CALIFORNIA TREE NOVELTIES 



777 



Where There is a Hard Struggle for Existence 

 whitebark pine at upper limit of tree growth on pyramid peak, el dorado national forest, cal. 



above the lake the struggle between 

 chaparral and the forests is keenly 

 waged with the forest winning back its 

 ground where fire is absent for a few 

 wars. Mark Twain in "Roughing It" 

 describes the Tahoe Forests of fifty 

 years ago and gives a wonderful descrip- 

 tion of a forest fire. South of Lake 

 Tahoe is a wonderful sub-Alpine Lake 

 country, where one may fish through 

 the ice in May and near timberline see 

 mountain hemlock 30 to 50 feet high 

 buried almost to their tips in snow. 

 Comparatively short trips from Weed, 

 Sisson or McCloud in the Mount 

 Shasta region, take one into the forests 

 of sugar and yellow pine; while from 

 various points such as Chico and 

 Madera in the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin Valleys the lumber camps can 

 be reached by stage or logging railroad. 

 The sugar pine is perhaps at its best on 

 the American River east of Sacra- 

 mento; while the railroad trip to 



Angels Camp, in Calaveras County, 

 made famous by Bret Harte and Mark 

 Twain, is a revelation of forest scenes. 

 The species comprising the typical 

 Sierra Forest do not possess unique 

 or surprising features. It is simply the 

 wonderful abundance and the high 

 quality of the timber which creates 

 the effect that mature forests always 

 do, of impressiveness and a desire to 

 abandon care and pitch a tent where 

 the best trees are The individual trees, 

 under normal conditions are tall, with 

 clear and straight trunks, many being 

 6 to 8 feet in diameter, although the 

 average is less; but the eastern visitor 

 loses the sense of size because of the 

 absence of comparative siandards. The 

 eastern forests of 5 to 10,000 feet per 

 acre with individual trees running up 

 to 2 or 3 feet, are dwarfed by these 

 western forests, where the stand may 

 run 30, 50 or even a 100,000 feet per 

 acre. There is too, in some regions, an 



