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Steep Trails-Part12_John Muir(1838-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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some one else had taken me in hand; and while one of the largest waves

was ringing out its message and spending itself on the beach, I ran



out with open arms to the next, ducked beneath its breaking top, and

got myself into right lusty relationship with the brave old lake.



Away I sped in free, glad motion, as if, like a fish, I had been

afloat all my life, now low out of sight in the smooth, glassy



valleys, now bounding aloft on firm combing crests, while the crystal

foam beat against my breast with keen, crisp clashing, as if composed



of pure salt. I bowed to every wave, and each lifted me right royally

to its shoulders, almost setting me erect on my feet, while they all



went speeding by like living creatures, blooming and rejoicing in the

brightness of the day, and chanting the history of their grand



mountain home.

A good deal of nonsense has been written concerning the difficulty of



swimming in this heavy water. "One's head would go down, and heels

come up, and the acrid brine would burn like fire." I was conscious



only of a joyous exhilaration, my limbs seemingly heeding their own

business, without any discomfort or confusion; so much so, that



without previous knowledge my experience on this occasion would not

have led me to detect anything peculiar. In calm weather, however,



the sustaining power of the water might probably be more marked. This

was by far the most exciting and effective wave excursion I ever made



this side of the Rocky Mountains; and when at its close I was heaved

ashore among the sunny grasses and flowers, I found myself a new



creature indeed, and went bounding along the beach with blood all

aglow, reinforced by the best salts of the mountains, and ready for



any race.

Since the completion of the transcontinental and Utah railways, this



magnificent lake in the heart of the continent has become as

accessible as any watering-place on either coast; and I am sure that



thousands of travelers, sick and well, would throng its shores every

summer were its merits but half known. Lake Point is only an hour or



two from the city, and has hotel accommodations and a steamboat for

excursions; and then, besides the bracing waters, the climates is



delightful. The mountains rise into the cool sky furrowed with

canyons almost yosemitic in grandeur, and filled with a glorious



profusion of flowers and trees. Lovers of science, lovers of

wildness, lovers of pure rest will find here more than they may hope



for.

As for the Mormons one meets, however their doctrines be regarded,



they will be found as rich in human kindness as any people in all our

broad land, while the dark memories that cloud their earlier history



will vanish from the mind as completely as when we bathe in the

fountain azure of the Sierra.



IX

Mormon Lilies[11]



Lilies are rare in Utah; so also are their companions the ferns and

orchids, chiefly on account of the fiery saltness of the soil and



climate. You may walk the deserts of the Great Basin in the bloom

time of the year, all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the



snowy Wahsatch, and your eyes will be filled with many a gay malva,

and poppy, and abronia, and cactus, but you may not see a single true



lily, and only a very few liliaceous plants of any kind. Not even in

the cool, fresh glens of the mountains will you find these favorite



flowers, though some of these desert ranges almost rival the Sierra in

height. Nevertheless, in the building and planting of this grand



Territory the lilies were not forgotten. Far back in the dim geologic

ages, when the sediments of the old seas were being gathered and



outspread in smooth sheets like leaves of a book, and when these

sediments became dry land, and were baked and crumbled into the sky as



mountain ranges; when the lava-floods of the Fire Period were being

lavishly poured forth from innumerable rifts and craters; when the ice



of the Glacial Period was laid like a mantle over every mountain and

valley--throughout all these immensely protracted periods, in the



throng of these majestic operations, Nature kept her flower children




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