Letters to a Friend 



Yosemite, October I4th, [1872.] 



I cannot hear from you. There are some 

 souls, perhaps, that are never tired, that ever 

 go steadily glad, always tuneful and songful like 

 mountain water. Not so, weary, hungry me. 

 This second time I come from the rocks for 

 fresh supplies of the two breads, but I find but 

 one. I cannot hear from you. My last weeks 

 were spent among the canons of the Hoffman 

 range and the Cathedral Peak group east of 

 Lake Tenaya. All gloriously rich in the written 

 truths which I am seeking. I will now go to the 

 wide, ragged tributaries of Illilouette and to 

 Pohono, after which I will mope about among 

 the rim canons and rock forms of the valley as 

 the weather permits. 



Perhaps I have not yet answered all of your 

 last long pages. Here is a quotation from Tyn- 

 dall concerning the nature and origin of his 

 intense mountain enjoyments. He reaches far 

 and near for a theory of his delight in the moun 

 tains, going among the accidents of his own 

 boyhood and those of his remotest fathers, but 

 [ 139] 



