WAWONA VALLEY.
CHAPTER XV
YOSEMITE
Leaving the San Joaquin valley and its vast wheat fields we take the stage at Berenda and head direct for the snow-capped Sierras. Gold mines now claim attention and we stop at Grub Gulch. “The diggins” here are not very rich and we journey on over the low foot hills to King’s Gulch, where a rich quartz lode is being profitably worked by electricity.
The drowse of a July noontide is in the air. Rattlesnakes wriggle through the short, dry grass. The Indians say that for every man a rattlesnake kills he gains a rattle. Most minds become panic stricken at the sight of a rattlesnake. Not so poor Lo, he slays his enemy and counts his rattles.
Three hundred miles southeast of San Francisco in the Sierra Nevada mountains lies the beautiful valley of Ahwahne, where Diana herself might deign to follow the chase, for noble game roam these Arcadian wilds, where giant sugar pines and silver firs lend beauty to the landscape.
Higher up and nearer the heart of the mountains lies another lovely vale called the Indian’s Wawona, where dwelt Naiads, Fauns and all their kindred tribe,
“Upon a time, before the fairy broods
Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods,