STEEP TRAILS 



slender shafts were hidden from top to bottom 

 by a close, fringy growth of tasseled branch- 

 lets. A few white pines and balsam firs occur 

 here and there, mostly around the edges of 

 sunny openings, where they enrich the air 

 with their rosiny fragrance, and bring out the 

 peculiar beauties of the predominating foxtails 

 by contrast. 



Birds find grateful homes here grouse, 

 chickadees, and linnets, of which we saw 

 large flocks that had a delightfully enlivening 

 effect. But the woodpeckers are remarkably 

 rare. Thus far I have noticed only one species, 

 the golden-winged; and but few of the streams 

 are large enough or long enough to attract the 

 blessed ousel, so common in the Sierra. 



On Wheeler's Peak, the dominating sum- 

 mit of the Snake Mountains, I found all the 

 conifers I had seen on the other ranges of the 

 State, excepting the foxtail pine, which I have 

 not observed further east than the White Pine 

 range, but in its stead the beautiful Rocky 

 Mountain spruce. First, as in the other 

 ranges, we find the juniper and nut pine; then, 

 higher, the white pine and balsam fir; then the 

 Douglas spruce and this new Rocky Moun- 

 tain spruce, which is common eastward from 

 here, though this range-is, as far as I have ob- 

 served, its western limit. It is one of the larg- 



180 



