Into the San Joaquin flows Merced River, coming from the eastward down
out of the Sierras through the famous Yosemite Valley. Most of its
waters are diverted by irrigation canals leading for many miles over
the floor of the broad San Joaquin Valley. The road to the Yosemite
leads eastward up the slope, crosses the crest, and at Inspiration
Point, fifty-six hundred feet elevation, gives the first view, then
steeply descending to the river bank, it enters the western portal.
Yosemite is a corruption of the Indian word "A-hom-e-tae," which means
the "full-grown grizzly bear," and is supposed to have originally
been the name of an Indian chief. This magnificent canyon, on the
western slope of the Sierra Nevada, is a deep gorge eight miles long,
traversed by Merced River, its nearly level floor being about
thirty-eight hundred feet above the sea-level. The enclosing rocky and
almost vertical walls rise from three thousand to five thousand feet
above the river, the space between varying from a half-mile to two
miles. Over the valley floor winds the beautiful green current of the
diminutive Merced, bordered by trees and vegetation, the surface being
generally grass-grown. The high vertical walls, the small amount of
_débris_ at their foot, and the character of the Yosemite chasm
itself, have led the geologists to ascribe its formation not to
erosion or glacial action, but to a mighty convulsion in the granite
rocks, whereby part of them subsided along lines of fault-crossing
nearly at right-angles. The observer, standing on the floor, can see
no outlet anywhere, the almost perpendicular walls towering on high in
every direction.
The Valley is a Government Park, which also includes the watershed of
the streams flowing into it. Originally it was the home of the Digger
Indians, a tribe of Shoshonés, and a rather low type, of whom a few
still survive. It was first seen by white men in 1851, when a
detachment of troops pursuing these Indians came unexpectedly upon it.
The attractions soon became widely known, and visitors were numerous,
especially after the opening of the Pacific Railways. Entering the
Valley, the most striking object is its northwestern buttress, the
ponderous cliff El Capitan, rising thirty-three hundred feet, at a
very narrow part, its majestic form dominating the view. There are two
vertical mountain walls almost at right angles, these enormous bare
precipices facing west and south. On the opposite side, forming the
other portal, rise the imposing Cathedral Rocks, adjoined by the two
slender Cathedral Spires of splintered granite, nearly three thousand
feet high. Over these rocks on their western side pours the Bridal
Veil Fall, about seventy feet wide, and descending vertically six
hundred and thirty feet. As the winds often make the foaming column
flutter like a white veil, its title has been appropriately given.
Adjoining El Capitan descends the Ribbon Fall, or the Virgin's Tears,
falling two thousand feet, but losing much of its waters as the summer
advances. Eastward of El Capitan are the peaks called the Three
Brothers, the highest also named the Eagle Peak, rising three thousand
feet. To the eastward of this peak and in a recess near the centre of
the Valley are the Yosemite Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in
the world. Yosemite Creek, which comes over the brink with a breadth
of thirty-five feet, descends twenty-five hundred feet in three leaps.
It pours down a vertical wall, the Upper Fall descending nearly
fifteen hundred feet without a break, the column of water swaying as
the winds blow with marvellous grace of motion, the eddying mists
fading into light summer clouds above. The Middle Fall is a series of
cascades descending over six hundred feet, and the Lower Fall is four
hundred feet high. This is one of the grandest features of the Valley,
but its vigor, too, dwindles as the season advances. There is a high
and splendid ice cone formed at the foot of the Upper Fall in the
winter. Alongside, upon a projection called Yosemite Point, at over
thirty-two hundred feet elevation, is given one of the best views of
the famous Valley.
At the head of the Yosemite, it divides into three narrow tributary
canyons, each discharging a stream, which uniting form the Merced. The
northernmost is the Tenaya, and overshadowing it rises the huge North
Dome, more than thirty-seven hundred feet high, having as an outlying
spur the Washington Column. Opposite, and forming the eastern boundary
of the valley, is the South or Half Dome, of singular shape, towering
almost five thousand feet, and like El Capitan, at the other
extremity, being a most remarkable granitic cliff. Its top is
inaccessible, although once it was scaled by an adventurous explorer
by means of a rope attached to pegs driven into the rock. It is one of
the most extraordinarily formed mountains in existence, standing up
tall, gaunt and almost square against the sky, the dominating pinnacle
of the upper valley. Upon the southern side rises Glacier Point,
nearly thirty-four hundred feet, giving a splendid view over the
valley, having to the westward the Sentinel Dome, nearly forty-three
hundred feet high, ending in the conspicuous face of the Sentinel
Rock. Thus environed by vast cliffs, this grand valley displays
magnificent scenery. Within the upper canyons are also attractions,
that of the Merced River, the central gorge displaying the Vernal and
Nevada waterfalls. The Vernal Fall is seventy feet wide and descends
three hundred and fifty feet, having behind it the Cap of Liberty, a
picturesque cliff. Farther up the river is the Nevada Fall, a superb
cataract, having a slightly sloping descent of six hundred feet. Just
within Tenaya Canyon is the Mirror Lake, remarkable for its wonderful
reflections of the North and South Domes and adjacent mountains. Some
distance to the eastward is the Cloud's Rest, a peak rising more than
six thousand feet above the valley and nearly ten thousand feet above
sea-level, that is ascended for its splendid view of the surrounding
mountains and the enclosing walls of the valley, which can be plainly
seen throughout its length, stretching far away towards the setting
sun. This view of the Yosemite surpasses all others in its
comprehensiveness and grandeur.