The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-01-24
CALIFORNIA CORRESPONDENCE

EDiIOE NV NORTHWEST.
Pursuant to promise to occasionally
your live, progressive paper,
via contributing, hereby enter the in
cipient effort of the task. Here, an in
valid in search of health, aim to "kill |
two birds with one stone," by seeking |
knowledge rs well. Avenues to the one
are abundant, and the salubrity of the
climate ample, trust, for the other.
The weather's effort here in the Saera-
mento Valley for the last three weeks to
mock ''Webfoot'' has not been alto
gether a failure, since clouds, rain, fog
and mud, differing but little in quantity |
or quality, dominate. The few late
warm days have unfolded the buds and !
exposed the bloom of the jasmine,
pansy, sweet elysium, violet
and early verbena, diffusing their mixed |
fragrance to our most cordial and CRATE !
ful acceptance. Grass green and grow
ing. cattle lowing, frogs eroaking and
birds singing. The late general rains
here have made the farmers throughout
the State, and especially in the great
valleys of the Sacramento and San
joaquin, jubilant over the present
bright prospects for almost sure large
crops of cereals, perhaps of fruit, the
coming season. Let us congratulate
them, since, for the last two years (as
favOrableas the last has been) the wheat
crop has averaged less than four bushels
per acre, the whole crop being Is, 1860, 800
bushels, acreage 3,653,1 [Figures
quoted from Sacramento Record, but
probably not correct, as its corn figures
make the yield less than one bushel per
acre.
California claims and boasts of the
greatest and grandest natural euriOsities
and wonders in the world, and so far as
relates to the Yosemite Falls and Nam
moth trees, the claim may be just.
Certainly these trees have no equal,
nor, so far as known, has Yosemite Falls
and Valley. Think of the Prostrate
Monarch, forty feet in diameter (includ-
ing bark at its base, through the hollow
of which many persons, on horseback,
can simultaneously ride! If incredible.
still true. Next in Importance is the
Grizzly Giant, still standing. Its bark
is nearly two feet thick, and some idea
of the greatness of its diameter may be
inferred from the following description
by some visitor. 'If it were cut off
smoothly, fifty horses could easily
stand, or sixteen couples dance, upon
the stump" Twenty or more of these
Calavera Sequoias are nearly as large,
one of which has been cut down by
saws and augers, occupying five men
twenty-five days. The Faithful Couple
consists of two tall, perfect stems of
large living trunk. The Mariposa Grove
contains more than six hundred of these
monster trees, and the Calaveras, nearly
as many, though not as large, are better
known. Nor are some of the features of
the famous Falls of Yosemite less re-
markable, less marvellous. 1t is the
lOftiest known waterfall i'm the world
about sixteen times the height of Mag
ara, and falling from its upper summit
1000 feet perpendieularly, thence overan
oblique, rocky plane 43O feet-rapids-
again perpendicularly GOO feet; in all,
nearly one-half mile. The thought
itself is stupendous. The lesser adjacent
relative falls, Nernal, Bridal Veil,
Nevada and South Fork, are also very
great curiosities, and elsewhere would
be esteemed matchless. The noted
rocks, Star King, FL Captain, North
Dome, South Dome, Sentinel, Three
Brothers, Inspiration, etc., are striking
exhibitions of some Almighty creative
power, as they tower skyward perpendic-
ularly, or here and there menacingly
project over the swiftly-running stream
and deep chasm far below. Here and
there upon their granite surface may be
seen grotesque outlines, wierdly sculp-
tured by natures own artistic hand"
As one looks downward upon the shrubs,
rocks, spray and mists in sunshine,
phantom image of skulls, skeletons,
fairy spirits and ghosts are hurled back
upon the dizzy brain. All! the con-
temptation makes me poetical-and l
must exclaim-
a mystic spell enchains me here,
These gorgeous chasm-walls between
Here grandest scenes in Cosmos realms.
My rapt bewilder'd sense has seen.
Many and strange are the physical
curiosities of the State, but must pass
them till another time, concluding this,
by brief allusion to the 8lldtltns IN
pdrro, and not NAHUM ia sc, matter of
woman politics. There is less fiutter
just now than before the election by the
strong-minded women "that dared, !" yet
some of them show signs of life, and
Mrs. Curtis may be one of California's
Woman Suffrage national delegates.
Mrs. Stevens still struggles i'm the lead
of the van. Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Potter
have reefed sails till next favorable
breeze, when they hope to weigh anchor,
and again drift at the mercy of PdTs'-
D.oaiots winds. Mrs. Warehouses; un-
rivaIed, indescribable picture OF the
"SIeeping Giantess," symbolizing wom-
ans coming political and social power
is the embodiment of logic and the
repository of persuasive argument In
woman's obstructed, yet hopeiul cause
The women ruled Sparta by ruling its
men. And when the response OF Gorgo,
wife of Leonadas, to stranger lady,