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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



polished smooth by the glacial action of long ages. This 

 was an easy tramp of only ten miles, and all the afternoon 

 we rested and dozed, and swam in the warm clear water. 

 On the third day we scrambled over rough granite and 

 melting snows and shallow streams up to the Cathedral 

 Lakes, nine thousand feet above the sea among brown 

 pines and drear, bleak, jagged peaks; and then on in 

 soaked shoes through miles of forest, wading the streams 

 and clearing the other obstacles as we could, to our 

 twelve days' camp in Tuolumne Meadows. 



Here we made ourselves at home, and from this base- 

 camp took tramping or climbing or fishing trips, accord- 

 ing to individual taste. The snows had but recently 

 melted from the green and flowered meadows ; the first 

 night we shivered until the morning sun shone in upon 

 our sleeping-bags with penetrating warmth. So we gath- 

 ered quantities of dried bunch-grass and made soft beds 

 to take ofif the chill of the earth. Charley Tuck set up 

 his flimsy stoves, and gave us buckwheat cakes at break- 

 fast and fresh bread every day; and we even had fresh 

 meat from the Valley, and a present of mutton from 

 herds which the soldiers caught trespassing on Uncle 

 Sam's domain. A deliciously cool soda spring bubbled 

 and fizzed out of the red earth a mile away, and thither 

 we would go with lemons and sugar to drink soda lemon- 

 ade. From this camp started various expeditions, the 

 weak or lazy idling if they chose, and the hardier 

 mountaineers climbing Dana, Lyell, and Ritter, the three 

 1 3,000- foot mountains, and even — twenty of the more 

 venturesome — cutting and tearing their way through the 

 spectacular Tuolumne Cafion, carrying on their backs 

 bedding and provisions for four days. 



At eight or ten thousand feet above sea level, out in 

 the open, anxieties and dangers dwindle away, and 

 dramatic contrasts become the most natural thing in the 

 world. To walk over hard snow-drifts under a hot sun, 

 for example ; to burn at midday and shiver at night, and 

 soak one's feet in a thousand rills — all without taking 



