My First Summer 



domes and wave-ridges. Many mossy em- 

 erald bogs, meadows, and gardens in rocky 

 hollows to wade and saunter through, 

 and what fine plants they give me, what joy- 

 ful streams I have to cross, and how many 

 views are displayed of the Hoffman and 

 Cathedral Peak masonry, and what a won- 

 drous breadth of shining granite pavement 

 to walk over for the first time about the 

 shores of the lake ! On I sauntered in free- 

 dom complete; body without weight as far 

 as I was aware; now wading through starry 

 parnassia bogs, now through gardens shoul- 

 der deep in larkspur and lilies, grasses and 

 rushes, shaking off showers of dew; cross- 

 ing piles of crystalline moraine boulders, 

 bright mirror pavements, and cool, cheery 

 streams going to Yosemite; crossing bryan- 

 thus carpets and the scoured pathways of 

 avalanches, and thickets of snow-pressed 

 ceanothus; then down a broad, majestic 

 stairway into the ice-sculptured lake-basin. 

 The snow on the high mountains is melt- 



[ 210 ] 



