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Steep Trails-Part10_John Muir(1838-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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common in springs of this sort. That any kind of plant can hold on

and grow beneath the wear of so boisterous a current seems truly



wonderful, even after taking into consideration the freedom of the

water from cutting drift, and the constance of its volume and



temperature throughout the year. The temperature is about 45 degrees,

and the height of the river above the sea is here about three thousand



feet. Asplenium, epilobium, heuchera, hazel, dogwood, and alder make

a luxuriousfringe and setting; and the forests of Douglas spruce



along the banks are the finest I have ever seen in the Sierra.

From the spring you may go with the river--a fine traveling companion--down



to the sportsman's fishing station, where, if you are getting

hungry, you may replenish your stores; or, bearing off around the



mountain by Huckleberry Valley, complete your circuit without

interruption, emerging at length from beneath the outspread arms of



the sugar pine at Strawberry Valley, with all the new wealth and

health gathered in your walk; not tired in the least, and only eager



to repeat the round.

Tracing rivers to their fountains makes the most charming of travels.



As the life-blood of the landscapes, the best of the wilderness comes

to their banks, and not one dull passage is found in all their



eventful histories. Tracing the McCloud to its highest springs, and

over the divide to the fountains of Fall River, near Fort Crook,



thence down that river to its confluence with the Pitt, on from there

to the volcanic region about Lassen's Butte, through the Big Meadows



among the sources of the Feather River, and down through forests of

sugar pine to the fertile plains of Chico--this is a glorious saunter



and imposes no hardship. Food may be had at moderate intervals, and

the whole circuit forms one ever-deepening, broadening stream of



enjoyment.

Fall River is a very remarkablestream. It is only about ten miles



long, and is composed of springs, rapids, and falls--springs

beautifully shaded at one end of it, a showy fall one hundred and



eighty feet high at the other, and a rush of crystal rapids between.

The banks are fringed with rubus, rose, plum cherry, spiraea, azalea,



honeysuckle, hawthorn, ash, alder, elder, aster, goldenrod, beautiful

grasses, sedges, rushes, mosses, and ferns with fronds as large as the



leaves of palms--all in the midst of a richly forested landscape.

Nowhere within the limits of California are the forests of yellow pine



so extensive and exclusive as on the headwaters of the Pitt. They

cover the mountains and all the lower slopes that border the wide,



open valleys which abound there, pressing forward in imposing ranks,

seemingly the hardiest and most firmly established of all the northern



coniferae.

The volcanic region about Lassen's Butte I have already in part



described. Miles of its flanks are dotted with hot springs, many of

them so sulphurous and boisterous and noisy in their boiling that they



seem inclined to become geysers like those of the Yellowstone.

The ascent of Lassen's Butte is an easy walk, and the views from the



summit are extremely telling. Innumerable lakes and craters surround

the base; forests of the charming Williamson sprucefringe lake and



crater alike; the sunbeaten plains to east and west make a striking

show, and the wilderness of peaks and ridges stretch indefinitely away



on either hand. The lofty, icy Shasta, towering high above all, seems

but an hour's walk from you, though the distance in an air-line is



about sixty miles.

The "Big Meadows" lie near the foot of Lassen's Butte, a beautiful



spacious basin set in the heart of the richly forested mountains,

scarcely surpassed in the grandeur of its surroundings by Tahoe.



During the Glacial Period it was a mer de glace, then a lake, and now

a level meadow shining with bountiful springs and streams. In the



number and size of its big spring fountains it excels even Shasta.

One of the largest that I measured forms a lakelet nearly a hundred



yards in diameter, and, in the generous flood it sends forth offers

one of the most telling symbols of Nature's affluence to be found in



the mountains.

The great wilds of our country, once held to be boundless and



inexhaustible, are being rapidly invaded and overrun in every




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