The secret of the _burnt beans_, was known to all the others, but was kept inviolate from the Colonel. He was unconscious of the joke, and bestowed more attention on this standard New England dish than he did upon the delicious trout and game. Our dinner was finished in bumpers to Colonel Riply as _chef de cuisine_. During the survey of the year, in addition to measurements, we gave some attention to the geological features of the country we were passing over. We found that the cañon below the Yosemite is about six miles long, and so filled with vast granite bowlders and talus, that it is impossible for any but the agile and sure-footed to pass safely through. The river has to be crossed and recrossed so many times, by jumping from bowlder to bowlder, where the water goes whirling and dashing between--that if the rocks be moss-grown or slimy, as they may be outside of continuous current--one’s life is endangered. During our survey through this cañon, in the month of November, 1855, we failed to get through in one day on our preliminary survey, and were compelled to camp without food or blankets, only sheltered from a storm--half snow, half rain--by an overhanging rock. The pelting mountain storm put out our fires, as it swept down the cañon, and baffled all our attempts to kindle a new flame. The fall through the cañon is so great, that none but the largest bowlders remain in the current. Some of these immense rocks are so piled, one upon another, as to make falls of nearly one hundred feet. The fall for the entire distance is about fifteen hundred feet. Notwithstanding the fall is so great in so short a distance, advantage may be taken of the configuration of the walls on either side to construct a railroad up through the cañon into the valley, upon a grade and trestle, that may be made practicable. This will, of course, cost money, but it will probably be done. By tunneling the divide and spanning the South Fork with a bridge, a narrow-gauge road could very readily be built that would avoid the necessity of going _entirely_ through the cañon. This could be accomplished most economically by trestling over the talus--at a favorable point--high enough to obtain and preserve a suitable grade, until the sloping mountains below can be reached, when the line can be run without difficulty to the most favorable point of crossing the divide and the South Fork. The obstructions from snow, encountered in a winter trip to the valley, would by this route, be entirely avoided. Beside, the distance would be somewhat lessened. By rail and stage it is now about 225 miles from San Francisco.