Bishop y Piute f Evolution, and Dusy Creeks via Muir Pass 277 



most entirely in the belt of tamarack and alpine white pine. Since 

 the latter, scientifically Pinus albicaulis, also has the common name 

 of white pine, and is often confounded with the white pine, Pinus 

 flexilis, it is well to note that Pinus flexilis is found in the Sierra 

 only in the alpine section of the eastern wall between Bloody Canon 

 and a point opposite Lone Pine. Here at the lake we were rewarded 

 with a catch of a single plump Loch Leven trout, thus identifying the 

 body of water upon whose shores we were camping. Several small 

 lakes were passed en route to the summit of Piute, none of which 

 showed evidence of finny inhabitants. A wide but well-packed snow- 

 bank on the eastern side of the pass was easily negotiated. Piute 

 Pass (11,409 ft.) compares favorably with Cottonwood and Mam- 

 moth passes as one of the easiest in the Sierra. 



The view westward, with the Pinnacles running at right angles to 

 the line of vision, reminds one forcibly of the Great Western Divide 

 viewed from Army Pass. Space will not permit a description of the 

 beauty of the snow-masses of the Glacier Divide, which forms the 

 south wall of Piute Canon and runs westward from the Sierra axis. 

 Remnant glaciers are tucked away in cold amphitheaters; snow 

 lakes stand in the shadows of immovable ramparts. But Mount 

 Humphreys (13,972 ft.) cannot escape a word. We walked a mile 

 north from the saddle of the pass. Humphreys, shaking off the last 

 vestige of timber from its flanks, its giant base rooted deep into the 

 backbone of the Sierra, dominates the Buttermilk Country on the 

 east and the drainage of Piute and Desolation creeks on the west. 

 More, it commands the very heart of the great Goddard quadrangle. 

 The most striking view of Humphreys is obtained from the rock 

 plateau on the north side of Piute Creek near where Desolation 

 Creek tears a gorge in the bank. Along the base of Humphreys on its 

 southwestern side is a row of talus fans reaching upward several 

 hundred feet, fed by corresponding rock-chutes of a gray color. 

 Above these talus fans and across the southwest face of Humphreys 

 is a "chocolate-colored band 1500 feet in thickness, reaching to the 

 crest, the upper edge scalloped and fluted. Above this towers the 

 summit, 1000 feet higher, and terra-cotta in color." The summit, 

 eight feet square, was trod for the first time in 1905 by Messrs. J. 

 S. and E. C. Hutchinson, unless, as J. S. Hutchinson picturesquely 

 puts it, "in the early Jurassic period, before the mountain was fully 

 sculptured," some lone hunter, paddling around in mid-ocean, nosed 



