i 6 



Here the lambs and the old ewes that are considered of no further 

 service for breeding purposes are shipped, and the stock ewes are 

 driven back again on the range to be held over the winter. 



DENSER FORESTS. 



In the region fifteen to twenty miles south of the Central 

 Pacific Railroad, the forests still retain their primitive condition 

 to a considerable extent. No timber has been cut, and deer, 

 bear and other wild animals are met with. Fires, however, have 

 burned deeply into many of the large trees, but rarely were these 

 trees entirely destroyed by fire. The only forage of importance 

 under these conifers was the bearbrush or buckbrush , a consider- 

 able quantity of it being eaten by the sheep. While the fires do 

 but little harm to the large timber, yet they are very destructive 

 to the small, lodge-pole pines which cover extensive areas in the 

 gullies in the lowest parts of the mountains between the ridges. 

 These trees are seldom more than a foot in diameter, with a very 

 thin bark, and as they grow very closely together they are quickly 

 killed. The trees are not burnt up, however, but only killed and 

 are soon blown over in every direction by the winter storms, form- 

 ing an almost impenetrable mass, making it very difficult to herd 

 sheep through them. The wild tansy or yarrow was the only 

 forage plant growing abundantly in these denuded places. It is 

 in the open spaces in these forests and especially in the mountain 

 meadows that the finest feed is to be found. These meadows are 

 of different types, some of them supporting a sod of sedges and 

 grasses, others for the most part of two different species of five 

 fingers (PL XIV), while a large number are composed of blue 

 daisies (see Pis. VIII & IX). Considerable moisture is found on 

 them during the early summer months, but in August they were 

 in fine condition for sheep grazing (PI. I). 



HIGH SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAINS. 



On these mountains we found large banks of snow which are 

 never entirely melted. During the month of August the writers 

 had the pleasure of walking on these large banks of perpetual 

 snow. They were from 200 to 300 yards long and from six to 

 twelve feet deep (Pis. II & XXVI). Around the margins of 



