Here he would see... or doubt whether he saw....

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from Yosemite Trails

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Chase muses here when ' lain awake at night ' from the Yosemite Valley
floor, with The Sentinel towering over him, ' when the light comes
and goes, here and there, ' and the moonlight casting spectral shadows. 

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Here is a drawing of the Sentinel by Chase's part

time traveling companion and artist Carl Eytel.

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" At such times, also, I have tried to imagine what would be the sensations of

a person who should be transported unawares to this valley, and set

down at night among these dimly seen shapes of rock and water. It would

be all the better if it happened to be one of those moonlit but partially cloudy

nights, when the light comes and goes, here and there in sudden

gleams and fadings. Here he would see, or doubt whether he saw, close beside
and crowding against him, this perpendicular wall, which his eye would follow
up and up, until he wondered where the top might be. Over there would be some
incomprehensible shape which must surely be a delusion of his own senses.
Yonder where the pale column of Yosemite Fall glimmered in the peering light,
he would see what might be a straight ascending camp-fire smoke of the departed
Indian genius of the place, or perhaps the reek of some weird sacrifice. The
falling waters filling the valley with hollow voices and echoes would confuse
instead of enlighten him, and the subtle forest-sounds, intricate and perplexing
even by day, would add a thousand small mysteries to his bewilderment. " 


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