Letters to a Friend 



the west side of the canon into the forest. About 

 6 miles farther down we made out to reenter 

 the canon, where there is a Yosemite valley, 

 and by hard efforts succeeded in getting out on 

 the opposite side and reaching the divide be 

 tween the east fork and the middle fork. We 

 then followed the top of the divide nearly to 

 the confluence of the east fork with the trunk 

 and crossed the main river yesterday, and are 

 now in the pines again, over all the wildest and 

 most impracticable portions of our journey. In 

 descending the divide of the main Kings River 

 we made a descent of near 7000 feet down, 

 clear down with a vengeance, to the hot pineless 

 foot-hills. We rose again, and it was a most 

 grateful resurrection. Last night I watched the 

 writing of the spirey pines on the sky gray with 

 stars, and if you had been here I would have said, 

 Look, etc. 



Last night, when the Doctor and I were bed- 

 building, discussing as usual the goodnesses 

 and badnesses of boughy mountain beds, we 

 were astounded by the appearance of two pros- 

 [ 165 ] 



