WILD PARKS OF THE WEST 81 



two miles wide, so closely planted and luxuriant 

 that it seems as if Nature, glad to make an open 

 space between woods so dense and ice so deep, 

 were economizing the precious ground, and try- 

 ing to see how many of her darlings she can get 

 together in one mountain wreath, — daisies, 

 anemones, geraniums, columbines, erythroniums, 

 larkspurs, etc., among which we wade knee-deep 

 and waist-deep, the bright corollas in myriads 

 touching petal to petal. Picturesque detached 

 groups of the spiry Abies lasiocarpa stand like 

 islands along the lower margin of the garden 

 zone, while on the upper margin there are exten- 

 sive beds of bryanthus, Cassiope, Kalmia, and other 

 heathworts, and higher still saxifrages and drabas, 

 more and more lowly, reach up to the edge of the 

 ice. Altogether this is the richest subalpine 

 garden I ever found, a perfect floral elysium. 

 The icy dome needs none of man's care, but un- 

 less the reserve is guarded the flower bloom will 

 soon be killed, and nothing of the forests will be 

 left but black stump monuments. 



The Sierra of California is the most openly 

 beautiful and useful of all the forest reserves, 

 and the largest excepting the Cascade Reserve of 

 Oregon and the Bitter Root of Montana and 

 Idaho. It embraces over four million acres of 

 the grandest scenery and grandest trees on the 

 continent, and its forests are planted just where 

 they do the most good, not only for beauty, but 



