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leads into three narrower passes, each of which extends several miles, winding, by the wildest paths, into the heart of the Sierra Nevada chain of mountains. For seven miles of the main valley, which varies in width from three quarters of a mile to a mile and a half, the walls on either side are from two thousand to nearly five thousand feet above the road, and are nearly perpendicular. From these walls, rocky splint ers, a thousand feet in height, start up, and, every winter, drop a few hundred tons of granite, to adorn the base of the rampart with picturesque ruin.

2. The valley is of such irregular width, and bends so much, and often so abruptly, that there is great variety and frequent surprise in the forms and combinations of the overhanging rocks, as one rides along the bank of the stream. The patches of luxuriant meadow, with their dazzling green, and the grouping of the superb firs, two hundred feet high, that skirt them, and that shoot above the stout and graceful oaks and sycamores, through which the horse-path winds, are delightful rests of sweetness and beauty amid the threatening awfulness.

3. The Merced, which flows through the main pass, is a noble stream, a hundred feet wide and ten feet deep. It is formed chiefly of the streams that leap and rush through the narrower passes, and it is swollen, also, by the bounty of the marvelous waterfalls that pour down from the ramparts of the wider valley. The sublime poetry of Hab'akkuk is needed to describe the impression, and, perhaps, the geology, of these mighty fissures: "Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers."

4. At the foot of the break-neck declivity of nearly three thousand feet, by which we reach the banks of the Merced, we are six miles from the hotel; and every rod of the ride awakens wonder, awe, and a solemn

joy. As we approach the hotel, and turn toward the opposite bank of the river, what is that

"Which ever sounds and shines,

A pillar of white light upon the wall

Of purple cliffs aloof descried "?

That, reader, is the highest waterfall in the world, the Yo-Semite cataract, nearly twenty-five hundred feet in its plunge, dashing from a break or depression in a cliff thirty-two hundred feet sheer.

5. A writer, who visited this valley in September, calls the cataract a mere tape-line of water dropped from the sky. Perhaps it is so, toward the close of the dry season; but as we saw it, the blended majesty and beauty of it, apart from the general sublimities of the Yo-Semite gorge, would repay a journey of a thousand miles. There was no deficiency of water. It was a powerful stream, thirty-five feet broad, fresh from the Nevada, that made the plunge from the brow of the awful precipice.

6. At the first leap it clears fourteen hundred and ninety-seven feet; then it tumbles down a series of steep stairways four hundred and two feet, and then makes a jump to the meadows five hundred and eighteen feet more. The three pitches are in full view, making a fall of more than twenty-four hundred feet.

7. But it is the upper and highest cataract that is most wonderful to the eye, as well as most musical. The cliff is so sheer that there is no break in the body of the water during the whole of its descent of more than a quarter of a mile. It pours in a curve, from the summit, fifteen hundred feet, to the basin that hoards it but a moment for the cascades that follow.

8. And what endless complexities and opulence of beauty in the forms and motions of the cataract! It is comparatively narrow at the top of the precipice,

although, as we said, the tide that pours over is thirty-five feet broad. But it widens as it descends, and curves a little on one side as it widens; so that it shapes itself, before it reaches its first bowl of granite, into the figure of a comet. More beautiful than the comet, however, we can see the substance of this watery loveliness ever renew itself, and ever pour itself away.

9. The cataract seems to shoot out a thousand serpentine heads or knots of water, which wriggle down deliberately through the air, and expend themselves in mist before half the descent is over. Then a new set burst from the body and sides of the fall, with the same fortune on the remaining distance; and thus the most charming fretwork of watery nodules, each trailing its vapory train for a hundred feet or more, is woven all over the cascade, which swings, now and then, thirty feet each way, on the mountain side, as if it were a pendulum of watery lace. Once in a while, too, the wind manages to get back of the fall, between it and the cliff, and then it will whirl it round and round, for two or three hundred feet, as if to try the experiment of twisting it to wring it dry.

10. Of course I visited the foot of the lowest fall of the Yo-Semite, and looked up through the spray, five hundred feet, to its crown. And I tried to climb to the base of the first or highest cataract, but lost my way among the steep, sharp rocks; for there is only one line by which the cliff can be scaled. But no nearer view that I found, or heard described, is com'parable with the picture, from the hotel, of the CometCurve of the upper cataract, fifteen hundred feet high, and the two falls immediately beneath it, in which the same water leaps to the level of the quiet Merced.

REV. T. S. KING.

XXXI.-THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE.

STRAIGHT (strate), a., not crooked;-| VAN'GUARD, n., first line of an army.

ad., directly; in the shortest time. CREST, n., an ornament on a helmet. QUOTH (kwōth), v. i. defective, said. ERE (like ere in there), ad., before. DAUNTLESS (au as in father), a., fearless.

LE'VER, n., bar for raising weights.
DEIGN'ING, ppr., condescending.
A-THWART', prep., across.

HAR'NESS, n., armor; furniture for a
horse.

GOR'Y, a., stained with clotted blood.

In cap'tain, vil'lain, &c., give ai the sound of short i. Do not say bil'ing for boil'ing. It is recorded in the annals of ancient Rome that Horatius, assisted by Lartius and Herminius, defended the Sublician Bridge, over the Tiber, against the whole Etruscan army, under Por'sena, while the Romans broke down the bridge behind the "dauntless Three." When the work was nearly finished, Horatius sent back his two companions. As soon as the bridge was quite destroyed, he plunged into the stream, and swam across to the city in safety, amid the arrows of the enemy.

1. Our spake the Consul roundly:

"The bridge must straight go down;

For, since Janic'ulum * is lost,
Naught else can save the town.”
Then out spake brave Hora'tius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods?

2. "Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed you may;

I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.

In yon straight path a thousand

May well be stopped by three.
Now, who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?"

One of the hills of ancient Rome, from which it was separated by the river Tiber. Por'sena took the fort of Janiculum, and compelled the Romans' to retreat, over the bridge, into the city.

3. Then out spake Spu'rius Lar'tius, -~
A Ram'nian* proud was he :

-:

"Lo, I will stand on thy right hand,
And keep the bridge with thee."
And out spake strong Hermin'ius,
Of Tatian blood was he:-
"I will abide on thy left side,

And keep the bridge with thee."

4. "Horatius," quoth the Consul,
"As thou say'st, so let it be."
And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless three.
For Romans, in Rome's quarrel,
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.

5. The three stood calm and silent,
And looked upon the foes,
And a great shout of laughter
From all the vanguard rose.
But soon Etruria's noblest

Felt their hearts sink to see
On the earth the bloody corpses,
In the path the dauntless three!

6. Meanwhile the ax and lēver
Have manfully been plied,

And now the bridge hangs tottering
Above the boiling tide.

"Come back, come back, Hora'tius!"
Loud cried the Fathers † all;

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* Romulus divided the Romans into three tribes, called Rhamnenses, Tati enses, and Lucerenses.

The Roman Senators were called Fathers, or Conscript Fathers.

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