THE FOKESTS 



143 



forest, composed of small oaks and pines, growing 

 so far apart that not one twentieth of the surface of 

 the ground is in shade at clear noonday. After ad 

 vancing fifteen or twenty miles, and making an as 

 cent of from two to three thousand feet, you reach 



EDGE OF THE TIMBER LINE ON MOUNT SHASTA. 



the lower margin of the main pine belt, composed 

 of the gigantic Sugar Pine, Yellow Pine, Incense 

 Cedar, and Sequoia. Next you come to the magnifi 

 cent Silver Fir belt, and lastly to the upper pine 

 belt, which sweeps up the rocky acclivities of the 

 summit peaks in a dwarfed, wavering fringe to a 

 height of from ten to twelve thousand feet. 



