University of the Pacific Scholarly Commons

John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes John Muir Papers

12-1-1880 The Ancient Glaciers of the Sierra. John Muir

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb

Recommended Citation Muir, John, "The Ancient Glaciers of the Sierra." (1880). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes. 192. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/192

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the John Muir Papers at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. '\ .. ~ ... \~~. ~' · 55° THE CALIFORNIAN.

which she had arisen perfectly forgetful of me, my father's voice that I hear chiming always in of her marriage, of all but the haunting con­ my ears, eager and imperious? And in your scioiisness of a roo ted sorrow. Her father had face there is a look I have only observed late­ j died abroad, and her mother and sister returned ly, when you come to sit by me, that rem inds to find that the estate had melted away in the me of some one I have seen before. Who is .k . settlement, and now they were taking scholars. it? Who can it be?" Neil seemed to understand their position, but I fixed her eyes with mine. I will.ed her to any intellectual employment distressed her si nce know me, now at this supreine moment, with her iilness ; so, with the influence of her father's the passion of prayer. friends, she had taken up her present occupa­ "Look at me," I whispered, bending over tion. She clung to our little house as her home, her. and they rented two of the sunniest rooms for A strong shudder ran through her frame; she her. She was fading rapidly; was unfit for any recoiled, putting up her hand as if to ward off work, especi~lly for the con finement of sewing, a blow, and then bent her eyes upon my face but she would not relinquish the pleasure of with a terrible frown. adding something to the family treasury. I de­ "You have been here a long time ! " she gasp­ termine.d that she should have rest; and, brav­ ed, seizing her head hard in her hands. "And ing the black looks and hatred of her family, I could not-wait,. wait one moment- it is all bent my pride to persuade them of my affec· coming back to me. Ah, Berkeley! my hus­ tion and repentance, and to beg that my wife band." should be given back into my keeping. I took She strained me to her in her emaciated what employment I could get-not elevated nor arms. I laid her clown dead. elevating-and put my poor girl into more se­ She lies there among the reel flowers that she cluded and commodious rooms; and, with a )oved so. "The white wreaths make me cold," physician's aid, strove to bring her back to .life she once said. "vVhen I am dead at last, bury and memory. She seemed to know that she me with reel flowers, half- faded, fiery blossoms, could not live long, but deprecated whatever full of bitter summer." I was done for her, imagining all to be the work The fine lips press restfully upon each other, of her mother and sister, and they never· tried the shadowy lids, so slow ~o close in sleep, are to make her comprehend my return; but I wait­ quite drooped. And the great, true heart is ed in patienGe, with an aching heart. At night, still, and the flame of the abounding life that I when she slept, I used to sit by her bedside, had so prodigally wasted, burned out as con­ watching her by the pale lamplight. She was sumed with desire of Death's strange eyes. worn and wasted, and the heavy shadow of grief And I rave impotently, 0 my well beloved! lay on her purple eyelids. One night as I lin­ while your untamed, long-imprisoned soul re­ gered near her, and it was almost dawn, she joices to spurn its cage and be at liberty. You awoke, and our eyes met. have been ~tretched out upon the rack of this "You know people say shells echo with the tough world, but the torture is over. The cry lost sea," she said, quietly, as if we had been of my heart is as old as the sin of the world: talking. "My mind echoes with such a sound; "My punishment is greater than I can bear." it is the voice of some one I have lost. Is it PHILIP SHIRLEY;

THE ANCIENT GLACIERS OF THE SIERRA.

All California has been heavily glaciated, the beneath whose heavy folds all the present land­ broad plains and valleys so· warm and fertile scapes have been molded; while on both flanks now, and the coast ranges and foothills, covered of the Sierra we find the fresher and more ap­ with forests and chaparral, as well as the bald, preciable traces of the individual glaciers, or rocky summits of the Sierra Nevada, swelling ice- rivers, into which that portion of the ice­ high in the cold sky. sheet which covered the range was divided to­ Go where you may, throughout the length ward the close of the glacial period. and breadth of the State, unmistakable evidence No other mountain chain on the globe seems is everywhere presented of the former existence to be so rich in emphatic, well preserved gla­ of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thickness, cial monuments, easily seen by anybody capa- THE ANCIENT GLA CJERS OF THE SIERRA. 55 1

ble of lookin g. Every feature is more or less climate would now ~mel then occur which wo uld glacia l. Not a peak, ridge, dome, or mere bring the receding snouts to a stand -still, or rock, cmion, lake -basin, forest, or stream, but even enable them to advance for a few tens or in some way explains the past existence and h undreds of years, when they would again be­ modes of action of flowing, grinding ice. For, gin to recede. notwithstanding the post · glacial agents-the In the meantime the plants were coming on, ai r, rain, snow, frost, rivers, etc.-have been in­ the hardiest species establi shing themselves on . cessantly at work upon the greater portion of the moraine soils and in fissures of the rocks, the range for tens of thousands of stormy years, pushing upward along every sun-warmed slope, each engraving their own characters more and and following close upon the retreating ice, more deeply over those of the ice, the latter wh ich, like sh't'ecls of summer clouds, a t length a re so enduring and so heavil y emphasized, vanished from the new-born mountains, leaving they still rise in sublime relief, clear and legi­ them in all their main telling features nearly as ble, through every after inscription, whether of we find them now. the mighty avalanche, the torrent, or universal, It wi ll be seen, therefore, that the lowlands erodin g atmosphere. To-day, in higher lat i­ near the level of the sea, and the foothills, and tudes, the great glacial winter still prevaifs in the tops of the highest domes and ridges, were all it s cold, white grandeur. The unborn land­ the first to see the light, and therefore have scapes of North Greenland, and some of those been 'longer exposed to post-glacial weathering. of our own Alaska, are still being fashioned be­ Accordingly, we find that their glaciai charac­ neath a deep, slow-crawling mantle of ice, from ters are more worn and obscured than those of a quarter of a mile to more than a mile in thick­ the higher regions, though all are still legible n ess, presenting noble illustrations of the an­ to the patient student. cient condition of California, when· all its sub­ lime scenery was sealed up, or in process of GLACIER PAVEMENTS. formation. On the Himalaya, and the mount­ ains of Norway and Switzerland, and on most By far the most striking and attractive of the of those of Alaska, the ice -mantle has been glacial phenomena presented to the non: scien­ melted away from the ridges and table -lands, tific observer in the Sierra are the polished where it was thinnest, thus separating it into glacier pavements, because they are so beauti­ distinct glaciers that flow, river-like, through the ful, and their beauty is of so rare a kind, so un­ valleys, illustrating a similar past conditi on in like any portion of the loose, earthy lowlands. the Sierra, when every cm7on and valley was where people make homes and earn their bread. the· channel of an ice-stream, all of which may They are simply fl at or gently undulatin-g areas be easily traced back to where their fountains of solid granite, which present the unchanged lay in the recesses of the alpine summits, and surface upon which the ancient glaciers flowed, where some sixty-five of their topmost residual and are found in the most perfect condition in branches still linger beneath cool shadows. the sub-alpine region, at an elevation of from The transition from one to the other of those eight thousand to nine thousand feet. Some glacial conditions was gradual and shadow- like. are miles in extent, only sli ghtly interrupted by When the great cycle of cold, snowy years­ spots that have given way to the weather, while called the glacial period-was nearly complete, the best preserved portions are bright and stain­ the ice -mantle, wasting from season to season less as the sky, refle cting the ·sunbeams like faster than it was renewed, began to withdraw glass, and shining as if polished afresh every from the lowlands ·along the base of the range, clay, notwithstanding they have been exposed and graduall y became shallower. everywhere. to corroding rains, clew, frost, and snow for Then the highest of the granite domes began thousands of years. · to appear above the icy sea, and ,long, eli vicl­ The. attention of the game-seeking and gold­ ing ridges, containing distinct glaciers, between seeking mountaineer is seldom commanded by them. These glaciers at first remained united other glacial phenomena, as moraines, however in one continuous sheet toward the summit of regular and artificial in form, or cm7ons, how­ the range for many centuri~s. But as the snow­ ever deep, or strangely modeled rocks, however fall diminished, and the climate became milder, high and sheer; but when h e comes to these this upper ice-sheet was also in turn separated bare pavements he stoops and rubs his hand into distinct glaciers, and these again into small ­ admiringly on their sh ining surfaces, and tries er ones, as one tributary after another was cut hard to account for their mysterious smoothness ' off from its trunk and became independent ; and brilliancy. He may have seen the winter while at the same time all were growing short­ avalanches cf snow descending in awful majesty er and shallower, though flu ctuations of the through the woods, sweeping away the trees

