rounded rocks over which it crowded itself and tumbled into the -icy valley below. Up the Yosemite gorge, which opened straight before -me, I knew that another great glacier had flowed; and also that the -valley of the Illilluette and the Little Yosemite had been the bed of -rivers of ice; a study, too, of the markings upon the glacier cliff -above Hutchings’s house had convinced me that a glacier no less than a -thousand feet deep had flowed through the valley, occupying its entire -bottom. - -It was impossible for me, as I sat perched upon this jutting rock mass, -in full view of all the cañons which had led into this wonderful -converging system of ice-rivers, not to imagine a picture of the glacier -period. Bare or snow-laden cliffs overhung the gulf; streams of ice, -here smooth and compacted into a white plain, there riven into -innumerable crevasses, or tossed into forms like the waves of a -tempest-lashed sea, crawled through all the gorges. Torrents of water -and avalanches of rock and snow spouted at intervals all along the cliff -walls. Not a tree nor a vestige of life was in sight, except far away -upon ridges below, or out upon the dimly expanding plain. Granite and -ice and snow, silence broken only by the howling tempest and the crash -of falling ice or splintered rock, and a sky deep freighted with cloud -and storm,--these were the elements of a period which lasted -immeasurably long, and only in comparatively the most recent geological -times have given way to the present marvellously changed condition. -Nature in her present aspects, as well as in the records of her past, -here constantly offers the most vivid and terrible contrasts. Can -anything be more wonderfully opposite than that period of leaden sky, -gray granite, and desolate stretches of white, and the present, when of -the old order we have only left the solid framework of granite, and the -indelible inscriptions of glacier work? To-day their burnished pathways -are legibly traced with the history of the past. Every ice-stream is -represented by a feeble river, every great glacier cascade by a torrent -of white foam dashing itself down rugged walls, or spouting from the -brinks of upright cliffs. The very avalanche tracks are darkened by -clustered woods, and over the level pathway of the great Yosemite -glacier itself is spread a park of green, a mosaic of forest, a thread -of river. - - - - -VIII - -A SIERRA STORM - - -From every commanding eminence around the Yosemite no distant object -rises with more inspiring greatness than the Obelisk of Mount Clark. -Seen from the west it is a high, isolated peak, having a dome-like -outline very much flattened upon its west side, the precipice sinking -deeply down to an old glacier ravine. From the north this peak is a -slender, single needle, jutting two thousand feet from a rough-hewn -pedestal of rocks and snow-fields. Forest-covered heights rise to its -base from east and west. To the south it falls into a deep saddle, which -rises again, after a level outline of a mile, sweeping up in another -noble granite peak. On the north the spur drops abruptly down, -overhanging an edge of the great Merced gorge, its base buried beneath -an accumulation of morainal matter deposited by ancient Merced glaciers. -From the region of Mount Hoffmann, looming in most impressive isolation, -its slender needle-like summit had long fired us with ambition; and, -having finished my agreeable climb round the Yosemite walls, I concluded -to visit the mountain with Cotter, and, if the weather should permit, to -attempt a climb. We packed our two mules with a week’s provisions and a -single blanket each, and on the tenth of November left our friends at -the head-quarter’s camp in Yosemite Valley and rode out upon the -Mariposa trail, reaching the plateau by noon. Having passed Meadow -Brook, we left the path and bore off in the direction of Mount Clark, -spending the afternoon in riding over granite ridges and open stretches -of frozen meadow, where the ground was all hard, and the grass entirely -cropped off by numerous herds of sheep that had ranged here during the -summer. The whole earth was bare, and rang under our mules’ hoofs almost -as clearly as the granite itself. - -We camped for the night on one of the most eastern affluents of Bridal -Veil Creek, and were careful to fill our canteens before the bitter -night-chill should freeze it over. By our camp was a pile of pine logs -swept together by some former tempest; we lighted them, and were quickly -saluted by a magnificent bonfire. The animals were tied within its ring -of warmth, and our beds laid where the rain of sparks could not reach. -As we were just going to sleep, our mules pricked up their ears and -looked into the forest. We sprang to our feet, picked up our pistols, -expecting an Indian or a grizzly, but were surprised to see, riding out -of the darkness, a lonely mountaineer, mounted upon a little mustang, -carrying his long rifle across the saddle-bow. He came directly to our -camp-fire, and, without uttering a word, slowly and with great effort -swung himself out of his saddle and walked close to the flames, leaving -his horse, which remained motionless, where he had reined him in. I saw -that the man was nearly frozen to death, and immediately threw my -blanket over his shoulders. The water in our camp kettle was still hot, -and Cotter made haste to draw a pot of tea, while I broiled a slice of -beef and pressed him to eat. He, however, shook his head and maintained -a persistent silence, until at length, after turning round and round -until I could have thought him done to a turn, in a very feeble, broken -voice he ejaculated, “I was pretty near gone in, stranger!” Again I -pressed him to drink a cup of tea, but he feebly answered, “Not yet.” -After roasting for half an hour, in which I fully expected to see his -coat-tail smoke, he sat down and drank about two quarts of tea. This had -the effect of thawing him out, and he remembered that his horse was -still saddled and very hungry. He told us that neither he nor the animal -had had anything to eat for three days, and that he was pushing -hopelessly westward, expecting either the giving out of his horse, or -death by freezing. We took the saddle from his tired little mustang, -spread the saddle-blanket over his back, and from the scanty supply of -grain we had brought for our own animals gave him a tolerable supper. It -is wonderful how in hours of danger and privation the horse clings to -his human friend. Perfectly tame, perfectly trusting, he throws the -responsibility of his care and life upon his rider; and it is not the -least pathetic among our mountain experiences to see this patient -confidence continue until death. Observing that the logs were likely to -burn freely all night, we divided our blankets with the mountaineer, and -Cotter and I turned in together. In the morning our new friend had -entirely recovered from his numb, stupid condition. Recognizing at a -glance his whereabouts, and thanking us feelingly for our rough -hospitality, he headed toward the Mariposa trail, with quite an -affecting good-by. - -After breakfast we ourselves mounted and rode up a long, forest-covered -spur leading to the summit of a granite divide, which we crossed at a -narrow pass between two steep cliffs, and descended its eastern slope in -full view of the whole Merced group. This long abrupt descent in front -of us led to the Illilluette Creek, and directly opposite, on the other -side of the trough-like valley, rose the high sharp summit of Mount -Clark. We were all day in crossing and riding up the crest of a sharply -curved medial moraine which traced itself from the mountain south of -Mount Clark in a long, parabolic curve, dying out at last in the bottom -of the Illilluette basin. The moraine was one of the most perfect I have -ever seen; its smooth, graded summit rose as regularly as a railway -embankment, and seemed to be formed altogether of irregular bowlders -piled securely together and cemented by a thick deposit of granitic -glacier-dust. Late in the afternoon we had reached its head, where the -two converging glaciers of Mount Clark and Mount Kyle had joined, -clasping a rugged promontory of granite. To our left, in a depression of -the forest-covered basin, lay a little patch of meadow wholly surrounded -by dense groups of alpine trees, which grew in clusters of five and six, -apparently from one root. A little stream from the Obelisk snows fell in -a series of shallow cascades by the meadow’s margin. We jumped across -the brook and went into camp, tethering the mules close by us. One of -the great charms of high mountain camps is their very domestic nature. -Your animals are picketed close by the kitchen, your beds are between -the two, and the water and the wood are always in most comfortable -apposition. - -For the first time in many months a mild, moist wind sprang up from the -south, and with it came slowly creeping over the sky a dull, leaden bank -of ominous-looking cloud. Since April we had had no storm. The -perpetually cloudless sky had banished all thought, almost memory, of -foul weather; but winter tempests had already held off remarkably, and -we knew that at any moment they might set in, and in twenty-four hours -render the plateaus impassable. It was with some anxiety that I closed -my eyes that night, and, sleeping lightly, often awoke as a freshening -wind moved the pines. At dawn we were up, and observed that a dark, -heavy mass of storm-cloud covered the whole sky, and had settled down -over the Obelisk, wrapping even the snow-fields at its base in gray -folds. The entire peak was lost, except now and then, when the torn -vapors parted for a few moments and disclosed its sharp summit, whitened -by new-fallen snow. A strange moan filled the air. The winds howled -pitilessly over the rocks, and swept in deafening blasts through the -pines. It was my duty to saddle up directly and flee for the Yosemite; -but I am naturally an optimist, a sort of geological Micawber, so I -dodged my duty, and determined to give the weather every opportunity for -a clear-off. Accordingly, we remained in camp all day, studying the -minerals of the granite as the thickly strewn bowlders gave us material. -At nightfall I climbed a little rise back of our meadow, and looked out -over the basin of Illilluette and up in the direction of the Obelisk. -Now and then the parting clouds opened a glimpse of the mountain, and -occasionally an unusual blast of wind blew away the deeply settled -vapors from the cañon to westward; but each time they closed in more -threateningly, and before I descended to camp the whole land was -obscured in the cloud which settled densely down. - -The mules had made themselves comfortable with a repast of rich -mountain-grasses, which, though slightly frosted, still retained much of -their original juice and nutriment. We ourselves made a deep inroad on -the supply of provisions, and, after chatting awhile by the firelight, -went to bed, taking the precaution to pile our effects carefully -together, covering them with an india-rubber blanket. Our bivouac was -in the middle of a cluster of firs, quite well protected overhead, but -open to the sudden gusts which blew roughly hither and thither. By nine -o’clock the wind died away altogether, and in a few moments a thick -cloud of snow was falling. We had gone to bed together, pulled the -blankets as a cover over our heads, and in a few moments fell into a -heavy sleep. Once or twice in the night I woke with a slight sense of -suffocation, and cautiously lifted the blanket over my head, but each -time found it growing heavier and heavier with a freight of snow. In the -morning we awoke quite early, and, pushing back the blanket, found that -we had been covered by about a foot and a half of snow. The poor mules -had approached us to the limit of their rope, and stood within a few -feet of our beds, anxiously waiting our first signs of life. - -We hurried to breakfast, and hastily putting on the saddles, and -wrapping ourselves from head to foot in our blankets, mounted and -started for the crest of the moraine. I had taken the precaution to make -a little sketch-map in my note-book, with the compass directions of our -march from the Yosemite, and we had now the difficult task of retracing -our steps in a storm so blinding and fierce that we could never see more -than a rod in advance. But for the regular form of the moraine, with -whose curve we were already familiar, I fear we must have lost our way -in the real labyrinth of glaciated rocks which covered the whole -Illilluette basin. Snow blew in every direction, filling our eyes and -blinding the poor mules, who often turned quickly from some sudden gust, -and refused to go on. It was a cruel necessity, but we spurred them -inexorably forward, guiding them to the right and left to avoid rocks -and trees which, in their blindness, they were constantly threatening to -strike. Warmly rolled in our blankets, we suffered little from cold, but -the driving sleet and hail very soon bruised our cheeks and eyelids most -painfully. It required real effort of will to face the storm, and we -very soon learned to take turns in breaking trail. The snow constantly -balled upon our animals’ feet, and they slid in every direction. Now and -then, in descending a sharp slope of granite, the poor creatures would -get sliding, and rush to the bottom, their legs stiffened out, and their -heads thrust forward in fear. After crossing the Illilluette, which we -did at our old ford, we found it very difficult to climb the long, steep -hillside; for the mules were quite unable to carry us, obliging us to -lead them, and to throw ourselves upon the snow-drifts to break a -pathway. - -This slope almost wore us out, and when at last we reached its summit, -we threw ourselves upon the snow for a rest, but were in such a profuse -perspiration that I deemed it unsafe to lie there for a moment, and, -getting up again, we mounted the mules and rode slowly on toward open -plateaus near great meadows. The snow gradually decreased in depth as we -descended upon the plain directly south of the Yosemite. The wind -abated somewhat, and there were only occasional snow flurries, between -half-hours of tolerable comfort. Constant use of the compass and -reference to my little map at length brought us to the Mariposa trail, -but not until after eight hours of anxious, exhaustive labor--anxious -from the constant dread of losing our way in the blinding confusion of -storm; exhausting, for we had more than half of the way acted as -trail-breakers, dragging our frightened and tired brutes after us. The -poor creatures instantly recognized the trail, and started in a brisk -trot toward Inspiration Point. Suddenly an icy wind swept up the valley, -carrying with it a storm of snow and hail. The wind blew with such -violence that the whole freight of sleet and ice was carried -horizontally with fearful swiftness, cutting the bruised faces of the -mules, and giving our own eyelids exquisite torture. The brutes refused -to carry us farther. We were obliged to dismount and drive them before -us, beating them constantly with clubs. - -Fighting our way against this bitter blast, half-blinded by hard, -wind-driven snow-crystals, we at last gave up and took refuge in a dense -clump of firs which crown the spur by Inspiration Point. Our poor mules -cowered under shelter with us, and turned tail to the storm. The -fir-trees were solid cones of snow, which now and then unloaded -themselves when severely bent by a sudden gust, half burying us in dry, -white powder. Wind roared below us in the Yosemite gorge; it blew from -the west, rolling up in waves which smote the cliffs, and surged on up -the valley. While we sat still the drifts began to pile up at our backs; -the mules were belly-deep, and our situation began to be serious. - -Looking over the cliff-brink we saw but the hurrying snow, and only -heard a confused tumult of wind. A steady increase in the severity of -the gale made us fear that the trees might crash down over us; so we -left the mules and crept cautiously over the edge of the cliff, and -ensconced ourselves in a sheltered nook, protected by walls of rock -which rose at our back. - -We were on the brink of the Yosemite, and but for snow might have looked -down three thousand feet. The storm eddied below us, sucking down -whirlwinds of snow, and sometimes opening deep rifts,--never enough, -however, to disclose more than a few hundred feet of cliffs. - -We had been in this position about an hour, half frozen and soaked -through, when I at length gathered conscience enough to climb back and -take a look at our brutes. The forlorn pair were frosted over with a -thick coating, their pitiful eyes staring eagerly at me. I had half a -mind to turn them loose, but, considering that their obstinate nature -might lead them back to our Obelisk camp, I patted their noses, and -climbed back to the shelf by Cotter, determined to try it for a quarter -of an hour more, when, if the tempest did not lull, I thought we must -press on and face the snow for an hour more, while we tramped down to -the valley. - -Suddenly there came a lull in the storm; its blinding fury of snow and -wind ceased. Overhead, still hurrying eastward, the white bank drove on, -unveiling, as it fled, the Yosemite walls, plateau, and every object to -the eastward as far as Mount Clark. As yet the valley bottom was -obscured by a layer of mist and cloud, which rose to the height of about -a thousand feet, submerging cliff-foot and _débris_ pile. Between these -strata, the cloud above and the cloud below, every object was in clear, -distinct view; the sharp, terrible fronts of precipices, capped with a -fresh cover of white, plunged down into the still, gray river of cloud -below, their stony surfaces clouded with purple, salmon-color, and -bandings of brown,--all hues unnoticeable in every-day lights. Forest, -and crag, and plateau, and distant mountain were snow-covered to a -uniform whiteness; only the dark gorge beneath us showed the least -traces of color. There all was rich, deep, gloomy. Even over the snowy -surfaces above there prevailed an almost ashen gray, which reflected -itself from the dull, drifting sky. A few torn locks of vapor poured -over the cliffedge at intervals, and crawled down like wreaths of smoke, -floating gracefully and losing themselves at last in the bank of cloud -which lay upon the bottom of the valley. - -On a sudden the whole gray roof rolled away like a scroll, leaving the -heavens from west to far east one expanse of pure, warm blue. Setting -sunlight smote full upon the stony walls below, and shot over the -plateau country, gilding here a snowy forest group, and there a -wave-crest of whitened ridge. The whole air sparkled with diamond -particles; red light streamed in through the open Yosemite gateway, -brightening those vast, solemn faces of stone, and intensifying the deep -neutral blue of shadowed alcoves. - -The luminous cloud-bank in the east rolled from the last Sierra summit, -leaving the whole chain of peaks in broad light, each rocky crest -strongly red, the newly fallen snow marbling it over with a soft, deep -rose; and wherever a cañon carved itself down the rocky fronts its -course was traceable by a shadowy band of blue. The middle distance -glowed with a tint of golden yellow; the broken heights along the -cañon-brinks and edges of the cliff in front were of an intense, -spotless white. Far below us the cloud stratum melted away, revealing -the floor of the valley, whose russet and emerald and brown and red -burned in the broad evening sun. It was a marvellous piece of contrasted -lights,--the distance so pure, so soft in its rosy warmth, so cool in -the depth of its shadowy blue; the foreground strong in fiery orange, or -sparkling in absolute whiteness. I enjoyed, too, looking up at the pure, -unclouded sky, which now wore an aspect of intense serenity. For half an -hour nature seemed in entire repose; not a breath of wind stirred the -white, snow-laden shafts of the trees; not a sound of animate creature -or the most distant reverberation of waterfall reached us; no film of -vapor moved across the tranquil, sapphire sky; absolute quiet reigned -until a loud roar proceeding from Capitan turned our eyes in that -direction. From the round, dome-like cap of its summit there moved down -an avalanche, gathering volume and swiftness as it rushed to the brink, -and then, leaping out two or three hundred feet into space, fell, slowly -filtering down through the lighted air, like a silver cloud, until -within a thousand feet of the earth it floated into the shadow of the -cliff and sank to the ground as a faint blue mist. Next the Cathedral -snow poured from its lighted summit in resounding avalanches; then the -Three Brothers shot off their loads, and afar from the east a deep roar -reached us as the whole snow-cover thundered down the flank of Cloud’s -Rest. - -We were warned by the hour to make all haste, and, driving the poor -brutes before us, worked our way down the trail as fast as possible. The -light, already pale, left the distant heights in still more glorious -contrast. A zone of amber sky rose behind the glowing peaks, and a cold -steel-blue plain of snow skirted their bases. Mist slowly gathered again -in the gorge below us and overspread the valley floor, shutting it out -from our view. - -We ran down the zigzag trail until we came to that shelf of bare granite -immediately below the final descent into the valley. Here we paused just -above the surface of the clouds, which, swept by fitful breezes, rose -in swells, floating up and sinking again like waves of the sea. Intense -light, more glowing than ever, streamed in upon the upper half of the -cliffs, their bases sunken in the purple mist. As the cloud-waves -crawled upward in the breeze they here and there touched a red-purple -light and fell back again into the shadow. - -We watched these effects with greatest interest, and, just as we were -about moving on again, a loud burst as of heavy thunder arrested us, -sounding as if the very walls were crashing in. We looked, and from the -whole brow of Capitan rushed over one huge avalanche, breaking into the -finest powder and floating down through orange light, disappearing in -the sea of purple cloud beneath us. - -We soon mounted and pressed up the valley to our camp, where our anxious -friends greeted us with enthusiastic welcome and never-to-be-forgotten -beans. We fed our exhausted animals a full ration of barley, and turned -them out to shelter themselves as best they might under friendly oaks or -among young pines. In anticipation of our return the party had gotten up -a capital supper, to which we first administered justice, then -punishment, and finally annihilation. Brief starvation and a healthy -combat for life with the elements lent a most marvellous zest to the -appetite. Under the subtle influences of a free circulation and a -stinging cold night, I perceived a region of the taste which answers to -those most refined blue waves of the spectrum. - -Clouds which had enfolded the heavens rolled off to the east in torn -fillets of gold. The stars came out full and flashing in the darkling -sky of evening. We left our cabins and grouped ourselves round a -loquacious camp-fire, which prattled incessantly and distilled volumes -of that mild stimulant, pyroligneous acid--an ill-savored gas which -seems to have inspired much domestic poetry, however it may have -affected the New England olfactory nerves. - -The vast valley-walls, light in contrast with the deep nocturnal violet -heavens, rose far into the night, apparently holding up a roof of stars -whose brilliancy faded quite rapidly, until finally the last blinking -points of light died out, and cold, hard gray stretched from cliff to -cliff. Far up cañons and in the heart of the mountains we could hear -terrible tempest-gusts crashing among the trees, and breaking in deep, -long surges against faces of granite; coming nearer and nearer, they -swept down the gorges, with volume increasing every moment, until they -poured into the upper end of the valley and fell upon its groves with -terrible fury. The wind shrieked wild and high among the summit crags, -it tore through the pine-belts, and now and then a sudden, sharp crash -resounded through the valley as, one after another, old, infirm pines -were hurled down before its blast. The very walls seemed to tremble; the -air was thick with flying leaves and dead branches; the snow of the -summits, hard frozen by a sudden chill, was blown from the walls, and -filled the air with its keen, cutting crystals. At last the very -clouds, torn into wild flocks, were swept down into the valley, filling -it with opaque, hurrying vapors. Rocks, loosening themselves from the -plateau, came thundering down precipice-faces, crashing upon _débris_ -piles and forest groups below. Sleet and snow and rain fell fast, and -the boom of falling trees and crashing avalanches followed one another -in an almost uninterrupted roar. In the Sentinel gorge, back of our -camp, an avalanche of rock was suddenly let loose, and came down with a -harsh rattle, the bowlders bounding over _débris_ piles and tearing -through the trees by our camp. A vivid belt of blue lightning flashed -down through the blackness, and for a moment every outline of cliff and -forest forms, and the rushing clouds of snow and sleet, were lighted up -with a cold, pallid gleam. The burst of thunder which followed rolled -but for a moment, and was silenced by the furious storm. In the moment -of lightning I saw that the Yosemite Fall, which had been dry for a -month, had suddenly sprung into life again. Vast volumes of water and -ice were pouring over and beating like sea-waves upon the granite below. -Our mules came up to the cabin, and stood on its lee side trembling, and -uttering suppressed moans. - -After hours the fitfulness of the tempest passed away, leaving a grand, -monotonous roar. It had torn off all the rotten branches of the year, -and prostrated every decrepit tree, and at last settled down to a -continuous gale, laden with torrents of rain. We lay down upon our bunks -in our clothes, watching and listening through all the first hours of -the night. Sleep was impossible; angry winds and the fury of drifting -rain shook our little shelters, and kept us wide awake. Toward morning a -second thunderstorm burst, and by the light of its flashes I saw that -the river had risen nearly to our cabin door, covering the broad valley -in front of us with a sheet of flood. Gradually the sound of Yosemite -Fall grew louder and stronger, the throbs, as it beat upon the rocks, -rising higher and higher till the whole valley rung with its pulsations. -By dawn the storm had spent its fury, rain ceased, and around us the air -was perfectly still; but aloft, among cliffs and walls, the gale might -still be heard sweeping across the forest and tearing itself among -granite needles. Fearing that so continuous a storm might block up our -mountain trails, Hyde and Cotter and Wilmer, with instruments and -pack-animals, started early and went out to Clark’s Ranch. - -So dense and impenetrable a fog overhung us that daylight came with -extreme slowness, and it was nine o’clock before we rose for breakfast, -and at ten a gloomy sea of mist still hung over the valley. The Merced -had overflowed its banks, and ran wild. Toward noon the mist began to -draw down the valley, and finally all drifted away, leaving us shut in -by a gray canopy of cloud which stretched from wall to wall, hanging -down here and there in deep blue sags. In this stratum of gray were lost -many higher summits, but the whole form of valley and cliff could be -seen with terrible distinctness, the walls apparently drawn together, -their bases at one or two points pushed into yellow floods of water -which lay like lakes upon the level expanse. The whole lip of Yosemite -was filled to the brim, and through it there poured a broad, full -torrent of white. Shortly after noon a few rifts opened overhead, -showing a far sky, from which poured gushes of strong, yellow sunlight, -touching here and there upon sombre faces of cliff, and occasionally -gilding the falling torrent. A wind still blew, smiting the Yosemite -precipice, and playing strangest games with the fall itself. At one time -a gust rushed upon the lip of the fall with such violence as to dam back -all its waters. We could see its white pile in the lip mounting higher -and higher, still held back by the wind, until there must have been a -front of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet of boiling white -water. For a whole minute not a drop poured down the wall; but, -gathering strength, the torrent overcame the wind, rushed out with -tremendous violence, leaped one hundred and fifty feet straight out into -air, and fell clear to the rocks below, dashing high and white again, -and breaking into a cloud of spray that filled the lower air of the -valley for a mile. - -While the water was held back in the gorge there was a moment of -complete silence, but when it finally burst out again a crash as of -sudden thunder shook the air. At times gusts of wind would drive upon -the Three Brothers cliff, and be deflected toward the Yosemite, swinging -the whole mighty cataract like a pendulum; and again, pouring upon the -rocks at the bottom of the valley, it would gather up the whole fall in -mid-air, whirl it in a festoon, and carry it back over the very summit -of the walls. I got out the theodolite to measure the angle of its -deflection, and, while watching, it swung over an entire semi-circle, -now carried from the cliffs to the right, and then whirled back in a -cloud of foam over the head of the Three Brothers. A very frequent prank -was to loop the whole twenty-six hundred feet of cataract into a single, -semi-circular festoon, which fell in the form of fine fringe. - -Throughout the afternoon we did little else than watch these -ever-changing forms of falling water, until toward evening, when we -walked up to see the Merced. I never beheld such a rapid rise in any -river; from a mere brook, hiding itself away under overhanging banks and -among shrubby islands, it sprang in one night to the size of a full, -large river, flowing with the rapidity of a torrent and whirling in its -eddies huge trunks of storm-blown pines. As twilight gathered, the scene -deepened into a most indescribable gloom; dark-blue shadows covered half -the precipices, and sullen, unvaried sky stretched over us its -implacable gray. There was something positively fearful in this color; -such an impenetrable sky might overarch the Inferno. As we looked, it -slowly sank, creeping down precipices, filling the whole gorge; coming -down, down, and fitting the cliffs like the piston of an air-pump, till -within a thousand feet of us it became stationary, and then slowly -lifted again, clearing the summit and rising to an almost infinite -remoteness. Slowly a few hard, sharp crystals of snow floated down. - -Later the air became intensely chilly, and by dark was full of slowly -falling snow, giving prospect of a great mountain storm which might -close the Sierras. On the following morning we determined at all costs -to pack our remaining instruments and escape. The ground was covered -with snow to the depth of seven or eight inches, and through drifting -fog-banks we could occasionally get glimpses and see that every cliff -was deeply buried in snow. We had still a few barometrical observations -along the Mariposa trail which were necessary to complete our series of -altitudes; and I started in advance of Gardiner and Clark to break the -trail, expecting that when I stopped to make readings they would easily -overtake me. Two hours’ hard work was needed to reach the ascent. It was -not until noon that I made Inspiration Point, snow having deepened to -eighteen inches, entirely obliterating the trail, and had it not been -for the extreme frequency of our journeys I should never have been able -to follow it; as it was, with occasional mistakes which were soon -remedied, I kept the way very well, and my tracks made it easy for the -party behind. Having reached the plateau, I made my two barometrical -stations, and then started alone through forests for Westfall’s cabin. -Every fir-tree was a solid cone of white, and often clusters of five or -six were buried together in one common pile. Now and then a little -sunlight broke through the clouds, and in these intervals the scene was -one of wonderful beauty. Tall shafts of fir, often one hundred and -eighty feet high, trimmed with white branches, cast their blue shadows -upon snowy ground. - -At about four o’clock, after nine hours of hard tramping, I reached -Westfall’s cabin, built a fire, and sat down to warm myself and wait for -my friends. In half an hour they made their appearance, looking haggard -and weary, declaring they would go no farther that night. They led their -mule into the cabin, and unpacked, and began to make themselves -comfortably at home. - -About five the darkness of night had fairly settled down, and with it -came a gentle but dense snow-storm. It seemed to me a terrible risk for -us to remain in the mountains, and I felt it to be absolutely necessary -that one, at least, should press on to Clark’s, so that, if a really -great storm should come, he could bring up aid. Accordingly, I -volunteered to go on myself, Clark and Gardiner expressing their -determination to remain where they were at all costs. - -At this juncture Cotter’s well-known voice sounded through the woods as -he approached the cabin. He had been all day climbing from Clark’s, and -had come to lend a hand in getting the things down. He was of my opinion -that it was absolutely necessary for one of us, at least, to go back to -Clark’s, and offered, if I thought best, to try to accompany me. I had -come from Yosemite and he from Clark’s, having travelled all day, and -it was no slight task for us to face storm and darkness in the forest, -and among complicated spurs of the Sierra. - -We ate our lunch by the cabin fire, bade our friends good-night, and -walked out together into the darkness. For the first mile there was no -danger of missing our way,--even in the darkness of night Cotter’s -tracks could be seen,--but after about half an hour it began to be very -difficult to keep the trail. The storm increased to a tempest, and -exhaustion compelled us to travel slower and slower. It was with intense -anxiety that we searched for well-known blazed trees along the trail, -often thrusting our arms down in the snow to feel for a blaze that we -knew of. If it was not there we had for a moment an overpowering sense -of being lost; but we were ordinarily rewarded after searching upon a -few trees, and the blaze once found animated us with new courage. Hour -after hour we travelled down the mountain, falling off high banks now -and then, for in the dark all ideas of slope were lost. It must have -been about midnight when we reached what seemed to be the verge of a -precipice. If our calculations were right, we must have come to the edge -of the South Fork Cañon. Here Cotter sank with exhaustion and declared -that he must sleep. I rolled him over and implored him to get up and -struggle on for a little while longer, when I felt sure that we must get -down to the South Fork Cañon. He utterly refused, and lay there in a -drowsy condition, fast giving up to the effects of fatigue and cold. I -unbound a long scarf which was tied round his neck, put it under his -arms like a harness, and, tying it round my body, started on, dragging -him through the snow, to see if by that means I might not exasperate him -to rise and labor on. In a few minutes it had its effect, and he sprang -to his feet and fell upon me in a burst of indignation. A few words were -enough to bring him to himself, when the old, calm courage was -reasserted, and we started together to make our way down the cliff. -Happily we at length found the right ridge, and rapidly descended -through forest to the river side. - -Believing that we must still be below the bridge, we walked rapidly up -the bank until at last we found it, and came quickly to Clark’s. We -pounded upon the cabin door, and waked up our friends, who received us -with joy, and set about cooking us a supper. - -It was two o’clock when we arrived, and by three we all went off again -to our bunks. My anxiety about Gardiner and Clark prevented my sleeping. -Every few minutes I went to the door. - -Before dawn it had cleared again, and remained fair till the next noon, -when the two made their appearance. No sooner were they quietly housed -than the storm burst again with renewed strength, howling among the -forest trees grandly. Snow drifted heavily all the afternoon, and -through the night it still fell, reaching an average depth of about two -feet by the following morning. - -We were up early, and packed upon the animals our instruments, -note-books, and personal effects, leaving all the blankets and heavy -luggage to be gotten out in the following spring. We toiled slowly and -heavily up Chowchilla trail. The branches of the great pines and firs -were overloaded with snow, which now and then fell in small avalanches -upon our heads. Here and there an old bough gave way under its weight, -and fell with a soft thud into the snow. We took turns breaking trail, -Napoleon, the one-eyed mule, distinguishing himself greatly by following -its intricate crooks, while the bravest of us, by turns, held to his -tail. There is something deeply humiliating in this process. All the -domineering qualities of mankind vanished before the quick, subtle -instinct of that noble animal, the mule, and his superior strength came -out in magnificent style. With a sublime scorn of his former master, he -started ahead, dragging me proudly after him. I had sometimes thrashed -that mule with unsympathetic violence, and I fancied it was something -very like poetic justice thus submissively to follow in his wake. - -Midday found us upon the Chowchilla summit, following a trail deeply -buried and often obliterated, and undiscoverable but for our long-eared -leader. As we descended the west slope the snow grew more and more -moist, less deep, and gradually turned into rain. An hour’s tramp found -us upon bare ground, under the fiercely driving rain, which quickly -soaked us to the bone. The streams, as we descended, were found to be -more and more swollen, until at last it required some nerve to ford the -little brooklets which the mule had drunk dry on our upward journey. -The earth was thoroughly softened, and here and there the trail was -filled with brimming brooks, which rapidly gullied it out. - -A more drowned and bedraggled set of fellows never walked out upon the -wagon-road and turned toward Mariposa. Streams of water flowed from -every fold of our garments, our soaked hats clung to our cheeks, the -baggage was a mass of pulp, and the mules smelled violently of wet hide. -Fortunately, our note-books, carefully strapped in oil-cloth, so far -resisted wetting. It was three o’clock in the afternoon when we reached -Dulong’s house, and were surprised to see the water flowing over the top -of the bridge. In ordinary times a dry arroyo traverses this farm, and -runs under a bridge in front of the house. Clark, our only mounted man, -rode out, as he supposed, upon the bridge; but unfortunately it was -gone, and he and his horse plunged splendidly into the stream. They came -to the surface, Clark with a look of intense astonishment on his face, -and the mare sputtering and striking out wildly for the other side. -Being a strong swimmer, she reached the bank, climbed out, and Clark -politely invited us to follow. The one-eyed Napoleon was brought to the -brink and induced to plunge in by an application of fence-rails _a -tergo_, his cyclopean organ piloting him safely across, when he was -quickly followed by the other mules. We watched the load of instruments -with some anxiety, and were not reassured when their heavy weight bore -the mule quite under; but she climbed successfully out, and we -ourselves, half swimming, half floundering, managed to cross. - -A little way farther we came upon another stream rushing violently -across the road, sweeping down logs and sections of fence. Here Clark -dismounted, and we drove the whole train in. Three animals got safely -over, but the instrument mule was swept down stream and badly snagged, -lying upon one side with his head under water. - -Cotter and Gardiner and Clark ran up stream and got across upon a log. I -made a dash for the snagged mule, and by strong swimming managed to -catch one of his feet, and then his tail, and worked myself toward the -shore. It was something of a task to hold his head out of the water, but -I was quickly joined by the others, and we managed to drag him out by -the head and tail. There he lay upon the bank on his side, tired of -life, utterly refusing to get upon his feet, the most abominable -specimen of inertia and indifference. While I was pricking him -vigorously with a tripod, the ground caved under my feet and I quickly -sank. Cotter, who was standing close by, seized me by the cape of my -soldier’s overcoat, and landed me as carefully as he would a fish. As we -marched down the road, unconsciously keeping step, the sound of our -boots had quite a symphonic effect; they were full of water, and with -soft, melodious slushing acted as a calmer upon our spirits. - -The road in some places was cut out many feet deep, and we were obliged -to climb upon the wooded banks, and make laborious _détours_. At last -we reached a branch of the Chowchilla, which was pouring in a flood -between a man’s house and his barn. Here we formed a line, a mule -between each two men. Our line was swept frightfully down stream, but -the leader gained his feet, and we came out safe and dripping upon -_terra firma_ on the other side. A mile farther we came upon the main -Chowchilla, which was running a perfect flood; from being a mere -brooklet it had swollen to a considerable river, with waves five and six -feet high sweeping down its centre. We formed our line and attempted the -passage, but were thrown back. It would have been madness to try it -again, and we turned sorrowfully back to the last ranch. Cotter and I -piloted the animals over to the barn, and, upon returning, threw a rope -to our friends upon the other side, and were drawn through the swift -water. - -In the ranch-house we found two bachelors, typical California partners, -who were quietly partaking of their supper of bacon, fried onions, -Japanese tea, and biscuits, which, like “Harry York’s,” had too much -saleratus. We stood upon their threshold awhile and dripped, quite a -rill descending over the two steps, trickling down the door-yard as a -new fork of the Chowchilla. - -We asked for supper and shelter, but were met with such a gruff, -inhospitable reply that we lost all sense of modesty, and walked in with -all our moisture. We stretched a rope across the middle of the -sitting-room before a huge fire in an open chimney, then, stripping -ourselves to the buff, we hung up our steaming clothes upon the line, -and turned solemnly round and round before the fire, drying our persons. - -In the meanwhile our inhospitable landlords made the best of the -situation, and proceeded to achieve more onions and more saleratus -biscuit for our entertainment. Upon our departure in the morning the -generous rancher charged us first-class hotel prices. - -The flood had utterly disappeared, and we passed over the Chowchilla -with surprise and dry shoes. - -At Mariposa we parted from Clark, and devoted two whole days to -struggling through the mud of San Joaquin Valley to San Francisco, where -we arrived, wet and exhausted, just in time to get on board the New York -steamer. - -On the morning of the twelfth day out Gardiner and I seated ourselves -under the grateful shadow of palm-trees, a bewitching black-and-tan -sister thrumming her guitar while the chocolate for our breakfast -boiled. The slumberous haze of the tropics hung over Lake Nicaragua; but -high above its indistinct, pearly vale rose the smooth cone of the -volcano of Omatepec, robed in a cover of pale emerald green. Warmth, -repose, the verdure of eternal spring, the poetical whisper of palms, -the heavy odor of the tropical blooms, banished the grand, cold fury of -the Sierra, which had left a permanent chill in our bones. - - - - -IX - -MERCED RAMBLINGS - -1866 - - -Delightful oaks cast protecting shadows over our camp on the 1st of -June, 1866. Just beyond a little cook-fire where Hoover was preparing -his mind and pan for an omelet stood Mrs. Fremont’s Mariposa cottage, -with doors and windows wide open, still keeping up its air of hospitable -invitation, though now deserted and fallen into decay. A little farther -on, through an opening, a few clustered roofs and chimneys of the Bear -Valley village showed their distant red-brown tint among heavy masses of -green. Eastward swelled up a great ridge, upon whose grassy slopes were -rough, serpentine outcrops,--groups of pines, and oak-groves with pale -green foliage and clean white bark. Under the roots of this famous Mount -Bullion have been mined those gold veins whose treasure enriched so few, -whose promise allured so many. - -As I altogether distrust my ability to speak of this region without -sooner or later alluding to a certain discovery of some scientific value -which I once made here, I deem it wise frankly to tell the story and -discharge my mind of it at once, and if possible forever. - -In the winter of 1863 I came to Bear Valley as the sole occupant of a -stage-coach. The Sierras were quite cloud-hidden, and desolation such as -drought has never before or since been able to make reigned in dreary -monotony over all the plains from Stockton to Hornitas. - -Ordinarily solitude is with me only a happy synonym for content; but -throughout that ride I was preyed upon by self-reproach, and in an -aggravated manner. The paleontologist of our survey, my senior in rank -and experience, had just said of me, rather in sorrow than in -unkindness, yet with unwonted severity, “I believe that fellow had -rather sit on a peak all day, and stare at those snow-mountains, than -find a fossil in the metamorphic Sierra”; and, in spite of me, all that -weary ride his judgment rang in my ear. - -Can it be? I asked myself; has a student of geology so far forgotten his -devotion to science? Am I really fallen to the level of a mere -nature-lover? Later, when evening approached, and our wheels began to -rumble over upturned edges of Sierra slate, every jolt seemed aimed at -me, every thin, sharp outcrop appeared risen up to preach a sermon on my -friend’s text. - -I re-dedicated myself to geology, and was framing a resolution to delve -for that greatly important but missing link of evidence, the fossil -which should clear up an old unsolved riddle of upheaval age, when over -to eastward a fervid, crimson light smote the vapor-bank and cleared a -bright pathway through to the peaks, and on to a pale sea-green sky. -Through this gateway of rolling gold and red cloud the summits seemed -infinitely high and far, their stone and snow hung in the sky with -lucent delicacy of hue, brilliant as gems yet soft as air,--a mosaic of -amethyst and opal transfigured with passionate light, as gloriously -above words as beyond art. Obsolete shell-fishes in the metamorphic were -promptly forgotten, and during those lingering moments, while peak after -peak flushed and faded back into recesses of the heavens, I forgot what -paleontological unworthiness was loading me down, becoming finally quite -jolly of heart. But for many days thereafter I did search and hope, -leaving no stone unturned, and usually going so far as to break them -open. Indeed, my third hammer and I were losing temper together, when -one noon I was tired and sat down to rest and lunch in the bottom of -Hell’s Hollow, a cañon whose profound uninterestingness is quite beyond -portrayal. Shut in by great, monotonous slopes and innumerable spurs, -each the exact fac-simile of the other; with no distance, no faintest -suggestion of a snow-peak, only a lofty chaparral ridge sweeping around, -cutting off all eastern lookout; with a few disordered bowlders tumbled -pell-mell into the bed of a feeble brooklet of bitter water,--it seemed -to me the place of places for a fossil. Here was nadir, the snow-capped -zenith of my heart banished even from sight. A swallow of tepid -alkaline water, with which I crowned the frugal and appropriate lunch, -burned my throat, and completed the misery of the occasion. - -Jagged outcrops of slate cut through vulgar gold-dirt at my feet. -Picking up my hammer to turn homeward, I noticed in the rock an object -about the size and shape of a small cigar. It was the fossil, the object -for which science had searched and yearned and despaired! There he -reclined comfortably upon his side, half-bedded in luxuriously -fine-grained argillaceous material,--a plump, pampered belemnites (if it -is belemnites), whom the terrible ordeal of metamorphism had spared. I -knelt and observed the radiating structure as well as the characteristic -central cavity, and assured myself it was beyond doubt he. The age of -the gold-belt was discovered! I was at pains to chip my victim out -whole, and when he chose to break in two was easily consoled, reflecting -that he would do as well gummed together. - -I knew this mollusk perfectly by sight, could remember how he looked on -half a dozen plates of fossils, but I failed exactly to recollect his -name. It troubled me that I could come so near uttering without ever -precisely hitting upon it. In ten or fifteen minutes I judged it full -time for my joy to begin. - -Down the perspective of years I could see before me spectacled wise men -of some scientific society, and one who pronounced my obituary, ending -thus: “In summing up the character and labors of this fallen follower -of science, let it never be forgotten that he discovered the -belemnites;” and perhaps, I mused, they will put over me a slab of -fossil raindrops, those eternally embalmed tears of nature. - -But all this came and went without the longed-for elation. There was no -doubt I was not so happy as I thought I should be. - -Once in after years I met an aged German paleontologist, fresh from his -fatherland, where through threescore years and ten his soul had fattened -on Solenhofen limestone and effete shells from many and wide-spread -strata. - -We were introduced. - -“Ach!” he said, with a kindle of enthusiasm, “I have pleasure you to -meet, when it is you which the cephalopoda discovered has.” - -Then turning to one who enacted the part of Ganymede, he remarked, “Zwei -lager.” - -Now, with freed mind, I should say something of the foot-hills about our -camp as they looked in June. Once before, the reader may remember, I -pictured their autumn garb. - -It has become a fixed habit with me to climb Mount Bullion whenever I -get a chance. My winter Sundays were many times spent there in a peace -and repose which Bear Valley village did not afford; for that hamlet -gave itself up, after the Saturday night’s sleep, to a day of hellish -jocularity. The town passed through a period of horse-racing, noisy, -quarrelsome drinking, and disorderly service of Satan; then an hour in -which the Spaniard loved and “treated” the “Americano.” Later the -Americano kicked the “damned Greaser” out of town. Manly forms slept -serenely under steps, and the few “gentlemen of the old school” steadied -themselves against the bar-room door-posts, and in ingenious language -told of the good old pandemonium of 1849. - -Thus Mount Bullion came to mean for me a Sabbath retreat over which -heaven arched pure and blue, silent hours (marked by the slow sun) -passing sacredly by in presence of nature and of God. - -So now in June I climbed on a Sunday morning to my old retreat, found -the same stone seat, with leaning oak-tree back, and wide, low canopy of -boughs. A little down to the left, welling among tufts of grass and -waving tulips, is the spring which Mrs. Fremont found for her -camp-ground. North and south for miles extends our ridge in gently -rising or falling outline, its top broadly round, and for the most part -an open oak-grove with grass carpet and mountain flowers in wayward -loveliness of growth. West, you overlook a wide panorama. Oak and pine -mottled foot-hills, with rusty groundwork and cloudings of green, wander -down in rolling lines to the ripe plain; beyond are plains, then coast -ranges, rising in peaks, or curved down in passes, through which gray -banks of fog drift in and vanish before the hot air of the plains. East, -the Sierra slope is rent and gashed in a wilderness of cañons, yawning -deep and savage. Miles of chaparral tangle in dense growth over walls -and spurs, covering with kindly olive-green the staring red of riven -mountain-side and gashed earth. Beyond this swells up the more refined -plateau and hill country made of granite and trimmed with pine, bold -domes rising above the green cover; and there the sharp, terrible front -of El Capitan, guarding Yosemite and looking down into its purple gulf. -Beyond, again, are the peaks, and among them one looms sharpest. It is -that Obelisk from which the great storm drove Cotter and me in 1864. We -were now bound to push there as soon as grass should grow among the -upper cañons. - -The air around my Sunday mountain in June is dry, bland, and fragrant; a -full sunlight ripens it to a perfect temperature, giving you at once -stimulus and rest. You sleep in it without fear of dew, and no excess of -hot or cold breaks up the even flow of balmy delight. You see the wild -tulips open, and watch wind-ripples course over slopes of thick-standing -grass-blades. Birds, so rare on plains or pine-hills, here sing you -their fullest, and enjoy with you the soft, white light, or come to see -you in your chosen shadow and bathe in your spring. - -Mountain oaks, less wonderful than great, straight pines, but altogether -domestic in their generous way of reaching out low, long boughs, roofing -in spots of shade, are the only trees on the Pacific slope which seem to -me at all allied to men; and these quiet foot-hill summits, these -islands of modest, lovely verdure floating in an ocean of sunlight, -lifted enough above San Joaquin plains to reach pure, high air and -thrill your blood and brain with mountain oxygen, are yet far enough -below the rugged wildness of pine and ice and rock to leave you in -peace, and not forever challenge you to combat. They are almost the only -places in the Sierras impressing me as rightly fitted for human company. -I cannot find in wholesale vineyards and ranches dotted along the Sierra -foot anything which savors of the eternal indigenous perfume of home. -They are scenes of speculation and thrift, of immense enterprise and -comfort, with no end of fences and square miles of grain, with here and -there astounding specimens of modern upholstery, to say nothing of -pianos with elaborate legs and always discordant keys; but they never -comfort the soul with that air of sacred household reserve, of simple -human poetry, which elsewhere greets you under plainer roofs, and broods -over your days and nights familiarly. - -Here on these still summits the oaks lock their arms and gather in -groves around open slopes of natural park, and you are at home. A -cottage or a castle would seem in keeping, nor would the savage gorges -and snow-capped Sierras overcome the sober kindliness of these -affectionate trees. It is almost as hard now, as I write, to turn my -back on Mount Bullion and descend to camp again, as it was that -afternoon in 1866. - -Evening and supper were at hand, Hoover having achieved a repast of -rabbit-pie, with salad from the Italian garden near at hand. It added no -little to my peace that two obese squaws from the neighboring rancheria -had come and squatted in silence on either side of our camp-fire, adding -their statuesque sobriety and fire-flushed bronze to the dusky, -druidical scene. - -To be welcomed at White and Hatch’s next evening was reward for our -dusty ride, and over the next day’s familiar trail we hurried to -Clark’s, there again finding friends who took us by the hand. Another -day’s end found us within the Yosemite, and there for a week we walked -and rode, studied and looked, revisiting all our old points, lingering -hours here and half-days there, to complete within our minds the -conception of this place. My chief has written so fully in his charming -Yosemite book of all main facts and details that I would not, if I -could, rehearse them here. - -What sentiment, what idea, does this wonder-valley leave upon the -earnest observer? What impression does it leave upon his heart? - -From some up-surging crag upon its brink you look out over wide expanse -of granite swells, upon whose solid surface the firs climb and cluster, -and afar on the sky line only darken together in one deep green cover. -Upward heave the eastern ridges; above them looms a white rank of peaks. -Into this plateau is rent a chasm; the fresh-splintered granite falls -down, down, thousands of feet in sheer, blank faces or giant crags -broken in cleft and stair, gorge and bluff, down till they sink under -that winding ribbon of park with its flash of river among sunlit grass, -its darkness, where, within shadows of jutting wall, cloud-like gather -the pine companies, or, in summer opening, stand oak and cottonwood, -casting together their lengthening shadow over meadow and pool. The -falls, like torrents of snow, pour in white lines over purple precipice, -or, as the wind wills, float and drift in vanishing film of airy -lacework. - -Two leading ideas are wrought here with a force hardly to be seen -elsewhere. First, the titanic power, the awful stress, which has rent -this solid table-land of granite in twain; secondly, the magical faculty -displayed by vegetation in redeeming the aspect of wreck and masking a -vast geological tragedy behind draperies of fresh and living green. I -can never cease marvelling how all this terrible crush and sundering is -made fair, even lovely, by meadow, by wandering groves, and by those -climbing files of pine which thread every gorge and camp in armies over -every brink; nor can I ever banish from memory another gorge and fall, -that of the Shoshone in Idaho, a sketch of which may help the reader to -see more vividly those peculiarities of color and sentiment that make -Yosemite so unique. - -The Snake or Lewis’s Fork of the Columbia River drains an oval basin, -the extent of whose longer axis measures about four hundred miles -westward from the base of the Rocky Mountains across Idaho and into the -middle of Oregon, and whose breadth, in the direction of the meridian, -averages about seventy miles. Irregular chains of mountains bound it in -every direction, piling up in a few places to an elevation of nine -thousand feet. The surface of this basin is unbroken by any considerable -peak. Here and there, knobs, belonging to the earlier geological -formations, rise above its level; and, in a few instances, dome-like -mounds of volcanic rock are lifted from the expanse. It has an -inclination from east to west, and a quite perceptible sag along the -middle line. - -In general outline the geology of the region is simple. Its bounding -ranges were chiefly blocked out at the period of Jurassic upheaval, when -the Sierra Nevada and Wahsatch Mountains were folded. Masses of upheaved -granite, with overlying slates and limestones, form the main materials -of the cordon of surrounding hills. During the Cretaceous and Tertiary -periods the entire basin, from the Rocky Mountains to the Blue Mountains -of Oregon, was a fresh-water lake, on whose bottom was deposited a -curious succession of sand and clay beds, including, near the surface, a -layer of white, infusorial silica. At the exposures of these rocks in -the cañon-walls of the present drainage system are found ample evidences -of the kind of life which flourished in the lake itself and lived upon -its borders. Savage fishes, of the garpike type, and vast numbers of -cyprinoids, together with mollusks, are among the prominent -water-fossils. Enough relics of the land vegetation remain to indicate a -flora of a sub-tropical climate; and among the land-fossils are numerous -bones of elephant, camel, horse, elk, and deer. - -The _savant_ to whose tender mercies these _disjecta membra_ have been -committed, finds in the molluscan life the most recent types yet -discovered in the American Tertiaries,--forms closely allied to existing -Asiatic species. How and wherefore this lake dried up, and gave place to -the present barren wilderness of sand and sage, is one of those profound -conundrums of nature yet unguessed by geologists. From being a wide and -beautiful expanse of water, edged by winding mountain-shores, with -forest-clad slopes containing a fauna whose remains are now charming -those light-minded fellows, the paleontologists, the scene has entirely -changed, and a monotonous, blank desert spreads itself as far as the eye -can reach. Only here and there, near the snowy mountain-tops, a bit of -cool green contrasts refreshingly with the sterile uniformity of the -plain. During the period of desiccation, perhaps in a measure accounting -for it, a general flood of lava poured down from the mountains and -deluged nearly the whole Snake Basin. The chief sources of this lava lay -at the eastern edge, where subsequent erosion has failed to level -several commanding groups of volcanic peaks. The three buttes and three -tetons mark centres of flow. Remarkable features of the volcanic period -were the sheets of basaltic lava which closed the eruptive era, and in -thin, continuous layers overspread the plain for three hundred miles. -The earlier flows extended farthest to the west. The ragged, broken -terminations of the later sheets recede successively eastward, in a -broad, gradual stairway; so that the present topography of the basin is -a gently inclined field of basaltic lava, sinking to the west, and -finally, by a series of terraced steps, descending to the level of -lacustrine sand-rocks which mark the bottom of the ancient lake, and -cover the plain westward into Oregon. - -The head-waters of the Snake River, gathering snow-drainage from a -considerable portion of the Rocky Mountains, find their way through a -series of upland valleys to the eastern margin of the Snake plain, and -there gathering in one main stream flow westward, occupying a gradually -deepening cañon; a narrow, dark gorge, water-worn through the thin -sheets of basalt, cutting down as it proceeds to the westward, until, in -longitude 114° 20´, it has worn seven hundred feet into the lava. -Several tributaries flowing through similar though less profound cañons -join the Snake both north and south. From the days of Lewis, for whom -this Snake or Shoshone River was originally named, up to the present -day, rumors have been current of cataracts in the Snake cañon. It is -curious to observe that all the earlier accounts estimate their height -as six hundred feet, which is exactly the figure given by the first -Jesuit observers of Niagara. That erratic amateur Indian, Catlin, -actually visited these falls; and his account of them, while it entirely -fails to give an adequate idea of their formation and grandeur, is -nevertheless, in the main, truthful. Since the mining development of -Idaho, several parties have visited and examined the Shoshone. - -In October, 1868, with a small detachment of the United States -Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel, the writer crossed Goose Creek -Mountains, in northern Utah, and descended by the old Fort Boise road to -the level of the Snake plain. A gray, opaque haze hung close to the -ground, and shut out all distance. The monotony of sage-desert was -overpowering. We would have given anything for a good outlook; but for -three days the mist continued, and we were forced to amuse ourselves by -chasing occasional antelopes. - -The evening we camped on Rock Creek was signalized by a fierce wind from -the northeast. It was a dry storm, which continued with tremendous fury -through the night, dying away at daybreak, leaving the heavens -brilliantly clear. We were breakfasting when the sun rose, and shortly -afterward, mounting into the saddle, headed toward the cañon of the -Shoshone. The air was cold and clear. The remotest mountain-peaks upon -the horizon could be distinctly seen, and the forlorn details of their -brown slopes stared at us as through a vacuum. A few miles in front the -smooth surface of the plain was broken by a ragged, zigzag line of -black, which marked the edge of the farther wall of the Snake cañon. A -dull, throbbing sound greeted us. Its pulsations were deep, and seemed -to proceed from the ground beneath our feet. - -Leaving the cavalry to bring up the wagon, my two friends and I galloped -on, and were quickly upon the edge of the cañon-wall. We looked down -into a broad, circular excavation, three quarters of a mile in diameter, -and nearly seven hundred feet deep. East and north, over the edges of -the cañon, we looked across miles and miles of the Snake plain, far on -to the blue boundary mountains. The wall of the gorge opposite us, like -the cliff at our feet, sank in perpendicular bluffs nearly to the level -of the river, the broad excavation being covered by rough piles of black -lava and rounded domes of trachyte rock. We saw an horizon as level as -the sea; a circling wall, whose sharp edges were here and there -battlemented in huge, fortress-like masses; a broad river, smooth and -unruffled, flowing quietly into the middle of the scene, and then -plunging into a labyrinth of rocks, tumbling over a precipice two -hundred feet high, and moving westward in a still, deep current, to -disappear behind a black promontory. It was a strange, savage scene: a -monotony of pale blue sky, olive and gray stretches of desert, frowning -walls of jetty lava, deep beryl-green of river-stretches, reflecting, -here and there, the intense solemnity of the cliffs, and in the centre -a dazzling sheet of foam. In the early morning light the shadows of the -cliffs were cast over half the basin, defining themselves in sharp -outline here and there on the river. Upon the foam of the cataract one -point of the rock cast a cobalt-blue shadow. Where the river flowed -round the western promontory, it was wholly in shadow, and of a deep -sea-green. A scanty growth of coniferous trees fringed the brink of the -lower cliffs, overhanging the river. Dead barrenness is the whole -sentiment of the scene. The mere suggestion of trees clinging here and -there along the walls serves rather to heighten than to relieve the -forbidding gloom of the place. Nor does the flashing whiteness, where -the river tears itself among the rocky islands, or rolls in spray down -the cliff, brighten the aspect. In contrast with its brilliancy, the -rocks seem darker and more wild. - -The descent of four hundred feet from our standpoint to the level of the -river above the falls has to be made by a narrow, winding path, among -rough ledges of lava. We were obliged to leave our wagon at the summit, -and pack down the camp equipment and photographic apparatus upon -carefully led mules. By midday we were comfortably camped on the margin -of the left bank, just above the brink of the falls. My tent was pitched -upon the edge of a cliff, directly overhanging the rapids. From my door -I looked over the cataract, and, whenever the veil of mist was blown -aside, could see for a mile down the river. The lower half of the cañon -is excavated in a gray, porphyritic trachyte. It is over this material -that the Snake falls. Above the brink the whole breadth of the river is -broken by a dozen small trachyte islands, which the water has carved -into fantastic forms, rounding some into low domes, sharpening others -into mere pillars, and now and then wearing out deep caves. At the very -brink of the fall a few twisted evergreens cling with their roots to the -rock, and lean over the abyss of foam with something of that air of -fatal fascination which is apt to take possession of men. - -In plan the fall recurves up stream in a deep horseshoe, resembling the -outline of Niagara. The total breadth is about seven hundred feet, and -the greatest height of the single fall about one hundred and ninety. -Among the islands above the brink are several beautiful cascades, where -portions of the river pour over in lace-like forms. The whole mass of -cataract is one ever-varying sheet of spray. In the early spring, when -swollen by the rapidly melted snows, the river pours over with something -like the grand volume of Niagara, but at the time of my visit it was -wholly white foam. Here and there along the brink the underlying rock -shows through, and among the islands shallow, green pools disclose the -form of the underlying trachyte. Numberless rough shelves break the -fall, but the volume is so great that they are only discovered by the -glancing outward of the foam. - -The river below the falls is very deep. The right bank sinks into the -water in a clear, sharp precipice, but on the left side a narrow, pebbly -beach extends along the foot of the cliff. From the top of the wall, at -a point a quarter of a mile below the falls, a stream has gradually worn -a little stairway: thick growths of evergreens have huddled together in -this ravine. - -By careful climbing we descended to the level of the river. The -trachytes are very curiously worn in vertical forms. Here and there an -obelisk, either wholly or half detached from the cañon-wall, juts out -like a buttress. Farther down, these projecting masses stand like a row -of columns upon the left bank. Above them, a solid capping of black lava -reaches out to the edge, and overhangs the river in abrupt, black -precipices. Wherever large fields of basalt have overflowed an earlier -rock, and erosion has afterward laid it bare, there is found a strong -tendency to fracture in vertical lines. The immense expansion of the -upper surface from heat seems to cause deep fissures in the mass. - -Under the influence of the cool shadow of cliffs and pine, and constant -percolating of surface-waters, a rare fertility is developed in the -ravines opening upon the cañon shore. A luxuriance of ferns and mosses, -an almost tropical wealth of green leaves and velvety carpeting, line -the banks. There are no rocks at the base of the fall. The sheet of foam -plunges almost vertically into a dark, beryl-green, lake-like expanse -of the river. Immense volumes of foam roll up from the cataract-base, -and, whirling about in the eddying winds, rise often a thousand feet in -the air. When the wind blows down the cañon a gray mist obscures the -river for half a mile; and when, as is usually the case in the -afternoon, the breezes blow eastward, the foam-cloud curls over the -brink of the fall, and hangs like a veil over the upper river. On what -conditions depends the height to which the foam-cloud rises from the -base of the fall it is apparently impossible to determine. Without the -slightest wind, the cloud of spray often rises several hundred feet -above the cañon-wall, and again, with apparently the same conditions of -river and atmosphere, it hardly reaches the brink. Incessant roar, -reinforced by a thousand echoes, fills the cañon. Out of this monotone, -from time to time, rise strange, wild sounds, and now and then may be -heard a slow, measured beat, not unlike the recurring fall of breakers. -From the white front of the cataract the eye constantly wanders up to -the black, frowning parapet of lava. Angular bastions rise sharply from -the general level of the wall, and here and there isolated blocks, -profiling upon their sky line, strikingly recall barbette batteries. To -goad one’s imagination up to the point of perpetually seeing -resemblances of everything else in the forms of rocks is the most vulgar -vice of travellers. To refuse to see the architectural suggestions upon -the Snake cañon, however, is to administer a flat snub to one’s fancy. -The whole edge of the cañon is deeply cleft in vertical crevasses. The -actual brink is usually formed of irregular blocks and prisms of lava, -poised upon their ends in an unstable equilibrium, ready to be tumbled -over at the first leverage of the frost. Hardly an hour passes without -the sudden boom of one of those rock-masses falling upon the ragged -_débris_ piles below. - -Night is the true time to appreciate the full force of the scene. I lay -and watched it many hours. The broken rim of the basin profiled itself -upon a mass of drifting clouds where torn openings revealed gleams of -pale moonlight and bits of remote sky trembling with misty stars. -Intervals of light and blank darkness hurriedly followed each other. For -a moment the black gorge would be crowded with forms. Tall cliffs, -ramparts of lava, the rugged outlines of islands huddled together on the -cataract’s brink, faintly luminous foam breaking over black rapids, the -swift, white leap of the river, and a ghostly, formless mist through -which the cañon-walls and far reach of the lower river were veiled and -unveiled again and again. A moment of this strange picture, and then a -rush of black shadow, when nothing could be seen but the breaks in the -clouds, the basin-rim, and a vague, white centre in the general -darkness. - -After sleeping on the nightmarish brink of the falls, it was no small -satisfaction to climb out of this Dantean gulf and find myself once more -upon a pleasantly prosaic foreground of sage. Nothing more effectually -banishes a melotragic state of the mind than the obtrusive ugliness and -abominable smell of this plant. From my feet a hundred miles of it -stretched eastward. A half-hour’s walk took me out of sight of the -cañon, and as the wind blew westward, only occasional indistinct -pulsations of the fall could be heard. The sky was bright and cloudless, -and arched in cheerful vacancy over the meaningless disk of the desert. - -I walked for an hour, following an old Indian trail which occasionally -approached within seeing distance of the river, and then, apparently -quite satisfied, diverged again into the desert. When about four miles -from the Shoshone, it bent abruptly to the north, and led to the cañon -edge. Here again the narrow gorge widened into a broad theatre, -surrounded, as before, by black, vertical walls, and crowded over its -whole surface by rude piles and ridges of volcanic rock. The river -entered it from the east through a magnificent gateway of basalt, and, -having reached the middle, flowed on either side of a low, rocky island, -and plunged in two falls into a deep green basin. A very singular ridge -of the basalt projected like an arm almost across the river, enclosing -within its semi-circle a bowl three hundred feet in diameter and two -hundred feet deep. Within this the water was of the same peculiar -beryl-green, dappled here and there by masses of foam which swam around -and around with a spiral tendency toward the centre. To the left of the -island half the river plunged off an overhanging lip, and fell about one -hundred and fifty feet, the whole volume reaching the surface of the -basin many feet from the wall. The other half has worn away the edge, -and descends in a tumbling cascade at an angle of about forty-five -degrees. The river at this point has not yet worn through the fields of -basaltic lava which form the upper four hundred feet of the plain. -Between the two falls it cuts through the remaining beds of basalt, and -has eroded its channel a hundred feet into underlying porphyritic -trachyte. The trachyte erodes far more easily than the basalt, and its -resultant forms are quite unlike those of the black lava. The trachyte -islands and walls are excavated here and there in deep caves, leaving -island masses in the forms of mounds and towers. In general, spherical -outlines predominate, while the erosion of the basalt results always in -sharp, perpendicular cliffs, with a steeply inclined talus of ragged -_débris_. - -The cliffs around the upper cataract are inferior to those of the -Shoshone. While the level of the upper plain remains nearly the same, -the river constantly deepens the channel in its westward course. In -returning from the upper fall, I attempted to climb along the very edge -of the cliff, in order to study carefully the habits of the basalt; but -I found myself in a labyrinth of side crevasses which were cut into the -plain from a hundred to a thousand feet back from the main wall. These -recesses were usually in the form of an amphitheatre, with black walls -two hundred feet high, and a bottom filled with immense fragments of -basalt rudely piled together. - -By dint of hard climbing I reached the actual brink in a few places, and -saw the same general features each time: the cañon successively widening -and narrowing, its walls here and there approaching each other and -standing like pillars of a gateway; the river alternately flowing along -smooth, placid reaches of level, and rushing swiftly down rocky -cascades. Here and there along the cliff are disclosed mouths of black -caverns, where the lava seems to have been blown up in the form of a -great blister, as if the original flow had poured over some pool of -water, and, converted into steam by contact with the hot rock, had been -blown up bubble-like by its immense expansion. - -I continued my excursions along the cañon west of the Shoshone. About a -mile below the fall a very fine promontory juts sharply out and projects -nearly to the middle of the cañon. Climbing with difficulty along its -toppling crest, I reached a point which I found composed of immense, -angular fragments piled up in dangerous poise. Eastward, the -battlemented rocks around the falls limited the view; but westward I -could see down long reaches of river, where islands of trachyte rose -above white cascades. A peculiar and fine effect is noticeable upon the -river during all the midday. The shadow of the southern cliff is cast -down here and there, completely darkening the river, but often defining -itself upon the water. The contrast between the rich, gem-like green of -the sunlit portions and the deep violet shadow of the cliff is of -extreme beauty. The Snake River, deriving its volume wholly from the -melting of the mountain snows, is a direct gauge of the annual advance -of the sun. In June and July it is a tremendous torrent, carrying a full -half of the Columbia. From the middle of July it constantly shrinks, -reaching its minimum in midwinter. At the lowest, it is a river equal to -the Sacramento or Connecticut. - -After ten days devoted to walking around the neighborhood and studying -the falls and rocks, we climbed to our wagon, and rested for a farewell -look at the gorge. It was with great relief that we breathed the free -air of the plain, and turned from the rocky cañon where darkness, and -roar, and perpetual cliffs had bounded our senses, and headed southward, -across the noiseless plain. Far ahead rose a lofty, blue barrier, a -mountain-wall, marbled upon its summit by flecks of perpetual snow. A -deep notch in its profile opened a gateway. Toward this, for leagues -ahead of us, a white thread in the gray desert marked the winding of our -road. Those sensitively organized creatures, the mules, thrilled with -relief at their escape from the cañons, pressed forward with a vigor -that utterly silenced the customary poppings of the whip, and expurgated -the language of the driver from his usual breaking of the Third -Commandment. - -The three great falls of America--Niagara, Shoshone, and Yosemite--all, -happily, bearing Indian names, are as characteristically different as -possible. There seems little left for a cataract to express. - -Niagara rolls forward with something like the inexorable sway of a -natural law. It is force, power; forever banishing before its -irresistible rush all ideas of restraint. - -No sheltering pine or mountain distance of up-piled Sierras guards the -approach to the Shoshone. You ride upon a waste,--the pale earth -stretched in desolation. Suddenly you stand upon a brink, as if the -earth had yawned. Black walls flank the abyss. Deep in the bed a great -river fights its way through labyrinths of blackened ruins, and plunges -in foaming whiteness over a cliff of lava. You turn from the brink as -from a frightful glimpse of the Inferno, and when you have gone a mile -the earth seems to have closed again; every trace of cañon has vanished, -and the stillness of the desert reigns. - -As you stand at the base of those cool walls of granite that rise to the -clouds from the green floor of Yosemite, a beautiful park, carpeted with -verdure, expands from your feet. Vast and stately pines band with their -shadows the sunny reaches of the pure Merced. An arch of blue bridges -over from cliff to cliff. From the far summit of a wall of pearly -granite, over stains of purple and yellow,--leaping, as it were, from -the very cloud,--falls a silver scarf, light, lace-like, graceful, -luminous, swayed by the wind. The cliffs’ repose is undisturbed by the -silvery fall, whose endlessly varying forms of wind-tossed spray lend an -element of life to what would otherwise be masses of inanimate stone. -The Yosemite is a grace. It is an adornment. It is a ray of light on the -solid front of the precipice. - -From Yosemite our course was bent toward the Merced Obelisk. An -afternoon in early July brought us to camp in the self-same spot where -Cotter and I had bivouacked in the storm more than two years before. I -remembered the crash and wail of those two dreary nights, the thunderous -fulness of tempest beating upon cliffs, and the stealthy, silent -snow-burial; and perhaps to the memory of that bitter experience was -added the contrasting force of to-day’s beauty. - -A warm afternoon sun poured through cloudless skies into one rocky -amphitheatre. The little alpine meadow and full, arrowy brook were -flanked upon either side by broad, rounded masses of granite, and -margined by groups of vigorous upland trees: firs for the most part, but -watched over here and there by towering pines and great, aged junipers -whose massive red trunks seemed welded to the very stone. - -It was altogether exhilarating; even Little Billy, the gray horse, found -it so, and devoted more time to practical jokes upon thick-headed mules -than to the rich and tempting verdure; nor did the high, cool air -banish from his tender heart a glowing Platonic affection for our brown -mare Sally. - -To the ripened charms of middle age Sally united something more than the -memory of youth; she was remarkably plump and well-preserved; her figure -firm and elastic, and she did not hesitate to display it with many -little arts. In presence of her favored Billy she drew deep sighs, and -had quite an irresistible fashion of turning sadly aside and moving away -among trees alone, as if she had no one to love her--a wile never -failing to bring him to her side and elicit such attention as smoothing -her mane or even a pressure of lips upon her brow. And woe to the -emotional mule who ventured to cross our little meadow just to feel for -a moment the soft comfort of her presence. With the bitterness of a -rejected suit he always bore away shoe-prints of jealous Billy. - -He led her quietly down to the brook, and never drank a drop until the -mare was done; then they paid a call at camp, nosing about among the -kettles with familiar freedom, nibbling playfully at dish-towel and -coffee-pot, and when we threw sticks at them trotted off as closely as -if they had been harnessed together. In quiet, moonlit hours, before I -went to bed, I saw them still side by side, her head leaning over his -withers; Billy at _qui vive_ staring dramatically with pointed ears into -forest depths, a true and watchful guardian. - -A little reconnoitring had shown us the most direct way to the Obelisk, -whose sharp summit looked from the moraine to west of us as grand and -alluring as we had ever thought it. - -There was in our hope of scaling this point something more than mere -desire to master a difficult peak. It was a station of great -topographical value, the apex of many triangles, and, more than all, -would command a grander view of the Merced region than any other summit. - -July eleventh, about five o’clock in the afternoon, Gardiner and I -strapped packs upon our shoulders. My friend’s load consisted of the -Temple transit, his blanket, and a great tin cup; mine was made up of -field-glass, compass, level, blanket, and provisions for both, besides -the barometer, which, as usual, I slung over one shoulder. - -For the first time that year we found ourselves slowly zigzagging to and -fro, following a grade with that peculiarly deliberate gait to which -mountaineering experience very soon confines one. Black firs and -thick-clustered pines covered in clumps all the lower slope, but, -ascending, we came more and more into open ground, walking on glacial -_débris_ among trains of huge bowlders and occasional thickets of -slender, delicate young trees. Emerging finally into open granite -country, we came full in sight of our goal, whose great western -precipice rose sheer and solid above us. - -From the south base of the Obelisk a sharp mural ridge curves east, -surrounding an amphitheatre whose sloping, rugged sides were -picturesquely mottled in snow and stone. From the summit of this ridge -we knew we should look over into the upper Merced basin, a great, -billowy, granite depression lying between the Merced group and Mount -Lyell; the birthplace of all those ice rivers and deep-cañoned torrents -which join in the Little Yosemite and form the river Merced. Toward this -we pressed, hurrying rapidly, as the sun declined, in hopes of making -our point before darkness should obscure the _terra incognita_ beyond. - -It put us at our best to hasten over the rough, rudely piled blocks and -up cracks among solid bluffs of granite, but with the sun fully half an -hour high we reached the Obelisk foot and looked from our ridge-top -eastward into the new land. - -From our feet granite and ice in steep, roof-like curves fell abruptly -down to the Merced Cañon brink, and beyond, over the great gulf, rose -terraces and ridges of sculptured stone, dressed with snow-field, one -above another, up to the eastern rank of peaks whose sharp, solid forms -were still in full light. - -From below, it is always a most interesting feature of the mountaineer’s -daily life to watch fading sunlight upon the summit-rocks and snow. -There is something peculiarly charming in the deep carmine flush and in -the pale gradations of violet and cool blue-purple into which it -successively fades. We were now in the very midst of this alpine glow. -Our rocky amphitheatre, opening directly to the sun, was crowded full of -this pure, red light; snow-fields warmed to deepest rose, gnarled stems -of dead pines were dark vermilion, the rocks yellow, and the vast body -of the Obelisk at our left one spire of gold piercing the sapphire -zenith. Eastward, far below us, the Illilluette basin lay in a -peculiarly mild haze, its deep carpet of forest warmed into faint -bronze, and the bare domes and rounded, granite ridges which everywhere -rise above the trees were yellow, of a soft, creamy tint. Farther down, -every foothill was perceptibly reddened under the level beams. Sunlight -reflecting from every object shot up to us, enriching the brightness of -our amphitheatre. - -We drank and breathed the light, its mellow warmth permeating every -fibre. We spread our blankets under the lee of an overhanging rock, -sheltered from the keen east wind, and in full view of the broad western -horizon. - -After a short half-hour of this wonderful light the sun rested for an -instant upon the Coast ranges, and sank, leaving our mountains suddenly -dead, as if the very breath of life had ebbed away, cold, gray shadows -covering their rigid bodies, and pale sheets of snow half shrouding -their forms. - -For a full hour after the sun went down we did little else than study -the western sky, watching with greatest interest a wonderful permanence -and singular gradation of lingering light. Over two hundred miles of -horizon a low stratum of pure orange covered the sky for seven or eight -degrees; above that another narrow band of beryl-green, and then the -cool, dark evening blue. - -I always notice, whenever one gets a very wide view of remote horizon -from some lofty mountain-top, the sky loses its high domed appearance, -the gradations reaching but a few degrees upward from the earth, -creating the general form of an inverted saucer. The orange and beryl -bands occupied only about fifteen degrees in altitude, but swept around -nearly from north to south. It was as if a wonderfully transparent and -brilliant rainbow had been stretched along the sky line. At eleven the -colors were still perceptible, and at midnight, when I rose to observe -the thermometer, they were gone, but a low faint zone of light still -lingered. - -At gray dawn we were up and cooking our rasher of bacon, and soon had -shouldered our instruments and started for the top. - -The Obelisk is flattened, and expands its base into two sharp, serrated -ridges, which form its north and south edges. The broad faces turned to -the east and west are solid and utterly inaccessible, the latter being -almost vertical, the former quite too steep to climb. We started, -therefore, to work our way up the south edge, and, having crossed a -little ravine from whose head we could look down eastward upon steep -thousand-foot _névé_, and westward along the forest-covered ridge up -which we had clambered, began in good earnest to mount rough blocks of -granite. - -The edge here is made of immense, broken rocks poised on each other in -delicate balance, vast masses threatening to topple over at a touch. -This blade has from a distance a considerably smooth and even -appearance, but we found it composed of pinnacles often a hundred feet -high, separated from the main top by a deep, vertical cleft. More than -once, after struggling to the top of one of these pinnacles, we were -obliged to climb down the same way in order to avoid the notches. -Finally, when we had reached the brink of a vertical _cul-de-sac_, the -edge no longer afforded us even a foothold. There were left but the -smooth, impossible western face and the treacherous, cracked front of -the eastern precipice. We were driven out upon the latter, and here -forced to climb with the very greatest care, one of us always in advance -making sure of his foothold, the other passing up instruments by hand, -and then cautiously following. - -In this way we spent nearly a full hour going from crack to crack, -clinging by the least protruding masses of stone, now and then looking -over our shoulders at the wreck of granite, the slopes of ice, and -frozen lake thousands of feet below, and then upward to gather courage -from the bold, red spike which still rose grandly above us. - -At last we struggled up to what we had all along believed the summit, -and found ourselves only on a minor turret, the great needle still a -hundred feet above. From rock to rock and crevice to crevice we made our -way up a fractured edge until within fifty feet of the top, and here its -sharp angle rose smooth and vertical, the eastern precipice carved in a -flat face upon the one side, the western broken by a smoothly curved -recess like the corner of a room. No human being could scale the edge. -An arctic bluebird fluttered along the eastern slope in vain quest of a -foothold, and alighted, panting, at our feet. One step more and we stood -together on a little, detached pinnacle, where, by steadying ourselves -against the sharp, vertical Obelisk edge, we could rest, although the -keen sense of steepness below was not altogether pleasing. - -About seven feet across the open head of a _cul-de-sac_ (a mere recess -in the west face) was a vertical crack riven into the granite not more -than three feet wide, but as much as eight feet deep; in it were wedged -a few loose bowlders; below, it opened out into space. At the head of -this crack a rough crevice led up to the summit. - -Summoning nerve, I knew I could make the leap, but the life and death -question was whether the _débris_ would give way under my weight, and -leave me struggling in the smooth recess, sure to fall and be dashed to -atoms. - -Two years we had longed to climb that peak, and now, within a few yards -of the summit, no weakheartedness could stop us. I thought, should the -_débris_ give way, by a very quick turn and powerful spring I could -regain our rock in safety. - -There was no discussion, but, planting my foot on the brink, I sprang, -my side brushing the rough, projecting crag. While in the air I looked -down, and a picture stamped itself on my brain never to be forgotten. -The _débris_ crumbled and moved. I clutched both sides of the cleft, -relieving all possible weight from my feet. The rocks wedged themselves -again, and I was safe. - -It was a delicate feat of balancing for us to bridge that chasm with a -transit and pass it across; the view it afforded down the abyss was -calculated to make a man cool and steady. - -Barometer and knapsack were next passed over. I placed them all at the -crevice head, and flattened myself against the rock to make room for -Gardiner. I shall never forget the look in his eye as he caught a -glimpse of the abyss in his leap. It gave me such a chill as no amount -of danger, or even death, coming to myself could ever give. The _débris_ -grated under his weight an instant and wedged themselves again. - -We sprang up on the rocks like chamois, and stood on the top shouting -for joy. - -Our summit was four feet across, not large enough for the transit -instrument and both of us; so I, whose duties were geological, descended -to a niche a few feet lower and sat down to my writing. - -The sense of aërial isolation was thrilling. Away below, rocks, ridges, -crags, and fields of ice swell up in jostling confusion to make a base -from which springs the spire of stone 11,600 feet high. On all sides I -could look right down at the narrow pedestal. Eastward great ranks of -peaks, culminating in Mount Lyell, were in full, clear view; all streams -and cañons tributary to the Merced were beneath us in map-like -distinctness. Afar to the west lay the rolling plateau gashed with -cañons; there the white line of Yosemite Fall; and beyond, half -submerged in warm haze, my Sunday mountain. - -The same little arctic bluebird came again and perched close by me, -pouring out his sweet, simple song with a gayety and freedom which -wholly charmed me. - -During our four hours’ stay the thought that we must make that leap -again gradually intruded itself, and whether writing or studying the -country I could not altogether free myself from its pressure. - -It was a relief when we packed up and descended to the horrible cleft to -actually meet our danger. We had now an unreliable footing to spring -from, and a mere block of rock to balance us after the jump. - -We sprang strongly, struck firmly, and were safe. We worked patiently -down the east face, wound among blocks and pinnacles of the lower -descent, and hurried through moraines to camp, well pleased that the -Obelisk had not vanquished us. - - - - -X - -CUT-OFF COPPLES’S - -1870 - - -One October day, as Kaweah and I travelled by ourselves over a lonely -foothill trail, I came to consider myself the friend of woodpeckers. -With rather more reserve as regards the bluejay, let me admit great -interest in his worldly wisdom. As an instance of co-operative living -the partnership of these two birds is rather more hopeful than most -mundane experiments. For many autumn and winter months such food as -their dainty taste chooses is so rare throughout the Sierras that in -default of any climatic temptation to migrate the birds get in harvests -with annual regularity and surprising labor. Oak and pine mingle in open -growth. Acorns from the one are their grain; the soft pine bark is -granary; and this the process: - -Armies of woodpeckers drill small, round holes in the bark of standing -pine-trees, sometimes perforating it thickly up to twenty or thirty and -even forty feet above the ground; then about equal numbers of -woodpeckers and jays gather acorns, rejecting always the little cup, and -insert the gland tightly in the pine bark with its tender base outward -and exposed to the air. - -A woodpecker, having drilled a hole, has its exact measure in mind, and -after examining a number of acorns makes his selection, and never fails -of a perfect fit. Not so the jolly, careless jay, who picks up any sound -acorn he finds, and, if it is too large for a hole, drops it in the most -off-hand way, as if it were an affair of no consequence; utters one of -his dry, chuckling squawks, and either tries another or loafs about, -lazily watching the hard-working woodpeckers. - -Thus they live, amicably harvesting, and with this sequel: those acorns -in which grubs form become the sole property of woodpeckers, while all -sound ones fall to the jays. Ordinarily chances are in favor of -woodpeckers, and when there are absolutely no sound nuts the jays sell -short, so to speak, and go over to Nevada and speculate in -juniper-berries. - -The monotony of hill and glade failing to interest me, and in default of -other diversion, I all day long watched the birds, recalling how many -gay and successful jays I knew who lived, as these, on the wit and -industry of less ostentatious woodpeckers; thinking, too, what naïvely -dogmatic and richly worded political economy Mr. Ruskin would phrase -from my feathered friends. Thus I came to Ruskin, wishing I might see -the work of his idol, and after that longing for some equal artist who -should arise and choose to paint our Sierras as they are with all their -color-glory, power of innumerable pine and countless pinnacle, gloom of -tempest, or splendor, where rushing light shatters itself upon granite -crag, or burns in dying rose upon far fields of snow. - -Had I rubbed Aladdin’s lamp? A turn in the trail brought suddenly into -view a man who sat under shadow of oaks, painting upon a large canvas. - -As I approached, the artist turned half round upon his stool, rested -palette and brushes upon one knee, and in familiar tone said, “Dern’d if -you ain’t just naturally ketched me at it! Get off and set down. You -ain’t going for no doctor, I know.” - -My artist was of short, good-natured, butcher-boy make-up, dressed in -what had formerly been black broadcloth, with an enlivening show of red -flannel shirt about the throat, wrists, and a considerable display of -the same where his waistcoat might once have overlapped a strained but -as yet coherent waistband. The cut of these garments, by length of -coat-tail and voluminous leg, proudly asserted a “Bay” origin. His small -feet were squeezed into tight, short boots, with high, raking heels. - -A round face, with small, full mouth, non-committal nose, and black, -protruding eyes, showed no more sign of the ideal temperament than did -the broad daub upon his square yard of canvas. - -“Going to Copples’s?” inquired my friend. - -That was my destination, and I answered, “Yes.” - -“That’s me,” he ejaculated. “Right over there, down below those two -oaks! Ever there?” - -“No.” - -“My _studio_ ’s there now;” giving impressive accent to the word. - -All the while these few words were passing he scrutinized me with -unconcealed curiosity, puzzled, as well he might be, by my dress and -equipment. Finally, after I had tied Kaweah to a tree and seated myself -by the easel, and after he had absently rubbed some raw sienna into his -little store of white, he softly ventured: “Was you looking out a -ditch?” - -“No,” I replied. - -He neatly rubbed up the white and sienna with his “blender,” -unconsciously adding a dash of Veronese green, gazed at my leggings, -then at the barometer, and again meeting my eye with a look as if he -feared I might be a disguised duke, said in slow tone, with hyphens of -silence between each two syllables, giving to his language all the -dignity of an unabridged Webster, “I would take pleasure in stating that -my name is Hank G. Smith, artist;” and, seeing me smile, he relaxed a -little, and, giving the blender another vigorous twist, added, “I would -request yours.” - -Mr. Smith having learned my name, occupation, and that my home -was on the Hudson, near New York, quickly assumed a familiar -me-and-you-old-fel’ tone, and rattled on merrily about his winter in New -York spent in “going through the Academy,”--a period of deep moment to -one who before that painted only wagons for his livelihood. - -Storing away canvas, stool, and easel in a deserted cabin close by, he -rejoined me, and, leading Kaweah by his lariat, I walked beside Smith -down the trail toward Copples’s. - -He talked freely, and as if composing his own biography, beginning: - -“California-born and mountain-raised, his nature soon drove him into a -painter’s career.” Then he reverted fondly to New York and his -experience there. - -“Oh, no!” he mused in pleasant irony, “he never spread his napkin over -his legs and partook French victuals up to old Delmonico’s. ’Twasn’t H. -G. which took _her_ to the theatre.” - -In a sort of stage-aside to me, he added, “_She_ was a _model_! Stood -for them sculptors, you know; perfectly virtuous, and built from the -ground up.” Then, as if words failed him, made an expressive gesture -with both hands over his shirt-bosom to indicate the topography of her -figure, and, sliding them down sharply against his waistband, he added, -“Anatomical torso!” - -Mr. Smith found relief in meeting one so near himself, as he conceived -me to be, in habit and experience. The long-pent-up emotions and -ambitions of his life found ready utterance, and a willing listener. - -I learned that his aim was to become a characteristically California -painter, with special designs for making himself famous as the -delineator of muletrains and ox-wagons; to be, as he expressed it, “the -Pacific Slope Bonheur.” - -“There,” he said, “is old Eastman Johnson; he’s made the riffle on -barns, and that everlasting girl with the ears of corn; but it ain’t -_life_, it ain’t got the real git-up. - -“If you want to see _the_ thing, just look at a Gérôme; his Arab folks -and Egyptian dancing-girls, they ain’t assuming a pleasant expression -and looking at spots while their likenesses is took. - -“H. G. will discount Eastman yet.” - -He avowed his great admiration of Church, which, with a little leaning -toward Mr. Gifford, seemed his only hearty approval. - -“It’s all Bierstadt, and Bierstadt, and Bierstadt nowadays! What has he -done but twist and skew and distort and discolor and belittle and -be-pretty this whole dog-gonned country? Why, his mountains are too high -and too slim; they’d blow over in one of our fall winds. - -“I’ve herded colts two summers in Yosemite, and honest now, when I stood -right up in front of his picture, I didn’t know it. - -“He hasn’t what old Ruskin calls for.” - -By this time the station buildings were in sight, and far down the -cañon, winding in even grade round spur after spur, outlined by a low, -clinging cloud of red dust, we could see the great Sierra -mule-train,--that industrial gulf-stream flowing from California plains -over into arid Nevada, carrying thither materials for life and luxury. -In a vast, perpetual caravan of heavy wagons, drawn by teams of from -eight to fourteen mules, all the supplies of many cities and villages -were hauled across the Sierra at an immense cost, and with such skill of -driving and generalship of mules as the world has never seen before. - -Our trail descended toward the grade, quickly bringing us to a high bank -immediately overlooking the trains a few rods below the group of station -buildings. - -I had by this time learned that Copples, the former station-proprietor, -had suffered amputation of the leg three times, receiving from the road -men, in consequence, the name of “Cut-off,” and that, while his doctors -disagreed as to whether they had better try a fourth, the kindly hand of -death had spared him that pain, and Mrs. Copples an added extortion in -the bill. - -The dying “Cut-off” had made his wife promise she would stay by and -carry on the station until all his debts, which were many and heavy, -should be paid, and then do as she chose. - -The poor woman, a New Englander of some refinement, lingered, sadly -fulfilling her task, though longing for liberty. - -When Smith came to speak of Sarah Jane, her niece, a new light kindled -in my friend’s eye. - -“You never saw Sarah Jane?” he inquired. - -I shook my head. - -He went on to tell me that he was living in hope of making her Mrs. H. -G., but that the bar-keeper also indulged a hope, and as this important -functionary was a man of ready cash, and of derringers and few words, it -became a delicate matter to avow open rivalry; but it was evident my -friend’s star was ascendant, and, learning that he considered himself -to possess the “dead-wood,” and to have “gaited” the bar-keeper, I was -more than amused, even comforted. - -It was pleasure to sit there leaning against a vigorous old oak while -Smith opened his heart to me, in easy confidence, and, with quick eye -watching the passing mules, pencilled in a little sketch-book a leg, a -head, or such portions of body and harness as seemed to him useful for -future works. - -“These are notes,” he said, “and I’ve pretty much made up my mind to -paint my great picture on a _gee-pull_. I’ll scumble in a sunset effect, -lighting up the dust, and striking across the backs of team and driver, -and I’ll paint a come-up-there-d’n-you look on the old teamster’s face, -and the mules will be just a-humping their little selves and laying down -to work like they’d expire. And the wagon! Don’t you see what fine -color-material there is in the heavy load and canvas-top with sunlight -and shadow in the folds? And that’s what’s the matter with H. G. Smith. - -“Orders, sir, orders; that’s what I’ll get then, and I’ll take my little -old Sarah Jane and light out for New York, and you’ll see _Smith_ on a -studio doorplate, and folks’ll say, ‘Fine feeling for nature, has -Smith!’” - -I let this singular man speak for himself in his own vernacular, pruning -nothing of its idiom or slang, as you shall choose to call it. In this -faithful transcript there are words I could have wished to expunge, but -they are his, not mine, and illustrate his mental construction. - -The breath of most Californians is as unconsciously charged with slang -as an Italian’s of garlic, and the two, after all, have much the same -function; you touch the bowl or your language, but should never let -either be fairly recognized in salad or conversation. But Smith’s -English was the well undefiled when compared with what I every moment -heard from the current of teamsters which set constantly by us in the -direction of Copples’s. - -Close in front came a huge wagon piled high with cases of freight, and -drawn along by a team of twelve mules, whose heavy breathing and -drenched skins showed them hard-worked and well tired out. The driver -looked anxiously ahead at a soft spot in the road, and on at the -station, as if calculating whether his team had courage left to haul -through. - -He called kindly to them, cracked his black-snake whip, and all together -they strained bravely on. - -The great van rocked, settled a little on the near side, and stuck fast. - -With a look of despair the driver got off and laid the lash freely among -his team; they jumped and jerked, frantically tangled themselves up, and -at last all sulked and became stubbornly immovable. Meanwhile, a mile of -teams behind, unable to pass on the narrow grade, came to an unwilling -halt. - -About five wagons back I noticed a tall Pike, dressed in checked shirt, -and pantaloons tucked into jack-boots. A soft felt hat, worn on the -back of his head, displayed long locks of flaxen hair, which hung freely -about a florid pink countenance, noticeable for its pair of violent -little blue eyes, and facial angle rendered acute by a sharp, long nose. - -This fellow watched the stoppage with impatience, and at last, when it -was more than he could bear, walked up by the other teams with a look of -wrath absolutely devilish. One would have expected him to blow up with -rage; yet withal his gait and manner were cool and soft in the extreme. -In a bland, almost tender voice, he said to the unfortunate driver, “My -friend, perhaps I can help you;” and his gentle way of disentangling and -patting the leaders as he headed them round in the right direction would -have given him a high office under Mr. Bergh. He leisurely examined the -embedded wheel, and cast an eye along the road ahead. He then began in -rather excited manner to swear, pouring it out louder and more profane, -till he utterly eclipsed the most horrid blasphemies I ever heard, -piling them up thicker and more fiendish till it seemed as if the very -earth must open and engulf him. - -I noticed one mule after another give a little squat, bringing their -breasts hard against the collars, and straining traces, till only one -old mule, with ears back and dangling chain, still held out. The Pike -walked up and yelled one gigantic oath; her ears sprang forward, she -squatted in terror, and the iron links grated under her strain. He then -stepped back and took the rein, every trembling mule looking out of the -corner of its eye and listening at _qui vive_. - -With a peculiar air of deliberation and of childlike simplicity, he said -in every-day tones, “Come up there, mules!” - -One quick strain, a slight rumble, and the wagon rolled on to Copples’s. - -Smith and I followed, and as we neared the house he punched me -familiarly and said, as a brown petticoat disappeared in the station -door, “There’s Sarah Jane! When I see that girl I feel like I’d reach -out and gather her in;” then clasping her imaginary form as if she was -about to dance with him, he executed a couple of waltz turns, softly -intimating, “That’s what’s the matter with H. G.” - -Kaweah being stabled, we betook ourselves to the office, which was of -course bar-room as well. As I entered, the unfortunate teamster was -about paying his liquid compliment to the florid Pike. Their glasses -were filled. “My respects,” said the little driver. The whiskey became -lost to view, and went eroding its way through the dust these poor -fellows had swallowed. He added, “Well, Billy, you _can_ swear.” - -“Swear?” repeated the Pike in a tone of incredulous questioning. “Me -swear?” as if the compliment were greater than his modest desert. “No, I -can’t blaspheme worth a cuss. You’d jest orter hear Pete Green. _He can -exhort the impenitent mule._ I’ve known a ten-mule-team to renounce the -flesh and haul thirty-one thousand through a foot of clay mud under one -of his outpourings.” - -As a hotel, Copples’s is on the Mongolian plan, which means that -dining-room and kitchen are given over to the mercies--never very -tender--of Chinamen; not such Chinamen as learned the art of -pig-roasting that they might be served up by Elia, but the average John, -and a sadly low average that John is. I grant him a certain general air -of thrift, admitting, too, that his lack of sobriety never makes itself -apparent in loud Celtic brawl. But he is, when all is said, and in spite -of timid and fawning obedience, a very poor servant. - -Now and then at one friend’s house it has happened to me that I dined -upon artistic Chinese cookery, and all they who come home from living in -China smack their lips over the relishing _cuisine_. I wish they had sat -down that day at Copples’s. No; on second thought I would spare them. - -John may go peacefully to North Adams and make shoes for us, but I shall -not solve the awful domestic problem by bringing him into my kitchen; -certainly so long as Howells’s “Mrs. Johnson” lives, nor even while I -can get an Irish lady to torment me, and offer the hospitality of my -home to her cousins. - -After the warning bell, fifty or sixty teamsters inserted their dusty -heads in buckets of water, turned their once white neck-handkerchiefs -inside out, producing a sudden effect of clean linen, and made use of -the two mournful wrecks of combs which hung on strings at either side -the Copples’s mirror. Many went to the bar and partook of a -“dust-cutter.” There was then such clearing of throats, and such loud -and prolonged blowing of noses as may not often be heard upon this -globe. - -In the calm which ensued, conversation sprang up on “lead harness,” the -“Stockton wagon that had went off the grade,” with here and there a -sentiment called out by two framed lithographic belles, who in great -richness of color and scantiness of raiment flanked the bar-mirror;--a -dazzling reflector, chiefly destined to portray the bar-keeper’s back -hair, which work of art involved much affectionate labor. - -A second bell and rolling away of doors revealed a long dining-room, -with three parallel tables, cleanly set and watched over by Chinamen, -whose fresh, white clothes and bright, olive-buff skin made a contrast -of color which was always chief among my yearnings for the Nile. - -While I loitered in the background every seat was taken, and I found -myself with a few dilatory teamsters destined to await a second table. - -The dinner-room communicated with a kitchen beyond by means of two -square apertures cut in the partition wall. Through these portholes a -glare of red light poured, except when the square framed a Chinese -cook’s head, or discharged hundreds of little dishes. - -The teamsters sat down in patience; a few of the more elegant sort -cleaned their nails with the three-tine forks, others picked their -teeth with them, and nearly all speared with this implement small -specimens from the dishes before them, securing a pickle or a square -inch of pie or even that luxury, a dried apple; a few, on tilted-back -chairs, drummed upon the bottom of their plates the latest tune of the -road. - -When fairly under way the scene became active and animated beyond -belief. Waiters, balancing upon their arms twenty or thirty plates, -hurried along and shot them dexterously over the teamsters’ heads with -crash and spatter. - -Beans swimming in fat, meats slimed with pale, ropy gravy, and over -everything a faint Mongol odor,--the flavor of moral degeneracy and of a -disintegrating race. - -Sharks and wolves may no longer be figured as types of prandial haste. -My friends, the teamsters, stuffed and swallowed with a rapidity which -was alarming but for the dexterity they showed, and which could only -have come of long practice. - -In fifteen minutes the room was empty, and those fellows who were not -feeding grain to their mules lighted cigars and lingered round the bar. - -Just then my artist rushed in, seized me by the arm, and said in my ear, -“We’ll have _our_ supper over to Mrs. Copples’s. O no, I guess -not--Sarah Jane--arms peeled--cooking up stuff--old woman gone into the -milk-room with a skimmer.” He then added that if I wanted to see what I -had been spared, I might follow him. - -We went round an angle of the building and came upon a high bank, where, -through wide-open windows, I could look into the Chinese kitchen. - -By this time the second table of teamsters were under way, and the -waiters yelled their orders through to the three cooks. - -This large, unpainted kitchen was lighted up by kerosene lamps. Through -clouds of smoke and steam dodged and sprang the cooks, dripping with -perspiration and grease, grabbing a steak in the hand and slapping it -down on the gridiron, slipping and sliding around on the damp floor, -dropping a card of biscuits and picking them up again in their fists, -which were garnished by the whole bill of fare. The red papers with -Chinese inscriptions, and little joss-sticks here and there pasted upon -each wall, the spry devils themselves, and that faint, sickening odor of -China which pervaded the room, combined to produce a sense of deep, -sober gratitude that I had not risked their fare. - -“Now,” demanded Smith, “you see that there little white building -yonder?” - -I did. - -He struck a contemplative position, leaned against the house, extending -one hand after the manner of the minstrel sentimentalist, and softly -chanted: - - “‘’Tis, O, ’tis the cottage of me love;’ - -“and there’s where they’re getting up as nice a little supper as can be -found on this road or any other. Let’s go over!” - -So we strolled across an open space where were two giant pines towering -sombre against the twilight, a little mountain brooklet, and a few quiet -cows. - -“Stop,” said Smith, leaning his back against a pine, and encircling my -neck affectionately with an arm; “I told you, as regards Sarah Jane, how -my feelings stand. Well, now, you just bet she’s on the reciprocate! -When I told old woman Copples I’d like to invite you over,--Sarah Jane -she passed me in the doorway,--and said she, ‘Glad to see _your_ -friends.’” - -Then _sotto voce_, for we were very near, he sang again: - - “‘’Tis, O, ’tis the cottage of me love;’ - -“and C. K.,” he continued familiarly, “you’re a judge of wimmen,” -chucking his knuckles into my ribs, whereat I jumped; when he added, -“There, I knew you was. Well, Sarah Jane is a derned magnificent female; -number three boot, just the height for me. _Venus de_ Copples, I call -her, and would make the most touching artist’s wife in this planet. If I -design to paint a head, or a foot, or an arm, get my little old Sarah -Jane to peel the particular charm, and just whack her in on the canvas.” - -We passed in through low doors, turned from a small, dark entry into the -family sitting-room, and were alone there in presence of a cheery log -fire, which good-naturedly bade us welcome, crackling freely and tossing -its sparks out upon floor of pine and coyote-skin rug. A few old framed -prints hung upon dark walls, their faces looking serenely down upon the -scanty, old-fashioned furniture and windows full of flowering plants. A -low-cushioned chair, not long since vacated, was drawn close by the -centre-table, whereon were a lamp and a large, open Bible, with a pair -of silver-bowed spectacles lying upon its lighted page. - -Smith made a gesture of silence toward the door, touched the Bible, and -whispered, “_Here’s_ where old woman Copples lives, and it is a good -thing; I read it aloud to her evenings, and I can just feel the high, -local lights of it. It’ll fetch H. G. yet!” - -At this juncture the door opened; a pale, thin, elderly woman entered, -and with tired smile greeted me. While her hard, labor-stiffened, -needle-roughened hand was in mine, I looked into her face and felt -something (it may be, it must be, but little, yet something) of the -sorrow of her life; that of a woman large in sympathy, deep in faith, -eternal in constancy, thrown away on a rough, worthless fellow. All -things she hoped for had failed her; the tenderness which never came, -the hopes years ago in ashes, the whole world of her yearnings long -buried, leaving only the duty of living and the hope of Heaven. As she -sat down, took up her spectacles and knitting, and closed the Bible, she -began pleasantly to talk to us of the warm, bright autumn nights, of -Smith’s work, and then of my own profession, and of her niece, Sarah -Jane. Her genuinely sweet spirit and natively gentle manner were very -beautiful, and far overbalanced all traces of rustic birth and mountain -life. - -O, that unquenchable Christian fire, how pure the gold of its result! It -needs no practised elegance, no social greatness, for its success; only -the warm human heart, and out of it shall come a sacred calm and -gentleness, such as no power, no wealth, no culture may ever hope to -win. - -No words of mine would outline the beauty of that plain, weary old -woman, the sad, sweet patience of those gray eyes, nor the spirit of -overflowing goodness which cheered and enlivened the half hour we spent -there. - -H. G. might perhaps be pardoned for showing an alacrity when the door -again opened and Sarah Jane rolled--I might almost say trundled--in, and -was introduced to me. - -Sarah Jane was an essentially Californian product, as much so as one of -those vast potatoes or massive pears; she had a suggestion of State-Fair -in the fulness of her physique, yet withal was pretty and modest. - -If I could have rid myself of a fear that her buttons might sooner or -later burst off and go singing by my ear, I think I might have felt as -H. G. did, that she was a “magnificent female,” with her smooth, -brilliant skin and ropes of soft brown hair. - -H. G., in presence of the ladies, lost something of his original flavor, -and rose into studied elegance, greatly to the comfort of Sarah, whose -glow of pride as his talk ran on came without show of restraint. - -The supper was delicious. - -But Sarah was quiet, quiet to H. G. and to me, until after tea, when the -old lady said, “You young folks will have to excuse me this evening,” -and withdrew to her chamber. - -More logs were then piled on the sitting-room hearth, and we three -gathered in a semi-circle. - -Presently H. G. took the poker and twisted it about among coals and -ashes, prying up the oak sticks, as he announced, in a measured, studied -way, “An artist’s wife, that is,” he explained, “an Academician’s wife -orter, well she’d orter _sabe_ the beautiful, and take her regular -æsthetics; and then again,” he continued in explanatory tone, “she’d -orter to know how to keep a hotel, derned if she hadn’t, for it’s rough -like furst off, ’fore a feller gets his name up. But then when he does, -tho’, she’s got a salubrious old time of it. It’s touch a little bell” -(he pressed the andiron-top to show us how the thing was done), “and -‘Brooks, the morning paper!’ Open your regular Herald: - - * * * * * - -“‘ART NOTES.--Another of H. G. Smith’s tender works, entitled, “Off the -Grade,” so full of out-of-doors and subtle feeling of nature, is now on -exhibition at Goupil’s.’ - -“Look down a little further: - -“‘ITALIAN OPERA.--Between the acts all eyes turned to the _distingué_ -Mrs. H. G. Smith, who looked,’”--then turning to me, and waving his hand -at Sarah Jane, “I leave it to you if she don’t.” - -Sarah Jane assumed the pleasing color of the sugar-beet, without seeming -inwardly unhappy. - -“It’s only a question of time with H. G.,” continued my friend. “Art is -long, you know--derned long--and it may be a year before I paint my -great picture, but after that Smith works in lead harness.” - -He used the poker freely, and more and more his flow of hopes turned a -shade of sentiment to Sarah Jane, who smiled broader and broader, -showing teeth of healthy whiteness. - -At last I withdrew and sought my room, which was H. G.’s also, and his -studio. I had gone with a candle round the walls whereon were tacked -studies and sketches, finding here and there a bit of real merit among -the profusion of trash, when the door burst open and my friend entered, -kicked off his boots and trousers, and walked up and down at a sort of -quadrille step, singing: - - “‘Yes, it’s the cottage of me love; - You bet, it’s the cottage of me love,’ - -“and, what’s more, H. G. has just had his genteel good-night kiss; and -when and where is the good old bar-keep?” - -I checked his exuberance as best I might, knowing full well that the -quiet and elegant dispenser of neat and mixed beverages hearing this -inquiry would put in an appearance in person and offer a few remarks -designed to provoke ill-feeling. So I at last got Smith in bed and the -lamp out. All was quiet for a few moments, and when I had almost gotten -asleep I heard my room-mate in low tones say to himself,-- - -“Married, by the Rev. Gospel, our talented California artist, Mr. H. G. -Smith, to Miss Sarah Jane Copples. No cards.” - -A pause, and then with more gentle utterance, “and that’s what’s the -matter with H. G.” - -Slowly from this atmosphere of art I passed away into the tranquil land -of dreams. - - - - -XI - -SHASTA - -1870 - - -We escaped the harvesting season of 1870. I try to believe all its -poetry is not forever immolated under the strong wheels of that pastoral -Juggernaut of our day, the steam-reaper, and to be grateful that Ruths -have not now to glean the fallen wheat-heads, and loaf around at -questionable hours, setting their caps for susceptible ranchers. -Whatever stirring rhythm may to-day measure time with the quick -fire-breath of reaping-machines shall await a more poetic pen than this. -Some modern Virgil coming along the boundless wheat plain may perhaps -sing you bucolic phrases of the new iron age; but he will soon see his -mistake, as will you. The harvest home, with its Longfellow mellowness -of atmosphere, or even those ideally colored barns of Eastman Johnson’s, -with corn and girls and some of the lingering personal relationship -between crops and human hands; all that is tradition here, not even -memory. - -It is quite as well. These people are more germane with enterprise and -hurry, and with the winding-up drink at some vulgar tavern when the -hired hands are paid off, and gather to have “a real nice time with the -boys.” - -This was over. The herds of men had poured back to their cities, and -wandered away among distant mines as far as their earnings would carry -them. - -A few stranded bummers, who awoke from their “nice time” penniless, -still lingered in pathetic humiliation round the scene of their labor, -rather heightening that air of sleep which now pervaded every ranch in -the Sacramento valley. - -We quitted the hotel at Chico with relief, gratefully turning our backs -upon the Chinamen, whose cookery had spoiled our two days’ peace. Mr. -Freeman Clark will have to make out a better case for Confucius, or else -these fellows were apostate. But they were soon behind us, a straight, -dusty avenue leading us past clusters of ranches into a quiet expanse of -level land, and beneath the occasional shadow of roadside oaks. Miles of -harvested plain lay close shaven in monotonous Naples yellow, stretching -on, soft and vague, losing itself in a gray, half-luminous haze. Now and -then, through more transparent intervals, we could see the brown Sierra -feet walling us in to eastward, their oak-clad tops fainter and fainter -as they rose into this sky. Directly overhead hung an arch of pale blue, -but a few degrees down the hue melted into golden gray. Looming through -the mist before us rose sombre forms of trees, growing in processions -along the margins of snow-fed streams, which flow from the Sierra -across the Sacramento plain. Through these silent, sleepy groves the -seclusion is perfect. You come in from blinding, sun-scorched plains to -the great, aged oaks, whose immense breadth of bough seems outstretched -with effort to shade more and more ground. - -Alders and cottonwoods line the stream banks; native grapes in tropical -profusion drape the shores, and hang in trailing curtains from tree to -tree. Here and there glimpses open into dark thickets. The stream comes -into view between walls of green. Evening sunlight, broken with shadow, -falls over rippling shallows; still expanses of deep pool reflect blue -from the zenith, and flow on into dark-shaded coves beneath overhanging -verdure. Vineyards and orchards gather themselves pleasantly around -ranch-houses. - -Men and women are dull, unrelieved; they are all alike. The eternal -flatness of landscape, the monotony of endlessly pleasant weather, the -scarcely varying year, the utter want of anything unforeseen, and -absence of all surprise in life, are legible upon their quiet, -uninteresting faces. They loaf through eleven months to harvest one. -Individuality is wanting. The same kind of tiresome ranch-gossip you -hear at one table spreads itself over listening acres to the next. - -The great American poet, it may confidently be predicted, will not book -his name from the Sacramento Valley. The people, the acres, the industry -seem to be created solely to furnish vulgar fractions in the census. It -was not wholly fancy that detected in the grapes something of the same -flatness and sugary insipidity which characterized the girls I chatted -with on certain piazzas. - -What an antipode is the condition of sterile poverty in the farm-life of -the East! Frugality, energy, self-preserving mental activity contrast -sharply with the contented lethargy of this commonplace opulence. Mile -after mile, in recurring succession of wheatland and vineyard, oak-grove -and dusty shabbiness of graceless ranch-buildings, stretches on, -flanking our way on either side, until at last the undulations of the -foot-hills are reached, and the first signs of vigorous life are -observed in the trees. Attitude and consciousness are displayed in the -lordly oaks which cluster upon brown hillsides. The Sacramento, which -through the slumberous plain had flowed in a still, deep current, -reflecting only the hot haze and motionless forms of the trees upon its -banks, here courses along with the ripple of life, displaying through -its clear waters bowlders and pebbles freighted from the higher -mountains. - -Our road, ascending through sunny valleys and among rolling, oak-clad -hills, at length reaches the level of the pines, and, climbing to a -considerable crest, descends among a fine coniferous forest into the -deeply wooded valley of the Pitt. Lifted high against the sky, ragged -hills of granite and limestone limit the view. The river, through a -sharp, rocky cañon, has descended from the volcanic plains of -northeastern California, cutting its way across the sea of hills which -represents the Sierra Nevada, and falling toward the west in a series of -white rapids. - -Our camp in the cool mountain air banished the fatigues of weary miles; -night, under the mountain stars, gave us refreshing sleep; and from the -morning we crossed Pitt Ferry we dated a new life. - -In a deep gorge between lofty, pine-clad walls we came upon the McCloud, -a brilliantly pure stream, wearing its way through lava rocks, and still -bearing the ice-chill of Shasta. Dark, feathery firs stand in files -along the swift river. Oaks, with lustrous leaves, rise above -hill-slopes of red and brown. Numbers of Indian camps are posted here. I -find them picturesque: low, conical huts, opening upon small, smoking -fires attended by squaws. Numberless salmon, split and drying in rows -upon light scaffoldings, make their light-red conspicuous amid the -generally dingy surroundings. - -These Indian faces are fairly good-natured, especially when young. I -visited one camp, upon the left river bank, finding Madam at home, -seated by her fireside, engaged in maternal duties. I am almost afraid -to describe the squalor and grotesque hideousness of her person. She was -emaciated and scantily clad in a sort of short petticoat; shaggy, -unkempt hair overhanging a pair of wild wolf’s eyes. The ribs and -collar-bone stood out as upon an anatomical specimen; hard, black flesh -clinging in formless masses upon her body and arms. Altogether she had -the appearance of an animated mummy. Her child, a mere amorphous roll, -clung to her, and emphasized, with cubbish fatness, the wan, shrunken -form of its mother, looking like some ravenous leech which was draining -the woman’s very blood. Shuddering, I hurried away to observe the -husband. - -The “buck” was spearing salmon a short distance down stream, his naked -form poised upon a beam which projected over the river, his eyes -riveted, and spear uplifted, waiting for the prey; sunlight, streaming -down in broken masses through trees, fell brilliantly upon his muscular -shoulder and tense, compact thigh, glancing now and then across rigid -arms and the polished point of his spear. The swift, dark water rushed -beneath him, flashing upon its surface a shimmering reflection of his -red figure. Cast in bronze he would have made a companion for Quincy -Ward’s Indian Hunter; and better than a companion, for in his wolfish -sinew and panther muscle there was not, so far as I could observe, that -free Greek suppleness which is so fine a feature in Mr. Ward’s statue; -though Ajax, disguised as an American Indian, might be a better name for -that great and powerful piece of sculpture. - -A day’s march brought us from McCloud to the Sacramento, here a small -stream, with banks fringed by a pleasing variety of trees and margins -graceful with water-plants. - -Northward for two days we followed closely the line of the Sacramento -River, now descending along slopes to its bed, where the stream played -among picturesque rocks and bowlders, and again climbing by toilsome -ascents into the forest a thousand feet up on the cañon wall, catching -glimpses of towering ridges of pine-clad Sierra above, and curves of the -foaming river deep in the blue shadow beneath us. - -More and more the woods became darkened with mountain pine. The air -freshened by northern life gave us the inspiration of altitude. - -At last, through a notch to the northward, rose the conical summit of -Shasta, its pale, rosy lavas enamelled with ice. Body and base of the -great peak were hidden by intervening hills, over whose smooth rolls of -forest green the bright, blue sky and the brilliant Shasta summit were -sharp and strong. From that moment the peak became the centre of our -life. From every crest we strained our eyes forward, as now and then -either through forest vistas the incandescent snow greeted us, or from -some high summit the opening cañon walls displayed grander and grander -views of the great volcano. It was sometimes, after all, a pleasure to -descend from these cool heights, with the _impression_ of the mountain -upon our minds, to the cañon bottom, where, among the endlessly varying -bits of beautiful detail, the mental strain wore off. - -When our tents were pitched at Sisson’s, while a picturesque haze -floated up from the southward, we enjoyed the grand, uncertain form of -Shasta, with its heaven-piercing crests of white, and wide, placid -sweep of base; full of lines as deeply reposeful as a Greek temple. Its -dark head lifted among the fading stars of dawn, and, strongly set upon -the arch of coming rose, appealed to our emotions; but best we liked to -sit at evening near Munger’s easel, watching the great lava cone glow -with light almost as wild and lurid as if its crater still streamed. - -Watkins thought it “photographic luck” that the mountain should so have -draped itself with mist as to defy his camera. Palmer stayed at camp to -make observations in the coloring of meerschaums at fixed altitudes, and -to watch now and then the station barometer. - -Shasta from Sisson’s is a broad, triple mountain, the central summit -being flanked on the west by a large and quite perfect crater, whose rim -reaches about twelve thousand feet altitude. On the west a broad, -shoulder-like spur juts from the general slope. The cone rises from its -base eleven thousand feet in one sweep. - -A forest of tall, rich pines surrounds Strawberry Valley and the little -group of ranches near Sisson’s. Under this high sky, and a pure quality -of light, the whole varied foreground of green and gold stretches out -toward the rocky mountain base in charming contrast. Brooks from the -snow thread their way through open meadow, waving overhead a tent-work -of willows, silvery and cool. - -Shasta, as a whole, is the single cone of an immense, extinct volcano. -It occupies almost precisely the axial line of the Sierra Nevada, but -the range, instead of carrying its great, wave-like ridge through this -region, breaks down in the neighborhood of Lassen’s Butte, and for -eighty miles northward is only represented by low, confused masses of -mountain cut through and through by the cañon of the McCloud, Pitt, and -Sacramento. - -A broad, volcanic plain, interrupted here and there by inconsiderable -chains, occupies the country east of Scott’s Mountain. From this general -plain, whose altitude is from twenty-five hundred to thirty-five hundred -feet, rises Mount Shasta. About its base cluster hillocks of a hundred -little volcanoes, but they are utterly inconspicuous under the shadow of -the great peak. The volcanic plain-land is partly overgrown by forest, -and in part covers itself with fields of grass or sage. Riding over it -in almost any part the one great point in the landscape is the cone of -Shasta; its crest of solid white, its vast altitude, the pale-gray or -rosy tints of its lavas, and the dark girdle of forest which swells up -over cañon-carved foothills give it a grandeur equalled by hardly any -American mountain. - -September eleventh found the climbers of our party--S. F. Emmons, -Frederick A. Clark, Albert B. Clark, Mr. Sisson, the pioneer guide of -the region, and myself--mounted upon our mules, heading for the crater -cone over rough rocks and among the stunted firs and pines which mark -the upper limit of forest growth. The morning was cool and clear, with -a fresh north wind sweeping round the volcano, and bringing in its -descent invigorating cold of the snow region. When we had gone as far as -our mules could carry us, threading their difficult way among piles of -lava, we dismounted and made up our packs of beds, instruments, food and -fuel for a three days’ trip, turned the animals over to George and John, -our two muleteers, bade them good-day, and with Sisson, who was to -accompany us up the first ascent, struck out on foot. Already above -vegetation, we looked out over all the valley south and west, observing -its arabesque of forest, meadow, and chaparral, the files of pines which -struggled up almost to our feet, and just below us the volcano slope -strewn with red and brown wreck and patches of shrunken snowdrift. - -Our climb up the steep western crater slope was slow and tiresome, quite -without risk or excitement. The footing, altogether of lodged _débris_, -at times gave way provokingly, and threw us out of balance. Once upon -the spiry pinnacles which crown the rim, a scene of wild power broke -upon us. The round bowl, about a mile in diameter and nearly a thousand -feet deep, lay beneath us, its steep, shelving sides of shattered lava -mantled in places to the very bottom by fields of snow. - -We clambered along the edge toward Shasta, and came to a place where for -a thousand feet it was a mere blade of ice, sharpened by the snow into a -thin, frail edge, upon which we walked in cautious balance, a misstep -likely to hurl us down into the chaos of lava blocks within the crater. - -Passing this, we reached the north edge of the rim, and from a rugged -mound of shattered rock looked down into a gorge between us and the main -Shasta. There, winding its huge body along, lay a glacier, riven with -sharp, deep crevasses yawning fifty or sixty feet wide, the blue hollows -of their shadowed depth contrasting with the brilliant surfaces of ice. - -We studied its whole length from the far, high Shasta crest down in -winding course, deepening its cañon more and more as it extends, -crowding past our crater cone, and at last terminating in bold -ice-billows and a wide belt of hilly moraine. The surface over half of -its length was quite clean, but directly opposite us occurs a fine ice -cascade; its entire surface is cut with transverse crevasses, which have -a general tendency to curve downward; and all this dislocation is -accompanied by a freight of lava blocks which shoot down the cañon walls -on either side, bounding out all over the glacier. - -In a later trip, while Watkins was making his photographic views, I -climbed about, going to the edges of some crevasses and looking over -into their blue vaults, where icicles overhang, and a whispered sound of -waterflow comes up faintly from beneath. - -From a point about midway across where I had climbed and rested upon the -brink of an ice-cliff, the glacier below me breaking off into its wild -pile of cascade blocks and _sérac_, I looked down over all the lower -flow, broken with billowy upheavals, and bright with bristling spires of -sunlit ice. Upon the right rose the great cone of Shasta, formed of -chocolate-colored lavas, its sky line a single curved sweep of snow cut -sharply against a deep blue sky. To the left the precipices of the -lesser cone rose to the altitude of twelve thousand feet, their surfaces -half jagged ledges of lava and half irregular sheets of ice. From my -feet the glacier sank rapidly between volcanic walls, and the shadow of -the lesser cone fell in a dark band across the brilliantly lighted -surface. Looking down its course, my eye ranged over sunny and shadowed -zones of ice and over the gray bowlder region of the terminal moraine; -still lower, along the former track of ancient and grander glaciers, and -down upon undulating, pine-clad foothills, descending in green steps, -reaching out like promontories into the sea of plain which lay outspread -nine thousand feet below, basking in the half-tropical sunshine, its -checkered green fields and orchards ripening their wheat and figs. - -Our little party separated, each going about his labor. The Clarks, with -theodolite and barometer, were engaged on a pinnacle over on the western -crater-edge. Mr. Sisson, who had helped us thus far with a huge -pack-load of wood, now said good-by, and was soon out of sight on his -homeward tramp. Emmons and I geologized about the rim and interior -slope, getting at last out of sight of one another. - -In mid-crater sprang up a sharp cone several hundred feet high, composed -of much shattered lava, and indicating doubtless the very latest -volcanic activity. At its base lay a small lakelet, frozen over with -rough, black ice. Far below us cold gray banks and floating flocks of -vapor began to drift and circle about the lava slopes, rising higher at -sunset, till they quite enveloped us, and at times shut out the view. - -Later we met for bivouac, spread our beds upon small _débris_ under lee -of a mass of rock on the rim, and built a little camp-fire, around which -we sat closely. Clouds still eddied about us, opening now wide rifts of -deep-blue sky, and then glimpses of the Shasta summit glowing with -evening light, and again views down upon the far earth, where sunlight -had long faded, leaving forest and field and village sunken in purple -gloom. Through the old, broken crater lip, over foreground of pallid ice -and sharp, black lava rocks, the clouds whirled away, and, yawning wide, -revealed an objectless expanse, out of which emerged dim mountain tops, -for a moment seen, then veiled. Thus, in the midst of clouds, I found it -extremely interesting to watch them and their habits. Drifting slowly -across the crater-bowl, I saw them float over and among the points of -cindery lava, whose savage forms contrasted wonderfully with the -infinite softness of their texture. - -I found it strange and suggestive that fields of perpetual snow should -mantle the slopes of an old lava caldron, that the very volcano’s throat -should be choked with a pure little lakelet, and sealed with unmelting -ice. That power of extremes which held sway over lifeless nature before -there were human hearts to experience its crush expressed itself with -poetic eloquence. Had Lowell been in our bivouac, I know he must have -felt again the power of his own perfect figure of - - “Burned-out craters healed with snow.” - -It was a wild moment, wind smiting in shocks against the rock beside us, -flaring up our little fire, and whirling on with its cloud-freight into -the darkening crater gulf. - -We turned in; the Clarks together, Emmons and I in our fur bags. Upon -cold stone our bed was anything but comfortable, angular fragments of -trachyte finding their way with great directness among our ribs and -under shoulder-blades, keeping us almost awake, in that despairing -semi-consciousness where dreams and thoughts tangle in tiresome -confusion. - -Just after midnight, from sheer weariness, I arose, finding the sky -cloudless, its whole black dome crowded with stars. A silver dawn over -the slope of Shasta brightened till the moon sailed clear. Under its -light all the rugged topography came out with unnatural distinctness, -every impression of height and depth greatly exaggerated. The empty -crater lifted its rampart into the light. I could not tell which seemed -most desolate, that dim, moonlit rim with pallid snow-mantle and gaunt -crags, or the solid, black shadow which was cast downward from southern -walls, darkening half the bowl. From the silent air every breath of wind -or whisper of sound seemed frozen. Naked lava slopes and walls, the -high, gray body of Shasta with ridge and gorge, glacier and snow-field, -all cold and still under the icy brightness of the moon, produced a -scene of arctic terribleness such as I had never imagined. I looked -down, eagerly straining my eyes, through the solemn crater’s lip, hoping -to catch a glimpse of the lower world; but far below, hiding the earth, -stretched out a level plain of cloud, upon which the light fell cold and -gray as upon a frozen ocean. - -I scrambled back to bed, and happily to sleep, a real sound, dreamless -repose. - -We breakfasted some time after sunrise, and were soon under way with -packs on our shoulders. - -The day was brilliant and cloudless, the cold, still air full of life -and inspiration. Through its clear blue the Shasta peak seemed -illusively near, and we hurried down to the saddle which connects our -cone with the peak, and across the head of a small tributary glacier, -and up over the first _débris_ slopes. It was a slow, tedious three -hours’ climb over stones which lay as steeply as loose material possibly -can, up to the base of a red trachyte spur; then on up a gorge, and out -upon a level mountain shoulder, where are considerable flats covered -with deep ice. To the north it overflows in a much-crevassed tributary -of the glacier we had studied below. - -Here we rested, and hung the barometer from Clark’s tripod. - -The further ascent lies up a long scoria ridge of loose, red pumiceous -rock for seven or eight hundred feet, then across another level step, -curved with rugged ice, and up into a sort of corridor between two -steep, much-broken, and stained ridges. Here in the hollow are boiling -sulphurous springs and hot earth. We sat down by them, eating our lunch -in the lee of some stones. - -A short, rapid climb brought us to the top, four hours and thirty -minutes’ working time from our crater bivouac. - -There is no reason why anyone of sound wind and limb should not, after a -little mountaineering practice, be able to make the Shasta climb. There -is nowhere the shadow of danger, and never a real piece of mountain -climbing--climbing, I mean, with hands and feet--no scaling of walls or -labor involving other qualities than simple muscular endurance. The fact -that two young girls have made the ascent proves it a comparatively easy -one. Indeed, I have never reached a corresponding altitude with so -little labor and difficulty. Whoever visits California, and wishes to -depart from the beaten track of Yosemite scenes, could not do better -than come to Strawberry Valley and get Mr. Sisson to pilot him up -Shasta. - -When I ask myself to-day what were the sensations on Shasta, they render -themselves into three--geography, shadows, and uplifted isolation. - -After we had walked along a short, curved ridge which forms the summit, -representing, as I believe, all that remains of the original crater, it -became my occupation to study the view. - -A singularly transparent air revealed every plain and peak on till the -earth’s curve rolled them under remote horizons. The whole great disk of -world outspread beneath wore an aspect of glorious cheerfulness. The -Cascade Range, a roll of blue forest land, stretched northward, -surmounted at intervals by volcanoes; the lower, like symmetrical Mount -Pitt, bare and warm with rosy lava colors; those farther north lifting -against the pale horizon-blue solid white cones upon which strong light -rested with brilliance. It seemed incredible that we could see so far -toward the Columbia River, almost across the State of Oregon; but there -stood Pitt, Jefferson, and the Three Sisters in unmistakable plainness. -Northeast and east spread those great plains out of which rise low lava -chains, and a few small, burned-out volcanoes, and there, too, were the -group of Klamath and Goose Lakes lying in mid plain glassing the deep -upper violet. Farther and farther from our mountain base in that -direction the greenness of forest and meadow fades out into rich, mellow -brown, with warm cloudings of sienna over bare lava hills, and shades, -as you reach the eastern limit, in pale ash and lavender and buff, where -stretches of level land slope down over Madelin plains into Nevada -deserts. An unmistakable purity and delicacy of tint, with transparent -air and paleness of tone, give all desert scenes the aspect of -water-color drawings. Even at this immense distance I could see the -gradual change from rich, warm hues of rocky slope, or plain overspread -with ripened vegetation, out to the high, pale key of the desert. - -Southeast the mountain spurs are smoothed into a broad glacis, densely -overgrown with chaparral, and ending in open groves around plains of -yellow grass. - -A little farther begin the wild, cañon-curved piles of green mountains -which represent the Sierras, and afar, towering over them, eighty miles -away, the lava dome of Lassen’s Peak standing up bold and fine. South, -the Sacramento cañon cuts down to unseen depths, its deep trough opening -a view of the California plain, a brown, sunny expanse, over which loom -in vanishing perspective the coast-range peaks. West of us, and quite -around the semi-circle of view, stretches a vast sea of ridges, chains, -peaks, and sharp walls of cañons, as wild and tumultuous as an ocean -storm. Here and there above the blue billows rise snow-crests and shaggy -rock-chains, but the topography is indistinguishable. With difficulty I -could trace for a short distance the Klamath cañon course, recognizing -Siskiyou peaks, where Professor Brewer and I had been years before; but -in that broad area no further unravelling was possible. So high is -Shasta, so dominant above the field of view, we looked over it all as -upon a great shield which rose gently in all directions to the sky. - -Whichever way we turned, the great cone fell off from our feet in -dizzying abruptness. We looked down steep slopes of _névé_, on over -shattered ice-wreck, where glaciers roll over cliffs, and around the -whole, broad, massive base curved deeply through its lava crusts in -straight cañons. - -These flutings of ancient and grander glaciers are flanked by straight, -long moraines, for the most part bare, but reaching down part way into -the forest. It is interesting to observe that those on the north and -east, by greater massiveness and length, indicate that in former days -the glacier distribution was related to the points of compass about as -it is now. What volumes of geographical history lay in view! Old -mountain uplift; volcanoes built upon the plain of fiery lava; the chill -of ice and wearing force of torrent, written in glacier-gorge and -water-carved cañon! - -I think such vastness of prospect now and then extremely valuable in -itself; it forcibly widens one’s conception of country, driving away -such false notion of extent or narrowing idea of limitation as we get in -living on lower plains. - -I never tire of overlooking these great, wide fields, studying their -rich variety, and giving myself up to the expansion which is the instant -and lasting reward. In presence of these vast spaces and all but -unbounded outlook, the hours hurry by with singular swiftness. Minutes -or miles are nothing; days and degrees seem best fitted for one’s -thoughts. So it came sooner than I could have believed that the sun -neared its setting, sinking into a warm, bright stratum of air. The -light stretched from north to south, reflecting itself with an equal -depth all along the east, until a perfect ring of soft, glowing rose -edged the whole horizon. Over us the ever-dark heaven hung near and -flat. Light swept eastward across the earth, every uplift of hill-ridge -or solitary cone warm and bright with its reflections, and from each -object upon the plains, far and near, streamed out dense, sharp shadows, -slowly lengthening their intense images. We were far enough lifted above -it all to lose the ordinary landscape impression, and reach that -extraordinary effect of black-and-bright topography seen upon the moon -through a telescope. - -Afar in the north, bars of blue shadow streamed out from the peaks, -tracing themselves upon rosy air. All the eastern slope of Shasta was of -course in dark shade, the gray glacier forms, broken ridges of stone, -and forest, all dim and fading. A long cone of cobalt-blue, the shadow -of Shasta fell strongly defined over the bright plain, its apex -darkening the earth a hundred miles away. As the sun sank, this gigantic -spectral volcano rose on the warm sky till its darker form stood huge -and terrible over the whole east. It was intensely distinct at the -summit, just as far-away peaks seen against the east in evening always -are, and faded at base as it entered the stratum of earth mist. - -Grand and impressive we had thought Shasta when studying in similar -light from the plain. Infinitely more impressive was this phantom -volcano as it stood overshadowing the land and slowly fading into -night. - -Before quitting the ridge, Fred Clark and I climbed together out upon -the highest pinnacle, a trachyte needle rising a few feet above the -rest, and so small we could barely balance there together, but we stood -a moment and waved the American flag, looking down over our shoulders -eleven thousand feet. - -A fierce wind blew from the southwest, coming in gusts of great force. -Below, we could hear it beat surf-like upon the crags. We hurried down -to the hot-spring flat, and just over the curve of its southern descent -made our bivouac. Even here the wind howled, merciless and cold. - -We turned to and built of lava blocks a square pen about two and a half -feet high, filled the chinks with pebbles, and banked it with sand. I -have seen other brown-stone fronts more imposing than our Shasta home, -but I have rarely felt more grateful to four walls than to that little -six-by-six pen. I have not forgotten that through its chinks the sand -and pebbles pelted us all night, nor was I oblivious when sudden gusts -toppled over here and there a good-sized rock upon our feet. When we sat -up for our cup of coffee, which Clark artistically concocted over the -scanty and economical fire, the walls sheltered our backs; and for that -we were thankful, even if the wind had full sweep at our heads and stole -the very draught from our lips, whirling it about north forty east by -compass, in the form of an infinitesimal spray. The zephyr, as we -courteously called it, had a fashion of dropping vertically out of the -sky upon our fire and leaving a clean hearth. For the space of a few -moments after these meteorological jokes there was a lively gathering of -burning knots from among our legs and coats and blankets. - -There are times when the extreme of discomfort so overdoes itself as to -extort a laugh and put one in the best of humor. This tempest descended -to so many absurd personal tricks altogether beneath the dignity of a -reputable hurricane, that at last it seemed to us a sort of furious -burlesque. - -Not so the cold; that commanded entire respect, whether carefully -abstracting our animal heat through the bed of gravel on which we lay, -or brooding over us hungry for those pleasant little waves of motion -which, taking Tyndall for granted, radiated all night long, in spite of -wildcat bags, from our unwilling particles. I abominate thermometers at -such times. Not one of my set ever owned up the real state of things. -Whenever I am nearly frozen and conscious of every indurated bone, that -bland little instrument is sure to read twenty or thirty degrees above -any unprejudiced estimate. Lying there and listening to the whispering -sounds that kindly drifted, ever adding to our cover, and speculating as -to any further possible meteorological affliction, was but indifferent -amusement, from which I escaped to a slumber of great industry. We lay -like sardines, hoping to encourage animal heat, but with small success. - -The sunrise effect, with all its splendor, I find it convenient to leave -to some future traveller. I shall be generous with him, and say nothing -of that hour of gold. It had occurred long before we awoke, and many -precious minutes were consumed in united appeals to one another to get -up and make coffee. It was horridly cold and uncomfortable where we -were, but no one stirred. How natural it is under such circumstances to - - “Rather bear those ills we have - Than fly to others that we know not of.” - -I lay musing on this, finding it singular that I should rather be there -stiff and cold while my like-minded comrades appealed to me, than to get -up and comfort myself with camp-fire and breakfast. We severally awaited -developments. - -At last Clark gave up and made the fire, and he has left me in doubt -whether he loved cold less or coffee more. - -Digging out our breakfast from drifted sand was pleasant enough, nor did -we object to excavating the frozen shoes, but the mixture of -disintegrated trachyte discovered among the sugar, and the manner in -which our brown-stone front had blown over and flattened out the family -provisions, were received by us as calamity. - -However, we did justice to Clark’s coffee, and socially toasted our bits -of meat, while we chatted and ate zestfully portions not too freely -brecciated with lava sand. I have been at times all but morbidly aware -of the power of local attachment, finding it absurdly hard to turn the -key on doors I have entered often and with pleasure. My own early home, -though in other hands, holds its own against greater comfort, larger -cheer; and a hundred times, when our little train moved away from grand -old trees or willow-shaded springs by mountain camps, I have felt all -the pathos of nomadism, from the Aryan migration down. - -As we shouldered our loads and took to the ice-field I looked back on -our modest edifice, and for the first time left my camp with gay relief. - -Elation of success and the vital mountain air lent us their quickening -impulse. We tramped rapidly across the ice-field and down a long spur of -red trachyte, which extended in a southerly course around the head of a -glacier. It was our purpose to descend the southern slope of the -mountain, to a camp which had been left there awaiting us. The declivity -in that direction is more gentle than by our former trail, and had, -besides, the merit of lying open to our view almost from the very start. -It was interesting, as we followed the red trachyte spur, to look down -to our left upon _névé_ of the McCloud glacier. From its very head, -dislocation and crevasses had begun, the whole mass moving away from the -wall, leaving a deep gap between ice and rock. In its further descent -this glacier pours over such steep cascades, and is so tortuous among -the lava crags, that we could only see its beginning. To avoid those -great pyramidal masses which sprang fully a thousand feet from the -general flank of the mountain, we turned to the right and entered the -head of one of those long, eroded glacier cañons which are scored down -the slope. The ridges from both sides had poured in their freight of -_débris_ until the cañon was one mass of rock fragments of every -conceivable size and shape. Here and there considerable masses of ice -and relics of former glaciers lay up and down the shaded sides, and, as -we descended, occupied the whole broad bottom of the gorge. We -congratulated ourselves when the steep, upper _débris_ slope was passed -and we found ourselves upon the wavy ice of the old glacier. Numerous -streams flowed over its irregular face, losing themselves in the cracks -and reappearing among the accumulation of bowlders upon its surface. -Here and there glacier tables of considerable size rose above the -general level, supported on slender ice-columns. As the angle here was -very steep, we amused ourselves by prying these off their pedestals with -our alpine stocks, and watching them slide down before us. - -More and more the ice became burdened with rocks, until at last it -wholly disappeared under accumulation of moraine. Over this, for a half -mile, we tramped, thinking the glacier ended; but in one or two -depressions I again caught sight of the ice, which led me to believe -that a very large portion of this rocky gorge may be underlaid by old -glacial remains. - -Tramping over this unstable moraine, where melting ice had left the -bowlders in every state of uncertain equilibrium, we were greatly -fatigued, and at last, the strain telling seriously on our legs, we -climbed over a ridge to the left of our amphitheatre into the next -cañon, which was very broad and open, with gentle, undulating surface -diversified by rock plateaus and fields of glacier sand. Here, by the -margin of a little snow-brook, and among piles of immense _débris_, -Emmons and I sat down to lunch, and rested until our friends came up. - -A few scanty bunches of alpine plants began to deck the gray earth and -gradually to gather themselves in bits of open sward, here and there -decorated with delicate flowers. Near one little spring meadow we came -upon gardens of a pale yellow flower with an agreeable, aromatic -perfume, and after another mile of straining on among erratic bowlders -and over the thick-strewn rock of the old moraines, we came to the -advanced guard of the forest. Battle-twisted and gnarled old specimens -of trees, of rugged, muscular trunk, and scanty, irregular branch, they -showed in every line and color a life-long struggle against their -enemies, the avalanche and cold. Gathering closer, they grew in groves -separated by long, open, grassy glades, the clumps of trees twisting -their roots among the glacier blocks. - -For a long time we followed the pathway of an avalanche. To the right -and left of us, upon considerable heights, the trees were sound and -whole, and preserved, even at their ripe age, the health of youth. But -down the straight pathway of the valley every tree had been swept away, -the prostrate trunks, lying here and there, half buried in drifts of -sand and rock. Here, over the whole surface, a fresh young growth not -more than six or seven years old has sprung up, and begun a hopeless -struggle for ground which the snow claims for its own. Before us opened -winding avenues through forest; green meadows spread their pale, fresh -herbage in sunny beauty. Along the little stream which, after a mile’s -musical cascades, we knew flowed past camp, tender green plants and -frail mountain flowers edged our pathway. All was still and peaceful -with the soft, brooding spirit of life. The groves were absolutely alive -like ourselves, and drinking in the broad, affluent light in their -silent, beautiful way. Back over sunny tree-tops, the great cone of rock -and ice loomed in the cold blue; but we gladly turned away and let our -hearts open to the gentle influence of our new world. - -There, at last, as we tramped over a knoll, were the mules dozing in -sunshine or idling about among trees, and there that dear, blue wreath -floating up from our camp-fire and drifting softly among boughs of -overhanging fir. - -I always feel a strange renewal of life when I come down from one of -these climbs; they are with me points of departure more marked and -powerful than I can account for upon any reasonable ground. In spite of -any scientific labor or presence of fatigue, the lifeless region, with -its savage elements of sky, ice and rock, grasps one’s nature, and, -whether he will or no, compels it into a stern, strong accord. Then, as -you come again into softer air, and enter the comforting presence of -trees, and feel the grass under your feet, one fetter after another -seems to unbind from your soul, leaving it free, joyous, grateful! - - - - -XII - -SHASTA FLANKS - -1870 - - -There are certain women, I am informed, who place men under their spell -without leaving them the melancholy satisfaction of understanding how -the thing was done. They may have absolutely repulsive features, and a -pretty permanent absence of mind; without that charm of cheerful grace -before which we are said to succumb. Yet they manage to assume command -of certain. It is thus with mules. I have heard them called awkward and -personally plain, nor is it denied that their disposition, though rich -in individuality, lacks some measure of qualities which should endear -them to humanity. Despite all this, and even more, they have a way of -tenderly getting the better of us, and, in the long run, absolutely -enthroning themselves in our affections. Mystery as it is, I confess to -its potent sway, long ago owning it beyond solution. - -Live on the intimate terms of brother-explorer with your mule, be -thoughtful for his welfare, and you by-and-by take an emotional start -toward him which will surprise you. You look into that reserved face, -the embodiment of self-contained drollery, and begin to detect soft -thought and tender feeling; and sometimes, as you cinch your saddle a -little severely, the calm, reproachful visage will swing round and melt -you with a single look. Nothing is left but to rub the velvet nose and -loosen up the girth. When the mere brightness and gayety of mountain -life carries one away with their hilarious current, there is something -in the meek and humble air of a lot of pack animals altogether -chastening in its prompt effect. - -My “‘69” was one of these insidious beings who within a week of our -first meeting asserted supremacy over my life, and formed a silent -partnership with my conscience. She was a chubby, black mule, so sleek -and rotund as distantly to suggest a pig on stilts. Upon the eye which -still remained, a cataract had begun to spread its dimming film. Her -make-up was also defective in a weak pair of hind legs, which gave way -suddenly in going up steep places. She was clumsy, and in rugged -pathways would squander much time in the selection of her foothold. At -these moments, when she deliberated, as I fancied, needlessly long, I -have very gently suggested with Spanish spur that it might be as well to -start; the serious face then turned upon me, its mild eye looking into -mine one long, earnest gaze, as much as to say, “I love and would spare -you; remember Balaam!” I yielded. - -These animals are always of the opposition party; they reverse your -wishes, and from one year’s end to another defy your best judgment. Yet -I love them, and only in extreme moments “go for” them with a -fence-rail or theodolite-tripod. Nothing can be pleasanter than to ride -them through forest roads, chatting in a bright company, and catching -glimpses of far, quiet scenery framed by the long, furry ears. - -So we thought on that sunny morning when we left Sisson’s, starting -ahead of wagons and pack animals, and riding out into the woodland on -our trip round Shasta; a march of a hundred miles, with many proposed -side-excursions into the mountain. - -The California haze had again enveloped Shasta, this time nearly -obscuring it. In forest along the southeast base, we came upon the -stream flowing from McCloud Glacier, its cold waters milky white with -fine, sandy sediment. Such dense, impenetrable fields of chaparral cover -the south foothills that we were only able to fight our way through -limited parts, getting, however, a clear idea of lava flows and -topography. Farther east, the plains rise to seven thousand feet, and -fine wood ridges sweep down from Shasta, inviting approach. - -While Munger and Watkins camped to make studies and negatives of the -peak, Fred Clark and I packed one mule with a week’s provisions, and, -mounting our saddle-animals, struck off into dark, silent forest. - -It was a steep climb of eight or ten miles up tree-covered ridges and -among outcrops of gray trachyte, nearly every foot showing more or less -evidence of glacial action; long trains of morainal rocks upon which -large forest-trees seemed satisfied to grow; great, rough regions of -terminal rubbish, with enclosed patches of level earth commonly -grass-grown and picturesque. It was sunset before we came upon water, -and then it flowed a thousand feet below us in the bottom of a sharp, -narrow cañon, cut abruptly down in what seemed glacial _débris_. I -thought it unwise to take our mules down its steep wall if there were -any camp-spot high up in the opener head of the cañon, and went off on -foot to climb the wooded moraines still farther, hoping to come upon a -bit of alpine sward with icy pool, or even upon a spring. When up -between two and three hundred feet the trees became less and less -frequent, rugged trains of stone and glacier-scored rock in places -covering the spurs. I could now overlook the snow amphitheatre, which -opened vast and shadowy above. Not a sign of vegetation enlivened its -stony bed. The icy brook flowed between slopes of _débris_. At my feet a -trachyte ridge narrowed the stream with a tortuous bed, and led it to -the edge of a five-hundred-feet cliff, over which poured a graceful -cascade. Finding no camp-spot there, I turned northward and made a -detour through deep woods, by-and-by coming back to Clark. We faced the -necessity, and by dark were snugly camped in the wild cañon bottom. It -was one of the loneliest bivouacs of my life: shut in by high, dark -walls, a few clustered trees growing here and there, others which floods -had undermined lying prostrate, rough bowlders thrown about, an icy -stream hurrying by, and chilly winds coming down from the height, -against which our blankets only half defended us. - -Our excursion next day was south and west, across high, scantily wooded -moraines, till we came to the deep cañon of the McCloud Glacier. - -I describe this gorge, as it is one of several similar, all peculiar to -Shasta. We had climbed to a point about ten thousand feet above the sea, -and were upon the eastern edge of a cañon of eleven or twelve hundred -feet depth. From the very crest of the Shasta, with here and there a few -patches of snow, a long and remarkably even _débris_ slope swept down. -It seemed as if these small pieces of trachyte formed a great part of -the region, for to the very bottom our cañon walls were worked out of -it. A half mile below us the left bank was curiously eroded by side -streams, resulting in a family of pillars from one to seven hundred feet -high, each capped with some hard lava bowlder which had protected the -soft _débris_ beneath from weathering. From its lofty _névé_ the McCloud -Glacier descended over rugged slopes in one long cascade to a little -above our station, where it impinged against a great rock buttress and -turned sharply from the south wall toward us, rounding over in a great, -solid ice-dome eight or nine hundred feet high. For a mile farther a -huge accumulation looking like a river of _débris_ cumbered the bottom. -Here and there, on close scrutiny, we found it to be pierced with -caverns whose ice-walls showed that the glacier underlay all this vast -amount of stone. Bowlders rattled continually from the upper glacier -and down both cañon walls, increasing the already great burden. Along -both sides were evidences of motion in the lateral moraine embankments, -and a very perceptible rounding up of terminal ramparts, from which in -white torrent poured the sub-glacial brook. - -It is instructive to consider what an amount of freighting labor this -shrunken ice-stream has to perform besides dragging its own vast weight -along. In descending Shasta we had found glacial ice which evidently for -a mile or more deeply underlaid a mass of rock similar to this. It is -one of the curiosities of Mount Shasta that such a great bulk of ice -should be buried, and in large part preserved, by loads of rock -fragments. Fine contrasts of color were afforded high up among the -_sérac_ by a combination of blue ice and red lavas. We hammered and -surveyed here for half the day, then descended to our mules, who bore us -eagerly back to their home, our weird little cañon camp. - -A pleasant day’s march, altogether in woods and over glacial ridges, -during which not a half hour passed without opening views of the cone, -brought us high on the northern slope, at the upper forest limit, in a -region of barren avalanche tracks and immense moraines. - -Between those great, straight ridges which jut almost parallel from the -volcano’s base are wide, shelving valleys, the pathways of extinct -glaciers; and here the forest, although it must once have obtained -foothold, has been uprooted and swept away before powerful avalanches, -crushed and up-piled trunks in sad wreck marking spots where the -snow-rush stopped. - -Two brooks, separated by a wide, gently rounding zone of drift, flowed -down through the glacier valley which opened directly in front of our -camp. - -Early next morning Clark and I made up a bag of lunch, shouldered our -instruments, and set out for a day on the glacier. Our slow, laborious -ascent of the valley was not altogether uninteresting. Constant views -obtained of moraines on either side gave us much pleasure and study. It -was instructive to observe that the bases of their structure were solid -floors of lava, upon which, in rude though secure masonry, were piled -embankments not less than half a mile wide and four hundred feet high. -Among the huge rocks which formed the upper structure the tree-forms -were peculiar. Apparently every tree had made an effort to fill some gap -and round out the smooth general surface. No matter how deeply twisted -between high bowlders, the branches spread themselves out in a -continuous, dense mat, stretching from stone to stone. It was only -rarely, and in the less elevated parts of the moraine, that we could see -a trunk. The whole effect was of a causeway of rock overgrown by some -dense, green vine. - -Similar patches of stunted trees grew here and there over the bottom of -our broad amphitheatre. Oftentimes we threaded our way among dense -thickets of pines, never over six or eight feet in height, having -trunks often two and three feet in diameter, and more than once we -walked over their tops, our feet sinking but two or three inches into -the dense mat of foliage. Here and there, half buried in the drift, we -came across the tall, noble trunks of avalanche-killed trees. In -comparing their straight, symmetrical growth with the singularly matted -condition of the living-dwarfed trees, I find the indication of a great -climatic change. Not only are the present avalanches too great to permit -their growth, but the violent cold winds which drift over this region -bend down the young trees to such an extent that there are no longer -tall, normal specimens. Around the upper limits of aborescent vegetation -we passed some most enchanting spots; groves, not over eight feet in -height, of large trees whose white trunks and interwoven boughs formed a -colonnade, over which stretched thick, living thatch. Under these -strange galleries we walked upon soft, velvety turf and an elastic -cushion of pine-needles; nor could we resist the temptation of lying -down here to rest beneath the dense roof. As we looked back, charming -little vistas opened between the old and dwarfed stems. In one direction -we could see the moraine with its long, graded slope and variegated -green and brown surface; in another, the open pathway of the old glacier -worn deeper and deeper between lofty, forest-clad spurs; and up to the -great snow mass above us, with its slender peak in the heavens looking -down upon magnificent sweep of _névé_. - -Only the strong desire for glaciers led us away from these delightful -groves. A short tramp over sand and bowlders brought us to the foot of a -broad, irregular, terminal moraine. Two or three milky cascades poured -out from under the great bowlder region and united to form two important -streams. We followed one of these in our climb up the moraine, and after -an hour’s hard work found ourselves upon an immense pile of lava blocks, -from which we could overlook the whole. - -In irregular curve it continues not less than three miles around the end -of the glacier, and in no place that I saw was less than a half mile in -width. Where we had attacked it the width cannot be less than a mile, -and the portion over which we had climbed must reach a thickness of five -or six hundred feet. - -About a half mile above us, though but little lifted from our level, -undulating hillocks of ice marked the division between glacier and -moraine; above that, it stretched in uninterrupted white fields. The -moraine in every direction extended in singularly abrupt hills, -separated by deep, irregular pits and basins of a hundred and more feet -deep. - -As we climbed on, the footing became more and more insecure, piles of -rock giving way under our weight. Before long we came to a region of -circular, funnel-shaped craters, where evidently the underlying glacier -had melted out and a whole freight of bowlders fallen in with a rush. -Around the edges of these horrible traps we threaded our way with -extreme caution; now and then a bowlder, dislodging under our feet, -rolled down into these pits, and many tons would settle out of sight. -Altogether it was the most dangerous kind of climbing I have ever seen. -You were never sure of your foothold. More than once, when crossing a -comparatively smooth, level bowlder-field, the rocks began to sink under -us, and we sprang on from stone to stone while the great mass caved and -sank slowly behind us. At times, while making our way over solid-seeming -stretches, the sound of a deep, sub-glacial stream flowing far beneath -us came up faint and muffled through the chinks of the rock. This sort -of music is not encouraging to the nerves. To the siren babble of -mountain brook is added all the tragic nearness of death. - -We looked far and wide in hope of some solid region which should lead us -up to the ice, but it was all alike, and we hurried on, the rocks -settling and sinking beneath our tread, until we made our way to the -edge, and climbed with relief upon the hard, white surface. After we had -gained the height of a hundred feet, climbing up a comparatively smooth -slope between brooks which flowed over it, a look back gave a more -correct idea of the general billowy character of our moraine; and here -and there in its deeper indentations we could detect the underlying ice. - -It is, then, here as upon the McCloud Glacier. For at least a mile’s -width the whole lower zone is buried under accumulation of morainal -matter. Instead of ending like most Swiss glaciers, this ice wastes -chiefly in contact with the ground, and when considerable caverns are -formed the overlying moraine crushes its way through the rotten roof, -making the funnels we had seen. - -Thankful that we had not assisted at one of these engulfments, we -scrambled on up the smooth, roof-like slope, steadying our ascent by the -tripod legs used as alpine stock. When we had climbed perhaps a thousand -feet the surface angle became somewhat gentler, and we were able to -overlook before us the whole broad incline up to the very peak. For a -mile or a mile and a half the sharp, blue edges of crevasses were -apparent here and there, yawning widely for the length of a thousand -feet, and at other places intersecting each other confusedly, resulting -in piled-up masses of shattered ice. - -We were charmed to enter this wild region, and hurried to the edge of an -immense chasm. It could hardly have been less than a thousand or twelve -hundred feet in length. The solid, white wall of the opposite -side--sixty feet over--fell smooth and vertical for a hundred feet or -more, where rough wedged blocks and bridges of clear blue ice stretched -from wall to wall. From these and from numerous overhanging shelves hung -the long, crystal threads of icicles, and beyond, dark and impenetrable, -opened ice-caverns of unknown limit. We cautiously walked along this -brink, examining with deep interest all the lines of stratification and -veining, and the strange succession of views down into the fractured -regions below. - -I had the greatest desire to be let down with a line and make my way -among these pillars and bridges of ice, but our little twenty feet of -slender rope forbade the attempt. Farther up, the crevasses walled us -about more and more. At last we got into a region where they cut into -one another, breaking the whole glacier body into a confused pile of ice -blocks. Here we had great difficulty in seeing our way for more than a -very few feet, and were constantly obliged to climb to the top of some -dangerous block to get an outlook, and before long, instead of a plain -with here and there a crevasse, we were in a mass of crevasses separated -only by thin and dangerous blades of ice. - -We still pushed on, tied together with our short line, jumping over pits -and chasms, holding our breath over slender snow-ridges, and beginning -to think the work serious. We climbed an ice-crag together; all around -rose strange, sharp forms; below, in every direction, yawned narrow -cuts, caves trimmed with long stalactites of ice, walls ornamented with -crystal pilasters, and dark-blue grottoes opening down into deeper and -more gloomy chambers, as silent and cold as graves. - -Far above, the summit rose white and symmetrical, its sky line sweeping -down sharp against the blue. Below, over ice-wreck and frozen waves, -opened the deep valley of our camp, leading our vision down to distant -forest slopes. - -We were in the middle of a vast, convex glacier surface which embraced -the curve of Shasta for four miles around, and at least five on the -slope line, ice stretching in every direction and actually bounding the -view on all sides except where we looked down. - -The idea of a mountain glacier formed from Swiss or Indian views is -always of a stream of ice walled in by more or less lofty ridges. Here a -great, curved cover of ice flows down the conical surface of a volcano -without lateral walls, a few lava pinnacles and inconspicuous piles of -_débris_ separating it from the next glacier, but they were unseen from -our point. Sharp, white profiles met the sky. It became evident we could -go no farther in the old direction, and we at once set about retracing -our steps, but in the labyrinth soon lost the barely discernible tracks -and never refound them. Whichever way we turned, impassable gulfs opened -before us, but just a little way to the right or left it seemed safe and -traversable. - -At last I got provoked at the ill-luck, and suggested to Clark that we -might with advantage take a brief intermission for lunch, feeling that a -lately quieted stomach is the best defence for nerves. So when we got -into a pleasant, open spot, where the glacier became for a little way -smooth and level, we sat down, leisurely enjoying our repast. We saw a -possible way out of our difficulty, and sat some time chatting -pleasantly. When there was no more lunch we started again, and only -three steps away came upon a narrow crack edged by sharp ice-jaws. There -was something noticeable in the hollow, bottomless darkness seen through -it which arrested us, and when we had jumped across to the other side, -both knelt and looked into its depths. We saw a large, domed grotto -walled in with shattered ice and arched over by a roof of frozen snow so -thin that the light came through quite easily. The middle of this dome -overhung a terrible abyss. A block of ice thrown in fell from ledge to -ledge, echoing back its stroke fainter and fainter. We had unconsciously -sat for twenty minutes lunching and laughing on the thin roof, with only -a few inches of frozen snow to hold us up over that still, deep grave; a -noonday sun rapidly melting its surface, the warmth of our persons -slowly thawing it, and both of us playfully drumming the frail crest -with our tripod legs. We looked at one another, and agreed that we had -lost confidence in glaciers. - -Splendid rifts now opened to north of us, with slant sunshine lighting -up one side in vivid contrast with the cold, shadowed wall. We greatly -enjoyed a tall precipice with a gaping crevasse at its base, and found -real pleasure in the north edge of the great ice-field, whither we now -turned. A low moraine, with here and there a mass of rock which might be -solid, flanked the glacier, but was separated from it by a deeply melted -crevasse, opening irregular caverns along the wall down under the very -glacier body. We were some time searching a point where this gulf might -be safely crossed. A thin tongue of ice, sharpened by melting to a mere -blade, jutted from the solid glacier over to the moraine, offering us a -passage of some danger and much interest. We edged our way along astride -its crest, until a good spring carried us over a final crevasse and up -upon the moraine, which we found to be dangerously built up of -honeycombed ice and bowlders. The same perilous sinks and holes -surrounded us, and alternated with hollow archways over subterranean -streams. It was a relief, after an hour’s labor, to find ourselves on -solid lava, although the ridge, which proved to be a chain of old -craters, was one of the most dreary reaches I have ever seen. - -In the evidence of glacier motion there had seemed a form of life, but -here among silent, rigid crater rims and stark fields of volcanic sand -we walked upon ground lifeless and lonely beyond description: a frozen -desert at nine thousand feet altitude. Among the huge, rude forms of -lava we tramped along, happy when the tracks of mountain sheep suggested -former explorers, and pleased if a snow-bank under rock shadow gave -birth to spring or pool. But the severe impression of arctic dreariness -passed off when, reaching a rim, we looked over and down upon the -volcano’s north foot, a superb sweep of forest country waved with ridgy -flow of lava and gracefully curved moraines. - -Afar off, the wide, sunny Shasta Valley, dotted with miniature -volcanoes, and checked with the yellow and green of grain and garden, -spread pleasantly away to the north, bounded by Clamath hills and -horizoned by the blue rank of Siskiyou Mountains. To our left the cone -slope stretched away to Sisson’s, the sharp form of the Black Cone -rising in the gap between Shasta and Scott Mountain. - -Here again the tremendous contrast between lava and ice about us and -that lovely expanse of ranches and verdure impressed anew its peculiar -force. - -We tramped on along the glacier edge, over rough ridges and slopes of -old moraine, rounding at last the ice terminus, and crossing the valley -to camp, where our three mules welcomed us with friendly discord. - -A day’s march over forest-covered moraines and through open glades -brought us to the main camp at Sheep Rock, uniting us with our friends. -The heavier air of this lower level soothed us into a pleasant laziness -which lasted over Sunday, resting our strained muscles and opening the -heart anew to human and sacred influence. If we are sometimes at pain -when realizing within what narrow range of latitude mankind reaches -finer development, how short a step it is from tropical absence of -spiritual life to dull, boreal stupidity, it is added humiliation to -experience our marked limitation in altitude. At fourteen thousand feet -little is left me but bodily appetite and impression of sense. The habit -of scientific observation, which in time becomes one of the involuntary -processes, goes on as do heart-beat and breathing; a certain general awe -overshadows the mind; but on descending again to lowlands one after -another the whole riches of the human organization come back with -delicious freshness. Something of this must account for my delight in -finding the family of Preuxtemps (a half-Cherokee mountaineer known -hereabouts as Pro-tem) camped near us. Pro-tem was a barbarian by -choice, and united all the wilder instincts with a domestic passion -worthy his Caucasian ancestor, and quite charming in its childlike -manifestation. - -Protem _mère_, an obese Digger squaw, so evidently avoided us that I -respected her feelings and never once visited their bivouac, although -the flutter of gaudy rags and that picturesque squalor of which she and -the camp-fire were centre and soul, sorely tempted me. - -The old man and his four little barefoot girls, if not actually -familiar, were more than sociable, and spent much time with us. The -elder three, ranging from eight to twelve, were shy and timid as little -quails, dodging about and scampering off to some hiding-place when I -strove to introduce myself through the medium of such massive -sweet-cakes as our William produced. Not so the little six-year-old -Clarissa, who in all frankness met my advances and repaid me for the -cookies she silently devoured by gentlest and most fascinating smiles. - -A stained and earth-hued flour-sack rudely gathered into a band was her -skirt, and confined the little, long-sleeved, pink calico sack. From out -a voluminous sun-bonnet with long cape shone the chubby face of my -little friend. For all she was so young and charmingly small, Clarissa -was woman rather than child. She took entire care of herself, and -prowled about in a self-contained way, making studies and observations -with ludicrous gravity. Early mornings she came with slow, matronly gait -down to the horse-trough, and, rolling up her sleeves, laid aside the -huge sun-bonnet, washed her face and hands, wiping them on her -petticoat, and arranged her jetty Indian hair with the quiet -unconsciousness of fifty years. - -Her good-morning nod, with the reserved yet affectionate smile, put me -in happiness for the day, and when as I strolled about she overtook me -and placed her little hand in mine, looking up with fearless, quiet -confidence, I measured step with her, and we held sweet chats about -squirrels and field-mice. But I thought her most charming when she -brought her father down to our camp-fire after supper, and, alternately -on his knee or mine, listened to our stories and wound a soft little arm -about our necks. The twilight passed agreeably thus, Clarissa gradually -paying less and less attention to our yarns, till she pulled the skirts -of my cavalry coat over her, and curling up on my lap laid her dear -little head on my breast, smiled, gaped, rubbed with plump knuckles the -blinking eyes, dozed, and at last sank into a deep sleep. - -I can even now see old Protem draw an explanatory map on the ground his -moccasin had smoothed, and go on with his story of bear fight or wolf -trap, illustrating by singularly apt gesture every trait and motion of -the animal he described, while firelight warmed the brown skin and ruddy -cheek of my little charge and flickered on her soft, black hair. - -The last bear story of an evening being ended, Protem took from me -Clarissa, whose single yawn and pretty bewilderment subsided in a -second, leaving her sound asleep on the buckskin shoulder of her father. - -About half way between Sheep Rock and the snow-line extensive eruptions -of basalt have occurred, deluging the lower slopes, and flowing in -gently inclined fields and streams down through Shasta Valley for many -miles. The surface of this basalt country is singularly diversified. -Rising above its general level are numerous domes, some of them smoothly -arched over with rock, others perforated at the top, and more broken in -circular parapets. The origin of these singular blisters is probably -simple. Overflowing former trachyte fields, the basalt swept down, -covering a series of pools and brooks. The water converted into steam -blew up the viscous rock in such forms as we find. Here and there the -basalt surface opens in circular orifices, into which you may look a -hundred feet or more. - -In 1863, in company with Professor Brewer, I visited this very region, -and we were then shown an interesting tubular cavern lying directly -under the surface of a lava plain. - -Mr. Palmer and I revisited the spot, and, having tied our mules, -descended through a circular hole to the cavern’s mouth. An archway of -black lava sixty feet wide by eighty high, with a floor of lava sand and -rough bowlders, led under the basalt in a northerly direction, -preserving an incline not more than the gentle slope of the country. Our -roof overhead could hardly have been more than twenty or thirty feet -thick. We followed the cavern, which was a comparatively regular tube, -for half or three-quarters of a mile. Now and then the roof would open -up in larger chambers, and the floor be cumbered with huge piles of -lava, over which we scrambled, sometimes nearly reaching the ceiling. -Fresh lava-froth and smooth blister-holes lined the sides. Innumerable -bats and owls on silent wing floated by our candles, fanning an air -singularly still and dense. - -After a cautious scramble over a long pile of immense basalt blocks, we -came to the end of the cave, and sat down upon piles of _débris_. We -then repeated an experiment, formerly made by Brewer and myself, of -blowing out our candle to observe the intense darkness, then firing a -pistol that we might hear its dull, muffled explosion. - -The formation of this cave, as explained in Professor Whitney’s -Geological Report, is this: “A basalt stream, flowing down from Shasta, -cooled and hardened upon the surface, while within the mass remained -molten and fluid. From simple pressure the lava burst out at the lower -end, and, flowing forth, left an empty tube. Wonderfully fresh and -recent the whole confused rock-walls appeared, and we felt, as we walked -and climbed back to the opening and to daylight, as if we had been -allowed to travel back into the volcano age.” - -One more view of Shasta, obtained a few days later from Well’s ranch on -the Yreka road, seems worthy of mention. From here the cone and side -crater are in line, making a single symmetrical form with broad, broken -summit singularly like Cotopaxi. - -You look over green meadows and cultivated fields; beyond is a chain of -little volcanoes girdling Shasta’s foot, for the most part bare and -yellow, but clouded in places with dark forest, which a little farther -up mantles the broad, grand cone, and sweeps up over ridge and cañon to -alpine heights of rock and ice. - -Strange and splendid is the evening effect from here, when shadow over -base and light upon summit divide the vast pile into two zones of -blue-purple and red-gold. We watched the colors fade and the peak recede -farther and dimmer among darkness and stars. - - - - -XIII - -MOUNT WHITNEY - -1871 - - -There lay between Carson and Mount Whitney a ride of two hundred and -eighty miles along the east base of the Sierra. Stage-driving, like -other exact professions, gathers among its followers certain types of -men and manners, either by some mode of natural selection, or else after -a Darwinian way developing one set of traits to the exclusion of others. -However interesting it might be to investigate the moulding power of -whip and reins, or to discover what measure of coachman there is latent -in every one of us, it cannot be questioned that the characters of -drivers do resemble one another in surprising degree. That ostentatious -silence and self-contained way of ignoring one’s presence on the box for -the first half hour, the tragi-comic, just-audible undertone in which -they remonstrate with the swing team, and such single refrain of -obsolete song as they drone and drone a hundred times, may be observed -on every coach from San Diego to Montana. - -So I found it natural enough that the driver, my sole companion from -Carson to Aurora, should sit for the first hour in a silence etiquette -forbade me to violate. His team, by strict attention to their duties, -must have left his mind quite free, and I saw symptoms of suppressed -sociability within forty minutes of our departure. - -The nine-mile house, if my memory serves, was his landmark for -taciturnity, for soon after passing it he began to skirmish along a sort -of picket line of conversation. To the wheel mares he remarked, “Hot, -gals; ain’t it, tho’?” and to his off leader, who strained wild eyes in -every direction for something to become excited about, “Look at him, -Dixie; wouldn’t you like a rabbit to shy at?” - -With a true driver’s pride in reading men, he scanned me from boots to -barometer, and at last, to my immense delight, said, with the air of -throwing his hat into a ring, “What mountain was you going down to -measure?” Had he inquired after my grandfather by his first name, I -could not have been more surprised. At once I told him the plain truth, -and waited for further developments; but, like an indifferent shot who -drives centre on a first trial, he proposed not to endanger his -reputation for infallibility by other ventures, and withdrew again to -that conspicuous stupidity which coachmen and Buddhists alike delight -in. - -Left to myself, I spent hours in looking out over the desert and up -along that bold front of Sierra which rose on our right from the sage -plains of Carson Valley up through ramparts of pine land to summits of -rock and ravines with sunken snow-banks. - -So far as Aurora, I remember little worth describing. Sierras, or -outlying volcanic foot-hills, bound the west. About our road are desert -plains and rolling sage-clad hills, fresh, light olive at this June -season, and softly sloping in long _glacis_ down to wide, impressive -levels. - -Green valleys and cultivated farms margin the Carson and Walker rivers. -Sierras are not lofty enough to be grand, desert too gentle and -overspread with sage to be terrible; yet the pale, high key of all its -colors, and singular aërial brilliancy lend an otherwise dreary enough -picture the charm,--as I once before said,--of water-color drawings. -There is no perspective under this fierce white light; in midday -intensely sharp reflections glare from hill and valley, except where the -shadow of passing cloud spreads cool and blue over olive slopes. - -Alas for Aurora, once so active and bustling with silver mines and its -almost daily murder! Twenty-six whiskey hells and two Vigilance -Committees graced those days of prosperity and mirthful gallows, of -stock-board and the gay delirium of speculation. Now her sad streets are -lined with closed doors; a painful silence broods over quartz mills, and -through the whole deserted town one perceives that melancholy security -of human life which is hereabouts one of the pathetic symptoms of -bankruptcy. The “boys” have gone off to merrily shoot one another -somewhere else, leaving poor Aurora in the hands of a sort of coroner’s -jury who gather nightly at the one saloon and hold dreary inquests over -departed enterprise. - -My landlord’s tread echoed through a large, empty hotel, and when I -responded to his call for lunch the silentest of girls became medium -between me and a Chinaman, who gazed sad-eyed through his kitchen door -as in pity for one who must choose between starving and his own cookery. -But I have always felt it unpardonable egotism for a traveller to force -the reader into sharing with him the inevitable miseries of roadside -food. Whatever merit there may be in locking this prandial grief fast -from public view, I feel myself entitled to in a high degree, for I hold -it in my power to describe the most revolting cuisine on the planet, yet -refrain. - -From Aurora my road, still parallel with the mountains, though now -hidden from them by banks of volcanic hills, climbed a long, wearisome -slope from whose summit a glorious panorama of snowy Sierras lay before -us. From our feet, steep declivities fell two thousand feet to the level -of a wide desert basin, bounded upon the west by long ranks of high, -white peaks, and otherwise walled in by chains of volcanic hills, smooth -with dull sage flanks, and yet varied here and there by outcropping -formations of eruptive rocks and dusky cedar forests. - -Just at the Sierra foot, surrounded by bare, gray volcanoes and reaches -of ashen plain, lies Mono lake, a broad oval darkened along its farther -shore by reflecting the shadowed mountains, and pale tranquil blue -where among light desert levels it mirrors the silken softness of sky -and cloud. Flocks of pelicans, high against the sky, floated in slow, -wheeling flight, reflecting the sun from white wings, and, turning, were -lost in the blue to gleam out again like flakes of snow. - -The eye ranges over strange, forbidding hill-forms and leagues of -desert, from which no familiarity can ever banish suggestions of death. -Traced along boundary hills, straight terraces of an ancient beach -indicate former water-levels, and afar in the Sierra, great, empty -gorges, glacier-burnished and moraine-flanked, lead up to amphitheatres -of rock once white with _névé_. - -I recognized the old familiar summits: Mount Ritter, Lyell, Dana, and -that firm peak with Titan strength and brow so square and solid it seems -altogether natural we should have named it for California’s statesman, -John Conness. - -We rumbled down hill and out upon the desert, plodding until evening -through sand, and over rocky, cedar-wooded spurs, at last crossing adobe -meadows, where were settlements and a herd of Spanish cattle which had -escaped the drought of California, and now marched, northward bound, for -Montana. - -Frowning volcanic hills flanked our road as evening wore on, lifting -dark forms against a sky singularly pale and luminous. Afar, we caught -glimpses of the dark, swelling Sierra wave thrusting up -“star-neighboring peaks,” and then, descending into hollows among lava -mounds, found ourselves shut completely in. A night at the Hot Springs -of Partzwick was notably free from anything which may be recounted. - -Morning found me waiting alone on the hotel veranda, and I suppose the -luxuries of the establishment must have left a stamp of melancholy upon -my face, for the little, solemn driver who drew up his vehicle at the -door said in a tone of condolence, “The hearse is ready.” - -Stages, drivers and teams had been successively worse as I journeyed -southward. This little old specimen, by whose side I sat from Partzwick -to Independence, ought to be excepted, and I should neglect a duty were -I not to portray one, at least, of his traits. He was a musical old -fellow, and given to chanting in low tones songs, sometimes pathetic, -often sentimental, but in every case preserved by him in most -fragmentary recollection. Such singing suffered, too, from the necessary -and frequent interruption of driving; the same breath quavering in -cracked melody, and tossing some neatly rounded oath or horse-phrase at -off or near wheeler, catching up an end of the refrain again in time to -satisfy his musical requirements. - -All the morning he had warned me most impressively to count myself -favored if a certain bridge over Bishop’s Creek should not sink under us -and cast me upon wild waters. Rightly estimating my friend, I was not -surprised when we reached the spot to find a good, solid structure -bridging a narrow creek not more than four feet deep. - -As we rolled on down Owen’s Valley, he sang, chatted and drove in a -manner which showed him capable of three distinct, yet simultaneous, -mental processes. I follow his words as nearly as memory serves. - -“That creek, sir, was six feet deep. - - ‘Oh Lillie, sweet Lillie, dear Lillie Dale.’ - -What the devil are you shying at? You cursed mustang, come up out of -that; - -... ‘little green grave.’ - -Yes, seven feet, and if we’d have fell in, swimming wouldn’t saved us. - -“You, Balley, what are you a doin’ on? - - ‘’Neath the hill in the flowing vale.’ - -And what’s more, we couldn’t have crawled up that bank, nohow. - - ‘My own dear Lillie Dale.’ - -You’d like to kick over them traces, would you? Keep your doggoned neck -up snug against that collar, and take that. - -“We’d drowned, sir; drowned sure as thunder. - - ‘In the place where the violets grow.’” - -Desert hills, and low, mountain gateways, opening views of vast, sterile -plains, no longer formed our eastern outlook. The White Mountains, a -lofty, barren chain vying with the Sierras in altitude, rose in splendid -rank and stretched southeast, parallel with the great range. Down the -broad, intermediate trough flowed Owen’s River, alternately through -expanses of natural meadow and desolate reaches of sage. - -The Sierra, as we travelled southward, became bolder and bolder, strong -granite spurs plunging steeply down into the desert; above, the mountain -sculpture grew grander and grander, until forms wild and rugged as the -Alps stretched on in dense ranks as far as the eye could reach. More and -more the granite came out in all its strength. Less and less soil -covered the slopes: groves of pine became rarer, and sharp, rugged -buttresses advanced boldly to the plain. Here and there a cañon-gate -between rough granite pyramids, and flanked by huge moraines, opened its -savage gallery back among peaks. Even around the summits there was but -little snow, and the streams which at short intervals flowed from the -mountain foot, traversing the plains, were sunken far below their -ordinary volume. - -The mountain forms and mode of sculpture of the opposite ranges are -altogether different. The White and Inyo chains, formed chiefly of -uplifted sedimentary beds, are largely covered with soil, and wherever -the solid rock is exposed its easily traced strata plains and soft, -wooded surface combined in producing a general aspect of breadth and -smoothness; while the Sierra, here more than anywhere else, holds up a -front of solid stone, carved into most intricate and highly ornamental -forms: vast aiguilles, trimmed from summit to base with line of slender -minarets; huge, broad domes, deeply fluted and surmounted with tall -obelisks, and everywhere the greatest profusion of bristling points. - -From the base of each range a long, sloping talus descends gently to the -river, and here and there, bursting up through Sierra foot-hills, rise -the red and black forms of recent volcanoes as regular and barren as if -cooled but yesterday. - -I had reason for not regretting my departure from the Inyo House at -Independence next morning before sunrise; and when a young woman in an -elaborate brown calico, copied evidently from some imperial evening -toilet, pertly demanded my place by the driver, adding that she was not -one of the “inside kind,” I willingly yielded, and made myself contented -on the back seat alone. Presently, however, a companion came to me in -the person of a middle-aged Spanish doña, clad altogether in black, with -a shawl worn over her head after the manner of a mantilla. When it began -to rain violently and beat upon that brown calico, I made bold to offer -the young woman my sheltered place, but she gayly declined, averring -herself not made of sugar. So the doña and I shared my great coat across -our laps and established relations of civility, though she spoke no -English, and I only that little Spanish so much more embarrassing than -none. - -In her smile, in the large, soft eyes, and that tinge of Castilian blood -which shone red-warm through olive cheek, I saw the signs of a race -blessed with sturdier health than ours. With snowy hair growing low on a -massive forehead, and just a glimpse now and then of large, gold beads, -through a white handkerchief about her throat, she seemed to me a -charming picture: though, perhaps, her fine looks gained something by -contrasting with the sickly girl in front, whose pallor and cough could -not have meant less than the pretubercular state. - -Clouds covered the mountains on either hand, leaving me only ranches and -people to observe. May I be forgiven if I am wrong in accounting for the -late improvement of political tone in Tuolumne by the presence here of -so large a share of her most degraded citizens; people whose faces and -dress and life and manners are sadder than any possibilities held up to -us by Darwin. - -My long ride ended in a few hours at Lone Pine, where, from the hotel -window, I watched a dark-blue mass of storm which covered and veiled the -region where I knew my goal, the Whitney summit, must stand. - -For two days storm-curtains hung low about the Sierra base, their vapor -banks, dark with fringes of shower, at times drifting out over Lone Pine -and quenching a thirsty earth. On the third afternoon blue sky shone -through rifts overhead, and now and then a single peak, dashed with -broken sunshine, rose for a moment over rolling clouds which swelled -above it again like huge billows. - -About an hour before sunset the storm began rapidly to sink into level -fold, over which, in clear, yellow light, emerged “cloud-compelling” -peaks. The liberated sun poured down shafts of light, piercing the mist -which now in locks of gold and gray blew about the mountain heads in -wonderful splendor. - -How deep and solemn a blue filled the cañon depths! What passion of -light glowed around the summits! With delight I watched them one after -another fading till only the sharp, terrible crest of Whitney, still red -with reflected light from the long-sunken sun, showed bright and -glorious above the whole Sierra. - -Upon observing the topography, I saw that one bold spur advanced from -Mount Whitney to the plain; on either side of it profound cañons opened -back to the summit. I remembered the impossibility of making a climb up -those northern precipices, and at once chose the more southern gorge. - -Next morning we set out on horseback for the mountain base, twelve miles -across plains and through an outlying range of hills. My companion for -the trip was Paul Pinson, as tough and plucky a mountaineer as France -ever sent us, who consented readily to follow me. José, the -mild-mannered and grinning Mexican boy who rode with us, was to remain -in care of our animals at the foot-hills while we made the climb. - -I left a Green barometer to be observed at Lone Pine, and carried my -short high-mountain instrument, by the same excellent maker. - -Gauzy mists again enveloped the Sierra, leaving us free minds to enjoy a -ride, of which the very first mile supplied me food for days of thought. - -The American residents of Lone Pine outskirts live in a homeless -fashion; sullen, almost arrogant, neglect stares out from the open -doors. There is no attempt at grace, no memory of comfort, no suggested -hope for improvement. - -Not so the Spanish homes, their low, adobe, wide-roofed cabins neatly -enclosed with even, basket-work fence, and lining hedge of blooming -hollyhock. - -We stopped to bow good-morning to my friend and stage companion, the -doña. She sat in the threshold of her open door, sewing; beyond her -stretched a bare floor, clean and white: the few chairs, the table -spread with snowy linen, everything, shone with an air of religious -spotlessness. Symmetry reigned in the precise, well-kept garden, -arranged in rows of pepper-plants and crisp heads of vernal lettuce. - -I longed for a painter to catch her brilliant smile, and surround her on -canvas as she was here, with order and dignity. The same plain, black -dress clad her ample figure, and about the neck heavy, barbaric gold -beads served again as collar. - -Under low eaves above her, and quite around the house, hung, in triple -row, festoons of flaming red peppers, in delicious contrast with the -rich adobe gray. - -It was a study of order and true womanly repose, fitted to cheer us, and -a grouping of such splendid color as might tempt a painter to cross the -world. - -A little farther on we passed an Indian ranchero where several willow -wickyups were built upon the bank of a cold brook. Half-naked children -played about here and there; a few old squaws bustled at household work; -but nearly all lay outstretched, dozing. A sort of tattered brilliancy -characterized the place. Gay, high-colored squalor reigned. There seemed -hardly more lack of thrift or sense of decorum than in the American -ranches, yet somehow the latter send a stab of horror through one, while -this quaint indolence and picturesque neglect seem aptly contrived to -set off the Indian genius for loafing, and leave you with a sort of -æsthetic satisfaction, rather than the sorrow their half development -should properly evoke. - -Leaving all this behind us, our road led westward across a long sage -slope entering a narrow, tortuous pass through a low range of outlying -granite hills. Strangely weathered forms towered on either side, their -bare, brown surface contrasting pleasantly with the vivid ribbon of -willows which wove a green and silver cover over swift water. - -The granite was riven with innumerable cracks, showing here and there a -strong tendency to concentric forms, and I judged the immense -spheroidal bowlders which lay on all sides, piled one upon another, to -be the kernels or nuclei of larger masses. - -Quickly crossing this ridge, we came out upon the true Sierra -foot-slope, a broad, inclined plain stretching north and south as far as -we could see. Directly in front of us rose the rugged form of Mount -Whitney spur, a single mass of granite, rough-hewn, and darkened with -coniferous groves. The summits were lost in a cloud of almost indigo -hue. - -Putting our horses at a trot, we quickly ascended the _glacis_, and at -the very foot of the rocks dismounted, and made up our packs. José, with -the horses, left us and went back half a mile to a mountain ranch, where -he was to await our return; and presently Pinson and I, with heavy -burdens upon our backs, began slowly to work our way up the granite spur -and toward the great cañon. - -An hour’s climb brought us around upon the south wall of our spur, and -about a thousand feet above a stream which dashed and leaped along the -cañon bottom, through wild ravines and over granite bluffs. Our slope -was a rugged rock-face, giving foothold here and there to pine and -juniper trees, but for the greater part bare and bold. - -Far above, at an elevation of ten thousand feet, a dark grove of alpine -pines gathered in the cañon bed. Thither we bent our steps, edging from -cleft to cleft, making constant, though insignificant, progress. At -length our wall became so wild and deeply cut with side cañons that we -found it impossible to follow it longer, and descended carefully to the -bottom. - -Almost immediately, with heavy wind gusts and sound as of torrents, a -storm broke upon us, darkening the air and drenching us to the skin. The -three hours we toiled up over rocks, through dripping willow-brooks and -among trains of _débris_ were not noticeable for their cheerfulness. - -The storm had ceased, but it was evening when, wet and exhausted, we at -length reached the alpine grove, and threw ourselves down for rest under -a huge, overhanging rock which offered its shelter for our bivouac. - -Logs, soon brought in by Pinson, were kindled. The hot blaze seemed -pleasant to us, though I cannot claim to have enjoyed those two hours -spent in turning round and round before it while steaming and drying. -But the broiled beef, the toast, and those generous cups of tea to which -we devoted the hour between ten and eleven were quite satisfactory. So, -too, was the pleasant chat till midnight warned us to roll up in -overcoats and close our eyes to the fire, to the dark, sombre grove, and -far stars crowding the now cloudless heavens. - -The sun rose and shone on us while we breakfasted. Through all the -visible sky not a cloud could be seen, and, thanks to yesterday’s rain, -the air was of crystal purity. Into it the granite summits above us -projected forms of sunlit gray. - -Up the glacier valley above camp we slowly tramped through a forest of -noble Pinus Flexilis, the trunks of bright sienna contrasting richly -with deep bronze foliage. - -Minor flutings of a medial moraine offered gentle grade and agreeable -footing for a mile and more, after which, by degrees, the woods gave way -to a wide, open amphitheatre surrounded with cliffs. - -I can never enter one of these great, hollow mountain chambers without a -pause. There is a grandeur and spaciousness which expand and fit the -mind for yet larger sensations when you shall stand on the height above. - -Velvet of alpine sward edging an icy brooklet, by whose margin we sat -down, reached to the right and left far enough to spread a narrow -foreground, over which we saw a chain of peaks swelling from either side -toward our amphitheatre’s head, where, springing splendidly over them -all, stood the sharp form of Whitney. - -Precipices white with light and snow-fields of incandescent brilliance -grouped themselves along walls and slopes. All around us, in wild, huge -heaps, lay wrecks of glacier and avalanche. - -We started again, passing the last tree, and began to climb painfully up -loose _débris_ and lodged blocks of the north wall. From here to the -very foot of that granite pyramid which crowns the mountain, we found -neither difficulty nor danger, only a long, tedious climb over footing -which, from time to time, gave way provokingly. - -By this time mist floated around the brow of Mount Whitney, forming a -gray helmet, from which, now and then, the wind blew out long, waving -plumes. After a brief rest we began to scale the southeast ridge, -climbing from rock to rock, and making our way up steep fields of soft -snow. Precipices, sharp and severe, fell away to east and west of us, -but the rough pile above still afforded a way. We had to use extreme -caution, for many blocks hung ready to fall at a touch, and the snow, -where we were forced to work up it, often gave way, threatening to hurl -us down into cavernous hollows. - -When within a hundred feet of the top I suddenly fell through, but, -supporting myself by my arms, looked down into a grotto of rock and ice, -and out through a sort of window, over the western bluffs, and down -thousands of feet to the far-away valley of the Kern. - -I carefully and slowly worked my body out, and crept on hands and knees -up over steep and treacherous ice-crests, where a slide would have swept -me over a brink of the southern precipice. - -We kept to the granite as much as possible, Pinson taking one train of -blocks and I another. Above us but thirty feet rose a crest, beyond -which we saw nothing. I dared not think it the summit till we stood -there and Mount Whitney was under our feet. - -Close beside us a small mound of rock was piled upon the peak, and -solidly built into it an Indian arrow-shaft, pointing due west. - -I climbed out to the southwest brink, and, looking down, could see that -fatal precipice which had prevented me seven years before. I strained my -eyes beyond, but already dense, impenetrable clouds had closed us in. - -On the whole, this climb was far less dangerous than I had reason to -hope. Only at the very crest, where ice and rock are thrown together -insecurely, did we encounter any very trying work. The utter -unreliableness of that honeycomb and cavernous cliff was rather -uncomfortable, and might, at any moment, give the deathfall to one who -had not coolness and muscular power at instant command. - -I hung my barometer from the mound of our Indian predecessor, nor did I -grudge his hunter pride the honor of first finding that one pathway to -the summit of the United States, fifteen thousand feet above two oceans. - -While we lunched I engraved Pinson’s and my name upon a half dollar, and -placed it in a hollow of the crest. Clouds still hung motionless over -us, but in half an hour a west wind drew across, drifting the heavy -vapors along with it. Light poured in, reddening the clouds, which soon -rolled away, opening a grand view of the western Sierra ridge, and of -the whole system of the Kern. - -Only here and there could blue sky be seen, but, fortunately, the sun -streamed through one of these windows in the storm, lighting up -splendidly the snowy rank from Kaweah to Mount Brewer. - -There they rose as of old, firm and solid; even the great snow-fields, -though somewhat shrunken, lay as they had seven years before. I saw the -peaks and passes and amphitheatres dear old Cotter and I had climbed: -even that Mount Brewer pass where we looked back over the pathway of our -dangers, and up with regretful hearts to the very rock on which I sat. - -Deep below flowed the Kern, its hundred, snow-fed branches gleaming out -amid rock and ice, or traced far away in the great glacier trough by -dark lines of pine. There, only twelve miles northwest, stretched that -ragged divide where Cotter and I came down the precipice with our rope. -Beyond, into the vague blue of King’s cañon, sloped the ice and rock of -Mount Brewer wall. - -Sombre storm-clouds and their even gloomier shadows darkened the -northern sea of peaks. Only a few slant bars of sudden light flashed in -upon purple granite and fields of ice. The rocky tower of Mount Tyndall, -thrust up through rolling billows, caught for a moment the full light, -and then sank into darkness and mist. - -When all else was buried in cloud we watched the great west range. Weird -and strange, it seemed shaded by some dark eclipse. Here and there -through its gaps and passes serpent-like streams of mist floated in and -crept slowly down the cañons of the hither slope, then all along the -crest, torn and rushing spray of clouds whirled about the peaks, and in -a moment a vast gray wave reared high, and broke, overwhelming all. - -Just for a moment every trace of vapor cleared away from the east, -unveiling for the first time spurs and gorges and plains. I crept to a -brink and looked down into the Whitney Cañon, which was crowded with -light. Great, scarred and ice-hewn precipices reached down four thousand -feet, curving together like a ship, and holding in their granite bed a -thread of brook, the small sapphire gems of alpine lake, bronze dots of -pine, and here and there a fine enamelling of snow. - -Beyond and below lay Owen’s Valley, walled in by the barren Inyo chain, -and afar, under a pale, sad sky, lengthened leagues and leagues of -lifeless desert. - -The storm had even swept across Kern Cañon, and dashed high against the -peaks north and south of us. A few sharp needles and spikes struggled -above it for a moment, but it rolled over them and rushed in torrents -down the desert slope, burying everything in a dark, swift cloud. - -We hastened to pack up our barometer and descend. A little way down the -ice crust gave way under Pinson, but he saved himself, and we hurried -on, reaching safely the cliff-base, leaving all dangerous ground above -us. - -So dense was the cloud we could not see a hundred feet, but tramped -gayly down over rocks and sand, feeling quite assured of our direction, -until suddenly we came upon the brink of a precipice and strained our -eyes off into the mist. I threw a stone over and listened in vain for -the sound of its fall. Pinson and I both thought we had deviated too far -to the north, and were on the brink of Whitney Cañon, so we turned in -the opposite direction, thinking to cross the ridge, entering our old -amphitheatre, but in a few moments we again found ourselves upon the -verge. This time a stone we threw over answered with a faint, dull crash -from five hundred feet below. We were evidently upon a narrow blade. I -remembered no such place, and sat down to recall carefully every detail -of topography. At last I concluded that we had either strayed down upon -the Kern side, or were on one of the cliffs overhanging the head of our -true amphitheatre. - -Feeling the necessity of keeping cool, I determined to ascend to the -foot of the snow and search for our tracks. So we slowly climbed there -again and took a new start. - -By this time the wind howled fiercely, bearing a chill from -snow-crystals and sleet. We hurried on before it, and, after one or two -vain attempts, succeeded in finding our old trail down the amphitheatre -slope, descending very rapidly to its floor. - -From here, an exhausting tramp of five hours through the pine forest to -our camp, and on down the rough, wearying slopes of the lower cañon, -brought us to the plain where José and the horses awaited us. - -From Lone Pine that evening, and from the open carriage in which I rode -northward to Independence, I constantly looked back and up into the -storm, hoping to catch one more glimpse of Mount Whitney; but all the -range lay submerged in dark, rolling cloud, from which now and then a -sullen mutter of thunder reverberated. - -For years our chief, Professor Whitney, has made brave campaigns into -the unknown realm of Nature. Against low prejudice and dull indifference -he has led the survey of California onward to success. There stand for -him two monuments--one a great report made by his own hand; another, the -loftiest peak in the Union, begun for him in the planet’s youth and -sculptured of enduring granite by the slow hand of Time. - - -1873 - -The preceding pages were written immediately after my return from Mount -Whitney, and without a shadow of suspicion that among the sea of peaks -half seen, half storm-hidden, I could have missed the true summit. - -Professor Whitney alone possessed sufficiently studied data to apply the -annual corrections for barometric oscillation in the high Sierra, and to -his office I at once forwarded my observations noted upon the Mount -Whitney summit, together with the record of simultaneous readings at -Lone Pine, the station upon which I relied for a base. As I was about -mailing the chapter to our printer, from my camp in the Rocky Mountains, -I received from Professor Pettee, who had kindly made a computation, the -puzzling despatch that Mount Whitney only reached fourteen thousand six -hundred and ten feet in altitude. Realizing at once that this must be an -error, I attributed it to some great abnormal oscillation of pressure -due to storm, and decided not to publish the measurement. - -Then for a moment a sense of doubt came over me lest I had been -mistaken; but on carefully studying the map it was reassuring to -establish beyond doubt the identity of the peak designated on the map of -the Geological Survey of California as Mount Whitney with the one I had -climbed. The reader will perhaps appreciate, then, my surprise and -disappointment when, travelling in the overland car to California in -September, 1873, I read and re-read a communication by Mr. W. A. -Goodyear, former Assistant of the Geological Survey, made to the -California Academy of Sciences, in which he points out with great -clearness that I had missed the real peak. - -To explain most simply why Mr. Goodyear saw the true Mount Whitney when -he reached the summit of my peak of 1871, it is only necessary to state -that he had a clear day, and the evident fact stared him in the face. If -the reader kindly refers to the preceding part of the chapter, -descriptive of my 1871 climb, he will note that my visit was, -unfortunately, during a great storm, through whose billows of cloud and -eddying mists the landscape disclosed itself in fragmentary glimpses: to -repeat the expression of my notebook, “as through windows in the storm.” - -My little granite island was incessantly beaten by breakers of vague, -impenetrable cloud, and never once did the true Mount Whitney unveil its -crest to my eager eyes. Only one glimpse, and I should have bent my -steps northward, restless till the peak was climbed. But, then, that -would have left nothing for Goodyear, whose paper shows such evident -relish in my mistake that I accept my ’71 ill-luck as providential. One -has in this dark world so few chances of conferring innocent, pure -delight. - -It must always remain a bond between Goodyear and myself that in the -only paper he has written on the high Sierras it was his happy thought -to point both pleasantry and argument with that most grotesque and sober -of beasts, the mule; and, while my regard for all mules rises wellnigh -into the realm of sentiment, I cherish no less a feeling than profound -indebtedness toward the particular one who succeeded--with how great -effort only a fellow-climber can know--in getting Mr. Goodyear on the -now nameless peak, whence, like Moses from Pisgah, he beheld the -Promised Land. - -My gratitude is not all directed to the mule, either; from that just -channel a stream is directed toward the clear, good judgment of my -friend, who resolutely turned his back on the alluring summit, and -promptly quitted the head of mule navigation to descend and hold me up -in my proper light. Pleasantry aside, and method being largely a matter -of taste, Mr. Goodyear deserves credit for having so clearly pointed out -my mistake--credit which I desire to bear honest tribute to, since his -discovery has already led several of us to climb the true peak, a labor -requiring little effort and rewarded by the most striking view in the -Sierra Nevada. - -Of course I lost no time in directing my steps toward Mount Whitney, -animated with a lively delight which was quite unclouded by the fact -that two parties, who had three thousand miles the start of me, were -already _en route_, and certain to reach the goal before me. - -Perhaps there is no element in the varied life of an explorer so full of -contemplative pleasure as the frequent and rapid passages he makes -between city life and home: by that I mean his true home, where the -flames of his bivouac fire light up trunks of sheltering pine and make -an island of light in the silent darkness of the primeval forest. The -crushing Juggernaut-car of modern life and the smothering struggle of -civilization are so far off that the wail of suffering comes not, nor -the din and dust of it all; and out of your very memory for a -time--alas! only for a time--fade those two indelible examples of the -shallowness of society, those terrible pictures of sorrow and wrong, and -that perennial artifice which wellnigh always chokes with its weedy -growth the rare, fine flowers of art. - -All is forgotten: those murky clouds which in town life dispute the -serenity of one’s spiritual air drift beyond view, and over you broods -only the quiet sky of night, her white stars moving beyond fragrant -pine-tops or lost in the dim tangle of their feathery foliage. Such is -the mountaineer’s evening spent contemplatively before his fire; the -profound sense of Nature’s tranquillity filling his mind with its repose -till the flames give way to embers, and guardian pines spread dusky arms -over his sleep. Not less a contrast greets him when from simple field -life the doors of a city suddenly open, and the huddled complexity of -everything jostles him. Either way, and as often as one makes this -transit between civilization and the wilds, one prizes most the pure, -simple, strengthening joy of nature. - -Thus, when, from the heat and pressure of town in September, 1873, I -suddenly plunged into the heart of the Sierra forest, a cool mountain -sky of holy blue and my well-beloved trees, calm and vigorous as ever, -communicated thrills of pleasure well worth my brief separation from -them. Day after day through the green forest I rode on, leaving the -mustang to choose his own gait, scarcely talking to my two campaign -companions, who with the plodding pack-animals followed noiselessly -behind. It was only when we ascended the east wall of the Kern Cañon on -the Hockett Trail, and reached the nebulous plateau where pine and -granite and cloud form the three elements of a severe picture, that I -felt myself filled to the brim with my long draught of nature, and -turned to my followers for society. - -I was accompanied by Seaman and Knowles, two settlers of Tule River, who -had been good enough to take a thorough interest in my proposed trip. -One less used than I to the strong originality and remarkable histories -of frontiersmen might have marvelled at the rich chat of these two men; -for myself, however, I long ago learned to expect under the rough garb -and simple manners of Western plainsmen and mountaineers a wealth of -experience, with its resultant harvest of philosophy. Untrammelled by -the schools, these men strike out boldly and arrange the universe to -suit themselves. Not alone is this noticeable in matter of general -interest; in the most special subjects it will not do to assume an -ignorance at all in keeping with the primitive cut of their trousers or -their idiom, which show strong affinities with the flint period. As an -instance, volcanic action has of late years occupied much of my -thoughts, and so dry a subject, one would think, could not have fixed -the interest of many non-professional travellers. Judge of my feelings, -therefore, on the night we reached the Kern Plateau and camped with a -solitary shepherd, to hear without giving direction to it myself, the -conversation turn on volcanoes, and realized, as the group renewed our -fire and hours passed by, that my two companions had been in Iceland, -Hawaii, Java, and Ecuador, and that, as for the sheep herder, he had -rolled stones down nearly every prominent approachable crater on the -planet. I was reminded of a certain vaquero who astounded Professor -Brewer by launching out boldly in the Latin names of Mexican plants. - -The Kern Plateau, so green and lovely on my former visit, in 1864, was -now a gray sea of rolling granite ridges, darkened at intervals by -forest, but no longer velveted with meadows and upland grasses. The -indefatigable shepherds have camped everywhere, leaving hardly a spear -of grass behind them. - -To the sad annoyance of our hungry horses, we found this true until we -entered the rough, rocky cañon which leads down from the false Mount -Whitney, in whose depths, among glacier erratics and dark pines, we -selected a spot where a vocal brook and patches of carex meadow seemed -to welcome us. During a three days’ painful illness which overtook me -here I felt that I should never lose an opportunity to warn my -fellow-men against watermelon, which, after all, is only an ingenious -contrivance of nature to converge the waves of motion from the midsummer -sun, and, by the well-recognized principles of force conservation, -transmute them into so much potential colic. - -Across from wall to wall of our deep glacier cañon the morning sky -stretched pure and blue, but without a trace of that infinite depth, so -dark and vacant, so alluringly profound, when the sun nears its -culmination. We arose early, and all three were marching up the gentle -acclivity of the valley bottom, when, from among the peaks darkly -profiled against the east, bold lances of light shot down through gloom -and shadow, touching with sudden brightness here a clump of feathery -fir, there a heap of glacier blocks, pencilling yellow lines across -meadow-patch or alpine tarn, and working out along the whole rocky -amphitheatre above us those splendid contrasts of gold and blue which -are the delight of mountaineers and the despair of painters. - -Knowles, with the keen eye of an accomplished hunter, became conscious, -as we marched along, just how lately a mountain sheep had crossed our -way, and occasionally the whispered sound of light footfalls along the -crags overhead riveted his attention upon some gray mote on the granite, -and with the huntsman’s habitual quiet he would only ejaculate: -“Two-year-old buck,” or “Too thin for venison,” or some similar phrase, -indicating the marvellous acuteness of his senses. - -Among the many serious losses man has suffered in passing from a life of -nature to one artificial is to be numbered the fatal blunting of all his -senses. - -Step after step the cañon ascended, with great, vacant corridors opening -among the rocky buttresses on either side, till at last there were no -more firs, the alpine meadows became mere patches, and a chilly wind -drew down from among the snow-drifts. - -Here savage rock-grandeur and splendid sunlight forever struggle for -mastery of effect. A cloud drifts over us, and the dark headlands of -granite loom up with impending mightiness, and seem to advance toward -each other from opposite ranks; about their feet the wreck of centuries -of avalanche, and above leaden vapors hurrying and whirling. All is -dimness and gloom. Then overhead the clouds are furled away, and there -is light--light joyous, pure, gloom-dispelling, before whose intense, -searching vividness shadows unfold and mystery vanishes. - -Through such alternating sensations we wound our way round the -_débris_-cumbered margin of two lakes of deep, transparent, -beryl-colored water, and up to the very head of our amphitheatre, -reaching an elevation of about thirteen thousand feet. We had thus far -encountered very little snow, and absolutely no climbing. All along it -had seemed to us that from the cañon-head we might easily climb to the -dividing summit of the Sierras, and follow it along to Mount Whitney. I -had taken pains to diverge from my unsuccessful route of 1864, which lay -now to the east, and separated from us by a high wall, terminating in -fantastic spires. - -Upon mounting the ridge-top we found it impossible to reach the true -summit of the range without first descending into a deep cañon, the -ancient bed of a tributary glacier of the Kern; the ice now replaced by -imposing slopes of granite _débris_, partly masked by snow, and plunging -down into a lake of startling vitriol color. - -We toiled cautiously down over insecure wreck of granite, whose huge -blocks threatened constantly to topple us over or to rush out from under -foot and gather into an avalanche. A draught from the icy lake water, a -brief rest on the sunny side of a huge erratic, and we began the slow, -laborious ascent of the summit ridge. Unfortunately, the footing was -bad, being composed chiefly of granite gravel. Of every stone in place -and each snow spot we took advantage, making pauses for breath now and -then, until at last we reached the crest, here a thin ridge, and -hurriedly turned our eyes in the direction of Mount Whitney. - -The sharp, dominating blade of granite rising a couple of miles -northwest of us, over a group of spiry pinnacles, was unmistakable. The -same severe, beautiful crest I had struggled for in 1864 rose proudly -into the blue, and, though near, seemed as inaccessible as ever. - -In the opposite direction, about three miles away, in clear, uncolored -plainness, stood the peak where, in 1871, I had been led by the map, and -my error perpetuated by the clouds. - -In full view of both peaks it seemed strange I could have mistaken one -for the other. - -Infallibility in retrospect is one of the easiest conditions imaginable; -yet when the ever-fresh memory of those seething cloud-forms comes back -to me, when I see again the gloom made even wilder and darker by bolts -of sunlight and illumined gauzes of mist, when I realize that the -cloud-compelling peak itself never shone forth, I am free to confess -that I should make the mistake again. - -In charging this error upon the map, I do not in any sense intend to -reflect on Mr. C. F. Hoffmann, the accomplished chief topographer of the -Survey, to whose skilful hand we owe the forthcoming map of Central -California. His location of Mount Whitney depended upon two compass -bearings only--his own from Mount Brewer, which proves to have been -unvitiated by local magnetic attraction, and mine from Mount Tyndall, -which evidently is in error. - -It is most curious to discover that my bearings made from a station on -the northwest edge of Mount Tyndall, where I placed myself to observe on -the peaks lying in that direction, are, when corrected for variation, -true, while those taken from a block on the south edge of the summit not -sixty feet from the first station are abnormal. This reminds me of the -observations made by Professor Brewer during our hours of rest on the -top of Lassen’s Peak, where he found the summit block a local magnet. - -Thus the map location on which Mr. Hoffmann relied, and of which, in -1871, I took copy, to identify the peak, was vitiated in a way neither -of us could have foreseen, and a serious error might have crept into -current geography but for the timely visit of Mr. Goodyear. - -Mr. Hoffmann stands clear of blame in this matter. Upon my shoulders and -those of my _particeps criminis_, the storm and the local magnetic -attraction, it all rests. - -We sat for some time in that silence which even the rudest natures pay -as an unconscious tribute to the august presence of a great mountain, -and then began again the march toward Mount Whitney. Seaman, who had -started ill, here felt so painfully the effect of altitude that we urged -him to struggle no further against dizziness and nausea, but to return, -which he did with reluctance. We parted at the very crown of the ridge, -on the verge of a gulf which plunges down from Mount Whitney to Owen’s -Valley. Knowles, who is a sort of chamois, kept his head splendidly, and -together we clambered round and up to the crest of a bold needle about -fourteen thousand four hundred feet high, from which the discouraging -truth dawned upon us that it was impossible to surmount the three sharp -pinnacles which lay between us and the delicately sculptured crest -beyond. - -To the right and below, three thousand feet down from our tower, I could -trace the line of my attempted climb of 1864, to where it disappeared -around a projecting buttress at the foot of the great precipice, which -forms the eastern face of Mount Whitney and the subordinate pinnacles to -the south. - -To the left, through crags and splintered monoliths, we could catch a -glimpse of a deep glacier basin lying west of Mount Whitney, enclosing -great sweeps of _débris_ and numerous vivid blue tarns. - -Between the minarets we could also see portions of the southwest slope -of Mount Whitney, which was evidently a smooth, accessible face, and the -one of all others to attempt. But the day was already too far advanced -to leave us the remotest hope of even reaching the glacier basin west of -Mount Whitney, and we decided to return to camp. - -Before beginning our wearisome march I sketched the outline of the Mount -Whitney group, which, so far as I know, differs from any other cluster -of peaks. The Sierra here is a bold wall with an almost perpendicular -front of about three thousand feet, which is crowned by sharp turrets, -having a tendency to lean out over the eastern gulf; these are properly -the crests of great, rib-like buttresses, which jut from the general -surface of the granite front. - -Mount Whitney itself springs up and out like the prow of a sharp ocean -steamer. Southward along the summit my sketch is of a confused region of -rough-hewn granite obelisks and towers, all remarkable for the deep -shattering to which the rock has been subjected. It is a region which -may even yet suffer considerable perceptible change, since a single -winter’s frost and snow must dislodge numberless blocks from the crests -and flanks of the whole group. Indeed, at the time of my visit, notably -the period of least snow and frost, we often heard the sharp rattle of -falling _débris_. - -We varied our course homeward by climbing along a lateral ridge, whence -we could look into the Mount Whitney basin, and here we were favored by -a fine view, chiefly pleasing to us because the whole accessible slope -of the peak came out, unobscured by intervening ridges. - -It was evident that we must find a mule pass through the granite waves, -from our present camp round into the great glacier basin, or else plan -our next attempt with provisions and blankets on our backs and an -uncertain number of days’ clambering over the intervening cañons to the -foot of our peak. - -The shades of twilight were darkening the amphitheatre as we plodded -homeward; ghostly cliffs and dim towers were hardly recognizable as -defined against the evening sky, in which already a few pale stars shone -tremulously. - -I spare the reader the days of snow and sleet we spent under a temporary -shelter constructed of blankets. I pass over the elaborate system of -rivulets, which forever burrowed new channels and originated future -geography under our tent. These were quickly forgotten the morning of -the clear-up, as we quitted our camp under the shadow of the 1871 peak, -and marched southwestward down the bowlder-strewn valley of our brook. - -A fine series of lateral moraines flank this cañon on the left, moraines -rising one above another in defined terraces, for the most part composed -of granite blocks, but here and there of solid rock _in situ_, where the -ridge throws out prominent spurs. - -We ascended the north wall, zigzagging to and fro among pines, till, -having climbed a thousand feet, we found ourselves upon a plateau of -granite sand, among groves of _pinus flexilis_, which seemed (as to me -the sequoias always have) the relics of a past climatic condition, the -well-preserved octogenarians of the forest. Through open groves of these -giant trees, whose red, gnarled trunks and dark green foliage stood out -with artistic definition upon bare granite sand, we saw the deep cañon -of the Kern a few miles to our left, and beyond it, swelling in splendid -rank against the west, my old friends, the Kaweah peaks, their dark, -pyramidal summits here and there touched with flashing ice-banks. - -The bottom of Kern Cañon was hidden from us; its craggy edges broken and -rounded by glacial action, and in part built upon by the fragments of -great moraines, were especially powerful; and as a master’s sketch -emphasizes the leading lines, so here each sharply carved ravine or -rock-rift is given force by lines of almost black pines. Startled bands -of deer looked timidly at us for a moment, and then bounded wildly away -through the woods. All else was silent and motionless. - -At evening we entered the long-hoped-for cañon, and threaded our way up -among moraines and forest close to the foot of Mount Whitney, the peak -itself rising grandly across the amphitheatre’s head, every spire and -rocky crevice brought sharply out in the warm evening sunlight. With my -field-glass I could see that it was a simple, brief walk of a few hours -to the summit, and, all anxiety at rest, I lay down on my blankets to -watch the effects of light. - -As often as one camps at twelve thousand feet in the Sierra, the charm -of crystally pure air, these cold, sparkling, gem-like tints of rock and -alpine lake, the fiery bronze of foliage, and luminous though deep-toned -sky, combine to produce an intellectual and even a spiritual elevation. -Deep and stirring feelings come naturally, the present falls back into -its true relation, one’s own wearying identity shrinks from the broad, -open foreground of the vision, and a calmness born of reverent -reflections encompasses the soul. - -At eleven o’clock next morning Knowles and I stood together on the -topmost rock of Mount Whitney. We found there a monument of stones, and -records of the two parties who had preceded us,--the first, Messrs. -Hunter and Crapo, and afterward, that of Rabe of the Geological Survey. -The former were, save Indian hunters, the first, so far as we know, who -achieved this dominating summit. Mr. Rabe has the honor of the first -measurement by barometer. Our three visits were all within a month. - -The day was cloudless, and the sky, milder than is common over these -extreme heights, warmed to a mellow glow and rested in softening beauty -over minaret and dome. Air and light seemed melted together; even the -wild rocks springing up all about us wore an aspect of aërial delicacy. -Around the wide panorama, half low desert, half rugged granite -mountains, each detail was observable, but a uniform, luminous medium -toned, without obscuring, the field of vision. That fearful sense of -wreck and desolation, of a world crushed into fragments, of the ice -chisel which, unseen, has wrought this strange mountain sculpture, all -the sensations of power and tragedy I had invariably felt before on high -peaks, were totally forgotten. It was the absolute reverse of the effect -on Mount Tyndall, where an unrelenting clearness discovered every object -in all its power and reality. Then we saw only unburied wreck of -geologic struggles, black with sudden shadow or white under searching -focus, as if the sun were a great burning-glass, gathering light from -all space, and hurling its fierce shafts upon spire and wall. - -Now it was like an opal world, submerged in a sea of dreamy light, down -through whose motionless, transparent depths I became conscious of -sunken ranges, great hollows of undiscernible depth, reefs of pearly -granite as clear and delicate as the coral banks in a tropical ocean. It -was not like a haze in the lower world, which veils away distance in -softly vanishing perspective; there was no mist, no vagueness, no loss -of form nor fading of outline--only a strange harmonizing of earth and -air. Shadows were faint, yet defined, lights visible, but most -exquisitely modulated. The hollow blue which over Tyndall led the eye up -into vacant solitudes was here replaced by a sense of sheltering -nearness, a certain dove-colored obscurity in the atmosphere which -seemed to filter the sunlight of all its harsher properties. I do not -permit myself to describe details, for they have left no enduring -impression, nor am I insensible of how vain any attempt must be to -reproduce the harmony of such subtle aspects of nature--aspects most -rare and indescribable because producing their charm by negative means. - -I suppose such an atmospheric effect is to be accounted for by a lower -stratum of pure, transparent air overlaid by an upper one so charged -with moisture (or perhaps one of those thus-far-unexplained dry mists -occasionally seen in the high Sierra) as to intercept the blue rays of -sunlight, and admit only softened yellow ones. - -This is the true Mount Whitney, the one we named in 1864, and upon which -the name of our chief is forever to rest. It stands, not like white -Shasta, in a grandeur of solitude, but about it gather companies of crag -and spire, piercing the blue or wrapped in monkish raiment of snowstorm -and mist. Far below, laid out in ashen death, slumbers the desert. - -Silence reigns on these icy heights, save when scream of Sierra eagle or -loud crescendo of avalanche interrupts the frozen stillness, or when in -symphonic fulness a storm rolls through vacant cañons with its stern -minor. It is hard not to invest these great, dominating peaks with -consciousness, difficult to realize that, sitting thus for ages in -presence of all nature can work of light-magic and color-beauty, no -inner spirit has kindled, nor throb of granite heart once responded, no -Buddhistic nirvana-life, even, has brooded in eternal calm within these -sphinx-like breasts of stone. - -A week after my climb I lay on the desert sand at the foot of the Inyo -Range and looked up at Mount Whitney, realizing all its grand -individuality, and saw the drifting clouds interrupt a sun-brightened -serenity by frown after frown of moving shadow; and I entered for a -moment deeply and intimately into that strange realm where admiration -blends with superstition, that condition in which the savage feels -within him the greatness of a natural object, and forever after endows -it with consciousness and power. For a moment I was back in the Aryan -myth days, when they saw afar a snowy peak, and called it Dhavalagiri -(white elephant), and invested it with mystic power. - -These peculiar moments, rare enough in the life of a scientific man, -when one trembles on the edge of myth-making, are of interest, as -unfolding the origin and manner of savage beliefs, and as awakening the -unperishing germ of primitive manhood which is buried within us all -under so much culture and science. - -How generally the myth-maker has been extinguished in modern students of -mountains may be realized by examining the tone of Alpine literature, -which, once lifted above the fatiguing repetition of gymnastics, is -almost invariably scientific. - -Ruskin alone among prose writers on the Alps re-echoes the dim past, in -ever-recurring myth-making, over cloud and peak and glacier; his is the -Rigveda’s idea of nature. The varying hues which mood and emotion -forever pass before his own mental vision mask with their illusive -mystery the simple realities of nature, until mountains and their bold, -natural facts are lost behind the cloudy poetry of the writer. - -Ruskin helps us to know himself, not the Alps; his mountain chapters, -although essentially four thousand years old, are, however, no more an -anachronism than the dim primeval spark which smoulders in all of us; -their brilliancy _is_ that spark fanned into flame. - -To follow a chapter of Ruskin by one of Tyndall is to bridge forty -centuries and realize the full contrast of archaic and modern thought. - -This was the drift of my revery as I lay basking on the hot sands of -Inyo, realizing fully the geological history and hard, materialistic -reality of Mount Whitney, its mineral nature, its chemistry; yet archaic -impulse even then held me, and the gaunt, gray old Indian who came -slowly toward me must have subtly felt my condition, for he crouched -beside me and silently fixed his hawk eye upon the peak. - -At last he drew an arrow, sighted along its straight shaft, bringing the -obsidian head to bear on Mount Whitney, and in strange fragments of -language told me that the peak was an old, old man, who watched this -valley and cared for the Indians, but who shook the country with -earthquakes to punish the whites for injustice toward his tribe. - -I looked at his whitened hair and keen, black eye. I watched the spare, -bronze face, upon which was written the burden of a hundred dark and -gloomy superstitions; and as he trudged away across the sands I could -but feel the liberating power of modern culture, which unfetters us from -the more than iron bands of self-made myths. My mood vanished with the -savage, and I saw the great peak only as it really is--a splendid mass -of granite 14,887 feet high, ice-chiselled and storm-tinted; a great -monolith left standing amid the ruins of a bygone geological empire. - - - - -XIV - -THE PEOPLE - - -If mankind were offspring of isothermal lines and topography, we might -arrive at a just criticism of Sierra Nevada people by that cheap and -rapid method so much in vogue nowadays among physical geographers. Their -practice of dragooning the free-agent with wet and dry bulb thermometers -would help us to predict the future of Sierra society but little more -securely than Madam Saint John, who also deals in coming events. I fear -we have no better than the old way of developing what lies ahead -logically from yesterday and to-day, adding large measure of sympathy -with human aspiration and faith in divine help. - -Why all sorts and conditions of men from every race upon the planet -wanted gold, and twenty years ago came here to win it, I shall not -concern myself to ask. Nor can I formulate very accurately the -proportions of good, bad, and indifferent _dramatis personæ_ upon whom -the golden curtain of ’49 rolled up. - -No venerated landmark or sacred restraint held those men in check. There -were no precedents for the acting, no play-book, no prompter, no -audience. “Anglo-Saxondom’s idee” reigned supreme, developing a plot of -riotous situation, and inconceivably sudden change. Wit and intellect -wrought a condition the most ambitious savages might regard with baffled -envy. History would not, if she could, parallel the state of society -here from ’49 to ’55, nor can we imagine to what height of horror it -might have reached had the Sierra drainage held unlimited gold. Those -were lively days. The penniless ’49er still looks back to them with -bleared eyes as the one period of his life. “Dust” was plenty and to be -had, if not for digging, at the modest price of a bullet. - -To prove the soil’s fertility he tells you proudly how, in those years, -wild oats on every hill grew tall enough to be tied across your -saddle-bow. This irony of nature has passed away, but the cursed plant -ripens its hundredfold in life and manner. - -No one familiar with society as it then was feels the least surprise -that Mr. Bret Harte should deal so largely in morbid anatomy, or appear -to search painfully for a single noble trait to redeem the common bad. -Yet not universal bad, for there were not wanting a few strong Christian -men who, amid all, kept their eyes on the one model, leading lives -blameless, if obscure. - -Broadly, through all kinds and conditions, shone the virtue of generous, -if not self-denying, hospitality. A sort of open-handed fraternity -banded together the honest miners; they were shoulder to shoulder in -common quest of gold, in united effort to make the “camp” lively. The -“fraternity” too often emulated that of Cain, or wore a ghastly -likeness to the Commune. That those desperadoes, who, through the long -chain of mining towns, outnumbered respectable men, had so generally the -fixed habit of killing one another should rather be written down to -their credit; that they never married to hand down lawless traits seems -their crowning virtue. - -For a few years the solemn pines looked down on a mad carnival of -godless license, a pandemonium in whose picturesque delirium human -character crumbled and vanished like dead leaves. - -It was stirring and gay, but Melpomene’s pathetic face was always under -that laughing mask of comedy. - -This is the unpromising origin of our Sierra civilization. It may be -instructive to note some early steps of improvement: a protest, first -silent, then loud, which went up against disorder and crime; and later, -the inauguration of justice, in form, if not in reality. - -There occurs to me an incident illustrating these first essays in civil -law; it is vouched for by my friend, an unwilling actor in the affair. - -Exactly why horse-stealing should have been so early recognized as a -heinous sin it is not easy to discover; however that might be, murderers -continued to notch the number of their victims on neatly kept hilts of -pistols or knives, in comparative security, long after the horse thief -began to meet his hempen fate. - -Early in the fifties, on a still, hot summer’s afternoon, a certain man, -in a camp of the northern mines which shall be nameless, having tracked -his two donkeys and one horse a half-mile, and discovering that a man’s -track with spur-marks followed them, came back to town and told “the -boys,” who loitered about a popular saloon, that in his opinion “some -Mexican had stole the animals.” - -Such news as this naturally demanded drinks all around. “Do you know, -gentlemen,” said one who assumed leadership, “that just naturally to -shoot these Greasers ain’t the best way. Give ’em a fair jury trial, and -rope ’em up with all the majesty of law. That’s the cure.” - -Such words of moderation were well received, and they drank again to -“Here’s hoping we ketch that Greaser.” - -As they loafed back to the veranda a Mexican walked over the hill brow, -jingling his spurs pleasantly in accord with a whistled waltz. - -The advocate for law said in undertone, “That’s the cuss.” - -A rush, a struggle, and the Mexican, bound hand and foot, lay on his -back in the bar-room. The camp turned out to a man. - -Happily, such cries as “String him up!” “Burn the doggoned -‘lubricator’!” and other equally pleasant phrases fell unheeded upon his -Spanish ear. - -A jury, upon which they forced my friend, was quickly gathered in the -street, and, despite refusals to serve, the crowd hurried them in behind -the bar. - -A brief statement of the case was made by the _ci-devant_ advocate, and -they shoved the jury into a commodious poker-room, where were seats -grouped about neat, green tables. The noise outside in the bar-room by -and by died away into complete silence, but from afar down the cañon -came confused sounds as of disorderly cheering. - -They came nearer, and again the light-hearted noise of human laughter -mingled with clinking glasses around the bar. - -A low knock at the jury door; the lock burst in, and a dozen smiling -fellows asked the verdict. - -A foreman promptly answered, “_Not guilty_.” - -With volleyed oaths, and ominous laying of hands on pistol hilts, the -boys slammed the door with, “You’ll have to do better than that!” - -In half an hour the advocate gently opened the door again. - -“Your _opinion_, gentlemen?” - -“Guilty!” - -“Correct! You can come out. We hung him an hour ago.” - -The jury took theirs “neat”; and when, after a few minutes, the pleasant -village returned to its former tranquillity, it was “allowed” at more -than one saloon that “Mexicans’ll know enough to let white men’s stock -alone after this.” One and another exchanged the belief that this sort -of thing was more sensible than “‘nipping’ em on sight.” - -When, before sunset, the bar-keeper concluded to sweep some dust out of -his poker-room back-door, he felt a momentary surprise at finding the -missing horse dozing under the shadow of an oak, and the two lost -donkeys serenely masticating playing-cards, of which many bushels lay in -a dusty pile. He was reminded then that the animals had been there all -day. - -During three or four years the battle between good and bad became more -and more determined, until all positive characters arrayed themselves -either for or against public order. - -At length, on a sudden, the party for right organized those august mobs, -the Vigilance Committees, and quickly began to festoon their more -depraved fellow-men from tree to tree. Rogues of sufficient shrewdness -got themselves enrolled in the vigilance ranks, and were soon unable to -tell themselves from the most virtuous. Those quiet oaks, whose hundreds -of sunny years had been spent in lengthening out glorious branches, now -found themselves playing the part of public gibbet. - -Let it be distinctly understood that I am not passing criticism on the -San Francisco organization, which I have never investigated, but on -“Committees” in the mountain towns, with whose performance I am -familiar. - -The Vigilants quickly put out of existence a majority of the worst -desperadoes, and by their swift, merciless action struck such terror to -the rest that ever after the right has mainly controlled affairs. - -This was, _perhaps_, well. With characteristic promptness they laid -down their power, and gave California over to the constituted -authorities. This was magnificent. They deserve the commendation due to -success. They have, however, such a frank, honest way of singing their -praise, such eternal, undisguised and virtuous self-laudation over the -whole matter, that no one else need interrupt them with fainter notes. - -Although this generation has written its indorsement in full upon the -transaction, it may be doubted if history (how long is it before -dispassionate candor speaks?) will trace an altogether favorable verdict -upon her pages. Possibly, to fulfil the golden round of duty it is -needful to do right in the right way, and success may not be proven the -eternal test of merit. - -That the Vigilance Committees grasped the moral power is undeniable; -that they used it for the public salvation is equally true; but the best -advocates are far from showing that with skill and moderation they might -not have thrown their weight into the scale _with_ law, and conquered, -by means of legislature, judge, and jury, a peace wholly free from the -stain of lawless blood. - -An impartial future may possibly grant the plenary inspiration of -Vigilance Committees. Perhaps that better choice was in truth denied -them; it may be the hour demanded a sudden blow of self-defence. Whether -better or best, the act has not left unmixed blessing, although it now -seems as if the lawlessness, which even till these later years has from -time to time manifested itself, is gradually and surely dying out. Yet -to-day, as I write, State troops are encamped at Amador, to suppress a -spirit which has taken law in its own hand. - -With the gradual decline of gold product, something like social -equilibrium asserted itself. By 1860 California had made the vast, -inspiring stride from barbarism to vulgarity. - -In failing gold-industry, and the gradual abandonment of placer-ground -to Chinamen, there is abundant pathos. You see it in a hundred towns and -camps where empty buildings in disrepair stand in rows; no nailing up of -blinds or closing of doors hides the vacancy. The cheap squalor of -Chinese streets adds misery to the scene, besides scenting a pure -mountain air with odors of complete wretchedness. Pigs prowl the -streets. Every deserted cabin knows a story of brave, manly effort ended -in bitter failure, and the lingering, stranded men have a melancholy -look as of faint fish the ebb has left to die. - -I recall one town into which our party rode at evening. A single family -alone remained, too desperately poor to leave their home; all the other -buildings--church, post-office, the half-dozen saloons, and many -dwellings--standing with wide-open doors, their cloth walls and ceilings -torn down to make squaws’ petticoats. - -If our horses in the great, deserted livery stable were as comfortable -as we, who each made his bed on a billiard table, they did well. - -With this slow decay the venturous, both good and bad, have drifted off -to other mining countries, leaving most often small cause to regret -them. - -Pathos and comedy so tenderly blent can rarely be found as here. -Enterprise has shrunken away from its old belongings; a feeble rill of -trade trickles down the broad channel of former affluence. Those few -49ers who linger ought to be gently preserved for historic specimens, -as we used to care for that cannon-ball in the Boston bricks, or -whatever might remind this youthful country of a past. They are -altogether harmless now, possessing the peculiar charm of lions with -drawn teeth. - -Behold this old-school relic, a type known as the real Virginia -gentleman, as of a mild summer twilight he walks along the quiet street, -clad in black broadcloth and spotless linen, a heavy cane hanging by its -curved handle from his wrist. He pauses by the “s’loon,” receiving -respectful salutation from a mild company of bummers who hold him in -awe, and call him nothing less than “Judge.” They omit their habitual -sugar-and-water, and are at pains to swallow as stiff a glass and as -“neat” as their hero. - -The Judge is reminded of livelier days by certain unhealed bullet-holes -in ceiling and wall, and recounts for the hundredth time, in chaste -language, the whole affair; and in particular how three-fingered Jack -blew the top of Alabam’s head off, and that stopped it all. - -“We buried the six,” the Judge continues, “side and side, and it wasn’t -a week before two of us found old Jack and his partner on the same -limb, and they made eight graves. The ball that made that hole went -through my hat, and I travelled after that for awhile, till the thing -sort of blew over. - -“Ah! boys,” he winds up, in tones tremulous with tearful regret, “you -fellows will never see such lively times as we of the early days.” - -His tall figure passes on with uncertain gait, stopping at garden fences -here and there to execute one or two old-school compliments for the -ladies who are spending their evenings under vine-draped porches; and -when he takes an easy-chair by invitation, and begins a story laid in -the spring of 50, the Judge is conscious in his heart that the full -saloon veranda is looking and saying, “The _wimmun_ always did like -him.” - -The 49 rough, too, still stays in almost every camp. He evaded rope by -joining the “Vigilants,” and has become a safe and fangless wolf in -sheep’s clothing. He found early that he could sponge and swindle a -larger amount from any given community than could be plundered, to say -nothing of the advantages of personal security. But now all these -characters are, God be thanked! few and widely scattered. Our present -census enrolls a safe, honest, reputable population, who respect law and -personal rights, and who, besides, look into the future with a sense of -responsibility and resolve. - -It is very much the habit of newly arrived people to link the past and -present too closely in their estimate of the existing status. That -dreadful nightmare of early years is unfortunately, not to say cruelly, -mixed up with to-day. I think this must in great measure account for the -virtuous horror of that saintly army of travellers who write about -California, taking pains to open fire (at sublimely long range) with -their very hottest shot upon the devoted dwellers here. Such bombardment -in large pica, with all the added severity of double-leading, does not -interrupt the Sierra tranquillity; they marry and are given in marriage, -as in the days of Noah, regardless of explosions of many literary -batteries. Nor is this peaceful state altogether because the projectiles -fall short. There are people here who read, and read thoroughly. Can we -think them hyper-sensitive if surprised when, after opening heart and -doors to scribbling visitors, they find themselves held up to ridicule -or execration in unimpeachable English and tasteful typography? - -An equally false impression is spread by that considerable class of men -whose courage and energy were not enough to win in open contest there, -and who publicly shake off dust from departing feet, go East in ballast, -and make a virtue of burning their ships, forgetful that for one -waterlogged craft a hundred stanch keels will furrow the Golden Gate. - -Between the cruelly superficial criticism of most Eastern writers and -dark predictions from those smug prophets, the physical geographers, -Californians have nothing left them but their own conscious power; not -the poorest reliance in practical business, like building futures, one -should say. - -I am not going to deny that even yet there flickers up now and then a -lingering flame of that 49 Inferno. If I did, the lively and -picturesque _auto-da-fé_ of “Austrian George,” the other day, would be -moved to amend me. - -We must admit the facts. California people are not living in a tranquil, -healthy, social _régime_. They are provincial,--never, however, in a -local way, but by reason of limited thought. Aspirations for wealth and -ease rise conspicuously above any thirst for intellectual culture and -moral peace. Energy and a glorious audacity are their leading traits. - -To the charge of light-hearted gayety, so freely trumpeted by graver -home critics, I plead them guilty. There is nowhere that dull, weary -expression and rayless sedateness of face we of New England are fonder -of ascribing to our tender conscience than to east winds. So, too, are -wanting difficulties of bronchia and lungs, which might inferentially be -symptoms of original sin. - -Is Californian cheerfulness due to wide-spread moral levity, or to -perpetual sunshine and green salads through the round year tempting weak -human nature to smile? - -I believe it climatic, and humbly offer my tribute to the -thermometer-man, who among many ventures has this time probably stumbled -upon truth. - -Let us not grieve because the writers and lecturers have not found -Californian society all their ideals demanded, for (saving always the -dry-bulb readers of past and future) their dictum is confined to -existing conditions. Have they forgotten that these are less potent -factors in development than the impulse, that what a man _is_, is of far -less consequence than what he is _becoming_? - -Show these gloomy critics a bare stretch of vulgar Sierra earth, and -they will tell you how barren, how valueless it is, ignorant that the -art of any Californian can banish every grain of sand into the Pacific’s -bottom, and gather a residuum of solid gold. Out of the race of men whom -they have in the same shallow way called common, I believe Time shall -separate a noble race. - -Travelling to-day in foot-hill Sierras, one may see the old, rude scars -of mining; trenches yawn, disordered heaps cumber the ground, yet they -are no longer bare. Time, with friendly rain, and wind, and flood, -slowly, surely, levels all, and a compassionate cover of innocent -verdure weaves fresh and cool from mile to mile. While Nature thus -gently heals the humble Earth, God, who is also Nature, moulds and -changes Man. - -THE END. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, by -Clarence King - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA *** - -***** This file should be named 54046-0.txt or 54046-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/0/4/54046/ - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada - -Author: Clarence King - -Release Date: January 24, 2017 [EBook #54046] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="332" height="500" alt="" title="" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_i" id="page_i"></a>{i}</span></p> - -<p class="c"> -MOUNTAINEERING IN THE<br /> -SIERRA NEVADA<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_ii" id="page_ii"></a>{ii}</span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_iii" id="page_iii"></a>{iii}</span> </p> - -<h1> -MOUNTAINEERING IN THE<br /> -SIERRA NEVADA</h1> - -<p class="c"> -BY<br /> -<br /> -CLARENCE KING<br /> -<br /><br /> -“Altiora petimus”<br /> -<br /><br /> -NEW YORK<br /> -CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br /> -1902<br /> -<br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_iv" id="page_iv"></a>{iv}</span><br /> -<br /><small> -<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1871, by</span><br /> -JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.<br /> -———<br /> -<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1902, by</span><br /> -CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br /> -<br /> -TROW DIRECTORY<br /> -PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY<br /> -NEW YORK</small><br /> -<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a>{v}</span><br /> -<br /> -<span class="eng">To</span><br /> - -JOSIAH DWIGHT WHITNEY<br /> - -<small>AND HIS STAFF</small><br /> - -<small><small>MY COMRADES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CALIFORNIA</small></small><br /> - -<small>THESE MOUNTAINEERING NOTES</small><br /> - -<small><small>ARE CORDIALLY INSCRIBED</small></small><br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_vi" id="page_vi"></a>{vi}</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_vii" id="page_vii"></a>{vii}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="NOTE" id="NOTE"></a>NOTE</h2> - -<p>This book, originally published in 1871, has long been out of print, -though in constant demand. Its publication was discontinued owing to the -desire of the author to make certain emendations in the text, a work -that the arduous activities of a professional scientific life left him -no leisure to perform. A few changes, indicated by him, have been made. -Otherwise the text of the present edition is that of the last, the -revised and enlarged edition of 1874. Only the fastidiousness to which -the extraordinary literary quality of the book is itself due, could -suggest further modification of what is here republished with the motive -of restoring to print and circulation a work too perfect in form and of -too rare a quality to be allowed to lapse. It is accordingly with the -view of renewing the accessibility of a genuine classic of American -literature that the present edition is presented.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_viii" id="page_viii"></a>{viii}</span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_ix" id="page_ix"></a>{ix}</span> </p> - -<h2><a name="FROM_THE_PREFACE_TO_THE_FOURTH_EDITION" id="FROM_THE_PREFACE_TO_THE_FOURTH_EDITION"></a>FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION</h2> - -<p class="ast">* * * * * * *</p> - -<p>Mountaineers will realize, from these descriptions of Sierra climbs, how -few dangers we encountered which might not have been avoided by time and -caution. Since the uncertain perils of glacier work and snow copings do -not exist in California, except on the northeast flank of Mount Shasta, -our climbs proved safe and easy in comparison with the more serious -Alpine ascents. And now that the topography of the higher Sierra has -been all explored by the Geological Survey, nearly every peak is found -to have an accessible side. Our difficulties and our joys were those of -the pioneer.</p> - -<p>My own share in the great work of exploring the Sierra under Professor -Whitney has been small indeed beside that of the senior assistants of -the Survey, Professors Brewer and Hoffmann. Theirs were the long, hard -years of patient labor, theirs the real conquest of a great terra -incognita; and if in these chapters I have not borne repeated witness to -their skill and courage, it is not because I have failed in warm -appreciation, but simply because my own<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_x" id="page_x"></a>{x}</span> mountaineering has always been -held by me as of slight value, and not likely to be weighed against -their long-continued service.</p> - -<p>There are turning-points in all men’s lives which must give them both -pause and retrospect. In long Sierra journeys the mountaineer looks -forward eagerly, gladly, till pass or ridge-crest is gained, and then, -turning with a fonder interest, surveys the scene of his march; letting -the eye wander over each crag and valley, every blue hollow of pine-land -or sunlit gem of alpine meadow; discerning perchance some gentle -reminder of himself in yon thin blue curl of smoke floating dimly upward -from the smouldering embers of his last camp-fire. With a lingering look -he starts forward, and the closing pass-gate with its granite walls -shuts away the retrospect, yet the delightful picture forever after -hangs on the gallery wall of his memory. It is thus with me about -mountaineering; the pass which divides youth from manhood is traversed, -and the serious service of science must hereafter claim me. But as the -cherished memories of Sierra climbs go ever with me, I may not lack the -inspiring presence of sunlit snow nor the calming influence of those -broad noble views. It is the mountaineer’s privilege to carry through -life this wealth of unfading treasure. At his summons the white peaks -loom above him as of old; the camp-fire burns once more for him, his -study walls recede in twilight revery, and around him are gathered again -stately columns of pine. If the few chapters I have gathered<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_xi" id="page_xi"></a>{xi}</span> from these -agreeable memories to make this little book are found to possess an -interest, if along the peaks I have sought to describe there is -reflected, however faintly, a ray of that pure, splendid light which -thrills along the great Sierra, I shall not have amused myself with my -old note-books in vain.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">New York</span>, March, 1874.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_xii" id="page_xii"></a>{xii}</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_xiii" id="page_xiii"></a>{xiii}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td> </td><td class="rt"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#I">I.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Range</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_1">1</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#II">II.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Through the Forest.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_30">30</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#III">III.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Ascent of Mount Tyndall.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_60">60</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#IV">IV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Descent of Mount Tyndall.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_94">94</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#V">V.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Newtys of Pike.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_117">117</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Kaweah’s Run.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_139">139</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Around Yosemite Walls.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_165">165</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">A Sierra Storm.</span> 1864</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_191">191</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Merced Ramblings.</span> 1866</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_219">219</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#X">X.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Cut-off Copples’s.</span> 1870</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_254">254</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#XI">XI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Shasta.</span> 1870</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_275">275</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#XII">XII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Shasta Flanks.</span> 1870</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_303">303</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#XIII">XIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Mount Whitney.</span> 1871-1873</td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_324">324</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td class="rt"><a href="#XIV">XIV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The People</span></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_366">366</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_xiv" id="page_xiv"></a>{xiv}</span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1"></a>{1}</span> </p> - -<h1>MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA NEVADA</h1> - -<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I<br /><br /> -THE RANGE</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">The</span> western margin of this continent is built of a succession of -mountain chains folded in broad corrugations, like waves of stone upon -whose seaward base beat the mild, small breakers of the Pacific.</p> - -<p>By far the grandest of all these ranges is the Sierra Nevada, a long and -massive uplift lying between the arid deserts of the Great Basin and the -Californian exuberance of grain-field and orchard; its eastern slope, a -defiant wall of rock plunging abruptly down to the plain; the western, a -long, grand sweep, well watered and overgrown with cool, stately -forests; its crest a line of sharp, snowy peaks springing into the sky -and catching the <i>alpenglow</i> long after the sun has set for all the rest -of America.</p> - -<p>The Sierras have a structure and a physical character which are -individual and unique. To Professor Whitney and his corps of the -Geological Survey of California is due the honor of first gaining a -scientific knowledge of the form, plan, and physical<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2"></a>{2}</span> conditions of the -Sierras. How many thousands of miles, how many toilsome climbs, we made, -and what measure of patience came to be expended, cannot be told; but -the general harvest is gathered in, and already a volume of great -interest (the forerunner of others) has been published.</p> - -<p>The ancient history of the Sierras goes back to a period when the -Atlantic and Pacific were one ocean, in whose depths great accumulations -of sand and powdered stone were gathering and being spread out in level -strata.</p> - -<p>It is not easy to assign the age in which these submarine strata were -begun, nor exactly the boundaries of the embryo continents from whose -shores the primeval breakers ground away sand and gravel enough to form -such incredibly thick deposits.</p> - -<p>It appears most likely that the Sierra region was submerged from the -earliest Palæozoic, or perhaps even the Azoic, age. Slowly the deep -ocean valley filled up, until, in the late Triassic period, the -uppermost tables were in water shallow enough to drift the sands and -clays into wave and ripple ridges. With what immeasurable patience, what -infinite deliberation, has nature amassed the materials for these -mountains! Age succeeded age; form after form of animal and plant life -perished in the unfolding of the great plan of development, while the -suspended sands of that primeval sea sank slowly down and were stretched -in level plains upon the floor of stone.</p> - -<p>Early in the Jurassic period an impressive and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3"></a>{3}</span> far-reaching movement of -the earth’s crust took place, during which the bed of the ocean rose in -crumpled waves towering high in the air and forming the mountain -framework of the Western United States. This system of upheavals reached -as far east as Middle Wyoming and stretched from Mexico probably into -Alaska. Its numerous ridges and chains, having a general northwest -trend, were crowded together in one broad zone whose western and most -lofty member is the Sierra Nevada. During all of the Cretaceous period, -and a part of the Tertiary, the Pacific beat upon its seaward -foot-hills, tearing to pieces the rocks, crumbling and grinding the -shores, and, drifting the powdered stone and pebbles beneath its waves, -scattered them again in layers. This submarine table-land fringed the -whole base of the range and extended westward an unknown distance under -the sea. To this perpetual sea-wearing of the Sierra Nevada base was -added the detritus made by the cutting out of cañons, which in great -volumes continually poured into the Pacific, and was arranged upon its -bottom by currents.</p> - -<p>In the late Tertiary period a chapter of very remarkable events -occurred. For a second time the evenly laid beds of the sea-bottom were -crumpled by the shrinking of the earth. The ocean flowed back into -deeper and narrower limits, and, fronting the Sierra Nevada, appeared -the present system of Coast Ranges. The intermediate depression, or -sea-trough as I like to call it, is the valley of California, and is<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4"></a>{4}</span> -therefore a more recent continental feature than the Sierra Nevada. At -once then from the folded rocks of the Coast Ranges, from the Sierra -summits and the inland plateaus, and from numberless vents caused by the -fierce dynamical action, there poured out a general deluge of melted -rock. From the bottom of the sea sprang up those fountains of lava whose -cooled material forms many of the islands of the Pacific, and all along -the coast of America, like a system of answering beacons, blazed up -volcanic chimneys. The rent mountains glowed with outpourings of molten -stone. Sheets of lava poured down the slopes of the Sierra, covering an -immense proportion of its surface, only the high granite and metamorphic -peaks reaching above the deluge. Rivers and lakes floated up in a cloud -of steam and were gone forever. The misty sky of these volcanic days -glowed with innumerable lurid reflections, and at intervals along the -crest of the range great cones arose, blackening the sky with their -plumes of mineral smoke. At length, having exhausted themselves, the -volcanoes burned lower and lower, and at last by far the greater number -went out altogether. With a tendency to extremes which “development” -geologists would hesitate to admit, nature passed under the dominion of -ice and snow.</p> - -<p>The vast amount of ocean water which had been vaporized floated over the -land, condensed upon hill-tops, chilled the lavas, and finally buried -beneath an icy covering all the higher parts of the mountain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5"></a>{5}</span> system. -According to well-known laws, the overburdened summits unloaded -themselves by a system of glaciers. The whole Sierra crest was one pile -of snow, from whose base crawled out the ice-rivers, wearing their -bodies into the rock, sculpturing as they went the forms of valleys, and -brightening the surface of their tracks by the friction of stones and -sand which were bedded, armor-like, in their nether surface. Having made -their way down the slope of the Sierra, they met a lowland temperature -of sufficient warmth to arrest and waste them. At last, from causes -which are too intricate to be discussed at present, they shrank slowly -back into the higher summit fastnesses, and there gradually perished, -leaving only a crest of snow. The ice melted, and upon the whole -plateau, little by little, a thin layer of soil accumulated, and, -replacing the snow, there sprang up a forest of pines, whose shadows -fall pleasantly to-day over rocks which were once torrents of lava and -across the burnished pathways of ice. Rivers, pure and sparkling, thread -the bottom of these gigantic glacier valleys. The volcanoes are extinct, -and the whole theatre of this impressive geological drama is now the -most glorious and beautiful region of America.</p> - -<p>As the characters of the <i>Zauberflöte</i> passed safely through the trial -of fire and the desperate ordeal of water, so, through the terror of -volcanic fires and the chilling empire of ice, has the great Sierra come -into the present age of tranquil grandeur.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6"></a>{6}</span></p> - -<p>Five distinct periods divide the history of the range. First, the slow -gathering of marine sediment within the early ocean during which -incalculable ages were consumed. Second, in the early Jurassic period -this level sea-floor came suddenly to be lifted into the air and -crumpled in folds, through whose yawning fissures and ruptured axes -outpoured wide zones of granite. Third, the volcanic age of fire and -steam. Fourth, the glacial period, when the Sierras were one broad field -of snow, with huge dragons of ice crawling down its slopes, and wearing -their armor into the rocks. Fifth, the present condition, which the -following chapters will describe, albeit in a desultory and inadequate -manner.</p> - -<p>From latitude 35° to latitude 39° 30´ the Sierra lifts a continuous -chain, the profile culminating in several groups of peaks separated by -deeply depressed curves or sharp notches, the summits varying from eight -to fifteen thousand feet, seven to twelve thousand being the common -range of passes. Near its southern extremity, in San Bernardino County, -the range is cleft to the base with magnificent gateways opening through -into the desert. From Walker’s Pass for two hundred miles northward the -sky line is more uniformly elevated; the passes averaging nine thousand -feet high, the actual summit a chain of peaks from thirteen to fifteen -thousand feet. This serrated snow and granite outline of the Sierra -Nevada, projected against the cold, clear blue, is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7"></a>{7}</span> blade of white -teeth which suggested its Spanish name.</p> - -<p>Northward still the range gradually sinks; high peaks covered with -perpetual snow are rarer and rarer. Its summit rolls on in broken, -forest-covered ridges, now and then overlooked by a solitary pile of -metamorphic or irruptive rock. At length, in Northern California, where -it breaks down in a compressed medley of ridges, and open, level -expanses of plain, the axis is maintained by a line of extinct volcanoes -standing above the lowland in isolated positions. The most lofty of -these, Mount Shasta, is a cone of lava fourteen thousand four hundred -and forty feet high, its broad base girdled with noble forests, which -give way at eight thousand feet to a cap of glaciers and snow.</p> - -<p>Beyond this to the northward the extension of the range is quite -difficult to definitely assign, for, geologically speaking, the Sierra -Nevada system occupies a broad area in Oregon, consisting of several -prominent mountain groups, while in a physical sense the chain ceases -with Shasta; the Cascades, which are the apparent topographical -continuation, being a tertiary structure formed chiefly of lavas which -have been outpoured long subsequent to the main upheaval of the Sierra.</p> - -<p>It is not easy to point out the actual southern limit either, because -where the mountain mass descends into the Colorado desert it comes in -contact with a number of lesser groups of hills, which ramify in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8"></a>{8}</span> many -directions, all losing themselves beneath the tertiary and quartenary -beds of the desert.</p> - -<p>For four hundred miles the Sierras are a definite ridge, broad and high, -and having the form of a sea-wave. Buttresses of sombre-hued rock, -jutting at intervals from a steep wall, form the abrupt eastern slopes; -irregular forests, in scattered growth, huddle together near the snow. -The lower declivities are barren spurs, sinking into the sterile flats -of the Great Basin.</p> - -<p>Long ridges of comparatively gentle outline characterize the western -side, but this sloping table is scored from summit to base by a system -of parallel transverse cañons, distant from one another often less than -twenty-five miles. They are ordinarily two or three thousand feet deep, -falling at times in sheer, smooth-fronted cliffs, again in sweeping -curves like the hull of a ship, again in rugged, V-shaped gorges, or -with irregular, hilly flanks opening at last through gateways of low, -rounded foot-hills out upon the horizontal plain of the San Joaquin and -Sacramento.</p> - -<p>Every cañon carries a river, derived from constant melting of the -perpetual snow, which threads its way down the mountain—a feeble type -of those vast ice-streams and torrents that formerly discharged the -summit accumulation of ice and snow while carving the cañons out from -solid rock. Nowhere on the continent of America is there more positive -evidence of the cutting power of rapid streams than in these very<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9"></a>{9}</span> -cañons. Although much is due to this cause, the most impressive passages -of the Sierra valleys are actual ruptures of the rock; either the -engulfment of masses of great size, as Professor Whitney supposes in -explanation of the peculiar form of the Yosemite, or a splitting asunder -in yawning cracks. From the summits down half the distance to the -plains, the cañons are also carved out in broad, round curves by glacial -action. The summit-gorges themselves are altogether the result of frost -and ice. Here, even yet, may be studied the mode of blocking out -mountain peaks; the cracks riven by unequal contraction and expansion of -the rock; the slow leverage of ice, the storm, the avalanche.</p> - -<p>The western descent, facing a moisture-laden, aërial current from the -Pacific, condenses on its higher portions a great amount of water, which -has piled upon the summits in the form of snow, and is absorbed upon the -upper plateau by an exuberant growth of forest. This prevalent wind, -which during most undisturbed periods blows continuously from the ocean, -strikes first upon the western slope of the Coast Range, and there -discharges, both as fog and rain, a very great sum of moisture; but, -being ever reinforced, it blows over their crest, and, hurrying -eastward, strikes the Sierras at about four thousand feet above -sea-level. Below this line the foothills are oppressed by an habitual -dryness, which produces a rusty olive tone throughout nearly all the -large conspicuous vegetation, scorches the red soil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10"></a>{10}</span> and, during the -long summer, overlays the whole region with a cloud of dust.</p> - -<p>Dull and monotonous in color, there are, however, certain elements of -picturesqueness in this lower zone. Its oak-clad hills wander out into -the great, plain-like coast promontories, enclosing yellow or, in -spring-time, green bays of prairie. The hill-forms are rounded, or -stretch in long, longitudinal ridges, broken across by the river cañons. -Above this zone of red earth, softly modelled undulations, and dull, -grayish groves, with a chain of mining towns, dotted ranches and -vineyards, rise the swelling middle heights of the Sierras, a broad, -billowy plateau cut by sharp, sudden cañons, and sweeping up, with its -dark, superb growth of coniferous forest to the feet of the -summit-peaks.</p> - -<p>For a breadth of forty miles, all along the chain, is spread this -continuous belt of pines. From Walker’s Pass to Sitka one may ride -through an unbroken forest, and will find its character and aspect vary -constantly in strict accordance with the laws of altitude and moisture, -each of the several species of coniferous trees taking its position with -an almost mathematical precision. Where low gaps in the Coast Range give -free access to the western wind, there the forest sweeps downward and -encamps upon the foot-hills, and, continuing northward, it advances -toward the coast, securing for itself over this whole distance about the -same physical conditions; so that a tree which finds itself at home on -the shore of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11"></a>{11}</span> Puget’s Sound, in the latitude of Middle California has -climbed the Sierras to a height of six thousand feet, finding there its -normal requirements of damp, cool air. As if to economize the whole -surface of the Sierra, the forest is mainly made up of twelve species of -coniferæ, each having its own definitely circumscribed limits of -temperature, and yet being able successively to occupy the whole middle -Sierra up to the foot of the perpetual snow. The average range in -altitude of each species is about twenty-five hundred feet, so that you -pass imperceptibly from the zone of one species into that of the next. -Frequently three or four are commingled, their varied habit, -characteristic foliage, and richly colored trunks uniting to make the -most stately of forests.</p> - -<p>In the centre of the coniferous belt is assembled the most remarkable -family of trees. Those which approach the perpetual snow are imperfect, -gnarled, storm-bent; full of character and suggestion, but lacking the -symmetry, the rich, living green, and the great size of their lower -neighbors. In the other extreme of the pine-belt, growing side by side -with foothill oaks, is an equally imperfect species, which, although -attaining a very great size, still has the air of an abnormal tree. The -conditions of drought on the one hand, and rigorous storms on the other, -injure and blast alike, while the more verdant centre, furnishing the -finest conditions, produces a forest whose profusion and grandeur fill -the traveller with the liveliest admiration.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12"></a>{12}</span></p> - -<p>Toward the south the growth of the forest is more open and grove-like, -the individual trees becoming proportionally larger and reaching their -highest development. Northward its density increases, to the injury of -individual pines, until the branches finally interlock, and at last on -the shores of British Columbia the trunks are so densely assembled that -a dead tree is held in its upright position by the arms of its fellows.</p> - -<p>At the one extremity are magnificent purple shafts ornamented with an -exquisitely delicate drapery of pale golden and dark blue green; at the -other the slender spars stand crowded together like the fringe of masts -girdling a prosperous port. The one is a great, continuous grove, on -whose sunny openings are innumerable brilliant parterres; the other is a -dismal thicket, a sort of gigantic canebrake, void of beauty, dark, -impenetrable, save by the avenues of streams, where one may float for -days between sombre walls of forest. From one to the other of these -extremes is an imperceptible transition; only in the passage of hundreds -of miles does the forest seem to thicken northward, or the majesty of -the single trees appear to be impaired by their struggle for room.</p> - -<p>Near the centre is the perfection of forest. At the south are the finest -specimen trees, at the north the densest accumulations of timber. In -riding throughout this whole region and watching the same species from -the glorious ideal life of the south gradually<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13"></a>{13}</span> dwarfed toward the -north, until it becomes a mere wand; or in climbing from the scattered, -drought-scourged pines of the foot-hills up through the zone of finest -vegetation to those summit crags, where, struggling against the power of -tempest and frost, only a few of the bravest trees succeed in clinging -to the rocks and to life,—one sees with novel effect the inexorable -sway which climatic conditions hold over the kingdom of trees.</p> - -<p>Looking down from the summit, the forest is a closely woven vesture, -which has fallen over the body of the range, clinging closely to its -form, sinking into the deep cañons, covering the hill-tops with even -velvety folds, and only lost here and there where a bold mass of rock -gives it no foothold, or where around the margin of the mountain lakes -bits of alpine meadow lie open to the sun.</p> - -<p>Along its upper limit the forest zone grows thin and irregular; black -shafts of alpine pines and firs clustering on sheltered slopes, or -climbing in disordered processions up broken and rocky faces. Higher, -the last gnarled forms are passed, and beyond stretches the rank of -silent, white peaks, a region of rock and ice lifted above the limit of -life.</p> - -<p>In the north, domes and cones of volcanic formation are the summit, but -for about three hundred miles in the south it is a succession of sharp -granite aiguilles and crags. Prevalent among the granitic forms are -singularly perfect conoidal domes, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14"></a>{14}</span> symmetrical figures, were it -not for their immense size, would impress one as having an artificial -finish.</p> - -<p>The alpine gorges are usually wide and open, leading into amphitheatres, -whose walls are either rock or drifts of never-melting snow. The -sculpture of the summit is very evidently glacial. Beside the ordinary -phenomena of polished rocks and moraines, the larger general forms are -clearly the work of frost and ice; and, although this ice-period is only -feebly represented to-day, yet the frequent avalanches of winter and -freshly scored mountain flanks are constant suggestions of the past.</p> - -<p>Strikingly contrasted are the two countries bordering the Sierra on -either side. Along the western base is the plain of California, an -elliptical basin four hundred and fifty miles long by sixty-five broad; -level, fertile, well watered, half tropically warmed; checkered with -farms of grain, ranches of cattle, orchard and vineyard, and homes of -commonplace opulence, towns of bustling thrift. Rivers flow over it, -bordered by lines of oaks which seem characterless or gone to sleep, -when compared with the vitality, the spring, and attitude of the same -species higher up on the foot-hills. It is a region of great industrial -future within a narrow range, but quite without charms for the student -of science. It has a certain impressive breadth when seen from some -overlooking eminence, or when in early spring its brilliant carpet of -flowers lies as a foreground over which the dark<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15"></a>{15}</span> pine-land and white -crest of the Sierra loom indistinctly.</p> - -<p>From the Mexican frontier up into Oregon, a strip of actual desert lies -under the east slope of the great chain, and stretches eastward -sometimes as far as five hundred miles, varied by successions of bare, -white ground, effervescing under the hot sun with alkaline salts, plains -covered by the low, ashy-hued sage-plant, high, barren, rocky ranges, -which are folds of metamorphic rocks, and piled-up lavas of bright red -or yellow colors; all over-arched by a sky which is at one time of a -hot, metallic brilliancy, and again the tenderest of evanescent purple -or pearl.</p> - -<p>Utterly opposed are the two aspects of the Sierras from these east and -west approaches. I remember how stern and strong the chain looked to me -when I first saw it from the Colorado desert.</p> - -<p>It was in early May, 1866. My companion, Mr. James Terry Gardiner, and I -got into the saddle on the bank of the Colorado River, and headed -westward over the road from La Paz to San Bernardino. My mount was a -tough, magnanimous sort of mule, who at all times did his very best; -that of my friend, an animal still hardier, but altogether wanting in -moral attributes. He developed a singular antipathy for my mule, and -utterly refused to march within a quarter of a mile of me; so that over -a wearying route of three hundred miles we were obliged to travel just -beyond the reach of a shout. Hour after hour, plodding along at a -dog-trot, we pursued our<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16"></a>{16}</span> solitary way without the spice of -companionship, and altogether deprived of the melodramatic satisfaction -of loneliness.</p> - -<p>Far ahead of us a white line traced across the barren plain marked our -road. It seemed to lead to nowhere, except onward over more and more -arid reaches of desert. Rolling hills of crude color and low, gloomy -contour rose above the general level. Here and there the eye was -arrested by a towering crag, or an elevated, rocky mountain group, whose -naked sides sank down into the desert, unrelieved by the shade of a -solitary tree. The whole aspect of nature was dull in color, and gloomy -with an all-pervading silence of death. Although the summer had not -fairly opened, a torrid sun beat down with cruel severity, blinding the -eye with its brilliance, and inducing a painful slow fever. The very -plants, scorched to a crisp, were ready, at the first blast of a -sirocco, to be whirled away and ground to dust. Certain bare zones lay -swept clean of the last dry stems across our path, marking the track of -whirlwinds. Water was only found at intervals of sixty or seventy miles, -and, when reached, was more of an aggravation than a pleasure,—bitter, -turbid, and scarce; we rode for it all day, and berated it all night, -only to leave it at sunrise with a secret fear that we might fare worse -next time.</p> - -<p>About noon on the third day of our march, having reached the borders of -the Chabazon Valley, we emerged from a rough, rocky gateway in the -mountains,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17"></a>{17}</span> and I paused while my companion made up his quarter of a -mile, that we might hold council and determine our course, for the water -question was becoming serious; springs which looked cool and seductive -on our maps proving to be dried up and obsolete upon the ground.</p> - -<p>A fresh mule and a lively man get along, to be sure, well enough; but -after all it is at best with perfunctory tolerance on both sides, a sort -of diplomatic interchange of argument, the man suggesting with bridle, -or mildly admonishing with spurs; but when the high contracting parties -get tired, the <i>entente cordiale</i> goes to pieces, and actual hostilities -open, in which I never knew a man to come out the better.</p> - -<p>I had noticed a shambling uncertainty during the last half-hour’s trot, -and those invariable indicators, “John’s” long, furry ears, either -lopped diagonally down on one side, or lay back with ill omen upon his -neck.</p> - -<p>Gardiner reached me in a few minutes, and we dismounted to rest the -tired mules, and to scan the landscape before us. We were on the margin -of a great basin whose gently shelving rim sank from our feet to a -perfectly level plain, which stretched southward as far as the eye could -reach, bounded by a dim, level horizon, like the sea, but walled in to -the west, at a distance of about forty miles, by the high, frowning wall -of the Sierras. This plain was a level floor, as white as marble, and -into it the rocky spurs from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18"></a>{18}</span> our own mountain range descended like -promontories into the sea. Wide, deeply indented white bays wound in and -out among the foot-hills, and, traced upon the barren slopes of this -rocky coast, was marked, at a considerable elevation above the plain, -the shore-line of an ancient sea,—a white stain defining its former -margin as clearly as if the water had but just receded. On the dim, -distant base of the Sierras the same primeval beach could be seen. This -water-mark, the level, white valley, and the utter absence upon its -surface of any vegetation, gave a strange and weird aspect to the -country, as if a vast tide had but just ebbed, and the brilliant, -scorching sun had hurriedly dried up its last traces of moisture.</p> - -<p>In the indistinct glare of the southern horizon, it needed but slight -aid from the imagination to see a lifting and tumbling of billows, as if -the old tide were coming; but they were only shudderings of heat. As we -sat there surveying this unusual scene, the white expanse became -suddenly transformed into a placid blue sea, along whose rippling shores -were the white blocks of roofs, groups of spire-crowned villages, and -cool stretches of green grove. A soft, vapory atmosphere hung over this -sea; shadows, purple and blue, floated slowly across it, producing the -most enchanting effect of light and color. The dreamy richness of the -tropics, the serene sapphire sky of the desert, and the cool, purple -distance of mountains, were grouped as by miracle. It was as<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19"></a>{19}</span> if Nature -were about to repay us an hundred-fold for the lie she had given the -topographers and their maps.</p> - -<p>In a moment the illusion vanished. It was gone, leaving the white desert -unrelieved by a shadow; a blaze of white light falling full on the -plain; the sun-struck air reeling in whirlwind columns, white with the -dust of the desert, up, up, and vanishing into the sky. Waves of heat -rolled like billows across the valley, the old shores became indistinct, -the whole lowland unreal. Shades of misty blue crossed over it and -disappeared. Lakes with ragged shores gleamed out, reflecting the sky, -and in a moment disappeared.</p> - -<p>The bewildering effect of this natural magic, and perhaps the feverish -thirst, produced the impression of a dream, which might have taken fatal -possession of us but for the importunate braying of Gardiner’s mule, -whose piteous discords (for he made three noises at once) banished all -hallucination, and brought us gently back from the mysterious spectacle -to the practical question of water. We had but one canteen of that -precious elixir left; the elixir in this case being composed of one part -pure water, one part sand, one part alum, one part saleratus, with -liberal traces of Colorado mud, representing a very disgusting taste, -and very great range of geological formations.</p> - -<p>To search for the mountain springs laid down upon our maps was probably -to find them dry, and afforded<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20"></a>{20}</span> us little more inducement than to chase -the mirages. The only well-known water was at an oasis somewhere on the -margin of the Chabazon, and should, if the information was correct, have -been in sight from our resting-place.</p> - -<p>We eagerly scanned the distance, but were unable, among the phantom -lakes and the ever-changing illusions of the desert, to fix upon any -probable point. Indian trails led out in all directions, and our only -clew to the right path was far in the northwest, where, looming against -the sky, stood two conspicuous mountain piles lifted above the general -wall of the Sierra, their bases rooted in the desert, and their -precipitous fronts rising boldly on each side of an open gateway. The -two summits, high above the magical stratum of desert air, were sharply -defined and singularly distinct in all the details of rock-form and -snow-field. From their position we knew them to be walls of the San -Gorgonio Pass, and through this gateway lay our road.</p> - -<p>After brief deliberation we chose what seemed to be the most beaten road -leading in that direction, and I mounted my mule and started, leaving my -friend patiently seated in his saddle waiting for the <i>afflatus</i> of his -mule to take effect. Thus we rode down into the desert, and hour after -hour travelled silently on, straining our eyes forward to a spot of -green which we hoped might mark our oasis.</p> - -<p>So incredulous had I become that I prided myself upon having penetrated -the flimsy disguise of an unusually<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21"></a>{21}</span> deceptive mirage, and -philosophized, to a considerable extent, upon the superiority of my -reason over the instinct of the mule, whose quickened pace and nervous -manner showed him to be, as I thought, a dupe.</p> - -<p>Whenever there comes to be a clearly defined mental issue between man -and mule, the stubbornness of the latter is the expression of an -adamantine moral resolve, founded in eternal right. The man is -invariably wrong. Thus on this occasion, as at a thousand other times, I -was obliged to own up worsted, and I drummed for a while with Spanish -spurs upon the ribs of my conqueror, that being my habitual mode of -covering my retreat.</p> - -<p>It <i>was</i> the oasis, and not the mirage. John lifted up his voice, now -many days hushed, and gave out spasmodic gusts of barytone, which were -as dry and harsh as if he had drunk mirages only.</p> - -<p>The heart of Gardiner’s mule relented. Of his own accord he galloped up -to my side, and, for the first time together, we rode forward to the -margin of the oasis. Under the palms we hastily threw off our saddles -and allowed the parched brutes to drink their fill. We lay down in the -grass, drank, bathed our faces, and played in the water like children. -We picketed our mules knee-deep in the freshest of grass, and, unpacking -our saddle-bags, sent up a smoke to heaven, and achieved that most -precious solace of the desert traveller, a pot of tea.</p> - -<p>By and by we plunged into the pool, which was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22"></a>{22}</span> perhaps thirty feet long, -and deep enough to give us a pleasant swim. The water being almost -blood-warm, we absorbed it in every pore, dilated like sponges, and came -out refreshed.</p> - -<p>It is well worth having one’s juices broiled out by a desert sun just to -experience the renewal of life from a mild parboil. That About’s “Man -with the Broken Ear,” under this same aqueous renovation, was ready to -fall in love with his granddaughter, no longer appears to me odd. Our -oasis spread out its disc of delicate green, sharply defined upon the -enamel-like desert which stretched away for leagues, simple, unbroken, -pathetic. Near the eastern edge of this garden, whose whole surface -covered hardly more than an acre, rose two palms, interlocking their -cool, dark foliage over the pool of pure water. A low, deserted cabin -with wide, overhanging, flat roof, which had long ago been thatched with -palm-leaves, stood close by the trees.</p> - -<p>With its isolation, its strange, warm fountain, its charming vegetation -varied with grasses, trailing water-plants, bright parterres in which -were minute flowers of turquoise blue, pale gold, mauve, and rose, and -its two graceful palms, this oasis evoked a strange sentiment. I have -never felt such a sense of absolute and remote seclusion; the hot, -trackless plain and distant groups of mountain shut it away from all the -world. Its humid and fragrant air hung over us in delicious contrast -with the oven-breath through which we had ridden. Weary little birds -alighted, panting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23"></a>{23}</span> and drank and drank again, without showing the least -fear of us. Wild doves fluttering down bathed in the pool and fed about -among our mules.</p> - -<p>After straining over one hundred and fifty miles of silent desert, -hearing no sound but the shoes of our mules grating upon hot sand, after -the white glare, and that fever-thirst which comes from drinking -alkali-water, it was a deep pleasure to lie under the palms and look up -at their slow-moving green fans, and hear in those shaded recesses the -mild, sweet twittering of our traveller-friends, the birds, who stayed, -like ourselves, overcome with the languor of perfect repose.</p> - -<p>Declining rapidly toward the west, the sun warned us to renew our -journey. Several hours’ rest and frequent deep draughts of water, added -to the feast of succulent grass, filled out and rejuvenated our -saddle-animals. John was far less an anatomical specimen than when I -unsaddled him, and Gardiner’s mule came up to be bridled with so -mollified a demeanor that it occurred to us as just possible he might -forget his trick of lagging behind; but with the old tenacity of purpose -he planted his forefeet, and waited till I was well out on the desert.</p> - -<p>As I rode I watched the western prospect. Completely bounding the basin -in that direction rose the gigantic wall of the Sierra, its serrated -line sharply profiled against the evening sky. This dark barrier became -more and more shadowed, so that the old shore line and the lowland, -where mountain and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24"></a>{24}</span> plain joined, were lost. The desert melted in the -distance into the shadowed masses of the Sierra, which, looming higher -and higher, seemed to rise as the sun went down. Scattered snow-fields -shone along its crest; each peak and notch, every column of rock and -detail of outline, were black and sharp.</p> - -<p>On either side of the San Gorgonio stood its two guardian peaks, San -Bernardino and San Jacinto, capped with rosy snow, and the pass itself, -warm with western light, opened hopefully before us. For a moment the -sun rested upon the Sierra crest, and then, slowly sinking, suffered -eclipse by its ragged, black profile. Through the slow hours of -darkening twilight a strange, ashy gloom overspread the desert. The -forms of the distant mountain chains behind us, and the old shore line -upon the Sierra base, stared at us with a strange, weird distinctness. -At last all was gray and vague, except the black silhouette of the -Sierras cut upon a band of golden heaven.</p> - -<p>We at length reached their foot and, turning northward, rode parallel -with the base toward the San Gorgonio. In the moonless night huge, rocky -buttresses of the range loomed before us, their feet plunging into the -pale desert floor. High upon their fronts, perhaps five hundred feet -above us, was dimly traceable the white line of ancient shore. Over -drifted hills of sand and hard alkaline clay we rode along the bottom of -that primitive sea. Between the spurs deep mountain alcoves, stretching -back into the heart of the range, opened grand and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25"></a>{25}</span> shadowy; far at -their head, over crests of ridge and peak, loomed the planet Jupiter.</p> - -<p>A long, wearisome ride of forty hours brought us to the open San -Gorgonio Pass. Already scattered beds of flowers tinted the austere face -of the desert; tufts of pale grass grew about the stones, and tall stems -of yucca bore up their magnificent bunches of bluish flowers. Upon all -the heights overhanging the road gnarled, struggling cedars grasp the -rock, and stretch themselves with frantic effort to catch a breath of -the fresh Pacific vapor. It is instructive to observe the difference -between those which lean out into the vitalizing wind of the pass, and -the fated few whose position exposes them to the dry air of the desert. -Vigor, soundness, nerve to stand on the edge of sheer walls, -flexibility, sap, fulness of green foliage, are in the one; a shroud of -dull olive-leaves scantily cover the thin, straggling, bayonet-like -boughs of the others; they are rigid, shrunken, split to the heart, -pitiful. We were glad to forget them as we turned a last buttress and -ascended the gentle acclivity of the pass.</p> - -<p>Before us opened a broad gateway six or seven miles from wall to wall, -in which a mere swell of green land rises to divide the desert and -Pacific slopes. Flanking the pass along its northern side stands Mount -San Bernardino, its granite framework crowded up above the beds of more -recent rock about its base, bearing aloft tattered fragments of pine -forest, the summit piercing through a marbling of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26"></a>{26}</span> perpetual snow, up to -the height of ten thousand feet. Fronting it on the opposite wall rises -its compeer, San Jacinto, a dark crag of lava, whose flanks are cracked, -riven, and waterworn into innumerable ravines, each catching a share of -the drainage from the snow-cap, and glistening with a hundred small -waterfalls.</p> - -<p>Numerous brooks unite to form two rivers, one running down the green -slope among ranches and gardens into the blooming valley of San -Bernardino, the other pouring eastward, shrinking as it flows out upon -the hot sands, till, in a few miles, the unslakable desert has drunk it -dry.</p> - -<p>There are but few points in America where such extremes of physical -condition meet. What contrasts, what opposed sentiments, the two views -awakened! Spread out below us lay the desert, stark and glaring, its -rigid hill-chains lying in disordered grouping, in attitudes of the -dead. The bare hills are cut out with sharp gorges, and over their stone -skeletons scanty earth clings in folds, like shrunken flesh; they are -emaciated corses of once noble ranges now lifeless, outstretched as in a -long sleep. Ghastly colors define them from the ashen plain in which -their feet are buried. Far in the south were a procession of whirlwind -columns slowly moving across the desert in spectral dimness. A white -light beat down, dispelling the last trace of shadow, and above hung the -burnished shield of hard, pitiless sky.