My First Summer 



anything worth mention, so I have been 

 told. 



Our course to-day was along the broad 

 top of the main ridge to a hollow beyond 

 Crane Flat. It is scarce at all rocky, and is 

 covered with the noblest pines and spruces 

 I have yet seen. Sugar pines from six to 

 eight feet in diameter are not uncommon, 

 with a height of two hundred feet or even 

 more. The silver firs (Abies concolor and A. 

 magnified} are exceedingly beautiful, espe- 

 cially the magnifica, which becomes more 

 abundant the higher we go. It is of great 

 size, one of the most notable in every way 

 of the giant conifers of the Sierra. I saw 

 specimens that measured seven feet in dia- 

 meter and over two hundred feet in height, 

 while the average size for what might be 

 called full-grown mature trees can hardly be 

 less than one hundred and eighty or two 

 hundred feet high and five or six feet in 

 diameter ; and with these noble dimensions 

 there is a symmetry and perfection of finish 



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