Sierra Journal, Summer of 1869, v. 3, 1869 [ca. 1887], Image 34

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2018
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-sj3/34; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmn-sj3/article/1033/type/native/viewcontent/MuirReel31_Notebook_009_Img034.jpg

82 the very head of the pass I found the blue arctic daisy & purple flowerd bryanthus the mountains own darlings [for the first time in all their telling purity & spirituality] gentle mountaineers face to face with the sky kept safe & warm by a thousand miracles. [Bryanthus too another charming plant a company of natures darlings which] seem always the finer & purer [to become more beautiful] the wilder & stormier their homes. The trees touch & rosing seem unable to go a step farther into the cold sky but up & up far above the tree line these tender [lovely] plants climb [go] spreading their bright carpets [&] blooming right cheerily [&] followed by [&] butterflies bees, [follow] up to the edges of the great snowbanks that lay in [the] deep hollows & shadows. The familiar robin was here also & seemed to feel at home bringing to mind the farm in Wisconsin when first I saw him. In such fine company I sauntered [on] enchanted taking no heed of time when at length I entered the gateway of the pass & the huge rocks began to close around me in all their mysterious impressiveness. Just then I was startled by a lot of queer hairy muffled creatures that came towards me in a soft shuffling shambling way as if they had no bones in their bodies. Had I discovered them while they were yet at a good way off I should have tried to avoid them without showing fear. [I was frightened and] felt like running away but of course it [would never do to show fear] What a picture they made contrasted with the others [pictures] [after those of the flowers etc.] I had just been admiring [gazing at] when I came up to them [after] I found they were only a band of Indians from Mono on their way to Yosemite for a load of acorns. They were wrapped in blankets made of the skins of sage rabbits they were all [very] dirty & most of them far from handsome [ugly]. The dirt on some of the faces seemed [places was fairly stratified in appearance and] seemed almost thick enough to [as though it ...