UC-NRLF 
 
 KATHERINE S. NICHOLS. 
 
GIFT OF 
 
 /^IXl/ . IS],\S(^WV^0 
 
IN 
 SUNSET 
 
 LAND 
 
 KATHER1NE S. 
 
These pen-pictures of the fair and grand, 
 O, reader and friend I bring to thee: 
 
 Things in our far-away summer land, 
 
 That trend to shore of the western sea. 
 
 WINTER ANjJ \Uft-IStjtfV , . . COPYRIGHTED 
 
 HAVERHh.L, -Miss * * " 1889 
 

 
 c 
 
 O N T E N T S . 
 
 SUNSET LAND. P AGE . 
 
 SUNSET LAN D 5 
 
 WILD FLOWERS 
 
 ESCHOLTZIAS 12 
 
 BABY S E\ ES.VfM0jAi/a 15 
 
 MAXZANITA 17 
 
 SNOW FLOWER OF THE SIERRA 20 
 
 JACOB S LADDER OF THE HIGH SIERRA 25 
 
 THE SEASONS 
 
 NEW YEAR S DAY IN SAN FRANCISCO 30 
 
 A FEBRUARY MORNING IN LOS ANGELES 34 
 
 AFTER THE WINTER RAINS 38 
 
 TRADE WINDS 45 
 
 AFTER THE WINDS 50 
 
 SEPTEMBER 55 
 
 OCTOBER % 57 
 
 NOVEMBER 60 
 
 THE DECEMBER RAINS 63 
 
 ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 SHELL BEACH 68 
 
 KELP BEACH 71 
 
 2888. 
 
PESCADERO 73 
 
 MOSS BEACH 76 
 
 SEA ANEMON E 80 
 
 SINGING SANDS 83 
 
 THE CLIFFS 85 
 
 SAN LORENZO BAY 87 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 YO SEMITE VALLEY 90 
 
 WEBER VALLEY 107 
 
 WEBER AND ECHO CANONS 112 
 
 GRAND CANON OF THE YELLOWSTONE 124 
 
 MOU NT S H ASTA 127 
 
 GOLDEN GATE 131 
 
 UP THE SAN JAQUIN 139 
 
 MONTE DEL DIABLO 144 
 
 LAPIEDRA PINTADA 151 
 
 UP AND FROM MOUNT DIABLO 158 
 
 LONE MOUNTAIN t 161 
 
 M AMMOUTH TREES 164 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO BAY 169 
 
 FIRST ARBOR DAY 175 
 
 BERKLEY IN WINTER 178 
 
 OVER THE BAY 181 
 
 CHOW-CHIL-LA 183 
 
 THE CREEK 1 86 
 
 SU PRO S STATUE OF LIBERTY 189 
 
 CONSERVATORY FOUNTAIN-SAN FRANCISCO 192 
 
 THE ENCAMPMENT OF 1886 196 
 
 TO THE PACIFIC... 
 
SUNSET LAND. 
 
 Land of sunshine, land of wonders, 
 XVilds with novel forms replete, 
 
 Land of every change of climate, 
 Frost and cold or torrid heat. 
 
 Rich in quaint and startling beauty, 
 
 Is this sunset wonderland, 
 With its canons, vales and sea-shore, 
 
 Lowlands, hills, and mountains grand. 
 
 From Alaska s glacial rivers, 
 
 Pressing through the wastes of snow, 
 
 From the heights where fall large ice-blocks, 
 Plunging down to depths below. 
 
SUNSET LAND. 
 
 Broad Columbia rolls her waters 
 
 In a mighty flood along. 
 Rolling on mid glowing wonders 
 
 Tuned to nature s primal song. 
 
 And lone Shasta s high head hoary, 
 
 Rises o er a glacial flow, 
 With broad moraines, the lands tree-crowned, 
 
 And green meadows spread below. 
 
 And from the high eastern border, 
 Where the golden sun gleams bright, 
 
 O er the Yellowstone s teeming wonders, 
 Glory-rays in morning light. 
 
SUNSET LAND. 
 
 O er the rocky tips of mountains 
 
 And along the lowlands green, 
 Through the canon s pillared wildness 
 
 To light the geyser founts of steam. 
 
 Along the Coast Range, and Sierra s 
 
 Topmost head in snowy veil, 
 Through wilds, where roam bear and panther 
 
 To Yosemite s wonder-dale. 
 
 O er cliffs, fanned by white-winged sea-birds, 
 Where the wild waves surge and roar, 
 
 Through Golden Gate to bay land-locked 
 And ship-lined, along its shore. 
 
SUNSET LAND. 
 
 Steepled cliffs on the curling sea-shore, 
 And the moss-strewn, wave-washed sand, 
 
 O er points storied, and fanes templed, 
 To the flower-decked hills of land. 
 
 Cratered mountains, where flames lurid 
 Rose to light the barren plain, 
 
 Inky smoke that spread its darkness 
 O er the fields now bright with grain. 
 
 To the treeless waste and dreary, 
 
 Of the burning, barren land. 
 Where the cacti bloom to brighten 
 
 The dry dunes of yellow sand. 
 
>r\SKT I. AM). 
 
 Bright Sunset-land, our wonderland 
 That slopes to the western sea, 
 
 Where hills are veined with ore golden 
 And metal to set it free. 
 
 Where spread lakes like seas of silver, 
 
 And rivers in might} flow, 
 That spring from cold beds glacial, 
 
 Xeath high mountains crowned with snow 
 
 Where long hills are green with grasses. 
 
 And valleys are filled with grain. 
 ( )range trees, brown and olive. 
 
 Crown the hillside, vale and plain. 
 
10 SUNSET LAM). 
 
 And here, on this soil, so fruitful, 
 By the aid of wealth and skill 
 
 Sand dunes change to homes of beauty 
 Art is traced o er vale and hill. 
 
 For an end, and to things higher, 
 The people draw on every hand, 
 
 Thus to brighten and make useful, 
 Point and space in Sunset-land. 
 
 And abroad, mong nations foreign, 
 Has this greatness won a name, 
 
 So, that wonders in Sunset-land 
 Have ever a growing fame. 
 
WILD FLOWERS 
 
ESCHOLTZ1A. 
 
 (CALIFORNIA LILY.) 
 
 Of the many flowering glories, 
 
 That adorn the sunset land, 
 The escholtzia most profusely, 
 
 Hrightly blooms on creamy sand. 
 
 ( )ver every hill and hollow, 
 
 Lifts it up its golden head ; 
 Painted cups in brilliant clusters, 
 
 Deck the violet s fragrant bed. 
 
 When sun-rays and winds of springtime 
 Warm the land and melt the snows, 
 
 It blooms larger then and brighter, 
 Like spring buds it thriving grows. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 13 
 
 Blooms beside the bright-eyed pansy s 
 Quaint faced flowers that children prize,- 
 
 Coreopsis and nemophila s 
 
 Pretty bright blue baby s eyes. 
 
 And throughout the year of sunshine, 
 The dry months and months of rain, 
 
 Blooms in beauty neath the hedges, 
 And in shade upon the plain. 
 
 O er Sierra s lower mountains, 
 
 Fairer in a snowy white, 
 Mottled with pale gold and crimson, 
 
 Dazzling in its beauty bright. 
 
14 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 As yellow and red field lillies 
 Bloom on the Atlantic coast, 
 
 Kscholtzias on the Pacific 
 
 Spread their brilliant golden host. 
 
 Bearing semblance to the lily, 
 It receives from this its name, 
 
 And though common is prized fitly, 
 As the lily is its fame. 
 
BABY S EYES. 
 
 NEMOPHILA. 
 
 Sweet Baby s eyes of starry blue, 
 
 That tender, wonder-wide and true, 
 
 Ope mid the young spring s grass and grain, 
 
 When earth is moist with winter s rain. 
 
 Like daisies fair that star the meads, 
 Or iris that blooms among the reeds, 
 Low on the ground, its smiling eyes 
 Look up to deep cerulean skies. 
 
 As looks a child with steady gaze 
 Up from amid the grassy maze, 
 In trust, that all the winds that move, 
 Will come to it with perfect love. 
 
1 6 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 They brighten through spring s sunny days 
 The grove and field and narrow ways, 
 With coreopsis yellow bloom, 
 That flaunts its gold in higher room. 
 
 So wake anew mid grass and thyme, 
 Bright Baby s Eyes each new spring-time. 
 When in the meadows soft and clear, 
 The lark and linnet sing with cheer. 
 
MANZANITA. 
 
 ARCTOSTAPHYLOS GLAUCA. 
 
 Richly dark-veined manzanita, 
 
 Red-brown, veining with the white, 
 
 Growing fair in copse and dingle, 
 Glowing, ever, with the light. 
 
 Close-set branches, thick with green leaves, 
 On the trees, o er hill and plain. 
 
 Gleam in bright and glossy sparkle, 
 As though wet with dew or rain. 
 
 Shining as by rain-drops varnished 
 Through the days supernal light. 
 
 Shining when the stars and moonbeams, 
 Shower their glories on the night. 
 
I(S WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 But when clustered snowy blossoms, 
 Glow amid the leaves so fair, 
 
 And their waxen bells like censers, 
 Pour sweet perfume on the air. 
 
 From their snowy plumes sweet-scented. 
 Waxen white with lustrous green, 
 
 Pure waxen flowers and glossy leaves, 
 O the wondrous, glowing sheen ! 
 
 Through them sunlight weaves its blushes, 
 
 Fair as tints of rosy dawn, 
 Oh, the blooming manzanita, 
 
 Sweet as breath of sunny morn ! 
 
WILD FI.O\YKRS. 19 
 
 Blossoms, pure as love in pureness, 
 
 Deepening into rosy rays ; 
 But like faith the green leaves cluster, 
 
 Clinging through the winter days. 
 
 And ere winter days are over. 
 
 Usher they the blooming spring, 
 While through fields of grain and clover, 
 
 Glad bird-voices sweetlv ring. 
 
SNOW-FLOWER OF THE SIERRA 
 
 SARCODES SANGUINEANA. 
 
 On Sierra s sunset mountains 
 In the glow of supernal light, 
 
 Amid the snow, cold and eternal, 
 
 That crowns their everlasting height. 
 
 And on all the lower pathways 
 
 And steep trails up the mountain side, 
 
 Grows the red-flower, bright Sarcodes, 
 Sanguineana in its pride. 
 
 And bright in a crimson glory, 
 The crimson set in waxen white, 
 
 Crimson stem and leaves and petals, 
 With crimson bells glow in the light. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 21 
 
 In white fair as Alpine s blossom. 
 The Alpine snow-flower Edelweiss, 
 
 That climbs highest snow-clad mountains. 
 And blooms amid the snow and ice. 
 
 And as blooms neath snow in pine woods, 
 Along the blue Atlantic s shore, 
 
 On Arbutus trailing green vines, 
 The rose-tinted sweet snow-flower. 
 
 So fair Sierra s flower, Sarcodes, 
 
 Blooms beneath deep banks of snow; 
 
 Grows and forms in perfect blossom. 
 When no tints of crimson show. 
 
22. WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 But a brilliant crimson-red glow, 
 
 When June with flowers and song is gay. 
 
 Crowns this blossom of rare beauty. 
 As sunset clouds June s eve of da}*. 
 
 Crimson color, that comes only, 
 
 When summer s sun shines warm in day. 
 Climbing highest in the blue heaven, 
 
 Melts from around it, snow away. 
 
 Then the sun paints in deep blushes, 
 While it is fanned by summer s breeze, 
 
 Crimson touches that glow brightly, 
 Amid the snow and greening trees. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 Its pellucid stem then colors. 
 
 Crimsons alike its bells and leaves. 
 
 That like tongues of flame shoot round it 
 As o er the white the color weaves. 
 
 Sequoia trees lift high above it. 
 Their lofty heads in summer air, 
 
 While by pathways leading to them 
 It gleams in beauty, bright and rare. 
 
 Through snowy wastes of dazzling white 
 The showy flower opens conelike 
 
 And shines in its bright red color 
 From its long hyacinthine spike. 
 
24 WILD FLOWKKS. 
 
 In mountain wastes, it springs smiling, 
 And thus it greets the traveller s eye ; 
 
 As love to weary hearts and lonely 
 
 Comes with bright greetings from the sky 
 
JACOB S LADDER OF THE HIGH 
 SIERRAS." 
 
 Polemoneum Confertum" of Mt. Dana 10,000 feet above the sea. 
 "Bright purple flowers in cluster." 
 
 Flowers most aspiring of the race 
 Seeking for broad and higher space, 
 Beneath the blue skies arching dome. 
 They climb aloft for sheltering home. 
 
