The Mariposa Grove--which was discovered in 1857 by Galen Clark--lies in a little valley occupying a depression on the back of a ridge. The Lower Grove contains 240 fine Big Trees. The Grizzly Giant is the largest of all. It has a circumference of ninety-three feet and a diameter of thirty and six-tenths feet. Its main limb is six and one-half feet in diameter. This tree is very much injured, and its size has been decreased by burning. It has long since passed its prime, and has a battered and worn appearance. In ascending to the Upper Grove the road goes through a tunnel cut through the heart of the “Wawona,” a living Sequoia. This tunnel is ten feet high and nine and one-half feet wide at the bottom. The Upper Grove contains 360 Big Trees, averaging in age about 2,500 years. About ten of the trees exceed 250 feet in height. Three of these have a circumference of over ninety feet. The bark of the largest trees is from one to two feet thick. Toward the end of winter the trees bloom, while the snow is still eight or ten feet deep. The flowers are pale green and pale yellow. The seeds are small and light. The cones remain on the tree for many years. The Big Trees might live forever. There is no absolute limit to their existence. Death is due only to an accident. The leaves alone die of old age, and these are renewed. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 16, SERIAL No. 116 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF TRAVEL · OCT. 2, 1916 [Illustration: Photograph by J. T. Boysen EL PORTAL The terminal of the railroad. From here a run of 10 miles is made up Merced Canyon to Yosemite Valley] THE YOSEMITE VALLEY By DWIGHT L. ELMENDORF _Lecturer and Traveler_ _MENTOR COLOR PLATES_ CATHEDRAL SPIRES YOSEMITE FALLS EL CAPITAN HALF DOME THREE BROTHERS VIEW FROM GLACIER POINT TRAIL Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1916, by The Mentor Association, Inc. Rest here for a time by the side of the Merced River while I tell you something of this peaceful, lovely valley. Look over to that further cliff and watch the silver stream of the Yosemite descend in three gleaming white steps from the summit of rock 2,600 feet above us to the meadow level where we stand. In its first flight of 1,430 feet it falls a third of that distance in a snowy column, then turns to wreathing smoke, through which many glistening darts shoot down to the rocky basin below. Here the misty elements are resolved again into water, and the stream tumbles frothing through rocks to its second flight, then on to the lower fall of 320 feet, when it dashes on a bed of boulders and hurries to join the Merced River. [Illustration: Photograph by A. C. Pillsbury THE GATE TO THE VALLEY Bridal Veil Falls at right of picture]