turesque; but as there are no roses without thorns, so
here swarms of large black mosquitoes marred the
pleasure of perfect repose which the surroundings
otherwise favoured. Some of the other eminences girding
the valley are the El Capitano, 3,300 feet, Cathedral
Rocks, 2,600 feet, The Brothers, 3,800 feet, and many
of less altitute, thickly covered below with species of
pine, oak, and birch.
At Mr. Black’s Hotel, situated within a hundred
yards of the Merced, whose waters of melted snow
furnished me with a delicious bath, the accommodation
was of primitive simplicity, and the visitors now daily
increasing in numbers, all sorts of shifts had to be
devised to house them. On the day I left there were
no less than sixty-four strangers, and amongst them
several ladies, in true bloomer costume, sitting their
horses astride, in imitation of the stronger sex. During
my rambles I met with a great many quails hugging
the ground, like their Egyptian cousins, and as easily
caught, to furnish the breakfast-table.
I t seems strange that this valley should have been
a sealed book to the Americans until about thirty years
ago, when,—so the story goes,—an Indian chief betrayed
his tribe, whose home and place of concealment
it had hitherto been, on being threatened with capital
punishment for depredations they had committed upon
unoffending travellers ; upon which the entire tribe is
said to have been exterminated by the Americans.
On quitting Yosemite I entered upon a most tedious,
and at times dangerous, journey into the Sierra Nevada
to visit one or two of the larger gold mines of the district.
Having been told that I should find nothing
better than a mountain trail to guide me, I had taken
the precaution of hiring a sure-footed pony, which at
first carried me with tolerable ease, although there was
hardly space enough for his feet, but when we got to a
nasty precipice the poor animal suddenly stopped and
began to show signs of distress. Once in the saddle, however,
there was no possibility of dismounting, and it
took several minutes coaxing, which seemed hours
to me, before I could get him to move on. I had done
well in trusting to my nimble-footed quadruped, for it is
much more difficult to lead a horse under such circumstances,
as he invariably takes to backing, unless the
rider’s heel is at hand to keep him steady. Late in
the afternoon we reached the first habitation seen th a t
day, a wretched wooden hovel, at the foot of a bridge,
in a wild, picturesque spot. Mrs. M’Cann, an old Irish
woman, not over clean, bade us welcome, and did her
best to provide us with shelter until the following
morning. Her beds were good, and the simple food,