Knap sacking Across the Kings-Kern Divide. 167 



camp. We selected a fine grove of two-leafed pines 

 beside the roaring stream whose banks were thickly car- 

 peted with Bryanthus heather. 



Early the next morning we were on our way and soon 

 reached the lower end of the main amphitheater where 

 the stream heads. Here it makes a sweeping curve back 

 on itself and almost parallels its original course. We 

 were planning to cross the Kings-Kern Divide and drop 

 into the headwaters of Roaring River. We found the 

 wall of this upper basin to consist of sheer savage looking 

 cliffs all along its southerly side. We had expected to 

 clamber up a narrow cleft indicated on the map but found 

 it blocked by a foaming series of falls. A little further 

 along the wall, we started up a steep talus slope and by 

 carefully picking our way managed to climb out onto 

 the ridge above. We found this ridge separated the main 

 basin from a small amphitheater in which headed the 

 stream forming the series of falls which had just blocked 

 our progress. We easily crossed this amphitheater and 

 reached a pass on the main Kings-Kern (Great Western) 

 Divide just north of Triple Divide Peak. The distance 

 of but a few inches determines whether raindrops falling 

 on this peak will flow into the Kern, Kings or Kaweah 

 watersheds. As may be imagined, the view from this 

 culminating portion of the divide is superb. A wilder- 

 ness of peaks, snow fields, lakes and canons greets the 

 eye. Unless I am greatly mistaken, we saw some of the 

 "Big Trees" of the Giant Forest. 



While sitting in the notch of the pass (12,500 ft.) a 

 hummingbird, probably attracted by a gaudy trout fly 

 which I had fastened in my hat-band, poised itself in the 

 air within a few inches of my ear and remained there 

 several seconds, when, discovering the deception, it 

 darted off to sip honey from the throats of the brilliant 

 Alpine flowers which grow in sheltered sun-exposed nooks 

 of even that wild and forbidding region. 



Descending a steep chimney of loose rock, we plunged 

 rapidly across a huge snow field and down a talus slope 



