Letters to a Friend 



smooth pebbles upon a shoulder of the South 

 Dome, and upon every part of the Yosemite 

 upper and lower walls. 



I am surprised to find that water has had so 

 little to do with mountain structure here. Whit 

 ney says that there is no proof that glaciers 

 ever flowed in this valley, yet its walls have 

 not been eroded to the depth of an inch since 

 the ice left it, and glacial action is glaringly 

 apparent many miles below the valley. 



The bottom portion of the foregoing section, 

 with perpendicular sides, is here about two 

 feet in depth and was cut by the water. The 

 Nevada here never was more than four or five 

 feet deep, and all of the bank records of all the 

 upper streams say the same thing of the absence 

 of great floods. 



The entire region above Yosemite and as far 

 down as the bottoms of Yosemite has scarcely 

 been touched by any other inundation than 

 that of ice. Perhaps all of the past glacial in 

 undation of every kind would not average an 

 inch in depth for the whole region. 

 [ 144 1 



