366 Whiiney’s Geology of California. 
highest waterfalls, and the sublimest scenery of the state. The 
chain was crossed by the party at eleven places between these 
parallels, and a large number of peaks ascended,—a most labo- 
rious work, as can be believed when we consider the rough 
character of the country, its remoteness in most parts from civil- 
ization, its great altitude, the absence of previous information 
respecting large portions of it, the cold, and the many other dif 
ficulties to be surmounted. Some few facts will bring these 
more vividly to the mind. 
South of the Truckee Pass, for about 300 miles, there is not 
a pass below 6000 feet. For 250 miles south of the Placerville 
Pass there is not a pass below 7000 feet, For nearly 200 miles 
from the Sonora Pass southward there is not one below 10,000 
feet, while for 150 miles there is not one below 11,000 feet, and 
for a hundred miles not one below 12,000 feet. At least none 
are known, The culminating point is near lat. 86° 80’, where 
the highest peak (named Mt. Whitney in honor of the director- 
in-chief of the survey, by the party who explored this region 
is about 15, feet. ‘ : 
Near this, within a radius of 25 or 80 miles, nearly a score of 
peaks rise to 14,000 feet or higher. These peaks are all of 
granite, which rock here occupies nearly the entire width of the 
chain (nearly or quite 80 miles wide). Cafions from 3000 to 
6000 feet deep abound; and everywhere above 4000 feet, but 
especially from 6000 up to 11,000 feet, are traces of former g!2 
ciers on a most stupendous scale, the glaciers themselves having 
disappeared. Large areas of rocks are polished, and immensé 
moraines are common. Heavy forests clothe the slopes between 
the altitudes of 4000 and 9000 feet. Below the former altitude 
we have the scattered trees and shrubby vegetation of the hot 
and dry foot-hills, and above the latter up to 10,000, or in places 
up to 11,000 feet, the stunted growth of alpine species. ‘These 
last are largely composed of small trees and shrubs; above these 
limits are the desolated slopes of snow and granite. Here and 
there a grassy flat is found in some valley; but the green pas 
tures that form such an element in the alpine scenery of Kurope 
are entirely absent. Hundreds of little lakes and ponds nestle 
in the valleys or occupy the beds of old glaciers, as clear and as 
blue as the sky they reflect. Some were seen frozen over i0 
midsummer, and many of them are doubtless frozen the most 
of the year. 
The desolation of these higher solitudes, the deep silence that 
rests upon them, the intensely deep blue of the clear sky, nearly 
cloudless me i and entirely s0, except at rare intervals, at 
night, the deep black from which the stars and moon sh 
