Yosemite National Park. 219 



it too has suffered from exfoliation. Its general trend and its 

 angle of declivity (about 82) were determined by a zone of 

 nearly vertical joints extending in a northeasterly direction. 

 This sheeted structure terminated in the shoulder at the north- 

 east end of the cliff face. Doubtless the thin sheets were read- 

 ily plucked away by the Tenaya Glacier, which during the 

 earlier stages of glaciation reached within 500 feet of the top 

 of the dome. Then, the body of the monolith being exposed, 

 it began to exfoliate in plane sheets parallel to the zone of joints. 

 Perhaps the Tenaya Glacier plucked away some of these newly 

 formed sheets, but it seems more probable that the exfoliation 

 took place largely during the interval following the El Portal 

 glaciation. The ice of the Wisconsin stage did not reach the 

 base of the cliff. This interpretation of the evolution of Half 

 Dome, if it is correct, leaves no room for any assumed demoli- 

 tion of one-half of the dome. 



More Than Rocks and Running Water 



If the reader has had the patience to peruse the preceding 

 pages of this chapter it is hoped he is able to "see beyond the 

 rocks," to see in Yosemite more than rocks and the effects of 

 running water and the eroding power of ice. To the mind of 

 the author the Yosemite Valley offers the most stupendous 

 spectacle of Nature's handiwork he has ever beheld. Probably 

 nowhere in the world is there so remarkable a panorama of 

 nature's processes displayed in an equal area. Stand upon 

 Glacier Point and look away over Half Dome and off to Clouds' 

 Rest, over exfoliated domes and ice-smoothed hummocks, and 

 behold the effects of running water and moving ice, combined 

 with weathering of frost and heat on hard rocks; walk on the 

 gravel-filled floor of the valley and marvel at the towering walls 

 of massive granite; gaze at the rugged gulches that tell of up- 

 heaved igneous rocks broken by deep-seated forces into jointed 

 blocks that made possible the amazing spires and the inacces- 

 sible crags; look up at the waterfalls, regarded by many, and 



