The Treasures of the Yosemite.

MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY NUMBER. 1 The Century Magazine. Vol. XL. AUGUST, 1890. No. 4. 484 THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. upon it, nor anything to suggest the wonder- which find anchorage on a thousand narrow ful depth and grandeur of its sculpture. None steps and benches, the whole enlivened and of its magnificent forest-crowned ridges seems made glorious with rejoicing streams that come to rise much above the general level to publish dancing and foaming over the sunny brows of VIEW OF THE YOSEMITE VALLEY I ROM POIN I LOOKOV ON THE RIGHT, THE IIAI.I 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 smooth and featureless. Neverthelesshe whole range is furrowed with canons to a depth of from 2000 to 5000 feet, in which once flowed majestic glaciers, and in which now flow and sing the bright Sierra rivers. Though of such stupendous depth, these canons are not raw, gloomy, jagged-walled gorges, savage and inaccessible. With rough passages here and there, they are mostly smooth, \u27 open-pathways conducting to the fountains of the summit; mountain streets full of life and light, graded and sculptured by the ancient glaciers, and presenting throughout all their courses 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 canons widen into spacious valleys or parks of charming1 beauty, level and flowery and 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 CAPITAN ON I\u27ll]-: LliF\u27J\u27 bQIJIE IN TIM:: D1STANCIC, Ao the cliffs, and through side canons in falls of every conceivable form, to join the shining river that flows in tranquil beauty down the middle of each one of them. \u27V ;• , suve/Li/Md/* The most famous and accessible of these canon valleys, and also the orie that presents their most striking and.:\u27 sublime; features on the grandest scale, is the Yosemite, situated on the upper waters of the Merced 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, and is carved in the solid granite,flank of therangSrne walls of the valley are made up of rocks, mountains in size, partly separated from each other by- side canons and gorges ; and they are so sheer in front, and so compactly and harmoniously- built together on a level floor, that \u27the place, comprehensively seenlooks like some 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 conscious, yet heedless of everything going on about them. Awful in stern, immov- able\u27majesty, how softly these mountain rocks THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. 485 are adorned and how fine and reassuring the company they keep, —- their feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, their brows in the thin blue sky, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, bathed in floods of booming water, floods of light, while snow, clouds, winds, avalanches, shine and sing and wreathe about them as the years go by! Birds, bees, butterflies, and myriads of nameless wings stir the air into music and give glad animation. Down through the midst flows the crystal Merced — river of mercy — peacefully gliding, reflecting lilies and trees and the onlooking rocksu 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, whether great or small, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. Sauntering towards Yosemite up the foothills, 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 colos sal shafts in regular order, and every branch beautifully pinnate like a fern leaf. The Douglas spruce and the yellow and sugar pines here reach their highest developments of beauty and grandeur, and the rich, brown- barked libocedrus with warm, yellow-green plumes. The majestic sequoia, too, is here, the king of conifers, the noblest of a noble race. All these colossal trees are as wonder-. J**-** ful in the fineness of their beauty and pro-\u27\u27]/ portions as in stature, growing together, an .,. assemblage of conifers surpassing all that have yet been discovered in the forests of the world. Here, indeed, is the tree-lover\u27s paradise, the woods, dry and wholesome, letting in the light in shimmering masses half sunshine, half shade, the air indescribably spicy and exhilarating, plushy fir boughs for beds, and cascades to sing us asleep as we gaze through the trees to the stars. On the highest ridges passed over on our way to Yosemite the lovely silver fir [Abies amabilis) forms the bulk of the woods, pressing forward in glorious array to the very brink ] of the walls on both sides and far beyond to a DOWN GRADE INTO THE VALLEY 486 THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. 488 THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. naturally, all the fountain region above Yosemite, with its peaks, canons, snow fields, glaciers, forests, and streams, should be included in the park to make it an harmonious unit instead of a fragment, great though the fragment be; while to the westward, below the valley, the boundary might be extended with great advantage far enough to comprehend the Fresno, Mariposa, Merced, and Tuolumne groves of big trees, three of which are on roads leading to the valley, while all of them are in the midst of conifers scarcely less interesting than the colossal brown giants themselves. From the heights on the margin of these glorious forests we at length gain our first general view of the valley—a view that breaks MIRROR VIEW OF THE THREE BROTHERS. suddenly upon us in all its glory far and wide and deep; a new revelation in landscape affairs that goes far to make the weakest and meanest