STEEP TRAILS 



white brush of foam. This is a little Yosemite 

 valley. It is about two thousand feet above the 

 level of the main Yosemite, and about twenty- 

 four hundred below Lake Tenaya. 



I found the lake frozen, and the ice was so 

 clear and unruffled that the surrounding moun 

 tains and the groves that look down upon it 

 were reflected almost as perfectly as I ever 

 beheld them in the calm evening mirrors of 

 summer. At a little distance, it was difficult 

 to believe the lake frozen at all; and when I 

 walked out on it, cautiously stamping at short 

 intervals to test the strength of the ice, I 

 seemed to walk mysteriously, without ade 

 quate faith, on the surface of the water. The 

 ice was so transparent that I could see through 

 it the beautifully wave-rippled, sandy bottom, 

 and the scales of mica glinting back the down- 

 pouring light. When I knelt down with my 

 face close to the ice, through which the sun 

 beams were pouring, I was delighted to dis 

 cover myriads of TyndalFs six-rayed water 

 flowers, magnificently colored. 



A grand old mountain mansion is this Tenaya 

 region! In the glacier period it was a mer de 

 glace, far grander than the mer de glace of 

 Switzerland, which is only about half a mile 

 broad. The Tenaya mer de glace was not less 

 than two miles broad, late in the glacier epoch, 

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