The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-12-12


Of prettiness and grace. As las bee
already stated, the "Graces wOul'
be terribly shocked were The Cap
tain " to fall upon them.
OTHER PEAKS.
Upon the southern side of the val
ley, a little further along, are the Ca
thedral rocks and spires, outlines o
| buttressed walls and lofty towers, Ii
which we may trace resemblance t.
the acade Of the minister's of York anC
St. Gudule, OF Brussels. These edi.
fees may be two hundred feet high
but these rise twenty-four hundred
Still further alorg we stand amazed
before the grandeur and beauty of the
Sentinel Dome, an isolated rock, gray
and hoary. its Apex about -four
thousand feet above the floor of the
Cathedral.
Upon the opposite side of the val
ley are three peaks overlapping each
other In such a way that they pre-
scented a humorous idea to the In
dams, who called them Pom pom pa
sus, mountains playing leap frog
which somebody has changed to the
Three Brothers"
NAMES.
The white man has been as ruthless
with the Indian names as he has with
the Indians themselves. The State
geological surveying party, under the
direction of Professor Whitney, have
been the foremost vandals. Whitne Y s
Peak is the name given to the highest
mountain of the Sierra Nevada range,
while the names of each member of
the surveying corps, including the
mule drivers, have been stuck on to
the lesser mountainsl Then there
are compliments to Professors Dana,
Gibbs aud Silliman, of New Haven,
and there not being American names
enough for the glorifcation of science,
the names Of Lyell and Tyndal have
been imported from England, all Of
which are duly recorded on the geo.
logical map, and described in Prof.
Whitney's report. One mountain has
as many aliases as a hardened rogue in
apolice court. Soon after the valley was
discovered, Rev. Mr.. Scott, Of San
francisco, named one of the nobIest
SUBMITS Mount Frances, for his little
daughter, but after a while another
gentleman from San Francisco, Mr..
Gwin, who, in the heyday of Maxi
milian's glory, emigrated to Mexico
10 search of q ducal cornet, came into
the valley and robbed the little
Frances, calling it for himself-Mt.
Gwin. Then the admirers Of Senator
Broderick, after his death. set Gwin
aside and called it Mt. Broderick.
The name may be found. on several
maps, but when Rev. DIR. Bellows, of
New York, was In California he visit
ed the valley with some friends, who
took down Broderiek's honors and
gave them to the Doctor, calling it
Bellows's Butte. DR.. Bellows made
a speech upon the occasion. A bottle
of champagne was drank, and the
new name given with appropriate
ceremonies, all of which is elaborate
ly recorded in Mr. Hutching's hotel
register. But the Doctor has lost the
mountain. for it is now known as the
Cap of Liberty
When Mr.. Colfax and party we're
here his friends applied his name to
another peak, but subsequent visitors
have not recognized the christening.
The Indians called one of the low
lest falls in the world Pi-wi-ack-
Falling Crystals-whieh has been
changed to Kernal Falls. While we
are about it, why not change Winnie
pesauke to Lake Muggins, or the
Pemigewassett to River Andrew
johnson, in honor of the President?
There are numerous records upon
the hotel register written by ambitious
visitors. Mr.. Nevins, of Boston,
Hurorhf
Falls, in honor of his father, aud Mr..
Milton, of Dorchester, does the same
by his father. A later visitor Of
poetieal turn of mind gives express
sion to his opinion by exclaiming:
g We Gods to think such witless wights
Should with their names d--n able nights"
There is but little hope of restoring
the beautiful and expressive Indian
names, now that the report of the
geological survey is before the public.
PI WI-ACK AND Yo-WI- YE.
Time and space are wanting for a
description of Pi-aui dck, the Falling
Crystals, 70 a0i-ye, the Winding Fall.
They are not IN the main valley, but
upon the fork of the MERGED. The
first has a descent of $50 feet, and
the last a descent of 700. Nor can
we speak in detail of fall which in
another canon leaps 900 feet down the
cliff. The scenery around these falls
is of the widest description - deep
gorges, mountains rising 5000 feet
above the valley, gray domes inacces-
sible 60 human feet, where the eagle
builds his nest undisturbed, where
storms and tempests and rolling thun-
der alone break the awful solitude.
THE DoNEs.
We must leave these, although of
such grandeur, to gaze a little while
upon the north and south domes. The
valley between them is hardly half a
mile wide, yet there TIE Mercid River
has widened to a lakelet, and which.
in the early mornings, before the wind
that we behold all the gorgeous scene
ry reflected as in a mirror
Leaving our horses by the lake, we
climb over loose stones up the bed of
a rivulet now dry, till we can stand at
the foot OF the dome upon the south
side of the valley. We are perhaps
700 feet above the lake-measuring
the altitude by the tall ors growing
there. We might fire a bullet from
our position and fatten it against the
walls of the opposite dome-so mar
row the chasm; yet it is four thou
sand feet from the water of the lake
to the apex of the North Dome.
Turn now aud look up the gray
wall against which we have been lean
ing. Measure the hight OF the almost
perpendicular slope, eighteen hun
dred feet, at an angle Of eighty de-
grees, and then behold it rising,
straight up, twenty FIVE hundred feet
morel 1t is not a dome complete In
all its proportions, for the northern
half has been cut off and removed,
M 81 tir e. a torr- orr;l 90 nc q,