i8o 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



majestic Wapta in our rear we plunge 

 rapidly down a pine-forested trail hop- 

 ing" to gain the Look-out and our view 

 of the Yoho valley before daylight 

 should desert us. But in our haste, we 

 must not pass unnoticed this tumultous 

 stream down below the tops of trees 

 at our feet, nor that beauteous dark 

 lake, reflecting the Oriental colors of 

 green pines and flaming painted cups. 

 A thousand feet down and we gain, 

 the Look-out, in time to see landscape 

 and sky already colored with the fires 

 of sunset. We had reached the 

 Promised Land ! Ahead for twenty 

 miles the glacier-girt Yoho valley un- 

 folds in marvelous panorama, the fair- 

 est corner of the earth. It is a living 

 verdant garden walled in with eternal 

 rocks and snows. Throughout its 

 length a white foaming river runs. 

 Peaceful enough it is in the early morn- 

 ing when the frosts of night have 

 chained the glacial locks of its per- 

 petual reservoirs but in the afternoon 

 when a forceful sun has thrown these 

 flood gates open wide, it roars like a 

 brutish beast hungry for human life. 

 One day when far from food and camp 

 we had braved its turgid volume, had 

 braved and almost lost and now in the 

 hour when daring forsakes us, we see 

 among the host of other lesser perils, 

 the angry Yoho as it surged about us 

 on the day of our escape. From the 

 great plateaus of snow, countless wa- 

 terfalls leap down the cliffs to join 

 the river below, but here is the father 

 of them all, giant Takakaw. As we 

 gaze, its voice of thunder awakens a 

 thousand crashing echoes in the valley, 

 while its waving arms, beckoning to 

 a vanishing crimson sun, are trans- 

 formed into myriad rainbows. This is, 

 indeed, our destination ! It is the fair 

 country we have been traveling so far 

 to see. We drop down another thou- 

 sand feet to an anemone-starred 

 meadow and make our night's camp. 



feet high, are the highest in the world. 

 The water in the upper portion makes 

 a straight drop of 1,600 feet, runs in 

 cascades for several hundred feet 

 further and again falls 500 feet. The 

 stream is 30 feet wide and swift. The 

 cliff is solid granite. When the stream 

 is full, the roar from the falling water 

 can be heard for miles, and the vibra- 

 tion rattles the windows within a 

 radius of half a mile. 



Yosemite Falls, Yosemite Valley, Cali- 

 fornia. 



BY LINDLEY EDDY, KAWEAH, CALIFORNIA. 



Yo-sem-i-te is an Indian word mean- 

 ing Big Grizzly Bear. The falls, 2,624 



YOSEMITE FALLS. 



