the door, on which was the carcass of a large grizzly bear, shot behind
the house this morning. I had intended to ride ten miles farther, but,
finding that the trail in some places was a "blind" one, and being
bewitched by the beauty and serenity of Tahoe, I have remained here
sketching, reveling in the view from the veranda, and strolling in the
forest. At this height there is frost every night of the year, and my
fingers are benumbed.

The beauty is entrancing. The sinking sun is out of sight behind the
western Sierras, and all the pine-hung promontories on this side of the
water are rich indigo, just reddened with lake, deepening here and
there into Tyrian purple. The peaks above, which still catch the sun,
are bright rose-red, and all the mountains on the other side are pink;
and pink, too, are the far-off summits on which the snow-drifts rest.
Indigo, red, and orange tints stain the still water, which lies solemn
and dark against the shore, under the shadow of stately pines. An hour
later, and a moon nearly full--not a pale, flat disc, but a radiant
sphere--has wheeled up into the flushed sky. The sunset has passed
through every stage of beauty, through every glory of color, through
riot and triumph, through pathos and tenderness, into a long, dreamy,
painless rest, succeeded by the profound solemnity of the moonlight,
and a stillness broken only by the night cries of beasts in the
aromatic forests.

I. L. B.

Letter II

A lady's "get-up"--Grizzly bears--The "Gems of the Sierras"--A tragic
tale--A carnival of color.

CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 7.

As night came on the cold intensified, and the stove in the parlor
attracted every one. A San Francisco lady, much "got up" in paint,
emerald green velvet, Brussels lace, and diamonds, rattled continuously
for the amusement of the company, giving descriptions of persons and
scenes in a racy Western twang, without the slightest scruple as to
what she said. In a few years Tahoe will be inundated in summer with
similar vulgarity, owing to its easiness of access. I sustained the
reputation which our country-women bear in America by looking a
"perfect guy"; and feeling that I was a salient point for the speaker's
next sally, I was relieved when the landlady, a ladylike Englishwoman,
asked me to join herself and her family in the bar-room, where we had
much talk about the neighborhood and its wild beasts, especially be