lake, and formed marshy flats. Finally,
grasses and trees spread over these flats and gave the valley the
appearance which it has to-day.

Besides the meadows, the glaciers gave us two of the waterfalls.
Yosemite Creek, which comes down over the walls twenty-seven hundred
feet in three successive falls, was turned into its present channel
by a dam which a glacier had left across its old course. A glacier
also turned the Merced River at its entrance to the main valley
so as to form the Nevada Fall.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--THE CANON OF BUBB'S CREEK, A BRANCH OF
THE KING'S RIVER CANON]

After the valley had been made and clothed in vegetation, it was
discovered by a small tribe of Indians who came here to make their
home, secure from all their enemies. There were fish in the streams
and animals in the woods. The oaks supplied acorns, and in early
summer the meadows were covered with strawberries. Legends were
associated with many of the cliffs and waterfalls, for the Indians,
like ourselves, are impressed by the wonders of Nature.

Hetch-Hetchy Valley, twenty-five miles north of the Yosemite, has
been formed upon much the same plan, but a portion of its floor
is marshy and there are few waterfalls. King's River Canon has
no green meadows and no high waterfalls, while its great granite
walls are not so precipitous as those of the Yosemite. Next to
the Yosemite, in the wildness of its scenery, is Tehipite Canon.
This canon is situated upon the middle fork of King's River, about
a hundred miles south. For many miles its walls and domes present
ever changing views.

A continual struggle is going on between the forces within the
earth and the sculptor working upon its surface. First one, then
the other, gains the advantage. Where the mountains are steep and
high, often the forces within have recently been active. Where
they are low and the slopes are gentle, the sculptor has long held
sway. She begins by making the surface as rough and picturesque
as possible, but after a time she destroys her own handiwork.

AN OREGON GLACIER

There are records all about us of events which took place upon the
earth long before there were any human inhabitants. These records
have been preserved in the rocks, in the geographic features of
the land and water, and in the distribution of the animals and
plants. On every hand appear evidences of changes in the surface
of the earth and in the climate.

Through all the central and