Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-02-19


passes, or notches whose streams combine to form
the Aerced
The whole ride from the hotel to the lake is under
rarnparts and battlements ranging from two thous-
and to thirty-fve hundred feet high, that would
exhaust all the adjectives appropriate to rock ma
iesty which the new Worcester could supply, in
their description. Indeed, / was most agreeably
disappointed by the variety of form and grandeur
in the whole Yosemite gorge The descriptions and
lithegraphsI had read and seen gave me the impress
sion Of rnonotonous and gloomy majesty in the walls.
and of an Egyptian heaviness and grotesqueness Of
buIId and shape in the chief cliffs, which, suppose,
would be dispiriting, and soon perhaps. wear1some.
But no portraiture by pen or pencil would have
done Justice 10 the innte variety" in the forms Of
the rocks and their inspiring hvingness of aspect,
| If such an expression means anything. What the
valley is worth to geologst do not know but an
artist who loves rocks might reye IN 1t for dozen
| lifetimes.
The walls, as have said, bend and are set at such
angles that the visitor does not lsok up several
miles of furrow at once, but studies and enjoys
/ the granite casing in divisions of quarter or q
| half mile at time. They vary in barrenness and
in texture. Here is patch without vine or tree
on IT, but it is crinkled with cracks. Opposite per
haps is a sheer front of three thousand feet on
whose bald surface the frost would try in vain to
insert the tniest CT its destructive needles. And
the walls support all sorts Of crowning figures and
| ornaments. Cones are set on them; dOmes swell
l from
aguiIles and spires shoot above them; pyramids are
! based on them ard the ruggedest splnters thou
sand feet in height start up from them, and drop
few hundred tons of granite every winter to adorn
] the base of the rampant with picturesque ruin
The variety of colors too, on the walls and cliffs,
/ ia rich and charming Some of the heights of a
/ dark blush tint; some ashy gray; some are
striued and stained with iehens, seemingly; some
| are creamy; others almost white; while here and
there black stripes and orange stains gives grmness
4 +. ~. III fact Tho
texture and cleavage of the rocks are equally vari
Gus and attractive. One butress Will nave folds on
| II like a rhinoceross hide. Another has narrowing
lines that run up asant and end IN spIre- third
i has straight lines marking It Then 'front.' OF a
Quarter of mile broken with portions OF majestic
| aarcbes Soon comic sections are illustrated in a
score of experiments which earthquakes and frosts
| have tried And here and there is cliff, higher
than either wall of the White Mountain Notch winch
seems to have been smitten by Titanic battie-axe
| and split smooth for thousand feet and the axe
flaming knot which couldn't be cloven, was wrench
ed sideways tearing off the remainder Of the cover
| ing as the fibre of wood is wrenched on, flowing
over the knot which bulges stubborn and invlncibie
The central of the three subordinate notches, the
mass of the Middle Fork of the Merced, demands al
| the space we can devote to it. An exploration OF
this also requires day. and the hours we devoted
| to it remain, with our party, the most dehgnuu
| reminiscence of the Yosemite tour. On the way
| to DasSed immense IdSe VI rOcA IAEeo
Thousand feet high down which streams were sing.
inc merriy We were exultant over its wildness anc
spIendor: but landlord Peck who went as gulde
| with u.s. told us that the view was nothing TO Wha
II is in the spring Then said he, the streams
| come slipping down them steep stripes, ana Tel
| We it's beautiful, JeSt ike Calico!
| Leaving our horses about four miles from the
hotel in a charming grove, we climed along th'
track of the Middle Fork which is the main feeder
| of the noble Merced, for some five miles, all way
L = hsrb NJ
White Mountain Notch. but much closer, and a:
rocky as the front of Mt Willard. This pass IS Sc
much narrower than the main Yosemite valley
that the effect of height is as great as under the
cliffs below We found. in fact, that when oattie
ment or erag is perpendicular, so that you have &c
| hold vour head nearly at right angle with the
suace to look up to the summit, 1t makes little gu
ference whether it is 500 feet or eieVauon
$500 feet sheer is about much as the eye can sP
| preciate when looking up.
The first great reward in this Notch, aiter tnree
miles or 50 of trampng and scrambling by the slde
of the raging stream is the tall of Piwyac aous-
| ed by Yankees by the meme OF ~ ernal, anu anu VI
which it is said, the true Indian title means 1uoN
er of Sparkling Crystals" tide sixty ieee Oroau
| nours here some three hundred feet over pefpeh'
9icnlar and crescent rampant that joins the two
sides of the Notch. All of our readers VINO nAFs !
seen that beautiful jet on Boston common WhlcI
falls over as from a wide vase IN separate erops
will know how this river Is orSKen IN maAihg y
~
ons nrscinice. We climbed the face of the rock BY
1oJde-s (which is the next thing to walking Blon
dins rope over Niagara,) stood by the tail Ieane'
over a natural parapet, and watched Tor haf al
hour the sheet, sixty feet WIDE, fallng three nun
drad feet without a tint color on 1t, and seeming
| Iv with no fieck of foam. 1t was sheet, not o
asparkng Crystals, begging the Indians pardon
| but of dead white pearls.
All dav one might linger there looking of dow
| the Notch and beneath at the cascade. But one
| Il I'D IOolrf Ipfh nm Notch.
will leave the prospect and hurry on. What for
See that stream of light on another wall that join
the sides of the Notch, still mile beyond. All ye
| the river takes formidable leap there. We mus
hasten TO that and in walking along the easy slop
that leads to it. we have first lake, in which th
stream spreads and suns itself then fat grant
raee-way over which, for a quarter OF mile,
rushes like swift tide of molten glass; and then
! iume down which it roars with fury. Passing IN
aume we stand at the base of the great Nevada n
{ called by the Indians "Yo-wi ye." Seven hundre
feet they tell u.s. the river jumps and slides IN Tn
passage of its history. | doubt the figures htti
but the fall is of marvellous majesty. Of cour'
the height will not compare with the fo1oeml1e ca
aract but there is ten times the quantity Of wab
and the power of the fall as from rthe neadlof
height it cleaves the wave-worn precipice, seen
as great any portion of the American 1ali az
agara. Truly,
J ''The flashing mass iOaus shaking the asg'''
Asif to sweep down all things in its track, ,,,
Charming eye with dread-a matehess ea'sl@s ,-,,
Just about the time we made our yslt, MI
was publishing in the Home Journal ms bnt
the defects of Niagara--not of the con.r@JL - cav
surroundings. Its tack Of moel'a"s Hn,t nnreco,
makes the natural sovereignty OF the spy. r-one
nizable at any distance How muen me-
y Niagara would catch the eye, II auOJs side of n
ed with the Hudson Highlands on elIner rea
Fall and emphasized with one hgn a.t Nevada Cat
for note of admiration ,,.i,:. Ins nrncinIes. Tl
raet Is arranged tar Sa exclamation point at precia
1 eFra1 abe rInbt nt sPot For the immediate
oss OF saGs s5aps oa the 'front.' lnG
d. sanu ieee nign, u-ts+ino with surprising exactne