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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
world-famed Arnold Arboretum, which is 
one of the departments of Harvard Uni- 
versity. Mr Dawson was appointed super- 
intendent of the arboretum over forty 
years ago and then began his wonderful 
life work in the propagation of hardy 
plants from all parts of the temperate 
globe. As a propagator he is generally 
regarded as having no equal in America, 
and his wonderful skill with difficult sub- 
jects was just as well known in Europe 
as in America. 
Mr. Dawson had a great love for all 
plants, and they certainly responded in 
W'ondrous measure to him as a propaga- 
tor. Professor Sargent, with whom he 
worked for the upbuilding of the Arnold 
Arboretum for so many years, thus referred 
to Mr. Dawson’s place in scientific horti- 
culture : “'Mr Dawson seems to be able 
to look at a plant and tell you what its 
affinities are — that is, what it may be 
grafted upon. He is a real wizard in this 
line. He seems to know the art of graft- 
ing by intuition — what stock to use, in what 
condition to use it and how to use it. 
This knowledge and skill he has acquired 
by patient practice and by love for the 
things with which he works. Plants seem 
to respond to affection, and he has that 
affection in large measure. In addition to 
the great number of trees and shrubs he 
has raised here, no one can tell how many 
hundreds of thousands he has sent to 
every part of the United States, and every 
part of the countries of Europe.” 
Mr. Dawson’s skill as a hybridizer also 
was quite pronounced. He raised, among 
other roses of merit, Farquhar, Dawson, 
William C. Egan, Lady Duncan and Pro- 
fessor Sargent. He discovered the Scotch 
heather growing wild in Massachusetts 
some years ago. He propagated it freely 
from seeds and cuttings and after proving 
its hardiness to skeptics, popularized it in 
Massachusetts to such a degree that now 
whole hillsides of some estates are being 
covered with it. His work with difficult 
or intractable plants was wonderful. He 
was awarded many medals for distinguished 
work in horticulture. Mr. Dawson pos- 
sessed a most genial and affable person- 
ality and was beloved by all who knew him. 
GLIMPSES OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS 
V — The Yosemite National Park. 
The Yosemite National Park lies near 
the crest of the Sierra Nevadas in western 
central California. Its 1,100 square miles 
contain scenic features of beauty so un- 
usual and variety so wide that adequate 
description reads like romance. 
The famous Yosemite Valley is a small 
part of this extraordinary holiday garden 
— a mere crack in its granite mountains 
seven miles long by less than a mile wide. 
For the rest, the park includes, in John 
Muir’s words, “the headwaters of the 
Tuolumne and IMerced Rivers, two of the 
most songful streams in the world ; in- 
numerable lakes and waterfalls and smooth 
silky lawns ; the noblest forests, the loftiest 
granite domes, the deepest ice-sculptured 
canyons, the brightest crj'stalline pavements, 
and snowy mountains soaring into the sky 
and amphitheaters; gardens on their sunny 
twelve and thirteen thousand feet, arrayed 
in open ranks and spiry pinnacled groups 
partially separated by tremendous canyons 
brows, avalanches thundering down their 
long white slopes, cataracts roaring gray 
and foaming in the crooked rugged gorges, 
and glaciers in their shadowy recesses 
working in silence, slowly completing their 
sculptures ; new-born lakes at their feet, 
blue and green, free or encumbered with 
drifting icebergs like miniature Artie 
Oceans, shining, sparkling, calm as stars.” 
The world-famous Yosemite Valley was 
discovered in 1851 by mounted volunteers 
pursuing Indians into their fastnesses. Be- 
cause of its extraordinary character and 
quite exceptional beauty it quickly became 
celebrated ; but it was not until 1874 that 
a road was built into it. 
No matter what their expectation, most 
visitors are delightfully astonished upon 
entering the Yosemite Valley. The sheer 
immensity of the precipices on either side 
of the valley’s peaceful floor; the loftiness 
and the romantic suggestion of the numer- 
ous waterfalls; the majesty of the granite 
walls ; and the unreal, almost fairy quality 
of the ever-varying whole, can not be suc- 
cessfully foretold. 
This valley was once a tortuous river 
canyon. So rapidly was it cut by the 
Merced that the tributary valleys soon re- 
mained hanging high on either side. Then 
the canyon became the bed of a great 
glacier. It was widened as well as deep- 
ened, and as a consequence the hanging 
character of the side valleys was accen- 
tuated. 
There were hundreds, thousands, of other 
ice-filled canyons in the Sierra; but in 
none did the glaciers accomplish as much 
as they did in the Yosemite Valley. Why? 
Because there the Sierra granites, as a 
rule solid and exceptionally resistant, were 
traversed by thousands of fissures and 
therefore readily scooped out. 
The Yosemite Falls, for instance, drops 
1,430 feet in one sheer fall, a height equal 
to nine Niagara Falls piled one on top of 
the other. The Lower Yosemite Fall, im- 
mediately below, has a drop of 320 feet, 
or two Niagaras more. Vernal Falls has 
the same height, while Illilouette Falls is 40 
feet higher. The Nevada Falls drops 600 
feet sheer; the celebrated Bridal Veil Fall 
620 feet, while the Ribbon Falls, highest 
of all, drops 1,612 feet sheer, a straight 
fall ten times as great as Niagara. No- 
where else in the world may be had a 
water spectacle such as this. 
Similarly the sheer summits. Cathedral 
Rocks rise 2,500 feet perpendicular from 
the valley; El Capitan, 3,600 feet; Senti- 
nel Dome, 4,100 feet; Half Dome, 4,900 
feet; Cloud’s Rest, 6,000 feet. 
YOSEMITE TRAIL, YOSEMITE N.\TIONAL PARK. 
