CHAPTER YIII 



THE FOKESTS 



THE coniferous forests of the Sierra are the 

 grandest and most beautiful in the world, and 

 grow in a delightful climate on the most interest 

 ing and accessible of mountain-ranges, yet strange 

 to say they are not well known. More than sixty 

 years ago David Douglas, an enthusiastic botanist 

 and tree lover, wandered alone through fine sections 

 of the Sugar Pine and Silver Fir woods wild with 

 delight. A few years later, other botanists made 

 short journeys from the coast into the lower woods. 

 Then came the wonderful multitude of miners into 

 the foot-hill zone, mostly blind with gold-dust, soon 

 followed by " sheepmen," who, with wool over their 

 eyes, chased their flocks through all the forest belts 

 from one end of the range to the other. Then the 

 Yosemite Valley was discovered, and thousands of 

 admiring tourists passed through sections of the 

 lower and middle zones on their way to that won 

 derful park, and gained fine glimpses of the Sugar 

 Pines and Silver Firs along the edges of dusty trails 

 and roads. But few indeed, strong and free with 

 eyes undimmed with care, have gone far enough 

 and lived long enough with the trees to gain any 

 thing like a loving conception of their grandeur and 



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