134 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



of it. But the house habit was not to be overcome, 

 nor the strange dread of pure night air, though 

 it is only cooled day air with a little dew in it. 

 So the carpet dust and unknowable reeks were 

 preferred. And to think of this being a Boston 

 choice ! Sad commentary on culture and the glo- 

 rious transcendentalism. 



Accustomed to reach whatever place I started 

 for, I was going up the mountain alone to camp, 

 and wait the coming of the party next day. But 

 since Emerson was so soon to vanish, I con- 

 cluded to stop with him. He hardly spoke a 

 word all the evening, yet it was a great pleasure 

 simply to be near him, warming in the light of his 

 face as at a fire. In the morning we rode up the 

 trail through a noble forest of pine and fir into 

 the famous Mariposa Grove, and stayed an hour or 

 two, mostly in ordinary tourist fashion, — look- 

 ing at the biggest giants, measuring them with a 

 tape line, riding through prostrate fire-bored 

 trunks, etc., though Mr. Emerson was alone occa- 

 sionally, sauntering about as if under a spell. 

 As we walked through a fine group, he quoted, 

 "There were giants in those days," recognizing 

 the antiquity of the race. To commemorate his 

 visit, Mr. Galen Clark, the guardian of the grove 9 

 selected the finest of the unnamed trees and re- 

 quested him to give it a name. He named it 

 Samoset, after the New England sachem, as the 

 best that occurred to him. 