</p> - -<p>Sinking to the <i>west</i> from our feet the gentle<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27"></a>{27}</span> golden-green <i>glacis</i> -sloped away, flanked by rolling hills covered with a fresh, vernal -carpet of grass, and relieved by scattered groves of dark oak-trees. -Upon the distant valley were checkered fields of grass and grain just -tinged with the first ripening yellow. The bounding Coast Ranges lay in -the cool shadow of a bank of mist which drifted in from the Pacific, -covering their heights. Flocks of bright clouds floated across the sky, -whose blue was palpitating with light, and seemed to rise with infinite -perspective. Tranquillity, abundance, the slow, beautiful unfolding of -plant life, dark, shadowed spots to rest our tired eyes upon, the shade -of giant oaks to lie down under, while listening to brooks, contralto -larks, and the soft, distant lowing of cattle.</p> - -<p>I have given the outlines of aspect along our ride across the Chabazon, -omitting many amusing incidents and some <i>genre</i> pictures of rare -interest among the Kaweah Indians, as I wished simply to illustrate the -relations of the Sierra with the country bordering its east base,—the -barrier looming above a desert.</p> - -<p>In Nevada and California, farther north, this wall rises more grandly, -but its face rests upon a modified form of desert plains of less extent -than the Colorado, and usually covered with sage-plants and other brushy -<i>compositæ</i> of equally pitiful appearance. Large lakes of complicated -saline waters are dotted under the Sierra shadow, the ancient terraces -built upon foot-hill and outlying volcanic ranges indicating their -former expansion into inland seas; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28"></a>{28}</span> farther north still, where -plains extend east of Mount Shasta, level sheets of lava form the -country, and open, black, rocky channels, for the numerous branches of -the Sacramento and Klamath.</p> - -<p>Approaching the Sierras anywhere from the west, one will perceive a -totally different topographical and climatic condition. From the Coast -Range peaks especially one obtains an extended and impressive prospect. -I had fallen behind the party one May evening of our march across -Pacheco’s Pass, partly because some wind-bent oaks trailing almost -horizontally over the wild-oat surface of the hills, and marking, as a -living record, the prevalent west wind, had arrested me and called out -compass and note-book; and because there had fallen to my lot an -incorrigibly deliberate mustang to whom I had abandoned myself to be -carried along at his own pace, comforted withal that I should get in too -late to have any hand in the cooking of supper. We reached the crest, -the mustang coming to a conspicuous and unwarrantable halt; I yielded, -however, and sat still in the saddle, looking out to the east.</p> - -<p>Brown foot-hills, purple over their lower slopes with “fil-a-ree” -blossoms, descended steeply to the plain of California, a great, inland, -prairie sea, extending for five hundred miles, mountain-locked, between -the Sierras and coast hills, and now a broad, arabesque surface of -colors. Miles of orange-colored flowers, cloudings of green and white, -reaches of violet which looked like the shadow of a passing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29"></a>{29}</span> cloud, -wandering in natural patterns over and through each other, sunny and -intense along near our range, fading in the distance into pale, -bluish-pearl tones, and divided by long, dimly seen rivers, whose -margins were edged by belts of bright emerald green. Beyond rose three -hundred miles of Sierra half lost in light and cloud and mist, the -summit in places sharply seen against a pale, beryl sky, and again -buried in warm, rolling clouds. It was a mass of strong light, soft, -fathomless shadows, and dark regions of forest. However, the three belts -upon its front were tolerably clear. Dusky foot-hills rose over the -plain with a coppery gold tone, suggesting the line of mining towns -planted in its rusty ravines,—a suggestion I was glad to repel, and -look higher into that cool, solemn realm where the pines stand, -green-roofed, in infinite colonnade. Lifted above the bustling industry -of the plains and the melodramatic mining theatre of the foot-hills, it -has a grand, silent life of its own, refreshing to contemplate even from -a hundred miles away.</p> - -<p>While I looked the sun descended; shadows climbed the Sierras, casting a -gloom over foot-hill and pine, until at last only the snow summits, -reflecting the evening light, glowed like red lamps along the mountain -wall for hundreds of miles. The rest of the Sierra became invisible. The -snow burned for a moment in the violet sky, and at last went out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30"></a>{30}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II<br /><br /> -THROUGH THE FOREST<br /><br /> -1864</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Visalia</span> is the name of a small town embowered in oaks upon the Tulare -Plain in Middle California, where we made our camp one May evening of -1864.</p> - -<p>Professor Whitney, our chief, the State Geologist, had sent us out for a -summer’s campaign in the High Sierras, under the lead of Professor -William H. Brewer, who was more sceptical than I as to the result of the -mission.</p> - -<p>Several times during the previous winter Mr. Hoffman and I, while on -duty at the Mariposa goldmines, had climbed to the top of Mount Bullion, -and gained, in those clear January days, a distinct view of the High -Sierra, ranging from the Mount Lyell group many miles south to a vast -pile of white peaks, which, from our estimate, should lie near the heads -of the King’s and Kaweah rivers. Of their great height I was fully -persuaded; and Professor Whitney, on the strength of these few -observations, commissioned us to explore and survey the new Alps.</p> - -<p>We numbered five in camp:—Professor Brewer; Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, -chief topographer; Mr. James T. Gardiner, assistant surveyor; myself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31"></a>{31}</span> -assistant geologist; and our man-of-all-work, to whom science already -owes its debts.</p> - -<p>When we got together our outfit of mules and equipments of all kinds, -Brewer was going to re-engage, as general aid, a certain Dane, Jan -Hoesch, who, besides being a faultless mule-packer, was a rapid and -successful financier, having twice, when the field-purse was low and -remittances delayed, enriched us by what he called “dealing bottom -stock” in his little evening games with the honest miners. Not -ungrateful for that, I, however, detested the fellow with great -cordiality.</p> - -<p>“If I don’t take him, will you be responsible for packing mules and for -daily bread?” said Brewer to me, the morning of our departure from -Oakland. “I will.” “Then we’ll take your man Cotter; only, when the -pack-saddles roll under the mules’ bellies, I shall light my pipe and go -botanizing. <i>Sabe?</i>”</p> - -<p>So my friend, Richard Cotter, came into the service, and the -accomplished but filthy Jan opened a poker and rum shop on one of the -San Francisco wharves, where he still mixes drinks and puts up jobs of -“bottom stock.” Secretly I longed for him as we came down the Pacheco -Pass, the packs having loosened with provoking frequency. The animals of -our small exploring party were upon a footing of easy social equality -with us. All were excellent except mine. The choice of Hobson (whom I -take to have been the youngest member of some company)<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32"></a>{32}</span> falling -naturally to me, I came to be possessed of the only hopeless animal in -the band. Old Slum, a dignified roan mustang of a certain age, with the -decorum of years and a conspicuous economy of force retained not a few -of the affectations of youth, such as snorting theatrically and shying, -though with absolute safety to the rider, Professor Brewer. Hoffman’s -mount was a young half-breed, full of fire and gentleness. The mare -Bess, my friend Gardiner’s pet, was a light-bay creature, as full of -spring and perception as her sex and species may be. A rare mule, Cate, -carried Cotter. Nell and Jim, two old geological mules, branded with -Mexican hieroglyphics from head to tail, were bearers of the loads.</p> - -<p>My Buckskin was incorrigibly bad. To begin with, his anatomy was -desultory and incoherent, the maximum of physical effort bringing about -a slow, shambling gait quite unendurable. He was further cursed with a -brain wanting the elements of logic, as evinced by such <i>non sequiturs</i> -as shying insanely at wisps of hay, and stampeding beyond control when I -tried to tie him to a load of grain. My sole amusement with Buckskin -grew out of a psychological peculiarity of his, namely, the unusual -slowness with which waves of sensation were propelled inward toward the -brain from remote parts of his periphery. A dig of the spurs -administered in the flank passed unnoticed for a period of time varying -from twelve to thirteen seconds, till the protoplasm of the brain -received the percussive wave; then, with a suddenness<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33"></a>{33}</span> which I never -wholly got over, he would dash into a trot, nearly tripping himself up -with his own astonishment.</p> - -<p>A stroke of good fortune completed our outfit and my happiness by -bringing to Visalia a Spaniard who was under some manner of financial -cloud. His horse was offered for sale, and quickly bought for me by -Professor Brewer. We named him Kaweah, after the river and its Indian -tribe. He was young, strong, fleet, elegant, a pattern of fine modelling -in every part of his bay body and fine black legs; every way good, only -fearfully wild, with a blaze of quick electric light in his dark eye.</p> - -<p>Shortly after sunrise one fresh morning we made a point of putting the -packs on very securely, and, getting into our saddles, rode out toward -the Sierras.</p> - -<p>The group of farms surrounding Visalia is gathered within a belt through -which several natural, and many more artificial, channels of the Kaweah -flow. Groves of large, dark-foliaged oaks follow this irrigated zone; -the roads, nearly always in shadow, are flanked by small ranch-houses, -fenced in with rank jungles of weeds and rows of decrepit pickets.</p> - -<p>There is about these fresh ruins, these specimens of modern decay, an -air of social decomposition not pleasant to perceive. Freshly built -houses, still untinted by time, left in rickety disorder, half-finished -windows, gates broken down or unhinged, and a kind of sullen neglect -staring everywhere. What more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34"></a>{34}</span> can I say of the people than that they -are chiefly immigrants who subsist upon pork?</p> - -<p>Rare exceptions of comfort and thrift shine out sometimes, with neat -dooryards, well-repaired dwellings, and civilized-looking children. In -these I never saw the mother of the family sitting cross-legged, smoking -a corncob pipe, nor the father loafing about with a fiddle or shot-gun.</p> - -<p>Our backs were now turned to this farm-belt, the road leading us out -upon the open plain in our first full sight of the Sierras.</p> - -<p>Grand and cool swelled up the forest; sharp and rugged rose the wave of -white peaks, their vast fields of snow rolling over the summit in broad, -shining masses.</p> - -<p>Sunshine, exuberant vegetation, brilliant plant life, occupied our -attention hour after hour until the middle of the second day. At last, -after climbing a long, weary ascent, we rode out of the dazzling light -of the foot-hills into a region of dense woodland, the road winding -through avenues of pines so tall that the late evening light only came -down to us in scattered rays. Under the deep shade of these trees we -found an air pure and gratefully cool. Passing from the glare of the -open country into the dusky forest, one seems to enter a door and ride -into a vast covered hall. The whole sensation is of being roofed and -enclosed. You are never tired of gazing down long vistas, where, in -stately groups, stand tall shafts of pine. Columns they are, each with -its own<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35"></a>{35}</span> characteristic tinting and finish, yet all standing together -with the air of relationship and harmony. Feathery branches, trimmed -with living green, wave through the upper air, opening broken glimpses -of the far blue, and catching on their polished surfaces reflections of -the sun. Broad streams of light pour in, gilding purple trunks and -falling in bright pathways along an undulating floor. Here and there are -wide, open spaces, around which the trees group themselves in majestic -ranks.</p> - -<p>Our eyes often ranged upward, the long shafts leading the vision up to -green, lighted spires, and on to the clouds. All that is dark and cool -and grave in color, the beauty of blue umbrageous distance, all the -sudden brilliance of strong local lights tinted upon green boughs or red -and fluted shafts, surround us in ever-changing combination as we ride -along these winding roadways of the Sierra.</p> - -<p>We had marched a few hours over high, rolling, wooded ridges, when in -the late afternoon we reached the brow of an eminence and began to -descend. Looking over the tops of the trees beneath us, we saw a -mountain basin fifteen hundred feet deep surrounded by a rim of -pine-covered hills. An even, unbroken wood covered these sweeping slopes -down to the very bottom, and in the midst, open to the sun, lay a -circular green meadow, about a mile in diameter.</p> - -<p>As we descended, side wood-tracks, marked by the deep ruts of timber -wagons, joined our road on either side, and in the course of an hour we -reached the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36"></a>{36}</span> basin and saw the distant roofs of Thomas’s Saw-Mill Ranch. -We crossed the level disc of meadow, fording a clear, cold mountain -stream, flowing, as the best brooks do, over clean, white granite sand, -and near the northern margin of the valley, upon a slight eminence, in -the edge of a magnificent forest, pitched our camp.</p> - -<p>The hills to the westward already cast down a sombre shadow, which fell -over the eastern hills and across the meadow, dividing the basin half in -golden and half in azure green. The tall young grass was living with -purple and white flowers. This exquisite carpet sweeps up over the bases -of the hills in green undulations, and strays far into the forest in -irregular fields. A little brooklet passed close by our camp and flowed -down the smooth green <i>glacis</i> which led from our little eminence to the -meadow. Above us towered pines two hundred and fifty feet high, their -straight, fluted trunks smooth and without a branch for a hundred feet. -Above that, and on to the very tops, the green branches stretched out -and interwove, until they spread a broad, leafy canopy from column to -column.</p> - -<p>Professor Brewer determined to make this camp a home for the week during -which we were to explore and study all about the neighborhood. We were -on a great granite spur, sixty miles from east to west by twenty miles -wide, which lies between the Kaweah and King’s River cañons. Rising in -bold sweeps from the plain, this ridge joins the Sierra summit in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37"></a>{37}</span> the -midst of a high group. Experience had taught us that the cañons are -impassable by animals for any great distance; so the plan of campaign -was to find a way up over the rocky crest of the spur as far as mules -could go.</p> - -<p>In the little excursions from this camp, which were made usually on -horseback, we became acquainted with the forest, and got a good -knowledge of the topography of a considerable region. On the heights -above King’s Cañon are some singularly fine assemblies of trees. Cotter -and I had ridden all one morning northeast from camp under the shadowy -roof of forest, catching but occasional glimpses out over the plateau, -until at last we emerged upon the bare surface of a ridge of granite, -and came to the brink of a sharp precipice. Rocky crags lifted just east -of us. The hour devoted to climbing them proved well spent.</p> - -<p>A single little family of alpine firs growing in a niche in the granite -surface, and partly sheltered by a rock, made the only shadow, and just -shielded us from the intense light as we lay down by their roots. North -and south, as far as the eye could reach, heaved the broad, green waves -of plateau, swelling and merging through endless modulation of slope and -form.</p> - -<p>Conspicuous upon the horizon, about due east of us, was a tall, -pyramidal mass of granite, trimmed with buttresses which radiated down -from its crest, each one ornamented with fantastic spires of rock.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38"></a>{38}</span> -Between the buttresses lay stripes of snow, banding the pale granite -peak from crown to base. Upon the north side it fell off, grandly -precipitous, into the deep upper cañon of King’s River. This gorge, -after uniting a number of immense rocky amphitheatres, is carved deeply -into the granite two and three thousand feet. In a slightly curved line -from the summit it cuts westward through the plateau, its walls, for the -most part, descending in sharp, bare slopes, or lines of ragged -<i>débris</i>, the resting-place of processions of pines. We ourselves were -upon the brink of the south wall; three thousand feet below us lay the -valley, a narrow, winding ribbon of green, in which, here and there, -gleamed still reaches of the river. Wherever the bottom widened to a -quarter or half a mile, green meadows and extensive groves occupied the -level region. Upon every niche and crevice of the walls, up and down -sweeping curves of easier descent, were grouped black companies of -trees.</p> - -<p>The behavior of the forest is observed most interestingly from these -elevated points above the general face of the table-land. All over the -gentle undulations of the more level country sweeps an unbroken covering -of trees. Reaching the edge of the cañon precipices, they stand out in -bold groups upon the brink, and climb all over the more ragged and -broken surfaces of granite. Only the most smooth and abrupt precipices -are bare. Here and there a little shelf of a foot or two in width, -cracked into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39"></a>{39}</span> face of the bluff, gives foothold to a family of -pines, who twist their roots into its crevices and thrive. With no soil -from which the roots may drink up moisture and absorb the slowly -dissolved mineral particles, they live by breathing alone, moist vapors -from the river below and the elements of the atmosphere affording them -the substance of life.</p> - -<p>I believe no one can study from an elevated lookout the length and depth -of one of these great Sierra cañons without asking himself some profound -geological questions. Your eyes range along one or the other wall. The -average descent is immensely steep. Here and there side ravines break -down the rim in deep, lateral gorges. Again, the wall advances in sharp, -salient precipices, rising two or three thousand feet, sheer and naked, -with all the air of a recent fracture. At times the two walls approach -each other, standing in perpendicular gateways. Toward the summits the -cañon grows, perhaps, a little broader, and more and more prominent -lateral ravines open into it, until at last it receives the snow -drainage of the summit, which descends through broad, rounded -amphitheatres, separated from each other by sharp, castellated snow-clad -ridges.</p> - -<p>Looking down the course of the river, vertical precipices are seen to be -less and less frequent, the walls inclining to each other more and more -gently, until they roll out on the north and south in round, wooded -ridges. Solid, massive granite forms the material throughout its whole -length. If you study<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40"></a>{40}</span> the topography upon the plateaus above one of -these cañons, you will see that the ridges upon one side are reproduced -in the other, as if the outlines of wavy table-land topography had been -determined before the great cañon was made.</p> - -<p>It is not easy to propose a solution for this peculiar structure. I -think, however, it is safe to say that actual rending asunder of the -mountain mass determined the main outlines. Upon no other theory can we -account for those blank walls. Where, in the upper course of the cañon, -they descend in a smooth, ship-like curve, and the rocks bear upon their -curved sides the markings and striations of glaciers, it is easy to see -that those terrible ice-engines gradually modified their form; and -toward the foot-hills the forces of aqueous erosion are clearly -indicated in the rounded forms and broad undulations of the two banks.</p> - -<p>Looking back from our isolated crag in the direction of our morning’s -ride, we saw the green hills break down into the basin of Thomas’s Mill, -but the disc of meadow lay too deep to be seen. Forests, dense and -unbroken, grew to the base of our cliff. The southern sunlight reflected -from its polished foliage gave to this whole sea of spiry tops a -peculiar golden green, through which we looked down among giant red and -purple trunks upon beds of bright mountain flowers. As the afternoon -lengthened, the summit rank of peaks glowed warmer and warmer under -inclined rays. The granite flushed with rosy<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41"></a>{41}</span> brightness between the -fields of glittering golden snow. A mild, pearly haziness came gradually -to obscure the ordinary cold-blue sky, and, settling into cañon depths, -and among the vast, open corridors of the summit, veiled the savage -sharpness of their details.</p> - -<p>I lay several hours sketching the outlines of the summit, studying out -the systems of alpine drainage, and getting acquainted with the long -chain of peaks, that I might afterward know them from other points of -view. I became convinced from the great apparent elevation and the wide -fields of snow that we had not formerly deceived ourselves as to their -great height. Warned at length by the deepening shadow in the King’s -Cañon, by the heightened glow suffusing the peaks, and the deep purple -tone of the level expanse of forest, all forerunners of twilight, we -quitted our eyrie, crept carefully down over half-balanced blocks of -<i>débris</i> to the horses, and, mounting, were soon headed homeward, in -what seemed, by contrast, to be almost a nocturnal darkness.</p> - -<p>Wherever the ground opened level before us we gave our horses the rein, -and went at a free gallop through the forest; the animals realized that -they were going home, and pressed forward with the greatest spirit. A -good-sized log across our route seemed to be an object of special -amusement to Kaweah, who seized the bits in his teeth, and, dancing up, -crouched, and cleared it with a mighty bound, in a manner that was -indeed inspiring, yet left one<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42"></a>{42}</span> with the impression that once was enough -of that sort of thing. Fearing some manner of hostilities with him, I -did my very best to quiet Kaweah, and by the end of an hour had gotten -him down to a sensible, serious walk. I noticed that he insisted upon -following his tracks of the morning’s march, and was not contented -unless I let him go on the old side of every tree. Thus I became so -thoroughly convinced of his faculty to follow the morning’s trail that I -yielded all control of him, giving myself up to the enjoyment of the -dimly lighted wood.</p> - -<p>As the sun at last set, the shadow deepened into an impressive gloom; -mighty trunks, rising into that dark region of interlocking boughs, only -vaguely defined themselves against the twilight sky. We could no longer -see our tracks, and the confused rolling topography looked alike -whichever way we turned. Kaweah strode on in his confident way, and I -was at last confirmed as to his sagacity by passing one after another -the objects we had noted in the morning. Thus for a couple of hours we -rode in the darkness. At length the rising moon poured down through -broken tents of foliage its uncertain silvery light, which had the -effect of deepening all the shadows, and lighting up in the strangest -manner little local points. Here and there ahead of us the lighted trees -rose like pillars of an ancient temple. The forest, which an hour before -overpowered us with a sense of its dark enclosure, opened on in distant -avenues as far as the eye could reach. As we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43"></a>{43}</span> rode through denser or -more open passages the moon sailed into clear, violet sky, or was -obscured again by the sharply traced crests of the pines. Ravines, dark -and unfathomable, yawned before us, their flanks half in shadow, half in -weird, uncertain light. Blocks of white granite gleamed here and there -in contrast with the general depth of shade. At last, descending a hill, -there shone before us a red light; the horses plunged forward at a -gallop, and in a moment we were in camp. After this ride we supped, -relishing our mountain fare, and then lay down upon blankets before a -camp-fire for the mountaineer’s short evening. One keeps awake under -stimulus of the sparkling, frosty air for awhile, and then turns in for -the night, sleeping till daybreak with a light, sound sleep.</p> - -<p>The charm of this forest life, in spite of its scientific interest, and -the constant succession of exquisite, highly colored scenes, would -string one’s feelings up to a high though monotonous key, were it not -for the half-droll, half-pathetic <i>genre</i> picturesqueness which the -Digger Indians introduce. Upon every stream and on all the finer -camp-grounds throughout the whole forest are found these families of -Indians who migrate up here during the hot weather, fishing, hunting, -gathering pine-nuts, and lying off with that peculiar, bummerish ease, -which, associated with natural mock dignity, throws about them a -singular, and not infrequently deep interest.</p> - -<p>I never forget certain bright June sunrises when<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44"></a>{44}</span> I have seen the Indian -<i>paterfamilias</i> gather together his little tribe and address them in the -heroic style concerning the vital importance of the grasshopper crop, -and the reverence due to the Giver of manzanita berries. You come upon -them as you travel the trails, proud-stepping “braves” leading the way, -unhampered and free, followed by troops of submissive squaws loaded down -with immense packages and baskets. Their death and burial customs, too, -have elements of weird, romantic interest.</p> - -<p>I remember one morning when I was awakened before dawn by wild, -unearthly shrieks ringing through the forest and coming back again in -plaintive echoes from the hills all about. Beyond description wild, -these wails of violent grief followed each other with regular cadence, -dying away in long, despairing sobs. With a marvellous regularity they -recurred, never varying the simple refrain. My curiosity was aroused so -far as to get me out of my blankets, and, after a hurried bath in an icy -stream, I joined my mountaineer acquaintance, Jerry, who was <i>en route</i> -to the rancheria, “to see,” as he expressed it, “them <i>tar-heads</i> howl.” -It seems my friend Buck, the Indian chief, had the night before lost his -wife, Sally the Old, and the shouts came from professional mourners -hired by her family to prepare the body and do up the necessary amount -of grief. Old widows and superannuated wives who have outlived other -forms of usefulness gladly enter this singular profession. They cut -their hair short, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45"></a>{45}</span> with each new death, plaster on a fresh cap of -pitch and ashes, daub the face with spots of tar, and, in general, array -themselves as funeral experts.</p> - -<p>The rancheria was astir when we arrived. It was a mere group of half a -dozen smoky hovels, built of pine bark propped upon cones of poles, and -arranged in a semi-circle within the edge of the forest, fronting on a -brook and meadow. Jerry and I leaned our backs against a large tree, and -watched the group.</p> - -<p>Buck’s shanty was deserted, the body of his wife lying outside upon a -blanket, being prepared by two of these funeral hags. Buck himself was -quietly stuffing his stomach with a breakfast of venison and acorns, -which were handed him at brief intervals by several sympathizing squaws.</p> - -<p>Turning to Jerry with a countenance of stolid seriousness, he -laconically remarked, “My woman she die! Very bad. To-night, sundown” -(pointing to the sun), “she burn up.” Meanwhile the tar-heads rolled -Sally the Old over and over, all the while alternately howling the same -dismal phrase. Indian relatives and friends, having the general air of -animated rag-bags, arrived occasionally, and sat down in silence at a -fire a little removed from the other Diggers, never once saluting them.</p> - -<p>As we walked back to our camp, I remarked on the stolid, cruel -expression of Buck’s face, but Jerry, to my surprise, bade me not judge -too hastily. He went on to explain that Indians have just as deep and -tender attachments, just as much good sense, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46"></a>{46}</span> to wind up with, “as -much human into ’em, as we edicated white folks.”</p> - -<p>His own squaw had instilled this into Jerry’s naturally sentimental and -credulous heart, so I refrained from expressing my convictions -concerning Indians, which, I own, were formerly tinged with the most -sanguinary Caucasian prejudice.</p> - -<p>Jerry came for me by appointment just before sunset, and we walked -leisurely across the meadow, and under lengthening pine shadows, to the -rancheria. No one was stirring. Buck and the two vicarious mourners sat -in his lodge door, uttering low, half-audible groans. In the opening -before the line of huts a low pile of dry logs had been carefully laid, -upon which, outstretched, and wrapped in a red blanket, lay the dead -form of Sally the Old, her face covered in careful folds. Upon her heart -were a grass-woven water-bowl and her last pappoose basket.</p> - -<p>Just as the sun sank to the horizon, one tar-head stepped out in front -of the funeral pile, lifted up both hands, and gazed steadily and -silently at the sun. She might have been five minutes in this statuesque -position, her face full of strange, half-animal intensity of expression, -her eyes glittering, the whole hard figure glowing with a deep bronze -reflection. Suddenly she sprang back with the old wild shriek, seized a -brand from one of the camp-fires, and lighted the funeral heap, when all -the Indians came out, and grouped themselves in little knots around it. -Sally the Old’s children clung about an old mummy of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47"></a>{47}</span> squaw, who -squatted upon the ground and rocked her body to and fro, making a low -cry as of an animal in pain. All the Indians looked serious; a group, -who Jerry said were relatives, seemed stupefied with grief. Upon a few -faces falling tears glistened in the light of the fire, which now shot -up red tongues high in the air, lighting up with weird distinctness -every feature of the whole group. Flames slowly lapped over, consuming -the blanket, and caught the willow pappoose basket. When Buck saw this -the tears streamed from his eyes; he waved his hands eloquently, looking -up to heaven, and uttered heartbroken sobs. The pappoose basket crackled -for a moment, flashed into a blaze, and was gone. The two old women -yelled their sharp death-cry, dancing, posturing, gesticulating toward -the fire, and in slow, measured chorus all the Indians intoned in -pathetic measure, “Himalaya! Himalaya!” looking first at the mound of -fire and then out upon the fading sunset.</p> - -<p>It was all indescribably strange: monarch pines standing in solemn ranks -far back into the dusky heart of the forest, glowing and brightening -with pulsating reflections of firelight; the ring of Indians, crouching, -standing fixed like graven images, or swaying mechanically to and fro; -each tattered scarlet and white rag of their utterly squalid garments, -every expression of barbaric grief or dull stolidity, being brought -strongly out by the red, flaming fire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48"></a>{48}</span></p> - -<p>Buck watched with wet eyes that slow-consuming fire burn to ashes the -body of his wife of many years, the mother of his group of poor, -frightened children. Not a stoical savage, but a despairing husband, -stood before us. I felt him to be human. The body at last sank into a -bed of flames which shot up higher than ever with fountains of sparks, -and sucked together, hiding the remains forever from view. At this Buck -sprang to the front and threw himself at the fire; but the two old women -seized each a hand and dragged him back to his children, when he fell -into a fit of stupor.</p> - -<p>As we walked home Jerry was quick to ask, “Didn’t I tell you Injuns has -feelings inside of ’em?” I answered promptly that I was convinced; and -long after, as I lay awake through many night-hours listening to that -shrill death-wail, I felt as if any policy toward the Indians based upon -the assumption of their being brutes or devils was nothing short of a -blot on this Christian century.</p> - -<p>My sleep was light, and sunrise found me dressed, still listening, as -under a kind of spell, to the mourners, who, though evidently exhausted, -at brief intervals uttered the cry. Alone, and filled with serious -reflections, I strolled over to the rancheria, finding every one there -up and about his morning duties.</p> - -<p>The tar-heads, withdrawn some distance into the forest, sat leaning -against a stump, chatting and grinning together, now and then screeching -by turns.</p> - -<p>I asked Revenue Stamp, a good-natured, middle-aged<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49"></a>{49}</span> Indian, where Buck -was. He pointed to his hut, and replied, with an affable smile, “He -whiskey drunk.” “And who,” I inquired, “is that fat girl with him?” -“Last night he take her; new squaw,” was the answer. I could hardly -believe, but it was the actual truth; and I went back to camp an -enlightened but disillusioned man. I left that day, and never had an -opportunity to “free my mind” to Jerry. Since then I guardedly avoid all -discussion of the “Indian question.” When interrogated, I dodge, or -protest ignorance; when pressed, I have been known to turn the subject; -or, if driven to the wall, I usually confess my opinion that the Quakers -will have to work a great reformation in the Indian before he is really -fit to be exterminated.</p> - -<p>The mill-people and Indians told us of a wonderful group of big trees -(<i>Sequoia gigantea</i>), and about one particular tree of unequalled size. -We found them easily, after a ride of a few miles in a northerly -direction from our camp, upon a wide, flat-topped spur, where they grew, -as is their habit elsewhere, in company with several other coniferous -species, all grouped socially together, heightening each other’s beauty -by contrasts of form and color.</p> - -<p>In a rather open glade, where the ground was for the most part green -with herbage, and conspicuously starred with upland flowers, stood the -largest shaft we observed. A fire had formerly burned off a small -segment of its base, not enough, however, to injure the symmetrical -appearance. It was a slowly tapering,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50"></a>{50}</span> regularly round column of about -forty feet in diameter at the base, and rising two hundred and -seventy-four feet, adorned with a few huge branches, which start -horizontally from the trunk, but quickly turn down and spray out. The -bark, thick but not rough, is scored up and down at considerable -intervals with deep, smooth grooves, and is of brightest cinnamon color, -mottled in purple and yellow.</p> - -<p>That which impresses one most after its vast bulk the grand, pillar-like -stateliness, is the thin and inconspicuous foliage, which feathers out -delicately on the boughs like a mere mist of pale apple-green. It would -seem nothing when compared with the immense volume of tree for which it -must do the ordinary respirative duty; but doubtless the bark performs a -large share of this, its papery lamination and porous structure fitting -it eminently for that purpose.</p> - -<p>Near this “King of the Mountains” grew three other trees; one a -sugar-pine (<i>Pinus Lambertiana</i>) of about eight feet in diameter, and -hardly less than three hundred feet high (although we did not measure -it, estimating simply by comparison of its rise above the <i>Sequoia</i>, -whose height was quite accurately determined). For a hundred and fifty -feet the pine was branchless, and as round as if turned, delicate -bluish-purple in hue, and marked with a net-work of scorings. The -branches, in nearly level poise, grew long and slenderly out from the -shaft, well covered with dark yellow-green needles. The two remaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51"></a>{51}</span> -trees were firs (<i>Picea grandis</i>), which sprang from a common root, -dividing slightly, as they rose, a mass of feathery branches, whose load -of polished blue-green foliage, for the most part, hid the dark -wood-brown trunk. Grace, exquisite, spire-like, taper boughs, whose -plumes of green float lightly upon the air, elasticity and symmetry are -its characteristics.</p> - -<p>In all directions this family continue grouping themselves, always with -attractive originality. There is something memorable in the harmonious -yet positive colors of this sort of forest. First, the foliage and trunk -of each separate tree contrasts finely,—cinnamon and golden apple-green -in the <i>Sequoia</i>, dark purple and yellowish-green for the pine, deep -wood-color and bluish-green of fir.</p> - -<p>The sky, which at this elevation of six thousand feet is deep, pure blue -and often cloudless, is seen through the tracery of boughs and -tree-tops, which cast downward fine and filmy shadows across the glowing -trunks. Altogether, it is a wonderful setting for the <i>Sequoia</i>. The two -firs, judging by many of equal size whose age I have studied, were about -three hundred years old; the pine, still hale and vigorous, not less -than five hundred; and for the “King of the Mountains” we cannot assign -a probable age of less than two thousand years.</p> - -<p>A mountain, a fossil from deepest geological horizon, a ruin of human -art, carry us back into the perspective of centuries with a force that -has become, perhaps, a little conventional. No imperishableness<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52"></a>{52}</span> of -mountain-peak or of fragment of human work, broken pillar or sand-worn -image half lifted over pathetic desert,—none of these link the past and -to-day with anything like the power of these monuments of living -antiquity, trees that began to grow before the Christian era, and, full -of hale vitality and green old age, still bid fair to grow broad and -high for centuries to come. Who shall predict the limits of this -unexampled life? There is nothing which indicates suffering or -degeneracy in the <i>Sequoia</i> as a species. I find pathological hints that -several other far younger species in the same forest are gradually -giving up their struggle for existence. That singular species <i>Pinus -Sabiniana</i> appears to me to suffer death-pains from foot-hill extremes -of temperature and dryness, and notably from ravenous parasites of the -mistletoe type. At the other extreme the <i>Pinus flexilis</i> has about half -given up the fight against cold and storms. Its young are dwarfed or -huddled in thickets, with such mode of growth that they may never make -trees of full stature; while higher up, standing among bare rocks and -fields of ice, far above all living trees, are the stark, white -skeletons of noble dead specimens, their blanched forms rigid and -defiant, preserved from decay by a marvellous hardness of fibre, and -only wasted by the cutting of storm-driven crystals of snow. Still the -<i>Sequoia</i> maintains perfect health.</p> - -<p>It is, then, the vast respiring power, the atmosphere,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53"></a>{53}</span> the bland, -regular climate, which give such long life, and not any richness or -abundance of food received from the soil.</p> - -<p>If one loves to gather the material for travellers’ stories, he may find -here and there a hollow fallen trunk through whose heart he may ride for -many feet without bowing the head. But if he love the tree for its own -grand nature, he may lie in silence upon the soft forest floor, in -shadow or sunny warmth, if he please, and spend many days in wonder, -gazing upon majestic shafts, following their gold and purple flutings -from broad, firmly planted base up and on through the few huge branches -and among the pale clouds of filmy green traced in open network upon the -deep blue of the sky.</p> - -<p>Groups of this ancient race grow along the middle heights of the Sierra -for almost two hundred miles, marking a line of groves through the -forest of lesser trees, still retaining their power of reproduction, -ripening cones with regularity, whose seed germinates, springs up, and -grows with apparently as great vital power as the descendants of younger -conifers. Nor are these their only remarkable characteristics. They -possess hardly any roots at all. Several in each grove have been blown -down, and lie slowly decomposing. They are found usually to have rested -upon the ground with a few short, pedestal-like feet penetrating the -earth for a little way.</p> - -<p>Too soon for my pleasure, the time came when we must turn our backs upon -these stately groves and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54"></a>{54}</span> push up toward the snow. Our route lay -eastward, between the King’s and Kaweah rivers, rising as we marched; -the vegetation, as well as the barometer, accurately measuring the -change.</p> - -<p>We reached our camp on the Big Meadow plateau on the 22nd of June, and -that night the thermometer fell to 20° above zero. This cold was -followed by a chilly, overcast morning, and about ten o’clock an -old-fashioned snowstorm set in. Wind howled fiercely through the trees, -coming down from the mountains in terribly powerful gusts. The green, -flower-colored meadow was soon buried under snow; and we explorers, who -had no tent, hid ourselves under piles of brush, and on the lee side of -hospitable stones. Our scant supply of blankets was a poor defence -against such inclemency; so we crawled out and made a huge camp-fire, -around which we sat for the rest of the day. During the afternoon we -were visited. A couple of hunters, with their rifles over their -shoulders, seeing the smoke of our camp-fire, followed it through the -woods and joined our circle. They were typical mountaineers,—outcasts -from society, discontented with the world, comforting themselves in the -solitude of nature by the occasional excitement of a bear-fight. One was -a half-breed Cherokee, rather over six feet high, powerfully built, and -picturesquely dressed in buckskin breeches and green jacket; a sort of -Trovatore hat completed his costume, and gave him an animated -appearance. The other was unmistakably a Pike-Countian, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55"></a>{55}</span> had dangled -into a pair of butternut jeans. His greasy flannel shirt was pinned -together with thorns in lieu of buttons, and his hat fastened back in -the same way, having lost its stiffness by continual wetting. The -Cherokee had a long, manly stride, and the Pike a rickety sort of -shuffle. His anatomy was bad, his physical condition worse, and I think -he added to that a sort of pride in his own awkwardness. Seeming to have -a principle of suspension somewhere about his shoulders, which -maintained his head at about the right elevation above the ground, he -kept up a good rate in walking without apparently making an effort. His -body swayed with a peculiar, corkscrew motion, and his long Mississippi -rifle waved to and fro through the air.</p> - -<p>We all noticed the utter contrast between them as these two men -approached our fire. The hunter’s taciturnity is a well-known <i>rôle</i>, -but they had evidently lived so long an isolated life that they were too -glad of any company to play it unfailingly; so it was they who opened -the conversation. We found that they were now camped only a half-mile -from us, were hunting for deer-skins, and had already accumulated a very -large number. They offered us plenty of venison, and were greatly -interested in our proposed journeys into the high mountains. From them -we learned that they had themselves penetrated farther than any others, -and had only given up the exploration after wandering fruitlessly among -the cañons for a month. They told us that not even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56"></a>{56}</span> Indians had crossed -the Sierras to the east, and that if we did succeed in reaching this -summit we would certainly be the first. We learned from them, also, that -a mile to the northward was a great herd of cattle in charge of a party -of Mexicans. Fleeing before the continued drought of the plains, all the -cattle-men of California drove the remains of their starved herds either -to the coast or to the High Sierras, and grazed upon the summer -pastures, descending in the autumn, and living upon the dry foot-hill -grasses, until, under the influence of winter rains, the plains again -clothe themselves with pasturage.</p> - -<p>The following morning, having received a present of two deer from the -hunters, we packed our animals and started eastward, passing, after a -few minutes’ ride, the encampment of the Spaniards. About four thousand -cattle roamed over the plateau, and were only looked after once or twice -a week. The four Spaniards divided their time between drinking coffee -and playing cards. They were engaged in the latter amusement when we -passed them; and although we halted and tried to get some information, -they only answered us in monosyllables, and continued their game.</p> - -<p>To the eastward the plateau rose toward the high mountains in immense, -granite steps. We rode pleasantly through the forest over these level -tables, and climbed with difficulty the rugged, rock-strewn fronts, each -successive step bringing us nearer the mountains, and giving us a -far-reaching view. Here<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57"></a>{57}</span> and there the granite rose through the forest -in broad, smooth domes; and many times we were obliged to climb these -rocky slopes at the peril of our animals’ lives. After several days of -marching and countermarching, we gave up the attempt to push farther in -a southeast direction, and turned north, toward the great cañon of -King’s River, which we hoped might lead us up to the Snow Group.</p> - -<p>Reaching the brink of this gorge, we observed, about half-way down the -slope, and standing at equal levels on both flanks, singular -embankments—shelves a thousand feet in width—built at a height of -fifteen hundred feet above the valley bottom, their smooth, evenly -graded summits rising higher and higher to the eastward on the -cañon-wall until they joined the snow. They were evidently the lateral -moraines of a vast, extinct glacier, and that opposite us seemed to -offer an easy ride into the heart of the mountains. With great -difficulty we descended the long slope, through chaparral and forest, -reaching, at length, the level, smooth glacier bottom. Here, threading -its way through alternate groves and meadows, was the King’s River—a -stream not over thirty feet in width, but rushing with all the force of -a torrent. Its icy temperature was very refreshing after our weary climb -down the wall. By a series of long zigzags we succeeded in leading our -animals up the flank to the top of the north moraine, and here we found -ourselves upon a forest-covered causeway, almost as smooth as a railroad -embankment. Its fluted crest<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58"></a>{58}</span> enclosed three separate pathways, each a -hundred feet wide, divided from one another by roughly laid trains of -rocks, showing it evidently to be a compound moraine. As we ascended -toward the mountains, the causeway was more and more isolated from the -cliff, until the depression between them widened to half a mile, and to -at least five hundred feet deep.</p> - -<p>Throughout nearly a whole day we rode comfortably along at a gentle -grade, reaching at evening the region of the snow, where, among -innumerable huge granite blocks, we threaded our way in search of a -camp-ground. The mountain amphitheatre which gave rise to the King’s -River opened to the east, a broad valley, into which we at length -climbed; and, among scattered groves of alpine pines, and on patches of -meadow, rode eastward till twilight, watching the high pyramidal peak -which lay directly at the head of the gorge. By sunset we had gone as -far as we could take the animals, and, in full view of our goal, camped -for the night.</p> - -<p>The form of the mountain at the head of our ravine was purely Gothic. A -thousand upspringing spires and pinnacles pierce the sky in every -direction, the cliffs and mountain-ridges are everywhere ornamented with -countless needle-like turrets. Crowning the wall to the south of our -camp were series of these jagged forms standing out against the sky like -a procession of colossal statues. Whichever way we turned we were met by -some extraordinary fulness of detail. Every mass seemed to have the -highest<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59"></a>{59}</span> possible ornamental finish. Along the lower flanks of the -walls, tall, straight pines, the last of the forest, were relieved -against the cliffs, and the same slender forms, although carved in -granite, surmounted every ridge and peak.</p> - -<p>Through this wide zone of forest we had now passed, and from its -perpetual shadow had come out among the few black groves of fir into a -brilliant alpine sunshine. The light, although surprisingly lively, was -of a purity and refinement quite different from the strong glare of the -plains.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60"></a>{60}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III<br /><br /> -THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL<br /><br /> -1864</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Morning</span> dawned brightly upon our bivouac among a cluster of dark firs in -the mountain corridor opened by an ancient glacier of King’s River into -the heart of the Sierras. It dawned a trifle sooner than we could have -wished, but Professor Brewer and Hoffman had breakfasted before sunrise, -and were off with barometer and theodolite upon their shoulders, -purposing to ascend our amphitheatre to its head and climb a great -pyramidal peak which swelled up against the eastern sky, closing the -view in that direction.</p> - -<p>We who remained in camp spent the day in overhauling campaign materials -and preparing for a grand assault upon the summits. For a couple of -hours we could descry our friends through the field-glasses, their -minute, black forms moving slowly on among piles of giant <i>débris</i>; now -and then lost, again coming to view, and at last disappearing -altogether.</p> - -<p>It was twilight of evening, and almost eight o’clock, when they came -back to camp, Brewer leading the way, Hoffman following; and as they -sat<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61"></a>{61}</span> down by our fire without uttering a word, we read upon their faces -terrible fatigue. So we hastened to give them supper of coffee and soup, -bread and venison, which resulted, after a time, in our getting in -return the story of the day. For eight whole hours they had worked up -over granite and snow, mounting ridge after ridge, till the summit was -made about two o’clock.</p> - -<p>These snowy crests bounding our view at the eastward we had all along -taken to be the summits of the Sierra, and Brewer had supposed himself -to be climbing a dominant peak, from which he might look eastward over -Owen’s Valley and out upon leagues of desert. Instead of this, a vast -wall of mountains, lifted still higher than his peak, rose beyond a -tremendous cañon which lay like a trough between the two parallel ranks -of peaks. Hoffman showed us on his sketch-book the profile of this new -range, and I instantly recognized the peaks which I had seen from -Mariposa, whose great white pile had led me to believe them the highest -points of California.</p> - -<p>For a couple of months my friends had made me the target of plenty of -pleasant banter about my “highest land,” which they lost faith in as we -climbed from Thomas’s Mill,—I, too, becoming a trifle anxious about it; -but now that the truth had burst upon Brewer and Hoffman, they could not -find words to describe the terribleness and grandeur of the deep cañon, -or for picturing those huge crags<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62"></a>{62}</span> towering in line at the east. Their -peak, as indicated by the barometer, was in the region of thirteen -thousand four hundred feet, and a level across to the farther range -showed its crests to be at least fifteen hundred feet higher. They had -spent hours upon the summit scanning the eastern horizon, and ranging -downward into the labyrinth of gulfs below, and had come at last with -reluctance to the belief that to cross this gorge and ascend the eastern -wall of peaks was utterly impossible.</p> - -<p>Brewer and Hoffman were old climbers, and their verdict of impossible -oppressed me as I lay awake thinking of it; but early next morning I had -made up my mind, and, taking Cotter aside, I asked him in an easy manner -whether he would like to penetrate the Terra Incognita with me at the -risk of our necks, provided Brewer should consent. In a frank, -courageous tone he answered after his usual mode, “Why not?” Stout of -limb, stronger yet in heart, of iron endurance, and a quiet, unexcited -temperament, and, better yet, deeply devoted to me, I felt that Cotter -was the one comrade I would choose to face death with, for I believed -there was in his manhood no room for fear or shirk.</p> - -<p>It was a trying moment for Brewer when we found him and volunteered to -attempt a campaign for the top of California, because he felt a certain -fatherly responsibility over our youth, a natural desire that we should -not deposit our triturated remains in some undiscoverable hole among the -feldspathic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63"></a>{63}</span> granites; but, like a true disciple of science, this was at -last overbalanced by his intense desire to know more of the unexplored -region. He freely confessed that he believed the plan madness, and -Hoffman, too, told us we might as well attempt to get on a cloud as to -try the peak. As Brewer gradually yielded his consent, I saw by his -conversation that there was a possibility of success; so we spent the -rest of the day in making preparations.</p> - -<p>Our walking-shoes were in excellent condition, the hobnails firm and -new. We laid out a barometer, a compass, a pocket-level, a set of wet -and dry thermometers, note-books, with bread, cooked beans, and venison -enough to last a week, rolled them all in blankets, making two -knapsack-shaped packs strapped firmly together, with loops for the arms, -which, by Brewer’s estimate, weighed forty pounds apiece.</p> - -<p>Gardiner declared he would accompany us to the summit of the first range -to look over into the gulf we were to cross, and at last Brewer and -Hoffman also concluded to go up with us.</p> - -<p>Quite too early for our profit we all betook ourselves to bed, vainly -hoping to get a long, refreshing sleep from which we should arise ready -for our tramp.</p> - -<p>Never a man welcomed those first gray streaks in the east gladder than I -did, unless it may be Cotter, who has in later years confessed that he -did not go to sleep that night. Long before sunrise we had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64"></a>{64}</span> finished our -breakfast and were under way, Hoffman kindly bearing my pack, and Brewer -Cotter’s.</p> - -<p>Our way led due east up the amphitheatre and toward Mount Brewer, as we -had named the great pyramidal peak.</p> - -<p>Awhile after leaving camp, slant sunlight streamed in among gilded -pinnacles along the slope of Mount Brewer, touching here and there, in -broad dashes of yellow, the gray walls, which rose sweeping up on either -hand like the sides of a ship.</p> - -<p>Our way along the valley’s middle ascended over a number of huge steps, -rounded and abrupt, at whose bases were pools of transparent snow-water, -edged with rude piles of erratic glacier blocks, scattered companies of -alpine firs, of red bark and having cypress-like darkness of foliage, -with fields of snow under sheltering cliffs, and bits of softest velvet -meadow clouded with minute blue and white flowers.</p> - -<p>As we climbed, the gorge grew narrow and sharp, both sides wilder; and -the spurs which projected from them, nearly overhanging the middle of -the valley, towered above us with more and more severe sculpture. We -frequently crossed deep fields of snow, and at last reached the level of -the highest pines, where long slopes of <i>débris</i> swept down from either -cliff, meeting in the middle. Over and among these immense blocks, often -twenty and thirty feet high, we were obliged to climb, hearing far below -us the subterranean gurgle of streams.</p> - -<p>Interlocking spurs nearly closed the gorge behind<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65"></a>{65}</span> us; our last view was -out a granite gateway formed of two nearly vertical precipices, -sharp-edged, jutting buttress-like, and plunging down into a field of -angular bowlders which fill the valley-bottom.</p> - -<p>The eye ranged out from this open gateway overlooking the great King’s -Cañon with its moraine-terraced walls, the domes of granite upon Big -Meadows, and the undulating stretch of forest which descends to the -plain.</p> - -<p>The gorge turning southward, we rounded a sort of mountain promontory, -which, closing the view behind us, shut us up in the bottom of a perfect -basin. In front lay a placid lake reflecting the intense black-blue of -the sky. Granite, stained with purple and red, sank into it upon one -side, and a broad, spotless field of snow came down to its margin upon -the other.</p> - -<p>From a pile of large granite blocks, forty or fifty feet above the -lake-margin, we could look down fully a hundred feet through the -transparent water to where bowlders and pebbles were strewn upon the -stone bottom. We had now reached the base of Mount Brewer, and were -skirting its southern spurs in a wide, open corridor surrounded in all -directions by lofty granite crags from two to four thousand feet high; -above the limits of vegetation, rocks, lakes of deep, heavenly blue, and -white, trackless snows were grouped closely about us. Two sounds—a -sharp, little cry of martens and occasional heavy crashes of falling -rock—saluted us.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66"></a>{66}</span></p> - -<p>Climbing became exceedingly difficult, light air—for we had already -reached twelve thousand five hundred feet—beginning to tell upon our -lungs to such an extent that my friend, who had taken turns with me in -carrying my pack, was unable to do so any longer, and I adjusted it to -my own shoulders for the rest of the day.</p> - -<p>After four hours of slow, laborious work, we made the base of the -<i>débris</i> slope which rose about a thousand feet to a saddle-pass in the -western mountain-wall, that range upon which Mount Brewer is so -prominent a point. We were nearly an hour in toiling up this slope, over -an uncertain footing which gave way at almost every step. At last, when -almost at the top, we paused to take breath, and then all walked out -upon the crest, laid off our packs, and sat down together upon the -summit of the ridge, and for a few moments not a word was spoken.</p> - -<p>The Sierras are here two parallel summit ranges. We were upon the crest -of the western ridge, and looked down into a gulf five thousand feet -deep, sinking from our feet in abrupt cliffs nearly or quite two -thousand feet, whose base plunged into a broad field of snow lying steep -and smooth for a great distance, but broken near its foot by craggy -steps often a thousand feet high.</p> - -<p>Vague blue haze obscured the lost depths, hiding details, giving a -bottomless distance, out of which, like the breath of wind, floated up a -faint tremble, vibrating upon the senses, yet never clearly heard.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67"></a>{67}</span></p> - -<p>Rising on the other side, cliff above cliff, precipice piled upon -precipice, rock over rock, up against sky, towered the most gigantic -mountain-wall in America, culminating in a noble pile of Gothic-finished -granite and enamel-like snow. How grand and inviting looked its white -form, its untrodden, unknown crest, so high and pure in the clear, -strong blue! I looked at it as one contemplating the purpose of his -life; and for just one moment I would have rather liked to dodge that -purpose, or to have waited, or have found some excellent reason why I -might not go; but all this quickly vanished, leaving a cheerful resolve -to go ahead.</p> - -<p>From the two opposing mountain-walls singular, thin, knife-blade ridges -of stone jutted out, dividing the sides of the gulf into a series of -amphitheatres, each one a labyrinth of ice and rock. Piercing thick beds -of snow, sprang up knobs and straight, isolated spires of rock, mere -obelisks curiously carved by frost, their rigid, slender forms casting a -blue, sharp shadow upon the snow. Embosomed in depressions of ice, or -resting on broken ledges, were azure lakes, deeper in tone than the sky, -which at this altitude, even at midday, has a violet duskiness.</p> - -<p>To the south, not more than eight miles, a wall of peaks stood across -the gulf, dividing the King’s, which flowed north at our feet, from the -Kern River, that flowed down the trough in the opposite direction.</p> - -<p>I did not wonder that Brewer and Hoffman pronounced our undertaking -impossible; but when I<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68"></a>{68}</span> looked at Cotter there was such complete bravery -in his eye that I asked him if he was ready to start. His old answer, -“Why not?” left the initiative with me; so I told Professor Brewer that -we would bid him good-by. Our friends helped us on with our packs in -silence, and as we shook hands there was not a dry eye in the party. -Before he let go of my hand Professor Brewer asked me for my plan, and I -had to own that I had but one, which was to reach the highest peak in -the range.</p> - -<p>After looking in every direction I was obliged to confess that I saw as -yet no practicable way. We bade them a “good-by,” receiving their “God -bless you” in return, and started southward along the range to look for -some possible cliff to descend. Brewer, Gardiner, and Hoffman turned -north to push upward to the summit of Mount Brewer, and complete their -observations. We saw them whenever we halted, until at last, on the very -summit, their microscopic forms were for the last time discernible. With -very great difficulty we climbed a peak which surmounted our wall just -to the south of the pass, and, looking over the eastern brink, found -that the precipice was still sheer and unbroken. In one place, where the -snow lay against it to the very top, we went to its edge and -contemplated the slide. About three thousand feet of unbroken white, at -a fearfully steep angle, lay below us. We threw a stone over and watched -it bound until it was lost in the distance; after fearful leaps we could -only detect<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69"></a>{69}</span> it by the flashings of snow where it struck, and as these -were, in some instances, three hundred feet apart, we decided not to -launch our own valuable bodies, and the still more precious barometer, -after it.</p> - -<p>There seemed but one possible way to reach our goal: that was to make -our way along the summit of the cross ridge which projected between the -two ranges. This divide sprang out from our Mount Brewer wall, about -four miles to the south of us. To reach it we must climb up and down -over the indented edge of the Mount Brewer wall. In attempting to do -this we had a rather lively time scaling a sharp granite needle, where -we found our course completely stopped by precipices four and five -hundred feet in height. Ahead of us the summit continued to be broken -into fantastic pinnacles, leaving us no hope of making our way along it; -so we sought the most broken part of the eastern descent, and began to -climb down. The heavy knapsacks, besides wearing our shoulders gradually -into a black-and-blue state, overbalanced us terribly, and kept us in -constant danger of pitching headlong. At last, taking them off, Cotter -climbed down until he had found a resting-place upon a cleft of rock, -then I lowered them to him with our lasso, afterward descending -cautiously to his side, taking my turn in pioneering downward, receiving -the freight of knapsacks by lasso as before. In this manner we consumed -more than half the afternoon in descending a thousand feet of broken,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70"></a>{70}</span> -precipitous slope; and it was almost sunset when we found ourselves upon -the fields of level snow which lay white and thick over the whole -interior slope of the amphitheatre.</p> - -<p>The gorge below us seemed utterly impassable. At our backs the Mount -Brewer wall rose either in sheer cliffs or in broken, rugged stairway, -such as had offered us our descent. From this cruel dilemma the cross -divide furnished the only hope, and the sole chance of scaling that was -at its junction with the Mount Brewer wall. Toward this point we -directed our course, marching wearily over stretches of dense, frozen -snow, and regions of <i>débris</i>, reaching about sunset the last alcove of -the amphitheatre, just at the foot of the Mount Brewer wall.</p> - -<p>It was evidently impossible for us to attempt to climb it that evening, -and we looked about the desolate recesses for a sheltered camping-spot. -A high granite wall surrounded us upon three sides, recurring to the -southward in long, elliptical curves; no part of the summit being less -than two thousand feet above us, the higher crags not infrequently -reaching three thousand feet. A single field of snow swept around the -base of the rock, and covered the whole amphitheatre, except where a few -spikes and rounded masses of granite rose through it, and where two -frozen lakes, with their blue ice-disks, broke the monotonous surface. -Through the white snow-gate of our amphitheatre, as through a frame, we -looked eastward upon the summit group; not a tree, not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71"></a>{71}</span> vestige of -vegetation in sight,—sky, snow, and granite the only elements in this -wild picture.</p> - -<p>After searching for a shelter we at last found a granite crevice near -the margin of one of the frozen lakes,—a sort of shelf just large -enough for Cotter and me,—where we hastened to make our bed, having -first filled the canteen from a small stream that trickled over the ice, -knowing that in a few moments the rapid chill would freeze it. We ate -our supper of cold venison and bread, and whittled from the sides of the -wooden barometer-case shavings enough to warm water for a cup of -miserably tepid tea, and then, packing our provisions and instruments -away at the head of the shelf, rolled ourselves in our blankets and lay -down to enjoy the view.</p> - -<p>After such fatiguing exercises the mind has an almost abnormal -clearness: whether this is wholly from within, or due to the intensely -vitalizing mountain air, I am not sure; probably both contribute to the -state of exaltation in which all alpine climbers find themselves. The -solid granite gave me a luxurious repose, and I lay on the edge of our -little rock niche and watched the strange yet brilliant scene.</p> - -<p>All the snow of our recess lay in the shadow of the high granite wall to -the west, but the Kern divide which curved around us from the southeast -was in full light; its broken sky line, battlemented and adorned with -innumerable rough-hewn spires and pinnacles, was a mass of glowing -orange intensely defined against the deep violet sky. At the open<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72"></a>{72}</span> end -of our horseshoe amphitheatre, to the east, its floor of snow rounded -over in a smooth brink, overhanging precipices which sank two thousand -feet into the King’s Cañon. Across the gulf rose the whole procession of -summit peaks, their lower halves rooted in a deep, sombre shadow cast by -the western wall, the heights bathed in a warm purple haze, in which the -irregular marbling of snow burned with a pure crimson light. A few -fleecy clouds, dyed fiery orange, drifted slowly eastward across the -narrow zone of sky which stretched from summit to summit like a roof. At -times the sound of waterfalls, faint and mingled with echoes, floated up -through the still air. The snow near by lay in cold, ghastly shade, -warmed here and there in strange flashes by light reflected downward -from drifting clouds. The sombre waste about us; the deep violet vault -overhead; those far summits, glowing with reflected rose; the deep, -impenetrable gloom which filled the gorge, and slowly and with -vapor-like stealth climbed the mountain wall, extinguishing the red -light, combined to produce an effect which may not be described; nor can -I more than hint at the contrast between the brilliancy of the scene -under full light, and the cold, death-like repose which followed when -the wan cliffs and pallid snow were all overshadowed with ghostly gray.</p> - -<p>A sudden chill enveloped us. Stars in a moment crowded through the dark -heaven, flashing with a frosty splendor. The snow congealed, the brooks<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73"></a>{73}</span> -ceased to flow, and, under the powerful sudden leverage of frost, -immense blocks were dislodged all along the mountain summits and came -thundering down the slopes, booming upon the ice, dashing wildly upon -rocks. Under the lee of our shelf we felt quite safe, but neither Cotter -nor I could help being startled, and jumping just a little, as these -missiles, weighing often many tons, struck the ledge over our heads and -whizzed down the gorge, their stroke resounding fainter and fainter, -until at last only a confused echo reached us.</p> - -<p>The thermometer at nine o’clock marked twenty degrees above zero. We set -the “minimum” and rolled ourselves together for the night. The longer I -lay the less I liked that shelf of granite; it grew hard in time, and -cold also, my bones seeming to approach actual contact with the chilled -rock; moreover, I found that even so vigorous a circulation as mine was -not enough to warm up the ledge to anything like a comfortable -temperature. A single thickness of blanket is a better mattress than -none, but the larger crystals of orthoclase, protruding plentifully, -punched my back and caused me to revolve on a horizontal axis with -precision and frequency. How I loved Cotter! How I hugged him and got -warm, while our backs gradually petrified, till we whirled over and -thawed them out together! The slant of that bed was diagonal and -excessive; down it we slid till the ice chilled us awake, and we crawled -back and chocked ourselves up with bits of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74"></a>{74}</span> granite inserted under my -ribs and shoulders. In this pleasant position we got dozing again, and -there stole over me a most comfortable ease. The granite softened -perceptibly. I was delightfully warm, and sank into an industrious -slumber which lasted with great soundness till four, when we rose and -ate our breakfast of frozen venison.</p> - -<p>The thermometer stood at two above zero; everything was frozen tight -except the canteen, which we had prudently kept between us all night. -Stars still blazed brightly, and the moon, hidden from us by western -cliffs, shone in pale reflection upon the rocky heights to the east, -which rose, dimly white, up from the impenetrable shadows of the cañon. -Silence,—cold, ghastly dimness, in which loomed huge forms,—the biting -frostiness of the air, wrought upon our feelings as we shouldered our -packs and started with slow pace to climb toward the “divide.”</p> - -<p>Soon, to our dismay, we found the straps had so chafed our shoulders -that the weight gave us great pain, and obliged us to pad them with our -handkerchiefs and extra socks, which remedy did not wholly relieve us -from the constant wearing pain of the heavy load.</p> - -<p>Directing our steps southward toward a niche in the wall which bounded -us only half a mile distant, we travelled over a continuous snow-field -frozen so densely as scarcely to yield at all to our tread, at the same -time compressing enough to make that crisp, frosty sound which we all -used to enjoy even before<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75"></a>{75}</span> we knew from the books that it had something -to do with the severe name of regulation.</p> - -<p>As we advanced, the snow sloped more and more steeply up toward the -crags, till by and by it became quite dangerous, causing us to cut steps -with Cotter’s large bowie-knife,—a slow, tedious operation, requiring -patience of a pretty permanent kind. In this way we spent a quiet social -hour or so. The sun had not yet reached us, being shut out by the high -amphitheatre wall; but its cheerful light reflected downward from a -number of higher crags, filling the recess with the brightness of day, -and putting out of existence those shadows which so sombrely darkened -the earlier hours. To look back when we stopped to rest was to realize -our danger,—that smooth, swift slope of ice carrying the eye down a -thousand feet to the margin of a frozen mirror of ice; ribs and needles -of rock piercing up through the snow, so closely grouped that, had we -fallen, a miracle only might save us from being dashed. This led to -rather deeper steps, and greater care that our burdens should be held -more nearly over the centre of gravity, and a pleasant relief when we -got to the top of the snow and sat down on a block of granite to breathe -and look up in search of a way up the thousand-foot cliff of broken -surface, among the lines of fracture and the galleries winding along the -face.</p> - -<p>It would have disheartened us to gaze up the hard, sheer front of -precipices, and search among splintered projections, crevices, shelves, -and snow-patches<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76"></a>{76}</span> for an inviting route, had we not been animated by a -faith that the mountains could not defy us.</p> - -<p>Choosing what looked like the least impossible way, we started; but, -finding it unsafe to work with packs on, resumed the yesterday’s -plan,—Cotter taking the lead, climbing about fifty feet ahead, and -hoisting up the knapsacks and barometer as I tied them to the end of the -lasso. Constantly closing up in hopeless difficulty before us, the way -opened again and again to our gymnastics, until we stood together upon a -mere shelf, not more than two feet wide, which led diagonally up the -smooth cliff. Edging along in careful steps, our backs flattened upon -the granite, we moved slowly to a broad platform, where we stopped for -breath.</p> - -<p>There was no foothold above us. Looking down over the course we had -come, it seemed, and I really believe it was, an impossible descent; for -one can climb upward with safety where he cannot downward. To turn back -was to give up in defeat; and we sat at least half an hour, suggesting -all possible routes to the summit, accepting none, and feeling -disheartened. About thirty feet directly over our heads was another -shelf, which, if we could reach, seemed to offer at least a temporary -way upward. On its edge were two or three spikes of granite; whether -firmly connected with the cliff, or merely blocks of <i>débris</i>, we could -not tell from below. I said to Cotter, I thought of but one possible -plan: it was to lasso one of these blocks, and to climb,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77"></a>{77}</span> -sailor-fashion, hand over hand, up the rope. In the lasso I had perfect -confidence, for I had seen more than one Spanish bull throw his whole -weight against it without parting a strand. The shelf was so narrow that -throwing the coil of rope was a very difficult undertaking. I tried -three times, and Cotter spent five minutes vainly whirling the loop up -at the granite spikes. At last I made a lucky throw, and it tightened -upon one of the smaller protuberances. I drew the noose close, and very -gradually threw my hundred and fifty pounds upon the rope; then Cotter -joined me, and for a moment we both hung our united weight upon it. -Whether the rock moved slightly, or whether the lasso stretched a -little, we were unable to decide; but the trial must be made, and I -began to climb slowly. The smooth precipice-face against which my body -swung offered no foothold, and the whole climb had therefore to be done -by the arms, an effort requiring all one’s determination. When about -half way up I was obliged to rest, and curling my feet in the rope -managed to relieve my arms for a moment. In this position I could not -resist the fascinating temptation of a survey downward.</p> - -<p>Straight down, nearly a thousand feet below, at the foot of the rocks, -began the snow, whose steep, roof-like slope, exaggerated into an almost -vertical angle, curved down in a long, white field, broken far away by -rocks and polished, round lakes of ice.</p> - -<p>Cotter looked up cheerfully, and asked how I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_78" id="page_78"></a>{78}</span> making it; to which I -answered that I had plenty of wind left. At that moment, when hanging -between heaven and earth, it was a deep satisfaction to look down at the -wild gulf of desolation beneath, and up to unknown dangers ahead, and -feel my nerves cool and unshaken.</p> - -<p>A few pulls hand over hand brought me to the edge of the shelf, when, -throwing an arm around the granite spike, I swung my body upon the -shelf, and lay down to rest, shouting to Cotter that I was all right, -and that the prospects upward were capital. After a few moments’ -breathing I looked over the brink, and directed my comrade to tie the -barometer to the lower end of the lasso, which he did, and that precious -instrument was hoisted to my station, and the lasso sent down twice for -knapsacks, after which Cotter came up the rope in his very muscular way, -without once stopping to rest. We took our loads in our hands, swinging -the barometer over my shoulder, and climbed up a shelf which led in a -zigzag direction upward and to the south, bringing us out at last upon -the thin blade of a ridge which connected a short distance above with -the summit. It was formed of huge blocks, shattered, and ready, at a -touch, to fall.</p> - -<p>So narrow and sharp was the upper slope that we dared not walk, but got -astride, and worked slowly along with our hands, pushing the knapsacks -in advance, now and then holding our breath when loose masses rocked -under our weight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_79" id="page_79"></a>{79}</span></p> - -<p>Once upon the summit, a grand view burst upon us. Hastening to step upon -the crest of the divide, which was never more than ten feet wide, -frequently sharpened to a mere blade, we looked down the other side, and -were astonished to find we had ascended the gentler slope, and that the -rocks fell from our feet in almost vertical precipices for a thousand -feet or more. A glance along the summit toward the highest group showed -us that any advance in that direction was impossible, for the thin ridge -was gashed down in notches three or four hundred feet deep, forming a -procession of pillars, obelisks, and blocks piled upon each other, and -looking terribly insecure.</p> - -<p>We then deposited our knapsacks in a safe place, and, finding that it -was already noon, determined to rest a little while and take a lunch, at -over thirteen thousand feet above the sea.</p> - -<p>West of us stretched the Mount Brewer wall, with its succession of -smooth precipices and amphitheatre ridges. To the north the great gorge -of the King’s River yawned down five thousand feet. To the south the -valley of the Kern, opening in the opposite direction, was broader, less -deep, but more filled with broken masses of granite. Clustered about the -foot of the divide were a dozen alpine lakes; the higher ones blue -sheets of ice, the lowest completely melted. Still lower in the depths -of the two cañons we could see groups of forest trees; but they were so -dim and so distant as never to relieve<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_80" id="page_80"></a>{80}</span> the prevalent masses of rock and -snow. Our divide cast its shadow for a mile down King’s Cañon, in dark -blue profile upon the broad sheets of sunny snow, from whose brightness -the hard, splintered cliffs caught reflections and wore an aspect of -joy. Thousands of rills poured from the melting snow, filling the air -with a musical tinkle as of many accordant bells. The Kern Valley opened -below us with its smooth, oval outline, the work of extinct glaciers, -whose form and extent were evident from worn cliff-surface and rounded -wall; snow-fields, relics of the former <i>névé</i>, hung in white tapestries -around its ancient birthplace; and as far as we could see, the broad, -corrugated valley, for a breadth of fully ten miles, shone with -burnishings wherever its granite surface was not covered with lakelets -or thickets of alpine vegetation.</p> - -<p>Through a deep cut in the Mount Brewer wall we gained our first view to -the westward, and saw in the distance the wall of the South King’s -Cañon, and the granite point which Cotter and I had climbed a fortnight -before. But for the haze we might have seen the plain; for above its -farther limit were several points of the Coast Ranges, isolated like -islands in the sea.</p> - -<p>The view was so grand, the mountain colors so brilliant, immense -snow-fields and blue alpine lakes so charming, that we almost forgot we -were ever to move, and it was only after a swift hour of this delight -that we began to consider our future course.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_81" id="page_81"></a>{81}</span></p> - -<p>The King’s Cañon, which headed against our wall, seemed -untraversable—no human being could climb along the divide; we had, -then, but one hope of reaching the peak, and our greatest difficulty lay -at the start. If we could climb down to the Kern side of the divide, and -succeed in reaching the base of the precipices which fell from our feet, -it really looked as if we might travel without difficulty among the -<i>roches moutonnées</i> to the other side of the Kern Valley, and make our -attempt upon the southward flank of the great peak. One look at the -sublime white giant decided us. We looked down over the precipice, and -at first could see no method of descent. Then we went back and looked at -the road we had come up, to see if that were not possibly as bad; but -the broken surface of the rocks was evidently much better -climbing-ground than anything ahead of us. Cotter, with danger, edged -his way along the wall to the east and I to the west, to see if there -might not be some favorable point; but we both returned with the belief -that the precipice in front of us was as passable as any of it. Down it -we must.</p> - -<p>After lying on our faces, looking over the brink, ten or twenty minutes, -I suggested that by lowering ourselves on the rope we might climb from -crevice to crevice; but we saw no shelf large enough for ourselves and -the knapsacks too. However, we were not going to give it up without a -trial; and I made the rope fast around my breast, and, looping the noose -over a firm point of rock, let myself slide<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_82" id="page_82"></a>{82}</span> gradually down to a notch -forty feet below. There was only room beside me for Cotter, so I made -him send down the knapsacks first. I then tied these together by the -straps with my silk handkerchiefs, and hung them off as far to the left -as I could reach without losing my balance, looping the handkerchiefs -over a point of rock. Cotter then slid down the rope, and, with -considerable difficulty, we whipped the noose off its resting-place -above, and cut off our connection with the upper world.</p> - -<p>“We’re in for it now, King,” remarked my comrade, as he looked aloft, -and then down; but our blood was up, and danger added only an -exhilarating thrill to the nerves.</p> - -<p>The shelf was hardly more than two feet wide, and the granite so smooth -that we could find no place to fasten the lasso for the next descent; so -I determined to try the climb with only as little aid as possible. Tying -it around my breast again, I gave the other end into Cotter’s hands, and -he, bracing his back against the cliff, found for himself as firm a -foothold as he could, and promised to give me all the help in his power. -I made up my mind to bear no weight unless it was absolutely necessary; -and for the first ten feet I found cracks and protuberances enough to -support me, making every square inch of surface do friction duty, and -hugging myself against the rocks as tightly as I could. When within -about eight feet of the next shelf, I twisted myself round upon the -face, hanging by two rough blocks of protruding<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_83" id="page_83"></a>{83}</span> feldspar, and looked -vainly for some further hand-hold; but the rock, besides being perfectly -smooth, overhung slightly, and my legs dangled in the air. I saw that -the next cleft was over three feet broad, and I thought possibly I -might, by a quick slide, reach it in safety without endangering Cotter. -I shouted to him to be very careful and let go in case I fell, loosened -my hold upon the rope and slid quickly down. My shoulder struck against -the rock and threw me out of balance; for an instant I reeled over upon -the verge, in danger of falling, but, in the excitement, I thrust out my -hand and seized a small alpine gooseberry-bush, the first piece of -vegetation we had seen. Its roots were so firmly fixed in the crevice -that it held my weight and saved me.</p> - -<p>I could no longer see Cotter, but I talked to him, and heard the two -knapsacks come bumping along till they slid over the eaves above me, and -swung down to my station, when I seized the lasso’s end and braced -myself as well as possible, intending, if he slipped, to haul in slack -and help him as best I might. As he came slowly down from crack to -crack, I heard his hobnailed shoes grating on the granite; presently -they appeared dangling from the eaves above my head. I had gathered in -the rope until it was taut, and then hurriedly told him to drop. He -hesitated a moment, and let go. Before he struck the rock I had him by -the shoulder, and whirled him down upon his side, thus preventing his<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_84" id="page_84"></a>{84}</span> -rolling overboard, which friendly action he took quite coolly.</p> - -<p>The third descent was not a difficult one, nor the fourth; but when we -had climbed down about two hundred and fifty feet, the rocks were so -glacially polished and water-worn that it seemed impossible to get any -farther. To our right was a crack penetrating the rock, perhaps a foot -deep, widening at the surface to three or four inches, which proved to -be the only possible ladder. As the chances seemed rather desperate, we -concluded to tie ourselves together, in order to share a common fate; -and with a slack of thirty feet between us, and our knapsacks upon our -backs, we climbed into the crevice, and began descending with our faces -to the cliff. This had to be done with unusual caution, for the foothold -was about as good as none, and our fingers slipped annoyingly on the -smooth stone; besides, the knapsacks and instruments kept a steady -backward pull, tending to overbalance us. But we took pains to descend -one at a time, and rest wherever the niches gave our feet a safe -support. In this way we got down about eighty feet of smooth, nearly -vertical wall, reaching the top of a rude granite stairway, which led to -the snow; and here we sat down to rest, and found to our astonishment -that we had been three hours from the summit.</p> - -<p>After breathing a half-minute we continued down, jumping from rock to -rock, and having, by practice, become very expert in balancing -ourselves, sprang<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_85" id="page_85"></a>{85}</span> on, never resting long enough to lose the <i>aplomb</i>; -and in this manner made a quick descent over rugged <i>débris</i> to the -crest of a snow-field, which, for seven or eight hundred feet more, -swept down in a smooth, even slope, of very high angle, to the borders -of a frozen lake.</p> - -<p>Without untying the lasso which bound us together, we sprang upon the -snow with a shout, and glissaded down splendidly, turning now and then a -somersault, and shooting out like cannon-balls almost to the middle of -the frozen lake; I upon my back, and Cotter feet first, in a swimming -position. The ice cracked in all directions. It was only a thin, -transparent film, through which we could see deep into the lake. Untying -ourselves, we hurried ashore in different directions, lest our combined -weight should be too great a strain upon any point.</p> - -<p>With curiosity and wonder we scanned every shelf and niche of the last -descent. It seemed quite impossible we could have come down there, and -now it actually was beyond human power to get back again. But what cared -we? “Sufficient unto the day—” We were bound for that still distant, -though gradually nearing, summit; and we had come from a cold, shadowed -cliff into deliciously warm sunshine, and were jolly, shouting, singing -songs, and calling out the companionship of a hundred echoes. Six miles -away, with no grave danger, no great difficulty, between us, lay the -base of our grand mountain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_86" id="page_86"></a>{86}</span> Upon its skirts we saw a little grove of -pines, an ideal bivouac, and toward this we bent our course.</p> - -<p>After the continued climbing of the day walking was a delicious rest, -and forward we pressed with considerable speed, our hobnails giving us -firm footing on the glittering, glacial surface. Every fluting of the -great valley was in itself a considerable cañon, into which we -descended, climbing down the scored rocks, and swinging from block to -block, until we reached the level of the pines. Here, sheltered among -<i>roches moutonnées</i>, began to appear little fields of alpine grass, pale -yet sunny, soft under our feet, fragrantly jewelled with flowers of -fairy delicacy, holding up amid thickly clustered blades chalices of -turquoise and amethyst, white stars, and fiery little globes of red. -Lakelets, small but innumerable, were held in glacial basins, the striæ -and grooves of that old dragon’s track ornamenting their smooth bottoms.</p> - -<p>One of these, a sheet of pure beryl hue, gave us much pleasure from its -lovely transparency, and because we lay down in the necklace of grass -about it and smelled flowers, while tired muscles relaxed upon warm beds -of verdure, and the pain in our burdened shoulders went away, leaving us -delightfully comfortable.</p> - -<p>After the stern grandeur of granite and ice, and with the peaks and -walls still in view, it was relief to find ourselves again in the region -of life. I never felt for trees and flowers such a sense of intimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_87" id="page_87"></a>{87}</span> -relationship and sympathy. When we had no longer excuse for resting, I -invented the palpable subterfuge of measuring the altitude of the spot, -since the few clumps of low, wide-boughed pines near by were the highest -living trees. So we lay longer with less and less will to rise, and when -resolution called us to our feet, the getting-up was sorely like Rip Van -Winkle’s in the third act.</p> - -<p>The deep, glacial cañon-flutings across which our march then lay proved -to be great consumers of time: indeed, it was sunset when we reached the -eastern ascent, and began to toil up through scattered pines, and over -trains of moraine rocks, toward the great peak. Stars were already -flashing brilliantly in the sky, and the low, glowing arch in the west -had almost vanished when we came to the upper trees, and threw down our -knapsacks to camp. The forest grew on a sort of plateau-shelf with a -precipitous front to the west,—a level surface which stretched eastward -and back to the foot of our mountain, whose lower spurs reached within a -mile of camp. Within the shelter lay a huge, fallen log, like all these -alpine woods one mass of resin, which flared up when we applied a match, -illuminating the whole grove. By contrast with the darkness outside, we -seemed to be in a vast, many-pillared hall. The stream close by afforded -water for our blessed teapot; venison frizzled with mild, appetizing -sound upon the ends of pine sticks; matchless beans allowed themselves -to become seductively crisp upon our tin plates. That<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_88" id="page_88"></a>{88}</span> supper seemed to -me then the quintessence of gastronomy, and I am sure Cotter and I must -have said some very good <i>après-dîner</i> things, though I long ago forgot -them all. Within the ring of warmth, on elastic beds of pine-needles; we -curled up, and fell swiftly into a sound sleep.</p> - -<p>I woke up once in the night to look at my watch, and observed that the -sky was overcast with a thin film of cirrus cloud to which the reflected -moonlight lent the appearance of a glimmering tent, stretched from -mountain to mountain over cañons filled with impenetrable darkness, only -the vaguely lighted peaks and white snow-fields distinctly seen. I -closed my eyes and slept soundly until Cotter woke me at half-past -three, when we arose, breakfasted by the light of our fire, which still -blazed brilliantly, and, leaving our knapsacks, started for the mountain -with only instruments, canteens, and luncheon.</p> - -<p>In the indistinct moonlight climbing was very difficult at first, for we -had to thread our way along a plain which was literally covered with -glacier bowlders, and the innumerable brooks which we crossed were -frozen solid. However, our march brought us to the base of the great -mountain, which, rising high against the east, shut out the coming -daylight, and kept us in profound shadow. From base to summit rose a -series of broken crags, lifting themselves from a general slope of -<i>débris</i>. Toward the left the angle seemed to be rather gentler, and the -surface less ragged; and we hoped, by a long <i>détour</i> round the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_89" id="page_89"></a>{89}</span> base, -to make an easy climb up this gentler face. So we toiled on for an hour -over the rocks, reaching at last the bottom of the north slope. Here our -work began in good earnest. The blocks were of enormous size, and in -every stage of unstable equilibrium, frequently rolling over as we -jumped upon them, making it necessary for us to take a second leap and -land where we best could. To our relief we soon surmounted the largest -blocks, reaching a smaller size, which served us as a sort of stairway.</p> - -<p>The advancing daylight revealed to us a very long, comparatively even -snow-slope, whose surface was pierced by many knobs and granite heads, -giving it the aspect of an ice-roofing fastened on with bolts of stone. -It stretched in far perspective to the summit, where already the rose of -sunrise reflected gloriously, kindling a fresh enthusiasm within us.</p> - -<p>Immense bowlders were partly embedded in the ice just above us, whose -constant melting left them trembling on the edge of a fall. It -communicated no very pleasant sensation to see above you these immense -missiles hanging by a mere band, knowing that, as soon as the sun rose, -you would be exposed to a constant cannonade.</p> - -<p>The east side of the peak, which we could now partially see, was too -precipitous to think of climbing. The slope toward our camp was too much -broken into pinnacles and crags to offer us any hope, or to divert us -from the single way, dead ahead, up slopes of ice and among fragments of -granite. The sun<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_90" id="page_90"></a>{90}</span> rose upon us while we were climbing the lower part of -this snow, and in less than half an hour, melting, began to liberate -huge blocks, which thundered down past us, gathering and growing into -small avalanches below.</p> - -<p>We did not dare climb one above another, according to our ordinary mode, -but kept about an equal level, hundred feet apart, lest, dislodging the -blocks, one should hurl them down upon the other.</p> - -<p>We climbed up smooth faces of granite, clinging simply by the cracks and -protruding crystals of feldspar, and then hewed steps up fearfully steep -slopes of ice, zigzagging to the right and left, to avoid the flying -bowlders. When midway up this slope we reached a place where the granite -rose in perfectly smooth bluffs on either side of a gorge,—a narrow cut -or walled way leading up to the flat summit of the cliff. This we scaled -by cutting ice steps, only to find ourselves fronted again by a still -higher wall. Ice sloped from its front at too steep an angle for us to -follow, but had melted in contact with it, leaving a space three feet -wide between the ice and the rock. We entered this crevice and climbed -along its bottom, with a wall of rock rising a hundred feet above us on -one side, and a thirty-foot face of ice on the other, through which -light of an intense cobalt-blue penetrated.</p> - -<p>Reaching the upper end, we had to cut our footsteps upon the ice again, -and, having braced our<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_91" id="page_91"></a>{91}</span> backs against the granite, climbed up to the -surface. We were now in a dangerous position: to fall into the crevice -upon one side was to be wedged to death between rock and ice; to make a -slip was to be shot down five hundred feet, and then hurled over the -brink of a precipice. In the friendly seat which this wedge gave me, I -stopped to take wet and dry observations with the thermometer,—this -being an absolute preventive of a scare,—and to enjoy the view.</p> - -<p>The wall of our mountain sank abruptly to the left, opening for the -first time an outlook to the eastward. Deep—it seemed almost -vertically—beneath us we could see the blue water of Owen’s Lake, ten -thousand feet down. The summit peaks to the north were piled in Titanic -confusion, their ridges overhanging the eastern slope with terrible -abruptness. Clustered upon the shelves and plateaus below were several -frozen lakes, and in all directions swept magnificent fields of snow. -The summit was now not over five hundred feet distant, and we started on -again with the exhilarating hope of success. But if nature had intended -to secure the summit from all assailants, she could not have planned her -defences better; for the smooth granite wall which rose above the -snow-slope continued, apparently, quite around the peak, and we looked -in great anxiety to see if there was not one place where it might be -climbed. It was all blank except in one spot; quite near us the snow -bridged across the crevice and rose in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_92" id="page_92"></a>{92}</span> long point to the summit of -the wall,—a great icicle-column frozen in a niche of the bluff,—its -base about ten feet wide, narrowing to two feet at the top. We climbed -to the base of this spire of ice, and, with the utmost care, began to -cut our stairway. The material was an exceedingly compacted snow, -passing into clear ice as it neared the rock. We climbed the first half -of it with comparative ease; after that it was almost vertical, and so -thin that we did not dare to cut the footsteps deep enough to make them -absolutely safe. There was a constant dread lest our ladder should break -off, and we be thrown either down the snow-slope or into the bottom of -the crevasse. At last, in order to prevent myself from falling over -backward, I was obliged to thrust my hand into the crack between the ice -and the wall, and the spire became so narrow that I could do this on -both sides, so that the climb was made as upon a tree, cutting mere -toe-holes and embracing the whole column of ice in my arms. At last I -reached the top, and, with the greatest caution, wormed my body over the -brink, and, rolling out upon the smooth surface of the granite, looked -over and watched Cotter make his climb. He came steadily up, with no -sense of nervousness, until he got to the narrow part of the ice, and -here he stopped and looked up with a forlorn face to me; but as he -climbed up over the edge the broad smile came back to his face, and he -asked me if it had occurred to me that we had, by and by, to go down -again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_93" id="page_93"></a>{93}</span></p> - -<p>We had now an easy slope to the summit, and hurried up over rocks and -ice, reaching the crest at exactly twelve o’clock. I rang my hammer upon -the topmost rock; we grasped hands, and I reverently named the grand -peak <span class="smcap">Mount Tyndall</span>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_94" id="page_94"></a>{94}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV<br /><br /> -THE DESCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL<br /><br /> -1864</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">To</span> our surprise, upon sweeping the horizon with my level, there appeared -two peaks equal in height with us, and two rising even higher. That -which looked highest of all was a cleanly cut helmet of granite upon the -same ridge with Mount Tyndall, lying about six miles south, and fronting -the desert with a bold, square bluff which rises to the crest of the -peak, where a white fold of snow trims it gracefully. Mount Whitney, as -we afterward called it, in honor of our chief, is probably the highest -land within the United States. Its summit looked glorious, but -inaccessible.</p> - -<p>The general topography overlooked by us may be thus simply outlined. Two -parallel chains, enclosing an intermediate trough, face each other. -Across this deep, enclosed gulf, from wall to wall, juts the thin but -lofty and craggy ridge, or “divide,” before described, which forms an -important water-shed, sending those streams which enter the chasm north -of it into King’s River, those south forming the most important sources -of the Kern, whose straight, rapidly deepening valley stretches south, -carved profoundly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_95" id="page_95"></a>{95}</span> in granite, while the King’s, after flowing -longitudinally in the opposite course for eight or ten miles, turns -abruptly west round the base of Mount Brewer, cuts across the western -ridge, opening a gate of its own, and carves a rock channel transversely -down the Sierra to the California plain.</p> - -<p>Fronting us stood the west chain, a great mural ridge watched over by -two dominant heights, Kaweah Peak and Mount Brewer, its wonderful -profile defining against the western sky a multitude of peaks and -spires. Bold buttresses jut out through fields of ice, and reach down -stone arms among snow and <i>débris</i>. North and south of us the higher, or -eastern, summit stretched on in miles and miles of snow peaks, the -farthest horizon still crowded with their white points. East the whole -range fell in sharp, hurrying abruptness to the desert, where, ten -thousand feet below, lay a vast expanse of arid plain intersected by -low, parallel ranges, traced from north to south. Upon the one side, a -thousand sculptures of stone, hard, sharp, shattered by cold into -infiniteness of fractures and rift, springing up, mutely severe, into -the dark, austere blue of heaven; scarred and marked, except where snow -or ice, spiked down by ragged granite bolts, shields with its pale armor -these rough mountain shoulders; storm-tinted at summit, and dark where, -swooping down from ragged cliff, the rocks plunge over cañon-walls into -blue, silent gulfs.</p> - -<p>Upon the other hand, reaching out to horizons faint and remote, lay -plains clouded with the ashen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_96" id="page_96"></a>{96}</span> hues of death; stark, wind-swept floors -of white, and hill-ranges, rigidly formal, monotonously low, all lying -under an unfeeling brilliance of light, which, for all its strange, -unclouded clearness, has yet a vague half-darkness, a suggestion of -black and shade more truly pathetic than fading twilight. No greenness -soothes, no shadow cools the glare. Owen’s Lake, an oval of acrid water, -lies dense blue upon the brown sage-plain, looking like a plate of hot -metal. Traced in ancient beach-lines, here and there upon hill and -plain, relics of ancient lake-shore outline the memory of a cooler -past—a period of life and verdure when the stony chains were green -islands among basins of wide, watery expanse.</p> - -<p>The two halves of this view, both in sight at once, express the highest, -the most acute, aspects of desolation—inanimate forms out of which -something living has gone forever. From the desert have been dried up -and blown away its seas. Their shores and white, salt-strewn bottoms lie -there in the eloquence of death. Sharp, white light glances from all the -mountain-walls, where in marks and polishings has been written the -epitaph of glaciers now melted and vanished into air. Vacant cañons lie -open to the sun, bare, treeless, half shrouded with snow, cumbered with -loads of broken <i>débris</i>, still as graves, except when flights of rocks -rush down some chasm’s throat, startling the mountains with harsh, dry -rattle, their fainter echoes from below followed too quickly by dense -silence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_97" id="page_97"></a>{97}</span></p> - -<p>The serene sky is grave with nocturnal darkness. The earth blinds you -with its light. That fair contrast we love in lower lands, between -bright heavens and dark, cool earth, here reverses itself with terrible -energy. You look up into an infinite vault, unveiled by clouds, empty -and dark, from which no brightness seems to ray, an expanse with no -graded perspective, no tremble, no vapory mobility, only the vast -yawning of hollow space.</p> - -<p>With an aspect of endless remoteness burns the small, white sun, yet its -light seems to pass invisibly through the sky, blazing out with -intensity upon mountain and plain, flooding rock details with painfully -bright reflections, and lighting up the burnt sand and stone of the -desert with a strange, blinding glare. There is no sentiment of beauty -in the whole scene; no suggestion, however far remote, of sheltered -landscape; not even the air of virgin hospitality that greets us -explorers in so many uninhabited spots which by their fertility and -loveliness of grove or meadow seem to offer man a home, or us nomads a -pleasant camp-ground. Silence and desolation are the themes which nature -has wrought out under this eternally serious sky.</p> - -<p>A faint suggestion of life clings about the middle altitudes of the -eastern slope, where black companies of pine, stunted from breathing the -hot desert air, group themselves just beneath the bottom of perpetual -snow, or grow in patches of cloudy darkness over the moraines, those -piles of wreck crowded<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_98" id="page_98"></a>{98}</span> from their pathway by glaciers long dead. -Something there is pathetic in the very emptiness of these old glacier -valleys, these imperishable tracks of unseen engines. One’s eye ranges -up their broad, open channel to the shrunken white fields surrounding -hollow amphitheatres which were once crowded with deep burdens of -snow,—the birthplace of rivers of ice now wholly melted; the dry, clear -heavens overhead blank of any promise of ever rebuilding them. I have -never seen Nature when she seemed so little “Mother Nature” as in this -place of rocks and snow, echoes and emptiness. It impresses me as the -ruins of some bygone geological period, and no part of the present -order, like a specimen of chaos which has defied the finishing hand of -Time.</p> - -<p>Of course I see its bearings upon climate, and could read a lesson quite -glibly as to its usefulness as a condenser, and tell you gravely how -much California has for which she may thank these heights, and how -little Nevada; but looking from this summit with all desire to see -everything, the one overmastering feeling is desolation, desolation!</p> - -<p>Next to this, and more pleasing to notice, is the interest and richness -of the granite forms; for the whole region, from plain to plain, is -built of this dense, solid rock, and is sculptured under chisel of cold -in shapes of great variety, yet all having a common spirit, which is -purely Gothic.</p> - -<p>In the much discussed origin of this order of building I never remember -to have seen, though it can<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_99" id="page_99"></a>{99}</span> hardly have escaped mention, any suggestion -of the possibility of the Gothic having been inspired by granite forms. -Yet, as I sat on Mount Tyndall, the whole mountains shaped themselves -like the ruins of cathedrals,—sharp roof-ridges, pinnacled and statued; -buttresses more spired and ornamented than Milan’s; receding doorways -with pointed arches carved into black façades of granite, doors never to -be opened, innumerable jutting points, with here and there a single -cruciform peak, its frozen roof and granite spires so strikingly Gothic -I cannot doubt that the Alps furnished the models for early cathedrals -of that order.</p> - -<p>I thoroughly enjoyed the silence, which, gratefully contrasting with the -surrounding tumult of form, conveyed to me a new sentiment. I have lain -and listened through the heavy calm of a tropical voyage, hour after -hour, longing for a sound; and in desert nights the dead stillness has -many a time awakened me from sleep. For moments, too, in my forest life, -the groves made absolutely no breath of movement; but there is around -these summits the soundlessness of a vacuum. The sea stillness is that -of sleep; the desert, of death—this silence is like the waveless calm -of space.</p> - -<p>All the while I made my instrumental observations the fascination of the -view so held me that I felt no surprise at seeing water boiling over our -little faggot blaze at a temperature of one hundred and ninety-two -degrees F., nor in observing the barometrical<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a>{100}</span> column stand at 17.99 -inches; and it was not till a week or so after that I realized we had -felt none of the conventional sensations of nausea, headache, and I -don’t know what all, that people are supposed to suffer at extreme -altitudes; but these things go with guides and porters, I believe, and -with coming down to one’s hotel at evening there to scold one’s -picturesque <i>aubergiste</i> in a French which strikes upon his ear as a -foreign tongue; possibly all that will come to us with advancing time, -and what is known as “doing America.” They are already shooting our -buffaloes; it cannot be long before they will cause themselves to be -honorably dragged up and down our Sierras, with perennial yellow gaiter, -and ostentation of bath-tub.</p> - -<p>Having completed our observations, we packed up the instruments, glanced -once again round the whole field of view, and descended to the top of -our icicle ladder. Upon looking over, I saw to my consternation that -during the day the upper half had broken off. Scars traced down upon the -snow-field below it indicated the manner of its fall, and far below, -upon the shattered <i>débris</i>, were strewn its white relics. I saw that -nothing but the sudden gift of wings could possibly take us down to the -snow-ridge. We held council, and concluded to climb quite round the peak -in search of the best mode of descent.</p> - -<p>As we crept about the east face, we could look straight down upon Owen’s -Valley, and into the vast glacier gorges, and over piles of moraines and -fluted<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a>{101}</span> rocks, and the frozen lakes of the eastern slope. When we -reached the southwest front of the mountain we found that its general -form was that of an immense horseshoe, the great eastern ridge forming -one side, and the spur which descended to our camp the other, we having -climbed up the outer part of the toe. Within the curve of the horseshoe -was a gorge, cut almost perpendicularly down two thousand feet, its side -rough-hewn walls of rocks and snow, its narrow bottom almost a -continuous chain of deep blue lakes with loads of ice and <i>débris</i> -piles. The stream which flowed through them joined the waters from our -home grove, a couple of miles below the camp. If we could reach the -level of the lakes, I believed we might easily climb round them and out -of the upper end of the horseshoe, and walk upon the Kern plateau round -to our bivouac.</p> - -<p>It required a couple of hours of very painstaking, deliberate climbing -to get down the first descent, which we did, however, without hurting -our barometer, and fortunately without the fatiguing use of the lasso; -reaching finally the uppermost lake, a granite bowlful of cobalt-blue -water, transparent and unrippled. So high and enclosing were the tall -walls about us, so narrow and shut in the cañon, so flattened seemed the -cover of sky, we felt oppressed after the expanse and freedom of our -hours on the summit.</p> - -<p>The snow-field we followed, descending farther, was irregularly -honeycombed in deep pits, circular or irregular in form, and melted to a -greater or less<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a>{102}</span> depth, holding each a large stone embedded in the -bottom. It seems they must have fallen from the overhanging heights with -sufficient force to plunge into the snow.</p> - -<p>Brilliant light and strong color met our eyes at every glance—the rocks -of a deep purple-red tint, the pure alpine lakes of a cheerful sapphire -blue, the snow glitteringly white. The walls on either side for half -their height were planed and polished by glaciers, and from the smoothly -glazed sides the sun was reflected as from a mirror.</p> - -<p>Mile after mile we walked cautiously over the snow and climbed round the -margins of lakes, and over piles of <i>débris</i> which marked the ancient -terminal moraines. At length we reached the end of the horseshoe, where -the walls contracted to a gateway, rising on either side in immense, -vertical pillars a thousand feet high. Through this gateway we could -look down the valley of the Kern, and beyond to the gentler ridges where -a smooth growth of forest darkened the rolling plateau. Passing the last -snow, we walked through this gateway and turned westward round the spur -toward our camp. The three miles which closed our walk were alternately -through groves of <i>Pinus flexilis</i> and upon plains of granite.</p> - -<p>The glacier sculpture and planing are here very beautiful, the large -crystals of orthoclase with which the granite is studded being cut down -to the common level, their rosy tint making with the white base a -beautiful, burnished porphyry.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a>{103}</span></p> - -<p>The sun was still an hour high when we reached camp, and with a feeling -of relaxation and repose we threw ourselves down to rest by the log, -which still continued blazing. We had accomplished our purpose.</p> - -<p>During the last hour or two of our tramp Cotter had complained of his -shoes, which were rapidly going to pieces. Upon examination we found to -our dismay that there was not over half a day’s wear left in them, a -calamity which gave to our difficult homeward climb a new element of -danger. The last nail had been worn from my own shoes, and the soles -were scratched to the quick, but I believed them stout enough to hold -together till we should reach the main camp.</p> - -<p>We planned a pair of moccasins for Cotter, and then spent a pleasant -evening by the camp-fire, rehearsing our climb to the detail, sleep -finally overtaking us and holding us fast bound until broad daylight -next morning, when we woke with a sense of having slept for a week, -quite bright and perfectly refreshed for our homeward journey.</p> - -<p>After a frugal breakfast, in which we limited ourselves to a few cubic -inches of venison, and a couple of stingy slices of bread, with a single -meagre cup of diluted tea, we shouldered our knapsacks, which now sat -lightly upon toughened shoulders, and marched out upon the granite -plateau.</p> - -<p>We had concluded that it was impossible to retrace our former way, -knowing well that the precipitous<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a>{104}</span> divide could not be climbed from this -side; then, too, we had gained such confidence in our climbing powers, -from constant victory, that we concluded to attempt the passage of the -great King’s Cañon, mainly because this was the only mode of reaching -camp, and since the geological section of the granite it exposed would -afford us an exceedingly instructive study.</p> - -<p>The broad granite plateau which forms the upper region of the Kern -Valley slopes in general inclination up to the great divide. This -remarkably pinnacled ridge, where it approaches the Mount Tyndall wall, -breaks down into a broad depression where the Kern Valley sweeps -northward, until it suddenly breaks off in precipices three thousand -feet down into the King’s Cañon.</p> - -<p>The morning was wholly consumed in walking up this gently inclined plane -of granite, our way leading over the glacier-polished foldings and along -graded undulations among labyrinths of alpine garden and wildernesses of -erratic bowlders, little lake-basins, and scattered clusters of dwarfed -and sombre pine.</p> - -<p>About noon we came suddenly upon the brink of a precipice which sank -sharply from our feet into the gulf of the King’s Cañon. Directly -opposite us rose Mount Brewer, and up out of the depths of those vast -sheets of frozen snow swept spiry buttress-ridges, dividing the upper -heights into those amphitheatres over which we had struggled on our<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a>{105}</span> -outward journey. Straight across from our point of view was the chamber -of rock and ice where we had camped on the first night. The wall at our -feet fell sharp and rugged, its lower two-thirds hidden from our view by -the projections of a thousand feet of crags. Here and there as we looked -down, small patches of ice, held in rough hollows, rested upon the steep -surface, but it was too abrupt for any great fields of snow. I dislodged -a bowlder upon the edge and watched it bound down the rocky precipice, -dash over eaves a thousand feet below us, and disappear, the crash of -its fall coming up to us from the unseen depths fainter and fainter, -until the air only trembled with confused echoes.</p> - -<p>A long look at the pass to the south of Mount Brewer, where we had -parted from our friends, animated us with courage to begin the descent, -which we did with utmost care, for the rocks, becoming more and more -glacier-smoothed, afforded us hardly any firm footholds. When down about -eight hundred feet we again rolled rocks ahead of us, and saw them -disappear over the eaves, and only heard the sound of their stroke after -many seconds, which convinced us that directly below lay a great -precipice.</p> - -<p>At this juncture the soles came entirely off Cotter’s shoes, and we -stopped upon a little cliff of granite to make him moccasins of our -provision bags and slips of blanket, tying them on as firmly as we could -with the extra straps and buckskin thongs. Climbing with these proved so -insecure that I made Cotter<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a>{106}</span> go behind me, knowing that under ordinary -circumstances I could stop him if he fell.</p> - -<p>Here and there in the clefts of the rocks grew stunted pine bushes, -their roots twisted so firmly into the crevices that we laid hold of -them with the utmost confidence whenever they came within our reach. In -this way we descended to within fifty feet of the brink, having as yet -no knowledge of the cliffs below, except our general memory of their -aspect from the Mount Brewer wall.</p> - -<p>The rock was so steep that we descended in a sitting posture, clinging -with our hands and heels. I heard Cotter say, “I think I must take off -these moccasins and try it barefooted, for I don’t believe I can make -it.” These words were instantly followed by a startled cry, and I looked -round to see him slide quickly toward me, struggling and clutching at -the smooth granite. As he slid by I made a grab for him with my right -hand, catching him by the shirt, and, throwing myself as far in the -other direction as I could, seized with my left hand a little pine tuft, -which held us. I asked Cotter to edge along a little to the left, where -he could get a brace with his feet and relieve me of his weight, which -he cautiously did. I then threw a couple of turns with the lasso round -the roots of the pine bush, and we were safe, though hardly more than -twenty feet from the brink. The pressure of curiosity to get a look over -that edge was so strong within me that I lengthened out sufficient lasso -to reach the end, and slid<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a>{107}</span> slowly to the edge, where, leaning over, I -looked down, getting a full view of the wall for miles. Directly -beneath, a sheer cliff of three or four hundred feet stretched down to a -pile of <i>débris</i> which rose to unequal heights along its face, reaching -the very crest not more than a hundred feet south of us. From that point -to the bottom of the cañon, broken rocks, ridges rising through vast -sweeps of <i>débris</i>, tufts of pine and frozen bodies of ice covered the -further slope.</p> - -<p>I returned to Cotter, and, having loosened ourselves from the pine bush, -inch by inch we crept along the granite until we supposed ourselves to -be just over the top of the <i>débris</i> pile, where I found a firm brace -for my feet, and lowered Cotter to the edge. He sang out, “All right!” -and climbed over on the uppermost <i>débris</i>, his head only remaining in -sight of me; when I lay down upon my back, making knapsack and body do -friction duty, and, letting myself move, followed Cotter and reached his -side.</p> - -<p>From that point the descent required two hours of severe, constant -labor, which was monotonous of itself, and would have proved excessively -tiresome but for the constant interest of glacial geology beneath us. -When at last we reached the bottom and found ourselves upon a velvety -green meadow, beneath the shadow of wide-armed pines, we realized the -amount of muscular force we had used up, and threw ourselves down for a -rest of half an hour,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a>{108}</span> when we rose, not quite renewed, but fresh enough -to finish the day’s climb.</p> - -<p>In a few minutes we stood upon the rocks just above King’s River,—a -broad, white torrent fretting its way along the bottom of an impassable -gorge. Looking down the stream, we saw that our right bank was a -continued precipice, affording, so far as we could see, no possible -descent to the river’s margin, and indeed, had we gotten down, the -torrent rushed with such fury that we could not possibly have crossed -it. To the south of us, a little way up stream, the river flowed out -from a broad, oval lake, three quarters of a mile in length, which -occupied the bottom of the granite basin. Unable to cross the torrent, -we must either swim the lake or climb round its head. Upon our side the -walls of the basin curved to the head of the lake in sharp, smooth -precipices, or broken slopes of <i>débris</i>, while on the opposite side its -margin was a beautiful shore of emerald meadow, edged with a continuous -grove of coniferous trees. Once upon this other side, we should have -completed the severe part of our journey, crossed the gulf, and have -left all danger behind us; for the long slope of granite and ice which -rose upon the west side of the cañon and the Mount Brewer wall opposed -to us no trials save those of simple fatigue.</p> - -<p>Around the head of the lake were crags and precipices in singularly -forbidding arrangement. As we turned thither we saw no possible way of -overcoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a>{109}</span> them. At its head the lake lay in an angle of the vertical -wall, sharp and straight like the corner of a room; about three hundred -feet in height, and for two hundred and fifty feet of this a pyramidal -pile of blue ice rose from the lake, rested against the corner, and -reached within forty feet of the top. Looking into the deep blue water -of the lake, I concluded that in our exhausted state it was madness to -attempt to swim it. The only alternative was to scale that slender -pyramid of ice and find some way to climb the forty feet of smooth wall -above it; a plan we chose perforce, and started at once to put into -execution, determined that if we were unsuccessful we would fire a dead -log which lay near, warm ourselves thoroughly, and attempt the swim. At -its base the ice mass overhung the lake like a roof, under which the -water had melted its way for a distance of not less than a hundred feet, -a thin eave overhanging the water. To the very edge of this I cautiously -went, and, looking down into the lake, saw through its beryl depths the -white granite blocks strewn upon the bottom at least one hundred feet -below me. It was exceedingly transparent, and, under ordinary -circumstances, would have been a most tempting place for a dive; but at -the end of our long fatigue, and with the still unknown tasks ahead, I -shrank from a swim in such a chilly temperature.</p> - -<p>We found the ice-angle difficultly steep, but made our way successfully -along its edge, clambering up the crevices melted between its body and -the smooth<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a>{110}</span> granite to a point not far from the top, where the ice had -considerably narrowed, and rocks overhanging it encroached so closely -that we were obliged to change our course and make our way with cut -steps out upon its front. Streams of water, dropping from the -overhanging rock-eaves at many points, had worn circular shafts into the -ice, three feet in diameter and twenty feet in depth. Their edges -offered us our only foothold, and we climbed from one to another, -equally careful of slipping upon the slope itself, or falling into the -wells. Upon the top of the ice we found a narrow, level platform, upon -which we stood together, resting our backs in the granite corner, and -looked down the awful pathway of King’s Cañon, until the rest nerved us -up enough to turn our eyes upward at the forty feet of smooth granite -which lay between us and safety. Here and there were small projections -from its surface, little, protruding knobs of feldspar, and crevices -riven into its face for a few inches.</p> - -<p>As we tied ourselves together, I told Cotter to hold himself in -readiness to jump down into one of these in case I fell, and started to -climb up the wall, succeeding quite well for about twenty feet. About -two feet above my hands was a crack, which, if my arms had been long -enough to reach, would probably have led me to the very top; but I -judged it beyond my powers, and, with great care, descended to the side -of Cotter, who believed that his superior length of arm would enable him -to make the reach.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a>{111}</span></p> - -<p>I planted myself against the rock, and he started cautiously up the -wall. Looking down the glare front of ice, it was not pleasant to -consider at what velocity a slip would send me to the bottom, or at what -angle, and to what probable depth, I should be projected into the -ice-water. Indeed, the idea of such a sudden bath was so annoying that I -lifted my eyes toward my companion. He reached my farthest point without -great difficulty, and made a bold spring for the crack, reaching it -without an inch to spare, and holding on wholly by his fingers. He thus -worked himself slowly along the crack toward the top, at last getting -his arms over the brink, and gradually drawing his body up and out of -sight. It was the most splendid piece of slow gymnastics I ever -witnessed. For a moment he said nothing; but when I asked if he was all -right, cheerfully repeated, “All right.”</p> - -<p>It was only a moment’s work to send up the two knapsacks and barometer, -and receive again my end of the lasso. As I tied it round my breast, -Cotter said to me, in an easy, confident tone, “Don’t be afraid to bear -your weight.” I made up my mind, however, to make that climb without his -aid, and husbanded my strength as I climbed from crack to crack. I got -up without difficulty to my former point, rested there a moment, hanging -solely by my hands, gathered every pound of strength and atom of will -for the reach, then jerked myself upward with a swing, just getting the -tips of my fingers into the crack. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a>{112}</span> an instant I had grasped it with -my right hand also. I felt the sinews of my fingers relax a little, but -the picture of the slope of ice and the blue lake affected me so -strongly that I redoubled my grip, and climbed slowly along the crack -until I reached the angle and got one arm over the edge, as Cotter had -done. As I rested my body upon the edge and looked up at Cotter, I saw -that, instead of a level top, he was sitting upon a smooth, roof-like -slope, where the least pull would have dragged him over the brink. He -had no brace for his feet, nor hold for his hands, but had seated -himself calmly, with the rope tied around his breast, knowing that my -only safety lay in being able to make the climb entirely unaided; -certain that the least waver in his tone would have disheartened me, and -perhaps made it impossible. The shock I received on seeing this affected -me for a moment, but not enough to throw me off my guard, and I climbed -quickly over the edge. When we had walked back out of danger we sat down -upon the granite for a rest.</p> - -<p>In all my experience of mountaineering I have never known an act of such -real, profound courage as this of Cotter’s. It is one thing, in a moment -of excitement, to make a gallant leap, or hold one’s nerves in the iron -grasp of will, but to coolly seat one’s self in the door of death, and -silently listen for the fatal summons, and this all for a friend,—for -he might easily have cast loose the lasso and saved himself,—requires -as sublime a type of courage as I know.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a>{113}</span></p> - -<p>But a few steps back we found a thicket of pine overlooking our lake, by -which there flowed a clear rill of snow-water. Here, in the bottom of -the great gulf, we made our bivouac; for we were already in the deep -evening shadows, although the mountain-tops to the east of us still -burned in the reflected light. It was the luxury of repose which kept me -awake half an hour or so, in spite of my vain attempts at sleep. To -listen for the pulsating sound of waterfalls and arrowy rushing of the -brook by our beds was too deep a pleasure to quickly yield up.</p> - -<p>Under the later moonlight I rose and went out upon the open rocks, -allowing myself to be deeply impressed by the weird Dantesque -surroundings—darkness, out of which to the sky towered stern, shaggy -bodies of rock; snow, uncertainly moonlit with cold pallor; and at my -feet the basin of the lake, still, black, and gemmed with reflected -stars, like the void into which Dante looked through the bottomless gulf -of Dis. A little way off there appeared upon the brink of a projecting -granite cornice two dimly seen forms; pines I knew them to be, yet their -motionless figures seemed bent forward, gazing down the cañon; and I -allowed myself to name them Mantuan and Florentine, thinking at the same -time how grand and spacious the scenery, how powerful their attitude, -and how infinitely more profound the mystery of light and shade, than -any of those hard, theatrical conceptions with which Doré has sought to -shut in our imagination. That artist, as I believe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a>{114}</span> has reached a -conspicuous failure from an overbalancing love of solid, impenetrable -darkness. There is in all his Inferno landscape a certain sharp boundary -between the real and unreal, and never the infinite suggestiveness of -great regions of half-light, in which everything may be seen, nothing -recognized. Without waking Cotter, I crept back to my blankets, and to -sleep.</p> - -<p>The morning of our fifth and last day’s tramp must have dawned -cheerfully; at least, so I suppose from its aspect when we first came -back to consciousness, surprised to find the sun risen from the eastern -mountain-wall, and the whole gorge flooded with its direct light. Rising -as good as new from our mattress of pine twigs, we hastened to take -breakfast, and started up the long, broken slope of the Mount Brewer -wall. To reach the pass where we had parted from our friends required -seven hours of slow, laborious climbing, in which we took advantage of -every outcropping spine of granite and every level expanse of ice to -hasten at the top of our speed. Cotter’s feet were severely cut; his -tracks upon the snow were marked by stains of blood, yet he kept on with -undiminished spirit, never once complaining. The perfect success of our -journey so inspired us with happiness that we forgot danger and fatigue, -and chatted in liveliest strain.</p> - -<p>It was about two o’clock when we reached the summit, and rested a moment -to look back over our new Alps, which were hard and distinct under -direct,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a>{115}</span> unpoetic light; yet with all their dense gray and white -reality, their long, sculptured ranks, and cold, still summits, we gave -them a lingering, farewell look, which was not without its deep fulness -of emotion, then turned our backs and hurried down the <i>débris</i> slope -into the rocky amphitheatre at the foot of Mount Brewer, and by five -o’clock had reached our old camp-ground. We found here a note pinned to -a tree, informing us that the party had gone down into the lower cañon, -five miles below, that they might camp in better pasturage.</p> - -<p>The wind had scattered the ashes of our old camp-fire, and banished from -it the last sentiment of home. We hurried on, climbing among the rocks -which reached down to the crest of the great lateral moraine, and then -on in rapid stride along its smooth crest, riveting our eyes upon the -valley below, where we knew the party must be camped.</p> - -<p>At last, faintly curling above the sea of green tree-tops, a few faint -clouds of smoke wafted upward into the air. We saw them with a burst of -strong emotion, and ran down the steep flank of the moraine at the top -of our speed. Our shouts were instantly answered by the three voices of -our friends, who welcomed us to their camp-fire with tremendous hugs.</p> - -<p>After we had outlined for them the experience of our days, and as we lay -outstretched at our ease, warm in the blaze of the glorious camp-fire, -Brewer said to me: “King, you have relieved me of a dreadful<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a>{116}</span> task. For -the last three days I have been composing a letter to your family, but -somehow I did not get beyond, ‘It becomes my painful duty to inform -you.’<span class="lftspc">”</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a>{117}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V<br /><br /> -THE NEWTYS OF PIKE<br /><br /> -1864</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Our</span> return from Mount Tyndall to such civilization as flourishes around -the Kaweah outposts was signalized by us chiefly as to our <i>cuisine</i>, -which offered now such bounties as the potato, and once a salad, in -which some middle-aged lettuce became the vehicle for a hollow mockery -of dressing. Two or three days, during which we dined at brief -intervals, served to completely rest us, and put in excellent trim for -further campaigning all except Professor Brewer, upon whom a constant -toothache wore painfully,—my bullet-mould failing even upon the third -trial to extract the unruly member.</p> - -<p>It was determined we should ride together to Visalia, seventy miles -away, and the farther we went the more impatient became my friend, till -we agreed to push ahead through day and night, and reached the village -at about sunrise in a state of reeling sleepiness quite indescribably -funny.</p> - -<p>At evening, when it became time to start back for our mountain-camp, my -friend at last yielded consent to my project of climbing the Kern -Sierras to attempt Mount Whitney; so I parted from him, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a>{118}</span> remaining -at Visalia, outfitted myself with a pack-horse, two mounted men, and -provisions enough for a two weeks’ trip.</p> - -<p>I purposely avoid telling by what route I entered the Sierras, because -there lingers in my breast a desire to see once more that lovely region, -and failing, as I do, to confide in the people, I fear lest, if the camp -I am going to describe should be recognized, I might, upon revisiting -the scene, suffer harm, or even come to an untimely end. I refrain, -then, from telling by what road I found myself entering the region of -the pines one lovely twilight evening, two days after leaving Visalia. -Pines, growing closer and closer, from sentinels gathered to groups, -then stately groves, and at last, as the evening wore on, assembled in -regular forest, through whose open tops the stars shone cheerfully.</p> - -<p>I came upon an open meadow, hearing in front the rush of a large brook, -and directly reached two camp-fires, where were a number of persons. My -two hirelings caught and unloaded the pack-horse, and set about their -duties, looking to supper and the animals, while I prospected the two -camps. That just below me, on the same side of the brook, I found to be -the bivouac of a company of hunters, who, in the ten minutes of my call, -made free with me, hospitably offering a jug of whiskey, and then went -on in their old, eternal way of making bear-stories out of whole cloth.</p> - -<p>I left them with a belief that my protoplasm and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a>{119}</span> theirs must be -different, in spite of Mr. Huxley, and passed across the brook to the -other camp. Under noble groups of pines smouldered a generous heap of -coals, the ruins of a mighty log. A little way from this lay a confused -pile of bedclothes, partly old and half-bald buffalo-robes, but in the -main, thick strata of what is known to irony as comforters, upon which, -outstretched in wretched awkwardness of position, was a family, all with -their feet to the fire, looking as if they had been blown over in one -direction, or knocked down by a single bombshell. On the extremities of -this common bed, with the air of having gotten as far from each other as -possible, the mother and father of the Pike family reclined; between -them were two small children—a girl and a boy—and a huge girl, who, -next the old man, lay flat upon her back, her mind absorbed in the -simple amusement of waving one foot (a cow-hide eleven) slowly across -the fire, squinting, with half-shut eye, first at the vast shoe and -thence at the fire, alternately hiding bright places and darting the -foot quickly in the direction of any new display of heightening flame. -The mother was a bony sister, in the yellow, shrunken, of sharp visage, -in which were prominent two cold eyes and a positively poisonous mouth; -her hair, the color of faded hay, tangled in a jungle around her head. -She rocked jerkily to and fro, removing at intervals a clay pipe from -her mouth in order to pucker her thin lips up to one side, and spit with -precision upon a certain spot in the fire,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a>{120}</span> which she seemed resolved to -prevent from attaining beyond a certain faint glow.</p> - -<p>I have rarely felt more in difficulty for an overture to conversation, -and was long before venturing to propose, “You seem to have a pleasant -camp-spot here.”</p> - -<p>The old woman sharply, and in almost a tone of affront, answered, -“They’s wus, and then again they’s better.”</p> - -<p>“Doos well for our hogs,” inserted the old man. “We’ve a band of pork -that make out to find feed.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! how many have you?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Nigh three thousand.”</p> - -<p>“Won’t you set?” asked Madame; then, turning, “You, Susan, can’t you try -for to set up, and not spread so? Hain’t you no manners, say?”</p> - -<p>At this the massive girl got herself somewhat together, and made room -for me, which I declined, however.</p> - -<p>“Prospectin’?” inquired Madame.</p> - -<p>“I say huntin’,” suggested the man.</p> - -<p>“Maybe he’s a cattle-feller,” interrupted the little girl.</p> - -<p>“Goin’ somewhere, ain’t yer?” was Susan’s guess.</p> - -<p>I gave a brief account of myself, evidently satisfying the social -requirements of all but the old woman, who at once classified me as not -up to her standard. Susan saw this, so did her father, and it became -evident to me in ten minutes’ conversation that they two were always at -one, and made it their business<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a>{121}</span> to be in antagonism to the mother. They -were then allies of mine from nature, and I felt at once at home. I saw, -too, that Susan, having slid back to her horizontal position when I -declined to share her rightful ground, was watching with subtle -solicitude that fated spot in the fire, opposing sympathy and squints -accurately aligned by her shoe to the dull spot in the embers, which -slowly went out into blackness before the well-directed fire of her -mother’s saliva.</p> - -<p>The shouts which I heard proceeding from the direction of my camp were -easily translatable into summons for supper. Mr. Newty invited me to -return later and be sociable, which I promised to do, and, going to my -camp, supped quickly and left the men with orders about picketing the -animals for the night, then, strolling slowly down to the camp of my -friends, seated myself upon a log by the side of the old gentleman. -Feeling that this somewhat formal attitude unfitted me for partaking to -the fullest degree of the social ease around me, and knowing that my -buckskin trousers were impervious to dirt, I slid down in a reclined -posture with my feet to the fire, in absolute parallelism with the -family.</p> - -<p>The old woman was in the exciting <i>dénouement</i> of a coon-story, directed -to her little boy, who sat clinging to her skirt and looking in her face -with absorbed curiosity. “And when Johnnie fired,” she said, “the coon -fell and busted open.” The little boy had misplaced his sympathies with -the raccoon, and having inquired plaintively, “Did it hurt him?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a>{122}</span> was -promptly snubbed with the reply, “Of course it hurt him. What do you -suppose coons is made for?” Then turning to me she put what was plainly -enough with her a test-question, “I allow you have killed your coon in -your day?” I saw at once that I must forever sink beneath the horizon of -her standards, but, failing in real experience or accurate knowledge -concerning the coon, knew no subterfuges would work with her. Instinct -had taught her that I had never killed a coon, and she had asked me thus -ostentatiously to place me at once and forever before the family in my -true light. “No, ma’am,” I said; “now you speak of it, I realize that I -never have killed a coon.” This was something of a staggerer to Susan -and her father, yet as the mother’s pleasurable dissatisfaction with me -displayed itself by more and more accurate salivary shots at the fire, -they rose to the occasion, and began to palliate my past. “Maybe,” -ventured Mr. Newty, “that they don’t have coon round the city of York;” -and I felt that I needed no self-defence when Susan firmly and defiantly -suggested to her mother that perhaps I was in better business.</p> - -<p>Driven in upon herself for some time, the old woman smoked in silence, -until Susan, seeing that her mother gradually quenched a larger and -larger circle upon the fire, got up and stretched herself, and, giving -the coals a vigorous poke, swept out of sight the quenched spot, thus -readily obliterating the result of her mother’s precise and prolonged -expectoration;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a>{123}</span> then, flinging a few dry boughs upon the fire, illumined -the family with the ruddy blaze, and sat down again, leaning upon her -father’s knee with a faint light of triumph in her eye.</p> - -<p>I ventured a few platitudes concerning pigs, not penetrating the depths -of that branch of rural science enough to betray my ignorance. Such -sentiments as “A little piece of bacon well broiled for breakfast is -very good,” and “Nothing better than cold ham for lunch,” were received -by Susan and her father in the spirit I meant,—of entire good-will -toward pork generically. I now look back in amusement at having fallen -into this weakness, for the Mosaic view of pork has been mine from -infancy, and campaigning upon government rations has, in truth, no -tendency to dim this ancient faith.</p> - -<p>By half-past nine the gates of conversation were fairly open, and our -part of the circle enjoyed itself socially,—taciturnity and clouds of -Virginia plug reigning supreme upon the other. The two little children -crept under comforters somewhere near the middle of the bed, and -subsided pleasantly to sleep. The old man at last stretched sleepily, -finally yawning out, “Susan, I do believe I am too tired out to go and -see if them corral bars are down. I guess you’ll have to go. I reckon -there ain’t no bears round to-night.”</p> - -<p>Susan rose to her feet, stretched herself with her back to the fire, and -I realized for the first time her amusing proportions. In the region of -six feet, tall,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a>{124}</span> square-shouldered, of firm, iron back and heavy mould -of limb, she yet possessed that suppleness which enabled her as she rose -to throw herself into nearly all the attitudes of the Niobe children. As -her yawn deepened, she waved nearly down to the ground, and then, rising -upon tiptoe, stretched up her clinched fists to heaven with a groan of -pleasure. Turning to me, she asked, “How would you like to see the -hogs?” The old man added, as an extra encouragement, “Pootiest band of -hogs in Tulare County! There’s littler of the real scissor-bill nor -Mexican racer stock than any band I have ever seen in the State. I driv -the original outfit from Pike County to Oregon in ’51 and ’52.” By this -time I was actually interested in them, and joining Susan we passed out -into the forest.</p> - -<p>The full moon, now high in the heavens, looked down over the whole -landscape of clustered forest and open meadow with tranquil, silvery -light. It whitened measurably the fine, spiry tips of the trees, fell -luminous upon broad bosses of granite which here and there rose through -the soil, and glanced in trembling reflections from the rushing surface -of the brook. Far in the distance moonlit peaks towered in solemn rank -against the sky.</p> - -<p>We walked silently on four or five minutes through the woods, coming at -last upon a fence which margined a wide, circular opening in the wood. -The bars, as her father had feared, were down. We stepped over them, -quietly entered the enclosure, put<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a>{125}</span> them up behind us, and proceeded to -the middle, threading our way among sleeping swine to where a lonely -tree rose to the height of about two hundred feet. Against this we -placed our backs, and Susan waved her hand in pride over the two acres -of tranquil pork. The eye, after accustoming itself to the darkness, -took cognizance of a certain ridgyness of surface which came to be -recognized as the objects of Susan’s pride.</p> - -<p>Quite a pretty effect was caused by the shadow of the forest, which, -cast obliquely downward by the moon, divided the corral into halves of -light and shade.</p> - -<p>The air was filled with heavy breathing, interrupted by here and there a -snore, and at times by crescendos of tumult, caused by forty or fifty -pigs doing battle for some favorite bed-place.</p> - -<p>I was informed that Susan did not wish me to judge of them by dark, but -to see them again in the full light of day. She knew each individual pig -by its physiognomy, having, as she said, “growed with ’em.”</p> - -<p>As we strolled back toward the bars a dusky form disputed our way,—two -small, sharp eyes and a wild crest of bristles were visible in the -obscure light. “That’s Old Arkansas,” said Susan; “he’s eight year old -come next June, and I never could get him to like me.” I felt for my -pistol, but Susan struck a vigorous attitude, ejaculating, “S-S-oway, -Arkansas!” She made a dash in his direction; a wild<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a>{126}</span> scuffle ensued, in -which I heard the dull thud of Susan’s shoe, accompanied by, “Take that, -dog-on-you!”, a cloud of dust, one shrill squeal, and Arkansas retreated -into the darkness at a business-like trot.</p> - -<p>When quite near the bars the mighty girl launched herself into the air, -alighting with her stomach across the topmost rail, where she hung a -brief moment, made a violent muscular contraction, and alighted upon the -ground outside, communicating to it a tremor quite perceptible from -where I stood. I climbed over after her, and we sauntered under the -trees back to camp.</p> - -<p>The family had disappeared. A few dry boughs, however, thrown upon the -coals, blazed up, and revealed their forms in the corrugated topography -of the bed.</p> - -<p>I bade Susan good-night, and before I could turn my back she kicked her -number eleven shoes into the air, and with masterly rapidity turned in, -as Minerva is said to have done, in full panoply.</p> - -<p>I fled precipitately to my camp, and sought my blankets, lying awake in -a kind of half-reverie, in which Susan and Arkansas, the old woman and -her coons, were the prominent figures. Later I fell asleep, and lay -motionless until the distant roar of swine awoke me before sunrise next -morning.</p> - -<p>Seated upon my blankets, I beheld Susan’s mother drag forth the two -children, one after another, by the napes of their necks, and, shaking -the sleep out of them, propel them spitefully toward the brook;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a>{127}</span> then -taking her pipe from her mouth she bent low over the sleeping form of -her huge daughter, and in a high, shrill, nasal key, screeched in her -ear, “Yew Suse!”</p> - -<p>No sign of life on the part of the daughter.</p> - -<p>“Susan, <i>are</i> you a-going to get up?”</p> - -<p>Slight muscular contraction of the lower limbs.</p> - -<p>“Will you hear me, <i>Susan</i>?”</p> - -<p>“Marm,” whispered the girl, in low, sleepy tones.</p> - -<p>“Get up and let the <i>hogs</i> out!”</p> - -<p>The idea had at length thrilled into Susan’s brain, and with a violent -suddenness she sat bolt upright, brushing her green-colored hair out of -her eyes, and rubbing those valuable but bleared organs with the -ponderous knuckles of her forefingers.</p> - -<p>By this time I started for the brook for my morning toilet, and the girl -and I met upon opposite banks, stooping to wash our faces in the same -pool. As I opened my dressing-case her lower jaw fell, revealing a row -of ivory teeth rounded out by two well-developed “wisdoms,” which had -all that dazzling grin one sees in the show-windows of certain dental -practitioners. It required but a moment to gather up a quart or so of -water in her broad palms, and rub it vigorously into a small circle upon -the middle of her face, the moisture working outward to a certain -high-water mark, which, along her chin and cheeks, defined the limits of -former ablution; then, baring her large, red arms to the elbow, she -washed her hands, and stood resting them upon her hips,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a>{128}</span> dripping -freely, and watching me with intense curiosity.</p> - -<p>When I reached the towel process, she herself twisted her body after the -manner of the Belvidere torso, bent low her head, gathered up the back -breadths of her petticoat, and wiped her face vigorously upon it, which -had the effect of tracing concentric streaks irregularly over her -countenance.</p> - -<p>I parted my hair by the aid of a small dressing-glass, which so fired -Susan that she crossed the stream with a mighty jump, and stood in -ecstasy by my side. She borrowed the glass, and then my comb, rewashed -her face, and fell to work diligently upon her hair.</p> - -<p>All this did not so limit my perception as to prevent my watching the -general demeanor of the family. The old man lay back at his ease, -puffing a cloud of smoke; his wife, also emitting volumes of the vapor -of “navy plug,” squatted by the camp-fire, frying certain lumps of pork, -and communicating an occasional spiral jerk to the coffee-pot, with the -purpose, apparently, of stirring the grounds. The two children had -gotten upon the back of a contemplative ass, who stood by the upper side -of the bed quietly munching the corner of a comforter.</p> - -<p>My friend was in no haste. She squandered much time upon the arrangement -of her towy hair, and there was something like a blush of conscious -satisfaction when she handed me back my looking-glass<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a>{129}</span> and remarked -ironically, “Oh, no, I guess not,—no, sir.”</p> - -<p>I begged her to accept the comb and glass, which she did with maidenly -joy.</p> - -<p>This unusual toilet had stimulated with self-respect Susan’s every -fibre, and as she sprang back across the brook and approached her -mother’s camp-fire I could not fail to admire the magnificent turn of -her shoulders and the powerful, queenly poise of her head. Her full, -grand form and heavy strength reminded me of the statues of Ceres, yet -there was withal a very unpleasant suggestion of fighting trim, a sort -of prize-ring manner of swinging the arms, and hitching the shoulders. -She suddenly spied the children upon the jackass, and with one wide -sweep of her right arm projected them over the creature’s head, and -planted her left eleven firmly in the ribs of the donkey, who beat a -precipitate retreat in the direction of the hog-pens, leaving her -executing a pas seul,—a kind of slow, stately jig, something between -the minuet and the <i>juba</i>, accompanying herself by a low-hummed air and -a vigorous beating of time upon her slightly lifted knee.</p> - -<p>It required my Pike County friends but ten minutes to swallow their pork -and begin the labors of the day.</p> - -<p>The mountaineers’ camp was not yet astir. These children of the forest -were well chained in slumber; for, unless there is some special -programme for the day, it requires the leverage of a high sun to arouse<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a>{130}</span> -their faculties, dormant enough by nature, and soothed into deepest -quiet by whiskey. About eight o’clock they breakfasted, and by nine had -engaged my innocent camp-men in a game of social poker.</p> - -<p>I visited my horses, and had them picketed in the best possible feed, -and congratulated myself that they were recruiting finely for the -difficult ride before me.</p> - -<p>Susan, after a second appeal from her mother, ran over to the corral and -let out the family capital, which streamed with exultant grunt through -the forest, darkening the fair green meadow gardens, and happily passing -out of sight.</p> - -<p>When I had breakfasted I joined Mr. Newty in his trip to the corral, -where we stood together for hours, during which I had mastered the story -of his years since, in 1850, he left his old home in Pike of Missouri. -It was one of those histories common enough through this wide West, yet -never failing to startle me with its horrible lesson of social -disintegration, of human retrograde.</p> - -<p>That brave spirit of Westward Ho! which has been the pillar of fire and -cloud leading on the weary march of progress over stretches of desert, -lining the way with graves of strong men; of new-born lives; of sad, -patient mothers, whose pathetic longing for the new home died with them; -of the thousand old and young whose last agony came to them as they -marched with eyes strained on after the sunken sun, and whose shallow -barrows scarcely lift over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a>{131}</span> drifting dust of the desert; that -restless spirit which has dared to uproot the old and plant the new, -kindling the grand energy of California, laying foundations for a State -to be, that is admirable, is poetic, is to fill an immortal page in the -story of America; but when, instead of urging on to wresting from new -lands something better than old can give, it degenerates into mere -weak-minded restlessness, killing the power of growth, the ideal of -home, the faculty of repose, it results in that race of perpetual -emigrants who roam as dreary waifs over the West, losing possessions, -love of life, love of God, slowly dragging from valley to valley, till -they fall by the wayside, happy if some chance stranger performs for -them the last rites,—often less fortunate, as blanched bones and -fluttering rags upon too many hillsides plainly tell.</p> - -<p>The Newtys were of this dreary brotherhood. In 1850, with a small family -of that authentic strain of high-bred swine for which Pike County is -widely known, as Mr. Newty avers, they bade Missouri and their snug farm -good-by, and, having packed their household goods into a wagon, drawn by -two spotted oxen, set out with the baby Susan for Oregon, where they -came after a year’s march, tired, and cursed with a permanent -discontent. There they had taken up a rancho, a quarter-section of -public domain, which at the end of two years was “improved” to the -extent of the “neatest little worm fence this side of Pike,” a barn, and -a smoke-house. “In another<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a>{132}</span> year,” said my friend, “I’d have dug for a -house, but we tuck ager, and the second baby died.” One day there came a -man who “let on that he knowed” land in California much fairer and more -worthy tillage than Oregon’s best, so the poor Newtys harnessed up the -wagon and turned their backs upon a home nearly ready for comfortable -life, and swept south with pigs and plunder. Through all the years this -story had repeated itself, new homes gotten to the edge of completion, -more babies born, more graves made, more pigs, who replenished as only -the Pike County variety may, till it seemed to me the mere -multiplication of them must reach a sufficient dead weight to anchor the -family; but this was dispelled when Newty remarked, “These yer hogs is -awkward about moving, and I’ve pretty much made up my mind to put ’em -all into bacon this fall, and sell out and start for Montana.”</p> - -<p>Poor fellow! at Montana he will probably find a man from Texas who in -half an hour will persuade him that happiness lies there.</p> - -<p>As we walked back to their camp, and when Dame Newty hove in sight, my -friend ventured to say, “Don’t you mind the old woman and her coons. -She’s from Arkansas. She used to say no man could have Susan who -couldn’t show coonskins enough of his own killing to make a bed-quilt, -but she’s over that mostly.” In spite of this assurance my heart fell a -trifle when, the first moment of our return, she turned to her husband -and asked, “Do<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a>{133}</span> you mind what a dead-open-and-shut on coons our little -Johnnie was when he was ten years old?” I secretly wondered if the -dead-open-and-shut had anything to do with his untimely demise at -eleven, but kept silence.</p> - -<p>Regarding her as a sad product of the disease of chronic emigration, her -hard, thin nature, all angles and stings, became to me one of the most -depressing and pathetic spectacles, and the more when her fever-and-ague -boy, a mass of bilious lymph, came and sat by her, looking up with -great, haggard eyes, as if pleading for something, he knew not what, but -which I plainly saw only death could bestow.</p> - -<p>Noon brought the hour of my departure. Susan and her father talked apart -a moment, then the old man said the two would ride along with me for a -few miles, as he had to go in that direction to look for new hog-feed.</p> - -<p>I despatched my two men with the pack-horse, directing them to follow -the trail, then saddled my Kaweah and waited for the Newtys. The old man -saddled a shaggy little mountain pony for himself, and for Susan -strapped a sheepskin upon the back of a young and fiery mustang colt.</p> - -<p>While they were getting ready, I made my horse fast to a stake and -stepped over to bid good-by to Mrs. Newty. I said to her, in tones of -deference, “I have come to bid you good-by, madam, and when I get back -this way I hope you will be kind enough to tell me one or two really -first-rate coon-stories. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a>{134}</span> am quite ignorant of that animal, having -been raised in countries where they are extremely rare, and I would like -to know more of what seems to be to you a creature of such interest.” -The wet, gray eyes relaxed, as I fancied, a trifle of their asperity; a -faint kindle seemed to light them for an instant as she asked, “You -never see coons catch frogs in a spring branch?”</p> - -<p>“No, madam,” I answered.</p> - -<p>“Well, I wonder! Well, take care of yourself, and when you come back -this way stop along with us, and we’ll kill a yearlin’, and I’ll tell -you about a coon that used to live under grandfather’s barn.” She -actually offered me her hand, which I grasped and shook in a friendly -manner, chilled to the very bone with its damp coldness.</p> - -<p>Mr. Newty mounted, and asked me if I was ready. Susan stood holding her -prancing mustang. To put that girl on her horse after the ordinary plan -would have required the strength of Samson or the use of a step-ladder, -neither of which I possessed; so I waited for events to develop -themselves. The girl stepped to the left side of her horse, twisted one -hand in the mane, laying the other upon his haunches, and, crouching for -a jump, sailed through the air, alighting upon the sheepskin. The horse -reared, and Susan, twisting herself round, came right side up with her -knee upon the sheepskin, shouting, as she did so, “I guess you don’t get -me off, sir!” I jumped upon Kaweah, and our two horses sprang<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a>{135}</span> forward -together, Susan waving her hand to her father, and crying, “Come along -after, old man!” and to her mother, “Take care of yourself!” which is -the Pike County for <i>au revoir!</i> Her mustang tugged at the bit, and -bounded wildly into the air. We reached a stream-bank at full gallop, -the horses clearing it at a bound, sweeping on over the green floor and -under the magnificent shadow of the forest. Newty, following us at an -humble trot, slopped through the creek, and when I last looked he had -nearly reached the edge of the wood.</p> - -<p>I could but admire the unconscious excellence of Susan’s riding, her -firm, immovable seat, and the perfect coolness with which she held the -fiery horse. This quite absorbed me for five minutes, when she at last -broke the silence by the laconic inquiry, “Does yourn buck?” To which I -added the reply that he had only occasionally been guilty of that -indiscretion. She then informed me that the first time she had mounted -the colt he had “nearly bucked her to pieces; he had jumped and jounced -till she was plum tuckered out” before he had given up.</p> - -<p>Gradually reining the horses down and inducing them to walk, we rode -side by side through the most magnificent forest of the Sierras, and I -determined to probe Susan to see whether there were not, even in the -most latent condition, some germs of the appreciation of nature. I -looked from base to summit of the magnificent shafts, at the green -plumes which traced themselves against the sky, the exquisite fall<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a>{136}</span> of -purple shadows and golden light upon trunks, at the labyrinth of glowing -flowers, at the sparkling whiteness of the mountain brook, and up to the -clear, matchless blue that vaulted over us, then turned to Susan’s -plain, honest face, and gradually introduced the subject of trees. Ideas -of lumber and utilitarian notions of fence-rails were uppermost in her -mind; but I briefly penetrated what proved to be only a superficial -stratum of the materialistic, and asked her point blank if she did not -admire their stately symmetry. A strange, new light gleamed in her eye -as I described to her the growth and distribution of forests, and the -marvellous change in their character and aspects as they approached the -tropics. The palm and the pine, as I worked them up to her, really -filled her with delight, and prompted numerous interested and -intelligent queries, showing that she thoroughly comprehended my drift. -In the pleasant hour of our chat I learned a new lesson of the presence -of undeveloped seed in the human mind.</p> - -<p>Mr. Newty at last came alongside, and remarked that he must stop about -here; “but,” he added, “Susan will go on with you about half a mile, and -come back and join me here after I have taken a look at the feed.”</p> - -<p>As he rode out into the forest a little way, he called me to him, and I -was a little puzzled at what seemed to be the first traces of -embarrassment I had seen in his manner.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a>{137}</span></p> - -<p>“You’ll take care of yourself, now, won’t you?” he asked. I tried to -convince him that I would.</p> - -<p>A slight pause.</p> - -<p>“You’ll take care of yourself, won’t you?”</p> - -<p>He might rely on it, I was going to say.</p> - -<p>He added, “Thet—thet—thet man what gits Susan <i>has half the hogs</i>!”</p> - -<p>Then turning promptly away, he spurred the pony, and his words as he -rode into the forest were, “Take good care of yourself!”</p> - -<p>Susan and I rode on for half a mile, until we reached the brow of a long -descent, which she gave me to understand was her limit.</p> - -<p>We shook hands and I bade her good-by, and as I trotted off these words -fell sweetly upon my ear, “Say, you’ll take good care of yourself, won’t -you, say?”</p> - -<p>I took pains not to overtake my camp-men, wishing to be alone; and as I -rode for hour after hour the picture of this family stood before me in -all its deformity of outline, all its poverty of detail, all its -darkness of future, and I believe I thought of it too gravely to enjoy -as I might the subtle light of comedy which plays about these hard, -repulsive figures.</p> - -<p>In conversation I had caught the clew of a better past. Newty’s father -was a New-Englander, and he spoke of him as a man of intelligence and, -as I should judge, of some education. Mrs. Newty’s father had been an -Arkansas judge, not perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a>{138}</span> the most enlightened of men, but still very -far in advance of herself. The conspicuous retrograde seemed to me an -example of the most hopeless phase of human life. If, as I suppose, we -may all sooner or later give in our adhesion to the Darwinian view of -development, does not the same law which permits such splendid scope for -the better open up to us also possible gulfs of degradation, and are not -these chronic emigrants whose broken-down wagons and weary faces greet -you along the dusty highways of the far West melancholy examples of -beings who have forever lost the conservatism of home and the power of -improvement?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a>{139}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI<br /><br /> -KAWEAH’S RUN<br /><br /> -1864</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">After</span> trying hard to climb Mount Whitney without success, and having -returned to the plains, I enjoyed my two days’ rest in hot Visalia, -where were fruits and people, and where I at length thawed out the last -traces of alpine cold, and recovered from hard work and the sinful bread -of my fortnight’s campaign. I considered it happiness to spend my whole -day on the quiet hotel veranda, accustoming myself again to such -articles as chairs and newspapers, and watching with unexpected pleasure -the few village girls who flitted about during the day, and actually -found time after sunset to chat with favored fellows beneath the wide -oaks of the street-side. Especially interesting seemed the rustic sister -of whom I bought figs at a garden gate, thinking her, as I did, <i>comme -il faut</i>, though recollecting later that her gown was of forgotten mode, -and that she carried a suggestion of ancient history in the obsolete -style of her back hair.</p> - -<p>Everybody was of interest to me, not excepting the two Mexican -mountaineers who monopolized the agent at Wells, Fargo & Co.’s office, -causing me delay. They were transacting some little item of business,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a>{140}</span> -and stood loafing by the counter, mechanically jingling huge spurs and -shrugging their shoulders as they chatted in a dull, sleepy way. At the -door they paused, keeping up quite a lively dispute, without apparently -noticing me as I drew a small bag of gold and put it in my pocket. There -was no especial reason why I should remark the stolid, brutal cast of -their countenances, as I thought them not worse than the average -Californian greaser; but it occurred to me that one might as well guess -at a geological formation as to attempt to judge the age of -mountaineers, because they get very early in life a fixed expression, -which is deepened by continual rough weathering and undisturbed -accumulations of dirt. I observed them enough to see that the elder was -a man of middle height, of wiry, light figure and thin, hawk visage; a -certain angular sharpness making itself noticeable about the shoulders -and arms, which tapered to small, almost refined hands. A mere fringe of -perfectly straight, black beard followed the curve of his chin, tangling -itself at the ear with shaggy, unkempt locks of hair. He wore an -ordinary, stiff-brimmed Spanish sombrero, and the inevitable greasy red -sash performed its rather difficult task of holding together flannel -shirt and buckskin breeches, besides half covering with folds a long, -narrow knife.</p> - -<p>His companion struck me as a half-breed Indian, somewhere about eighteen -years of age, his beardless face showing deep, brutal lines, and a mouth -which was a mere crease between hideously heavy lips.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a>{141}</span> Blood stained the -rowels of his spurs; an old felt hat, crumpled and ragged, slouched -forward over his eyes, doing its best to hide the man.</p> - -<p>I thought them a hard couple, and summed up their traits as stolidity -and utter cruelty.</p> - -<p>I was pleased that the stable-man who saddled Kaweah was unable to -answer their inquiry where I was going, and annoyed when I heard the -hotel-keeper inform them that I started that day for Millerton.</p> - -<p>Leaving behind us people and village, Kaweah bore me out under the -grateful shade of oaks, among rambling settlements and fields of -harvested grain, whose pale Naples-yellow stubble and stacks contrasted -finely with the deep foliage, and served as a pretty groundwork for -stripes of vivid green which marked the course of numberless irrigating -streams. Low cottages, overarched with boughs and hemmed in with weed -jungles, margined my road. I saw at the gate many children who looked me -out of countenance with their serious, stupid stare; they were the least -self-conscious of any human beings I have seen.</p> - -<p>Trees and settlements and children were soon behind us, an open plain -stretching on in front without visible limit,—a plain slightly browned -with the traces of dried herbaceous plants, and unrelieved by other -object than distant processions of trees traced from some cañon gate of -the Sierras westward across to the middle valley, or occasional bands of -restless<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a>{142}</span> cattle marching solemnly about in search of food. It was not -pleasant to realize that I had one hundred and twenty miles of this -lonely sort of landscape ahead of me, nor that my only companion was -Kaweah; for with all his splendid powers and rare qualities of instinct -there was not the slightest evidence of response or affection in his -behavior. Friendly toleration was the highest gift he bestowed on me, -though I think he had great personal enjoyment in my habits as a rider. -The only moments when we ever seemed thoroughly <i>en rapport</i> were when I -crowded him down to a wild run, using the spur and shouting at him -loudly, or when in our friendly races homeward toward camp, through the -forest, I put him at a leap where he even doubted his own power. At such -times I could communicate ideas to him with absolute certainty. He would -stop, or turn, or gather himself for a leap, at my will, as it seemed to -me, by some sort of magnetic communication; but I always paid dearly for -this in long, tiresome efforts to calm him.</p> - -<p>With the long, level road ahead of me, I dared not attack its monotony -by any unusual riding, and having settled him at our regular travelling -trot,—a gait of about six miles an hour,—I forgot all about the dreary -expanse of plain, and gave myself up to quiet reverie. About dusk we had -reached the King’s River Ferry.</p> - -<p>An ugly, unpainted house, perched upon the bluff, and flanked by barns -and outbuildings of disorderly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a>{143}</span> aspect, overlooked the ferry. Not a sign -of green vegetation could be seen, except certain half-dried willows -standing knee-deep along the river’s margin, and that dark pine zone -lifted upon the Sierras in eastern distance.</p> - -<p>It is desperate punishment to stay through a summer at one of these -plain ranches, there to be beat upon by an unrelenting sun in the midst -of a scorched landscape and forced to breathe sirocco and sand; yet -there are found plenty of people who are glad to become master of one of -these ferries or stage stations, their life for the most part silent, -and as unvaried as its outlook, given over wholly to permanent and -vacant loafing.</p> - -<p>Supper was announced by a business-like youth, who came out upon the -veranda and vigorously rang a tavern bell, although I was the only -auditor, and likely enough the only person within twenty miles.</p> - -<p>I envy my horse at such times; the graminivorous have us at a -disadvantage, for one revolts at the <i>cuisine</i>, although disliking to -insult the house by quietly shying the food out of the window. I arose -hungry from the table, remembering that some eminent hygeist has avowed -that by so doing one has achieved sanitary success.</p> - -<p>As I walked over to see Kaweah at the corral, I glanced down the river, -and saw, perhaps a quarter of a mile below, two horsemen ride down our -bank, spur their horses into the stream, swim to the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a>{144}</span> side, and -struggle up a steep bank, disappearing among bunches of cottonwood trees -near the river.</p> - -<p>So dangerous and unusual a proceeding could not have been to save the -half-dollar ferriage. There was something about their seat, and the -cruel way they drove home their spurs, that, in default of better -reasons, made me think them Mexicans.</p> - -<p>The whole Tulare plain is the home of nomadic ranchers, who, as -pasturage changes, drive about their herds of horses and cattle from -range to range; and as the wolves prowl around for prey, so a class of -Mexican highwaymen rob and murder them from one year’s end to the other.</p> - -<p>I judged the swimmers were bent on some such errand, and lay down on the -ground by Kaweah, to guard him, rolling myself in my soldier’s -great-coat, and slept with my saddle for a pillow.</p> - -<p>Once or twice the animal waked me up by stamping restively, but I could -perceive no cause for alarm, and slept on comfortably until a little -before sunrise, when I rose, took a plunge in the river, and hurriedly -dressed myself for the day’s ride; the ferryman, who had promised to put -me across at dawn, was already at his post, and, after permitting Kaweah -to drink a deep draught, I rode him out on the ferry-boat, and was -quickly at the other side.</p> - -<p>The road for two or three miles ascends the right bank of the river, -approaching in places quite closely to the edge of its bluffs. I greatly -enjoyed my ride, watching the Sierra sky line high and black against<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a>{145}</span> a -golden circle of dawn, and seeing it mirrored faithfully in still -reaches of river, and pleasing myself with the continually changing -foreground, as group after group of tall, motionless cottonwoods was -passed. The willows, too, are pleasing in their entire harmony with the -scene, and the air they have of protecting bank and shore from torrent -and sun. The plain stretched off to my left into dusky distance, and -ahead in a bare, smooth expanse, dreary by its monotony, yet not -altogether repulsive in the pearly obscurity of the morning. In -midsummer these plains are as hot as the Sahara through the long, -blinding day; but after midnight there comes a delicious blandness upon -the air, a suggestion of freshness and upspringing life, which renews -vitality within you.</p> - -<p>Kaweah showed the influence of this condition in the sensitive play of -ears and toss of head, and in his free, spirited stride. I was -experimenting on his sensitiveness to sounds, and had found that his -ears turned back at the faintest whisper, when suddenly his head rose, -he looked sharply forward toward a clump of trees on the river-bank, one -hundred and fifty yards in front of us, where a quick glance revealed to -me a camp-fire and two men hurrying saddles upon their horses,—a gray -and a sorrel.</p> - -<p>They were Spaniards,—the same who had swum King’s River the afternoon -before, and, as it flashed on me finally, the two whom I had studied so -attentively<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a>{146}</span> at Visalia. Then I at once saw their purpose was to waylay -me, and made up my mind to give them a lively run. The road followed the -bank up to their camp in an easterly direction, and then, turning a -sharp right angle to the north, led out upon the open plain, leaving the -river finally.</p> - -<p>I decided to strike across, and threw Kaweah into a sharp trot.</p> - -<p>I glanced at my girth and then at the bright copper upon my pistol, and -settled myself firmly in the saddle.</p> - -<p>Finding that they could not saddle quickly enough to attack me mounted, -the older villain grabbed a shot-gun, and sprung out to head me off, his -comrade meantime tightening the cinches.</p> - -<p>I turned Kaweah farther off to the left, and tossed him a little more -rein, which he understood and sprang out into a gallop.</p> - -<p>The robber brought his gun to his shoulder, covered me, and yelled, in -good English, “Hold on, you ——!” At that instant his companion dashed -up, leading the other horse. In another moment they were mounted and -after me, yelling, “Hu-hla” to the mustangs, plunging in the spurs, and -shouting occasional volleys of oaths.</p> - -<p>By this time I had regained the road, which lay before me traced over -the blank, objectless plain in vanishing perspective. Fifteen miles lay -between me and a station; Kaweah and pistol were my only defence, yet at -that moment I felt a thrill of pleasure,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a>{147}</span> a wild moment of inspiration, -almost worth the danger to experience.</p> - -<p>I glanced over my shoulder and found that the Spaniards were crowding -their horses to their fullest speed; their hoofs, rattling on the dry -plain, were accompanied by inarticulate noises, like the cries of -bloodhounds. Kaweah comprehended the situation. I could feel his grand -legs gather under me, and the iron muscles contract with excitement; he -tugged at the bit, shook his bridle-chains, and flung himself -impatiently into the air.</p> - -<p>It flashed upon me that perhaps they had confederates concealed in some -ditch far in advance of me, and that the plan was to crowd me through at -fullest speed, giving up the chase to new men and fresh horses; and I -resolved to save Kaweah to the utmost, and only allow him a speed which -should keep me out of gunshot. So I held him firmly, and reserved my -spur for the last emergency. Still we fairly flew over the plain, and I -said to myself, as the clatter of hoofs and din of my pursuers rang in -my ears now and then, as the freshening breeze hurried it forward, that, -if those brutes got me, there was nothing in blood and brains; for -Kaweah was a prince beside their mustangs, and I ought to be worth two -villains.</p> - -<p>For the first twenty minutes the road was hard and smooth and level; -after that gentle, shallow undulations began, and at last, at brief -intervals, were sharp, narrow arroyos (ditches eight or nine feet wide). -I reined Kaweah in, and brought him<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a>{148}</span> up sharply on their bottoms, giving -him the bit to spring up on the other side; but he quickly taught me -better, and, gathering, took them easily, without my feeling it in his -stride.</p> - -<p>The hot sun had arisen. I saw with anxiety that the tremendous speed -began to tell painfully on Kaweah. Foam tinged with blood fell from his -mouth, and sweat rolled in streams from his whole body, and now and then -he drew a deep-heaving breath. I leaned down and felt of the cinch to -see if it had slipped forward, but, as I had saddled him with great -care, it kept its true place, so I had only to fear the greasers behind, -or a new relay ahead. I was conscious of plenty of reserved speed in -Kaweah, whose powerful run was already distancing their fatigued -mustangs.</p> - -<p>As we bounded down a roll of the plain, a cloud of dust sprang from a -ravine directly in front of me, and two black objects lifted themselves -in the sand. I drew my pistol, cocked it, whirled Kaweah to the left, -plunging by and clearing them by about six feet; a thrill of relief came -as I saw the long, white horns of Spanish cattle gleam above the dust.</p> - -<p>Unconsciously I restrained Kaweah too much, and in a moment the -Spaniards were crowding down upon me at a fearful rate. On they came, -the crash of their spurs and the clatter of their horses distinctly -heard; and as I had so often compared the beats of chronometers, I -unconsciously noted that while Kaweah’s, although painful, yet came with -regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a>{149}</span> power, the mustangs’ respiration was quick, spasmodic, and -irregular. I compared the intervals of the two mustangs, and found that -one breathed better than the other, and then, upon counting the best -mustang with Kaweah, found that he breathed nine breaths to Kaweah’s -seven. In two or three minutes I tried it again, finding the relation -ten to seven; then I felt the victory, and I yelled to Kaweah. The thin -ears shot flat back upon his neck; lower and lower he lay down to his -run; I flung him a loose rein, and gave him a friendly pat on the -withers. It was a glorious burst of speed; the wind rushed by and the -plain swept under us with dizzying swiftness. I shouted again, and the -thing of nervous life under me bounded on wilder and faster, till I -could feel his spine thrill as with shocks from a battery. I managed to -look round,—a delicate matter at speed,—and saw, far behind, the -distanced villains, both dismounted, and one horse fallen.</p> - -<p>In an instant I drew Kaweah in to a gentle trot, looking around every -moment, lest they should come on me unawares. In a half-mile I reached -the station, and I was cautiously greeted by a man who sat by the barn -door, with a rifle across his knees. He had seen me come over the plain, -and had also seen the Spanish horse fall. Not knowing but he might be in -league with the robbers, I gave him a careful glance before dismounting, -and was completely reassured by an expression of terror which had -possession of his countenance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a>{150}</span></p> - -<p>I sprang to the ground and threw off the saddle, and after a word or two -with the man, who proved to be the sole occupant of this station, we -fell to work together upon Kaweah, my cocked pistol and his rifle lying -close at hand. We sponged the creature’s mouth, and, throwing a sheet -over him, walked him regularly up and down for about three quarters of -an hour, and then taking him upon the open plain, where we could scan -the horizon in all directions, gave him a thorough grooming. I never saw -him look so magnificently as when we led him down to the creek to drink: -his skin was like satin, and the veins of his head and neck stood out -firm and round like whip-cords.</p> - -<p>In the excitement of taking care of Kaweah I had scarcely paid any -attention to my host, but after two hours, when the horse was quietly -munching his hay, I listened attentively to his story.</p> - -<p>The two Spaniards had lurked round his station during the night, guns in -hand, and had made an attempt to steal a pair of stage horses from the -stable, but, as he had watched with his rifle, they finally rode away.</p> - -<p>By his account I knew them to be my pursuers; they had here, however, -ridden two black mustangs, and had doubtless changed their mount for the -sole purpose of waylaying me.</p> - -<p>About eleven o’clock, it being my turn to watch the horizon, I saw two -horsemen making a long <i>détour</i> round the station, disappearing finally -in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a>{151}</span> direction of Millerton. By my glass I could only make out that -they were men riding in single file on a sorrel and a gray horse; but -this, with the fact of the long <i>détour</i>, which finally brought them -back into the road again, convinced me that they were my enemies. The -uncomfortable probability of their raising a band, and returning to make -sure of my capture, filled me with disagreeable foreboding, and all day -long, whether my turn at sentinel duty or not, I did little else than -range my eye over the valley in all directions.</p> - -<p>Twice during the day I led Kaweah out and paced him to and fro, for fear -his tremendous exertion would cause a stiffening of the legs; but each -time he followed close to my shoulder with the same firm, proud step, -and I gloried in him.</p> - -<p>Shortly after dark I determined to mount and push forward to Millerton, -my friend, the station man, having given me careful directions as to its -position; and I knew from the topography of the country that, by -abandoning the road and travelling by the stars, I could not widely miss -my mark; so at about nine o’clock I saddled Kaweah, and, mounting, bade -good-by to my friend.</p> - -<p>The air was bland, the heavens cloudless and starlit; in the west a low -arch of light, out of which had faded the last traces of sunset color; -in the east a silver dawn shone mild and pure above the Sierras, -brightening as the light in the west faded, till at last one jetty crag -was cut upon the disk of rising moon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a>{152}</span></p> - -<p>Upon the light gray tone of the plain every object might be seen, and as -I rode on the memory of danger passed away, leaving me in full enjoyment -of companionship with the hour and with my friend Kaweah, whose sturdy, -easy stride was in itself a delight. There is a charm peculiar to these -soft, dewless nights. It seems the perfection of darkness in which you -get all the rest of sleep while riding, or lying wide awake on your -blankets. Now and then an object, vague and unrecognized, loomed out of -dusky distance, arresting our attention, for Kaweah’s quick eye usually -found them first: dead carcases of starved cattle, a blanched skull, or -stump of aged oak, were the only things seen, and we gradually got -accustomed to these, passing with no more than a glance.</p> - -<p>At last we approached a region of low, rolling sand-hills, where -Kaweah’s tread became muffled, and the silence so oppressive as to call -out from me a whistle. That instrument proved excellent in Traviata -solos; but, when I attempted some of Chopin, failed so painfully that I -was glad to be diverted by arriving at the summit of the zone of hills, -and looking out upon the wide, shallow valley of the San Joaquin, a -plain dotted with groves, and lighted here and there by open reaches of -moonlit river.</p> - -<p>I looked up and down, searching for lights which should mark Millerton. -I had intended to strike the river above the settlement, and should now, -if<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a>{153}</span> my reckoning was correct, be within half a mile of it.</p> - -<p>Riding down to the river-bank, I dismounted, and allowed Kaweah to -quench his thirst. The cool mountain water, fresh from the snow, was -delicious to him. He drank, stopped to breathe, and drank again and -again. I allowed him also to feed a half-moment on the grass by the -river-bank, and then, remounting, headed down the river, and rode slowly -along under the shadow of trees, following a broad, well-beaten trail, -which led, as I believed, to the village.</p> - -<p>While in a grove of oaks, jingling spurs suddenly sounded ahead, and -directly I heard voices. I quickly turned Kaweah from the trail, and -tied him a few rods off, behind a thicket, then crawled back into a -bunch of buckeye bushes, disturbing some small birds, who took flight. -In a moment two horsemen, talking Spanish, neared, and as they passed I -recognized their horses, and then the men. The impulse to try a shot was -so strong that I got out my revolver, but upon second thought put it up. -As they rode on into the shadow, the younger, as I judged by his voice, -broke out into a delicious melody, one of those passionate Spanish songs -with a peculiar, throbbing cadence, which he emphasized by sharply -ringing his spurs.</p> - -<p>These Californian scoundrels are invariably light-hearted; crime cannot -overshadow the exhilaration of outdoor life; remorse and gloom are -banished like<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a>{154}</span> clouds before this perennially sunny climate. They make -amusement out of killing you, and regard a successful plundering time as -a sort of pleasantry.</p> - -<p>As the soft, full tones of my bandit died in distance, I went for -Kaweah, and rode rapidly westward in the opposite direction, bringing up -soon in the outskirts of Millerton, just as the last gamblers were -closing up their little games, and about the time the drunk were -conveying one another home. Kaweah being stabled, I went to the hotel, -an excellent and orderly establishment, where a colored man of mild -manners gave me supper and made me at home by gentle conversation, -promising at last to wake me early, and bidding me good-night at my room -door with the tones of an old friend. I think his soothing spirit may -partly account for the genuinely profound sleep into which I quickly -fell, and which held me fast bound, until his hand on my shoulder and -“Half-past four, sir,” called me back, and renewed the currents of -consciousness.</p> - -<p>After we had had our breakfast, Kaweah and I forded the San Joaquin, and -I at once left the road, determined to follow a mountain trail which led -toward Mariposa. The trail proved a good one to travel, of smooth, soft -surface, and pleasant in its diversity of ups and downs, and with -rambling curves, which led through open regions of brown hills, whose -fern and grass were ripened to a common yellow-brown; then among -park-like slopes, crowned with fine oaks, and occasional pine woods, the -ground<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a>{155}</span> frequently covering itself with clumps of such shrubs as -chaparral, and the never-enough-admired manzanita. Yet I think I never -saw such facilities for an ambuscade. I imagined the path went out of -its way to thread every thicket, and the very trees grouped themselves -with a view to highway robbery.</p> - -<p>I soon, though, got tired looking out for my Spaniards, and became -assured of having my ride to myself when I studied the trail, and found -that Kaweah’s were the first tracks of the day.</p> - -<p>Riding thus in the late summer along the Sierra foot-hills, one is -constantly impressed with the climatic peculiarities of the region. With -us in the East, plant life seems to continue until it is at last put out -by cold, the trees appear to grow till the first frosts; but in the -Sierra foot-hills growth and active life culminate in June and early -July, and then follow long months of warm, stormless autumn, wherein the -hills grow slowly browner, and the whole air seems to ripen into a -fascinating repose,—a rich, dreamy quiet, with distance lost behind -pearly hazes, with warm, tranquil nights, dewless and silent. This -period is wealthy in yellows and russets and browns, in great, -overhanging masses of oak, whose olive hue is warmed into umber depth, -in groves of serious pines, red of bark, and cool in the dark greenness -of their spires. Nature wears an aspect of patient waiting for a great -change; ripeness, existence beyond the accomplishment of the purpose of -life, a long, pleasant, painless waiting for death,—<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a>{156}</span>these are the -conditions of the vegetation; and it is vegetation more than the -peculiar appearance of the air which impresses the strange character of -the season. It is as if our August should grow rich and ripe, through -cloudless days and glorious, warm nights, on till February, and then -wake as from sleep, to break out in the bloom of May.</p> - -<p>I was delighted to ride thus alone, and expose myself, as one uncovers a -sensitized photographic plate, to be influenced; for this is a respite -from scientific work, when through months you hold yourself accountable -for seeing everything, for analyzing, for instituting perpetual -comparison, and, as it were, sharing in the administering of the -physical world. No tongue can tell the relief to simply withdraw -scientific observation, and let Nature impress you in the dear old way -with all her mystery and glory, with those vague, indescribable emotions -which tremble between wonder and sympathy.</p> - -<p>Behind me in distance stretched the sere plain where Kaweah’s run saved -me. To the west, fading out into warm, blank distance, lay the great -valley of San Joaquin, into which, descending by sinking curves, were -rounded hills, with sunny, brown slopes softened as to detail by a low, -clinging bank of milky air. Now and then out of the haze to the east -indistinct rosy peaks, with dull, silvery snow-marblings, stood dimly up -against the sky, and higher yet a few sharp summits lifted into the -clearer heights seemed hung there floating. Quite in harmony with this<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a>{157}</span> -was the little group of Dutch settlements I passed, where an -antique-looking man and woman sat together on a veranda sunning their -white hair, and silently smoking old porcelain pipes.</p> - -<p>Nor was there any element of incongruity at the rancheria where I -dismounted to rest shortly after noon. A few sleepy Indians lay on their -backs dreaming, the good-humored, stout squaws nursing pappooses, or -lying outstretched upon red blankets. The agreeable harmony was not -alone from the Indian summer in their blood, but in part as well from -the features of their dress and facial expression. Their clothes, of -Caucasian origin, quickly fade out into utter barbarism, toning down to -warm, dirty timbers, never failing to be relieved, here and there, by -ropes of blue and white beads, or head-band and girdle of scarlet cloth.</p> - -<p>Toward the late afternoon, trotting down a gentle forest slope, I came -in sight of a number of ranch buildings grouped about a central open -space. A small stream flowed by the outbuildings, and wound among -chaparral-covered spurs below. Considerable crops of grain had been -gathered into a corral, and a number of horses were quietly straying -about. Yet with all the evidences of considerable possessions the whole -place had an air of suspicious mock-sleepiness. Riding into the open -square, I saw that one of the buildings was a store, and to this I rode, -tying Kaweah to the piazza post.</p> - -<p>I thought the whole world slumbered when I beheld<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a>{158}</span> the sole occupant of -this country store, a red-faced man in pantaloons and shirt, who lay on -his back upon a counter fast asleep, the handle of a revolver grasped in -his right hand. It seemed to me if I were to wake him up a little too -suddenly he might misunderstand my presence and do some accidental -damage; so I stepped back and poked Kaweah, making him jump and clatter -his hoofs, and at once the proprietor sprang to the door, looking -flustered and uneasy.</p> - -<p>I asked him if he could accommodate me for the afternoon and night, and -take care of my horse; to which he replied, in a very leisurely manner, -that there was a bed, and something to eat, and hay, and that if I was -inclined to take the chances I might stay.</p> - -<p>Being in mind to take the chances, I did stay, and my host walked out -with me to the corral, and showed me where to get Kaweah’s hay and -grain.</p> - -<p>I loafed about for an hour or two, finding that a Chinese cook was the -only other human being in sight, and then concluded to pump the -landlord. A half-hour’s trial thoroughly disgusted me, and I gave it up -as a bad job. I did, however, learn that he was a man of Southern birth, -of considerable education, which a brutal life and depraved mind had not -been able to fully obliterate. He seemed to care very little for his -business, which indeed was small enough, for during the time I spent -there not a single customer made his appearance. The stock of goods I -observed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a>{159}</span> on examination to be chiefly fire-arms, every manner of -gambling apparatus, and liquors; the few pieces of stuffs, barrels, and -boxes of groceries appeared to be disposed rather as ornaments than for -actual sale.</p> - -<p>From each of the man’s trousers’ pockets protruded the handle of a -derringer, and behind his counter were arranged in convenient position -two or three double-barrelled shot-guns.</p> - -<p>I remarked to him that he seemed to have a handily arranged arsenal, at -which he regarded me with a cool, quiet stare, polished the handle of -one of his derringers upon his trousers, examined the percussion-cap -with great deliberation, and then, with a nod of the head intended to -convey great force, said, “You don’t live in these parts,”—a fact for -which I felt not unthankful.</p> - -<p>The man drank brandy freely and often, and at intervals of about half an -hour called to his side a plethoric old cat named “Gospel,” stroked her -with nervous rapidity, swearing at the same time in so <i>distrait</i> and -unconscious a manner that he seemed mechanically talking to himself.</p> - -<p>Whoever has travelled on the West Coast has not failed to notice the -fearful volleys of oaths which the oxen-drivers hurl at their teams, but -for ingenious flights of fancy profanity I have never met the equal of -my host. With the most perfect good-nature and in unmoved continuance he -uttered florid blasphemies, which, I think, must have taken hours to -invent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a>{160}</span> I was glad, when bedtime came, to be relieved of his presence, -and especially pleased when he took me to the little separate building -in which was a narrow, single bed. Next this building on the left was -the cook-house and dining-room, and upon the right lay his own sleeping -apartment. Directly across the square, and not more than sixty feet off, -was the gate of the corral, which creaked on its rusty hinges, when -moved, in the most dismal manner.</p> - -<p>As I lay upon my bed I could hear Kaweah occasionally stamp; the snoring -of the Chinaman on one side, and the low, mumbled conversation of my -host and his squaw on the other. I felt no inclination to sleep, but lay -there in half-doze, quite conscious, yet withdrawn from the present.</p> - -<p>I think it must have been about eleven o’clock when I heard the clatter -of a couple of horsemen, who galloped up to my host’s building and -sprang to the ground, their Spanish spurs ringing on the stone. I sat up -in bed, grasped my pistol, and listened. The peach-tree next my window -rustled. The horses moved about so restlessly that I heard but little of -the conversation, but that little I found of personal interest to -myself.</p> - -<p>I give as nearly as I can remember the fragments of dialogue between my -host and the man whom I recognized as the older of my two robbers.</p> - -<p>“When did he come?”</p> - -<p>“Wall, the sun might have been about four hours.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a>{161}</span></p> - -<p>“Has his horse give out?”</p> - -<p>I failed to hear the answer, but was tempted to shout out “No!”</p> - -<p>“Gray coat, buckskin breeches.” (My dress.)</p> - -<p>“Going to Mariposa at seven in the morning.”</p> - -<p>“I guess I wouldn’t round here.”</p> - -<p>A low, muttered soliloquy in Spanish wound up with a growl.</p> - -<p>“No, Antone, not within a mile of the place. ‘Sta buen.’<span class="lftspc">”</span></p> - -<p>Out of the compressed jumble of the final sentence I got but the one -word, “buckshot.”</p> - -<p>The Spaniards mounted and the sound of their spurs and horses’ hoofs -soon died away in the north, and I lay for half an hour revolving all -sorts of plans. The safest course seemed to be to slip out in the -darkness and fly on foot to the mountains, abandoning my good Kaweah; -but I thought of his noble run, and it seemed to me so wrong to turn my -back on him that I resolved to unite our fate. I rose cautiously, and, -holding my watch up to the moon, found that twelve o’clock had just -passed, then taking from my pocket a five-dollar gold piece, I laid it -upon the stand by my bed, and in my stocking feet, with my clothes in my -hand, started noiselessly for the corral. A fierce bull-dog, which had -shown no disposition to make friends with me, bounded from the open door -of the proprietor to my side. Instead of tearing me, as I had expected, -he licked my hands and fawned about my feet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a>{162}</span></p> - -<p>Reaching the corral gate, I dreaded opening it at once, remembering the -rusty hinges, so I hung my clothes upon an upper bar of the fence, and, -cautiously lifting the latch, began to push back the gate, inch by inch, -an operation which required eight or ten minutes; then I walked up to -Kaweah and patted him. His manger was empty; he had picked up the last -kernel of barley. The creature’s manner was full of curiosity, as if he -had never been approached in the night before. Suppressing his ordinary -whinnying, he preserved a motionless, statue-like silence. I was in -terror lest by a neigh, or some nervous movement, he should waken the -sleeping proprietor and expose my plan.</p> - -<p>The corral and the open square were half covered with loose stones, and -when I thought of the clatter of Kaweah’s shoes I experienced a feeling -of trouble, and again meditated running off on foot, until the idea -struck me of muffling the iron feet. Ordinarily Kaweah would not allow -me to lift his forefeet at all. The two blacksmiths who shod him had -done so at the peril of their lives, and whenever I had attempted to -pick up his hind feet he had warned me away by dangerous stamps; so I -approached him very timidly, and was surprised to find that he allowed -me to lift all four of his feet without the slightest objection. As I -stooped down he nosed me over, and nibbled playfully at my hat. In -constant dread lest he should make some noise, I hurried to muffle his -forefeet with my trousers and shirt, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a>{163}</span> then, with rather more care, -to tie upon his hind feet my coat and drawers.</p> - -<p>Knowing nothing of the country ahead of me, and fearing that I might -again have to run for it, I determined at all cost to water him. Groping -about the corral and barn, and at last finding a bucket, and descending -through the darkness to the stream, I brought him a full draught, which -he swallowed eagerly, when I tied my shoes on the saddle pommel, and led -the horse slowly out of the corral gate, holding him firmly by the bit, -and feeling his nervous breath pour out upon my hand.</p> - -<p>When we had walked perhaps a quarter of a mile, I stopped and listened. -All was quiet, the landscape lying bright and distinct in full -moonlight. I unbound the wrappings, shook from them as much dust as -possible, dressed myself, and then, mounting, started northward on the -Mariposa trail with cocked pistol.</p> - -<p>In the soft dust we travelled noiselessly for a mile or so, passing from -open country into groves of oak and thickets of chaparral.</p> - -<p>Without warning, I suddenly came upon a smouldering fire close by the -trail, and in the shadow descried two sleeping forms, one stretched on -his back, snoring heavily, the other lying upon his face, pillowing his -head upon folded arms.</p> - -<p>I held my pistol aimed at one of the wretches, and rode by without -wakening them, guiding Kaweah in the thickest dust.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a>{164}</span></p> - -<p>It keyed me up to a high pitch. I turned around in the saddle, leaving -Kaweah to follow the trail, and kept my eyes riveted on the sleeping -forms, until they were lost in distance, and then I felt safe.</p> - -<p>We galloped over many miles of trail, enjoying a sunrise, and came at -last to Mariposa, where I deposited my gold, and then went to bed and -made up my lost sleep.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a>{165}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII<br /><br /> -AROUND YOSEMITE WALLS<br /><br /> -1864</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Late</span> in the afternoon of October 5, 1864, a party of us reached the edge -of Yosemite, and, looking down into the valley, saw that the summer haze -had been banished from the region by autumnal frosts and wind. We looked -in the gulf through air as clear as a vacuum, discerning small objects -upon valley-floor and cliff-front. That splendid afternoon shadow which -divides the face of El Capitan was projected far up and across the -valley, cutting it in halves,—one a mosaic of russets and yellows with -dark pine and glimpse of white river; the other a cobalt-blue zone, in -which the familiar groves and meadows were suffused with shadow-tones.</p> - -<p>It is hard to conceive a more pointed contrast than this same view in -October and June. Then, through a slumberous yet transparent atmosphere, -you look down upon emerald freshness of green, upon arrowy rush of -swollen river, and here and there, along pearly cliffs, as from the -clouds, tumbles white, silver dust of cataracts. The voice of full, soft -winds swells up over rustling leaves, and, pulsating, throbs like the -beating of far-off surf. All stern sublimity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a>{166}</span> all geological -terribleness, are veiled away behind magic curtains of cloud-shadow and -broken light. Misty brightness, glow of cliff and sparkle of foam, -wealth of beautiful details, the charm of pearl and emerald, cool gulfs -of violet shade stretching back in deep recesses of the walls,—these -are the features which lie under the June sky.</p> - -<p>Now all that has gone. The shattered fronts of walls stand out sharp and -terrible, sweeping down in broken crag and cliff to a valley whereon the -shadow of autumnal death has left its solemnity. There is no longer an -air of beauty. In this cold, naked strength, one has crowded on him the -geological record of mountain work, of granite plateau suddenly rent -asunder, of the slow, imperfect manner in which Nature has vainly -striven to smooth her rough work and bury the ruins with thousands of -years’ accumulation of soil and <i>débris</i>.</p> - -<p>Already late, we hurried to descend the trail, and were still following -it when darkness overtook us; but ourselves and the animals were so well -acquainted with every turn that we found no difficulty in continuing our -way to Longhurst’s house, and here we camped for the night.</p> - -<p>By an act of Congress the Yosemite Valley had been segregated from the -public domain, and given—“donated,” as they call it—to the State of -California, to be held inalienable for all time as a public -pleasure-ground. The Commission into whose hands this trust devolved had -sent Mr. Gardiner<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a>{167}</span> and myself to make a survey defining the boundaries -of the new grant. It was necessary to execute this work before the -Legislature should meet in December, and we undertook it, knowing very -well that we must use the utmost haste in order to escape a three -months’ imprisonment,—for in early winter the immense Sierra snow-falls -would close the doors of mountain trails, and we should be unable to -reach the lowlands until the following spring.</p> - -<p>The party consisted of my companion, Mr. Gardiner; Mr. Frederick A. -Clark, who had been detailed from the service of the Mariposa Company to -assist us; Longhurst, an <i>habitué</i> of the valley,—a weather-beaten -round-the-worlder, whose function in the party was to tell yarns, sing -songs, and feed the inner man; Cotter and Wilmer, chainmen; and two -mules,—one which was blind, and the other which, I aver, would have -discharged his duty very much better without eyes.</p> - -<p>We had chosen as the head-quarters of the survey two little cabins under -the pine-trees near Black’s Hotel. They were central; they offered a -shelter; and from their doors, which opened almost upon the Merced -itself, we obtained a most delightful sunrise view of the Yosemite.</p> - -<p>Next morning, in spite of early outcries from Longhurst, and a warning -solo of his performed with spoon and fry-pan, we lay in our comfortable -blankets pretending to enjoy the effect of sunrise light upon the -Yosemite cliff and fall, all of us unwilling<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a>{168}</span> to own that we were tired -out and needed rest. Breakfast had waited an hour or more when we got a -little weary of beds and yielded to the temptation of appetite.</p> - -<p>A family of Indians, consisting of two huge girls and their parents, sat -silently waiting for us to commence, and, after we had begun, watched -every mouthful from the moment we got it successfully impaled upon the -camp forks, a cloud darkening their faces as it disappeared forever down -our throats.</p> - -<p>But we quite lost our spectators when Longhurst came upon the boards as -a flapjack-frier,—a <i>rôle</i> to which he bent his whole intelligence, and -with entire success. Scorning such vulgar accomplishment as turning the -cake over in mid-air, he slung it boldly up, turning it three -times,—ostentatiously greasing the pan with a fine, centrifugal -movement, and catching the flapjack as it fluttered down,—and spanked -it upon the hot coals with a touch at once graceful and masterly.</p> - -<p>I failed to enjoy these products, feeling as if I were breakfasting in -sacrilege upon works of art. Not so our Indian friends, who wrestled -affectionately for frequent unfortunate cakes which would dodge -Longhurst and fall into the ashes.</p> - -<p>By night we had climbed to the top of the northern wall, camping at the -head-waters of a small brook, named by emotional Mr. Hutchings, I -believe, the Virgin’s Tears, because from time to time<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a>{169}</span> from under the -brow of a cliff just south of El Capitan there may be seen a feeble -water-fall. I suspect this sentimental pleasantry is intended to bear -some relation to the Bridal Veil Fall opposite. If it has any such force -at all, it is a melancholy one, given by unusual gauntness and an aged -aspect, and by the few evanescent tears which this old virgin sheds.