THE SPELL OF THE YOSEMITE 
impression of mass and of power and of grandeur in 
repose filters into you as you walk along! El Capi- 
tan stands there showing its simple sweeping lines 
through the trees as you approach, like one of the 
veritable pillars of the firmament. How long we are 
nearing it and passing it! It is so colossal that it 
seems near while it is yet far off. It is so simple that 
the eye takes in its naked grandeur at a glance. It 
demands of you a new standard of size which you 
cannot at once produce. It is as clean and smooth 
as the flank of a horse, and as poised and calm as 
a Greek statue. It curves out toward the base as if 
planted there to resist the pressure of worlds — 
probably the most majestic single granite column 
or mountain buttress on the earth. Its summit is 
over three thousand feet above you. Across the val- 
ley, nearly opposite, rise the Cathedral Rocks to 
nearly the same height, while farther along, beyond 
El] Capitan, the Three Brothers shoulder the sky at 
about the same dizzy height. Near the head of the 
great valley, North Dome, perfect in outline as if 
turned in a lathe, and its brother, the Half Dome 
(or shall we say half-brother?) across the valley, 
look down upon Mirror Lake from an altitude of 
over four thousand feet. These domes suggest enor- 
mous granite bubbles if such were possible pushed 
up from below and retaining their forms through 
the vast geologic ages. Of course they must have 
weathered enormously, but as the rock seems to 
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