August in the Sierras [pp. 170-173]

August in the Sierra.
to climb my hilltop today. I would rather
sit here, and see where a yellow cliff gleams
in a circle of dark pines toward the south;
and watch a river-like torrent that foams passionately down the cliff, and breaks into
spray on black rocks below. Let the valleyworld make its pilgrimage here, and when we
have nothing better to do, we will take a pinebranch for an umbrella, and visit the lands
of the tule islands, the cities of dead levels
and streets mathematical.
One arrives in the Sierras by slow gradations. You cannot easily understand the
greatness of the mountain battlements you
ascend. Along some artery-like road, hewn
out years ago by the argonauts in their goldquest, you climb unaware into the land of
peace and silence. The Coast Range often
has its peaks cleft nearly to the valley level,
and its ridges follow no law of arrangement,
but project towards all points of the conmpass. But the axis of the Sierra is unbroken;
from the high plateau still higher peaks rise,
and ravines descend to profound depths;
but the traveler who once gains the " divide"
between two rivers can follow it up to the
snow-peaks, and find that the season keeps
at almost a standstill for him, if he times his
journey with judicious care.. How good a
plan, just for a change, to have three months
of June, and come back to the valley to discover that it was September there!
The children one passes on the roadside
are carrying armfuls of wild lilies. You can
find them growing in tall clusters in openings
in the forest - clusters sometimes so tall
that if you are on horseback the topmost
buds will be nearly at your waist. A child
is always an object of interest in the mountains; parents make companions of them to
the greatest extent imaginable, and the petting they have from old miners who live
lonely lives in their cabins is quite marvelous. Thus they come at last to have a
demure dignity all their own, and learn to
rule their kingdom with a rod of iron-at
least, the girls do; for the boys are too soon
dethroned, and learn that the world yields
only to wit, strength, and wisdom.
Not many years ago the old mining counties were considered worn-out, and fit to emigrate from; but one of the most encouraging
of recent developments in the direction of
fruit culture and grape-growing is in these
same old mining regions. The settler finds
good timber, free fire-wood, pure water, a
glorious climate, soil which will grow the
grains and fruits of the temperate, and often
of the semi-tropical zones. Some men of
energy have created for themselves fertile
gardens on the hillsides, and there is room
for thousands of others. According to the
reports of the immigration societies, a steady
stream of travel to the mining counties appears to have begun, and it is not hard to
predict a great change there within a few
more years. Shasta is receiving much new
blood; the broad plains east of the Sacramento, at Redding, are dotted with cabins,
and the red-land foothills west of Anderson
are nearly all occupied. Placer and Butte
Counties have become favorite spots for
home-seekers, and Nevada County is also
attracting attention. Tuolumne, Calaveras,
Mariposa, and the southern Sierra region,
are also coming into public notice. This
very hillside where I sit would make an excellent place for an apple orchard, and the
fruit would keep much later than that grown
farther down the ridge, ten miles from here;
and several thousand feet lower, peaches and
grapes thrive. A slice of land a mile wide,
and extending across this county, would be
like a strip of territory from the Gulf to the
Lakes, put into a condenser and reduced to
thirty miles exactly. At one end there
might be a date palm tree planted for a gatepost, and at the other end an edelweiss from
the Alps, for a warning that only lichens and
snow-plants could grow beyond.
Paul Mferedith.
1885.]
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