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University of California. 



[Vol. 3. 



only be determined by the examination of rock fragments in the 

 tains of the cliffs. It appeared to be the ordinary granite of the 

 canon walls with a stain of ferric iron oxide, derived doubtless 

 from the oxidation of the ferrous iron in the ferro-magnesian 

 constituents of the rock. This staining implies the freer access 

 of oxidizing agents, that is, of meteoric waters to the portions of 

 the rocks so affected. The portion of the granite thus affected 

 has been so weakened that it is much more susceptible to dis- 

 integration than the ordinary gray granite ; and this zone of easy 

 disintegration exercises a marked control on the sculpture of the 

 canon wall. This, again, is in harmony with the general hypoth- 

 esis of rifting or the opening of fissures in the granite parallel 

 to the course of the canon. 



The Trout Meadows Defile. — About three miles south of Lower 

 Lake the canon in which the Kern flows departs from its recti- 

 linear, meridional course and bears off to the southeast, making 

 a detour or semicircular bend from its normal course, but the 

 straight trend of the canon is continued in a long, narrow defile 

 through the mountains as far as Trout Meadows, a distance of 

 about four miles. This defile is nearly level throughout its 

 length and has an altitude of about 6800 feet, or about 700 feet 

 above the Kern at the point where it bears away from its merid- 

 ional trend. The floor of the defile rises, however, with an 

 extremely gentle grade to a point about half way to Trout 

 Meadows and thence descends equally gently toward the south. 

 The west wall of this defile is the unbroken continuation of the 

 west wall of the Kern Canon. It rises very steeply to altitudes 

 of 2500 feet or more above the level of the defile, in the crest of 

 the southern end of the Great Western Divide. Along portions 

 of this wall was observed the same red stained granite as that 

 constituting the red streak referred to above as occurring in the 

 more northern part of Kern Canon. The east side of the defile, 

 for the first mile from the north end, is the steep western slope of 

 a narrow rock ridge which on the east drops precipitously to the 

 Kern. The crest of this ridge is about 300 feet above the floor 

 of the defile. A mile from its north end this ridge has been 

 notched, down to the level of the defile, by the headwater erosion 

 of a small tributary of the Kern. South of this notch the east 



