THE SPELL OF THE YOSEMITE 



impression of mass and of power and of grandeur in 

 repose filters into you as you walk along! El Capi- 

 tan stands there showing its simple sweeping lines 

 through the trees as you approach, like one of the 

 veritable pillars of the firmament. How long we are 

 nearing it and passing it! It is so colossal that it 

 seems near while it is yet far off. It is so simple that 

 the eye takes in its naked grandeur at a glance. It 

 demands of you a new standard of size which you 

 cannot at once produce. It is as clean and smooth 

 as the flank of a horse, and as poised and calm as 

 a Greek statue. It curves out toward the base as if 

 planted there to resist the pressure of worlds — 

 probably the most majestic single granite column 

 or mountain buttress on the earth. Its summit is 

 over three thousand feet above you. Across the val- 

 ley, nearly opposite, rise the Cathedral Rocks to 

 nearly the same height, while farther along, beyond 

 El Capitan, the Three Brothers shoulder the sky at 

 about the same dizzy height. Near the head of the 

 great valley, North Dome, perfect in outline as if 

 turned in a lathe, and its brother, the Half Dome 

 (or shall we say half-brother?) across the valley, 

 look down upon Mirror Lake from an altitude of 

 over four thousand feet. These domes suggest enor- 

 mous granite bubbles if such were possible pushed 

 up from below and retaining their forms through 

 the vast geologic ages. Of course they must have 

 weathered enormously, but as the rock seems to 



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