The High Sierra was swept nearly clean of soil and _debris_ by the ancient glaciers, and the hard rocks thus exposed were rounded and burnished by the ice that flowed over them. But little disintegration or decay of the rocks has taken place since an amelioration of climate changed the drainage from a solid to a liquid form. On account mainly of the general absence of soil the forests are less dense than might be expected from the height of the regions where they occur and its general climatic conditions. The more lofty peaks reach far above the forests and are riven and shattered by frost. The crests and cliffs at somewhat lower altitudes are also bare, but in the canyons and on the meadow-like valley bottoms smoothed by the glaciers, open park-like groves of pine and spruce grow in picturesque disorder. On the ledges of the great precipices, and on many of the secondary summits, gardens of alpine flowers blossom in late summer, and at times impart a rich warm glow to the heights that support them. The views of nature, unmarred by the hand of man, which reward the persistent mountaineer in this silent wonderland of the upper world, are not only grand beyond all description, but beautified by a delicacy of decoration where snow-fields and alpine gardens meet, that is undreamed of by the dwellers in the denser air of the plains and seaside. Lovers of nature who are unable to climb the towering summits of the High Sierra and see for themselves the marvellous beauty there so lavishly displayed can at least find a glowing pen picture of it in John Muir's fascinating book The Mountains of California. On the lower western slope of the Sierra Nevada the forests become continuous and luxuriant, the trees are of large size, and the lovely flowers carpeting the valleys and hillsides take on a more familiar appearance than the gorgeous blossoms of the alpine meadows. It is in this region that the gigantic _Sequoia_ still lingers as a remnant of a nearly extinct flora.