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Show THE WONDERS OF CALIFORNIA. 157 the valley. The smaller branch comes in from the north- east, under the shadow of the North Dome and the Cap of Liberty the last a wondrous cone, rising directly from the north cliff, 1,000 feet of beautiful yellow and smooth rock, completely inaccessible. The south- east branch of the Merced plunges down from its source in NORTH DOME AND ROYAL ARCHES. the ice- peaks by two magnificent cataracts, Nevada and Vernal Falls, and a series of beautiful rapids and cascades between them. But there is no reaching the foot of the lower fall on horseback ; we are to return by it from above, down a perilous stairway, and now must make a wide detour to scale the cliff, or first offset, which frowns 2,000 feet above us. No possible passage is visible to our unaccustomed eyes ; the side seems almost perpendicular, and when the guide tells us we are to " go up there," pointing with his finger at an angle of eighty to a flat projecting peak seeming to our vision half way to the sky we shake our heads incredulously. " But I have piloted two thousand people Up there," says the confident Brightman, and we are reassured and follow him. I dare not venture on a description; even now I can shut my eyes, see it all, and shudder. Imagine the route in, with all its difficulties doubled, and going up instead of down, and some faint idea may be formed. Here, we are told, there has been one accident. Three weeks before a saddle, not carefully girted, slipped back, and the mule straightway went to " bucking;" the rider jumped off on the upper side, and the mule undertook to run down the mountain, but soon lost his footing and went rolling from rock to rock, till ricocheting one hundred feet from |