Sierra Journal, Summer of 1869, v. 2, 1869 [ca. 1887], Image 23

40 while tossing about as if trying to kill itself or[cast itself away as a thing of little worth. Nature makes it only the more beautiful the more it is made to endure & the loss from all its falling & foaming probably [sore dashings] is just about enough to water the gardens [and groves][ferns & velvet mosses & lilies] along its banks [ & this tends to its own advantage by strewing][maintaining good shade] & cheer its pathway with flowers. [14 July][15] see pg 46 We traveled only a few miles today & are camped at the rim of Yosemite [Valley} about 2 miles back from the edge of the north wall in a shallow groove where [there is but little] is scarce grass & flowers are abundant [but many flowers & the sheep have to depend mostly on ceanothus bushes, the principal food of deer]. Trans to pg 37 The drivers & dogs had a lively laborious time [we had] getting the sheep across [Yosemite] the creek, the second large stream thus far that they [we] have been compelled to cross without a bridge [of any kind}, the first North Fork of the Merced near Bonner Cave. Men & dogs shouting & barking drove the timid water-fearing creatures [brutes] in a [solid compacted jam] dense mass against the [flowering] bank but not one of the flock [lamb, ewe or wether] would launch away. While this jammed the Don & the shepherd [one of us would] rushed through 41 the frightened crowd [mass to the front] to stampede those in [the]front] [ranks next the water] but this would only cause a break behind on the flanks [of the crowd] & away they would scamper back through the stream-bank trees & [garden strips on the bank & out] scatter over the rocky pavement. The by the aid of the dogs [all] the [scattered] runaways would again be gathered [on the brink of the crystal stream] & made to face the stream[ their fate once more] & again the compacted mass would break away amid wild shouting & barking [which made [hideous] making a discord in the divine harmonies] that might well have distressed the stream itself & marred the music of its [and affected its grand display at the] falls to which visitors no doubt from all quarters of the globe are [were at that moment contemplating] now listening [only a few miles away unconscious of the sordid disturbance threatening the grand show][ Now] “Hold them there. Now hold them there’ shouted the Don [commanding] “The front ranks will soon tire of the pressure & be glad to take to the water’ [for ease] Then all will jump in & cross in a hurry. But they do nothing of the kind, they only avoided the pressure by breaking back [past us] in scores & hundred [until we only were left on the]https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-sj2/1022/thumbnail.jp