Over
large areas below the sources of the Tuolumne and Merced the granite is
porphyritic; feldspar crystals in inch or two in length in many places
form the greater part of the rock, and these, when planed off level with
the general surface, give rise to a beautiful mosaic on which the happy
sunbeams plash and glow in passionate enthusiasm. Here lie the brightest
of all the Sierra landscapes. The Range both to the north and south of
this region was, perhaps, glaciated about as heavily, but because the
rocks are less resisting, their polished surfaces have mostly given way
to the weather, leaving only small imperfect patches. The lower remnants
of the old glacial surface occur at an elevation of from 3000 to 5000
feet above the sea level, and twenty to thirty miles below the axis of
the Range. The short, steeply inclined canyons of the eastern flank also
contain enduring, brilliantly striated and polished rocks, but these are
less magnificent than those of the broad western flank.
One of the best general views of the brightest and best of the Yosemite
park landscapes that every Yosemite tourist should see, is to be had
from the top of Fairview Dome, a lofty conoidal rock near Cathedral Peak
that long ago I named the Tuolumne Glacier Monument, one of the most
striking and best preserved of the domes.
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