162 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



at an elevation of about 5000 feet above the sea, it 

 forms the bulk of the forest, filling every swell 

 and hollow and down-plunging ravine. The ma 

 jestic crowns, approaching each other in bold 

 curves, make a glorious canopy through which the 

 tempered sunbeams pour, silvering the needles, and 

 gilding the massive boles, and flowery, park-like 

 ground, into a scene of enchantment. 



On the most sunny slopes the white-flowered fra 

 grant chamoebatia is spread like a carpet, bright 

 ened during early summer with the crimson Sar- 

 codes, the wild rose, and innumerable violets and 

 gilias. Not even in the shadiest nooks will you 

 find any rank, untidy weeds or unwholesome dark 

 ness. On the north sides of ridges the boles are 

 more slender, and the ground is mostly occupied 

 by an underbrush of hazel, ceanothus, and flower 

 ing dogwood, but never so densely as to prevent 

 the traveler from sauntering where he will ; while 

 the crowning branches are never impenetrable 

 to the rays of the sun, and never so interblended as 

 to lose their individuality. 



View the forest from beneath or from some com 

 manding ridge-top; each tree presents a study in 

 itself, and proclaims the surpassing grandeur of the 

 species. 



YELLOW, OE SILVER PINE 



(Pinus ponderosa) 



THE Silver, or Yellow, Pine, as it is commonly 

 called, ranks second among the pines of the Sierra 

 as a lumber tree, and almost rivals the Sugar Pine 

 in stature and nobleness of port. Because of its 



