112 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



brown. They remain on the tree the following 

 winter and summer ; therefore few fertile trees 

 are ever found without them. Nor even after 

 they fall is the beauty work of these grand cones 

 done, for they make a fine show on the flowery, 

 needle-strewn ground. The wood is pale yellow, 

 fine in texture, and deliciously fragrant. The 

 sugar, which gives name to the tree, exudes from 

 the heart wood on wounds made by fire or the 

 axe, and forms irregular crisp white candy-like 

 masses. To the taste of most people it is as 

 good as maple sugar, though it cannot be eaten 

 in large quantities. 



No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will 

 ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. 

 The majestic crowns approaching one another 

 make a glorious canopy, through the feathery 

 arches of which the sunbeams pour, silvering the 

 needles and gilding the stately columns and the 

 ground into a scene of enchantment. 



The yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) is sur- 

 passed in size and nobleness of port only by its 

 kingly companion. Full-grown trees in the main 

 forest where it is associated with the sugar pine, 

 are about one hundred and seventy-five feet high, 

 with a diameter of five to six feet, though much 

 larger specimens may easily be found. The 

 largest I ever measured was a little over eight 

 feet in diameter four feet above the ground, and 

 two hundred and twenty feet high. Where there 