 Here high outspread in royal robes. 
 O er Yo-Semite s tall half globe-. 
 Where from deep sky, bright orbs of night. 
 Pour over them their starry light. 
 
26 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 They bloom with beauty, in sunlight, 
 In clusters on this lofty height, 
 Where o er them is no higher grade, 
 No tree or shrub to cast a shade. 
 
 Here first the sun in morning sprays 
 On their high bed its golden rays, 
 And folds them in a sunny bloom, 
 And shields from cheerless, frosty doom. 
 
 In quiet lone, they flower and grow 
 Where dwells the pure, eternal snow; 
 Its ice-cold sheets around them spread, 
 That melts beneath in glacial bed. 
 
\VILD FLOWERS. 
 
 In cool air ever, pure and sweet, 
 Sun, moon and stars, they early greet, 
 Before the brilliant splendors glow 
 On tender flowers, that lower grow. 
 
 And here, they crown the crest, so lone, 
 Of this high mountain s snow-tipt cone. 
 With color bright amid the cold. 
 Fair as the flowers in garden-fold. 
 
 And mounted they to this lone height, 
 On threads of mist from gloom of night? 
 Or on the dreary storm-cloud s breast. 
 When rolling up, from its gray nest? 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 Or on waves of ethereal air, 
 
 When morning gleams in sunlight fair? 
 
 Or, on golden ropes, the sun sent down 
 
 For dew, climbed they to the mountain s crown? 
 
 To glow, where sweet-flower bloom is rare, 
 Mid bleak lone nature s sweeter air, 
 And please the tourist s artist-eye, 
 When these he finds, so near the sky. 
 
 In starry wonder, here, to nod, 
 So near to heaven, alone with God. 
 \Vhere over peaks loud thunders ring, 
 And glacial waters, leap and sing. 
 
THE SEASONS. 
 
NEW YEAR S DAY. 
 
 Midwinter! O can this be? 
 
 So like the balmy spring ; 
 Together the lark and linnet 
 
 In meadows carol and sing. 
 
 Their few and soft warbling notes, 
 Tender and sweet and gay, 
 
 Through all the fleeting warm hoim 
 Of this bright sunlit day. 
 
 While up the green hills we climb, 
 To gather young spring flow r ers ; 
 
 The hills that lately were drenched 
 With surging rain in showers. 
 
THE SEASONS. 31 
 
 The white flowers that mid green grass 
 Have opened their starry eyes, 
 
 In tiny green shell-like cups, 
 Give a pleasing surprise. 
 
 Bright little yellow-tuft glows 
 Down by the rivulet s edge ; 
 
 And the violet meekly grows 
 Nearer the rocky ledge. 
 
 \Yith many a blossom sweet 
 Of the flowery month of May, 
 
 That here and nov- for us bloom 
 This lovely spring-like day. 
 
32 THE SEASONS. 
 
 But now the afternoon sun 
 
 Shines with a pale white glow ; 
 
 That faintly suggestive is, 
 Of winter s cold and snow. 
 
 And time of the year he marks 
 By the early hour, that he 
 
 Trends down the west from our sight, 
 O er the Pacific sea. 
 
 Thither to come from the land, 
 Of the white-frost and snows ; 
 
 Where the cold icy-sharp breath 
 Of the bleak north wind blows. 
 
THK SEASONS 
 
 Where the hills and mountains grand 
 
 Seem only piles of snow ; 
 And the ponds, rivers and lakes 
 
 Are all ice-bound below. 
 
 To the paler, soft blue sky, 
 And spring-like balmy air; 
 
 Of this milder western clime, 
 Oh. how sweet! and how fair! 
 
A FEBRUARY MORNING 
 
 IN LOS ANGELES VALLEY. 
 
 A bleak icy wave, from 
 
 The Sierra-peaks bold, 
 From the starry frost wreaths, 
 
 That crown their high heads 
 Of white glistening snow, 
 
 Eternal and cold, 
 Now sweeps down, and in through 
 
 The canons deep beds. 
 
 Through the long grassy vales 
 Green as in summer, 
 
 Where blooms the white lily, 
 The pink and the rose ; 
 
THE SEASONS. 
 
 And the brooks glide singing 
 \\ ith soft low murmur; 
 
 To where the citron, lemon 
 And orange fruit grows. 
 
 The bright flowers are all wet, 
 
 With the glassy dew-drops. 
 And the blades of green grass 
 
 Are glinting like stars, 
 While linnets and meadow-larks 
 
 Sing in the tree-tops. 
 Their sweet morning songs. 
 
 All unmeasured by bars. 
 
36 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Transformed, the clear dew-drops 
 
 To white pearls and opals, 
 Has the mountain Frost King 
 
 In this bold sally ; 
 Hanging the green grass blades 
 
 And leaves with crystals ; 
 In the fair and beautiful 
 
 Los Angeles valley. 
 
 A glistening, starry, 
 Fairy, beauty of frost ; 
 
 The tinted, feathery white, 
 ( )range groves present ; 
 
THE SEASONS. 37 
 
 In their crystaline robe 
 Deep green and gold lost, 
 
 In this picturesque, quaint 
 And novel event. 
 
 But the morning s warm sun, 
 
 In its splendor bright, 
 On this feathery ice, 
 
 Of green, gold and white gleams 
 And the fairy frost-work 
 
 Filled with bright wonder light. 
 Melts fleetly away 
 
 Like all beautiful dreams. 
 
AFTER THE WINTER RAINS. 
 
 When the rains of winter have ceased 
 Brightly then glow the sun s warm rays ; 
 
 Pure and sweet the ethereal air, 
 
 Soft and calm are the spring-time days. 
 
 Then sifts a gold light through the rich green, 
 That wraps its robe o er the rolling hill : 
 
 Dashed with amber the mountains lie 
 And fairv forms the valleys fill. 
 
 With escholtzias dotted and gemmed. 
 
 Hills lie shimmering in their gold, 
 While a mantle of violet shades. 
 
 Wrap o er others in tender fold. 
 
THE SEASONS. 39 
 
 The lar-kspurs, lowly, and tiny bells 
 Carpet the valleys with their blue, 
 
 And fairest flowers on hillsides nod, 
 
 Bright and sparkling with drops of dew. 
 
 The star-grass purple and lupine blooms 
 Mingle with ferns in sunny nooks, 
 
 Where many a flower of golden hue 
 
 Has strayed away from meadow brooks. 
 
 And glows all nature clear, pure and bright, 
 Sky revealing a cloudless blue, 
 
 The buds unfolding on lofty trees, 
 Rainbows arching in drops of dew. 
 
40 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Larks are singing in every field, 
 
 Thrilling with music the morn s repose ; 
 
 Sweetly warbling when the golden sun 
 First on the high green hill-top glows. 
 
 Robin-Redbreast away in the woods, 
 
 Wakes the echoes upon the hill ; 
 Thrushes and linnets then flock in crowds 
 
 All the by-ways and lanes to fill. 
 
 Sparrows in grey beneath tufts of grass, 
 
 Tenderly sing their little notes, 
 Blue-birds and black-birds sing their soft tunes, 
 
 From vale to hill the music floats. 
 
THE SEASONS. 41 
 
 When twice the new moon s circle lays, 
 Low in the western evening sky; 
 
 Throughout the valleys and on the hills, 
 Both grass and flowers are sere and dry 
 
 Burning with heat is the waste of sand, 
 Parched and dry is the garden soil. 
 
 And brick-like lie the adobe hills, 
 Man and beast in weariness toil, 
 
 Fields stretch away through the valleys wide, 
 Yellow as gold with ripened grain ; 
 
 Touching the hills of a russet brown, 
 Lining the pathway through the plain. 
 
42 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Warm shines the sun through lengthening days, 
 Soft blows the breeze from the western sea, 
 
 Hazy vapor on wings of the air, 
 Floats far o er the shadowy lea, 
 
 Veils the brown hills in a gauzy blue, 
 Softens tints of russet and dun, 
 
 Hides the rough outline of rugged hills. 
 Tempers rays of the evening sun. 
 
 The valleys, stretching far from the shore, 
 Through long still noons, in sunshine glow 
 
 Dreamily glimmers the heated air ; 
 Sounds of Nature are hushed and low. 
 
THE SEASONS. 43 
 
 Till heavy laden, vapory clouds. 
 
 Breaking, display a gold-tipped rift. 
 
 Then the winds roll back the mist, to spread 
 Above the hills a snowv drift. 
 
 And sun-rays paint with a ruby hue, 
 The foamy drifts of vapory snow ; 
 
 And the eastern sky, and hills, and bay, 
 In purpling red and crimson glow. 
 
 Drifting the sand dunes, here and there, 
 As winds drift snow in a colder clime 
 
 Sifting dust through crevice and crack, 
 But sifting no snow in winter time. 
 
44 T HE SEASONS. 
 
 Steadily blowing, bracing and cold, 
 Through all the waning hours of day ; 
 
 And hushing to sleep, when stars come out, 
 Like weary children tired of play. 
 
 Cool, as the cool breath of Boreas, 
 But strongest in midsummer time ; 
 
 Coming in with the summer months, 
 
 And going out with the summer s rhyme. 
 
TRADE WINDS. 
 
 Blow, summer wind, o er the sea, blow ! 
 Your west breezes, blow loud 
 In storm of vapor-cloud, 
 In light and airy shroud ; 
 
 Blow the mist up white, like the snow. 
 
 Blow your storm-breath high in the swell ! 
 Blow it pure, sweet and cool. 
 In the soft wavy roll, 
 In the feathery-light scroll ; 
 
 Blow it up from the sea s deep well. 
 
46 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Blow, foam-crested waves to the shore, 
 Against rocks high to dash, 
 With a break and a crash ; 
 With a roar and a rush, 
 
 Shoot high in the spray-fronded spire. 
 
 Blow it in o er dunes of the sand; 
 Blow it, deep space to fill ; 
 Blow white foam o er the rill, 
 Fringe it round the high hill, 
 
 Lay it gray in the valleys of land. 
 
THE SEASONS. 47 
 
 Pile mist robes above the green sea, 
 And light on the spray sift ; 
 Blow clouds of snowy drift, 
 .Like sun-rays through the rift, 
 To star with gold the grey o er the lea. 
 
 At rest, with your angry breath spent. 
 Arch in spray the rainbow, 
 On the hills of mist snow ; 
 Let a bright color glow 
 
 Of sapphire with gold and green blent. 
 
48 THE SEASONS. 
 
 And along the sky, burnished lines lay 
 Soon to melt in the grey, 
 So to sleep hours away; 
 To renew the fairy play, 
 
 When noon sun shines in the new day. 
 
 Blow cool your breath, wind of summer, 
 And thick in, from the sea, 
 White as flowers in the lea, 
 Blow it swift, blow it free, 
 
 With the day to die in low murmur. 
 
THK SKASOXs. 49 
 
 Blow to the sound of the sea-waves roar, 
 
 In their loud breaking peals. 
 
 To th call of grey gulls, 
 
 And bellow of the seals, 
 Heard afar, on the long sandy shore. 
 
 Blow in a boon rich, fresh and free, 
 In bold rush, with no stealth ; 
 Blow to cheer, to give health ; 
 Blessings greater than wealth, 
 
 To the dwellers bv the Sunset-Sea. 
 
AFTER THE WINDS. 
 
 When back from the roar 
 
 Of the ocean s shore, 
 The colder winds creep away in the west, 
 
 Far over the free, 
 
 Calm violet sea, 
 Ever obeying fair nature s behest. 
 
 Then come soft fine days, 
 
 With the sun s mild rays 
 Like the sowing time, which comes in the sprin< 
 
 But fields are not green, 
 
 No green hills are seen, 
 And no ^old-robin is now heard to sin^. 
 
TI1K SKASnNS. 
 
 Though strong winds that blew 
 
 With summer days flew; 
 Vet the cool, sweet breath, from off the green sea. 
 
 Spreads over the land 
 
 Like magic s fleet wand 
 That transforms the earth with its mystery. 
 
 The few gentle showers 
 
 Refresh the wild flowers 
 That bloom througout the long year and that brin^ 
 
 Up grasses again, 
 
 O er hill and o er plain, 
 And wake the autumn to semblance of spring. 
 
52 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Yet no song is heard 
 
 Or chirp of a bird 
 Of the many that sing when springtime comes; 
 
 Nor any sweet tune 
 
 From the birds of June ; 
 No song of the lark with the autumn suns. 
 
 Now garnered are sheaves, 
 
 And the falllen leaves 
 Lie brown and scattered, down under the trees ; 
 
 Earth in pensive hush 
 
 With no brooks to rush, 
 And quiet as soft as hum of the bees. 
 
