we can see where
glaciers were born in the early days when Tallac was several thousand
feet higher than it now is.

Below us is the emerald-ringed bay, with its romantic little island
at the west end, and nearby the joyously-shouting Eagle Creek as it
plunges over the precipice and makes the foam-flecked Eagle Falls. Our
road here was blasted through some fiercely solid and hostile rock.
One boulder alone that stood in the way weighed (it was estimated by
the engineers) from 800 to 1000 tons. Fifty cases of highly explosive
powder were suitably placed all around it. Excursion steamers took
hundreds of people from all parts of the Lake to see the explosion,
and at the proper moment, while everybody held his breath, the fuses
were fired, the blasts took effect, the rock flew down to the level
beneath, shattered into four great masses. A new El Capitan now rises
above us, though it lacks the smooth unbroken dignity of the great
Yosemite cliff, yet it is sublime in its sudden rise and vast height.
Nestling at its feet is Eagle Lake, and beyond are the Velmas and a
score of other glacial jewels calling for visitors to rhapsodize over
their beauty. Maggie's Peaks are to our right, Eagle Falls to our
left, with Emerald Bay, the Island, the Point and the Lake beyond all
calling upon us to enjoy them to the full.

We decide to stay here for lunch, and under the shelter of a giant
sugar pine a thousand years old, listening to the eternally buoyant
song of Eagle Falls, we refresh ourselves with the good lunch put up
for us at the Tavern.

Again we push ahead and soon have our first adventure: The road
gang was at work, and we did not expect to go much farther, but they
assured us that, save for a few rough places here and there, which
they would speedily correct, we need have no fear but that we could
get through with ease. In a score of places, since we left the Tavern,
we had crossed little streams of snow-water that had come tumbling
down from the banks above. Suddenly we came to one with a larger
volume than most of the others, and the road bed a little softer,
so it had cut quite a deep little passage for itself. Easily our
chauffeur dropped the front wheels into the cut, and to his surprise
he found they stuck there. It did not take us long to jack up the
wheels and put rocks underneath them, and we were about ready to get
out when the road gang came along with a wagon and a pair of sturdy
mules. As quickly as it takes m