Vol. 4 J Knopf- Thelen. — Geology of Mineral King. 



229 



Mineral King, the Kaweah suddenly swings through 90° and 

 commences its rapid descent down the western flank of the 

 Sierra Nevada at a rate exceeding 600 feel per mile. These 

 various physiographic features are readily discernible upon the 

 contour sheet, and hardly need comment. 



The relief of the region is exceedingly bold and ragged, 

 varying from a maximum of 12,405 on Florence Peak to 6,500 

 feet on Cliff Creek, or over a mile in altitude. The crest lines 

 are fierce and jagged, and consist characteristically of huge 

 angular spauls of rock recumbent in various unstable attitudes, 

 like a chaos wrought by the play of titanic forces. They are 

 impressive evidence of the vigor and destructive intensity with 

 which weathering progresses on alpine heights. Products of 

 secular decay are nowhere present. 



Great talus heaps mantle the bases of the cliffs. These ac- 

 cumulations vary in character with the lithologic habits of the 

 parent cliff: the schists, quartzites and plutonic intrusives yield 

 irregular confused aggregates of large angular blocks of widely 

 varying sizes ; the clay slates, on the other hand, encumber 

 enormous slopes with fresh and unaltered debris which is uni- 

 formly of the size of a fist. 



Occasionally deep sand slopes are developed. The produc- 

 tion of these within this area seems to be determined by petro- 

 graphical influences. The s^ind consists of the loose accumula- 

 tion of fragments of disintegrated granite, often up to the size 

 of a walnut, and grains of quartz and feldspar which still pre- 

 serve their pristine freshness. 



Characteristic accumulations occur at Sawtooth Peak, where 

 the granite possesses a striking individuality. This granite is 

 a coarsely granular aggregate of quartz and orthoclase, with 

 very small amounts of hornblende and biotite. The quartz 

 occurs typically as anhedrons of the size of peas uniformly 

 scattered throughout the rock. The sand slopes are limited to 

 this particular variety of granite, and it is significant in this 

 connection, that the quartz-mica-diorites, which are rocks of firm 

 and closely coherent texture, do not yield sands under the same 

 conditions, but produce great talus heaps. 



