Sierra Journal, Summer of 1869, v. 3, 1869 [ca. 1887], Image 22

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2018
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-sj3/22; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmn-sj3/article/1021/type/native/viewcontent/MuirReel31_Notebook_009_Img022.jpg

38 carry & when my bread is done run [go][sauntering back][down to the nearest point on the breadline] for more. Nor will time being thus lost, for whether up or down every step on these blessed mountains is interesting. Aug [August] 8) Trans ((Clouds .05 pearly white cumuli & thunder but no rain came [very] near us except a light sprinkle toward [watering in the] evening. A curious time change. We are encamped at the west end of Lake Tenaya. [Getting to camp] Arriving early I made an excursion to the East end of the lake over the shining glaciated pavements & climbed the mountain rock which dips it's [western] south western slope's beneath the waters [of the lake this massive rock is bare of soil and] almost every yard of its surface shows the scoring & polishing action the ancient glacier that enveloped it & swept heavily over its summit though it is about though it is about 2,000 feet high above the lake & 10,000 above sea level. This majestic & ancient ice flood [of ice] has come from the eastward as the scoring & crushing of the surface shows. Even below the waters of the lake the rock is still grooved & polished the laughing of the waves & disintegrating action have not as yet [been able to] obliterated even the superficial marks of glaciation. Doubtless the whole basin has been eroded by this mighty ice agent from the solid granite, & only a comparatively short time ago. I found many charming plants on this mountain. While spiraea is [very] 39 abundant & makes graceful fringes along seams & fractures, & the sturdy juniperus occidentalis stand here & there from top to bottom, showing wonderful endurance & picturesqueness. Blue arctic daisies occur in little hollows & along weathered seams [also the bryanthus] [& many] with rock forms Pelleae Cheilanthes Allosorus, etc. In climbing the steepest polished places I [slippery slopes] had to takeoff shoes & stockings. A fine region this for the study of [ice] glacial action [ARROWS] Made ...