THE GLACIERS 27 



attract the attention of every observer. The at 

 tention of the mountaineer is seldom arrested by 

 moraines, however regular and high they may be, 

 or by canons, however deep, or by rocks, however 

 noble in form and sculpture; but he stoops and rubs 

 his hands admiringly on the shining surfaces and 

 tries hard to account for their mysterious smooth 

 ness. He has seen the snow descending in ava 

 lanches, but concludes this cannot be the work of 

 snow, for he finds it where no avalanches occur. 

 Nor can water have done it, for he sees this smooth 

 ness glowing on the sides and tops of the highest 

 domes. Only the winds of all the agents he knows 

 seem capable of flowing in the directions indicated 

 by the scoring. Indians, usually so little curious 

 about geological phenomena, have come to me oc 

 casionally and asked me, "What makeum the 

 ground so smooth at Lake Tenaya ? " Even horses 

 and dogs gaze wonderingly at the strange brightness 

 of the ground, and smell the polished spaces and 

 place their feet cautiously on them when they come 

 to them for the first time, as if afraid of sinking. 

 The most perfect of the polished pavements and 

 walls lie at an elevation of from 7000 to 9000 feet 

 above the sea, where the rock is compact silicious 

 granite. Small dim patches may be found as low 

 as 3000 feet on the driest and most enduring por 

 tions of sheer walls with a southern exposure, and 

 on compact swelling bosses partially protected from 

 rain by a covering of large boulders. On the north 

 half of the range the striated and polished surfaces 

 are less common, not only because this part of the 

 chain is lower, but because the surface rocks are 



