The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-30 00:00:00

as if an angel bad dropped its mantle in its upward
flight—myriads of water rockets (if one can ima-
gine such a thing), bursting into foam, waving and

fluttering in the wind.

There are few spots on

earth where nature, in its wildest waste and in its
most fertile luxuriance, is so simultaneously pre-
sented. The Sierra Nevada is bleak beyond other
ranges, when fairly penetrated; yet no richer coun-
try smiles in the sunlight than from its base to the
Pacific. The Yosemite valley is one of the offshoots

of the rich land penetrating by some mlrvellous
convulsion into the fastuesies of the mountains.

It is situated in MAriposa County, and the
Merced flown due West, till it reaches the

river San Joaquin, which carries it north till it
meets the Sacramento flowing south, when both
enter the tidal cs'.uary above the Bay of San
Francisco. These rivers run through valleys of

unequalled fertility between the coast rauge and

the Sierra Nevada. Along its coarse the San

Joaquin receives numerous streams similar to the
Merced, winding through vales formed by the great
chain. About twenty miles from the entrance of
the Yosemite Valley—though even there the eleva-
tion is 4,500 feet above the sea level—is a grove of
427 of the mammoth trees of California, called by
the English officers who discovered them the TVel-
lingtonia Gigantea. The largest rise to 300 feet,
with a diameter of 30 feet. This is the biggest
collection of the biggest trees known to the world.
The grove is three-quarters of a mile long by half
a mile wide, and the smallest of the giants stands
250 feet, with a diameter of 15 feet, while the
largest is 325 feet high, and 31 feet in diameter:
A. monster has fallen, and a considerable portion
of it was burned, hut enough remains to show that it
once stood nearly 40 feet in a straight line through,
and over 400 feet in height. The first of these
mammoth groves discovered was the Calaveras,
and though much smaller iu number than that near
the Yosemite, the remains are there of a tree which
could not have been less than 450 feet high and 120
in circumference. Through one of the hollow trees
of the group a man can ride on horse-back. Many
of the very old trees are hollow, and one called
" Uncle Tom's Cabin" has an open space under it
of more than twelve feet square. Various estimates
of their ages have been made, ranging up to 3,000
years ; and an idea can be formed of the antiquity
of these giants when it is said that two or three
are sometimes united on the ground, though in
their infancy they grew 20 feet apart. Nor
till the late disastrous fire at the Crystal Palace
was the Englishman left to mere description for an
idea of the IVellingtonia Gigantea, for in 1831 one
92 feet in circumference and 300 feat high was cut
down, and a portion of its bark to the height of
116 feet set up in the Palace at Sydenhain. For
twenty-two days five men worked at felling that
tree, and its stump was smoothed off for dancing
parties and theatrical performances, and even
a newspaper, called the Big Tree Bulletin,
made it its platform. Apropos of these trees,
the Princess of WALES planted one last Monday
afternoon in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, at the root
of which a tablet was placed, with the inscription :
" lVellingtonia Gigantea, native of California,
planted by her Royal llighneas the Princess of
WALES, April, 1868," and on the other side the
words, " The first seeds of this tree came to this
country in 1853 ;" and the Prince planted another
at a further part of the lawn. The days are draw-
ng nigh when this land of natural wonders will
be as open to the tourist as Egypt now is, and
those who gaze with admiration at the " Domes of
the Yosemite," may themselves view that matchless
valley of cliffs and waterfalls ; they may bathe in
the clear cold waters of the Merced, dance on the
platform of the Big Tree Bulletin, and canter
through the " Horse-back Ride." We are weary of
European impostures--"e arc sick of the dull
muddy Nile--we want something fresh and new,
to see Nature iu its magnificent desolation and in
its moot luxuriant growth —then, let those who can
afford the time and the money turn their steps
towards the Greet West till they reach the slopes of
the Sierra Nevada, and the State of California
Rpreads before them. In -leaa than three years the
Union Pacific Railway will be open, connecting by
steam every foot of the road from New. York to San
Francisco. Then we can do for ourselves What it
took all the wit of ARTEMUS WARD to desCribe in
the Salt Lake City. Then, indeed, Yo Semite,
a name they have now no idea how to pronounce,
will become as familiar as a household word.
Already this valley has given rise to the legislation
of Congress, and to contention among the rulers of
California. Such a scene was considered at Wash-
ington desirable to be set apart for the nation, and
Congress enacted that the land be made over to the
California Legislature iu trust for the people.—
Angb-Anierican Times.

PLAY BILLS OF THE PAST.

-40.-

A theme of this nature is inexhaustible, and it is,
therefore, with no need for apology that we
write a
second disquisition cn the cast in a Drury-
lane bill (No. VII.), published in this paper's,
since our last commentary appeared. At the
Theatre
Royal, Drury-lane ---what pleasing re-
collections the name of the old house brings
up !_on the 23rd of July, forty-seven years ago,
Edmund Kean played " King Richard the Third,"
being his first appearance on his return from
America. Richmond, John Cooper ; Sir William
Catesby, Mr. Vining ; and Lady Anne, Miss Smith-
son :—these seem to be the only other performers of
note who appeared in the play, and rendered it by
no means an inferior cast. A little episode before
we go further. It is perhaps not known to the
present generation of play-goers that Kean's model
had been George Frederick Cooke,—nor was he
ashamed to own it. He had a perfect reverence
and adoration for his prototype, who had shown
iso brightly in the great charactors that
I Kean was then nightly electrifying his audience by
I depicting, viz. : " Richard the Third," " Shylock"
and " Sir Giles Over reach," and who—to prove
, what we say —played in two voices, which Kean, it
will be better remembered, did also. Well, Kean
had made a pilgrimage to the great tragedian's
tomb in America, and actually exhumed a bone of
1 George Frederick Coo' ke's foot, which be brought
j over with him, and before he would appear on the
i
stage, on the evening above-named, called the whole
of the Drury-lane company together in the green-
, room, and actually insisted on their going
down on their knees, one by one, and kissing this
j sacred relic ! Absurd as it may appear, the tri-
bute to this great genius was paid exactly as
Kean prescribed, with all seriousness and reverence
on his part, whatever might have been the feelings
of his fellow actors and actresses. But to the play.
"The play'sthe thing." Kean, on this eventful Mon-
' day evening, elated with his successes and flattered
by the welcome he received not only from the public
but from his brother professionals, outdid, if 'twere
1 possible, alt his former out-doings ; in the highest
II spirits, in the possession of his matured;powers and
tin the prime of manhood, he went through
" Richard" with a vigour and fire never surpassed
by any actor, if ever appro wiled. The scenes, with
Le.cly Aune in the Ist act, were portrayed with that
subtlety which Ke tn's severer 'critics were wont to
say " was too apparent to have succeeded with
any woman;" however that might be,they suco!eded
with the audience. The tent scene WM —what
it ever was—terrible, filled with the most startling
attitudes in quick transition. The last act, a
masterpiece of tragic power, culminating iu a fight,
• the reality of which could scarcely be doubted,
roused the audience to a pitch of excitement
never perhaps witnessed in old Drury before—and
some rather exciting displays have been -seen there
k by the writer that do not take place in
i these polite, unimpressive, wa had almost said
I ti degenerate days."
.lien fell covered with glory
1