0~ 771 55 2 THE CALIFORNIAN. that stood in their way like slender weeds, but hundred fe et high, situated on the left bank of concludes that this cannot be the work of ava­ the ancient Tuolmune mer de glace, a short dis­ lanches, because the scratches and fine polish­ tance to th e north of Cathedral Peak. At first ing strire show that the agent, whatever it was, sight it seems absolutely inaccessible, though a moved along, and up over the rocks, as well as good climber will find that it may be scaled on downward. Neither can he see how water may the south side. Approaching it on this side, possibly have been the agent, for he finds the you pass through a beautiful spruce forest grow­ same strange polish upon lofty, isolated tables ing on the lateral morain e, catchin g glimpses beyond the reach of any conceivable flood. now and then of what appears to be a perfect Only the winds seem capable of moving across cone of granite, to wering to an immense bigh t the face of the country in the directions incli· above the clark evergreens; and when at length catecl by the scratches and grooves. Even clogs you have made your way-across the woods, wad­ and horses, when first led up the mountains, ing through thickets of azalea and.leclum, you study geology to this extent, that they gaze won­ step abruptl y out of the tree shadows and leafy, deringly at the strange brightness of the ground, mossy softness, upon a naked curve of porphyry, and smell it, and place their feet cautiously upon that forms the base of the monument, which is it, as if afraid of falling or sinking. now beheld unvei led in all its grandeur. Fancy In the production of this admirable hard fin­ a well proportioned monument, of comprehen­ ish, the glaciers, in many places, bore clown with sible size, say eight or ten feet high, formed of a pressure of more than a hundred tons to the one stone, exquisitely finished, and set, not in a square foot, slipping, and pressing, and planing graveyard, but in a wild pleasure-ground. Now, clown granite, slate, and quartz alike, and bring­ magnify it to a bight of fifteen hundred feet, re­ in g out the veins and crystals of the rocks with taining its simplicity of form, and fineness, and beautiful distinctness. Most of the granite be· brilliancy, and fill its surface with crystals; low the sources of the Tuolumne and Merced then you may have some conception of the rare is porphyritic, the feldspar crystals in many beauty and sublimity of this ice-bumishecl cone, places forming the greater part of the rock, and one of the noblest monuments of the glacial pe· these, when planed off level with the general riocl to be found in the range. ' surface, give rise to a beautiful mosaic, and In making the ascent we find that the curves when the sunlight falls upon it the multitude of of the base rapidly steepen, but the felclspal· crys­ starry crystals shining at different angles make tals, two or three inches long, having offered a blaze of white beams, as if the ground were greater resistance to atmospheric erosion than covered with burnished silver. the mass of the rock in which they are imbed­ The brightest and most elaborately finished ded, have been brought into relief, roughening of the Sierra landscapes lie on the headwaters the surface here and there, and offering slight of the Tuolumne and Merced, above Yosemite footholds, while some of them have been weath­ Valley. The mountains, both to the north and ered out altogether, and rolled to the bottom, south of this region, were, perhaps, subjected to forming a glittering ring around the base. And .about as long and intense a glaciation; but, be­ it is interesting to observe that, after the outer cause the rocks are less resisting, their polished layer of crystals, whose upper smfaces formed surfaces have succumbed to the attacks of the part of the origi1ial glaciated surface, have been weather, leaving only lH~r e and there small, im­ weathered out, the lower layers, as they suc­ perfect patches. The lowest remnants of the cessively come to the surface, unprotected by old glacial surface are about from three thou­ the glacier polish, have but little superior power sand to five thousand feet above the level of the of resisting disintegration, and, therefore, the sea, and thirty to fo rty miles from the axis of whole surface is subsequently weathered off at the range, on the west flank. The short, steeply about the same general rate. inclined canons of the eastern flank also con­ The summit of the monument is burnished tain enduring montonecl bosses, and sloping and scored like the sides and base, the scratches aprons, brilliantly striated !J.nd finished, but and strire indicating that the mighty glacier of these are far less magnificent than those of the the Tuolumne Basin overwhelmed it while it broad western fl ank. lay clark and steadfast beneath the crystal fl ood, Perhaps the one best general view of these like a bowlder at the bottom of a river. How brilliant landscapes, that is easily accessible, enormous the pressure it withstood! Had it and comprehends specimens of all the more , been less solidly built, ,it would have been .car­ striking of the glacial characters, is to be had ried away-ground into moraine fragments, like from the top of a lofty conoidal rock that I the adjacent rock in which it lay imbeded; for it have called the Glacier Monument. It is a is only a residual knot, brought into relief by majestic monolith of porphyry, about fifteen the removal of the less resisting rock about it THE ANCIENT GLACIERS OF THE SIERRA. 553.

