9 



In the Sierra 



spread soil-beds however rocky or smooth. 

 Looking northward and southward along the 

 axis of the range, you see the glorious array 

 of high mountains, crags and peaks and snow, 

 the fountain-heads of rivers that are flowing 

 west to the sea through the famous Golden 

 Gate, and east to hot salt lakes and deserts to 

 evaporate and hurry back into the sky. In- 

 numerable lakes are shining like eyes beneath 

 heavy rock brows, bare or tree fringed, or im- 

 bedded in black forests. Meadow openings 

 in the woods seem as numerous as the lakes 

 or perhaps more so. Far up the moraine- 

 covered slopes and among crumbling rocks 

 I found many delicate hardy plants, some of 

 them still in flower. The best gains of this 

 trip were the lessons of unity and inter-re- 

 lation of all the features of the landscape 

 revealed in general views. The lakes and 

 meadows are located just where the ancient 

 glaciers bore heaviest at the foot of the steep- 

 est parts of their channels, and of course their 

 longest diameters are approximately parallel 

 [ 321 ] 



