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East Oregonl&n Round -Up Souvenir Edition
Pendl6lott, Oregda7trtd4TSdl!tetfib6r,fl. t9i9
FDiIATION OF YOSEMITE WONDERS ASCRIBED
TO ACTION OF IViERGED RIVER THROUGH AGES
Views Formerly Held on Subject Have Been Abandoned by
Scientists of This Day.
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In th ImiiTmh-i surroundtnrs ofiVfrse the earlier accepted theory
th Yosemila National Park in Call- hat the valley is the resiiH, of glncial
fornia, F. K. Mntlhca, oi the United union, and attributes it solely to the
Ptates' Geological Survey, will this j action of the now senile Merced river,
month announce In a series of three i which threads its way through the
lectures a new and final solution of ' depths gf the 'valley. His discovery
the Ion debated problem of the or- j has the official endorsement of the
tain of the Vosemlte Valley In CaH- I 1'nited States ecological Survey, and ,
fornia. The queatlon of Yosemlle's j will lie published by the government
making has engaged geoloVts from ! nest winter. Meanwhile Mutthes is
Professor Whitney of the University ; to announce his discovery late In July j
University of California. down j in a series of three lectures in the !
to the present. Malthas' solution re- j urk, under the Le Comte Memorial
Bulldog'g-ed
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The Races are the Real Thing:
; Foundation of the University of Cali
I fornia: the lectures will be delivered
in various parts of the park one on
I Granite Peak, three thousand feet
above the valley with the valley
spread before his hearers as a labor
atory. The first printed account of Mr.
Matthes'B discovery has jurt appeared
in "The Book of the Nutional parks,"
by Robert Sterling Yard, just publish
ed by the Scribners. Mr. Yard is an
official in the department of the in
terior, nnd had access to Matthes's 1
manuscript in writing this chapter. V
The Yosemite valley is eiiht miles
Ions, from half a mile to a mile wide,
and its average depth is soethins over
three thousand feet. According to
Mr. Yard's account. Professor Whit
ney, the first geologist to frive seri
ous study to the valley, maintained
( that glaciers never had entered the '
I valley? he did not even consider water
erosion. At one time he held that the j
valley was simply a cleft or rent in
the earth's crust. At another time
he lmatrincd it formed by the sudden
dropping back of a large block In the
course of tho convulsions that result
ed in the uplift of the Sierra Nevada,
Galen Clark, 'following him, carried
on his Idea of an origin by force. In
stead of the walls being cleft apart,
however, he imagined the explosion
of close-set domes of molten rock the
driYinr; power, but conceived that ice
and water erosion finished the Job.
WUti Clnrenco King the theory of gla
cial origin began its lung career. John
Muir carried this theory to its ex
trome. . '
, Since the period of Mulr's specula
tiouB. the tremendous facts concern
ing the part played by erosion in the
modification of the earth's surface
trata have been developed. Begin
ning, with "W. H. Turner, a group of
Yosemite students under the modern
influence worked upon the theory of
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Leading the Grand Mounted Parade
the stream-cut valley modified by
j glaciers. The United States Geologl
l cal Survey the nentered the field, and
' Matthes's minute investigations foi
i lowed.
! The fact, as advanced by Mattes, Is
! that the Yosemite valley was cut from
the solid granite nearly to Its present
depth by the Merced river, long be
fore the beginning of the glacial pe
riod; before the glaciers arrived, the
river-cut vall-e-y was already? twenty
four hundred feet j deep 1 opposite El
Capitan, Wid three thousand feet deep
opposite "Kegle Peak. The -valley was
then V-shaped,-. and the -present Wa
terfalls were 'Oaseades,1 ;thosl whloh
are now the Yosemite Falls were 1890
feet deep, and those of Sentinel creek
two thousand feet deep.- h k .