-an illustration in stone of the survival of the attention of every beholder, no matter how little strongest and most favorably si tu ated. its scientific significance may be recognized. Hardly less wonderful is its present unwastecl These bald, westward-leaning rocks, with their condition, when we contemplate the long, dark rounded backs and shoulders toward the glacier procession of storms that have fallen upon it fountains, and their split, angular fronts look­ since first its crown rose above the icy sea. ing in the opposite direction, explained the tre­ The whole quantity of post-glacial wear and mendous grinding force with which the glaciers tear it has suffered has not degraded it a sin­ passed over th em, and also the direction whence gle inch, as may readily be shown by meas­ the glaciers flowed; and the mountain peaks uring from the level of the polished portions of around the sides a'f the upper general Tuolum­ the surface. ne Basin, with their sharp, unglaciated summits A few erratic bowlders, nicely poised on the and polished, rounded sides, indicate the bight rounded suinmit, tell an interesting story, for to which the glaciers rose; while the numerous they came from ·the alpine peaks twelve miles moraines, curvi ng and swaying in beautiful lines, away, drifting like chips on the fro zen sea, and mark the boundaries of the main trunk and its were stranded here, while their companions, subordinate tributaries as they existed toward whose positions chanced to be above the slopes the close of the glacial winter just before th ey of the sides, where they could not come to rest, vanished. None of the great commercial hign­ were carried farther on by falling back on the ways of the land or sea, marked with buoys and shallowing ice. lamps, fences and guide- boards, is so unmis­ The general view from the summit consists takably indicated as are these abandoned path. of a sublime assemblage of ice- born rocks and ways of the vanished Tuolumne glaciers. mountains, lakes and meadows, and moraines I would like now to offer some nearer views covered with forests and groves-hunclrecls of of a few characteristic specimens of these old square miles of them-builcled together into dead ice-streams, which have exerted·so pro­ one of the brightest and most openly hanno­ found an influence on the scenery of the mount­ nious landscapes to be found in all the range. ains, and concerning which so little is generally The alps rise grandly along the sky to the east, known, though it is not easy to make a selec­ the gray pillared slopes of the Hoffmann Range tion from so vast a system so intimately inter­ toward the west, and a billowy sea of shining blended. The main affiuents of the great Mer­ montoned rocks seem, from their peculiar sculpt­ ced glacier are perhaps best suited to our pur­ ure, to roll on westward in the middle ground. pose, because their basins, upon which their Immecjiately beneath you are the Big Tuol­ histories are vividly portrayed; are more ap­ umne Meadows, eight miles long, with an am­ proachable to the general traveler, and are com­ ple swath of dark, pine woods on either side, paratively well defined. They number five, and stretching east and west, enlivened by the young may well be called Yosemite glaciers, since glistening river that is seen coming fresh from they were the agents by which beauty-loving its fountain snow, tracing the lowest portion of nature created the grand valley, grinding and the ancient Tuolumne mer de .Rlace, which, fashioning it out of the solid fl ank of the range, during the snow period, was lavishly flooded block by block, particle by particle, with sub­ by many a noble affluent from the ice -laden lime deliberation and repose·. fl anks of Mounts Dana, Lyell, Maclure, Ore!, The names I have given them are, beginning Gibbs, Conness, and others that are yet name­ with the northmost, Yosemite Creek, Hoffmann, less. The mer de glace thus formed was over Tenaya, South Lyell, and Illillouette Glaciers. four miles wide, and poured its majesti c outflow­ These all converged in admirable poise around ing current full again st the end of the Hoffmann from north-east to south-east, welding them­ Range, which divided and deflected it to right selves together into one huge trunk which swept and left, just as a river of water is divided against down through the valley, fillin g it brimful from an island that stands in the middle of its cur­ ~n d to end, receivi ng small tributaries on its rent. Two distinct glaciers were thus formed, way from the Indian, Sentinel, and Pohono one of which flowed through the great Tuol­ Canons ; and at length flowed out of the valley, umne Canon and Hetch Hetchy Valley, while and on down the range in a general westerly the other swept upward for five hundred fe et in direction. At the time that the tributaries men­ a broad current across the divide between the tioned above were well defined as to their basins of the Tuolumne and Merced, into the boundaries, the upper portion of the valley Tenaya Basin, and thence clown the Tenaya walls, and the highest rocks about them, such Canon into Yosemite Valley. as the Domes, the uppermost of the Three Broth­ The map -like distinctness and freshness of ers, and the Sentinel, rose above the surface of this glacial landscape cannot fail to excite the the ice. But during the valley's earlier history,

