^osemtte i^allcp Through the Stereoscope Personally Conducted by Ctjarlesf Clutnc^ Wmmt Formerly Editor of Outing antiettnooD & OnDetttJOon New York London Ottawa, Kansa Toronto, Canada Copyright, 1902 By Underwood & Underwood New York and London (Entered at Stationers' Hall) Stereographs copyrighted in the United States and foreign countries MAP SYSTEM Patented in the United States, August 21, 1900 Patented in Great Britain, March 22, 1900 Patented in France, March 26, 1900. S.G.D.G. Switzerland, +Patent Nr. 21,211 Patents applied for in other countries All rights reserved COMTENT5 PAGE The Yosemite Valley Where it is 5 What it is ... 5 How it came to be 7 The resultant q How it came to be preserved 10 How to get to it . 12 How to see Stereoscopic Photographs 13 ITINERARY 1. From Inspiration Point (E.N.E.) through Yosemite Valley, showing Bridal Veil Falls, El Capitan, Sentinel and Half Dome 18 2. El Capitan (3,300 ft. high), most imposing of granite cliffs, east to Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest .... 23 3. Ribbon Falls (2,000 foot leap), looking north, from the Valley, near Merced River 25 4. El Capitan, a solid granite mountain (3,300 ft. high), (N.W.) from across the beautiful Merced River . . 27 5. The Three Brothers (Eagle Peak in centre) , from down the Valley — one of the strange formations of won- derful Yosemite 28 6. North Dome, Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest, (E.N.E.) from north of River, opposite Three Brothers ... 31 7. Mirror View of the majestic Cathedral Rocks — look- ing (W.S.W.) down the valley 34 8. Amid Yosemite’s Charms — Sentinel Hotel, looking north across Valley to Yosemite Falls 36 9. Majestic Yosemite Point and wind-sprayed Yosemite Falls (1,600 ft. leap), looking N.N.E 37 10. The Valley, Half Dome, Nevada Falls, Cap of Liberty and imposing Sierras (E.S.E.), from Eagle Peak . 41 11. Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point Trail 45 12. Looking straight up the sheer face of (jlacier Point (3,000 ft.) to the Overhanging Rocks 46 13. Looking straight down from Overhanging Rocks, Gla- cier Point (3,257 ft.), into the Valley below . ... 49 14. Nearly a mile straight down and only a step — from Glacier Point (N.W.), across Valley to Yosemite Falls, Yosemite 50 15. Overlooking nature’s grandest scenery — from Glacier Point (N.E.) over Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest . . 52 16. From Glacier Point (N.E.) up Tenaiya Canon, over Mirror Lake, Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest .... 55 17. Nevada and Vernal Falls, and Cap of Liberty, from Glacier Point (E.S.E.) to Mount Clark (11,250 ft.) . 57 18. Amid the majestic heights and chasms of wonderful Yosemite Valley— from Trail (N.N.W.) to North and Basket Domes 60 19. On the brink of a fearful chasm — from Glacier Canon (N.E.) to Half Dome 62 20. Climbing up the steep Zig-zag Trail at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley 64 21. Nevada Falls (605 ft. fall) and Cap of Liberty (1,800 ft. high) from Trail, looking east 65 22. Mirror Lake, where nature multiplies her charms— looking (N.E.) to Mount Watkins 67 23. From Cloud’s Rest (N.N.E.) over Lake Tenaiya to the distant Matterhorn (12,176 ft.). Sierra Nevada Mountains 69 24. From Cloud’s Rest (S.E) over Little Yosemite Valley to Mount Clark (11,250 ft.), Sierra Nevada Mountains 70 MAP Map of Yosemite Valley showing Wagon -roads and Trails THE YOSEMITE VALLEY Where It Is The Yosemite Valley lies in a direct line, east by slightly south, from San Francisco. It is in Mariposa County, California. Geo- graphically it is in the centre of the State, and midway between the eastern and west- ern limits of the Sierra Nevada Moun- tains. What It Is It is a section of the great granite back- bone of North America, which follows the California State line to the northern boundary, Oregon, with almost mathe- matical accuracy — the largest exposure of igneous rocks to be found on the continent. The actual reservation is about seven miles long from east to west and from half a mile to a mile and a half wide, but there is no visible boundary dividing it from the adjacent Si- erras, which range in every direction be- yond the limits of the widest view from its highest pinnacle, Cloud’s Rest Mountain, though that is ten thousand feet above sea level. The main valley floor is three thou- sand feet above sea level. Through this the Merced River runs amid level meadow lands. At the eastern end of the main valley, the land rises and divides into three valleys. Down the main one come the up- per waters of the Merced, which, after de- 6 scending two thousand feet in two miles of rapids, makes two final leaps over the Ne- vada and Vernal Falls, together another one thousand feet. The northeastern val- ley is the source of the Tenaiya Creek, which, rising in the far-off snow fields of the Upper Sierras, comes down to the Mer- ced in a series of cascades, no one of which is comparatively of any great height, al- though of great beauty. The third branch valley is the bed of the South Fork or Illiouette River, which takes its rise in the mountains to the south and empties itself into the Merced River over the cliff front in a flood. The other falls, of which the main ones are the Yosemite, Bridal Veil and Virgin’s Tear or Ribbon Falls, are of a different character. They do not follow valleys of the character of the Merced, the Tenaiya and South Fork, but take their rise on the uplands and fall over the cliff from the upper levels at one bound — the Yosemite from a height of twenty-six hundred and the Bridal Veil six hundred feet. The main valley is bounded on every side by sheer cliffs of bare granite. The first on the north as we enter from the west, El Capitan, is three thousand three hundred feet high and all but perpendicu- lar. Next on the north and scarcely sep- arated from him, are the Three Brothers, three thousand eight hundred and thirty feet high. North Dome, on the same side of the main valley, is only divided by a canyon so narrow as to be scarcely visible, and the Dome is three thousand seven hundred and twenty-five feet above the 7 valley. On the south side of the valley, immediately opposite El Capi- tan, are the Cathedral Rocks and Spires two thousand six hundred feet high. While at so short a distance that their slopes meet, is Sentinel Rock, three thou- sand one hundred feet, and Sentinel Dome, four thousand one hundred and twenty- five feet. On the tongue of land which stands between the Tenaiya and Merced Valleys, are respectively. Half Dome, five thousand feet; the Cap of Liberty, two thousand feet, and, on the northern side of the Tenaiya Valley, Mt. Watkins, eight thousand two hundred feet. Farther back, marking three of the angles of the Park’s boundaries, rise Cloud’s Rest, ten thousand feet ; Mt. Storm King, nine thou- sand and eighty feet, and Indian Rock, eight thousand four hundred and sixty- two feet, while on the northern and east- ern horizons, visible in the distance from the Park, are the mighty bulks and peaks of Mt. Clark, Mt. Dana. Mts. Lyell and McClure, Mt. Hoffman and Mt. Ritter. How It Came To Be The origin of this great Sierra range was fire ; every atom of the towering mountain is igneous. It is of the rock of the primal base of the world, below which the knowledge of man comes to an end. The primal elements of which the core of this earth was made, produced the granite of these hills, and they were melted and fluxed by heat, crystallizing into what they are now ; but at that time their crests were 8 higher and more regular and even in sur- face. After the fire came snow and coy- ered the whole area to unknowable depths, just as Greenland, and the far north and the Antarctics are covered to-day, with this difference that the edge of the old Si- erra snow cap was on land. Now it is one of the commonplaces of such conditions that snow caps can have no foundations but sunshine ; therefore all their lower fringes are everlastingly melting and let- ting down the top inch by inch, sometimes as fast as the top is renewed, sometimes faster. This everlasting slipping down of the snow and ice cap brings with it on the bot- tom and sides of the ice pieces of imbed- ded rock, and they, necessarily, grind and file off the subjacent softer earthbed. Pres- ently, distinct courses are ground, and un- derneath the ice, the melting waters will follow regular little channels. These will continually tend to be more definite ; turn- ing corners where the impediments are un- yielding and following the planes of least resistance. In the course of ages the sun gets the mastery of the snow and ice and melting its edges faster than its top is renewed, drives them back up and up, then the streams in each necessarily be- comes more powerful. At last, when, as is the case to-day, all but the highest of the mountains are, every summer, uncovered of their snow, we can see on the crowns the scratchings and filings of the ancient ice, and in the valley which they ground out, the trout stream flows, and over cliffs 9 which were too hard to be leveled, the water now falls. These phenomena alone are ample to ac- count for the three subsidiary valleys into which the main valley divides at its east- ern extremity ; but there is every reason to believe that the abruptness of the sides of the main valley is the result of subterra- nean disturbance, during which the bot- tom of it sank. Such is the physical history of the Yo- semite, in two chapters, going back to the origin of the world — the simplest and least complicated of any of the chapters of na- ture’s book. The Resultant The result for us, to-day, is a district of marked characteristic, differing from any of the other great public parks of the United States. An endless variety of abrupt primeval, granite cliffs and crystal falls in an atmosphere of singular clarity, on whose ultra blue vault float cloud-scapes of remarkable and ever changing aspects, and from whose tops there spreads such seas of sunrise and sunset colors as are to be enjoyed in few parts in the world. Its valleys and shady places teem with flowers in never-ending variety and beau- ty ; its lesser heights are covered with the most fragrant and beautiful of flowering shrubs. Its mountains, wherever life is possible, are dotted or covered to their crests with fragrant pines. Its waters, be- low the falls, are the home of native trout ; the bear finds a home and plenty in its 10 woods; the blacktail deer shades himself in its recesses until the first approach of winter drives him down to the lower lands. The mountain beaver spends his busy days in the topmost streams ; and the squirrel chatters his defiance in every cop- pice. Over every brook the lovely water- ouzel wings his way; the wood-pecker is busy by every trail, and the eagle and the hawk cleave their way to heights where we envy them their spread of view. How It Came To Be Preserved How it can be