The Valley is a Government Park, which also includes the watershed of the streams flowing into it. Originally it was the home of the Digger Indians, a tribe of Shoshonés, and a rather low type, of whom a few still survive. It was first seen by white men in 1851, when a detachment of troops pursuing these Indians came unexpectedly upon it. The attractions soon became widely known, and visitors were numerous, especially after the opening of the Pacific Railways. Entering the Valley, the most striking object is its northwestern buttress, the ponderous cliff El Capitan, rising thirty-three hundred feet, at a very narrow part, its majestic form dominating the view. There are two vertical mountain walls almost at right angles, these enormous bare precipices facing west and south. On the opposite side, forming the other portal, rise the imposing Cathedral Rocks, adjoined by the two slender Cathedral Spires of splintered granite, nearly three thousand feet high. Over these rocks on their western side pours the Bridal Veil Fall, about seventy feet wide, and descending vertically six hundred and thirty feet. As the winds often make the foaming column flutter like a white veil, its title has been appropriately given. Adjoining El Capitan descends the Ribbon Fall, or the Virgin's Tears, falling two thousand feet, but losing much of its waters as the summer advances. Eastward of El Capitan are the peaks called the Three Brothers, the highest also named the Eagle Peak, rising three thousand feet. To the eastward of this peak and in a recess near the centre of the Valley are the Yosemite Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in the world. Yosemite Creek, which comes over the brink with a breadth of thirty-five feet, descends twenty-five hundred feet in three leaps. It pours down a vertical wall, the Upper Fall descending nearly fifteen hundred feet without a break, the column of water swaying as the winds blow with marvellous grace of motion, the eddying mists fading into light summer clouds above. The Middle Fall is a series of cascades descending over six hundred feet, and the Lower Fall is four hundred feet high. This is one of the grandest features of the Valley, but its vigor, too, dwindles as the season advances. There is a high and splendid ice cone formed at the foot of the Upper Fall in the winter. Alongside, upon a projection called Yosemite Point, at over thirty-two hundred feet elevation, is given one of the best views of the famous Valley.