these speedily lower the altitude of timber-line, 

 until on Mt. Rainier it is below eight thousand 

 feet. There is a noticeable dwarfing of the forest 

 as one approaches the Land of the Midnight 

 Sun, and in its more northerly reaches it comes 

 down to sea-level to form the Land of Little 

 Sticks. It frays out at its Farthest North just 

 within the Arctic Circle. Most of the Arctic 

 Ocean's icy waves break on treeless shores. 



Everywhere at timber-line the temperature 

 is low, and on Long's Peak the daily average 

 is two degrees below the freezing-point. At 

 timber-line snow may fall any day of the year, 

 and wintry conditions annually prevail from 

 nine to ten months. The hardy trees which 

 maintain this line have adjusted themselves to 

 the extremely short growing-season, and now 

 and then mature and scatter fertile seeds. The 

 trees that do heroic service on all latitudinal and 

 altitudinal timber-lines of the earth are mem- 

 bers of the pine, spruce, fir, birch, willow, and 

 aspen families. At timber-line on the Rocky 

 Mountains there are three members each from 

 the deciduous trees and the evergreens. These 



60 



