144 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



Though one species, the Uva-ursa, or bearberry, 

 — the kinikinic of the Western Indians, — ex- 

 tends around the world, the greater part of them 

 are Calif ornian. They are mostly from four to 

 ten feet high, round-headed, with innumerable 

 branches, brown or red bark, pale green leaves 

 set on edge, and a rich profusion of small, pink, 

 narrow-throated, urn-shaped flowers like those 

 of arbutus. The branches are knotty, zigzaggy, 

 and about as rigid as bones, and the bark is so 

 thin and smooth, both trunk and branches seem 

 to be naked, looking as if they had been peeled, 

 polished, and painted red. The wood also is red, 

 hard, and heavy. 



These grand bushes seldom fail to engage the 

 attention of the traveler and hold it, especially 

 if he has to pass through closely planted fields 

 of them such as grow on moraine slopes at an 

 elevation of about seven thousand feet, and in 

 canons choked with earthquake boulders ; for 

 they make the most uncompromisingly stubborn 

 of all chaparral. Even bears take pains to go 

 around the stoutest patches if possible, and when 

 compelled to force a passage leave tufts of hair 

 and broken branches to mark their way, while 

 less skillful mountaineers under like circum- 

 stances sometimes lose most of their clothing and 

 all their temper. 



The manzanitas like sunny ground. On warm 

 ridges and sandy flats at the foot of sun-beaten 



