or excavated on the slopes with frequent short curves and double curves.
Like all mountain roads which skirt precipices, it may seem "pokerish,"
but it is safe enough if the drivers are skilful and careful (all the
drivers on this route are not only excellent, but exceedingly civil as
well), and there is no break in wagon or harness. At the season this
trip is made the weather is apt to be warm, but this would not matter so
much if the road were not intolerably dusty. Over a great part of the
way the dust rises in clouds and is stifling. On a well-engineered road,
with a good road-bed, the time of passage might not be shortened, but
the journey would be made with positive comfort and enjoyment, for
though there is a certain monotony in the scenery, there is the wild
freshness of nature, now and then an extensive prospect, a sight of the
snow-clad Nevadas, and vast stretches of woodland; and a part of the way
the forests are magnificent, especially the stupendous growth of the
sugar-pine. These noble forests are now protected by their
inaccessibility.

From 1855 to 1864, nine years, the Yosemite had 653 visitors; in 1864
there were 147. The number increased steadily till 1869, the year the
overland railroad was completed, when it jumped to 1122. Between 4000
and 5000 persons visit it now each year. The number would be enormously
increased if it could be reached by rail, and doubtless a road will be
built to the valley in the near future, perhaps up the Merced River. I
believe that the pilgrims who used to go to the Yosemite on foot or on
horseback regret the building of the stage road, the enjoyment of the
wonderful valley being somehow cheapened by the comparative ease of
reaching it. It is feared that a railway would still further cheapen, if
it did not vulgarize it, and that passengers by train would miss the
mountain scenery, the splendid forests, the surprises of the way (like
the first view of the valley from Inspiration Point), and that the
Mariposa big trees would be farther off the route than they are now. The
traveller sees them now by driving eight miles from Wawona, the end of
the first day's staging. But the romance for the few there is in staging
will have to give way to the greater comfort of the many by rail.

[Illustration: THE YOSEMITE DOME.]

The railway will do no more injury to the Yosemite than it has done to
Niagara, and, in fact, will be the means of immensely increasing the
comfort of the vis