YOSEMITE VALLEY, a cleft in the W. slope of the Sierra Nevada, about the center of California, and 140 miles E. of San Francisco. The name Yosem ite is an Indian word which signifies "large grizzly bear." This celebrated valley, noted for the sublimity and beauty of its scenery, is about 7 miles long and from 1/2 to nearly 2 miles in breadth, and is traversed by the Merced river.
John Conness, United States Senator from California, induced Congress in 1864 to pass a bill setting apart the Yosemite Valley and the compassing heights as a public park or pleasure ground. At that time Yosemite was scarcely as much as a name to the world at large, but some Californians had discovered that the place had immense prospective value as "the greatest shwa' on earth," and very naturally they had set about obtaining possession of such "show" by settling in the valley with the expectation of acquiring title under the pre-emption law. Through the act above mentioned those settlers were sessed, compensation being given for such "improvements" as had been made.
In 1866, at the first session of the California Legislature after the passage of the above act by Congress, the grant was accepted by this State. The grant covers an area of 38,111 acres—mostly rock. While this tract is quite unique
in the variety and excellence of its beauties, it is, after all, only one detail in a much more extensive region, abound ing at all points with sights but little less imposing those of Yosem ite. If the latter were blotted out of existence, the region would still remain a marvel in the domain of mountain scenery. It is a land of gigantic shapes in granite—the most marked peculiarity being, as in the Yosemite, the great height and the verticality of the rock walls, and the frequency of the dome like formations with which the walls are topped.
It is also a land. of lakes of the most captivating picturesqueness, a land of fishing streams, and of many waterfalls, of stretches of meadow made beautiful by nature to temper the mountains' harshness, and of belts of regal timber draping the rocky slopes. It is, too, a land of snow, where at the greater ele vation the snow never entirely disap pears, and where at lesser altitudes the earth is white during between six and eight months of each year. This feature is by no means the least valuable part of the region's character.