126 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



write as I may, I cannot give anything like an ad 

 equate idea of the exquisite beauty of these moun 

 tain carpets as they lie smoothly outspread in the 

 savage wilderness. What words are fine enough 

 to picture them I to what shall we liken them ? The 

 flowery levels of the prairies of the old West, the 

 luxuriant savannahs of the South, and the finest 

 of cultivated meadows are coarse in comparison. 

 One may at first sight compare them with the care 

 fully tended lawns of pleasure-grounds; for they 

 are as free from weeds as they, and as smooth, but 

 here the likeness ends ; for these wild lawns, with 

 all their exquisite fineness, have no trace of that 

 painful, licked, snipped, repressed appearance that 

 pleasure-ground lawns are apt to have even when 

 viewed at a distance. And, not to mention the 

 flowers with which they are brightened, their grasses 

 are very much finer both in color and texture, and 

 instead of lying flat and motionless, matted to 

 gether like a dead green cloth, they respond to the 

 touches of every breeze, rejoicing in pure wildness, 

 blooming and fruiting in the vital light. 



Grlacier meadows abound throughout all the al 

 pine and subalpine regions of the Sierra in still 

 greater numbers than the lakes. Probably from 

 2500 to 3000 exist between latitude 36 30' and 39, 

 distributed, of course, like the lakes, in concordance 

 with all the other glacial features of the landscape. 



On the head waters of the rivers there are what 

 are called " Big Meadows," usually about from five 

 to ten miles long. These occupy the basins of the 

 ancient ice-seas, where many tributary glaciers came 

 together to form the grand trunks. Most, however, 



