THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 89 



Hardly less wonderful, when we contemplate 

 the storms it has encountered since first it saw 

 the light, is its present unwasted condition. The 

 whole quantity of postglacial wear and tear it 

 has suffered has not diminished its stature a sin- 

 gle inch, as may be readily shown by measuring 

 from the level of the unchanged polished por- 

 tions of the surface. Indeed, the average post- 

 glacial denudation of the entire region, measured 

 in the same way, is found to be less than two 

 inches, — a mighty contrast to that of the ice ; 

 for the glacial denudation here has been not less 

 than a mile ; that is, in developing the present 

 landscapes, an amount of rock a mile in average 

 thickness has been silently carried away by flow- 

 ing ice during the last glacial period. 



A few erratic boulders nicely poised on the 

 rounded summit of the monument tell an inter- 

 esting story. They came from a mountain on 

 the crest of the range, about twelve miles to the 

 eastward, floating like chips on the frozen sea, 

 and were stranded here when the top of the 

 monument emerged to the light of day, while the 

 companions of these boulders, whose positions 

 chanced to be over the slopes where they could 

 not find rest, were carried farther on by the shal- 

 lowing current. 



The general view from the summit consists 

 of a sublime assemblage of iceborn mountains 

 and rocks and long wavering ridges, lakes and 



