My First Summer 



a height at times of nearly a hundred feet. 

 Specimens only six inches in diameter. at the 

 ground are often fifty or sixty feet in height, 

 as slender and sharp in outline as arrows, like 

 the true tamarack (larch) of the Eastern 

 States ; hence the name, though it is a 

 pine. 



July 1 1 . - The Don has gone ahead on 

 one of the pack animals to spy out the land 

 to the north of Yosemite in search of the 

 best point for a central camp. Much higher 

 than this we cannot now go, for the upper 

 pastures, said to be better than any here- 

 abouts, are still buried in heavy winter 

 snow. Glad I am that camp is to be fixed 

 in the Yosemite region, for many a glorious 

 ramble I '11 have along the top of the walls, 

 and then what landscapes I shall find with 

 their new mountains and canons, forests 

 and gardens, lakes and streams and falls, 



We are now about seven thousand feet 

 above the sea, and the nights are so cool we 

 have to pile coats and extra clothing on top 



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