CHAPTER V 



THE PASSES 



THE sustained grandeur of the High Sierra is 

 strikingly illustrated by the great height of 

 the passes. Between latitude 36 20' and 38 the 

 lowest pass, gap, gorge, or notch of any kind cut 

 ting across the axis of the range, as far as I have 

 discovered, exceeds 9000 feet in height above the 

 level of the sea; while the average height of all 

 that are in use, either by Indians or whites, is per 

 haps not less than 11,000 feet, and not one of these 

 is a carriage-pass. 



Farther north a carriage-road has been con 

 structed through what is known as the Sonora 

 Pass, on the head waters of the Stanislaus and 

 Walker's rivers, the summit of which is about 10,000 

 feet above the sea. Substantial wagon-roads have 

 also been built through the Carson and Johnson 

 passes, near the head of Lake Tahoe, over which 

 immense quantities of freight were hauled from 

 California to the mining regions of Nevada, before 

 the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. 



Still farther north a considerable number of com 

 paratively low passes occur, some of which are ac 

 cessible to wheeled vehicles, and through these 

 rugged defiles during the exciting years of the gold 



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