NEVADA'S TIMBER BELT 



fly, and making them tell gloriously against 

 the evergreens. These extensive groves of 

 aspen are a marked feature of the Nevada 

 woods. Some of the lower mountains are cov- 

 ered with them, giving rise to remarkably 

 beautiful effects in general views — waving, 

 trembUng masses of pale, translucent green 

 in spring and summer, yellow and orange in 

 autumn, while in winter, after every leaf has 

 fallen, the white bark of the boles and branches 

 seen in mass seems hke a cloud of mist that 

 has settled close down on the mountain, con- 

 forming to all its hollows and ridges hke a 

 mantle, yet roughened on the surface with 

 innumerable ascending spires. 



Just above the aspens we entered a fine, 

 close growth of foxtail pine, the tallest and 

 most evenly planted I had yet seen. It ex- 

 tended along a waving ridge tending north and 

 south and down both sides with but little in- 

 terruption for a distance of about five miles. 

 The trees were mostly straight in the bole, and 

 their shade covered the ground in the densest 

 places, leaving only small openings to the 

 sun. A few of the tallest specimens measured 

 over eighty feet, with a diameter of eighteen 

 inches; but many of the younger trees, grow- 

 ing in tufts, were nearly fifty feet high, with a 

 diameter of only five or six inches, while their 

 179 



