My First Summer 



down for four or five months. Some are 

 broken ; the others spring up when the snow 

 melts and at length attain a size that en- 

 ables them to withstand the snow pressure. 

 Yet even in trees five feet thick the traces 

 of this early discipline are still plainly to 

 be seen in their curved insteps, and fre- 

 quently in old dried saplings protruding 

 from the trunk, partially overgrown by the 

 new axis developed from a branch below 

 the break. Yet through all this stress the 

 forest is maintained in marvelous beauty. 



Beyond the silver firs I find the two- 

 leaved pine (Pinus contorta 9 vzr. Murray ana) 

 forms the bulk of the forest up to an ele- 

 vation often thousand feet or more, --the 

 highest timber-belt of the Sierra. I saw a 

 specimen nearly five feet in diameter grow- 

 ing on deep, well-watered soil at an ele- 

 vation of about nine thousand feet. The 

 form of this species varies very much with 

 position, exposure, soil, etc. On stream- 

 banks, where it is closely planted, it is very 

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