The comparative
smoothness of the upper-most terrace shows that it is considerably more
ancient than the others, many of the boulders of which it is composed
having crumbled. A few miles to the westward, this moraine has an
average slope of twenty-seven degrees, and an elevation above the bottom
of the channel of six hundred and sixty feet. Near the middle of the
main basin, just where the regularly formed medial and lateral moraines
flatten out and disappear, there is a remarkably smooth field of gravel,
planted with arctostaphylos, that looks at the distance of a mile like
a delightful meadow. Stream sections show the gravel deposit to be
composed of the same material as the moraines, but finer, and more
water-worn from the action of converging torrents issuing from the
tributary glaciers after the trunk was melted. The southern boundary of
the basin is a strikingly perfect wall, gray on the top, and white down
the sides and at the base with snow, in which many a crystal brook takes
rise. The northern boundary is made up of smooth undulating masses of
gray granite, that lift here and there into beautiful domes of which
the Starr King cluster is the finest, while on the east tower of the
majestic fountain-peaks with wide canyons and neve amphitheaters between
them, whose variegated rocks show out gloriously against the sky.
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