THE FORESTS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 99 



ministering to every want of body and soul. 

 Even the storms are friendly and seem to regard 

 you as a brother, their beauty and tremendous 

 fateful earnestness charming alike. But the 

 weather is mostly sunshine, both winter and 

 summer, and the clear sunny brightness of the 

 park is one of its most striking characteristics. 

 Even the heaviest portions of the main forest 

 belt, where the trees are tallest and stand closest, 

 are not in the least gloomy. The sunshine falls 

 in glory through the colossal spires and crowns, 

 each a symbol of health and strength, the noble 

 shafts faithfully upright like the pillars of 

 temples, upholding a roof of infinite leafy inter- 

 lacing arches and fretted skylights. The more 

 open portions are like spacious parks, carpeted 

 with small shrubs, or only with the fallen needles 

 sprinkled here and there with flowers. In some 

 places, where the ground is level or slopes gently, 

 the trees are assembled in groves, and the flow- 

 ers and underbrush in trim beds and thickets as 

 in landscape gardens or the lovingly planted 

 grounds of homes ; or they are drawn up in or- 

 derly rows around meadows and lakes and along 

 the brows of canons. But in general the forests 

 are distributed in wide belts in accordance with 

 climate and the comparative strength of each 

 kind in gaining and holding possession of the 

 ground, while anything like monotonous uni- 

 formity is prevented by the grandly varied topo- 



