122 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



streamsides it grows tall and slender with ascend- 

 ing branches, making graceful arrowy spires fifty 

 to seventy-five feet high, with stems only five or 

 six inches thick. 



The most extensive forest of this pine in the 

 park lies to the north of the Big Tuolumne 

 Meadows, — a famous deer pasture and hunting 

 ground of the Mono Indians. For miles over 

 wide moraine beds there is an even, nearly pure 

 growth, broken only by glacier meadows, around 

 which the trees stand in trim array, their sharp 

 spires showing to fine advantage both in green 

 flowery summer and white winter. On account 

 of the closeness of its growth in many places, 

 and the thinness and gumminess of its bark, it is 

 easily killed by running fires, which work wide- 

 spread destruction in its ranks ; but a new gen- 

 eration rises quickly from the ashes, for all or a 

 part of its seeds are held in reserve for a year or 

 two or many years, and when the tree is killed 

 the cones open and the seeds are scattered over 

 the burned ground like those of the attenuata. 



Next to the mountain hemlock and the dwarf 

 pine this species best endures burial in heavy 

 snow, while in braving hunger and cold on rocky 

 ridgetops it is not surpassed by any. It is dis- 

 tributed from Alaska to Southern California, and 

 inland across the Rocky Mountains, taking many 

 forms in accordance with demands of climate, 

 soil, rivals, and enemies ; growing patiently in 



