



Photo bv Neal T. Childs. 



Typical Mountain Meadow in the Sierras. 



THIS IS AT AN ELEVATION OF 6,000 FEET. HERE IS THE GREENEST OF GRASS, THE RICHEST OF FORAGE, AN UNLOOKED- 

 FOR BEAUTY SPOT IN THE HEAVY FOREST COVER. 



THE MEADOWS OF THE SIERRA 



By Neal T. Childs 



THE mountain meadows are the 

 most distinctive feature of the 

 Sierra landscape. They im- 

 press the new traveller the 

 most, and the impression remains 

 longest. The mental picture of count- 

 less mountain meadows lingers longer 

 than the majestic quiet of Sequoia 

 groves or the glint on the lofty granite 

 needles of the High Sierra. 



In the Rockies, the Cascades, and the 

 Coast Ranges, the traveller is content 

 with an occasional meadow; in the 

 Sierras he depends on them. He may 

 rein his horse from Tehachapi Pass on 

 the south to Mt. Shasta on the north, 

 a journey of five to seven hundred 

 miles, and camp in a meadow every 

 night, provided only that he keep above 

 3,000 feet. 



The Sierra meadows vary in size from 

 a grass plot the size of a respectable 

 city lawn to areas covering two town- 

 ships. Such a one is the great Monache 

 Meadow at the head of the Kern River. 



788 



The Monache includes about 40,000 

 acres of grassland. 



Some are quite regular in shape, 

 being almost perfect circles or ovals cut 

 in the forest canopy; others are irreg- 

 ular, with many grass arms or "string- 

 ers" running into the timber. These 

 stringers usually follow gurgling brooks 

 to their source in some springy swale. 



So far no one has ever made a count 

 of the meadows, though the Forest 

 Service through its grazing and timber 

 reconnaissance has a fair idea of the 

 amomit of grass land contained in the 

 meadows on each National Forest. 



To the easterner, the first mountain 

 meadow is a distinct surprise. He 

 walks his horse through the gloom of a 

 heavy fir cover around a twist in the 

 trail, through a thicket of saplings out 

 into the bright sunlight lying on a lawn- 

 like floor of the greenest of grass. The 

 change from heavy tree trunks, pvirple 

 shadows, and a brown carpet of needles 

 is so abrupt that it startles one. Im- 



