THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 95 



numerable mountains with soft flowing outlines 

 extend range beyond range, gray, and pale purple, 

 and blue, — the farthest gradually fading on the 

 glowing horizon. Westward you look down and 

 over the countless moraines, glacier meadows, 

 and grand sea of domes and rock waves of the 

 upper Tuolumne basin, the Cathedral and Hoff- 

 man mountains with their wavering lines and 

 zones of forest, the wonderful region to the north 

 of the Tuolumne Canon, and across the dark belt 

 of silver firs to the pale mountains of the coast. 



In the icy fountains of the Mount Lyell and 

 Bitter groups of peaks, to the south of Dana, 

 three of the most important of the Sierra rivers 

 — the Tuolumne, Merced, and San Joaquin — 

 take their rise, their highest tributaries being 

 within a few miles of one another as they rush 

 forth on their adventurous courses from beneath 

 snow banks and glaciers. 



Of the small shrinking glaciers of the Sierra, 

 remnants of the majestic system that sculptured 

 the range, I have seen sixty-five. About twenty- 

 five of them are in the park, and eight are in 

 sight from Mount Dana. 



The glacier lakes are sprinkled over all the 

 alpine and subalpine regions, gleaming like eyes 

 beneath heavy rock brows, tree-fringed or bare, 

 embosomed in the woods, or lying in open basins 

 with green and purple meadows around them ; 

 but the greater number are in the cool shadowy 



