TDtfo &ift on f0e (gocSiee 



been blown off by the wind or cut off by the wind- 

 blown gravel. Most of the exposed trees are des- 

 titute of bark on the portion of the trunk that 

 faces these winter winds. Some of the dead stand- 

 ing trees are carved into strange totem-poles by 

 the sand-blasts of many fierce storms. With all 

 the trees warped or distorted, the effect of timber- 

 line is weird and strange. 



Harriet and I got off the ponies the better to 

 examine some of the storm-beaten trees. Harriet 

 was attracted to a few dwarf spruces that were 

 standing in a drift of recently fallen snow. Al- 

 though these dwarfed little trees were more than a 

 hundred years old, they were so short that the little 

 mountain-climber who stood by them was taller 

 than they. After stroking one of the trees with 

 her hand, Harriet stood for a time in silence, then 

 out of her warm childish nature she said, " What 

 brave little trees to live up here where they have 

 to stand all the time in the snow ! " Timber-line, 

 with its strange tree statuary and treeless snowy 

 peaks and crags rising above it, together with 

 its many kinds of bird and animal life and its 



flower-fringed snowdrifts, is one of nature's most 



106 