preserved is not a long, but it is an instructive story. Up to the year 1850, this wonderful valley had, in all probability, never been seen by the eye of a white man; the only possible exception may have been some wandering Russian trapper, whose settlement was at the Rus- sian Fort Ross, now San Francisco, where the split-eagle banner of the Czar floated from 1812 to 1842. One such might have followed the Merced as high as this valley, intent on furs. A little before 1850 a few of the disap- pointed among the gold seekers settled on the head waters of the San Joaquin River and were constantly harried by Indians; so much so that in 1851 the settlers banded together for the purpose of following them up into their aforetime retreats, and under the guidance of Chief Tenaiya, whose name is preserved in the lake of that name near- by Mt. Hoffman, and in the valley before mentioned, they drove the Indians out of the Yosemite Valley, where they thought they were impregnable, and made peace, which, however, did not last. Next year, the Mariposa Garrison, a more imposing gathering of border white men, had to re- peat the operations, and this time they put an end to all further opposition. One or more of that party took back to civilization what was looked upon by most as a traveller’s yarn of a wonderful water- fall, but Mr. J. M. Hutchings, anxious for striking matter for his magazine, '' The Californian,” in 1855, collected a party and made investigations which, for the first time, made the outer world acquainted with the Yosemite treasures. Naturally, a region so rich and rare, and novel soon at- tracted other seekers after the beauties of nature, and in 1850 the Lower Hotel, the first house in the valley was built. It was not long before land claims were made and the park had a narrow escape from passing into private hands, as some of it, in fact, did, giving rise to troublesome subsequent litigation, but from this danger the district was preserved by the granting of it by the Federal Government to the State of California to be set apart as a pub- lic park for ever. What the settlers could not own they could spoil, and thousands of beasts and sheep trespassing within it, threatened like hoofed locusts to devour every green thing, including, of course, the tender seed- ling tree and sapling, and what they did not eat was burned by fires, sometimes set alight that grass might grow on the ruins, and sometimes the result of herdmen’s carelessness. 12 To obviate these evils, Federal troops now patrol it, and to show the extent of the past danger, it is only necessary to quote from the report of the special inspection of the Park, that between June and Septem- ber, 1893, three hundred and fifty head of horses, over a thousand cattle and two hundred and fourteen thousand trespass- ing sheep were driven out of the Park's bounds. Greater vigilance is required to keep trappers out of it in winter if the head of game and fish is to be maintained — a consummation devoutly to be wished. How To Get To It Broadly, this depends upon whence you come, and what you want to see on the way. Practically, however, the subject re- duces itself into reaching the Park from San Francisco. Perhaps the best direct route is to strike for Merced. Two routes are open: one by all rail to Mer- ced, the other, by boat to Stock- ton, and thence by rail to Merced, one hundred and fifty-three miles. From Merced we chose the Mariposa trail, on which the stage runs from Merced to Mariposa, the county seat. The last fifty miles, Mariposa to the Yosemite, can be driven, or ridden, or tramped, according to the nature of the party, or the predilection of its individual constituents. This trail will be found on the annexed map within an inch of the bottom left-hand corner, making its winding way northward as di- rect as the inequalities of the ground and the necessity of turnings to perserve an available grade, will permit it. Just beyond 13 where it crosses the imaginary line of the Park’s boundary, you will notice it passes between Fort Monroe and the Hermitage, by which time, it has reached the top of the southern cliffs of the Yosemite Valley at In^iration Point. Before proceeding on our stereoscopic tour of the valley, it will be prudent to read these well-considered words of ad- vice. How To See Stereoscopic Photographs (A) Experiment with the sliding rack which holds the stereographs until you find the distance that suits the focus of your eyes. The distance varies greatly with dif- ferent people. (B) Have a strong, steady light on the stereograph. It is often best to be sitting with the back toward the window or lamp, letting the light fall over one shoulder on the face of the stereograph. (C) Hold the stereoscope with the hood close against the forehead and temples, shutting off entirely all immediate sur- roundings. The less you are conscious of things close about you, the more strong will be the feeling of actual presence in the scenes you are studying. (D) First, read the statement in regard to the location on the map, of a place you are about to see, so as to have already in mind, when you look at a given view, just where you are and what is before you. After loking at the scene for the purpose of getting your location and the points of the. compass clear, then read the explana- 14 tory notes. On the map you will find given the exact location of each successive stand- point (at the apex of the red V in each case) and the exact range of the view ob- tained from that standpoint (shown in each case by the space included between the spreading arms of the same V). The Map System is admirably clear and satisfactory, and should make one feel, after a little, quite at home around Yosemite. (E) Do not look over the stereographs too rapidly. This is the greatest mistake people make in using them. Each stereo- graph should be studied and pondered over. Usually illustrations and photo- graphs serve merely as an embellishment or supplement to the text or reading mat- ter of the book or article. In this case that order is reversed. The stereographs form the real text, and all that is given in this book is intended as a supplement to the stereographs, as a help to their proper use. Dr. Holmes well said: '' It is a mis- take to suppose that one knows a stereo- scopic picture after he has studied it a hundred times. There is such an amount of detail that we have the same sense of infinite complexity which nature gives us.'’ By taking time to note some of these numberless details, we are helped as in no other way to feel that we are in the very presence of the places or people repre- sented before us. THE YOSEMITE VALLEY THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE Following the method indicated in the above advice, one can, by the use of the stereographs of the Park and the special map accompanying this booklet, although never having visited the Park, obtain an experience so vivid as to be similar in all essential respects to that gained by a per- son actually present. One is able to know with exactness what is before him in each stereograph, the spot from which he is looking, and the direction in which he is looking, and, remembering that the top of the map is due north, he can always, and easily, keep his bearings as he moves from one place to another. Now, spread the map of Yosemite out before you. In the upper left-hand corner you will notice the skeleton map, which in- dicates the relative position of California to the rest of the United States, and the position, by a black spot, of the Yosemite Valley in relation to San Francisco. It is easy to remember that the top of each map is due north. Now look at the larger map and study the general features of the val- ley and its immediate surroundings. First, i6 trace the Park boundary, which you notice is roughly an oblong square, the longest diameter being from east to west, and the narrowest from north to south. Run the eye round it first from Fort Monroe near the western limits. It passes on due north over the Merced River and a tributary to the Cascade Creek. Thence it turns, at right angles, northeastward over the hills three parts of the length of the map to In- dian Rock, eight thousand four hundred and sixty-two feet above sea level, which serves now as a sort of pivot. Here the boundary turns southeastward to Cloud’s Rest, another mountain, nine thousand nine hundred and twelve feet high, and starts almost due south to yet another mountain, Starr King, nine thousand and eighty feet high. Here it turns sharp back, westward and southwestward, again, and then due westward and northwestward till it joins our starting point at Fort Monroe. This is a good preliminary exercise to ground the Park limits in your mind. Now, look at the map again, and the first thing which will strike you is the sinuous black mark starting from a little north of Fort Monroe and winding deviously eastward between two shaded ranges of hills, until it comes to a point marked on the map Lamon’s Orchard. That black mark represents the main river coming down the valley from 17 the east, the Merced River. Now, notice, that at Lamon's Orchard it splits into two, and throws off a branch toward the north- eastward, the Tenaiya Creek which goes up between North Dome and Mt. Watkins on its north and Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest on its south. At Lamon’s Orchard, the Merced River itself turns south until it gets to the foot of Grizzly Peak, where it, too, strikes due eastward up its own valley between Liberty Cap and Mt. Starr King. But, just as it turns due east at Grizzly Peak, notice that it receives, coming from due south, the South Fork. We now have all the waterways and their whereabouts in mind, and are ready for the next step. Now, look at the map for another purpose. Look at the red lines. At first glance they will appear very criss-crossly confusing, but out of this apparent chaos will come a system which is simplicity itself. Notice first on the map there are many red numer- als inclosed in red circles, and that each red numeral so inclosed is at or near a point where two red lines converge. Follow each of these straight lines to its further end, and you will find a red number, uninclosed, corresponding with the number in the cir- cle at their start. The point where the red circle is is the point of view, and the con- verging red lines include within their angle the territory we are to look over in the var- i8 ious stereographs. Once started on this investigation, you will find the keenest pleasure in hunting out on the map the successive points of observation, and the trajection of the diverging lines, and in moving from one standpoint to another. We are to go first to a spot two or three hundred yards northeast of Fort Monroe, just where the road makes a sharp turn. It is numbered i, in a red circle, on the map. Put the point of your pencil on it. From it you will notice two