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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7091-0.txt b/7091-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ceb3bd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/7091-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6281 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yosemite, by John Muir + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Yosemite + +Author: John Muir + +Release Date: March 9, 2003 [eBook #7091] +[Most recently updated: June 29, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Dan Anderson and Andrew Sly + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOSEMITE *** + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Yosemite + +by John Muir + +Affectionately dedicated +to my friend, +Robert Underwood Johnson, +faithful +lover and defender +of our glorious forests +and originator of +the Yosemite National Park. + +Acknowledgment + +On the early history of Yosemite the writer is indebted to Prof. J. D. Whitney +for quotations from his volume entitled “Yosemite Guide-Book,” and +to Dr. Bunnell for extracts from his interesting volume entitled +“Discovery of the Yosemite.” + +Contents + +Chapter 1. The Approach to the Valley +Chapter 2. Winter Storms and Spring Floods +Chapter 3. Snow-Storms +Chapter 4. Snow Banners +Chapter 5. The Trees of the Valley +Chapter 6. The Forest Trees in General +Chapter 7. The Big Trees +Chapter 8. The Flowers +Chapter 9. The Birds +Chapter 10. The South Dome +Chapter 11. The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: How the Valley Was Formed +Chapter 12. How Best to Spend One’s Yosemite Time +Chapter 13. Early History of the Valley +Chapter 14. Lamon +Chapter 15. Galen Clark +Chapter 16. Hetch Hetchy Valley +Appendix A. Legislation About the Yosemite +Appendix B. Table of Distances +Appendix C. Maximum Rates for Transportation + + + + +Chapter 1 +The Approach to the Valley + + +When I set out on the long excursion that finally led to California I +wandered afoot and alone, from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, with a +plant-press on my back, holding a generally southward course, like the +birds when they are going from summer to winter. From the west coast of +Florida I crossed the gulf to Cuba, enjoyed the rich tropical flora +there for a few months, intending to go thence to the north end of +South America, make my way through the woods to the headwaters of the +Amazon, and float down that grand river to the ocean. But I was unable +to find a ship bound for South America—fortunately perhaps, for I had +incredibly little money for so long a trip and had not yet fully +recovered from a fever caught in the Florida swamps. Therefore I +decided to visit California for a year or two to see its wonderful +flora and the famous Yosemite Valley. All the world was before me and +every day was a holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of +the world’s wildernesses I first should wander. + +Arriving by the Panama steamer, I stopped one day in San Francisco and +then inquired for the nearest way out of town. “But where do you want +to go?” asked the man to whom I had applied for this important +information. “To any place that is wild,” I said. This reply startled +him. He seemed to fear I might be crazy and therefore the sooner I was +out of town the better, so he directed me to the Oakland ferry. + +So on the first of April, 1868, I set out afoot for Yosemite. It was +the bloom-time of the year over the lowlands and coast ranges the +landscapes of the Santa Clara Valley were fairly drenched with +sunshine, all the air was quivering with the songs of the meadow-larks, +and the hills were so covered with flowers that they seemed to be +painted. Slow indeed was my progress through these glorious gardens, +the first of the California flora I had seen. Cattle and cultivation +were making few scars as yet, and I wandered enchanted in long wavering +curves, knowing by my pocket map that Yosemite Valley lay to the east +and that I should surely find it. + +The Sierra From The West + +Looking eastward from the summit of the Pacheco Pass one shining +morning, a landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still +appears as the most beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the +Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of +pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one +rich furred garden of yellow _Compositœ_. And from the eastern boundary +of this vast golden flower-bed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, +and so gloriously colored and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with +light, but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city. +Along the top and extending a good way down, was a rich pearl-gray belt +of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark purple, marking the extension +of the forests; and stretching along the base of the range a broad belt +of rose-purple; all these colors, from the blue sky to the yellow +valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of +light ineffably fine. Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be +called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And +after ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, +rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the +morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the +crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of +countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of +Light. + +In general views no mark of man is visible upon it, nor any thing to +suggest the wonderful depth and grandeur of its sculpture. None of its +magnificent forest-crowned ridges seems to rise much above the general +level to publish its wealth. No great valley or river is seen, or group +of well-marked features of any kind standing out as distinct pictures. +Even the summit peaks, marshaled in glorious array so high in the sky, +seem comparatively regular in form. Nevertheless the whole range five +hundred miles long is furrowed with cañons 2000 to 5000 feet deep, in +which once flowed majestic glaciers, and in which now flow and sing the +bright rejoicing rivers. + +Characteristics Of The Cañons + +Though of such stupendous depth, these cañons are not gloom gorges, +savage and inaccessible. With rough passages here and there they are +flowery pathways conducting to the snowy, icy fountains; mountain +streets full of life and light, graded and sculptured by the ancient +glaciers, and presenting throughout all their course a rich variety of +novel and attractive scenery—the most attractive that has yet been +discovered in the mountain ranges of the world. In many places, +especially in the middle region of the western flank, the main cañons +widen into spacious valleys or parks diversified like landscape gardens +with meadows and groves and thickets of blooming bushes, while the +lofty walls, infinitely varied in form are fringed with ferns, +flowering plants, shrubs of many species and tall evergreens and oaks +that find footholds on small benches and tables, all enlivened and made +glorious with rejoicing stream that come chanting in chorus over the +cliffs and through side cañons in falls of every conceivable form, to +join the river that flow in tranquil, shining beauty down the middle of +each one of them. + +The Incomparable Yosemite + +The most famous and accessible of these cañon valleys, and also the one +that presents their most striking and sublime features on the grandest +scale, is the Yosemite, situated in the basin of the Merced River at an +elevation of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is about seven +miles long, half a mile to a mile wide, and nearly a mile deep in the +solid granite flank of the range. The walls are made up of rocks, +mountains in size, partly separated from each other by side cañons, and +they are so sheer in front, and so compactly and harmoniously arranged +on a level floor, that the Valley, comprehensively seen, looks like an +immense hall or temple lighted from above. + +But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in +its walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back in majestic repose; +others, absolutely sheer or nearly so for thousands of feet, advance +beyond their companions in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to +storms and calms alike, seemingly aware, yet heedless, of everything +going on about them. Awful in stern, immovable majesty, how softly +these rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they +keep: their feet among beautiful groves and meadows, their brows in the +sky, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their feet, bathed +in floods of water, floods of light, while the snow and waterfalls, the +winds and avalanches and clouds shine and sing and wreathe about them +as the years go by, and myriads of small winged creatures birds, bees, +butterflies—give glad animation and help to make all the air into +music. Down through the middle of the Valley flows the crystal Merced, +River of Mercy, peacefully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and the +onlooking rocks; things frail and fleeting and types of endurance +meeting here and blending in countless forms, as if into this one +mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, to draw +her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. + +The Approach To The Valley + +Sauntering up the foothills to Yosemite by any of the old trails or +roads in use before the railway was built from the town of Merced up +the river to the boundary of Yosemite Park, richer and wilder become +the forests and streams. At an elevation of 6000 feet above the level +of the sea the silver firs are 200 feet high, with branches whorled +around the colossal shafts in regular order, and every branch +beautifully pinnate like a fern frond. The Douglas spruce, the yellow +and sugar pines and brown-barked Libocedrus here reach their finest +developments of beauty and grandeur. The majestic Sequoia is here, too, +the king of conifers, the noblest of all the noble race. These colossal +trees are as wonderful in fineness of beauty and proportion as in +stature—an assemblage of conifers surpassing all that have ever yet +been discovered in the forests of the world. Here indeed is the +tree-lover’s paradise; the woods, dry and wholesome, letting in the +light in shimmering masses of half sunshine, half shade; the night air +as well as the day air indescribably spicy and exhilarating; plushy +fir-boughs for campers’ beds and cascades to sing us to sleep. On the +highest ridges, over which these old Yosemite ways passed, the silver +fir (_Abies magnifica_) forms the bulk of the woods, pressing forward +in glorious array to the very brink of the Valley walls on both sides, +and beyond the Valley to a height of from 8000 to 9000 feet above the +level of the sea. Thus it appears that Yosemite, presenting such +stupendous faces of bare granite, is nevertheless imbedded in +magnificent forests, and the main species of pine, fir, spruce and +libocedrus are also found in the Valley itself, but there are no “big +trees” (_Sequoia gigantea_) in the Valley or about the rim of it. The +nearest are about ten and twenty miles beyond the lower end of the +valley on small tributaries of the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers. + +The First View: The Bridal Veil + +From the margin of these glorious forests the first general view of the +Valley used to be gained—a revelation in landscape affairs that +enriches one’s life forever. Entering the Valley, gazing overwhelmed +with the multitude of grand objects about us, perhaps the first to fix +our attention will be the Bridal Veil, a beautiful waterfall on our +right. Its brow, where it first leaps free from the cliff, is about 900 +feet above us; and as it sways and sings in the wind, clad in gauzy, +sun-sifted spray, half falling, half floating, it seems infinitely +gentle and fine; but the hymns it sings tell the solemn fateful power +hidden beneath its soft clothing. + +The Bridal Veil shoots free from the upper edge of the cliff by the +velocity the stream has acquired in descending a long slope above the +head of the fall. Looking from the top of the rock-avalanche talus on +the west side, about one hundred feet above the foot of the fall, the +under surface of the water arch is seen to be finely grooved and +striated; and the sky is seen through the arch between rock and water, +making a novel and beautiful effect. + +Under ordinary weather conditions the fall strikes on flat-topped +slabs, forming a kind of ledge about two-thirds of the way down from +the top, and as the fall sways back and forth with great variety of +motions among these flat-topped pillars, kissing and plashing notes as +well as thunder-like detonations are produced, like those of the +Yosemite Fall, though on a smaller scale. + +The rainbows of the Veil, or rather the spray- and foam-bows, are +superb, because the waters are dashed among angular blocks of granite +at the foot, producing abundance of spray of the best quality for iris +effects, and also for a luxuriant growth of grass and maiden-hair on +the side of the talus, which lower down is planted with oak, laurel and +willows. + +General Features Of The Valley + +On the other side of the Valley, almost immediately opposite the Bridal +Veil, there is another fine fall, considerably wider than the Veil when +the snow is melting fast and more than 1000 feet in height, measured +from the brow of the cliff where it first springs out into the air to +the head of the rocky talus on which it strikes and is broken up into +ragged cascades. It is called the Ribbon Fall or Virgin’s Tears. During +the spring floods it is a magnificent object, but the suffocating +blasts of spray that fill the recess in the wall which it occupies +prevent a near approach. In autumn, however when its feeble current +falls in a shower, it may then pass for tears with the sentimental +onlooker fresh from a visit to the Bridal Veil. + +Just beyond this glorious flood the El Capitan Rock, regarded by many +as the most sublime feature of the Valley, is seen through the pine +groves, standing forward beyond the general line of the wall in most +imposing grandeur, a type of permanence. It is 3300 feet high, a plain, +severely simple, glacier-sculptured face of granite, the end of one of +the most compact and enduring of the mountain ridges, unrivaled in +height and breadth and flawless strength. + +Across the Valley from here, next to the Bridal Veil, are the +picturesque Cathedral Rocks, nearly 2700 feet high, making a noble +display of fine yet massive sculpture. They are closely related to El +Capitan, having been eroded from the same mountain ridge by the great +Yosemite Glacier when the Valley was in process of formation. + +Next to the Cathedral Rocks on the south side towers the Sentinel Rock +to a height of more than 3000 feet, a telling monument of the glacial +period. + +Almost immediately opposite the Sentinel are the Three Brothers, an +immense mountain mass with three gables fronting the Valley, one above +another, the topmost gable nearly 4000 feet high. They were named for +three brothers, sons of old Tenaya, the Yosemite chief, captured here +during the Indian War, at the time of the discovery of the Valley in +1852. + +Sauntering up the Valley through meadow and grove, in the company of +these majestic rocks, which seem to follow us as we advance, gazing, +admiring, looking for new wonders ahead where all about us is so +wonderful, the thunder of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when we +arrive in front of the Sentinel Rock it is revealed in all its glory +from base to summit, half a mile in height, and seeming to spring out +into the Valley sunshine direct from the sky. But even this fall, +perhaps the most wonderful of its kind in the world, cannot at first +hold our attention, for now the wide upper portion of the Valley is +displayed to view, with the finely modeled North Dome, the Royal Arches +and Washington Column on our left; Glacier Point, with its massive, +magnificent sculpture on the right; and in the middle, directly in +front, looms Tissiack or Half Dome, the most beautiful and most sublime +of all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising in serene majesty from +flowery groves and meadows to a height of 4750 feet. + +The Upper Cañons + +Here the Valley divides into three branches, the Tenaya, Nevada, and +Illilouette Cañons, extending back into the fountains of the High +Sierra, with scenery every way worthy the relation they bear to +Yosemite. + +In the south branch, a mile or two from the main Valley, is the +Illilouette Fall, 600 feet high, one of the most beautiful of all the +Yosemite choir, but to most people inaccessible as yet on account of +its rough, steep, boulder-choked cañon. Its principal fountains of ice +and snow lie in the beautiful and interesting mountains of the Merced +group, while its broad open basin between its fountain mountains and +cañon is noted for the beauty of its lakes and forests and magnificent +moraines. + +Returning to the Valley, and going up the north branch of Tenaya Cañon, +we pass between the North Dome and Half Dome, and in less than an hour +come to Mirror Lake, the Dome Cascade and Tenaya Fall. Beyond the Fall, +on the north side of the cañon is the sublime Ed Capitan-like rock +called Mount Watkins; on the south the vast granite wave of Clouds’ +Rest, a mile in height; and between them the fine Tenaya Cascade with +silvery plumes outspread on smooth glacier-polished folds of granite, +making a vertical descent in all of about 700 feet. + +Just beyond the Dome Cascades, on the shoulder of Mount Watkins, there +is an old trail once used by Indians on their way across the range to +Mono, but in the cañon above this point there is no trail of any sort. +Between Mount Watkins and Clouds’ Rest the cañon is accessible only to +mountaineers, and it is so dangerous that I hesitate to advise even +good climbers, anxious to test their nerve and skill, to attempt to +pass through it. Beyond the Cascades no great difficulty will be +encountered. A succession of charming lily gardens and meadows occurs +in filled-up lake basins among the rock-waves in the bottom of the +cañon, and everywhere the surface of the granite has a smooth-wiped +appearance, and in many places reflects the sunbeams like glass, a +phenomenon due to glacial action, the cañon having been the channel of +one of the main tributaries of the ancient Yosemite Glacier. + +About ten miles above the Valley we come to the beautiful Tenaya Lake, +and here the cañon terminates. A mile or two above the lake stands the +grand Sierra Cathedral, a building of one stone, sewn from the living +rock, with sides, roof, gable, spire and ornamental pinnacles, +fashioned and finished symmetrically like a work of art, and set on a +well-graded plateau about 9000 feet high, as if Nature in making so +fine a building had also been careful that it should be finely seen. +From every direction its peculiar form and graceful, majestic beauty of +expression never fail to charm. Its height from its base to the ridge +of the roof is about 2500 feet, and among the pinnacles that adorn the +front grand views may be gained of the upper basins of the Merced and +Tuolumne Rivers. + +Passing the Cathedral we descend into the delightful, spacious Tuolumne +Valley, from which excursions may be made to Mounts Dana, Lyell, +Ritter, Conness, and Mono Lake, and to the many curious peaks that rise +above the meadows on the south, and to the Big Tuolumne Cañon, with its +glorious abundance of rock and falling, gliding, tossing water. For all +these the beautiful meadows near the Soda Springs form a delightful +center. + +Natural Features Near The Valley + +Returning now to Yosemite and ascending the middle or Nevada branch of +the Valley, occupied by the main Merced River, we come within a few +miles to the Vernal and Nevada Falls, 400 and 600 feet high, pouring +their white, rejoicing waters in the midst of the most novel and +sublime rock scenery to be found in all the World. Tracing the river +beyond the head of the Nevada Fall we are lead into the Little +Yosemite, a valley like the great Yosemite in form, sculpture and +vegetation. It is about three miles long, with walls 1500 to 2000 feet +high, cascades coming over them, and the ever flowing through the +meadows and groves of the level bottom in tranquil, richly-embowered +reaches. + +Beyond this Little Yosemite in the main cañon, there are three other +little yosemites, the highest situated a few miles below the base of +Mount Lyell, at an elevation of about 7800 feet above the sea. To +describe these, with all their wealth of Yosemite furniture, and the +wilderness of lofty peaks above them, the home of the avalanche and +treasury of the fountain snow, would take us far beyond the bounds of a +single book. Nor can we here consider the formation of these mountain +landscapes—how the crystal rock were brought to light by glaciers made +up of crystal snow, making beauty whose influence is so mysterious on +every one who sees it. + +Of the small glacier lakes so characteristic of these upper regions, +there are no fewer than sixty-seven in the basin of the main middle +branch, besides countless smaller pools. In the basin of the +Illilouette there are sixteen, in the Tenaya basin and its branches +thirteen, in the Yosemite Creek basin fourteen, and in the Pohono or +Bridal Veil one, making a grand total of one hundred and eleven lakes +whose waters come to sing at Yosemite. So glorious is the background of +the great Valley, so harmonious its relations to its widespreading +fountains. + +The same harmony prevails in all the other features of the adjacent +landscapes. Climbing out of the Valley by the subordinate cañons, we +find the ground rising from the brink of the walls: on the south side +to the fountains of the Bridal Veil Creek, the basin of which is noted +for the beauty of its meadows and its superb forests of silver fir; on +the north side through the basin of the Yosemite Creek to the dividing +ridge along the Tuolumne Cañon and the fountains of the Hoffman Range. + +Down The Yosemite Creek + +In general views the Yosemite Creek basin seems to be paved with domes +and smooth, whaleback masses of granite in every stage of +development—some showing only their crowns; others rising high and free +above the girdling forests, singly or in groups. Others are developed +only on one side, forming bold outstanding bosses usually well fringed +with shrubs and trees, and presenting the polished surfaces given them +by the glacier that brought them into relief. On the upper portion of +the basin broad moraine beds have been deposited and on these fine, +thrifty forests are growing. Lakes and meadows and small spongy bogs +may be found hiding here and there in the woods or back in the fountain +recesses of Mount Hoffman, while a thousand gardens are planted along +the banks of the streams. + +All the wide, fan-shaped upper portion of the basin is covered with a +network of small rills that go cheerily on their way to their grand +fall in the Valley, now flowing on smooth pavements in sheets thin as +glass, now diving under willows and laving their red roots, oozing +through green, plushy bogs, plashing over small falls and dancing down +slanting cascades, calming again, gliding through patches of smooth +glacier meadows with sod of alpine agrostis mixed with blue and white +violets and daisies, breaking, tossing among rough boulders and fallen +trees, resting in calm pools, flowing together until, all united, they +go to their fate with stately, tranquil gestures like a full-grown +river. At the crossing of the Mono Trail, about two miles above the +head of the Yosemite Fall, the stream is nearly forty feet wide, and +when the snow is melting rapidly in the spring it is about four feet +deep, with a current of two and a half miles an hour. This is about the +volume of water that forms the Fall in May and June when there had been +much snow the preceding winter; but it varies greatly from month to +month. The snow rapidly vanishes from the open portion of the basin, +which faces southward, and only a few of the tributaries reach back to +perennial snow and ice fountains in the shadowy amphitheaters on the +precipitous northern slopes of Mount Hoffman. The total descent made by +the stream from its highest sources to its confluence with the Merced +in the Valley is about 6000 feet, while the distance is only about ten +miles, an average fall of 600 feet per mile. The last mile of its +course lies between the sides of sunken domes and swelling folds of the +granite that are clustered and pressed together like a mass of bossy +cumulus clouds. Through this shining way Yosemite Creek goes to its +fate, swaying and swirling with easy, graceful gestures and singing the +last of its mountain songs before it reaches the dizzy edge of Yosemite +to fall 2600 feet into another world, where climate, vegetation, +inhabitants, all are different. Emerging from this last cañon the +stream glides, in flat lace-like folds, down a smooth incline into a +small pool where it seems to rest and compose itself before taking the +grand plunge. Then calmly, as if leaving a lake, it slips over the +polished lip of the pool down another incline and out over the brow of +the precipice in a magnificent curve thick-sown with rainbow spray. + +The Yosemite Fall + +Long ago before I had traced this fine stream to its head back of Mount +Hoffman, I was eager to reach the extreme verge to see how it behaved +in flying so far through the air; but after enjoying this view and +getting safely away I have never advised any one to follow my steps. +The last incline down which the stream journeys so gracefully is so +steep and smooth one must slip cautiously forward on hands and feet +alongside the rushing water, which so near one’s head is very exciting. +But to gain a perfect view one must go yet farther, over a curving brow +to a slight shelf on the extreme brink. This shelf, formed by the +flaking off of a fold of granite, is about three inches wide, just wide +enough for a safe rest for one’s heels. To me it seemed nerve-trying to +slip to this narrow foothold and poise on the edge of such precipice so +close to the confusing whirl of the waters; and after casting longing +glances over the shining brow of the fall and listening to its sublime +psalm, I concluded not to attempt to go nearer, but, nevertheless, +against reasonable judgment, I did. Noticing some tufts of artemisia in +a cleft of rock, I filled my mouth with the leaves, hoping their bitter +taste might help to keep caution keen and prevent giddiness. In spite +of myself I reached the little ledge, got my heels well set, and worked +sidewise twenty or thirty feet to a point close to the out-plunging +current. Here the view is perfectly free down into the heart of the +bright irised throng of comet-like streamers into which the whole +ponderous volume of the fall separates, two or three hundred feet below +the brow. So glorious a display of pure wildness, acting at close range +while cut off from all the world beside, is terribly impressive. A less +nerve-trying view may be obtained from a fissured portion of the edge +of the cliff about forty yards to the eastward of the fall. Seen from +this point towards noon, in the spring, the rainbow on its brow seems +to be broken up and mingled with the rushing comets until all the fall +is stained with iris colors, leaving no white water visible. This is +the best of the safe views from above, the huge steadfast rocks, the +flying waters, and the rainbow light forming one of the most glorious +pictures conceivable. + +The Yosemite Fall is separated into an upper and a lower fall with a +series of falls and cascades between them, but when viewed in front +from the bottom of the Valley they all appear as one. + +So grandly does this magnificent fall display itself from the floor of +the Valley, few visitors take the trouble to climb the walls to gain +nearer views, unable to realize how vastly more impressive it is near +by than at a distance of one or two miles. + +A Wonderful Ascent + +The views developed in a walk up the zigzags of the trail leading to +the foot of the Upper Fall are about as varied and impressive as those +displayed along the favorite Glacier Point Trail. One rises as if on +wings. The groves, meadows, fern-flats and reaches of the river gain +new interest, as if never seen before; all the views changing in a most +striking manner as we go higher from point to point. The foreground +also changes every few rods in the most surprising manner, although the +earthquake talus and the level bench on the face of the wall over which +the trail passes seem monotonous and commonplace as seen from the +bottom of the Valley. Up we climb with glad exhilaration, through +shaggy fringes of laurel, ceanothus, glossy-leaved manzanita and +live-oak, from shadow to shadow across bars and patches of sunshine, +the leafy openings making charming frames for the Valley pictures +beheld through gem, and for the glimpses of the high peaks that appear +in the distance. The higher we go the farther we seem to be from the +summit of the vast granite wall. Here we pass a projecting buttress +hose grooved and rounded surface tells a plain story of the time when +the Valley, now filled with sunshine, was filled with ice, when the +grand old Yosemite Glacier, flowing river-like from its distant +fountains, swept through it, crushing, grinding, wearing its way ever +deeper, developing and fashioning these sublime rocks. Again we cross a +white, battered gully, the pathway of rock avalanches or snow +avalanches. Farther on we come to a gentle stream slipping down the +face of the Cliff in lace-like strips, and dropping from ledge to +ledge—too small to be called a fall—trickling, dripping, oozing, a +pathless wanderer from one of the upland meadow lying a little way back +of the Valley rim, seeking a way century after century to the depths of +the Valley without any appreciable channel. Every morning after a cool +night, evaporation being checked, it gathers strength and sings like a +bird, but as the day advances and the sun strikes its thin currents +outspread on the heated precipices, most of its waters vanish ere the +bottom of the Valley is reached. Many a fine, hanging-garden aloft on +breezy inaccessible heights owes to it its freshness and fullness of +beauty; ferneries in shady nooks, filled with Adiantum, Woodwardia, +Woodsia, Aspidium, Pellaea, and Cheilanthes, rosetted and tufted and +ranged in lines, daintily overlapping, thatching the stupendous cliffs +with softest beauty, some of the delicate fronds seeming to float on +the warm moist air, without any connection with rock or stream. Nor is +there any lack of colored plants wherever they can find a place to +cling to; lilies and mints, the showy cardinal mimulus, and glowing +cushions of the golden bahia, enlivened with butterflies and bees and +all the other small, happy humming creatures that belong to them. + +After the highest point on the lower division of the trail is gained it +leads up into the deep recess occupied by the great fall, the noblest +display of falling water to be found in the Valley, or perhaps in the +world. When it first comes in sight it seems almost within reach of +one’s hand, so great in the spring is its volume and velocity, yet it +is still nearly a third of a mile away and appears to recede as we +advance. The sculpture of the walls about it is on a scale of grandeur, +according nobly with the fall plain and massive, though elaborately +finished, like all the other cliffs about the Valley. + +In the afternoon an immense shadow is cast athwart the plateau in front +of the fall, and over the chaparral bushes that clothe the slopes and +benches of the walls to the eastward, creeping upward until the fall is +wholly overcast, the contrast between the shaded and illumined sections +being very striking in these near views. + +Under this shadow, during the cool centuries immediately following the +breaking-up of the Glacial Period, dwelt a small residual glacier, one +of the few that lingered on this sun-beaten side of the Valley after +the main trunk glacier had vanished. It sent down a long winding +current through the narrow cañon on the west side of the fall, and must +have formed a striking feature of the ancient scenery of the Valley; +the lofty fall of ice and fall of water side by side, yet separate and +distinct. + +The coolness of the afternoon shadow and the abundant dewy spray make a +fine climate for the plateau ferns and grasses, and for the beautiful +azalea bushes that grow here in profusion and bloom in September, long +after the warmer thickets down on the floor of the Valley have withered +and gone to seed. Even close to the fall, and behind it at the base of +the cliff, a few venturesome plants may be found undisturbed by the +rock-shaking torrent. + +The basin at the foot of the fall into which the current directly +pours, when it is not swayed by the wind, is about ten feet deep and +fifteen to twenty feet in diameter. That it is not much deeper is +surprising, when the great height and force of the fall is considered. +But the rock where the water strikes probably suffers less erosion than +it would were the descent less than half as great, since the current is +outspread, and much of its force is spent ere it reaches the +bottom—being received on the air as upon an elastic cushion, and borne +outward and dissipated over a surface more than fifty yards wide. + +This surface, easily examined when the water is low, is intensely clean +and fresh looking. It is the raw, quick flesh of the mountain wholly +untouched by the weather. In summer droughts when the snowfall of the +preceding winter has been light, the fall is reduced to a mere shower +of separate drops without any obscuring spray. Then we may safely go +back of it and view the crystal shower from beneath, each drop wavering +and pulsing as it makes its way through the air, and flashing off jets +of colored light of ravishing beauty. But all this is invisible from +the bottom of the Valley, like a thousand other interesting things. One +must labor for beauty as for bread, here as elsewhere. + +The Grandeur Of The Yosemite Fall + +During the time of the spring floods the best near view of the fall is +obtained from Fern Ledge on the east side above the blinding spray at a +height of about 400 feet above the base of the fall. A climb of about +1400 feet from the Valley has to be made, and there is no trail, but to +any one fond of climbing this will make the ascent all the more +delightful. A narrow part of the ledge extends to the side of the fall +and back of it, enabling us to approach it as closely as we wish. When +the afternoon sunshine is streaming through the throng of comets, ever +wasting, ever renewed, fineness, firmness and variety of their forms +are beautifully revealed. At the top of the fall they seem to burst +forth in irregular spurts from some grand, throbbing mountain heart. +Now and then one mighty throb sends forth a mass of solid water into +the free air far beyond the others which rushes alone to the bottom of +the fall with long streaming tail, like combed silk, while the others, +descending in clusters, gradually mingle and lose their identity. But +they all rush past us with amazing velocity and display of power though +apparently drowsy and deliberate in their movements when observed from +a distance of a mile or two. The heads of these comet-like masses are +composed of nearly solid water, and are dense white in color like +pressed snow, from the friction they suffer in rushing through the air, +the portion worn off forming the tail between the white lustrous +threads and films of which faint, grayish pencilings appear, while the +outer, finer sprays of water-dust, whirling in sunny eddies, are pearly +gray throughout. At the bottom of the fall there is but little +distinction of form visible. It is mostly a hissing, clashing, +seething, upwhirling mass of scud and spray, through which the light +sifts in gray and purple tones while at times when the sun strikes at +the required angle, the whole wild and apparently lawless, stormy, +striving mass is changed to brilliant rainbow hues, manifesting finest +harmony. The middle portion of the fall is the most openly beautiful; +lower, the various forms into which the waters are wrought are more +closely and voluminously veiled, while higher, towards the head, the +current is comparatively simple and undivided. But even at the bottom, +in the boiling clouds of spray, there is no confusion, while the +rainbow light makes all divine, adding glorious beauty and peace to +glorious power. This noble fall has far the richest, as well as the +most powerful, voice of all the falls of the Valley, its tones varying +from the sharp hiss and rustle of the wind in the glossy leaves of the +live-oak and the soft, sifting, hushing tones of the pines, to the +loudest rush and roar of storm winds and thunder among the crags of the +summit peaks. The low bass, booming, reverberating tones, heard under +favorable circumstances five or six miles away are formed by the +dashing and exploding of heavy masses mixed with air upon two +projecting ledges on the face of the cliff, the one on which we are +standing and another about 200 feet above it. The torrent of massive +comets is continuous at time of high water, while the explosive, +booming notes are wildly intermittent, because, unless influenced by +the wind, most of the heavier masses shoot out from the face of the +precipice, and pass the ledges upon which at other times they are +exploded. Occasionally the whole fall is swayed away from the front of +the cliff, then suddenly dashed flat against it, or vibrated from side +to side like a pendulum, giving rise to endless variety of forms and +sounds. + +The Nevada Fall + +The Nevada Fall is 600 feet high and is usually ranked next to the +Yosemite in general interest among the five main falls of the Valley. +Coming through the Little Yosemite in tranquil reaches, the river is +first broken into rapids on a moraine boulder-bar that crosses the +lower end of the Valley. Thence it pursues its way to the head of the +fall in a rough, solid rock channel, dashing on side angles, heaving in +heavy surging masses against elbow knobs, and swirling and swashing in +pot-holes without a moment’s rest. Thus, already chafed and dashed to +foam, overfolded and twisted, it plunges over the brink of the +precipice as if glad to escape into the open air. But before it reaches +the bottom it is pulverized yet finer by impinging upon a sloping +portion of the cliff about half-way down, thus making it the whitest of +all the falls of the Valley, and altogether one of the most wonderful +in the world. + +On the north side, close to its head, a slab of granite projects over +the brink, forming a fine point for a view, over its throng of +streamers and wild plunging, into its intensely white bosom, and +through the broad drifts of spray, to the river far below, gathering +its spent waters and rushing on again down the cañon in glad exultation +into Emerald Pool, where at length it grows calm and gets rest for what +still lies before it. All the features of the view correspond with the +waters in grandeur and wildness. The glacier sculptured walls of the +cañon on either hand, with the sublime mass of the Glacier Point Ridge +in front, form a huge triangular pit-like basin, which, filled with the +roaring of the falling river seems as if it might be the hopper of one +of the mills of the gods in which the mountains were being ground. + +The Vernal Fall + +The Vernal, about a mile below the Nevada, is 400 feet high, a staid, +orderly, graceful, easy-going fall, proper and exact in every movement +and gesture, with scarce a hint of the passionate enthusiasm of the +Yosemite or of the impetuous Nevada, whose chafed and twisted waters +hurrying over the cliff seem glad to escape into the open air, while +its deep, booming, thunder-tones reverberate over the listening +landscape. Nevertheless it is a favorite with most visitors, doubtless +because it is more accessible than any other, more closely approached +and better seen and heard. A good stairway ascends the cliff beside it +and the level plateau at the head enables one to saunter safely along +the edge of the river as it comes from Emerald Pool and to watch its +waters, calmly bending over the brow of the precipice, in a sheet +eighty feet wide, changing in color from green to purplish gray and +white until dashed on a boulder talus. Thence issuing from beneath its +fine broad spray-clouds we see the tremendously adventurous river still +unspent, beating its way down the wildest and deepest of all its cañons +in gray roaring rapids, dear to the ouzel, and below the confluence of +the Illilouette, sweeping around the shoulder of the Half Dome on its +approach to the head of the tranquil levels of the Valley. + +The Illilouette Fall + +The Illilouette in general appearance most resembles the Nevada. The +volume of water is less than half as great, but it is about the same +height (600 feet) and its waters receive the same kind of preliminary +tossing in a rocky, irregular channel. Therefore it is a very white and +fine-grained fall. When it is in full springtime bloom it is partly +divided by rocks that roughen the lip of the precipice, but this +division amounts only to a kind of fluting and grooving of the column, +which has a beautiful effect. It is not nearly so grand a fall as the +upper Yosemite, or so symmetrical as the Vernal, or so airily graceful +and simple as the Bridal Veil, nor does it ever display so tremendous +an outgush of snowy magnificence as the Nevada; but in the exquisite +fineness and richness of texture of its flowing folds it surpasses them +all. + +One of the finest effects of sunlight on falling water I ever saw in +Yosemite or elsewhere I found on the brow of this beautiful fall. It +was in the Indian summer, when the leaf colors were ripe and the great +cliffs and domes were transfigured in the hazy golden air. I had +scrambled up its rugged talus-dammed cañon, oftentimes stopping to take +breath and look back to admire the wonderful views to be had there of +the great Half Dome, and to enjoy the extreme purity of the water, +which in the motionless pools on this stream is almost perfectly +invisible; the colored foliage of the maples, dogwoods, _Rubus_ +tangles, etc., and the late goldenrods and asters. The voice of the +fall was now low, and the grand spring and summer floods had waned to +sifting, drifting gauze and thin-broidered folds of linked and arrowy +lace-work. When I reached the foot of the fall sunbeams were glinting +across its head, leaving all the rest of it in shadow; and on its +illumined brow a group of yellow spangles of singular form and beauty +were playing, flashing up and dancing in large flame-shaped masses, +wavering at times, then steadying, rising and falling in accord with +the shifting forms of the water. But the color of the dancing spangles +changed not at all. Nothing in clouds or flowers, on bird-wings or the +lips of shells, could rival it in fineness. It was the most divinely +beautiful mass of rejoicing yellow light I ever beheld—one of Nature’s +precious gifts that perchance may come to us but once in a lifetime. + +The Minor Falls + +There are many other comparatively small falls and cascades in the +Valley. The most notable are the Yosemite Gorge Fall and Cascades, +Tenaya Fall and Cascades, Royal Arch Falls, the two Sentinel Cascades +and the falls of Cascade and Tamarack Creeks, a mile or two below the +lower end of the Valley. These last are often visited. The others are +seldom noticed or mentioned; although in almost any other country they +would be visited and described as wonders. + +The six intermediate falls in the gorge between the head of the Lower +and the base of the Upper Yosemite Falls, separated by a few deep pools +and strips of rapids, and three slender, tributary cascades on the west +side form a series more strikingly varied and combined than any other +in the Valley, yet very few of all the Valley visitors ever see them or +hear of them. No available standpoint commands a view of them all. The +best general view is obtained from the mouth of the gorge near the head +of the Lower Fall. The two lowest of the series, together with one of +the three tributary cascades, are visible from this standpoint, but in +reaching it the last twenty or thirty feet of the descent is rather +dangerous in time of high water, the shelving rocks being then slippery +on account of spray, but if one should chance to slip when the water is +low, only a bump or two and a harmless plash would be the penalty. No +part of the gorge, however, is safe to any but cautious climbers. + +Though the dark gorge hall of these rejoicing waters is never flushed +by the purple light of morning or evening, it is warmed and cheered by +the white light of noonday, which, falling into so much foam and and +spray of varying degrees of fineness, makes marvelous displays of +rainbow colors. So filled, indeed, is it with this precious light, at +favorable times it seems to take the place of common air. Laurel bushes +shed fragrance into it from above and live-oaks, those fearless +mountaineers, hold fast to angular seams and lean out over it with +their fringing sprays and bright mirror leaves. + +One bird, the ouzel, loves this gorge and flies through it merrily, or +cheerily, rather, stopping to sing on foam-washed bosses where other +birds could find no rest for their feet. I have even seen a gray +squirrel down in the heart of it beside the wild rejoicing water. + +One of my favorite night walks was along the rim of this wild gorge in +times of high water when the moon was full, to see the lunar bows in +the spray. + +For about a mile above Mirror Lake the Tenaya Cañon is level, and +richly planted with fir, Douglas spruce and libocedrus, forming a +remarkably fine grove, at the head of which is the Tenaya Fall. Though +seldom seen or described, this is, I think, the most picturesque of all +the small falls. A considerable distance above it, Tenaya Creek comes +hurrying down, white and foamy, over a flat pavement inclined at an +angle of about eighteen degrees. In time of high water this sheet of +rapids is nearly seventy feet wide, and is varied in a very striking +way by three parallel furrows that extend in the direction of its flow. +These furrows, worn by the action of the stream upon cleavage joints, +vary in width, are slightly sinuous, and have large boulders firmly +wedged in them here and there in narrow places, giving rise, of course, +to a complicated series of wild dashes, doublings, and upleaping arches +in the swift torrent. Just before it reaches the head of the fall the +current is divided, the left division making a vertical drop of about +eighty feet in a romantic, leafy, flowery, mossy nook, while the other +forms a rugged cascade. + +The Royal Arch Fall in time of high water is a magnificent object, +forming a broad ornamental sheet in front of the arches. The two +Sentinel Cascades, 3000 feet high, are also grand spectacles when the +snow is melting fast in the spring, but by the middle of summer they +have diminished to mere streaks scarce noticeable amid their sublime +surroundings. + +The Beauty Of The Rainbows + +The Bridal Veil and Vernal Falls are famous for their rainbows; and +special visits to them are often made when the sun shines into the +spray at the most favorable angle. But amid the spray and foam and +fine-ground mist ever rising from the various falls and cataracts there +is an affluence and variety of iris bows scarcely known to visitors who +stay only a day or two. Both day and night, winter and summer, this +divine light may be seen wherever water is falling dancing, singing; +telling the heart-peace of Nature amid the wildest displays of her +power. In the bright spring mornings the black-walled recess at the +foot of the Lower Yosemite Fall is lavishly fine with irised spray; and +not simply does this span the dashing foam, but the foam itself, the +whole mass of it, beheld at a certain distance, seems to be colored, +and drips and wavers from color to color, mingling with the foliage of +the adjacent trees, without suggesting any relationship to the ordinary +rainbow. This is perhaps the largest and most reservoir-like fountain +of iris colors to be found in the Valley. + +Lunar rainbows or spray-bows also abound in the glorious affluence of +dashing, rejoicing, hurrahing, enthusiastic spring floods, their colors +as distinct as those of the sun and regularly and obviously banded, +though less vivid. Fine specimens may be found any night at the foot of +the Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing gloriously amid the gloomy shadows and +thundering waters, whenever there is plenty of moonlight and spray. +Even the secondary bow is at times distinctly visible. + +The best point from which to observe them is on Fern Ledge. For some +time after moonrise, at time of high water, the arc has a span of about +five hundred feet, and is set upright; one end planted in the boiling +spray at the bottom, the other in the edge of the fall, creeping lower, +of course, and becoming less upright as the moon rises higher. This +grand arc of color, glowing in mild, shapely beauty in so weird and +huge a chamber of night shadows, and amid the rush and roar and +tumultuous dashing of this thunder-voiced fall, is one of the most +impressive and most cheering of all the blessed mountain evangels. + +Smaller bows may be seen in the gorge on the plateau between the Upper +and Lower Falls. Once toward midnight, after spending a few hours with +the wild beauty of the Upper Fall, I sauntered along the edge of the +gorge, looking in here and there, wherever the footing felt safe, to +see what I could learn of the night aspects of the smaller falls that +dwell there. And down in an exceedingly black, pit-like portion of the +gorge, at the foot of the highest of the intermediate falls, into which +the moonbeams were pouring through a narrow opening, I saw a +well-defined spray-bow, beautifully distinct in colors, spanning the +pit from side to side, while pure white foam-waves beneath the +beautiful bow were constantly springing up out of the dark into the +moonlight like dancing ghosts. + +An Unexpected Adventure + +A wild scene, but not a safe one, is made by the moon as it appears +through the edge of the Yosemite Fall when one is behind it. Once, +after enjoying the night-song of the waters and watching the formation +of the colored bow as the moon came round the domes and sent her beams +into the wild uproar, I ventured out on the narrow bench that extends +back of the fall from Fern Ledge and began to admire the dim-veiled +grandeur of the view. I could see the fine gauzy threads of the fall’s +filmy border by having the light in front; and wishing to look at the +moon through the meshes of some of the denser portions of the fall, I +ventured to creep farther behind it while it was gently wind-swayed, +without taking sufficient thought about the consequences of its swaying +back to its natural position after the wind-pressure should be removed. +The effect was enchanting: fine, savage music sounding above, beneath, +around me; while the moon, apparently in the very midst of the rushing +waters, seemed to be struggling to keep her place, on account of the +ever-varying form and density of the water masses through which she was +seen, now darkly veiled or eclipsed by a rush of thick-headed comets, +now flashing out through openings between their tails. I was in +fairyland between the dark wall and the wild throng of illumined +waters, but suffered sudden disenchantment; for, like the witch-scene +in Alloway Kirk, “in an instant all was dark.” Down came a dash of +spent comets, thin and harmless-looking in the distance, but they felt +desperately solid and stony when they struck my shoulders, like a +mixture of choking spray and gravel and big hailstones. Instinctively +dropping on my knees, I gripped an angle of the rock, curled up like a +young fern frond with my face pressed against my breast, and in this +attitude submitted as best I could to my thundering bath. The heavier +masses seemed to strike like cobblestones, and there was a confused +noise of many waters about my ears—hissing, gurgling, clashing sounds +that were not heard as music. The situation was quickly realized. How +fast one’s thoughts burn in such times of stress! I was weighing +chances of escape. Would the column be swayed a few inches away from +the wall, or would it come yet closer? The fall was in flood and not so +lightly would its ponderous mass be swayed. My fate seemed to depend on +a breath of the “idle wind.” It was moved gently forward, the pounding +ceased, and I was once more visited by glimpses of the moon. But +fearing I might be caught at a disadvantage in making too hasty a +retreat, I moved only a few feet along the bench to where a block of +ice lay. I wedged myself between the ice and the wall and lay face +downwards, until the steadiness of the light gave encouragement to rise +and get away. Somewhat nerve-shaken, drenched, and benumbed, I made out +to build a fire, warmed myself, ran home, reached my cabin before +daylight, got an hour or two of sleep, and awoke sound and comfortable, +better, not worse for my hard midnight bath. + +Climate And Weather + +Owing to the westerly trend of the Valley and its vast depth there is a +great difference between the climates of the north and south +sides—greater than between many countries far apart; for the south wall +is in shadow during the winter months, while the north is bathed in +sunshine every clear day. Thus there is mild spring weather on one side +of the Valley while winter rules the other. Far up the north-side +cliffs many a nook may be found closely embraced by sun-beaten +rock-bosses in which flowers bloom every month of the year. Even +butterflies may be seen in these high winter gardens except when +snow-storms are falling and a few days after they have ceased. Near the +head of the lower Yosemite Fall in January I found the ant lions lying +in wait in their warm sand-cups, rock ferns being unrolled, club mosses +covered with fresh-growing plants, the flowers of the laurel nearly +open, and the honeysuckle rosetted with bright young leaves; every +plant seemed to be thinking about summer. Even on the shadow-side of +the Valley the frost is never very sharp. The lowest temperature I ever +observed during four winters was 7° Fahrenheit. The first twenty-four +days of January had an average temperature at 9 A.M. of 32°, minimum +22°; at 3 P.M. the average was 40° 30′, the minimum 32°. Along the top +of the walls, 7000 and 8000 feet high, the temperature was, of course, +much lower. But the difference in temperature between the north and +south sides is due not so much to the winter sunshine as to the heat of +the preceding summer, stored up in the rocks, which rapidly melts the +snow in contact with them. For though summer sun-heat is stored in the +rocks of the south side also, the amount is much less because the rays +fall obliquely on the south wall even in summer and almost vertically +on the north. + +The upper branches of the Yosemite streams are buried every winter +beneath a heavy mantle of snow, and set free in the spring in +magnificent floods. Then, all the fountains, full and overflowing, +every living thing breaks forth into singing, and the glad exulting +streams shining and falling in the warm sunny weather, shake everything +into music making all the mountain-world a song. + +The great annual spring thaw usually begins in May in the forest +region, and in June and July on the high Sierra, varying somewhat both +in time and fullness with the weather and the depth of the snow. Toward +the end of summer the streams are at their lowest ebb, few even of the +strongest singing much above a whisper they slip and ripple through +gravel and boulder-beds from pool to pool in the hollows of their +channels, and drop in pattering showers like rain, and slip down +precipices and fall in sheets of embroidery, fold over fold. But, +however low their singing, it is always ineffably fine in tone, in +harmony with the restful time of the year. + +The first snow of the season that comes to the help of the streams +usually falls in September or October, sometimes even is the latter +part of August, in the midst of yellow Indian summer when the +goldenrods and gentians of the glacier meadows are in their prime. This +Indian-summer snow, however, soon melts, the chilled flowers spread +their petals to the sun, and the gardens as well as the streams are +refreshed as if only a warm shower had fallen. The snow-storms that +load the mountains to form the main fountain supply for the year seldom +set in before the middle or end of November. + +Winter Beauty Of The Valley + +When the first heavy storms stopped work on the high mountains, I made +haste down to my Yosemite den, not to “hole up” and sleep the white +months away; I was out every day, and often all night, sleeping but +little, studying the so-called wonders and common things ever on show, +wading, climbing, sauntering among the blessed storms and calms, +rejoicing in almost everything alike that I could see or hear: the +glorious brightness of frosty mornings; the sunbeams pouring over the +white domes and crags into the groves end waterfalls, kindling +marvelous iris fires in the hoarfrost and spray; the great forests and +mountains in their deep noon sleep; the good-night alpenglow; the +stars; the solemn gazing moon, drawing the huge domes and headlands one +by one glowing white out of the shadows hushed and breathless like an +audience in awful enthusiasm, while the meadows at their feet sparkle +with frost-stars like the sky; the sublime darkness of storm-nights, +when all the lights are out; the clouds in whose depths the frail +snow-flowers grow; the behavior and many voices of the different kinds +of storms, trees, birds, waterfalls, and snow-avalanches in the +ever-changing weather. + +Every clear, frosty morning loud sounds are heard booming and +reverberating from side to side of the Valley at intervals of a few +minutes, beginning soon after sunrise and continuing an hour or two +like a thunder-storm. In my first winter in the Valley I could not make +out the source of this noise. I thought of falling boulders, +rock-blasting, etc. Not till I saw what looked like hoarfrost dropping +from the side of the Fall was the problem explained. The strange +thunder is made by the fall of sections of ice formed of spray that is +frozen on the face of the cliff along the sides of the Upper Yosemite +Fan—a sort of crystal plaster, a foot or two thick, racked off by the +sunbeams, awakening all the Valley like cock-crowing, announcing the +finest weather, shouting aloud Nature’s infinite industry and love of +hard work in creating beauty. + +Exploring An Ice Cone + +This frozen spray gives rise to one of the most interesting winter +features of the Valley—a cone of ice at the foot of the fall, four or +five hundred feet high. From the Fern Ledge standpoint its crater-like +throat is seen, down which the fall plunges with deep, gasping +explosions of compressed air, and, after being well churned in the +wormy interior, the water bursts forth through arched openings at its +base, apparently scourged and weary and glad to escape, while belching +spray, spouted up out of the throat past the descending current, is +wafted away in irised drifts to the adjacent rocks and groves. It is +built during the night and early hours of the morning; only in spells +of exceptionally cold and cloudy weather is the work continued through +the day. The greater part of the spray material falls in crystalline +showers direct to its place, something like a small local snow-storm; +but a considerable portion is first frozen on the face of the cliff +along the sides of the fall and stays there until expanded and cracked +off in irregular masses, some of them tons in weight, to be built into +the walls of the cone; while in windy, frosty weather, when the fall is +swayed from side to side, the cone is well drenched and the loose ice +masses and spray-dust are all firmly welded and frozen together. Thus +the finest of the downy wafts and curls of spray-dust, which in mild +nights fall about as silently as dew, are held back until sunrise to +make a store of heavy ice to reinforce the waterfall’s thunder-tones. + +While the cone is in process of formation, growing higher and wider in +the frosty weather, it looks like a beautiful smooth, pure-white hill; +but when it is wasting and breaking up in the spring its surface is +strewn with leaves, pine branches, stones, sand, etc., that have been +brought over the fall, making it look like a heap of avalanche +detritus. + +Anxious to learn what I could about the structure of this curious hill +I often approached it in calm weather and tried to climb it, carrying +an ax to cut steps. Once I nearly succeeded in gaining the summit. At +the base I was met by a current of spray and wind that made seeing and +breathing difficult. I pushed on backward however, and soon gained the +slope of the hill, where by creeping close to the surface most of the +choking blast passed over me and I managed to crawl up with but little +difficulty. Thus I made my way nearly to the summit, halting at times +to peer up through the wild whirls of spray at the veiled grandeur of +the fall, or to listen to the thunder beneath me; the whole hill was +sounding as if it were a huge, bellowing drum. I hoped that by waiting +until the fall was blown aslant I should be able to climb to the lip of +the crater and get a view of the interior; but a suffocating blast, +half air, half water, followed by the fall of an enormous mass of +frozen spray from a spot high up on the wall, quickly discouraged me. +The whole cone was jarred by the blow and some fragments of the mass +sped past me dangerously near; so I beat a hasty retreat, chilled and +drenched, and lay down on a sunny rock to dry. + +Once during a wind-storm when I saw that the fall was frequently blown +westward, leaving the cone dry, I ran up to Fern Ledge hoping to gain a +clear view of the interior. I set out at noon. All the way up the storm +notes were so loud about me that the voice of the fall was almost +drowned by them. Notwithstanding the rocks and bushes everywhere were +drenched by the wind-driven spray, I approached the brink of the +precipice overlooking the mouth of the ice cone, but I was almost +suffocated by the drenching, gusty spray, and was compelled to seek +shelter. I searched for some hiding-place in the wall from whence I +might run out at some opportune moment when the fall with its whirling +spray and torn shreds of comet tails and trailing, tattered skirts was +borne westward, as I had seen it carried several times before, leaving +the cliffs on the east side and the ice hill bare in the sunlight. I +had not long to wait, for, as if ordered so for my special +accommodation, the mighty downrush of comets with their whirling +drapery swung westward and remained aslant for nearly half an hour. The +cone was admirably lighted and deserted by the water, which fell most +of the time on the rocky western slopes mostly outside of the cone. The +mouth into which the fall pours was, as near as I could guess, about +one hundred feet in diameter north and south and about two hundred feet +east and west, which is about the shape and size of the fall at its +best in its normal condition at this season. + +The crater-like opening was not a true oval, but more like a huge +coarse mouth. I could see down the throat about one hundred feet or +perhaps farther. + +The fall precipice overhangs from a height of 400 feet above the base; +therefore the water strikes some distance from the base off the cliff, +allowing space for the accumulation of a considerable mass of ice +between the fall and the wall. + + + +Chapter 2 +Winter Storms and Spring Floods + + +The Bridal Veil and the Upper Yosemite Falls, on account of their +height and exposure, are greatly influenced by winds. The common summer +winds that come up the river cañon from the plains are seldom very +strong; but the north winds do some very wild work, worrying the falls +and the forests, and hanging snow-banners on the comet-peaks. One wild +winter morning I was awakened by storm-wind that was playing with the +falls as if they were mere wisps of mist and making the great pines bow +and sing with glorious enthusiasm. The Valley had been visited a short +time before by a series of fine snow-storms, and the floor and the +cliffs and all the region round about were lavishly adorned with its +best winter jewelry, the air was full of fine snow-dust, and pine +branches, tassels and empty cones were flying in an almost continuous +flock. + +Soon after sunrise, when I was seeking a place safe from flying +branches, I saw the Lower Yosemite Fall thrashed and pulverized from +top to bottom into one glorious mass of rainbow dust; while a thousand +feet above it the main Upper Fall was suspended on the face of the +cliff in the form of an inverted bow, all silvery white and fringed +with short wavering strips. Then, suddenly assailed by a tremendous +blast, the whole mass of the fall was blown into thread and ribbons, +and driven back over the brow of the cliff whence it came, as if denied +admission to the Valley. This kind of storm-work was continued about +ten or fifteen minutes; then another change in the play of the huge +exulting swirls and billows and upheaving domes of the gale allowed the +baffled fall to gather and arrange its tattered waters, and sink down +again in its place. As the day advanced, the gale gave no sign of +dying, excepting brief lulls, the Valley was filled with its weariless +roar, and the cloudless sky grew garish-white from myriads of minute, +sparkling snow-spicules. In the afternoon, while I watched the Upper +Fall from the shelter of a big pine tree, it was suddenly arrested in +its descent at a point about half-way down, and was neither blown +upward nor driven aside, but simply held stationary in mid-air, as if +gravitation below that point in the path of its descent had ceased to +act. The ponderous flood, weighing hundreds of tons, was sustained, +hovering, hesitating, like a bunch of thistledown, while I counted one +hundred and ninety. All this time the ordinary amount of water was +coming over the cliff and accumulating in the air, swedging and +widening and forming an irregular cone about seven hundred feet high, +tapering to the top of the wall, the whole standing still, jesting on +the invisible arm of the North Wind. At length, as if commanded to go +on again, scores of arrowy comets shot forth from the bottom of the +suspended mass as if escaping from separate outlets. + +The brow of El Capitan was decked with long snow-streamers like hair, +Clouds’ Rest was fairly enveloped in drifting gossamer elms, and the +Half Dome loomed up in the garish light like a majestic, living +creature clad in the same gauzy, wind-woven drapery, while upward +currents meeting at times overhead made it smoke like a volcano. + +An Extraordinary Storm And Flood + +Glorious as are these rocks and waters arrayed in storm robes, or +chanting rejoicing in every-day dress, they are still more glorious +when rare weather conditions meet to make them sing with floods. Only +once during all the years I have lived in the Valley have I seen it in +full flood bloom. In 1871 the early winter weather was delightful; the +days all sunshine, the nights all starry and calm, calling forth fine +crops of frost-crystals on the pines and withered ferns and grasses for +the morning sunbeams to sift through. In the afternoon of December 16, +when I was sauntering on the meadows, I noticed a massive crimson cloud +growing in solitary grandeur above the Cathedral Rocks, its form +scarcely less striking than its color. It had a picturesque, bulging +base like an old sequoia, a smooth, tapering stem, and a bossy, +down-curling crown like a mushroom; all its parts were colored alike, +making one mass of translucent crimson. Wondering what the meaning of +that strange, lonely red cloud might be, I was up betimes next morning +looking at the weather, but all seemed tranquil as yet. Towards noon +gray clouds with a lose, curly grain like bird’s-eye maple began to +grow, and late at night rain fell, which soon changed to snow. Next +morning the snow on the meadows was about ten inches deep, and it was +still falling in a fine, cordial storm. During the night of the 18th +heavy rain fell on the snow, but as the temperature was 34 degrees, the +snow-line was only a few hundred feet above the bottom of the Valley, +and one had only to climb a little higher than the tops of the pines to +get out of the rain-storm into the snow-storm. The streams, instead of +being increased in volume by the storm, were diminished, because the +snow sponged up part of their waters and choked the smaller +tributaries. But about midnight the temperature suddenly rose to 42°, +carrying the snow-line far beyond the Valley walls, and next morning +Yosemite was rejoicing in a glorious flood. The comparatively warm rain +falling on the snow was at first absorbed and held back, and so also +was that portion of the snow that the rain melted, and all that was +melted by the warm wind, until the whole mass of snow was saturated and +became sludgy, and at length slipped and rushed simultaneously from a +thousand slopes in wildest extravagance, heaping and swelling flood +over flood, and plunging into the Valley in stupendous avalanches. + +Awakened by the roar, I looked out and at once recognized the +extraordinary character of the storm. The rain was still pouring in +torrent abundance and the wind at gale speed was doing all it could +with the flood-making rain. + +The section of the north wall visible from my cabin was fairly streaked +with new falls—wild roaring singers that seemed strangely out of place. +Eager to get into the midst of the show, I snatched a piece of bread +for breakfast and ran out. The mountain waters, suddenly liberated, +seemed to be holding a grand jubilee. The two Sentinel Cascades rivaled +the great falls at ordinary stages, and across the Valley by the Three +Brothers I caught glimpses of more falls than I could readily count; +while the whole Valley throbbed and trembled, and was filled with an +awful, massive, solemn, sea-like roar. After gazing a while enchanted +with the network of new falls that were adorning and transfiguring +every rock in sight, I tried to reach the upper meadows, where the +Valley is widest, that I might be able to see the walls on both sides, +and thus gain general views. But the river was over its banks and the +meadows were flooded, forming an almost continuous lake dotted with +blue sludgy islands, while innumerable streams roared like lions across +my path and were sweeping forward rocks and logs with tremendous energy +over ground where tiny gilias had been growing but a short time before. +Climbing into the talus slopes, where these savage torrents were broken +among earthquake boulders, I managed to cross them, and force my way up +the Valley to Hutchings’ Bridge, where I crossed the river and waded to +the middle of the upper meadow. Here most of the new falls were in +sight, probably the most glorious assemblage of waterfalls ever +displayed from any one standpoint. On that portion of the south wall +between Hutchings’ and the Sentinel there were ten falls plunging and +booming from a height of nearly three thousand feet, the smallest of +which might have been heard miles away. In the neighborhood of Glacier +Point there were six; between the Three Brothers and Yosemite Fall, +nine; between Yosemite and Royal Arch Falls, ten; from Washington +Column to Mount Watkins, ten; on the slopes of Half Dome and Clouds’ +Rest, facing Mirror Lake and Tenaya Cañon, eight; on the shoulder of +Half Dome, facing the Valley, three; fifty-six new falls occupying the +upper end of the Valley, besides a countless host of silvery threads +gleaming everywhere. In all the Valley there must have been upwards of +a hundred. As if celebrating some great event, falls and cascades in +Yosemite costume were coming down everywhere from fountain basins, far +and near; and, though newcomers, they behaved and sang as if they had +lived here always. + +All summer-visitors will remember the comet forms of the Yosemite Fall +and the laces of the Bridal Veil and Nevada. In the falls of this +winter jubilee the lace forms predominated, but there was no lack of +thunder-toned comets. The lower portion of one of the Sentinel Cascades +was composed of two main white torrents with the space between them +filled in with chained and beaded gauze of intricate pattern, through +the singing threads of which the purplish-gray rock could be dimly +seen. The series above Glacier Point was still more complicated in +structure, displaying every form that one could imagine water might be +dashed and combed and woven into. Those on the north wall between +Washington Column and the Royal Arch Fall were so nearly related they +formed an almost continuous sheet, and these again were but slightly +separated from those about Indian Cañon. The group about the Three +Brothers and El Capitan, owing to the topography and cleavage of the +cliffs back of them, was more broken and irregular. The Tissiack +Cascades were comparatively small, yet sufficient to give that noblest +of mountain rocks a glorious voice. In the midst of all this +extravagant rejoicing the great Yosemite Fall was scarce heard until +about three o’clock in the afternoon. Then I was startled by a sudden +thundering crash as if a rock avalanche had come to the help of the +roaring waters. This was the flood-wave of Yosemite Creek, which had +just arrived delayed by the distance it had to travel, and by the +choking snows of its widespread fountains. Now, with volume tenfold +increased beyond its springtime fullness, it took its place as leader +of the glorious choir. + +And the winds, too, were singing in wild accord, playing on every tree +and rock, surging against the huge brows and domes and outstanding +battlements, deflected hither and thither and broken into a thousand +cascading, roaring currents in the cañons, and low bass, drumming +swirls in the hollows. And these again, reacting on the clouds, eroded +immense cavernous spaces in their gray depths and swept forward the +resulting detritus in ragged trains like the moraines of glaciers. +These cloud movements in turn published the work of the winds, giving +them a visible body, and enabling us to trace them. As if endowed with +independent motion, a detached cloud would rise hastily to the very top +of the wall as if on some important errand, examining the faces of the +cliffs, and then perhaps as suddenly descend to sweep imposingly along +the meadows, trailing its draggled fringes through the pines, fondling +the waving spires with infinite gentleness, or, gliding behind a grove +or a single tree, bringing it into striking relief, as it bowed and +waved in solemn rhythm. Sometimes, as the busy clouds drooped and +condensed or dissolved to misty gauze, half of the Valley would be +suddenly veiled, leaving here and there some lofty headland cut off +from all visible connection with the walls, looming alone, dim, +spectral, as if belonging to the sky—visitors, like the new falls, come +to take part in the glorious festival. Thus for two days and nights in +measureless extravagance the storm went on, and mostly without +spectators, at least of a terrestrial kind. I saw nobody out—bird, +bear, squirrel, or man. Tourists had vanished months before, and the +hotel people and laborers were out of sight, careful about getting +cold, and satisfied with views from windows. The bears, I suppose, were +in their cañon-boulder dens, the squirrels in their knot-hole nests, +the grouse in close fir groves, and the small singers in the Indian +Cañon chaparral, trying to keep warm and dry. Strange to say, I did not +see even the water-ouzels, though they must have greatly enjoyed the +storm. + +This was the most sublime waterfall flood I ever saw—clouds, winds, +rocks, waters, throbbing together as one. And then to contemplate what +was going on simultaneously with all this in other mountain temples; +the Big Tuolumne Cañon—how the white waters and the winds were singing +there! And in Hetch Hetchy Valley and the great King’s River yosemite, +and in all the other Sierra cañons and valleys from Shasta to the +southernmost fountains of the Kern, thousands of rejoicing flood +waterfalls chanting together in jubilee dress. + + + +Chapter 3 +Snow-Storms + + +As has been already stated, the first of the great snow-storms that +replenish the Yosemite fountains seldom sets in before the end of +November. Then, warned by the sky, wide-awake mountaineers, together +with the deer and most of the birds, make haste to the lowlands or +foothills; and burrowing marmots, mountain beavers, wood-rats, and +other small mountain people, go into winter quarters, some of them not +again to see the light of day until the general awakening and +resurrection of the spring in June or July. The fertile clouds, +drooping and condensing in brooding silence, seem to be thoughtfully +examining the forests and streams with reference to the work that lies +before them. At length, all their plans perfected, tufted flakes and +single starry crystals come in sight, solemnly swirling and glinting to +their blessed appointed places; and soon the busy throng fills the sky +and makes darkness like night. The first heavy fall is usually from +about two to four feet in depth then with intervals of days or weeks of +bright weather storm succeeds storm, heaping snow on snow, until thirty +to fifty feet has fallen. But on account of its settling and +compacting, and waste from melting and evaporation, the average depth +actually found at any time seldom exceeds ten feet in the forest +regions, or fifteen feet along the slopes of the summit peaks. After +snow-storms come avalanches, varying greatly in form, size, behavior +and in the songs they sing; some on the smooth slopes of the mountains +are short and broad; others long and river-like in the side cañons of +yosemites and in the main cañons, flowing in regular channels and +booming like waterfalls, while countless smaller ones fall everywhere +from laden trees and rocks and lofty cañon walls. Most delightful it is +to stand in the middle of Yosemite on still clear mornings after +snow-storms and watch the throng of avalanches as they come down, +rejoicing, to their places, whispering, thrilling like birds, or +booming and roaring like thunder. The noble yellow pines stand hushed +and motionless as if under a spell until the morning sunshine begins to +sift through their laden spires; then the dense masses on the ends of +the leafy branches begin to shift and fall, those from the upper +branches striking the lower ones in succession, enveloping each tree in +a hollow conical avalanche of fairy fineness; while the relieved +branches spring up and wave with startling effect in the general +stillness, as if each tree was moving of its own volition. Hundreds of +broad cloud-shaped masses may also be seen, leaping over the brows of +the cliffs from great heights, descending at first with regular +avalanche speed until, worn into dust by friction, they float in front +of the precipices like irised clouds. Those which descend from the brow +of El Capitan are particularly fine; but most of the great Yosemite +avalanches flow in regular channels like cascades and waterfalls. When +the snow first gives way on the upper slopes of their basins, a dull +rushing, rumbling sound is heard which rapidly increases and seems to +draw nearer with appalling intensity of tone. Presently the white flood +comes bounding into sight over bosses and sheer places, leaping from +bench to bench, spreading and narrowing and throwing off clouds of +whirling dust like the spray of foaming cataracts. Compared with +waterfalls and cascades, avalanches are short-lived, few of them +lasting more than a minute or two, and the sharp, clashing sounds so +common in falling water are mostly wanting; but in their low massy +thundertones and purple-tinged whiteness, and in their dress, gait, +gestures and general behavior, they are much alike. + +Avalanches + +Besides these common after-storm avalanches that are to be found not +only in the Yosemite but in all the deep, sheer-walled cañon of the +Range there are two other important kinds, which may be called annual +and century avalanches, which still further enrich the scenery. The +only place about the Valley where one may be sure to see the annual +kind is on the north slope of Clouds’ Rest. They are composed of heavy, +compacted snow, which has been subjected to frequent alternations of +freezing and thawing. They are developed on cañon and mountain-sides at +an elevation of from nine to ten thousand feet, where the slopes are +inclined at an angle too low to shed off the dry winter snow, and which +accumulates until the spring thaws sap their foundations and make them +slippery; then away in grand style go the ponderous icy masses without +any fine snow-dust. Those of Clouds’ Rest descend like thunderbolts for +more than a mile. + +The great century avalanches and the kind that mow wide swaths through +the upper forests occur on mountain-sides about ten or twelve thousand +feet high, where under ordinary weather conditions the snow accumulated +from winter to winter lies at rest for many years, allowing trees, +fifty to a hundred feet high, to grow undisturbed on the slopes beneath +them. On their way down through the woods they seldom fail to make a +perfectly clean sweep, stripping off the soil as well as the trees, +clearing paths two or three hundred yards wide from the timber line to +the glacier meadows or lakes, and piling their uprooted trees, head +downward, in rows along the sides of the gaps like lateral moraines. +Scars and broken branches of the trees standing on the sides of the +gaps record the depth of the overwhelming flood; and when we come to +count the annual wood-rings on the uprooted trees we learn that some of +these immense avalanches occur only once in a century or even at still +wider intervals. + +A Ride On An Avalanche + +Few Yosemite visitors ever see snow avalanches and fewer still know the +exhilaration of riding on them. In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed +only one avalanche ride, and the start was so sudden and the end came +so soon I had but little time to think of the danger that attends this +sort of travel, though at such times one thinks fast. One fine Yosemite +morning after a heavy snowfall, being eager to see as many avalanches +as possible and wide views of the forest and summit peaks in their new +white robes before the sunshine had time to change them, I set out +early to climb by a side cañon to the top of a commanding ridge a +little over three thousand feet above the Valley. On account of the +looseness of the snow that blocked the cañon I knew the climb would +require a long time, some three or four hours as I estimated; but it +proved far more difficult than I had anticipated. Most of the way I +sank waist deep, almost out of sight in some places. After spending the +whole day to within half an hour or so of sundown, I was still several +hundred feet below the summit. Then my hopes were reduced to getting up +in time to see the sunset. But I was not to get summit views of any +sort that day, for deep trampling near the cañon head, where the snow +was strained, started an avalanche, and I was swished down to the foot +of the cañon as if by enchantment. The wallowing ascent had taken +nearly all day, the descent only about a minute. When the avalanche +started I threw myself on my back and spread my arms to try to keep +from sinking. Fortunately, though the grade of the cañon is very steep, +it is not interrupted by precipices large enough to cause outbounding +or free plunging. On no part of the rush was I buried. I was only +moderately imbedded on the surface or at times a little below it, and +covered with a veil of back-streaming dust particles; and as the whole +mass beneath and about me joined in the flight there was no friction, +though I was tossed here and there and lurched from side to side. When +the avalanche swedged and came to rest I found myself on top of the +crumpled pile without bruise or scar. This was a fine experience. +Hawthorne says somewhere that steam has spiritualized travel; though +unspiritual smells, smoke, etc., still attend steam travel. This flight +in what might be called a milky way of snow-stars was the most +spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of motion I have ever +experienced. Elijah’s flight in a chariot of fire could hardly have +been more gloriously exciting. + +The Streams In Other Seasons + +In the spring, after all the avalanches are down and the snow is +melting fast, then all the Yosemite streams, from their fountains to +their falls, sing their grandest songs. Countless rills make haste to +the rivers, running and singing soon after sunrise, louder and louder +with increasing volume until sundown; then they gradually fail through +the frosty hours of the night. In this way the volume of the upper +branches of the river is nearly doubled during the day, rising and +falling as regularly as the tides of the sea. Then the Merced overflows +its banks, flooding the meadows, sometimes almost from wall to wall in +some places, beginning to rise towards sundown just when the streams on +the fountains are beginning to diminish, the difference in time of the +daily rise and fall being caused by the distance the upper flood +streams have to travel before reaching the Valley. In the warmest +weather they seem fairly to shout for joy and clash their upleaping +waters together like clapping of hands; racing down the cañons with +white manes flying in glorious exuberance of strength, compelling huge, +sleeping boulders to wake up and join in their dance and song, to swell +their exulting chorus. + +In early summer, after the flood season, the Yosemite streams are in +their prime, running crystal clear, deep and full but not overflowing +their banks—about as deep through the night as the day, the difference +in volume so marked in spring being now too slight to be noticed. +Nearly all the weather is cloudless and everything is at its +brightest—lake, river, garden and forest with all their life. Most of +the plants are in full flower. The blessed ouzels have built their +mossy huts and are now singing their best songs with the streams. + +In tranquil, mellow autumn, when the year’s work is about done and the +fruits are ripe, birds and seeds out of their nests, and all the +landscape is glowing like a benevolent countenance, then the streams +are at their lowest ebb, with scarce a memory left of their wild spring +floods. The small tributaries that do not reach back to the lasting +snow fountains of the summit peaks shrink to whispering, tinkling +currents. After the snow is gone from the basins, excepting occasional +thundershowers, they are now fed only by small springs whose waters are +mostly evaporated in passing over miles of warm pavements, and in +feeling their way slowly from pool to pool through the midst of +boulders and sand. Even the main rivers are so low they may easily be +forded, and their grand falls and cascades, now gentle and +approachable, have waned to sheets of embroidery. + + + +Chapter 4 +Snow Banners + + +But it is on the mountain tops, when they are laden with loose, dry +snow and swept by a gale from the north, that the most magnificent +storm scenery is displayed. The peaks along the axis of the Range are +then decorated with resplendent banners, some of them more than a mile +long, shining, streaming, waving with solemn exuberant enthusiasm as if +celebrating some surpassingly glorious event. + +The snow of which these banners are made falls on the high Sierra in +most extravagant abundance, sometimes to a depth of fifteen or twenty +feet, coming from the fertile clouds not in large angled flakes such as +one oftentimes sees in Yosemite, seldom even in complete crystals, for +many of the starry blossoms fall before they are ripe, while most of +those that attain perfect development as six-petaled flowers are more +or less broken by glinting and chafing against one another on the way +down to their work. This dry frosty snow is prepared for the grand +banner-waving celebrations by the action of the wind. Instead of at +once finding rest like that which falls into the tranquil depths of the +forest, it is shoved and rolled and beaten against boulders and +out-jutting rocks, swirled in pits and hollows like sand in river +pot-holes, and ground into sparkling dust. And when storm winds find +this snow-dust in a loose condition on the slopes above the timber-line +they toss it back into the sky and sweep it onward from peak to peak in +the form of smooth regular banners, or in cloudy drifts, according to +the velocity and direction of the wind, and the conformation of the +slopes over which it is driven. While thus flying through the air a +small portion escapes from the mountains to the sky as vapor; but far +the greater part is at length locked fast in bossy overcurling cornices +along the ridges, or in stratified sheets in the glacier cirques, some +of it to replenish the small residual glaciers and remain silent and +rigid for centuries before it is finally melted and sent singing down +home to the sea. + +But, though snow-dust and storm-winds abound on the mountains, regular +shapely banners are, for causes we shall presently see, seldom +produced. During the five winters that I spent in Yosemite I made many +excursions to high points above the walls in all kinds of weather to +see what was going on outside; from all my lofty outlooks I saw only +one banner-storm that seemed in every way perfect. This was in the +winter of 1873, when the snow-laden peaks were swept by a powerful +norther. I was awakened early in the morning by a wild storm-wind and +of course I had to make haste to the middle of the Valley to enjoy it. +Rugged torrents and avalanches from the main wind-flood overhead were +roaring down the side cañons and over the cliffs, arousing the rocks +and the trees and the streams alike into glorious hurrahing enthusiasm, +shaking the whole Valley into one huge song. Yet inconceivable as it +must seem even to those who love all Nature’s wildness, the storm was +telling its story on the mountains in still grander characters. + +A Wonderful Winter Scene + +I had long been anxious to study some points in the structure of the +ice-hill at the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, but, as I have already +explained, blinding spray had hitherto prevented me from getting +sufficiently near it. This morning the entire body of the Fall was +oftentimes torn into gauzy strips and blown horizontally along the face +of the cliff, leaving the ice-hill dry; and while making my way to the +top of Fern Ledge to seize so favorable an opportunity to look down its +throat, the peaks of the Merced group came in sight over the shoulder +of the South Dome, each waving a white glowing banner against the dark +blue sky, as regular in form and firm and fine in texture as if it were +made of silk. So rare and splendid a picture, of course, smothered +everything else and I at once began to scramble and wallow up the +snow-choked Indian Cañon to a ridge about 8000 feet high, commanding a +general view of the main summits along the axis of the Range, feeling +assured I should find them bannered still more gloriously; nor was I in +the least disappointed. I reached the top of the ridge in four or five +hours, and through an opening in the woods the most imposing wind-storm +effect I ever beheld came full in sight; unnumbered mountains rising +sharply into the cloudless sky, their bases solid white their sides +plashed with snow, like ocean rocks with foam, and on every summit a +magnificent silvery banner, from two thousand to six thousand feet in +length, slender at the point of attachment, and widening gradually +until about a thousand or fifteen hundred feet in breadth, and as +shapely and as substantial looking in texture as the banners of the +finest silk, all streaming and waving free and clear in the sun-glow +with nothing to blur the sublime picture they made. + +Fancy yourself standing beside me on this Yosemite Ridge. There is a +strange garish glitter in the air and the gale drives wildly overhead, +but you feel nothing of its violence, for you are looking out through a +sheltered opening in the woods, as through a window. In the immediate +foreground there is a forest of silver fir their foliage warm +yellow-green, and the snow beneath them strewn with their plumes, +plucked off by the storm; and beyond broad, ridgy, cañon-furrowed, +dome-dotted middle ground, darkened here and there with belts of pines, +you behold the lofty snow laden mountains in glorious array, waving +their banners with jubilant enthusiasm as if shouting aloud for joy. +They are twenty miles away, but you would not wish them nearer, for +every feature is distinct and the whole wonderful show is seen in its +right proportions, like a painting on the sky. + +And now after this general view, mark how sharply the ribs and +buttresses and summits of the mountains are defined, excepting the +portions veiled by the banners; how gracefully and nobly the banners +are waving in accord with the throbbing of the wind flood; how trimly +each is attached to the very summit of its peak like a streamer at a +mast-head; how bright and glowing white they are, and how finely their +fading fringes are penciled on the sky! See how solid white and opaque +they are at the point of attachment and how filmy and translucent +toward the end, so that the parts of the peaks past which they are +streaming look dim as if seen through a veil of ground glass. And see +how some of the longest of the banners on the highest peaks are +streaming perfectly free from peak to peak across intervening notches +or passes, while others overlap and partly hide one another. + +As to their formation, we find that the main causes of the wondrous +beauty and perfection of those we are looking at are the favorable +direction and force of the wind, the abundance of snow-dust, and the +form of the north sides of the peaks. In general, the north sides are +concave in both their horizontal and vertical sections, having been +sculptured into this shape by the residual glaciers that lingered in +the protecting northern shadows, while the sun-beaten south sides, +having never been subjected to this kind of glaciation, are convex or +irregular. It is essential, therefore, not only that the wind should +move with great velocity and steadiness to supply a sufficiently +copious and continuous stream of snow-dust, but that it should come +from the north. No perfect banner is ever hung on the Sierra peaks by +the south wind. Had the gale today blown from the south, leaving the +other conditions unchanged, only swirling, interfering, cloudy drifts +would have been produced; for the snow, instead of being spouted +straight up and over the tops of the peaks in condensed currents to be +drawn out as streamers, would have been driven over the convex southern +slopes from peak to peak like white pearly fog. + +It appears, therefore, that shadows in great part determine not only +the forms of lofty ice mountains, but also those of the snow banners +that the wild winds hang upon them. + +Earthquake Storms + +The avalanche taluses, leaning against the walls at intervals of a mile +or two, are among the most striking and interesting of the secondary +features of the Valley. They are from about three to five hundred feet +high, made up of huge, angular, well-preserved, unshifting boulders, +and instead of being slowly weathered from the cliffs like ordinary +taluses, they were all formed suddenly and simultaneously by a great +earthquake that occurred at least three centuries ago. And though thus +hurled into existence in a few seconds or minutes, they are the least +changeable of all the Sierra soil-beds. Excepting those which were +launched directly into the channels of swift rivers, scarcely one of +their wedged and interlacing boulders has moved since the day of their +creation; and though mostly made up of huge blocks of granite, many of +them from ten to fifty feet cube, weighing thousands of tons with only +a few small chips, trees and shrubs make out to live and thrive on them +and even delicate herbaceous plants—draperia, collomia, zauschneria, +etc., soothing and coloring their wild rugged slopes with gardens and +groves. + +I was long in doubt on some points concerning the origin of those +taluses. Plainly enough they were derived from the cliffs above them, +because they are of the size of scars on the wall, the rough angular +surface of which contrasts with the rounded, glaciated, unfractured +parts. It was plain, too, that instead of being made up of material +slowly and gradually weathered from the cliffs like ordinary taluses, +almost every one of them had been formed suddenly in a single +avalanche, and had not been increased in size during the last three or +four centuries, for trees three or four hundred years old are growing +on them, some standing at the top close to the wall without a bruise or +broken branch, showing that scarcely a single boulder had ever fallen +among them. Furthermore, all these taluses throughout the Range seemed +by the trees and lichens growing on them to be of the same age. All the +phenomena thus pointed straight to a grand ancient earthquake. But for +years I left the question open, and went on from cañon to cañon, +observing again and again; measuring the heights of taluses throughout +the Range on both flanks, and the variations in the angles of their +surface slopes; studying the way their boulders had been assorted and +related and brought to rest, and their correspondence in size with the +cleavage joints of the cliffs from whence they were derived, cautious +about making up my mind. But at last all doubt as to their formation +vanished. + +At half-past two o’clock of a moonlit morning in March, I was awakened +by a tremendous earthquake, and though I had never before enjoyed a +storm of this sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, +and I ran out of my cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, “A noble +earthquake! A noble earthquake!” feeling sure I was going to learn +something. The shocks were so violent and varied, and succeeded one +another so closely, that I had to balance myself carefully in walking +as if on the deck of a ship among waves, and it seemed impossible that +the high cliffs of the Valley could escape being shattered. In +particular, I feared that the sheer-fronted Sentinel Rock, towering +above my cabin, would be shaken down, and I took shelter back of a +large yellow pine, hoping that it might protect me from at least the +smaller outbounding boulders. For a minute or two the shocks became +more and more violent—flashing horizontal thrusts mixed with a few +twists and battering, explosive, upheaving jolts,—as if Nature were +wrecking her Yosemite temple, and getting ready to build a still better +one. + +I was now convinced before a single boulder had fallen that earthquakes +were the talus-makers and positive proof soon came. It was a calm +moonlight night, and no sound was heard for the first minute or so, +save low, muffled, underground, bubbling rumblings, and the whispering +and rustling of the agitated trees, as if Nature were holding her +breath. Then, suddenly, out of the strange silence and strange motion +there came a tremendous roar. The Eagle Rock on the south wall, about a +half a mile up the Valley, gave way and I saw it falling in thousands +of the great boulders I had so long been studying, pouring to the +Valley floor in a free curve luminous from friction, making a terribly +sublime spectacle—an arc of glowing, passionate fire, fifteen hundred +feet span, as true in form and as serene in beauty as a rainbow in the +midst of the stupendous, roaring rock-storm. The sound was so +tremendously deep and broad and earnest, the whole earth like a living +creature seemed to have at last found a voice and to be calling to her +sister planets. In trying to tell something of the size of this awful +sound it seems to me that if all the thunder of all the storms I had +ever heard were condensed into one roar it would not equal this +rock-roar at the birth of a mountain talus. Think, then, of the roar +that arose to heaven at the simultaneous birth of all the thousands of +ancient cañon-taluses throughout the length and breadth of the Range! + +The first severe shocks were soon over, and eager to examine the +new-born talus I ran up the Valley in the moonlight and climbed upon it +before the huge blocks, after their fiery flight, had come to complete +rest. They were slowly settling into their places, chafing, grating +against one another, groaning, and whispering; but no motion was +visible except in a stream of small fragments pattering down the face +of the cliff. A cloud of dust particles, lighted by the moon, floated +out across the whole breadth of the Valley, forming a ceiling that +lasted until after sunrise, and the air was filled with the odor of +crushed Douglas spruces from a grove that had been mowed down and +mashed like weeds. + +After the ground began to calm I ran across the meadow to the river to +see in what direction it was flowing and was glad to find that _down_ +the Valley was still down. Its waters were muddy from portions of its +banks having given way, but it was flowing around its curves and over +its ripples and shallows with ordinary tones and gestures. The mud +would soon be cleared away and the raw slips on the banks would be the +only visible record of the shaking it suffered. + +The Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing white in the moonlight, seemed to know +nothing of the earthquake, manifesting no change in form or voice, as +far as I could see or hear. + +After a second startling shock, about half-past three o’clock, the +ground continued to tremble gently, and smooth, hollow rumbling sounds, +not always distinguishable from the rounded, bumping, explosive tones +of the falls, came from deep in the mountains in a northern direction. + +The few Indians fled from their huts to the middle of the Valley, +fearing that angry spirits were trying to kill them; and, as I +afterward learned, most of the Yosemite tribe, who were spending the +winter at their village on Bull Creek forty miles away, were so +terrified that they ran into the river and washed themselves,—getting +themselves clean enough to say their prayers, I suppose, or to die. I +asked Dick, one of the Indians with whom I was acquainted, “What made +the ground shake and jump so much?” He only shook his head and said, +“No good. No good,” and looked appealingly to me to give him hope that +his life was to be spared. + +In the morning I found the few white settlers assembled in front of the +old Hutchings Hotel comparing notes and meditating flight to the +lowlands, seemingly as sorely frightened as the Indians. Shortly after +sunrise a low, blunt, muffled rumbling, like distant thunder, was +followed by another series of shocks, which, though not nearly so +severe as the first, made the cliffs and domes tremble like jelly, and +the big pines and oaks thrill and swish and wave their branches with +startling effect. Then the talkers were suddenly hushed, and the +solemnity on their faces was sublime. One in particular of these winter +neighbors, a somewhat speculative thinker with whom I had often +conversed, was a firm believer in the cataclysmic origin of the Valley; +and I now jokingly remarked that his wild tumble-down-and-engulfment +hypothesis might soon be proved, since these underground rumblings and +shakings might be the forerunners of another Yosemite-making cataclysm, +which would perhaps double the depth of the Valley by swallowing the +floor, leaving the ends of the roads and trails dangling three or four +thousand feet in the air. Just then came the third series of shocks, +and it was fine to see how awfully silent and solemn he became. His +belief in the existence of a mysterious abyss, into which the suspended +floor of the Valley and all the domes and battlements of the walls +might at any moment go roaring down, mightily troubled him. To diminish +his fears and laugh him into something like reasonable faith, I said, +“Come, cheer up; smile a little and clap your hands, now that kind +Mother Earth is trotting us on her knee to amuse us and make us good.” +But the well-meant joke seemed irreverent and utterly failed, as if +only prayerful terror could rightly belong to the wild beauty-making +business. Even after all the heavier shocks were over I could do +nothing to reassure him, on the contrary, he handed me the keys of his +little store to keep, saying that with a companion of like mind he was +going to the lowlands to stay until the fate of poor, trembling +Yosemite was settled. In vain I rallied them on their fears, calling +attention to the strength of the granite walls of our Valley home, the +very best and solidest masonry in the world, and less likely to +collapse and sink than the sedimentary lowlands to which they were +looking for safety; and saying that in any case they sometime would +have to die, and so grand a burial was not to be slighted. But they +were too seriously panic-stricken to get comfort from anything I could +say. + +During the third severe shock the trees were so violently shaken that +the birds flew out with frightened cries. In particular, I noticed two +robins flying in terror from a leafless oak, the branches of which +swished and quivered as if struck by a heavy battering-ram. Exceedingly +interesting were the flashing and quivering of the elastic needles of +the pines in the sunlight and the waving up and down of the branches +while the trunks stood rigid. There was no swaying, waving or swirling +as in wind-storms, but quick, quivering jerks, and at times the heavy +tasseled branches moved as if they had all been pressed down against +the trunk and suddenly let go, to spring up and vibrate until they came +to rest again. Only the owls seemed to be undisturbed. Before the +rumbling echoes had died away a hollow-voiced owl began to hoot in +philosophical tranquillity from near the edge of the new talus as if +nothing extraordinary had occurred, although, perhaps, he was curious +to know what all the noise was about. His “hoot-too-hoot-too-whoo” +might have meant, “what’s a’ the steer, kimmer?” + +It was long before the Valley found perfect rest. The rocks trembled +more or less every day for over two months, and I kept a bucket of +water on my table to learn what I could of the movements. The blunt +thunder in the depths of the mountains was usually followed by sudden +jarring, horizontal thrusts from the northward, often succeeded by +twisting, upjolting movements. More than a month after the first great +shock, when I was standing on a fallen tree up the Valley near Lamon’s +winter cabin, I heard a distinct bubbling thunder from the direction of +Tenaya Cañon Carlo, a large intelligent St. Bernard dog standing beside +me seemed greatly astonished, and looked intently in that direction +with mouth open and uttered a low _Wouf!_ as if saying, “What’s that?” +He must have known that it was not thunder, though like it. The air was +perfectly still, not the faintest breath of wind perceptible, and a +fine, mellow, sunny hush pervaded everything, in the midst of which +came that subterranean thunder. Then, while we gazed and listened, came +the corresponding shocks, distinct as if some mighty hand had shaken +the ground. After the sharp horizontal jars died away, they were +followed by a gentle rocking and undulating of the ground so distinct +that Carlo looked at the log on which he was standing to see who was +shaking it. It was the season of flooded meadows and the pools about +me, calm as sheets of glass, were suddenly thrown into low ruffling +waves. + +Judging by its effects, this Yosemite, or Inyo earthquake, as it is +sometimes called, was gentle as compared with the one that gave rise to +the grand talus system of the Range and did so much for the cañon +scenery. Nature, usually so deliberate in her operations, then created, +as we have seen, a new set of features, simply by giving the mountains +a shake—changing not only the high peaks and cliffs, but the streams. +As soon as these rock avalanches fell the streams began to sing new +songs; for in many places thousands of boulders were hurled into their +channels, roughening and half-damming them, compelling the waters to +surge and roar in rapids where before they glided smoothly. Some of the +streams were completely dammed; driftwood, leaves, etc., gradually +filling the interstices between the boulders, thus giving rise to lakes +and level reaches; and these again, after being gradually filled in, +were changed to meadows, through which the streams are now silently +meandering; while at the same time some of the taluses took the places +of old meadows and groves. Thus rough places were made smooth, and +smooth places rough. But, on the whole, by what at first sight seemed +pure confounded confusion and ruin, the landscapes were enriched; for +gradually every talus was covered with groves and gardens, and made a +finely proportioned and ornamental base for the cliffs. In this work of +beauty, every boulder is prepared and measured and put in its place +more thoughtfully than are the stones of temples. If for a moment you +are inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, +climb to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, +puttering hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even +speed. You will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly +discover the music and poetry of these magnificent rock piles—a fine +lesson; and all Nature’s wildness tells the same story—the shocks and +outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves +and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every +sort—each and all are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of Nature’s +heart. + + + +Chapter 5 +The Trees of the Valley + + +The most influential of the Valley trees is the yellow pine (_Pinus +ponderosa_). It attains its noblest dimensions on beds of water-washed, +coarsely-stratified moraine material, between the talus slopes and +meadows, dry on the surface, well-watered below and where not too +closely assembled in groves the branches reach nearly to the ground, +forming grand spires 200 to 220 feet in height. The largest that I have +measured is standing alone almost opposite the Sentinel Rock, or a +little to the westward of it. It is a little over eight feet in +diameter and about 220 feet high. Climbing these grand trees, +especially when they are waving and singing in worship in wind-storms, +is a glorious experience. Ascending from the lowest branch to the +topmost is like stepping up stairs through a blaze of white light, +every needle thrilling and shining as if with religious ecstasy. + +Unfortunately there are but few sugar pines in the Valley, though in +the King’s yosemite they are in glorious abundance. The incense cedar +(_Libocedrus decurrens_) with cinnamon-colored bark and yellow-green +foliage is one of the most interesting of the Yosemite trees. Some of +them are 150 feet high, from six to ten feet in diameter, and they are +never out of sight as you saunter among the yellow pines. Their bright +brown shafts and towers of flat, frondlike branches make a striking +feature of the landscapes throughout all the seasons. In midwinter, +when most of the other trees are asleep, this cedar puts forth its +flowers in millions,—the pistillate pale green and inconspicuous, but +the staminate bright yellow, tingeing all the branches and making the +trees as they stand in the snow look like gigantic goldenrods. The +branches, outspread in flat plumes and, beautifully fronded, sweep +gracefully downward and outward, except those near the top, which +aspire; the lowest, especially in youth and middle age, droop to the +ground, overlapping one another, shedding off rain and snow like +shingles, and making fine tents for birds and campers. This tree +frequently lives more than a thousand years and is well worthy its +place beside the great pines and the Douglas spruce. + +The two largest specimens I know of the Douglas spruce, about eight +feet in diameter, are growing at the foot of the Liberty Cap near the +Nevada Fall, and on the terminal moraine of the small residual glacier +that lingered in the shady Illilouette Cañon. + +After the conifers, the most important of the Yosemite trees are the +oaks, two species; the California live-oak (_Quercus agrifolia_), with +black trunks, reaching a thickness of from four to nearly seven feet, +wide spreading branches and bright deeply-scalloped leaves. It occupies +the greater part of the broad sandy flats of the upper end of the +Valley, and is the species that yields the acorns so highly prized by +the Indians and woodpeckers. + +The other species is the mountain live-oak, or goldcup oak (_Quercus +chrysolepis_), a sturdy mountaineer of a tree, growing mostly on the +earthquake taluses and benches of the sunny north wall of the Valley. +In tough, unwedgeable, knotty strength, it is the oak of oaks, a +magnificent tree. + +The largest and most picturesque specimen in the Valley is near the +foot of the Tenaya Fall, a romantic spot seldom seen on account of the +rough trouble of getting to it. It is planted on three huge boulders +and yet manages to draw sufficient moisture and food from this craggy +soil to maintain itself in good health. It is twenty feet in +circumference, measured above a large branch between three and four +feet in diameter that has been broken off. The main knotty trunk seems +to be made up of craggy granite boulders like those on which it stands, +being about the same color as the mossy, lichened boulders and about as +rough. Two moss-lined caves near the ground open back into the trunk, +one on the north side, the other on the west, forming picturesque, +romantic seats. The largest of the main branches is eighteen feet and +nine inches in circumference, and some of the long pendulous branchlets +droop over the stream at the foot of the fall where it is gray with +spray. The leaves are glossy yellow-green, ever in motion from the wind +from the fall. It is a fine place to dream in, with falls, cascades, +cool rocks lined with hypnum three inches thick; shaded with maple, +dogwood, alder, willow; grand clumps of lady-ferns where no hand may +touch them; light filtering through translucent leaves; oaks fifty feet +high; lilies eight feet high in a filled lake basin near by, and the +finest libocedrus groves and tallest ferns and goldenrods. + +In the main river cañon below the Vernal Fall and on the shady south +side of the Valley there are a few groves of the silver fir (_Abies +concolor_), and superb forests of the magnificent species round the rim +of the Valley. + +On the tops of the domes is found the sturdy, storm-enduring red cedar +(_Juniperus occidentalis_). It never makes anything like a forest here, +but stands out separate and independent in the wind, clinging by slight +joints to the rock, with scarce a handful of soil in sight of it, +seeming to depend chiefly on snow and air for nourishment, and yet it +has maintained tough health on this diet for two thousand years or +more. The largest hereabouts are from five to six feet in diameter and +fifty feet in height. + +The principal river-side trees are poplar, alder, willow, broad-leaved +maple, and Nuttall’s flowering dogwood. The poplar (_Populus +trichocarpa_), often called balm-of-Gilead from the gum on its buds, is +a tall tree, towering above its companions and gracefully embowering +the banks of the river. Its abundant foliage turns bright yellow in the +fall, and the Indian-summer sunshine sifts through it in delightful +tones over the slow-gliding waters when they are at their lowest ebb. + +Some of the involucres of the flowering dogwood measure six to eight +inches in diameter, and the whole tree when in flower looks as if +covered with snow. In the spring when the streams are in flood it is +the whitest of trees. In Indian summer the leaves become bright +crimson, making a still grander show than the flowers. + +The broad-leaved maple and mountain maple are found mostly in the cool +cañons at the head of the Valley, spreading their branches in beautiful +arches over the foaming streams. + +Scattered here and there are a few other trees, mostly small—the +mountain mahogany, cherry, chestnut-oak, and laurel. The California +nutmeg (_Torreya californica_), a handsome evergreen belonging to the +yew family, forms small groves near the cascades a mile or two below +the foot of the Valley. + + + +Chapter 6 +The Forest Trees in General + + +For the use of the ever-increasing number of Yosemite visitors who make +extensive excursions into the mountains beyond the Valley, a sketch of +the forest trees in general will probably be found useful. The +different species are arranged in zones and sections, which brings the +forest as a whole within the comprehension of every observer. These +species are always found as controlled by the climates of different +elevations, by soil and by the comparative strength of each species in +taking and holding possession of the ground; and so appreciable are +these relations the traveler need never be at a loss in determining +within a few hundred feet his elevation above sea level by the trees +alone; for, notwithstanding some of the species range upward for +several thousand feet and all pass one another more or less, yet even +those species possessing the greatest vertical range are available in +measuring the elevation; inasmuch as they take on new forms +corresponding with variations in altitude. Entering the lower fringe of +the forest composed of Douglas oaks and Sabine pines, the trees grow so +far apart that not one-twentieth of the surface of the ground is in +shade at noon. After advancing fifteen or twenty miles towards Yosemite +and making an ascent of from two to three thousand feet you reach the +lower margin of the main pine belt, composed of great sugar pine, +yellow pine, incense cedar and sequoia. Next you come to the +magnificent silver-fir belt and lastly to the upper pine belt, which +sweep up to the feet of the summit peaks in a dwarfed fringe, to a +height of from ten to twelve thousand feet. That this general order of +distribution depends on climate as affected by height above the sea, is +seen at once, but there are other harmonies that become manifest only +after observation and study. One of the most interesting of these is +the arrangement of the forest in long curving bands, braided together +into lace-like patterns in some places and out-spread in charming +variety. The key to these striking arrangements is the system of +ancient glaciers; where they flowed the trees followed, tracing their +courses along the sides of cañons, over ridges, and high plateaus. The +cedar of Lebanon, said Sir Joseph Hooker, occurs upon one of the +moraines of an ancient glacier. All the forests of the Sierra are +growing upon moraines, but moraines vanish like the glaciers that make +them. Every storm that falls upon them wastes them, carrying away their +decaying, disintegrating material into new formations, until they are +no longer recognizable without tracing their transitional forms down +the Range from those still in process of formation in some places +through those that are more and more ancient and more obscured by +vegetation and all kinds of post-glacial weathering. It appears, +therefore, that the Sierra forests indicate the extent and positions of +ancient moraines as well as they do belts of climate. + +One will have no difficulty in knowing the Nut Pine (_Pinus +Sabiniana_), for it is the first conifer met in ascending the Range +from the west, springing up here and there among Douglas oaks and +thickets of ceanothus and manzanita; its extreme upper limit being +about 4000 feet above the sea, its lower about from 500 to 800 feet. It +is remarkable for its loose, airy, wide-branching habit and thin gray +foliage. Full-grown specimens are from forty to fifty feet in height +and from two to three feet in diameter. The trunk usually divides into +three or four main branches about fifteen or twenty feet from the +ground that, after bearing away from one another, shoot straight up and +form separate summits. Their slender, grayish needles are from eight to +twelve inches long, and inclined to droop, contrasting with the rigid, +dark-colored trunk and branches. No other tree of my acquaintance so +substantial in its body has foliage so thin and pervious to the light. +The cones are from five to eight inches long and about as large in +thickness; rich chocolate-brown in color and protected by strong, +down-curving nooks which terminate the scales. Nevertheless the little +Douglas Squirrel can open them. Indians climb the trees like bears and +beat off the cones or recklessly cut off the more fruitful branches +with hatchets, while the squaws gather and roast them until the scales +open sufficiently to allow the hard-shell seeds to be beaten out. The +curious little _Pinus attenuata_ is found at an elevation of from 1500 +to 3000 feet, growing in close groves and belts. It is exceedingly +slender and graceful, although trees that chance to stand alone send +out very long, curved branches, making a striking contrast to the +ordinary grove form. The foliage is of the same peculiar gray-green +color as that of the nut pine, and is worn about as loosely, so that +the body of the tree is scarcely obscured by it. At the age of seven or +eight years it begins to bear cones in whorls on the main axis, and as +they never fall off, the trunk is soon picturesquely dotted with them. +Branches also soon become fruitful. The average size of the tree is +about thirty or forty feet in height and twelve to fourteen inches in +diameter. The cones are about four inches long and covered with a sort +of varnish and gum, rendering them impervious to moisture. + +No observer can fail to notice the admirable adaptation of this curious +pine to the fire-swept regions where alone it is found. After a running +fire has scorched and killed it the cones open and the ground beneath +it is then sown broadcast with all the seeds ripened during its whole +life. Then up spring a crowd of bright, hopeful seedlings, giving +beauty for ashes in lavish abundance. + +The Sugar Pine, King Of Pine Trees + +Of all the world’s eighty or ninety species of pine trees, the Sugar +Pine (_Pinus Lambertiana_) is king, surpassing all others, not merely +in size but in lordly beauty and majesty. In the Yosemite region it +grows at an elevation of from 3000 to 7000 feet above the sea and +attains most perfect development at a height of about 5000 feet. The +largest specimens are commonly about 220 feet high and from six to +eight feet in diameter four feet from the ground, though some grand old +patriarch may be met here and there that has enjoyed six or eight +centuries of storms and attained a thickness of ten or even twelve +feet, still sweet and fresh in every fiber. The trunk is a remarkably +smooth, round, delicately-tapered shaft, straight and regular as if +turned in a lathe, mostly without limbs, purplish brown in color and +usually enlivened with tufts of a yellow lichen. Toward the head of +this magnificent column long branches sweep gracefully outward and +downward, sometimes forming a palm-like crown, but far more impressive +than any palm crown I ever beheld. The needles are about three inches +long in fascicles of five, and arranged in rather close tassels at the +ends of slender branchlets that clothe the long outsweeping limbs. How +well they sing in the wind, and how strikingly harmonious an effect is +made by the long cylindrical cones, depending loosely from the ends of +the long branches! The cones are about fifteen to eighteen inches long, +and three in diameter; green, shaded with dark purple on their sunward +sides. They are ripe in September and October of the second year from +the flower. Then the flat, thin scales open and the seeds take wing, +but the empty cones become still more beautiful and effective as +decorations, for their diameter is nearly doubled by the spreading of +the scales, and their color changes to yellowish brown while they +remain, swinging on the tree all the following winter and summer, and +continue effectively beautiful even on the ground many years after they +fall. The wood is deliciously fragrant, fine in grain and texture and +creamy yellow, as if formed of condensed sunbeams. The sugar from which +the common name is derived is, I think, the best of sweets. It exudes +from the heart-wood where wounds have been made by forest fires or the +ax, and forms irregular, crisp, candy-like kernels of considerable +size, something like clusters of resin beads. When fresh it is white, +but because most of the wounds on which it is found have been made by +fire the sap is stained and the hardened sugar becomes brown. Indians +are fond of it, but on account of its laxative properties only small +quantities may be eaten. No tree lover will ever forget his first +meeting with the sugar pine. In most pine trees there is the sameness +of expression which to most people is apt to become monotonous, for the +typical spiral form of conifers, however beautiful, affords little +scope for appreciable individual character. The sugar pine is as free +from conventionalities as the most picturesque oaks. No two are alike, +and though they toss out their immense arms in what might seem +extravagant gestures they never lose their expression of serene +majesty. They are the priests of pines and seem ever to be addressing +the surrounding forest. The yellow pine is found growing with them on +warm hillsides, and the silver fir on cool northern slopes but, noble +as these are, the sugar pine is easily king, and spreads his arms above +them in blessing while they rock and wave in sign of recognition. The +main branches are sometimes forty feet long, yet persistently simple, +seldom dividing at all, excepting near the end; but anything like a +bare cable appearance is prevented by the small, tasseled branchlets +that extend all around them; and when these superb limbs sweep out +symmetrically on all sides, a crown sixty or seventy feet wide is +formed, which, gracefully poised on the summit of the noble shaft, is a +glorious object. Commonly, however, there is a preponderance of limbs +toward the east, away from the direction of the prevailing winds. + +Although so unconventional when full-grown, the sugar pine is a +remarkably proper tree in youth—a strict follower of coniferous +fashions—slim, erect, with leafy branches kept exactly in place, each +tapering in outline and terminating in a spiry point. The successive +forms between the cautious neatness of youth and the bold freedom of +maturity offer a delightful study. At the age of fifty or sixty years, +the shy, fashionable form begins to be broken up. Specialized branches +push out and bend with the great cones, giving individual character, +that becomes more marked from year to year. Its most constant companion +is the yellow pine. The Douglas spruce, libocedrus, sequoia, and the +silver fir are also more or less associated with it; but on many +deep-soiled mountain-sides, at an elevation of about 5000 feet above +the sea, it forms the bulk of the forest, filling every swell and +hollow and down-plunging ravine. The majestic crowns, approaching each +other in bold curves, make a glorious canopy through which the tempered +sunbeams pour, silvering the needles, and gilding the massive boles and +the flowery, park-like ground into a scene of enchantment. On the most +sunny slopes the white-flowered, fragrant chamaebatia is spread like a +carpet, brightened during early summer with the crimson sarcodes, the +wild rose, and innumerable violets and gilias. Not even in the shadiest +nooks will you find any rank, untidy weeds or unwholesome darkness. In +the north sides of ridges the boles are more slender, and the ground is +mostly occupied by an underbrush of hazel, ceanothus, and flowering +dogwood, but not so densely as to prevent the traveler from sauntering +where he will; while the crowning branches are never impenetrable to +the rays of the sun, and never so interblended as to lose their +individuality. + +The Yellow Or Silver Pine + +The Silver Pine (_Pinus ponderosa_), or Yellow Pine, as it is commonly +called, ranks second among the pines of the Sierra as a lumber tree, +and almost rivals the sugar pine in stature and nobleness of port. +Because of its superior powers of enduring variations of climate and +soil, it has a more extensive range than any other conifer growing on +the Sierra. On the western slope it is first met at an elevation of +about 2000 feet, and extends nearly to the upper limit of the +timber-line. Thence, crossing the range by the lowest passes, it +descends to the eastern base, and pushes out for a considerable +distance into the hot, volcanic plains, growing bravely upon +well-watered moraines, gravelly lake basins, climbing old volcanoes and +dropping ripe cones among ashes and cinders. + +The average size of full-grown trees on the western slope where it is +associated with the sugar pine, is a little less than 200 feet in +height and from five to six feet in diameter, though specimens +considerably larger may easily be found. Where there is plenty of free +sunshine and other conditions are favorable, it presents a striking +contrast in form to the sugar pine, being a symmetrical spire, formed +of a straight round trunk, clad with innumerable branches that are +divided over and over again. Unlike the Yosemite form about one-half of +the trunk is commonly branchless, but where it grows at all close +three-fourths or more is naked, presenting then a more slender and +elegant shaft than any other tree in the woods. The bark is mostly +arranged in massive plates, some of them measuring four or five feet in +length by eighteen inches in width, with a thickness of three or four +inches, forming a quite marked and distinguishing feature. The needles +are of a fine, warm, yellow-green color, six to eight inches long, firm +and elastic, and crowded in handsome, radiant tassels on the upturning +ends of the branches. The cones are about three or four inches long, +and two and a half wide, growing in close, sessile clusters among the +leaves. + +The species attains its noblest form in filled-up lake basins, +especially in those of the older yosemites, and as we have seen, so +prominent a part does it form of their groves that it may well be +called the Yosemite Pine. + +The Jeffrey variety attains its finest development in the northern +portion of the Range, in the wide basins of the McCloud and Pitt +Rivers, where it forms magnificent forests scarcely invaded by any +other tree. It differs from the ordinary form in size, being only about +half as tall, in its redder and more closely-furrowed bark +grayish-green foliage, less divided branches, and much larger cones; +but intermediate forms come in which make a clear separation +impossible, although some botanists regard it as a distinct species. It +is this variety of ponderosa that climbs storm-swept ridges alone, and +wanders out among the volcanoes of the Great Basin. Whether exposed to +extremes of heat or cold, it is dwarfed like many other trees, and +becomes all knots and angles, wholly unlike the majestic forms we have +been sketching. Old specimens, bearing cones about as big as +pineapples, may sometimes be found clinging to rifted rocks at an +elevation of 7000 or 8000 feet, whose highest branches scarce reach +above one’s shoulders. + +I have often feasted on the beauty of these noble trees when they were +towering in all their winter grandeur, laden with snow—one mass of +bloom; in summer, too, when the brown, staminate clusters hang thick +among the shimmering needles, and the big purple burrs are ripening in +the mellow light; but it is during cloudless wind-storms that these +colossal pines are most impressively beautiful. Then they bow like +willows, their leaves streaming forward all in one direction, and, when +the sun shines upon them at the required angle, entire groves glow as +if every leaf were burnished silver. The fall of tropic light on the +crown of a palm is a truly glorious spectacle, the fervid sun-flood +breaking upon the glossy leaves in long lance-rays, like mountain water +among boulders at the foot of an enthusiastic cataract. But to me there +is something more impressive in the fall of light upon these noble, +silver pine pillars: it is beaten to the finest dust and shed off in +myriads of minute sparkles that seem to radiate from the very heart of +the tree as if like rain, falling upon fertile soil, it had been +absorbed to reappear in flowers of light. This species also gives forth +the finest wind music. After listening to it in all kinds of winds, +night and day, season after season, I think I could approximate to my +position on the mountain by this pine music alone. If you would catch +the tone of separate needles climb a tree in breezy weather. Every +needle is carefully tempered and gives forth no uncertain sound each +standing out with no interference excepting during head gales; then you +may detect the click of one needle upon another, readily +distinguishable from the free wind-like hum. + +When a sugar pine and one of this species equal in size are observed +together, the latter is seen to be more simple in manners, more lively +and graceful, and its beauty is of a kind more easily appreciated; on +the other hand it is less dignified and original in demeanor. The +yellow pine seems ever eager to shoot aloft, higher and higher. Even +while it is drowsing in autumn sun-gold you may still detect a skyward +aspiration, but the sugar pine seems too unconsciously noble and too +complete in every way to leave room for even a heavenward care. + +The Douglas Spruce + +The Douglas Spruce (_Pseudotsuga Douglasii_) is one of the largest and +longest-lived of the giants that flourish throughout the main pine +belt, often attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of +six or seven feet. Where the growth is not too close, the stout, +spreading branches, covering more than half of the trunk, are hung with +innumerable slender, drooping sprays, handsomely feathered with the +short leaves which radiate at right angles all around them. This +vigorous tree is ever beautiful, welcoming the mountain winds and the +snow as well as the mellow summer light; and it maintains its youthful +freshness undiminished from century to century through a thousand +storms. It makes its finest appearance during the months of June and +July, when the brown buds at the ends of the sprays swell and open, +revealing the young leaves, which at first are bright yellow, making +the tree appear as if covered with gay blossoms; while the pendulous +bracted cones, three or four inches long, with their shell-like scales, +are a constant adornment. + +The young trees usually are assembled in family groups, each sapling +exquisitely symmetrical. The primary branches are whorled regularly +around the axis, generally in fives, while each is draped with long, +feathery sprays that descend in lines as free and as finely drawn as +those of falling water. + +In Oregon and Washington it forms immense forests, growing tall and +mast-like to a height of 300 feet, and is greatly prized as a lumber +tree. Here it is scattered among other trees, or forms small groves, +seldom ascending higher than 5500 feet, and never making what would be +called a forest. It is not particular in its choice of soil: wet or +dry, smooth or rocky, it makes out to live well on them all. Two of the +largest specimens, as we have seen, are in Yosemite; one of these, more +than eight feet in diameter, is growing on a moraine; the other, nearly +as large, on angular blocks of granite. No other tree in the Sierra +seems so much at home on earthquake taluses and many of these huge +boulder-slopes are almost exclusively occupied by it. + +The Incense Cedar + +Incense Cedar (_Libocedrus decurrens_), already noticed among the +Yosemite trees, is quite generally distributed throughout the pine belt +without exclusively occupying any considerable area, or even making +extensive groves. On the warmer mountain slopes it ascends to about +5000 feet, and reaches the climate most congenial to it at a height of +about 4000 feet, growing vigorously at this elevation in all kinds of +soil and, in particular, it is capable of enduring more moisture about +its roots than any of its companions excepting only the sequoia. + +Casting your eye over the general forest from some ridge-top you can +identify it by the color alone of its spiry summits, a warm +yellow-green. In its youth up to the age of seventy or eighty years, +none of its companions forms so strictly tapered a cone from top to +bottom. As it becomes older it oftentimes grows strikingly irregular +and picturesque. Large branches push out at right angles to the trunk, +forming stubborn elbows and shoot up parallel with the axis. Very old +trees are usually dead at the top. The flat fragrant plumes are +exceedingly beautiful: no waving fern-frond is finer in form and +texture. In its prime the whole tree is thatched with them, but if you +would see the libocedrus in all its glory you must go to the woods in +midwinter when it is laden with myriads of yellow flowers about the +size of wheat grains, forming a noble illustration of Nature’s immortal +virility and vigor. The mature cones, about three-fourths of an inch +long, born on the ends of the plumy branchlets, serve to enrich still +more the surpassing beauty of this winter-blooming tree-goldenrod. + +The Silver Firs + +We come now to the most regularly planted and most clearly defined of +the main forest belts, composed almost exclusively of two Silver +Firs—_Abies concolor_ and _Abies magnifica_—extending with but little +interruption 450 miles at an elevation of from 5000 to 9000 feet above +the sea. In its youth _A. concolor_ is a charmingly symmetrical tree +with its flat plumy branches arranged in regular whorls around the +whitish-gray axis which terminates in a stout, hopeful shoot, pointing +straight to the zenith, like an admonishing finger. The leaves are +arranged in two horizontal rows along branchlets that commonly are less +than eight years old, forming handsome plumes, pinnated like the fronds +of ferns. The cones are grayish-green when ripe, cylindrical, from +three to four inches long, and one and a half to two inches wide, and +stand upright on the upper horizontal branches. Full-grown trees in +favorable situations are usually about 200 feet high and five or six +feet in diameter. As old age creeps on, the rough bark becomes rougher +and grayer, the branches lose their exact regularity of form, many that +are snow-bent are broken off and the axis often becomes double or +otherwise irregular from accidents to the terminal bud or shoot. +Nevertheless, throughout all the vicissitudes of its three or four +centuries of life, come what may, the noble grandeur of this species, +however obscured, is never lost. + +The magnificent Silver Fir, or California Red Fir (_Abies magnifica_) +is the most symmetrical of all the Sierra giants, far surpassing its +companion species in this respect and easily distinguished from it by +the purplish-red bark, which is also more closely furrowed than that of +the white, and by its larger cones, its more regularly whorled and +fronded branches, and its shorter leaves, which grow all around the +branches and point upward instead of being arranged in two horizontal +rows. The branches are mostly whorled in fives, and stand out from the +straight, red-purple bole in level, or in old trees in drooping +collars, every branch regularly pinnated like fern-fronds, making broad +plumes, singularly rich and sumptuous-looking. The flowers are in their +prime about the middle of June; the male red, growing on the underside +of the branches in crowded profusion, giving a very rich color to all +the trees; the female greenish-yellow, tinged with pink, standing erect +on the upper side of the topmost branches, while the tufts of young +leaves, about as brightly colored as those of the Douglas spruce, make +another grand show. The cones mature in a single season from the +flowers. When mature they are about six to eight inches long, three or +four in diameter, covered with a fine gray down and streaked and beaded +with transparent balsam, very rich and precious-looking, and stand +erect like casks on the topmost branches. The inside of the cone is, if +possible, still more beautiful. The scales and bracts are tinged with +red and the seed-wings are purple with bright iridescence. Both of the +silver firs live between two and three centuries when the conditions +about them are at all favorable. Some venerable patriarch may be seen +heavily storm-marked, towering in severe majesty above the rising +generation, with a protecting grove of hopeful saplings pressing close +around his feet, each dressed with such loving care that not a leaf +seems wanting. Other groups are made up of trees near the prime of +life, nicely arranged as if Nature had culled them with discrimination +from all the rest of the woods. It is from this tree, called Red Fir by +the lumbermen, that mountaineers cut boughs to sleep on when they are +so fortunate as to be within its limit. Two or three rows of the +sumptuous plushy-fronded branches, overlapping along the middle, and a +crescent of smaller plumes mixed to one’s taste with ferns and flowers +for a pillow, form the very best bed imaginable. The essence of the +pressed leaves seems to fill every pore of one’s body. Falling water +makes a soothing hush, while the spaces between the grand spires afford +noble openings through which to gaze dreamily into the starry sky. The +fir woods are fine sauntering-grounds at almost any time of the year, +but finest in autumn when the noble trees are hushed in the hazy light +and drip with balsam; and the flying, whirling seeds, escaping from the +ripe cones, mottle the air like flocks of butterflies. Even in the +richest part of these unrivaled forests where so many noble trees +challenge admiration we linger fondly among the colossal firs and extol +their beauty again and again, as if no other tree in the world could +henceforth claim our love. It is in these woods the great granite domes +arise that are so striking and characteristic a feature of the Sierra. +Here, too, we find the best of the garden-meadows full of lilies. A dry +spot a little way back from the margin of a silver fir lily-garden +makes a glorious camp-ground, especially where the slope is toward the +east with a view of the distant peaks along the summit of the Range. +The tall lilies are brought forward most impressively like visitors by +the light of your camp-fire and the nearest of the trees with their +whorled branches tower above you like larger lilies and the sky seen +through the garden-opening seems one vast meadow of white lily stars. + +The Two-Leaved Pine + +The Two-Leaved Pine (_Pinus contorta_, var. _Murrayana_), above the +Silver Fir zone, forms the bulk of the alpine forests up to a height of +from 8000 to 9500 feet above the sea, growing in beautiful order on +moraines scarcely changed as yet by post-glacial weathering. Compared +with the giants of the lower regions this is a small tree, seldom +exceeding a height of eighty or ninety feet. The largest I ever +measured was ninety feet high and a little over six feet in diameter. +The average height of mature trees throughout the entire belt is +probably not far from fifty or sixty feet with a diameter of two feet. +It is a well-proportioned, rather handsome tree with grayish-brown bark +and crooked, much-divided branches which cover the greater part of the +trunk, but not so densely as to prevent it being seen. The lower limbs, +like those of most other conifers that grow in snowy regions, curve +downward, gradually take a horizontal position about half-way up the +trunk, then aspire more and more toward the summit. The short, rigid +needles in fascicles of two are arranged in comparatively long +cylindrical tassels at the ends of the tough up-curving branches. The +cones are about two inches long, growing in clusters among the needles +without any striking effect except while very young, when the flowers +are of a vivid crimson color and the whole tree appears to be dotted +with brilliant flowers. The staminate flowers are still more showy on +account of their great abundance, often giving a reddish-yellow tinge +to the whole mass of foliage and filling the air with pollen. No other +pine on the Range is so regularly planted as this one, covering +moraines that extend along the sides of the high rocky valleys for +miles without interruption. The thin bark is streaked and sprinkled +with resin as though it had been showered upon the forest like rain. + +Therefore this tree more than any other is subject to destruction by +fire. During strong winds extensive forests are destroyed, the flames +leaping from tree to tree in continuous belts that go surging and +racing onward above the bending wood like prairie-grass fires. During +the calm season of Indian summer the fire creeps quietly along the +ground, feeding on the needles and cones; arriving at the foot of a +tree, the resiny bark is ignited and the heated air ascends in a swift +current, increasing in velocity and dragging the flames upward. Then +the leaves catch forming an immense column of fire, beautifully spired +on the edges and tinted a rose-purple hue. It rushes aloft thirty or +forty feet above the top of the tree, forming a grand spectacle, +especially at night. It lasts, however, only a few seconds, vanishing +with magical rapidity, to be succeeded by others along the fire-line at +irregular intervals, tree after tree, upflashing and darting, leaving +the trunks and branches scarcely scarred. The heat, however, is +sufficient to kill the tree and in a few years the bark shrivels and +falls off. Forests miles in extent are thus killed and left standing, +with the branches on, but peeled and rigid, appearing gray in the +distance like misty clouds. Later the branches drop off, leaving a +forest of bleached spars. At length the roots decay and the forlorn +gray trunks are blown down during some storm and piled one upon +another, encumbering the ground until, dry and seasoned, they are +consumed by another fire and leave the ground ready for a fresh crop. + +In sheltered lake-hollows, on beds of alluvium, this pine varies so far +from the common form that frequently it could be taken for a distinct +species, growing in damp sods like grasses from forty to eighty feet +high, bending all together to the breeze and whirling in eddying gusts +more lively than any other tree in the woods. I frequently found +specimens fifty feet high less than five inches in diameter. Being so +slender and at the same time clad with leafy boughs, it is often bent +and weighed down to the ground when laden with soft snow; thus forming +fine ornamental arches, many of them to last until the melting of the +snow in the spring. + +The Mountain Pine + +The Mountain Pine (_Pinus monticola_) is the noblest tree of the alpine +zone—hardy and long-lived towering grandly above its companions and +becoming stronger and more imposing just where other species begin to +crouch and disappear. At its best it is usually about ninety feet high +and five or six feet in diameter, though you may find specimens here +and there considerably larger than this. It is as massive and +suggestive of enduring strength as an oak. About two-thirds of the +trunk is commonly free of limbs, but close, fringy tufts of spray occur +nearly all the way down to the ground. On trees that occupy exposed +situations near its upper limit the bark is deep reddish-brown and +rather deeply furrowed, the main furrows running nearly parallel to +each other and connected on the old trees by conspicuous cross-furrows. +The cones are from four to eight inches long, smooth, slender, +cylindrical and somewhat curved. They grow in clusters of from three to +six or seven and become pendulous as they increase in weight. This +species is nearly related to the sugar pine and, though not half so +tall, it suggests its noble relative in the way that it extends its +long branches in general habit. It is first met on the upper margin of +the silver fir zone, singly, in what appears as chance situations +without making much impression on the general forest. Continuing up +through the forests of the two-leaved pine it begins to show its +distinguishing characteristic in the most marked way at an elevation of +about 10,000 feet extending its tough, rather slender arms in the +frosty air, welcoming the storms and feeding on them and reaching +sometimes to the grand old age of 1000 years. + +The Western Juniper + +The Juniper or Red Cedar (_Juniperus occidentalis_) is preëminently a +rock tree, occupying the baldest domes and pavements in the upper +silver fir and alpine zones, at a height of from 7000 to 9500 feet. In +such situations, rooted in narrow cracks or fissures, where there is +scarcely a handful of soil, it is frequently over eight feet in +diameter and not much more in height. The tops of old trees are almost +always dead, and large stubborn-looking limbs push out horizontally, +most of them broken and dead at the end, but densely covered, and +imbedded here and there with tufts or mounds of gray-green scalelike +foliage. Some trees are mere storm-beaten stumps about as broad as +long, decorated with a few leafy sprays, reminding one of the crumbling +towers of old castles scantily draped with ivy. Its homes on bare, +barren dome and ridge-top seem to have been chosen for safety against +fire, for, on isolated mounds of sand and gravel free from grass and +bushes on which fire could feed, it is often found growing tall and +unscathed to a height of forty to sixty feet, with scarce a trace of +the rocky angularity and broken limbs so characteristic a feature +throughout the greater part of its range. It never makes anything like +a forest; seldom even a grove. Usually it stands out separate and +independent, clinging by slight joints to the rocks, living chiefly on +snow and thin air and maintaining sound health on this diet for 2000 +years or more. Every feature or every gesture it makes expresses +steadfast, dogged endurance. The bark is of a bright cinnamon color and +is handsomely braided and reticulated on thrifty trees, flaking off in +thin, shining ribbons that are sometimes used by the Indians for tent +matting. Its fine color and picturesqueness are appreciated by artists, +but to me the juniper seems a singularly strange and taciturn tree. I +have spent many a day and night in its company and always have found it +silent and rigid. It seems to be a survivor of some ancient race, +wholly unacquainted with its neighbors. Its broad stumpiness, of +course, makes wind-waving or even shaking out of the question, but it +is not this rocky rigidity that constitutes its silence. In calm, +sun-days the sugar pine preaches like an enthusiastic apostle without +moving a leaf. On level rocks the juniper dies standing and wastes +insensibly out of existence like granite, the wind exerting about as +little control over it, alive or dead, as is does over a glacier +boulder. + +I have spent a good deal of time trying to determine the age of these +wonderful trees, but as all of the very old ones are honey-combed with +dry rot I never was able to get a complete count of the largest. Some +are undoubtedly more than 2000 years old, for though on deep moraine +soil they grow about as fast as some of the pines, on bare pavements +and smoothly glaciated, overswept ridges in the dome region they grow +very slowly. One on the Starr King Ridge only two feet eleven inches in +diameter was 1140 years old forty years ago. Another on the same ridge, +only one foot seven and a half inches in diameter, had reached the age +of 834 years. The first fifteen inches from the bark of a medium-size +tree six feet in diameter, on the north Tenaya pavement, had 859 layers +of wood. Beyond this the count was stopped by dry rot and scars. The +largest examined was thirty-three feet in girth, or nearly ten feet in +diameter and, although I have failed to get anything like a complete +count, I learned enough from this and many other specimens to convince +me that most of the trees eight or ten feet thick, standing on +pavements, are more than twenty centuries old rather than less. Barring +accidents, for all I can see they would live forever; even then +overthrown by avalanches, they refuse to lie at rest, lean stubbornly +on their big branches as if anxious to rise, and while a single root +holds to the rock, put forth fresh leaves with a grim, never-say-die +expression. + +The Mountain Hemlock + +As the juniper is the most stubborn and unshakeable of trees in the +Yosemite region, the Mountain Hemlock (_Tsuga Mertensiana_) is the most +graceful and pliant and sensitive. Until it reaches a height of fifty +or sixty feet it is sumptuously clothed down to the ground with +drooping branches, which are divided again and again into delicate +waving sprays, grouped and arranged in ways that are indescribably +beautiful, and profusely adorned with small brown cones. The flowers +also are peculiarly beautiful and effective; the female dark rich +purple, the male blue, of so fine and pure a tone. What the best azure +of the mountain sky seems to be condensed in them. Though apparently +the most delicate and feminine of all the mountain trees, it grows best +where the snow lies deepest, at a height of from 9000 to 9500 feet, in +hollows on the northern slopes of mountains and ridges. But under all +circumstances, sheltered from heavy winds or in bleak exposure to them, +well fed or starved, even at its highest limit, 10,500 feet above the +sea, on exposed ridge-tops where it has to crouch and huddle close in +low thickets, it still contrives to put forth its sprays and branches +in forms of invincible beauty, while on moist, well-drained moraines it +displays a perfectly tropical luxuriance of foliage, flowers and fruit. +The snow of the first winter storm is frequently soft, and lodges in +due dense leafy branches, weighing them down against the trunk, and the +slender, drooping axis, bending lower and lower as the load increases, +at length reaches the ground, forming an ornamental arch. Then, as +storm succeeds storm and snow is heaped on snow, the whole tree is at +last buried, not again to see the light of day or move leaf or limb +until set free by the spring thaws in June or July. Not only the young +saplings are thus carefully covered and put to sleep in the whitest of +white beds for five or six months of the year, but trees thirty feet +high or more. From April to May, when the snow by repeated thawing and +freezing is firmly compacted, you may ride over the prostrate groves +without seeing a single branch or leaf of them. No other of our alpine +conifers so finely veils its strength; poised in thin, white sunshine, +clad with branches from head to foot, it towers in unassuming majesty, +drooping as if unaffected with the aspiring tendencies of its race, +loving the ground, conscious of heaven and joyously receptive of its +blessings, reaching out its branches like sensitive tentacles, feeling +the light and reveling in it. The largest specimen I ever found was +nineteen feet seven inches in circumference. It was growing on the edge +of Lake Hollow, north of Mount Hoffman, at an elevation of 9250 feet +above the level of the sea, and was probably about a hundred feet in +height. Fine groves of mature trees, ninety to a hundred feet in +height, are growing near the base of Mount Conness. It is widely +distributed from near the south extremity of the high Sierra northward +along the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington and the coast +ranges of British Columbia to Alaska, where it was first discovered in +1827. Its northernmost limit, so far as I have observed, is in the icy +fiords of Prince William Sound in latitude 61°, where it forms pure +forests at the level of the sea, growing tall and majestic on the banks +of glaciers. There, as in the Yosemite region, it is ineffably +beautiful, the very loveliest of all the American conifers. + +The White-Bark Pine + +The Dwarf Pine, or White-Bark Pine (_Pinus albicaulis_), forms the +extreme edge of the timberline throughout nearly the whole extent of +the Range on both flanks. It is first met growing with the two-leaved +pine on the upper margin of the alpine belt, as an erect tree from +fifteen to thirty feet high and from one to two feet in diameter hence +it goes straggling up the flanks of the summit peaks, upon moraines or +crumbling ledges, wherever it can get a foothold, to an elevation of +from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, where it dwarfs to a mass of crumpled +branches, covered with slender shoots, each tipped with a short, +close-packed, leaf tassel. The bark is smooth and purplish, in some +places almost white. The flowers are bright scarlet and rose-purple, +giving a very flowery appearance little looked for in such a tree. The +cones are about three inches long, an inch and a half in diameter, grow +in rigid clusters, and are dark chocolate in color while young, and +bear beautiful pearly-white seeds about the size of peas, most of which +are eaten by chipmunks and the Clarke’s crows. Pines are commonly +regarded as sky-loving trees that must necessarily aspire or die. This +species forms a marked exception, crouching and creeping in compliance +with the most rigorous demands of climate; yet enduring bravely to a +more advanced age than many of its lofty relatives in the sun-lands far +below it. Seen from a distance it would never be taken for a tree of +any kind. For example, on Cathedral Peak there is a scattered growth of +this pine, creeping like mosses over the roof, nowhere giving hint of +an ascending axis. While, approached quite near, it still appears matty +and heathy, and one experiences no difficulty in walking over the top +of it, yet it is seldom absolutely prostrate, usually attaining a +height of three or four feet with a main trunk, and with branches +outspread above it, as if in ascending they had been checked by a +ceiling against which they had been compelled to spread horizontally. +The winter snow is a sort of ceiling, lasting half the year; while the +pressed surface is made yet smoother by violent winds armed with +cutting sand-grains that bear down any shoot which offers to rise much +above the general level, and that carve the dead trunks and branches in +beautiful patterns. + +During stormy nights I have often camped snugly beneath the interlacing +arches of this little pine. The needles, which have accumulated for +centuries, make fine beds, a fact well known to other mountaineers, +such as deer and wild sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie beneath +the larger trees in safe and comfortable concealment. This lowly dwarf +reaches a far greater age than would be guessed. A specimen that I +examined, growing at an elevation of 10,700 feet, yet looked as though +it might be plucked up by the roots, for it was only three and a half +inches in diameter and its topmost tassel reached hardly three feet +above the ground. Cutting it half through and counting the annual rings +with the aid of a lens, I found its age to be no less than 255 years. +Another specimen about the same height, with a trunk six inches in +diameter, I found to be 426 years old, forty years ago; and one of its +supple branchlets hardly an eighth of an inch in diameter inside the +bark, was seventy-five years old, and so filled with oily balsam and +seasoned by storms that I tied it in knots like a whip-cord. + +The Nut Pine + +In going across the Range from the Tuolumne River Soda Springs to Mono +Lake one makes the acquaintance of the curious little Nut Pine (_Pinus +monophylla_). It dots the eastern flank of the Sierra to which it is +mostly restricted in grayish bush-like patches, from the margin of the +sage-plains to an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet. A more +contented, fruitful and unaspiring conifer could not be conceived. All +the species we have been sketching make departures more or less distant +from the typical spire form, but none goes so far as this. Without any +apparent cause it keeps near the ground, throwing out crooked, +divergent branches like an orchard apple-tree, and seldom pushes a +single shoot higher than fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. + +The average thickness of the trunk is, perhaps, about ten or twelve +inches. The leaves are mostly undivided, like round awls, instead of +being separated, like those of other pines, into twos and threes and +fives. The cones are green while growing, and are usually found over +all the tree, forming quite a marked feature as seen against the +bluish-gray foliage. They are quite small, only about two inches in +length, and seem to have but little space for seeds; but when we come +to open them, we find that about half the entire bulk of the cone is +made up of sweet, nutritious nuts, nearly as large as hazel-nuts. This +is undoubtedly the most important food-tree on the Sierra, and +furnishes the Mona, Carson, and Walker River Indians with more and +better nuts than all the other species taken together. It is the +Indian’s own tree, and many a white man have they killed for cutting it +down. Being so low, the cones are readily beaten off with poles, and +the nuts procured by roasting them until the scales open. In bountiful +seasons a single Indian may gather thirty or forty bushels. + + + +Chapter 7 +The Big Trees + + +Between the heavy pine and silver fir zones towers the Big Tree +(_Sequoia gigantea_), the king of all the conifers in the world, “the +noblest of the noble race.” The groves nearest Yosemite Valley are +about twenty miles to the westward and southward and are called the +Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves. It extends, a widely interrupted +belt, from a very small grove on the middle fork of the American River +to the head of Deer Creek, a distance of about 260 miles, its northern +limit being near the thirty-ninth parallel, the southern a little below +the thirty-sixth. The elevation of the belt above the sea varies from +about 5000 to 8000 feet. From the American River to Kings River the +species occurs only in small isolated groups so sparsely distributed +along the belt that three of the gaps in it are from forty to sixty +miles wide. But from Kings River south-ward the sequoia is not +restricted to mere groves but extends across the wide rugged basins of +the Kaweah and Tule Rivers in noble forests, a distance of nearly +seventy miles, the continuity of this part of the belt being broken +only by the main cañons. The Fresno, the largest of the northern +groves, has an area of three or four square miles, a short distance to +the southward of the famous Mariposa grove. Along the south rim of the +cañon of the south fork of Kings River there is a majestic sequoia +forest about six miles long by two wide. This is the northernmost group +that may fairly be called a forest. Descending the divide between the +Kings and Kaweah Rivers you come to the grand forests that form the +main continuous portion of the belt. Southward the giants become more +and more irrepressibly exuberant, heaving their massive crowns into the +sky from every ridge and slope, waving onward in graceful compliance +with the complicated topography of the region. The finest of the Kaweah +section of the belt is on the broad ridge between Marble Creek and the +middle fork, and is called the Giant Forest. It extends from the +granite headlands, overlooking the hot San Joaquin plains, to within a +few miles of the cool glacial fountains of the summit peaks. The +extreme upper limit of the belt is reached between the middle and south +forks of the Kaweah at a height of 8400 feet, but the finest block of +big tree forests in the entire belt is on the north fork of Tule River, +and is included in the Sequoia National Park. + +In the northern groves there are comparatively few young trees or +saplings. But here for every old storm-beaten giant there are many in +their prime and for each of these a crowd of hopeful young trees and +saplings, growing vigorously on moraines, rocky edges, along water +courses and meadows. But though the area occupied by the big tree +increases so greatly from north to south, here is no marked increase in +the size of the trees. The height of 275 feet or thereabouts and a +diameter of about twenty feet, four feet from the ground is, perhaps, +about the average size of what may be called full-grown trees, where +they are favorably located. The specimens twenty-five feet in diameter +are not very rare and a few are nearly three hundred feet high. In the +Calaveras grove there are four trees over 300 feet in height, the +tallest of which as measured by the Geological Survey is 325 feet. The +very largest that I have yet met in the course of my explorations is a +majestic old fire-scarred monument in the Kings River forest. It is +thirty-five feet and eight inches in diameter inside the bark, four +feet above the ground. It is burned half through, and I spent a day in +clearing away the charred surface with a sharp ax and counting the +annual wood-rings with the aid of a pocket lens. I succeeded in laying +bare a section all the way from the outside to the heart and counted a +little over four thousand rings, showing that this tree was in its +prime about twenty-seven feet in diameter at the beginning of the +Christian era. No other tree in the world, as far as I know, has looked +down on so many centuries as the sequoia or opens so many impressive +and suggestive views into history. Under the most favorable conditions +these giants probably live 5000 years or more though few of even the +larger trees are half as old. The age of one that was felled in +Calaveras grove, for the sake of having its stump for a dancing-floor, +was about 1300 years, and its diameter measured across the stump +twenty-four feet inside the bark. Another that was felled in the Kings +River forest was about the same size but nearly a thousand years older +(2200 years), though not a very old-looking tree. + +So harmonious and finely balanced are even the mightiest of these +monarchs in all their proportions that there is never anything +overgrown or monstrous about them. Seeing them for the first time you +are more impressed with their beauty than their size, their grandeur +being in great part invisible; but sooner or later it becomes manifest +to the loving eye, stealing slowly on the senses like the grandeur of +Niagara or of the Yosemite Domes. When you approach them and walk +around them you begin to wonder at their colossal size and try to +measure them. They bulge considerably at the base, but not more than is +required for beauty and safety and the only reason that this bulging +seems in some cases excessive is that only a comparatively small +section is seen in near views. One that I measured in the Kings River +forest was twenty-five feet in diameter at the ground and ten feet in +diameter 220 feet above the ground showing the fineness of the taper of +the trunk as a whole. No description can give anything like an adequate +idea of their singular majesty, much less of their beauty. Except the +sugar pine, most of their neighbors with pointed tops seem ever trying +to go higher, while the big tree, soaring above them all, seems +satisfied. Its grand domed head seems to be poised about as lightly as +a cloud, giving no impression of seeking to rise higher. Only when it +is young does it show like other conifers a heavenward yearning, +sharply aspiring with a long quick-growing top. Indeed, the whole tree +for the first century or two, or until it is a hundred or one hundred +and fifty feet high, is arrowhead in form, and, compared with the +solemn rigidity of age, seems as sensitive to the wind as a squirrel’s +tail. As it grows older, the lower branches are gradually dropped and +the upper ones thinned out until comparatively few are left. These, +however, are developed to a great size, divide again and again and +terminate in bossy, rounded masses of leafy branch-lets, while the head +becomes dome-shaped, and is the first to feel the touch of the rosy +beams of the morning, the last to bid the sun good night. Perfect +specimens, unhurt by running fires or lightning, are singularly regular +and symmetrical in general form though not in the least +conventionalized, for they show extraordinary variety in the unity and +harmony of their general outline. The immensely strong, stately shafts +are free of limbs for one hundred and fifty feet or so. The large limbs +reach out with equal boldness a every direction, showing no weather +side, and no other tree has foliage so densely massed, so finely molded +in outline and so perfectly subordinate to an ideal type. A +particularly knotty, angular, ungovernable-looking branch, from five to +seven or eight feet in diameter and perhaps a thousand years old, may +occasionally be seen pushing out from the trunk as if determined to +break across the bounds of the regular curve, but like all the others +it dissolves in bosses of branchlets and sprays as soon as the general +outline is approached. Except in picturesque old age, after being +struck by lightning or broken by thousands of snow-storms, the +regularity of forms is one of their most distinguishing +characteristics. Another is the simple beauty of the trunk and its +great thickness as compared with its height and the width of the +branches, which makes them look more like finely modeled and sculptured +architectural columns than the stems of trees, while the great limbs +look like rafters, supporting the magnificent dome-head. But though so +consummately beautiful, the big tree always seems unfamiliar, with +peculiar physiognomy, awfully solemn and earnest; yet with all its +strangeness it impresses us as being more at home than any of its +neighbors, holding the best right to the ground as the oldest strongest +inhabitant. One soon becomes acquainted with new species of pine and +fir and spruce as with friendly people, shaking their outstretched +branches like shaking hands and fondling their little ones, while the +venerable aboriginal sequoia, ancient of other days, keeps you at a +distance, looking as strange in aspect and behavior among its neighbor +trees as would the mastodon among the homely bears and deers. Only the +Sierra juniper is at all like it, standing rigid and unconquerable on +glacier pavements for thousands of years, grim and silent, with an air +of antiquity about as pronounced as that of the sequoia. + +The bark of the largest trees is from one to two feet thick, rich +cinnamon brown, purplish on young trees, forming magnificent masses of +color with the underbrush. Toward the end of winter the trees are in +bloom, while the snow is still eight or ten feet deep. The female +flowers are about three-eighths of an inch long, pale green, and grow +in countless thousands on the ends of sprays. The male are still more +abundant, pale yellow, a fourth of an inch long and when the pollen is +ripe they color the whole tree and dust the air and the ground. The +cones are bright grass-green in color, about two and a half inches +long, one and a half wide, made up of thirty or forty strong, +closely-packed, rhomboidal scales, with four to eight seeds at the base +of each. The seeds are wonderfully small end light, being only from an +eighth to a fourth of an inch long and wide, including a filmy +surrounding wing, which causes them to glint and waver in falling and +enables the wind to carry them considerable distances. Unless harvested +by the squirrels, the cones discharge their seed and remain on the tree +for many years. In fruitful seasons the trees are fairly laden. On two +small branches one and a half and two inches in diameter I counted 480 +cones. No other California conifer produces nearly so many seeds, +except, perhaps, the other sequoia, the Redwood of the Coast Mountains. +Millions are ripened annually by a single tree, and in a fruitful year +the product of one of the northern groves would be enough to plant all +the mountain ranges in the world. + +As soon as any accident happens to the crown, such as being smashed off +by lightning, the branches beneath the wound, no matter how situated, +seem to be excited, like a colony of bees that have lost their queen, +and become anxious to repair the damage. Limbs that have grown outward +for centuries at right angles to the trunk begin to turn upward to +assist in making a new crown, each speedily assuming the special form +of true summits. Even in the case of mere stumps, burned half through, +some mere ornamental tuft will try to go aloft and do its best as a +leader in forming a new head. Groups of two or three are often found +standing close together, the seeds from which they sprang having +probably grown on ground cleared for their reception by the fall of a +large tree of a former generation. They are called “loving couples,” +“three graces,” etc. When these trees are young they are seen to stand +twenty or thirty feet apart, by the time they are full-grown their +trunks will touch and crowd against each other and in some cases even +appear as one. + +It is generally believed that the sequoia was once far more widely +distributed over the Sierra; but after long and careful study I have +come to the conclusion that it never was, at least since the close of +the glacial period, because a diligent search along the margins of the +groves, and in the gaps between fails to reveal a single trace of its +previous existence beyond its present bounds. Notwithstanding, I feel +confident that if every sequoia in the Range were to die today, +numerous monuments of their existence would remain, of so imperishable +a nature as to be available for the student more than ten thousand +years hence. + +In the first place, no species of coniferous tree in the Range keeps +its members so well together as the sequoia; a mile is, perhaps, the +greatest distance of any straggler from the main body, and all of those +stragglers that have come under my observation are young, instead of +old monumental trees, relics of a more extended growth. + +Again, the great trunks of the sequoia last for centuries after they +fall. I have a specimen block of sequoia wood, cut from a fallen tree, +which is hardly distinguishable from a similar section cut from a +living tree, although the one cut from the fallen trunk has certainly +lain on the damp forest floor more than 380 years, probably thrice as +long. The time-measure in the case is simply this: When the ponderous +trunk to which the old vestige belonged fell, it sunk itself into the +ground, thus making a long, straight ditch, and in the middle of this +ditch a silver fir four feet in diameter and 380 years old was growing, +as I determined by cutting it half through and counting the rings, thus +demonstrating that the remnant of the trunk that made the ditch has +lain on the ground _more_ than 380 years. For it is evident that, to +find the whole time, we must add to the 380 years the time that the +vanished portion of the trunk lay in the ditch before being burned out +of the way, plus the time that passed before the seed from which the +monumental fir sprang fell into the prepared soil and took root. Now, +because sequoia trunks are never wholly consumed in one forest fire, +and those fires recur only at considerable intervals, and because +sequoia ditches after being cleared are often left unplanted for +centuries, it becomes evident that the trunk-remnant in question may +probably have lain a thousand years or more. And this instance is by no +means a late one. + +Again, admitting that upon those areas supposed to have been once +covered with sequoia forests, every tree may have fallen, and every +trunk may have been burned or buried, leaving not a remnant, many of +the ditches made by the fall of the ponderous trunks, and the bowls +made by their upturning roots, would remain patent for thousands of +years after the last vestige of the trunks that made them had vanished. +Much of this ditch-writing would no doubt be quickly effaced by the +flood-action of overflowing streams and rain-washing; but no +inconsiderable portion would remain enduringly engraved on ridge-tops +beyond such destructive action; for, where all the conditions are +favorable, it is almost imperishable. Now these historic ditches and +root-bowls occur in all the present sequoia groves and forests, but, as +far as I have observed, not the faintest vestige of one presents itself +outside of them. + +We therefore conclude that the area covered by sequoia has not been +diminished during the last eight or ten thousand years, and probably +not at all in post-glacial time. Nevertheless, the questions may be +asked: Is the species verging toward extinction? What are its relations +to climate, soil, and associated trees? + +All the phenomena bearing on these questions also throw light, as we +shall endeavor to show, upon the peculiar distribution of the species, +and sustain the conclusion already arrived at as to the question of +former extension. In the northern groups, as we have seen, there are +few young trees or saplings growing up around the old ones to +perpetuate the race, and inasmuch as those aged sequoias, so nearly +childless, are the only ones commonly known the species, to most +observers, seems doomed to speedy extinction, as being nothing more +than an expiring remnant, vanquished in the so-called struggle for life +by pines and firs that have driven it into its last strongholds in +moist glens where the climate is supposed to be exceptionally +favorable. But the story told by the majestic continuous forests of the +south creates a very different impression. No tree in the forest is +more enduringly established in concordance with both climate and soil. +It grows heartily everywhere—on moraines, rocky ledges, along +watercourses, and in the deep, moist alluvium of meadows with, as we +have seen, a multitude of seedlings and saplings crowding up around the +aged, abundantly able to maintain the forest in prime vigor. So that if +all the trees of any section of the main sequoia forest were ranged +together according to age, a very promising curve would be presented, +all the way up from last year’s seedlings to giants, and with the young +and middle-aged portion of the curve many times longer than the old +portion. Even as far north as the Fresno, I counted 536 saplings and +seedlings, growing promisingly upon a landslip not exceeding two acres +in area. This soil-bed was about seven years old, and had been seeded +almost simultaneously by pines, firs, libocedrus, and sequoia, +presenting a simple and instructive illustration of the struggle for +life among the rival species; and it was interesting to note that the +conditions thus far affecting them have enabled the young sequoias to +gain a marked advantage. Toward the south where the sequoia becomes +most exuberant and numerous, the rival trees become less so; and where +they mix with sequoias they grow up beneath them like slender grasses +among stalks of Indian corn. Upon a bed of sandy floodsoil I counted +ninety-four sequoias, from one to twelve feet high, on a patch of +ground once occupied by four large sugar pines which lay crumbling +beneath them—an instance of conditions which have enabled sequoias to +crowd out the pines. I also noted eighty-six vigorous saplings upon a +piece of fresh ground prepared for their reception by