YOSEMITE VALLEY, California.—The Yosemite Valley is situated one hundred and fifty miles distant, in a direct line, a little to the southeast of San Francisco. It is six miles in length and from half a mile to a mile in width, and sunk from two thousand to three thousand feet in perpendicular depth below the general level of the surrounding country. The waterfalls in and about this valley are of great beauty and variety. The Nevada and Vernal Falls of the Merced River, which flows through the whole length of the valley, are wonderfully grand.
MIRROR LAKE, Yosemite Valley, California.—Up the canyon of the Tenaya is situated this beautiful little lake, called "Mirror Lake," which is an expansion of the Tenaya Fork. It is generally visited early in the morning, for the purpose of seeing the reflection of the overhanging rock, which is known as Mount Watkins. Mirror Lake is one of the principal points of interest of this marvelous depression of nature.
GLAZIER POINT, Yosemite Valley, California.—Glazier Point, one of the most remarkable and striking features of nature in the world, is composed of solid rock, thirty-two hundred feet in perpendicular height. It is reached by a trail from the floor of the valley, and the time generally consumed is from four to six hours. From this great point of interest, a general view of the whole valley can be obtained, and nothing is more soul-stirring to the beholder than to look at the great and marvelous wonders of nature abounding in the Yosemite Valley.
BIG TREE, California.—The big trees of California are known the world over and are specifically termed the sequoia gigantea, and abound only in California. They occur in groves or patches, which are scattered over limited areas. They grow to a great height, ranging from two hundred to three hundred feet, and attain a circumference from seventy-five to one hundred feet. The above is a photograph of one of the trees, showing the trunk, through which a four-horse stage coach passes. This tree measures twenty-five feet in diameter, and it stands in the Mariposa Grove.
GREAT MORMON TEMPLE, Salt Lake City, Utah.—The Mormon religion was founded by Joseph Smith, at Manchester, New York, in 1830, and the same year was published "The Book of Mormon," in which Joseph Smith was declared to be God's "Prophet." He soon removed, with his followers, to Kirtland, Ohio, which was to be the seat of the New Jerusalem. Several years later the Mormon band emigrated to Missouri, and later to Salt Lake City, Utah. After the death of Smith, Brigham Young succeeded, until 1877, when he died and left a fortune of $2,000,000 to seventeen wives and fifty-six children. Here they prospered and started to build the great temple, which is not yet quite finished.
PULPIT TERRACE, Yellowstone National Park.-The Yellowstone Park has in the vicinity of the Mammoth Hot Springs many remarkable terrace-building springs, which are situated one thousand feet above the Gardiner River, into which they discharge their waters. The water finds its way to the surface through deep-lying cretaceous strata, and contains a great deposit of calcareous material. As the water flows out at the various elevations on the terraces through many vents, it forms corrugated layers of carbonate of lime, which is generally hard while wet, but becomes soft when dry. While these springs are active, vegetation dies in their vicinity; but when dry, grass and trees again grow on the crumbling calcareous deposit.
OBSIDIAN CLIFF, Yellowstone National Park.—This noted and volcanic glass mountain, situated in the Yellowstone Park, glistens like jet, is opaque and rises like basalt in almost vertical columns, from the shore of Beaver Lake. It is unequalled in the world, and is about two hundred feet high and one thousand feet in length, being variegated with streaks of red and yellow. When the carriage road was constructed over the side of the mountain along the lake, great fires were built upon the masses of Obsidian; and after they had been sufficiently expanded by the heat, cold water was thrown on them, which fractured the blocks into fragments that could be handled. Thus a glass carriage way was made one-quarter of a mile in length, which is without doubt the only piece of glass road in the world.
MAMMOTH PAINT POTS, Yellowstone National Park.—Among all the geysers and hot springs in Yellowstone Park, there is nothing more striking to behold than the Mammoth Paint Pots, which measure forty by sixty feet, with a mud rim on three sides from three to four feet in height. The whitish substance in this basin, which looks like paint, is in constant agitation, and resembles a vast bed of mortar with numerous points of ebullition. There is a constant bubbling up of this peculiar formation, which produces a sound similar to a hoarse whisper. Its contents have been reduced by the constant action to a mixed silicious clay, which in former years consisted of different colors, but is now active only in the white portion of its formation.
OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER, Yellowstone National Park.—Of all the geysers in the Yellowstone Park, this is one of the most interesting and noted on account of the great regularity of its eruptions, affording splendid opportunities for observation. It is located in the Upper Geyser Basin, and is situated on a mound of geyserite built by its own water. The eruptions begin with preliminary splashes, and continue for several minutes, becoming more powerful as they follow in rapid succession, when all at once the steam and water are thrown to a height of one hundred and fifty feet; this action occurs at intervals of every sixty-five minutes and lasts from four to five minutes.
YELLOWSTONE LAKE AND HOT SPRINGS, Yellowstone National Park.—This large and beautiful sheet of water is nearly one-half mile higher than the summit of Mount Washington, N. H., and is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It covers an area of one hundred and fifty square miles, and has a great depth. Trout are so plentiful that there is little pleasure afforded in capturing them. The lake is fed by numerous large tributaries and a score of smaller streams. A number of boiling springs, charged with sulphur, alum and alkali, dot its shores; and the fishermen can cook their trout by dropping them into the boiling springs without walking from the spot where they are caught.