</p> - -<p>A charming camp-ground was formed by bands of russet meadow wandering in -vistas through a stately forest of dark green fir-trees unusually -feathered to the base. Little, mahogany-colored pools surrounded with -sphagnum lay in the meadows, offering pleasant contrast of color. Our -camp-ground was among clumps of thick firs, which completely walled in -the fire, and made close, overhanging shelters for table and beds.</p> - -<p>Gardiner, Cotter, and I felt thankful to our thermometer for owning up -frankly the chill of the next morning, as we left a generous camp-fire -and marched off through fir forest and among brown meadows and bare -ridges of rock toward El Capitan. This grandest of granite precipices is -capped by a sort of forehead of stone sweeping down to level, severe -brows, which jut out a few feet over the edge. A few weather-beaten, -battle-twisted, and black pines cling in clefts, contrasting in force -with the solid white stone.</p> - -<p>We hung our barometer upon a stunted tree quite near the brink, and, -climbing cautiously down,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a>{170}</span> stretched ourselves out upon an overhanging -block of granite, and looked over into the Yosemite Valley.</p> - -<p>The rock fell under us in one sheer sweep of thirty-two hundred feet; -upon its face we could trace the lines of fracture and all prominent -lithological changes. Directly beneath, outspread like a delicately -tinted chart, lay the lovely park of Yosemite, winding in and out about -the solid white feet of precipices which sank into it on either side; -its sunlit surface invaded by the shadow of the south wall; its spires -of pine, open expanses of buff and drab meadow, and families of umber -oaks rising as background for the vivid green river-margin and flaming -orange masses of frosted cottonwood foliage.</p> - -<p>Deep in front the Bridal Veil brook made its way through the bottom of -an open gorge, and plunged off the edge of a thousand-foot cliff, -falling in white water-dust and drifting in pale, translucent clouds out -over the tree-tops of the valley.</p> - -<p>Directly opposite us, and forming the other gatepost of the valley’s -entrance, rose the great mass of Cathedral Rocks,—a group quite -suggestive of the Florence Duomo.</p> - -<p>But our grandest view was eastward, above the deep, sheltered valley and -over the tops of those terrible granite walls, out upon rolling ridges -of stone and wonderful granite domes. Nothing in the whole list of -irruptive products, except volcanoes themselves, is so wonderful as -these domed mountains.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a>{171}</span> They are of every variety of conoidal form, -having horizontal sections accurately elliptical, ovoid, or circular, -and profiles varying from such semi-circles as the cap behind the -Sentinel to the graceful, infinite curves of the North Dome. Above and -beyond these stretch back long, bare ridges connecting with sunny summit -peaks. The whole region is one solid granite mass, with here and there -shallow soil layers, and a thin, variable forest which grows in -picturesque mode, defining the leading lines of erosion as an artist -deepens here and there a line to hint at some structural peculiarity.</p> - -<p>A complete physical exposure of the range, from summit to base, lay -before us. At one extreme stand sharpened peaks, white in fretwork of -glistening icebank, or black where tower straight bolts of snowless -rock; at the other stretch away plains smiling with a broad, honest -brown under autumn sunlight. They are not quite lovable, even in distant -tranquillity of hue, and just escape being interesting, in spite of -their familiar rivers and associated belts of oaks. Nothing can ever -render them quite charming, for in the startling splendor of flower-clad -April you are surfeited with an embarrassment of beauty; at all other -times stunned by their poverty. Not so the summits; forever new, full of -individuality, rich in detail, and coloring themselves anew under every -cloud change or hue of heaven, they lay you under their spell.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a>{172}</span></p> - -<p>From them the eye comes back over granite waves and domes to the sharp -precipice-edges overhanging Yosemite. We look down those vast, hard, -granite fronts, cracked and splintered, scarred and stained, down over -gorges crammed with <i>débris</i>, or dark with files of climbing pines. -Lower the precipice-feet are wrapped in meadow and grove, and beyond, -level and sunlit, lies the floor,—that smooth, river-cut park, with -exquisite perfection of finish.</p> - -<p>The dome-like cap of Capitan is formed of concentric layers like the -peels of an onion, each one about two or three feet thick. Upon the -precipice itself, either from our station on an overhanging crevice, or -from any point of opposite cliff or valley bottom, this structure is -seen to be superficial, never descending more than a hundred feet.</p> - -<p>In returning to camp we followed a main ridge, smooth and white under -foot, but shaded by groves of alpine firs. Trees which here reach mature -stature, and in apparent health, stand rooted in white gravel, resulting -from surface decomposition. I am sure their foliage is darker than can -be accounted for by effect of white contrasting earth. Wherever, in deep -depressions, enough wash soil and vegetable mould have accumulated, -there the trees gather in thicker groups, lift themselves higher, spread -out more and finer-feathered branches; sometimes, however, richness of -soil and perfection of condition prove fatal through overcrowding. They -are wonderfully like human communities. One may trace<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a>{173}</span> in an hour’s walk -nearly all the laws which govern the physical life of men.</p> - -<p>Upon reaching camp we found Longhurst in a deep, religious calm, happy -in his mind, happy, too, in the posture of his body, which was reclining -at ease upon a comfortable blanket-pile before the fire; a verse of the -hymn “Coronation” escaped murmurously from his lips, rising at times in -shaky crescendos, accompanied by a waving and desultory movement of the -forefinger. He had found among our medicines a black bottle of brandy, -contrived to induce a mule to break it, and, just to save as much as -possible while it was leaking, drank with freedom. Anticipating any -possible displeasure of ours, Longhurst had collected his wits and -arrived at a most excellent dinner, crowning the repast with a duff, -accurately globular, neatly brecciated with abundant raisins, and -drowned with a foaming sauce, to which the last of the brandy imparted -an almost pathetic flavor.</p> - -<p>The evening closed with moral remark and spiritual song from Longhurst, -and the morning introduced us to our prosaic labor of running the -boundary line,—a task which consumed several weeks, and occupied nearly -all of our days. I once or twice found time to go down to the -cliff-edges again for the purpose of making my geological studies.</p> - -<p>An excursion which Cotter and I made to the top of the Three Brothers -proved of interest. A half-hour’s walk from camp, over rolling granite -country,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a>{174}</span> brought us to a ridge which jutted boldly out from the plateau -to the edge of the Yosemite wall. Upon the southern side of this -eminence heads a broad, <i>débris</i>-filled ravine, which descends to the -valley bottom; upon the other side the ridge sends down its waters along -a steep declivity into a lovely mountain basin, where, surrounded by -forest, spreads out a level expanse of emerald meadow, with a bit of -blue lakelet in the midst. The outlet of this little valley is through a -narrow rift in the rocks leading down into the Yosemite fall.</p> - -<p>Along the crest of our jutting ridge we found smooth pathway, and soon -reached the summit. Here again we were upon the verge of a precipice, -this time four thousand two hundred feet high. Beneath us the whole -upper half of the valley was as clearly seen as the southern half had -been from Capitan. The sinuosities of the Merced, those narrow, silvery -gleams which indicated the channel of the Yosemite creek, the broad -expanse of meadow, and <i>débris</i> trains which had bounded down the -Sentinel slope, were all laid out under us, though diminished by immense -depth.</p> - -<p>The loftiest and most magnificent parts of the walls crowded in a -semi-circle in front of us; above them the domes, lifted even higher -than ourselves, swept down to the precipice-edges. Directly to our left -we overlooked the goblet-like recess into which the Yosemite tumbles, -and could see the white torrent leap through its granite lip, -disappearing a thousand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a>{175}</span> feet below, hidden from our view by projecting -crags; its roar floating up to us, now resounding loudly, and again -dying off in faint reverberations like the sounding of the sea.</p> - -<p>Looking up upon the falls from the valley below, one utterly fails to -realize the great depth of the semi-circular alcove into which they -descend.</p> - -<p>Looking back at El Capitan, its sharp, vertical front was projected -against far blue foot-hills, the creamy whiteness of sunlit granite cut -upon aërial distance, clouds and cold blue sky shutting down over white -crest and jetty pine-plumes, which gather helmet-like upon its upper -dome. Perspective effects are marvellously brought out by the stern, -powerful reality of such rock bodies as Capitan. Across their terrible, -blade-like precipice-edges you look on and down over vistas of cañon and -green hillswells, the dark color of pine and fir broken by bare spots of -harmonious red or brown, and changing with distance into purple, then -blue, which reaches on farther into the brown monotonous plains. Beyond, -where the earth’s curve defines its horizon, dim serrations of Coast -Range loom indistinctly on the hazy air. From here those remarkable -fracture results, the Royal Arches, a series of recesses carved into the -granite front, beneath the North Dome, are seen in their true -proportions.</p> - -<p>The concentric structure, which covers the dome with a series of plates, -penetrates to a greater depth than usual. The Arches themselves are -only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a>{176}</span> fractured edges of these plates, resulting from the intersection -of a cliff-plane with the conoidal shells.</p> - -<p>We had seen the Merced group of snow-peaks heretofore from the west, but -now gained a more oblique view, which began to bring out the thin -obelisk-form of Mount Clark, a shape of great interest from its -marvellous thinness. Mount Starr King, too, swelled up to its commanding -height, the most elevated of the domes.</p> - -<p>Looking in the direction of the Half-Dome, I was constantly impressed -with the inclination of the walls, with the fact that they are never -vertical for any great depth. This is observed, too, remarkably in the -case of El Capitan, whose apparently vertical profile is very slant, the -actual base standing twelve hundred feet in advance of the brow.</p> - -<p>For a week the boundary survey was continued northeast and parallel to -the cliff-wall, about a mile back from its brink, following through -forests and crossing granite spurs until we reached the summit of that -high, bare chain which divides the Virgin’s Tears from Yosemite Creek, -and which, projecting southward, ends in the Three Brothers. East of -this the declivity falls so rapidly to the valley of the upper Yosemite -Creek that chaining was impossible, and we were obliged to throw our -line across the cañon, a little over a mile, by triangulation. This -completed, we resumed it on the North Dome spur, transferring our camp -to a bit of alpine meadow south of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a>{177}</span> Mono trail, and but a short -distance from the North Dome itself.</p> - -<p>After the line was finished here, and a system of triangles determined -by which we connected our northern points with those across the chasm of -the Yosemite, we made several geological excursions along the cliffs, -studying the granite structure, working out its lithological changes, -and devoting ourselves especially to the system of moraines and glacier -marks which indicate direction and volume of the old ice-flow.</p> - -<p>An excursion to the summit of the North Dome was exceedingly -interesting. From the rear of our camp we entered immediately a dense -forest of conifers, which stretched southward along the summit of the -ridge until solid granite, arresting erosion, afforded but little -foothold. As usual, among the cracks, and clinging around the bases of -bowlders, a few hardy pines manage to live, almost to thrive; but as we -walked groups became scarcer, trees less healthy, all at last giving way -to bare, solid stone. The North Dome itself, which is easily reached, -affords an impressive view up the Illilluette and across upon the -fissured front of the Half-Dome. It is also one of the most interesting -specimens of conoidal structure, since not only is its mass divided by -large, spherical shells, but each of these is subdivided by a number of -lesser, divisional planes. No lithological change is, however, -noticeable between the different shells. The granite is composed -chiefly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a>{178}</span> of orthoclase, transparent vitreous quartz, and about an equal -proportion of black mica and hornblende. Here and there adularia occurs, -and, very sparingly, albite.</p> - -<p>With no difficulty, but some actual danger, I climbed down a smooth -granite roof-slope to where the precipice of Royal Arches makes off, and -where, lying upon a sharp, neatly fractured edge, I was able to look -down and study those purple markings which are vertically striped upon -so many of these granite cliffs. I found them to be bands of lichen -growth which follow the curves of occasional water-flow. During any -great rain-storm, and when snow upon the uplands is suddenly melted, -innumerable streams, many of them of considerable volume, find their way -to the precipice-edge, and pour down its front. Wherever this is the -case, a deep purple lichen spreads itself upon the granite, and forms -those dark cloudings which add so greatly to the variety and interest of -the cliffs.</p> - -<p>I found it extremest pleasure to lie there alone on the dizzy brink, -studying the fine sculpture of cliff and crag, overlooking the -arrangement of <i>débris</i> piles, and watching that slow, grand growth of -afternoon shadows. Sunset found me there, still disinclined to stir, and -repaid my laziness by a glorious spectacle of color. At this hour there -is no more splendid contrast of light and shade than one sees upon the -western gateway itself,—dark-shadowed Capitan upon one side profiled -against the sunset sky, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a>{179}</span> yellow mass of Cathedral Rocks rising -opposite in full light, while the valley is divided equally between -sunshine and shade. Pine groves and oaks, almost black in the shadow, -are brightened up to clear red-browns where they pass out upon the -lighted plain. The Merced, upon its mirror-like expanses, here reflects -deep blue from Capitan, and there the warm Cathedral gold. The last -sunlight reflected from some curious, smooth surfaces upon rocks east of -the Sentinel, and about a thousand feet above the valley. I at once -suspected them to be glacier marks, and booked them for further -observation.</p> - -<p>My next excursion was up to Mount Hoffmann, among a group of -snow-fields, whose drainage gathers at last through lakes and brooklets -to a single brook (the Yosemite), and flows twelve miles in a broad arc -to its plunge over into the valley. From the summit, which is of a -remarkably bedded, conoidal mass of granite, sharply cut down in -precipices fronting the north, is obtained a broad, commanding view of -the Sierras from afar, by the heads of several San Joaquin branches, up -to the ragged volcanic piles about Silver Mountain.</p> - -<p>From the top I climbed along slopes, and down by a wide <i>détour</i> among -frozen snow-banks and many little basins of transparent blue water, amid -black shapes of stunted fir, and over the confused wreck of rock and -tree-trunk thrown rudely in piles by avalanches whose tracks were fresh -enough to be of interest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a>{180}</span></p> - -<p>Upon reaching the bottom of a broad, open glacier-valley, through whose -middle flows the Yosemite Creek and its branches, I was surprised to -find the streams nearly all dry; that the snow itself, under influence -of cold, was a solid ice mass, and the Yosemite Creek, even after I had -followed it down for miles, had entirely ceased to flow. At intervals -the course of the stream was carried over slopes of glacier-worn -granite, ending almost uniformly in shallow rock basins, where were -considerable ponds of water, in one or two instances expanding to the -dignity of lakelets.</p> - -<p>The valley describes an arc whose convexity is in the main turned to the -west, the stream running nearly due west for about four miles, turning -gradually to the southward, and, having crossed the Mono trail, bending -again to the southeast, after which it discharges over the verge of the -cliff. An average breadth of this valley is about half a mile; its form -a shallow, elliptical trough, rendered unusually smooth by the erosive -action of old glaciers. <i>Roches moutonnées</i> break its surface here and -there, but in general the granite has been planed down into remarkable -smoothness. All along its course a varying rubbish of angular bowlders -has been left by the retiring ice, whose material, like that of the -whole country, is of granite; but I recognized prominently black -sienitic granite from the summit of Mount Hoffmann, which, from superior -hardness, has withstood disintegration, and is perhaps the most -frequent<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a>{181}</span> material of glacier-blocks. The surface modelling is often of -the most finished type; especially is this the case wherever the granite -is highly silicious, its polish becoming then as brilliant as a marble -mantel. In very feldspathic portions, and particularly where orthoclase -predominates, the polished surface becomes a crust, usually about -three-quarters of an inch thick, in which the ordinary appearance of the -minerals has been somewhat changed, the rock-surface, by long pressure, -rendered extremely dense, and in a measure separated from the underlying -material. This smooth crust is constantly breaking off in broad flakes. -The polishing extended up the valley sides to a height of about seven -hundred feet.</p> - -<p>The average section of the old glacier was perhaps six hundred feet -thick by half a mile in width. I followed its course from Mount Hoffmann -down as far as I could ride, and then, tying my horse only a little way -from the brink of the cliff, I continued downward on foot, walking upon -the dry stream-bed. I found here and there a deep pit-hole, sometimes -twenty feet deep, carved in mid-channel, and often full of water. Just -before reaching the cliff verge the stream enters a narrow, sharp cut -about one hundred and twenty feet in depth, and probably not over thirty -feet wide. The bottom and sides of this granite lip, here and there, are -evidently glacier-polished, but the greater part of the scorings have -been worn away by the attrition of sands. A peculiar, brilliant<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a>{182}</span> polish, -which may be seen there to-day, is wholly the result of recent sand -friction.</p> - -<p>It was noon when I reached the actual lip, and crept with extreme -caution down over smooth, rounded granite, between towering walls, to -where the Yosemite Fall makes its wonderful leap. Polished rock curved -over too dangerously for me to lean out and look down over the -cliff-front itself. A stone gate dazzlingly gilded with sunlight formed -the frame through which I looked down upon that lovely valley.</p> - -<p>Contrast with the strength of yellow rock and severe adamantine -sculpture threw over the landscape beyond a strange unreality, a soft, -aërial depth of purple tone quite as new to me as it was beautiful -beyond description. There, twenty-six hundred feet below, lay meadow and -river, oak and pine, and a broad shadow-zone cast by the opposite wall. -Over it all, even through the dark sky overhead, there seemed to be -poured some absolute color, some purple air, hiding details, and veiling -with its soft, amethystine obscurity all that hard, broken roughness of -the Sentinel cliffs. In this strange, vacant, stone corridor, this -pathway for the great Yosemite torrent, this sounding-gallery of -thunderous tumult, it was a strange sensation to stand, looking in vain -for a drop of water, listening vainly, too, for the faintest whisper of -sound, and I found myself constantly expecting some sign of the -returning flood.</p> - -<p>From the lip I climbed a high point just to the east,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a>{183}</span> getting a grand -view down the cliff, where a broad, purple band defined the Yosemite -spray line. There, too, I found unmistakable ice-striæ, showing that the -glacier of Mount Hoffmann had actually poured over the brink. At the -moments of such discovery, one cannot help restoring in imagination -pictures of the past. When we stand by river-bank or meadow of that fair -valley, looking up at the torrent falling bright under fulness of light, -and lovely in its graceful, wind-swayed airiness, we are apt to feel its -enchantment; but how immeasurably grander must it have been when the -great, living, moving glacier, with slow, invisible motion, crowded its -huge body over the brink, and launched blue ice-blocks down through the -foam of the cataract into that gulf of wild rocks and eddying mist!</p> - -<p>The one-eyed mule, Bonaparte, I found tied where I had left him; and, as -usual, I approached him upon his blind side, able thus to get -successfully into my saddle, without danger to life or limb. I could -never become attached to the creature, although he carried me faithfully -many difficult and some dangerous miles, and for the reason that he made -a pretext of his half-blindness to commit excesses, such as crowding me -against trees and refusing to follow trails. Realizing how terrible -under reinforcement of hereditary transmission the peculiarly mulish -traits would have become, one is more than thankful to Nature for -depriving this singular hybrid of the capacity of handing them down.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a>{184}</span></p> - -<p>Rather tired, and not a little bruised by untimely collision with trees, -I succeeded at last in navigating Bonaparte safely to camp, and turning -him over to his fellow, Pumpkinseed.</p> - -<p>The nights were already very cold, our beds on frozen ground none of the -most comfortable; in fact, enthusiasm had quite as much to do with our -content as the blankets or Longhurst’s culinary art, which, enclosed now -by the narrow limit of bacon, bread, and beans, failed to produce such -dainties as thrice-turned slapjacks or plum-duffs of solemnizing memory.</p> - -<p>One more geological trip finished my examination of this side of the -great valley. It was a two days’ ramble all over the granite ridges, -from the North Dome up to Lake Tenaya, during which I gathered ample -evidence that a broad sheet of glacier, partly derived from Mount -Hoffmann, and in part from the Mount Watkins Ridge and Cathedral Peak, -but mainly from the great Tuolumne glacier, gathered and flowed down -into the Yosemite Valley. Where it moved over the cliffs there are -well-preserved scarrings. The facts which attest this are open to -observation, and seem to me important in making up a statement of past -conditions.</p> - -<p>We were glad to get back at last to our two little cabins in the valley, -although our serio-comic hangers-on, the Diggers, were gone, and the -great fall was dry.</p> - -<p>A rest of one day proved refreshing enough for us<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a>{185}</span> to leave camp and -ascend by the Mariposa trail to Meadow Brook, where we made a bivouac, -from which Gardiner began his southern boundary line, and I renewed my -geological studies east of Inspiration Point.</p> - -<p>I always go swiftly by this famous point of view now, feeling somehow -that I don’t belong to that army of literary travellers who have here -planted themselves and burst into rhetoric. Here all who make California -books, down to the last and most sentimental specimen who so much as -meditates a letter to his or her local paper, dismount and inflate. If -those firs could recite half the droll <i>mots</i> they have listened to, or -if I dared tell half the delicious points I treasure, it would sound -altogether too amusing among these dry-enough chapters.</p> - -<p>I had always felt a desire to examine Bridal Veil cañon and the -southwest Cathedral slope. Accordingly, one fine morning I set out -alone, and descended through chaparral and over rough <i>débris</i> slopes to -the stream, which at this time, unlike the other upland brooks, flowed -freely, though with far less volume than in summer. At this altitude -only such streams as derive their volume wholly from melting snow dry up -in the cold autumnal and winter months; spring-fed brooks hold their -own, and rather increase as cold weather advances.</p> - -<p>It was a wild gorge down which I tramped, following the stream-bed, -often jumping from block to block, or letting myself down by the -chaparral boughs<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a>{186}</span> that overhung my way. Splendid walls on either side -rose steep and high, for the most part bare, but here and there on shelf -or crevice bearing clusters of fine conifers, their lower slopes one -vast wreck of bowlders and thicket of chaparral plants.</p> - -<p>Not without some difficulty I at length got to the brink, and sat down -to rest, looking over at the valley, whose meadows were only a thousand -feet below; a cool, stirring breeze blew up the Merced Cañon, swinging -the lace-like scarf of foam which fell from my feet, and, floating now -against the purple cliff, again blew out gracefully to the right or -left. While I looked, a gust came roaming round the Cathedral Rocks, -impinging against our cliff near the fall, and apparently got in between -it and the cliff, carrying the whole column of falling water straight -out in a streamer through the air.</p> - -<p>I went back to camp by way of the Cathedral Rocks, finding much of -interest in the conoidal structure, which is yet perfectly apparent, and -unobscured by erosion or the terrible splitting asunder they have -suffered. Upon a ridge connecting these rocks with the plateaus just -south there were many instructive and delightful points of view, -especially the crag just above the Cathedral Spires, from which I -overlooked a large part of valley and cliff, with the two sharp, slender -minarets of granite close beneath me. That great block forming the -plateau between the Yosemite and Illilluette cañons afforded a fine -field for studying granite, pine, and many remarkably<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a>{187}</span> characteristic -views of the gorge below and peaks beyond. From our camp I explored -every ravine and climbed each eminence, reaching at last, one fine -afternoon, the top of that singular, hemispherical mass, the Sentinel -Dome. From this point one sweeps the horizon in all directions. You -stand upon the crest of half a globe, whose smooth, white sides, bearing -here and there stunted pines, slope away regularly in all directions -from your feet. Below, granite masses, blackened here and there with -densely clustered forest, stretch through varied undulations toward you. -At a little distance from the foot of the Half-Dome, trees hold upon -sharp brinks, and precipices plunge off into Yosemite upon one side, and -the dark, rocky cañon of Illilluette upon the other. Eastward, soaring -into clouds, stands the thin, vertical mass of the Half-Dome.</p> - -<p>From this view the snowy peak of the Obelisk, flattened into broad, -dome-like outline, rises, shutting out the more distant Sierra summits. -This peak, from its peculiar position and thin, tower-like form, offers -one of the most tempting summits of the region. From that slender top -one might look into the Yosemite, and into that basin of ice and granite -between the Merced and Mount Lyell groups. I had longed for it through -the last month’s campaign, and now made up my mind, with this inspiring -view, to attempt it at all hazards.</p> - -<p>A little way to the east, and about a thousand feet below the brink of -the Glacier Point, the crags<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a>{188}</span> appeared to me particularly tempting; so -in the late afternoon I descended, walking over a rough, gritty surface -of granite, which gave me secure foothold. Upon the very edge the -immense, splintered rocks lay piled one upon another; here a mass -jutting out and overhanging upon the edge, and here a huge slab pointed -out like a barbette gun. I crawled out upon one of these projecting -blocks and rested myself, while studying the view.</p> - -<p>From here the one very remarkable object is the Half-Dome. You see it -now edgewise and in sharp profile, the upper half of the conoid fronting -the north with a sharp, sheer, fracture-face of about two thousand feet -vertical. From the top of this a most graceful helmet curve sweeps over -to the south, and descends almost perpendicularly into the valley of the -Little Yosemite; and here from the foot springs up the block of Mount -Broderick,—a single, rough-hewn pyramid, three thousand feet from -summit to base, trimmed upon its crest with a few pines, and spreading -out its southern base into a precipice, over which plunges the white -Nevada torrent. Observation had taught me that a glacier flowed over the -Yosemite brink. As I looked over now I could see its shallow valley and -the ever-rounded rocks over which it crowded itself and tumbled into the -icy valley below. Up the Yosemite gorge, which opened straight before -me, I knew that another great glacier had flowed; and also that the -valley of the Illilluette and the Little Yosemite had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a>{189}</span> the bed of -rivers of ice; a study, too, of the markings upon the glacier cliff -above Hutchings’s house had convinced me that a glacier no less than a -thousand feet deep had flowed through the valley, occupying its entire -bottom.</p> - -<p>It was impossible for me, as I sat perched upon this jutting rock mass, -in full view of all the cañons which had led into this wonderful -converging system of ice-rivers, not to imagine a picture of the glacier -period. Bare or snow-laden cliffs overhung the gulf; streams of ice, -here smooth and compacted into a white plain, there riven into -innumerable crevasses, or tossed into forms like the waves of a -tempest-lashed sea, crawled through all the gorges. Torrents of water -and avalanches of rock and snow spouted at intervals all along the cliff -walls. Not a tree nor a vestige of life was in sight, except far away -upon ridges below, or out upon the dimly expanding plain. Granite and -ice and snow, silence broken only by the howling tempest and the crash -of falling ice or splintered rock, and a sky deep freighted with cloud -and storm,—these were the elements of a period which lasted -immeasurably long, and only in comparatively the most recent geological -times have given way to the present marvellously changed condition. -Nature in her present aspects, as well as in the records of her past, -here constantly offers the most vivid and terrible contrasts. Can -anything be more wonderfully opposite than that period of leaden sky, -gray granite, and desolate stretches of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a>{190}</span> white, and the present, when of -the old order we have only left the solid framework of granite, and the -indelible inscriptions of glacier work? To-day their burnished pathways -are legibly traced with the history of the past. Every ice-stream is -represented by a feeble river, every great glacier cascade by a torrent -of white foam dashing itself down rugged walls, or spouting from the -brinks of upright cliffs. The very avalanche tracks are darkened by -clustered woods, and over the level pathway of the great Yosemite -glacier itself is spread a park of green, a mosaic of forest, a thread -of river.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a>{191}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII<br /><br /> -A SIERRA STORM</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">From</span> every commanding eminence around the Yosemite no distant object -rises with more inspiring greatness than the Obelisk of Mount Clark. -Seen from the west it is a high, isolated peak, having a dome-like -outline very much flattened upon its west side, the precipice sinking -deeply down to an old glacier ravine. From the north this peak is a -slender, single needle, jutting two thousand feet from a rough-hewn -pedestal of rocks and snow-fields. Forest-covered heights rise to its -base from east and west. To the south it falls into a deep saddle, which -rises again, after a level outline of a mile, sweeping up in another -noble granite peak. On the north the spur drops abruptly down, -overhanging an edge of the great Merced gorge, its base buried beneath -an accumulation of morainal matter deposited by ancient Merced glaciers. -From the region of Mount Hoffmann, looming in most impressive isolation, -its slender needle-like summit had long fired us with ambition; and, -having finished my agreeable climb round the Yosemite walls, I concluded -to visit the mountain with Cotter, and, if the weather should permit, to -attempt a climb. We packed our two mules with a week’s provisions and a -single blanket<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a>{192}</span> each, and on the tenth of November left our friends at -the head-quarter’s camp in Yosemite Valley and rode out upon the -Mariposa trail, reaching the plateau by noon. Having passed Meadow -Brook, we left the path and bore off in the direction of Mount Clark, -spending the afternoon in riding over granite ridges and open stretches -of frozen meadow, where the ground was all hard, and the grass entirely -cropped off by numerous herds of sheep that had ranged here during the -summer. The whole earth was bare, and rang under our mules’ hoofs almost -as clearly as the granite itself.</p> - -<p>We camped for the night on one of the most eastern affluents of Bridal -Veil Creek, and were careful to fill our canteens before the bitter -night-chill should freeze it over. By our camp was a pile of pine logs -swept together by some former tempest; we lighted them, and were quickly -saluted by a magnificent bonfire. The animals were tied within its ring -of warmth, and our beds laid where the rain of sparks could not reach. -As we were just going to sleep, our mules pricked up their ears and -looked into the forest. We sprang to our feet, picked up our pistols, -expecting an Indian or a grizzly, but were surprised to see, riding out -of the darkness, a lonely mountaineer, mounted upon a little mustang, -carrying his long rifle across the saddle-bow. He came directly to our -camp-fire, and, without uttering a word, slowly and with great effort -swung himself out of his saddle and walked close to the flames,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a>{193}</span> leaving -his horse, which remained motionless, where he had reined him in. I saw -that the man was nearly frozen to death, and immediately threw my -blanket over his shoulders. The water in our camp kettle was still hot, -and Cotter made haste to draw a pot of tea, while I broiled a slice of -beef and pressed him to eat. He, however, shook his head and maintained -a persistent silence, until at length, after turning round and round -until I could have thought him done to a turn, in a very feeble, broken -voice he ejaculated, “I was pretty near gone in, stranger!” Again I -pressed him to drink a cup of tea, but he feebly answered, “Not yet.” -After roasting for half an hour, in which I fully expected to see his -coat-tail smoke, he sat down and drank about two quarts of tea. This had -the effect of thawing him out, and he remembered that his horse was -still saddled and very hungry. He told us that neither he nor the animal -had had anything to eat for three days, and that he was pushing -hopelessly westward, expecting either the giving out of his horse, or -death by freezing. We took the saddle from his tired little mustang, -spread the saddle-blanket over his back, and from the scanty supply of -grain we had brought for our own animals gave him a tolerable supper. It -is wonderful how in hours of danger and privation the horse clings to -his human friend. Perfectly tame, perfectly trusting, he throws the -responsibility of his care and life upon his rider; and it is not the -least pathetic among our mountain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a>{194}</span> experiences to see this patient -confidence continue until death. Observing that the logs were likely to -burn freely all night, we divided our blankets with the mountaineer, and -Cotter and I turned in together. In the morning our new friend had -entirely recovered from his numb, stupid condition. Recognizing at a -glance his whereabouts, and thanking us feelingly for our rough -hospitality, he headed toward the Mariposa trail, with quite an -affecting good-by.</p> - -<p>After breakfast we ourselves mounted and rode up a long, forest-covered -spur leading to the summit of a granite divide, which we crossed at a -narrow pass between two steep cliffs, and descended its eastern slope in -full view of the whole Merced group. This long abrupt descent in front -of us led to the Illilluette Creek, and directly opposite, on the other -side of the trough-like valley, rose the high sharp summit of Mount -Clark. We were all day in crossing and riding up the crest of a sharply -curved medial moraine which traced itself from the mountain south of -Mount Clark in a long, parabolic curve, dying out at last in the bottom -of the Illilluette basin. The moraine was one of the most perfect I have -ever seen; its smooth, graded summit rose as regularly as a railway -embankment, and seemed to be formed altogether of irregular bowlders -piled securely together and cemented by a thick deposit of granitic -glacier-dust. Late in the afternoon we had reached its head, where the -two converging<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a>{195}</span> glaciers of Mount Clark and Mount Kyle had joined, -clasping a rugged promontory of granite. To our left, in a depression of -the forest-covered basin, lay a little patch of meadow wholly surrounded -by dense groups of alpine trees, which grew in clusters of five and six, -apparently from one root. A little stream from the Obelisk snows fell in -a series of shallow cascades by the meadow’s margin. We jumped across -the brook and went into camp, tethering the mules close by us. One of -the great charms of high mountain camps is their very domestic nature. -Your animals are picketed close by the kitchen, your beds are between -the two, and the water and the wood are always in most comfortable -apposition.</p> - -<p>For the first time in many months a mild, moist wind sprang up from the -south, and with it came slowly creeping over the sky a dull, leaden bank -of ominous-looking cloud. Since April we had had no storm. The -perpetually cloudless sky had banished all thought, almost memory, of -foul weather; but winter tempests had already held off remarkably, and -we knew that at any moment they might set in, and in twenty-four hours -render the plateaus impassable. It was with some anxiety that I closed -my eyes that night, and, sleeping lightly, often awoke as a freshening -wind moved the pines. At dawn we were up, and observed that a dark, -heavy mass of storm-cloud covered the whole sky, and had settled down -over the Obelisk, wrapping even the snow-fields at its base in gray -folds. The entire peak<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a>{196}</span> was lost, except now and then, when the torn -vapors parted for a few moments and disclosed its sharp summit, whitened -by new-fallen snow. A strange moan filled the air. The winds howled -pitilessly over the rocks, and swept in deafening blasts through the -pines. It was my duty to saddle up directly and flee for the Yosemite; -but I am naturally an optimist, a sort of geological Micawber, so I -dodged my duty, and determined to give the weather every opportunity for -a clear-off. Accordingly, we remained in camp all day, studying the -minerals of the granite as the thickly strewn bowlders gave us material. -At nightfall I climbed a little rise back of our meadow, and looked out -over the basin of Illilluette and up in the direction of the Obelisk. -Now and then the parting clouds opened a glimpse of the mountain, and -occasionally an unusual blast of wind blew away the deeply settled -vapors from the cañon to westward; but each time they closed in more -threateningly, and before I descended to camp the whole land was -obscured in the cloud which settled densely down.</p> - -<p>The mules had made themselves comfortable with a repast of rich -mountain-grasses, which, though slightly frosted, still retained much of -their original juice and nutriment. We ourselves made a deep inroad on -the supply of provisions, and, after chatting awhile by the firelight, -went to bed, taking the precaution to pile our effects carefully -together, covering them with an india-rubber blanket. Our bivouac<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a>{197}</span> was -in the middle of a cluster of firs, quite well protected overhead, but -open to the sudden gusts which blew roughly hither and thither. By nine -o’clock the wind died away altogether, and in a few moments a thick -cloud of snow was falling. We had gone to bed together, pulled the -blankets as a cover over our heads, and in a few moments fell into a -heavy sleep. Once or twice in the night I woke with a slight sense of -suffocation, and cautiously lifted the blanket over my head, but each -time found it growing heavier and heavier with a freight of snow. In the -morning we awoke quite early, and, pushing back the blanket, found that -we had been covered by about a foot and a half of snow. The poor mules -had approached us to the limit of their rope, and stood within a few -feet of our beds, anxiously waiting our first signs of life.</p> - -<p>We hurried to breakfast, and hastily putting on the saddles, and -wrapping ourselves from head to foot in our blankets, mounted and -started for the crest of the moraine. I had taken the precaution to make -a little sketch-map in my note-book, with the compass directions of our -march from the Yosemite, and we had now the difficult task of retracing -our steps in a storm so blinding and fierce that we could never see more -than a rod in advance. But for the regular form of the moraine, with -whose curve we were already familiar, I fear we must have lost our way -in the real labyrinth of glaciated rocks which covered the whole -Illilluette basin. Snow blew in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a>{198}</span> every direction, filling our eyes and -blinding the poor mules, who often turned quickly from some sudden gust, -and refused to go on. It was a cruel necessity, but we spurred them -inexorably forward, guiding them to the right and left to avoid rocks -and trees which, in their blindness, they were constantly threatening to -strike. Warmly rolled in our blankets, we suffered little from cold, but -the driving sleet and hail very soon bruised our cheeks and eyelids most -painfully. It required real effort of will to face the storm, and we -very soon learned to take turns in breaking trail. The snow constantly -balled upon our animals’ feet, and they slid in every direction. Now and -then, in descending a sharp slope of granite, the poor creatures would -get sliding, and rush to the bottom, their legs stiffened out, and their -heads thrust forward in fear. After crossing the Illilluette, which we -did at our old ford, we found it very difficult to climb the long, steep -hillside; for the mules were quite unable to carry us, obliging us to -lead them, and to throw ourselves upon the snow-drifts to break a -pathway.</p> - -<p>This slope almost wore us out, and when at last we reached its summit, -we threw ourselves upon the snow for a rest, but were in such a profuse -perspiration that I deemed it unsafe to lie there for a moment, and, -getting up again, we mounted the mules and rode slowly on toward open -plateaus near great meadows. The snow gradually decreased in depth as we -descended upon the plain directly south of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a>{199}</span> the Yosemite. The wind -abated somewhat, and there were only occasional snow flurries, between -half-hours of tolerable comfort. Constant use of the compass and -reference to my little map at length brought us to the Mariposa trail, -but not until after eight hours of anxious, exhaustive labor—anxious -from the constant dread of losing our way in the blinding confusion of -storm; exhausting, for we had more than half of the way acted as -trail-breakers, dragging our frightened and tired brutes after us. The -poor creatures instantly recognized the trail, and started in a brisk -trot toward Inspiration Point. Suddenly an icy wind swept up the valley, -carrying with it a storm of snow and hail. The wind blew with such -violence that the whole freight of sleet and ice was carried -horizontally with fearful swiftness, cutting the bruised faces of the -mules, and giving our own eyelids exquisite torture. The brutes refused -to carry us farther. We were obliged to dismount and drive them before -us, beating them constantly with clubs.</p> - -<p>Fighting our way against this bitter blast, half-blinded by hard, -wind-driven snow-crystals, we at last gave up and took refuge in a dense -clump of firs which crown the spur by Inspiration Point. Our poor mules -cowered under shelter with us, and turned tail to the storm. The -fir-trees were solid cones of snow, which now and then unloaded -themselves when severely bent by a sudden gust, half burying us in dry, -white powder. Wind roared below us in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a>{200}</span> Yosemite gorge; it blew from -the west, rolling up in waves which smote the cliffs, and surged on up -the valley. While we sat still the drifts began to pile up at our backs; -the mules were belly-deep, and our situation began to be serious.</p> - -<p>Looking over the cliff-brink we saw but the hurrying snow, and only -heard a confused tumult of wind. A steady increase in the severity of -the gale made us fear that the trees might crash down over us; so we -left the mules and crept cautiously over the edge of the cliff, and -ensconced ourselves in a sheltered nook, protected by walls of rock -which rose at our back.</p> - -<p>We were on the brink of the Yosemite, and but for snow might have looked -down three thousand feet. The storm eddied below us, sucking down -whirlwinds of snow, and sometimes opening deep rifts,—never enough, -however, to disclose more than a few hundred feet of cliffs.</p> - -<p>We had been in this position about an hour, half frozen and soaked -through, when I at length gathered conscience enough to climb back and -take a look at our brutes. The forlorn pair were frosted over with a -thick coating, their pitiful eyes staring eagerly at me. I had half a -mind to turn them loose, but, considering that their obstinate nature -might lead them back to our Obelisk camp, I patted their noses, and -climbed back to the shelf by Cotter, determined to try it for a quarter -of an hour more, when, if the tempest did not lull, I thought we must -press on and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a>{201}</span> face the snow for an hour more, while we tramped down to -the valley.</p> - -<p>Suddenly there came a lull in the storm; its blinding fury of snow and -wind ceased. Overhead, still hurrying eastward, the white bank drove on, -unveiling, as it fled, the Yosemite walls, plateau, and every object to -the eastward as far as Mount Clark. As yet the valley bottom was -obscured by a layer of mist and cloud, which rose to the height of about -a thousand feet, submerging cliff-foot and <i>débris</i> pile. Between these -strata, the cloud above and the cloud below, every object was in clear, -distinct view; the sharp, terrible fronts of precipices, capped with a -fresh cover of white, plunged down into the still, gray river of cloud -below, their stony surfaces clouded with purple, salmon-color, and -bandings of brown,—all hues unnoticeable in every-day lights. Forest, -and crag, and plateau, and distant mountain were snow-covered to a -uniform whiteness; only the dark gorge beneath us showed the least -traces of color. There all was rich, deep, gloomy. Even over the snowy -surfaces above there prevailed an almost ashen gray, which reflected -itself from the dull, drifting sky. A few torn locks of vapor poured -over the cliffedge at intervals, and crawled down like wreaths of smoke, -floating gracefully and losing themselves at last in the bank of cloud -which lay upon the bottom of the valley.</p> - -<p>On a sudden the whole gray roof rolled away like a scroll, leaving the -heavens from west to far east one<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a>{202}</span> expanse of pure, warm blue. Setting -sunlight smote full upon the stony walls below, and shot over the -plateau country, gilding here a snowy forest group, and there a -wave-crest of whitened ridge. The whole air sparkled with diamond -particles; red light streamed in through the open Yosemite gateway, -brightening those vast, solemn faces of stone, and intensifying the deep -neutral blue of shadowed alcoves.</p> - -<p>The luminous cloud-bank in the east rolled from the last Sierra summit, -leaving the whole chain of peaks in broad light, each rocky crest -strongly red, the newly fallen snow marbling it over with a soft, deep -rose; and wherever a cañon carved itself down the rocky fronts its -course was traceable by a shadowy band of blue. The middle distance -glowed with a tint of golden yellow; the broken heights along the -cañon-brinks and edges of the cliff in front were of an intense, -spotless white. Far below us the cloud stratum melted away, revealing -the floor of the valley, whose russet and emerald and brown and red -burned in the broad evening sun. It was a marvellous piece of contrasted -lights,—the distance so pure, so soft in its rosy warmth, so cool in -the depth of its shadowy blue; the foreground strong in fiery orange, or -sparkling in absolute whiteness. I enjoyed, too, looking up at the pure, -unclouded sky, which now wore an aspect of intense serenity. For half an -hour nature seemed in entire repose; not a breath of wind stirred the -white, snow-laden shafts of the trees; not a sound of animate creature -or the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a>{203}</span> distant reverberation of waterfall reached us; no film of -vapor moved across the tranquil, sapphire sky; absolute quiet reigned -until a loud roar proceeding from Capitan turned our eyes in that -direction. From the round, dome-like cap of its summit there moved down -an avalanche, gathering volume and swiftness as it rushed to the brink, -and then, leaping out two or three hundred feet into space, fell, slowly -filtering down through the lighted air, like a silver cloud, until -within a thousand feet of the earth it floated into the shadow of the -cliff and sank to the ground as a faint blue mist. Next the Cathedral -snow poured from its lighted summit in resounding avalanches; then the -Three Brothers shot off their loads, and afar from the east a deep roar -reached us as the whole snow-cover thundered down the flank of Cloud’s -Rest.</p> - -<p>We were warned by the hour to make all haste, and, driving the poor -brutes before us, worked our way down the trail as fast as possible. The -light, already pale, left the distant heights in still more glorious -contrast. A zone of amber sky rose behind the glowing peaks, and a cold -steel-blue plain of snow skirted their bases. Mist slowly gathered again -in the gorge below us and overspread the valley floor, shutting it out -from our view.</p> - -<p>We ran down the zigzag trail until we came to that shelf of bare granite -immediately below the final descent into the valley. Here we paused just -above the surface of the clouds, which, swept by fitful<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a>{204}</span> breezes, rose -in swells, floating up and sinking again like waves of the sea. Intense -light, more glowing than ever, streamed in upon the upper half of the -cliffs, their bases sunken in the purple mist. As the cloud-waves -crawled upward in the breeze they here and there touched a red-purple -light and fell back again into the shadow.</p> - -<p>We watched these effects with greatest interest, and, just as we were -about moving on again, a loud burst as of heavy thunder arrested us, -sounding as if the very walls were crashing in. We looked, and from the -whole brow of Capitan rushed over one huge avalanche, breaking into the -finest powder and floating down through orange light, disappearing in -the sea of purple cloud beneath us.</p> - -<p>We soon mounted and pressed up the valley to our camp, where our anxious -friends greeted us with enthusiastic welcome and never-to-be-forgotten -beans. We fed our exhausted animals a full ration of barley, and turned -them out to shelter themselves as best they might under friendly oaks or -among young pines. In anticipation of our return the party had gotten up -a capital supper, to which we first administered justice, then -punishment, and finally annihilation. Brief starvation and a healthy -combat for life with the elements lent a most marvellous zest to the -appetite. Under the subtle influences of a free circulation and a -stinging cold night, I perceived a region of the taste which answers to -those most refined blue waves of the spectrum.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a>{205}</span></p> - -<p>Clouds which had enfolded the heavens rolled off to the east in torn -fillets of gold. The stars came out full and flashing in the darkling -sky of evening. We left our cabins and grouped ourselves round a -loquacious camp-fire, which prattled incessantly and distilled volumes -of that mild stimulant, pyroligneous acid—an ill-savored gas which -seems to have inspired much domestic poetry, however it may have -affected the New England olfactory nerves.</p> - -<p>The vast valley-walls, light in contrast with the deep nocturnal violet -heavens, rose far into the night, apparently holding up a roof of stars -whose brilliancy faded quite rapidly, until finally the last blinking -points of light died out, and cold, hard gray stretched from cliff to -cliff. Far up cañons and in the heart of the mountains we could hear -terrible tempest-gusts crashing among the trees, and breaking in deep, -long surges against faces of granite; coming nearer and nearer, they -swept down the gorges, with volume increasing every moment, until they -poured into the upper end of the valley and fell upon its groves with -terrible fury. The wind shrieked wild and high among the summit crags, -it tore through the pine-belts, and now and then a sudden, sharp crash -resounded through the valley as, one after another, old, infirm pines -were hurled down before its blast. The very walls seemed to tremble; the -air was thick with flying leaves and dead branches; the snow of the -summits, hard frozen by a sudden chill, was blown from the walls, and -filled the air with its keen, cutting<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a>{206}</span> crystals. At last the very -clouds, torn into wild flocks, were swept down into the valley, filling -it with opaque, hurrying vapors. Rocks, loosening themselves from the -plateau, came thundering down precipice-faces, crashing upon <i>débris</i> -piles and forest groups below. Sleet and snow and rain fell fast, and -the boom of falling trees and crashing avalanches followed one another -in an almost uninterrupted roar. In the Sentinel gorge, back of our -camp, an avalanche of rock was suddenly let loose, and came down with a -harsh rattle, the bowlders bounding over <i>débris</i> piles and tearing -through the trees by our camp. A vivid belt of blue lightning flashed -down through the blackness, and for a moment every outline of cliff and -forest forms, and the rushing clouds of snow and sleet, were lighted up -with a cold, pallid gleam. The burst of thunder which followed rolled -but for a moment, and was silenced by the furious storm. In the moment -of lightning I saw that the Yosemite Fall, which had been dry for a -month, had suddenly sprung into life again. Vast volumes of water and -ice were pouring over and beating like sea-waves upon the granite below. -Our mules came up to the cabin, and stood on its lee side trembling, and -uttering suppressed moans.</p> - -<p>After hours the fitfulness of the tempest passed away, leaving a grand, -monotonous roar. It had torn off all the rotten branches of the year, -and prostrated every decrepit tree, and at last settled down to a -continuous gale, laden with torrents of rain. We lay down upon our bunks -in our clothes, watching and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a>{207}</span> listening through all the first hours of -the night. Sleep was impossible; angry winds and the fury of drifting -rain shook our little shelters, and kept us wide awake. Toward morning a -second thunderstorm burst, and by the light of its flashes I saw that -the river had risen nearly to our cabin door, covering the broad valley -in front of us with a sheet of flood. Gradually the sound of Yosemite -Fall grew louder and stronger, the throbs, as it beat upon the rocks, -rising higher and higher till the whole valley rung with its pulsations. -By dawn the storm had spent its fury, rain ceased, and around us the air -was perfectly still; but aloft, among cliffs and walls, the gale might -still be heard sweeping across the forest and tearing itself among -granite needles. Fearing that so continuous a storm might block up our -mountain trails, Hyde and Cotter and Wilmer, with instruments and -pack-animals, started early and went out to Clark’s Ranch.</p> - -<p>So dense and impenetrable a fog overhung us that daylight came with -extreme slowness, and it was nine o’clock before we rose for breakfast, -and at ten a gloomy sea of mist still hung over the valley. The Merced -had overflowed its banks, and ran wild. Toward noon the mist began to -draw down the valley, and finally all drifted away, leaving us shut in -by a gray canopy of cloud which stretched from wall to wall, hanging -down here and there in deep blue sags. In this stratum of gray were lost -many higher summits, but the whole form of valley and cliff could be -seen with terrible distinctness, the walls apparently<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a>{208}</span> drawn together, -their bases at one or two points pushed into yellow floods of water -which lay like lakes upon the level expanse. The whole lip of Yosemite -was filled to the brim, and through it there poured a broad, full -torrent of white. Shortly after noon a few rifts opened overhead, -showing a far sky, from which poured gushes of strong, yellow sunlight, -touching here and there upon sombre faces of cliff, and occasionally -gilding the falling torrent. A wind still blew, smiting the Yosemite -precipice, and playing strangest games with the fall itself. At one time -a gust rushed upon the lip of the fall with such violence as to dam back -all its waters. We could see its white pile in the lip mounting higher -and higher, still held back by the wind, until there must have been a -front of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet of boiling white -water. For a whole minute not a drop poured down the wall; but, -gathering strength, the torrent overcame the wind, rushed out with -tremendous violence, leaped one hundred and fifty feet straight out into -air, and fell clear to the rocks below, dashing high and white again, -and breaking into a cloud of spray that filled the lower air of the -valley for a mile.</p> - -<p>While the water was held back in the gorge there was a moment of -complete silence, but when it finally burst out again a crash as of -sudden thunder shook the air. At times gusts of wind would drive upon -the Three Brothers cliff, and be deflected toward the Yosemite, swinging -the whole mighty cataract like a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a>{209}</span> pendulum; and again, pouring upon the -rocks at the bottom of the valley, it would gather up the whole fall in -mid-air, whirl it in a festoon, and carry it back over the very summit -of the walls. I got out the theodolite to measure the angle of its -deflection, and, while watching, it swung over an entire semi-circle, -now carried from the cliffs to the right, and then whirled back in a -cloud of foam over the head of the Three Brothers. A very frequent prank -was to loop the whole twenty-six hundred feet of cataract into a single, -semi-circular festoon, which fell in the form of fine fringe.</p> - -<p>Throughout the afternoon we did little else than watch these -ever-changing forms of falling water, until toward evening, when we -walked up to see the Merced. I never beheld such a rapid rise in any -river; from a mere brook, hiding itself away under overhanging banks and -among shrubby islands, it sprang in one night to the size of a full, -large river, flowing with the rapidity of a torrent and whirling in its -eddies huge trunks of storm-blown pines. As twilight gathered, the scene -deepened into a most indescribable gloom; dark-blue shadows covered half -the precipices, and sullen, unvaried sky stretched over us its -implacable gray. There was something positively fearful in this color; -such an impenetrable sky might overarch the Inferno. As we looked, it -slowly sank, creeping down precipices, filling the whole gorge; coming -down, down, and fitting the cliffs like the piston of an air-pump, till -within a thousand feet of us it became<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a>{210}</span> stationary, and then slowly -lifted again, clearing the summit and rising to an almost infinite -remoteness. Slowly a few hard, sharp crystals of snow floated down.</p> - -<p>Later the air became intensely chilly, and by dark was full of slowly -falling snow, giving prospect of a great mountain storm which might -close the Sierras. On the following morning we determined at all costs -to pack our remaining instruments and escape. The ground was covered -with snow to the depth of seven or eight inches, and through drifting -fog-banks we could occasionally get glimpses and see that every cliff -was deeply buried in snow. We had still a few barometrical observations -along the Mariposa trail which were necessary to complete our series of -altitudes; and I started in advance of Gardiner and Clark to break the -trail, expecting that when I stopped to make readings they would easily -overtake me. Two hours’ hard work was needed to reach the ascent. It was -not until noon that I made Inspiration Point, snow having deepened to -eighteen inches, entirely obliterating the trail, and had it not been -for the extreme frequency of our journeys I should never have been able -to follow it; as it was, with occasional mistakes which were soon -remedied, I kept the way very well, and my tracks made it easy for the -party behind. Having reached the plateau, I made my two barometrical -stations, and then started alone through forests for Westfall’s cabin. -Every fir-tree was a solid cone of white, and often clusters of five or -six were buried together in one common pile. Now and then a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a>{211}</span> -sunlight broke through the clouds, and in these intervals the scene was -one of wonderful beauty. Tall shafts of fir, often one hundred and -eighty feet high, trimmed with white branches, cast their blue shadows -upon snowy ground.</p> - -<p>At about four o’clock, after nine hours of hard tramping, I reached -Westfall’s cabin, built a fire, and sat down to warm myself and wait for -my friends. In half an hour they made their appearance, looking haggard -and weary, declaring they would go no farther that night. They led their -mule into the cabin, and unpacked, and began to make themselves -comfortably at home.</p> - -<p>About five the darkness of night had fairly settled down, and with it -came a gentle but dense snow-storm. It seemed to me a terrible risk for -us to remain in the mountains, and I felt it to be absolutely necessary -that one, at least, should press on to Clark’s, so that, if a really -great storm should come, he could bring up aid. Accordingly, I -volunteered to go on myself, Clark and Gardiner expressing their -determination to remain where they were at all costs.</p> - -<p>At this juncture Cotter’s well-known voice sounded through the woods as -he approached the cabin. He had been all day climbing from Clark’s, and -had come to lend a hand in getting the things down. He was of my opinion -that it was absolutely necessary for one of us, at least, to go back to -Clark’s, and offered, if I thought best, to try to accompany me. I had -come from Yosemite and he from Clark’s, having travelled<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>{212}</span> all day, and -it was no slight task for us to face storm and darkness in the forest, -and among complicated spurs of the Sierra.</p> - -<p>We ate our lunch by the cabin fire, bade our friends good-night, and -walked out together into the darkness. For the first mile there was no -danger of missing our way,—even in the darkness of night Cotter’s -tracks could be seen,—but after about half an hour it began to be very -difficult to keep the trail. The storm increased to a tempest, and -exhaustion compelled us to travel slower and slower. It was with intense -anxiety that we searched for well-known blazed trees along the trail, -often thrusting our arms down in the snow to feel for a blaze that we -knew of. If it was not there we had for a moment an overpowering sense -of being lost; but we were ordinarily rewarded after searching upon a -few trees, and the blaze once found animated us with new courage. Hour -after hour we travelled down the mountain, falling off high banks now -and then, for in the dark all ideas of slope were lost. It must have -been about midnight when we reached what seemed to be the verge of a -precipice. If our calculations were right, we must have come to the edge -of the South Fork Cañon. Here Cotter sank with exhaustion and declared -that he must sleep. I rolled him over and implored him to get up and -struggle on for a little while longer, when I felt sure that we must get -down to the South Fork Cañon. He utterly refused, and lay there in a -drowsy condition, fast giving up to the effects of fatigue and cold. I -unbound a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a>{213}</span> long scarf which was tied round his neck, put it under his -arms like a harness, and, tying it round my body, started on, dragging -him through the snow, to see if by that means I might not exasperate him -to rise and labor on. In a few minutes it had its effect, and he sprang -to his feet and fell upon me in a burst of indignation. A few words were -enough to bring him to himself, when the old, calm courage was -reasserted, and we started together to make our way down the cliff. -Happily we at length found the right ridge, and rapidly descended -through forest to the river side.</p> - -<p>Believing that we must still be below the bridge, we walked rapidly up -the bank until at last we found it, and came quickly to Clark’s. We -pounded upon the cabin door, and waked up our friends, who received us -with joy, and set about cooking us a supper.</p> - -<p>It was two o’clock when we arrived, and by three we all went off again -to our bunks. My anxiety about Gardiner and Clark prevented my sleeping. -Every few minutes I went to the door.</p> - -<p>Before dawn it had cleared again, and remained fair till the next noon, -when the two made their appearance. No sooner were they quietly housed -than the storm burst again with renewed strength, howling among the -forest trees grandly. Snow drifted heavily all the afternoon, and -through the night it still fell, reaching an average depth of about two -feet by the following morning.</p> - -<p>We were up early, and packed upon the animals our instruments, -note-books, and personal effects, leaving<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a>{214}</span> all the blankets and heavy -luggage to be gotten out in the following spring. We toiled slowly and -heavily up Chowchilla trail. The branches of the great pines and firs -were overloaded with snow, which now and then fell in small avalanches -upon our heads. Here and there an old bough gave way under its weight, -and fell with a soft thud into the snow. We took turns breaking trail, -Napoleon, the one-eyed mule, distinguishing himself greatly by following -its intricate crooks, while the bravest of us, by turns, held to his -tail. There is something deeply humiliating in this process. All the -domineering qualities of mankind vanished before the quick, subtle -instinct of that noble animal, the mule, and his superior strength came -out in magnificent style. With a sublime scorn of his former master, he -started ahead, dragging me proudly after him. I had sometimes thrashed -that mule with unsympathetic violence, and I fancied it was something -very like poetic justice thus submissively to follow in his wake.</p> - -<p>Midday found us upon the Chowchilla summit, following a trail deeply -buried and often obliterated, and undiscoverable but for our long-eared -leader. As we descended the west slope the snow grew more and more -moist, less deep, and gradually turned into rain. An hour’s tramp found -us upon bare ground, under the fiercely driving rain, which quickly -soaked us to the bone. The streams, as we descended, were found to be -more and more swollen, until at last it required some nerve to ford the -little brooklets which the mule<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a>{215}</span> had drunk dry on our upward journey. -The earth was thoroughly softened, and here and there the trail was -filled with brimming brooks, which rapidly gullied it out.</p> - -<p>A more drowned and bedraggled set of fellows never walked out upon the -wagon-road and turned toward Mariposa. Streams of water flowed from -every fold of our garments, our soaked hats clung to our cheeks, the -baggage was a mass of pulp, and the mules smelled violently of wet hide. -Fortunately, our note-books, carefully strapped in oil-cloth, so far -resisted wetting. It was three o’clock in the afternoon when we reached -Dulong’s house, and were surprised to see the water flowing over the top -of the bridge. In ordinary times a dry arroyo traverses this farm, and -runs under a bridge in front of the house. Clark, our only mounted man, -rode out, as he supposed, upon the bridge; but unfortunately it was -gone, and he and his horse plunged splendidly into the stream. They came -to the surface, Clark with a look of intense astonishment on his face, -and the mare sputtering and striking out wildly for the other side. -Being a strong swimmer, she reached the bank, climbed out, and Clark -politely invited us to follow. The one-eyed Napoleon was brought to the -brink and induced to plunge in by an application of fence-rails <i>a -tergo</i>, his cyclopean organ piloting him safely across, when he was -quickly followed by the other mules. We watched the load of instruments -with some anxiety, and were not reassured when their heavy weight bore -the mule quite under;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a>{216}</span> but she climbed successfully out, and we -ourselves, half swimming, half floundering, managed to cross.</p> - -<p>A little way farther we came upon another stream rushing violently -across the road, sweeping down logs and sections of fence. Here Clark -dismounted, and we drove the whole train in. Three animals got safely -over, but the instrument mule was swept down stream and badly snagged, -lying upon one side with his head under water.</p> - -<p>Cotter and Gardiner and Clark ran up stream and got across upon a log. I -made a dash for the snagged mule, and by strong swimming managed to -catch one of his feet, and then his tail, and worked myself toward the -shore. It was something of a task to hold his head out of the water, but -I was quickly joined by the others, and we managed to drag him out by -the head and tail. There he lay upon the bank on his side, tired of -life, utterly refusing to get upon his feet, the most abominable -specimen of inertia and indifference. While I was pricking him -vigorously with a tripod, the ground caved under my feet and I quickly -sank. Cotter, who was standing close by, seized me by the cape of my -soldier’s overcoat, and landed me as carefully as he would a fish. As we -marched down the road, unconsciously keeping step, the sound of our -boots had quite a symphonic effect; they were full of water, and with -soft, melodious slushing acted as a calmer upon our spirits.</p> - -<p>The road in some places was cut out many feet deep, and we were obliged -to climb upon the wooded<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a>{217}</span> banks, and make laborious <i>détours</i>. At last -we reached a branch of the Chowchilla, which was pouring in a flood -between a man’s house and his barn. Here we formed a line, a mule -between each two men. Our line was swept frightfully down stream, but -the leader gained his feet, and we came out safe and dripping upon -<i>terra firma</i> on the other side. A mile farther we came upon the main -Chowchilla, which was running a perfect flood; from being a mere -brooklet it had swollen to a considerable river, with waves five and six -feet high sweeping down its centre. We formed our line and attempted the -passage, but were thrown back. It would have been madness to try it -again, and we turned sorrowfully back to the last ranch. Cotter and I -piloted the animals over to the barn, and, upon returning, threw a rope -to our friends upon the other side, and were drawn through the swift -water.</p> - -<p>In the ranch-house we found two bachelors, typical California partners, -who were quietly partaking of their supper of bacon, fried onions, -Japanese tea, and biscuits, which, like “Harry York’s,” had too much -saleratus. We stood upon their threshold awhile and dripped, quite a -rill descending over the two steps, trickling down the door-yard as a -new fork of the Chowchilla.</p> - -<p>We asked for supper and shelter, but were met with such a gruff, -inhospitable reply that we lost all sense of modesty, and walked in with -all our moisture. We stretched a rope across the middle<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a>{218}</span> of the -sitting-room before a huge fire in an open chimney, then, stripping -ourselves to the buff, we hung up our steaming clothes upon the line, -and turned solemnly round and round before the fire, drying our persons.</p> - -<p>In the meanwhile our inhospitable landlords made the best of the -situation, and proceeded to achieve more onions and more saleratus -biscuit for our entertainment. Upon our departure in the morning the -generous rancher charged us first-class hotel prices.</p> - -<p>The flood had utterly disappeared, and we passed over the Chowchilla -with surprise and dry shoes.</p> - -<p>At Mariposa we parted from Clark, and devoted two whole days to -struggling through the mud of San Joaquin Valley to San Francisco, where -we arrived, wet and exhausted, just in time to get on board the New York -steamer.</p> - -<p>On the morning of the twelfth day out Gardiner and I seated ourselves -under the grateful shadow of palm-trees, a bewitching black-and-tan -sister thrumming her guitar while the chocolate for our breakfast -boiled. The slumberous haze of the tropics hung over Lake Nicaragua; but -high above its indistinct, pearly vale rose the smooth cone of the -volcano of Omatepec, robed in a cover of pale emerald green. Warmth, -repose, the verdure of eternal spring, the poetical whisper of palms, -the heavy odor of the tropical blooms, banished the grand, cold fury of -the Sierra, which had left a permanent chill in our bones.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a>{219}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX<br /><br /> -MERCED RAMBLINGS<br /><br /> -1866</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Delightful</span> oaks cast protecting shadows over our camp on the 1st of -June, 1866. Just beyond a little cook-fire where Hoover was preparing -his mind and pan for an omelet stood Mrs. Fremont’s Mariposa cottage, -with doors and windows wide open, still keeping up its air of hospitable -invitation, though now deserted and fallen into decay. A little farther -on, through an opening, a few clustered roofs and chimneys of the Bear -Valley village showed their distant red-brown tint among heavy masses of -green. Eastward swelled up a great ridge, upon whose grassy slopes were -rough, serpentine outcrops,—groups of pines, and oak-groves with pale -green foliage and clean white bark. Under the roots of this famous Mount -Bullion have been mined those gold veins whose treasure enriched so few, -whose promise allured so many.</p> - -<p>As I altogether distrust my ability to speak of this region without -sooner or later alluding to a certain discovery of some scientific value -which I once made here, I deem it wise frankly to tell the story and -discharge my mind of it at once, and if possible forever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a>{220}</span></p> - -<p>In the winter of 1863 I came to Bear Valley as the sole occupant of a -stage-coach. The Sierras were quite cloud-hidden, and desolation such as -drought has never before or since been able to make reigned in dreary -monotony over all the plains from Stockton to Hornitas.</p> - -<p>Ordinarily solitude is with me only a happy synonym for content; but -throughout that ride I was preyed upon by self-reproach, and in an -aggravated manner. The paleontologist of our survey, my senior in rank -and experience, had just said of me, rather in sorrow than in -unkindness, yet with unwonted severity, “I believe that fellow had -rather sit on a peak all day, and stare at those snow-mountains, than -find a fossil in the metamorphic Sierra”; and, in spite of me, all that -weary ride his judgment rang in my ear.</p> - -<p>Can it be? I asked myself; has a student of geology so far forgotten his -devotion to science? Am I really fallen to the level of a mere -nature-lover? Later, when evening approached, and our wheels began to -rumble over upturned edges of Sierra slate, every jolt seemed aimed at -me, every thin, sharp outcrop appeared risen up to preach a sermon on my -friend’s text.</p> - -<p>I re-dedicated myself to geology, and was framing a resolution to delve -for that greatly important but missing link of evidence, the fossil -which should clear up an old unsolved riddle of upheaval age, when over -to eastward a fervid, crimson light smote<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a>{221}</span> the vapor-bank and cleared a -bright pathway through to the peaks, and on to a pale sea-green sky. -Through this gateway of rolling gold and red cloud the summits seemed -infinitely high and far, their stone and snow hung in the sky with -lucent delicacy of hue, brilliant as gems yet soft as air,—a mosaic of -amethyst and opal transfigured with passionate light, as gloriously -above words as beyond art. Obsolete shell-fishes in the metamorphic were -promptly forgotten, and during those lingering moments, while peak after -peak flushed and faded back into recesses of the heavens, I forgot what -paleontological unworthiness was loading me down, becoming finally quite -jolly of heart. But for many days thereafter I did search and hope, -leaving no stone unturned, and usually going so far as to break them -open. Indeed, my third hammer and I were losing temper together, when -one noon I was tired and sat down to rest and lunch in the bottom of -Hell’s Hollow, a cañon whose profound uninterestingness is quite beyond -portrayal. Shut in by great, monotonous slopes and innumerable spurs, -each the exact fac-simile of the other; with no distance, no faintest -suggestion of a snow-peak, only a lofty chaparral ridge sweeping around, -cutting off all eastern lookout; with a few disordered bowlders tumbled -pell-mell into the bed of a feeble brooklet of bitter water,—it seemed -to me the place of places for a fossil. Here was nadir, the snow-capped -zenith of my heart banished even from sight. A swallow of tepid -alkaline<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a>{222}</span> water, with which I crowned the frugal and appropriate lunch, -burned my throat, and completed the misery of the occasion.</p> - -<p>Jagged outcrops of slate cut through vulgar gold-dirt at my feet. -Picking up my hammer to turn homeward, I noticed in the rock an object -about the size and shape of a small cigar. It was the fossil, the object -for which science had searched and yearned and despaired! There he -reclined comfortably upon his side, half-bedded in luxuriously -fine-grained argillaceous material,—a plump, pampered belemnites (if it -is belemnites), whom the terrible ordeal of metamorphism had spared. I -knelt and observed the radiating structure as well as the characteristic -central cavity, and assured myself it was beyond doubt he. The age of -the gold-belt was discovered! I was at pains to chip my victim out -whole, and when he chose to break in two was easily consoled, reflecting -that he would do as well gummed together.</p> - -<p>I knew this mollusk perfectly by sight, could remember how he looked on -half a dozen plates of fossils, but I failed exactly to recollect his -name. It troubled me that I could come so near uttering without ever -precisely hitting upon it. In ten or fifteen minutes I judged it full -time for my joy to begin.</p> - -<p>Down the perspective of years I could see before me spectacled wise men -of some scientific society, and one who pronounced my obituary, ending -thus: “In summing up the character and labors of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a>{223}</span> fallen follower -of science, let it never be forgotten that he discovered the -belemnites;” and perhaps, I mused, they will put over me a slab of -fossil raindrops, those eternally embalmed tears of nature.</p> - -<p>But all this came and went without the longed-for elation. There was no -doubt I was not so happy as I thought I should be.</p> - -<p>Once in after years I met an aged German paleontologist, fresh from his -fatherland, where through threescore years and ten his soul had fattened -on Solenhofen limestone and effete shells from many and wide-spread -strata.</p> - -<p>We were introduced.</p> - -<p>“Ach!” he said, with a kindle of enthusiasm, “I have pleasure you to -meet, when it is you which the cephalopoda discovered has.”</p> - -<p>Then turning to one who enacted the part of Ganymede, he remarked, “Zwei -lager.”</p> - -<p>Now, with freed mind, I should say something of the foot-hills about our -camp as they looked in June. Once before, the reader may remember, I -pictured their autumn garb.</p> - -<p>It has become a fixed habit with me to climb Mount Bullion whenever I -get a chance. My winter Sundays were many times spent there in a peace -and repose which Bear Valley village did not afford; for that hamlet -gave itself up, after the Saturday night’s sleep, to a day of hellish -jocularity. The town passed through a period of horse-racing, noisy, -quarrelsome drinking, and disorderly service of Satan; then an<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a>{224}</span> hour in -which the Spaniard loved and “treated” the “Americano.” Later the -Americano kicked the “damned Greaser” out of town. Manly forms slept -serenely under steps, and the few “gentlemen of the old school” steadied -themselves against the bar-room door-posts, and in ingenious language -told of the good old pandemonium of 1849.</p> - -<p>Thus Mount Bullion came to mean for me a Sabbath retreat over which -heaven arched pure and blue, silent hours (marked by the slow sun) -passing sacredly by in presence of nature and of God.</p> - -<p>So now in June I climbed on a Sunday morning to my old retreat, found -the same stone seat, with leaning oak-tree back, and wide, low canopy of -boughs. A little down to the left, welling among tufts of grass and -waving tulips, is the spring which Mrs. Fremont found for her -camp-ground. North and south for miles extends our ridge in gently -rising or falling outline, its top broadly round, and for the most part -an open oak-grove with grass carpet and mountain flowers in wayward -loveliness of growth. West, you overlook a wide panorama. Oak and pine -mottled foot-hills, with rusty groundwork and cloudings of green, wander -down in rolling lines to the ripe plain; beyond are plains, then coast -ranges, rising in peaks, or curved down in passes, through which gray -banks of fog drift in and vanish before the hot air of the plains. East, -the Sierra slope is rent and gashed in a wilderness of cañons, yawning -deep and savage. Miles of chaparral tangle in dense<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>{225}</span> growth over walls -and spurs, covering with kindly olive-green the staring red of riven -mountain-side and gashed earth. Beyond this swells up the more refined -plateau and hill country made of granite and trimmed with pine, bold -domes rising above the green cover; and there the sharp, terrible front -of El Capitan, guarding Yosemite and looking down into its purple gulf. -Beyond, again, are the peaks, and among them one looms sharpest. It is -that Obelisk from which the great storm drove Cotter and me in 1864. We -were now bound to push there as soon as grass should grow among the -upper cañons.</p> - -<p>The air around my Sunday mountain in June is dry, bland, and fragrant; a -full sunlight ripens it to a perfect temperature, giving you at once -stimulus and rest. You sleep in it without fear of dew, and no excess of -hot or cold breaks up the even flow of balmy delight. You see the wild -tulips open, and watch wind-ripples course over slopes of thick-standing -grass-blades. Birds, so rare on plains or pine-hills, here sing you -their fullest, and enjoy with you the soft, white light, or come to see -you in your chosen shadow and bathe in your spring.</p> - -<p>Mountain oaks, less wonderful than great, straight pines, but altogether -domestic in their generous way of reaching out low, long boughs, roofing -in spots of shade, are the only trees on the Pacific slope which seem to -me at all allied to men; and these quiet foot-hill summits, these -islands of modest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a>{226}</span> lovely verdure floating in an ocean of sunlight, -lifted enough above San Joaquin plains to reach pure, high air and -thrill your blood and brain with mountain oxygen, are yet far enough -below the rugged wildness of pine and ice and rock to leave you in -peace, and not forever challenge you to combat. They are almost the only -places in the Sierras impressing me as rightly fitted for human company. -I cannot find in wholesale vineyards and ranches dotted along the Sierra -foot anything which savors of the eternal indigenous perfume of home. -They are scenes of speculation and thrift, of immense enterprise and -comfort, with no end of fences and square miles of grain, with here and -there astounding specimens of modern upholstery, to say nothing of -pianos with elaborate legs and always discordant keys; but they never -comfort the soul with that air of sacred household reserve, of simple -human poetry, which elsewhere greets you under plainer roofs, and broods -over your days and nights familiarly.</p> - -<p>Here on these still summits the oaks lock their arms and gather in -groves around open slopes of natural park, and you are at home. A -cottage or a castle would seem in keeping, nor would the savage gorges -and snow-capped Sierras overcome the sober kindliness of these -affectionate trees. It is almost as hard now, as I write, to turn my -back on Mount Bullion and descend to camp again, as it was that -afternoon in 1866.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a>{227}</span></p> - -<p>Evening and supper were at hand, Hoover having achieved a repast of -rabbit-pie, with salad from the Italian garden near at hand. It added no -little to my peace that two obese squaws from the neighboring rancheria -had come and squatted in silence on either side of our camp-fire, adding -their statuesque sobriety and fire-flushed bronze to the dusky, -druidical scene.</p> - -<p>To be welcomed at White and Hatch’s next evening was reward for our -dusty ride, and over the next day’s familiar trail we hurried to -Clark’s, there again finding friends who took us by the hand. Another -day’s end found us within the Yosemite, and there for a week we walked -and rode, studied and looked, revisiting all our old points, lingering -hours here and half-days there, to complete within our minds the -conception of this place. My chief has written so fully in his charming -Yosemite book of all main facts and details that I would not, if I -could, rehearse them here.</p> - -<p>What sentiment, what idea, does this wonder-valley leave upon the -earnest observer? What impression does it leave upon his heart?</p> - -<p>From some up-surging crag upon its brink you look out over wide expanse -of granite swells, upon whose solid surface the firs climb and cluster, -and afar on the sky line only darken together in one deep green cover. -Upward heave the eastern ridges; above them looms a white rank of peaks. -Into this plateau is rent a chasm; the fresh-splintered granite<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a>{228}</span> falls -down, down, thousands of feet in sheer, blank faces or giant crags -broken in cleft and stair, gorge and bluff, down till they sink under -that winding ribbon of park with its flash of river among sunlit grass, -its darkness, where, within shadows of jutting wall, cloud-like gather -the pine companies, or, in summer opening, stand oak and cottonwood, -casting together their lengthening shadow over meadow and pool. The -falls, like torrents of snow, pour in white lines over purple precipice, -or, as the wind wills, float and drift in vanishing film of airy -lacework.</p> - -<p>Two leading ideas are wrought here with a force hardly to be seen -elsewhere. First, the titanic power, the awful stress, which has rent -this solid table-land of granite in twain; secondly, the magical faculty -displayed by vegetation in redeeming the aspect of wreck and masking a -vast geological tragedy behind draperies of fresh and living green. I -can never cease marvelling how all this terrible crush and sundering is -made fair, even lovely, by meadow, by wandering groves, and by those -climbing files of pine which thread every gorge and camp in armies over -every brink; nor can I ever banish from memory another gorge and fall, -that of the Shoshone in Idaho, a sketch of which may help the reader to -see more vividly those peculiarities of color and sentiment that make -Yosemite so unique.</p> - -<p>The Snake or Lewis’s Fork of the Columbia River drains an oval basin, -the extent of whose longer axis measures about four hundred miles -westward from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a>{229}</span> the base of the Rocky Mountains across Idaho and into the -middle of Oregon, and whose breadth, in the direction of the meridian, -averages about seventy miles. Irregular chains of mountains bound it in -every direction, piling up in a few places to an elevation of nine -thousand feet. The surface of this basin is unbroken by any considerable -peak. Here and there, knobs, belonging to the earlier geological -formations, rise above its level; and, in a few instances, dome-like -mounds of volcanic rock are lifted from the expanse. It has an -inclination from east to west, and a quite perceptible sag along the -middle line.</p> - -<p>In general outline the geology of the region is simple. Its bounding -ranges were chiefly blocked out at the period of Jurassic upheaval, when -the Sierra Nevada and Wahsatch Mountains were folded. Masses of upheaved -granite, with overlying slates and limestones, form the main materials -of the cordon of surrounding hills. During the Cretaceous and Tertiary -periods the entire basin, from the Rocky Mountains to the Blue Mountains -of Oregon, was a fresh-water lake, on whose bottom was deposited a -curious succession of sand and clay beds, including, near the surface, a -layer of white, infusorial silica. At the exposures of these rocks in -the cañon-walls of the present drainage system are found ample evidences -of the kind of life which flourished in the lake itself and lived upon -its borders. Savage fishes, of the garpike type, and vast<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a>{230}</span> numbers of -cyprinoids, together with mollusks, are among the prominent -water-fossils. Enough relics of the land vegetation remain to indicate a -flora of a sub-tropical climate; and among the land-fossils are numerous -bones of elephant, camel, horse, elk, and deer.</p> - -<p>The <i>savant</i> to whose tender mercies these <i>disjecta membra</i> have been -committed, finds in the molluscan life the most recent types yet -discovered in the American Tertiaries,—forms closely allied to existing -Asiatic species. How and wherefore this lake dried up, and gave place to -the present barren wilderness of sand and sage, is one of those profound -conundrums of nature yet unguessed by geologists. From being a wide and -beautiful expanse of water, edged by winding mountain-shores, with -forest-clad slopes containing a fauna whose remains are now charming -those light-minded fellows, the paleontologists, the scene has entirely -changed, and a monotonous, blank desert spreads itself as far as the eye -can reach. Only here and there, near the snowy mountain-tops, a bit of -cool green contrasts refreshingly with the sterile uniformity of the -plain. During the period of desiccation, perhaps in a measure accounting -for it, a general flood of lava poured down from the mountains and -deluged nearly the whole Snake Basin. The chief sources of this lava lay -at the eastern edge, where subsequent erosion has failed to level -several commanding groups of volcanic peaks. The three buttes and three -tetons mark centres of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a>{231}</span> flow. Remarkable features of the volcanic period -were the sheets of basaltic lava which closed the eruptive era, and in -thin, continuous layers overspread the plain for three hundred miles. -The earlier flows extended farthest to the west. The ragged, broken -terminations of the later sheets recede successively eastward, in a -broad, gradual stairway; so that the present topography of the basin is -a gently inclined field of basaltic lava, sinking to the west, and -finally, by a series of terraced steps, descending to the level of -lacustrine sand-rocks which mark the bottom of the ancient lake, and -cover the plain westward into Oregon.</p> - -<p>The head-waters of the Snake River, gathering snow-drainage from a -considerable portion of the Rocky Mountains, find their way through a -series of upland valleys to the eastern margin of the Snake plain, and -there gathering in one main stream flow westward, occupying a gradually -deepening cañon; a narrow, dark gorge, water-worn through the thin -sheets of basalt, cutting down as it proceeds to the westward, until, in -longitude 114° 20´, it has worn seven hundred feet into the lava. -Several tributaries flowing through similar though less profound cañons -join the Snake both north and south. From the days of Lewis, for whom -this Snake or Shoshone River was originally named, up to the present -day, rumors have been current of cataracts in the Snake cañon. It is -curious to observe that all the earlier accounts estimate their height -as six<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a>{232}</span> hundred feet, which is exactly the figure given by the first -Jesuit observers of Niagara. That erratic amateur Indian, Catlin, -actually visited these falls; and his account of them, while it entirely -fails to give an adequate idea of their formation and grandeur, is -nevertheless, in the main, truthful. Since the mining development of -Idaho, several parties have visited and examined the Shoshone.</p> - -<p>In October, 1868, with a small detachment of the United States -Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel, the writer crossed Goose Creek -Mountains, in northern Utah, and descended by the old Fort Boise road to -the level of the Snake plain. A gray, opaque haze hung close to the -ground, and shut out all distance. The monotony of sage-desert was -overpowering. We would have given anything for a good outlook; but for -three days the mist continued, and we were forced to amuse ourselves by -chasing occasional antelopes.</p> - -<p>The evening we camped on Rock Creek was signalized by a fierce wind from -the northeast. It was a dry storm, which continued with tremendous fury -through the night, dying away at daybreak, leaving the heavens -brilliantly clear. We were breakfasting when the sun rose, and shortly -afterward, mounting into the saddle, headed toward the cañon of the -Shoshone. The air was cold and clear. The remotest mountain-peaks upon -the horizon could be distinctly seen, and the forlorn details of their -brown slopes stared at us as through a vacuum. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a>{233}</span> few miles in front the -smooth surface of the plain was broken by a ragged, zigzag line of -black, which marked the edge of the farther wall of the Snake cañon. A -dull, throbbing sound greeted us. Its pulsations were deep, and seemed -to proceed from the ground beneath our feet.</p> - -<p>Leaving the cavalry to bring up the wagon, my two friends and I galloped -on, and were quickly upon the edge of the cañon-wall. We looked down -into a broad, circular excavation, three quarters of a mile in diameter, -and nearly seven hundred feet deep. East and north, over the edges of -the cañon, we looked across miles and miles of the Snake plain, far on -to the blue boundary mountains. The wall of the gorge opposite us, like -the cliff at our feet, sank in perpendicular bluffs nearly to the level -of the river, the broad excavation being covered by rough piles of black -lava and rounded domes of trachyte rock. We saw an horizon as level as -the sea; a circling wall, whose sharp edges were here and there -battlemented in huge, fortress-like masses; a broad river, smooth and -unruffled, flowing quietly into the middle of the scene, and then -plunging into a labyrinth of rocks, tumbling over a precipice two -hundred feet high, and moving westward in a still, deep current, to -disappear behind a black promontory. It was a strange, savage scene: a -monotony of pale blue sky, olive and gray stretches of desert, frowning -walls of jetty lava, deep beryl-green of river-stretches, reflecting, -here and there, the intense<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a>{234}</span> solemnity of the cliffs, and in the centre -a dazzling sheet of foam. In the early morning light the shadows of the -cliffs were cast over half the basin, defining themselves in sharp -outline here and there on the river. Upon the foam of the cataract one -point of the rock cast a cobalt-blue shadow. Where the river flowed -round the western promontory, it was wholly in shadow, and of a deep -sea-green. A scanty growth of coniferous trees fringed the brink of the -lower cliffs, overhanging the river. Dead barrenness is the whole -sentiment of the scene. The mere suggestion of trees clinging here and -there along the walls serves rather to heighten than to relieve the -forbidding gloom of the place. Nor does the flashing whiteness, where -the river tears itself among the rocky islands, or rolls in spray down -the cliff, brighten the aspect. In contrast with its brilliancy, the -rocks seem darker and more wild.</p> - -<p>The descent of four hundred feet from our standpoint to the level of the -river above the falls has to be made by a narrow, winding path, among -rough ledges of lava. We were obliged to leave our wagon at the summit, -and pack down the camp equipment and photographic apparatus upon -carefully led mules. By midday we were comfortably camped on the margin -of the left bank, just above the brink of the falls. My tent was pitched -upon the edge of a cliff, directly overhanging the rapids. From my door -I looked over the cataract, and, whenever the veil of mist was blown -aside, could see for a mile<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a>{235}</span> down the river. The lower half of the cañon -is excavated in a gray, porphyritic trachyte. It is over this material -that the Snake falls. Above the brink the whole breadth of the river is -broken by a dozen small trachyte islands, which the water has carved -into fantastic forms, rounding some into low domes, sharpening others -into mere pillars, and now and then wearing out deep caves. At the very -brink of the fall a few twisted evergreens cling with their roots to the -rock, and lean over the abyss of foam with something of that air of -fatal fascination which is apt to take possession of men.</p> - -<p>In plan the fall recurves up stream in a deep horseshoe, resembling the -outline of Niagara. The total breadth is about seven hundred feet, and -the greatest height of the single fall about one hundred and ninety. -Among the islands above the brink are several beautiful cascades, where -portions of the river pour over in lace-like forms. The whole mass of -cataract is one ever-varying sheet of spray. In the early spring, when -swollen by the rapidly melted snows, the river pours over with something -like the grand volume of Niagara, but at the time of my visit it was -wholly white foam. Here and there along the brink the underlying rock -shows through, and among the islands shallow, green pools disclose the -form of the underlying trachyte. Numberless rough shelves break the -fall, but the volume is so great that they are only discovered by the -glancing outward of the foam.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a>{236}</span></p> - -<p>The river below the falls is very deep. The right bank sinks into the -water in a clear, sharp precipice, but on the left side a narrow, pebbly -beach extends along the foot of the cliff. From the top of the wall, at -a point a quarter of a mile below the falls, a stream has gradually worn -a little stairway: thick growths of evergreens have huddled together in -this ravine.</p> - -<p>By careful climbing we descended to the level of the river. The -trachytes are very curiously worn in vertical forms. Here and there an -obelisk, either wholly or half detached from the cañon-wall, juts out -like a buttress. Farther down, these projecting masses stand like a row -of columns upon the left bank. Above them, a solid capping of black lava -reaches out to the edge, and overhangs the river in abrupt, black -precipices. Wherever large fields of basalt have overflowed an earlier -rock, and erosion has afterward laid it bare, there is found a strong -tendency to fracture in vertical lines. The immense expansion of the -upper surface from heat seems to cause deep fissures in the mass.</p> - -<p>Under the influence of the cool shadow of cliffs and pine, and constant -percolating of surface-waters, a rare fertility is developed in the -ravines opening upon the cañon shore. A luxuriance of ferns and mosses, -an almost tropical wealth of green leaves and velvety carpeting, line -the banks. There are no rocks at the base of the fall. The sheet of foam -plunges almost vertically into a dark, beryl-green,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a>{237}</span> lake-like expanse -of the river. Immense volumes of foam roll up from the cataract-base, -and, whirling about in the eddying winds, rise often a thousand feet in -the air. When the wind blows down the cañon a gray mist obscures the -river for half a mile; and when, as is usually the case in the -afternoon, the breezes blow eastward, the foam-cloud curls over the -brink of the fall, and hangs like a veil over the upper river. On what -conditions depends the height to which the foam-cloud rises from the -base of the fall it is apparently impossible to determine. Without the -slightest wind, the cloud of spray often rises several hundred feet -above the cañon-wall, and again, with apparently the same conditions of -river and atmosphere, it hardly reaches the brink. Incessant roar, -reinforced by a thousand echoes, fills the cañon. Out of this monotone, -from time to time, rise strange, wild sounds, and now and then may be -heard a slow, measured beat, not unlike the recurring fall of breakers. -From the white front of the cataract the eye constantly wanders up to -the black, frowning parapet of lava. Angular bastions rise sharply from -the general level of the wall, and here and there isolated blocks, -profiling upon their sky line, strikingly recall barbette batteries. To -goad one’s imagination up to the point of perpetually seeing -resemblances of everything else in the forms of rocks is the most vulgar -vice of travellers. To refuse to see the architectural suggestions upon -the Snake cañon, however, is to administer a flat snub to one’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a>{238}</span> fancy. -The whole edge of the cañon is deeply cleft in vertical crevasses. The -actual brink is usually formed of irregular blocks and prisms of lava, -poised upon their ends in an unstable equilibrium, ready to be tumbled -over at the first leverage of the frost. Hardly an hour passes without -the sudden boom of one of those rock-masses falling upon the ragged -<i>débris</i> piles below.