fire. Thus fire, +the great destroyer of the sequoia, also furnishes the bare ground +required for its growth from the seed. Fresh ground is, however, +furnished in sufficient quantities for the renewal of the forests +without the aid of fire—by the fall of old trees. The soil is thus +upturned and mellowed, and many trees are planted for every one that +falls. + +It is constantly asserted in a vague way that the Sierra was vastly +wetter than now, and that the increasing drought will of itself +extinguish the sequoia, leaving its ground to other trees supposed +capable of flourishing in a drier climate. But that the sequoia can and +does grow on as dry ground as any of its present rivals is manifest in +a thousand places. “Why, then,” it will be asked, “are sequoias always +found only in well-watered places?” Simply because a growth of sequoias +creates those streams. The thirsty mountaineer knows well that in every +sequoia grove he will find running water, but it is a mistake to +suppose that the water is the cause of the grove being there; on the +contrary, the grove is the cause of the water being there. Drain off +the water and the trees will remain, but cut off the trees, and the +streams will vanish. Never was cause more completely mistaken for +effect than in the case of these related phenomena of sequoia woods and +perennial streams. + +When attention is called to the method of sequoia stream-making, it +will be apprehended at once. The roots of this immense tree fill the +ground, forming a thick sponge that absorbs and holds back the rain and +melting snow, only allowing it to ooze and flow gently. Indeed, every +fallen leaf and rootlet, as well as long clasping root, and prostrate +trunk, may be regarded as a dam hoarding the bounty of storm-clouds, +and dispensing it as blessings all through the summer, instead of +allowing it to go headlong in short-lived floods. + +Since, then, it is a fact that thousands of sequoias are growing +thriftily on what is termed dry ground, and even clinging like mountain +pines to rifts in granite precipices, and since it has also been shown +that the extra moisture found in connection with the denser growths is +an effect of their presence, instead of a cause of their presence, then +the notions as to the former extension of the species and its near +approach to extinction, based upon its supposed dependence on greater +moisture, are seen to be erroneous. + +The decrease in rain and snowfall since the close of the glacial period +in the Sierra is much less than is commonly guessed. The highest +post-glacial water-marks are well preserved in all the upper river +channels, and they are not greatly higher than the spring flood-marks +of the present; showing conclusively that no extraordinary decrease has +taken place in the volume of the upper tributaries of post-glacial +Sierra streams since they came into existence. But, in the meantime, +eliminating all this complicated question of climatic change, the plain +fact remains that the present rain and snowfall is abundantly +sufficient for the luxuriant growth of sequoia forests. Indeed, all my +observations tend to show that in a prolonged drought the sugar pines +and firs would perish before the sequoia, not alone because of the +greater longevity of individual trees, but because the species can +endure more drought, and make the most of whatever moisture falls. + +Again, if the restriction and irregular distribution of the species be +interpreted as a result of the desiccation of the Range, then instead +of increasing as it does in individuals toward the south where the +rainfall is less, it should diminish. If, then, the peculiar +distribution of sequoia has not been governed by superior conditions of +soil as to fertility or moisture, by what has it been governed? + +In the course of my studies I observed that the northern groves, the +only ones I was at first acquainted with, were located on just those +portions of the general forest soil-belt that were first laid bare +toward the close of the glacial period when the ice-sheet began to +break up into individual glaciers. And while searching the wide basin +of the San Joaquin, and trying to account for the absence of sequoia +where every condition seemed favorable for its growth, it occurred to +me that this remarkable gap in the sequoia belt fifty miles wide is +located exactly in the basin of the vast, ancient _mer de glace_ of the +San Joaquin and Kings River basins which poured its frozen floods to +the plain through this gap as its channel. I then perceived that the +next great gap in the belt to the northward, forty miles wide, +extending between the Calaveras and Tuolumne groves, occurs in the +basin of the great ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus +basins; and that the smaller gap between the Merced and Mariposa groves +occurs in the basin of the smaller glacier of the Merced. The wider the +ancient glacier, the wider the corresponding gap in the sequoia belt. + +Finally, pursuing my investigations across the basins of the Kaweah and +Tule, I discovered that the sequoia belt attained its greatest +development just where, owing to the topographical peculiarities of the +region, the ground had been best protected from the main ice-rivers +that continued to pour past from the summit fountains long after the +smaller local glaciers had been melted. + +Taking now a general view of the belt, beginning at the south we see +that the majestic ancient glaciers were shed off right and left down +the valleys of Kern and Kings Rivers by the lofty protective spurs +outspread embracingly above the warm sequoia-filled basins of the +Kaweah and Tule. Then, next northward, occurs the wide sequoia-less +channel, or basin of the ancient San Joaquin and sings River mer de +glace; then the warm, protected spots of Fresno and Mariposa groves; +then the sequoia-less channel of the ancient Merced glacier; next the +warm, sheltered ground of the Merced and Tuolumne groves; then the +sequoia-less channel of the grand ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne +and Stanislaus; then the warm old ground of the Calaveras and +Stanislaus groves. It appears, therefore, that just where, at a certain +period in the history of the Sierra, the glaciers were not, there the +sequoia is, and just where the glaciers were, there the sequoia is not. + +But although all the observed phenomena bearing on the post-glacial +history of this colossal tree point to the conclusion that it never was +more widely distributed on the Sierra since the close of the glacial +epoch; that its present forests are scarcely past prime, if, indeed, +they have reached prime; that the post-glacial day of the species is +probably not half done; yet, when from a wider outlook the vast +antiquity of the genus is considered, and its ancient richness in +species and individuals,—comparing our Sierra Giant and _Sequoia +sempervirens_ of the Coast Range, the only other living species of +sequoia, with the twelve fossil species already discovered and +described by Heer and Lesquereux, some of which flourished over vast +areas in the Arctic regions and in Europe and our own territories, +during tertiary and cretaceous times—then, indeed, it becomes plain +that our two surviving species, restricted to narrow belts within the +limits of California, are mere remnants of the genus, both as to +species and individuals, and that they may be verging to extinction. +But the verge of a period beginning in cretaceous times may have a +breadth of tens of thousands of years, not to mention the possible +existence of conditions calculated to multiply and re-extend both +species and individuals. + +There is no absolute limit to the existence of any tree. Death is due +to accidents, not, as that of animals, to the wearing out of organs. +Only the leaves die of old age. Their fall is foretold in their +structure; but the leaves are renewed every year, and so also are the +essential organs wood, roots, bark, buds. Most of the Sierra trees die +of disease, insects, fungi, etc., but nothing hurts the big tree. I +never saw one that was sick or showed the slightest sign of decay. +Barring accidents, it seems to be immortal. It is a curious fact that +all the very old sequoias had lost their heads by lightning strokes. +“All things come to him who waits.” But of all living things, sequoia +is perhaps the only one able to wait long enough to make sure of being +struck by lightning. + +So far as I am able to see at present only fire and the ax threaten the +existence of these noblest of God’s trees. In Nature’s keeping they are +safe, but through the agency of man destruction is making rapid +progress, while in the work of protection only a good beginning has +been made. The Fresno grove, the Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves +are under the protection of the Federal Government in the Yosemite +National Park. So are the General Grant and Sequoia National Parks; the +latter, established twenty-one years ago, has an area of 240 square +miles and is efficiently guarded by a troop of cavalry under the +direction of the Secretary of the Interior; so also are the small +General Grant National Park, estatblished at the same time with an area +of four square miles, and the Mariposa grove, about the same size and +the small Merced and Tuolumne group. Perhaps more than half of all the +big trees have been thoughtlessly sold and are now in the hands of +speculators and mill men. It appears, therefore, that far the largest +and important section of protected big trees is in the great Sequoia +National Park, now easily accessible by rail to Lemon Cove and thence +by a good stage road into the giant forest of the Kaweah and thence by +rail to other parts of the park; but large as it is it should be made +much larger. Its natural eastern boundary is the High Sierra and the +northern and southern boundaries are the Kings and Kern Rivers. Thus +could be included the sublime scenery on the headwaters of these rivers +and perhaps nine-tenths of all the big trees in existence. All private +claims within these bounds should be gradually extinguished by purchase +by the Government. The big tree, leaving all its higher uses out of the +count, is a tree of life to the dwellers of the plain dependent on +irrigation, a never-failing spring, sending living waters to the +lowland. For every grove cut down a stream is dried up. Therefore all +California is crying, “Save the trees of the fountains.” Nor, judging +by the signs of the times, is it likely that the cry will cease until +the salvation of all that is left of _Sequoia gigantea_ is made sure. + + + +Chapter 8 +The Flowers + + +Yosemite was all one glorious flower garden before plows and scythes +and trampling, biting horses came to make its wide open spaces look +like farmers’ pasture fields. Nevertheless, countless flowers still +bloom every year in glorious profusion on the grand talus slopes, wall +benches and tablets, and in all the fine, cool side-cañons up to the +rim of the Valley, and beyond, higher and higher, to the summits of the +peaks. Even on the open floor and in easily-reached side-nooks many +common flowering plants have survived and still make a brave show in +the spring and early summer. Among these we may mention tall œnotheras, +_Pentstemon lutea_, and _P. Douglasii_ with fine blue and red flowers; +Spraguea, scarlet zauschneria, with its curious radiant rosettes +characteristic of the sandy flats; mimulus, eunanus, blue and white +violets, geranium, columbine, erythraea, larkspur, collomia, draperia, +gilias, heleniums, bahia, goldenrods, daisies, honeysuckle; heuchera, +bolandra, saxifrages, gentians; in cool cañon nooks and on Clouds’ Rest +and the base of Starr King Dome you may find _Primula suffrutescens_, +the only wild primrose discovered in California, and the only known +shrubby species in the genus. And there are several fine orchids, +habenaria, and cypripedium, the latter very rare, once common in the +Valley near the foot of Glacier Point, and in a bog on the rim of the +Valley near a place called Gentry’s Station, now abandoned. It is a +very beautiful species, the large oval lip white, delicately veined +with purple; the other petals and the sepals purple, strap-shaped, and +elegantly curled and twisted. + +Of the lily family, fritillaria, smilacina, chlorogalum and several +fine species of brodiæa, Ithuriel’s spear, and others less prized are +common, and the favorite calochortus, or Mariposa lily, a unique genus +of many species, something like the tulips of Europe but far finer. +Most of them grow on the warm foothills below the Valley, but two +charming species, _C. cœruleus_ and _C. nudus_, dwell in springy places +on the Wawona road a few miles beyond the brink of the walls. + +The snow plant (_Sarcodes sanguinea_) is more admired by tourists than +any other in California. It is red, fleshy and watery and looks like a +gigantic asparagus shoot. Soon after the snow is off the round it rises +through the dead needles and humus in the pine and fir woods like a +bright glowing pillar of fire. In a week or so it grows to a height of +eight or twelve inches with a diameter of an inch and a half or two +inches; then its long fringed bracts curl aside, allowing the twenty- +or thirty-five-lobed, bell-shaped flowers to open and look straight out +from the axis. It is said to grow up through the snow; on the contrary, +it always waits until the ground is warm, though with other early +flowers it is occasionally buried or half-buried for a day or two by +spring storms. The entire plant—flowers, bracts, stem, scales, and +roots—is fiery red. Its color could appeal to one’s blood. +Nevertheless, it is a singularly cold and unsympathetic plant. +Everybody admires it as a wonderful curiosity, but nobody loves it as +lilies, violets, roses, daisies are loved. Without fragrance, it stands +beneath the pines and firs lonely and silent, as if unacquainted with +any other plant in the world; never moving in the wildest storms; rigid +as if lifeless, though covered with beautiful rosy flowers. + +Far the most delightful and fragrant of the Valley flowers is the +Washington lily, white, moderate in size, with from three- to +ten-flowered racemes. I found one specimen in the lower end of the +Valley at the foot of the Wawona grade that was eight feet high, the +raceme two feet long, with fifty-two flowers, fifteen of them open; the +others had faded or were still in the bud. This famous lily is +distributed over the sunny portions of the sugar-pine woods, never in +large meadow-garden companies like the large and the small tiger lilies +(_pardalinum_ and _parvum_), but widely scattered, standing up to the +waist in dense ceanothus and manzanita chaparral, waving its lovely +flowers above the blooming wilderness of brush, and giving their +fragrance to the breeze. It is now becoming scarce in the most +accessible parts of its range on account of the high price paid for its +bulbs by gardeners through whom it has been distributed far and wide +over the flower-loving world. For, on account of its pure color and +delicate, delightful fragrance, all lily lovers at once adopted it as a +favorite. + +The principal shrubs are manzanita and ceanothus, several species of +each, azalea, _Rubus nutkanus_, brier rose, choke-cherry philadelphus, +calycanthus, garrya, rhamnus, etc. + +The manzanita never fails to attract particular attention. The species +common in the Valley is usually about six or seven feet high, +round-headed with innumerable branches, red or chocolate-color bark, +pale green leaves set on edge, and a rich profusion of small, pink, +narrow-throated, urn-shaped flowers, like those of arbutus. The knotty, +crooked, angular branches are about as rigid as bones, and the red bark +is so thin and smooth on both trunk and branches, they look as if they +had been peeled and polished and painted. In the spring large areas on +the mountain up to a height of eight or nine thousand feet are +brightened with the rosy flowers, and in autumn with their red fruit. +The pleasantly acid berries, about the size of peas, look like little +apples, and a hungry mountaineer is glad to eat them, though half their +bulk is made up of hard seeds. Indians, bears, coyotes, foxes, birds +and other mountain people live on them for weeks and months. The +different species of ceanothus usually associated with manzanita are +flowery fragrant and altogether delightful shrubs, growing in glorious +abundance, not only in the Valley, but high up in the forest on sunny +or half-shaded ground. In the sugar-pine woods the most beautiful +species is _C. integerrimus_, often called Californian lilac, or deer +brush. It is five or six feet high with slender branches, glossy +foliage, and abundance of blue flowers in close, showy panicles. Two +species, _C. prostrates_ and _C. procumbens_, spread smooth, +blue-flowered mats and rugs beneath the pines, and offer fine beds to +tired mountaineers. The commonest species, _C. cordulatus_, is most +common in the silver-fir woods. It is white-flowered and thorny, and +makes dense thickets of tangled chaparral, difficult to wade through or +to walk over. But it is pressed flat every winter by ten or fifteen +feet of snow. The western azalea makes glorious beds of bloom along the +river bank and meadows. In the Valley it is from two to five feet high, +has fine green leaves, mostly hidden beneath its rich profusion of +large, fragrant white and yellow flowers, which are in their prime in +June, July and August, according to the elevation, ranging from 3000 to +6000 feet. Near the azalea-bordered streams the small wild rose, +resembling _R. blanda_, makes large thickets deliciously fragrant, +especially on a dewy morning and after showers. Not far from these +azalea and rose gardens, _Rubus nutkanus_ covers the ground with broad, +soft, velvety leaves, and pure-white flowers as large as those of its +neighbor and relative, the rose, and much finer in texture, followed at +the end of summer by soft red berries good for everybody. This is the +commonest and the most beautiful of the whole blessed, flowery, fruity +Rubus genus. + +There are a great many interesting ferns in the Valley and about it. +Naturally enough the greater number are rock ferns—pellæa, cheilanthes, +polypodium, adiantum, woodsia, cryptogramma, etc., with small tufted +fronds, lining cool glens and fringing the seams of the cliffs. The +most important of the larger species are woodwardia, aspidium, +asplenium, and, above all, the common pteris. _Woodwardia radicans_ is +a superb, broad-shouldered fern five to eight feet high, growing in +vase-shaped clumps where tile ground is nearly level and on some of the +benches of the north wall of the Valley where it is watered by a broad +trickling stream. It thatches the sloping rocks, frond overlapping +frond like roof shingles. The broad-fronded, hardy _Pteris aquilina_, +the commonest of ferns, covers large areas on the floor of the Valley. +No other fern does so much for the color glory of autumn, with its +browns and reds and yellows, even after lying dead beneath the snow all +winter. It spreads a rich brown mantle over the desolate ground in the +spring before the grass has sprouted, and at the first touch of +sun-heat its young fronds come rearing up full of faith and hope +through the midst of the last year’s ruins. + +Of the five species of pellæa, _P. Breweri_ is the hardiest as to +enduring high altitudes and stormy weather and at the same time it is +the most fragile of the genus. It grows in dense tufts in the clefts of +storm-beaten rocks, high up on the mountain-side on the very edge of +the fern line. It is a handsome little fern about four or five inches +high, has pale-green pinnate fronds, and shining bronze-colored stalks +about as brittle as glass. Its companions on the lower part of its +range are _Cryptogramma acrostichoides_ and _Phegopteris alpestris_, +the latter with soft, delicate fronds, not in the least like those of +Rock fern, though it grows on the rocks where the snow lies longest. +_Pellaea Bridgesii_, with blue-green, narrow, simply-pinnate fronds, is +about the same size as Breweri and ranks next to it as a mountaineer, +growing in fissures, wet or dry, and around the edges of boulders that +are resting on glacier pavements with no fissures whatever. About a +thousand feet lower we find the smaller, more abundant _P. densa_ on +ledges and boulder-strewn, fissured pavements, watered until late in +summer from oozing currents, derived from lingering snowbanks. It is, +or rather was, extremely abundant between the foot of the Nevada and +the head of the Vernal Fall, but visitors with great industry have dug +out almost every root, so that now one has to scramble in +out-of-the-way places to find it. The three species of Cheilanthes in +the Valley—_C. californica_, _C. gracillima_, and _myriophylla_, with +beautiful two-to-four-pinnate fronds, an inch to five inches long, +adorn the stupendous walls however dry and sheer. The exceedingly +delicate californica is so rare that I have found it only once. The +others are abundant and are sometimes accompanied by the little gold +fern, _Gymnogramme triangularis_, and rarely by the curious little +_Botrychium simplex_, some of them less than an inch high. The finest +of all the rock ferns is _Adiantum pedatum_, lover of waterfalls and +the finest spray-dust. The homes it loves best are over-leaning, +cave-like hollows, beside the larger falls, where it can wet its +fingers with their dewy spray. Many of these moss-lined chambers +contain thousands of these delightful ferns, clinging to mossy walls by +the slightest hold, reaching out their delicate finger-fronds on dark, +shining stalks, sensitive and tremulous, throbbing in unison with every +movement and tone of the falling water, moving each division of the +frond separately at times, as if fingering the music. + +May and June are the main bloom-months of the year. Both the flowers +and falls are then at their best. By the first of August the midsummer +glories of the Valley are past their prime. The young birds are then +out of their nests. Most of the plants have gone to seed; berries are +ripe; autumn tints begin to kindle and burn over meadow and grove, and +a soft mellow haze in the morning sunbeams heralds the approach of +Indian summer. The shallow river is now at rest, its flood-work done. +It is now but little more than a series of pools united by trickling, +whispering currents that steal softly over brown pebbles and sand with +scarce an audible murmur. Each pool has a character of its own and, +though they are nearly currentless, the night air and tree shadows keep +them cool. Their shores curve in and out in bay and promontory, giving +the appearance of miniature lakes, their banks in most places embossed +with brier and azalea, sedge and grass and fern; and above these in +their glory of autumn colors a mingled growth of alder, willow, dogwood +and balm-of-Gilead; mellow sunshine overhead, cool shadows beneath; +light filtered and strained in passing through the ripe leaves like +that which passes through colored windows. The surface of the water is +stirred, perhaps, by whirling water-beetles, or some startled trout, +seeking shelter beneath fallen logs or roots. The falls, too, are +quiet; no wind stirs, and the whole Valley floor is a mosaic of greens +and purples, yellows and reds. Even the rocks seem strangely soft and +mellow, as if they, too, had ripened. + + + +Chapter 9 +The Birds + + +The songs of the Yosemite winds and waterfalls are delightfully +enriched with bird song, especially in the nesting time of spring and +early summer. The most familiar and best known of all is the common +robin, who may be seen every day, hopping about briskly on the meadows +and uttering his cheery, enlivening call. The black-headed grosbeak, +too, is here, with the Bullock oriole, and western tanager, brown +song-sparrow, hermit thrush, the purple finch,—a fine singer, with head +and throat of a rosy-red hue,—several species of warblers and vireos, +kinglets, flycatchers, etc. + +But the most wonderful singer of all the birds is the water-ouzel that +dives into foaming rapids and feeds at the bottom, holding on in a +wonderful way, living a charmed life. + +Several species of humming-birds are always to be seen, darting and +buzzing among the showy flowers. The little red-bellied nuthatches, the +chickadees, and little brown creepers, threading the furrows of the +bark of the pines, searching for food in the crevices. The large +Steller’s jay makes merry in the pine-tops; flocks of beautiful green +swallows skim over the streams, and the noisy Clarke’s crow may +oftentimes be seen on the highest points around the Valley; and in the +deep woods beyond the walls you may frequently hear and see the dusky +grouse and the pileated woodpecker, or woodcock almost as large as a +pigeon. The junco or snow-bird builds its nest on the floor of the +Valley among the ferns; several species of sparrow are common and the +beautiful lazuli bunting, a common bird in the underbrush, flitting +about among the azalea and ceanothus bushes and enlivening the groves +with his brilliant color; and on gravelly bars the spotted sandpiper is +sometimes seen. Many woodpeckers dwell in the Valley; the familiar +flicker, the Harris woodpecker and the species which so busily stores +up acorns in the thick bark of the yellow pines. + +The short, cold days of winter are also sweetened with the music and +hopeful chatter of a considerable number of birds. No cheerier choir +ever sang in snow. First and best of all is the water-ouzel, a dainty, +dusky little bird about the size of a robin, that sings in sweet fluty +song all winter and all summer, in storms and calms, sunshine and +shadow, haunting the rapids and waterfalls with marvelous constancy, +building his nest in the cleft of a rock bathed in spray. He is not +web-footed, yet he dives fearlessly into foaming rapids, seeming to +take the greater delight the more boisterous the stream, always as +cheerful and calm as any linnet in a grove. All his gestures as he +flits about amid the loud uproar of the falls bespeak the utmost +simplicity and confidence—bird and stream one and inseparable. What a +pair! yet they are well related. A finer bloom than the foam bell in an +eddying pool is this little bird. We may miss the meaning of the +loud-resounding torrent, but the flute-like voice of the bird—only love +is in it. + +A few robins, belated on their way down from the upper Meadows, linger +in the Valley and make out to spend the winter in comparative comfort, +feeding on the mistletoe berries that grow on the oaks. In the depths +of the great forests, on the high meadows, in the severest altitudes, +they seem as much at home as in the fields and orchards about the busy +habitations of man, ascending the Sierra as the snow melts, following +the green footsteps of Spring, until in July or August the highest +glacier meadows are reached on the summit of the Range. Then, after the +short summer is over, and their work in cheering and sweetening these +lofty wilds is done, they gradually make their way down again in accord +with the weather, keeping below the snow-storms, lingering here and +there to feed on huckleberries and frost-nipped wild cherries growing +on the upper slopes. Thence down to the vineyards and orchards of the +lowlands to spend the winter; entering the gardens of the great towns +as well as parks and fields, where the blessed wanderers are too often +slaughtered for food—surely a bad use to put so fine a musician to; +better make stove wood of pianos to feed the kitchen fire. + +The kingfisher winters in the Valley, and the flicker and, of course, +the carpenter woodpecker, that lays up large stores of acorns in the +bark of trees; wrens also, with a few brown and gray linnets, and +flocks of the arctic bluebird, making lively pictures among the +snow-laden mistletoe bushes. Flocks of pigeons are often seen, and +about six species of ducks, as the river is never wholly frozen over. +Among these are the mallard and the beautiful woodduck, now less common +on account of being so often shot at. Flocks of wandering geese used to +visit the Valley in March and April, and perhaps do so still, driven +down by hunger or stress of weather while on their way across the +Range. When pursued by the hunters I have frequently seen them try to +fly over the walls of Lee Valley until tired out and compelled to +re-alight. Yosemite magnitudes seem to be as deceptive to geese as to +men, for after circling to a considerable height and forming regular +harrow-shaped ranks they would suddenly find themselves in danger of +being dashed against the face of the cliff, much nearer the bottom than +the top. Then turning in confusion with loud screams they would try +again and again until exhausted and compelled to descend. I have +occasionally observed large flocks on their travels crossing the +summits of the Range at a height of 12,000 to 13,000 feet above the +level of the sea, and even in so rare an atmosphere as this they seemed +to be sustaining themselves without extra effort. Strong, however, as +they are of wind and wing, they cannot fly over Yosemite walls, +starting from the bottom. + +A pair of golden eagles have lived in the Valley ever since I first +visited it, hunting all winter along the northern cliffs and down the +river cañon. Their nest is on a ledge of the cliff over which pours the +Nevada Fall. Perched on the top of a dead spar, they were always +interested observers of the geese when they were being shot at. I once +noticed one of the geese compelled to leave the flock on account of +being sorely wounded, although it still seemed to fly pretty well. +Immediately the eagles pursued it and no doubt struck it down, although +I did not see the result of the hunt. Anyhow, it flew past me up the +Valley, closely pursued. + +One wild, stormy winter morning after five feet of snow had fallen on +the floor of the Valley and the flying flakes driven by a strong wind +still thickened the air, making darkness like the approach of night, I +sallied forth to see what I might learn and enjoy. It was impossible to +go very far without the aid of snow-shoes, but I found no great +difficulty in making my way to a part of the river where one of my +ouzels lived. I found him at home busy about his breakfast, apparently +unaware of anything uncomfortable in the weather. Presently he flew out +to a stone against which the icy current was beating, and turning his +back to the wind, sang as delightfully as a lark in springtime. + +After spending an hour or two with my favorite, I made my way across +the Valley, boring and wallowing through the loose snow, to learn as +much as possible about the way the other birds were spending their +time. In winter one can always find them because they are then +restricted to the north side of the Valley, especially the Indian Cañon +groves, which from their peculiar exposure are the warmest. + +I found most of the robins cowering on the lee side of the larger +branches of the trees, where the snow could not fall on them, while two +or three of the more venturesome were making desperate efforts to get +at the mistletoe berries by clinging to the underside of the +snow-crowned masses, back downward, something like woodpeckers. Every +now and then some of the loose snow was dislodged and sifted down on +the hungry birds, sending them screaming back to their companions in +the grove, shivering and muttering like cold, hungry children. + +Some of the sparrows were busy scratching and pecking at the feet of +the larger trees where the snow had been shed off, gleaning seeds and +benumbed insects, joined now and then by a robin weary of his +unsuccessful efforts to get at the snow-covered mistletoe berries. The +brave woodpeckers were clinging to the snowless sides of the larger +boles and overarching branches of the camp trees, making short flights +from side to side of the grove, pecking now and then at the acorns they +had stored in the bark, and chattering aimlessly as if unable to keep +still, evidently putting in the time in a very dull way. The hardy +nuthatches were threading the open furrows of the barks in their usual +industrious manner and uttering their quaint notes, giving no evidence +of distress. The Steller’s jays were, of course, making more noise and +stir than all the other birds combined; ever coming and going with loud +bluster, screaming as if each had a lump of melting sludge in his +throat, and taking good care to improve every opportunity afforded by +the darkness and confusion of the storm to steal from the acorn stores +of the woodpeckers. One of the golden eagles made an impressive picture +as he stood bolt upright on the top of a tall pine-stump, braving the +storm, with his back to the wind and a tuft of snow piled on his broad +shoulders, a monument of passive endurance. Thus every storm-bound bird +seemed more or less uncomfortable, if not in distress. The storm was +reflected in every gesture, and not one cheerful note, not to say song, +came from a single bill. Their cowering, joyless endurance offered +striking contrasts to the spontaneous, irrepressible gladness of the +ouzel, who could no more help giving out sweet song than a rose sweet +fragrance. He must sing, though the heavens fall. + + + +Chapter 10 +The South Dome + + +With the exception of a few spires and pinnacles, the South Dome is the +only rock about the Valley that is strictly inaccessible without +artificial means, and its inaccessibility is expressed in severe terms. +Nevertheless many a mountaineer, gazing admiringly, tried hard to +invent a way to the top of its noble crown—all in vain, until in the +year 1875, George Anderson, an indomitable Scotchman, undertook the +adventure. The side facing Tenaya Cañon is an absolutely vertical +precipice from the summit to a depth of about 1600 feet, and on the +opposite side it is nearly vertical for about as great a depth. The +southwest side presents a very steep and finely drawn curve from the +top down a thousand feet or more, while on the northeast, where it is +united with the Clouds’ Rest Ridge, one may easily reach a point called +the Saddle, about seven hundred feet below the summit. From the Saddle +the Dome rises in a graceful curve a few degrees too steep for unaided +climbing, besides being defended by overleaning ends of the concentric +dome layers of the granite. + +A year or two before Anderson gained the summit, John Conway, the +master trail-builder of the Valley, and his little sons, who climbed +smooth rocks like lizards, made a bold effort to reach the top by +climbing barefooted up the grand curve with a rope which they fastened +at irregular intervals by means of eye-bolts driven into joints of the +rock. But finding that the upper part would require laborious drilling, +they abandoned the attempt, glad to escape from the dangerous position +they had reached, some 300 feet above the Saddle. Anderson began with +Conway’s old rope, which had been left in place, and resolutely drilled +his way to the top, inserting eye-bolts five to six feet apart, and +making his rope fast to each in succession, resting his feet on the +last bolt while he drilled a hole for the next above. Occasionally some +irregularity in the curve, or slight foothold, would enable him to +climb a few feet without a rope, which he would pass and begin drilling +again, and thus the whole work was accomplished in a few days. From +this slender beginning he proposed to construct a substantial stairway +which he hoped to complete in time for the next year’s travel, but +while busy getting out timber for his stairway and dreaming of the +wealth he hoped to gain from tolls, he was taken sick and died all +alone in his little cabin. + +On the 10th of November, after returning from a visit to Mount Shasta, +a month or two after Anderson had gained the summit, I made haste to +the Dome, not only for the pleasure of climbing, but to see what I +might learn. The first winter storm-clouds had blossomed and the +mountains and all the high points about the Valley were mantled in +fresh snow. I was, therefore, a little apprehensive of danger from the +slipperiness of the rope and the rock. Anderson himself tried to +prevent me from making the attempt, refusing to believe that any one +could climb his rope in the now-muffled condition in which it then was. +Moreover, the sky was overcast and solemn snow-clouds began to curl +around the summit, and my late experiences on icy Shasta came to mind. +But reflecting that I had matches in my pocket, and that a little +firewood might be found, I concluded that in case of a storm the night +could be spent on the Dome without suffering anything worth minding, no +matter what the clouds might bring forth. I therefore pushed on and +gained the top. + +It was one of those brooding, changeful days that come between Indian +summer and winter, when the leaf colors have grown dim and the clouds +come and go among the cliffs like living creatures looking for work: +now hovering aloft, now caressing rugged rock-brows with great +gentleness, or, wandering afar over the tops of the forests, touching +the spires of fir and pine with their soft silken fringes as if trying +to tell the glad news of the coming of snow. + +The first view was perfectly glorious. A massive cloud of pure pearl +luster, apparently as fixed and calm as the meadows and groves in the +shadow beneath it, was arched across the Valley from wall to wall, one +end resting on the grand abutment of El Capitan, the other on Cathedral +Rock. A little later, as I stood on the tremendous verge overlooking +Mirror Lake, a flock of smaller clouds, white as snow, came from the +north, trailing their downy skirts over the dark forests, and entered +the Valley with solemn god-like gestures through Indian Cañon and over +the North Dome and Royal Arches, moving swiftly, yet with majestic +deliberation. On they came, nearer and nearer, gathering and massing +beneath my feet and filling the Tenaya Cañon. Then the sun shone free, +lighting the pearly gray surface of the cloud-like sea and making it +glow. Gazing, admiring, I was startled to see for the first time the +rare optical phenomenon of the “Specter of the Brocken.” My shadow, +clearly outlined, about half a mile long, lay upon this glorious white +surface with startling effect. I walked back and forth, waved my arms +and struck all sorts of attitudes, to see every slightest movement +enormously exaggerated. Considering that I have looked down so many +times from mountain tops on seas of all sorts of clouds, it seems +strange that I should have seen the “Brocken Specter” only this once. A +grander surface and a grander stand-point, however, could hardly have +been found in all the Sierra. + +After this grand show the cloud-sea rose higher, wreathing the Dome, +and for a short time submerging it, making darkness like night, and I +began to think of looking for a camp ground in a cluster of dwarf +pines. But soon the sun shone free again, the clouds, sinking lower and +lower, gradually vanished, leaving the Valley with its Indian-summer +colors apparently refreshed, while to the eastward the summit-peaks, +clad in new snow, towered along the horizon in glorious array. + +Though apparently it is perfectly bald, there are four clumps of pines +growing on the summit, representing three species, Pinus albicaulis, P. +contorta and P. ponderosa, var. Jeffreyi—all three, of course, +repressed and storm-beaten. The alpine spiræa grows here also and +blossoms profusely with potentilla, erigeron, eriogonum, pentstemon, +solidago, and an interesting species of onion, and four or five species +of grasses and sedges. None of these differs in any respect from those +of other summits of the same height, excepting the curious little +narrow-leaved, waxen-bulbed onion, which I had not seen elsewhere. + +Notwithstanding the enthusiastic eagerness of tourists to reach the +crown of the Dome the views of the Valley from this lofty standpoint +are less striking than from many other points comparatively low, +chiefly on account of the foreshortening effect produced by looking +down from so great a height. The North Dome is dwarfed almost beyond +recognition, the grand sculpture of the Royal Arches is scarcely +noticeable, and the whole range of walls on both sides seem +comparatively low, especially when the Valley is flooded with noon +sunshine; while the Dome itself, the most sublime feature of all the +Yosemite views, is out of sight beneath one’s feet. The view of Little +Yosemite Valley is very fine, though inferior to one obtained from the +base of the Starr King Cone, but the summit landscapes towards Mounts +Ritter, Lyell, Dana, Conness, and the Merced Group, are very effective +and complete. + +No one has attempted to carry out Anderson’s plan of making the Dome +accessible. For my part I should prefer leaving it in pure wildness, +though, after all, no great damage could be done by tramping over it. +The surface would be strewn with tin cans and bottles, but the winter +gales would blow the rubbish away. Avalanches might strip off any sort +of stairway or ladder that might be built. Blue jays and Clark’s crows +have trodden the Dome for many a day, and so have beetles and +chipmunks, and Tissiack would hardly be more “conquered” or spoiled +should man be added to her list of visitors. His louder scream and +heavier scrambling would not stir a line of her countenance. + +When the sublime ice-floods of the glacial period poured down the flank +of the Range over what is now Yosemite Valley, they were compelled to +break through a dam of domes extending across from Mount Starr King to +North Dome; and as the period began to draw near a close the shallowing +ice-currents were divided and the South Dome was, perhaps, the first to +emerge, burnished and shining like a mirror above the surface of the +icy sea; and though it has sustained the wear and tear of the elements +tens of thousands of years, it yet remains a telling monument of the +action of the great glaciers that brought it to light. Its entire +surface is still covered with glacial hieroglyphics whose +interpretation is the reward of all who devoutly study them. + + + +Chapter 11 +The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: +How the Valley Was Formed + + +All California has been glaciated, the low plains and valleys as well +as the mountains. Traces of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in +thickness, beneath whose heavy folds the present landscapes have been +molded, may be found everywhere, though glaciers now exist only among +the peaks of the High Sierra. No other mountain chain on this or any +other of the continents that I have seen is so rich as the Sierra in +bold, striking, well-preserved glacial monuments. Indeed, every feature +is more or less tellingly glacial. Not a peak, ridge, dome, cañon, +yosemite, lake-basin, stream or forest will you see that does not in +some way explain the past existence and modes of action of flowing, +grinding, sculpturing, soil-making, scenery-making ice. For, +notwithstanding the post-glacial agents—the air, rain, snow, frost, +river, avalanche, etc.—have been at work upon the greater portion of +the Range for tens of thousands of stormy years, each engraving its own +characters more and more deeply over those of the ice, the latter are +so enduring and so heavily emphasized, they still rise in sublime +relief, clear and legible, through every after-inscription. The +landscapes of North Greenland, Antarctica, and some of those of our own +Alaska, are still being fashioned beneath a slow-crawling mantle of +ice, from a quarter of a mile to probably more than a mile in +thickness, presenting noble illustrations of the ancient condition of +California, when its sublime scenery lay hidden in process of +formation. On the Himalaya, the mountains of Norway and Switzerland, +the Caucasus, and on most of those of Alaska, their ice-mantle has been +melted down into separate glaciers that flow river-like through the +valleys, illustrating a similar past condition in the Sierra, when +every cañon and valley was the channel of an ice-stream, all of which +may be easily traced back to their fountains, where some sixty-five or +seventy of their topmost residual branches still linger beneath +protecting mountain shadows. + +The change from one to another of those glacial conditions was slow as +we count time. When the great cycle of snow years, called the Glacial +Period, was nearly complete in California, the ice-mantle, wasting from +season to season faster than it was renewed, began to withdraw from the +lowlands and gradually became shallower everywhere. Then the highest of +the Sierra domes and dividing ridges, containing distinct glaciers +between them, began to appear above the icy sea. These first river-like +glaciers remained united in one continuous sheet toward the summit of +the Range for many centuries. But as the snow-fall diminished, and the +climate became milder, this upper part of the ice-sheet was also in +turn separated into smaller distinct glaciers, and these again into +still smaller ones, while at the same time all were growing shorter and +shallower, though fluctuations of the climate now and then occurred +that brought their receding ends to a standstill, or even enabled them +to advance for a few tens or hundreds of years. + +Meanwhile, hardy, home-seeking plants and animals, after long waiting, +flocked to their appointed places, pushing bravely on higher and +higher, along every sun-warmed slope, closely following the retreating +ice, which, like shreds of summer clouds, at length vanished from the +new-born mountains, leaving them in all their main, telling features +nearly as we find them now. + +Tracing the ways of glaciers, learning how Nature sculptures +mountain-waves in making scenery-beauty that so mysteriously influences +every human being, is glorious work. + +The most striking and attractive of the glacial phenomena in the upper +Yosemite region are the polished glacier pavements, because they are so +beautiful, and their beauty is of so rare a kind, so unlike any portion +of the loose, deeply weathered lowlands where people make homes and +earn their bread. They are simply flat or gently undulating areas of +hard resisting granite, which present the unchanged surface upon which +with enormous pressure the ancient glaciers flowed. They are found in +most perfect condition in the subalpine region, at an elevation of from +eight thousand to nine thousand feet. Some are miles in extent, only +slightly interrupted by spots that have given way to the weather, while +the best preserved portions reflect the sunbeams like calm water or +glass, and shine as if polished afresh every day, notwithstanding they +have been exposed to corroding rains, dew, frost, and snow measureless +thousands of years. + +The attention of wandering hunters and prospectors, who see so many +mountain wonders, is seldom commanded by other glacial phenomena, +moraines however regular and artificial-looking, cañons however deep or +strangely modeled, rocks however high; but when they come to these +shining pavements they stop and stare in wondering admiration, kneel +again and again to examine the brightest spots, and try hard to account +for their mysterious shining smoothness. They may have seen the winter +avalanches of snow descending in awful majesty through the woods, +scouring the rocks and sweeping away like weeds the trees that stood in +their way, but conclude that this cannot be the work of avalanches, +because the scratches and fine polished strife show that the agent, +whatever it was, moved along the sides of high rocks and ridges and up +over the tops of them as well as down their slopes. Neither can they +see how water may possibly have been the agent, for they find the same +strange polish upon ridges and domes thousands of feet above the reach +of any conceivable flood. Of all the agents of whose work they know +anything, only the wind seems capable of moving across the face of the +country in the directions indicated by the scratches and grooves. The +Indian name of Lake Tenaya is “Pyweak”—the lake of shining rocks. One +of the Yosemite tribe, Indian Tom, came to me and asked if I could tell +him what had made the Tenaya rocks so smooth. Even dogs and horses, +when first led up the mountains, study geology to this extent that they +gaze wonderingly at the strange brightness of the ground and smell it, +and place their feet cautiously upon it as if afraid of falling or +sinking. + +In the production of this admirable hard finish, the glaciers in many +places flowed with a pressure of more than a thousand tons to the +square yard, planing down granite, slate, and quartz alike, and +bringing out the veins and crystals of the rocks with beautiful +distinctness. Over large areas below the sources of the Tuolumne and +Merced the granite is porphyritic; feldspar crystals in inch or two in +length in many places form the greater part of the rock, and these, +when planed off level with the general surface, give rise to a +beautiful mosaic on which the happy sunbeams plash and glow in +passionate enthusiasm. Here lie the brightest of all the Sierra +landscapes. The Range both to the north and south of this region was, +perhaps, glaciated about as heavily, but because the rocks are less +resisting, their polished surfaces have mostly given way to the +weather, leaving only small imperfect patches. The lower remnants of +the old glacial surface occur at an elevation of from 3000 to 5000 feet +above the sea level, and twenty to thirty miles below the axis of the +Range. The short, steeply inclined cañons of the eastern flank also +contain enduring, brilliantly striated and polished rocks, but these +are less magnificent than those of the broad western flank. + +One of the best general views of the brightest and best of the Yosemite +park landscapes that every Yosemite tourist should see, is to be had +from the top of Fairview Dome, a lofty conoidal rock near Cathedral +Peak that long ago I named the Tuolumne Glacier Monument, one of the +most striking and best preserved of the domes. Its burnished crown is +about 1500 feet above the Tuolumne Meadows and 10,000 above the sea. At +first sight it seems inaccessible, though a good climber will find it +may be scaled on the south side. About half-way up you will find it so +steep that there is danger of slipping, but feldspar crystals, two or +three inches long, of which the rock is full, having offered greater +resistance to atmospheric erosion than the mass of the rock in which +they are imbedded, have been brought into slight relief in some places, +roughening the surface here and there, and affording helping footholds. + +The summit is burnished and scored like the sides and base, the +scratches and strife indicating that the mighty Tuolumne Glacier swept +over it as if it were only a mere boulder in the bottom of its channel. +The pressure it withstood must have been enormous. Had it been less +solidly built it would have been carried away, ground into moraine +fragments, like the adjacent rock in which it lay imbedded; for, great +as it is, it is only a hard residual knot like the Yosemite domes, +brought into relief by the removal of less resisting rock about it; an +illustration of the survival of the strongest and most favorably +situated. + +Hardly less wonderful is the resistance it has offered to the trying +mountain weather since first its crown rose above the icy sea. The +whole quantity of post-glacial wear and tear it has suffered has not +degraded it a hundredth of an inch, as may readily be shown by the +polished portions of the surface. A few erratic boulders, nicely poised +on its crown, tell an interesting story. They came from the +summit-peaks twelve miles away, drifting like chips on the frozen sea, +and were stranded here when the top of the monument merged from the +ice, while their companions, whose positions chanced to be above the +slopes of the sides where they could not find rest, were carried +farther on by falling back on the shallowing ice current. + +The general view from the summit consists of a sublime assemblage of +ice-born rocks and mountains, long wavering ridges, meadows, lakes, and +forest-covered moraines, hundreds of square miles of them. The lofty +summit-peaks rise grandly along the sky to the east, the gray pillared +slopes of the Hoffman Range toward the west, and a billowy sea of +shining rocks like the Monument, some of them almost as high and which +from their peculiar sculpture seem to be rolling westward in the middle +ground, something like breaking waves. Immediately beneath you are the +Big Tuolumne Meadows, smooth lawns with large breadths of woods on +either side, and watered by the young Tuolumne River, rushing cool and +clear from its many snow- and ice-fountains. Nearly all the upper part +of the basin of the Tuolumne Glacier is in sight, one of the greatest +and most influential of all the Sierra ice-rivers. Lavishly flooded by +many a noble affluent from the ice-laden flanks of Mounts Dana, Lyell, +McClure, Gibbs, Conness, it poured its majestic outflowing current full +against the end of the Hoffman Range, which divided and deflected it to +right and left, just as a river of water is divided against an island +in the middle of its channel. Two distinct glaciers were thus formed, +one of which flowed through the great Tuolumne Cañon and Hetch Hetchy +Valley, while the other swept upward in a deep current two miles wide +across the divide, five hundred feet high between the basins of the +Tuolumne and Merced, into the Tenaya Basin, and thence down through the +Tenaya Cañon and Yosemite. + +The map-like distinctness and freshness of this glacial landscape +cannot fail to excite the attention of every beholder, no matter how +little of its scientific significance may be recognized. These bald, +westward-leaning rocks, with their rounded backs and shoulders toward +the glacier fountains of the summit-mountains, and their split, angular +fronts looking in the opposite direction, explain the tremendous +grinding force with which the ice-flood passed over them, and also the +direction of its flow. And the mountain peaks around the sides of the +upper general Tuolumne Basin, with their sharp unglaciated summits and +polished rounded sides, indicate the height to which the glaciers rose; +while the numerous moraines, curving and swaying in beautiful lines, +mark the boundaries of the main trunk and its tributaries as they +existed toward the close of the glacial winter. None of the commerical +highways of the land or sea, marked with buoys and lamps, fences, and +guide-boards, is so unmistakably indicated as are these broad, shining +trails of the vanished Tuolumne Glacier and its far-reaching +tributaries. + +I should like now to offer some nearer views of a few characteristic +specimens of these wonderful old ice-streams, though it is not easy to +make a selection from so vast a system intimately inter-blended. The +main branches of the Merced Glacier are, perhaps, best suited to our +purpose, because their basins, full of telling inscriptions, are the +ones most attractive and accessible to the Yosemite visitors who like +to look beyond the valley walls. They number five, and may well be +called Yosemite glaciers, since they were the agents Nature used in +developing and fashioning the grand Valley. The names I have given them +are, beginning with the northern-most, Yosemite Creek, Hoffman, Tenaya, +South Lyell, and Illilouette Glaciers. These all converged in admirable +poise around from northeast to southeast, welded themselves together +into the main Yosemite Glacier, which, grinding gradually deeper, swept +down through the Valley, receiving small tributaries on its way from +the Indian, Sentinel, and Pohono Cañons; and at length flowed out of +the Valley, and on down the Range in a general westerly direction. At +the time that the tributaries mentioned above were well defined as to +their boundaries, the upper portion of the valley walls, and the +highest rocks about them, such as the Domes, the uppermost of the Three +Brothers and the Sentinel, rose above the surface of the ice. But +during the Valley’s earlier history, all its rocks, however lofty, were +buried beneath a continuous sheet, which swept on above and about them +like the wind, the upper portion of the current flowing steadily, while +the lower portion went mazing and swedging down in the crooked and +dome-blocked cañons toward the head of the Valley. + +Every glacier of the Sierra fluctuated in width and depth and length, +and consequently in degree of individuality, down to the latest glacial +days. It must, therefore, be borne in mind that the following +description of the Yosemite glaciers applies only to their separate +condition, and to that phase of their separate condition that they +presented toward the close of the glacial period after most of their +work was finished, and all the more telling features of the Valley and +the adjacent region were brought into relief. + +The comparatively level, many-fountained Yosemite Creek Glacier was +about fourteen miles in length by four or five in width, and from five +hundred to a thousand feet deep. Its principal tributaries, drawing +their sources from the northern spurs of the Hoffman Range, at first +pursued a westerly course; then, uniting with each other, and a series +of short affluents from the western rim of the basin, the trunk thus +formed swept around to the southward in a magnificent curve, and poured +its ice over the north wall of Yosemite in cascades about two miles +wide. This broad and comparatively shallow glacier formed a sort of +crawling, wrinkled ice-cloud, that gradually became more regular in +shape and river-like as it grew older. Encircling peaks began to +overshadow its highest fountains, rock islets rose here and there amid +its ebbing currents, and its picturesque banks, adorned with domes and +round-backed ridges, extended in massive grandeur down to the brink of +the Yosemite walls. + +In the meantime the chief Hoffman tributaries, slowly receding to the +shelter of the shadows covering their fountains, continued to live and +work independently, spreading soil, deepening lake-basins and giving +finishing touches to the sculpture in general. At length these also +vanished, and the whole basin is now full of light. Forests flourish +luxuriantly upon its ample moraines, lakes and meadows shine and bloom +amid its polished domes, and a thousand gardens adorn the banks of its +streams. + +It is to the great width and even slope of the Yosemite Creek Glacier +that we owe the unrivaled height and sheerness of the Yosemite Falls. +For had the positions of the ice-fountains and the structure of the +rocks been such as to cause down-thrusting concentration of the Glacier +as it approached the Valley, then, instead of a high vertical fall we +should have had a long slanting cascade, which after all would perhaps +have been as beautiful and interesting, if we only had a mind to see it +so. + +The short, comparatively swift-flowing Hoffman Glacier, whose fountains +extend along the south slopes of the Hoffman Range, offered a striking +contrast to the one just described. The erosive energy of the latter +was diffused over a wide field of sunken, boulder-like domes and +ridges. The Hoffman Glacier, on the contrary moved right ahead on a +comparatively even surface, making descent of nearly five thousand feet +in five miles, steadily contracting and deepening its current, and +finally united with the Tenaya Glacier as one of its most influential +tributaries in the development and sculpture of the great Half Dome, +North Dome and the rocks adjacent to them about the head of the Valley. + +The story of its death is not unlike that of its companion already +described, though the declivity of its channel, and its uniform +exposure to sun-heat prevented any considerable portion of its current +from becoming torpid, lingering only well up on the Mountain slopes to +finish their sculpture and encircle them with a zone of moraine soil +for forests and gardens. Nowhere in all this wonderful region will you +find more beautiful trees and shrubs and flowers covering the traces of +ice. + +The rugged Tenaya Glacier wildly crevassed here and there above the +ridges it had to cross, instead of drawing its sources direct from the +summit of the Range, formed, as we have seen, one of the outlets of the +great Tuolumne Glacier, issuing from this noble fountain like a river +from a lake, two miles wide, about fourteen miles long, and from 1500 +to 2000 feet deep. + +In leaving the Tuolumne region it crossed over the divide, as mentioned +above, between the Tuolumne and Tenaya basins, making an ascent of five +hundred feet. Hence, after contracting its wide current and receiving a +strong affluent from the fountains about Cathedral Peak, it poured its +massive flood over the northeastern rim of its basin in splendid +cascades. Then, crushing heavily against the Clouds’ Rest Ridge, it +bore down upon the Yosemite domes with concentrated energy. + +Toward the end of the ice period, while its Hoffman companion continued +to grind rock-meal for coming plants, the main trunk became torpid, and +vanished, exposing wide areas of rolling rock-waves and glistening +pavements, on whose channelless surface water ran wild and free. And +because the trunk vanished almost simultaneously throughout its whole +extent, no terminal moraines are found in its cañon channel; nor, since +its walls are, in most places, too steeply inclined to admit of the +deposition of moraine matter, do we find much of the two main laterals. +The lowest of its residual glaciers lingered beneath the shadow of the +Yosemite Half Dome; others along the base of Coliseum Peak above Lake +Tenaya and along the precipitous wall extending from the lake to the +Big Tuolumne Meadows. The latter, on account of the uniformity and +continuity of their protecting shadows, formed moraines of considerable +length and regularity that are liable to be mistaken for portions of +the left lateral of the Tuolumne tributary glacier. + +Spend all the time you can spare or steal on the tracks of this grand +old glacier, charmed and enchanted by its magnificent cañon, lakes and +cascades and resplendent glacier pavements. + +The Nevada Glacier was longer and more symmetrical than the last, and +the only one of the Merced system whose sources extended directly back +to the main summits on the axis of the Range. Its numerous fountains +were ranged side by side in three series, at an elevation of from +10,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea. The first, on the right side of +the basin, extended from the Matterhorn to Cathedral Peak; that on the +left through the Merced group, and these two parallel series were +united by a third that extended around the head of the basin in a +direction at right angles to the others. + +The three ranges of high peaks and ridges that supplied the snow for +these fountains, together with the Clouds’ Rest Ridge, nearly inclose a +rectangular basin, that was filled with a massive sea of ice, leaving +an outlet toward the west through which flowed the main trunk glacier, +three-fourths of a mile to a mile and a half wide, fifteen miles long, +and from 1000 to 1500 feet deep, and entered Yosemite between the Half +Dome and Mount Starr King. + +Could we have visited Yosemite Valley at this period of its history, we +should have found its ice cascades vastly more glorious than their tiny +water representatives of the present day. One of the grandest of these +was formed by that portion of the Nevada Glacier that poured over the +shoulder of the Half Dome. + +This glacier, as a whole, resembled an oak, with a gnarled swelling +base and wide-spreading branches. Picturesque rocks of every +conceivable form adorned its banks, among which glided the numerous +tributaries, mottled with black and red and gray boulders, from the +fountain peaks, while ever and anon, as the deliberate centuries passed +away, dome after dome raised its burnished crown above the ice-flood to +enrich the slowly opening landscapes. + +The principal moraines occur in short irregular sections along the +sides of the cañons, their fragmentary condition being due to +interruptions caused by portions of the sides of the cañon walls being +too steep for moraine matter to lie on, and to down-sweeping torrents +and avalanches. The left lateral of the trunk may be traced about five +miles from the mouth of the first main tributary to the Illilouette +Cañon. The corresponding section of the right lateral, extending from +Cathedral tributary to the Half Dome, is more complete because of the +more favorable character of the north side of the cañon. A short +side-glacier came in against it from the slopes of Clouds’ Rest; but +being fully exposed to the sun, it was melted long before the main +trunk, allowing the latter to deposit this portion of its moraine +undisturbed. Some conception of the size and appearance of this fine +moraine may be gained by following the Clouds’ Rest trail from +Yosemite, which crosses it obliquely and conducts past several sections +made by streams. Slate boulders may be seen that must have come from +the Lyell group, twelve miles distant. But the bulk of the moraine is +composed of porphyritic granite derived from Feldspar and Cathedral +Valleys. + +On the sides of the moraines we find a series of terraces, indicating +fluctuations in the level of the glacier, caused by variations of +snow-fall, temperature, etc., showing that the climate of the glacial +period was diversified by cycles of milder or stormier seasons similar +to those of post-glacial time. + +After the depth of the main trunk diminished to about five hundred +feet, the greater portion became torpid, as is shown by the moraines, +and lay dying in its crooked channel like a wounded snake, maintaining +for a time a feeble squirming motion in places of exceptional depth, or +where the bottom of the cañon was more steeply inclined. The numerous +fountain-wombs, however, continued fruitful long after the trunk had +vanished, giving rise to an imposing array of short residual glaciers, +extending around the rim of the general basin a distance of nearly +twenty-four miles. Most of these have but recently succumbed to the new +climate, dying in turn as determined by elevation, size, and exposure, +leaving only a few feeble survivors beneath the coolest shadows, which +are now slowly completing the sculpture of one of the noblest of the +Yosemite basins. + +The comparatively shallow glacier that at this time filled the +Illilouette Basin, though once far from shallow, more resembled a lake +than a river of ice, being nearly half as wide as it was long. Its +greatest length was about ten miles, and its depth perhaps nowhere much +exceeded 1000 feet. Its chief fountains, ranged along the west side of +the Merced group, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, gave birth to +fine tributaries that flowed in a westerly direction, and united in the +center of the basin. The broad trunk at first poured northwestward, +then curved to the northward, deflected by the lofty wall forming its +western bank, and finally united with the grand Yosemite trunk, +opposite Glacier Point. + +All the phenomena relating to glacial action in this basin are +remarkably simple and orderly, on account of the sheltered positions +occupied by its ice-fountains, with reference to the disturbing effects +of larger glaciers from the axis of the main Range earlier in the +period. From the eastern base of the Starr King cone you may obtain a +fine view of the principal moraines sweeping grandly out into the +middle of the basin from the shoulders of the peaks, between which the +ice-fountains lay. The right lateral of the tributary, which took its +rise between Red and Merced Mountains, measures two hundred and fifty +feet in height at its upper extremity, and displays three well-defined +terraces, similar to those of the south Lyell Glacier. The comparative +smoothness of the upper-most terrace shows that it is considerably more +ancient than the others, many of the boulders of which it is composed +having crumbled. A few miles to the westward, this moraine has an +average slope of twenty-seven degrees, and an elevation above the +bottom of the channel of six hundred and sixty feet. Near the middle of +the main basin, just where the regularly formed medial and lateral +moraines flatten out and disappear, there is a remarkably smooth field +of gravel, planted with arctostaphylos, that looks at the distance of a +mile like a delightful meadow. Stream sections show the gravel deposit +to be composed of the same material as the moraines, but finer, and +more water-worn from the action of converging torrents issuing from the +tributary glaciers after the trunk was melted. The southern boundary of +the basin is a strikingly perfect wall, gray on the top, and white down +the sides and at the base with snow, in which many a crystal brook +takes rise. The northern boundary is made up of smooth undulating +masses of gray granite, that lift here and there into beautiful domes +of which the Starr King cluster is the finest, while on the east tower +of the majestic fountain-peaks with wide cañons and neve amphitheaters +between them, whose variegated rocks show out gloriously against the +sky. + +The ice-plows of this charming basin, ranged side by side in orderly +gangs, furrowed the rocks with admirable uniformity, producing +irrigating channels for a brood of wild streams, and abundance of rich +soil adapted to every requirement of garden and grove. No other section +of the Yosemite uplands is in so perfect a state of glacial +cultivation. Its domes and peaks, and swelling rock-waves, however +majestic in themselves, and yet submissively subordinate to the garden +center. The other basins we have been describing are combinations of +sculptured rocks, embellished with gardens and groves; the Illilouette +is one grand garden and forest, embellished with rocks, each of the +five beautiful in its own way, and all as harmoniously related as are +the five petals of a flower. After uniting in the Yosemite Valley, and +expending the down-thrusting energy derived from their combined weight +and the declivity of their channels, the grand trunk flowed on through +and out of the Valley. In effecting its exit a considerable ascent was +made, traces of which may still be seen on the abraded rocks at the +lower end of the Valley, while the direction pursued after leaving the +Valley is surely indicated by the immense lateral moraines extending +from the ends of the walls at an elevation of from 1500 to 1800 feet. +The right lateral moraine was disturbed by a large tributary glacier +that occupied the basin of Cascade Creek, causing considerable +complication in its structure. The left is simple in form for several +miles of its length, or to the point where a tributary came in from the +southeast. But both are greatly obscured by the forests and underbrush +growing upon them, and by the denuding action of rains and melting +snows, etc. It is, therefore, the less to be wondered at that these +moraines, made up of material derived from the distant +fountain-mountains, and from the Valley itself, were not sooner +recognized. + +The ancient glacier systems of the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Kern, and +Kings River Basins were developed on a still grander scale and are so +replete with interest that the most sketchy outline descriptions of +each, with the works they have accomplished would fill many a volume. +Therefore I can do but little more than invite everybody who is free to +go and see for himself. + +The action of flowing ice, whether in the form of river-like glaciers +or broad mantles, especially the part it played in sculpturing the +earth, is as yet but little understood. Water rivers work openly where +people dwell, and so does the rain, and the sea, thundering on all the +shores of the world; and the universal ocean of air, though invisible, +speaks aloud in a thousand voices, and explains its modes of working +and its power. But glaciers, back in their white solitudes, work apart +from men, exerting their tremendous energies in silence and darkness. +Outspread, spirit-like, they brood above the predestined landscapes, +work on unwearied through immeasurable ages, until, in the fullness of +time, the mountains and valleys are brought forth, channels furrowed +for rivers, basins made for lakes and meadows, and arms of the sea, +soils spread for forests and fields; then they shrink and vanish like +summer clouds. + + + +Chapter 12 +How Best to Spend One’s Yosemite Time + +One-Day Excursions +No. 1. + +If I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite I +should start at daybreak, say at three o’clock in midsummer, with a +pocketful of any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point, +Sentinel Dome, the head of Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, the top of +Liberty Cap, Vernal Fall and the wild boulder-choked River Cañon. The +trail leaves the Valley at the base of the Sentinel Rock, and as you +slowly saunter from point to point along its many accommodating zigzags +nearly all the Valley rocks and falls are seen in striking, +ever-changing combinations. At an elevation of about five hundred feet +a particularly fine, wide-sweeping view down the Valley is obtained, +past the sheer face of the Sentinel and between the Cathedral Rocks and +El Capitan. At a height of about 1500 feet the great Half Dome comes +full in sight, overshadowing every other feature of the Valley to the +eastward. From Glacier Point you look down 3000 feet over the edge of +its sheer face to the meadows and groves and innumerable yellow pine +spires, with the meandering river sparkling and spangling through the +midst of them. Across the Valley a great telling view is presented of +the Royal Arches, North Dome, Indian Cañon, Three Brothers and El +Capitan, with the dome-paved basin of Yosemite Creek and Mount Hoffman +in the background. To the eastward, the Half Dome close beside you +looking higher and more wonderful than ever; southeastward the Starr +King, girdled with silver firs, and the spacious garden-like basin of +the Illilouette and its deeply sculptured fountain-peaks, called “The +Merced Group”; and beyond all, marshaled along the eastern horizon, the +icy summits on the axis of the Range and broad swaths of forests +growing on ancient moraines, while the Nevada, Vernal and Yosemite +Falls are not only full in sight but are distinctly heard as if one +were standing beside them in their spray. + +The views from the summit of Sentinel Dome are still more extensive and +telling. Eastward the crowds of peaks at the head of the Merced, +Tuolumne and San Joaquin Rivers are presented in bewildering array; +westward, the vast forests, yellow foothills and the broad San Joaquin +plains and the Coast Ranges, hazy and dim in the distance. + +From Glacier Point go down the trail into the lower end of the +Illilouette basin, cross Illilouette Creek and follow it to the Fall +where from an outjutting rock at its head you will get a fine view of +its rejoicing waters and wild cañon and the Half Dome. Thence returning +to the trail, follow it to the head of the Nevada Fall. Linger here an +hour or two, for not only have you glorious views of the wonderful +fall, but of its wild, leaping, exulting rapids and, greater than all, +the stupendous scenery into the heart of which the white passionate +river goes wildly thundering, surpassing everything of its kind in the +world. After an unmeasured hour or so of this glory, all your body +aglow, nerve currents flashing through you never before felt, go to the +top of the Liberty Cap, only a glad saunter now that your legs as well +as head and heart are awake and rejoicing with everything. The Liberty +Cap, a companion of the Half Dome, is sheer and inaccessible on three +of its sides but on the east a gentle, ice-burnished, juniper-dotted +slope extends to the summit where other wonderful views are displayed +where all are wonderful: the south side and shoulders of Half Dome and +Clouds’ Rest, the beautiful Little Yosemite Valley and its many domes, +the Starr King cluster of domes, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, and, +perhaps the most tremendously impressive of all, the views of the +hopper-shaped cañon of the river from the head of the Nevada Fall to +the head of the Valley. + +Returning to the trail you descend between the Nevada Fall and the +Liberty Cap with fine side views of both the fall and the rock, pass on +through clouds of spray and along the rapids to the head of the Vernal +Fall, about a mile below the Nevada. Linger here if night is still +distant, for views of this favorite fall and the stupendous rock +scenery about it. Then descend a stairway by its side, follow a dim +trail through its spray, and a plain one along the border of the +boulder-dashed rapids and so back to the wide, tranquil Valley. + +One-Day Excursions +No. 2. + +Another grand one-day excursion is to the Upper Yosemite Fall, the top +of the highest of the Three Brothers, called Eagle Peak on the +Geological Survey maps; the brow of El Capitan; the head of the Ribbon +Fall; across the beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin; and back to the Valley +by the Big Oak Flat wagon-road. + +The trail leaves the Valley on the east side of the largest of the +earthquake taluses immediately opposite the Sentinel Rock and as it +passes within a few rods of the foot of the great fall, magnificent +views are obtained as you approach it and pass through its spray, +though when the snow is melting fast you will be well drenched. From +the foot of the Fall the trail zigzags up a narrow cañon between the +fall and a plain mural cliff that is burnished here and there by +glacial action. + +You should stop a while on a flat iron-fenced rock a little below the +head of the fall beside the enthusiastic throng of starry comet-like +waters to learn something of their strength, their marvelous variety of +forms, and above all, their glorious music, gathered and composed from +the snow-storms, hail-, rain- and wind-storms that have fallen on their +glacier-sculptured, domey, ridgy basin. Refreshed and exhilarated, you +follow your trail-way through silver fir and pine woods to Eagle Peak, +where the most comprehensive of all the views to be had on the +north-wall heights are displayed. After an hour or two of gazing, +dreaming, studying the tremendous topography, etc., trace the rim of +the Valley to the grand El Capitan ridge and go down to its brow, where +you will gain everlasting impressions of Nature’s steadfastness and +power combined with ineffable fineness of beauty. + +Dragging yourself away, go to the head of the Ribbon Fall, thence +across the beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin to the Big Oak Flat stage-road, +and down its fine grades to the Valley, enjoying glorious Yosemite +scenery all the way to the foot of El Capitan and your camp. + +Two-Day Excursions +No. 1. + +For a two-day trip I would go straight to Mount Hoffman, spend the +night on the summit, next morning go down by May Lake to Tenaya Lake +and return to the Valley by Cloud’s Rest and the Nevada and Vernal +Falls. As on the foregoing excursion, you leave the Valley by the +Yosemite Falls trail and follow it to the Tioga wagon-road, a short +distance east of Porcupine Flat. From that point push straight up to +the summit. Mount Hoffman is a mass of gray granite that rises almost +in the center of the Yosemite Park, about eight or ten miles in a +straight line from the Valley. Its southern slopes are low and easily +climbed, and adorned here and there with castle-like crumbling piles +and long jagged crests that look like artificial masonry; but on the +north side it is abruptly precipitous and banked with lasting snow. +Most of the broad summit is comparatively level and thick sown with +crystals, quartz, mica, hornblende, feldspar, granite, zircon, +tourmaline, etc., weathered out and strewn closely and loosely as if +they had been sown broadcast. Their radiance is fairly dazzling in +sunlight, almost hiding the multitude of small flowers that grow among +them. At first sight only these radiant crystals are likely to be +noticed, but looking closely you discover a multitude of very small +gilias, phloxes, mimulus, etc., many of them with more petals than +leaves. On the borders of little streams larger plants +flourish—lupines, daisies, asters, goldenrods, hairbell, mountain +columbine, potentilla, astragalus and a few gentians; with charming +heathworts—bryanthus, cassiope, kalmia, vaccinium in boulder-fringing +rings or bank covers. You saunter among the crystals and flowers as if +you were walking among stars. From the summit nearly all the Yosemite +Park is displayed like a map: forests, lakes, meadows, and snowy peaks. +Northward lies Yosemite’s wide basin with its domes and small lakes, +shining like larger crystals; eastward the rocky, meadowy Tuolumne +region, bounded by its snowy peaks in glorious array; southward +Yosemite and westward the vast forest. On no other Yosemite Park +mountain are you more likely to linger. You will find it a magnificent +sky camp. Clumps of dwarf pine and mountain hemlock will furnish resin +roots and branches for fuel and light, and the rills, sparkling water. +Thousands of the little plant people will gaze at your camp-fire with +the crystals and stars, companions and guardians as you lie at rest in +the heart of the vast serene night. + +The most telling of all the wide Hoffman views is the basin of the +Tuolumne with its meadows, forests and hundreds of smooth rock-waves +that appear to be coming rolling on towards you like high heaving waves +ready to break, and beyond these the great mountains. But best of all +are the dawn and the sunrise. No mountain top could be better placed +for this most glorious of mountain views—to watch and see the deepening +colors of the dawn and the sunbeams streaming through the snowy High +Sierra passes, awakening the lakes and crystals, the chilled plant +people and winged people, and making everything shine and sing in pure +glory. + +With your heart aglow, spangling Lake Tenaya and Lake May will beckon +you away for walks on their ice-burnished shores. Leave Tenaya at the +west end, cross to the south side of the outlet, and gradually work +your way up in an almost straight south direction to the summit of the +divide between Tenaya Creek and the main upper Merced River or Nevada +Creek and follow the divide to Clouds Rest. After a glorious view from +the crest of this lofty granite wave you will find a trail on its +western end that will lead you down past Nevada and Vernal Falls to the +Valley in good time, provided you left your Hoffman sky camp early. + +Two-Day Excursions +No. 2. + +Another grand two-day excursion is the same as the first of the one-day +trips, as far as the head of Illilouette Fall. From there trace the +beautiful stream up through the heart of its magnificent forests and +gardens to the cañons between the Red and Merced Peaks, and pass the +night where I camped forty-one years ago. Early next morning visit the +small glacier on the north side of Merced Peak, the first of the +sixty-five that I discovered in the Sierra. + +Glacial phenomena in the Illilouette Basin are on the grandest scale, +and in the course of my explorations I found that the cañon and +moraines between the Merced and Red Mountains were the most interesting +of them all. The path of the vanished glacier shone in many places as +if washed with silver, and pushing up the cañon on this bright road I +passed lake after lake in solid basins of granite and many a meadow +along the cañon stream that links them together. The main lateral +moraines that bound the view below the cañon are from a hundred to +nearly two hundred feet high and wonderfully regular, like artificial +embankments covered with a magnificent growth of silver fir and pine. +But this garden and forest luxuriance is speedily left behind, and +patches of bryanthus, cassiope and arctic willows begin to appear. The +small lakes which a few miles down the Valley are so richly bordered +with flowery meadows have at an elevation of 10,000 feet only small +brown mats of carex, leaving bare rocks around more than half their +shores. Yet, strange to say, amid all this arctic repression the +mountain pine on ledges and buttresses of Red Mountain seems to find +the climate best suited to it. Some specimens that I measured were over +a hundred feet high and twenty-four feet in circumference, showing +hardly a trace of severe storms, looking as fresh and vigorous as the +giants of the lower zones. Evening came on just as I got fairly into +the main cañon. It is about a mile wide and a little less than two +miles long. The crumbling spurs of Red Mountain bound it on the north, +the somber cliffs of Merced Mountain on the south and a +deeply-serrated, splintered ridge curving around from mountain to +mountain shuts it in on the east. My camp was on the brink of one of +the lakes in a thicket of mountain hemlock, partly sheltered from the +wind. Early next morning I set out to trace the ancient glacier to its +head. Passing around the north shore of my camp lake I followed the +main stream from one lakelet to another. The dwarf pines and hemlocks +disappeared and the stream was bordered with icicles. The main lateral +moraines that extend from the mouth of the cañon are continued in +straggling masses along the walls. Tracing the streams back to the +highest of its little lakes, I noticed a deposit of fine gray mud, +something like the mud corn from a grindstone. This suggested its +glacial origin, for the stream that was carrying it issued from a +raw-looking moraine that seemed to be in process of formation. It is +from sixty to over a hundred feet high in front, with a slope of about +thirty-eight degrees. Climbing to the top of it, I discovered a very +small but well-characterized glacier swooping down from the shadowy +cliffs of the mountain to its terminal moraine. The ice appeared on all +the lower portion of the glacier; farther up it was covered with snow. +The uppermost crevasse or “bergeschrund” was from twelve to fourteen +feet wide. The melting snow and ice formed a network of rills that ran +gracefully down the surface of the glacier, merrily singing in their +shining channels. After this discovery I made excursions over all the +High Sierra and discovered that what at first sight looked like +snowfields were in great part glaciers which were completing the +sculpture of the summit peaks. + +Rising early,—which will be easy, as your bed will be rather cold and +you will not be able to sleep much anyhow,—after visiting the glacier, +climb the Red Mountain and enjoy the magnificent views from the summit. +I counted forty lakes from one standpoint an this mountain, and the +views to the westward over the Illilouette Basin, the most superbly +forested of all the basins whose waters rain into Yosemite, and those +of the Yosemite rocks, especially the Half Dome and the upper part of +the north wall, are very fine. But, of course, far the most imposing +view is the vast array of snowy peaks along the axis of the Range. Then +from the top of this peak, light and free and exhilarated with mountain +air and mountain beauty, you should run lightly down the northern slope +of the mountain, descend the cañon between Red and Gray Mountains, +thence northward along the bases of Gray Mountain and Mount Clark and +go down into the head of Little Yosemite, and thence down past the +Nevada and Vernal Falls to the Valley, a truly glorious two-day trip! + +A Three-Day Excursion + +The best three-day excursion, as far as I can see, is the same as the +first of the two-day trips until you reach Lake Tenaya. There instead +of returning to the Valley, follow the Tioga road around the northwest +side of the lake, over to the Tuolumne Meadows and up to the west base +of Mount Dana. Leave the road there and make straight for the highest +point on the timber line between Mounts Dana and Gibbs and camp there. + +On the morning of the third day go to the top of Mount Dana in time for +the glory of the dawn and the sunrise over the gray Mono Desert and the +sublime forest of High Sierra peaks. When you leave the mountain go far +enough down the north side for a view of the Dana Glacier, then make +your way back to the Tioga road, follow it along the Tuolumne Meadows +to the crossing of Budd Creek where you will find the Sunrise trail +branching off up the mountain-side through the forest in a +southwesterly direction past the west side of Cathedral Peak, which +will lead you down to the Valley by the Vernal and Nevada Falls. If you +are a good walker you can leave the trail where it begins to descend a +steep slope in the silver fir woods, and bear off to the right and make +straight for the top of Clouds’ Rest. The walking is good and almost +level and from the west end of Clouds’ Rest take the Clouds’ Rest Trail +which will lead direct to the Valley by the Nevada and Vernal Falls. To +any one not desperately time-poor this trip should have four days +instead of three; camping the second night at the Soda Springs; thence +to Mount Dana and return to the Soda Springs, camping the third night +there; thence by the Sunrise trail to Cathedral Peak, visiting the +beautiful Cathedral lake which lies about a mile to the west of +Cathedral Peak, eating your luncheon, and thence to Clouds’ Rest and +the Valley as above. This is one of the most interesting of all the +comparatively short trips that can be made in the whole Yosemite +region. Not only do you see all the grandest of the Yosemite rocks and +waterfalls and the High Sierra with their glaciers, glacier lakes and +glacier meadows, etc., but sections of the magnificent silver fir, +two-leaved pine, and dwarf pine zones; with the principal alpine +flowers and shrubs, especially sods of dwarf vaccinium covered with +flowers and fruit though less than an inch high, broad mats of dwarf +willow scarce an inch high with catkins that rise straight from the +ground, and glorious beds of blue gentians,—grandeur enough and beauty +enough for a lifetime. + +The Upper Tuolumne Excursion + +We come now to the grandest of all the Yosemite excursions, one that +requires at least two or three weeks. The best time to make it is from +about the middle of July. The visitor entering the Yosemite in July has +the advantage of seeing the falls not, perhaps, in their very flood +prime but next thing to it; while the glacier-meadows will be in their +glory and the snow on the mountains will be firm enough to make +climbing safe. Long ago I made these Sierra trips, carrying only a +sackful of bread with a little tea and sugar and was thus independent +and free, but now that trails or carriage roads lead out of the Valley +in almost every direction it is easy to take a pack animal, so that the +luxury of a blanket and a supply of food can easily be had. + +The best way to leave the Valley will be by the Yosemite Fall trail, +camping the first night on the Tioga road opposite the east end of the +Hoffman Range. Next morning climb Mount Hoffman; thence push on past +Tenaya Lake into the Tuolumne Meadows and establish a central camp near +the Soda Springs, from which glorious excursions can be made at your +leisure. For here in this upper Tuolumne Valley is the widest, +smoothest, most serenely spacious, and in every way the most delightful +summer pleasure-park in all the High Sierra. And since it is connected +with Yosemite by two good trails, and a fairly good carriage road that +passes between Yosemite and Mount Hoffman, it is also the most +accessible. It is in the heart of the High Sierra east of Yosemite, +8500 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea. The gray, picturesque +Cathedral Range bounds it on the south; a similar range or spur, the +highest peak of which is Mount Conness, on the north; the noble Mounts +Dana, Gibbs, Mammoth, Lyell, McClure and others on the axis of the +Range on the east; a heaving, billowing crowd of glacier-polished rocks +and Mount Hoffman on the west. Down through the open sunny +meadow-levels of the Valley flows the Tuolumne River, fresh and cool +from its many glacial fountains, the highest of which are the glaciers +that lie on the north sides of Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. + +Along the river a series of beautiful glacier-meadows extend with but +little interruption, from the lower end of the Valley to its head, a +distance of about twelve miles, forming charming sauntering-grounds +from which the glorious mountains may be enjoyed as they look down in +divine serenity over the dark forests that clothe their bases. Narrow +strips of pine woods cross the meadow-carpet from side to side, and it +is somewhat roughened here and there by moraine boulders and dead trees +brought down from the heights by snow avalanches; but for miles and +miles it is so smooth and level that a hundred horsemen may ride +abreast over it. + +The main lower portion of the meadows is about four miles long and from +a quarter to half a mile wide, but the width of the Valley is, on an +average, about eight miles. Tracing the river, we find that it forks a +mile above the Soda Springs, the main fork turning southward to Mount +Lyell, the other eastward to Mount Dana and Mount Gibbs. Along both +forks strips of meadow extend almost to their heads. The most beautiful +portions of the meadows are spread over lake basins, which have been +filled up by deposits from the river. A few of these river-lakes still +exist, but they are now shallow and are rapidly approaching extinction. +The sod in most places is exceedingly fine and silky and free from +weeds and bushes; while charming flowers abound, especially gentians, +dwarf daisies, potentillas, and the pink bells of dwarf vaccinium. On +the banks of the river and its tributaries cassiope and bryanthus may +be found, where the sod curls over stream banks and around boulders. +The principal grass of these meadows is a delicate calamagrostis with +very slender filiform leaves, and when it is in flower the ground seems +to be covered with a faint purple mist, the stems of the panicles being +so fine that they are almost invisible, and offer no appreciable +resistance in walking through them. Along the edges of the meadows +beneath the pines and throughout the greater part of the Valley tall +ribbon-leaved grasses grow in abundance, chiefly bromus, triticum and +agrostis. + +In October the nights are frosty, and then the meadows at sunrise, when +every leaf is laden with crystals, are a fine sight. The days are still +warm and calm, and bees and butterflies continue to waver and hum about +the late-blooming flowers until the coming of the snow, usually in +November. Storm then follows storm in quick succession, burying the +meadows to a depth of from ten to twenty feet, while magnificent +avalanches descend through the forests from the laden heights, +depositing huge piles of snow mixed with uprooted trees and boulders. +In the open sunshine the snow usually lasts until the end of June but +the new season’s vegetation is not generally in bloom until late in +July. Perhaps the best all round excursion-time after winters of +average snowfall is from the middle of July to the middle or end of +August. The snow is then melted from the woods and southern slopes of +the mountains and the meadows and gardens are in their glory, while the +weather is mostly all-reviving, exhilarating sunshine. The few clouds +that rise now and then and the showers they yield are only enough to +keep everything fresh and fragrant. + +The groves about the Soda Springs are favorite camping-grounds on +account of the cold, pleasant-tasting water charged with carbonic acid, +and because of the views of the mountains across the meadow—the Glacier +Monument, Cathedral Peak, Cathedral Spires, Unicorn Peak and a series +of ornamental nameless companions, rising in striking forms and +nearness above a dense forest growing on the left lateral moraine of +the ancient Tuolumne glacier, which, broad, deep, and far-reaching, +exerted vast influence on the scenery of this portion of the Sierra. +But there are fine camping-grounds all along the meadows, and one may +move from grove to grove every day all summer, enjoying new homes and +new beauty to satisfy every roving desire for change. + +There are five main capital excursions to be made from here—to the +summits of Mounts Dana, Lyell and Conness, and through the Bloody Cañon +Pass to Mono Lake and the volcanoes, and down the Tuolumne Cañon, at +least as far as the foot of the wonderful series of river cataracts. +All of these excursions are sure to be made memorable with joyful +health-giving experiences; but perhaps none of them will be remembered +with keener delight than the days spent in sauntering on the broad +velvet lawns by the river, sharing the sky with the mountains and +trees, gaining something of their strength and peace. + +The excursion to the top of Mount Dana is a very easy one; for though +the mountain is 13,000 feet high, the ascent from the west side is so +gentle and smooth that one may ride a mule to the very summit. Across +many a busy stream, from meadow to meadow, lies your flowery way; +mountains all about you, few of them hidden by irregular foregrounds. +Gradually ascending, other mountains come in sight, peak rising above +peak with their snow and ice in endless variety of grouping and +sculpture. Now your attention is turned to the moraines, sweeping in +beautiful curves from the hollows and cañons, now to the granite waves +and pavements rising here and there above the heathy sod, polished a +thousand years ago and still shining. Towards the base of the mountain +you note the dwarfing of the trees, until at a height of about 11,000 +feet you find patches of the tough, white-barked pine, pressed so flat +by the ten or twenty feet of snow piled upon them every winter for +centuries that you may walk over them as if walking on a shaggy rug. +And, if curious about such things, you may discover specimens of this +hardy tree-mountaineer not more than four feet high and about as many +inches in diameter at the ground, that are from two hundred to four +hundred years old, still holding bravely to life, making the most of +their slender summers, shaking their tasseled needles in the breeze +right cheerily, drinking the thin sunshine and maturing their fine +purple cones as if they meant to live forever. The general view from +the summit is one of the most extensive and sublime to be found in all +the Range. To the eastward you gaze far out over the desert plains and +mountains of the “Great Basin,” range beyond range extending with soft +outlines, blue and purple in the distance. More than six thousand feet +below you lies Lake Mono, ten miles in diameter from north to south, +and fourteen from west to east, lying bare in the treeless desert like +a disk of burnished metal, though at times it is swept by mountain +storm winds and streaked with foam. To the southward there is a well +defined range of pale-gray extinct volcanoes, and though the highest of +them rises nearly two thousand feet above the lake, you can look down +from here into their circular, cup-like craters, from which a +comparatively short time ago ashes and cinders were showered over the +surrounding sage plains and glacier-laden mountains. + +To the westward the landscape is made up of exceedingly strong, gray, +glaciated domes and ridge waves, most of them comparatively low, but +the largest high enough to be called mountains; separated by cañons and +darkened with lines and fields of forest, Cathedral Peak and Mount +Hoffman in the distance; small lakes and innumerable meadows in the +foreground. Northward and southward the great snowy mountains, +marshaled along the axis of the Range, are seen in all their glory, +crowded together in some places like trees in groves, making landscapes +of wild, extravagant, bewildering magnificence, yet calm and silent as +the sky. + +Some eight glaciers are in sight. One of these is the Dana Glacier on +the north side of the mountain, lying at the foot of a precipice about +a thousand feet high, with a lovely pale-green lake a little below it. +This is one of the many, small, shrunken remnants of the vast glacial +system of the Sierra that once filled the hollows and valleys of the +mountains and covered all the lower ridges below the immediate +summit-fountains, flowing to right and left away from the axis of the +Range, lavishly fed by the snows of the glacial period. + +In the excursion to Mount Lyell the immediate base of the mountain is +easily reached on meadow walks along the river. Turning to the +southward above the forks of the river, you enter the narrow Lyell +branch of the Valley, narrow enough and deep enough to be called a +cañon. It is about eight miles long and from 2000 to 3000 feet deep. +The flat meadow bottom is from about three hundred to two hundred yards +wide, with gently curved margins about fifty yards wide from which rise +the simple massive walls of gray granite at an angle of about +thirty-three degrees, mostly timbered with a light growth of pine and +streaked in many places with avalanche channels. Towards the upper end +of the cañon the Sierra crown comes in sight, forming a finely balanced +picture framed by the massive cañon walls. In the foreground, when the +grass is in flower, you have the purple meadow willow-thickets on the +river banks; in the middle distance huge swelling bosses of granite +that form the base of the general mass of the mountain, with fringing +lines of dark woods marking the lower curves, smoothly snow-clad except +in the autumn. + +If you wish to spend two days on the Lyell trip you will find a good +camp-ground on the east side of the river, about a mile above a fine +cascade that comes down over the cañon wall in telling style and makes +good camp music. From here to the top of the mountains is usually an +easy day’s work. At one place near the summit careful climbing is +necessary, but it is not so dangerous or difficult as to deter any one +of ordinary skill, while the views are glorious. To the northward are +Mammoth Mountain, Mounts Gibbs, Dana, Warren, Conness and others, +unnumbered and unnamed; to the southeast the indescribably wild and +jagged range of Mount Ritter and the Minarets; southwestward stretches +the dividing ridge between the north fork of the San Joaquin and the +Merced, uniting with the Obelisk or Merced group of peaks that form the +main fountains of the Illilouette branch of the Merced; and to the +north-westward extends the Cathedral spur. These spurs like distinct +ranges meet at your feet; therefore you look at them mostly in the +direction of their extension, and their peaks seem to be massed and +crowded against one another, while immense amphitheaters, cañons and +subordinate ridges with their wealth of lakes, glaciers, and +snow-fields, maze and cluster between them. In making the ascent in +June or October the glacier is easily crossed, for then its snow mantle +is smooth or mostly melted off. But in midsummer the climbing is +exceedingly tedious because the snow is then weathered into curious and +beautiful blades, sharp and slender, and set on edge in a leaning +position. They lean towards the head of the glacier and extend across +from side to side in regular order in a direction at right angles to +the direction of greatest declivity, the distance between the crests +being about two or three feet, and the depth of the troughs between +them about three feet. A more interesting problem than a walk over a +glacier thus sculptured and adorned is seldom presented to the +mountaineer. + +The Lyell Glacier is about a mile wide and less than a mile long, but +presents, nevertheless, all the essential characters of large, +river-like glaciers—moraines, earth-bands, blue veins, crevasses, etc., +while the streams that issue from it are, of course, turbid with +rock-mud, showing its grinding action on its bed. And it is all the +more interesting since it is the highest and most enduring remnant of +the great Tuolumne Glacier, whose traces are still distinct fifty miles +away, and whose influence on the landscape was so profound. The McClure +Glacier, once a tributary of the Lyell, is smaller. Thirty-eight years +ago I set a series of stakes in it to determine its rate of motion. +Towards the end of summer in the middle of the glacier it was only a +little over an inch in twenty-four hours. + +The trip to Mono from the Soda Springs can be made in a day, but many +days may profitably be spent near the shores of the lake, out on its +islands and about the volcanoes. + +In making the trip down the Big Tuolumne Cañon, animals may be led as +far as a small, grassy, forested lake-basin that lies below the +crossing of the Virginia Creek trail. And from this point any one +accustomed to walking on earthquake boulders, carpeted with cañon +chaparral, can easily go down as far as the big cascades and return to +camp in one day. Many, however, are not able to do his, and it is +better to go leisurely, prepared to camp anywhere, and enjoy the +marvelous grandeur of the place. + +The cañon begins near the lower end of the meadows and extends to the +Hetch Hetchy Valley, a distance of about eighteen miles, though it will +seem much longer to any one who scrambles through it. It is from twelve +hundred to about five thousand feet deep, and is comparatively narrow, +but there are several roomy, park-like openings in it, and throughout +its whole extent Yosemite natures are displayed on a grand scale—domes, +El Capitan rocks, gables, Sentinels, Royal Arches, Glacier Points, +Cathedral Spires, etc. There is even a Half Dome among its wealth of +rock forms, though far less sublime than the Yosemite Half Dome. Its +falls and cascades are innumerable. The sheer falls, except when the +snow is melting in early spring, are quite small in volume as compared +with those of Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy; though in any other country +many of them would be regarded as wonders. But it is the cascades or +sloping falls on the main river that are the crowning glory of the +cañon, and these in volume, extent and variety surpass those of any +other cañon in the Sierra. The most showy and interesting of them are +mostly in the upper part of the cañon, above the point of entrance of +Cathedral Creek and Hoffman Creek. For miles the river is one wild, +exulting, on-rushing mass of snowy purple bloom, spreading over glacial +waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in magnificent +silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder-dams, leaping +high into the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, +tossing from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of +mountain energy. + +Every one who is anything of a mountaineer should go on through the +entire length of the cañon, coming out by Hetch Hetchy. There is not a +dull step all the way. With wide variations, it is a Yosemite Valley +from end to end. + +Besides these main, far-reaching, much-seeing excursions from the main +central camp, there are numberless, lovely little saunters and +scrambles and a dozen or so not so very little. Among the best of these +are to Lambert and Fair View Domes; to the topmost spires of Cathedral +Peak, and to those of the North Church, around the base of which you +pass on your way to Mount Conness; to one of the very loveliest of the +glacier-meadows imbedded in the pine woods about three miles north of +the Soda Springs, where forty-two years ago I spent six weeks. It +trends east and west, and you can find it easily by going past the base +of Lambert’s Dome to Dog Lake and thence up northward through the woods +about a mile or so; to the shining rock-waves full of ice-burnished, +feldspar crystals at the foot of the meadows; to Lake Tenaya; and, last +but not least, a rather long and very hearty scramble down by the end +of the meadow along the Tioga road toward Lake Tenaya to the crossing +of Cathedral Creek, where you turn off and trace the creek down to its +confluence with the Tuolumne. This is a genuine scramble much of the +way but one of the most wonderfully telling in its glacial rock-forms +and inscriptions. + +If you stop and fish at every tempting lake and stream you come to, a +whole month, or even two months, will not be too long for this grand +High Sierra excursion. My own Sierra trip was ten years long. + +Other Trips From The Valley + +Short carriage trips are usually made in the early morning to Mirror +Lake to see its wonderful reflections of the Half Dome and Mount +Watkins; and in the afternoon many ride down the Valley to see the +Bridal Veil rainbows or up the river cañon to see those of the Vernal +Fall; where, standing in the spray, not minding getting drenched, you +may see what are called round rainbows, when the two ends of the +ordinary bow are lengthened and meet at your feet, forming a complete +circle which is broken and united again and again as determined by the +varying wafts of spray. A few ambitious scramblers climb to the top of +the Sentinel Rock, others walk or ride down the Valley and up to the +once-famous Inspiration Point for a last grand view; while a good many +appreciative tourists, who slave only day or two, do no climbing or +riding but spend their time sauntering on the meadows by the river, +watching the falls, and the relay of light and shade among the rocks +from morning to night, perhaps gaining more than those who make haste +up the trails in large noisy parties. Those who have unlimited time +find something worth while all the year round on every accessible part +of the vast deeply sculptured walls. At least so I have found it after +making the Valley my home for years. + +Here are a few specimens selected from my own short trips which walkers +may find useful. + +One, up the river cañon, across the bridge between the Vernal and +Nevada Falls, through chaparral beds and boulders to the shoulder of +Half Dome, along the top of the shoulder to the dome itself, down by a +crumbling slot gully and close along the base of the tremendous split +front (the most awfully impressive, sheer, precipice view I ever found +in all my cañon wanderings), thence up the east shoulder and along the +ridge to Clouds’ Rest—a glorious sunset—then a grand starry run back +home to my cabin; down through the junipers, down through the firs, now +in black shadows, now in white light, past roaring Nevada and Vernal, +flowering ghost-like beneath their huge frowning cliffs; down the dark, +gloomy cañon, through the pines of the Valley, dreamily murmuring in +their calm, breezy sleep—a fine wild little excursion for good legs and +good eyes—so much sun-, moon- and star-shine in it, and sublime, +up-and-down rhythmical, glacial topography. + +Another, to the head of Yosemite Fall by Indian Cañon; thence up the +Yosemite Creek, tracing it all the way to its highest sources back of +Mount Hoffman, then a wide sweep around the head of its dome-paved +basin, passing its many little lakes and bogs, gardens and groves, +trilling, warbling rills, and back by the Fall Cañon. This was one of +my Sabbath walk, run-and-slide excursions long ago before any trail had +been made on the north side of the Valley. + +Another fine trip was up, bright and early, by Avalanche Cañon to +Glacier Point, along the rugged south wall, tracing all its far outs +and ins to the head of the Bridal Veil Fall, thence back home, bright +and late, by a brushy, bouldery slope between Cathedral rocks and +Cathedral spires and along the level Valley floor. This was one of my +long, bright-day and bright-night walks thirty or forty years ago when, +like river and ocean currents, time flowed undivided, uncounted—a fine +free, sauntery, scrambly, botanical, beauty-filled ramble. The walk up +the Valley was made glorious by the marvelous brightness of the morning +star. So great was her light, she made every tree cast a well-defined +shadow on the smooth sandy ground. + +Everybody who visits Yosemite wants to see the famous Big Trees. Before +the railroad was constructed, all three of the stage-roads that entered +the Valley passed through a grove of these trees by the way; namely, +the Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves. The Tuolumne grove was passed +on the Big Oak Flat road, the Merced grove by the Coulterville road and +the Mariposa grove by the Raymond and Wawona road. Now, to see any one +of these groves, a special trip has to be made. Most visitors go to the +Mariposa grove, the largest of the three. On this Sequoia trip you see +not only the giant Big Trees but magnificent forests of silver fir, +sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus and Douglas spruce. The trip need +not require more than two days, spending a night in a good hotel at +Wawona, a beautiful place on the south fork of the Merced River, and +returning to the Valley or to El Portal, the terminus of the railroad. +This extra trip by stage costs fifteen dollars. All the High Sierra +excursions that I have sketched cost from a dollar a week to anything +you like. None of mine when I was exploring the Sierra cost over a +dollar a week, most of them less. + + + +Chapter 13 +Early History Of The Valley + + +In the wild gold years of 1849 and ’50, the Indian tribes along thus +western Sierra foothills became alarmed at the sudden invasion of their +acorn orchard and game fields by miners, and soon began to make war +upon them, in their usual murdering, plundering style. This continued +until the United States Indian Commissioners succeeded in gathering +them into reservations, some peacefully, others by burning their +villages and stores of food. The Yosemite or Grizzly Bear tribe, +fancying themselves secure in their deep mountain stronghold, were the +most troublesome and defiant of all, and it was while the Mariposa +battalion, under command of Major Savage, was trying to capture this +warlike tribe and conduct them to the Fresno reservation that their +deep mountain home, the Yosemite Valley, was discovered. From a camp on +the south fork of the Merced, Major Savage sent Indian runners to the +bands who were supposed to be hiding in the mountains, instructing them +to tell the Indians that if they would come in and make treaty with the +Commissioners they would be furnished with food and clothing and be +protected, but if they did not come in he would make war upon them and +kill them all. None of the Yosemite Indians responded to this general +message, but when a special messenger was sent to the chief he appeared +the next day. He came entirely alone and stood in dignified silence +before one of the guards until invited to enter the camp. He was +recognized by one of the friendly Indians as Tenaya, the old chief of +the Grizzlies, and, after he had been supplied with food, Major Savage, +with the aid of Indian interpreters, informed him of the wishes of the +Commissioners. But the old chief was very suspicious of Savage and +feared that he was taking this method of getting the tribe into his +power for the purpose of revenging his personal wrong. Savage told him +if he would go to the Commissioners and make peace with them as the +other tribes had done there would be no more war. Tenaya inquired what +was the object of taking all the Indians to the San Joaquin plain. “My +people,” said he, “do not want anything from the Great Father you tell +me about. The Great Spirit is our father and he has always supplied us +with all we need. We do not want anything from white men. Our women are +able to do our work. Go, then. Let us remain in the mountains where we +were born, where the ashes of our fathers have been given to the wind. +I have said enough.” + +To this the Major answered abruptly in Indian style: “If you and your +people have all you desire, why do you steal our horses and mules? Why +do you rob the miners’ camps? Why do you murder the white men and +plunder and burn their houses?” + +Tenaya was silent for some time. He evidently understood what the Major +had said, for he replied, “My young men have sometimes taken horses and +mules from the whites. This was wrong. It is not wrong to take the +property of enemies who have wronged my people. My young men believed +that the gold diggers were our enemies. We now know they are not and we +shall be glad to live in peace with them. We will stay here and be +friends. My people do not want to go to the plains. Some of the tribes +who have gone there are very bad. We cannot live with them. Here we can +defend ourselves.” + +To the Major Savage firmly said, “Your people must go to the +Commissioners. If they do not your young men will again steal horses +and kill and plunder the whites. It was your people who robbed my +stores, burned my houses and murdered my men. It they do not make a +treaty, your whole tribe will be destroyed. Not one of them will be +left alive.” + +To this the old chief replied, “It is useless to talk to you about who +destroyed your property and killed your people. I am old and you can +kill me if you will, but it is useless to lie to you who know more than +all the Indians. Therefore I will not lie to you but if you will let me +return to my people I will bring them in.” He was allowed to go. The +next day he came back and said his people were on the way to our camp +to go with the men sent by the Great Father, who was so good and rich. + +Another day passed but no Indians from the deep Valley appeared. The +old chief said that the snow was so deep and his village was so far +down that it took a long time to climb out of it. After waiting still +another day the expedition started for the Valley. When Tenaya was +questioned as to the route and distance he said that the snow was so +deep that the horses could not go through it. Old Tenaya was taken +along as guide. When the party had gone about half-way to the Valley +they met the Yosemites on their way to the camp on the south fork. +There were only seventy-two of them and when the old chief was asked +what had become of the rest of his band, he replied, “This is all of my +people that are willing to go with me to the plains. All the rest have +gone with their wives end children over the mountains to the Mono and +Tuolumne tribes.” Savage told Tenaya that he was not telling the truth, +for Indians could not cross the mountains in the deep snow, and that he +knew they must still be at his village or hiding somewhere near it. The +tribe had been estimated to number over two hundred. Major Savage then +said to him, “You may return to camp with your people and I will take +one of your young men with me to your village to see your people who +will not come. They will come if I find them.” “You will not find any +of my people there,” said Tenaya; “I do not know where they are. My +tribe is small. Many of the people of my tribe have come from other +tribes and if they go to the plains and are seen they will be killed by +the friends of those with whom they have quarreled. I was told that I +was growing old and it was well that I should go, but that young and +strong men can find plenty in the mountains: therefore, why should they +go to the hot plains to be penned up like horses and cattle? My heart +has been sore since that talk but I am now willing to go, for it is +best for my people.” + +Pushing ahead, taking turns in breaking a way through the snow, they +arrived in sight of the great Valley early in the afternoon and, guided +by one of Tenaya’s Indians, descended by the same route as that +followed by the Mariposa trail, and the weary party went into camp on +the river bank opposite El Capitan. After supper, seated around a big +fire, the wonderful Valley became the topic of conversation and Dr. +Bunell suggested giving it a name. Many were proposed, but after a vote +had been taken the name Yosemite, proposed by Dr. Bunell, was adopted +almost unanimously to perpetuate the name of the tribe who so long had +made their home there. The Indian name of the Valley, however, is +Ahwahnee. The Indians had names for all the different rocks and streams +of the Valley, but very few of them are now in use by the whites, +Pohono, the Bridal Veil, being the principal one. The expedition +remained only one day and two nights in the Valley, hurrying out on the +approach of a storm and reached the south-fork headquarters on the +evening of the third day after starting out. Thus, in three days the +round trip had been made to the Valley, most of it had been explored in +a general way and some of its principal features had been named. But +the Indians had fled up the Tenaya Cañon trail and none of them were +seen, except an old woman unable to follow the fugitives. + +A second expedition was made in the same year under command of Major +Boling. When the Valley was entered no Indians were seen, but the many +wigwams with smoldering fires showed that they had been hurriedly +abandoned that very day. Later, five young Indians who had been left to +watch the movements of the expedition were captured at the foot of the +Three Brothers after a lively chase. Three of the five were sons of the +old chief and the rock was named for them. All of these captives made +good their escape within a few days, except the youngest son of Tenaya, +who was shot by his guard while trying to escape. That same day the old +chief was captured on the cliff on the east side of Indian Cañon by +some of Boling’s scouts. As Tenaya walked toward the camp his eye fell +upon the dead body of his favorite son. Captain Boling through an +interpreter, expressed his regret at the occurrence, but not a word did +Tenaya utter in reply. Later, he made an attempt to escape but was +caught as he was about to swim across the river. Tenaya expected to be +shot for this attempt and when brought into the presence of Captain +Boling he said in great emotion, “Kill me, Sir Captain, yes, kill me as +you killed my son, as you would kill my people if they were to come to +you. You would kill all my tribe if you had the power. Yes, Sir +America, you can now tell your warriors to kill the old chief. You have +made my life dark with sorrow. You killed the child of my heart. Why +not kill the father? But wait a little and when I am dead I will call +my people to come and they shall hear me in their sleep and come to +avenge the death of their chief and his son. Yes, Sir America, my +spirit will make trouble for you and your people, as you have made +trouble to me and my people. With the wizards I will follow the white +people and make them fear me. You may kill me, Sir Captain, but you +shall not live in peace. I will follow in your footsteps. I will not +leave my home, but be with the spirits among the rocks, the waterfalls, +in the rivers and in the winds; wherever you go I will be with you. You +will not see me but you will fear the spirit of the old chief and grow +cold. The Great Spirit has spoken. I am done.” + +This expedition finally captured the remnants of the tribes at the head +of Lake Tenaya and took them to the Fresno reservation, together with +their chief, Tenaya. But after a short stay they were allowed to return +to the Valley under restrictions. Tenaya promised faithfully to conform +to everything required, joyfully left the hot and dry reservation, and +with his family returned to his Yosemite home. + +The following year a party of miners was attacked by the Indians in the +Valley and two of them were killed. This led to another Yosemite +expedition. A detachment of regular soldiers from Fort Miller under +Lieutenant Moore, U.S.A., was at once dispatched to capture or punish +the murderers. Lieutenant Moore entered the Valley in the night and +surprised and captured a party of five Indians, but an alarm was given +and Tenaya and his people fled from their huts and escaped to the Monos +on the east side of the Range. On examination of the five prisoners in +the morning it was discovered that each of them had some article of +clothing that belonged to the murdered men. The bodies of the two +miners were found and buried on the edge of the Bridal Veil meadow. +When the captives were accused of the murder of the two white men they +admitted that they had killed them to prevent white men from coming to +their Valley, declaring that it was their home and that white men had +no right to come there without their consent. Lieutenant Moore told +them through his interpreter that they had sold their lands to the +Government, that it belonged to the white men now and that they had +agreed to live on the reservation provided for them. To this they +replied that Tenaya had never consented to the sale of their Valley and +had never received pay for it. The other chief, they said, had no right +to sell their territory. The lieutenant being fully satisfied that he +had captured the real murderers, promptly pronounced judgment and had +them placed in line and shot. Lieutenant Moore pursued the fugitives to +Mono but was not successful in finding any of them. After being +hospitably entertained and protected by the Mono and Paute tribes, they +stole a number of stolen horses from their entertainers and made their +way by a long, obscure route by the head of the north fork of the San +Joaquin, reached their Yosemite home once more, but early one morning, +after a feast of horse-flesh, a band of Monos surprised them in their +huts, killing Tenaya and nearly all his tribe. Only a small remnant +escaped down the river cañon. The Tenaya Cañon and Lake were named for +the famous old chief. + +Very few visits were made to the Valley before the summer or 1855, when +Mr. J. M. Hutchings, having heard of its wonderful scenery, collected a +party and made the first regular tourist’s visit to the Yosemite and in +his California magazine described it in articles illustrated by a good +artist, who was taken into the Valley by him for that purpose. This +first party was followed by another from Mariposa the same year, +consisting of sixteen or eighteen persons. The next year the regular +pleasure travel began and a trail on the Mariposa side of the Valley +was opened by Mann Brothers. This trail was afterwards purchased by the +citizens of the county and made free to the public. The first house +built in the Yosemite Valley was erected in the autumn of 1856 and was +kept as a hotel the next year by G. A. Hite and later by J. H. Neal and +S. M. Cunningham. It was situated directly opposite the Yosemite Fall. +A little over half a mile farther up the Valley a canvas house was put +up in 1858 by G. A. Hite. Next year a frame house was built and kept as +a hotel by Mr. Peck, afterward by Mr. Longhurst and since 1864 by Mr. +Hutchings. All these hotels have vanished except the frame house built +in 1859, which has been changed beyond recognition. A large hotel built +on the brink of the river in front of the old one is now the only hotel +in the Valley. A large hotel built by the State and located farther up +the Valley was burned. To provide for the overflow of visitors there +are three camps with board floors, wood frame, and covered with canvas, +well furnished, some of them with electric light. A large first-class +hotel is very much needed. + +Travel of late years has been rapidly increasing, especially after the +establishment, by Act of Congress in 1890, of the Yosemite National +Park and the recession in 1905 of the original reservation to the +Federal Government by the State. The greatest increase, of course, was +caused by the construction of the Yosemite Valley railroad from Merced +to the border of the Park, eight miles below the Valley. + +It is eighty miles long, and the entire distance, except the first +twenty-four miles from the town of Merced, is built through the +precipitous Merced River Cañon. The roadbed was virtually blasted out +of the solid rock for the entire distance in the cañon. Work was begun +in September, 1905, and the first train entered El Portal, the +terminus, April 15, 1907. Many miles of the road cost as much as +$100,000 per mile. Its business has increased from 4000 tourists in the +first year it was operated to 15,000 in 1910. + + + +Chapter 14 +Lamon + + +The good old pioneer, Lamon, was the first of all the early Yosemite +settlers who cordially and unreservedly adopted the Valley as his home. + +He was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, May 10, 1817, emigrated +to Illinois with his father, John Lamon, at the age of nineteen; +afterwards went to Texas and settled on the Brazos, where he raised +melons and hunted alligators for a living. “Right interestin’ +business,” he said; “especially the alligator part of it.” From the +Brazos he went to the Comanche Indian country between Gonzales and +Austin, twenty miles from his nearest neighbor. During the first +summer, the only bread he had was the breast meat of wild turkeys. When +the formidable Comanche Indians were on the war-path he left his cabin +after dark and slept in the woods. From Texas he crossed the plains to +California and worked In the Calaveras and Mariposa gold-fields. + +He first heard Yosemite spoken of as a very beautiful mountain valley +and after making two excursions in the summers of 1857 and 1858 to see +the wonderful place, he made up his mind to quit roving and make a +permanent home in it. In April, 1859, he moved into it, located a +garden opposite the Half Dome, set out a lot of apple, pear and peach +trees, planted potatoes, etc., that he had packed in on a “contrary old +mule,” and worked for his board in building a hotel which was +afterwards purchased by Mr. Hutchings. His neighbors thought he was +very foolish in attempting to raise crops in so high and cold a valley, +and warned him that he could raise nothing and sell nothing, and would +surely starve. + +For the first year or two lack of provisions compelled him to move out +on the approach of winter, but in 1862 after he had succeeded in +raising some fruit and vegetables he began to winter in the Valley. + +The first winter he had no companions, not even a dog or cat, and one +evening was greatly surprised to see two men coming up the Valley. They +were very glad to see him, for they had come from Mariposa in search of +him, a report having been spread that he had been killed by Indians. He +assured his visitors that he felt safer in his Yosemite home, lying +snug and squirrel-like in his 10 x 12 cabin, than in Mariposa. When the +avalanches began to slip, he wondered where all the wild roaring and +booming came from, the flying snow preventing them from being seen. +But, upon the whole, he wondered most at the brightness, gentleness, +and sunniness of the weather, and hopefully employed the calm days in +tearing ground for an orchard and vegetable garden. + +In the second winter he built a winter cabin under the Royal Arches, +where he enjoyed more sunshine. But no matter how he praised the +weather he could not induce any one to winter with him until 1864. + +He liked to describe the great flood of 1867, the year before I reached +California, when all the walls were striped with thundering waterfalls. + +He was a fine, erect, whole-souled man, between six and seven feet +high, with a broad, open face, bland and guileless as his pet oxen. No +stranger to hunger and weariness, he knew well how to appreciate +suffering of a like kind in others, and many there be, myself among the +number, who can testify to his simple, unostentatious kindness that +found expression in a thousand small deeds. + +After gaining sufficient means to enjoy a long afternoon of life in +comparative affluence and ease, he died in the autumn of 1876. He +sleeps in a beautiful spot near Galen Clark and a monument hewn from a +block of Yosemite granite marks his grave. + + + +Chapter 15 +Galen Clark + + +Galen Clark was the best mountaineer I ever met, and one of the kindest +and most amiable of all my mountain friends. I first met him at his +Wawona ranch forty-three years ago on my first visit to Yosemite. I had +entered the Valley with one companion by way of Coulterville, and +returned by what was then known as the Mariposa trail. Both trails were +buried in deep snow where the elevation was from 5000 to 7000 feet +above sea level in the sugar pine and silver fir regions. We had no +great difficulty, however, in finding our way by the trends of the main +features of the topography. Botanizing by the way, we made slow, +plodding progress, and were again about out of provisions when we +reached Clark’s hospitable cabin at Wawona. He kindly furnished us with +flour and a little sugar and tea, and my companion, who complained of +the be-numbing poverty of a strictly vegetarian diet, gladly accepted +Mr. Clark’s offer of a piece of a bear that had just been killed. After +a short talk about bears and the forests and the way to the Big Trees, +we pushed on up through the Wawona firs and sugar pines, and camped in +the now-famous Mariposa grove. + +Later, after making my home in the Yosemite Valley, I became well +acquainted with Mr. Clark, while he was guardian. He was elected again +and again to this important office by different Boards of Commissioners +on account of his efficiency and his real love of the Valley. + +Although nearly all my mountaineering has been done without companions, +I had the pleasure of having Galen Clark with me on three excursions. +About thirty-five years ago I invited him to accompany me on a trip +through the Big Tuolumne Cañon from Hetch Hetchy Valley. The cañon up +to that time had not been explored, and knowing that the difference in +the elevation of the river at the head of the cañon and in Hetch Hetchy +was about 5000 feet, we expected to find some magnificent cataracts or +falls; nor were we disappointed. When we were leaving Yosemite an +ambitious young man begged leave to join us. I strongly advised him not +to attempt such a long, hard trip, for it would undoubtedly prove very +trying to an inexperienced climber. He assured us, however, that he was +equal to anything, would gladly meet every difficulty as it came, and +cause us no hindrance or trouble of any sort. So at last, after +repeating our advice that he give up the trip, we consented to his +joining us. We entered the cañon by way of Hetch Hetchy Valley, each +carrying his own provisions, and making his own tea, porridge, bed, +etc. + +In the morning of the second day out from Hetch Hetchy we came to what +is now known as “Muir Gorge,” and Mr. Clark without hesitation prepared +to force a way through it, wading and jumping from one submerged +boulder to another through the torrent, bracing and steadying himself +with a long pole. Though the river was then rather low, the savage, +roaring, surging song it was ringing was rather nerve-trying, +especially to our inexperienced companion. With careful assistance, +however, I managed to get him through, but this hard trial, naturally +enough, proved too much and he informed us, pale and trembling, that he +could go no farther. I gathered some wood at the upper throat of the +gorge, made a fire for him and advised him to feel at home and make +himself comfortable, hoped he would enjoy the grand scenery and the +songs of the water-ouzels which haunted the gorge, and assured him that +we would return some time in the night, though it might be late, as we +wished to go on through the entire cañon if possible. We pushed our way +through the dense chaparral and over the earthquake taluses with such +speed that we reached the foot of the upper cataract while we had still +an hour or so of daylight for the return trip. It was long after dark +when we reached our adventurous, but nerve-shaken companion who, of +course, was anxious and lonely, not being accustomed to solitude, +however kindly and flowery and full of sweet bird-song and stream-song. +Being tired we simply lay down in restful comfort on the river bank +beside a good fire, instead of trying to go down the gorge in the dark +or climb over its high shoulder to our blankets and provisions, which +we had left in the morning in a tree at the foot of the gorge. I +remember Mr. Clark remarking that if he had his choice that night +between provisions and blankets he would choose his blankets. + +The next morning in about an hour we had crossed over the ridge through +which the gorge is cut, reached our provisions, made tea, and had a +good breakfast. As soon as we had returned to Yosemite I obtained fresh +provisions, pushed off alone up to the head of Yosemite Creek basin, +entered the cañon by a side cañon, and completed the exploration up to +the Tuolumne Meadows. + +It was on this first trip from Hetch Hetchy to the upper cataracts that +I had convincing proofs of Mr. Clark’s daring and skill as mountaineer, +particularly in fording torrents, and in forcing his way through thick +chaparral. I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with him in dense, +tangled brush, though in jumping on boulder taluses and slippery +cobble-beds I had no difficulty in leaving him behind. + +After I had discovered the glaciers on Mount Lyell and Mount McClure, +Mr. Clark kindly made a second excursion with me to assist in +establishing a line of stakes across the McClure glacier to measure its +rate of flow. On this trip we also climbed Mount Lyell together, when +the snow which covered the glacier was melted into upleaning, icy +blades which were extremely difficult to cross, not being strong enough +to support our weight, nor wide enough apart to enable us to stride +across each blade as it was met. Here again I, being lighter, had no +difficulty in keeping ahead of him. While resting after wearisome +staggering and falling he stared at the marvelous ranks of leaning +blades, and said, “I think I have traveled all sorts of trails and +cañons, through all kinds of brush and snow, but this gets me.” + +Mr. Clark at my urgent request joined my small party on a trip to the +Kings River yosemite by way of the high mountains, most of the way +without a trail. He joined us at the Mariposa Big Tree grove and +intended to go all the way, but finding that, on account of the +difficulties encountered, the time required was much greater than he +expected, he turned back near the head of the north fork of the Kings +River. + +In cooking his mess of oatmeal porridge and making tea, his pot was +always the first to boil, and I used to wonder why, with all his skill +in scrambling through brush in the easiest way, and preparing his +meals, he was so utterly careless about his beds. He would lie down +anywhere on any ground, rough or smooth, without taking pains even to +remove cobbles or sharp-angled rocks protruding through the grass or +gravel, saying that his own bones were as hard as any stones and could +do him no harm. + +His kindness to all Yosemite visitors and mountaineers was marvelously +constant and uniform. He was not a good business man, and in building +an extensive hotel and barns at Wawona, before the travel to Yosemite +had been greatly developed, he borrowed money, mortgaged his property +and lost it all. + +Though not the first to see the Mariposa Big Tree grove, he was the +first to explore it, after he had heard from a prospector, who had +passed through the grove and who gave him the indefinite information, +that there were some wonderful big trees up there on the top of the +Wawona hill and that he believed they must be of the same kind that had +become so famous and well-known in the Calaveras grove farther north. +On this information, Galen Clark told me, he went up and thoroughly +explored the grove, counting the trees and measuring the largest, and +becoming familiar with it. He stated also that he had explored the +forest to the southward and had discovered the much larger Fresno grove +of about two square miles, six or seven miles distant from the Mariposa +grove. Unfortunately most of the Fresno grove has been cut and flumed +down to the railroad near Madera. + +Mr. Clark was truly and literally a gentle-man. I never heard him utter +a hasty, angry, fault-finding word. His voice was uniformly pitched at +a rather low tone, perfectly even, although lances of his eyes and +slight intonations of his voice often indicated that something funny or +mildly sarcastic was coming, but upon the whole he was serious and +industrious, and, however deep and fun-provoking a story might be, he +never indulged in boisterous laughter. + +He was very fond of scenery and once told me after I became acquainted +with him that he liked “nothing in the world better than climbing to +the top of a high ridge or mountain and looking off.” He preferred the +mountain ridges and domes in the Yosemite regions on account of the +wealth and beauty of the forests. Often times he would take his rifle, +a few pounds of bacon, a few pound of flour, and a single blanket and +go off hunting, for no other reason than to explore and get acquainted +with the most beautiful points of view within a journey of a week or +two from his Wawona home. On these trips he was always alone and could +indulge in tranquil enjoyment of Nature to his heart’s content. He said +that on those trips, when he was a sufficient distance from home in a +neighborhood where he wished to linger, he always shot a deer, +sometimes a grouse, and occasionally a bear. After diminishing the +weight of a deer or bear by eating part of it, he carried as much as +possible of the best of the meat to Wawona, and from his hospitable +well-supplied cabin no weary wanderer ever went away hungry or +unrested. + +The value of the mountain air in prolonging life is well examplified in +Mr. Clark’s case. While working in the mines he contracted a severe +cold that settled on his lungs and finally caused severe inflammation +and bleeding, and none of his friends thought he would ever recover. +The physicians told him he had but a short time to live. It was then +that he repaired to the beautiful sugar pine woods at Wawona and took +up a claim, including the fine meadows there, and building his cabin, +began his life of wandering and exploring in the glorious mountains +about him, usually going bare-headed. In a remarkably short time his +lungs were healed. + +He was one of the most sincere tree-lovers I ever knew. About twenty +years before his death he made choice of a plot in the Yosemite +cemetery on the north side of the Valley, not far from the Yosemite +Fall, and selecting a dozen or so of seedling sequoias in the Mariposa +grove he brought them to the Valley and planted them around the spot he +had chosen for his last rest. The ground there is gravelly and dry; by +careful watering he finally nursed most of the seedlings into good, +thrifty trees, and doubtless they will long shade the grave of their +blessed lover and friend. + + + +Chapter 16 +Hetch Hetchy Valley + + +Yosemite is so wonderful that we are apt to regard it as an exceptional +creation, the only valley of its kind in the world; but Nature is not +so poor as to have only one of anything. Several other yosemites have +been discovered in the Sierra that occupy the same relative positions +on the Range and were formed by the same forces in the same kind of +granite. One of these, the Hetch Hetchy Valley, is in the Yosemite +National Park about twenty miles from Yosemite and is easily accessible +to all sorts of travelers by a road and trail that leaves the Big Oak +Flat road at Bronson Meadows a few miles below Crane Flat, and to +mountaineers by way of Yosemite Creek basin and the head of the middle +fork of the Tuolumne. + +It is said to have been discovered by Joseph Screech, a hunter, in +1850, a year before the discovery of the great Yosemite. After my first +visit to it in the autumn of 1871, I have always called it the +“Tuolumne Yosemite,” for it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the +Merced Yosemite, not only in its sublime rocks and waterfalls but in +the gardens, groves and meadows of its flowery park-like floor. The +floor of Yosemite is about 4000 feet above the sea; the Hetch Hetchy +floor about 3700 feet. And as the Merced River flows through Yosemite, +so does the Tuolumne through Hetch Hetchy. The walls of both are of +gray granite, rise abruptly from the floor, are sculptured in the same +style and in both every rock is a glacier monument. + +Standing boldly out from the south wall is a strikingly picturesque +rock called by the Indians, Kolana, the outermost of a group 2300 feet +high, corresponding with the Cathedral Rocks of Yosemite both in +relative position and form. On the opposite side of the Valley, facing +Kolana, there is a counterpart of the El Capitan that rises sheer and +plain to a height of 1800 feet, and over its massive brow flows a +stream which makes the most graceful fall I have ever seen. From the +edge of the cliff to the top of an earthquake talus it is perfectly +free in the air for a thousand feet before it is broken into cascades +among talus boulders. It is in all its glory in June, when the snow is +melting fast, but fades and vanishes toward the end of summer. The only +fall I know with which it may fairly be compared is the Yosemite Bridal +Veil; but it excels even that favorite fall both in height and +airy-fairy beauty and behavior. Lowlanders are apt to suppose that +mountain streams in their wild career over cliffs lose control of +themselves and tumble in a noisy chaos of mist and spray. On the +contrary, on no part of their travels are they more harmonious and +self-controlled. Imagine yourself in Hetch Hetchy on a sunny day in +June, standing waist-deep in grass and flowers (as I have often stood), +while the great pines sway dreamily with scarcely perceptible motion. +Looking northward across the Valley you see a plain, gray granite cliff +rising abruptly out of the gardens and groves to a height of 1800 feet, +and in front of it Tueeulala’s silvery scarf burning with irised +sun-fire. In the first white outburst at the head there is abundance of +visible energy, but it is speedily hushed and concealed in divine +repose, and its tranquil progress to the base of the cliff is like that +of a downy feather in a still room. Now observe the fineness and +marvelous distinctness of the various sun-illumined fabrics into which +the water is woven; they sift and float from form to form down the face +of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and unconfused a manner that +you can examine their texture, and patterns and tones of color as you +would a piece of embroidery held in the hand. Toward the top of the +fall you see groups of booming, comet-like masses, their solid, white +heads separate, their tails like combed silk interlacing among delicate +gray and purple shadows, ever forming and dissolving, worn out by +friction in their rush through the air. Most of these vanish a few +hundred feet below the summit, changing to varied forms of cloud-like +drapery. Near the bottom the width of the fall has increased from about +twenty-five feet to a hundred feet. Here it is composed of yet finer +tissues, and is still without a trace of disorder—air, water and +sunlight woven into stuff that spirits might wear. + +So fine a fall might well seem sufficient to glorify any valley; but +here, as in Yosemite, Nature seems in nowise moderate, for a short +distance to the eastward of Tueeulala booms and thunders the great +Hetch Hetchy Fall, Wapama, so near that you have both of them in full +view from the same standpoint. It is the counterpart of the Yosemite +Fall, but has a much greater volume of water, is about 1700 feet in +height, and appears to be nearly vertical, though considerably +inclined, and is dashed into huge outbounding bosses of foam on +projecting shelves and knobs. No two falls could be more +unlike—Tueeulala out in the open sunshine descending like thistledown; +Wapama in a jagged, shadowy gorge roaring and plundering, pounding its +way like an earthquake avalanche. + +Besides this glorious pair there is a broad, massive fall on the main +river a short distance above the head of the Valley. Its position is +something like that of the Vernal in Yosemite, and its roar as it +plunges into a surging trout-pool may be heard a long way, though it is +only about twenty feet high. On Rancheria Creek, a large stream, +corresponding in position with the Yosemite Tenaya Creek, there is a +chain of cascades joined here and there with swift flashing plumes like +the one between the Vernal and Nevada Falls, making magnificent shows +as they go their glacier-sculptured way, sliding, leaping, hurrahing, +covered with crisp clashing spray made glorious with sifting sunshine. +And besides all these a few small streams come over the walls at wide +intervals, leaping from ledge to ledge with birdlike song and watering +many a hidden cliff-garden and fernery, but they are too unshowy to be +noticed in so grand a place. + +The correspondence between the Hetch Hetchy walls in their trends, +sculpture, physical structure, and general arrangement of the main +rock-masses and those of the Yosemite Valley has excited the wondering +admiration of every observer. We have seen that the El Capitan and +Cathedral rocks occupy the same relative positions In both valleys; so +also do their Yosemite points and North Domes. Again, that part of the +Yosemite north wall immediately to the east of the Yosemite Fall has +two horizontal benches, about 500 and 1500 feet above the floor, +timbered with golden-cup oak. Two benches similarly situated and +timbered occur on the same relative portion of the Hetch Hetchy north +wall, to the east of Wapama Fall, and on no other. The Yosemite is +bounded at the head by the great Half Dome. Hetch Hetchy is bounded in +the same way though its head rock is incomparably less wonderful and +sublime in form. + +The floor of the Valley is about three and a half miles long, and from +a fourth to half a mile wide. The lower portion is mostly a level +meadow about a mile long, with the trees restricted to the sides and +the river banks, and partially separated from the main, upper, forested +portion by a low bar of glacier-polished granite across which the river +breaks in rapids. + +The principal trees are the yellow and sugar pines, digger pine, +incense cedar, Douglas spruce, silver fir, the California and +golden-cup oaks, balsam cottonwood, Nuttall’s flowering dogwood, alder, +maple, laurel, tumion, etc. The most abundant and influential are the +great yellow or silver pines like those of Yosemite, the tallest over +two hundred feet in height, and the oaks assembled in magnificent +groves with massive rugged trunks four to six feet in diameter, and +broad, shady, wide-spreading heads. The shrubs forming conspicuous +flowery clumps and tangles are manzanita, azalea, spiræa, brier-rose, +several species of ceanothus, calycanthus, philadelphus, wild cherry, +etc.; with abundance of showy and fragrant herbaceous plants growing +about them or out in the open in beds by themselves—lilies, Mariposa +tulips, brodiaeas, orchids, iris, spraguea, draperia, collomia, +collinsia, castilleja, nemophila, larkspur, columbine, goldenrods, +sunflowers, mints of many species, honeysuckle, etc. Many fine ferns +dwell here also, especially the beautiful and interesting +rock-ferns—pellaea, and cheilanthes of several species—fringing and +rosetting dry rock-piles and ledges; woodwardia and asplenium on damp +spots with fronds six or seven feet high; the delicate maiden-hair in +mossy nooks by the falls, and the sturdy, broad-shouldered pteris +covering nearly all the dry ground beneath the oaks and pines. + +It appears, therefore, that Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a +plain, common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to +suppose, is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most +precious mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its +walls seem to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or +standing erect in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and +calms alike, their brows in the sky, their feet set in the groves and +gay flowery meadows, while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river +and waterfalls to stir all the air into music—things frail and fleeting +and types of permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do in +Yosemite, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with +her. + +Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite +National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the +uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being +dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with +water and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its +gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep. This grossly +destructive commercial scheme has long been planned and urged (though +water as pure and abundant can be got from outside of the people’s +park, in a dozen different places), because of the comparative +cheapness of the dam and of the territory which it is sought to divert +from the great uses to which it was dedicated in the Act of 1890 +establishing the Yosemite National Park. + +The making of gardens and parks goes on with civilization all over the +world, and they increase both in size and number as their value is +recognized. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in +and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body +and soul alike. This natural beauty-hunger is made manifest in the +little window-sill gardens of the poor, though perhaps only a geranium +slip in a broken cup, as well as in the carefully tended rose and lily +gardens of the rich, the thousands of spacious city parks and botanical +gardens, and in our magnificent National parks—the Yellowstone, +Yosemite, Sequoia, etc.—Nature’s sublime wonderlands, the admiration +and joy of the world. Nevertheless, like anything else worth while, +from the very beginning, however well guarded, they have always been +subject to attack by despoiling gainseekers and mischief-makers of +every degree from Satan to Senators, eagerly trying to make everything +immediately and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in +smug-smiling philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying, +“Conservation, conservation, panutilization,” that man and beast may be +fed and the dear Nation made great. Thus long ago a few enterprising +merchants utilized the Jerusalem temple as a place of business instead +of a place of prayer, changing money, buying and selling cattle and +sheep and doves; and earlier still, the first forest reservation, +including only one tree, was likewise despoiled. Ever since the +establishment of the Yosemite National Park, strife has been going on +around its borders and I suppose this will go on as part of the +universal battle between right and wrong, however much its boundaries +may be shorn, or its wild beauty destroyed. + +The first application to the Government by the San Francisco +Supervisors for the commercial use of Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy +Valley was made in 1903, and on December 22nd of that year it was +denied by the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Hitchcock, who truthfully +said: + +Presumably the Yosemite National Park was created such by law because +within its boundaries, inclusive alike of its beautiful small lakes, +like Eleanor, and its majestic wonders, like Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite +Valley. It is the aggregation of such natural scenic features that +makes the Yosemite Park a wonderland which the Congress of the United +States sought by law to reserve for all coming time as nearly as +practicable in the condition fashioned by the hand of the Creator—a +worthy object of national pride and a source of healthful pleasure and +rest for the thousands of people who may annually sojourn there during +the heated months. + +In 1907 when Mr. Garfield became Secretary of the Interior the +application was renewed and granted; but under his successor, Mr. +Fisher, the matter has been referred to a Commission, which as this +volume goes to press still has it under consideration. + +The most delightful and wonderful camp grounds in the Park are its +three great valleys—Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy, and Upper Tuolumne; and +they are also the most important places with reference to their +positions relative to the other great features—the Merced and Tuolumne +Cañons, and the High Sierra peaks and glaciers, etc., at the head of +the rivers. The main part of the Tuolumne Valley is a spacious flowery +lawn four or five miles long, surrounded by magnificent snowy +mountains, slightly separated from other beautiful meadows, which +together make a series about twelve miles in length, the highest +reaching to the feet of Mount Dana, Mount Gibbs, Mount Lyell and Mount +McClure. It is about 8500 feet above the sea, and forms the grand +central High Sierra camp ground from which excursions are made to the +noble mountains, domes, glaciers, etc.; across the Range to the Mono +Lake and volcanoes and down the Tuolumne Cañon to Hetch Hetchy. Should +Hetch Hetchy be submerged for a reservoir, as proposed, not only would +it be utterly destroyed, but the sublime cañon way to the heart of the +High Sierra would be hopelessly blocked and the great camping ground, +as the watershed of a city drinking system, virtually would be closed +to the public. So far as I have learned, few of all the thousands who +have seen the park and seek rest and peace in it are in favor of this +outrageous scheme. + +One of my later visits to the Valley was made in the autumn of 1907 +with the late William Keith, the artist. The leaf-colors were then +ripe, and the great godlike rocks in repose seemed to glow with life. +The artist, under their spell, wandered day after day along the river +and through the groves and gardens, studying the wonderful scenery; +and, after making about forty sketches, declared with enthusiasm that +although its walls were less sublime in height, in picturesque beauty +and charm Hetch Hetchy surpassed even Yosemite. + +That any one would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but +sad experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough +for anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of +bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the +people’s parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their +arguments are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the +destruction of the first garden—so much of the very best Eden fruit +going to waste; so much of the best Tuolumne water and Tuolumne scenery +going to waste. Few of their statements are even partly true, and all +are misleading. + +Thus, Hetch Hetchy, they say, is a “low-lying meadow.” On the contrary, +it is a high-lying natural landscape garden, as the photographic +illustrations show. + +“It is a common minor feature, like thousands of others.” On the +contrary it is a very uncommon feature; after Yosemite, the rarest and +in many ways the most important in the National Park. + +“Damming and submerging it 175 feet deep would enhance its beauty by +forming a crystal-clear lake.” Landscape gardens, places of recreation +and worship, are never made beautiful by destroying and burying them. +The beautiful sham lake, forsooth, should be only an eyesore, a dismal +blot on the landscape, like many others to be seen in the Sierra. For, +instead of keeping it at the same level all the year, allowing Nature +centuries of time to make new shores, it would, of course, be full only +a month or two in the spring, when the snow is melting fast; then it +would be gradually drained, exposing the slimy sides of the basin and +shallower parts of the bottom, with the gathered drift and waste, death +and decay of the upper basins, caught here instead of being swept on to +decent natural burial along the banks of the river or in the sea. Thus +the Hetch Hetchy dam-lake would be only a rough imitation of a natural +lake for a few of the spring months, an open sepulcher for the others. + +“Hetch Hetchy water is the purest of all to be found in the Sierra, +unpolluted, and forever unpollutable.” On the contrary, excepting that +of the Merced below Yosemite, it is less pure than that of most of the +other Sierra streams, because of the sewerage of camp grounds draining +into it, especially of the Big Tuolumne Meadows camp ground, occupied +by hundreds of tourists and mountaineers, with their animals, for +months every summer, soon to be followed by thousands from all the +world. + +These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to +have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes +to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. + +Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals +and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the +heart of man. + + + +Appendix A +Legislation About the Yosemite + + +In the year 1864, Congress passed the following act:— + +ACT OF JUNE 30, 1864 (13 STAT., 325). + +An Act Authorizing a grant to the State of California of the “Yo-Semite +Valley,” and of the land embracing the “Mariposa Big Tree Grove.” + +“_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America, in Congress assembled,_ That there shall be, +and is hereby, granted to the State of California, the ‘Cleft’ or +‘Gorge’ in the Granite Peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in +the county of Mariposa, in the State aforesaid, and the headwaters of +the Merced River, and known as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches +and spurs, in estimated length fifteen miles, and in average width one +mile back from the main edge of the precipice, on each side of the +Valley, with the stipulation, nevertheless, that the said State shall +accept this grant upon the express conditions that the premises shall +be held for public use, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable +for all time; but leases not exceeding ten years may be granted for +portions of said premises. All incomes derived from leases of +privileges to be expended in the preservation and improvement of the +property, or the roads leading thereto; the boundaries to be +established at the cost of said State by the United States +Surveyor-General of California, whose official plat, when affirmed by +the Commissioner of the General Land Office, shall constitute the +evidence of the locus, extent, and limits of the said Cleft or Gorge; +the premises to be managed by the Governor of the State, with eight +other Commissioners, to be appointed by the Executive of California, +and who shall receive no compensation for their services. + +“Sec. 2. _And be it further enacted,_ That there shall likewise be, and +there is hereby, granted to the said State of California, the tracts +embracing what is known as the ‘Mariposa Big Tree Grove,’ not to exceed +the area of four sections, and to be taken in legal subdivisions of +one-quarter section each, with the like stipulations as expressed in +the first section of this Act as to the State’s acceptance, with like +conditions as in the first section of this Act as to inalienability, +yet with the same lease privileges; the income to be expended in the +preservation, improvement, and protection of the property, the premises +to be managed by Commissioners, as stipulated in the first section of +this Act, and to be taken in legal subdivisions as aforesaid; and the +official plat of the United States Surveyor-General, when affirmed by +the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to be the evidence of the +locus of the said Mariposa Big Tree Grove.” + +This important act was approved by the President, June 30, 1864, and +shortly after the Governor of California, F. F. Low, issued a +proclamation taking possession of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa +grove of Big Trees, in the name and on behalf of the State, appointing +commissioners to manage them, and warning all persons against +trespassing or settling there without authority, and especially +forbidding the cutting of timber and other injurious acts. + +The first Board of Commissioners were F. Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, +William Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, +George W. Coulter, and Galen Clark. + +ACT OF OCTOBER 1, 1890 (26 STAT., 650). + +[Footnote: Sections 1 and 2 of this act pertain to the Yosemite +National Park, while section 3 sets apart General Grant National Park, +and also a portion of Sequoia National Park.] + +An Act To set apart certain tracts of land in the State of California +as forest reservations. + +“_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America in Congress assembled,_ That the tracts of +land in the State of California known as described as follows: +Commencing at the northwest corner of township two north, range +nineteen east Mount Diablo meridian, thence eastwardly on the line +between townships two and three north, ranges twenty-four and +twenty-five east; thence southwardly on the line between ranges +twenty-four and twenty-five east to the Mount Diablo base line; thence +eastwardly on said base line to the corner to township one south, +ranges twenty-five and twenty-six east; thence southwardly on the line +between ranges twenty-five and twenty-six east to the southeast corner +of township two south, range twenty-five east; thence eastwardly on the +line between townships two and three south, range twenty-six east to +the corner to townships two and three south, ranges twenty-six and +twenty-seven east; thence southwardly on the line between ranges +twenty-six and twenty-seven east to the first standard parallel south; +thence westwardly on the first standard parallel south to the southwest +corner of township four south, range nineteen east; thence northwardly +on the line between ranges eighteen and nineteen east to the northwest +corner of township two south, range nineteen east; thence westwardly on +the line between townships one and two south to the southwest corner of +township one south, range nineteen east; thence northwardly on the line +between ranges eighteen and nineteen east to the northwest corner of +township two north, range nineteen east, the place of beginning, are +hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under +the laws of the United States, and set apart as reserved forest lands; +and all persons who shall locate or settle upon, or occupy the same or +any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered +trespassers and removed therefrom: _Provided, however,_ That nothing in +this act shall be construed as in anywise affecting the grant of lands +made to the State of California by virtue of the act entitled, ‘An act +authorizing a grant to the State of California of the Yosemite Valley, +and of the land embracing the Mariposa Big-Tree Grove,’ appeared June +thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; or as affecting any +bona-fide entry of land made within the limits above described under +any law of the United States prior to the approval of this act. + +“Sec. 2. That said reservation shall be under the exclusive control of +the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as +practicable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may +deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such +regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury of all +timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said +reservation, and their retention in their natural condition. The +Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for building purposes +for terms not exceeding ten years of small parcels of ground not +exceeding five acres; at such places in said reservation as shall +require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; +all of the proceeds of said leases and other revenues that may be +derived from any source connected with said reservation to be expended +under his direction in the management of the same and the construction +of roads and paths therein. He shall provide against the wanton +destruction of the fish, and game found within said reservation, and +against their capture or destruction, for the purposes of merchandise +or profit. He shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the same +after the passage of this act to be removed therefrom, and, generally, +shall be authorized to take all such measures as shall be necessary or +proper to fully carry out the objects and purposes of this act. + +“Sec. 3. There shall also be and is hereby reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and +shall be set apart as reserved forest lands, as herein before provided, +and subject to all the limitations and provisions herein contained, the +following additional lands, to wit: Township seventeen south, range +thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian, excepting sections +thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, and thirty-four of said township, +included in a previous bill. And there is also reserved and withdrawn +from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United +States, and set apart as forest lands, subject to like limitations, +conditions, and provisions, all of townships fifteen and sixteen south, +of ranges twenty-nine and thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian. And +there is also hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, +or sale under the laws of the United states, and set apart as reserved +forest lands under like limitations, restrictions, and provisions, +sections five and six in township fourteen south, range twenty-eight +east of Mount Diablo meridian, and also sections thirty-one and +thirty-two of township thirteen south, range twenty-eight east of the +same meridian. Nothing in this act shall authorize rules or contracts +touching the protection and improvement of said reservations, beyond +the sums that may be received by the Secretary of the Interior under +the foregoing provisions, or authorize any charge against the Treasury +of the United States.” + +ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, APPROVED MARCH 3, +1905. + +“Sec. 1. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto +the United States of America the ‘cleft’ or ‘gorge’ in the granite peak +of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county of Mariposa, +State of California, and the headwaters of the Merced River, and known +as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, granted unto the +State of California in trust for public use, resort, and recreation by +the act of Congress entitled, ‘An act authorizing a grant to the State +of California of the Yosemite Valley and of the land embracing the +Mariposa Big Tree Grove,’ approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and +sixty-four; and the State of California does hereby relinquish unto the +United States of America and resign the trusts created and granted by +the said act of Congress. + +“Sec. 2. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto +the United States of America the tracts embracing what is known as the +‘Mariposa Big Tree Grove,’ planted unto the State of California in +trust for public use, resort, and recreation by the act of Congress +referred to in section one of this act, and the State of California +does hereby relinquish unto the United States of America and resign the +trusts created and granted by the said act of Congress. + +“Sec. 3. This act shall take effect from and after acceptance by the +United States of America of the recessions and regrants herein made +thereby forever releasing the State of California from further cost of +maintaining the said premises, the same to be held for all time by the +United States of America for public use, resort, and recreation and +imposing on the United States of America the cost of maintaining the +same as a national park: _Provided, however,_ That the recession and +regrant hereby made shall not affect vested rights and interests of +third persons.” + + + +Appendix B +Table of Distances + + +From the Guardian’s office, in the village, the distances to various +points are in miles as follows: + + _Miles_. + Bridal Veil Fall 4.04 + Cascade Falls 7.67 + Cloud’s Rest, Summit 11.81 + Columbia Rock, on Eagle Peak Trail 1.98 + Dana, Mt., Summit 40.34 + Eagle Peak 6.59 + El Capitan Bridge 3.63 + Glacier Point, direct trail 4.45 + Glacier Point, by Nevada Falls 16.98 + Lyell, Mt., Summit 38.20 + Merced Bridge 2.03 + Mirror Lake, by Hunt’s avenue 2.91 + Nevada Fall (Hotel) 4.63 + Nevada Fall, Bridge above 5.45 + Pohono Bridge 5.29 + Register Rock 3.24 + Ribbon Fall 3.99 + Rocky Point (base of Three Brothers) 1.45 + Tenayah Creek Bridge 2.26 + Tenayah Lake 16.00 + Yosemite Falls, foot 0.90 + Yosemite Falls, foot Upper Fall 2.67 + Yosemite Falls, top 4.33 + Soda Springs (Eagle Peak Trail) 24.50 + Sentinel Dome 5.57 + Union Point, on Glacier Point Trail 3.13 + Vernal Fall 3.50 + + + +Appendix C +Maximum Rates for Transportation + + +The following rates for transportation in and about the Valley have +been established by the Board of Commissioners: + +SADDLE-HORSES + + _From Route to Amount_ + + Valley Glacier Point and Sentinel Dome, and return, $3.00 + direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.75 + and return, direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 3.00 + and Casa Nevada, passing night at Casa Nevada + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 4.00 + Vernal Fall, and thence to Valley same day + Glacier Point Valley direct 2.00 + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, and Casa Nevada, 2.00 + passing night at Casa Nevada + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall, 3.00 + and thence to Valley same day + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, direct, 3.00 + and return to Valley same day + Valley Glacier Point by Casa Nevada, passing night 3.00 + at Glacier Point + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, Sentinel Dome, 4.00 + Glacier Point, and thence to Valley same day + Valley Cloud’s Rest and return to Casa Nevada 3.00 + Valley Cloud’s Rest and return to Valley same day 5.00 + Casa Nevada Cloud’s Rest and return to Casa Nevada or 3.00 + Valley same day + Casa Nevada Valley direct 2.00 + Casa Nevada Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, and Glacier Point, 2.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, 3.00 + and Valley same day + Upper Yosemite Fall, Eagle Peak, and return 3.00 + Charge for guide (including horse), when furnished 3.00 + Saddle-horses, on level of Valley, per day 2.50 + +1. The above charges do not include feed for horses when passing night +at Casa Nevada or Glacier Point. + +2. Where Valley is specified as starting-point, the above rates prevail +from any hotel in Valley, or from the foot of any trail. + +3. Any shortening of above trips, without proportionate reduction of +rates, shall be at the option of those hiring horses. + +4. Trips other than those above specified shall be subject to special +arrangement between letter and hirer. + +CARRIAGES + _From Route to + Amount_ + Hotels Mirror Lake and return, direct + $1.00 Hotels Mirror Lake and return by Tissiack Avenue + 1.25 Hotels Mirror Lake and return to foot of Trail, to Vernal + 1.00 and Nevada Falls Hotels Bridal Veil Falls and return, + direct 1.00 Hotels Pohono Bridge, down either + side of Valley, and return 1.50 on opposite side, stopping at + Yosemite and Bridal Veil Falls Hotels Cascade Falls, down either + side of Valley, and return 2.25 on opposite side, stopping at + Yosemite and Bridal Veil Falls Hotels Artist Point and return, + direct, stopping at Bridal 2.00 Veil Falls Hotels New + Inspiration Point and return, direct, stopping at 2.00 Bridal Veil + Falls Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 2.50 + Falls, excluding Lake and Cascades Grand Round Drive, including + Yosemite and Bridal Veil 3.50 Falls, Lake, and Cascades + +1. When the value of the seats hired in any vehicle shall exceed $15 +for a two-horse team, or $25 for a four-horse team, _for any trip_ in +the above schedule, the persons hiring the seats shall have the +privilege of paying no more than the aggregate sums of $15 and $25 _per +trip_ for a two-horse and four-horse team, respectively. + +2. If saddle-horses should be substituted for any of the above carriage +trips, carriage rates will apply to each horse. In no case shall the +_per diem_ charge of $2.50 for each saddle-horse, on level of Valley, +be exceeded. + +Any excess of the above rates, as well as any extortion, incivility, +misrepresentation, or the riding of unsafe animals, should be promptly +reported at the Guardian’s office. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOSEMITE *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Yosemite</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John Muir</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 9, 2003 [eBook #7091]<br /> +[Most recently updated: June 29, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Dan Anderson and Andrew Sly</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOSEMITE ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:60%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="cover" /><br/><br/> +</div> + +<h1>The Yosemite</h1> + +<h2>by John Muir</h2> + +<p class="center"> +Affectionately dedicated<br/> +to my friend,<br/> +<big>Robert Underwood Johnson</big>,<br/> +faithful<br/> +lover and defender<br/> +of our glorious forests<br/> +and originator of<br/> +the Yosemite National Park. +</p> + +<h3>Acknowledgment</h3> + +<p> +On the early history of Yosemite the writer is indebted to Prof. J. D. Whitney +for quotations from his volume entitled “Yosemite Guide-Book,” and +to Dr. Bunnell for extracts from his interesting volume entitled +“Discovery of the Yosemite.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 1.</td><td> <a href="#chap01">The Approach to the Valley</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 2.</td><td> <a href="#chap02">Winter Storms and Spring Floods</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 3.</td><td> <a href="#chap03">Snow-Storms</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 4.</td><td> <a href="#chap04">Snow Banners</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 5.</td><td> <a href="#chap05">The Trees of the Valley</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 6.</td><td> <a href="#chap06">The Forest Trees in General</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 7.</td><td> <a href="#chap07">The Big Trees</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 8.</td><td> <a href="#chap08">The Flowers</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 9.</td><td> <a href="#chap09">The Birds</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 10.</td><td> <a href="#chap10">The South Dome</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 11.</td><td> <a href="#chap11">The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: How the Valley Was Formed</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 12.</td><td> <a href="#chap12">How Best to Spend One’s Yosemite Time</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 13.</td><td> <a href="#chap13">Early History of the Valley</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 14.</td><td> <a href="#chap14">Lamon</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 15.</td><td> <a href="#chap15">Galen Clark</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chapter 16.</td><td> <a href="#chap16">Hetch Hetchy Valley</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Appendix A.</td><td> <a href="#chap17">Legislation About the Yosemite</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Appendix B.</td><td> <a href="#chap18">Table of Distances</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Appendix C.