66 LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHA.WKER 



looking at. We spent a couple of hours there and were interested every 

 minute of the time, but the most interesting place we visited was Glacier 

 Point. It took us three hours to make the ascent, of good hard walking, all 

 the way up hill, and the most of the way pretty steep too. It makes a per- 

 son feel like he wanted a little refreshments by the time he gets to the top, 

 but when he does get there he feels himself well paid for the trip. You 

 can stand on the brink and look down three thousand feet to the valley 

 below and it is almost perpendicular from the top down, one can pitch a 

 stone down and you never hear it strike. Horses and cattle below on the 

 valley look no larger than bugs and a man looks no larger than a crow. 

 From this point you can see no less than seven different water falls and 

 South Dome stands right before you and looks to be but a little way off. 

 From there one can see the summit of the Sierras, and the snow-capped 

 mountains as far as the eye can see. It is certainly a grand sight and well 

 worth the cost of seeing. 



On our way back we came near the Mariposa Big Trees that are well 

 worth seeing also, and very interesting to any one who has not been accus- 

 tomed to seeing such sights. From there on to Viacitus, interpreted into 

 •English meaning. Little Ovens, and I never heard of a more appropriate 

 name, for the day we passed there was the hottest I ever experienced in my 

 life and I had seen it up to 120 in other places, but never felt it so hot 

 before or since. From then on to Merced and across the San Joaquin 

 through Pacheco Pass and on to the place of starting. 



Another very interesting place I have visited twice, that was the Cala- 

 veras Big Trees. They certainly are a wonderful sight, that is the largest 

 grove of big trees anywhere on the coast. One of those trees after it had 

 been cut down measured 32 feet across the stump and the stump was 

 dressed off smoothly and used for a dancing hall. There was plenty of 

 room for four sets to dance cotillion and the body of the tree was dressed 

 down about half way and was used for ten pin alleys with room for two 

 alleys. Our party rolled ten pins there until they didn't feel much like 

 walking. The next dsy they said they felt a little stiff. There are some 

 larger trees there than that, but this one was perfectly sound. There is a 

 hollow tree there that is much larger and is lying down. I told a story when 

 I was back East about three men riding abreast in the hollow of the tree, 

 seventy-five feet and then riding out at a knot hole, and they laughed at me 

 so that I don't often repeat the story unless it is to some one that has been 

 there and seen for themselves. I think it was a very wise thing for the 

 government to come into possession of all of those grand forests and pre- 

 serve them for future generations for it takes at least 4000 years to grow 

 one of those big t*-<ses so I hope they will be preserved for all time to come. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



After summing up my past life I have tried in the foregoing to give in 

 a rude way my own experiences as they happened from time to time, but I, 

 like thousands of others, If I had to do it over again I think how I might 

 improve it, but all in all I have no regrets or complaints to make, as I have 

 done the best I could under the circumstances. - 



It is the things that I have not done I regret the most and the greatest 



