In the Sierra 



are alike in their prime or old age. Every 

 tree calls for special admiration. I have 

 been making many sketches, and regret that 

 I cannot draw every needle. It is said to reach 

 a height of three hundred feet, though the 

 tallest I have measured falls short of this 

 stature sixty feet or more. The diameter of 

 the largest near the ground is about ten feet, 

 though I 've heard of some twelve feet thick 

 or even fifteen. The diameter is held to a 

 great height, the taper being almost imper- 

 ceptibly gradual. Its companion, the yellow 

 pine, is almost as large. The long silvery 

 foliage of the younger specimens forms mag- 

 nificent cylindrical brushes on the top shoots 

 and the ends of the upturned branches, and 

 when the wind sways the needles all one 

 way at a certain angle every tree becomes 

 a tower of white quivering sun-fire. Well 

 may this shining species be called the silver 

 pine. The needles are sometimes more than 

 a foot long, almost as long as those of the 

 long-leaf pine of Florida. But though in 