</td><td> <a href="#chap19">Maximum Rates for Transportation</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>Chapter 1<br/> +The Approach to the Valley</h2> + +<p> +When I set out on the long excursion that finally led to California I wandered +afoot and alone, from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, with a plant-press on my +back, holding a generally southward course, like the birds when they are going +from summer to winter. From the west coast of Florida I crossed the gulf to +Cuba, enjoyed the rich tropical flora there for a few months, intending to go +thence to the north end of South America, make my way through the woods to the +headwaters of the Amazon, and float down that grand river to the ocean. But I +was unable to find a ship bound for South America—fortunately perhaps, +for I had incredibly little money for so long a trip and had not yet fully +recovered from a fever caught in the Florida swamps. Therefore I decided to +visit California for a year or two to see its wonderful flora and the famous +Yosemite Valley. All the world was before me and every day was a holiday, so it +did not seem important to which one of the world’s wildernesses I first +should wander. +</p> + +<p> +Arriving by the Panama steamer, I stopped one day in San Francisco and then +inquired for the nearest way out of town. “But where do you want to +go?” asked the man to whom I had applied for this important information. +“To any place that is wild,” I said. This reply startled him. He +seemed to fear I might be crazy and therefore the sooner I was out of town the +better, so he directed me to the Oakland ferry. +</p> + +<p> +So on the first of April, 1868, I set out afoot for Yosemite. It was the +bloom-time of the year over the lowlands and coast ranges the landscapes of the +Santa Clara Valley were fairly drenched with sunshine, all the air was +quivering with the songs of the meadow-larks, and the hills were so covered +with flowers that they seemed to be painted. Slow indeed was my progress +through these glorious gardens, the first of the California flora I had seen. +Cattle and cultivation were making few scars as yet, and I wandered enchanted +in long wavering curves, knowing by my pocket map that Yosemite Valley lay to +the east and that I should surely find it. +</p> + +<h3>The Sierra From The West</h3> + +<p> +Looking eastward from the summit of the Pacheco Pass one shining morning, a +landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still appears as the most +beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the Great Central Valley of +California, level and flowery, like a lake of pure sunshine, forty or fifty +miles wide, five hundred miles long, one rich furred garden of yellow +<i>Compositœ</i>. And from the eastern boundary of this vast golden +flower-bed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, and so gloriously colored +and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with light, but wholly composed of it, +like the wall of some celestial city. Along the top and extending a good way +down, was a rich pearl-gray belt of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark +purple, marking the extension of the forests; and stretching along the base of +the range a broad belt of rose-purple; all these colors, from the blue sky to +the yellow valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of +light ineffably fine. Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, +not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years of +wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of +light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday +radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray +of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of Light. +</p> + +<p> +In general views no mark of man is visible upon it, nor any thing to suggest +the wonderful depth and grandeur of its sculpture. None of its magnificent +forest-crowned ridges seems to rise much above the general level to publish its +wealth. No great valley or river is seen, or group of well-marked features of +any kind standing out as distinct pictures. Even the summit peaks, marshaled in +glorious array so high in the sky, seem comparatively regular in form. +Nevertheless the whole range five hundred miles long is furrowed with cañons +2000 to 5000 feet deep, in which once flowed majestic glaciers, and in which +now flow and sing the bright rejoicing rivers. +</p> + +<h3>Characteristics Of The Cañons</h3> + +<p> +Though of such stupendous depth, these cañons are not gloom gorges, savage and +inaccessible. With rough passages here and there they are flowery pathways +conducting to the snowy, icy fountains; mountain streets full of life and +light, graded and sculptured by the ancient glaciers, and presenting throughout +all their course a rich variety of novel and attractive scenery—the most +attractive that has yet been discovered in the mountain ranges of the world. In +many places, especially in the middle region of the western flank, the main +cañons widen into spacious valleys or parks diversified like landscape gardens +with meadows and groves and thickets of blooming bushes, while the lofty walls, +infinitely varied in form are fringed with ferns, flowering plants, shrubs of +many species and tall evergreens and oaks that find footholds on small benches +and tables, all enlivened and made glorious with rejoicing stream that come +chanting in chorus over the cliffs and through side cañons in falls of every +conceivable form, to join the river that flow in tranquil, shining beauty down +the middle of each one of them. +</p> + +<h3>The Incomparable Yosemite</h3> + +<p> +The most famous and accessible of these cañon valleys, and also the one that +presents their most striking and sublime features on the grandest scale, is the +Yosemite, situated in the basin of the Merced River at an elevation of 4000 +feet above the level of the sea. It is about seven miles long, half a mile to a +mile wide, and nearly a mile deep in the solid granite flank of the range. The +walls are made up of rocks, mountains in size, partly separated from each other +by side cañons, and they are so sheer in front, and so compactly and +harmoniously arranged on a level floor, that the Valley, comprehensively seen, +looks like an immense hall or temple lighted from above. +</p> + +<p> +But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its +walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back in majestic repose; others, +absolutely sheer or nearly so for thousands of feet, advance beyond their +companions in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, +seemingly aware, yet heedless, of everything going on about them. Awful in +stern, immovable majesty, how softly these rocks are adorned, and how fine and +reassuring the company they keep: their feet among beautiful groves and +meadows, their brows in the sky, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against +their feet, bathed in floods of water, floods of light, while the snow and +waterfalls, the winds and avalanches and clouds shine and sing and wreathe +about them as the years go by, and myriads of small winged creatures birds, +bees, butterflies—give glad animation and help to make all the air into +music. Down through the middle of the Valley flows the crystal Merced, River of +Mercy, peacefully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and the onlooking rocks; +things frail and fleeting and types of endurance meeting here and blending in +countless forms, as if into this one mountain mansion Nature had gathered her +choicest treasures, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with +her. +</p> + +<h3>The Approach To The Valley</h3> + +<p> +Sauntering up the foothills to Yosemite by any of the old trails or roads in +use before the railway was built from the town of Merced up the river to the +boundary of Yosemite Park, richer and wilder become the forests and streams. At +an elevation of 6000 feet above the level of the sea the silver firs are 200 +feet high, with branches whorled around the colossal shafts in regular order, +and every branch beautifully pinnate like a fern frond. The Douglas spruce, the +yellow and sugar pines and brown-barked Libocedrus here reach their finest +developments of beauty and grandeur. The majestic Sequoia is here, too, the +king of conifers, the noblest of all the noble race. These colossal trees are +as wonderful in fineness of beauty and proportion as in stature—an +assemblage of conifers surpassing all that have ever yet been discovered in the +forests of the world. Here indeed is the tree-lover’s paradise; the +woods, dry and wholesome, letting in the light in shimmering masses of half +sunshine, half shade; the night air as well as the day air indescribably spicy +and exhilarating; plushy fir-boughs for campers’ beds and cascades to +sing us to sleep. On the highest ridges, over which these old Yosemite ways +passed, the silver fir (<i>Abies magnifica</i>) forms the bulk of the woods, +pressing forward in glorious array to the very brink of the Valley walls on +both sides, and beyond the Valley to a height of from 8000 to 9000 feet above +the level of the sea. Thus it appears that Yosemite, presenting such stupendous +faces of bare granite, is nevertheless imbedded in magnificent forests, and the +main species of pine, fir, spruce and libocedrus are also found in the Valley +itself, but there are no “big trees” (<i>Sequoia gigantea</i>) in +the Valley or about the rim of it. The nearest are about ten and twenty miles +beyond the lower end of the valley on small tributaries of the Merced and +Tuolumne Rivers. +</p> + +<h3>The First View: The Bridal Veil</h3> + +<p> +From the margin of these glorious forests the first general view of the Valley +used to be gained—a revelation in landscape affairs that enriches +one’s life forever. Entering the Valley, gazing overwhelmed with the +multitude of grand objects about us, perhaps the first to fix our attention +will be the Bridal Veil, a beautiful waterfall on our right. Its brow, where it +first leaps free from the cliff, is about 900 feet above us; and as it sways +and sings in the wind, clad in gauzy, sun-sifted spray, half falling, half +floating, it seems infinitely gentle and fine; but the hymns it sings tell the +solemn fateful power hidden beneath its soft clothing. +</p> + +<p> +The Bridal Veil shoots free from the upper edge of the cliff by the velocity +the stream has acquired in descending a long slope above the head of the fall. +Looking from the top of the rock-avalanche talus on the west side, about one +hundred feet above the foot of the fall, the under surface of the water arch is +seen to be finely grooved and striated; and the sky is seen through the arch +between rock and water, making a novel and beautiful effect. +</p> + +<p> +Under ordinary weather conditions the fall strikes on flat-topped slabs, +forming a kind of ledge about two-thirds of the way down from the top, and as +the fall sways back and forth with great variety of motions among these +flat-topped pillars, kissing and plashing notes as well as thunder-like +detonations are produced, like those of the Yosemite Fall, though on a smaller +scale. +</p> + +<p> +The rainbows of the Veil, or rather the spray- and foam-bows, are superb, +because the waters are dashed among angular blocks of granite at the foot, +producing abundance of spray of the best quality for iris effects, and also for +a luxuriant growth of grass and maiden-hair on the side of the talus, which +lower down is planted with oak, laurel and willows. +</p> + +<h3>General Features Of The Valley</h3> + +<p> +On the other side of the Valley, almost immediately opposite the Bridal Veil, +there is another fine fall, considerably wider than the Veil when the snow is +melting fast and more than 1000 feet in height, measured from the brow of the +cliff where it first springs out into the air to the head of the rocky talus on +which it strikes and is broken up into ragged cascades. It is called the Ribbon +Fall or Virgin’s Tears. During the spring floods it is a magnificent +object, but the suffocating blasts of spray that fill the recess in the wall +which it occupies prevent a near approach. In autumn, however when its feeble +current falls in a shower, it may then pass for tears with the sentimental +onlooker fresh from a visit to the Bridal Veil. +</p> + +<p> +Just beyond this glorious flood the El Capitan Rock, regarded by many as the +most sublime feature of the Valley, is seen through the pine groves, standing +forward beyond the general line of the wall in most imposing grandeur, a type +of permanence. It is 3300 feet high, a plain, severely simple, +glacier-sculptured face of granite, the end of one of the most compact and +enduring of the mountain ridges, unrivaled in height and breadth and flawless +strength. +</p> + +<p> +Across the Valley from here, next to the Bridal Veil, are the picturesque +Cathedral Rocks, nearly 2700 feet high, making a noble display of fine yet +massive sculpture. They are closely related to El Capitan, having been eroded +from the same mountain ridge by the great Yosemite Glacier when the Valley was +in process of formation. +</p> + +<p> +Next to the Cathedral Rocks on the south side towers the Sentinel Rock to a +height of more than 3000 feet, a telling monument of the glacial period. +</p> + +<p> +Almost immediately opposite the Sentinel are the Three Brothers, an immense +mountain mass with three gables fronting the Valley, one above another, the +topmost gable nearly 4000 feet high. They were named for three brothers, sons +of old Tenaya, the Yosemite chief, captured here during the Indian War, at the +time of the discovery of the Valley in 1852. +</p> + +<p> +Sauntering up the Valley through meadow and grove, in the company of these +majestic rocks, which seem to follow us as we advance, gazing, admiring, +looking for new wonders ahead where all about us is so wonderful, the thunder +of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when we arrive in front of the Sentinel Rock +it is revealed in all its glory from base to summit, half a mile in height, and +seeming to spring out into the Valley sunshine direct from the sky. But even +this fall, perhaps the most wonderful of its kind in the world, cannot at first +hold our attention, for now the wide upper portion of the Valley is displayed +to view, with the finely modeled North Dome, the Royal Arches and Washington +Column on our left; Glacier Point, with its massive, magnificent sculpture on +the right; and in the middle, directly in front, looms Tissiack or Half Dome, +the most beautiful and most sublime of all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising +in serene majesty from flowery groves and meadows to a height of 4750 feet. +</p> + +<h3>The Upper Cañons</h3> + +<p> +Here the Valley divides into three branches, the Tenaya, Nevada, and +Illilouette Cañons, extending back into the fountains of the High Sierra, with +scenery every way worthy the relation they bear to Yosemite. +</p> + +<p> +In the south branch, a mile or two from the main Valley, is the Illilouette +Fall, 600 feet high, one of the most beautiful of all the Yosemite choir, but +to most people inaccessible as yet on account of its rough, steep, +boulder-choked cañon. Its principal fountains of ice and snow lie in the +beautiful and interesting mountains of the Merced group, while its broad open +basin between its fountain mountains and cañon is noted for the beauty of its +lakes and forests and magnificent moraines. +</p> + +<p> +Returning to the Valley, and going up the north branch of Tenaya Cañon, we pass +between the North Dome and Half Dome, and in less than an hour come to Mirror +Lake, the Dome Cascade and Tenaya Fall. Beyond the Fall, on the north side of +the cañon is the sublime Ed Capitan-like rock called Mount Watkins; on the +south the vast granite wave of Clouds’ Rest, a mile in height; and +between them the fine Tenaya Cascade with silvery plumes outspread on smooth +glacier-polished folds of granite, making a vertical descent in all of about +700 feet. +</p> + +<p> +Just beyond the Dome Cascades, on the shoulder of Mount Watkins, there is an +old trail once used by Indians on their way across the range to Mono, but in +the cañon above this point there is no trail of any sort. Between Mount Watkins +and Clouds’ Rest the cañon is accessible only to mountaineers, and it is +so dangerous that I hesitate to advise even good climbers, anxious to test +their nerve and skill, to attempt to pass through it. Beyond the Cascades no +great difficulty will be encountered. A succession of charming lily gardens and +meadows occurs in filled-up lake basins among the rock-waves in the bottom of +the cañon, and everywhere the surface of the granite has a smooth-wiped +appearance, and in many places reflects the sunbeams like glass, a phenomenon +due to glacial action, the cañon having been the channel of one of the main +tributaries of the ancient Yosemite Glacier. +</p> + +<p> +About ten miles above the Valley we come to the beautiful Tenaya Lake, and here +the cañon terminates. A mile or two above the lake stands the grand Sierra +Cathedral, a building of one stone, sewn from the living rock, with sides, +roof, gable, spire and ornamental pinnacles, fashioned and finished +symmetrically like a work of art, and set on a well-graded plateau about 9000 +feet high, as if Nature in making so fine a building had also been careful that +it should be finely seen. From every direction its peculiar form and graceful, +majestic beauty of expression never fail to charm. Its height from its base to +the ridge of the roof is about 2500 feet, and among the pinnacles that adorn +the front grand views may be gained of the upper basins of the Merced and +Tuolumne Rivers. +</p> + +<p> +Passing the Cathedral we descend into the delightful, spacious Tuolumne Valley, +from which excursions may be made to Mounts Dana, Lyell, Ritter, Conness, and +Mono Lake, and to the many curious peaks that rise above the meadows on the +south, and to the Big Tuolumne Cañon, with its glorious abundance of rock and +falling, gliding, tossing water. For all these the beautiful meadows near the +Soda Springs form a delightful center. +</p> + +<h3>Natural Features Near The Valley</h3> + +<p> +Returning now to Yosemite and ascending the middle or Nevada branch of the +Valley, occupied by the main Merced River, we come within a few miles to the +Vernal and Nevada Falls, 400 and 600 feet high, pouring their white, rejoicing +waters in the midst of the most novel and sublime rock scenery to be found in +all the World. Tracing the river beyond the head of the Nevada Fall we are lead +into the Little Yosemite, a valley like the great Yosemite in form, sculpture +and vegetation. It is about three miles long, with walls 1500 to 2000 feet +high, cascades coming over them, and the ever flowing through the meadows and +groves of the level bottom in tranquil, richly-embowered reaches. +</p> + +<p> +Beyond this Little Yosemite in the main cañon, there are three other little +yosemites, the highest situated a few miles below the base of Mount Lyell, at +an elevation of about 7800 feet above the sea. To describe these, with all +their wealth of Yosemite furniture, and the wilderness of lofty peaks above +them, the home of the avalanche and treasury of the fountain snow, would take +us far beyond the bounds of a single book. Nor can we here consider the +formation of these mountain landscapes—how the crystal rock were brought +to light by glaciers made up of crystal snow, making beauty whose influence is +so mysterious on every one who sees it. +</p> + +<p> +Of the small glacier lakes so characteristic of these upper regions, there are +no fewer than sixty-seven in the basin of the main middle branch, besides +countless smaller pools. In the basin of the Illilouette there are sixteen, in +the Tenaya basin and its branches thirteen, in the Yosemite Creek basin +fourteen, and in the Pohono or Bridal Veil one, making a grand total of one +hundred and eleven lakes whose waters come to sing at Yosemite. So glorious is +the background of the great Valley, so harmonious its relations to its +widespreading fountains. +</p> + +<p> +The same harmony prevails in all the other features of the adjacent landscapes. +Climbing out of the Valley by the subordinate cañons, we find the ground rising +from the brink of the walls: on the south side to the fountains of the Bridal +Veil Creek, the basin of which is noted for the beauty of its meadows and its +superb forests of silver fir; on the north side through the basin of the +Yosemite Creek to the dividing ridge along the Tuolumne Cañon and the fountains +of the Hoffman Range. +</p> + +<h3>Down The Yosemite Creek</h3> + +<p> +In general views the Yosemite Creek basin seems to be paved with domes and +smooth, whaleback masses of granite in every stage of development—some +showing only their crowns; others rising high and free above the girdling +forests, singly or in groups. Others are developed only on one side, forming +bold outstanding bosses usually well fringed with shrubs and trees, and +presenting the polished surfaces given them by the glacier that brought them +into relief. On the upper portion of the basin broad moraine beds have been +deposited and on these fine, thrifty forests are growing. Lakes and meadows and +small spongy bogs may be found hiding here and there in the woods or back in +the fountain recesses of Mount Hoffman, while a thousand gardens are planted +along the banks of the streams. +</p> + +<p> +All the wide, fan-shaped upper portion of the basin is covered with a network +of small rills that go cheerily on their way to their grand fall in the Valley, +now flowing on smooth pavements in sheets thin as glass, now diving under +willows and laving their red roots, oozing through green, plushy bogs, plashing +over small falls and dancing down slanting cascades, calming again, gliding +through patches of smooth glacier meadows with sod of alpine agrostis mixed +with blue and white violets and daisies, breaking, tossing among rough boulders +and fallen trees, resting in calm pools, flowing together until, all united, +they go to their fate with stately, tranquil gestures like a full-grown river. +At the crossing of the Mono Trail, about two miles above the head of the +Yosemite Fall, the stream is nearly forty feet wide, and when the snow is +melting rapidly in the spring it is about four feet deep, with a current of two +and a half miles an hour. This is about the volume of water that forms the Fall +in May and June when there had been much snow the preceding winter; but it +varies greatly from month to month. The snow rapidly vanishes from the open +portion of the basin, which faces southward, and only a few of the tributaries +reach back to perennial snow and ice fountains in the shadowy amphitheaters on +the precipitous northern slopes of Mount Hoffman. The total descent made by the +stream from its highest sources to its confluence with the Merced in the Valley +is about 6000 feet, while the distance is only about ten miles, an average fall +of 600 feet per mile. The last mile of its course lies between the sides of +sunken domes and swelling folds of the granite that are clustered and pressed +together like a mass of bossy cumulus clouds. Through this shining way Yosemite +Creek goes to its fate, swaying and swirling with easy, graceful gestures and +singing the last of its mountain songs before it reaches the dizzy edge of +Yosemite to fall 2600 feet into another world, where climate, vegetation, +inhabitants, all are different. Emerging from this last cañon the stream +glides, in flat lace-like folds, down a smooth incline into a small pool where +it seems to rest and compose itself before taking the grand plunge. Then +calmly, as if leaving a lake, it slips over the polished lip of the pool down +another incline and out over the brow of the precipice in a magnificent curve +thick-sown with rainbow spray. +</p> + +<h3>The Yosemite Fall</h3> + +<p> +Long ago before I had traced this fine stream to its head back of Mount +Hoffman, I was eager to reach the extreme verge to see how it behaved in flying +so far through the air; but after enjoying this view and getting safely away I +have never advised any one to follow my steps. The last incline down which the +stream journeys so gracefully is so steep and smooth one must slip cautiously +forward on hands and feet alongside the rushing water, which so near +one’s head is very exciting. But to gain a perfect view one must go yet +farther, over a curving brow to a slight shelf on the extreme brink. This +shelf, formed by the flaking off of a fold of granite, is about three inches +wide, just wide enough for a safe rest for one’s heels. To me it seemed +nerve-trying to slip to this narrow foothold and poise on the edge of such +precipice so close to the confusing whirl of the waters; and after casting +longing glances over the shining brow of the fall and listening to its sublime +psalm, I concluded not to attempt to go nearer, but, nevertheless, against +reasonable judgment, I did. Noticing some tufts of artemisia in a cleft of +rock, I filled my mouth with the leaves, hoping their bitter taste might help +to keep caution keen and prevent giddiness. In spite of myself I reached the +little ledge, got my heels well set, and worked sidewise twenty or thirty feet +to a point close to the out-plunging current. Here the view is perfectly free +down into the heart of the bright irised throng of comet-like streamers into +which the whole ponderous volume of the fall separates, two or three hundred +feet below the brow. So glorious a display of pure wildness, acting at close +range while cut off from all the world beside, is terribly impressive. A less +nerve-trying view may be obtained from a fissured portion of the edge of the +cliff about forty yards to the eastward of the fall. Seen from this point +towards noon, in the spring, the rainbow on its brow seems to be broken up and +mingled with the rushing comets until all the fall is stained with iris colors, +leaving no white water visible. This is the best of the safe views from above, +the huge steadfast rocks, the flying waters, and the rainbow light forming one +of the most glorious pictures conceivable. +</p> + +<p> +The Yosemite Fall is separated into an upper and a lower fall with a series of +falls and cascades between them, but when viewed in front from the bottom of +the Valley they all appear as one. +</p> + +<p> +So grandly does this magnificent fall display itself from the floor of the +Valley, few visitors take the trouble to climb the walls to gain nearer views, +unable to realize how vastly more impressive it is near by than at a distance +of one or two miles. +</p> + +<h3>A Wonderful Ascent</h3> + +<p> +The views developed in a walk up the zigzags of the trail leading to the foot +of the Upper Fall are about as varied and impressive as those displayed along +the favorite Glacier Point Trail. One rises as if on wings. The groves, +meadows, fern-flats and reaches of the river gain new interest, as if never +seen before; all the views changing in a most striking manner as we go higher +from point to point. The foreground also changes every few rods in the most +surprising manner, although the earthquake talus and the level bench on the +face of the wall over which the trail passes seem monotonous and commonplace as +seen from the bottom of the Valley. Up we climb with glad exhilaration, through +shaggy fringes of laurel, ceanothus, glossy-leaved manzanita and live-oak, from +shadow to shadow across bars and patches of sunshine, the leafy openings making +charming frames for the Valley pictures beheld through gem, and for the +glimpses of the high peaks that appear in the distance. The higher we go the +farther we seem to be from the summit of the vast granite wall. Here we pass a +projecting buttress hose grooved and rounded surface tells a plain story of the +time when the Valley, now filled with sunshine, was filled with ice, when the +grand old Yosemite Glacier, flowing river-like from its distant fountains, +swept through it, crushing, grinding, wearing its way ever deeper, developing +and fashioning these sublime rocks. Again we cross a white, battered gully, the +pathway of rock avalanches or snow avalanches. Farther on we come to a gentle +stream slipping down the face of the Cliff in lace-like strips, and dropping +from ledge to ledge—too small to be called a fall—trickling, +dripping, oozing, a pathless wanderer from one of the upland meadow lying a +little way back of the Valley rim, seeking a way century after century to the +depths of the Valley without any appreciable channel. Every morning after a +cool night, evaporation being checked, it gathers strength and sings like a +bird, but as the day advances and the sun strikes its thin currents outspread +on the heated precipices, most of its waters vanish ere the bottom of the +Valley is reached. Many a fine, hanging-garden aloft on breezy inaccessible +heights owes to it its freshness and fullness of beauty; ferneries in shady +nooks, filled with Adiantum, Woodwardia, Woodsia, Aspidium, Pellaea, and +Cheilanthes, rosetted and tufted and ranged in lines, daintily overlapping, +thatching the stupendous cliffs with softest beauty, some of the delicate +fronds seeming to float on the warm moist air, without any connection with rock +or stream. Nor is there any lack of colored plants wherever they can find a +place to cling to; lilies and mints, the showy cardinal mimulus, and glowing +cushions of the golden bahia, enlivened with butterflies and bees and all the +other small, happy humming creatures that belong to them. +</p> + +<p> +After the highest point on the lower division of the trail is gained it leads +up into the deep recess occupied by the great fall, the noblest display of +falling water to be found in the Valley, or perhaps in the world. When it first +comes in sight it seems almost within reach of one’s hand, so great in +the spring is its volume and velocity, yet it is still nearly a third of a mile +away and appears to recede as we advance. The sculpture of the walls about it +is on a scale of grandeur, according nobly with the fall plain and massive, +though elaborately finished, like all the other cliffs about the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +In the afternoon an immense shadow is cast athwart the plateau in front of the +fall, and over the chaparral bushes that clothe the slopes and benches of the +walls to the eastward, creeping upward until the fall is wholly overcast, the +contrast between the shaded and illumined sections being very striking in these +near views. +</p> + +<p> +Under this shadow, during the cool centuries immediately following the +breaking-up of the Glacial Period, dwelt a small residual glacier, one of the +few that lingered on this sun-beaten side of the Valley after the main trunk +glacier had vanished. It sent down a long winding current through the narrow +cañon on the west side of the fall, and must have formed a striking feature of +the ancient scenery of the Valley; the lofty fall of ice and fall of water side +by side, yet separate and distinct. +</p> + +<p> +The coolness of the afternoon shadow and the abundant dewy spray make a fine +climate for the plateau ferns and grasses, and for the beautiful azalea bushes +that grow here in profusion and bloom in September, long after the warmer +thickets down on the floor of the Valley have withered and gone to seed. Even +close to the fall, and behind it at the base of the cliff, a few venturesome +plants may be found undisturbed by the rock-shaking torrent. +</p> + +<p> +The basin at the foot of the fall into which the current directly pours, when +it is not swayed by the wind, is about ten feet deep and fifteen to twenty feet +in diameter. That it is not much deeper is surprising, when the great height +and force of the fall is considered. But the rock where the water strikes +probably suffers less erosion than it would were the descent less than half as +great, since the current is outspread, and much of its force is spent ere it +reaches the bottom—being received on the air as upon an elastic cushion, +and borne outward and dissipated over a surface more than fifty yards wide. +</p> + +<p> +This surface, easily examined when the water is low, is intensely clean and +fresh looking. It is the raw, quick flesh of the mountain wholly untouched by +the weather. In summer droughts when the snowfall of the preceding winter has +been light, the fall is reduced to a mere shower of separate drops without any +obscuring spray. Then we may safely go back of it and view the crystal shower +from beneath, each drop wavering and pulsing as it makes its way through the +air, and flashing off jets of colored light of ravishing beauty. But all this +is invisible from the bottom of the Valley, like a thousand other interesting +things. One must labor for beauty as for bread, here as elsewhere. +</p> + +<h3>The Grandeur Of The Yosemite Fall</h3> + +<p> +During the time of the spring floods the best near view of the fall is obtained +from Fern Ledge on the east side above the blinding spray at a height of about +400 feet above the base of the fall. A climb of about 1400 feet from the Valley +has to be made, and there is no trail, but to any one fond of climbing this +will make the ascent all the more delightful. A narrow part of the ledge +extends to the side of the fall and back of it, enabling us to approach it as +closely as we wish. When the afternoon sunshine is streaming through the throng +of comets, ever wasting, ever renewed, fineness, firmness and variety of their +forms are beautifully revealed. At the top of the fall they seem to burst forth +in irregular spurts from some grand, throbbing mountain heart. Now and then one +mighty throb sends forth a mass of solid water into the free air far beyond the +others which rushes alone to the bottom of the fall with long streaming tail, +like combed silk, while the others, descending in clusters, gradually mingle +and lose their identity. But they all rush past us with amazing velocity and +display of power though apparently drowsy and deliberate in their movements +when observed from a distance of a mile or two. The heads of these comet-like +masses are composed of nearly solid water, and are dense white in color like +pressed snow, from the friction they suffer in rushing through the air, the +portion worn off forming the tail between the white lustrous threads and films +of which faint, grayish pencilings appear, while the outer, finer sprays of +water-dust, whirling in sunny eddies, are pearly gray throughout. At the bottom +of the fall there is but little distinction of form visible. It is mostly a +hissing, clashing, seething, upwhirling mass of scud and spray, through which +the light sifts in gray and purple tones while at times when the sun strikes at +the required angle, the whole wild and apparently lawless, stormy, striving +mass is changed to brilliant rainbow hues, manifesting finest harmony. The +middle portion of the fall is the most openly beautiful; lower, the various +forms into which the waters are wrought are more closely and voluminously +veiled, while higher, towards the head, the current is comparatively simple and +undivided. But even at the bottom, in the boiling clouds of spray, there is no +confusion, while the rainbow light makes all divine, adding glorious beauty and +peace to glorious power. This noble fall has far the richest, as well as the +most powerful, voice of all the falls of the Valley, its tones varying from the +sharp hiss and rustle of the wind in the glossy leaves of the live-oak and the +soft, sifting, hushing tones of the pines, to the loudest rush and roar of +storm winds and thunder among the crags of the summit peaks. The low bass, +booming, reverberating tones, heard under favorable circumstances five or six +miles away are formed by the dashing and exploding of heavy masses mixed with +air upon two projecting ledges on the face of the cliff, the one on which we +are standing and another about 200 feet above it. The torrent of massive comets +is continuous at time of high water, while the explosive, booming notes are +wildly intermittent, because, unless influenced by the wind, most of the +heavier masses shoot out from the face of the precipice, and pass the ledges +upon which at other times they are exploded. Occasionally the whole fall is +swayed away from the front of the cliff, then suddenly dashed flat against it, +or vibrated from side to side like a pendulum, giving rise to endless variety +of forms and sounds. +</p> + +<h3>The Nevada Fall</h3> + +<p> +The Nevada Fall is 600 feet high and is usually ranked next to the Yosemite in +general interest among the five main falls of the Valley. Coming through the +Little Yosemite in tranquil reaches, the river is first broken into rapids on a +moraine boulder-bar that crosses the lower end of the Valley. Thence it pursues +its way to the head of the fall in a rough, solid rock channel, dashing on side +angles, heaving in heavy surging masses against elbow knobs, and swirling and +swashing in pot-holes without a moment’s rest. Thus, already chafed and +dashed to foam, overfolded and twisted, it plunges over the brink of the +precipice as if glad to escape into the open air. But before it reaches the +bottom it is pulverized yet finer by impinging upon a sloping portion of the +cliff about half-way down, thus making it the whitest of all the falls of the +Valley, and altogether one of the most wonderful in the world. +</p> + +<p> +On the north side, close to its head, a slab of granite projects over the +brink, forming a fine point for a view, over its throng of streamers and wild +plunging, into its intensely white bosom, and through the broad drifts of +spray, to the river far below, gathering its spent waters and rushing on again +down the cañon in glad exultation into Emerald Pool, where at length it grows +calm and gets rest for what still lies before it. All the features of the view +correspond with the waters in grandeur and wildness. The glacier sculptured +walls of the cañon on either hand, with the sublime mass of the Glacier Point +Ridge in front, form a huge triangular pit-like basin, which, filled with the +roaring of the falling river seems as if it might be the hopper of one of the +mills of the gods in which the mountains were being ground. +</p> + +<h3>The Vernal Fall</h3> + +<p> +The Vernal, about a mile below the Nevada, is 400 feet high, a staid, orderly, +graceful, easy-going fall, proper and exact in every movement and gesture, with +scarce a hint of the passionate enthusiasm of the Yosemite or of the impetuous +Nevada, whose chafed and twisted waters hurrying over the cliff seem glad to +escape into the open air, while its deep, booming, thunder-tones reverberate +over the listening landscape. Nevertheless it is a favorite with most visitors, +doubtless because it is more accessible than any other, more closely approached +and better seen and heard. A good stairway ascends the cliff beside it and the +level plateau at the head enables one to saunter safely along the edge of the +river as it comes from Emerald Pool and to watch its waters, calmly bending +over the brow of the precipice, in a sheet eighty feet wide, changing in color +from green to purplish gray and white until dashed on a boulder talus. Thence +issuing from beneath its fine broad spray-clouds we see the tremendously +adventurous river still unspent, beating its way down the wildest and deepest +of all its cañons in gray roaring rapids, dear to the ouzel, and below the +confluence of the Illilouette, sweeping around the shoulder of the Half Dome on +its approach to the head of the tranquil levels of the Valley. +</p> + +<h3>The Illilouette Fall</h3> + +<p> +The Illilouette in general appearance most resembles the Nevada. The volume of +water is less than half as great, but it is about the same height (600 feet) +and its waters receive the same kind of preliminary tossing in a rocky, +irregular channel. Therefore it is a very white and fine-grained fall. When it +is in full springtime bloom it is partly divided by rocks that roughen the lip +of the precipice, but this division amounts only to a kind of fluting and +grooving of the column, which has a beautiful effect. It is not nearly so grand +a fall as the upper Yosemite, or so symmetrical as the Vernal, or so airily +graceful and simple as the Bridal Veil, nor does it ever display so tremendous +an outgush of snowy magnificence as the Nevada; but in the exquisite fineness +and richness of texture of its flowing folds it surpasses them all. +</p> + +<p> +One of the finest effects of sunlight on falling water I ever saw in Yosemite +or elsewhere I found on the brow of this beautiful fall. It was in the Indian +summer, when the leaf colors were ripe and the great cliffs and domes were +transfigured in the hazy golden air. I had scrambled up its rugged talus-dammed +cañon, oftentimes stopping to take breath and look back to admire the wonderful +views to be had there of the great Half Dome, and to enjoy the extreme purity +of the water, which in the motionless pools on this stream is almost perfectly +invisible; the colored foliage of the maples, dogwoods, <i>Rubus</i> tangles, +etc., and the late goldenrods and asters. The voice of the fall was now low, +and the grand spring and summer floods had waned to sifting, drifting gauze and +thin-broidered folds of linked and arrowy lace-work. When I reached the foot of +the fall sunbeams were glinting across its head, leaving all the rest of it in +shadow; and on its illumined brow a group of yellow spangles of singular form +and beauty were playing, flashing up and dancing in large flame-shaped masses, +wavering at times, then steadying, rising and falling in accord with the +shifting forms of the water. But the color of the dancing spangles changed not +at all. Nothing in clouds or flowers, on bird-wings or the lips of shells, +could rival it in fineness. It was the most divinely beautiful mass of +rejoicing yellow light I ever beheld—one of Nature’s precious gifts +that perchance may come to us but once in a lifetime. +</p> + +<h3>The Minor Falls</h3> + +<p> +There are many other comparatively small falls and cascades in the Valley. The +most notable are the Yosemite Gorge Fall and Cascades, Tenaya Fall and +Cascades, Royal Arch Falls, the two Sentinel Cascades and the falls of Cascade +and Tamarack Creeks, a mile or two below the lower end of the Valley. These +last are often visited. The others are seldom noticed or mentioned; although in +almost any other country they would be visited and described as wonders. +</p> + +<p> +The six intermediate falls in the gorge between the head of the Lower and the +base of the Upper Yosemite Falls, separated by a few deep pools and strips of +rapids, and three slender, tributary cascades on the west side form a series +more strikingly varied and combined than any other in the Valley, yet very few +of all the Valley visitors ever see them or hear of them. No available +standpoint commands a view of them all. The best general view is obtained from +the mouth of the gorge near the head of the Lower Fall. The two lowest of the +series, together with one of the three tributary cascades, are visible from +this standpoint, but in reaching it the last twenty or thirty feet of the +descent is rather dangerous in time of high water, the shelving rocks being +then slippery on account of spray, but if one should chance to slip when the +water is low, only a bump or two and a harmless plash would be the penalty. No +part of the gorge, however, is safe to any but cautious climbers. +</p> + +<p> +Though the dark gorge hall of these rejoicing waters is never flushed by the +purple light of morning or evening, it is warmed and cheered by the white light +of noonday, which, falling into so much foam and and spray of varying degrees +of fineness, makes marvelous displays of rainbow colors. So filled, indeed, is +it with this precious light, at favorable times it seems to take the place of +common air. Laurel bushes shed fragrance into it from above and live-oaks, +those fearless mountaineers, hold fast to angular seams and lean out over it +with their fringing sprays and bright mirror leaves. +</p> + +<p> +One bird, the ouzel, loves this gorge and flies through it merrily, or +cheerily, rather, stopping to sing on foam-washed bosses where other birds +could find no rest for their feet. I have even seen a gray squirrel down in the +heart of it beside the wild rejoicing water. +</p> + +<p> +One of my favorite night walks was along the rim of this wild gorge in times of +high water when the moon was full, to see the lunar bows in the spray. +</p> + +<p> +For about a mile above Mirror Lake the Tenaya Cañon is level, and richly +planted with fir, Douglas spruce and libocedrus, forming a remarkably fine +grove, at the head of which is the Tenaya Fall. Though seldom seen or +described, this is, I think, the most picturesque of all the small falls. A +considerable distance above it, Tenaya Creek comes hurrying down, white and +foamy, over a flat pavement inclined at an angle of about eighteen degrees. In +time of high water this sheet of rapids is nearly seventy feet wide, and is +varied in a very striking way by three parallel furrows that extend in the +direction of its flow. These furrows, worn by the action of the stream upon +cleavage joints, vary in width, are slightly sinuous, and have large boulders +firmly wedged in them here and there in narrow places, giving rise, of course, +to a complicated series of wild dashes, doublings, and upleaping arches in the +swift torrent. Just before it reaches the head of the fall the current is +divided, the left division making a vertical drop of about eighty feet in a +romantic, leafy, flowery, mossy nook, while the other forms a rugged cascade. +</p> + +<p> +The Royal Arch Fall in time of high water is a magnificent object, forming a +broad ornamental sheet in front of the arches. The two Sentinel Cascades, 3000 +feet high, are also grand spectacles when the snow is melting fast in the +spring, but by the middle of summer they have diminished to mere streaks scarce +noticeable amid their sublime surroundings. +</p> + +<h3>The Beauty Of The Rainbows</h3> + +<p> +The Bridal Veil and Vernal Falls are famous for their rainbows; and special +visits to them are often made when the sun shines into the spray at the most +favorable angle. But amid the spray and foam and fine-ground mist ever rising +from the various falls and cataracts there is an affluence and variety of iris +bows scarcely known to visitors who stay only a day or two. Both day and night, +winter and summer, this divine light may be seen wherever water is falling +dancing, singing; telling the heart-peace of Nature amid the wildest displays +of her power. In the bright spring mornings the black-walled recess at the foot +of the Lower Yosemite Fall is lavishly fine with irised spray; and not simply +does this span the dashing foam, but the foam itself, the whole mass of it, +beheld at a certain distance, seems to be colored, and drips and wavers from +color to color, mingling with the foliage of the adjacent trees, without +suggesting any relationship to the ordinary rainbow. This is perhaps the +largest and most reservoir-like fountain of iris colors to be found in the +Valley. +</p> + +<p> +Lunar rainbows or spray-bows also abound in the glorious affluence of dashing, +rejoicing, hurrahing, enthusiastic spring floods, their colors as distinct as +those of the sun and regularly and obviously banded, though less vivid. Fine +specimens may be found any night at the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, +glowing gloriously amid the gloomy shadows and thundering waters, whenever +there is plenty of moonlight and spray. Even the secondary bow is at times +distinctly visible. +</p> + +<p> +The best point from which to observe them is on Fern Ledge. For some time after +moonrise, at time of high water, the arc has a span of about five hundred feet, +and is set upright; one end planted in the boiling spray at the bottom, the +other in the edge of the fall, creeping lower, of course, and becoming less +upright as the moon rises higher. This grand arc of color, glowing in mild, +shapely beauty in so weird and huge a chamber of night shadows, and amid the +rush and roar and tumultuous dashing of this thunder-voiced fall, is one of the +most impressive and most cheering of all the blessed mountain evangels. +</p> + +<p> +Smaller bows may be seen in the gorge on the plateau between the Upper and +Lower Falls. Once toward midnight, after spending a few hours with the wild +beauty of the Upper Fall, I sauntered along the edge of the gorge, looking in +here and there, wherever the footing felt safe, to see what I could learn of +the night aspects of the smaller falls that dwell there. And down in an +exceedingly black, pit-like portion of the gorge, at the foot of the highest of +the intermediate falls, into which the moonbeams were pouring through a narrow +opening, I saw a well-defined spray-bow, beautifully distinct in colors, +spanning the pit from side to side, while pure white foam-waves beneath the +beautiful bow were constantly springing up out of the dark into the moonlight +like dancing ghosts. +</p> + +<h3>An Unexpected Adventure</h3> + +<p> +A wild scene, but not a safe one, is made by the moon as it appears through the +edge of the Yosemite Fall when one is behind it. Once, after enjoying the +night-song of the waters and watching the formation of the colored bow as the +moon came round the domes and sent her beams into the wild uproar, I ventured +out on the narrow bench that extends back of the fall from Fern Ledge and began +to admire the dim-veiled grandeur of the view. I could see the fine gauzy +threads of the fall’s filmy border by having the light in front; and +wishing to look at the moon through the meshes of some of the denser portions +of the fall, I ventured to creep farther behind it while it was gently +wind-swayed, without taking sufficient thought about the consequences of its +swaying back to its natural position after the wind-pressure should be removed. +The effect was enchanting: fine, savage music sounding above, beneath, around +me; while the moon, apparently in the very midst of the rushing waters, seemed +to be struggling to keep her place, on account of the ever-varying form and +density of the water masses through which she was seen, now darkly veiled or +eclipsed by a rush of thick-headed comets, now flashing out through openings +between their tails. I was in fairyland between the dark wall and the wild +throng of illumined waters, but suffered sudden disenchantment; for, like the +witch-scene in Alloway Kirk, “in an instant all was dark.” Down +came a dash of spent comets, thin and harmless-looking in the distance, but +they felt desperately solid and stony when they struck my shoulders, like a +mixture of choking spray and gravel and big hailstones. Instinctively dropping +on my knees, I gripped an angle of the rock, curled up like a young fern frond +with my face pressed against my breast, and in this attitude submitted as best +I could to my thundering bath. The heavier masses seemed to strike like +cobblestones, and there was a confused noise of many waters about my +ears—hissing, gurgling, clashing sounds that were not heard as music. The +situation was quickly realized. How fast one’s thoughts burn in such +times of stress! I was weighing chances of escape. Would the column be swayed a +few inches away from the wall, or would it come yet closer? The fall was in +flood and not so lightly would its ponderous mass be swayed. My fate seemed to +depend on a breath of the “idle wind.” It was moved gently forward, +the pounding ceased, and I was once more visited by glimpses of the moon. But +fearing I might be caught at a disadvantage in making too hasty a retreat, I +moved only a few feet along the bench to where a block of ice lay. I wedged +myself between the ice and the wall and lay face downwards, until the +steadiness of the light gave encouragement to rise and get away. Somewhat +nerve-shaken, drenched, and benumbed, I made out to build a fire, warmed +myself, ran home, reached my cabin before daylight, got an hour or two of +sleep, and awoke sound and comfortable, better, not worse for my hard midnight +bath. +</p> + +<h3>Climate And Weather</h3> + +<p> +Owing to the westerly trend of the Valley and its vast depth there is a great +difference between the climates of the north and south sides—greater than +between many countries far apart; for the south wall is in shadow during the +winter months, while the north is bathed in sunshine every clear day. Thus +there is mild spring weather on one side of the Valley while winter rules the +other. Far up the north-side cliffs many a nook may be found closely embraced +by sun-beaten rock-bosses in which flowers bloom every month of the year. Even +butterflies may be seen in these high winter gardens except when snow-storms +are falling and a few days after they have ceased. Near the head of the lower +Yosemite Fall in January I found the ant lions lying in wait in their warm +sand-cups, rock ferns being unrolled, club mosses covered with fresh-growing +plants, the flowers of the laurel nearly open, and the honeysuckle rosetted +with bright young leaves; every plant seemed to be thinking about summer. Even +on the shadow-side of the Valley the frost is never very sharp. The lowest +temperature I ever observed during four winters was 7° Fahrenheit. The +first twenty-four days of January had an average temperature at 9 A.M. of +32°, minimum 22°; at 3 P.M. the average was 40° 30′, the +minimum 32°. Along the top of the walls, 7000 and 8000 feet high, the +temperature was, of course, much lower. But the difference in temperature +between the north and south sides is due not so much to the winter sunshine as +to the heat of the preceding summer, stored up in the rocks, which rapidly +melts the snow in contact with them. For though summer sun-heat is stored in +the rocks of the south side also, the amount is much less because the rays fall +obliquely on the south wall even in summer and almost vertically on the north. +</p> + +<p> +The upper branches of the Yosemite streams are buried every winter beneath a +heavy mantle of snow, and set free in the spring in magnificent floods. Then, +all the fountains, full and overflowing, every living thing breaks forth into +singing, and the glad exulting streams shining and falling in the warm sunny +weather, shake everything into music making all the mountain-world a song. +</p> + +<p> +The great annual spring thaw usually begins in May in the forest region, and in +June and July on the high Sierra, varying somewhat both in time and fullness +with the weather and the depth of the snow. Toward the end of summer the +streams are at their lowest ebb, few even of the strongest singing much above a +whisper they slip and ripple through gravel and boulder-beds from pool to pool +in the hollows of their channels, and drop in pattering showers like rain, and +slip down precipices and fall in sheets of embroidery, fold over fold. But, +however low their singing, it is always ineffably fine in tone, in harmony with +the restful time of the year. +</p> + +<p> +The first snow of the season that comes to the help of the streams usually +falls in September or October, sometimes even is the latter part of August, in +the midst of yellow Indian summer when the goldenrods and gentians of the +glacier meadows are in their prime. This Indian-summer snow, however, soon +melts, the chilled flowers spread their petals to the sun, and the gardens as +well as the streams are refreshed as if only a warm shower had fallen. The +snow-storms that load the mountains to form the main fountain supply for the +year seldom set in before the middle or end of November. +</p> + +<h3>Winter Beauty Of The Valley</h3> + +<p> +When the first heavy storms stopped work on the high mountains, I made haste +down to my Yosemite den, not to “hole up” and sleep the white +months away; I was out every day, and often all night, sleeping but little, +studying the so-called wonders and common things ever on show, wading, +climbing, sauntering among the blessed storms and calms, rejoicing in almost +everything alike that I could see or hear: the glorious brightness of frosty +mornings; the sunbeams pouring over the white domes and crags into the groves +end waterfalls, kindling marvelous iris fires in the hoarfrost and spray; the +great forests and mountains in their deep noon sleep; the good-night alpenglow; +the stars; the solemn gazing moon, drawing the huge domes and headlands one by +one glowing white out of the shadows hushed and breathless like an audience in +awful enthusiasm, while the meadows at their feet sparkle with frost-stars like +the sky; the sublime darkness of storm-nights, when all the lights are out; the +clouds in whose depths the frail snow-flowers grow; the behavior and many +voices of the different kinds of storms, trees, birds, waterfalls, and +snow-avalanches in the ever-changing weather. +</p> + +<p> +Every clear, frosty morning loud sounds are heard booming and reverberating +from side to side of the Valley at intervals of a few minutes, beginning soon +after sunrise and continuing an hour or two like a thunder-storm. In my first +winter in the Valley I could not make out the source of this noise. I thought +of falling boulders, rock-blasting, etc. Not till I saw what looked like +hoarfrost dropping from the side of the Fall was the problem explained. The +strange thunder is made by the fall of sections of ice formed of spray that is +frozen on the face of the cliff along the sides of the Upper Yosemite +Fan—a sort of crystal plaster, a foot or two thick, racked off by the +sunbeams, awakening all the Valley like cock-crowing, announcing the finest +weather, shouting aloud Nature’s infinite industry and love of hard work +in creating beauty. +</p> + +<h3>Exploring An Ice Cone</h3> + +<p> +This frozen spray gives rise to one of the most interesting winter features of +the Valley—a cone of ice at the foot of the fall, four or five hundred +feet high. From the Fern Ledge standpoint its crater-like throat is seen, down +which the fall plunges with deep, gasping explosions of compressed air, and, +after being well churned in the wormy interior, the water bursts forth through +arched openings at its base, apparently scourged and weary and glad to escape, +while belching spray, spouted up out of the throat past the descending current, +is wafted away in irised drifts to the adjacent rocks and groves. It is built +during the night and early hours of the morning; only in spells of +exceptionally cold and cloudy weather is the work continued through the day. +The greater part of the spray material falls in crystalline showers direct to +its place, something like a small local snow-storm; but a considerable portion +is first frozen on the face of the cliff along the sides of the fall and stays +there until expanded and cracked off in irregular masses, some of them tons in +weight, to be built into the walls of the cone; while in windy, frosty weather, +when the fall is swayed from side to side, the cone is well drenched and the +loose ice masses and spray-dust are all firmly welded and frozen together. Thus +the finest of the downy wafts and curls of spray-dust, which in mild nights +fall about as silently as dew, are held back until sunrise to make a store of +heavy ice to reinforce the waterfall’s thunder-tones. +</p> + +<p> +While the cone is in process of formation, growing higher and wider in the +frosty weather, it looks like a beautiful smooth, pure-white hill; but when it +is wasting and breaking up in the spring its surface is strewn with leaves, +pine branches, stones, sand, etc., that have been brought over the fall, making +it look like a heap of avalanche detritus. +</p> + +<p> +Anxious to learn what I could about the structure of this curious hill I often +approached it in calm weather and tried to climb it, carrying an ax to cut +steps. Once I nearly succeeded in gaining the summit. At the base I was met by +a current of spray and wind that made seeing and breathing difficult. I pushed +on backward however, and soon gained the slope of the hill, where by creeping +close to the surface most of the choking blast passed over me and I managed to +crawl up with but little difficulty. Thus I made my way nearly to the summit, +halting at times to peer up through the wild whirls of spray at the veiled +grandeur of the fall, or to listen to the thunder beneath me; the whole hill +was sounding as if it were a huge, bellowing drum. I hoped that by waiting +until the fall was blown aslant I should be able to climb to the lip of the +crater and get a view of the interior; but a suffocating blast, half air, half +water, followed by the fall of an enormous mass of frozen spray from a spot +high up on the wall, quickly discouraged me. The whole cone was jarred by the +blow and some fragments of the mass sped past me dangerously near; so I beat a +hasty retreat, chilled and drenched, and lay down on a sunny rock to dry. +</p> + +<p> +Once during a wind-storm when I saw that the fall was frequently blown +westward, leaving the cone dry, I ran up to Fern Ledge hoping to gain a clear +view of the interior. I set out at noon. All the way up the storm notes were so +loud about me that the voice of the fall was almost drowned by them. +Notwithstanding the rocks and bushes everywhere were drenched by the +wind-driven spray, I approached the brink of the precipice overlooking the +mouth of the ice cone, but I was almost suffocated by the drenching, gusty +spray, and was compelled to seek shelter. I searched for some hiding-place in +the wall from whence I might run out at some opportune moment when the fall +with its whirling spray and torn shreds of comet tails and trailing, tattered +skirts was borne westward, as I had seen it carried several times before, +leaving the cliffs on the east side and the ice hill bare in the sunlight. I +had not long to wait, for, as if ordered so for my special accommodation, the +mighty downrush of comets with their whirling drapery swung westward and +remained aslant for nearly half an hour. The cone was admirably lighted and +deserted by the water, which fell most of the time on the rocky western slopes +mostly outside of the cone. The mouth into which the fall pours was, as near as +I could guess, about one hundred feet in diameter north and south and about two +hundred feet east and west, which is about the shape and size of the fall at +its best in its normal condition at this season. +</p> + +<p> +The crater-like opening was not a true oval, but more like a huge coarse mouth. +I could see down the throat about one hundred feet or perhaps farther. +</p> + +<p> +The fall precipice overhangs from a height of 400 feet above the base; +therefore the water strikes some distance from the base off the cliff, allowing +space for the accumulation of a considerable mass of ice between the fall and +the wall. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>Chapter 2<br/> +Winter Storms and Spring Floods</h2> + +<p> +The Bridal Veil and the Upper Yosemite Falls, on account of their height and +exposure, are greatly influenced by winds. The common summer winds that come up +the river cañon from the plains are seldom very strong; but the north winds do +some very wild work, worrying the falls and the forests, and hanging +snow-banners on the comet-peaks. One wild winter morning I was awakened by +storm-wind that was playing with the falls as if they were mere wisps of mist +and making the great pines bow and sing with glorious enthusiasm. The Valley +had been visited a short time before by a series of fine snow-storms, and the +floor and the cliffs and all the region round about were lavishly adorned with +its best winter jewelry, the air was full of fine snow-dust, and pine branches, +tassels and empty cones were flying in an almost continuous flock. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after sunrise, when I was seeking a place safe from flying branches, I saw +the Lower Yosemite Fall thrashed and pulverized from top to bottom into one +glorious mass of rainbow dust; while a thousand feet above it the main Upper +Fall was suspended on the face of the cliff in the form of an inverted bow, all +silvery white and fringed with short wavering strips. Then, suddenly assailed +by a tremendous blast, the whole mass of the fall was blown into thread and +ribbons, and driven back over the brow of the cliff whence it came, as if +denied admission to the Valley. This kind of storm-work was continued about ten +or fifteen minutes; then another change in the play of the huge exulting swirls +and billows and upheaving domes of the gale allowed the baffled fall to gather +and arrange its tattered waters, and sink down again in its place. As the day +advanced, the gale gave no sign of dying, excepting brief lulls, the Valley was +filled with its weariless roar, and the cloudless sky grew garish-white from +myriads of minute, sparkling snow-spicules. In the afternoon, while I watched +the Upper Fall from the shelter of a big pine tree, it was suddenly arrested in +its descent at a point about half-way down, and was neither blown upward nor +driven aside, but simply held stationary in mid-air, as if gravitation below +that point in the path of its descent had ceased to act. The ponderous flood, +weighing hundreds of tons, was sustained, hovering, hesitating, like a bunch of +thistledown, while I counted one hundred and ninety. All this time the ordinary +amount of water was coming over the cliff and accumulating in the air, swedging +and widening and forming an irregular cone about seven hundred feet high, +tapering to the top of the wall, the whole standing still, jesting on the +invisible arm of the North Wind. At length, as if commanded to go on again, +scores of arrowy comets shot forth from the bottom of the suspended mass as if +escaping from separate outlets. +</p> + +<p> +The brow of El Capitan was decked with long snow-streamers like hair, +Clouds’ Rest was fairly enveloped in drifting gossamer elms, and the Half +Dome loomed up in the garish light like a majestic, living creature clad in the +same gauzy, wind-woven drapery, while upward currents meeting at times overhead +made it smoke like a volcano. +</p> + +<h3>An Extraordinary Storm And Flood</h3> + +<p> +Glorious as are these rocks and waters arrayed in storm robes, or chanting +rejoicing in every-day dress, they are still more glorious when rare weather +conditions meet to make them sing with floods. Only once during all the years I +have lived in the Valley have I seen it in full flood bloom. In 1871 the early +winter weather was delightful; the days all sunshine, the nights all starry and +calm, calling forth fine crops of frost-crystals on the pines and withered +ferns and grasses for the morning sunbeams to sift through. In the afternoon of +December 16, when I was sauntering on the meadows, I noticed a massive crimson +cloud growing in solitary grandeur above the Cathedral Rocks, its form scarcely +less striking than its color. It had a picturesque, bulging base like an old +sequoia, a smooth, tapering stem, and a bossy, down-curling crown like a +mushroom; all its parts were colored alike, making one mass of translucent +crimson. Wondering what the meaning of that strange, lonely red cloud might be, +I was up betimes next morning looking at the weather, but all seemed tranquil +as yet. Towards noon gray clouds with a lose, curly grain like bird’s-eye +maple began to grow, and late at night rain fell, which soon changed to snow. +Next morning the snow on the meadows was about ten inches deep, and it was +still falling in a fine, cordial storm. During the night of the 18th heavy rain +fell on the snow, but as the temperature was 34 degrees, the snow-line was only +a few hundred feet above the bottom of the Valley, and one had only to climb a +little higher than the tops of the pines to get out of the rain-storm into the +snow-storm. The streams, instead of being increased in volume by the storm, +were diminished, because the snow sponged up part of their waters and choked +the smaller tributaries. But about midnight the temperature suddenly rose to +42°, carrying the snow-line far beyond the Valley walls, and next morning +Yosemite was rejoicing in a glorious flood. The comparatively warm rain falling +on the snow was at first absorbed and held back, and so also was that portion +of the snow that the rain melted, and all that was melted by the warm wind, +until the whole mass of snow was saturated and became sludgy, and at length +slipped and rushed simultaneously from a thousand slopes in wildest +extravagance, heaping and swelling flood over flood, and plunging into the +Valley in stupendous avalanches. +</p> + +<p> +Awakened by the roar, I looked out and at once recognized the extraordinary +character of the storm. The rain was still pouring in torrent abundance and the +wind at gale speed was doing all it could with the flood-making rain. +</p> + +<p> +The section of the north wall visible from my cabin was fairly streaked with +new falls—wild roaring singers that seemed strangely out of place. Eager +to get into the midst of the show, I snatched a piece of bread for breakfast +and ran out. The mountain waters, suddenly liberated, seemed to be holding a +grand jubilee. The two Sentinel Cascades rivaled the great falls at ordinary +stages, and across the Valley by the Three Brothers I caught glimpses of more +falls than I could readily count; while the whole Valley throbbed and trembled, +and was filled with an awful, massive, solemn, sea-like roar. After gazing a +while enchanted with the network of new falls that were adorning and +transfiguring every rock in sight, I tried to reach the upper meadows, where +the Valley is widest, that I might be able to see the walls on both sides, and +thus gain general views. But the river was over its banks and the meadows were +flooded, forming an almost continuous lake dotted with blue sludgy islands, +while innumerable streams roared like lions across my path and were sweeping +forward rocks and logs with tremendous energy over ground where tiny gilias had +been growing but a short time before. Climbing into the talus slopes, where +these savage torrents were broken among earthquake boulders, I managed to cross +them, and force my way up the Valley to Hutchings’ Bridge, where I +crossed the river and waded to the middle of the upper meadow. Here most of the +new falls were in sight, probably the most glorious assemblage of waterfalls +ever displayed from any one standpoint. On that portion of the south wall +between Hutchings’ and the Sentinel there were ten falls plunging and +booming from a height of nearly three thousand feet, the smallest of which +might have been heard miles away. In the neighborhood of Glacier Point there +were six; between the Three Brothers and Yosemite Fall, nine; between Yosemite +and Royal Arch Falls, ten; from Washington Column to Mount Watkins, ten; on the +slopes of Half Dome and Clouds’ Rest, facing Mirror Lake and Tenaya +Cañon, eight; on the shoulder of Half Dome, facing the Valley, three; fifty-six +new falls occupying the upper end of the Valley, besides a countless host of +silvery threads gleaming everywhere. In all the Valley there must have been +upwards of a hundred. As if celebrating some great event, falls and cascades in +Yosemite costume were coming down everywhere from fountain basins, far and +near; and, though newcomers, they behaved and sang as if they had lived here +always. +</p> + +<p> +All summer-visitors will remember the comet forms of the Yosemite Fall and the +laces of the Bridal Veil and Nevada. In the falls of this winter jubilee the +lace forms predominated, but there was no lack of thunder-toned comets. The +lower portion of one of the Sentinel Cascades was composed of two main white +torrents with the space between them filled in with chained and beaded gauze of +intricate pattern, through the singing threads of which the purplish-gray rock +could be dimly seen. The series above Glacier Point was still more complicated +in structure, displaying every form that one could imagine water might be +dashed and combed and woven into. Those on the north wall between Washington +Column and the Royal Arch Fall were so nearly related they formed an almost +continuous sheet, and these again were but slightly separated from those about +Indian Cañon. The group about the Three Brothers and El Capitan, owing to the +topography and cleavage of the cliffs back of them, was more broken and +irregular. The Tissiack Cascades were comparatively small, yet sufficient to +give that noblest of mountain rocks a glorious voice. In the midst of all this +extravagant rejoicing the great Yosemite Fall was scarce heard until about +three o’clock in the afternoon. Then I was startled by a sudden +thundering crash as if a rock avalanche had come to the help of the roaring +waters. This was the flood-wave of Yosemite Creek, which had just arrived +delayed by the distance it had to travel, and by the choking snows of its +widespread fountains. Now, with volume tenfold increased beyond its springtime +fullness, it took its place as leader of the glorious choir. +</p> + +<p> +And the winds, too, were singing in wild accord, playing on every tree and +rock, surging against the huge brows and domes and outstanding battlements, +deflected hither and thither and broken into a thousand cascading, roaring +currents in the cañons, and low bass, drumming swirls in the hollows. And these +again, reacting on the clouds, eroded immense cavernous spaces in their gray +depths and swept forward the resulting detritus in ragged trains like the +moraines of glaciers. These cloud movements in turn published the work of the +winds, giving them a visible body, and enabling us to trace them. As if endowed +with independent motion, a detached cloud would rise hastily to the very top of +the wall as if on some important errand, examining the faces of the cliffs, and +then perhaps as suddenly descend to sweep imposingly along the meadows, +trailing its draggled fringes through the pines, fondling the waving spires +with infinite gentleness, or, gliding behind a grove or a single tree, bringing +it into striking relief, as it bowed and waved in solemn rhythm. Sometimes, as +the busy clouds drooped and condensed or dissolved to misty gauze, half of the +Valley would be suddenly veiled, leaving here and there some lofty headland cut +off from all visible connection with the walls, looming alone, dim, spectral, +as if belonging to the sky—visitors, like the new falls, come to take +part in the glorious festival. Thus for two days and nights in measureless +extravagance the storm went on, and mostly without spectators, at least of a +terrestrial kind. I saw nobody out—bird, bear, squirrel, or man. Tourists +had vanished months before, and the hotel people and laborers were out of +sight, careful about getting cold, and satisfied with views from windows. The +bears, I suppose, were in their cañon-boulder dens, the squirrels in their +knot-hole nests, the grouse in close fir groves, and the small singers in the +Indian Cañon chaparral, trying to keep warm and dry. Strange to say, I did not +see even the water-ouzels, though they must have greatly enjoyed the storm. +</p> + +<p> +This was the most sublime waterfall flood I ever saw—clouds, winds, +rocks, waters, throbbing together as one. And then to contemplate what was +going on simultaneously with all this in other mountain temples; the Big +Tuolumne Cañon—how the white waters and the winds were singing there! And +in Hetch Hetchy Valley and the great King’s River yosemite, and in all +the other Sierra cañons and valleys from Shasta to the southernmost fountains +of the Kern, thousands of rejoicing flood waterfalls chanting together in +jubilee dress. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>Chapter 3<br/> +Snow-Storms</h2> + +<p> +As has been already stated, the first of the great snow-storms that replenish +the Yosemite fountains seldom sets in before the end of November. Then, warned +by the sky, wide-awake mountaineers, together with the deer and most of the +birds, make haste to the lowlands or foothills; and burrowing marmots, mountain +beavers, wood-rats, and other small mountain people, go into winter quarters, +some of them not again to see the light of day until the general awakening and +resurrection of the spring in June or July. The fertile clouds, drooping and +condensing in brooding silence, seem to be thoughtfully examining the forests +and streams with reference to the work that lies before them. At length, all +their plans perfected, tufted flakes and single starry crystals come in sight, +solemnly swirling and glinting to their blessed appointed places; and soon the +busy throng fills the sky and makes darkness like night. The first heavy fall +is usually from about two to four feet in depth then with intervals of days or +weeks of bright weather storm succeeds storm, heaping snow on snow, until +thirty to fifty feet has fallen. But on account of its settling and compacting, +and waste from melting and evaporation, the average depth actually found at any +time seldom exceeds ten feet in the forest regions, or fifteen feet along the +slopes of the summit peaks. After snow-storms come avalanches, varying greatly +in form, size, behavior and in the songs they sing; some on the smooth slopes +of the mountains are short and broad; others long and river-like in the side +cañons of yosemites and in the main cañons, flowing in regular channels and +booming like waterfalls, while countless smaller ones fall everywhere from +laden trees and rocks and lofty cañon walls. Most delightful it is to stand in +the middle of Yosemite on still clear mornings after snow-storms and watch the +throng of avalanches as they come down, rejoicing, to their places, whispering, +thrilling like birds, or booming and roaring like thunder. The noble yellow +pines stand hushed and motionless as if under a spell until the morning +sunshine begins to sift through their laden spires; then the dense masses on +the ends of the leafy branches begin to shift and fall, those from the upper +branches striking the lower ones in succession, enveloping each tree in a +hollow conical avalanche of fairy fineness; while the relieved branches spring +up and wave with startling effect in the general stillness, as if each tree was +moving of its own volition. Hundreds of broad cloud-shaped masses may also be +seen, leaping over the brows of the cliffs from great heights, descending at +first with regular avalanche speed until, worn into dust by friction, they +float in front of the precipices like irised clouds. Those which descend from +the brow of El Capitan are particularly fine; but most of the great Yosemite +avalanches flow in regular channels like cascades and waterfalls. When the snow +first gives way on the upper slopes of their basins, a dull rushing, rumbling +sound is heard which rapidly increases and seems to draw nearer with appalling +intensity of tone. Presently the white flood comes bounding into sight over +bosses and sheer places, leaping from bench to bench, spreading and narrowing +and throwing off clouds of whirling dust like the spray of foaming cataracts. +Compared with waterfalls and cascades, avalanches are short-lived, few of them +lasting more than a minute or two, and the sharp, clashing sounds so common in +falling water are mostly wanting; but in their low massy thundertones and +purple-tinged whiteness, and in their dress, gait, gestures and general +behavior, they are much alike. +</p> + +<h3>Avalanches</h3> + +<p> +Besides these common after-storm avalanches that are to be found not only in +the Yosemite but in all the deep, sheer-walled cañon of the Range there are two +other important kinds, which may be called annual and century avalanches, which +still further enrich the scenery. The only place about the Valley where one may +be sure to see the annual kind is on the north slope of Clouds’ Rest. +They are composed of heavy, compacted snow, which has been subjected to +frequent alternations of freezing and thawing. They are developed on cañon and +mountain-sides at an elevation of from nine to ten thousand feet, where the +slopes are inclined at an angle too low to shed off the dry winter snow, and +which accumulates until the spring thaws sap their foundations and make them +slippery; then away in grand style go the ponderous icy masses without any fine +snow-dust. Those of Clouds’ Rest descend like thunderbolts for more than +a mile. +</p> + +<p> +The great century avalanches and the kind that mow wide swaths through the +upper forests occur on mountain-sides about ten or twelve thousand feet high, +where under ordinary weather conditions the snow accumulated from winter to +winter lies at rest for many years, allowing trees, fifty to a hundred feet +high, to grow undisturbed on the slopes beneath them. On their way down through +the woods they seldom fail to make a perfectly clean sweep, stripping off the +soil as well as the trees, clearing paths two or three hundred yards wide from +the timber line to the glacier meadows or lakes, and piling their uprooted +trees, head downward, in rows along the sides of the gaps like lateral +moraines. Scars and broken branches of the trees standing on the sides of the +gaps record the depth of the overwhelming flood; and when we come to count the +annual wood-rings on the uprooted trees we learn that some of these immense +avalanches occur only once in a century or even at still wider intervals. +</p> + +<h3>A Ride On An Avalanche</h3> + +<p> +Few Yosemite visitors ever see snow avalanches and fewer still know the +exhilaration of riding on them. In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed only +one avalanche ride, and the start was so sudden and the end came so soon I had +but little time to think of the danger that attends this sort of travel, though +at such times one thinks fast. One fine Yosemite morning after a heavy +snowfall, being eager to see as many avalanches as possible and wide views of +the forest and summit peaks in their new white robes before the sunshine had +time to change them, I set out early to climb by a side cañon to the top of a +commanding ridge a little over three thousand feet above the Valley. On account +of the looseness of the snow that blocked the cañon I knew the climb would +require a long time, some three or four hours as I estimated; but it proved far +more difficult than I had anticipated. Most of the way I sank waist deep, +almost out of sight in some places. After spending the whole day to within half +an hour or so of sundown, I was still several hundred feet below the summit. +Then my hopes were reduced to getting up in time to see the sunset. But I was +not to get summit views of any sort that day, for deep trampling near the cañon +head, where the snow was strained, started an avalanche, and I was swished down +to the foot of the cañon as if by enchantment. The wallowing ascent had taken +nearly all day, the descent only about a minute. When the avalanche started I +threw myself on my back and spread my arms to try to keep from sinking. +Fortunately, though the grade of the cañon is very steep, it is not interrupted +by precipices large enough to cause outbounding or free plunging. On no part of +the rush was I buried. I was only moderately imbedded on the surface or at +times a little below it, and covered with a veil of back-streaming dust +particles; and as the whole mass beneath and about me joined in the flight +there was no friction, though I was tossed here and there and lurched from side +to side. When the avalanche swedged and came to rest I found myself on top of +the crumpled pile without bruise or scar. This was a fine experience. Hawthorne +says somewhere that steam has spiritualized travel; though unspiritual smells, +smoke, etc., still attend steam travel. This flight in what might be called a +milky way of snow-stars was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the +modes of motion I have ever experienced. Elijah’s flight in a chariot of +fire could hardly have been more gloriously exciting. +</p> + +<h3>The Streams In Other Seasons</h3> + +<p> +In the spring, after all the avalanches are down and the snow is melting fast, +then all the Yosemite streams, from their fountains to their falls, sing their +grandest songs. Countless rills make haste to the rivers, running and singing +soon after sunrise, louder and louder with increasing volume until sundown; +then they gradually fail through the frosty hours of the night. In this way the +volume of the upper branches of the river is nearly doubled during the day, +rising and falling as regularly as the tides of the sea. Then the Merced +overflows its banks, flooding the meadows, sometimes almost from wall to wall +in some places, beginning to rise towards sundown just when the streams on the +fountains are beginning to diminish, the difference in time of the daily rise +and fall being caused by the distance the upper flood streams have to travel +before reaching the Valley. In the warmest weather they seem fairly to shout +for joy and clash their upleaping waters together like clapping of hands; +racing down the cañons with white manes flying in glorious exuberance of +strength, compelling huge, sleeping boulders to wake up and join in their dance +and song, to swell their exulting chorus. +</p> + +<p> +In early summer, after the flood season, the Yosemite streams are in their +prime, running crystal clear, deep and full but not overflowing their +banks—about as deep through the night as the day, the difference in +volume so marked in spring being now too slight to be noticed. Nearly all the +weather is cloudless and everything is at its brightest—lake, river, +garden and forest with all their life. Most of the plants are in full flower. +The blessed ouzels have built their mossy huts and are now singing their best +songs with the streams. +</p> + +<p> +In tranquil, mellow autumn, when the year’s work is about done and the +fruits are ripe, birds and seeds out of their nests, and all the landscape is +glowing like a benevolent countenance, then the streams are at their lowest +ebb, with scarce a memory left of their wild spring floods. The small +tributaries that do not reach back to the lasting snow fountains of the summit +peaks shrink to whispering, tinkling currents. After the snow is gone from the +basins, excepting occasional thundershowers, they are now fed only by small +springs whose waters are mostly evaporated in passing over miles of warm +pavements, and in feeling their way slowly from pool to pool through the midst +of boulders and sand. Even the main rivers are so low they may easily be +forded, and their grand falls and cascades, now gentle and approachable, have +waned to sheets of embroidery. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>Chapter 4<br/> +Snow Banners</h2> + +<p> +But it is on the mountain tops, when they are laden with loose, dry snow and +swept by a gale from the north, that the most magnificent storm scenery is +displayed. The peaks along the axis of the Range are then decorated with +resplendent banners, some of them more than a mile long, shining, streaming, +waving with solemn exuberant enthusiasm as if celebrating some surpassingly +glorious event. +</p> + +<p> +The snow of which these banners are made falls on the high Sierra in most +extravagant abundance, sometimes to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, coming +from the fertile clouds not in large angled flakes such as one oftentimes sees +in Yosemite, seldom even in complete crystals, for many of the starry blossoms +fall before they are ripe, while most of those that attain perfect development +as six-petaled flowers are more or less broken by glinting and chafing against +one another on the way down to their work. This dry frosty snow is prepared for +the grand banner-waving celebrations by the action of the wind. Instead of at +once finding rest like that which falls into the tranquil depths of the forest, +it is shoved and rolled and beaten against boulders and out-jutting rocks, +swirled in pits and hollows like sand in river pot-holes, and ground into +sparkling dust. And when storm winds find this snow-dust in a loose condition +on the slopes above the timber-line they toss it back into the sky and sweep it +onward from peak to peak in the form of smooth regular banners, or in cloudy +drifts, according to the velocity and direction of the wind, and the +conformation of the slopes over which it is driven. While thus flying through +the air a small portion escapes from the mountains to the sky as vapor; but far +the greater part is at length locked fast in bossy overcurling cornices along +the ridges, or in stratified sheets in the glacier cirques, some of it to +replenish the small residual glaciers and remain silent and rigid for centuries +before it is finally melted and sent singing down home to the sea. +</p> + +<p> +But, though snow-dust and storm-winds abound on the mountains, regular shapely +banners are, for causes we shall presently see, seldom produced. During the +five winters that I spent in Yosemite I made many excursions to high points +above the walls in all kinds of weather to see what was going on outside; from +all my lofty outlooks I saw only one banner-storm that seemed in every way +perfect. This was in the winter of 1873, when the snow-laden peaks were swept +by a powerful norther. I was awakened early in the morning by a wild storm-wind +and of course I had to make haste to the middle of the Valley to enjoy it. +Rugged torrents and avalanches from the main wind-flood overhead were roaring +down the side cañons and over the cliffs, arousing the rocks and the trees and +the streams alike into glorious hurrahing enthusiasm, shaking the whole Valley +into one huge song. Yet inconceivable as it must seem even to those who love +all Nature’s wildness, the storm was telling its story on the mountains +in still grander characters. +</p> + +<h3>A Wonderful Winter Scene</h3> + +<p> +I had long been anxious to study some points in the structure of the ice-hill +at the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, but, as I have already explained, +blinding spray had hitherto prevented me from getting sufficiently near it. +This morning the entire body of the Fall was oftentimes torn into gauzy strips +and blown horizontally along the face of the cliff, leaving the ice-hill dry; +and while making my way to the top of Fern Ledge to seize so favorable an +opportunity to look down its throat, the peaks of the Merced group came in +sight over the shoulder of the South Dome, each waving a white glowing banner +against the dark blue sky, as regular in form and firm and fine in texture as +if it were made of silk. So rare and splendid a picture, of course, smothered +everything else and I at once began to scramble and wallow up the snow-choked +Indian Cañon to a ridge about 8000 feet high, commanding a general view of the +main summits along the axis of the Range, feeling assured I should find them +bannered still more gloriously; nor was I in the least disappointed. I reached +the top of the ridge in four or five hours, and through an opening in the woods +the most imposing wind-storm effect I ever beheld came full in sight; +unnumbered mountains rising sharply into the cloudless sky, their bases solid +white their sides plashed with snow, like ocean rocks with foam, and on every +summit a magnificent silvery banner, from two thousand to six thousand feet in +length, slender at the point of attachment, and widening gradually until about +a thousand or fifteen hundred feet in breadth, and as shapely and as +substantial looking in texture as the banners of the finest silk, all streaming +and waving free and clear in the sun-glow with nothing to blur the sublime +picture they made. +</p> + +<p> +Fancy yourself standing beside me on this Yosemite Ridge. There is a strange +garish glitter in the air and the gale drives wildly overhead, but you feel +nothing of its violence, for you are looking out through a sheltered opening in +the woods, as through a window. In the immediate foreground there is a forest +of silver fir their foliage warm yellow-green, and the snow beneath them strewn +with their plumes, plucked off by the storm; and beyond broad, ridgy, +cañon-furrowed, dome-dotted middle ground, darkened here and there with belts +of pines, you behold the lofty snow laden mountains in glorious array, waving +their banners with jubilant enthusiasm as if shouting aloud for joy. They are +twenty miles away, but you would not wish them nearer, for every feature is +distinct and the whole wonderful show is seen in its right proportions, like a +painting on the sky. +</p> + +<p> +And now after this general view, mark how sharply the ribs and buttresses and +summits of the mountains are defined, excepting the portions veiled by the +banners; how gracefully and nobly the banners are waving in accord with the +throbbing of the wind flood; how trimly each is attached to the very summit of +its peak like a streamer at a mast-head; how bright and glowing white they are, +and how finely their fading fringes are penciled on the sky! See how solid +white and opaque they are at the point of attachment and how filmy and +translucent toward the end, so that the parts of the peaks past which they are +streaming look dim as if seen through a veil of ground glass. And see how some +of the longest of the banners on the highest peaks are streaming perfectly free +from peak to peak across intervening notches or passes, while others overlap +and partly hide one another. +</p> + +<p> +As to their formation, we find that the main causes of the wondrous beauty and +perfection of those we are looking at are the favorable direction and force of +the wind, the abundance of snow-dust, and the form of the north sides of the +peaks. In general, the north sides are concave in both their horizontal and +vertical sections, having been sculptured into this shape by the residual +glaciers that lingered in the protecting northern shadows, while the sun-beaten +south sides, having never been subjected to this kind of glaciation, are convex +or irregular. It is essential, therefore, not only that the wind should move +with great velocity and steadiness to supply a sufficiently copious and +continuous stream of snow-dust, but that it should come from the north. No +perfect banner is ever hung on the Sierra peaks by the south wind. Had the gale +today blown from the south, leaving the other conditions unchanged, only +swirling, interfering, cloudy drifts would have been produced; for the snow, +instead of being spouted straight up and over the tops of the peaks in +condensed currents to be drawn out as streamers, would have been driven over +the convex southern slopes from peak to peak like white pearly fog. +</p> + +<p> +It appears, therefore, that shadows in great part determine not only the forms +of lofty ice mountains, but also those of the snow banners that the wild winds +hang upon them. +</p> + +<h3>Earthquake Storms</h3> + +<p> +The avalanche taluses, leaning against the walls at intervals of a mile or two, +are among the most striking and interesting of the secondary features of the +Valley. They are from about three to five hundred feet high, made up of huge, +angular, well-preserved, unshifting boulders, and instead of being slowly +weathered from the cliffs like ordinary taluses, they were all formed suddenly +and simultaneously by a great earthquake that occurred at least three centuries +ago. And though thus hurled into existence in a few seconds or minutes, they +are the least changeable of all the Sierra soil-beds. Excepting those which +were launched directly into the channels of swift rivers, scarcely one of their +wedged and interlacing boulders has moved since the day of their creation; and +though mostly made up of huge blocks of granite, many of them from ten to fifty +feet cube, weighing thousands of tons with only a few small chips, trees and +shrubs make out to live and thrive on them and even delicate herbaceous +plants—draperia, collomia, zauschneria, etc., soothing and coloring their +wild rugged slopes with gardens and groves. +</p> + +<p> +I was long in doubt on some points concerning the origin of those taluses. +Plainly enough they were derived from the cliffs above them, because they are +of the size of scars on the wall, the rough angular surface of which contrasts +with the rounded, glaciated, unfractured parts. It was plain, too, that instead +of being made up of material slowly and gradually weathered from the cliffs +like ordinary taluses, almost every one of them had been formed suddenly in a +single avalanche, and had not been increased in size during the last three or +four centuries, for trees three or four hundred years old are growing on them, +some standing at the top close to the wall without a bruise or broken branch, +showing that scarcely a single boulder had ever fallen among them. Furthermore, +all these taluses throughout the Range seemed by the trees and lichens growing +on them to be of the same age. All the phenomena thus pointed straight to a +grand ancient earthquake. But for years I left the question open, and went on +from cañon to cañon, observing again and again; measuring the heights of +taluses throughout the Range on both flanks, and the variations in the angles +of their surface slopes; studying the way their boulders had been assorted and +related and brought to rest, and their correspondence in size with the cleavage +joints of the cliffs from whence they were derived, cautious about making up my +mind. But at last all doubt as to their formation vanished. +</p> + +<p> +At half-past two o’clock of a moonlit morning in March, I was awakened by +a tremendous earthquake, and though I had never before enjoyed a storm of this +sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, and I ran out of my +cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, “A noble earthquake! A noble +earthquake!” feeling sure I was going to learn something. The shocks were +so violent and varied, and succeeded one another so closely, that I had to +balance myself carefully in walking as if on the deck of a ship among waves, +and it seemed impossible that the high cliffs of the Valley could escape being +shattered. In particular, I feared that the sheer-fronted Sentinel Rock, +towering above my cabin, would be shaken down, and I took shelter back of a +large yellow pine, hoping that it might protect me from at least the smaller +outbounding boulders. For a minute or two the shocks became more and more +violent—flashing horizontal thrusts mixed with a few twists and +battering, explosive, upheaving jolts,—as if Nature were wrecking her +Yosemite temple, and getting ready to build a still better one. +</p> + +<p> +I was now convinced before a single boulder had fallen that earthquakes were +the talus-makers and positive proof soon came. It was a calm moonlight night, +and no sound was heard for the first minute or so, save low, muffled, +underground, bubbling rumblings, and the whispering and rustling of the +agitated trees, as if Nature were holding her breath. Then, suddenly, out of +the strange silence and strange motion there came a tremendous roar. The Eagle +Rock on the south wall, about a half a mile up the Valley, gave way and I saw +it falling in thousands of the great boulders I had so long been studying, +pouring to the Valley floor in a free curve luminous from friction, making a +terribly sublime spectacle—an arc of glowing, passionate fire, fifteen +hundred feet span, as true in form and as serene in beauty as a rainbow in the +midst of the stupendous, roaring rock-storm. The sound was so tremendously deep +and broad and earnest, the whole earth like a living creature seemed to have at +last found a voice and to be calling to her sister planets. In trying to tell +something of the size of this awful sound it seems to me that if all the +thunder of all the storms I had ever heard were condensed into one roar it +would not equal this rock-roar at the birth of a mountain talus. Think, then, +of the roar that arose to heaven at the simultaneous birth of all the thousands +of ancient cañon-taluses throughout the length and breadth of the Range! +</p> + +<p> +The first severe shocks were soon over, and eager to examine the new-born talus +I ran up the Valley in the moonlight and climbed upon it before the huge +blocks, after their fiery flight, had come to complete rest. They were slowly +settling into their places, chafing, grating against one another, groaning, and +whispering; but no motion was visible except in a stream of small fragments +pattering down the face of the cliff. A cloud of dust particles, lighted by the +moon, floated out across the whole breadth of the Valley, forming a ceiling +that lasted until after sunrise, and the air was filled with the odor of +crushed Douglas spruces from a grove that had been mowed down and mashed like +weeds. +</p> + +<p> +After the ground began to calm I ran across the meadow to the river to see in +what direction it was flowing and was glad to find that <i>down</i> the Valley +was still down. Its waters were muddy from portions of its banks having given +way, but it was flowing around its curves and over its ripples and shallows +with ordinary tones and gestures. The mud would soon be cleared away and the +raw slips on the banks would be the only visible record of the shaking it +suffered. +</p> + +<p> +The Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing white in the moonlight, seemed to know nothing +of the earthquake, manifesting no change in form or voice, as far as I could +see or hear. +</p> + +<p> +After a second startling shock, about half-past three o’clock, the ground +continued to tremble gently, and smooth, hollow rumbling sounds, not always +distinguishable from the rounded, bumping, explosive tones of the falls, came +from deep in the mountains in a northern direction. +</p> + +<p> +The few Indians fled from their huts to the middle of the Valley, fearing that +angry spirits were trying to kill them; and, as I afterward learned, most of +the Yosemite tribe, who were spending the winter at their village on Bull Creek +forty miles away, were so terrified that they ran into the river and washed +themselves,—getting themselves clean enough to say their prayers, I +suppose, or to die. I asked Dick, one of the Indians with whom I was +acquainted, “What made the ground shake and jump so much?” He only +shook his head and said, “No good. No good,” and looked appealingly +to me to give him hope that his life was to be spared. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning I found the few white settlers assembled in front of the old +Hutchings Hotel comparing notes and meditating flight to the lowlands, +seemingly as sorely frightened as the Indians. Shortly after sunrise a low, +blunt, muffled rumbling, like distant thunder, was followed by another series +of shocks, which, though not nearly so severe as the first, made the cliffs and +domes tremble like jelly, and the big pines and oaks thrill and swish and wave +their branches with startling effect. Then the talkers were suddenly hushed, +and the solemnity on their faces was sublime. One in particular of these winter +neighbors, a somewhat speculative thinker with whom I had often conversed, was +a firm believer in the cataclysmic origin of the Valley; and I now jokingly +remarked that his wild tumble-down-and-engulfment hypothesis might soon be +proved, since these underground rumblings and shakings might be the forerunners +of another Yosemite-making cataclysm, which would perhaps double the depth of +the Valley by swallowing the floor, leaving the ends of the roads and trails +dangling three or four thousand feet in the air. Just then came the third +series of shocks, and it was fine to see how awfully silent and solemn he +became. His belief in the existence of a mysterious abyss, into which the +suspended floor of the Valley and all the domes and battlements of the walls +might at any moment go roaring down, mightily troubled him. To diminish his +fears and laugh him into something like reasonable faith, I said, “Come, +cheer up; smile a little and clap your hands, now that kind Mother Earth is +trotting us on her knee to amuse us and make us good.” But the well-meant +joke seemed irreverent and utterly failed, as if only prayerful terror could +rightly belong to the wild beauty-making business. Even after all the heavier +shocks were over I could do nothing to reassure him, on the contrary, he handed +me the keys of his little store to keep, saying that with a companion of like +mind he was going to the lowlands to stay until the fate of poor, trembling +Yosemite was settled. In vain I rallied them on their fears, calling attention +to the strength of the granite walls of our Valley home, the very best and +solidest masonry in the world, and less likely to collapse and sink than the +sedimentary lowlands to which they were looking for safety; and saying that in +any case they sometime would have to die, and so grand a burial was not to be +slighted. But they were too seriously panic-stricken to get comfort from +anything I could say. +</p> + +<p> +During the third severe shock the trees were so violently shaken that the birds +flew out with frightened cries. In particular, I noticed two robins flying in +terror from a leafless oak, the branches of which swished and quivered as if +struck by a heavy battering-ram. Exceedingly interesting were the flashing and +quivering of the elastic needles of the pines in the sunlight and the waving up +and down of the branches while the trunks stood rigid. There was no swaying, +waving or swirling as in wind-storms, but quick, quivering jerks, and at times +the heavy tasseled branches moved as if they had all been pressed down against +the trunk and suddenly let go, to spring up and vibrate until they came to rest +again. Only the owls seemed to be undisturbed. Before the rumbling echoes had +died away a hollow-voiced owl began to hoot in philosophical tranquillity from +near the edge of the new talus as if nothing extraordinary had occurred, +although, perhaps, he was curious to know what all the noise was about. His +“hoot-too-hoot-too-whoo” might have meant, “what’s +a’ the steer, kimmer?” +</p> + +<p> +It was long before the Valley found perfect rest. The rocks trembled more or +less every day for over two months, and I kept a bucket of water on my table to +learn what I could of the movements. The blunt thunder in the depths of the +mountains was usually followed by sudden jarring, horizontal thrusts from the +northward, often succeeded by twisting, upjolting movements. More than a month +after the first great shock, when I was standing on a fallen tree up the Valley +near Lamon’s winter cabin, I heard a distinct bubbling thunder from the +direction of Tenaya Cañon Carlo, a large intelligent St. Bernard dog standing +beside me seemed greatly astonished, and looked intently in that direction with +mouth open and uttered a low <i>Wouf!</i> as if saying, “What’s +that?” He must have known that it was not thunder, though like it. The +air was perfectly still, not the faintest breath of wind perceptible, and a +fine, mellow, sunny hush pervaded everything, in the midst of which came that +subterranean thunder. Then, while we gazed and listened, came the corresponding +shocks, distinct as if some mighty hand had shaken the ground. After the sharp +horizontal jars died away, they were followed by a gentle rocking and +undulating of the ground so distinct that Carlo looked at the log on which he +was standing to see who was shaking it. It was the season of flooded meadows +and the pools about me, calm as sheets of glass, were suddenly thrown into low +ruffling waves. +</p> + +<p> +Judging by its effects, this Yosemite, or Inyo earthquake, as it is sometimes +called, was gentle as compared with the one that gave rise to the grand talus +system of the Range and did so much for the cañon scenery. Nature, usually so +deliberate in her operations, then created, as we have seen, a new set of +features, simply by giving the mountains a shake—changing not only the +high peaks and cliffs, but the streams. As soon as these rock avalanches fell +the streams began to sing new songs; for in many places thousands of boulders +were hurled into their channels, roughening and half-damming them, compelling +the waters to surge and roar in rapids where before they glided smoothly. Some +of the streams were completely dammed; driftwood, leaves, etc., gradually +filling the interstices between the boulders, thus giving rise to lakes and +level reaches; and these again, after being gradually filled in, were changed +to meadows, through which the streams are now silently meandering; while at the +same time some of the taluses took the places of old meadows and groves. Thus +rough places were made smooth, and smooth places rough. But, on the whole, by +what at first sight seemed pure confounded confusion and ruin, the landscapes +were enriched; for gradually every talus was covered with groves and gardens, +and made a finely proportioned and ornamental base for the cliffs. In this work +of beauty, every boulder is prepared and measured and put in its place more +thoughtfully than are the stones of temples. If for a moment you are inclined +to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb to the top of +one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering hesitation, boldly +jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You will then find your feet +playing a tune, and quickly discover the music and poetry of these magnificent +rock piles—a fine lesson; and all Nature’s wildness tells the same +story—the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, +roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, +storms of every sort—each and all are the orderly beauty-making +love-beats of Nature’s heart. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>Chapter 5<br/> +The Trees of the Valley</h2> + +<p> +The most influential of the Valley trees is the yellow pine (<i>Pinus +ponderosa</i>). It attains its noblest dimensions on beds of water-washed, +coarsely-stratified moraine material, between the talus slopes and meadows, dry +on the surface, well-watered below and where not too closely assembled in +groves the branches reach nearly to the ground, forming grand spires 200 to 220 +feet in height. The largest that I have measured is standing alone almost +opposite the Sentinel Rock, or a little to the westward of it. It is a little +over eight feet in diameter and about 220 feet high. Climbing these grand +trees, especially when they are waving and singing in worship in wind-storms, +is a glorious experience. Ascending from the lowest branch to the topmost is +like stepping up stairs through a blaze of white light, every needle thrilling +and shining as if with religious ecstasy. +</p> + +<p> +Unfortunately there are but few sugar pines in the Valley, though in the +King’s yosemite they are in glorious abundance. The incense cedar +(<i>Libocedrus decurrens</i>) with cinnamon-colored bark and yellow-green +foliage is one of the most interesting of the Yosemite trees. Some of them are +150 feet high, from six to ten feet in diameter, and they are never out of +sight as you saunter among the yellow pines. Their bright brown shafts and +towers of flat, frondlike branches make a striking feature of the landscapes +throughout all the seasons. In midwinter, when most of the other trees are +asleep, this cedar puts forth its flowers in millions,—the pistillate +pale green and inconspicuous, but the staminate bright yellow, tingeing all the +branches and making the trees as they stand in the snow look like gigantic +goldenrods. The branches, outspread in flat plumes and, beautifully fronded, +sweep gracefully downward and outward, except those near the top, which aspire; +the lowest, especially in youth and middle age, droop to the ground, +overlapping one another, shedding off rain and snow like shingles, and making +fine tents for birds and campers. This tree frequently lives more than a +thousand years and is well worthy its place beside the great pines and the +Douglas spruce. +</p> + +<p> +The two largest specimens I know of the Douglas spruce, about eight feet in +diameter, are growing at the foot of the Liberty Cap near the Nevada Fall, and +on the terminal moraine of the small residual glacier that lingered in the +shady Illilouette Cañon. +</p> + +<p> +After the conifers, the most important of the Yosemite trees are the oaks, two +species; the California live-oak (<i>Quercus agrifolia</i>), with black trunks, +reaching a thickness of from four to nearly seven feet, wide spreading branches +and bright deeply-scalloped leaves. It occupies the greater part of the broad +sandy flats of the upper end of the Valley, and is the species that yields the +acorns so highly prized by the Indians and woodpeckers. +</p> + +<p> +The other species is the mountain live-oak, or goldcup oak (<i>Quercus +chrysolepis</i>), a sturdy mountaineer of a tree, growing mostly on the +earthquake taluses and benches of the sunny north wall of the Valley. In tough, +unwedgeable, knotty strength, it is the oak of oaks, a magnificent tree. +</p> + +<p> +The largest and most picturesque specimen in the Valley is near the foot of the +Tenaya Fall, a romantic spot seldom seen on account of the rough trouble of +getting to it. It is planted on three huge boulders and yet manages to draw +sufficient moisture and food from this craggy soil to maintain itself in good +health. It is twenty feet in circumference, measured above a large branch +between three and four feet in diameter that has been broken off. The main +knotty trunk seems to be made up of craggy granite boulders like those on which +it stands, being about the same color as the mossy, lichened boulders and about +as rough. Two moss-lined caves near the ground open back into the trunk, one on +the north side, the other on the west, forming picturesque, romantic seats. The +largest of the main branches is eighteen feet and nine inches in circumference, +and some of the long pendulous branchlets droop over the stream at the foot of +the fall where it is gray with spray. The leaves are glossy yellow-green, ever +in motion from the wind from the fall. It is a fine place to dream in, with +falls, cascades, cool rocks lined with hypnum three inches thick; shaded with +maple, dogwood, alder, willow; grand clumps of lady-ferns where no hand may +touch them; light filtering through translucent leaves; oaks fifty feet high; +lilies eight feet high in a filled lake basin near by, and the finest +libocedrus groves and tallest ferns and goldenrods. +</p> + +<p> +In the main river cañon below the Vernal Fall and on the shady south side of +the Valley there are a few groves of the silver fir (<i>Abies concolor</i>), +and superb forests of the magnificent species round the rim of the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +On the tops of the domes is found the sturdy, storm-enduring red cedar +(<i>Juniperus occidentalis</i>). It never makes anything like a forest here, +but stands out separate and independent in the wind, clinging by slight joints +to the rock, with scarce a handful of soil in sight of it, seeming to depend +chiefly on snow and air for nourishment, and yet it has maintained tough health +on this diet for two thousand years or more. The largest hereabouts are from +five to six feet in diameter and fifty feet in height. +</p> + +<p> +The principal river-side trees are poplar, alder, willow, broad-leaved maple, +and Nuttall’s flowering dogwood. The poplar (<i>Populus trichocarpa</i>), +often called balm-of-Gilead from the gum on its buds, is a tall tree, towering +above its companions and gracefully embowering the banks of the river. Its +abundant foliage turns bright yellow in the fall, and the Indian-summer +sunshine sifts through it in delightful tones over the slow-gliding waters when +they are at their lowest ebb. +</p> + +<p> +Some of the involucres of the flowering dogwood measure six to eight inches in +diameter, and the whole tree when in flower looks as if covered with snow. In +the spring when the streams are in flood it is the whitest of trees. In Indian +summer the leaves become bright crimson, making a still grander show than the +flowers. +</p> + +<p> +The broad-leaved maple and mountain maple are found mostly in the cool cañons +at the head of the Valley, spreading their branches in beautiful arches over +the foaming streams. +</p> + +<p> +Scattered here and there are a few other trees, mostly small—the mountain +mahogany, cherry, chestnut-oak, and laurel. The California nutmeg (<i>Torreya +californica</i>), a handsome evergreen belonging to the yew family, forms small +groves near the cascades a mile or two below the foot of the Valley. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>Chapter 6<br/> +The Forest Trees in General</h2> + +<p> +For the use of the ever-increasing number of Yosemite visitors who make +extensive excursions into the mountains beyond the Valley, a sketch of the +forest trees in general will probably be found useful. The different species +are arranged in zones and sections, which brings the forest as a whole within +the comprehension of every observer. These species are always found as +controlled by the climates of different elevations, by soil and by the +comparative strength of each species in taking and holding possession of the +ground; and so appreciable are these relations the traveler need never be at a +loss in determining within a few hundred feet his elevation above sea level by +the trees alone; for, notwithstanding some of the species range upward for +several thousand feet and all pass one another more or less, yet even those +species possessing the greatest vertical range are available in measuring the +elevation; inasmuch as they take on new forms corresponding with variations in +altitude. Entering the lower fringe of the forest composed of Douglas oaks and +Sabine pines, the trees grow so far apart that not one-twentieth of the surface +of the ground is in shade at noon. After advancing fifteen or twenty miles +towards Yosemite and making an ascent of from two to three thousand feet you +reach the lower margin of the main pine belt, composed of great sugar pine, +yellow pine, incense cedar and sequoia. Next you come to the magnificent +silver-fir belt and lastly to the upper pine belt, which sweep up to the feet +of the summit peaks in a dwarfed fringe, to a height of from ten to twelve +thousand feet. That this general order of distribution depends on climate as +affected by height above the sea, is seen at once, but there are other +harmonies that become manifest only after observation and study. One of the +most interesting of these is the arrangement of the forest in long curving +bands, braided together into lace-like patterns in some places and out-spread +in charming variety. The key to these striking arrangements is the system of +ancient glaciers; where they flowed the trees followed, tracing their courses +along the sides of cañons, over ridges, and high plateaus. The cedar of +Lebanon, said Sir Joseph Hooker, occurs upon one of the moraines of an ancient +glacier. All the forests of the Sierra are growing upon moraines, but moraines +vanish like the glaciers that make them. Every storm that falls upon them +wastes them, carrying away their decaying, disintegrating material into new +formations, until they are no longer recognizable without tracing their +transitional forms down the Range from those still in process of formation in +some places through those that are more and more ancient and more obscured by +vegetation and all kinds of post-glacial weathering. It appears, therefore, +that the Sierra forests indicate the extent and positions of ancient moraines +as well as they do belts of climate. +</p> + +<p> +One will have no difficulty in knowing the Nut Pine (<i>Pinus Sabiniana</i>), +for it is the first conifer met in ascending the Range from the west, springing +up here and there among Douglas oaks and thickets of ceanothus and manzanita; +its extreme upper limit being about 4000 feet above the sea, its lower about +from 500 to 800 feet. It is remarkable for its loose, airy, wide-branching +habit and thin gray foliage. Full-grown specimens are from forty to fifty feet +in height and from two to three feet in diameter. The trunk usually divides +into three or four main branches about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground +that, after bearing away from one another, shoot straight up and form separate +summits. Their slender, grayish needles are from eight to twelve inches long, +and inclined to droop, contrasting with the rigid, dark-colored trunk and +branches. No other tree of my acquaintance so substantial in its body has +foliage so thin and pervious to the light. The cones are from five to eight +inches long and about as large in thickness; rich chocolate-brown in color and +protected by strong, down-curving nooks which terminate the scales. +Nevertheless the little Douglas Squirrel can open them. Indians climb the trees +like bears and beat off the cones or recklessly cut off the more fruitful +branches with hatchets, while the squaws gather and roast them until the scales +open sufficiently to allow the hard-shell seeds to be beaten out. The curious +little <i>Pinus attenuata</i> is found at an elevation of from 1500 to 3000 +feet, growing in close groves and belts. It is exceedingly slender and +graceful, although trees that chance to stand alone send out very long, curved +branches, making a striking contrast to the ordinary grove form. The foliage is +of the same peculiar gray-green color as that of the nut pine, and is worn +about as loosely, so that the body of the tree is scarcely obscured by it. At +the age of seven or eight years it begins to bear cones in whorls on the main +axis, and as they never fall off, the trunk is soon picturesquely dotted with +them. Branches also soon become fruitful. The average size of the tree is about +thirty or forty feet in height and twelve to fourteen inches in diameter. The +cones are about four inches long and covered with a sort of varnish and gum, +rendering them impervious to moisture. +</p> + +<p> +No observer can fail to notice the admirable adaptation of this curious pine to +the fire-swept regions where alone it is found. After a running fire has +scorched and killed it the cones open and the ground beneath it is then sown +broadcast with all the seeds ripened during its whole life. Then up spring a +crowd of bright, hopeful seedlings, giving beauty for ashes in lavish +abundance. +</p> + +<h3>The Sugar Pine, King Of Pine Trees</h3> + +<p> +Of all the world’s eighty or ninety species of pine trees, the Sugar Pine +(<i>Pinus Lambertiana</i>) is king, surpassing all others, not merely in size +but in lordly beauty and majesty. In the Yosemite region it grows at an +elevation of from 3000 to 7000 feet above the sea and attains most perfect +development at a height of about 5000 feet. The largest specimens are commonly +about 220 feet high and from six to eight feet in diameter four feet from the +ground, though some grand old patriarch may be met here and there that has +enjoyed six or eight centuries of storms and attained a thickness of ten or +even twelve feet, still sweet and fresh in every fiber. The trunk is a +remarkably smooth, round, delicately-tapered shaft, straight and regular as if +turned in a lathe, mostly without limbs, purplish brown in color and usually +enlivened with tufts of a yellow lichen. Toward the head of this magnificent +column long branches sweep gracefully outward and downward, sometimes forming a +palm-like crown, but far more impressive than any palm crown I ever beheld. The +needles are about three inches long in fascicles of five, and arranged in +rather close tassels at the ends of slender branchlets that clothe the long +outsweeping limbs. How well they sing in the wind, and how strikingly +harmonious an effect is made by the long cylindrical cones, depending loosely +from the ends of the long branches! The cones are about fifteen to eighteen +inches long, and three in diameter; green, shaded with dark purple on their +sunward sides. They are ripe in September and October of the second year from +the flower. Then the flat, thin scales open and the seeds take wing, but the +empty cones become still more beautiful and effective as decorations, for their +diameter is nearly doubled by the spreading of the scales, and their color +changes to yellowish brown while they remain, swinging on the tree all the +following winter and summer, and continue effectively beautiful even on the +ground many years after they fall. The wood is deliciously fragrant, fine in +grain and texture and creamy yellow, as if formed of condensed sunbeams. The +sugar from which the common name is derived is, I think, the best of sweets. It +exudes from the heart-wood where wounds have been made by forest fires or the +ax, and forms irregular, crisp, candy-like kernels of considerable size, +something like clusters of resin beads. When fresh it is white, but because +most of the wounds on which it is found have been made by fire the sap is +stained and the hardened sugar becomes brown. Indians are fond of it, but on +account of its laxative properties only small quantities may be eaten. No tree +lover will ever forget his first meeting with the sugar pine. In most pine +trees there is the sameness of expression which to most people is apt to become +monotonous, for the typical spiral form of conifers, however beautiful, affords +little scope for appreciable individual character. The sugar pine is as free +from conventionalities as the most picturesque oaks. No two are alike, and +though they toss out their immense arms in what might seem extravagant gestures +they never lose their expression of serene majesty. They are the priests of +pines and seem ever to be addressing the surrounding forest. The yellow pine is +found growing with them on warm hillsides, and the silver fir on cool northern +slopes but, noble as these are, the sugar pine is easily king, and spreads his +arms above them in blessing while they rock and wave in sign of recognition. +The main branches are sometimes forty feet long, yet persistently simple, +seldom dividing at all, excepting near the end; but anything like a bare cable +appearance is prevented by the small, tasseled branchlets that extend all +around them; and when these superb limbs sweep out symmetrically on all sides, +a crown sixty or seventy feet wide is formed, which, gracefully poised on the +summit of the noble shaft, is a glorious object. Commonly, however, there is a +preponderance of limbs toward the east, away from the direction of the +prevailing winds. +</p> + +<p> +Although so unconventional when full-grown, the sugar pine is a remarkably +proper tree in youth—a strict follower of coniferous fashions—slim, +erect, with leafy branches kept exactly in place, each tapering in outline and +terminating in a spiry point. The successive forms between the cautious +neatness of youth and the bold freedom of maturity offer a delightful study. At +the age of fifty or sixty years, the shy, fashionable form begins to be broken +up. Specialized branches push out and bend with the great cones, giving +individual character, that becomes more marked from year to year. Its most +constant companion is the yellow pine. The Douglas spruce, libocedrus, sequoia, +and the silver fir are also more or less associated with it; but on many +deep-soiled mountain-sides, at an elevation of about 5000 feet above the sea, +it forms the bulk of the forest, filling every swell and hollow and +down-plunging ravine. The majestic crowns, approaching each other in bold +curves, make a glorious canopy through which the tempered sunbeams pour, +silvering the needles, and gilding the massive boles and the flowery, park-like +ground into a scene of enchantment. On the most sunny slopes the +white-flowered, fragrant chamaebatia is spread like a carpet, brightened during +early summer with the crimson sarcodes, the wild rose, and innumerable violets +and gilias. Not even in the shadiest nooks will you find any rank, untidy weeds +or unwholesome darkness. In the north sides of ridges the boles are more +slender, and the ground is mostly occupied by an underbrush of hazel, +ceanothus, and flowering dogwood, but not so densely as to prevent the traveler +from sauntering where he will; while the crowning branches are never +impenetrable to the rays of the sun, and never so interblended as to lose their +individuality. +</p> + +<h3>The Yellow Or Silver Pine</h3> + +<p> +The Silver Pine (<i>Pinus ponderosa</i>), or Yellow Pine, as it is commonly +called, ranks second among the pines of the Sierra as a lumber tree, and almost +rivals the sugar pine in stature and nobleness of port. Because of its superior +powers of enduring variations of climate and soil, it has a more extensive +range than any other conifer growing on the Sierra. On the western slope it is +first met at an elevation of about 2000 feet, and extends nearly to the upper +limit of the timber-line. Thence, crossing the range by the lowest passes, it +descends to the eastern base, and pushes out for a considerable distance into +the hot, volcanic plains, growing bravely upon well-watered moraines, gravelly +lake basins, climbing old volcanoes and dropping ripe cones among ashes and +cinders. +</p> + +<p> +The average size of full-grown trees on the western slope where it is +associated with the sugar pine, is a little less than 200 feet in height and +from five to six feet in diameter, though specimens considerably larger may +easily be found. Where there is plenty of free sunshine and other conditions +are favorable, it presents a striking contrast in form to the sugar pine, being +a symmetrical spire, formed of a straight round trunk, clad with innumerable +branches that are divided over and over again. Unlike the Yosemite form about +one-half of the trunk is commonly branchless, but where it grows at all close +three-fourths or more is naked, presenting then a more slender and elegant +shaft than any other tree in the woods. The bark is mostly arranged in massive +plates, some of them measuring four or five feet in length by eighteen inches +in width, with a thickness of three or four inches, forming a quite marked and +distinguishing feature. The needles are of a fine, warm, yellow-green color, +six to eight inches long, firm and elastic, and crowded in handsome, radiant +tassels on the upturning ends of the branches. The cones are about three or +four inches long, and two and a half wide, growing in close, sessile clusters +among the leaves. +</p> + +<p> +The species attains its noblest form in filled-up lake basins, especially in +those of the older yosemites, and as we have seen, so prominent a part does it +form of their groves that it may well be called the Yosemite Pine. +</p> + +<p> +The Jeffrey variety attains its finest development in the northern portion of +the Range, in the wide basins of the McCloud and Pitt Rivers, where it forms +magnificent forests scarcely invaded by any other tree. It differs from the +ordinary form in size, being only about half as tall, in its redder and more +closely-furrowed bark grayish-green foliage, less divided branches, and much +larger cones; but intermediate forms come in which make a clear separation +impossible, although some botanists regard it as a distinct species. It is this +variety of ponderosa that climbs storm-swept ridges alone, and wanders out +among the volcanoes of the Great Basin. Whether exposed to extremes of heat or +cold, it is dwarfed like many other trees, and becomes all knots and angles, +wholly unlike the majestic forms we have been sketching. Old specimens, bearing +cones about as big as pineapples, may sometimes be found clinging to rifted +rocks at an elevation of 7000 or 8000 feet, whose highest branches scarce reach +above one’s shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +I have often feasted on the beauty of these noble trees when they were towering +in all their winter grandeur, laden with snow—one mass of bloom; in +summer, too, when the brown, staminate clusters hang thick among the shimmering +needles, and the big purple burrs are ripening in the mellow light; but it is +during cloudless wind-storms that these colossal pines are most impressively +beautiful. Then they bow like willows, their leaves streaming forward all in +one direction, and, when the sun shines upon them at the required angle, entire +groves glow as if every leaf were burnished silver. The fall of tropic light on +the crown of a palm is a truly glorious spectacle, the fervid sun-flood +breaking upon the glossy leaves in long lance-rays, like mountain water among +boulders at the foot of an enthusiastic cataract. But to me there is something +more impressive in the fall of light upon these noble, silver pine pillars: it +is beaten to the finest dust and shed off in myriads of minute sparkles that +seem to radiate from the very heart of the tree as if like rain, falling upon +fertile soil, it had been absorbed to reappear in flowers of light. This +species also gives forth the finest wind music. After listening to it in all +kinds of winds, night and day, season after season, I think I could approximate +to my position on the mountain by this pine music alone. If you would catch the +tone of separate needles climb a tree in breezy weather. Every needle is +carefully tempered and gives forth no uncertain sound each standing out with no +interference excepting during head gales; then you may detect the click of one +needle upon another, readily distinguishable from the free wind-like hum. +</p> + +<p> +When a sugar pine and one of this species equal in size are observed together, +the latter is seen to be more simple in manners, more lively and graceful, and +its beauty is of a kind more easily appreciated; on the other hand it is less +dignified and original in demeanor. The yellow pine seems ever eager to shoot +aloft, higher and higher. Even while it is drowsing in autumn sun-gold you may +still detect a skyward aspiration, but the sugar pine seems too unconsciously +noble and too complete in every way to leave room for even a heavenward care. +</p> + +<h3>The Douglas Spruce</h3> + +<p> +The Douglas Spruce (<i>Pseudotsuga Douglasii</i>) is one of the largest and +longest-lived of the giants that flourish throughout the main pine belt, often +attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of six or seven feet. +Where the growth is not too close, the stout, spreading branches, covering more +than half of the trunk, are hung with innumerable slender, drooping sprays, +handsomely feathered with the short leaves which radiate at right angles all +around them. This vigorous tree is ever beautiful, welcoming the mountain winds +and the snow as well as the mellow summer light; and it maintains its youthful +freshness undiminished from century to century through a thousand storms. It +makes its finest appearance during the months of June and July, when the brown +buds at the ends of the sprays swell and open, revealing the young leaves, +which at first are bright yellow, making the tree appear as if covered with gay +blossoms; while the pendulous bracted cones, three or four inches long, with +their shell-like scales, are a constant adornment. +</p> + +<p> +The young trees usually are assembled in family groups, each sapling +exquisitely symmetrical. The primary branches are whorled regularly around the +axis, generally in fives, while each is draped with long, feathery sprays that +descend in lines as free and as finely drawn as those of falling water. +</p> + +<p> +In Oregon and Washington it forms immense forests, growing tall and mast-like +to a height of 300 feet, and is greatly prized as a lumber tree. Here it is +scattered among other trees, or forms small groves, seldom ascending higher +than 5500 feet, and never making what would be called a forest. It is not +particular in its choice of soil: wet or dry, smooth or rocky, it makes out to +live well on them all. Two of the largest specimens, as we have seen, are in +Yosemite; one of these, more than eight feet in diameter, is growing on a +moraine; the other, nearly as large, on angular blocks of granite. No other +tree in the Sierra seems so much at home on earthquake taluses and many of +these huge boulder-slopes are almost exclusively occupied by it. +</p> + +<h3>The Incense Cedar</h3> + +<p> +Incense Cedar (<i>Libocedrus decurrens</i>), already noticed among the Yosemite +trees, is quite generally distributed throughout the pine belt without +exclusively occupying any considerable area, or even making extensive groves. +On the warmer mountain slopes it ascends to about 5000 feet, and reaches the +climate most congenial to it at a height of about 4000 feet, growing vigorously +at this elevation in all kinds of soil and, in particular, it is capable of +enduring more moisture about its roots than any of its companions excepting +only the sequoia. +</p> + +<p> +Casting your eye over the general forest from some ridge-top you can identify +it by the color alone of its spiry summits, a warm yellow-green. In its youth +up to the age of seventy or eighty years, none of its companions forms so +strictly tapered a cone from top to bottom. As it becomes older it oftentimes +grows strikingly irregular and picturesque. Large branches push out at right +angles to the trunk, forming stubborn elbows and shoot up parallel with the +axis. Very old trees are usually dead at the top. The flat fragrant plumes are +exceedingly beautiful: no waving fern-frond is finer in form and texture. In +its prime the whole tree is thatched with them, but if you would see the +libocedrus in all its glory you must go to the woods in midwinter when it is +laden with myriads of yellow flowers about the size of wheat grains, forming a +noble illustration of Nature’s immortal virility and vigor. The mature +cones, about three-fourths of an inch long, born on the ends of the plumy +branchlets, serve to enrich still more the surpassing beauty of this +winter-blooming tree-goldenrod. +</p> + +<h3>The Silver Firs</h3> + +<p> +We come now to the most regularly planted and most clearly defined of the main +forest belts, composed almost exclusively of two Silver Firs—<i>Abies +concolor</i> and <i>Abies magnifica</i>—extending with but little +interruption 450 miles at an elevation of from 5000 to 9000 feet above the sea. +In its youth <i>A. concolor</i> is a charmingly symmetrical tree with its flat +plumy branches arranged in regular whorls around the whitish-gray axis which +terminates in a stout, hopeful shoot, pointing straight to the zenith, like an +admonishing finger. The leaves are arranged in two horizontal rows along +branchlets that commonly are less than eight years old, forming handsome +plumes, pinnated like the fronds of ferns. The cones are grayish-green when +ripe, cylindrical, from three to four inches long, and one and a half to two +inches wide, and stand upright on the upper horizontal branches. Full-grown +trees in favorable situations are usually about 200 feet high and five or six +feet in diameter. As old age creeps on, the rough bark becomes rougher and +grayer, the branches lose their exact regularity of form, many that are +snow-bent are broken off and the axis often becomes double or otherwise +irregular from accidents to the terminal bud or shoot. Nevertheless, throughout +all the vicissitudes of its three or four centuries of life, come what may, the +noble grandeur of this species, however obscured, is never lost. +</p> + +<p> +The magnificent Silver Fir, or California Red Fir (<i>Abies magnifica</i>) is +the most symmetrical of all the Sierra giants, far surpassing its companion +species in this respect and easily distinguished from it by the purplish-red +bark, which is also more closely furrowed than that of the white, and by its +larger cones, its more regularly whorled and fronded branches, and its shorter +leaves, which grow all around the branches and point upward instead of being +arranged in two horizontal rows. The branches are mostly whorled in fives, and +stand out from the straight, red-purple bole in level, or in old trees in +drooping collars, every branch regularly pinnated like fern-fronds, making +broad plumes, singularly rich and sumptuous-looking. The flowers are in their +prime about the middle of June; the male red, growing on the underside of the +branches in crowded profusion, giving a very rich color to all the trees; the +female greenish-yellow, tinged with pink, standing erect on the upper side of +the topmost branches, while the tufts of young leaves, about as brightly +colored as those of the Douglas spruce, make another grand show. The cones +mature in a single season from the flowers. When mature they are about six to +eight inches long, three or four in diameter, covered with a fine gray down and +streaked and beaded with transparent balsam, very rich and precious-looking, +and stand erect like casks on the topmost branches. The inside of the cone is, +if possible, still more beautiful. The scales and bracts are tinged with red +and the seed-wings are purple with bright iridescence. Both of the silver firs +live between two and three centuries when the conditions about them are at all +favorable. Some venerable patriarch may be seen heavily storm-marked, towering +in severe majesty above the rising generation, with a protecting grove of +hopeful saplings pressing close around his feet, each dressed with such loving +care that not a leaf seems wanting. Other groups are made up of trees near the +prime of life, nicely arranged as if Nature had culled them with discrimination +from all the rest of the woods. It is from this tree, called Red Fir by the +lumbermen, that mountaineers cut boughs to sleep on when they are so fortunate +as to be within its limit. Two or three rows of the sumptuous plushy-fronded +branches, overlapping along the middle, and a crescent of smaller plumes mixed +to one’s taste with ferns and flowers for a pillow, form the very best +bed imaginable. The essence of the pressed leaves seems to fill every pore of +one’s body. Falling water makes a soothing hush, while the spaces between +the grand spires afford noble openings through which to gaze dreamily into the +starry sky. The fir woods are fine sauntering-grounds at almost any time of the +year, but finest in autumn when the noble trees are hushed in the hazy light +and drip with balsam; and the flying, whirling seeds, escaping from the ripe +cones, mottle the air like flocks of butterflies. Even in the richest part of +these unrivaled forests where so many noble trees challenge admiration we +linger fondly among the colossal firs and extol their beauty again and again, +as if no other tree in the world could henceforth claim our love. It is in +these woods the great granite domes arise that are so striking and +characteristic a feature of the Sierra. Here, too, we find the best of the +garden-meadows full of lilies. A dry spot a little way back from the margin of +a silver fir lily-garden makes a glorious camp-ground, especially where the +slope is toward the east with a view of the distant peaks along the summit of +the Range. The tall lilies are brought forward most impressively like visitors +by the light of your camp-fire and the nearest of the trees with their whorled +branches tower above you like larger lilies and the sky seen through the +garden-opening seems one vast meadow of white lily stars. +</p> + +<h3>The Two-Leaved Pine</h3> + +<p> +The Two-Leaved Pine (<i>Pinus contorta</i>, var. <i>Murrayana</i>), above the +Silver Fir zone, forms the bulk of the alpine forests up to a height of from +8000 to 9500 feet above the sea, growing in beautiful order on moraines +scarcely changed as yet by post-glacial weathering. Compared with the giants of +the lower regions this is a small tree, seldom exceeding a height of eighty or +ninety feet. The largest I ever measured was ninety feet high and a little over +six feet in diameter. The average height of mature trees throughout the entire +belt is probably not far from fifty or sixty feet with a diameter of two feet. +It is a well-proportioned, rather handsome tree with grayish-brown bark and +crooked, much-divided branches which cover the greater part of the trunk, but +not so densely as to prevent it being seen. The lower limbs, like those of most +other conifers that grow in snowy regions, curve downward, gradually take a +horizontal position about half-way up the trunk, then aspire more and more +toward the summit. The short, rigid needles in fascicles of two are arranged in +comparatively long cylindrical tassels at the ends of the tough up-curving +branches. The cones are about two inches long, growing in clusters among the +needles without any striking effect except while very young, when the flowers +are of a vivid crimson color and the whole tree appears to be dotted with +brilliant flowers. The staminate flowers are still more showy on account of +their great abundance, often giving a reddish-yellow tinge to the whole mass of +foliage and filling the air with pollen. No other pine on the Range is so +regularly planted as this one, covering moraines that extend along the sides of +the high rocky valleys for miles without interruption. The thin bark is +streaked and sprinkled with resin as though it had been showered upon the +forest like rain. +</p> + +<p> +Therefore this tree more than any other is subject to destruction by fire. +During strong winds extensive forests are destroyed, the flames leaping from +tree to tree in continuous belts that go surging and racing onward above the +bending wood like prairie-grass fires. During the calm season of Indian summer +the fire creeps quietly along the ground, feeding on the needles and cones; +arriving at the foot of a tree, the resiny bark is ignited and the heated air +ascends in a swift current, increasing in velocity and dragging the flames +upward. Then the leaves catch forming an immense column of fire, beautifully +spired on the edges and tinted a rose-purple hue. It rushes aloft thirty or +forty feet above the top of the tree, forming a grand spectacle, especially at +night. It lasts, however, only a few seconds, vanishing with magical rapidity, +to be succeeded by others along the fire-line at irregular intervals, tree +after tree, upflashing and darting, leaving the trunks and branches scarcely +scarred. The heat, however, is sufficient to kill the tree and in a few years +the bark shrivels and falls off. Forests miles in extent are thus killed and +left standing, with the branches on, but peeled and rigid, appearing gray in +the distance like misty clouds. Later the branches drop off, leaving a forest +of bleached spars. At length the roots decay and the forlorn gray trunks are +blown down during some storm and piled one upon another, encumbering the ground +until, dry and seasoned, they are consumed by another fire and leave the ground +ready for a fresh crop. +</p> + +<p> +In sheltered lake-hollows, on beds of alluvium, this pine varies so far from +the common form that frequently it could be taken for a distinct species, +growing in damp sods like grasses from forty to eighty feet high, bending all +together to the breeze and whirling in eddying gusts more lively than any other +tree in the woods. I frequently found specimens fifty feet high less than five +inches in diameter. Being so slender and at the same time clad with leafy +boughs, it is often bent and weighed down to the ground when laden with soft +snow; thus forming fine ornamental arches, many of them to last until the +melting of the snow in the spring. +</p> + +<h3>The Mountain Pine</h3> + +<p> +The Mountain Pine (<i>Pinus monticola</i>) is the noblest tree of the alpine +zone—hardy and long-lived towering grandly above its companions and +becoming stronger and more imposing just where other species begin to crouch +and disappear. At its best it is usually about ninety feet high and five or six +feet in diameter, though you may find specimens here and there considerably +larger than this. It is as massive and suggestive of enduring strength as an +oak. About two-thirds of the trunk is commonly free of limbs, but close, fringy +tufts of spray occur nearly all the way down to the ground. On trees that +occupy exposed situations near its upper limit the bark is deep reddish-brown +and rather deeply furrowed, the main furrows running nearly parallel to each +other and connected on the old trees by conspicuous cross-furrows. The cones +are from four to eight inches long, smooth, slender, cylindrical and somewhat +curved. They grow in clusters of from three to six or seven and become +pendulous as they increase in weight. This species is nearly related to the +sugar pine and, though not half so tall, it suggests its noble relative in the +way that it extends its long branches in general habit. It is first met on the +upper margin of the silver fir zone, singly, in what appears as chance +situations without making much impression on the general forest. Continuing up +through the forests of the two-leaved pine it begins to show its distinguishing +characteristic in the most marked way at an elevation of about 10,000 feet +extending its tough, rather slender arms in the frosty air, welcoming the +storms and feeding on them and reaching sometimes to the grand old age of 1000 +years. +</p> + +<h3>The Western Juniper</h3> + +<p> +The Juniper or Red Cedar (<i>Juniperus occidentalis</i>) is preëminently a +rock tree, occupying the baldest domes and pavements in the upper silver fir +and alpine zones, at a height of from 7000 to 9500 feet. In such situations, +rooted in narrow cracks or fissures, where there is scarcely a handful of soil, +it is frequently over eight feet in diameter and not much more in height. The +tops of old trees are almost always dead, and large stubborn-looking limbs push +out horizontally, most of them broken and dead at the end, but densely covered, +and imbedded here and there with tufts or mounds of gray-green scalelike +foliage. Some trees are mere storm-beaten stumps about as broad as long, +decorated with a few leafy sprays, reminding one of the crumbling towers of old +castles scantily draped with ivy. Its homes on bare, barren dome and ridge-top +seem to have been chosen for safety against fire, for, on isolated mounds of +sand and gravel free from grass and bushes on which fire could feed, it is +often found growing tall and unscathed to a height of forty to sixty feet, with +scarce a trace of the rocky angularity and broken limbs so characteristic a +feature throughout the greater part of its range. It never makes anything like +a forest; seldom even a grove. Usually it stands out separate and independent, +clinging by slight joints to the rocks, living chiefly on snow and thin air and +maintaining sound health on this diet for 2000 years or more. Every feature or +every gesture it makes expresses steadfast, dogged endurance. The bark is of a +bright cinnamon color and is handsomely braided and reticulated on thrifty +trees, flaking off in thin, shining ribbons that are sometimes used by the +Indians for tent matting. Its fine color and picturesqueness are appreciated by +artists, but to me the juniper seems a singularly strange and taciturn tree. I +have spent many a day and night in its company and always have found it silent +and rigid. It seems to be a survivor of some ancient race, wholly unacquainted +with its neighbors. Its broad stumpiness, of course, makes wind-waving or even +shaking out of the question, but it is not this rocky rigidity that constitutes +its silence. In calm, sun-days the sugar pine preaches like an enthusiastic +apostle without moving a leaf. On level rocks the juniper dies standing and +wastes insensibly out of existence like granite, the wind exerting about as +little control over it, alive or dead, as is does over a glacier boulder. +</p> + +<p> +I have spent a good deal of time trying to determine the age of these wonderful +trees, but as all of the very old ones are honey-combed with dry rot I never +was able to get a complete count of the largest. Some are undoubtedly more than +2000 years old, for though on deep moraine soil they grow about as fast as some +of the pines, on bare pavements and smoothly glaciated, overswept ridges in the +dome region they grow very slowly. One on the Starr King Ridge only two feet +eleven inches in diameter was 1140 years old forty years ago. Another on the +same ridge, only one foot seven and a half inches in diameter, had reached the +age of 834 years. The first fifteen inches from the bark of a medium-size tree +six feet in diameter, on the north Tenaya pavement, had 859 layers of wood. +Beyond this the count was stopped by dry rot and scars. The largest examined +was thirty-three feet in girth, or nearly ten feet in diameter and, although I +have failed to get anything like a complete count, I learned enough from this +and many other specimens to convince me that most of the trees eight or ten +feet thick, standing on pavements, are more than twenty centuries old rather +than less. Barring accidents, for all I can see they would live forever; even +then overthrown by avalanches, they refuse to lie at rest, lean stubbornly on +their big branches as if anxious to rise, and while a single root holds to the +rock, put forth fresh leaves with a grim, never-say-die expression. +</p> + +<h3>The Mountain Hemlock</h3> + +<p> +As the juniper is the most stubborn and unshakeable of trees in the Yosemite +region, the Mountain Hemlock (<i>Tsuga Mertensiana</i>) is the most graceful +and pliant and sensitive. Until it reaches a height of fifty or sixty feet it +is sumptuously clothed down to the ground with drooping branches, which are +divided again and again into delicate waving sprays, grouped and arranged in +ways that are indescribably beautiful, and profusely adorned with small brown +cones. The flowers also are peculiarly beautiful and effective; the female dark +rich purple, the male blue, of so fine and pure a tone. What the best azure of +the mountain sky seems to be condensed in them. Though apparently the most +delicate and feminine of all the mountain trees, it grows best where the snow +lies deepest, at a height of from 9000 to 9500 feet, in hollows on the northern +slopes of mountains and ridges. But under all circumstances, sheltered from +heavy winds or in bleak exposure to them, well fed or starved, even at its +highest limit, 10,500 feet above the sea, on exposed ridge-tops where it has to +crouch and huddle close in low thickets, it still contrives to put forth its +sprays and branches in forms of invincible beauty, while on moist, well-drained +moraines it displays a perfectly tropical luxuriance of foliage, flowers and +fruit. The snow of the first winter storm is frequently soft, and lodges in due +dense leafy branches, weighing them down against the trunk, and the slender, +drooping axis, bending lower and lower as the load increases, at length reaches +the ground, forming an ornamental arch. Then, as storm succeeds storm and snow +is heaped on snow, the whole tree is at last buried, not again to see the light +of day or move leaf or limb until set free by the spring thaws in June or July. +Not only the young saplings are thus carefully covered and put to sleep in the +whitest of white beds for five or six months of the year, but trees thirty feet +high or more. From April to May, when the snow by repeated thawing and freezing +is firmly compacted, you may ride over the prostrate groves without seeing a +single branch or leaf of them. No other of our alpine conifers so finely veils +its strength; poised in thin, white sunshine, clad with branches from head to +foot, it towers in unassuming majesty, drooping as if unaffected with the +aspiring tendencies of its race, loving the ground, conscious of heaven and +joyously receptive of its blessings, reaching out its branches like sensitive +tentacles, feeling the light and reveling in it. The largest specimen I ever +found was nineteen feet seven inches in circumference. It was growing on the +edge of Lake Hollow, north of Mount Hoffman, at an elevation of 9250 feet above +the level of the sea, and was probably about a hundred feet in height. Fine +groves of mature trees, ninety to a hundred feet in height, are growing near +the base of Mount Conness. It is widely distributed from near the south +extremity of the high Sierra northward along the Cascade Mountains of Oregon +and Washington and the coast ranges of British Columbia to Alaska, where it was +first discovered in 1827. Its northernmost limit, so far as I have observed, is +in the icy fiords of Prince William Sound in latitude 61°, where it forms +pure forests at the level of the sea, growing tall and majestic on the banks of +glaciers. There, as in the Yosemite region, it is ineffably beautiful, the very +loveliest of all the American conifers. +</p> + +<h3>The White-Bark Pine</h3> + +<p> +The Dwarf Pine, or White-Bark Pine (<i>Pinus albicaulis</i>), forms the extreme +edge of the timberline throughout nearly the whole extent of the Range on both +flanks. It is first met growing with the two-leaved pine on the upper margin of +the alpine belt, as an erect tree from fifteen to thirty feet high and from one +to two feet in diameter hence it goes straggling up the flanks of the summit +peaks, upon moraines or crumbling ledges, wherever it can get a foothold, to an +elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, where it dwarfs to a mass of crumpled +branches, covered with slender shoots, each tipped with a short, close-packed, +leaf tassel. The bark is smooth and purplish, in some places almost white. The +flowers are bright scarlet and rose-purple, giving a very flowery appearance +little looked for in such a tree. The cones are about three inches long, an +inch and a half in diameter, grow in rigid clusters, and are dark chocolate in +color while young, and bear beautiful pearly-white seeds about the size of +peas, most of which are eaten by chipmunks and the Clarke’s crows. Pines +are commonly regarded as sky-loving trees that must necessarily aspire or die. +This species forms a marked exception, crouching and creeping in compliance +with the most rigorous demands of climate; yet enduring bravely to a more +advanced age than many of its lofty relatives in the sun-lands far below it. +Seen from a distance it would never be taken for a tree of any kind. For +example, on Cathedral Peak there is a scattered growth of this pine, creeping +like mosses over the roof, nowhere giving hint of an ascending axis. While, +approached quite near, it still appears matty and heathy, and one experiences +no difficulty in walking over the top of it, yet it is seldom absolutely +prostrate, usually attaining a height of three or four feet with a main trunk, +and with branches outspread above it, as if in ascending they had been checked +by a ceiling against which they had been compelled to spread horizontally. The +winter snow is a sort of ceiling, lasting half the year; while the pressed +surface is made yet smoother by violent winds armed with cutting sand-grains +that bear down any shoot which offers to rise much above the general level, and +that carve the dead trunks and branches in beautiful patterns. +</p> + +<p> +During stormy nights I have often camped snugly beneath the interlacing arches +of this little pine. The needles, which have accumulated for centuries, make +fine beds, a fact well known to other mountaineers, such as deer and wild +sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie beneath the larger trees in safe and +comfortable concealment. This lowly dwarf reaches a far greater age than would +be guessed. A specimen that I examined, growing at an elevation of 10,700 feet, +yet looked as though it might be plucked up by the roots, for it was only three +and a half inches in diameter and its topmost tassel reached hardly three feet +above the ground. Cutting it half through and counting the annual rings with +the aid of a lens, I found its age to be no less than 255 years. Another +specimen about the same height, with a trunk six inches in diameter, I found to +be 426 years old, forty years ago; and one of its supple branchlets hardly an +eighth of an inch in diameter inside the bark, was seventy-five years old, and +so filled with oily balsam and seasoned by storms that I tied it in knots like +a whip-cord. +</p> + +<h3>The Nut Pine</h3> + +<p> +In going across the Range from the Tuolumne River Soda Springs to Mono Lake one +makes the acquaintance of the curious little Nut Pine (<i>Pinus +monophylla</i>). It dots the eastern flank of the Sierra to which it is mostly +restricted in grayish bush-like patches, from the margin of the sage-plains to +an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet. A more contented, fruitful and +unaspiring conifer could not be conceived. All the species we have been +sketching make departures more or less distant from the typical spire form, but +none goes so far as this. Without any apparent cause it keeps near the ground, +throwing out crooked, divergent branches like an orchard apple-tree, and seldom +pushes a single shoot higher than fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. +</p> + +<p> +The average thickness of the trunk is, perhaps, about ten or twelve inches. The +leaves are mostly undivided, like round awls, instead of being separated, like +those of other pines, into twos and threes and fives. The cones are green while +growing, and are usually found over all the tree, forming quite a marked +feature as seen against the bluish-gray foliage. They are quite small, only +about two inches in length, and seem to have but little space for seeds; but +when we come to open them, we find that about half the entire bulk of the cone +is made up of sweet, nutritious nuts, nearly as large as hazel-nuts. This is +undoubtedly the most important food-tree on the Sierra, and furnishes the Mona, +Carson, and Walker River Indians with more and better nuts than all the other +species taken together. It is the Indian’s own tree, and many a white man +have they killed for cutting it down. Being so low, the cones are readily +beaten off with poles, and the nuts procured by roasting them until the scales +open. In bountiful seasons a single Indian may gather thirty or forty bushels. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>Chapter 7<br/> +The Big Trees</h2> + +<p> +Between the heavy pine and silver fir zones towers the Big Tree (<i>Sequoia +gigantea</i>), the king of all the conifers in the world, “the noblest of +the noble race.” The groves nearest Yosemite Valley are about twenty +miles to the westward and southward and are called the Tuolumne, Merced and +Mariposa groves. It extends, a widely interrupted belt, from a very small grove +on the middle fork of the American River to the head of Deer Creek, a distance +of about 260 miles, its northern limit being near the thirty-ninth parallel, +the southern a little below the thirty-sixth. The elevation of the belt above +the sea varies from about 5000 to 8000 feet. From the American River to Kings +River the species occurs only in small isolated groups so sparsely distributed +along the belt that three of the gaps in it are from forty to sixty miles wide. +But from Kings River south-ward the sequoia is not restricted to mere groves +but extends across the wide rugged basins of the Kaweah and Tule Rivers in +noble forests, a distance of nearly seventy miles, the continuity of this part +of the belt being broken only by the main cañons. The Fresno, the largest of +the northern groves, has an area of three or four square miles, a short +distance to the southward of the famous Mariposa grove. Along the south rim of +the cañon of the south fork of Kings River there is a majestic sequoia forest +about six miles long by two wide. This is the northernmost group that may +fairly be called a forest. Descending the divide between the Kings and Kaweah +Rivers you come to the grand forests that form the main continuous portion of +the belt. Southward the giants become more and more irrepressibly exuberant, +heaving their massive crowns into the sky from every ridge and slope, waving +onward in graceful compliance with the complicated topography of the region. +The finest of the Kaweah section of the belt is on the broad ridge between +Marble Creek and the middle fork, and is called the Giant Forest. It extends +from the granite headlands, overlooking the hot San Joaquin plains, to within a +few miles of the cool glacial fountains of the summit peaks. The extreme upper +limit of the belt is reached between the middle and south forks of the Kaweah +at a height of 8400 feet, but the finest block of big tree forests in the +entire belt is on the north fork of Tule River, and is included in the Sequoia +National Park. +</p> + +<p> +In the northern groves there are comparatively few young trees or saplings. But +here for every old storm-beaten giant there are many in their prime and for +each of these a crowd of hopeful young trees and saplings, growing vigorously +on moraines, rocky edges, along water courses and meadows. But though the area +occupied by the big tree increases so greatly from north to south, here is no +marked increase in the size of the trees. The height of 275 feet or thereabouts +and a diameter of about twenty feet, four feet from the ground is, perhaps, +about the average size of what may be called full-grown trees, where they are +favorably located. The specimens twenty-five feet in diameter are not very rare +and a few are nearly three hundred feet high. In the Calaveras grove there are +four trees over 300 feet in height, the tallest of which as measured by the +Geological Survey is 325 feet. The very largest that I have yet met in the +course of my explorations is a majestic old fire-scarred monument in the Kings +River forest. It is thirty-five feet and eight inches in diameter inside the +bark, four feet above the ground. It is burned half through, and I spent a day +in clearing away the charred surface with a sharp ax and counting the annual +wood-rings with the aid of a pocket lens. I succeeded in laying bare a section +all the way from the outside to the heart and counted a little over four +thousand rings, showing that this tree was in its prime about twenty-seven feet +in diameter at the beginning of the Christian era. No other tree in the world, +as far as I know, has looked down on so many centuries as the sequoia or opens +so many impressive and suggestive views into history. Under the most favorable +conditions these giants probably live 5000 years or more though few of even the +larger trees are half as old. The age of one that was felled in Calaveras +grove, for the sake of having its stump for a dancing-floor, was about 1300 +years, and its diameter measured across the stump twenty-four feet inside the +bark. Another that was felled in the Kings River forest was about the same size +but nearly a thousand years older (2200 years), though not a very old-looking +tree. +</p> + +<p> +So harmonious and finely balanced are even the mightiest of these monarchs in +all their proportions that there is never anything overgrown or monstrous about +them. Seeing them for the first time you are more impressed with their beauty +than their size, their grandeur being in great part invisible; but sooner or +later it becomes manifest to the loving eye, stealing slowly on the senses like +the grandeur of Niagara or of the Yosemite Domes. When you approach them and +walk around them you begin to wonder at their colossal size and try to measure +them. They bulge considerably at the base, but not more than is required for +beauty and safety and the only reason that this bulging seems in some cases +excessive is that only a comparatively small section is seen in near views. One +that I measured in the Kings River forest was twenty-five feet in diameter at +the ground and ten feet in diameter 220 feet above the ground showing the +fineness of the taper of the trunk as a whole. No description can give anything +like an adequate idea of their singular majesty, much less of their beauty. +Except the sugar pine, most of their neighbors with pointed tops seem ever +trying to go higher, while the big tree, soaring above them all, seems +satisfied. Its grand domed head seems to be poised about as lightly as a cloud, +giving no impression of seeking to rise higher. Only when it is young does it +show like other conifers a heavenward yearning, sharply aspiring with a long +quick-growing top. Indeed, the whole tree for the first century or two, or +until it is a hundred or one hundred and fifty feet high, is arrowhead in form, +and, compared with the solemn rigidity of age, seems as sensitive to the wind +as a squirrel’s tail. As it grows older, the lower branches are gradually +dropped and the upper ones thinned out until comparatively few are left. These, +however, are developed to a great size, divide again and again and terminate in +bossy, rounded masses of leafy branch-lets, while the head becomes dome-shaped, +and is the first to feel the touch of the rosy beams of the morning, the last +to bid the sun good night. Perfect specimens, unhurt by running fires or +lightning, are singularly regular and symmetrical in general form though not in +the least conventionalized, for they show extraordinary variety in the unity +and harmony of their general outline. The immensely strong, stately shafts are +free of limbs for one hundred and fifty feet or so. The large limbs reach out +with equal boldness a every direction, showing no weather side, and no other +tree has foliage so densely massed, so finely molded in outline and so +perfectly subordinate to an ideal type. A particularly knotty, angular, +ungovernable-looking branch, from five to seven or eight feet in diameter and +perhaps a thousand years old, may occasionally be seen pushing out from the +trunk as if determined to break across the bounds of the regular curve, but +like all the others it dissolves in bosses of branchlets and sprays as soon as +the general outline is approached. Except in picturesque old age, after being +struck by lightning or broken by thousands of snow-storms, the regularity of +forms is one of their most distinguishing characteristics. Another is the +simple beauty of the trunk and its great thickness as compared with its height +and the width of the branches, which makes them look more like finely modeled +and sculptured architectural columns than the stems of trees, while the great +limbs look like rafters, supporting the magnificent dome-head. But though so +consummately beautiful, the big tree always seems unfamiliar, with peculiar +physiognomy, awfully solemn and earnest; yet with all its strangeness it +impresses us as being more at home than any of its neighbors, holding the best +right to the ground as the oldest strongest inhabitant. One soon becomes +acquainted with new species of pine and fir and spruce as with friendly people, +shaking their outstretched branches like shaking hands and fondling their +little ones, while the venerable aboriginal sequoia, ancient of other days, +keeps you at a distance, looking as strange in aspect and behavior among its +neighbor trees as would the mastodon among the homely bears and deers. Only the +Sierra juniper is at all like it, standing rigid and unconquerable on glacier +pavements for thousands of years, grim and silent, with an air of antiquity +about as pronounced as that of the sequoia. +</p> + +<p> +The bark of the largest trees is from one to two feet thick, rich cinnamon +brown, purplish on young trees, forming magnificent masses of color with the +underbrush. Toward the end of winter the trees are in bloom, while the snow is +still eight or ten feet deep. The female flowers are about three-eighths of an +inch long, pale green, and grow in countless thousands on the ends of sprays. +The male are still more abundant, pale yellow, a fourth of an inch long and +when the pollen is ripe they color the whole tree and dust the air and the +ground. The cones are bright grass-green in color, about two and a half inches +long, one and a half wide, made up of thirty or forty strong, closely-packed, +rhomboidal scales, with four to eight seeds at the base of each. The seeds are +wonderfully small end light, being only from an eighth to a fourth of an inch +long and wide, including a filmy surrounding wing, which causes them to glint +and waver in falling and enables the wind to carry them considerable distances. +Unless harvested by the squirrels, the cones discharge their seed and remain on +the tree for many years. In fruitful seasons the trees are fairly laden. On two +small branches one and a half and two inches in diameter I counted 480 cones. +No other California conifer produces nearly so many seeds, except, perhaps, the +other sequoia, the Redwood of the Coast Mountains. Millions are ripened +annually by a single tree, and in a fruitful year the product of one of the +northern groves would be enough to plant all the mountain ranges in the world. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as any accident happens to the crown, such as being smashed off by +lightning, the branches beneath the wound, no matter how situated, seem to be +excited, like a colony of bees that have lost their queen, and become anxious +to repair the damage. Limbs that have grown outward for centuries at right +angles to the trunk begin to turn upward to assist in making a new crown, each +speedily assuming the special form of true summits. Even in the case of mere +stumps, burned half through, some mere ornamental tuft will try to go aloft and +do its best as a leader in forming a new head. Groups of two or three are often +found standing close together, the seeds from which they sprang having probably +grown on ground cleared for their reception by the fall of a large tree of a +former generation. They are called “loving couples,” “three +graces,” etc. When these trees are young they are seen to stand twenty or +thirty feet apart, by the time they are full-grown their trunks will touch and +crowd against each other and in some cases even appear as one. +</p> + +<p> +It is generally believed that the sequoia was once far more widely distributed +over the Sierra; but after long and careful study I have come to the conclusion +that it never was, at least since the close of the glacial period, because a +diligent search along the margins of the groves, and in the gaps between fails +to reveal a single trace of its previous existence beyond its present bounds. +Notwithstanding, I feel confident that if every sequoia in the Range were to +die today, numerous monuments of their existence would remain, of so +imperishable a nature as to be available for the student more than ten thousand +years hence. +</p> + +<p> +In the first place, no species of coniferous tree in the Range keeps its +members so well together as the sequoia; a mile is, perhaps, the greatest +distance of any straggler from the main body, and all of those stragglers that +have come under my observation are young, instead of old monumental trees, +relics of a more extended growth. +</p> + +<p> +Again, the great trunks of the sequoia last for centuries after they fall. I +have a specimen block of sequoia wood, cut from a fallen tree, which is hardly +distinguishable from a similar section cut from a living tree, although the one +cut from the fallen trunk has certainly lain on the damp forest floor more than +380 years, probably thrice as long. The time-measure in the case is simply +this: When the ponderous trunk to which the old vestige belonged fell, it sunk +itself into the ground, thus making a long, straight ditch, and in the middle +of this ditch a silver fir four feet in diameter and 380 years old was growing, +as I determined by cutting it half through and counting the rings, thus +demonstrating that the remnant of the trunk that made the ditch has lain on the +ground <i>more</i> than 380 years. For it is evident that, to find the whole +time, we must add to the 380 years the time that the vanished portion of the +trunk lay in the ditch before being burned out of the way, plus the time that +passed before the seed from which the monumental fir sprang fell into the +prepared soil and took root. Now, because sequoia trunks are never wholly +consumed in one forest fire, and those fires recur only at considerable +intervals, and because sequoia ditches after being cleared are often left +unplanted for centuries, it becomes evident that the trunk-remnant in question +may probably have lain a thousand years or more. And this instance is by no +means a late one. +</p> + +<p> +Again, admitting that upon those areas supposed to have been once covered with +sequoia forests, every tree may have fallen, and every trunk may have been +burned or buried, leaving not a remnant, many of the ditches made by the fall +of the ponderous trunks, and the bowls made by their upturning roots, would +remain patent for thousands of years after the last vestige of the trunks that +made them had vanished. Much of this ditch-writing would no doubt be quickly +effaced by the flood-action of overflowing streams and rain-washing; but no +inconsiderable portion would remain enduringly engraved on ridge-tops beyond +such destructive action; for, where all the conditions are favorable, it is +almost imperishable. Now these historic ditches and root-bowls occur in all the +present sequoia groves and forests, but, as far as I have observed, not the +faintest vestige of one presents itself outside of them. +</p> + +<p> +We therefore conclude that the area covered by sequoia has not been diminished +during the last eight or ten thousand years, and probably not at all in +post-glacial time. Nevertheless, the questions may be asked: Is the species +verging toward extinction? What are its relations to climate, soil, and +associated trees? +</p> + +<p> +All the phenomena bearing on these questions also throw light, as we shall +endeavor to show, upon the peculiar distribution of the species, and sustain +the conclusion already arrived at as to the question of former extension. In +the northern groups, as we have seen, there are few young trees or saplings +growing up around the old ones to perpetuate the race, and inasmuch as those +aged sequoias, so nearly childless, are the only ones commonly known the +species, to most observers, seems doomed to speedy extinction, as being nothing +more than an expiring remnant, vanquished in the so-called struggle for life by +pines and firs that have driven it into its last strongholds in moist glens +where the climate is supposed to be exceptionally favorable. But the story told +by the majestic continuous forests of the south creates a very different +impression. No tree in the forest is more enduringly established in concordance +with both climate and soil. It grows heartily everywhere—on moraines, +rocky ledges, along watercourses, and in the deep, moist alluvium of meadows +with, as we have seen, a multitude of seedlings and saplings crowding up around +the aged, abundantly able to maintain the forest in prime vigor. So that if all +the trees of any section of the main sequoia forest were ranged together +according to age, a very promising curve would be presented, all the way up +from last year’s seedlings to giants, and with the young and middle-aged +portion of the curve many times longer than the old portion. Even as far north +as the Fresno, I counted 536 saplings and seedlings, growing promisingly upon a +landslip not exceeding two acres in area. This soil-bed was about seven years +old, and had been seeded almost simultaneously by pines, firs, libocedrus, and +sequoia, presenting a simple and instructive illustration of the struggle for +life among the rival species; and it was interesting to note that the +conditions thus far affecting them have enabled the young sequoias to gain a +marked advantage. Toward the south where the sequoia becomes most exuberant and +numerous, the rival trees become less so; and where they mix with sequoias they +grow up beneath them like slender grasses among stalks of Indian corn. Upon a +bed of sandy floodsoil I counted ninety-four sequoias, from one to twelve feet +high, on a patch of ground once occupied by four large sugar pines which lay +crumbling beneath them—an instance of conditions which have enabled +sequoias to crowd out the pines. I also noted eighty-six vigorous saplings upon +a piece of fresh ground prepared for their reception by fire. Thus fire, the +great destroyer of the sequoia, also furnishes the bare ground required for its +growth from the seed. Fresh ground is, however, furnished in sufficient +quantities for the renewal of the forests without the aid of fire—by the +fall of old trees. The soil is thus upturned and mellowed, and many trees are +planted for every one that falls. +</p> + +<p> +It is constantly asserted in a vague way that the Sierra was vastly wetter than +now, and that the increasing drought will of itself extinguish the sequoia, +leaving its ground to other trees supposed capable of flourishing in a drier +climate. But that the sequoia can and does grow on as dry ground as any of its +present rivals is manifest in a thousand places. “Why, then,” it +will be asked, “are sequoias always found only in well-watered +places?” Simply because a growth of sequoias creates those streams. The +thirsty mountaineer knows well that in every sequoia grove he will find running +water, but it is a mistake to suppose that the water is the cause of the grove +being there; on the contrary, the grove is the cause of the water being there. +Drain off the water and the trees will remain, but cut off the trees, and the +streams will vanish. Never was cause more completely mistaken for effect than +in the case of these related phenomena of sequoia woods and perennial streams. +</p> + +<p> +When attention is called to the method of sequoia stream-making, it will be +apprehended at once. The roots of this immense tree fill the ground, forming a +thick sponge that absorbs and holds back the rain and melting snow, only +allowing it to ooze and flow gently. Indeed, every fallen leaf and rootlet, as +well as long clasping root, and prostrate trunk, may be regarded as a dam +hoarding the bounty of storm-clouds, and dispensing it as blessings all through +the summer, instead of allowing it to go headlong in short-lived floods. +</p> + +<p> +Since, then, it is a fact that thousands of sequoias are growing thriftily on +what is termed dry ground, and even clinging like mountain pines to rifts in +granite precipices, and since it has also been shown that the extra moisture +found in connection with the denser growths is an effect of their presence, +instead of a cause of their presence, then the notions as to the former +extension of the species and its near approach to extinction, based upon its +supposed dependence on greater moisture, are seen to be erroneous. +</p> + +<p> +The decrease in rain and snowfall since the close of the glacial period in the +Sierra is much less than is commonly guessed. The highest post-glacial +water-marks are well preserved in all the upper river channels, and they are +not greatly higher than the spring flood-marks of the present; showing +conclusively that no extraordinary decrease has taken place in the volume of +the upper tributaries of post-glacial Sierra streams since they came into +existence. But, in the meantime, eliminating all this complicated question of +climatic change, the plain fact remains that the present rain and snowfall is +abundantly sufficient for the luxuriant growth of sequoia forests. Indeed, all +my observations tend to show that in a prolonged drought the sugar pines and +firs would perish before the sequoia, not alone because of the greater +longevity of individual trees, but because the species can endure more drought, +and make the most of whatever moisture falls. +</p> + +<p> +Again, if the restriction and irregular distribution of the species be +interpreted as a result of the desiccation of the Range, then instead of +increasing as it does in individuals toward the south where the rainfall is +less, it should diminish. If, then, the peculiar distribution of sequoia has +not been governed by superior conditions of soil as to fertility or moisture, +by what has it been governed? +</p> + +<p> +In the course of my studies I observed that the northern groves, the only ones +I was at first acquainted with, were located on just those portions of the +general forest soil-belt that were first laid bare toward the close of the +glacial period when the ice-sheet began to break up into individual glaciers. +And while searching the wide basin of the San Joaquin, and trying to account +for the absence of sequoia where every condition seemed favorable for its +growth, it occurred to me that this remarkable gap in the sequoia belt fifty +miles wide is located exactly in the basin of the vast, ancient <i>mer de +glace</i> of the San Joaquin and Kings River basins which poured its frozen +floods to the plain through this gap as its channel. I then perceived that the +next great gap in the belt to the northward, forty miles wide, extending +between the Calaveras and Tuolumne groves, occurs in the basin of the great +ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus basins; and that the +smaller gap between the Merced and Mariposa groves occurs in the basin of the +smaller glacier of the Merced. The wider the ancient glacier, the wider the +corresponding gap in the sequoia belt. