The mountains of California . and flutedwith stupendous canons that grow steadily deejDeras they recede in the distance. Below this grayregion lies the dark forest zone, broken here andthere by upswelling ridges and domes; and yetbeyond lies a yellow, hazy belt, marking the broadplain of the San Joaquin, bounded on its fartherside by the blue mountains of the coast. Turning now to the northward, there in the im-mediate foreground is the glorious Sierra Crown,with Cathedral Peak, a temple of marvelous archi-tecture, a few degrees to the left of it; the gray,massive form of Mammoth Mountain to t
The mountains of California . and flutedwith stupendous canons that grow steadily deejDeras they recede in the distance. Below this grayregion lies the dark forest zone, broken here andthere by upswelling ridges and domes; and yetbeyond lies a yellow, hazy belt, marking the broadplain of the San Joaquin, bounded on its fartherside by the blue mountains of the coast. Turning now to the northward, there in the im-mediate foreground is the glorious Sierra Crown,with Cathedral Peak, a temple of marvelous archi-tecture, a few degrees to the left of it; the gray,massive form of Mammoth Mountain to the right;while Mounts Ord, Gibbs, Dana, Conness, TowerPeak, Castle Peak, Silver Mountain, and a host ofnoble companions, as yet nameless, make a sub-lime show along the axis of the range. Eastward, the whole region seems a land of deso-lation covered with beautiful light. The torridvolcanic basin of Mono, with its one bare lakefourteen miles long; Owens Valley and the broadlava table-land at its head, dotted with craters, and. M ^--?:J 68 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA the massive Inyo Eange, rivaling even the Sierrain height; these are spread, map-like, beneath you,with countless ranges beyond, passing and over-lapping one another and fading on the glowinghorizon. At a distance of less than 3,000 feet below thesummit of Mount Eitter you may find tributariesof the San Joaquin and Owens rivers, burstingforth from the ice and snow of the glaciers thatload its flanks; while a little to the north of hereare found the highest affluents of the Tuolumneand Meiced. Thus, the fountains of four of theprincipal rivers of California are within a radiusof four or five miles. Lakes are seen gleaming in all sorts of places,—round, or oval, or square, like very mirrors; othersnarrow and sinuous, drawn close around the peakslike silver zones, the highest reflecting only rocks,snow, and the sky. But neither these nor the gla-ciers, nor the bits of brown meadow and moorlandthat occur here and ther
Size: 1410px × 1771px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcaliforniadescriptio
