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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



all its magnificent setting of mountains. It was nestled 

 at the very base of Mt. Darwin, whose crags rose almost 

 from the waters' edge four thousand feet toward the blue 

 sky. Immediately above the lake stood two most strik- 

 ingly gothic peaks, — Mt. Spencer, near at hand, and Mt. 

 Huxley, farther up. The latter is really a wonderfully 

 picturesque piece of mountain sculpture, and though much 

 higher and finer than Mt. Spencer, its much greater dis- 

 tance gives the appearance of two peaks almost exactly 

 aHke in height, form, and symmetry. 



The view across the lake and back into the well-nigh 

 untrodden region above was certainly enough to thrill the 

 nerves of a Sierra lover. There was so much right at 

 hand to do, and so little time in which to do it, that it 

 was difficult to choose a field for the day. Mt. Darwin, 

 close at hand, was over fourteen thousand feet high, and 

 one of my oldest friends. Mt. Fiske, at or near the junc- 

 tion of the Goddard Divide and the Main Crest, was a 

 point I had always longed to reach, but the Goddard 

 Divide itself offered the most inducements, for, so far 

 as I know, no one had followed the stream to its source 

 and looked down the savage canons at the head of the 

 Middle Fork of King's River. So bidding good-by to 

 Dr. Gilbert, whose tastes were geological, and who wished 

 to study the wonderful glacial history written about the 

 lake's margin, I struck out alone up the creek, which 

 above this point flows from the south, parallel with the 

 Main Crest. Evolution Lake itself is over a mile in 

 length. It is very irregular in shape, with narrow straits 

 and long peninsulas, and picturesque little islands dotting 

 its surface. At its head is an amphitheater, and the 

 stream tumbles into it by another splendid series of cas- 



