the east
to hunt the deer and obtain supplies of acorns; and it is truly
astonishing to see what immense loads the haggard old squaws make out to
carry bare-footed through these rough passes, oftentimes for a distance
of sixty or seventy miles. They are always accompanied by the men, who
stride on, unburdened and erect, a little in advance, kindly stooping at
difficult places to pile stepping-stones for their patient, pack-animal
wives, just as they would prepare the way for their ponies.

Bears evince great sagacity as mountaineers, but although they are
tireless and enterprising travelers they seldom cross the range. I have
several times tracked them through the Mono Pass, but only in late
years, after cattle and sheep had passed that way, when they doubtless
were following to feed on the stragglers and on those that had been
killed by falling over the rocks. Even the wild sheep, the best
mountaineers of all, choose regular passes in making journeys across the
summits. Deer seldom cross the range in either direction. I have never
yet observed a single specimen of the mule-deer of the Great Basin west
of the summit, and rarely one of the black-tailed species on the eastern
slope, notwithstanding many of the latter ascend the range nearly to the
summit every summer, to feed in the wild gardens and bring forth their
young.

The glaciers are the pass-makers, and it is by them that the courses of
all mountaineers are predestined. Without exception every pass in the
Sierra was created by them without the slightest aid or predetermining
guidance from any of the cataclysmic agents. I have seen elaborate
statements of the amount of drilling and blasting accomplished in the
construction of the railroad across the Sierra, above Donner Lake; but
for every pound of rock moved in this way, the glaciers which descended
east and west through this same pass, crushed and carried away more than
a hundred tons.

The so-called practicable road-passes are simply those portions of the
range more degraded by glacial action than the adjacent portions, and
degraded in such a way as to leave the summits rounded, instead of
sharp; while the peaks, from the superior strength and hardness of their
rocks, or from more favorable position, having suffered less
degradation, are left towering above the passes as if they had been
heaved into the sky by some force acting from beneath.

The scenery of all the passes, especially at the head, is of the