THE FOEESTS 203 



eighty feet high, bending all together to the breeze 

 and whirling in eddying gusts more lithely than any 

 other tree in the woods. I have frequently found 

 specimens fifty feet high less than five inches in di 

 ameter. Being thus slender, and at the same time 

 well clad with leafy boughs, it is oftentimes bent to 

 the ground when laden with soft snow, forming 

 beautiful arches in endless variety, some of which 

 last until the melting of the snow in spring. 



MOUNTAIN PINE 

 (Pinus monticola) 



THE Mountain Pine is king of the alpine woods, 

 brave, hardy, and long-lived, towering grandly above 

 its companions, and becoming stronger and more 

 imposing just where other species begin to crouch 

 and disappear. At its best it is usually about ninety 

 feet high and five or six in diameter, though a speci 

 men is often met considerably larger than this. 

 The trunk is as massive and as suggestive of en 

 during strength as that of an oak. About two thirds 

 of the trunk is commonly free of limbs, but close, 

 fringy tufts of sprays occur all the way down, like 

 those which adorn the colossal shafts of Sequoia. 

 The bark is deep reddish-brown upon trees that oc 

 cupy exposed situations near its upper limit, and 

 furrowed rather deeply, the main furrows running 

 nearly parallel with each other, and connected by 

 conspicuous cross furrows, which, with one excep 

 tion, are, as far as I have noticed, peculiar to this 

 species. 