()& 7 71 554 THE CALIFORNIAN.

all its rocks, however .lofty, were buried beneath sand gardens, fill ed with the fairest flowers, are a continuous sheet, which swept on above and blooming along the banks of its streams. about them like the wind, the upper portion of /I the current flowing steadily, while the lower THE HOFFMANN GLACIER. l portion went mazing and sweclging clown in the crooked, dome- blocked cai7ons. Every glacier The short, swift-flowing Hoffmann Glacier of­ of the Sierra fluctuated in width and depth and fered a striking contrast to the one just de­ length, and consequently in degree of individ­ scribed, both in appearance and manner of uality, clown to the latest glacial clays. It must, working. The erosive energy of the latter was therefore, be borne in mind that the following diffused over a wild field of sunken, bowlder­ descriptions apply only to their separate con­ like domes and ridges. The Hoffmann Glacier, dition, and to that phase of their separate con­ on the contrary, moved right ahead on a com­ dition that they pi·esented toward the close of paratively smooth surface, making a descent of the period when most of their work was done, nearly five thousand feet in five miles, steadily and all the more telling fee1tures of the valley contracting and deepening its current, and final­ ly thrusting itself between the Yosemite domes ~ncl the region adjacent were already brought mto relief. in the form of a solid wedge of ice. The concentrated action of this energeticgla­ cier, combined with the Tenaya, accomplished THE YOSEMITE CREEK GLACIER. the greater portion of the disinterment and The broad, many-fountained glacier to which sculpture of the great Half Dome, North Dome, the present Yosemite Creek Basin ·belonaed and the rocks adjacent to them. Its fountains, . was about fourteen miles in length by fourb or' extended along the southern slopes of the Hoff­ five in width, and from fi ve hundred to a thou­ mann Range, gave birth to a series of short, sand feel deep. Its principal tributaries, draw­ fan- shaped tribL1taries, separated from e~tch ing their sources from fountains set far back other by picturesque walls, that are built of among the northern spurs of the Hoffmann massive granite blocks, bedded and jointed like Range, at first pursued a westerly course; then, masonry. uniting with each other, and absorbing a series. The story of its death is not unlike that of its of short aftluents from the western rim of the companion, already described, though the de­ basin, the trunk thus formed swept around to clivity of its channel, and its uniform exposure the so11thward in a magnificent curve, and to sun-heat, prevented any considerable portion poured its ice over the north wall of Yosemite of its current from becoming torpid. It was in cascades two miles wide. first burned off on its lower course, slowly with­ This broad and comparatively shallow glacier drawing, and lingering only well up on the formed a sort of crawling, wrinkled ice- cloud, mountain slopes, beneath its fountains, tofinish that gradually became more regular in shape their sculpture, and encircle them with a zone of moraine soil for forests and gardens. and river-like as it• grew older. Encirclino·. b peaks began to overshadow its highest fount- The gray slopes of Mount Hoffmann are sin­ ains, rock islets rose here and there amid its gularly barren and forbidding in aspect, but the ebbing currents, and its picturesque banks, traveler who is so hopeful as to ascend them adorned with domes and battlements, extend­ will find there some of the very loveliest of the ed in massive grandeur down to the brink of Sierra gardens. The lower banks and braes of the Yosemite walls . . When the long winter had the basin toward Yosemite are richly planted nearly passed, the main trunk, melting and ebb­ . with chaparral, which yields a lavish abundance ing from season to season, at length vanished of bloom and berries, and is, therefore, a favor­ altogether in the sunshine, and a multitude of ite place of resort for bees and bears, wbile the waiting plants made their way into the new middle region is heavily wooded with silver-firs. grounds prepared for them. Now here in all tl1 is wonderful region will you In the meantime the chief Hoffmann tributa­ find more beautiful trees and shrubs and flow­ ries, slowly receding to the shelter of their ers. Nowhere will you find the cold traces of fountain shadows, continued to live and work glaciers more warmly clothed with life and independently; spreading garden soils, deepen­ light. ing lake basins, and giving finishing touches to THE TENAYA GLACIER: the sculpture of their fountain rocks. At length these also vanished, and the wbole basin is now The .Tenaya Glacier was rugged, and broken full of light. Forests flourish lu xuriantt'y upon up with yawning crevices and ice-falls, on ac­ its ample moraines, lakes and meadows nestle count of the extreme hardness and solidity of everywhere amid its shining rocks, and a thou- the ridges it had to· pass over. THE AJ\'CIENT GLACIERS OF THE SIERRA. 555