</p> - -<p>Night is the true time to appreciate the full force of the scene. I lay -and watched it many hours. The broken rim of the basin profiled itself -upon a mass of drifting clouds where torn openings revealed gleams of -pale moonlight and bits of remote sky trembling with misty stars. -Intervals of light and blank darkness hurriedly followed each other. For -a moment the black gorge would be crowded with forms. Tall cliffs, -ramparts of lava, the rugged outlines of islands huddled together on the -cataract’s brink, faintly luminous foam breaking over black rapids, the -swift, white leap of the river, and a ghostly, formless mist through -which the cañon-walls and far reach of the lower river were veiled and -unveiled again and again. A moment of this strange picture, and then a -rush of black shadow, when nothing could be seen but the breaks in the -clouds, the basin-rim, and a vague, white centre in the general -darkness.</p> - -<p>After sleeping on the nightmarish brink of the falls, it was no small -satisfaction to climb out of this Dantean gulf and find myself once more -upon a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a>{239}</span> pleasantly prosaic foreground of sage. Nothing more effectually -banishes a melotragic state of the mind than the obtrusive ugliness and -abominable smell of this plant. From my feet a hundred miles of it -stretched eastward. A half-hour’s walk took me out of sight of the -cañon, and as the wind blew westward, only occasional indistinct -pulsations of the fall could be heard. The sky was bright and cloudless, -and arched in cheerful vacancy over the meaningless disk of the desert.</p> - -<p>I walked for an hour, following an old Indian trail which occasionally -approached within seeing distance of the river, and then, apparently -quite satisfied, diverged again into the desert. When about four miles -from the Shoshone, it bent abruptly to the north, and led to the cañon -edge. Here again the narrow gorge widened into a broad theatre, -surrounded, as before, by black, vertical walls, and crowded over its -whole surface by rude piles and ridges of volcanic rock. The river -entered it from the east through a magnificent gateway of basalt, and, -having reached the middle, flowed on either side of a low, rocky island, -and plunged in two falls into a deep green basin. A very singular ridge -of the basalt projected like an arm almost across the river, enclosing -within its semi-circle a bowl three hundred feet in diameter and two -hundred feet deep. Within this the water was of the same peculiar -beryl-green, dappled here and there by masses of foam which swam around -and around with a spiral tendency<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a>{240}</span> toward the centre. To the left of the -island half the river plunged off an overhanging lip, and fell about one -hundred and fifty feet, the whole volume reaching the surface of the -basin many feet from the wall. The other half has worn away the edge, -and descends in a tumbling cascade at an angle of about forty-five -degrees. The river at this point has not yet worn through the fields of -basaltic lava which form the upper four hundred feet of the plain. -Between the two falls it cuts through the remaining beds of basalt, and -has eroded its channel a hundred feet into underlying porphyritic -trachyte. The trachyte erodes far more easily than the basalt, and its -resultant forms are quite unlike those of the black lava. The trachyte -islands and walls are excavated here and there in deep caves, leaving -island masses in the forms of mounds and towers. In general, spherical -outlines predominate, while the erosion of the basalt results always in -sharp, perpendicular cliffs, with a steeply inclined talus of ragged -<i>débris</i>.</p> - -<p>The cliffs around the upper cataract are inferior to those of the -Shoshone. While the level of the upper plain remains nearly the same, -the river constantly deepens the channel in its westward course. In -returning from the upper fall, I attempted to climb along the very edge -of the cliff, in order to study carefully the habits of the basalt; but -I found myself in a labyrinth of side crevasses which were cut into the -plain from a hundred to a thousand feet<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a>{241}</span> back from the main wall. These -recesses were usually in the form of an amphitheatre, with black walls -two hundred feet high, and a bottom filled with immense fragments of -basalt rudely piled together.</p> - -<p>By dint of hard climbing I reached the actual brink in a few places, and -saw the same general features each time: the cañon successively widening -and narrowing, its walls here and there approaching each other and -standing like pillars of a gateway; the river alternately flowing along -smooth, placid reaches of level, and rushing swiftly down rocky -cascades. Here and there along the cliff are disclosed mouths of black -caverns, where the lava seems to have been blown up in the form of a -great blister, as if the original flow had poured over some pool of -water, and, converted into steam by contact with the hot rock, had been -blown up bubble-like by its immense expansion.</p> - -<p>I continued my excursions along the cañon west of the Shoshone. About a -mile below the fall a very fine promontory juts sharply out and projects -nearly to the middle of the cañon. Climbing with difficulty along its -toppling crest, I reached a point which I found composed of immense, -angular fragments piled up in dangerous poise. Eastward, the -battlemented rocks around the falls limited the view; but westward I -could see down long reaches of river, where islands of trachyte rose -above white cascades. A peculiar and fine effect is noticeable upon the -river during all the midday. The shadow of the southern<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a>{242}</span> cliff is cast -down here and there, completely darkening the river, but often defining -itself upon the water. The contrast between the rich, gem-like green of -the sunlit portions and the deep violet shadow of the cliff is of -extreme beauty. The Snake River, deriving its volume wholly from the -melting of the mountain snows, is a direct gauge of the annual advance -of the sun. In June and July it is a tremendous torrent, carrying a full -half of the Columbia. From the middle of July it constantly shrinks, -reaching its minimum in midwinter. At the lowest, it is a river equal to -the Sacramento or Connecticut.</p> - -<p>After ten days devoted to walking around the neighborhood and studying -the falls and rocks, we climbed to our wagon, and rested for a farewell -look at the gorge. It was with great relief that we breathed the free -air of the plain, and turned from the rocky cañon where darkness, and -roar, and perpetual cliffs had bounded our senses, and headed southward, -across the noiseless plain. Far ahead rose a lofty, blue barrier, a -mountain-wall, marbled upon its summit by flecks of perpetual snow. A -deep notch in its profile opened a gateway. Toward this, for leagues -ahead of us, a white thread in the gray desert marked the winding of our -road. Those sensitively organized creatures, the mules, thrilled with -relief at their escape from the cañons, pressed forward with a vigor -that utterly silenced the customary poppings of the whip, and expurgated -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a>{243}</span> language of the driver from his usual breaking of the Third -Commandment.</p> - -<p>The three great falls of America—Niagara, Shoshone, and Yosemite—all, -happily, bearing Indian names, are as characteristically different as -possible. There seems little left for a cataract to express.</p> - -<p>Niagara rolls forward with something like the inexorable sway of a -natural law. It is force, power; forever banishing before its -irresistible rush all ideas of restraint.</p> - -<p>No sheltering pine or mountain distance of up-piled Sierras guards the -approach to the Shoshone. You ride upon a waste,—the pale earth -stretched in desolation. Suddenly you stand upon a brink, as if the -earth had yawned. Black walls flank the abyss. Deep in the bed a great -river fights its way through labyrinths of blackened ruins, and plunges -in foaming whiteness over a cliff of lava. You turn from the brink as -from a frightful glimpse of the Inferno, and when you have gone a mile -the earth seems to have closed again; every trace of cañon has vanished, -and the stillness of the desert reigns.</p> - -<p>As you stand at the base of those cool walls of granite that rise to the -clouds from the green floor of Yosemite, a beautiful park, carpeted with -verdure, expands from your feet. Vast and stately pines band with their -shadows the sunny reaches of the pure Merced. An arch of blue bridges -over from cliff to cliff. From the far summit of a wall of pearly -granite, over stains of purple and yellow,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a>{244}</span>—leaping, as it were, from -the very cloud,—falls a silver scarf, light, lace-like, graceful, -luminous, swayed by the wind. The cliffs’ repose is undisturbed by the -silvery fall, whose endlessly varying forms of wind-tossed spray lend an -element of life to what would otherwise be masses of inanimate stone. -The Yosemite is a grace. It is an adornment. It is a ray of light on the -solid front of the precipice.</p> - -<p>From Yosemite our course was bent toward the Merced Obelisk. An -afternoon in early July brought us to camp in the self-same spot where -Cotter and I had bivouacked in the storm more than two years before. I -remembered the crash and wail of those two dreary nights, the thunderous -fulness of tempest beating upon cliffs, and the stealthy, silent -snow-burial; and perhaps to the memory of that bitter experience was -added the contrasting force of to-day’s beauty.</p> - -<p>A warm afternoon sun poured through cloudless skies into one rocky -amphitheatre. The little alpine meadow and full, arrowy brook were -flanked upon either side by broad, rounded masses of granite, and -margined by groups of vigorous upland trees: firs for the most part, but -watched over here and there by towering pines and great, aged junipers -whose massive red trunks seemed welded to the very stone.</p> - -<p>It was altogether exhilarating; even Little Billy, the gray horse, found -it so, and devoted more time to practical jokes upon thick-headed mules -than to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a>{245}</span> the rich and tempting verdure; nor did the high, cool air -banish from his tender heart a glowing Platonic affection for our brown -mare Sally.</p> - -<p>To the ripened charms of middle age Sally united something more than the -memory of youth; she was remarkably plump and well-preserved; her figure -firm and elastic, and she did not hesitate to display it with many -little arts. In presence of her favored Billy she drew deep sighs, and -had quite an irresistible fashion of turning sadly aside and moving away -among trees alone, as if she had no one to love her—a wile never -failing to bring him to her side and elicit such attention as smoothing -her mane or even a pressure of lips upon her brow. And woe to the -emotional mule who ventured to cross our little meadow just to feel for -a moment the soft comfort of her presence. With the bitterness of a -rejected suit he always bore away shoe-prints of jealous Billy.</p> - -<p>He led her quietly down to the brook, and never drank a drop until the -mare was done; then they paid a call at camp, nosing about among the -kettles with familiar freedom, nibbling playfully at dish-towel and -coffee-pot, and when we threw sticks at them trotted off as closely as -if they had been harnessed together. In quiet, moonlit hours, before I -went to bed, I saw them still side by side, her head leaning over his -withers; Billy at <i>qui vive</i> staring dramatically with pointed ears into -forest depths, a true and watchful guardian.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a>{246}</span></p> - -<p>A little reconnoitring had shown us the most direct way to the Obelisk, -whose sharp summit looked from the moraine to west of us as grand and -alluring as we had ever thought it.</p> - -<p>There was in our hope of scaling this point something more than mere -desire to master a difficult peak. It was a station of great -topographical value, the apex of many triangles, and, more than all, -would command a grander view of the Merced region than any other summit.</p> - -<p>July eleventh, about five o’clock in the afternoon, Gardiner and I -strapped packs upon our shoulders. My friend’s load consisted of the -Temple transit, his blanket, and a great tin cup; mine was made up of -field-glass, compass, level, blanket, and provisions for both, besides -the barometer, which, as usual, I slung over one shoulder.</p> - -<p>For the first time that year we found ourselves slowly zigzagging to and -fro, following a grade with that peculiarly deliberate gait to which -mountaineering experience very soon confines one. Black firs and -thick-clustered pines covered in clumps all the lower slope, but, -ascending, we came more and more into open ground, walking on glacial -<i>débris</i> among trains of huge bowlders and occasional thickets of -slender, delicate young trees. Emerging finally into open granite -country, we came full in sight of our goal, whose great western -precipice rose sheer and solid above us.</p> - -<p>From the south base of the Obelisk a sharp mural<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a>{247}</span> ridge curves east, -surrounding an amphitheatre whose sloping, rugged sides were -picturesquely mottled in snow and stone. From the summit of this ridge -we knew we should look over into the upper Merced basin, a great, -billowy, granite depression lying between the Merced group and Mount -Lyell; the birthplace of all those ice rivers and deep-cañoned torrents -which join in the Little Yosemite and form the river Merced. Toward this -we pressed, hurrying rapidly, as the sun declined, in hopes of making -our point before darkness should obscure the <i>terra incognita</i> beyond.</p> - -<p>It put us at our best to hasten over the rough, rudely piled blocks and -up cracks among solid bluffs of granite, but with the sun fully half an -hour high we reached the Obelisk foot and looked from our ridge-top -eastward into the new land.</p> - -<p>From our feet granite and ice in steep, roof-like curves fell abruptly -down to the Merced Cañon brink, and beyond, over the great gulf, rose -terraces and ridges of sculptured stone, dressed with snow-field, one -above another, up to the eastern rank of peaks whose sharp, solid forms -were still in full light.</p> - -<p>From below, it is always a most interesting feature of the mountaineer’s -daily life to watch fading sunlight upon the summit-rocks and snow. -There is something peculiarly charming in the deep carmine flush and in -the pale gradations of violet and cool blue-purple into which it -successively fades.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a>{248}</span> We were now in the very midst of this alpine glow. -Our rocky amphitheatre, opening directly to the sun, was crowded full of -this pure, red light; snow-fields warmed to deepest rose, gnarled stems -of dead pines were dark vermilion, the rocks yellow, and the vast body -of the Obelisk at our left one spire of gold piercing the sapphire -zenith. Eastward, far below us, the Illilluette basin lay in a -peculiarly mild haze, its deep carpet of forest warmed into faint -bronze, and the bare domes and rounded, granite ridges which everywhere -rise above the trees were yellow, of a soft, creamy tint. Farther down, -every foothill was perceptibly reddened under the level beams. Sunlight -reflecting from every object shot up to us, enriching the brightness of -our amphitheatre.</p> - -<p>We drank and breathed the light, its mellow warmth permeating every -fibre. We spread our blankets under the lee of an overhanging rock, -sheltered from the keen east wind, and in full view of the broad western -horizon.</p> - -<p>After a short half-hour of this wonderful light the sun rested for an -instant upon the Coast ranges, and sank, leaving our mountains suddenly -dead, as if the very breath of life had ebbed away, cold, gray shadows -covering their rigid bodies, and pale sheets of snow half shrouding -their forms.</p> - -<p>For a full hour after the sun went down we did little else than study -the western sky, watching with greatest interest a wonderful permanence -and singular<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a>{249}</span> gradation of lingering light. Over two hundred miles of -horizon a low stratum of pure orange covered the sky for seven or eight -degrees; above that another narrow band of beryl-green, and then the -cool, dark evening blue.</p> - -<p>I always notice, whenever one gets a very wide view of remote horizon -from some lofty mountain-top, the sky loses its high domed appearance, -the gradations reaching but a few degrees upward from the earth, -creating the general form of an inverted saucer. The orange and beryl -bands occupied only about fifteen degrees in altitude, but swept around -nearly from north to south. It was as if a wonderfully transparent and -brilliant rainbow had been stretched along the sky line. At eleven the -colors were still perceptible, and at midnight, when I rose to observe -the thermometer, they were gone, but a low faint zone of light still -lingered.</p> - -<p>At gray dawn we were up and cooking our rasher of bacon, and soon had -shouldered our instruments and started for the top.</p> - -<p>The Obelisk is flattened, and expands its base into two sharp, serrated -ridges, which form its north and south edges. The broad faces turned to -the east and west are solid and utterly inaccessible, the latter being -almost vertical, the former quite too steep to climb. We started, -therefore, to work our way up the south edge, and, having crossed a -little ravine from whose head we could look down eastward upon steep -thousand-foot <i>névé</i>, and westward along the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a>{250}</span> forest-covered ridge up -which we had clambered, began in good earnest to mount rough blocks of -granite.</p> - -<p>The edge here is made of immense, broken rocks poised on each other in -delicate balance, vast masses threatening to topple over at a touch. -This blade has from a distance a considerably smooth and even -appearance, but we found it composed of pinnacles often a hundred feet -high, separated from the main top by a deep, vertical cleft. More than -once, after struggling to the top of one of these pinnacles, we were -obliged to climb down the same way in order to avoid the notches. -Finally, when we had reached the brink of a vertical <i>cul-de-sac</i>, the -edge no longer afforded us even a foothold. There were left but the -smooth, impossible western face and the treacherous, cracked front of -the eastern precipice. We were driven out upon the latter, and here -forced to climb with the very greatest care, one of us always in advance -making sure of his foothold, the other passing up instruments by hand, -and then cautiously following.</p> - -<p>In this way we spent nearly a full hour going from crack to crack, -clinging by the least protruding masses of stone, now and then looking -over our shoulders at the wreck of granite, the slopes of ice, and -frozen lake thousands of feet below, and then upward to gather courage -from the bold, red spike which still rose grandly above us.</p> - -<p>At last we struggled up to what we had all along<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a>{251}</span> believed the summit, -and found ourselves only on a minor turret, the great needle still a -hundred feet above. From rock to rock and crevice to crevice we made our -way up a fractured edge until within fifty feet of the top, and here its -sharp angle rose smooth and vertical, the eastern precipice carved in a -flat face upon the one side, the western broken by a smoothly curved -recess like the corner of a room. No human being could scale the edge. -An arctic bluebird fluttered along the eastern slope in vain quest of a -foothold, and alighted, panting, at our feet. One step more and we stood -together on a little, detached pinnacle, where, by steadying ourselves -against the sharp, vertical Obelisk edge, we could rest, although the -keen sense of steepness below was not altogether pleasing.</p> - -<p>About seven feet across the open head of a <i>cul-de-sac</i> (a mere recess -in the west face) was a vertical crack riven into the granite not more -than three feet wide, but as much as eight feet deep; in it were wedged -a few loose bowlders; below, it opened out into space. At the head of -this crack a rough crevice led up to the summit.</p> - -<p>Summoning nerve, I knew I could make the leap, but the life and death -question was whether the <i>débris</i> would give way under my weight, and -leave me struggling in the smooth recess, sure to fall and be dashed to -atoms.</p> - -<p>Two years we had longed to climb that peak, and now, within a few yards -of the summit, no weakheartedness<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a>{252}</span> could stop us. I thought, should the -<i>débris</i> give way, by a very quick turn and powerful spring I could -regain our rock in safety.</p> - -<p>There was no discussion, but, planting my foot on the brink, I sprang, -my side brushing the rough, projecting crag. While in the air I looked -down, and a picture stamped itself on my brain never to be forgotten. -The <i>débris</i> crumbled and moved. I clutched both sides of the cleft, -relieving all possible weight from my feet. The rocks wedged themselves -again, and I was safe.</p> - -<p>It was a delicate feat of balancing for us to bridge that chasm with a -transit and pass it across; the view it afforded down the abyss was -calculated to make a man cool and steady.</p> - -<p>Barometer and knapsack were next passed over. I placed them all at the -crevice head, and flattened myself against the rock to make room for -Gardiner. I shall never forget the look in his eye as he caught a -glimpse of the abyss in his leap. It gave me such a chill as no amount -of danger, or even death, coming to myself could ever give. The <i>débris</i> -grated under his weight an instant and wedged themselves again.</p> - -<p>We sprang up on the rocks like chamois, and stood on the top shouting -for joy.</p> - -<p>Our summit was four feet across, not large enough for the transit -instrument and both of us; so I, whose duties were geological, descended -to a niche a few feet lower and sat down to my writing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a>{253}</span></p> - -<p>The sense of aërial isolation was thrilling. Away below, rocks, ridges, -crags, and fields of ice swell up in jostling confusion to make a base -from which springs the spire of stone 11,600 feet high. On all sides I -could look right down at the narrow pedestal. Eastward great ranks of -peaks, culminating in Mount Lyell, were in full, clear view; all streams -and cañons tributary to the Merced were beneath us in map-like -distinctness. Afar to the west lay the rolling plateau gashed with -cañons; there the white line of Yosemite Fall; and beyond, half -submerged in warm haze, my Sunday mountain.</p> - -<p>The same little arctic bluebird came again and perched close by me, -pouring out his sweet, simple song with a gayety and freedom which -wholly charmed me.</p> - -<p>During our four hours’ stay the thought that we must make that leap -again gradually intruded itself, and whether writing or studying the -country I could not altogether free myself from its pressure.</p> - -<p>It was a relief when we packed up and descended to the horrible cleft to -actually meet our danger. We had now an unreliable footing to spring -from, and a mere block of rock to balance us after the jump.</p> - -<p>We sprang strongly, struck firmly, and were safe. We worked patiently -down the east face, wound among blocks and pinnacles of the lower -descent, and hurried through moraines to camp, well pleased that the -Obelisk had not vanquished us.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>{254}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X<br /><br /> -CUT-OFF COPPLES’S<br /><br /> -1870</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">One</span> October day, as Kaweah and I travelled by ourselves over a lonely -foothill trail, I came to consider myself the friend of woodpeckers. -With rather more reserve as regards the bluejay, let me admit great -interest in his worldly wisdom. As an instance of co-operative living -the partnership of these two birds is rather more hopeful than most -mundane experiments. For many autumn and winter months such food as -their dainty taste chooses is so rare throughout the Sierras that in -default of any climatic temptation to migrate the birds get in harvests -with annual regularity and surprising labor. Oak and pine mingle in open -growth. Acorns from the one are their grain; the soft pine bark is -granary; and this the process:</p> - -<p>Armies of woodpeckers drill small, round holes in the bark of standing -pine-trees, sometimes perforating it thickly up to twenty or thirty and -even forty feet above the ground; then about equal numbers of -woodpeckers and jays gather acorns, rejecting always the little cup, and -insert the gland tightly in the pine bark with its tender base outward -and exposed to the air.</p> - -<p>A woodpecker, having drilled a hole, has its exact<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a>{255}</span> measure in mind, and -after examining a number of acorns makes his selection, and never fails -of a perfect fit. Not so the jolly, careless jay, who picks up any sound -acorn he finds, and, if it is too large for a hole, drops it in the most -off-hand way, as if it were an affair of no consequence; utters one of -his dry, chuckling squawks, and either tries another or loafs about, -lazily watching the hard-working woodpeckers.</p> - -<p>Thus they live, amicably harvesting, and with this sequel: those acorns -in which grubs form become the sole property of woodpeckers, while all -sound ones fall to the jays. Ordinarily chances are in favor of -woodpeckers, and when there are absolutely no sound nuts the jays sell -short, so to speak, and go over to Nevada and speculate in -juniper-berries.</p> - -<p>The monotony of hill and glade failing to interest me, and in default of -other diversion, I all day long watched the birds, recalling how many -gay and successful jays I knew who lived, as these, on the wit and -industry of less ostentatious woodpeckers; thinking, too, what naïvely -dogmatic and richly worded political economy Mr. Ruskin would phrase -from my feathered friends. Thus I came to Ruskin, wishing I might see -the work of his idol, and after that longing for some equal artist who -should arise and choose to paint our Sierras as they are with all their -color-glory, power of innumerable pine and countless pinnacle, gloom of -tempest, or splendor, where rushing light shatters itself upon granite -crag, or burns in dying rose upon far fields of snow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a>{256}</span></p> - -<p>Had I rubbed Aladdin’s lamp? A turn in the trail brought suddenly into -view a man who sat under shadow of oaks, painting upon a large canvas.</p> - -<p>As I approached, the artist turned half round upon his stool, rested -palette and brushes upon one knee, and in familiar tone said, “Dern’d if -you ain’t just naturally ketched me at it! Get off and set down. You -ain’t going for no doctor, I know.”</p> - -<p>My artist was of short, good-natured, butcher-boy make-up, dressed in -what had formerly been black broadcloth, with an enlivening show of red -flannel shirt about the throat, wrists, and a considerable display of -the same where his waistcoat might once have overlapped a strained but -as yet coherent waistband. The cut of these garments, by length of -coat-tail and voluminous leg, proudly asserted a “Bay” origin. His small -feet were squeezed into tight, short boots, with high, raking heels.</p> - -<p>A round face, with small, full mouth, non-committal nose, and black, -protruding eyes, showed no more sign of the ideal temperament than did -the broad daub upon his square yard of canvas.</p> - -<p>“Going to Copples’s?” inquired my friend.</p> - -<p>That was my destination, and I answered, “Yes.”</p> - -<p>“That’s me,” he ejaculated. “Right over there, down below those two -oaks! Ever there?”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“My <i>studio</i> ’s there now;” giving impressive accent to the word.</p> - -<p>All the while these few words were passing he<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a>{257}</span> scrutinized me with -unconcealed curiosity, puzzled, as well he might be, by my dress and -equipment. Finally, after I had tied Kaweah to a tree and seated myself -by the easel, and after he had absently rubbed some raw sienna into his -little store of white, he softly ventured: “Was you looking out a -ditch?”</p> - -<p>“No,” I replied.</p> - -<p>He neatly rubbed up the white and sienna with his “blender,” -unconsciously adding a dash of Veronese green, gazed at my leggings, -then at the barometer, and again meeting my eye with a look as if he -feared I might be a disguised duke, said in slow tone, with hyphens of -silence between each two syllables, giving to his language all the -dignity of an unabridged Webster, “I would take pleasure in stating that -my name is Hank G. Smith, artist;” and, seeing me smile, he relaxed a -little, and, giving the blender another vigorous twist, added, “I would -request yours.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Smith having learned my name, occupation, and that my home was on -the Hudson, near New York, quickly assumed a familiar -me-and-you-old-fel’ tone, and rattled on merrily about his winter in New -York spent in “going through the Academy,”—a period of deep moment to -one who before that painted only wagons for his livelihood.</p> - -<p>Storing away canvas, stool, and easel in a deserted cabin close by, he -rejoined me, and, leading Kaweah by his lariat, I walked beside Smith -down the trail toward Copples’s.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a>{258}</span></p> - -<p>He talked freely, and as if composing his own biography, beginning:</p> - -<p>“California-born and mountain-raised, his nature soon drove him into a -painter’s career.” Then he reverted fondly to New York and his -experience there.</p> - -<p>“Oh, no!” he mused in pleasant irony, “he never spread his napkin over -his legs and partook French victuals up to old Delmonico’s. ’Twasn’t H. -G. which took <i>her</i> to the theatre.”</p> - -<p>In a sort of stage-aside to me, he added, “<i>She</i> was a <i>model</i>! Stood -for them sculptors, you know; perfectly virtuous, and built from the -ground up.” Then, as if words failed him, made an expressive gesture -with both hands over his shirt-bosom to indicate the topography of her -figure, and, sliding them down sharply against his waistband, he added, -“Anatomical torso!”</p> - -<p>Mr. Smith found relief in meeting one so near himself, as he conceived -me to be, in habit and experience. The long-pent-up emotions and -ambitions of his life found ready utterance, and a willing listener.</p> - -<p>I learned that his aim was to become a characteristically California -painter, with special designs for making himself famous as the -delineator of muletrains and ox-wagons; to be, as he expressed it, “the -Pacific Slope Bonheur.”</p> - -<p>“There,” he said, “is old Eastman Johnson; he’s made the riffle on -barns, and that everlasting girl with the ears of corn; but it ain’t -<i>life</i>, it ain’t got the real git-up.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a>{259}</span></p> - -<p>“If you want to see <i>the</i> thing, just look at a Gérôme; his Arab folks -and Egyptian dancing-girls, they ain’t assuming a pleasant expression -and looking at spots while their likenesses is took.</p> - -<p>“H. G. will discount Eastman yet.”</p> - -<p>He avowed his great admiration of Church, which, with a little leaning -toward Mr. Gifford, seemed his only hearty approval.</p> - -<p>“It’s all Bierstadt, and Bierstadt, and Bierstadt nowadays! What has he -done but twist and skew and distort and discolor and belittle and -be-pretty this whole dog-gonned country? Why, his mountains are too high -and too slim; they’d blow over in one of our fall winds.</p> - -<p>“I’ve herded colts two summers in Yosemite, and honest now, when I stood -right up in front of his picture, I didn’t know it.</p> - -<p>“He hasn’t what old Ruskin calls for.”</p> - -<p>By this time the station buildings were in sight, and far down the -cañon, winding in even grade round spur after spur, outlined by a low, -clinging cloud of red dust, we could see the great Sierra -mule-train,—that industrial gulf-stream flowing from California plains -over into arid Nevada, carrying thither materials for life and luxury. -In a vast, perpetual caravan of heavy wagons, drawn by teams of from -eight to fourteen mules, all the supplies of many cities and villages -were hauled across the Sierra at an immense cost, and with such skill of -driving and generalship of mules as the world has never seen before.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a>{260}</span></p> - -<p>Our trail descended toward the grade, quickly bringing us to a high bank -immediately overlooking the trains a few rods below the group of station -buildings.</p> - -<p>I had by this time learned that Copples, the former station-proprietor, -had suffered amputation of the leg three times, receiving from the road -men, in consequence, the name of “Cut-off,” and that, while his doctors -disagreed as to whether they had better try a fourth, the kindly hand of -death had spared him that pain, and Mrs. Copples an added extortion in -the bill.</p> - -<p>The dying “Cut-off” had made his wife promise she would stay by and -carry on the station until all his debts, which were many and heavy, -should be paid, and then do as she chose.</p> - -<p>The poor woman, a New Englander of some refinement, lingered, sadly -fulfilling her task, though longing for liberty.</p> - -<p>When Smith came to speak of Sarah Jane, her niece, a new light kindled -in my friend’s eye.</p> - -<p>“You never saw Sarah Jane?” he inquired.</p> - -<p>I shook my head.</p> - -<p>He went on to tell me that he was living in hope of making her Mrs. H. -G., but that the bar-keeper also indulged a hope, and as this important -functionary was a man of ready cash, and of derringers and few words, it -became a delicate matter to avow open rivalry; but it was evident my -friend’s star was ascendant, and, learning that he considered himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a>{261}</span> -to possess the “dead-wood,” and to have “gaited” the bar-keeper, I was -more than amused, even comforted.</p> - -<p>It was pleasure to sit there leaning against a vigorous old oak while -Smith opened his heart to me, in easy confidence, and, with quick eye -watching the passing mules, pencilled in a little sketch-book a leg, a -head, or such portions of body and harness as seemed to him useful for -future works.</p> - -<p>“These are notes,” he said, “and I’ve pretty much made up my mind to -paint my great picture on a <i>gee-pull</i>. I’ll scumble in a sunset effect, -lighting up the dust, and striking across the backs of team and driver, -and I’ll paint a come-up-there-d’n-you look on the old teamster’s face, -and the mules will be just a-humping their little selves and laying down -to work like they’d expire. And the wagon! Don’t you see what fine -color-material there is in the heavy load and canvas-top with sunlight -and shadow in the folds? And that’s what’s the matter with H. G. Smith.</p> - -<p>“Orders, sir, orders; that’s what I’ll get then, and I’ll take my little -old Sarah Jane and light out for New York, and you’ll see <i>Smith</i> on a -studio doorplate, and folks’ll say, ‘Fine feeling for nature, has -Smith!’<span class="lftspc">”</span></p> - -<p>I let this singular man speak for himself in his own vernacular, pruning -nothing of its idiom or slang, as you shall choose to call it. In this -faithful transcript there are words I could have wished to expunge, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a>{262}</span> -they are his, not mine, and illustrate his mental construction.</p> - -<p>The breath of most Californians is as unconsciously charged with slang -as an Italian’s of garlic, and the two, after all, have much the same -function; you touch the bowl or your language, but should never let -either be fairly recognized in salad or conversation. But Smith’s -English was the well undefiled when compared with what I every moment -heard from the current of teamsters which set constantly by us in the -direction of Copples’s.</p> - -<p>Close in front came a huge wagon piled high with cases of freight, and -drawn along by a team of twelve mules, whose heavy breathing and -drenched skins showed them hard-worked and well tired out. The driver -looked anxiously ahead at a soft spot in the road, and on at the -station, as if calculating whether his team had courage left to haul -through.</p> - -<p>He called kindly to them, cracked his black-snake whip, and all together -they strained bravely on.</p> - -<p>The great van rocked, settled a little on the near side, and stuck fast.</p> - -<p>With a look of despair the driver got off and laid the lash freely among -his team; they jumped and jerked, frantically tangled themselves up, and -at last all sulked and became stubbornly immovable. Meanwhile, a mile of -teams behind, unable to pass on the narrow grade, came to an unwilling -halt.</p> - -<p>About five wagons back I noticed a tall Pike, dressed in checked shirt, -and pantaloons tucked into<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a>{263}</span> jack-boots. A soft felt hat, worn on the -back of his head, displayed long locks of flaxen hair, which hung freely -about a florid pink countenance, noticeable for its pair of violent -little blue eyes, and facial angle rendered acute by a sharp, long nose.</p> - -<p>This fellow watched the stoppage with impatience, and at last, when it -was more than he could bear, walked up by the other teams with a look of -wrath absolutely devilish. One would have expected him to blow up with -rage; yet withal his gait and manner were cool and soft in the extreme. -In a bland, almost tender voice, he said to the unfortunate driver, “My -friend, perhaps I can help you;” and his gentle way of disentangling and -patting the leaders as he headed them round in the right direction would -have given him a high office under Mr. Bergh. He leisurely examined the -embedded wheel, and cast an eye along the road ahead. He then began in -rather excited manner to swear, pouring it out louder and more profane, -till he utterly eclipsed the most horrid blasphemies I ever heard, -piling them up thicker and more fiendish till it seemed as if the very -earth must open and engulf him.</p> - -<p>I noticed one mule after another give a little squat, bringing their -breasts hard against the collars, and straining traces, till only one -old mule, with ears back and dangling chain, still held out. The Pike -walked up and yelled one gigantic oath; her ears sprang forward, she -squatted in terror, and the iron links grated under her strain. He then -stepped back and took the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a>{264}</span> rein, every trembling mule looking out of the -corner of its eye and listening at <i>qui vive</i>.</p> - -<p>With a peculiar air of deliberation and of childlike simplicity, he said -in every-day tones, “Come up there, mules!”</p> - -<p>One quick strain, a slight rumble, and the wagon rolled on to Copples’s.</p> - -<p>Smith and I followed, and as we neared the house he punched me -familiarly and said, as a brown petticoat disappeared in the station -door, “There’s Sarah Jane! When I see that girl I feel like I’d reach -out and gather her in;” then clasping her imaginary form as if she was -about to dance with him, he executed a couple of waltz turns, softly -intimating, “That’s what’s the matter with H. G.”</p> - -<p>Kaweah being stabled, we betook ourselves to the office, which was of -course bar-room as well. As I entered, the unfortunate teamster was -about paying his liquid compliment to the florid Pike. Their glasses -were filled. “My respects,” said the little driver. The whiskey became -lost to view, and went eroding its way through the dust these poor -fellows had swallowed. He added, “Well, Billy, you <i>can</i> swear.”</p> - -<p>“Swear?” repeated the Pike in a tone of incredulous questioning. “Me -swear?” as if the compliment were greater than his modest desert. “No, I -can’t blaspheme worth a cuss. You’d jest orter hear Pete Green. <i>He can -exhort the impenitent mule.</i> I’ve known a ten-mule-team to renounce the -flesh and haul<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a>{265}</span> thirty-one thousand through a foot of clay mud under one -of his outpourings.”</p> - -<p>As a hotel, Copples’s is on the Mongolian plan, which means that -dining-room and kitchen are given over to the mercies—never very -tender—of Chinamen; not such Chinamen as learned the art of -pig-roasting that they might be served up by Elia, but the average John, -and a sadly low average that John is. I grant him a certain general air -of thrift, admitting, too, that his lack of sobriety never makes itself -apparent in loud Celtic brawl. But he is, when all is said, and in spite -of timid and fawning obedience, a very poor servant.</p> - -<p>Now and then at one friend’s house it has happened to me that I dined -upon artistic Chinese cookery, and all they who come home from living in -China smack their lips over the relishing <i>cuisine</i>. I wish they had sat -down that day at Copples’s. No; on second thought I would spare them.</p> - -<p>John may go peacefully to North Adams and make shoes for us, but I shall -not solve the awful domestic problem by bringing him into my kitchen; -certainly so long as Howells’s “Mrs. Johnson” lives, nor even while I -can get an Irish lady to torment me, and offer the hospitality of my -home to her cousins.</p> - -<p>After the warning bell, fifty or sixty teamsters inserted their dusty -heads in buckets of water, turned their once white neck-handkerchiefs -inside out, producing a sudden effect of clean linen, and made use of -the two mournful wrecks of combs which hung on<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a>{266}</span> strings at either side -the Copples’s mirror. Many went to the bar and partook of a -“dust-cutter.” There was then such clearing of throats, and such loud -and prolonged blowing of noses as may not often be heard upon this -globe.</p> - -<p>In the calm which ensued, conversation sprang up on “lead harness,” the -“Stockton wagon that had went off the grade,” with here and there a -sentiment called out by two framed lithographic belles, who in great -richness of color and scantiness of raiment flanked the bar-mirror;—a -dazzling reflector, chiefly destined to portray the bar-keeper’s back -hair, which work of art involved much affectionate labor.</p> - -<p>A second bell and rolling away of doors revealed a long dining-room, -with three parallel tables, cleanly set and watched over by Chinamen, -whose fresh, white clothes and bright, olive-buff skin made a contrast -of color which was always chief among my yearnings for the Nile.</p> - -<p>While I loitered in the background every seat was taken, and I found -myself with a few dilatory teamsters destined to await a second table.</p> - -<p>The dinner-room communicated with a kitchen beyond by means of two -square apertures cut in the partition wall. Through these portholes a -glare of red light poured, except when the square framed a Chinese -cook’s head, or discharged hundreds of little dishes.</p> - -<p>The teamsters sat down in patience; a few of the more elegant sort -cleaned their nails with the three-tine<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a>{267}</span> forks, others picked their -teeth with them, and nearly all speared with this implement small -specimens from the dishes before them, securing a pickle or a square -inch of pie or even that luxury, a dried apple; a few, on tilted-back -chairs, drummed upon the bottom of their plates the latest tune of the -road.</p> - -<p>When fairly under way the scene became active and animated beyond -belief. Waiters, balancing upon their arms twenty or thirty plates, -hurried along and shot them dexterously over the teamsters’ heads with -crash and spatter.</p> - -<p>Beans swimming in fat, meats slimed with pale, ropy gravy, and over -everything a faint Mongol odor,—the flavor of moral degeneracy and of a -disintegrating race.</p> - -<p>Sharks and wolves may no longer be figured as types of prandial haste. -My friends, the teamsters, stuffed and swallowed with a rapidity which -was alarming but for the dexterity they showed, and which could only -have come of long practice.</p> - -<p>In fifteen minutes the room was empty, and those fellows who were not -feeding grain to their mules lighted cigars and lingered round the bar.</p> - -<p>Just then my artist rushed in, seized me by the arm, and said in my ear, -“We’ll have <i>our</i> supper over to Mrs. Copples’s. O no, I guess -not—Sarah Jane—arms peeled—cooking up stuff—old woman gone into the -milk-room with a skimmer.” He then added that if I wanted to see what I -had been spared, I might follow him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a>{268}</span></p> - -<p>We went round an angle of the building and came upon a high bank, where, -through wide-open windows, I could look into the Chinese kitchen.</p> - -<p>By this time the second table of teamsters were under way, and the -waiters yelled their orders through to the three cooks.</p> - -<p>This large, unpainted kitchen was lighted up by kerosene lamps. Through -clouds of smoke and steam dodged and sprang the cooks, dripping with -perspiration and grease, grabbing a steak in the hand and slapping it -down on the gridiron, slipping and sliding around on the damp floor, -dropping a card of biscuits and picking them up again in their fists, -which were garnished by the whole bill of fare. The red papers with -Chinese inscriptions, and little joss-sticks here and there pasted upon -each wall, the spry devils themselves, and that faint, sickening odor of -China which pervaded the room, combined to produce a sense of deep, -sober gratitude that I had not risked their fare.</p> - -<p>“Now,” demanded Smith, “you see that there little white building -yonder?”</p> - -<p>I did.</p> - -<p>He struck a contemplative position, leaned against the house, extending -one hand after the manner of the minstrel sentimentalist, and softly -chanted:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“<span class="lftspc">‘</span><span class="lftspc">’</span>Tis, O, ’tis the cottage of me love;’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">“and there’s where they’re getting up as nice a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a>{269}</span> supper as can be -found on this road or any other. Let’s go over!”</p> - -<p>So we strolled across an open space where were two giant pines towering -sombre against the twilight, a little mountain brooklet, and a few quiet -cows.</p> - -<p>“Stop,” said Smith, leaning his back against a pine, and encircling my -neck affectionately with an arm; “I told you, as regards Sarah Jane, how -my feelings stand. Well, now, you just bet she’s on the reciprocate! -When I told old woman Copples I’d like to invite you over,—Sarah Jane -she passed me in the doorway,—and said she, ‘Glad to see <i>your</i> -friends.’<span class="lftspc">”</span></p> - -<p>Then <i>sotto voce</i>, for we were very near, he sang again:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“<span class="lftspc">‘</span><span class="lftspc">’</span>Tis, O, ’tis the cottage of me love;’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>“and C. K.,” he continued familiarly, “you’re a judge of wimmen,” -chucking his knuckles into my ribs, whereat I jumped; when he added, -“There, I knew you was. Well, Sarah Jane is a derned magnificent female; -number three boot, just the height for me. <i>Venus de</i> Copples, I call -her, and would make the most touching artist’s wife in this planet. If I -design to paint a head, or a foot, or an arm, get my little old Sarah -Jane to peel the particular charm, and just whack her in on the canvas.”</p> - -<p>We passed in through low doors, turned from a small, dark entry into the -family sitting-room, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a>{270}</span> were alone there in presence of a cheery log -fire, which good-naturedly bade us welcome, crackling freely and tossing -its sparks out upon floor of pine and coyote-skin rug. A few old framed -prints hung upon dark walls, their faces looking serenely down upon the -scanty, old-fashioned furniture and windows full of flowering plants. A -low-cushioned chair, not long since vacated, was drawn close by the -centre-table, whereon were a lamp and a large, open Bible, with a pair -of silver-bowed spectacles lying upon its lighted page.</p> - -<p>Smith made a gesture of silence toward the door, touched the Bible, and -whispered, “<i>Here’s</i> where old woman Copples lives, and it is a good -thing; I read it aloud to her evenings, and I can just feel the high, -local lights of it. It’ll fetch H. G. yet!”</p> - -<p>At this juncture the door opened; a pale, thin, elderly woman entered, -and with tired smile greeted me. While her hard, labor-stiffened, -needle-roughened hand was in mine, I looked into her face and felt -something (it may be, it must be, but little, yet something) of the -sorrow of her life; that of a woman large in sympathy, deep in faith, -eternal in constancy, thrown away on a rough, worthless fellow. All -things she hoped for had failed her; the tenderness which never came, -the hopes years ago in ashes, the whole world of her yearnings long -buried, leaving only the duty of living and the hope of Heaven. As she -sat down, took up her spectacles and knitting, and closed the Bible, she -began pleasantly to talk<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a>{271}</span> to us of the warm, bright autumn nights, of -Smith’s work, and then of my own profession, and of her niece, Sarah -Jane. Her genuinely sweet spirit and natively gentle manner were very -beautiful, and far overbalanced all traces of rustic birth and mountain -life.</p> - -<p>O, that unquenchable Christian fire, how pure the gold of its result! It -needs no practised elegance, no social greatness, for its success; only -the warm human heart, and out of it shall come a sacred calm and -gentleness, such as no power, no wealth, no culture may ever hope to -win.</p> - -<p>No words of mine would outline the beauty of that plain, weary old -woman, the sad, sweet patience of those gray eyes, nor the spirit of -overflowing goodness which cheered and enlivened the half hour we spent -there.</p> - -<p>H. G. might perhaps be pardoned for showing an alacrity when the door -again opened and Sarah Jane rolled—I might almost say trundled—in, and -was introduced to me.</p> - -<p>Sarah Jane was an essentially Californian product, as much so as one of -those vast potatoes or massive pears; she had a suggestion of State-Fair -in the fulness of her physique, yet withal was pretty and modest.</p> - -<p>If I could have rid myself of a fear that her buttons might sooner or -later burst off and go singing by my ear, I think I might have felt as -H. G. did, that she was a “magnificent female,” with her smooth, -brilliant skin and ropes of soft brown hair.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a>{272}</span></p> - -<p>H. G., in presence of the ladies, lost something of his original flavor, -and rose into studied elegance, greatly to the comfort of Sarah, whose -glow of pride as his talk ran on came without show of restraint.</p> - -<p>The supper was delicious.</p> - -<p>But Sarah was quiet, quiet to H. G. and to me, until after tea, when the -old lady said, “You young folks will have to excuse me this evening,” -and withdrew to her chamber.</p> - -<p>More logs were then piled on the sitting-room hearth, and we three -gathered in a semi-circle.</p> - -<p>Presently H. G. took the poker and twisted it about among coals and -ashes, prying up the oak sticks, as he announced, in a measured, studied -way, “An artist’s wife, that is,” he explained, “an Academician’s wife -orter, well she’d orter <i>sabe</i> the beautiful, and take her regular -æsthetics; and then again,” he continued in explanatory tone, “she’d -orter to know how to keep a hotel, derned if she hadn’t, for it’s rough -like furst off, ’fore a feller gets his name up. But then when he does, -tho’, she’s got a salubrious old time of it. It’s touch a little bell” -(he pressed the andiron-top to show us how the thing was done), “and -‘Brooks, the morning paper!’ Open your regular Herald:</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>“<span class="lftspc">‘</span><span class="smcap">Art Notes.</span>—Another of H. G. Smith’s tender works, entitled, “Off the -Grade,” so full of out-of-doors and subtle feeling of nature, is now on -exhibition at Goupil’s.’<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a>{273}</span></p> - -<p>“Look down a little further:</p> - -<p>“<span class="lftspc">‘</span><span class="smcap">Italian Opera.</span>—Between the acts all eyes turned to the <i>distingué</i> -Mrs. H. G. Smith, who looked,’<span class="lftspc">”</span>—then turning to me, and waving his hand -at Sarah Jane, “I leave it to you if she don’t.”</p> - -<p>Sarah Jane assumed the pleasing color of the sugar-beet, without seeming -inwardly unhappy.</p> - -<p>“It’s only a question of time with H. G.,” continued my friend. “Art is -long, you know—derned long—and it may be a year before I paint my -great picture, but after that Smith works in lead harness.”</p> - -<p>He used the poker freely, and more and more his flow of hopes turned a -shade of sentiment to Sarah Jane, who smiled broader and broader, -showing teeth of healthy whiteness.</p> - -<p>At last I withdrew and sought my room, which was H. G.’s also, and his -studio. I had gone with a candle round the walls whereon were tacked -studies and sketches, finding here and there a bit of real merit among -the profusion of trash, when the door burst open and my friend entered, -kicked off his boots and trousers, and walked up and down at a sort of -quadrille step, singing:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“<span class="lftspc">‘</span>Yes, it’s the cottage of me love;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">You bet, it’s the cottage of me love,’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">“and, what’s more, H. G. has just had his genteel good-night kiss; and -when and where is the good old bar-keep?”</p> - -<p>I checked his exuberance as best I might, knowing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a>{274}</span> full well that the -quiet and elegant dispenser of neat and mixed beverages hearing this -inquiry would put in an appearance in person and offer a few remarks -designed to provoke ill-feeling. So I at last got Smith in bed and the -lamp out. All was quiet for a few moments, and when I had almost gotten -asleep I heard my room-mate in low tones say to himself,—</p> - -<p>“Married, by the Rev. Gospel, our talented California artist, Mr. H. G. -Smith, to Miss Sarah Jane Copples. No cards.”</p> - -<p>A pause, and then with more gentle utterance, “and that’s what’s the -matter with H. G.”</p> - -<p>Slowly from this atmosphere of art I passed away into the tranquil land -of dreams.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a>{275}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI<br /><br /> -SHASTA<br /><br /> -1870</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">We</span> escaped the harvesting season of 1870. I try to believe all its -poetry is not forever immolated under the strong wheels of that pastoral -Juggernaut of our day, the steam-reaper, and to be grateful that Ruths -have not now to glean the fallen wheat-heads, and loaf around at -questionable hours, setting their caps for susceptible ranchers. -Whatever stirring rhythm may to-day measure time with the quick -fire-breath of reaping-machines shall await a more poetic pen than this. -Some modern Virgil coming along the boundless wheat plain may perhaps -sing you bucolic phrases of the new iron age; but he will soon see his -mistake, as will you. The harvest home, with its Longfellow mellowness -of atmosphere, or even those ideally colored barns of Eastman Johnson’s, -with corn and girls and some of the lingering personal relationship -between crops and human hands; all that is tradition here, not even -memory.</p> - -<p>It is quite as well. These people are more germane with enterprise and -hurry, and with the winding-up drink at some vulgar tavern when the -hired<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a>{276}</span> hands are paid off, and gather to have “a real nice time with the -boys.”</p> - -<p>This was over. The herds of men had poured back to their cities, and -wandered away among distant mines as far as their earnings would carry -them.</p> - -<p>A few stranded bummers, who awoke from their “nice time” penniless, -still lingered in pathetic humiliation round the scene of their labor, -rather heightening that air of sleep which now pervaded every ranch in -the Sacramento valley.</p> - -<p>We quitted the hotel at Chico with relief, gratefully turning our backs -upon the Chinamen, whose cookery had spoiled our two days’ peace. Mr. -Freeman Clark will have to make out a better case for Confucius, or else -these fellows were apostate. But they were soon behind us, a straight, -dusty avenue leading us past clusters of ranches into a quiet expanse of -level land, and beneath the occasional shadow of roadside oaks. Miles of -harvested plain lay close shaven in monotonous Naples yellow, stretching -on, soft and vague, losing itself in a gray, half-luminous haze. Now and -then, through more transparent intervals, we could see the brown Sierra -feet walling us in to eastward, their oak-clad tops fainter and fainter -as they rose into this sky. Directly overhead hung an arch of pale blue, -but a few degrees down the hue melted into golden gray. Looming through -the mist before us rose sombre forms of trees, growing in processions -along the margins of snow-fed streams, which flow from the Sierra -across<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a>{277}</span> the Sacramento plain. Through these silent, sleepy groves the -seclusion is perfect. You come in from blinding, sun-scorched plains to -the great, aged oaks, whose immense breadth of bough seems outstretched -with effort to shade more and more ground.</p> - -<p>Alders and cottonwoods line the stream banks; native grapes in tropical -profusion drape the shores, and hang in trailing curtains from tree to -tree. Here and there glimpses open into dark thickets. The stream comes -into view between walls of green. Evening sunlight, broken with shadow, -falls over rippling shallows; still expanses of deep pool reflect blue -from the zenith, and flow on into dark-shaded coves beneath overhanging -verdure. Vineyards and orchards gather themselves pleasantly around -ranch-houses.</p> - -<p>Men and women are dull, unrelieved; they are all alike. The eternal -flatness of landscape, the monotony of endlessly pleasant weather, the -scarcely varying year, the utter want of anything unforeseen, and -absence of all surprise in life, are legible upon their quiet, -uninteresting faces. They loaf through eleven months to harvest one. -Individuality is wanting. The same kind of tiresome ranch-gossip you -hear at one table spreads itself over listening acres to the next.</p> - -<p>The great American poet, it may confidently be predicted, will not book -his name from the Sacramento Valley. The people, the acres, the industry -seem to be created solely to furnish vulgar fractions<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a>{278}</span> in the census. It -was not wholly fancy that detected in the grapes something of the same -flatness and sugary insipidity which characterized the girls I chatted -with on certain piazzas.</p> - -<p>What an antipode is the condition of sterile poverty in the farm-life of -the East! Frugality, energy, self-preserving mental activity contrast -sharply with the contented lethargy of this commonplace opulence. Mile -after mile, in recurring succession of wheatland and vineyard, oak-grove -and dusty shabbiness of graceless ranch-buildings, stretches on, -flanking our way on either side, until at last the undulations of the -foot-hills are reached, and the first signs of vigorous life are -observed in the trees. Attitude and consciousness are displayed in the -lordly oaks which cluster upon brown hillsides. The Sacramento, which -through the slumberous plain had flowed in a still, deep current, -reflecting only the hot haze and motionless forms of the trees upon its -banks, here courses along with the ripple of life, displaying through -its clear waters bowlders and pebbles freighted from the higher -mountains.</p> - -<p>Our road, ascending through sunny valleys and among rolling, oak-clad -hills, at length reaches the level of the pines, and, climbing to a -considerable crest, descends among a fine coniferous forest into the -deeply wooded valley of the Pitt. Lifted high against the sky, ragged -hills of granite and limestone limit the view. The river, through a -sharp, rocky cañon, has descended from the volcanic plains of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a>{279}</span> -northeastern California, cutting its way across the sea of hills which -represents the Sierra Nevada, and falling toward the west in a series of -white rapids.</p> - -<p>Our camp in the cool mountain air banished the fatigues of weary miles; -night, under the mountain stars, gave us refreshing sleep; and from the -morning we crossed Pitt Ferry we dated a new life.</p> - -<p>In a deep gorge between lofty, pine-clad walls we came upon the McCloud, -a brilliantly pure stream, wearing its way through lava rocks, and still -bearing the ice-chill of Shasta. Dark, feathery firs stand in files -along the swift river. Oaks, with lustrous leaves, rise above -hill-slopes of red and brown. Numbers of Indian camps are posted here. I -find them picturesque: low, conical huts, opening upon small, smoking -fires attended by squaws. Numberless salmon, split and drying in rows -upon light scaffoldings, make their light-red conspicuous amid the -generally dingy surroundings.</p> - -<p>These Indian faces are fairly good-natured, especially when young. I -visited one camp, upon the left river bank, finding Madam at home, -seated by her fireside, engaged in maternal duties. I am almost afraid -to describe the squalor and grotesque hideousness of her person. She was -emaciated and scantily clad in a sort of short petticoat; shaggy, -unkempt hair overhanging a pair of wild wolf’s eyes. The ribs and -collar-bone stood out as upon an anatomical specimen; hard, black flesh -clinging in formless<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a>{280}</span> masses upon her body and arms. Altogether she had -the appearance of an animated mummy. Her child, a mere amorphous roll, -clung to her, and emphasized, with cubbish fatness, the wan, shrunken -form of its mother, looking like some ravenous leech which was draining -the woman’s very blood. Shuddering, I hurried away to observe the -husband.</p> - -<p>The “buck” was spearing salmon a short distance down stream, his naked -form poised upon a beam which projected over the river, his eyes -riveted, and spear uplifted, waiting for the prey; sunlight, streaming -down in broken masses through trees, fell brilliantly upon his muscular -shoulder and tense, compact thigh, glancing now and then across rigid -arms and the polished point of his spear. The swift, dark water rushed -beneath him, flashing upon its surface a shimmering reflection of his -red figure. Cast in bronze he would have made a companion for Quincy -Ward’s Indian Hunter; and better than a companion, for in his wolfish -sinew and panther muscle there was not, so far as I could observe, that -free Greek suppleness which is so fine a feature in Mr. Ward’s statue; -though Ajax, disguised as an American Indian, might be a better name for -that great and powerful piece of sculpture.</p> - -<p>A day’s march brought us from McCloud to the Sacramento, here a small -stream, with banks fringed by a pleasing variety of trees and margins -graceful with water-plants.</p> - -<p>Northward for two days we followed closely the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a>{281}</span> line of the Sacramento -River, now descending along slopes to its bed, where the stream played -among picturesque rocks and bowlders, and again climbing by toilsome -ascents into the forest a thousand feet up on the cañon wall, catching -glimpses of towering ridges of pine-clad Sierra above, and curves of the -foaming river deep in the blue shadow beneath us.</p> - -<p>More and more the woods became darkened with mountain pine. The air -freshened by northern life gave us the inspiration of altitude.</p> - -<p>At last, through a notch to the northward, rose the conical summit of -Shasta, its pale, rosy lavas enamelled with ice. Body and base of the -great peak were hidden by intervening hills, over whose smooth rolls of -forest green the bright, blue sky and the brilliant Shasta summit were -sharp and strong. From that moment the peak became the centre of our -life. From every crest we strained our eyes forward, as now and then -either through forest vistas the incandescent snow greeted us, or from -some high summit the opening cañon walls displayed grander and grander -views of the great volcano. It was sometimes, after all, a pleasure to -descend from these cool heights, with the <i>impression</i> of the mountain -upon our minds, to the cañon bottom, where, among the endlessly varying -bits of beautiful detail, the mental strain wore off.</p> - -<p>When our tents were pitched at Sisson’s, while a picturesque haze -floated up from the southward, we enjoyed the grand, uncertain form of -Shasta, with its heaven-piercing crests of white, and wide, placid<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a>{282}</span> -sweep of base; full of lines as deeply reposeful as a Greek temple. Its -dark head lifted among the fading stars of dawn, and, strongly set upon -the arch of coming rose, appealed to our emotions; but best we liked to -sit at evening near Munger’s easel, watching the great lava cone glow -with light almost as wild and lurid as if its crater still streamed.</p> - -<p>Watkins thought it “photographic luck” that the mountain should so have -draped itself with mist as to defy his camera. Palmer stayed at camp to -make observations in the coloring of meerschaums at fixed altitudes, and -to watch now and then the station barometer.</p> - -<p>Shasta from Sisson’s is a broad, triple mountain, the central summit -being flanked on the west by a large and quite perfect crater, whose rim -reaches about twelve thousand feet altitude. On the west a broad, -shoulder-like spur juts from the general slope. The cone rises from its -base eleven thousand feet in one sweep.</p> - -<p>A forest of tall, rich pines surrounds Strawberry Valley and the little -group of ranches near Sisson’s. Under this high sky, and a pure quality -of light, the whole varied foreground of green and gold stretches out -toward the rocky mountain base in charming contrast. Brooks from the -snow thread their way through open meadow, waving overhead a tent-work -of willows, silvery and cool.</p> - -<p>Shasta, as a whole, is the single cone of an immense, extinct volcano. -It occupies almost precisely the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a>{283}</span> axial line of the Sierra Nevada, but -the range, instead of carrying its great, wave-like ridge through this -region, breaks down in the neighborhood of Lassen’s Butte, and for -eighty miles northward is only represented by low, confused masses of -mountain cut through and through by the cañon of the McCloud, Pitt, and -Sacramento.</p> - -<p>A broad, volcanic plain, interrupted here and there by inconsiderable -chains, occupies the country east of Scott’s Mountain. From this general -plain, whose altitude is from twenty-five hundred to thirty-five hundred -feet, rises Mount Shasta. About its base cluster hillocks of a hundred -little volcanoes, but they are utterly inconspicuous under the shadow of -the great peak. The volcanic plain-land is partly overgrown by forest, -and in part covers itself with fields of grass or sage. Riding over it -in almost any part the one great point in the landscape is the cone of -Shasta; its crest of solid white, its vast altitude, the pale-gray or -rosy tints of its lavas, and the dark girdle of forest which swells up -over cañon-carved foothills give it a grandeur equalled by hardly any -American mountain.</p> - -<p>September eleventh found the climbers of our party—S. F. Emmons, -Frederick A. Clark, Albert B. Clark, Mr. Sisson, the pioneer guide of -the region, and myself—mounted upon our mules, heading for the crater -cone over rough rocks and among the stunted firs and pines which mark -the upper limit of forest growth. The morning was cool and clear, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a>{284}</span> -a fresh north wind sweeping round the volcano, and bringing in its -descent invigorating cold of the snow region. When we had gone as far as -our mules could carry us, threading their difficult way among piles of -lava, we dismounted and made up our packs of beds, instruments, food and -fuel for a three days’ trip, turned the animals over to George and John, -our two muleteers, bade them good-day, and with Sisson, who was to -accompany us up the first ascent, struck out on foot. Already above -vegetation, we looked out over all the valley south and west, observing -its arabesque of forest, meadow, and chaparral, the files of pines which -struggled up almost to our feet, and just below us the volcano slope -strewn with red and brown wreck and patches of shrunken snowdrift.</p> - -<p>Our climb up the steep western crater slope was slow and tiresome, quite -without risk or excitement. The footing, altogether of lodged <i>débris</i>, -at times gave way provokingly, and threw us out of balance. Once upon -the spiry pinnacles which crown the rim, a scene of wild power broke -upon us. The round bowl, about a mile in diameter and nearly a thousand -feet deep, lay beneath us, its steep, shelving sides of shattered lava -mantled in places to the very bottom by fields of snow.</p> - -<p>We clambered along the edge toward Shasta, and came to a place where for -a thousand feet it was a mere blade of ice, sharpened by the snow into a -thin, frail edge, upon which we walked in cautious balance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a>{285}</span> a misstep -likely to hurl us down into the chaos of lava blocks within the crater.</p> - -<p>Passing this, we reached the north edge of the rim, and from a rugged -mound of shattered rock looked down into a gorge between us and the main -Shasta. There, winding its huge body along, lay a glacier, riven with -sharp, deep crevasses yawning fifty or sixty feet wide, the blue hollows -of their shadowed depth contrasting with the brilliant surfaces of ice.</p> - -<p>We studied its whole length from the far, high Shasta crest down in -winding course, deepening its cañon more and more as it extends, -crowding past our crater cone, and at last terminating in bold -ice-billows and a wide belt of hilly moraine. The surface over half of -its length was quite clean, but directly opposite us occurs a fine ice -cascade; its entire surface is cut with transverse crevasses, which have -a general tendency to curve downward; and all this dislocation is -accompanied by a freight of lava blocks which shoot down the cañon walls -on either side, bounding out all over the glacier.</p> - -<p>In a later trip, while Watkins was making his photographic views, I -climbed about, going to the edges of some crevasses and looking over -into their blue vaults, where icicles overhang, and a whispered sound of -waterflow comes up faintly from beneath.</p> - -<p>From a point about midway across where I had climbed and rested upon the -brink of an ice-cliff, the glacier below me breaking off into its wild -pile of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a>{286}</span> cascade blocks and <i>sérac</i>, I looked down over all the lower -flow, broken with billowy upheavals, and bright with bristling spires of -sunlit ice. Upon the right rose the great cone of Shasta, formed of -chocolate-colored lavas, its sky line a single curved sweep of snow cut -sharply against a deep blue sky. To the left the precipices of the -lesser cone rose to the altitude of twelve thousand feet, their surfaces -half jagged ledges of lava and half irregular sheets of ice. From my -feet the glacier sank rapidly between volcanic walls, and the shadow of -the lesser cone fell in a dark band across the brilliantly lighted -surface. Looking down its course, my eye ranged over sunny and shadowed -zones of ice and over the gray bowlder region of the terminal moraine; -still lower, along the former track of ancient and grander glaciers, and -down upon undulating, pine-clad foothills, descending in green steps, -reaching out like promontories into the sea of plain which lay outspread -nine thousand feet below, basking in the half-tropical sunshine, its -checkered green fields and orchards ripening their wheat and figs.</p> - -<p>Our little party separated, each going about his labor. The Clarks, with -theodolite and barometer, were engaged on a pinnacle over on the western -crater-edge. Mr. Sisson, who had helped us thus far with a huge -pack-load of wood, now said good-by, and was soon out of sight on his -homeward tramp. Emmons and I geologized about the rim and interior -slope, getting at last out of sight of one another.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a>{287}</span></p> - -<p>In mid-crater sprang up a sharp cone several hundred feet high, composed -of much shattered lava, and indicating doubtless the very latest -volcanic activity. At its base lay a small lakelet, frozen over with -rough, black ice. Far below us cold gray banks and floating flocks of -vapor began to drift and circle about the lava slopes, rising higher at -sunset, till they quite enveloped us, and at times shut out the view.</p> - -<p>Later we met for bivouac, spread our beds upon small <i>débris</i> under lee -of a mass of rock on the rim, and built a little camp-fire, around which -we sat closely. Clouds still eddied about us, opening now wide rifts of -deep-blue sky, and then glimpses of the Shasta summit glowing with -evening light, and again views down upon the far earth, where sunlight -had long faded, leaving forest and field and village sunken in purple -gloom. Through the old, broken crater lip, over foreground of pallid ice -and sharp, black lava rocks, the clouds whirled away, and, yawning wide, -revealed an objectless expanse, out of which emerged dim mountain tops, -for a moment seen, then veiled. Thus, in the midst of clouds, I found it -extremely interesting to watch them and their habits. Drifting slowly -across the crater-bowl, I saw them float over and among the points of -cindery lava, whose savage forms contrasted wonderfully with the -infinite softness of their texture.</p> - -<p>I found it strange and suggestive that fields of perpetual snow should -mantle the slopes of an old lava caldron, that the very volcano’s throat -should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a>{288}</span> choked with a pure little lakelet, and sealed with unmelting -ice. That power of extremes which held sway over lifeless nature before -there were human hearts to experience its crush expressed itself with -poetic eloquence. Had Lowell been in our bivouac, I know he must have -felt again the power of his own perfect figure of</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Burned-out craters healed with snow.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">It was a wild moment, wind smiting in shocks against the rock beside us, -flaring up our little fire, and whirling on with its cloud-freight into -the darkening crater gulf.</p> - -<p>We turned in; the Clarks together, Emmons and I in our fur bags. Upon -cold stone our bed was anything but comfortable, angular fragments of -trachyte finding their way with great directness among our ribs and -under shoulder-blades, keeping us almost awake, in that despairing -semi-consciousness where dreams and thoughts tangle in tiresome -confusion.</p> - -<p>Just after midnight, from sheer weariness, I arose, finding the sky -cloudless, its whole black dome crowded with stars. A silver dawn over -the slope of Shasta brightened till the moon sailed clear. Under its -light all the rugged topography came out with unnatural distinctness, -every impression of height and depth greatly exaggerated. The empty -crater lifted its rampart into the light. I could not tell which seemed -most desolate, that dim, moonlit rim with pallid snow-mantle and gaunt -crags, or the solid, black<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a>{289}</span> shadow which was cast downward from southern -walls, darkening half the bowl. From the silent air every breath of wind -or whisper of sound seemed frozen. Naked lava slopes and walls, the -high, gray body of Shasta with ridge and gorge, glacier and snow-field, -all cold and still under the icy brightness of the moon, produced a -scene of arctic terribleness such as I had never imagined. I looked -down, eagerly straining my eyes, through the solemn crater’s lip, hoping -to catch a glimpse of the lower world; but far below, hiding the earth, -stretched out a level plain of cloud, upon which the light fell cold and -gray as upon a frozen ocean.</p> - -<p>I scrambled back to bed, and happily to sleep, a real sound, dreamless -repose.</p> - -<p>We breakfasted some time after sunrise, and were soon under way with -packs on our shoulders.</p> - -<p>The day was brilliant and cloudless, the cold, still air full of life -and inspiration. Through its clear blue the Shasta peak seemed -illusively near, and we hurried down to the saddle which connects our -cone with the peak, and across the head of a small tributary glacier, -and up over the first <i>débris</i> slopes. It was a slow, tedious three -hours’ climb over stones which lay as steeply as loose material possibly -can, up to the base of a red trachyte spur; then on up a gorge, and out -upon a level mountain shoulder, where are considerable flats covered -with deep ice. To the north it overflows in a much-crevassed tributary -of the glacier we had studied below.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a>{290}</span></p> - -<p>Here we rested, and hung the barometer from Clark’s tripod.</p> - -<p>The further ascent lies up a long scoria ridge of loose, red pumiceous -rock for seven or eight hundred feet, then across another level step, -curved with rugged ice, and up into a sort of corridor between two -steep, much-broken, and stained ridges. Here in the hollow are boiling -sulphurous springs and hot earth. We sat down by them, eating our lunch -in the lee of some stones.</p> - -<p>A short, rapid climb brought us to the top, four hours and thirty -minutes’ working time from our crater bivouac.</p> - -<p>There is no reason why anyone of sound wind and limb should not, after a -little mountaineering practice, be able to make the Shasta climb. There -is nowhere the shadow of danger, and never a real piece of mountain -climbing—climbing, I mean, with hands and feet—no scaling of walls or -labor involving other qualities than simple muscular endurance. The fact -that two young girls have made the ascent proves it a comparatively easy -one. Indeed, I have never reached a corresponding altitude with so -little labor and difficulty. Whoever visits California, and wishes to -depart from the beaten track of Yosemite scenes, could not do better -than come to Strawberry Valley and get Mr. Sisson to pilot him up -Shasta.</p> - -<p>When I ask myself to-day what were the sensations on Shasta, they render -themselves into three—geography, shadows, and uplifted isolation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a>{291}</span></p> - -<p>After we had walked along a short, curved ridge which forms the summit, -representing, as I believe, all that remains of the original crater, it -became my occupation to study the view.</p> - -<p>A singularly transparent air revealed every plain and peak on till the -earth’s curve rolled them under remote horizons. The whole great disk of -world outspread beneath wore an aspect of glorious cheerfulness. The -Cascade Range, a roll of blue forest land, stretched northward, -surmounted at intervals by volcanoes; the lower, like symmetrical Mount -Pitt, bare and warm with rosy lava colors; those farther north lifting -against the pale horizon-blue solid white cones upon which strong light -rested with brilliance. It seemed incredible that we could see so far -toward the Columbia River, almost across the State of Oregon; but there -stood Pitt, Jefferson, and the Three Sisters in unmistakable plainness. -Northeast and east spread those great plains out of which rise low lava -chains, and a few small, burned-out volcanoes, and there, too, were the -group of Klamath and Goose Lakes lying in mid plain glassing the deep -upper violet. Farther and farther from our mountain base in that -direction the greenness of forest and meadow fades out into rich, mellow -brown, with warm cloudings of sienna over bare lava hills, and shades, -as you reach the eastern limit, in pale ash and lavender and buff, where -stretches of level land slope down over Madelin plains into Nevada -deserts. An unmistakable purity and delicacy of tint, with transparent -air and paleness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a>{292}</span> tone, give all desert scenes the aspect of -water-color drawings. Even at this immense distance I could see the -gradual change from rich, warm hues of rocky slope, or plain overspread -with ripened vegetation, out to the high, pale key of the desert.</p> - -<p>Southeast the mountain spurs are smoothed into a broad glacis, densely -overgrown with chaparral, and ending in open groves around plains of -yellow grass.</p> - -<p>A little farther begin the wild, cañon-curved piles of green mountains -which represent the Sierras, and afar, towering over them, eighty miles -away, the lava dome of Lassen’s Peak standing up bold and fine. South, -the Sacramento cañon cuts down to unseen depths, its deep trough opening -a view of the California plain, a brown, sunny expanse, over which loom -in vanishing perspective the coast-range peaks. West of us, and quite -around the semi-circle of view, stretches a vast sea of ridges, chains, -peaks, and sharp walls of cañons, as wild and tumultuous as an ocean -storm. Here and there above the blue billows rise snow-crests and shaggy -rock-chains, but the topography is indistinguishable. With difficulty I -could trace for a short distance the Klamath cañon course, recognizing -Siskiyou peaks, where Professor Brewer and I had been years before; but -in that broad area no further unravelling was possible. So high is -Shasta, so dominant above the field of view, we looked over it all as -upon a great shield which rose gently in all directions to the sky.</p> - -<p>Whichever way we turned, the great cone fell off<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a>{293}</span> from our feet in -dizzying abruptness. We looked down steep slopes of <i>névé</i>, on over -shattered ice-wreck, where glaciers roll over cliffs, and around the -whole, broad, massive base curved deeply through its lava crusts in -straight cañons.</p> - -<p>These flutings of ancient and grander glaciers are flanked by straight, -long moraines, for the most part bare, but reaching down part way into -the forest. It is interesting to observe that those on the north and -east, by greater massiveness and length, indicate that in former days -the glacier distribution was related to the points of compass about as -it is now. What volumes of geographical history lay in view! Old -mountain uplift; volcanoes built upon the plain of fiery lava; the chill -of ice and wearing force of torrent, written in glacier-gorge and -water-carved cañon!</p> - -<p>I think such vastness of prospect now and then extremely valuable in -itself; it forcibly widens one’s conception of country, driving away -such false notion of extent or narrowing idea of limitation as we get in -living on lower plains.</p> - -<p>I never tire of overlooking these great, wide fields, studying their -rich variety, and giving myself up to the expansion which is the instant -and lasting reward. In presence of these vast spaces and all but -unbounded outlook, the hours hurry by with singular swiftness. Minutes -or miles are nothing; days and degrees seem best fitted for one’s -thoughts. So it came sooner than I could have believed that the sun -neared its setting, sinking into a warm, bright stratum of air.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a>{294}</span> The -light stretched from north to south, reflecting itself with an equal -depth all along the east, until a perfect ring of soft, glowing rose -edged the whole horizon. Over us the ever-dark heaven hung near and -flat. Light swept eastward across the earth, every uplift of hill-ridge -or solitary cone warm and bright with its reflections, and from each -object upon the plains, far and near, streamed out dense, sharp shadows, -slowly lengthening their intense images. We were far enough lifted above -it all to lose the ordinary landscape impression, and reach that -extraordinary effect of black-and-bright topography seen upon the moon -through a telescope.</p> - -<p>Afar in the north, bars of blue shadow streamed out from the peaks, -tracing themselves upon rosy air. All the eastern slope of Shasta was of -course in dark shade, the gray glacier forms, broken ridges of stone, -and forest, all dim and fading. A long cone of cobalt-blue, the shadow -of Shasta fell strongly defined over the bright plain, its apex -darkening the earth a hundred miles away. As the sun sank, this gigantic -spectral volcano rose on the warm sky till its darker form stood huge -and terrible over the whole east. It was intensely distinct at the -summit, just as far-away peaks seen against the east in evening always -are, and faded at base as it entered the stratum of earth mist.</p> - -<p>Grand and impressive we had thought Shasta when studying in similar -light from the plain. Infinitely more impressive was this phantom -volcano as it stood overshadowing the land and slowly fading into -night.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a>{295}</span></p> - -<p>Before quitting the ridge, Fred Clark and I climbed together out upon -the highest pinnacle, a trachyte needle rising a few feet above the -rest, and so small we could barely balance there together, but we stood -a moment and waved the American flag, looking down over our shoulders -eleven thousand feet.</p> - -<p>A fierce wind blew from the southwest, coming in gusts of great force. -Below, we could hear it beat surf-like upon the crags. We hurried down -to the hot-spring flat, and just over the curve of its southern descent -made our bivouac. Even here the wind howled, merciless and cold.</p> - -<p>We turned to and built of lava blocks a square pen about two and a half -feet high, filled the chinks with pebbles, and banked it with sand. I -have seen other brown-stone fronts more imposing than our Shasta home, -but I have rarely felt more grateful to four walls than to that little -six-by-six pen. I have not forgotten that through its chinks the sand -and pebbles pelted us all night, nor was I oblivious when sudden gusts -toppled over here and there a good-sized rock upon our feet. When we sat -up for our cup of coffee, which Clark artistically concocted over the -scanty and economical fire, the walls sheltered our backs; and for that -we were thankful, even if the wind had full sweep at our heads and stole -the very draught from our lips, whirling it about north forty east by -compass, in the form of an infinitesimal spray. The zephyr, as we -courteously called it, had a fashion of dropping vertically out of the -sky upon our fire and leaving a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a>{296}</span> clean hearth. For the space of a few -moments after these meteorological jokes there was a lively gathering of -burning knots from among our legs and coats and blankets.</p> - -<p>There are times when the extreme of discomfort so overdoes itself as to -extort a laugh and put one in the best of humor. This tempest descended -to so many absurd personal tricks altogether beneath the dignity of a -reputable hurricane, that at last it seemed to us a sort of furious -burlesque.</p> - -<p>Not so the cold; that commanded entire respect, whether carefully -abstracting our animal heat through the bed of gravel on which we lay, -or brooding over us hungry for those pleasant little waves of motion -which, taking Tyndall for granted, radiated all night long, in spite of -wildcat bags, from our unwilling particles. I abominate thermometers at -such times. Not one of my set ever owned up the real state of things. -Whenever I am nearly frozen and conscious of every indurated bone, that -bland little instrument is sure to read twenty or thirty degrees above -any unprejudiced estimate. Lying there and listening to the whispering -sounds that kindly drifted, ever adding to our cover, and speculating as -to any further possible meteorological affliction, was but indifferent -amusement, from which I escaped to a slumber of great industry. We lay -like sardines, hoping to encourage animal heat, but with small success.</p> - -<p>The sunrise effect, with all its splendor, I find it convenient to leave -to some future traveller. I shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a>{297}</span> be generous with him, and say nothing -of that hour of gold. It had occurred long before we awoke, and many -precious minutes were consumed in united appeals to one another to get -up and make coffee. It was horridly cold and uncomfortable where we -were, but no one stirred. How natural it is under such circumstances to</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i4">“Rather bear those ills we have<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Than fly to others that we know not of.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>I lay musing on this, finding it singular that I should rather be there -stiff and cold while my like-minded comrades appealed to me, than to get -up and comfort myself with camp-fire and breakfast. We severally awaited -developments.</p> - -<p>At last Clark gave up and made the fire, and he has left me in doubt -whether he loved cold less or coffee more.</p> - -<p>Digging out our breakfast from drifted sand was pleasant enough, nor did -we object to excavating the frozen shoes, but the mixture of -disintegrated trachyte discovered among the sugar, and the manner in -which our brown-stone front had blown over and flattened out the family -provisions, were received by us as calamity.</p> - -<p>However, we did justice to Clark’s coffee, and socially toasted our bits -of meat, while we chatted and ate zestfully portions not too freely -brecciated with lava sand. I have been at times all but morbidly aware -of the power of local attachment, finding it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a>{298}</span> absurdly hard to turn the -key on doors I have entered often and with pleasure. My own early home, -though in other hands, holds its own against greater comfort, larger -cheer; and a hundred times, when our little train moved away from grand -old trees or willow-shaded springs by mountain camps, I have felt all -the pathos of nomadism, from the Aryan migration down.</p> - -<p>As we shouldered our loads and took to the ice-field I looked back on -our modest edifice, and for the first time left my camp with gay relief.</p> - -<p>Elation of success and the vital mountain air lent us their quickening -impulse. We tramped rapidly across the ice-field and down a long spur of -red trachyte, which extended in a southerly course around the head of a -glacier. It was our purpose to descend the southern slope of the -mountain, to a camp which had been left there awaiting us. The declivity -in that direction is more gentle than by our former trail, and had, -besides, the merit of lying open to our view almost from the very start. -It was interesting, as we followed the red trachyte spur, to look down -to our left upon <i>névé</i> of the McCloud glacier. From its very head, -dislocation and crevasses had begun, the whole mass moving away from the -wall, leaving a deep gap between ice and rock. In its further descent -this glacier pours over such steep cascades, and is so tortuous among -the lava crags, that we could only see its beginning. To avoid those -great pyramidal masses which sprang fully a thousand feet from the -general<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a>{299}</span> flank of the mountain, we turned to the right and entered the -head of one of those long, eroded glacier cañons which are scored down -the slope. The ridges from both sides had poured in their freight of -<i>débris</i> until the cañon was one mass of rock fragments of every -conceivable size and shape. Here and there considerable masses of ice -and relics of former glaciers lay up and down the shaded sides, and, as -we descended, occupied the whole broad bottom of the gorge. We -congratulated ourselves when the steep, upper <i>débris</i> slope was passed -and we found ourselves upon the wavy ice of the old glacier. Numerous -streams flowed over its irregular face, losing themselves in the cracks -and reappearing among the accumulation of bowlders upon its surface. -Here and there glacier tables of considerable size rose above the -general level, supported on slender ice-columns. As the angle here was -very steep, we amused ourselves by prying these off their pedestals with -our alpine stocks, and watching them slide down before us.</p> - -<p>More and more the ice became burdened with rocks, until at last it -wholly disappeared under accumulation of moraine. Over this, for a half -mile, we tramped, thinking the glacier ended; but in one or two -depressions I again caught sight of the ice, which led me to believe -that a very large portion of this rocky gorge may be underlaid by old -glacial remains.</p> - -<p>Tramping over this unstable moraine, where melting ice had left the -bowlders in every state of uncertain equilibrium, we were greatly -fatigued, and at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a>{300}</span> last, the strain telling seriously on our legs, we -climbed over a ridge to the left of our amphitheatre into the next -cañon, which was very broad and open, with gentle, undulating surface -diversified by rock plateaus and fields of glacier sand. Here, by the -margin of a little snow-brook, and among piles of immense <i>débris</i>, -Emmons and I sat down to lunch, and rested until our friends came up.</p> - -<p>A few scanty bunches of alpine plants began to deck the gray earth and -gradually to gather themselves in bits of open sward, here and there -decorated with delicate flowers. Near one little spring meadow we came -upon gardens of a pale yellow flower with an agreeable, aromatic -perfume, and after another mile of straining on among erratic bowlders -and over the thick-strewn rock of the old moraines, we came to the -advanced guard of the forest. Battle-twisted and gnarled old specimens -of trees, of rugged, muscular trunk, and scanty, irregular branch, they -showed in every line and color a life-long struggle against their -enemies, the avalanche and cold. Gathering closer, they grew in groves -separated by long, open, grassy glades, the clumps of trees twisting -their roots among the glacier blocks.</p> - -<p>For a long time we followed the pathway of an avalanche. To the right -and left of us, upon considerable heights, the trees were sound and -whole, and preserved, even at their ripe age, the health of youth. But -down the straight pathway of the valley every tree had been swept away, -the prostrate trunks, lying<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a>{301}</span> here and there, half buried in drifts of -sand and rock. Here, over the whole surface, a fresh young growth not -more than six or seven years old has sprung up, and begun a hopeless -struggle for ground which the snow claims for its own. Before us opened -winding avenues through forest; green meadows spread their pale, fresh -herbage in sunny beauty. Along the little stream which, after a mile’s -musical cascades, we knew flowed past camp, tender green plants and -frail mountain flowers edged our pathway. All was still and peaceful -with the soft, brooding spirit of life. The groves were absolutely alive -like ourselves, and drinking in the broad, affluent light in their -silent, beautiful way. Back over sunny tree-tops, the great cone of rock -and ice loomed in the cold blue; but we gladly turned away and let our -hearts open to the gentle influence of our new world.</p> - -<p>There, at last, as we tramped over a knoll, were the mules dozing in -sunshine or idling about among trees, and there that dear, blue wreath -floating up from our camp-fire and drifting softly among boughs of -overhanging fir.</p> - -<p>I always feel a strange renewal of life when I come down from one of -these climbs; they are with me points of departure more marked and -powerful than I can account for upon any reasonable ground. In spite of -any scientific labor or presence of fatigue, the lifeless region, with -its savage elements of sky, ice and rock, grasps one’s nature, and, -whether he will or no, compels it into a stern, strong accord. Then,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a>{302}</span> as -you come again into softer air, and enter the comforting presence of -trees, and feel the grass under your feet, one fetter after another -seems to unbind from your soul, leaving it free, joyous, grateful!<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a>{303}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII<br /><br /> -SHASTA FLANKS<br /><br /> -1870</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">There</span> are certain women, I am informed, who place men under their spell -without leaving them the melancholy satisfaction of understanding how -the thing was done. They may have absolutely repulsive features, and a -pretty permanent absence of mind; without that charm of cheerful grace -before which we are said to succumb. Yet they manage to assume command -of certain. It is thus with mules. I have heard them called awkward and -personally plain, nor is it denied that their disposition, though rich -in individuality, lacks some measure of qualities which should endear -them to humanity. Despite all this, and even more, they have a way of -tenderly getting the better of us, and, in the long run, absolutely -enthroning themselves in our affections. Mystery as it is, I confess to -its potent sway, long ago owning it beyond solution.</p> - -<p>Live on the intimate terms of brother-explorer with your mule, be -thoughtful for his welfare, and you by-and-by take an emotional start -toward him which will surprise you. You look into that reserved face, -the embodiment of self-contained drollery, and begin to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a>{304}</span> detect soft -thought and tender feeling; and sometimes, as you cinch your saddle a -little severely, the calm, reproachful visage will swing round and melt -you with a single look. Nothing is left but to rub the velvet nose and -loosen up the girth. When the mere brightness and gayety of mountain -life carries one away with their hilarious current, there is something -in the meek and humble air of a lot of pack animals altogether -chastening in its prompt effect.</p> - -<p>My “<span class="lftspc">‘</span>69” was one of these insidious beings who within a week of our -first meeting asserted supremacy over my life, and formed a silent -partnership with my conscience. She was a chubby, black mule, so sleek -and rotund as distantly to suggest a pig on stilts. Upon the eye which -still remained, a cataract had begun to spread its dimming film. Her -make-up was also defective in a weak pair of hind legs, which gave way -suddenly in going up steep places. She was clumsy, and in rugged -pathways would squander much time in the selection of her foothold. At -these moments, when she deliberated, as I fancied, needlessly long, I -have very gently suggested with Spanish spur that it might be as well to -start; the serious face then turned upon me, its mild eye looking into -mine one long, earnest gaze, as much as to say, “I love and would spare -you; remember Balaam!” I yielded.</p> - -<p>These animals are always of the opposition party; they reverse your -wishes, and from one year’s end to another defy your best judgment. Yet -I love them, and only in extreme moments “go for” them with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a>{305}</span> -fence-rail or theodolite-tripod. Nothing can be pleasanter than to ride -them through forest roads, chatting in a bright company, and catching -glimpses of far, quiet scenery framed by the long, furry ears.</p> - -<p>So we thought on that sunny morning when we left Sisson’s, starting -ahead of wagons and pack animals, and riding out into the woodland on -our trip round Shasta; a march of a hundred miles, with many proposed -side-excursions into the mountain.</p> - -<p>The California haze had again enveloped Shasta, this time nearly -obscuring it. In forest along the southeast base, we came upon the -stream flowing from McCloud Glacier, its cold waters milky white with -fine, sandy sediment. Such dense, impenetrable fields of chaparral cover -the south foothills that we were only able to fight our way through -limited parts, getting, however, a clear idea of lava flows and -topography. Farther east, the plains rise to seven thousand feet, and -fine wood ridges sweep down from Shasta, inviting approach.</p> - -<p>While Munger and Watkins camped to make studies and negatives of the -peak, Fred Clark and I packed one mule with a week’s provisions, and, -mounting our saddle-animals, struck off into dark, silent forest.</p> - -<p>It was a steep climb of eight or ten miles up tree-covered ridges and -among outcrops of gray trachyte, nearly every foot showing more or less -evidence of glacial action; long trains of morainal rocks upon which -large forest-trees seemed satisfied to grow;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a>{306}</span> great, rough regions of -terminal rubbish, with enclosed patches of level earth commonly -grass-grown and picturesque. It was sunset before we came upon water, -and then it flowed a thousand feet below us in the bottom of a sharp, -narrow cañon, cut abruptly down in what seemed glacial <i>débris</i>. I -thought it unwise to take our mules down its steep wall if there were -any camp-spot high up in the opener head of the cañon, and went off on -foot to climb the wooded moraines still farther, hoping to come upon a -bit of alpine sward with icy pool, or even upon a spring. When up -between two and three hundred feet the trees became less and less -frequent, rugged trains of stone and glacier-scored rock in places -covering the spurs. I could now overlook the snow amphitheatre, which -opened vast and shadowy above. Not a sign of vegetation enlivened its -stony bed. The icy brook flowed between slopes of <i>débris</i>. At my feet a -trachyte ridge narrowed the stream with a tortuous bed, and led it to -the edge of a five-hundred-feet cliff, over which poured a graceful -cascade. Finding no camp-spot there, I turned northward and made a -detour through deep woods, by-and-by coming back to Clark. We faced the -necessity, and by dark were snugly camped in the wild cañon bottom. It -was one of the loneliest bivouacs of my life: shut in by high, dark -walls, a few clustered trees growing here and there, others which floods -had undermined lying prostrate, rough bowlders thrown about, an icy -stream hurrying by, and chilly winds coming down from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a>{307}</span> height, -against which our blankets only half defended us.</p> - -<p>Our excursion next day was south and west, across high, scantily wooded -moraines, till we came to the deep cañon of the McCloud Glacier.</p> - -<p>I describe this gorge, as it is one of several similar, all peculiar to -Shasta. We had climbed to a point about ten thousand feet above the sea, -and were upon the eastern edge of a cañon of eleven or twelve hundred -feet depth. From the very crest of the Shasta, with here and there a few -patches of snow, a long and remarkably even <i>débris</i> slope swept down. -It seemed as if these small pieces of trachyte formed a great part of -the region, for to the very bottom our cañon walls were worked out of -it. A half mile below us the left bank was curiously eroded by side -streams, resulting in a family of pillars from one to seven hundred feet -high, each capped with some hard lava bowlder which had protected the -soft <i>débris</i> beneath from weathering. From its lofty <i>névé</i> the McCloud -Glacier descended over rugged slopes in one long cascade to a little -above our station, where it impinged against a great rock buttress and -turned sharply from the south wall toward us, rounding over in a great, -solid ice-dome eight or nine hundred feet high. For a mile farther a -huge accumulation looking like a river of <i>débris</i> cumbered the bottom. -Here and there, on close scrutiny, we found it to be pierced with -caverns whose ice-walls showed that the glacier underlay all this vast -amount of stone. Bowlders rattled continually<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a>{308}</span> from the upper glacier -and down both cañon walls, increasing the already great burden. Along -both sides were evidences of motion in the lateral moraine embankments, -and a very perceptible rounding up of terminal ramparts, from which in -white torrent poured the sub-glacial brook.</p> - -<p>It is instructive to consider what an amount of freighting labor this -shrunken ice-stream has to perform besides dragging its own vast weight -along. In descending Shasta we had found glacial ice which evidently for -a mile or more deeply underlaid a mass of rock similar to this. It is -one of the curiosities of Mount Shasta that such a great bulk of ice -should be buried, and in large part preserved, by loads of rock -fragments. Fine contrasts of color were afforded high up among the -<i>sérac</i> by a combination of blue ice and red lavas. We hammered and -surveyed here for half the day, then descended to our mules, who bore us -eagerly back to their home, our weird little cañon camp.</p> - -<p>A pleasant day’s march, altogether in woods and over glacial ridges, -during which not a half hour passed without opening views of the cone, -brought us high on the northern slope, at the upper forest limit, in a -region of barren avalanche tracks and immense moraines.