STEEP TRAILS 



the Big Meadows among the sources of the 

 Feather River, and down through forests of 

 sugar pine to the fertile plains of Chico — this 

 is a glorious saunter and imposes no hardship. 

 Food may be had at moderate intervals, and 

 the whole circuit forms one ever-deepening, 

 broadening stream of enjoyment. 



Fall River is a very remarkable stream. It is 

 only about ten miles long, and is composed of 

 springs, rapids, and falls — springs beautifully 

 shaded at one end of it, a showy fall one hun- 

 dred and eighty feet high at the other, and a 

 rush of crystal rapids between. The banks are 

 fringed with rubus, rose, plum, cherry, spiraea, 

 azalea, honeysuckle, hawthorn, ash, alder, 

 elder, aster, goldenrod, beautiful grasses, 

 sedges, rushes, mosses, and ferns with fronds 

 as large as the leaves of palms — all in the 

 midst of a richly forested landscape. Nowhere 

 within the limits of Cahfornia are the forests 

 of yellow pine so extensive and exclusive as on 

 the headwaters of the Pitt. They cover the 

 mountains and all the lower slopes that border 

 the wide, open valleys which abound there, 

 pressing forward in imposing ranks, seemingly 

 the hardiest and most firmly established of all 

 the northern coniferse. 



The volcanic region about Lassen's Butte I 

 have already in part described. Miles of its 



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