red lines branch out toward the east, and northeast by east, respectively. One, the lower and eastern one, extends to the extremity of the map on its right-hand margin at the red figure i (without the circle) ; the other, the northeast by east line, extends only across to the face of El Capitan, and has a similar uncircled red figure i at its end. We will now take our stand at the point from which these red lines start and look out on all that is included within them, that is, we are to look from Inspira- tion Point up the main valley. I. From Inspiration Point ^(E. N. ^E.) through Yosemite Valley — showing Bridal Veil Falls, El Capitan, Sen- tinel and Half Dome As our first standpoint in Yosemite, '' Inspiration Point ” is a happy choice, for 19 suddenly, from among the very branches of the overhanging pines on the very edge of the rugged cliffs, there bursts, without warning, in splendor bright the whole cen- tral valley from its gateway to farthest Cloud^s Rest, twelve miles as the crow flies, with all the grandeur and beauty of nature intervening in this region of the majesties. Standing here drawing in the inspirations which the dullest soul must feel in such a presence, we are three thou- sand feet above the tops of those trees be- low, which completely hide the waters of the Merced River, but we know its where- abouts, because we have traced it on our map, and got that, and much more, fixed in our minds. Where shall we begin first? Well, here immediately upon our right is the one spot of action. Surely that is the Bridal Veil Fall? It is! and though so clear cut and brilliant in the sunshine, it is, in fact, two miles and a half from where we are standing. Usually a rainbow is hover- ing over it. I have heard of those who have been fortunate enough to see the arc double upon itself into a circle. Its waters gather away to the south and come down between the Leaning Tower (hidden by the trees on our right) and the Cathedral Rocks in one leap, six hundred and thirty feet perpendicular, where, as we can see even from here, it strikes a pile of debris 20 from the clif¥ sides. Down these it rushes by a thousand channels and cascades three hundred feet more, but seen from the front as we are looking at it, the one thousand feet seem one fall. The currents of air coming up and down the the main valley or the side gullies, waft and wave the waters into gauziest film and perfectly justify the name of this most fantastic and captivating of nature’s water falls. Behind the Falls and the granite Cathedral Rocks over which it hurries, so immediately behind as to sug- gest proximity, though ’tis a mile to his crest, is the mighty bulk of the Sentinel, whose graceful ridge arches from the val- ley floor heavenward eight thousand one hundred and twenty-two feet. (See Map.) Still eastward over the crest of the Sen- tinel — three miles beyond, in fact — is the pale gray peak, clean cut and unmistak- able, of Half Dome, 'eight thousand eight hundred and twenty feet, while in the further distance, four miles beyond Half Dome, closing in the view, is Cloud’s Rest nine thousand nine hundred and twelve feet, so blue by distance as to be barely distinguishable, and little more substantial than the cloud-flecked firmament above it. Be sure you get the mountain mass- es I have mentioned, clearly in mind. First, on the right, behind the waterfall, 21 are the Cathedral Rocks ; second, the long dark slope from the middle of the valley to the Sentinel Dome, and then the clear- cut Half Dome, and farthest away, the lofty Cloud’s Rest. After a while we shall climb that ridge toward Sentinel Dome, and, finally, we shall stand on Cloud’s Rest. That, you remember, is the most eastern point of the Park Reservation. (See Map.) It speaks wonders for the huge scale on which this scene is built that the perpen- dicular granite wall, springing up clear ver- ticle from the slope of the valley farthest to our left, is El Capitan, whose pearly, creamy, granite front, springs a sheer three thousand and three hundred feet from the valley into which we are looking. There are many details which these great dis- tances absorb. Look, again, more closely beyond the Cathedral Rocks and through the pulsing air, coming through the in- tervening chines, you will make out, upon the front of the Sentinel Dome, one of na- ture’s obelisks. It beggars the largest made by man, even the Washington one, for it stands on a pediment two thousand feet high, just like a watch tower, prone out from its citadel walls a thousand feet; and if we were nearer, as we shall be, the illusion would be heightened by an apparent buttress to a city wall flanking 22 the obelisk to the main structure. Well might the Indian name it '' the place to give a signal.'’ But we have much to see and must move on down into that valley for a nearer view of these wonders. There is a trail leading down. First it zigzags backward and forward east and west along the cliff’s face at our feet, and then starts off more boldly down the hillside toward the right, until it crosses the rushing torrents from the Bridal Veil Falls, where we saw the waters disappear in the talus from the cliffs. So soon as we are down on the level of the main valley we cross the Merced River, and the road coming from the east on its north bank and begin an ascent, for a short distance, of the Big Oak Flat Trail leading up along the steep slope farthest to our left, and, finally, out of the valley westward, farther to the left than we can see here. We shall climb to a point on that slope seen near the limit of our vision on our left, and over this bush, almost within reach of our hands. There we can see El Capitan. Looking on the map again, you can find the trail I have spoken of leading down into the valley from our position at In- spiration Point. You find the bridge across the Merced River, near the Bridal 23 Veil Falls, and the Big Oak Flat Road, leading back westward along the cliffs on the northern side of the river. Almost op- posite the Bridal Veil Falls you find the figure two in a red circle, and this circle is connected by a serpentine line with the juncture of two red lines which branch toward the east. We are to stand now at the point from which these two lines start, and shall look out over the territory lying between them. One of these lines, the northern one, ends on the face of El Capi- tan. The other is extended only to the Sentinel Rock, because, practically, the view ends there, although the top of Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest will also be seen. 2. El Capitan (35300 feet high), most im- posing of granite cliffs — east to Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest, Yosemite Valley What an awe-inspiring, wondrous expo- sure of a section of the veritable backbone of the world this El Capitan is. Old as the universe, three thousand and three hun- dred feet of it exposed as by the cut of a surgeon’s knife ! and how deep, deep down into the very body below, out of sight, who can tell? Beneath the feet of El Capitan all is guess and scientific spec- ulation, and man’s finite faculties stand abashed. 24 Nowhere in the world is there such an exposure of the muscles and sinews of the core of the earth. What, from over the valley upon the heights of Inspiration Point, looked smooth as cream, we see now seamed and rent from base to top- mast, with vertical cleavage lines and rag- ged indents, as if some giant had ripped away the outer skin and left the quivering sinews to harden by exposure. It is a wondrous sight ! The distant Half Dome, over the brow of the Sentinel Ridge which comes down away to our right, and still farther. Cloud’s Rest, are too far away to pall the majesty of El Capitan. The serried ranks of mighty conifers following each other up the sloping talus from the valley, until they reach his bare walls which say '' thus far shalt thou go and no farther,” are but marks on the scale, mi- nute fractions, as it were, on a yard meas- ure, which enable us to calculate by units the mighty mass. The tiny pines of El Capitan’s crest, brothers to those on the slope at his feet, accentuate the distance from the valley to his crest. Even the In- dians had, before the coming of the white man, ycleped this impressive escarpment The Great Chief,” as well they might, for great it is ! As we stand here, the Ribbon Falls, the 25 highest falls in the valley, are leaping over cliffs which stand off to our right beyond our present range of vision. To see it, we shall go forward and down near the river on our right, and look sharply to our left at right angles to our present line of vis- ion. See on the map the red figure 3 in a circle near the river, almost a mile east of our present position, and the two red lines which branch toward the north. 3. Ribbon Falls (2,200 feet leap), looking North, from the Valley near Merced River, Yosemite Over the tops of the intervening forest flashes, as it were from the sky, the Rib- bon Fall, long known, and poetically so, as '' The Virgin’s Tear Fall.” Its course is marked by a deep recess in the sheer face of the rocks for fifteen hundred feet downward from the sky line. The Virgin’s Tear must have been bitter to have eroded so deep a scar, probably, as one wit has re- marked, because she was not yet a bride. But, a more charitable interpretation of the name is the fact that the source of supply of the Virgin’s Tear fails quickly, and often, when you visit the valley later in the summer, it is over, as all maidens’ tears should be. The modern title. Rib- bon Falls, although the more literal, is not so appropriate. After the first fall strikes 26 it passes rapidly through innumerable cas- cades to a shorter leap, hidden by the trees from this point of view, and passes on to the Merced River, twenty-six hundred feet below its first leap from the granite rim over which it glides, as if from the sky. The profusion of tree growths in the shel- tered nooks and corners of this valley are well exemplified by the heavy growths here seen climbing the talus at the cliffs feet. It was in one of such nooks with a south- ern exposure that that indefatigable ob- server in all weathers, John Muir, says he found the flowers in bloom all through the season, even in midwinter. El Capitan is just east of these falls, to our right as we stand here. We must go eastward for another view of him, looking north and west. It will be worth it, though it is easy walking down here on the flat meadow bottom of the Merced in the central valley. We shall have to go a hun- dred yards east on the road north of the river and cross over, and tramp a mile on the road by the water to get the position we want. Follow this route on the map and you will find in a bend in the river’s course a red figure 4 in a circle, and two short red lines extending out from it, both more or less northwest, and showing the boundaries of our next field of vision. 