Garfield became Secretary of the Interior the
application was renewed and granted; but under his successor, Mr.
Fisher, the matter has been referred to a Commission, which as this
volume goes to press still has it under consideration.

The most delightful and wonderful camp grounds in the Park are its three
great valleys--Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy, and Upper Tuolumne; and they are
also the most important places with reference to their positions
relative to the other great features--the Merced and Tuolumne Canyons,
and the High Sierra peaks and glaciers, etc., at the head of the rivers.
The main part of the Tuolumne Valley is a spacious flowery lawn four or
five miles long, surrounded by magnificent snowy mountains, slightly
separated from other beautiful meadows, which together make a series
about twelve miles in length, the highest reaching to the feet of Mount
Dana, Mount Gibbs, Mount Lyell and Mount McClure. It is about 8500 feet
above the sea, and forms the grand central High Sierra camp ground from
which excursions are made to the noble mountains, domes, glaciers, etc.;
across the Range to the Mono Lake and volcanoes and down the Tuolumne
Canyon to Hetch Hetchy. Should Hetch Hetchy be submerged for a
reservoir, as proposed, not only would it be utterly destroyed, but the
sublime canyon way to the heart of the High Sierra would be hopelessly
blocked and the great camping ground, as the watershed of a city
drinking system, virtually would be closed to the public. So far as I
have learned, few of all the thousands who have seen the park and seek
rest and peace in it are in favor of this outrageous scheme.

One of my later visits to the Valley was made in the autumn of 1907 with
the late William Keith, the artist. The leaf-colors were then ripe, and
the great godlike rocks in repose seemed to glow with life. The artist,
under their spell, wandered day after day along the river and through
the groves and gardens, studying the wonderful scenery; and, after
making about forty sketches, declared with enthusiasm that although its
walls were less sublime in height, in picturesque beauty and charm Hetch
Hetchy surpassed even Yosemite.

That any one would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but sad
experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for
anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad
arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people's
parks is