opportunity to test the former quality, as the latter was so marked that after the first half-hour nothing would induce the brute to move, and I at last reluctantly dismounted and left the obtuse animal patiently standing and looking over a precipice, several hundred feet deep, at the view below. I never heard of the arrival of that mule at the hotel; but I suppose it did eventually succeed in reaching it, or I should on leaving have seen in my bill, amongst other items, 'To one mule lost,' so much.

The pack-mule did not make his appearance till some time after we had arrived, and might just as well have picked up his patient brother and brought him on with him.

After about an hour and a half, slowly but surely descending, we arrived at Mecca-i.e. we found ourselves at the end of our pilgrimage and in the Yosemite Valley. We followed the trail along the right bank of the Merced, a broad rushing river, which gladdens one's heart to hear and to look at, and out of which some wretched-looking Digger Indians were then taking trout. After a ride (or rather walk in my case) of about a mile, we found, at a spot where the trail widens into a road, a carriage waiting, which was to take us to Hutchings's Hotel.

I must here attempt to give a general idea of the Valley.

Its length is a little over six miles. Its breadth varies from half a mile to a mile and a half, and its sides rise up almost perpendicularly; sometimes quite so. Its area is nearly flat, and sunken about a mile below the general level of the mountain region around it.

Its principal features, and those which make it so different from other valleys, are the altitude and verticality of its walls, the absence of broken rock and débris at the base of the cliffs, the great height of the waterfalls, and the variety and beauty of the flowers that bloom there as in a vast garden.

On our way to the hotel we drove by many grand points of interest. The length of time it took to reach and pass some of the more prominent of the mountainwalls is a proof of their unrealised altitudes.

Large pines and shady oaks grew along the road, and perpendicular cliffs rose on either side, between 3,000 and 4,000 feet in height.

We slowly approached the naked granite wall called 'El Capitan,' whose white broad brow and bold form make it, as its name indicates, the Great Chief of the Valley. There is no slope to El Capitan,' its massive sides are destitute of vegetation, and its aspect is more majestic and grand than words can describe.

Opposite the Chief,' and across the Valley, is the beautiful waterfall named Pahono-Bridal Veil Fall

which leaps a distance of 940 feet before it touches the rocks.

Then come in sight' Pom-pom-pa-sus '—mountains playing leap-frog-and a glimpse is caught of the 'Yosemite Fall,' the huge North Dome,' Clouds Rest,' and other magnificent sights-all to be closely inspected later and after twice crossing the river the hotel is reached.

The hotel and its surrounding cottages are decidedly light airy buildings. Too strong a gale might blow them away.

The partitions of the bedrooms are of cotton cloth, and the doors are sheets, consequently, conversations conducted under these circumstances have to be discreet.

Mr. Hutchings himself is a poet, author, and philosopher; presumably, therefore, extremely ill-suited for the post of hotel-keeper, an employment requiring more practical qualifications.

Crowds of tourists-you may call yourself a traveller, but on this expedition you will have to own yourself a tourist—all bent on different excursions, and all looking for the distracted proprietor, would turn the brain of the most matter-of-fact and most experienced host. But when Mr. Hutchings is up in the clouds, and dreaming of nature and her grandeur, he smilingly and thoughtfully assents to whatever you may have to say, and the next moment forgets all about you and your