THE SEASONS. 
 
 53 
 
 The hills and the dales 
 
 And water it veils. 
 In the fairest phase, of a changing haze. 
 
 In the softest shades 
 
 Of gossamer grades. 
 And dreamy and fair soft beauty displays. 
 
 The sunshine shimmers, 
 
 And softly glimmers 
 ( )ver all the land in opaline rays ; 
 
 With the sapphire glow 
 
 The cloud-pillars show 
 When the sun goes down in these quiet days. 
 
54 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Can all the graces 
 
 Of the world s places 
 Vie with this sweet charm in the things around? 
 
 With nature so fair, 
 
 The earth and the air, 
 In the softened lights that all things surround. 
 
 This long, tender calm, 
 
 Comes like a sweet balm, 
 After winds are gone that blew in the west; 
 
 And a glad release 
 
 Is this grace of peace 
 In this charm of beauty and quiet rest. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 
 
 A cooling breath from the foam-white sea, 
 Throbs in playfulness, gentle and free. 
 Through the sweet peace of nature, and thrills 
 In soft white light o er the misty hills. 
 
 From trees, that bend o er the stream s deep bed, 
 And their shadows on the low water shed, 
 And a sweet spicy fragrance it brings 
 Of green bay leaves, on its viewless \vings. 
 
 Glides through the vale with the tress long line. 
 And below the brown hills they entwine. 
 Where timid quails hide, and squirrels play, 
 And the mock-bird sings his sweet-voiced lay. 
 
56 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Through the town s rolling, long sunlit street, 
 As swift moving life in by-ways meet, 
 So it sweeps away the misty gray 
 And plays with tangles of silvered ray. 
 
 The winds creep back from the sandy shore, 
 Their loud breathing sound is heard no more. 
 O er the low hills or the dimpled lea, 
 Naught but murmur of the restless sea. 
 
 Welcome, welcome ye calm mellow days, 
 Soothing as sunset s peace bringing rays, 
 That follow the swift-rolling storms of air, 
 As the silence that follows a prayer. 
 
OCTOBER. 
 
 October days 
 
 With purpling maze 
 Of Indian summer s softest haze, 
 
 And beauty s claiir, 
 
 Of quiet reign 
 O er dew-veiled hill and mist} plain. 
 
 The irised bow 
 
 Of sun hangs low, 
 And down the west, a gold-red glow 
 
 Lies on the sea 
 
 Like "Peace to thee" 
 From Him who walked The Galilee. 
 
58 THE SEASONS. 
 
 As full tides teem 
 Life s mottled stream 
 
 Goes down the street, as in a dream, 
 
 Nor wait, nor stay, 
 Like shadows they 
 
 Pass, one by one, in mist away. 
 
 I muse and think 
 
 How life-paths link: 
 We mingle here, then pass the brink 
 
 To endless life ; 
 
 While earth is rife 
 With weary toil and busy strife. 
 
THE SEASONS. 
 
 59 
 
 The mist} veil 
 Shuts in the sail 
 
 That waits for us ; nor do we hail 
 Till we pass through 
 Beyond the view 
 
 Of all our earthlv loved and true. 
 
 And sweetly blest, 
 
 May we to rest 
 Go, leaning on our dear Lord s breast, 
 
 Till we, above. 
 
 Rest, like a dove 
 Forever joyful in his love. 
 
NOVEMBER IN CALIFORNIA 
 
 The cool south wind brings again, 
 Signs of quickly coming rain : 
 
 We welcome the hour, 
 When we hear the winds low sigh, 
 And from dark clouds moving by, 
 
 Out, pours the shower. 
 
 Over hill and vale is seen 
 Springing grasses, tender green, 
 
 And so fresh with dew ; 
 Now, the white and fleecy clouds, 
 Some alone, and some in crowds 
 
 Of fairies in the blue, 
 
THE SEASONS. 
 
 6l 
 
 Sunny days, and sometimes showers, 
 Bring again the summer flowers ; 
 
 With the roses bright, 
 Escholtzias in sheltered nooks, 
 Forget-me-nots near the brooks, 
 
 Blue bells cheer our sight. 
 
 On highest heights, snow has come ; 
 We know by the paling sun, 
 
 That is coldly white ; 
 While green vales, so weird they look. 
 Like spring with the winter shook 
 
 And a shade of night. 
 
62 THE SEASONS. 
 
 We leave fog and dusty days, 
 Grey mists, that on mountain lays ; 
 
 And with motion fleet, 
 To this, the first month of showers, 
 And new life, brought with its hours, 
 
 We hasten to greet. 
 
THE DECEMBER RAIN 
 
 Now comes the dense rain ! rain ! rain ! 
 Up over the hill, down over the plain 
 It streams, now a lull, then it streams again 
 In dark threads of rain ! rain ! rain ! 
 From the grey cloud-fleets, 
 In shrouds and in sheets, 
 Till the day is filled with the raining beats, 
 And dull with sounds of the rain. 
 
 But steadily falls the rain ; 
 More slowly it comes, now faster again, 
 Over the city, and over the plain, 
 
 Fall the showers of rain ! rain ! rain ! 
 
64 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Falls in wide-spread sheet, 
 Like the blinding sleet, 
 
 And gullies the hills and the mountains steep, 
 With swift brooks formed by the rain. 
 
 Fast and yet faster it pours, 
 The driving rain, and naught else before us 
 But tangled streams and loud wind in chorus, 
 That with the fast rain-beat scores ; 
 With a plash and dash, 
 And with a loud rush, 
 
 When break the waters their bounds with a crash- 
 Then free, it tumbles and roars. 
 
THE SEASONS. 65 
 
 Xo\v it floods the islands and plains, 
 \\ith the heavy force of her gloomy strains. 
 Let music its deep and doleful peans 
 Sing sadly her dull refrains; 
 Water swells and flows. 
 And noisily rolls, 
 
 Down deserted streets, in foamy white scroll: 
 High over sluices and drains. 
 
 Still it falls, the rain ! rain ! rain ! 
 O the streaming, dripping and tiring rain ! 
 Will never it cease its raining again? 
 
 To hope and hope, is it vain? 
 
 9 
 
66 THE SEASONS. 
 
 Lo ! the sun shines bright. 
 Sky blue, the clouds white. 
 And waters sing lullaby s in the light 
 With glad and joyous refrain. 
 
 Now to the wonderful sun ; 
 For rapid bright change and victory won, 
 The earth and the sky now rejoice as one 
 For rays of the golden sun, 
 That with softer glow, 
 Than sunbeams on snow, 
 Wakes all to new life, above and below 
 
 \Vhen this "beautiful rain" is over and done. 
 
ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
SHELL BEACH. 
 
 SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 There s a rocky beach by shelving cliffs, 
 Where the waters beat in shining drifts, 
 Hut only when they are at ebb and low 
 Can footsteps over the grey rocks go. 
 
 There many a molusk clinging dwells, 
 And the liriipets line the rock-carved wells ; 
 And star-fish and flecked cypria grow, 
 In all their yellow and crimson glow. 
 
 Sea-gulls fly over in grey-white flocks, 
 Where abalones cling to the rocks : 
 And here and there, a pearl-oyster is found, 
 Where radiant sunbeams fall around. 
 
i >.\ THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 6 9 
 
 The casa-rufra here glows in his house ; 
 And ruffled murex as a grey mouse. 
 Hangs clinging beneath the lip of a rock 
 Bright waves dash o er them, with no harsh shock 
 
 Beautiful spirals in slender form 
 And the cone-shaped, cling in places warm, 
 With grey sea-urchins in spiny robe 
 Xor fear a fall from their rocky globe. 
 
 The univalve conch, with many whorls, 
 Cling safe, from all the rapacious merles : 
 Turbinates varied in form and size, 
 That delight and please the searchers eyes. 
 
/O ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 Varied the forms of beautiful shells ; 
 And molusk within on grey rock dwells 
 But no flowery moss or kelp wave near, 
 For only shells on these rocks appear. 
 
KELP BEACH. 
 
 SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Over a fair little sandy beach, 
 That bounds the high-tide s watery reach 
 Float in ripples of crimson and white, 
 The moss-like kelp to glow in the light. 
 
 It sprinkles the bright and shining sand, 
 Like roses scattered in garden-land, 
 With colors as bright as line the shells 
 Where the wonderful little molusk dwells. 
 
 And bright as flowers in a sunny bed, 
 Dashed with the fragrance the salt waves shed, 
 But one kind only, as from like seed, 
 With, now and then, sprays of green sea-weed 
 
ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 Here the rosy-red and ivory white 
 Gleam in the sunshine with golden light; 
 Fresh from their bath in the briny waves, 
 They glow as roses when June shower laves. 
 
 Thus, brilliant kelp from the ocean caves, 
 Tossed on the beach by silvery waves ; 
 Like gleaming light in shimmering vein, 
 Plays through the waves that roll back again. 
 
 With the spring-time tides in ebb and flow, 
 Kver in beaut} they come and go, 
 Ever, as the months and years roll round, 
 With unchanging sway in their narrow bound. 
 
PESCADERO. 
 
 On the long reach of the ocean shore, 
 Is this pebbly beach, where wild waves roar, 
 For here, there is formed a pebbly lea, 
 By sweep of the tide from open sea. 
 
 It washes them in as the seasons pass, 
 And levels them down in deepening mass, 
 Small and varied in form and hue, 
 From sea-bath brighter than meads in dew. 
 
 Varied in tint as are precious stones, 
 Veined like the agate in rounded zones, 
 Mottled as the murre s eggs speckled shells, 
 That freckle the cliff, where the sea-bird dwells. 
 
 10 
 
74 <>N THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 Like the eggs albumen watery white, 
 Semi-transparent in strong sun-light, 
 Or as dewy opals with sapphire pent 
 Within their white film and lightly blent. 
 
 (jay beach sparkling as with rare rich stones, 
 When sea and rain has washed o er their zones, 
 Though browns are many and reds are few, 
 Kmeralcl sparkles with topaz and blue. 
 
 Purple and hyacinth glow in the maze, 
 Where the pale amethyst gleam its rays ; 
 A kingdom of beauty from ocean won, 
 To glitter its wealth in the beaming sun. 
 
OX TI1K SEA SHORE. 
 
 75 
 
 From whence and why in marshalling troop 
 Are swept in here this varied group. 
 As ever the circling years move round, 
 Where mosses and shells are rarelv found. 
 
 Nature has ever a way and plan, 
 As is e er revealed to the mind of man ; 
 Its deeper mystery to him will shine 
 With knowledge greater from the Divine. 
 
MOSS BEACH. 
 
 SOQUEL NEAR SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 A narrow, smooth and long sandy beach, 
 That ends with high walling cliffs ; 
 
 Rocky cliffs, that jut into the sea, 
 Where waves roll in foaming drifts. 
 
 A mountain brook flows down by the cliffs, 
 
 Warbling in silvery line, 
 To mingle with waves of ocean grey, 
 
 And sparkle with salt sea-brine. 
 
 Back from the shore in a rocky bed, 
 Flows down through a narrow wold, 
 
 Singing its song to the ferns and trees 
 Where the sunshine glints its gold. 
 
ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 77 
 
 Down through a green-wooded mossy dell, 
 
 And under the leafy trees, 
 That wave tall branches in wind and storm, 
 
 And in gentle salt sea-breeze. 
 
 While over the sand the bright-flecked waves, 
 Fling around in crimson showers, 
 
 Beautiful mosses of rosy hue, 
 To glow as a field of flowers. 
 
 Beautiful mosses, crimson and white, 
 Some with a bright scarlet glow ; 
 
 The fairest pink in a lap of white, 
 That rivals the riven snow. 
 
78 ON THE SEA SHORE 
 
 Delicate mosses with slender threads, 
 
 And fine as a spicjer weaves ; 
 The slender branches spread neath the waves, 
 
 Tremble with gossamer leaves. 
 
 From whence come these in body and group, 
 From grotto s where mermaids dwell ? 
 
 Did they fling them out from flowery caves, 
 To glow with the waters swell? 
 
 Hither to come in fairy-like grace ; 
 
 And sprinkle this green-sea strand, 
 With brilliant colors and beautiful forms 
 
 To gleam amid golden sand? 
 
ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 And where the -brook comes into the sea 
 With twigs to lodge in rock-lair. 
 
 The mosses cling and dangle and wave, 
 Like the mermaid s flossv hair. 
 
 Beautiful moss that floats in with the waves. 
 To brighten the sea-washed sand, 
 
 While over the cliffs the spring flowers bloom. 
 Bright flowers, that grow from the land. 
 