27 4. El Capitan, a Solid Granite Mountain (3,300 feet high), (N. W.) from across the Beautiful Merced River, Yosemite Valley That is grand ! Probably it is the most remarkable and impressive view to be ob- tained of any cliff in the world. We are di- rectly in front of the eastern side of El Capitan, and half a mile from it, and the earth at our feet is carpeted with blue gen- tians and daisies, while breadths of purple heathworts swathe the meadows, and all around the rose, the laurel, the lupine and the honeysuckle attract the humming-bird, and butterflies of gorgeous hues and errat- ic movements, chase the noonday sun. The Merced River slides by at our feet, scarce more disturbed at this point by the impact of its own turbulent tributaries than is the Hudson. Down into its glassy depths sinks the reflection of the pines whose feet it laps, and back of its sand-like farther shore rises, as it were, out of the flood, mighty El Capitan! gigantic, perpendicu- lar, over-powering, three thousand feet above us, resplendent in the midday sun, graded by a thousand tints brought down by the organic laden waters of the melting snow, yet a very type of the eternity of matter, for scarce a fragment has fallen from his mighty brow since the glacier gently melted below his crest and the 28 earthquake shook him and left him ex- posed to the lesser elements, which he defies. Take a long look at El Capitan. He is indeed a Great Chief.'’ Now we must go and have a look at El Capitan's nearest neighbors eastward, the Three Brothers. They stand some- what more than a mile directly to our right. We have not been able to see them before either from Inspiration Point (Stereograph No. i), or while looking eastward (Stereograph No. 2), because of the vast bulk of the '' Great Chief " ; when he is in the line of vision, he is apt to shut out all else and justify his Indian title, but we can circumvent him by walking back- ward from where we are some four or five hundred yards, and then turning to our right. On the map, this next standpoint is marked by the figure 5 in a red circle. 5. The Three Brothers ” (Eagle Peak in Centre) from Down the Valley — One of the Strange Formations of Won- derful Yosemite We are looking northeast over the tree- tops and the Merced River, fringed to the water's edge with lusty young timber. The Three Brothers seem to rise sheer up from within a few feet of the river's northern bank, but they are at least a mile off from 29 that particular point of the river, so does the immense mass and bulk of the cliffs of the valley shrink apparent distances and deceive the eye, even when aided, as nothing else can aid it, by the atmos- phere-preserving stereograph. That is a group unique in this land of won- ders, and in the world. Three gran- ite peaks soldered onto one another. Three Brothers, each towering slightly above the other until the highest. Eagle Peak, climbs into the vault of heaven, three thousand eight hundred and thirty feet above the valley. To the Indians, these peaks suggested the very homely game their boys and the boys of to-day play, '' Leap Frog’'; one mountain stoop- ing down for the other to leap over. Their massive bases and pyramidal apeces seem to me to suggest, on the contrary, the most absolute solidity. If ever perma- nence were apparently exemplified in na- ture, surely it is the view we get of the Three Brothers; yet John Muir, thail whom no man knows or loves the high Sierras better, attests that he once saw Eagle Peak, the highest of the three, split into thousands of titanic fragments, which were shaken from its crest in an earth- quake, as a dog after a bath shakes water from his coat. As they fell and crashed upon each other at its feet, the sparks 30 made a girdle of fire in an arc of fifteen hundred feet span, in form as steady as a rainbow. Nay, more, the next morning these cliffs and domes trembled like a jelly,” and did not settle down to a day of entire rest for two months. Surely a spec- tacle given to few to see. One well worthy of record from so gifted an eye and pen, and only to be credited when described by one of such unimpeachable authority and such painstaking care to avoid exaggera- tion or hasty conclusions. To John Muir the Yosemite and the world owe a deep debt for a lifetime given to its glorifica- tion and verification. Later we shall climb to the very summit of the highest of the Three Brothers, Eagle Peak, in the centre, and get a mag- nificent view toward the east. Jutting out from behind the Three Brothers is a section of the lower slopes of the Eagle Tower, behind which slope is hidden, except for a short distance, where it leaps over the cliffs, the Yosemite Falls. The cliff to the right of the Falls, to our extreme right, is Yosemite Point. We are fully three miles from that cataract now, to say nothing of its height above us. We shall, however, see more of that anon. Our next standpoint will be over a mile in front of us, near the base of the Three 31 Brothers, but farther to the right than we can now see. To reach that place we shall have to go, according to the map, a mile and a half eastward and then turn back west across the Merced River at the Ford, or Folsom Bridge. We shall be, as the red figure 6 in a circle shows, in a little island-like space surrounded by roads and shall look out between the two red lines, one of which extends toward Sentinel Rock to the east, and the other toward North Dome due northwest. 6. North Dome, Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest, (E. N. E.) from North of River Opposite ‘‘ Three Brothers,” Yosem- ite Valley. This is our first view of North Dome, whose seven thousand five hundred and twenty-five feet above sea level tower over the Royal Arches, three miles and a half directly in front of us. The Arches and the North Dome are one and the same mountain, but show the two methods of lamination of the granites of this district. Look carefully at that part of the strata below the shelf coming down from the left- hand top of the dome, on which trees are growing plentifully, and especially at that portion of the rock’s face below a clump of thick wood. You will notice that the lay- 3 ^ ers of granite are tilted into distinct arches, hollow under their crowns, as if each end of the layer had been subject to immense pressure at the ends and been squeezed upward in the centre, as, in fact, they have been. Take a strip of stiff card- board, laying it flat out on a table, and then press each end toward the centre slowly, and you will get the same effect. They are very striking features. Why they should ever have gotten their com- monplace name of Royal Arches when the Indians had given them the one which so exactly fitted, '' The Shade to a Baby Basket,’’ is a puzzle and a pity. For that is what these arches and their shadows literally represent. Cloud’s Rest, ten thousand feet above sea level, we see again eight miles from us here. In the distance, to the right. Half Dome rears his crown- ing crest, while the nearer dark slope on the right leads up, if we could look in that direction far enough, to Glacier Point and Glacier Dome. From the map we know that the Te- naiya Creek must come down the valley lying between North Dome and Cloud’s Rest. Standing here and looking at this glass-like rippleless water, it is hard to be- lieve that on one side of the Half Dome, the one in front of us, this river receives the Tenaiya Creek, roaring down its thou- 33 sand cascades, that from the other side of the same mountain the Merced’s own water comes pell-mell over two falls, the Vernal and the Nevada, aggregating a thousand feet, and at the other side of this, nearer Sentinel, it receives the im- pulse of the falls of the South Fork, as they rush from their mountain home up in Starr King. It looks here, at our feet, framed by the willow and the spirea, and margined by the Balm of Gilead, as if no ripple had ever disturbed it — a land of par- adoxes, and sudden and striking sights, and hidden surprises is this valley. Some of these falls we shall see when we get around the front of that little foot spur of the Sentinel on our right and up to Gla- cier Point, a northeastern crest. The Sentinel Hotel, with all its auxilia- ries of a tourist's resort, is hidden out of sight among those trees near the foot of that Sentinel slope, which comes down on our right. We are going to advance now to a point near the foot of that slope and turn around and look back down the valley. Almost directly behind us, as we stand here, are the Cathedral Rocks, near the Bridal Veil Falls. We can see those rocks in a mo- ment for ourselves. Looking on the map, weseeweare to recross the Folsom Bridge 34 from our standpoint marked 6 and go east along the road on the south side of the Merced for over a mile and nearly to the Sentinel Hotel. There we find the number 7 in a circle. The two red lines connected with this number show us the boundaries of our next field of vision toward Cathe- dral Rocks. 7. Mirror View of the Majestic Cathedral Rocks — looking (W. S. W.) down the Valley, Yosemite We have our back now to the Sentinel ^ Hotel and the foot of the Sentinel Slope, and are looking southwest and down the valley. Over three miles away, we get a view of the back of the rocks over the western front of which we saw the leap of the Bridal Veil Falls (Stereograph No. i). How different is the scene now brought into view! That was water in action; here is water in repose 1 And such repose and such transparent water is surely not to be found elsewhere. There is much available testimony of hunters and others that the water of the Sierras has a reflec- tive capacity and clearness all its own, and here is verification of it. When one reads of a hunter who has been so de- ceived by the clarity of the Sierra water, that he has stepped into it without recog- ! nizing that there was any there present, j I I 35 one is incredulous ; but credulity takes the place of doubt when it is at our very feet. Nay more, one is tempted to say, '' Which IS the mountain in this topsy-turvy scene and which is the reflection ? ” ‘‘ Are things as they seem, or are visions about ? ” to quote a Bret Harte remark. The reflec- tions are indeed brighter and clearer than the actualities. The time is morning when the eastering sun shines full on the Ca- thedral Rocks, huge piles of granite in fantastic forms whose feet are on the level valley and whose massive spires cleave the heavens, crowned with fringes and clusters of pine and cedar, two thousand six hun- dred and sixty feet above. They look mere lace-like fringes, but each is a goodly tree one hundred and fifty feet high. Were we a little more to the south, we could separate from the cliffs, two isolated col- umns of such exquisite workmanship and symmetry, and of such exact height and squareness, as to be universally known as the Spires. They have been compared with the western towers of numerous actual cathedrals from Notre Dame, Paris, to Westminster Abbey. As the light falls at this moment they can hardly be differ- entiated, but that is a passing circum- stance. To bring them out more clearly, it would be necessary to sacrifice the pellucidness of the water, and to secure 36 that was worth the temporary absence of the spires. Our next standpoint is one to which all visitors to the Park gladly turn, and as we have to turn in this case little more than on our heel, it is easy to do so. Looking on the map, you will find the red figure 8 just back of our present position, and near it two red lines which extend slightly west of north, and include within them the hotel and a widening background. 