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

tree that has yet been found now lies
upon the ground, and, fallen as 1t liss,
it is a wonder still; it is charred. and
time has stripped it of its heavy bark,
and vet across the butt of the tree, as
it lay upturned, it measured thirty
three feet without its bark there can
be no question that in its vigor, with its
bark on, il was forty feet in diameter,
or one hundred and twenty feet in cir
conference. Only about one hundred
and fifty feet OF the trunk remains, yet
the cavity where it fell is still large
hollow beyond the portion burned off
and upon pacing it, measuring from the
root one hundred and twenty PAGES, and
estimating the branches, the tree must
have been four hundred feet high. We
believe it to be the largest tree yet dis
covered"
Leaving this spot, for some twelve
miles farther on a series of tremendous
climbs tasked us and our beasts to the
utmost, but brought us by noon to a
lovely green meadow, walled in on one
side by near snow-peaks. Now on the
last stage of our pilgrimage, we were
nearly on a plane with the top of the
mighty precipices which wall the Yo-
Semitic Valley, and for two or three
hours longer found the trail easy, save
where it crossed the boys Of summit
level springs. Plunging into the thick
forest, our dense leafy surroundings hid
from us the fact of our approach to the
valleys tremendous battlement, till our
trail turned at a sharp angle and we
stood on "Inspiration Point"
.H..1 a. l.A1
we found it then only the spontaneous
expression of our own feelings. We
did not so much seem to be seeing from
that crag of vision a new scene on the
old familiar globe, as a new heaven and
a new earth into which the creative
spirit had Just been breathed. ] cannot
give vision utterance.
We stood on the verge of precipice
more than three thousand feet in height
"a sheer granite wall, whose terrible
perpendicular distance batfied all visual
computation.
There faced us another wall like our
wn,-how far off it might be we only
could guess,-a wall like our own, but.
as yet, we could not know that certain
| ly, for of our oN n we saw nothing. Our
eyes were spell-bound to the tremen-
dous precipice, which stood smiling, not
| frowning at us, in all the serene
radiance of snow-white granite Boodh,
broadly burning rather than glisten-
ing, in the white-hot splendors Of the
setting sun. From that sun, clear back
to the first trace OF purple twilight
| flushing the eastern sky-rim-yes, as if
it were the very butment of the eter-
nally blue Californian heaven-ran that
WALL always sheer as the plummet,
without visible break through which
squirrel might climb or sparrow fiy-so
broad that it was at first faint-lined, like
the paper on which ! write, by the
! loftiest waterfall in the world-so lofty
that lis very breadth could not dwarf it,
while the mighty pines and Douglas frs
along its edge rose mistily from the
granite lid of the Great Valleys upgaz-
ing eye. In the first establishment Of
! the view we took the whole battlement
at a sweep, and seemed to see an un-
broken skyline; but as ecstasy gave
way to examination, we discovered how
greatly some portions of the precipice
surpassed our immediate viS-d-viS in
! height.
First, a little east of our off.look,
there projected bodily into the valley
from the dominant line of the base a
square stupendous tower that might
have been hewn by the diamond tools
of the genii. Here and there the tools
had left faint scratch, only deep as the
width Of Broadway and five hundred
feet in length but that detracted no
more from the unblemished four-square
contour of the entire mass than pin
mark from the symmetry of a door
post. A city might have been built on
its granite flat top. And, oh the COR
geous masses of light and shadow which
the falling sun cast on it, = the shadows
like great waves, the lights like the
spumy tops and flying mist thrown up
from the heaving breast of golden
sea IN California, at that season, the
dome of heaven was cloudless but
still dream of what must be done for
the bringing out of utoch-ah-nu-
labs" coronation-day majesties by the
broken winter sky of fleece and fire
The height of this precipice is nearly
four thousand feet perpendicular his
name is supposed to be that of the val
ley's tutelar deity. He also rejoices in
Spanish aAaS,-some Mission Indian
having attempted to translate by FL
Captain" the idea of divine authority
implied in Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah.
Far up the valley to the eastward
there rose high above the rest of the
skyline, and nearly five thousand feet
above the valley, hemisphere OF
granite, Gaping the sheer wall, without
an apparent tree or shrub to hide its
vast proportions. This we Immediately
recognized as the famous Great North
Dome. Between Tu-toch-ah. and
the Dome the wall rose sometimes into
great pinnacles and towers, but its sky
line is far more regular than that of the
southern side, where we were standing
But ! will hasten on. To describe
more fully the valley at this point, the
intermediate crests and pinnacles which
topped the perpendicular wall of the
North Dome; as it stood within oul
vision like the teeth of saw, clear and
sharp-cut against the blue sky to try tc
delineate the plumbline uprightness o.
these mighty precipices, to describe the