Photo by J. T. Boysen 
GRIZZLY GIANT MARIPOSA : BIG TRtt GROVE;, 
yosemite; national park 
Note the buckboard and team of horses 
use and recreation. By the act of 
October i, 1890, the portion of 
Yosemite Park outside of the Yo- 
semite Valley and the Mariposa 
big-tree grove was set apart as a 
public reservation, the boundaries 
being changed by the act of Feb- 
ruary 7, 1905. The Legislature of 
California, by the act approved 
Alarch 3, 1905, receded the Yo- 
semite Valley and the Mariposa 
big - tree grove to the United 
States, and the joint resolution of 
Congress approved June 11, 1906, 
accepted the recession and fixed 
the boundaries of the park as they 
are at present, giving it an area of 
719,622 acres. 
The Yosemite Valley, which is 
the most frequently visited place, 
is about seven miles long and 
three-fourths of a mile wide. In 
the center of this valley is a level, 
parklike meadow, through which 
runs Merced River, while on 
either side the mountains rise 
steep and precipitous to a height 
of 4,000 feet above the floor of 
the valley. 
Numerous streams drop from 
the edge of the clifif to the valley 
below. The first of these as the 
tourist enters the valley is the 
Bridal Veil Falls. A stream fully 
30 feet wide falls first a distance 
of 600 feet, then rushes over a 
sloping pile of debris, and then 
drops perpendicularly 300 feet 
more. From the points from 
which it is generally viewed it 
seems to make but one plunge, 
and the general effect is that of a 
fall 900 feet high. 
The great waterfall in this park, 
however, is the Yosemite Falls. 
This is a stream 35 feet wide, and 
in the spring and early summer, 
when the snow is melting upon the 
high Sierra, its roar can be heard 
all over the valley and the shock 
of the descent rattles the windows 
a mile away. This fall is con- 
ceded by all critics to be one_ of 
the most wonderful and beautiful 
cascades in the world. Its first 
fall is 1,430 feet sheer drop; then 
comes a series of cascades, partly 
SS6 
