July-August 1873, Alps and Little Yosemite Image 6

9 [quite] [below] the [jaws] of the [cairn] where the [farthest] of large snow or ice avalanches would [be] impossible [ ] rapids [Sketch: Map of 2nd Yosemite Valley, Pine & Fir, Steep bank, Lake filled up] 10 The finest reach on the river in 2nd Yosemite is at the head just below the rapids. The noblest sugar pines [leans] to each other over the swift white churning waters [many] [big] with grand firs whose [lipals] [fronded] boughs wave always to the pulses of their life giving streams the bouldery banks on either sides are flowered [to] rich gardens softens with [boundless] wealth of Azaleas that at the same time [ ] [ ] the gnarled fallen logs & [fringe] the [ ] insteps of the trees. The Azaleas [are] [better] past [prime] July 27th so are the [gilias] that throng in countless hosts the [warm] [sunny] [flats] of the N side Eriogonums are [glorious] now so are the [ ] & all those shady [water] & [inter] grove gardens where [ ] & shade abounds, the grasses are going to seed & next yrs [years] cones are the P Contorta are a quarter of an inch long already to [ ] to be called flrs [flowers] a month ago they were crimson flrs. Today observed a [young] P Contorta not [ ] [ ] than my finger [ ]https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/1601/thumbnail.jp