spectator rich and significant evermore. Along the curves and zigzags of the road, all the way down to the bottom, the valley is in sight with ever-changing views, and the eye ranges far up over the green grovy floor between the mighty walls, bits of the river gleaming here and there, while as we draw nearer we begin to hear the song of the waters. Gazing at random, perhaps the first object to gain concentrated attention will be the Bridal Veil, a beautiful waterfall on our right. Its brow, where it first leaps free from the rock, is about nine hundred feet above us; and as it sways and sings in the wind, with gauzy, sun- sifted spray half falling, half floating, it .seems infinitely gentle and fine; but the hymn it sings tells the solemn power that is hidden beneath the soft clothing it wears. On the other side of the valley, opposite the Veil, there is another magnificent fall, called the Ribbon Fall, or Virgin\u27s Tears. The tears fall from a height of about 3000 feet, and are most extravagantly copious when the snow is melting, coming hissing and roaring with force enough to drive a mile of mills, suggesting the weeping skies of cyclones and hurricanes. Just beyond this glorious flood the Pl Cap- itan rock is seen through the pine groves pressing forward beyond the general line of the wall in most imposing grandeur. 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, standing there in supreme height and breadth, a type of permanence. Across the valley from here, above 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 hewn from the same mountain ridge by the Yosemite glacier when the valley was in process of formation. Beyond El Capitan the next in siicces-sion of the most striking features*of the north wall are the Three Brothers, an immense mountain mass with three gables fronting the valley one above the other, the topmost nearly 4000 feet high. They were named for three brothers captured here during the Indian war, sons of Tenaya, the old Yosemite chief. On the south wall opposite the Brothers towers the Sentinel Rock to a height of more than 3000 feet, a telling monument of the icy past. Sauntering up the valley through meadow and grove, in the company of these majestic rocks, which seem to follow as we advance gazing, admiring, looking for new wonders ahead where all about us is wonderful, the thunder of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when we arrive in front of the Sentinel it is THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. 489 inmm. 49° THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. MIRROR VIEW OF YOSEMITE FALLS. the fall, on the north side of the canon, is the sublime El Capitan-like rock called Mount Watkins; on the south the vast granite wave of Cloud\u27s 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 the Indians on their way across the range to Mono, but in the canon above this point there is no trail of any sort. Between Mount Watkins and Cloud\u27s Rest the canon is accessible only to mountaineers, and it is so dangerous in some places that I hesitate to advise even good climbers anxious to test their nerve and skill to pass through it. Beyond the Cascades no great difficulty will be encountered. A succession of charming lily gardens and meadows occur in filled-up lake basins among the rock-waves in the bottom of the canon, and everywhere the surface of the granite has a smooth-wiped appearance, and in many places, reflecting the sunbeams, shines like glass—phenomena due to glacial action, the canon having been the channel of one of the main tributaries of the ancient Yosemite glacier. Ten miles above the valley we come to the beautiful Tenaya Lake, and here the canon terminates. A mile or two above the lake stands the grand Sierra Cathedral, a building of one stone, hewn 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 house had also been careful that it should be finely seen. From every direction its peculiar form and graceful beauty of expression never fail to charm. Its height from the floor to the ridge of the roof is about 2500 feet, and among the pinnacles that adorn the front glorious views may be gained of the upper basins of the Merced and Tuolumne. Passing on each side of the Cathedral we descend into the delightful Tuolumne Valley, from which excursions may be made to Mount Dana, Mono Lake, Mount Lyell, to the many curious peaks that rise above the meadows on the south, and to the Big Tuolumne Canon with its glorious abundance of rocks and falling, gliding, tossing water. For all these the spacious meadows near the Soda Springs form a delightful center. Returning now to Yosemite, and ascending the middle or Nevada branch of the valley, which is occupied by the main Merced River,. we come within a few miles to the Vernal and Nevada falls, 400 and 600 feet high, and set in the midst of most novel and sublime rock-work. Above these, tracing the river, we are led 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 river flowing through the meadows and groves, of the level bottom in tranquil crystal reaches. Beyond this there are four other little Yo- semites in the main canon, making a series of five in all, the highest situated a few miles below the base of Mount Lyell, at an elevation of about 780a 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 magazine article. We cannot here consider the formation of these mountain landscapes—how the crystal rocks with THE TREASURES OF THE YOSEMITE. 