"Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we That hear the question of that voice sublime? Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side! Yea, what is all the riot man can make In his short life to thy unceasing roar! And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to HIM Who drown'd a world and heap'd the waters far Above its loftiest mountains?--a light wave That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might." PART IV. OTHER FAMOUS CATARACTS OF THE WORLD. CHAPTER XIX. Yosemite--Vernal--Nevada--Yellowstone--Shoshone--St. Maurice--Montmorency. For the purpose of comparison it may be interesting to note other cataracts in the United States, and in other parts of the world, and also some of the remarkable rapids, which may be successors to what were once perpendicular falls. For descriptions of those in foreign countries we are chiefly indebted to the geographical gazetteers and the journals of Humboldt, Livingstone, Bohle, and Stanley; for information regarding the cataracts of Norway we are indebted to Murray's "Norway, Denmark and Sweden." [Illustration: YOSEMITE FALLS] In the United States, after Niagara, the first to claim our attention are the Falls of the Yosemite, so graphically and scientifically made known to us in the second volume of Professor J. D. Whitney's Geological Report for California. Before describing them it is necessary to note the physical features of the region in which they are placed. The valley of the Yosemite forms a portion of the bed of the Merced River, which flows through it and passes from it by a wild, deep cañon into the San Joaquin. It is about eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide, with a sharp bend to the west, about two miles from its upper end. To this place the Merced and two tributaries, called the North and South Forks, have come through the most rugged cañons, falling nearly two thousand feet in the space of two miles. Near the southerly end of the valley is the remarkable rock El Capitan, an almost vertical cliff 3,600 feet high, and one of the grandest objects in the valley. Just above this is the imposing pile called the Cathedral Rocks, and behind these, connected with them, two slender and beautiful granite columns called the Cathedral Spires.