Instead of drawing its sources directly from ly barren, are ranged side by side in three dis­ the summit of the range, it formed, as we have tinct series, at an elevation of from ten to twelve seen, one of the outlets of the Tuolumne mer thousand feet above the sea. The first series de glace, issuin g from this noble fountain like on the right side of the basin extends from the a river from a lake, two miles wide, about four­ Matterhorn to Cathedral Peak. That on the teen long, and from five hundred to fifteen hun­ left extends through the Merced group, and dred feet deep. these two parallel series are united by a third, In leaving its source, it fi rst fl owed upward which extends around the head of the basin in about fiv e hundred fe et ove r the divide between a direction at right-angles to that of the others. the waters of the Tuolumne and Merced, into The three ranges of summits in which these the basin of Lake Tenaya. Hence, aft er con­ fountain-wombs are laid, together with the tracting its wide current, which had been par­ Cloud's Rest ridge, nearly inclose a rectang u­ ti all y separated in crossin g the clivicle, and re­ lar basin, that was once a massive mer de ;~lace, ceiving a strong affluent from the fountains leaving an outlet toward the west opposite to abou t Cathedral Peak, it began to move with the most fruitful of the fountains. The grand renewed vigor, pouring its massive flood over trunk glacier, lavishly filled by the tributari es the south- western rim of the Tenaya Basin in derived from ihese numerous ice:wombs, was splendid cascades. Then, crushing heav ily from three-fourths of a mile to a mile and a half against the Cloud's Rest ridge, it curved to­ wide, fift een miles long, and from one thousand ward the west, compressed and welded its crev­ to fifteen hundred feet deep. iced current, and bore clo wn upon the Yosem­ After flowin g in a north-westerly direction for ite domes wi th its whole concentrated energy. a fe w miles, it swerved to the ·left, and poured Toward the end of the ice period, while its its shattered cascading current into Yosemite H offmann companion continued to grind rock­ Valley between the Half Dome and Mount meal for coming plants, the whole trunk of th e Starr, King. T enaya Glacier became torpid, and vanished, Could we have visited Yosemite Valley at this exposing wide areas of rolling rock- waves and period of its history, we should have found its gli sterin g pavements, on whose channelless sur­ ice cascades vastly more glorious than their face water ran wild and free. And because the tiny water representatives of the present day. main trunk. vanished almost simultaneously One of tb e grandest of these was formed by throughout its whole extent, we, of co urse, do that portion of tbe Lyell Glacier that fell over not find terminal moraines curved across its the shoulder of Half Dome. channels; nor, sin ce its banks are, in most This glaci~r, as a whole, resembled an oak, places, too steeply inclined to admit of the de­ with a gnarled, swelling base and wide-spread­ position of morain e matter, do we find much of in g branches. P icturesque rocks of every con­ the two main laterals. The lowest of the resid­ ceivable form adorn its banks, among which ual glaciers belongi ng to this basin was cl evcl­ glided the numerous tributaries, mottled with opecl beneath the shadow of the Yosemite H alf black and gray bowlders, from the fountain­ Dome. Others were formed along the base of peaks, while ever and anon, as the deliberate Coliseum Peak, on the south side of Lake Te­ centuries passed away, some dome rais ed its naya, and along the precipitous wall extending burnished crown above the ice to enrich the from the lake to the . Big Tuolumne Meadows. slowly opening landscape. The latter, on account of the uniformity and The principal moraines occur in sbort, irreg­ continuity of their protecting shadows, formed ular sections, scattered along the sid es of the morain es of considerable length and regularity, cations, with9ut manifesting subordination to that are liable to be m istaken for portions of any. system. This fragmentary condition is the left lateral of the mai n glacier. clue to interruptions, caused by portions of the The pathway of this grand old glacier is sides of the cations being too steep for moraine noted for the depth of its ca1ion, the beauty of matter to li e on, and to the breakin g and down­ its lakes and cascades, and the extent of its re­ washing of torrents and avalanches, while the splendent glacier pavements. obscurity resulting from these Is still further augmented by forests and their underbrush, THE SOUTH LYELL, OR NEVADA GLACI ER. making a patient study of details indispensable to the recognition of their real unity' and grand­ The South Lyell Glacier was longer and more eur. symmetrical than the last, and the only one of T he left lateral of the trunk may be traced the Merced system whose sources extended di­ about five miles from the mouth of the first rectly back to the main summits on th e axis of mai n tributary to the Illillouette Canon. The the range. Its numerous ice -wo mbs, now most- corresponding section of the right lateral, ex · 556 THE CALIFORNIAN. tending from Cathedral tributary to the Half j