110 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



gables, and battlemented headlands, which on the 

 south come plunging down sheer into deep water, 

 from a height of from 1500 to 2000 feet. The South 

 Lyell glacier eroded this magnificent basin out of 

 solid porphyritic granite while forcing its way west 

 ward from the summit fountains toward Yosemite, 

 and the exposed rocks around the shores, and the 

 projecting bosses of the walls, ground and burnished 

 beneath the vast ice-flood, still glow with silvery 

 radiance, notwithstanding the innumerable corrod 

 ing storms that have fallen upon them. The gen 

 eral conformation of the basin, as well as the mo 

 raines laid along the top of the walls, and the 

 grooves and scratches on the bottom and sides, 

 indicate in the most unmistakable manner the di 

 rection pursued by this mighty ice-river, its great 

 depth, and the tremendous energy it exerted in 

 thrusting itself into and out of the basin ; bearing 

 down with superior pressure upon this portion of 

 its channel, because of the greater declivity, con 

 sequently eroding it deeper than the other portions 

 about it, and producing the lake-bowl as the neces 

 sary result. 



With these magnificent ice-characters so vividly 

 before us it is not easy to realize that the old glacier 

 that made them vanished tens of centuries ago ; for, 

 excepting the vegetation that has sprung up, and 

 the changes effected by an earthquake that hurled 

 rock-avalanches from the weaker headlands, the 

 basin as a whole presents the same appearance 

 that it did when first brought to light. The lake 

 itself, however, has undergone marked changes; 

 one sees at a glance that it is growing old. More 



