CHAPTER VIII 



THE FOUNTAINS AND STREAMS OF THE YOSEM- 

 ITE NATIONAL PARK 



" Come let 's to the fields, the meads, and the mountains, 

 The forests invite us, the streams and the fountains." 



Carlyle, Translations, vol. iii. 



The joyful, songful streams of the Sierra are 

 among the most famous and interesting in the 

 world, and draw the admiring traveler on and on 

 through their wonderful canons, year after year, 

 unwearied. After long wanderings with them, 

 tracing them to their fountains, learning their 

 history and the forms they take in their wild 

 works and ways throughout the different seasons 

 of the year, we may then view them together in 

 one magnificent show, outspread over all the range 

 like embroidery, their silvery branches interlacing 

 on a thousand mountains, singing their way home 

 to the sea : the small rills, with hard roads to 

 travel, dropping from ledge to ledge, pool to 

 pool, like chains of sweet-toned bells, slipping 

 gently over beds of pebbles and sand, resting in 

 lakes, shining, spangling, shimmering, lapping the 

 shores with whispering ripples, and shaking over- 



