mere threads, which are shattered to mist in their
descent, or disappear entirely. Frost dispels a portion
of the summer haze, and the air of whiter is clear and
cold. The granite walls glisten in a net-work of ice,
and the frozen vapor whirls through the canon, smit-
ing the cliffs, and overspreading the domes in layers
of white, which, as they thicken, loosen their hold,
slide off in huge masses, and striking upon the debris
piles, break into powder, and fill the gorge to the brim
with fine particles of frozen mist, which sparkle like
diamond dust.
Further upward in the valley, just beyond the Bridal Veil, is Cathedral rock, and still a little further, shooting up in graceful pinnacles. The Spires. Then on the left come the Three Brothers, called by the natives Pompompasus, or Leaping Frogs; and pro- jecting from the opposite side the obelisk-formed Sen- tinel rock, which rises from the river, like a watch-tower, over three thousand feet. Across the valley from Sentinel rock, and fed exclusively by melting snows, is the great Yosemite fall, the largest in the world, if height and volume both be considered, being fifteen times as high as Niagara, and most indescribably grand. Springing from the verge of the- chasm, over a smoothly polished, perpendicular wall of fifteen hun- dred feet, and swaying in the wind like a scarf of lace, the water strikes upon a rough, inclined shelf, over which, ragged with foam, or spread out in transparent aprons, it rushes in a seiies of cascades equal to 625 feet perpendicular to the verge, when, with a final plunge of 400 feet, this most magnificent of half-mile leaps is consummated. No small portion of the water which drops from the top, and which widens and scatters in its descent, is dashed into spray before reaching the bottom; yet enough is left, even in the dryest part of the season, to send a deep, hoarse roar reverberatino; throuo;h the canon.
Two miles above the Yosemite fall, the valley splits into three canons, at the head of the middle one of
