SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 57 



The yellow pine is very plentiful ou the drier slopes, where it partially 

 occupies the ground, often in mixture with the Douglas fir. Its repro- 

 duction, on the whole, is rather slow. Toward the western line of the 

 reserve crescent-shaped bodies of young growth occur in such relation 

 to the old trees that they are believed to occupy the ground protected 

 from evaporation by the shade of the crown of the seed trees from which 

 they spring. The average dimensions of the yellow pine in this region 

 may be given as follows: Height, 80 feet; diameter, 20 inches; length 

 of clear trunk, 30 feet. 



The lodge-pole pine forms extensive forests in the less broken and 

 lower regions about Elk City, and occupies with the alpine fir and 

 the limber pine the crests and slopes of the higher ridges. With a 

 variety in the color of its bark ranging froni black to white through 

 various shades of red and orange, and a habit which changes from 

 the tall, spiry, slender treeof rich bottom lands to the stumpy, spread- 

 ing specimens of wind swept ridges, this tree reaches average meas- 

 urements for ripe trees, in aiiddle situations, somewhat as follows: 

 Height, 90 feet; diameter, 1 foot; length of clear trunk, 30 feet. The 

 larger part of the lodge-pole pine now alive in this region is smaller 

 because it is not yet mature. 



The western cedar occurs in dense forests of great richness on fertile 

 bottom lands along the streams, and to some extent also, especially in the 

 form of undergrowth, on the comparatively dry slopes of steep ridges. 

 Slow in growth, but with a fairly vigorous power of reproduction, this 

 tree promises to be one of the most useful in the future history of these 

 forests. Its average dimensions are as follows: Height, 125 feet; 

 diameter, 4 feet ; length of clear trunk, 30 feet. 



The lowland flr (white fir) is widely distributed over the moister por- 

 tions of this region, standing in bottom lands along the streams with 

 the spruce and cedar, and high on the ridges with the si)ruce and Douglas 

 fir. It has as yet comparatively little commercial value even in less 

 scantily peopled portions of its habitat, but it will eventually find its 

 proper place in the markets of the West. It is exceedingly sensitive to 

 fire in youth and middle age, but with its rapid growth and good i^owers 

 of reproduction it repairs more speedily than most of its associates the 

 damage from this source. Its average dimensions may be given as 

 follows: Height, 12o feet; diameter, 3 feet; length of clear trunk, 40 

 feet. 



Englemann spruce occurs chiefly in moist laud near streams and on 

 the high tops of ridges. Its reproduction is good. Occasionally it is 

 found in deinse bodies of fine trees, but iu general its dimensions may 

 be given as follows: Height, 100 feet; diameter, 20 inches; length of 

 clear trunk, 20 feet. 



FlRi:, WESTEKN SLOPE. 



Few regions in the United States have suffered more severely than 

 the western half of the Bitterroot Mountains. Fires have been run- 

 ning over this portion of the reserve for centuries past, and their effects 

 are plainly visible in stretches of grass land denuded of trees but still 

 dotted with the rotting stubs of former occupants. So far as I am ac- 

 quainted with this region,' brushy slopes cleared of trees by fire occupy 

 at least as great an area as the existing forests, while in the southeast 

 and south central portions fires have determined the character of by far 

 the greater part of the whole area. The heavy mass of vegetable debris 

 on the ground, where the forest is dense, makes fires in these places 

 exceedingly hard to extinguish. In many cases to light a camp fire is 



