156 Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Yosemite, and were camped half a mile below us. We 

 were pleased to have them join us in our evening meal. 

 While at dinner Dr. Gilbert discovered some perfect 

 bear-marks scratched on the light-gray bark of the cotton- 

 woods near by. Some were made by the bears thrusting 

 their claws into the bark in the act of climbing; others 

 were long parallel scratches made by the bears reaching 

 up to full height and then scratching downward. 



When Noble and I returned from our trip up the 

 Piute Branch plans were made to take our jacks up 

 that stream; but as soon, however, as the other party 

 arrived, and we found that they would ascend Evolution 

 Creek* (a stream which enters the South Fork from the 

 east four miles south of the Piute Branch), we planned to 

 accompany them up that stream, and then strike off 

 toward Mt. Humphreys, taking our jacks with us as far 

 as possible and knapsacking it the balance of the way.f 

 This we did, accompanying our friends nearly to the 

 Hermit, where we left them, and our party climbed up 

 the northern wall of the cafion about a thousand feet, 

 by an old steep sheep-trail. This trail brought us to a 

 glacial shelf or plateau which projects out from the ridge 

 which separates Evolution Creek from the Piute Branch. 

 On this shelf are a number of little meadows and tiny 

 lakes. There is one good-sized lake, half a mile long 

 and about a quarter of a mile wide, situated on the very 

 brink of the shelf. On the shores of this lake were 

 patches of bunch-grass in sufficient quantity to supply 



* Mr. Le Conte has described the trip from Lost Valley to the Hermit 

 in an article which appears in this number of the Bulletin. In his article 

 he has given the name "Evolution Creek" to the stream, which heretofore 

 has been called the " Middle Branch of the South Fork of the San Joaquin 

 River," — a very excellent change. 



t For map showing our trail and route see Plate XXXIII, opposite 

 page 229. 