THE SEA-ANEMONES 
 
 SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Beneath the tall and rugged cliffs, 
 That wall this wild ocean shore, 
 
 Are flat rocks, where anemones 
 Dwell amid the waves loud roar. 
 
 In mossy-lined, rounded hollows, 
 That lie like bowls in the rocks ; 
 
 Where sweep the high tides, in and out, 
 Amid the grey granite blocks. 
 
 In bright purple beauty spreading, 
 Kissed by the incoming tide ; 
 
 Or in flowery glow they sparkle, 
 As amid the moss they hide. 
 
(>X THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 81 
 
 Here the wild sea s flowers are blooming 
 In crimson and golden glow, 
 
 Or as white, as when the moonbeams 
 Make sea-foam like drifting snow. 
 
 And at outward touch the lightest, 
 They fold the fringe of their bloom, 
 
 As folds at touch the mimosa s 
 Sensitive leaf in green gloom. 
 
 Thus on grey rocks in their beauty, 
 In a quaint and lovely bed. 
 
 Or clinging to craggy ledges 
 In radiant bloom they are spread. 
 
ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 And if by force they are wrested, 
 From their wild and rocky bed, 
 
 They beam a flower-bloom no longer, 
 Hut lie as a ball of lead. 
 
 So with larger things in nature, 
 They have a place and a sphere, 
 
 Where e er unchanged, they must remain, 
 In beauty and grace to appear. 
 
THE SINGING SAND. 
 
 Where cliffs are massed in sombre dark gray 
 And dreary sand-dunes spread far away. 
 Desolate and quaint by the western sea, 
 Where wild waves moan of now and to be. 
 
 Strange as novel is a singing beach, 
 Along this lone wild of the ocean reach. 
 And sounds come up, as from Undine s band, 
 When footsteps wend o er the creamy sand. 
 
 Musical sounds and pleasing as strange, 
 And newly known on this long Coast Range, 
 Varied with force of disturbing shock, 
 Prolonged with the motion of cradle-rock. 
 
 o 
 
84 ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 The whispering leaves and moaning pines, 
 The sighing breezes and wailing winds, 
 Loud babbling brooks and soft rippling rills, 
 The grand old mountains and rock-veined hi! 
 
 Long have the poets their praises sung 
 In strains familiar through ages have rung; 
 But it is left to this age more grand. 
 To add the praise of the singing sand. 
 
THE CLIFFS. 
 
 SUTRO S HEIGHTS. 
 
 Lifting high anear the sandy shore, 
 Where long waves dash and the breakers roar, 
 Where sea-lions play in the bright spring sun, 
 And wild waves roar, while its course is run. 
 
 Here dark cliffs rise in huge massive blocks, 
 Thrown up by the force of earthquake shocks, 
 Amid sand dunes, unmoved by wild storms, 
 They stand in beauty veiled in rock forms. 
 
 Massive and grand, their forms uplift high, 
 As Sequoia trees toward the blue sky, 
 Crowned with flowering shrubs and sylvan shades, 
 With graceful forms over walls and grades. 
 
86 ON THE SEA SHORE 
 
 And many are the flowers and works of art, 
 In graceful groups, or scattered apart, 
 Beneath, and in shade of fragrant pines, 
 Or by shelving rocks in bold outlines, 
 
 On these swelling cliffs, that slope, far back, 
 In rolling ground waves to the open park, 
 Or, on the steep cliffs, that in grandeur stand, 
 Great with storied gift from storied land. 
 
SAN LORENZO BAY. 
 
 SANTA CRUZ. 
 
 The sail-boats, white-winged, glide over the bay 
 As pale moonbeams on the glassy waves stray : 
 The land slopes down to the water s edge, 
 And around far hills the green pines hedge. 
 
 Over the bluff is the surging sea 
 Swelling the song of now and to be ; 
 Over the bluff is the long white shore, 
 And sea-mosses flower its sandy floor. 
 
 Ships sail to the north, ships sail to the south, 
 To many a harbor and river s mouth ; 
 Sail down the \vest to a sunny noon 
 Of Islands rich in a tropical bloom. 
 
88 ON THE SEA SHORE. 
 
 Sail away to the chorus of wailing winds, 
 That to the shore the white sea-fog wings, 
 While it tosses and whirls the foam-white spray, 
 As winds and waters in concert play. 
 
 O moon-bright waves, of the land-hemmed bay, 
 That press in from the sea in peace to lay: 
 Here, from the city s dull, wearying hum, 
 From its sea of storm-life to rest, I come. 
 
 To rest in the grace of thy morn and noon, 
 Where sails lift white in light of the moon, 
 Here, on the shore of this restless sea, 
 That ever some lesson repeats to me. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 12 
 
YO SEMITE VALLEY. 
 
 When above the long pine-covered slopes, 
 Of Nevada s green mountain heights, 
 
 Midway to lone peaks of Sierra, 
 
 Where alone makes the eagle her flights. 
 
 And still, as at dawn of creation, 
 
 Lie cold these lone heads in the snow 
 
 That golden in the sunlight of morning 
 And silver in the moon s paler glow. 
 
 Here a broad annd smooth level spreads out, 
 Now is green with grasses and vines, 
 
 And mottled with the lily s white flower, 
 Half-encircled with narrow leafed pines. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 From walled sides of a nearing abyss, 
 Domes and peaks lift up as in row, 
 
 And the massed rock and column goes down. 
 To the bed of the valley below. 
 
 \Ve follow down a steep winding trail, 
 To reach the deep laid valley bed. 
 
 In a broad space between rocky hills. 
 
 With low bushes and wild grass inspread. 
 
 Here strange wonders in mighty rock form, 
 And airy grace, burst on the sight, 
 
 Waters fall in a veil of white mist, 
 
 O er the rock-wall that climbs to vast height. 
 
92 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 "El-Capitan," great guard of the vale, 
 
 Climbs above its towering rim, 
 A titanic creamy-white column : 
 
 And round his head the summer-birds skim. 
 
 The Merced runs through the long valley, 
 From the falls where it whirls and rushes, 
 
 And through the long green sunny meadows, 
 Fringed by tall trees and the bushes. 
 
 And sings through the wild unmown meadows 
 Where prostrate lie trunks of large pines, 
 
 Brown, dappled with golden fringed mosses, 
 As the meadows with shrubs and vines. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 93 
 
 High are sharp peaks that lean as to leap, 
 With the "Cathedral s" towering spires, 
 
 Where the snow drops away in rain tears, 
 Melted by the sun s morning fires. 
 
 And the "Brothers," the clustering "three," 
 
 By each other lovingly stand, 
 Towering in such grandeur and pride, 
 
 As holding all power in their hand. 
 
 "Bridal-veil," wind-blown from the portal, 
 
 Floats out, yet cannot bridge the wide space. 
 
 To wave round and enfold the monarch, 
 And soften his sides with its grace. 
 
94 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 With a beauty more clinging it charms. 
 
 Drops its thread of diamonds and pearls 
 To gleam in the light feathery spray, 
 
 With rainbows in the glittering whirls. 
 
 Here the vale opens like the deep basin 
 
 Of a long ago inland sea, 
 Where the waters for ages had fled 
 
 And the bed left a green grassy lea. 
 
 And its great wonders crowd on the view, 
 
 Before and on every side, 
 By the mist veil of showering pearls 
 
 Or in, where the meadows are wide. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 95 
 
 Crowned with domes, the mighty rock titans 
 
 In splendor lift up to the day, 
 And the massive long granite columns, 
 
 Their shadows in the still water lay. 
 
 And in thunders, like break of sea-waves, 
 The waters pour down the high wall, 
 
 In rivers of white crystals and pearls, 
 The Vo-Semite s long waterfall. 
 
 These monarchs of the valley s walled sides, 
 Shoot above in straight and smooth block. 
 
 Their tops in point, or capped in round dome, 
 Solid shafts of grey granite rock. 
 
96 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And these mighty titanic monarchs, 
 Our wonder-gaze claim and fasten ; 
 
 And their grandeur of size so sublime, 
 Commands awe, which never can lessen, 
 
 This valley of quaint wonder and charm, 
 Of green meadows and fields of grain, 
 
 Crystal-clear the river glides through it, 
 Singing ever a musical strain. 
 
 Trees symmetrical throw their outline 
 High against the smooth granite wall. 
 
 Or in grace lean over the river, 
 
 On the waters let leaf shadows fall. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 97 
 
 And there glows a deep mirror-like lake. 
 Beside the green grassy meadows, 
 
 Where the titanic forms of massed rock 
 Lay down their clear immense shadows. 
 
 Above, the sky rounds its deep hollow dome 
 Sprinkled with gold stars of the night. 
 
 In its blue float white clouds of the day. 
 And sunbeams that dazzle our sight. 
 
 From fast melting snow pours the water. 
 O er the wall in foam-white river, 
 
 And in threads, like silvery arrows. 
 Speeding from a well-filled quiver. 
 
9cS MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 In the silvery long waterfall, 
 
 That thunders on the air its loud roar, 
 When on rocks that project it dashes, 
 
 Or on debris that lines the low floor. 
 
 Wonderful in its august splendor, 
 Its power and greatness of line, 
 
 Flashing gleams, as from pure white crystals 
 With rainbows in the spray and sunshine. 
 
 When viewed from the "Point Inspiration," 
 These wonders so greatly sublime, 
 
 That have grown up through the long ages, 
 From the earliest periods of time. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 99 
 
 Then with awe sublime, they inspire us, 
 These crowned heads so high to our sight, 
 
 As mountain chiefs, white gods of the day. 
 But are as grim dark titans by night. 
 
 Awe with reverence greater to Him, 
 Who fashioned these wonderful things ; 
 
 With the mar\ els of beauty and greatness. 
 And the glories to natute He brings. 
 
 The tall trees that grow up from their base. 
 Are as shrubs that fringe round their feet. 
 
 When in hollows below their high heads 
 The green pines are with beauty replete. 
 
TOO MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 To see daily or live in their shade, 
 Strange and unfamiliar would be, 
 
 As the crash, the thunder and the roar 
 Of storm waves, that break over the sea. 
 
 And more wierd when the daylight is gone, 
 When dark shadows lie still and deep, 
 
 As if nature had shut her eyelids 
 
 In her last, and long dreamless sleep. 
 
 When the pale moon comes up in the night, 
 And flames her white light o er these head; 
 
 Then the shadows sink deeper away, 
 In lone nooks of the lone valley bed. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS IOI 
 
 Or when she in all her white glory, 
 Looks over each towering height, 
 
 Renewing this wild of rare wonders, 
 \Yith her silvery transforming light, 
 
 Then the lone deep is changed, as by magic, 
 To a vale of fairies and gnomes, 
 
 Where in the shrubs, trees and the grasses. 
 They may still have their fanciful homes. 
 
 We wind in among trees and bushes 
 
 Of trail, to a deep shady dell, 
 And hear the rush and roar of the river, 
 
 Hurrying through its sea-deep well. 
 
102 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And we look down to see from the height, 
 Of the trail near "Ah-wi-yah s" white fall. 
 
 The rock titans bending around it 
 In the protecting cup-like wall. 
 
 Climbing the gamboling fall to see, 
 
 Before us looms "Liberty Cap," 
 In a deeper dark shade of the grey, 
 
 Than titans in the valley s deep lap. 
 
 Here "Ah-wi-yah s" swift waters flash forms, 
 Like troops of white angels, with crown 
 
 On heads, thrown ball-like, floating thin robes, 
 As of foamy feathery down. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 103 
 
 And beyond in the grey misty clouds 
 Of the thin and vapory spray, 
 
 Rainbows flit in, and the sunbeams flash, 
 Like millions of fairies in play. 
 
 And below where the rocky trail ends. 
 Where "Liberty Cap" throws a shade 
 
 By the side of a mossy lined grotto 
 And green trees as in forest glade. 
 
 Xeath the leafy shade flows the water, 
 Of the grassy-green "Vernal Fall," 
 
 Flashing and leaping to the valley bed 
 By the trees and the jagged wall. 
 
IO4 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 A fairy-like mossy-lined grotto, 
 
 Slow-dripping, pearly drops of dew, 
 
 Opens out to the glassy clear fall, 
 In light of a golden-green hue. 
 
 Fit place for wood-nymphs and naiads, 
 Mid mosses and feathery fern, 
 
 But with music of the loud waterfall, 
 For wimpling of a greenwood burn. 
 
 But when come the frosts of late autumn 
 To star grasses, rocks and the trees, 
 
 Dissolving in the sunbeams of morning 
 And glinting like dew on the leaves. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. IO = 
 
 Then deepens the tone of their colors. 
 
