220 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



the basin and shallower parts of the bottom, with the 

 gathered drift and waste, death and decay, of the upper 

 basins, caught here instead of being swept on to decent 

 natural burial along the banks of the river or in the sea. 

 Thus the Hetch-Hetchy dam-lake would be only a rough 

 imitation of a natural lake for a few of the spring 

 months; an open mountain sepulcher the others. 



"Hetch-Hetchy water is the purest, wholly unpolluted, 

 and forever unpollutable." 



On the contrary, excepting that of the Merced below 

 Yosemite, it is less pure than that of most of the other 

 Sierra streams, because of the sewerage of campgrounds 

 draining into it, especially of the Big Tuolumne Mead- 

 ows campgrounds, where hundreds of tourists and moun- 

 taineers, with their animals, are encamped for months 

 every summer, soon to be followed by thousands of 

 travelers from all the world. 



These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging com- 

 mercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, 

 and instead of lifting their eyes to the miountains, lift 

 them to dams and town skyscrapers. 



Dam Hetch-Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks 

 the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier tem- 

 ple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man. 



