ead. My bedroom was flooded
with sunshine, and from the window I saw the great white Shasta
cone clad in forests and clouds and bearing them loftily in the sky.
Everything seemed full and radiant with the freshness and beauty and
enthusiasm of youth. Sisson's children came in with flowers and covered
my bed, and the storm on the mountaintop banished like a dream.

V. Shasta Rambles and Modoc Memories

Arctic beauty and desolation, with their blessings and dangers, all may
be found here, to test the endurance and skill of adventurous climbers;
but far better than climbing the mountain is going around its warm,
fertile base, enjoying its bounties like a bee circling around a bank
of flowers. The distance is about a hundred miles, and will take some
of the time we hear so much about--a week or two--but the benefits will
compensate for any number of weeks. Perhaps the profession of doing good
may be full, but every body should be kind at least to himself. Take a
course of good water and air, and in the eternal youth of Nature you may
renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. Some have
strange, morbid fears as soon as they find themselves with Nature, even
in the kindest and wildest of her solitudes, like very sick children
afraid of their mother--as if God were dead and the devil were king.

One may make the trip on horseback, or in a carriage, even; for a good
level road may be found all the way round, by Shasta Valley, Sheep Rock,
Elk Flat, Huckleberry Valley, Squaw Valley, following for a considerable
portion of the way the old Emigrant Road, which lies along the east
disk of the mountain, and is deeply worn by the wagons of the early
gold-seekers, many of whom chose this northern route as perhaps being
safer and easier, the pass here being only about six thousand feet above
sea level. But it is far better to go afoot. Then you are free to
make wide waverings and zigzags away from the roads to visit the great
fountain streams of the rivers, the glaciers also, and the wildest
retreats in the primeval forests, where the best plants and animals
dwell, and where many a flower-bell will ring against your knees, and
friendly trees will reach out their fronded branches and touch you as
you pass. One blanket will be enough to carry, or you may forego
the pleasure and burden altogether, as wood for fires is everywhere
abundant. Only a little food will be required. Berries and plums abound
in season, an