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.

The ice-plows of this charming basin, ranged side by side in orderly
gangs, furrowed the rocks with admirable uniformity, producing
irrigating channels for a brood of wild streams, and abundance of rich
soil adapted to every requirement of garden and grove. No other section
of the Yosemite uplands is in so perfect a state of glacial cultivation.
Its domes and peaks, and swelling rock-waves, however majestic in
themselves, and yet submissively subordinate to the garden center. The
other basins we have been describing are combinations of sculptured
rocks, embellished with gardens and groves; the Illilouette is one grand
garden and forest, embellished with rocks, each of the five beautiful
in its own way, and all as harmoniously related as are the five petals
of a flower. After uniting in the Yosemite Valley, and expending the
down-thrusting energy derived from their combined weight and the
declivity of their channels, the grand trunk flowed on through and out
of the Valley. In effecting its exit a considerable ascent was made,
traces of which may still be seen on the abraded rocks at the lower end
of the Valley, while the direction pursued after leaving the Valley is
surely indicated by the immense lateral moraines extending from the
ends of the walls at an elevation of from 1500 to 1800 feet. The right
lateral moraine was disturbed by a large tributary glacier that occupied
the basin of Cascade Creek, causing considerable complication in its
structure. The left is simple in form for several miles of its length,
or to the point where a tributary came in from the southeast. But both
are greatly obscured by the forests and underbrush growing upon them,
and by the denuding action of rains and melting snows, etc. It is,
therefore, the less to be wondered at that these moraines, made up of
material derived from the distant fountain-mountains, and from the
Valley itself, were not sooner recognized.

The ancient glacier systems of the Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Kern, and
Kings River Basins were developed on a still grander scale and are so
replete with interest that the most sketchy outline descriptions of
each, with the works they have accomplished would fill many a volume.
Therefore I can do but little more than invite everybody