THE FORESTS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 101 



hordes of hoofed locusts have been banished, it 

 is still in the main a pure wilderness, unbroken 

 by axe clearings except on the lower margin, 

 where a few settlers have opened spots beside 

 hay meadows for their cabins and gardens. But 

 these are mere dots of cultivation, in no appre- 

 ciable degree disturbing the grand solitude. 

 Twenty or thirty years ago a good many trees 

 were felled for their seeds ; traces of this de- 

 structive method of seed-collecting are still visible 

 along the trails ; but these as well as the shingle- 

 makers' ruins are being rapidly overgrown, the 

 gardens and beds of underbrush once devastated 

 by sheep are blooming again in all their wild 

 glory, and the park is a paradise that makes 

 even the loss of Eden seem insignificant. 



On the way to Yosemite Valley, you get some 

 grand views over the forests of the Merced and 

 Tuolumne basins and glimpses of some of the 

 finest trees by the roadside without leaving your 

 seat in the stage. But to learn how they live 

 and behave in pure wildness, to see them in 

 their varying aspects through the seasons and 

 weather, rejoicing in the great storms, in the 

 spiritual mountain light, putting forth their new 

 leaves and flowers when all the streams are in 

 flood and the birds are singing, and sending 

 away their seeds in the thoughtful Indian sum- 

 mer when all the landscape is glowing in deep 

 calm enthusiasm, — for this you must love them 