 The yellow to an orange hue, 
 More brilliant and glossy the varied reds, 
 
 In thin haze of the softest blue. 
 
 That hang in mist wreaths o er the meadows, 
 
 As it floats surpassingly fair. 
 And is pierced by the lance-like sun-rays, 
 
 Ere it melts away into thin air. 
 
 The mist in coil, lik-e an Almeh-wound veil, 
 Round the "Sentinel" twines and falls. 
 
 Hangs here and there in thin gauzy fold. 
 To soften, and to hide the dark walls. 
 
 14 
 
IO6 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Rapid the change of the varied colors, 
 
 After rains in these autumn days, 
 Amber shades deepen, the red leaves burn, 
 
 And tints flash through the mist and the haze. 
 
 Vale of weird enchantment and wonder, 
 By the summer suns and winds thrilled, 
 
 How bleak, lone and cold when with winter, 
 All its leaves, and its waters are chilled. 
 
WEBER VALLEY. 
 
 Coming through a defile in the mountains, 
 In bright beauty bursts on the view, 
 
 A large rounded meadow-like valley 
 
 Of green grass, with gold shining through, 
 
 A strikingly mixed dreamy wonder 
 
 Like a paradisical vision ; 
 Low homes nestle deep in the greenness, 
 
 Of fields sweet as the elvsian. 
 
 Silver poplars dot the green meadows 
 Mingling with the darker hued trees; 
 
 Leaves lightly floating in the white air, 
 And the faintest of cooling breeze. 
 
108 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Wild roses in deepening pink color 
 
 Are blooming by the low cottage side ; 
 
 Here the larks sing in dew of the morning 
 Their sweet songs as in joyous pride. 
 
 And the Wasatch mountains in grandeur, 
 Snow-white from the valley arise 
 
 In morning glowing in white splendor, 
 In the eve swept with ruby-red dyes. 
 
 Climbing blue dome of the sky to meet 
 
 If we Ossa on Pelion pile, 
 These towering heights would o er them bend 
 
 And look down on them with a smile. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 IO9 
 
 With their heads high above the white clouds. 
 They look up to the beautiful stars ; 
 
 But far below the sunset now paints 
 Its golden and crimsoning bars. 
 
 And spreading abroad their white mantles 
 To cover large space of the world, 
 
 That from cloud-crowned crests through all ages, 
 Snow-white banners might be unfurled. 
 
 Mountain peaks stretch away to the south. 
 
 Half-walling the valley around, 
 But sloping to meet the red-green heights 
 
 Of the eastern and northern bound. 
 
HO MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The low swells of sandstone sharpsided, 
 Are covered with tender green o er, 
 
 And metalic, as mountains would be, 
 Of iron, or cinabar ore. 
 
 And the contrast is strangely pleasing, 
 With the wonder of greenness that goes 
 
 Far up the sides of the mountains to meet 
 The still greater wonder of snows. 
 
 The Weber crystal clear glides through it, 
 Glassing the alabaster-like walls 
 
 In turrets and spires of cathedrals 
 And in frozen river-like falls. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. I I I 
 
 Now o er all shine the sun-rays of evening, 
 Goldening the peaks of white snow. 
 
 And goldening the bright green grasses 
 In the valley of strange charm below ; 
 
 That lies in the bosom of mountains 
 
 In a rest as quiet and deep, 
 As when guarded by heaven s white angels, 
 
 Rests a fair young child in its sleep. 
 
WEBER AND ECHO CANONS 
 
 From the bright green Eden-like valley, 
 From the wonderful mountains of snow, 
 
 Through a pass in the cinabar heights, 
 To these mountain gorges we go. 
 
 Through these canons enchantingly wild 
 And so quaintly novel and strange, 
 
 Alternating and mixed with the hills 
 That rise in a long broken range. 
 
 Or with hills trending green with low shrubs 
 In a rounded or knoll-like form ; 
 
 Hills sharply outlined, abrupt in rise, 
 Where waters rush down in a storm. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And dark walls weird in shape frowning 
 Lift in pile and pillar of rocks, 
 
 As wrought by the strong hand of masons, 
 Muted column, shaft, and piled blocks. 
 
 And ever the long gorge is changing 
 Its features of rock and of hill ; 
 
 \Vhile among them rushes the river, 
 Here and there at its own sweet will. 
 
 Many times we cross its swift waters 
 In passing these wild canons through : 
 
 While astonished our eyes behold 
 
 The strange wonders presented to view. 
 
 I ; 
 
114 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Here gray rock lifts its large dark columns 
 
 In a high and long palisade; 
 It, an army might use for defence, 
 
 With no fear of storm by wild raid. 
 
 Then the massed piles of rock in grand form, 
 Like heavy embattlements near, 
 
 Hide the large and strong fortress whose top 
 Looks over them just in the rear. 
 
 Grassy belts along the curved pathway 
 And green nooks between the hills lie, 
 
 Where silvery the waters are flowing 
 When white sun-rays fill the blue sky. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Now the high walls open before us 
 
 Like the yawning of some deep abyss, 
 
 As if Pluto had opened a storm-gate. 
 To the regions of dark P^ rebus. 
 
 The walled sides a grand arch supporting, 
 A massed pile of dull grey rock ; 
 
 The buttresses alone remaining. 
 In solid and close fitting block. 
 
 Foamy waters flow down the dark chasm, 
 Swiftly plunging and tumbling through, 
 
 P or the warm skies to raise and distil, 
 Then let fall in sweet evening dew. 
 
Il6 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 When lies through the mountains our pathway 
 Thus hiding their grandeur from view, 
 
 Loss then to sight is quickly repaid 
 By novelty strangely new. 
 
 A long sloping hill, and high reaching; 
 
 Wide-spread its bare open side ; 
 From base to top spanned by low walls. 
 
 That enclose a narrow smooth slide. 
 
 In short columns of stone o er-lapping, 
 Dark and heavy near the hill s base ; 
 
 As it lifts to the bold crown graded, 
 But keeps for the slide even space. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 When the hill is mirrored and doubled 
 
 In the water around its base, 
 Beauty is given to the singular lines 
 
 In a modified, softened grace. 
 
 Here is piled large boulder on boulder. 
 Like some ancient high pulpit, where 
 
 Above the people, the preacher s voice. 
 Is heard in the sermon and prayer. 
 
 While among the bold rocks and mountains, 
 Sleep sweet echoes, that softly hide. 
 
 Till by loud sounds they are awakened. 
 Like our shouts, to mock and deride, 
 
Il8 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 That repeat as astonished, our phrases, 
 Our exclaim give back for exclaim, 
 
 To their quiet, they then hie away ; 
 And in a long silence remain. 
 
 Beneath it, we may stand by fifties 
 
 Where over-hangs a wide-spread rock, 
 
 That mounts up like a hill above us, 
 In a vast immense solid block. 
 
 Its large bulk lower and back pressing, 
 Deep into the hills for its bed, 
 
 While its dark front shoots up like a cap, 
 Whose flat half hangs high overhead. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Now, castles like homes for giants; 
 
 Or high buttes lift up in long row ; 
 And well filled is the wide space between 
 
 That was open in the long ago ; 
 
 With the broken and fallen debris. 
 
 Of red bricks from the high castle walls, 
 
 And mortar with green weeds over grown 
 That blocks the pathway into their halls. 
 
 And near by are more crumbling ruins, 
 Like old castles of the feudal times ; 
 
 While below are the green grassy hills 
 Redolent of summer s sweet thyme. 
 
120 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Here and there is a tall and lone shaft 
 With rock castles fit place for gnomes, 
 
 Grass-clad mountains and warm sunny nooks 
 Where coyotes may find their homes. 
 
 Strange freaks of nature mighty and grand 
 Wildly weird in shape, are so planned, 
 
 By Him who fashions the universe, 
 And adorns it with artist hand. 
 
 And a charm has this wild of quick change 
 So deftly are mixed its strange freaks; 
 
 The wayward and grand all so softened 
 By greens that drape hillsides and peaks. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. I 2 I 
 
 These give grace to grandeur by contrast. 
 And they soften all sharp defects ; 
 
 Tender greenness and sunlit waters, 
 Produce strangely pleasing effects. 
 
 Beautiful are all in the bright sunbeams 
 Of dewy morning, and in the long noons, 
 
 They light up the streams 
 
 With silvery gleams, [blooms. 
 
 Make the waters light foam, like showers of white 
 
 And mined through are the hearts of three mountains, 
 And the fast stream is well bridged o er and o er 
 
 16 
 
122 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 For path through this piled, 
 And beautiful wild, 
 From the prairie to the ocean s smooth shore 
 
 And all these quaintly fantastic wild forms 
 Are strangly pleasing and attractive to sight. 
 When comes up the white moon, 
 To light the weird dark gloom, 
 Over the mountains and hills in the night. 
 
 Then spindles taller, the points that shoot up, 
 Into an airy, light, feathery grace, 
 
 Enlarge rocky fells, 
 
 The castles and swells 
 Into higher, broader, and far deeper space. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 123 
 
 The fairies with leaves 
 
 May dance in the breeze, 
 And the elves in the white foaming water, 
 
 But giants and gnomes 
 
 In their castled homes, 
 Cheer no longer with loud songs and laughter. 
 
GRAND CANON OF THE YEL 
 LOWSTONE. 
 
 When the evening sun in splendor 
 Sets in gold and crimson glow, 
 
 Through the canon streams a soft light, 
 Like the sunset s afterglow. 
 
 And, where near its topmost border 
 Grows the fringing shrub or tree, 
 
 There, through them, the brilliant colors 
 Gleam in glories rare to see. 
 
 Flashing crimson, red and golden, 
 Brightest blue and tender green, 
 
 Suffusing all the trees and bushes 
 With a wonder-gleaming sheen. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 125 
 
 Shooting through the narrow crevice 
 And athwart the climbing vines, 
 
 Marking every clinging tendril, 
 That amid the tangle twines. 
 
 Gleaming near the roaring waters, 
 Dashing o er the rocky height, . 
 
 Leaping waves like molten silver, 
 Sparkling in the wonder-light. 
 
 Adown the walls high and massive, 
 Walls of creamy-tinted rock, 
 
 Nature-chiseled frieze and column, 
 And the smooth and ragged rock. 
 
126 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Through the ages Sunset splendor 
 Swept the grandeur of this wild, 
 
 Like glory, winged from court of heaven, 
 Till it in its beauty smiled. 
 
 And the years reveal new marvels 
 Of this wondrous moutain height, 
 
 Bursting into gorgeous splendors 
 With each sunset s glowing light. 
 
MOUNT SHASTA. 
 
 Tehesta, queenly and beautiful, 
 Uplifts her commanding form 
 
 O er Sierra s high peaks, ice-polished, 
 Forests and long valleys warm. 
 
 Enrobed in a mantle of crystals, 
 Glistening as dew on the leaves, 
 
 With tints of the rose through it shining. 
 As o er the lava it weaves. 
 
 And down through large glacial ice-blocks, 
 That gorge her sides with its stream, 
 
 A wonder-bright hue of greenness 
 Like emeralds sparkling gleam. 
 
128 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And in the deep fold of some crevice 
 Glows, reflected heaven s deep blue, 
 
 Where stars peer down in the night-time 
 And the moon s white face we view. 
 
 While in her bosom, slumbering, 
 
 Is liquid, volcanic fire, 
 Some nether force, active, awaiting 
 
 To pour out its burning ire ; 
 
 As, when in some past whirling cycle 
 Was heavenward thrown this tall form, 
 
 By the seething, surging, pent fury 
 Of a fierce, volcanic storm. 
 
MlSCELLANKors. 129 
 
 Her head is crowned with a diadem 
 Of th brilliant, golden stars, 
 
 And her jeweled robe, the evening sun 
 Then ribbons with crimson bars* 
 
 Till it glistening glows, when the moon 
 
 Shines with her silvery light, 
 In her swift march with the starrv thron<> 
 
 ^ o 
 
 To beautify the still night. 
 
 And. alone, the fair Butte in splendor 
 
 Stands at the head of a host 
 Of high mountain peaks in their grandeur, 
 
 That range along with sea-coast. 
 
130 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And as fair among them and peerless 
 
 As Luna mid starry orbs, 
 Though she beats not time to their measure. 
 
 Yet with them her warm heart throbs. 
 
 And spotless in silvery glory 
 
 Is the bright sparkling Butte, 
 As a queen in purity, holy, 
 
 Grand, majestic, and mute. 
 
THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Long ago, mid years that sleep in the past, 
 Like a coast line guard, the mountains were massed 
 From north to south of this western strand 
 Guarding unknown wealth of the inner land. 
 
