Excerpt from Yosemite Valley Since that day scientists have struggled with the question of the origin of the wonderful gorge, and many theories have been advanced. Was it due to some sudden titanic convulsion of Nature, which split open the earth's crust, leaving this great scar which Nature is covering with trees and owers; was it some tremendous subsidence clue to internal volcanic forces; was it the gradual, resistless erosive work of water, ever owing, through eons and eons of time, that wore away these granlte mountain peaks and left a valley in their place; or was it a glacier, a veritable mer-de-glace, that ground its downward way through the snowy passes until, meeting a gentler clime, it melted away, leaving us to read the story of its work in the glacial polish glistening upon the faces of Half Dome and old El Capitan? But the man who loves Nature in all her varied moods may well leave these problems to the academic discussion of science. Rather let his eye rove over the glorious riot of color and the splendor and majesty of form, the while his ear is charmed and his Whole being thrilled as Nature plays for him her wondrous scale of harmony from tinkling rivulet to thunderous waterfall. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."