66 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



are " The Minarets." Beyond them you behold a 

 sublime wilderness of mountains, their snowy sum 

 mits towering together in crowded abundance, peak 

 beyond peak, swelling higher, higher as they sweep 

 on southward, until the culminating point of the 

 range is reached on Mount Whitney, near the head 

 of the Kern Eiver, at an elevation of nearly 14,700 

 feet above the level of the sea. 



Westward, the general flank of the range is seen 

 flowing sublimely away from the sharp summits, 

 in smooth undulations; a sea of huge gray granite 

 waves dotted with lakes and meadows, and fluted 

 with stupendous canons that grow steadily deeper 

 as they recede in the distance. Below this gray 

 region lies the dark forest zone, broken here and 

 there by upswelling ridges and domes; and yet 

 beyond lies a yellow, hazy belt, marking the broad 

 plain of the San Joaquin, bounded on its farther 

 side by the blue mountains of the coast. 



Turning now to the northward, there in the im 

 mediate foreground is the glorious Sierra Crown, 

 with Cathedral Peak, a temple of marvelous archi 

 tecture, a few degrees to the left of it ; the gray, 

 massive form of Mammoth Mountain to the right ; 

 while Mounts Ord, Gibbs, Dana, Conness, Tower 

 Peak, Castle Peak, Silver Mountain, and a host of 

 noble companions, as yet nameless, make a sub 

 lime show along the axis of the range. 



Eastward, the whole region seems a land of deso 

 lation covered with beautiful light. The torrid 

 volcanic basin of Mono, with its one bare lake 

 fourteen miles long ; Owen's Valley and the broad 

 lava table-land at its head, dotted with craters, and 



