56 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



been kept in motion long enough in California to 

 grind sufficient soil for a glorious abundance of life, 

 though most of the grist has been carried to the 

 lowlands, leaving these high regions comparatively 

 lean and bare; while the post-glacial agents of 

 erosion have not yet furnished sufficient available 

 food over the general surface for more than a few 

 tufts of the hardiest plants, chiefly carices and eri- 

 ogona?. And it is interesting to learn in this con 

 nection that the sparseness and repressed character 

 of the vegetation at this height is caused more by 

 want of soil than by harshness of climate ; for, here 

 and there, in sheltered hollows (countersunk beneath 

 the general surface) into which a few rods of well- 

 ground moraine chips have been dumped, we find 

 groves of spruce and pine thirty to forty feet high, 

 trimmed around the edges with willow and huckle 

 berry bushes, and oftentimes still further by an 

 outer ring of tall grasses, bright with lupines, lark 

 spurs, and showy columbines, suggesting a climate 

 by no means repressingly severe. All the streams, 

 too, and the pools at this elevation are furnished 

 with little gardens wherever soil can be made to lie, 

 which, though making scarce any show at a dis 

 tance, constitute charming surprises to the appreci 

 ative observer. In these bits of leanness a few birds 

 find grateful homes. Having no acquaintance with 

 man, they fear no ill, and flock curiously about the 

 stranger, almost allowing themselves to be taken in 

 the hand. In so wild and so beautiful a region was 

 spent my first day, every sight and sound inspiring, 

 leading one far out of himself, yet feeding and 

 building up his individuality. 



