FOREST GEOGRAPHY AND ARCHEOLOGY. 205 



In the Rocky Mountains we come again to forest, but only 

 in narrow lines or patches ; and if you travel by the Pacific 

 Railroad you hardly come to any : the eastern and the in- 

 terior-desert plains meet along the comparatively low level of 

 the divide which here is so opportune for the railway ; but 

 both north and south of this line the mountains themselves 

 are fairly wooded. Beyond, through all the wide interior 

 basin, and also north and south of it, the numerous mountain 

 chains seem to be as bare as the alkaline plains they traverse, 

 mostly north and south ; and the plains bear nothing taller 

 than sage-brush. But those who reach and climb these moun- 

 tains find that their ravines and higher recesses nourish no 

 small amount of timber, though the trees themselves are 

 mostly small and always low. 



When the western rim of this great basin is reached there 

 is an abrupt change of scene. This rim is formed of the 

 Sierra Nevada. Even its eastern slopes are forest-clad in 

 great measure, while the western bear in some respects the 

 noblest and most remarkable forest of the world, — remark- 

 able even for the number of species of evergreen trees occu- 

 pying a comparatively narrow area, but especially for their 

 wonderful development in size and altitude. Whatever may 

 be claimed for individual Eucalyptus-trees in certain sheltered 

 ravines of the southern part of Australia, it is probable that 

 there is no forest to be compared for grandeur with that which 

 stretches, essentially unbroken, — though often narrowed, and 

 nowhere very wide, — from the southern part of the Sierra 

 Nevada in lat. 36° to Puget Sound beyond lat. 49°, and not a 

 little farther. 



Descending into the long valley of California, the forest 

 changes, dwindles, and mainly disappears. In the Pacific 

 coast ranges it resumes its sway, with altered features, some 

 of them not less magnificent and of greater beauty. The 

 Redwoods of the coast, for instance, are little less gigantic 

 than the Big Trees of the Sierra Nevada, and far handsomer, 

 and a thousand times more numerous. And several species, 

 which are merely or mainly shrubs in the drier Sierra, be- 

 come lordly trees in the moister air of the northerly coast 



