Letters to a Friend 



in near view all the way to Gilroy. Their union 

 with the valley is by curves and slopes of inimit 

 able beauty, and they were robed with the 

 greenest grass and richest light I ever beheld, 

 and colored and shaded with millions of flowers 

 of every hue, chiefly of purple and golden yel 

 low; and hundreds of crystal rills joined songs 

 with the larks, filling all the valley with music 

 like a sea, making it an Eden from end to end. 

 The scenery, too, and all of Nature in the 

 pass is fairly enchanting, strange and beau 

 tiful mountain ferns, low in the dark canons 

 and high upon the rocky, sunlit peaks, banks 

 of blooming shrubs, and sprinklings and gath 

 erings of [ ] flowers, precious and pure as 

 ever enjoyed the sweets of a mountain home. 

 And oh, what streams are there! beaming, 

 glancing, each with music of its own, singing 

 as they go in the shadow and light, onward upon 

 their lovely changing pathways to the sea; and 

 hills rise over hills, and mountains over moun 

 tains, heaving, waving, swelling, in most glori 

 ous, overpowering, unreadable majesty; and 

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