2l8 TRANSACTIOXS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETV. 



present one, King's River Caiion, the Kaweah, by which we had 

 reached the Sequoia forest, and further to the south the Kern 

 Canon, which is famous as being the only home of the Golden 

 Rainbow Trout. 



The peaks of the range are all about 14,000 feet in height— 

 the highest, Mount Whitney, being 14,500 feet. On their 

 eastern side, the drop of 8000 feet into Nevada is very sudden, 

 but it is not so to the western side, whither the rivers all drain. 

 We saw a great many yellow pines — Jeffreyi variety — said to be 

 distinguishable from the common ponderosa by its larger cones, 

 smoother bark, and longer needles ; however, I found these 

 peculiarities existing indiscriminately, and am inclined to think 

 there is no real variety at all. In the floor of the canon were 

 beautiful black oaks — Quercus Californica — the largest I ever 

 saw, and sugar pines and Libocedrus, the ground being carpeted 

 with evening primroses in full bloom. We camped two miles 

 from the head of the canon, and fished and explored for a few 

 days. I found Finns monophylla growing on the precipitous 

 sides of the main river, where it ran or rather fell into the head 

 of the canon. It is a small sturdy tree 15 to 20 feet high, 

 rather like a well-shaped apple tree. I believe this is the only 

 place where it crosses the ridge of the Sierras, its home being 

 on the eastern side. Finns flexilis is also said to grow in the 

 canon, although I did not find it. It is a smaller edition of 

 P. monticola and P. Lamberdana, and, like them, a five-needled 

 white pine. High above all the other trees on the main ridge 

 of the mountains, sometimes at 10,000 feet, Juniperus occidentalis 

 stands solitary on the bare glacier-worn granite " pavements." 

 No tree has such a hold on life as this one. It seems to prefer 

 the bleakest and most wind-swept situations, and lives to an 

 immense age. Dr Muir speaks of finding this tree 2000 years 

 old ; and even when a veteran has succumbed to the blasts of 

 winter and is lying over, as it were, on its elbows, there are still 

 tufts of grey scale-like foliage if any root has got foot-hoUl. 

 The wood seems to be almost imperishable, and when a tree is 

 down it wastes out of existence about as slowly as the surround- 

 ing granite boulders. Dr Muir tells how he found one only 

 2 ft. II ins. in diameter, which was 11 40 years old, and 

 another, on the same ridge, i ft. 7 ins. in diameter, was 834 years 

 old. The first 15 inches from the bark of a medium-size tree, 6 

 feet in diameter, had 859 layers of wood, or 57 years to the inch. 



