WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 963 



off by the miners of long ago the coyote issues to the plains below, fol- 

 lowing the streams which are still fringed by belts of brushwood. 

 From them he issues to kill sheep, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, in num- 

 bers which keep him at the head of the predatory destroyers of live 

 stock. 



From this belt of old placer mining operations a fringe of brush and 

 young timber growth has extended in some cases many miles down 

 toward the plains below, in spite of the close grazing of animals. The 

 proof of this fact can be seen from the car windows on the Central 

 Pacific Railroad between the towns of Auburn and Rocklin, where the 

 railroad company had the young pine and other growth cut off this 

 year. This growth, which has come up within twenty-five years, adds 

 greatly to the cost of getting the land into condition for fruit culture, 

 now the engrossing business in the locality. These facts prove the 

 absurdity of the charge that sheep devour young forest growth. This 

 charge is regarded by all of my correspondents who graze sheep in the 

 Sierras as false and absurd as the charge that they or the herders burn 

 the ranges they feed their flocks on/ 



The outcry that has been kept up against sheep pasturing on the 

 Sierra Xevadas was first raised by persons interested in cattle and 

 horse grazing, who always and everywhere object to sharing the ad- 

 vantages ot grazing the public domain with flock-owners. Their objec- 

 tions are based on the fact that the cattle can not be held on range 

 closely pastured by sheep and will not thrive on range that supports sheep 

 well. One of the most cautious men I have met in California, who has 

 made a fortune with sheep and never takes his flocks to these moun- 

 tains (but who owns 2,000 acres of sugar-pine land upon them and 5,000 

 acres on the plains below), and is embarking his capital in a large en- 

 terprise of constructing a reservoir in one of those mountain valleys 

 to save the winter flow of water for summer irrigation, tells me that the 

 " outcry against sheep ranging on these mountains is the result of 

 selfish prejudice." That " sheep do not feed in the timber belt, but 

 above it;" that "an outbreak of fire from a sheep herder's carelessness 

 would be a good cause for his dismissal" by the flock-owner. That 

 in fact such an occurrence is very rare, and that Jthe most injurious 

 fires in the forests originate where lumber-making is carried on, and 

 from careless campers on hunting or fishing excursions. 



John Muir, the fearless explorer and fine descriptive writer of the 

 grand and beautiful scenery of these mountains and solitudes, went 

 into the Kings River, Yosemite, this season of 1891, to see what de- 

 struction had taken place in the sixteen years since he first saw the 

 valley. The sawmills used in cutting up the "big trees" into lumber 

 "had doubled in number and more than doubled in capacity." But, 

 although he would evidently rather see a bear than a sheep in his 

 solitary travels, he only notes " a young sapling scarred by a camper 

 or herder" while crediting the latter as a class with "undoubtedly 



