THE SPELL OF THE YOSEMITE 



granite rocks, and the naked granite shaft. Liberty 

 Cap, dominating all! 



And that night, too, when we sat around a big 

 camp-fire near our tents in the valley, and saw the 

 full moon come up and look down upon us from 

 behind Sentinel Rock, and heard the intermittent 

 booming of Yosemite Falls sifting through the 

 spruce trees that towered around us, and felt the 

 tender, brooding spirit of the great valley, itself 

 touched to lyric intensity by the grandeurs on every 

 hand, steal in upon us, and possess our souls — surely 

 that was a night none of us can ever forget. As Yo- 

 semite can stand the broad, searching light of mid- 

 day and not be cheapened, so its enchantments can 

 stand the light of the moon and the stars and not 

 be rendered too vague and impalpable. 



Ill 



Going from the Grand Canon to Yosemite is 

 going from one sublimity to another of a different 

 order. The canon is the more strange, unearthly, 

 apocryphal, appeals more to the imagination, and 

 is the more overwhelming in its size, its wealth of 

 color, and its multitude of suggestive forms. But for 

 quiet majesty and beauty, with a touch of the sylvan 

 and pastoral, too, Yosemite stands alone. One could 

 live with Yosemite, camp in it, tramp in it, winter 

 and summer in it, and find nature in her tender and 

 human, almost domestic moods, as well as in her 



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