6io POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The mighty eastern scarp in all its distinctness might be con- 

 sidered as beginning on the south in the vicinity of "Walker's Pass. 

 With a gentle curve it sweeps toward the north, rising higher and 



M'Unt Whitney, from Lone Pine Canon. 



higher for a hundred miles, until culminating in the jagged peaks 

 northwest of Owen's Lake, where Mount Whitney reaches an alti- 

 tude of fifteen thousand six hundred feet above the level of the sea. 

 From this point there is only a slight descent for a hundred miles 

 more, beyond which toward Lake Tahoe its extreme height and rug- 

 gedness are lost, the single fault line being replaced by several whose 

 displacements are less. The scenic effect is grandest from Owen's 

 Valley, where the mountain wall bounding it on the west, even and 

 regular in its general outline save for the deep transverse gorges, 

 rises eight thousand to ten thousand feet above the valley. Viewed 

 from the Inyo Range opposite, the evenness of the crest is remark- 

 able. The great peaks are not isolated, as is Mount Shasta, so that 

 their individual grandeur is lost in the general effect. Owen's Valley 

 has a length of about a hundred miles and a width of six to twelve 

 miles, with an even sand floor much of the distance. On the edges 

 the floor gradually slopes upward through the debris fans covered 

 with sagebrush to the bordering mountains. The scenery of this 

 valley is not alone due to the Sierra Nevadas, for on its eastern 

 side, running parallel with the former mountains, is another range 

 known at its southern end as the Inyo Range, and toward the north 

 as the White Mountains. These, if less elevated and rugged, never- 



