An eagle soaring above a sheer cliff, where I suppose its nest is, makes
another striking show of life, and helps to bring to mind the other
people of the so-called solitude--deer in the forest caring for their
young; the strong, well-clad, well-fed bears; the lively throng of
squirrels; the blessed birds, great and small, stirring and sweetening
the groves; and the clouds of happy insects filling the sky with joyous
hum as part and parcel of the down-pouring sunshine. All these come to
mind, as well as the plant people, and the glad streams singing their
way to the sea. But most impressive of all is the vast glowing
countenance of the wilderness in awful, infinite repose.

Toward sunset, enjoyed a fine run to camp, down the long south slopes,
across ridges and ravines, gardens and avalanche gaps, through the firs
and chaparral, enjoying wild excitement and excess of strength, and so
ends a day that will never end.

_July 27._ Up and away to Lake Tenaya,--another big day, enough for a
lifetime. The rocks, the air, everything speaking with audible voice or
silent; joyful, wonderful, enchanting, banishing weariness and sense of
time. No longing for anything now or hereafter as we go home into the
mountain's heart. The level sunbeams are touching the fir-tops, every
leaf shining with dew. Am holding an easterly course, the deep canyon of
Tenaya Creek on the right hand, Mount Hoffman on the left, and the lake
straight ahead about ten miles distant, the summit of Mount Hoffman
about three thousand feet above me, Tenaya Creek four thousand feet
below and separated from the shallow, irregular valley, along which most
of the way lies, by smooth domes and wave-ridges. Many mossy emerald
bogs, meadows, and gardens in rocky hollows to wade and saunter
through--and what fine plants they give me, what joyful streams I have
to cross, and how many views are displayed of the Hoffman and Cathedral
Peak masonry, and what a wondrous breadth of shining granite pavement to
walk over for the first time about the shores of the lake! On I
sauntered in freedom complete; body without weight as far as I was
aware; now wading through starry parnassia bogs, now through gardens
shoulder deep in larkspur and lilies, grasses and rushes, shaking off
showers of dew; crossing piles of crystalline moraine boulders, bright
mirror pavements, and cool, cheery streams going to Yosemite; crossing
bryanthus carpets and the scoured pathways of avalanches, and th