Hittell's Hand-book of Pacific Coast TravelA.L. Bancroft & Company, 1885 - 263 pages Discusses Union Pacific and Central Pacific rail routes to the West, cities, scenery, resorts, and natural history. |
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30 miles abundant average basin beach beautiful camping canyon carbonate City climate Cloud's Rest Coast Coast Mountains County Creek Creston distance Dome east elevation Elk Mountain fall feet deep feet high Glacier Glacier Point Golden Gate Grove hills hot springs Humboldt inches July Laramie latitude LIBRARY Medicine Bow Range Merced mile wide miles long miles west Mission Monterey Napa nearly Nevada Fall northward ocean Ogden Oregon Pacific Peak railroad reach region ridge River rock route runs Sacramento Sacramento Valley Salt Lake San Diego San Francisco San Joaquin Santa Cruz scenery Sentinel Dome shore side Sierra Nevada slope snow Soda Springs Sonoma Southern southward Station steamer steep stream street sulphate sulphur summer summit temperature tion tourist town traveler trees Truckee UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Utah valley vicinity Virginia City visitors westward winter Yosemite Yosemite Valley
Popular passages
Page 121 - Much less could any such cause be called in to account for the peculiar formation of the Half Dome, the vertical portion of which is all above the ordinary level of the walls of the Valley, rising...
Page 120 - ... it appears to us probable that this mighty chasm has been roughly hewn into its present form by the same kind of forces which have raised the crest of the Sierra and moulded the surface of the mountains into something like their present shape. The domes, and such masses as that of Mount Broderick, we conceive to have been formed by the process of upheaval itself, for we can discover nothing about them which looks like the result of ordinary denudation. The Half Dome seems, beyond a doubt, to...
Page 121 - A more absurd theory was never advanced than that by which it was sought to ascribe to glaciers the sawing out of these vertical walls, and the rounding of the domes. Nothing more unlike the real work of ice, as exhibited in the Alps, could be found. Besides, there is no reason to suppose, or at least no proof, that glaciers have ever occupied the Valley or any portion of it, as will be explained in the next chapter ; so that this theory, based on entire ignorance of the whole subject, may be dropped...
Page 126 - I ever saw— in the wealth and grace of their trees. Look down from almost any of their peaks, and your range of vision is filled, bounded, satisfied, by what might be termed a tempesttossed sea of evergreens, filling every upland valley, covering every hillside, crowning every peak but the highest, with their unfading luxuriance.
Page 110 - Had the mountain spoken to me in audible voice, or began to lean over with the purpose of burying me beneath its crushing mass, I should hardly have been surprised. Its whiteness, thrown into bold relief by the patches of trees or shrubs which fringed or flecked it wherever a few handfuls of its moss, slowly decomposed to earth, could contrive to hold on, continually suggested the presence of snow, which suggestion, with difficulty refuted, was at once renewed.
Page 104 - ... stipulation, nevertheless, that the said State shall accept this grant upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable for all time; but leases not exceeding ten years may be granted for portions of said premises. All incomes derived from leases of privileges to be expended in the preservation and improvement of the property, or the roads leading thereto...
Page 112 - ... hundred feet, while the Merced enters the valley at its eastern extremity, over falls of six hundred and two hundred and fifty feet. But a river thrice as large as the Merced, at this season, would be utterly dwarfed by all the other accessories of this prodigious chasm. Only a Mississippi or a Niagara could be adequate to their exactions. I readily concede that a hundred times the present amount of water may roll down...
Page 112 - ... attractiveness. Even the finest photograph is, however, utterly inadequate to convey to the mind any satisfactory impression or realization of how many of the elements of grandeur and beauty are combined in this waterfall and its surroundings and accessories. The first and most impressive of these elements is, as in all other objects about the Yosemite, vertical height. In this it surpasses, it is believed, any waterfall in the world with anything like an equal body of water.
Page 117 - The Nevada Fall is, in every respect, one of the grandest waterfalls in the world, whether we consider its vertical height, the purity and volume of the river which forms it, or the stupendous scenery by which it is environed. The fall is not quite perpendicular, as there is near the summit a ledge of rock which receives a portion of the water and throws it off with a peculiar twist, adding considerably to the general picturesque effect.
Page 124 - This polish extends over a vast area, and is so perfect that the surface is often seen from a distance to glitter with the light reflected from it, as from a mirror. Not only have we these evidences of the former existence of glaciers, but all the phenomena of the moraines — lateral, medial, and terminal — are here displayed on the grandest scale.