316 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



the approbation of the people of Arizona. The people 

 of California with wise and generous forethought have 

 given the Yosemite Valley to the National Government 

 to be kept as a national park, just as the surrounding 

 country, including some of the groves of giant trees, has 

 been kept. The flower-clad slopes of the Sierras golden 

 with the blazing poppy, brilliant with lilies and tulips 

 and red-stemmed Manzinita bush are unlike anything 

 else in this country. As for the giant trees, no words 

 can describe their majesty and beauty. 



John Muir and I, with two packers and three pack 

 mules, spent a delightful three days in the Yosemite. 

 The first night was clear, and we lay in the open, on beds 

 of soft fir boughs, among the huge, cinnamon-colored 

 trunks of the sequoias. It was like lying in a great sol- 

 emn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any 

 built by hand of man. Just at nightfall I heard, among 

 other birds, thrushes which I think were Rocky Moun- 

 tain hermits the appropriate choir for such a place of 

 worship. Next day we went by trail through the woods, 

 seeing some deer which were not wild as well as 

 mountain quail and blue grouse. Among the birds which 

 we saw was a white-headed woodpecker; the interesting 

 carpenter woodpeckers were less numerous than lower 

 down. In the afternoon we struck snow, and had con- 

 siderable difficulty in breaking our trails. A snow-storm 

 came on toward evening, but we kept warm and com- 

 fortable in a grove of splendid silver firs rightly named 

 " magnificent " near the brink of the wonderful Yosem- 

 ite Valley. Next day we clambered down into it and 



