Sierra Journal, Summer of 1869, v. 2, 1869 [ca. 1887], Image 27

48 humpy dots with dimples between them [separated by a network of trees & flat sloping [flat] pavements also abound & bits of green meadows & lakelets Trans to beginning of pg 46 The whole crystal basin seems to be [paved] with domes great & small [have been sculptured from the solid for] the trends of [all the] its main topographical features [of its topography] are interrelated. Conforming no doubt to the direction of the flow & the pressure of the overwsweeping ice [that occupied it][glaciers. All distinct as a shell & shaped like the valve of a common clam wide & comparatively] Compared with its width this wonderful basin seems [basin is] shallow from this high stand point & its [main] features are displayed like engravings in [an picture book] network of [rills] converging rills wide spread toward Yosemite converging near the lower edge where all the gathered drainage] is hurled over the Yosemite wall. Trans to 121 How many gardens are in it? [this basin] How [many lakes?] what trees? Animals [birds, deer, bears?] I must turn away but my eye fills when I think of its wealth in all that I so dearly love, leave me in this Godful wilderness [with its smooth shining domes & crystal pavements & lakes & living waters sounding through the woods & all these gardens with their inhabitants] & they who will may 49 gather & possess all the prizes the world [that civilization] has to offer & this is but one of many Trans to p 121 see p 116 [What might fall to my share] I would be a blessed vagabond with a glad heart for here [gladly give away to anybody that cared for it. Here] it seems to me every devout aspiration would [would] be far more than satisfied. Even in the din & confusion of this camp [and amid the duties taken upon my shoulders] I find a glorious exhilaration in [amid] these landscapes fresh from God’s hand. As if this were the very dawn of creation & we [had been blessed in being made] were fortunate spectators arrived just in time [of it all] God Himself still seems to be working here [yet] with something like human enthusiasm. & what a show He is making [the curtain is up on some of the acts & this is the theatre for me]. Every morning I say to myself Born again a new day, a new world & when we walk here & there with eager [hungry] mind ever full yet gloriously hungry, poor yet possessing everything, hunting [particular] bits of Knowledge there is never a blank. [Never a blank here. He true marvel is that everybody does not come rushing to this exhilaration leaving small concerns to care & fare as they may. True] All the world is one, but some of it is thickly veiled to our dim eyes. Nevertheless, here we may see God in very truth on accounthttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-sj2/1026/thumbnail.jp