If Yosemite were unique, we might suppose that it was formed by violent cataclysms; but _Yosemite is not unique_ in _form_ and therefore probably not in _origin_. There are many Yosemites. It is more philosophical to account for them by the _regular_ operation of known causes. I must believe that all these deep perpendicular slots have been sawn out by the action of glaciers; the _peculiar verticality of the walls having been determined by the perpendicular cleavage structure_.”... A lake in Bloody Canyon “is a _pure rock basin scooped out by the glacier_ at this place.... These ridges [separating Hope, Faith, and Charity valleys] are in fact the lips of consecutive lake basins scooped out by ice. ... Water tends to form deep V-shaped canons, while ice produces broad valleys with lakes and meadows.... I know not how general these distinctions may be, but certainly the Coast range of this State is characterized by rounded summits and ridges, and deep V-shaped canons, while the high Sierras are characterized on the contrary by sharp, spire-like, comb-like summits, and broad valleys; and this difference I am convinced is due in part at least to the action of water on the one hand, and of ice on the other.” King (1878)[75] assigned to glacial erosion a commanding position in mountain sculpture. In regard to the Uintas, he says: “Glacial erosion has cut almost vertically down through the beds carving immense amphitheatres with basin bottoms containing numerous Alpine lakes.... Post-glacial erosion has done an absolutely trivial work. There is not a particle of direct evidence, so far as I can see, to warrant the belief that these U-shaped canons were given their peculiar form by other means than the actual ploughing erosion of glaciers....” These contributions from the Cordilleras corroborating the conclusions of Ramsay (1862), Tyndall (1862), Jukes (1862), Hector (1863), Logan (1863), Close (1870), and James Geikie (1875), made little impression. The views of Lyell (1833), Ball (1863), J. W. Dawson (1864), Falconer (1864), Studer (1864), Murchison (1864, 1870), Ruskin (1865), Rutimeyer (1869), Whymper (1871), Bonney (1873), Pfaff (1874), Gurlt (1874), Judd (1876), prevailed, and the conclusions of Davis in 1882[76] fairly expressed the prevailing belief in Europe and in America: “The amount of glacial erosion in the central districts has been very considerable, but not greatly in excess of pre-glacial soils and old talus and alluvial deposits. Most of the solid rock that was carried away came from ledges rather than from valleys; and glaciers had in general a smoothing rather than a roughening effect. In the outer areas on which the ice advanced it only rubbed down the projecting points; here it acted more frequently as a depositing than as an eroding agent.”