224 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



to that of the Arctic regions, and the Eastern States flora 

 to that of Japan and Eastern Asia. 



But although the valleys and lowlands of California 

 are specially characterised by hosts of brilliant annuals, 

 monkey-flowers, lupines, and flowering shrubs, which make 

 the country a veritable flower-garden in early spring, it is 

 from its mountain forests of coniferse that it derives its 

 grandest and best-known characteristics. To a brief 

 sketch of these, and of the accompanying shrubby and herb- 

 aceous vegetation, the remainder of this chapter will be 

 devoted. 



The Californian Forests. 



The Sierra Nevada of California, though rising to nearly 

 the same altitudes as the Rocky Mountains, is by no 

 means an imposing range, owing to the exceedingly 

 gradual slope of the foothills which are continuous with 

 it. From these low and arid hills, rising with a very 

 moderate slope from the great central valley of California, 

 there is a constant rise over an undulating or rugged 

 country for nearly a hundred miles to the summits of the 

 great range. The intervening tract is often cut into deep 

 winding valleys, whose higher slopes are terminated by 

 rugged volcanic precipices, where they have cut through 

 the old lava-streams that once covered a large portion of 

 the mountains ; while nearer to the crest are enormously 

 deep valleys, bounded with vertical walls and gigantic 

 domes or splintered peaks of granitic rocks, of which the 

 celebrated Yosemite Valley is the best known example. 

 Owing to this formation the summits of the range can 

 only be seen from great distances and from a few favour- 

 able points, as a somewhat jagged line on the far horizon, 

 just rising above the dark forest-clad slopes, and here and 

 there flecked with perpetual snows. A coach drive of 

 three days from the railway terminus at Milton to the 

 Yosemite Valley, and another to the Calaveras groves of 

 " big trees," gave me an excellent opportunity of observing 

 the main features of this remarkable forest region. 



The lower portion of the foothills up to two or three 

 thousand feet has been greatly defaced by gold-miners, 



