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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



deem a river capable of such acrobatic feats, such head- 

 long abandon. Its behavior is in large measure due to 

 the unique character of the stream-bed, composed of 

 smooth, polished granite, and often incHned at an angle 

 of fifty-five degrees. With the friction reduced to a 

 minimum, the water responds to the pull of gravity with 

 an almost incredible momentum. Occasionally the stream 

 in its descent dashes into a depression shaped like the 

 bowl of a gigantic spoon, and on emerging soars heaven- 

 ward in a majestic white column of spray. Here it 

 resembles a great brilliantly white apron flapping in the 

 breeze, there it is some foam-born goddess of the Sierran 

 wilderness seeking to disengage herself from a thousand 

 yards of filmy lace. In one place a number of smaller 

 spoon-like depressions on the surface of a sharply in- 

 clined plane produce the effect of half a dozen beautiful 

 ever-changing fountains that seem to shoot up through 

 the swiftly gliding waters. The writer, with the approval 

 of our party, would suggest the name "Fountain Cas- 

 cade" for this unique phenomenon. In some of the longer 

 cascades the speed of the water, occasioned by the con- 

 ditions described above, leads to other spectacular 

 phenomena rarely or never seen elsewhere. Thus it 

 happens not infrequently that the flying current impinges 

 against a giant boulder tossed into the channel by an 

 earthquake, or against some well-buttressed ledge that 

 successfully resists the impact of the river. The col- 

 lision resembles nothing so much as an enormous explo- 

 sion covered by a pall of misty smoke through which 

 bombs of spray and fantastic water-wheels are hurled 

 with titanic energy. Even the rainbows spanning the 

 tumult in brilliant segments seem to break with every 



