MOUNTAIN TREES 



way in the tamarack forests they run so 

 rapidly from tree to tree that only the 

 resiny bark is singed and the leaves and 

 small branches burned. Though the 

 trees are not consumed the heat is suffi- 

 cient to kill them and soon the bark and 

 small branches fall away leaving the 

 tall, bare, unburned trunks to bleach like 

 spars in the sun and snow. When finally 

 the roots decay and the anchorage of 

 the spired trunks are gone the glad, 

 strong storm-winds easily blow them 

 down, strewing the ground capriciously 

 with dead crisscrossed logs. 



Travellers visiting the headwaters of 

 the Whitewater River (north fork) will 

 find it interesting to note what little 

 direct evidence is now left of the fire 

 which many years ago so disastrously 

 swept through the once heavily forested 

 area on the north side of San Gorgonio 

 Peak. The thousands of erect and pros- 

 trate spar-like tamarack trunks which 

 show so gloomily and forlorn on the 



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