June-September 1875, Owens Valley, Yosemite, Middle Fork San Joaquin Image 32

56 In a nook filled with grey glacier bowlders [boulders] & shaded with [dense] wall of Highest Sp. Icy crystl [crystal] strm [stream] comes [fir] filling with scarce audible tinkle the current made to pulse & [waves] over small mossy pebbles [boul] scarce a foot across [lined] with mosses down to mtns [mountains] edge—then a [zone] of verdure made of short slender grasses enameled with musk [nimbus] blue daisies with three or four tall spikes of lupin. Outside the green circle & in the upper edge two [leafy] bushes of mountain currant lean protectingly over & above the [ ] cherrybush. As we approach we surprise a jay at his morning toilet within a yard ere he sees us. He flutters off in such headlong flight he he flies against a bush then recovering darts confusedly into the recesses of the nearest fir. 57 We seat ourselves on the spring side & presently are discovered by a bird who regards us as intruders. A little dun nugget of a fellow with round gray bosom. He comes nearer & nearer uttering a scolding [chw-r-r-r] his mate soon answers with a nervous whit-whit-whit perhaps intended for [ ] but with [ ] [ ] Keeps out of sight. A few moments later along comes a pair of cheery confiding canaries flying within a yard of our heads in the currant bach from one to the other as if inquiring what a the [storkimmer] & such eye & such orange on bosom. Have exquisitely modeled a pice of bird beauty [in] form & color. These [fears] [ ] [ ] don’t know their young[‘s] [history]https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/2023/thumbnail.jp