THE WONDERLAND OF CALIFORNIA 



67 



land, their waters are transmuted by the 

 sun's secret chemistry into olives and 

 tigs, peaches and nectarines, citrus fruits, 

 nuts, raisins, dried fruits ; amber wines 

 clear as the Sierra air : a wealth of pro- 

 duce that justifies a report similar to that 

 which the Israelite spies brought from 

 the Land of Canaan — "a land flowing 

 with milk and honey." 



THE VALLEY OF HLAVEX 



From the town of Merced, midway of 

 the valley, a branch railway runs up the 

 river of the same name to California's 

 crowning glory, the Yosemite National 

 Park. Lacking the immensity of the 

 Grand Canyon of Arizona, it is still one 

 of the world's greatest gorges. From the 

 edge of beautiful forests you overlook 7 

 miles of the canyon, that averages in 

 width from a half mile to a mile and is 

 hewn a mile deep in the solid granite of 

 the range. 



Many books have been written about 

 the Yosemite and the companion valley, 

 Hetch - Hetchy. Some are wonderful 

 books — great books like those of John 

 Muir — which communicate as much as 

 may be conveyed through words of the 

 grandeur of its vistas, nobility of its gran- 

 ite spires and domes, beauty of the lacy 

 falls that leap from the rim into the 

 depths beneath. Yet when all is told the 

 wonder and mystery of Yosemite still re- 

 main unfolded. The feeling it inspires 

 lies in the domain of the "incommuni- 

 cable," that thrills, but lies beyond the 

 province of words. It has to be seen to 

 be felt. 



Muir writes of it : "No temple made 

 with hands can compare with Yosemite. 

 Every rock in its walls seems to glow 

 with life. Some lean back in majestic 

 repose ; others absolutely sheer, or nearly 

 so, for thousands of feet, advance beyond 

 their companions in thoughtful attitudes. 

 . . -. Awful in stern, immovable maj- 

 esty, how softly these rocks are adorned, 

 and how fine and reassuring the company 

 they keep ; their feet among beautiful 

 groves and meadows, their brows in the 

 sky, a thousand flowers leaning confid- 

 ingly against their feet, bathed in floods 

 of water, floods of light, while the snow 

 and waterfalls, the winds and avalanches 



and clouds shine and sing and wreathe 

 them about as the years go by, and myr- 

 iads of small winged creatures — birds, 

 bees, butterflies — give glad animation and 

 fill the air with music. 



"Down through the middle flows the 

 crystal Merced, River of Mercy, peace- 

 fully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and 

 the onlooking rocks : things frail and 

 fleeting and types of endurance meeting 

 and blending in countless forms, as if 

 into this one mountain mansion Nature 

 had gathered her choicest treasures to 

 draw her lovers into close and confiding 

 communion with her." 



Yet, wonderful as it is, Yosemite is 

 still but one of a hundred — aye. a thou- 

 sand — canyons, great gorges from two to 

 five thousand feet deep, great streets of 

 the mountains. 



THE MOXARCHS OE THE TREE KINGDOM 



This, too, is the country of the big 

 tree, Sequoia gigantca, the king of all 

 forests. Within 20 miles of Yosemite 

 stand three great groves — Merced, Mari- 

 posa, and Tuolumne. Below Kings 

 River, however, redwood forests run un- 

 broken for nearly 70 miles ; and they are 

 also to be found in scattered tracts along 

 the coast and in the interior, running 

 northward for about 300 miles. 



Here, as with Yosemite, words fail in 

 the attempt to convey an adequate im- 

 pression of these noble trees. As old as 

 the Pyramids, taller than man's greatest 

 monuments, and more enduring, they rise 

 in serene majesty above the lower for- 

 ests. In the Calaveras grove four trees 

 exceed 300 feet in height. 



John Muir once measured a fallen 

 monarch that ran 340 feet over all and 

 was 35 feet 8 inches in diameter 4 feet 

 above the ground. A count of the rings 

 proved it to be 4,000 years old. It was 

 indeed, in its prime, a noble tree, 2.7 feet 

 in diameter at the beginning of the Chris- 

 tian era. 



A curious thing about the big tree in- 

 heres in the fact that it keeps an accurate 

 chart of the pulsations of climate. In 

 wet seasons it naturally adds a larger rim 

 to its growth, and so, by their measure- 

 ment, a weather curve may be plotted 

 back through the ages. 



