Twenty Hill Hollow 



of those convenient tools demanded for the 

 making of mountain Yosemites, and our mod- 

 erate arithmetical standards are not outraged 

 by a single magnitude of this simple, compre- 

 hensible hollow. 



The present rate of denudation of this portion 

 of the plain seems to be about one tenth of an 

 inch per year. This approximation is based 

 upon observations made upon stream-banks 

 and perennial plants. Rains and winds remove 

 mountains without disturbing their plant or 

 animal inhabitants. Hovering petrels, the fishes 

 and floating plants of ocean, sink and rise in 

 beautiful rhythm with its waves; and, in like 

 manner, the birds and plants of the plain sink 

 and rise with these waves of land, the only dif- 

 ference being that the fluctuations are more 

 rapid in the one case than in the other. 



In March and April the bottom of the Hol- 

 low and every one of its hills are smoothly 

 covered and plushed with yellow and purple 

 flowers, the yellow predominating. They are 

 mostly social Compositce^ with a few claytonias, 

 [ 197 ] 



