174 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



In size, these two Silver Firs are about equal, 

 the magnified perhaps a little the taller. Specimens 

 from 200 to 250 feet high are not rare on well- 

 ground moraine soil, at an elevation of from 7500 

 to 8500 feet above sea-level. The largest that I 

 measured stands back three miles from the brink of 

 the north wall of Yo Semite Valley. Fifteen years 

 ago it was 240 feet high, with a diameter of a little 

 more than five feet. 



Happy the man with the freedom and the love to 

 climb one of these superb trees in full flower and 

 fruit. How admirable the forest-work of Nature is 

 then seen to be, as one makes his way up through 

 the midst of the broad, fronded branches, all ar 

 ranged in exquisite order around the trunk, like 

 the whorled leaves of lilies, and each branch and 

 branchlet about as strictly pinnate as the most sym 

 metrical fern-frond. The staminate cones are seen 

 growing straight downward from the under side of 

 the young branches in lavish profusion, making fine 

 purple clusters amid the grayish-green foliage. On 

 the topmost branches the fertile cones are set firmly 

 on end like small casks. They are about six inches 

 long, three wide, covered with a fine gray down, 

 and streaked with crystal balsam that seems to have 

 been poured upon each cone from above. 



Both the Silver Firs live 250 years or more when 

 the conditions about them are at all favorable. 

 Some venerable patriarch may often be seen, heavily 

 storm-marked, towering in severe majesty above 

 the rising generation, with a protecting grove of 

 saplings pressing close around his feet, each dressed 

 with such loving care that not a leaf seems want- 



