Letters to a Friend 



most fronds unrolled. Spring is in full power 

 and is steadily reaching higher like a shadow 

 and will soon reach the topmost horizon of rocks. 

 The buds of the poplar opened on the I9th of 

 last month, those of the oaks on the 24th. 



May ist was a fine, hopeful, healthful, cool, 

 bright day with plenty of the fragrance of new 

 leaves and flowers and of the music of bugs and 

 birds. From the 5th to I4th was extremely 

 warm, the thermometer averaging about 85 de 

 grees at noon in shade. Craggy banks of cumuli 

 became common about Storm King and the 

 Dome. Flowers came in troops. The upper 

 snows melted very fast, raising the falls to their 

 highest pitch of glory. The waters of the Yose- 

 mite Fall no longer float softly and downily like 

 hanks of spent rockets but shoot at once to the 

 bottom with tremendous energy. There is at 

 least ten times the amount of water in the val 

 ley that there was when you were here. 



In crossing the valley we had to sail in the 

 boat. The river paid but little attention to its 

 banks, flowing over the meadow in great river- 

 [78] 



