The Hetch-Hetchy Valley. 213 



the edge of the cHff it is perfectly free in the air for a 

 thousand feet, then breaks up into a ragged sheet of 

 cascades among the boulders of an earthquake talus. 

 It is in all its glory in June, when the snow is melting 

 fast, but fades and vanishes toward the end of summer. 

 The only fall I know with which it may fairly be 

 compared is the Yosemite Bridal Veil; but it excels 

 even that favorite fall both in height and fineness of 

 fairy airy beauty and behavior. Lowlanders are apt to 

 suppose that mountain streams in their wild career over 

 cliffs lose control of themselves and tumble in a noisy 

 chaos of mist and spray. On the contrary, on no part 

 of their travels are they more harmonious and self- 

 controlled. Imagine yourself in Hetch-Hetchy on a 

 sunny day in June, standing waist-deep in grass and 

 flowers (as I have oftentimes stood), while the great 

 pines sway dreamily with scarce perceptible motion. 

 Looking northward across the valley you see a plain 

 gray granite cliff rising abruptly out of the gardens and 

 groves to a height of 1,800 feet, and in front of it 

 Tueeulala's silvery scarf burning with irised sun-fire in 

 every fiber. In the first white outburst of the stream 

 at the head of the fall there is abundance of visible 

 energy, but it is speedily hushed and concealed in divine 

 repose; and its tranquil progress to the base of the cliff 

 is like that of downy feathers in a still room. Now 

 observe the fineness and marvelous distinctness of the 

 various sun-illumined fabrics into which the water is 

 woven: they sift and float from form to form down the 

 face of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and uncon- 

 fused a manner that you can examine their texture, and 

 patterns, and tones of color as you would a piece of 

 embroidery held in the hand. Near the head of the fall 

 you see groups of booming comet-like masses, their 

 solid white heads separate, their tails like combed silk 

 interlacing among delicate shadows, ever forming and 

 dissolving, worn out by friction in their rush through 

 the air. Most of these vanish a few hundred feet below 



