I Expected To Sleep On The Boulders, For I Spent Most Of The
Afternoon On The Slippery Wall Of The Canyon, Endeavoring To Get
Around This Difficult Part Of The Gorge, And Was Compelled To
Hasten Down Here For Water Before Dark.
I shall sleep soundly on
this sand; half of it is mica.
Here, wonderful to behold, are a
few green stems of prickly rubus, and a tiny grass. They are here
to meet us. Ay, even here in this darksome gorge, "frightened and
tormented" with raging torrents and choking avalanches of snow.
Can it be? As if rubus and the grass leaf were not enough of God's
tender prattle words of love, which we so much need in these mighty
temples of power, yonder in the "benmost bore" are two blessed
adiantums. Listen to them! How wholly infused with God is this
one big word of love that we call the world! Good-night. Do you
see the fire-glow on my ice-smoothed slab, and on my two ferns and
the rubus and grass panicles? And do you hear how sweet a sleep-
song the fall and cascades are singing?
The water-ground chips and knots that I found fastened between the
rocks kept my fire alive all through the night. Next morning I rose
nerved and ready for another day of sketching and noting, and any form
of climbing. I escaped from the gorge about noon, after accomplishing
some of the most delicate feats of mountaineering I ever attempted;
and here the canyon is all broadly open again - the floor luxuriantly
forested with pine, and spruce, and silver fir, and brown-trunked
libocedrus.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 21 of 304
Words from 5462 to 5738
of 82482
