THE FORESTS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 105 



grayish green, about an inch and a half long, 

 and instead of being divided into clusters they 

 are single, round, sharp-pointed, and rigid like 

 spikes, amid which in the spring the red flowers 

 glow brightly. The cones are only about two 

 inches in length and breadth, but nearly half 

 of their bulk is made up of sweet nuts. 



This fruitful little pine grows on the dry east 

 side of the park, along the margin of the Mono 

 sage plain, and is the commonest tree of the 

 short mountain ranges of the Great Basin. Tens 

 of thousands of acres are covered with it, form- 

 ing bountiful orchards for the Red-man. Being 

 so low and accessible, the cones are easily beaten 

 off with poles, and the nuts procured by roasting 

 until the scales open. To the tribes of the 

 desert and sage plains these seeds are the staff of 

 life. They are eaten either raw or parched, or 

 in the form of mush or cakes after being pounded 

 into meal. The time of nut harvest in the autumn 

 is the Indian's merriest time of all the year. An 

 industrious squirrelish family can gather fifty or 

 sixty bushels in a single month before the snow 

 comes, and then their bread for the winter is 

 sure. 



The white pine (Pinus flexilis) is widely dis- 

 tributed through the Rocky Mountains and the 

 ranges of the Great Basin, where in many places 

 it grows to a good size, and is an important tim- 

 ber tree where none better is to be found. In 



