THE GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE We have already seen in the preceding chapter how the great basin, in which Lake Tahoe rests, was turned out in the rough from Nature's workshop.

It must now be smoothed down, its angularities removed, its sharpest features eliminated, and soft and fertile banks prepared upon which trees, shrubs, plants and flowers might spring forth to give beauty to an otherwise naked and barren scene.
It is almost impossible for one to picture the Tahoe basin at this time.

There may have been water in it, or there may not.

All the great mountain peaks, most of them, perhaps, much higher by several thousands of feet than at present, were rude, rough, jagged masses, fresh from the factory of God.

There was not a tree, not a shrub, not a flower, not a blade of grass.