The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-10-03

| ley we see the well known forms of
| FL Captain and Cathedral Rocks; the
! last named are the most nobly outlined
| groupi in the valley; the eye continually
! turns towards them to rest with de-
| light on the massive forms. FL Captain
is one sheer precipice of barefaeed rock
! from top to base. The pine forest on its
crest shows no taller than a grassy
lawn, and yet those pines would over
| top our highest building. An excellent
| place is the Yosemite for studying out
! the vexed problem, is there any majesty
! in mere greatness OF size2 Is the sweep
ing orbit of Neptune any greater than
| the same line of eternity as shown in
the smallest finger ring2 Let the phil
osophers settle it as they please, be-
| lieve the old Wiltshire farmer hit the
matter pretty close: Good be good ana
| bad be bad; q good big cheese be worth
more than little un any way you can
| put It," SO big granite cliff is more
sublime than a little One any way we
can put it. El Captain, with its thrice
thousand and a hundred feet is GER
tainly an imposing object TO look upon.
One OF my precious, because few,
days in the valley devoted to climbing
GLACIER POINT.
Zig-zag goes the trail up the II ountain
side until the head is quite turned; it
takes four miles of steep grade to reach
the top, and for the sake of economy,
l patroni7ed the popular shanks' pony
route, and felt myself somewhat short of
breath, when the summit was gained. If
the pallry height OF Dover Cliff inspired
Shakespeare with such vivid images,
how must he have been affected, could
ha ho. urh
this |! | confess that when l looked
over the edge my knees fairly smote
together How fearful and dizzy tits
to cast ones eyes so loW" The iron
rail placed for safety between two rocks,
seemed to me no stronger than a
thread; fea: ed my touch would break
it away. But my discontinue was more
complete and | was thoroughly
ashameu of my weak head when half
an hour later q party on mule back
came jogging up the trail, and a little
girl, quick as she was dismounted, ran
fearlessly down TO the rail, leaned over
and clapped her hands for Joy. My
only joy was that no one had witnessed
my snaky, cautious approach. There is
good story in HutchIngs' book, of
the Mark Twain type, telling how
pioneer who lives near by used to
throw an old hen over the rail for the
edIfcGtion of tourists. The old hen
would flutter and cry out most dole
fully, sending up her angry protest
until she vanished from sight. When
the tourists would eXpOstulate with the
old gentleman on his cruelty he only
smiled wisely and answered: 80, she
don't mind it she is used to that sort
of thing" And sure enough, as the
tourists would be descending the trail,
here they would meet the old hen "a lit
tie ruf1ed, perhapsl, coming quietly up
again for the next days dose. Leaving
joking aside, it is a very trying ordeal
to some, the looking down these thous-
ands of feet, but when you have once
conquered the siCkly sensation, the
view is a glorious one. The valley
appears level as a floor; the MERGED
River, like a line drawn with the
finger, the OAKS and pines like round
dots-but what is the use! The whole
scene is too stupendous to be brought
up by any imagery of mine; it was sew
eral hours before could realize what
space it meant. Yosemite, TenaYa
Canyon, the South Fork, Little Yose-
mite-there they lay, all dream-ike and
vague in the autumn haze. On level with
my eye the top of the great domes, only
TIssaach Goddess of the Valley and
that wilderness OF granite, Clouds
Rest, with one or two other needle
points of rock, rising above. When we
are down in the valley we favor the the
DRY that it was formed by a sudden
dropping during some earthquake
shock, but from above we in
cline to believe the other theory
that it was cut by ancient glaciers.
Which of these two theories is the
true one, will, of course, be always
matter OF dispute.
The road-ways or avenues have been
judiciously named, so that we can easily
find our way unattended to any point.
They are called, PohOno Avenue,
Cathedral Avenue, etc. One of the
most attractive of them MI is