WILD GARDENS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 103 



tals ; eastward, the meadowy, billowy Tuolumne 

 region and the Summit peaks in glorious array ; 

 southward, Yosemite ; and westward, the bound- 

 less forests. On no other mountain that I 

 know of are you more likely to linger. It is a 

 magnificent camp ground. Clumps of dwarf 

 pine furnish rosiny roots and branches for fuel, 

 and the rills pure water. Around your camp fire 

 the flowers seem to be looking eagerly at the 

 light, and the crystals shine unweariedly, making 

 fine company as you he at rest in the very heart 

 of the vast, serene, majestic night. 



The finest of the glacier meadow gardens lie 

 at an elevation of about nine thousand feet, 

 imbedded in the upper pine forests like lakes of 

 light. They are smooth and level, a mile or two 

 long, and the rich, well-drained ground is com- 

 pletely covered with a soft, silky, plushy sod 

 enameled with flowers, not one of which is in 

 the least weedy or coarse. In some places the 

 sod is so crowded with showy flowers that the 

 grasses are scarce noticed, in others they are 

 rather sparingly scattered ; while every leaf and 

 flower seems to have its winged representative in 

 the swarms of happy flower-like insects that en- 

 liven the air above them. 



With the winter snowstorms wings and petals 

 are folded, and for more than half the year the 

 meadows are snow-buried ten or fifteen feet deep. 

 In June they begin to thaw out, small patches of 



