ON FOOT IN THE YOSEMITE 



green valley, with the green river meandering 

 through it ; at the wall opposite, so variously 

 grand and beautiful, from El Capitan to the Half 

 Dome ; and, best of all, at the Merced Canon, 

 as seen from the neighborhood of the hotel, with 

 my two falls of the day before in full sight across 

 it, and beyond them a world of snowy peaks, a 

 good half of the horizon studded with them, 

 lonely-looking though so many, and stretching 

 away and away and away, till they faded into the 

 invisible; a magnificent panorama of the high 

 Sierras, minarets and domes, obelisks and battle- 

 mented walls ; such a spectacle as I had never 

 thought to look upon. It was too bad I could not 

 spend the night with it, to see it in other moods ; 

 but when I was informed that the hotel would 

 be open before many days, I consoled myself 

 with the promise of another and longer visit. 



I was better than my word. Four times after- 

 ward I climbed to the Point, once by the "long 

 trail," via Nevada Fall (which, with the after- 

 noon descent over the short trail added, really 

 made some approximation to a day's work), and 

 altogether I passed six nights there, taking in 

 the splendors of the dawn and the sunset, and, 

 for the rest, ranging more or less about the in- 

 viting snowy woods. One afternoon (May 23) we 

 were favored with a lively snow-storm of several 

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