248 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



P. ponderosa, and the same cypress, which certainly 

 gets bigger the higher you go. Some grand sugar 

 pines. One fallen tree measured 20 feet circumfer- 

 ence, and the trunk 60 yards : allowing 20 feet for 

 the top, which was missing, cut off, would make it 

 200 feet high. Distinguished the difference between 

 Picea grandis and Nordmann's fir. The former is 

 slightly darker, and has the needles much more distinctly 

 compressed from above downwards. Ditto the entire 

 branch. It is found at a higher elevation. Both trees 

 attain about the same size as very large silvers, not 

 bigger. Passed two high ridges going to the valley ; the 

 highest about 6000 feet. The view of the great valley 

 from the Point, where you first look into it, is, I think, 

 disappointing. In comparison to the Vallee d' Arras, 

 it is more broken at the side, and wider, the precipices, 

 which are magnificent, not being nearly so continuous, 

 and giving the valley a less wild appearance. The 

 rocks are granite, which also makes a great differ- 

 ence in the appearance. El Capitan, the Bridal Veil, 

 the Sentinel, and the Half Dome are the most striking 

 features. The butterflies in Yosemite are very striking. 

 Some lovely kinds, like our Tortoiseshells and Fritil- 

 laries, and one, the commonest, a very fine insect, with 

 yellow tips to its wings, a white diagonal band on 

 each wing through the purple, and a vivid crimson 

 streak like a hair above it. They flit about on all 

 sides. Some very grand swallow-tails, larger than our 

 European kinds. A. douglasii is the common fir of 

 the valley, with the cypress. The former grows very 

 fine, with a remarkably rough bark ; but it is not a 

 very high tree here at all, 170 or 180 feet. Measured 

 an A. douglasii near the bridge to Mirror Lake, 27 

 feet 6 inches circumference, and a grand Ponderosa^ 

 20 feet 6 inches. Abies douglasii clings greatly to 



