The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-08-11
Studies in the Sierra.

In the beginning of the long glacial
winter, the lofty Sierra seems to have !
consisted of one vast undulated wave, |
in which a thousand separate noun !
tains, with their domes and spires, |
their innumerable caflons and lake ba- !
sins, lay concealed. In the development |
of these, the Master Builder chose for
tool, not the earthquake nor lightning
to split and rent asunder, not the stormy
torrent nor errOding rain, but the ten
der snOw-shOwers, nOiselessly falling
through unnumbered seasons, the off
spring of the sun and sea. If we should
attempt to restore the range to its pre-
glacial unsculptured condition, its net
work of profound caflOns would have to
be filled up, together with all its la ke and
meadow basins; and every lake and peak,
however lofty, would have to be buried
again beneath the fragments which the
glaciers have broken off and carried
away. Careful study of the phenomena
presented warrants the belief that the
unglaciated condition of the range was
paratively simple; yet the double
SUBMITS about the head of Kern River
and Lake Tahoe, and the outlying spurs
of Hoffman and Merced, would appear
to indicate the primary existence of con-
siderable elevations and depressons.
Even these great features, however,
may be otherwise accounted for.
All classes of glacial phenomena are
displayed in the Sierra on the grandest
scale, furnishing unmistakable proof of
the universally of the ice-sheet beneath
whose heavy folds all her sublime land
scapes were nodded. Her ice-winter is
now nearly ended, and her fiauks are
clothed with warm forests; but in high
latitudes, north and south, and in many
lofty mountains, it still prevails with
variable severity. Greenland and the
lands near the south pole are undergo
ing glaciatiOn of the most comprehen-
slve kind, and present noble eillustrations
of the physical and climatic conditions
under which the Sierra lay when all the
sublime pages of her history were sealed
up. The lofty Himalayas, the Alps,
and the mountains of Norway are more
open, their glacial covering having sep
arated into distinct glaciers that flow
down their valleys like rivers, illustrat-
ing a similar glacial condition in the
Sierra, when all her valleys and caflOns
formed channels for separate ice-rivers.
These have but recently vanished, and
when we trace their retiring footsteps
back to their fountains among the high
submits, we discover small residual
glaciers in considerable numbers, lin
gering beneath cool shadows, silently
completing the sculpture of the summit
peaks.
The transition from one to the other
of these different glacial conditions was
gradual and shadow-like. When the
great cycle of icy years was nearly ac-
complished, the glacial mantle began
to shrink along the bottom; dOmes and
crests rose like islets above its white
surface, long dividing ridges began to
appear, and distinct glacier rivers flowed
between. These gradually became fee
bic and torpid. Frost-enduring carices
and hardy pines pushed upward along
every mOraiue and sun-warmed slope,
closing steadily upon the retreating gla-
ciers, which, like shreds of summer
clouds, at length disappeared from the
young and sunny landscapes.