My First Summer 



worn by the sun-drenched trees of the 

 tropics. 



A still hardier mountaineer is the Si- 

 erra juniper (yuniperus occidentalis^ growing 

 mostly on domes and ridges and glacier 

 pavements. A thickset, sturdy, picturesque 

 highlander, seemingly content to live for 

 more than a score of centuries on sunshine 

 and snow; a truly wonderful fellow, dogged 

 endurance expressed in every feature, last- 

 ing about as long as the granite he stands 

 on. Some are nearly as broad as high. I 

 saw one on the shore of the lake nearly 

 ten feet in diameter, and many six to eight 

 feet. The bark, cinnamon-colored, flakes 

 off in long ribbon-like strips with a satiny 

 lustre. Surely the most enduring of all tree 

 mountaineers, it never seems to die a natu- 

 ral death, or even to fall after it has been 

 killed. If protected from accidents, it would 

 perhaps be immortal. I saw some that had 

 withstood an avalanche from snowy Mt. 

 Hoffman cheerily putting out new branches, 



[ 220] 



