5. EL CAPITAN. El Capitan is the northern portal of the gates to Yosemite; of it, Prof. J. D. Whitney says: "It is doubtful if anywhere in the world there is presented so squarely cut, so lofty, and so imposing a face of rock." It is an absolutely solid block of granite, apparently without seam, fissure, or strata line for a height of 2300 feet, and is an appropriate emblem of eternal strength and grandeur. If the traveler will take the trouble to climb the talus or debris piles a long the foot of El Capitan, and measure the great trees growing thereon, wipe his brow, and climb down again, he will realize, in a feeble sort of way, the magnitude of this stupendous door post of the Yosemite.