100 



YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



when Chief Tenaya was taken near Yo- 

 semite Valley on June 12. Dr. Lafayette 



Bunnell, who was surgeon for the expe- 

 dition, named the lake after the chief 

 but when the old man heard of this he 

 w .is unhappy and told the party that the 

 lake already was named Py-we-ack, Lake 

 of the Shining Rocks. The lake, a glacial 

 Like, is about .1 mile long, one-half mile 

 wide, and a little over a hundred feet 

 deep. It is stocked with rainbow and 

 eastern brook trout. As you pass along 

 the built-up road on the northwest side 

 of Tenaya Lake, you will see some of the 

 finest examples of glacial polish in the 

 park. 



fornia conifers. The elegance of this 

 graceful tree-mountaineer is ever re- 

 freshing in contrast to the rugged 

 staunchness of its associate trees, the 

 western white pine, lodgepole pine, Sierra 

 juniper and whitebark pine. 



MT. CONNESS is the most distant and 

 prominent peak seen as you look straight 

 ahead. On the crest of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada, 12,5 56 feet in elevation, this 

 mountain was named for John Conness, 

 Senator from California who, on March 

 28, 1864, introduced in the U. S. Con- 

 gress the bill establishing the Yosemite 

 Grant, consisting of Yosemite Valley and 

 the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. 



J GHOST FOREST. This is a forest 

 .■of lodgepole pines which were 

 ' ' killed in insect epidemics. Once 

 every two years in July and August th<: 

 lodgepole pine needle miner moth lays 

 eggs at the base of the needles. After 

 the larva or worm emerges from a small 

 hole, the needles turn chestnut brown. 

 Soon the needles fall off. Bark beetles at- 

 tacks often follow needleminer epidemics 

 and kill the trees. Air spraying operations 

 have been carried on recently with a 

 hope of reducing widespread destruction. 

 (You may read more about trees in 

 "Cone-bearing Trees of Yosemite" and 

 "Broad-leaved Trees of Yosemite.") Off 

 to the right of the road is a smooth 

 rock surface with scattered boulders. 

 These angular boulders were dropped 

 during the recession of the last glacier 

 of the ice age. 



16 



T EAST END OF OLD GRADE — 

 MT. CONNESS. For a description 

 of this old grade read T-7. At no 

 other place along the park roads, except 

 near Snow Flat, can the mountain hem- 

 lock more easily be seen. It normally 

 prefers northern exposure of 9000 feet 

 or more where snow banks linger. John 

 Muir called the mountain hemlock the 

 most singularly beautiful of all the Cali- 



J FAIRVIEW DOME. This is typical 



m y of granite domes in Yosemite and 

 the Sierra. Like other granite 

 throughout the region its form resulted 

 from the cooling of molten "magma" or 

 rock, beneath layers of rock which were 

 formed from sea deposits. The manner 

 in which this molten mass cooled deter- 

 mined the way in which this rock weath- 

 ers, by exfoliating in "shells — as if re- 

 moving the layers of an onion. 



Fairview Dome 



TUOLUMNE MEADOWS. In this 

 region are the headwaters of the Tu- 

 olumne River. From here easy hikes 

 will take you to many beautiful lakes and 

 streams which are typical of the grand- 

 eur of the Sierra. A store, fountain, and 



T 

 18 



