18 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



nearly all other features of the Sierra scenery, are 

 glacier monuments. 



Contemplating the works of these flowers of the 

 sky, one may easily fancy them endowed with life : 

 messengers sent down to work in the mountain 

 mines on errands of divine love. Silently flying 

 through the darkened air, swirling, glinting, to their 

 appointed places, they seem to have taken counsel 

 together, saying, " Come, we are feeble ; let us help 

 one another. "We are many, and together we will be 

 strong. Marching in close, deep ranks, let us roll 

 away the stones from these mountain sepulchers, 

 and set the landscapes free. Let us uncover these 

 clustering domes. Here let us carve a lake basin ; 

 there, a Yosemite Valley ; here, a channel for a river 

 with fluted steps and brows for the plunge of song 

 ful cataracts. Yonder let us spread broad sheets 

 of soil, that man and beast may be fed; and here 

 pile trains of boulders for pines and giant Sequoias. 

 Here make ground for a meadow; there, for a garden 

 and grove, making it smooth and fine for small 

 daisies and violets and beds of heathy bryanthus, 

 spicing it well with crystals, garnet feldspar, and 

 zircon." Thus and so on it has oftentimes seemed 

 to me sang and planned and labored the hearty 

 snow-flower crusaders ; and nothing that I can write 

 can possibly exaggerate the grandeur and beauty 

 of their work. Like morning mist they have 

 vanished in sunshine, all save the few small com 

 panies that still linger on the coolest mountain 

 sides, and, as residual glaciers, are still busily at work 

 completing the last of the lake basins, the last beds of 

 soil, and the sculpture of some of the highest peaks. 



