DANIEL S. RICHARDSON,
in Trail Dust.

FEBRUARY 22.

The splendors of a Sierra sunset cannot be accurately delineated by pencil or brush.  The combined pigments of a Hill and a Moran and a Bierstadt cannot adequately reproduce so gorgeous a canvas.  The lingering sun floods all the west with flame; it touches with scarlet tint the serrated outlines of the distant summits and hangs with golden fringe each silvery cloud.  Then the colors soften and turn into amber and lilac and maroon.  These soon assimilate and dissolve and leave an ashes of rose haze on all far-away objects, when receding twilight spreads its veil and shuts from view all but the mountain outlines, the giant taxodiums and the fantastic fissures of the canyons beneath.

BEN C. TRUMAN,
in Occidental Sketches.

FEBRUARY 23.

GOLDEN GATE PARK IN MIDWINTER.

  The dewdrops hang on the bending grass,
    A dragon-fly cuts a sunbeam through. 
  The moaning cypress trees lift somber arms
    Up to skies of cloudless blue. 
  A humming-bird sips from a golden cup,
    In the hedge a hidden bird sings,
  And a butterfly among the flowers
    Tells me that the soul has wings.

GRACE HIBBARD,
in Wild Roses of California.

FEBRUARY 24.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

JOHN MUIR.

It was indeed a glorious morning.  The bay, a molten blaze of many blended hues, bore upon its serene surface the flags of all nations, above which brooded the white doves of peace.  Crafts of every conceivable description swung in the flame-lit fathoms that laved the feet of the stately hills, then stepping out, one by one, from their gossamer night robes to receive the first kiss of dawn.

Grim Alcatraz, girdled with bristling armaments, scintillating in the sun, suggested the presence of some monster leviathan, emerging from the deep, still undivested of gems, from his submarine home.

EUGENIA KELLOGG,
in The Awakening of Poccalito.

FEBRUARY 25.

THE SIERRA NEVADAS

  They watch and guard the sleeping dells
    Where ice born torrents flow—­
  A myriad granite sentinels,
    Helmed and cuirassed with snow.

* * * * *

  Yon glacial torrent’s deep, hoarse lute
    Its upward music flings—­
  The great, eternal crags stand mute,
    And listen while it sings
  O mighty range!  Thy wounds and scars,
    Thy weird, bewildering forms,
  Attest thine everlasting wars—­
    Thy heritage of storms
  And still what peace!  Serenity
    On crag and deep abyss,
  O, may such calmness fall on me
    When Azrael stoops to kiss.