THE STREETS OF THE MOUNTAINS 



passes are steep and windy ridges, though 

 not the highest. By two and three thou- 

 sand feet the snow-caps overtop them. It 

 is even possible to win through the Sierras 

 without having passed above timber-Hne, 

 but one misses a great exhilaration. 



The shape of a new mountain is coughly 

 pyramidal, running out into long shark- 

 finned ridges that interfere and merge into 

 other thunder-splintered sierras. You get 

 the saw-tooth effect from a distance, but 

 the near-by granite bulk glitters with the 

 / terrible keen polish of old glacial ages. I 

 ( say terrible ; so it seems. When those 

 glossy domes swim into the alpenglow, 

 / wet after rain, you conceive how long and 

 imperturbable are the purposes of God. 



Never believe what you are told, that 

 midsummer is the best time to go up the 

 streets of the mountain — well — perhaps 

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