Notes and Correspondence 



197 



UNSIGHTLINESS — MUDFLATS 



That is the crux of the whole matter as far as concerns the value of 

 the park. It does no harm to point out that in the second place, apart 

 from the incalculable importance of the foreground and surroundings 

 provided by the landscape of the valley floor in contributing to the im- 

 pression that is made upon the visitor by the scenery as a whole, the 

 best views are unquestionably those to be obtained from the level of 

 the valley floor at a short distance from the base of the cliffs looking 

 up, whereas with the reservoir the views» except from boats, are to be 

 obtained almost exclusively from above looking down or from a road 

 cut out of the rocks part way up on one side of the valley and looking 

 across. 



It is also true, in the third place, that the proposed body of water 

 would not be a normal mountain lake but a reservoir regularly subject 

 to depletion, leaving a margin of unsightly banks and mudflats exposed 

 along a considerable part of the shore except for brief periods of high 

 water not occurring every year. It is true that the shores at high-water 

 mark are generally steep and that the water would be highest in summer 

 when the greatest influx or visitors will always occur; but a careful 

 study of the fluctuations in water level which would occur under the 

 conditions indicated by the mass curves for a seventeen-year period 

 (not including the dryest periods on record) as given in Mr. Freeman's 

 report and of the topographical data given by him, makes it certain that 

 the unnatural and disagreeable appearance of a partially depleted reser- 

 voir would be apparent by far the larger part of the time, and that even 

 in the summer months this effect would be apparent to such a degree 

 and for such lengths of time as seriously to mar the enjoyment other- 

 wise derivable by the public from the appearance of the reservoir. At 

 the best the water would begin to fall during the summer months and 

 not fill up again till late in the spring. At the worst there would be 

 about three square miles of bottom exposed and only one square mile 

 of water, the water remaining more than fifty feet below high water 

 mark for a year and a half. 



VARIETY AND PECULIARITY OF SCENERY 



Maybe the draft upon the reservoir would be less than that assumed 

 by Mr. Freeman and the fluctuations slighter; maybe the draft would 

 be more or the rainfall less and the exposure of the muddy bottom 

 worse. But it is not essential to go minutely into these details to or 

 weigh the claim that the necessary sanitary regulations would interfere 

 seriously with camping in the Park, a matter that seems to me to have 

 been somewhat exaggerated by the opponents of the reservoir project. 

 The vital point is that the making of the reservoir at all would essen- 

 tially alter the character of the scenery for the worse. 



It has been urged that even if the presence of a large, fiord-like body 

 of water would not be an absolute improvement to the Yosemite scenery, 

 its occurrence in part of the Park would lend a desirable variety to its 



