Letters to a Friend 



Yosemite Valley, 



October 8th, 1872. 



Here we are again, and here is your letter of 

 Sept. 24th. I got down last evening, and boo! 

 was I not weary after pushing through the rough 

 upper half of the great Tuolumne Canon? I 

 have climbed more than twenty-four thousand 

 feet in these ten days, three times to the top of 

 the glacieret of Mt. Hoffman, and once to Mts. 

 Lyell and McClure. I have bagged a quantity 

 of Tuolumne rocks sufficient to build a dozen 

 Yosemites ; stripes of cascades longer than ever, 

 lacy or smooth and white as pressed snow; a 

 glacier basin with ten glassy lakes set all near 

 together like eggs in a nest; then El Capitan 

 and a couple of Tissiacks, canons glorious with 

 yellows and reds of mountain maple and aspen 

 and honeysuckle and ash and new indescribable 

 music immeasurable from strange waters and 

 winds, and glaciers, too, flowing and grinding, 

 alive as any on earth. Shall I pull you out some ? 

 Here is a clean, white-skinned glacier from the 

 back of McClure with glassy emerald flesh and 