 But there came a day, when this wall of rock 
 \\ a< riven in twain by an earthquake shock ; 
 And the ebb and flow of the mighty tide 
 Wore away the rock walls and opened it wide. 
 
 And rushing waters, exultant and free, 
 From fathomless depths of the mighty sea. 
 Swept in afar, over lowland and plain, 
 Till a bav was formed from the rolling 1 main. 
 
132 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 In the dewy hush of the evening gray, 
 A band of Franciscans, knelt down to pray, 
 On rolling dunes that here scattering stray 
 Along the shores of this beautiful Bay. 
 
 And then to the waters that stretched away, 
 They gave the name "San Francisco Bay;" 
 And planted a cross on the mountain Lone, 
 And mingled their prayers with the ocean s moan. 
 
 And the rolling years heard the march of feet. 
 And ploughing of waves by a swift-winged fleet; 
 And merchant vessels that swept through the Gate. 
 In the early morn and the evening late, 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. I 3 3 
 
 Beheld what St. Francis fathers had done 
 In the land, which lies towards the setting sun ; 
 But not one of the many could e er lay claim, 
 To the giving the Gate its Golden name. 
 
 For long e er the land was so largely known. 
 Rich fleets had sailed in from every zone ; 
 And each comer knew of the Golden Gate, 
 But no one then knew of the Golden State. 
 
 Now, the Golden Gate is a household word, 
 Piercing many a heart as if by a sword, 
 And for the many who sailed through the Gate. 
 Loved ones still linger, they watch and they wait. 
 
134 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 But still it lies in its beauty and pride, 
 And ships through its beautiful waters glide : 
 While away to the north from the open sea 
 The rock-hills fall down, as on bended knee. 
 
 Then sharply turning, from Point Honito, 
 
 A spur from the hills of Saucelito, 
 
 They running eastward then form a dark wall, 
 
 From whose dun heights the many sea-birds call. 
 
 And the red-brown heights, these autumnal days, 
 Are softly enwrapped in a purpling haze, 
 Which tinges the water and reaches across, 
 And tinges the grey rocks of Point Lobos. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 While above and away, drifts the creamy sand 
 In hills, and in dunes, and in level land; 
 While still farther on, is a long, wide reach. 
 Where the tide sweeps in o er a sandy beach. 
 
 Touching the low swells, which come sloping down, 
 From the distant grey of the hilly town, 
 \\ here in green and yellow are flowers and trees 
 Around beautiful homes that delight and please. 
 
 Just beyond the reach of the highest tide, 
 And embowered with vines on every side, 
 Stands a lowly cottage with open door, 
 To let in the breeze from the ocean shore. 
 
136 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And up from the rocks, that line the long shore, 
 Come the low weird sounds of the seals harsh roar, 
 As they sport and play, where the green sea laves 
 The high rocky cliffs with its briny waves. 
 
 And the Farralone Isles loom up in the west, 
 A landmark to guide the mariner s quest, 
 Searching it may be, for the Golden Gate, 
 Espies the dark Isles in the evening late. 
 
 And the beacon lights, from the light-house towers, 
 Shine over the waves, through the long, dark hours, 
 And ships come and go through the lighted way. 
 Passing to and fro, in and out from the Bay. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 137 
 
 \Yhile the ships incoming from lands afar, 
 Hail a Pilot to guide them over the bar; 
 Where the plash of waves and the breakers roar, 
 Mingle with call of the seals on the shore. 
 
 And we watch the ships, as the}* come and go, 
 The large -and the small, the swift and the slow. 
 And think of the many, from near and far, 
 \\ ho are coming and going neath e\ ery star. 
 
 From India s coast and the northern seas, 
 From Xew Zealand s Isle and the Hebrides, 
 From the dark Continento s warm sultry shores, 
 From Asia s border, and the Isles of Azores. 
 
 18 
 
138 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 They proudly pass through, with their sails unfurled 
 From the many ports of the wide, wide world, 
 While the differing flags, that float on the breeze. 
 Bring thought of the lands, that lie over the seas. 
 
 Safely crossing the bar they sail into port, 
 Which is guarded for aye by many a fort, 
 To where all the ships in security lay 
 In the fair and large San Francisco Bay. 
 
 And this Golden Gate is open ever, 
 A gateway for nations it stands forever, 
 To the fruitful valley, bay, river and lake, 
 And gold-bearing hill, of the Golden State. 
 
UP THE SAN JOAQUIN. 
 
 Up the long river, from the wide-spread bay, 
 In its serpentine course, we wend our way, 
 Through valleys and fields and marsh-like sed^e, 
 
 o 
 
 Tween lithe green willows, that bend o er its edge. 
 
 Through a region level, and grand and vast, 
 
 Where long it has coursed through years that are past, 
 
 In its spring-time fullness of rapid flow, 
 
 Or through the summer, when waters are low. 
 
 We see the long reach of vales to the north, 
 Or the smooth broad sweep that trends to the south, 
 Xow gay with bright flowers in this sweet spring-time, 
 But touched in the winter with frostv rime. 
 
140 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And meadows and fields, in spring-bloom so fair, 
 We see many a league in the pale blue air, 
 And the now green wheat will yellow as gold 
 Be harvested, ere the young spring grows old. 
 
 Through enchanting scenes winds this tree-fringed 
 
 stream, 
 
 Where hangs the mirage like a mystic dream, 
 And where ever floats a wild tangled maze 
 Of vapory white and violet haze. 
 
 Where the mist at eve in tremulous fear 
 Creeps up the hills in ethereal air, 
 And spreads o er the valley its filmy webs, 
 For winds to whirl up in vapory shreds. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 141 
 
 Here across the wide space on either side, 
 High mountains are seen in grandeur and pride; 
 The bold Sierra, a wall in the east ; 
 The Coast Range mountains, a bank in the west. 
 
 While we look far o er this bounded space, 
 Where the limpid streams with vales interlace, 
 We think of what space, must there seem to be, 
 Far out on the boundless billowy sea. 
 
 Where the sky s deep arch in beauty serene, 
 Or the shimmering waves alone may be seen, 
 As the sun flashes o er them beams of light, 
 Or the pale moon and stars shine down at night. 
 
142 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Or the fleecy mass of cumulus clouds, 
 That betoken a storm and blackening shrouds, 
 When the lightning will shoot, with the falling rain, 
 As the petrel skims o er the glassy main. 
 
 And from these high peaks, whose bold heads of light 
 That ever are crowned with a robe of white, 
 Large ships may be seen as they sail away 
 Down the western sea in the sun-bright day. 
 
 And thy wrinkled course, fair stream, may be traced, 
 In brightness that never can be effaced, 
 To where through the bays lined with hills and vales, 
 Moat the many white boats with unfurled sails. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 143 
 
 And afar to the west, where sea and sky meet, 
 And swelling waves dash the rock crests to greet, 
 Where the golden sun on the drifting clouds 
 Flashes his glory in deep crimson floods. 
 
 But for thy fair waters, that sparkling, gleam, 
 We ve left mount and sea, O beautiful stream, 
 And as vanishing pictures, mingle and blend, 
 So the views of to-day with thy waters trend. 
 
 NOTE. "The San Joaquin River obtains its waters from the living 
 glaciers of Mount Ritter, the minarets and other lofty peaks of the 
 main chain of the Sierra Nevada Mountains." J. M. Hutchings. 
 
MONTE DEL DIABLO. 
 
 Inland to the east of the Golden Gate, 
 In the Coast Range hills of the Sunset State, 
 Towers this cone-shaped mount high, bold and grand 
 Like a sentinel stationed to guard the land. 
 
 It smiles on vales, sweeping down from the north. 
 From Mt. Shasta s feet to Tehachapi s south, 
 On its beauty and bloom in sweet spring-time, 
 Or its glittering sheen of cold winter rime. 
 
 And its shadow falls on this, or that side, 
 In sunshine of morn or the evening tide: 
 And waves of ocean its rocky base lave 
 As inflowing they mix with bay-river wave. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 145 
 
 And the bold head is seen on Sierra s crest* 
 
 Or far on the Pacific s salt-sea breast. 
 
 O er sandhills and dunes and wild beetling cliffs 
 
 Where the seals and mews wail their doleful griefs. 
 
 And incoming ships, near the sandy bar, 
 See its quaint lone height in the east afar, 
 And shape their course with no pilot at hand* 
 Hy the bared brow of this Mount of our land. 
 
 As a central point round which a wheel turns, 
 This Mount seems the point round which the land 
 
 yearns, 
 
 And from its summit the wayfarers behold 
 A very large part of this land of gold. 
 
 IQ 
 
146 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Sees snow-crowned mountains far up in the north, 
 And away to rolling sandhils in the south ; 
 From where morning s sun light the Sierra s cones, 
 To where at eve he gilds the Harralones. 
 
 And thus it has stood through ages long past, 
 
 But o er its brow a dark veil has been cast, 
 
 As tradition tells of a long ago time 
 
 When strange deeds were done in this sun-bright clime 
 
 When the doom of many were sealed on this height, 
 And it shone afar in the darkening night, 
 As on it burned fires, lit by human hands, 
 For the mystic rites of the savage bands. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 147 
 
 Or as signal light to some warrior s band, 
 Hastening by night to the valley land, 
 To meet the grim hordes, of the savage race, 
 That chose their home in the wild mountain pass. 
 
 But from time unknown, through a rune-like lore, 
 Did the Indians gather their tales of yore. 
 And Romish priests- out of tradition s maze 
 Learned the strange acts of this landmark of days. 
 
 It was said, that red flames leaped forth in the night, 
 And demon-like shapes glided over the height, 
 And strange fearful sounds marked this mountain cone 
 As the dark wild home of some evil one. 
 
148 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Perhaps they, the wild storms of wind and rain, 
 That raised the river and covered the plain, 
 With the earthquake terror, that opened the mount, 
 And made bays of the sea, placed to his account. 
 
 Hence the Fathers, heeding not Nature s claim, 
 Gave to this mountain its evil-fraught name, 
 Forgetting that Nature, God s acting laws, 
 Would trace all weird things from effect to cause. 
 
 Hut a landmark, we of to-day behold, 
 Majestic in mien, stately, grand and bold, 
 Divested of all weird tales of the past 
 Save the name, that sleeps on its wondrous crest. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 149 
 
 But here, all unmoved by the evil name, 
 The flight of the storm clouds is seen the same, 
 And the Signalist stands with hand on the keys 
 And flashes their passage over the seas. 
 
 And when in the valleys pile fog and mist. 
 Bright sunbeams will over this high crest drift. 
 And though here alone the Signalist stands 
 With naught but a speculum in his hands. 
 
 Yet his thoughts wing their airy noiseless flight. 
 Afar to the north, to Mt. Shasta s height, 
 And quick as the flash of the gleaming ray. 
 The answer is speeding on its swift way. 
 
I SO MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The turn of the glass, Mt. Hamilton speaks 
 And talks of the wonders of nature s freaks, 
 Of what it beholds in the South far away, 
 As here he watches the elements play. 
 
 So thought speaks to thought with the flash of light, 
 
 Ignoring distance and time in its flight, 
 
 Till the name dies out in the good that appears, 
 
 As the tidings come down through the fleeing years. 
 
 Bold crested height of rare service to man, 
 This lesson you teach, whatever the plan ; 
 Though circumstance may with ill cloud a name 
 The good use of life will bring honored fame. 
 
"LA PIEDRA PINTADA." 
 
 OR, THE PAINTED ROCK OF SAX LUIS OBISPO. 
 
 On a height of the Coast Range mountains, 
 
 Inland, far above the blue sea, 
 Lies a dimpling wide-spread basin, 
 
 Lone Carissa s long plain or lea. 
 
 While never a stream runs from it, 
 To the centre it gently inclines. 
 
 Where in winter a salt lake forms, 
 And in summer a salt bed shines. 
 
 Each rock on the hills surrounding, 
 Is stamped like some symbolic page. 
 
 That tells of a strange race, extinct. 
 In the world s prehistoric age. 
 
52 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 But like some mountain cathedral, 
 
 Intact on the bed of the lea, 
 "La Piedra Pintada" towers. 
 
 Opening out to the western sea. 
 
 A singular, strange formation. 
 
 Ragged, unique, immense and high, 
 An inner temple inclosing, 
 
 Whose strange wonders fasten the eye. 
 
 And sea-washed in bygone ages 
 Was the high plateau of salt lands, 
 
 The wonderful amphitheatre 
 
 Where this vast painted rock now stands. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 53 
 
 For the ocean has left his footprints* 
 
 Fossil shells everywhere abound 
 They carpet the rolling hill-tops, 
 
 They pave the high mountains around. 
 
