THE STREETS OF THE MOUNTAINS 



head also for the heart of the mountains; 

 their distinction is that they never get any- 

 where. 



All mountain streets have streams to 

 thread them, or deep grooves where a 

 stream might run. You would do well to 

 avoid that range uncomforted by singing 

 floods. You will find it forsaken of most 

 things but beauty and madness and death 

 and God. Many such lie east and north 

 away from the mid Sierras, and quicken 

 the imagination with the sense of pur- 

 poses not revealed, but the ordinary trav- 

 eler brings nothing away from them but 

 an intolerable thirst. 



The river canons of the Sierras of the 

 Snows are better worth while than most 

 Broadways, though the choice of them is 

 like the choice of streets, not very well de- 

 termined by their names. There is always 

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