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Steep Trails-Part9_John Muir(1838-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Its summit lies at an elevation of five thousand five hundred feet

above the sea, and has several square miles of comparatively level



surface, where bunchgrass grows and the snow does not lie deep, thus

allowing the hardy sheep to pick up a living through the winter months



when deep snows have driven them down from the lofty ridges of Shasta.

From here it might be well to leave the immediate base of the mountain



for a few days and visit the Lava Beds made famous by the Modoc War.

They lie about forty miles to the northeastward, on the south shore of



Rhett or Tule[7] Lake, at an elevation above sea level of about forty-five

hundred feet. They are a portion of a flow of dense black



vesicular lava, dipping northeastward at a low angle, but little

changed as yet by the weather, and about as destitute of soil as a



glacial pavement. The surface, though smooth in a general way as seen

from a distance, is dotted with hillocks and rough crater-like pits,



and traversed by a network of yawning fissures, forming a combination

of topographical conditions of very strikingcharacter. The way lies



by Mount Bremer, over stretches of gray sage plains, interrupted by

rough lava slopes timbered with juniper and yellow pine, and with here



and there a green meadow and a stream.

This is a famous game region, and you will be likely to meet small



bands of antelope, mule deer, and wild sheep. Mount Bremer is the

most noted stronghold of the sheep in the whole Shasta region. Large



flocks dwell here from year to year, winter and summer, descending

occasionally into the adjacent sage plains and lava beds to feed, but



ever ready to take refuge in the jagged crags of their mountain at

every alarm. While traveling with a company of hunters I saw about



fifty in one flock.

The Van Bremer brothers, after whom the mountain is named, told me



that they once climbed the mountain with their rifles and hounds on a

grand hunt; but, after keeping up the pursuit for a week, their boots



and clothing gave way, and the hounds were lamed and worn out without

having run down a single sheep, notwithstanding they ran night and



day. On smooth spots, level or ascending, the hounds gained on the

sheep, but on descending ground, and over rough masses of angular



rocks they fell hopelessly behind. Only half a dozen sheep were shot

as they passed the hunters stationed near their paths circling round



the ruggedsummit. The full-grown bucks weigh nearly three hundred

and fifty pounds.



The mule deer are nearly as heavy. Their long, massive ears give them

a very striking appearance. One large buck that I measured stood



three feet and seven inches high at the shoulders, and when the ears

were extended horizontally the distance across from tip to tip was two



feet and one inch.

From the Van Bremer ranch the way to the Lava Beds leads down the



Bremer Meadows past many a smooth grassy knoll and jutting cliff,

along the shore of Lower Klamath Lake, and thence across a few miles



of sage plain to the brow of the wall-like bluff of lava four hundred

and fifty feet above Tule Lake. Here you are looking southeastward,



and the Modoc landscape, which at once takes possession of you, lies

revealed in front. It is composed of three principal parts; on your



left lies the bright expanse of Tule Lake, on your right an evergreen

forest, and between the two are the black Lava Beds.



When I first stood there, one bright day before sundown, the lake was

fairly blooming in purple light, and was so responsive to the sky in



both calmness and color it seemed itself a sky. No mountain shore

hides its loveliness. It lies wide open for many a mile, veiled in no



mystery but the mystery of light. The forest also was flooded with

sun-purple, not a spire moving, and Mount Shasta was seen towering



above it rejoicing in the ineffable beauty of the alpenglow. But

neither the glorified woods on the one hand, nor the lake on the



other, could at first hold the eye. That dark mysterious lava plain

between them compelled attention. Here you trace yawning fissures,



there clusters of somber pits; now you mark where the lava is bent and

corrugated in swelling ridges and domes, again where it breaks into a



rough mass of loose blocks. Tufts of grass grow far apart here and

there and small bushes of hardy sage, but they have a singed



appearance and can do little to hide the blackness. Deserts are

charming to those who know how to see them--all kinds of bogs,






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