8. Amid Yosemite’s Charms — Sentinel Hotel, looking North across Valley to Yosemite Falls In the main, things tell their own story here, good roads, good horses, the arrival of the latest and expected tourists, sensi- bly clad as we can see, and welcomed with that hospitality which one cynic has said, is never equaled elsewhere. The lioteks outward appearance and trim neatness, its severe lines and kempt appearance con- trast vividly, not to say startlingly, with the rugged dishabille of nature in her sternest garb, by which it is overtopped and sur- rounded. It is a useful place as well as a useful comparison. Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?v’ is a justifiable question, suggestive of good things to be enjoyed. Especially, 37 when the weather tokens are unpropitious, or the feet are tender, both events likely enough to make an inn a mighty pleasant refuge. Behind the inn is the Merced River, and towering above that is the northern cliff of the Valley on which we catch our sec- ond glimpse of the Yosemite Falls. We must go and see them nearer. Spreading our map out, we find that we shall not need the help of the four horses on this trip, because our next coign of vantage, red figure 9 in a circle, is only just at the fork of the roads across the river, next westward below the inn, little over half a mile away. From there our familiar two straight lines branch out, one due north up the cliff face, and the other bearing slightly northeast by north. 9. Majestic Yosemite Point, and wind- sprayed Yosemite Falls (1,600 foot leap), looking N. N. E., Yosemite Valley The first and natural question which comes to the tongue in looking up the stu- pendous height at the mighty flood speed- ing downward sixteen hundred feet, as from the sky (half a million cubic feet an hour, as the statisticians tell us), is, Where does it all come from ? ’’ There 38 is no visible source, so far as we have seen. The answer is one of the characteristics of the Sierras. It creeps drop by drop, and rill by rill, from underneath the snow banks of the distant Mount Hoffman. This snow coverlet does not dissolve with the Chinook wind, as do the snows further north, and disappear in a spring freshet, sweeping disastrously down; but, gradu- ally, day by day, each day’s sun distilling its quota, and each night freezing up the source, preserving by this peculiar dispen- sation of nature the hoarded supply which seldom fails. When the water leaves the snow flanks, it travels over bare granite without a particle of sediment, and that is why it is so sparklingly translucent. The lip over which it makes its first clear shoot is so polished that not a ripple is formed. Though it is possible to reach the edge of the fall above, I would warn the venture- some, be he never so sure-footed, to give that slope a wide berth. It. is a foothold as treacherous as glass. And herein is another characteristic peculiar to the Si- erras, and especially the Yosemite gorges, and that is the extent and perfection of its polished surfaces; pure granite, or basalt, as smooth as looking-glass, and nearly as reflective as burnished silver. They are the results of the glacial action of the long ago, and the lip of the Yosemite Falls 39 is one of them. The great Tuolumne glacier, which in primeval aeons came down from the high Sierras, broke into two against the mighty bulk of Mt. Hoffman, and one of the tributaries which skirted that mountain came down the valley along which the Yosemite River now runs. It was its millions upon millions of tons of slowly moving ice that through the ages polished the lip, over which its successor, the stream, now delivers the remnant of its former might. The first fall of the flood is a clear de- scent of sixteen hundred feet, during which it is caught in the air currents of the valley and swayed and wafted into a spray so fine and feathery as to have the appear- ance almost of dense steam; and swirled and tossed and played with as if the vital force delighted in fanning it for the fairy beauty it created amid scenery of such rigid massiveness. When the disintegrat- ed waters reach fifteen hundred feet from the lip they strike a projecting ledge and scatter in a thousand cascades down a rugged descent of piled up debris and jag- ged rock fragments, equal in perpendic- ular height, on the whole, to a further six hundred and twenty-six feet. Finally, they all unite. The mist is again precipitated; the struggling streams are bitted and curbed, and at the Lower Falls, as you see. 40 they are ready for a final plunge in one single sheet down the grim and clean-cut gorge, four hundred feet more, where they strike the true talus and find their final rest in the Merced River, winding west- ward through the valley. Beautiful be- yond the possibility of expression as are the falls by daylight, still they should, as Scott said of Dryburgh, be seen by moon- light for their weirdest and most fascinat- ing effects. It is an experience worth hav- ing to climb from the foot of the lower falls to where the upper one lands, or rath- er, up and down to that spot; for, as you can see, the torrent has cut itself a gorge through a rib that is higher than the foot of the first landing stage. It is rough work, and needs some practice, for often the face of the rock is almost perpendicu- lar. One is put to it to take advantage of every friendly crack or tree; but it is worth the labor, and when you stand at the foot of the falls you will find that the fall- ing mass has literally washed itself a basin out of the solid granite. We have been on the valley floor, except for the short climb up to the Yosemite Fall, for quite a while now. For our next viewpoint we must mount to the very top of Eagle Peak. This is one of the peaks of the Three Brothers, you remember, and 41 it stands about a mile away, directly to our left. On the map we find it almost due west, above the Sentinel Hotel. It is a long pull up to seven thousand seven hun- dred and fifty-one feet above sea level, but when we get there we shall have a magnifi- cent prospect before us. Note the red boundary lines. One of them extends due east and ends on the edge of the map be- yond Sugar Loaf ; the other strikes south- east to the map margin behind Mt. Starr King. 10. The Valley, Half Dome, Nevada Falls, Cap of Liberty and Imposing Sierras, (E. S. E.) from Eagle Peak, Yosem- ite At last we stand on the summit of Eagle Peak, one of the Three Brothers, which, you remember, John Muir saw "'tremble like a jelly.” It is hard to realize, standing on its apparently adamantine rocky top, seven thousand seven hundred and fifty feet above the sea, that there has within a present lifetime been a quiver in its rigid frame. The scene before us is so entirely dif- ferent from those we have had in the val- ley, that it comes upon us with a startling freshness. Away, away down prone at our feet, as if one could kick a stone down into it, lies a portion of the main valley, winding on our left round the spreading base of Half Dome, which stretches en- tirely across the middle distance. Far away, too, over Half Dome’s western ex- tremity we catch sight of a thin silver band which we recognize at once as the Nevada Falls, the upper of the two falls (see map) which bring in the Merced River out of the mountains at that extreme end of the main valley. We cannot see the lower falls, the Vernal Falls, although they are four hundred feet above the val- ley floor. In fact, we see only the upper portion of the Nevada Falls. The vast solitudes of the higher Sierras, The Cas- cade Chain, lie beyond, overtopping the Cap of Liberty itself (seen just to the left of the falls), two thousand feet above the waterfall, as if it were a toy, and spread- ing, snow-capped and reft and peaked, | away and away still higher, and higher, and wilder, and whiter, until it resem- bles some mighty aggregation of icebergs . in a snowy sea, tinged with glorious | crimson, and serried and seamed, and de- | fined by the purple shadow. j I have waited until the last to call your i attention to the steep cliffs on our immedi- ate right. They are so apparently near, and they can be seen in such detail, that it seems as if they were but just across the 43 street. That is the northern and north- eastern part of the ridge leading up to Sentinel Dome and Glacier Point, over two miles across the valley. Notice that zigzag trail almost on the cliff’s edge. We shall soon be on that very trail and look directly north to the Yosemite Falls, which is now to our left and behind us. That trail leads also to the famous Glacier Point, where we shall stand for some time, and look in several directions. Glacier Point is only a short distance beyond the farthest ledges that we see on those cliffs. The objects set close to us, the rocks and man and pine bough, are as cunning a device to throw the whole scene into in- tense contrast and heighten the perspec- tive, as was ever devised by any of those masters of the art of heightening effects, the dramatic scenic artists. The forces that wrought out this setting of nature are too stupendous, however, to have been troubled with effects. Descending now from our eyrie on this Eagle Peak, we must be off for our next climb; this time on horseback. It will be from new ground, and to reach it we shall have to cross the main valley and traverse the lower part of that trail we see across on our right. We shall then look toward the north, to Yosemite Falls, as we have 44 said. Looking on the map, we find the figure II in a circle, near Sentinel Rock, and the two red lines of limitation; the right-hand one goes clear out, all but due north to the top margin of the map, and the other, the left-hand one, passes over and stops beyond Eagle Tower, having a slight westering tendency. The ride up to that point of view is made, as I have said, on horseback, but no one need fear to ride, although non(' should deviate from the guide’s direc- tions, and all, including the ladies, must ride man-fashion. The ponies and the burros are alike sure-footed and of great knowledge in their life’s business. The ascent is made in Indian file, up, up, up the trail along the precipitous side of the mountain. Familiar objects on the valley floor apparently shift from side to side of the valley, as we wind first north and then south ; now through groves of spruce and silvery yellow pines ; anon flanked on either side with perfect gardens of flowers and berry-bearing shrubs, beloved of bears, and once in a while by trickling streams, whose bordering ferns would compare with those of the tropical mountain passes of Jamaica, while the water-ouzel flits on startled wing, and the squirrels, both Douglas and California gray, chatter their protests from safe distances. 