The mountains of California . r-laces of large cascades in being everywhere trans-parent. In spring, when the snow is melting, thelake-bowl is brimming full, and sends forth quite alarge stream that slips glassily for 200 yards or so,until it comes to an almost vertical precipice 800feet high, down which it plunges in a fine cataract;then it gathers its scattered waters and goessmoothly over folds of gently dipping granite to itsconfluence with the main canon stream. Duringthe greater portion of the year, however, not a singlewater sound will you hear either at head or footof the lake, not eve
The mountains of California . r-laces of large cascades in being everywhere trans-parent. In spring, when the snow is melting, thelake-bowl is brimming full, and sends forth quite alarge stream that slips glassily for 200 yards or so,until it comes to an almost vertical precipice 800feet high, down which it plunges in a fine cataract;then it gathers its scattered waters and goessmoothly over folds of gently dipping granite to itsconfluence with the main canon stream. Duringthe greater portion of the year, however, not a singlewater sound will you hear either at head or footof the lake, not even the whispered lappings ofripple-waves along the shore; for the winds arefenced out. But the deep mountain silence issweetened now and then by birds that stop here torest and drink on their way across the canon. LAKE STAER KING A BEAUTIFUL Variety of the bench-top lakes occursjust where the great lateral moraines of the mainglaciers have been shoved forward in outswellingconcentric rings by small residual tributary 120 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA Instead of being encompassed by a narrow ring oftrees like Orange Lake, tliese lie embosomed indense moraine woods, so dense that in seeking tliemyou may pass tliem by again and again, althoughyou may know nearly where they lie concealed. Lake Starr King, lying to the north of the coneof that name, above the Little Yosemite Valley, isa fine specimen of this variety. The ouzels pass itby, and so do the ducks; they could hardly get intoit if they would, without plumping straight downinside the circling trees. Yet these isolated gems, lying like fallen fruitdetached from the branches, are not altogether with-out inhabitants and joyous, animating visitors. Ofcourse fishes cannot get into them, and this is gen-erally true of nearly every glacier lake in the range,but they are all well stocked with happy did the frogs get into them in the first place ?Perhaps their sticky spawn was carried in on thefeet of ducks or othe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcaliforniadescriptio
