My First Summer 



called the second bench or plateau of the 

 Range, after making many small ups and 

 downs over belts of hill- waves, with, of course, 

 corresponding changes in the vegetation. In 

 open spots many of the lowland composite 

 are still to be found, and some of the Mariposa 

 tulips and other conspicuous members of the 

 lily family; but the characteristic blue oak 

 of the foothills is left below, and its place is 

 taken by a fine large species (^uercus Call- 

 fornica} with deeply lobed deciduous leaves, 

 picturesquely divided trunk, and broad, massy, 

 finely lobed and modeled head. Here also at 

 a height of about twenty-five hundred feet 

 we come to the edge of the great coniferous 

 forest, made up mostly of yellow pine with 

 just a few sugar pines. We are now in the 

 mountains and they are in us, kindling en- 

 thusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling 

 every pore and cell of us. Our flesh-and-bone 

 tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the 

 beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part 

 of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams 



[ 20] 



