Sierra Journal, Summer of 1869, v. 2, 1869 [ca. 1887], Image 22

38 [[the smooth granite where] [steep places where the polish was is finest] All the post-glacial storms that have fallen here have failed to blur the stone manuscript [granite page] to any great extent. The Yosemite Creek [main stream that drains the basin has flowed since first the basin with [all] its rocky furniture [domes & ridges round swelling rockwaves first ] saw the light & yes it has not worn itself much of a channel in some places its only a few inches deep. Trans to the Hoffmann ex pg 116 [The] Highest sources [of the creek are] the banks of perpetual snow on the north side of [the] Hoffmann mountain of Yosemite Creek [range so says Professor Whitney & the height of these fountains is] about 10,000 feet above the sea. [Now the] & as the bottom of Yosemite Valley is about 4,000 feet [therefore & the] total descent to [made by the stream from its sources I the snow to its union with the Main] the Merced [in the Valley] must be about 6,000 feet- an immense fall considering the shortness of its course only about 10 miles. An average of 600 ft to the mile. [was ever poor stream set to run such a race, to be humbled & tossed & dashed as this & on so rocky a track/way. Was ever another so beaten & tossed] One would suppose that after being so many 39 Times beaten into dusty spray [and on so steep a course that] the wind would have carried all its waters [all] away before it reached the River [brink of the fall in the Valley leaving no water for the grand final display.] But the waste is less than would at first sight be expected. There is scarce any loss from absorption most of its course being over solid water-tight granite. The few soil beds along its banks as far as I have seen are shallow & [take but little] The air passing over a well-watered region [come from this so short a stream]. Again most of the spray [the amount of spray that rises] tossed into the air [is less that it appears to be in the case of] falls of moderate height [say from ten to 50 feet because most of it] is coarse & drops [falls] back into the stream with but little loss [below the falls][form of rain] only the fine beaten dust is lost [is carried][getting away] & of this there is little except on the great fall in the Valley [in small falls such as we met on the upper courses of the river tributaries like this one] & as for the loss from cascades rushing [in the white noisy tumult] down [smooth] rock inclines the loss [it] is still less than that from falls of the same vertical descent. For though white of gray the water is yet comparatively [nearly] solid & is usually kept well together. Thus [while tossing] this streamhttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-sj2/1021/thumbnail.jp