In the Sierra 



streams take their rise, blessing with cool- 

 ing shadows and rain. No rock landscape 

 is more varied in sculpture, none more 

 delicately modeled than these landscapes of 

 the sky ; domes and peaks rising, swelling, 

 white as finest marble and firmly outlined, 

 a most impressive manifestation of world 

 building. Every rain-cloud, however fleet- 

 ing, leaves its mark, not only on trees and 

 flowers whose pulses are quickened, and on 

 the replenished streams and lakes, but also 

 on the rocks are its marks engraved whether 

 we can see them or not. 



I have been examining the curious and 

 influential shrub Adenostoma fasciculata, first 

 noticed about Horseshoe Bend. It is very 

 abundant on the lower slopes of the second 

 plateau near Coulterville, forming a dense, 

 almost impenetrable growth that looks dark 

 in the distance. It belongs to the rose fam- 

 ily, is about six or eight feet high, has small 

 white flowers in racemes eight to twelve 

 inches long, round needle-like leaves, and 



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