The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-07-31
The Yosemite Valley.

The following sketch of the Yosemite
Valley has been furnished by Schuyler
Colfax for Hearth and Home:
Far up in the Sierra Nevada, nearly
three hundred miles from San Francisco, is
the pre-eminent wonder of our continent,
the Yosemite Valley, intro den by the
foot of the white man till 1851, and diff
cult of access to this day. No wheels have
ever rumbled over its sod; but leaving the
STAGE at MarirIosa. Sr,re-footed horses take
you by grades that seem to the eye almost
unclimable, up rugged mountain-ranges,
down deep valleys, through narrow ravines
and narrower gorges, amid majestic forests,
over boulders of granite, skirting along
hillsides for fifty miles, until at last, from
a iutting point on the often PERCEPTIONS
trail, you look down into this wonderful
cleft or tissure which you must wind around
mile after mile yet to enter. Anticipating
something grand, the reality, asis so rarely
the case, is. in romantic beauty and wild
sublimity, far beyond the mental pictures
| drawn by the most vivid imagination. The
towering Sierras which the Almighty had
thus torn asunder, are all around. Towns
and settlements and houses are far behind
YOU. 1t seems the home of the genius OF
solitude. And there you look straight
down nearly a mile, into Il narrow but
smiling valley, eight miles long, and aver
aging but half mile in width, with thu
MERGED River winding gracefully among
grassy meadows and scattered groves, while
like grim sentinels on either side, thu
mountains rise 5000 to 5000 feet above TIN
valley, which itself is 1000 feet above tin
sea.
These yellowish granite walls, Tu-tocll
a-nu-lah, or Ell Captain, as it is ottene
called, straight up and down, smooth, seam
less and verdureless; OF surmounted, lik
another, by beautifully rounded dome
greater and vaster than dome of capital G
palace, OF shooting up into an assimilatio
to cathedral towers, after which others al
named, or mounting one above the othel
i and rolling away in close proximity to eac
other, like the Three Brothers; or CT
down, sharp and sheer i'll the middle, as
with mighty cleaver welded by pow'
no less than infinite, like the Half Dom
. or towering above all others, like the SCI
final Rock; OF slightly sloping from tt
perpendicular, but massive and gigant
as the rest-such an aggregation of remar
- ~ i, 1,ntx-i
ering grandeur, as well as the solemn su
Unity of the scene. 1t seems as if. in t
creation, this wonderful furrow was plow
out of the mountain range, and the TO
thrown away, that valley, picturesque
Il its varied beauty, and smiling as you mig
Il imagine the Happy valley of Rasselas, sh
out from all the din and strife, and unr'
Of the world, might here be found A
,,-hen. after gazing an hour in silence,
,o,vo Ills view to wind around the trail
e Which = desc, mt to this almost inaccessi
|" valley is found. ant. at last ride along
r;rer,s hank. ralloping ever the luxuri;
nrass-sward, for days enjoying ana orihN
in its peerless and commanding scene
new beauties feast your eyes AT every ho
It. Here is the Bridal Veil, creek ~
wide, falling over its rocky wall 500 lee
a single leap, dissipated first into lace-l
strands and then into fleecy mist by the
scent Here is the Yosemite Fall,
highest in the world, at two leaps 1al
L, twenty-six hundred feet, fifteen times III
or than Niagara, the eye firing as it lc
almost straight upward to where 1t co
Z rushing over the precipce into view. !
are the falls by which the MERGED II
tunbles from the higher ground Del
these mighty walls of the valley INTO
valley itself-at one fall, the Nevada.
inc from the top Of perpendicular
full 700 feet, and then, after daslihs
rapidly over a smooth and rounded gr;
bed, into which the water has lite
worn its channel. leaping downward 4
- at the Vernal Fall $50 feet, with that
'ty. phenomenon, circular rainbow, "a
base. Though no mule or horse can
al these most fascinating of all the VOL
IL of the valley, and the trail is rugged
difficult, and wearisome on foot, and
10 the lerS 200 feet high are needed TO Scalt
H," u' nerpendicular walls of rock over whic
'nces vour side, the river thunders at its st
IN tho plunge, fatigue and danger are forgot
T T these awe-inspiring and startling su
works of the Creator all around you.
long journey from the East is more tn
maid by such combinations of al
and exquisite scenery as looked ON
mingled admiration and surprise i'll tn
e..
Id K lev of the Yosemite.