STEEP TRAILS 



long down-curving limbs all around, often 

 gaining in this way a very strikingly pictiir- 

 esque habit. It is seldom found lower than 

 nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, 

 but from this height it pushes upward over 

 the roughest ledges to the extreme limit of 

 tree growth — about eleven thousand feet. 



On the Hot Creek, White Pine, and Golden 

 Gate ranges we find a still hardier and more 

 picturesque species, called the foxtail pine, 

 from its long dense leaf-tassels. About a foot 

 or eighteen inches of the ends of the branches 

 are densely packed with stiff outstanding nee- 

 dles, which radiate all around like an electric 

 fox- or squirrel-tail. The needles are about an 

 inch and a half long, slightly curved, elastic, 

 and glossily polished, so that the sunshine sift- 

 ing through them makes them bum with a 

 fine silvery luster, while their number and 

 elastic temper tell deUghtfuUy in the singing 

 winds. 



This tree is preeminently picturesque, far 

 surpassing not only its companion species of 

 the mountains in this respect, but also the 

 most noted of the lowland oaks and elms. 

 Some stand firmly erect, feathered with radiant 

 tail tassels down to the groimd, forming slen- 

 der, tapering towers of shining verdure; others 

 with two or three specialized branches pushed 



176 



