a 
Explorations in the Sierra Nevada. i] 
forms a Jevel table; upon this lies an unbroken cover of snow. 
To the eastward, all this range, from King’s river gateway to 
Kaweah Peak, presents a series of blank, almost perpendicular 
ores broken every mile or so by a bold granite buttress. 
etween these are vast snow fields, and also numberless deep 
lakes, of which the most elevated are frozen.” 
“The few Pinus contorta, and the groves of our new pine’ 
have a peculiar black color, or, rather, dark bluish-green, which 
rather augments than relieves the desolate, naked aspect 
things.” “The only bits of bright color to break the solemn 
monotony of granite and snow are the blue lakes, which lie eve- 
rywhere in the ancient glacier beds.” 
‘‘ Far away in the north there is a broad red band in the gran- 
ite; other than that, all is gray. Beyond Owen’s valley is a low 
desert range. The Coso and t. mountains are in plain sight.” 
“To the eastward, parallel ridges, one beyond another, lie 
stretched before you, rigid and stony. hey have the same 
aspect as the mountains near Washoe, the same brown color, 
with red and yellow shadings.” 
“Nearly due north, fifty or sixty miles distant, rises a lofty 
group of mountains, which culminates in a'white cone. This must 
be very high, for unbroken snow covers fully two thousand feet 
on the south side of the peak, while even the highest mountains 
in our group have no snow except on the north flank. These are 
probably the ‘ White Mountains.’ I venture 14,600 feet as a guess 
at the probable elevation of the highest point in the group.” 
The White mountains, of which Mr. King speaks, in the ex- 
tract cited above, lie just on the borders of California and Ne- 
vada, in about lon. 118°, lat. 87° 80’; they were distinctly vist 
ble to us from Mt. Dana and the other high peaks near Mono 
lake. It is doubtful whether the highest points are within the 
State of California; but they are probably very near the line on 
one side or the other. As it is by no means impossible, although 
I do not consider it probable, that some points of this range of 
mountains are higher than any yet measured or ascended by our 
parties, we still have to remain for some time in uncertainty as 
to whether California can claim the highest elevations in the 
country as within her borders; we can, at least, say that the 
r 
he ascent of Mt. Tyndall was a successful one, the party re- 
_ turning to camp at the end of the fifth day, with bones and bar- 
above the height of Mt. Shasta, or over 15,090 feet, Mt. Shasta 
being 14,440. The height of Visalia, which is the plane of 