491 crystal snow were brought to the light, making beauty whose influence is so mysterious on everybody who sees it; the blooming of the clouds; the fall of the snow; the flight of the avalanches; the invisible march of the grinding glaciers; the innumerable forms of the falling streams. \-\\u3ed\u3erArv,mtrf Of the small glacier lakes sq characteristic of these upper regions, there are no fewer than sixty-seven in the basin of the main middle branch, besides countless smaller pools, all their waters crisp and living and looking out on beautiful skies. In the basin of the Illilouette there are sixteen, in the Tenaya and its branches thirteen, in the Yosemite Creek basin fourteen, and in the Pohono or Bridal Veil one, making a grand total of a 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. On each side also the same harmony prevails. Climbing out of the valley by the subordinate canons, we find the ground rising from the brink of the walls—on the south side to the fountains of Pohono or Bridal Veil Creek, the basin of which is noted for the extent and beautyof 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 Canon and the fountains of the Hoffman spur. 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,A singly or in groups. Others again are developed only on one side, forming bold outstanding bosses usually well fringed with shrubs and trees, and presenting the polished shining surfaces given them \u27:; 55BI 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 among the domes, 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 tq, their grand fall in the valley, now flowing on smooth pavements in sheets thin as glass, now diving under willows and laving\u27 their red roots, oozing through bogs, making tiny falls and cascades, whirling and dancing, calming again, gliding through bits 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, flow- / \u27 Lunar rainbows or spraybows also abound; at the moon through the meshes of some of their colors as distinct as those of the sun, and the denser portions of the fall, I ventured to b*~, \u3c • LOOKING UP MERCED RIVER, ON THE WAY TO VERNAL FALLS. as 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 of the canon whenever there is plenty of moonlight and spray, silent interpreters of the heart-peace of Nature in the stormy darkness. 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 moon- rise 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 clashing of this thunder- voiced fall, is one of the most impressive and most cheering of all the blessed evangels of the mountains. 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 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 sounded 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 darkened by a rush of thick-headed comets, now flashing out through openings between them. 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 desperately solid and stony in striking one\u27s shoulders. It seemed like a mixture of choking spray and gravel. Instinctively dropping on my knees, I laid hold of an angle of the rock, rolled myself together with my face pressed against my breast, and in this attitude submitted as best I could to my thundering baptism. The heavier masses seemed to strike like cobblestones, and a confused noise of many waters ears — hissing, gurgling, clashing ; , , . i \u27•.\u27 \u27 i1 ! v \u3e ; i / 1 • \u27 \u27 ,.\u27\u27 W . \u27 \u27.\u27 ( i . s!- \v. there was about my sounds that were not heard as music. The situation was easily realized. How fast one\u27s thoughts burn at such times! I was weighing the 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 once more revisited the 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 ofMeelay. Between the ice and the wall I wedged myself, and lay face downwards until the steadiness of the light gave encouragement to get away. Somewhat nerve-shaken, drenched, and benumbed, I made out to build a fire, warmed myself, ran home to avoid tak I r4- 497 height of five hundred feet or more, into the heart of which the whole volume of the fall descends with a tremendous roar as if pouring down the throat of a crater. In the building of this ice-cone part of the frozen spray falls directly to its place, but a considerable portion is first frozen upon the face of the cliff on both sides of the fall, and ,attains a thickness of a foot or more during {he night, \u3e. When the sun strikes this ice-coating it is expanded and cracked off in masses weighing from a few pounds to several tons, and is 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 dust are all firmly frozen together. The thundering, reverberating reports of the falling ice-masses are like those of heavy cannon. They usually occur at intervals of a few minutes, and are the most strikingly characteristic of the winter sounds of the valley, and constant accompaniments of the ing cold, reached my cabin before daylight, -bestsunshine.\Vhile this stormy.building is got an hour or two of sleep, and awoke sane in progress the surface of the cone is smooth 1 \u27cHl. h K n and comfortable, better, not worse, for my wild bath\u27in moonlit spray. \u27Owing to,the westerly trend of the valley \u27and its\u27\u27vast\u27 depth there is a great difference between the climates of the north and south sides 4r 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 storms are falling and a few days after they have ceased.i 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 points, the flowers of the laurel nearly open, and the honeysuckle rosetted with bright young leaves; every plant seemed to be thinking about summer and to be stirred with good vital sunshine Even on the.s