8 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Allow me to invite him to the floor of the Yosemite Valley, 

 and, with our backs turned to the lofty hanging valleys and 

 their eloquent cataracts, let us search for the less spectacular 

 but more direct, and perhaps more convincing, proofs of ice 

 work which there exist. 



If we should set up a surveyor's level in the meadows oppo- 

 site the Sentinel Hotel and thence run down the valley, taking 

 careful elevations on the way, we would find the altitude to 

 remain essentially unchanged for miles. Indeed, as far as the 

 El Capitan bridge there is no appreciable fall to the valley floor, 

 and the Merced River meanders dreamily, in lazily swinging, 

 sandy loops and curves. At the El Capitan bridge, however, 

 there is an abrupt change. The stream awakens, as if refreshed 

 from its nap in the valley, and with quickened pace, dashes 

 over riflles and churns among boulders, tumbling lustily like a 

 youthful mountain torrent. Its fall becomes rapid, fifty to 

 one hundred feet per mile, whereas above the bridge, in a 

 distance of six miles, it descends only about six feet. 



Evidently, the El Capitan bridge marks a critical point in 

 the course of the river and a dividing line in the valley itself. 

 Broad and level above the bridge, below it the valley can scarce- 

 ly be said to have any floor at all. Even the Bridal Veil 

 Meadows, which occupy the widest place, slant strongly toward 

 the river, being a debris fan built by Bridal Veil Creek. Farther 

 down, the valley sides close in from either side and the river 

 lies constrained in the bottom of a narrow V. 



What may be the cause of this abrupt change of scene at 

 the El Capitan bridge? No doubt many of the readers of 

 the Bulletin have passed back and forth over that bridge, but 

 probably few have taken careful notice of its pecuHar location. 

 The writer himself did not become aware of the significance of 

 the site until after a sojourn of several months. 



It was no mere whim that led Galen Clark to select that spot 

 for a bridge. A strong ridge of boulders here lies athwart the 

 floor of the valley, and it is across the gap in that ridge, worn 

 through by the stream, that the bridge has been thrown. 



South of the El Capitan bridge the grading of the wagon 

 road has necessitated cutting away part of the ridge, but the 

 huge boulders, of which it is largely composed, may be seen in 



