A Thousand-Mile Walk 



ing over the flowery hills in most imposing 

 majesty, bestowing water as from a sea. The 

 passionate rain-gush lasted only about one min 

 ute, but was nevertheless the most magnifi 

 cent cataract of the sky mountains that I ever 

 beheld. A portion of calm sky toward the 

 Sierras was brushed with thin, white cloud- 

 tissue, upon which the rain-torrent showed to 

 a great height a cloud waterfall, which, like 

 those of Yosemite, was neither spray, rain, nor 

 solid water. In the same year the cloudiness 

 of January, omitting rainy days, averaged 

 0.32; February, 0.13; March, 0.20; April, o.io; 

 May, 0.08. The greater portion of this cloudi 

 ness was gathered into a few days, leaving the 

 others blocks of solid, universal sunshine in 

 every chink and pore. 



At the end of January, four plants were in 

 flower: a small white cress, growing in large 

 patches; a low-set, umbeled plant, with yellow 

 flowers ; an eriogonum, with flowers in leafless 

 spangles; and a small boragewort. Five or six 

 mosses had adjusted their hoods, and were in 

 [ 206 1 



