xhibition with
the performances of deer swimming quietly across broad and rapid rivers,
and from island to island in seas and lakes; or with dogs, or even with
the squirrels that, as the story goes, cross the Mississippi River on
selected chips, with tails for sails comfortably trimmed to the breeze.
A sheep can hardly be called an animal; an entire flock is required to
make one foolish individual.

CHAPTER V

THE YOSEMITE

_July 15._ Followed the Mono Trail up the eastern rim of the basin
nearly to its summit, then turned off southward to a small shallow
valley that extends to the edge of the Yosemite, which we reached about
noon, and encamped. After luncheon I made haste to high ground, and from
the top of the ridge on the west side of Indian Canon gained the noblest
view of the summit peaks I have ever yet enjoyed. Nearly all the upper
basin of the Merced was displayed, with its sublime domes and canyons,
dark upsweeping forests, and glorious array of white peaks deep in the
sky, every feature glowing, radiating beauty that pours into our flesh
and bones like heat rays from fire. Sunshine over all; no breath of wind
to stir the brooding calm. Never before had I seen so glorious a
landscape, so boundless an affluence of sublime mountain beauty. The
most extravagant description I might give of this view to any one who
has not seen similar landscapes with his own eyes would not so much as
hint its grandeur and the spiritual glow that covered it. I shouted and
gesticulated in a wild burst of ecstasy, much to the astonishment of
St. Bernard Carlo, who came running up to me, manifesting in his
intelligent eyes a puzzled concern that was very ludicrous, which had
the effect of bringing me to my senses. A brown bear, too, it would
seem, had been a spectator of the show I had made of myself, for I had
gone but a few yards when I started one from a thicket of brush. He
evidently considered me dangerous, for he ran away very fast, tumbling
over the tops of the tangled manzanita bushes in his haste. Carlo drew
back, with his ears depressed as if afraid, and kept looking me in the
face, as if expecting me to pursue and shoot, for he had seen many a
bear battle in his day.

Following the ridge, which made a gradual descent to the south, I came
at length to the brow of that massive cliff that stands between Indian
Canon and Yosemite Falls, and here the far-famed valley came suddenly
into view throughout almost its whol