rivers. Four
river systems originate in this region.

Far in the north a lake, more than eleven thousand feet high, lying at
the western foot of Mount Goddard, begins the South Fork of the San
Joaquin River, which drains the park's northern area. Incidentally, it
has cut a canyon of romantic beauty, up which the John Muir Trail finds
its way into the park.

The northern middle area of the park is drained by the Middle and South
Forks of the Kings River, which find their origins in perhaps forty
miles of Sierra's crest. The drainage basins of these splendid streams
cover nearly half of the park's total area, and include some of the
biggest, as well as some of the wildest and most beautiful mountain
scenery in the world. Bounded upon their west by an arc of snowy
mountains, separated by the gigantic Monarch Divide, flanked by twisted
ranges and towering peaks, they cascade westward through meadows of rank
grasses and vividly colored wild-flowers, alternating with steep-sided
gorges and canyons of sublimity. Dropping thousands of feet within a few
miles, they abound in cascades and majestic falls, between which swift
rapids alternate with reaches of stiller, but never still, waters which
are the homes of cut-throat trout. Each of these rivers has its canyon
of distinguished magnificence. The Tehipite Valley of the Middle Fork
and the Kings River Canyon of the South Fork are destined to world
celebrity.

The southwestern area of the park is drained by five forks of the
beautiful Kaweah River. These streams originate on the north in the
divide of the South Fork of the Kings River, and on the east in a
conspicuously fine range known as the Great Western Divide. They wind
through the wooded valleys of the Sequoia National Park. Upon their
banks grow the monsters of the American forest.

The southern area is drained by the Kern River, into which flow the
waters of Mount Whitney and his giant neighbors. The Kern Canyon is one
of Roosevelt's noblest expressions. Flowing southward between
precipitous walls three thousand feet and more in height, flanked upon
the east by monsters of the High Sierra, and on the west by the splendid
elevations of the Great Western Divide, it is a valley supremely fitted
for the highest realization of the region's gifts of enjoyment. From
camps beside its trout-haunted waters, it is a matter of no difficulty
for those equipped for the trail to reach the summit of Whitney, on the
one hand, and the