74 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
dred, and another three hundred and fifty, and their waters 
flow through a natural meadow ornamented by beautiful trees 
and brilliant verdure. 
The valley is a chasm in the Sierra Nevada, four thousand 
feet above the level of the sea, and distant about one hundred 
and twenty miles in a direct line from San Francisco, and in a 
nearly due eastward direction. It is watered by the main 
branch of the Merced River, which above and below makes 
its way through the mountains in deep and dark gorges, the 
bottom of which is rarely seen by the sunlight. The valley is 
ten miles long and nearly three wide in the middle, from which 
it decreases each way. It is bounded on all sides by walls of 
yellowish granite, from two thousand to four thousand feet, 
high, in some places perpendicular, and everywhere precipit- 
ous. It is only at the ends of the valley that it is possible for 
travellers to get in or out of it, and eyen there the entrance 
and exit are difficult for horses and impossible for wagons. 
The general course of the valley is east and west. The main 
entrance is at the western end, where a steep path leads down 
a descent of two thousand five hundred feet. The view from 
the ridge overlooking the valley is splendid. The chasm is 
seen winding away amidst the cliffs; a cascade is in sight, and 
numerous mountain-peaks rise in various directions. At the 
bottom of the dell are seen the meandering river, the green 
grass, and lofty trees diminished to the appearance of shrubs. 
The waterfall seen on the right several miles distant, is a mere 
white streak on the face of the rock, and does not appear grand 
in the least, but it is nine hundred and forty feet high, and be- 
comes imposing as the traveller approaches it. The body of 
water is about seventy feet wide on the first of June. The fall 
is called the Cascade of the Rainbow, from the beautiful colors 
which always, in sunlight, adorn the mist floating about it. 
Nearly opposite this cascade, on the northern side of the 
valley, and about three-quarters of a mile distant, but apparently 
much nearer when the tourist looks up agit, is the Capitan (or 
Captain), a rock which projects into the valley and rises up 
