NEVADA'S TIMBER BELT 



excepting only the Rocky Mountain spruce, 

 which I have not observed westward of the 

 Snake Range. So greatly, however, have they 

 been made to vary by differences of soil and 

 climate, that most of them appear as distinct 

 species. Without seeming in any way dwarfed 

 or repressed in habit, they nowhere develop 

 to anything like California dimensions. A 

 height of fifty feet and diameter of twelve or 

 fourteen inches would probably be found to be 

 above the average size of those cut for lumber. 

 On the margin of the Carson and Humboldt 

 Sink the larger sage bushes are called "heavy 

 timber" ; and to the settlers here any tree seems 

 large enough for saw-logs. 



Mills have been built in the most accessible 

 canons of the higher ranges, and sufficient 

 lumber of an inferior kind is made to supply 

 most of the local demand. The principal lum- 

 ber trees of Nevada are the white pine (Pinus 

 flexilis), foxtail pine, and Douglas spruce, or 

 "red pine," as it is called here. Of these the 

 first named is most generally distributed, being 

 found on all the higher ranges throughout the 

 State. In botanical characters it is nearly 

 allied to the Weymouth, or white, pine of the 

 Eastern States, and to the sugar and moun- 

 tain pines of the Sierra. In open situations 

 it branches near the ground and tosses out 



175 



