38 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOENIA 



miniature avalanches, and the white forest soon be 

 comes green again. The snow on the ground also 

 settles and thaws every bright day, and freezes at 

 night, until it becomes coarsely granulated, and loses 

 every trace of its rayed crystalline structure, and 

 then a man may walk firmly over its frozen surface 

 as if on ice. The forest region up to an elevation of 

 7000 feet is usually in great part free from snow in 

 June, but at this time the higher regions are still 

 heavy-laden, and are not touched by spring weather 

 to any considerable extent before the middle or end 

 of July. 



One of the most striking effects of the snow on 

 the mountains is the burial of the rivers and small 

 lakes. 



As the gnaw fa's in the river 



A moment white, then lost forever, 



sang Burns, in illustrating the fleeting character 

 of human pleasure. The first snowflakes that fall 

 into the Sierra rivers vanish thus suddenly; but in 

 great storms, when the temperature is low, the 

 abundance of the snow at length chills the water 

 nearly to the freezing-point, and then, of course, it 

 ceases to melt and consume the snow so suddenly. 

 The falling flakes and crystals form cloud-like 

 masses of blue sludge, which are swept forward 

 with the current and carried down to warmer cli 

 mates many miles distant, while some are lodged 

 against logs and rocks and projecting points of the 

 banks, and last for days, piled high above the level 

 of the water, and show white again, instead of being 

 at once " lost forever," while the rivers themselves 



