• SCENERY. 73 



The valley should be seen from the mountain-top, whence it 

 appears spread out as level as a floor. The fields, differing in 

 color accordinGT to the season and their condition of cultiva- 

 tion, lie like a great checker-hoard, over which are scattered 

 numerous farm-houses, and irregular streaks of timber mark- 

 ing the position of the river and its tributaries. The oak-trees 

 form a most important part of the scene. They are wide in 

 proportion to their height, thick in the trunk, heavy in the 

 main boughs, many of which have a horizontal or downward 

 course. The top of the tree has the semicircular shape, and the 

 smaller branches have the pendant grace seen in the Eastern 

 states only in the elm. The large upper boughs of the Cali- 

 fornian white-oak have at their extremities some branches or 

 twigs that hang perpendicularly down from three to twenty 

 feet, and many of the trees for this reason look in the summer 

 as though they were covered with vines. Add to these pecu- 

 liarities the abundant gray Spanish moss, hanging like long 

 and venerable beards from all the twigs and boughs, and 

 the dark druidical mistletoe, and we have one of the most 

 important and characteristic features of the Californian land- 

 scape. 



Sunol valley, a little dale about three miles in diameter, 

 nearly circular in shape, and shut in on all sides by mountains, 

 is destined to become famous at some future day for its beauty. 

 Now it is in a state of nature, but art will give it new charms. 



The places in the state most visited on account of their nat- 

 ural scenery are the Yosemite valley, the big-tree groves, and 

 the Geysers. 



§ 54. Yosemite Yalley. — Yosemite valley is a dell of match- 

 less chffs and cascades, with more scenes of grandeur and 

 beauty than can be found within an equal space in any other 

 part of the world. Shut in closely by walls of rock almost 

 perpendiculai', from two thousand to four thousand five hun- 

 dred feet high, it has within a radius of five miles five cas- 

 cades, one of which is two thousand feet high, another nine 

 hundred and forty, another seven hundred, another six hun- 

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