Qtlounfoin tyax&s arte Cmpt^ixtB 



my mountain-top was much higher than at pre- 

 sent. For a long time I looked down upon a trop- 

 ical world. I am now wondering if the Ice King 

 will come for me again." 



The Engelmann spruce forest here is an ex- 

 ceptionally fine one, and the geologist and I dis- 

 cussed it and trees in general. Some of the 

 Indian tribes of the Rockies have traditions of 

 a " Big Fire" about four centuries ago. There is 

 some evidence of a general fire over the Rockies 

 about the time that the Indian's tradition places 

 it, but in this forest there were no indications 

 that there had ever been a fire. Trees were in all 

 stages of growth and decay. Humus was deep. 

 Here I found a stump of a Douglas spruce that 

 was eleven feet high and about nine feet in diame- 

 ter. It was so decayed that I could not decipher 

 the rings of growth. This tree probably required 

 at least a thousand years to reach maturity, and 

 many years must have elapsed for its wood to 

 come to the present state of decay. Over this 

 stump was spread the limbs of a live tree that 

 was four hundred years of age. 



Trees have tongues, and in this forest I inter- 



249 



