(KocRg (pioun^ain ^oxtB(6 



any other tree on the Rockies. Though a slender 

 and small-Hmbed tree in youth, after forty or fifty 

 years it changes slowly and becomes stocky, 

 strong-limbed, and rounded at the top. Lightning, 

 wind, and snow break or distort its upper limbs 

 so that most of these veteran pines show a pic- 

 turesquely broken top, with a towering dead limb 

 or two among the green ones. Its needles are in 

 bundles of both twos and threes, and they vary 

 from three to eight inches in length. The tree is 

 rich in resin, and a walk through its groves on an 

 autumn day, when the sun shines bright on its 

 clean golden columns and brings out its aroma, is 

 a walk full of contentment and charm. The bark 

 is fluted and blackish-gray in youth, and it breaks 

 up into irregular plates, which on old trees fre- 

 quently are five inches or more in thickness. This 

 bark gives the tree excellent fire-protection. 



The yellow pine is one of the best fire-fighters 

 and lives long. I have seen many of the pines 

 that were from sixty to ninety feet high, with a 

 diameter of from three to five feet. They w^ere 

 aged from two hundred and fifty to six hundred 

 years. Most of the old ones have lived through 



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