comes declivitous again, but with a general improvement of condition most acceptable to returning excursionists. We were glad to exchange wearied nags for our buggy and fresh horses, and with but little delay were soon making good speed along the bowling greens seen from the top of the mountain; and over which, ere long, a railroad will probably convey the passenger still more fleetly from the Russian River region to Petaluma. The distance from Petaluma to the Geysers is fifty miles. Returning to San Francisco by the next day's steamer, our passenger ship for Honolulu was found ready to sail, and I forthwith went aboard. But as, on my return to San Francisco from the Hawaiian Islands, an opportunity was afforded to visit the Valley and Falls of Yo-Semite, it is deemed best, for the sake of connection, to out here upon the record what I saw of them. CHAPTER XXVIII. ROUTE TO THE YO-SEMITE VALLEY-STOCKTON-KNIGHT'S FERRY-STANISLAUS RIVER— NEARLY every country can boast of some great attraction in nature or art inviting the investigations of the learned, or the transient observations of the passing tourist. The disinterred remains of the buried past, the crumbling monuments of antiquity, and the imperishable proofs of its genius and power, have caused Egypt and Europe to be tracked for centuries by the footsteps of the curious. While the highlands of Scotia; the vales of fair Italia, looking on which, "full flashes on the soul the light of ages;" and the grand old mountains of Switzerland, the unscaled fortresses of freedom wrapped in everlasting snows, and shaking from brow and shoulder the avalanche and the mer de glace, the coronet and robe of grandeur and might, with tranquil valleys sleeping at their feet lulled by the music of countless waterfalls-the commingled mysteries of the sublime and beautiful-have awakened the enthusiasm of travellers, and inspired the pen of genius to record the strange companionship and the sovereignty of nature. Europe may well rejoice in its scenery, as well as in its civilization. But the Creator has placed elsewhere also, in this great world of ours, the proofs of His Power, and annual discoveries in this latest of territorial acquisitions show that California is not left without these voiceless teachers of truth. Among these is the Yo-Sem-i-te Valley in Mariposa County, among the foot-hills of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, two hundred and fifty-two miles from San Francisco. The route to it from that city is by steamer one hundred and twenty-five miles to Stockton, a flourishing town of four thousand inhabitants in the interior on a slough of the eastern arm of San Joaquin, the second river in size and importance of the State; thence by stage-coach to Coulterville, or to Mariposa, or to Big Oak Flat, at which places the public conveyance stops, and another must be sought. The Coulterville route is preferable for economy of time, cost, distance, and for greater comfort. Starting from Stockton at 6 A. M., an hour after our arrival by the boat, with a fine team of horses, fair samples of California size, speed, and bottom, we travelled first east by south, and then east-southeast, over an extensive tract of bottom lands of alluvial deposit, bearing abundant testimony of rich growth. Seventeen miles of unpaved road, parched, cracked, and dusty, in the long summer drought, brought us to a rolling and less fertile district, with fewer evidences of thrifty husbandry; and at thirty-six miles from Stockton we came to Knight's Ferry, a town of about a thousand inhabitants, at which a fine bridge is thrown over the Stanislaus River, the clear waters of which from the Sierra, flow over a rocky bed onward to the San Joaquin to be lost in its ever turbid current. Abandoned diggings, sluices, flumes, gravel banks, and heaps of boulders, showed how diligent had been the search for gold in this vicinity. Beyond the river the country is still more rugged, the road to the Crimea House on Kentucky Ranche fourteen miles from the ferry, being skirted for a long distance by upheaved laminated rocks of various sizes, looking like tombstones of a vast cemetery, some as if designating the graves of giants, while others modestly marked the resting places of infancy. From the Crimea House the coach continued on the main stage-route in a northeast direction to Sonora, while we in a small mud-wagon took a southeast course, passing over a much more hilly country, and crossing the beds of many small streams which have existence only in the rainy seasons. At ten miles from the Crimea House we reached the Tuolumne River, heading in the Sierra and flowing west to the San Joaquin of which it is one of the large branches. The little town of Don Pedro's Bar has grown up at this crossing from placer and river mining, which, not being among the most profitable of such operations, is chiefly in the hands of Chinamen; and as they were seen shovelling, and rocking their cradles on the river banks and shoals, for the discarded remnants of wealth borne. away by more fortunate enterprise, a curious fellow-traveller inquired whether the river had given their integument, or it had given the river, a dingy hue? From the Tuolumne River the road is more mountainous, frequent foot-hill spurs being encountered stretching westwardly from the Nevada and giving steep ascents to climb, and gorges and ravines to be threaded by narrow defiles, or turned by tedious windings, for fourteen miles to Coulterville, where we arrived at 9 P. M.-in fifteen hours. from Stockton-distance seventy-four miles. At Coulter's Hotel we were received, in the absence of the host, by a fine specimen of young America but thirteen years old, who registered our names, ordered supper, and showed us to our chambers, with remarkable intelligence, and much more politeness than is usually observed by older employés of these frontier caravansaries; in which mankind are regarded as a live lumber, without feeling or claim to comfort, and under an obligation to submit to rudeness, neglect, and extortion. The town, situated in a wild mountain gorge, where gold was found as early as 1849, has three or four hundred inhabitants, exclusive of Chinese, of whom there are about as many more, in and around it, engaged in sand washing with cradle and sluice, along the little creek that flows through the gulch. Public opinion here, as in other parts of the State, is divided in regard to the character of Chinamen, and the desirableness of their immigration. While some Americans denounce them as petty thieves, and otherwise troublesome interlopers whose notions and habits are at variance with those of the whites, and whose inferiority of race unfits them for social and political equality, others contend that among them are to be found numerous and remarkable examples of probity and intelligence, and that in the general their morals are not of a lower grade than those of other immigrants, while the vices in which they indulge are not more degrading, and the crimes of which they are guilty are neither as atrocious nor brutal as those perpetrated by Europeans and Americans. Perhaps, from natural organization, the Chinaman is neither as capable of touching as low a degree of debasement as the Caucasian, nor, on the other hand, of mounting to the same height of moral and intellectual excellence. There are between forty and fifty thousand Chinese in California, and their proportion of criminals in the Penitentiary is less than that of the white population. But this fact is merely sufficient to warrant a conclusion of comparative convictions, not of actual criminality. Chinese labor certainly constitutes a prominent element in the development and promotion of the material interests of this State. Unlike the Caucasian, the Chinaman must work or starve. No provisions of corporate charity, sectarian benevolence, or more enlarged associate philanthropy, are made for him, and "root pig or die " becomes the law of his denizenship. The avenues of most profitable and honorable employment and enterprise are, except to a limited extent in the field of commerce in San Francisco, closed to him by the jealousies of the |