IS6 



Sierra Club Bulleiifi. 



the cries of wild beasts, the baas of the hoofed locusts, 

 and the rude, profane language of their Basque herders! 



The following day Rancheria Mountain was reached, 

 many of the party arriving before noon. All doubts as 

 to the sufficiency of provisions, threatened by abnormal 

 appetites, were dispelled by the timely appearance of 

 abundant supplies from the cache at Hetch Hetchy, and 

 the day was given over to pure aesthetic delight. The 

 view from the mountain is one of the most fascinating 

 in the Sierra. At its foot, nearly five thousand feet 

 below, lay Pate Valley, with its meadows and groves 

 through which the Tuolumne River peacefully flowed 

 after its wild career above; in front and to the east and 

 west rose the stupendous walls of the canon; far to 

 the southeast the eye beheld the glorious array of white 

 summit peaks, and in the far west the purple, forest-clad 

 ridges reached into the haze of the San Joaquin. 



From Rancheria Mountain, in one morning, we dropped 

 down six thousand feet to Hetch Hetchy Valley, where 

 we spent two days in luxurious idleness, renewing ac- 

 quaintance with its rocks, walls, cascades, trees and 

 flowers — old friends whom many of us had known, but 

 had not seen for years, and for whom we found time 

 had not loosened our ties of affection. As we left the 

 valley early in the morning, each breathed a silent prayer 

 that this temple of the gods, with its stupendous walls and 

 magnificent falls, its picturesque oaks sheltering innum- 

 erable birds that keep the air vibrant with their joyous 

 songs, its velvety meadows resplendent with ferns and 

 flowers, its limpid stream offering new charms at every 

 bend in its winding length, and Kolana Rock, the pre- 

 siding deity of the valley, brilliant in the rays of the 

 rising sun, — that this valley, with its charms and in- 

 spirations, should not be transformed into an unsightly 

 storage reservoir to satisfy the as yet unjustified demand 

 of a municipality at the irreparable expense of the 

 nation. 