</p> - -<p>Between those great, straight ridges which jut almost parallel from the -volcano’s base are wide, shelving valleys, the pathways of extinct -glaciers; and here the forest, although it must once have obtained<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a>{309}</span> -foothold, has been uprooted and swept away before powerful avalanches, -crushed and up-piled trunks in sad wreck marking spots where the -snow-rush stopped.</p> - -<p>Two brooks, separated by a wide, gently rounding zone of drift, flowed -down through the glacier valley which opened directly in front of our -camp.</p> - -<p>Early next morning Clark and I made up a bag of lunch, shouldered our -instruments, and set out for a day on the glacier. Our slow, laborious -ascent of the valley was not altogether uninteresting. Constant views -obtained of moraines on either side gave us much pleasure and study. It -was instructive to observe that the bases of their structure were solid -floors of lava, upon which, in rude though secure masonry, were piled -embankments not less than half a mile wide and four hundred feet high. -Among the huge rocks which formed the upper structure the tree-forms -were peculiar. Apparently every tree had made an effort to fill some gap -and round out the smooth general surface. No matter how deeply twisted -between high bowlders, the branches spread themselves out in a -continuous, dense mat, stretching from stone to stone. It was only -rarely, and in the less elevated parts of the moraine, that we could see -a trunk. The whole effect was of a causeway of rock overgrown by some -dense, green vine.</p> - -<p>Similar patches of stunted trees grew here and there over the bottom of -our broad amphitheatre. Oftentimes we threaded our way among dense -thickets of pines, never over six or eight feet in height, having<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a>{310}</span> -trunks often two and three feet in diameter, and more than once we -walked over their tops, our feet sinking but two or three inches into -the dense mat of foliage. Here and there, half buried in the drift, we -came across the tall, noble trunks of avalanche-killed trees. In -comparing their straight, symmetrical growth with the singularly matted -condition of the living-dwarfed trees, I find the indication of a great -climatic change. Not only are the present avalanches too great to permit -their growth, but the violent cold winds which drift over this region -bend down the young trees to such an extent that there are no longer -tall, normal specimens. Around the upper limits of aborescent vegetation -we passed some most enchanting spots; groves, not over eight feet in -height, of large trees whose white trunks and interwoven boughs formed a -colonnade, over which stretched thick, living thatch. Under these -strange galleries we walked upon soft, velvety turf and an elastic -cushion of pine-needles; nor could we resist the temptation of lying -down here to rest beneath the dense roof. As we looked back, charming -little vistas opened between the old and dwarfed stems. In one direction -we could see the moraine with its long, graded slope and variegated -green and brown surface; in another, the open pathway of the old glacier -worn deeper and deeper between lofty, forest-clad spurs; and up to the -great snow mass above us, with its slender peak in the heavens looking -down upon magnificent sweep of <i>névé</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a>{311}</span></p> - -<p>Only the strong desire for glaciers led us away from these delightful -groves. A short tramp over sand and bowlders brought us to the foot of a -broad, irregular, terminal moraine. Two or three milky cascades poured -out from under the great bowlder region and united to form two important -streams. We followed one of these in our climb up the moraine, and after -an hour’s hard work found ourselves upon an immense pile of lava blocks, -from which we could overlook the whole.</p> - -<p>In irregular curve it continues not less than three miles around the end -of the glacier, and in no place that I saw was less than a half mile in -width. Where we had attacked it the width cannot be less than a mile, -and the portion over which we had climbed must reach a thickness of five -or six hundred feet.</p> - -<p>About a half mile above us, though but little lifted from our level, -undulating hillocks of ice marked the division between glacier and -moraine; above that, it stretched in uninterrupted white fields. The -moraine in every direction extended in singularly abrupt hills, -separated by deep, irregular pits and basins of a hundred and more feet -deep.</p> - -<p>As we climbed on, the footing became more and more insecure, piles of -rock giving way under our weight. Before long we came to a region of -circular, funnel-shaped craters, where evidently the underlying glacier -had melted out and a whole freight of bowlders fallen in with a rush. -Around the edges of these horrible traps we threaded our way with -extreme caution;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a>{312}</span> now and then a bowlder, dislodging under our feet, -rolled down into these pits, and many tons would settle out of sight. -Altogether it was the most dangerous kind of climbing I have ever seen. -You were never sure of your foothold. More than once, when crossing a -comparatively smooth, level bowlder-field, the rocks began to sink under -us, and we sprang on from stone to stone while the great mass caved and -sank slowly behind us. At times, while making our way over solid-seeming -stretches, the sound of a deep, sub-glacial stream flowing far beneath -us came up faint and muffled through the chinks of the rock. This sort -of music is not encouraging to the nerves. To the siren babble of -mountain brook is added all the tragic nearness of death.</p> - -<p>We looked far and wide in hope of some solid region which should lead us -up to the ice, but it was all alike, and we hurried on, the rocks -settling and sinking beneath our tread, until we made our way to the -edge, and climbed with relief upon the hard, white surface. After we had -gained the height of a hundred feet, climbing up a comparatively smooth -slope between brooks which flowed over it, a look back gave a more -correct idea of the general billowy character of our moraine; and here -and there in its deeper indentations we could detect the underlying ice.</p> - -<p>It is, then, here as upon the McCloud Glacier. For at least a mile’s -width the whole lower zone is buried under accumulation of morainal -matter. Instead of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a>{313}</span> ending like most Swiss glaciers, this ice wastes -chiefly in contact with the ground, and when considerable caverns are -formed the overlying moraine crushes its way through the rotten roof, -making the funnels we had seen.</p> - -<p>Thankful that we had not assisted at one of these engulfments, we -scrambled on up the smooth, roof-like slope, steadying our ascent by the -tripod legs used as alpine stock. When we had climbed perhaps a thousand -feet the surface angle became somewhat gentler, and we were able to -overlook before us the whole broad incline up to the very peak. For a -mile or a mile and a half the sharp, blue edges of crevasses were -apparent here and there, yawning widely for the length of a thousand -feet, and at other places intersecting each other confusedly, resulting -in piled-up masses of shattered ice.</p> - -<p>We were charmed to enter this wild region, and hurried to the edge of an -immense chasm. It could hardly have been less than a thousand or twelve -hundred feet in length. The solid, white wall of the opposite -side—sixty feet over—fell smooth and vertical for a hundred feet or -more, where rough wedged blocks and bridges of clear blue ice stretched -from wall to wall. From these and from numerous overhanging shelves hung -the long, crystal threads of icicles, and beyond, dark and impenetrable, -opened ice-caverns of unknown limit. We cautiously walked along this -brink, examining with deep interest all the lines of stratification and -veining, and the strange<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a>{314}</span> succession of views down into the fractured -regions below.</p> - -<p>I had the greatest desire to be let down with a line and make my way -among these pillars and bridges of ice, but our little twenty feet of -slender rope forbade the attempt. Farther up, the crevasses walled us -about more and more. At last we got into a region where they cut into -one another, breaking the whole glacier body into a confused pile of ice -blocks. Here we had great difficulty in seeing our way for more than a -very few feet, and were constantly obliged to climb to the top of some -dangerous block to get an outlook, and before long, instead of a plain -with here and there a crevasse, we were in a mass of crevasses separated -only by thin and dangerous blades of ice.</p> - -<p>We still pushed on, tied together with our short line, jumping over pits -and chasms, holding our breath over slender snow-ridges, and beginning -to think the work serious. We climbed an ice-crag together; all around -rose strange, sharp forms; below, in every direction, yawned narrow -cuts, caves trimmed with long stalactites of ice, walls ornamented with -crystal pilasters, and dark-blue grottoes opening down into deeper and -more gloomy chambers, as silent and cold as graves.</p> - -<p>Far above, the summit rose white and symmetrical, its sky line sweeping -down sharp against the blue. Below, over ice-wreck and frozen waves, -opened the deep valley of our camp, leading our vision down to distant -forest slopes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a>{315}</span></p> - -<p>We were in the middle of a vast, convex glacier surface which embraced -the curve of Shasta for four miles around, and at least five on the -slope line, ice stretching in every direction and actually bounding the -view on all sides except where we looked down.</p> - -<p>The idea of a mountain glacier formed from Swiss or Indian views is -always of a stream of ice walled in by more or less lofty ridges. Here a -great, curved cover of ice flows down the conical surface of a volcano -without lateral walls, a few lava pinnacles and inconspicuous piles of -<i>débris</i> separating it from the next glacier, but they were unseen from -our point. Sharp, white profiles met the sky. It became evident we could -go no farther in the old direction, and we at once set about retracing -our steps, but in the labyrinth soon lost the barely discernible tracks -and never refound them. Whichever way we turned, impassable gulfs opened -before us, but just a little way to the right or left it seemed safe and -traversable.</p> - -<p>At last I got provoked at the ill-luck, and suggested to Clark that we -might with advantage take a brief intermission for lunch, feeling that a -lately quieted stomach is the best defence for nerves. So when we got -into a pleasant, open spot, where the glacier became for a little way -smooth and level, we sat down, leisurely enjoying our repast. We saw a -possible way out of our difficulty, and sat some time chatting -pleasantly. When there was no more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a>{316}</span> lunch we started again, and only -three steps away came upon a narrow crack edged by sharp ice-jaws. There -was something noticeable in the hollow, bottomless darkness seen through -it which arrested us, and when we had jumped across to the other side, -both knelt and looked into its depths. We saw a large, domed grotto -walled in with shattered ice and arched over by a roof of frozen snow so -thin that the light came through quite easily. The middle of this dome -overhung a terrible abyss. A block of ice thrown in fell from ledge to -ledge, echoing back its stroke fainter and fainter. We had unconsciously -sat for twenty minutes lunching and laughing on the thin roof, with only -a few inches of frozen snow to hold us up over that still, deep grave; a -noonday sun rapidly melting its surface, the warmth of our persons -slowly thawing it, and both of us playfully drumming the frail crest -with our tripod legs. We looked at one another, and agreed that we had -lost confidence in glaciers.</p> - -<p>Splendid rifts now opened to north of us, with slant sunshine lighting -up one side in vivid contrast with the cold, shadowed wall. We greatly -enjoyed a tall precipice with a gaping crevasse at its base, and found -real pleasure in the north edge of the great ice-field, whither we now -turned. A low moraine, with here and there a mass of rock which might be -solid, flanked the glacier, but was separated from it by a deeply melted -crevasse, opening irregular caverns along the wall down under the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a>{317}</span> very -glacier body. We were some time searching a point where this gulf might -be safely crossed. A thin tongue of ice, sharpened by melting to a mere -blade, jutted from the solid glacier over to the moraine, offering us a -passage of some danger and much interest. We edged our way along astride -its crest, until a good spring carried us over a final crevasse and up -upon the moraine, which we found to be dangerously built up of -honeycombed ice and bowlders. The same perilous sinks and holes -surrounded us, and alternated with hollow archways over subterranean -streams. It was a relief, after an hour’s labor, to find ourselves on -solid lava, although the ridge, which proved to be a chain of old -craters, was one of the most dreary reaches I have ever seen.</p> - -<p>In the evidence of glacier motion there had seemed a form of life, but -here among silent, rigid crater rims and stark fields of volcanic sand -we walked upon ground lifeless and lonely beyond description: a frozen -desert at nine thousand feet altitude. Among the huge, rude forms of -lava we tramped along, happy when the tracks of mountain sheep suggested -former explorers, and pleased if a snow-bank under rock shadow gave -birth to spring or pool. But the severe impression of arctic dreariness -passed off when, reaching a rim, we looked over and down upon the -volcano’s north foot, a superb sweep of forest country waved with ridgy -flow of lava and gracefully curved moraines.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a>{318}</span></p> - -<p>Afar off, the wide, sunny Shasta Valley, dotted with miniature -volcanoes, and checked with the yellow and green of grain and garden, -spread pleasantly away to the north, bounded by Clamath hills and -horizoned by the blue rank of Siskiyou Mountains. To our left the cone -slope stretched away to Sisson’s, the sharp form of the Black Cone -rising in the gap between Shasta and Scott Mountain.</p> - -<p>Here again the tremendous contrast between lava and ice about us and -that lovely expanse of ranches and verdure impressed anew its peculiar -force.</p> - -<p>We tramped on along the glacier edge, over rough ridges and slopes of -old moraine, rounding at last the ice terminus, and crossing the valley -to camp, where our three mules welcomed us with friendly discord.</p> - -<p>A day’s march over forest-covered moraines and through open glades -brought us to the main camp at Sheep Rock, uniting us with our friends. -The heavier air of this lower level soothed us into a pleasant laziness -which lasted over Sunday, resting our strained muscles and opening the -heart anew to human and sacred influence. If we are sometimes at pain -when realizing within what narrow range of latitude mankind reaches -finer development, how short a step it is from tropical absence of -spiritual life to dull, boreal stupidity, it is added humiliation to -experience our marked limitation in altitude. At fourteen thousand feet -little is left me but bodily appetite and impression of sense. The habit -of scientific<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a>{319}</span> observation, which in time becomes one of the involuntary -processes, goes on as do heart-beat and breathing; a certain general awe -overshadows the mind; but on descending again to lowlands one after -another the whole riches of the human organization come back with -delicious freshness. Something of this must account for my delight in -finding the family of Preuxtemps (a half-Cherokee mountaineer known -hereabouts as Pro-tem) camped near us. Pro-tem was a barbarian by -choice, and united all the wilder instincts with a domestic passion -worthy his Caucasian ancestor, and quite charming in its childlike -manifestation.</p> - -<p>Protem <i>mère</i>, an obese Digger squaw, so evidently avoided us that I -respected her feelings and never once visited their bivouac, although -the flutter of gaudy rags and that picturesque squalor of which she and -the camp-fire were centre and soul, sorely tempted me.</p> - -<p>The old man and his four little barefoot girls, if not actually -familiar, were more than sociable, and spent much time with us. The -elder three, ranging from eight to twelve, were shy and timid as little -quails, dodging about and scampering off to some hiding-place when I -strove to introduce myself through the medium of such massive -sweet-cakes as our William produced. Not so the little six-year-old -Clarissa, who in all frankness met my advances and repaid me for the -cookies she silently devoured by gentlest and most fascinating smiles.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a>{320}</span></p> - -<p>A stained and earth-hued flour-sack rudely gathered into a band was her -skirt, and confined the little, long-sleeved, pink calico sack. From out -a voluminous sun-bonnet with long cape shone the chubby face of my -little friend. For all she was so young and charmingly small, Clarissa -was woman rather than child. She took entire care of herself, and -prowled about in a self-contained way, making studies and observations -with ludicrous gravity. Early mornings she came with slow, matronly gait -down to the horse-trough, and, rolling up her sleeves, laid aside the -huge sun-bonnet, washed her face and hands, wiping them on her -petticoat, and arranged her jetty Indian hair with the quiet -unconsciousness of fifty years.</p> - -<p>Her good-morning nod, with the reserved yet affectionate smile, put me -in happiness for the day, and when as I strolled about she overtook me -and placed her little hand in mine, looking up with fearless, quiet -confidence, I measured step with her, and we held sweet chats about -squirrels and field-mice. But I thought her most charming when she -brought her father down to our camp-fire after supper, and, alternately -on his knee or mine, listened to our stories and wound a soft little arm -about our necks. The twilight passed agreeably thus, Clarissa gradually -paying less and less attention to our yarns, till she pulled the skirts -of my cavalry coat over her, and curling up on my lap laid her dear -little head on my breast, smiled, gaped, rubbed with plump knuckles<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a>{321}</span> the -blinking eyes, dozed, and at last sank into a deep sleep.</p> - -<p>I can even now see old Protem draw an explanatory map on the ground his -moccasin had smoothed, and go on with his story of bear fight or wolf -trap, illustrating by singularly apt gesture every trait and motion of -the animal he described, while firelight warmed the brown skin and ruddy -cheek of my little charge and flickered on her soft, black hair.</p> - -<p>The last bear story of an evening being ended, Protem took from me -Clarissa, whose single yawn and pretty bewilderment subsided in a -second, leaving her sound asleep on the buckskin shoulder of her father.</p> - -<p>About half way between Sheep Rock and the snow-line extensive eruptions -of basalt have occurred, deluging the lower slopes, and flowing in -gently inclined fields and streams down through Shasta Valley for many -miles. The surface of this basalt country is singularly diversified. -Rising above its general level are numerous domes, some of them smoothly -arched over with rock, others perforated at the top, and more broken in -circular parapets. The origin of these singular blisters is probably -simple. Overflowing former trachyte fields, the basalt swept down, -covering a series of pools and brooks. The water converted into steam -blew up the viscous rock in such forms as we find. Here and there the -basalt surface opens in circular orifices, into which you may look a -hundred feet or more.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a>{322}</span></p> - -<p>In 1863, in company with Professor Brewer, I visited this very region, -and we were then shown an interesting tubular cavern lying directly -under the surface of a lava plain.</p> - -<p>Mr. Palmer and I revisited the spot, and, having tied our mules, -descended through a circular hole to the cavern’s mouth. An archway of -black lava sixty feet wide by eighty high, with a floor of lava sand and -rough bowlders, led under the basalt in a northerly direction, -preserving an incline not more than the gentle slope of the country. Our -roof overhead could hardly have been more than twenty or thirty feet -thick. We followed the cavern, which was a comparatively regular tube, -for half or three-quarters of a mile. Now and then the roof would open -up in larger chambers, and the floor be cumbered with huge piles of -lava, over which we scrambled, sometimes nearly reaching the ceiling. -Fresh lava-froth and smooth blister-holes lined the sides. Innumerable -bats and owls on silent wing floated by our candles, fanning an air -singularly still and dense.</p> - -<p>After a cautious scramble over a long pile of immense basalt blocks, we -came to the end of the cave, and sat down upon piles of <i>débris</i>. We -then repeated an experiment, formerly made by Brewer and myself, of -blowing out our candle to observe the intense darkness, then firing a -pistol that we might hear its dull, muffled explosion.</p> - -<p>The formation of this cave, as explained in Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a>{323}</span> Whitney’s -Geological Report, is this: “A basalt stream, flowing down from Shasta, -cooled and hardened upon the surface, while within the mass remained -molten and fluid. From simple pressure the lava burst out at the lower -end, and, flowing forth, left an empty tube. Wonderfully fresh and -recent the whole confused rock-walls appeared, and we felt, as we walked -and climbed back to the opening and to daylight, as if we had been -allowed to travel back into the volcano age.”</p> - -<p>One more view of Shasta, obtained a few days later from Well’s ranch on -the Yreka road, seems worthy of mention. From here the cone and side -crater are in line, making a single symmetrical form with broad, broken -summit singularly like Cotopaxi.</p> - -<p>You look over green meadows and cultivated fields; beyond is a chain of -little volcanoes girdling Shasta’s foot, for the most part bare and -yellow, but clouded in places with dark forest, which a little farther -up mantles the broad, grand cone, and sweeps up over ridge and cañon to -alpine heights of rock and ice.</p> - -<p>Strange and splendid is the evening effect from here, when shadow over -base and light upon summit divide the vast pile into two zones of -blue-purple and red-gold. We watched the colors fade and the peak recede -farther and dimmer among darkness and stars.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a>{324}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII<br /><br /> -MOUNT WHITNEY<br /><br /> -1871</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">There</span> lay between Carson and Mount Whitney a ride of two hundred and -eighty miles along the east base of the Sierra. Stage-driving, like -other exact professions, gathers among its followers certain types of -men and manners, either by some mode of natural selection, or else after -a Darwinian way developing one set of traits to the exclusion of others. -However interesting it might be to investigate the moulding power of -whip and reins, or to discover what measure of coachman there is latent -in every one of us, it cannot be questioned that the characters of -drivers do resemble one another in surprising degree. That ostentatious -silence and self-contained way of ignoring one’s presence on the box for -the first half hour, the tragi-comic, just-audible undertone in which -they remonstrate with the swing team, and such single refrain of -obsolete song as they drone and drone a hundred times, may be observed -on every coach from San Diego to Montana.</p> - -<p>So I found it natural enough that the driver, my sole companion from -Carson to Aurora, should sit for the first hour in a silence etiquette -forbade me to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a>{325}</span> violate. His team, by strict attention to their duties, -must have left his mind quite free, and I saw symptoms of suppressed -sociability within forty minutes of our departure.</p> - -<p>The nine-mile house, if my memory serves, was his landmark for -taciturnity, for soon after passing it he began to skirmish along a sort -of picket line of conversation. To the wheel mares he remarked, “Hot, -gals; ain’t it, tho’?” and to his off leader, who strained wild eyes in -every direction for something to become excited about, “Look at him, -Dixie; wouldn’t you like a rabbit to shy at?”</p> - -<p>With a true driver’s pride in reading men, he scanned me from boots to -barometer, and at last, to my immense delight, said, with the air of -throwing his hat into a ring, “What mountain was you going down to -measure?” Had he inquired after my grandfather by his first name, I -could not have been more surprised. At once I told him the plain truth, -and waited for further developments; but, like an indifferent shot who -drives centre on a first trial, he proposed not to endanger his -reputation for infallibility by other ventures, and withdrew again to -that conspicuous stupidity which coachmen and Buddhists alike delight -in.</p> - -<p>Left to myself, I spent hours in looking out over the desert and up -along that bold front of Sierra which rose on our right from the sage -plains of Carson Valley up through ramparts of pine land to summits of -rock and ravines with sunken snow-banks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a>{326}</span></p> - -<p>So far as Aurora, I remember little worth describing. Sierras, or -outlying volcanic foot-hills, bound the west. About our road are desert -plains and rolling sage-clad hills, fresh, light olive at this June -season, and softly sloping in long <i>glacis</i> down to wide, impressive -levels.</p> - -<p>Green valleys and cultivated farms margin the Carson and Walker rivers. -Sierras are not lofty enough to be grand, desert too gentle and -overspread with sage to be terrible; yet the pale, high key of all its -colors, and singular aërial brilliancy lend an otherwise dreary enough -picture the charm,—as I once before said,—of water-color drawings. -There is no perspective under this fierce white light; in midday -intensely sharp reflections glare from hill and valley, except where the -shadow of passing cloud spreads cool and blue over olive slopes.</p> - -<p>Alas for Aurora, once so active and bustling with silver mines and its -almost daily murder! Twenty-six whiskey hells and two Vigilance -Committees graced those days of prosperity and mirthful gallows, of -stock-board and the gay delirium of speculation. Now her sad streets are -lined with closed doors; a painful silence broods over quartz mills, and -through the whole deserted town one perceives that melancholy security -of human life which is hereabouts one of the pathetic symptoms of -bankruptcy. The “boys” have gone off to merrily shoot one another -somewhere else, leaving poor Aurora in the hands of a sort of coroner’s -jury who gather nightly at the one<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a>{327}</span> saloon and hold dreary inquests over -departed enterprise.</p> - -<p>My landlord’s tread echoed through a large, empty hotel, and when I -responded to his call for lunch the silentest of girls became medium -between me and a Chinaman, who gazed sad-eyed through his kitchen door -as in pity for one who must choose between starving and his own cookery. -But I have always felt it unpardonable egotism for a traveller to force -the reader into sharing with him the inevitable miseries of roadside -food. Whatever merit there may be in locking this prandial grief fast -from public view, I feel myself entitled to in a high degree, for I hold -it in my power to describe the most revolting cuisine on the planet, yet -refrain.</p> - -<p>From Aurora my road, still parallel with the mountains, though now -hidden from them by banks of volcanic hills, climbed a long, wearisome -slope from whose summit a glorious panorama of snowy Sierras lay before -us. From our feet, steep declivities fell two thousand feet to the level -of a wide desert basin, bounded upon the west by long ranks of high, -white peaks, and otherwise walled in by chains of volcanic hills, smooth -with dull sage flanks, and yet varied here and there by outcropping -formations of eruptive rocks and dusky cedar forests.</p> - -<p>Just at the Sierra foot, surrounded by bare, gray volcanoes and reaches -of ashen plain, lies Mono lake, a broad oval darkened along its farther -shore by reflecting the shadowed mountains, and pale tranquil<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a>{328}</span> blue -where among light desert levels it mirrors the silken softness of sky -and cloud. Flocks of pelicans, high against the sky, floated in slow, -wheeling flight, reflecting the sun from white wings, and, turning, were -lost in the blue to gleam out again like flakes of snow.</p> - -<p>The eye ranges over strange, forbidding hill-forms and leagues of -desert, from which no familiarity can ever banish suggestions of death. -Traced along boundary hills, straight terraces of an ancient beach -indicate former water-levels, and afar in the Sierra, great, empty -gorges, glacier-burnished and moraine-flanked, lead up to amphitheatres -of rock once white with <i>névé</i>.</p> - -<p>I recognized the old familiar summits: Mount Ritter, Lyell, Dana, and -that firm peak with Titan strength and brow so square and solid it seems -altogether natural we should have named it for California’s statesman, -John Conness.</p> - -<p>We rumbled down hill and out upon the desert, plodding until evening -through sand, and over rocky, cedar-wooded spurs, at last crossing adobe -meadows, where were settlements and a herd of Spanish cattle which had -escaped the drought of California, and now marched, northward bound, for -Montana.</p> - -<p>Frowning volcanic hills flanked our road as evening wore on, lifting -dark forms against a sky singularly pale and luminous. Afar, we caught -glimpses of the dark, swelling Sierra wave thrusting up -“star-neighboring peaks,” and then, descending into hollows<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a>{329}</span> among lava -mounds, found ourselves shut completely in. A night at the Hot Springs -of Partzwick was notably free from anything which may be recounted.</p> - -<p>Morning found me waiting alone on the hotel veranda, and I suppose the -luxuries of the establishment must have left a stamp of melancholy upon -my face, for the little, solemn driver who drew up his vehicle at the -door said in a tone of condolence, “The hearse is ready.”</p> - -<p>Stages, drivers and teams had been successively worse as I journeyed -southward. This little old specimen, by whose side I sat from Partzwick -to Independence, ought to be excepted, and I should neglect a duty were -I not to portray one, at least, of his traits. He was a musical old -fellow, and given to chanting in low tones songs, sometimes pathetic, -often sentimental, but in every case preserved by him in most -fragmentary recollection. Such singing suffered, too, from the necessary -and frequent interruption of driving; the same breath quavering in -cracked melody, and tossing some neatly rounded oath or horse-phrase at -off or near wheeler, catching up an end of the refrain again in time to -satisfy his musical requirements.</p> - -<p>All the morning he had warned me most impressively to count myself -favored if a certain bridge over Bishop’s Creek should not sink under us -and cast me upon wild waters. Rightly estimating my friend, I was not -surprised when we reached the spot to find a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a>{330}</span> good, solid structure -bridging a narrow creek not more than four feet deep.</p> - -<p>As we rolled on down Owen’s Valley, he sang, chatted and drove in a -manner which showed him capable of three distinct, yet simultaneous, -mental processes. I follow his words as nearly as memory serves.</p> - -<p>“That creek, sir, was six feet deep.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Oh Lillie, sweet Lillie, dear Lillie Dale.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">What the devil are you shying at? You cursed mustang, come up out of -that;</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">... ‘little green grave.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">Yes, seven feet, and if we’d have fell in, swimming wouldn’t saved us.</p> - -<p>“You, Balley, what are you a doin’ on?</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘’Neath the hill in the flowing vale.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">And what’s more, we couldn’t have crawled up that bank, nohow.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘My own dear Lillie Dale.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">You’d like to kick over them traces, would you? Keep your doggoned neck -up snug against that collar, and take that.</p> - -<p>“We’d drowned, sir; drowned sure as thunder.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘In the place where the violets grow.’<span class="lftspc">”</span><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a>{331}</span></p> - -<p>Desert hills, and low, mountain gateways, opening views of vast, sterile -plains, no longer formed our eastern outlook. The White Mountains, a -lofty, barren chain vying with the Sierras in altitude, rose in splendid -rank and stretched southeast, parallel with the great range. Down the -broad, intermediate trough flowed Owen’s River, alternately through -expanses of natural meadow and desolate reaches of sage.</p> - -<p>The Sierra, as we travelled southward, became bolder and bolder, strong -granite spurs plunging steeply down into the desert; above, the mountain -sculpture grew grander and grander, until forms wild and rugged as the -Alps stretched on in dense ranks as far as the eye could reach. More and -more the granite came out in all its strength. Less and less soil -covered the slopes: groves of pine became rarer, and sharp, rugged -buttresses advanced boldly to the plain. Here and there a cañon-gate -between rough granite pyramids, and flanked by huge moraines, opened its -savage gallery back among peaks. Even around the summits there was but -little snow, and the streams which at short intervals flowed from the -mountain foot, traversing the plains, were sunken far below their -ordinary volume.</p> - -<p>The mountain forms and mode of sculpture of the opposite ranges are -altogether different. The White and Inyo chains, formed chiefly of -uplifted sedimentary beds, are largely covered with soil, and wherever -the solid rock is exposed its easily traced strata plains and soft, -wooded surface combined in producing a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a>{332}</span> general aspect of breadth and -smoothness; while the Sierra, here more than anywhere else, holds up a -front of solid stone, carved into most intricate and highly ornamental -forms: vast aiguilles, trimmed from summit to base with line of slender -minarets; huge, broad domes, deeply fluted and surmounted with tall -obelisks, and everywhere the greatest profusion of bristling points.</p> - -<p>From the base of each range a long, sloping talus descends gently to the -river, and here and there, bursting up through Sierra foot-hills, rise -the red and black forms of recent volcanoes as regular and barren as if -cooled but yesterday.</p> - -<p>I had reason for not regretting my departure from the Inyo House at -Independence next morning before sunrise; and when a young woman in an -elaborate brown calico, copied evidently from some imperial evening -toilet, pertly demanded my place by the driver, adding that she was not -one of the “inside kind,” I willingly yielded, and made myself contented -on the back seat alone. Presently, however, a companion came to me in -the person of a middle-aged Spanish doña, clad altogether in black, with -a shawl worn over her head after the manner of a mantilla. When it began -to rain violently and beat upon that brown calico, I made bold to offer -the young woman my sheltered place, but she gayly declined, averring -herself not made of sugar. So the doña and I shared my great coat across -our laps and established relations of civility, though she spoke no -English, and I only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a>{333}</span> that little Spanish so much more embarrassing than -none.</p> - -<p>In her smile, in the large, soft eyes, and that tinge of Castilian blood -which shone red-warm through olive cheek, I saw the signs of a race -blessed with sturdier health than ours. With snowy hair growing low on a -massive forehead, and just a glimpse now and then of large, gold beads, -through a white handkerchief about her throat, she seemed to me a -charming picture: though, perhaps, her fine looks gained something by -contrasting with the sickly girl in front, whose pallor and cough could -not have meant less than the pretubercular state.</p> - -<p>Clouds covered the mountains on either hand, leaving me only ranches and -people to observe. May I be forgiven if I am wrong in accounting for the -late improvement of political tone in Tuolumne by the presence here of -so large a share of her most degraded citizens; people whose faces and -dress and life and manners are sadder than any possibilities held up to -us by Darwin.</p> - -<p>My long ride ended in a few hours at Lone Pine, where, from the hotel -window, I watched a dark-blue mass of storm which covered and veiled the -region where I knew my goal, the Whitney summit, must stand.</p> - -<p>For two days storm-curtains hung low about the Sierra base, their vapor -banks, dark with fringes of shower, at times drifting out over Lone Pine -and quenching a thirsty earth. On the third afternoon<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a>{334}</span> blue sky shone -through rifts overhead, and now and then a single peak, dashed with -broken sunshine, rose for a moment over rolling clouds which swelled -above it again like huge billows.</p> - -<p>About an hour before sunset the storm began rapidly to sink into level -fold, over which, in clear, yellow light, emerged “cloud-compelling” -peaks. The liberated sun poured down shafts of light, piercing the mist -which now in locks of gold and gray blew about the mountain heads in -wonderful splendor.</p> - -<p>How deep and solemn a blue filled the cañon depths! What passion of -light glowed around the summits! With delight I watched them one after -another fading till only the sharp, terrible crest of Whitney, still red -with reflected light from the long-sunken sun, showed bright and -glorious above the whole Sierra.</p> - -<p>Upon observing the topography, I saw that one bold spur advanced from -Mount Whitney to the plain; on either side of it profound cañons opened -back to the summit. I remembered the impossibility of making a climb up -those northern precipices, and at once chose the more southern gorge.</p> - -<p>Next morning we set out on horseback for the mountain base, twelve miles -across plains and through an outlying range of hills. My companion for -the trip was Paul Pinson, as tough and plucky a mountaineer as France -ever sent us, who consented readily to follow me. José, the -mild-mannered and grinning<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a>{335}</span> Mexican boy who rode with us, was to remain -in care of our animals at the foot-hills while we made the climb.</p> - -<p>I left a Green barometer to be observed at Lone Pine, and carried my -short high-mountain instrument, by the same excellent maker.</p> - -<p>Gauzy mists again enveloped the Sierra, leaving us free minds to enjoy a -ride, of which the very first mile supplied me food for days of thought.</p> - -<p>The American residents of Lone Pine outskirts live in a homeless -fashion; sullen, almost arrogant, neglect stares out from the open -doors. There is no attempt at grace, no memory of comfort, no suggested -hope for improvement.</p> - -<p>Not so the Spanish homes, their low, adobe, wide-roofed cabins neatly -enclosed with even, basket-work fence, and lining hedge of blooming -hollyhock.</p> - -<p>We stopped to bow good-morning to my friend and stage companion, the -doña. She sat in the threshold of her open door, sewing; beyond her -stretched a bare floor, clean and white: the few chairs, the table -spread with snowy linen, everything, shone with an air of religious -spotlessness. Symmetry reigned in the precise, well-kept garden, -arranged in rows of pepper-plants and crisp heads of vernal lettuce.</p> - -<p>I longed for a painter to catch her brilliant smile, and surround her on -canvas as she was here, with order and dignity. The same plain, black -dress clad her ample figure, and about the neck heavy, barbaric gold -beads served again as collar.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a>{336}</span></p> - -<p>Under low eaves above her, and quite around the house, hung, in triple -row, festoons of flaming red peppers, in delicious contrast with the -rich adobe gray.</p> - -<p>It was a study of order and true womanly repose, fitted to cheer us, and -a grouping of such splendid color as might tempt a painter to cross the -world.</p> - -<p>A little farther on we passed an Indian ranchero where several willow -wickyups were built upon the bank of a cold brook. Half-naked children -played about here and there; a few old squaws bustled at household work; -but nearly all lay outstretched, dozing. A sort of tattered brilliancy -characterized the place. Gay, high-colored squalor reigned. There seemed -hardly more lack of thrift or sense of decorum than in the American -ranches, yet somehow the latter send a stab of horror through one, while -this quaint indolence and picturesque neglect seem aptly contrived to -set off the Indian genius for loafing, and leave you with a sort of -æsthetic satisfaction, rather than the sorrow their half development -should properly evoke.</p> - -<p>Leaving all this behind us, our road led westward across a long sage -slope entering a narrow, tortuous pass through a low range of outlying -granite hills. Strangely weathered forms towered on either side, their -bare, brown surface contrasting pleasantly with the vivid ribbon of -willows which wove a green and silver cover over swift water.</p> - -<p>The granite was riven with innumerable cracks, showing here and there a -strong tendency to concentric<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a>{337}</span> forms, and I judged the immense -spheroidal bowlders which lay on all sides, piled one upon another, to -be the kernels or nuclei of larger masses.</p> - -<p>Quickly crossing this ridge, we came out upon the true Sierra -foot-slope, a broad, inclined plain stretching north and south as far as -we could see. Directly in front of us rose the rugged form of Mount -Whitney spur, a single mass of granite, rough-hewn, and darkened with -coniferous groves. The summits were lost in a cloud of almost indigo -hue.</p> - -<p>Putting our horses at a trot, we quickly ascended the <i>glacis</i>, and at -the very foot of the rocks dismounted, and made up our packs. José, with -the horses, left us and went back half a mile to a mountain ranch, where -he was to await our return; and presently Pinson and I, with heavy -burdens upon our backs, began slowly to work our way up the granite spur -and toward the great cañon.</p> - -<p>An hour’s climb brought us around upon the south wall of our spur, and -about a thousand feet above a stream which dashed and leaped along the -cañon bottom, through wild ravines and over granite bluffs. Our slope -was a rugged rock-face, giving foothold here and there to pine and -juniper trees, but for the greater part bare and bold.</p> - -<p>Far above, at an elevation of ten thousand feet, a dark grove of alpine -pines gathered in the cañon bed. Thither we bent our steps, edging from -cleft to cleft, making constant, though insignificant, progress. At -length our wall became so wild and deeply<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a>{338}</span> cut with side cañons that we -found it impossible to follow it longer, and descended carefully to the -bottom.</p> - -<p>Almost immediately, with heavy wind gusts and sound as of torrents, a -storm broke upon us, darkening the air and drenching us to the skin. The -three hours we toiled up over rocks, through dripping willow-brooks and -among trains of <i>débris</i> were not noticeable for their cheerfulness.</p> - -<p>The storm had ceased, but it was evening when, wet and exhausted, we at -length reached the alpine grove, and threw ourselves down for rest under -a huge, overhanging rock which offered its shelter for our bivouac.</p> - -<p>Logs, soon brought in by Pinson, were kindled. The hot blaze seemed -pleasant to us, though I cannot claim to have enjoyed those two hours -spent in turning round and round before it while steaming and drying. -But the broiled beef, the toast, and those generous cups of tea to which -we devoted the hour between ten and eleven were quite satisfactory. So, -too, was the pleasant chat till midnight warned us to roll up in -overcoats and close our eyes to the fire, to the dark, sombre grove, and -far stars crowding the now cloudless heavens.</p> - -<p>The sun rose and shone on us while we breakfasted. Through all the -visible sky not a cloud could be seen, and, thanks to yesterday’s rain, -the air was of crystal purity. Into it the granite summits above us -projected forms of sunlit gray.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a>{339}</span></p> - -<p>Up the glacier valley above camp we slowly tramped through a forest of -noble Pinus Flexilis, the trunks of bright sienna contrasting richly -with deep bronze foliage.</p> - -<p>Minor flutings of a medial moraine offered gentle grade and agreeable -footing for a mile and more, after which, by degrees, the woods gave way -to a wide, open amphitheatre surrounded with cliffs.</p> - -<p>I can never enter one of these great, hollow mountain chambers without a -pause. There is a grandeur and spaciousness which expand and fit the -mind for yet larger sensations when you shall stand on the height above.</p> - -<p>Velvet of alpine sward edging an icy brooklet, by whose margin we sat -down, reached to the right and left far enough to spread a narrow -foreground, over which we saw a chain of peaks swelling from either side -toward our amphitheatre’s head, where, springing splendidly over them -all, stood the sharp form of Whitney.</p> - -<p>Precipices white with light and snow-fields of incandescent brilliance -grouped themselves along walls and slopes. All around us, in wild, huge -heaps, lay wrecks of glacier and avalanche.</p> - -<p>We started again, passing the last tree, and began to climb painfully up -loose <i>débris</i> and lodged blocks of the north wall. From here to the -very foot of that granite pyramid which crowns the mountain, we found -neither difficulty nor danger, only a long,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a>{340}</span> tedious climb over footing -which, from time to time, gave way provokingly.</p> - -<p>By this time mist floated around the brow of Mount Whitney, forming a -gray helmet, from which, now and then, the wind blew out long, waving -plumes. After a brief rest we began to scale the southeast ridge, -climbing from rock to rock, and making our way up steep fields of soft -snow. Precipices, sharp and severe, fell away to east and west of us, -but the rough pile above still afforded a way. We had to use extreme -caution, for many blocks hung ready to fall at a touch, and the snow, -where we were forced to work up it, often gave way, threatening to hurl -us down into cavernous hollows.</p> - -<p>When within a hundred feet of the top I suddenly fell through, but, -supporting myself by my arms, looked down into a grotto of rock and ice, -and out through a sort of window, over the western bluffs, and down -thousands of feet to the far-away valley of the Kern.</p> - -<p>I carefully and slowly worked my body out, and crept on hands and knees -up over steep and treacherous ice-crests, where a slide would have swept -me over a brink of the southern precipice.</p> - -<p>We kept to the granite as much as possible, Pinson taking one train of -blocks and I another. Above us but thirty feet rose a crest, beyond -which we saw nothing. I dared not think it the summit till we stood -there and Mount Whitney was under our feet.</p> - -<p>Close beside us a small mound of rock was piled<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a>{341}</span> upon the peak, and -solidly built into it an Indian arrow-shaft, pointing due west.</p> - -<p>I climbed out to the southwest brink, and, looking down, could see that -fatal precipice which had prevented me seven years before. I strained my -eyes beyond, but already dense, impenetrable clouds had closed us in.</p> - -<p>On the whole, this climb was far less dangerous than I had reason to -hope. Only at the very crest, where ice and rock are thrown together -insecurely, did we encounter any very trying work. The utter -unreliableness of that honeycomb and cavernous cliff was rather -uncomfortable, and might, at any moment, give the deathfall to one who -had not coolness and muscular power at instant command.</p> - -<p>I hung my barometer from the mound of our Indian predecessor, nor did I -grudge his hunter pride the honor of first finding that one pathway to -the summit of the United States, fifteen thousand feet above two oceans.</p> - -<p>While we lunched I engraved Pinson’s and my name upon a half dollar, and -placed it in a hollow of the crest. Clouds still hung motionless over -us, but in half an hour a west wind drew across, drifting the heavy -vapors along with it. Light poured in, reddening the clouds, which soon -rolled away, opening a grand view of the western Sierra ridge, and of -the whole system of the Kern.</p> - -<p>Only here and there could blue sky be seen, but, fortunately, the sun -streamed through one of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a>{342}</span> windows in the storm, lighting up -splendidly the snowy rank from Kaweah to Mount Brewer.</p> - -<p>There they rose as of old, firm and solid; even the great snow-fields, -though somewhat shrunken, lay as they had seven years before. I saw the -peaks and passes and amphitheatres dear old Cotter and I had climbed: -even that Mount Brewer pass where we looked back over the pathway of our -dangers, and up with regretful hearts to the very rock on which I sat.</p> - -<p>Deep below flowed the Kern, its hundred, snow-fed branches gleaming out -amid rock and ice, or traced far away in the great glacier trough by -dark lines of pine. There, only twelve miles northwest, stretched that -ragged divide where Cotter and I came down the precipice with our rope. -Beyond, into the vague blue of King’s cañon, sloped the ice and rock of -Mount Brewer wall.</p> - -<p>Sombre storm-clouds and their even gloomier shadows darkened the -northern sea of peaks. Only a few slant bars of sudden light flashed in -upon purple granite and fields of ice. The rocky tower of Mount Tyndall, -thrust up through rolling billows, caught for a moment the full light, -and then sank into darkness and mist.</p> - -<p>When all else was buried in cloud we watched the great west range. Weird -and strange, it seemed shaded by some dark eclipse. Here and there -through its gaps and passes serpent-like streams of mist floated in and -crept slowly down the cañons of the hither<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a>{343}</span> slope, then all along the -crest, torn and rushing spray of clouds whirled about the peaks, and in -a moment a vast gray wave reared high, and broke, overwhelming all.</p> - -<p>Just for a moment every trace of vapor cleared away from the east, -unveiling for the first time spurs and gorges and plains. I crept to a -brink and looked down into the Whitney Cañon, which was crowded with -light. Great, scarred and ice-hewn precipices reached down four thousand -feet, curving together like a ship, and holding in their granite bed a -thread of brook, the small sapphire gems of alpine lake, bronze dots of -pine, and here and there a fine enamelling of snow.</p> - -<p>Beyond and below lay Owen’s Valley, walled in by the barren Inyo chain, -and afar, under a pale, sad sky, lengthened leagues and leagues of -lifeless desert.</p> - -<p>The storm had even swept across Kern Cañon, and dashed high against the -peaks north and south of us. A few sharp needles and spikes struggled -above it for a moment, but it rolled over them and rushed in torrents -down the desert slope, burying everything in a dark, swift cloud.</p> - -<p>We hastened to pack up our barometer and descend. A little way down the -ice crust gave way under Pinson, but he saved himself, and we hurried -on, reaching safely the cliff-base, leaving all dangerous ground above -us.</p> - -<p>So dense was the cloud we could not see a hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a>{344}</span> feet, but tramped -gayly down over rocks and sand, feeling quite assured of our direction, -until suddenly we came upon the brink of a precipice and strained our -eyes off into the mist. I threw a stone over and listened in vain for -the sound of its fall. Pinson and I both thought we had deviated too far -to the north, and were on the brink of Whitney Cañon, so we turned in -the opposite direction, thinking to cross the ridge, entering our old -amphitheatre, but in a few moments we again found ourselves upon the -verge. This time a stone we threw over answered with a faint, dull crash -from five hundred feet below. We were evidently upon a narrow blade. I -remembered no such place, and sat down to recall carefully every detail -of topography. At last I concluded that we had either strayed down upon -the Kern side, or were on one of the cliffs overhanging the head of our -true amphitheatre.</p> - -<p>Feeling the necessity of keeping cool, I determined to ascend to the -foot of the snow and search for our tracks. So we slowly climbed there -again and took a new start.</p> - -<p>By this time the wind howled fiercely, bearing a chill from -snow-crystals and sleet. We hurried on before it, and, after one or two -vain attempts, succeeded in finding our old trail down the amphitheatre -slope, descending very rapidly to its floor.</p> - -<p>From here, an exhausting tramp of five hours through the pine forest to -our camp, and on down the rough, wearying slopes of the lower cañon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a>{345}</span> -brought us to the plain where José and the horses awaited us.</p> - -<p>From Lone Pine that evening, and from the open carriage in which I rode -northward to Independence, I constantly looked back and up into the -storm, hoping to catch one more glimpse of Mount Whitney; but all the -range lay submerged in dark, rolling cloud, from which now and then a -sullen mutter of thunder reverberated.</p> - -<p>For years our chief, Professor Whitney, has made brave campaigns into -the unknown realm of Nature. Against low prejudice and dull indifference -he has led the survey of California onward to success. There stand for -him two monuments—one a great report made by his own hand; another, the -loftiest peak in the Union, begun for him in the planet’s youth and -sculptured of enduring granite by the slow hand of Time.</p> - -<h3>1873</h3> - -<p>The preceding pages were written immediately after my return from Mount -Whitney, and without a shadow of suspicion that among the sea of peaks -half seen, half storm-hidden, I could have missed the true summit.</p> - -<p>Professor Whitney alone possessed sufficiently studied data to apply the -annual corrections for barometric oscillation in the high Sierra, and to -his office I at once forwarded my observations noted upon the Mount -Whitney summit, together with the record<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a>{346}</span> of simultaneous readings at -Lone Pine, the station upon which I relied for a base. As I was about -mailing the chapter to our printer, from my camp in the Rocky Mountains, -I received from Professor Pettee, who had kindly made a computation, the -puzzling despatch that Mount Whitney only reached fourteen thousand six -hundred and ten feet in altitude. Realizing at once that this must be an -error, I attributed it to some great abnormal oscillation of pressure -due to storm, and decided not to publish the measurement.</p> - -<p>Then for a moment a sense of doubt came over me lest I had been -mistaken; but on carefully studying the map it was reassuring to -establish beyond doubt the identity of the peak designated on the map of -the Geological Survey of California as Mount Whitney with the one I had -climbed. The reader will perhaps appreciate, then, my surprise and -disappointment when, travelling in the overland car to California in -September, 1873, I read and re-read a communication by Mr. W. A. -Goodyear, former Assistant of the Geological Survey, made to the -California Academy of Sciences, in which he points out with great -clearness that I had missed the real peak.</p> - -<p>To explain most simply why Mr. Goodyear saw the true Mount Whitney when -he reached the summit of my peak of 1871, it is only necessary to state -that he had a clear day, and the evident fact stared him in the face. If -the reader kindly refers to the preceding part of the chapter, -descriptive of my 1871<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a>{347}</span> climb, he will note that my visit was, -unfortunately, during a great storm, through whose billows of cloud and -eddying mists the landscape disclosed itself in fragmentary glimpses: to -repeat the expression of my notebook, “as through windows in the storm.”</p> - -<p>My little granite island was incessantly beaten by breakers of vague, -impenetrable cloud, and never once did the true Mount Whitney unveil its -crest to my eager eyes. Only one glimpse, and I should have bent my -steps northward, restless till the peak was climbed. But, then, that -would have left nothing for Goodyear, whose paper shows such evident -relish in my mistake that I accept my ’71 ill-luck as providential. One -has in this dark world so few chances of conferring innocent, pure -delight.</p> - -<p>It must always remain a bond between Goodyear and myself that in the -only paper he has written on the high Sierras it was his happy thought -to point both pleasantry and argument with that most grotesque and sober -of beasts, the mule; and, while my regard for all mules rises wellnigh -into the realm of sentiment, I cherish no less a feeling than profound -indebtedness toward the particular one who succeeded—with how great -effort only a fellow-climber can know—in getting Mr. Goodyear on the -now nameless peak, whence, like Moses from Pisgah, he beheld the -Promised Land.</p> - -<p>My gratitude is not all directed to the mule, either; from that just -channel a stream is directed toward the clear, good judgment of my -friend, who resolutely<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a>{348}</span> turned his back on the alluring summit, and -promptly quitted the head of mule navigation to descend and hold me up -in my proper light. Pleasantry aside, and method being largely a matter -of taste, Mr. Goodyear deserves credit for having so clearly pointed out -my mistake—credit which I desire to bear honest tribute to, since his -discovery has already led several of us to climb the true peak, a labor -requiring little effort and rewarded by the most striking view in the -Sierra Nevada.</p> - -<p>Of course I lost no time in directing my steps toward Mount Whitney, -animated with a lively delight which was quite unclouded by the fact -that two parties, who had three thousand miles the start of me, were -already <i>en route</i>, and certain to reach the goal before me.</p> - -<p>Perhaps there is no element in the varied life of an explorer so full of -contemplative pleasure as the frequent and rapid passages he makes -between city life and home: by that I mean his true home, where the -flames of his bivouac fire light up trunks of sheltering pine and make -an island of light in the silent darkness of the primeval forest. The -crushing Juggernaut-car of modern life and the smothering struggle of -civilization are so far off that the wail of suffering comes not, nor -the din and dust of it all; and out of your very memory for a -time—alas! only for a time—fade those two indelible examples of the -shallowness of society, those terrible pictures of sorrow and wrong, and -that perennial artifice which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a>{349}</span> wellnigh always chokes with its weedy -growth the rare, fine flowers of art.</p> - -<p>All is forgotten: those murky clouds which in town life dispute the -serenity of one’s spiritual air drift beyond view, and over you broods -only the quiet sky of night, her white stars moving beyond fragrant -pine-tops or lost in the dim tangle of their feathery foliage. Such is -the mountaineer’s evening spent contemplatively before his fire; the -profound sense of Nature’s tranquillity filling his mind with its repose -till the flames give way to embers, and guardian pines spread dusky arms -over his sleep. Not less a contrast greets him when from simple field -life the doors of a city suddenly open, and the huddled complexity of -everything jostles him. Either way, and as often as one makes this -transit between civilization and the wilds, one prizes most the pure, -simple, strengthening joy of nature.</p> - -<p>Thus, when, from the heat and pressure of town in September, 1873, I -suddenly plunged into the heart of the Sierra forest, a cool mountain -sky of holy blue and my well-beloved trees, calm and vigorous as ever, -communicated thrills of pleasure well worth my brief separation from -them. Day after day through the green forest I rode on, leaving the -mustang to choose his own gait, scarcely talking to my two campaign -companions, who with the plodding pack-animals followed noiselessly -behind. It was only when we ascended the east wall of the Kern Cañon on -the Hockett Trail, and reached the nebulous plateau<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a>{350}</span> where pine and -granite and cloud form the three elements of a severe picture, that I -felt myself filled to the brim with my long draught of nature, and -turned to my followers for society.</p> - -<p>I was accompanied by Seaman and Knowles, two settlers of Tule River, who -had been good enough to take a thorough interest in my proposed trip. -One less used than I to the strong originality and remarkable histories -of frontiersmen might have marvelled at the rich chat of these two men; -for myself, however, I long ago learned to expect under the rough garb -and simple manners of Western plainsmen and mountaineers a wealth of -experience, with its resultant harvest of philosophy. Untrammelled by -the schools, these men strike out boldly and arrange the universe to -suit themselves. Not alone is this noticeable in matter of general -interest; in the most special subjects it will not do to assume an -ignorance at all in keeping with the primitive cut of their trousers or -their idiom, which show strong affinities with the flint period. As an -instance, volcanic action has of late years occupied much of my -thoughts, and so dry a subject, one would think, could not have fixed -the interest of many non-professional travellers. Judge of my feelings, -therefore, on the night we reached the Kern Plateau and camped with a -solitary shepherd, to hear without giving direction to it myself, the -conversation turn on volcanoes, and realized, as the group renewed our -fire and hours passed by, that my two companions had been in Iceland, -Hawaii,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a>{351}</span> Java, and Ecuador, and that, as for the sheep herder, he had -rolled stones down nearly every prominent approachable crater on the -planet. I was reminded of a certain vaquero who astounded Professor -Brewer by launching out boldly in the Latin names of Mexican plants.</p> - -<p>The Kern Plateau, so green and lovely on my former visit, in 1864, was -now a gray sea of rolling granite ridges, darkened at intervals by -forest, but no longer velveted with meadows and upland grasses. The -indefatigable shepherds have camped everywhere, leaving hardly a spear -of grass behind them.</p> - -<p>To the sad annoyance of our hungry horses, we found this true until we -entered the rough, rocky cañon which leads down from the false Mount -Whitney, in whose depths, among glacier erratics and dark pines, we -selected a spot where a vocal brook and patches of carex meadow seemed -to welcome us. During a three days’ painful illness which overtook me -here I felt that I should never lose an opportunity to warn my -fellow-men against watermelon, which, after all, is only an ingenious -contrivance of nature to converge the waves of motion from the midsummer -sun, and, by the well-recognized principles of force conservation, -transmute them into so much potential colic.</p> - -<p>Across from wall to wall of our deep glacier cañon the morning sky -stretched pure and blue, but without a trace of that infinite depth, so -dark and vacant, so alluringly profound, when the sun nears its -culmination.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a>{352}</span> We arose early, and all three were marching up the gentle -acclivity of the valley bottom, when, from among the peaks darkly -profiled against the east, bold lances of light shot down through gloom -and shadow, touching with sudden brightness here a clump of feathery -fir, there a heap of glacier blocks, pencilling yellow lines across -meadow-patch or alpine tarn, and working out along the whole rocky -amphitheatre above us those splendid contrasts of gold and blue which -are the delight of mountaineers and the despair of painters.</p> - -<p>Knowles, with the keen eye of an accomplished hunter, became conscious, -as we marched along, just how lately a mountain sheep had crossed our -way, and occasionally the whispered sound of light footfalls along the -crags overhead riveted his attention upon some gray mote on the granite, -and with the huntsman’s habitual quiet he would only ejaculate: -“Two-year-old buck,” or “Too thin for venison,” or some similar phrase, -indicating the marvellous acuteness of his senses.</p> - -<p>Among the many serious losses man has suffered in passing from a life of -nature to one artificial is to be numbered the fatal blunting of all his -senses.</p> - -<p>Step after step the cañon ascended, with great, vacant corridors opening -among the rocky buttresses on either side, till at last there were no -more firs, the alpine meadows became mere patches, and a chilly wind -drew down from among the snow-drifts.</p> - -<p>Here savage rock-grandeur and splendid sunlight<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a>{353}</span> forever struggle for -mastery of effect. A cloud drifts over us, and the dark headlands of -granite loom up with impending mightiness, and seem to advance toward -each other from opposite ranks; about their feet the wreck of centuries -of avalanche, and above leaden vapors hurrying and whirling. All is -dimness and gloom. Then overhead the clouds are furled away, and there -is light—light joyous, pure, gloom-dispelling, before whose intense, -searching vividness shadows unfold and mystery vanishes.</p> - -<p>Through such alternating sensations we wound our way round the -<i>débris</i>-cumbered margin of two lakes of deep, transparent, -beryl-colored water, and up to the very head of our amphitheatre, -reaching an elevation of about thirteen thousand feet. We had thus far -encountered very little snow, and absolutely no climbing. All along it -had seemed to us that from the cañon-head we might easily climb to the -dividing summit of the Sierras, and follow it along to Mount Whitney. I -had taken pains to diverge from my unsuccessful route of 1864, which lay -now to the east, and separated from us by a high wall, terminating in -fantastic spires.</p> - -<p>Upon mounting the ridge-top we found it impossible to reach the true -summit of the range without first descending into a deep cañon, the -ancient bed of a tributary glacier of the Kern; the ice now replaced by -imposing slopes of granite <i>débris</i>, partly masked by snow, and plunging -down into a lake of startling vitriol color.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a>{354}</span></p> - -<p>We toiled cautiously down over insecure wreck of granite, whose huge -blocks threatened constantly to topple us over or to rush out from under -foot and gather into an avalanche. A draught from the icy lake water, a -brief rest on the sunny side of a huge erratic, and we began the slow, -laborious ascent of the summit ridge. Unfortunately, the footing was -bad, being composed chiefly of granite gravel. Of every stone in place -and each snow spot we took advantage, making pauses for breath now and -then, until at last we reached the crest, here a thin ridge, and -hurriedly turned our eyes in the direction of Mount Whitney.</p> - -<p>The sharp, dominating blade of granite rising a couple of miles -northwest of us, over a group of spiry pinnacles, was unmistakable. The -same severe, beautiful crest I had struggled for in 1864 rose proudly -into the blue, and, though near, seemed as inaccessible as ever.</p> - -<p>In the opposite direction, about three miles away, in clear, uncolored -plainness, stood the peak where, in 1871, I had been led by the map, and -my error perpetuated by the clouds.</p> - -<p>In full view of both peaks it seemed strange I could have mistaken one -for the other.</p> - -<p>Infallibility in retrospect is one of the easiest conditions imaginable; -yet when the ever-fresh memory of those seething cloud-forms comes back -to me, when I see again the gloom made even wilder and darker by bolts -of sunlight and illumined gauzes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a>{355}</span> mist, when I realize that the -cloud-compelling peak itself never shone forth, I am free to confess -that I should make the mistake again.</p> - -<p>In charging this error upon the map, I do not in any sense intend to -reflect on Mr. C. F. Hoffmann, the accomplished chief topographer of the -Survey, to whose skilful hand we owe the forthcoming map of Central -California. His location of Mount Whitney depended upon two compass -bearings only—his own from Mount Brewer, which proves to have been -unvitiated by local magnetic attraction, and mine from Mount Tyndall, -which evidently is in error.</p> - -<p>It is most curious to discover that my bearings made from a station on -the northwest edge of Mount Tyndall, where I placed myself to observe on -the peaks lying in that direction, are, when corrected for variation, -true, while those taken from a block on the south edge of the summit not -sixty feet from the first station are abnormal. This reminds me of the -observations made by Professor Brewer during our hours of rest on the -top of Lassen’s Peak, where he found the summit block a local magnet.</p> - -<p>Thus the map location on which Mr. Hoffmann relied, and of which, in -1871, I took copy, to identify the peak, was vitiated in a way neither -of us could have foreseen, and a serious error might have crept into -current geography but for the timely visit of Mr. Goodyear.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hoffmann stands clear of blame in this matter. Upon my shoulders and -those of my <i>particeps<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a>{356}</span> criminis</i>, the storm and the local magnetic -attraction, it all rests.</p> - -<p>We sat for some time in that silence which even the rudest natures pay -as an unconscious tribute to the august presence of a great mountain, -and then began again the march toward Mount Whitney. Seaman, who had -started ill, here felt so painfully the effect of altitude that we urged -him to struggle no further against dizziness and nausea, but to return, -which he did with reluctance. We parted at the very crown of the ridge, -on the verge of a gulf which plunges down from Mount Whitney to Owen’s -Valley. Knowles, who is a sort of chamois, kept his head splendidly, and -together we clambered round and up to the crest of a bold needle about -fourteen thousand four hundred feet high, from which the discouraging -truth dawned upon us that it was impossible to surmount the three sharp -pinnacles which lay between us and the delicately sculptured crest -beyond.</p> - -<p>To the right and below, three thousand feet down from our tower, I could -trace the line of my attempted climb of 1864, to where it disappeared -around a projecting buttress at the foot of the great precipice, which -forms the eastern face of Mount Whitney and the subordinate pinnacles to -the south.</p> - -<p>To the left, through crags and splintered monoliths, we could catch a -glimpse of a deep glacier basin lying west of Mount Whitney, enclosing -great sweeps of <i>débris</i> and numerous vivid blue tarns.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a>{357}</span></p> - -<p>Between the minarets we could also see portions of the southwest slope -of Mount Whitney, which was evidently a smooth, accessible face, and the -one of all others to attempt. But the day was already too far advanced -to leave us the remotest hope of even reaching the glacier basin west of -Mount Whitney, and we decided to return to camp.</p> - -<p>Before beginning our wearisome march I sketched the outline of the Mount -Whitney group, which, so far as I know, differs from any other cluster -of peaks. The Sierra here is a bold wall with an almost perpendicular -front of about three thousand feet, which is crowned by sharp turrets, -having a tendency to lean out over the eastern gulf; these are properly -the crests of great, rib-like buttresses, which jut from the general -surface of the granite front.</p> - -<p>Mount Whitney itself springs up and out like the prow of a sharp ocean -steamer. Southward along the summit my sketch is of a confused region of -rough-hewn granite obelisks and towers, all remarkable for the deep -shattering to which the rock has been subjected. It is a region which -may even yet suffer considerable perceptible change, since a single -winter’s frost and snow must dislodge numberless blocks from the crests -and flanks of the whole group. Indeed, at the time of my visit, notably -the period of least snow and frost, we often heard the sharp rattle of -falling <i>débris</i>.</p> - -<p>We varied our course homeward by climbing along a lateral ridge, whence -we could look into the Mount<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a>{358}</span> Whitney basin, and here we were favored by -a fine view, chiefly pleasing to us because the whole accessible slope -of the peak came out, unobscured by intervening ridges.</p> - -<p>It was evident that we must find a mule pass through the granite waves, -from our present camp round into the great glacier basin, or else plan -our next attempt with provisions and blankets on our backs and an -uncertain number of days’ clambering over the intervening cañons to the -foot of our peak.</p> - -<p>The shades of twilight were darkening the amphitheatre as we plodded -homeward; ghostly cliffs and dim towers were hardly recognizable as -defined against the evening sky, in which already a few pale stars shone -tremulously.</p> - -<p>I spare the reader the days of snow and sleet we spent under a temporary -shelter constructed of blankets. I pass over the elaborate system of -rivulets, which forever burrowed new channels and originated future -geography under our tent. These were quickly forgotten the morning of -the clear-up, as we quitted our camp under the shadow of the 1871 peak, -and marched southwestward down the bowlder-strewn valley of our brook.</p> - -<p>A fine series of lateral moraines flank this cañon on the left, moraines -rising one above another in defined terraces, for the most part composed -of granite blocks, but here and there of solid rock <i>in situ</i>, where the -ridge throws out prominent spurs.</p> - -<p>We ascended the north wall, zigzagging to and fro<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a>{359}</span> among pines, till, -having climbed a thousand feet, we found ourselves upon a plateau of -granite sand, among groves of <i>pinus flexilis</i>, which seemed (as to me -the sequoias always have) the relics of a past climatic condition, the -well-preserved octogenarians of the forest. Through open groves of these -giant trees, whose red, gnarled trunks and dark green foliage stood out -with artistic definition upon bare granite sand, we saw the deep cañon -of the Kern a few miles to our left, and beyond it, swelling in splendid -rank against the west, my old friends, the Kaweah peaks, their dark, -pyramidal summits here and there touched with flashing ice-banks.</p> - -<p>The bottom of Kern Cañon was hidden from us; its craggy edges broken and -rounded by glacial action, and in part built upon by the fragments of -great moraines, were especially powerful; and as a master’s sketch -emphasizes the leading lines, so here each sharply carved ravine or -rock-rift is given force by lines of almost black pines. Startled bands -of deer looked timidly at us for a moment, and then bounded wildly away -through the woods. All else was silent and motionless.</p> - -<p>At evening we entered the long-hoped-for cañon, and threaded our way up -among moraines and forest close to the foot of Mount Whitney, the peak -itself rising grandly across the amphitheatre’s head, every spire and -rocky crevice brought sharply out in the warm evening sunlight. With my -field-glass I could see that it was a simple, brief walk of a few hours -to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_360" id="page_360"></a>{360}</span> the summit, and, all anxiety at rest, I lay down on my blankets to -watch the effects of light.</p> - -<p>As often as one camps at twelve thousand feet in the Sierra, the charm -of crystally pure air, these cold, sparkling, gem-like tints of rock and -alpine lake, the fiery bronze of foliage, and luminous though deep-toned -sky, combine to produce an intellectual and even a spiritual elevation. -Deep and stirring feelings come naturally, the present falls back into -its true relation, one’s own wearying identity shrinks from the broad, -open foreground of the vision, and a calmness born of reverent -reflections encompasses the soul.</p> - -<p>At eleven o’clock next morning Knowles and I stood together on the -topmost rock of Mount Whitney. We found there a monument of stones, and -records of the two parties who had preceded us,—the first, Messrs. -Hunter and Crapo, and afterward, that of Rabe of the Geological Survey. -The former were, save Indian hunters, the first, so far as we know, who -achieved this dominating summit. Mr. Rabe has the honor of the first -measurement by barometer. Our three visits were all within a month.</p> - -<p>The day was cloudless, and the sky, milder than is common over these -extreme heights, warmed to a mellow glow and rested in softening beauty -over minaret and dome. Air and light seemed melted together; even the -wild rocks springing up all about us wore an aspect of aërial delicacy. -Around the wide panorama, half low desert, half rugged granite<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_361" id="page_361"></a>{361}</span> -mountains, each detail was observable, but a uniform, luminous medium -toned, without obscuring, the field of vision. That fearful sense of -wreck and desolation, of a world crushed into fragments, of the ice -chisel which, unseen, has wrought this strange mountain sculpture, all -the sensations of power and tragedy I had invariably felt before on high -peaks, were totally forgotten. It was the absolute reverse of the effect -on Mount Tyndall, where an unrelenting clearness discovered every object -in all its power and reality. Then we saw only unburied wreck of -geologic struggles, black with sudden shadow or white under searching -focus, as if the sun were a great burning-glass, gathering light from -all space, and hurling its fierce shafts upon spire and wall.</p> - -<p>Now it was like an opal world, submerged in a sea of dreamy light, down -through whose motionless, transparent depths I became conscious of -sunken ranges, great hollows of undiscernible depth, reefs of pearly -granite as clear and delicate as the coral banks in a tropical ocean. It -was not like a haze in the lower world, which veils away distance in -softly vanishing perspective; there was no mist, no vagueness, no loss -of form nor fading of outline—only a strange harmonizing of earth and -air. Shadows were faint, yet defined, lights visible, but most -exquisitely modulated. The hollow blue which over Tyndall led the eye up -into vacant solitudes was here replaced by a sense of sheltering -nearness, a certain dove-colored obscurity in the atmosphere which -seemed to filter the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_362" id="page_362"></a>{362}</span> sunlight of all its harsher properties. I do not -permit myself to describe details, for they have left no enduring -impression, nor am I insensible of how vain any attempt must be to -reproduce the harmony of such subtle aspects of nature—aspects most -rare and indescribable because producing their charm by negative means.</p> - -<p>I suppose such an atmospheric effect is to be accounted for by a lower -stratum of pure, transparent air overlaid by an upper one so charged -with moisture (or perhaps one of those thus-far-unexplained dry mists -occasionally seen in the high Sierra) as to intercept the blue rays of -sunlight, and admit only softened yellow ones.</p> - -<p>This is the true Mount Whitney, the one we named in 1864, and upon which -the name of our chief is forever to rest. It stands, not like white -Shasta, in a grandeur of solitude, but about it gather companies of crag -and spire, piercing the blue or wrapped in monkish raiment of snowstorm -and mist. Far below, laid out in ashen death, slumbers the desert.</p> - -<p>Silence reigns on these icy heights, save when scream of Sierra eagle or -loud crescendo of avalanche interrupts the frozen stillness, or when in -symphonic fulness a storm rolls through vacant cañons with its stern -minor. It is hard not to invest these great, dominating peaks with -consciousness, difficult to realize that, sitting thus for ages in -presence of all nature can work of light-magic and color-beauty, no -inner spirit has kindled, nor throb of granite heart<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_363" id="page_363"></a>{363}</span> once responded, no -Buddhistic nirvana-life, even, has brooded in eternal calm within these -sphinx-like breasts of stone.</p> - -<p>A week after my climb I lay on the desert sand at the foot of the Inyo -Range and looked up at Mount Whitney, realizing all its grand -individuality, and saw the drifting clouds interrupt a sun-brightened -serenity by frown after frown of moving shadow; and I entered for a -moment deeply and intimately into that strange realm where admiration -blends with superstition, that condition in which the savage feels -within him the greatness of a natural object, and forever after endows -it with consciousness and power. For a moment I was back in the Aryan -myth days, when they saw afar a snowy peak, and called it Dhavalagiri -(white elephant), and invested it with mystic power.</p> - -<p>These peculiar moments, rare enough in the life of a scientific man, -when one trembles on the edge of myth-making, are of interest, as -unfolding the origin and manner of savage beliefs, and as awakening the -unperishing germ of primitive manhood which is buried within us all -under so much culture and science.</p> - -<p>How generally the myth-maker has been extinguished in modern students of -mountains may be realized by examining the tone of Alpine literature, -which, once lifted above the fatiguing repetition of gymnastics, is -almost invariably scientific.</p> - -<p>Ruskin alone among prose writers on the Alps<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_364" id="page_364"></a>{364}</span> re-echoes the dim past, in -ever-recurring myth-making, over cloud and peak and glacier; his is the -Rigveda’s idea of nature. The varying hues which mood and emotion -forever pass before his own mental vision mask with their illusive -mystery the simple realities of nature, until mountains and their bold, -natural facts are lost behind the cloudy poetry of the writer.</p> - -<p>Ruskin helps us to know himself, not the Alps; his mountain chapters, -although essentially four thousand years old, are, however, no more an -anachronism than the dim primeval spark which smoulders in all of us; -their brilliancy <i>is</i> that spark fanned into flame.</p> - -<p>To follow a chapter of Ruskin by one of Tyndall is to bridge forty -centuries and realize the full contrast of archaic and modern thought.</p> - -<p>This was the drift of my revery as I lay basking on the hot sands of -Inyo, realizing fully the geological history and hard, materialistic -reality of Mount Whitney, its mineral nature, its chemistry; yet archaic -impulse even then held me, and the gaunt, gray old Indian who came -slowly toward me must have subtly felt my condition, for he crouched -beside me and silently fixed his hawk eye upon the peak.</p> - -<p>At last he drew an arrow, sighted along its straight shaft, bringing the -obsidian head to bear on Mount Whitney, and in strange fragments of -language told me that the peak was an old, old man, who watched this -valley and cared for the Indians, but who shook<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_365" id="page_365"></a>{365}</span> the country with -earthquakes to punish the whites for injustice toward his tribe.</p> - -<p>I looked at his whitened hair and keen, black eye. I watched the spare, -bronze face, upon which was written the burden of a hundred dark and -gloomy superstitions; and as he trudged away across the sands I could -but feel the liberating power of modern culture, which unfetters us from -the more than iron bands of self-made myths. My mood vanished with the -savage, and I saw the great peak only as it really is—a splendid mass -of granite 14,887 feet high, ice-chiselled and storm-tinted; a great -monolith left standing amid the ruins of a bygone geological empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_366" id="page_366"></a>{366}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV<br /><br /> -THE PEOPLE</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">If</span> mankind were offspring of isothermal lines and topography, we might -arrive at a just criticism of Sierra Nevada people by that cheap and -rapid method so much in vogue nowadays among physical geographers. Their -practice of dragooning the free-agent with wet and dry bulb thermometers -would help us to predict the future of Sierra society but little more -securely than Madam Saint John, who also deals in coming events. I fear -we have no better than the old way of developing what lies ahead -logically from yesterday and to-day, adding large measure of sympathy -with human aspiration and faith in divine help.</p> - -<p>Why all sorts and conditions of men from every race upon the planet -wanted gold, and twenty years ago came here to win it, I shall not -concern myself to ask. Nor can I formulate very accurately the -proportions of good, bad, and indifferent <i>dramatis personæ</i> upon whom -the golden curtain of ’49 rolled up.</p> - -<p>No venerated landmark or sacred restraint held those men in check. There -were no precedents for the acting, no play-book, no prompter, no -audience. “Anglo-Saxondom’s idee” reigned supreme, developing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_367" id="page_367"></a>{367}</span> a plot of -riotous situation, and inconceivably sudden change. Wit and intellect -wrought a condition the most ambitious savages might regard with baffled -envy. History would not, if she could, parallel the state of society -here from ’49 to ’55, nor can we imagine to what height of horror it -might have reached had the Sierra drainage held unlimited gold. Those -were lively days. The penniless ’49er still looks back to them with -bleared eyes as the one period of his life. “Dust” was plenty and to be -had, if not for digging, at the modest price of a bullet.</p> - -<p>To prove the soil’s fertility he tells you proudly how, in those years, -wild oats on every hill grew tall enough to be tied across your -saddle-bow. This irony of nature has passed away, but the cursed plant -ripens its hundredfold in life and manner.</p> - -<p>No one familiar with society as it then was feels the least surprise -that Mr. Bret Harte should deal so largely in morbid anatomy, or appear -to search painfully for a single noble trait to redeem the common bad. -Yet not universal bad, for there were not wanting a few strong Christian -men who, amid all, kept their eyes on the one model, leading lives -blameless, if obscure.</p> - -<p>Broadly, through all kinds and conditions, shone the virtue of generous, -if not self-denying, hospitality. A sort of open-handed fraternity -banded together the honest miners; they were shoulder to shoulder in -common quest of gold, in united effort to make the “camp” lively. The -“fraternity” too often emulated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_368" id="page_368"></a>{368}</span> that of Cain, or wore a ghastly -likeness to the Commune. That those desperadoes, who, through the long -chain of mining towns, outnumbered respectable men, had so generally the -fixed habit of killing one another should rather be written down to -their credit; that they never married to hand down lawless traits seems -their crowning virtue.</p> - -<p>For a few years the solemn pines looked down on a mad carnival of -godless license, a pandemonium in whose picturesque delirium human -character crumbled and vanished like dead leaves.</p> - -<p>It was stirring and gay, but Melpomene’s pathetic face was always under -that laughing mask of comedy.</p> - -<p>This is the unpromising origin of our Sierra civilization. It may be -instructive to note some early steps of improvement: a protest, first -silent, then loud, which went up against disorder and crime; and later, -the inauguration of justice, in form, if not in reality.</p> - -<p>There occurs to me an incident illustrating these first essays in civil -law; it is vouched for by my friend, an unwilling actor in the affair.</p> - -<p>Exactly why horse-stealing should have been so early recognized as a -heinous sin it is not easy to discover; however that might be, murderers -continued to notch the number of their victims on neatly kept hilts of -pistols or knives, in comparative security, long after the horse thief -began to meet his hempen fate.</p> - -<p>Early in the fifties, on a still, hot summer’s afternoon, a certain man, -in a camp of the northern mines<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_369" id="page_369"></a>{369}</span> which shall be nameless, having tracked -his two donkeys and one horse a half-mile, and discovering that a man’s -track with spur-marks followed them, came back to town and told “the -boys,” who loitered about a popular saloon, that in his opinion “some -Mexican had stole the animals.”</p> - -<p>Such news as this naturally demanded drinks all around. “Do you know, -gentlemen,” said one who assumed leadership, “that just naturally to -shoot these Greasers ain’t the best way. Give ’em a fair jury trial, and -rope ’em up with all the majesty of law. That’s the cure.”</p> - -<p>Such words of moderation were well received, and they drank again to -“Here’s hoping we ketch that Greaser.”</p> - -<p>As they loafed back to the veranda a Mexican walked over the hill brow, -jingling his spurs pleasantly in accord with a whistled waltz.</p> - -<p>The advocate for law said in undertone, “That’s the cuss.”</p> - -<p>A rush, a struggle, and the Mexican, bound hand and foot, lay on his -back in the bar-room. The camp turned out to a man.</p> - -<p>Happily, such cries as “String him up!” “Burn the doggoned -‘lubricator’!” and other equally pleasant phrases fell unheeded upon his -Spanish ear.</p> - -<p>A jury, upon which they forced my friend, was quickly gathered in the -street, and, despite refusals to serve, the crowd hurried them in behind -the bar.</p> - -<p>A brief statement of the case was made by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_370" id="page_370"></a>{370}</span> <i>ci-devant</i> advocate, and -they shoved the jury into a commodious poker-room, where were seats -grouped about neat, green tables. The noise outside in the bar-room by -and by died away into complete silence, but from afar down the cañon -came confused sounds as of disorderly cheering.</p> - -<p>They came nearer, and again the light-hearted noise of human laughter -mingled with clinking glasses around the bar.</p> - -<p>A low knock at the jury door; the lock burst in, and a dozen smiling -fellows asked the verdict.</p> - -<p>A foreman promptly answered, “<i>Not guilty</i>.”</p> - -<p>With volleyed oaths, and ominous laying of hands on pistol hilts, the -boys slammed the door with, “You’ll have to do better than that!”</p> - -<p>In half an hour the advocate gently opened the door again.</p> - -<p>“Your <i>opinion</i>, gentlemen?”</p> - -<p>“Guilty!”</p> - -<p>“Correct! You can come out. We hung him an hour ago.”</p> - -<p>The jury took theirs “neat”; and when, after a few minutes, the pleasant -village returned to its former tranquillity, it was “allowed” at more -than one saloon that “Mexicans’ll know enough to let white men’s stock -alone after this.” One and another exchanged the belief that this sort -of thing was more sensible than “<span class="lftspc">‘</span>nipping’ em on sight.”</p> - -<p>When, before sunset, the bar-keeper concluded to sweep some dust out of -his poker-room back-door,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_371" id="page_371"></a>{371}</span> he felt a momentary surprise at finding the -missing horse dozing under the shadow of an oak, and the two lost -donkeys serenely masticating playing-cards, of which many bushels lay in -a dusty pile. He was reminded then that the animals had been there all -day.</p> - -<p>During three or four years the battle between good and bad became more -and more determined, until all positive characters arrayed themselves -either for or against public order.</p> - -<p>At length, on a sudden, the party for right organized those august mobs, -the Vigilance Committees, and quickly began to festoon their more -depraved fellow-men from tree to tree. Rogues of sufficient shrewdness -got themselves enrolled in the vigilance ranks, and were soon unable to -tell themselves from the most virtuous. Those quiet oaks, whose hundreds -of sunny years had been spent in lengthening out glorious branches, now -found themselves playing the part of public gibbet.</p> - -<p>Let it be distinctly understood that I am not passing criticism on the -San Francisco organization, which I have never investigated, but on -“Committees” in the mountain towns, with whose performance I am -familiar.</p> - -<p>The Vigilants quickly put out of existence a majority of the worst -desperadoes, and by their swift, merciless action struck such terror to -the rest that ever after the right has mainly controlled affairs.</p> - -<p>This was, <i>perhaps</i>, well. With characteristic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_372" id="page_372"></a>{372}</span> promptness they laid -down their power, and gave California over to the constituted -authorities. This was magnificent. They deserve the commendation due to -success. They have, however, such a frank, honest way of singing their -praise, such eternal, undisguised and virtuous self-laudation over the -whole matter, that no one else need interrupt them with fainter notes.</p> - -<p>Although this generation has written its indorsement in full upon the -transaction, it may be doubted if history (how long is it before -dispassionate candor speaks?) will trace an altogether favorable verdict -upon her pages. Possibly, to fulfil the golden round of duty it is -needful to do right in the right way, and success may not be proven the -eternal test of merit.</p> - -<p>That the Vigilance Committees grasped the moral power is undeniable; -that they used it for the public salvation is equally true; but the best -advocates are far from showing that with skill and moderation they might -not have thrown their weight into the scale <i>with</i> law, and conquered, -by means of legislature, judge, and jury, a peace wholly free from the -stain of lawless blood.</p> - -<p>An impartial future may possibly grant the plenary inspiration of -Vigilance Committees. Perhaps that better choice was in truth denied -them; it may be the hour demanded a sudden blow of self-defence. Whether -better or best, the act has not left unmixed blessing, although it now -seems as if the lawlessness, which even till these later years has from -time to time<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_373" id="page_373"></a>{373}</span> manifested itself, is gradually and surely dying out. Yet -to-day, as I write, State troops are encamped at Amador, to suppress a -spirit which has taken law in its own hand.</p> - -<p>With the gradual decline of gold product, something like social -equilibrium asserted itself. By 1860 California had made the vast, -inspiring stride from barbarism to vulgarity.</p> - -<p>In failing gold-industry, and the gradual abandonment of placer-ground -to Chinamen, there is abundant pathos. You see it in a hundred towns and -camps where empty buildings in disrepair stand in rows; no nailing up of -blinds or closing of doors hides the vacancy. The cheap squalor of -Chinese streets adds misery to the scene, besides scenting a pure -mountain air with odors of complete wretchedness. Pigs prowl the -streets. Every deserted cabin knows a story of brave, manly effort ended -in bitter failure, and the lingering, stranded men have a melancholy -look as of faint fish the ebb has left to die.</p> - -<p>I recall one town into which our party rode at evening. A single family -alone remained, too desperately poor to leave their home; all the other -buildings—church, post-office, the half-dozen saloons, and many -dwellings—standing with wide-open doors, their cloth walls and ceilings -torn down to make squaws’ petticoats.</p> - -<p>If our horses in the great, deserted livery stable were as comfortable -as we, who each made his bed on a billiard table, they did well.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_374" id="page_374"></a>{374}</span></p> - -<p>With this slow decay the venturous, both good and bad, have drifted off -to other mining countries, leaving most often small cause to regret -them.</p> - -<p>Pathos and comedy so tenderly blent can rarely be found as here. -Enterprise has shrunken away from its old belongings; a feeble rill of -trade trickles down the broad channel of former affluence. Those few -49ers who linger ought to be gently preserved for historic specimens, -as we used to care for that cannon-ball in the Boston bricks, or -whatever might remind this youthful country of a past. They are -altogether harmless now, possessing the peculiar charm of lions with -drawn teeth.</p> - -<p>Behold this old-school relic, a type known as the real Virginia -gentleman, as of a mild summer twilight he walks along the quiet street, -clad in black broadcloth and spotless linen, a heavy cane hanging by its -curved handle from his wrist. He pauses by the “s’loon,” receiving -respectful salutation from a mild company of bummers who hold him in -awe, and call him nothing less than “Judge.” They omit their habitual -sugar-and-water, and are at pains to swallow as stiff a glass and as -“neat” as their hero.</p> - -<p>The Judge is reminded of livelier days by certain unhealed bullet-holes -in ceiling and wall, and recounts for the hundredth time, in chaste -language, the whole affair; and in particular how three-fingered Jack -blew the top of Alabam’s head off, and that stopped it all.</p> - -<p>“We buried the six,” the Judge continues, “side and side, and it wasn’t -a week before two of us found<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_375" id="page_375"></a>{375}</span> old Jack and his partner on the same -limb, and they made eight graves. The ball that made that hole went -through my hat, and I travelled after that for awhile, till the thing -sort of blew over.</p> - -<p>“Ah! boys,” he winds up, in tones tremulous with tearful regret, “you -fellows will never see such lively times as we of the early days.”</p> - -<p>His tall figure passes on with uncertain gait, stopping at garden fences -here and there to execute one or two old-school compliments for the -ladies who are spending their evenings under vine-draped porches; and -when he takes an easy-chair by invitation, and begins a story laid in -the spring of 50, the Judge is conscious in his heart that the full -saloon veranda is looking and saying, “The <i>wimmun</i> always did like -him.”</p> - -<p>The 49 rough, too, still stays in almost every camp. He evaded rope by -joining the “Vigilants,” and has become a safe and fangless wolf in -sheep’s clothing. He found early that he could sponge and swindle a -larger amount from any given community than could be plundered, to say -nothing of the advantages of personal security. But now all these -characters are, God be thanked! few and widely scattered. Our present -census enrolls a safe, honest, reputable population, who respect law and -personal rights, and who, besides, look into the future with a sense of -responsibility and resolve.</p> - -<p>It is very much the habit of newly arrived people to link the past and -present too closely in their estimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_376" id="page_376"></a>{376}</span> of the existing status. That -dreadful nightmare of early years is unfortunately, not to say cruelly, -mixed up with to-day. I think this must in great measure account for the -virtuous horror of that saintly army of travellers who write about -California, taking pains to open fire (at sublimely long range) with -their very hottest shot upon the devoted dwellers here. Such bombardment -in large pica, with all the added severity of double-leading, does not -interrupt the Sierra tranquillity; they marry and are given in marriage, -as in the days of Noah, regardless of explosions of many literary -batteries. Nor is this peaceful state altogether because the projectiles -fall short. There are people here who read, and read thoroughly. Can we -think them hyper-sensitive if surprised when, after opening heart and -doors to scribbling visitors, they find themselves held up to ridicule -or execration in unimpeachable English and tasteful typography?</p> - -<p>An equally false impression is spread by that considerable class of men -whose courage and energy were not enough to win in open contest there, -and who publicly shake off dust from departing feet, go East in ballast, -and make a virtue of burning their ships, forgetful that for one -waterlogged craft a hundred stanch keels will furrow the Golden Gate.</p> - -<p>Between the cruelly superficial criticism of most Eastern writers and -dark predictions from those smug prophets, the physical geographers, -Californians have nothing left them but their own conscious power; not<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_377" id="page_377"></a>{377}</span> -the poorest reliance in practical business, like building futures, one -should say.</p> - -<p>I am not going to deny that even yet there flickers up now and then a -lingering flame of that 49 Inferno. If I did, the lively and -picturesque <i>auto-da-fé</i> of “Austrian George,” the other day, would be -moved to amend me.</p> - -<p>We must admit the facts. California people are not living in a tranquil, -healthy, social <i>régime</i>. They are provincial,—never, however, in a -local way, but by reason of limited thought. Aspirations for wealth and -ease rise conspicuously above any thirst for intellectual culture and -moral peace. Energy and a glorious audacity are their leading traits.</p> - -<p>To the charge of light-hearted gayety, so freely trumpeted by graver -home critics, I plead them guilty. There is nowhere that dull, weary -expression and rayless sedateness of face we of New England are fonder -of ascribing to our tender conscience than to east winds. So, too, are -wanting difficulties of bronchia and lungs, which might inferentially be -symptoms of original sin.</p> - -<p>Is Californian cheerfulness due to wide-spread moral levity, or to -perpetual sunshine and green salads through the round year tempting weak -human nature to smile?</p> - -<p>I believe it climatic, and humbly offer my tribute to the -thermometer-man, who among many ventures has this time probably stumbled -upon truth.</p> - -<p>Let us not grieve because the writers and lecturers<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_378" id="page_378"></a>{378}</span> have not found -Californian society all their ideals demanded, for (saving always the -dry-bulb readers of past and future) their dictum is confined to -existing conditions. Have they forgotten that these are less potent -factors in development than the impulse, that what a man <i>is</i>, is of far -less consequence than what he is <i>becoming</i>?</p> - -<p>Show these gloomy critics a bare stretch of vulgar Sierra earth, and -they will tell you how barren, how valueless it is, ignorant that the -art of any Californian can banish every grain of sand into the Pacific’s -bottom, and gather a residuum of solid gold. Out of the race of men whom -they have in the same shallow way called common, I believe Time shall -separate a noble race.</p> - -<p>Travelling to-day in foot-hill Sierras, one may see the old, rude scars -of mining; trenches yawn, disordered heaps cumber the ground, yet they -are no longer bare. Time, with friendly rain, and wind, and flood, -slowly, surely, levels all, and a compassionate cover of innocent -verdure weaves fresh and cool from mile to mile. While Nature thus -gently heals the humble Earth, God, who is also Nature, moulds and -changes Man.</p> - -<p class="c"><small>THE END.</small></p> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, by -Clarence King - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAINEERING IN THE SIERRA *** - -***** This file should be named 54046-h.htm or 54046-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/0/4/54046/ - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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