Little Studies in the Yosemite Valley. 



7 



LITTLE STUDIES IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. 



By Francois E, Matthes. 



IV. El Capitan Moraine and Ancient Lake Yosemite.* 



It seems well nigh unbelievable in these days of enlighten- 

 ment that so eminent a scientist as the late Professor J. D. 

 Whitney should have seen fit to deny the former existence of 

 glaciers in the Yosemite Valley. Said he in his famous old 

 Guide Book : "A more absurd theory was never advanced than 

 that by which it was sought to ascribe to glaciers the sawing out 

 of these vertical walls and the rounding of the domes. Nothing 

 more unlike the real work of ice, as exhibited in the Alps, could 

 be found. Besides, there is no reason to suppose, or at least no 

 proof, that glaciers have ever occupied the valley or any por- 

 tion of it. . . . " 



As a matter of fact, there are excellent reasons for believing 

 that the Yosemite Valley was once invaded by ice, and the 

 proofs of its glacial occupancy are abundant and indubitable. 

 The wonder is that Whitney could have overlooked them. 



The very shape of the valley, though-like, steep-sided, clean- 

 cut; the great height of the hanging valleys from whose lips 

 the thundering waterfalls pour ; the giant stairway down which 

 the Merced River tumbles in its descent from the Little Yo- 

 semite ; these features are, on the face of them characteristically 

 glacial, and impressively attest the great magnitude of the 

 erosional work done by the ice. 



But perhaps the skeptical reader would prefer evidences of a 

 more tangible sort, more immediately linkable with the intimate 

 form and habits of glaciers, and demanding less from the imag- 

 ination in the way of appraisal of the capacity of glaciers to 

 erode, a subject on which even those best qualified to judge are 

 by no means united. 



* Published with permission of the Director of the United States Geological 

 Survey. 



