My First Summer 



now completely filled up by the material 

 carried in by the streams, and changed to 

 dry sandy flats covered mostly by grass and 

 artemisia and sun-loving flowers. All these 

 lower lake-basins were evidently formed by 

 terminal moraine dams deposited where the 

 receding glacier had lingered during short 

 periods of less waste, or greater snowfall, or 

 both. 



Looking up the canon from the warm 

 sunny edge of the Mono plain my morning 

 ramble seems a dream, so great is the change 

 in the vegetation and climate. The lilies on 

 the bank of Moraine Lake are higher than 

 my head, and the sunshine is hot enough for 

 palms. Yet the snow round the arctic gar- 

 dens at the summit of the pass is plainly visi- 

 ble, only about four miles away, and between 

 lie specimen zones of all the principal cli- 

 mates of the globe. In little more than an 

 hour one may swoop down from winter to 

 summer, from an arctic to a torrid region, 

 through as great changes of climate as one 



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