Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-19
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DAILY spY.I

k0ek-$IImpse OF the Deepest ana MOst
Picturesque Vale in the World.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DAILY SPY.
YosENITE VALLEY, CAL, July 8, 1872
No tourist on this shore OF the Pacific gains
an adequate idea of its wondrous and unique
scenery. or is content with his trip among its
wonders and beauties, unless he journeys to and
tarrics in this the chief of the rockwalled wales
of either continent. Omitting it is leaving Ham
let out of the play-ls the wedding ring without
the diamond or other precious gem in its setting.
1t is the browning detoiIr from the metropolis TO
the various points of special interest scattered
here and there between the sea and the High
Sierras" Though the round trip from Frisco"
and return is jaunt of near five hundred miles,
involving time and hardship, yet we are rejoiced
that it is made. purpose giving plain, mat
ter-offact narration of the way TO the valley and
the incidents in this letter, leaving the place it
self to future communication, that Others may
gain some appreciation of what is to be seen and
the experiences on the road. Imagine Paxton
as the location of Yosemite and Worcester to
be San Francisco. There are three routes be-
tween city and valley, corresponding in courses
to the old road and the new by way of Tatnuck,
and another road through Leicester No more
convenient mode of illustrating them now &C.
ours 10 me. The old road correspond
ing to the route via the Calayeras
grove of big trees; the new road
by way of Chinese Compromising the trees
the way through Leicester answering to that
via the San Joaquin valley, MERGED, and the
Mariposa grove of trees-though longer in pro-
portion with the Others than is the way via
Mariposa. California has only two large rivers
in its limits and these are the Sacramento and
the San joaquin. The latter having the larger
valley, but smaller stream, comprising within
the Sierras on the east side, and the coast
range on the west, and the headwaters and the
mouth, seven million acres of the finest wheat
lands, which, by and by, when population
thickens, will be an immense garden, growing
almost every product under the sun. AT present,
little is seen but wheat fields in every direction,
one near MERGED covering twelve thousand acres,
belonging to one man, and broken only by the
railway. 1t is as level as prairie, s:oneless of
u IlCllJ BIdCh lOdlnJ lIOul lNCulS W MY lCCl
deep, few trees, no underbrush, no stumps,
nothing to prevent running a steam plough to
break the soil Just as nature left it. The ride
through the plain with the blush, hazel ranges
and peaks in the dim distance, the fields glst-
ening in the rich, deep yellow Of the harvest,
charms with its novelty, an eastern eye, accus-
toned in June and July, to the
tI,o
are running the harvest Headers" just
clipping the heads, and passing them
into large wagons for the threshers, leaving the
straw standing to be turned in by the mex
blowing. The trees are exclusively the Cal
ifornia live oak-an evergreen never chang
ing its hue-growing in graceful and pictur-
esque forms, and the trunks usually leaning
easterly from the constant ocean breezes blowing
almost always in the same direction, and known
among seamen as the trades. Such, in brief, is
the appearance at present of the country
through which runs the San joaquin, navigable
at all seasons as far as Stockton. about five
hours sail from Frisco" By November it
will be as green as the Concord meadows now,
and on through the winter and spring till May.
Il
Pacific railroad, which continues southerly-
towards the Texas Pacific line. 1t is a young
settlement-about year old-but destined to
be an important point. Close by the track is a
new hotel, called after the loltiest and largest
rock in Yosemite, FL Capitan-meaning in Eng
lsh, the Captain. 1t is owned and managed by
the Central Pacific company, which built the
nd 10 st,a
the state outside the metropolis. Three months
ago there was not piece of lumber on the
ground but now there are elegant accommoda-
tons for 200 guests, with every modern eonven-
fence and appointment Here stages are taken
for u station known as Clark & MoOre's, about
seventy miles distant.
The road for the first eight miles runs through
the plain; thence, for ten miles through the
foot hills; the remaining fifty is over the con-
stantly ascending ranges Of the Sierras-and
also-beyond TO Yosemite itself, which is located
in the crest region of what is termed distinct
lively the "High Sierra" to contrast it with the
lower chains. For nearly the entire distance
the way follows. The general course of Bear
Creek-an old placer mining regiOn-where
rocked out,l but at present natures primeval
silence is unbroken, except by few quartz
mills, remote from the carriage track. This is
the district formerly claimed by Fremont and
known as Mariposa-the Spanish word for but
tenly-lrom a singular and beautiful 1ower,
having spangled leaf like the insects wing, and
found nowhere else upon the coast.
The last forty m tlpa into tho valIav lav in n
forest country, densely covered with heavy
timber growth, being in timber belt following
the tread Of the High Sierras for about five hum
dred miles, and an average breadth of twenty
miles Here is storehouse of lumber, com
pared with which the forests Of Maine are but a
halEGllcd woodshed. The trees measuring
three and four feet through seem numberless.
while thousands of a larger growth rear their
lofty tops two hundred feet and more above the
rest. The scene is wild, weird, and picturesque
in the extreme. As we gain the SUBMITS, we
look away westward over the valley we left
in the morning, aud beyond the coast
range, with its towering peaks, stretching away
into seeming infnty. The eye sees them clear
~ over a hundred miles away, as clearly as
Wachusett is seen from the hills of Sterling.
by evening we have gone sixty miles, and tarry
over night at White 4 Ilatche's, in narrow
valley, amid the densest forest, some three
thousand feet above the sea. In the early morn
ing we are again on the stage, an open sort Of
barouche, and at once are climbing the steepest
NUS, and by eleven in the forenoon are at
ClarEs, the terminus Of The wagon road, where
horses and mules are taken for the big trees and
valley, the former distant twenty Eve miles, the
latter six. After lunch, away we 90, following
the lead Of our guide-some on horses. some ON
mules-up steep, narrow trails, that make the
head giddy. In an hour and half we are AT
tbo mammoth grove Of the world, riding on
horseback, with hats on and heads erect, through
the hollows OF fallen trunks that have been
burned ont after falling, leaving a shell like a