THE FORESTS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 131 



coolest boulder-choked canons, where the streams 

 are gray and white with foam, over which it 

 spreads its branches in beautiful arches from 

 bank to bank, forming leafy tunnels full of soft 

 green light and spray, — favorite homes of the 

 water ousel. Around the glacier lakes, two or 

 three thousand feet higher, the common aspen 

 grows in fringing lines and groves which are 

 brilliantly colored in autumn, reminding you of 

 the color glory of the Eastern woods. 



Scattered here and there or in groves the bota- 

 nist will find a few other trees, mostly small, — 

 the mountain mahogany, cherry, chestnut-oak, 

 laurel, and nutmeg. The California nutmeg 

 (Tumion Calif ornicum) is a handsome evergreen, 

 belonging to the yew family, with pale bark, 

 prickly leaves, fruit like a green-gage plum, and 

 seed like a nutmeg. One of the best groves of 

 it in the park is at the Cascades below Yosemite. 



But the noble oaks and all these rock-shading, 

 stream-embowering trees are as nothing amid the 

 vast abounding billowy forests of conifers. Dur- 

 ing my first years in the Sierra I was ever calling 

 on everybody within reach to admire them, but 

 I found no one half warm enough until Emerson 

 came. I had read his essays, and felt sure that of 

 all men he would best interpret the sayings of 

 these noble mountains and trees. Nor was my 

 faith weakened when I met him in Yosemite. 

 He seemed as serene as a sequoia, his head in the 



