than any other that I ever attempted to penetrate. The slopes are exceptionally steep, and insecure to the foot, and they are covered with thorny bushes from five to ten feet high. 8. With the exception of little spots, not visible in general views, the entire surface is covered with them, massed in close hedge growth, sweeping gracefully down into every gorge and hollow, and swelling over every ridge and summit in shaggy, ungovernable exuberance, offering more honey to the acre for half the year than the most crowded clover field in bloom time. But when beheld from the open San Gabriel Valley, beaten with dry sunshine, all that was seen of the range seemed to wear a forbidding aspect. From base to summit all seemed gray, barren, silent, its glorious chaparral appearing like dry moss creeping over its dull, wrinkled ridges and hollows. 9. The eastern slopes of the basin are in every way similar to those we have described, and the same may be said of other portions of the range. From the highest summit, far as the eye could reach, the landscape was one vast bee-pasture, a rolling wilderness of honey bloom, scarcely broken by bits of forest or the rocky outcrops of hill-tops and ridges. Beyond the San Bernardino range lies the wild "sage-brush country," bounded on the east by the Colorado River, and extending in a general northerly direction to Nevada and along the eastern base of the Sierra beyond Mono Lake. The greater portion of this immense region, including Owens Valley, Death Valley, and the Sink of the Mohave, and whose area is nearly one-fifth that of the entire State, is usually regarded as a desert, not because of any lack in the soil, but for want of rain, and rivers available for irrigation. Very little of it, however, is desert in the eyes of a bee. JOHN MUIR. III. VOCAL TRAINING.-THE READING OF POETRY. It is a mistake to suppose that poetry should be read as if it were prose. Poetry, being the rhythmical and melodious expression of imagination, sentiment, and passion, requires a greater variety of modulation than does prose. The chief points of difference may be briefly summed up as follows: 1. Poetry, being a rhythmical succession of sounds, requires, in general, a slower rate or movement than prose, and a greater prolonging of vowel and liquid sounds. 2. In consequence of metre, or the measure of rhythm, poetry should be read with a slight degree of musical utterance. 3. Due attention must be given to casual pauses and rhythmical accent. The metre should be delicately indicated, but not made so prominent as to run into a sing-song style. 4. In reading poetry, the force of utterance is softened or toned down. The rhythm of verse requires a slight swell of the voice, somewhat like the "swell" in music. 5. Rhyme should be indicated by a slight emphasis on the words that rhyme. 6. In poetry, as in prose, attention must be given to emphasis, rhetorical pauses, and inflection. The frequent inversions in verse make rhetorical pauses more frequent than in prose. 7. In poetry the accent of a word is sometimes changed to prevent a break in the measure, as "Adown enormous rav ́ines slope amain." 8. For the same reason final ed is often sounded as a separate syllable, as "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interréd with their bones." than any other that I ever attempted to penetrate. The slopes are exceptionally steep, and insecure to the foot, and they are covered with thorny bushes from five to ten feet high. 8. With the exception of little spots, not visible in general views, the entire surface is covered with them, massed in close hedge growth, sweeping gracefully down into every gorge and hollow, and swelling over every ridge and summit in shaggy, ungovernable exuberance, offering more honey to the acre for half the year than the most crowded clover field in bloom time. But when beheld from the open San Gabriel Valley, beaten with dry sunshine, all that was seen of the range seemed to wear a forbidding aspect. From base to summit all seemed gray, barren, silent, its glorious chaparral appearing like dry moss creeping over its dull, wrinkled ridges and hollows. 9. The eastern slopes of the basin are in every way similar to those we have described, and the same may be said of other portions of the range. From the highest summit, far as the eye could reach, the landscape was one vast bee-pasture, a rolling wilderness of honey bloom, scarcely broken by bits of forest or the rocky outcrops of hill-tops and ridges. Beyond the San Bernardino range lies the wild "sage-brush country," bounded on the east by the Colorado River, and extending in a general northerly direction to Nevada and along the eastern base of the Sierra beyond Mono Lake The greater portion of this immense region olndin wens Valley, Death Valley, and the Sink whose area is nearly one-fifth that is usually regarded as a desert, not in the soil, but for want of rai for irrigation. Very little of the eyes of a bee. 1. Poetry, being anal succession of woman is requires, in general, a swer rate or movement than prose, and a greater prolonging of vowel and lod sounds. 2. In consequence of metre, or the measure of rh th... poetry should be read with a slight degree of utterance. 8. MODULATION OF THE VOICE. 'Tis not enough the voice be sound and clear; Some o'er the tongue the labored measures roll, And e'en in speaking we may seem too just. And almost crack your ears with rant and roar. LLOYD. |