THE GLACIEK LAKES 99 



regions. At the close of the last glacial period, the 

 middle and foot-hill regions also abounded in lakes, 

 all of which have long since vanished as completely 

 as the magnificent ancient glaciers that brought 

 them into existence. 



Though the eastern flank of the range is exces 

 sively steep, we find lakes pretty regularly distrib 

 uted throughout even the most precipitous por 

 tions. They are mostly found in the upper branches 

 of the canons, and in the glacial amphitheaters 

 around the peaks. 



Occasionally long, narrow specimens occur upon 

 the steep sides of dividing ridges, their basins 

 swung lengthwise like hammocks, and very rarely 

 one is found lying so exactly on the summit of the 

 range at the head of some pass that its waters are 

 discharged down both flanks when the snow is 

 melting fast. But, however situated, they soon 

 cease to form surprises to the studious mountaineer ; 

 for, like all the love-work of Nature, they are har 

 moniously related to one another, and to all the 

 other features of the mountains. It is easy, there 

 fore, to find the bright lake-eyes in the roughest 

 and most ungovernable-looking topography of any 

 landscape countenance. Even in the lower regions, 

 where they have been closed for many a century, 

 their rocky orbits are still discernible, filled in with 

 the detritus of flood and avalanche. A beautiful sys 

 tem of grouping in correspondence with the glacial 

 fountains is soon perceived ; also their extension in 

 the direction of the trends of the ancient glaciers ; 

 and in general their dependence as to form, size, and 

 position upon the character of the rocks in which 



