YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 



6397 



YOSHIHITO 



night of May 3 General Johnston, who had as- 

 sumed command of the Confederate forces, 

 evacuated the town secretly, and retreated to- 

 wards Richmond, but he was pursued by the 

 Union army and compelled to give battle at 

 Williamsburg. 



YOSEMITE, yosem'ite, NATIONAL PARK, 

 one of the most beautiful spots on the Ameri- 

 can continent, known best for its treasure house 

 of scenic loveliness, the Yosemite Valley. It 

 of the summits of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada Mountains, in Central California, and 

 rs an area of 719,622 acres. The park can 

 be reached from Merced (on the Atchison, To- 

 peka & Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific rail- 

 roads) by way of the Yosemite Valley Railroad, 

 which extends to the western border; the same 

 roads have connections to Raymond, on the 

 southwest. Stage lines are operated to Yosemite 

 Valley from Raymond and from the terminus 

 of the Yosemite Valley Railroad. Hotel ac- 

 commodations may be secured throughout the 

 year, though the regular tourist season is from 

 May 1 to November 1. 



Yosemite Valley. Back in the days of the 

 "gold rush," after 1849, when much of the 

 mountain region was still unknown territory, 

 even to prospectors, a party of settlers riding 

 in pursuit of marauding Indians suddenly found 

 themselves in a valley whose beauty was im- 

 pressive even to those who dwelt in a land of 

 charming scenes. Here a mountain river, the 

 MiTM-iI. taking advantage of cracks in its grari- 

 ite I >'<!, had in the space of a few thousand 

 n carved a much deeper course than its 

 several tributaries, leaving their outlets high in 

 flit air. Then had come a glacier, a river of 

 ice which enlarged the cut until jn its seven 

 miles of length it was in places over a unh- 

 and nearly a mile deep. When the glacier had 

 disappeared, leaving its history sculptured on 

 the rock-. th- waters of th> tributary streams, 

 tumbling to reach the valley bottom, formed 

 lovely cascades, among them the Vernal Falls, 

 320 feet high and famous for its rainbows ; 



dling 620 feet, a column ao elen- 



-appears in spray; the Yosemite 



, dropping first 1,430 feet, ping 



rock to rock a distance half as great, 



finally to fall another 320 feet, or twice 



ht of Niagara; and the Ribbon, tallest cas- 

 cade of all, with an unbroken drop of 1,612 feet. 



Rising abruptly from the flower-carpeted floor 

 of the canyon arc a number of rocky masses, 

 which from real or fancied resemblances have 

 been given such names as El Capitan (Spanish 



for The Captain) and Half Dome. The peak 

 called Cloud's Rest rises 6,000 feet, more than 

 a mile, above the valley, which is itself 4,000 

 feet above the sea. 



Elsewhere in the Park. Until 1906 the Yo- 

 te Valley and its neighbor spectacle, the 

 Mariposa grove of giant sequoia trees, were 

 not a part of the national park but were the 

 property of the state of California, which has 

 ceded them to the Federal government. But 

 they occupy only a fraction of the 1,125 square 

 miles. To the north and east of them lies an- 

 other land of enchantment, in the words of 

 John Muir 



The headwaters of the Tuolumne and Merced 

 rivers, two of the most songful streams In tin- 

 world ; innumerable lakes and waterfalls and 

 smooth, silky lawns ; noblest forests, the loftiest 

 granite domes, the deepest Ice-sculptured can- 

 yons, the brightest crystalline pavements, and 

 snowy mountains soaring into the sky 12,000 and 

 13,000 feet, arrayed in open ranks and spiry, pin- 

 nacled groups partially separated by tremendous 

 canyons and amphitheaters ; gardens on their 

 sunny brows, avalanches thundering down their 

 long, white slopes, cataracts roaring gray and 

 foaming in the crooked rugged gorges, and gla- 

 ciers in their shadowy recesses working in silence, 

 slowly completing their sculptures ; new-born 

 lakes at their feet, blue and green, free or en- 

 cumbered with drifting icebergs like miniature 

 Arctic Oceans, shining, sparkling, calm as stars. 



C.H.H. 



Consult Bunnell's Discovery of the Yosemite. 



YOSHIHITO, yohshihe'toh, HARI 

 (1879- ), emperor of Japan, succeeding h;> 

 father Muteuhito, who died in 1912. At lin- 

 age of eight, at the same time that he was 

 named heir-apparent to the throne, he rec< 

 the decoration of the Grand Order of M 

 and a commission as colonel in the Imperial 

 Royal Guards. His education, received at To- 

 kyo, was liberal, and the emperor speaks flu- 

 ently French, English and German. Because 

 in hLs childhood he was delicate in health. h 

 was taught to find much exercise out-of-doors. 

 The young man became a lover of horses and 

 dogs, and untiring in his devotion to sports of 

 every proper kind. Like his father, he is simple 

 in dress and direct in speech, much to the dis- 

 may of those older members of his court who 

 yet cling to the medieval customs of the first 

 years of his father's reign. 



In his policy Yoshihito endeavors to main- 

 tain the old traditions and ideals of the Km- 

 pire, but only in so far as they do not affect his 

 country's advancement and menace its position 

 among the great powers of the world. From 

 his youth he was trained to be a constitutional 



