The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-05-10
JOAQUIN ON THE sIERRAs.
The Poets Tribute TO the Mountains from
Witch He Got His sobriquet.
from tho san francisco Eramfner.

The Poets Tribute TO the Mountains from
Witch He Got His Sobriauet.
from the San francisco Examiner.
1 am afraid we care as little for our Sierras
a. for the sea OF seas knocking continually at
our gate. Few OF us know or care what the
nane means. Very few Californians. compar-
atively, can even pronounce the name Sierra de
Nevada properly. Literally, the name signifies
saw-a saw, or series of snow peaks like the
teeth Of a saw. We have the Sierra Madre to
the south. the Sierra de Nevada at our doors
then the Oregon Sierra, miscalled the Cascade
Mountains. to the north. 1t was this roar and
glitter Of cleaning waters falling down from
the snowy mountain peaks into tho great Ore
gon River that gave the name TO that splendid
emerald world -dure u aqua This name. hear
the waters.' finally contracted and rounded
down into Oregon
This marvellous emerald empire 10 BIZ far the
most magnificent young state In the Union. 1t
l. vast, stately. majestic, and is continually
green and white and white and green. Mount
Hood, named after a British Admiral, as seen
from Portland across and above the great river
In Its snowy mantle OF mists. seems to be in al
most every ones dooryard. 1t is without doubt
the finest mountain tolook upon in the world. II
we except Fusiyama, Japan, for 1t starts up
right out of tidewater on the Oregon River. and
as you sail up the river 1t literally leans over
out OF the clouds and drench your decks as you
sail past.
Leaving the most Impressive OF all the ten
snow peaks OF tho Oregon Sierras. we come to
the one Of like distinction in California.
shasta, crossing about 400 trout streams. pass
ing through, the Big Horn or Montana. sheep
region to the north, the elk and bear forests
and Lava Beds to the east.
Mount shasta, at the time we bought all the
world from the north of the Mississippi to that
of the Oregon, WAS the great land between
the Oregon side named Mount shasta its gilt
| saHfr n nd 1,-. ~ tfntt nf % tnl Nhft In
d~icating the name-"Chaste:". The Russians
accepted this. name and spelled it "Chaistia."
iss441da. sptlis the he's n seno't thus: IS i 7asns am at
a loss To know why he dropped the French SPELL
tain I T found nd the '"si Indians st as early Siye as i is5s us aiGIn a
corruption of this French name. The Modocs
hH Th sh indien sS am sh S foGp s ) dsan of Mount hSM Fe SHASTA
were good fighters from first to last. Fremont
and Kit Carson lost one-third of their force in a
1917. Fremont in his report complains to his
Government that the Indian arrows were steel
pointed, and were furnished to Indians by Brit
Mount shasta should long since have been
less forests are fast being destroyed. The In
dians, as Indians. are all dead, The region has
a resort by the heaps and heaps of rotting saw
dust and debris; and fires are frequent. The
F!h1e e de arf b 1S u ' Of fallen Go sTess. generated from
The old Indian tradition Is that Mount Shasta
S spir,t once that th ne ised inside ,he w Wisb Ms Of fa fnH GF snd
that the Indians could see the smoke coming
ont from his wLgwam fire; that once. when the
wind blew hard from the ocean, he sent his red
headed daughter up TO reach out her hand and
beckon the wind from the sea not to blow so
hard. bidding her above all things not to put
her head out of the top of the tent. But, being
n woman. she wanted, to see, and so put her
hair and blew her out and far down the noun
tain 70 where a grizzly she bear found her and
dren were the first Indians.
Castillo del Diablo, lying to the west and
across the sacramento river toward the sea, IS
lire between France and Spain. In the early
htties the, Americans dropped the Spanish name
and called IL the DEVILS Castle. Later on 1t was
known as Castle Rock: then some, new hotel
people named i Castle CraG. "Mellin's Food,
or - Root Beer ought to come now after "Crag"
ms quite equal in Significance, for this is the most
stately and stupendoua granite rock on the globe.
Gibraltar Is comparatively n babe in arms. Cas-
tello del Diablo contains more than twenty-five
square miles, and has more spires than the Cath
II was here that the Modocs and their allies
met for their second struggle with the white
battle eronynd. the Lava Beds. on the other side
Capt. Crooke. afterward the famous General,
cut of their Trinity allies. while Capt. Gibson.
still living near the base Of the castle. gathered
miners and friendly Indians, and. making a de-
tour and entire circuit OF the castle. suddenly
descended through a blind gorge in the castle
and stormed the savages in the heart of their
ern edge Of the mighty fastness and ended in a
single day with great .laughtrr; More blood
was Nllc'l tutTS tHdI udS luhI II llc SN mOntnS
war with the Modocs in the Lava Beds, nearly
twenty years later.
The color OF Oregon, as said before, Is emer-
aid. The color of California, is gold, old gold,
the tawny lions color, and what glory and
story in this russell. tawny brown, the golden
clay color: the dark, red, ardent EARTH. the
color that all colors merge and melt intol
Hail. hot. light. heavens first BORN
Have you seen the color of a sunrise in the
Sierras2 Have you seen the sudden day stand
tiptoe on the apex of q snow peak, and then,
leaning forward, dash his mantle of mornings
gold over the slumbering form of mother earth
in the valley ? And oh, the color. the color, tho
color of California a. the day god draws his
flashing sword and dcscends the sleeps in pur-
suit OF retreating darkness!
Night seemat to trench under the great seuuoias
for n last struggle. Day duscends and night
flies on and on to the last deep canon. Here
night has mnss-d his forces for n second: then
on and on before the flaming sword. What sud
den, swift changes OF color. What infinite and
indescribable pictures "a night flies on and on,
hiding for a second behind u town, a grave;
then on and on to the great wooded sea bank
and the sea mists. And here the flying forces
OF night suddenly face about, backed by the
dense white mists OF the sen, and sunlight smitcs
the sea mist and hews and hacks with his tiam-
ing sword till the lrgiOns Of the sea mist are on
fire. with the splendOr OF Understandable color.
And then the misty. argent column OF silver
and gold il beaten, broken quite, buried In the
pillows. And there IL n new heaven and a new
earth, for never has this land of color, the paint
er's homo ana the poets heaven, seer two days
ThaN nRa nm IEaIy III InAnIIN Mil I'm