 They fleck this wonderful temple, 
 Monumental of time passed by, 
 
 Whose walls thus wrought and carved strangely. 
 Firm abide, while the ages fly. 
 
 And within is a vast chamber, 
 
 And large as some grand palace hall, 
 
 Where strange, rude, mystical figures, 
 Are portrayed on the high rock wall. 
 
 20 
 
154 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Records, archaeological, 
 
 Of some strange prehistoric race, 
 For the symbols and forms are proof 
 
 Of a people unknown to the place. 
 
 Here are wheels and suns and altars, 
 And rude banners and belts and spears, 
 
 And forms of men and animals, 
 UnefTaced by corroding years. 
 
 And on the face of the rocks around, 
 Are forms with bright rubric signs seen, 
 
 On the walls of the inner chamber 
 
 And against its broad sides they lean. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. t 5 5 
 
 Marvelous cone-like cathedral ! 
 
 Strange, weird wonder of this lone wild ! 
 Your quaintly bright colored symbols. 
 
 Our thoughts have most strangely beguiled, 
 
 In the temple s large inner domain, 
 
 Safely sheltered from mountain storms. 
 
 Did that unknown race assemble 
 To worship these symbolic forms? 
 
 Or was this the Court of Justice, 
 
 Where they talked of effect and cause, 
 
 And lacking a written language 
 
 On the rock-walls engraved their laws. 
 
156 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And is its fame less, that to-day 
 
 The round court a fold is for sheep, 
 
 Where they are called in by thousands, 
 
 When night falls, or wild storms the hills sweep? 
 
 A strange marvel still it remains, 
 Attractive and weirdly unique. 
 While the mountain near the cone-swell, 
 Seems a rival with its high peak. 
 
 Scenes of beauty are seen from the rock. 
 
 Valley-plains and rivers and lakes ; 
 Tall plane-trees, and willows by streams, 
 
 And over the hills the live-oaks. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 157 
 
 Historic rock rich with records 
 
 Well stored is your volume so vast, 
 
 In the close-sealed book, what knowledge 
 Hold you of a time in the past? 
 
 What men lived below in the vales, 
 
 By streams, and on the tree-crowned hill? 
 
 Whose history is stamped on your face? 
 Whose archives your temple now fill ? 
 
 O unrevealed work of past time, 
 
 On this rock-height grandly you stand ; 
 
 Waiting its seals to be broken 
 
 To add lore to the lore of our land. 
 
UP AND FROM MT. DIABLO 
 
 Up from the breezy and low level plain 
 Of a sunny vale, green with grass and grain, 
 Fringed with madrona, dark firs, and green bay 
 Bright with sweet flowers and the rivulet s play. 
 
 By orchards and fields we speed on the way, 
 Up the flower-decked hills in the waning day, 
 Glowing in sunbeams, that play o er the swells, 
 And toy with shadows in the deepening dells. 
 
 We leave the low hills and ravine of pines, 
 Live-oaks, laurels, manzanita and vines, 
 And far up the mountain are we in our climb, 
 When lost are the sunbeams in grey foggy rime, 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 But the breeze is cool and our hearts are gay, 
 So we turn not back, but still upward stray, 
 Till we reach the crest of the mountain high, 
 In a sea of mist that hides earth and sky. 
 
 When out of the gloom, there breaks a surprise 
 Of sunbeam s splendor on our dazzled eyes. 
 In billowy roll, the mist, dense and gray, 
 Folds up like a curtain and floats away. 
 
 And streams of gold light from the low bright sun 
 Pour in, where, so late, all was gray and dun, 
 Then spangles of gold illumine the lea, 
 And molten gold is the far-away sea. 
 
160 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Like an Eden, vales in the wonder-light lie, 
 The hills and waters in the golden-hued dye, 
 Transfused is the air, and each shimmering wave, 
 And glorious gleam, all in the bound lave. 
 
 O beautiful storm of golden sun-rays, 
 That burst from the mist s dark cloudy grays, 
 In such radiant beams o er water and plain 
 Are your glories, too fleeting, for earth to retain? 
 
LONE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Up, from the sea-washed walls of the Golden Gate, 
 Spreads a city o er hills in wide estate, 
 From the Mountain Lone, cross-crested and lorn, 
 In quiet it lies in the violet morn. 
 
 A city of marble walls, towers, and domes, 
 
 Of broken columns and of silent homes, 
 
 Mid the springing grassses and flowers and trees, 
 
 And music of birds on the morning breeze. 
 
 Below foam the waves of the surging sea. 
 That ever in calm or in storm swell free: 
 Ships sail in and out through the Golden Gate, 
 Ships, laden with more than a golden freight. 
 
 21 
 
1 62 MISCELLANKOIS. 
 
 And many, who land from ships that come in, 
 Will never sail out with the fleet again, 
 Hut will rest in the city above the sea, 
 Till they wake in the newness of life to be. 
 
 Will rest in the quiet, mid flowers and trees, 
 And singing of birds, and the hum of bees ; 
 Away from the sound of the loud sea s roar, 
 As it surges and breaks on the sunset shore. 
 
 Ships sail away but the city is left, 
 
 In the silence that sighs of life bereft 
 
 Sail away through the mist and gloom of night 
 
 To a flowery land steeped in morning light. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS, 163 
 
 \Vhere through amethyst haze glows the city of light 
 And water-streams flow in their crystal white, 
 And pearl-filled gates in the walls of bright gems. 
 And glory that sifts through the golden realms. 
 
 And the Golden Gate by the river of life. 
 Through it, the Christ-named pass to the city of life ; 
 These frul their sails, by the evergreen shore, 
 In the dawn, when sapphire tints through soft light 
 pour. 
 
 Ships will sail to and from earth s shores of land, 
 And ships will sail out from a voiceless strand. 
 From the life lived here to the life beyond, 
 While ever the cvcles of time move round. 
 
THE MAMMOTH TREES. 
 
 SEQUOIA GIGANTEA. 
 
 These Sequoias Gigantea, 
 
 The wonder-grove of Mariposa, 
 Stand in quiet grave and deep, 
 
 As sleeps the vale of Valambrosa. 
 
 And the trees of Calaveras, 
 
 Around whose heads, above tall pines, 
 The last bright rays of evening sun 
 
 In auriole of gold mist shines. 
 
 Here prostrate lies a monarch grand, 
 Hollow, with roomy opening wide, 
 
 Where a plumed knight on stalwart steed, 
 Far through the large, long trunk may ride. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 \\ hile stands his mate in self same dress, 
 A branchless form, with no arms spread, 
 
 That looms, as some high castle tower 
 
 With sprigs, like palm-fronds round her head. 
 
 Apart in groves of fragrant pines, 
 
 And scattered stand the monarchs few, 
 
 And in size and height far more grand, 
 Than till late days the world ere knew. 
 
 Living wonders, breathing, pulsing, 
 
 When Imperial Rome was young, 
 When the voices of her sages, 
 
 Through Senate Hall and Forum rung. 
 
1 66 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Tender shoots when stars were worshipped, - 
 So upward went Rome s pious thought, 
 
 When her wise men and great rulers, 
 
 The best in their great age, then wrought. 
 
 Tall young saplings, tender growing, 
 In sweet freshness of their new life, 
 Among the pines, ferns and mosses, 
 
 With Sabbath rest and stillness rife. 
 
 
 
 Ere the dawn of the Christian era, 
 
 When men, enlightened, were unknown 
 
 Save among the Greeks and Romans, 
 \Vhere learning held her highest throne. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 167 
 
 Xe\v coats forming, when great praises, 
 
 Their orators and poets sung, 
 When loud plaudits for their heroes 
 
 From statesmen through their Senate rung. 
 
 Living, growing, down the era 
 
 Of the Christian s long potent sway. 
 
 Through the changes wrought by loving, 
 Felt in all earth s lands to-day. 
 
 If germs from which their large forms sprung, 
 
 Had lain by the Adriatic 
 In them, what tales might now lie hid, 
 
 Of great deeds, grand and heroic. 
 
1 68 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 History has not on her pages : 
 
 Deeds of sacrifice, for the love 
 And best good of unborn ages, 
 
 That would our hearts most deeply move. 
 
 August wonders ! pulsing titans ! 
 
 Well may you inspire awe sublime ; 
 You alone of living marvels 
 
 Breathing have bridged this space of time. 
 
SAN FRANCISCO BAY, 
 
 O wide-spreading green water 
 
 Of this fair sunset bay! 
 Flashing ever when wind-blown 
 
 A silvery-white spray, 
 
 From short broken wavelets : 
 And dashing foam-crested 
 
 Like flocks of startled sea-birds 
 White-winged and white-breasted. 
 
 And the sea-like space bordered 
 By mountains and hills, 
 
 The tossing sun-lit white pearl-drops 
 It so gracefully fills. 
 
I/O MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Are these sea-nymphs and naiads, 
 Who so come in grand state, 
 
 With the white wings of the storm-wind 
 Through the Golden Gate? 
 
 To hold a carnival gleeful 
 
 W T ith their snowy confects, 
 To charm with its swift motion 
 
 And fine, novel effects. 
 
 To add a new grace of beauty, 
 Did they weave and bring in, 
 
 This soft vapory veiling 
 To fold on and to pin. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. I 7 j 
 
 Over the violet mountains 
 With such beauty and grace. 
 
 As tries a fair, modest maiden 
 To half-hide her sweet face. 
 
 For this sally of the naiads 
 And nymphs, Neptune fumes 
 
 And throws his cool breath in anger 
 Up in stormy volumes; 
 
 And through the opened gate waves it 
 
 In a billowy roll, 
 In the fleecy heap and tumbled 
 
 Of a snowy white scroll : 
 
I 72 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Blows the clouds of white vapor, 
 
 In and over the bay, 
 Till they find in the canons 
 
 Of the brown hills a stay. 
 
 And large islands like mountains 
 
 From the water lift up, 
 Apart, spread in long ridges, 
 
 Or deep inverted cup. 
 
 And these are mellowed and softened 
 
 By some lovely pale hue, 
 Of violet, of purple, 
 
 Or of pearl-white and blue. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 173 
 
 And tall mountains, majestic 
 
 With their purple caps crowned, 
 
 Smile, as pleased with the grandeur 
 Of the fair scene around. 
 
 When sleep bleak winds and stormy, 
 In the calm autumn days, 
 
 Then in soft folds and gossamer, 
 Comes the fair veiling haze. 
 
 With amethystine tints gleaming, 
 That thinly covers and fills 
 
 The air over the water, 
 Over plains and the hills. 
 
174 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Then is changed the flashing water 
 
 To an opaline sea 
 As through the opaline air 
 
 The many boats sail free. 
 
 In storms of wind, or airs balmy, 
 In clear light, or soft haze, 
 
 Attractive is thy fair beauty 
 In its every phase. 
 
FIRST ARBOR DAY. 
 
 AT VERBA BUEXA ISLAND, NOVEMBER 2/, 1 886. 
 
 Verba Buena s western slope, 
 
 That steeply shelves to water flow, 
 
 Is bright with life this Arbor Day, 
 
 Though pale the autumn sunbeams glow. 
 
 To the brown arm, that o er the hill 
 
 From eastern slope mid verdure strays, 
 
 The children come, each with a tree 
 To plant for use in future days. 
 
 Earth parts with her bright robe of green, 
 With germs of spring-time, flowers of gold. 
 
 That they may lay a life-lit cross 
 On sandy brown, and rocky mold. 
 
1 76 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 A cross, wherein their planted trees 
 Will crown with wealth the sterile sod, 
 
 For all things good and best for man, 
 Are the things owned and blest of God. 
 
 So, that upon this island quaint, 
 The eucalipti and fragant pines, 
 
 Will, through the years, a lesson teach 
 To those, who read between the lines. 
 
 And, when in future years they come, 
 Proud their tall trees to see and know, 
 
 And understand this aid divine, 
 
 Their faith in God will stronger grow. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 177 
 
 Though o er the hillsides, groves will spring 
 From Arbor Days, as swift years flee ; 
 
 But dearest held among them all, 
 
 The first, the crusader s cross will be. 
 
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 A DAY IN MIDWINTER. 
 
 Back from the classic collegiate halls, 
 
 The long mountains rear their- rounded walls, 
 
 Knrobed in a mantle of tender green, 
 
 Or dashed with the shades that lie between. 
 
 Near the halls are groves of differing trees, 
 Whose evergreen branches wave in the breeze, 
 And on the lawns, as in a sunny room 
 Through all the year long, the bright flowers bloom. 
 
