146 RESOURCES OP CALIFORNIA. 



All the cacasdes, save the Vernal, are thoroughly white, and 

 rockety at the top. The rockets of the Upper Yosemite are 

 distinctly perceptible from the Yosemite Hotel, a mile and a 

 half away. This feature impressed me very strongly, and yet 

 I have never seen a recognition of it in any of the descrip- 

 tions of the valley, or pictures of the falls. 



106. Vegetation, etc. There are a thousand nooks and 

 corners, 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 the 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 tem- 

 perature of the two sides of the valley ; the northern side,where 

 the sunshine is felt throughout the day, being much 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 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. 



In ordinary winters, fire feet of snow lies in the valley, and 

 the cascades are surrounded, at the base, by hills of frozen 

 spray. 



107. Formation of the Valley. There are three theories 



