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University of California. 



[Vol. 3. 



Kaweah at Mineral King and the head waters of Horse Creek. 

 A fine view of this plateau is obtained from Sawtooth. (Plate 

 45 a.) Its altitude as found upon the Kaweah sheet of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey is about 11,200 feet. Its northern front is 

 deeply indented by a fine series of glacial cirques; and the topo- 

 graphic map clearly indicates that cirques exist also on the south 

 side. The summit surface is flatly undulating, and although 

 upon the topographic map it appears merely as a high ridge, 

 yet it has the expanse characteristic of the residuum of a 

 plateau. The narrowness of the plateau is clearly due to the 

 reduction of its area by the process of cirque encroachment from 

 either side. This plateau may possibly be an outlying remnant 

 of the Summit Upland, but owing to its lower altitude and to 

 the fact that it abuts upon the steep, upper slope of Mt. Vande- 

 ver, it seems better to suggest its correlation with the Sub- 

 sun mit Plateau, with which, in these respects and in its general 

 aspects, it is in better agreement. 



It may be well to remember here that, in recognizing and 

 naming these two upland surfaces, we are not dealing with the 

 hypsometric congruence of mountain crests such as is too often 

 relied upon for the identification of dissected peneplains. In the 

 latter case the peneplains are hypothetical. They may in some 

 cases possibly have never existed. But there can be no possible 

 question as to the actual existence of both the Summit Upland 

 and the Sub-summit Plateau. They are observable features of 

 the geomorphy of the region. Hypotheses, of course, come into 

 play the moment we begin to correlate isolated remains of old 

 surfaces, but these, however frail, do not weaken the fact of the 

 existence of these features or their importance in the historical 

 geology of the region. 



Sculpture of the High Mountain Zone. — The rugged mountains 

 which girdle the Upper Kern Basin or rise within its area, and 

 which have been placed in a geomorphic zone by themselves, the 

 High Mountain Zone, owe their character to the sculpture of 

 both upland and plateau. They are the remnants of a dissection 

 of a lofty landmass which was, at one time in its history, limited 

 upward by a surface in two general levels, that of the Summit 

 Upland and that of the Sub-summit Plateau. Where sharp 



