An Augiist Outing in Upper Merced Canon. 41 



far and the river cannot be easily crossed except by 

 swimming when the way becomes impassable. By ford- 

 ing the river, however, at a point on the dividing-line 

 between the timber and the granite and just at the 

 western limit of the dead water in the river west of Echo 

 Creek outlet, a well ''due"* rocked old sheep-trail can be 

 easily picked out on the south side leading down to 

 Clark Canon. 



Immediately beyond here the projecting spur forces one 

 again through obstructive and retentive brush and uncer- 

 tain, rocky going to the river and another waist-high ford 

 in the swift river above the falls referred to in what I 

 think is Lost Valley. Another practical, though more 

 hazardous crossing here is over the swifter water of the 

 "silver apron," or one could swim the pool. I used all 

 three routes while camping in Lost Valley. 



As to the passage from Lost Valley to Little Yosemite 

 being impossible, I did not find it so. No one who has 

 essayed the trip down the Grand Canon of the Tuolumne 

 balks at the Muir Gk)rge, which certainly appears to be 

 and is very impassable. The tramper goes around it, and 

 with less effort he can go around the Little Yosemite 

 entrance gorge and still continue to follow the canon. 



From Lost Valley I found four ways over into Little 

 Yosemite. There are two on the south side, of which 

 one is the better, being a seven- foot leap between boulders, 

 with a ten-foot "run" and a "take-off" three feet higher 

 in elevation than the landing-place. Any athlete will 

 pronounce these jumping conditions easy, but as the 

 landing-place is a smooth spherical boulder with a boiling 

 "pot hole" on each side and the twenty-foot falls of the 

 gorge into Little Yosemite about thirty feet away, it 

 loses in attractiveness somewhat upon careful study when 

 one is alone. 



I made the jump over barefoot and swam back through 

 the "pot hole" at the head of the falls, but found an 

 easier way than doing this two or three times for my 



* Criticism is invited on this spelling. The author submits it as from 

 the Latin due ere — to lead. The editor that it is from the boy's game of 

 duck on the rock and should be spelled accordingly. Comment is invited. 

 — Editor. 



