NURSLINGS OF THE SKY 



deer make slow going in the thick fresh 

 snow, and once we found a wolverine going 

 blind and feebly in the white glare. 



No tree takes the snow stress with such 

 ease as the silver fir. The star-whorled, 

 fan-spread branches droop under the soft 

 wreaths — droop and press flatly to the 

 trunk; presently the point of overloading 

 is reached, there is a soft sough and muf- 

 fled dropping, the boughs recover, and the 

 weighting goes on until the drifts have 

 reached the midmost whorls and covered 

 up the branches. When, the snows are 

 particularly wet and heavy they spread 

 over the young firs in green-ribbed tents 

 wherein harbor winter loving birds. 



All storms of desert hills, except wind 



storms, are impotent. East and east of the 



Sierras they rise in nearly parallel ranges, 



desertward, and no rain breaks over them, 



257 



.//^^■^■' 



