The words wander and free as the winds, makes us feel like we were there seeing the most beautiful sites of our life. A breath-taking tone, one that stops us to imagine what Muir saw. If you were to change the words "travel" and "lonely as the solitary cloud, collecting and numbering plants" replaced the bolded words. It would be less breath taking, as Muri feels, it would damage the images in our heads, making a plain old lake instead of a beautiful swamp covered in flowers. If we were to eliminate those words, it would naturally make the imagery weaker.