FOREST FIRES'

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9173, 24 August 1908, Page 5

FOREST FIRES'

SWEEPING ALONG YOSEMITE VALLEY. . i SAN v FRANCISCO August 21. Forest fires lare sweeping along the Yosemite Valley and threaten the giant redwoods.

Yosemite Valley is a cleft on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about the middle of California, and 140 miles east of San Francisco. The name Yosemite is an Indian word, which signifies "large grizzly bear." Tni3 celebrated valley, shut in by sheer granite walls 3,000 to 6,000 feet high, noted for the sublimity and beauty of its scenery, is six miles long and from half to nearly two mileo broad. It is traversed by the Merced River, and its waterfalls are in seme respects the most remarkable in the world. In the Grand Yosemite Falls the stream, 25ft wide at the crest, takes a first leap of 1,500 feet, then rushes 026 feet down in a series of cascades.and finally plunges 400 feet to the bottom. The valley was discovered in 1851 by soldiers, who pursued some pedatory Indians to their fastness there. Its fame quickly spread, and Congress wisely took steps to pre serve its beauties, and in 1864 handed it over to the State along with tie Mariposa grove of sequoias.

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