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The average altitude of the timber-line is 

 about eleven thousand three hundred feet, 

 nearly a vertical mile higher than the timber- 

 line in the Alps. Timber-line the world over is 

 a place of striking interest, but nowhere have 

 I found or heard of a timber-line which exhibits 

 so many telling features as does the forest-fron- 

 tier on the eastern side of the Continental Di- 

 vide. The prevailing tree on the drier slopes at 

 timber-line is Pinus flexilis , the limber pine. In 

 the moist places Engelmann spruce predomi- 

 nates, and in many of the moister places there 

 are dwarfed and tangled growths of arctic wil- 

 low, black birch, and aspen. 



Among the least broken and most enchanting 

 of the primeval forests of the Park are a few 

 that are grand. One of these is between the 

 head of Fall River and the Poudre; another is 

 in Forest Canon; one is in the southern part of 

 Wild Basin ; still another is on the western slope 

 of Stone's Peak and Flat-Top Mountain. These 

 forests are mostly Engelmann spruce, with a 

 scattering of sub-alpine fir. Around the lower, 

 warmer slopes grows the Western yellow pine, 



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