Letters to a Friend 



red evening and morning, not usual crimson 

 glow but separate clouds colored and anchored 

 in dense massive mountain forms. One red, 

 bluffy cap is placed upon Castle Peak and its 

 companion to the south, but the smooth cone 

 tower of the castle is seen peering out over the 

 top. Tiger Peak has a cloud cap also of the 

 grandest proportion and colors, and the exten 

 sive field of clustered towers and peaks and 

 domes where is stored the treasures of snow be 

 longing to the Merced and Tuolumne and Joa- 

 quin is embosomed in bossy clouds of white. 

 The grand Sierra Cathedral is overshadowed 

 like Sinai. Never before beheld such divine 

 mingling of cloud and mountain. Had a delight 

 ful walk upon the north wall. Ascended by a 

 deep narrow passage cut in the granite. Its 

 borders are splendidly decorated with ferns 

 and blooming shrubs. The most delicate of 

 plantlets in the gush and ardor of full bloom in 

 places called desolate and gloomy, where the 

 dwarfed and crumpled pines are felled with hail 

 and rocks and wintry snows ; but as frail flowers 

 [ 68] 