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, pursuing my investigations across the basins of the Kaweah and Tule, I +discovered that the sequoia belt attained its greatest development just where, +owing to the topographical peculiarities of the region, the ground had been +best protected from the main ice-rivers that continued to pour past from the +summit fountains long after the smaller local glaciers had been melted. +</p> + +<p> +Taking now a general view of the belt, beginning at the south we see that the +majestic ancient glaciers were shed off right and left down the valleys of Kern +and Kings Rivers by the lofty protective spurs outspread embracingly above the +warm sequoia-filled basins of the Kaweah and Tule. Then, next northward, occurs +the wide sequoia-less channel, or basin of the ancient San Joaquin and sings +River mer de glace; then the warm, protected spots of Fresno and Mariposa +groves; then the sequoia-less channel of the ancient Merced glacier; next the +warm, sheltered ground of the Merced and Tuolumne groves; then the sequoia-less +channel of the grand ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus; then +the warm old ground of the Calaveras and Stanislaus groves. It appears, +therefore, that just where, at a certain period in the history of the Sierra, +the glaciers were not, there the sequoia is, and just where the glaciers were, +there the sequoia is not. +</p> + +<p> +But although all the observed phenomena bearing on the post-glacial history of +this colossal tree point to the conclusion that it never was more widely +distributed on the Sierra since the close of the glacial epoch; that its +present forests are scarcely past prime, if, indeed, they have reached prime; +that the post-glacial day of the species is probably not half done; yet, when +from a wider outlook the vast antiquity of the genus is considered, and its +ancient richness in species and individuals,—comparing our Sierra Giant +and <i>Sequoia sempervirens</i> of the Coast Range, the only other living +species of sequoia, with the twelve fossil species already discovered and +described by Heer and Lesquereux, some of which flourished over vast areas in +the Arctic regions and in Europe and our own territories, during tertiary and +cretaceous times—then, indeed, it becomes plain that our two surviving +species, restricted to narrow belts within the limits of California, are mere +remnants of the genus, both as to species and individuals, and that they may be +verging to extinction. But the verge of a period beginning in cretaceous times +may have a breadth of tens of thousands of years, not to mention the possible +existence of conditions calculated to multiply and re-extend both species and +individuals. +</p> + +<p> +There is no absolute limit to the existence of any tree. Death is due to +accidents, not, as that of animals, to the wearing out of organs. Only the +leaves die of old age. Their fall is foretold in their structure; but the +leaves are renewed every year, and so also are the essential organs wood, +roots, bark, buds. Most of the Sierra trees die of disease, insects, fungi, +etc., but nothing hurts the big tree. I never saw one that was sick or showed +the slightest sign of decay. Barring accidents, it seems to be immortal. It is +a curious fact that all the very old sequoias had lost their heads by lightning +strokes. “All things come to him who waits.” But of all living +things, sequoia is perhaps the only one able to wait long enough to make sure +of being struck by lightning. +</p> + +<p> +So far as I am able to see at present only fire and the ax threaten the +existence of these noblest of God’s trees. In Nature’s keeping they +are safe, but through the agency of man destruction is making rapid progress, +while in the work of protection only a good beginning has been made. The Fresno +grove, the Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves are under the protection of the +Federal Government in the Yosemite National Park. So are the General Grant and +Sequoia National Parks; the latter, established twenty-one years ago, has an +area of 240 square miles and is efficiently guarded by a troop of cavalry under +the direction of the Secretary of the Interior; so also are the small General +Grant National Park, estatblished at the same time with an area of four square +miles, and the Mariposa grove, about the same size and the small Merced and +Tuolumne group. Perhaps more than half of all the big trees have been +thoughtlessly sold and are now in the hands of speculators and mill men. It +appears, therefore, that far the largest and important section of protected big +trees is in the great Sequoia National Park, now easily accessible by rail to +Lemon Cove and thence by a good stage road into the giant forest of the Kaweah +and thence by rail to other parts of the park; but large as it is it should be +made much larger. Its natural eastern boundary is the High Sierra and the +northern and southern boundaries are the Kings and Kern Rivers. Thus could be +included the sublime scenery on the headwaters of these rivers and perhaps +nine-tenths of all the big trees in existence. All private claims within these +bounds should be gradually extinguished by purchase by the Government. The big +tree, leaving all its higher uses out of the count, is a tree of life to the +dwellers of the plain dependent on irrigation, a never-failing spring, sending +living waters to the lowland. For every grove cut down a stream is dried up. +Therefore all California is crying, “Save the trees of the +fountains.” Nor, judging by the signs of the times, is it likely that the +cry will cease until the salvation of all that is left of <i>Sequoia +gigantea</i> is made sure. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>Chapter 8<br/> +The Flowers</h2> + +<p> +Yosemite was all one glorious flower garden before plows and scythes and +trampling, biting horses came to make its wide open spaces look like +farmers’ pasture fields. Nevertheless, countless flowers still bloom +every year in glorious profusion on the grand talus slopes, wall benches and +tablets, and in all the fine, cool side-cañons up to the rim of the Valley, and +beyond, higher and higher, to the summits of the peaks. Even on the open floor +and in easily-reached side-nooks many common flowering plants have survived and +still make a brave show in the spring and early summer. Among these we may +mention tall œnotheras, <i>Pentstemon lutea</i>, and <i>P. Douglasii</i> +with fine blue and red flowers; Spraguea, scarlet zauschneria, with its curious +radiant rosettes characteristic of the sandy flats; mimulus, eunanus, blue and +white violets, geranium, columbine, erythraea, larkspur, collomia, draperia, +gilias, heleniums, bahia, goldenrods, daisies, honeysuckle; heuchera, bolandra, +saxifrages, gentians; in cool cañon nooks and on Clouds’ Rest and the +base of Starr King Dome you may find <i>Primula suffrutescens</i>, the only +wild primrose discovered in California, and the only known shrubby species in +the genus. And there are several fine orchids, habenaria, and cypripedium, the +latter very rare, once common in the Valley near the foot of Glacier Point, and +in a bog on the rim of the Valley near a place called Gentry’s Station, +now abandoned. It is a very beautiful species, the large oval lip white, +delicately veined with purple; the other petals and the sepals purple, +strap-shaped, and elegantly curled and twisted. +</p> + +<p> +Of the lily family, fritillaria, smilacina, chlorogalum and several fine +species of brodiæa, Ithuriel’s spear, and others less prized are +common, and the favorite calochortus, or Mariposa lily, a unique genus of many +species, something like the tulips of Europe but far finer. Most of them grow +on the warm foothills below the Valley, but two charming species, <i>C. +cœruleus</i> and <i>C. nudus</i>, dwell in springy places on the Wawona +road a few miles beyond the brink of the walls. +</p> + +<p> +The snow plant (<i>Sarcodes sanguinea</i>) is more admired by tourists than any +other in California. It is red, fleshy and watery and looks like a gigantic +asparagus shoot. Soon after the snow is off the round it rises through the dead +needles and humus in the pine and fir woods like a bright glowing pillar of +fire. In a week or so it grows to a height of eight or twelve inches with a +diameter of an inch and a half or two inches; then its long fringed bracts curl +aside, allowing the twenty- or thirty-five-lobed, bell-shaped flowers to open +and look straight out from the axis. It is said to grow up through the snow; on +the contrary, it always waits until the ground is warm, though with other early +flowers it is occasionally buried or half-buried for a day or two by spring +storms. The entire plant—flowers, bracts, stem, scales, and +roots—is fiery red. Its color could appeal to one’s blood. +Nevertheless, it is a singularly cold and unsympathetic plant. Everybody +admires it as a wonderful curiosity, but nobody loves it as lilies, violets, +roses, daisies are loved. Without fragrance, it stands beneath the pines and +firs lonely and silent, as if unacquainted with any other plant in the world; +never moving in the wildest storms; rigid as if lifeless, though covered with +beautiful rosy flowers. +</p> + +<p> +Far the most delightful and fragrant of the Valley flowers is the Washington +lily, white, moderate in size, with from three- to ten-flowered racemes. I +found one specimen in the lower end of the Valley at the foot of the Wawona +grade that was eight feet high, the raceme two feet long, with fifty-two +flowers, fifteen of them open; the others had faded or were still in the bud. +This famous lily is distributed over the sunny portions of the sugar-pine +woods, never in large meadow-garden companies like the large and the small +tiger lilies (<i>pardalinum</i> and <i>parvum</i>), but widely scattered, +standing up to the waist in dense ceanothus and manzanita chaparral, waving its +lovely flowers above the blooming wilderness of brush, and giving their +fragrance to the breeze. It is now becoming scarce in the most accessible parts +of its range on account of the high price paid for its bulbs by gardeners +through whom it has been distributed far and wide over the flower-loving world. +For, on account of its pure color and delicate, delightful fragrance, all lily +lovers at once adopted it as a favorite. +</p> + +<p> +The principal shrubs are manzanita and ceanothus, several species of each, +azalea, <i>Rubus nutkanus</i>, brier rose, choke-cherry philadelphus, +calycanthus, garrya, rhamnus, etc. +</p> + +<p> +The manzanita never fails to attract particular attention. The species common +in the Valley is usually about six or seven feet high, round-headed with +innumerable branches, red or chocolate-color bark, pale green leaves set on +edge, and a rich profusion of small, pink, narrow-throated, urn-shaped flowers, +like those of arbutus. The knotty, crooked, angular branches are about as rigid +as bones, and the red bark is so thin and smooth on both trunk and branches, +they look as if they had been peeled and polished and painted. In the spring +large areas on the mountain up to a height of eight or nine thousand feet are +brightened with the rosy flowers, and in autumn with their red fruit. The +pleasantly acid berries, about the size of peas, look like little apples, and a +hungry mountaineer is glad to eat them, though half their bulk is made up of +hard seeds. Indians, bears, coyotes, foxes, birds and other mountain people +live on them for weeks and months. The different species of ceanothus usually +associated with manzanita are flowery fragrant and altogether delightful +shrubs, growing in glorious abundance, not only in the Valley, but high up in +the forest on sunny or half-shaded ground. In the sugar-pine woods the most +beautiful species is <i>C. integerrimus</i>, often called Californian lilac, or +deer brush. It is five or six feet high with slender branches, glossy foliage, +and abundance of blue flowers in close, showy panicles. Two species, <i>C. +prostrates</i> and <i>C. procumbens</i>, spread smooth, blue-flowered mats and +rugs beneath the pines, and offer fine beds to tired mountaineers. The +commonest species, <i>C. cordulatus</i>, is most common in the silver-fir +woods. It is white-flowered and thorny, and makes dense thickets of tangled +chaparral, difficult to wade through or to walk over. But it is pressed flat +every winter by ten or fifteen feet of snow. The western azalea makes glorious +beds of bloom along the river bank and meadows. In the Valley it is from two to +five feet high, has fine green leaves, mostly hidden beneath its rich profusion +of large, fragrant white and yellow flowers, which are in their prime in June, +July and August, according to the elevation, ranging from 3000 to 6000 feet. +Near the azalea-bordered streams the small wild rose, resembling <i>R. +blanda</i>, makes large thickets deliciously fragrant, especially on a dewy +morning and after showers. Not far from these azalea and rose gardens, <i>Rubus +nutkanus</i> covers the ground with broad, soft, velvety leaves, and pure-white +flowers as large as those of its neighbor and relative, the rose, and much +finer in texture, followed at the end of summer by soft red berries good for +everybody. This is the commonest and the most beautiful of the whole blessed, +flowery, fruity Rubus genus. +</p> + +<p> +There are a great many interesting ferns in the Valley and about it. Naturally +enough the greater number are rock ferns—pellæa, cheilanthes, +polypodium, adiantum, woodsia, cryptogramma, etc., with small tufted fronds, +lining cool glens and fringing the seams of the cliffs. The most important of +the larger species are woodwardia, aspidium, asplenium, and, above all, the +common pteris. <i>Woodwardia radicans</i> is a superb, broad-shouldered fern +five to eight feet high, growing in vase-shaped clumps where tile ground is +nearly level and on some of the benches of the north wall of the Valley where +it is watered by a broad trickling stream. It thatches the sloping rocks, frond +overlapping frond like roof shingles. The broad-fronded, hardy <i>Pteris +aquilina</i>, the commonest of ferns, covers large areas on the floor of the +Valley. No other fern does so much for the color glory of autumn, with its +browns and reds and yellows, even after lying dead beneath the snow all winter. +It spreads a rich brown mantle over the desolate ground in the spring before +the grass has sprouted, and at the first touch of sun-heat its young fronds +come rearing up full of faith and hope through the midst of the last +year’s ruins. +</p> + +<p> +Of the five species of pellæa, <i>P. Breweri</i> is the hardiest as to +enduring high altitudes and stormy weather and at the same time it is the most +fragile of the genus. It grows in dense tufts in the clefts of storm-beaten +rocks, high up on the mountain-side on the very edge of the fern line. It is a +handsome little fern about four or five inches high, has pale-green pinnate +fronds, and shining bronze-colored stalks about as brittle as glass. Its +companions on the lower part of its range are <i>Cryptogramma +acrostichoides</i> and <i>Phegopteris alpestris</i>, the latter with soft, +delicate fronds, not in the least like those of Rock fern, though it grows on +the rocks where the snow lies longest. <i>Pellaea Bridgesii</i>, with +blue-green, narrow, simply-pinnate fronds, is about the same size as Breweri +and ranks next to it as a mountaineer, growing in fissures, wet or dry, and +around the edges of boulders that are resting on glacier pavements with no +fissures whatever. About a thousand feet lower we find the smaller, more +abundant <i>P. densa</i> on ledges and boulder-strewn, fissured pavements, +watered until late in summer from oozing currents, derived from lingering +snowbanks. It is, or rather was, extremely abundant between the foot of the +Nevada and the head of the Vernal Fall, but visitors with great industry have +dug out almost every root, so that now one has to scramble in out-of-the-way +places to find it. The three species of Cheilanthes in the Valley—<i>C. +californica</i>, <i>C. gracillima</i>, and <i>myriophylla</i>, with beautiful +two-to-four-pinnate fronds, an inch to five inches long, adorn the stupendous +walls however dry and sheer. The exceedingly delicate californica is so rare +that I have found it only once. The others are abundant and are sometimes +accompanied by the little gold fern, <i>Gymnogramme triangularis</i>, and +rarely by the curious little <i>Botrychium simplex</i>, some of them less than +an inch high. The finest of all the rock ferns is <i>Adiantum pedatum</i>, +lover of waterfalls and the finest spray-dust. The homes it loves best are +over-leaning, cave-like hollows, beside the larger falls, where it can wet its +fingers with their dewy spray. Many of these moss-lined chambers contain +thousands of these delightful ferns, clinging to mossy walls by the slightest +hold, reaching out their delicate finger-fronds on dark, shining stalks, +sensitive and tremulous, throbbing in unison with every movement and tone of +the falling water, moving each division of the frond separately at times, as if +fingering the music. +</p> + +<p> +May and June are the main bloom-months of the year. Both the flowers and falls +are then at their best. By the first of August the midsummer glories of the +Valley are past their prime. The young birds are then out of their nests. Most +of the plants have gone to seed; berries are ripe; autumn tints begin to kindle +and burn over meadow and grove, and a soft mellow haze in the morning sunbeams +heralds the approach of Indian summer. The shallow river is now at rest, its +flood-work done. It is now but little more than a series of pools united by +trickling, whispering currents that steal softly over brown pebbles and sand +with scarce an audible murmur. Each pool has a character of its own and, though +they are nearly currentless, the night air and tree shadows keep them cool. +Their shores curve in and out in bay and promontory, giving the appearance of +miniature lakes, their banks in most places embossed with brier and azalea, +sedge and grass and fern; and above these in their glory of autumn colors a +mingled growth of alder, willow, dogwood and balm-of-Gilead; mellow sunshine +overhead, cool shadows beneath; light filtered and strained in passing through +the ripe leaves like that which passes through colored windows. The surface of +the water is stirred, perhaps, by whirling water-beetles, or some startled +trout, seeking shelter beneath fallen logs or roots. The falls, too, are quiet; +no wind stirs, and the whole Valley floor is a mosaic of greens and purples, +yellows and reds. Even the rocks seem strangely soft and mellow, as if they, +too, had ripened. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>Chapter 9<br/> +The Birds</h2> + +<p> +The songs of the Yosemite winds and waterfalls are delightfully enriched with +bird song, especially in the nesting time of spring and early summer. The most +familiar and best known of all is the common robin, who may be seen every day, +hopping about briskly on the meadows and uttering his cheery, enlivening call. +The black-headed grosbeak, too, is here, with the Bullock oriole, and western +tanager, brown song-sparrow, hermit thrush, the purple finch,—a fine +singer, with head and throat of a rosy-red hue,—several species of +warblers and vireos, kinglets, flycatchers, etc. +</p> + +<p> +But the most wonderful singer of all the birds is the water-ouzel that dives +into foaming rapids and feeds at the bottom, holding on in a wonderful way, +living a charmed life. +</p> + +<p> +Several species of humming-birds are always to be seen, darting and buzzing +among the showy flowers. The little red-bellied nuthatches, the chickadees, and +little brown creepers, threading the furrows of the bark of the pines, +searching for food in the crevices. The large Steller’s jay makes merry +in the pine-tops; flocks of beautiful green swallows skim over the streams, and +the noisy Clarke’s crow may oftentimes be seen on the highest points +around the Valley; and in the deep woods beyond the walls you may frequently +hear and see the dusky grouse and the pileated woodpecker, or woodcock almost +as large as a pigeon. The junco or snow-bird builds its nest on the floor of +the Valley among the ferns; several species of sparrow are common and the +beautiful lazuli bunting, a common bird in the underbrush, flitting about among +the azalea and ceanothus bushes and enlivening the groves with his brilliant +color; and on gravelly bars the spotted sandpiper is sometimes seen. Many +woodpeckers dwell in the Valley; the familiar flicker, the Harris woodpecker +and the species which so busily stores up acorns in the thick bark of the +yellow pines. +</p> + +<p> +The short, cold days of winter are also sweetened with the music and hopeful +chatter of a considerable number of birds. No cheerier choir ever sang in snow. +First and best of all is the water-ouzel, a dainty, dusky little bird about the +size of a robin, that sings in sweet fluty song all winter and all summer, in +storms and calms, sunshine and shadow, haunting the rapids and waterfalls with +marvelous constancy, building his nest in the cleft of a rock bathed in spray. +He is not web-footed, yet he dives fearlessly into foaming rapids, seeming to +take the greater delight the more boisterous the stream, always as cheerful and +calm as any linnet in a grove. All his gestures as he flits about amid the loud +uproar of the falls bespeak the utmost simplicity and confidence—bird and +stream one and inseparable. What a pair! yet they are well related. A finer +bloom than the foam bell in an eddying pool is this little bird. We may miss +the meaning of the loud-resounding torrent, but the flute-like voice of the +bird—only love is in it. +</p> + +<p> +A few robins, belated on their way down from the upper Meadows, linger in the +Valley and make out to spend the winter in comparative comfort, feeding on the +mistletoe berries that grow on the oaks. In the depths of the great forests, on +the high meadows, in the severest altitudes, they seem as much at home as in +the fields and orchards about the busy habitations of man, ascending the Sierra +as the snow melts, following the green footsteps of Spring, until in July or +August the highest glacier meadows are reached on the summit of the Range. +Then, after the short summer is over, and their work in cheering and sweetening +these lofty wilds is done, they gradually make their way down again in accord +with the weather, keeping below the snow-storms, lingering here and there to +feed on huckleberries and frost-nipped wild cherries growing on the upper +slopes. Thence down to the vineyards and orchards of the lowlands to spend the +winter; entering the gardens of the great towns as well as parks and fields, +where the blessed wanderers are too often slaughtered for food—surely a +bad use to put so fine a musician to; better make stove wood of pianos to feed +the kitchen fire. +</p> + +<p> +The kingfisher winters in the Valley, and the flicker and, of course, the +carpenter woodpecker, that lays up large stores of acorns in the bark of trees; +wrens also, with a few brown and gray linnets, and flocks of the arctic +bluebird, making lively pictures among the snow-laden mistletoe bushes. Flocks +of pigeons are often seen, and about six species of ducks, as the river is +never wholly frozen over. Among these are the mallard and the beautiful +woodduck, now less common on account of being so often shot at. Flocks of +wandering geese used to visit the Valley in March and April, and perhaps do so +still, driven down by hunger or stress of weather while on their way across the +Range. When pursued by the hunters I have frequently seen them try to fly over +the walls of Lee Valley until tired out and compelled to re-alight. Yosemite +magnitudes seem to be as deceptive to geese as to men, for after circling to a +considerable height and forming regular harrow-shaped ranks they would suddenly +find themselves in danger of being dashed against the face of the cliff, much +nearer the bottom than the top. Then turning in confusion with loud screams +they would try again and again until exhausted and compelled to descend. I have +occasionally observed large flocks on their travels crossing the summits of the +Range at a height of 12,000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and even +in so rare an atmosphere as this they seemed to be sustaining themselves +without extra effort. Strong, however, as they are of wind and wing, they +cannot fly over Yosemite walls, starting from the bottom. +</p> + +<p> +A pair of golden eagles have lived in the Valley ever since I first visited it, +hunting all winter along the northern cliffs and down the river cañon. Their +nest is on a ledge of the cliff over which pours the Nevada Fall. Perched on +the top of a dead spar, they were always interested observers of the geese when +they were being shot at. I once noticed one of the geese compelled to leave the +flock on account of being sorely wounded, although it still seemed to fly +pretty well. Immediately the eagles pursued it and no doubt struck it down, +although I did not see the result of the hunt. Anyhow, it flew past me up the +Valley, closely pursued. +</p> + +<p> +One wild, stormy winter morning after five feet of snow had fallen on the floor +of the Valley and the flying flakes driven by a strong wind still thickened the +air, making darkness like the approach of night, I sallied forth to see what I +might learn and enjoy. It was impossible to go very far without the aid of +snow-shoes, but I found no great difficulty in making my way to a part of the +river where one of my ouzels lived. I found him at home busy about his +breakfast, apparently unaware of anything uncomfortable in the weather. +Presently he flew out to a stone against which the icy current was beating, and +turning his back to the wind, sang as delightfully as a lark in springtime. +</p> + +<p> +After spending an hour or two with my favorite, I made my way across the +Valley, boring and wallowing through the loose snow, to learn as much as +possible about the way the other birds were spending their time. In winter one +can always find them because they are then restricted to the north side of the +Valley, especially the Indian Cañon groves, which from their peculiar exposure +are the warmest. +</p> + +<p> +I found most of the robins cowering on the lee side of the larger branches of +the trees, where the snow could not fall on them, while two or three of the +more venturesome were making desperate efforts to get at the mistletoe berries +by clinging to the underside of the snow-crowned masses, back downward, +something like woodpeckers. Every now and then some of the loose snow was +dislodged and sifted down on the hungry birds, sending them screaming back to +their companions in the grove, shivering and muttering like cold, hungry +children. +</p> + +<p> +Some of the sparrows were busy scratching and pecking at the feet of the larger +trees where the snow had been shed off, gleaning seeds and benumbed insects, +joined now and then by a robin weary of his unsuccessful efforts to get at the +snow-covered mistletoe berries. The brave woodpeckers were clinging to the +snowless sides of the larger boles and overarching branches of the camp trees, +making short flights from side to side of the grove, pecking now and then at +the acorns they had stored in the bark, and chattering aimlessly as if unable +to keep still, evidently putting in the time in a very dull way. The hardy +nuthatches were threading the open furrows of the barks in their usual +industrious manner and uttering their quaint notes, giving no evidence of +distress. The Steller’s jays were, of course, making more noise and stir +than all the other birds combined; ever coming and going with loud bluster, +screaming as if each had a lump of melting sludge in his throat, and taking +good care to improve every opportunity afforded by the darkness and confusion +of the storm to steal from the acorn stores of the woodpeckers. One of the +golden eagles made an impressive picture as he stood bolt upright on the top of +a tall pine-stump, braving the storm, with his back to the wind and a tuft of +snow piled on his broad shoulders, a monument of passive endurance. Thus every +storm-bound bird seemed more or less uncomfortable, if not in distress. The +storm was reflected in every gesture, and not one cheerful note, not to say +song, came from a single bill. Their cowering, joyless endurance offered +striking contrasts to the spontaneous, irrepressible gladness of the ouzel, who +could no more help giving out sweet song than a rose sweet fragrance. He must +sing, though the heavens fall. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>Chapter 10<br/> +The South Dome</h2> + +<p> +With the exception of a few spires and pinnacles, the South Dome is the only +rock about the Valley that is strictly inaccessible without artificial means, +and its inaccessibility is expressed in severe terms. Nevertheless many a +mountaineer, gazing admiringly, tried hard to invent a way to the top of its +noble crown—all in vain, until in the year 1875, George Anderson, an +indomitable Scotchman, undertook the adventure. The side facing Tenaya Cañon is +an absolutely vertical precipice from the summit to a depth of about 1600 feet, +and on the opposite side it is nearly vertical for about as great a depth. The +southwest side presents a very steep and finely drawn curve from the top down a +thousand feet or more, while on the northeast, where it is united with the +Clouds’ Rest Ridge, one may easily reach a point called the Saddle, about +seven hundred feet below the summit. From the Saddle the Dome rises in a +graceful curve a few degrees too steep for unaided climbing, besides being +defended by overleaning ends of the concentric dome layers of the granite. +</p> + +<p> +A year or two before Anderson gained the summit, John Conway, the master +trail-builder of the Valley, and his little sons, who climbed smooth rocks like +lizards, made a bold effort to reach the top by climbing barefooted up the +grand curve with a rope which they fastened at irregular intervals by means of +eye-bolts driven into joints of the rock. But finding that the upper part would +require laborious drilling, they abandoned the attempt, glad to escape from the +dangerous position they had reached, some 300 feet above the Saddle. Anderson +began with Conway’s old rope, which had been left in place, and +resolutely drilled his way to the top, inserting eye-bolts five to six feet +apart, and making his rope fast to each in succession, resting his feet on the +last bolt while he drilled a hole for the next above. Occasionally some +irregularity in the curve, or slight foothold, would enable him to climb a few +feet without a rope, which he would pass and begin drilling again, and thus the +whole work was accomplished in a few days. From this slender beginning he +proposed to construct a substantial stairway which he hoped to complete in time +for the next year’s travel, but while busy getting out timber for his +stairway and dreaming of the wealth he hoped to gain from tolls, he was taken +sick and died all alone in his little cabin. +</p> + +<p> +On the 10th of November, after returning from a visit to Mount Shasta, a month +or two after Anderson had gained the summit, I made haste to the Dome, not only +for the pleasure of climbing, but to see what I might learn. The first winter +storm-clouds had blossomed and the mountains and all the high points about the +Valley were mantled in fresh snow. I was, therefore, a little apprehensive of +danger from the slipperiness of the rope and the rock. Anderson himself tried +to prevent me from making the attempt, refusing to believe that any one could +climb his rope in the now-muffled condition in which it then was. Moreover, the +sky was overcast and solemn snow-clouds began to curl around the summit, and my +late experiences on icy Shasta came to mind. But reflecting that I had matches +in my pocket, and that a little firewood might be found, I concluded that in +case of a storm the night could be spent on the Dome without suffering anything +worth minding, no matter what the clouds might bring forth. I therefore pushed +on and gained the top. +</p> + +<p> +It was one of those brooding, changeful days that come between Indian summer +and winter, when the leaf colors have grown dim and the clouds come and go +among the cliffs like living creatures looking for work: now hovering aloft, +now caressing rugged rock-brows with great gentleness, or, wandering afar over +the tops of the forests, touching the spires of fir and pine with their soft +silken fringes as if trying to tell the glad news of the coming of snow. +</p> + +<p> +The first view was perfectly glorious. A massive cloud of pure pearl luster, +apparently as fixed and calm as the meadows and groves in the shadow beneath +it, was arched across the Valley from wall to wall, one end resting on the +grand abutment of El Capitan, the other on Cathedral Rock. A little later, as I +stood on the tremendous verge overlooking Mirror Lake, a flock of smaller +clouds, white as snow, came from the north, trailing their downy skirts over +the dark forests, and entered the Valley with solemn god-like gestures through +Indian Cañon and over the North Dome and Royal Arches, moving swiftly, yet with +majestic deliberation. On they came, nearer and nearer, gathering and massing +beneath my feet and filling the Tenaya Cañon. Then the sun shone free, lighting +the pearly gray surface of the cloud-like sea and making it glow. Gazing, +admiring, I was startled to see for the first time the rare optical phenomenon +of the “Specter of the Brocken.” My shadow, clearly outlined, about +half a mile long, lay upon this glorious white surface with startling effect. I +walked back and forth, waved my arms and struck all sorts of attitudes, to see +every slightest movement enormously exaggerated. Considering that I have looked +down so many times from mountain tops on seas of all sorts of clouds, it seems +strange that I should have seen the “Brocken Specter” only this +once. A grander surface and a grander stand-point, however, could hardly have +been found in all the Sierra. +</p> + +<p> +After this grand show the cloud-sea rose higher, wreathing the Dome, and for a +short time submerging it, making darkness like night, and I began to think of +looking for a camp ground in a cluster of dwarf pines. But soon the sun shone +free again, the clouds, sinking lower and lower, gradually vanished, leaving +the Valley with its Indian-summer colors apparently refreshed, while to the +eastward the summit-peaks, clad in new snow, towered along the horizon in +glorious array. +</p> + +<p> +Though apparently it is perfectly bald, there are four clumps of pines growing +on the summit, representing three species, Pinus albicaulis, P. contorta and P. +ponderosa, var. Jeffreyi—all three, of course, repressed and +storm-beaten. The alpine spiræa grows here also and blossoms profusely +with potentilla, erigeron, eriogonum, pentstemon, solidago, and an interesting +species of onion, and four or five species of grasses and sedges. None of these +differs in any respect from those of other summits of the same height, +excepting the curious little narrow-leaved, waxen-bulbed onion, which I had not +seen elsewhere. +</p> + +<p> +Notwithstanding the enthusiastic eagerness of tourists to reach the crown of +the Dome the views of the Valley from this lofty standpoint are less striking +than from many other points comparatively low, chiefly on account of the +foreshortening effect produced by looking down from so great a height. The +North Dome is dwarfed almost beyond recognition, the grand sculpture of the +Royal Arches is scarcely noticeable, and the whole range of walls on both sides +seem comparatively low, especially when the Valley is flooded with noon +sunshine; while the Dome itself, the most sublime feature of all the Yosemite +views, is out of sight beneath one’s feet. The view of Little Yosemite +Valley is very fine, though inferior to one obtained from the base of the Starr +King Cone, but the summit landscapes towards Mounts Ritter, Lyell, Dana, +Conness, and the Merced Group, are very effective and complete. +</p> + +<p> +No one has attempted to carry out Anderson’s plan of making the Dome +accessible. For my part I should prefer leaving it in pure wildness, though, +after all, no great damage could be done by tramping over it. The surface would +be strewn with tin cans and bottles, but the winter gales would blow the +rubbish away. Avalanches might strip off any sort of stairway or ladder that +might be built. Blue jays and Clark’s crows have trodden the Dome for +many a day, and so have beetles and chipmunks, and Tissiack would hardly be +more “conquered” or spoiled should man be added to her list of +visitors. His louder scream and heavier scrambling would not stir a line of her +countenance. +</p> + +<p> +When the sublime ice-floods of the glacial period poured down the flank of the +Range over what is now Yosemite Valley, they were compelled to break through a +dam of domes extending across from Mount Starr King to North Dome; and as the +period began to draw near a close the shallowing ice-currents were divided and +the South Dome was, perhaps, the first to emerge, burnished and shining like a +mirror above the surface of the icy sea; and though it has sustained the wear +and tear of the elements tens of thousands of years, it yet remains a telling +monument of the action of the great glaciers that brought it to light. Its +entire surface is still covered with glacial hieroglyphics whose interpretation +is the reward of all who devoutly study them. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>Chapter 11<br/> +The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers:<br/> +How the Valley Was Formed</h2> + +<p> +All California has been glaciated, the low plains and valleys as well as the +mountains. Traces of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thickness, beneath +whose heavy folds the present landscapes have been molded, may be found +everywhere, though glaciers now exist only among the peaks of the High Sierra. +No other mountain chain on this or any other of the continents that I have seen +is so rich as the Sierra in bold, striking, well-preserved glacial monuments. +Indeed, every feature is more or less tellingly glacial. Not a peak, ridge, +dome, cañon, yosemite, lake-basin, stream or forest will you see that does not +in some way explain the past existence and modes of action of flowing, +grinding, sculpturing, soil-making, scenery-making ice. For, notwithstanding +the post-glacial agents—the air, rain, snow, frost, river, avalanche, +etc.—have been at work upon the greater portion of the Range for tens of +thousands of stormy years, each engraving its own characters more and more +deeply over those of the ice, the latter are so enduring and so heavily +emphasized, they still rise in sublime relief, clear and legible, through every +after-inscription. The landscapes of North Greenland, Antarctica, and some of +those of our own Alaska, are still being fashioned beneath a slow-crawling +mantle of ice, from a quarter of a mile to probably more than a mile in +thickness, presenting noble illustrations of the ancient condition of +California, when its sublime scenery lay hidden in process of formation. On the +Himalaya, the mountains of Norway and Switzerland, the Caucasus, and on most of +those of Alaska, their ice-mantle has been melted down into separate glaciers +that flow river-like through the valleys, illustrating a similar past condition +in the Sierra, when every cañon and valley was the channel of an ice-stream, +all of which may be easily traced back to their fountains, where some +sixty-five or seventy of their topmost residual branches still linger beneath +protecting mountain shadows. +</p> + +<p> +The change from one to another of those glacial conditions was slow as we count +time. When the great cycle of snow years, called the Glacial Period, was nearly +complete in California, the ice-mantle, wasting from season to season faster +than it was renewed, began to withdraw from the lowlands and gradually became +shallower everywhere. Then the highest of the Sierra domes and dividing ridges, +containing distinct glaciers between them, began to appear above the icy sea. +These first river-like glaciers remained united in one continuous sheet toward +the summit of the Range for many centuries. But as the snow-fall diminished, +and the climate became milder, this upper part of the ice-sheet was also in +turn separated into smaller distinct glaciers, and these again into still +smaller ones, while at the same time all were growing shorter and shallower, +though fluctuations of the climate now and then occurred that brought their +receding ends to a standstill, or even enabled them to advance for a few tens +or hundreds of years. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, hardy, home-seeking plants and animals, after long waiting, flocked +to their appointed places, pushing bravely on higher and higher, along every +sun-warmed slope, closely following the retreating ice, which, like shreds of +summer clouds, at length vanished from the new-born mountains, leaving them in +all their main, telling features nearly as we find them now. +</p> + +<p> +Tracing the ways of glaciers, learning how Nature sculptures mountain-waves in +making scenery-beauty that so mysteriously influences every human being, is +glorious work. +</p> + +<p> +The most striking and attractive of the glacial phenomena in the upper Yosemite +region are the polished glacier pavements, because they are so beautiful, and +their beauty is of so rare a kind, so unlike any portion of the loose, deeply +weathered lowlands where people make homes and earn their bread. They are +simply flat or gently undulating areas of hard resisting granite, which present +the unchanged surface upon which with enormous pressure the ancient glaciers +flowed. They are found in most perfect condition in the subalpine region, at an +elevation of from eight thousand to nine thousand feet. Some are miles in +extent, only slightly interrupted by spots that have given way to the weather, +while the best preserved portions reflect the sunbeams like calm water or +glass, and shine as if polished afresh every day, notwithstanding they have +been exposed to corroding rains, dew, frost, and snow measureless thousands of +years. +</p> + +<p> +The attention of wandering hunters and prospectors, who see so many mountain +wonders, is seldom commanded by other glacial phenomena, moraines however +regular and artificial-looking, cañons however deep or strangely modeled, rocks +however high; but when they come to these shining pavements they stop and stare +in wondering admiration, kneel again and again to examine the brightest spots, +and try hard to account for their mysterious shining smoothness. They may have +seen the winter avalanches of snow descending in awful majesty through the +woods, scouring the rocks and sweeping away like weeds the trees that stood in +their way, but conclude that this cannot be the work of avalanches, because the +scratches and fine polished strife show that the agent, whatever it was, moved +along the sides of high rocks and ridges and up over the tops of them as well +as down their slopes. Neither can they see how water may possibly have been the +agent, for they find the same strange polish upon ridges and domes thousands of +feet above the reach of any conceivable flood. Of all the agents of whose work +they know anything, only the wind seems capable of moving across the face of +the country in the directions indicated by the scratches and grooves. The +Indian name of Lake Tenaya is “Pyweak”—the lake of shining +rocks. One of the Yosemite tribe, Indian Tom, came to me and asked if I could +tell him what had made the Tenaya rocks so smooth. Even dogs and horses, when +first led up the mountains, study geology to this extent that they gaze +wonderingly at the strange brightness of the ground and smell it, and place +their feet cautiously upon it as if afraid of falling or sinking. +</p> + +<p> +In the production of this admirable hard finish, the glaciers in many places +flowed with a pressure of more than a thousand tons to the square yard, planing +down granite, slate, and quartz alike, and bringing out the veins and crystals +of the rocks with beautiful distinctness. Over large areas below the sources of +the Tuolumne and Merced the granite is porphyritic; feldspar crystals in inch +or two in length in many places form the greater part of the rock, and these, +when planed off level with the general surface, give rise to a beautiful mosaic +on which the happy sunbeams plash and glow in passionate enthusiasm. Here lie +the brightest of all the Sierra landscapes. The Range both to the north and +south of this region was, perhaps, glaciated about as heavily, but because the +rocks are less resisting, their polished surfaces have mostly given way to the +weather, leaving only small imperfect patches. The lower remnants of the old +glacial surface occur at an elevation of from 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea +level, and twenty to thirty miles below the axis of the Range. The short, +steeply inclined cañons of the eastern flank also contain enduring, brilliantly +striated and polished rocks, but these are less magnificent than those of the +broad western flank. +</p> + +<p> +One of the best general views of the brightest and best of the Yosemite park +landscapes that every Yosemite tourist should see, is to be had from the top of +Fairview Dome, a lofty conoidal rock near Cathedral Peak that long ago I named +the Tuolumne Glacier Monument, one of the most striking and best preserved of +the domes. Its burnished crown is about 1500 feet above the Tuolumne Meadows +and 10,000 above the sea. At first sight it seems inaccessible, though a good +climber will find it may be scaled on the south side. About half-way up you +will find it so steep that there is danger of slipping, but feldspar crystals, +two or three inches long, of which the rock is full, having offered greater +resistance to atmospheric erosion than the mass of the rock in which they are +imbedded, have been brought into slight relief in some places, roughening the +surface here and there, and affording helping footholds. +</p> + +<p> +The summit is burnished and scored like the sides and base, the scratches and +strife indicating that the mighty Tuolumne Glacier swept over it as if it were +only a mere boulder in the bottom of its channel. The pressure it withstood +must have been enormous. Had it been less solidly built it would have been +carried away, ground into moraine fragments, like the adjacent rock in which it +lay imbedded; for, great as it is, it is only a hard residual knot like the +Yosemite domes, brought into relief by the removal of less resisting rock about +it; an illustration of the survival of the strongest and most favorably +situated. +</p> + +<p> +Hardly less wonderful is the resistance it has offered to the trying mountain +weather since first its crown rose above the icy sea. The whole quantity of +post-glacial wear and tear it has suffered has not degraded it a hundredth of +an inch, as may readily be shown by the polished portions of the surface. A few +erratic boulders, nicely poised on its crown, tell an interesting story. They +came from the summit-peaks twelve miles away, drifting like chips on the frozen +sea, and were stranded here when the top of the monument merged from the ice, +while their companions, whose positions chanced to be above the slopes of the +sides where they could not find rest, were carried farther on by falling back +on the shallowing ice current. +</p> + +<p> +The general view from the summit consists of a sublime assemblage of ice-born +rocks and mountains, long wavering ridges, meadows, lakes, and forest-covered +moraines, hundreds of square miles of them. The lofty summit-peaks rise grandly +along the sky to the east, the gray pillared slopes of the Hoffman Range toward +the west, and a billowy sea of shining rocks like the Monument, some of them +almost as high and which from their peculiar sculpture seem to be rolling +westward in the middle ground, something like breaking waves. Immediately +beneath you are the Big Tuolumne Meadows, smooth lawns with large breadths of +woods on either side, and watered by the young Tuolumne River, rushing cool and +clear from its many snow- and ice-fountains. Nearly all the upper part of the +basin of the Tuolumne Glacier is in sight, one of the greatest and most +influential of all the Sierra ice-rivers. Lavishly flooded by many a noble +affluent from the ice-laden flanks of Mounts Dana, Lyell, McClure, Gibbs, +Conness, it poured its majestic outflowing current full against the end of the +Hoffman Range, which divided and deflected it to right and left, just as a +river of water is divided against an island in the middle of its channel. Two +distinct glaciers were thus formed, one of which flowed through the great +Tuolumne Cañon and Hetch Hetchy Valley, while the other swept upward in a deep +current two miles wide across the divide, five hundred feet high between the +basins of the Tuolumne and Merced, into the Tenaya Basin, and thence down +through the Tenaya Cañon and Yosemite. +</p> + +<p> +The map-like distinctness and freshness of this glacial landscape cannot fail +to excite the attention of every beholder, no matter how little of its +scientific significance may be recognized. These bald, westward-leaning rocks, +with their rounded backs and shoulders toward the glacier fountains of the +summit-mountains, and their split, angular fronts looking in the opposite +direction, explain the tremendous grinding force with which the ice-flood +passed over them, and also the direction of its flow. And the mountain peaks +around the sides of the upper general Tuolumne Basin, with their sharp +unglaciated summits and polished rounded sides, indicate the height to which +the glaciers rose; while the numerous moraines, curving and swaying in +beautiful lines, mark the boundaries of the main trunk and its tributaries as +they existed toward the close of the glacial winter. None of the commerical +highways of the land or sea, marked with buoys and lamps, fences, and +guide-boards, is so unmistakably indicated as are these broad, shining trails +of the vanished Tuolumne Glacier and its far-reaching tributaries. +</p> + +<p> +I should like now to offer some nearer views of a few characteristic specimens +of these wonderful old ice-streams, though it is not easy to make a selection +from so vast a system intimately inter-blended. The main branches of the Merced +Glacier are, perhaps, best suited to our purpose, because their basins, full of +telling inscriptions, are the ones most attractive and accessible to the +Yosemite visitors who like to look beyond the valley walls. They number five, +and may well be called Yosemite glaciers, since they were the agents Nature +used in developing and fashioning the grand Valley. The names I have given them +are, beginning with the northern-most, Yosemite Creek, Hoffman, Tenaya, South +Lyell, and Illilouette Glaciers. These all converged in admirable poise around +from northeast to southeast, welded themselves together into the main Yosemite +Glacier, which, grinding gradually deeper, swept down through the Valley, +receiving small tributaries on its way from the Indian, Sentinel, and Pohono +Cañons; and at length flowed out of the Valley, and on down the Range in a +general westerly direction. At the time that the tributaries mentioned above +were well defined as to their boundaries, the upper portion of the valley +walls, and the highest rocks about them, such as the Domes, the uppermost of +the Three Brothers and the Sentinel, rose above the surface of the ice. But +during the Valley’s earlier history, all its rocks, however lofty, were +buried beneath a continuous sheet, which swept on above and about them like the +wind, the upper portion of the current flowing steadily, while the lower +portion went mazing and swedging down in the crooked and dome-blocked cañons +toward the head of the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +Every glacier of the Sierra fluctuated in width and depth and length, and +consequently in degree of individuality, down to the latest glacial days. It +must, therefore, be borne in mind that the following description of the +Yosemite glaciers applies only to their separate condition, and to that phase +of their separate condition that they presented toward the close of the glacial +period after most of their work was finished, and all the more telling features +of the Valley and the adjacent region were brought into relief. +</p> + +<p> +The comparatively level, many-fountained Yosemite Creek Glacier was about +fourteen miles in length by four or five in width, and from five hundred to a +thousand feet deep. Its principal tributaries, drawing their sources from the +northern spurs of the Hoffman Range, at first pursued a westerly course; then, +uniting with each other, and a series of short affluents from the western rim +of the basin, the trunk thus formed swept around to the southward in a +magnificent curve, and poured its ice over the north wall of Yosemite in +cascades about two miles wide. This broad and comparatively shallow glacier +formed a sort of crawling, wrinkled ice-cloud, that gradually became more +regular in shape and river-like as it grew older. Encircling peaks began to +overshadow its highest fountains, rock islets rose here and there amid its +ebbing currents, and its picturesque banks, adorned with domes and round-backed +ridges, extended in massive grandeur down to the brink of the Yosemite walls. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime the chief Hoffman tributaries, slowly receding to the shelter +of the shadows covering their fountains, continued to live and work +independently, spreading soil, deepening lake-basins and giving finishing +touches to the sculpture in general. At length these also vanished, and the +whole basin is now full of light. Forests flourish luxuriantly upon its ample +moraines, lakes and meadows shine and bloom amid its polished domes, and a +thousand gardens adorn the banks of its streams. +</p> + +<p> +It is to the great width and even slope of the Yosemite Creek Glacier that we +owe the unrivaled height and sheerness of the Yosemite Falls. For had the +positions of the ice-fountains and the structure of the rocks been such as to +cause down-thrusting concentration of the Glacier as it approached the Valley, +then, instead of a high vertical fall we should have had a long slanting +cascade, which after all would perhaps have been as beautiful and interesting, +if we only had a mind to see it so. +</p> + +<p> +The short, comparatively swift-flowing Hoffman Glacier, whose fountains extend +along the south slopes of the Hoffman Range, offered a striking contrast to the +one just described. The erosive energy of the latter was diffused over a wide +field of sunken, boulder-like domes and ridges. The Hoffman Glacier, on the +contrary moved right ahead on a comparatively even surface, making descent of +nearly five thousand feet in five miles, steadily contracting and deepening its +current, and finally united with the Tenaya Glacier as one of its most +influential tributaries in the development and sculpture of the great Half +Dome, North Dome and the rocks adjacent to them about the head of the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +The story of its death is not unlike that of its companion already described, +though the declivity of its channel, and its uniform exposure to sun-heat +prevented any considerable portion of its current from becoming torpid, +lingering only well up on the Mountain slopes to finish their sculpture and +encircle them with a zone of moraine soil for forests and gardens. Nowhere in +all this wonderful region will you find more beautiful trees and shrubs and +flowers covering the traces of ice. +</p> + +<p> +The rugged Tenaya Glacier wildly crevassed here and there above the ridges it +had to cross, instead of drawing its sources direct from the summit of the +Range, formed, as we have seen, one of the outlets of the great Tuolumne +Glacier, issuing from this noble fountain like a river from a lake, two miles +wide, about fourteen miles long, and from 1500 to 2000 feet deep. +</p> + +<p> +In leaving the Tuolumne region it crossed over the divide, as mentioned above, +between the Tuolumne and Tenaya basins, making an ascent of five hundred feet. +Hence, after contracting its wide current and receiving a strong affluent from +the fountains about Cathedral Peak, it poured its massive flood over the +northeastern rim of its basin in splendid cascades. Then, crushing heavily +against the Clouds’ Rest Ridge, it bore down upon the Yosemite domes with +concentrated energy. +</p> + +<p> +Toward the end of the ice period, while its Hoffman companion continued to +grind rock-meal for coming plants, the main trunk became torpid, and vanished, +exposing wide areas of rolling rock-waves and glistening pavements, on whose +channelless surface water ran wild and free. And because the trunk vanished +almost simultaneously throughout its whole extent, no terminal moraines are +found in its cañon channel; nor, since its walls are, in most places, too +steeply inclined to admit of the deposition of moraine matter, do we find much +of the two main laterals. The lowest of its residual glaciers lingered beneath +the shadow of the Yosemite Half Dome; others along the base of Coliseum Peak +above Lake Tenaya and along the precipitous wall extending from the lake to the +Big Tuolumne Meadows. The latter, on account of the uniformity and continuity +of their protecting shadows, formed moraines of considerable length and +regularity that are liable to be mistaken for portions of the left lateral of +the Tuolumne tributary glacier. +</p> + +<p> +Spend all the time you can spare or steal on the tracks of this grand old +glacier, charmed and enchanted by its magnificent cañon, lakes and cascades and +resplendent glacier pavements. +</p> + +<p> +The Nevada Glacier was longer and more symmetrical than the last, and the only +one of the Merced system whose sources extended directly back to the main +summits on the axis of the Range. Its numerous fountains were ranged side by +side in three series, at an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the +sea. The first, on the right side of the basin, extended from the Matterhorn to +Cathedral Peak; that on the left through the Merced group, and these two +parallel series were united by a third that extended around the head of the +basin in a direction at right angles to the others. +</p> + +<p> +The three ranges of high peaks and ridges that supplied the snow for these +fountains, together with the Clouds’ Rest Ridge, nearly inclose a +rectangular basin, that was filled with a massive sea of ice, leaving an outlet +toward the west through which flowed the main trunk glacier, three-fourths of a +mile to a mile and a half wide, fifteen miles long, and from 1000 to 1500 feet +deep, and entered Yosemite between the Half Dome and Mount Starr King. +</p> + +<p> +Could we have visited Yosemite Valley at this period of its history, we should +have found its ice cascades vastly more glorious than their tiny water +representatives of the present day. One of the grandest of these was formed by +that portion of the Nevada Glacier that poured over the shoulder of the Half +Dome. +</p> + +<p> +This glacier, as a whole, resembled an oak, with a gnarled swelling base and +wide-spreading branches. Picturesque rocks of every conceivable form adorned +its banks, among which glided the numerous tributaries, mottled with black and +red and gray boulders, from the fountain peaks, while ever and anon, as the +deliberate centuries passed away, dome after dome raised its burnished crown +above the ice-flood to enrich the slowly opening landscapes. +</p> + +<p> +The principal moraines occur in short irregular sections along the sides of the +cañons, their fragmentary condition being due to interruptions caused by +portions of the sides of the cañon walls being too steep for moraine matter to +lie on, and to down-sweeping torrents and avalanches. The left lateral of the +trunk may be traced about five miles from the mouth of the first main tributary +to the Illilouette Cañon. The corresponding section of the right lateral, +extending from Cathedral tributary to the Half Dome, is more complete because +of the more favorable character of the north side of the cañon. A short +side-glacier came in against it from the slopes of Clouds’ Rest; but +being fully exposed to the sun, it was melted long before the main trunk, +allowing the latter to deposit this portion of its moraine undisturbed. Some +conception of the size and appearance of this fine moraine may be gained by +following the Clouds’ Rest trail from Yosemite, which crosses it +obliquely and conducts past several sections made by streams. Slate boulders +may be seen that must have come from the Lyell group, twelve miles distant. But +the bulk of the moraine is composed of porphyritic granite derived from +Feldspar and Cathedral Valleys. +</p> + +<p> +On the sides of the moraines we find a series of terraces, indicating +fluctuations in the level of the glacier, caused by variations of snow-fall, +temperature, etc., showing that the climate of the glacial period was +diversified by cycles of milder or stormier seasons similar to those of +post-glacial time. +</p> + +<p> +After the depth of the main trunk diminished to about five hundred feet, the +greater portion became torpid, as is shown by the moraines, and lay dying in +its crooked channel like a wounded snake, maintaining for a time a feeble +squirming motion in places of exceptional depth, or where the bottom of the +cañon was more steeply inclined. The numerous fountain-wombs, however, +continued fruitful long after the trunk had vanished, giving rise to an +imposing array of short residual glaciers, extending around the rim of the +general basin a distance of nearly twenty-four miles. Most of these have but +recently succumbed to the new climate, dying in turn as determined by +elevation, size, and exposure, leaving only a few feeble survivors beneath the +coolest shadows, which are now slowly completing the sculpture of one of the +noblest of the Yosemite basins. +</p> + +<p> +The comparatively shallow glacier that at this time filled the Illilouette +Basin, though once far from shallow, more resembled a lake than a river of ice, +being nearly half as wide as it was long. Its greatest length was about ten +miles, and its depth perhaps nowhere much exceeded 1000 feet. Its chief +fountains, ranged along the west side of the Merced group, at an elevation of +about 10,000 feet, gave birth to fine tributaries that flowed in a westerly +direction, and united in the center of the basin. The broad trunk at first +poured northwestward, then curved to the northward, deflected by the lofty wall +forming its western bank, and finally united with the grand Yosemite trunk, +opposite Glacier Point. +</p> + +<p> +All the phenomena relating to glacial action in this basin are remarkably +simple and orderly, on account of the sheltered positions occupied by its +ice-fountains, with reference to the disturbing effects of larger glaciers from +the axis of the main Range earlier in the period. From the eastern base of the +Starr King cone you may obtain a fine view of the principal moraines sweeping +grandly out into the middle of the basin from the shoulders of the peaks, +between which the ice-fountains lay. The right lateral of the tributary, which +took its rise between Red and Merced Mountains, measures two hundred and fifty +feet in height at its upper extremity, and displays three well-defined +terraces, similar to those of the south Lyell Glacier. The comparative +smoothness of the upper-most terrace shows that it is considerably more ancient +than the others, many of the boulders of which it is composed having crumbled. +A few miles to the westward, this moraine has an average slope of twenty-seven +degrees, and an elevation above the bottom of the channel of six hundred and +sixty feet. Near the middle of the main basin, just where the regularly formed +medial and lateral moraines flatten out and disappear, there is a remarkably +smooth field of gravel, planted with arctostaphylos, that looks at the distance +of a mile like a delightful meadow. Stream sections show the gravel deposit to +be composed of the same material as the moraines, but finer, and more +water-worn from the action of converging torrents issuing from the tributary +glaciers after the trunk was melted. The southern boundary of the basin is a +strikingly perfect wall, gray on the top, and white down the sides and at the +base with snow, in which many a crystal brook takes rise. The northern boundary +is made up of smooth undulating masses of gray granite, that lift here and +there into beautiful domes of which the Starr King cluster is the finest, while +on the east tower of the majestic fountain-peaks with wide cañons and neve +amphitheaters between them, whose variegated rocks show out gloriously against +the sky. +</p> + +<p> +The ice-plows of this charming basin, ranged side by side in orderly gangs, +furrowed the rocks with admirable uniformity, producing irrigating channels for +a brood of wild streams, and abundance of rich soil adapted to every +requirement of garden and grove. No other section of the Yosemite uplands is in +so perfect a state of glacial cultivation. Its domes and peaks, and swelling +rock-waves, however majestic in themselves, and yet submissively subordinate to +the garden center. The other basins we have been describing are combinations of +sculptured rocks, embellished with gardens and groves; the Illilouette is one +grand garden and forest, embellished with rocks, each of the five beautiful in +its own way, and all as harmoniously related as are the five petals of a +flower. After uniting in the Yosemite Valley, and expending the down-thrusting +energy derived from their combined weight and the declivity of their channels, +the grand trunk flowed on through and out of the Valley. In effecting its exit +a considerable ascent was made, traces of which may still be seen on the +abraded rocks at the lower end of the Valley, while the direction pursued after +leaving the Valley is surely indicated by the immense lateral moraines +extending from the ends of the walls at an elevation of from 1500 to 1800 feet. +The right lateral moraine was disturbed by a large tributary glacier that +occupied the basin of Cascade Creek, causing considerable complication in its +structure. The left is simple in form for several miles of its length, or to +the point where a tributary came in from the southeast. But both are greatly +obscured by the forests and underbrush growing upon them, and by the denuding +action of rains and melting snows, etc. It is, therefore, the less to be +wondered at that these moraines, made up of material derived from the distant +fountain-mountains, and from the Valley itself, were not sooner recognized. +</p> + +<p> +The ancient glacier systems of the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Kern, and Kings River +Basins were developed on a still grander scale and are so replete with interest +that the most sketchy outline descriptions of each, with the works they have +accomplished would fill many a volume. Therefore I can do but little more than +invite everybody who is free to go and see for himself. +</p> + +<p> +The action of flowing ice, whether in the form of river-like glaciers or broad +mantles, especially the part it played in sculpturing the earth, is as yet but +little understood. Water rivers work openly where people dwell, and so does the +rain, and the sea, thundering on all the shores of the world; and the universal +ocean of air, though invisible, speaks aloud in a thousand voices, and explains +its modes of working and its power. But glaciers, back in their white +solitudes, work apart from men, exerting their tremendous energies in silence +and darkness. Outspread, spirit-like, they brood above the predestined +landscapes, work on unwearied through immeasurable ages, until, in the fullness +of time, the mountains and valleys are brought forth, channels furrowed for +rivers, basins made for lakes and meadows, and arms of the sea, soils spread +for forests and fields; then they shrink and vanish like summer clouds. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>Chapter 12<br/> +How Best to Spend One’s Yosemite Time</h2> + +<h3>One-Day Excursions<br/> +No. 1.</h3> + +<p> +If I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite I should +start at daybreak, say at three o’clock in midsummer, with a pocketful of +any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, the head of +Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, the top of Liberty Cap, Vernal Fall and the wild +boulder-choked River Cañon. The trail leaves the Valley at the base of the +Sentinel Rock, and as you slowly saunter from point to point along its many +accommodating zigzags nearly all the Valley rocks and falls are seen in +striking, ever-changing combinations. At an elevation of about five hundred +feet a particularly fine, wide-sweeping view down the Valley is obtained, past +the sheer face of the Sentinel and between the Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan. +At a height of about 1500 feet the great Half Dome comes full in sight, +overshadowing every other feature of the Valley to the eastward. From Glacier +Point you look down 3000 feet over the edge of its sheer face to the meadows +and groves and innumerable yellow pine spires, with the meandering river +sparkling and spangling through the midst of them. Across the Valley a great +telling view is presented of the Royal Arches, North Dome, Indian Cañon, Three +Brothers and El Capitan, with the dome-paved basin of Yosemite Creek and Mount +Hoffman in the background. To the eastward, the Half Dome close beside you +looking higher and more wonderful than ever; southeastward the Starr King, +girdled with silver firs, and the spacious garden-like basin of the Illilouette +and its deeply sculptured fountain-peaks, called “The Merced +Group”; and beyond all, marshaled along the eastern horizon, the icy +summits on the axis of the Range and broad swaths of forests growing on ancient +moraines, while the Nevada, Vernal and Yosemite Falls are not only full in +sight but are distinctly heard as if one were standing beside them in their +spray. +</p> + +<p> +The views from the summit of Sentinel Dome are still more extensive and +telling. Eastward the crowds of peaks at the head of the Merced, Tuolumne and +San Joaquin Rivers are presented in bewildering array; westward, the vast +forests, yellow foothills and the broad San Joaquin plains and the Coast +Ranges, hazy and dim in the distance. +</p> + +<p> +From Glacier Point go down the trail into the lower end of the Illilouette +basin, cross Illilouette Creek and follow it to the Fall where from an +outjutting rock at its head you will get a fine view of its rejoicing waters +and wild cañon and the Half Dome. Thence returning to the trail, follow it to +the head of the Nevada Fall. Linger here an hour or two, for not only have you +glorious views of the wonderful fall, but of its wild, leaping, exulting rapids +and, greater than all, the stupendous scenery into the heart of which the white +passionate river goes wildly thundering, surpassing everything of its kind in +the world. After an unmeasured hour or so of this glory, all your body aglow, +nerve currents flashing through you never before felt, go to the top of the +Liberty Cap, only a glad saunter now that your legs as well as head and heart +are awake and rejoicing with everything. The Liberty Cap, a companion of the +Half Dome, is sheer and inaccessible on three of its sides but on the east a +gentle, ice-burnished, juniper-dotted slope extends to the summit where other +wonderful views are displayed where all are wonderful: the south side and +shoulders of Half Dome and Clouds’ Rest, the beautiful Little Yosemite +Valley and its many domes, the Starr King cluster of domes, Sentinel Dome, +Glacier Point, and, perhaps the most tremendously impressive of all, the views +of the hopper-shaped cañon of the river from the head of the Nevada Fall to the +head of the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +Returning to the trail you descend between the Nevada Fall and the Liberty Cap +with fine side views of both the fall and the rock, pass on through clouds of +spray and along the rapids to the head of the Vernal Fall, about a mile below +the Nevada. Linger here if night is still distant, for views of this favorite +fall and the stupendous rock scenery about it. Then descend a stairway by its +side, follow a dim trail through its spray, and a plain one along the border of +the boulder-dashed rapids and so back to the wide, tranquil Valley. +</p> + +<h3>One-Day Excursions<br/> +No. 2.</h3> + +<p> +Another grand one-day excursion is to the Upper Yosemite Fall, the top of the +highest of the Three Brothers, called Eagle Peak on the Geological Survey maps; +the brow of El Capitan; the head of the Ribbon Fall; across the beautiful +Ribbon Creek Basin; and back to the Valley by the Big Oak Flat wagon-road. +</p> + +<p> +The trail leaves the Valley on the east side of the largest of the earthquake +taluses immediately opposite the Sentinel Rock and as it passes within a few +rods of the foot of the great fall, magnificent views are obtained as you +approach it and pass through its spray, though when the snow is melting fast +you will be well drenched. From the foot of the Fall the trail zigzags up a +narrow cañon between the fall and a plain mural cliff that is burnished here +and there by glacial action. +</p> + +<p> +You should stop a while on a flat iron-fenced rock a little below the head of +the fall beside the enthusiastic throng of starry comet-like waters to learn +something of their strength, their marvelous variety of forms, and above all, +their glorious music, gathered and composed from the snow-storms, hail-, rain- +and wind-storms that have fallen on their glacier-sculptured, domey, ridgy +basin. Refreshed and exhilarated, you follow your trail-way through silver fir +and pine woods to Eagle Peak, where the most comprehensive of all the views to +be had on the north-wall heights are displayed. After an hour or two of gazing, +dreaming, studying the tremendous topography, etc., trace the rim of the Valley +to the grand El Capitan ridge and go down to its brow, where you will gain +everlasting impressions of Nature’s steadfastness and power combined with +ineffable fineness of beauty. +</p> + +<p> +Dragging yourself away, go to the head of the Ribbon Fall, thence across the +beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin to the Big Oak Flat stage-road, and down its fine +grades to the Valley, enjoying glorious Yosemite scenery all the way to the +foot of El Capitan and your camp. +</p> + +<h3>Two-Day Excursions<br/> +No. 1.</h3> + +<p> +For a two-day trip I would go straight to Mount Hoffman, spend the night on the +summit, next morning go down by May Lake to Tenaya Lake and return to the +Valley by Cloud’s Rest and the Nevada and Vernal Falls. As on the +foregoing excursion, you leave the Valley by the Yosemite Falls trail and +follow it to the Tioga wagon-road, a short distance east of Porcupine Flat. +From that point push straight up to the summit. Mount Hoffman is a mass of gray +granite that rises almost in the center of the Yosemite Park, about eight or +ten miles in a straight line from the Valley. Its southern slopes are low and +easily climbed, and adorned here and there with castle-like crumbling piles and +long jagged crests that look like artificial masonry; but on the north side it +is abruptly precipitous and banked with lasting snow. Most of the broad summit +is comparatively level and thick sown with crystals, quartz, mica, hornblende, +feldspar, granite, zircon, tourmaline, etc., weathered out and strewn closely +and loosely as if they had been sown broadcast. Their radiance is fairly +dazzling in sunlight, almost hiding the multitude of small flowers that grow +among them. At first sight only these radiant crystals are likely to be +noticed, but looking closely you discover a multitude of very small gilias, +phloxes, mimulus, etc., many of them with more petals than leaves. On the +borders of little streams larger plants flourish—lupines, daisies, +asters, goldenrods, hairbell, mountain columbine, potentilla, astragalus and a +few gentians; with charming heathworts—bryanthus, cassiope, kalmia, +vaccinium in boulder-fringing rings or bank covers. You saunter among the +crystals and flowers as if you were walking among stars. From the summit nearly +all the Yosemite Park is displayed like a map: forests, lakes, meadows, and +snowy peaks. Northward lies Yosemite’s wide basin with its domes and +small lakes, shining like larger crystals; eastward the rocky, meadowy Tuolumne +region, bounded by its snowy peaks in glorious array; southward Yosemite and +westward the vast forest. On no other Yosemite Park mountain are you more +likely to linger. You will find it a magnificent sky camp. Clumps of dwarf pine +and mountain hemlock will furnish resin roots and branches for fuel and light, +and the rills, sparkling water. Thousands of the little plant people will gaze +at your camp-fire with the crystals and stars, companions and guardians as you +lie at rest in the heart of the vast serene night. +</p> + +<p> +The most telling of all the wide Hoffman views is the basin of the Tuolumne +with its meadows, forests and hundreds of smooth rock-waves that appear to be +coming rolling on towards you like high heaving waves ready to break, and +beyond these the great mountains. But best of all are the dawn and the sunrise. +No mountain top could be better placed for this most glorious of mountain +views—to watch and see the deepening colors of the dawn and the sunbeams +streaming through the snowy High Sierra passes, awakening the lakes and +crystals, the chilled plant people and winged people, and making everything +shine and sing in pure glory. +</p> + +<p> +With your heart aglow, spangling Lake Tenaya and Lake May will beckon you away +for walks on their ice-burnished shores. Leave Tenaya at the west end, cross to +the south side of the outlet, and gradually work your way up in an almost +straight south direction to the summit of the divide between Tenaya Creek and +the main upper Merced River or Nevada Creek and follow the divide to Clouds +Rest. After a glorious view from the crest of this lofty granite wave you will +find a trail on its western end that will lead you down past Nevada and Vernal +Falls to the Valley in good time, provided you left your Hoffman sky camp +early. +</p> + +<h3>Two-Day Excursions<br/> +No. 2.</h3> + +<p> +Another grand two-day excursion is the same as the first of the one-day trips, +as far as the head of Illilouette Fall. From there trace the beautiful stream +up through the heart of its magnificent forests and gardens to the cañons +between the Red and Merced Peaks, and pass the night where I camped forty-one +years ago. Early next morning visit the small glacier on the north side of +Merced Peak, the first of the sixty-five that I discovered in the Sierra. +</p> + +<p> +Glacial phenomena in the Illilouette Basin are on the grandest scale, and in +the course of my explorations I found that the cañon and moraines between the +Merced and Red Mountains were the most interesting of them all. The path of the +vanished glacier shone in many places as if washed with silver, and pushing up +the cañon on this bright road I passed lake after lake in solid basins of +granite and many a meadow along the cañon stream that links them together. The +main lateral moraines that bound the view below the cañon are from a hundred to +nearly two hundred feet high and wonderfully regular, like artificial +embankments covered with a magnificent growth of silver fir and pine. But this +garden and forest luxuriance is speedily left behind, and patches of bryanthus, +cassiope and arctic willows begin to appear. The small lakes which a few miles +down the Valley are so richly bordered with flowery meadows have at an +elevation of 10,000 feet only small brown mats of carex, leaving bare rocks +around more than half their shores. Yet, strange to say, amid all this arctic +repression the mountain pine on ledges and buttresses of Red Mountain seems to +find the climate best suited to it. Some specimens that I measured were over a +hundred feet high and twenty-four feet in circumference, showing hardly a trace +of severe storms, looking as fresh and vigorous as the giants of the lower +zones. Evening came on just as I got fairly into the main cañon. It is about a +mile wide and a little less than two miles long. The crumbling spurs of Red +Mountain bound it on the north, the somber cliffs of Merced Mountain on the +south and a deeply-serrated, splintered ridge curving around from mountain to +mountain shuts it in on the east. My camp was on the brink of one of the lakes +in a thicket of mountain hemlock, partly sheltered from the wind. Early next +morning I set out to trace the ancient glacier to its head. Passing around the +north shore of my camp lake I followed the main stream from one lakelet to +another. The dwarf pines and hemlocks disappeared and the stream was bordered +with icicles. The main lateral moraines that extend from the mouth of the cañon +are continued in straggling masses along the walls. Tracing the streams back to +the highest of its little lakes, I noticed a deposit of fine gray mud, +something like the mud corn from a grindstone. This suggested its glacial +origin, for the stream that was carrying it issued from a raw-looking moraine +that seemed to be in process of formation. It is from sixty to over a hundred +feet high in front, with a slope of about thirty-eight degrees. Climbing to the +top of it, I discovered a very small but well-characterized glacier swooping +down from the shadowy cliffs of the mountain to its terminal moraine. The ice +appeared on all the lower portion of the glacier; farther up it was covered +with snow. The uppermost crevasse or “bergeschrund” was from twelve +to fourteen feet wide. The melting snow and ice formed a network of rills that +ran gracefully down the surface of the glacier, merrily singing in their +shining channels. After this discovery I made excursions over all the High +Sierra and discovered that what at first sight looked like snowfields were in +great part glaciers which were completing the sculpture of the summit peaks. +</p> + +<p> +Rising early,—which will be easy, as your bed will be rather cold and you +will not be able to sleep much anyhow,—after visiting the glacier, climb +the Red Mountain and enjoy the magnificent views from the summit. I counted +forty lakes from one standpoint an this mountain, and the views to the westward +over the Illilouette Basin, the most superbly forested of all the basins whose +waters rain into Yosemite, and those of the Yosemite rocks, especially the Half +Dome and the upper part of the north wall, are very fine. But, of course, far +the most imposing view is the vast array of snowy peaks along the axis of the +Range. Then from the top of this peak, light and free and exhilarated with +mountain air and mountain beauty, you should run lightly down the northern +slope of the mountain, descend the cañon between Red and Gray Mountains, thence +northward along the bases of Gray Mountain and Mount Clark and go down into the +head of Little Yosemite, and thence down past the Nevada and Vernal Falls to +the Valley, a truly glorious two-day trip! +</p> + +<h3>A Three-Day Excursion</h3> + +<p> +The best three-day excursion, as far as I can see, is the same as the first of +the two-day trips until you reach Lake Tenaya. There instead of returning to +the Valley, follow the Tioga road around the northwest side of the lake, over +to the Tuolumne Meadows and up to the west base of Mount Dana. Leave the road +there and make straight for the highest point on the timber line between Mounts +Dana and Gibbs and camp there. +</p> + +<p> +On the morning of the third day go to the top of Mount Dana in time for the +glory of the dawn and the sunrise over the gray Mono Desert and the sublime +forest of High Sierra peaks. When you leave the mountain go far enough down the +north side for a view of the Dana Glacier, then make your way back to the Tioga +road, follow it along the Tuolumne Meadows to the crossing of Budd Creek where +you will find the Sunrise trail branching off up the mountain-side through the +forest in a southwesterly direction past the west side of Cathedral Peak, which +will lead you down to the Valley by the Vernal and Nevada Falls. If you are a +good walker you can leave the trail where it begins to descend a steep slope in +the silver fir woods, and bear off to the right and make straight for the top +of Clouds’ Rest. The walking is good and almost level and from the west +end of Clouds’ Rest take the Clouds’ Rest Trail which will lead +direct to the Valley by the Nevada and Vernal Falls. To any one not desperately +time-poor this trip should have four days instead of three; camping the second +night at the Soda Springs; thence to Mount Dana and return to the Soda Springs, +camping the third night there; thence by the Sunrise trail to Cathedral Peak, +visiting the beautiful Cathedral lake which lies about a mile to the west of +Cathedral Peak, eating your luncheon, and thence to Clouds’ Rest and the +Valley as above. This is one of the most interesting of all the comparatively +short trips that can be made in the whole Yosemite region. Not only do you see +all the grandest of the Yosemite rocks and waterfalls and the High Sierra with +their glaciers, glacier lakes and glacier meadows, etc., but sections of the +magnificent silver fir, two-leaved pine, and dwarf pine zones; with the +principal alpine flowers and shrubs, especially sods of dwarf vaccinium covered +with flowers and fruit though less than an inch high, broad mats of dwarf +willow scarce an inch high with catkins that rise straight from the ground, and +glorious beds of blue gentians,—grandeur enough and beauty enough for a +lifetime. +</p> + +<h3>The Upper Tuolumne Excursion</h3> + +<p> +We come now to the grandest of all the Yosemite excursions, one that requires +at least two or three weeks. The best time to make it is from about the middle +of July. The visitor entering the Yosemite in July has the advantage of seeing +the falls not, perhaps, in their very flood prime but next thing to it; while +the glacier-meadows will be in their glory and the snow on the mountains will +be firm enough to make climbing safe. Long ago I made these Sierra trips, +carrying only a sackful of bread with a little tea and sugar and was thus +independent and free, but now that trails or carriage roads lead out of the +Valley in almost every direction it is easy to take a pack animal, so that the +luxury of a blanket and a supply of food can easily be had. +</p> + +<p> +The best way to leave the Valley will be by the Yosemite Fall trail, camping +the first night on the Tioga road opposite the east end of the Hoffman Range. +Next morning climb Mount Hoffman; thence push on past Tenaya Lake into the +Tuolumne Meadows and establish a central camp near the Soda Springs, from which +glorious excursions can be made at your leisure. For here in this upper +Tuolumne Valley is the widest, smoothest, most serenely spacious, and in every +way the most delightful summer pleasure-park in all the High Sierra. And since +it is connected with Yosemite by two good trails, and a fairly good carriage +road that passes between Yosemite and Mount Hoffman, it is also the most +accessible. It is in the heart of the High Sierra east of Yosemite, 8500 to +9000 feet above the level of the sea. The gray, picturesque Cathedral Range +bounds it on the south; a similar range or spur, the highest peak of which is +Mount Conness, on the north; the noble Mounts Dana, Gibbs, Mammoth, Lyell, +McClure and others on the axis of the Range on the east; a heaving, billowing +crowd of glacier-polished rocks and Mount Hoffman on the west. Down through the +open sunny meadow-levels of the Valley flows the Tuolumne River, fresh and cool +from its many glacial fountains, the highest of which are the glaciers that lie +on the north sides of Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. +</p> + +<p> +Along the river a series of beautiful glacier-meadows extend with but little +interruption, from the lower end of the Valley to its head, a distance of about +twelve miles, forming charming sauntering-grounds from which the glorious +mountains may be enjoyed as they look down in divine serenity over the dark +forests that clothe their bases. Narrow strips of pine woods cross the +meadow-carpet from side to side, and it is somewhat roughened here and there by +moraine boulders and dead trees brought down from the heights by snow +avalanches; but for miles and miles it is so smooth and level that a hundred +horsemen may ride abreast over it. +</p> + +<p> +The main lower portion of the meadows is about four miles long and from a +quarter to half a mile wide, but the width of the Valley is, on an average, +about eight miles. Tracing the river, we find that it forks a mile above the +Soda Springs, the main fork turning southward to Mount Lyell, the other +eastward to Mount Dana and Mount Gibbs. Along both forks strips of meadow +extend almost to their heads. The most beautiful portions of the meadows are +spread over lake basins, which have been filled up by deposits from the river. +A few of these river-lakes still exist, but they are now shallow and are +rapidly approaching extinction. The sod in most places is exceedingly fine and +silky and free from weeds and bushes; while charming flowers abound, especially +gentians, dwarf daisies, potentillas, and the pink bells of dwarf vaccinium. On +the banks of the river and its tributaries cassiope and bryanthus may be found, +where the sod curls over stream banks and around boulders. The principal grass +of these meadows is a delicate calamagrostis with very slender filiform leaves, +and when it is in flower the ground seems to be covered with a faint purple +mist, the stems of the panicles being so fine that they are almost invisible, +and offer no appreciable resistance in walking through them. Along the edges of +the meadows beneath the pines and throughout the greater part of the Valley +tall ribbon-leaved grasses grow in abundance, chiefly bromus, triticum and +agrostis. +</p> + +<p> +In October the nights are frosty, and then the meadows at sunrise, when every +leaf is laden with crystals, are a fine sight. The days are still warm and +calm, and bees and butterflies continue to waver and hum about the +late-blooming flowers until the coming of the snow, usually in November. Storm +then follows storm in quick succession, burying the meadows to a depth of from +ten to twenty feet, while magnificent avalanches descend through the forests +from the laden heights, depositing huge piles of snow mixed with uprooted trees +and boulders. In the open sunshine the snow usually lasts until the end of June +but the new season’s vegetation is not generally in bloom until late in +July. Perhaps the best all round excursion-time after winters of average +snowfall is from the middle of July to the middle or end of August. The snow is +then melted from the woods and southern slopes of the mountains and the meadows +and gardens are in their glory, while the weather is mostly all-reviving, +exhilarating sunshine. The few clouds that rise now and then and the showers +they yield are only enough to keep everything fresh and fragrant. +</p> + +<p> +The groves about the Soda Springs are favorite camping-grounds on account of +the cold, pleasant-tasting water charged with carbonic acid, and because of the +views of the mountains across the meadow—the Glacier Monument, Cathedral +Peak, Cathedral Spires, Unicorn Peak and a series of ornamental nameless +companions, rising in striking forms and nearness above a dense forest growing +on the left lateral moraine of the ancient Tuolumne glacier, which, broad, +deep, and far-reaching, exerted vast influence on the scenery of this portion +of the Sierra. But there are fine camping-grounds all along the meadows, and +one may move from grove to grove every day all summer, enjoying new homes and +new beauty to satisfy every roving desire for change. +</p> + +<p> +There are five main capital excursions to be made from here—to the +summits of Mounts Dana, Lyell and Conness, and through the Bloody Cañon Pass to +Mono Lake and the volcanoes, and down the Tuolumne Cañon, at least as far as +the foot of the wonderful series of river cataracts. All of these excursions +are sure to be made memorable with joyful health-giving experiences; but +perhaps none of them will be remembered with keener delight than the days spent +in sauntering on the broad velvet lawns by the river, sharing the sky with the +mountains and trees, gaining something of their strength and peace. +</p> + +<p> +The excursion to the top of Mount Dana is a very easy one; for though the +mountain is 13,000 feet high, the ascent from the west side is so gentle and +smooth that one may ride a mule to the very summit. Across many a busy stream, +from meadow to meadow, lies your flowery way; mountains all about you, few of +them hidden by irregular foregrounds. Gradually ascending, other mountains come +in sight, peak rising above peak with their snow and ice in endless variety of +grouping and sculpture. Now your attention is turned to the moraines, sweeping +in beautiful curves from the hollows and cañons, now to the granite waves and +pavements rising here and there above the heathy sod, polished a thousand years +ago and still shining. Towards the base of the mountain you note the dwarfing +of the trees, until at a height of about 11,000 feet you find patches of the +tough, white-barked pine, pressed so flat by the ten or twenty feet of snow +piled upon them every winter for centuries that you may walk over them as if +walking on a shaggy rug. And, if curious about such things, you may discover +specimens of this hardy tree-mountaineer not more than four feet high and about +as many inches in diameter at the ground, that are from two hundred to four +hundred years old, still holding bravely to life, making the most of their +slender summers, shaking their tasseled needles in the breeze right cheerily, +drinking the thin sunshine and maturing their fine purple cones as if they +meant to live forever. The general view from the summit is one of the most +extensive and sublime to be found in all the Range. To the eastward you gaze +far out over the desert plains and mountains of the “Great Basin,” +range beyond range extending with soft outlines, blue and purple in the +distance. More than six thousand feet below you lies Lake Mono, ten miles in +diameter from north to south, and fourteen from west to east, lying bare in the +treeless desert like a disk of burnished metal, though at times it is swept by +mountain storm winds and streaked with foam. To the southward there is a well +defined range of pale-gray extinct volcanoes, and though the highest of them +rises nearly two thousand feet above the lake, you can look down from here into +their circular, cup-like craters, from which a comparatively short time ago +ashes and cinders were showered over the surrounding sage plains and +glacier-laden mountains. +</p> + +<p> +To the westward the landscape is made up of exceedingly strong, gray, glaciated +domes and ridge waves, most of them comparatively low, but the largest high +enough to be called mountains; separated by cañons and darkened with lines and +fields of forest, Cathedral Peak and Mount Hoffman in the distance; small lakes +and innumerable meadows in the foreground. Northward and southward the great +snowy mountains, marshaled along the axis of the Range, are seen in all their +glory, crowded together in some places like trees in groves, making landscapes +of wild, extravagant, bewildering magnificence, yet calm and silent as the sky. +</p> + +<p> +Some eight glaciers are in sight. One of these is the Dana Glacier on the north +side of the mountain, lying at the foot of a precipice about a thousand feet +high, with a lovely pale-green lake a little below it. This is one of the many, +small, shrunken remnants of the vast glacial system of the Sierra that once +filled the hollows and valleys of the mountains and covered all the lower +ridges below the immediate summit-fountains, flowing to right and left away +from the axis of the Range, lavishly fed by the snows of the glacial period. +</p> + +<p> +In the excursion to Mount Lyell the immediate base of the mountain is easily +reached on meadow walks along the river. Turning to the southward above the +forks of the river, you enter the narrow Lyell branch of the Valley, narrow +enough and deep enough to be called a cañon. It is about eight miles long and +from 2000 to 3000 feet deep. The flat meadow bottom is from about three hundred +to two hundred yards wide, with gently curved margins about fifty yards wide +from which rise the simple massive walls of gray granite at an angle of about +thirty-three degrees, mostly timbered with a light growth of pine and streaked +in many places with avalanche channels. Towards the upper end of the cañon the +Sierra crown comes in sight, forming a finely balanced picture framed by the +massive cañon walls. In the foreground, when the grass is in flower, you have +the purple meadow willow-thickets on the river banks; in the middle distance +huge swelling bosses of granite that form the base of the general mass of the +mountain, with fringing lines of dark woods marking the lower curves, smoothly +snow-clad except in the autumn. +</p> + +<p> +If you wish to spend two days on the Lyell trip you will find a good +camp-ground on the east side of the river, about a mile above a fine cascade +that comes down over the cañon wall in telling style and makes good camp music. +From here to the top of the mountains is usually an easy day’s work. At +one place near the summit careful climbing is necessary, but it is not so +dangerous or difficult as to deter any one of ordinary skill, while the views +are glorious. To the northward are Mammoth Mountain, Mounts Gibbs, Dana, +Warren, Conness and others, unnumbered and unnamed; to the southeast the +indescribably wild and jagged range of Mount Ritter and the Minarets; +southwestward stretches the dividing ridge between the north fork of the San +Joaquin and the Merced, uniting with the Obelisk or Merced group of peaks that +form the main fountains of the Illilouette branch of the Merced; and to the +north-westward extends the Cathedral spur. These spurs like distinct ranges +meet at your feet; therefore you look at them mostly in the direction of their +extension, and their peaks seem to be massed and crowded against one another, +while immense amphitheaters, cañons and subordinate ridges with their wealth of +lakes, glaciers, and snow-fields, maze and cluster between them. In making the +ascent in June or October the glacier is easily crossed, for then its snow +mantle is smooth or mostly melted off. But in midsummer the climbing is +exceedingly tedious because the snow is then weathered into curious and +beautiful blades, sharp and slender, and set on edge in a leaning position. +They lean towards the head of the glacier and extend across from side to side +in regular order in a direction at right angles to the direction of greatest +declivity, the distance between the crests being about two or three feet, and +the depth of the troughs between them about three feet. A more interesting +problem than a walk over a glacier thus sculptured and adorned is seldom +presented to the mountaineer. +</p> + +<p> +The Lyell Glacier is about a mile wide and less than a mile long, but presents, +nevertheless, all the essential characters of large, river-like +glaciers—moraines, earth-bands, blue veins, crevasses, etc., while the +streams that issue from it are, of course, turbid with rock-mud, showing its +grinding action on its bed. And it is all the more interesting since it is the +highest and most enduring remnant of the great Tuolumne Glacier, whose traces +are still distinct fifty miles away, and whose influence on the landscape was +so profound. The McClure Glacier, once a tributary of the Lyell, is smaller. +Thirty-eight years ago I set a series of stakes in it to determine its rate of +motion. Towards the end of summer in the middle of the glacier it was only a +little over an inch in twenty-four hours. +</p> + +<p> +The trip to Mono from the Soda Springs can be made in a day, but many days may +profitably be spent near the shores of the lake, out on its islands and about +the volcanoes. +</p> + +<p> +In making the trip down the Big Tuolumne Cañon, animals may be led as far as a +small, grassy, forested lake-basin that lies below the crossing of the Virginia +Creek trail. And from this point any one accustomed to walking on earthquake +boulders, carpeted with cañon chaparral, can easily go down as far as the big +cascades and return to camp in one day. Many, however, are not able to do his, +and it is better to go leisurely, prepared to camp anywhere, and enjoy the +marvelous grandeur of the place. +</p> + +<p> +The cañon begins near the lower end of the meadows and extends to the Hetch +Hetchy Valley, a distance of about eighteen miles, though it will seem much +longer to any one who scrambles through it. It is from twelve hundred to about +five thousand feet deep, and is comparatively narrow, but there are several +roomy, park-like openings in it, and throughout its whole extent Yosemite +natures are displayed on a grand scale—domes, El Capitan rocks, gables, +Sentinels, Royal Arches, Glacier Points, Cathedral Spires, etc. There is even a +Half Dome among its wealth of rock forms, though far less sublime than the +Yosemite Half Dome. Its falls and cascades are innumerable. The sheer falls, +except when the snow is melting in early spring, are quite small in volume as +compared with those of Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy; though in any other country +many of them would be regarded as wonders. But it is the cascades or sloping +falls on the main river that are the crowning glory of the cañon, and these in +volume, extent and variety surpass those of any other cañon in the Sierra. The +most showy and interesting of them are mostly in the upper part of the cañon, +above the point of entrance of Cathedral Creek and Hoffman Creek. For miles the +river is one wild, exulting, on-rushing mass of snowy purple bloom, spreading +over glacial waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in +magnificent silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder-dams, +leaping high into the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, +tossing from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of +mountain energy. +</p> + +<p> +Every one who is anything of a mountaineer should go on through the entire +length of the cañon, coming out by Hetch Hetchy. There is not a dull step all +the way. With wide variations, it is a Yosemite Valley from end to end. +</p> + +<p> +Besides these main, far-reaching, much-seeing excursions from the main central +camp, there are numberless, lovely little saunters and scrambles and a dozen or +so not so very little. Among the best of these are to Lambert and Fair View +Domes; to the topmost spires of Cathedral Peak, and to those of the North +Church, around the base of which you pass on your way to Mount Conness; to one +of the very loveliest of the glacier-meadows imbedded in the pine woods about +three miles north of the Soda Springs, where forty-two years ago I spent six +weeks. It trends east and west, and you can find it easily by going past the +base of Lambert’s Dome to Dog Lake and thence up northward through the +woods about a mile or so; to the shining rock-waves full of ice-burnished, +feldspar crystals at the foot of the meadows; to Lake Tenaya; and, last but not +least, a rather long and very hearty scramble down by the end of the meadow +along the Tioga road toward Lake Tenaya to the crossing of Cathedral Creek, +where you turn off and trace the creek down to its confluence with the +Tuolumne. This is a genuine scramble much of the way but one of the most +wonderfully telling in its glacial rock-forms and inscriptions. +</p> + +<p> +If you stop and fish at every tempting lake and stream you come to, a whole +month, or even two months, will not be too long for this grand High Sierra +excursion. My own Sierra trip was ten years long. +</p> + +<h3>Other Trips From The Valley</h3> + +<p> +Short carriage trips are usually made in the early morning to Mirror Lake to +see its wonderful reflections of the Half Dome and Mount Watkins; and in the +afternoon many ride down the Valley to see the Bridal Veil rainbows or up the +river cañon to see those of the Vernal Fall; where, standing in the spray, not +minding getting drenched, you may see what are called round rainbows, when the +two ends of the ordinary bow are lengthened and meet at your feet, forming a +complete circle which is broken and united again and again as determined by the +varying wafts of spray. A few ambitious scramblers climb to the top of the +Sentinel Rock, others walk or ride down the Valley and up to the once-famous +Inspiration Point for a last grand view; while a good many appreciative +tourists, who slave only day or two, do no climbing or riding but spend their +time sauntering on the meadows by the river, watching the falls, and the relay +of light and shade among the rocks from morning to night, perhaps gaining more +than those who make haste up the trails in large noisy parties. Those who have +unlimited time find something worth while all the year round on every +accessible part of the vast deeply sculptured walls. At least so I have found +it after making the Valley my home for years. +</p> + +<p> +Here are a few specimens selected from my own short trips which walkers may +find useful. +</p> + +<p> +One, up the river cañon, across the bridge between the Vernal and Nevada Falls, +through chaparral beds and boulders to the shoulder of Half Dome, along the top +of the shoulder to the dome itself, down by a crumbling slot gully and close +along the base of the tremendous split front (the most awfully impressive, +sheer, precipice view I ever found in all my cañon wanderings), thence up the +east shoulder and along the ridge to Clouds’ Rest—a glorious +sunset—then a grand starry run back home to my cabin; down through the +junipers, down through the firs, now in black shadows, now in white light, past +roaring Nevada and Vernal, flowering ghost-like beneath their huge frowning +cliffs; down the dark, gloomy cañon, through the pines of the Valley, dreamily +murmuring in their calm, breezy sleep—a fine wild little excursion for +good legs and good eyes—so much sun-, moon- and star-shine in it, and +sublime, up-and-down rhythmical, glacial topography. +</p> + +<p> +Another, to the head of Yosemite Fall by Indian Cañon; thence up the Yosemite +Creek, tracing it all the way to its highest sources back of Mount Hoffman, +then a wide sweep around the head of its dome-paved basin, passing its many +little lakes and bogs, gardens and groves, trilling, warbling rills, and back +by the Fall Cañon. This was one of my Sabbath walk, run-and-slide excursions +long ago before any trail had been made on the north side of the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +Another fine trip was up, bright and early, by Avalanche Cañon to Glacier +Point, along the rugged south wall, tracing all its far outs and ins to the +head of the Bridal Veil Fall, thence back home, bright and late, by a brushy, +bouldery slope between Cathedral rocks and Cathedral spires and along the level +Valley floor. This was one of my long, bright-day and bright-night walks thirty +or forty years ago when, like river and ocean currents, time flowed undivided, +uncounted—a fine free, sauntery, scrambly, botanical, beauty-filled +ramble. The walk up the Valley was made glorious by the marvelous brightness of +the morning star. So great was her light, she made every tree cast a +well-defined shadow on the smooth sandy ground. +</p> + +<p> +Everybody who visits Yosemite wants to see the famous Big Trees. Before the +railroad was constructed, all three of the stage-roads that entered the Valley +passed through a grove of these trees by the way; namely, the Tuolumne, Merced +and Mariposa groves. The Tuolumne grove was passed on the Big Oak Flat road, +the Merced grove by the Coulterville road and the Mariposa grove by the Raymond +and Wawona road. Now, to see any one of these groves, a special trip has to be +made. Most visitors go to the Mariposa grove, the largest of the three. On this +Sequoia trip you see not only the giant Big Trees but magnificent forests of +silver fir, sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus and Douglas spruce. The trip +need not require more than two days, spending a night in a good hotel at +Wawona, a beautiful place on the south fork of the Merced River, and returning +to the Valley or to El Portal, the terminus of the railroad. This extra trip by +stage costs fifteen dollars. All the High Sierra excursions that I have +sketched cost from a dollar a week to anything you like. None of mine when I +was exploring the Sierra cost over a dollar a week, most of them less. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>Chapter 13<br/> +Early History Of The Valley</h2> + +<p> +In the wild gold years of 1849 and ’50, the Indian tribes along thus +western Sierra foothills became alarmed at the sudden invasion of their acorn +orchard and game fields by miners, and soon began to make war upon them, in +their usual murdering, plundering style. This continued until the United States +Indian Commissioners succeeded in gathering them into reservations, some +peacefully, others by burning their villages and stores of food. The Yosemite +or Grizzly Bear tribe, fancying themselves secure in their deep mountain +stronghold, were the most troublesome and defiant of all, and it was while the +Mariposa battalion, under command of Major Savage, was trying to capture this +warlike tribe and conduct them to the Fresno reservation that their deep +mountain home, the Yosemite Valley, was discovered. From a camp on the south +fork of the Merced, Major Savage sent Indian runners to the bands who were +supposed to be hiding in the mountains, instructing them to tell the Indians +that if they would come in and make treaty with the Commissioners they would be +furnished with food and clothing and be protected, but if they did not come in +he would make war upon them and kill them all. None of the Yosemite Indians +responded to this general message, but when a special messenger was sent to the +chief he appeared the next day. He came entirely alone and stood in dignified +silence before one of the guards until invited to enter the camp. He was +recognized by one of the friendly Indians as Tenaya, the old chief of the +Grizzlies, and, after he had been supplied with food, Major Savage, with the +aid of Indian interpreters, informed him of the wishes of the Commissioners. +But the old chief was very suspicious of Savage and feared that he was taking +this method of getting the tribe into his power for the purpose of revenging +his personal wrong. Savage told him if he would go to the Commissioners and +make peace with them as the other tribes had done there would be no more war. +Tenaya inquired what was the object of taking all the Indians to the San +Joaquin plain. “My people,” said he, “do not want anything +from the Great Father you tell me about. The Great Spirit is our father and he +has always supplied us with all we need. We do not want anything from white +men. Our women are able to do our work. Go, then. Let us remain in the +mountains where we were born, where the ashes of our fathers have been given to +the wind. I have said enough.” +</p> + +<p> +To this the Major answered abruptly in Indian style: “If you and your +people have all you desire, why do you steal our horses and mules? Why do you +rob the miners’ camps? Why do you murder the white men and plunder and +burn their houses?” +</p> + +<p> +Tenaya was silent for some time. He evidently understood what the Major had +said, for he replied, “My young men have sometimes taken horses and mules +from the whites. This was wrong. It is not wrong to take the property of +enemies who have wronged my people. My young men believed that the gold diggers +were our enemies. We now know they are not and we shall be glad to live in +peace with them. We will stay here and be friends. My people do not want to go +to the plains. Some of the tribes who have gone there are very bad. We cannot +live with them. Here we can defend ourselves.” +</p> + +<p> +To the Major Savage firmly said, “Your people must go to the +Commissioners. If they do not your young men will again steal horses and kill +and plunder the whites. It was your people who robbed my stores, burned my +houses and murdered my men. It they do not make a treaty, your whole tribe will +be destroyed. Not one of them will be left alive.” +</p> + +<p> +To this the old chief replied, “It is useless to talk to you about who +destroyed your property and killed your people. I am old and you can kill me if +you will, but it is useless to lie to you who know more than all the Indians. +Therefore I will not lie to you but if you will let me return to my people I +will bring them in.” He was allowed to go. The next day he came back and +said his people were on the way to our camp to go with the men sent by the +Great Father, who was so good and rich. +</p> + +<p> +Another day passed but no Indians from the deep Valley appeared. The old chief +said that the snow was so deep and his village was so far down that it took a +long time to climb out of it. After waiting still another day the expedition +started for the Valley. When Tenaya was questioned as to the route and distance +he said that the snow was so deep that the horses could not go through it. Old +Tenaya was taken along as guide. When the party had gone about half-way to the +Valley they met the Yosemites on their way to the camp on the south fork. There +were only seventy-two of them and when the old chief was asked what had become +of the rest of his band, he replied, “This is all of my people that are +willing to go with me to the plains. All the rest have gone with their wives +end children over the mountains to the Mono and Tuolumne tribes.” Savage +told Tenaya that he was not telling the truth, for Indians could not cross the +mountains in the deep snow, and that he knew they must still be at his village +or hiding somewhere near it. The tribe had been estimated to number over two +hundred. Major Savage then said to him, “You may return to camp with your +people and I will take one of your young men with me to your village to see +your people who will not come. They will come if I find them.” “You +will not find any of my people there,” said Tenaya; “I do not know +where they are. My tribe is small. Many of the people of my tribe have come +from other tribes and if they go to the plains and are seen they will be killed +by the friends of those with whom they have quarreled. I was told that I was +growing old and it was well that I should go, but that young and strong men can +find plenty in the mountains: therefore, why should they go to the hot plains +to be penned up like horses and cattle? My heart has been sore since that talk +but I am now willing to go, for it is best for my people.” +</p> + +<p> +Pushing ahead, taking turns in breaking a way through the snow, they arrived in +sight of the great Valley early in the afternoon and, guided by one of +Tenaya’s Indians, descended by the same route as that followed by the +Mariposa trail, and the weary party went into camp on the river bank opposite +El Capitan. After supper, seated around a big fire, the wonderful Valley became +the topic of conversation and Dr. Bunell suggested giving it a name. Many were +proposed, but after a vote had been taken the name Yosemite, proposed by Dr. +Bunell, was adopted almost unanimously to perpetuate the name of the tribe who +so long had made their home there. The Indian name of the Valley, however, is +Ahwahnee. The Indians had names for all the different rocks and streams of the +Valley, but very few of them are now in use by the whites, Pohono, the Bridal +Veil, being the principal one. The expedition remained only one day and two +nights in the Valley, hurrying out on the approach of a storm and reached the +south-fork headquarters on the evening of the third day after starting out. +Thus, in three days the round trip had been made to the Valley, most of it had +been explored in a general way and some of its principal features had been +named. But the Indians had fled up the Tenaya Cañon trail and none of them were +seen, except an old woman unable to follow the fugitives. +</p> + +<p> +A second expedition was made in the same year under command of Major Boling. +When the Valley was entered no Indians were seen, but the many wigwams with +smoldering fires showed that they had been hurriedly abandoned that very day. +Later, five young Indians who had been left to watch the movements of the +expedition were captured at the foot of the Three Brothers after a lively +chase. Three of the five were sons of the old chief and the rock was named for +them. All of these captives made good their escape within a few days, except +the youngest son of Tenaya, who was shot by his guard while trying to escape. +That same day the old chief was captured on the cliff on the east side of +Indian Cañon by some of Boling’s scouts. As Tenaya walked toward the camp +his eye fell upon the dead body of his favorite son. Captain Boling through an +interpreter, expressed his regret at the occurrence, but not a word did Tenaya +utter in reply. Later, he made an attempt to escape but was caught as he was +about to swim across the river. Tenaya expected to be shot for this attempt and +when brought into the presence of Captain Boling he said in great emotion, +“Kill me, Sir Captain, yes, kill me as you killed my son, as you would +kill my people if they were to come to you. You would kill all my tribe if you +had the power. Yes, Sir America, you can now tell your warriors to kill the old +chief. You have made my life dark with sorrow. You killed the child of my +heart. Why not kill the father? But wait a little and when I am dead I will +call my people to come and they shall hear me in their sleep and come to avenge +the death of their chief and his son. Yes, Sir America, my spirit will make +trouble for you and your people, as you have made trouble to me and my people. +With the wizards I will follow the white people and make them fear me. You may +kill me, Sir Captain, but you shall not live in peace. I will follow in your +footsteps. I will not leave my home, but be with the spirits among the rocks, +the waterfalls, in the rivers and in the winds; wherever you go I will be with +you. You will not see me but you will fear the spirit of the old chief and grow +cold. The Great Spirit has spoken. I am done.” +</p> + +<p> +This expedition finally captured the remnants of the tribes at the head of Lake +Tenaya and took them to the Fresno reservation, together with their chief, +Tenaya. But after a short stay they were allowed to return to the Valley under +restrictions. Tenaya promised faithfully to conform to everything required, +joyfully left the hot and dry reservation, and with his family returned to his +Yosemite home. +</p> + +<p> +The following year a party of miners was attacked by the Indians in the Valley +and two of them were killed. This led to another Yosemite expedition. A +detachment of regular soldiers from Fort Miller under Lieutenant Moore, U.S.A., +was at once dispatched to capture or punish the murderers. Lieutenant Moore +entered the Valley in the night and surprised and captured a party of five +Indians, but an alarm was given and Tenaya and his people fled from their huts +and escaped to the Monos on the east side of the Range. On examination of the +five prisoners in the morning it was discovered that each of them had some +article of clothing that belonged to the murdered men. The bodies of the two +miners were found and buried on the edge of the Bridal Veil meadow. When the +captives were accused of the murder of the two white men they admitted that +they had killed them to prevent white men from coming to their Valley, +declaring that it was their home and that white men had no right to come there +without their consent. Lieutenant Moore told them through his interpreter that +they had sold their lands to the Government, that it belonged to the white men +now and that they had agreed to live on the reservation provided for them. To +this they replied that Tenaya had never consented to the sale of their Valley +and had never received pay for it. The other chief, they said, had no right to +sell their territory. The lieutenant being fully satisfied that he had captured +the real murderers, promptly pronounced judgment and had them placed in line +and shot. Lieutenant Moore pursued the fugitives to Mono but was not successful +in finding any of them. After being hospitably entertained and protected by the +Mono and Paute tribes, they stole a number of stolen horses from their +entertainers and made their way by a long, obscure route by the head of the +north fork of the San Joaquin, reached their Yosemite home once more, but early +one morning, after a feast of horse-flesh, a band of Monos surprised them in +their huts, killing Tenaya and nearly all his tribe. Only a small remnant +escaped down the river cañon. The Tenaya Cañon and Lake were named for the +famous old chief. +</p> + +<p> +Very few visits were made to the Valley before the summer or 1855, when Mr. J. +M. Hutchings, having heard of its wonderful scenery, collected a party and made +the first regular tourist’s visit to the Yosemite and in his California +magazine described it in articles illustrated by a good artist, who was taken +into the Valley by him for that purpose. This first party was followed by +another from Mariposa the same year, consisting of sixteen or eighteen persons. +The next year the regular pleasure travel began and a trail on the Mariposa +side of the Valley was opened by Mann Brothers. This trail was afterwards +purchased by the citizens of the county and made free to the public. The first +house built in the Yosemite Valley was erected in the autumn of 1856 and was +kept as a hotel the next year by G. A. Hite and later by J. H. Neal and S. M. +Cunningham. It was situated directly opposite the Yosemite Fall. A little over +half a mile farther up the Valley a canvas house was put up in 1858 by G. A. +Hite. Next year a frame house was built and kept as a hotel by Mr. Peck, +afterward by Mr. Longhurst and since 1864 by Mr. Hutchings. All these hotels +have vanished except the frame house built in 1859, which has been changed +beyond recognition. A large hotel built on the brink of the river in front of +the old one is now the only hotel in the Valley. A large hotel built by the +State and located farther up the Valley was burned. To provide for the overflow +of visitors there are three camps with board floors, wood frame, and covered +with canvas, well furnished, some of them with electric light. A large +first-class hotel is very much needed. +</p> + +<p> +Travel of late years has been rapidly increasing, especially after the +establishment, by Act of Congress in 1890, of the Yosemite National Park and +the recession in 1905 of the original reservation to the Federal Government by +the State. The greatest increase, of course, was caused by the construction of +the Yosemite Valley railroad from Merced to the border of the Park, eight miles +below the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +It is eighty miles long, and the entire distance, except the first twenty-four +miles from the town of Merced, is built through the precipitous Merced River +Cañon. The roadbed was virtually blasted out of the solid rock for the entire +distance in the cañon. Work was begun in September, 1905, and the first train +entered El Portal, the terminus, April 15, 1907. Many miles of the road cost as +much as $100,000 per mile. Its business has increased from 4000 tourists in the +first year it was operated to 15,000 in 1910. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>Chapter 14<br/> +Lamon</h2> + +<p> +The good old pioneer, Lamon, was the first of all the early Yosemite settlers +who cordially and unreservedly adopted the Valley as his home. +</p> + +<p> +He was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, May 10, 1817, emigrated to +Illinois with his father, John Lamon, at the age of nineteen; afterwards went +to Texas and settled on the Brazos, where he raised melons and hunted +alligators for a living. “Right interestin’ business,” he +said; “especially the alligator part of it.” From the Brazos he +went to the Comanche Indian country between Gonzales and Austin, twenty miles +from his nearest neighbor. During the first summer, the only bread he had was +the breast meat of wild turkeys. When the formidable Comanche Indians were on +the war-path he left his cabin after dark and slept in the woods. From Texas he +crossed the plains to California and worked In the Calaveras and Mariposa +gold-fields. +</p> + +<p> +He first heard Yosemite spoken of as a very beautiful mountain valley and after +making two excursions in the summers of 1857 and 1858 to see the wonderful +place, he made up his mind to quit roving and make a permanent home in it. In +April, 1859, he moved into it, located a garden opposite the Half Dome, set out +a lot of apple, pear and peach trees, planted potatoes, etc., that he had +packed in on a “contrary old mule,” and worked for his board in +building a hotel which was afterwards purchased by Mr. Hutchings. His neighbors +thought he was very foolish in attempting to raise crops in so high and cold a +valley, and warned him that he could raise nothing and sell nothing, and would +surely starve. +</p> + +<p> +For the first year or two lack of provisions compelled him to move out on the +approach of winter, but in 1862 after he had succeeded in raising some fruit +and vegetables he began to winter in the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +The first winter he had no companions, not even a dog or cat, and one evening +was greatly surprised to see two men coming up the Valley. They were very glad +to see him, for they had come from Mariposa in search of him, a report having +been spread that he had been killed by Indians. He assured his visitors that he +felt safer in his Yosemite home, lying snug and squirrel-like in his 10 x 12 +cabin, than in Mariposa. When the avalanches began to slip, he wondered where +all the wild roaring and booming came from, the flying snow preventing them +from being seen. But, upon the whole, he wondered most at the brightness, +gentleness, and sunniness of the weather, and hopefully employed the calm days +in tearing ground for an orchard and vegetable garden. +</p> + +<p> +In the second winter he built a winter cabin under the Royal Arches, where he +enjoyed more sunshine. But no matter how he praised the weather he could not +induce any one to winter with him until 1864. +</p> + +<p> +He liked to describe the great flood of 1867, the year before I reached +California, when all the walls were striped with thundering waterfalls. +</p> + +<p> +He was a fine, erect, whole-souled man, between six and seven feet high, with a +broad, open face, bland and guileless as his pet oxen. No stranger to hunger +and weariness, he knew well how to appreciate suffering of a like kind in +others, and many there be, myself among the number, who can testify to his +simple, unostentatious kindness that found expression in a thousand small +deeds. +</p> + +<p> +After gaining sufficient means to enjoy a long afternoon of life in comparative +affluence and ease, he died in the autumn of 1876. He sleeps in a beautiful +spot near Galen Clark and a monument hewn from a block of Yosemite granite +marks his grave. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>Chapter 15<br/> +Galen Clark</h2> + +<p> +Galen Clark was the best mountaineer I ever met, and one of the kindest and +most amiable of all my mountain friends. I first met him at his Wawona ranch +forty-three years ago on my first visit to Yosemite. I had entered the Valley +with one companion by way of Coulterville, and returned by what was then known +as the Mariposa trail. Both trails were buried in deep snow where the elevation +was from 5000 to 7000 feet above sea level in the sugar pine and silver fir +regions. We had no great difficulty, however, in finding our way by the trends +of the main features of the topography. Botanizing by the way, we made slow, +plodding progress, and were again about out of provisions when we reached +Clark’s hospitable cabin at Wawona. He kindly furnished us with flour and +a little sugar and tea, and my companion, who complained of the be-numbing +poverty of a strictly vegetarian diet, gladly accepted Mr. Clark’s offer +of a piece of a bear that had just been killed. After a short talk about bears +and the forests and the way to the Big Trees, we pushed on up through the +Wawona firs and sugar pines, and camped in the now-famous Mariposa grove. +</p> + +<p> +Later, after making my home in the Yosemite Valley, I became well acquainted +with Mr. Clark, while he was guardian. He was elected again and again to this +important office by different Boards of Commissioners on account of his +efficiency and his real love of the Valley. +</p> + +<p> +Although nearly all my mountaineering has been done without companions, I had +the pleasure of having Galen Clark with me on three excursions. About +thirty-five years ago I invited him to accompany me on a trip through the Big +Tuolumne Cañon from Hetch Hetchy Valley. The cañon up to that time had not been +explored, and knowing that the difference in the elevation of the river at the +head of the cañon and in Hetch Hetchy was about 5000 feet, we expected to find +some magnificent cataracts or falls; nor were we disappointed. When we were +leaving Yosemite an ambitious young man begged leave to join us. I strongly +advised him not to attempt such a long, hard trip, for it would undoubtedly +prove very trying to an inexperienced climber. He assured us, however, that he +was equal to anything, would gladly meet every difficulty as it came, and cause +us no hindrance or trouble of any sort. So at last, after repeating our advice +that he give up the trip, we consented to his joining us. We entered the cañon +by way of Hetch Hetchy Valley, each carrying his own provisions, and making his +own tea, porridge, bed, etc. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning of the second day out from Hetch Hetchy we came to what is now +known as “Muir Gorge,” and Mr. Clark without hesitation prepared to +force a way through it, wading and jumping from one submerged boulder to +another through the torrent, bracing and steadying himself with a long pole. +Though the river was then rather low, the savage, roaring, surging song it was +ringing was rather nerve-trying, especially to our inexperienced companion. +With careful assistance, however, I managed to get him through, but this hard +trial, naturally enough, proved too much and he informed us, pale and +trembling, that he could go no farther. I gathered some wood at the upper +throat of the gorge, made a fire for him and advised him to feel at home and +make himself comfortable, hoped he would enjoy the grand scenery and the songs +of the water-ouzels which haunted the gorge, and assured him that we would +return some time in the night, though it might be late, as we wished to go on +through the entire cañon if possible. We pushed our way through the dense +chaparral and over the earthquake taluses with such speed that we reached the +foot of the upper cataract while we had still an hour or so of daylight for the +return trip. It was long after dark when we reached our adventurous, but +nerve-shaken companion who, of course, was anxious and lonely, not being +accustomed to solitude, however kindly and flowery and full of sweet bird-song +and stream-song. Being tired we simply lay down in restful comfort on the river +bank beside a good fire, instead of trying to go down the gorge in the dark or +climb over its high shoulder to our blankets and provisions, which we had left +in the morning in a tree at the foot of the gorge. I remember Mr. Clark +remarking that if he had his choice that night between provisions and blankets +he would choose his blankets. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning in about an hour we had crossed over the ridge through which +the gorge is cut, reached our provisions, made tea, and had a good breakfast. +As soon as we had returned to Yosemite I obtained fresh provisions, pushed off +alone up to the head of Yosemite Creek basin, entered the cañon by a side +cañon, and completed the exploration up to the Tuolumne Meadows. +</p> + +<p> +It was on this first trip from Hetch Hetchy to the upper cataracts that I had +convincing proofs of Mr. Clark’s daring and skill as mountaineer, +particularly in fording torrents, and in forcing his way through thick +chaparral. I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with him in dense, tangled +brush, though in jumping on boulder taluses and slippery cobble-beds I had no +difficulty in leaving him behind. +</p> + +<p> +After I had discovered the glaciers on Mount Lyell and Mount McClure, Mr. Clark +kindly made a second excursion with me to assist in establishing a line of +stakes across the McClure glacier to measure its rate of flow. On this trip we +also climbed Mount Lyell together, when the snow which covered the glacier was +melted into upleaning, icy blades which were extremely difficult to cross, not +being strong enough to support our weight, nor wide enough apart to enable us +to stride across each blade as it was met. Here again I, being lighter, had no +difficulty in keeping ahead of him. While resting after wearisome staggering +and falling he stared at the marvelous ranks of leaning blades, and said, +“I think I have traveled all sorts of trails and cañons, through all +kinds of brush and snow, but this gets me.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Clark at my urgent request joined my small party on a trip to the Kings +River yosemite by way of the high mountains, most of the way without a trail. +He joined us at the Mariposa Big Tree grove and intended to go all the way, but +finding that, on account of the difficulties encountered, the time required was +much greater than he expected, he turned back near the head of the north fork +of the Kings River. +</p> + +<p> +In cooking his mess of oatmeal porridge and making tea, his pot was always the +first to boil, and I used to wonder why, with all his skill in scrambling +through brush in the easiest way, and preparing his meals, he was so utterly +careless about his beds. He would lie down anywhere on any ground, rough or +smooth, without taking pains even to remove cobbles or sharp-angled rocks +protruding through the grass or gravel, saying that his own bones were as hard +as any stones and could do him no harm. +</p> + +<p> +His kindness to all Yosemite visitors and mountaineers was marvelously constant +and uniform. He was not a good business man, and in building an extensive hotel +and barns at Wawona, before the travel to Yosemite had been greatly developed, +he borrowed money, mortgaged his property and lost it all. +</p> + +<p> +Though not the first to see the Mariposa Big Tree grove, he was the first to +explore it, after he had heard from a prospector, who had passed through the +grove and who gave him the indefinite information, that there were some +wonderful big trees up there on the top of the Wawona hill and that he believed +they must be of the same kind that had become so famous and well-known in the +Calaveras grove farther north. On this information, Galen Clark told me, he +went up and thoroughly explored the grove, counting the trees and measuring the +largest, and becoming familiar with it. He stated also that he had explored the +forest to the southward and had discovered the much larger Fresno grove of +about two square miles, six or seven miles distant from the Mariposa grove. +Unfortunately most of the Fresno grove has been cut and flumed down to the +railroad near Madera. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Clark was truly and literally a gentle-man. I never heard him utter a +hasty, angry, fault-finding word. His voice was uniformly pitched at a rather +low tone, perfectly even, although lances of his eyes and slight intonations of +his voice often indicated that something funny or mildly sarcastic was coming, +but upon the whole he was serious and industrious, and, however deep and +fun-provoking a story might be, he never indulged in boisterous laughter. +</p> + +<p> +He was very fond of scenery and once told me after I became acquainted with him +that he liked “nothing in the world better than climbing to the top of a +high ridge or mountain and looking off.” He preferred the mountain ridges +and domes in the Yosemite regions on account of the wealth and beauty of the +forests. Often times he would take his rifle, a few pounds of bacon, a few +pound of flour, and a single blanket and go off hunting, for no other reason +than to explore and get acquainted with the most beautiful points of view +within a journey of a week or two from his Wawona home. On these trips he was +always alone and could indulge in tranquil enjoyment of Nature to his +heart’s content. He said that on those trips, when he was a sufficient +distance from home in a neighborhood where he wished to linger, he always shot +a deer, sometimes a grouse, and occasionally a bear. After diminishing the +weight of a deer or bear by eating part of it, he carried as much as possible +of the best of the meat to Wawona, and from his hospitable well-supplied cabin +no weary wanderer ever went away hungry or unrested. +</p> + +<p> +The value of the mountain air in prolonging life is well examplified in Mr. +Clark’s case. While working in the mines he contracted a severe cold that +settled on his lungs and finally caused severe inflammation and bleeding, and +none of his friends thought he would ever recover. The physicians told him he +had but a short time to live. It was then that he repaired to the beautiful +sugar pine woods at Wawona and took up a claim, including the fine meadows +there, and building his cabin, began his life of wandering and exploring in the +glorious mountains about him, usually going bare-headed. In a remarkably short +time his lungs were healed. +</p> + +<p> +He was one of the most sincere tree-lovers I ever knew. About twenty years +before his death he made choice of a plot in the Yosemite cemetery on the north +side of the Valley, not far from the Yosemite Fall, and selecting a dozen or so +of seedling sequoias in the Mariposa grove he brought them to the Valley and +planted them around the spot he had chosen for his last rest. The ground there +is gravelly and dry; by careful watering he finally nursed most of the +seedlings into good, thrifty trees, and doubtless they will long shade the +grave of their blessed lover and friend. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>Chapter 16<br/> +Hetch Hetchy Valley</h2> + +<p> +Yosemite is so wonderful that we are apt to regard it as an exceptional +creation, the only valley of its kind in the world; but Nature is not so poor +as to have only one of anything. Several other yosemites have been discovered +in the Sierra that occupy the same relative positions on the Range and were +formed by the same forces in the same kind of granite. One of these, the Hetch +Hetchy Valley, is in the Yosemite National Park about twenty miles from +Yosemite and is easily accessible to all sorts of travelers by a road and trail +that leaves the Big Oak Flat road at Bronson Meadows a few miles below Crane +Flat, and to mountaineers by way of Yosemite Creek basin and the head of the +middle fork of the Tuolumne. +</p> + +<p> +It is said to have been discovered by Joseph Screech, a hunter, in 1850, a year +before the discovery of the great Yosemite. After my first visit to it in the +autumn of 1871, I have always called it the “Tuolumne Yosemite,” +for it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Merced Yosemite, not only in +its sublime rocks and waterfalls but in the gardens, groves and meadows of its +flowery park-like floor. The floor of Yosemite is about 4000 feet above the +sea; the Hetch Hetchy floor about 3700 feet. And as the Merced River flows +through Yosemite, so does the Tuolumne through Hetch Hetchy. The walls of both +are of gray granite, rise abruptly from the floor, are sculptured in the same +style and in both every rock is a glacier monument. +</p> + +<p> +Standing boldly out from the south wall is a strikingly picturesque rock called +by the Indians, Kolana, the outermost of a group 2300 feet high, corresponding +with the Cathedral Rocks of Yosemite both in relative position and form. On the +opposite side of the Valley, facing Kolana, there is a counterpart of the El +Capitan that rises sheer and plain to a height of 1800 feet, and over its +massive brow flows a stream which makes the most graceful fall I have ever +seen. From the edge of the cliff to the top of an earthquake talus it is +perfectly free in the air for a thousand feet before it is broken into cascades +among talus boulders. It is in all its glory in June, when the snow is melting +fast, but fades and vanishes toward the end of summer. The only fall I know +with which it may fairly be compared is the Yosemite Bridal Veil; but it excels +even that favorite fall both in height and airy-fairy beauty and behavior. +Lowlanders are apt to suppose that mountain streams in their wild career over +cliffs lose control of themselves and tumble in a noisy chaos of mist and +spray. On the contrary, on no part of their travels are they more harmonious +and self-controlled. Imagine yourself in Hetch Hetchy on a sunny day in June, +standing waist-deep in grass and flowers (as I have often stood), while the +great pines sway dreamily with scarcely perceptible motion. Looking northward +across the Valley you see a plain, gray granite cliff rising abruptly out of +the gardens and groves to a height of 1800 feet, and in front of it +Tueeulala’s silvery scarf burning with irised sun-fire. In the first +white outburst at the head there is abundance of visible energy, but it is +speedily hushed and concealed in divine repose, and its tranquil progress to +the base of the cliff is like that of a downy feather in a still room. Now +observe the fineness and marvelous distinctness of the various sun-illumined +fabrics into which the water is woven; they sift and float from form to form +down the face of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and unconfused a manner +that you can examine their texture, and patterns and tones of color as you +would a piece of embroidery held in the hand. Toward the top of the fall you +see groups of booming, comet-like masses, their solid, white heads separate, +their tails like combed silk interlacing among delicate gray and purple +shadows, ever forming and dissolving, worn out by friction in their rush +through the air. Most of these vanish a few hundred feet below the summit, +changing to varied forms of cloud-like drapery. Near the bottom the width of +the fall has increased from about twenty-five feet to a hundred feet. Here it +is composed of yet finer tissues, and is still without a trace of +disorder—air, water and sunlight woven into stuff that spirits might +wear. +</p> + +<p> +So fine a fall might well seem sufficient to glorify any valley; but here, as +in Yosemite, Nature seems in nowise moderate, for a short distance to the +eastward of Tueeulala booms and thunders the great Hetch Hetchy Fall, Wapama, +so near that you have both of them in full view from the same standpoint. It is +the counterpart of the Yosemite Fall, but has a much greater volume of water, +is about 1700 feet in height, and appears to be nearly vertical, though +considerably inclined, and is dashed into huge outbounding bosses of foam on +projecting shelves and knobs. No two falls could be more unlike—Tueeulala +out in the open sunshine descending like thistledown; Wapama in a jagged, +shadowy gorge roaring and plundering, pounding its way like an earthquake +avalanche. +</p> + +<p> +Besides this glorious pair there is a broad, massive fall on the main river a +short distance above the head of the Valley. Its position is something like +that of the Vernal in Yosemite, and its roar as it plunges into a surging +trout-pool may be heard a long way, though it is only about twenty feet high. +On Rancheria Creek, a large stream, corresponding in position with the Yosemite +Tenaya Creek, there is a chain of cascades joined here and there with swift +flashing plumes like the one between the Vernal and Nevada Falls, making +magnificent shows as they go their glacier-sculptured way, sliding, leaping, +hurrahing, covered with crisp clashing spray made glorious with sifting +sunshine. And besides all these a few small streams come over the walls at wide +intervals, leaping from ledge to ledge with birdlike song and watering many a +hidden cliff-garden and fernery, but they are too unshowy to be noticed in so +grand a place. +</p> + +<p> +The correspondence between the Hetch Hetchy walls in their trends, sculpture, +physical structure, and general arrangement of the main rock-masses and those +of the Yosemite Valley has excited the wondering admiration of every observer. +We have seen that the El Capitan and Cathedral rocks occupy the same relative +positions In both valleys; so also do their Yosemite points and North Domes. +Again, that part of the Yosemite north wall immediately to the east of the +Yosemite Fall has two horizontal benches, about 500 and 1500 feet above the +floor, timbered with golden-cup oak. Two benches similarly situated and +timbered occur on the same relative portion of the Hetch Hetchy north wall, to +the east of Wapama Fall, and on no other. The Yosemite is bounded at the head +by the great Half Dome. Hetch Hetchy is bounded in the same way though its head +rock is incomparably less wonderful and sublime in form. +</p> + +<p> +The floor of the Valley is about three and a half miles long, and from a fourth +to half a mile wide. The lower portion is mostly a level meadow about a mile +long, with the trees restricted to the sides and the river banks, and partially +separated from the main, upper, forested portion by a low bar of +glacier-polished granite across which the river breaks in rapids. +</p> + +<p> +The principal trees are the yellow and sugar pines, digger pine, incense cedar, +Douglas spruce, silver fir, the California and golden-cup oaks, balsam +cottonwood, Nuttall’s flowering dogwood, alder, maple, laurel, tumion, +etc. The most abundant and influential are the great yellow or silver pines +like those of Yosemite, the tallest over two hundred feet in height, and the +oaks assembled in magnificent groves with massive rugged trunks four to six +feet in diameter, and broad, shady, wide-spreading heads. The shrubs forming +conspicuous flowery clumps and tangles are manzanita, azalea, spiræa, +brier-rose, several species of ceanothus, calycanthus, philadelphus, wild +cherry, etc.; with abundance of showy and fragrant herbaceous plants growing +about them or out in the open in beds by themselves—lilies, Mariposa +tulips, brodiaeas, orchids, iris, spraguea, draperia, collomia, collinsia, +castilleja, nemophila, larkspur, columbine, goldenrods, sunflowers, mints of +many species, honeysuckle, etc. Many fine ferns dwell here also, especially the +beautiful and interesting rock-ferns—pellaea, and cheilanthes of several +species—fringing and rosetting dry rock-piles and ledges; woodwardia and +asplenium on damp spots with fronds six or seven feet high; the delicate +maiden-hair in mossy nooks by the falls, and the sturdy, broad-shouldered +pteris covering nearly all the dry ground beneath the oaks and pines. +</p> + +<p> +It appears, therefore, that Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, +common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to suppose, is a +grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain +temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life, +whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in thoughtful attitudes, +giving welcome to storms and calms alike, their brows in the sky, their feet +set in the groves and gay flowery meadows, while birds, bees, and butterflies +help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music—things frail +and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do +in Yosemite, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. +</p> + +<p> +Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National +Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy +and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into +a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water and light, thus flooding it +from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet +deep. This grossly destructive commercial scheme has long been planned and +urged (though water as pure and abundant can be got from outside of the +people’s park, in a dozen different places), because of the comparative +cheapness of the dam and of the territory which it is sought to divert from the +great uses to which it was dedicated in the Act of 1890 establishing the +Yosemite National Park. +</p> + +<p> +The making of gardens and parks goes on with civilization all over the world, +and they increase both in size and number as their value is recognized. +Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where +Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. This +natural beauty-hunger is made manifest in the little window-sill gardens of the +poor, though perhaps only a geranium slip in a broken cup, as well as in the +carefully tended rose and lily gardens of the rich, the thousands of spacious +city parks and botanical gardens, and in our magnificent National +parks—the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, etc.—Nature’s +sublime wonderlands, the admiration and joy of the world. Nevertheless, like +anything else worth while, from the very beginning, however well guarded, they +have always been subject to attack by despoiling gainseekers and +mischief-makers of every degree from Satan to Senators, eagerly trying to make +everything immediately and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in +smug-smiling philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying, +“Conservation, conservation, panutilization,” that man and beast +may be fed and the dear Nation made great. Thus long ago a few enterprising +merchants utilized the Jerusalem temple as a place of business instead of a +place of prayer, changing money, buying and selling cattle and sheep and doves; +and earlier still, the first forest reservation, including only one tree, was +likewise despoiled. Ever since the establishment of the Yosemite National Park, +strife has been going on around its borders and I suppose this will go on as +part of the universal battle between right and wrong, however much its +boundaries may be shorn, or its wild beauty destroyed. +</p> + +<p> +The first application to the Government by the San Francisco Supervisors for +the commercial use of Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy Valley was made in +1903, and on December 22nd of that year it was denied by the Secretary of the +Interior, Mr. Hitchcock, who truthfully said: +</p> + +<p> +Presumably the Yosemite National Park was created such by law because within +its boundaries, inclusive alike of its beautiful small lakes, like Eleanor, and +its majestic wonders, like Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley. It is the +aggregation of such natural scenic features that makes the Yosemite Park a +wonderland which the Congress of the United States sought by law to reserve for +all coming time as nearly as practicable in the condition fashioned by the hand +of the Creator—a worthy object of national pride and a source of +healthful pleasure and rest for the thousands of people who may annually +sojourn there during the heated months. +</p> + +<p> +In 1907 when Mr. Garfield became Secretary of the Interior the application was +renewed and granted; but under his successor, Mr. Fisher, the matter has been +referred to a Commission, which as this volume goes to press still has it under +consideration. +</p> + +<p> +The most delightful and wonderful camp grounds in the Park are its three great +valleys—Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy, and Upper Tuolumne; and they are also the +most important places with reference to their positions relative to the other +great features—the Merced and Tuolumne Cañons, and the High Sierra peaks +and glaciers, etc., at the head of the rivers. The main part of the Tuolumne +Valley is a spacious flowery lawn four or five miles long, surrounded by +magnificent snowy mountains, slightly separated from other beautiful meadows, +which together make a series about twelve miles in length, the highest reaching +to the feet of Mount Dana, Mount Gibbs, Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. It is +about 8500 feet above the sea, and forms the grand central High Sierra camp +ground from which excursions are made to the noble mountains, domes, glaciers, +etc.; across the Range to the Mono Lake and volcanoes and down the Tuolumne +Cañon to Hetch Hetchy. Should Hetch Hetchy be submerged for a reservoir, as +proposed, not only would it be utterly destroyed, but the sublime cañon way to +the heart of the High Sierra would be hopelessly blocked and the great camping +ground, as the watershed of a city drinking system, virtually would be closed +to the public. So far as I have learned, few of all the thousands who have seen +the park and seek rest and peace in it are in favor of this outrageous scheme. +</p> + +<p> +One of my later visits to the Valley was made in the autumn of 1907 with the +late William Keith, the artist. The leaf-colors were then ripe, and the great +godlike rocks in repose seemed to glow with life. The artist, under their +spell, wandered day after day along the river and through the groves and +gardens, studying the wonderful scenery; and, after making about forty +sketches, declared with enthusiasm that although its walls were less sublime in +height, in picturesque beauty and charm Hetch Hetchy surpassed even Yosemite. +</p> + +<p> +That any one would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but sad +experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for anything. +The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad arguments to prove +that the only righteous thing to do with the people’s parks is to destroy +them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments are curiously like those of +the devil, devised for the destruction of the first garden—so much of the +very best Eden fruit going to waste; so much of the best Tuolumne water and +Tuolumne scenery going to waste. Few of their statements are even partly true, +and all are misleading. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, Hetch Hetchy, they say, is a “low-lying meadow.” On the +contrary, it is a high-lying natural landscape garden, as the photographic +illustrations show. +</p> + +<p> +“It is a common minor feature, like thousands of others.” On the +contrary it is a very uncommon feature; after Yosemite, the rarest and in many +ways the most important in the National Park. +</p> + +<p> +“Damming and submerging it 175 feet deep would enhance its beauty by +forming a crystal-clear lake.” Landscape gardens, places of recreation +and worship, are never made beautiful by destroying and burying them. The +beautiful sham lake, forsooth, should be only an eyesore, a dismal blot on the +landscape, like many others to be seen in the Sierra. For, instead of keeping +it at the same level all the year, allowing Nature centuries of time to make +new shores, it would, of course, be full only a month or two in the spring, +when the snow is melting fast; then it would be gradually drained, exposing the +slimy sides of the basin and shallower parts of the bottom, with the gathered +drift and waste, death and decay of the upper basins, caught here instead of +being swept on to decent natural burial along the banks of the river or in the +sea. Thus the Hetch Hetchy dam-lake would be only a rough imitation of a +natural lake for a few of the spring months, an open sepulcher for the others. +</p> + +<p> +“Hetch Hetchy water is the purest of all to be found in the Sierra, +unpolluted, and forever unpollutable.” On the contrary, excepting that of +the Merced below Yosemite, it is less pure than that of most of the other +Sierra streams, because of the sewerage of camp grounds draining into it, +especially of the Big Tuolumne Meadows camp ground, occupied by hundreds of +tourists and mountaineers, with their animals, for months every summer, soon to +be followed by thousands from all the world. +</p> + +<p> +These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a +perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of +the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. +</p> + +<p> +Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and +churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a>Appendix A<br/> +Legislation About the Yosemite</h2> + +<p> +In the year 1864, Congress passed the following act:— <br/><br/> +ACT OF JUNE 30, 1864 (13 STAT., 325). <br/><br/> +An Act Authorizing a grant to the State of California of the “Yo-Semite +Valley,” and of the land embracing the “Mariposa Big Tree +Grove.” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America, in Congress assembled,</i> That there shall be, and +is hereby, granted to the State of California, the ‘Cleft’ or +‘Gorge’ in the Granite Peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, +situated in the county of Mariposa, in the State aforesaid, and the headwaters +of the Merced River, and known as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches and +spurs, in estimated length fifteen miles, and in average width one mile back +from the main edge of the precipice, on each side of the Valley, with the +stipulation, nevertheless, that the said State shall accept this grant upon the +express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and +recreation; shall be inalienable for all time; but leases not exceeding ten +years may be granted for portions of said premises. All incomes derived from +leases of privileges to be expended in the preservation and improvement of the +property, or the roads leading thereto; the boundaries to be established at the +cost of said State by the United States Surveyor-General of California, whose +official plat, when affirmed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, +shall constitute the evidence of the locus, extent, and limits of the said +Cleft or Gorge; the premises to be managed by the Governor of the State, with +eight other Commissioners, to be appointed by the Executive of California, and +who shall receive no compensation for their services. +</p> + +<p> +“Sec. 2. <i>And be it further enacted,</i> That there shall likewise be, +and there is hereby, granted to the said State of California, the tracts +embracing what is known as the ‘Mariposa Big Tree Grove,’ not to +exceed the area of four sections, and to be taken in legal subdivisions of +one-quarter section each, with the like stipulations as expressed in the first +section of this Act as to the State’s acceptance, with like conditions as +in the first section of this Act as to inalienability, yet with the same lease +privileges; the income to be expended in the preservation, improvement, and +protection of the property, the premises to be managed by Commissioners, as +stipulated in the first section of this Act, and to be taken in legal +subdivisions as aforesaid; and the official plat of the United States +Surveyor-General, when affirmed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, +to be the evidence of the locus of the said Mariposa Big Tree Grove.” +</p> + +<p> +This important act was approved by the President, June 30, 1864, and shortly +after the Governor of California, F. F. Low, issued a proclamation taking +possession of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa grove of Big Trees, in the name +and on behalf of the State, appointing commissioners to manage them, and +warning all persons against trespassing or settling there without authority, +and especially forbidding the cutting of timber and other injurious acts. +</p> + +<p> +The first Board of Commissioners were F. Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, William +Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, George W. Coulter, +and Galen Clark. +</p> + +<p> +ACT OF OCTOBER 1, 1890 (26 STAT., 650). +</p> + +<p> +[Footnote: Sections 1 and 2 of this act pertain to the Yosemite National Park, +while section 3 sets apart General Grant National Park, and also a portion of +Sequoia National Park.] +</p> + +<p> +An Act To set apart certain tracts of land in the State of California as forest +reservations. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America in Congress assembled,</i> That the tracts of land in +the State of California known as described as follows: Commencing at the +northwest corner of township two north, range nineteen east Mount Diablo +meridian, thence eastwardly on the line between townships two and three north, +ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east; thence southwardly on the line between +ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east to the Mount Diablo base line; thence +eastwardly on said base line to the corner to township one south, ranges +twenty-five and twenty-six east; thence southwardly on the line between ranges +twenty-five and twenty-six east to the southeast corner of township two south, +range twenty-five east; thence eastwardly on the line between townships two and +three south, range twenty-six east to the corner to townships two and three +south, ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east; thence southwardly on the line +between ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east to the first standard parallel +south; thence westwardly on the first standard parallel south to the southwest +corner of township four south, range nineteen east; thence northwardly on the +line between ranges eighteen and nineteen east to the northwest corner of +township two south, range nineteen east; thence westwardly on the line between +townships one and two south to the southwest corner of township one south, +range nineteen east; thence northwardly on the line between ranges eighteen and +nineteen east to the northwest corner of township two north, range nineteen +east, the place of beginning, are hereby reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and set +apart as reserved forest lands; and all persons who shall locate or settle +upon, or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, +shall be considered trespassers and removed therefrom: <i>Provided, +however,</i> That nothing in this act shall be construed as in anywise +affecting the grant of lands made to the State of California by virtue of the +act entitled, ‘An act authorizing a grant to the State of California of +the Yosemite Valley, and of the land embracing the Mariposa Big-Tree +Grove,’ appeared June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; or as +affecting any bona-fide entry of land made within the limits above described +under any law of the United States prior to the approval of this act. +</p> + +<p> +“Sec. 2. That said reservation shall be under the exclusive control of +the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as practicable, +to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary or +proper for the care and management of the same. Such regulations shall provide +for the preservation from injury of all timber, mineral deposits, natural +curiosities, or wonders within said reservation, and their retention in their +natural condition. The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for +building purposes for terms not exceeding ten years of small parcels of ground +not exceeding five acres; at such places in said reservation as shall require +the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the +proceeds of said leases and other revenues that may be derived from any source +connected with said reservation to be expended under his direction in the +management of the same and the construction of roads and paths therein. He +shall provide against the wanton destruction of the fish, and game found within +said reservation, and against their capture or destruction, for the purposes of +merchandise or profit. He shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the +same after the passage of this act to be removed therefrom, and, generally, +shall be authorized to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper +to fully carry out the objects and purposes of this act. +</p> + +<p> +“Sec. 3. There shall also be and is hereby reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and shall +be set apart as reserved forest lands, as herein before provided, and subject +to all the limitations and provisions herein contained, the following +additional lands, to wit: Township seventeen south, range thirty east of the +Mount Diablo meridian, excepting sections thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, +and thirty-four of said township, included in a previous bill. And there is +also reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws +of the United States, and set apart as forest lands, subject to like +limitations, conditions, and provisions, all of townships fifteen and sixteen +south, of ranges twenty-nine and thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian. And +there is also hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale +under the laws of the United states, and set apart as reserved forest lands +under like limitations, restrictions, and provisions, sections five and six in +township fourteen south, range twenty-eight east of Mount Diablo meridian, and +also sections thirty-one and thirty-two of township thirteen south, range +twenty-eight east of the same meridian. Nothing in this act shall authorize +rules or contracts touching the protection and improvement of said +reservations, beyond the sums that may be received by the Secretary of the +Interior under the foregoing provisions, or authorize any charge against the +Treasury of the United States.” +</p> + +<p> +ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, APPROVED MARCH 3, 1905. +</p> + +<p> +“Sec. 1. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto the +United States of America the ‘cleft’ or ‘gorge’ in the +granite peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county of +Mariposa, State of California, and the headwaters of the Merced River, and +known as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, granted unto the +State of California in trust for public use, resort, and recreation by the act +of Congress entitled, ‘An act authorizing a grant to the State of +California of the Yosemite Valley and of the land embracing the Mariposa Big +Tree Grove,’ approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; +and the State of California does hereby relinquish unto the United States of +America and resign the trusts created and granted by the said act of Congress. +</p> + +<p> +“Sec. 2. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto the +United States of America the tracts embracing what is known as the +‘Mariposa Big Tree Grove,’ planted unto the State of California in +trust for public use, resort, and recreation by the act of Congress referred to +in section one of this act, and the State of California does hereby relinquish +unto the United States of America and resign the trusts created and granted by +the said act of Congress. +</p> + +<p> +“Sec. 3. This act shall take effect from and after acceptance by the +United States of America of the recessions and regrants herein made thereby +forever releasing the State of California from further cost of maintaining the +said premises, the same to be held for all time by the United States of America +for public use, resort, and recreation and imposing on the United States of +America the cost of maintaining the same as a national park: <i>Provided, +however,</i> That the recession and regrant hereby made shall not affect vested +rights and interests of third persons.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a>Appendix B<br/> +Table of Distances</h2> + +<p> +From the Guardian’s office, in the village, the distances to various +points are in miles as follows: +</p> + +<pre> + <i>Miles</i>. + Bridal Veil Fall 4.04 + Cascade Falls 7.67 + Cloud’s Rest, Summit 11.81 + Columbia Rock, on Eagle Peak Trail 1.98 + Dana, Mt., Summit 40.34 + Eagle Peak 6.59 + El Capitan Bridge 3.63 + Glacier Point, direct trail 4.45 + Glacier Point, by Nevada Falls 16.98 + Lyell, Mt., Summit 38.20 + Merced Bridge 2.03 + Mirror Lake, by Hunt’s avenue 2.91 + Nevada Fall (Hotel) 4.63 + Nevada Fall, Bridge above 5.45 + Pohono Bridge 5.29 + Register Rock 3.24 + Ribbon Fall 3.99 + Rocky Point (base of Three Brothers) 1.45 + Tenayah Creek Bridge 2.26 + Tenayah Lake 16.00 + Yosemite Falls, foot 0.90 + Yosemite Falls, foot Upper Fall 2.67 + Yosemite Falls, top 4.33 + Soda Springs (Eagle Peak Trail) 24.50 + Sentinel Dome 5.57 + Union Point, on Glacier Point Trail 3.13 + Vernal Fall 3.50 +</pre> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a>Appendix C<br/> +Maximum Rates for Transportation</h2> + +<p> +The following rates for transportation in and about the Valley have been +established by the Board of Commissioners: +</p> + +<pre> +SADDLE-HORSES + + <i>From Route to Amount</i> + + Valley Glacier Point and Sentinel Dome, and return, $3.00 + direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.75 + and return, direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 3.00 + and Casa Nevada, passing night at Casa Nevada + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 4.00 + Vernal Fall, and thence to Valley same day + Glacier Point Valley direct 2.00 + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, and Casa Nevada, 2.00 + passing night at Casa Nevada + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall, 3.00 + and thence to Valley same day + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, direct, 3.00 + and return to Valley same day + Valley Glacier Point by Casa Nevada, passing night 3.00 + at Glacier Point + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, Sentinel Dome, 4.00 + Glacier Point, and thence to Valley same day + Valley Cloud’s Rest and return to Casa Nevada 3.00 + Valley Cloud’s Rest and return to Valley same day 5.00 + Casa Nevada Cloud’s Rest and return to Casa Nevada or 3.00 + Valley same day + Casa Nevada Valley direct 2.00 + Casa Nevada Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, and Glacier Point, 2.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, 3.00 + and Valley same day + Upper Yosemite Fall, Eagle Peak, and return 3.00 + Charge for guide (including horse), when furnished 3.00 + Saddle-horses, on level of Valley, per day 2.50 +</pre> + +<p> +1. The above charges do not include feed for horses when passing night at Casa +Nevada or Glacier Point. +</p> + +<p> +2. Where Valley is specified as starting-point, the above rates prevail from +any hotel in Valley, or from the foot of any trail. +</p> + +<p> +3. Any shortening of above trips, without proportionate reduction of rates, +shall be at the option of those hiring horses. +</p> + +<p> +4. Trips other than those above specified shall be subject to special +arrangement between letter and hirer. +</p> + +<pre> +CARRIAGES + + <i>From Route to Amount</i> + + Hotels Mirror Lake and return, direct $1.00 + Hotels Mirror Lake and return by Tissiack Avenue 1.25 + Hotels Mirror Lake and return to foot of Trail, to Vernal 1.00 + and Nevada Falls + Hotels Bridal Veil Falls and return, direct 1.00 + Hotels Pohono Bridge, down either side of Valley, and return 1.50 + on opposite side, stopping at Yosemite and Bridal + Veil Falls + Hotels Cascade Falls, down either side of Valley, and return 2.25 + on opposite side, stopping at Yosemite and Bridal + Veil Falls + Hotels Artist Point and return, direct, stopping at Bridal 2.00 + Veil Falls + Hotels New Inspiration Point and return, direct, stopping at 2.00 + Bridal Veil Falls + Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 2.50 + Falls, excluding Lake and Cascades + Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 3.50 + Falls, Lake, and Cascades +</pre> + +<p> +1. When the value of the seats hired in any vehicle shall exceed $15 for a +two-horse team, or $25 for a four-horse team, <i>for any trip</i> in the above +schedule, the persons hiring the seats shall have the privilege of paying no +more than the aggregate sums of $15 and $25 <i>per trip</i> for a two-horse and +four-horse team, respectively. +</p> + +<p> +2. If saddle-horses should be substituted for any of the above carriage trips, +carriage rates will apply to each horse. In no case shall the <i>per diem</i> +charge of $2.50 for each saddle-horse, on level of Valley, be exceeded. +</p> + +<p> +Any excess of the above rates, as well as any extortion, incivility, +misrepresentation, or the riding of unsafe animals, should be promptly reported +at the Guardian’s office. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOSEMITE ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Yosemite + +Author: John Muir + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7091] +[This file was first posted on March 9, 2003] +[Date last updated: August 28, 2006] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE YOSEMITE *** + + + + + +Produced by Dan Anderson and Andrew Sly. +Thanks to the John Muir Exhibit for making this eBook available. +http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/ + + + +The Yosemite + +by John Muir + + + +Affectionately dedicated to my friend, +Robert Underwood Johnson, +faithful lover and defender of our glorious forests +and originator of the Yosemite National Park. + + +Acknowledgment + +On the early history of Yosemite the writer is indebted to Prof. J. D. +Whitney for quotations from his volume entitled "Yosemite Guide-Book," +and to Dr. Bunnell for extracts from his interesting volume entitled +"Discovery of the Yosemite." + + +Contents + + 1. The Approach to the Valley + 2. Winter Storms and Spring Floods + 3. Snow-Storms + 4. Snow Banners + 5. The Trees of the Valley + 6. The Forest Trees in General + 7. The Big Trees + 8. The Flowers + 9. The Birds + 10. The South Dome + 11. The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: How the Valley Was Formed + 12. How Best to Spend One's Yosemite Time + 13. Early History of the Valley + 14. Lamon + 15. Galen Clark + 16. Hetch Hetchy Valley + Appendix A. Legislation About the Yosemite + Appendix B. Table of Distances + Appendix C. Maximum Rates for Transportation + + + + +Chapter 1 + +The Approach to the Valley + + +When I set out on the long excursion that finally led to California I +wandered afoot and alone, from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, with a +plant-press on my back, holding a generally southward course, like the +birds when they are going from summer to winter. From the west coast +of Florida I crossed the gulf to Cuba, enjoyed the rich tropical flora +there for a few months, intending to go thence to the north end of South +America, make my way through the woods to the headwaters of the Amazon, +and float down that grand river to the ocean. But I was unable to find a +ship bound for South America--fortunately perhaps, for I had incredibly +little money for so long a trip and had not yet fully recovered from +a fever caught in the Florida swamps. Therefore I decided to visit +California for a year or two to see its wonderful flora and the famous +Yosemite Valley. All the world was before me and every day was a +holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of the world's +wildernesses I first should wander. + +Arriving by the Panama steamer, I stopped one day in San Francisco and +then inquired for the nearest way out of town. "But where do you want to +go?" asked the man to whom I had applied for this important information. +"To any place that is wild," I said. This reply startled him. He seemed +to fear I might be crazy and therefore the sooner I was out of town the +better, so he directed me to the Oakland ferry. + +So on the first of April, 1868, I set out afoot for Yosemite. It was the +bloom-time of the year over the lowlands and coast ranges the landscapes +of the Santa Clara Valley were fairly drenched with sunshine, all the +air was quivering with the songs of the meadow-larks, and the hills were +so covered with flowers that they seemed to be painted. Slow indeed was +my progress through these glorious gardens, the first of the California +flora I had seen. Cattle and cultivation were making few scars as yet, +and I wandered enchanted in long wavering curves, knowing by my pocket +map that Yosemite Valley lay to the east and that I should surely find +it. + + +The Sierra From The West + + +Looking eastward from the summit of the Pacheco Pass one shining +morning, a landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still +appears as the most beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the +Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of +pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one +rich furred garden of yellow Compositoe. And from the eastern boundary +of this vast golden flower-bed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, +and so gloriously colored and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with +light, but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city. +Along the top and extending a good way down, was a rich pearl-gray belt +of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark purple, marking the extension +of the forests; and stretching along the base of the range a broad belt +of rose-purple; all these colors, from the blue sky to the yellow +valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of light +ineffably fine. Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, +not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten +years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its +glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming +through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the +flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, +it still seems above all others the Range of Light. + +In general views no mark of man is visible upon it, nor any thing to +suggest the wonderful depth and grandeur of its sculpture. None of its +magnificent forest-crowned ridges seems to rise much above the general +level to publish its wealth. No great valley or river is seen, or group +of well-marked features of any kind standing out as distinct pictures. +Even the summit peaks, marshaled in glorious array so high in the sky, +seem comparatively regular in form. Nevertheless the whole range five +hundred miles long is furrowed with canyons 2000 to 5000 feet deep, in +which once flowed majestic glaciers, and in which now flow and sing the +bright rejoicing rivers. + + +Characteristics Of The Canyons + + +Though of such stupendous depth, these canyons are not gloom gorges, +savage and inaccessible. With rough passages here and there they are +flowery pathways conducting to the snowy, icy fountains; mountain +streets full of life and light, graded and sculptured by the ancient +glaciers, and presenting throughout all their course a rich variety of +novel and attractive scenery--the most attractive that has yet been +discovered in the mountain ranges of the world. In many places, +especially in the middle region of the western flank, the main canyons +widen into spacious valleys or parks diversified like landscape gardens +with meadows and groves and thickets of blooming bushes, while the lofty +walls, infinitely varied in form are fringed with ferns, flowering +plants, shrubs of many species and tall evergreens and oaks that find +footholds on small benches and tables, all enlivened and made glorious +with rejoicing stream that come chanting in chorus over the cliffs and +through side canyons in falls of every conceivable form, to join the +river that flow in tranquil, shining beauty down the middle of each +one of them. + + +The Incomparable Yosemite + + +The most famous and accessible of these canyon valleys, and also the one +that presents their most striking and sublime features on the grandest +scale, is the Yosemite, situated in the basin of the Merced River at an +elevation of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is about seven +miles long, half a mile to a mile wide, and nearly a mile deep in the +solid granite flank of the range. The walls are made up of rocks, +mountains in size, partly separated from each other by side canyons, and +they are so sheer in front, and so compactly and harmoniously arranged +on a level floor, that the Valley, comprehensively seen, looks like an +immense hall or temple lighted from above. + +But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in +its walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back in majestic repose; +others, absolutely sheer or nearly so for thousands of feet, advance +beyond their companions in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to +storms and calms alike, seemingly aware, yet heedless, of everything +going on about them. Awful in stern, immovable majesty, how softly these +rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep: +their feet among beautiful groves and meadows, their brows in the sky, +a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their feet, bathed in +floods of water, floods of light, while the snow and waterfalls, the +winds and avalanches and clouds shine and sing and wreathe about them +as the years go by, and myriads of small winged creatures birds, bees, +butterflies--give glad animation and help to make all the air into +music. Down through the middle of the Valley flows the crystal Merced, +River of Mercy, peacefully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and the +onlooking rocks; things frail and fleeting and types of endurance +meeting here and blending in countless forms, as if into this one +mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, to draw +her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. + + +The Approach To The Valley + + +Sauntering up the foothills to Yosemite by any of the old trails or +roads in use before the railway was built from the town of Merced up the +river to the boundary of Yosemite Park, richer and wilder become the +forests and streams. At an elevation of 6000 feet above the level of the +sea the silver firs are 200 feet high, with branches whorled around the +colossal shafts in regular order, and every branch beautifully pinnate +like a fern frond. The Douglas spruce, the yellow and sugar pines and +brown-barked Libocedrus here reach their finest developments of beauty +and grandeur. The majestic Sequoia is here, too, the king of conifers, +the noblest of all the noble race. These colossal trees are as wonderful +in fineness of beauty and proportion as in stature--an assemblage of +conifers surpassing all that have ever yet been discovered in the +forests of the world. Here indeed is the tree-lover's paradise; the +woods, dry and wholesome, letting in the light in shimmering masses of +half sunshine, half shade; the night air as well as the day air +indescribably spicy and exhilarating; plushy fir-boughs for campers' +beds and cascades to sing us to sleep. On the highest ridges, over which +these old Yosemite ways passed, the silver fir (Abies magnifica) forms +the bulk of the woods, pressing forward in glorious array to the very +brink of the Valley walls on both sides, and beyond the Valley to a +height of from 8000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea. Thus it +appears that Yosemite, presenting such stupendous faces of bare granite, +is nevertheless imbedded in magnificent forests, and the main species of +pine, fir, spruce and libocedrus are also found in the Valley itself, +but there are no "big trees" (Sequoia gigantea) in the Valley or about +the rim of it. The nearest are about ten and twenty miles beyond the +lower end of the valley on small tributaries of the Merced and Tuolumne +Rivers. + + +The First View: The Bridal Veil + + +From the margin of these glorious forests the first general view of the +Valley used to be gained--a revelation in landscape affairs that +enriches one's life forever. Entering the Valley, gazing overwhelmed +with the multitude of grand objects about us, perhaps the first to fix +our attention will be the Bridal Veil, a beautiful waterfall on our +right. Its brow, where it first leaps free from the cliff, is about 900 +feet above us; and as it sways and sings in the wind, clad in gauzy, +sun-sifted spray, half falling, half floating, it seems infinitely +gentle and fine; but the hymns it sings tell the solemn fateful power +hidden beneath its soft clothing. + +The Bridal Veil shoots free from the upper edge of the cliff by the +velocity the stream has acquired in descending a long slope above the +head of the fall. Looking from the top of the rock-avalanche talus +on the west side, about one hundred feet above the foot of the fall, +the under surface of the water arch is seen to be finely grooved and +striated; and the sky is seen through the arch between rock and water, +making a novel and beautiful effect. + +Under ordinary weather conditions the fall strikes on flat-topped slabs, +forming a kind of ledge about two-thirds of the way down from the top, +and as the fall sways back and forth with great variety of motions +among these flat-topped pillars, kissing and plashing notes as well as +thunder-like detonations are produced, like those of the Yosemite Fall, +though on a smaller scale. + +The rainbows of the Veil, or rather the spray- and foam-bows, are +superb, because the waters are dashed among angular blocks of granite +at the foot, producing abundance of spray of the best quality for iris +effects, and also for a luxuriant growth of grass and maiden-hair on +the side of the talus, which lower down is planted with oak, laurel +and willows. + + +General Features Of The Valley + + +On the other side of the Valley, almost immediately opposite the Bridal +Veil, there is another fine fall, considerably wider than the Veil when +the snow is melting fast and more than 1000 feet in height, measured +from the brow of the cliff where it first springs out into the air to +the head of the rocky talus on which it strikes and is broken up into +ragged cascades. It is called the Ribbon Fall or Virgin's Tears. During +the spring floods it is a magnificent object, but the suffocating blasts +of spray that fill the recess in the wall which it occupies prevent a +near approach. In autumn, however when its feeble current falls in a +shower, it may then pass for tear with the sentimental onlooker fresh +from a visit to the Bridal Veil. + +Just beyond this glorious flood the El Capitan Rock, regarded by many as +the most sublime feature of the Valley, is seen through the pine groves, +standing forward beyond the general line of the wall in most imposing +grandeur, a type of permanence. It is 3300 feet high, a plain, severely +simple, glacier-sculptured face of granite, the end of one of the most +compact and enduring of the mountain ridges, unrivaled in height and +breadth and flawless strength. + +Across the Valley from here, next to the Bridal Veil, are the +picturesque Cathedral Rocks, nearly 2700 feet high, making a noble +display of fine yet massive sculpture. They are closely related to El +Capitan, having been eroded from the same mountain ridge by the great +Yosemite Glacier when the Valley was in process of formation. + +Next to the Cathedral Rocks on the south side towers the Sentinel Rock +to a height of more than 3000 feet, a telling monument of the glacial +period. + +Almost immediately opposite the Sentinel are the Three Brothers, an +immense mountain mass with three gables fronting the Valley, one above +another, the topmost gable nearly 4000 feet high. They were named for +three brothers, sons of old Tenaya, the Yosemite chief, captured here +during the Indian War, at the time of the discovery of the Valley in +1852. + +Sauntering up the Valley through meadow and grove, in the company of +these majestic rocks, which seem to follow us as we advance, gazing, +admiring, looking for new wonders ahead where all about us is so +wonderful, the thunder of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when we +arrive in front of the Sentinel Rock it is revealed in all its glory +from base to summit, half a mile in height, and seeming to spring out +into the Valley sunshine direct from the sky. But even this fall, +perhaps the most wonderful of its kind in the world, cannot at first +hold our attention, for now the wide upper portion of the Valley is +displayed to view, with the finely modeled North Dome, the Royal Arches +and Washington Column on our left; Glacier Point, with its massive, +magnificent sculpture on the right; and in the middle, directly in +front, looms Tissiack or Half Dome, the most beautiful and most sublime +of all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising in serene majesty from +flowery groves and meadows to a height of 4750 feet. + + +The Upper Canyons + + +Here the Valley divides into three branches, the Tenaya, Nevada, and +Illilouette Canyons, extending back into the fountains of the High +Sierra, with scenery every way worthy the relation they bear to +Yosemite. + +In the south branch, a mile or two from the main Valley, is the +Illilouette Fall, 600 feet high, one of the most beautiful of all the +Yosemite choir, but to most people inaccessible as yet on account of its +rough, steep, boulder-choked canyon. Its principal fountains of ice and +snow lie in the beautiful and interesting mountains of the Merced group, +while its broad open basin between its fountain mountains and canyon is +noted for the beauty of its lakes and forests and magnificent moraines. + +Returning to the Valley, and going up the north branch of Tenaya Canyon, +we pass between the North Dome and Half Dome, and in less than an hour +come to Mirror Lake, the Dome Cascade and Tenaya Fall. Beyond the Fall, +on the north side of the canyon is the sublime Ed Capitan-like rock +called Mount Watkins; on the south the vast granite wave of Clouds' Rest, +a mile in height; and between them the fine Tenaya Cascade with silvery +plumes outspread on smooth glacier-polished folds of granite, making a +vertical descent in all of about 700 feet. + +Just beyond the Dome Cascades, on the shoulder of Mount Watkins, there +is an old trail once used by Indians on their was across the range to +Mono, but in the canyon above this point there is no trail of any sort. +Between Mount Watkins and Clouds' Rest the canyon is accessible only to +mountaineers, and it is so dangerous that I hesitate to advise even good +climbers, anxious to test their nerve and skill, to attempt to pass +through it. Beyond the Cascades no great difficulty will be encountered. +A succession of charming lily gardens and meadows occurs in filled-up +lake basins among the rock-waves in the bottom of the canyon, and +everywhere the surface of the granite has a smooth-wiped appearance, and +in many places reflects the sunbeams like glass, a phenomenon due to +glacial action, the canyon having been the channel of one of the main +tributaries of the ancient Yosemite Glacier. + +About ten miles above the Valley we come to the beautiful Tenaya Lake, +and here the canyon terminates. A mile or two above the lake stands the +grand Sierra Cathedral, a building of one stone, sewn from the living +rock, with sides, roof, gable, spire and ornamental pinnacles, fashioned +and finished symmetrically like a work of art, and set on a well-graded +plateau about 9000 feet high, as if Nature in making so fine a building +had also been careful that it should be finely seen. From every +direction its peculiar form and graceful, majestic beauty of expression +never fail to charm. Its height from its base to the ridge of the roof +is about 2500 feet, and among the pinnacles that adorn the front grand +views may be gained of the upper basins of the Merced and Tuolumne +Rivers. + +Passing the Cathedral we descend into the delightful, spacious Tuolumne +Valley, from which excursions may be made to Mounts Dana, Lyell, Ritter, +Conness, and Mono Lake, and to the many curious peaks that rise above +the meadows on the south, and to the Big Tuolumne Canyon, with its +glorious abundance of rock and falling, gliding, tossing water. For all +these the beautiful meadows near the Soda Springs form a delightful +center. + + +Natural Features Near The Valley + + +Returning now to Yosemite and ascending the middle or Nevada branch of +the Valley, occupied by the main Merced River, we come within a few +miles to the Vernal and Nevada Falls, 400 and 600 feet high, pouring +their white, rejoicing waters in the midst of the most novel and sublime +rock scenery to be found in all the World. Tracing the river beyond the +head of the Nevada Fall we are lead into the Little Yosemite, a valley +like the great Yosemite in form, sculpture and vegetation. It is about +three miles long, with walls 1500 to 2000 feet high, cascades coming +over them, and the ever flowing through the meadows and groves of the +level bottom in tranquil, richly-embowered reaches. + +Beyond this Little Yosemite in the main canyon, there are three other +little yosemites, the highest situated a few miles below the base of +Mount Lyell, at an elevation of about 7800 feet above the sea. To +describe these, with all their wealth of Yosemite furniture, and the +wilderness of lofty peaks above them, the home of the avalanche and +treasury of the fountain snow, would take us far beyond the bounds of a +single book. Nor can we here consider the formation of these mountain +landscapes--how the crystal rock were brought to light by glaciers made +up of crystal snow, making beauty whose influence is so mysterious on +every one who sees it. + +Of the small glacier lakes so characteristic of these upper regions, +there are no fewer than sixty-seven in the basin of the main middle +branch, besides countless smaller pools. In the basin of the Illilouette +there are sixteen, in the Tenaya basin and its branches thirteen, in the +Yosemite Creek basin fourteen, and in the Pohono or Bridal Veil one, +making a grand total of one hundred and eleven lakes whose waters come +to sing at Yosemite. So glorious is the background of the great Valley, +so harmonious its relations to its widespreading fountains. + +The same harmony prevails in all the other features of the adjacent +landscapes. Climbing out of the Valley by the subordinate canyons, we +find the ground rising from the brink of the walls: on the south side to +the fountains of the Bridal Veil Creek, the basin of which is noted for +the beauty of its meadows and its superb forests of silver fir; on the +north side through the basin of the Yosemite Creek to the dividing ridge +along the Tuolumne Canyon and the fountains of the Hoffman Range. + + +Down The Yosemite Creek + + +In general views the Yosemite Creek basin seems to be paved with +domes and smooth, whaleback masses of granite in every stage of +development--some showing only their crowns; others rising high and free +above the girdling forests, singly or in groups. Others are developed +only on one side, forming bold outstanding bosses usually well fringed +with shrubs and trees, and presenting the polished surfaces given them +by the glacier that brought them into relief. On the upper portion of +the basin broad moraine beds have been deposited and on these fine, +thrifty forests are growing. Lakes and meadows and small spongy bogs +may be found hiding here and there in the woods or back in the fountain +recesses of Mount Hoffman, while a thousand gardens are planted along +the banks of the streams. + +All the wide, fan-shaped upper portion of the basin is covered with a +network of small rills that go cheerily on their way to their grand fall +in the Valley, now flowing on smooth pavements in sheets thin as glass, +now diving under willows and laving their red roots, oozing through +green, plushy bogs, plashing over small falls and dancing down slanting +cascades, calming again, gliding through patches of smooth glacier +meadows with sod of alpine agrostis mixed with blue and white violets +and daisies, breaking, tossing among rough boulders and fallen trees, +resting in calm pools, flowing together until, all united, they go to +their fate with stately, tranquil gestures like a full-grown river. At +the crossing of the Mono Trail, about two miles above the head of the +Yosemite Fall, the stream is nearly forty feet wide, and when the snow +is melting rapidly in the spring it is about four feet deep, with a +current of two and a half miles an hour. This is about the volume of +water that forms the Fall in May and June when there had been much snow +the preceding winter; but it varies greatly from month to month. The +snow rapidly vanishes from the open portion of the basin, which faces +southward, and only a few of the tributaries reach back to perennial +snow and ice fountains in the shadowy amphitheaters on the precipitous +northern slopes of Mount Hoffman. The total descent made by the stream +from its highest sources to its confluence with the Merced in the Valley +is about 6000 feet, while the distance is only about ten miles, an +average fall of 600 feet per mile. The last mile of its course lies +between the sides of sunken domes and swelling folds of the granite that +are clustered and pressed together like a mass of bossy cumulus clouds. +Through this shining way Yosemite Creek goes to its fate, swaying and +swirling with easy, graceful gestures and singing the last of its +mountain songs before it reaches the dizzy edge of Yosemite to fall 2600 +feet into another world, where climate, vegetation, inhabitants, all are +different. Emerging from this last canyon the stream glides, in flat +lace-like folds, down a smooth incline into a small pool where it seems +to rest and compose itself before taking the grand plunge. Then calmly, +as if leaving a lake, it slips over the polished lip of the pool down +another incline and out over the brow of the precipice in a magnificent +curve thick-sown with rainbow spray. + + +The Yosemite Fall + + +Long ago before I had traced this fine stream to its head back of Mount +Hoffman, I was eager to reach the extreme verge to see how it behaved in +flying so far through the air; but after enjoying this view and getting +safely away I have never advised any one to follow my steps. The last +incline down which the stream journeys so gracefully is so steep and +smooth one must slip cautiously forward on hands and feet alongside the +rushing water, which so near one's head is very exciting. But to gain a +perfect view one must go yet farther, over a curving brow to a slight +shelf on the extreme brink. This shelf, formed by the flaking off of a +fold of granite, is about three inches wide, just wide enough for a safe +rest for one's heels. To me it seemed nerve-trying to slip to this +narrow foothold and poise on the edge of such precipice so close to the +confusing whirl of the waters; and after casting longing glances over +the shining brow of the fall and listening to its sublime psalm, I +concluded not to attempt to go nearer, but, nevertheless, against +reasonable judgment, I did. Noticing some tufts of artemisia in a cleft +of rock, I filled my mouth with the leaves, hoping their bitter taste +might help to keep caution keen and prevent giddiness. In spite of +myself I reached the little ledge, got my heels well set, and worked +sidewise twenty or thirty feet to a point close to the out-plunging +current. Here the view is perfectly free down into the heart of the +bright irised throng of comet-like streamers into which the whole +ponderous volume of the fall separates, two or three hundred feet below +the brow. So glorious a display of pure wildness, acting at close range +while cut off from all the world beside, is terribly impressive. A less +nerve-trying view may be obtained from a fissured portion of the edge of +the cliff about forty yards to the eastward of the fall. Seen from this +point towards noon, in the spring, the rainbow on its brow seems to be +broken up and mingled with the rushing comets until all the fall is +stained with iris colors, leaving no white water visible. This is the +best of the safe views from above, the huge steadfast rocks, the flying +waters, and the rainbow light forming one of the most glorious pictures +conceivable. + +The Yosemite Fall is separated into an upper and a lower fall with a +series of falls and cascades between them, but when viewed in front from +the bottom of the Valley they all appear as one. + +So grandly does this magnificent fall display itself from the floor of +the Valley, few visitors take the trouble to climb the walls to gain +nearer views, unable to realize how vastly more impressive it is near by +than at a distance of one or two miles. + + +A Wonderful Ascent + + +The views developed in a walk up the zigzags of the trail leading to +the foot of the Upper Fall are about as varied and impressive as those +displayed along the favorite Glacier Point Trail. One rises as if on +wings. The groves, meadows, fern-flats and reaches of the river gain +new interest, as if never seen before; all the views changing in a most +striking manner as we go higher from point to point. The foreground +also changes every few rods in the most surprising manner, although the +earthquake talus and the level bench on the face of the wall over which +the trail passes seem monotonous and commonplace as seen from the bottom +of the Valley. Up we climb with glad exhilaration, through shaggy +fringes of laurel, ceanothus, glossy-leaved manzanita and live-oak, from +shadow to shadow across bars and patches of sunshine, the leafy openings +making charming frames for the Valley pictures beheld through gem, and +for the glimpses of the high peaks that appear in the distance. The +higher we go the farther we seem to be from the summit of the vast +granite wall. Here we pass a projecting buttress hose grooved and +rounded surface tells a plain story of the time when the Valley, now +filled with sunshine, was filled with ice, when the grand old Yosemite +Glacier, flowing river-like from its distant fountains, swept through +it, crushing, grinding, wearing its way ever deeper, developing and +fashioning these sublime rocks. Again we cross a white, battered gully, +the pathway of rock avalanches or snow avalanches. Farther on we come +to a gentle stream slipping down the face of the Cliff in lace-like +strips, and dropping from ledge to ledge--too small to be called a +fall--trickling, dripping, oozing, a pathless wanderer from one of +the upland meadow lying a little way back of the Valley rim, seeking +a way century after century to the depths of the Valley without any +appreciable channel. Every morning after a cool night, evaporation being +checked, it gathers strength and sings like a bird, but as the day +advances and the sun strikes its thin currents outspread on the heated +precipices, most of its waters vanish ere the bottom of the Valley is +reached. Many a fine, hanging-garden aloft on breezy inaccessible heights +owes to it its freshness and fullness of beauty; ferneries in shady +nooks, filled with Adiantum, Woodwardia, Woodsia, Aspidium, Pellaea, +and Cheilanthes, rosetted and tufted and ranged in lines, daintily +overlapping, thatching the stupendous cliffs with softest beauty, some +of the delicate fronds seeming to float on the warm moist air, without +any connection with rock or stream. Nor is there any lack of colored +plants wherever they can find a place to cling to; lilies and mints, +the showy cardinal mimulus, and glowing cushions of the golden bahia, +enlivened with butterflies and bees and all the other small, happy +humming creatures that belong to them. + +After the highest point on the lower division of the trail is gained it +leads up into the deep recess occupied by the great fall, the noblest +display of falling water to be found in the Valley, or perhaps in the +world. When it first comes in sight it seems almost within reach of +one's hand, so great in the spring is its volume and velocity, yet it is +still nearly a third of a mile away and appears to recede as we advance. +The sculpture of the walls about it is on a scale of grandeur, according +nobly with the fall plain and massive, though elaborately finished, like +all the other cliffs about the Valley. + +In the afternoon an immense shadow is cast athwart the plateau in front +of the fall, and over the chaparral bushes that clothe the slopes and +benches of the walls to the eastward, creeping upward until the fall is +wholly overcast, the contrast between the shaded and illumined sections +being very striking in these near views. + +Under this shadow, during the cool centuries immediately following the +breaking-up of the Glacial Period, dwelt a small residual glacier, one +of the few that lingered on this sun-beaten side of the Valley after the +main trunk glacier had vanished. It sent down a long winding current +through the narrow canyon on the west side of the fall, and must have +formed a striking feature of the ancient scenery of the Valley; the +lofty fall of ice and fall of water side by side, yet separate and +distinct. + +The coolness of the afternoon shadow and the abundant dewy spray make a +fine climate for the plateau ferns and grasses, and for the beautiful +azalea bushes that grow here in profusion and bloom in September, long +after the warmer thickets down on the floor of the Valley have withered +and gone to seed. Even close to the fall, and behind it at the base of +the cliff, a few venturesome plants may be found undisturbed by the +rock-shaking torrent. + +The basin at the foot of the fall into which the current directly pours, +when it is not swayed by the wind, is about ten feet deep and fifteen to +twenty feet in diameter. That it is not much deeper is surprising, when +the great height and force of the fall is considered. But the rock where +the water strikes probably suffers less erosion than it would were the +descent less than half as great, since the current is outspread, and +much of its force is spent ere it reaches the bottom--being received on +the air as upon an elastic cushion, and borne outward and dissipated +over a surface more than fifty yards wide. + +This surface, easily examined when the water is low, is intensely clean +and fresh looking. It is the raw, quick flesh of the mountain wholly +untouched by the weather. In summer droughts when the snowfall of the +preceding winter has been light, the fall is reduced to a mere shower of +separate drops without any obscuring spray. Then we may safely go back +of it and view the crystal shower from beneath, each drop wavering and +pulsing as it makes its way through the air, and flashing off jets of +colored light of ravishing beauty. But all this is invisible from the +bottom of the Valley, like a thousand other interesting things. One must +labor for beauty as for bread, here as elsewhere. + + +The Grandeur Of The Yosemite Fall + + +During the time of the spring floods the best near view of the fall is +obtained from Fern Ledge on the east side above the blinding spray at a +height of about 400 feet above the base of the fall. A climb of about +1400 feet from the Valley has to be made, and there is no trail, but +to any one fond of climbing this will make the ascent all the more +delightful. A narrow part of the ledge extends to the side of the fall +and back of it, enabling us to approach it as closely as we wish. When +the afternoon sunshine is streaming through the throng of comets, ever +wasting, ever renewed, fineness, firmness and variety of their forms are +beautifully revealed. At the top of the fall they seem to burst forth in +irregular spurts from some grand, throbbing mountain heart. Now and then +one mighty throb sends forth a mass of solid water into the free air +far beyond the others which rushes alone to the bottom of the fall with +long streaming tail, like combed silk, while the others, descending in +clusters, gradually mingle and lose their identity. But they all rush +past us with amazing velocity and display of power though apparently +drowsy and deliberate in their movements when observed from a distance +of a mile or two. The heads of these comet-like masses are composed of +nearly solid water, and are dense white in color like pressed snow, from +the friction they suffer in rushing through the air, the portion worn +off forming the tail between the white lustrous threads and films of +which faint, grayish pencilings appear, while the outer, finer sprays of +water-dust, whirling in sunny eddies, are pearly gray throughout. At the +bottom of the fall there is but little distinction of form visible. It +is mostly a hissing, clashing, seething, upwhirling mass of scud and +spray, through which the light sifts in gray and purple tones while +at times when the sun strikes at the required angle, the whole wild +and apparently lawless, stormy, striving mass is changed to brilliant +rainbow hues, manifesting finest harmony. The middle portion of the +fall is the most openly beautiful; lower, the various forms into which +the waters are wrought are more closely and voluminously veiled, while +higher, towards the head, the current is comparatively simple and +undivided. But even at the bottom, in the boiling clouds of spray, +there is no confusion, while the rainbow light makes all divine, adding +glorious beauty and peace to glorious power. This noble fall has far the +richest, as well as the most powerful, voice of all the falls of the +Valley, its tones varying from the sharp hiss and rustle of the wind +in the glossy leaves of the live-oak and the soft, sifting, hushing +tones of the pines, to the loudest rush and roar of storm winds and +thunder among the crags of the summit peaks. The low bass, booming, +reverberating tones, heard under favorable circumstances five or six +miles away are formed by the dashing and exploding of heavy masses +mixed with air upon two projecting ledges on the face of the cliff, the +one on which we are standing and another about 200 feet above it. The +torrent of massive comets is continuous at time of high water, while +the explosive, booming notes are wildly intermittent, because, unless +influenced by the wind, most of the heavier masses shoot out from the +face of the precipice, and pass the ledges upon which at other times +they are exploded. Occasionally the whole fall is swayed away from the +front of the cliff, then suddenly dashed flat against it, or vibrated +from side to side like a pendulum, giving rise to endless variety of +forms and sounds. + + +The Nevada Fall + + +The Nevada Fall is 600 feet high and is usually ranked next to the +Yosemite in general interest among the five main falls of the Valley. +Coming through the Little Yosemite in tranquil reaches, the river is +first broken into rapids on a moraine boulder-bar that crosses the lower +end of the Valley. Thence it pursues its way to the head of the fall in +a rough, solid rock channel, dashing on side angles, heaving in heavy +surging masses against elbow knobs, and swirling and swashing in +pot-holes without a moment's rest. Thus, already chafed and dashed to +foam, overfolded and twisted, it plunges over the brink of the precipice +as if glad to escape into the open air. But before it reaches the bottom +it is pulverized yet finer by impinging upon a sloping portion of the +cliff about half-way down, thus making it the whitest of all the falls +of the Valley, and altogether one of the most wonderful in the world. + +On the north side, close to its head, a slab of granite projects over the +brink, forming a fine point for a view, over its throng of streamers and +wild plunging, into its intensely white bosom, and through the broad +drifts of spray, to the river far below, gathering its spent waters and +rushing on again down the canyon in glad exultation into Emerald Pool, +where at length it grows calm and gets rest for what still lies before +it. All the features of the view correspond with the waters in grandeur +and wildness. The glacier sculptured walls of the canyon on either hand, +with the sublime mass of the Glacier Point Ridge in front, form a huge +triangular pit-like basin, which, filled with the roaring of the falling +river seems as if it might be the hopper of one of the mills of the gods +in which the mountains were being ground. + + +The Vernal Fall + + +The Vernal, about a mile below the Nevada, is 400 feet high, a staid, +orderly, graceful, easy-going fall, proper and exact in every movement +and gesture, with scarce a hint of the passionate enthusiasm of the +Yosemite or of the impetuous Nevada, whose chafed and twisted waters +hurrying over the cliff seem glad to escape into the open air, while its +deep, booming, thunder-tones reverberate over the listening landscape. +Nevertheless it is a favorite with most visitors, doubtless because it +is more accessible than any other, more closely approached and better +seen and heard. A good stairway ascends the cliff beside it and the +level plateau at the head enables one to saunter safely along the edge +of the river as it comes from Emerald Pool and to watch its waters, +calmly bending over the brow of the precipice, in a sheet eighty feet +wide, changing in color from green to purplish gray and white until +dashed on a boulder talus. Thence issuing from beneath its fine broad +spray-clouds we see the tremendously adventurous river still unspent, +beating its way down the wildest and deepest of all its canyons in +gray roaring rapids, dear to the ouzel, and below the confluence of +the Illilouette, sweeping around the shoulder of the Half Dome on its +approach to the head of the tranquil levels of the Valley. + + +The Illilouette Fall + + +The Illilouette in general appearance most resembles the Nevada. The +volume of water is less than half as great, but it is about the same +height (600 feet) and its waters receive the same kind of preliminary +tossing in a rocky, irregular channel. Therefore it is a very white and +fine-grained fall. When it is in full springtime bloom it is partly +divided by rocks that roughen the lip of the precipice, but this +division amounts only to a kind of fluting and grooving of the column, +which has a beautiful effect. It is not nearly so grand a fall as the +upper Yosemite, or so symmetrical as the Vernal, or so airily graceful +and simple as the Bridal Veil, nor does it ever display so tremendous +an outgush of snowy magnificence as the Nevada; but in the exquisite +fineness and richness of texture of its flowing folds it surpasses +them all. + +One of the finest effects of sunlight on falling water I ever saw in +Yosemite or elsewhere I found on the brow of this beautiful fall. It +was in the Indian summer, when the leaf colors were ripe and the great +cliffs and domes were transfigured in the hazy golden air. I had +scrambled up its rugged talus-dammed canyon, oftentimes stopping to take +breath and look back to admire the wonderful views to be had there of +the great Half Dome, and to enjoy the extreme purity of the water, which +in the motionless pools on this stream is almost perfectly invisible; +the colored foliage of the maples, dogwoods, Rubus tangles, etc., and +the late goldenrods and asters. The voice of the fall was now low, and +the grand spring and summer floods had waned to sifting, drifting gauze +and thin-broidered folds of linked and arrowy lace-work. When I reached +the foot of the fall sunbeams were glinting across its head, leaving all +the rest of it in shadow; and on its illumined brow a group of yellow +spangles of singular form and beauty were playing, flashing up and +dancing in large flame-shaped masses, wavering at times, then steadying, +rising and falling in accord with the shifting forms of the water. But +the color of the dancing spangles changed not at all. Nothing in clouds +or flowers, on bird-wings or the lips of shells, could rival it in +fineness. It was the most divinely beautiful mass of rejoicing yellow +light I ever beheld--one of Nature's precious gifts that perchance may +come to us but once in a lifetime. + + +The Minor Falls + + +There are many other comparatively small falls and cascades in the +Valley. The most notable are the Yosemite Gorge Fall and Cascades, +Tenaya Fall and Cascades, Royal Arch Falls, the two Sentinel Cascades +and the falls of Cascade and Tamarack Creeks, a mile or two below the +lower end of the Valley. These last are often visited. The others are +seldom noticed or mentioned; although in almost any other country they +would be visited and described as wonders. + +The six intermediate falls in the gorge between the head of the Lower +and the base of the Upper Yosemite Falls, separated by a few deep pools +and strips of rapids, and three slender, tributary cascades on the west +side form a series more strikingly varied and combined than any other +in the Valley, yet very few of all the Valley visitors ever see them or +hear of them. No available standpoint commands a view of them all. The +best general view is obtained from the mouth of the gorge near the head +of the Lower Fall. The two lowest of the series, together with one of +the three tributary cascades, are visible from this standpoint, but in +reaching it the last twenty or thirty feet of the descent is rather +dangerous in time of high water, the shelving rocks being then slippery +on account of spray, but if one should chance to slip when the water is +low, only a bump or two and a harmless plash would be the penalty. No +part of the gorge, however, is safe to any but cautious climbers. + +Though the dark gorge hall of these rejoicing waters is never flushed by +the purple light of morning or evening, it is warmed and cheered by the +white light of noonday, which, falling into so much foam and and spray +of varying degrees of fineness, makes marvelous displays of rainbow +colors. So filled, indeed, is it with this precious light, at favorable +times it seems to take the place of common air. Laurel bushes shed +fragrance into it from above and live-oaks, those fearless mountaineers, +hold fast to angular seams and lean out over it with their fringing +sprays and bright mirror leaves. + +One bird, the ouzel, loves this gorge and flies through it merrily, or +cheerily, rather, stopping to sing on foam-washed bosses where other +birds could find no rest for their feet. I have even seen a gray +squirrel down in the heart of it beside the wild rejoicing water. + +One of my favorite night walks was along the rim of this wild gorge in +times of high water when the moon was full, to see the lunar bows in the +spray. + +For about a mile above Mirror Lake the Tenaya Canyon is level, and +richly planted with fir, Douglas spruce and libocedrus, forming a +remarkably fine grove, at the head of which is the Tenaya Fall. Though +seldom seen or described, this is, I think, the most picturesque of all +the small falls. A considerable distance above it, Tenaya Creek comes +hurrying down, white and foamy, over a flat pavement inclined at an +angle of about eighteen degrees. In time of high water this sheet of +rapids is nearly seventy feet wide, and is varied in a very striking way +by three parallel furrows that extend in the direction of its flow. +These furrows, worn by the action of the stream upon cleavage joints, +vary in width, are slightly sinuous, and have large boulders firmly +wedged in them here and there in narrow places, giving rise, of course, +to a complicated series of wild dashes, doublings, and upleaping arches +in the swift torrent. Just before it reaches the head of the fall the +current is divided, the left division making a vertical drop of about +eighty feet in a romantic, leafy, flowery, mossy nook, while the other +forms a rugged cascade. + +The Royal Arch Fall in time of high water is a magnificent object, +forming a broad ornamental sheet in front of the arches. The two +Sentinel Cascades, 3000 feet high, are also grand spectacles when the +snow is melting fast in the spring, but by the middle of summer they +have diminished to mere streaks scarce noticeable amid their sublime +surroundings. + + +The Beauty Of The Rainbows + + +The Bridal Veil and Vernal Falls are famous for their rainbows; and +special visits to them are often made when the sun shines into the spray +at the most favorable angle. But amid the spray and foam and fine-ground +mist ever rising from the various falls and cataracts there is an +affluence and variety of iris bows scarcely known to visitors who stay +only a day or two. Both day and night, winter and summer, this divine +light may be seen wherever water is falling dancing, singing; telling +the heart-peace of Nature amid the wildest displays of her power. In the +bright spring mornings the black-walled recess at the foot of the Lower +Yosemite Fall is lavishly fine with irised spray; and not simply does +this span the dashing foam, but the foam itself, the whole mass of it, +beheld at a certain distance, seems to be colored, and drips and wavers +from color to color, mingling with the foliage of the adjacent trees, +without suggesting any relationship to the ordinary rainbow. This is +perhaps the largest and most reservoir-like fountain of iris colors to +be found in the Valley. + +Lunar rainbows or spray-bows also abound in the glorious affluence of +dashing, rejoicing, hurrahing, enthusiastic spring floods, their colors +as distinct as those of the sun and regularly and obviously banded, +though less vivid. Fine specimens may be found any night at the foot of +the Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing gloriously amid the gloomy shadows and +thundering waters, whenever there is plenty of moonlight and spray. Even +the secondary bow is at times distinctly visible. + +The best point from which to observe them is on Fern Ledge. For some +time after moonrise, at time of high water, the arc has a span of about +five hundred feet, and is set upright; one end planted in the boiling +spray at the bottom, the other in the edge of the fall, creeping lower, +of course, and becoming less upright as the moon rises higher. This +grand arc of color, glowing in mild, shapely beauty in so weird and huge +a chamber of night shadows, and amid the rush and roar and tumultuous +dashing of this thunder-voiced fall, is one of the most impressive and +most cheering of all the blessed mountain evangels. + +Smaller bows may be seen in the gorge on the plateau between the Upper +and Lower Falls. Once toward midnight, after spending a few hours with +the wild beauty of the Upper Fall, I sauntered along the edge of the +gorge, looking in here and there, wherever the footing felt safe, to see +what I could learn of the night aspects of the smaller falls that dwell +there. And down in an exceedingly black, pit-like portion of the gorge, +at the foot of the highest of the intermediate falls, into which the +moonbeams were pouring through a narrow opening, I saw a well-defined +spray-bow, beautifully distinct in colors, spanning the pit from side +to side, while pure white foam-waves beneath the beautiful bow were +constantly springing up out of the dark into the moonlight like dancing +ghosts. + + +An Unexpected Adventure + + +A wild scene, but not a safe one, is made by the moon as it appears +through the edge of the Yosemite Fall when one is behind it. Once, after +enjoying the night-song of the waters and watching the formation of the +colored bow as the moon came round the domes and sent her beams into the +wild uproar, I ventured out on the narrow bench that extends back of the +fall from Fern Ledge and began to admire the dim-veiled grandeur of the +view. I could see the fine gauzy threads of the fall's filmy border by +having the light in front; and wishing to look at the moon through the +meshes of some of the denser portions of the fall, I ventured to creep +farther behind it while it was gently wind-swayed, without taking +sufficient thought about the consequences of its swaying back to its +natural position after the wind-pressure should be removed. The effect +was enchanting: fine, savage music sounding above, beneath, around me; +while the moon, apparently in the very midst of the rushing waters, +seemed to be struggling to keep her place, on account of the +ever-varying form and density of the water masses through which she was +seen, now darkly veiled or eclipsed by a rush of thick-headed comets, +now flashing out through openings between their tails. I was in +fairyland between the dark wall and the wild throng of illumined waters, +but suffered sudden disenchantment; for, like the witch-scene in Alloway +Kirk, "in an instant all was dark." Down came a dash of spent comets, +thin and harmless-looking in the distance, but they felt desperately +solid and stony when they struck my shoulders, like a mixture of choking +spray and gravel and big hailstones. Instinctively dropping on my knees, +I gripped an angle of the rock, curled up like a young fern frond with +my face pressed against my breast, and in this attitude submitted as +best I could to my thundering bath. The heavier masses seemed to strike +like cobblestones, and there was a confused noise of many waters about +my ears--hissing, gurgling, clashing sounds that were not heard as +music. The situation was quickly realized. How fast one's thoughts burn +in such times of stress! I was weighing chances of escape. Would the +column be swayed a few inches away from the wall, or would it come yet +closer? The fall was in flood and not so lightly would its ponderous +mass be swayed. My fate seemed to depend on a breath of the "idle wind." +It was moved gently forward, the pounding ceased, and I was once more +visited by glimpses of the moon. But fearing I might be caught at a +disadvantage in making too hasty a retreat, I moved only a few feet +along the bench to where a block of ice lay. I wedged myself between the +ice and the wall and lay face downwards, until the steadiness of the +light gave encouragement to rise and get away. Somewhat nerve-shaken, +drenched, and benumbed, I made out to build a fire, warmed myself, ran +home, reached my cabin before daylight, got an hour or two of sleep, +and awoke sound and comfortable, better, not worse for my hard midnight +bath. + + +Climate And Weather + + +Owing to the westerly trend of the Valley and its vast depth there +is a great difference between the climates of the north and south +sides--greater than between many countries far apart; for the south wall +is in shadow during the winter months, while the north is bathed in +sunshine every clear day. Thus there is mild spring weather on one side +of the Valley while winter rules the other. Far up the north-side cliffs +many a nook may be found closely embraced by sun-beaten rock-bosses in +which flowers bloom every month of the year. Even butterflies may be +seen in these high winter gardens except when snow-storms are falling +and a few days after they have ceased. Near the head of the lower +Yosemite Fall in January I found the ant lions lying in wait in their +warm sand-cups, rock ferns being unrolled, club mosses covered with +fresh-growing plants, the flowers of the laurel nearly open, and the +honeysuckle rosetted with bright young leaves; every plant seemed to be +thinking about summer. Even on the shadow-side of the Valley the frost +is never very sharp. The lowest temperature I ever observed during four +winters was 7 degrees Fahrenheit. The first twenty-four days of January +had an average temperature at 9 A.M. of 32 degrees, minimum 22 degrees; +at 3 P.M. the average was 40 degrees 30', the minimum 32 degrees. Along +the top of the walls, 7000 and 8000 feet high, the temperature was, of +course, much lower. But the difference in temperature between the north +and south sides is due not so much to the winter sunshine as to the heat +of the preceding summer, stored up in the rocks, which rapidly melts the +snow in contact with them. For though summer sun-heat is stored in the +rocks of the south side also, the amount is much less because the rays +fall obliquely on the south wall even in summer and almost vertically +on the north. + +The upper branches of the Yosemite streams are buried every winter +beneath a heavy mantle of snow, and set free in the spring in +magnificent floods. Then, all the fountains, full and overflowing, every +living thing breaks forth into singing, and the glad exulting streams +shining and falling in the warm sunny weather, shake everything into +music making all the mountain-world a song. + +The great annual spring thaw usually begins in May in the forest region, +and in June and July on the high Sierra, varying somewhat both in time +and fullness with the weather and the depth of the snow. Toward the end +of summer the streams are at their lowest ebb, few even of the strongest +singing much above a whisper they slip and ripple through gravel and +boulder-beds from pool to pool in the hollows of their channels, and +drop in pattering showers like rain, and slip down precipices and fall +in sheets of embroidery, fold over fold. But, however low their singing, +it is always ineffably fine in tone, in harmony with the restful time of +the year. + +The first snow of the season that comes to the help of the streams +usually falls in September or October, sometimes even is the latter part +of August, in the midst of yellow Indian summer when the goldenrods and +gentians of the glacier meadows are is their prime. This Indian-summer +snow, however, soon melts, the chilled flowers spread their petals to +the sun, and the gardens as well as the streams are refreshed as if only +a warm shower had fallen. The snow-storms that load the mountains to +form the main fountain supply for the year seldom set in before the +middle or end of November. + + +Winter Beauty Of The Valley + + +When the first heavy storms stopped work on the high mountains, I made +haste down to my Yosemite den, not to "hole up" and sleep the white +months away; I was out every day, and often all night, sleeping but +little, studying the so-called wonders and common things ever on show, +wading, climbing, sauntering among the blessed storms and calms, +rejoicing in almost everything alike that I could see or hear: the +glorious brightness of frosty mornings; the sunbeams pouring over the +white domes and crags into the groves end waterfalls, kindling marvelous +iris fires in the hoarfrost and spray; the great forests and mountains +in their deep noon sleep; the good-night alpenglow; the stars; the +solemn gazing moon, drawing the huge domes and headlands one by one +glowing white out of the shadows hushed and breathless like an audience +in awful enthusiasm, while the meadows at their feet sparkle with +frost-stars like the sky; the sublime darkness of storm-nights, when all +the lights are out; the clouds in whose depths the frail snow-flowers +grow; the behavior and many voices of the different kinds of storms, +trees, birds, waterfalls, and snow-avalanches in the ever-changing +weather. + +Every clear, frosty morning loud sounds are heard booming and +reverberating from side to side of the Valley at intervals of a few +minutes, beginning soon after sunrise and continuing an hour or two like +a thunder-storm. In my first winter in the Valley I could not make out +the source of this noise. I thought of falling boulders, rock-blasting, +etc. Not till I saw what looked like hoarfrost dropping from the side of +the Fall was the problem explained. The strange thunder is made by the +fall of sections of ice formed of spray that is frozen on the face of +the cliff along the sides of the Upper Yosemite Fan--a sort of crystal +plaster, a foot or two thick, racked off by the sunbeams, awakening all +the Valley like cock-crowing, announcing the finest weather, shouting +aloud Nature's infinite industry and love of hard work in creating +beauty. + + +Exploring An Ice Cone + + +This frozen spray gives rise to one of the most interesting winter +features of the Valley--a cone of ice at the foot of the fall, four or +five hundred feet high. From the Fern Ledge standpoint its crater-like +throat is seen, down which the fall plunges with deep, gasping +explosions of compressed air, and, after being well churned in the wormy +interior, the water bursts forth through arched openings at its base, +apparently scourged and weary and glad to escape, while belching spray, +spouted up out of the throat past the descending current, is wafted +away in irised drifts to the adjacent rocks and groves. It is built +during the night and early hours of the morning; only in spells of +exceptionally cold and cloudy weather is the work continued through the +day. The greater part of the spray material falls in crystalline showers +direct to its place, something like a small local snow-storm; but a +considerable portion is first frozen on the face of the cliff along the +sides of the fall and stays there until expanded and cracked off in +irregular masses, some of them tons in weight, to be built into the +walls of the cone; while in windy, frosty weather, when the fall is +swayed from side to side, the cone is well drenched and the loose ice +masses and spray-dust are all firmly welded and frozen together. Thus +the finest of the downy wafts and curls of spray-dust, which in mild +nights fall about as silently as dew, are held back until sunrise to +make a store of heavy ice to reinforce the waterfall's thunder-tones. + +While the cone is in process of formation, growing higher and wider in +the frosty weather, it looks like a beautiful smooth, pure-white hill; +but when it is wasting and breaking up in the spring its surface is +strewn with leaves, pine branches, stones, sand, etc., that have been +brought over the fall, making it look like a heap of avalanche detritus. + +Anxious to learn what I could about the structure of this curious hill +I often approached it in calm weather and tried to climb it, carrying +an ax to cut steps. Once I nearly succeeded in gaining the summit. At +the base I was met by a current of spray and wind that made seeing and +breathing difficult. I pushed on backward however, and soon gained the +slope of the hill, where by creeping close to the surface most of the +choking blast passed over me and I managed to crawl up with but little +difficulty. Thus I made my way nearly to the summit, halting at times +to peer up through the wild whirls of spray at the veiled grandeur of +the fall, or to listen to the thunder beneath me; the whole hill was +sounding as if it were a huge, bellowing drum. I hoped that by waiting +until the fall was blown aslant I should be able to climb to the lip of +the crater and get a view of the interior; but a suffocating blast, half +air, half water, followed by the fall of an enormous mass of frozen +spray from a spot high up on the wall, quickly discouraged me. The whole +cone was jarred by the blow and some fragments of the mass sped past me +dangerously near; so I beat a hasty retreat, chilled and drenched, and +lay down on a sunny rock to dry. + +Once during a wind-storm when I saw that the fall was frequently blown +westward, leaving the cone dry, I ran up to Fern Ledge hoping to gain a +clear view of the interior. I set out at noon. All the way up the storm +notes were so loud about me that the voice of the fall was almost +drowned by them. Notwithstanding the rocks and bushes everywhere were +drenched by the wind-driven spray, I approached the brink of the +precipice overlooking the mouth of the ice cone, but I was almost +suffocated by the drenching, gusty spray, and was compelled to seek +shelter. I searched for some hiding-place in the wall from whence I +might run out at some opportune moment when the fall with its whirling +spray and torn shreds of comet tails and trailing, tattered skirts was +borne westward, as I had seen it carried several times before, leaving +the cliffs on the east side and the ice hill bare in the sunlight. I had +not long to wait, for, as if ordered so for my special accommodation, +the mighty downrush of comets with their whirling drapery swung westward +and remained aslant for nearly half an hour. The cone was admirably +lighted and deserted by the water, which fell most of the time on the +rocky western slopes mostly outside of the cone. The mouth into which +the fall pours was, as near as I could guess, about one hundred feet in +diameter north and south and about two hundred feet east and west, which +is about the shape and size of the fall at its best in its normal +condition at this season. + +The crater-like opening was not a true oval, but more like a huge coarse +mouth. I could see down the throat about one hundred feet or perhaps +farther. + +The fall precipice overhangs from a height of 400 feet above the base; +therefore the water strikes some distance from the base off the cliff, +allowing space for the accumulation of a considerable mass of ice +between the fall and the wall. + + + +Chapter 2 + +Winter Storms and Spring Floods + + +The Bridal Veil and the Upper Yosemite Falls, on account of their height +and exposure, are greatly influenced by winds. The common summer winds +that come up the river canyon from the plains are seldom very strong; +but the north winds do some very wild work, worrying the falls and the +forests, and hanging snow-banners on the comet-peaks. One wild winter +morning I was awakened by storm-wind that was playing with the falls as +if they were mere wisps of mist and making the great pines bow and sing +with glorious enthusiasm. The Valley had been visited a short time +before by a series of fine snow-storms, and the floor and the cliffs and +all the region round about were lavishly adorned with its best winter +jewelry, the air was full of fine snow-dust, and pine branches, tassels +and empty cones were flying in an almost continuous flock. + +Soon after sunrise, when I was seeking a place safe from flying +branches, I saw the Lower Yosemite Fall thrashed and pulverized from top +to bottom into one glorious mass of rainbow dust; while a thousand feet +above it the main Upper Fall was suspended on the face of the cliff in +the form of an inverted bow, all silvery white and fringed with short +wavering strips. Then, suddenly assailed by a tremendous blast, the +whole mass of the fall was blown into thread and ribbons, and driven +back over the brow of the cliff whence it came, as if denied admission +to the Valley. This kind of storm-work was continued about ten or +fifteen minutes; then another change in the play of the huge exulting +swirls and billows and upheaving domes of the gale allowed the baffled +fall to gather and arrange its tattered waters, and sink down again in +its place. As the day advanced, the gale gave no sign of dying, +excepting brief lulls, the Valley was filled with its weariless roar, +and the cloudless sky grew garish-white from myriads of minute, +sparkling snow-spicules. In the afternoon, while I watched the Upper +Fall from the shelter of a big pine tree, it was suddenly arrested in +its descent at a point about half-way down, and was neither blown upward +nor driven aside, but simply held stationary in mid-air, as if +gravitation below that point in the path of its descent had ceased to +act. The ponderous flood, weighing hundreds of tons, was sustained, +hovering, hesitating, like a bunch of thistledown, while I counted one +hundred and ninety. All this time the ordinary amount of water was +coming over the cliff and accumulating in the air, swedging and widening +and forming an irregular cone about seven hundred feet high, tapering to +the top of the wall, the whole standing still, jesting on the invisible +arm of the North Wind. At length, as if commanded to go on again, scores +of arrowy comets shot forth from the bottom of the suspended mass as if +escaping from separate outlets. + +The brow of El Capitan was decked with long snow-streamers like hair, +Clouds' Rest was fairly enveloped in drifting gossamer elms, and the Half +Dome loomed up in the garish light like a majestic, living creature clad +in the same gauzy, wind-woven drapery, while upward currents meeting at +times overhead made it smoke like a volcano. + + +An Extraordinary Storm And Flood + + +Glorious as are these rocks and waters arrayed in storm robes, or +chanting rejoicing in every-day dress, they are still more glorious when +rare weather conditions meet to make them sing with floods. Only once +during all the years I have lived in the Valley have I seen it in full +flood bloom. In 1871 the early winter weather was delightful; the days +all sunshine, the nights all starry and calm, calling forth fine crops +of frost-crystals on the pines and withered ferns and grasses for the +morning sunbeams to sift through. In the afternoon of December 16, when +I was sauntering on the meadows, I noticed a massive crimson cloud +growing in solitary grandeur above the Cathedral Rocks, its form +scarcely less striking than its color. It had a picturesque, bulging +base like an old sequoia, a smooth, tapering stem, and a bossy, +down-curling crown like a mushroom; all its parts were colored alike, +making one mass of translucent crimson. Wondering what the meaning of +that strange, lonely red cloud might be, I was up betimes next morning +looking at the weather, but all seemed tranquil as yet. Towards noon +gray clouds with a lose, curly grain like bird's-eye maple began to +grow, and late at night rain fell, which soon changed to snow. Next +morning the snow on the meadows was about ten inches deep, and it was +still falling in a fine, cordial storm. During the night of the 18th +heavy rain fell on the snow, but as the temperature was 34 degrees, the +snow-line was only a few hundred feet above the bottom of the Valley, and +one had only to climb a little higher than the tops of the pines to get +out of the rain-storm into the snow-storm. The streams, instead of being +increased in volume by the storm, were diminished, because the snow +sponged up part of their waters and choked the smaller tributaries. But +about midnight the temperature suddenly rose to 42 degrees, carrying +the snow-line far beyond the Valley walls, and next morning Yosemite +was rejoicing in a glorious flood. The comparatively warm rain falling +on the snow was at first absorbed and held back, and so also was that +portion of the snow that the rain melted, and all that was melted by the +warm wind, until the whole mass of snow was saturated and became sludgy, +and at length slipped and rushed simultaneously from a thousand slopes +in wildest extravagance, heaping and swelling flood over flood, and +plunging into the Valley in stupendous avalanches. + +Awakened by the roar, I looked out and at once recognized the +extraordinary character of the storm. The rain was still pouring in +torrent abundance and the wind at gale speed was doing all it could with +the flood-making rain. + +The section of the north wall visible from my cabin was fairly streaked +with new falls--wild roaring singers that seemed strangely out of place. +Eager to get into the midst of the show, I snatched a piece of bread for +breakfast and ran out. The mountain waters, suddenly liberated, seemed +to be holding a grand jubilee. The two Sentinel Cascades rivaled the +great falls at ordinary stages, and across the Valley by the Three +Brothers I caught glimpses of more falls than I could readily count; +while the whole Valley throbbed and trembled, and was filled with an +awful, massive, solemn, sea-like roar. After gazing a while enchanted +with the network of new falls that were adorning and transfiguring every +rock in sight, I tried to reach the upper meadows, where the Valley is +widest, that I might be able to see the walls on both sides, and thus +gain general views. But the river was over its banks and the meadows +were flooded, forming an almost continuous lake dotted with blue sludgy +islands, while innumerable streams roared like lions across my path and +were sweeping forward rocks and logs with tremendous energy over ground +where tiny gilias had been growing but a short time before. Climbing +into the talus slopes, where these savage torrents were broken among +earthquake boulders, I managed to cross them, and force my way up the +Valley to Hutchings' Bridge, where I crossed the river and waded to the +middle of the upper meadow. Here most of the new falls were in sight, +probably the most glorious assemblage of waterfalls ever displayed from +any one standpoint. On that portion of the south wall between Hutchings' +and the Sentinel there were ten falls plunging and booming from a height +of nearly three thousand feet, the smallest of which might have been +heard miles away. In the neighborhood of Glacier Point there were six; +between the Three Brothers and Yosemite Fall, nine; between Yosemite and +Royal Arch Falls, ten; from Washington Column to Mount Watkins, ten; on +the slopes of Half Dome and Clouds' Rest, facing Mirror Lake and Tenaya +Canyon, eight; on the shoulder of Half Dome, facing the Valley, three; +fifty-six new falls occupying the upper end of the Valley, besides a +countless host of silvery threads gleaming everywhere. In all the Valley +there must have been upwards of a hundred. As if celebrating some +great event, falls and cascades in Yosemite costume were coming down +everywhere from fountain basins, far and near; and, though newcomers, +they behaved and sang as if they had lived here always. + +All summer-visitors will remember the comet forms of the Yosemite Fall +and the laces of the Bridal Veil and Nevada. In the falls of this +winter jubilee the lace forms predominated, but there was no lack of +thunder-toned comets. The lower portion of one of the Sentinel Cascades +was composed of two main white torrents with the space between them +filled in with chained and beaded gauze of intricate pattern, through +the singing threads of which the purplish-gray rock could be dimly seen. +The series above Glacier Point was still more complicated in structure, +displaying every form that one could imagine water might be dashed and +combed and woven into. Those on the north wall between Washington Column +and the Royal Arch Fall were so nearly related they formed an almost +continuous sheet, and these again were but slightly separated from those +about Indian Canyon. The group about the Three Brothers and El Capitan, +owing to the topography and cleavage of the cliffs back of them, was +more broken and irregular. The Tissiack Cascades were comparatively +small, yet sufficient to give that noblest of mountain rocks a glorious +voice. In the midst of all this extravagant rejoicing the great Yosemite +Fall was scarce heard until about three o'clock in the afternoon. Then I +was startled by a sudden thundering crash as if a rock avalanche had +come to the help of the roaring waters. This was the flood-wave of +Yosemite Creek, which had just arrived delayed by the distance it had to +travel, and by the choking snows of its widespread fountains. Now, with +volume tenfold increased beyond its springtime fullness, it took its +place as leader of the glorious choir. + +And the winds, too, were singing in wild accord, playing on every tree +and rock, surging against the huge brows and domes and outstanding +battlements, deflected hither and thither and broken into a thousand +cascading, roaring currents in the canyons, and low bass, drumming +swirls in the hollows. And these again, reacting on the clouds, eroded +immense cavernous spaces in their gray depths and swept forward the +resulting detritus in ragged trains like the moraines of glaciers. These +cloud movements in turn published the work of the winds, giving them +a visible body, and enabling us to trace them. As if endowed with +independent motion, a detached cloud would rise hastily to the very top +of the wall as if on some important errand, examining the faces of the +cliffs, and then perhaps as suddenly descend to sweep imposingly along +the meadows, trailing its draggled fringes through the pines, fondling +the waving spires with infinite gentleness, or, gliding behind a grove +or a single tree, bringing it into striking relief, as it bowed and +waved in solemn rhythm. Sometimes, as the busy clouds drooped and +condensed or dissolved to misty gauze, half of the Valley would be +suddenly veiled, leaving here and there some lofty headland cut off from +all visible connection with the walls, looming alone, dim, spectral, as +if belonging to the sky--visitors, like the new falls, come to take part +in the glorious festival. Thus for two days and nights in measureless +extravagance the storm went on, and mostly without spectators, at least +of a terrestrial kind. I saw nobody out--bird, bear, squirrel, or man. +Tourists had vanished months before, and the hotel people and laborers +were out of sight, careful about getting cold, and satisfied with views +from windows. The bears, I suppose, were in their canyon-boulder dens, +the squirrels in their knot-hole nests, the grouse in close fir groves, +and the small singers in the Indian Canyon chaparral, trying to keep +warm and dry. Strange to say, I did not see even the water-ouzels, +though they must have greatly enjoyed the storm. + +This was the most sublime waterfall flood I ever saw--clouds, winds, +rocks, waters, throbbing together as one. And then to contemplate what +was going on simultaneously with all this in other mountain temples; the +Big Tuolumne Canyon--how the white waters and the winds were singing +there! And in Hetch Hetchy Valley and the great King's River yosemite, +and in all the other Sierra canyons and valleys from Shasta to the +southernmost fountains of the Kern, thousands of rejoicing flood +waterfalls chanting together in jubilee dress. + + + +Chapter 3 + +Snow-Storms + + +As has been already stated, the first of the great snow-storms that +replenish the Yosemite fountains seldom sets in before the end of +November. Then, warned by the sky, wide-awake mountaineers, together +with the deer and most of the birds, make haste to the lowlands or +foothills; and burrowing marmots, mountain beavers, wood-rats, and other +small mountain people, go into winter quarters, some of them not again +to see the light of day until the general awakening and resurrection of +the spring in June or July. The fertile clouds, drooping and condensing +in brooding silence, seem to be thoughtfully examining the forests and +streams with reference to the work that lies before them. At length, all +their plans perfected, tufted flakes and single starry crystals come in +sight, solemnly swirling and glinting to their blessed appointed places; +and soon the busy throng fills the sky and makes darkness like night. +The first heavy fall is usually from about two to four feet in depth +then with intervals of days or weeks of bright weather storm succeeds +storm, heaping snow on snow, until thirty to fifty feet has fallen. But +on account of its settling and compacting, and waste from melting and +evaporation, the average depth actually found at any time seldom exceeds +ten feet in the forest regions, or fifteen feet along the slopes of the +summit peaks. After snow-storms come avalanches, varying greatly in +form, size, behavior and in the songs they sing; some on the smooth +slopes of the mountains are short and broad; others long and river-like +in the side canyons of yosemites and in the main canyons, flowing in +regular channels and booming like waterfalls, while countless smaller +ones fall everywhere from laden trees and rocks and lofty canyon walls. +Most delightful it is to stand in the middle of Yosemite on still clear +mornings after snow-storms and watch the throng of avalanches as they +come down, rejoicing, to their places, whispering, thrilling like birds, +or booming and roaring like thunder. The noble yellow pines stand hushed +and motionless as if under a spell until the morning sunshine begins to +sift through their laden spires; then the dense masses on the ends of +the leafy branches begin to shift and fall, those from the upper +branches striking the lower ones in succession, enveloping each tree in +a hollow conical avalanche of fairy fineness; while the relieved +branches spring up and wave with startling effect in the general +stillness, as if each tree was moving of its own volition. Hundreds of +broad cloud-shaped masses may also be seen, leaping over the brows of +the cliffs from great heights, descending at first with regular +avalanche speed until, worn into dust by friction, they float in front +of the precipices like irised clouds. Those which descend from the brow +of El Capitan are particularly fine; but most of the great Yosemite +avalanches flow in regular channels like cascades and waterfalls. When +the snow first gives way on the upper slopes of their basins, a dull +rushing, rumbling sound is heard which rapidly increases and seems to +draw nearer with appalling intensity of tone. Presently the white flood +comes bounding into sight over bosses and sheer places, leaping from +bench to bench, spreading and narrowing and throwing off clouds of +whirling dust like the spray of foaming cataracts. Compared with +waterfalls and cascades, avalanches are short-lived, few of them lasting +more than a minute or two, and the sharp, clashing sounds so common in +falling water are mostly wanting; but in their low massy thundertones +and purple-tinged whiteness, and in their dress, gait, gestures and +general behavior, they are much alike. + + +Avalanches + + +Besides these common after-storm avalanches that are to be found not +only in the Yosemite but in all the deep, sheer-walled canyon of the +Range there are two other important kinds, which may be called annual +and century avalanches, which still further enrich the scenery. The only +place about the Valley where one may be sure to see the annual kind is +on the north slope of Clouds' Rest. They are composed of heavy, compacted +snow, which has been subjected to frequent alternations of freezing and +thawing. They are developed on canyon and mountain-sides at an elevation +of from nine to ten thousand feet, where the slopes are inclined at an +angle too low to shed off the dry winter snow, and which accumulates +until the spring thaws sap their foundations and make them slippery; +then away in grand style go the ponderous icy masses without any fine +snow-dust. Those of Clouds' Rest descend like thunderbolts for more than +a mile. + +The great century avalanches and the kind that mow wide swaths through +the upper forests occur on mountain-sides about ten or twelve thousand +feet high, where under ordinary weather conditions the snow accumulated +from winter to winter lies at rest for many years, allowing trees, fifty +to a hundred feet high, to grow undisturbed on the slopes beneath them. +On their way down through the woods they seldom fail to make a perfectly +clean sweep, stripping off the soil as well as the trees, clearing paths +two or three hundred yards wide from the timber line to the glacier +meadows or lakes, and piling their uprooted trees, head downward, in +rows along the sides of the gaps like lateral moraines. Scars and broken +branches of the trees standing on the sides of the gaps record the depth +of the overwhelming flood; and when we come to count the annual +wood-rings on the uprooted trees we learn that some of these immense +avalanches occur only once in a century or even at still wider +intervals. + + +A Ride On An Avalanche + + +Few Yosemite visitors ever see snow avalanches and fewer still know the +exhilaration of riding on them. In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed +only one avalanche ride, and the start was so sudden and the end came +so soon I had but little time to think of the danger that attends this +sort of travel, though at such times one thinks fast. One fine Yosemite +morning after a heavy snowfall, being eager to see as many avalanches +as possible and wide views of the forest and summit peaks in their new +white robes before the sunshine had time to change them, I set out early +to climb by a side canyon to the top of a commanding ridge a little over +three thousand feet above the Valley. On account of the looseness of +the snow that blocked the canyon I knew the climb would require a long +time, some three or four hours as I estimated; but it proved far more +difficult than I had anticipated. Most of the way I sank waist deep, +almost out of sight in some places. After spending the whole day to +within half an hour or so of sundown, I was still several hundred feet +below the summit. Then my hopes were reduced to getting up in time to +see the sunset. But I was not to get summit views of any sort that day, +for deep trampling near the canyon head, where the snow was strained, +started an avalanche, and I was swished down to the foot of the canyon +as if by enchantment. The wallowing ascent had taken nearly all day, the +descent only about a minute. When the avalanche started I threw myself +on my back and spread my arms to try to keep from sinking. Fortunately, +though the grade of the canyon is very steep, it is not interrupted by +precipices large enough to cause outbounding or free plunging. On no +part of the rush was I buried. I was only moderately imbedded on the +surface or at times a little below it, and covered with a veil of +back-streaming dust particles; and as the whole mass beneath and about +me joined in the flight there was no friction, though I was tossed here +and there and lurched from side to side. When the avalanche swedged and +came to rest I found myself on top of the crumpled pile without bruise +or scar. This was a fine experience. Hawthorne says somewhere that steam +has spiritualized travel; though unspiritual smells, smoke, etc., still +attend steam travel. This flight in what might be called a milky way of +snow-stars was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of +motion I have ever experienced. Elijah's flight in a chariot of fire +could hardly have been more gloriously exciting. + + +The Streams In Other Seasons + + +In the spring, after all the avalanches are down and the snow is melting +fast, then all the Yosemite streams, from their fountains to their +falls, sing their grandest songs. Countless rills make haste to the +rivers, running and singing soon after sunrise, louder and louder with +increasing volume until sundown; then they gradually fail through the +frosty hours of the night. In this way the volume of the upper branches +of the river is nearly doubled during the day, rising and falling as +regularly as the tides of the sea. Then the Merced overflows its banks, +flooding the meadows, sometimes almost from wall to wall in some places, +beginning to rise towards sundown just when the streams on the fountains +are beginning to diminish, the difference in time of the daily rise and +fall being caused by the distance the upper flood streams have to travel +before reaching the Valley. In the warmest weather they seem fairly to +shout for joy and clash their upleaping waters together like clapping +of hands; racing down the canyons with white manes flying in glorious +exuberance of strength, compelling huge, sleeping boulders to wake up +and join in their dance and song, to swell their exulting chorus. + +In early summer, after the flood season, the Yosemite streams are in +their prime, running crystal clear, deep and full but not overflowing +their banks--about as deep through the night as the day, the difference +in volume so marked in spring being now too slight to be noticed. Nearly +all the weather is cloudless and everything is at its brightest--lake, +river, garden and forest with all their life. Most of the plants are in +full flower. The blessed ouzels have built their mossy huts and are now +singing their best songs with the streams. + +In tranquil, mellow autumn, when the year's work is about done and +the fruits are ripe, birds and seeds out of their nests, and all the +landscape is glowing like a benevolent countenance, then the streams +are at their lowest ebb, with scarce a memory left of their wild spring +floods. The small tributaries that do not reach back to the lasting +snow fountains of the summit peaks shrink to whispering, tinkling +currents. After the snow is gone from the basins, excepting occasional +thundershowers, they are now fed only by small springs whose waters +are mostly evaporated in passing over miles of warm pavements, and in +feeling their way slowly from pool to pool through the midst of boulders +and sand. Even the main rivers are so low they may easily be forded, and +their grand falls and cascades, now gentle and approachable, have waned +to sheets of embroidery. + + + +Chapter 4 + +Snow Banners + + +But it is on the mountain tops, when they are laden with loose, dry snow +and swept by a gale from the north, that the most magnificent storm +scenery is displayed. The peaks along the axis of the Range are then +decorated with resplendent banners, some of them more than a mile long, +shining, streaming, waving with solemn exuberant enthusiasm as if +celebrating some surpassingly glorious event. + +The snow of which these banners are made falls on the high Sierra in +most extravagant abundance, sometimes to a depth of fifteen or twenty +feet, coming from the fertile clouds not in large angled flakes such as +one oftentimes sees in Yosemite, seldom even in complete crystals, for +many of the starry blossoms fall before they are ripe, while most of +those that attain perfect development as six-petaled flowers are more +or less broken by glinting and chafing against one another on the +way down to their work. This dry frosty snow is prepared for the grand +banner-waving celebrations by the action of the wind. Instead of at +once finding rest like that which falls into the tranquil depths of +the forest, it is shoved and rolled and beaten against boulders and +out-jutting rocks, swirled in pits and hollows like sand in river +pot-holes, and ground into sparkling dust. And when storm winds find +this snow-dust in a loose condition on the slopes above the timber-line +they toss it back into the sky and sweep it onward from peak to peak +in the form of smooth regular banners, or in cloudy drifts, according +to the velocity and direction of the wind, and the conformation of the +slopes over which it is driven. While thus flying through the air a +small portion escapes from the mountains to the sky as vapor; but far +the greater part is at length locked fast in bossy overcurling cornices +along the ridges, or in stratified sheets in the glacier cirques, some +of it to replenish the small residual glaciers and remain silent and +rigid for centuries before it is finally melted and sent singing down +home to the sea. + +But, though snow-dust and storm-winds abound on the mountains, regular +shapely banners are, for causes we shall presently see, seldom produced. +During the five winters that I spent in Yosemite I made many excursions +to high points above the walls in all kinds of weather to see what was +going on outside; from all my lofty outlooks I saw only one banner-storm +that seemed in every way perfect. This was in the winter of 1873, when +the snow-laden peaks were swept by a powerful norther. I was awakened +early in the morning by a wild storm-wind and of course I had to make +haste to the middle of the Valley to enjoy it. Rugged torrents and +avalanches from the main wind-flood overhead were roaring down the side +canyons and over the cliffs, arousing the rocks and the trees and the +streams alike into glorious hurrahing enthusiasm, shaking the whole +Valley into one huge song. Yet inconceivable as it must seem even to +those who love all Nature's wildness, the storm was telling its story +on the mountains in still grander characters. + + +A Wonderful Winter Scene + + +I had long been anxious to study some points in the structure of the +ice-hill at the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, but, as I have already +explained, blinding spray had hitherto prevented me from getting +sufficiently near it. This morning the entire body of the Fall was +oftentimes torn into gauzy strips and blown horizontally along the face +of the cliff, leaving the ice-hill dry; and while making my way to the +top of Fern Ledge to seize so favorable an opportunity to look down its +throat, the peaks of the Merced group came in sight over the shoulder of +the South Dome, each waving a white glowing banner against the dark blue +sky, as regular in form and firm and fine in texture as if it were made +of silk. So rare and splendid a picture, of course, smothered everything +else and I at once began to scramble and wallow up the snow-choked +Indian Canyon to a ridge about 8000 feet high, commanding a general +view of the main summits along the axis of the Range, feeling assured I +should find them bannered still more gloriously; nor was I in the least +disappointed. I reached the top of the ridge in four or five hours, and +through an opening in the woods the most imposing wind-storm effect I +ever beheld came full in sight; unnumbered mountains rising sharply +into the cloudless sky, their bases solid white their sides plashed with +snow, like ocean rocks with foam, and on every summit a magnificent +silvery banner, from two thousand to six thousand feet in length, +slender at the point of attachment, and widening gradually until about +a thousand or fifteen hundred feet in breadth, and as shapely and as +substantial looking in texture as the banners of the finest silk, all +streaming and waving free and clear in the sun-glow with nothing to blur +the sublime picture they made. + +Fancy yourself standing beside me on this Yosemite Ridge. There is a +strange garish glitter in the air and the gale drives wildly overhead, +but you feel nothing of its violence, for you are looking out through a +sheltered opening in the woods, as through a window. In the immediate +foreground there is a forest of silver fir their foliage warm +yellow-green, and the snow beneath them strewn with their plumes, +plucked off by the storm; and beyond broad, ridgy, canyon-furrowed, +dome-dotted middle ground, darkened here and there with belts of pines, +you behold the lofty snow laden mountains in glorious array, waving +their banners with jubilant enthusiasm as if shouting aloud for joy. +They are twenty miles away, but you would not wish them nearer, for +every feature is distinct and the whole wonderful show is seen in its +right proportions, like a painting on the sky. + +And now after this general view, mark how sharply the ribs and +buttresses and summits of the mountains are defined, excepting the +portions veiled by the banners; how gracefully and nobly the banners +are waving in accord with the throbbing of the wind flood; how trimly +each is attached to the very summit of its peak like a streamer at a +mast-head; how bright and glowing white they are, and how finely their +fading fringes are penciled on the sky! See how solid white and opaque +they are at the point of attachment and how filmy and translucent toward +the end, so that the parts of the peaks past which they are streaming +look dim as if seen through a veil of ground glass. And see how some of +the longest of the banners on the highest peaks are streaming perfectly +free from peak to peak across intervening notches or passes, while +others overlap and partly hide one another. + +As to their formation, we find that the main causes of the wondrous +beauty and perfection of those we are looking at are the favorable +direction and force of the wind, the abundance of snow-dust, and the +form of the north sides of the peaks. In general, the north sides are +concave in both their horizontal and vertical sections, having been +sculptured into this shape by the residual glaciers that lingered in +the protecting northern shadows, while the sun-beaten south sides, +having never been subjected to this kind of glaciation, are convex or +irregular. It is essential, therefore, not only that the wind should +move with great velocity and steadiness to supply a sufficiently copious +and continuous stream of snow-dust, but that it should come from the +north. No perfect banner is ever hung on the Sierra peaks by the south +wind. Had the gale today blown from the south, leaving the other +conditions unchanged, only swirling, interfering, cloudy drifts would +have been produced; for the snow, instead of being spouted straight up +and over the tops of the peaks in condensed currents to be drawn out as +streamers, would have been driven over the convex southern slopes from +peak to peak like white pearly fog. + +It appears, therefore, that shadows in great part determine not only the +forms of lofty ice mountains, but also those of the snow banners that +the wild winds hang upon them. + + +Earthquake Storms + + +The avalanche taluses, leaning against the walls at intervals of a mile +or two, are among the most striking and interesting of the secondary +features of the Valley. They are from about three to five hundred feet +high, made up of huge, angular, well-preserved, unshifting boulders, and +instead of being slowly weathered from the cliffs like ordinary taluses, +they were all formed suddenly and simultaneously by a great earthquake +that occurred at least three centuries ago. And though thus hurled into +existence in a few seconds or minutes, they are the least changeable of +all the Sierra soil-beds. Excepting those which were launched directly +into the channels of swift rivers, scarcely one of their wedged and +interlacing boulders has moved since the day of their creation; and +though mostly made up of huge blocks of granite, many of them from ten +to fifty feet cube, weighing thousands of tons with only a few small +chips, trees and shrubs make out to live and thrive on them and even +delicate herbaceous plants--draperia, collomia, zauschneria, etc., +soothing and coloring their wild rugged slopes with gardens and groves. + +I was long in doubt on some points concerning the origin of those +taluses. Plainly enough they were derived from the cliffs above them, +because they are of the size of scars on the wall, the rough angular +surface of which contrasts with the rounded, glaciated, unfractured +parts. It was plain, too, that instead of being made up of material +slowly and gradually weathered from the cliffs like ordinary taluses, +almost every one of them had been formed suddenly in a single avalanche, +and had not been increased in size during the last three or four +centuries, for trees three or four hundred years old are growing on +them, some standing at the top close to the wall without a bruise or +broken branch, showing that scarcely a single boulder had ever fallen +among them. Furthermore, all these taluses throughout the Range seemed +by the trees and lichens growing on them to be of the same age. All +the phenomena thus pointed straight to a grand ancient earthquake. But +for years I left the question open, and went on from canyon to canyon, +observing again and again; measuring the heights of taluses throughout +the Range on both flanks, and the variations in the angles of their +surface slopes; studying the way their boulders had been assorted and +related and brought to rest, and their correspondence in size with the +cleavage joints of the cliffs from whence they were derived, cautious +about making up my mind. But at last all doubt as to their formation +vanished. + +At half-past two o'clock of a moonlit morning in March, I was awakened +by a tremendous earthquake, and though I had never before enjoyed a +storm of this sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, +and I ran out of my cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, "A noble +earthquake! A noble earthquake!" feeling sure I was going to learn +something. The shocks were so violent and varied, and succeeded one +another so closely, that I had to balance myself carefully in walking as +if on the deck of a ship among waves, and it seemed impossible that the +high cliffs of the Valley could escape being shattered. In particular, +I feared that the sheer-fronted Sentinel Rock, towering above my cabin, +would be shaken down, and I took shelter back of a large yellow pine, +hoping that it might protect me from at least the smaller outbounding +boulders. For a minute or two the shocks became more and more +violent--flashing horizontal thrusts mixed with a few twists and +battering, explosive, upheaving jolts,--as if Nature were wrecking her +Yosemite temple, and getting ready to build a still better one. + +I was now convinced before a single boulder had fallen that earthquakes +were the talus-makers and positive proof soon came. It was a calm +moonlight night, and no sound was heard for the first minute or so, save +low, muffled, underground, bubbling rumblings, and the whispering and +rustling of the agitated trees, as if Nature were holding her breath. +Then, suddenly, out of the strange silence and strange motion there came +a tremendous roar. The Eagle Rock on the south wall, about a half a mile +up the Valley, gave way and I saw it falling in thousands of the great +boulders I had so long been studying, pouring to the Valley floor +in a free curve luminous from friction, making a terribly sublime +spectacle--an arc of glowing, passionate fire, fifteen hundred feet +span, as true in form and as serene in beauty as a rainbow in the midst +of the stupendous, roaring rock-storm. The sound was so tremendously +deep and broad and earnest, the whole earth like a living creature +seemed to have at last found a voice and to be calling to her sister +planets. In trying to tell something of the size of this awful sound it +seems to me that if all the thunder of all the storms I had ever heard +were condensed into one roar it would not equal this rock-roar at the +birth of a mountain talus. Think, then, of the roar that arose to heaven +at the simultaneous birth of all the thousands of ancient canyon-taluses +throughout the length and breadth of the Range! + +The first severe shocks were soon over, and eager to examine the +new-born talus I ran up the Valley in the moonlight and climbed upon it +before the huge blocks, after their fiery flight, had come to complete +rest. They were slowly settling into their places, chafing, grating +against one another, groaning, and whispering; but no motion was visible +except in a stream of small fragments pattering down the face of the +cliff. A cloud of dust particles, lighted by the moon, floated out +across the whole breadth of the Valley, forming a ceiling that lasted +until after sunrise, and the air was filled with the odor of crushed +Douglas spruces from a grove that had been mowed down and mashed like +weeds. + +After the ground began to calm I ran across the meadow to the river to +see in what direction it was flowing and was glad to find that _down_ +the Valley was still down. Its waters were muddy from portions of its +banks having given way, but it was flowing around its curves and over +its ripples and shallows with ordinary tones and gestures. The mud would +soon be cleared away and the raw slips on the banks would be the only +visible record of the shaking it suffered. + +The Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing white in the moonlight, seemed to know +nothing of the earthquake, manifesting no change in form or voice, as +far as I could see or hear. + +After a second startling shock, about half-past three o'clock, the +ground continued to tremble gently, and smooth, hollow rumbling sounds, +not always distinguishable from the rounded, bumping, explosive tones of +the falls, came from deep in the mountains in a northern direction. + +The few Indians fled from their huts to the middle of the Valley, +fearing that angry spirits were trying to kill them; and, as I afterward +learned, most of the Yosemite tribe, who were spending the winter at +their village on Bull Creek forty miles away, were so terrified that +they ran into the river and washed themselves,--getting themselves clean +enough to say their prayers, I suppose, or to die. I asked Dick, one of +the Indians with whom I was acquainted, "What made the ground shake and +jump so much?" He only shook his head and said, "No good. No good," and +looked appealingly to me to give him hope that his life was to be +spared. + +In the morning I found the few white settlers assembled in front of +the old Hutchings Hotel comparing notes and meditating flight to the +lowlands, seemingly as sorely frightened as the Indians. Shortly after +sunrise a low, blunt, muffled rumbling, like distant thunder, was +followed by another series of shocks, which, though not nearly so severe +as the first, made the cliffs and domes tremble like jelly, and the big +pines and oaks thrill and swish and wave their branches with startling +effect. Then the talkers were suddenly hushed, and the solemnity on +their faces was sublime. One in particular of these winter neighbors, a +somewhat speculative thinker with whom I had often conversed, was a firm +believer in the cataclysmic origin of the Valley; and I now jokingly +remarked that his wild tumble-down-and-engulfment hypothesis might soon +be proved, since these underground rumblings and shakings might be the +forerunners of another Yosemite-making cataclysm, which would perhaps +double the depth of the Valley by swallowing the floor, leaving the ends +of the roads and trails dangling three or four thousand feet in the air. +Just then came the third series of shocks, and it was fine to see how +awfully silent and solemn he became. His belief in the existence of a +mysterious abyss, into which the suspended floor of the Valley and all +the domes and battlements of the walls might at any moment go roaring +down, mightily troubled him. To diminish his fears and laugh him into +something like reasonable faith, I said, "Come, cheer up; smile a little +and clap your hands, now that kind Mother Earth is trotting us on her +knee to amuse us and make us good." But the well-meant joke seemed +irreverent and utterly failed, as if only prayerful terror could rightly +belong to the wild beauty-making business. Even after all the heavier +shocks were over I could do nothing to reassure him, on the contrary, +he handed me the keys of his little store to keep, saying that with a +companion of like mind he was going to the lowlands to stay until the +fate of poor, trembling Yosemite was settled. In vain I rallied them on +their fears, calling attention to the strength of the granite walls of +our Valley home, the very best and solidest masonry in the world, and +less likely to collapse and sink than the sedimentary lowlands to which +they were looking for safety; and saying that in any case they sometime +would have to die, and so grand a burial was not to be slighted. But +they were too seriously panic-stricken to get comfort from anything I +could say. + +During the third severe shock the trees were so violently shaken that +the birds flew out with frightened cries. In particular, I noticed two +robins flying in terror from a leafless oak, the branches of which +swished and quivered as if struck by a heavy battering-ram. Exceedingly +interesting were the flashing and quivering of the elastic needles of +the pines in the sunlight and the waving up and down of the branches +while the trunks stood rigid. There was no swaying, waving or swirling +as in wind-storms, but quick, quivering jerks, and at times the heavy +tasseled branches moved as if they had all been pressed down against the +trunk and suddenly let go, to spring up and vibrate until they came to +rest again. Only the owls seemed to be undisturbed. Before the rumbling +echoes had died away a hollow-voiced owl began to hoot in philosophical +tranquillity from near the edge of the new talus as if nothing +extraordinary had occurred, although, perhaps, he was curious to know +what all the noise was about. His "hoot-too-hoot-too-whoo" might have +meant, "what's a' the steer, kimmer?" + +It was long before the Valley found perfect rest. The rocks trembled +more or less every day for over two months, and I kept a bucket of water +on my table to learn what I could of the movements. The blunt thunder +in the depths of the mountains was usually followed by sudden jarring, +horizontal thrusts from the northward, often succeeded by twisting, +upjolting movements. More than a month after the first great shock, when +I was standing on a fallen tree up the Valley near Lamon's winter cabin, +I heard a distinct bubbling thunder from the direction of Tenaya Canyon +Carlo, a large intelligent St. Bernard dog standing beside me seemed +greatly astonished, and looked intently in that direction with mouth +open and uttered a low _Wouf!_ as if saying, "What's that?" He +must have known that it was not thunder, though like it. The air was +perfectly still, not the faintest breath of wind perceptible, and a +fine, mellow, sunny hush pervaded everything, in the midst of which came +that subterranean thunder. Then, while we gazed and listened, came the +corresponding shocks, distinct as if some mighty hand had shaken the +ground. After the sharp horizontal jars died away, they were followed +by a gentle rocking and undulating of the ground so distinct that Carlo +looked at the log on which he was standing to see who was shaking it. It +was the season of flooded meadows and the pools about me, calm as sheets +of glass, were suddenly thrown into low ruffling waves. + +Judging by its effects, this Yosemite, or Inyo earthquake, as it is +sometimes called, was gentle as compared with the one that gave rise +to the grand talus system of the Range and did so much for the canyon +scenery. Nature, usually so deliberate in her operations, then created, +as we have seen, a new set of features, simply by giving the mountains +a shake--changing not only the high peaks and cliffs, but the streams. +As soon as these rock avalanches fell the streams began to sing new +songs; for in many places thousands of boulders were hurled into their +channels, roughening and half-damming them, compelling the waters to +surge and roar in rapids where before they glided smoothly. Some of +the streams were completely dammed; driftwood, leaves, etc., gradually +filling the interstices between the boulders, thus giving rise to lakes +and level reaches; and these again, after being gradually filled in, +were changed to meadows, through which the streams are now silently +meandering; while at the same time some of the taluses took the places +of old meadows and groves. Thus rough places were made smooth, and +smooth places rough. But, on the whole, by what at first sight seemed +pure confounded confusion and ruin, the landscapes were enriched; for +gradually every talus was covered with groves and gardens, and made a +finely proportioned and ornamental base for the cliffs. In this work of +beauty, every boulder is prepared and measured and put in its place more +thoughtfully than are the stones of temples. If for a moment you are +inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb +to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering +hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You +will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly discover the music +and poetry of these magnificent rock piles--a fine lesson; and all +Nature's wildness tells the same story--the shocks and outbursts of +earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, +the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort--each and all +are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of Nature's heart. + + + +Chapter 5 + +The Trees of the Valley + + +The most influential of the Valley trees is the yellow pine (Pinus +ponderosa). It attains its noblest dimensions on beds of water-washed, +coarsely-stratified moraine material, between the talus slopes and +meadows, dry on the surface, well-watered below and where not too +closely assembled in groves the branches reach nearly to the ground, +forming grand spires 200 to 220 feet in height. The largest that I have +measured is standing alone almost opposite the Sentinel Rock, or a +little to the westward of it. It is a little over eight feet in diameter +and about 220 feet high. Climbing these grand trees, especially when +they are waving and singing in worship in wind-storms, is a glorious +experience. Ascending from the lowest branch to the topmost is like +stepping up stairs through a blaze of white light, every needle +thrilling and shining as if with religious ecstasy. + +Unfortunately there are but few sugar pines in the Valley, though in +the King's yosemite they are in glorious abundance. The incense cedar +(Libocedrus decurrens) with cinnamon-colored bark and yellow-green +foliage is one of the most interesting of the Yosemite trees. Some of +them are 150 feet high, from six to ten feet in diameter, and they are +never out of sight as you saunter among the yellow pines. Their bright +brown shafts and towers of flat, frondlike branches make a striking +feature of the landscapes throughout all the seasons. In midwinter, when +most of the other trees are asleep, this cedar puts forth its flowers +in millions,--the pistillate pale green and inconspicuous, but the +staminate bright yellow, tingeing all the branches and making the trees +as they stand in the snow look like gigantic goldenrods. The branches, +outspread in flat plumes and, beautifully fronded, sweep gracefully +downward and outward, except those near the top, which aspire; the +lowest, especially in youth and middle age, droop to the ground, +overlapping one another, shedding off rain and snow like shingles, and +making fine tents for birds and campers. This tree frequently lives more +than a thousand years and is well worthy its place beside the great +pines and the Douglas spruce. + +The two largest specimens I know of the Douglas spruce, about eight feet +in diameter, are growing at the foot of the Liberty Cap near the Nevada +Fall, and on the terminal moraine of the small residual glacier that +lingered in the shady Illilouette Canyon. + +After the conifers, the most important of the Yosemite trees are the +oaks, two species; the California live-oak (Quercus agrifolia), with +black trunks, reaching a thickness of from four to nearly seven feet, +wide spreading branches and bright deeply-scalloped leaves. It occupies +the greater part of the broad sandy flats of the upper end of the +Valley, and is the species that yields the acorns so highly prized by +the Indians and woodpeckers. + +The other species is the mountain live-oak, or goldcup oak (Quercus +chrysolepis), a sturdy mountaineer of a tree, growing mostly on the +earthquake taluses and benches of the sunny north wall of the Valley. +In tough, unwedgeable, knotty strength, it is the oak of oaks, a +magnificent tree. + +The largest and most picturesque specimen in the Valley is near the foot +of the Tenaya Fall, a romantic spot seldom seen on account of the rough +trouble of getting to it. It is planted on three huge boulders and yet +manages to draw sufficient moisture and food from this craggy soil to +maintain itself in good health. It is twenty feet in circumference, +measured above a large branch between three and four feet in diameter +that has been broken off. The main knotty trunk seems to be made up of +craggy granite boulders like those on which it stands, being about the +same color as the mossy, lichened boulders and about as rough. Two +moss-lined caves near the ground open back into the trunk, one on the +north side, the other on the west, forming picturesque, romantic seats. +The largest of the main branches is eighteen feet and nine inches in +circumference, and some of the long pendulous branchlets droop over the +stream at the foot of the fall where it is gray with spray. The leaves +are glossy yellow-green, ever in motion from the wind from the fall. It +is a fine place to dream in, with falls, cascades, cool rocks lined with +hypnum three inches thick; shaded with maple, dogwood, alder, willow; +grand clumps of lady-ferns where no hand may touch them; light filtering +through translucent leaves; oaks fifty feet high; lilies eight feet high +in a filled lake basin near by, and the finest libocedrus groves and +tallest ferns and goldenrods. + +In the main river canyon below the Vernal Fall and on the shady south +side of the Valley there are a few groves of the silver fir (Abies +concolor), and superb forests of the magnificent species round the rim +of the Valley. + +On the tops of the domes is found the sturdy, storm-enduring red cedar +(Juniperus occidentalis). It never makes anything like a forest here, +but stands out separate and independent in the wind, clinging by slight +joints to the rock, with scarce a handful of soil in sight of it, +seeming to depend chiefly on snow and air for nourishment, and yet it +has maintained tough health on this diet for two thousand years or more. +The largest hereabouts are from five to six feet in diameter and fifty +feet in height. + +The principal river-side trees are poplar, alder, willow, broad-leaved +maple, and Nuttall's flowering dogwood. The poplar (Populus +trichocarpa), often called balm-of-Gilead from the gum on its buds, is +a tall tree, towering above its companions and gracefully embowering +the banks of the river. Its abundant foliage turns bright yellow in the +fall, and the Indian-summer sunshine sifts through it in delightful +tones over the slow-gliding waters when they are at their lowest ebb. + +Some of the involucres of the flowering dogwood measure six to eight +inches in diameter, and the whole tree when in flower looks as if +covered with snow. In the spring when the streams are in flood it is the +whitest of trees. In Indian summer the leaves become bright crimson, +making a still grander show than the flowers. + +The broad-leaved maple and mountain maple are found mostly in the cool +canyons at the head of the Valley, spreading their branches in beautiful +arches over the foaming streams. + +Scattered here and there are a few other trees, mostly small--the +mountain mahogany, cherry, chestnut-oak, and laurel. The California +nutmeg (Torreya californica), a handsome evergreen belonging to the +yew family, forms small groves near the cascades a mile or two below +the foot of the Valley. + + + +Chapter 6 + +The Forest Trees in General + + +For the use of the ever-increasing number of Yosemite visitors who make +extensive excursions into the mountains beyond the Valley, a sketch of +the forest trees in general will probably be found useful. The different +species are arranged in zones and sections, which brings the forest as +a whole within the comprehension of every observer. These species are +always found as controlled by the climates of different elevations, +by soil and by the comparative strength of each species in taking and +holding possession of the ground; and so appreciable are these relations +the traveler need never be at a loss in determining within a few +hundred feet his elevation above sea level by the trees alone; for, +notwithstanding some of the species range upward for several thousand +feet and all pass one another more or less, yet even those species +possessing the greatest vertical range are available in measuring +the elevation; inasmuch as they take on new forms corresponding with +variations in altitude. Entering the lower fringe of the forest composed +of Douglas oaks and Sabine pines, the trees grow so far apart that not +one-twentieth of the surface of the ground is in shade at noon. After +advancing fifteen or twenty miles towards Yosemite and making an ascent +of from two to three thousand feet you reach the lower margin of the +main pine belt, composed of great sugar pine, yellow pine, incense cedar +and sequoia. Next you come to the magnificent silver-fir belt and lastly +to the upper pine belt, which sweep up to the feet of the summit peaks +in a dwarfed fringe, to a height of from ten to twelve thousand feet. +That this general order of distribution depends on climate as affected +by height above the sea, is seen at once, but there are other harmonies +that become manifest only after observation and study. One of the most +interesting of these is the arrangement of the forest in long curving +bands, braided together into lace-like patterns in some places and +out-spread in charming variety. The key to these striking arrangements +is the system of ancient glaciers; where they flowed the trees followed, +tracing their courses along the sides of canyons, over ridges, and high +plateaus. The cedar of Lebanon, said Sir Joseph Hooker, occurs upon one +of the moraines of an ancient glacier. All the forests of the Sierra are +growing upon moraines, but moraines vanish like the glaciers that make +them. Every storm that falls upon them wastes them, carrying away their +decaying, disintegrating material into new formations, until they are no +longer recognizable without tracing their transitional forms down the +Range from those still in process of formation in some places through +those that are more and more ancient and more obscured by vegetation and +all kinds of post-glacial weathering. It appears, therefore, that the +Sierra forests indicate the extent and positions of ancient moraines as +well as they do belts of climate. + +One will have no difficulty in knowing the Nut Pine (Pinus Sabiniana), +for it is the first conifer met in ascending the Range from the west, +springing up here and there among Douglas oaks and thickets of ceanothus +and manzanita; its extreme upper limit being about 4000 feet above the +sea, its lower about from 500 to 800 feet. It is remarkable for its +loose, airy, wide-branching habit and thin gray foliage. Full-grown +specimens are from forty to fifty feet in height and from two to three +feet in diameter. The trunk usually divides into three or four main +branches about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground that, after +bearing away from one another, shoot straight up and form separate +summits. Their slender, grayish needles are from eight to twelve inches +long, and inclined to droop, contrasting with the rigid, dark-colored +trunk and branches. No other tree of my acquaintance so substantial in +its body has foliage so thin and pervious to the light. The cones are +from five to eight inches long and about as large in thickness; rich +chocolate-brown in color and protected by strong, down-curving nooks +which terminate the scales. Nevertheless the little Douglas Squirrel can +open them. Indians climb the trees like bears and beat off the cones or +recklessly cut off the more fruitful branches with hatchets, while the +squaws gather and roast them until the scales open sufficiently to +allow the hard-shell seeds to be beaten out. The curious little Pinus +attenuata is found at an elevation of from 1500 to 3000 feet, growing in +close groves and belts. It is exceedingly slender and graceful, although +trees that chance to stand alone send out very long, curved branches, +making a striking contrast to the ordinary grove form. The foliage is of +the same peculiar gray-green color as that of the nut pine, and is worn +about as loosely, so that the body of the tree is scarcely obscured +by it. At the age of seven or eight years it begins to bear cones in +whorls on the main axis, and as they never fall off, the trunk is soon +picturesquely dotted with them. Branches also soon become fruitful. The +average size of the tree is about thirty or forty feet in height and +twelve to fourteen inches in diameter. The cones are about four inches +long and covered with a sort of varnish and gum, rendering them +impervious to moisture. + +No observer can fail to notice the admirable adaptation of this curious +pine to the fire-swept regions where alone it is found. After a running +fire has scorched and killed it the cones open and the ground beneath it +is then sown broadcast with all the seeds ripened during its whole life. +Then up spring a crowd of bright, hopeful seedlings, giving beauty for +ashes in lavish abundance. + + +The Sugar Pine, King Of Pine Trees + + +Of all the world's eighty or ninety species of pine trees, the Sugar +Pine (Pinus Lambertiana) is king, surpassing all others, not merely in +size but in lordly beauty and majesty. In the Yosemite region it grows +at an elevation of from 3000 to 7000 feet above the sea and attains +most perfect development at a height of about 5000 feet. The largest +specimens are commonly about 220 feet high and from six to eight feet +in diameter four feet from the ground, though some grand old patriarch +may be met here and there that has enjoyed six or eight centuries of +storms and attained a thickness of ten or even twelve feet, still sweet +and fresh in every fiber. The trunk is a remarkably smooth, round, +delicately-tapered shaft, straight and regular as if turned in a lathe, +mostly without limbs, purplish brown in color and usually enlivened with +tufts of a yellow lichen. Toward the head of this magnificent column +long branches sweep gracefully outward and downward, sometimes forming +a palm-like crown, but far more impressive than any palm crown I ever +beheld. The needles are about three inches long in fascicles of five, +and arranged in rather close tassels at the ends of slender branchlets +that clothe the long outsweeping limbs. How well they sing in the wind, +and how strikingly harmonious an effect is made by the long cylindrical +cones, depending loosely from the ends of the long branches! The cones +are about fifteen to eighteen inches long, and three in diameter; +green, shaded with dark purple on their sunward sides. They are ripe in +September and October of the second year from the flower. Then the flat, +thin scales open and the seeds take wing, but the empty cones become +still more beautiful and effective as decorations, for their diameter is +nearly doubled by the spreading of the scales, and their color changes +to yellowish brown while they remain, swinging on the tree all the +following winter and summer, and continue effectively beautiful even on +the ground many years after they fall. The wood is deliciously fragrant, +fine in grain and texture and creamy yellow, as if formed of condensed +sunbeams. The sugar from which the common name is derived is, I think, +the best of sweets. It exudes from the heart-wood where wounds have been +made by forest fires or the ax, and forms irregular, crisp, candy-like +kernels of considerable size, something like clusters of resin beads. +When fresh it is white, but because most of the wounds on which it is +found have been made by fire the sap is stained and the hardened sugar +becomes brown. Indians are fond of it, but on account of its laxative +properties only small quantities may be eaten. No tree lover will ever +forget his first meeting with the sugar pine. In most pine trees there +is the sameness of expression which to most people is apt to become +monotonous, for the typical spiral form of conifers, however beautiful, +affords little scope for appreciable individual character. The sugar +pine is as free from conventionalities as the most picturesque oaks. No +two are alike, and though they toss out their immense arms in what might +seem extravagant gestures they never lose their expression of serene +majesty. They are the priests of pines and seem ever to be addressing +the surrounding forest. The yellow pine is found growing with them on +warm hillsides, and the silver fir on cool northern slopes but, noble +as these are, the sugar pine is easily king, and spreads his arms above +them in blessing while they rock and wave in sign of recognition. The +main branches are sometimes forty feet long, yet persistently simple, +seldom dividing at all, excepting near the end; but anything like a +bare cable appearance is prevented by the small, tasseled branchlets +that extend all around them; and when these superb limbs sweep out +symmetrically on all sides, a crown sixty or seventy feet wide is +formed, which, gracefully poised on the summit of the noble shaft, is +a glorious object. Commonly, however, there is a preponderance of +limbs toward the east, away from the direction of the prevailing winds. + +Although so unconventional when full-grown, the sugar pine is a +remarkably proper tree in youth--a strict follower of coniferous +fashions--slim, erect, with leafy branches kept exactly in place, each +tapering in outline and terminating in a spiry point. The successive +forms between the cautious neatness of youth and the bold freedom of +maturity offer a delightful study. At the age of fifty or sixty years, +the shy, fashionable form begins to be broken up. Specialized branches +push out and bend with the great cones, giving individual character, +that becomes more marked from year to year. Its most constant companion +is the yellow pine. The Douglas spruce, libocedrus, sequoia, and the +silver fir are also more or less associated with it; but on many +deep-soiled mountain-sides, at an elevation of about 5000 feet above the +sea, it forms the bulk of the forest, filling every swell and hollow and +down-plunging ravine. The majestic crowns, approaching each other in +bold curves, make a glorious canopy through which the tempered sunbeams +pour, silvering the needles, and gilding the massive boles and the +flowery, park-like ground into a scene of enchantment. On the most sunny +slopes the white-flowered, fragrant chamaebatia is spread like a carpet, +brightened during early summer with the crimson sarcodes, the wild rose, +and innumerable violets and gilias. Not even in the shadiest nooks will +you find any rank, untidy weeds or unwholesome darkness. In the north +sides of ridges the boles are more slender, and the ground is mostly +occupied by an underbrush of hazel, ceanothus, and flowering dogwood, +but not so densely as to prevent the traveler from sauntering where he +will; while the crowning branches are never impenetrable to the rays of +the sun, and never so interblended as to lose their individuality. + + +The Yellow Or Silver Pine + + +The Silver Pine (Pinus ponderosa), or Yellow Pine, as it is commonly +called, ranks second among the pines of the Sierra as a lumber tree, and +almost rivals the sugar pine in stature and nobleness of port. Because +of its superior powers of enduring variations of climate and soil, it +has a more extensive range than any other conifer growing on the Sierra. +On the western slope it is first met at an elevation of about 2000 feet, +and extends nearly to the upper limit of the timber-line. Thence, +crossing the range by the lowest passes, it descends to the eastern +base, and pushes out for a considerable distance into the hot, volcanic +plains, growing bravely upon well-watered moraines, gravelly lake +basins, climbing old volcanoes and dropping ripe cones among ashes and +cinders. + +The average size of full-grown trees on the western slope where it is +associated with the sugar pine, is a little less than 200 feet in height +and from five to six feet in diameter, though specimens considerably +larger may easily be found. Where there is plenty of free sunshine and +other conditions are favorable, it presents a striking contrast in form +to the sugar pine, being a symmetrical spire, formed of a straight round +trunk, clad with innumerable branches that are divided over and over +again. Unlike the Yosemite form about one-half of the trunk is commonly +branchless, but where it grows at all close three-fourths or more is +naked, presenting then a more slender and elegant shaft than any other +tree in the woods. The bark is mostly arranged in massive plates, some +of them measuring four or five feet in length by eighteen inches in +width, with a thickness of three or four inches, forming a quite +marked and distinguishing feature. The needles are of a fine, warm, +yellow-green color, six to eight inches long, firm and elastic, and +crowded in handsome, radiant tassels on the upturning ends of the +branches. The cones are about three or four inches long, and two and +a half wide, growing in close, sessile clusters among the leaves. + +The species attains its noblest form in filled-up lake basins, +especially in those of the older yosemites, and as we have seen, so +prominent a part does it form of their groves that it may well be called +the Yosemite Pine. + +The Jeffrey variety attains its finest development in the northern +portion of the Range, in the wide basins of the McCloud and Pitt Rivers, +where it forms magnificent forests scarcely invaded by any other tree. +It differs from the ordinary form in size, being only about half as tall, +in its redder and more closely-furrowed bark grayish-green foliage, less +divided branches, and much larger cones; but intermediate forms come in +which make a clear separation impossible, although some botanists regard +it as a distinct species. It is this variety of ponderosa that climbs +storm-swept ridges alone, and wanders out among the volcanoes of the +Great Basin. Whether exposed to extremes of heat or cold, it is dwarfed +like many other trees, and becomes all knots and angles, wholly unlike +the majestic forms we have been sketching. Old specimens, bearing cones +about as big as pineapples, may sometimes be found clinging to rifted +rocks at an elevation of 7000 or 8000 feet, whose highest branches +scarce reach above one's shoulders. + +I have often feasted on the beauty of these noble trees when they were +towering in all their winter grandeur, laden with snow--one mass of +bloom; in summer, too, when the brown, staminate clusters hang thick +among the shimmering needles, and the big purple burrs are ripening in +the mellow light; but it is during cloudless wind-storms that these +colossal pines are most impressively beautiful. Then they bow like +willows, their leaves streaming forward all in one direction, and, when +the sun shines upon them at the required angle, entire groves glow as if +every leaf were burnished silver. The fall of tropic light on the crown +of a palm is a truly glorious spectacle, the fervid sun-flood breaking +upon the glossy leaves in long lance-rays, like mountain water among +boulders at the foot of an enthusiastic cataract. But to me there is +something more impressive in the fall of light upon these noble, silver +pine pillars: it is beaten to the finest dust and shed off in myriads +of minute sparkles that seem to radiate from the very heart of the tree +as if like rain, falling upon fertile soil, it had been absorbed to +reappear in flowers of light. This species also gives forth the finest +wind music. After listening to it in all kinds of winds, night and +day, season after season, I think I could approximate to my position +on the mountain by this pine music alone. If you would catch the tone +of separate needles climb a tree in breezy weather. Every needle is +carefully tempered and gives forth no uncertain sound each standing out +with no interference excepting during head gales; then you may detect +the click of one needle upon another, readily distinguishable from the +free wind-like hum. + +When a sugar pine and one of this species equal in size are observed +together, the latter is seen to be more simple in manners, more lively +and graceful, and its beauty is of a kind more easily appreciated; on +the other hand it is less dignified and original in demeanor. The yellow +pine seems ever eager to shoot aloft, higher and higher. Even while it +is drowsing in autumn sun-gold you may still detect a skyward +aspiration, but the sugar pine seems too unconsciously noble and too +complete in every way to leave room for even a heavenward care. + + +The Douglas Spruce + + +The Douglas Spruce (Pseudotsuga Douglasii) is one of the largest and +longest-lived of the giants that flourish throughout the main pine belt, +often attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of six or +seven feet. Where the growth is not too close, the stout, spreading +branches, covering more than half of the trunk, are hung with +innumerable slender, drooping sprays, handsomely feathered with the +short leaves which radiate at right angles all around them. This +vigorous tree is ever beautiful, welcoming the mountain winds and the +snow as well as the mellow summer light; and it maintains its youthful +freshness undiminished from century to century through a thousand +storms. It makes its finest appearance during the months of June and +July, when the brown buds at the ends of the sprays swell and open, +revealing the young leaves, which at first are bright yellow, making the +tree appear as if covered with gay blossoms; while the pendulous bracted +cones, three or four inches long, with their shell-like scales, are a +constant adornment. + +The young trees usually are assembled in family groups, each sapling +exquisitely symmetrical. The primary branches are whorled regularly +around the axis, generally in fives, while each is draped with long, +feathery sprays that descend in lines as free and as finely drawn as +those of falling water. + +In Oregon and Washington it forms immense forests, growing tall and +mast-like to a height of 300 feet, and is greatly prized as a lumber +tree. Here it is scattered among other trees, or forms small groves, +seldom ascending higher than 5500 feet, and never making what would be +called a forest. It is not particular in its choice of soil: wet or dry, +smooth or rocky, it makes out to live well on them all. Two of the +largest specimens, as we have seen, are in Yosemite; one of these, more +than eight feet in diameter, is growing on a moraine; the other, nearly +as large, on angular blocks of granite. No other tree in the Sierra +seems so much at home on earthquake taluses and many of these huge +boulder-slopes are almost exclusively occupied by it. + + +The Incense Cedar + + +Incense Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens), already noticed among the Yosemite +trees, is quite generally distributed throughout the pine belt without +exclusively occupying any considerable area, or even making extensive +groves. On the warmer mountain slopes it ascends to about 5000 feet, and +reaches the climate most congenial to it at a height of about 4000 feet, +growing vigorously at this elevation in all kinds of soil and, in +particular, it is capable of enduring more moisture about its roots +than any of its companions excepting only the sequoia. + +Casting your eye over the general forest from some ridge-top you +can identify it by the color alone of its spiry summits, a warm +yellow-green. In its youth up to the age of seventy or eighty years, +none of its companions forms so strictly tapered a cone from top to +bottom. As it becomes older it oftentimes grows strikingly irregular +and picturesque. Large branches push out at right angles to the trunk, +forming stubborn elbows and shoot up parallel with the axis. Very +old trees are usually dead at the top. The flat fragrant plumes are +exceedingly beautiful: no waving fern-frond is finer in form and +texture. In its prime the whole tree is thatched with them, but if you +would see the libocedrus in all its glory you must go to the woods in +midwinter when it is laden with myriads of yellow flowers about the +size of wheat grains, forming a noble illustration of Nature's immortal +virility and vigor. The mature cones, about three-fourths of an inch +long, born on the ends of the plumy branchlets, serve to enrich still +more the surpassing beauty of this winter-blooming tree-goldenrod. + + +The Silver Firs + + +We come now to the most regularly planted and most clearly defined +of the main forest belts, composed almost exclusively of two Silver +Firs--Abies concolor and Abies magnifica--extending with but little +interruption 450 miles at an elevation of from 5000 to 9000 feet above +the sea. In its youth A. concolor is a charmingly symmetrical tree +with its flat plumy branches arranged in regular whorls around the +whitish-gray axis which terminates in a stout, hopeful shoot, pointing +straight to the zenith, like an admonishing finger. The leaves are +arranged in two horizontal rows along branchlets that commonly are less +than eight years old, forming handsome plumes, pinnated like the fronds +of ferns. The cones are grayish-green when ripe, cylindrical, from three +to four inches long, and one and a half to two inches wide, and stand +upright on the upper horizontal branches. Full-grown trees in favorable +situations are usually about 200 feet high and five or six feet in +diameter. As old age creeps on, the rough bark becomes rougher and +grayer, the branches lose their exact regularity of form, many that are +snow-bent are broken off and the axis often becomes double or otherwise +irregular from accidents to the terminal bud or shoot. Nevertheless, +throughout all the vicissitudes of its three or four centuries of life, +come what may, the noble grandeur of this species, however obscured, is +never lost. + +The magnificent Silver Fir, or California Red Fir (Abies magnifica) +is the most symmetrical of all the Sierra giants, far surpassing its +companion species in this respect and easily distinguished from it by +the purplish-red bark, which is also more closely furrowed than that +of the white, and by its larger cones, its more regularly whorled and +fronded branches, and its shorter leaves, which grow all around the +branches and point upward instead of being arranged in two horizontal +rows. The branches are mostly whorled in fives, and stand out from the +straight, red-purple bole in level, or in old trees in drooping collars, +every branch regularly pinnated like fern-fronds, making broad plumes, +singularly rich and sumptuous-looking. The flowers are in their prime +about the middle of June; the male red, growing on the underside of the +branches in crowded profusion, giving a very rich color to all the +trees; the female greenish-yellow, tinged with pink, standing erect on +the upper side of the topmost branches, while the tufts of young leaves, +about as brightly colored as those of the Douglas spruce, make another +grand show. The cones mature in a single season from the flowers. When +mature they are about six to eight inches long, three or four in +diameter, covered with a fine gray down and streaked and beaded with +transparent balsam, very rich and precious-looking, and stand erect like +casks on the topmost branches. The inside of the cone is, if possible, +still more beautiful. The scales and bracts are tinged with red and the +seed-wings are purple with bright iridescence. Both of the silver firs +live between two and three centuries when the conditions about them +are at all favorable. Some venerable patriarch may be seen heavily +storm-marked, towering in severe majesty above the rising generation, +with a protecting grove of hopeful saplings pressing close around his +feet, each dressed with such loving care that not a leaf seems wanting. +Other groups are made up of trees near the prime of life, nicely +arranged as if Nature had culled them with discrimination from all +the rest of the woods. It is from this tree, called Red Fir by the +lumbermen, that mountaineers cut boughs to sleep on when they are so +fortunate as to be within its limit. Two or three rows of the sumptuous +plushy-fronded branches, overlapping along the middle, and a crescent of +smaller plumes mixed to one's taste with ferns and flowers for a pillow, +form the very best bed imaginable. The essence of the pressed leaves +seems to fill every pore of one's body. Falling water makes a soothing +hush, while the spaces between the grand spires afford noble openings +through which to gaze dreamily into the starry sky. The fir woods are +fine sauntering-grounds at almost any time of the year, but finest in +autumn when the noble trees are hushed in the hazy light and drip with +balsam; and the flying, whirling seeds, escaping from the ripe cones, +mottle the air like flocks of butterflies. Even in the richest part of +these unrivaled forests where so many noble trees challenge admiration +we linger fondly among the colossal firs and extol their beauty again +and again, as if no other tree in the world could henceforth claim our +love. It is in these woods the great granite domes arise that are so +striking and characteristic a feature of the Sierra. Here, too, we find +the best of the garden-meadows full of lilies. A dry spot a little +way back from the margin of a silver fir lily-garden makes a glorious +camp-ground, especially where the slope is toward the east with a view +of the distant peaks along the summit of the Range. The tall lilies are +brought forward most impressively like visitors by the light of your +camp-fire and the nearest of the trees with their whorled branches tower +above you like larger lilies and the sky seen through the garden-opening +seems one vast meadow of white lily stars. + + +The Two-Leaved Pine + + +The Two-Leaved Pine (Pinus contorta, var. Murrayana), above the Silver +Fir zone, forms the bulk of the alpine forests up to a height of from +8000 to 9500 feet above the sea, growing in beautiful order on moraines +scarcely changed as yet by post-glacial weathering. Compared with the +giants of the lower regions this is a small tree, seldom exceeding a +height of eighty or ninety feet. The largest I ever measured was ninety +feet high and a little over six feet in diameter. The average height of +mature trees throughout the entire belt is probably not far from fifty +or sixty feet with a diameter of two feet. It is a well-proportioned, +rather handsome tree with grayish-brown bark and crooked, much-divided +branches which cover the greater part of the trunk, but not so densely +as to prevent it being seen. The lower limbs, like those of most other +conifers that grow in snowy regions, curve downward, gradually take a +horizontal position about half-way up the trunk, then aspire more and +more toward the summit. The short, rigid needles in fascicles of two are +arranged in comparatively long cylindrical tassels at the ends of the +tough up-curving branches. The cones are about two inches long, growing +in clusters among the needles without any striking effect except while +very young, when the flowers are of a vivid crimson color and the whole +tree appears to be dotted with brilliant flowers. The staminate flowers +are still more showy on account of their great abundance, often giving a +reddish-yellow tinge to the whole mass of foliage and filling the air +with pollen. No other pine on the Range is so regularly planted as this +one, covering moraines that extend along the sides of the high rocky +valleys for miles without interruption. The thin bark is streaked and +sprinkled with resin as though it had been showered upon the forest like +rain. + +Therefore this tree more than any other is subject to destruction by +fire. During strong winds extensive forests are destroyed, the flames +leaping from tree to tree in continuous belts that go surging and racing +onward above the bending wood like prairie-grass fires. During the +calm season of Indian summer the fire creeps quietly along the ground, +feeding on the needles and cones; arriving at the foot of a tree, the +resiny bark is ignited and the heated air ascends in a swift current, +increasing in velocity and dragging the flames upward. Then the leaves +catch forming an immense column of fire, beautifully spired on the edges +and tinted a rose-purple hue. It rushes aloft thirty or forty feet above +the top of the tree, forming a grand spectacle, especially at night. It +lasts, however, only a few seconds, vanishing with magical rapidity, to +be succeeded by others along the fire-line at irregular intervals, tree +after tree, upflashing and darting, leaving the trunks and branches +scarcely scarred. The heat, however, is sufficient to kill the tree and +in a few years the bark shrivels and falls off. Forests miles in extent +are thus killed and left standing, with the branches on, but peeled +and rigid, appearing gray in the distance like misty clouds. Later the +branches drop off, leaving a forest of bleached spars. At length the +roots decay and the forlorn gray trunks are blown down during some +storm and piled one upon another, encumbering the ground until, dry and +seasoned, they are consumed by another fire and leave the ground ready +for a fresh crop. + +In sheltered lake-hollows, on beds of alluvium, this pine varies so far +from the common form that frequently it could be taken for a distinct +species, growing in damp sods like grasses from forty to eighty feet +high, bending all together to the breeze and whirling in eddying gusts +more lively than any other tree in the woods. I frequently found +specimens fifty feet high less than five inches in diameter. Being so +slender and at the same time clad with leafy boughs, it is often bent +and weighed down to the ground when laden with soft snow; thus forming +fine ornamental arches, many of them to last until the melting of the +snow in the spring. + + +The Mountain Pine + + +The Mountain Pine (Pinus monticola) is the noblest tree of the alpine +zone--hardy and long-lived towering grandly above its companions and +becoming stronger and more imposing just where other species begin to +crouch and disappear. At its best it is usually about ninety feet high +and five or six feet in diameter, though you may find specimens here and +there considerably larger than this. It is as massive and suggestive of +enduring strength as an oak. About two-thirds of the trunk is commonly +free of limbs, but close, fringy tufts of spray occur nearly all the way +down to the ground. On trees that occupy exposed situations near its +upper limit the bark is deep reddish-brown and rather deeply furrowed, +the main furrows running nearly parallel to each other and connected on +the old trees by conspicuous cross-furrows. The cones are from four to +eight inches long, smooth, slender, cylindrical and somewhat curved. +They grow in clusters of from three to six or seven and become pendulous +as they increase in weight. This species is nearly related to the sugar +pine and, though not half so tall, it suggests its noble relative in the +way that it extends its long branches in general habit. It is first met +on the upper margin of the silver fir zone, singly, in what appears as +chance situations without making much impression on the general forest. +Continuing up through the forests of the two-leaved pine it begins to +show its distinguishing characteristic in the most marked way at an +elevation of about 10,000 feet extending its tough, rather slender arms +in the frosty air, welcoming the storms and feeding on them and reaching +sometimes to the grand old age of 1000 years. + + +The Western Juniper + + +The Juniper or Red Cedar (Juniperus occidentalis) is preeminently a +rock tree, occupying the baldest domes and pavements in the upper silver +fir and alpine zones, at a height of from 7000 to 9500 feet. In such +situations, rooted in narrow cracks or fissures, where there is scarcely +a handful of soil, it is frequently over eight feet in diameter and not +much more in height. The tops of old trees are almost always dead, and +large stubborn-looking limbs push out horizontally, most of them broken +and dead at the end, but densely covered, and imbedded here and there +with tufts or mounds of gray-green scalelike foliage. Some trees are +mere storm-beaten stumps about as broad as long, decorated with a few +leafy sprays, reminding one of the crumbling towers of old castles +scantily draped with ivy. Its homes on bare, barren dome and ridge-top +seem to have been chosen for safety against fire, for, on isolated +mounds of sand and gravel free from grass and bushes on which fire could +feed, it is often found growing tall and unscathed to a height of forty +to sixty feet, with scarce a trace of the rocky angularity and broken +limbs so characteristic a feature throughout the greater part of its +range. It never makes anything like a forest; seldom even a grove. +Usually it stands out separate and independent, clinging by slight +joints to the rocks, living chiefly on snow and thin air and maintaining +sound health on this diet for 2000 years or more. Every feature or every +gesture it makes expresses steadfast, dogged endurance. The bark is of +a bright cinnamon color and is handsomely braided and reticulated on +thrifty trees, flaking off in thin, shining ribbons that are sometimes +used by the Indians for tent matting. Its fine color and picturesqueness +are appreciated by artists, but to me the juniper seems a singularly +strange and taciturn tree. I have spent many a day and night in its +company and always have found it silent and rigid. It seems to be a +survivor of some ancient race, wholly unacquainted with its neighbors. +Its broad stumpiness, of course, makes wind-waving or even shaking out +of the question, but it is not this rocky rigidity that constitutes its +silence. In calm, sun-days the sugar pine preaches like an enthusiastic +apostle without moving a leaf. On level rocks the juniper dies standing +and wastes insensibly out of existence like granite, the wind exerting +about as little control over it, alive or dead, as is does over a +glacier boulder. + +I have spent a good deal of time trying to determine the age of these +wonderful trees, but as all of the very old ones are honey-combed with +dry rot I never was able to get a complete count of the largest. Some +are undoubtedly more than 2000 years old, for though on deep moraine +soil they grow about as fast as some of the pines, on bare pavements and +smoothly glaciated, overswept ridges in the dome region they grow very +slowly. One on the Starr King Ridge only two feet eleven inches in +diameter was 1140 years old forty years ago. Another on the same ridge, +only one foot seven and a half inches in diameter, had reached the age +of 834 years. The first fifteen inches from the bark of a medium-size +tree six feet in diameter, on the north Tenaya pavement, had 859 layers +of wood. Beyond this the count was stopped by dry rot and scars. The +largest examined was thirty-three feet in girth, or nearly ten feet in +diameter and, although I have failed to get anything like a complete +count, I learned enough from this and many other specimens to convince +me that most of the trees eight or ten feet thick, standing on +pavements, are more than twenty centuries old rather than less. Barring +accidents, for all I can see they would live forever; even then +overthrown by avalanches, they refuse to lie at rest, lean stubbornly +on their big branches as if anxious to rise, and while a single root +holds to the rock, put forth fresh leaves with a grim, never-say-die +expression. + + +The Mountain Hemlock + + +As the juniper is the most stubborn and unshakeable of trees in the +Yosemite region, the Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga Mertensiana) is the most +graceful and pliant and sensitive. Until it reaches a height of fifty or +sixty feet it is sumptuously clothed down to the ground with drooping +branches, which are divided again and again into delicate waving +sprays, grouped and arranged in ways that are indescribably beautiful, +and profusely adorned with small brown cones. The flowers also are +peculiarly beautiful and effective; the female dark rich purple, the +male blue, of so fine and pure a tone. What the best azure of the +mountain sky seems to be condensed in them. Though apparently the most +delicate and feminine of all the mountain trees, it grows best where +the snow lies deepest, at a height of from 9000 to 9500 feet, in +hollows on the northern slopes of mountains and ridges. But under all +circumstances, sheltered from heavy winds or in bleak exposure to them, +well fed or starved, even at its highest limit, 10,500 feet above the +sea, on exposed ridge-tops where it has to crouch and huddle close in +low thickets, it still contrives to put forth its sprays and branches in +forms of invincible beauty, while on moist, well-drained moraines it +displays a perfectly tropical luxuriance of foliage, flowers and fruit. +The snow of the first winter storm is frequently soft, and lodges in due +dense leafy branches, weighing them down against the trunk, and the +slender, drooping axis, bending lower and lower as the load increases, +at length reaches the ground, forming an ornamental arch. Then, as storm +succeeds storm and snow is heaped on snow, the whole tree is at last +buried, not again to see the light of day or move leaf or limb until set +free by the spring thaws in June or July. Not only the young saplings +are thus carefully covered and put to sleep in the whitest of white beds +for five or six months of the year, but trees thirty feet high or more. +From April to May, when the snow by repeated thawing and freezing is +firmly compacted, you may ride over the prostrate groves without seeing +a single branch or leaf of them. No other of our alpine conifers so +finely veils its strength; poised in thin, white sunshine, clad with +branches from head to foot, it towers in unassuming majesty, drooping +as if unaffected with the aspiring tendencies of its race, loving the +ground, conscious of heaven and joyously receptive of its blessings, +reaching out its branches like sensitive tentacles, feeling the light +and reveling in it. The largest specimen I ever found was nineteen +feet seven inches in circumference. It was growing on the edge of Lake +Hollow, north of Mount Hoffman, at an elevation of 9250 feet above the +level of the sea, and was probably about a hundred feet in height. Fine +groves of mature trees, ninety to a hundred feet in height, are growing +near the base of Mount Conness. It is widely distributed from near the +south extremity of the high Sierra northward along the Cascade Mountains +of Oregon and Washington and the coast ranges of British Columbia to +Alaska, where it was first discovered in 1827. Its northernmost limit, +so far as I have observed, is in the icy fiords of Prince William Sound +in latitude 61 degrees, where it forms pure forests at the level of the +sea, growing tall and majestic on the banks of glaciers. There, as in +the Yosemite region, it is ineffably beautiful, the very loveliest of +all the American conifers. + + +The White-Bark Pine + + +The Dwarf Pine, or White-Bark Pine (Pinus albicaulis), forms the extreme +edge of the timberline throughout nearly the whole extent of the Range +on both flanks. It is first met growing with the two-leaved pine on the +upper margin of the alpine belt, as an erect tree from fifteen to thirty +feet high and from one to two feet in diameter hence it goes straggling +up the flanks of the summit peaks, upon moraines or crumbling ledges, +wherever it can get a foothold, to an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 +feet, where it dwarfs to a mass of crumpled branches, covered with +slender shoots, each tipped with a short, close-packed, leaf tassel. The +bark is smooth and purplish, in some places almost white. The flowers +are bright scarlet and rose-purple, giving a very flowery appearance +little looked for in such a tree. The cones are about three inches long, +an inch and a half in diameter, grow in rigid clusters, and are dark +chocolate in color while young, and bear beautiful pearly-white seeds +about the size of peas, most of which are eaten by chipmunks and the +Clarke's crows. Pines are commonly regarded as sky-loving trees that +must necessarily aspire or die. This species forms a marked exception, +crouching and creeping in compliance with the most rigorous demands of +climate; yet enduring bravely to a more advanced age than many of its +lofty relatives in the sun-lands far below it. Seen from a distance it +would never be taken for a tree of any kind. For example, on Cathedral +Peak there is a scattered growth of this pine, creeping like mosses over +the roof, nowhere giving hint of an ascending axis. While, approached +quite near, it still appears matty and heathy, and one experiences no +difficulty in walking over the top of it, yet it is seldom absolutely +prostrate, usually attaining a height of three or four feet with a main +trunk, and with branches outspread above it, as if in ascending they +had been checked by a ceiling against which they had been compelled to +spread horizontally. The winter snow is a sort of ceiling, lasting half +the year; while the pressed surface is made yet smoother by violent +winds armed with cutting sand-grains that bear down any shoot which +offers to rise much above the general level, and that carve the dead +trunks and branches in beautiful patterns. + +During stormy nights I have often camped snugly beneath the interlacing +arches of this little pine. The needles, which have accumulated for +centuries, make fine beds, a fact well known to other mountaineers, such +as deer and wild sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie beneath the +larger trees in safe and comfortable concealment. This lowly dwarf +reaches a far greater age than would be guessed. A specimen that I +examined, growing at an elevation of 10,700 feet, yet looked as though +it might be plucked up by the roots, for it was only three and a half +inches in diameter and its topmost tassel reached hardly three feet +above the ground. Cutting it half through and counting the annual rings +with the aid of a lens, I found its age to be no less than 255 years. +Another specimen about the same height, with a trunk six inches in +diameter, I found to be 426 years old, forty years ago; and one of its +supple branchlets hardly an eighth of an inch in diameter inside the +bark, was seventy-five years old, and so filled with oily balsam and +seasoned by storms that I tied it in knots like a whip-cord. + + +The Nut Pine + + +In going across the Range from the Tuolumne River Soda Springs to Mono +Lake one makes the acquaintance of the curious little Nut Pine (Pinus +monophylla). It dots the eastern flank of the Sierra to which it is +mostly restricted in grayish bush-like patches, from the margin of the +sage-plains to an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet. A more contented, +fruitful and unaspiring conifer could not be conceived. All the species +we have been sketching make departures more or less distant from the +typical spire form, but none goes so far as this. Without any apparent +cause it keeps near the ground, throwing out crooked, divergent branches +like an orchard apple-tree, and seldom pushes a single shoot higher than +fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. + +The average thickness of the trunk is, perhaps, about ten or twelve +inches. The leaves are mostly undivided, like round awls, instead of +being separated, like those of other pines, into twos and threes and +fives. The cones are green while growing, and are usually found over all +the tree, forming quite a marked feature as seen against the bluish-gray +foliage. They are quite small, only about two inches in length, and seem +to have but little space for seeds; but when we come to open them, we +find that about half the entire bulk of the cone is made up of sweet, +nutritious nuts, nearly as large as hazel-nuts. This is undoubtedly the +most important food-tree on the Sierra, and furnishes the Mona, Carson, +and Walker River Indians with more and better nuts than all the other +species taken together. It is the Indian's own tree, and many a white +man have they killed for cutting it down. Being so low, the cones are +readily beaten off with poles, and the nuts procured by roasting them +until the scales open. In bountiful seasons a single Indian may gather +thirty or forty bushels. + + + +Chapter 7 + +The Big Trees + + +Between the heavy pine and silver fir zones towers the Big Tree (Sequoia +gigantea), the king of all the conifers in the world, "the noblest of +the noble race." The groves nearest Yosemite Valley are about twenty +miles to the westward and southward and are called the Tuolumne, Merced +and Mariposa groves. It extends, a widely interrupted belt, from a very +small grove on the middle fork of the American River to the head of Deer +Creek, a distance of about 260 miles, its northern limit being near the +thirty-ninth parallel, the southern a little below the thirty-sixth. The +elevation of the belt above the sea varies from about 5000 to 8000 feet. +From the American River to Kings River the species occurs only in small +isolated groups so sparsely distributed along the belt that three of +the gaps in it are from forty to sixty miles wide. But from Kings River +south-ward the sequoia is not restricted to mere groves but extends +across the wide rugged basins of the Kaweah and Tule Rivers in noble +forests, a distance of nearly seventy miles, the continuity of this part +of the belt being broken only by the main canyons. The Fresno, the +largest of the northern groves, has an area of three or four square +miles, a short distance to the southward of the famous Mariposa grove. +Along the south rim of the canyon of the south fork of Kings River there +is a majestic sequoia forest about six miles long by two wide. This is +the northernmost group that may fairly be called a forest. Descending +the divide between the Kings and Kaweah Rivers you come to the grand +forests that form the main continuous portion of the belt. Southward +the giants become more and more irrepressibly exuberant, heaving their +massive crowns into the sky from every ridge and slope, waving onward in +graceful compliance with the complicated topography of the region. The +finest of the Kaweah section of the belt is on the broad ridge between +Marble Creek and the middle fork, and is called the Giant Forest. It +extends from the granite headlands, overlooking the hot San Joaquin +plains, to within a few miles of the cool glacial fountains of the +summit peaks. The extreme upper limit of the belt is reached between the +middle and south forks of the Kaweah at a height of 8400 feet, but the +finest block of big tree forests in the entire belt is on the north fork +of Tule River, and is included in the Sequoia National Park. + +In the northern groves there are comparatively few young trees or +saplings. But here for every old storm-beaten giant there are many in +their prime and for each of these a crowd of hopeful young trees and +saplings, growing vigorously on moraines, rocky edges, along water +courses and meadows. But though the area occupied by the big tree +increases so greatly from north to south, here is no marked increase +in the size of the trees. The height of 275 feet or thereabouts and a +diameter of about twenty feet, four feet from the ground is, perhaps, +about the average size of what may be called full-grown trees, where +they are favorably located. The specimens twenty-five feet in diameter +are not very rare and a few are nearly three hundred feet high. In +the Calaveras grove there are four trees over 300 feet in height, the +tallest of which as measured by the Geological Survey is 325 feet. The +very largest that I have yet met in the course of my explorations is +a majestic old fire-scarred monument in the Kings River forest. It is +thirty-five feet and eight inches in diameter inside the bark, four +feet above the ground. It is burned half through, and I spent a day +in clearing away the charred surface with a sharp ax and counting the +annual wood-rings with the aid of a pocket lens. I succeeded in laying +bare a section all the way from the outside to the heart and counted a +little over four thousand rings, showing that this tree was in its prime +about twenty-seven feet in diameter at the beginning of the Christian +era. No other tree in the world, as far as I know, has looked down on so +many centuries as the sequoia or opens so many impressive and suggestive +views into history. Under the most favorable conditions these giants +probably live 5000 years or more though few of even the larger trees are +half as old. The age of one that was felled in Calaveras grove, for the +sake of having its stump for a dancing-floor, was about 1300 years, and +its diameter measured across the stump twenty-four feet inside the bark. +Another that was felled in the Kings River forest was about the same +size but nearly a thousand years older (2200 years), though not a very +old-looking tree. + +So harmonious and finely balanced are even the mightiest of these +monarchs in all their proportions that there is never anything overgrown +or monstrous about them. Seeing them for the first time you are more +impressed with their beauty than their size, their grandeur being in +great part invisible; but sooner or later it becomes manifest to the +loving eye, stealing slowly on the senses like the grandeur of Niagara +or of the Yosemite Domes. When you approach them and walk around them +you begin to wonder at their colossal size and try to measure them. They +bulge considerably at the base, but not more than is required for beauty +and safety and the only reason that this bulging seems in some cases +excessive is that only a comparatively small section is seen in near +views. One that I measured in the Kings River forest was twenty-five +feet in diameter at the ground and ten feet in diameter 220 feet above +the ground showing the fineness of the taper of the trunk as a whole. No +description can give anything like an adequate idea of their singular +majesty, much less of their beauty. Except the sugar pine, most of their +neighbors with pointed tops seem ever trying to go higher, while the big +tree, soaring above them all, seems satisfied. Its grand domed head +seems to be poised about as lightly as a cloud, giving no impression +of seeking to rise higher. Only when it is young does it show like +other conifers a heavenward yearning, sharply aspiring with a long +quick-growing top. Indeed, the whole tree for the first century or +two, or until it is a hundred or one hundred and fifty feet high, is +arrowhead in form, and, compared with the solemn rigidity of age, seems +as sensitive to the wind as a squirrel's tail. As it grows older, the +lower branches are gradually dropped and the upper ones thinned out +until comparatively few are left. These, however, are developed to a +great size, divide again and again and terminate in bossy, rounded +masses of leafy branch-lets, while the head becomes dome-shaped, and is +the first to feel the touch of the rosy beams of the morning, the last +to bid the sun good night. Perfect specimens, unhurt by running fires or +lightning, are singularly regular and symmetrical in general form though +not in the least conventionalized, for they show extraordinary variety +in the unity and harmony of their general outline. The immensely strong, +stately shafts are free of limbs for one hundred end fifty feet or so +The large limbs reach out with equal boldness a every direction, showing +no weather side, and no other tree has foliage so densely massed, so +finely molded in outline and so perfectly subordinate to an ideal type. +A particularly knotty, angular, ungovernable-looking branch, from five +to seven or eight feet in diameter and perhaps a thousand years old, +may occasionally be seen pushing out from the trunk as if determined to +break across the bounds of the regular curve, but like all the others +it dissolves in bosses of branchlets and sprays as soon as the general +outline is approached. Except in picturesque old age, after being struck +by lightning or broken by thousands of snow-storms, the regularity of +forms is one of their most distinguishing characteristics. Another is +the simple beauty of the trunk and its great thickness as compared with +its height and the width of the branches, which makes them look more +like finely modeled and sculptured architectural columns than the stems +of trees, while the great limbs look like rafters, supporting the +magnificent dome-head. But though so consummately beautiful, the big +tree always seems unfamiliar, with peculiar physiognomy, awfully solemn +and earnest; yet with all its strangeness it impresses us as being more +at home than any of its neighbors, holding the best right to the ground +as the oldest strongest inhabitant. One soon becomes acquainted with new +species of pine and fir and spruce as with friendly people, shaking +their outstretched branches like shaking hands and fondling their little +ones, while the venerable aboriginal sequoia, ancient of other days, +keeps you at a distance, looking as strange in aspect and behavior among +its neighbor trees as would the mastodon among the homely bears and +deers. Only the Sierra juniper is at all like it, standing rigid and +unconquerable on glacier pavements for thousands of years, grim and +silent, with an air of antiquity about as pronounced as that of the +sequoia. + +The bark of the largest trees is from one to two feet thick, rich +cinnamon brown, purplish on young trees, forming magnificent masses +of color with the underbrush. Toward the end of winter the trees are +in bloom, while the snow is still eight or ten feet deep. The female +flowers are about three-eighths of an inch long, pale green, and grow +in countless thousands on the ends of sprays. The male are still more +abundant, pale yellow, a fourth of an inch long and when the pollen is +ripe they color the whole tree and dust the air and the ground. The +cones are bright grass-green in color, about two and a half inches long, +one and a half wide, made up of thirty or forty strong, closely-packed, +rhomboidal scales, with four to eight seeds at the base of each. The +seeds are wonderfully small end light, being only from an eighth to a +fourth of an inch long and wide, including a filmy surrounding wing, +which causes them to glint and waver in falling and enables the wind to +carry them considerable distances. Unless harvested by the squirrels, +the cones discharge their seed and remain on the tree for many years. In +fruitful seasons the trees are fairly laden. On two small branches one +and a half and two inches in diameter I counted 480 cones. No other +California conifer produces nearly so many seeds, except, perhaps, the +other sequoia, the Redwood of the Coast Mountains. Millions are ripened +annually by a single tree, and in a fruitful year the product of one of +the northern groves would be enough to plant all the mountain ranges in +the world. + +As soon as any accident happens to the crown, such as being smashed off +by lightning, the branches beneath the wound, no matter how situated, +seem to be excited, like a colony of bees that have lost their queen, +and become anxious to repair the damage. Limbs that have grown outward +for centuries at right angles to the trunk begin to turn upward to +assist in making a new crown, each speedily assuming the special form of +true summits. Even in the case of mere stumps, burned half through, some +mere ornamental tuft will try to go aloft and do its best as a leader +in forming a new head. Groups of two or three are often found standing +close together, the seeds from which they sprang having probably grown +on ground cleared for their reception by the fall of a large tree of a +former generation. They are called "loving couples," "three graces," +etc. When these trees are young they are seen to stand twenty or thirty +feet apart, by the time they are full-grown their trunks will touch and +crowd against each other and in some cases even appear as one. + +It is generally believed that the sequoia was once far more widely +distributed over the Sierra; but after long and careful study I have +come to the conclusion that it never was, at least since the close of +the glacial period, because a diligent search along the margins of the +groves, and in the gaps between fails to reveal a single trace of its +previous existence beyond its present bounds. Notwithstanding, I feel +confident that if every sequoia in the Range were to die today, numerous +monuments of their existence would remain, of so imperishable a nature +as to be available for the student more than ten thousand years hence. + +In the first place, no species of coniferous tree in the Range keeps +its members so well together as the sequoia; a mile is, perhaps, the +greatest distance of any straggler from the main body, and all of those +stragglers that have come under my observation are young, instead of old +monumental trees, relics of a more extended growth. + +Again, the great trunks of the sequoia last for centuries after they +fall. I have a specimen block of sequoia wood, cut from a fallen tree, +which is hardly distinguishable from a similar section cut from a living +tree, although the one cut from the fallen trunk has certainly lain on +the damp forest floor more than 380 years, probably thrice as long. The +time-measure in the case is simply this: When the ponderous trunk to +which the old vestige belonged fell, it sunk itself into the ground, +thus making a long, straight ditch, and in the middle of this ditch a +silver fir four feet in diameter and 380 years old was growing, as I +determined by cutting it half through and counting the rings, thus +demonstrating that the remnant of the trunk that made the ditch has lain +on the ground _more_ than 380 years. For it is evident that, to find +the whole time, we must add to the 380 years the time that the vanished +portion of the trunk lay in the ditch before being burned out of the +way, plus the time that passed before the seed from which the monumental +fir sprang fell into the prepared soil and took root. Now, because +sequoia trunks are never wholly consumed in one forest fire, and those +fires recur only at considerable intervals, and because sequoia ditches +after being cleared are often left unplanted for centuries, it becomes +evident that the trunk-remnant in question may probably have lain a +thousand years or more. And this instance is by no means a late one. + +Again, admitting that upon those areas supposed to have been once +covered with sequoia forests, every tree may have fallen, and every +trunk may have been burned or buried, leaving not a remnant, many of the +ditches made by the fall of the ponderous trunks, and the bowls made by +their upturning roots, would remain patent for thousands of years after +the last vestige of the trunks that made them had vanished. Much of this +ditch-writing would no doubt be quickly effaced by the flood-action of +overflowing streams and rain-washing; but no inconsiderable portion +would remain enduringly engraved on ridge-tops beyond such destructive +action; for, where all the conditions are favorable, it is almost +imperishable. Now these historic ditches and root-bowls occur in all the +present sequoia groves and forests, but, as far as I have observed, not +the faintest vestige of one presents itself outside of them. + +We therefore conclude that the area covered by sequoia has not been +diminished during the last eight or ten thousand years, and probably not +at all in post-glacial time. Nevertheless, the questions may be asked: +Is the species verging toward extinction? What are its relations to +climate, soil, and associated trees? + +All the phenomena bearing on these questions also throw light, as we +shall endeavor to show, upon the peculiar distribution of the species, +and sustain the conclusion already arrived at as to the question of +former extension. In the northern groups, as we have seen, there are +few young trees or saplings growing up around the old ones to perpetuate +the race, and inasmuch as those aged sequoias, so nearly childless, +are the only ones commonly known the species, to most observers, seems +doomed to speedy extinction, as being nothing more than an expiring +remnant, vanquished in the so-called struggle for life by pines and firs +that have driven it into its last strongholds in moist glens where the +climate is supposed to be exceptionally favorable. But the story told by +the majestic continuous forests of the south creates a very different +impression. No tree in the forest is more enduringly established in +concordance with both climate and soil. It grows heartily everywhere--on +moraines, rocky ledges, along watercourses, and in the deep, moist +alluvium of meadows with, as we have seen, a multitude of seedlings and +saplings crowding up around the aged, abundantly able to maintain the +forest in prime vigor. So that if all the trees of any section of the +main sequoia forest were ranged together according to age, a very +promising curve would be presented, all the way up from last year's +seedlings to giants, and with the young and middle-aged portion of the +curve many times longer than the old portion. Even as far north as the +Fresno, I counted 536 saplings and seedlings, growing promisingly upon +a landslip not exceeding two acres in area. This soil-bed was about +seven years old, and had been seeded almost simultaneously by pines, +firs, libocedrus, and sequoia, presenting a simple and instructive +illustration of the struggle for life among the rival species; and it +was interesting to note that the conditions thus far affecting them have +enabled the young sequoias to gain a marked advantage. Toward the south +where the sequoia becomes most exuberant and numerous, the rival trees +become less so; and where they mix with sequoias they grow up beneath +them like slender grasses among stalks of Indian corn. Upon a bed of +sandy floodsoil I counted ninety-four sequoias, from one to twelve feet +high, on a patch of ground once occupied by four large sugar pines which +lay crumbling beneath them--an instance of conditions which have enabled +sequoias to crowd out the pines. I also noted eighty-six vigorous +saplings upon a piece of fresh ground prepared for their reception by +fire. Thus fire, the great destroyer of the sequoia, also furnishes the +bare ground required for its growth from the seed. Fresh ground is, +however, furnished in sufficient quantities for the renewal of the +forests without the aid of fire--by the fall of old trees. The soil is +thus upturned and mellowed, and many trees are planted for every one +that falls. + +It is constantly asserted in a vague way that the Sierra was vastly +wetter than now, and that the increasing drought will of itself +extinguish the sequoia, leaving its ground to other trees supposed +capable of flourishing in a drier climate. But that the sequoia can and +does grow on as dry ground as any of its present rivals is manifest in +a thousand places. "Why, then," it will be asked, "are sequoias always +found only in well-watered places?" Simply because a growth of sequoias +creates those streams. The thirsty mountaineer knows well that in every +sequoia grove he will find running water, but it is a mistake to suppose +that the