 Here and there are trees, eucalyptus and bay, 
 In groves and in belts, where lowlands stray ; 
 And across the fields in its fair estate 
 Gleams the crystal path through the Golden Gate. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 1/9 
 
 In summer-like sweetness as birds in June, 
 Meadow-larks warble their short sweet tune, 
 In the open fields amid grass and grain. 
 As summer-birds sing after showers of rain. 
 
 And the Cottager s door stands open wide, 
 To let in the breeze on the sunny side, 
 The breeze that is soft and as balmy to-day, 
 As when apple-trees bloom in flowery May. 
 
 And flowering shrubs of a warmer clime 
 The accacia bright in its yellow rime, 
 And rarest roses, that in June days bloom, 
 Spread o er this beauty their rich perfume 
 
180 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Lovely scenes in this sunshine and calm, 
 That smile in peace, soft as a whispered psalm, 
 Or glow in hues, spreading rich and rare 
 As a garden of the Lord, ye seem so fair. 
 
OVER THE BAY. 
 
 SAX FRANCISCO BAY. 
 
 Over the bay the gray mist creeps down ; 
 
 Over the island s emerald crown, 
 
 And softly veils its mirror-like face, 
 
 And dims its sunny-bright, sparkling grace. 
 
 Over it sifts the feathery spray, 
 And drifts into dells mid hills away 
 Over the island s abrupt outlines, 
 Yerba Buena s live oaks and vines. 
 
 Over it spreads like a falling cloud 
 When night drops down its blackening shroud ; 
 Then one by one, the gold stars look through, 
 And moonbeams play in its spray-like dew. 
 
1 82 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Over the bay breaks the morning s light, 
 In crimson glow from the mists of night, 
 Softly the morning stars melt away, 
 And sink in the beams of golden day. 
 
 Over the meadows, over the plain, 
 Over green fields of the tender grain, 
 Over the hills in emerald fold, 
 Float the wide waves of shimmering gold. 
 
 So along the path that leads to God 
 A gold light lifts o er the misty sod : 
 Like the shimmering rays- of golden morn, 
 Or the beautiful hues that eve adorn. 
 
CHOW-CH1L-LA. 
 
 MARIPOSA COL XTV. 
 
 \Vhere Sequoia trees, the wawona, 
 Lift their large forms tall and fair, 
 
 There lifts above them the Cho\v-chil-la, 
 Its proud head in higher air. 
 
 And grand among the higher mountains, 
 With graceful, gigantic things, 
 
 Where the loud roar of bear and lion 
 From their rocky stronghold rings. 
 
 Down the long side leaps Chil-noo-al-na 
 In deep chasm, o er beetling crag, 
 
 Where on the brink, with step arrested, 
 Halts the springing, bounding stag. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Chil-noo-al-na s dashing waters 
 
 In rocky channel speeds away, 
 Boldly leaping, loudly shouting, 
 
 In th undertones its roaring lay. 
 
 The dashing, foaming, sparkling water, 
 Brightening dull earth with its light. 
 
 Of bold Chow-chil-la s rock-veined mountain 
 With its gleams of silver-white. 
 
 Like sentinels the trees Sequoia 
 
 Stand in group anear its base, 
 To guard as titans a grand monarch 
 
 Of gigantic, noble race. 
 
MISCKLLANEOl > 
 
 Trees the mightiest among wood-kings, 
 
 Large and tall in sylvan grace. 
 And fairest of titanic wood-nymphs 
 
 Are here grouped in narrow space. 
 
 Grander swells rock-seamed Chow-chil-la, 
 
 Fairer for their beauty bright, 
 While water of the Chil-noo-al-na, 
 
 Graces it with sparkling light. 
 
 As round forms human, rough and stalwart, 
 Graces gleam, that all hearts move, 
 
 When lives with good deeds e er are teeming, 
 Acts, that spring from purest lo\e. 
 
 24 
 
THE CREEK. 
 
 O little streamlet, whither away 
 
 Flow you to brighten this young spring day? 
 
 Hurrying on in your silvery line, 
 
 With ripple and glint in bright sunshine. 
 
 Whither away in your deep rock-bed, ^ 
 By the mountain snows, and rain-drops fed? 
 Whither away in your silvery vein 
 Warbling and singing a merry strain? 
 
 The grasses are green in the valleys wide, 
 The grasses are green on the smooth hillside, 
 A cloudless sky is over your head, 
 Nodding, sweet flowers bend over your bed. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 187 
 
 Whither away in the leafy shade 
 Rippling along o er the sloping grade, 
 Over sand and rocks your waters play, 
 Or slip into pools to dry away. 
 
 Ever you re swelling with winter rains 
 Rolling and dashing in noisy strains, 
 Plunging to deepen the sandy bed 
 Filling the valleys with sandy lead. 
 
 \\ hen summer days come we walk 
 
 j 
 
 Where your waters sang their sweet spring song, 
 But your bed is dry and the rocks are bare, 
 \\ hile breezes are blowing everywhere. 
 
1 88 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Moaning and sighing among the pines, 
 Swaying the branches that wave the vines, 
 While the gardens are bright with roses rare, 
 And the sun s warm beams shine everywhere, 
 
 Beautiful spring-creek and flowers and trees, 
 And grasses fair in dew, or the breeze; 
 Beautiful all earth in the dear God s plan 
 To please and make happy the life of man. 
 
SUTRO S STATUE OF LIBERTY. 
 
 On the Olympus by the sunset sea. 
 Her torch-light lifting in mid-air free, 
 Liberty s Statue stands high and grand, 
 To crown the mountain of rock and sand. 
 
 And firmly grasped, as by maid of eld, 
 In her right hand is the large torch held ; 
 Pointing heaven-ward, as if to pray, that the light 
 Gleam, to end the reign of Slavery s night. 
 
 The sword of Justice, of its sheath bereft, 
 With arm extended, is held in the left : 
 While low at her feet the tyrant lies 
 With his hand tipstretched to clutch the prize. 
 
1 90 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 But vain his attempt to wrest the sword, 
 And futile the cry of his wrathful word, 
 While, he is crushed neath Liberty s heel, 
 With not power left to make an appeal. 
 
 For, from where, the Atlantic rolls her waves, 
 And near the Bertholdi statue laves 
 The Eastern shore of our wide-spread land 
 To Sutro s statue on the western strand. 
 
 No slave, in all the broad space, can breathe, 
 While glory round Liberty s symbols wreathe, 
 And love of right and greatness combined, 
 Glows in each citizen s heart and mind. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 191 
 
 Far over the sea and on the bay 
 
 This tall light spreads its gleaming ray, 
 
 O er cliffs, and far-away hills of land, 
 
 And clustered dunes, and the shore of sand. 
 
 And from the far-reaching brilliant flame, 
 A glory reflects on the author s name ; 
 For love of mankind may its strong-white fire, 
 The kindred mind and the heart inspire, 
 
 Till Liberty s light blazes on the Isles 
 Along Asia s shores in gleaming files, 
 O er Europe s sea-ports and Isles of Azores, 
 Till it band the world to our free shores. 
 
CONSERVATORY FOUNTAIN 
 
 IN WINTER, SAX FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 On the listening ear, fall the fountain s showers, 
 
 Softly on the leaves, 
 
 As rain from the eaves ; 
 
 Or the rivulet weaves, 
 
 Round the golden sheaves, 
 Drops on the grass sod and the clover flowers. 
 
 As spring rain-drops fall, through fragrant air, 
 
 In glassy rain-threads 
 
 On tropic flower beds, 
 
 Where light color weds 
 
 Some rich hue, and sheds 
 A radiance on lily and orchis fair. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 1 93 
 
 In silvery beaded lines the streams drop low ; 
 
 On the leaves they bound 
 
 With refreshing sound, 
 
 As when brooks rush round 
 
 Over pebbly ground, 
 ( )r spread in sheets of spray like mist-driven snow 
 
 And as on the field, falls pearly summer rain, 
 In showers, soft and light, 
 On the daisies white, 
 That with morning bright 
 Ope, fresh from the night, 
 
 Thoughtfully, singing in a low tender strain. 
 
IQ4 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Like sounds of water in bright leafy June, 
 
 In the spring s cool well 
 
 Under rocky fell, 
 
 In a wildwood dell ; 
 
 And sweet as the swell 
 That the wood lark sings in his tender tune. 
 
 Hut in sunbeams of fount in summer air, 
 Bees will come to bathe, 
 And humming birds lave, 
 In the spray s thin wave, 
 Neath the sky s blue nave, 
 
 While the breezes play mid its forms so fair. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 195 
 
 So our thoughts reel their threads in sunny skeins, 
 
 As if, in leafy shade 
 
 Of a forest glade, 
 
 Where cool waters play, 
 
 And wild echoes stray, 
 \Ve dream, while it seems, as if summer reigns. 
 
THE ENCAMPMENT OF 1886. 
 
 IN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. 
 
 More than quarter of a century, 
 With flight of time has passed, 
 
 Since to battle for the Union s cause, 
 Our nation s sons were asked. 
 
 When up from every town and village 
 
 And city street there came, 
 Throngs of brave men, strong, true and loyal 
 
 Each to enroll his name. 
 
 And many fierce and bloody conflicts 
 
 Could they the story tell, 
 Would bear witness to their brave valor, 
 
 And duties done, as well. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 197 
 
 And many men of these, fell victims 
 
 In the long and bitter strife, 
 Paid costly price to save the Union, 
 
 They giving all, with life. 
 
 Though here to-day neath wind-blown banner:- 
 Their comrades march our streets, 
 
 And hear the shouts of cheering welcome 
 By which our city greets. 
 
 Though they march neath arch triumphal, 
 
 And o er a flower-strewn way, 
 With mementoes thrilling memories 
 
 Come sad to us this day. 
 
198 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Here the comrades bear a young eagle, 
 
 Brought from a northern wild, 
 For the one they bore through their battles, 
 
 Mid ranks of soldiers filed. 
 
 That screamed, in fiercest fray the loudest, 
 
 And flapped its wings to cheer, 
 With screech and scream as if twould say, 
 
 On, braves, on ! have no fear. 
 
 And drums that trolled their din, with louder 
 
 Din of the battle strife : 
 And trophies held with the souvenir 
 
 Of many a noble life. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 199 
 
 But most sad the sight of battered flags 
 
 Blackened with battle smoke, 
 Riddled and torn with the shot and shell 
 
 Of some fierce battle shock. 
 
 I 
 
 Some were tattered rags, shivered remnants 
 
 Some bound to standard fast; 
 One, held tenderly, out-spread and pierced, 
 
 As by each cannon s blast. 
 
 O veterans, with war s insignia, 
 Though so long since the strife, 
 
 Ye bring to us afresh the terror 
 With which that time was rife. 
 
200 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Anew we feel the pain and anguish, 
 
 Felt in that fearful time, 
 When our dear ones were with their brothers 
 
 Cut down before their prime. 
 
 X 
 
 4 
 
 O days, of scenes sad and heart-rending, 
 
 In all that bloody past ; 
 Must ye in memory ever live? 
 
 Must ye all time outlast? 
 
TO THE PACIFIC. 
 
 O western sea, so vast and deep ! 
 Thy restless waters in their round 
 E er roll and surge, but never sleep, 
 And never break their measured bound. 
 
 The sun sails o er in depths of blue, 
 And showers gold light upon thy face, 
 The moon and stars with light as true. 
 Silver thy waters with their grace. 
 
 O moaning sea, wave-tossed and lone ! 
 Thy loud song with the swelling tides 
 Thunders along in monitone, 
 Adown the land-rimmed scalloped sides. 
 
 26 
 
202 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Sail ships skim o er thy waters fair, 
 Like white-winged birds in easy flight, 
 And gleams of beauty, when the air 
 Breathes gently, and the day is bright. 
 
 When faintest amethystine tints 
 Glow in thy veil of thinnest haze, 
 With gold in morning light, that hints 
 Of summer, in soft autumn days. 
 
 When sunset lights thy glassy waves 
 And foamy, with its oriflame ; 
 With glowing red thy surface laves 
 From clouds that blaze in sunset s flame. 
 
MISCELLANAOUS. 203 
 
 O sea, we dread thee in the storm, 
 When the mad vind in tempest raves ; 
 And in many a frightful form, 
 Dash and break the angry waves. 
 
 When ships go down and leave no trace, 
 Clasped by huge waves storm-hid in night, 
 But tempest-beats through widening space, 
 Are hushed when morning breaks in light. 
 
 O sea, earth, thee can never move, 
 Held in thy bound by destined plan ; 
 As ever the Great, Eternal Love 
 Encompasses the life of man. 
 
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 III 
 
 ) Hill Hill I 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY