NEVADA FORESTS 



esting of these is the Pinus Fremontiana,^ or 

 nut pine. In the number of individual treefc 

 and extent of range this curious little conifer 

 surpasses all the others combined. Nearly 

 every mountain in the State is planted with it 

 from near the base to a height of from eight 

 thousand to nine thousand feet above the sea. 

 Some are covered from base to summit by this 

 one species, with only a sparse growth of juni- 

 per on the lower slopes to break the continuity 

 of these curious woods, which, though dark- 

 looking at a Uttle distance, are yet almost 

 shadeless, and without any hint of the dark 

 glens and hollows so characteristic of other 

 pine woods. Tens of thousands of acres occm- 

 in one continuous belt. Indeed, viewed com- 

 prehensively, the entire State seems to be 

 pretty evenly divided into mountain-ranges 

 covered with nut pines and plains covered 

 with sage — now a swath of pines stretching 

 from north to south, now a swath of sage; the 

 one black, the other gray; one severely level, 

 the other sweeping on complacently over ridge 

 and valley and lofty crowning dome. 



The real character of a forest of this sort 

 would never be guessed by the inexperienced 

 observer. Traveling across the sage levels in 

 the dazzhng sunUght, you gaze with shaded 



•Now called Firms monophyUa, or one-leaf pinon. [Editor.) 

 167 