water is the cause of the grove being there; on the contrary, +the grove is the cause of the water being there. Drain off the water +and the trees will remain, but cut off the trees, and the streams will +vanish. Never was cause more completely mistaken for effect than in the +case of these related phenomena of sequoia woods and perennial streams. + +When attention is called to the method of sequoia stream-making, it will +be apprehended at once. The roots of this immense tree fill the ground, +forming a thick sponge that absorbs and holds back the rain and melting +snow, only allowing it to ooze and flow gently. Indeed, every fallen +leaf and rootlet, as well as long clasping root, and prostrate trunk, +may be regarded as a dam hoarding the bounty of storm-clouds, and +dispensing it as blessings all through the summer, instead of allowing +it to go headlong in short-lived floods. + +Since, then, it is a fact that thousands of sequoias are growing +thriftily on what is termed dry ground, and even clinging like mountain +pines to rifts in granite precipices, and since it has also been shown +that the extra moisture found in connection with the denser growths is +an effect of their presence, instead of a cause of their presence, then +the notions as to the former extension of the species and its near +approach to extinction, based upon its supposed dependence on greater +moisture, are seen to be erroneous. + +The decrease in rain and snowfall since the close of the glacial period +in the Sierra is much less than is commonly guessed. The highest +post-glacial water-marks are well preserved in all the upper river +channels, and they are not greatly higher than the spring flood-marks +of the present; showing conclusively that no extraordinary decrease +has taken place in the volume of the upper tributaries of post-glacial +Sierra streams since they came into existence. But, in the meantime, +eliminating all this complicated question of climatic change, the plain +fact remains that the present rain and snowfall is abundantly sufficient +for the luxuriant growth of sequoia forests. Indeed, all my observations +tend to show that in a prolonged drought the sugar pines and firs would +perish before the sequoia, not alone because of the greater longevity of +individual trees, but because the species can endure more drought, and +make the most of whatever moisture falls. + +Again, if the restriction and irregular distribution of the species be +interpreted as a result of the desiccation of the Range, then instead of +increasing as it does in individuals toward the south where the rainfall +is less, it should diminish. If, then, the peculiar distribution of +sequoia has not been governed by superior conditions of soil as to +fertility or moisture, by what has it been governed? + +In the course of my studies I observed that the northern groves, the +only ones I was at first acquainted with, were located on just those +portions of the general forest soil-belt that were first laid bare +toward the close of the glacial period when the ice-sheet began to break +up into individual glaciers. And while searching the wide basin of the +San Joaquin, and trying to account for the absence of sequoia where +every condition seemed favorable for its growth, it occurred to me that +this remarkable gap in the sequoia belt fifty miles wide is located +exactly in the basin of the vast, ancient mer de glace of the San +Joaquin and Kings River basins which poured its frozen floods to the +plain through this gap as its channel. I then perceived that the next +great gap in the belt to the northward, forty miles wide, extending +between the Calaveras and Tuolumne groves, occurs in the basin of the +great ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus basins; and +that the smaller gap between the Merced and Mariposa groves occurs in +the basin of the smaller glacier of the Merced. The wider the ancient +glacier, the wider the corresponding gap in the sequoia belt. + +Finally, pursuing my investigations across the basins of the Kaweah +and Tule, I discovered that the sequoia belt attained its greatest +development just where, owing to the topographical peculiarities of the +region, the ground had been best protected from the main ice-rivers that +continued to pour past from the summit fountains long after the smaller +local glaciers had been melted. + +Taking now a general view of the belt, beginning at the south we see +that the majestic ancient glaciers were shed off right and left down the +valleys of Kern and Kings Rivers by the lofty protective spurs outspread +embracingly above the warm sequoia-filled basins of the Kaweah and Tule. +Then, next northward, occurs the wide sequoia-less channel, or basin of +the ancient San Joaquin and sings River mer de glace; then the warm, +protected spots of Fresno and Mariposa groves; then the sequoia-less +channel of the ancient Merced glacier; next the warm, sheltered ground +of the Merced and Tuolumne groves; then the sequoia-less channel of the +grand ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus; then the +warm old ground of the Calaveras and Stanislaus groves. It appears, +therefore, that just where, at a certain period in the history of the +Sierra, the glaciers were not, there the sequoia is, and just where the +glaciers were, there the sequoia is not. + +But although all the observed phenomena bearing on the post-glacial +history of this colossal tree point to the conclusion that it never was +more widely distributed on the Sierra since the close of the glacial +epoch; that its present forests are scarcely past prime, if, indeed, +they have reached prime; that the post-glacial day of the species +is probably not half done; yet, when from a wider outlook the vast +antiquity of the genus is considered, and its ancient richness in +species and individuals,--comparing our Sierra Giant and Sequoia +sempervirens of the Coast Range, the only other living species of +sequoia, with the twelve fossil species already discovered and described +by Heer and Lesquereux, some of which flourished over vast areas in the +Arctic regions and in Europe and our own territories, during tertiary +and cretaceous times--then, indeed, it becomes plain that our two +surviving species, restricted to narrow belts within the limits of +California, are mere remnants of the genus, both as to species and +individuals, and that they may be verging to extinction. But the verge +of a period beginning in cretaceous times may have a breadth of tens of +thousands of years, not to mention the possible existence of conditions +calculated to multiply and re-extend both species and individuals. + +There is no absolute limit to the existence of any tree. Death is due to +accidents, not, as that of animals, to the wearing out of organs. Only +the leaves die of old age. Their fall is foretold in their structure; +but the leaves are renewed every year, and so also are the essential +organs wood, roots, bark, buds. Most of the Sierra trees die of disease, +insects, fungi, etc., but nothing hurts the big tree. I never saw one +that was sick or showed the slightest sign of decay. Barring accidents, +it seems to be immortal. It is a curious fact that all the very old +sequoias had lost their heads by lightning strokes. "All things come to +him who waits." But of all living things, sequoia is perhaps the only +one able to wait long enough to make sure of being struck by lightning. + +So far as I am able to see at present only fire and the ax threaten the +existence of these noblest of God's trees. In Nature's keeping they +are safe, but through the agency of man destruction is making rapid +progress, while in the work of protection only a good beginning has been +made. The Fresno grove, the Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves are +under the protection of the Federal Government in the Yosemite National +Park. So are the General Grant and Sequoia National Parks; the latter, +established twenty-one years ago, has an area of 240 square miles and is +efficiently guarded by a troop of cavalry under the direction of the +Secretary of the Interior; so also are the small General Grant National +Park, estatblished at the same time with an area of four square miles, +and the Mariposa grove, about the same size and the small Merced and +Tuolumne group. Perhaps more than half of all the big trees have been +thoughtlessly sold and are now in the hands of speculators and mill men. +It appears, therefore, that far the largest and important section of +protected big trees is in the great Sequoia National Park, now easily +accessible by rail to Lemon Cove and thence by a good stage road into +the giant forest of the Kaweah and thence by rail to other parts of the +park; but large as it is it should be made much larger. Its natural +eastern boundary is the High Sierra and the northern and southern +boundaries are the Kings and Kern Rivers. Thus could be included +the sublime scenery on the headwaters of these rivers and perhaps +nine-tenths of all the big trees in existence. All private claims +within these bounds should be gradually extinguished by purchase by the +Government. The big tree, leaving all its higher uses out of the count, +is a tree of life to the dwellers of the plain dependent on irrigation, +a never-failing spring, sending living waters to the lowland. For every +grove cut down a stream is dried up. Therefore all California is crying, +"Save the trees of the fountains." Nor, judging by the signs of the +times, is it likely that the cry will cease until the salvation of all +that is left of Sequoia gigantea is made sure. + + + +Chapter 8 + +The Flowers + + +Yosemite was all one glorious flower garden before plows and scythes and +trampling, biting horses came to make its wide open spaces look like +farmers' pasture fields. Nevertheless, countless flowers still bloom +every year in glorious profusion on the grand talus slopes, wall benches +and tablets, and in all the fine, cool side-canyons up to the rim of the +Valley, and beyond, higher and higher, to the summits of the peaks. Even +on the open floor and in easily-reached side-nooks many common flowering +plants have survived and still make a brave show in the spring and early +summer. Among these we may mention tall oenotheras, Pentstemon lutea, +and P. Douglasii with fine blue and red flowers; Spraguea, scarlet +zauschneria, with its curious radiant rosettes characteristic of the +sandy flats; mimulus, eunanus, blue and white violets, geranium, +columbine, erythraea, larkspur, collomia, draperia, gilias, heleniums, +bahia, goldenrods, daisies, honeysuckle; heuchera, bolandra, saxifrages, +gentians; in cool canyon nooks and on Clouds' Rest and the base of Starr +King Dome you may find Primula suffrutescens, the only wild primrose +discovered in California, and the only known shrubby species in the +genus. And there are several fine orchids, habenaria, and cypripedium, +the latter very rare, once common in the Valley near the foot of Glacier +Point, and in a bog on the rim of the Valley near a place called +Gentry's Station, now abandoned. It is a very beautiful species, the +large oval lip white, delicately veined with purple; the other petals +and the sepals purple, strap-shaped, and elegantly curled and twisted. + +Of the lily family, fritillaria, smilacina, chlorogalum and several +fine species of brodiaea, Ithuriel's spear, and others less prized are +common, and the favorite calochortus, or Mariposa lily, a unique genus +of many species, something like the tulips of Europe but far finer. Most +of them grow on the warm foothills below the Valley, but two charming +species, C. coeruleus and C. nudus, dwell in springy places on the +Wawona road a few miles beyond the brink of the walls. + +The snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea) is more admired by tourists than any +other in California. It is red, fleshy and watery and looks like a +gigantic asparagus shoot. Soon after the snow is off the round it rises +through the dead needles and humus in the pine and fir woods like a +bright glowing pillar of fire. In a week or so it grows to a height of +eight or twelve inches with a diameter of an inch and a half or two +inches; then its long fringed bracts curl aside, allowing the twenty- or +thirty-five-lobed, bell-shaped flowers to open and look straight out +from the axis. It is said to grow up through the snow; on the contrary, +it always waits until the ground is warm, though with other early +flowers it is occasionally buried or half-buried for a day or two +by spring storms. The entire plant--flowers, bracts, stem, scales, +and roots--is fiery red. Its color could appeal to one's blood. +Nevertheless, it is a singularly cold and unsympathetic plant. Everybody +admires it as a wonderful curiosity, but nobody loves it as lilies, +violets, roses, daisies are loved. Without fragrance, it stands beneath +the pines and firs lonely and silent, as if unacquainted with any other +plant in the world; never moving in the wildest storms; rigid as if +lifeless, though covered with beautiful rosy flowers. + +Far the most delightful and fragrant of the Valley flowers is the +Washington lily, white, moderate in size, with from three- to +ten-flowered racemes. I found one specimen in the lower end of the +Valley at the foot of the Wawona grade that was eight feet high, the +raceme two feet long, with fifty-two flowers, fifteen of them open; +the others had faded or were still in the bud. This famous lily is +distributed over the sunny portions of the sugar-pine woods, never in +large meadow-garden companies like the large and the small tiger lilies +(pardalinum and parvum), but widely scattered, standing up to the waist +in dense ceanothus and manzanita chaparral, waving its lovely flowers +above the blooming wilderness of brush, and giving their fragrance to +the breeze. It is now becoming scarce in the most accessible parts of +its range on account of the high price paid for its bulbs by gardeners +through whom it has been distributed far and wide over the flower-loving +world. For, on account of its pure color and delicate, delightful +fragrance, all lily lovers at once adopted it as a favorite. + +The principal shrubs are manzanita and ceanothus, several species of +each, azalea, Rubus nutkanus, brier rose, choke-cherry philadelphus, +calycanthus, garrya, rhamnus, etc. + +The manzanita never fails to attract particular attention. The +species common in the Valley is usually about six or seven feet high, +round-headed with innumerable branches, red or chocolate-color bark, +pale green leaves set on edge, and a rich profusion of small, pink, +narrow-throated, urn-shaped flowers, like those of arbutus. The knotty, +crooked, angular branches are about as rigid as bones, and the red bark +is so thin and smooth on both trunk and branches, they look as if they +had been peeled and polished and painted. In the spring large areas +on the mountain up to a height of eight or nine thousand feet are +brightened with the rosy flowers, and in autumn with their red fruit. +The pleasantly acid berries, about the size of peas, look like little +apples, and a hungry mountaineer is glad to eat them, though half their +bulk is made up of hard seeds. Indians, bears, coyotes, foxes, birds and +other mountain people live on them for weeks and months. The different +species of ceanothus usually associated with manzanita are flowery +fragrant and altogether delightful shrubs, growing in glorious +abundance, not only in the Valley, but high up in the forest on sunny or +half-shaded ground. In the sugar-pine woods the most beautiful species +is C. integerrimus, often called Californian lilac, or deer brush. It +is five or six feet high with slender branches, glossy foliage, and +abundance of blue flowers in close, showy panicles. Two species, C. +prostrates and C. procumbens, spread smooth, blue-flowered mats and +rugs beneath the pines, and offer fine beds to tired mountaineers. The +commonest species, C. cordulatus, is most common in the silver-fir +woods. It is white-flowered and thorny, and makes dense thickets of +tangled chaparral, difficult to wade through or to walk over. But it is +pressed flat every winter by ten or fifteen feet of snow. The western +azalea makes glorious beds of bloom along the river bank and meadows. +In the Valley it is from two to five feet high, has fine green leaves, +mostly hidden beneath its rich profusion of large, fragrant white and +yellow flowers, which are in their prime in June, July and August, +according to the elevation, ranging from 3000 to 6000 feet. Near the +azalea-bordered streams the small wild rose, resembling R. blanda, +makes large thickets deliciously fragrant, especially on a dewy morning +and after showers. Not far from these azalea and rose gardens, Rubus +nutkanus covers the ground with broad, soft, velvety leaves, and +pure-white flowers as large as those of its neighbor and relative, the +rose, and much finer in texture, followed at the end of summer by soft +red berries good for everybody. This is the commonest and the most +beautiful of the whole blessed, flowery, fruity Rubus genus. + +There are a great many interesting ferns in the Valley and about +it. Naturally enough the greater number are rock ferns--pellaea, +cheilanthes, polypodium, adiantum, woodsia, cryptogramma, etc., with +small tufted fronds, lining cool glens and fringing the seams of the +cliffs. The most important of the larger species are woodwardia, +aspidium, asplenium, and, above all, the common pteris. Woodwardia +radicans is a superb, broad-shouldered fern five to eight feet high, +growing in vase-shaped clumps where tile ground is nearly level and on +some of the benches of the north wall of the Valley where it is watered +by a broad trickling stream. It thatches the sloping rocks, frond +overlapping frond like roof shingles. The broad-fronded, hardy Pteris +aquilina, the commonest of ferns, covers large areas on the floor of +the Valley. No other fern does so much for the color glory of autumn, +with its browns and reds and yellows, even after lying dead beneath +the snow all winter. It spreads a rich brown mantle over the desolate +ground in the spring before the grass has sprouted, and at the first +touch of sun-heat its young fronds come rearing up full of faith and +hope through the midst of the last year's ruins. + +Of the five species of pellaea, P. Breweri is the hardiest as to +enduring high altitudes and stormy weather and at the same time it is +the most fragile of the genus. It grows in dense tufts in the clefts of +storm-beaten rocks, high up on the mountain-side on the very edge of the +fern line. It is a handsome little fern about four or five inches high, +has pale-green pinnate fronds, and shining bronze-colored stalks about +as brittle as glass. Its companions on the lower part of its range are +Cryptogramma acrostichoides and Phegopteris alpestris, the latter with +soft, delicate fronds, not in the least like those of Rock fern, though +it grows on the rocks where the snow lies longest. Pellaea Bridgesii, +with blue-green, narrow, simply-pinnate fronds, is about the same size +as Breweri and ranks next to it as a mountaineer, growing in fissures, +wet or dry, and around the edges of boulders that are resting on glacier +pavements with no fissures whatever. About a thousand feet lower we +find the smaller, more abundant P. densa on ledges and boulder-strewn, +fissured pavements, watered until late in summer from oozing currents, +derived from lingering snowbanks. It is, or rather was, extremely +abundant between the foot of the Nevada and the head of the Vernal Fall, +but visitors with great industry have dug out almost every root, so that +now one has to scramble in out-of-the-way places to find it. The three +species of Cheilanthes in the Valley--C. californica, C. gracillima, and +myriophylla, with beautiful two-to-four-pinnate fronds, an inch to five +inches long, adorn the stupendous walls however dry and sheer. The +exceedingly delicate californica is so rare that I have found it only +once. The others are abundant and are sometimes accompanied by the +little gold fern, Gymnogramme triangularis, and rarely by the curious +little Botrychium simplex, some of them less than an inch high. The +finest of all the rock ferns is Adiantum pedatum, lover of waterfalls +and the finest spray-dust. The homes it loves best are over-leaning, +cave-like hollows, beside the larger falls, where it can wet its fingers +with their dewy spray. Many of these moss-lined chambers contain +thousands of these delightful ferns, clinging to mossy walls by the +slightest hold, reaching out their delicate finger-fronds on dark, +shining stalks, sensitive and tremulous, throbbing in unison with every +movement and tone of the falling water, moving each division of the +frond separately at times, as if fingering the music. + +May and June are the main bloom-months of the year. Both the flowers +and falls are then at their best. By the first of August the midsummer +glories of the Valley are past their prime. The young birds are then out +of their nests. Most of the plants have gone to seed; berries are ripe; +autumn tints begin to kindle and burn over meadow and grove, and a soft +mellow haze in the morning sunbeams heralds the approach of Indian +summer. The shallow river is now at rest, its flood-work done. It is now +but little more than a series of pools united by trickling, whispering +currents that steal softly over brown pebbles and sand with scarce an +audible murmur. Each pool has a character of its own and, though they +are nearly currentless, the night air and tree shadows keep them cool. +Their shores curve in and out in bay and promontory, giving the +appearance of miniature lakes, their banks in most places embossed with +brier and azalea, sedge and grass and fern; and above these in their +glory of autumn colors a mingled growth of alder, willow, dogwood and +balm-of-Gilead; mellow sunshine overhead, cool shadows beneath; light +filtered and strained in passing through the ripe leaves like that which +passes through colored windows. The surface of the water is stirred, +perhaps, by whirling water-beetles, or some startled trout, seeking +shelter beneath fallen logs or roots. The falls, too, are quiet; no wind +stirs, and the whole Valley floor is a mosaic of greens and purples, +yellows and reds. Even the rocks seem strangely soft and mellow, as if +they, too, had ripened. + + + +Chapter 9 + +The Birds + + +The songs of the Yosemite winds and waterfalls are delightfully enriched +with bird song, especially in the nesting time of spring and early +summer. The most familiar and best known of all is the common robin, who +may be seen every day, hopping about briskly on the meadows and uttering +his cheery, enlivening call. The black-headed grosbeak, too, is here, +with the Bullock oriole, and western tanager, brown song-sparrow, hermit +thrush, the purple finch,--a fine singer, with head and throat of a +rosy-red hue,--several species of warblers and vireos, kinglets, +flycatchers, etc. + +But the most wonderful singer of all the birds is the water-ouzel that +dives into foaming rapids and feeds at the bottom, holding on in a +wonderful way, living a charmed life. + +Several species of humming-birds are always to be seen, darting and +buzzing among the showy flowers. The little red-bellied nuthatches, the +chickadees, and little brown creepers, threading the furrows of the bark +of the pines, searching for food in the crevices. The large Steller's +jay makes merry in the pine-tops; flocks of beautiful green swallows +skim over the streams, and the noisy Clarke's crow may oftentimes be +seen on the highest points around the Valley; and in the deep woods +beyond the walls you may frequently hear and see the dusky grouse and +the pileated woodpecker, or woodcock almost as large as a pigeon. The +junco or snow-bird builds its nest on the floor of the Valley among the +ferns; several species of sparrow are common and the beautiful lazuli +bunting, a common bird in the underbrush, flitting about among the +azalea and ceanothus bushes and enlivening the groves with his brilliant +color; and on gravelly bars the spotted sandpiper is sometimes seen. +Many woodpeckers dwell in the Valley; the familiar flicker, the Harris +woodpecker and the species which so busily stores up acorns in the thick +bark of the yellow pines. + +The short, cold days of winter are also sweetened with the music and +hopeful chatter of a considerable number of birds. No cheerier choir +ever sang in snow. First and best of all is the water-ouzel, a dainty, +dusky little bird about the size of a robin, that sings in sweet fluty +song all winter and all summer, in storms and calms, sunshine and +shadow, haunting the rapids and waterfalls with marvelous constancy, +building his nest in the cleft of a rock bathed in spray. He is not +web-footed, yet he dives fearlessly into foaming rapids, seeming to take +the greater delight the more boisterous the stream, always as cheerful +and calm as any linnet in a grove. All his gestures as he flits about +amid the loud uproar of the falls bespeak the utmost simplicity and +confidence--bird and stream one and inseparable. What a pair! yet they +are well related. A finer bloom than the foam bell in an eddying pool +is this little bird. We may miss the meaning of the loud-resounding +torrent, but the flute-like voice of the bird--only love is in it. + +A few robins, belated on their way down from the upper Meadows, linger +in the Valley and make out to spend the winter in comparative comfort, +feeding on the mistletoe berries that grow on the oaks. In the depths +of the great forests, on the high meadows, in the severest altitudes, +they seem as much at home as in the fields and orchards about the busy +habitations of man, ascending the Sierra as the snow melts, following +the green footsteps of Spring, until in July or August the highest +glacier meadows are reached on the summit of the Range. Then, after the +short summer is over, and their work in cheering and sweetening these +lofty wilds is done, they gradually make their way down again in accord +with the weather, keeping below the snow-storms, lingering here and +there to feed on huckleberries and frost-nipped wild cherries growing +on the upper slopes. Thence down to the vineyards and orchards of the +lowlands to spend the winter; entering the gardens of the great towns +as well as parks and fields, where the blessed wanderers are too often +slaughtered for food--surely a bad use to put so fine a musician to; +better make stove wood of pianos to feed the kitchen fire. + +The kingfisher winters in the Valley, and the flicker and, of course, +the carpenter woodpecker, that lays up large stores of acorns in the +bark of trees; wrens also, with a few brown and gray linnets, and flocks +of the arctic bluebird, making lively pictures among the snow-laden +mistletoe bushes. Flocks of pigeons are often seen, and about six +species of ducks, as the river is never wholly frozen over. Among these +are the mallard and the beautiful woodduck, now less common on account +of being so often shot at. Flocks of wandering geese used to visit the +Valley in March and April, and perhaps do so still, driven down by +hunger or stress of weather while on their way across the Range. When +pursued by the hunters I have frequently seen them try to fly over the +walls of Lee Valley until tired out and compelled to re-alight. Yosemite +magnitudes seem to be as deceptive to geese as to men, for after +circling to a considerable height and forming regular harrow-shaped +ranks they would suddenly find themselves in danger of being dashed +against the face of the cliff, much nearer the bottom than the top. Then +turning in confusion with loud screams they would try again and again +until exhausted and compelled to descend. I have occasionally observed +large flocks on their travels crossing the summits of the Range at a +height of 12,000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and even in +so rare an atmosphere as this they seemed to be sustaining themselves +without extra effort. Strong, however, as they are of wind and wing, +they cannot fly over Yosemite walls, starting from the bottom. + +A pair of golden eagles have lived in the Valley ever since I first +visited it, hunting all winter along the northern cliffs and down the +river canyon. Their nest is on a ledge of the cliff over which pours +the Nevada Fall. Perched on the top of a dead spar, they were always +interested observers of the geese when they were being shot at. I once +noticed one of the geese compelled to leave the flock on account of +being sorely wounded, although it still seemed to fly pretty well. +Immediately the eagles pursued it and no doubt struck it down, although +I did not see the result of the hunt. Anyhow, it flew past me up the +Valley, closely pursued. + +One wild, stormy winter morning after five feet of snow had fallen on +the floor of the Valley and the flying flakes driven by a strong wind +still thickened the air, making darkness like the approach of night, I +sallied forth to see what I might learn and enjoy. It was impossible +to go very far without the aid of snow-shoes, but I found no great +difficulty in making my way to a part of the river where one of my +ouzels lived. I found him at home busy about his breakfast, apparently +unaware of anything uncomfortable in the weather. Presently he flew out +to a stone against which the icy current was beating, and turning his +back to the wind, sang as delightfully as a lark in springtime. + +After spending an hour or two with my favorite, I made my way across the +Valley, boring and wallowing through the loose snow, to learn as much +as possible about the way the other birds were spending their time. In +winter one can always find them because they are then restricted to the +north side of the Valley, especially the Indian Canyon groves, which +from their peculiar exposure are the warmest. + +I found most of the robins cowering on the lee side of the larger +branches of the trees, where the snow could not fall on them, while two +or three of the more venturesome were making desperate efforts to get at +the mistletoe berries by clinging to the underside of the snow-crowned +masses, back downward, something like woodpeckers. Every now and then +some of the loose snow was dislodged and sifted down on the hungry +birds, sending them screaming back to their companions in the grove, +shivering and muttering like cold, hungry children. + +Some of the sparrows were busy scratching and pecking at the feet of +the larger trees where the snow had been shed off, gleaning seeds +and benumbed insects, joined now and then by a robin weary of his +unsuccessful efforts to get at the snow-covered mistletoe berries. The +brave woodpeckers were clinging to the snowless sides of the larger +boles and overarching branches of the camp trees, making short flights +from side to side of the grove, pecking now and then at the acorns they +had stored in the bark, and chattering aimlessly as if unable to keep +still, evidently putting in the time in a very dull way. The hardy +nuthatches were threading the open furrows of the barks in their usual +industrious manner and uttering their quaint notes, giving no evidence +of distress. The Steller's jays were, of course, making more noise and +stir than all the other birds combined; ever coming and going with +loud bluster, screaming as if each had a lump of melting sludge in his +throat, and taking good care to improve every opportunity afforded by +the darkness and confusion of the storm to steal from the acorn stores +of the woodpeckers. One of the golden eagles made an impressive picture +as he stood bolt upright on the top of a tall pine-stump, braving the +storm, with his back to the wind and a tuft of snow piled on his broad +shoulders, a monument of passive endurance. Thus every storm-bound bird +seemed more or less uncomfortable, if not in distress. The storm was +reflected in every gesture, and not one cheerful note, not to say song, +came from a single bill. Their cowering, joyless endurance offered +striking contrasts to the spontaneous, irrepressible gladness of the +ouzel, who could no more help giving out sweet song than a rose sweet +fragrance. He must sing, though the heavens fall. + + + +Chapter 10 + +The South Dome + + +With the exception of a few spires and pinnacles, the South Dome is +the only rock about the Valley that is strictly inaccessible without +artificial means, and its inaccessibility is expressed in severe terms. +Nevertheless many a mountaineer, gazing admiringly, tried hard to +invent a way to the top of its noble crown--all in vain, until in the +year 1875, George Anderson, an indomitable Scotchman, undertook the +adventure. The side facing Tenaya Canyon is an absolutely vertical +precipice from the summit to a depth of about 1600 feet, and on the +opposite side it is nearly vertical for about as great a depth. The +southwest side presents a very steep and finely drawn curve from the top +down a thousand feet or more, while on the northeast, where it is united +with the Clouds' Rest Ridge, one may easily reach a point called the +Saddle, about seven hundred feet below the summit. From the Saddle the +Dome rises in a graceful curve a few degrees too steep for unaided +climbing, besides being defended by overleaning ends of the concentric +dome layers of the granite. + +A year or two before Anderson gained the summit, John Conway, the master +trail-builder of the Valley, and his little sons, who climbed smooth +rocks like lizards, made a bold effort to reach the top by climbing +barefooted up the grand curve with a rope which they fastened at +irregular intervals by means of eye-bolts driven into joints of the +rock. But finding that the upper part would require laborious drilling, +they abandoned the attempt, glad to escape from the dangerous position +they had reached, some 300 feet above the Saddle. Anderson began with +Conway's old rope, which had been left in place, and resolutely drilled +his way to the top, inserting eye-bolts five to six feet apart, and +making his rope fast to each in succession, resting his feet on the +last bolt while he drilled a hole for the next above. Occasionally some +irregularity in the curve, or slight foothold, would enable him to climb +a few feet without a rope, which he would pass and begin drilling again, +and thus the whole work was accomplished in a few days. From this +slender beginning he proposed to construct a substantial stairway which +he hoped to complete in time for the next year's travel, but while busy +getting out timber for his stairway and dreaming of the wealth he hoped +to gain from tolls, he was taken sick and died all alone in his little +cabin. + +On the 10th of November, after returning from a visit to Mount Shasta, a +month or two after Anderson had gained the summit, I made haste to the +Dome, not only for the pleasure of climbing, but to see what I might +learn. The first winter storm-clouds had blossomed and the mountains and +all the high points about the Valley were mantled in fresh snow. I was, +therefore, a little apprehensive of danger from the slipperiness of the +rope and the rock. Anderson himself tried to prevent me from making +the attempt, refusing to believe that any one could climb his rope in +the now-muffled condition in which it then was. Moreover, the sky was +overcast and solemn snow-clouds began to curl around the summit, and +my late experiences on icy Shasta came to mind. But reflecting that I +had matches in my pocket, and that a little firewood might be found, I +concluded that in case of a storm the night could be spent on the Dome +without suffering anything worth minding, no matter what the clouds +might bring forth. I therefore pushed on and gained the top. + +It was one of those brooding, changeful days that come between Indian +summer and winter, when the leaf colors have grown dim and the clouds +come and go among the cliffs like living creatures looking for work: now +hovering aloft, now caressing rugged rock-brows with great gentleness, +or, wandering afar over the tops of the forests, touching the spires of +fir and pine with their soft silken fringes as if trying to tell the +glad news of the coming of snow. + +The first view was perfectly glorious. A massive cloud of pure pearl +luster, apparently as fixed and calm as the meadows and groves in the +shadow beneath it, was arched across the Valley from wall to wall, one +end resting on the grand abutment of El Capitan, the other on Cathedral +Rock. A little later, as I stood on the tremendous verge overlooking +Mirror Lake, a flock of smaller clouds, white as snow, came from the +north, trailing their downy skirts over the dark forests, and entered +the Valley with solemn god-like gestures through Indian Canyon and over +the North Dome and Royal Arches, moving swiftly, yet with majestic +deliberation. On they came, nearer and nearer, gathering and massing +beneath my feet and filling the Tenaya Canyon. Then the sun shone free, +lighting the pearly gray surface of the cloud-like sea and making it +glow. Gazing, admiring, I was startled to see for the first time the +rare optical phenomenon of the "Specter of the Brocken." My shadow, +clearly outlined, about half a mile long, lay upon this glorious white +surface with startling effect. I walked back and forth, waved my arms +and struck all sorts of attitudes, to see every slightest movement +enormously exaggerated. Considering that I have looked down so many +times from mountain tops on seas of all sorts of clouds, it seems +strange that I should have seen the "Brocken Specter" only this once. +A grander surface and a grander stand-point, however, could hardly +have been found in all the Sierra. + +After this grand show the cloud-sea rose higher, wreathing the Dome, and +for a short time submerging it, making darkness like night, and I began +to think of looking for a camp ground in a cluster of dwarf pines. But +soon the sun shone free again, the clouds, sinking lower and lower, +gradually vanished, leaving the Valley with its Indian-summer colors +apparently refreshed, while to the eastward the summit-peaks, clad in +new snow, towered along the horizon in glorious array. + +Though apparently it is perfectly bald, there are four clumps of pines +growing on the summit, representing three species, Pinus albicaulis, +P. contorta and P. ponderosa, var. Jeffreyi--all three, of course, +repressed and storm-beaten. The alpine spiraea grows here also and +blossoms profusely with potentilla, erigeron, eriogonum, pentstemon, +solidago, and an interesting species of onion, and four or five species +of grasses and sedges. None of these differs in any respect from those +of other summits of the same height, excepting the curious little +narrow-leaved, waxen-bulbed onion, which I had not seen elsewhere. + +Notwithstanding the enthusiastic eagerness of tourists to reach the +crown of the Dome the views of the Valley from this lofty standpoint are +less striking than from many other points comparatively low, chiefly on +account of the foreshortening effect produced by looking down from so +great a height. The North Dome is dwarfed almost beyond recognition, +the grand sculpture of the Royal Arches is scarcely noticeable, and the +whole range of walls on both sides seem comparatively low, especially +when the Valley is flooded with noon sunshine; while the Dome itself, +the most sublime feature of all the Yosemite views, is out of sight +beneath one's feet. The view of Little Yosemite Valley is very fine, +though inferior to one obtained from the base of the Starr King Cone, +but the summit landscapes towards Mounts Ritter, Lyell, Dana, Conness, +and the Merced Group, are very effective and complete. + +No one has attempted to carry out Anderson's plan of making the Dome +accessible. For my part I should prefer leaving it in pure wildness, +though, after all, no great damage could be done by tramping over it. +The surface would be strewn with tin cans and bottles, but the winter +gales would blow the rubbish away. Avalanches might strip off any sort +of stairway or ladder that might be built. Blue jays and Clark's crows +have trodden the Dome for many a day, and so have beetles and chipmunks, +and Tissiack would hardly be more "conquered" or spoiled should man be +added to her list of visitors. His louder scream and heavier scrambling +would not stir a line of her countenance. + +When the sublime ice-floods of the glacial period poured down the flank +of the Range over what is now Yosemite Valley, they were compelled to +break through a dam of domes extending across from Mount Starr King to +North Dome; and as the period began to draw near a close the shallowing +ice-currents were divided and the South Dome was, perhaps, the first to +emerge, burnished and shining like a mirror above the surface of the icy +sea; and though it has sustained the wear and tear of the elements tens +of thousands of years, it yet remains a telling monument of the action +of the great glaciers that brought it to light. Its entire surface is +still covered with glacial hieroglyphics whose interpretation is the +reward of all who devoutly study them. + + + +Chapter 11 + +The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: +How the Valley Was Formed + + +All California has been glaciated, the low plains and valleys as well +as the mountains. Traces of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thickness, +beneath whose heavy folds the present landscapes have been molded, may +be found everywhere, though glaciers now exist only among the peaks of +the High Sierra. No other mountain chain on this or any other of the +continents that I have seen is so rich as the Sierra in bold, striking, +well-preserved glacial monuments. Indeed, every feature is more or +less tellingly glacial. Not a peak, ridge, dome, canyon, yosemite, +lake-basin, stream or forest will you see that does not in some way +explain the past existence and modes of action of flowing, grinding, +sculpturing, soil-making, scenery-making ice. For, notwithstanding the +post-glacial agents--the air, rain, snow, frost, river, avalanche, +etc.--have been at work upon the greater portion of the Range for tens +of thousands of stormy years, each engraving its own characters more +and more deeply over those of the ice, the latter are so enduring and +so heavily emphasized, they still rise in sublime relief, clear and +legible, through every after-inscription. The landscapes of North +Greenland, Antarctica, and some of those of our own Alaska, are still +being fashioned beneath a slow-crawling mantle of ice, from a quarter +of a mile to probably more than a mile in thickness, presenting noble +illustrations of the ancient condition of California, when its sublime +scenery lay hidden in process of formation. On the Himalaya, the +mountains of Norway and Switzerland, the Caucasus, and on most of those +of Alaska, their ice-mantle has been melted down into separate glaciers +that flow river-like through the valleys, illustrating a similar past +condition in the Sierra, when every canyon and valley was the channel +of an ice-stream, all of which may be easily traced back to their +fountains, where some sixty-five or seventy of their topmost residual +branches still linger beneath protecting mountain shadows. + +The change from one to another of those glacial conditions was slow as +we count time. When the great cycle of snow years, called the Glacial +Period, was nearly complete in California, the ice-mantle, wasting from +season to season faster than it was renewed, began to withdraw from the +lowlands and gradually became shallower everywhere. Then the highest +of the Sierra domes and dividing ridges, containing distinct glaciers +between them, began to appear above the icy sea. These first river-like +glaciers remained united in one continuous sheet toward the summit of +the Range for many centuries. But as the snow-fall diminished, and the +climate became milder, this upper part of the ice-sheet was also in +turn separated into smaller distinct glaciers, and these again into +still smaller ones, while at the same time all were growing shorter and +shallower, though fluctuations of the climate now and then occurred +that brought their receding ends to a standstill, or even enabled them +to advance for a few tens or hundreds of years. + +Meanwhile, hardy, home-seeking plants and animals, after long waiting, +flocked to their appointed places, pushing bravely on higher and higher, +along every sun-warmed slope, closely following the retreating ice, +which, like shreds of summer clouds, at length vanished from the +new-born mountains, leaving them in all their main, telling features +nearly as we find them now. + +Tracing the ways of glaciers, learning how Nature sculptures +mountain-waves in making scenery-beauty that so mysteriously influences +every human being, is glorious work. + +The most striking and attractive of the glacial phenomena in the upper +Yosemite region are the polished glacier pavements, because they are so +beautiful, and their beauty is of so rare a kind, so unlike any portion +of the loose, deeply weathered lowlands where people make homes and earn +their bread. They are simply flat or gently undulating areas of hard +resisting granite, which present the unchanged surface upon which with +enormous pressure the ancient glaciers flowed. They are found in most +perfect condition in the subalpine region, at an elevation of from eight +thousand to nine thousand feet. Some are miles in extent, only slightly +interrupted by spots that have given way to the weather, while the best +preserved portions reflect the sunbeams like calm water or glass, and +shine as if polished afresh every day, notwithstanding they have been +exposed to corroding rains, dew, frost, and snow measureless thousands +of years. + +The attention of wandering hunters and prospectors, who see so many +mountain wonders, is seldom commanded by other glacial phenomena, +moraines however regular and artificial-looking, canyons however deep +or strangely modeled, rocks however high; but when they come to these +shining pavements they stop and stare in wondering admiration, kneel +again and again to examine the brightest spots, and try hard to account +for their mysterious shining smoothness. They may have seen the winter +avalanches of snow descending in awful majesty through the woods, +scouring the rocks and sweeping away like weeds the trees that stood +in their way, but conclude that this cannot be the work of avalanches, +because the scratches and fine polished strife show that the agent, +whatever it was, moved along the sides of high rocks and ridges and up +over the tops of them as well as down their slopes. Neither can they see +how water may possibly have been the agent, for they find the same +strange polish upon ridges and domes thousands of feet above the reach +of any conceivable flood. Of all the agents of whose work they know +anything, only the wind seems capable of moving across the face of the +country in the directions indicated by the scratches and grooves. The +Indian name of Lake Tenaya is "Pyweak"--the lake of shining rocks. One +of the Yosemite tribe, Indian Tom, came to me and asked if I could tell +him what had made the Tenaya rocks so smooth. Even dogs and horses, when +first led up the mountains, study geology to this extent that they gaze +wonderingly at the strange brightness of the ground and smell it, and +place their feet cautiously upon it as if afraid of falling or sinking. + +In the production of this admirable hard finish, the glaciers in many +places flowed with a pressure of more than a thousand tons to the square +yard, planing down granite, slate, and quartz alike, and bringing out +the veins and crystals of the rocks with beautiful distinctness. Over +large areas below the sources of the Tuolumne and Merced the granite is +porphyritic; feldspar crystals in inch or two in length in many places +form the greater part of the rock, and these, when planed off level with +the general surface, give rise to a beautiful mosaic on which the happy +sunbeams plash and glow in passionate enthusiasm. Here lie the brightest +of all the Sierra landscapes. The Range both to the north and south of +this region was, perhaps, glaciated about as heavily, but because the +rocks are less resisting, their polished surfaces have mostly given way +to the weather, leaving only small imperfect patches. The lower remnants +of the old glacial surface occur at an elevation of from 3000 to 5000 +feet above the sea level, and twenty to thirty miles below the axis of +the Range. The short, steeply inclined canyons of the eastern flank also +contain enduring, brilliantly striated and polished rocks, but these are +less magnificent than those of the broad western flank. + +One of the best general views of the brightest and best of the Yosemite +park landscapes that every Yosemite tourist should see, is to be had +from the top of Fairview Dome, a lofty conoidal rock near Cathedral Peak +that long ago I named the Tuolumne Glacier Monument, one of the most +striking and best preserved of the domes. Its burnished crown is about +1500 feet above the Tuolumne Meadows and 10,000 above the sea. At first +sight it seems inaccessible, though a good climber will find it may +be scaled on the south side. About half-way up you will find it so +steep that there is danger of slipping, but feldspar crystals, two or +three inches long, of which the rock is full, having offered greater +resistance to atmospheric erosion than the mass of the rock in which +they are imbedded, have been brought into slight relief in some places, +roughening the surface here and there, and affording helping footholds. + +The summit is burnished and scored like the sides and base, the +scratches and strife indicating that the mighty Tuolumne Glacier swept +over it as if it were only a mere boulder in the bottom of its channel. +The pressure it withstood must have been enormous. Had it been less +solidly built it would have been carried away, ground into moraine +fragments, like the adjacent rock in which it lay imbedded; for, great +as it is, it is only a hard residual knot like the Yosemite domes, +brought into relief by the removal of less resisting rock about it; +an illustration of the survival of the strongest and most favorably +situated. + +Hardly less wonderful is the resistance it has offered to the trying +mountain weather since first its crown rose above the icy sea. The whole +quantity of post-glacial wear and tear it has suffered has not degraded +it a hundredth of an inch, as may readily be shown by the polished +portions of the surface. A few erratic boulders, nicely poised on its +crown, tell an interesting story. They came from the summit-peaks twelve +miles away, drifting like chips on the frozen sea, and were stranded +here when the top of the monument merged from the ice, while their +companions, whose positions chanced to be above the slopes of the sides +where they could not find rest, were carried farther on by falling back +on the shallowing ice current. + +The general view from the summit consists of a sublime assemblage of +ice-born rocks and mountains, long wavering ridges, meadows, lakes, and +forest-covered moraines, hundreds of square miles of them. The lofty +summit-peaks rise grandly along the sky to the east, the gray pillared +slopes of the Hoffman Range toward the west, and a billowy sea of +shining rocks like the Monument, some of them almost as high and which +from their peculiar sculpture seem to be rolling westward in the middle +ground, something like breaking waves. Immediately beneath you are the +Big Tuolumne Meadows, smooth lawns with large breadths of woods on +either side, and watered by the young Tuolumne River, rushing cool and +clear from its many snow- and ice-fountains. Nearly all the upper part +of the basin of the Tuolumne Glacier is in sight, one of the greatest +and most influential of all the Sierra ice-rivers. Lavishly flooded by +many a noble affluent from the ice-laden flanks of Mounts Dana, Lyell, +McClure, Gibbs, Conness, it poured its majestic outflowing current full +against the end of the Hoffman Range, which divided and deflected it to +right and left, just as a river of water is divided against an island +in the middle of its channel. Two distinct glaciers were thus formed, +one of which flowed through the great Tuolumne Canyon and Hetch Hetchy +Valley, while the other swept upward in a deep current two miles wide +across the divide, five hundred feet high between the basins of the +Tuolumne and Merced, into the Tenaya Basin, and thence down through the +Tenaya Canyon and Yosemite. + +The map-like distinctness and freshness of this glacial landscape cannot +fail to excite the attention of every beholder, no matter how little of +its scientific significance may be recognized. These bald, +westward-leaning rocks, with their rounded backs and shoulders toward +the glacier fountains of the summit-mountains, and their split, angular +fronts looking in the opposite direction, explain the tremendous +grinding force with which the ice-flood passed over them, and also the +direction of its flow. And the mountain peaks around the sides of the +upper general Tuolumne Basin, with their sharp unglaciated summits and +polished rounded sides, indicate the height to which the glaciers rose; +while the numerous moraines, curving and swaying in beautiful lines, +mark the boundaries of the main trunk and its tributaries as they +existed toward the close of the glacial winter. None of the commerical +highways of the land or sea, marked with buoys and lamps, fences, and +guide-boards, is so unmistakably indicated as are these broad, shining +trails of the vanished Tuolumne Glacier and its far-reaching +tributaries. + +I should like now to offer some nearer views of a few characteristic +specimens of these wonderful old ice-streams, though it is not easy to +make a selection from so vast a system intimately inter-blended. The +main branches of the Merced Glacier are, perhaps, best suited to our +purpose, because their basins, full of telling inscriptions, are the +ones most attractive and accessible to the Yosemite visitors who like to +look beyond the valley walls. They number five, and may well be called +Yosemite glaciers, since they were the agents Nature used in developing +and fashioning the grand Valley. The names I have given them are, +beginning with the northern-most, Yosemite Creek, Hoffman, Tenaya, South +Lyell, and Illilouette Glaciers. These all converged in admirable poise +around from northeast to southeast, welded themselves together into the +main Yosemite Glacier, which, grinding gradually deeper, swept down +through the Valley, receiving small tributaries on its way from the +Indian, Sentinel, and Pohono Canyons; and at length flowed out of the +Valley, and on down the Range in a general westerly direction. At the +time that the tributaries mentioned above were well defined as to their +boundaries, the upper portion of the valley walls, and the highest rocks +about them, such as the Domes, the uppermost of the Three Brothers and +the Sentinel, rose above the surface of the ice. But during the Valley's +earlier history, all its rocks, however lofty, were buried beneath a +continuous sheet, which swept on above and about them like the wind, the +upper portion of the current flowing steadily, while the lower portion +went mazing and swedging down in the crooked and dome-blocked canyons +toward the head of the Valley. + +Every glacier of the Sierra fluctuated in width and depth and length, +and consequently in degree of individuality, down to the latest +glacial days. It must, therefore, be borne in mind that the following +description of the Yosemite glaciers applies only to their separate +condition, and to that phase of their separate condition that they +presented toward the close of the glacial period after most of their +work was finished, and all the more telling features of the Valley and +the adjacent region were brought into relief. + +The comparatively level, many-fountained Yosemite Creek Glacier was +about fourteen miles in length by four or five in width, and from five +hundred to a thousand feet deep. Its principal tributaries, drawing +their sources from the northern spurs of the Hoffman Range, at first +pursued a westerly course; then, uniting with each other, and a series +of short affluents from the western rim of the basin, the trunk thus +formed swept around to the southward in a magnificent curve, and poured +its ice over the north wall of Yosemite in cascades about two miles +wide. This broad and comparatively shallow glacier formed a sort of +crawling, wrinkled ice-cloud, that gradually became more regular in +shape and river-like as it grew older. Encircling peaks began to +overshadow its highest fountains, rock islets rose here and there amid +its ebbing currents, and its picturesque banks, adorned with domes and +round-backed ridges, extended in massive grandeur down to the brink of +the Yosemite walls. + +In the meantime the chief Hoffman tributaries, slowly receding to the +shelter of the shadows covering their fountains, continued to live and +work independently, spreading soil, deepening lake-basins and giving +finishing touches to the sculpture in general. At length these also +vanished, and the whole basin is now full of light. Forests flourish +luxuriantly upon its ample moraines, lakes and meadows shine and bloom +amid its polished domes, and a thousand gardens adorn the banks of its +streams. + +It is to the great width and even slope of the Yosemite Creek Glacier +that we owe the unrivaled height and sheerness of the Yosemite Falls. +For had the positions of the ice-fountains and the structure of the +rocks been such as to cause down-thrusting concentration of the Glacier +as it approached the Valley, then, instead of a high vertical fall we +should have had a long slanting cascade, which after all would perhaps +have been as beautiful and interesting, if we only had a mind to see +it so. + +The short, comparatively swift-flowing Hoffman Glacier, whose fountains +extend along the south slopes of the Hoffman Range, offered a striking +contrast to the one just described. The erosive energy of the latter was +diffused over a wide field of sunken, boulder-like domes and ridges. The +Hoffman Glacier, on the contrary moved right ahead on a comparatively +even surface, making descent of nearly five thousand feet in five miles, +steadily contracting and deepening its current, and finally united with +the Tenaya Glacier as one of its most influential tributaries in the +development and sculpture of the great Half Dome, North Dome and the +rocks adjacent to them about the head of the Valley. + +The story of its death is not unlike that of its companion already +described, though the declivity of its channel, and its uniform exposure +to sun-heat prevented any considerable portion of its current from +becoming torpid, lingering only well up on the Mountain slopes to finish +their sculpture and encircle them with a zone of moraine soil for +forests and gardens. Nowhere in all this wonderful region will you find +more beautiful trees and shrubs and flowers covering the traces of ice. + +The rugged Tenaya Glacier wildly crevassed here and there above the +ridges it had to cross, instead of drawing its sources direct from the +summit of the Range, formed, as we have seen, one of the outlets of the +great Tuolumne Glacier, issuing from this noble fountain like a river +from a lake, two miles wide, about fourteen miles long, and from 1500 +to 2000 feet deep. + +In leaving the Tuolumne region it crossed over the divide, as mentioned +above, between the Tuolumne and Tenaya basins, making an ascent of five +hundred feet. Hence, after contracting its wide current and receiving +a strong affluent from the fountains about Cathedral Peak, it poured +its massive flood over the northeastern rim of its basin in splendid +cascades. Then, crushing heavily against the Clouds' Rest Ridge, it bore +down upon the Yosemite domes with concentrated energy. + +Toward the end of the ice period, while its Hoffman companion continued +to grind rock-meal for coming plants, the main trunk became torpid, +and vanished, exposing wide areas of rolling rock-waves and glistening +pavements, on whose channelless surface water ran wild and free. And +because the trunk vanished almost simultaneously throughout its whole +extent, no terminal moraines are found in its canyon channel; nor, since +its walls are, in most places, too steeply inclined to admit of the +deposition of moraine matter, do we find much of the two main laterals. +The lowest of its residual glaciers lingered beneath the shadow of the +Yosemite Half Dome; others along the base of Coliseum Peak above Lake +Tenaya and along the precipitous wall extending from the lake to the +Big Tuolumne Meadows. The latter, on account of the uniformity and +continuity of their protecting shadows, formed moraines of considerable +length and regularity that are liable to be mistaken for portions of +the left lateral of the Tuolumne tributary glacier. + +Spend all the time you can spare or steal on the tracks of this grand +old glacier, charmed and enchanted by its magnificent canyon, lakes and +cascades and resplendent glacier pavements. + +The Nevada Glacier was longer and more symmetrical than the last, and +the only one of the Merced system whose sources extended directly back +to the main summits on the axis of the Range. Its numerous fountains +were ranged side by side in three series, at an elevation of from 10,000 +to 12,000 feet above the sea. The first, on the right side of the basin, +extended from the Matterhorn to Cathedral Peak; that on the left through +the Merced group, and these two parallel series were united by a third +that extended around the head of the basin in a direction at right +angles to the others. + +The three ranges of high peaks and ridges that supplied the snow for +these fountains, together with the Clouds' Rest Ridge, nearly inclose a +rectangular basin, that was filled with a massive sea of ice, leaving +an outlet toward the west through which flowed the main trunk glacier, +three-fourths of a mile to a mile and a half wide, fifteen miles long, +and from 1000 to 1500 feet deep, and entered Yosemite between the Half +Dome and Mount Starr King. + +Could we have visited Yosemite Valley at this period of its history, we +should have found its ice cascades vastly more glorious than their tiny +water representatives of the present day. One of the grandest of these +was formed by that portion of the Nevada Glacier that poured over the +shoulder of the Half Dome. + +This glacier, as a whole, resembled an oak, with a gnarled swelling base +and wide-spreading branches. Picturesque rocks of every conceivable form +adorned its banks, among which glided the numerous tributaries, mottled +with black and red and gray boulders, from the fountain peaks, while +ever and anon, as the deliberate centuries passed away, dome after dome +raised its burnished crown above the ice-flood to enrich the slowly +opening landscapes. + +The principal moraines occur in short irregular sections along the sides +of the canyons, their fragmentary condition being due to interruptions +caused by portions of the sides of the canyon walls being too steep for +moraine matter to lie on, and to down-sweeping torrents and avalanches. +The left lateral of the trunk may be traced about five miles from the +mouth of the first main tributary to the Illilouette Canyon. The +corresponding section of the right lateral, extending from Cathedral +tributary to the Half Dome, is more complete because of the more +favorable character of the north side of the canyon. A short +side-glacier came in against it from the slopes of Clouds' Rest; but +being fully exposed to the sun, it was melted long before the main +trunk, allowing the latter to deposit this portion of its moraine +undisturbed. Some conception of the size and appearance of this fine +moraine may be gained by following the Clouds' Rest trail from Yosemite, +which crosses it obliquely and conducts past several sections made by +streams. Slate boulders may be seen that must have come from the Lyell +group, twelve miles distant. But the bulk of the moraine is composed +of porphyritic granite derived from Feldspar and Cathedral Valleys. + +On the sides of the moraines we find a series of terraces, indicating +fluctuations in the level of the glacier, caused by variations of +snow-fall, temperature, etc., showing that the climate of the glacial +period was diversified by cycles of milder or stormier seasons similar +to those of post-glacial time. + +After the depth of the main trunk diminished to about five hundred feet, +the greater portion became torpid, as is shown by the moraines, and +lay dying in its crooked channel like a wounded snake, maintaining for +a time a feeble squirming motion in places of exceptional depth, or +where the bottom of the canyon was more steeply inclined. The numerous +fountain-wombs, however, continued fruitful long after the trunk had +vanished, giving rise to an imposing array of short residual glaciers, +extending around the rim of the general basin a distance of nearly +twenty-four miles. Most of these have but recently succumbed to the new +climate, dying in turn as determined by elevation, size, and exposure, +leaving only a few feeble survivors beneath the coolest shadows, which +are now slowly completing the sculpture of one of the noblest of the +Yosemite basins. + +The comparatively shallow glacier that at this time filled the +Illilouette Basin, though once far from shallow, more resembled a lake +than a river of ice, being nearly half as wide as it was long. Its +greatest length was about ten miles, and its depth perhaps nowhere much +exceeded 1000 feet. Its chief fountains, ranged along the west side of +the Merced group, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, gave birth to +fine tributaries that flowed in a westerly direction, and united in the +center of the basin. The broad trunk at first poured northwestward, then +curved to the northward, deflected by the lofty wall forming its western +bank, and finally united with the grand Yosemite trunk, opposite Glacier +Point. + +All the phenomena relating to glacial action in this basin are +remarkably simple and orderly, on account of the sheltered positions +occupied by its ice-fountains, with reference to the disturbing effects +of larger glaciers from the axis of the main Range earlier in the +period. From the eastern base of the Starr King cone you may obtain +a fine view of the principal moraines sweeping grandly out into the +middle of the basin from the shoulders of the peaks, between which the +ice-fountains lay. The right lateral of the tributary, which took its +rise between Red and Merced Mountains, measures two hundred and fifty +feet in height at its upper extremity, and displays three well-defined +terraces, similar to those of the south Lyell Glacier. The comparative +smoothness of the upper-most terrace shows that it is considerably more +ancient than the others, many of the boulders of which it is composed +having crumbled. A few miles to the westward, this moraine has an +average slope of twenty-seven degrees, and an elevation above the bottom +of the channel of six hundred and sixty feet. Near the middle of the +main basin, just where the regularly formed medial and lateral moraines +flatten out and disappear, there is a remarkably smooth field of gravel, +planted with arctostaphylos, that looks at the distance of a mile like +a delightful meadow. Stream sections show the gravel deposit to be +composed of the same material as the moraines, but finer, and more +water-worn from the action of converging torrents issuing from the +tributary glaciers after the trunk was melted. The southern boundary of +the basin is a strikingly perfect wall, gray on the top, and white down +the sides and at the base with snow, in which many a crystal brook takes +rise. The northern boundary is made up of smooth undulating masses of +gray granite, that lift here and there into beautiful domes of which +the Starr King cluster is the finest, while on the east tower of the +majestic fountain-peaks with wide canyons and neve amphitheaters between +them, whose variegated rocks show out gloriously against the sky. + +The ice-plows of this charming basin, ranged side by side in orderly +gangs, furrowed the rocks with admirable uniformity, producing +irrigating channels for a brood of wild streams, and abundance of rich +soil adapted to every requirement of garden and grove. No other section +of the Yosemite uplands is in so perfect a state of glacial cultivation. +Its domes and peaks, and swelling rock-waves, however majestic in +themselves, and yet submissively subordinate to the garden center. The +other basins we have been describing are combinations of sculptured +rocks, embellished with gardens and groves; the Illilouette is one grand +garden and forest, embellished with rocks, each of the five beautiful +in its own way, and all as harmoniously related as are the five petals +of a flower. After uniting in the Yosemite Valley, and expending the +down-thrusting energy derived from their combined weight and the +declivity of their channels, the grand trunk flowed on through and out +of the Valley. In effecting its exit a considerable ascent was made, +traces of which may still be seen on the abraded rocks at the lower end +of the Valley, while the direction pursued after leaving the Valley is +surely indicated by the immense lateral moraines extending from the +ends of the walls at an elevation of from 1500 to 1800 feet. The right +lateral moraine was disturbed by a large tributary glacier that occupied +the basin of Cascade Creek, causing considerable complication in its +structure. The left is simple in form for several miles of its length, +or to the point where a tributary came in from the southeast. But both +are greatly obscured by the forests and underbrush growing upon them, +and by the denuding action of rains and melting snows, etc. It is, +therefore, the less to be wondered at that these moraines, made up of +material derived from the distant fountain-mountains, and from the +Valley itself, were not sooner recognized. + +The ancient glacier systems of the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Kern, and +Kings River Basins were developed on a still grander scale and are so +replete with interest that the most sketchy outline descriptions of +each, with the works they have accomplished would fill many a volume. +Therefore I can do but little more than invite everybody who is free +to go and see for himself. + +The action of flowing ice, whether in the form of river-like glaciers or +broad mantles, especially the part it played in sculpturing the earth, +is as yet but little understood. Water rivers work openly where people +dwell, and so does the rain, and the sea, thundering on all the shores +of the world; and the universal ocean of air, though invisible, speaks +aloud in a thousand voices, and explains its modes of working and its +power. But glaciers, back in their white solitudes, work apart from men, +exerting their tremendous energies in silence and darkness. Outspread, +spirit-like, they brood above the predestined landscapes, work on +unwearied through immeasurable ages, until, in the fullness of time, the +mountains and valleys are brought forth, channels furrowed for rivers, +basins made for lakes and meadows, and arms of the sea, soils spread for +forests and fields; then they shrink and vanish like summer clouds. + + + +Chapter 12 + +How Best to Spend One's Yosemite Time + + +One-Day Excursions + +No. 1. + +If I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite I +should start at daybreak, say at three o'clock in midsummer, with a +pocketful of any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point, +Sentinel Dome, the head of Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, the top of +Liberty Cap, Vernal Fall and the wild boulder-choked River Canyon. The +trail leaves the Valley at the base of the Sentinel Rock, and as +you slowly saunter from point to point along its many accommodating +zigzags nearly all the Valley rocks and falls are seen in striking, +ever-changing combinations. At an elevation of about five hundred feet a +particularly fine, wide-sweeping view down the Valley is obtained, past +the sheer face of the Sentinel and between the Cathedral Rocks and +El Capitan. At a height of about 1500 feet the great Half Dome comes +full in sight, overshadowing every other feature of the Valley to the +eastward. From Glacier Point you look down 3000 feet over the edge of +its sheer face to the meadows and groves and innumerable yellow pine +spires, with the meandering river sparkling and spangling through the +midst of them. Across the Valley a great telling view is presented of +the Royal Arches, North Dome, Indian Canyon, Three Brothers and El +Capitan, with the dome-paved basin of Yosemite Creek and Mount Hoffman +in the background. To the eastward, the Half Dome close beside you +looking higher and more wonderful than ever; southeastward the Starr +King, girdled with silver firs, and the spacious garden-like basin of +the Illilouette and its deeply sculptured fountain-peaks, called "The +Merced Group"; and beyond all, marshaled along the eastern horizon, the +icy summits on the axis of the Range and broad swaths of forests growing +on ancient moraines, while the Nevada, Vernal and Yosemite Falls are +not only full in sight but are distinctly heard as if one were standing +beside them in their spray. + +The views from the summit of Sentinel Dome are still more extensive +and telling. Eastward the crowds of peaks at the head of the Merced, +Tuolumne and San Joaquin Rivers are presented in bewildering array; +westward, the vast forests, yellow foothills and the broad San Joaquin +plains and the Coast Ranges, hazy and dim in the distance. + +From Glacier Point go down the trail into the lower end of the +Illilouette basin, cross Illilouette Creek and follow it to the Fall +where from an outjutting rock at its head you will get a fine view of +its rejoicing waters and wild canyon and the Half Dome. Thence returning +to the trail, follow it to the head of the Nevada Fall. Linger here an +hour or two, for not only have you glorious views of the wonderful fall, +but of its wild, leaping, exulting rapids and, greater than all, the +stupendous scenery into the heart of which the white passionate river +goes wildly thundering, surpassing everything of its kind in the world. +After an unmeasured hour or so of this glory, all your body aglow, nerve +currents flashing through you never before felt, go to the top of the +Liberty Cap, only a glad saunter now that your legs as well as head +and heart are awake and rejoicing with everything. The Liberty Cap, a +companion of the Half Dome, is sheer and inaccessible on three of its +sides but on the east a gentle, ice-burnished, juniper-dotted slope +extends to the summit where other wonderful views are displayed where +all are wonderful: the south side and shoulders of Half Dome and Clouds' +Rest, the beautiful Little Yosemite Valley and its many domes, the Starr +King cluster of domes, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, and, perhaps the +most tremendously impressive of all, the views of the hopper-shaped +canyon of the river from the head of the Nevada Fall to the head of +the Valley. + +Returning to the trail you descend between the Nevada Fall and the +Liberty Cap with fine side views of both the fall and the rock, pass +on through clouds of spray and along the rapids to the head of the +Vernal Fall, about a mile below the Nevada. Linger here if night is +still distant, for views of this favorite fall and the stupendous rock +scenery about it. Then descend a stairway by its side, follow a dim +trail through its spray, and a plain one along the border of the +boulder-dashed rapids and so back to the wide, tranquil Valley. + + +One-Day Excursions + +No. 2. + +Another grand one-day excursion is to the Upper Yosemite Fall, the +top of the highest of the Three Brothers, called Eagle Peak on the +Geological Survey maps; the brow of El Capitan; the head of the Ribbon +Fall; across the beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin; and back to the Valley +by the Big Oak Flat wagon-road. + +The trail leaves the Valley on the east side of the largest of the +earthquake taluses immediately opposite the Sentinel Rock and as it +passes within a few rods of the foot of the great fall, magnificent +views are obtained as you approach it and pass through its spray, though +when the snow is melting fast you will be well drenched. From the foot +of the Fall the trail zigzags up a narrow canyon between the fall and a +plain mural cliff that is burnished here and there by glacial action. + +You should stop a while on a flat iron-fenced rock a little below the +head of the fall beside the enthusiastic throng of starry comet-like +waters to learn something of their strength, their marvelous variety of +forms, and above all, their glorious music, gathered and composed from +the snow-storms, hail-, rain- and wind-storms that have fallen on their +glacier-sculptured, domey, ridgy basin. Refreshed and exhilarated, +you follow your trail-way through silver fir and pine woods to Eagle +Peak, where the most comprehensive of all the views to be had on the +north-wall heights are displayed. After an hour or two of gazing, +dreaming, studying the tremendous topography, etc., trace the rim of +the Valley to the grand El Capitan ridge and go down to its brow, where +you will gain everlasting impressions of Nature's steadfastness and +power combined with ineffable fineness of beauty. + +Dragging yourself away, go to the head of the Ribbon Fall, thence across +the beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin to the Big Oak Flat stage-road, and +down its fine grades to the Valley, enjoying glorious Yosemite scenery +all the way to the foot of El Capitan and your camp. + + +Two-Day Excursions + +No. 1. + +For a two-day trip I would go straight to Mount Hoffman, spend the night +on the summit, next morning go down by May Lake to Tenaya Lake and +return to the Valley by Cloud's Rest and the Nevada and Vernal Falls. As +on the foregoing excursion, you leave the Valley by the Yosemite Falls +trail and follow it to the Tioga wagon-road, a short distance east of +Porcupine Flat. From that point push straight up to the summit. Mount +Hoffman is a mass of gray granite that rises almost in the center of the +Yosemite Park, about eight or ten miles in a straight line from the +Valley. Its southern slopes are low and easily climbed, and adorned here +and there with castle-like crumbling piles and long jagged crests that +look like artificial masonry; but on the north side it is abruptly +precipitous and banked with lasting snow. Most of the broad summit +is comparatively level and thick sown with crystals, quartz, mica, +hornblende, feldspar, granite, zircon, tourmaline, etc., weathered out +and strewn closely and loosely as if they had been sown broadcast. Their +radiance is fairly dazzling in sunlight, almost hiding the multitude of +small flowers that grow among them. At first sight only these radiant +crystals are likely to be noticed, but looking closely you discover a +multitude of very small gilias, phloxes, mimulus, etc., many of them +with more petals than leaves. On the borders of little streams larger +plants flourish--lupines, daisies, asters, goldenrods, hairbell, +mountain columbine, potentilla, astragalus and a few gentians; with +charming heathworts--bryanthus, cassiope, kalmia, vaccinium in +boulder-fringing rings or bank covers. You saunter among the crystals +and flowers as if you were walking among stars. From the summit nearly +all the Yosemite Park is displayed like a map: forests, lakes, meadows, +and snowy peaks. Northward lies Yosemite's wide basin with its domes and +small lakes, shining like larger crystals; eastward the rocky, meadowy +Tuolumne region, bounded by its snowy peaks in glorious array; southward +Yosemite and westward the vast forest. On no other Yosemite Park +mountain are you more likely to linger. You will find it a magnificent +sky camp. Clumps of dwarf pine and mountain hemlock will furnish resin +roots and branches for fuel and light, and the rills, sparkling water. +Thousands of the little plant people will gaze at your camp-fire with +the crystals and stars, companions and guardians as you lie at rest in +the heart of the vast serene night. + +The most telling of all the wide Hoffman views is the basin of the +Tuolumne with its meadows, forests and hundreds of smooth rock-waves +that appear to be coming rolling on towards you like high heaving waves +ready to break, and beyond these the great mountains. But best of all +are the dawn and the sunrise. No mountain top could be better placed for +this most glorious of mountain views--to watch and see the deepening +colors of the dawn and the sunbeams streaming through the snowy High +Sierra passes, awakening the lakes and crystals, the chilled plant +people and winged people, and making everything shine and sing in +pure glory. + +With your heart aglow, spangling Lake Tenaya and Lake May will beckon +you away for walks on their ice-burnished shores. Leave Tenaya at the +west end, cross to the south side of the outlet, and gradually work +your way up in an almost straight south direction to the summit of the +divide between Tenaya Creek and the main upper Merced River or Nevada +Creek and follow the divide to Clouds Rest. After a glorious view from +the crest of this lofty granite wave you will find a trail on its +western end that will lead you down past Nevada and Vernal Falls to the +Valley in good time, provided you left your Hoffman sky camp early. + + +Two-Day Excursions + +No. 2. + +Another grand two-day excursion is the same as the first of the one-day +trips, as far as the head of Illilouette Fall. From there trace the +beautiful stream up through the heart of its magnificent forests and +gardens to the canyons between the Red and Merced Peaks, and pass the +night where I camped forty-one years ago. Early next morning visit +the small glacier on the north side of Merced Peak, the first of the +sixty-five that I discovered in the Sierra. + +Glacial phenomena in the Illilouette Basin are on the grandest scale, +and in the course of my explorations I found that the canyon and +moraines between the Merced and Red Mountains were the most interesting +of them all. The path of the vanished glacier shone in many places as +if washed with silver, and pushing up the canyon on this bright road +I passed lake after lake in solid basins of granite and many a meadow +along the canyon stream that links them together. The main lateral +moraines that bound the view below the canyon are from a hundred to +nearly two hundred feet high and wonderfully regular, like artificial +embankments covered with a magnificent growth of silver fir and pine. +But this garden and forest luxuriance is speedily left behind, and +patches of bryanthus, cassiope and arctic willows begin to appear. The +small lakes which a few miles down the Valley are so richly bordered +with flowery meadows have at an elevation of 10,000 feet only small +brown mats of carex, leaving bare rocks around more than half their +shores. Yet, strange to say, amid all this arctic repression the +mountain pine on ledges and buttresses of Red Mountain seems to find the +climate best suited to it. Some specimens that I measured were over a +hundred feet high and twenty-four feet in circumference, showing hardly +a trace of severe storms, looking as fresh and vigorous as the giants of +the lower zones. Evening came on just as I got fairly into the main +canyon. It is about a mile wide and a little less than two miles long. +The crumbling spurs of Red Mountain bound it on the north, the somber +cliffs of Merced Mountain on the south and a deeply-serrated, splintered +ridge curving around from mountain to mountain shuts it in on the east. +My camp was on the brink of one of the lakes in a thicket of mountain +hemlock, partly sheltered from the wind. Early next morning I set out to +trace the ancient glacier to its head. Passing around the north shore of +my camp lake I followed the main stream from one lakelet to another. The +dwarf pines and hemlocks disappeared and the stream was bordered with +icicles. The main lateral moraines that extend from the mouth of the +canyon are continued in straggling masses along the walls. Tracing the +streams back to the highest of its little lakes, I noticed a deposit of +fine gray mud, something like the mud corn from a grindstone. This +suggested its glacial origin, for the stream that was carrying it issued +from a raw-looking moraine that seemed to be in process of formation. +It is from sixty to over a hundred feet high in front, with a slope of +about thirty-eight degrees. Climbing to the top of it, I discovered a +very small but well-characterized glacier swooping down from the shadowy +cliffs of the mountain to its terminal moraine. The ice appeared on all +the lower portion of the glacier; farther up it was covered with snow. +The uppermost crevasse or "bergeschrund" was from twelve to fourteen +feet wide. The melting snow and ice formed a network of rills that ran +gracefully down the surface of the glacier, merrily singing in their +shining channels. After this discovery I made excursions over all the +High Sierra and discovered that what at first sight looked like +snowfields were in great part glaciers which were completing the +sculpture of the summit peaks. + +Rising early,--which will be easy, as your bed will be rather cold and +you will not be able to sleep much anyhow,--after visiting the glacier, +climb the Red Mountain and enjoy the magnificent views from the summit. +I counted forty lakes from one standpoint an this mountain, and the +views to the westward over the Illilouette Basin, the most superbly +forested of all the basins whose waters rain into Yosemite, and those of +the Yosemite rocks, especially the Half Dome and the upper part of the +north wall, are very fine. But, of course, far the most imposing view is +the vast array of snowy peaks along the axis of the Range. Then from the +top of this peak, light and free and exhilarated with mountain air and +mountain beauty, you should run lightly down the northern slope of the +mountain, descend the canyon between Red and Gray Mountains, thence +northward along the bases of Gray Mountain and Mount Clark and go down +into the head of Little Yosemite, and thence down past the Nevada and +Vernal Falls to the Valley, a truly glorious two-day trip! + + +A Three-Day Excursion + +The best three-day excursion, as far as I can see, is the same as the +first of the two-day trips until you reach Lake Tenaya. There instead of +returning to the Valley, follow the Tioga road around the northwest side +of the lake, over to the Tuolumne Meadows and up to the west base of +Mount Dana. Leave the road there and make straight for the highest point +on the timber line between Mounts Dana and Gibbs and camp there. + +On the morning of the third day go to the top of Mount Dana in time for +the glory of the dawn and the sunrise over the gray Mono Desert and the +sublime forest of High Sierra peaks. When you leave the mountain go far +enough down the north side for a view of the Dana Glacier, then make +your way back to the Tioga road, follow it along the Tuolumne Meadows +to the crossing of Budd Creek where you will find the Sunrise trail +branching off up the mountain-side through the forest in a southwesterly +direction past the west side of Cathedral Peak, which will lead you down +to the Valley by the Vernal and Nevada Falls. If you are a good walker +you can leave the trail where it begins to descend a steep slope in the +silver fir woods, and bear off to the right and make straight for the +top of Clouds' Rest. The walking is good and almost level and from the +west end of Clouds' Rest take the Clouds' Rest Trail which will lead +direct to the Valley by the Nevada and Vernal Falls. To any one not +desperately time-poor this trip should have four days instead of three; +camping the second night at the Soda Springs; thence to Mount Dana and +return to the Soda Springs, camping the third night there; thence by +the Sunrise trail to Cathedral Peak, visiting the beautiful Cathedral +lake which lies about a mile to the west of Cathedral Peak, eating your +luncheon, and thence to Clouds' Rest and the Valley as above. This is one +of the most interesting of all the comparatively short trips that can be +made in the whole Yosemite region. Not only do you see all the grandest +of the Yosemite rocks and waterfalls and the High Sierra with their +glaciers, glacier lakes and glacier meadows, etc., but sections of the +magnificent silver fir, two-leaved pine, and dwarf pine zones; with the +principal alpine flowers and shrubs, especially sods of dwarf vaccinium +covered with flowers and fruit though less than an inch high, broad mats +of dwarf willow scarce an inch high with catkins that rise straight from +the ground, and glorious beds of blue gentians,--grandeur enough and +beauty enough for a lifetime. + + +The Upper Tuolumne Excursion + +We come now to the grandest of all the Yosemite excursions, one that +requires at least two or three weeks. The best time to make it is from +about the middle of July. The visitor entering the Yosemite in July has +the advantage of seeing the falls not, perhaps, in their very flood +prime but next thing to it; while the glacier-meadows will be in their +glory and the snow on the mountains will be firm enough to make climbing +safe. Long ago I made these Sierra trips, carrying only a sackful of +bread with a little tea and sugar and was thus independent and free, but +now that trails or carriage roads lead out of the Valley in almost every +direction it is easy to take a pack animal, so that the luxury of a +blanket and a supply of food can easily be had. + +The best way to leave the Valley will be by the Yosemite Fall trail, +camping the first night on the Tioga road opposite the east end of the +Hoffman Range. Next morning climb Mount Hoffman; thence push on past +Tenaya Lake into the Tuolumne Meadows and establish a central camp +near the Soda Springs, from which glorious excursions can be made at +your leisure. For here in this upper Tuolumne Valley is the widest, +smoothest, most serenely spacious, and in every way the most delightful +summer pleasure-park in all the High Sierra. And since it is connected +with Yosemite by two good trails, and a fairly good carriage road +that passes between Yosemite and Mount Hoffman, it is also the most +accessible. It is in the heart of the High Sierra east of Yosemite, 8500 +to 9000 feet above the level of the sea. The gray, picturesque Cathedral +Range bounds it on the south; a similar range or spur, the highest peak +of which is Mount Conness, on the north; the noble Mounts Dana, Gibbs, +Mammoth, Lyell, McClure and others on the axis of the Range on the east; +a heaving, billowing crowd of glacier-polished rocks and Mount Hoffman +on the west. Down through the open sunny meadow-levels of the Valley +flows the Tuolumne River, fresh and cool from its many glacial +fountains, the highest of which are the glaciers that lie on the north +sides of Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. + +Along the river a series of beautiful glacier-meadows extend with but +little interruption, from the lower end of the Valley to its head, a +distance of about twelve miles, forming charming sauntering-grounds from +which the glorious mountains may be enjoyed as they look down in divine +serenity over the dark forests that clothe their bases. Narrow strips of +pine woods cross the meadow-carpet from side to side, and it is somewhat +roughened here and there by moraine boulders and dead trees brought down +from the heights by snow avalanches; but for miles and miles it is so +smooth and level that a hundred horsemen may ride abreast over it. + +The main lower portion of the meadows is about four miles long and from +a quarter to half a mile wide, but the width of the Valley is, on an +average, about eight miles. Tracing the river, we find that it forks a +mile above the Soda Springs, the main fork turning southward to Mount +Lyell, the other eastward to Mount Dana and Mount Gibbs. Along both +forks strips of meadow extend almost to their heads. The most beautiful +portions of the meadows are spread over lake basins, which have been +filled up by deposits from the river. A few of these river-lakes still +exist, but they are now shallow and are rapidly approaching extinction. +The sod in most places is exceedingly fine and silky and free from weeds +and bushes; while charming flowers abound, especially gentians, dwarf +daisies, potentillas, and the pink bells of dwarf vaccinium. On the +banks of the river and its tributaries cassiope and bryanthus may be +found, where the sod curls over stream banks and around boulders. The +principal grass of these meadows is a delicate calamagrostis with very +slender filiform leaves, and when it is in flower the ground seems to +be covered with a faint purple mist, the stems of the panicles being so +fine that they are almost invisible, and offer no appreciable resistance +in walking through them. Along the edges of the meadows beneath the +pines and throughout the greater part of the Valley tall ribbon-leaved +grasses grow in abundance, chiefly bromus, triticum and agrostis. + +In October the nights are frosty, and then the meadows at sunrise, when +every leaf is laden with crystals, are a fine sight. The days are still +warm and calm, and bees and butterflies continue to waver and hum about +the late-blooming flowers until the coming of the snow, usually in +November. Storm then follows storm in quick succession, burying the +meadows to a depth of from ten to twenty feet, while magnificent +avalanches descend through the forests from the laden heights, +depositing huge piles of snow mixed with uprooted trees and boulders. In +the open sunshine the snow usually lasts until the end of June but the +new season's vegetation is not generally in bloom until late in July. +Perhaps the best all round excursion-time after winters of average +snowfall is from the middle of July to the middle or end of August. The +snow is then melted from the woods and southern slopes of the mountains +and the meadows and gardens are in their glory, while the weather is +mostly all-reviving, exhilarating sunshine. The few clouds that rise now +and then and the showers they yield are only enough to keep everything +fresh and fragrant. + +The groves about the Soda Springs are favorite camping-grounds on +account of the cold, pleasant-tasting water charged with carbonic acid, +and because of the views of the mountains across the meadow--the Glacier +Monument, Cathedral Peak, Cathedral Spires, Unicorn Peak and a series of +ornamental nameless companions, rising in striking forms and nearness +above a dense forest growing on the left lateral moraine of the ancient +Tuolumne glacier, which, broad, deep, and far-reaching, exerted vast +influence on the scenery of this portion of the Sierra. But there are +fine camping-grounds all along the meadows, and one may move from grove +to grove every day all summer, enjoying new homes and new beauty to +satisfy every roving desire for change. + +There are five main capital excursions to be made from here--to the +summits of Mounts Dana, Lyell and Conness, and through the Bloody Canyon +Pass to Mono Lake and the volcanoes, and down the Tuolumne Canyon, at +least as far as the foot of the wonderful series of river cataracts. +All of these excursions are sure to be made memorable with joyful +health-giving experiences; but perhaps none of them will be remembered +with keener delight than the days spent in sauntering on the broad +velvet lawns by the river, sharing the sky with the mountains and trees, +gaining something of their strength and peace. + +The excursion to the top of Mount Dana is a very easy one; for though +the mountain is 13,000 feet high, the ascent from the west side is so +gentle and smooth that one may ride a mule to the very summit. Across +many a busy stream, from meadow to meadow, lies your flowery way; +mountains all about you, few of them hidden by irregular foregrounds. +Gradually ascending, other mountains come in sight, peak rising above +peak with their snow and ice in endless variety of grouping and +sculpture. Now your attention is turned to the moraines, sweeping in +beautiful curves from the hollows and canyons, now to the granite waves +and pavements rising here and there above the heathy sod, polished a +thousand years ago and still shining. Towards the base of the mountain +you note the dwarfing of the trees, until at a height of about 11,000 +feet you find patches of the tough, white-barked pine, pressed so flat +by the ten or twenty feet of snow piled upon them every winter for +centuries that you may walk over them as if walking on a shaggy rug. +And, if curious about such things, you may discover specimens of this +hardy tree-mountaineer not more than four feet high and about as many +inches in diameter at the ground, that are from two hundred to four +hundred years old, still holding bravely to life, making the most of +their slender summers, shaking their tasseled needles in the breeze +right cheerily, drinking the thin sunshine and maturing their fine +purple cones as if they meant to live forever. The general view from the +summit is one of the most extensive and sublime to be found in all the +Range. To the eastward you gaze far out over the desert plains and +mountains of the "Great Basin," range beyond range extending with soft +outlines, blue and purple in the distance. More than six thousand feet +below you lies Lake Mono, ten miles in diameter from north to south, and +fourteen from west to east, lying bare in the treeless desert like a +disk of burnished metal, though at times it is swept by mountain storm +winds and streaked with foam. To the southward there is a well defined +range of pale-gray extinct volcanoes, and though the highest of them +rises nearly two thousand feet above the lake, you can look down from +here into their circular, cup-like craters, from which a comparatively +short time ago ashes and cinders were showered over the surrounding sage +plains and glacier-laden mountains. + +To the westward the landscape is made up of exceedingly strong, gray, +glaciated domes and ridge waves, most of them comparatively low, but +the largest high enough to be called mountains; separated by canyons +and darkened with lines and fields of forest, Cathedral Peak and Mount +Hoffman in the distance; small lakes and innumerable meadows in the +foreground. Northward and southward the great snowy mountains, marshaled +along the axis of the Range, are seen in all their glory, crowded +together in some places like trees in groves, making landscapes of wild, +extravagant, bewildering magnificence, yet calm and silent as the sky. + +Some eight glaciers are in sight. One of these is the Dana Glacier on +the north side of the mountain, lying at the foot of a precipice about +a thousand feet high, with a lovely pale-green lake a little below it. +This is one of the many, small, shrunken remnants of the vast glacial +system of the Sierra that once filled the hollows and valleys of +the mountains and covered all the lower ridges below the immediate +summit-fountains, flowing to right and left away from the axis of the +Range, lavishly fed by the snows of the glacial period. + +In the excursion to Mount Lyell the immediate base of the mountain is +easily reached on meadow walks along the river. Turning to the southward +above the forks of the river, you enter the narrow Lyell branch of the +Valley, narrow enough and deep enough to be called a canyon. It is about +eight miles long and from 2000 to 3000 feet deep. The flat meadow bottom +is from about three hundred to two hundred yards wide, with gently curved +margins about fifty yards wide from which rise the simple massive walls +of gray granite at an angle of about thirty-three degrees, mostly +timbered with a light growth of pine and streaked in many places with +avalanche channels. Towards the upper end of the canyon the Sierra crown +comes in sight, forming a finely balanced picture framed by the massive +canyon walls. In the foreground, when the grass is in flower, you have +the purple meadow willow-thickets on the river banks; in the middle +distance huge swelling bosses of granite that form the base of the +general mass of the mountain, with fringing lines of dark woods marking +the lower curves, smoothly snow-clad except in the autumn. + +If you wish to spend two days on the Lyell trip you will find a good +camp-ground on the east side of the river, about a mile above a fine +cascade that comes down over the canyon wall in telling style and makes +good camp music. From here to the top of the mountains is usually an +easy day's work. At one place near the summit careful climbing is +necessary, but it is not so dangerous or difficult as to deter any one +of ordinary skill, while the views are glorious. To the northward are +Mammoth Mountain, Mounts Gibbs, Dana, Warren, Conness and others, +unnumbered and unnamed; to the southeast the indescribably wild and +jagged range of Mount Ritter and the Minarets; southwestward stretches +the dividing ridge between the north fork of the San Joaquin and the +Merced, uniting with the Obelisk or Merced group of peaks that form the +main fountains of the Illilouette branch of the Merced; and to the +north-westward extends the Cathedral spur. These spurs like distinct +ranges meet at your feet; therefore you look at them mostly in the +direction of their extension, and their peaks seem to be massed and +crowded against one another, while immense amphitheaters, canyons +and subordinate ridges with their wealth of lakes, glaciers, and +snow-fields, maze and cluster between them. In making the ascent in +June or October the glacier is easily crossed, for then its snow mantle +is smooth or mostly melted off. But in midsummer the climbing is +exceedingly tedious because the snow is then weathered into curious +and beautiful blades, sharp and slender, and set on edge in a leaning +position. They lean towards the head of the glacier and extend across +from side to side in regular order in a direction at right angles to the +direction of greatest declivity, the distance between the crests being +about two or three feet, and the depth of the troughs between them about +three feet. A more interesting problem than a walk over a glacier thus +sculptured and adorned is seldom presented to the mountaineer. + +The Lyell Glacier is about a mile wide and less than a mile long, +but presents, nevertheless, all the essential characters of large, +river-like glaciers--moraines, earth-bands, blue veins, crevasses, +etc., while the streams that issue from it are, of course, turbid with +rock-mud, showing its grinding action on its bed. And it is all the +more interesting since it is the highest and most enduring remnant of +the great Tuolumne Glacier, whose traces are still distinct fifty miles +away, and whose influence on the landscape was so profound. The McClure +Glacier, once a tributary of the Lyell, is smaller. Thirty-eight years +ago I set a series of stakes in it to determine its rate of motion. +Towards the end of summer in the middle of the glacier it was only a +little over an inch in twenty-four hours. + +The trip to Mono from the Soda Springs can be made in a day, but many +days may profitably be spent near the shores of the lake, out on its +islands and about the volcanoes. + +In making the trip down the Big Tuolumne Canyon, animals may be led as +far as a small, grassy, forested lake-basin that lies below the crossing +of the Virginia Creek trail. And from this point any one accustomed to +walking on earthquake boulders, carpeted with canyon chaparral, can +easily go down as far as the big cascades and return to camp in one day. +Many, however, are not able to do his, and it is better to go leisurely, +prepared to camp anywhere, and enjoy the marvelous grandeur of the +place. + +The canyon begins near the lower end of the meadows and extends to the +Hetch Hetchy Valley, a distance of about eighteen miles, though it will +seem much longer to any one who scrambles through it. It is from twelve +hundred to about five thousand feet deep, and is comparatively narrow, +but there are several roomy, park-like openings in it, and throughout +its whole extent Yosemite natures are displayed on a grand scale--domes, +El Capitan rocks, gables, Sentinels, Royal Arches, Glacier Points, +Cathedral Spires, etc. There is even a Half Dome among its wealth of +rock forms, though far less sublime than the Yosemite Half Dome. Its +falls and cascades are innumerable. The sheer falls, except when the +snow is melting in early spring, are quite small in volume as compared +with those of Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy; though in any other country +many of them would be regarded as wonders. But it is the cascades or +sloping falls on the main river that are the crowning glory of the +canyon, and these in volume, extent and variety surpass those of any +other canyon in the Sierra. The most showy and interesting of them are +mostly in the upper part of the canyon, above the point of entrance of +Cathedral Creek and Hoffman Creek. For miles the river is one wild, +exulting, on-rushing mass of snowy purple bloom, spreading over glacial +waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in magnificent +silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder-dams, leaping +high into the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, +tossing from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of +mountain energy. + +Every one who is anything of a mountaineer should go on through the +entire length of the canyon, coming out by Hetch Hetchy. There is not +a dull step all the way. With wide variations, it is a Yosemite Valley +from end to end. + +Besides these main, far-reaching, much-seeing excursions from the main +central camp, there are numberless, lovely little saunters and scrambles +and a dozen or so not so very little. Among the best of these are to +Lambert and Fair View Domes; to the topmost spires of Cathedral Peak, +and to those of the North Church, around the base of which you pass +on your way to Mount Conness; to one of the very loveliest of the +glacier-meadows imbedded in the pine woods about three miles north of +the Soda Springs, where forty-two years ago I spent six weeks. It trends +east and west, and you can find it easily by going past the base of +Lambert's Dome to Dog Lake and thence up northward through the woods +about a mile or so; to the shining rock-waves full of ice-burnished, +feldspar crystals at the foot of the meadows; to Lake Tenaya; and, last +but not least, a rather long and very hearty scramble down by the end of +the meadow along the Tioga road toward Lake Tenaya to the crossing of +Cathedral Creek, where you turn off and trace the creek down to its +confluence with the Tuolumne. This is a genuine scramble much of the way +but one of the most wonderfully telling in its glacial rock-forms and +inscriptions. + +If you stop and fish at every tempting lake and stream you come to, a +whole month, or even two months, will not be too long for this grand +High Sierra excursion. My own Sierra trip was ten years long. + + +Other Trips From The Valley + +Short carriage trips are usually made in the early morning to Mirror +Lake to see its wonderful reflections of the Half Dome and Mount +Watkins; and in the afternoon many ride down the Valley to see the +Bridal Veil rainbows or up the river canyon to see those of the Vernal +Fall; where, standing in the spray, not minding getting drenched, +you may see what are called round rainbows, when the two ends of the +ordinary bow are lengthened and meet at your feet, forming a complete +circle which is broken and united again and again as determined by the +varying wafts of spray. A few ambitious scramblers climb to the top of +the Sentinel Rock, others walk or ride down the Valley and up to the +once-famous Inspiration Point for a last grand view; while a good many +appreciative tourists, who slave only day or two, do no climbing or +riding but spend their time sauntering on the meadows by the river, +watching the falls, and the relay of light and shade among the rocks +from morning to night, perhaps gaining more than those who make haste up +the trails in large noisy parties. Those who have unlimited time find +something worth while all the year round on every accessible part of the +vast deeply sculptured walls. At least so I have found it after making +the Valley my home for years. + +Here are a few specimens selected from my own short trips which walkers +may find useful. + +One, up the river canyon, across the bridge between the Vernal and +Nevada Falls, through chaparral beds and boulders to the shoulder of +Half Dome, along the top of the shoulder to the dome itself, down by a +crumbling slot gully and close along the base of the tremendous split +front (the most awfully impressive, sheer, precipice view I ever found +in all my canyon wanderings), thence up the east shoulder and along the +ridge to Clouds' Rest--a glorious sunset--then a grand starry run back +home to my cabin; down through the junipers, down through the firs, now +in black shadows, now in white light, past roaring Nevada and Vernal, +flowering ghost-like beneath their huge frowning cliffs; down the dark, +gloomy canyon, through the pines of the Valley, dreamily murmuring in +their calm, breezy sleep--a fine wild little excursion for good legs +and good eyes--so much sun-, moon- and star-shine in it, and sublime, +up-and-down rhythmical, glacial topography. + +Another, to the head of Yosemite Fall by Indian Canyon; thence up the +Yosemite Creek, tracing it all the way to its highest sources back of +Mount Hoffman, then a wide sweep around the head of its dome-paved +basin, passing its many little lakes and bogs, gardens and groves, +trilling, warbling rills, and back by the Fall Canyon. This was one of +my Sabbath walk, run-and-slide excursions long ago before any trail had +been made on the north side of the Valley. + +Another fine trip was up, bright and early, by Avalanche Canyon to +Glacier Point, along the rugged south wall, tracing all its far outs and +ins to the head of the Bridal Veil Fall, thence back home, bright and +late, by a brushy, bouldery slope between Cathedral rocks and Cathedral +spires and along the level Valley floor. This was one of my long, +bright-day and bright-night walks thirty or forty years ago when, like +river and ocean currents, time flowed undivided, uncounted--a fine free, +sauntery, scrambly, botanical, beauty-filled ramble. The walk up the +Valley was made glorious by the marvelous brightness of the morning +star. So great was her light, she made every tree cast a well-defined +shadow on the smooth sandy ground. + +Everybody who visits Yosemite wants to see the famous Big Trees. Before +the railroad was constructed, all three of the stage-roads that entered +the Valley passed through a grove of these trees by the way; namely, the +Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves. The Tuolumne grove was passed on +the Big Oak Flat road, the Merced grove by the Coulterville road and the +Mariposa grove by the Raymond and Wawona road. Now, to see any one of +these groves, a special trip has to be made. Most visitors go to the +Mariposa grove, the largest of the three. On this Sequoia trip you see +not only the giant Big Trees but magnificent forests of silver fir, +sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus and Douglas spruce. The trip need +not require more than two days, spending a night in a good hotel at +Wawona, a beautiful place on the south fork of the Merced River, and +returning to the Valley or to El Portal, the terminus of the railroad. +This extra trip by stage costs fifteen dollars. All the High Sierra +excursions that I have sketched cost from a dollar a week to anything +you like. None of mine when I was exploring the Sierra cost over a +dollar a week, most of them less. + + + +Chapter 13 + +Early History Of The Valley + + +In the wild gold years of 1849 and '50, the Indian tribes along thus +western Sierra foothills became alarmed at the sudden invasion of their +acorn orchard and game fields by miners, and soon began to make war upon +them, in their usual murdering, plundering style. This continued until +the United States Indian Commissioners succeeded in gathering them into +reservations, some peacefully, others by burning their villages and +stores of food. The Yosemite or Grizzly Bear tribe, fancying themselves +secure in their deep mountain stronghold, were the most troublesome and +defiant of all, and it was while the Mariposa battalion, under command +of Major Savage, was trying to capture this warlike tribe and conduct +them to the Fresno reservation that their deep mountain home, the +Yosemite Valley, was discovered. From a camp on the south fork of the +Merced, Major Savage sent Indian runners to the bands who were supposed +to be hiding in the mountains, instructing them to tell the Indians that +if they would come in and make treaty with the Commissioners they would +be furnished with food and clothing and be protected, but if they did +not come in he would make war upon them and kill them all. None of the +Yosemite Indians responded to this general message, but when a special +messenger was sent to the chief he appeared the next day. He came +entirely alone and stood in dignified silence before one of the guards +until invited to enter the camp. He was recognized by one of the +friendly Indians as Tenaya, the old chief of the Grizzlies, and, after +he had been supplied with food, Major Savage, with the aid of Indian +interpreters, informed him of the wishes of the Commissioners. But the +old chief was very suspicious of Savage and feared that he was taking +this method of getting the tribe into his power for the purpose of +revenging his personal wrong. Savage told him if he would go to the +Commissioners and make peace with them as the other tribes had done +there would be no more war. Tenaya inquired what was the object of +taking all the Indians to the San Joaquin plain. "My people," said he, +"do not want anything from the Great Father you tell me about. The Great +Spirit is our father and he has always supplied us with all we need. We +do not want anything from white men. Our women are able to do our work. +Go, then. Let us remain in the mountains where we were born, where the +ashes of our fathers have been given to the wind. I have said enough." + +To this the Major answered abruptly in Indian style: "If you and your +people have all you desire, why do you steal our horses and mules? Why +do you rob the miners' camps? Why do you murder the white men and +plunder and burn their houses?" + +Tenaya was silent for some time. He evidently understood what the Major +had said, for he replied, "My young men have sometimes taken horses +and mules from the whites. This was wrong. It is not wrong to take the +property of enemies who have wronged my people. My young men believed +that the gold diggers were our enemies. We now know they are not and +we shall be glad to live in peace with them. We will stay here and be +friends. My people do not want to go to the plains. Some of the tribes +who have gone there are very bad. We cannot live with them. Here we +can defend ourselves." + +To the Major Savage firmly said, "Your people must go to the +Commissioners. If they do not your young men will again steal horses and +kill and plunder the whites. It was your people who robbed my stores, +burned my houses and murdered my men. It they do not make a treaty, your +whole tribe will be destroyed. Not one of them will be left alive." + +To this the old chief replied, "It is useless to talk to you about who +destroyed your property and killed your people. I am old and you can +kill me if you will, but it is useless to lie to you who know more than +all the Indians. Therefore I will not lie to you but if you will let me +return to my people I will bring them in." He was allowed to go. The +next day he came back and said his people were on the way to our camp to +go with the men sent by the Great Father, who was so good and rich. + +Another day passed but no Indians from the deep Valley appeared. The old +chief said that the snow was so deep and his village was so far down +that it took a long time to climb out of it. After waiting still another +day the expedition started for the Valley. When Tenaya was questioned +as to the route and distance he said that the snow was so deep that the +horses could not go through it. Old Tenaya was taken along as guide. +When the party had gone about half-way to the Valley they met the +Yosemites on their way to the camp on the south fork. There were only +seventy-two of them and when the old chief was asked what had become of +the rest of his band, he replied, "This is all of my people that are +willing to go with me to the plains. All the rest have gone with their +wives end children over the mountains to the Mono and Tuolumne tribes." +Savage told Tenaya that he was not telling the truth, for Indians could +not cross the mountains in the deep snow, and that he knew they must +still be at his village or hiding somewhere near it. The tribe had been +estimated to number over two hundred. Major Savage then said to him, +"You may return to camp with your people and I will take one of your +young men with me to your village to see your people who will not come. +They will come if I find them." "You will not find any of my people +there," said Tenaya; "I do not know where they are. My tribe is small. +Many of the people of my tribe have come from other tribes and if they +go to the plains and are seen they will be killed by the friends of +those with whom they have quarreled. I was told that I was growing old +and it was well that I should go, but that young and strong men can find +plenty in the mountains: therefore, why should they go to the hot plains +to be penned up like horses and cattle? My heart has been sore since +that talk but I am now willing to go, for it is best for my people." + +Pushing ahead, taking turns in breaking a way through the snow, they +arrived in sight of the great Valley early in the afternoon and, guided +by one of Tenaya's Indians, descended by the same route as that followed +by the Mariposa trail, and the weary party went into camp on the river +bank opposite El Capitan. After supper, seated around a big fire, +the wonderful Valley became the topic of conversation and Dr. Bunell +suggested giving it a name. Many were proposed, but after a vote had +been taken the name Yosemite, proposed by Dr. Bunell, was adopted almost +unanimously to perpetuate the name of the tribe who so long had made +their home there. The Indian name of the Valley, however, is Ahwahnee. +The Indians had names for all the different rocks and streams of the +Valley, but very few of them are now in use by the whites, Pohono, the +Bridal Veil, being the principal one. The expedition remained only one +day and two nights in the Valley, hurrying out on the approach of a +storm and reached the south-fork headquarters on the evening of the +third day after starting out. Thus, in three days the round trip had +been made to the Valley, most of it had been explored in a general way +and some of its principal features had been named. But the Indians had +fled up the Tenaya Canyon trail and none of them were seen, except an +old woman unable to follow the fugitives. + +A second expedition was made in the same year under command of Major +Boling. When the Valley was entered no Indians were seen, but the many +wigwams with smoldering fires showed that they had been hurriedly +abandoned that very day. Later, five young Indians who had been left to +watch the movements of the expedition were captured at the foot of the +Three Brothers after a lively chase. Three of the five were sons of the +old chief and the rock was named for them. All of these captives made +good their escape within a few days, except the youngest son of Tenaya, +who was shot by his guard while trying to escape. That same day the old +chief was captured on the cliff on the east side of Indian Canyon by +some of Boling's scouts. As Tenaya walked toward the camp his eye fell +upon the dead body of his favorite son. Captain Boling through an +interpreter, expressed his regret at the occurrence, but not a word +did Tenaya utter in reply. Later, he made an attempt to escape but was +caught as he was about to swim across the river. Tenaya expected to be +shot for this attempt and when brought into the presence of Captain +Boling he said in great emotion, "Kill me, Sir Captain, yes, kill me as +you killed my son, as you would kill my people if they were to come to +you. You would kill all my tribe if you had the power. Yes, Sir America, +you can now tell your warriors to kill the old chief. You have made my +life dark with sorrow. You killed the child of my heart. Why not kill +the father? But wait a little and when I am dead I will call my people +to come and they shall hear me in their sleep and come to avenge the +death of their chief and his son. Yes, Sir America, my spirit will make +trouble for you and your people, as you have made trouble to me and my +people. With the wizards I will follow the white people and make them +fear me. You may kill me, Sir Captain, but you shall not live in peace. +I will follow in your footsteps. I will not leave my home, but be with +the spirits among the rocks, the waterfalls, in the rivers and in the +winds; wherever you go I will be with you. You will not see me but you +will fear the spirit of the old chief and grow cold. The Great Spirit +has spoken. I am done." + +This expedition finally captured the remnants of the tribes at the head +of Lake Tenaya and took them to the Fresno reservation, together with +their chief, Tenaya. But after a short stay they were allowed to return +to the Valley under restrictions. Tenaya promised faithfully to conform +to everything required, joyfully left the hot and dry reservation, and +with his family returned to his Yosemite home. + +The following year a party of miners was attacked by the Indians in +the Valley and two of them were killed. This led to another Yosemite +expedition. A detachment of regular soldiers from Fort Miller under +Lieutenant Moore, U.S.A., was at once dispatched to capture or punish +the murderers. Lieutenant Moore entered the Valley in the night and +surprised and captured a party of five Indians, but an alarm was given +and Tenaya and his people fled from their huts and escaped to the Monos +on the east side of the Range. On examination of the five prisoners in +the morning it was discovered that each of them had some article of +clothing that belonged to the murdered men. The bodies of the two miners +were found and buried on the edge of the Bridal Veil meadow. When the +captives were accused of the murder of the two white men they admitted +that they had killed them to prevent white men from coming to their +Valley, declaring that it was their home and that white men had no right +to come there without their consent. Lieutenant Moore told them through +his interpreter that they had sold their lands to the Government, that +it belonged to the white men now and that they had agreed to live on +the reservation provided for them. To this they replied that Tenaya +had never consented to the sale of their Valley and had never received +pay for it. The other chief, they said, had no right to sell their +territory. The lieutenant being fully satisfied that he had captured the +real murderers, promptly pronounced judgment and had them placed in line +and shot. Lieutenant Moore pursued the fugitives to Mono but was not +successful in finding any of them. After being hospitably entertained +and protected by the Mono and Paute tribes, they stole a number of +stolen horses from their entertainers and made their way by a long, +obscure route by the head of the north fork of the San Joaquin, reached +their Yosemite home once more, but early one morning, after a feast of +horse-flesh, a band of Monos surprised them in their huts, killing +Tenaya and nearly all his tribe. Only a small remnant escaped down the +river canyon. The Tenaya Canyon and Lake were named for the famous old +chief. + +Very few visits were made to the Valley before the summer or 1855, when +Mr. J. M. Hutchings, having heard of its wonderful scenery, collected a +party and made the first regular tourist's visit to the Yosemite and in +his California magazine described it in articles illustrated by a good +artist, who was taken into the Valley by him for that purpose. This +first party was followed by another from Mariposa the same year, +consisting of sixteen or eighteen persons. The next year the regular +pleasure travel began and a trail on the Mariposa side of the Valley was +opened by Mann Brothers. This trail was afterwards purchased by the +citizens of the county and made free to the public. The first house +built in the Yosemite Valley was erected in the autumn of 1856 and was +kept as a hotel the next year by G. A. Hite and later by J. H. Neal and +S. M. Cunningham. It was situated directly opposite the Yosemite Fall. +A little over half a mile farther up the Valley a canvas house was put +up in 1858 by G. A. Hite. Next year a frame house was built and kept as +a hotel by Mr. Peck, afterward by Mr. Longhurst and since 1864 by Mr. +Hutchings. All these hotels have vanished except the frame house built +in 1859, which has been changed beyond recognition. A large hotel built +on the brink of the river in front of the old one is now the only hotel +in the Valley. A large hotel built by the State and located farther up +the Valley was burned. To provide for the overflow of visitors there are +three camps with board floors, wood frame, and covered with canvas, well +furnished, some of them with electric light. A large first-class hotel +is very much needed. + +Travel of late years has been rapidly increasing, especially after the +establishment, by Act of Congress in 1890, of the Yosemite National Park +and the recession in 1905 of the original reservation to the Federal +Government by the State. The greatest increase, of course, was caused +by the construction of the Yosemite Valley railroad from Merced to the +border of the Park, eight miles below the Valley. + +It is eighty miles long, and the entire distance, except the first +twenty-four miles from the town of Merced, is built through the +precipitous Merced River Canyon. The roadbed was virtually blasted out +of the solid rock for the entire distance in the canyon. Work was begun +in September, 1905, and the first train entered El Portal, the terminus, +April 15, 1907. Many miles of the road cost as much as $100,000 per +mile. Its business has increased from 4000 tourists in the first year +it was operated to 15,000 in 1910. + + + +Chapter 14 + +Lamon + + +The good old pioneer, Lamon, was the first of all the early Yosemite +settlers who cordially and unreservedly adopted the Valley as his home. + +He was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, May 10, 1817, emigrated +to Illinois with his father, John Lamon, at the age of nineteen; +afterwards went to Texas and settled on the Brazos, where he raised +melons and hunted alligators for a living. "Right interestin' business," +he said; "especially the alligator part of it." From the Brazos he went +to the Comanche Indian country between Gonzales and Austin, twenty miles +from his nearest neighbor. During the first summer, the only bread he +had was the breast meat of wild turkeys. When the formidable Comanche +Indians were on the war-path he left his cabin after dark and slept in +the woods. From Texas he crossed the plains to California and worked In +the Calaveras and Mariposa gold-fields. + +He first heard Yosemite spoken of as a very beautiful mountain valley +and after making two excursions in the summers of 1857 and 1858 to see +the wonderful place, he made up his mind to quit roving and make a +permanent home in it. In April, 1859, he moved into it, located a garden +opposite the Half Dome, set out a lot of apple, pear and peach trees, +planted potatoes, etc., that he had packed in on a "contrary old mule," +and worked for his board in building a hotel which was afterwards +purchased by Mr. Hutchings. His neighbors thought he was very foolish in +attempting to raise crops in so high and cold a valley, and warned him +that he could raise nothing and sell nothing, and would surely starve. + +For the first year or two lack of provisions compelled him to move out +on the approach of winter, but in 1862 after he had succeeded in raising +some fruit and vegetables he began to winter in the Valley. + +The first winter he had no companions, not even a dog or cat, and one +evening was greatly surprised to see two men coming up the Valley. They +were very glad to see him, for they had come from Mariposa in search of +him, a report having been spread that he had been killed by Indians. He +assured his visitors that he felt safer in his Yosemite home, lying +snug and squirrel-like in his 10 x 12 cabin, than in Mariposa. When the +avalanches began to slip, he wondered where all the wild roaring and +booming came from, the flying snow preventing them from being seen. But, +upon the whole, he wondered most at the brightness, gentleness, and +sunniness of the weather, and hopefully employed the calm days in +tearing ground for an orchard and vegetable garden. + +In the second winter he built a winter cabin under the Royal Arches, +where he enjoyed more sunshine. But no matter how he praised the weather +he could not induce any one to winter with him until 1864. + +He liked to describe the great flood of 1867, the year before I reached +California, when all the walls were striped with thundering waterfalls. + +He was a fine, erect, whole-souled man, between six and seven feet high, +with a broad, open face, bland and guileless as his pet oxen. No +stranger to hunger and weariness, he knew well how to appreciate +suffering of a like kind in others, and many there be, myself among the +number, who can testify to his simple, unostentatious kindness that +found expression in a thousand small deeds. + +After gaining sufficient means to enjoy a long afternoon of life in +comparative affluence and ease, he died in the autumn of 1876. He sleeps +in a beautiful spot near Galen Clark and a monument hewn from a block of +Yosemite granite marks his grave. + + + +Chapter 15 + +Galen Clark + + +Galen Clark was the best mountaineer I ever met, and one of the kindest +and most amiable of all my mountain friends. I first met him at his +Wawona ranch forty-three years ago on my first visit to Yosemite. I had +entered the Valley with one companion by way of Coulterville, and +returned by what was then known as the Mariposa trail. Both trails were +buried in deep snow where the elevation was from 5000 to 7000 feet +above sea level in the sugar pine and silver fir regions. We had no +great difficulty, however, in finding our way by the trends of the +main features of the topography. Botanizing by the way, we made slow, +plodding progress, and were again about out of provisions when we +reached Clark's hospitable cabin at Wawona. He kindly furnished us with +flour and a little sugar and tea, and my companion, who complained of +the be-numbing poverty of a strictly vegetarian diet, gladly accepted +Mr. Clark's offer of a piece of a bear that had just been killed. After +a short talk about bears and the forests and the way to the Big Trees, +we pushed on up through the Wawona firs and sugar pines, and camped in +the now-famous Mariposa grove. + +Later, after making my home in the Yosemite Valley, I became well +acquainted with Mr. Clark, while he was guardian. He was elected again +and again to this important office by different Boards of Commissioners +on account of his efficiency and his real love of the Valley. + +Although nearly all my mountaineering has been done without companions, +I had the pleasure of having Galen Clark with me on three excursions. +About thirty-five years ago I invited him to accompany me on a trip +through the Big Tuolumne Canyon from Hetch Hetchy Valley. The canyon up +to that time had not been explored, and knowing that the difference in +the elevation of the river at the head of the canyon and in Hetch Hetchy +was about 5000 feet, we expected to find some magnificent cataracts +or falls; nor were we disappointed. When we were leaving Yosemite an +ambitious young man begged leave to join us. I strongly advised him not +to attempt such a long, hard trip, for it would undoubtedly prove very +trying to an inexperienced climber. He assured us, however, that he +was equal to anything, would gladly meet every difficulty as it came, +and cause us no hindrance or trouble of any sort. So at last, after +repeating our advice that he give up the trip, we consented to his +joining us. We entered the canyon by way of Hetch Hetchy Valley, each +carrying his own provisions, and making his own tea, porridge, bed, etc. + +In the morning of the second day out from Hetch Hetchy we came to what +is now known as "Muir Gorge," and Mr. Clark without hesitation prepared +to force a way through it, wading and jumping from one submerged boulder +to another through the torrent, bracing and steadying himself with a +long pole. Though the river was then rather low, the savage, roaring, +surging song it was ringing was rather nerve-trying, especially to our +inexperienced companion. With careful assistance, however, I managed to +get him through, but this hard trial, naturally enough, proved too much +and he informed us, pale and trembling, that he could go no farther. I +gathered some wood at the upper throat of the gorge, made a fire for him +and advised him to feel at home and make himself comfortable, hoped he +would enjoy the grand scenery and the songs of the water-ouzels which +haunted the gorge, and assured him that we would return some time in the +night, though it might be late, as we wished to go on through the entire +canyon if possible. We pushed our way through the dense chaparral and +over the earthquake taluses with such speed that we reached the foot of +the upper cataract while we had still an hour or so of daylight for the +return trip. It was long after dark when we reached our adventurous, but +nerve-shaken companion who, of course, was anxious and lonely, not being +accustomed to solitude, however kindly and flowery and full of sweet +bird-song and stream-song. Being tired we simply lay down in restful +comfort on the river bank beside a good fire, instead of trying to +go down the gorge in the dark or climb over its high shoulder to our +blankets and provisions, which we had left in the morning in a tree at +the foot of the gorge. I remember Mr. Clark remarking that if he had +his choice that night between provisions and blankets he would choose +his blankets. + +The next morning in about an hour we had crossed over the ridge through +which the gorge is cut, reached our provisions, made tea, and had a good +breakfast. As soon as we had returned to Yosemite I obtained fresh +provisions, pushed off alone up to the head of Yosemite Creek basin, +entered the canyon by a side canyon, and completed the exploration up to +the Tuolumne Meadows. + +It was on this first trip from Hetch Hetchy to the upper cataracts that +I had convincing proofs of Mr. Clark's daring and skill as mountaineer, +particularly in fording torrents, and in forcing his way through thick +chaparral. I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with him in dense, +tangled brush, though in jumping on boulder taluses and slippery +cobble-beds I had no difficulty in leaving him behind. + +After I had discovered the glaciers on Mount Lyell and Mount McClure, +Mr. Clark kindly made a second excursion with me to assist in +establishing a line of stakes across the McClure glacier to measure its +rate of flow. On this trip we also climbed Mount Lyell together, when +the snow which covered the glacier was melted into upleaning, icy blades +which were extremely difficult to cross, not being strong enough to +support our weight, nor wide enough apart to enable us to stride across +each blade as it was met. Here again I, being lighter, had no difficulty +in keeping ahead of him. While resting after wearisome staggering and +falling he stared at the marvelous ranks of leaning blades, and said, "I +think I have traveled all sorts of trails and canyons, through all kinds +of brush and snow, but this gets me." + +Mr. Clark at my urgent request joined my small party on a trip to the +Kings River yosemite by way of the high mountains, most of the way +without a trail. He joined us at the Mariposa Big Tree grove and +intended to go all the way, but finding that, on account of the +difficulties encountered, the time required was much greater than he +expected, he turned back near the head of the north fork of the Kings +River. + +In cooking his mess of oatmeal porridge and making tea, his pot was +always the first to boil, and I used to wonder why, with all his skill +in scrambling through brush in the easiest way, and preparing his meals, +he was so utterly careless about his beds. He would lie down anywhere on +any ground, rough or smooth, without taking pains even to remove cobbles +or sharp-angled rocks protruding through the grass or gravel, saying +that his own bones were as hard as any stones and could do him no harm. + +His kindness to all Yosemite visitors and mountaineers was marvelously +constant and uniform. He was not a good business man, and in building an +extensive hotel and barns at Wawona, before the travel to Yosemite had +been greatly developed, he borrowed money, mortgaged his property and +lost it all. + +Though not the first to see the Mariposa Big Tree grove, he was the +first to explore it, after he had heard from a prospector, who had +passed through the grove and who gave him the indefinite information, +that there were some wonderful big trees up there on the top of the +Wawona hill and that he believed they must be of the same kind that had +become so famous and well-known in the Calaveras grove farther north. +On this information, Galen Clark told me, he went up and thoroughly +explored the grove, counting the trees and measuring the largest, and +becoming familiar with it. He stated also that he had explored the +forest to the southward and had discovered the much larger Fresno grove +of about two square miles, six or seven miles distant from the Mariposa +grove. Unfortunately most of the Fresno grove has been cut and flumed +down to the railroad near Madera. + +Mr. Clark was truly and literally a gentle-man. I never heard him utter +a hasty, angry, fault-finding word. His voice was uniformly pitched at a +rather low tone, perfectly even, although lances of his eyes and slight +intonations of his voice often indicated that something funny or mildly +sarcastic was coming, but upon the whole he was serious and industrious, +and, however deep and fun-provoking a story might be, he never indulged +in boisterous laughter. + +He was very fond of scenery and once told me after I became acquainted +with him that he liked "nothing in the world better than climbing to the +top of a high ridge or mountain and looking off." He preferred the +mountain ridges and domes in the Yosemite regions on account of the +wealth and beauty of the forests. Often times he would take his rifle, a +few pounds of bacon, a few pound of flour, and a single blanket and go +off hunting, for no other reason than to explore and get acquainted with +the most beautiful points of view within a journey of a week or two from +his Wawona home. On these trips he was always alone and could indulge +in tranquil enjoyment of Nature to his heart's content. He said that +on those trips, when he was a sufficient distance from home in a +neighborhood where he wished to linger, he always shot a deer, sometimes +a grouse, and occasionally a bear. After diminishing the weight of a +deer or bear by eating part of it, he carried as much as possible of the +best of the meat to Wawona, and from his hospitable well-supplied cabin +no weary wanderer ever went away hungry or unrested. + +The value of the mountain air in prolonging life is well examplified in +Mr. Clark's case. While working in the mines he contracted a severe cold +that settled on his lungs and finally caused severe inflammation and +bleeding, and none of his friends thought he would ever recover. The +physicians told him he had but a short time to live. It was then that +he repaired to the beautiful sugar pine woods at Wawona and took up a +claim, including the fine meadows there, and building his cabin, began +his life of wandering and exploring in the glorious mountains about him, +usually going bare-headed. In a remarkably short time his lungs were +healed. + +He was one of the most sincere tree-lovers I ever knew. About twenty +years before his death he made choice of a plot in the Yosemite cemetery +on the north side of the Valley, not far from the Yosemite Fall, and +selecting a dozen or so of seedling sequoias in the Mariposa grove he +brought them to the Valley and planted them around the spot he had +chosen for his last rest. The ground there is gravelly and dry; by +careful watering he finally nursed most of the seedlings into good, +thrifty trees, and doubtless they will long shade the grave of their +blessed lover and friend. + + + +Chapter 16 + +Hetch Hetchy Valley + + +Yosemite is so wonderful that we are apt to regard it as an exceptional +creation, the only valley of its kind in the world; but Nature is not +so poor as to have only one of anything. Several other yosemites have +been discovered in the Sierra that occupy the same relative positions +on the Range and were formed by the same forces in the same kind of +granite. One of these, the Hetch Hetchy Valley, is in the Yosemite +National Park about twenty miles from Yosemite and is easily accessible +to all sorts of travelers by a road and trail that leaves the Big Oak +Flat road at Bronson Meadows a few miles below Crane Flat, and to +mountaineers by way of Yosemite Creek basin and the head of the middle +fork of the Tuolumne. + +It is said to have been discovered by Joseph Screech, a hunter, in 1850, +a year before the discovery of the great Yosemite. After my first visit +to it in the autumn of 1871, I have always called it the "Tuolumne +Yosemite," for it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Merced +Yosemite, not only in its sublime rocks and waterfalls but in the +gardens, groves and meadows of its flowery park-like floor. The floor of +Yosemite is about 4000 feet above the sea; the Hetch Hetchy floor about +3700 feet. And as the Merced River flows through Yosemite, so does the +Tuolumne through Hetch Hetchy. The walls of both are of gray granite, +rise abruptly from the floor, are sculptured in the same style and in +both every rock is a glacier monument. + +Standing boldly out from the south wall is a strikingly picturesque rock +called by the Indians, Kolana, the outermost of a group 2300 feet high, +corresponding with the Cathedral Rocks of Yosemite both in relative +position and form. On the opposite side of the Valley, facing Kolana, +there is a counterpart of the El Capitan that rises sheer and plain to +a height of 1800 feet, and over its massive brow flows a stream which +makes the most graceful fall I have ever seen. From the edge of the +cliff to the top of an earthquake talus it is perfectly free in the air +for a thousand feet before it is broken into cascades among talus +boulders. It is in all its glory in June, when the snow is melting fast, +but fades and vanishes toward the end of summer. The only fall I know +with which it may fairly be compared is the Yosemite Bridal Veil; but it +excels even that favorite fall both in height and airy-fairy beauty and +behavior. Lowlanders are apt to suppose that mountain streams in their +wild career over cliffs lose control of themselves and tumble in a noisy +chaos of mist and spray. On the contrary, on no part of their travels +are they more harmonious and self-controlled. Imagine yourself in Hetch +Hetchy on a sunny day in June, standing waist-deep in grass and flowers +(as I have often stood), while the great pines sway dreamily with +scarcely perceptible motion. Looking northward across the Valley you +see a plain, gray granite cliff rising abruptly out of the gardens and +groves to a height of 1800 feet, and in front of it Tueeulala's silvery +scarf burning with irised sun-fire. In the first white outburst at the +head there is abundance of visible energy, but it is speedily hushed and +concealed in divine repose, and its tranquil progress to the base of the +cliff is like that of a downy feather in a still room. Now observe the +fineness and marvelous distinctness of the various sun-illumined fabrics +into which the water is woven; they sift and float from form to form +down the face of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and unconfused a +manner that you can examine their texture, and patterns and tones of +color as you would a piece of embroidery held in the hand. Toward the +top of the fall you see groups of booming, comet-like masses, their +solid, white heads separate, their tails like combed silk interlacing +among delicate gray and purple shadows, ever forming and dissolving, +worn out by friction in their rush through the air. Most of these vanish +a few hundred feet below the summit, changing to varied forms of +cloud-like drapery. Near the bottom the width of the fall has increased +from about twenty-five feet to a hundred feet. Here it is composed of +yet finer tissues, and is still without a trace of disorder--air, water +and sunlight woven into stuff that spirits might wear. + +So fine a fall might well seem sufficient to glorify any valley; but +here, as in Yosemite, Nature seems in nowise moderate, for a short +distance to the eastward of Tueeulala booms and thunders the great Hetch +Hetchy Fall, Wapama, so near that you have both of them in full view +from the same standpoint. It is the counterpart of the Yosemite Fall, +but has a much greater volume of water, is about 1700 feet in height, +and appears to be nearly vertical, though considerably inclined, and is +dashed into huge outbounding bosses of foam on projecting shelves and +knobs. No two falls could be more unlike--Tueeulala out in the open +sunshine descending like thistledown; Wapama in a jagged, shadowy gorge +roaring and plundering, pounding its way like an earthquake avalanche. + +Besides this glorious pair there is a broad, massive fall on the main +river a short distance above the head of the Valley. Its position is +something like that of the Vernal in Yosemite, and its roar as it +plunges into a surging trout-pool may be heard a long way, though it +is only about twenty feet high. On Rancheria Creek, a large stream, +corresponding in position with the Yosemite Tenaya Creek, there is a +chain of cascades joined here and there with swift flashing plumes like +the one between the Vernal and Nevada Falls, making magnificent shows +as they go their glacier-sculptured way, sliding, leaping, hurrahing, +covered with crisp clashing spray made glorious with sifting sunshine. +And besides all these a few small streams come over the walls at wide +intervals, leaping from ledge to ledge with birdlike song and watering +many a hidden cliff-garden and fernery, but they are too unshowy to be +noticed in so grand a place. + +The correspondence between the Hetch Hetchy walls in their trends, +sculpture, physical structure, and general arrangement of the main +rock-masses and those of the Yosemite Valley has excited the wondering +admiration of every observer. We have seen that the El Capitan and +Cathedral rocks occupy the same relative positions In both valleys; so +also do their Yosemite points and North Domes. Again, that part of the +Yosemite north wall immediately to the east of the Yosemite Fall has two +horizontal benches, about 500 and 1500 feet above the floor, timbered +with golden-cup oak. Two benches similarly situated and timbered occur +on the same relative portion of the Hetch Hetchy north wall, to the east +of Wapama Fall, and on no other. The Yosemite is bounded at the head by +the great Half Dome. Hetch Hetchy is bounded in the same way though its +head rock is incomparably less wonderful and sublime in form. + +The floor of the Valley is about three and a half miles long, and from a +fourth to half a mile wide. The lower portion is mostly a level meadow +about a mile long, with the trees restricted to the sides and the river +banks, and partially separated from the main, upper, forested portion by +a low bar of glacier-polished granite across which the river breaks in +rapids. + +The principal trees are the yellow and sugar pines, digger pine, incense +cedar, Douglas spruce, silver fir, the California and golden-cup oaks, +balsam cottonwood, Nuttall's flowering dogwood, alder, maple, laurel, +tumion, etc. The most abundant and influential are the great yellow or +silver pines like those of Yosemite, the tallest over two hundred feet +in height, and the oaks assembled in magnificent groves with massive +rugged trunks four to six feet in diameter, and broad, shady, +wide-spreading heads. The shrubs forming conspicuous flowery clumps and +tangles are manzanita, azalea, spiraea, brier-rose, several species of +ceanothus, calycanthus, philadelphus, wild cherry, etc.; with abundance +of showy and fragrant herbaceous plants growing about them or out in the +open in beds by themselves--lilies, Mariposa tulips, brodiaeas, orchids, +iris, spraguea, draperia, collomia, collinsia, castilleja, nemophila, +larkspur, columbine, goldenrods, sunflowers, mints of many species, +honeysuckle, etc. Many fine ferns dwell here also, especially the +beautiful and interesting rock-ferns--pellaea, and cheilanthes of +several species--fringing and rosetting dry rock-piles and ledges; +woodwardia and asplenium on damp spots with fronds six or seven feet +high; the delicate maiden-hair in mossy nooks by the falls, and the +sturdy, broad-shouldered pteris covering nearly all the dry ground +beneath the oaks and pines. + +It appears, therefore, that Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, +common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to suppose, +is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature's rarest and most precious +mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem +to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in +thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, their +brows in the sky, their feet set in the groves and gay flowery meadows, +while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to +stir all the air into music--things frail and fleeting and types of +permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do in Yosemite, to +draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. + +Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite +National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the +uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being +dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water +and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens +and groves one or two hundred feet deep. This grossly destructive +commercial scheme has long been planned and urged (though water as pure +and abundant can be got from outside of the people's park, in a dozen +different places), because of the comparative cheapness of the dam and +of the territory which it is sought to divert from the great uses to +which it was dedicated in the Act of 1890 establishing the Yosemite +National Park. + +The making of gardens and parks goes on with civilization all over the +world, and they increase both in size and number as their value is +recognized. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in +and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body +and soul alike. This natural beauty-hunger is made manifest in the +little window-sill gardens of the poor, though perhaps only a geranium +slip in a broken cup, as well as in the carefully tended rose and lily +gardens of the rich, the thousands of spacious city parks and botanical +gardens, and in our magnificent National parks--the Yellowstone, +Yosemite, Sequoia, etc.--Nature's sublime wonderlands, the admiration +and joy of the world. Nevertheless, like anything else worth while, from +the very beginning, however well guarded, they have always been subject +to attack by despoiling gainseekers and mischief-makers of every degree +from Satan to Senators, eagerly trying to make everything immediately +and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in smug-smiling +philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying, "Conservation, +conservation, panutilization," that man and beast may be fed and the +dear Nation made great. Thus long ago a few enterprising merchants +utilized the Jerusalem temple as a place of business instead of a place +of prayer, changing money, buying and selling cattle and sheep and +doves; and earlier still, the first forest reservation, including only +one tree, was likewise despoiled. Ever since the establishment of the +Yosemite National Park, strife has been going on around its borders and +I suppose this will go on as part of the universal battle between right +and wrong, however much its boundaries may be shorn, or its wild beauty +destroyed. + +The first application to the Government by the San Francisco Supervisors +for the commercial use of Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy Valley was +made in 1903, and on December 22nd of that year it was denied by the +Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Hitchcock, who truthfully said: + +Presumably the Yosemite National Park was created such by law because +within its boundaries, inclusive alike of its beautiful small lakes, +like Eleanor, and its majestic wonders, like Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite +Valley. It is the aggregation of such natural scenic features that makes +the Yosemite Park a wonderland which the Congress of the United States +sought by law to reserve for all coming time as nearly as practicable +in the condition fashioned by the hand of the Creator--a worthy object +of national pride and a source of healthful pleasure and rest for the +thousands of people who may annually sojourn there during the heated +months. + +In 1907 when Mr. Garfield became Secretary of the Interior the +application was renewed and granted; but under his successor, Mr. +Fisher, the matter has been referred to a Commission, which as this +volume goes to press still has it under consideration. + +The most delightful and wonderful camp grounds in the Park are its three +great valleys--Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy, and Upper Tuolumne; and they are +also the most important places with reference to their positions +relative to the other great features--the Merced and Tuolumne Canyons, +and the High Sierra peaks and glaciers, etc., at the head of the rivers. +The main part of the Tuolumne Valley is a spacious flowery lawn four or +five miles long, surrounded by magnificent snowy mountains, slightly +separated from other beautiful meadows, which together make a series +about twelve miles in length, the highest reaching to the feet of Mount +Dana, Mount Gibbs, Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. It is about 8500 feet +above the sea, and forms the grand central High Sierra camp ground from +which excursions are made to the noble mountains, domes, glaciers, etc.; +across the Range to the Mono Lake and volcanoes and down the Tuolumne +Canyon to Hetch Hetchy. Should Hetch Hetchy be submerged for a +reservoir, as proposed, not only would it be utterly destroyed, but the +sublime canyon way to the heart of the High Sierra would be hopelessly +blocked and the great camping ground, as the watershed of a city +drinking system, virtually would be closed to the public. So far as I +have learned, few of all the thousands who have seen the park and seek +rest and peace in it are in favor of this outrageous scheme. + +One of my later visits to the Valley was made in the autumn of 1907 with +the late William Keith, the artist. The leaf-colors were then ripe, and +the great godlike rocks in repose seemed to glow with life. The artist, +under their spell, wandered day after day along the river and through +the groves and gardens, studying the wonderful scenery; and, after +making about forty sketches, declared with enthusiasm that although its +walls were less sublime in height, in picturesque beauty and charm Hetch +Hetchy surpassed even Yosemite. + +That any one would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but sad +experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for +anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad +arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people's +parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments +are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the destruction of +the first garden--so much of the very best Eden fruit going to waste; so +much of the best Tuolumne water and Tuolumne scenery going to waste. Few +of their statements are even partly true, and all are misleading. + +Thus, Hetch Hetchy, they say, is a "low-lying meadow." On the contrary, +it is a high-lying natural landscape garden, as the photographic +illustrations show. + +"It is a common minor feature, like thousands of others." On the +contrary it is a very uncommon feature; after Yosemite, the rarest and +in many ways the most important in the National Park. + +"Damming and submerging it 175 feet deep would enhance its beauty by +forming a crystal-clear lake." Landscape gardens, places of recreation +and worship, are never made beautiful by destroying and burying them. +The beautiful sham lake, forsooth, should be only an eyesore, a dismal +blot on the landscape, like many others to be seen in the Sierra. For, +instead of keeping it at the same level all the year, allowing Nature +centuries of time to make new shores, it would, of course, be full only +a month or two in the spring, when the snow is melting fast; then it +would be gradually drained, exposing the slimy sides of the basin and +shallower parts of the bottom, with the gathered drift and waste, death +and decay of the upper basins, caught here instead of being swept on to +decent natural burial along the banks of the river or in the sea. Thus +the Hetch Hetchy dam-lake would be only a rough imitation of a natural +lake for a few of the spring months, an open sepulcher for the others. + +"Hetch Hetchy water is the purest of all to be found in the Sierra, +unpolluted, and forever unpollutable." On the contrary, excepting that +of the Merced below Yosemite, it is less pure than that of most of the +other Sierra streams, because of the sewerage of camp grounds draining +into it, especially of the Big Tuolumne Meadows camp ground, occupied by +hundreds of tourists and mountaineers, with their animals, for months +every summer, soon to be followed by thousands from all the world. + +These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to +have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes +to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. + +Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals +and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the +heart of man. + + + +Appendix A + +Legislation About the Yosemite + + +In the year 1864, Congress passed the following act:-- + +ACT OF JUNE 30, 1864 (13 STAT., 325). + +An Act Authorizing a grant to the State of California of the "Yo-Semite +Valley," and of the land embracing the "Mariposa Big Tree Grove." + +"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America, in Congress assembled, That there shall be, and is +hereby, granted to the State of California, the 'Cleft' or 'Gorge' in +the Granite Peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county +of Mariposa, in the State aforesaid, and the headwaters of the Merced +River, and known as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, in +estimated length fifteen miles, and in average width one mile back from +the main edge of the precipice, on each side of the Valley, with the +stipulation, nevertheless, that the said State shall accept this grant +upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public +use, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable for all time; but +leases not exceeding ten years may be granted for portions of said +premises. All incomes derived from leases of privileges to be expended +in the preservation and improvement of the property, or the roads +leading thereto; the boundaries to be established at the cost of said +State by the United States Surveyor-General of California, whose +official plat, when affirmed by the Commissioner of the General Land +Office, shall constitute the evidence of the locus, extent, and limits +of the said Cleft or Gorge; the premises to be managed by the Governor +of the State, with eight other Commissioners, to be appointed by the +Executive of California, and who shall receive no compensation for their +services. + +"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That there shall likewise be, and +there is hereby, granted to the said State of California, the tracts +embracing what is known as the 'Mariposa Big Tree Grove,' not to exceed +the area of four sections, and to be taken in legal subdivisions of +one-quarter section each, with the like stipulations as expressed in +the first section of this Act as to the State's acceptance, with like +conditions as in the first section of this Act as to inalienability, +yet with the same lease privileges; the income to be expended in the +preservation, improvement, and protection of the property, the premises +to be managed by Commissioners, as stipulated in the first section of +this Act, and to be taken in legal subdivisions as aforesaid; and the +official plat of the United States Surveyor-General, when affirmed by +the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to be the evidence of the +locus of the said Mariposa Big Tree Grove." + +This important act was approved by the President, June 30, 1864, +and shortly after the Governor of California, F. F. Low, issued a +proclamation taking possession of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa +grove of Big Trees, in the name and on behalf of the State, appointing +commissioners to manage them, and warning all persons against +trespassing or settling there without authority, and especially +forbidding the cutting of timber and other injurious acts. + +The first Board of Commissioners were F. Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, +William Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, +George W. Coulter, and Galen Clark. + + +ACT OF OCTOBER 1, 1890 (26 STAT., 650). + +[Footnote: Sections 1 and 2 of this act pertain to the Yosemite National +Park, while section 3 sets apart General Grant National Park, and also a +portion of Sequoia National Park.] + +An Act To set apart certain tracts of land in the State of California as +forest reservations. + +"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled, That the tracts of land in the +State of California known as described as follows: Commencing at the +northwest corner of township two north, range nineteen east Mount Diablo +meridian, thence eastwardly on the line between townships two and three +north, ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east; thence southwardly on +the line between ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east to the Mount +Diablo base line; thence eastwardly on said base line to the corner +to township one south, ranges twenty-five and twenty-six east; thence +southwardly on the line between ranges twenty-five and twenty-six east +to the southeast corner of township two south, range twenty-five east; +thence eastwardly on the line between townships two and three south, +range twenty-six east to the corner to townships two and three south, +ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east; thence southwardly on the line +between ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east to the first standard +parallel south; thence westwardly on the first standard parallel south +to the southwest corner of township four south, range nineteen east; +thence northwardly on the line between ranges eighteen and nineteen east +to the northwest corner of township two south, range nineteen east; +thence westwardly on the line between townships one and two south to +the southwest corner of township one south, range nineteen east; thence +northwardly on the line between ranges eighteen and nineteen east to +the northwest corner of township two north, range nineteen east, the +place of beginning, are hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, +occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and set apart as +reserved forest lands; and all persons who shall locate or settle upon, +or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, +shall be considered trespassers and removed therefrom: Provided, +however, That nothing in this act shall be construed as in anywise +affecting the grant of lands made to the State of California by virtue +of the act entitled, 'An act authorizing a grant to the State of +California of the Yosemite Valley, and of the land embracing the +Mariposa Big-Tree Grove,' appeared June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and +sixty-four; or as affecting any bona-fide entry of land made within the +limits above described under any law of the United States prior to the +approval of this act. + +"Sec. 2. That said reservation shall be under the exclusive control +of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as +practicable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may +deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such +regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury of all +timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said +reservation, and their retention in their natural condition. The +Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for building purposes for +terms not exceeding ten years of small parcels of ground not exceeding +five acres; at such places in said reservation as shall require the +erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the +proceeds of said leases and other revenues that may be derived from +any source connected with said reservation to be expended under his +direction in the management of the same and the construction of roads +and paths therein. He shall provide against the wanton destruction of +the fish, and game found within said reservation, and against their +capture or destruction, for the purposes of merchandise or profit. He +shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the same after the passage +of this act to be removed therefrom, and, generally, shall be authorized +to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper to fully carry +out the objects and purposes of this act. + +"Sec. 3. There shall also be and is hereby reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and +shall be set apart as reserved forest lands, as herein before provided, +and subject to all the limitations and provisions herein contained, the +following additional lands, to wit: Township seventeen south, range +thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian, excepting sections thirty-one, +thirty-two, thirty-three, and thirty-four of said township, included +in a previous bill. And there is also reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and +set apart as forest lands, subject to like limitations, conditions, +and provisions, all of townships fifteen and sixteen south, of ranges +twenty-nine and thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian. And there is +also hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale +under the laws of the United states, and set apart as reserved forest +lands under like limitations, restrictions, and provisions, sections +five and six in township fourteen south, range twenty-eight east of +Mount Diablo meridian, and also sections thirty-one and thirty-two of +township thirteen south, range twenty-eight east of the same meridian. +Nothing in this act shall authorize rules or contracts touching the +protection and improvement of said reservations, beyond the sums that +may be received by the Secretary of the Interior under the foregoing +provisions, or authorize any charge against the Treasury of the United +States." + + +ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, APPROVED +MARCH 3, 1905. + +"Sec. 1. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto the +United States of America the 'cleft' or 'gorge' in the granite peak of +the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county of Mariposa, State +of California, and the headwaters of the Merced River, and known as the +Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, granted unto the State +of California in trust for public use, resort, and recreation by the +act of Congress entitled, 'An act authorizing a grant to the State +of California of the Yosemite Valley and of the land embracing the +Mariposa Big Tree Grove,' approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and +sixty-four; and the State of California does hereby relinquish unto the +United States of America and resign the trusts created and granted by +the said act of Congress. + +"Sec. 2. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto +the United States of America the tracts embracing what is known as the +'Mariposa Big Tree Grove,' planted unto the State of California in trust +for public use, resort, and recreation by the act of Congress referred +to in section one of this act, and the State of California does hereby +relinquish unto the United States of America and resign the trusts +created and granted by the said act of Congress. + +"Sec. 3. This act shall take effect from and after acceptance by the +United States of America of the recessions and regrants herein made +thereby forever releasing the State of California from further cost of +maintaining the said premises, the same to be held for all time by the +United States of America for public use, resort, and recreation and +imposing on the United States of America the cost of maintaining the +same as a national park: Provided, however, That the recession and +regrant hereby made shall not affect vested rights and interests of +third persons." + + + +Appendix B + +Table of Distances + + +From the Guardian's office, in the village, the distances to various +points are in miles as follows: + + Miles. + + Bridal Veil Fall 4.04 + Cascade Falls 7.67 + Cloud's Rest, Summit 11.81 + Columbia Rock, on Eagle Peak Trail 1.98 + Dana, Mt., Summit 40.34 + Eagle Peak 6.59 + El Capitan Bridge 3.63 + Glacier Point, direct trail 4.45 + Glacier Point, by Nevada Falls 16.98 + Lyell, Mt., Summit 38.20 + Merced Bridge 2.03 + Mirror Lake, by Hunt's avenue 2.91 + Nevada Fall (Hotel) 4.63 + Nevada Fall, Bridge above 5.45 + Pohono Bridge 5.29 + Register Rock 3.24 + Ribbon Fall 3.99 + Rocky Point (base of Three Brothers) 1.45 + Tenayah Creek Bridge 2.26 + Tenayah Lake 16.00 + Yosemite Falls, foot 0.90 + Yosemite Falls, foot Upper Fall 2.67 + Yosemite Falls, top 4.33 + Soda Springs (Eagle Peak Trail) 24.50 + Sentinel Dome 5.57 + Union Point, on Glacier Point Trail 3.13 + Vernal Fall 3.50 + + + +Appendix C + +Maximum Rates for Transportation + + +The following rates for transportation in and about the Valley have +been established by the Board of Commissioners: + + +SADDLE-HORSES + + From Route to Amount + + Valley Glacier Point and Sentinel Dome, and return, $3.00 + direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.75 + and return, direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 3.00 + and Casa Nevada, passing night at Casa Nevada + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 4.00 + Vernal Fall, and thence to Valley same day + Glacier Point Valley direct 2.00 + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, and Casa Nevada, 2.00 + passing night at Casa Nevada + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall, 3.00 + and thence to Valley same day + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, direct, 3.00 + and return to Valley same day + Valley Glacier Point by Casa Nevada, passing night 3.00 + at Glacier Point + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, Sentinel Dome, 4.00 + Glacier Point, and thence to Valley same day + Valley Cloud's Rest and return to Casa Nevada 3.00 + Valley Cloud's Rest and return to Valley same day 5.00 + Casa Nevada Cloud's Rest and return to Casa Nevada or 3.00 + Valley same day + Casa Nevada Valley direct 2.00 + Casa Nevada Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, and Glacier Point, 2.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, 3.00 + and Valley same day + + Upper Yosemite Fall, Eagle Peak, and return 3.00 + Charge for guide (including horse), when furnished 3.00 + Saddle-horses, on level of Valley, per day 2.50 + +1. The above charges do not include feed for horses when passing night +at Casa Nevada or Glacier Point. + +2. Where Valley is specified as starting-point, the above rates prevail +from any hotel in Valley, or from the foot of any trail. + +3. Any shortening of above trips, without proportionate reduction of +rates, shall be at the option of those hiring horses. + +4. Trips other than those above specified shall be subject to special +arrangement between letter and hirer. + + +CARRIAGES + + From Route to Amount + + + Hotels Mirror Lake and return, direct $1.00 + Hotels Mirror Lake and return by Tissiack Avenue 1.25 + Hotels Mirror Lake and return to foot of Trail, to Vernal 1.00 + and Nevada Falls + Hotels Bridal Veil Falls and return, direct 1.00 + Hotels Pohono Bridge, down either side of Valley, and return 1.50 + on opposite side, stopping at Yosemite and Bridal + Veil Falls + Hotels Cascade Falls, down either side of Valley, and return 2.25 + on opposite side, stopping at Yosemite and Bridal + Veil Falls + Hotels Artist Point and return, direct, stopping at Bridal 2.00 + Veil Falls + Hotels New Inspiration Point and return, direct, stopping at 2.00 + Bridal Veil Falls + Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 2.50 + Falls, excluding Lake and Cascades + Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 3.50 + Falls, Lake, and Cascades + +1. When the value of the seats hired in any vehicle shall exceed $15 +for a two-horse team, or $25 for a four-horse team, for any trip in the +above schedule, the persons hiring the seats shall have the privilege +of paying no more than the aggregate sums of $15 and $25 per trip for a +two-horse and four-horse team, respectively. + +2. If saddle-horses should be substituted for any of the above carriage +trips, carriage rates will apply to each horse. In no case shall the +per diem charge of $2.50 for each saddle-horse, on level of Valley, be +exceeded. + +Any excess of the above rates, as well as any extortion, incivility, +misrepresentation, or the riding of unsafe animals, should be promptly +reported at the Guardian's office. + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE YOSEMITE *** + +This file should be named yosem10.txt or yosem10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, yosem11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, yosem10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/yosem10.zip b/old/yosem10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..47f9acc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/yosem10.zip diff --git a/old/yosem10h.htm b/old/yosem10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..262ef4e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/yosem10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6417 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yosemite, by John +Muir</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} +blockquote {font-size:14pt} +P {font-size:14pt} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yosemite, by John +Muir</h1> + +<pre> +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Yosemite + +Author: John Muir + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7091] +[This file was first posted on March 9, 2003] +[Date last updated: August 28, 2006] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE YOSEMITE *** + + + +</pre> + +<pre> +Produced by Dan Anderson and Andrew Sly. +Thanks to the John Muir Exhibit for making this eBook available. +http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/ + + +</pre> + +<h1 align="center">The Yosemite<br> +by John Muir</h1> + +<blockquote>Affectionately dedicated to my friend,<br> +Robert Underwood Johnson,<br> +faithful lover and defender of our glorious forests<br> +and originator of the Yosemite National Park.</blockquote> + +<h3 align="center">Acknowledgment</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +On the early history of Yosemite the writer is indebted to Prof. J. D. +Whitney for quotations from his volume entitled "Yosemite Guide-Book," +and to Dr. Bunnell for extracts from his interesting volume entitled +"Discovery of the Yosemite." +</pre> + +<h3>Contents</h3> + +<pre> + 1. The Approach to the Valley + 2. Winter Storms and Spring Floods + 3. Snow-Storms + 4. Snow Banners + 5. The Trees of the Valley + 6. The Forest Trees in General + 7. The Big Trees + 8. The Flowers + 9. The Birds + 10. The South Dome + 11. The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: How the Valley Was Formed + 12. How Best to Spend One's Yosemite Time + 13. Early History of the Valley + 14. Lamon + 15. Galen Clark + 16. Hetch Hetchy Valley + Appendix A. Legislation About the Yosemite + Appendix B. Table of Distances + Appendix C. Maximum Rates for Transportation + + +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 1<br> +The Approach to the Valley</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +When I set out on the long excursion that finally led to California I +wandered afoot and alone, from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, with a +plant-press on my back, holding a generally southward course, like the +birds when they are going from summer to winter. From the west coast +of Florida I crossed the gulf to Cuba, enjoyed the rich tropical flora +there for a few months, intending to go thence to the north end of South +America, make my way through the woods to the headwaters of the Amazon, +and float down that grand river to the ocean. But I was unable to find a +ship bound for South America--fortunately perhaps, for I had incredibly +little money for so long a trip and had not yet fully recovered from +a fever caught in the Florida swamps. Therefore I decided to visit +California for a year or two to see its wonderful flora and the famous +Yosemite Valley. All the world was before me and every day was a +holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of the world's +wildernesses I first should wander. +<br> +Arriving by the Panama steamer, I stopped one day in San Francisco and +then inquired for the nearest way out of town. "But where do you want to +go?" asked the man to whom I had applied for this important information. +"To any place that is wild," I said. This reply startled him. He seemed +to fear I might be crazy and therefore the sooner I was out of town the +better, so he directed me to the Oakland ferry. +<br> +So on the first of April, 1868, I set out afoot for Yosemite. It was the +bloom-time of the year over the lowlands and coast ranges the landscapes +of the Santa Clara Valley were fairly drenched with sunshine, all the +air was quivering with the songs of the meadow-larks, and the hills were +so covered with flowers that they seemed to be painted. Slow indeed was +my progress through these glorious gardens, the first of the California +flora I had seen. Cattle and cultivation were making few scars as yet, +and I wandered enchanted in long wavering curves, knowing by my pocket +map that Yosemite Valley lay to the east and that I should surely find +it. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Sierra From The West</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Looking eastward from the summit of the Pacheco Pass one shining +morning, a landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still +appears as the most beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the +Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of +pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one +rich furred garden of yellow <i>Compositœ</i>. And from the eastern boundary +of this vast golden flower-bed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, +and so gloriously colored and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with +light, but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city. +Along the top and extending a good way down, was a rich pearl-gray belt +of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark purple, marking the extension +of the forests; and stretching along the base of the range a broad belt +of rose-purple; all these colors, from the blue sky to the yellow +valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of light +ineffably fine. Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, +not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten +years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its +glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming +through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the +flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, +it still seems above all others the Range of Light. +<br> +In general views no mark of man is visible upon it, nor any thing to +suggest the wonderful depth and grandeur of its sculpture. None of its +magnificent forest-crowned ridges seems to rise much above the general +level to publish its wealth. No great valley or river is seen, or group +of well-marked features of any kind standing out as distinct pictures. +Even the summit peaks, marshaled in glorious array so high in the sky, +seem comparatively regular in form. Nevertheless the whole range five +hundred miles long is furrowed with cañons 2000 to 5000 feet deep, in +which once flowed majestic glaciers, and in which now flow and sing the +bright rejoicing rivers. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Characteristics Of The Cañons</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Though of such stupendous depth, these cañons are not gloom gorges, +savage and inaccessible. With rough passages here and there they are +flowery pathways conducting to the snowy, icy fountains; mountain +streets full of life and light, graded and sculptured by the ancient +glaciers, and presenting throughout all their course a rich variety of +novel and attractive scenery--the most attractive that has yet been +discovered in the mountain ranges of the world. In many places, +especially in the middle region of the western flank, the main cañons +widen into spacious valleys or parks diversified like landscape gardens +with meadows and groves and thickets of blooming bushes, while the lofty +walls, infinitely varied in form are fringed with ferns, flowering +plants, shrubs of many species and tall evergreens and oaks that find +footholds on small benches and tables, all enlivened and made glorious +with rejoicing stream that come chanting in chorus over the cliffs and +through side cañons in falls of every conceivable form, to join the +river that flow in tranquil, shining beauty down the middle of each +one of them. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Incomparable Yosemite</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The most famous and accessible of these cañon valleys, and also the one +that presents their most striking and sublime features on the grandest +scale, is the Yosemite, situated in the basin of the Merced River at an +elevation of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is about seven +miles long, half a mile to a mile wide, and nearly a mile deep in the +solid granite flank of the range. The walls are made up of rocks, +mountains in size, partly separated from each other by side cañons, and +they are so sheer in front, and so compactly and harmoniously arranged +on a level floor, that the Valley, comprehensively seen, looks like an +immense hall or temple lighted from above. +<br> +But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in +its walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back in majestic repose; +others, absolutely sheer or nearly so for thousands of feet, advance +beyond their companions in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to +storms and calms alike, seemingly aware, yet heedless, of everything +going on about them. Awful in stern, immovable majesty, how softly these +rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep: +their feet among beautiful groves and meadows, their brows in the sky, +a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their feet, bathed in +floods of water, floods of light, while the snow and waterfalls, the +winds and avalanches and clouds shine and sing and wreathe about them +as the years go by, and myriads of small winged creatures birds, bees, +butterflies--give glad animation and help to make all the air into +music. Down through the middle of the Valley flows the crystal Merced, +River of Mercy, peacefully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and the +onlooking rocks; things frail and fleeting and types of endurance +meeting here and blending in countless forms, as if into this one +mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, to draw +her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Approach To The Valley</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Sauntering up the foothills to Yosemite by any of the old trails or +roads in use before the railway was built from the town of Merced up the +river to the boundary of Yosemite Park, richer and wilder become the +forests and streams. At an elevation of 6000 feet above the level of the +sea the silver firs are 200 feet high, with branches whorled around the +colossal shafts in regular order, and every branch beautifully pinnate +like a fern frond. The Douglas spruce, the yellow and sugar pines and +brown-barked Libocedrus here reach their finest developments of beauty +and grandeur. The majestic Sequoia is here, too, the king of conifers, +the noblest of all the noble race. These colossal trees are as wonderful +in fineness of beauty and proportion as in stature--an assemblage of +conifers surpassing all that have ever yet been discovered in the +forests of the world. Here indeed is the tree-lover's paradise; the +woods, dry and wholesome, letting in the light in shimmering masses of +half sunshine, half shade; the night air as well as the day air +indescribably spicy and exhilarating; plushy fir-boughs for campers' +beds and cascades to sing us to sleep. On the highest ridges, over which +these old Yosemite ways passed, the silver fir (<i>Abies magnifica</i>) forms +the bulk of the woods, pressing forward in glorious array to the very +brink of the Valley walls on both sides, and beyond the Valley to a +height of from 8000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea. Thus it +appears that Yosemite, presenting such stupendous faces of bare granite, +is nevertheless imbedded in magnificent forests, and the main species of +pine, fir, spruce and libocedrus are also found in the Valley itself, +but there are no "big trees" (<i>Sequoia gigantea</i>) in the Valley or about +the rim of it. The nearest are about ten and twenty miles beyond the +lower end of the valley on small tributaries of the Merced and Tuolumne +Rivers. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The First View: The Bridal Veil</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +From the margin of these glorious forests the first general view of the +Valley used to be gained--a revelation in landscape affairs that +enriches one's life forever. Entering the Valley, gazing overwhelmed +with the multitude of grand objects about us, perhaps the first to fix +our attention will be the Bridal Veil, a beautiful waterfall on our +right. Its brow, where it first leaps free from the cliff, is about 900 +feet above us; and as it sways and sings in the wind, clad in gauzy, +sun-sifted spray, half falling, half floating, it seems infinitely +gentle and fine; but the hymns it sings tell the solemn fateful power +hidden beneath its soft clothing. +<br> +The Bridal Veil shoots free from the upper edge of the cliff by the +velocity the stream has acquired in descending a long slope above the +head of the fall. Looking from the top of the rock-avalanche talus +on the west side, about one hundred feet above the foot of the fall, +the under surface of the water arch is seen to be finely grooved and +striated; and the sky is seen through the arch between rock and water, +making a novel and beautiful effect. +<br> +Under ordinary weather conditions the fall strikes on flat-topped slabs, +forming a kind of ledge about two-thirds of the way down from the top, +and as the fall sways back and forth with great variety of motions +among these flat-topped pillars, kissing and plashing notes as well as +thunder-like detonations are produced, like those of the Yosemite Fall, +though on a smaller scale. +<br> +The rainbows of the Veil, or rather the spray- and foam-bows, are +superb, because the waters are dashed among angular blocks of granite +at the foot, producing abundance of spray of the best quality for iris +effects, and also for a luxuriant growth of grass and maiden-hair on +the side of the talus, which lower down is planted with oak, laurel +and willows. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">General Features Of The Valley</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +On the other side of the Valley, almost immediately opposite the Bridal +Veil, there is another fine fall, considerably wider than the Veil when +the snow is melting fast and more than 1000 feet in height, measured +from the brow of the cliff where it first springs out into the air to +the head of the rocky talus on which it strikes and is broken up into +ragged cascades. It is called the Ribbon Fall or Virgin's Tears. During +the spring floods it is a magnificent object, but the suffocating blasts +of spray that fill the recess in the wall which it occupies prevent a +near approach. In autumn, however when its feeble current falls in a +shower, it may then pass for tear with the sentimental onlooker fresh +from a visit to the Bridal Veil. +<br> +Just beyond this glorious flood the El Capitan Rock, regarded by many as +the most sublime feature of the Valley, is seen through the pine groves, +standing forward beyond the general line of the wall in most imposing +grandeur, a type of permanence. It is 3300 feet high, a plain, severely +simple, glacier-sculptured face of granite, the end of one of the most +compact and enduring of the mountain ridges, unrivaled in height and +breadth and flawless strength. +<br> +Across the Valley from here, next to the Bridal Veil, are the +picturesque Cathedral Rocks, nearly 2700 feet high, making a noble +display of fine yet massive sculpture. They are closely related to El +Capitan, having been eroded from the same mountain ridge by the great +Yosemite Glacier when the Valley was in process of formation. +<br> +Next to the Cathedral Rocks on the south side towers the Sentinel Rock +to a height of more than 3000 feet, a telling monument of the glacial +period. +<br> +Almost immediately opposite the Sentinel are the Three Brothers, an +immense mountain mass with three gables fronting the Valley, one above +another, the topmost gable nearly 4000 feet high. They were named for +three brothers, sons of old Tenaya, the Yosemite chief, captured here +during the Indian War, at the time of the discovery of the Valley in +1852. +<br> +Sauntering up the Valley through meadow and grove, in the company of +these majestic rocks, which seem to follow us as we advance, gazing, +admiring, looking for new wonders ahead where all about us is so +wonderful, the thunder of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when we +arrive in front of the Sentinel Rock it is revealed in all its glory +from base to summit, half a mile in height, and seeming to spring out +into the Valley sunshine direct from the sky. But even this fall, +perhaps the most wonderful of its kind in the world, cannot at first +hold our attention, for now the wide upper portion of the Valley is +displayed to view, with the finely modeled North Dome, the Royal Arches +and Washington Column on our left; Glacier Point, with its massive, +magnificent sculpture on the right; and in the middle, directly in +front, looms Tissiack or Half Dome, the most beautiful and most sublime +of all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising in serene majesty from +flowery groves and meadows to a height of 4750 feet. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Upper Cañons</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Here the Valley divides into three branches, the Tenaya, Nevada, and +Illilouette Cañons, extending back into the fountains of the High +Sierra, with scenery every way worthy the relation they bear to +Yosemite. +<br> +In the south branch, a mile or two from the main Valley, is the +Illilouette Fall, 600 feet high, one of the most beautiful of all the +Yosemite choir, but to most people inaccessible as yet on account of its +rough, steep, boulder-choked cañon. Its principal fountains of ice and +snow lie in the beautiful and interesting mountains of the Merced group, +while its broad open basin between its fountain mountains and cañon is +noted for the beauty of its lakes and forests and magnificent moraines. +<br> +Returning to the Valley, and going up the north branch of Tenaya Cañon, +we pass between the North Dome and Half Dome, and in less than an hour +come to Mirror Lake, the Dome Cascade and Tenaya Fall. Beyond the Fall, +on the north side of the cañon is the sublime Ed Capitan-like rock +called Mount Watkins; on the south the vast granite wave of Clouds' Rest, +a mile in height; and between them the fine Tenaya Cascade with silvery +plumes outspread on smooth glacier-polished folds of granite, making a +vertical descent in all of about 700 feet. +<br> +Just beyond the Dome Cascades, on the shoulder of Mount Watkins, there +is an old trail once used by Indians on their was across the range to +Mono, but in the cañon above this point there is no trail of any sort. +Between Mount Watkins and Clouds' Rest the cañon is accessible only to +mountaineers, and it is so dangerous that I hesitate to advise even good +climbers, anxious to test their nerve and skill, to attempt to pass +through it. Beyond the Cascades no great difficulty will be encountered. +A succession of charming lily gardens and meadows occurs in filled-up +lake basins among the rock-waves in the bottom of the cañon, and +everywhere the surface of the granite has a smooth-wiped appearance, and +in many places reflects the sunbeams like glass, a phenomenon due to +glacial action, the cañon having been the channel of one of the main +tributaries of the ancient Yosemite Glacier. +<br> +About ten miles above the Valley we come to the beautiful Tenaya Lake, +and here the cañon terminates. A mile or two above the lake stands the +grand Sierra Cathedral, a building of one stone, sewn from the living +rock, with sides, roof, gable, spire and ornamental pinnacles, fashioned +and finished symmetrically like a work of art, and set on a well-graded +plateau about 9000 feet high, as if Nature in making so fine a building +had also been careful that it should be finely seen. From every +direction its peculiar form and graceful, majestic beauty of expression +never fail to charm. Its height from its base to the ridge of the roof +is about 2500 feet, and among the pinnacles that adorn the front grand +views may be gained of the upper basins of the Merced and Tuolumne +Rivers. +<br> +Passing the Cathedral we descend into the delightful, spacious Tuolumne +Valley, from which excursions may be made to Mounts Dana, Lyell, Ritter, +Conness, and Mono Lake, and to the many curious peaks that rise above +the meadows on the south, and to the Big Tuolumne Cañon, with its +glorious abundance of rock and falling, gliding, tossing water. For all +these the beautiful meadows near the Soda Springs form a delightful +center. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Natural Features Near The Valley</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Returning now to Yosemite and ascending the middle or Nevada branch of +the Valley, occupied by the main Merced River, we come within a few +miles to the Vernal and Nevada Falls, 400 and 600 feet high, pouring +their white, rejoicing waters in the midst of the most novel and sublime +rock scenery to be found in all the World. Tracing the river beyond the +head of the Nevada Fall we are lead into the Little Yosemite, a valley +like the great Yosemite in form, sculpture and vegetation. It is about +three miles long, with walls 1500 to 2000 feet high, cascades coming +over them, and the ever flowing through the meadows and groves of the +level bottom in tranquil, richly-embowered reaches. +<br> +Beyond this Little Yosemite in the main cañon, there are three other +little yosemites, the highest situated a few miles below the base of +Mount Lyell, at an elevation of about 7800 feet above the sea. To +describe these, with all their wealth of Yosemite furniture, and the +wilderness of lofty peaks above them, the home of the avalanche and +treasury of the fountain snow, would take us far beyond the bounds of a +single book. Nor can we here consider the formation of these mountain +landscapes--how the crystal rock were brought to light by glaciers made +up of crystal snow, making beauty whose influence is so mysterious on +every one who sees it. +<br> +Of the small glacier lakes so characteristic of these upper regions, +there are no fewer than sixty-seven in the basin of the main middle +branch, besides countless smaller pools. In the basin of the Illilouette +there are sixteen, in the Tenaya basin and its branches thirteen, in the +Yosemite Creek basin fourteen, and in the Pohono or Bridal Veil one, +making a grand total of one hundred and eleven lakes whose waters come +to sing at Yosemite. So glorious is the background of the great Valley, +so harmonious its relations to its widespreading fountains. +<br> +The same harmony prevails in all the other features of the adjacent +landscapes. Climbing out of the Valley by the subordinate cañons, we +find the ground rising from the brink of the walls: on the south side to +the fountains of the Bridal Veil Creek, the basin of which is noted for +the beauty of its meadows and its superb forests of silver fir; on the +north side through the basin of the Yosemite Creek to the dividing ridge +along the Tuolumne Cañon and the fountains of the Hoffman Range. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Down The Yosemite Creek</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +In general views the Yosemite Creek basin seems to be paved with +domes and smooth, whaleback masses of granite in every stage of +development--some showing only their crowns; others rising high and free +above the girdling forests, singly or in groups. Others are developed +only on one side, forming bold outstanding bosses usually well fringed +with shrubs and trees, and presenting the polished surfaces given them +by the glacier that brought them into relief. On the upper portion of +the basin broad moraine beds have been deposited and on these fine, +thrifty forests are growing. Lakes and meadows and small spongy bogs +may be found hiding here and there in the woods or back in the fountain +recesses of Mount Hoffman, while a thousand gardens are planted along +the banks of the streams. +<br> +All the wide, fan-shaped upper portion of the basin is covered with a +network of small rills that go cheerily on their way to their grand fall +in the Valley, now flowing on smooth pavements in sheets thin as glass, +now diving under willows and laving their red roots, oozing through +green, plushy bogs, plashing over small falls and dancing down slanting +cascades, calming again, gliding through patches of smooth glacier +meadows with sod of alpine agrostis mixed with blue and white violets +and daisies, breaking, tossing among rough boulders and fallen trees, +resting in calm pools, flowing together until, all united, they go to +their fate with stately, tranquil gestures like a full-grown river. At +the crossing of the Mono Trail, about two miles above the head of the +Yosemite Fall, the stream is nearly forty feet wide, and when the snow +is melting rapidly in the spring it is about four feet deep, with a +current of two and a half miles an hour. This is about the volume of +water that forms the Fall in May and June when there had been much snow +the preceding winter; but it varies greatly from month to month. The +snow rapidly vanishes from the open portion of the basin, which faces +southward, and only a few of the tributaries reach back to perennial +snow and ice fountains in the shadowy amphitheaters on the precipitous +northern slopes of Mount Hoffman. The total descent made by the stream +from its highest sources to its confluence with the Merced in the Valley +is about 6000 feet, while the distance is only about ten miles, an +average fall of 600 feet per mile. The last mile of its course lies +between the sides of sunken domes and swelling folds of the granite that +are clustered and pressed together like a mass of bossy cumulus clouds. +Through this shining way Yosemite Creek goes to its fate, swaying and +swirling with easy, graceful gestures and singing the last of its +mountain songs before it reaches the dizzy edge of Yosemite to fall 2600 +feet into another world, where climate, vegetation, inhabitants, all are +different. Emerging from this last cañon the stream glides, in flat +lace-like folds, down a smooth incline into a small pool where it seems +to rest and compose itself before taking the grand plunge. Then calmly, +as if leaving a lake, it slips over the polished lip of the pool down +another incline and out over the brow of the precipice in a magnificent +curve thick-sown with rainbow spray. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Yosemite Fall</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Long ago before I had traced this fine stream to its head back of Mount +Hoffman, I was eager to reach the extreme verge to see how it behaved in +flying so far through the air; but after enjoying this view and getting +safely away I have never advised any one to follow my steps. The last +incline down which the stream journeys so gracefully is so steep and +smooth one must slip cautiously forward on hands and feet alongside the +rushing water, which so near one's head is very exciting. But to gain a +perfect view one must go yet farther, over a curving brow to a slight +shelf on the extreme brink. This shelf, formed by the flaking off of a +fold of granite, is about three inches wide, just wide enough for a safe +rest for one's heels. To me it seemed nerve-trying to slip to this +narrow foothold and poise on the edge of such precipice so close to the +confusing whirl of the waters; and after casting longing glances over +the shining brow of the fall and listening to its sublime psalm, I +concluded not to attempt to go nearer, but, nevertheless, against +reasonable judgment, I did. Noticing some tufts of artemisia in a cleft +of rock, I filled my mouth with the leaves, hoping their bitter taste +might help to keep caution keen and prevent giddiness. In spite of +myself I reached the little ledge, got my heels well set, and worked +sidewise twenty or thirty feet to a point close to the out-plunging +current. Here the view is perfectly free down into the heart of the +bright irised throng of comet-like streamers into which the whole +ponderous volume of the fall separates, two or three hundred feet below +the brow. So glorious a display of pure wildness, acting at close range +while cut off from all the world beside, is terribly impressive. A less +nerve-trying view may be obtained from a fissured portion of the edge of +the cliff about forty yards to the eastward of the fall. Seen from this +point towards noon, in the spring, the rainbow on its brow seems to be +broken up and mingled with the rushing comets until all the fall is +stained with iris colors, leaving no white water visible. This is the +best of the safe views from above, the huge steadfast rocks, the flying +waters, and the rainbow light forming one of the most glorious pictures +conceivable. +<br> +The Yosemite Fall is separated into an upper and a lower fall with a +series of falls and cascades between them, but when viewed in front from +the bottom of the Valley they all appear as one. +<br> +So grandly does this magnificent fall display itself from the floor of +the Valley, few visitors take the trouble to climb the walls to gain +nearer views, unable to realize how vastly more impressive it is near by +than at a distance of one or two miles. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">A Wonderful Ascent</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The views developed in a walk up the zigzags of the trail leading to +the foot of the Upper Fall are about as varied and impressive as those +displayed along the favorite Glacier Point Trail. One rises as if on +wings. The groves, meadows, fern-flats and reaches of the river gain +new interest, as if never seen before; all the views changing in a most +striking manner as we go higher from point to point. The foreground +also changes every few rods in the most surprising manner, although the +earthquake talus and the level bench on the face of the wall over which +the trail passes seem monotonous and commonplace as seen from the bottom +of the Valley. Up we climb with glad exhilaration, through shaggy +fringes of laurel, ceanothus, glossy-leaved manzanita and live-oak, from +shadow to shadow across bars and patches of sunshine, the leafy openings +making charming frames for the Valley pictures beheld through gem, and +for the glimpses of the high peaks that appear in the distance. The +higher we go the farther we seem to be from the summit of the vast +granite wall. Here we pass a projecting buttress hose grooved and +rounded surface tells a plain story of the time when the Valley, now +filled with sunshine, was filled with ice, when the grand old Yosemite +Glacier, flowing river-like from its distant fountains, swept through +it, crushing, grinding, wearing its way ever deeper, developing and +fashioning these sublime rocks. Again we cross a white, battered gully, +the pathway of rock avalanches or snow avalanches. Farther on we come +to a gentle stream slipping down the face of the Cliff in lace-like +strips, and dropping from ledge to ledge--too small to be called a +fall--trickling, dripping, oozing, a pathless wanderer from one of +the upland meadow lying a little way back of the Valley rim, seeking +a way century after century to the depths of the Valley without any +appreciable channel. Every morning after a cool night, evaporation being +checked, it gathers strength and sings like a bird, but as the day +advances and the sun strikes its thin currents outspread on the heated +precipices, most of its waters vanish ere the bottom of the Valley is +reached. Many a fine, hanging-garden aloft on breezy inaccessible heights +owes to it its freshness and fullness of beauty; ferneries in shady +nooks, filled with Adiantum, Woodwardia, Woodsia, Aspidium, Pellaea, +and Cheilanthes, rosetted and tufted and ranged in lines, daintily +overlapping, thatching the stupendous cliffs with softest beauty, some +of the delicate fronds seeming to float on the warm moist air, without +any connection with rock or stream. Nor is there any lack of colored +plants wherever they can find a place to cling to; lilies and mints, +the showy cardinal mimulus, and glowing cushions of the golden bahia, +enlivened with butterflies and bees and all the other small, happy +humming creatures that belong to them. +<br> +After the highest point on the lower division of the trail is gained it +leads up into the deep recess occupied by the great fall, the noblest +display of falling water to be found in the Valley, or perhaps in the +world. When it first comes in sight it seems almost within reach of +one's hand, so great in the spring is its volume and velocity, yet it is +still nearly a third of a mile away and appears to recede as we advance. +The sculpture of the walls about it is on a scale of grandeur, according +nobly with the fall plain and massive, though elaborately finished, like +all the other cliffs about the Valley. +<br> +In the afternoon an immense shadow is cast athwart the plateau in front +of the fall, and over the chaparral bushes that clothe the slopes and +benches of the walls to the eastward, creeping upward until the fall is +wholly overcast, the contrast between the shaded and illumined sections +being very striking in these near views. +<br> +Under this shadow, during the cool centuries immediately following the +breaking-up of the Glacial Period, dwelt a small residual glacier, one +of the few that lingered on this sun-beaten side of the Valley after the +main trunk glacier had vanished. It sent down a long winding current +through the narrow cañon on the west side of the fall, and must have +formed a striking feature of the ancient scenery of the Valley; the +lofty fall of ice and fall of water side by side, yet separate and +distinct. +<br> +The coolness of the afternoon shadow and the abundant dewy spray make a +fine climate for the plateau ferns and grasses, and for the beautiful +azalea bushes that grow here in profusion and bloom in September, long +after the warmer thickets down on the floor of the Valley have withered +and gone to seed. Even close to the fall, and behind it at the base of +the cliff, a few venturesome plants may be found undisturbed by the +rock-shaking torrent. +<br> +The basin at the foot of the fall into which the current directly pours, +when it is not swayed by the wind, is about ten feet deep and fifteen to +twenty feet in diameter. That it is not much deeper is surprising, when +the great height and force of the fall is considered. But the rock where +the water strikes probably suffers less erosion than it would were the +descent less than half as great, since the current is outspread, and +much of its force is spent ere it reaches the bottom--being received on +the air as upon an elastic cushion, and borne outward and dissipated +over a surface more than fifty yards wide. +<br> +This surface, easily examined when the water is low, is intensely clean +and fresh looking. It is the raw, quick flesh of the mountain wholly +untouched by the weather. In summer droughts when the snowfall of the +preceding winter has been light, the fall is reduced to a mere shower of +separate drops without any obscuring spray. Then we may safely go back +of it and view the crystal shower from beneath, each drop wavering and +pulsing as it makes its way through the air, and flashing off jets of +colored light of ravishing beauty. But all this is invisible from the +bottom of the Valley, like a thousand other interesting things. One must +labor for beauty as for bread, here as elsewhere. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Grandeur Of The Yosemite Fall</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +During the time of the spring floods the best near view of the fall is +obtained from Fern Ledge on the east side above the blinding spray at a +height of about 400 feet above the base of the fall. A climb of about +1400 feet from the Valley has to be made, and there is no trail, but +to any one fond of climbing this will make the ascent all the more +delightful. A narrow part of the ledge extends to the side of the fall +and back of it, enabling us to approach it as closely as we wish. When +the afternoon sunshine is streaming through the throng of comets, ever +wasting, ever renewed, fineness, firmness and variety of their forms are +beautifully revealed. At the top of the fall they seem to burst forth in +irregular spurts from some grand, throbbing mountain heart. Now and then +one mighty throb sends forth a mass of solid water into the free air +far beyond the others which rushes alone to the bottom of the fall with +long streaming tail, like combed silk, while the others, descending in +clusters, gradually mingle and lose their identity. But they all rush +past us with amazing velocity and display of power though apparently +drowsy and deliberate in their movements when observed from a distance +of a mile or two. The heads of these comet-like masses are composed of +nearly solid water, and are dense white in color like pressed snow, from +the friction they suffer in rushing through the air, the portion worn +off forming the tail between the white lustrous threads and films of +which faint, grayish pencilings appear, while the outer, finer sprays of +water-dust, whirling in sunny eddies, are pearly gray throughout. At the +bottom of the fall there is but little distinction of form visible. It +is mostly a hissing, clashing, seething, upwhirling mass of scud and +spray, through which the light sifts in gray and purple tones while +at times when the sun strikes at the required angle, the whole wild +and apparently lawless, stormy, striving mass is changed to brilliant +rainbow hues, manifesting finest harmony. The middle portion of the +fall is the most openly beautiful; lower, the various forms into which +the waters are wrought are more closely and voluminously veiled, while +higher, towards the head, the current is comparatively simple and +undivided. But even at the bottom, in the boiling clouds of spray, +there is no confusion, while the rainbow light makes all divine, adding +glorious beauty and peace to glorious power. This noble fall has far the +richest, as well as the most powerful, voice of all the falls of the +Valley, its tones varying from the sharp hiss and rustle of the wind +in the glossy leaves of the live-oak and the soft, sifting, hushing +tones of the pines, to the loudest rush and roar of storm winds and +thunder among the crags of the summit peaks. The low bass, booming, +reverberating tones, heard under favorable circumstances five or six +miles away are formed by the dashing and exploding of heavy masses +mixed with air upon two projecting ledges on the face of the cliff, the +one on which we are standing and another about 200 feet above it. The +torrent of massive comets is continuous at time of high water, while +the explosive, booming notes are wildly intermittent, because, unless +influenced by the wind, most of the heavier masses shoot out from the +face of the precipice, and pass the ledges upon which at other times +they are exploded. Occasionally the whole fall is swayed away from the +front of the cliff, then suddenly dashed flat against it, or vibrated +from side to side like a pendulum, giving rise to endless variety of +forms and sounds. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Nevada Fall</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Nevada Fall is 600 feet high and is usually ranked next to the +Yosemite in general interest among the five main falls of the Valley. +Coming through the Little Yosemite in tranquil reaches, the river is +first broken into rapids on a moraine boulder-bar that crosses the lower +end of the Valley. Thence it pursues its way to the head of the fall in +a rough, solid rock channel, dashing on side angles, heaving in heavy +surging masses against elbow knobs, and swirling and swashing in +pot-holes without a moment's rest. Thus, already chafed and dashed to +foam, overfolded and twisted, it plunges over the brink of the precipice +as if glad to escape into the open air. But before it reaches the bottom +it is pulverized yet finer by impinging upon a sloping portion of the +cliff about half-way down, thus making it the whitest of all the falls +of the Valley, and altogether one of the most wonderful in the world. +<br> +On the north side, close to its head, a slab of granite projects over the +brink, forming a fine point for a view, over its throng of streamers and +wild plunging, into its intensely white bosom, and through the broad +drifts of spray, to the river far below, gathering its spent waters and +rushing on again down the cañon in glad exultation into Emerald Pool, +where at length it grows calm and gets rest for what still lies before +it. All the features of the view correspond with the waters in grandeur +and wildness. The glacier sculptured walls of the cañon on either hand, +with the sublime mass of the Glacier Point Ridge in front, form a huge +triangular pit-like basin, which, filled with the roaring of the falling +river seems as if it might be the hopper of one of the mills of the gods +in which the mountains were being ground. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Vernal Fall</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Vernal, about a mile below the Nevada, is 400 feet high, a staid, +orderly, graceful, easy-going fall, proper and exact in every movement +and gesture, with scarce a hint of the passionate enthusiasm of the +Yosemite or of the impetuous Nevada, whose chafed and twisted waters +hurrying over the cliff seem glad to escape into the open air, while its +deep, booming, thunder-tones reverberate over the listening landscape. +Nevertheless it is a favorite with most visitors, doubtless because it +is more accessible than any other, more closely approached and better +seen and heard. A good stairway ascends the cliff beside it and the +level plateau at the head enables one to saunter safely along the edge +of the river as it comes from Emerald Pool and to watch its waters, +calmly bending over the brow of the precipice, in a sheet eighty feet +wide, changing in color from green to purplish gray and white until +dashed on a boulder talus. Thence issuing from beneath its fine broad +spray-clouds we see the tremendously adventurous river still unspent, +beating its way down the wildest and deepest of all its cañons in +gray roaring rapids, dear to the ouzel, and below the confluence of +the Illilouette, sweeping around the shoulder of the Half Dome on its +approach to the head of the tranquil levels of the Valley. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Illilouette Fall</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Illilouette in general appearance most resembles the Nevada. The +volume of water is less than half as great, but it is about the same +height (600 feet) and its waters receive the same kind of preliminary +tossing in a rocky, irregular channel. Therefore it is a very white and +fine-grained fall. When it is in full springtime bloom it is partly +divided by rocks that roughen the lip of the precipice, but this +division amounts only to a kind of fluting and grooving of the column, +which has a beautiful effect. It is not nearly so grand a fall as the +upper Yosemite, or so symmetrical as the Vernal, or so airily graceful +and simple as the Bridal Veil, nor does it ever display so tremendous +an outgush of snowy magnificence as the Nevada; but in the exquisite +fineness and richness of texture of its flowing folds it surpasses +them all. +<br> +One of the finest effects of sunlight on falling water I ever saw in +Yosemite or elsewhere I found on the brow of this beautiful fall. It +was in the Indian summer, when the leaf colors were ripe and the great +cliffs and domes were transfigured in the hazy golden air. I had +scrambled up its rugged talus-dammed cañon, oftentimes stopping to take +breath and look back to admire the wonderful views to be had there of +the great Half Dome, and to enjoy the extreme purity of the water, which +in the motionless pools on this stream is almost perfectly invisible; +the colored foliage of the maples, dogwoods, <i>Rubus</i> tangles, etc., and +the late goldenrods and asters. The voice of the fall was now low, and +the grand spring and summer floods had waned to sifting, drifting gauze +and thin-broidered folds of linked and arrowy lace-work. When I reached +the foot of the fall sunbeams were glinting across its head, leaving all +the rest of it in shadow; and on its illumined brow a group of yellow +spangles of singular form and beauty were playing, flashing up and +dancing in large flame-shaped masses, wavering at times, then steadying, +rising and falling in accord with the shifting forms of the water. But +the color of the dancing spangles changed not at all. Nothing in clouds +or flowers, on bird-wings or the lips of shells, could rival it in +fineness. It was the most divinely beautiful mass of rejoicing yellow +light I ever beheld--one of Nature's precious gifts that perchance may +come to us but once in a lifetime. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Minor Falls</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +There are many other comparatively small falls and cascades in the +Valley. The most notable are the Yosemite Gorge Fall and Cascades, +Tenaya Fall and Cascades, Royal Arch Falls, the two Sentinel Cascades +and the falls of Cascade and Tamarack Creeks, a mile or two below the +lower end of the Valley. These last are often visited. The others are +seldom noticed or mentioned; although in almost any other country they +would be visited and described as wonders. +<br> +The six intermediate falls in the gorge between the head of the Lower +and the base of the Upper Yosemite Falls, separated by a few deep pools +and strips of rapids, and three slender, tributary cascades on the west +side form a series more strikingly varied and combined than any other +in the Valley, yet very few of all the Valley visitors ever see them or +hear of them. No available standpoint commands a view of them all. The +best general view is obtained from the mouth of the gorge near the head +of the Lower Fall. The two lowest of the series, together with one of +the three tributary cascades, are visible from this standpoint, but in +reaching it the last twenty or thirty feet of the descent is rather +dangerous in time of high water, the shelving rocks being then slippery +on account of spray, but if one should chance to slip when the water is +low, only a bump or two and a harmless plash would be the penalty. No +part of the gorge, however, is safe to any but cautious climbers. +<br> +Though the dark gorge hall of these rejoicing waters is never flushed by +the purple light of morning or evening, it is warmed and cheered by the +white light of noonday, which, falling into so much foam and and spray +of varying degrees of fineness, makes marvelous displays of rainbow +colors. So filled, indeed, is it with this precious light, at favorable +times it seems to take the place of common air. Laurel bushes shed +fragrance into it from above and live-oaks, those fearless mountaineers, +hold fast to angular seams and lean out over it with their fringing +sprays and bright mirror leaves. +<br> +One bird, the ouzel, loves this gorge and flies through it merrily, or +cheerily, rather, stopping to sing on foam-washed bosses where other +birds could find no rest for their feet. I have even seen a gray +squirrel down in the heart of it beside the wild rejoicing water. +<br> +One of my favorite night walks was along the rim of this wild gorge in +times of high water when the moon was full, to see the lunar bows in the +spray. +<br> +For about a mile above Mirror Lake the Tenaya Cañon is level, and +richly planted with fir, Douglas spruce and libocedrus, forming a +remarkably fine grove, at the head of which is the Tenaya Fall. Though +seldom seen or described, this is, I think, the most picturesque of all +the small falls. A considerable distance above it, Tenaya Creek comes +hurrying down, white and foamy, over a flat pavement inclined at an +angle of about eighteen degrees. In time of high water this sheet of +rapids is nearly seventy feet wide, and is varied in a very striking way +by three parallel furrows that extend in the direction of its flow. +These furrows, worn by the action of the stream upon cleavage joints, +vary in width, are slightly sinuous, and have large boulders firmly +wedged in them here and there in narrow places, giving rise, of course, +to a complicated series of wild dashes, doublings, and upleaping arches +in the swift torrent. Just before it reaches the head of the fall the +current is divided, the left division making a vertical drop of about +eighty feet in a romantic, leafy, flowery, mossy nook, while the other +forms a rugged cascade. +<br> +The Royal Arch Fall in time of high water is a magnificent object, +forming a broad ornamental sheet in front of the arches. The two +Sentinel Cascades, 3000 feet high, are also grand spectacles when the +snow is melting fast in the spring, but by the middle of summer they +have diminished to mere streaks scarce noticeable amid their sublime +surroundings. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Beauty Of The Rainbows</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Bridal Veil and Vernal Falls are famous for their rainbows; and +special visits to them are often made when the sun shines into the spray +at the most favorable angle. But amid the spray and foam and fine-ground +mist ever rising from the various falls and cataracts there is an +affluence and variety of iris bows scarcely known to visitors who stay +only a day or two. Both day and night, winter and summer, this divine +light may be seen wherever water is falling dancing, singing; telling +the heart-peace of Nature amid the wildest displays of her power. In the +bright spring mornings the black-walled recess at the foot of the Lower +Yosemite Fall is lavishly fine with irised spray; and not simply does +this span the dashing foam, but the foam itself, the whole mass of it, +beheld at a certain distance, seems to be colored, and drips and wavers +from color to color, mingling with the foliage of the adjacent trees, +without suggesting any relationship to the ordinary rainbow. This is +perhaps the largest and most reservoir-like fountain of iris colors to +be found in the Valley. +<br> +Lunar rainbows or spray-bows also abound in the glorious affluence of +dashing, rejoicing, hurrahing, enthusiastic spring floods, their colors +as distinct as those of the sun and regularly and obviously banded, +though less vivid. Fine specimens may be found any night at the foot of +the Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing gloriously amid the gloomy shadows and +thundering waters, whenever there is plenty of moonlight and spray. Even +the secondary bow is at times distinctly visible. +<br> +The best point from which to observe them is on Fern Ledge. For some +time after moonrise, at time of high water, the arc has a span of about +five hundred feet, and is set upright; one end planted in the boiling +spray at the bottom, the other in the edge of the fall, creeping lower, +of course, and becoming less upright as the moon rises higher. This +grand arc of color, glowing in mild, shapely beauty in so weird and huge +a chamber of night shadows, and amid the rush and roar and tumultuous +dashing of this thunder-voiced fall, is one of the most impressive and +most cheering of all the blessed mountain evangels. +<br> +Smaller bows may be seen in the gorge on the plateau between the Upper +and Lower Falls. Once toward midnight, after spending a few hours with +the wild beauty of the Upper Fall, I sauntered along the edge of the +gorge, looking in here and there, wherever the footing felt safe, to see +what I could learn of the night aspects of the smaller falls that dwell +there. And down in an exceedingly black, pit-like portion of the gorge, +at the foot of the highest of the intermediate falls, into which the +moonbeams were pouring through a narrow opening, I saw a well-defined +spray-bow, beautifully distinct in colors, spanning the pit from side +to side, while pure white foam-waves beneath the beautiful bow were +constantly springing up out of the dark into the moonlight like dancing +ghosts. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">An Unexpected Adventure</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +A wild scene, but not a safe one, is made by the moon as it appears +through the edge of the Yosemite Fall when one is behind it. Once, after +enjoying the night-song of the waters and watching the formation of the +colored bow as the moon came round the domes and sent her beams into the +wild uproar, I ventured out on the narrow bench that extends back of the +fall from Fern Ledge and began to admire the dim-veiled grandeur of the +view. I could see the fine gauzy threads of the fall's filmy border by +having the light in front; and wishing to look at the moon through the +meshes of some of the denser portions of the fall, I ventured to creep +farther behind it while it was gently wind-swayed, without taking +sufficient thought about the consequences of its swaying back to its +natural position after the wind-pressure should be removed. The effect +was enchanting: fine, savage music sounding above, beneath, around me; +while the moon, apparently in the very midst of the rushing waters, +seemed to be struggling to keep her place, on account of the +ever-varying form and density of the water masses through which she was +seen, now darkly veiled or eclipsed by a rush of thick-headed comets, +now flashing out through openings between their tails. I was in +fairyland between the dark wall and the wild throng of illumined waters, +but suffered sudden disenchantment; for, like the witch-scene in Alloway +Kirk, "in an instant all was dark." Down came a dash of spent comets, +thin and harmless-looking in the distance, but they felt desperately +solid and stony when they struck my shoulders, like a mixture of choking +spray and gravel and big hailstones. Instinctively dropping on my knees, +I gripped an angle of the rock, curled up like a young fern frond with +my face pressed against my breast, and in this attitude submitted as +best I could to my thundering bath. The heavier masses seemed to strike +like cobblestones, and there was a confused noise of many waters about +my ears--hissing, gurgling, clashing sounds that were not heard as +music. The situation was quickly realized. How fast one's thoughts burn +in such times of stress! I was weighing chances of escape. Would the +column be swayed a few inches away from the wall, or would it come yet +closer? The fall was in flood and not so lightly would its ponderous +mass be swayed. My fate seemed to depend on a breath of the "idle wind." +It was moved gently forward, the pounding ceased, and I was once more +visited by glimpses of the moon. But fearing I might be caught at a +disadvantage in making too hasty a retreat, I moved only a few feet +along the bench to where a block of ice lay. I wedged myself between the +ice and the wall and lay face downwards, until the steadiness of the +light gave encouragement to rise and get away. Somewhat nerve-shaken, +drenched, and benumbed, I made out to build a fire, warmed myself, ran +home, reached my cabin before daylight, got an hour or two of sleep, +and awoke sound and comfortable, better, not worse for my hard midnight +bath. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Climate And Weather</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Owing to the westerly trend of the Valley and its vast depth there +is a great difference between the climates of the north and south +sides--greater than between many countries far apart; for the south wall +is in shadow during the winter months, while the north is bathed in +sunshine every clear day. Thus there is mild spring weather on one side +of the Valley while winter rules the other. Far up the north-side cliffs +many a nook may be found closely embraced by sun-beaten rock-bosses in +which flowers bloom every month of the year. Even butterflies may be +seen in these high winter gardens except when snow-storms are falling +and a few days after they have ceased. Near the head of the lower +Yosemite Fall in January I found the ant lions lying in wait in their +warm sand-cups, rock ferns being unrolled, club mosses covered with +fresh-growing plants, the flowers of the laurel nearly open, and the +honeysuckle rosetted with bright young leaves; every plant seemed to be +thinking about summer. Even on the shadow-side of the Valley the frost +is never very sharp. The lowest temperature I ever observed during four +winters was 7° Fahrenheit. The first twenty-four days of January +had an average temperature at 9 A.M. of 32°, minimum 22°; +at 3 P.M. the average was 40° 30′, the minimum 32°. Along +the top of the walls, 7000 and 8000 feet high, the temperature was, of +course, much lower. But the difference in temperature between the north +and south sides is due not so much to the winter sunshine as to the heat +of the preceding summer, stored up in the rocks, which rapidly melts the +snow in contact with them. For though summer sun-heat is stored in the +rocks of the south side also, the amount is much less because the rays +fall obliquely on the south wall even in summer and almost vertically +on the north. +<br> +The upper branches of the Yosemite streams are buried every winter +beneath a heavy mantle of snow, and set free in the spring in +magnificent floods. Then, all the fountains, full and overflowing, every +living thing breaks forth into singing, and the glad exulting streams +shining and falling in the warm sunny weather, shake everything into +music making all the mountain-world a song. +<br> +The great annual spring thaw usually begins in May in the forest region, +and in June and July on the high Sierra, varying somewhat both in time +and fullness with the weather and the depth of the snow. Toward the end +of summer the streams are at their lowest ebb, few even of the strongest +singing much above a whisper they slip and ripple through gravel and +boulder-beds from pool to pool in the hollows of their channels, and +drop in pattering showers like rain, and slip down precipices and fall +in sheets of embroidery, fold over fold. But, however low their singing, +it is always ineffably fine in tone, in harmony with the restful time of +the year. +<br> +The first snow of the season that comes to the help of the streams +usually falls in September or October, sometimes even is the latter part +of August, in the midst of yellow Indian summer when the goldenrods and +gentians of the glacier meadows are is their prime. This Indian-summer +snow, however, soon melts, the chilled flowers spread their petals to +the sun, and the gardens as well as the streams are refreshed as if only +a warm shower had fallen. The snow-storms that load the mountains to +form the main fountain supply for the year seldom set in before the +middle or end of November. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Winter Beauty Of The Valley</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +When the first heavy storms stopped work on the high mountains, I made +haste down to my Yosemite den, not to "hole up" and sleep the white +months away; I was out every day, and often all night, sleeping but +little, studying the so-called wonders and common things ever on show, +wading, climbing, sauntering among the blessed storms and calms, +rejoicing in almost everything alike that I could see or hear: the +glorious brightness of frosty mornings; the sunbeams pouring over the +white domes and crags into the groves end waterfalls, kindling marvelous +iris fires in the hoarfrost and spray; the great forests and mountains +in their deep noon sleep; the good-night alpenglow; the stars; the +solemn gazing moon, drawing the huge domes and headlands one by one +glowing white out of the shadows hushed and breathless like an audience +in awful enthusiasm, while the meadows at their feet sparkle with +frost-stars like the sky; the sublime darkness of storm-nights, when all +the lights are out; the clouds in whose depths the frail snow-flowers +grow; the behavior and many voices of the different kinds of storms, +trees, birds, waterfalls, and snow-avalanches in the ever-changing +weather. +<br> +Every clear, frosty morning loud sounds are heard booming and +reverberating from side to side of the Valley at intervals of a few +minutes, beginning soon after sunrise and continuing an hour or two like +a thunder-storm. In my first winter in the Valley I could not make out +the source of this noise. I thought of falling boulders, rock-blasting, +etc. Not till I saw what looked like hoarfrost dropping from the side of +the Fall was the problem explained. The strange thunder is made by the +fall of sections of ice formed of spray that is frozen on the face of +the cliff along the sides of the Upper Yosemite Fan--a sort of crystal +plaster, a foot or two thick, racked off by the sunbeams, awakening all +the Valley like cock-crowing, announcing the finest weather, shouting +aloud Nature's infinite industry and love of hard work in creating +beauty. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Exploring An Ice Cone</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +This frozen spray gives rise to one of the most interesting winter +features of the Valley--a cone of ice at the foot of the fall, four or +five hundred feet high. From the Fern Ledge standpoint its crater-like +throat is seen, down which the fall plunges with deep, gasping +explosions of compressed air, and, after being well churned in the wormy +interior, the water bursts forth through arched openings at its base, +apparently scourged and weary and glad to escape, while belching spray, +spouted up out of the throat past the descending current, is wafted +away in irised drifts to the adjacent rocks and groves. It is built +during the night and early hours of the morning; only in spells of +exceptionally cold and cloudy weather is the work continued through the +day. The greater part of the spray material falls in crystalline showers +direct to its place, something like a small local snow-storm; but a +considerable portion is first frozen on the face of the cliff along the +sides of the fall and stays there until expanded and cracked off in +irregular masses, some of them tons in weight, to be built into the +walls of the cone; while in windy, frosty weather, when the fall is +swayed from side to side, the cone is well drenched and the loose ice +masses and spray-dust are all firmly welded and frozen together. Thus +the finest of the downy wafts and curls of spray-dust, which in mild +nights fall about as silently as dew, are held back until sunrise to +make a store of heavy ice to reinforce the waterfall's thunder-tones. +<br> +While the cone is in process of formation, growing higher and wider in +the frosty weather, it looks like a beautiful smooth, pure-white hill; +but when it is wasting and breaking up in the spring its surface is +strewn with leaves, pine branches, stones, sand, etc., that have been +brought over the fall, making it look like a heap of avalanche detritus. +<br> +Anxious to learn what I could about the structure of this curious hill +I often approached it in calm weather and tried to climb it, carrying +an ax to cut steps. Once I nearly succeeded in gaining the summit. At +the base I was met by a current of spray and wind that made seeing and +breathing difficult. I pushed on backward however, and soon gained the +slope of the hill, where by creeping close to the surface most of the +choking blast passed over me and I managed to crawl up with but little +difficulty. Thus I made my way nearly to the summit, halting at times +to peer up through the wild whirls of spray at the veiled grandeur of +the fall, or to listen to the thunder beneath me; the whole hill was +sounding as if it were a huge, bellowing drum. I hoped that by waiting +until the fall was blown aslant I should be able to climb to the lip of +the crater and get a view of the interior; but a suffocating blast, half +air, half water, followed by the fall of an enormous mass of frozen +spray from a spot high up on the wall, quickly discouraged me. The whole +cone was jarred by the blow and some fragments of the mass sped past me +dangerously near; so I beat a hasty retreat, chilled and drenched, and +lay down on a sunny rock to dry. +<br> +Once during a wind-storm when I saw that the fall was frequently blown +westward, leaving the cone dry, I ran up to Fern Ledge hoping to gain a +clear view of the interior. I set out at noon. All the way up the storm +notes were so loud about me that the voice of the fall was almost +drowned by them. Notwithstanding the rocks and bushes everywhere were +drenched by the wind-driven spray, I approached the brink of the +precipice overlooking the mouth of the ice cone, but I was almost +suffocated by the drenching, gusty spray, and was compelled to seek +shelter. I searched for some hiding-place in the wall from whence I +might run out at some opportune moment when the fall with its whirling +spray and torn shreds of comet tails and trailing, tattered skirts was +borne westward, as I had seen it carried several times before, leaving +the cliffs on the east side and the ice hill bare in the sunlight. I had +not long to wait, for, as if ordered so for my special accommodation, +the mighty downrush of comets with their whirling drapery swung westward +and remained aslant for nearly half an hour. The cone was admirably +lighted and deserted by the water, which fell most of the time on the +rocky western slopes mostly outside of the cone. The mouth into which +the fall pours was, as near as I could guess, about one hundred feet in +diameter north and south and about two hundred feet east and west, which +is about the shape and size of the fall at its best in its normal +condition at this season. +<br> +The crater-like opening was not a true oval, but more like a huge coarse +mouth. I could see down the throat about one hundred feet or perhaps +farther. +<br> +The fall precipice overhangs from a height of 400 feet above the base; +therefore the water strikes some distance from the base off the cliff, +allowing space for the accumulation of a considerable mass of ice +between the fall and the wall. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 2<br> +Winter Storms and Spring Floods</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +The Bridal Veil and the Upper Yosemite Falls, on account of their height +and exposure, are greatly influenced by winds. The common summer winds +that come up the river cañon from the plains are seldom very strong; +but the north winds do some very wild work, worrying the falls and the +forests, and hanging snow-banners on the comet-peaks. One wild winter +morning I was awakened by storm-wind that was playing with the falls as +if they were mere wisps of mist and making the great pines bow and sing +with glorious enthusiasm. The Valley had been visited a short time +before by a series of fine snow-storms, and the floor and the cliffs and +all the region round about were lavishly adorned with its best winter +jewelry, the air was full of fine snow-dust, and pine branches, tassels +and empty cones were flying in an almost continuous flock. +<br> +Soon after sunrise, when I was seeking a place safe from flying +branches, I saw the Lower Yosemite Fall thrashed and pulverized from top +to bottom into one glorious mass of rainbow dust; while a thousand feet +above it the main Upper Fall was suspended on the face of the cliff in +the form of an inverted bow, all silvery white and fringed with short +wavering strips. Then, suddenly assailed by a tremendous blast, the +whole mass of the fall was blown into thread and ribbons, and driven +back over the brow of the cliff whence it came, as if denied admission +to the Valley. This kind of storm-work was continued about ten or +fifteen minutes; then another change in the play of the huge exulting +swirls and billows and upheaving domes of the gale allowed the baffled +fall to gather and arrange its tattered waters, and sink down again in +its place. As the day advanced, the gale gave no sign of dying, +excepting brief lulls, the Valley was filled with its weariless roar, +and the cloudless sky grew garish-white from myriads of minute, +sparkling snow-spicules. In the afternoon, while I watched the Upper +Fall from the shelter of a big pine tree, it was suddenly arrested in +its descent at a point about half-way down, and was neither blown upward +nor driven aside, but simply held stationary in mid-air, as if +gravitation below that point in the path of its descent had ceased to +act. The ponderous flood, weighing hundreds of tons, was sustained, +hovering, hesitating, like a bunch of thistledown, while I counted one +hundred and ninety. All this time the ordinary amount of water was +coming over the cliff and accumulating in the air, swedging and widening +and forming an irregular cone about seven hundred feet high, tapering to +the top of the wall, the whole standing still, jesting on the invisible +arm of the North Wind. At length, as if commanded to go on again, scores +of arrowy comets shot forth from the bottom of the suspended mass as if +escaping from separate outlets. +<br> +The brow of El Capitan was decked with long snow-streamers like hair, +Clouds' Rest was fairly enveloped in drifting gossamer elms, and the Half +Dome loomed up in the garish light like a majestic, living creature clad +in the same gauzy, wind-woven drapery, while upward currents meeting at +times overhead made it smoke like a volcano. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">An Extraordinary Storm And Flood</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Glorious as are these rocks and waters arrayed in storm robes, or +chanting rejoicing in every-day dress, they are still more glorious when +rare weather conditions meet to make them sing with floods. Only once +during all the years I have lived in the Valley have I seen it in full +flood bloom. In 1871 the early winter weather was delightful; the days +all sunshine, the nights all starry and calm, calling forth fine crops +of frost-crystals on the pines and withered ferns and grasses for the +morning sunbeams to sift through. In the afternoon of December 16, when +I was sauntering on the meadows, I noticed a massive crimson cloud +growing in solitary grandeur above the Cathedral Rocks, its form +scarcely less striking than its color. It had a picturesque, bulging +base like an old sequoia, a smooth, tapering stem, and a bossy, +down-curling crown like a mushroom; all its parts were colored alike, +making one mass of translucent crimson. Wondering what the meaning of +that strange, lonely red cloud might be, I was up betimes next morning +looking at the weather, but all seemed tranquil as yet. Towards noon +gray clouds with a lose, curly grain like bird's-eye maple began to +grow, and late at night rain fell, which soon changed to snow. Next +morning the snow on the meadows was about ten inches deep, and it was +still falling in a fine, cordial storm. During the night of the 18th +heavy rain fell on the snow, but as the temperature was 34 degrees, the +snow-line was only a few hundred feet above the bottom of the Valley, and +one had only to climb a little higher than the tops of the pines to get +out of the rain-storm into the snow-storm. The streams, instead of being +increased in volume by the storm, were diminished, because the snow +sponged up part of their waters and choked the smaller tributaries. But +about midnight the temperature suddenly rose to 42°, carrying +the snow-line far beyond the Valley walls, and next morning Yosemite +was rejoicing in a glorious flood. The comparatively warm rain falling +on the snow was at first absorbed and held back, and so also was that +portion of the snow that the rain melted, and all that was melted by the +warm wind, until the whole mass of snow was saturated and became sludgy, +and at length slipped and rushed simultaneously from a thousand slopes +in wildest extravagance, heaping and swelling flood over flood, and +plunging into the Valley in stupendous avalanches. +<br> +Awakened by the roar, I looked out and at once recognized the +extraordinary character of the storm. The rain was still pouring in +torrent abundance and the wind at gale speed was doing all it could with +the flood-making rain. +<br> +The section of the north wall visible from my cabin was fairly streaked +with new falls--wild roaring singers that seemed strangely out of place. +Eager to get into the midst of the show, I snatched a piece of bread for +breakfast and ran out. The mountain waters, suddenly liberated, seemed +to be holding a grand jubilee. The two Sentinel Cascades rivaled the +great falls at ordinary stages, and across the Valley by the Three +Brothers I caught glimpses of more falls than I could readily count; +while the whole Valley throbbed and trembled, and was filled with an +awful, massive, solemn, sea-like roar. After gazing a while enchanted +with the network of new falls that were adorning and transfiguring every +rock in sight, I tried to reach the upper meadows, where the Valley is +widest, that I might be able to see the walls on both sides, and thus +gain general views. But the river was over its banks and the meadows +were flooded, forming an almost continuous lake dotted with blue sludgy +islands, while innumerable streams roared like lions across my path and +were sweeping forward rocks and logs with tremendous energy over ground +where tiny gilias had been growing but a short time before. Climbing +into the talus slopes, where these savage torrents were broken among +earthquake boulders, I managed to cross them, and force my way up the +Valley to Hutchings' Bridge, where I crossed the river and waded to the +middle of the upper meadow. Here most of the new falls were in sight, +probably the most glorious assemblage of waterfalls ever displayed from +any one standpoint. On that portion of the south wall between Hutchings' +and the Sentinel there were ten falls plunging and booming from a height +of nearly three thousand feet, the smallest of which might have been +heard miles away. In the neighborhood of Glacier Point there were six; +between the Three Brothers and Yosemite Fall, nine; between Yosemite and +Royal Arch Falls, ten; from Washington Column to Mount Watkins, ten; on +the slopes of Half Dome and Clouds' Rest, facing Mirror Lake and Tenaya +Cañon, eight; on the shoulder of Half Dome, facing the Valley, three; +fifty-six new falls occupying the upper end of the Valley, besides a +countless host of silvery threads gleaming everywhere. In all the Valley +there must have been upwards of a hundred. As if celebrating some +great event, falls and cascades in Yosemite costume were coming down +everywhere from fountain basins, far and near; and, though newcomers, +they behaved and sang as if they had lived here always. +<br> +All summer-visitors will remember the comet forms of the Yosemite Fall +and the laces of the Bridal Veil and Nevada. In the falls of this +winter jubilee the lace forms predominated, but there was no lack of +thunder-toned comets. The lower portion of one of the Sentinel Cascades +was composed of two main white torrents with the space between them +filled in with chained and beaded gauze of intricate pattern, through +the singing threads of which the purplish-gray rock could be dimly seen. +The series above Glacier Point was still more complicated in structure, +displaying every form that one could imagine water might be dashed and +combed and woven into. Those on the north wall between Washington Column +and the Royal Arch Fall were so nearly related they formed an almost +continuous sheet, and these again were but slightly separated from those +about Indian Cañon. The group about the Three Brothers and El Capitan, +owing to the topography and cleavage of the cliffs back of them, was +more broken and irregular. The Tissiack Cascades were comparatively +small, yet sufficient to give that noblest of mountain rocks a glorious +voice. In the midst of all this extravagant rejoicing the great Yosemite +Fall was scarce heard until about three o'clock in the afternoon. Then I +was startled by a sudden thundering crash as if a rock avalanche had +come to the help of the roaring waters. This was the flood-wave of +Yosemite Creek, which had just arrived delayed by the distance it had to +travel, and by the choking snows of its widespread fountains. Now, with +volume tenfold increased beyond its springtime fullness, it took its +place as leader of the glorious choir. +<br> +And the winds, too, were singing in wild accord, playing on every tree +and rock, surging against the huge brows and domes and outstanding +battlements, deflected hither and thither and broken into a thousand +cascading, roaring currents in the cañons, and low bass, drumming +swirls in the hollows. And these again, reacting on the clouds, eroded +immense cavernous spaces in their gray depths and swept forward the +resulting detritus in ragged trains like the moraines of glaciers. These +cloud movements in turn published the work of the winds, giving them +a visible body, and enabling us to trace them. As if endowed with +independent motion, a detached cloud would rise hastily to the very top +of the wall as if on some important errand, examining the faces of the +cliffs, and then perhaps as suddenly descend to sweep imposingly along +the meadows, trailing its draggled fringes through the pines, fondling +the waving spires with infinite gentleness, or, gliding behind a grove +or a single tree, bringing it into striking relief, as it bowed and +waved in solemn rhythm. Sometimes, as the busy clouds drooped and +condensed or dissolved to misty gauze, half of the Valley would be +suddenly veiled, leaving here and there some lofty headland cut off from +all visible connection with the walls, looming alone, dim, spectral, as +if belonging to the sky--visitors, like the new falls, come to take part +in the glorious festival. Thus for two days and nights in measureless +extravagance the storm went on, and mostly without spectators, at least +of a terrestrial kind. I saw nobody out--bird, bear, squirrel, or man. +Tourists had vanished months before, and the hotel people and laborers +were out of sight, careful about getting cold, and satisfied with views +from windows. The bears, I suppose, were in their cañon-boulder dens, +the squirrels in their knot-hole nests, the grouse in close fir groves, +and the small singers in the Indian Cañon chaparral, trying to keep +warm and dry. Strange to say, I did not see even the water-ouzels, +though they must have greatly enjoyed the storm. +<br> +This was the most sublime waterfall flood I ever saw--clouds, winds, +rocks, waters, throbbing together as one. And then to contemplate what +was going on simultaneously with all this in other mountain temples; the +Big Tuolumne Cañon--how the white waters and the winds were singing +there! And in Hetch Hetchy Valley and the great King's River yosemite, +and in all the other Sierra cañons and valleys from Shasta to the +southernmost fountains of the Kern, thousands of rejoicing flood +waterfalls chanting together in jubilee dress. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 3<br> +Snow-Storms</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +As has been already stated, the first of the great snow-storms that +replenish the Yosemite fountains seldom sets in before the end of +November. Then, warned by the sky, wide-awake mountaineers, together +with the deer and most of the birds, make haste to the lowlands or +foothills; and burrowing marmots, mountain beavers, wood-rats, and other +small mountain people, go into winter quarters, some of them not again +to see the light of day until the general awakening and resurrection of +the spring in June or July. The fertile clouds, drooping and condensing +in brooding silence, seem to be thoughtfully examining the forests and +streams with reference to the work that lies before them. At length, all +their plans perfected, tufted flakes and single starry crystals come in +sight, solemnly swirling and glinting to their blessed appointed places; +and soon the busy throng fills the sky and makes darkness like night. +The first heavy fall is usually from about two to four feet in depth +then with intervals of days or weeks of bright weather storm succeeds +storm, heaping snow on snow, until thirty to fifty feet has fallen. But +on account of its settling and compacting, and waste from melting and +evaporation, the average depth actually found at any time seldom exceeds +ten feet in the forest regions, or fifteen feet along the slopes of the +summit peaks. After snow-storms come avalanches, varying greatly in +form, size, behavior and in the songs they sing; some on the smooth +slopes of the mountains are short and broad; others long and river-like +in the side cañons of yosemites and in the main cañons, flowing in +regular channels and booming like waterfalls, while countless smaller +ones fall everywhere from laden trees and rocks and lofty cañon walls. +Most delightful it is to stand in the middle of Yosemite on still clear +mornings after snow-storms and watch the throng of avalanches as they +come down, rejoicing, to their places, whispering, thrilling like birds, +or booming and roaring like thunder. The noble yellow pines stand hushed +and motionless as if under a spell until the morning sunshine begins to +sift through their laden spires; then the dense masses on the ends of +the leafy branches begin to shift and fall, those from the upper +branches striking the lower ones in succession, enveloping each tree in +a hollow conical avalanche of fairy fineness; while the relieved +branches spring up and wave with startling effect in the general +stillness, as if each tree was moving of its own volition. Hundreds of +broad cloud-shaped masses may also be seen, leaping over the brows of +the cliffs from great heights, descending at first with regular +avalanche speed until, worn into dust by friction, they float in front +of the precipices like irised clouds. Those which descend from the brow +of El Capitan are particularly fine; but most of the great Yosemite +avalanches flow in regular channels like cascades and waterfalls. When +the snow first gives way on the upper slopes of their basins, a dull +rushing, rumbling sound is heard which rapidly increases and seems to +draw nearer with appalling intensity of tone. Presently the white flood +comes bounding into sight over bosses and sheer places, leaping from +bench to bench, spreading and narrowing and throwing off clouds of +whirling dust like the spray of foaming cataracts. Compared with +waterfalls and cascades, avalanches are short-lived, few of them lasting +more than a minute or two, and the sharp, clashing sounds so common in +falling water are mostly wanting; but in their low massy thundertones +and purple-tinged whiteness, and in their dress, gait, gestures and +general behavior, they are much alike. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Avalanches</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Besides these common after-storm avalanches that are to be found not +only in the Yosemite but in all the deep, sheer-walled cañon of the +Range there are two other important kinds, which may be called annual +and century avalanches, which still further enrich the scenery. The only +place about the Valley where one may be sure to see the annual kind is +on the north slope of Clouds' Rest. They are composed of heavy, compacted +snow, which has been subjected to frequent alternations of freezing and +thawing. They are developed on cañon and mountain-sides at an elevation +of from nine to ten thousand feet, where the slopes are inclined at an +angle too low to shed off the dry winter snow, and which accumulates +until the spring thaws sap their foundations and make them slippery; +then away in grand style go the ponderous icy masses without any fine +snow-dust. Those of Clouds' Rest descend like thunderbolts for more than +a mile. +<br> +The great century avalanches and the kind that mow wide swaths through +the upper forests occur on mountain-sides about ten or twelve thousand +feet high, where under ordinary weather conditions the snow accumulated +from winter to winter lies at rest for many years, allowing trees, fifty +to a hundred feet high, to grow undisturbed on the slopes beneath them. +On their way down through the woods they seldom fail to make a perfectly +clean sweep, stripping off the soil as well as the trees, clearing paths +two or three hundred yards wide from the timber line to the glacier +meadows or lakes, and piling their uprooted trees, head downward, in +rows along the sides of the gaps like lateral moraines. Scars and broken +branches of the trees standing on the sides of the gaps record the depth +of the overwhelming flood; and when we come to count the annual +wood-rings on the uprooted trees we learn that some of these immense +avalanches occur only once in a century or even at still wider +intervals. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">A Ride On An Avalanche</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Few Yosemite visitors ever see snow avalanches and fewer still know the +exhilaration of riding on them. In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed +only one avalanche ride, and the start was so sudden and the end came +so soon I had but little time to think of the danger that attends this +sort of travel, though at such times one thinks fast. One fine Yosemite +morning after a heavy snowfall, being eager to see as many avalanches +as possible and wide views of the forest and summit peaks in their new +white robes before the sunshine had time to change them, I set out early +to climb by a side cañon to the top of a commanding ridge a little over +three thousand feet above the Valley. On account of the looseness of +the snow that blocked the cañon I knew the climb would require a long +time, some three or four hours as I estimated; but it proved far more +difficult than I had anticipated. Most of the way I sank waist deep, +almost out of sight in some places. After spending the whole day to +within half an hour or so of sundown, I was still several hundred feet +below the summit. Then my hopes were reduced to getting up in time to +see the sunset. But I was not to get summit views of any sort that day, +for deep trampling near the cañon head, where the snow was strained, +started an avalanche, and I was swished down to the foot of the cañon +as if by enchantment. The wallowing ascent had taken nearly all day, the +descent only about a minute. When the avalanche started I threw myself +on my back and spread my arms to try to keep from sinking. Fortunately, +though the grade of the cañon is very steep, it is not interrupted by +precipices large enough to cause outbounding or free plunging. On no +part of the rush was I buried. I was only moderately imbedded on the +surface or at times a little below it, and covered with a veil of +back-streaming dust particles; and as the whole mass beneath and about +me joined in the flight there was no friction, though I was tossed here +and there and lurched from side to side. When the avalanche swedged and +came to rest I found myself on top of the crumpled pile without bruise +or scar. This was a fine experience. Hawthorne says somewhere that steam +has spiritualized travel; though unspiritual smells, smoke, etc., still +attend steam travel. This flight in what might be called a milky way of +snow-stars was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of +motion I have ever experienced. Elijah's flight in a chariot of fire +could hardly have been more gloriously exciting. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Streams In Other Seasons</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +In the spring, after all the avalanches are down and the snow is melting +fast, then all the Yosemite streams, from their fountains to their +falls, sing their grandest songs. Countless rills make haste to the +rivers, running and singing soon after sunrise, louder and louder with +increasing volume until sundown; then they gradually fail through the +frosty hours of the night. In this way the volume of the upper branches +of the river is nearly doubled during the day, rising and falling as +regularly as the tides of the sea. Then the Merced overflows its banks, +flooding the meadows, sometimes almost from wall to wall in some places, +beginning to rise towards sundown just when the streams on the fountains +are beginning to diminish, the difference in time of the daily rise and +fall being caused by the distance the upper flood streams have to travel +before reaching the Valley. In the warmest weather they seem fairly to +shout for joy and clash their upleaping waters together like clapping +of hands; racing down the cañons with white manes flying in glorious +exuberance of strength, compelling huge, sleeping boulders to wake up +and join in their dance and song, to swell their exulting chorus. +<br> +In early summer, after the flood season, the Yosemite streams are in +their prime, running crystal clear, deep and full but not overflowing +their banks--about as deep through the night as the day, the difference +in volume so marked in spring being now too slight to be noticed. Nearly +all the weather is cloudless and everything is at its brightest--lake, +river, garden and forest with all their life. Most of the plants are in +full flower. The blessed ouzels have built their mossy huts and are now +singing their best songs with the streams. +<br> +In tranquil, mellow autumn, when the year's work is about done and +the fruits are ripe, birds and seeds out of their nests, and all the +landscape is glowing like a benevolent countenance, then the streams +are at their lowest ebb, with scarce a memory left of their wild spring +floods. The small tributaries that do not reach back to the lasting +snow fountains of the summit peaks shrink to whispering, tinkling +currents. After the snow is gone from the basins, excepting occasional +thundershowers, they are now fed only by small springs whose waters +are mostly evaporated in passing over miles of warm pavements, and in +feeling their way slowly from pool to pool through the midst of boulders +and sand. Even the main rivers are so low they may easily be forded, and +their grand falls and cascades, now gentle and approachable, have waned +to sheets of embroidery. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 4<br> +Snow Banners</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +But it is on the mountain tops, when they are laden with loose, dry snow +and swept by a gale from the north, that the most magnificent storm +scenery is displayed. The peaks along the axis of the Range are then +decorated with resplendent banners, some of them more than a mile long, +shining, streaming, waving with solemn exuberant enthusiasm as if +celebrating some surpassingly glorious event. +<br> +The snow of which these banners are made falls on the high Sierra in +most extravagant abundance, sometimes to a depth of fifteen or twenty +feet, coming from the fertile clouds not in large angled flakes such as +one oftentimes sees in Yosemite, seldom even in complete crystals, for +many of the starry blossoms fall before they are ripe, while most of +those that attain perfect development as six-petaled flowers are more +or less broken by glinting and chafing against one another on the +way down to their work. This dry frosty snow is prepared for the grand +banner-waving celebrations by the action of the wind. Instead of at +once finding rest like that which falls into the tranquil depths of +the forest, it is shoved and rolled and beaten against boulders and +out-jutting rocks, swirled in pits and hollows like sand in river +pot-holes, and ground into sparkling dust. And when storm winds find +this snow-dust in a loose condition on the slopes above the timber-line +they toss it back into the sky and sweep it onward from peak to peak +in the form of smooth regular banners, or in cloudy drifts, according +to the velocity and direction of the wind, and the conformation of the +slopes over which it is driven. While thus flying through the air a +small portion escapes from the mountains to the sky as vapor; but far +the greater part is at length locked fast in bossy overcurling cornices +along the ridges, or in stratified sheets in the glacier cirques, some +of it to replenish the small residual glaciers and remain silent and +rigid for centuries before it is finally melted and sent singing down +home to the sea. +<br> +But, though snow-dust and storm-winds abound on the mountains, regular +shapely banners are, for causes we shall presently see, seldom produced. +During the five winters that I spent in Yosemite I made many excursions +to high points above the walls in all kinds of weather to see what was +going on outside; from all my lofty outlooks I saw only one banner-storm +that seemed in every way perfect. This was in the winter of 1873, when +the snow-laden peaks were swept by a powerful norther. I was awakened +early in the morning by a wild storm-wind and of course I had to make +haste to the middle of the Valley to enjoy it. Rugged torrents and +avalanches from the main wind-flood overhead were roaring down the side +cañons and over the cliffs, arousing the rocks and the trees and the +streams alike into glorious hurrahing enthusiasm, shaking the whole +Valley into one huge song. Yet inconceivable as it must seem even to +those who love all Nature's wildness, the storm was telling its story +on the mountains in still grander characters. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">A Wonderful Winter Scene</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +I had long been anxious to study some points in the structure of the +ice-hill at the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, but, as I have already +explained, blinding spray had hitherto prevented me from getting +sufficiently near it. This morning the entire body of the Fall was +oftentimes torn into gauzy strips and blown horizontally along the face +of the cliff, leaving the ice-hill dry; and while making my way to the +top of Fern Ledge to seize so favorable an opportunity to look down its +throat, the peaks of the Merced group came in sight over the shoulder of +the South Dome, each waving a white glowing banner against the dark blue +sky, as regular in form and firm and fine in texture as if it were made +of silk. So rare and splendid a picture, of course, smothered everything +else and I at once began to scramble and wallow up the snow-choked +Indian Cañon to a ridge about 8000 feet high, commanding a general +view of the main summits along the axis of the Range, feeling assured I +should find them bannered still more gloriously; nor was I in the least +disappointed. I reached the top of the ridge in four or five hours, and +through an opening in the woods the most imposing wind-storm effect I +ever beheld came full in sight; unnumbered mountains rising sharply +into the cloudless sky, their bases solid white their sides plashed with +snow, like ocean rocks with foam, and on every summit a magnificent +silvery banner, from two thousand to six thousand feet in length, +slender at the point of attachment, and widening gradually until about +a thousand or fifteen hundred feet in breadth, and as shapely and as +substantial looking in texture as the banners of the finest silk, all +streaming and waving free and clear in the sun-glow with nothing to blur +the sublime picture they made. +<br> +Fancy yourself standing beside me on this Yosemite Ridge. There is a +strange garish glitter in the air and the gale drives wildly overhead, +but you feel nothing of its violence, for you are looking out through a +sheltered opening in the woods, as through a window. In the immediate +foreground there is a forest of silver fir their foliage warm +yellow-green, and the snow beneath them strewn with their plumes, +plucked off by the storm; and beyond broad, ridgy, cañon-furrowed, +dome-dotted middle ground, darkened here and there with belts of pines, +you behold the lofty snow laden mountains in glorious array, waving +their banners with jubilant enthusiasm as if shouting aloud for joy. +They are twenty miles away, but you would not wish them nearer, for +every feature is distinct and the whole wonderful show is seen in its +right proportions, like a painting on the sky. +<br> +And now after this general view, mark how sharply the ribs and +buttresses and summits of the mountains are defined, excepting the +portions veiled by the banners; how gracefully and nobly the banners +are waving in accord with the throbbing of the wind flood; how trimly +each is attached to the very summit of its peak like a streamer at a +mast-head; how bright and glowing white they are, and how finely their +fading fringes are penciled on the sky! See how solid white and opaque +they are at the point of attachment and how filmy and translucent toward +the end, so that the parts of the peaks past which they are streaming +look dim as if seen through a veil of ground glass. And see how some of +the longest of the banners on the highest peaks are streaming perfectly +free from peak to peak across intervening notches or passes, while +others overlap and partly hide one another. +<br> +As to their formation, we find that the main causes of the wondrous +beauty and perfection of those we are looking at are the favorable +direction and force of the wind, the abundance of snow-dust, and the +form of the north sides of the peaks. In general, the north sides are +concave in both their horizontal and vertical sections, having been +sculptured into this shape by the residual glaciers that lingered in +the protecting northern shadows, while the sun-beaten south sides, +having never been subjected to this kind of glaciation, are convex or +irregular. It is essential, therefore, not only that the wind should +move with great velocity and steadiness to supply a sufficiently copious +and continuous stream of snow-dust, but that it should come from the +north. No perfect banner is ever hung on the Sierra peaks by the south +wind. Had the gale today blown from the south, leaving the other +conditions unchanged, only swirling, interfering, cloudy drifts would +have been produced; for the snow, instead of being spouted straight up +and over the tops of the peaks in condensed currents to be drawn out as +streamers, would have been driven over the convex southern slopes from +peak to peak like white pearly fog. +<br> +It appears, therefore, that shadows in great part determine not only the +forms of lofty ice mountains, but also those of the snow banners that +the wild winds hang upon them. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Earthquake Storms</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The avalanche taluses, leaning against the walls at intervals of a mile +or two, are among the most striking and interesting of the secondary +features of the Valley. They are from about three to five hundred feet +high, made up of huge, angular, well-preserved, unshifting boulders, and +instead of being slowly weathered from the cliffs like ordinary taluses, +they were all formed suddenly and simultaneously by a great earthquake +that occurred at least three centuries ago. And though thus hurled into +existence in a few seconds or minutes, they are the least changeable of +all the Sierra soil-beds. Excepting those which were launched directly +into the channels of swift rivers, scarcely one of their wedged and +interlacing boulders has moved since the day of their creation; and +though mostly made up of huge blocks of granite, many of them from ten +to fifty feet cube, weighing thousands of tons with only a few small +chips, trees and shrubs make out to live and thrive on them and even +delicate herbaceous plants--draperia, collomia, zauschneria, etc., +soothing and coloring their wild rugged slopes with gardens and groves. +<br> +I was long in doubt on some points concerning the origin of those +taluses. Plainly enough they were derived from the cliffs above them, +because they are of the size of scars on the wall, the rough angular +surface of which contrasts with the rounded, glaciated, unfractured +parts. It was plain, too, that instead of being made up of material +slowly and gradually weathered from the cliffs like ordinary taluses, +almost every one of them had been formed suddenly in a single avalanche, +and had not been increased in size during the last three or four +centuries, for trees three or four hundred years old are growing on +them, some standing at the top close to the wall without a bruise or +broken branch, showing that scarcely a single boulder had ever fallen +among them. Furthermore, all these taluses throughout the Range seemed +by the trees and lichens growing on them to be of the same age. All +the phenomena thus pointed straight to a grand ancient earthquake. But +for years I left the question open, and went on from cañon to cañon, +observing again and again; measuring the heights of taluses throughout +the Range on both flanks, and the variations in the angles of their +surface slopes; studying the way their boulders had been assorted and +related and brought to rest, and their correspondence in size with the +cleavage joints of the cliffs from whence they were derived, cautious +about making up my mind. But at last all doubt as to their formation +vanished. +<br> +At half-past two o'clock of a moonlit morning in March, I was awakened +by a tremendous earthquake, and though I had never before enjoyed a +storm of this sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, +and I ran out of my cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, "A noble +earthquake! A noble earthquake!" feeling sure I was going to learn +something. The shocks were so violent and varied, and succeeded one +another so closely, that I had to balance myself carefully in walking as +if on the deck of a ship among waves, and it seemed impossible that the +high cliffs of the Valley could escape being shattered. In particular, +I feared that the sheer-fronted Sentinel Rock, towering above my cabin, +would be shaken down, and I took shelter back of a large yellow pine, +hoping that it might protect me from at least the smaller outbounding +boulders. For a minute or two the shocks became more and more +violent--flashing horizontal thrusts mixed with a few twists and +battering, explosive, upheaving jolts,--as if Nature were wrecking her +Yosemite temple, and getting ready to build a still better one. +<br> +I was now convinced before a single boulder had fallen that earthquakes +were the talus-makers and positive proof soon came. It was a calm +moonlight night, and no sound was heard for the first minute or so, save +low, muffled, underground, bubbling rumblings, and the whispering and +rustling of the agitated trees, as if Nature were holding her breath. +Then, suddenly, out of the strange silence and strange motion there came +a tremendous roar. The Eagle Rock on the south wall, about a half a mile +up the Valley, gave way and I saw it falling in thousands of the great +boulders I had so long been studying, pouring to the Valley floor +in a free curve luminous from friction, making a terribly sublime +spectacle--an arc of glowing, passionate fire, fifteen hundred feet +span, as true in form and as serene in beauty as a rainbow in the midst +of the stupendous, roaring rock-storm. The sound was so tremendously +deep and broad and earnest, the whole earth like a living creature +seemed to have at last found a voice and to be calling to her sister +planets. In trying to tell something of the size of this awful sound it +seems to me that if all the thunder of all the storms I had ever heard +were condensed into one roar it would not equal this rock-roar at the +birth of a mountain talus. Think, then, of the roar that arose to heaven +at the simultaneous birth of all the thousands of ancient cañon-taluses +throughout the length and breadth of the Range! +<br> +The first severe shocks were soon over, and eager to examine the +new-born talus I ran up the Valley in the moonlight and climbed upon it +before the huge blocks, after their fiery flight, had come to complete +rest. They were slowly settling into their places, chafing, grating +against one another, groaning, and whispering; but no motion was visible +except in a stream of small fragments pattering down the face of the +cliff. A cloud of dust particles, lighted by the moon, floated out +across the whole breadth of the Valley, forming a ceiling that lasted +until after sunrise, and the air was filled with the odor of crushed +Douglas spruces from a grove that had been mowed down and mashed like +weeds. +<br> +After the ground began to calm I ran across the meadow to the river to +see in what direction it was flowing and was glad to find that <i>down</i> +the Valley was still down. Its waters were muddy from portions of its +banks having given way, but it was flowing around its curves and over +its ripples and shallows with ordinary tones and gestures. The mud would +soon be cleared away and the raw slips on the banks would be the only +visible record of the shaking it suffered. +<br> +The Upper Yosemite Fall, glowing white in the moonlight, seemed to know +nothing of the earthquake, manifesting no change in form or voice, as +far as I could see or hear. +<br> +After a second startling shock, about half-past three o'clock, the +ground continued to tremble gently, and smooth, hollow rumbling sounds, +not always distinguishable from the rounded, bumping, explosive tones of +the falls, came from deep in the mountains in a northern direction. +<br> +The few Indians fled from their huts to the middle of the Valley, +fearing that angry spirits were trying to kill them; and, as I afterward +learned, most of the Yosemite tribe, who were spending the winter at +their village on Bull Creek forty miles away, were so terrified that +they ran into the river and washed themselves,--getting themselves clean +enough to say their prayers, I suppose, or to die. I asked Dick, one of +the Indians with whom I was acquainted, "What made the ground shake and +jump so much?" He only shook his head and said, "No good. No good," and +looked appealingly to me to give him hope that his life was to be +spared. +<br> +In the morning I found the few white settlers assembled in front of +the old Hutchings Hotel comparing notes and meditating flight to the +lowlands, seemingly as sorely frightened as the Indians. Shortly after +sunrise a low, blunt, muffled rumbling, like distant thunder, was +followed by another series of shocks, which, though not nearly so severe +as the first, made the cliffs and domes tremble like jelly, and the big +pines and oaks thrill and swish and wave their branches with startling +effect. Then the talkers were suddenly hushed, and the solemnity on +their faces was sublime. One in particular of these winter neighbors, a +somewhat speculative thinker with whom I had often conversed, was a firm +believer in the cataclysmic origin of the Valley; and I now jokingly +remarked that his wild tumble-down-and-engulfment hypothesis might soon +be proved, since these underground rumblings and shakings might be the +forerunners of another Yosemite-making cataclysm, which would perhaps +double the depth of the Valley by swallowing the floor, leaving the ends +of the roads and trails dangling three or four thousand feet in the air. +Just then came the third series of shocks, and it was fine to see how +awfully silent and solemn he became. His belief in the existence of a +mysterious abyss, into which the suspended floor of the Valley and all +the domes and battlements of the walls might at any moment go roaring +down, mightily troubled him. To diminish his fears and laugh him into +something like reasonable faith, I said, "Come, cheer up; smile a little +and clap your hands, now that kind Mother Earth is trotting us on her +knee to amuse us and make us good." But the well-meant joke seemed +irreverent and utterly failed, as if only prayerful terror could rightly +belong to the wild beauty-making business. Even after all the heavier +shocks were over I could do nothing to reassure him, on the contrary, +he handed me the keys of his little store to keep, saying that with a +companion of like mind he was going to the lowlands to stay until the +fate of poor, trembling Yosemite was settled. In vain I rallied them on +their fears, calling attention to the strength of the granite walls of +our Valley home, the very best and solidest masonry in the world, and +less likely to collapse and sink than the sedimentary lowlands to which +they were looking for safety; and saying that in any case they sometime +would have to die, and so grand a burial was not to be slighted. But +they were too seriously panic-stricken to get comfort from anything I +could say. +<br> +During the third severe shock the trees were so violently shaken that +the birds flew out with frightened cries. In particular, I noticed two +robins flying in terror from a leafless oak, the branches of which +swished and quivered as if struck by a heavy battering-ram. Exceedingly +interesting were the flashing and quivering of the elastic needles of +the pines in the sunlight and the waving up and down of the branches +while the trunks stood rigid. There was no swaying, waving or swirling +as in wind-storms, but quick, quivering jerks, and at times the heavy +tasseled branches moved as if they had all been pressed down against the +trunk and suddenly let go, to spring up and vibrate until they came to +rest again. Only the owls seemed to be undisturbed. Before the rumbling +echoes had died away a hollow-voiced owl began to hoot in philosophical +tranquillity from near the edge of the new talus as if nothing +extraordinary had occurred, although, perhaps, he was curious to know +what all the noise was about. His "hoot-too-hoot-too-whoo" might have +meant, "what's a' the steer, kimmer?" +<br> +It was long before the Valley found perfect rest. The rocks trembled +more or less every day for over two months, and I kept a bucket of water +on my table to learn what I could of the movements. The blunt thunder +in the depths of the mountains was usually followed by sudden jarring, +horizontal thrusts from the northward, often succeeded by twisting, +upjolting movements. More than a month after the first great shock, when +I was standing on a fallen tree up the Valley near Lamon's winter cabin, +I heard a distinct bubbling thunder from the direction of Tenaya Cañon +Carlo, a large intelligent St. Bernard dog standing beside me seemed +greatly astonished, and looked intently in that direction with mouth +open and uttered a low <i>Wouf!</i> as if saying, "What's that?" He +must have known that it was not thunder, though like it. The air was +perfectly still, not the faintest breath of wind perceptible, and a +fine, mellow, sunny hush pervaded everything, in the midst of which came +that subterranean thunder. Then, while we gazed and listened, came the +corresponding shocks, distinct as if some mighty hand had shaken the +ground. After the sharp horizontal jars died away, they were followed +by a gentle rocking and undulating of the ground so distinct that Carlo +looked at the log on which he was standing to see who was shaking it. It +was the season of flooded meadows and the pools about me, calm as sheets +of glass, were suddenly thrown into low ruffling waves. +<br> +Judging by its effects, this Yosemite, or Inyo earthquake, as it is +sometimes called, was gentle as compared with the one that gave rise +to the grand talus system of the Range and did so much for the cañon +scenery. Nature, usually so deliberate in her operations, then created, +as we have seen, a new set of features, simply by giving the mountains +a shake--changing not only the high peaks and cliffs, but the streams. +As soon as these rock avalanches fell the streams began to sing new +songs; for in many places thousands of boulders were hurled into their +channels, roughening and half-damming them, compelling the waters to +surge and roar in rapids where before they glided smoothly. Some of +the streams were completely dammed; driftwood, leaves, etc., gradually +filling the interstices between the boulders, thus giving rise to lakes +and level reaches; and these again, after being gradually filled in, +were changed to meadows, through which the streams are now silently +meandering; while at the same time some of the taluses took the places +of old meadows and groves. Thus rough places were made smooth, and +smooth places rough. But, on the whole, by what at first sight seemed +pure confounded confusion and ruin, the landscapes were enriched; for +gradually every talus was covered with groves and gardens, and made a +finely proportioned and ornamental base for the cliffs. In this work of +beauty, every boulder is prepared and measured and put in its place more +thoughtfully than are the stones of temples. If for a moment you are +inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb +to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering +hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You +will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly discover the music +and poetry of these magnificent rock piles--a fine lesson; and all +Nature's wildness tells the same story--the shocks and outbursts of +earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, +the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort--each and all +are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of Nature's heart. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 5<br> +The Trees of the Valley</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +The most influential of the Valley trees is the yellow pine (<i>Pinus +ponderosa</i>). It attains its noblest dimensions on beds of water-washed, +coarsely-stratified moraine material, between the talus slopes and +meadows, dry on the surface, well-watered below and where not too +closely assembled in groves the branches reach nearly to the ground, +forming grand spires 200 to 220 feet in height. The largest that I have +measured is standing alone almost opposite the Sentinel Rock, or a +little to the westward of it. It is a little over eight feet in diameter +and about 220 feet high. Climbing these grand trees, especially when +they are waving and singing in worship in wind-storms, is a glorious +experience. Ascending from the lowest branch to the topmost is like +stepping up stairs through a blaze of white light, every needle +thrilling and shining as if with religious ecstasy. +<br> +Unfortunately there are but few sugar pines in the Valley, though in +the King's yosemite they are in glorious abundance. The incense cedar +(<i>Libocedrus decurrens</i>) with cinnamon-colored bark and yellow-green +foliage is one of the most interesting of the Yosemite trees. Some of +them are 150 feet high, from six to ten feet in diameter, and they are +never out of sight as you saunter among the yellow pines. Their bright +brown shafts and towers of flat, frondlike branches make a striking +feature of the landscapes throughout all the seasons. In midwinter, when +most of the other trees are asleep, this cedar puts forth its flowers +in millions,--the pistillate pale green and inconspicuous, but the +staminate bright yellow, tingeing all the branches and making the trees +as they stand in the snow look like gigantic goldenrods. The branches, +outspread in flat plumes and, beautifully fronded, sweep gracefully +downward and outward, except those near the top, which aspire; the +lowest, especially in youth and middle age, droop to the ground, +overlapping one another, shedding off rain and snow like shingles, and +making fine tents for birds and campers. This tree frequently lives more +than a thousand years and is well worthy its place beside the great +pines and the Douglas spruce. +<br> +The two largest specimens I know of the Douglas spruce, about eight feet +in diameter, are growing at the foot of the Liberty Cap near the Nevada +Fall, and on the terminal moraine of the small residual glacier that +lingered in the shady Illilouette Cañon. +<br> +After the conifers, the most important of the Yosemite trees are the +oaks, two species; the California live-oak (<i>Quercus agrifolia</i>), with +black trunks, reaching a thickness of from four to nearly seven feet, +wide spreading branches and bright deeply-scalloped leaves. It occupies +the greater part of the broad sandy flats of the upper end of the +Valley, and is the species that yields the acorns so highly prized by +the Indians and woodpeckers. +<br> +The other species is the mountain live-oak, or goldcup oak (<i>Quercus +chrysolepis</i>), a sturdy mountaineer of a tree, growing mostly on the +earthquake taluses and benches of the sunny north wall of the Valley. +In tough, unwedgeable, knotty strength, it is the oak of oaks, a +magnificent tree. +<br> +The largest and most picturesque specimen in the Valley is near the foot +of the Tenaya Fall, a romantic spot seldom seen on account of the rough +trouble of getting to it. It is planted on three huge boulders and yet +manages to draw sufficient moisture and food from this craggy soil to +maintain itself in good health. It is twenty feet in circumference, +measured above a large branch between three and four feet in diameter +that has been broken off. The main knotty trunk seems to be made up of +craggy granite boulders like those on which it stands, being about the +same color as the mossy, lichened boulders and about as rough. Two +moss-lined caves near the ground open back into the trunk, one on the +north side, the other on the west, forming picturesque, romantic seats. +The largest of the main branches is eighteen feet and nine inches in +circumference, and some of the long pendulous branchlets droop over the +stream at the foot of the fall where it is gray with spray. The leaves +are glossy yellow-green, ever in motion from the wind from the fall. It +is a fine place to dream in, with falls, cascades, cool rocks lined with +hypnum three inches thick; shaded with maple, dogwood, alder, willow; +grand clumps of lady-ferns where no hand may touch them; light filtering +through translucent leaves; oaks fifty feet high; lilies eight feet high +in a filled lake basin near by, and the finest libocedrus groves and +tallest ferns and goldenrods. +<br> +In the main river cañon below the Vernal Fall and on the shady south +side of the Valley there are a few groves of the silver fir (<i>Abies +concolor</i>), and superb forests of the magnificent species round the rim +of the Valley. +<br> +On the tops of the domes is found the sturdy, storm-enduring red cedar +(<i>Juniperus occidentalis</i>). It never makes anything like a forest here, +but stands out separate and independent in the wind, clinging by slight +joints to the rock, with scarce a handful of soil in sight of it, +seeming to depend chiefly on snow and air for nourishment, and yet it +has maintained tough health on this diet for two thousand years or more. +The largest hereabouts are from five to six feet in diameter and fifty +feet in height. +<br> +The principal river-side trees are poplar, alder, willow, broad-leaved +maple, and Nuttall's flowering dogwood. The poplar (<i>Populus +trichocarpa</i>), often called balm-of-Gilead from the gum on its buds, is +a tall tree, towering above its companions and gracefully embowering +the banks of the river. Its abundant foliage turns bright yellow in the +fall, and the Indian-summer sunshine sifts through it in delightful +tones over the slow-gliding waters when they are at their lowest ebb. +<br> +Some of the involucres of the flowering dogwood measure six to eight +inches in diameter, and the whole tree when in flower looks as if +covered with snow. In the spring when the streams are in flood it is the +whitest of trees. In Indian summer the leaves become bright crimson, +making a still grander show than the flowers. +<br> +The broad-leaved maple and mountain maple are found mostly in the cool +cañons at the head of the Valley, spreading their branches in beautiful +arches over the foaming streams. +<br> +Scattered here and there are a few other trees, mostly small--the +mountain mahogany, cherry, chestnut-oak, and laurel. The California +nutmeg (<i>Torreya californica</i>), a handsome evergreen belonging to the +yew family, forms small groves near the cascades a mile or two below +the foot of the Valley. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 6<br> +The Forest Trees in General</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +For the use of the ever-increasing number of Yosemite visitors who make +extensive excursions into the mountains beyond the Valley, a sketch of +the forest trees in general will probably be found useful. The different +species are arranged in zones and sections, which brings the forest as +a whole within the comprehension of every observer. These species are +always found as controlled by the climates of different elevations, +by soil and by the comparative strength of each species in taking and +holding possession of the ground; and so appreciable are these relations +the traveler need never be at a loss in determining within a few +hundred feet his elevation above sea level by the trees alone; for, +notwithstanding some of the species range upward for several thousand +feet and all pass one another more or less, yet even those species +possessing the greatest vertical range are available in measuring +the elevation; inasmuch as they take on new forms corresponding with +variations in altitude. Entering the lower fringe of the forest composed +of Douglas oaks and Sabine pines, the trees grow so far apart that not +one-twentieth of the surface of the ground is in shade at noon. After +advancing fifteen or twenty miles towards Yosemite and making an ascent +of from two to three thousand feet you reach the lower margin of the +main pine belt, composed of great sugar pine, yellow pine, incense cedar +and sequoia. Next you come to the magnificent silver-fir belt and lastly +to the upper pine belt, which sweep up to the feet of the summit peaks +in a dwarfed fringe, to a height of from ten to twelve thousand feet. +That this general order of distribution depends on climate as affected +by height above the sea, is seen at once, but there are other harmonies +that become manifest only after observation and study. One of the most +interesting of these is the arrangement of the forest in long curving +bands, braided together into lace-like patterns in some places and +out-spread in charming variety. The key to these striking arrangements +is the system of ancient glaciers; where they flowed the trees followed, +tracing their courses along the sides of cañons, over ridges, and high +plateaus. The cedar of Lebanon, said Sir Joseph Hooker, occurs upon one +of the moraines of an ancient glacier. All the forests of the Sierra are +growing upon moraines, but moraines vanish like the glaciers that make +them. Every storm that falls upon them wastes them, carrying away their +decaying, disintegrating material into new formations, until they are no +longer recognizable without tracing their transitional forms down the +Range from those still in process of formation in some places through +those that are more and more ancient and more obscured by vegetation and +all kinds of post-glacial weathering. It appears, therefore, that the +Sierra forests indicate the extent and positions of ancient moraines as +well as they do belts of climate. +<br> +One will have no difficulty in knowing the Nut Pine (<i>Pinus Sabiniana</i>), +for it is the first conifer met in ascending the Range from the west, +springing up here and there among Douglas oaks and thickets of ceanothus +and manzanita; its extreme upper limit being about 4000 feet above the +sea, its lower about from 500 to 800 feet. It is remarkable for its +loose, airy, wide-branching habit and thin gray foliage. Full-grown +specimens are from forty to fifty feet in height and from two to three +feet in diameter. The trunk usually divides into three or four main +branches about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground that, after +bearing away from one another, shoot straight up and form separate +summits. Their slender, grayish needles are from eight to twelve inches +long, and inclined to droop, contrasting with the rigid, dark-colored +trunk and branches. No other tree of my acquaintance so substantial in +its body has foliage so thin and pervious to the light. The cones are +from five to eight inches long and about as large in thickness; rich +chocolate-brown in color and protected by strong, down-curving nooks +which terminate the scales. Nevertheless the little Douglas Squirrel can +open them. Indians climb the trees like bears and beat off the cones or +recklessly cut off the more fruitful branches with hatchets, while the +squaws gather and roast them until the scales open sufficiently to +allow the hard-shell seeds to be beaten out. The curious little <i>Pinus +attenuata</i> is found at an elevation of from 1500 to 3000 feet, growing in +close groves and belts. It is exceedingly slender and graceful, although +trees that chance to stand alone send out very long, curved branches, +making a striking contrast to the ordinary grove form. The foliage is of +the same peculiar gray-green color as that of the nut pine, and is worn +about as loosely, so that the body of the tree is scarcely obscured +by it. At the age of seven or eight years it begins to bear cones in +whorls on the main axis, and as they never fall off, the trunk is soon +picturesquely dotted with them. Branches also soon become fruitful. The +average size of the tree is about thirty or forty feet in height and +twelve to fourteen inches in diameter. The cones are about four inches +long and covered with a sort of varnish and gum, rendering them +impervious to moisture. +<br> +No observer can fail to notice the admirable adaptation of this curious +pine to the fire-swept regions where alone it is found. After a running +fire has scorched and killed it the cones open and the ground beneath it +is then sown broadcast with all the seeds ripened during its whole life. +Then up spring a crowd of bright, hopeful seedlings, giving beauty for +ashes in lavish abundance. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Sugar Pine, King Of Pine Trees</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Of all the world's eighty or ninety species of pine trees, the Sugar +Pine (<i>Pinus Lambertiana</i>) is king, surpassing all others, not merely in +size but in lordly beauty and majesty. In the Yosemite region it grows +at an elevation of from 3000 to 7000 feet above the sea and attains +most perfect development at a height of about 5000 feet. The largest +specimens are commonly about 220 feet high and from six to eight feet +in diameter four feet from the ground, though some grand old patriarch +may be met here and there that has enjoyed six or eight centuries of +storms and attained a thickness of ten or even twelve feet, still sweet +and fresh in every fiber. The trunk is a remarkably smooth, round, +delicately-tapered shaft, straight and regular as if turned in a lathe, +mostly without limbs, purplish brown in color and usually enlivened with +tufts of a yellow lichen. Toward the head of this magnificent column +long branches sweep gracefully outward and downward, sometimes forming +a palm-like crown, but far more impressive than any palm crown I ever +beheld. The needles are about three inches long in fascicles of five, +and arranged in rather close tassels at the ends of slender branchlets +that clothe the long outsweeping limbs. How well they sing in the wind, +and how strikingly harmonious an effect is made by the long cylindrical +cones, depending loosely from the ends of the long branches! The cones +are about fifteen to eighteen inches long, and three in diameter; +green, shaded with dark purple on their sunward sides. They are ripe in +September and October of the second year from the flower. Then the flat, +thin scales open and the seeds take wing, but the empty cones become +still more beautiful and effective as decorations, for their diameter is +nearly doubled by the spreading of the scales, and their color changes +to yellowish brown while they remain, swinging on the tree all the +following winter and summer, and continue effectively beautiful even on +the ground many years after they fall. The wood is deliciously fragrant, +fine in grain and texture and creamy yellow, as if formed of condensed +sunbeams. The sugar from which the common name is derived is, I think, +the best of sweets. It exudes from the heart-wood where wounds have been +made by forest fires or the ax, and forms irregular, crisp, candy-like +kernels of considerable size, something like clusters of resin beads. +When fresh it is white, but because most of the wounds on which it is +found have been made by fire the sap is stained and the hardened sugar +becomes brown. Indians are fond of it, but on account of its laxative +properties only small quantities may be eaten. No tree lover will ever +forget his first meeting with the sugar pine. In most pine trees there +is the sameness of expression which to most people is apt to become +monotonous, for the typical spiral form of conifers, however beautiful, +affords little scope for appreciable individual character. The sugar +pine is as free from conventionalities as the most picturesque oaks. No +two are alike, and though they toss out their immense arms in what might +seem extravagant gestures they never lose their expression of serene +majesty. They are the priests of pines and seem ever to be addressing +the surrounding forest. The yellow pine is found growing with them on +warm hillsides, and the silver fir on cool northern slopes but, noble +as these are, the sugar pine is easily king, and spreads his arms above +them in blessing while they rock and wave in sign of recognition. The +main branches are sometimes forty feet long, yet persistently simple, +seldom dividing at all, excepting near the end; but anything like a +bare cable appearance is prevented by the small, tasseled branchlets +that extend all around them; and when these superb limbs sweep out +symmetrically on all sides, a crown sixty or seventy feet wide is +formed, which, gracefully poised on the summit of the noble shaft, is +a glorious object. Commonly, however, there is a preponderance of +limbs toward the east, away from the direction of the prevailing winds. +<br> +Although so unconventional when full-grown, the sugar pine is a +remarkably proper tree in youth--a strict follower of coniferous +fashions--slim, erect, with leafy branches kept exactly in place, each +tapering in outline and terminating in a spiry point. The successive +forms between the cautious neatness of youth and the bold freedom of +maturity offer a delightful study. At the age of fifty or sixty years, +the shy, fashionable form begins to be broken up. Specialized branches +push out and bend with the great cones, giving individual character, +that becomes more marked from year to year. Its most constant companion +is the yellow pine. The Douglas spruce, libocedrus, sequoia, and the +silver fir are also more or less associated with it; but on many +deep-soiled mountain-sides, at an elevation of about 5000 feet above the +sea, it forms the bulk of the forest, filling every swell and hollow and +down-plunging ravine. The majestic crowns, approaching each other in +bold curves, make a glorious canopy through which the tempered sunbeams +pour, silvering the needles, and gilding the massive boles and the +flowery, park-like ground into a scene of enchantment. On the most sunny +slopes the white-flowered, fragrant chamaebatia is spread like a carpet, +brightened during early summer with the crimson sarcodes, the wild rose, +and innumerable violets and gilias. Not even in the shadiest nooks will +you find any rank, untidy weeds or unwholesome darkness. In the north +sides of ridges the boles are more slender, and the ground is mostly +occupied by an underbrush of hazel, ceanothus, and flowering dogwood, +but not so densely as to prevent the traveler from sauntering where he +will; while the crowning branches are never impenetrable to the rays of +the sun, and never so interblended as to lose their individuality. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Yellow Or Silver Pine</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Silver Pine (<i>Pinus ponderosa</i>), or Yellow Pine, as it is commonly +called, ranks second among the pines of the Sierra as a lumber tree, and +almost rivals the sugar pine in stature and nobleness of port. Because +of its superior powers of enduring variations of climate and soil, it +has a more extensive range than any other conifer growing on the Sierra. +On the western slope it is first met at an elevation of about 2000 feet, +and extends nearly to the upper limit of the timber-line. Thence, +crossing the range by the lowest passes, it descends to the eastern +base, and pushes out for a considerable distance into the hot, volcanic +plains, growing bravely upon well-watered moraines, gravelly lake +basins, climbing old volcanoes and dropping ripe cones among ashes and +cinders. +<br> +The average size of full-grown trees on the western slope where it is +associated with the sugar pine, is a little less than 200 feet in height +and from five to six feet in diameter, though specimens considerably +larger may easily be found. Where there is plenty of free sunshine and +other conditions are favorable, it presents a striking contrast in form +to the sugar pine, being a symmetrical spire, formed of a straight round +trunk, clad with innumerable branches that are divided over and over +again. Unlike the Yosemite form about one-half of the trunk is commonly +branchless, but where it grows at all close three-fourths or more is +naked, presenting then a more slender and elegant shaft than any other +tree in the woods. The bark is mostly arranged in massive plates, some +of them measuring four or five feet in length by eighteen inches in +width, with a thickness of three or four inches, forming a quite +marked and distinguishing feature. The needles are of a fine, warm, +yellow-green color, six to eight inches long, firm and elastic, and +crowded in handsome, radiant tassels on the upturning ends of the +branches. The cones are about three or four inches long, and two and +a half wide, growing in close, sessile clusters among the leaves. +<br> +The species attains its noblest form in filled-up lake basins, +especially in those of the older yosemites, and as we have seen, so +prominent a part does it form of their groves that it may well be called +the Yosemite Pine. +<br> +The Jeffrey variety attains its finest development in the northern +portion of the Range, in the wide basins of the McCloud and Pitt Rivers, +where it forms magnificent forests scarcely invaded by any other tree. +It differs from the ordinary form in size, being only about half as tall, +in its redder and more closely-furrowed bark grayish-green foliage, less +divided branches, and much larger cones; but intermediate forms come in +which make a clear separation impossible, although some botanists regard +it as a distinct species. It is this variety of ponderosa that climbs +storm-swept ridges alone, and wanders out among the volcanoes of the +Great Basin. Whether exposed to extremes of heat or cold, it is dwarfed +like many other trees, and becomes all knots and angles, wholly unlike +the majestic forms we have been sketching. Old specimens, bearing cones +about as big as pineapples, may sometimes be found clinging to rifted +rocks at an elevation of 7000 or 8000 feet, whose highest branches +scarce reach above one's shoulders. +<br> +I have often feasted on the beauty of these noble trees when they were +towering in all their winter grandeur, laden with snow--one mass of +bloom; in summer, too, when the brown, staminate clusters hang thick +among the shimmering needles, and the big purple burrs are ripening in +the mellow light; but it is during cloudless wind-storms that these +colossal pines are most impressively beautiful. Then they bow like +willows, their leaves streaming forward all in one direction, and, when +the sun shines upon them at the required angle, entire groves glow as if +every leaf were burnished silver. The fall of tropic light on the crown +of a palm is a truly glorious spectacle, the fervid sun-flood breaking +upon the glossy leaves in long lance-rays, like mountain water among +boulders at the foot of an enthusiastic cataract. But to me there is +something more impressive in the fall of light upon these noble, silver +pine pillars: it is beaten to the finest dust and shed off in myriads +of minute sparkles that seem to radiate from the very heart of the tree +as if like rain, falling upon fertile soil, it had been absorbed to +reappear in flowers of light. This species also gives forth the finest +wind music. After listening to it in all kinds of winds, night and +day, season after season, I think I could approximate to my position +on the mountain by this pine music alone. If you would catch the tone +of separate needles climb a tree in breezy weather. Every needle is +carefully tempered and gives forth no uncertain sound each standing out +with no interference excepting during head gales; then you may detect +the click of one needle upon another, readily distinguishable from the +free wind-like hum. +<br> +When a sugar pine and one of this species equal in size are observed +together, the latter is seen to be more simple in manners, more lively +and graceful, and its beauty is of a kind more easily appreciated; on +the other hand it is less dignified and original in demeanor. The yellow +pine seems ever eager to shoot aloft, higher and higher. Even while it +is drowsing in autumn sun-gold you may still detect a skyward +aspiration, but the sugar pine seems too unconsciously noble and too +complete in every way to leave room for even a heavenward care. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Douglas Spruce</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Douglas Spruce (<i>Pseudotsuga Douglasii</i>) is one of the largest and +longest-lived of the giants that flourish throughout the main pine belt, +often attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of six or +seven feet. Where the growth is not too close, the stout, spreading +branches, covering more than half of the trunk, are hung with +innumerable slender, drooping sprays, handsomely feathered with the +short leaves which radiate at right angles all around them. This +vigorous tree is ever beautiful, welcoming the mountain winds and the +snow as well as the mellow summer light; and it maintains its youthful +freshness undiminished from century to century through a thousand +storms. It makes its finest appearance during the months of June and +July, when the brown buds at the ends of the sprays swell and open, +revealing the young leaves, which at first are bright yellow, making the +tree appear as if covered with gay blossoms; while the pendulous bracted +cones, three or four inches long, with their shell-like scales, are a +constant adornment. +<br> +The young trees usually are assembled in family groups, each sapling +exquisitely symmetrical. The primary branches are whorled regularly +around the axis, generally in fives, while each is draped with long, +feathery sprays that descend in lines as free and as finely drawn as +those of falling water. +<br> +In Oregon and Washington it forms immense forests, growing tall and +mast-like to a height of 300 feet, and is greatly prized as a lumber +tree. Here it is scattered among other trees, or forms small groves, +seldom ascending higher than 5500 feet, and never making what would be +called a forest. It is not particular in its choice of soil: wet or dry, +smooth or rocky, it makes out to live well on them all. Two of the +largest specimens, as we have seen, are in Yosemite; one of these, more +than eight feet in diameter, is growing on a moraine; the other, nearly +as large, on angular blocks of granite. No other tree in the Sierra +seems so much at home on earthquake taluses and many of these huge +boulder-slopes are almost exclusively occupied by it. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Incense Cedar</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Incense Cedar (<i>Libocedrus decurrens</i>), already noticed among the Yosemite +trees, is quite generally distributed throughout the pine belt without +exclusively occupying any considerable area, or even making extensive +groves. On the warmer mountain slopes it ascends to about 5000 feet, and +reaches the climate most congenial to it at a height of about 4000 feet, +growing vigorously at this elevation in all kinds of soil and, in +particular, it is capable of enduring more moisture about its roots +than any of its companions excepting only the sequoia. +<br> +Casting your eye over the general forest from some ridge-top you +can identify it by the color alone of its spiry summits, a warm +yellow-green. In its youth up to the age of seventy or eighty years, +none of its companions forms so strictly tapered a cone from top to +bottom. As it becomes older it oftentimes grows strikingly irregular +and picturesque. Large branches push out at right angles to the trunk, +forming stubborn elbows and shoot up parallel with the axis. Very +old trees are usually dead at the top. The flat fragrant plumes are +exceedingly beautiful: no waving fern-frond is finer in form and +texture. In its prime the whole tree is thatched with them, but if you +would see the libocedrus in all its glory you must go to the woods in +midwinter when it is laden with myriads of yellow flowers about the +size of wheat grains, forming a noble illustration of Nature's immortal +virility and vigor. The mature cones, about three-fourths of an inch +long, born on the ends of the plumy branchlets, serve to enrich still +more the surpassing beauty of this winter-blooming tree-goldenrod. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Silver Firs</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +We come now to the most regularly planted and most clearly defined +of the main forest belts, composed almost exclusively of two Silver +Firs--<i>Abies concolor</i> and <i>Abies magnifica</i>--extending with but little +interruption 450 miles at an elevation of from 5000 to 9000 feet above +the sea. In its youth <i>A. concolor</i> is a charmingly symmetrical tree +with its flat plumy branches arranged in regular whorls around the +whitish-gray axis which terminates in a stout, hopeful shoot, pointing +straight to the zenith, like an admonishing finger. The leaves are +arranged in two horizontal rows along branchlets that commonly are less +than eight years old, forming handsome plumes, pinnated like the fronds +of ferns. The cones are grayish-green when ripe, cylindrical, from three +to four inches long, and one and a half to two inches wide, and stand +upright on the upper horizontal branches. Full-grown trees in favorable +situations are usually about 200 feet high and five or six feet in +diameter. As old age creeps on, the rough bark becomes rougher and +grayer, the branches lose their exact regularity of form, many that are +snow-bent are broken off and the axis often becomes double or otherwise +irregular from accidents to the terminal bud or shoot. Nevertheless, +throughout all the vicissitudes of its three or four centuries of life, +come what may, the noble grandeur of this species, however obscured, is +never lost. +<br> +The magnificent Silver Fir, or California Red Fir (<i>Abies magnifica</i>) +is the most symmetrical of all the Sierra giants, far surpassing its +companion species in this respect and easily distinguished from it by +the purplish-red bark, which is also more closely furrowed than that +of the white, and by its larger cones, its more regularly whorled and +fronded branches, and its shorter leaves, which grow all around the +branches and point upward instead of being arranged in two horizontal +rows. The branches are mostly whorled in fives, and stand out from the +straight, red-purple bole in level, or in old trees in drooping collars, +every branch regularly pinnated like fern-fronds, making broad plumes, +singularly rich and sumptuous-looking. The flowers are in their prime +about the middle of June; the male red, growing on the underside of the +branches in crowded profusion, giving a very rich color to all the +trees; the female greenish-yellow, tinged with pink, standing erect on +the upper side of the topmost branches, while the tufts of young leaves, +about as brightly colored as those of the Douglas spruce, make another +grand show. The cones mature in a single season from the flowers. When +mature they are about six to eight inches long, three or four in +diameter, covered with a fine gray down and streaked and beaded with +transparent balsam, very rich and precious-looking, and stand erect like +casks on the topmost branches. The inside of the cone is, if possible, +still more beautiful. The scales and bracts are tinged with red and the +seed-wings are purple with bright iridescence. Both of the silver firs +live between two and three centuries when the conditions about them +are at all favorable. Some venerable patriarch may be seen heavily +storm-marked, towering in severe majesty above the rising generation, +with a protecting grove of hopeful saplings pressing close around his +feet, each dressed with such loving care that not a leaf seems wanting. +Other groups are made up of trees near the prime of life, nicely +arranged as if Nature had culled them with discrimination from all +the rest of the woods. It is from this tree, called Red Fir by the +lumbermen, that mountaineers cut boughs to sleep on when they are so +fortunate as to be within its limit. Two or three rows of the sumptuous +plushy-fronded branches, overlapping along the middle, and a crescent of +smaller plumes mixed to one's taste with ferns and flowers for a pillow, +form the very best bed imaginable. The essence of the pressed leaves +seems to fill every pore of one's body. Falling water makes a soothing +hush, while the spaces between the grand spires afford noble openings +through which to gaze dreamily into the starry sky. The fir woods are +fine sauntering-grounds at almost any time of the year, but finest in +autumn when the noble trees are hushed in the hazy light and drip with +balsam; and the flying, whirling seeds, escaping from the ripe cones, +mottle the air like flocks of butterflies. Even in the richest part of +these unrivaled forests where so many noble trees challenge admiration +we linger fondly among the colossal firs and extol their beauty again +and again, as if no other tree in the world could henceforth claim our +love. It is in these woods the great granite domes arise that are so +striking and characteristic a feature of the Sierra. Here, too, we find +the best of the garden-meadows full of lilies. A dry spot a little +way back from the margin of a silver fir lily-garden makes a glorious +camp-ground, especially where the slope is toward the east with a view +of the distant peaks along the summit of the Range. The tall lilies are +brought forward most impressively like visitors by the light of your +camp-fire and the nearest of the trees with their whorled branches tower +above you like larger lilies and the sky seen through the garden-opening +seems one vast meadow of white lily stars. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Two-Leaved Pine</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Two-Leaved Pine (<i>Pinus contorta</i>, var. <i>Murrayana</i>), above the Silver +Fir zone, forms the bulk of the alpine forests up to a height of from +8000 to 9500 feet above the sea, growing in beautiful order on moraines +scarcely changed as yet by post-glacial weathering. Compared with the +giants of the lower regions this is a small tree, seldom exceeding a +height of eighty or ninety feet. The largest I ever measured was ninety +feet high and a little over six feet in diameter. The average height of +mature trees throughout the entire belt is probably not far from fifty +or sixty feet with a diameter of two feet. It is a well-proportioned, +rather handsome tree with grayish-brown bark and crooked, much-divided +branches which cover the greater part of the trunk, but not so densely +as to prevent it being seen. The lower limbs, like those of most other +conifers that grow in snowy regions, curve downward, gradually take a +horizontal position about half-way up the trunk, then aspire more and +more toward the summit. The short, rigid needles in fascicles of two are +arranged in comparatively long cylindrical tassels at the ends of the +tough up-curving branches. The cones are about two inches long, growing +in clusters among the needles without any striking effect except while +very young, when the flowers are of a vivid crimson color and the whole +tree appears to be dotted with brilliant flowers. The staminate flowers +are still more showy on account of their great abundance, often giving a +reddish-yellow tinge to the whole mass of foliage and filling the air +with pollen. No other pine on the Range is so regularly planted as this +one, covering moraines that extend along the sides of the high rocky +valleys for miles without interruption. The thin bark is streaked and +sprinkled with resin as though it had been showered upon the forest like +rain. +<br> +Therefore this tree more than any other is subject to destruction by +fire. During strong winds extensive forests are destroyed, the flames +leaping from tree to tree in continuous belts that go surging and racing +onward above the bending wood like prairie-grass fires. During the +calm season of Indian summer the fire creeps quietly along the ground, +feeding on the needles and cones; arriving at the foot of a tree, the +resiny bark is ignited and the heated air ascends in a swift current, +increasing in velocity and dragging the flames upward. Then the leaves +catch forming an immense column of fire, beautifully spired on the edges +and tinted a rose-purple hue. It rushes aloft thirty or forty feet above +the top of the tree, forming a grand spectacle, especially at night. It +lasts, however, only a few seconds, vanishing with magical rapidity, to +be succeeded by others along the fire-line at irregular intervals, tree +after tree, upflashing and darting, leaving the trunks and branches +scarcely scarred. The heat, however, is sufficient to kill the tree and +in a few years the bark shrivels and falls off. Forests miles in extent +are thus killed and left standing, with the branches on, but peeled +and rigid, appearing gray in the distance like misty clouds. Later the +branches drop off, leaving a forest of bleached spars. At length the +roots decay and the forlorn gray trunks are blown down during some +storm and piled one upon another, encumbering the ground until, dry and +seasoned, they are consumed by another fire and leave the ground ready +for a fresh crop. +<br> +In sheltered lake-hollows, on beds of alluvium, this pine varies so far +from the common form that frequently it could be taken for a distinct +species, growing in damp sods like grasses from forty to eighty feet +high, bending all together to the breeze and whirling in eddying gusts +more lively than any other tree in the woods. I frequently found +specimens fifty feet high less than five inches in diameter. Being so +slender and at the same time clad with leafy boughs, it is often bent +and weighed down to the ground when laden with soft snow; thus forming +fine ornamental arches, many of them to last until the melting of the +snow in the spring. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Mountain Pine</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Mountain Pine (<i>Pinus monticola</i>) is the noblest tree of the alpine +zone--hardy and long-lived towering grandly above its companions and +becoming stronger and more imposing just where other species begin to +crouch and disappear. At its best it is usually about ninety feet high +and five or six feet in diameter, though you may find specimens here and +there considerably larger than this. It is as massive and suggestive of +enduring strength as an oak. About two-thirds of the trunk is commonly +free of limbs, but close, fringy tufts of spray occur nearly all the way +down to the ground. On trees that occupy exposed situations near its +upper limit the bark is deep reddish-brown and rather deeply furrowed, +the main furrows running nearly parallel to each other and connected on +the old trees by conspicuous cross-furrows. The cones are from four to +eight inches long, smooth, slender, cylindrical and somewhat curved. +They grow in clusters of from three to six or seven and become pendulous +as they increase in weight. This species is nearly related to the sugar +pine and, though not half so tall, it suggests its noble relative in the +way that it extends its long branches in general habit. It is first met +on the upper margin of the silver fir zone, singly, in what appears as +chance situations without making much impression on the general forest. +Continuing up through the forests of the two-leaved pine it begins to +show its distinguishing characteristic in the most marked way at an +elevation of about 10,000 feet extending its tough, rather slender arms +in the frosty air, welcoming the storms and feeding on them and reaching +sometimes to the grand old age of 1000 years. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Western Juniper</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Juniper or Red Cedar (<i>Juniperus occidentalis</i>) is preëminently a +rock tree, occupying the baldest domes and pavements in the upper silver +fir and alpine zones, at a height of from 7000 to 9500 feet. In such +situations, rooted in narrow cracks or fissures, where there is scarcely +a handful of soil, it is frequently over eight feet in diameter and not +much more in height. The tops of old trees are almost always dead, and +large stubborn-looking limbs push out horizontally, most of them broken +and dead at the end, but densely covered, and imbedded here and there +with tufts or mounds of gray-green scalelike foliage. Some trees are +mere storm-beaten stumps about as broad as long, decorated with a few +leafy sprays, reminding one of the crumbling towers of old castles +scantily draped with ivy. Its homes on bare, barren dome and ridge-top +seem to have been chosen for safety against fire, for, on isolated +mounds of sand and gravel free from grass and bushes on which fire could +feed, it is often found growing tall and unscathed to a height of forty +to sixty feet, with scarce a trace of the rocky angularity and broken +limbs so characteristic a feature throughout the greater part of its +range. It never makes anything like a forest; seldom even a grove. +Usually it stands out separate and independent, clinging by slight +joints to the rocks, living chiefly on snow and thin air and maintaining +sound health on this diet for 2000 years or more. Every feature or every +gesture it makes expresses steadfast, dogged endurance. The bark is of +a bright cinnamon color and is handsomely braided and reticulated on +thrifty trees, flaking off in thin, shining ribbons that are sometimes +used by the Indians for tent matting. Its fine color and picturesqueness +are appreciated by artists, but to me the juniper seems a singularly +strange and taciturn tree. I have spent many a day and night in its +company and always have found it silent and rigid. It seems to be a +survivor of some ancient race, wholly unacquainted with its neighbors. +Its broad stumpiness, of course, makes wind-waving or even shaking out +of the question, but it is not this rocky rigidity that constitutes its +silence. In calm, sun-days the sugar pine preaches like an enthusiastic +apostle without moving a leaf. On level rocks the juniper dies standing +and wastes insensibly out of existence like granite, the wind exerting +about as little control over it, alive or dead, as is does over a +glacier boulder. +<br> +I have spent a good deal of time trying to determine the age of these +wonderful trees, but as all of the very old ones are honey-combed with +dry rot I never was able to get a complete count of the largest. Some +are undoubtedly more than 2000 years old, for though on deep moraine +soil they grow about as fast as some of the pines, on bare pavements and +smoothly glaciated, overswept ridges in the dome region they grow very +slowly. One on the Starr King Ridge only two feet eleven inches in +diameter was 1140 years old forty years ago. Another on the same ridge, +only one foot seven and a half inches in diameter, had reached the age +of 834 years. The first fifteen inches from the bark of a medium-size +tree six feet in diameter, on the north Tenaya pavement, had 859 layers +of wood. Beyond this the count was stopped by dry rot and scars. The +largest examined was thirty-three feet in girth, or nearly ten feet in +diameter and, although I have failed to get anything like a complete +count, I learned enough from this and many other specimens to convince +me that most of the trees eight or ten feet thick, standing on +pavements, are more than twenty centuries old rather than less. Barring +accidents, for all I can see they would live forever; even then +overthrown by avalanches, they refuse to lie at rest, lean stubbornly +on their big branches as if anxious to rise, and while a single root +holds to the rock, put forth fresh leaves with a grim, never-say-die +expression. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Mountain Hemlock</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +As the juniper is the most stubborn and unshakeable of trees in the +Yosemite region, the Mountain Hemlock (<i>Tsuga Mertensiana</i>) is the most +graceful and pliant and sensitive. Until it reaches a height of fifty or +sixty feet it is sumptuously clothed down to the ground with drooping +branches, which are divided again and again into delicate waving +sprays, grouped and arranged in ways that are indescribably beautiful, +and profusely adorned with small brown cones. The flowers also are +peculiarly beautiful and effective; the female dark rich purple, the +male blue, of so fine and pure a tone. What the best azure of the +mountain sky seems to be condensed in them. Though apparently the most +delicate and feminine of all the mountain trees, it grows best where +the snow lies deepest, at a height of from 9000 to 9500 feet, in +hollows on the northern slopes of mountains and ridges. But under all +circumstances, sheltered from heavy winds or in bleak exposure to them, +well fed or starved, even at its highest limit, 10,500 feet above the +sea, on exposed ridge-tops where it has to crouch and huddle close in +low thickets, it still contrives to put forth its sprays and branches in +forms of invincible beauty, while on moist, well-drained moraines it +displays a perfectly tropical luxuriance of foliage, flowers and fruit. +The snow of the first winter storm is frequently soft, and lodges in due +dense leafy branches, weighing them down against the trunk, and the +slender, drooping axis, bending lower and lower as the load increases, +at length reaches the ground, forming an ornamental arch. Then, as storm +succeeds storm and snow is heaped on snow, the whole tree is at last +buried, not again to see the light of day or move leaf or limb until set +free by the spring thaws in June or July. Not only the young saplings +are thus carefully covered and put to sleep in the whitest of white beds +for five or six months of the year, but trees thirty feet high or more. +From April to May, when the snow by repeated thawing and freezing is +firmly compacted, you may ride over the prostrate groves without seeing +a single branch or leaf of them. No other of our alpine conifers so +finely veils its strength; poised in thin, white sunshine, clad with +branches from head to foot, it towers in unassuming majesty, drooping +as if unaffected with the aspiring tendencies of its race, loving the +ground, conscious of heaven and joyously receptive of its blessings, +reaching out its branches like sensitive tentacles, feeling the light +and reveling in it. The largest specimen I ever found was nineteen +feet seven inches in circumference. It was growing on the edge of Lake +Hollow, north of Mount Hoffman, at an elevation of 9250 feet above the +level of the sea, and was probably about a hundred feet in height. Fine +groves of mature trees, ninety to a hundred feet in height, are growing +near the base of Mount Conness. It is widely distributed from near the +south extremity of the high Sierra northward along the Cascade Mountains +of Oregon and Washington and the coast ranges of British Columbia to +Alaska, where it was first discovered in 1827. Its northernmost limit, +so far as I have observed, is in the icy fiords of Prince William Sound +in latitude 61°, where it forms pure forests at the level of the +sea, growing tall and majestic on the banks of glaciers. There, as in +the Yosemite region, it is ineffably beautiful, the very loveliest of +all the American conifers. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The White-Bark Pine</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The Dwarf Pine, or White-Bark Pine (<i>Pinus albicaulis</i>), forms the extreme +edge of the timberline throughout nearly the whole extent of the Range +on both flanks. It is first met growing with the two-leaved pine on the +upper margin of the alpine belt, as an erect tree from fifteen to thirty +feet high and from one to two feet in diameter hence it goes straggling +up the flanks of the summit peaks, upon moraines or crumbling ledges, +wherever it can get a foothold, to an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 +feet, where it dwarfs to a mass of crumpled branches, covered with +slender shoots, each tipped with a short, close-packed, leaf tassel. The +bark is smooth and purplish, in some places almost white. The flowers +are bright scarlet and rose-purple, giving a very flowery appearance +little looked for in such a tree. The cones are about three inches long, +an inch and a half in diameter, grow in rigid clusters, and are dark +chocolate in color while young, and bear beautiful pearly-white seeds +about the size of peas, most of which are eaten by chipmunks and the +Clarke's crows. Pines are commonly regarded as sky-loving trees that +must necessarily aspire or die. This species forms a marked exception, +crouching and creeping in compliance with the most rigorous demands of +climate; yet enduring bravely to a more advanced age than many of its +lofty relatives in the sun-lands far below it. Seen from a distance it +would never be taken for a tree of any kind. For example, on Cathedral +Peak there is a scattered growth of this pine, creeping like mosses over +the roof, nowhere giving hint of an ascending axis. While, approached +quite near, it still appears matty and heathy, and one experiences no +difficulty in walking over the top of it, yet it is seldom absolutely +prostrate, usually attaining a height of three or four feet with a main +trunk, and with branches outspread above it, as if in ascending they +had been checked by a ceiling against which they had been compelled to +spread horizontally. The winter snow is a sort of ceiling, lasting half +the year; while the pressed surface is made yet smoother by violent +winds armed with cutting sand-grains that bear down any shoot which +offers to rise much above the general level, and that carve the dead +trunks and branches in beautiful patterns. +<br> +During stormy nights I have often camped snugly beneath the interlacing +arches of this little pine. The needles, which have accumulated for +centuries, make fine beds, a fact well known to other mountaineers, such +as deer and wild sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie beneath the +larger trees in safe and comfortable concealment. This lowly dwarf +reaches a far greater age than would be guessed. A specimen that I +examined, growing at an elevation of 10,700 feet, yet looked as though +it might be plucked up by the roots, for it was only three and a half +inches in diameter and its topmost tassel reached hardly three feet +above the ground. Cutting it half through and counting the annual rings +with the aid of a lens, I found its age to be no less than 255 years. +Another specimen about the same height, with a trunk six inches in +diameter, I found to be 426 years old, forty years ago; and one of its +supple branchlets hardly an eighth of an inch in diameter inside the +bark, was seventy-five years old, and so filled with oily balsam and +seasoned by storms that I tied it in knots like a whip-cord. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Nut Pine</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +In going across the Range from the Tuolumne River Soda Springs to Mono +Lake one makes the acquaintance of the curious little Nut Pine (<i>Pinus +monophylla</i>). It dots the eastern flank of the Sierra to which it is +mostly restricted in grayish bush-like patches, from the margin of the +sage-plains to an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet. A more contented, +fruitful and unaspiring conifer could not be conceived. All the species +we have been sketching make departures more or less distant from the +typical spire form, but none goes so far as this. Without any apparent +cause it keeps near the ground, throwing out crooked, divergent branches +like an orchard apple-tree, and seldom pushes a single shoot higher than +fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. +<br> +The average thickness of the trunk is, perhaps, about ten or twelve +inches. The leaves are mostly undivided, like round awls, instead of +being separated, like those of other pines, into twos and threes and +fives. The cones are green while growing, and are usually found over all +the tree, forming quite a marked feature as seen against the bluish-gray +foliage. They are quite small, only about two inches in length, and seem +to have but little space for seeds; but when we come to open them, we +find that about half the entire bulk of the cone is made up of sweet, +nutritious nuts, nearly as large as hazel-nuts. This is undoubtedly the +most important food-tree on the Sierra, and furnishes the Mona, Carson, +and Walker River Indians with more and better nuts than all the other +species taken together. It is the Indian's own tree, and many a white +man have they killed for cutting it down. Being so low, the cones are +readily beaten off with poles, and the nuts procured by roasting them +until the scales open. In bountiful seasons a single Indian may gather +thirty or forty bushels. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 7<br> +The Big Trees</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +Between the heavy pine and silver fir zones towers the Big Tree (<i>Sequoia +gigantea</i>), the king of all the conifers in the world, "the noblest of +the noble race." The groves nearest Yosemite Valley are about twenty +miles to the westward and southward and are called the Tuolumne, Merced +and Mariposa groves. It extends, a widely interrupted belt, from a very +small grove on the middle fork of the American River to the head of Deer +Creek, a distance of about 260 miles, its northern limit being near the +thirty-ninth parallel, the southern a little below the thirty-sixth. The +elevation of the belt above the sea varies from about 5000 to 8000 feet. +From the American River to Kings River the species occurs only in small +isolated groups so sparsely distributed along the belt that three of +the gaps in it are from forty to sixty miles wide. But from Kings River +south-ward the sequoia is not restricted to mere groves but extends +across the wide rugged basins of the Kaweah and Tule Rivers in noble +forests, a distance of nearly seventy miles, the continuity of this part +of the belt being broken only by the main cañons. The Fresno, the +largest of the northern groves, has an area of three or four square +miles, a short distance to the southward of the famous Mariposa grove. +Along the south rim of the cañon of the south fork of Kings River there +is a majestic sequoia forest about six miles long by two wide. This is +the northernmost group that may fairly be called a forest. Descending +the divide between the Kings and Kaweah Rivers you come to the grand +forests that form the main continuous portion of the belt. Southward +the giants become more and more irrepressibly exuberant, heaving their +massive crowns into the sky from every ridge and slope, waving onward in +graceful compliance with the complicated topography of the region. The +finest of the Kaweah section of the belt is on the broad ridge between +Marble Creek and the middle fork, and is called the Giant Forest. It +extends from the granite headlands, overlooking the hot San Joaquin +plains, to within a few miles of the cool glacial fountains of the +summit peaks. The extreme upper limit of the belt is reached between the +middle and south forks of the Kaweah at a height of 8400 feet, but the +finest block of big tree forests in the entire belt is on the north fork +of Tule River, and is included in the Sequoia National Park. +<br> +In the northern groves there are comparatively few young trees or +saplings. But here for every old storm-beaten giant there are many in +their prime and for each of these a crowd of hopeful young trees and +saplings, growing vigorously on moraines, rocky edges, along water +courses and meadows. But though the area occupied by the big tree +increases so greatly from north to south, here is no marked increase +in the size of the trees. The height of 275 feet or thereabouts and a +diameter of about twenty feet, four feet from the ground is, perhaps, +about the average size of what may be called full-grown trees, where +they are favorably located. The specimens twenty-five feet in diameter +are not very rare and a few are nearly three hundred feet high. In +the Calaveras grove there are four trees over 300 feet in height, the +tallest of which as measured by the Geological Survey is 325 feet. The +very largest that I have yet met in the course of my explorations is +a majestic old fire-scarred monument in the Kings River forest. It is +thirty-five feet and eight inches in diameter inside the bark, four +feet above the ground. It is burned half through, and I spent a day +in clearing away the charred surface with a sharp ax and counting the +annual wood-rings with the aid of a pocket lens. I succeeded in laying +bare a section all the way from the outside to the heart and counted a +little over four thousand rings, showing that this tree was in its prime +about twenty-seven feet in diameter at the beginning of the Christian +era. No other tree in the world, as far as I know, has looked down on so +many centuries as the sequoia or opens so many impressive and suggestive +views into history. Under the most favorable conditions these giants +probably live 5000 years or more though few of even the larger trees are +half as old. The age of one that was felled in Calaveras grove, for the +sake of having its stump for a dancing-floor, was about 1300 years, and +its diameter measured across the stump twenty-four feet inside the bark. +Another that was felled in the Kings River forest was about the same +size but nearly a thousand years older (2200 years), though not a very +old-looking tree. +<br> +So harmonious and finely balanced are even the mightiest of these +monarchs in all their proportions that there is never anything overgrown +or monstrous about them. Seeing them for the first time you are more +impressed with their beauty than their size, their grandeur being in +great part invisible; but sooner or later it becomes manifest to the +loving eye, stealing slowly on the senses like the grandeur of Niagara +or of the Yosemite Domes. When you approach them and walk around them +you begin to wonder at their colossal size and try to measure them. They +bulge considerably at the base, but not more than is required for beauty +and safety and the only reason that this bulging seems in some cases +excessive is that only a comparatively small section is seen in near +views. One that I measured in the Kings River forest was twenty-five +feet in diameter at the ground and ten feet in diameter 220 feet above +the ground showing the fineness of the taper of the trunk as a whole. No +description can give anything like an adequate idea of their singular +majesty, much less of their beauty. Except the sugar pine, most of their +neighbors with pointed tops seem ever trying to go higher, while the big +tree, soaring above them all, seems satisfied. Its grand domed head +seems to be poised about as lightly as a cloud, giving no impression +of seeking to rise higher. Only when it is young does it show like +other conifers a heavenward yearning, sharply aspiring with a long +quick-growing top. Indeed, the whole tree for the first century or +two, or until it is a hundred or one hundred and fifty feet high, is +arrowhead in form, and, compared with the solemn rigidity of age, seems +as sensitive to the wind as a squirrel's tail. As it grows older, the +lower branches are gradually dropped and the upper ones thinned out +until comparatively few are left. These, however, are developed to a +great size, divide again and again and terminate in bossy, rounded +masses of leafy branch-lets, while the head becomes dome-shaped, and is +the first to feel the touch of the rosy beams of the morning, the last +to bid the sun good night. Perfect specimens, unhurt by running fires or +lightning, are singularly regular and symmetrical in general form though +not in the least conventionalized, for they show extraordinary variety +in the unity and harmony of their general outline. The immensely strong, +stately shafts are free of limbs for one hundred end fifty feet or so +The large limbs reach out with equal boldness a every direction, showing +no weather side, and no other tree has foliage so densely massed, so +finely molded in outline and so perfectly subordinate to an ideal type. +A particularly knotty, angular, ungovernable-looking branch, from five +to seven or eight feet in diameter and perhaps a thousand years old, +may occasionally be seen pushing out from the trunk as if determined to +break across the bounds of the regular curve, but like all the others +it dissolves in bosses of branchlets and sprays as soon as the general +outline is approached. Except in picturesque old age, after being struck +by lightning or broken by thousands of snow-storms, the regularity of +forms is one of their most distinguishing characteristics. Another is +the simple beauty of the trunk and its great thickness as compared with +its height and the width of the branches, which makes them look more +like finely modeled and sculptured architectural columns than the stems +of trees, while the great limbs look like rafters, supporting the +magnificent dome-head. But though so consummately beautiful, the big +tree always seems unfamiliar, with peculiar physiognomy, awfully solemn +and earnest; yet with all its strangeness it impresses us as being more +at home than any of its neighbors, holding the best right to the ground +as the oldest strongest inhabitant. One soon becomes acquainted with new +species of pine and fir and spruce as with friendly people, shaking +their outstretched branches like shaking hands and fondling their little +ones, while the venerable aboriginal sequoia, ancient of other days, +keeps you at a distance, looking as strange in aspect and behavior among +its neighbor trees as would the mastodon among the homely bears and +deers. Only the Sierra juniper is at all like it, standing rigid and +unconquerable on glacier pavements for thousands of years, grim and +silent, with an air of antiquity about as pronounced as that of the +sequoia. +<br> +The bark of the largest trees is from one to two feet thick, rich +cinnamon brown, purplish on young trees, forming magnificent masses +of color with the underbrush. Toward the end of winter the trees are +in bloom, while the snow is still eight or ten feet deep. The female +flowers are about three-eighths of an inch long, pale green, and grow +in countless thousands on the ends of sprays. The male are still more +abundant, pale yellow, a fourth of an inch long and when the pollen is +ripe they color the whole tree and dust the air and the ground. The +cones are bright grass-green in color, about two and a half inches long, +one and a half wide, made up of thirty or forty strong, closely-packed, +rhomboidal scales, with four to eight seeds at the base of each. The +seeds are wonderfully small end light, being only from an eighth to a +fourth of an inch long and wide, including a filmy surrounding wing, +which causes them to glint and waver in falling and enables the wind to +carry them considerable distances. Unless harvested by the squirrels, +the cones discharge their seed and remain on the tree for many years. In +fruitful seasons the trees are fairly laden. On two small branches one +and a half and two inches in diameter I counted 480 cones. No other +California conifer produces nearly so many seeds, except, perhaps, the +other sequoia, the Redwood of the Coast Mountains. Millions are ripened +annually by a single tree, and in a fruitful year the product of one of +the northern groves would be enough to plant all the mountain ranges in +the world. +<br> +As soon as any accident happens to the crown, such as being smashed off +by lightning, the branches beneath the wound, no matter how situated, +seem to be excited, like a colony of bees that have lost their queen, +and become anxious to repair the damage. Limbs that have grown outward +for centuries at right angles to the trunk begin to turn upward to +assist in making a new crown, each speedily assuming the special form of +true summits. Even in the case of mere stumps, burned half through, some +mere ornamental tuft will try to go aloft and do its best as a leader +in forming a new head. Groups of two or three are often found standing +close together, the seeds from which they sprang having probably grown +on ground cleared for their reception by the fall of a large tree of a +former generation. They are called "loving couples," "three graces," +etc. When these trees are young they are seen to stand twenty or thirty +feet apart, by the time they are full-grown their trunks will touch and +crowd against each other and in some cases even appear as one. +<br> +It is generally believed that the sequoia was once far more widely +distributed over the Sierra; but after long and careful study I have +come to the conclusion that it never was, at least since the close of +the glacial period, because a diligent search along the margins of the +groves, and in the gaps between fails to reveal a single trace of its +previous existence beyond its present bounds. Notwithstanding, I feel +confident that if every sequoia in the Range were to die today, numerous +monuments of their existence would remain, of so imperishable a nature +as to be available for the student more than ten thousand years hence. +<br> +In the first place, no species of coniferous tree in the Range keeps +its members so well together as the sequoia; a mile is, perhaps, the +greatest distance of any straggler from the main body, and all of those +stragglers that have come under my observation are young, instead of old +monumental trees, relics of a more extended growth. +<br> +Again, the great trunks of the sequoia last for centuries after they +fall. I have a specimen block of sequoia wood, cut from a fallen tree, +which is hardly distinguishable from a similar section cut from a living +tree, although the one cut from the fallen trunk has certainly lain on +the damp forest floor more than 380 years, probably thrice as long. The +time-measure in the case is simply this: When the ponderous trunk to +which the old vestige belonged fell, it sunk itself into the ground, +thus making a long, straight ditch, and in the middle of this ditch a +silver fir four feet in diameter and 380 years old was growing, as I +determined by cutting it half through and counting the rings, thus +demonstrating that the remnant of the trunk that made the ditch has lain +on the ground <i>more</i> than 380 years. For it is evident that, to find +the whole time, we must add to the 380 years the time that the vanished +portion of the trunk lay in the ditch before being burned out of the +way, plus the time that passed before the seed from which the monumental +fir sprang fell into the prepared soil and took root. Now, because +sequoia trunks are never wholly consumed in one forest fire, and those +fires recur only at considerable intervals, and because sequoia ditches +after being cleared are often left unplanted for centuries, it becomes +evident that the trunk-remnant in question may probably have lain a +thousand years or more. And this instance is by no means a late one. +<br> +Again, admitting that upon those areas supposed to have been once +covered with sequoia forests, every tree may have fallen, and every +trunk may have been burned or buried, leaving not a remnant, many of the +ditches made by the fall of the ponderous trunks, and the bowls made by +their upturning roots, would remain patent for thousands of years after +the last vestige of the trunks that made them had vanished. Much of this +ditch-writing would no doubt be quickly effaced by the flood-action of +overflowing streams and rain-washing; but no inconsiderable portion +would remain enduringly engraved on ridge-tops beyond such destructive +action; for, where all the conditions are favorable, it is almost +imperishable. Now these historic ditches and root-bowls occur in all the +present sequoia groves and forests, but, as far as I have observed, not +the faintest vestige of one presents itself outside of them. +<br> +We therefore conclude that the area covered by sequoia has not been +diminished during the last eight or ten thousand years, and probably not +at all in post-glacial time. Nevertheless, the questions may be asked: +Is the species verging toward extinction? What are its relations to +climate, soil, and associated trees? +<br> +All the phenomena bearing on these questions also throw light, as we +shall endeavor to show, upon the peculiar distribution of the species, +and sustain the conclusion already arrived at as to the question of +former extension. In the northern groups, as we have seen, there are +few young trees or saplings growing up around the old ones to perpetuate +the race, and inasmuch as those aged sequoias, so nearly childless, +are the only ones commonly known the species, to most observers, seems +doomed to speedy extinction, as being nothing more than an expiring +remnant, vanquished in the so-called struggle for life by pines and firs +that have driven it into its last strongholds in moist glens where the +climate is supposed to be exceptionally favorable. But the story told by +the majestic continuous forests of the south creates a very different +impression. No tree in the forest is more enduringly established in +concordance with both climate and soil. It grows heartily everywhere--on +moraines, rocky ledges, along watercourses, and in the deep, moist +alluvium of meadows with, as we have seen, a multitude of seedlings and +saplings crowding up around the aged, abundantly able to maintain the +forest in prime vigor. So that if all the trees of any section of the +main sequoia forest were ranged together according to age, a very +promising curve would be presented, all the way up from last year's +seedlings to giants, and with the young and middle-aged portion of the +curve many times longer than the old portion. Even as far north as the +Fresno, I counted 536 saplings and seedlings, growing promisingly upon +a landslip not exceeding two acres in area. This soil-bed was about +seven years old, and had been seeded almost simultaneously by pines, +firs, libocedrus, and sequoia, presenting a simple and instructive +illustration of the struggle for life among the rival species; and it +was interesting to note that the conditions thus far affecting them have +enabled the young sequoias to gain a marked advantage. Toward the south +where the sequoia becomes most exuberant and numerous, the rival trees +become less so; and where they mix with sequoias they grow up beneath +them like slender grasses among stalks of Indian corn. Upon a bed of +sandy floodsoil I counted ninety-four sequoias, from one to twelve feet +high, on a patch of ground once occupied by four large sugar pines which +lay crumbling beneath them--an instance of conditions which have enabled +sequoias to crowd out the pines. I also noted eighty-six vigorous +saplings upon a piece of fresh ground prepared for their reception by +fire. Thus fire, the great destroyer of the sequoia, also furnishes the +bare ground required for its growth from the seed. Fresh ground is, +however, furnished in sufficient quantities for the renewal of the +forests without the aid of fire--by the fall of old trees. The soil is +thus upturned and mellowed, and many trees are planted for every one +that falls. +<br> +It is constantly asserted in a vague way that the Sierra was vastly +wetter than now, and that the increasing drought will of itself +extinguish the sequoia, leaving its ground to other trees supposed +capable of flourishing in a drier climate. But that the sequoia can and +does grow on as dry ground as any of its present rivals is manifest in +a thousand places. "Why, then," it will be asked, "are sequoias always +found only in well-watered places?" Simply because a growth of sequoias +creates those streams. The thirsty mountaineer knows well that in every +sequoia grove he will find running water, but it is a mistake to suppose +that the water is the cause of the grove being there; on the contrary, +the grove is the cause of the water being there. Drain off the water +and the trees will remain, but cut off the trees, and the streams will +vanish. Never was cause more completely mistaken for effect than in the +case of these related phenomena of sequoia woods and perennial streams. +<br> +When attention is called to the method of sequoia stream-making, it will +be apprehended at once. The roots of this immense tree fill the ground, +forming a thick sponge that absorbs and holds back the rain and melting +snow, only allowing it to ooze and flow gently. Indeed, every fallen +leaf and rootlet, as well as long clasping root, and prostrate trunk, +may be regarded as a dam hoarding the bounty of storm-clouds, and +dispensing it as blessings all through the summer, instead of allowing +it to go headlong in short-lived floods. +<br> +Since, then, it is a fact that thousands of sequoias are growing +thriftily on what is termed dry ground, and even clinging like mountain +pines to rifts in granite precipices, and since it has also been shown +that the extra moisture found in connection with the denser growths is +an effect of their presence, instead of a cause of their presence, then +the notions as to the former extension of the species and its near +approach to extinction, based upon its supposed dependence on greater +moisture, are seen to be erroneous. +<br> +The decrease in rain and snowfall since the close of the glacial period +in the Sierra is much less than is commonly guessed. The highest +post-glacial water-marks are well preserved in all the upper river +channels, and they are not greatly higher than the spring flood-marks +of the present; showing conclusively that no extraordinary decrease +has taken place in the volume of the upper tributaries of post-glacial +Sierra streams since they came into existence. But, in the meantime, +eliminating all this complicated question of climatic change, the plain +fact remains that the present rain and snowfall is abundantly sufficient +for the luxuriant growth of sequoia forests. Indeed, all my observations +tend to show that in a prolonged drought the sugar pines and firs would +perish before the sequoia, not alone because of the greater longevity of +individual trees, but because the species can endure more drought, and +make the most of whatever moisture falls. +<br> +Again, if the restriction and irregular distribution of the species be +interpreted as a result of the desiccation of the Range, then instead of +increasing as it does in individuals toward the south where the rainfall +is less, it should diminish. If, then, the peculiar distribution of +sequoia has not been governed by superior conditions of soil as to +fertility or moisture, by what has it been governed? +<br> +In the course of my studies I observed that the northern groves, the +only ones I was at first acquainted with, were located on just those +portions of the general forest soil-belt that were first laid bare +toward the close of the glacial period when the ice-sheet began to break +up into individual glaciers. And while searching the wide basin of the +San Joaquin, and trying to account for the absence of sequoia where +every condition seemed favorable for its growth, it occurred to me that +this remarkable gap in the sequoia belt fifty miles wide is located +exactly in the basin of the vast, ancient <i>mer de glace</i> of the San +Joaquin and Kings River basins which poured its frozen floods to the +plain through this gap as its channel. I then perceived that the next +great gap in the belt to the northward, forty miles wide, extending +between the Calaveras and Tuolumne groves, occurs in the basin of the +great ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus basins; and +that the smaller gap between the Merced and Mariposa groves occurs in +the basin of the smaller glacier of the Merced. The wider the ancient +glacier, the wider the corresponding gap in the sequoia belt. +<br> +Finally, pursuing my investigations across the basins of the Kaweah +and Tule, I discovered that the sequoia belt attained its greatest +development just where, owing to the topographical peculiarities of the +region, the ground had been best protected from the main ice-rivers that +continued to pour past from the summit fountains long after the smaller +local glaciers had been melted. +<br> +Taking now a general view of the belt, beginning at the south we see +that the majestic ancient glaciers were shed off right and left down the +valleys of Kern and Kings Rivers by the lofty protective spurs outspread +embracingly above the warm sequoia-filled basins of the Kaweah and Tule. +Then, next northward, occurs the wide sequoia-less channel, or basin of +the ancient San Joaquin and sings River mer de glace; then the warm, +protected spots of Fresno and Mariposa groves; then the sequoia-less +channel of the ancient Merced glacier; next the warm, sheltered ground +of the Merced and Tuolumne groves; then the sequoia-less channel of the +grand ancient mer de glace of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus; then the +warm old ground of the Calaveras and Stanislaus groves. It appears, +therefore, that just where, at a certain period in the history of the +Sierra, the glaciers were not, there the sequoia is, and just where the +glaciers were, there the sequoia is not. +<br> +But although all the observed phenomena bearing on the post-glacial +history of this colossal tree point to the conclusion that it never was +more widely distributed on the Sierra since the close of the glacial +epoch; that its present forests are scarcely past prime, if, indeed, +they have reached prime; that the post-glacial day of the species +is probably not half done; yet, when from a wider outlook the vast +antiquity of the genus is considered, and its ancient richness in +species and individuals,--comparing our Sierra Giant and <i>Sequoia +sempervirens</i> of the Coast Range, the only other living species of +sequoia, with the twelve fossil species already discovered and described +by Heer and Lesquereux, some of which flourished over vast areas in the +Arctic regions and in Europe and our own territories, during tertiary +and cretaceous times--then, indeed, it becomes plain that our two +surviving species, restricted to narrow belts within the limits of +California, are mere remnants of the genus, both as to species and +individuals, and that they may be verging to extinction. But the verge +of a period beginning in cretaceous times may have a breadth of tens of +thousands of years, not to mention the possible existence of conditions +calculated to multiply and re-extend both species and individuals. +<br> +There is no absolute limit to the existence of any tree. Death is due to +accidents, not, as that of animals, to the wearing out of organs. Only +the leaves die of old age. Their fall is foretold in their structure; +but the leaves are renewed every year, and so also are the essential +organs wood, roots, bark, buds. Most of the Sierra trees die of disease, +insects, fungi, etc., but nothing hurts the big tree. I never saw one +that was sick or showed the slightest sign of decay. Barring accidents, +it seems to be immortal. It is a curious fact that all the very old +sequoias had lost their heads by lightning strokes. "All things come to +him who waits." But of all living things, sequoia is perhaps the only +one able to wait long enough to make sure of being struck by lightning. +<br> +So far as I am able to see at present only fire and the ax threaten the +existence of these noblest of God's trees. In Nature's keeping they +are safe, but through the agency of man destruction is making rapid +progress, while in the work of protection only a good beginning has been +made. The Fresno grove, the Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves are +under the protection of the Federal Government in the Yosemite National +Park. So are the General Grant and Sequoia National Parks; the latter, +established twenty-one years ago, has an area of 240 square miles and is +efficiently guarded by a troop of cavalry under the direction of the +Secretary of the Interior; so also are the small General Grant National +Park, estatblished at the same time with an area of four square miles, +and the Mariposa grove, about the same size and the small Merced and +Tuolumne group. Perhaps more than half of all the big trees have been +thoughtlessly sold and are now in the hands of speculators and mill men. +It appears, therefore, that far the largest and important section of +protected big trees is in the great Sequoia National Park, now easily +accessible by rail to Lemon Cove and thence by a good stage road into +the giant forest of the Kaweah and thence by rail to other parts of the +park; but large as it is it should be made much larger. Its natural +eastern boundary is the High Sierra and the northern and southern +boundaries are the Kings and Kern Rivers. Thus could be included +the sublime scenery on the headwaters of these rivers and perhaps +nine-tenths of all the big trees in existence. All private claims +within these bounds should be gradually extinguished by purchase by the +Government. The big tree, leaving all its higher uses out of the count, +is a tree of life to the dwellers of the plain dependent on irrigation, +a never-failing spring, sending living waters to the lowland. For every +grove cut down a stream is dried up. Therefore all California is crying, +"Save the trees of the fountains." Nor, judging by the signs of the +times, is it likely that the cry will cease until the salvation of all +that is left of <i>Sequoia gigantea</i> is made sure. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 8<br> +The Flowers</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +Yosemite was all one glorious flower garden before plows and scythes and +trampling, biting horses came to make its wide open spaces look like +farmers' pasture fields. Nevertheless, countless flowers still bloom +every year in glorious profusion on the grand talus slopes, wall benches +and tablets, and in all the fine, cool side-cañons up to the rim of the +Valley, and beyond, higher and higher, to the summits of the peaks. Even +on the open floor and in easily-reached side-nooks many common flowering +plants have survived and still make a brave show in the spring and early +summer. Among these we may mention tall œnotheras, <i>Pentstemon lutea</i>, +and <i>P. Douglasii</i> with fine blue and red flowers; Spraguea, scarlet +zauschneria, with its curious radiant rosettes characteristic of the +sandy flats; mimulus, eunanus, blue and white violets, geranium, +columbine, erythraea, larkspur, collomia, draperia, gilias, heleniums, +bahia, goldenrods, daisies, honeysuckle; heuchera, bolandra, saxifrages, +gentians; in cool cañon nooks and on Clouds' Rest and the base of Starr +King Dome you may find <i>Primula suffrutescens</i>, the only wild primrose +discovered in California, and the only known shrubby species in the +genus. And there are several fine orchids, habenaria, and cypripedium, +the latter very rare, once common in the Valley near the foot of Glacier +Point, and in a bog on the rim of the Valley near a place called +Gentry's Station, now abandoned. It is a very beautiful species, the +large oval lip white, delicately veined with purple; the other petals +and the sepals purple, strap-shaped, and elegantly curled and twisted. +<br> +Of the lily family, fritillaria, smilacina, chlorogalum and several +fine species of brodiæa, Ithuriel's spear, and others less prized are +common, and the favorite calochortus, or Mariposa lily, a unique genus +of many species, something like the tulips of Europe but far finer. Most +of them grow on the warm foothills below the Valley, but two charming +species, <i>C. cœruleus</i> and <i>C. nudus</i>, dwell in springy places on the +Wawona road a few miles beyond the brink of the walls. +<br> +The snow plant (<i>Sarcodes sanguinea</i>) is more admired by tourists than any +other in California. It is red, fleshy and watery and looks like a +gigantic asparagus shoot. Soon after the snow is off the round it rises +through the dead needles and humus in the pine and fir woods like a +bright glowing pillar of fire. In a week or so it grows to a height of +eight or twelve inches with a diameter of an inch and a half or two +inches; then its long fringed bracts curl aside, allowing the twenty- or +thirty-five-lobed, bell-shaped flowers to open and look straight out +from the axis. It is said to grow up through the snow; on the contrary, +it always waits until the ground is warm, though with other early +flowers it is occasionally buried or half-buried for a day or two +by spring storms. The entire plant--flowers, bracts, stem, scales, +and roots--is fiery red. Its color could appeal to one's blood. +Nevertheless, it is a singularly cold and unsympathetic plant. Everybody +admires it as a wonderful curiosity, but nobody loves it as lilies, +violets, roses, daisies are loved. Without fragrance, it stands beneath +the pines and firs lonely and silent, as if unacquainted with any other +plant in the world; never moving in the wildest storms; rigid as if +lifeless, though covered with beautiful rosy flowers. +<br> +Far the most delightful and fragrant of the Valley flowers is the +Washington lily, white, moderate in size, with from three- to +ten-flowered racemes. I found one specimen in the lower end of the +Valley at the foot of the Wawona grade that was eight feet high, the +raceme two feet long, with fifty-two flowers, fifteen of them open; +the others had faded or were still in the bud. This famous lily is +distributed over the sunny portions of the sugar-pine woods, never in +large meadow-garden companies like the large and the small tiger lilies +(<i>pardalinum</i> and <i>parvum</i>), but widely scattered, standing up to the waist +in dense ceanothus and manzanita chaparral, waving its lovely flowers +above the blooming wilderness of brush, and giving their fragrance to +the breeze. It is now becoming scarce in the most accessible parts of +its range on account of the high price paid for its bulbs by gardeners +through whom it has been distributed far and wide over the flower-loving +world. For, on account of its pure color and delicate, delightful +fragrance, all lily lovers at once adopted it as a favorite. +<br> +The principal shrubs are manzanita and ceanothus, several species of +each, azalea, <i>Rubus nutkanus</i>, brier rose, choke-cherry philadelphus, +calycanthus, garrya, rhamnus, etc. +<br> +The manzanita never fails to attract particular attention. The +species common in the Valley is usually about six or seven feet high, +round-headed with innumerable branches, red or chocolate-color bark, +pale green leaves set on edge, and a rich profusion of small, pink, +narrow-throated, urn-shaped flowers, like those of arbutus. The knotty, +crooked, angular branches are about as rigid as bones, and the red bark +is so thin and smooth on both trunk and branches, they look as if they +had been peeled and polished and painted. In the spring large areas +on the mountain up to a height of eight or nine thousand feet are +brightened with the rosy flowers, and in autumn with their red fruit. +The pleasantly acid berries, about the size of peas, look like little +apples, and a hungry mountaineer is glad to eat them, though half their +bulk is made up of hard seeds. Indians, bears, coyotes, foxes, birds and +other mountain people live on them for weeks and months. The different +species of ceanothus usually associated with manzanita are flowery +fragrant and altogether delightful shrubs, growing in glorious +abundance, not only in the Valley, but high up in the forest on sunny or +half-shaded ground. In the sugar-pine woods the most beautiful species +is <i>C. integerrimus</i>, often called Californian lilac, or deer brush. It +is five or six feet high with slender branches, glossy foliage, and +abundance of blue flowers in close, showy panicles. Two species, <i>C. +prostrates</i> and <i>C. procumbens</i>, spread smooth, blue-flowered mats and +rugs beneath the pines, and offer fine beds to tired mountaineers. The +commonest species, <i>C. cordulatus</i>, is most common in the silver-fir +woods. It is white-flowered and thorny, and makes dense thickets of +tangled chaparral, difficult to wade through or to walk over. But it is +pressed flat every winter by ten or fifteen feet of snow. The western +azalea makes glorious beds of bloom along the river bank and meadows. +In the Valley it is from two to five feet high, has fine green leaves, +mostly hidden beneath its rich profusion of large, fragrant white and +yellow flowers, which are in their prime in June, July and August, +according to the elevation, ranging from 3000 to 6000 feet. Near the +azalea-bordered streams the small wild rose, resembling <i>R. blanda</i>, +makes large thickets deliciously fragrant, especially on a dewy morning +and after showers. Not far from these azalea and rose gardens, <i>Rubus +nutkanus</i> covers the ground with broad, soft, velvety leaves, and +pure-white flowers as large as those of its neighbor and relative, the +rose, and much finer in texture, followed at the end of summer by soft +red berries good for everybody. This is the commonest and the most +beautiful of the whole blessed, flowery, fruity Rubus genus. +<br> +There are a great many interesting ferns in the Valley and about +it. Naturally enough the greater number are rock ferns--pellæa, +cheilanthes, polypodium, adiantum, woodsia, cryptogramma, etc., with +small tufted fronds, lining cool glens and fringing the seams of the +cliffs. The most important of the larger species are woodwardia, +aspidium, asplenium, and, above all, the common pteris. <i>Woodwardia +radicans</i> is a superb, broad-shouldered fern five to eight feet high, +growing in vase-shaped clumps where tile ground is nearly level and on +some of the benches of the north wall of the Valley where it is watered +by a broad trickling stream. It thatches the sloping rocks, frond +overlapping frond like roof shingles. The broad-fronded, hardy <i>Pteris +aquilina</i>, the commonest of ferns, covers large areas on the floor of +the Valley. No other fern does so much for the color glory of autumn, +with its browns and reds and yellows, even after lying dead beneath +the snow all winter. It spreads a rich brown mantle over the desolate +ground in the spring before the grass has sprouted, and at the first +touch of sun-heat its young fronds come rearing up full of faith and +hope through the midst of the last year's ruins. +<br> +Of the five species of pellæa, <i>P. Breweri</i> is the hardiest as to +enduring high altitudes and stormy weather and at the same time it is +the most fragile of the genus. It grows in dense tufts in the clefts of +storm-beaten rocks, high up on the mountain-side on the very edge of the +fern line. It is a handsome little fern about four or five inches high, +has pale-green pinnate fronds, and shining bronze-colored stalks about +as brittle as glass. Its companions on the lower part of its range are +<i>Cryptogramma acrostichoides</i> and <i>Phegopteris alpestris</i>, the latter with +soft, delicate fronds, not in the least like those of Rock fern, though +it grows on the rocks where the snow lies longest. <i>Pellaea Bridgesii</i>, +with blue-green, narrow, simply-pinnate fronds, is about the same size +as Breweri and ranks next to it as a mountaineer, growing in fissures, +wet or dry, and around the edges of boulders that are resting on glacier +pavements with no fissures whatever. About a thousand feet lower we +find the smaller, more abundant <i>P. densa</i> on ledges and boulder-strewn, +fissured pavements, watered until late in summer from oozing currents, +derived from lingering snowbanks. It is, or rather was, extremely +abundant between the foot of the Nevada and the head of the Vernal Fall, +but visitors with great industry have dug out almost every root, so that +now one has to scramble in out-of-the-way places to find it. The three +species of Cheilanthes in the Valley--<i>C. californica</i>, <i>C. gracillima</i>, and +<i>myriophylla</i>, with beautiful two-to-four-pinnate fronds, an inch to five +inches long, adorn the stupendous walls however dry and sheer. The +exceedingly delicate californica is so rare that I have found it only +once. The others are abundant and are sometimes accompanied by the +little gold fern, <i>Gymnogramme triangularis</i>, and rarely by the curious +little <i>Botrychium simplex</i>, some of them less than an inch high. The +finest of all the rock ferns is <i>Adiantum pedatum</i>, lover of waterfalls +and the finest spray-dust. The homes it loves best are over-leaning, +cave-like hollows, beside the larger falls, where it can wet its fingers +with their dewy spray. Many of these moss-lined chambers contain +thousands of these delightful ferns, clinging to mossy walls by the +slightest hold, reaching out their delicate finger-fronds on dark, +shining stalks, sensitive and tremulous, throbbing in unison with every +movement and tone of the falling water, moving each division of the +frond separately at times, as if fingering the music. +<br> +May and June are the main bloom-months of the year. Both the flowers +and falls are then at their best. By the first of August the midsummer +glories of the Valley are past their prime. The young birds are then out +of their nests. Most of the plants have gone to seed; berries are ripe; +autumn tints begin to kindle and burn over meadow and grove, and a soft +mellow haze in the morning sunbeams heralds the approach of Indian +summer. The shallow river is now at rest, its flood-work done. It is now +but little more than a series of pools united by trickling, whispering +currents that steal softly over brown pebbles and sand with scarce an +audible murmur. Each pool has a character of its own and, though they +are nearly currentless, the night air and tree shadows keep them cool. +Their shores curve in and out in bay and promontory, giving the +appearance of miniature lakes, their banks in most places embossed with +brier and azalea, sedge and grass and fern; and above these in their +glory of autumn colors a mingled growth of alder, willow, dogwood and +balm-of-Gilead; mellow sunshine overhead, cool shadows beneath; light +filtered and strained in passing through the ripe leaves like that which +passes through colored windows. The surface of the water is stirred, +perhaps, by whirling water-beetles, or some startled trout, seeking +shelter beneath fallen logs or roots. The falls, too, are quiet; no wind +stirs, and the whole Valley floor is a mosaic of greens and purples, +yellows and reds. Even the rocks seem strangely soft and mellow, as if +they, too, had ripened. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 9<br> +The Birds</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +The songs of the Yosemite winds and waterfalls are delightfully enriched +with bird song, especially in the nesting time of spring and early +summer. The most familiar and best known of all is the common robin, who +may be seen every day, hopping about briskly on the meadows and uttering +his cheery, enlivening call. The black-headed grosbeak, too, is here, +with the Bullock oriole, and western tanager, brown song-sparrow, hermit +thrush, the purple finch,--a fine singer, with head and throat of a +rosy-red hue,--several species of warblers and vireos, kinglets, +flycatchers, etc. +<br> +But the most wonderful singer of all the birds is the water-ouzel that +dives into foaming rapids and feeds at the bottom, holding on in a +wonderful way, living a charmed life. +<br> +Several species of humming-birds are always to be seen, darting and +buzzing among the showy flowers. The little red-bellied nuthatches, the +chickadees, and little brown creepers, threading the furrows of the bark +of the pines, searching for food in the crevices. The large Steller's +jay makes merry in the pine-tops; flocks of beautiful green swallows +skim over the streams, and the noisy Clarke's crow may oftentimes be +seen on the highest points around the Valley; and in the deep woods +beyond the walls you may frequently hear and see the dusky grouse and +the pileated woodpecker, or woodcock almost as large as a pigeon. The +junco or snow-bird builds its nest on the floor of the Valley among the +ferns; several species of sparrow are common and the beautiful lazuli +bunting, a common bird in the underbrush, flitting about among the +azalea and ceanothus bushes and enlivening the groves with his brilliant +color; and on gravelly bars the spotted sandpiper is sometimes seen. +Many woodpeckers dwell in the Valley; the familiar flicker, the Harris +woodpecker and the species which so busily stores up acorns in the thick +bark of the yellow pines. +<br> +The short, cold days of winter are also sweetened with the music and +hopeful chatter of a considerable number of birds. No cheerier choir +ever sang in snow. First and best of all is the water-ouzel, a dainty, +dusky little bird about the size of a robin, that sings in sweet fluty +song all winter and all summer, in storms and calms, sunshine and +shadow, haunting the rapids and waterfalls with marvelous constancy, +building his nest in the cleft of a rock bathed in spray. He is not +web-footed, yet he dives fearlessly into foaming rapids, seeming to take +the greater delight the more boisterous the stream, always as cheerful +and calm as any linnet in a grove. All his gestures as he flits about +amid the loud uproar of the falls bespeak the utmost simplicity and +confidence--bird and stream one and inseparable. What a pair! yet they +are well related. A finer bloom than the foam bell in an eddying pool +is this little bird. We may miss the meaning of the loud-resounding +torrent, but the flute-like voice of the bird--only love is in it. +<br> +A few robins, belated on their way down from the upper Meadows, linger +in the Valley and make out to spend the winter in comparative comfort, +feeding on the mistletoe berries that grow on the oaks. In the depths +of the great forests, on the high meadows, in the severest altitudes, +they seem as much at home as in the fields and orchards about the busy +habitations of man, ascending the Sierra as the snow melts, following +the green footsteps of Spring, until in July or August the highest +glacier meadows are reached on the summit of the Range. Then, after the +short summer is over, and their work in cheering and sweetening these +lofty wilds is done, they gradually make their way down again in accord +with the weather, keeping below the snow-storms, lingering here and +there to feed on huckleberries and frost-nipped wild cherries growing +on the upper slopes. Thence down to the vineyards and orchards of the +lowlands to spend the winter; entering the gardens of the great towns +as well as parks and fields, where the blessed wanderers are too often +slaughtered for food--surely a bad use to put so fine a musician to; +better make stove wood of pianos to feed the kitchen fire. +<br> +The kingfisher winters in the Valley, and the flicker and, of course, +the carpenter woodpecker, that lays up large stores of acorns in the +bark of trees; wrens also, with a few brown and gray linnets, and flocks +of the arctic bluebird, making lively pictures among the snow-laden +mistletoe bushes. Flocks of pigeons are often seen, and about six +species of ducks, as the river is never wholly frozen over. Among these +are the mallard and the beautiful woodduck, now less common on account +of being so often shot at. Flocks of wandering geese used to visit the +Valley in March and April, and perhaps do so still, driven down by +hunger or stress of weather while on their way across the Range. When +pursued by the hunters I have frequently seen them try to fly over the +walls of Lee Valley until tired out and compelled to re-alight. Yosemite +magnitudes seem to be as deceptive to geese as to men, for after +circling to a considerable height and forming regular harrow-shaped +ranks they would suddenly find themselves in danger of being dashed +against the face of the cliff, much nearer the bottom than the top. Then +turning in confusion with loud screams they would try again and again +until exhausted and compelled to descend. I have occasionally observed +large flocks on their travels crossing the summits of the Range at a +height of 12,000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and even in +so rare an atmosphere as this they seemed to be sustaining themselves +without extra effort. Strong, however, as they are of wind and wing, +they cannot fly over Yosemite walls, starting from the bottom. +<br> +A pair of golden eagles have lived in the Valley ever since I first +visited it, hunting all winter along the northern cliffs and down the +river cañon. Their nest is on a ledge of the cliff over which pours +the Nevada Fall. Perched on the top of a dead spar, they were always +interested observers of the geese when they were being shot at. I once +noticed one of the geese compelled to leave the flock on account of +being sorely wounded, although it still seemed to fly pretty well. +Immediately the eagles pursued it and no doubt struck it down, although +I did not see the result of the hunt. Anyhow, it flew past me up the +Valley, closely pursued. +<br> +One wild, stormy winter morning after five feet of snow had fallen on +the floor of the Valley and the flying flakes driven by a strong wind +still thickened the air, making darkness like the approach of night, I +sallied forth to see what I might learn and enjoy. It was impossible +to go very far without the aid of snow-shoes, but I found no great +difficulty in making my way to a part of the river where one of my +ouzels lived. I found him at home busy about his breakfast, apparently +unaware of anything uncomfortable in the weather. Presently he flew out +to a stone against which the icy current was beating, and turning his +back to the wind, sang as delightfully as a lark in springtime. +<br> +After spending an hour or two with my favorite, I made my way across the +Valley, boring and wallowing through the loose snow, to learn as much +as possible about the way the other birds were spending their time. In +winter one can always find them because they are then restricted to the +north side of the Valley, especially the Indian Cañon groves, which +from their peculiar exposure are the warmest. +<br> +I found most of the robins cowering on the lee side of the larger +branches of the trees, where the snow could not fall on them, while two +or three of the more venturesome were making desperate efforts to get at +the mistletoe berries by clinging to the underside of the snow-crowned +masses, back downward, something like woodpeckers. Every now and then +some of the loose snow was dislodged and sifted down on the hungry +birds, sending them screaming back to their companions in the grove, +shivering and muttering like cold, hungry children. +<br> +Some of the sparrows were busy scratching and pecking at the feet of +the larger trees where the snow had been shed off, gleaning seeds +and benumbed insects, joined now and then by a robin weary of his +unsuccessful efforts to get at the snow-covered mistletoe berries. The +brave woodpeckers were clinging to the snowless sides of the larger +boles and overarching branches of the camp trees, making short flights +from side to side of the grove, pecking now and then at the acorns they +had stored in the bark, and chattering aimlessly as if unable to keep +still, evidently putting in the time in a very dull way. The hardy +nuthatches were threading the open furrows of the barks in their usual +industrious manner and uttering their quaint notes, giving no evidence +of distress. The Steller's jays were, of course, making more noise and +stir than all the other birds combined; ever coming and going with +loud bluster, screaming as if each had a lump of melting sludge in his +throat, and taking good care to improve every opportunity afforded by +the darkness and confusion of the storm to steal from the acorn stores +of the woodpeckers. One of the golden eagles made an impressive picture +as he stood bolt upright on the top of a tall pine-stump, braving the +storm, with his back to the wind and a tuft of snow piled on his broad +shoulders, a monument of passive endurance. Thus every storm-bound bird +seemed more or less uncomfortable, if not in distress. The storm was +reflected in every gesture, and not one cheerful note, not to say song, +came from a single bill. Their cowering, joyless endurance offered +striking contrasts to the spontaneous, irrepressible gladness of the +ouzel, who could no more help giving out sweet song than a rose sweet +fragrance. He must sing, though the heavens fall. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 10<br> +The South Dome</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +With the exception of a few spires and pinnacles, the South Dome is +the only rock about the Valley that is strictly inaccessible without +artificial means, and its inaccessibility is expressed in severe terms. +Nevertheless many a mountaineer, gazing admiringly, tried hard to +invent a way to the top of its noble crown--all in vain, until in the +year 1875, George Anderson, an indomitable Scotchman, undertook the +adventure. The side facing Tenaya Cañon is an absolutely vertical +precipice from the summit to a depth of about 1600 feet, and on the +opposite side it is nearly vertical for about as great a depth. The +southwest side presents a very steep and finely drawn curve from the top +down a thousand feet or more, while on the northeast, where it is united +with the Clouds' Rest Ridge, one may easily reach a point called the +Saddle, about seven hundred feet below the summit. From the Saddle the +Dome rises in a graceful curve a few degrees too steep for unaided +climbing, besides being defended by overleaning ends of the concentric +dome layers of the granite. +<br> +A year or two before Anderson gained the summit, John Conway, the master +trail-builder of the Valley, and his little sons, who climbed smooth +rocks like lizards, made a bold effort to reach the top by climbing +barefooted up the grand curve with a rope which they fastened at +irregular intervals by means of eye-bolts driven into joints of the +rock. But finding that the upper part would require laborious drilling, +they abandoned the attempt, glad to escape from the dangerous position +they had reached, some 300 feet above the Saddle. Anderson began with +Conway's old rope, which had been left in place, and resolutely drilled +his way to the top, inserting eye-bolts five to six feet apart, and +making his rope fast to each in succession, resting his feet on the +last bolt while he drilled a hole for the next above. Occasionally some +irregularity in the curve, or slight foothold, would enable him to climb +a few feet without a rope, which he would pass and begin drilling again, +and thus the whole work was accomplished in a few days. From this +slender beginning he proposed to construct a substantial stairway which +he hoped to complete in time for the next year's travel, but while busy +getting out timber for his stairway and dreaming of the wealth he hoped +to gain from tolls, he was taken sick and died all alone in his little +cabin. +<br> +On the 10th of November, after returning from a visit to Mount Shasta, a +month or two after Anderson had gained the summit, I made haste to the +Dome, not only for the pleasure of climbing, but to see what I might +learn. The first winter storm-clouds had blossomed and the mountains and +all the high points about the Valley were mantled in fresh snow. I was, +therefore, a little apprehensive of danger from the slipperiness of the +rope and the rock. Anderson himself tried to prevent me from making +the attempt, refusing to believe that any one could climb his rope in +the now-muffled condition in which it then was. Moreover, the sky was +overcast and solemn snow-clouds began to curl around the summit, and +my late experiences on icy Shasta came to mind. But reflecting that I +had matches in my pocket, and that a little firewood might be found, I +concluded that in case of a storm the night could be spent on the Dome +without suffering anything worth minding, no matter what the clouds +might bring forth. I therefore pushed on and gained the top. +<br> +It was one of those brooding, changeful days that come between Indian +summer and winter, when the leaf colors have grown dim and the clouds +come and go among the cliffs like living creatures looking for work: now +hovering aloft, now caressing rugged rock-brows with great gentleness, +or, wandering afar over the tops of the forests, touching the spires of +fir and pine with their soft silken fringes as if trying to tell the +glad news of the coming of snow. +<br> +The first view was perfectly glorious. A massive cloud of pure pearl +luster, apparently as fixed and calm as the meadows and groves in the +shadow beneath it, was arched across the Valley from wall to wall, one +end resting on the grand abutment of El Capitan, the other on Cathedral +Rock. A little later, as I stood on the tremendous verge overlooking +Mirror Lake, a flock of smaller clouds, white as snow, came from the +north, trailing their downy skirts over the dark forests, and entered +the Valley with solemn god-like gestures through Indian Cañon and over +the North Dome and Royal Arches, moving swiftly, yet with majestic +deliberation. On they came, nearer and nearer, gathering and massing +beneath my feet and filling the Tenaya Cañon. Then the sun shone free, +lighting the pearly gray surface of the cloud-like sea and making it +glow. Gazing, admiring, I was startled to see for the first time the +rare optical phenomenon of the "Specter of the Brocken." My shadow, +clearly outlined, about half a mile long, lay upon this glorious white +surface with startling effect. I walked back and forth, waved my arms +and struck all sorts of attitudes, to see every slightest movement +enormously exaggerated. Considering that I have looked down so many +times from mountain tops on seas of all sorts of clouds, it seems +strange that I should have seen the "Brocken Specter" only this once. +A grander surface and a grander stand-point, however, could hardly +have been found in all the Sierra. +<br> +After this grand show the cloud-sea rose higher, wreathing the Dome, and +for a short time submerging it, making darkness like night, and I began +to think of looking for a camp ground in a cluster of dwarf pines. But +soon the sun shone free again, the clouds, sinking lower and lower, +gradually vanished, leaving the Valley with its Indian-summer colors +apparently refreshed, while to the eastward the summit-peaks, clad in +new snow, towered along the horizon in glorious array. +<br> +Though apparently it is perfectly bald, there are four clumps of pines +growing on the summit, representing three species, Pinus albicaulis, +P. contorta and P. ponderosa, var. Jeffreyi--all three, of course, +repressed and storm-beaten. The alpine spiræa grows here also and +blossoms profusely with potentilla, erigeron, eriogonum, pentstemon, +solidago, and an interesting species of onion, and four or five species +of grasses and sedges. None of these differs in any respect from those +of other summits of the same height, excepting the curious little +narrow-leaved, waxen-bulbed onion, which I had not seen elsewhere. +<br> +Notwithstanding the enthusiastic eagerness of tourists to reach the +crown of the Dome the views of the Valley from this lofty standpoint are +less striking than from many other points comparatively low, chiefly on +account of the foreshortening effect produced by looking down from so +great a height. The North Dome is dwarfed almost beyond recognition, +the grand sculpture of the Royal Arches is scarcely noticeable, and the +whole range of walls on both sides seem comparatively low, especially +when the Valley is flooded with noon sunshine; while the Dome itself, +the most sublime feature of all the Yosemite views, is out of sight +beneath one's feet. The view of Little Yosemite Valley is very fine, +though inferior to one obtained from the base of the Starr King Cone, +but the summit landscapes towards Mounts Ritter, Lyell, Dana, Conness, +and the Merced Group, are very effective and complete. +<br> +No one has attempted to carry out Anderson's plan of making the Dome +accessible. For my part I should prefer leaving it in pure wildness, +though, after all, no great damage could be done by tramping over it. +The surface would be strewn with tin cans and bottles, but the winter +gales would blow the rubbish away. Avalanches might strip off any sort +of stairway or ladder that might be built. Blue jays and Clark's crows +have trodden the Dome for many a day, and so have beetles and chipmunks, +and Tissiack would hardly be more "conquered" or spoiled should man be +added to her list of visitors. His louder scream and heavier scrambling +would not stir a line of her countenance. +<br> +When the sublime ice-floods of the glacial period poured down the flank +of the Range over what is now Yosemite Valley, they were compelled to +break through a dam of domes extending across from Mount Starr King to +North Dome; and as the period began to draw near a close the shallowing +ice-currents were divided and the South Dome was, perhaps, the first to +emerge, burnished and shining like a mirror above the surface of the icy +sea; and though it has sustained the wear and tear of the elements tens +of thousands of years, it yet remains a telling monument of the action +of the great glaciers that brought it to light. Its entire surface is +still covered with glacial hieroglyphics whose interpretation is the +reward of all who devoutly study them. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 11<br> +The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers:<br> +How the Valley Was Formed</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +All California has been glaciated, the low plains and valleys as well +as the mountains. Traces of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thickness, +beneath whose heavy folds the present landscapes have been molded, may +be found everywhere, though glaciers now exist only among the peaks of +the High Sierra. No other mountain chain on this or any other of the +continents that I have seen is so rich as the Sierra in bold, striking, +well-preserved glacial monuments. Indeed, every feature is more or +less tellingly glacial. Not a peak, ridge, dome, cañon, yosemite, +lake-basin, stream or forest will you see that does not in some way +explain the past existence and modes of action of flowing, grinding, +sculpturing, soil-making, scenery-making ice. For, notwithstanding the +post-glacial agents--the air, rain, snow, frost, river, avalanche, +etc.--have been at work upon the greater portion of the Range for tens +of thousands of stormy years, each engraving its own characters more +and more deeply over those of the ice, the latter are so enduring and +so heavily emphasized, they still rise in sublime relief, clear and +legible, through every after-inscription. The landscapes of North +Greenland, Antarctica, and some of those of our own Alaska, are still +being fashioned beneath a slow-crawling mantle of ice, from a quarter +of a mile to probably more than a mile in thickness, presenting noble +illustrations of the ancient condition of California, when its sublime +scenery lay hidden in process of formation. On the Himalaya, the +mountains of Norway and Switzerland, the Caucasus, and on most of those +of Alaska, their ice-mantle has been melted down into separate glaciers +that flow river-like through the valleys, illustrating a similar past +condition in the Sierra, when every cañon and valley was the channel +of an ice-stream, all of which may be easily traced back to their +fountains, where some sixty-five or seventy of their topmost residual +branches still linger beneath protecting mountain shadows. +<br> +The change from one to another of those glacial conditions was slow as +we count time. When the great cycle of snow years, called the Glacial +Period, was nearly complete in California, the ice-mantle, wasting from +season to season faster than it was renewed, began to withdraw from the +lowlands and gradually became shallower everywhere. Then the highest +of the Sierra domes and dividing ridges, containing distinct glaciers +between them, began to appear above the icy sea. These first river-like +glaciers remained united in one continuous sheet toward the summit of +the Range for many centuries. But as the snow-fall diminished, and the +climate became milder, this upper part of the ice-sheet was also in +turn separated into smaller distinct glaciers, and these again into +still smaller ones, while at the same time all were growing shorter and +shallower, though fluctuations of the climate now and then occurred +that brought their receding ends to a standstill, or even enabled them +to advance for a few tens or hundreds of years. +<br> +Meanwhile, hardy, home-seeking plants and animals, after long waiting, +flocked to their appointed places, pushing bravely on higher and higher, +along every sun-warmed slope, closely following the retreating ice, +which, like shreds of summer clouds, at length vanished from the +new-born mountains, leaving them in all their main, telling features +nearly as we find them now. +<br> +Tracing the ways of glaciers, learning how Nature sculptures +mountain-waves in making scenery-beauty that so mysteriously influences +every human being, is glorious work. +<br> +The most striking and attractive of the glacial phenomena in the upper +Yosemite region are the polished glacier pavements, because they are so +beautiful, and their beauty is of so rare a kind, so unlike any portion +of the loose, deeply weathered lowlands where people make homes and earn +their bread. They are simply flat or gently undulating areas of hard +resisting granite, which present the unchanged surface upon which with +enormous pressure the ancient glaciers flowed. They are found in most +perfect condition in the subalpine region, at an elevation of from eight +thousand to nine thousand feet. Some are miles in extent, only slightly +interrupted by spots that have given way to the weather, while the best +preserved portions reflect the sunbeams like calm water or glass, and +shine as if polished afresh every day, notwithstanding they have been +exposed to corroding rains, dew, frost, and snow measureless thousands +of years. +<br> +The attention of wandering hunters and prospectors, who see so many +mountain wonders, is seldom commanded by other glacial phenomena, +moraines however regular and artificial-looking, cañons however deep +or strangely modeled, rocks however high; but when they come to these +shining pavements they stop and stare in wondering admiration, kneel +again and again to examine the brightest spots, and try hard to account +for their mysterious shining smoothness. They may have seen the winter +avalanches of snow descending in awful majesty through the woods, +scouring the rocks and sweeping away like weeds the trees that stood +in their way, but conclude that this cannot be the work of avalanches, +because the scratches and fine polished strife show that the agent, +whatever it was, moved along the sides of high rocks and ridges and up +over the tops of them as well as down their slopes. Neither can they see +how water may possibly have been the agent, for they find the same +strange polish upon ridges and domes thousands of feet above the reach +of any conceivable flood. Of all the agents of whose work they know +anything, only the wind seems capable of moving across the face of the +country in the directions indicated by the scratches and grooves. The +Indian name of Lake Tenaya is "Pyweak"--the lake of shining rocks. One +of the Yosemite tribe, Indian Tom, came to me and asked if I could tell +him what had made the Tenaya rocks so smooth. Even dogs and horses, when +first led up the mountains, study geology to this extent that they gaze +wonderingly at the strange brightness of the ground and smell it, and +place their feet cautiously upon it as if afraid of falling or sinking. +<br> +In the production of this admirable hard finish, the glaciers in many +places flowed with a pressure of more than a thousand tons to the square +yard, planing down granite, slate, and quartz alike, and bringing out +the veins and crystals of the rocks with beautiful distinctness. Over +large areas below the sources of the Tuolumne and Merced the granite is +porphyritic; feldspar crystals in inch or two in length in many places +form the greater part of the rock, and these, when planed off level with +the general surface, give rise to a beautiful mosaic on which the happy +sunbeams plash and glow in passionate enthusiasm. Here lie the brightest +of all the Sierra landscapes. The Range both to the north and south of +this region was, perhaps, glaciated about as heavily, but because the +rocks are less resisting, their polished surfaces have mostly given way +to the weather, leaving only small imperfect patches. The lower remnants +of the old glacial surface occur at an elevation of from 3000 to 5000 +feet above the sea level, and twenty to thirty miles below the axis of +the Range. The short, steeply inclined cañons of the eastern flank also +contain enduring, brilliantly striated and polished rocks, but these are +less magnificent than those of the broad western flank. +<br> +One of the best general views of the brightest and best of the Yosemite +park landscapes that every Yosemite tourist should see, is to be had +from the top of Fairview Dome, a lofty conoidal rock near Cathedral Peak +that long ago I named the Tuolumne Glacier Monument, one of the most +striking and best preserved of the domes. Its burnished crown is about +1500 feet above the Tuolumne Meadows and 10,000 above the sea. At first +sight it seems inaccessible, though a good climber will find it may +be scaled on the south side. About half-way up you will find it so +steep that there is danger of slipping, but feldspar crystals, two or +three inches long, of which the rock is full, having offered greater +resistance to atmospheric erosion than the mass of the rock in which +they are imbedded, have been brought into slight relief in some places, +roughening the surface here and there, and affording helping footholds. +<br> +The summit is burnished and scored like the sides and base, the +scratches and strife indicating that the mighty Tuolumne Glacier swept +over it as if it were only a mere boulder in the bottom of its channel. +The pressure it withstood must have been enormous. Had it been less +solidly built it would have been carried away, ground into moraine +fragments, like the adjacent rock in which it lay imbedded; for, great +as it is, it is only a hard residual knot like the Yosemite domes, +brought into relief by the removal of less resisting rock about it; +an illustration of the survival of the strongest and most favorably +situated. +<br> +Hardly less wonderful is the resistance it has offered to the trying +mountain weather since first its crown rose above the icy sea. The whole +quantity of post-glacial wear and tear it has suffered has not degraded +it a hundredth of an inch, as may readily be shown by the polished +portions of the surface. A few erratic boulders, nicely poised on its +crown, tell an interesting story. They came from the summit-peaks twelve +miles away, drifting like chips on the frozen sea, and were stranded +here when the top of the monument merged from the ice, while their +companions, whose positions chanced to be above the slopes of the sides +where they could not find rest, were carried farther on by falling back +on the shallowing ice current. +<br> +The general view from the summit consists of a sublime assemblage of +ice-born rocks and mountains, long wavering ridges, meadows, lakes, and +forest-covered moraines, hundreds of square miles of them. The lofty +summit-peaks rise grandly along the sky to the east, the gray pillared +slopes of the Hoffman Range toward the west, and a billowy sea of +shining rocks like the Monument, some of them almost as high and which +from their peculiar sculpture seem to be rolling westward in the middle +ground, something like breaking waves. Immediately beneath you are the +Big Tuolumne Meadows, smooth lawns with large breadths of woods on +either side, and watered by the young Tuolumne River, rushing cool and +clear from its many snow- and ice-fountains. Nearly all the upper part +of the basin of the Tuolumne Glacier is in sight, one of the greatest +and most influential of all the Sierra ice-rivers. Lavishly flooded by +many a noble affluent from the ice-laden flanks of Mounts Dana, Lyell, +McClure, Gibbs, Conness, it poured its majestic outflowing current full +against the end of the Hoffman Range, which divided and deflected it to +right and left, just as a river of water is divided against an island +in the middle of its channel. Two distinct glaciers were thus formed, +one of which flowed through the great Tuolumne Cañon and Hetch Hetchy +Valley, while the other swept upward in a deep current two miles wide +across the divide, five hundred feet high between the basins of the +Tuolumne and Merced, into the Tenaya Basin, and thence down through the +Tenaya Cañon and Yosemite. +<br> +The map-like distinctness and freshness of this glacial landscape cannot +fail to excite the attention of every beholder, no matter how little of +its scientific significance may be recognized. These bald, +westward-leaning rocks, with their rounded backs and shoulders toward +the glacier fountains of the summit-mountains, and their split, angular +fronts looking in the opposite direction, explain the tremendous +grinding force with which the ice-flood passed over them, and also the +direction of its flow. And the mountain peaks around the sides of the +upper general Tuolumne Basin, with their sharp unglaciated summits and +polished rounded sides, indicate the height to which the glaciers rose; +while the numerous moraines, curving and swaying in beautiful lines, +mark the boundaries of the main trunk and its tributaries as they +existed toward the close of the glacial winter. None of the commerical +highways of the land or sea, marked with buoys and lamps, fences, and +guide-boards, is so unmistakably indicated as are these broad, shining +trails of the vanished Tuolumne Glacier and its far-reaching +tributaries. +<br> +I should like now to offer some nearer views of a few characteristic +specimens of these wonderful old ice-streams, though it is not easy to +make a selection from so vast a system intimately inter-blended. The +main branches of the Merced Glacier are, perhaps, best suited to our +purpose, because their basins, full of telling inscriptions, are the +ones most attractive and accessible to the Yosemite visitors who like to +look beyond the valley walls. They number five, and may well be called +Yosemite glaciers, since they were the agents Nature used in developing +and fashioning the grand Valley. The names I have given them are, +beginning with the northern-most, Yosemite Creek, Hoffman, Tenaya, South +Lyell, and Illilouette Glaciers. These all converged in admirable poise +around from northeast to southeast, welded themselves together into the +main Yosemite Glacier, which, grinding gradually deeper, swept down +through the Valley, receiving small tributaries on its way from the +Indian, Sentinel, and Pohono Cañons; and at length flowed out of the +Valley, and on down the Range in a general westerly direction. At the +time that the tributaries mentioned above were well defined as to their +boundaries, the upper portion of the valley walls, and the highest rocks +about them, such as the Domes, the uppermost of the Three Brothers and +the Sentinel, rose above the surface of the ice. But during the Valley's +earlier history, all its rocks, however lofty, were buried beneath a +continuous sheet, which swept on above and about them like the wind, the +upper portion of the current flowing steadily, while the lower portion +went mazing and swedging down in the crooked and dome-blocked cañons +toward the head of the Valley. +<br> +Every glacier of the Sierra fluctuated in width and depth and length, +and consequently in degree of individuality, down to the latest +glacial days. It must, therefore, be borne in mind that the following +description of the Yosemite glaciers applies only to their separate +condition, and to that phase of their separate condition that they +presented toward the close of the glacial period after most of their +work was finished, and all the more telling features of the Valley and +the adjacent region were brought into relief. +<br> +The comparatively level, many-fountained Yosemite Creek Glacier was +about fourteen miles in length by four or five in width, and from five +hundred to a thousand feet deep. Its principal tributaries, drawing +their sources from the northern spurs of the Hoffman Range, at first +pursued a westerly course; then, uniting with each other, and a series +of short affluents from the western rim of the basin, the trunk thus +formed swept around to the southward in a magnificent curve, and poured +its ice over the north wall of Yosemite in cascades about two miles +wide. This broad and comparatively shallow glacier formed a sort of +crawling, wrinkled ice-cloud, that gradually became more regular in +shape and river-like as it grew older. Encircling peaks began to +overshadow its highest fountains, rock islets rose here and there amid +its ebbing currents, and its picturesque banks, adorned with domes and +round-backed ridges, extended in massive grandeur down to the brink of +the Yosemite walls. +<br> +In the meantime the chief Hoffman tributaries, slowly receding to the +shelter of the shadows covering their fountains, continued to live and +work independently, spreading soil, deepening lake-basins and giving +finishing touches to the sculpture in general. At length these also +vanished, and the whole basin is now full of light. Forests flourish +luxuriantly upon its ample moraines, lakes and meadows shine and bloom +amid its polished domes, and a thousand gardens adorn the banks of its +streams. +<br> +It is to the great width and even slope of the Yosemite Creek Glacier +that we owe the unrivaled height and sheerness of the Yosemite Falls. +For had the positions of the ice-fountains and the structure of the +rocks been such as to cause down-thrusting concentration of the Glacier +as it approached the Valley, then, instead of a high vertical fall we +should have had a long slanting cascade, which after all would perhaps +have been as beautiful and interesting, if we only had a mind to see +it so. +<br> +The short, comparatively swift-flowing Hoffman Glacier, whose fountains +extend along the south slopes of the Hoffman Range, offered a striking +contrast to the one just described. The erosive energy of the latter was +diffused over a wide field of sunken, boulder-like domes and ridges. The +Hoffman Glacier, on the contrary moved right ahead on a comparatively +even surface, making descent of nearly five thousand feet in five miles, +steadily contracting and deepening its current, and finally united with +the Tenaya Glacier as one of its most influential tributaries in the +development and sculpture of the great Half Dome, North Dome and the +rocks adjacent to them about the head of the Valley. +<br> +The story of its death is not unlike that of its companion already +described, though the declivity of its channel, and its uniform exposure +to sun-heat prevented any considerable portion of its current from +becoming torpid, lingering only well up on the Mountain slopes to finish +their sculpture and encircle them with a zone of moraine soil for +forests and gardens. Nowhere in all this wonderful region will you find +more beautiful trees and shrubs and flowers covering the traces of ice. +<br> +The rugged Tenaya Glacier wildly crevassed here and there above the +ridges it had to cross, instead of drawing its sources direct from the +summit of the Range, formed, as we have seen, one of the outlets of the +great Tuolumne Glacier, issuing from this noble fountain like a river +from a lake, two miles wide, about fourteen miles long, and from 1500 +to 2000 feet deep. +<br> +In leaving the Tuolumne region it crossed over the divide, as mentioned +above, between the Tuolumne and Tenaya basins, making an ascent of five +hundred feet. Hence, after contracting its wide current and receiving +a strong affluent from the fountains about Cathedral Peak, it poured +its massive flood over the northeastern rim of its basin in splendid +cascades. Then, crushing heavily against the Clouds' Rest Ridge, it bore +down upon the Yosemite domes with concentrated energy. +<br> +Toward the end of the ice period, while its Hoffman companion continued +to grind rock-meal for coming plants, the main trunk became torpid, +and vanished, exposing wide areas of rolling rock-waves and glistening +pavements, on whose channelless surface water ran wild and free. And +because the trunk vanished almost simultaneously throughout its whole +extent, no terminal moraines are found in its cañon channel; nor, since +its walls are, in most places, too steeply inclined to admit of the +deposition of moraine matter, do we find much of the two main laterals. +The lowest of its residual glaciers lingered beneath the shadow of the +Yosemite Half Dome; others along the base of Coliseum Peak above Lake +Tenaya and along the precipitous wall extending from the lake to the +Big Tuolumne Meadows. The latter, on account of the uniformity and +continuity of their protecting shadows, formed moraines of considerable +length and regularity that are liable to be mistaken for portions of +the left lateral of the Tuolumne tributary glacier. +<br> +Spend all the time you can spare or steal on the tracks of this grand +old glacier, charmed and enchanted by its magnificent cañon, lakes and +cascades and resplendent glacier pavements. +<br> +The Nevada Glacier was longer and more symmetrical than the last, and +the only one of the Merced system whose sources extended directly back +to the main summits on the axis of the Range. Its numerous fountains +were ranged side by side in three series, at an elevation of from 10,000 +to 12,000 feet above the sea. The first, on the right side of the basin, +extended from the Matterhorn to Cathedral Peak; that on the left through +the Merced group, and these two parallel series were united by a third +that extended around the head of the basin in a direction at right +angles to the others. +<br> +The three ranges of high peaks and ridges that supplied the snow for +these fountains, together with the Clouds' Rest Ridge, nearly inclose a +rectangular basin, that was filled with a massive sea of ice, leaving +an outlet toward the west through which flowed the main trunk glacier, +three-fourths of a mile to a mile and a half wide, fifteen miles long, +and from 1000 to 1500 feet deep, and entered Yosemite between the Half +Dome and Mount Starr King. +<br> +Could we have visited Yosemite Valley at this period of its history, we +should have found its ice cascades vastly more glorious than their tiny +water representatives of the present day. One of the grandest of these +was formed by that portion of the Nevada Glacier that poured over the +shoulder of the Half Dome. +<br> +This glacier, as a whole, resembled an oak, with a gnarled swelling base +and wide-spreading branches. Picturesque rocks of every conceivable form +adorned its banks, among which glided the numerous tributaries, mottled +with black and red and gray boulders, from the fountain peaks, while +ever and anon, as the deliberate centuries passed away, dome after dome +raised its burnished crown above the ice-flood to enrich the slowly +opening landscapes. +<br> +The principal moraines occur in short irregular sections along the sides +of the cañons, their fragmentary condition being due to interruptions +caused by portions of the sides of the cañon walls being too steep for +moraine matter to lie on, and to down-sweeping torrents and avalanches. +The left lateral of the trunk may be traced about five miles from the +mouth of the first main tributary to the Illilouette Cañon. The +corresponding section of the right lateral, extending from Cathedral +tributary to the Half Dome, is more complete because of the more +favorable character of the north side of the cañon. A short +side-glacier came in against it from the slopes of Clouds' Rest; but +being fully exposed to the sun, it was melted long before the main +trunk, allowing the latter to deposit this portion of its moraine +undisturbed. Some conception of the size and appearance of this fine +moraine may be gained by following the Clouds' Rest trail from Yosemite, +which crosses it obliquely and conducts past several sections made by +streams. Slate boulders may be seen that must have come from the Lyell +group, twelve miles distant. But the bulk of the moraine is composed +of porphyritic granite derived from Feldspar and Cathedral Valleys. +<br> +On the sides of the moraines we find a series of terraces, indicating +fluctuations in the level of the glacier, caused by variations of +snow-fall, temperature, etc., showing that the climate of the glacial +period was diversified by cycles of milder or stormier seasons similar +to those of post-glacial time. +<br> +After the depth of the main trunk diminished to about five hundred feet, +the greater portion became torpid, as is shown by the moraines, and +lay dying in its crooked channel like a wounded snake, maintaining for +a time a feeble squirming motion in places of exceptional depth, or +where the bottom of the cañon was more steeply inclined. The numerous +fountain-wombs, however, continued fruitful long after the trunk had +vanished, giving rise to an imposing array of short residual glaciers, +extending around the rim of the general basin a distance of nearly +twenty-four miles. Most of these have but recently succumbed to the new +climate, dying in turn as determined by elevation, size, and exposure, +leaving only a few feeble survivors beneath the coolest shadows, which +are now slowly completing the sculpture of one of the noblest of the +Yosemite basins. +<br> +The comparatively shallow glacier that at this time filled the +Illilouette Basin, though once far from shallow, more resembled a lake +than a river of ice, being nearly half as wide as it was long. Its +greatest length was about ten miles, and its depth perhaps nowhere much +exceeded 1000 feet. Its chief fountains, ranged along the west side of +the Merced group, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, gave birth to +fine tributaries that flowed in a westerly direction, and united in the +center of the basin. The broad trunk at first poured northwestward, then +curved to the northward, deflected by the lofty wall forming its western +bank, and finally united with the grand Yosemite trunk, opposite Glacier +Point. +<br> +All the phenomena relating to glacial action in this basin are +remarkably simple and orderly, on account of the sheltered positions +occupied by its ice-fountains, with reference to the disturbing effects +of larger glaciers from the axis of the main Range earlier in the +period. From the eastern base of the Starr King cone you may obtain +a fine view of the principal moraines sweeping grandly out into the +middle of the basin from the shoulders of the peaks, between which the +ice-fountains lay. The right lateral of the tributary, which took its +rise between Red and Merced Mountains, measures two hundred and fifty +feet in height at its upper extremity, and displays three well-defined +terraces, similar to those of the south Lyell Glacier. The comparative +smoothness of the upper-most terrace shows that it is considerably more +ancient than the others, many of the boulders of which it is composed +having crumbled. A few miles to the westward, this moraine has an +average slope of twenty-seven degrees, and an elevation above the bottom +of the channel of six hundred and sixty feet. Near the middle of the +main basin, just where the regularly formed medial and lateral moraines +flatten out and disappear, there is a remarkably smooth field of gravel, +planted with arctostaphylos, that looks at the distance of a mile like +a delightful meadow. Stream sections show the gravel deposit to be +composed of the same material as the moraines, but finer, and more +water-worn from the action of converging torrents issuing from the +tributary glaciers after the trunk was melted. The southern boundary of +the basin is a strikingly perfect wall, gray on the top, and white down +the sides and at the base with snow, in which many a crystal brook takes +rise. The northern boundary is made up of smooth undulating masses of +gray granite, that lift here and there into beautiful domes of which +the Starr King cluster is the finest, while on the east tower of the +majestic fountain-peaks with wide cañons and neve amphitheaters between +them, whose variegated rocks show out gloriously against the sky. +<br> +The ice-plows of this charming basin, ranged side by side in orderly +gangs, furrowed the rocks with admirable uniformity, producing +irrigating channels for a brood of wild streams, and abundance of rich +soil adapted to every requirement of garden and grove. No other section +of the Yosemite uplands is in so perfect a state of glacial cultivation. +Its domes and peaks, and swelling rock-waves, however majestic in +themselves, and yet submissively subordinate to the garden center. The +other basins we have been describing are combinations of sculptured +rocks, embellished with gardens and groves; the Illilouette is one grand +garden and forest, embellished with rocks, each of the five beautiful +in its own way, and all as harmoniously related as are the five petals +of a flower. After uniting in the Yosemite Valley, and expending the +down-thrusting energy derived from their combined weight and the +declivity of their channels, the grand trunk flowed on through and out +of the Valley. In effecting its exit a considerable ascent was made, +traces of which may still be seen on the abraded rocks at the lower end +of the Valley, while the direction pursued after leaving the Valley is +surely indicated by the immense lateral moraines extending from the +ends of the walls at an elevation of from 1500 to 1800 feet. The right +lateral moraine was disturbed by a large tributary glacier that occupied +the basin of Cascade Creek, causing considerable complication in its +structure. The left is simple in form for several miles of its length, +or to the point where a tributary came in from the southeast. But both +are greatly obscured by the forests and underbrush growing upon them, +and by the denuding action of rains and melting snows, etc. It is, +therefore, the less to be wondered at that these moraines, made up of +material derived from the distant fountain-mountains, and from the +Valley itself, were not sooner recognized. +<br> +The ancient glacier systems of the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Kern, and +Kings River Basins were developed on a still grander scale and are so +replete with interest that the most sketchy outline descriptions of +each, with the works they have accomplished would fill many a volume. +Therefore I can do but little more than invite everybody who is free +to go and see for himself. +<br> +The action of flowing ice, whether in the form of river-like glaciers or +broad mantles, especially the part it played in sculpturing the earth, +is as yet but little understood. Water rivers work openly where people +dwell, and so does the rain, and the sea, thundering on all the shores +of the world; and the universal ocean of air, though invisible, speaks +aloud in a thousand voices, and explains its modes of working and its +power. But glaciers, back in their white solitudes, work apart from men, +exerting their tremendous energies in silence and darkness. Outspread, +spirit-like, they brood above the predestined landscapes, work on +unwearied through immeasurable ages, until, in the fullness of time, the +mountains and valleys are brought forth, channels furrowed for rivers, +basins made for lakes and meadows, and arms of the sea, soils spread for +forests and fields; then they shrink and vanish like summer clouds. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 12<br> +How Best to Spend One's Yosemite Time</h2> + +<h3 align="center">One-Day Excursions<br> +No. 1.</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +If I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite I +should start at daybreak, say at three o'clock in midsummer, with a +pocketful of any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point, +Sentinel Dome, the head of Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, the top of +Liberty Cap, Vernal Fall and the wild boulder-choked River Cañon. The +trail leaves the Valley at the base of the Sentinel Rock, and as +you slowly saunter from point to point along its many accommodating +zigzags nearly all the Valley rocks and falls are seen in striking, +ever-changing combinations. At an elevation of about five hundred feet a +particularly fine, wide-sweeping view down the Valley is obtained, past +the sheer face of the Sentinel and between the Cathedral Rocks and +El Capitan. At a height of about 1500 feet the great Half Dome comes +full in sight, overshadowing every other feature of the Valley to the +eastward. From Glacier Point you look down 3000 feet over the edge of +its sheer face to the meadows and groves and innumerable yellow pine +spires, with the meandering river sparkling and spangling through the +midst of them. Across the Valley a great telling view is presented of +the Royal Arches, North Dome, Indian Cañon, Three Brothers and El +Capitan, with the dome-paved basin of Yosemite Creek and Mount Hoffman +in the background. To the eastward, the Half Dome close beside you +looking higher and more wonderful than ever; southeastward the Starr +King, girdled with silver firs, and the spacious garden-like basin of +the Illilouette and its deeply sculptured fountain-peaks, called "The +Merced Group"; and beyond all, marshaled along the eastern horizon, the +icy summits on the axis of the Range and broad swaths of forests growing +on ancient moraines, while the Nevada, Vernal and Yosemite Falls are +not only full in sight but are distinctly heard as if one were standing +beside them in their spray. +<br> +The views from the summit of Sentinel Dome are still more extensive +and telling. Eastward the crowds of peaks at the head of the Merced, +Tuolumne and San Joaquin Rivers are presented in bewildering array; +westward, the vast forests, yellow foothills and the broad San Joaquin +plains and the Coast Ranges, hazy and dim in the distance. +<br> +From Glacier Point go down the trail into the lower end of the +Illilouette basin, cross Illilouette Creek and follow it to the Fall +where from an outjutting rock at its head you will get a fine view of +its rejoicing waters and wild cañon and the Half Dome. Thence returning +to the trail, follow it to the head of the Nevada Fall. Linger here an +hour or two, for not only have you glorious views of the wonderful fall, +but of its wild, leaping, exulting rapids and, greater than all, the +stupendous scenery into the heart of which the white passionate river +goes wildly thundering, surpassing everything of its kind in the world. +After an unmeasured hour or so of this glory, all your body aglow, nerve +currents flashing through you never before felt, go to the top of the +Liberty Cap, only a glad saunter now that your legs as well as head +and heart are awake and rejoicing with everything. The Liberty Cap, a +companion of the Half Dome, is sheer and inaccessible on three of its +sides but on the east a gentle, ice-burnished, juniper-dotted slope +extends to the summit where other wonderful views are displayed where +all are wonderful: the south side and shoulders of Half Dome and Clouds' +Rest, the beautiful Little Yosemite Valley and its many domes, the Starr +King cluster of domes, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, and, perhaps the +most tremendously impressive of all, the views of the hopper-shaped +cañon of the river from the head of the Nevada Fall to the head of +the Valley. +<br> +Returning to the trail you descend between the Nevada Fall and the +Liberty Cap with fine side views of both the fall and the rock, pass +on through clouds of spray and along the rapids to the head of the +Vernal Fall, about a mile below the Nevada. Linger here if night is +still distant, for views of this favorite fall and the stupendous rock +scenery about it. Then descend a stairway by its side, follow a dim +trail through its spray, and a plain one along the border of the +boulder-dashed rapids and so back to the wide, tranquil Valley. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">One-Day Excursions<br> +No. 2.</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Another grand one-day excursion is to the Upper Yosemite Fall, the +top of the highest of the Three Brothers, called Eagle Peak on the +Geological Survey maps; the brow of El Capitan; the head of the Ribbon +Fall; across the beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin; and back to the Valley +by the Big Oak Flat wagon-road. +<br> +The trail leaves the Valley on the east side of the largest of the +earthquake taluses immediately opposite the Sentinel Rock and as it +passes within a few rods of the foot of the great fall, magnificent +views are obtained as you approach it and pass through its spray, though +when the snow is melting fast you will be well drenched. From the foot +of the Fall the trail zigzags up a narrow cañon between the fall and a +plain mural cliff that is burnished here and there by glacial action. +<br> +You should stop a while on a flat iron-fenced rock a little below the +head of the fall beside the enthusiastic throng of starry comet-like +waters to learn something of their strength, their marvelous variety of +forms, and above all, their glorious music, gathered and composed from +the snow-storms, hail-, rain- and wind-storms that have fallen on their +glacier-sculptured, domey, ridgy basin. Refreshed and exhilarated, +you follow your trail-way through silver fir and pine woods to Eagle +Peak, where the most comprehensive of all the views to be had on the +north-wall heights are displayed. After an hour or two of gazing, +dreaming, studying the tremendous topography, etc., trace the rim of +the Valley to the grand El Capitan ridge and go down to its brow, where +you will gain everlasting impressions of Nature's steadfastness and +power combined with ineffable fineness of beauty. +<br> +Dragging yourself away, go to the head of the Ribbon Fall, thence across +the beautiful Ribbon Creek Basin to the Big Oak Flat stage-road, and +down its fine grades to the Valley, enjoying glorious Yosemite scenery +all the way to the foot of El Capitan and your camp. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Two-Day Excursions<br> +No. 1.</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +For a two-day trip I would go straight to Mount Hoffman, spend the night +on the summit, next morning go down by May Lake to Tenaya Lake and +return to the Valley by Cloud's Rest and the Nevada and Vernal Falls. As +on the foregoing excursion, you leave the Valley by the Yosemite Falls +trail and follow it to the Tioga wagon-road, a short distance east of +Porcupine Flat. From that point push straight up to the summit. Mount +Hoffman is a mass of gray granite that rises almost in the center of the +Yosemite Park, about eight or ten miles in a straight line from the +Valley. Its southern slopes are low and easily climbed, and adorned here +and there with castle-like crumbling piles and long jagged crests that +look like artificial masonry; but on the north side it is abruptly +precipitous and banked with lasting snow. Most of the broad summit +is comparatively level and thick sown with crystals, quartz, mica, +hornblende, feldspar, granite, zircon, tourmaline, etc., weathered out +and strewn closely and loosely as if they had been sown broadcast. Their +radiance is fairly dazzling in sunlight, almost hiding the multitude of +small flowers that grow among them. At first sight only these radiant +crystals are likely to be noticed, but looking closely you discover a +multitude of very small gilias, phloxes, mimulus, etc., many of them +with more petals than leaves. On the borders of little streams larger +plants flourish--lupines, daisies, asters, goldenrods, hairbell, +mountain columbine, potentilla, astragalus and a few gentians; with +charming heathworts--bryanthus, cassiope, kalmia, vaccinium in +boulder-fringing rings or bank covers. You saunter among the crystals +and flowers as if you were walking among stars. From the summit nearly +all the Yosemite Park is displayed like a map: forests, lakes, meadows, +and snowy peaks. Northward lies Yosemite's wide basin with its domes and +small lakes, shining like larger crystals; eastward the rocky, meadowy +Tuolumne region, bounded by its snowy peaks in glorious array; southward +Yosemite and westward the vast forest. On no other Yosemite Park +mountain are you more likely to linger. You will find it a magnificent +sky camp. Clumps of dwarf pine and mountain hemlock will furnish resin +roots and branches for fuel and light, and the rills, sparkling water. +Thousands of the little plant people will gaze at your camp-fire with +the crystals and stars, companions and guardians as you lie at rest in +the heart of the vast serene night. +<br> +The most telling of all the wide Hoffman views is the basin of the +Tuolumne with its meadows, forests and hundreds of smooth rock-waves +that appear to be coming rolling on towards you like high heaving waves +ready to break, and beyond these the great mountains. But best of all +are the dawn and the sunrise. No mountain top could be better placed for +this most glorious of mountain views--to watch and see the deepening +colors of the dawn and the sunbeams streaming through the snowy High +Sierra passes, awakening the lakes and crystals, the chilled plant +people and winged people, and making everything shine and sing in +pure glory. +<br> +With your heart aglow, spangling Lake Tenaya and Lake May will beckon +you away for walks on their ice-burnished shores. Leave Tenaya at the +west end, cross to the south side of the outlet, and gradually work +your way up in an almost straight south direction to the summit of the +divide between Tenaya Creek and the main upper Merced River or Nevada +Creek and follow the divide to Clouds Rest. After a glorious view from +the crest of this lofty granite wave you will find a trail on its +western end that will lead you down past Nevada and Vernal Falls to the +Valley in good time, provided you left your Hoffman sky camp early. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Two-Day Excursions<br> +No. 2.</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Another grand two-day excursion is the same as the first of the one-day +trips, as far as the head of Illilouette Fall. From there trace the +beautiful stream up through the heart of its magnificent forests and +gardens to the cañons between the Red and Merced Peaks, and pass the +night where I camped forty-one years ago. Early next morning visit +the small glacier on the north side of Merced Peak, the first of the +sixty-five that I discovered in the Sierra. +<br> +Glacial phenomena in the Illilouette Basin are on the grandest scale, +and in the course of my explorations I found that the cañon and +moraines between the Merced and Red Mountains were the most interesting +of them all. The path of the vanished glacier shone in many places as +if washed with silver, and pushing up the cañon on this bright road +I passed lake after lake in solid basins of granite and many a meadow +along the cañon stream that links them together. The main lateral +moraines that bound the view below the cañon are from a hundred to +nearly two hundred feet high and wonderfully regular, like artificial +embankments covered with a magnificent growth of silver fir and pine. +But this garden and forest luxuriance is speedily left behind, and +patches of bryanthus, cassiope and arctic willows begin to appear. The +small lakes which a few miles down the Valley are so richly bordered +with flowery meadows have at an elevation of 10,000 feet only small +brown mats of carex, leaving bare rocks around more than half their +shores. Yet, strange to say, amid all this arctic repression the +mountain pine on ledges and buttresses of Red Mountain seems to find the +climate best suited to it. Some specimens that I measured were over a +hundred feet high and twenty-four feet in circumference, showing hardly +a trace of severe storms, looking as fresh and vigorous as the giants of +the lower zones. Evening came on just as I got fairly into the main +cañon. It is about a mile wide and a little less than two miles long. +The crumbling spurs of Red Mountain bound it on the north, the somber +cliffs of Merced Mountain on the south and a deeply-serrated, splintered +ridge curving around from mountain to mountain shuts it in on the east. +My camp was on the brink of one of the lakes in a thicket of mountain +hemlock, partly sheltered from the wind. Early next morning I set out to +trace the ancient glacier to its head. Passing around the north shore of +my camp lake I followed the main stream from one lakelet to another. The +dwarf pines and hemlocks disappeared and the stream was bordered with +icicles. The main lateral moraines that extend from the mouth of the +cañon are continued in straggling masses along the walls. Tracing the +streams back to the highest of its little lakes, I noticed a deposit of +fine gray mud, something like the mud corn from a grindstone. This +suggested its glacial origin, for the stream that was carrying it issued +from a raw-looking moraine that seemed to be in process of formation. +It is from sixty to over a hundred feet high in front, with a slope of +about thirty-eight degrees. Climbing to the top of it, I discovered a +very small but well-characterized glacier swooping down from the shadowy +cliffs of the mountain to its terminal moraine. The ice appeared on all +the lower portion of the glacier; farther up it was covered with snow. +The uppermost crevasse or "bergeschrund" was from twelve to fourteen +feet wide. The melting snow and ice formed a network of rills that ran +gracefully down the surface of the glacier, merrily singing in their +shining channels. After this discovery I made excursions over all the +High Sierra and discovered that what at first sight looked like +snowfields were in great part glaciers which were completing the +sculpture of the summit peaks. +<br> +Rising early,--which will be easy, as your bed will be rather cold and +you will not be able to sleep much anyhow,--after visiting the glacier, +climb the Red Mountain and enjoy the magnificent views from the summit. +I counted forty lakes from one standpoint an this mountain, and the +views to the westward over the Illilouette Basin, the most superbly +forested of all the basins whose waters rain into Yosemite, and those of +the Yosemite rocks, especially the Half Dome and the upper part of the +north wall, are very fine. But, of course, far the most imposing view is +the vast array of snowy peaks along the axis of the Range. Then from the +top of this peak, light and free and exhilarated with mountain air and +mountain beauty, you should run lightly down the northern slope of the +mountain, descend the cañon between Red and Gray Mountains, thence +northward along the bases of Gray Mountain and Mount Clark and go down +into the head of Little Yosemite, and thence down past the Nevada and +Vernal Falls to the Valley, a truly glorious two-day trip! + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">A Three-Day Excursion</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +The best three-day excursion, as far as I can see, is the same as the +first of the two-day trips until you reach Lake Tenaya. There instead of +returning to the Valley, follow the Tioga road around the northwest side +of the lake, over to the Tuolumne Meadows and up to the west base of +Mount Dana. Leave the road there and make straight for the highest point +on the timber line between Mounts Dana and Gibbs and camp there. +<br> +On the morning of the third day go to the top of Mount Dana in time for +the glory of the dawn and the sunrise over the gray Mono Desert and the +sublime forest of High Sierra peaks. When you leave the mountain go far +enough down the north side for a view of the Dana Glacier, then make +your way back to the Tioga road, follow it along the Tuolumne Meadows +to the crossing of Budd Creek where you will find the Sunrise trail +branching off up the mountain-side through the forest in a southwesterly +direction past the west side of Cathedral Peak, which will lead you down +to the Valley by the Vernal and Nevada Falls. If you are a good walker +you can leave the trail where it begins to descend a steep slope in the +silver fir woods, and bear off to the right and make straight for the +top of Clouds' Rest. The walking is good and almost level and from the +west end of Clouds' Rest take the Clouds' Rest Trail which will lead +direct to the Valley by the Nevada and Vernal Falls. To any one not +desperately time-poor this trip should have four days instead of three; +camping the second night at the Soda Springs; thence to Mount Dana and +return to the Soda Springs, camping the third night there; thence by +the Sunrise trail to Cathedral Peak, visiting the beautiful Cathedral +lake which lies about a mile to the west of Cathedral Peak, eating your +luncheon, and thence to Clouds' Rest and the Valley as above. This is one +of the most interesting of all the comparatively short trips that can be +made in the whole Yosemite region. Not only do you see all the grandest +of the Yosemite rocks and waterfalls and the High Sierra with their +glaciers, glacier lakes and glacier meadows, etc., but sections of the +magnificent silver fir, two-leaved pine, and dwarf pine zones; with the +principal alpine flowers and shrubs, especially sods of dwarf vaccinium +covered with flowers and fruit though less than an inch high, broad mats +of dwarf willow scarce an inch high with catkins that rise straight from +the ground, and glorious beds of blue gentians,--grandeur enough and +beauty enough for a lifetime. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">The Upper Tuolumne Excursion</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +We come now to the grandest of all the Yosemite excursions, one that +requires at least two or three weeks. The best time to make it is from +about the middle of July. The visitor entering the Yosemite in July has +the advantage of seeing the falls not, perhaps, in their very flood +prime but next thing to it; while the glacier-meadows will be in their +glory and the snow on the mountains will be firm enough to make climbing +safe. Long ago I made these Sierra trips, carrying only a sackful of +bread with a little tea and sugar and was thus independent and free, but +now that trails or carriage roads lead out of the Valley in almost every +direction it is easy to take a pack animal, so that the luxury of a +blanket and a supply of food can easily be had. +<br> +The best way to leave the Valley will be by the Yosemite Fall trail, +camping the first night on the Tioga road opposite the east end of the +Hoffman Range. Next morning climb Mount Hoffman; thence push on past +Tenaya Lake into the Tuolumne Meadows and establish a central camp +near the Soda Springs, from which glorious excursions can be made at +your leisure. For here in this upper Tuolumne Valley is the widest, +smoothest, most serenely spacious, and in every way the most delightful +summer pleasure-park in all the High Sierra. And since it is connected +with Yosemite by two good trails, and a fairly good carriage road +that passes between Yosemite and Mount Hoffman, it is also the most +accessible. It is in the heart of the High Sierra east of Yosemite, 8500 +to 9000 feet above the level of the sea. The gray, picturesque Cathedral +Range bounds it on the south; a similar range or spur, the highest peak +of which is Mount Conness, on the north; the noble Mounts Dana, Gibbs, +Mammoth, Lyell, McClure and others on the axis of the Range on the east; +a heaving, billowing crowd of glacier-polished rocks and Mount Hoffman +on the west. Down through the open sunny meadow-levels of the Valley +flows the Tuolumne River, fresh and cool from its many glacial +fountains, the highest of which are the glaciers that lie on the north +sides of Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. +<br> +Along the river a series of beautiful glacier-meadows extend with but +little interruption, from the lower end of the Valley to its head, a +distance of about twelve miles, forming charming sauntering-grounds from +which the glorious mountains may be enjoyed as they look down in divine +serenity over the dark forests that clothe their bases. Narrow strips of +pine woods cross the meadow-carpet from side to side, and it is somewhat +roughened here and there by moraine boulders and dead trees brought down +from the heights by snow avalanches; but for miles and miles it is so +smooth and level that a hundred horsemen may ride abreast over it. +<br> +The main lower portion of the meadows is about four miles long and from +a quarter to half a mile wide, but the width of the Valley is, on an +average, about eight miles. Tracing the river, we find that it forks a +mile above the Soda Springs, the main fork turning southward to Mount +Lyell, the other eastward to Mount Dana and Mount Gibbs. Along both +forks strips of meadow extend almost to their heads. The most beautiful +portions of the meadows are spread over lake basins, which have been +filled up by deposits from the river. A few of these river-lakes still +exist, but they are now shallow and are rapidly approaching extinction. +The sod in most places is exceedingly fine and silky and free from weeds +and bushes; while charming flowers abound, especially gentians, dwarf +daisies, potentillas, and the pink bells of dwarf vaccinium. On the +banks of the river and its tributaries cassiope and bryanthus may be +found, where the sod curls over stream banks and around boulders. The +principal grass of these meadows is a delicate calamagrostis with very +slender filiform leaves, and when it is in flower the ground seems to +be covered with a faint purple mist, the stems of the panicles being so +fine that they are almost invisible, and offer no appreciable resistance +in walking through them. Along the edges of the meadows beneath the +pines and throughout the greater part of the Valley tall ribbon-leaved +grasses grow in abundance, chiefly bromus, triticum and agrostis. +<br> +In October the nights are frosty, and then the meadows at sunrise, when +every leaf is laden with crystals, are a fine sight. The days are still +warm and calm, and bees and butterflies continue to waver and hum about +the late-blooming flowers until the coming of the snow, usually in +November. Storm then follows storm in quick succession, burying the +meadows to a depth of from ten to twenty feet, while magnificent +avalanches descend through the forests from the laden heights, +depositing huge piles of snow mixed with uprooted trees and boulders. In +the open sunshine the snow usually lasts until the end of June but the +new season's vegetation is not generally in bloom until late in July. +Perhaps the best all round excursion-time after winters of average +snowfall is from the middle of July to the middle or end of August. The +snow is then melted from the woods and southern slopes of the mountains +and the meadows and gardens are in their glory, while the weather is +mostly all-reviving, exhilarating sunshine. The few clouds that rise now +and then and the showers they yield are only enough to keep everything +fresh and fragrant. +<br> +The groves about the Soda Springs are favorite camping-grounds on +account of the cold, pleasant-tasting water charged with carbonic acid, +and because of the views of the mountains across the meadow--the Glacier +Monument, Cathedral Peak, Cathedral Spires, Unicorn Peak and a series of +ornamental nameless companions, rising in striking forms and nearness +above a dense forest growing on the left lateral moraine of the ancient +Tuolumne glacier, which, broad, deep, and far-reaching, exerted vast +influence on the scenery of this portion of the Sierra. But there are +fine camping-grounds all along the meadows, and one may move from grove +to grove every day all summer, enjoying new homes and new beauty to +satisfy every roving desire for change. +<br> +There are five main capital excursions to be made from here--to the +summits of Mounts Dana, Lyell and Conness, and through the Bloody Cañon +Pass to Mono Lake and the volcanoes, and down the Tuolumne Cañon, at +least as far as the foot of the wonderful series of river cataracts. +All of these excursions are sure to be made memorable with joyful +health-giving experiences; but perhaps none of them will be remembered +with keener delight than the days spent in sauntering on the broad +velvet lawns by the river, sharing the sky with the mountains and trees, +gaining something of their strength and peace. +<br> +The excursion to the top of Mount Dana is a very easy one; for though +the mountain is 13,000 feet high, the ascent from the west side is so +gentle and smooth that one may ride a mule to the very summit. Across +many a busy stream, from meadow to meadow, lies your flowery way; +mountains all about you, few of them hidden by irregular foregrounds. +Gradually ascending, other mountains come in sight, peak rising above +peak with their snow and ice in endless variety of grouping and +sculpture. Now your attention is turned to the moraines, sweeping in +beautiful curves from the hollows and cañons, now to the granite waves +and pavements rising here and there above the heathy sod, polished a +thousand years ago and still shining. Towards the base of the mountain +you note the dwarfing of the trees, until at a height of about 11,000 +feet you find patches of the tough, white-barked pine, pressed so flat +by the ten or twenty feet of snow piled upon them every winter for +centuries that you may walk over them as if walking on a shaggy rug. +And, if curious about such things, you may discover specimens of this +hardy tree-mountaineer not more than four feet high and about as many +inches in diameter at the ground, that are from two hundred to four +hundred years old, still holding bravely to life, making the most of +their slender summers, shaking their tasseled needles in the breeze +right cheerily, drinking the thin sunshine and maturing their fine +purple cones as if they meant to live forever. The general view from the +summit is one of the most extensive and sublime to be found in all the +Range. To the eastward you gaze far out over the desert plains and +mountains of the "Great Basin," range beyond range extending with soft +outlines, blue and purple in the distance. More than six thousand feet +below you lies Lake Mono, ten miles in diameter from north to south, and +fourteen from west to east, lying bare in the treeless desert like a +disk of burnished metal, though at times it is swept by mountain storm +winds and streaked with foam. To the southward there is a well defined +range of pale-gray extinct volcanoes, and though the highest of them +rises nearly two thousand feet above the lake, you can look down from +here into their circular, cup-like craters, from which a comparatively +short time ago ashes and cinders were showered over the surrounding sage +plains and glacier-laden mountains. +<br> +To the westward the landscape is made up of exceedingly strong, gray, +glaciated domes and ridge waves, most of them comparatively low, but +the largest high enough to be called mountains; separated by cañons +and darkened with lines and fields of forest, Cathedral Peak and Mount +Hoffman in the distance; small lakes and innumerable meadows in the +foreground. Northward and southward the great snowy mountains, marshaled +along the axis of the Range, are seen in all their glory, crowded +together in some places like trees in groves, making landscapes of wild, +extravagant, bewildering magnificence, yet calm and silent as the sky. +<br> +Some eight glaciers are in sight. One of these is the Dana Glacier on +the north side of the mountain, lying at the foot of a precipice about +a thousand feet high, with a lovely pale-green lake a little below it. +This is one of the many, small, shrunken remnants of the vast glacial +system of the Sierra that once filled the hollows and valleys of +the mountains and covered all the lower ridges below the immediate +summit-fountains, flowing to right and left away from the axis of the +Range, lavishly fed by the snows of the glacial period. +<br> +In the excursion to Mount Lyell the immediate base of the mountain is +easily reached on meadow walks along the river. Turning to the southward +above the forks of the river, you enter the narrow Lyell branch of the +Valley, narrow enough and deep enough to be called a cañon. It is about +eight miles long and from 2000 to 3000 feet deep. The flat meadow bottom +is from about three hundred to two hundred yards wide, with gently curved +margins about fifty yards wide from which rise the simple massive walls +of gray granite at an angle of about thirty-three degrees, mostly +timbered with a light growth of pine and streaked in many places with +avalanche channels. Towards the upper end of the cañon the Sierra crown +comes in sight, forming a finely balanced picture framed by the massive +cañon walls. In the foreground, when the grass is in flower, you have +the purple meadow willow-thickets on the river banks; in the middle +distance huge swelling bosses of granite that form the base of the +general mass of the mountain, with fringing lines of dark woods marking +the lower curves, smoothly snow-clad except in the autumn. +<br> +If you wish to spend two days on the Lyell trip you will find a good +camp-ground on the east side of the river, about a mile above a fine +cascade that comes down over the cañon wall in telling style and makes +good camp music. From here to the top of the mountains is usually an +easy day's work. At one place near the summit careful climbing is +necessary, but it is not so dangerous or difficult as to deter any one +of ordinary skill, while the views are glorious. To the northward are +Mammoth Mountain, Mounts Gibbs, Dana, Warren, Conness and others, +unnumbered and unnamed; to the southeast the indescribably wild and +jagged range of Mount Ritter and the Minarets; southwestward stretches +the dividing ridge between the north fork of the San Joaquin and the +Merced, uniting with the Obelisk or Merced group of peaks that form the +main fountains of the Illilouette branch of the Merced; and to the +north-westward extends the Cathedral spur. These spurs like distinct +ranges meet at your feet; therefore you look at them mostly in the +direction of their extension, and their peaks seem to be massed and +crowded against one another, while immense amphitheaters, cañons +and subordinate ridges with their wealth of lakes, glaciers, and +snow-fields, maze and cluster between them. In making the ascent in +June or October the glacier is easily crossed, for then its snow mantle +is smooth or mostly melted off. But in midsummer the climbing is +exceedingly tedious because the snow is then weathered into curious +and beautiful blades, sharp and slender, and set on edge in a leaning +position. They lean towards the head of the glacier and extend across +from side to side in regular order in a direction at right angles to the +direction of greatest declivity, the distance between the crests being +about two or three feet, and the depth of the troughs between them about +three feet. A more interesting problem than a walk over a glacier thus +sculptured and adorned is seldom presented to the mountaineer. +<br> +The Lyell Glacier is about a mile wide and less than a mile long, +but presents, nevertheless, all the essential characters of large, +river-like glaciers--moraines, earth-bands, blue veins, crevasses, +etc., while the streams that issue from it are, of course, turbid with +rock-mud, showing its grinding action on its bed. And it is all the +more interesting since it is the highest and most enduring remnant of +the great Tuolumne Glacier, whose traces are still distinct fifty miles +away, and whose influence on the landscape was so profound. The McClure +Glacier, once a tributary of the Lyell, is smaller. Thirty-eight years +ago I set a series of stakes in it to determine its rate of motion. +Towards the end of summer in the middle of the glacier it was only a +little over an inch in twenty-four hours. +<br> +The trip to Mono from the Soda Springs can be made in a day, but many +days may profitably be spent near the shores of the lake, out on its +islands and about the volcanoes. +<br> +In making the trip down the Big Tuolumne Cañon, animals may be led as +far as a small, grassy, forested lake-basin that lies below the crossing +of the Virginia Creek trail. And from this point any one accustomed to +walking on earthquake boulders, carpeted with cañon chaparral, can +easily go down as far as the big cascades and return to camp in one day. +Many, however, are not able to do his, and it is better to go leisurely, +prepared to camp anywhere, and enjoy the marvelous grandeur of the +place. +<br> +The cañon begins near the lower end of the meadows and extends to the +Hetch Hetchy Valley, a distance of about eighteen miles, though it will +seem much longer to any one who scrambles through it. It is from twelve +hundred to about five thousand feet deep, and is comparatively narrow, +but there are several roomy, park-like openings in it, and throughout +its whole extent Yosemite natures are displayed on a grand scale--domes, +El Capitan rocks, gables, Sentinels, Royal Arches, Glacier Points, +Cathedral Spires, etc. There is even a Half Dome among its wealth of +rock forms, though far less sublime than the Yosemite Half Dome. Its +falls and cascades are innumerable. The sheer falls, except when the +snow is melting in early spring, are quite small in volume as compared +with those of Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy; though in any other country +many of them would be regarded as wonders. But it is the cascades or +sloping falls on the main river that are the crowning glory of the +cañon, and these in volume, extent and variety surpass those of any +other cañon in the Sierra. The most showy and interesting of them are +mostly in the upper part of the cañon, above the point of entrance of +Cathedral Creek and Hoffman Creek. For miles the river is one wild, +exulting, on-rushing mass of snowy purple bloom, spreading over glacial +waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in magnificent +silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder-dams, leaping +high into the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, +tossing from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of +mountain energy. +<br> +Every one who is anything of a mountaineer should go on through the +entire length of the cañon, coming out by Hetch Hetchy. There is not +a dull step all the way. With wide variations, it is a Yosemite Valley +from end to end. +<br> +Besides these main, far-reaching, much-seeing excursions from the main +central camp, there are numberless, lovely little saunters and scrambles +and a dozen or so not so very little. Among the best of these are to +Lambert and Fair View Domes; to the topmost spires of Cathedral Peak, +and to those of the North Church, around the base of which you pass +on your way to Mount Conness; to one of the very loveliest of the +glacier-meadows imbedded in the pine woods about three miles north of +the Soda Springs, where forty-two years ago I spent six weeks. It trends +east and west, and you can find it easily by going past the base of +Lambert's Dome to Dog Lake and thence up northward through the woods +about a mile or so; to the shining rock-waves full of ice-burnished, +feldspar crystals at the foot of the meadows; to Lake Tenaya; and, last +but not least, a rather long and very hearty scramble down by the end of +the meadow along the Tioga road toward Lake Tenaya to the crossing of +Cathedral Creek, where you turn off and trace the creek down to its +confluence with the Tuolumne. This is a genuine scramble much of the way +but one of the most wonderfully telling in its glacial rock-forms and +inscriptions. +<br> +If you stop and fish at every tempting lake and stream you come to, a +whole month, or even two months, will not be too long for this grand +High Sierra excursion. My own Sierra trip was ten years long. + +</pre> + +<h3 align="center">Other Trips From The Valley</h3> + +<pre> +<br> +Short carriage trips are usually made in the early morning to Mirror +Lake to see its wonderful reflections of the Half Dome and Mount +Watkins; and in the afternoon many ride down the Valley to see the +Bridal Veil rainbows or up the river cañon to see those of the Vernal +Fall; where, standing in the spray, not minding getting drenched, +you may see what are called round rainbows, when the two ends of the +ordinary bow are lengthened and meet at your feet, forming a complete +circle which is broken and united again and again as determined by the +varying wafts of spray. A few ambitious scramblers climb to the top of +the Sentinel Rock, others walk or ride down the Valley and up to the +once-famous Inspiration Point for a last grand view; while a good many +appreciative tourists, who slave only day or two, do no climbing or +riding but spend their time sauntering on the meadows by the river, +watching the falls, and the relay of light and shade among the rocks +from morning to night, perhaps gaining more than those who make haste up +the trails in large noisy parties. Those who have unlimited time find +something worth while all the year round on every accessible part of the +vast deeply sculptured walls. At least so I have found it after making +the Valley my home for years. +<br> +Here are a few specimens selected from my own short trips which walkers +may find useful. +<br> +One, up the river cañon, across the bridge between the Vernal and +Nevada Falls, through chaparral beds and boulders to the shoulder of +Half Dome, along the top of the shoulder to the dome itself, down by a +crumbling slot gully and close along the base of the tremendous split +front (the most awfully impressive, sheer, precipice view I ever found +in all my cañon wanderings), thence up the east shoulder and along the +ridge to Clouds' Rest--a glorious sunset--then a grand starry run back +home to my cabin; down through the junipers, down through the firs, now +in black shadows, now in white light, past roaring Nevada and Vernal, +flowering ghost-like beneath their huge frowning cliffs; down the dark, +gloomy cañon, through the pines of the Valley, dreamily murmuring in +their calm, breezy sleep--a fine wild little excursion for good legs +and good eyes--so much sun-, moon- and star-shine in it, and sublime, +up-and-down rhythmical, glacial topography. +<br> +Another, to the head of Yosemite Fall by Indian Cañon; thence up the +Yosemite Creek, tracing it all the way to its highest sources back of +Mount Hoffman, then a wide sweep around the head of its dome-paved +basin, passing its many little lakes and bogs, gardens and groves, +trilling, warbling rills, and back by the Fall Cañon. This was one of +my Sabbath walk, run-and-slide excursions long ago before any trail had +been made on the north side of the Valley. +<br> +Another fine trip was up, bright and early, by Avalanche Cañon to +Glacier Point, along the rugged south wall, tracing all its far outs and +ins to the head of the Bridal Veil Fall, thence back home, bright and +late, by a brushy, bouldery slope between Cathedral rocks and Cathedral +spires and along the level Valley floor. This was one of my long, +bright-day and bright-night walks thirty or forty years ago when, like +river and ocean currents, time flowed undivided, uncounted--a fine free, +sauntery, scrambly, botanical, beauty-filled ramble. The walk up the +Valley was made glorious by the marvelous brightness of the morning +star. So great was her light, she made every tree cast a well-defined +shadow on the smooth sandy ground. +<br> +Everybody who visits Yosemite wants to see the famous Big Trees. Before +the railroad was constructed, all three of the stage-roads that entered +the Valley passed through a grove of these trees by the way; namely, the +Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves. The Tuolumne grove was passed on +the Big Oak Flat road, the Merced grove by the Coulterville road and the +Mariposa grove by the Raymond and Wawona road. Now, to see any one of +these groves, a special trip has to be made. Most visitors go to the +Mariposa grove, the largest of the three. On this Sequoia trip you see +not only the giant Big Trees but magnificent forests of silver fir, +sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus and Douglas spruce. The trip need +not require more than two days, spending a night in a good hotel at +Wawona, a beautiful place on the south fork of the Merced River, and +returning to the Valley or to El Portal, the terminus of the railroad. +This extra trip by stage costs fifteen dollars. All the High Sierra +excursions that I have sketched cost from a dollar a week to anything +you like. None of mine when I was exploring the Sierra cost over a +dollar a week, most of them less. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 13<br> +Early History Of The Valley</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +In the wild gold years of 1849 and '50, the Indian tribes along thus +western Sierra foothills became alarmed at the sudden invasion of their +acorn orchard and game fields by miners, and soon began to make war upon +them, in their usual murdering, plundering style. This continued until +the United States Indian Commissioners succeeded in gathering them into +reservations, some peacefully, others by burning their villages and +stores of food. The Yosemite or Grizzly Bear tribe, fancying themselves +secure in their deep mountain stronghold, were the most troublesome and +defiant of all, and it was while the Mariposa battalion, under command +of Major Savage, was trying to capture this warlike tribe and conduct +them to the Fresno reservation that their deep mountain home, the +Yosemite Valley, was discovered. From a camp on the south fork of the +Merced, Major Savage sent Indian runners to the bands who were supposed +to be hiding in the mountains, instructing them to tell the Indians that +if they would come in and make treaty with the Commissioners they would +be furnished with food and clothing and be protected, but if they did +not come in he would make war upon them and kill them all. None of the +Yosemite Indians responded to this general message, but when a special +messenger was sent to the chief he appeared the next day. He came +entirely alone and stood in dignified silence before one of the guards +until invited to enter the camp. He was recognized by one of the +friendly Indians as Tenaya, the old chief of the Grizzlies, and, after +he had been supplied with food, Major Savage, with the aid of Indian +interpreters, informed him of the wishes of the Commissioners. But the +old chief was very suspicious of Savage and feared that he was taking +this method of getting the tribe into his power for the purpose of +revenging his personal wrong. Savage told him if he would go to the +Commissioners and make peace with them as the other tribes had done +there would be no more war. Tenaya inquired what was the object of +taking all the Indians to the San Joaquin plain. "My people," said he, +"do not want anything from the Great Father you tell me about. The Great +Spirit is our father and he has always supplied us with all we need. We +do not want anything from white men. Our women are able to do our work. +Go, then. Let us remain in the mountains where we were born, where the +ashes of our fathers have been given to the wind. I have said enough." +<br> +To this the Major answered abruptly in Indian style: "If you and your +people have all you desire, why do you steal our horses and mules? Why +do you rob the miners' camps? Why do you murder the white men and +plunder and burn their houses?" +<br> +Tenaya was silent for some time. He evidently understood what the Major +had said, for he replied, "My young men have sometimes taken horses +and mules from the whites. This was wrong. It is not wrong to take the +property of enemies who have wronged my people. My young men believed +that the gold diggers were our enemies. We now know they are not and +we shall be glad to live in peace with them. We will stay here and be +friends. My people do not want to go to the plains. Some of the tribes +who have gone there are very bad. We cannot live with them. Here we +can defend ourselves." +<br> +To the Major Savage firmly said, "Your people must go to the +Commissioners. If they do not your young men will again steal horses and +kill and plunder the whites. It was your people who robbed my stores, +burned my houses and murdered my men. It they do not make a treaty, your +whole tribe will be destroyed. Not one of them will be left alive." +<br> +To this the old chief replied, "It is useless to talk to you about who +destroyed your property and killed your people. I am old and you can +kill me if you will, but it is useless to lie to you who know more than +all the Indians. Therefore I will not lie to you but if you will let me +return to my people I will bring them in." He was allowed to go. The +next day he came back and said his people were on the way to our camp to +go with the men sent by the Great Father, who was so good and rich. +<br> +Another day passed but no Indians from the deep Valley appeared. The old +chief said that the snow was so deep and his village was so far down +that it took a long time to climb out of it. After waiting still another +day the expedition started for the Valley. When Tenaya was questioned +as to the route and distance he said that the snow was so deep that the +horses could not go through it. Old Tenaya was taken along as guide. +When the party had gone about half-way to the Valley they met the +Yosemites on their way to the camp on the south fork. There were only +seventy-two of them and when the old chief was asked what had become of +the rest of his band, he replied, "This is all of my people that are +willing to go with me to the plains. All the rest have gone with their +wives end children over the mountains to the Mono and Tuolumne tribes." +Savage told Tenaya that he was not telling the truth, for Indians could +not cross the mountains in the deep snow, and that he knew they must +still be at his village or hiding somewhere near it. The tribe had been +estimated to number over two hundred. Major Savage then said to him, +"You may return to camp with your people and I will take one of your +young men with me to your village to see your people who will not come. +They will come if I find them." "You will not find any of my people +there," said Tenaya; "I do not know where they are. My tribe is small. +Many of the people of my tribe have come from other tribes and if they +go to the plains and are seen they will be killed by the friends of +those with whom they have quarreled. I was told that I was growing old +and it was well that I should go, but that young and strong men can find +plenty in the mountains: therefore, why should they go to the hot plains +to be penned up like horses and cattle? My heart has been sore since +that talk but I am now willing to go, for it is best for my people." +<br> +Pushing ahead, taking turns in breaking a way through the snow, they +arrived in sight of the great Valley early in the afternoon and, guided +by one of Tenaya's Indians, descended by the same route as that followed +by the Mariposa trail, and the weary party went into camp on the river +bank opposite El Capitan. After supper, seated around a big fire, +the wonderful Valley became the topic of conversation and Dr. Bunell +suggested giving it a name. Many were proposed, but after a vote had +been taken the name Yosemite, proposed by Dr. Bunell, was adopted almost +unanimously to perpetuate the name of the tribe who so long had made +their home there. The Indian name of the Valley, however, is Ahwahnee. +The Indians had names for all the different rocks and streams of the +Valley, but very few of them are now in use by the whites, Pohono, the +Bridal Veil, being the principal one. The expedition remained only one +day and two nights in the Valley, hurrying out on the approach of a +storm and reached the south-fork headquarters on the evening of the +third day after starting out. Thus, in three days the round trip had +been made to the Valley, most of it had been explored in a general way +and some of its principal features had been named. But the Indians had +fled up the Tenaya Cañon trail and none of them were seen, except an +old woman unable to follow the fugitives. +<br> +A second expedition was made in the same year under command of Major +Boling. When the Valley was entered no Indians were seen, but the many +wigwams with smoldering fires showed that they had been hurriedly +abandoned that very day. Later, five young Indians who had been left to +watch the movements of the expedition were captured at the foot of the +Three Brothers after a lively chase. Three of the five were sons of the +old chief and the rock was named for them. All of these captives made +good their escape within a few days, except the youngest son of Tenaya, +who was shot by his guard while trying to escape. That same day the old +chief was captured on the cliff on the east side of Indian Cañon by +some of Boling's scouts. As Tenaya walked toward the camp his eye fell +upon the dead body of his favorite son. Captain Boling through an +interpreter, expressed his regret at the occurrence, but not a word +did Tenaya utter in reply. Later, he made an attempt to escape but was +caught as he was about to swim across the river. Tenaya expected to be +shot for this attempt and when brought into the presence of Captain +Boling he said in great emotion, "Kill me, Sir Captain, yes, kill me as +you killed my son, as you would kill my people if they were to come to +you. You would kill all my tribe if you had the power. Yes, Sir America, +you can now tell your warriors to kill the old chief. You have made my +life dark with sorrow. You killed the child of my heart. Why not kill +the father? But wait a little and when I am dead I will call my people +to come and they shall hear me in their sleep and come to avenge the +death of their chief and his son. Yes, Sir America, my spirit will make +trouble for you and your people, as you have made trouble to me and my +people. With the wizards I will follow the white people and make them +fear me. You may kill me, Sir Captain, but you shall not live in peace. +I will follow in your footsteps. I will not leave my home, but be with +the spirits among the rocks, the waterfalls, in the rivers and in the +winds; wherever you go I will be with you. You will not see me but you +will fear the spirit of the old chief and grow cold. The Great Spirit +has spoken. I am done." +<br> +This expedition finally captured the remnants of the tribes at the head +of Lake Tenaya and took them to the Fresno reservation, together with +their chief, Tenaya. But after a short stay they were allowed to return +to the Valley under restrictions. Tenaya promised faithfully to conform +to everything required, joyfully left the hot and dry reservation, and +with his family returned to his Yosemite home. +<br> +The following year a party of miners was attacked by the Indians in +the Valley and two of them were killed. This led to another Yosemite +expedition. A detachment of regular soldiers from Fort Miller under +Lieutenant Moore, U.S.A., was at once dispatched to capture or punish +the murderers. Lieutenant Moore entered the Valley in the night and +surprised and captured a party of five Indians, but an alarm was given +and Tenaya and his people fled from their huts and escaped to the Monos +on the east side of the Range. On examination of the five prisoners in +the morning it was discovered that each of them had some article of +clothing that belonged to the murdered men. The bodies of the two miners +were found and buried on the edge of the Bridal Veil meadow. When the +captives were accused of the murder of the two white men they admitted +that they had killed them to prevent white men from coming to their +Valley, declaring that it was their home and that white men had no right +to come there without their consent. Lieutenant Moore told them through +his interpreter that they had sold their lands to the Government, that +it belonged to the white men now and that they had agreed to live on +the reservation provided for them. To this they replied that Tenaya +had never consented to the sale of their Valley and had never received +pay for it. The other chief, they said, had no right to sell their +territory. The lieutenant being fully satisfied that he had captured the +real murderers, promptly pronounced judgment and had them placed in line +and shot. Lieutenant Moore pursued the fugitives to Mono but was not +successful in finding any of them. After being hospitably entertained +and protected by the Mono and Paute tribes, they stole a number of +stolen horses from their entertainers and made their way by a long, +obscure route by the head of the north fork of the San Joaquin, reached +their Yosemite home once more, but early one morning, after a feast of +horse-flesh, a band of Monos surprised them in their huts, killing +Tenaya and nearly all his tribe. Only a small remnant escaped down the +river cañon. The Tenaya Cañon and Lake were named for the famous old +chief. +<br> +Very few visits were made to the Valley before the summer or 1855, when +Mr. J. M. Hutchings, having heard of its wonderful scenery, collected a +party and made the first regular tourist's visit to the Yosemite and in +his California magazine described it in articles illustrated by a good +artist, who was taken into the Valley by him for that purpose. This +first party was followed by another from Mariposa the same year, +consisting of sixteen or eighteen persons. The next year the regular +pleasure travel began and a trail on the Mariposa side of the Valley was +opened by Mann Brothers. This trail was afterwards purchased by the +citizens of the county and made free to the public. The first house +built in the Yosemite Valley was erected in the autumn of 1856 and was +kept as a hotel the next year by G. A. Hite and later by J. H. Neal and +S. M. Cunningham. It was situated directly opposite the Yosemite Fall. +A little over half a mile farther up the Valley a canvas house was put +up in 1858 by G. A. Hite. Next year a frame house was built and kept as +a hotel by Mr. Peck, afterward by Mr. Longhurst and since 1864 by Mr. +Hutchings. All these hotels have vanished except the frame house built +in 1859, which has been changed beyond recognition. A large hotel built +on the brink of the river in front of the old one is now the only hotel +in the Valley. A large hotel built by the State and located farther up +the Valley was burned. To provide for the overflow of visitors there are +three camps with board floors, wood frame, and covered with canvas, well +furnished, some of them with electric light. A large first-class hotel +is very much needed. +<br> +Travel of late years has been rapidly increasing, especially after the +establishment, by Act of Congress in 1890, of the Yosemite National Park +and the recession in 1905 of the original reservation to the Federal +Government by the State. The greatest increase, of course, was caused +by the construction of the Yosemite Valley railroad from Merced to the +border of the Park, eight miles below the Valley. +<br> +It is eighty miles long, and the entire distance, except the first +twenty-four miles from the town of Merced, is built through the +precipitous Merced River Cañon. The roadbed was virtually blasted out +of the solid rock for the entire distance in the cañon. Work was begun +in September, 1905, and the first train entered El Portal, the terminus, +April 15, 1907. Many miles of the road cost as much as $100,000 per +mile. Its business has increased from 4000 tourists in the first year +it was operated to 15,000 in 1910. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 14<br> +Lamon</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +The good old pioneer, Lamon, was the first of all the early Yosemite +settlers who cordially and unreservedly adopted the Valley as his home. +<br> +He was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, May 10, 1817, emigrated +to Illinois with his father, John Lamon, at the age of nineteen; +afterwards went to Texas and settled on the Brazos, where he raised +melons and hunted alligators for a living. "Right interestin' business," +he said; "especially the alligator part of it." From the Brazos he went +to the Comanche Indian country between Gonzales and Austin, twenty miles +from his nearest neighbor. During the first summer, the only bread he +had was the breast meat of wild turkeys. When the formidable Comanche +Indians were on the war-path he left his cabin after dark and slept in +the woods. From Texas he crossed the plains to California and worked In +the Calaveras and Mariposa gold-fields. +<br> +He first heard Yosemite spoken of as a very beautiful mountain valley +and after making two excursions in the summers of 1857 and 1858 to see +the wonderful place, he made up his mind to quit roving and make a +permanent home in it. In April, 1859, he moved into it, located a garden +opposite the Half Dome, set out a lot of apple, pear and peach trees, +planted potatoes, etc., that he had packed in on a "contrary old mule," +and worked for his board in building a hotel which was afterwards +purchased by Mr. Hutchings. His neighbors thought he was very foolish in +attempting to raise crops in so high and cold a valley, and warned him +that he could raise nothing and sell nothing, and would surely starve. +<br> +For the first year or two lack of provisions compelled him to move out +on the approach of winter, but in 1862 after he had succeeded in raising +some fruit and vegetables he began to winter in the Valley. +<br> +The first winter he had no companions, not even a dog or cat, and one +evening was greatly surprised to see two men coming up the Valley. They +were very glad to see him, for they had come from Mariposa in search of +him, a report having been spread that he had been killed by Indians. He +assured his visitors that he felt safer in his Yosemite home, lying +snug and squirrel-like in his 10 x 12 cabin, than in Mariposa. When the +avalanches began to slip, he wondered where all the wild roaring and +booming came from, the flying snow preventing them from being seen. But, +upon the whole, he wondered most at the brightness, gentleness, and +sunniness of the weather, and hopefully employed the calm days in +tearing ground for an orchard and vegetable garden. +<br> +In the second winter he built a winter cabin under the Royal Arches, +where he enjoyed more sunshine. But no matter how he praised the weather +he could not induce any one to winter with him until 1864. +<br> +He liked to describe the great flood of 1867, the year before I reached +California, when all the walls were striped with thundering waterfalls. +<br> +He was a fine, erect, whole-souled man, between six and seven feet high, +with a broad, open face, bland and guileless as his pet oxen. No +stranger to hunger and weariness, he knew well how to appreciate +suffering of a like kind in others, and many there be, myself among the +number, who can testify to his simple, unostentatious kindness that +found expression in a thousand small deeds. +<br> +After gaining sufficient means to enjoy a long afternoon of life in +comparative affluence and ease, he died in the autumn of 1876. He sleeps +in a beautiful spot near Galen Clark and a monument hewn from a block of +Yosemite granite marks his grave. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 15<br> +Galen Clark</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +Galen Clark was the best mountaineer I ever met, and one of the kindest +and most amiable of all my mountain friends. I first met him at his +Wawona ranch forty-three years ago on my first visit to Yosemite. I had +entered the Valley with one companion by way of Coulterville, and +returned by what was then known as the Mariposa trail. Both trails were +buried in deep snow where the elevation was from 5000 to 7000 feet +above sea level in the sugar pine and silver fir regions. We had no +great difficulty, however, in finding our way by the trends of the +main features of the topography. Botanizing by the way, we made slow, +plodding progress, and were again about out of provisions when we +reached Clark's hospitable cabin at Wawona. He kindly furnished us with +flour and a little sugar and tea, and my companion, who complained of +the be-numbing poverty of a strictly vegetarian diet, gladly accepted +Mr. Clark's offer of a piece of a bear that had just been killed. After +a short talk about bears and the forests and the way to the Big Trees, +we pushed on up through the Wawona firs and sugar pines, and camped in +the now-famous Mariposa grove. +<br> +Later, after making my home in the Yosemite Valley, I became well +acquainted with Mr. Clark, while he was guardian. He was elected again +and again to this important office by different Boards of Commissioners +on account of his efficiency and his real love of the Valley. +<br> +Although nearly all my mountaineering has been done without companions, +I had the pleasure of having Galen Clark with me on three excursions. +About thirty-five years ago I invited him to accompany me on a trip +through the Big Tuolumne Cañon from Hetch Hetchy Valley. The cañon up +to that time had not been explored, and knowing that the difference in +the elevation of the river at the head of the cañon and in Hetch Hetchy +was about 5000 feet, we expected to find some magnificent cataracts +or falls; nor were we disappointed. When we were leaving Yosemite an +ambitious young man begged leave to join us. I strongly advised him not +to attempt such a long, hard trip, for it would undoubtedly prove very +trying to an inexperienced climber. He assured us, however, that he +was equal to anything, would gladly meet every difficulty as it came, +and cause us no hindrance or trouble of any sort. So at last, after +repeating our advice that he give up the trip, we consented to his +joining us. We entered the cañon by way of Hetch Hetchy Valley, each +carrying his own provisions, and making his own tea, porridge, bed, etc. +<br> +In the morning of the second day out from Hetch Hetchy we came to what +is now known as "Muir Gorge," and Mr. Clark without hesitation prepared +to force a way through it, wading and jumping from one submerged boulder +to another through the torrent, bracing and steadying himself with a +long pole. Though the river was then rather low, the savage, roaring, +surging song it was ringing was rather nerve-trying, especially to our +inexperienced companion. With careful assistance, however, I managed to +get him through, but this hard trial, naturally enough, proved too much +and he informed us, pale and trembling, that he could go no farther. I +gathered some wood at the upper throat of the gorge, made a fire for him +and advised him to feel at home and make himself comfortable, hoped he +would enjoy the grand scenery and the songs of the water-ouzels which +haunted the gorge, and assured him that we would return some time in the +night, though it might be late, as we wished to go on through the entire +cañon if possible. We pushed our way through the dense chaparral and +over the earthquake taluses with such speed that we reached the foot of +the upper cataract while we had still an hour or so of daylight for the +return trip. It was long after dark when we reached our adventurous, but +nerve-shaken companion who, of course, was anxious and lonely, not being +accustomed to solitude, however kindly and flowery and full of sweet +bird-song and stream-song. Being tired we simply lay down in restful +comfort on the river bank beside a good fire, instead of trying to +go down the gorge in the dark or climb over its high shoulder to our +blankets and provisions, which we had left in the morning in a tree at +the foot of the gorge. I remember Mr. Clark remarking that if he had +his choice that night between provisions and blankets he would choose +his blankets. +<br> +The next morning in about an hour we had crossed over the ridge through +which the gorge is cut, reached our provisions, made tea, and had a good +breakfast. As soon as we had returned to Yosemite I obtained fresh +provisions, pushed off alone up to the head of Yosemite Creek basin, +entered the cañon by a side cañon, and completed the exploration up to +the Tuolumne Meadows. +<br> +It was on this first trip from Hetch Hetchy to the upper cataracts that +I had convincing proofs of Mr. Clark's daring and skill as mountaineer, +particularly in fording torrents, and in forcing his way through thick +chaparral. I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with him in dense, +tangled brush, though in jumping on boulder taluses and slippery +cobble-beds I had no difficulty in leaving him behind. +<br> +After I had discovered the glaciers on Mount Lyell and Mount McClure, +Mr. Clark kindly made a second excursion with me to assist in +establishing a line of stakes across the McClure glacier to measure its +rate of flow. On this trip we also climbed Mount Lyell together, when +the snow which covered the glacier was melted into upleaning, icy blades +which were extremely difficult to cross, not being strong enough to +support our weight, nor wide enough apart to enable us to stride across +each blade as it was met. Here again I, being lighter, had no difficulty +in keeping ahead of him. While resting after wearisome staggering and +falling he stared at the marvelous ranks of leaning blades, and said, "I +think I have traveled all sorts of trails and cañons, through all kinds +of brush and snow, but this gets me." +<br> +Mr. Clark at my urgent request joined my small party on a trip to the +Kings River yosemite by way of the high mountains, most of the way +without a trail. He joined us at the Mariposa Big Tree grove and +intended to go all the way, but finding that, on account of the +difficulties encountered, the time required was much greater than he +expected, he turned back near the head of the north fork of the Kings +River. +<br> +In cooking his mess of oatmeal porridge and making tea, his pot was +always the first to boil, and I used to wonder why, with all his skill +in scrambling through brush in the easiest way, and preparing his meals, +he was so utterly careless about his beds. He would lie down anywhere on +any ground, rough or smooth, without taking pains even to remove cobbles +or sharp-angled rocks protruding through the grass or gravel, saying +that his own bones were as hard as any stones and could do him no harm. +<br> +His kindness to all Yosemite visitors and mountaineers was marvelously +constant and uniform. He was not a good business man, and in building an +extensive hotel and barns at Wawona, before the travel to Yosemite had +been greatly developed, he borrowed money, mortgaged his property and +lost it all. +<br> +Though not the first to see the Mariposa Big Tree grove, he was the +first to explore it, after he had heard from a prospector, who had +passed through the grove and who gave him the indefinite information, +that there were some wonderful big trees up there on the top of the +Wawona hill and that he believed they must be of the same kind that had +become so famous and well-known in the Calaveras grove farther north. +On this information, Galen Clark told me, he went up and thoroughly +explored the grove, counting the trees and measuring the largest, and +becoming familiar with it. He stated also that he had explored the +forest to the southward and had discovered the much larger Fresno grove +of about two square miles, six or seven miles distant from the Mariposa +grove. Unfortunately most of the Fresno grove has been cut and flumed +down to the railroad near Madera. +<br> +Mr. Clark was truly and literally a gentle-man. I never heard him utter +a hasty, angry, fault-finding word. His voice was uniformly pitched at a +rather low tone, perfectly even, although lances of his eyes and slight +intonations of his voice often indicated that something funny or mildly +sarcastic was coming, but upon the whole he was serious and industrious, +and, however deep and fun-provoking a story might be, he never indulged +in boisterous laughter. +<br> +He was very fond of scenery and once told me after I became acquainted +with him that he liked "nothing in the world better than climbing to the +top of a high ridge or mountain and looking off." He preferred the +mountain ridges and domes in the Yosemite regions on account of the +wealth and beauty of the forests. Often times he would take his rifle, a +few pounds of bacon, a few pound of flour, and a single blanket and go +off hunting, for no other reason than to explore and get acquainted with +the most beautiful points of view within a journey of a week or two from +his Wawona home. On these trips he was always alone and could indulge +in tranquil enjoyment of Nature to his heart's content. He said that +on those trips, when he was a sufficient distance from home in a +neighborhood where he wished to linger, he always shot a deer, sometimes +a grouse, and occasionally a bear. After diminishing the weight of a +deer or bear by eating part of it, he carried as much as possible of the +best of the meat to Wawona, and from his hospitable well-supplied cabin +no weary wanderer ever went away hungry or unrested. +<br> +The value of the mountain air in prolonging life is well examplified in +Mr. Clark's case. While working in the mines he contracted a severe cold +that settled on his lungs and finally caused severe inflammation and +bleeding, and none of his friends thought he would ever recover. The +physicians told him he had but a short time to live. It was then that +he repaired to the beautiful sugar pine woods at Wawona and took up a +claim, including the fine meadows there, and building his cabin, began +his life of wandering and exploring in the glorious mountains about him, +usually going bare-headed. In a remarkably short time his lungs were +healed. +<br> +He was one of the most sincere tree-lovers I ever knew. About twenty +years before his death he made choice of a plot in the Yosemite cemetery +on the north side of the Valley, not far from the Yosemite Fall, and +selecting a dozen or so of seedling sequoias in the Mariposa grove he +brought them to the Valley and planted them around the spot he had +chosen for his last rest. The ground there is gravelly and dry; by +careful watering he finally nursed most of the seedlings into good, +thrifty trees, and doubtless they will long shade the grave of their +blessed lover and friend. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Chapter 16<br> +Hetch Hetchy Valley</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +Yosemite is so wonderful that we are apt to regard it as an exceptional +creation, the only valley of its kind in the world; but Nature is not +so poor as to have only one of anything. Several other yosemites have +been discovered in the Sierra that occupy the same relative positions +on the Range and were formed by the same forces in the same kind of +granite. One of these, the Hetch Hetchy Valley, is in the Yosemite +National Park about twenty miles from Yosemite and is easily accessible +to all sorts of travelers by a road and trail that leaves the Big Oak +Flat road at Bronson Meadows a few miles below Crane Flat, and to +mountaineers by way of Yosemite Creek basin and the head of the middle +fork of the Tuolumne. +<br> +It is said to have been discovered by Joseph Screech, a hunter, in 1850, +a year before the discovery of the great Yosemite. After my first visit +to it in the autumn of 1871, I have always called it the "Tuolumne +Yosemite," for it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Merced +Yosemite, not only in its sublime rocks and waterfalls but in the +gardens, groves and meadows of its flowery park-like floor. The floor of +Yosemite is about 4000 feet above the sea; the Hetch Hetchy floor about +3700 feet. And as the Merced River flows through Yosemite, so does the +Tuolumne through Hetch Hetchy. The walls of both are of gray granite, +rise abruptly from the floor, are sculptured in the same style and in +both every rock is a glacier monument. +<br> +Standing boldly out from the south wall is a strikingly picturesque rock +called by the Indians, Kolana, the outermost of a group 2300 feet high, +corresponding with the Cathedral Rocks of Yosemite both in relative +position and form. On the opposite side of the Valley, facing Kolana, +there is a counterpart of the El Capitan that rises sheer and plain to +a height of 1800 feet, and over its massive brow flows a stream which +makes the most graceful fall I have ever seen. From the edge of the +cliff to the top of an earthquake talus it is perfectly free in the air +for a thousand feet before it is broken into cascades among talus +boulders. It is in all its glory in June, when the snow is melting fast, +but fades and vanishes toward the end of summer. The only fall I know +with which it may fairly be compared is the Yosemite Bridal Veil; but it +excels even that favorite fall both in height and airy-fairy beauty and +behavior. Lowlanders are apt to suppose that mountain streams in their +wild career over cliffs lose control of themselves and tumble in a noisy +chaos of mist and spray. On the contrary, on no part of their travels +are they more harmonious and self-controlled. Imagine yourself in Hetch +Hetchy on a sunny day in June, standing waist-deep in grass and flowers +(as I have often stood), while the great pines sway dreamily with +scarcely perceptible motion. Looking northward across the Valley you +see a plain, gray granite cliff rising abruptly out of the gardens and +groves to a height of 1800 feet, and in front of it Tueeulala's silvery +scarf burning with irised sun-fire. In the first white outburst at the +head there is abundance of visible energy, but it is speedily hushed and +concealed in divine repose, and its tranquil progress to the base of the +cliff is like that of a downy feather in a still room. Now observe the +fineness and marvelous distinctness of the various sun-illumined fabrics +into which the water is woven; they sift and float from form to form +down the face of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and unconfused a +manner that you can examine their texture, and patterns and tones of +color as you would a piece of embroidery held in the hand. Toward the +top of the fall you see groups of booming, comet-like masses, their +solid, white heads separate, their tails like combed silk interlacing +among delicate gray and purple shadows, ever forming and dissolving, +worn out by friction in their rush through the air. Most of these vanish +a few hundred feet below the summit, changing to varied forms of +cloud-like drapery. Near the bottom the width of the fall has increased +from about twenty-five feet to a hundred feet. Here it is composed of +yet finer tissues, and is still without a trace of disorder--air, water +and sunlight woven into stuff that spirits might wear. +<br> +So fine a fall might well seem sufficient to glorify any valley; but +here, as in Yosemite, Nature seems in nowise moderate, for a short +distance to the eastward of Tueeulala booms and thunders the great Hetch +Hetchy Fall, Wapama, so near that you have both of them in full view +from the same standpoint. It is the counterpart of the Yosemite Fall, +but has a much greater volume of water, is about 1700 feet in height, +and appears to be nearly vertical, though considerably inclined, and is +dashed into huge outbounding bosses of foam on projecting shelves and +knobs. No two falls could be more unlike--Tueeulala out in the open +sunshine descending like thistledown; Wapama in a jagged, shadowy gorge +roaring and plundering, pounding its way like an earthquake avalanche. +<br> +Besides this glorious pair there is a broad, massive fall on the main +river a short distance above the head of the Valley. Its position is +something like that of the Vernal in Yosemite, and its roar as it +plunges into a surging trout-pool may be heard a long way, though it +is only about twenty feet high. On Rancheria Creek, a large stream, +corresponding in position with the Yosemite Tenaya Creek, there is a +chain of cascades joined here and there with swift flashing plumes like +the one between the Vernal and Nevada Falls, making magnificent shows +as they go their glacier-sculptured way, sliding, leaping, hurrahing, +covered with crisp clashing spray made glorious with sifting sunshine. +And besides all these a few small streams come over the walls at wide +intervals, leaping from ledge to ledge with birdlike song and watering +many a hidden cliff-garden and fernery, but they are too unshowy to be +noticed in so grand a place. +<br> +The correspondence between the Hetch Hetchy walls in their trends, +sculpture, physical structure, and general arrangement of the main +rock-masses and those of the Yosemite Valley has excited the wondering +admiration of every observer. We have seen that the El Capitan and +Cathedral rocks occupy the same relative positions In both valleys; so +also do their Yosemite points and North Domes. Again, that part of the +Yosemite north wall immediately to the east of the Yosemite Fall has two +horizontal benches, about 500 and 1500 feet above the floor, timbered +with golden-cup oak. Two benches similarly situated and timbered occur +on the same relative portion of the Hetch Hetchy north wall, to the east +of Wapama Fall, and on no other. The Yosemite is bounded at the head by +the great Half Dome. Hetch Hetchy is bounded in the same way though its +head rock is incomparably less wonderful and sublime in form. +<br> +The floor of the Valley is about three and a half miles long, and from a +fourth to half a mile wide. The lower portion is mostly a level meadow +about a mile long, with the trees restricted to the sides and the river +banks, and partially separated from the main, upper, forested portion by +a low bar of glacier-polished granite across which the river breaks in +rapids. +<br> +The principal trees are the yellow and sugar pines, digger pine, incense +cedar, Douglas spruce, silver fir, the California and golden-cup oaks, +balsam cottonwood, Nuttall's flowering dogwood, alder, maple, laurel, +tumion, etc. The most abundant and influential are the great yellow or +silver pines like those of Yosemite, the tallest over two hundred feet +in height, and the oaks assembled in magnificent groves with massive +rugged trunks four to six feet in diameter, and broad, shady, +wide-spreading heads. The shrubs forming conspicuous flowery clumps and +tangles are manzanita, azalea, spiræa, brier-rose, several species of +ceanothus, calycanthus, philadelphus, wild cherry, etc.; with abundance +of showy and fragrant herbaceous plants growing about them or out in the +open in beds by themselves--lilies, Mariposa tulips, brodiaeas, orchids, +iris, spraguea, draperia, collomia, collinsia, castilleja, nemophila, +larkspur, columbine, goldenrods, sunflowers, mints of many species, +honeysuckle, etc. Many fine ferns dwell here also, especially the +beautiful and interesting rock-ferns--pellaea, and cheilanthes of +several species--fringing and rosetting dry rock-piles and ledges; +woodwardia and asplenium on damp spots with fronds six or seven feet +high; the delicate maiden-hair in mossy nooks by the falls, and the +sturdy, broad-shouldered pteris covering nearly all the dry ground +beneath the oaks and pines. +<br> +It appears, therefore, that Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, +common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to suppose, +is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature's rarest and most precious +mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem +to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in +thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, their +brows in the sky, their feet set in the groves and gay flowery meadows, +while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to +stir all the air into music--things frail and fleeting and types of +permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do in Yosemite, to +draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. +<br> +Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite +National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the +uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being +dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water +and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens +and groves one or two hundred feet deep. This grossly destructive +commercial scheme has long been planned and urged (though water as pure +and abundant can be got from outside of the people's park, in a dozen +different places), because of the comparative cheapness of the dam and +of the territory which it is sought to divert from the great uses to +which it was dedicated in the Act of 1890 establishing the Yosemite +National Park. +<br> +The making of gardens and parks goes on with civilization all over the +world, and they increase both in size and number as their value is +recognized. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in +and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body +and soul alike. This natural beauty-hunger is made manifest in the +little window-sill gardens of the poor, though perhaps only a geranium +slip in a broken cup, as well as in the carefully tended rose and lily +gardens of the rich, the thousands of spacious city parks and botanical +gardens, and in our magnificent National parks--the Yellowstone, +Yosemite, Sequoia, etc.--Nature's sublime wonderlands, the admiration +and joy of the world. Nevertheless, like anything else worth while, from +the very beginning, however well guarded, they have always been subject +to attack by despoiling gainseekers and mischief-makers of every degree +from Satan to Senators, eagerly trying to make everything immediately +and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in smug-smiling +philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying, "Conservation, +conservation, panutilization," that man and beast may be fed and the +dear Nation made great. Thus long ago a few enterprising merchants +utilized the Jerusalem temple as a place of business instead of a place +of prayer, changing money, buying and selling cattle and sheep and +doves; and earlier still, the first forest reservation, including only +one tree, was likewise despoiled. Ever since the establishment of the +Yosemite National Park, strife has been going on around its borders and +I suppose this will go on as part of the universal battle between right +and wrong, however much its boundaries may be shorn, or its wild beauty +destroyed. +<br> +The first application to the Government by the San Francisco Supervisors +for the commercial use of Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy Valley was +made in 1903, and on December 22nd of that year it was denied by the +Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Hitchcock, who truthfully said: +<br> +Presumably the Yosemite National Park was created such by law because +within its boundaries, inclusive alike of its beautiful small lakes, +like Eleanor, and its majestic wonders, like Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite +Valley. It is the aggregation of such natural scenic features that makes +the Yosemite Park a wonderland which the Congress of the United States +sought by law to reserve for all coming time as nearly as practicable +in the condition fashioned by the hand of the Creator--a worthy object +of national pride and a source of healthful pleasure and rest for the +thousands of people who may annually sojourn there during the heated +months. +<br> +In 1907 when Mr. Garfield became Secretary of the Interior the +application was renewed and granted; but under his successor, Mr. +Fisher, the matter has been referred to a Commission, which as this +volume goes to press still has it under consideration. +<br> +The most delightful and wonderful camp grounds in the Park are its three +great valleys--Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy, and Upper Tuolumne; and they are +also the most important places with reference to their positions +relative to the other great features--the Merced and Tuolumne Cañons, +and the High Sierra peaks and glaciers, etc., at the head of the rivers. +The main part of the Tuolumne Valley is a spacious flowery lawn four or +five miles long, surrounded by magnificent snowy mountains, slightly +separated from other beautiful meadows, which together make a series +about twelve miles in length, the highest reaching to the feet of Mount +Dana, Mount Gibbs, Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. It is about 8500 feet +above the sea, and forms the grand central High Sierra camp ground from +which excursions are made to the noble mountains, domes, glaciers, etc.; +across the Range to the Mono Lake and volcanoes and down the Tuolumne +Cañon to Hetch Hetchy. Should Hetch Hetchy be submerged for a +reservoir, as proposed, not only would it be utterly destroyed, but the +sublime cañon way to the heart of the High Sierra would be hopelessly +blocked and the great camping ground, as the watershed of a city +drinking system, virtually would be closed to the public. So far as I +have learned, few of all the thousands who have seen the park and seek +rest and peace in it are in favor of this outrageous scheme. +<br> +One of my later visits to the Valley was made in the autumn of 1907 with +the late William Keith, the artist. The leaf-colors were then ripe, and +the great godlike rocks in repose seemed to glow with life. The artist, +under their spell, wandered day after day along the river and through +the groves and gardens, studying the wonderful scenery; and, after +making about forty sketches, declared with enthusiasm that although its +walls were less sublime in height, in picturesque beauty and charm Hetch +Hetchy surpassed even Yosemite. +<br> +That any one would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but sad +experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for +anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad +arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people's +parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments +are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the destruction of +the first garden--so much of the very best Eden fruit going to waste; so +much of the best Tuolumne water and Tuolumne scenery going to waste. Few +of their statements are even partly true, and all are misleading. +<br> +Thus, Hetch Hetchy, they say, is a "low-lying meadow." On the contrary, +it is a high-lying natural landscape garden, as the photographic +illustrations show. +<br> +"It is a common minor feature, like thousands of others." On the +contrary it is a very uncommon feature; after Yosemite, the rarest and +in many ways the most important in the National Park. +<br> +"Damming and submerging it 175 feet deep would enhance its beauty by +forming a crystal-clear lake." Landscape gardens, places of recreation +and worship, are never made beautiful by destroying and burying them. +The beautiful sham lake, forsooth, should be only an eyesore, a dismal +blot on the landscape, like many others to be seen in the Sierra. For, +instead of keeping it at the same level all the year, allowing Nature +centuries of time to make new shores, it would, of course, be full only +a month or two in the spring, when the snow is melting fast; then it +would be gradually drained, exposing the slimy sides of the basin and +shallower parts of the bottom, with the gathered drift and waste, death +and decay of the upper basins, caught here instead of being swept on to +decent natural burial along the banks of the river or in the sea. Thus +the Hetch Hetchy dam-lake would be only a rough imitation of a natural +lake for a few of the spring months, an open sepulcher for the others. +<br> +"Hetch Hetchy water is the purest of all to be found in the Sierra, +unpolluted, and forever unpollutable." On the contrary, excepting that +of the Merced below Yosemite, it is less pure than that of most of the +other Sierra streams, because of the sewerage of camp grounds draining +into it, especially of the Big Tuolumne Meadows camp ground, occupied by +hundreds of tourists and mountaineers, with their animals, for months +every summer, soon to be followed by thousands from all the world. +<br> +These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to +have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes +to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. +<br> +Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals +and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the +heart of man. +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Appendix A<br> +Legislation About the Yosemite</h2> + +<pre> + +In the year 1864, Congress passed the following act:-- + + ACT OF JUNE 30, 1864 (13 STAT., 325). + +An Act Authorizing a grant to the State of California of the "Yo-Semite +Valley," and of the land embracing the "Mariposa Big Tree Grove." +<br> +"<i>Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America, in Congress assembled,</i> That there shall be, and is +hereby, granted to the State of California, the 'Cleft' or 'Gorge' in +the Granite Peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county +of Mariposa, in the State aforesaid, and the headwaters of the Merced +River, and known as the Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, in +estimated length fifteen miles, and in average width one mile back from +the main edge of the precipice, on each side of the Valley, with the +stipulation, nevertheless, that the said State shall accept this grant +upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public +use, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable for all time; but +leases not exceeding ten years may be granted for portions of said +premises. All incomes derived from leases of privileges to be expended +in the preservation and improvement of the property, or the roads +leading thereto; the boundaries to be established at the cost of said +State by the United States Surveyor-General of California, whose +official plat, when affirmed by the Commissioner of the General Land +Office, shall constitute the evidence of the locus, extent, and limits +of the said Cleft or Gorge; the premises to be managed by the Governor +of the State, with eight other Commissioners, to be appointed by the +Executive of California, and who shall receive no compensation for their +services. +<br> +"Sec. 2. <i>And be it further enacted,</i> That there shall likewise be, and +there is hereby, granted to the said State of California, the tracts +embracing what is known as the 'Mariposa Big Tree Grove,' not to exceed +the area of four sections, and to be taken in legal subdivisions of +one-quarter section each, with the like stipulations as expressed in +the first section of this Act as to the State's acceptance, with like +conditions as in the first section of this Act as to inalienability, +yet with the same lease privileges; the income to be expended in the +preservation, improvement, and protection of the property, the premises +to be managed by Commissioners, as stipulated in the first section of +this Act, and to be taken in legal subdivisions as aforesaid; and the +official plat of the United States Surveyor-General, when affirmed by +the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to be the evidence of the +locus of the said Mariposa Big Tree Grove." +<br> +This important act was approved by the President, June 30, 1864, +and shortly after the Governor of California, F. F. Low, issued a +proclamation taking possession of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa +grove of Big Trees, in the name and on behalf of the State, appointing +commissioners to manage them, and warning all persons against +trespassing or settling there without authority, and especially +forbidding the cutting of timber and other injurious acts. +<br> +The first Board of Commissioners were F. Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, +William Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, +George W. Coulter, and Galen Clark. +<br> +ACT OF OCTOBER 1, 1890 (26 STAT., 650). +<br> +[Footnote: Sections 1 and 2 of this act pertain to the Yosemite National +Park, while section 3 sets apart General Grant National Park, and also a +portion of Sequoia National Park.] +<br> +An Act To set apart certain tracts of land in the State of California as +forest reservations. +<br> +"<i>Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled,</i> That the tracts of land in the +State of California known as described as follows: Commencing at the +northwest corner of township two north, range nineteen east Mount Diablo +meridian, thence eastwardly on the line between townships two and three +north, ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east; thence southwardly on +the line between ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east to the Mount +Diablo base line; thence eastwardly on said base line to the corner +to township one south, ranges twenty-five and twenty-six east; thence +southwardly on the line between ranges twenty-five and twenty-six east +to the southeast corner of township two south, range twenty-five east; +thence eastwardly on the line between townships two and three south, +range twenty-six east to the corner to townships two and three south, +ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east; thence southwardly on the line +between ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east to the first standard +parallel south; thence westwardly on the first standard parallel south +to the southwest corner of township four south, range nineteen east; +thence northwardly on the line between ranges eighteen and nineteen east +to the northwest corner of township two south, range nineteen east; +thence westwardly on the line between townships one and two south to +the southwest corner of township one south, range nineteen east; thence +northwardly on the line between ranges eighteen and nineteen east to +the northwest corner of township two north, range nineteen east, the +place of beginning, are hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, +occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and set apart as +reserved forest lands; and all persons who shall locate or settle upon, +or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, +shall be considered trespassers and removed therefrom: <i>Provided, +however,</i> That nothing in this act shall be construed as in anywise +affecting the grant of lands made to the State of California by virtue +of the act entitled, 'An act authorizing a grant to the State of +California of the Yosemite Valley, and of the land embracing the +Mariposa Big-Tree Grove,' appeared June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and +sixty-four; or as affecting any bona-fide entry of land made within the +limits above described under any law of the United States prior to the +approval of this act. +<br> +"Sec. 2. That said reservation shall be under the exclusive control +of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as +practicable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may +deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such +regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury of all +timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said +reservation, and their retention in their natural condition. The +Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for building purposes for +terms not exceeding ten years of small parcels of ground not exceeding +five acres; at such places in said reservation as shall require the +erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the +proceeds of said leases and other revenues that may be derived from +any source connected with said reservation to be expended under his +direction in the management of the same and the construction of roads +and paths therein. He shall provide against the wanton destruction of +the fish, and game found within said reservation, and against their +capture or destruction, for the purposes of merchandise or profit. He +shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the same after the passage +of this act to be removed therefrom, and, generally, shall be authorized +to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper to fully carry +out the objects and purposes of this act. +<br> +"Sec. 3. There shall also be and is hereby reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and +shall be set apart as reserved forest lands, as herein before provided, +and subject to all the limitations and provisions herein contained, the +following additional lands, to wit: Township seventeen south, range +thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian, excepting sections thirty-one, +thirty-two, thirty-three, and thirty-four of said township, included +in a previous bill. And there is also reserved and withdrawn from +settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and +set apart as forest lands, subject to like limitations, conditions, +and provisions, all of townships fifteen and sixteen south, of ranges +twenty-nine and thirty east of the Mount Diablo meridian. And there is +also hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale +under the laws of the United states, and set apart as reserved forest +lands under like limitations, restrictions, and provisions, sections +five and six in township fourteen south, range twenty-eight east of +Mount Diablo meridian, and also sections thirty-one and thirty-two of +township thirteen south, range twenty-eight east of the same meridian. +Nothing in this act shall authorize rules or contracts touching the +protection and improvement of said reservations, beyond the sums that +may be received by the Secretary of the Interior under the foregoing +provisions, or authorize any charge against the Treasury of the United +States." +<br> +ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, APPROVED +MARCH 3, 1905. +<br> +"Sec. 1. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto the +United States of America the 'cleft' or 'gorge' in the granite peak of +the Sierra Nevada Mountains, situated in the county of Mariposa, State +of California, and the headwaters of the Merced River, and known as the +Yosemite Valley, with its branches and spurs, granted unto the State +of California in trust for public use, resort, and recreation by the +act of Congress entitled, 'An act authorizing a grant to the State +of California of the Yosemite Valley and of the land embracing the +Mariposa Big Tree Grove,' approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and +sixty-four; and the State of California does hereby relinquish unto the +United States of America and resign the trusts created and granted by +the said act of Congress. +<br> +"Sec. 2. The State of California does hereby recede and regrant unto +the United States of America the tracts embracing what is known as the +'Mariposa Big Tree Grove,' planted unto the State of California in trust +for public use, resort, and recreation by the act of Congress referred +to in section one of this act, and the State of California does hereby +relinquish unto the United States of America and resign the trusts +created and granted by the said act of Congress. +<br> +"Sec. 3. This act shall take effect from and after acceptance by the +United States of America of the recessions and regrants herein made +thereby forever releasing the State of California from further cost of +maintaining the said premises, the same to be held for all time by the +United States of America for public use, resort, and recreation and +imposing on the United States of America the cost of maintaining the +same as a national park: <i>Provided, however,</i> That the recession and +regrant hereby made shall not affect vested rights and interests of +third persons." +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Appendix B<br> +Table of Distances</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +From the Guardian's office, in the village, the distances to various +points are in miles as follows: +</pre> + +<pre> + <i>Miles</i>. + Bridal Veil Fall 4.04 + Cascade Falls 7.67 + Cloud's Rest, Summit 11.81 + Columbia Rock, on Eagle Peak Trail 1.98 + Dana, Mt., Summit 40.34 + Eagle Peak 6.59 + El Capitan Bridge 3.63 + Glacier Point, direct trail 4.45 + Glacier Point, by Nevada Falls 16.98 + Lyell, Mt., Summit 38.20 + Merced Bridge 2.03 + Mirror Lake, by Hunt's avenue 2.91 + Nevada Fall (Hotel) 4.63 + Nevada Fall, Bridge above 5.45 + Pohono Bridge 5.29 + Register Rock 3.24 + Ribbon Fall 3.99 + Rocky Point (base of Three Brothers) 1.45 + Tenayah Creek Bridge 2.26 + Tenayah Lake 16.00 + Yosemite Falls, foot 0.90 + Yosemite Falls, foot Upper Fall 2.67 + Yosemite Falls, top 4.33 + Soda Springs (Eagle Peak Trail) 24.50 + Sentinel Dome 5.57 + Union Point, on Glacier Point Trail 3.13 + Vernal Fall 3.50 + +</pre> + +<h2 align="center">Appendix C<br> +Maximum Rates for Transportation</h2> + +<pre> +<br> +The following rates for transportation in and about the Valley have +been established by the Board of Commissioners: +<br> +SADDLE-HORSES +</pre> + +<pre> + <i>From Route to Amount</i> + + Valley Glacier Point and Sentinel Dome, and return, $3.00 + direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.75 + and return, direct, same day + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and Fissures, 3.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 3.00 + and Casa Nevada, passing night at Casa Nevada + Valley Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, 4.00 + Vernal Fall, and thence to Valley same day + Glacier Point Valley direct 2.00 + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, and Casa Nevada, 2.00 + passing night at Casa Nevada + Glacier Point Sentinel Dome, Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall, 3.00 + and thence to Valley same day + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, direct, 3.00 + and return to Valley same day + Valley Glacier Point by Casa Nevada, passing night 3.00 + at Glacier Point + Valley Summits, Vernal and Nevada Falls, Sentinel Dome, 4.00 + Glacier Point, and thence to Valley same day + Valley Cloud's Rest and return to Casa Nevada 3.00 + Valley Cloud's Rest and return to Valley same day 5.00 + Casa Nevada Cloud's Rest and return to Casa Nevada or 3.00 + Valley same day + Casa Nevada Valley direct 2.00 + Casa Nevada Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, and Glacier Point, 2.00 + passing night at Glacier Point + Valley Nevada Fall, Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, 3.00 + and Valley same day + Upper Yosemite Fall, Eagle Peak, and return 3.00 + Charge for guide (including horse), when furnished 3.00 + Saddle-horses, on level of Valley, per day 2.50 +</pre> + +<pre> +<br> +1. The above charges do not include feed for horses when passing night +at Casa Nevada or Glacier Point. +<br> +2. Where Valley is specified as starting-point, the above rates prevail +from any hotel in Valley, or from the foot of any trail. +<br> +3. Any shortening of above trips, without proportionate reduction of +rates, shall be at the option of those hiring horses. +<br> +4. Trips other than those above specified shall be subject to special +arrangement between letter and hirer. +<br> +CARRIAGES +</pre> + +<pre> + <i>From Route to Amount</i> + + Hotels Mirror Lake and return, direct $1.00 + Hotels Mirror Lake and return by Tissiack Avenue 1.25 + Hotels Mirror Lake and return to foot of Trail, to Vernal 1.00 + and Nevada Falls + Hotels Bridal Veil Falls and return, direct 1.00 + Hotels Pohono Bridge, down either side of Valley, and return 1.50 + on opposite side, stopping at Yosemite and Bridal + Veil Falls + Hotels Cascade Falls, down either side of Valley, and return 2.25 + on opposite side, stopping at Yosemite and Bridal + Veil Falls + Hotels Artist Point and return, direct, stopping at Bridal 2.00 + Veil Falls + Hotels New Inspiration Point and return, direct, stopping at 2.00 + Bridal Veil Falls + Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 2.50 + Falls, excluding Lake and Cascades + Grand Round Drive, including Yosemite and Bridal Veil 3.50 + Falls, Lake, and Cascades +</pre> + +<pre> +<br> +1. When the value of the seats hired in any vehicle shall exceed $15 +for a two-horse team, or $25 for a four-horse team, <i>for any trip</i> in the +above schedule, the persons hiring the seats shall have the privilege +of paying no more than the aggregate sums of $15 and $25 <i>per trip</i> for a +two-horse and four-horse team, respectively. +<br> +2. If saddle-horses should be substituted for any of the above carriage +trips, carriage rates will apply to each horse. In no case shall the +<i>per diem</i> charge of $2.50 for each saddle-horse, on level of Valley, be +exceeded. +<br> +Any excess of the above rates, as well as any extortion, incivility, +misrepresentation, or the riding of unsafe animals, should be promptly +reported at the Guardian's office. + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +</pre> + +<pre> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE YOSEMITE *** + +This file should be named yosem10h.htm or yosem10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, yosem11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, yosem10ah.htm + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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