In the Sierra 



in these storm-beaten sky gardens amid so 

 vast a congregation of onlooking moun- 

 tains ! Strange and admirable it is that the 

 more savage and chilly and storm-chafed 

 the mountains, the finer the glow on their 

 faces and the finer the plants they bear. 

 The myriads of flowers tingeing the moun- 

 tain-top do not seem to have grown out 

 of the dry, rough gravel of disintegration, 

 but rather they appear as visitors, a cloud 

 of witnesses to Nature's love in what we in 

 our timid ignorance and unbelief call howl- 

 ing desert. The surface of the ground, so 

 dull and forbidding at first sight, besides be- 

 ing rich in plants, shines and sparkles with 

 crystals : mica, hornblende, feldspar, quartz, 

 tourmaline. The radiance in some places 

 is so great as to be fairly dazzling, keen 

 lance rays of every color flashing, sparkling 

 in glorious abundance, joining the plants 

 in their fine, brave beauty-work, every 

 crystal, every flower a window opening into 

 heaven, a mirror reflecting the Creator. 

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