deflected by the lofty wall forming its western Dome, is more complete because of the even­ bank, and finally united with the grand Yosem­ ness of the ground. A short side-glacier came ite trunk, opposite Glacier Point. in against it from the slopes of Cloud's Rest; All tbe phenomena relating to glacial action but, being fully exposed to the sun, it was melt­ in this basin are remarkably simple and order­ ed long before the main trunk, allowing the lat­ ly, on account of the sheltered positions occu­ ter to deposit this portion of its moraine undis­ pied by its ice- fountains, with reference to the turbed. Some conception of the size and ap­ disturbing effects of larger glaciers from the pearance of this fine moraine may be gained axis of the main range earlier in the period. by following the Cloud's Rest trail from Yo­ From the eastern base of the Starr King cone, semite, which crosses it obliquely and conducts you may obtain a fine view of the principal mo­ past several sections made by streams. Slate raines sweeping grandly out into the middle of bowlders may be seen that must have come the basin from the shoulders of the peaks, be­ from the Lyell group, twelve miles distant. tween which the ice-fountains were laid. The But the bulk of the moraine is composed of right lateral of the tributary which took its granite and porphyry, the latter derived from rise between Red and Black Mountains meas­ Feldspar and Cathedral Valleys: ures two hundred and fifty feet in bight at its On the sides of the moraines we find a series upper extremity, and displays three well defined of terraces firmly expressed, indicating fluctua­ terraces, similar to those of the South Lyell tions in the level of the glacier, caused by vari­ Glacier. The comparative smoothness of the ations of snow· fall, temperature, etc., showing uppermost terrace shows that it is considerably that the climate of the glacial period was eli­ more ancient than the others, many of the bowl­ versified by cycles of milder or stormier sea­ ders of which it is composed having crumbled. sons similar to those of post-glacial time. A few miles to the westward, this moraine has After the depth of the main trunk diminished an average slope of twenty-seven degrees, and to about five hundred· feet, the greater portion an elevation above the bottom of the channel became torpid, as is shown by the moraines, and of six hundred and sixty feet. lay dying in its crooked channel, like a wounded Near the middle of the main basin, just where snake, maintaining for a time a feeble squirm­ the regularly formed medial and lateral mo­ ing motion in places of exceptional depth, or raines flatten out and disappear, there is a re­ where the bottom of the calion was more steep­ markably smooth field of gravel, planted with ly inclined. The numerous fountain-wombs, arctostapltylos, that looks at the distance of a however, continued fruitful long after the trunk mile or two like a delightful meadow. Stream­ had vanished, giving rise to an imposing array sections show the gravel deposit to be com­ of short residual glaciers, extending around the posed of the same materials as the moraines, rim of the general basin a distance of nearly but finer, and more water-worn from the action twenty-four miles. Most of these have but re­ of the co'nverging torrents issuing from the trib­ cently succumbed to the new climate, dying in utary glaciers after the trunk was melted. turn as determined by elevation, size, and ex­ The southern boundary of the basin is a posure, leaving only a few fe eble survivors be­ strikingly perfect wall, gray on the top, and neath the coolest shadows, which are now com­ white .clown the sides and at the base with en­ pleting the history of the South Lyell Glacier, during snow, in which many a crystal brook one of the clearest and most symmetrical sheets takes its rise. The northern boundary is made of ice-manuscript in the Sierra. up of smooth, undulating masses of gray gran­ ite, that ri se here and there into beautiful domes, THE ILLILLOUETTE GLACIER. dotted with junipers and fringed around their bases with pine and silver -fir; while on the The shallow glacier that filled the Illillouette east tower the majestic fountain peaks of the Basin more resembled a lake than a river of Merced group, with wide cafions and ne1l(f am­ ice, being nearly half a·s wide as it was long. phitheaters between them, whose variegated Its greatest length was about ten miles, and its rocks show out gloriously against the azure sky: depth perhap~ nowhere much exceeded eight The ice-plows of this channing basin, ranged hundred or a thousand fe et. Its chief fount­ side by side in orderly gangs, furrowed the rocks ain s, ranged along the west side of the Merced with admirable uniformity, producing irrigating group, at an elevation of about ten thousand channels for a brood of wild streams, and abun­ feet, gave birth to fine tributaries that flowed in dance of rich soil adapted to every require­ a westerly direction, and united in the center ment of garden and grove. No other section of the basin. The broad trunk at first flow ed of the Yosemite uplands is in so perfect a state north-westward, then curved to the northward, of glacial cultivation. Its domes, and peaks,

