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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



light. The scarlet gilias stood like flaming torches be- 

 side the trail beckoning us onward, and as we climbed 

 we left behind us the long-leaved yellow pines and 

 entered the fragrant shade of the firs. When we reached 

 the plateau the sun was near the horizon and the silent 

 company of tamaracks, standing like a picket guard 

 around the meadow, were casting long bars of shade 

 across the grass. Two parties, the "slow-goers," were to 

 spend the night at Moraine Lake, on whose crystal sur- 

 face there appeared reflected every tree and stone, even 

 the distant Kaweahs. The rest of us turned to the south 

 and scrambled down the steep sides of the canon into 

 the Big Arroyo. The short twilight of elevated regions 

 was accentuated by our descent from the sunlit heights 

 into the darksome valley, and we had scarcely time to 

 gather in the night's supply of firewood and call in the 

 stragglers before darkness was upon us. 



With the exception of the one spot where precipitous 

 walls of rock attempt to block the stream as it comes 

 cannonading from the gorge and plunges headlong into 

 the Kern, throughout its whole course the Big Arroyo, 

 though deeply cut, is an open canon. From the more 

 gentle slopes on the western side, streams come tumbHng 

 down from the Kern-Kaweah Divide every mile or so, 

 each carving for itself a side canon. The ascent of Lost 

 Canon presents little difficulty for man or beast. Climbing 

 past the long series of cascades down which Lost Creek 

 tumbles into the Big Arroyo, we were soon passing 

 through the beautiful gardens and forests of Lost Canon. 

 From wall to wall lies a flowery meadow, pleasantly 

 shaded with groves of tamarack pines. Through it, flow- 

 ing in wide, tranquil curves and stretches of diminutive 

 rapids, runs the musical stream, whose voice spoke with 

 a vain allure to our fishermen, no trout ever having been 

 planted there. Traveling onward, past the meadows, our 

 climb gave us a succession of magnificent views looking 

 back across the hazy canon of the Kern. Black and sharp 

 against the early morning sky rose Cirque Peak, Langley, 



