WATER BORDERS 



ness that lick up among the pines along 

 the watercourses, white, scentless, nearly 

 stemless, alpine violets. 



At about the nine thousand foot level 

 and in the summer there will be hosts of 

 rosy-winged dodecatheon, called shooting- 

 stars, outlining the crystal runnels in the 

 sod. Single flowers have often a two-inch 

 spread of petal, and the full, twelve blos- 

 somed heads above the slender pedicels 

 have the airy effect of wings. 



It is about this level one looks to find 

 the largest lakes with thick ranks of pines 

 bearing down on them, often swamped in 

 the summer floods and paying the inevita- 

 ble penalty for such encroachment. Here 

 in wet coves of the hills harbors that crowd 

 of bloom that makes the wonder of the Si- 

 erra canons. 



They drift under the alternate flicker 

 217 