~. "UTOPIA." 557

and swelling- rock-waves, however majestic in The ancient glacier systems of the Tuolumne, themselves, are yet submissively subordinate to San Joaquin, Kern, and King's River Basins the garden center. The other basins we have were developed on a still grander scale, and been describing are combinations of sculptured are so replete with interest that the most sketchy rocks, embellished with gardens and groves; the outline descriptions of each, with the works they Illillouette is one grand garden and forest, em­ have accomplished-the mountains they have bellished with rocks, each of the five beautiful in brought into existence, the canons they have its own way, and all as harmoniously related a~ furrowed, the rocks they have crushed, and are the five petals of a flower. After uniting in worn, and scattered in moraines-would fill the Yosemite Valley, and expending the clown­ many a volume. Therefore, I can do but little thrusting energy derived from their combined more than invite everybody who is free to weight and the declivity of their channels, the visit these interesting regions and see for them­ grand trunk flowed on out of the valley without selves. yielding much compliance to the crooked cm7on The work of glaciers, especially the part they extending from the foot of the main valley prop­ have played in sculpturing the face of the earth, er. In effecting its exit, a considerable ascent is as yet but little understood, because they have was made, traces of which may still be seen on so few ~ observers willing to remain with the abraded rocks at the lower end of the valley, them long enough to appreciate them. Water while the direction pursued after leaving the rivers work openly where people dwell, and so valley is surely indicated by the immense lateral goes the rain and the dew, and the gJ:eat-sak- ~ moraines extending from the ends of the walls, .,sea, embracing all the world; and even the uni- at an elevation of from fifteen hundred to eight­ versal ocean of air, though in~isible, ~Wt een hundred feet. The right moraine was dis­ speaks aloud in a thousand voices, and explains turbed by a large tributary glacier that occupied its modes of working and its power. But gla- the basin of Cascade Creek, causing considera­ ciers, back in' their cole\ solitudes, work apart ble complication in its structure. The left lat­ from ·men, exerting their tremendous energies eral is simple in form for. several miles of its in ~i\e nce arrd darkness. Outspread, spirit-like, length, or to the point where a tributary came they broud above the ~efl'g' predestined land- in from the south-east. But both are greatly scapes, working on unwearied through unmeas- obscured by the forests and unde~brush grow­ ured ages,· until, in the fullness of time, the ing upon them, and by the denuding action of ' mcfuntains and valleys and plains are brought rains and melting snows, etc. It is, therefore, forth, channels furrowed for the rivers, basins the less to be wondered at that these moraines, made for the lakes and meadows and long, deep forming so important a part of the chips deriv­ arms of the sea, soil ~ spread for the forests and ed from the valley rocks in the process of their the fields-then they shrink and vanish like formation, were not sooner recognize~. sutnmer clouds. JOHN MUIR.

"UTOPIA."

The incidental mention in a rambling article thoughtful people, and these letters, so far recently published in THE CALIFORNIAN, of. a from vexing me, give the greatest encourage­ desire to found a new city or community some­ ment-not from what they say, propose, or where in the warm and roomy South-west, has promise, for they are mostly merely brief in­ brought upon me a deluge of letters. quiries, with here and there a thoughtful sug­ No man who is much in earnest in this world gestion; yet thefact that so many solid mind­ ·can have either time or inclination to answer eel men and women are in sympathy with an the chronic letter-writer of America. He or enterprise of this kind shows not onJy its need, she is the most prolific growth of this great but that it can succeed. land. Idle-handed and empty-h.eadecl, this I do not count Brook Farm at all a failure. creature, which cheap postage and thin educa­ Indeed, I am almost ready to reckon it the tion has made possible, is the nuisance of the greatest succe'ss ever achieved. I know it is the nineteenth century. custom to say that such minds as those of Ful­ But among all these letters there are half a ler, Hawthorne, Ripley, .D~na, Curtis, and so dozen, at least, from earnest, honest, and on, conceived Brook Farm. I think it more