It watf-jiot tha- dawdling modern
Merced river that cut this chasm, but
a torrent which, day and i night for
several million' years, swept with ter
rific force down a sharply tilted bod,
sand-papering its path with the fric
tion bf the masses of sand and gran
,ite fragments borne down' from the
high Sierra, - That the river could
continue in this process1 for missions
of years without cutting down to a
level, choking up with the sand and
grave! it carried, ad eventually slow
ing up, was due to the frequent tilting
and shifting of the Sierra throughout
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W. A. RHODES," Prop.
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A Good Place to Eat
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Its geological history. For. tho pres
ent Sierra Nevada Is not the , first
mountain. -chain upoj,lVtt.!r Bo'
i The- fkrt of 'thes6..eairlir"tiUlta--of
which itho inoUern earth i.allp that
caused, the 8nn Frnnclsco tire In a be
lated deKceniiant, occurred in Uiat far
age. which, gooloijiBta, call 'the .Creta
ceous. It .waa ', 'cojislderabie, but
ejiouh . toj hasten the,; flpoei . to(.' (h
8trparfiVf Pd ,estab(jah . eneralj Jputj
vAlKiut. the mU'dl of t the.TorUary
Period, volcanic eru)tlos qhanijca aU
thinK.. , Nearly.. all the valley exeepl
the ypaemlte .became .tilled' wltbi lava.
Even .the crest of the .rang TO juried
a thousand feet, in, one ,. place- .This
was followed by a,rle of tlia.. Sjerra
crest. a ,coupli o( thouand, feet,.. and
of course a, much: sharper tiltins ;,t
the western slopes. The Merced and
Tenaya river must have rushed very
fast, Indeed, during- th many thou
sand years that followed. The most
conservative estimate of this duration
of the Tertiary Period le four or five
million years, and until its close vol
canic eruptions continued to fill val
ley wiih lava, and the Groat Pasln
kept settling, and the crest of the Sier
ra went on rislne: and with each lift
ing , of the' crest the tilt of the, river
sharpened and the pecd of the tor
rents hastened. .The canyon deepened
during .thla time from seven hundred
to a thousand feet
Then, about the beginning of, the
Quater-iiary. Period, came the, biggest
convulsion of all, Tho. crest of the
Sierra J was. .hoisted, accOrdlng to
Matthes's calculations,, a , much as
eight thoupapd feet higher in this one
series of movements,, and the whole
Sierra block was again . . tilted, tbl
time, of course, enormously, ,'. . , k
. For thousand pf centuries follow
ing, thetorrents from L,yoU'a and Mc
Clure's .molting snows must have de
scended at a speed which tore bould
ers from their anchorages, , ground
rocks into the sand, and ' savagely
scraped and scooped the river beds.
Armed with sharp, hard-cjttlng tools
ripped from the granite cirques of -SI
erra's crest,, these mad rivers must
have scratched and hewn deep and
fact, and because certain valleys, In
cluding the Yosemite, wero never fill
ed with lava like the rest, these grew .
ever deeper with tho centuries, .,
' Conditions ' created b)f ' the great
Quaternary tilling deepened the val
ley from eighteen hundred feet at Its
lower end to twenty-four hundred feet
at (til upper end.- It established what
must have, been an unusually Interest
ing and tinpresjrtve tandncape. Which
suggested the mbdern aspect, but re
quired completion by the glaciers.- '
Geographically peaking, tho gla
ciers .were recent. During several
successive epochs' they .have 'widened
and measurably deepened the work of
the 'fcree'ot,, making the ; valloy , V
shaped. ' . , , . ." ,. .. . .. .
But none wi'i the Yonemite val
iey and (ts cavernous tributary can
yons today without sympathising a lit
tle with tho early geologists It Is dif
ficult to Imagine a gash o tremend
ous cut into solid granite by anything
short, of f ore. .One . can think of It
gouged out by massive glaciers, but to
imagine It cut by water Is at first Inconceivable.
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IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE WEST
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GRANDSONS SAY "STETSON" WHEN THEY
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fJLLWljll JivJ ilXjCtA. J-.LJ A. V
los WF9llO
Where- n- r-, to trade MW
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