45 Such is the ride up the Glacier Point Trail. Before the top of the trail is reached we come, as if by mutual consent, to a halt, not prearranged but spontaneous. II. Yosemite Falls, from Glacier Point Trail, Yosemite Valley It looks a fearsome place to halt ! but it is beauty, and not fear, that cries it. Scarce four feet wide is the trail, solid granite, piled high on our right in fragments from the mountain side, and sloping immediate- ly below us, as if ready to fall lower at any moment. The sunlight throws the shad- ows of our horses as black as those thrown on the desert floor by the fierce Arabian sun, and burnishes the opposite Yosemite cliffs with a light that positively glitters on their crystalline fronts. Be- neath us, like a lawn, and looking as smooth and flat as an artificial garden, lies the mirror of the Merced River, and directly opposite to us (some mile and a half away) stands in one gash, from top- most lip to final foot, the Yosemite Falls. No wonder the impulse to stop at this point was mutual, for here, for the first time, the falls, as a whole, can be seen at one glance. It is a wonderful combina- tion. '' Surely, that pool into which the 46 first fall plunges is boiling ! ” one is tempt- ed to say, and the steam rising and hover- ing and never departing would justify the observation. But we must return to the valley once more to take a look at Glacier Point, up the very face of it, before we mount to the top for a series of five outlooks from prac- tically that one spot. The place from which to look up the face of the Glacier Point to the best advantage is found marked on the map with a red 12 in a cir- cle, on the floor of the main valley, at the junction of the two roads which meet on the flat three-quarters of a mile or so west of Lamon’s Orchard. We shall have to stand with our heads thrown back, and our faces due south. 12. Looking Straight up the Sheer Face of Glacier Point Three Thousand Feet to the Overhanging Rocks, Yosem- ite Valley To look at this place properly, we must, as we have said, throw our heads back until we are looking almost perpendicularly up- ward. Then you will see that as the water trickles over the edge of the rock it turns inward by molecular attraction, and clings to the bare face of the granite, as though trembling in every atom and shivering in 47 every inch of its downward flight. But we came here to look up to Glacier Point. Well, glancing straight up between the end of the leafy tree branch above us on the left, and the water-covered rock on our right, notice those two rocks, like the two horns or ears of some giant animal, projecting out from the cliff far away. That is Glacier Point, full three thousand feet above us. It is to that place we are going next. Standing on the very edge, between those overhanging rocks, we shall look directly down to the place where we are now standing, and then toward the northwest, that is, to the Yosemite Falls behind us here, and afterward toward the northeast, or Cloud’s Rest, which is away on our left. When looking toward Yo- semite Falls, we shall see that right-hand rock at Glacier Point on our left, and when looking to Cloud’s Rest, we shall see the left-hand rock on our right. It is a curious sensation one gets in looking up so stupendous a height, but we shall not observe the full force of it until we have looked at this same mountain face from the top, whitherward we will now go. Glacier Point is usually approached by the trail which you will find beginning about the centre of the map at the bottom, and known as the Glacier Point Road. 48 From all other points it is more difficult, or practically inaccessible. By that route, you pass over the Ostrander Rocks, and wind in and out among the chines and val- leys that rive the foothills of the Sentinel Dome, through thickets of hemlocks, ev- ergreens and azaleas, until you step out upon a bare porphyry pavement, ice-burn- ished by the mighty Tuolumne Glacier, which plowed the lip of the Yosemite Falls, on the north side of the valley, as we have seen. If we want further justifi- cation for its name. Glacier Point, we shall notice, carefully perched upon its very top and edge, ready, apparently, to have been the next to slide down when the gla- cial forces receded, those two erratic bowlders, already pointed out, which must have come from a mountain range at least twelve miles to the east. We know, be- cause we recognize their paternity and there is no other source nearer. Hence, John Muir was perfectly justified in giv- ing it the name of Glacier Monument, since popularly changed to Glacier Point, because the popular imagination recog- nizes it more as a point than a monument. To the multitude, it is the point par excel- lence for a general view of the valley, and certainly it is a striking point. On the map, we find Glacier Point to be the centre from which apparently half the 49 red guiding lines diverge, and it is the point from which, with only a movement of the head, we shall look in five different directions (Stereographs Nos. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17). We are to look straight down the cliff now from Glacier Point, over the ter- ritory between the two lines which extend nearly to the Merced River, each having the number 13 at its end. 13. Looking Straight Down from Over- hanging Rocks, Glacier Point (3,257 feet) into the Valley below, Yosemite For the purpose of getting the full pur- port and significance of this scene, reverse the method adopted before (Stereograph No. 12), and bend your head forward until your eyes are looking directly downward, with your head over the cliff. Do you see that stone immediately below us, and only a few feet off, the one to the left of the gossamer-like plant growing out of its chink? It is the keystone, and it is lean- ing so far forward that it must surely top- ple out ! If it does will it not unloose the whole foothold, and where shall we go then ? It veritably makes one’s head swim to gaze down, down those awful cliffs, so high that although the Merced River lies half a mile off it cannot be seen, and only the hither side of the valley, as it slopes up to its northern walls with its ter- raced roads. You can trace those very roads seen here so calm and serene in the sunshine, on the map. Look again at the trees under us on the side of the valley we are above. See, they are but round spots. We are so directly above them that the tall pines, one hundred feet high, have diameter only, and no height. It is only as they begin to dot the other rise of the valley that we see any portion of their sides ; then they begin to have length as well as width, and as they climb higher and higher up they lengthen until we see the whole tree in its normal aspect. What a relief to lift the head, stand again erect and feel the solid earth be- neath one’s feet ! We can now stand up- right on the Point and take our first nor- mal view from it, within the lines marked 14, one of which extends true northwest to the upper left-hand margin of the map, and the other to a point five inches from it on the same border. 14. Nearly a Mile Straight Down and Only a Step — Yosemite from Glacier Point There, close on our left, is the over- hanging rock which we saw on our right when looking up to this place from the valley (Stereograph No. 12). Two or three 51 stones piled one over the other, each ex- tending a little further than the other, and but a step more would land the spectator into space, to the valley nearly a mile be- low. There are other such formations in petty, and plenty, but they are mere minia- tures to this. Even the nearest are far below this in tragic significance. I re- member one in the Nan-co-weap Valley, in southeastern Arizona, where three lay- ers of carboniferous limestone jut out like these rocks before us, one further than the other, and a sightseer stands out on the farthest one, as venturesome people do here, but in the Arizona case the friable sandstone detritus buttresses the rock up to a point so near the overhanging rocks that the sense of danger is diminished. Here, a false step, and there is nothing but a mile of space below. This is our parting view of the Yosemite Falls, which differs from all the other points from which we have seen it inasmuch as we are now on a level with it. We can, therefore, for the first time, see that it does not, as it appears from below, fall out of the clouds, but has a gathering ground which, though not so rugged as that which gathers the Merced River to the eastward, is bare and bold, and if the distance were not so great, we would find that Mt. Hoffman was a peer of his eastern neighbors. We might even 52 see him as John Muir once did, and he is not given to exaggeration, with '' his top dazzling with crystals of quartz, mica, hornblende, feldspar and garnets, weath- ered out and strewn loosely as if sown broadcast,” a sight, one of many, with which only the faithful explorer of years is rewarded. As we stand here looking northwest, the other of the two projecting rocks which we saw at this place is a few rods to our right. Sharply off to our right, too, sev- eral miles away, are Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest. We shall turn in that di- rection now. Notice the red line on the map, which is drawn from Glacier Point to the ex- treme right-hand corner at the top, and a similar line drawn due west and extending through Grizzly Peak, and by the side of the Cap of Liberty, up the Merced’s upper valley to the margin of the map on the extreme right, each having the num- ber 15 at its end. 15. Overlooking Nature^s Grandest Scen- ery, Yosemite Valley Here we have the second projecting rock close on our right. It was on our left when we were looking straight up to this 53 place (Stereograph No. 12). As a few minutes ago it seemed but a step across to the Yosemite Falls, so here it looks as if one could with a good jump, land plump on the bald pate of the Half Dome, though that is more than two miles and a half off, as the crow flies, and, moreover, it is real- ly seventeen hundred feet higher than we are, although, at first, under the operation of the laws of perspective it looks to be below us. It grows upon us as we look at it. It is a mighty dome of granite which will never be trodden except by a few dar- ing climbers. It is not to be understood that it would be beyond the engineering possibilities in these days to make it ac- cessible, when electrical force without lim- it could be manufactured at one of half a dozen waterfalls within a mile, but without some such engineering auxiliary, the Half Dome will remain to the end of time, one of the last virgin peaks of the world. As a dome, it is one of several peculiar to the Sierras, and a person can feel with- out being on its top that it was filed and worn down to that shape by the grind of an ice cap, whose relentless flow wore off a full mile of these lower Sierras. But what paroxysm of nature, what cataclism, what overwhelming force, could have riven it completely in half, as easily and 54 as clear and clean as a swordsman would cleave a cheese, is one of the problems of nature which will never be solved by the wit of man. He has solved many, even in this valley, but Half Dome is the Sphynx of the new world. Rigid, impassive, in- comprehensible, it presents its face to the rising sun eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-three feet above sea level, and the last rays for century on century have gilt it. Man may survey it at a distance, even may approach its face almost within touch on the side fronting the Tenaiya Valley, where for two thousand feet it is absolutely vertical, but he can never wrest its secret. It is almost a coincidence that the Indians called this mountain The Goddess of the Valley.’’ Beyond it, to the left, towering a thousand feet higher, is Cloud’s Rest, and to the right, range upon range rise to the sky line of Mt. Clark. Now, from practically this same place, we shall turn and look more to the left, or north. See the lines marked i6 on the map, one of which, the left-hand one, goes out of the map at a point about two inches from the upper right-hand corner, and the lower one, after cutting south of Half Dome extends to the map limits. 55 i6. From Glacier Point (N. E.) up Tenai- ya Canon, over Mirror Lake, Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest, Yosemite Valley This opens up a view straight up the valley of the Tenaiya. Waterfalls in this valley are ‘‘ conspicuous by their absence/' The Merced Valley has two falls, the Illi- ouette has one, none of which we have yet seen, while every highland creek around pours its affluent over falls. The Tenaiya is a mountain tarn coming down from the height of land away to the east two thou- sand feet by a series of cascades, but even these cease to be more than ordinary be- fore it reaches the metes and bounds of the park. This is explicable easily. Turn to the map, and you will find that at the foot of North Dome, the main river, the Mer- ced (which has come winding up the main valley), takes a sharp turn to the south and throws out northeastward a branch which is known as the Tenaiya Creek. It is a small creek in a very large, or rather very deep valley, for at its very throat stand two ranges of cliffs rising, within a mile on each side, to eight thousand feet. North and Basket Domes, seven thousand five hundred and thirty-five feet, and Half Dome eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-three feet; while its immediately higher waters, to the northeast, lave the feet of Mt. Watkins eight fhottsatid two hundred feet on the one side, and Cloud’s Rest nine thousand nine hundred and twelve feet on the other. Now, down this gorge, in the dawn of the geological his- tory of the park, underneath the ice cap, flowed the glacial waters, and plowed the glacial plow, a portidn of the great Tuolumne, which, sweeping round the crest of Mt. Hoffman, came westward on its wearing course. It made a run down to the Yosemite Valley, and swept the floor of the Tenaiya Valley clean. What- ever obstruction pre-existed disappeared under its ravening claws, and as the snoWs receded, and receded, the valley took on its present form, differing from each of the other branches into which the Merced splits, above the Tenaiya Creek. With this preliminary, we can now look np the val- ley and understand its story. We can scarcely see the water, for the shadows are dense in this ravine, even Mirror Lake, whose nearer acquaintance we shaM want to make, lies black in the bowl at the foot of overwhelming Half Dome, at our feet (see map), and the contrast is heightened by the wondrous play of golden light among the peaks of Cloud’s Rest, Which apparently shuts in the valley, but it is ap- pearance only. Tenaiya winds by and far beyond to the Sierras we cannot see. This 57 j is not a day when Cloud’s Rest earns his I title, for the air is absolutely cloudless, I and nothing rests on its rugged tops but nature’s gilding, and the rose tints of ap- proaching sunset. In some of these glades the day is short indeed, even in summer. It is late in the day before the sun can find its way down over their buttresses, and it is early afternoon when the west sun throws dim shadows across their deep floors. What the day lacks in length in the valleys it makes up in gorgeousness on the hilltops, upon the higher peaks of which its earliest and latest rays precede and succeed the normal day. 17. Nevada and Vernal Falls, and Cap of Liberty — from Glacier Point (E. S. E.) to Mt. Clark (11,250 feet), Yo- semite Valley This is our last turn on the pivot at Glacier Point (see lines marked 17 on the map), and we are facing exactly the oppo- site direction to that with which we began (Stereograph No. 14). This time we are . looking southeast, directly along the val- ley of the Merced River, after it leaves the Yosemite Valley proper and sets up, as it were, on its own account. Its bed was prepared for it by that tributary of the great glacier system which came from Mt Lyall and McClure, and skirting Mt. Clark, came down into the present Park between the Sugar Loaf on the north and the Cascade chain on the south. It found tougher material here than in the Tenaiya canon. Its first immovable barrier was where the upper of the two falls before us is seen, the Nevada Falls, and its second bar was at that fall which is seen clear at about half the height of the fir near us. Those are the Vernal Falls. Let us first take the top falls, the Nevada, which you notice, are at the foot of the Cap of Lib- erty, whose vast bulk rises two thousand feet above them. There the gathered waters of all the snow rills which have trilled into the Merced on its long journey from the east (and there are thousands of them, on either side), falls six hundred feet, or slightly less, according to the period of the summer, not quite perpendicularly, but nearly so, only a ledge near the summit twists the water, and sends it swirling and twirling down to the rocks below. With the added impulse of this, and impedi^ ments at every yard in the narrow and rock laden gorge, it falls again in a single mass over a perfectly square cut block of granite extending entirely across the gorge four hundred to five hundred feet. Thence onward it flows through countless more rocks piled in wild confusion, here a lace-like pattern of shimmering silver, 59 there an emerald pool. Looking up to this rightly named Vernal ’’ scene nearly every afternoon the mists contain beau- tiful rainbows. We shall have to go up the trail from the valley to see these falls in all their beauty, but sufficient of the primary features can be seen from this point to fire, if not fill, the imagination. Taken all in all this is, perhaps, the most comprehensive of all the outlooks we shall get, yet it begins where practically the boundaries of the Park end. All above the falls is, to use a colloquialism, '' out of bounds.’’ One can rest content fortunate- ly, that though it is open to the whole world to settle thereon, centuries will come and pass away, and many men may settle within the metes and bounds be- tween us and the outer horizon, yet their presence will count for no more in these vast wilds than if they were gnats. Nature has set her fiat against man’s deprivations and claimed this noble amphitheatre for her own disport. The third valley, off to our right, is a little to the south of this. It is that through which the Illiouette, in Indian phraseology, The Beautiful,” comes down, but, as yet, we have had no glimpse of it. Its falls are not easily reached from the valley. To get to their foot there is a climb of fifteen hundred feet from where 6o the stream forks into the Merced River valley bottom. Up this gorge are frag- ments of rocks weighing hundreds of tons each, and the fall from the top is a final glide of six hundred feet over a granite face which guides the water into most ex- quisite patterns. We have now completed our sightseeing from Glacier Point; we have swept the horizon standing on one spot, from Boundary Hill in the northwest to Mt. Starr King in the southeast. Now we go farther back on the same trail about a mile and a half nearly due south. You will see the dotted line or trail on the map, to the point marked by the apex of two red lines. A serpentine line runs from this standpoint to the number i8 in a circle. Standing at that point, we shall look due north between the lines which extend northward to the top of the map. We shall get a superb view of North Dome and Basket Dome behind it, across the main valley. i8. jAmid the Majestic Heights and Chasms of Wonderful Yosemite Val- ley — from Trail ( N. N. W.) to North and Basket Domes We are on the very verge of the eastern cliffs of the Sentinel Dome, at an altitude 6i of some seven thousand feet, looking across the valley straight over to the Nofth Dome, seven thousand five hundred and twenty-five feet high. We have not seett that summit before from so favorable a point of view. Here it is, in fact, framed, all by itself, for another of the buttresses of the Sentinel, slashed and rent as by Ti- tans, cornes precipitately down upon the left, and one of the scarcely less rugged sides of the Grizzly Peak closes in on the right, leaving but a topsy-turvy angle, whose apex is at its bottom, to be filled by North Dome, with a hint of Basket Dome over his crest. It is an awesome scene, which frorn its isolation is the more im- pressive in this land of immense distances. One seerns perched here on so frail a little bracket, that, were it not for the mighty tree, whose weight it has borne these two hundred years, one would expect that a rns^n/s >5r^ight alone must break it off, and he and it go crashing down into the bot- toj^less chasm, whose hungry maw seems litefally yawning for a victim. Yqu will see, on referring to the map, that from our present position, a trail ritn,s southward and eastward around the back o| the Illiouette Falls, and then west- ward, parallel with the Merced River. We are to stop next at a point on the trail 62 due south of the Vernal and Nevada Falls, and take a look northward toward Half Dome. It is a point of view from which we have not hitherto seen that wonderful monolith, and there is a lesson in it from, that point which should not be missed. The diverging red lines 19-19 do not ex- tend far this time, they include, indeed, little more than the valley close at hand and the mountain top opposite. 