Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-28
ANOTHER WONDERLAND.
Gcrges, Forests, Torrents, and Water.
falls Of the TuOlumne Canon.

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From the San Francisco Bulletin, Dec. 8.
The diadem for scenic grandeur has here
tofore been won by Yosemite, but late ex.
ploratiOns In the Sierra Nevada have re-
vealed some half-dozen contestants for that
honor. Among these may be mentioned
Mount Shasta, the canon of the South
Fork of Kings river (on the shadow of
Mount Whitney, and the great Tuolumne
river canon. John Muir, tha lonely ad-
venturous explorer aud geologist of the
Yosemite Valley, and Galen Clark,
State Guardian of that valley, last month
penetrated and explored the last mentioned
canon, which Professor Whitney and
Clarence King did not enter, the former ex-
pressing doubt, in bis State geological re-
port, whether it was possible to get into at
all. Mr.. Muir reports that this canon lies
about eighteen miles in an almost due
nOrtherlY direction from Yosemite Valley.
Its beginning or mouth is below Heteh-
Hetchy Valley, and the main Tuolumne
river runs through it. 1t curves in an un-
broken line for over forty miles, and runs
up to and ends in the very heart
of the submits of the upper Sierra Ne
vada. The uneuphoniously named Hetch-
Hetchy Valley constitutes an expanded por-
ton of the great Tuolumne canon, which
properly begins at the eastern end Of
Hetch-Hetchy, and has, from thsnce to its
head, length of twenty miles OF continu-
Gus, UnbIokan vertical walls Of granite,
similar to, but more clear cut, and with
greater depth than those Of the Yosemite
Valley. Yosemite Valley has an average
width Of half mile, and is in one place a
mile wide, but the Tu0lumne cannon has
nowhere width exceeding a quarter of
mile, and is in some places much narrower
than that. The Tuolumne river, which
runs through it, has twice the width Of the
MeFced. The falls Of the Merced-Yose-
mite surpass those Of the Tuolumne canon
in unbroken volumes of descending
water; but, in endless variety Of cascades
and watersheds the Tuolumne canon is
far superior. The great walls Of the canon
are scanned by Water-Worn assures, down
which rivers leap, churn, thunder, brawl
and sing with all possible varieties and ex-
preston Of sound. There is one water-leap
1,S00 feet high in the Tuolumne canon, but
it is not unbroken like the Upper Yosemite,
and is in that respect inferior to the latter.
The Upper Yosemite falls are 1000 feet
high. In the spring, when the river is full,
that fall tumbles into its great water-worn,
rocky bowl with sound re-
sembling the fall from the sky of
gigantic cannon balls on massive and
tigbtly-stretched drums, This sound closely
resembles, yet hardly rises to the noisy
dignity of the loudest peals of thunder; but
the noise produced by the ToGlumne water
falls is as deafening as the loudest thunder
"a thunder which is brought directly home
to the ears by the narroWness and vast
depth of the great ce-covered fissure and
the unsurpassed facilities it affords for pom
derous echoes. One of the waterfalls
spreads out at first like great flmy fan Of
silver-threaded water; but, after descent
in this shape of about 200 feet, it is whirled
over, closed up with lightning-like rapidity,
changed in color, shot down a narrow
groove of rocks, like an arrow of steam.
The great sculp ptUre marks Of glacial action
are much newer and more easily read
in the Tuolume than in the canon,
for, though called a valley, it is
really q canon of the Yosemite. The
glacial alphabet by which the history of the
glacial action can be read is very much
blurred in Yosemite by the subsequent ac-
ton of rain, snow, sun, winds and earth
quakes; but in the Tuolumne canon the
page is fresh from the glacial workshop on
the SUBMITS of mounts Lyell, Dana, Gibbs
and Ritter. The glacier on the latter mas
length and width of about half mile, and
a depth of about 800 feet. The glaciers
from these mountains, Mr.. Muir thinks, at
one time not only filed the great Tuolumne
canon, but lSVishly overfowed it as a river
oveTfoTs It's banks in the springtime.
Messrs. Muir and Clark had rough task
in exploring this great canon and its sur
roundings. They were forced to wade
rushing, icy torrents, the sides of which
brushed the foot Of perpendicular rocks Of
granite. They Camped one night in their
shirt sleeves, and went suppsrless to bed.
One Of the walls mentioned is 1900 feet
high.
Those who have come out of Yosemite
by the Coulterville trai! will remember what
q magnificent view of the Bridal Veil Falls is
had from it. Those falls are by no means
the largest, but they are the most beautiful
and appropriately named Of all the many
falls OF the great valley. The wind swings
them and disarranges their falling folds and
silver threads, just as it would veil of the
most gauzy texture. There are many of
these bTidal-Vel falls in Hetch-Hetchy
valley and then TOlumne canon.
There is a greater display and variety CT
water-shapes, hues, tints, motions and ex-
pressions in the latter canon than in YoSe-
mite. One im2gines that he has seen and
heard all the possible combinations into
which water can enter to awe and delight
the eye and charm the ear, after a visit to
Y Yosemite; but Mr.. Muir states that the ex-
ploTation of The TuOlumne canon has re-
vealed innumerable new discoveries in this
respect, even to his eye, which has for years
been familiar with all the waterfalls of the
Yosemite region.
1t is evident from these and other recent
discoveries in the Sierra Nevada that there
are a wealth Of wonders there, outside Of
and in many respects far surprising those
regions on which the eyes Of tourists have
heretofore rested.