of 



may look down from the heights and enjoy the 

 mingling beauty and grandeur of forest and 

 meadow and still realize that fire, with all its 

 destructiveness, may help to make the gardens 

 of the earth. 



A dozen species of trees form the forests of 

 this section. These forests, delightfully inviting, 

 cover the mountains below the altitude of 

 eleven thousand feet. This rich robe, draping 

 from the shoulders to the feet of the mountains, 

 appears a dark purple from a distance. A great 

 robe it hangs over every steep and slope, smooth, 

 wrinkled, and torn; pierced with pinnacles and 

 spires, gathered on terraces and headlands, up- 

 lifted on the swells, and torn by canons. Here 

 and there this forest is beautified with a ragged- 

 edged grass-plot, a lake, or a stream that flows, 

 ever singing, on. 



The trees which brave the heights and main- 

 tain the forest frontier among the storms, are 

 the Engelmann spruce, sub-alpine fir, arctic 

 willow, black birch, quaking aspen, and limber 

 pine. For the most part, timber-line is a trifle 

 above eleven thousand feet, but in a few places 



340 



