The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-08-04

| Il were, rock on rock ,-might we'll be
running back in stone-and- grassy dreams
to the hour when God had given him as
yet but two daughters, the crag and the
clover. Earth below was as motionless
as the ancient heavens above, save for
the shining serpent of the MERGED,
which silently trailed along the middle
Of the grass, and twinkled his FURNISHED
back in the sunset wherever for space
he glided out of the shadow of the
woods.
To behold the promised land proved
quite different thing from possessing
it. Only those who have had such
journey can understand how much like
nightmare of endless roofwalking was
the descent down the face of the preci-
pice. painful and most circuitous
dug-way, where our animals constantly
had to stop, lest their impetus should
tumble them headlong, all the way past
sleeps where the mere thought of side
fall was terror, brought us in the twi-
light to a green meadow, ringed by
woods, on the banks of the MERGED.
Here we pitched our first Yosemite
camp. Horses and mules were dis
missed to the deep green meadow, with
no further qualification to their license
than might be found in ropes seventy
feet long fastened to deep-driven pick
cts. We soon had a roaring fire and
something 10 eat, after which we select
ed a cedar canopied piece of flat sward
near the fire for our bedroom, and, as
high up as we could reach, despoiled
our fragrant baldacchini for the mat
tresses, which were sweet enough to rest
upon.
During our whole stay in the valley
we made it our practice to rise early,
take breakfast,-we generally had
game,-next the horses (even the mules
were "horses" here) were brought up
from picket; then together or separate
ly we rode away whittier we listed.
But, our man Our stores began to
fail. One morning we equipped him
with horse, pack-mule, and sundry
commissions, bidding him good speed
on the trail to Mariposa. He was to re-
turn in five days. On the morning of
the seventh ole of the party started
either in pursuit or to meet him on the
way. We were getting ominously near
the bottom of our fiour-bag. In five
days more the gentleman returned,
leading an extra mule loaded with rein
forcements but our traitorous "man +"
we saw no more.
Five miles farther up this valley we
came to the Yosemite Fall proper, but
in the Indian, "Cho-looke." BY geolo-
gical survey this fall is credited with
the astounding height of twenty-eight
hundred feet In the spring and early
summer no more magnificent sight can
be imagined than is obtained from a
standpoint in the midst of the spray
driven, as by wind blowing thirty
miles an hour, from the laundering
basin of the lower fall. At all seasons
"Cho-loole is the grandest mountain
waterfall in the known world.
Near here is also another fall called
Po-ho-no,n or "The Bridal Veil" AS
"Tis-sa-ack " is a good, so is Po-ho-no"
an evil spirit of the Indian mythology.
The savage lowers his voice to a whisper
and crouches tremblingly past Po-ho-
nos" while the very utterance Of the
name is so dreaded by him that the dis
coverers of the valley obtained it with
difficulty This fall descends in an un-
broken sheet of nearly thousand feet
perpendicular, thus being the next in
height among all the valley cataracts to
the Yosemite itself. Its name of "The
Bridal Veil " is very appropriate for, to
one viewing it in profile, its snowy
sheet, broken into the filmy, silvery
lace of spray, and falling quite free of
the brow of the precipice, might well
seem the veil worn by the earth at her
granite wedding-commemo the
one-thousandth anniversary Of her nup-
tials Near by stands q nameless rock,
three thousand feet in height; and yet
another, called Sentinel Rock" soil
tary truncate pinnacle, towering thirty
three hundred feet.
A lovely place in the valley is the
shore of Lake "Ah-wi-yoh," a crystal
pond of several acres in extent, lying
right at the mouth of the narrow strait
between the North and South Domes.
What a spot here by this tranquil water
for an artist Such a play Of color!
Our artist friend rose at dawn and
worked solely for the love of his art
After passing the great cleft eastward
we found the river more enchanting at
every step. We were obliged to pene-
trate in this direction entirely on foot,
clanDeIlnS between squafeu DIocks Oh
granite dislodged from the wall beneath
the North Dome, any one Of which
might have been excavated into COM
modious church, and discovering, after
} a reconnaissance of five miles, some OF
the loveliest shady stretches of singing
water, and some of the finest minor
waterfalls in our American scenery.
Our last camp was pitched among the
crags and forests behind the South
Dome. We were compelled, in some
places, to squeeze sideways through 6
} narrow crevice in the rocks, at immi
nent danger; in others we became
quadrupedal, scrambling up acclivities
i. with which the bald main precipice hao
; made but slight compromise. We wen
: on and on, but look where we would
| impregnable battlements hemmed III
in. Oh, mighty Yosemite Highe
: still might we see, glittering like dia
mond lances in the sun, the eterna
} snow-peaks themselves. - Scribner 70
august.