July, 1879.
THE WEST SHORE.
'97
MOUNT SHASTA.
I to u rising or selling sun, will roll back
The noblest mountain in the United ,he val,ors 1,1,(1 watcher In the val-
States is Shasta. It is said that Whit
ney is higher, but Whitney has for its
base the Sierra Nevadas, and the peaks
around it dwarf its
own tremendous
hight But Shasta
rises from the plain a
single mountain, and
while all the year
around the lambs gam
bol at its base its crown
is the eternal snow.
In the hot summer
days as the farmers at
Shasta's base gather
their crops they can
see where the wild
wind heaps the snow
drifts about his crest.
The mountain is one
of winter's stations,
and from his forts of
snow upon its top he
never withdraws his
garrison. There are
the bastions of ice, the
frosty towers; there
his old bugler, t h c
wind, is daily sound
ing the advance and
the retreat of t h e
storm. The mountain
holds all latitudes anil
all seasons at the same
time in its gran p.
Flowers bloom at iU
base, further up the
forest trees wave their
ample arms; further
still the brown of au
tumn is upon the
mountain slojics, anil
over all hangs the eter
nal winter. Standing
close to the mountain's
base the human eye
and mind fails to grasp
the immensity of the
mountain. Hut as one
from a diitancc looks
back upon it he dis
cover how magnifi
cent it the hight. For
lays will the mountain
fold the mist almut iu
crot like vail ami re
main hidden from mor
tal tight, ami then tud
denly , if in deference
ley below will behold gems of topax
and of ruby made of sunbeams set in
the dUdam of white, anil toward the
sentinel mountain from a hundred miles
around men will turn their eye in ad
miration. Thus it frowns and smiles
alternately through the years; it hails
the Incoming and outgoing centuries,
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