nere 



212 ESSAYS. \ 



from two hundred to three hundred and twenty-fivd An; A A . j 

 in reaching these wondrous trees you ride thnmewKSn 

 Sugar Pines. Yellow Pines, Spruces, and Firs, of S "<-'V^^^H 

 cence in girth and height, that the Big Trees, when 39 

 — astonishing as they are — seem not out of keeping^^M 

 their surroundings. 



I cannot pretend to account for the extreme magnificence 'ft 

 this Sierra forest. Its rainfall is in winter, and of unknowii 

 but large amount. Doubtless most of it is in snow, of whicti 

 fifty or sixty feet fall in some winters, and — different from 

 the coast and from Oregon, where it falls as rain, and atfJS 

 temperature which does not suspend vegetable action — here 

 the winter must be complete cessation. But with such gi| 

 snowfall the supply of moisture to the soil should be al 

 dant and lasting. 



Then the Sierra — much loftier than the coast ranges, MP 

 ing from 7000 or 8000 to 11,000 and 14,000 feet — is refresIHf 

 in summer by the winds from the Pacific, from which it tafifejj 

 the last drops of available moisture ; and mountains of stlfefc 

 altitude, to which moisture from whatever source or direeftdb 

 must necessarily be attracted, are always expected to supj^Bjl 

 forests, — at least when not cut off from sea-winds by interpj^BI 

 chains of equal altitude. Trees such mountains will have. xHr, 

 only and the real wonder is, that the Sierra Nevada should fl&it 

 such immense trees ! u * 



Moreover, we shall see that this forest is rich and stfj 

 only in one line ; that, beyond one favorite tribe, it is mfl 

 enough. Such for situation, and extent, and surrounding eon 

 ditions, are the two forests — the Atlantic and Pacific — wtfitlj 

 are to be compared. 



In order to come to this comparison. I must refrain fror 

 account of the intervening forest of the Rocky Moutfkife 

 only saying that it is comparatively poor in th* 

 trees and the number of species: thirt few ' a£ ff<< ta 

 peculiar, and those mostly in the sWJhern par^and of the 

 Mexican plateau type ; that they are common to the momitfefiP 

 chains which lie between, stretched north and south en ec;//don, 

 all through that arid or desert region of Utah and Nevada, of 



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