SCENERY. 77 



plumb down through the air, and strikes the projecting rock, 

 breaking into spray. 



About two miles west of Nevada Falls is the cascade of Tu- 

 sayac, about six hundred feet high, but it is very difficult of 

 acces4S. 



A few hundred yards above Lake Tocoya is Lake Tesahae, 

 wiiicli has an area of about six acres, and is forty feet deep. 



No description can convey a clear idea of the great variety 

 of scenery in the valley. There are a thousand nooks and cor- 

 ners and woody dells, full of enchanting picturesqueness. 

 The rocky cliffs take all manner of queer forms, resembling 

 pyramids, castles, and domes, chimneys and spires. In one 

 place there is a narrow cleft one hundred feet deep in one of 

 the rocks, as though some giant had commenced to split off 

 part of the mountain and had left his work unfinished. 



The river, as it meanders through the valley, is a great ad- 

 dition to its beauty ; and its waters, as well as those of the 

 lakes, are clear as crystal in tlie summer, though turbid in the 

 spring- Mountain trout are found in all these streams. ' 



The climate of the valley is cool. The numerous cascades 

 agitate the air, and near the fall there are often gusty winds. 



There is much difference between the vegetation and teni- 

 peviiture of the two sides of the valley; the northern side, 

 where the sunshine is felt throughout the day, being m^ich 

 warmer than the shadows of the southern cliffs. Shrubs and 

 flowers are in the full glory of foliage, and flower along the 

 northern wall in May and June, while the same species are 

 still bare or budding a mile or two to the southward ; but the 

 more delicate annual shrubs are usually more healthy on the 

 southern than on the northern side of the stream, because 

 those in the warmer spots are stimulated to come out so early 

 as to be badly nipped by the frosts, which prevail here all 

 through the spring and into the summer. The valley is almost 

 inaccessible, on account of snow, before the middle of May, 

 and the best time for a visit is in June. In the late summer 

 and fall the quantity of water in these streams decreases 



