100 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



their basins have been eroded, and the quantity and 

 direction of application of the glacial force ex 

 pended upon each basin. 



In the upper canons we usually find them in 

 pretty regular succession, strung together like 

 beads on the bright ribbons of their feeding- 

 streams, which pour, white and gray with foam and 

 spray, from one to the other, their perfect mirror 

 stillness making impressive contrasts with the grand 

 blare and glare of the connecting cataracts. In 

 Lake Hollow, on the north side of the Hoffman 

 spur, immediately above the great Tuolumne canon, 

 there are ten lovely lakelets lying near together in 

 one general hollow, like eggs in a nest. Seen from 

 above, in a general view, feathered with Hemlock 

 Spruce, and fringed with sedge, they seem to me 

 the most singularly beautiful and interestingly lo 

 cated lake-cluster I have ever yet discovered. 



Lake Tahoe, 22 miles long by about 10 wide, and 

 from 500 to over 1600 feet in depth, is the largest of 

 all the Sierra lakes. It lies just beyond the nor 

 thern limit of the higher portion of the range be 

 tween the main axis and a spur that puts out on the 

 east side from near the head of the Carson River. 

 Its forested shores go curving in and out around 

 many an emerald bay and pine-crowned promon 

 tory, and its waters are everywhere as keenly pure 

 as any to be found among the highest mountains. 



Donner Lake, rendered memorable by the ter 

 rible fate of the Donner party, is about three miles 

 long, and lies about ten miles to the north of Tahoe, 

 at the head of one of the tributaries of the Truckee. 

 A few miles farther north lies Lake Independence, 



