222 BESIDE THE GEEAT SALT LAKE. 



The oak-brush, which we then approached, is 

 a curious and interesting form of vegetation. It 

 is a mass of oak-trees, all of the same age, grow- 

 ing as close as they can stand, with branches 

 down to the ground. It looks as if each patch 

 had sprung from a great fall of acorns from one 

 tree, or perhaps were shoots from the roots of a 

 perished tree. The clumps are more or less 

 irregularly round, set down in a barren piece of 

 ground, or among the sage bushes. At a dis- 

 tance, on the side of a mountain, they resemble 

 patches of moss of varying shape. When two 

 or three feet high, one is a thick, solid mat ; 

 when it reaches an altitude of six to eight feet, 

 it is an impenetrable thicket ; except, that is, 

 when it happens to be in a pasture. Horses 

 and cattle find such scanty pickings in the fields, 

 that they nibble every green thing, even oak 

 leaves, and so they clear the brush as high as 

 they can reach. When therefore it is fifteen 

 feet high, there is a thick roof the animals are 

 not able to reach, and one may look through a 

 patch to the light beyond. The stems and lower 

 branches, though kept bare of leaves, are so 

 close together and so intertwined and tangled, 

 that forcing one's way through it is an impos- 

 sibility. But the horses have made and kept 

 open paths in every direction, and this turns it 

 into a delightful grove, a cool retreat, which 

 others appreciate as well as the makers. 



