St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-08-26

mountains,-carvet their names in sew
eral prominent places, and then go
away to air their new stock of adject-
ives. But nature does not reveal her
secrets in hurry, and when she does,
no words from the dictionary can ex-
press them. She will talk to you if
you will only listen, but it is in Ian
guage that cannot be spoken. In a
place so grand as the Yosemite one
must take time to listen and above
all he must have a responsive soul, or
these sublime voices are wasted upon
him.
EXCURSIONS.
1t would be hard to find another
camping ground about which there are
so many interesting things to do. On
all sides of us there were dOmes and
peaks to climb, and waterfalls to visit
and when these were exhausted there
were the high Sierras stretching off in
the indefinite distance.
OF course one must go to Mirror
Lake at sunrise, to see the sun sink
deeper and deeper in the clear water as
it falls off the inverted South DOme-tO
Bridal Veil Fall in the afternoon to
catch the rainbOws - to Vernal Fall
and walk through the spray - to Gla-
cier Point, Sentinel Dome and Clouds
Rest. But how can one record ON pa
per the sublimity, the vastness, the
wildness of it all Not even a painter
can do that. Bierstadt gives you
some impression, but even he falls sad
ly short of the reality. | climbed one
day to the point whence his DOmes was
taken. There was the laundering
Yosemite fall just ut my left--the beau
tiful valley, with the winding Merced
before me, and yonder the North Dome
with its Royal Arches, the Half Dome,
and far away Clouds Rest, as he has
painted them. But much as |
had studied that painting in the
AthenRum at st. JOhnsbury, | had not
seen the Yosemite Valley and Domes
and waterfall before. The artist has been
very successful i'll many things, but
unless | have forgotten the minutiH
of the painting, there is no point of
view from which you can see so much
us he represents. Much of the arched
side of the North Dome is hidden from
his point of observation by Il bend i'll
the mountain, but with generous I'M
faithfulness he makes you see from a
single station what i'll reality you can
only get from two or three. Late i'll
summer that Yosemite Fall which leaps
down over the precipice for 1000 feet,
carrying the water from Il stream which
we found difficulty in crossing on
horseback above, becomes entirely dry,
and the same is true of several other
of the great falls that plunge into the
valley.
If you were brought blindfolded and
put into the valley, you would hardly
think it possible to get out again with
out the aid of wings, but little inves-
tigation discovers six trails winding
zigzag up the sides of the mountains
two of them being wide enough for
stages. The others are for saddle
horses, which one must ride unless he
is blessed with being good walker;
in which case it is pleasanter to go on
foot.
The views to be had from the vari-
Gus points have much in common
of course, but from each one the panO-
rama seems new. In every case you
are surrounded with inexpressible
grandeur. YOu see scores of dOmes
standing out like haystacks here and
there, hundreds of fsnOw-capped Sierras
in the distance line of the horizon
being from 80 to 100 miles away-im-
mense dark forests, and from every
point you look down into the beauti-
full valley lying some 1000 feet below
you, with its winding river, its tents,
its boulders, its lofty pines.
readers of the CdledOnidn must be sure
and do when they visit the Yosemite.
For example, they must spend the
night at Macaulay's hotel on Glacier
Point, to see the domes stand out gray
and dim or phantOm-like in the star
light. They must discover comet up
there in the clear blue sky. After
dark they must build ii huge bonfire
on the brow of the precipice, and when
it has got well burnt down, throw the
Goals and embers over, to see them
sailing slowly down the cliffs for 1900
feet. They must be there on the 4th
of July to see the thunder shower that
always comes on that day, hear the
echoes reverberating back and forth
among the mountains. and see the
cloud burst, sending down torrents of
water over the rocky sides of the bare
Half Dome. Then at evening they
must celebrate the national indepen-
dence with a campfire built of 1000
pine cones. They must learn patience
by fishing in the Merced, and watching
the cunning trout as they smell of the
bait and shake their knowing heads
down in the clear water. To relieve the
mOnotOny let them have a robbery
in camp some night. 1t will add lit
tie to the excitement and give some
/ thiuO naU IN talk ahout