This difference in form between the north and south sides of the peaks
was almost wholly produced by the difference in the kind and quantity of
the glaciation to which they have been subjected, the north sides having
been hollowed by residual shadow-glaciers of a form that never existed
on the sun-beaten sides.
It appears, therefore, that shadows in great part determine not only the
forms of lofty icy mountains, but also those of the snow-banners that
the wild winds hang on them.
CHAPTER IV
A NEAR VIEW OF THE HIGH SIERRA
Early one bright morning in the middle of Indian summer, while the
glacier meadows were still crisp with frost crystals, I set out from the
foot of Mount Lyell, on my way down to Yosemite Valley, to replenish my
exhausted store of bread and tea. I had spent the past summer, as many
preceding ones, exploring the glaciers that lie on the head waters of
the San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Merced, and Owen's rivers; measuring and
studying their movements, trends, crevasses, moraines, etc., and the
part they had played during the period of their greater extension in the
creation and development of the landscapes of this alpine wonderland.
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