19. 0 n| thejBrink of a^Fearful Chasm — From Glacier Canon (N. E.) to Half Dome, Yosemite Valley We are again out on the verge of over- hanging, lichen-stained and weather-worn slabs. Immediately below us is void space. A stone dislodged here would find no rest for two thousand feet. On our right, is one of the farthest outlying spurw^ of Mt. Starr King, up whose front from the valley, foot by foot, the pines and other conifers have fought their way. The seed has fallen in rocky places, but it has thrived in this, its rugged home. Wher- ever the space of a hand’s breadth, or a pocket of disintegrated granite, though but a bushel, has given the seed opportu- nity to sprout, there the hardy nurseling has thrust in its tiny toes, and clutched the hillside, though in the after-fight only one side of it could grow to normal pro- 63 portion. Its cry is the cry of nature, “ Ex- celsior ! and if ever a place answered to Longfellow’s warning “ Beware the awful avalanche Beware the pine trees’ withered branch,” it is this flank of the mighty Starr King. It is a study of nature’s methods which is worth the heavy toil it costs to see it. Our field of vision here, like the last, is closed across the horizon by a single mountain crest. It is the torn side of Half Dome whose inaccessible back we can see plung- ing down, straight down, down to the Merced River, which is still deeper in the ravine than we can see, and rising, till his bald head pierces the skies eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-three feet above sea level. The story of the plowing out of this Merced Valley by glacial action, I have already told. Now, look at that por- tion of the Dome which is above the tim- ber line. Is it not different in aspect to all the surrounding granite? Distinctly so! and my impression is that the reason lies in the fact that while, through ages, the whole valley, above and below, and on the yon side of it (the Tenaiya) and below it (the Yosemite) lay filled with crushing, pounding, slowly grinding ice, this crest of Half Dome, for the main part of that long period, was above the ice, an island in the arctic solitudes. 64 If we turn to our map again, we find the trail leading on toward the east from our position at 19. After a mile or so, it turns northward, crosses the Merced River and joins another trail which runs along the river’s north bank. If we turn west and follow this new trail down the valley, we find it leads us between the Nevada Falls and the Cap of Liberty. At that place some interesting engineering work has been done in making the trail. We are to go there now. The red lines, marked 20, show that we shall be looking up the cliff, toward the northeast. 20. Climbing Up the Steep Zig-zag Trail at the Eastern End of Yosemite Valley There is one familiar sight in the valley we have only seen once or twice, and that in mere outline at a distance; I mean the many zig-zag trails which reflect credit on those who have done so much to make the Park accessible, with comfort, to both sexes. It is a useful and practical thing to have selected a possible route, designed the necessary engineering works and exe- cuted them in the zig-zags of a trail so that one can ride on horseback from the valley to the cliff tops. Well may the no- vitiate, gazing up these perpendicular stone walls, where nature hides man’s 6s works, hesitate to believe in, much less to venture on, so apparently an impossible ride. As we stand here, the Cap of Liberty is above us on our left, and the Nevada Falls are directly over our right shoulder. These Nevada Falls, you remember,are the uppermost of the Merced Falls. We saw them from Glacier Point (Stereograph No. 17). Now we shall pass on down the trail behind us, cross the Merced and climb to an elevation on the southern bank. There we shall turn directly east and look to the Nevada Falls and the Cap of Liberty. See the number 21 in a circle on the map and the red lines which branch eastward. 21. Nevada Falls and Cap of Liberty, Yosemite Valley We are exactly opposite the Cap of Lib- erty, in old time called Mt. Broderick, which springs from the foot of the falls straight away skyward eighteen hundred feet. So steep is this bare rock that not even a seedling has found a spot to plant itself, and there are few places where na- ture will not make a desperate attempt to cover the barren rocks ; witness the gnarled and twisted clump upon the very top of this mountain. Only one ledge on the side makes tree growth possible, and 66 that is the terrace running upward at a slight angle, like a band, from west to east, about a third of the way up, as if the huge bulk of the cap had, at some time, been taken by the top and twisted, so that through its entire body it had been wrenched and moved through a section of its laminations, as one would turn the top-* most of a pack of cards, and leave the bottom of the pack extending a trifle be- yond those above. It is a significant freak of nature, suggestive of forces almost be- yond the grasp of the human mind; but then did not John Muir see Eagle Peak '' tremble like a jelly We must now consult the map with a little more care, for we have to make a long detour. We are going down into the main valley again and turn eastw^ard to its end, and then a short distance up the Tenaiya Valley, between Basket Dome and the Half Dome. There we are to find Mirror Lake, which, you will remember, I pointed out lying in deep shadow and scarcely visible from Glacier Point (Stere- ograph No. 1 6). We shall see it under quite another aspect to-day. Find the red circle with 22 on the map, and you will have no difficulty in tracing the two ac- companying angle lines going, both of them, northeast by north. 67 22. Mirror Lake, where Nature Multiplies Her Charms — looking N. E. to Mt. Watkins, Yosemite Valley We are at the point where the creek gathers into a small lake : there is no room for a large one, in this hemmed-in gully. I have before called your attention to the remarkable limpidity of the waters of the Sierras. Here is an example of it, peerless in its reflective power, amid all the mirror lakes of the world, and surrounded by scenery such as no other mirror lake can begin to compare with. Its nearest com- petitor is the north fork of the Virgin River, in Utah, which has achieved world- wide fame in that it reflects the Towers which rise two thousand feet above it. But this Mirror Lake of the Tenaiya Valley holds on its placid surface, at one time, the images of four mountains. It fre- quently takes a detail to accentuate the attributes of the whole. For example, ob- serve the two jutting pieces of rock in the lake, one beyond and one on the near side of that stone pier upon which people ven- ture. Can mortal detect where the rock ends and the shadow begins ? Indeed, the shadow seems as solid as the rock. Now, look down into the sky reflected in the water, study the contour of the mountains and the light of the sky. Is it not a fact that there is more detail in the faces of the 68 mountain sides in the water than in the dis- tant reality, and more sunshine in the shad- ow than the distant heavens ? Of a verity, this lake more than holds the mirror up to nature — she multiplies its charms. Among the mountains, on its north, im- mediately by the side of and above it, is the mighty bulk of North Dome, five thou- sand feet high. Above that mountain, in a line so straight that it overlaps North Dome in such a way as to look like the same mountain top, is Mt. Watkins, more than six thousand feet above the mirror; on its south its waters wash the foot of Half Dome, five thousand feet nearly sheer; and northeastward, in a line with Half Dome, but four miles off, rise the loftier peaks of Cloud’s Rest, and cast into the lake its image in the sunrise. Nor does this exhaust the wondrous gather- ings of these monsters’ shadows, for at the sunset. Glacier Point, two miles due southwest, completes the mirages of this magic pool. Now, for two final outlooks beyond the gates. We have often seen Cloud s Rest looming up large on our sky line east- ward of the Park. We shall stand now upon our aforetime horizon and see the world beyond. On the map we have seen 6p it often, the dark graded mountain nearly in the right-hand corner of the map; and we shall take both our final looks east- ward from its very top. The first one, 23, will be between the lines so numbered, ex- tending out into the margins of the map, due north and east. And the other, 24, will be within the shorter line, southeast- ward, and the longer line nearly due south, both lines of sight extending indeed much farther than the country shown on the map. 23. From Cloud^s Rest (N. N. E.) over Lake Tenaiya to the Distant Matter- horn (12,176 feet), Sierra Nevada Mountains This is the farthest northeastern limit and landmark of the reservation. We are looking straight away northeast. Here we are indeed on the roof of the world, ten thousand feet above sea level, and on the eternal snows which slowly fill the tinkling brooks and brawling burns, that in their united, myriad forces supply the crystal falls whose descent has afforded us such joys in the valleys six thousand feet below. We are in a different world now, of wider horizons and bleaker aspects. The trees no longer fight up, step by step, but cuddle together in the valleys. Our neighbor mountains are farther apart, more forbidding and loftier ; the next one to us, the nearest to the right, is the Mat- terhorn, two thousand feet higher than we are, and we are ten thousand feet up , but he is a pigmy to the line upon line extend- ing eastward, ever higher and higher, up to the snow line where Mt. Dana and Mt Warren raise their mightier bulks, and Mt. Gibbs and Mono Pass lead onward to the lake of that name of -ombre memo- ries, and the yet higher altitudes of the Sierra Nevada, the peaks of everlasting snow. 24 . From Cloud’s Rest (S. E.) over Litth Yosemite Valley to Mt. Clark (ii»25< feet), Sierra Nevada Mountains. Here the outlook, answering the mor genial southern aspect, though of as gran^ proportions, is more verdant. The hill are more tree-clad and the valleys ar more of a refuge from climatic inclemer cies, over to where Mt. Clark raises i1 head into the ethereal dome and the eve lasting hills proclaim, in no figurath sense, the glory and might of a creath God! City \’^^Qenve^ ^Ofleans GULFOF MEXICO ^ibbonlFaK 7006y;J„ „ Gtqc/eP^ , 720)^ ..Sentm^k Dome.^ «,V: y.f'of lie Cliff, S\742 / ] Dewey Pf. 721 yfrXA-;.-- yosemite vallSy SHOWING WAGON-ROADS and TRAILS YOSEMlfl miles COPYRIGHT I90t BY underwood s, UNOPRVIQOO ^ NFa , explanations OF MAP SYSTEM. (5) The stereogreph L »r 4hA Sometimes the er ,„ogr.ph, over.h. When somo obi.< (8) The Humbert of i • marked on the map from no out the terr stereo9f*r‘ I® quickly the apace s b '’»y°"'i