THE FORMER TUOLUMNE GLACIER. 43 



the Tuolumne Canon, the larger portion of the surface is rough and angular, 

 showing deep recesses, and squarely-cut buttresses, which sometimes pro- 

 ject out directh' in the path of the ice, as if on purpose to brave its erosive 

 power. Only in places is even the bottom entirely smoothed over ; while 

 the walls have onlv those projecting edges and surfaces rounded and pol- 

 ished which faced the direction from which the ice was moving, or projected 

 out into the valley so as to be easily reached by it. Hence it seems rea- 

 sonable to infer that ice has done but a very small part of the work of 

 excavation, which was in reality performed by other vastly more potent 

 agencies. 



Tlie Tuolumne River in the cailon has a rapid fall, averaging about 200 feet 

 to the mile, the stream itself varying greatly in size with the varying conditions 

 of the years and the seasons. A considerable part of its descent is made by 

 a series of beautiful cascades over shelving rocks, the scenery being ex- 

 tremely gran I and attractive, although by no means to be compared with 

 that of the Yosemite Valley.* 



North of the Tuolumne Canon, and west of the Mount Conness Range, is 

 an elevated plateau-like area of almost bare granite, which rises gradually 

 towards the northeast, and culminates in the range dividing the head-waters of 

 the Tuolunme from those of Walker's River, and of which the strand and iao-ired 

 mass of Tower Peak is the dominating point. This plateau is intersected by 

 several parallel streams which run in a southwest direction from the Tower 

 Peak Range, and enter the Tuolumne Canon over its edge in a series of falls 

 and cascades, which are described, by those who have seen them at a time 

 when greatly swollen by the melting of the winter's snow, as being very 

 grand. All this granite slope is beautifully polished and striated, and the 

 mass of ice which once covered it must have chiefly found its way into the 

 Tuolumne Caiion, and added to the volume of that great mass of ice. It 

 needs but a glance at the map to see how exceptionally favorable the condi- 

 tions were in this part of the Sierra for the formation of a large glacier ; and 

 it is thus easy to account for the great length of this one, as compared with 

 those farther to the north in the rano-e, where there is no recurrence of simi- 

 lar topographical features on anything like the scale exhibited at the head 

 of the Tuolumne. 



Below the goi-ge just noticed, the canon opens out and presents a remark- 

 able counterpart of the Yosemite, known by the name of the Hetch-Hetchy 



* For some details in regard to the seenery of tbe Tuolumne Cauon, the Yosemite Guide-Book, edition of 

 1874, may be consulted. 



