66 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



while a fate-favoured cottonwood or eucalyptus 

 may in one season envelop itself with a ring that 

 is more than an inch in diameter. 



The age of a timberline tree cannot be approxi- 

 mated by its size or appearance or by the size or 

 the age of its neighbours. It may have lived twice 

 as long, and it may have endured more hardships 

 than its near-by fellows of similar size and appear- 

 ance. 



Environment has shaped many timberline trees 

 into huge and crooked vines. Still others are 

 picturesque, bell-shaped individuals formed by the 

 deeply drifting snows pressing the limbs down- 

 ward and against the trunk. During the summer 

 months the limbs partly regain their natural posi- 

 tion, and the result is a slender bell shape in tall 

 trees and a heavy bell outline in stocky ones. In- 

 stead of symmetrical limb development many trees 

 are one-sided. Imagine a tree with storm-threshed 

 limbs all flung out on one side of the trunk, like a 

 tattered, wind-blown banner ! Then imagine thou- 

 sands of bannered trees scattered and grouped, in 

 a mountainside forest front ! 



The climatic conditions at the forest frontier 

 are trying, but timberline trees are hardy and prob- 

 ably have as long or even longer lives than the 

 majority of their more fortunately placed relatives. 

 The oldest timberline settler that I ever studied 

 had been permanently located at an altitude of 

 11,437 feet for 1,182 years when finally killed by 



