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Show THE WONDERS OF CALIFORNIA. 155 raents, but sometimes pass entire, and with many tumblings are drifted far down the plain. The three divisions of the fall are, re-spectively, sixteen hundred, four hundred and thirty- four, and six hundred and thirty- three feet, making the total fall two thousand six hundred and sixty- seven feet. Climbing for two hours, we reach the highest accessible ledge, inscribe our names, and return. A cool evening follows, and on the porch at Hutchings' I rest and gaze and think. To the north- west is El Cap it an, glorified in the s o ft moon-light; oppo-site Yosemite Fall, to the right, the Royal Arches, and all around the monster battlements with shrubby fringe, till we seem walled in far down in the depths of earth, and in-voluntarily ask : What if ancient order suddenly re-turn, and these cliffs again unite, as sci-ence tells us they were once united? What ages of cosmic process were re-quired to bring about this wondrous combination which I can sur-vey in one quick glance; what infinite forces, working silently in God's laboratory for inconceivable ages, produced all this scene my eye can sweep over in ten seconds? What ages; what unending aeons of duration an immensity clipped out of eternity were required to SENTINEL ROCK. |