THE SPELL OF THE YOSEMITE 
velop and swallow, as it were, any solid object with 
which it came in contact. If its trunk touched a 
point of rock, it would put out great oaken lips 
several inches in extent as if to draw the rock into 
its maw. If a dry limb was cut or broken off, a foot 
from the trunk, these thin oaken lips would slowly 
creep out and envelop it — a sort of Western omni- 
vorous trait appearing in the trees. 
Whitman refers to “the slumbering and liquid 
trees.”” These Yosemite oaks recall his expression 
more surely than any of our Eastern trees. 
The reader may create for himself a good image 
of Yosemite by thinking of a section of seven or 
eight miles of the Hudson River, midway of its 
course, as emptied of its water and deepened three 
thousand feet or more, having the sides nearly ver- 
tical, with snow-white waterfalls fluttering against 
them here and there, the famous spires and domes 
planted along the rim, and the landscape of groves 
and glades, with its still, clear winding river, occupy- 
ing the bottom. 
IV 
One cannot look upon Yosémite or walk beneath 
its towering walls without the question arising in 
his mind, How did all this happen? What were the 
agents that brought it about? There has been a great 
geologic drama enacted here; who or what were the 
star actors? There are two other valleys in this part 
of the Sierra, Hetch-Hetchy and King’s River, that 
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