The daily star-mirror., 1922-10-16

These columns range from IA inches
to more than three feet in diameter.
Most of them are pentagonal, where
as elsewhere, as in the Giants Cause
way, the general shape is hexagOnal.
The Devils Postpile affords strange
deviation in this respect, some of it's
immense columns being eight-sided,
many seven-sided, and the remainder
| hexagOns. In one extensive section
they are straight as sawed timbers
and perpendicular. In another they
lean and are gracefully curved en-
masse and the individual prisms
twisted and futed In the making or
the cooling as sticks of pliable candy
might be shaped. At one point they
have the wavy appearance of flow
ing water. At the southern upper
end they project almost horizontally
and resemble gigantic railroad ties or
evenly corded wood on a hillside. All
| the columns sparkle like precious
stones in the glare of the mountain
sun and the sight is bewildering
They are black in the main, but col
orful withal, some in varying shades
of green. blue and gray, a few white
as alabaster
For many years the handsomest of
all the columns, tall and symmetr1cally
tapered, was separated from the
body and stood upright and alone, a
proud, stalwart symbol of independ-
ence, but 1t is there no more. Dur
ing my last visit to the postpile it
was struck by lightning and fell with
reverberating crash, scared from end
to end. Happily, it was broken into
few sections
Center of Electrical Storms.
1t would be difficult to find a local !
tty where more sudden and violent |
electrical storms come booming up. |
AT midday, while the sun shone |
brightly, small cumulo-nimbus cloud |
fioated over the range from the west J
and in less than as many minutes
three blue-white streaks darted earth
ward, and each shivered a tree. The
fourth and final bolt, with a peal
that made the mountains themselves
tremble, took the column. No rain
drops pattered, scarcely a shadow ap-
peared on the grand landscape. The
lavatic formation, which has the me-
tallic ring of iron and somewhat it's
hardness, may tend to draw electric
ity. At that altitude, eternally shut
the summer lightning season is brief,
the winter long and rigorous.
During the warm months the region
Is fragrant paradise of bloom and
bird-song, a medley Of sweetest mel
ody. The whole is a forest Of pine,
tamarack fir and other sturdy trees
which cover even the postpile where
the basalt is not actually bare. Wild
flowers carpet the meadows and
shaded places and sway breast high In .
the balmy air-thousands upon thou
sands Of kinds, many Of which grow
here only. Few are more interesting
than the squaw's carpet or mahala
mat, rich evergreen trailer that lit
orally covers the ground with its foil
age and feathery clusters of violet
blossoms and later bears odd scarlet
fruit. The botanist who does not go
o the high Sierras misses more than
le ever can realize.
At the very upper edge of the crum-
,ling cliff, where 'cornice" has
ormed, their roots fastened in the n
olumnar jointing a number OF
,narled, torn, dwarfed cedars are
anging for dear life, even as dying OF
humans cling to hope, the while their ia
recarious support is tumbling away. "A
his carries with it sufficient soil and
umice to afford foothold in the th
alus below for lustrOus Quaking 81
spens, which spring up rapidly and
hine as the breezes stir their leaves
meadowsweet locally known as
postpile tea" and used by knowing
to make palatable, re
'eshing beverage, also thrives amid
le wreckage Of the scintillant pillars.
bove, where moisture comes from the ne
nes of cleavage, delicate rock ferns
I'd dainty mosses give touch of soft
ess to relieve the harsh glister Of un- w,
Gliding surfaces. FL
Where Trails Meet. isf
The Devils Postpile is at the juno
on of important trails leading afar
various directions. Close by, the
has log cabin that some l.
mes shelters storm-bound tourists. =
t times 1t is occupied by trappers
hO bring out thousands of dollars #
orth of furs. Big game and wild life
,Ound.
Down stream two miles, and a part
the national monument, is Rainbow
all, a gem unique and worthy of it's
lme In that it literally is the birth fol
ace of rainbOwS. The San Joaquin
ngs itself like a delicate curtain of cal
ce and silver more than 100 feet clio
or q ledge of black basalt-a con- go
luatiOn Of the postpile, though with -
It the cOlumns-into an abysmal box IA
nyon. When the suns rays reach ~
TO the fairy box, rainbows arch the III
sts that flood the chasm-rainbows IE