THE PINES 245 



swarms, it furnishes firewood and shelter. The pioneer 

 blesses it, and a great multitude of wild things, both plant 

 and animal, maintain their lives in comfort and security 

 because of its protection. 



The lodge-pole pine or tamarack pine is but a variety 

 {Murrayana) of P. contorta, that grows in forests on both 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, 

 at elevations of from seven to eight thousand feet, and 

 stretches away into British Columbia and Alaska, and 

 southward to the San Jacinto Range. Between eight 

 thousand and nine thousand five hundred feet in altitude, 

 along the Sierra Nevada in California, it reaches its great- 

 est size and beauty, and forms extensive dense forests. 

 The young trees have very slender trunks, and often stand 

 crowded together like wheat on the prairie. An average 

 forest specimen is five inches in diameter, when thirty 

 or forty feet in height. No wonder the Indian in Wyo- 

 ming and Colorado called it "the lodge-pole pine," for 

 their supple trunks fitted these trees, while yet saplings, 

 to support the lodge he built. 



Richer, moister ground nourishes this fortimate off- 

 spring of the scrub pine. The two-leaved foliage, usually 

 about two inches long, wears a cheerful yellow-green, wliile 

 the parent tree is dark and sombre, with leaves an 

 inch in length. The hard, strong, brown wood of con- 

 torta contrasts strikingly with that of its variety, which is 

 light yellow or nearly white — soft, weak, straight-grained 

 and easily worked. Its abundance in regions where other 

 timber is scarce, brings it into general use for construction 

 work. It also furnishes railroad ties, mine timbers and 

 fuel, with the minimum of labor, since trunks of proper 

 sizes can easily be selected. 



