The
physicians told him he had but a short time to live. It was then that
he repaired to the beautiful sugar pine woods at Wawona and took up a
claim, including the fine meadows there, and building his cabin, began
his life of wandering and exploring in the glorious mountains about him,
usually going bare-headed. In a remarkably short time his lungs were
healed.
He was one of the most sincere tree-lovers I ever knew. About twenty
years before his death he made choice of a plot in the Yosemite cemetery
on the north side of the Valley, not far from the Yosemite Fall, and
selecting a dozen or so of seedling sequoias in the Mariposa grove he
brought them to the Valley and planted them around the spot he had
chosen for his last rest. The ground there is gravelly and dry; by
careful watering he finally nursed most of the seedlings into good,
thrifty trees, and doubtless they will long shade the grave of their
blessed lover and friend.
Chapter 16
Hetch Hetchy Valley
Yosemite is so wonderful that we are apt to regard it as an exceptional
creation, the only valley of its kind in the world; but Nature is not
so poor as to have only one of anything. Several other yosemites have
been discovered in the Sierra that occupy the same relative positions
on the Range and were formed by the same forces in the same kind of
granite.
Pages:
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241