Identifier: picturesqueameri01brya (find matches)
Title: Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country
Year: 1872 (1870s)
Authors: Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878, editor Bunce, Oliver Bell, 1828-1890
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton
Contributing Library: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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cannot consider other things. Hiseyes are ever strained upon the peak, and bent admiringly upon its lustrous hues andthe deep, violet shadows that contrast them. He has but one thought—to watch the ra-diation of color at sunrisings and settings, and see the fiery rays slant and shoot acrossthe great mass, working its parts up from the still white and steely gray of night to allthe splendors of the northern lights. Sometimes, when the sun is at its greatest height,a thin, fleecy veil of vapor steals from the round rim of the topmost crater, and one can-not but feel a sudden contraction of the heart as the thought flashes upon the mind thatShasta is still active, and that that light, transparent cloudlet is smoke issuing from itsinmost secrets. The imagination and the memory combine to tell how this might be, howvolcanoes in Europe, notably Vesuvius, slept calmly, as if extinct and dead, for more thana thousand years, and then woke up to hurl death and destruction for leagues around.
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UMPQUA CANON. 424 PICTURESQUE AMERICA. But, whether Shasta is dead in reahty or only sleeping, it is certain that the vapor isnot smoke, but is water collected in the crater at a sufficient depth to preserve it fromcongelation, which the suns ardor has released in the form of cloud. It is pleasant towatch it wreathing softly around the royal giants head, and to note the conduct of thestratus-clouds that, far below, come in contact with his breast. They sweep on, glidinggently in fair, straight lines, but, as soon as they touch him, begin to break up softly,and, having done their best to girdle him, are either converted into glittering snow-flakes,and lie softly upon his bosom, or appear as cirri, and float away into the upper air. When the eye has been satiated with the radiant colors of Shasta, the mind beginsto be impressed with its vast proportions. Its total elevation above the sea-line is four-teen thousand four hundred and forty feet, nearly the same height as Mont Blanc, themon

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